Kira

Ordinary time.  That's what the church calls the time after Pentecost.  Ordinary time.  After the miracle of miracles, the resurrection of the Son of God, an extraordinary thing happens to a paralyzed group of scaredy cat disciples behind closed doors on the streets of first century Jerusalem. They become multi-lingual, articulate, and radically extroverted.  A small group of uneducated, ethnic hicks take on the world with their message of salvation. They can't help but share the extraordinary story and the implications and meaning behind it, not only for themselves but for the entire world--the cosmos.  Silent, fearful, eyewitnesses become demonstrative, powerful spokespeople for a movement that dares to usher in an age of forgiveness, generosity, mercy, and hope.  We call the time after that, ordinary.  And it is.  Ordinary, yet soaked in anticipation of what is yet to come.  What they saw and heard and said and did was only the beginning.  The story continues in ordinary time; in our ordinary times.  
An ordinary and familiar story:  She is a recent college graduate without a job, living at home in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.  She is in transition., in limbo.  Not yet fully realizing her potential, not satisfied, but not complaining.  She is single and relatively content to be.  She is helping her parents through a cancer battle, her brother through a divorce, and maybe some others too.  She is passionate about health care injustice.  She is merciful and compassionate.  She cries when things are not going as they should. She wears her emotions. She likes to have fun. She is devoted to her family and friends.  She loves her nephew and niece. She likes to relax.  She doesn't have much money.  She has no current job prospects,except in retail. Her car is dying, too.  Something about a bad transmission and second gear.  She is going to the beach anyways.
Kira is also faithful. At 22 this is not a small matter. I've known her since she was a teenager in Lutheran confirmation. She wants her life to be meaningful, to do a big thing.   She wants to make a difference and suspects that she may not have to wander too far to do so.  She is searching for work that will provide a sufficient livelihood, so that she can pursue what she loves. I say if you can do what you love, what you are passionate about, and get paid for it, you are truly living.  Her days are fairly ordinary, but drenched with potential.  She anticipates and waits, with patience.  Not in a hurry.  Kira is being called by God to live a life devoted to service.  She will see and hear and do extraordinary things, because God does extraordinary things in and through the ordinary lives of people like Kira. God is beginning a work in her life that God will be faithful to complete, over time, in subtle and not so subtle ways. She is both ready and completely unprepared and that is thrilling ad scary and the way things are when you're 22 and fresh out of college, without work, living at home.
Ordinary time.  With family, at the beach, in the mall, in the clunker on the road, on the couch or the computer.  God breaks in and seizes us with a hopeful vision of life eternal.  Inspired, we wake up and drink coffee and do what the day calls us to do.  Everyday, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the sacred and the mundane, collide.  Look around you.  Pretty ordinary, right? That is precisely where God is miraculously at work, making all things new.

Pentecost

of ONE being

This is from the band, "Lost and Found."  A bit of tribal humor, I guess.  I posted this on Facebook and my uncle thought it was too full of Lutheran pride, self-promoting.  To which I responded, Kris Kristofferson and Loni Anderson?  

Anyway, the most important Lutheran of all is you.  I can prove it.  First, God made you.  Then, in Holy Baptism God adopts you as one of His beloved children.  Jesus, the son, died for you as a sign of God’s love for you.  That same Jesus was raised from the dead as a sign of hope for our future life with God the Father.  We will not be orphans, but redeemed and blessed members of God’s royal family.  Jesus has made a place in heaven for you and promises that he will come to take you to be with him.  Jesus also promises that the Holy Spirit will come upon you and lead you into the truth, giving you courage and the ability to live a God-centered life in this world.  This Spirit will intervene on your behalf in time of trouble and will protect you in time of need.  This same Spirit will inspire and empower you to faithfulness in your daily life.  The Spirit, however, brings each of us into communion with Jesus Christ in and through the church—the company of believers on earth charged with the ministry of Christ and armed with the Word of God and prayer.  As church each of us fulfills our particular calling to be God’s ambassadors and servants in the world.   This is how our church works: As a congregation, Zion Akron collected toothbrushes.  I presented 60 of them to our conference dean and he brought them to the synod assembly.  This congregation is part of the North Lancaster conference, of which there are 18 congregations. Our conference contributed 300 toothbrushes to the synod assembly.  Our synod consists of 257 congregations.  We meet annually in assembly.  Each congregation contributed to their conference, which contributed to the synod.  We made over 800 health kits for Lutheran World relief.  Lutheran World relief is our global extension working in 19 countries: Bolivia, Burkina faso, Colombia, El Salvdor,Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Peru, Philippines,Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda.  These personal care kits provide a toothbrush, soap, a comb, nail clippers, and a towel. 

spiritual deathcrawl

This is from the movie “Facing the Giants”, about an underdog team and a coach nobody believes in.  But this scene is about the Christian life.  Because we are all doing a death crawl.  We are all carrying burdens on our backs.  We are all blindly pushing forward, not knowing how far we must go or when we will reach the end.  We all experience pain and exhaustion and the threat of utter failure and defeat.  We are all prone to self-doubt and a need to give up the fight, to let the giants overwhelm us.  My aunt, married to my mom’s oldest brother is 54.  She just had major surgery and has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer that has progressed and spread.  What was abdominal pain is now cancer. I can’t imagine what is going through my Aunt’s and Uncle’s and cousins’ heads this weekend.  Fear.  Grief.  Worry.  Anger.  I have seen it.  Sometimes ministry feels like a war zone, simply going through life with others in all of their ups and downs. 

all the hope without the rapture

So, either the rapture didn’t happen or we’re in trouble. I’m not surprised either way. Never thought the Lutherans had much of a chance. Rapture was only going to happen for the fundagelicals and Pentecostals. They have bigger churches and more money than we do, so they must be doing something right, right? Enough about them. What about us? To be perfectly clear, I am a complete skeptic about end time predictions. Not because I don’t believe the biblical worldview on such matters. I believe there is a beginning, a middle, and an end to God’s story. I also believe that we are closer to the end than to the beginning. I believe that because the first Christians believed that the death and resurrection of Jesus was the sign of the end of the ages. They believed that a new age was dawning, in which God’s reign of justice and perfect peace was coming upon all people. But there has been an unexpected delay in its coming. And so they had to adjust their thinking about the end of days. It’s the delay, coupled with the promise of the end and the reality of death that causes people to make false predictions.

questions and answers

In the Sunday paper last week, there was a comic strip.  (The comic strips are still the best part of the Sunday paper.) The strip was simple. On one side of the strip was a middle aged man sitting behind a desk.  On the front of the desk was a sign that read, "QUESTIONS ANSWERED".  On the other side of the strip was a younger man, a twenty-something fella sitting behind a desk.  On the front of his desk was a sign that read, "ANSWERS QUESTIONED".  These are the signs of our times.  Generational, cultural, philosophical change has produced this sort of paradox in thought.  There are people who believe in the answers.  They believe that life's big questions have been answered sufficiently: by science, religion, the B-I-B-L-E, some other dogmatic system or text.  Some of them may think that they have the answers to give; in a book, a sermon, a speech, a half-hour infomercial.  They believe that the Truth is knowable and that it has all been given. Others are not so sure.

Burnout

New York Times (Aug. 2010): 1,500 pastors leave their ministries each month due to burnout, conflict, or moral failure. 90% work more than 50 hours a week. 75% report severe stress causing anguish, worry, bewilderment, anger, depression, fear, and alienation. 70% do not have any close friends.80% say they have insufficient time with their spouse. 50% feel unable to meet the demands of the job.

Just read this article of statistics. This June is my 10th anniversary of ordained ministry. I've only wanted to quit weekly for about the last 9 years. "Should have stayed on the farm, should have listened to my old man", said Elton John.  I've thought it, too.  I've imagined other lives: other careers, other vocations, lottery jackpot winnings.Why?  Because ministry can be lonely. You can feel like you're not entertaining enough, not smart enough,not interesting enough. Unattractive, uninspiring.  You can feel unprepared, foolish, and unnecessary. When your work deals with other people's faith in God and their ability to live healthy spiritual lives, you can feel inadequate. Ministry is no ego trip. It wrecks havoc on your self-esteem, especially if that's at all tied to the approval of others. I have seen more people leave church on account of me than I have seen people come to church because of me. I have been told many times how wonderful some other pastor is.He's such a kind man or a good preacher, etc...When people ask me about the church or ministry, I struggle to know what to say. The congregation I serve is not growing.  People are dying here.  In 6 years there are half as many people here. There are fewer young, faithful  families here. Fewer older adults, fewer young children.We don't have inspiring contemporary worship or special programs for people of all ages.  We don't go on awesome mission trips.  We don't have the best VBS in North Lancaster county.  We don't have a large, dynamic staff.   So what do I say?  "Yeah, on paper I'm a big fat statistical failure.But at least I still have a job." There have been times when the way I have been treated has made me wonder why I spent so much time and money in education/training. I live everyday knowing that some people, who used to be faithful Christians here, hate me. I judge myself in these matters and wish there could be reconciliation and peace.  But they do not want peace with me.  They want me to go away.  I've wondered if I woud endure and outlast them or not. Ministry includes personal vulnerability and loss. Ive lost some things and a few people along the way.   

After all this I have to say something else:  I have been given many gifts in ordained ministry too. I have walked with families in joy, in sorrow, in worry and strife, in fear, in poverty and want, and in times of abundant blessing. I have comforted the dying and prayed with the living.  I have fed people and given people hope.  I have met some interesting characters and seen some amazing things. I have seen healing.  I have seen people come to believe in God, follow Jesus, become part of His church.  I have enjoyed opportunities to learn. I have made music for kids.  I have told stories that made people laugh and cry.  I have spent time in silence.  I have observed the church's year, enjoying the seasons of the Christian life. I have planted things. I have done these things in community,with others. I have been part of something bigger than myself.  I have had help.  God's grace, my wife's love, and my kid's joy keep me moving.

Finally, to keep a perspective is to realize that I am not at the center of it all.  The story of my life is not the main event or the most important thing.  I may burnout or fade away or something else.  But life will go on.  Because God is love and love is patient. Love endures all things, bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things. Love never ends. 

Love never ends.  

So to my colleagues out there, flaming out this week:  Thanks for your service, your devotion to the Christian life, and your endurance.  Its a marathon, not a sprint.  St. Paul wrote, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."  Go and do likewise. Everyday.  

triumph over evil, victory over death, and the road to emmaus

I know what you all are thinking.  Some coincidence, huh?  My wife and I go away for a few days, and while we’re gone, Osama Bin Laden is found and executed.  So, to clear the air, neither Cherie nor I are members of an elite Navy SEALS team.  We were in the Adirondacks reading books and taking naps.  Some week though. From presidential birth certificates and royal weddings to the confirmed death of the most notorious man on earth. Closer to home, our brother Wayne succumbed to his four year battle with cancer.  He died fully aware, ready, and at peace.  He said goodbye to the people he loves.  On Tuesday, we will gather here for worship, to give thanks to God for Wayne’s life and to receive comfort in sorrow.  Next Sunday, we will celebrate holy baptism; welcoming new children, new life, to this congregation.  There is joy and there is sorrow.  It may seem like a circle, a perpetual pattern, a never-ending life cycle.  It may seem like biology is the one true fact of life.  We are born, we live, we die.  An old Blood, Sweat, and Tears song from the 60’s said, and when I die and when I’m gone, there’ll be one child born in this world to carry on, carry one.  But is that enough for us? Is that it? The circle of life?   It never has been.  Jews and then Christians have always questioned this seeming unending cycle, the seasons of life.  The biblical worldview rejects the circle of life.  We see the history of the world as an unfolding story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.  We do not see it as a perpetual machine, from birth to death and back again.  We cannot accept death, or evil and injustice as natural parts of the created order.  We cannot believe that the living God, who breathes life into all things, is responsible for sin, disease, and violence leading to death.  What do Christians believe about evil, about death?  In light of the death of Osama Bin Laden, what do we say?  Or perhaps more importantly, in light of the resurrection of Jesus, what is our hope?

the Resurrection of Jesus and the Goodness of God's Creation

Alleluia Christ is risen! He is risen indeed alleluia! 

But before he was raised, Jesus died.  He died just as he told them he would.  He went to Jerusalem at Passover and became victim to the religious and the romans, hell bent on crushing rebellions and dreams.  They had to stop him from becoming bigger than he was, a mere Galilean peasant with grandiose ideas and a following of naïve and needy souls.  He told them it was going to be that way, that it must be that way.  He told them that he would die and in three days rise again.  They hadn’t believed him though.  They had chosen not to believe it because they loved him, they needed him, they expected more than death from him.  Accepting mortality and death is hard for any of us.  We hate death and how it robs us of ourselves, our loved ones.  Besides, they expected that he was the one to set right what was wrong with the world.  They believed that he could change the world, heal the wounds, reconcile the wrongs, fix the broken.  Usually putting that much hope in a single human being is a bad idea, never ends well.  But they believed that he had the power to change everything, if he stayed alive and accepted his role as the anointed King.   They believed that he was messiah, a holy king sent by God himself to restore the kingdom of Israel, to abolish the powers that threatened daily existence, to release prisoners, heal the sick, give hope to the dying.  They had reason to believe in him; he was healing and teaching with power and authority and what he said and did was Good, very good.  His goodness seemed to include all kinds of people; jews, pagans, men, women, children, ethnic minorities practicing other forms of Judaism, soldiers, tax collectors working for the roman empire, prostitutes, lawyers, the wealthy and the poor.  Everyone was invited, but few were willing to accept. No one wanted to be with those people. What he offered was life for the ages, but not without cost.  Discipleship was about serving others, giving freely and generously, accepting the other, loving the enemy.  Following his path might mean to reject one’s own family.  Putting God’s mission first.  Putting my wants and needs last.  He called fishermen and zealots and tax collectors and not-so-trustworthy followers.  And he entrusted them with his work of healing and forgiveness. He said, only in becoming the last, the least, and the loser does one get into God’s kingdom. For those who did believe this, the last thing they needed was a dead rabbi.

it was good

Where do we see power?  Governments?  Armed forces?  Wealth? Sheer numbers of people?  In the mind of the individual?   

St Patricks cathedral in New York is directly across from Rockefeller center and at the entrance to Rockefeller center is the great sculpture of Atlas holding up the world. ON Good Friday, the doors of the cathedral are opened, and you can see the great cross from the street.  Turn in one direction and there is the mythical atlas holding up the world, turn in the other, and there is the one broken by the world.  Which image speaks the truth?  Is the world upheld by our godlike strength or by the crucified love of God?  Upon that decision everything, simply everything must turn.” Father Richard Neuhaus, Death on a Friday afternoon.

palms. both leaves and hands.

On Palm Sunday we hear two stories about Jesus. Both involve Palms.  Palm branches strewn in his path and the palms of Jesus’ hands, nailed to a cross.  Two different palms with two different meanings.  

The first of these stories is the story of Jesus triumphal entry into the capital city of Jerusalem for the festival of Passover.  Jesus enters on a donkey with crowds shouting blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna to the son of David.  Jews awaited a Messiah to liberate them from foreign rule and establish true worship of their God Yahweh.  Their God was a deliverer who had delivered them from the Egyptian Pharaoh and from Babylon.  The history of their God Yahweh was that of redemption and freedom from oppressive foreign rule.  What God had done before, God would do again according to God’s covenant promises to Israel.  God would send an anointed King with God’s power.  This King would rule forever and would usher in an age of peace.  Passover, the Jewish memorial celebration of the Exile from Egypt represented the hopes of the Jews.  Passover inspired people to take up the cry for justice and the hope for Messiah to come.  Passover was revolution time and often led to violence and Roman crackdown to quell it.  Already before Jesus of Nazareth one such Messiah had been killed by the Romans.  

the water

The story.  John 4

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. 
(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, 
‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ 
(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, 
‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”,
 you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ 
The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. 
Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, 
who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 
Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 
but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. 
The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up 
to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that 
I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman 
answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, 
“I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now 
is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him,
 ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, 
but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ 
Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will 
worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, 
for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, 
when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, 
for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those 
who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him,
 ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, 
he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is 
speaking to you.’

 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking 
with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking
 with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city.
 She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything 
I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’They left the city 
and were on their way to him.

 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ 
But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ 
So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him 
something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him 
who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, 
then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields 
are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and 
is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 
For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.”I sent you to reap 
that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered 
into their labour.’

 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, 
‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him,
 they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. 
And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, 
‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’

Thoughts

On the surface this gospel is about water.  Since March 22 was world water day, it ought to be about water.  1.2. billion people do not have access to clean water. The amount of water you use to take a five minute shower is more water than half the people in the world have for the whole day.   It is hard for us to imagine what it is like in the developing world for women and girls who spend hours of their day fetching water from a well miles from their village.  African households spend 26% of their time fetching water.  5000 children die every day from water-borne disease.  Often girls cannot go to school because they must fetch water for their households.  Our access to clean water in the U.S. is a gift that we can so easily take for granted.  Waiting at a well for a drink of water is not something with which we can easily identify.   The average American uses 400 litres of water daily; the average European uses 200 litres; in the developing world 10 litres.  We can reduce our use and waste of water, remembering how so many suffer for lack of the most important substance on earth.  No water, no life. Its as simple as that. 

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.