lies, promises, and Jesus

1st Sunday in Lent

Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11 

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written,
“One does not live by bread alone,
   but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’

 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you”,
   and “On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ 
Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’

 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
   and serve only him.” ’ 

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. 

We begin every season of Lent hearing the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  The forty days of Lent find their origin in this story and its relation to its predecessor stories about Israel’s 40 year journey through the wilderness, Moses’ and Elijah’s forty day sojourn on the mountain of God, and Noah’s 40 days in the Ark.  Jesus’ responses to the devils’ tempting offers  are all derived from the book of Deuteronomy, a law book describing true, loving obedience to God.  Jesus’ answers are the answers of a well-versed rabbi.  He knows the scripture and how it applies to his situation.  Jesus is tempted, and unlike his biblical forerunners, Jesus does not take the forbidden fruit.  As we heard in the Genesis 2 story, Adam and eve believed a lie and ate the fruit God told them not to eat.  Sin, understood as disobedience to God’s will, is preceded by a lie—a lie about God and a lie about human kind.  

Transfiguration. Why mystery is essential to faith

Transfiguration: Matthew 17

I love the mountains.  They are sacred to me.  The sounds, the views, the sense of grandeur they convey; science has only increased their beauty, showing us how they formed over thousands of years, millions of years ago from receding glaciers.  There are people in Tibet that consider some mountains the location of the gods, too sacred to ascend.  They pray to the mountains.  For thousands of years people have gone to the mountains for holy moments.  Mountains are not full of natural resources to exploit, they are full of the awesome presence of GOD.  Mountains are often the sites of holy encounters.   Have you ever seen something inexplicable?  Something so strange that you could hardly describe it?   Have you ever been so awe struck by something that you saw that you had to tell others, maybe even written down the details so as not to forget it? The Transfiguration of Jesus is a hard story to swallow.  It sounds like Loch Ness monster spotters meet UFO devotees.  And even more important, It sounds too much like other stuff that happened before in the bible.  It sounds like the gospel writers are busy trying to prove Jesus’ identity with a story that is so sort of supernatural that we modern skeptics can’t possibly believe it is true.  As if the resurrection were not enough. 

the whole gospel

"It would be worthless to have an economic liberation in which all the poor had their own house, their own money, but were all sinners, their hearts estranged from God, what good would it be?
There are nations at present that are economically and socially quite advanced, for example those of northern Europe, and yet how much vice and excess.  The church will always have its word to say:  conversion.  Progress will not be completed even if we organize ideally the economy and the political and social orders of our people.  It won't be entire with that.  That will be the basis so that it can be completed by what the church pursues and proclaims; God adored by all, Christ acknowledged as only savior, deep joy of Spirit in being at peace with God and with our brothers and sisters."  --Bishop Oscar Romero.

are you worried?

Jesus says, "So do not worry about your life."  Are you worried?  Really?  Why?

You have insurance; homeowners, auto, health and life.  Yes life insurance, financial security for your family in the tragic event of your premature death.

And grocery stores full of food you did not have to labor over, grow, harvest, process, can, haul, or stock on shelves.  How much food is wasted daily because it was not purchased before its sell by date expired?  You have food, I suspect, in your house on a shelf or in a freezer, that you will not eat today or tomorrow.  I bet you have at least a week’s worth of food in your house right now, maybe more. I do. 

And closets and dressers with clothing you did not have to make.  Some that you do not or cannot wear.  I do. 

And a bank account. I do.

And a pension or retirement savings account.  You have investments. I do.   

And a credit card. I do.

And social security. Maybe I will?

You have what you need for today, maybe even for tomorrow. Knowing this, are you worried?  I am.  

love your enemies

We continue to hear Jesus teachings from the fifth chapter of the gospel of Matthew.  We have been dwelling on these words for three weeks now.  So Rabbi Jesus teaches us how to live a holy life as God’s people.  If you are like me, the idea of being or becoming holy sounds a bit-farfetched, awkward, and unlikely.  Holiness is for Catholic nuns or priests or something.  Or the holy-rollers, the holier than thou religious sort, who judge others by their self-righteousness.  I don’t want to be like them.  But I do want to become like Jesus, to live according to God’s will  When Jesus says be perfect, he does not mean be perfect. It is not moral perfectionism, but rather an acknowledgment that God sets some people apart as an example for others.  Not that some of us are better than the rest, but that God has given some people an identity with a mission or calling—to imitate Jesus.  We continue, then, to ask the question, What does it mean for a blessed person to bless others?

Jesus says:  Do not resist an evildoer.  Turn the other cheek.  Give your cloak.  Go the second mile.  Give to everyone who begs of you.  Do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.  This sounds like we invite people to take advantage of us.  It sounds like becoming willing victims to abuse, violence, and highway robbery.  It sounds like letting bad people walk all over you.  It sounds like a series of bad advice.

In honor of President's day, I have a couple of Lincoln and Washington tales to tell.  

life or death. talking and acting like Jesus.

Matthew 5:21-37.  Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Life and prosperity, death and adversity.  No less than life and death are on the table in the Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy. As we listen to the Scriptures, as we consider what the Master Jesus is teaching us, we recognize that this word was about matters of life or death.  For the Jewish community, life and death hang in the balance.  The seriousness of the law makes me think of God as a powerful judge and Jesus as a high power district attorney.  Are we the defendants, the disciples the twelve jurors, our neighbors, our accusers? There is a way in which these texts can be heard in that context.  What would the heavenly court say about us?  Do we not stand condemned according to our sins?  Does Jesus raise the bar in order to accuse us, to show us how weak we are, to expose our misbehavior?  Do we stand before God then, accused, convicted, sentenced to death?  We are happy with the grace-filled, merciful and loving Jesus.  But ethical Jesus challenges us to think about what we are doing, what others are doing in our world. As God’s blessed ones, how do we live, how do we behave?

Blessed are you.

Matthew 5: 1-12 The sermon on the mount

The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.  The superior teacher demonstrates.  The great teacher inspires.  ~William Arthur Ward.

 

When we think of teachers, we think of formal education, school, professors, and homework.  School is something that we complete, that we finish.  So what does it mean to be a student or disciple of Jesus?  We are going to find out.  What is Christian education and who needs it?   

It all started on Saturday when I slipped on the ice and sprained my ego, I mean ankle.  Then on Sunday, Jonah fell and split his head open, needed stitches.  Then Cherie had a disasterous trip to the grocery store, in which she dumpled an entire bag of dog food in the checkout aisle.  Can you say clean up on aisle 12?  Then my computer failed. I was going to say died, but I don’t want to over-humanize the machine. It’s not human.   It was one of those weeks---like someone has it in for you, when trivial things cause frustrations that turn into self-pity.  Why is this happening? Ugh.  Not now.  Not me. Not today.  I am important.  I have things to do, places to go, people to see.  You know the feeling? The whole, “Why am I being cursed” feeling?  The feeling that you are not blessed, that someone up there has it in for you.  Then I see Linda Shelley, who has good news about her cancer fight and she tells me how blessed she is.  Blessed.  Sick with cancer, having just come from chemo, and she is blessed.  Man do I have a ways to go.  I think I was also able to be a blessing a couple of times this week.  I delivered food to some neighbors.  They genuinely seemed grateful that I came, listened to their stories, felt their pain, tried to help.  I was blessed to be a blessing a couple of times this week.   

Be our Guest. Christians and hospitality

I enjoy being a guest.  It is the nature of my vocation that I enter into the homes of other people.  I love to visit people. I like to be received.  It is good to be on someone else's home turf.  Often, I am the recipient of some gesture of welcome---a cup of coffee, a piece of cake, a comfy chair.  When I came here five years ago, my wife and I intentionally welcomed the congregation into our home.  We invited people over for dinner.  We had an open house in the summer time.  With rare exception, our openness to others was not reciprocated.  We go out to eat with a few couples from the church annually. When our second and third children were born, people brought food to us.  We enjoyed many wonderful home-cooked meals that way.  But nobody came to eat with us.  And rarely have we been invited to another home.
There have been occasions when we sought to get people together around a meal for fellowship and discipleship.  But people have been reluctant to take part.  People are closed off, private, afraid of getting to know others.

Jesus' maps

If we are to become seekers after and followers of Jesus, then we must become familiar with His ways.
His ways are ancient, marking paths thousands of years old.  I have not walked where Jesus walked.  I have not been in the Galilee region, or in the city of Jerusalem.  I have not been to Israel or the middle east.  We may not literally go there, as pilgrims to a place.  But we can find ourselves following after Him.
The first step is to encounter Jesus, called the Christ.  To do so will require digging into history, religion, ancient cultures and traditions, biblical texts and spiritual experiences.
We will begin with Jesus, as He comes to us in the bible. We will call this a primary map.
The gospels tell the story of Jesus' adult ministry, arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.  Two of the four gospels include infancy stories.  The Gospel of John develops a more cosmic identity, giving Jesus the status of divine creator.  Jesus is light.  Jesus is God incarnate.
IN the gospels Jesus teaches and heals people.  Jesus feeds the hungry and raises the dead to life.  He restores sight to the blind. He calls disciples, students to come after him, learn and imitate his ways.  Jesus teaches them how to pray, how to share, how to serve others.  Jesus tells parables, stories that interpret human experience from an alternative view.  Jesus favors small things, weak things, poor things.  Jesus sees the value in a single sparrow, in the artistry of a flower, in the subtle power of a single seed.  Jesus recognizes injustices, systems of evil and oppression that threaten life.  He confronts and seeks to dismantle those systems.
Jesus is baptized and practices the Jewish Passover.  He observes Sabbath, even while breaking or changing the rules that governed human behavior on it.  He upholds the sanctity of marriage and the goodness of children, even while he eats with prostitutes and invites condemned criminals into paradise.
Coming next...the gospel of Matthew.  Rabbi Jesus and the way of poverty, humility, and peace.

Searching

Geocaching is a new game of hide and seek that people play with their handheld GPS device.  A GPS helps you to tsrack and locate a hidden object, the coordinates of which have been entered into the GPS' navigation system.  Caches are usually small containers with trinkets in them, prizes for the seeker/finder.  There are hundreds of thousands of geocaches around the world.  People are seekers.  We like to find things and be found. We like to use our minds, our intuition, and our tools to find our way.  Searching is in our DNA. 


"For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for something, some reason why we're here. What are we doing here? Who are we? If this is a chance to find out even just a little part of that answer... I don't know, I think it's worth a human life. Don't you?"  (From the movie "Contact", with Jodie Foster.)  Searching for meaning.  Asking why.  It's what sets us apart.  We have the capacity to ask questions, to search, to discover, to assign meaning to an experience or event or object.  We make sense of our world.  


In a Google world, where an engine searches millions of pages of digital content to provide the searcher with the best results for their inquiry within seconds, we expect to find answers instantly and easily.  Is everything available  through Google?  Is there nothing hidden that cannot be found with the click of the mouse and the stroke of the keys?  
"You have searched me out and known me," sang the biblical Psalmist thousands of years ago.  God searches for people, too.  God seeks us, even as we seek after the mysteries of life.  We seek God to make sense of the things we cannot Google for understanding.  
I am reading a book right now called "Enough: Why people starve in an age of plenty."  I think that is a question worth asking.  Why do people starve in an age of plenty?  Why, if there is enough food for everyone on the planet, do 26,500 children die daily from preventable diseases related to hunger?  Google that.  If you Google the world hunger about 49 million hits emerge.  That's about how many Americans suffer from food insecurity, a lack of adequate resources to provide food for their household.  I think we could spend our lives searching for a way to end hunger in the world.  

Searching for the truth about life, we travel, we read, we explore ideas, we pay attention to events and people.  Most people need a Google or a GPS to navigate their way in the world.  We need direction, guidance, a map.
I like to think that searching, though often personal, is not best done in private.  It is best done in the company of other searchers.  Geocaching is a great family activity. 
Searching for the truth about the world, ourselves, and God is something we do best in conversation with others.  It is better not to search alone.  Lonely searching too often becomes wandering, which can prove fruitless, aimless, and direction-less.


The biblical story is about a way.  From beginning to end, the biblical story is a journey filled with movement and obstacles and misguidance and redirection.  
Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  What is the way of Jesus?  How does Jesus teach us to seek after God?   Where does Jesus go?  What tools does he offer for navigation?  What are the maps Jesus' uses to direct His people into the life God intends?  By carefully reading the bible we can come to see these maps.  They do not provide a single-lane highway, easy-to-travel approach.  We will need to use our imagination, intuition, and collective resources to find the way.  On the way, we might also be found.  


The Christian community believes that the way is Jesus.  The way to peace.  The way to compassion.  The way to justice.  The way to death.  The way to life.  Jesus is the way there.  Getting on the way with Jesus is what church is about.  It is about finding one's way in the world with Jesus as our master.  He shows us the way.  


Coming up in the next post... Using Jesus' maps: ancient practices that give direction.    
  

An education

  

Sermon for Epiphany 4 2011

The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.  The superior teacher demonstrates.  The great teacher inspires.  ~William Arthur Ward. 

When we think of teachers, we think of formal education, school, professors, and homework.  School is something that we complete, that we finish.  So what does it mean to be a student or disciple of Jesus?  We are going to find out.  What is Christian education and who needs it?   

It all started on Saturday when I slipped on the ice and sprained my ego, I mean ankle.  Then on Sunday, Jonah fell and split his head open, needed stitches.  Then Cherie had a disastrous trip to the grocery store, in which she dumped an entire bag of dog food in the checkout aisle.  Can you say clean up on aisle 12?  Then my computer failed. I was going to say died, but I don’t want to over-humanize the machine. It’s not human.   It was one of those weeks---like someone has it in for you, when trivial things cause frustrations that turn into self-pity.  Why is this happening? Ugh.  Not now.  Not me. Not today.  I am important.  I have things to do, places to go, people to see.  You know the feeling? The whole, “Why am I being cursed” feeling?  The feeling that you are not blessed, that someone up there has it in for you.  Then I see Linda Shelley, who has good news about her cancer fight and she tells me how blessed she is.  Blessed.  Sick with cancer, having just come from chemo, and she is blessed.  Man do I have a ways to go.  I think I was also able to be a blessing a couple of times this week.  I delivered food to some neighbors.  They genuinely seemed grateful that I came, listened to their stories, felt their pain, tried to help.  I was blessed to be a blessing a couple of times this week.    

The Master teaches.  And on this occasion, he speaks blessing first.  He will teach morals and commands and encourage a particular way of life.  But he begins with blessings.  The Beatitudes are a reminder.  Not that people in mourning are blessed.  Or that the poor are.  Or that those who are pure in heart or peaceful are blessed.  It is not a reminder that God only blesses these types of folks.  Jesus is offering a blessing to the people who had gathered to listen to him teach.  In the beginning of his first teaching event, he offers these blessings.  Matthew’s gospel includes five teaching discourses, in which Jesus offers an alternative way of life for God’s people.  Some scholars believe that Matthew is claiming that Jesus is the new Moses and the five teachings are the new Torah.  Torah are the first five books of the old testament and represent the core teachings of Judaism about life in relationship or covenant with their God, Yahweh, with each other, and with their neighbors.  Jesus’ first discourse is called the Sermon on the mount, because he is sitting on a mountain.  We will hear the entire sermon over the next few weeks.  It gives the Christian community a snapshot of the core values or principles by which the Master Jesus lives; teachings he demonstrates in his own life and expects his followers to imitate in theirs.  If Moses’ teaching begins with the ten commandments—the thou shalt nots.  Then Jesus teaching begins with the Beatitudes, the blest are theys.  Contrast these ways of talking about God.  The former reveals God as a supreme law giver and judge who presides over the people as a stern parent, with serious rules to be obeyed.  The latter reveals a God who blesses those people who are the least likely to feel blessed.  The ones who may seem to be cursed. God favors them.  When others might look at their situations and say, what did they do?  And don’t we sometimes judge ourselves negatively too?  That we don’t deserve to be blessed, that we deserve whatever crisis comes our way?  When life feels like divine punishment or has gone to hell, that is when God’s promise to bless is given.  Jesus teaches that the suffering ones will be rewarded; that the peacemakers will be God’s children; that those who grieve will be comforted; that the weak will have the world handed to them. 

Christian education begins with blessing.  It begins with God’s welcome and God’s promise to give us the fullness of life.  And it continues with the master Jesus teaching us how to live in that grace, how to become not only recipients of blessing but bearers of blessing for others.  There are so many masters out there competing for your allegiance.  Christians take Jesus as their master.  We are apprentices in his ways.   

I was blessed with the resources to obtain formal academic degrees, both my bachelors and my masters degree.  But Christian education is deeper; it is training the Spirit to will what God wills, to love what God loves, to care about the things God made, to tread a little lighter on the earth, and to bless others more than you curse. Christian education shapes one’s identity as a baptized child of God.  How do we live as bearers of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?  How do we show mercy, offer peace, and receive pure hearts?  How do we endure persecution as Christ’s people, doing justice and loving mercy by standing with the outcast and the sinners?  How do we stand for human dignity and demand that al people receive respect and a little compassion? Christian education is lifelong training in how to live the golden rule, how to love others, love God, love the world.  For the next few weeks, we are in for a Christian education, as we listen to the master. I know this kind of training is not a sprint, but a marathon.  It is lifelong development and formation as God’s people.  Join us as we grow in our knowledge of God’s blessings and in our resolve to follow Him.  And before you go today, tell someone how God blessed you this week. 

Amen.  

Micro-church: a post-congregational expression

I grew up going to church.  My parents became Lutheran members of a congregation in Illinois and found a Lutheran congregation that shared the same name when we migrated to New York State.  I was a member of Our Saviour Lutheran in Rockford, by baptism; and of Our Saviour, Utica, by transfer and by confirmation.  I became a member of Grace Lutheran and of Zion Lutheran by letter of call as ordained pastor. I loved weekly liturgy and started assisting the pastor in the worship service as a teen.  I was weird, compared to my peers.  I was weird, compared to adult members.  My faith life was activated.   I listened and believed.  And I loved potlucks, Lenten services, and singing in the choir.  I never thought I would become critical of the Lutheran Christian culture that formed me.  I do so out of a deep, abiding love for Jesus and his church.  I do so out of a sense of obligation to serve Him and the church I love.  I have loved and benefited from congregational life.  I appreciate a sense of belonging to a people and a place, a holy dwelling place where God's promises are spoken and received.  The familiarity of a particular congregation and its sanctuary/building is emotionally comforting in the face of an ever-changing world.

Micro-Church DNA Continued:Who is Jesus?

"The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God." Gospel of Mark 1:1.  The micro-church is evangelical.  But it is not evangelical in the political, Americanized, televised sense of the word.  It is evangelical because it is formed as a result of the gospel announcement made by Jesus, embodied by Jesus, and concerning the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.  The gospel is the announcement about God's rule and its implications for all creation and especially humankind, a public announcement that occurred in 1st century Palestine/Israel through the ministry of Jesus.  The micro-church consists of people who have been captivated, inspired, changed, and called to act by and in response to Jesus.  The life of the micro-church is found in the story of Jesus.  That story is offered four ways, but four witnesses, four storytellers, four narrators. They tell unique aspects of one story.  Much of what each says overlaps and complements the other narratives.  Some differences give unique character and flavor to the stories.  These gospels are not biographies, so much as personal accounts of Jesus and the people he encounters along the way.  They are also theophanies, revealing or showing the world something of the divine or of God's identity and character.  Jesus and God the father are consistent characters in the narrative of the gospels.  To the gospel writers the God who is present and revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures appears in the work and teachings of Jesus.
For the micro-church, encountering this Jesus in the narrative of the gospels and in the unfolding of life's story, is a core part of who we are and what we are called to be and do as church.  Jesus is not an historical figure or a hero of faith or a martyr.  Jesus is God's son, the lamb of God, the good shepherd, the light of the world, and the resurrection and life.  Jesus is the way, to live and to die. Jesus is what life is about.  The meaning of life is the story of Jesus, who shows us what it means to live a full and complete human life in full and complete union with God.  Why is Jesus so central to a micro-church's dna? There are other things that shape modern churches, including human traditions, building designs, cultures and languages. Jesus is included in these things, too.  But to say that Jesus and the gospels were coopted for the purposes of Constantinian religion is an understatement.   More about that in a bit...

small, apostolic , rooted: the micro-church

The smallest of seeds...

In shaping a vision for the future church, there are some things we identify as core values, essential aspects, part of the DNA.  The future church will not jettison or abandon the ecclesial past, so much as it will reframe and reimagine what the "old, old story" means given the postmodern situation we find ourselves in.
Without deconstructing a whole lot of what church has been about or addressing every attribute of the psotmodern global context we are in,  I hope to begin forming an ecclesial  structure for the future of our life and work as people of faith.  Much work has already been done by Phyllis Tickle, author of "The Great Emergence", Brian McLaren, and many others to identify the reformation of the church that is occurring at this beginning of the next millenium. They have already identified and unpacked this contextual landscape.  They are exegetes of culture, cultural liasons, and ethnographers of this age that give language to what we experience and know as people living here and now.  Something is emerging in Christianity that departs from or reframes what preceded it in light of that new cultural landscape.  Congregations, denominational bodies, and even megachurches are recognizing that former ways of doing church, the paradigmatic systems we've accepted as the only ways to be church, are failing to embody the gospel message in ways that connect, resonate, and give life to God's world. From church scandals to massive oil spills, the world is crying out for a message of hope lived and expressed by an inspired and inspiring people who are willing to devote themselves to living a better way.  No current religious system is free enough from the limits we have imposed on ourselves to fully embrace an alternative way.  We have a way of gauging corporate success.  Drifting away from methods proven effective is tantamount to suicide.  But what if those tried and true formulas for being church no longer work?   What if attracting people to build an institution that requires more people to sustain it and manage it for the next 100 years doesn't work?  Is there another way of being church?

Micro-churches

In the future, the Christian community will return to its apostolic roots. These roots are spiritual, incarnational, missional, and relational.  The church will not build multi-million dollar campuses to serve the religious needs of insatiable consumers.  The church will not consist of a program staff doing ministry for haappy church-goers.  The church will not be held hostage by power players who follow human traditions while abandoning the justice and joy of Jesus. The church will not abandon its mission to serve the poor, the outcast, the sinner, and the refugee. The church will not neglect its responsibility to serve and protect the earth.  The church will bring hope and healing and reconciliation to people whose lives have been diminished and broken by those who claim authority over others for their own selfish benefit.  Perpetuating broken systems of injustice will not be the ministry of religious institutions calling themselves "Christian".    

 After a long captivity, people of faith are beginning to reimagine the hope and promise of Christian community.  The church is an organic reality, like a small plant emerging from the soil.  We are being planted once again.
A church is now emerging that values hospitality, grace, and humility over self-righteousness, exclusion, and tyrannical moralism.  This church is not mega. It is not the fastest growing anything.  It is not seeker-sensitive, though all people are welcome to belong.  It is not relevant or hip.  It is ancient, small, subtle, but powerful.  It is the micro-church.
Cell churches and house church movements have been emerging since the 1970s.  They have even deeper historic roots.  But the future of the church is not based on cultural trends.  The future church belongs to God and is a spiritual movement to restore the most natural expression of ecclesia, as it was imagined and embodied by Jesus and His first followers.   What is a micro-church and how does it operate?  read more after the jump...

a new day in the blog universe

Welcome back. I am renewing this blog and restoring its original name "koinonia 21c." Communities are formed in spaces like this now. Blogs are sites where relationships can happen. I hope that this site can bring together a community of friends who share a desire to live like Jesus, the bearer of God's power, the power of self-emptying service.  Koinonia is a Greek word used in the biblical narrative of the New testament to describe the way the first followers of Jesus lived a common, corporate, way of life. They shared.  They served one another. They helped one another navigate the forces that threaten to overwhelm and devour us.  They fed one another. They breathed together, conspiring to bring healing, reconciliation, and hope to a broken and suffering world.  They became a movement, a collective consciousness, a body of believers with a mission.  This mission was not coercive, militant, or colonialistic. It was a movement for peace, for love, for healing, for joy.  It was a spiritual movement to confront powers and systems of injustice with an alternative way. For more about this relational way of being together, read on...

you will not always have me...

I wonder what it would be like to have a job or career where you weren't being compared to the last guy, the one we liked better than you.  As a pastor in the ELCA, smaller congregations tend to be very pastor-centric or oriented.  The ministry and the faith are largely understood and articulated in relation to the pastors.  A flawed way of thinking about church, given the democratic nature of ecclesial leadership in its earliest forms.  But humans in community need a head of household, a king, a leader-in-charge; one in whom the rest might turn for inspiration and direction.  One whom the others might reject or hold liable when things get ugly. Praise the leader or pin them to the wall.  No leader is going to fulfill everyone's expectations, hopes, and imagination.  Because leaders are people.  But in the church we allow pastors to be emotionally crucified by unloving and ungracious members.  The biblical narrative is full of flawed leadership; Moses, Saul, David, and every king thereafter.  God warns the people in 1 Samuel 7 the appointing a king is not a good idea for them. But they want to be like the nations and tribes around them.  God provides them leaders who misuse power, who make impulsive, self-protecting decisions, and who fail to accomplish the leadership task given to them, largely by failing to remain faithful to God and to their duty as earthly rulers under the rule of a God-King.   Despite the failures of leaders, however, people are inspired to faithfulness.  And God's love and grace are made known.  Leadership is not for the weak. I've learned that the hard way...after the jump!

wilderness journey: the emotional side effects of sin

Biblical places are part of our spiritual journeys.  The narrative breaks into our lives and draws us into the biblical world.  There are times in church life when it is possible and good to identify where we are in the story.  We are in the garden of gethsemane, where Jesus is weeping, where tensions run high, where anger strikes out, where forces of power collide.  It is a place of high emotion.  It is night.  We are walking together in my congregation through a difficult time.  It is a time of brokenness and sin.  It is a time when we acknowledge that some behaviors and attitudes have not been consistent with the law of love and grace.  It is a time when it is hard to be together and yet we need to be together.  And I am grateful for those faithful people who remain partners in ministry here, so that we can walk together with courage and hope.  So what are we learning as we walk in this garden?

the ground has shaken and we are not the same

How do Christian people, living in God’s Word, understand and respond to disasters and human tragedies?  In our time, not a day goes by that we are not bombarded by stories of violence, bloodshed, and tragedy.  Children abducted and murdered.  Violence erupting on the streets of Jerusalem last week, when praying Muslims emerged to throw rocks at praying Jews, in retaliation to the news that Israel was claiming additional rights to land in the west bank, land Palestinians hoped would become there’s.  When you see what you see and hear what you hear, what do you think?  We are so desensitized to the disasters and the violence.  We simply move on, because tomorrow will bring another round of the same.  Empty platitudes and wishful hopes of brighter days ahead are insufficient at best and at worse diminish their suffering.  Haiti’s earthquake is overshadowed by Chile’s, which will be overshadowed by the next thing.  Katrina was overshadowed by Tsunami’s  On and on it goes.  We barely have time to consider the meaning of these things.  I guess we don’t.  What does the earthquake mean?  What is God’s role in human tragedy, natural disasters, or accidents, or violence?  How do we interpret events in relation to God, who speaks to us about the world and about our lives in scripture? As a proclaimer of the Word I am called to reflect on its bearing, its meaning for us as God’s people.  What does this mean?  What does this text, this word mean to us as a word of God?  And what do the events of the week mean.  What do various encounters mean?  Because the incarnate God is revealed not only in extraordinary happenings but in ordinary experiences and relationships.  What does this visit, this phone call, this email mean? I interpret all things in relation to the biblical narrative. I listen for the biblical narrative to emerge in all things.  Where do I hear God’s word come alive?  I ask this question every week. 

The Prodigal Son of God and His lost church

The prodigal son.  Luke 15. It’s a story about broken family.  It’s a story about the difference between elders and youth.  It’s a story about resentments and bitterness and anger.  And it is an open-ended story because we’re meant to complete it in our own stories.  The end begs questions.  Does the elder son come home?  Does he ever embrace the younger brother?  Does he come to appreciate his father’s faithfulness, vigilance, and indiscriminate love?  Does the younger son find a new place in the household? Does he repeat his offense?  Does he really change his ways or is he flawed? Is it in the DNA, or in family birth position, that predetermines one’s family behavior? Does the Father, insanely gracious to both of his sons, ever get the family relationships he has tried to forge? Will the sons be his sons, so that he can be their father?  And will they be brothers?  Will they actually love each other or go their separate ways?  And what would be better?  Can this family come together or are the differences too great?    What a human story. We don’t need to stretch our imaginations very far to connect to this one. But this is also a story about God.  It is Jesus’ final answer in Luke’s gospel to the question, Who is GOD? What is God like?  And that is where some people get off the bus.   Hard to swallow a God like this God, this Father.  Unconditionally gracious.  Welcoming and loving cast offs.  Reclaiming the dispossessed, disowned, discarded.  We imagine a different God.  One who blesses the deserving and curses the undeserving.  One whose favor is conditioned upon one’s behavior.  We look around and we see the difference between those who have been blessed and those who have not.  And we begin to imagine why, too.  This God respects duty, loyalty, religion, good, law-abiding citizenship.  This God chooses some and rejects others outright and what they get is what they deserve.  This is a wrathful god.  

This parable in many ways calls to mind the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 27-33.  Jacob is the younger twin who steals his brother’s birthright and blessing. Basically he gets the attention from his mother and father, claiming a relationship reserved for the elder son. Esau hates Jacob and seeks to kill him. So begins Jacob’s exile.   Eventually, Jacob and Esau reconcile, but it is Jacob who is chosen by God to renew and live out the family covenant promises.  Jacob becomes Israel and the head of the 12 tribes.   Jacob is the favored one.  But Esau is able to reconcile that in his heart and mind, accept his own relationship with God, and embrace his brother.  In so doing, Esau and Jacob experience God by facing each other.  

Wednesday of the week of Lent 2

So, beginning on the first Sunday in Lent the readings from the gospel of Luke we hear in Sunday worship remind us that there is a power at work in the world threatening to dismantle and destroy the goodness, truth, and beauty God has made.  This power distorts the truth and conceals what is real.
Beginning with Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, where he fasts and prays, we see an oppositional force at work.  Jesus is confronted by Satan in a story that seems more mythical than historical.  Satan compels Jesus to use his spiritual powers as God's Son to turn a stone into bread.  Satan promises the world to Jesus, as if it is his to give away, if only Jesus would worship Satan.  Satan invites Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, trusting God's divine promise to send angelic protection to save God's beloved, chosen one.
Jesus refuses to use his power for selfish purposes, depending on God's creation as it comes to Him, for sustenance and life.  A stone is a stone.  A stone is not bread.  Palestine is a stony ground.  And a stone was a weapon of judgment upon those who broke the law.  Turning a stone into bread could be seen as a swords into plough shares type expression.  Was the devil inviting Jesus to transform punishment into nourishment?  Jesus will not avoid punishment to feed his own stomach.
Jesus refuses to devote himself to any other master.  He serves and loves only one GOD.  And Jesus knows who rules the world, whose world this is.  This is God's world and no one else's.  Jesus is not threatened by someone who claims to have power he does not have.
Finally, Jesus refuses to twist God's Word to justify foolish behavior that threatens his fragile mortal body.  Jumping off a skyscraper because someone promises you that you won't die is a test that denies what is real.Truth is, even Jesus cannot fly.  Jesus is restricted, confined to the limited powers of the human body.  Despite the truth of his identity, he is not invulnerable.
The powers at work in this world that threaten to distort the truth about who we are, what we're capable of, what we can and ought to do for ourselves, how far we ought to go and how high...these powers are busy and active.  We don't call the power satan or the devil so much, mainly because of the weak mythology attached to the figure.
I've seen these powers at work in and outside the church.  As a result, I am learning to pray in ways I never knew before.  Prayer can be a shield of protection.  And I am learning to hide in the shadow of God's wings.  

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

I read from a prayer book almost everyday. I like to use "For all the saints", a publication that includes daily prayers, three daily texts, a meditation from a coworker, all the psalms,and three daily offices.  I am a liturgist in this way, enjoying and appreciating the rhythm of a spiritual life that comes to  me from a source beyond myself and my own yearnings.  I take what I get everyday from these readings. Somedays I am connected to the words I am reading and praying, other days not so much.     Johannes Willebrands, Lutheran theologian and ecumenist, wrote, "The creative and redemptive work of God cannot be swallowed up by all that sin kindles in the human heart, nor be definitely blocked.  But that leads us to a keen perception of our own responsibility as Christians facing the future of humanity and also to awareness of the gravity of our divisions.  To the extent that they obscure our witness in a world tempted by suicide they are an obstacle to the proclamation of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ."  God will accomplish God's purposes for us, with us, in spite of us.  But its more fun to be part of what God is doing than to oppose it.

friday after ash wednesday

I began reading Lauren Winner's book, Mudhouse Sabbath, today.  Lauren was an orthodox Jew who converted to Episopalian Christianity.  What she does in the book is give gentiles a taste of Jewish spiritual disciplines, and then reorients them for the Christian life.  The first chapter on Sabbath-keeping left me longing.  Friday is supposed to be the "pastor's sabbath".  So it says on the monthly church calendar.  But it isn't. Rarely are we intentional enough to let Godly rest break into our time.  Not even on Sundays.  She writes, "But there is something, in the Jewish sabbath, that is absent from most Christian Sundays; a true cessation from the rhythms of work and world, a time wholly set apart, and, perhaps above all, a sense that the point of Shabbat, the orientation of Shabbat, is toward GOD."  She wrote about buying and making all the food for Saturday on Friday before Sundown.  She talked about Sabbath rest transcending the Torah.  There are thirty nne prohbitions associated with Sabbath.  But keeping it is about embracing God's rhythm of life. God rested from creating.  And it is about resurrection, renewal, rebirth.  It is about the in-breaking of the new creation.  Jesus interprets sabbath prohibitions from the perspective of living according to God's redemptive and restorative mission.  It is better to heal and give life on Sabbath than to abide by legal prescriptions.  The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

thursday after ash wednesday

So what can I say to a group of Mennonite Middle Schoolers gathering for chapel at 8:15 am, before school starts? I was invited to speak about Lent.  When I was in middle school I thought the only thing that mattered was my pimply skin, my braces, my oily hair, and food.  I liked sports too.  As for Lent?  My family went to Lenten midweek services, but I went for the potluck dinner!   So what do these middle schoolers need to hear from me?
I talked about the forty days; Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, holy week, baptismal catechesis and mystogogy. I talked about spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving alms.  I suggested that people give up certain indulgences during the season.  These are the logistics.

But Lent is not these rituals. Lent is a story, a homecoming story.  I told them the story of the prodigal son, or the overly gracious father, from Luke 15. It's my favorite parable.  And I think it strikes home for middle schoolers at a private Christian school.  There are people who are far from God, who do not live in obedience to God.  They are as welcome in the Kingdom as those who are obedient.  Living the safe and comfortable Christian life is not the only way to the Father's heart.  No matter how far away we go from God, God is not far from us. And we are welcomed home.
Pray for: broken families.  

ash wednesday

"remember that you are dust...and to dust you shall return."

On Ash Wednesday, Christians intentionally remind themselves that we are mortal. And that our bodies are organic material.  The dust that collects under your bed?  Some of it is you! Your skin and hair and toe nails and stuff.  Why do we need to know this or remember this fact?  Because our other faculties can transcend this basic truth about bodily weakness and vulnerability.  So far as to reduce the vulnerability in many ways.  From protective clothing to HVAC, we create an environment that is more comfortable for our bodies. We can become too comfortable.  Not to mention, our minds and spirits take us places our bodies cannot go.  We dream dreams and have visions.  And so we exercise powers, not so much from our physical capacities but from our mental/spiritual/emotional ones. We have, of course, physical strength, which is why athletes are popular. (And so are steroids).  But it is often the athlete's mental determination and motivations that excel some beyond others. But for every athletle, there comes a time when their bodies fail.

Jesus welcomes outsiders, warns insiders

“God welcomes outsiders, warns insiders”

Luke 4:21-34

I love the ending of this story.  He passes through the midst of them.  He manages to avoid the murderous mob.  What confidence this word must have given Luke’s congregation, who may have been a suffering gentile church, tossed out of synagogue for their faith in Jesus.  God protects faithful Christians who are in danger.   

Ina surprising turn of events, Jesus escapes an angry mob of congregants in his hometown.  Why are they so angry?  Why do Jesus’ neighbors and friends, those who would have known him the best, turn on him so quickly in this scene in Luke 4? 

Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren

in advent an exile

Waiting in a line of traffic on a cloudy and late november afternoon when the air outside is crisp and damp,
listening to the din of public radio talk or the crooning of Nat or Bing singing "Chestnuts roasting..." or "I'm dreaming...", I find myself dreaming, but not of  a white Christmas.  For what do I dream?  The car creeps forward and stops, and creeps, stops, creeps...the short distance lengthened by the slow motion of my leaders.  For what do I dream as I wait in the car alone among so many others who drive alone toward a familiar or unfamiliar place?  About whom do I dream?  What longings are within me now?  What promised land do I strive to enter?  What holy place to I hope to inhabit? 

a letter to the church. Do the work of an evangelist

Dear friends,
"May Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." I wish to keep you aware of the ministry to which I am called as a servant of the Lord Jesus because we are partners in this ministry. Besides worship, the ministry of Word and Sacrament, prayer and visitation of the sick and homebound, and teaching, I am also doing the work of an evangelist. I want you to know that I could and likely should be doing evangelism work full time. (For one thing, to grow a small congregation the pastor mst be an evangelist, meeting new people all the time.) So here is the work of an evangelist:

I received a call today from  the Akron elementary school guidance counselor. She told me the stories of two single parents and their kids. These families are isolated from and do not belong to any intentional communities. They are open to going to church. But is church open to them? They are not connected to any people of faith and love, who believe it is their mission to reach out to the lonely, lost, and least among them. I believe we are called to that mission for those people in Akron. We are called to be a spiritual home and a faith family for these folks. We are being called to welcome and encourage and bless them. I intend to call them, visit them, invite them, offer what I can to them. I intend to follow up with all of the households who received food at the last Peter's Porch, too--some 62 households. In a rare and faithful expression of discipleship, I intend to go to them, rather than wait for them to come to us. What would our world be like if Christian disciples initiated relationships with non-Christians and non-practicing Christians, with the intent to serve them?

We are not a bank. I do not go to offer bailout money or other forms of financial assistance. We are quick to jump to that conclusion, that all people need and want is money for bills and stuff. But I have so much more to offer them than money. I can offer Jesus and His beloved community-- the church. We are the people who love others, when they are struggling, with a love that reveals Christ's promise to make all things new. We are light in darkness, hope in despair. There is a lot of darkness, fear, and isolation going on around us. What people need is the alternative story of the gospel, the good news of God's grace. People are starving and we have food! I intend to share it with them. Do you see that Peter's Porch is a sign to us that people need Jesus and His people? Peter's Porch is not an outreach of the congregation. It is God's mission. We are either faithful to it or not. Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few."

I am also visiting four inmates at LCP this week. I believe the fruit of at least two of these visits is the salvation of their souls---not that I saved them by visiting, but that our Lord has rescued them by giving them faith, hope, and love. One of them will be baptized and another will be welcomed to us when he is released on Easter Sunday!

And also, we will witness two Baptisms on Sunday, December 6 at 10:20 worship. I am also working on preparation for Baptism with another family. They will be baptized in the Season after Epiphany. So, you see the spirit's work among us as we serve our neighbors, welcome them into the church, and offer them God's grace? May we continue in this ministry as long as we are able with the help of God.
in peace,

Pastor Matt

Be our primary Disease: A prayer by Walter Brueggemann

Be our primary disease,
and infect us with your justice;
Be our night visitor,
and haunt us with your peace;
Be our moth that consumes,
and eat away at our unfreedom.
Be our primary disease, our night visitor, our moth
infect, haunt, eat away...
Until we are toward you and with you and for you,
away from our injustices,
our anti-peace,
our unfreedom.
More like you and less like your resistance.
In the name of the one most like you,
most with you,
most for you...even Jesus. Amen .

All will be thrown down

It will all fall apart. Do you sometimes feel like this? That things are just coming apart at the seams and you can’t do a thing to stop it from happening? Do you look around and think, things are just a mess. What a mess we’re in. Do you feel occasionally sick at what you see happening around you? The lack of civility, the lack of compassion, people’s indifference to others, illnesses, sufferings, depravity, the careless waste of good things…Do you think, how can people live like that? Sometimes it’s easier to bury our heads in the sand or to blame others. We are usually better at judging and commenting than at acting and doing. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, unless they begin to take action to confront the situation we are in. Some of you are thinking, what situation? I mean the one in which everything is falling apart. The situation in which things are not how they used to be. The situation in which what was once whole is now broken, what once had life is in decay, what once worked no longer works. You’re a soldier in training on an army base on Texas and one of your own officers opens fire in a classroom and kills 13 soldiers and wounds over a dozen others. This person’s act is linked to some extremist Muslim views, allegedly. And the implications for other Muslims in the armed services is…now the army is a diverse operation, perhaps one of the most diverse institutions we have. But we are in a war with Muslim extremists. Welcome to Chaos. Do you recall Japanese Americans being interred in camps during WWII? Diversity is risky. But sameness creates the façade of tranquility. Chaos is when the forces are at work to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy any semblance of created order. The earth was formed out of chaos, according to Genesis. And yet chaos ensues and disrupts in so many ways, personally, corporately, systemically; threatening to overwhelm us. We are living in a chaotic time. Change is happening at an exponential pace as technologies and advances in communications make it possible to take action on everything from locating friends to buying stocks from the comfort of your computer or handheld device. And yet we feel more alienated, depressed, lost. We are living in a time of great transition and flux, a time of chaos.

Attractional church

So much of what churches are about these days is driven by consumer marketing instincts.   Let's call it consumer evangelism.  Using marketing and advertising techniques, churches intend to get more people to connect to their congregations.  A flashy sign or website, postcard mass mailers and special events to attract the masses.  These all appear to be consistent with the culture in which we live.  Bigger and flashier is better.  And often these events are effective, meaning that they achieve their purpose.  What is the purpose?  To attract a crowd?  To sell something or someone?  To appeal to a broad share of the market, labeled "the unchurched"? This form of Church growth resembles the expansion of businesses, like walmart and target.  The goal is to get the biggest share of consumers, putting smaller churches "out of business."  The indepedent churches who have expertly adopted consumer marketing strategies for growth are clearly competitors, all but telling the masses that their goods and services are better, more relevant, new and improved--compared to the old-line churches and their archaic ways. 

Feast of All Saints

This is All Saints Sunday--an ancient festival commemorating faithful Christians who have died.  This morning a dissonance is created as this group of children goes downstairs for children’s church. We see the future before us, even as we bear witness to our past. These candles on the altar are symbols and reminders of our loved ones, those saints who have died. We see the past and the future intertwined in this space, our confined mortality stretching out in both directions.

B. McLaren's prayer for the earth

Brian McLaren

Rest is NOT a four-letter word

I'm exhausted this week. Our oldest started Kindergarten and we are all up and running by 6:30 am. We need to adjust. It'll take awhile. And then, just as we bein to setle into the pace, we will leave town for a week of retreat/vacation in the Adirondacks. We are so fortunate to have been led to Silver bay, a YMCA facility on Lake George in Upstate NY that offers special hospitality and respte for pastors and their families. We will spend a week. Its an 8-hour drive, but it takes four hours just to realize we're heading for rest. It takes a couple of days before we sink into the rhythm of rest. And its clear that in order for us to really rest, we have to go away. Far away, into isolation, off the grid, unplugged. “The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done ands taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.” Mark 6:30-31.
I don’t vacation very often. We took no summer break this year. The last time I took a week off was in the winter. Jesus, Justice, Jazz New Orleans was pastoral ministry with its own kind of service and responsibilities. I’m also not an office-bound parish administrator. I spend my time meeting people, planning for mission with various partners, learning and teaching, helping and praying. I have at least four meetings a month in Harrisburg. I am invited to teach and lead groups in various locations around the synod. Toss in Peter’s Porch, prison visits, various committee meetings, and sermon/teaching preparation each week and I have an active schedule. Most nights I work on the computer and read from 8:00 until 10:00 pm. And that is taking into consideration that my first vocation is to be a husband and a father. The rhythm of my week always begins with Sunday worship. But every week has its own character, experiences, opportunities, and challenges. Sometimes I feel more like a human doing than a human being. You know what I mean? I think this is a dangerously unhealthy aspect of American culture. Our value and our livelihood is based on how productive we are. Isn’t there something flawed in our obsession with work and production? What if there is a better way to be human found in the life of Jesus? What if we are called by grace to rest, to God's time that is not urgent and harried, but slow and gentle.
We leave for the Adirondack mountains on September 25 and return October 5. We love this special time of family retreat. We canoe on the lake, take hikes, go on leaf hunts, make apple sauce, visit friends in Vermont, and rest! As a child my congregation offered annual winter retreats to the Lutheran Camp. These were special weekends with out church family that blended worship, fellowship, play, and rest. I still feel that we need an occasional reality check and a spiritual recalibration by way of retreat.
Dr. Marva Dawn wrote a book called, “Keeping the Sabbath Wholly.” It is a book Cherie and I have read and cherished. Though we often forget the gracious implications of the chapters found in it, the book is a reminder to us of our need to cease, rest, embrace, and feast. Dawn wrote, “One of the ugliest things about our culture is that we usually assess a person’s worth on the basis of his or her productivity and accomplishments. One of the first questions we ask when meeting a stranger is, “What do you do?” She continues, “The need to accomplish also leads to a terrible frenzy about time. The criterion for everything in our society has become efficiency.” Sunday mornings are like races for me anymore. The tyranny of getting it done on time has detracted from my desire to worship. I know that I need a break.
Is Sunday a Sabbath for you? How does that time become holy, connecting you to the endless and eternal God? How much of retirement do you spend doing things to stay busy? Does Jesus invite us into a healthier rhythm of life by seeking solitude and rest in the grace of GOD? May we listen to Jesus, who gives rest to our souls. Amen.

Mark 7:24-31
In last week’s gospel story (Mark 7:1-23) Jesus terminates purity religion. Keeping yourself clean to keep the offensive out would not be part of his kingdom message or way. This is not a sectarian holiness movement, like the Essenes, who were keeping themselves undefiled out in the desert. Jesus is not forming an exclusive group of “holier than thou” religious purists, self-righteous in their good works. Jesus has declared kosher laws dead and cleanliness rituals obsolete. Because the kingdom of GOD is not about purity laws that exclude. It is about pure hearts that bless and include and serve the weak and the poor.
But Jesus is put to the test in our gospel for today. Will he embody the new rules of the kingdom he is establishing as he goes along teaching and healing and walking to the cross? He is on a mission to reorient the Jewish community to love God by loving the neighbor; even the sin-sick, poor, wretched Gentile. But he is met by a woman, a stranger, a foreigner, a syro-phoenician woman---a Gentile. Whose daughter is possessed by demons! A single mom at her whits end—her daughter is using drugs, hanging out with this awful boy doing God knows what. Her only little girl curses at her almost every time she sees her. And now she is in real trouble. 16 years old. Sick. In danger. After a night of drinking and who knows what else, she comes home and calls for her mom, “mommy help me” she hears her say softly. Her daughter is lying on the floor convulsing. When she comes downstairs she finds her unresponsive, tremoring, vomiting. She calls 911 and the ambulance comes. She hears the medics begin CPR; she isn’t breathing. Oh my God. She says. Oh my God. No. As the ambulance speeds away, she falls on her knees in the front yard crying and she prays, “Lord, help me, I beg you. Save her. Please. I’ll do anything. Don’t let her die tonight.” No answer. And then the overwhelming self-doubt. Its my own fault. Her mind is racing. She thinks of her divorce and her alcoholic ex-husband’s abusive temper and how long her daughter had endured him. And she thinks of her own sins, her own missteps, her own sicknesses. She curses the damn cigarettes and the weight she has gained since the divorce. She curses the house in disrepair and the money she has spent on herself. She curses the second shift nursing job that prevents her from seeing her daughter in the evenings. She curses her distance from her sisters, who seem to have it together, and clearly judge her a failure. She is a failure. She curses her loneliness in the world. She is so angry with herself. She does not deserve God’s help. Would God even listen? Had God not turned his back on her, after all she had turned her back on GOD. She hadn’t been to church in 20 years. Her daughter had never been. And now she is on her knees begging for her daughter’s life. She dared to beg God. Why should God care about her or her messed up daughter? She clutched her stomach and sobbed and sobbed in the grass. This was it.
Why should God care? A purity religion might say, God doesn’t. God takes care of those who take care of themselves. Or God blesses those who are worthy, God-fearing, religious, faithful, etc…A sign of God’s blessing is prosperity, health, harmony. She is obviously cursed. Punished. God does not work on behalf of the ungrateful, on behalf of the sinful or the wicked. God does not care for those who reject God’s commands and laws. They are left to their own devises. They get what they deserve.
Jesus was in no way obligated to speak to this woman, in no way obligated to help. He could have ignored her. Jewish custom and religious habit, actually obeying God’s commandments, would require that he ignore her. She has three strikes against her: the wrong gender, the wrong race, and the wrong religion. Jesus was supposed to let this one go.
So why does Jesus help her? Is it not love? Not his, but hers. She loves her daughter enough to face rejection and humiliation, scorn, prejudice, misogyny, abuse. She could’ve been hurt or killed. And then where would her daughter be? She takes a bold risk in fear and trembling because she loves her daughter. Like all of us. She loves. Love is boundless. Ask anyone, who do you love? And they will tell you.
Jesus recognizes this maternal love. It is how he understands God the Father. Love. It is why he has come to teach and to suffer for sinners. Love.
The Kingdom of GOD has been opened for all who will hear this message of grace and tell its wonders. When have you begged God? When have you felt unworthy and yet somehow blessed? How has God saved your life or the life of one you love? This woman is out there. I met her. She is a neighbor. And God loves her too much to let her suffer alone. Jesus knows its safer and easier to hide, to ignore her, to walk away. There’s only so much I can do. Her story is overwhelming and her needs are too great. She is offensive to me and undeserving. God’s work. Our hands. Amen.