It’s very difficult to live life on the upbeat all the time. Some days we are exhausted and even trying to be upbeat is close to impossible. Some days we are so overwhelmed with grief or beaten down by illness or physical pain that we despair thinking that there will never come a day when we could even smile again. Many are dealing with the loss of jobs, the failure to find a job after months of looking, or the impossibility of trying to make meager financial sources stretch to cover current expenses, maybe even facing homelessness due to failure of adequate income. Some days we just want to go into our own room, lock the doors behind us so that no one can disturb us and suffer in silence.
That’s sort of the place the disciples found themselves after the death of Christ. They went to the house of one of their community in the area of Jerusalem and locked the doors behind them, afraid for their lives, despairing over the lost vision of the fantastic future they had imagined because their leader was now dead. Even when Mary came to bring the news that she had seen Christ alive they didn’t change their behavior much. They didn’t throw the door open wide and steam out into the city to declare him alive. Nope, they stayed right where they were, and probably tried to convince Mary she was just being hysterical.
Suddenly, despite the locked door, Jesus appears in the room with them and for the first time tells them, “Peace be still.” Then the author of the Gospel of John tells us that Christ breathes his holy spirit into them, telling them to go out into the world and love and care for others just like God had sent Christ. This is John’s Pentecost when the disciples receive the Holy Spirit of God, breathed into them, just like God had breathed into Adam and Eve at their Creation. Christ was giving them Christ’s presence and power to go out and take God’s love to a suffering world.
He also speaks about forgiveness, probably the hardest thing to talk about in any church, even harder than sex and money.
Thomas comes back to the room. He’s been out. Apparently he’s not afraid leave that locked room, but he is disappointed that Christ appeared to the rest of the followers of Jesus but not to him. Basically he says to them, ‘I won’t believe what you are telling me until I, too, can see him and touch him, and feel the wounds in his body.’
When we grieve we can get pretty particular about what we want in order to give up our grief. I’ve sat in hospital waiting rooms holding up faith and hope for others while a beloved person undergoes surgery following an accident or due to and illness. I’ve heard people say, “I won’t believe she is okay until I see her walk out of this hospital on her own. I won’t believe God can heal him until I can hug him and see that he is okay for myself.” When we grieve we can make some mighty big demands upon God and upon ourselves.
Do you notice something rather interesting about this story. What did those followers of Jesus do after Christ appears to them and breathes the Holy Spirit into them? Not much. Even Jesus appearing to them alive didn’t get them to budge out of that room. A week later we find them still hiding behind closed and locked doors, but this time Thomas is present. Jesus comes again. Jesus tells them once more “Peace be with you.” In other words, “Stop being afraid!”
Why do you think they are still afraid? I remember growing up and my mother saying to me when I had been rather disobedient, “Just wait until your father gets home, young man.” My father was a rather violent disciplinarian when I was little. He changed over the years and you would not know the gentle person he is today is even the same person who disciplined so violently as a child. Now, Pastor Ray, just what does that memory of yours got to do with the disciples in the upper room. Plenty.
They were afraid of being arrested and killed by the Sanhedrin and the Romans for being followers of the condemned man Jesus. Rightly so. I would have been, too. Why stop the killing with just Jesus? Why not go after the whole bunch of them and get rid of the insurrection with a mass arrest and a mass killing. It wouldn’t have been the first time the Romans acted in such a manner. I’m sure they had heard the news reports and the rumors.
Then Jesus appears to them alive again. As my grandmother would have said that must have scared the be-jesus right out of them. First of all, if the Romans didn’t get it right the first time they killed Jesus, perhaps they will come after Jesus again, and who among them is safe if it becomes known that Jesus has returned and has been in your home with you? But…that isn’t the most scary thing about this whole situation.
What’s really scary is thinking about what Jesus will do to you. Sure it’s a childish thought, be we all have them. If Jesus can command life into being even after dying, what kind of power does Christ have over you, over the very followers that professed to be loyal to him, but who deserted Jesus at the moment of his crisis?
Will Jesus punish Peter for betraying him, not once mind you, but three times? Will Jesus discipline the disciples for running away and hiding? Just what will this Risen Christ do to them? Remember they lived in a society where people believed that the gods of the world could and did come into your life and punish you for your misbehavior; in much the same fashion that a violent father will beat his children for disobedience.
We know now that is not how God works in our lives. We also know that when we read the stories in the Old Testament about a vengeful, wrathful God that those stories reflect more the immature reasoning of primitive people. From other more reasoned scriptures we know that God works with us in love and truth to give us opportunities for New Life, to give us a chance to start over again, without the failures of the past haunting us. Like a loving parent of a toddler learning how to walk, when we fall down God picks us up, puts us back on our feet, gently brushes the dust off our clothes and tells us to try again.
However, many of us still live our lives in fear of God like frightened children who have just been told, “You just wait until your Father comes home.” We believe that God will somehow be forced into punishing us for our misbehavior or our wrong decisions. People ask me all the time, “Why is God doing this to me? What have I done that is so bad that God would punish me this way?”
Listen to me, carefully, God doesn’t work that way. God doesn’t intentionally punish you for disobeying God. It may seem like that to you, but that is a childish immature reaction, and it is not based on the truth about how our God works with us. Instead the scriptures tell us that God loves us and wants to demonstrate that love for us by giving us God’s power and presence and another chance to start all over again even when we or others screw up our lives.
It’s hard to change our behavior, our thinking, and our mis-perceptions of life even when we are looking square into the face of a miracle. We linger in the past, hesitant to move on into the future, even when the future seems so bright and so full of hope.
I once asked a depressed friend why she kept herself hidden away in her home and refused to engage with those who loved her and wanted her to heal and return to a productive life again. She said, “I’m comfortable here. No one bothers me. No one is asking me to do anything or go anywhere. I like being left alone.” I also suspect she was afraid to face the unknown of life beyond her home where you never know what is going to happen to you. It’s safe living behind closed and locked doors, even if you have few opportunities for real living.
But just like the disciples, Jesus won’t leave us alone in our despair. Jesus keeps coming back into our lives again and again bringing hope and a vision for a future full of possibilities and life. Jesus wants to give us a New Life in God’s New Community with our New Chosen Family of Faithful Friends. Sometimes we feel Christ’s presence as no more than a nagging feeling to get up and unlock the door to our heart, unlock the door to our life and welcome Christ and friends back in to be with us. Sustained by their love and care we again are able to think about moving beyond the closed doors and back out into life.
The disciples took the challenge Christ gave them. They moved beyond the closed and locked doors and out into their city and eventually across the whole Roman Empire. Centuries later we are the living legacies to their faithful witness of Christ’s Love for all people everywhere.
Whatever overwhelms you this morning, know that God can and will come into the midst of your fear and say to you, “My Peace be with you. Don’t be afraid.”
Whatever doubts churn in your mind, whatever sins trouble your conscience, God can and will come into your life and say to you, “My Peace be with you. Don’t be afraid.”
Whatever pain and worries bind you up, whatever walls you have put up or doors you have locked securely, God comes into your life anyway, and says to you, “My Peace be with you. Don’t be afraid.”
Whatever hunger or need you feel deep in your soul, God wants to call us to this table today, to feed us well, and to send us out into a world to be God’s justice, God’s peace, God’s salt and light, God’s love and hope for the world.
We can do it! You know we can do it! But only if we keep our eye, and minds, and hearts open and willing to love others just as we have been overwhelmed by the love of God.
As God sent Jesus into the world, so God sends us this day. My Peace is with you. Don’t be afraid.
Why don’t you take the challenge this week: Unlock and open the doors to your life. Take the Peace that Christ offers. Stop being afraid! Begin to enjoy life again. Begin to move out into the world sharing the Love of Christ with all you meet.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Stop Being Afraid
It’s very difficult to live life on the upbeat all the time. Some days we are exhausted and even trying to be upbeat is close to impossible. Some days we are so burdened with grief or beaten down by illness or physical pain that we despair their will ever come a day when we could even smile again. Many are dealing with the loss of jobs, the failure to find a job after months of looking, or the impossibility of trying to make meager financial sources stretch to cover expenses, maybe even facing homelessness due to failure of adequate income. Some days we just want to go into our own room, close and lock the doors and suffer in silence.
That’s sort of the place the disciples found themselves after the death of Christ (See John 20:19-31). They went to a house and closed and locked the doors afraid for their lives, despairing over the lost vision of a happy future with their now dead leader. Even when Mary came to bring the news that she had seen Christ alive they didn’t change their behavior much. Later in the day Jesus appears to them, even breathes his holy spirit into them, but what do they do after that experience? A week later we find them still hiding behind closed and locked doors when Jesus comes again. Jesus told them “Peace be with you.” In other words, “Stop being afraid!”
It’s hard to change our behavior and our perceptions of life even when we are looking square into the face of a miracle. We linger in the past, hesitant to move on into the future, even when the future seems so bright and full of hope. I once asked a depressed friend why she kept herself hidden away in her home and refused to engage with those who loved her and wanted her to heal and return to a productive life again. She said, “I’m comfortable here. No one bothers me. No one is asking me to do anything or go anywhere. I like being left alone.” I also suspect she was afraid to face the unknown of life beyond her home where you never know what is going to happen to you. It’s safe living behind closed and locked doors, even if you have few opportunities for real living.
But just like the disciples, Jesus won’t leave us alone in our despair. Jesus keeps coming back into our lives again and again bringing hope and a vision for a future full of possibilities and life. Jesus wants to give us a New Life in God’s New Community with our New Chosen Family of faithful friends. Sometimes we feel Christ’s presence as no more than a nagging feeling to get up and open the door to our heart, to our life and let others come back in to be with us. Sustained by their love and care we again are able to think about moving beyond the closed doors and back out into life.
The disciples took the challenge Christ gave them. They moved beyond the closed and locked doors and out into their city and eventually across the Roman Empire and ultimately we are the living witness to their faithful witness of Christ’s Love for all people everywhere.
Why don’t you take the challenge this week: Unlock and open the doors to your life. Stop being afraid. Take the Peace that Christ offers. Stop being afraid! Begin to enjoy life again. Begin to move out into the world sharing the Love of Christ with all you meet. It’s at least something to think about.
That’s sort of the place the disciples found themselves after the death of Christ (See John 20:19-31). They went to a house and closed and locked the doors afraid for their lives, despairing over the lost vision of a happy future with their now dead leader. Even when Mary came to bring the news that she had seen Christ alive they didn’t change their behavior much. Later in the day Jesus appears to them, even breathes his holy spirit into them, but what do they do after that experience? A week later we find them still hiding behind closed and locked doors when Jesus comes again. Jesus told them “Peace be with you.” In other words, “Stop being afraid!”
It’s hard to change our behavior and our perceptions of life even when we are looking square into the face of a miracle. We linger in the past, hesitant to move on into the future, even when the future seems so bright and full of hope. I once asked a depressed friend why she kept herself hidden away in her home and refused to engage with those who loved her and wanted her to heal and return to a productive life again. She said, “I’m comfortable here. No one bothers me. No one is asking me to do anything or go anywhere. I like being left alone.” I also suspect she was afraid to face the unknown of life beyond her home where you never know what is going to happen to you. It’s safe living behind closed and locked doors, even if you have few opportunities for real living.
But just like the disciples, Jesus won’t leave us alone in our despair. Jesus keeps coming back into our lives again and again bringing hope and a vision for a future full of possibilities and life. Jesus wants to give us a New Life in God’s New Community with our New Chosen Family of faithful friends. Sometimes we feel Christ’s presence as no more than a nagging feeling to get up and open the door to our heart, to our life and let others come back in to be with us. Sustained by their love and care we again are able to think about moving beyond the closed doors and back out into life.
The disciples took the challenge Christ gave them. They moved beyond the closed and locked doors and out into their city and eventually across the Roman Empire and ultimately we are the living witness to their faithful witness of Christ’s Love for all people everywhere.
Why don’t you take the challenge this week: Unlock and open the doors to your life. Stop being afraid. Take the Peace that Christ offers. Stop being afraid! Begin to enjoy life again. Begin to move out into the world sharing the Love of Christ with all you meet. It’s at least something to think about.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Easter Sunday Sermon 2010: "I Don't Think So!"
Though I’m very glad to hear that our country’s armed forces will begin to deal with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in a new way, I can’t wait for the day when Queer People will be able to serve openly without fear of discovery in our military. Great changes are happening in our society for which I am thankful to God. However, this past week as I’ve read and listened to the news about the sexual abuse of children by priests, and the threat of death for Queer persons living in Uganda, I’ve been perplexed and vexed by many of the comments made by political leaders, elected officials, ordained ministers, Bishops of the Vatican, scape-goating the issues they are really facing by condemning members of the Queer Community or implying that the victims of crimes are the ones to blame for the embarrassment of the Catholic Church. The comments tell me that these leaders seem to feel that if persons like you and I didn’t exist then their lives wouldn’t be so difficult and the issues they have to deal with would be less complicated. The fact is, our absence wouldn’t make any difference in the issues or difficulties they face, they just can’t bring themselves to admit that and so instead of looking critically at their own selves, they choose to attack us instead. Jesus understood this kind of behavior and Jesus understood the way you and I feel when we are blamed and condemned simply for being who we are exactly the way God created us.
This is Holy Week when we focus on the Passion of Jesus and remember his Crucifixion and, more importantly, his Resurrection by God to new life. The religious and political leaders of his day thought that Jesus was the problem and that if they could just get rid of Jesus then they would not have to face the difficulties he confronted them with, nor the issues that he was pointing out to them through teaching and his hands-on-ministry to the people who lived on the edges of society, those people whom the religious authorities felt justified to ignore and exclude.
Jesus, however was a boundary crosser who made it dramatically clear that God loves everyone and excludes no one by eating with so-called sinners and outcasts, by healing the sick and radically pronouncing their sins forgiven. Jesus wouldn’t let the criticisms and threats of those in power stop him from proclaiming God’s Good News and the truth about God’s New Community. Jesus wasn’t preaching about a Heavenly Banquet that everyone would go to someday in some far distant future. They could have coped with that. The far distant future wasn’t a threat to them in the here and now. But Jesus had the audacity to preach about the establishment of a New Community of Hope and Joy in the here and now. That would mean that they would have to change and change wasn’t something they wanted to deal with. So they decided to get rid of Jesus.
One of the commentators I read this week said this: “I keep remembering a little poem called "Anyway": a man named Kent Keith wrote it, but they say that Mother Teresa had it framed on her wall, and she certainly was someone who knew something about suffering and faithfulness (and doubt, we have later come to understand) and, I suspect, resurrection and new life, too. Like Mother Teresa (probably the only way I resemble her!), I too have this poem framed on my office wall, and I really should get up out of my chair and read it more often. It says, for example, "People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway! The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway! Honesty makes you vulnerable. Be honest anyway! What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway! People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway! If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway!" Kathryn Matthews Huey
Steward for Public Life Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team Local Church Ministries UMC
Dear brothers and sisters, with Jesus as our example, we should never stop trying to bring about the New Community of God in our own time and place. Bold actions on our part are called for, just as bold action was Christ’s way of dealing with his critics.
The disciples had a choice when Jesus died. They could return to their lives as they were before they had met Jesus, before they learned that there was a different way to think about and relate to God than they had previously experienced. And when the news about Jesus’ resurrection began to be told, they still had a choice to ignore the truth as mere rumor and the imagination of grief stricken women or to act on the joy and hope of Christ’s resurrection and begin to bring about the New Community of God.
Yes, they could have remembered what Jesus said and how Jesus acted and they could have stopped right there…just a good old memory that could be taken out whenever you felt lonely or depressed like a modern day photo album. Or they could claim that the resurrected Jesus was the same Jesus speaking the same words of hope and love, the same Jesus touching lives with power and promise, as the Jesus who had walked along with them before the Crucifixion.
We sometimes concentrate on the differences that happened to Jesus with the resurrection, but this Easter I would like you to remember that the same Jesus that walked and talked and cared for disciples and strangers was exactly the same Jesus that rose from the grave and was seen and heard by his followers.
Jesus’ resurrection like his life was very intimate, very personal. Jesus had very special ways of talking and touching, of acting and caring that no one would mistake him for anyone else. Have you ever noticed how you can identify that a friend or co-worker is approaching by the unique click of their shoes on the tile of the floor? Or the way they breathe or cough or laugh? You know those who are close to you by the way they live, the way they act, the way they speak, they way they touch you physically and emotionally. So, too, did Jesus’ followers both men and women.
Mary is distraught with grief. She finds an empty tomb. She is so overwhelmed with sorrow that I don’t think she realized the guys in the tomb that spoke to her were angels. At least she doesn’t act that way and her questions to the man she thinks to be the gardener shows she is still on a quest to find Jesus’ body. If Jesus was really dead then it was very important to her to find the body. It had to lie in the tomb for at least a year until nothing was left but the bones. Then the bones were buried together so that they might take on new flesh at the resurrection at the end of time. If the body was moved or the bones disturbed then might be scattered and that just wasn’t something that was done.
Mary is intent on giving Jesus a nice burial and making sure that his bones aren’t disturbed. I get it. When my daughter died I kept getting phone calls from family and friends asking me when we were going to put the headstone in place on her grave. They didn’t like it that we didn’t erect the monument to her memory as fast as they thought that we should. Their memory of her was important to them and they wanted a place to go where they could pull out the mental photo albums and replay her life in their minds and in their hearts. That’s what Mary wanted to do, too. It’s part of how we deal with grief as human beings.
But Mary doesn’t need that kind of a place to go to remember Jesus. Mary hasn’t yet comprehended the fact that Jesus’ missing body is telling her a very different story than the one she has imagined as being the truth. Mary doesn’t even see that the man speaking to her is Jesus. Perhaps her eyes are so blurred with tears of grief that she can’t focus them and really see Jesus.
I understand that kind of grief. I’ve buried a parent a daughter and a daughter in law. I’ve grieved with four of my grandchildren at the deaths of their mothers. Grief makes you oblivious to anything and anyone else. But when Jesus speaks here name, the same way she has heard him call her name many times before, the truth sinks into her deeply and she responds by calling him, “Great One.” Mary identifies the Living Christ as the same Jesus she knew before the Crucifixion. Can you imagine her joy? Peter and that other disciple may have ignored poor Mary in her grief, leaving her in the garden to cry alone. But Jesus didn’t ignore her. However, I bet those same disciples couldn’t ignore her when she burst into the room that second time that morning shouting, “Hallelujah, I have seen the Great One. Jesus lives!”
Jesus used this intimate way of identifying himself to those who knew him intimately more than just one time. That same day on the road to Emmaus two of the disciples, fleeing Jerusalem and the terror they had experienced, filled with grief, meet a stranger on the road who walks with them for several miles without recognizing. He teaches them about the Christ from the scriptures. When they arrive at their home they invite him into their home. Then when he breaks bread and prays with them before their meal…exactly the same way Jesus had broken bread and prayed with them many times before their hearts and their eyes were opened and they realized that the Jesus they had known before the Crucifixion was the very same Jesus that was breaking bread and praying with them that night. They, too, like Mary were filled with Joy and Hope and they got up and ran all the way back to Jerusalem in the middle of the night to tell the other disciples that Jesus was alive! Can’t you hear them shouting as they pounded on the door in the middle of the night, “Hallelujah, Jesus is alive!” What a joy filled place that house must have been!
Part B: The political and religious powers of ancient Israel and Rome thought they had given the final word about Jesus by condemning him to death. Now they were sure that everything he had represented and taught would die, too. They dusted off their hands and thought that was the end of the matter. Kill the man, kill what he taught and represented. But God had something very different in mind. And when they killed Jesus and buried him, thinking him no longer a problem, no longer a nuisance, God boldly said, “NO! I don’t think so! That is not the end of this story!”
God resurrected Jesus to continue his ministry and his life, to encourage his followers to keep on working to see that New Community of God would come into existence through God’s power and God’s presence living in and through them every single day of their lives.
We may not like what some politicians and religious leaders say about us. We may not like how easy it is for them to reject and condemn whole segments of our population on the basis of sexuality, gender, race, ethnic background, political persuasion, economic power, age, or mental or physical abilities. But those self-righteous politicians and religious leaders don’t get to have the final word on the matter. God does! And God says to all of us, “I am not done with you yet.”
And how will God have that final word? Through you and me when we speak up and act up on behalf of those who aren’t given a voice in the world, who are ignored and excluded, unemployed and homeless, handicapped and unable to work, or arrested and condemned simply because they are different from those who are in power. Stand up and be counted! Speak up for God and God’s people. Act up for God and God’s people!
How do we celebrate Easter? By praising God for God’s actions, of course. Yes! By thanking God for rising Jesus up from the grave to new life everlasting. Of course! But also by taking bold actions ourselves on behalf of God, for the purpose of building the New Community of God in the here and now.
How did the disciples react to Christ’s resurrection? Read the rest of their story in the Book of Acts. Read how they began a movement that includes you and me today, two thousand years later. They didn’t just go back home unchanged. They set out to change their world so drastically that others said they had ‘turned the world upside down.’ I’d like to think they finally turned it right side up by Bringing God’s kind of Love, Hope, and Joy to all people.
Today, dear friends, today is the day of Resurrection! Today, brothers and sisters of Christ, today is the day of Gods kind of Love, Hope, Peace and Joy! Will we act like it tomorrow? Or will we just go back to our own lives as if it never happened, as if nothing is different? Will Easter become merely a good old memory that we take out every once in awhile like an old photo album to relive the moment again? It’s not enough to remember the good ol’ days, we should be in the business of creating more good ol’ days for those that come after us.
How do you know that Jesus is alive? By the way Jesus touches people through your hands, your voice, and your life. There is an old hymn that begins, “Let others see Jesus in you.” Today, decide to let Jesus live through you. Let Jesus minister to those who need Christ’s touch in their lives through you. And, while you are at it, don’t forget to let us be Christ to you, too!
This is Holy Week when we focus on the Passion of Jesus and remember his Crucifixion and, more importantly, his Resurrection by God to new life. The religious and political leaders of his day thought that Jesus was the problem and that if they could just get rid of Jesus then they would not have to face the difficulties he confronted them with, nor the issues that he was pointing out to them through teaching and his hands-on-ministry to the people who lived on the edges of society, those people whom the religious authorities felt justified to ignore and exclude.
Jesus, however was a boundary crosser who made it dramatically clear that God loves everyone and excludes no one by eating with so-called sinners and outcasts, by healing the sick and radically pronouncing their sins forgiven. Jesus wouldn’t let the criticisms and threats of those in power stop him from proclaiming God’s Good News and the truth about God’s New Community. Jesus wasn’t preaching about a Heavenly Banquet that everyone would go to someday in some far distant future. They could have coped with that. The far distant future wasn’t a threat to them in the here and now. But Jesus had the audacity to preach about the establishment of a New Community of Hope and Joy in the here and now. That would mean that they would have to change and change wasn’t something they wanted to deal with. So they decided to get rid of Jesus.
One of the commentators I read this week said this: “I keep remembering a little poem called "Anyway": a man named Kent Keith wrote it, but they say that Mother Teresa had it framed on her wall, and she certainly was someone who knew something about suffering and faithfulness (and doubt, we have later come to understand) and, I suspect, resurrection and new life, too. Like Mother Teresa (probably the only way I resemble her!), I too have this poem framed on my office wall, and I really should get up out of my chair and read it more often. It says, for example, "People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway! The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway! Honesty makes you vulnerable. Be honest anyway! What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway! People really need help but may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway! If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway!" Kathryn Matthews Huey
Steward for Public Life Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team Local Church Ministries UMC
Dear brothers and sisters, with Jesus as our example, we should never stop trying to bring about the New Community of God in our own time and place. Bold actions on our part are called for, just as bold action was Christ’s way of dealing with his critics.
The disciples had a choice when Jesus died. They could return to their lives as they were before they had met Jesus, before they learned that there was a different way to think about and relate to God than they had previously experienced. And when the news about Jesus’ resurrection began to be told, they still had a choice to ignore the truth as mere rumor and the imagination of grief stricken women or to act on the joy and hope of Christ’s resurrection and begin to bring about the New Community of God.
Yes, they could have remembered what Jesus said and how Jesus acted and they could have stopped right there…just a good old memory that could be taken out whenever you felt lonely or depressed like a modern day photo album. Or they could claim that the resurrected Jesus was the same Jesus speaking the same words of hope and love, the same Jesus touching lives with power and promise, as the Jesus who had walked along with them before the Crucifixion.
We sometimes concentrate on the differences that happened to Jesus with the resurrection, but this Easter I would like you to remember that the same Jesus that walked and talked and cared for disciples and strangers was exactly the same Jesus that rose from the grave and was seen and heard by his followers.
Jesus’ resurrection like his life was very intimate, very personal. Jesus had very special ways of talking and touching, of acting and caring that no one would mistake him for anyone else. Have you ever noticed how you can identify that a friend or co-worker is approaching by the unique click of their shoes on the tile of the floor? Or the way they breathe or cough or laugh? You know those who are close to you by the way they live, the way they act, the way they speak, they way they touch you physically and emotionally. So, too, did Jesus’ followers both men and women.
Mary is distraught with grief. She finds an empty tomb. She is so overwhelmed with sorrow that I don’t think she realized the guys in the tomb that spoke to her were angels. At least she doesn’t act that way and her questions to the man she thinks to be the gardener shows she is still on a quest to find Jesus’ body. If Jesus was really dead then it was very important to her to find the body. It had to lie in the tomb for at least a year until nothing was left but the bones. Then the bones were buried together so that they might take on new flesh at the resurrection at the end of time. If the body was moved or the bones disturbed then might be scattered and that just wasn’t something that was done.
Mary is intent on giving Jesus a nice burial and making sure that his bones aren’t disturbed. I get it. When my daughter died I kept getting phone calls from family and friends asking me when we were going to put the headstone in place on her grave. They didn’t like it that we didn’t erect the monument to her memory as fast as they thought that we should. Their memory of her was important to them and they wanted a place to go where they could pull out the mental photo albums and replay her life in their minds and in their hearts. That’s what Mary wanted to do, too. It’s part of how we deal with grief as human beings.
But Mary doesn’t need that kind of a place to go to remember Jesus. Mary hasn’t yet comprehended the fact that Jesus’ missing body is telling her a very different story than the one she has imagined as being the truth. Mary doesn’t even see that the man speaking to her is Jesus. Perhaps her eyes are so blurred with tears of grief that she can’t focus them and really see Jesus.
I understand that kind of grief. I’ve buried a parent a daughter and a daughter in law. I’ve grieved with four of my grandchildren at the deaths of their mothers. Grief makes you oblivious to anything and anyone else. But when Jesus speaks here name, the same way she has heard him call her name many times before, the truth sinks into her deeply and she responds by calling him, “Great One.” Mary identifies the Living Christ as the same Jesus she knew before the Crucifixion. Can you imagine her joy? Peter and that other disciple may have ignored poor Mary in her grief, leaving her in the garden to cry alone. But Jesus didn’t ignore her. However, I bet those same disciples couldn’t ignore her when she burst into the room that second time that morning shouting, “Hallelujah, I have seen the Great One. Jesus lives!”
Jesus used this intimate way of identifying himself to those who knew him intimately more than just one time. That same day on the road to Emmaus two of the disciples, fleeing Jerusalem and the terror they had experienced, filled with grief, meet a stranger on the road who walks with them for several miles without recognizing. He teaches them about the Christ from the scriptures. When they arrive at their home they invite him into their home. Then when he breaks bread and prays with them before their meal…exactly the same way Jesus had broken bread and prayed with them many times before their hearts and their eyes were opened and they realized that the Jesus they had known before the Crucifixion was the very same Jesus that was breaking bread and praying with them that night. They, too, like Mary were filled with Joy and Hope and they got up and ran all the way back to Jerusalem in the middle of the night to tell the other disciples that Jesus was alive! Can’t you hear them shouting as they pounded on the door in the middle of the night, “Hallelujah, Jesus is alive!” What a joy filled place that house must have been!
Part B: The political and religious powers of ancient Israel and Rome thought they had given the final word about Jesus by condemning him to death. Now they were sure that everything he had represented and taught would die, too. They dusted off their hands and thought that was the end of the matter. Kill the man, kill what he taught and represented. But God had something very different in mind. And when they killed Jesus and buried him, thinking him no longer a problem, no longer a nuisance, God boldly said, “NO! I don’t think so! That is not the end of this story!”
God resurrected Jesus to continue his ministry and his life, to encourage his followers to keep on working to see that New Community of God would come into existence through God’s power and God’s presence living in and through them every single day of their lives.
We may not like what some politicians and religious leaders say about us. We may not like how easy it is for them to reject and condemn whole segments of our population on the basis of sexuality, gender, race, ethnic background, political persuasion, economic power, age, or mental or physical abilities. But those self-righteous politicians and religious leaders don’t get to have the final word on the matter. God does! And God says to all of us, “I am not done with you yet.”
And how will God have that final word? Through you and me when we speak up and act up on behalf of those who aren’t given a voice in the world, who are ignored and excluded, unemployed and homeless, handicapped and unable to work, or arrested and condemned simply because they are different from those who are in power. Stand up and be counted! Speak up for God and God’s people. Act up for God and God’s people!
How do we celebrate Easter? By praising God for God’s actions, of course. Yes! By thanking God for rising Jesus up from the grave to new life everlasting. Of course! But also by taking bold actions ourselves on behalf of God, for the purpose of building the New Community of God in the here and now.
How did the disciples react to Christ’s resurrection? Read the rest of their story in the Book of Acts. Read how they began a movement that includes you and me today, two thousand years later. They didn’t just go back home unchanged. They set out to change their world so drastically that others said they had ‘turned the world upside down.’ I’d like to think they finally turned it right side up by Bringing God’s kind of Love, Hope, and Joy to all people.
Today, dear friends, today is the day of Resurrection! Today, brothers and sisters of Christ, today is the day of Gods kind of Love, Hope, Peace and Joy! Will we act like it tomorrow? Or will we just go back to our own lives as if it never happened, as if nothing is different? Will Easter become merely a good old memory that we take out every once in awhile like an old photo album to relive the moment again? It’s not enough to remember the good ol’ days, we should be in the business of creating more good ol’ days for those that come after us.
How do you know that Jesus is alive? By the way Jesus touches people through your hands, your voice, and your life. There is an old hymn that begins, “Let others see Jesus in you.” Today, decide to let Jesus live through you. Let Jesus minister to those who need Christ’s touch in their lives through you. And, while you are at it, don’t forget to let us be Christ to you, too!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
What do you do with Easter? (Lectionary Year C)
I’ve been perplexed and vexed by comments made by political leaders, elected officials, ordained ministers, the Vatican, and others, scape-goating the issues they are really facing by condemning Gay People (read: gay, lesbian, transgender, bi-sexual, inter-sexed, etc.). They seem to feel that if we didn’t exist then their lives wouldn’t be so difficult and the issues they have to deal with would be less complicated. The fact is, our absence wouldn’t make any difference in the issues or difficulties they face, they just can’t bring themselves to admit that and so they attack us instead of themselves.
This is Holy Week when we focus on the Passion of Jesus and remember his Crucifixion and Resurrection. The leaders of his day thought that if they could just get rid of Jesus then they would not face the issues and difficulties that he was pointing out to them through his ministry to the people who lived on the edges of society, the people those leaders thought they could ignore and exclude. But Jesus made it dramatically very clear that God loves everyone and excludes no one by eating with so-called sinners and outcasts, by healing the sick and forgiving sins. Jesus wouldn’t let the criticisms and threats of those in power stop him from proclaiming God’s Good News and the truth about God’s New Community that he was trying to establish…and nor should you or I stop working to bring about that New Community of God in our own time and place.
The disciples had a choice when Jesus died. They could return to their lives as they were before they had met Jesus, before they learned that there was a different way to think about and relate to God than they had previously experienced. When the news about Jesus’ resurrection began to be told, they still had a choice to ignore the truth or to act on the truth and begin to bring about the New Community of God. They could have remembered what Jesus said and how Jesus acted and it could have stopped right there…just a good old memory that could be taken out whenever you felt lonely or depressed. Or they could claim that the resurrected Jesus was the same Jesus speaking the same words or hope and love, the same Jesus touching lives with power and promise, as the Jesus who had walked along with them before the Crucifixion.
We sometimes concentrate on the differences that happened to Jesus with the resurrection, but this Easter I would like you to remember that the same Jesus that walked and talked and cared for disciples and strangers was exactly the same Jesus that rose from the grave and was seen and heard by his followers.
The political and religious powers of ancient Israel gave their final word by condemning Jesus and everything he had represented and taught to death. They thought that was the end of the matter. But God had something very different in mind. And when they killed Jesus and buried him, thinking him no longer a problem, no longer a nuisance, God boldly said, “NO! I don’t think so!” And God resurrected Jesus to continue his ministry and his life, to encourage his followers to keep on working to see that New Community of God come into existence through God’s power and God’s presence every single day of their lives.
We may not like what politicians and religious leaders say about us. We may not like how easy it is for them to reject whole segments of our population on the basis of sexuality, gender, race, ethnic background, political persuasion, economic power, mental or physical abilities, etc., but they don’t get to have the final word on the matter. God does! And how will God have that final word? Through you and me when we speak up and act up on behalf of those who aren’t given a voice in the world, who are ignored and excluded, arrested and condemned simply because they are different from those who are in power.
How do we celebrate Easter? By praising God for God’s actions, of course. But also by taking bold actions ourselves on behalf of God, for the purpose of building the New Community of God in the here and now by standing up and speaking out and acting up on behalf of all the people living on the edges of society. It’s at least something to think about.
This is Holy Week when we focus on the Passion of Jesus and remember his Crucifixion and Resurrection. The leaders of his day thought that if they could just get rid of Jesus then they would not face the issues and difficulties that he was pointing out to them through his ministry to the people who lived on the edges of society, the people those leaders thought they could ignore and exclude. But Jesus made it dramatically very clear that God loves everyone and excludes no one by eating with so-called sinners and outcasts, by healing the sick and forgiving sins. Jesus wouldn’t let the criticisms and threats of those in power stop him from proclaiming God’s Good News and the truth about God’s New Community that he was trying to establish…and nor should you or I stop working to bring about that New Community of God in our own time and place.
The disciples had a choice when Jesus died. They could return to their lives as they were before they had met Jesus, before they learned that there was a different way to think about and relate to God than they had previously experienced. When the news about Jesus’ resurrection began to be told, they still had a choice to ignore the truth or to act on the truth and begin to bring about the New Community of God. They could have remembered what Jesus said and how Jesus acted and it could have stopped right there…just a good old memory that could be taken out whenever you felt lonely or depressed. Or they could claim that the resurrected Jesus was the same Jesus speaking the same words or hope and love, the same Jesus touching lives with power and promise, as the Jesus who had walked along with them before the Crucifixion.
We sometimes concentrate on the differences that happened to Jesus with the resurrection, but this Easter I would like you to remember that the same Jesus that walked and talked and cared for disciples and strangers was exactly the same Jesus that rose from the grave and was seen and heard by his followers.
The political and religious powers of ancient Israel gave their final word by condemning Jesus and everything he had represented and taught to death. They thought that was the end of the matter. But God had something very different in mind. And when they killed Jesus and buried him, thinking him no longer a problem, no longer a nuisance, God boldly said, “NO! I don’t think so!” And God resurrected Jesus to continue his ministry and his life, to encourage his followers to keep on working to see that New Community of God come into existence through God’s power and God’s presence every single day of their lives.
We may not like what politicians and religious leaders say about us. We may not like how easy it is for them to reject whole segments of our population on the basis of sexuality, gender, race, ethnic background, political persuasion, economic power, mental or physical abilities, etc., but they don’t get to have the final word on the matter. God does! And how will God have that final word? Through you and me when we speak up and act up on behalf of those who aren’t given a voice in the world, who are ignored and excluded, arrested and condemned simply because they are different from those who are in power.
How do we celebrate Easter? By praising God for God’s actions, of course. But also by taking bold actions ourselves on behalf of God, for the purpose of building the New Community of God in the here and now by standing up and speaking out and acting up on behalf of all the people living on the edges of society. It’s at least something to think about.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Getting Jesus Right--Lent 5, Year C
We are often so self-righteous about our behavior and our thinking that we need a 'spiritual' slap across the face to get ourselves in a better position to listen to God. How many times in life have you thought you had the right answer to a particular situation or problem only to discover later that you were completely off base and not really focused on the truth of the situation? Suddenly something someone else says or does opens you up to a brand new revelation and you have an "Ahh-ha!" moment as your thinking and feeling is readjusted to a new point. I like to call that a "Spiritual Tune-up."
This week's Gospel Reading comes from John 12:1-8 and tells the story of Jesus returning to the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha not long after he has raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus and Lazarus are under threat for their lives from the ruling priests and other religious leaders. Many people are now following Jesus and they fear that Jesus and his followers will upset the way things are and that the foreign Roman government ruling over them will dismiss them from their own positions of power.
Here in the home of this very unconventional family: a single man and his two single sisters...a Queer Family if you will...Jesus, also a single man, returns to his chosen family for rest and renewal. Some scholars even believe that Lazarus is the "Beloved Disciple" that the gospel writer refers to in the book of John. We know that Jesus is intimately connected to this family and has chosen their home as his base of operation when he is in the Jerusalem area. Those of us in the LGBT community can fully understand the importance of our "Chosen Family," those friends we have developed as part of our experience and life in Queerdom. Often our Chosen Family is more important to us than our family of birth, especially if that birth family has rejected us or harrassed and condemned us for being sexually oriented differently than they desire for us to be.
Can you imagine the emotions that must be at play as Jesus returns to this home? Here sitting with them again is the one who brought their brother back from the dead. Here is the man who did the impossible. Here is the Messiah, come from God, and he's eating and talking witht them. Mary, moved with what I can only describe as passionate thanksgiving and supreme adoration, takes a bottle of very expensive perfume...worth a year's wages, probably her 'trust fund' in case something did ever happen to Lazarus and she had no one else to support her...and pours it out onto Jesus' feet, massaging his feet and wiping the oil from his feet with her long hair, an extremely intimate and almost erotic kind of action. There are very deep emotions flowing here.
Some who were present that evening are offended by Mary's behavior and criticize her wastefulness of the costly perfume in such a disturbing...to them...demonstration of love for Jesus. Why we could have used it to feed the poor...or built a new chapel...or paid the pastor's salary...or sent a missionary to Africa. There is always something that needs to be done, there is no doubt about that. But Mary ignored all that kind of so-called important thinking and truly spent a very emotionally necessary moment adoring her Savior, for he literally was the one who saved her from what would have happened to her if her brother had remained dead. Jesus meant all the world to her at this moment and she took the time to focus her attention on him, and only on him.
What was Jesus' response to her actions? He accepted her adoration and claimed that generations throughout history would remember what she had done for him before he died. She annointed his body with oils prior to his death, which was coming soon. He was loving and kind in his acceptance of her sacrificial gift to him.
How much time have you spent this week truly focusing your thinking and feeling on Jesus? What sacrifice have you made in your own life to demonstrate that God is supreme in your life? Have you spent time with God in prayer, in Bible study, in reflection finding the peace within yourself that only God in Christ can give to you?
I encourage you this week to be extravagant in your praise and adoration of God in Christ Jesus. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks about what you are doing. Lose yourself in praising God. Remember: Like Jeus was to Mary, God wants to be just as accepting, and extravagant in love toward you...even more so. It's at least something to think about.
This week's Gospel Reading comes from John 12:1-8 and tells the story of Jesus returning to the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha not long after he has raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus and Lazarus are under threat for their lives from the ruling priests and other religious leaders. Many people are now following Jesus and they fear that Jesus and his followers will upset the way things are and that the foreign Roman government ruling over them will dismiss them from their own positions of power.
Here in the home of this very unconventional family: a single man and his two single sisters...a Queer Family if you will...Jesus, also a single man, returns to his chosen family for rest and renewal. Some scholars even believe that Lazarus is the "Beloved Disciple" that the gospel writer refers to in the book of John. We know that Jesus is intimately connected to this family and has chosen their home as his base of operation when he is in the Jerusalem area. Those of us in the LGBT community can fully understand the importance of our "Chosen Family," those friends we have developed as part of our experience and life in Queerdom. Often our Chosen Family is more important to us than our family of birth, especially if that birth family has rejected us or harrassed and condemned us for being sexually oriented differently than they desire for us to be.
Can you imagine the emotions that must be at play as Jesus returns to this home? Here sitting with them again is the one who brought their brother back from the dead. Here is the man who did the impossible. Here is the Messiah, come from God, and he's eating and talking witht them. Mary, moved with what I can only describe as passionate thanksgiving and supreme adoration, takes a bottle of very expensive perfume...worth a year's wages, probably her 'trust fund' in case something did ever happen to Lazarus and she had no one else to support her...and pours it out onto Jesus' feet, massaging his feet and wiping the oil from his feet with her long hair, an extremely intimate and almost erotic kind of action. There are very deep emotions flowing here.
Some who were present that evening are offended by Mary's behavior and criticize her wastefulness of the costly perfume in such a disturbing...to them...demonstration of love for Jesus. Why we could have used it to feed the poor...or built a new chapel...or paid the pastor's salary...or sent a missionary to Africa. There is always something that needs to be done, there is no doubt about that. But Mary ignored all that kind of so-called important thinking and truly spent a very emotionally necessary moment adoring her Savior, for he literally was the one who saved her from what would have happened to her if her brother had remained dead. Jesus meant all the world to her at this moment and she took the time to focus her attention on him, and only on him.
What was Jesus' response to her actions? He accepted her adoration and claimed that generations throughout history would remember what she had done for him before he died. She annointed his body with oils prior to his death, which was coming soon. He was loving and kind in his acceptance of her sacrificial gift to him.
How much time have you spent this week truly focusing your thinking and feeling on Jesus? What sacrifice have you made in your own life to demonstrate that God is supreme in your life? Have you spent time with God in prayer, in Bible study, in reflection finding the peace within yourself that only God in Christ can give to you?
I encourage you this week to be extravagant in your praise and adoration of God in Christ Jesus. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks about what you are doing. Lose yourself in praising God. Remember: Like Jeus was to Mary, God wants to be just as accepting, and extravagant in love toward you...even more so. It's at least something to think about.
The Amazing Grace of a Prodigal Parent: Lent 4 Year C
This week's lectionary uses Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son as an example of the kind of grace and love that God pours out upon us. The parable might more appropriately be entitled "The Prodigal Parent." The word prodigal means 'extravagantly wasteful' which describes both the young man's spending of his inheritance and also the father's demonstration of love toward his son upon the son's return.
If you read the passage in Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 you will quickly see that Jesus is dealing with Religious leaders who feel that Jesus is hanging out with the wrong kinds of people, with those that they find unacceptable to themselves and who they also wish to define as unacceptable to God. So Jesus tells them a story about a horrible son, a child who goes against all that is acceptable to their society by behaving in an unthinkable manner and demands that his father give to him his portion of the estate that would be left to him when his father dies. This is basically the same thing as saying, "Drop dead, Dad...and do it right now." In order to fulfill the son's request...something the father does and which would have been not only outrageous to Jesus' listeners, but totally unexpected of a Jewish father in that society...the father apparently divides his property in half and gives each son a half. Law said only one-third would go to the youngest son, while the oldest son would get two-thirds of the inheritance.
The younger boy apparently converts his property into cash, again a horrendous kind of action because you did not sell the family farmland as it was entrusted to you for future generations as a gift from God, departs with his wealth and spends it recklessly. He went to a Gentile city and hung out with unclean Gentile people. Soon he is destitute and must go to work for a pig farmer in order to stay alive, the worst kind of employment a Jewish man could have taken in that society. It would have made this sinful and unacceptable boy completely unclean. No one could have wanted such a person in their community, let alone in their home. Faced with starvation the boy decides to go home and offer himself to his father as a servant on the farm reasoning that his father treats his servants better than the boy is being treated by his own employer.
Off the child goes back home. Now Jesus' listeners would have expected the father to reject the son and kick him back out, but there is another turn of events, another unexpected action by a character within this story. The father has been watching for the return of the son and upon seeing him walking toward the house, the father runs out to him and embraces him and bestows upon the son all of the honors reserved only for a beloved, well-behaved child. This would have been a horrendous situation to the listeners. How could this father do this after all the son has done to hurt the father? And most important of all, if you notice, the son never got to tell the father that he was sorry for what he had done. No real repentance if you read the story carefully, just pure and simple self-preservation on the boy's part knowing his father would at least feed him and he wouldn't starve. That's not real repentance. And anyway, the boy never even gets to tell any part of his story because the father overwhelms him with love, care, restoration, hope and a future. This is, if you will, a glimpse of the resurrection Jesus himself will experience in a short while.
Many teach that in order to receive God's love and blessings we must repent, we must enumerate our sins and beg God to forgive us, throwing ourselves upon God's mercy. Many think that some so-called sins by their definition are so horrible as to almost cause God to fail to forgive anyone who commits those sins. Homosexuality, pre-marital sex, pregnancy out of wedlock, divorce, and more have all been treated almost as unforgiveable 'sins' by many on the religious right. But even with such "unspeakable and horrible" sins we have the reassurance from this parable that God goes running past those who say God cannot act in love toward such sinners, and we see God embracing all persons with God's amazing grace, enfolding them with God's unlimited love, and restoring them to their rightful place as God's own children.
The young man in this story was loved by the father before he demanded his own way, before he left home, in the same way that he was greeted and loved and welcomed back home when he did return. Jesus' story is about an unthinkable, extravagant loving parent who exceeds all social standards to demonstrate love for the child. I think Jesus is trying to tell us that there is nobody who falls outside of the boundaries of God's love and grace. God's love and grace are truly Amazing and beyond expectation and belief. God is truly prodigal in God's love for you and me. It's at least something to think about.
Pastor Ray
If you read the passage in Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 you will quickly see that Jesus is dealing with Religious leaders who feel that Jesus is hanging out with the wrong kinds of people, with those that they find unacceptable to themselves and who they also wish to define as unacceptable to God. So Jesus tells them a story about a horrible son, a child who goes against all that is acceptable to their society by behaving in an unthinkable manner and demands that his father give to him his portion of the estate that would be left to him when his father dies. This is basically the same thing as saying, "Drop dead, Dad...and do it right now." In order to fulfill the son's request...something the father does and which would have been not only outrageous to Jesus' listeners, but totally unexpected of a Jewish father in that society...the father apparently divides his property in half and gives each son a half. Law said only one-third would go to the youngest son, while the oldest son would get two-thirds of the inheritance.
The younger boy apparently converts his property into cash, again a horrendous kind of action because you did not sell the family farmland as it was entrusted to you for future generations as a gift from God, departs with his wealth and spends it recklessly. He went to a Gentile city and hung out with unclean Gentile people. Soon he is destitute and must go to work for a pig farmer in order to stay alive, the worst kind of employment a Jewish man could have taken in that society. It would have made this sinful and unacceptable boy completely unclean. No one could have wanted such a person in their community, let alone in their home. Faced with starvation the boy decides to go home and offer himself to his father as a servant on the farm reasoning that his father treats his servants better than the boy is being treated by his own employer.
Off the child goes back home. Now Jesus' listeners would have expected the father to reject the son and kick him back out, but there is another turn of events, another unexpected action by a character within this story. The father has been watching for the return of the son and upon seeing him walking toward the house, the father runs out to him and embraces him and bestows upon the son all of the honors reserved only for a beloved, well-behaved child. This would have been a horrendous situation to the listeners. How could this father do this after all the son has done to hurt the father? And most important of all, if you notice, the son never got to tell the father that he was sorry for what he had done. No real repentance if you read the story carefully, just pure and simple self-preservation on the boy's part knowing his father would at least feed him and he wouldn't starve. That's not real repentance. And anyway, the boy never even gets to tell any part of his story because the father overwhelms him with love, care, restoration, hope and a future. This is, if you will, a glimpse of the resurrection Jesus himself will experience in a short while.
Many teach that in order to receive God's love and blessings we must repent, we must enumerate our sins and beg God to forgive us, throwing ourselves upon God's mercy. Many think that some so-called sins by their definition are so horrible as to almost cause God to fail to forgive anyone who commits those sins. Homosexuality, pre-marital sex, pregnancy out of wedlock, divorce, and more have all been treated almost as unforgiveable 'sins' by many on the religious right. But even with such "unspeakable and horrible" sins we have the reassurance from this parable that God goes running past those who say God cannot act in love toward such sinners, and we see God embracing all persons with God's amazing grace, enfolding them with God's unlimited love, and restoring them to their rightful place as God's own children.
The young man in this story was loved by the father before he demanded his own way, before he left home, in the same way that he was greeted and loved and welcomed back home when he did return. Jesus' story is about an unthinkable, extravagant loving parent who exceeds all social standards to demonstrate love for the child. I think Jesus is trying to tell us that there is nobody who falls outside of the boundaries of God's love and grace. God's love and grace are truly Amazing and beyond expectation and belief. God is truly prodigal in God's love for you and me. It's at least something to think about.
Pastor Ray
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Second Chances (Lent 3, Year C)
In this week’s passage from Luke 13:1-9 Jesus confronts the question of why bad things happen to good people. In the thinking of ancient cultures a person deserved whatever happened to them, that is, bad things only happened to bad people. If you were a good person, then God would bless you with wealth, health, and happiness. If you were a bad person then God would punish you with bad health, accidents, and you would end up poor and homeless. In other words, blame the victim was the ruling thought of the day.
But Jesus contradicts this kind of thinking by saying that those who do encounter difficulty in their lives are no different from anyone else. But the idea that bad things only happen to bad people still persists in our society today. How often have you heard that anyone who gets HIV/AIDS deserved to get it by their faulty behavior? When I was growing up my parents would quote the following statement whenever I was in trouble, “If the shoe fits, wear it,” or “You made your own bed, now lie in it.” They were basically telling me that whatever had happened to me was my own fault. That wasn’t always true.
When my younger sister was born with facial deformities my parents decided that her handicaps meant that God was punishing them because they didn’t go to church and my father smoked tobacco and drank the occasional beer. Even as a five year old child I couldn’t understand the logic of that kind of thinking and if it was true wondered if God would get back at my parents by doing something horrible to me. My parents did start taking us to church and my dad did stop smoking and drinking any alcohol. But they also stopped playing Rook and cards and wouldn’t let me go to movies thinking that all of these things were somehow so sinful that God would punish them again if they didn’t clean up their lives completely.
We still have that kind of thinking going on in our own minds when someone has trouble in their lives. We ask: “What did they do or not do in order for this to happen to them.” Two hundred people get laid off because a company has economic problems but we ask our friend is one of the 200, “What did you do that they laid you off, too?” Like our friend might have some greater importance or ability than the other 199.
The fact is that we don’t control the future. But I guess I’m also saying that God doesn’t always control our future either. God has established a world where there are consequences to human actions like economic depressions and natural events like earthquakes and hurricanes that have nothing to do with what you and I might decide to do or how we might be living our lives. You cannot always, nor should you even try, to connect a natural event that causes you trouble with God deliberately punishing you in particular. That is a very childish way of relating to God. Grow up and take some advice from Jesus.
Jesus ends this discourse by talking about the fig tree that doesn’t bear fruit and the owner that wants it cut down. However, another person suggests that the tree may need some special attention and that by loosening the soil and adding some good old manure to the soil the tree just might bear fruit. Jesus is saying that God loves us enough to give us another chance, another opportunity to recover from our troubles and begin again. We are so much more important than even a barren fig tree that gets a second chance.
Got trouble in your lives? Don’t blame God or think that God is punishing you. Instead do turn to God for encouragement and God’s presence and power in your life to start all over again. God loves you enough to give you a second chance. It’s at least something to think about.
But Jesus contradicts this kind of thinking by saying that those who do encounter difficulty in their lives are no different from anyone else. But the idea that bad things only happen to bad people still persists in our society today. How often have you heard that anyone who gets HIV/AIDS deserved to get it by their faulty behavior? When I was growing up my parents would quote the following statement whenever I was in trouble, “If the shoe fits, wear it,” or “You made your own bed, now lie in it.” They were basically telling me that whatever had happened to me was my own fault. That wasn’t always true.
When my younger sister was born with facial deformities my parents decided that her handicaps meant that God was punishing them because they didn’t go to church and my father smoked tobacco and drank the occasional beer. Even as a five year old child I couldn’t understand the logic of that kind of thinking and if it was true wondered if God would get back at my parents by doing something horrible to me. My parents did start taking us to church and my dad did stop smoking and drinking any alcohol. But they also stopped playing Rook and cards and wouldn’t let me go to movies thinking that all of these things were somehow so sinful that God would punish them again if they didn’t clean up their lives completely.
We still have that kind of thinking going on in our own minds when someone has trouble in their lives. We ask: “What did they do or not do in order for this to happen to them.” Two hundred people get laid off because a company has economic problems but we ask our friend is one of the 200, “What did you do that they laid you off, too?” Like our friend might have some greater importance or ability than the other 199.
The fact is that we don’t control the future. But I guess I’m also saying that God doesn’t always control our future either. God has established a world where there are consequences to human actions like economic depressions and natural events like earthquakes and hurricanes that have nothing to do with what you and I might decide to do or how we might be living our lives. You cannot always, nor should you even try, to connect a natural event that causes you trouble with God deliberately punishing you in particular. That is a very childish way of relating to God. Grow up and take some advice from Jesus.
Jesus ends this discourse by talking about the fig tree that doesn’t bear fruit and the owner that wants it cut down. However, another person suggests that the tree may need some special attention and that by loosening the soil and adding some good old manure to the soil the tree just might bear fruit. Jesus is saying that God loves us enough to give us another chance, another opportunity to recover from our troubles and begin again. We are so much more important than even a barren fig tree that gets a second chance.
Got trouble in your lives? Don’t blame God or think that God is punishing you. Instead do turn to God for encouragement and God’s presence and power in your life to start all over again. God loves you enough to give you a second chance. It’s at least something to think about.
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