December 13, 2009 Advent 3 Luke 3:7-18

The individual confession service at a church had gotten on a roll.  One many stood up and said, “I’ve been smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, and I’m going to quit.”  Another man chimed in, “I’ve been getting drunk every weekend and I’m going to quit.”  Yet another parishioner confessed, “I’ve been cursing a lot lately and I’m going to quit.”  Caught in the exhilaration of the moment a little old lady stood up and said, “I haven’t been doing anything, and I’m going to quit.”

Hmm, there’s layers of meaning there if you think about it.  This gets at a refrain that we find in Luke’s gospel and in its companion volume, Acts.  The refrain is, “What then should we do?”  The first time we find it is today as people respond to John the Baptist.  John is preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  Repentance of course means a complete turn around from old and sinful practices.  In response to John’s words the crowds ask him in verse 10, “What then should we do?”  Tax collectors ask in verse 12 “What should we do?”  Soldiers ask in verse 14, “What should we do?”  And a lawyer in 20:25, a ruler in 18:18, a Jerusalem crowd in Acts 3:17, a jailer in Acts 16:30 and a zealous Jew in Acts 22:10 all ask, “What should we do?”

We’ve probably all asked ourselves that question at some point or another.  What should we do?  In Luke and Acts not only do a variety of people ask, “What should we do?”  There is a variety of people who are asked that question.  In Acts it is the apostles or Paul.  In much of Luke it is Jesus.  In our gospel reading it is John the Baptist.  Their answers vary.

In our gospel reading the answers are pretty straightforward:  share, be honest and fair, don’t lie, cheat, or steal, and don’t exploit others.  Jesus himself gave more challenging answers.  We aren’t going to look at his answers now.  We will focus on John’s because when we look at them we think, “Sure, but that’s just being a decent person.  Is that what God wants us to do, just be good people?”

That is a tempting answer.  And many people take it.  I don’t want to say it is a wrong or bad answer, but it misses the whole answer.  What we should ask ourselves is, “Why?  Why should I be a good person?”  And that actually takes us to Jesus’ type of answers as well.

John’s message starts in an interesting way.  He says, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  As I’m here close to Christmas with all the shopping and buying I tend to think, “John, you’re a bit of an odd-ball in the first place.  I mean, the camel’s hair, eating bugs and honey, living in the wilderness.  You’re not exactly a handsome stud in the public spotlight.  These people have gone out of their way to see you, and all you can say is, ‘You brood of vipers!’  I think you’re in need of a marketing expert, not to mention an image consultant.”

John didn’t seem to be worried about popularity.  He didn’t seem to worried about keeping his head attached to his shoulders either.  But he did know a thing or two about how people think.  He goes on to say, “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”

That’s a bizarre statement if ever there was one.  Here’s what John is getting at.  Vipers were thought to eat their way out of their mother’s womb.  It’s not a scientifically accurate thought, but it was a common thought in that day.  John is saying the Jews have eaten their way out of a special covenant relationship with God.  Why?  How?  Because John knows that the temptation for self-justification is universal.

I think you all know that if you think about something long and hard enough you can invent an excuse or justification for it; anything at all.  Failed dieters know full well how many excuses and justifications they make.  Almost anyone with an addiction does it all the time.  And we can do it with our faith as well, offering God justifications for dismissing His call to us.

Here are some major categories of rationalizations that Christians give to God.  The civil-religion rationalization claims that God needs us because we are a Christian nation.  The pietistic rationalization offers individual piety as a substitute for genuine commitment, while limiting religion to matters of the heart and one’s private relationship with God. The universalist rationalization says that one’s response to God doesn’t really matter because ultimately all will be saved by God’s grace anyway.  Whatever our modern equivalent to the appeal to Abraham, John’s call comes to us, “From these very stones…”

And so when we return to our original question, “What then shall we do?”  We know that when we hear God’s answer the sinner in all of us is going to try to rationalize it away.  But of course, don’t let that happen.  Let the stronger part of yourself, the saint that God is at work in, respond, “Yes, Lord.  I will do it.”

You see, the sinner in you is scared.  It is small.  It is always fearful.  It is always full of needs.  It’s worried about how it will work.  It is worried about the safety of your image and ego.  It is worried about being loved and accepted.  It’s going to say to God, “Why should I do it?  What’s in it for me?”

But the saint in you is big and powerful.  The saint in you knows that all of the sinner’s worries have already been answered by God.  It knows that God will provide for your basic needs.  It knows that God will take care of your image and ego.  And it knows that you are loved and accepted by God without merit.  In other words, it is in tune to God’s grace.  And it doesn’t have to ask “Why should I do it?” as a demand for justification.  It already knows the answer: because it is God’s will.  It is confident that God will provide.

Don’t ever let the scared little sinner in you bully around the big saint who is strong and confident and secure.  When that happens it’s like a little cat chasing a big dog.  It’s pretty silly.  Sure, the two will conflict, like an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other.  But the angel’s voice is stronger.  It is stronger because it is rooted in the inexhaustible supply of God’s gracious love.

It may seem like it is weakness to admit that you need God’s love and favor, and not be a totally self-made, and self-sustaining person, but it is actually strength.  In knowing its need it connects to true strength.  Having God’s favor, and knowing you have it without merit – in other words having God’s grace – is to be truly powerful.

Let me conclude with this little English table prayer:

Lord, give me grace to feel my need of grace; and give me grace to ask for grace; and give me grace to receive grace; and O Lord, when grace is given, give me grace to use it.  Amen

December 6, 2009 Advent 2 Philippians 1:3-11

Are you a person who has created a life list?  A list of things you want to do before you die, or perhaps before you turn a certain age: climb a mountain, drive a racecar, travel to a certain country, see a landmark.  Perhaps they are big things or just small things.  I remember a woman when I was in high school whose life goal had become living long enough to see her daughter graduate from high school.  Some people write out formal lists and then check things off when they’ve accomplished them.  Other people may have less formal lists or just a vague sense of what they’d like to accomplish in life.

I wonder what St. Paul would think about life lists.  Such lists certainly challenge us and help us strive to meet our goals.  If they were religious goals Paul might be all for it.  In many places he talks about pressing on toward a goal, like a runner in a race or an athlete in a contest.  In Philippians 3:13 he says, “… forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

But then also in Philippians we have a verse from our second reading, “I am confident of this, that He who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”  Here Paul is totally confident that any good work begun is guaranteed completion.  You don’t have to strive and struggle and worry about not getting a project done in your lifetime.  God will make sure it is brought to completion.

Of course these ideas are not mutually exclusive; both straining forward with all our might and living in perfect confidence of a task’s completion.  But we are wise to focus on God’s promises to bring things to completion.

Life is full of risks.  And often times people and personalities become a major part of what makes something successful.  When they leave or change things fall apart.  When Martin Luther died the Lutheran reformers were thrown into chaos.  They started fighting with each other, when they had gotten along previously.  Their cooperation stopped and it looked like they would splinter to pieces.  Luther held them together.  Or think of a business that comes to be under new management.  Sometimes new management turns around a failing enterprise.  And sometimes it ruins what was once a perfectly good enterprise.   If you’re an employee of a company that was bought out and you realize the new management doesn’t know what they’re doing you start to get scared.  With good reason we often connect people and personalities with the success or failure of an endeavor.

When it comes to matters of faith, and doing work for God, Paul would have us not believe any of it.  He is confident that any good work begun in faith is a good work begun by God.  Therefore it will be completed on time and properly.

Let’s step away from the idea of the projects we can accomplish ourselves to ourselves actually being a project – a project of God.  Let’s interpret Paul’s words when he says, “I am confident of this, that He who began a good work among you will bring it so completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” To mean, “I am confident that the work God is up to in making and growing you will be brought to completion.”

We live with what I think is a highly logical but completely wrong understanding of life.  I’ve shared this thought before.  We often think of life like a bell curve.  You are born.  And as an infant you’re not good for much, outside of eating, burping, and creating messy diapers.  But as you grow you learn to do more and more.  You become more and more capable.  It is as if your life is growing and improving.  I think one of the biggest goals of what we give our children is the education and experiences they need to be the most productive citizens they can.  And so we rise in strength and quality.

At some point however, aging starts to catch up with you.  You reach the peak, plateau, and then everything starts to decline.  We are “over the hill.”   Sadly, you decline until you die.  Some people hope for a sudden death because they dread having to be in a nursing home or have a drawn-out terminal illness.  I myself, if I could have my life end the way I want it to, it would be to be able to work up until the day I die.  I don’t want to fade away, become a useless burden, and slowly decline into death.

But here I am wrong.  And so is anyone who thinks this way.  St. Paul certainly didn’t see life this way.  Let’s look at his circumstances as he writes the letter to the Philippians.  The letter is upbeat, confident, thankful, and overflowing with joy.  Based on the tone of Philippians you’d never guess that Paul was actually in jail when he wrote it.  His one associate just narrowly escaped death.  The church in Philippi was at risk for falling apart in heresy.  And, he’s awaiting trial – with the fairly likely outcome that he will be found guilty.  And with that likely guilty verdict comes the equally likely sentence that the Romans are going to chop his head off.

That’s Paul’s reality.  That’s not his tone at all.  Paul would never accept seeing life as a bell curve.  He might be in jail.  He might be facing death.  His life’s work make all come to ruin.  But he is unquestioningly confident that despite all this, his effectiveness as a Christian is in no way shape or form compromised.  He knows God’s work will be accomplished no matter what.

Paul would see life this way.  When you are baptized you become a child of God.  There your real life begins.  And as you grow and age you also grow and mature in faith – in the Holy Spirit.  And so you become more and more effective.  Paul never saw a top to that.  Each new day meant more growth and greater effectiveness.  Failing physical health, incarceration, pain, and loss do not diminish your effectiveness as a witness to God’s love.

Paul wants you to do this.  See the future, going on into eternal life, as a completion of what God has started in you here and now.  You don’t live an allotted number of years and then die into something different.  You are in partnership with God beginning now, progressive through life, and being brought to completion in God’s future.

People sometimes ask, “What will I look like when I’m in heaven?  Will I look like my 20 something self at the peak of my body’s strength?”  I say, who knows?  You’re still living.  You haven’t yet lived into the fullness of what God is making you for eternal life.

God is at work in you.  A project he is sure to complete.  You can be confident in that.  And whenever you aren’t confident, learn a lesson from verse 9 of our second reading, “And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.”

What brings about knowledge and depth of insight?  Is it book learning?  Is it going to school?  Is it years of experience?  No.  (Although I say that knowing I’m giving every school age child an excuse to stop doing homework.)  It is love that brings about knowledge and depth of insight.  Paul goes on, “to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”

May God’s love dwell in you forever and may God complete in you all that he begins.  Amen

November 29, 2009 Advent 1 Luke 21:25-36

If you’re familiar with the Harry Potter book series you’ll know the character Mad Eye Moody.  Mad Eye Moody of course gets his name from his one magical eye which can see through solid things.  When his character comes on the scene in the fourth book of the series he’s respected but also a bit of a joke.  After a career of catching evil wizards he’s jumpy and obsessed with safety.  When absolutely no threat is visible and everyone else is having a good time enjoying life, Moody is cautious – afraid of getting poisoned, cursed or killed.  He cries out over and over again, “Constant vigilance!” even when no threat is showing itself on the farthest horizon.

 

Were we as Christians to take the attitude of Mad Eye Moody into our lives in respect to the coming of Jesus, we’d be similarly labeled a bit of a joke.  What do you mean, “Constant vigilance?”  Jesus isn’t returning.  That’s old hokey talk from the past.  The Enlightenment has happened.  We aren’t superstitious people anymore.  We know there aren’t little demons hiding out in the woods waiting to catch people who wander by at night.  We know the universe isn’t three stories with the heavens literally above.  The earth here, and the realm of the dead literally beneath us.

I think without realizing it, we accommodate this jarring contrast in world views, holding onto some scraps of the Spirit in our faith but really living in the present, which ignores the idea of a grand divine plan for the world.  Let’s look closely at our gospel reading.

 

Luke is up to a little literary trick that we need to be aware of.  Luke’s gospel was probably written sometime late in the first century, say about 80 A.D.  The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 70 A.D.  Here’s what’s happening.  Jesus predicted this destruction back around the year 30.  Mark’s gospel, the first one written, records this.  Mark’s gospel was written around the year 60, ten years before the Roman destruction.  If you read Mark’s gospel, as we’ve just spent much of the last year reading from it, you notice the apocalyptic teachings are about how to live in the present before the destruction of Jerusalem, and what to do when that happens.  The apocalyptic teachings go on after that, but they are mostly focused on the predictions regarding Jerusalem.

 

Now we are reading from Luke’s gospel, after Jerusalem has been destroyed.  What Luke is doing literarily is saying: Look, Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem.  It came true.  We’re living in the time between the destruction of Jerusalem and the return of Christ.  We don’t know how long this will be, but we have to live faithfully – constant vigilance.

 

How important was the destruction of Jerusalem?  Consider this.  Assume Jesus was around here today and he predicted the complete destruction of Rochester.  Yeah, right we’d say.  But, about 40 years after he says it, it comes true.  Think of how life would be different around here if Rochester was completely destroyed.  Life would be totally different.  That’s what it was like for people in Palestine regarding Jerusalem.  And, if someone predicted it 40 years in advance, and more of what would happen afterward you’d suddenly be interested in what they had to say.

 

What Luke is trying to do is to make us realize we are living in a kind of in-between time.  Some of the prophesy has come true.  But more is left.  Who knows how long it will be, but until it does, constant vigilance.  Don’t go back to a “business as usual” approach to your life.  The world’s “business as usual” ways won’t have you ready and won’t build your faith.

 

Some churches and many Christians build their whole lives on readiness for Christ’s coming.  As you know, in my opinion the end results of their efforts often comes off looking like foolishness.  In efforts of readiness they lose the ability to be effective evangelists in our secular world.  The readiness Jesus has in mind isn’t this type of readiness.  He’s up to something else.

 

Consider verses 25-28 in the gospel reading.  There Jesus talks about signs in the sun, the moon and the stars.  He talks about distress among nations and fear and his return.  I’m not going to look at them image by image, but Jesus is picking up on what were standard apocalyptic teachings of the time.  He mixes images from several Old Testament prophets.  Specifically Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Daniel, and Jonah.  Let’s not dismiss these images, but I don’t think Jesus is trying to make any specific new teachings.  What he is doing is broadly affirming the expectations of his hearers.  Basically saying, “Yes, the end of time will involve the whole cosmos.  The fundamental order of things will be rearranged.

 

Then he goes on to say something that is on the surface puzzling and self-contradicting.  He gives the little parable of a fig tree.  Like any deciduous tree it loses its leaves for the winter and grows new ones for the spring.  You could tell the seasons by it.  When the leaves fell, winter was coming.  When the new spouts began to appear spring was coming.  He says, “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”

 

Okay, fine we think.  There will be clear obvious signs to get ready.  But then in verses 34 and 35 he says, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.”  This sounds like you still don’t know.  The signs won’t be obvious or even existent.

 

Well, which is it Jesus?  Your teachings are hard enough to understand at the best of times.  What’s this about directly contradicting yourself in the next breath?

 

Let’s sum it up this way.  Jesus changes tone from ‘prophetic discourse’ to ‘pastoral exhortation’.  Prophetic discourse is challenging and holding to account.  Pastoral exhortation is still very firm but caring.  Jesus is not as concerned with proper discernment of signs in the heavens as he is people maintaining faithful living.

 

As Luke presents it in his gospel Jesus wants his followers to know that the end may be a long way off – but, but – live in expectation of it.  Do not live a “business-as-usual” life along with everyone else around.  Heaven is your home.  Heaven is your future.  You are living a part of God’s own timetable.  It isn’t yours to understand.  It is yours to live.

 

Jesus says, “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  What do you think will take the most “strength to escape”?  It is simply the wait itself.  It is being faithful and engaged in faith even as the rest of the world is doing its own thing.

 

God works in his own way at his own time.  And if you don’t like the delay, remember this: if God had acted sooner you never would have been born, and never would have had a chance at life or having God’s love.  The delay is a delay of grace.  It is a delay of love and mercy.

 

Let’s conclude with one final point.  Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”  Now that’s a pretty definite time frame which would prove that Jesus’ words here are wrong.  That generation did pass away.  But don’t fall victim to a trap of your own mind.  Using the phrase “pass away” as a nice euphemism for death is more recent than Jesus.  He didn’t use it like that.  Plus, all four gospels record Jesus using the phrase “this generation” when he was exasperated by the hopelessness of humanity.  “This generation” refers to the broken state of the world, not the people alive at the time.

 

So, constant vigilance, as the character Mad Eye Moody would say.  Be alert.  Be faithful.  Don’t slack.  Don’t fall into the ways of “this generation.”  Instead, always live toward the fulfillment of history.  God will take you there, whether it happens in your lifetime or not.  Amen

November 22, 2009 Bread for the World Sunday Matthew 25:31-46

As Christians we are to be thankful people.  Thanksgiving is a secular holiday that is right up our alley.  We’ve received a lot from God and we are richly blessed.  It is good to think, “Give thanks always.”  But this may not always be appropriate.  Consider the old story of the brother and sister who were playing in the cow pasture one sunny afternoon.  For some unknown reason the old milk cow lost her temper and dashed for the two children.  Because she was older and bigger, the sister was able to climb the nearest tree, but Johnny ran for the fence.  Perched on a limb, the sister screamed out her advice, “Run, Johnny! Run!”  As he neared the fence, she yelled, “Slide, Johnny!  Slide!”  He did, but his pants became caught in the barbed wire.  Her last bit of advice was, “Pray, Johnny!  Pray!”  The only prayer Johnny had ever heard was his father repeating grace at mealtime, but the old cow was closing in fast and he needed to do something, so he used daddy’s prayer: “Lord, we thank thee for that which we are about to receive.”

 

Yes, thankfulness may not always be appropriate, but it is something we need to be mindful of much of the time.  In last week’s sermon I had a long depressing list of the troubles the future holds for us.  Indeed there will be no shortage of challenges, but on the whole we need to also remember the basics.  The folks from Bread for the World help to remind us of that.

 

Do we have an adequate, safe, stable food supply?  Yes, very much so.  When was the last time you went to a grocery store that was empty?  When was the last time a farmers’ market had nothing to offer?  And when was the last time you bought something and wondered, “Has it been poisoned?”  These are daily realities for billions of people in the world.

 

We need to be thankful for a safe, stable food supply.  We need to be thankful that we have choices.  Sometimes I look in the cupboard or refrigerator and say, “There’s nothing to eat,” and of course they are full of food.  I just don’t like the choices that are before me.  But at least I have choices to grumble about.  I wouldn’t want to live with rice for every meal every day until the day I die.

 

We also have great medical care, though we complain about it.  When was the last time you had a major infection or a loved one died because of a lack of basic first aid?  When did someone die simply because no medicine was available?

 

I don’t remember the story well, but it is a true one, of an African mother who waited in line all day at a medical aid tent in order to get medicine for her young child, who she was holding.  The hours wore on and she approached the front of the line.  But before she reached it the aid workers ran out of medicine.  She begged and pleaded with the aid workers for medicine.  If she didn’t get it, and soon, her son would die.  “Sorry,” they said, “There simply is no more medicine.  We can’t help you.”

 

After a while the mother lowered her child and laid him on the ground.  Then she and other mothers who had been waiting gathered around the boy in a circle and began to sing and to dance around him, for indeed he was dying.   Round and round they went, and on and on and on for quite some time.  The aid workers asked, “What are you doing?”  To which she replied, “I cannot save my child, but as he dies the last things he hears will be a song of hope and joy.”

 

I don’t think any of us have ever been in that situation.  The amazing thing is this woman’s hopefulness and even thanksgiving in the midst of being helpless to save her child.

 

Yes, we have food and we have good medicine, and even though we complain about our government and our crooked politicians, for the most part it isn’t that bad – at least not compared to many other nations.  We have rights and privileges and they’re pretty well protected.  No police force is out to assassinate us or harm us.  And we don’t have to bribe our way through daily life.

 

If you’re like me you groan every time you have to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles.  You know you’ll have to wait in long lines, then you’ll finally get there and discover that some piece of paperwork is missing or filled out wrong.  So then you have to start all over again.  You can spend half a day or a whole day just running around.

 

But of course this is nothing compared to many other countries, where similar things can take many days, or even weeks, and lots of bribe money changes hands.

 

We are wise when we remember the many blessings that we have and that we live in safety.  And we are also wise to remember that thankfulness is linked to happiness.  You’ll never be happy if you aren’t thankful, no matter how much you have and how great your life is.  Yet you’ll always be happy when you are thankful no matter how bad life is.

 

And really, all that I’ve talked about being thankful for so far is just surface stuff.  The real root of thankfulness we find in what we will sing as our offertory song today – For the Fruit of All Creation.  The final verse concludes, “… most of all, that love has found us, thanks be to God.”

 

What are we most thankful for?  God’s love.  It has found us.  And Romans 8 tells us that nothing will ever take that away.  Thankfulness for God’s love will flow out from the center of ourselves and into every part of our lives and into everything we do.

 

I am always amazed at how so much in life comes together when you realize that love has found you.  That means that you are valued and valuable no matter what happens and what other people say.  It means that you have a purpose.  It means that you have dignity.  It means that you are important.  Nothing can take that from you because it is God’s free gift to you, for simply being you.

 

If you don’t recognize that love or aren’t thankful for it, then all of life will be a burden.  You won’t be happy.  And you won’t be willing to give or share either.  You’ll hoard and scheme and calculate every thing every day.

 

Thankfulness, happiness and giving all go together.  We celebrate Bread for the World Sunday because we know that from our abundance and with the security of God’s love we can give generously of ourselves to others.

 

Bread for the World reminds us of the truth of our gospel reading – where small acts of giving to people of no significance are actually big service to God.  I like the Bread for the World organization.  They are effective with both Democrats and Republicans.  They do well-informed good work.  They teach people how to fish, rather than just giving them fish.  And, they aren’t always asking for money – guilting people into giving.  They recognize that throwing ever more money at problems doesn’t solve everything.  Money helps, but it is a tool among many to making sure people have their needs met.

Unless an angry cow is charging you down, always be thankful.  You have a lot to be thankful for.  And give of yourself as you have been freely given so that all may have and have in abundance.  Amen

November 15, 2009 Pentecost 24 Mark 13:1-8

I believe it was Ross Poroit(sp?) in the 1992 presidential election who popularized the phrase, “a giant sucking sound,” to refer to American jobs heading to Mexico if the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed.  I can’t comment on the affect of NAFTA on American jobs, but the idea of a giant suction drawing jobs to Mexico gives us a great theological image.

 

I think it’s easy to get our sense of time all mixed up.  If you’re like me, it often feels like the future looms ahead.  There are many wonderful possibilities, but there are also many burdens, fears, and uncertainties.  I think we develop them when we’re quite young.  Adolescents can dread school, social cliques, college placement, even passing a drivers test.  Young adults have stresses of relationships, in this economy –getting a job, paying student loans, and trying to establish a stable happy life.  Parents worry about children, and they worry about caring for their parents; sandwiched between the two.  The older you get there are health concerns and pains.

 

While we live in great safety there is also a lot of anxiety in our culture.  No one is foolish enough to believe that our government can forever fend off recessions with massive overspending.  Our country is losing its world leading role in many places.  And then there is my favorite quirky statistic:  in terms of dollar value, America’s highest value agricultural crop may very well be marijuana; and our largest export by volume is garbage.  While we’re depressing ourselves lets add on: global warming, ozone depletion, wide-spread habitat destruction, obesity, poverty, hunger, crime, corruption, and erosion of morals.  To put a cherry on the top of that sundae of depression lets add the widespread decline of Christianity in our country.  Is that a future to look forward too?

 

At its best it looks like an awful lot of work.  You almost have to be shoved into it kicking and screaming.  I think God would have us take a very different approach to the future.  In our gospel reading Jesus is acknowledging that the future isn’t something to necessarily look forward to.  The disciples are looking at the temple in Jerusalem.  This would be the second temple.  The first one had been built by Solomon maybe around the year 1000 BC.  That temple was destroyed in 587 BC by the Babylonians.  A second temple was built between 520 and 515 BC when the Jews were allowed to return from the Babylonian exile.  Changes and additions were made over the years, but King Herod launched a gigantic expansion project in Jesus’ day, taking 40 years.  If ever there was something permanent in the disciples’ eyes it was that temple.  At that time it was 500 years old. Gigantic and elaborate, it looked like it would last forever.  And there was more than just its longevity to back that up.  There was also theological surety that it would be there forever too.

 

While the Jews didn’t like the Roman occupation of their land, they were used to it.  Empires came and went, sort of like Presidents of the United States.  If you didn’t like the current president you knew to just hunker down and bear it until the next one, which might be better.  The Jews knew their temple was forever.  God had promised it.

 

Or so they thought.  And just like today, there’s lots that looks permanent in our world that isn’t really so.  In the year 70 the Romans destroyed that temple, and all of Jerusalem; making Jesus’ predictions true.  Apparently empires didn’t just come and go.  And by Jesus’ words, that’s only the beginning.

 

Jesus’ apocalyptic imagery goes on beyond our gospel reading for all of Chapter 13… 29 more verses.  It’s doom and gloom, destruction and woe.  It’s about as depressing as the future may look to us some days.  But in it all, let’s not forget a tiny but important sentence.  It’s the end of verse 8, “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

 

Women tell me giving birth tends to hurt a bit.  I wouldn’t know, but at the risk of them all violently ganging up against me and making my future look bleak, I’ll not dispute that.

Giving birth hurts!  It hurts a lot.  But what’s at the end of it?  A baby; something new, a fresh new life with hope and potential and joy.

 

Jesus wants his apocalyptic words to be understood as the backdrop of a birth story.  Hard times?  Yes.  But something new and great is happening.  This new and great thing is bigger than any of the other difficult and disastrous things that will happen.  It is God’s work.  It is unavoidable.  Jesus invites us to see the difficult future, and not see hopeless burdens too big to be endured.  But, like a giant sucking sound, God’s love and goodness draws us irresistibly forward into His future.

 

We are people of the future.  The future has almost always looked rough.  It does for us today.  It did for people in Jesus’ day.  It does not frighten us.

 

Now, we do not believe, as the secular humanists do, that somehow with enough education and self-confidence that we humans can on our own be good and solve these great problems.   If history is any indication, we humans don’t do such a good job of fixing the messes we make.  Generally our solutions make bigger messes than we started with.

 

We do believe that God will fulfill His promises.  Right now God is drawing the whole creation, ourselves included, toward its ultimate fulfillment.  When will that be complete?  I don’t presume to know.  But I do know that it will be done.

 

As you see the future do not see it as full of uncertainties.  See it as a safe and secure time reaching out to you and draw you into it.  The future is bright.  Let your life be driven by what you are looking forward to.  If your model of life is this, life is all hard work and worry and then you die, change it to excitement and wonder at what God is up to.

 

Maybe you know clearly what God has in store for your future.  If you do, then consider yourself deeply blessed.  Most people don’t know.  And if you do know, constantly re-evaluate what you think you know, lest what you think you know turn out to be wrong.  It is easy to put your personal agenda into God’s hands and believe that what you want is what God wants.  Not true.

 

And if you don’t know clearly what God has in store for your future, don’t worry.  You don’t have to have a grand plan in mind.  You have lots of choices and options every day.  Simply make those choices in light of God’s promises for the future.  You’ll discover pretty soon that those little choices add up to big effects.  And a little bit every day adds up to a whole lot.

 

The future is sucking you into itself.  It is God’s future.  It is our future.  And it is good.  Amen

November 8, 2009 Pentecost 23 Mark 12:38-44

The young couples’ Sunday School class was studying the story of Abraham and Sarah, who in their 90’s were blessed with their first child – Isaac.  “What lesson,” the teacher asked, “do we learn from this story?”  A young mother blurted out, “They waited until they could afford it before having kids!”

 

I like this little joke because it opens our eyes to the background of the poor widow woman we meet in our gospel reading.  On one hand we know almost nothing about her.  She gets all of five seconds of “air time” in Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus has sat down opposite the treasury in the temple in Jerusalem.  He’s watching people put money in.  Among the wealthy donors in steps this poor widow who puts in two small copper coins.  They’re basically worthless.  But Jesus calls his disciples and says to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.”  And then she’s gone from the scene.  That’s it.  The Bible never records whether Jesus actually spoke to her or anything else.

 

But she is far more than just a cameo appearance in the gospel about Jesus.  We actually know a great deal about her.  She was a widow and was poor.  That means that she had been married and her husband has died.  I immediately imagine her as being old, but that may not be the case.  She was just as likely young; and given life expectancies, maybe even in her twenties or thirties.  If this is the case, then for some reason none her husband’s brothers are interested in her.  Remember, if a brother died another brother was expected to marry her.  If he refused then she was out of luck.  Maybe her husband had no other brothers.

 

She’s out alone.  That means that if she is young she has had no children – or they have died.  Without children there will be no one to care for her when she is old.

 

Or perhaps she was elderly and her husband had died.  None of her children were caring for her, if she had children.  And if she didn’t she’s doubly looked down upon.  She is a woman without a man – so she has no status.  And, if she couldn’t have children even the other women around would look at her with disdain, for a woman’s value was measured by how many sons she bore.  No children at all meant that something was fundamentally wrong with a woman.

 

Whatever her case may be, she is living a hard life caused by circumstances that were probably out of her control.  She’s a victim of social and economic structures.  Yet, she takes the two pennies that she has and gives them to the temple treasury.  Why? I wonder.  Was she hoping for a miracle?  Did she think it would buy God’s favor?  She certainly didn’t think it would do anything of significance.  What are two cents compared to the annual budget of that temple?  Nothing.  What are two cents compared to the $200,000 budget of this church?  Nothing.

 

If you filled out your pledge card and said you’d give even two cents per week I think I’d take you aside and say, “Look, thanks for the offering.  The gesture is wonderful.  However, two cents per week at 52 weeks only comes out to $1.04.  Your offering envelops cost $2 in and of themselves plus there’s all the work to record, deposit and process that gift.  We’d be better off if you just kept it.”

 

It hasn’t happened for several years, but there have been times when we’ve gotten memorial gifts from people that were so small that it cost us more to send the thank you than we actually received.  It doesn’t happen with a single donation, but I remember a couple times getting checks for $10 and then a note attached, “In memory of [so and so], please send thank you’s to the following four families…”  I appreciate what they were trying to do, but letterhead, envelops, and postage alone cost the value of the gift; even forgetting the time involved to write the thank yous and prepare the mailings.

 

I don’t want to mock anyone’s giving, but I think we need to remember that; because from all measures of value, this widow’s offering… was a joke.

 

Jesus praises her.  It has nothing to do with the amount; obviously.  Why she gave it we don’t know.  But she did.  She, who had been caught in all the unfairness her world could throw at her; she who had no hope for a happy future; she who had nothing and no one to go home to; she gives both of her insignificant copper coins to the treasury.

 

Where was her supper going to come from?  Who knows?  That doesn’t matter really.  What would two cents buy you?  You’d have to run to 98 other stores with those little “Take a penny, leave a penny,” containers in order to buy something from the dollar menu at McDonalds.  No, worse, she’d have to come up with several cents more to pay the tax too.

 

Jesus points her out because she gave all she had to God and it still added up to nothing.  Have you ever felt like a nobody?  Have you ever felt worthless?  Have you ever felt that you had nothing worth giving?  I hope not.  But this widow certainly was a worthless nobody to anyone with a social measuring stick.

 

This woman’s action was praiseworthy because out of her poverty and without reservation she gave her whole living to God.  That’s real trust!  That’s real confidence!  But even more is meant here.

 

We are at the end of Mark 12.  Remember, Mark’s gospel is short.  It only has 16 chapters, and chapter 16 is so short it’s hardly worth counting.  So, we’re getting to the end of Jesus’ ministry.  In fact, this widow marks the end of Jesus’ public ministry.  Everything else in the gospel isn’t said in public.  It is private conversations with the disciples.  Her gift, the end of Jesus’ public ministry foreshadows what’s going to happen just a few days later – the crucifixion.  There the Son of God will be strung up, also helpless, without money, without friends, and with no status measurable by anyone who has a social measuring stick.  God does amazing things with nothing.

 

That brings me to conclude with an aside, but something very relevant.  The gospel of Mark puts the cross central.  Mark sees the crucifixion as the ultimate expression of the ultimate power in the universe – Love.  We need to remember that and keep that at the core of our faith.  I remind you of that because of our second reading from Hebrews.  There’s nothing in and of itself that stands out, but it does raise the idea of Christ’s second coming.

 

I’m sure you’re aware of many churches who build their entire belief system around preparing for Christ’s return.  They talk about it all the time.  I don’t want to minimize that at all, it’s just that churches like that tend to get a lot of press coverage, and in our culture which is subtly growing ever more anti-Christian every day these teachings become a real mocking point.  Christians are portrayed as ignorant simpletons with far fetched and fantastic beliefs.

 

Again, I don’t mean to minimize or belittle them, but the truth is, you don’t need elaborate teachings about “the second coming” for solid working Christian faith that will carry you every day and through every thing.  The truth is the Bible’s teaching about Christ’s return is thin.  There isn’t much of it; and that’s for good reason.  Because it isn’t all that important when compared to the message of the cross.  Proclaim Christ and him crucified.  Live Christ and him crucified.  Be Love as the ultimate power in the universe, expressed in its ultimate form on the cross and you will have faith to move mountains.  You will have faith for every situation.  Don’t worry about it.  Let God take care of the details.  You worry about what you are doing with God’s help today for people now.  That is certainly what the widow was doing.  And though she had nothing she had everything.  Amen

November 1, 2009 All Saints Day Revelation 21:1-6a

Sometimes people mistakenly think that because I’m a pastor I get to do whatever I want around here.  Not so, to be sure.  And by the time this sermon’s done you’ll probably think that’s a good thing, because you probably wouldn’t like it if I got to do things my way.

 

One thing I would love to change, but can’t, is the baptismal font.  It’s a fine little pedestal with its ceramic red bowl on top.  It was recently refurbished by Bill Kaiser, the man who made it in the first place, and it was refurbished in memory of this guy (hold up portrait) of Ernst Reissig, the founding pastor of St. John’s.  Now that makes for a nice symbol, that the baptismal font, where Christian life begins for a person, is in memory of the person who got this whole church started 110 years ago.  But that still doesn’t mean that I like it.  If I could have my way I’d have something very different.

 

No, I don’t want something bigger or fancier.  And no, I don’t want something with running water like Transfiguration Lutheran Church has.  And I don’t want a big pool where we could do full emersion baptisms, like Sacred Heart Cathedral has.

 

If I could have my way I wouldn’t have this baptismal font.  And I wouldn’t buy one from an ecclesiastical arts supplier.  If I could have my way I’d go down to Jeff Jarmusz of Jarmusz-Cotton Funeral Home and order a coffin to use as the baptismal font.  And I bring it up here, and move out the little pedestal we have, and I’d put it back there where you come in the door, and I’d open the lid, and I’d fill it with water.

 

When it is time for a baptism, infant or adult, I’d fully submerge the person in the water in the coffin.  Don’t think the idea is original to me.  Some churches, especially in South America, do use coffins for baptismal fonts!

 

I don’t think I have to explain the symbolism of using a coffin for baptism.  Baptism is being born again.  But before you can be born again you have to die.  Otherwise there’d be two of you running around.  Now I know it might seem morbid and sick to have a scene where an infant, dressed in a white robe (probably a family heirloom baptismal gown) is dunked into a casket full of water.  We like to think of baptism as a sweet cleansing sort of thing.  We chortle when an infant cries and screams in a baptism.  It’s cute.  There’s nothing cute about a coffin.

 

And how would you like it if word on the street about St. John’s was, “Oh, that’s the weird church that has a coffin in the back.  Did you know, they actually baptize people in it!?!  How sick!”  No, you wouldn’t want to have it my way here.

 

But here is why I want it.  Baptism is as much about dying as it is rising to new life.  And before your skin crawls because of the morbidity of the idea, consider this.  Baptism is as much about dying as it is rising to new life.  In baptism you die to the world and rise again in God’s kingdom.  There is a certain defiance to baptism.  We should rejoice at the death because we are cheating Death from the life of a person.

 

When you vividly realize how you die in baptism you do not fear death.  You can say, “Been there, done that.  Still here to talk about it.”  You also realize how you have died to the many pointless pursuits people commit their lives to.  How many things do people do that lead nowhere?  Lots of things.  But you have been freed from that.  You are freed from the pointless.  It is so gone from your life that you’ve died to it.  So don’t let it back into your life.  You are now truly alive in the life of Christ.  That life isn’t fully realized yet.  But it will be when your body does finally cease to function and it dies.

 

That is the great message of All Saints Sunday.  It is the great message of baptism.  That we are people of the future.  The future, God’s future, is drawing us forward.  We are being drawn forward into the new heaven and new earth that Revelation talks about.  It is a time when God’s home will be among mortals.  Death and dying will be no more.  Pain and crying will be no more.  Hurt, anguish, hatred, and destruction will be no more.  It is a wonderful future.  Live for it.  Look for it.  You are baptized into it.  Certainly do not fear it.

 

There’s a verse of a hymn, and I can’t remember what hymn it is, but it goes like this, “May I fear the grave as little as I fear my bed.”  That is the comforting truth baptism provides for you.  If baptism isn’t about death then it’s not about much at all.

 

There are countless connections between baptism and death.  We have the big paschal candle in the back of the sanctuary.  We light it at baptisms and at funerals – and on All Saints Day.   If your funeral takes place at this church your coffin will be rolled down the center aisle and it will stop at the candle, which will have been moved to the front.  The light of your baptism will be there to overshadow your physical death.

 

We will dedicate the Memorial Garden at the end of this service.  That dedication ends at the garden itself.  But it will begin in here – you guessed it – at the baptismal font.  It is important to connect baptism, life, light, hope, and even death all together.

 

You probably still think I’m totally nuts about a coffin for a baptismal font.  That’s okay.  I think old Ernst Reissig may actually have been okay with the idea.  I’ll have to ask him when I get a chance in the resurrection.  Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe he’d reject the idea in horror.  But until then, I’ll believe I have at least one friend in the way a baptismal font should be.

October 25, 2009 Reformation Sunday Romans 3:19-28

Can you imagine what would be the results if God ever went for psychiatric therapy?  The conclusions would be pretty clear.  God would have an obsessive-compulsive savior complex.  That’s sounds silly, but it’s true.  And it’s a good way to give a background to our second reading from Romans.

Romans 3:19-28 is a densely packed theological teaching.  I’m barely going to scratch the surface of it in this sermon.  The two things I want to point out are faith and righteousness.  Notice in verse 21, “the righteousness of God has been disclosed…“  Verse 22, “the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ…“  Verse 25, “He did this to show his righteousness…“  And verse 26, “…he himself is righteous…“

What is righteousness?  That’s a theological word we throw around, but don’t easily understand.  Righteousness can refer to ethics – living rightly by the rules.  That’s the way we usually think of righteousness.  A righteous person is a law abiding citizen.  Criminals are unrighteous.  But that isn’t the type of righteousness Paul has in mind as he’s writing here.  He means righteousness as right-relationship between God and people.

It is kind of silly to say God is righteous in an ethical sense.  Of course he is!  God makes the rules and if he breaks them, then he just makes new rules to be righteous.  But God is righteous in a relationship sense is another thing entirely.

Paul uses some theological ideas we don’t really consider anymore.  It goes something like this.  Humanity broke from relationship with God in the fall with Adam.  God sought to restore that relationship in the covenant with Abraham.  That covenant was basically that Abraham’s offspring would be God’s chosen people for a relationship.  In Moses and the Law the ground rules of that relationship were laid out.  But people didn’t regard them or live by the love that was behind them.  So, through Jesus God brought about the fulfillment of that Law and opened the door of relationship with God to all people.

That’s Paul’s theology in a nut shell.  And do you see how you could say God is obsessive-compulsive with a savior complex?  God has tried and worked over and over again to restore the waywardness of our lives.  Finally in Jesus God brought about the ultimate act of reconciliation with us.  That is what the Romans text is all about.

But why all this in the first place?  Why would God create a creature that would need so much work to be in relationship with?  Perhaps that’s another question for a psychiatric session with God.  The conclusion of that one might be that God is just plain nuts!  But here’s the deal.  We’ll never know the answer to that one.  What we do know is that God has made us and given us freedom.  God gave us freedom so that love could be genuine.  We’ve talked before about how without freedom there cannot be true love.  Only when you have the option not to love can you truly love.  And so, if love is the ultimate power in the universe, freedom must have it’s place too.  But this freedom is a challenge to grasp.

Look at the Jews we meet in the gospel reading.  Jesus tells them that if they know the truth the truth will make them free.  And they reply that they are children of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone.  We should laugh at this, because of course they have been slaves to just about everyone:  the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and at that time they were effectively slaves of the Romans.  They are blind to their own history which was one of almost constant enslavement.  How could they be so blind to it?

Yet we who so greatly value our freedom can similarly overlook our enslavement.  In his book A Reasonable Faith Tony Campolo gives this example:
Every May I can count on some student coming into my office, sitting down, looking across the desk at me, and saying, “Doc, I don’t think I’ll be coming back to school next semester.”
Trying to act professional, I’ll rip off my glasses and intently ask, “Pray tell – why?”
He’ll bury his head in his hands and moan, “I need time, I need time.”
If I ask why he needs time, I can predict the answer.  He’ll say, “I need time… time to find myself.”  Sometimes it seems as though most of the young people in the Western world are trying to find themselves.
The student almost inevitably goes on to say, “Doc, I’m tired of playing all the roles that have been prescribed for me by society.  I’m tired of being the person my family expects me to be, the person the church expects me to be, the person the school expects me to be, the person my friends expect me to be.  I’ve got to peel away each of these socially prescribed identities.  I’ve got to peel away each of these socially dictated roles.  Then may be I can come to grips with the core of my personality, the real ground of my being.”
When confronted with such a passionate tirade, I usually respond with a retort provided by Paul Tournier and say, “Fella, suppose that after you peel away each of these socially prescribed identities, after you tear away each of these socially imposed selves, after you peel away each of these socially dicted roles – you discover you’re an onion!”
Now that’s a real possibility.  For just as an onion is nothing more than the sum total of its skins, so it may be that the human personality is nothing more than the sum total of all the roles that person has learned to play.  It just may be that after you strip away all of your socially prescribed identities and take the long journey into you inner self and get there – hi, ho, nobody’s home! (Pg. 73-74)

Campolo goes on to say, “If there was such a thing as a self waiting to be found, undoubtedly by now someone would have come along and found it!”

I call that real slavery.  You may think you’re free, but how much of you is nothing more than bondage to conventions and expectations?

Want to be free from that?  Do you want to be free to know who you truly are?  Some introspection can be helpful, but I will guarantee that if you push it too far you’ll discover that you are nothing but an onion.  And it’s awfully lonely if you manage to find yourself, only to discover that, “hi, ho, nobody’s home!”

In the righteousness of God Jesus will free you from that.  How?  He says, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  What will make you free?  The truth.  And what is the truth?  The truth is all about Jesus.  And what is Jesus statement really about – commitment.

If you want to find yourself don’t look at all the socially prescribed roles that enslave you.  Look at your commitments.  What you believe to be of ultimate significance is what you will be committed to.  And as a Christian the thing of ultimate significance should be that Jesus Christ is, “the way, the truth, and the life.”  Live that and you will find yourself.

Now that may be a bit of a nebulous thing.  Many people will think, “I’m trying to figure out God’s will for my life.  When I’ve got it figured out then I’ll be happy.”  But that presumes that God has created some preset path for you, and your life is a riddle to find that path.  Not so.  Where did we begin this sermon?  With righteousness – right relationship with God.

What is truth?  What is the meaning of life?  What is the purpose of your life?  I’ll argue that living by faith is being willing to work out, in fellowship with Jesus, a plan of action for today.  I have to give Tony Campolo credit for this idea too.  To be a follower of Jesus is not about having a grand plan for the rest of your life.  It is about committing to walk with Jesus day by day, hour by hour.  It is about being open to new possibilities all the time – not preset courses of life.
That is righteousness with God.  That is relationship with God.  Go all the way back to the Adam and Eve story.  Did God give them a blueprint for the Garden of Eden and say, “Okay, here we’ll put the roller coaster.  And over here we’ll put a formal garden.  And the concession stand will go here.  Let’s put a kiddie swing over there…”  No!  The garden wasn’t an amusement park to entertain people.  It was a place where God and humans could walk together, be together, live together side by side every day.
That is God’s will for you.  That is God’s obsessive-compulsive ‘savior complex’ desire for you.  To walk, talk, be together, and live together every day.
That almost sounds sweet and romantic.  I suppose it can be.  But if the Reformation has taught us anything it is also a life of high adventure, new possibilities and endless wonder.  Who knows where God will take you.  Wherever it is, it is sure to be a great journey.  Amen

October 18, 2009 St. Luke, Evangelist Luke 1:1-4; 24:44-53

You have in your bulletins an insert which has the title, “Redistributive Economics of Exploitation” on one side and “Divine Economy of Promised Compassion” on the other side.  If you’ve been a member of St. John’s for more than a couple years this may look familiar to you.  I passed this out almost three years ago in order to help understand Luke.

Since today is the holiday to commemorate St. Luke, and since his gospel will be the gospel we focus upon the most in the next church year, which begins on November 29^th, plus it gives us a great way to understand money in light of our current stewardship drive for 2010, I decided to review it.

As it says at the bottom, this was developed by the Rev. Dr. Richard Carlson, Professor of New Testament at Gettysburg Seminary.  This is the key to understanding much of what is going on in Luke’s gospel, and its companion volume, Acts.  I encourage you to keep it and put it in your Bibles.

I think Luke and Acts give current American Christians a theological framework to understand their money.  Last week we read from Mark’s gospel about the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus replies, “Sell all you have, give the money to the poor, then come, follow me.”  And we all either cringe or try to wiggle out of it.  I do not in any way shape or form intend to reduce or dismiss this teaching, but I do not think it is Jesus words to all Christians for all time.  It was intended for that man at that time.  God very well may ask you to do the same thing, so don’t dismiss it totally.  But I do not think Jesus intended it to be a universal teaching.  What we have in Luke’s gospel is.

How to use your money.  Let’s look at that insert.  We start with the side that says, “Redistributive Economics of Exploitation.”  This is the way the Roman economy worked in the first century.  You know well how the economy was like a pyramid.  There were the elite few on top.  Beneath them were as this sheet labels them, “Clients of the Elite.”  Beneath them at the bottom of the heap were the exploited or exploitable.  It says in the fine print beneath the graphic, “There is an elite ruling class.  Below them are the “clients”.  These clients depend upon the elite for their power and privilege.  In return they do favors for the elite…”  A good example of this happens in our country today.  Who are the elite?  The politicians.  If you are a business owner or interest group how do you get legislation to favor your needs?  You give contributions to the politicians election campaigns.  Politicians in turn are more likely to favor those who helped them get elected.  And back and forth the cycle goes.

In our culture we do not generally have a large exploited or exploitable class.  Some would say that immigrants are, but they are not the majority like in Roman times.  One of the greatest things about our country is that there are not legal limitations on someone’s social mobility.  There are social limitations but not legal ones.  Anyone who is willing to work hard, be a bit creative, and have a little luck, can get ahead and move up the ladder.  Not so in Jesus’ day.

That point goes on, “The exploitables are the vast majority of the population.  Their lives are ones of subsistence living.  Nearly all the food or goods they produce is taken by the elite through taxes, fees, or the military.”  While it is fortunate that this is not the case in American culture today, it is very much the way the world operates.  Where do many of our goods come from?  China.  Are people paid fair wages and allowed economic freedom?  No.  In many ways we participate in this system.  Let’s use a more concrete example.  Almost all electronic goods from cell phones to computers to iPods require a specific metal that is found only in the Congo and a small amount is in Australia.  I don’t remember the name of the metal.  Anyway, the Congo is a real mess.  The metal is mined and sold and ultimately ends up in electronic goods.  It would be a great system except the money made by mining the metallic ore is used by the government to continue to exploit the population.  Slavery, murder, rape, and all sorts of things are normal business.  We all benefit from this exploitation.  I don’t say this to make us feel guilty.  I say it to remind ourselves that this system was the Roman system and it still is the system today.  Talk to the Rev. Jordan Long from Sudan if you’d like to learn more.

The next point on the sheet is that, “This system is believed to be divinely established (i.e. the rich are rich because God likes them.  The poor are poor because God doesn’t like them.)  We’ve talked about this before.  This is why in last week’s gospel when Jesus says it is so impossible for a rich person to be saved the disciples exclaim, “Who then can be saved!?”  If the rich, who are already in God’s favor, can’t be saved then who can?  Certainly not the poor.

This may seem quaintly old fashioned but realize it is also the truth of today.  You probably know that I have many issues with Darwin’s theory of evolution.  No, I don’t have a problem with the “origin of man” or suggest biblical creationism.  My problem with the theory is that it is not so much an objectively verifiable proof, as it is the new religion of western culture, called “science” excuse for superiority.  Maybe we don’t have “God” but the Laws of Physics certainly rule.  You must pay them homage or you will suffer.

Herbert Spencer gave us the phrase, “survival of the fittest”.  Those who by natural random selection are most capable of adapting to the environment will grow to be superior.  Gee, change a couple words from our sheet and you have, “This system is believed to be ‘established by the natural order’ .  The week are week because the natural order doesn’t favor them.  The strong are strong because the natural order favors them.”

Martin Luther gets a lot of blame for the Holocaust in WWII.  He wrote numerous nasty things about Jews.  But as for the idea of a superior race, blame Darwin, not Luther for where Hitler got his ideas.

My point is this, though we don’t use religious words to describe it, the current economic order is believed to be a reflection of a greater order.

Moving on, “This system believed there are limited resources.”  That’s not hard to explain.  Look at your checkbook.  And if you don’t get the point, let me swap bank accounts with you.  The point is this – there’s a limited amount of stuff.  In order for you to have more someone else has to have less.  You don’t want someone else to take away what you have so you protect it.

Why do we have insurance policies?  To protect us so that if either someone acts out against us or the forces of nature (which are beyond our control) we are still safe.

Next, “Luke’s gospel attacks this.  Luke is trying to subvert this economy.  The central conflict in Luke is between the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation and the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion.

“This system is the economic model of Satan.”  And there you have today’s gospel reading.  “In Luke’s gospel wealth is not seen as neutral.  It is inherently bad.

“Ultimately Jesus is crucified because he will not live by this economic model.”

Now lets look at the other side. “The Divine Economy of Promised Compassion.”  Here we have God on top and God’s chosen agents below.  Beneath that is humanity in need.  “Humanity in need” is not the poor or the needy.  It is the whole of humanity which is in need of God’s grace.

“God seeks to save all humans who are in need.

“Jesus is the greatest agent.  All Christians are also agents.

“There are unlimited goods – no scarcity for those who trust.

“There is no limit to God’s love and mercy; more than enough for everyone to have in abundance.

“In the hands of God’s chosen agents wealth is a tool to serve humanity in need.

“The central conflict in Luke is between the Redistrubutive Economics of Exploitation and the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion.

“Jesus is crucified because he lives by this economy.  This economy threatens the elite in the Redistrutive Economics of Exploitation.

“The arrival of this economy is unavoidable.  No matter how much the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation resists it will ultimately fail in the face of God’s love.”

This is the economic news for Christians today and every day.  This is the way God is calling you to live your life.  When you consider your financial giving to this congregation in 2010 realize that you are living in this model – not the other one.  Realize that the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion will come about.  It’s arrival is unavoidable.  You just are lucky enough to have an early “in”.

Your wealth – that is a tool for you to use as you serve as an agent of God.  You do not hoard it.  You do not waste it.  You don’t maliciously manipulate other people with it.  You don’t throw it away at every bleeding heart cause that comes along.  You are an agent of God.

Remember that line from The Empire Strikes Back – Yoda is telling Luke Skywalker about Darth Vader.  And he says that has become, “An agent of evil.”  Well, you are an agent of grace.  An agent works on behalf of someone else representing them in some business or political transaction.  You are God’s agent.  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you are God’s agent in that place.  You invest your money, your thoughts, your talents, the whole of your very being in a way that bears God’s will.

God has invested in you.  God trusts you.  Live in a way that honors his trust.  Amen

October 11, 2009 19th Sunday After Pentecost Mark 10:17-31

If you’re like most people the first thought that runs through you mind when we read the gospel reading and hear Jesus say, “You lack one thing; go , sell what you own, and give the money to the poor…” is, “I don’t want to give up my stuff!”  But let’s not start looking there.  Let’s back up a little bit – just a little bit, eleven words to be precise.  “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…”  We start there.

Jesus looked at this man loved him.  He knew this man was sincere and Jesus wanted to have him accompany him in his ministry.  I think it is important to remember that Jesus didn’t blow this guy off.  He didn’t respond in anger.  He didn’t do or say or intend anything mean.  He gave him the time of day, he looked at him and he loved him.

Jesus looks at you and loves you too.  What do you think Jesus sees when he looks at you?  Remember, he can see everything – everything both good and bad – including that thought you just had of what you most want to hide!  Nothing escapes God’s notice.

What do you think Jesus sees when he looks at you?  What would he be happy about when he sees you?  What would he not like?  I suggest sometime you actually sit down and physically write out a list of the things you think God sees when he looks at you.  Make a column of all the things you think God likes about you, and make a column of all the things you think God doesn’t like about you.  Don’t just make a mental list.  Your mind will deceive you.  You may wrongfully think one list is much longer or much shorter than it actually is.  Then you’ll either feel too good or too bad about yourself.  Write out the list.  That will also keep you to task and keep your mind from wandering.  I’ll warn you, the lists might get long; especially if you think about it a lot.  Don’t worry a whole lot about whether your lists are accurate or not.  Just, in your opinion, what do you think God likes about you when he looks at you and what doesn’t he like when he looks at you?

And when you’ve gotten a good deal on those two lists – written out – then it’s time to start a third list.  What are the excuses you give to God for things – either excuses for the things you do or the excuses for the things you don’t do?  You shouldn’t have to feel guilty about such a list.  Some excuses will be very valid:

-I can’t give more to charities right now because I have to have money to pay medical bills – or support my kids in college – or support my parents – or whatever the case may be.

-I can’t give more time to something because I’m a parent and need to spend time rearing my children.

-(I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard these one from a woman.)  I’d like to get reconnected with church but my husband forbids it – or – he doesn’t support me.  I want to bring the kids to Sunday School but its not worth the fight with my husband.  I’d like to give more to church but my husband refuses.

Are these valid excuses?  I think so.  Sure, some will be not so valid:

I’m just too lazy.

I’m ashamed.

I’m afraid of what other people will think of me.

I don’t want to make the sacrifice.

I’ve worked hard for what I have.  I’ve earned it and I deserve to keep it.

Make a list of them all –good and bad.  Be brutally honest.  And they don’t have to just be excuses for why you don’t do things.  There are also excuses for why you do do things.

-I’m a business owner and I have to keep a membership in the country club so I can make the connections I need to get new contracts.

-I run a business and a lot of people depend on me for their jobs.  It’s really stressful and so sometimes I just need a break.  I need a nice vacation from the stress.  I need some good entertainment and that’s expensive.  And so I can’t give it all.

There are bad excuses for our indulgences too of course.  But list them out, both good and bad.  When you write them out you can look them over all at once and be ready to answer the next question.  What is holding you back from being able to more fully serve God?  A list will help to give you perspective.  Some things you cannot change.  Some things you can and should, even if they are difficult.

In our gospel reading the rich man has many things holding him back.  When I first realized this was the gospel reading for today it was like a pastor’s dream come true.  We’re getting into our 2010 stewardship drive in earnest.  Time to ask for money.  And this text is the perfect excuse for a pastor to turn up the guilt and fear knobs to the max.  Who can argue with text?  Sell all you have.  Give the money to the poor.  You can’t get to heaven if you keep it.  It’s biblical.  It’s right out of Jesus’ own mouth!

But this man’s problem isn’t that his bank account is above the maximum threshold allowable to get into heaven.  His problem is what’s holding him back.  What is it?  His money – his possessions – his reputation in the community – his status – and his security.   My guess is that if he were to make the lists that I’ve encouraged you to make and if he was brutally honest with himself those would be his excuses.

Go back two weeks in our gospel readings.  We Jesus giving the graphic teaching that if you eye or arm or leg causes you to stumble cut it off.  His meaning: even if it hurts a lot it’s worth it in the long run.  This rich man needs to separate himself from that which is holding him back.

What is keeping you back?  What is on that list of excuses that is making you stumble?  That is where you should focus.  Don’t start by thinking you have to sell all your stuff.  You’ll won’t do it.  Oh, you’ll feel guilty for a while.  But after this afternoon’s game on the flat-screen TV you’ll forget all about it.

A man went to his doctor.  He had been, well let’s say “misbehaving” in all sorts of ways.  He said to the doctor, “Will you prescribe something that will help?”  The doctor said, “Well, I don’t know what I can give you to stop your bad behavior.”  The man said, “I don’t want something to stop my behavior.  I want something to weaken my conscience!”

Of course that will get you nowhere.  Look at those excuses.  Some you cannot change.  Some you can, although it will be very very difficult.  The rich man had some difficult things to change.  You should set your life toward overcoming those excuses.  Though scary, those are the things that are keeping you from the fullness of joy that God wants for your life.

Maybe you have few excuses.  Maybe you have many.  Maybe you already feel close to the path Jesus needs you to be on.  Maybe you are far from it.  Whatever the case, seek to be able to serve our God as fully and completely as possible.

The gospel reading ends with a promise.  No, it isn’t riches in this lifetime.  It is fullness of life with your brothers and sisters in Christ and with God.  And ultimately eternal life with God.  Amen