Talitha Cum

A sermon preached on June 28th, 2015.  On  Mark 6;  raising Jairus' daughter, healing the bleeding woman

This has been a week of social change.  SCOTUS rulings on gay marriage and health care; confederate flags, the symbol of persistent and unrepentant racism, removed from southern capitols and Dukes of Hazzard merchandise.  Even Walmart has banned the flag, thus offending the innocent and ignorant who proudly flew her from the back of pickup trucks or wore her on Tshirts, hats, and boxer shorts.  The flag is only a symbol and we daresn’t believe that racism will go away as quickly as it has. However, it may be a sign of remorse, long-overdue repentance that finally got through to us when an historic black church---a place that stood for peace and justice and prayer---was the scene of violent death.  Rev. Pinckney and the 8 other innocent brothers and sisters who died there at the hands of an angry white man somehow broke the spirit of overt racism.  I believe a new day is dawning, a day Dr. King dreamed about. A day when freedom could be for all men, women, and children-regardless of race or sexual orientation.  A day when oppressed minorities could be free to prosper in safety.  I believe we are witnessing hope rising. 

But it is not easy. One person’s greatest blessing is another person’s curse.   History tilts and some people lose their balance.  The pace of change can be dizzying and provoke anxiety and fear.  We may feel as if we are thrown into chaos with no mooring, no anchor to hold.  This is why faith is necessary in challenging times such as these.

The two girls in this story are inextricably bound together by the storyteller and by the one who touches their lives on the same day.

One, a 12-year old daughter sick on the brink of death. Her father, a synagogue leader comes to Jesus and begs him to come and heal her.  Jesus goes willingly.  On the way, a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years crawls up behind him and touches his cloak.  If she could only touch him, his power would heal her,  she hopes.  She bleeds. She’s not a hemophiliac with a paper cut.  She’s a bleeding woman.  She is infertile, unclean according to the law, and therefore cursed.  She has been cast out of the synagogue, labeled as broken.  She can’t be cured.  God has abandoned her.  She has no one.  No family. No friend.  No husband.  No child.  No resources.  She spent all her money on health care that did nothing for her.  She is at the end of her rope and the end of her hope.  Her last and only hope is Jesus of Nazareth, a man who can heal. 

She distracts Jesus, interrupting his hasty journey to his friend Jairus’ home.  Who touched me?  The disciples couldn’t care less.  Everyone touches Jesus.  Move on master.  There isn’t time.  But he stops.  And looks around.  Who touched me?  And there she is, on the ground.  Crying.  It was me.  I’m sorry, Lord. I needed you.  He takes her hand and lifts her up.  Daughter, your faith has healed you. He claims her when no one else would claim her.  He touches her when no one else would touch her.  He sees her and hears her when no one else would see and hear her.  Her lets her in, this one who had been left out to bleed to death.  After 12 years of suffering, she is free to live.  Thanks be to Jesus.

Too late.  Jesus is too late.  Death has come and taken the girl.  He cannot heal her now.  Do not fear, only believe.  He says.  He goes in and touches the girl.  Talitha cum.  Little Girl, Rise. Ad she sits up. Feed her, he says. Maybe she was only sleeping as he suggested.  Maybe she’s just hungry, underfed., malnourished.  Maybe she was a diabetic who needed a little sugar in her blood.  Jesus knows.  What we see and hear is mourning turned into joy.  Despair turned into elation.  Death reversed and life restored.

Women were inferior to men.  They had value, but they were inferior.  They were household servants and bearers of children, hopefully boys. A daughter was a burden, a blessing and a curse.  All daughters of Eve were cursed for their disobedience.  Misogyny and the abuse of women persists.  Women are still treated as inferior to men, though much has changed in the last 100 years.  Jesus acknowledges their value, their beloved status as daughters of God when it was culturally unnatural an unpopular to do so.   Jesus pours himself out as a servant to women.  Because Jesus is for those who are deprivileged, marked as cursed, abused, abandoned, and bleeding on the street.  Jesus’ actions are personal and systemic, as he selectively heals those at the bottom of the human pyramid lifting up the lowly, the weary ones, the poor and dispossessed. He is setting the world right-side up.  It’s just that those who stood in their feet are now standing on their heads.     

We are called to celebrate today. Jesus healed a woman and raised a girl to life. There is hope.  It’s not too late for this world to change. Discrimination and prejudice can die.  Love can overcome.   One daughter at a time. A little faith breaks the curse and opens the way to new and abundant life.  We see the new creation, the kingdom of God breaking in.  We are anchored to Jesus, the source of new life and freedom.  We are the church, called to enact his compassionate justice for our neighbors.  Let us do so with boldness and abandon.  For we will do nothing good that he has not already done.  He endorses and anoints and ordains us as his representatives, sent to heal and forgive and give life where there is suffering and death.  We can stop the bleeding and lift them up.  For we are children of GOD.  Amen.        

          

Scattered and Sown

DWELL

He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,  and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."

             He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?  It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;  yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it;  he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples."  Mark 4

REFLECT

Scattered and sown---these verbs describe how the Kingdom of God moves into our lives.  Sowing is a bit more intentional than scattering, though they have the same effect, right?  Some sort of growth, reproduction, multiplication, and maturation. Tiny, buried seeds germinate and grow into visible plants that grow and produce fruit and habitat and more seeds!  Germination takes time.  One waits to see if the seeds that were sown or scattered will emerge.  And then they do.  With water, soil, sun, and a little time. 

IN my garden the first plants to emerge this year were pumpkin plants, all over the garden.  As if I’d tossed pumpkin seeds everywhere.  Countless pumpkin sprouts popped up.  Thing is, I didn’t plant them.  I didn’t sow or scatter them, really.  What we did was toss our pumpkins onto the garden in the Fall.  We toss yard autumn leaves and other yard waste in there for composting.  So, in a sense I did scatter seeds.  As the pumpkins rotted, the seeds fell into the ground and spent a harsh winter there.  Dormant. Lifeless.  And then, the spring sun and rains came. I cleaned up the composted garden, removed the remaining pumpkins and added soil.  That’s all it took.  Now they grow.  We’re letting them grow.  Maybe this year we’ll grow our own pumpkin patch.  Right now they seem to be growing better than anything else we planted.  Scattered seeds will grow without intention, without work, without assistance.  It is the way of things.  Death and resurrection.  Burial and growth.  Seed and fruit.  The scattering of the seeds indiscriminately leads to a future harvest. 

Tiny seeds in the right conditions become plants with the DNA to mature and reproduce.  Mustard plants are not the tiniest, nor are they the biggest shrubs.  But they do spread.  Mustard spreads in a field, like mint.  Though we planted mint in our 4 X 4 raised beds, they jumped out and spread everywhere, invading the larger garden area, too.  You can’t control it.  It’s everywhere.  Mustard plants grow and spread and persist.  It’s hard to kill.  Just keeps on growing and moving.   

The Kingdom of God is like this.  It’s not an institution or a program or an organization with a board of directors.  It is not managed. Jesus suggests that His work ,words, and ways are being sown and scattered in a way that cannot be controlled or undone.  It’s already out there, like the pumpkin seeds in my garden.  His healing, his teachings, his powerful forgiveness are already being sown into the hearts and minds of people like you and me, who scatter and sow with our own lives, our own words and actions.  The church is like a farm or a garden plot or garden box.  It has good soil, starter seeds, a history of growth and reproduction.  But it is not the only place the seeds grow.  And, contrary to what so many are saying about the church, it is not dying.  Containers do not die.  The church is a container. That's all.  And sometimes not a very good container.  The church is not itself the Kingdom of God or the Word of God. It is, at best, vessel, instrument, container garden of faith.   2,000 years of the Spirit wind blowing the seeds of faith around the globe.  It’s not everywhere, though.  So the wind continues to blow.  This week I was a sower of Kingdom seeds in the lives of a family or two. I told them about God’s love for them, God’s promised provision for them, God’s desire for them to be part of the family of God.  I listened to their story with empathy and compassion. They were grateful.  And I believe the kingdom of God broke into that household this week, the kingdom of God invaded the untilled soil of their broken hearts. They emailed me a note saying that out encounter may have restored some faith.  I don’t know how or when germination might take place.  I don’t know if I’ll see them to water the seeds.  But I trust the power of the Word to take root and grow in places we do not expect, with people who have never been in church or have left church behind.  So the good news is the growth of the church or the kingdom of God is not all up to us.  You can have great soil and a nice container for it, but without the seeds you have nothing.  So wasting efforts on the church building makes no sense if the seeds of Christ’s teachings are not planted there. 

Sown and scattered.  God has planted the DNA of the kingdom in you; they are the gifts of the spirit, faith and hope and love.  You are the seeds scattered and sown.  You are sown into a neighborhood, a school, a retirement community.  We have bee sown onto main Street in Akron.  God intends for you to visibly embody the life of Jesus where you live.  And scattered, the places you travel, the people you meet along the way, every journey and resting place is a place to scatter the seeds of faith.  May you be scattered and sown as the seeds of Christ’s love and may you plant the seed in others.  Amen.   

PRAY

Lord Jesus, your kingdom moves and grows and multiplies around us, through us, within us, in spite of us, and for us.  We see it and feel it and taste your forgiveness.  Scatter us like seeds that we might sow the word of salvation, the word of love and compassion every where we go.  Amen.     

Paralyzed

DWELL. Mark 2

When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven”, or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—he said to the paralytic— ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’

REFLECT

This is a healing story.  But it isn't the kind of healing story we think it is.  Most of them aren't.  Stories about healing in the bible are never just about a restored physical condition.  Truth is, there's no such thing.  our physical health is tied to our mental, emotional and spiritual health.    

The context is important, too.  We have a crowd listening to Jesus teach.  The room is full and the door is blocked.  No one else is getting access to Jesus.  There are people on the inside who have access and there are people on the outside who don't.  What's the difference? In that place, there was no handicapped access.  Mark tells us this for a reason. No one else is getting in to see Jesus.

Except for four persistent people who carry a paralyzed man to the house and lower him through the roof to Jesus' feet.  The clue that this healing is different is in Jesus' response to the presence of the paralyzed man.  he says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." This is not about a spinal chord injury or cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy or ALS.  These are terrible physiological diseases and injuries that can leave people paralyzed.  I think Mark is talking about a different sort of paralysis here.  A physical manifestation of a deeper, underlying condition at work in this man's life.   

1.  This is a story about the barriers and obstacles, the fear and doubt, that paralyze us and prevent us from living as Sons and Daughters of God.  Whatever psychologically and physically bound this man and held him down, it was preventing him from seeing and believing that he was a son of God with the power and authority of God in his life.  He could not stand on his own two feet.  What knocks people down and keeps them down? What prevents people from accepting the truth about themselves, that they are broken children of a loving and healing and forgiving God?  Forgiveness means to be set free from punishment.  Often, we punish ourselves with shame and guilt and self-hatred and envy.

All of us feel paralyzed, stuck, trapped, sometimes.  With no control, no power.  We lie down.  We give up.  We doubt ourselves.  

2.  None of us gets anywhere alone.  Friends, a community of caregivers, bear us up and go with us.  They surround us and keep us moving.  They fight for access and for healing on our behalf.  When we are paralyzed, others have to lift us up and do our walking and working for us.  And there are times when we are called on to lift and carry and walk and dig and go first in order to break down walls and move communities into compassion.  Name four people in your life who support you and lift you up.

3. The life God intends for us is accessible, despite the barriers and challenges, and closed doors we might face.  We persevere together.  I believe that this is church.  A people who are sometimes paralyzed and sometimes on the move together, seeking the life God intends for all of us, seeking to live into our truest, best selves.  The church is an empowerment movement toward Jesus, the one who forgives us enough to become more and more like him--authentic Son of God.   

4.  Too often, church looks like the closed door gathering of religious types hanging around Jesus, hoarding attention and witholding mercy, while those who need access to God's mercy lie outside without acknowledgement or a sense of power. More and more people have been denied access to God through the church.  Church has become barrier, instead of conduit.  Some of us know what that means.  We have experienced neither the forgiveness that sets us free and builds us up nor the empowerment that gets us moving toward God and the world at the same time.  That is the movement for those who accept the teachings of Jesus.  One moves closer to God and one moves deeper toward the world God made.  Access to God is never denial of the world.  We relearn what it means to live as human beings in and for the world God made and loves with such a costly and generous love. 

Let's become the church that brings the paralyzed to Jesus.  Let's be the church that provides full and complete access to God for those who seek it.  Let's be the church that lifts up those who are paralyzed and bear them to Jesus, the source of all healing and freedom.

What do you need to let go of, forgive, be free from, in order to get up and be more fully and completely the person God intends for you to be? What prevents you from embracing your true identity as an empowered child of God with a mission in this life to bring about the Kingdom/peaceful and just rule of God in this present place and time?  What would Jesus say to you, if you were on that mat? 

PRAY

Jesus, forgive our sins and free us to follow you. Amen.

    

    

Lepers---Addicts---Jesus

DWELL.  Mark 1, continued

A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

REFLECT

You cannot read the gospels without bumping into undesirables.  These are people we would rather avoid, if possible.  You may be thinking of those people right now.  They may have a different skin color than you do, or tattoos on their skin.  They may have marks on their skin from drug use.   They may live in dirty apartments in a part of town you will not travel.  They may be members of your own family.  They may have a chronic illness or addictions we cannot heal.  They may be schizophrenic or bipolar.  There are people around you that you naturally avoid because you are afraid of them.    

IN our story, Jesus encounters a leper.  Leprosy is a skin disease, considered contagious enough to require isolation from the general population.  People with the illness were sentenced to a life in a colony with other lepers.  The conditions were inhumane.  And sometimes, people were sentenced to this life with a misdiagnosis.  Nevertheless, the process of lawful return to general society required proper examination and evaluation by experts.  If the examiner, a priest, found you to be clean of the disease, you were expected to dutifully thank God and fulfill Jewish law by making proper temple sacrifice.  It was possible to be restored to community,unless you were found unclean by the priest.  This system of public health was also a system of social control.  Keep the undesirables out of the general population, so the rest of us do not get infected.  So we lock up the young black men and the poor white heroine addicts.  We still institutionalize the undesirables when we can.

But Jesus was moved with pity by an undesirable leper.  To be moved with pity is to feel pain in the gut for someone else.  Jesus identified with this man's suffering so much that he felt pain. 

This man knew that someone with authority in the broader community had to recognize him and declare him clean (healthy enough to return to the community as a full member again).  He needed a compassionate priest.  But he would accept the word of a rabbi known to heal sick people.  Jesus sends him off to regain his life in the world.  Follow the rules, but don't wait any longer.  Jesus gives this man a key to reentry.  And like an infectious disease, Jesus' work begins to spread rapidly. Because the leprous man is clean and free.  Because neither Jesus nor anyone else could quarantine him, silence him, keep him out of the public. God had touched him and he had to infect others with this news.  Jesus becomes ground zero in a new infection that threatens to change the DNA of every human being touched by him.  It is the DNA of inclusion and compassion and healing.  It is the DNA of mercy and hope and faith. Jesus gives the leper access to God and God's family in a way that the religious leaders of the day refused to offer. Its easier to maintain the status quo.  Lepers stay lepers. But Jesus sees deeper than the skin.  Jesus sees a person in pain, a beloved child of God.  Like himself.  

 When we recognize what is undesirable about ourselves and we let Jesus close to us, we experience a sense of restoration.  And it spreads when we bring the cleansing power of compassionate connection to others, especially those who are considered undesirable.  

Who are the cast offs, the outcasts, the marginalized in your community?  Who is labeled unworthy of compassion and love?  Who is disposable?  What hoops does the system make people on the bottom of the pyramid jump through to gain access to health and community?  

I suspect heroine addicts and those battling mental illness are high on the list of undesirable cast offs in our society.  I also suspect that Jesus suffers with them.  I have met many families isolated by the poverty that threatens them and prevents them from accessing the things they need to live complete lives.  Following Jesus means to go to these neighbors with compassion, pain in our hearts and in our guts, in order to reconcile with them.  To be disciples of Jesus means to meet the "undesirables" and offer them healing and hope through compassionate engagement.  We offer people access to a life with God and God's family, a life of full inclusion and hope for the future.  We walk in the same authority as Jesus did and we say to those who have been denied access, "Come inside.  There's room here for you, too."    

PRAY 

  Lord, help me to acknowledge my own "leprosy" and seek you out for healing.  Help me to have compassion for those who have been marginalized and exiled from a healthy community life. Amen.   

  

  

    

Kairos Time and the coming of the Kingdom of God

DWELL Mark 1. part 2

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.  As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen.  And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

REFLECT

Jesus picks up John's message of life-altering faith in God.  John has been arrested.  What risk is Jesus taking by following in John's path of public leadership?  

The time is fulfilled.  Kairos time is upon them; this is a moment of crisis, change, challenge, invitation into something new. Kairos time is when we become most vulnerable and most open to God's intervention or invasion in our lives.  Can you think of a recent Kairos time, when things in your life changed to such a degree that you began to wonder about the meaning of it?     

Jesus recruits fishermen to become his students and he begins his work.  His work is confrontational and authoritative.  He confronts powerful enemies of God at work within the religious community. Notice, it is not the Roman Empire he takes on, but the synagogue,  Change begins at home in one's own heart, within one's own family and tribe.  He is recognized by the enemy as "the holy one of God" sent to destroy their power.  I suspect this demon held the synagogue hostage to a way of thinking about God and their own situation that left them paralyzed and powerless.  How often do the voices of reason and order and control tell us to avoid change or challenge because of fear of the unknown?  Fear of change impedes our progress toward a better world.  Religious people can get stuck in their traditions and rules and boundaries in unhealthy ways, cutting people off from the life-saving help of God.  Churches have too often demonized those outside their ranks while failing to see and address the demons among them.  

Jesus is shown as a healer, whose intention is to set people to rights so that they can perform their God-given service.  Healing is always for the building up of the whole community. Healing allowed Simon's mother-in-law to perform her vocation as servant provider for those who gathered.  She fed the men.  We can view this as sexism or we can see this as a restoration of her body so that she might participate in God's work.  Everyone has a part in the kingdom movement unfolding with Jesus. 

Jesus continues to heal crowds of people.  He gets involved.  He touches people.  He shows compassion  His public ministry is open, hospitable, and non-discriminatory.  And then he retreats.

Jesus prayed, because his work required that he understand God's mission, what God intended to do through him.  He prayed in the early morning, the darkness before the dawn.  His ministry symbolized this moment, as he confronted the demons of the human heart and mind holding people hostage to ways of thinking and acting that were not aligned with the heart and mind of God. Its always darkest before the dawn, they say.  Perhaps, that is the image Mark is conjuring up for us here.  There is darkness, suffering, brokenness, and abuse.  But now, anticipate light.  Be hopeful. What Jesus is doing is right and good and must be done. Now as much as then,

Jesus' work is a movement.  He is not stagnant.  He goes. The work of God is a movement among people to bring about peace, justice, and health. We must keep moving always toward the next neighbor.   This movement is nothing less than the in-breaking of the power of God, come in the flesh to heal and restore us.  

 What would you be willing to give up to follow this Jesus?  What about his work frightens you? Inspires you?  Confuses you? What needs to be healed in you?  What do you know about your neighbors? 

 

PRAY

Jesus, your kingdom comes through acts of compassionate mercy.  Call us out of fear and complacency and into a powerful movement of healing and restoration.  Show us how to embrace those around us who are suffering.  Open our hearts and minds to receive the good news:  God has come near us.   Give us hope for the journey of following you. Amen.  

       

Beginning

DWELL.  Mark 1.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,*
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

REFLECT

This story begins with two men.  Adult Jews in the first century world of Judea.  The Christ and the Baptist.  These were their titles or their vocations, not their names. This story is about one of these two men, the one called Jesus.  It is, we are told, good news.  An 'evangel' was a proclamation of divine goodness or blessing that came from the emperor. This word is here translated 'good news'.  But it is not news from or about the emperor in Rome, but about this man Jesus.    

In the first century world, the Roman Emperor had been declared the Son of God.  Supreme ruler with all authority, power, and status.  The Jews were an ancient ethnic/religious group with a long history of colonialism and oppression by powerful empires: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome had all reigned over Israel/Judah.  

The Jews' primary story suggested that the one creator God had also chosen them and liberated them from oppression in Egypt and in Babylon. God would always rescue them.  Their covenant relationship with God included a temple religious system of sacrifices and prayer, as well as a system of laws to obey in order to remain in right relationship with God.  A state of righteousness or justification, in which their obedience to God gave them access to God's divine protection and provision.  They believed that their God alone was supremely powerful and ruled over the earth from a heavenly throne.  They believed in a future time when God would liberate them from their oppressors and restore harmony and peace in creation.  They believed that God would send a leader, a ruler, an anointed King (Christ) to rule on earth as God's appointed representative. Their ancient holy men, the prophets, spoke about the present age of injustice and wickedness, the wrath and punishment of God, and the hope of a new day that would dawn for God's people.  The prophets' suggested that their suffering under oppressive rulers was the divine consequence of their own unfaithfulness to God.  These people believed the words of their prophets and hoped with expectation for a day of liberation and peace.  This story is about their hopes and expectations. 

John drew people to the Judean waters of the Jordan River for a ritual cleansing of the body in preparation for God's decisive action of liberation and restoration.  Repentance means a change of one's mind. John invited them to think differently about their circumstances.  Their God had not forgotten them.  Their God intended to rescue them again.  This Baptism of repentance was a sign that they were in bondage to sin and that God had forgiven them.  Their external bondage and suffering was directly related to their internal, spiritual bondage.  They needed to be liberated on the inside, in order to be free on the outside.  They were prisoners to their own dark hearts and minds. Sin is more than immorality or unholy behavior.  It is a state of separation from God and from our truest, best selves.  It is the opposite of peace. And it is the cause of much suffering. 

John announced that a person was coming, a person whose power and authority comes from the creator God---whose life-giving power was called the Holy Spirit.  

When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit (power/life-force of God) announces that he is the one chosen by God to lead and liberate these people.  This same Spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness, where egos are broken by the limits of mortality. The wilderness is where we see our worst and our best selves emerge.  Our true identity is shaped by wilderness experiences (hardship, struggle, pain, loss, etc...you know it).  We get to choose who we will be.  Jesus experiences both angels and demons there.  As do we.  

From the beginning, we know this will be a story of conflict and confrontation between the visible powers of this world and the invisible power of the creating God.  Who is the Son of God?  Who is really in charge?  We know this will be a story about internal, personal change and external transformation.  We know this will be a story about identity: what it means to be human, what it means to be free, what it means to be good, what it means to be alive.  We know its a story about vocation:  What it means to be called, authorized to represent, to perform meaningful or life-saving work.  We know this is a story about Emperors and Christs (Kings anointed and appointed by and for God).  We know this is a story about power. And with power comes danger and threat.  The story of Jesus is NOT gentle, comforting, and easy.  But it is good.     

What power do you have?  How is power used and/or abused by people?  Who is powerful?  Who are the powerless?  Are there things, systems, ideas, circumstances you'd like to change but feel powerless to do so?  Where does power come from?    

PRAY

Creator God, we dare to believe that you have spoken to ancient peoples and to us as inheritors of their stories.  Help us to see, hear, and know the power that gives life.   Amen.  

Appointed

DWELL. Luke 10:1-17

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

REFLECT

At the heart of the 1st century Jesus movement was direct, personal engagement with people in their homes and communities.  Notice that Jesus and his followers do not employ any attractional, entertainment practices to drum up interest in the gospel.  Notice they do not launch a new worship experience that will reach a targeted "unchurched" demographic.  Notice that the direction of the movement is not centripetal (out to in), but centrifugal (in to out).  Notice they do not carry any personal baggage or bibles.  Egos and personal theological agenda are left behind.  The person of interest is the person they are about to meet.  The other is primary.  They take only their authentic selves and the Spirit of Jesus,their Rabbi, who has demonstrated what it means to be a child of God. His teaching in parables, his health care and feeding ministries, and his radical inclusion of those people who have been displaced, exiled, or ostracized characterize his gospel.  He eats and drinks with "sinners" (whores and drunks).  This is what he taught his followers to do.  And then he sends them ahead to the places he himself intended to go. To be appointed and sent is a call to apostolic service or ministry.  To be an apostle is to be sent to accomplish a particular mission or task on behalf of someone else.  What does this teach us? 

1.  He was intentional about where he sent them. They could not go beyond where he sent them.  He did not send them to places where he himself would not go.  If he wouldn't go there, neither should they.  This was a directed, strategic movement. 

2.  He sent them in pairs for safety, accountability, and support.  There were no lone rangers and no CEOs.  This was a partnership practice.  

3.  He sent them open and empty-handed, so that they might exhibit a posture of humility and need.  Not as dependents living off the handouts and good graces of others, but also not as independent, self-reliant contractors.  Their journey was uncomfortable and depended on their ability to build relationships with people of peace.

4.  He taught them the principle of seeking refuge with a "person of peace."  This is a person who accepts and receives the disciple, is interested in who you are and what you're doing, and is willing to serve you in some way.  A person of peace is open to the gospel.  It all starts with that person. 

5. They go with the authority and confidence of the master, representing his gospel as those he elected and sent to do so.  This authority is not going to be accepted everywhere. They will experience rejection.

6. He expects their return.  Their training is incomplete.  He continues to teach them as they put into practice what they have seen and heard.  When they succeed and when they fail, he has something to teach them.  

What might a Christian community be like, if this is what we did? Now, the Jehovah's witnesses and the Mormons employ a two-by-two, door-to-door sending model.  And for most Americans, door-to-door sales are ineffective, if not offensive.  I've rejected "missionaries"  and lawn care salesmen at my door. I've practiced neighborhood visitation ministry and experienced rejection.  So, does this model no longer work in our culture?  I think it can. To what and to whom is Jesus appointing us?  Tune in tomorrow for some thoughts on a 21st century apostolic movement and what it might look like.     

PRAY

Lord Jesus, you called, gathered, taught, and sent people into the field to harvest abundantly.  And when they went, they discovered a rich harvest of people longing for your word of grace and love and peace.  Prepare and Send us to seek out those around us who are waiting for your compassionate justice to overcome the powers of death.  Amen.    

The "One" Prayer

DWELL. John 17.

⁶I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  ⁷Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;  ⁸for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.  ⁹I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.  ¹⁰All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.  ¹¹And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.  ¹²While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.  ¹³But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.  ¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  ¹⁵I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.  ¹⁶They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  ¹⁸As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

REFLECT

The gospels record two prayers that Jesus prays.  The Lord’s prayer is recorded in Matthew and Luke.  Short, simple, repeatable, packed with meaning.  Sort of like a tweet.  I’m not saying that Jesus was the founder of Twitter.  The other prayer is John 17.  The entire chapter.  Its not short or simple or repeatable.  It is more like a rambling soliloquy than a prayer.  It is speech directed to the Father from the Son.  Sort of like a long letter or email.  How did the church inherit this intimate conversation? Whether or not these were Jesus' actual words, the importance is the message that it conveys to and for the church.    

In today’s portion of the prayer, Jesus prays for his disciples---the church.  And in the prayer he prays that the Father would protect them from the evil one, because they will be in the world.  He prays that God would not take them out of the world.  As I’ve said before, church is not an escape or evacuation plan for the faithful.  There are churches that create a kind of refuge or buffer between its adherents and the world. So that all they see and hear is "christian".  The anabaptist community around us demonstrates a kind of "in the world, but not of the world" practice. 

The gospel depicts another kind of church experience though.  It is more like deep immersion in a combat zone.  So Jesus prays that God protect the church.  Now in the west, we are and have been protected.  At least we are free to practice religious faith without fear of government persecution or interference.  That is not so for Christians globally.  And in some parts of the world violent persecution does exist.  We too should pray for their protection.  Throughout the church’s long history, there have been seasons of persecution and violent oppression.   The first 300 years of the church’s story was a dangerous time, through which the church flourished and grew against the odds.  And when Constantine baptized the empire and endorsed Christianity, the western church entered into a relationship of power that gave them the means to persecute others---Jews, Muslims, pagans, Native tribal religions. Christians went from being the hunted to the hunters.  We must apologize for the ways the church adopted and benefited from colonialistic power.  The height of the church’s reign of terror may have been the middle ages, but the American church has maintained a kind of conquest mentality---building churches in every location, often the tallest structure in a town as a sign of domination and authority.  Using language of winning people for Christ or language in hymns of marching to victory and conquest like an army that overcomes its enemies.  Jesus did not presume his church would become an army.  He presumed they would be threatened by armies. 

There is, however, another way in which the church in the west suffers.  And it is also related to Jesus’ prayer.  The conquest of imperialism over the church has divided the body into thousands of tiny, isolated congregations.  Every horse and buggy town needs a church or 7, in Akron.  There are 800 churches in Lancaster county.  Jesus prays that the church be one, as he and the Father are one.  A relational unity in mission and in truth.  But the truth and the mission are divided and diminished now.  Either Jesus' prayer failed or the kind of unity he intends is not possible.  

So how do we embody, become an answer to Jesus’ prayer for oneness?  How do we express this oneness as a church?  As Lutherans we have built synods.  Synod means on the way together and it is a way that the church is expressed through relationships between congregations, leaders, and baptized disciples.  We meet annually as a synod in assembly in June to be the church together.  Over 700 Lutherans will attend.  Jeff and Sue Neikirk, Jennifer Heckman and I will be there June 5,6,7.  And we will both worship and serve during the assembly.  Last year as a synod we assembled over 300,000 meals to feed hungry Pennsylvanians. And we distributed some of those meals at Peter’s Porch.  Since synod worship is Sunday morning, we will not have worship at Zion.  You may carpool to the assembly---all are welcome.  You may worship at another congregation.  Most of the other Lutherans will have morning worship in their respective congregations---a sign that we are far more divided than Jesus intends.  Their leaders cannot give up Sunday morning worship for one day.  I can.  I trust Jesus.  And I believe in his prayer. So yu may visit somewhere else.  You may worship at St. Mattress of the Springs, if a day of rest is needed.  And you may return for dinner and worship here at 5 pm.  We will let go of our need to be bound by allegiance to a single congregation.  Our allegiance is not to Zion, Akron.  It is to Christ and the church in which we are called in baptism.  And in baptism we are one with the church of every time and every place.  Near and far away.  And its time now that we get our act together and come together to share the gospel and its calling on our lives to love our neighbors.  We know that tensions between churches and denominations has diminished our witness.  We know that, though the reformation age multiplied the church, it also divided us deeply.  And we must more fully recover stronger family ties than the things that divide us. Your church council has heard God say that we are called to pursue partnerships and cooperative relationships.  There are many opportunities to do so.  Jesus' prayer of protection includes the promise of provision.  Perhaps we will be a gift of provision to another congregation or congregations in need.  May we practice unity, build faithful relationships with our brothers and sisters, and serve together with gladness until all come to see and know the love and grace of God.  Amen.          

PRAY

Lord, how can your church embody the sort of unity you prayed for?  What must we give up and what must we take up to do so?  Create opportunities for us to practice deeper unity as a church in mission where you have placed us.  And give us courage to go where we have not yet gone, trusting in your holy protection.  Amen.

Ascension

DWELL.  Matthew 28:16-20

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

REFLECT

This is the fortieth day since Easter Sunday; also known as Ascension day.  In the gospel narrative of Luke, the risen Jesus is present with the disciples (in an altered 'resurrected body' state) for 40 days. Then he ascends to the Father. The disciples witness this cosmic coronation event.  It symbolizes Jesus' authority as Lord and Savior of the nations. It's the end of the epic biblical journey; Noah in the Ark, Moses on Mt. Sinai, Elijah on the mountaintop, Jesus in the wilderness.  After 40 eyars in the wilderness, the people of Israel enter the promised land.  After 40 days, Jesus Ascends.  It's also the answer to the question, "How does this fledgling faith community continue to exist and thrive after their founder, Jesus, is absent from them?"  First, is the belief in the resurrection itself.  He is not dead, but lives on.  And so the mission lives on with him.  Second, his absence is mitigated by a new spiritual presence in the lives of those who believe in the resurrection as the ultimate sign of his power and authority as the reigning son of God. The Ascension absents Jesus from the community, but gives him a cosmic and eternal identity with God. His status and identity is literally elevated to a new location above and beyond all others.  He sends the Holy Spirit into the hearts of believers, who have faith that Jesus is truly present to them in bread and cup and baptism water and gospel story.   

So how do postmoderns deal with this strangely mythic disappearance?  

I was on a mountain last weekend.  The solitude and transcendent beauty of the view, the lake below us, the sky above, the warm sun and gentle, steady breeze gave us a sense of awe and contented joy. We didn't want to leave that place.  We sat for an hour.  I could have sat there for a day. But we can't stay.  Something calls us down to earth.  Food, family, work, house, life in the world. 

Jesus cannot stay with his first followers and expect them to do the work of the kingdom of God.  If all they did was gather around the risen Jesus and worship Him, what would happen to the mission and the message of the cross?  Too many church people stand around and look up---they worship the ascended Lord and fail to follow the ever-present master.  We have baptized into the church but failed to teach the way of Jesus.  Churches that are worshiping Jesus but not multiplying disciples are missing an essential move in the cross-bearing life.  Under imperial protection and provision, churches didn't have to do what the early Christians had to do.  Multiplication was by social order and human reproduction. For centuries.   BUT not any more.   

NOW, we are being called and sent by Jesus to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES.  Baptism and teaching are the acts of the apostles (those who are sent to carry on Jesus' work). The teachings of Rabbi Jesus are all about serving others, downward mobility, healing and forgiveness.  It's very relational as he establishes a new kind of family. Love God, love your neighbor as yourself.  Love your enemies.  Love one another. Love is faith in action.  It is what it means to imitate Christ.  Love transcends prejudices and human boundaries. Jesus included the irreligious, the poor and the marginalized. He openly welcomed "sinners" and ate with them.  Sex workers and addicts were part of his family. 

Ascension day reminds us that the mission and ministry of Jesus has been handed off to his disciples with a commission to go and do what Jesus did with them. The great news for us is that,from the beginning, some doubted.  There was doubt inside the worshippers on that mountain.  We all have our doubts.  Is this true?  Is it real? Can we really believe this story?  Like them, do we doubt our own identity and calling as the people of God?  Do we doubt that what we hope could happen, will happen?  Do we doubt that he lives and is present among us?       

He established the greatest movement in human history, whose constitution is love and whose community includes any and every one.  He moves in to human history.  He moves out of the conventional religious and social systems and embraces those left out.  He moves up from human rabbi to crucified King.  He becomes poor so we become rich, some would say.  He moves on so that his followers can move on from stagnancy and fear to empowered community.  Some think Ascension is a vision of hope that the faithful on earth will follow him to up heaven. But its really a movement of heaven coming to earth in the ordinary lives of children like you and me.  We learn to move like Jesus.  In, Out, Up.   

Wouldn't you like to be part of the movement that brings heaven to earth and earth to heaven? 

PRAYER 

Jesus, you went up to the Father so that holy love might pour down upon your church; and through your church your love might be known to the ends of the earth.  May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  May your Kingdom come among us and through us.  May others know your healing mercy.  May your church carry the cross and live courageously as bearers of your forgiveness.  Teach us and send us to share the good news with other. Amen. 

        

   

             

Depending

DWELL  Luke 11.

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father,* hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.*
Give us each day our daily bread.*
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.’*

And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.”And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for* a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit* to those who ask him!’

REFLECT

Do you pray?
Why?
Does it make a difference?  What?
What do you believe about prayer?
A lot of people ask me to pray for them because I'm a pastor.  And I do.  Sometimes it comes out better than others.  A lot of people will say that they pray or are thankful for prayers.  They say no one is an atheist in a foxhole.  People pray to God when they are facing peril.  But is that that only time and place to pray?  When we are weak, lacking, lost, afraid, or in danger?  

Prayer is something we learn how to do.  It is modeled by other faithful people.  Parents or grandparents might teach us.  Sunday School teachers and pastors prayed. I admit that I am still learning how to pray, why to pray, and what to pray.  I admit that the prayer of Jesus is often the default prayer when I don't know how or what to pray.  Also, I like to read and pray other people's prayers---saints and faithful people from history. I have a few prayer books with exquisite, poetic, deeply meaningful written prayers in them.  They cannot replace personal prayers from my own head, heart, and lips.  But some prayers are worth repeating. In my own life of faith I have depended on a lot of others to have a speaking and listening relationship with the invisible God.  

Someone once said that an atheist is a person with no invisible means of support.  I also know that it is quite possible to get along fine without a personal relationship with God.  Many people who prosper, acquire great wealth and power, do so independently.  Self-reliance and self-support are American virtues. I know people who do not pray.
The prayer of Jesus and the subsequent anecdote he tells his disciples to support his teaching suggest that prayer begins with a humble insistence that God is both willing and able to give us what we seek.
Prayer begins with the insistence that God speaks and listens, like we do only so much more and better.  God is, like a kind and generous parent, able to give us what we need--in fact God gives us God's very self---the spirit breath of life. 

In the story of the friend at midnight, prayer resembles an urgent request a friend makes on behalf of someone else, for whom he has responsibility to offer a gift. I've been in this situation.  Someone has an urgent need at the most inopportune time.  What do I do?  Nothing?  Jesus suggests that we ask God.  I wonder if prayer in these circumstances might create unforeseen options and creative opportunities.  God becomes a real partner with us in figuring things out.  Maybe if we ask the question:  What gift of God might we seek on behalf of someone in need of our attention and care? In this way, prayer is not selfish, though it does involve the self as ambassador or intermediary on behalf of another.  Jesus' prayer teaches us to depend on God for the grace we need to help and serve others.  When we come up short of what is needed to bring healing, hope, and help to our neighbors, we are invited to ask God the Father to intervene.   Prayer teaches us to trust God, rather than ourselves, to attend to circumstances out of our control.  (Like a friend's midnight arrival).  If prayer can remind me to get out of the way and let God act, then it will have done its work. Of course, prayer does not absolve me from responsible action.  It does, however, remind me that I am not alone in my care for someone else.  God cares about those who hunger for daily bread, who cry out for forgiveness, who hunger for liberation from the court room of our own bad judgment. Maybe that's the most important teaching we get from prayer. 

PRAY 

Lord Jesus, your prayer was simple, short, and poignant.  You prayed for the heart of the matter---daily bread and the forgiveness of our debts.  Teach us to pray with simplicity and clarity. Help us to ask, seek, and knock with confidence that you are like a loving and generous parent, willing and able to give us what we need.  Amen.