Advent 3. December 17. Luke 17.

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=84970407 (Click the link to continue the story)

Forgive over and over again. 
A little faith does a lot.
We are worthless slaves.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Was none of them found to return, praising and thanking God, except this foreigner?
For in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.
Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it.

A series of wisdom sayings are built into the narrative.  A chapter like 17 can feel a bit disruptive, with less narrative consistency and more sort of wisdom teaching.  But Jesus is inviting us into internal work, soul or heart work, mind-changing work.  The book "Breathing Underwater" by Father Richard Rohr applies the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous to the Christian life.  He suggests that we are all in recovery from self delusions and denials about ourselves and God. 
We may ask ourselves, what teaching is speaking to me right now?  Is it a need to forgive someone who has wronged us?  We may hear that forgiveness is not a one-time thing, but that we may need to keep on forgiving again and again.  Sometimes a single past act continues to cause us pain and we need to talk our way into forgiveness.  Sometimes we focus on the scar and fail to see that time has healed us and the pain has dissipated.  Sometimes the pain persists and the offense lingers.  So, keep on forgiving.  Its for you, as much or more than for the one who offended or sinned against you. 
To the disciples, faith is accumulative and the more you have the better things will be.  Don't we even say, that person has a lot of faith or is really faithful?  Jesus says that faith is not like money.  It is like food coloring in water; a little changes everything. A little faith is powerful stuff, because it opens us up to a world beyond ourselves, our limited minds and senses. 
The slave analogy is hard to hear from Jesus' lips.  Namely because he suggests that his followers are like slaves, called to be obedient to their master.  I'm not sure how to deal with this right now.  But we must acknowledge it as troubling and perhaps archaic.  Is it a word we ought to forget now?  Slavery is never right.  The thought is, faithful people are called to obey God's commands. 
People are crying out for mercy.  Where have you heard their cries?  Yesterday, I heard the cries of a father and a mother whose children attend toxic public schools, where asbestos and lead threaten the health of their children.  How does Jesus respond to cries for mercy?  He stops, listens, acts, and sends them on their way to receive healing and rejoin the community.
Gratitude is a bold announcement of faith!  God has shown mercy.  God has provided.  God has protected.  God has rescued.  God has healed.  God has saved.  God has intervened.  God has spoken words of love and forgiveness.  Thanks is the natural response.
God is nearer than we see or think.  We are always looking somewhere else to some other place or time.  The grass is always greener, we say.  Jesus says God is present immediately and completely in the present moment, here and now. 
Surrender.  Let God be God.  Learn to trust.  How hard it is for us to do these things.  We are self-sufficient lovers of security.  We have fooled ourselves into thinking we protect ourselves with our wealth or homes or relationships or jobs or insurance policies or elected leaders.  We have been hurt by being vulnerable and trusting.  Self-protection is human, too.  To trust God is to give up on all the false securities. It is to stay vulnerable. This is not easy.  It is a lifetime of internal work.  We are all in recovery after all. 

   
             
      

POWER, power, and the faith to fight racism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbVlLri7X2A
(Click the link to view David Mosenkis's video on racial bias in PA public education funding.)

My congregation (Zion Lutheran, Akron, PA) is on this journey toward antiracism and has joined the fight against racial injustices that plague our institutions, governing systems and policies, local economies and housing markets.  We are a 100% white congregation in the whitest denomination in the U.S. Our lack of racial diversity is symptomatic. But my little, aging white congregation has been on a journey toward antiracism for almost two years and we are not alone.  We are part of something that keeps us moving toward becoming allies in the fight for racial justice.     

Primarily we are working with POWER Interfaith, a statewide antiracism organization based in Philly.  To learn more about POWER click here: https://powerinterfaith.org/.  

We are forming an interfaith coalition in partnership with POWER in Lancaster County.  Over twelve congregations are currently participating, many for more than two years now, in the formation of a faith-rooted antiracism organization.  Eventually, we will become Lancaster POWER Interfaith.  In the meantime, we are participating in a statewide education campaign to end education apartheid and the gross funding inequity that exists in PA.  (See the video above.)  We attend rallies, call and write our elected officials, and seek out additional congregations to join us in this work.  We also continue to learn the history of racism, to analyze current events and policies, and become aware of implicit biases and prejudices that prevent us from building a changed community of justice for all the children of God.  

We have realized that the invisible hand of white privilege  has isolated us from the struggles of black and brown neighbors.  We have not acknowledged our silence, our complicity, our acceptance of white privilege that perpetuates a racialized culture and systems that do harm every day.  Four hundred years ago, the seeds of racial division were sown in the Virginia colony.  The U.S. was organized racially as a mechanism to divide and hold power in the hands of wealthy, landowning, white elites.  The U.S. constitution codifies racial segregation in the 3/5 clause.  Even the 13th amendment, abolishing slavery, opens the way to criminalize blackness, setting the stage for Jim Crowe, lynchings, and mass incarcerations.  (At the bottom of this entry, I have named 6 books worth reading in the next 6 months.)     

Advent 3. December 16. Luke 16

https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+16 (Click here to continue the story)

Wealth and greed and dishonesty seem to be on Jesus' and Luke's mind in this chapter.  Jesus seems to have a problem with all three of these things.  They do something to the soul, turning us inward, making us selfish and dishonest for the sake of our self-interest.  The wealthy struggle to divest of their wealth, even for compassion's sake and for another suffering human. But Jesus believes in a great economic reversal in which equity and justice will be established and the poor will be glad in the kingdom of God. 
Economic inequality is pervasive, systemic, transcendent of time and place, deeply embedded, and immoral--robbing the poor of basic dignity.  These parables highlight the 1st century Palestinian situation under Roman imperial taxation, in which the poor were exploited.  Our present day circumstances, under free market capitalism, exaggerates income inequality and the ever-widening gulf between the rich and the poor.  Jesus' parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus at the gate illustrates how selfish greed and acquisitiveness can overthrow our basic humanity, making it possible to ignore or even reject the person in poverty before us.  We do so at our own peril, says Jesus.  He suggests that our present greed has eternal consequences.  I'm not sure what that means, but I am sure most Americans would be shocked to hear it.  Our fascination with wealth and our desire to obtain it at the expense of the global poor endangers millions of people.  We see the consequences of our blind consumption in the climate crisis we now face or deny. 
It is impossible to escape the judgment leveled against the rich in these texts.  Not the first words of indictment in this gospel; they began with Mary's song in Luke 1.  Luke sees the gospel as a great liberator of the oppressed and poor, the great equalizer of the poor and rich, the maker of a social justice-reoriented world where all have enough and none are invisibly forgotten or neglected.  May it be so.             

Advent 3. December 15. Luke 15.

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=209021712 (Click the link to continue the story)

Rembrandt, Return of the Prodigal Son

This picture hangs in my office. No Jesus story speaks more to me than this one.  I have written, preached, studied, and appreciated this story for many years.  To me this is the entire gospel in one story. 
This chapter contains the three parables of lost things; lost sheep, lost coin, and lost sons.  I will focus on the latter story.  It is an extended story about a father and two sons, known as the Prodigal son.  The story is told  in the context of a serious accusation that the religious leaders lob at Jesus.  "He eats with tax collectors and sinner."  In other words, the company Jesus keeps damages his reputation, tarnishes his image as a righteous Jew, and erodes any teaching authority he may be exercising in his public life.  Jesus responds with these three stories. His point?  God rejoices over one sinner who repents, more than 99 self-righteous people who need no repentance.
A Father has two sons.  This is a Jewish story. Genesis is full of these stories.  Cain and Abel.  Ishmael and Isaac.  Esau and Jacob. God favors one son over the other.  Often, the favored one is not the one expected to find favor with God.  In any case, God favors forgiveness and acceptance and brotherhood over envy and anger and violent retribution.
A father has two sons.  The father in this story is absurdly kind and generous.  He is almost foolish in his submission to his sons' requests.  He is persistent in his acceptance of them, despite their behavior toward him and one another.  When the younger son asks for his half of the family inheritance, takes it and runs away, he is tells his father that he would rather have the money than the relationships.  He is telling his older brother that he doesn't value their rule as siblings or sons, that he doesn't respect the work, or that he cares about the family's future.  When the elder son confronts his father for welcoming the younger son home, it is clear he doesn't see himself as a son and heir but as a slave.  He sees his father as an employer or a benefactor rather than a loving parent.  And yet, the Father's actions demonstrate his compassion and love for his sons.
Does Jesus tell the story about himself?  Isn't he the prodigal son, leaving his father's house to spend his life with the sinners and the pigs?   Aren't the religious leaders the elder sons, self-righteous, bitter, and envious?  Don't they see themselves as hardworking, loyal, and deserving? 
Aren't we both?  Luther said, We are at once both saints and sinners.  Sometimes I'm envious of the impious and irreverent and immoral.  Sometimes I'm impious and irreverent and immoral. 
Do we know the Father's love? As a parent, I know that there is nothing my children could do to make me love them less.  They are loved.  Period.  And that's the point.   Prodigal or self-righteous snobs---God loves us all and welcomes us home and throws a feast for us.
I love the image of God's kingdom as a banquet or a gathering for a feast in Luke's gospel.  To me that is what heaven will be like.  The story of God, according to Jesus, is a family love story.  Different than mythologies in which all powerful deities exist but do not act in human history, the story of Israel's God is the story of a God who acts, who shows up, who rescues, who intercedes, who feeds, who nurtures, who protects.  It is a love story, in which God is parent and we are children.  This is the Jesus innovation on the story of Israel.

A great book on the parable of the prodigal son is Henri Nouwen, "Return of the Prodigal Son." 

Advent 2. December 14. Luke 14.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+14 (Click the link to continue the story)

Who gets invited to be guests at dinner parties?  When you host, how do you invite?  I have served two congregations that hosted community meals to feed hungry neighbors.  Those experiences have been windows into Jesus' kingdom or the kingdom of God.  Neighbors and strangers eat together; food is prepared and shared generously.  Mostly, people from low income or poor households attend.  Sometimes the servers eat with the guests.  That is when stories are told, tears are shed, prayers are requested and spoken, and people who often invisible in our consumer culture are seen and heard. 
Another place where I have experienced the Jesus table is at dinner church: a gathering of disciples around a meal for worship, prayer, breaking of bread, story, and song.  Dinner church is an emerging expression of church in the U.S.  It is a space of connection and relationship-building, in which we meet our neighbors, tell stories, pray, sing, and eat.  We always sing a spiritual called "The welcome table" that reminds us that all are welcome at the table of grace and that there are some who have been excluded, uninvited, or denied welcome by the Church.  We have heard Jesus' story from Luke 14 and believe that the table is a place of sacred encounter, in which both God and neighbor become present to one another in life-changing ways.
Where there is food and fellowship there is healing and hope.  All we need is a table, some empty seats, open hearts, and the humility to invite those neighbors who do not get invited because they can't pay their way.  We see the table and the food we share as a free gift.  There are no good excuses for rejecting a gift.  Who does that?  Who says "no thanks" to a free gift that everyone needs?  Jesus noticed that there were people who excused and absented themselves from the community.  They were too busy acquiring people, animals, land---consumers acquiring property.  Like his, our culture is acquisitive and consumer-driven.  We likely live in the most acquisitive and consumerist economy ever known  on earth.  How often our things, our possessions, our property become barriers to relationships.
It is at the table and the meal that good relationships are formed, strengthened, and sustained.
Who could you invite to eat with you this week?  What would make that a sacred experience?

   


 

Advent 2. December 13. Luke 13.

https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+13 (click the link to continue the story).

Bad things happen.  We assign blame in order to make sense of tragedies. But sometimes we are victims to forces we cannot see or control, systems of injustice and oppression that create conditions for tragedy to happen.  Mining accidents come to mind.  We are not supposed to assign blame, but offer assistance.  We create the rules that create the conditions that cause suffering.  We create barriers that prevent us from supporting, helping, or caring for someone else.  We build walls and ghettos and even gated communities.  Segregation was a legal policy that denied non-whites access to economic opportunity, education, employment, housing, and health care. Many whites never viewed it as unjust because they never saw or experienced the conditions of their non-white "neighbors".  Out of sight, out of mind.  Justified by prejudices and negative biases that supported segregation, kept people apart and disadvantaged people based on race.  Humans have a great capacity to punish. 
Sometimes doing justice requires that we break the rules, when the rules are bad rules that harm others.  According to Luke, Sabbath-keeping had become a rule that harmed some people, by preventing others from providing support and help to them.  Sabbath becomes a privilege for the well and the well off.  It becomes a burden for those who never get a break from pain, from shame, from labor.  Segregation prevents us from seeing the needs of the other.
Jesus sees.  He sees a woman bent over and he liberates her.  There are really two Torah commands around Sabbath---one based on Genesis 1 in which God the creator rests and commands us to rest. (Found in the ten commandments in Exodus 2).   And one from Exodus in which God liberates the people from slavery in Egypt. (Found in Deuteronomy 5).  Jesus ignores work prohibition (Genesis 1) in order to liberate a suffering child of God.   This is how God acts.  Always for the broken ones.  Always to bring relief, mercy., and comfort to those who are in pain or struggle. 
The Kingdom of God is not an army, a castle, a royal family, or treasury filled with gold.  It is a seed, like yeast in the dough.  The kingdom of God is organic, present and hidden, subtle yet alive, working its way, becoming, emerging, growing.  It is in the smallness, the seemingly insignificant that God comes.  God has a greater capacity to heal. 
 
  

Advent 2. December 12. Luke 12

https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+12   (Click the link to continue the story)

Warning!  The current way of things in the world is changing.  There is a crisis underway.  It's serious, a life or death crisis.  Some, those who are most comfortable with the way things are, will object, deny, and resist what is coming.  They will shout, curse, fight, argue, and do whatever they can to keep things the way they have been.  They are nostalgic traditionalists, who claim that their values and way of life are being stolen from them. They detest foreigners and have a clear perspective of insiders and outsiders, good guys and bad guys, the blessed and the cursed.  They use religion, even the bible, to support their mastery, their supremacy, their self-righteousness.  Wealth is viewed as a sign of greatness, success, security, and divine blessing.  Poverty, the opposite.  There is much anxiety and worry spent over who is right and who is wrong, over the need to acquire and possess.  There is a lot of fear and anxiety.  The daily news is driven by it. 
Adapting to massive cultural shifts, such as the one that took place during the 1st century world of Israel/Palestine, the high Roman imperial period, is challenging.  Jesus was born into a time of disruption, inequality, suffering, and division.  We are currently living in such a time.  The ecological crisis, the crisis of growing economic inequality, the religious crises (extremism, fundamentalism, and the decline of religion in the west) are threatening life on the planet.  Divisive politics are both a response to and an instrument of this crisis moment in history.  Current global politics seems to be exacerbating the massive challenges we face as humans.  Massive displacement of peoples due to war, poverty, and climate disruption has created border and refugee crises. Rather than address them with compassion, we see mass incarceration and deportation and violence.  Rising nativism and demonization of refugees denies human rights and basic dignity--even in the U.S., a nation founded on liberty and justice for all, a place of welcome for the persecuted and the displaced.  Here we see a growing ambivalence or even rejection of non-white, non-native born citizens.  Election politics demonstrates this ambivalence. 
There is much in this chapter from Luke worth hearing:  From an indictment on wealth and self-sufficiency that says, "You fool, this very night your soul is being demanded from you, and all these things whose will they be?"  To a rejoinder not to worry or fret or fear in the midst of reactionary, petty, inhumane treatment given and received by those threatened by changes they cannot control.  We ought to anticipate generational division as part of this cultural shift.  It's always true that those who have benefited from the current way of things the longest are most invested in it.  It may be that the idealism of youth is a perspective worth keeping. 
We do hear promises of protection and provision here as well.  And this is good news when the crisis is real and vulnerability is high.  Living in troubled times, times of social change, can be difficult. To whom or what do we cling? How do we survive, cope, hold on? 
People of faith are invited to let go and cling to God with hope and anticipation that ultimately God is the force of life working everything toward goodness and life. 
Jesus and the prophets have always warned the world:  If you put your faith in yourself, other people, wealth, governments, or ones social status, you will be disappointed and you may even suffer.  But trust God and you will have life.  Yes, we face real crises.  Climate change threatens everything.  But, "It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."   That's Jesus way of saying, God is good and generous and actually loves us.  We have life right now.  We ought not to hoard it, or hide from it.  We are invited to share, to give, to live into this vulnerability and receive the gifts that abound in God's economy. For in it there is enough for all.                       

Advent 2. December 11. Luke 11.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+11 (Click the link to continue the story)

Where does power come from?  Are you powerful?  What makes you strong enough?   When do you feel powerful?  When do you feel weak or vulnerable? 
Chapter 11 is about power.  A lot of Luke's gospel deals with power.  Powerful governments and systems of oppression.  The power of money, violence, and cultural affirmations.  Who is powerful in our cultural context?  Men?  Those with wealth?  Whites?  Organizations that claim to empower people--women, minorities, marginalized peoples---start with the idea that power resides outside of those groups and within some other groups.  Power has to be taken.  It is rarely shared or surrendered.  People don't easily give up their power.  With power comes privilege, voice, resources, access.  Power is often concentrated among a few.  And the majority population is rendered powerless.  Even in electoral democracies we wonder who has the power---since the choices at the ballot box are limited to those who often already have power---wealth, public fame, white maleness.  White men are still disproportionately in charge of corporations, government, and other institutions that influence society at large. 
Prayer on the lips of everyday people is a form of subversive power.  Calling on God, the all powerful creator of light, to hear and respond to us is audacious and maybe even insane.  Yet Jesus prays and invites us to do so, as if we are asking a parent for bread.  Jesus also sees prayer as something more than just selfish asking for bodily sustenance.  Prayer aligns our hearts and minds with God and places us in opposition to that which is not aligned with God.  There is evil.  Demonic systems of oppression that cause suffering, illness, exclusion, and hatred.  People, from individuals to whole groups (races, ethnicities, non-confirming genders, sexualities) are demonized by the powerful who decide what is "normal" and "good" and what is not.  Jesus suggests that power is given and spent to confront hatred and the things that separate us from God and one another. There is a religious elitism and exclusion that Jesus rejects.  Confronting the powerful with the Spirit's power can be dangerous and also transformative. Even abusers of power can be turned around by God.  Prayer begins with an acknowledgment:  I am not GOD.  God is God.  God is almighty sovereign.  This is the first step into the life of the Spirit.   
And I am needy and vulnerable.  Every day.  My life depends on others. I do not survive in isolation.  Acknowledging that there is no self-sufficiency, but that all are connected, is the second step into the life of the Spirit.  This is the source of true power.  God is great.  God is good.  I am not.  I need God.  God is generous and supportive.  That which is neither generous nor supportive is not of God.  In the power of God, I confront and reject all that stands against God's love and justice (which has been revealed to people and passed down to us through the holy scripture, the law and prophets, the Word. 
What is power?  The ability to act.  What is the power of the Spirit?  The ability to act in concert with the mind and heart of God.  Jesus has this power and offers it to us. This is prayer.  To ask God.  To seek God. To knock on the door of God's house.  To welcome the kingdom of God in our midst.                       
     

Advent 2. December 10. Luke 10.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+10  (Click the link to continue the story)

Sometimes people get beaten up on the way, abused, taken advantage, robbed, left for dead, ignored, and avoided.  Sometimes we are the ones getting beaten down.  Sometimes we are the ones who do the beating or the ignoring.  But we also know that when there is a need, when there is trouble or crisis, people ought to act.   We needn't act alone, but ought to seek a partner to assist us.  Otherwise, we may become overburdened and eventually grow bitter toward others who do not do what must sometimes be done.  There is more than enough pain to share.  Find partners.  Care together. 
Jesus sends people in pairs into the towns and villages he intended to go.  They are to travel light, vulnerably, and to seek out households of peace who will welcome them and offer them hospitality.  They are to be guests.  They are to treat everyone with mercy and to share one message, with those who welcome them and those who don't: the kingdom of God has come near you.  This nearness of God to them means that God has not abandoned them.   People often feel abandoned, hopeless, helpless.  Showing up reminds us that we are not alone.  It is critical to the human project that we show up for one another.  Vulnerably, openly, and willingly--even when we are not welcomed.  Jesus' people enter homes and remain there.  This is not door knocking evangelism.  (Our references to this sort of activity are Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses, and salesmen.  But this is not that.)   It is relationship-building and community formation.  Jesus is organizing the kingdom and its subjects by household.  It may be time for the 21st century Christians to imitate our 1st century ancestors.
Jesus doesn't celebrate their accomplishments with them when they return from their mission.  He reminds them that their names are written in heaven!  They already belong and their status before God is indelibly marked forever, whether they are successful or not.
The Good Samaritan story is one of the most well known of Jesus' parables, found exclusively in Luke 10.   It is a response to a legal test.  Jesus is asked what are the limits of one's obligations as a law-abiding citizen.  They question "Who is my neighbor" is also "Who is not by neighbor?' What are the boundaries of one's moral obligations?  Who resides outside of those boundaries?  Is it OK to avoid or ignore the needs of certain others?  The parable requires 1st century ethnic bias to understand the fullness of its meaning.  Samaritans and Jews were not neighborly.  There was tension, enmity, between them.  (Think Democrats and Republicans).  Samaritans were not considered good people.  It pains me to write this.  Because Jesus has to exploit this bias to make his point.  One is required to show mercy to anyone who needs mercy.  Period.  The Samaritan does not only have empathy and provide first aid to a victim of a violent roadside robbery.  He spends his own money, solicits the assistance of another person, and promises to repay any expense.  We do not know the impact he makes, whether the injured man lives.  I wonder, however, if Jesus was once that injured man.  Is this a personal story?  Is that why Jesus is antagonistic toward the religious, temple leaders and sympathetic toward outsiders?  Was he rescued by a Samaritan?
And what of the Mary and Martha story?  Another example of what the Jesus community is about.  Not about busyness, activity, or even hospitality.  Called to listen, to learn, to  a posture of receptivity.  Guests in a host culture.  What can we learn from our neighbors?  How can we show mercy toward our neighbors?  How can we bring fruitfulness to our neighborhoods?  How do we build communities of mercy and welcome that overcome our biases and prejudices?  Practice.  Go and do.  Act mercifully.  Practice.  That is the way to be on the way. 
So, here's the simple plan of action for Jesus' followers: Look for the pain. Find a partner. Go together. Travel lightly. Bring peace. Give generously. Be supportive. Don't judge those who sit one out. Love your neighbor as yourself.
         

Advent 2. December 9. Luke 9

https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+9 (click the link to continue the story).

It has become clearer, that Luke's work is not only about Jesus but about the people around him---his questioning opponents, his curious students, and his needy neighbors.  Chapter 9 is a transitional chapter.  John is dead.  Jesus is at the height of his popularity.  And his public work has been identified as the work of God, the prophet, or the Messiah--the divinely anointed King of Israel.  But we also see Jesus handing over his work to his disciples.  We hear him talk about losing one's life, taking up the cross, following him toward death.  His mission is changing from giving life to others to accepting death from and for others.  He is resolute and laser-focused on his mission, his vocation, his life purpose.  He has been divinely identified and called as God's chosen messenger.  Nothing will prevent him from fulfilling his duty.  He exemplifies a passionate obedience to God.       
Here we see Jesus on the move, in large crowds, among his handful of disciples, and in prayer.  He is handing over responsibility for his mission and activity to the disciples--sending them ahead to heal and proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.  This good news or evangelium is a direct counter-narrative to the imperial news that would have dominated the headlines. The emperor, his army, his exploits, his wealth, his activities always dominates the news cycle.  It seems that Jesus' activity is at least heard by the local leadership (Herod Antipas).  Herod is intrigued by Jesus, as he was by John.  He does not like to be publicly shamed by a loud prophet or publicly overshadowed by the good works of an itinerant Jewish preacher. 
Jesus' disciples are supposed to imitate Jesus, doing what they have seen and heard him do and say.  But they are easily intimidated by large hungry crowds or the demonic behavior of a young man.  Once again, Jesus suggests that faith, or the lack of it, prevents the disciples from acting with power.  Faith is the key to unlocking the power of God among them.  Jesus' faith does not leave room for competition or for dismissive attitudes toward children, certain ethnic others, hungry crowds, or discouraged fathers.  He has a quick retort for anyone who will prevent him from acting with consistent, compassionate concern for those who encounters on the way.  And that is the things about him.  He is integrated and consistent in his dealings with those he encounters on the road.  From the least to the greatest, he sees people as they are.  Their individual selves.  Not as a group to dismiss.  He sees people, especially those society wants to make invisible.   
 We hear a story of Jesus' on the mountaintop, alongside Moses and Elijah.  He takes his place among the great liberator and law-giver and the great prophet.  Both of them encountered God on the mountain and brought the Word of God down with them to the people in both actions and words.  Jesus stands in their midst.  But they are observed by Peter, James, and John.  These three stand in contrast to the great men of God.  And yet they are present on the mountain.  They are bearers of the vision and hearers of the voice.  Jesus is glorious and humanly vulnerable.  And he invites friends, people, to walk with him.  he does not operate alone.  He forms a community. 
To follow Jesus faithfully is to surrender, to abandon one's own pursuits, and to journey on toward God in a community of sojourners.  Feeding hungry people, healing and liberating people, welcoming children, and drawing near to God in mountaintop experiences are all part of discipleship.  Prayer is not so much conversation as a kind of personal intimacy with God or knowing closeness.  A sense that God is near.  Jesus has this kind of faith and it powers his life's work.  May it power yours and mine, too.         

Advent 2. December 8. Luke 8

https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+7 (click on the link to continue the story)
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Jesus proclaims and brings the kingdom of God.  Another way to think of this is that Jesus lives his faith in God in his behavior, thoughts, words, and actions.  As such, he has students, disciples who are learning this kingdom of God way of life. 
Who follows Jesus?  Women. Men.  "Sinners".  People who are struggling with "Demons". 
Parables are stories that point toward something hidden, kind of like analogies or metaphors.  Then parable of the sower is an observation, not a prescription.  Jesus observes that some people are more receptive to God's Word in their lives.  There are many things that can prevent us from hearing, receiving, and embracing faith in God.  Worries of life.  Darkness and evil in the world.  Pain and suffering.  Faith is a kind of rootedness, a connectedness to God. 
Faith is a relationship.  He says, my mother and brothers--my family---are those who hear and do God's will. 
Faith endures life's storms with an abiding sense of peace, rest, surrender.  Jesus literally surrenders to the storm, trusting that God will protect and save them. 
Faith confronts the demons of society, facing the death-dealing darkness that they create.  And there are many demons!  Violence.  Addiction.  Prejudices.  Jesus confronts these demons and orders them to release the one who suffers. 
The story at the end of the chapter is a sandwich of two stories that reinforce each other.  This is a story about God's unconditional love for women and girls---a revolutionary idea for a patriarchal society that largely blamed women for the sins of the world.  (Eve being responsible for Adam's sin.)   Faith in this story is trust in God for healing, trust in God for comfort in a time of grief and loss.  Faith gives us hope when things seem bleak, unbearable, and impossible. 
Jesus shows us that God is able and willing to reach us, connect with us, serve and help us, heal and give life to us.  It is not God's absence that brings darkness in the world.  It is our blindness, our corruption, our distracted minds.  God is always near, always willing to give.  Are we open to God's generosity?   
     

Advent 1. December 7. Luke 7

https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+7  (Click the link to continue the story).

White Synagogue, Capernaum, Israel

Jesus heals the slave of a soldier, because Jesus understands how power and authority work. It is not to be used selfishly, or abused for selfish purposes.  Power and authority comes with responsibility.  In this story, a slave is ill and the Centurion seeks Jesus for help.  He goes to Jesus on behalf of another, his slave.  More than recognizing Jesus' power and authority, the soldier uses his power to acquire health care for his slave!  And Jesus heals the slave because the soldier understands that power is best used to serve the vulnerable.  This is a story about advocacy and justice, as the Centurion sought care for his slave.  Slavery is always wrong.  But in this case we see that a vulnerable and weak slave is supported by a powerful soldier (commander of 100 men).  Power is to be shared to lift up those suffering at the bottom of the human pyramid. 
And again Jesus demonstrates this use of power by raising a widow's dead son to life.  In so doing, he restores her life and her support system.  This story is also similar to the story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath.  (1 Kings 17:17-24). Luke he aligning Jesus' ministry with the prophet Elijah.  It was said that Elijah would return to prepare the way for the Messiah to come.  Could Jesus' acts be a sign that Messiah was coming soon?  Or could they be acts of the Messiah himself?  Disciples of John the baptist go to Jesus to ask him, while John is in prison.  Jesus tells them to tell John what they see and hear.  Good news for poor; healing for the sick; recovery of sight for the blind; the dead are being raised.  These were all signs of God's powerful presence in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Surely, Jesus is enacting the words of promise recorded in the Hebrew Prophets---words that suggested that God's power would come to save, to heal, to forgive, to restore life.  And Jesus was embodying these words in his actions. 
Luke has Jesus talk about John as a way of talking about himself.  John is not the messiah, though some thought he was.  He suggests that John is the messenger sent to prepare the way of the LORD.  John prepared for another.  And where John fasted, Jesus feasts.  A party has begun with Jesus, because with him God is acting. 
Finally, the chapter ends with Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee.  A woman kisses Jesus' feet, bathes them with her tears, and anoints them with costly oils.  Simon chastises Jesus for allowing a sinful woman to do such a thing to him.   But Jesus sees her differently.  He sees her as someone who is in need of love and forgiveness in her life, not scorn and ridicule.  The one who is forgive much loves much, Jesus says.
 
In this chapter we see Jesus healing sick neighbors, forgiving sins, raising the dead, and responding to questions.  He is demonstrating his power as the son of God. And he is reminding us that we can go to Jesus with our shame, with our concern for others, with our grief, with our envy, with our questions and doubts, our wonder and hopes.   We can ask Jesus to heal and expect that he will.  We can ask Jesus to carry our grief.  We can ask Jesus for forgiveness and love.   

Advent 1. December 6 Luke 6

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+5 (Click on link to continue the story)

Today is St. Nicholas day.  Nicholas Bishop of Myra was a fifth century Christian legendary for his generosity to the poor, especially to children.  His legend grew into Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas.  In many places in the world, today is the day when Christians exchange gifts in celebration of Christmas. 

One of the core teachings or principles of Judaism is that God created the Sabbath day of rest for all of creation to be restored weekly, annually, and cyclically.  Sabbath-keeping was and is a significant mark of the Jewish life.  Friday night sundown until Saturday sundown there are rules of prohibition and permission around what one can and cannot do, eat, etc...it is also the day for Jews to gather in the synagogue to hear the Torah, the teachings of the books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.)  These teachings include the Ten Commandments and all the other commandments, of which there are over 600 in the Hebrew Bible.  Some of these commands relate to treatment of the poor and of certain offerings from the fields to serve the hungry, poor, foreigner, widow and orphan. 
This chapter includes conflict around Sabbath keeping.  It also includes a core set of ethical teachings known as the sermon on the plain, because of where Jesus delivered them.  They are an abbreviated and edited version of the Gospel of Matthew's sermon on the mount (Matthew chapters 5-8). 
What are the most challenging of Jesus' teachings?  Which ones are the hardest to obey?  Do you think these are teachings for religious individuals or are they directed more broadly at a community, a group, or even a nation? 
We begin to hear parables, teachings of Jesus that are like analogies or metaphors.  Jesus points at a common reference, like a fruit tree, and suggests that people can be like that too. Good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit.  He suggests that one's behavior is a product of one's inner moral compass or inner thoughts.  As opposed to external dangers that corrupt us, the corruption is internal.  So too is the goodness.  Are Jesus' teachings black and white, clear cut, or do they seem a bit more grey and uncertain? 
The things he teaches about judgment and pointing the finger at others, criticizing or chastising another person is most interesting and relevant.  Jesus suggests that self-reflection and self-correction is the way to a transformed life and a better world.  Instead of attempting to correct others, to see their mistakes and flaws, we are commanded to look in the mirror.  This may be good advice in a time of deep mistrust and division among people.  We are suspicious and judgmental.  Hearing the teachings of Jesus might remind us that we all have inner work to do, in order to become bearers of good fruit. 

Advent 1. December 5. Luke 5.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+5 (Click on the link to continue the story)

When in your life have you felt most connected to God? When has God been close to you? When have you felt disconnected, that God is absent or far away? 
Location matters in Luke's story.  The locus of God's activity matters to Luke.  This story is a theography---not sure if that is a word, but I'll coin it here to describe this sort of writing.  Luke presumes God and is not arguing whether or not God exists. I think we can say that Luke is locating God within a particular place in time and space. 
In the ancient world, God was always somewhere else.  In heaven, on that mountain, in that holy temple or shrine.  God was inaccessible.  Above and beyond our human reach.  Out there.  God or the gods might affect the world, but God was not in the world.  Some people argue that God is not accessible because God does not exist.  Others may argue that God is beyond the limits of space and time and cannot be defined locally.  God is everywhere or in everything.  It was believed among the Jews that God had spoken to the ancient prophets---Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc...And that God had not spoken in a long time, centuries in fact.  And that the people were waiting for God to speak again, to act again in a sort of final and significant way to set right what was wrong with the world.  A primary location and presumed destination for God to speak and act was Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon.  The Jews believed this place to be the axis mundi, the center of the cosmos.  Other people believed other places on earth to be central places of divine revelation or activity.  God was somewhere.  And any real God was not fashioned out of clay or built by humans, but was somehow beyond our grasp or imagination.  An invisible, immovable force.  Luke, however, is telling us something strange and new about God's location and accessibility.     

Yesterday, Jesus ran into trouble in the local synagogue.  It seemed that his own religious community rejected him and his teachings.  He found no audience of acceptance there.  Perhaps he was too well known as "the son of Joseph the carpenter."  He couldn't be taken seriously as a prophet or one who speaks for God.   
But today we see Jesus on the beach, in a boat, on the street, and in a house.  In all of these places, he is received with amazement.  He invites ordinary people, fishermen and tax collectors, to follow him and become his disciples, learning to practice his way of life.  These people were not scholars or privileged people, but working people struggling to sustain their households.  They follow him because they are invited.  You know how powerful an invitation can be.  People want to belong, to join, to connect.  Connection matters. 
 
He begins to heal people of diseases that separate them, exclude them, and prevent them from living whole and productive lives.  In one personal account, a man suffering with leprosy says to Jesus, "If you choose, you can  make me well."  And Jesus says, "I do choose.  Be made well."  Jesus chooses connection and healing instead of detachment and perpetual illness.  Isn't it true that these things are related?  Personal connection and healing?  People with healthier relationships are healthier overall, mentally and physically.  Again, connection matters. 
In another account he heals a paralyzed man by pronouncing that his "sins are forgiven."   This action is the role of the priest and the temple system.  It requires sacrifices prescribed by the biblical law.  You don't just give it away.  Sin is what necessitates religion.  Its what separates humans from God.  He hears opposition from religious scholars about this.  "No one can forgive sins but God alone."  This is their way of saying that God is not in that place or in the words of Jesus.  They reject the notion that God is somehow present and active in such a personal and immanent way.  God must be mediated through temples and rituals and priests.  God is not proximate, touchable, or close.  God is transcendent, somewhere else.  Jesus is saying something else and what he is saying is confirmed by a paralyzed man standing up and walking out.  He is calling the sick, the sinner to a new way of life. 
Finally, Jesus turns to two analogies to describe his actions:  the arrival of the bridegroom to a wedding feast and new wine. A joyful celebration is underway, full of goodness and love and sumptuous eating and drinking!  Wherever Jesus is, there is a party, a moveable feast!  Could this be a sign that God is present and active with Jesus---on the beach, in a boat, on the streets, in a house?  God is located where God is needed, sought.  In ordinary people experiencing hardship and struggle, exclusion and disconnection.  God is located in healing, forgiveness, and invitation to belong.  Because connection matters. 

Tomorrow, chapter 6: Sabbath, Prayer, and Wisdom.  

Advent in the Word. December 4. Luke 4.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+4  (Click the link to continue the story).

Temptation in the Wilderness, Briton Riviere

Its never easy to confront someone with whom you disagree.  Few of us truly love conflict. At some point conflict is inevitable, even necessary, and often with those we love.  It is even more difficult to confront yourself when you are conflicted by a difficult decision.  Sometimes we are caught between a rock and a hard place--- damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Sometimes we have to choose between self-care and self-sacrifice.  Do I give that person the money or not?  Do I offer to help again or not?  We may ask ourselves along the way, "What's in it for me?"  Have you ever quit something or walked out of a relationship because it wasn't feeding your or scratching your itch or giving you what you needed or wanted?  Sometimes we make the selfish choice.  And most of us hope to avoid conflict with others.  I have personally experienced abandonment by people I thought were my friends.  It has felt as if I was used or bled or eaten until the other was full or found another way to get what they needed or wanted.  I have experienced much loneliness as a result.
Luke 4 is a narrative of personal and familial conflict, in which Jesus is both the instigator and recipient of opposition.  There is a 40-day journey in the wilderness that mimics the stories of Moses, Elijah, and the liberated Israelite slaves in the Hebrew bible.  This is meant to be a formative experience of self-surrender and utter reliance on God for sustenance. At the end of it, he is hungry.  At that moment Jesus is tested.  He is tested to use his status and power to serve himself, and acquire and consume for himself. Jesus refuses to use his status to sustain himself. Then he is tested to take a bribe to promote and advance his rule as Messiah.  Finally, he is invited to test God's faithfulness and love by jumping off a high peak and expecting God to save him from harm.  We notice that the way the devil seeks to gain access to Jesus and undermine his sense of self is through hunger first.  Then it is through lust for power.  Finally it is through a misreading of scripture's promises or a flawed theology, for it is patently false to assume that personal risk-taking and subsequent injury signifies God's lack of care for you.  You can't fault God for the law of gravity when you break a leg jumping off your roof.  Notice the devil knows God's Words.  Self-reliance, quid pro quo, and unrealistic denial of human vulnerabilities test us every day.   It may be, however, that in the wilderness moments of our lives God is more present to us than we acknowledge.  When we are weakest, most vulnerable, most lost to ourselves God is there. 
I suspect this encounter was more of an inner conflict that Jesus is resolving within himself about his identity and its implications for his life in community.
And we see what that looks like in the rest of the chapter.  From synagogue to street, from Nazareth to Capernaum, Jesus is facing expectations and assumptions.  His own neighbors assume that his inspired words and actions are for them, because of them, intended to them. He belongs to them and they get to decide what they will accept from him.  And they should expect him to treat them with deference, privilege, and advantage.  He challenges them with two ancient stories about God's prophets being sent by God to serve outcasts and enemies, when the same needs were found in Israel.  Jesus suggests that he is also sent to the outcast and enemy, despite their own needs.  And as a result he becomes one, cast out of the synagogue and chased out of his hometown.  He'll never return there.  The demons verbalize a response to Jesus.  Have you come to destroy us?  Perhaps he has.  He has come to destroy our resistance to God, our insistence on our own way, our insatiable appetite for more, our desire to control the outcomes, our desire to control the story, our fast abandonment of people when we are disappointed or don't get what we want, our isolating self-reliance, and our denial of how vulnerable we all are.  Transactional power is often imbalanced and dangerous.   Jesus confronts our desire to avoid pain, discomfort, inconvenience, hunger. He confronts those who experience a privileged status because of ethnicity, race, gender, or economic status.  We may not have seen it coming in the beginning, but it is becoming clear that Jesus---inspired and sent--- may bring conflict, confrontation, and challenge to us.  When Jesus speaks, a confrontation happens. How will we resist, oppose, reject, or avoid him?  What might it look like and feel like to embrace the conflict within us and follow Jesus? 

Tomorrow, Luke 5.  Jesus invites us to walk.   


   
               

Advent in the Word. December 3. Luke 3.

http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=190196762 (Click on the link to continue the story)

Judean wilderness

What needs to change for the world to be more like heaven?

This story takes place in 29 AD.  More importantly, Luke names all of the major political and religious leaders of the day again.  (Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire from 14 AD to 39 AD. Pontius Pilate was procurator from 26-36 AD).  Luke does this to orient the story in history and to give this story and its characters significance.  What John and Jesus do here is happening under the noses of these world leaders.  Both Pilate and Herod, named in the beginning of the story, will have direct ties to the main characters.  Caiaphas, the high priest, will also play a role as the story unfolds.  But Luke's point is precisely that God is acting within history and on behalf of the oppressed members of society and not the ruling class.  God is not in the imperial courts in Rome or in palaces or temples, but in the wilderness with John and Jesus!

Here, we are reintroduced to John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  He is in the Judean wilderness.  He is preaching.  He is baptizing people into repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  People are visiting John there, hungry for a message from God, for truth telling, for an invitation to a changed life.  People who are aware of their own brokenness and vulnerability go to John for cleansing.  John is a voice crying out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord." This is a reference to the Hebrew prophet Isaiah.  (See Isaiah, chapter 40). He is inviting and challenging people to a higher moral life under oppression.  Soldiers and tax collectors, aligned with the Roman empire, come to John.  He is not just attracting religious types.  In fact, the religious Jews are comfortable in their identity as Abraham's children.  They belong to God.  What more ought they to do?  John is challenging them to have a faith perspective, to see the world differently.  He is challenging them to see that the current system is broken and must be destroyed.  Those who benefit from the system must divest from it.  They must bear fruit worthy of repentance  That is their pubic actions, their productivity as active leaders and participants in the world must show that they have changed in ways that align with the values of the biblical God.  The strict adherence to the law of Moses requires an economy of shared resources, not competition in which there are winners and losers.  The rich and poor.  The book of Deuteronomy and its focus on social justice seems to play into the mindset of the storyteller and into the words of John.  Repentance means to move from an unjust past into a more just future.  It is to reject allegiance to corruption and harmful acquisition.  Baptism in the Jordan is also a reenactment of God's people crossing the Jordan to enter the promised land after 40 years in the wilderness and 400 years of Egyptian slavery.  It is an act of defiant emancipation!           
John's message resonates powerfully with people.  But John is not the Messiah.  His work is preparatory, to make people ready for the Messiah to come.  John suggests that the Messiah will be more powerful, more dangerous, more challenging, more inspirational than he.  And that he is coming soon.  Then John is arrested.  We don't know why yet.  Could it be his message of repentance? 

Jesus is baptized.  While he prays the Holy Spirit like a dove comes to him and a voice says, "You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased."  He is identified and empowered to act as God's representative.
Then we have this ancestral chart.  The intent of the chart is to tie Jesus to Adam as son of...son of....son of...God.  Aren't we all sons or daughters of God, according to the bible?  Yes.  Precisely.  Jesus is a human being.  Like me and you.  And yet, the language "son of God" has political implications in ancient Rome.  According to Roman custom, the Emperor Augustus was considered divine or a god.  And Tiberius is his son!  The Emperor is Son of God!  Or is it Jesus?  A Jew in the Judean wilderness? Son of God?  This is a Messianic claim, a challenge to Roman imperial hegemony and power.  Who is more powerful, Rome or Jesus?  Is a battle beginning?  We will see.

From what must we be emancipated as the children of God?   

Tomorrow, Luke 4.  Tested.   

Advent in the Word. December 2. Luke 2.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+2  (Click the link to go to the story).

Roman coin denoting the divine sonship
status of Augustus

Here it is.  The Christmas gospel!  It starts with political history, who were the world leaders---both civil and religious.  This orients the story in time and gives it some historical significance.  Based on the references, historians suggest that the year was likely 4 or 6 BC.  (How could Jesus be born BC, "Before Christ"? Its likely that our calendar is a little wrong).   
Then we enter into a family story.  A forced migration for tax purposes brings the young, pregnant couple to the ancient town of Bethlehem---home of Israel's greatest King, David.  Placing this birth in this town gives it even more significance---a son of David is born, and therefore a future King of Israel.  Right under the noses of the Emperor Augustus, his rival is born, known only to insignificant shepherds.  They are the poor laborers in the fields, but also reminders to us that David was a shepherd.  This is ongoing confirmation that this birth is meaningful.  Just as David the shepherd was anointed King, so this child will be a King.  Messiah means anointed one.  And this baby is the Messiah.  Even oppressive imperial decrees serve God's purposes in this story. 
Angels sing about peace on earth and goodwill to all people---another suggestion that Roman peace and goodwill is insufficient and not of divine origin.  (Augustus Caesar was known as the divine son of God).  This newborn will usher in a new age of divine peace, unlike the Romans.  This is a political message hidden inside a birth story. A story that ties the baby to both God and royalty.
Faithful elders, prophets, seers, recognize this baby as God's savior.  We cannot fail to notice that a savior is needed when a people or nation needs to be saved.  This is a nation in trouble, oppressed, living in fear on the margins of existence.  Roman assimilation threatens to destroy whole cultures, religions, languages, traditions, holy places, and ethnic practices.  Judaism is both a religious faith and an ethnicity with traditions, laws and language.  All of this is threatened by Roman occupation.  Salvation means rescue from Roman imperialism and all that it means to Jewish life.  The Words of Simeon, "Now Lord let your servant depart in peace..."is one of the earliest hymns of Christian prayer for centuries, along with the songs of Zechariah (1:68-79), and Mary (1:46-55).  We can't underestimate these words spoken in the temple, the holiest place in Judaism.  It is considered the dwelling place of God.  God has acted on behalf of God's people through the birth of this child.  (Not unlike the birth of Moses or Samuel). This is the Nativity, the Christmas story, the birth of the Messiah.  Do you have a beloved Christmas carol?  "Away in a Manger" or "O Little Town of Bethlehem" or "Silent Night"?  The images are found here in Luke 2! 
Finally, we skip from birth in Bethlehem to eighth day circumcision in Jerusalem to a twelve year old boy in the temple.  Every way, he is fulfilling requirements of the Messiah.  Born in the right place at the right time, obeying the rules.  At age thirteen a Jewish boy becomes bar mitzvah, a son or practitioner of the commandments. Jesus is acting like this a year earlier.  It is a sign that he is preparing to be a disciple, a student of the Torah---the first five books of the bible and the core of Jewish teachings.  When he is twelve, his obedience to God makes him disobey his parents, since he fails to travel with them on their journey home.  "Did you not know that I must be in my father's house," he says.  What a strange kid!  He is not like the others.  He's different.  There is significance to this chapter.  It is simply layered with meaning, allusion, and connection---telling us that this birth is important.  Everything that happened here tells us that this child is born for a divine purpose.  But if he was, then so were Mary and Joseph.  So were Elizabeth and Zechariah.  So were those shepherds and Simeon and Anna.  Somehow his birth gives greater significance to all those named and unnamed in the story.  And by extension, perhaps his birth is significant to us.  And perhaps our births matter too.

Tomorrow, chapter 3.  The Baptist and the Son.        
       

Advent in the Word. December 1. Luke 1.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+1 (Click link to read passage)

This Advent we will read together the entire gospel of Luke, a chapter each day from December 1 to December 24.  We will hear the entire story of Jesus in a month. There is great storytelling in this gospel. I hope you will be inspired by what we read together. 

Today, we start at the beginning.  We will hear of two households. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph.  Both are visited by an angel, Gabriel, a messenger from God. Both respond to the messenger with questioning doubt.  Both will also sing a song of joy and triumph, of divine justice and mercy. An angel is a messenger from God. Have you ever received an angel or been one yourself?  Have you ever offered words of comfort, encouragement, hope, or promise to someone?    

This first chapter is all about expectations.  God’s people, Israel, expected a Messiah---an anointed King from the house of David, to rule Israel and bring about peace.  They expected this Messiah to battle and defeat the enemies of Israel, especially the Roman Empire who occupied their land, taxed the people, and exploited their resources and labor.  Israel waited for God to act decisively and powerfully on their behalf. For centuries, the people felt abandoned by God as they waited in silence for God to speak to them and act for them.  What are our expectations of God?  

Elizabeth and Zechariah are an older couple, childless, but faithful to God and one another.  Mary is a young woman, engaged to be married to Joseph. Both of these women will unexpectedly conceive and bear sons.  Both of these pregnancies are miraculous. The angel announces that it is God’s power at work in them. In the small and insignificant, God acts.  In unexpected and impossible ways, God moves us. This is a story of two sons. John and Jesus. Both with their own significance. Both with their own calling and purpose.  Both teachers.    

This is a story about people, ordinary people put in extraordinary and even dangerous circumstances.  It is a story about God acting in human families, showing up in homes and dreams. God acts through two brave women.  This is a story that may remind us of the story of the birth of Moses in Exodus chapters 1-2. Or the birth of Samuel in 1 Samuel 1 and 2.  Consider those stories as precedents to Luke and likely what he had in mind in his own storytelling.  

God answers the prayers and cries of God’s people.  God does come with power and with vulnerability. God comes into our humanity, filling us with God’s own self.  

Tomorrow, chapter 2.  Of shepherds and Emperors; infants and eldely folk.

Advent in the Word. Luke 1

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+1 (Click on link to view text)

Advent in the Word:  December 1. Luke chapter 1.

This Advent we will read together the entire gospel of Luke, a chapter each day from December 1 to December 24.  We will hear the entire story of Jesus in a month. There is great storytelling in this gospel. I hope you will be inspired by what we read together. 

Today, we start at the beginning.  We will hear of two households. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph.  Both are visited by an angel, Gabriel, a messenger from God. Both respond to the messenger with questioning doubt.  Both will also sing a song of joy and triumph, of divine justice and mercy. An angel is a messenger from God. Have you ever received an angel or been one yourself?  Have you ever offered words of comfort, encouragement, hope, or promise to someone?    

This first chapter is all about expectations.  God’s people, Israel, expected a Messiah---an anointed King from the house of David, to rule Israel and bring about peace.  They expected this Messiah to battle and defeat the enemies of Israel, especially the Roman Empire who occupied their land, taxed the people, and exploited their resources and labor.  Israel waited for God to act decisively and powerfully on their behalf. For centuries, the people felt abandoned by God as they waited in silence for God to speak to them and act for them.  What are our expectations of God?  

Elizabeth and Zechariah are an older couple, childless, but faithful to God and one another.  Mary is a young woman, engaged to be married to Joseph. Both of these women will unexpectedly conceive and bear sons.  Both of these pregnancies are miraculous. We think about families; those struggling with infertility and pregnant unwed, single teenage girls. God is in their lives. The angel announces that it is God’s power at work in them. In the small and insignificant, God acts.  In unexpected and impossible ways, God moves us.

This is a story of two sons. John and Jesus. Both with their own significance. Both with their own calling and purpose.  Both teachers. Both will follow a spiritual path. Both will invite others to join them.   Both will suffer violence. Stories about two people, two brothers, will come up throughout the gospel of Luke. Pay attention to them.

This is a story about people, ordinary people put in extraordinary and even dangerous circumstances.  It is a story about God acting in human families, showing up in homes and dreams. God acts through two brave women.  This is a story that may remind us of the story of the birth of Moses in Exodus chapters 1-2. Or the birth of Samuel in 1 Samuel 1 and 2.  Consider those stories as precedents to Luke and likely what he had in mind in his own storytelling.  Luke is riffing on some old tunes.

God answers the prayers and cries of God’s people.  God does come with power and with vulnerability. God comes into our humanity, filling us with God’s own self.  

Tomorrow, chapter 2.  Of shepherds and Emperors; infants and eldely folk.   

Cornerstones

On October 13, 1889 the first cornerstone of Zions Lutheran Church on Main Street in Akron, PA was laid.  83 years later, a new cornerstone was laid for a new building.  The old cornerstone was placed beside it.  These stones are the foundations of new buildings. Now they may represent the past, but then they symbolized a present and future hope. And that is what we are invited to see. 
Many changing, struggling, or dying institutions- like the church-cling to a nostalgic view of the past.  We remember and long for those halcyon days when our worship services were full of participants, our Sunday school classes full of kids, our staff and leaders full of energy and commitment.  Our institutional memory dates between 1965 and 1985, when many small mainline churches experienced the most growth and participation.  This is when baby boomers brought their families to church.  We forget that it was not always this way.  Consider that the first 50 years at Zion, communion was given and receive twice a year.  And for the first decade, the average number of communicants was 22 people.  The first 3 pastors over the first 20 years never communed more than 51 people.   The first two decades, the first three pastors baptized a total of 30 people.  They buried 26 people. 
Yes, Zions once had a worshiping attendance that exceeded 150 people, in the late 1970s and through the 1980s.  But declining worship attendance has been the pattern ever since then.  And I want to say, So What?  Zion has been many congregations over 130 years.  13 pastors, hundreds of people.  We are blessed to have a descendant of a charter member on our current church council.  Very few people here have institutional memories that preceed the 1940s.  Most of us who remain have memories of that golden age between 1965 and 1985.  I was born and raised in a Lutheran congregation during those years.  And I'm grateful for it. But those days are long gone.  We have to do the next thing, lay the next cornerstone, build the next church for our children and grandchildren.         
The church is at its best when it is taking risks, starting new ventures, planting and building something new.  Followers of Jesus live on the edge, on the margins, on the outer limit of institutional structures.  When we become stagnant managers of institutions, we avoid risk and ignore God's calling on us.  There is no call story in the bible that allows for the called person to keep on doing what they've been doing in the comfort of their own lives.  Abram and Sarai, Moses, Jonah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Mary, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Paul, Stephen, the disciples, the deacons, the evangelists and pastors---all were called to leave and go; to surrender and follow; to trust and move; to die in the hope of resurrection promises. 
In my tenure as pastor, we have explored the edges within the comfortable confines of the congregation.  Peter's Porch has allowed us to make contact, to welcome and serve our neighbors---and especially those who struggle with food, housing, health, and financial insecurity. We have been a stable and caring presence for about a decade now, serving breakfast and clothing and food to the guests we welcome here once a month. 
Dinner Church has been the furthest we have traveled beyond ourselves.  And we have met Jesus in those people we have encountered along the way.  I will never forget parking lot baptisms during Peter's Porch or the brave testimonies we have heard from people struggling with addiction, suffering from abuse, searching for an identity, longing to belong.  I have seen Jesus gathered around a big table, rich with food, where strangers become family and all the voices are expected to be heard.  Those gatherings cannot happen with 50 people.  They are extended family size gatherings that are ideally between 20 and 40 people, including children and adults from three or more generations.  I have written about and practiced dinner church for four years.  I believe in micro-churches; small, relational, mission-focused communities that gather with intention for spiritual connection. 

I think large congregations are important.  They can offer inspirational worship, lots of resources, a well- trained and gifted staff, and many learning opportunities.  But anonymity is rarely transformative and large congregations struggle to build caring, sustaining relationships.  They have to work hard to create more intimate experiences for people to get connected to one another. Big churches have to figure out how to create small churches within themselves.  This is because the heart and soul of church is a small group of people struggling to follow Jesus, encourage one another, do justice and serve humbly together.  Jesus did not recruit 5,000 hungry people.  Jesus recruited the 12 disciples.  And he sent them to feed those hungry people.  Some of them followed and shared and practiced and embodied his teachings.  Most ate the bread and went home.  I am personally focused on finding followers. And I think more Christian leaders should be.  Many people are not interested in large churches.  Too structured, too hierarchical, too consumeristic, many people want a more personal and relational community of faith and love.  Rather than financially manage and maintain a building, some people will connect to smaller gathering spaces.  House churches are emerging as an alternative to larger congregations.  We don't have to build new buildings to be the church.  But we can't be the church if we don't build new relationships through which people come to encounter Jesus and experience God's powerful grace. 
Cornerstones may also be new ideas.  A new way of being the people of God.  What are we building together?  What must be torn down to make way for the next thing God is calling us to do?  What if we joined forces with a large congregation (St. Paul Lutheran, Lititz) in order to become the church meeting on the edges?  What if we were the ones to start house churches and dinner churches and Peter's Porches in other places?  What if we risked the "stability" of weekly Sunday morning worship gatherings, in order to be on mission weekly? 
On Sunday, October 13th we will explore and envision our next cornerstone, even as we celebrate our first one.