Death is difficult. Having just gone through the sudden loss of one of our dogs I can honestly say that death—even of a pet-- is really difficult.
The slightest, seemingly inconsequential thing suddenly takes on new meaning and the grief and sadness that overcomes us can be very painful.
Sudden deaths are shocking and terribly sad.
And as we weep, God is there to wipe away every tear.
My dad was ravaged by cancer. He was a mere shadow of his former self, the primary lung cancer had metastasized to his brain and his bones. He was wracked with pain and was hallucinating. His death was a relief from all that horror. Yet still, as he took his final breath it was shocking and terribly sad.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.
When my young friend Ian fell into a deep darkness that I can’t even comprehend and decided to take his own life, so many of us were shocked and terribly sad.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.
When we were in the middle of diocesan convention last week and word came down about the school shooting outside of Seattle, most of us flashed back to all the mass shootings before, none as horrific as Sandy Hook. Our bodies absorbed the shock and we were, once again, terribly sad.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.
On September 11, 2001 we were collectively kicked in the gut, terrified and shocked as the twin towers fell.
And as we wept, God wiped away every tear.
When each of the 40+ people we will remember during the Eucharist died, those who loved them were shocked and terribly sad.
And each and every time:
God wiped away every tear
This is what makes today so wonderful in my eyes---it’s a day when the veil that separates the here and now with those who were and will be forever, lifts just a bit and we find ourselves in that Thin Place where the wonders of life eternal visit us here in our life temporal, reminding us that we are never ever alone, no matter how deep the grief, no matter how painful the loss, no matter how persistent the sadness we are surrounded by Love.
But All Saints’ Day isn’t just about the death of our loved ones. It’s about comfort in the midst of all loss. Take a good look at our reading from Revelation today and be encouraged by the words:
"These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; …
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
All of us here today have lost things---jobs, relationships, health, hope, faith…and we grieve these losses and it is while in the midst of that grief when we can feel the most alone. Today is the day that we remember we’re never alone .
I’m lucky because I get to come into this sacred space late at night and early in the morning, when the world out there is quiet. As I walk around the nave---this area---I can feel them…all those people who loved this place. All those people who sat in these same pews, people who experienced losses unimaginable---those who lived through the Great Depression; those who lived through the loss of young men listed on our wall of war dead; those who lost their health; their livelihood; their relationships. Those who lost their hope and at times even their faith. Their presence lingers and on this great feast day may we all find comfort and strength in all that they did, all they accomplished, all they endured.
Comfort and strength.
I won’t lie to you. We need all the comfort and strength we can get.
Why?
Because the fact of the matter is this---the message we have for the world, the message so beautifully put in our reading from Matthew this morning is a message that was counter-cultural then and is, sadly, countercultural now.
The different and the outcast, the disabled and the ill, the young and the old, the immigrant and refugee are still reviled.
And our job is to push this world into more inclusion, more tolerance and more love.
That has always been our job and I fear it will continue to be our job for generations to come.
But, and this is where we really need courage and creativity, the way we do this job, the way we spread this message, needs updating. I’m not sure how that will look, but I know it won’t look like this---we owe it to our forebears, we owe it to our children, we owe it to our God to figure out how to be who we are in this 21st century world with limited resources, an aging building and a world that doesn’t want to hear us.
Sounds like a tall order, doesn’t it?
It is.
But, with this immense cloud of witnesses surrounding us we can do this—it will require breaking out of our comfort zone, it will require doing some things---perhaps many things---differently, it will take courage. It will take hope. It will take flexibility. It will take love. It will take All the Saints, wiping our tears and guiding us to wherever it is God calls us to go.
Amen
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
Proper 24 Year A October 19, 2014 "Where God just was" Ascension version
One author describes today’s reading from Exodus like this: Moses wanted to see God face to face but God wanted Moses to focus less on who God is and more on what God does, so God puts Moses in a crevice, high atop a mountain where Moses could hear and feel God’s passing but wouldn’t be able to look until God had already passed by. God made sure that Moses didn’t look at God but rather saw where God had just been. Our English texts usually say that Moses could “see God’s back,” but that’s an inaccurate translation. Moses caught no sight of the “body” of God. He saw the place where God just was.
Not being able to see God face to face makes perfect sense to me. You see, God cannot be quantified--God doesn’t have a face. Or a head, or arms or legs. God isn’t some old man sitting on a throne….unless God as an old man sitting on a throne is a comforting image to you….you see God isn’t anything one thing God is every little thing, everywhere, always and forever. God is light, God is Love, God is energy. All depictions of God as a man are simply the imaginings of artists….we can’t see God face to face because God is not static, God is not mortal, God is not physical.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t see God. If we pay attention, we can absolutely see God. And that, I think was God’s point in this encounter with Moses.
Just as Moses could “see where God has been,” we, too, can see where God has been…. And where God will always be….we just have to look around.
Remember what Aidan said at our congregational meeting a few weeks ago, that he thought we should take our money and give it to people who didn’t have any…tell me that isn’t a stunning example of “where God has been and will always be….”
Consider the Pet Food Pantry---all the folks who volunteer at it, all the churches who have emulated it, all the grateful clients, who are served with grace, dignity and joy and tell me that’s not a stunning example of where God has been and will always be.
God is active in and around us, but-- and here’s the problem facing the modern church--- does the world notice? If you ask the secular world about God, I don’t think you’d hear much about God-sightings.
There’s a new study out, exploring all the reasons that church attendance, continues to drop at a pretty steady, and frankly, alarming rate. One point really impressed me:
"When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community…
Nearly HALF couldn’t identify how churches favorably impact society?
Yikes.
Folks, what this means is that people aren’t noticing God in this world…so we have more work to do, because our job is to increase God-sightings. Frankly, I think we do a pretty good job of making God’s handiwork clear to those who are looking….the trick is getting more people to look…and to see.
I think our move into Good Shepherd’s building will be a great opportunity for God Sightings.
You all are showing the diocese, once again, what can happen when a group of people keep their focus on Love of God and Love of Neighbor. You know that old hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love?” I am proud to say that the Church of the Ascension is a wonderful example of that sentiment. Soon the diocese will know that we are the real deal by our love…for even in the face of great challenges you have risen above and beyond those challenges by focusing on Love and Joy and Hope.
Sadly many other ”Christian communities,” have completely lost their way. As author and pastor Joe Daniels puts it: Far too many churches today have become drive-in, spiritual social clubs and not the agents of community vitality and life transformation they used to be. As a result, communities are suffering, churches are dying, and far too many people are searching for hope in all the wrong places.
We must show people that God is at work in our world through us.
It isn’t up to God to show God’s self to the world, it’s up to us!
We CAN show the world God. If we live God-centered lives, people WILL notice.
In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the Pharisees what mark is on the coin they have challenged him with—they rightly respond, Caesars (Emperors). Jesus’ point is clear, we must bear the mark of God, not the mark of the Caesars of this world—all the things that are “not of God” that consume and distract us.
When we boldly and actively bear the mark of God in all that we do and every place we go, people will notice…they’ll notice that God has been and always will be here.
These next few months will be challenging, they’ll be sad, they’ll be frustrating. Come January when we are worshiping in a new space, in a different part of the city, things will feel uncertain and foreign but one thing will remain—we each and everyone of us, bears the mark of Christ in our hearts. We are faithful, courageous people who love God and each other.
Remember that. Remember that in all the uncertainty and strangeness we will, as we also have had, each other and God.
We may not see God’s face, but we see God each and every time we greet one another, and our neighbors, in love. God has just passed by, can you see it? Can you feel it? Can you?
God was here. God is here. And God will always be, right here. With us. Among us and in us.
The world is watching. Will they know we are Christians? Yes, I believe they will.
Not being able to see God face to face makes perfect sense to me. You see, God cannot be quantified--God doesn’t have a face. Or a head, or arms or legs. God isn’t some old man sitting on a throne….unless God as an old man sitting on a throne is a comforting image to you….you see God isn’t anything one thing God is every little thing, everywhere, always and forever. God is light, God is Love, God is energy. All depictions of God as a man are simply the imaginings of artists….we can’t see God face to face because God is not static, God is not mortal, God is not physical.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t see God. If we pay attention, we can absolutely see God. And that, I think was God’s point in this encounter with Moses.
Just as Moses could “see where God has been,” we, too, can see where God has been…. And where God will always be….we just have to look around.
Remember what Aidan said at our congregational meeting a few weeks ago, that he thought we should take our money and give it to people who didn’t have any…tell me that isn’t a stunning example of “where God has been and will always be….”
Consider the Pet Food Pantry---all the folks who volunteer at it, all the churches who have emulated it, all the grateful clients, who are served with grace, dignity and joy and tell me that’s not a stunning example of where God has been and will always be.
God is active in and around us, but-- and here’s the problem facing the modern church--- does the world notice? If you ask the secular world about God, I don’t think you’d hear much about God-sightings.
There’s a new study out, exploring all the reasons that church attendance, continues to drop at a pretty steady, and frankly, alarming rate. One point really impressed me:
"When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community…
Nearly HALF couldn’t identify how churches favorably impact society?
Yikes.
Folks, what this means is that people aren’t noticing God in this world…so we have more work to do, because our job is to increase God-sightings. Frankly, I think we do a pretty good job of making God’s handiwork clear to those who are looking….the trick is getting more people to look…and to see.
I think our move into Good Shepherd’s building will be a great opportunity for God Sightings.
You all are showing the diocese, once again, what can happen when a group of people keep their focus on Love of God and Love of Neighbor. You know that old hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love?” I am proud to say that the Church of the Ascension is a wonderful example of that sentiment. Soon the diocese will know that we are the real deal by our love…for even in the face of great challenges you have risen above and beyond those challenges by focusing on Love and Joy and Hope.
Sadly many other ”Christian communities,” have completely lost their way. As author and pastor Joe Daniels puts it: Far too many churches today have become drive-in, spiritual social clubs and not the agents of community vitality and life transformation they used to be. As a result, communities are suffering, churches are dying, and far too many people are searching for hope in all the wrong places.
We must show people that God is at work in our world through us.
It isn’t up to God to show God’s self to the world, it’s up to us!
We CAN show the world God. If we live God-centered lives, people WILL notice.
In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the Pharisees what mark is on the coin they have challenged him with—they rightly respond, Caesars (Emperors). Jesus’ point is clear, we must bear the mark of God, not the mark of the Caesars of this world—all the things that are “not of God” that consume and distract us.
When we boldly and actively bear the mark of God in all that we do and every place we go, people will notice…they’ll notice that God has been and always will be here.
These next few months will be challenging, they’ll be sad, they’ll be frustrating. Come January when we are worshiping in a new space, in a different part of the city, things will feel uncertain and foreign but one thing will remain—we each and everyone of us, bears the mark of Christ in our hearts. We are faithful, courageous people who love God and each other.
Remember that. Remember that in all the uncertainty and strangeness we will, as we also have had, each other and God.
We may not see God’s face, but we see God each and every time we greet one another, and our neighbors, in love. God has just passed by, can you see it? Can you feel it? Can you?
God was here. God is here. And God will always be, right here. With us. Among us and in us.
The world is watching. Will they know we are Christians? Yes, I believe they will.
Proper 24 Year A October 19, 2014 "Where God just was" Good Shepherd version
One author describes today’s reading from Exodus like this: Moses wanted to see God face to face but God wanted Moses to focus less on who God is and more on what God does, so God puts Moses in a crevice, high atop a mountain where Moses could hear and feel God’s passing but wouldn’t be able to look until God had already passed by. God made sure that Moses didn’t look at God but rather saw where God had just been. Our English texts usually say that Moses could “see God’s back,” but that’s an inaccurate translation. Moses caught no sight of the “body” of God. He saw the place where God just was.
Not being able to see God face to face makes perfect sense to me. You see, God cannot be quantified--God doesn’t have a face. Or a head, or arms or legs. God isn’t some old man sitting on a throne….unless God as an old man sitting on a throne is a comforting image to you….you see God isn’t anything one thing God is every little thing, everywhere, always and forever. God is light, God is Love, God is energy. All depictions of God as a man are simply the imaginings of artists….we can’t see God face to face because God is not static, God is not mortal, God is not physical.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t see God. If we pay attention, we can absolutely see God. And that, I think was God’s point in this encounter with Moses.
Just as Moses could “see where God has been,” we, too, can see where God has been…. And where God will always be….we just have to notice.
Look at our children as they gather behind the altar with me each Sunday…tell me that isn’t a stunning example of “where God has been and will always be….”
Stop by the Food Pantry any given Wednesday and look at Bruce, David, Bev, Joan, Heather, Amy, Jill, Jeannine, and Gloria serving the clients of the pantry with grace, dignity and joy and tell me that’s not a stunning example of where God has been and will always be.
God is active in and around us, but, and here’s the problem facing the modern church, does the world notice? If you ask the secular world about God, I don’t think you’d hear much about God-sightings.
There’s a new study out, exploring all the reasons that church attendance, continues to drop at a pretty steady, and frankly, alarming rate. One point really impressed me:
"When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community…
Nearly HALF couldn’t identify how churches favorably impact society?
Yikes.
Folks, what this means is that people aren’t noticing God in this world. It means that even with the outreach work I just outlined, we have more work to do because our job, as Christians, is to help the world notice God. Our job is to increase the God-sightings in this, our corner of the world. You know that old hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love?” We may want to revisit that. As author and pastor Joe Daniels puts it: Far too many churches today have become drive-in, spiritual social clubs and not the agents of community vitality and life transformation they used to be. As a result, communities are suffering, churches are dying, and far too many people are searching for hope in all the wrong places.
We must show people that God is at work in our world through us.
It isn’t up to God to show God’s self to the world, it’s up to us!
This is the lesson God was trying to teach Moses.
Moses felt like God was being coy and elusive. But God isn’t coy or elusive, we are just too distracted to notice God’s imprint on our world.
God’s not in hiding, the world just isn’t looking.
We have to show the world God.
The 117 pink flags on our front lawn show people God.
The money collected from the noisy offering shows the kids at school 54, God.
The 59,000 meals provided to our neighbors through our food pantry shows God to the world.
All of that is great, but clearly there is more to do.
How else can we show the world the handiwork of our gracious and loving creator?
In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the Pharisees what mark is on the coin they have challenged him with—they rightly respond, Caesars. Jesus’ point is clear, we must bear the mark of God, not the mark of the Caesars of this world—all the things that are “not of God” that consume and distract us.
When we boldly and actively bear the mark of God in all that we do and every place we go, people will notice…they’ll notice that God has been and always will be here.
So…
How can the Church of the Good Shepherd become even more welcoming? How can we become even more helpful to the lost, the lonely the downtrodden and the despairing?
How can we, here at the corner of Jewett Pkwy and Summit Avenue become more than that pretty church on the corner? What can we do to ensure that the footprint of God is ever-present to all who wander past our doors, so ever present that they stop in and stay awhile? How can we, in all that we do, bear the imprint of God, so that all who encounter us realize and rejoice in the fact that through us, they’ve encountered God?
In this season of stewardship we take stock of who we are, who we want to be and how we can get there. As you pray about your financial pledge for 2015 I ask you to also consider how we, as a community of faith can show the world that God is here, now and forever. Amen.
Not being able to see God face to face makes perfect sense to me. You see, God cannot be quantified--God doesn’t have a face. Or a head, or arms or legs. God isn’t some old man sitting on a throne….unless God as an old man sitting on a throne is a comforting image to you….you see God isn’t anything one thing God is every little thing, everywhere, always and forever. God is light, God is Love, God is energy. All depictions of God as a man are simply the imaginings of artists….we can’t see God face to face because God is not static, God is not mortal, God is not physical.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t see God. If we pay attention, we can absolutely see God. And that, I think was God’s point in this encounter with Moses.
Just as Moses could “see where God has been,” we, too, can see where God has been…. And where God will always be….we just have to notice.
Look at our children as they gather behind the altar with me each Sunday…tell me that isn’t a stunning example of “where God has been and will always be….”
Stop by the Food Pantry any given Wednesday and look at Bruce, David, Bev, Joan, Heather, Amy, Jill, Jeannine, and Gloria serving the clients of the pantry with grace, dignity and joy and tell me that’s not a stunning example of where God has been and will always be.
God is active in and around us, but, and here’s the problem facing the modern church, does the world notice? If you ask the secular world about God, I don’t think you’d hear much about God-sightings.
There’s a new study out, exploring all the reasons that church attendance, continues to drop at a pretty steady, and frankly, alarming rate. One point really impressed me:
"When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community…
Nearly HALF couldn’t identify how churches favorably impact society?
Yikes.
Folks, what this means is that people aren’t noticing God in this world. It means that even with the outreach work I just outlined, we have more work to do because our job, as Christians, is to help the world notice God. Our job is to increase the God-sightings in this, our corner of the world. You know that old hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love?” We may want to revisit that. As author and pastor Joe Daniels puts it: Far too many churches today have become drive-in, spiritual social clubs and not the agents of community vitality and life transformation they used to be. As a result, communities are suffering, churches are dying, and far too many people are searching for hope in all the wrong places.
We must show people that God is at work in our world through us.
It isn’t up to God to show God’s self to the world, it’s up to us!
This is the lesson God was trying to teach Moses.
Moses felt like God was being coy and elusive. But God isn’t coy or elusive, we are just too distracted to notice God’s imprint on our world.
God’s not in hiding, the world just isn’t looking.
We have to show the world God.
The 117 pink flags on our front lawn show people God.
The money collected from the noisy offering shows the kids at school 54, God.
The 59,000 meals provided to our neighbors through our food pantry shows God to the world.
All of that is great, but clearly there is more to do.
How else can we show the world the handiwork of our gracious and loving creator?
In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the Pharisees what mark is on the coin they have challenged him with—they rightly respond, Caesars. Jesus’ point is clear, we must bear the mark of God, not the mark of the Caesars of this world—all the things that are “not of God” that consume and distract us.
When we boldly and actively bear the mark of God in all that we do and every place we go, people will notice…they’ll notice that God has been and always will be here.
So…
How can the Church of the Good Shepherd become even more welcoming? How can we become even more helpful to the lost, the lonely the downtrodden and the despairing?
How can we, here at the corner of Jewett Pkwy and Summit Avenue become more than that pretty church on the corner? What can we do to ensure that the footprint of God is ever-present to all who wander past our doors, so ever present that they stop in and stay awhile? How can we, in all that we do, bear the imprint of God, so that all who encounter us realize and rejoice in the fact that through us, they’ve encountered God?
In this season of stewardship we take stock of who we are, who we want to be and how we can get there. As you pray about your financial pledge for 2015 I ask you to also consider how we, as a community of faith can show the world that God is here, now and forever. Amen.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
We're Invited to really dig into this parable.Proper 23 October 12, 2014
+It’s the best party ever and we’re invited. All we have to do is say yes and join the celebration. God has set the table and has reserved a spot just for us. God is waiting. What’s taking us so long?
Today’s Gospel is Matthew’s version of the more famous parable in Luke called the Parable of the Great Dinner. Matthew’s version varies in a few ways, first of all, in Matthew it isn’t just any ol’ dinner, it’s a wedding banquet and secondly, Matthew’s is a fairly dark take on the whole story, with some pretty violent imagery. To be honest, it would be a WHOLE lot more fun to preach on Luke’s version, for Luke’s version is minus the murder, the destroying fire, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. But, alas, today we have Matthew not Luke. So here we go…
Jesus is still in the temple, answering the accusations of the temple leaders when he shares this parable. Remember, in a few days he’ll be crucified. The end of Jesus’ earthly ministry looms and all indications suggest that Jesus is feeling the pressure to get his point across….and fast!
Parables are stories that are replete with symbolism, double entendre and the like. To take a parable at face value is dangerous, for the truth actually lies beneath the surface. To hear the truth we must first understand the context in which the story was first told.
In Biblical imagery, a banquet is used to describe God’s interaction with us: we’re all invited to accept God’s offer of never ending, over the moon love. Since time began, God has been inviting us to this banquet; and for generation upon generation we’ve ignored these invitations, we’ve denied these prophets, we’ve rejected God. We don’t show up for dinner.
Now the dinner Matthew describes isn’t just a dinner, it’s a wedding reception; and marriage, in biblical imagery, is a metaphor for God’s covenant with us---God’s promise to us.
To round out the imagery glossary, the king represents God and the son, of course, is Jesus.
It’s easy to assume, with this typecasting, that we’re the people who are being beaten, murdered or cast out, but—and hear me loud and clear---it not us!
In the first round of violence, beginning in verse 6, it appears that the King’s rage is a reaction to hurt and disappointment. The king, God, has invited what seem to be the most “deserving” of God’s children to the banquet. And yet the “select few” make light of the king’s/God’s invite, going back home, back to work, back to life as usual-- declining God’s invitation, disrespecting God’s offer, denying God’s love. God’s feelings, however it is that God experiences emotions, are hurt. And God acted out. You may think I’m nuts for saying that God had a temper tantrum like a 2 year old, but take a little walk through Hebrew scripture….God has a tendency to get extremely frustrated with humanity and, frankly, some of God’s responses were a little tantrum-y. My point is that for Matthew, the God of his sacred scripture, that is what is commonly referred to as the Old Testament, was a bit moody, so it makes sense that Matthew tells of “the king” sending an army to deal with the subjects who rejected the king’s generous offer of a banquet by laughing at it and beating up (and in some cases killing) the messenger. Hurt and anger leading to retribution. That pattern is as old as humanity itself.
In that light, it would be easy to write off the second episode of violent imagery as more divine acting out, but it’s not. The section I’m referring to is the part toward the end when the King becomes outraged at the man who isn’t wearing a wedding robe. He has the man bound and thrown into the outer darkness, where there’s all that weeping and gnashing of teeth.
What?
Really?
Because he wasn’t wearing the right clothes??
Ok, bear with me, at this point of the parable the imagery is hot and heavy, and the message within that imagery? Priceless.
The wedding robe is a metaphor for the embrace of God. This wedding guest wasn’t there because he loved God, he was there because he hated God. You see, this guy wasn’t a person at all, he’s a metaphor for what is commonly called Satan or the Devil, or evil, or the forces of darkness.
You’ve all heard me describe the difference between the world of us, humanity and the world God intends for us as being the world of Not God and the world of God.
The guest without the wedding robe is from the Not God world. He represents the forces of THIS world that work overtime to defeat the Love that is God. The poorly dressed wedding crasher represents all the evil that is, indeed permeating our world.
God is light and love, Not God is darkness and not Love. The wedding crasher was, most definitely, NOT love. So when Jesus says the wedding crasher will be tossed into the utter darkness he’s saying---the forces of evil in this world, the NOT GOD of this world will not win and will, in time, be swallowed up into the darkness of hate from which they came.
This parable, with all it’s twists and turns and violent scenes is, in the end, like so much of the Bible, a love story.
God has invited us to the greatest party of all time--- a party full of light and love and laughter. When we accept Jesus Christ into our heart, when we strive to live our life as Jesus has taught us to do--- loving God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul, and loving our neighbor as our self---we’ve said yes to God and we’ve entered the most fabulous party of all time. A party that never ends, a party that’s never boring, a party that will never ever disappoint.
Amen.
Today’s Gospel is Matthew’s version of the more famous parable in Luke called the Parable of the Great Dinner. Matthew’s version varies in a few ways, first of all, in Matthew it isn’t just any ol’ dinner, it’s a wedding banquet and secondly, Matthew’s is a fairly dark take on the whole story, with some pretty violent imagery. To be honest, it would be a WHOLE lot more fun to preach on Luke’s version, for Luke’s version is minus the murder, the destroying fire, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. But, alas, today we have Matthew not Luke. So here we go…
Jesus is still in the temple, answering the accusations of the temple leaders when he shares this parable. Remember, in a few days he’ll be crucified. The end of Jesus’ earthly ministry looms and all indications suggest that Jesus is feeling the pressure to get his point across….and fast!
Parables are stories that are replete with symbolism, double entendre and the like. To take a parable at face value is dangerous, for the truth actually lies beneath the surface. To hear the truth we must first understand the context in which the story was first told.
In Biblical imagery, a banquet is used to describe God’s interaction with us: we’re all invited to accept God’s offer of never ending, over the moon love. Since time began, God has been inviting us to this banquet; and for generation upon generation we’ve ignored these invitations, we’ve denied these prophets, we’ve rejected God. We don’t show up for dinner.
Now the dinner Matthew describes isn’t just a dinner, it’s a wedding reception; and marriage, in biblical imagery, is a metaphor for God’s covenant with us---God’s promise to us.
To round out the imagery glossary, the king represents God and the son, of course, is Jesus.
It’s easy to assume, with this typecasting, that we’re the people who are being beaten, murdered or cast out, but—and hear me loud and clear---it not us!
In the first round of violence, beginning in verse 6, it appears that the King’s rage is a reaction to hurt and disappointment. The king, God, has invited what seem to be the most “deserving” of God’s children to the banquet. And yet the “select few” make light of the king’s/God’s invite, going back home, back to work, back to life as usual-- declining God’s invitation, disrespecting God’s offer, denying God’s love. God’s feelings, however it is that God experiences emotions, are hurt. And God acted out. You may think I’m nuts for saying that God had a temper tantrum like a 2 year old, but take a little walk through Hebrew scripture….God has a tendency to get extremely frustrated with humanity and, frankly, some of God’s responses were a little tantrum-y. My point is that for Matthew, the God of his sacred scripture, that is what is commonly referred to as the Old Testament, was a bit moody, so it makes sense that Matthew tells of “the king” sending an army to deal with the subjects who rejected the king’s generous offer of a banquet by laughing at it and beating up (and in some cases killing) the messenger. Hurt and anger leading to retribution. That pattern is as old as humanity itself.
In that light, it would be easy to write off the second episode of violent imagery as more divine acting out, but it’s not. The section I’m referring to is the part toward the end when the King becomes outraged at the man who isn’t wearing a wedding robe. He has the man bound and thrown into the outer darkness, where there’s all that weeping and gnashing of teeth.
What?
Really?
Because he wasn’t wearing the right clothes??
Ok, bear with me, at this point of the parable the imagery is hot and heavy, and the message within that imagery? Priceless.
The wedding robe is a metaphor for the embrace of God. This wedding guest wasn’t there because he loved God, he was there because he hated God. You see, this guy wasn’t a person at all, he’s a metaphor for what is commonly called Satan or the Devil, or evil, or the forces of darkness.
You’ve all heard me describe the difference between the world of us, humanity and the world God intends for us as being the world of Not God and the world of God.
The guest without the wedding robe is from the Not God world. He represents the forces of THIS world that work overtime to defeat the Love that is God. The poorly dressed wedding crasher represents all the evil that is, indeed permeating our world.
God is light and love, Not God is darkness and not Love. The wedding crasher was, most definitely, NOT love. So when Jesus says the wedding crasher will be tossed into the utter darkness he’s saying---the forces of evil in this world, the NOT GOD of this world will not win and will, in time, be swallowed up into the darkness of hate from which they came.
This parable, with all it’s twists and turns and violent scenes is, in the end, like so much of the Bible, a love story.
God has invited us to the greatest party of all time--- a party full of light and love and laughter. When we accept Jesus Christ into our heart, when we strive to live our life as Jesus has taught us to do--- loving God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul, and loving our neighbor as our self---we’ve said yes to God and we’ve entered the most fabulous party of all time. A party that never ends, a party that’s never boring, a party that will never ever disappoint.
Amen.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Pentecost 17 Yr A Connections make us who we are
There are two versions of this sermon, the first is for Good Shepherd, the second is for Ascension
+Today’s gospel isn’t pretty, it isn’t easy and it isn’t light. But it is really really good.
Let me set the stage for you: Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem to face what is sure to be a violent and tragic end. He’s had three years to preach his message of a “new way.” For three years he’s challenged the status quo, uprooted the traditions of the faith and ticked off almost all the religious leaders of his day. All of his teaching and preaching has come down to this confrontation: a rag tag group of country folk following an itinerant, blasphemous rabbi from Nazareth against the well-heeled, firmly entrenched religious bureaucrats of the temple. It's the established versus the itinerant, it’s the tony vs. the smelly, it’s the old vs. the new. The tradition of the temple vs the way of Jesus Christ .
You see, somewhere along the line, the temple authorities had gotten lost. They’d become all about the power of their position rather than the honor of their position. Somewhere along the line, the prestige of their titles became far more important than their actual vocations. The temple authorities remind me a lot of the previous pope, Benedict, while Jesus reminds me a lot of the current pope, Francis. Benedict liked the finer things in life and was not afraid of flaunting thousand dollar shoes and ermine collared copes… … while Francis likes the simpler things in life, a common sedan instead of a limo, simple white vestments instead of gold lame’.
Benedict was drawn to the seclusion and protection of the Vatican while Francis seems drawn to the ghettos and the slums.
Jesus was all about the ghettos and the slums….
And that made him a huge threat to the temple leaders. You see they could handle Jesus wanting to take over their jobs—that was a threat they could manage—what threw them for a loop was Jesus’ complete disgust, disdain and fury for all that they valued: prestige, the pomp and the circumstance.
Jesus'. disgust, disdain and fury was triggered by the moneychangers in the temple. When he sees the commerce associated with temple worship he LOSES HIS MIND.
Offended, the temple authorities confront him asking Jesus; in no uncertain terms just who does he think he is?
The parables of the Vineyards, which we've heard these past few weeks, are Jesus’ responses to them.
Now, The actual vineyard part of today’s Gospel, when read through our Christian perspective seems pretty straightforward---God has given us charge over all of creation and we’ve pretty much mucked it up…going so far as to kill the very Son of God, God's greatest gift to us---as I said, pretty standard Christian stuff…it's what comes after the parable that, for me, is the real meat of today’s Gospel.
When Jesus reminds the leaders of this line from psalm 118, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;" he's saying, “you reject me, but it's through me that a completely different temple will be built. A temple without stone or wall, a temple without roof or floor. A temple that will exist within and between people, a temple of community, a temple of love and faith and good will, a temple open to all who feel drawn to it, —no exceptions—a temple made up of people who together do their best to care for God’s vineyard here on earth.
Jesus is telling them that they've lost their way that they've forgotten God’s message of love, as outlined in the ten commandments we just heard a few minutes ago.
It happens all the time, in business, in politics, in schools and in families –we lose our way when we become enamored with our power instead of humbled by our responsibility.
It happens in faith communities all the time, too: the love of power subverts the love of God. The love of "things" distracts us from the work God calls us to do. A stained glass window becomes more important than caring for the children depicted within it, the love of an organ becomes more important than the songs of praise to God it plays, the love of sitting in the pew and listening to scintillating sermons becomes more important than walking out these doors to do the work we’ve been given to do. No matter how good our intentions, it's so easy to lose our way, to forget that we--- each and everyone of us--- has been entrusted with the work of God.
Another name for this is stewardship.
It’s easy to confuse funding building maintenance and programs with real down and dirty ministry. What Jesus is saying to the temple leaders and to us is "don’t confuse the means with the end." Yes we need to pay our bills, yes we need to keep our physical plant operational, yes we have salaries, but those things are not the end, those things are the means through which people become connected to God in this community of faith.
Stewardship is all about connections—connections between those of us here today, connections to those who came before us, connections to those who are yet to come.
Connections to God.
And, above all else, Stewardship is about honoring God’s connection with us.
When we say I am Good Shepherd you are Good Shepherd we are Good Shepherd we are naming those connections, we are honoring them. For when we say we're Good Shepherd we're really saying, we are God's fully completely and forever.
Unlike the Temple leaders, we know that it’s the connections through relationships and not the trappings of buildings and status that bring us ever closer to realizing the love of God, which is beyond all reason and surpasses all understanding.
And for that we say Amen.+
+Today’s gospel isn’t pretty, it isn’t easy and it isn’t light. But it is really really good.
Let me set the stage for you: Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem to face what is sure to be a violent and tragic end. He’s had three years to preach his message of a “new way.” For three years he’s challenged the status quo, uprooted the traditions of the faith and ticked off almost all the religious leaders of his day. All of his teaching and preaching has come down to this confrontation: a rag tag group of country folk following an itinerant, blasphemous rabbi from Nazareth against the well-heeled, firmly entrenched religious bureaucrats of the temple. It's the established versus the itinerant, it’s the tony vs. the smelly, it’s the old vs. the new. The tradition of the temple vs the way of Jesus Christ .
You see, somewhere along the line, the temple authorities had gotten lost. They’d become all about the power of their position rather than the honor of their position. Somewhere along the line, the prestige of their titles became far more important than their actual vocations. The temple authorities remind me a lot of the previous pope, Benedict, while Jesus reminds me a lot of the current pope, Francis. Benedict liked the finer things in life and was not afraid of flaunting thousand dollar shoes and ermine collared copes… … while Francis likes the simpler things in life, a common sedan instead of a limo, simple white vestments instead of gold lame’.
Benedict was drawn to the seclusion and protection of the Vatican while Francis seems drawn to the ghettos and the slums.
Jesus was all about the ghettos and the slums….
And that made him a huge threat to the temple leaders. You see they could handle Jesus wanting to take over their jobs—that was a threat they could manage—what threw them for a loop was Jesus’ complete disgust, disdain and fury for all that they valued: prestige, the pomp and the circumstance.
Jesus'. disgust, disdain and fury was triggered by the moneychangers in the temple. When he sees the commerce associated with temple worship he LOSES HIS MIND.
Offended, the temple authorities confront him asking Jesus; in no uncertain terms just who does he think he is?
The parables of the Vineyards, which we've heard these past few weeks, are Jesus’ responses to them.
Now, The actual vineyard part of today’s Gospel, when read through our Christian perspective seems pretty straightforward---God has given us charge over all of creation and we’ve pretty much mucked it up…going so far as to kill the very Son of God, God's greatest gift to us---as I said, pretty standard Christian stuff…it's what comes after the parable that, for me, is the real meat of today’s Gospel.
When Jesus reminds the leaders of this line from psalm 118, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;" he's saying, “you reject me, but it's through me that a completely different temple will be built. A temple without stone or wall, a temple without roof or floor. A temple that will exist within and between people, a temple of community, a temple of love and faith and good will, a temple open to all who feel drawn to it, —no exceptions—a temple made up of people who together do their best to care for God’s vineyard here on earth.
Jesus is telling them that they've lost their way that they've forgotten God’s message of love, as outlined in the ten commandments we just heard a few minutes ago.
It happens all the time, in business, in politics, in schools and in families –we lose our way when we become enamored with our power instead of humbled by our responsibility.
It happens in faith communities all the time, too: the love of power subverts the love of God. The love of "things" distracts us from the work God calls us to do. A stained glass window becomes more important than caring for the children depicted within it, the love of an organ becomes more important than the songs of praise to God it plays, the love of sitting in the pew and listening to scintillating sermons becomes more important than walking out these doors to do the work we’ve been given to do. No matter how good our intentions, it's so easy to lose our way, to forget that we--- each and everyone of us--- has been entrusted with the work of God.
Another name for this is stewardship.
It’s easy to confuse funding building maintenance and programs with real down and dirty ministry. What Jesus is saying to the temple leaders and to us is "don’t confuse the means with the end." Yes we need to pay our bills, yes we need to keep our physical plant operational, yes we have salaries, but those things are not the end, those things are the means through which people become connected to God in this community of faith.
Stewardship is all about connections—connections between those of us here today, connections to those who came before us, connections to those who are yet to come.
Connections to God.
And, above all else, Stewardship is about honoring God’s connection with us.
When we say I am Good Shepherd you are Good Shepherd we are Good Shepherd we are naming those connections, we are honoring them. For when we say we're Good Shepherd we're really saying, we are God's fully completely and forever.
Unlike the Temple leaders, we know that it’s the connections through relationships and not the trappings of buildings and status that bring us ever closer to realizing the love of God, which is beyond all reason and surpasses all understanding.
And for that we say Amen.+
And the Ascension version:
+Today’s gospel isn’t pretty, it isn’t easy and it isn’t light. But it is really really good.
Let me set the stage for you: Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem to face what is sure to be a violent and tragic end. He’s had three years to preach his message of a “new way.” For three years he’s challenged the status quo, uprooted the traditions of the faith and ticked off almost all the religious leaders of his day. All of his teaching and preaching has come down to this confrontation: a rag tag group of country folk following an itinerant, blasphemous rabbi from Nazareth against the well-heeled, firmly entrenched religious bureaucrats of the temple. It's the established versus the itinerant, it’s the tony vs. the smelly, it’s the old vs. the new. The tradition of the temple vs the way of Jesus Christ .
You see, somewhere along the line, the temple authorities had gotten lost. They’d become all about the power of their position rather than the honor of their position. Somewhere along the line, the prestige of their titles became far more important than their actual vocations. The temple authorities remind me a lot of the previous pope, Benedict, while Jesus reminds me a lot of the current pope, Francis. Benedict liked the finer things in life and was not afraid of flaunting thousand dollar shoes and ermine collared copes… … while Francis likes the simpler things in life, a common sedan instead of a limo, simple white vestments instead of gold lame’.
Benedict was drawn to the seclusion and protection of the Vatican while Francis seems drawn to the ghettos and the slums.
Jesus was all about the ghettos and the slums….
And that made him a huge threat to the temple leaders. You see they could handle Jesus wanting to take over their jobs—that was a threat they could manage—what threw them for a loop was Jesus’ complete disgust, disdain and fury for all that they valued: prestige, the pomp and the circumstance.
Jesus' disgust, disdain and fury was triggered by the moneychangers in the temple. When Jesus sees the commerce associated with temple worship he LOSES HIS MIND.
Offended, the temple authorities confront him asking Jesus; in no uncertain terms just who does he think he is?
The parables of the Vineyards, which we've heard these past few weeks, are Jesus’ responses to them.
Now, The actual vineyard part of today’s Gospel, when read through our Christian perspective seems pretty straightforward---God has given us charge over all of creation and we’ve pretty much mucked it up…going so far as to kill the very Son of God, God's greatest gift to us---as I said, pretty standard Christian stuff…it's what comes after the parable that, for me, is the real meat of today’s Gospel.
When Jesus reminds the leaders of this line from psalm 118, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;" he's saying, “you reject me, but it's through me that a completely different temple will be built. A temple without stone or wall, a temple without roof or floor. A temple that will exist within and between people, a temple of community, a temple of love and faith and good will, a temple open to all who feel drawn to it, —no exceptions—a temple made up of people who together do their best to care for God’s vineyard here on earth.
Jesus is telling them that they've lost their way that they've forgotten God’s message of love, as outlined in the ten commandments we just heard a few minutes ago.
It happens all the time, in business, in politics, in schools and in families –we lose our way when we become enamored with our power instead of humbled by our responsibility.
It happens in faith communities all the time, too: the love of power subverts the love of God. The love of "things" distracts us from the work God calls us to do. A stained glass window becomes more important than caring for the children depicted within it, the love of an organ becomes more important than the songs of praise to God it plays, the love of an address becomes more important than the work that waits for us outside these doors. No matter how good our intentions, especially for Ascension in the coming months, it's easy to lose our way, to forget that we have a job to do—a job given to us by God.
Sometimes this work isn’t easy. Such is the task ahead of us. Saying good-bye to this building will be difficult, BUT, what has strengthened us in this process and what will sustain us through our transition, are the relationships, the connections we have with each other. Many of you said it last week, what Ascension means to you isn’t our address, it’s us. You. Me. Us.
Our connections define who we are.
Connections between those of us here today, Connections to those who came before us, Connections to those who are yet to come.
Connections to God.
I’m not one bit worried about how we, as a community, will do with this move.
Why? Because our connections are mighty, our relationships, strong.
We love each other, we trust each other and we work well together. Most churches couldn’t do what we’re about to do…but we can and we will.
Jesus tells the temple leaders, “you’re missing the point…the temple is a means to an end….the building and it’s contents, the liturgy and it’s order, all of this is a means to the end of praising God. It’s a means to the end of serving God. The work we’ve been given to do happens out there, not in here.
We are not like the temple leaders; we understand that to hold onto this place is to stifle the Spirit. We understand that to leave this place is to free the Spirit so that she can lead us forward, where our future waits. And for that courage, that faith and that hope, I say alleluia and amen.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Pentecost 16 Sept 28, 1014. Saying Yes While Living No
+Saying Yes while Living No. That’s how my favorite biblical commentators, known as “Two Bubbas and a Bible,” refer to the parable at the end of today’s gospel—the parable of the two sons.
A man had two sons---he asks them both to go work in the vineyard. The first says, “sure Dad, I’ll head right over,” and then doesn’t go at all. The second says, ”no way, Pops, I’ve got better things to do,” but then proceeds to have a change of heart and goes to work. The first son said yes and lived no, the second son said no, but lived yes.
Jesus asks, which of the sons did the will of his parent?
Of course it’s son #2 --even though he’d said no, he went and did the work, which is what his father wanted.
So, just why did this story infuriate the temple authorities?
Well, maybe they saw way too much of themselves in the first son and not nearly enough in the second.
You see, even though Jesus tells this story in response to his authority being questioned, he’s really telling it to call them out on their hypocrisy and corruption.
Jesus turns the tables on their so-called righteous indignation by questioning their motives:
• Are they protecting the faith, or are they protecting their status?
• Are they protecting the honor of the temple, or are they protecting their role of prestige in the temple?
• Are they living their faith or are they just spewing their faith?
• Are they living a life of yes, or are they simply saying yes, and living no?
Jesus convicts them with his words and, if we’re honest, he convicts us, too.
But before we shut our ears and close our hearts to this message, hear me out.
It’s certainly easy to point fingers at the hypocrisy of others--our church and political leaders, our sports heroes and matinee idols, our bosses and our neighbors who say yes while most definitely living no. That’s easy.
What’s not so easy, and a whole lot more uncomfortable is to list all the ways we, ourselves, say yes, but live no. But to simply beat ourselves up and say how bad it is that we say yes and live no far more often than we should is, to me, a cop-out. We can say yes we stink, we should do better blah blah blah and then just go on living life as we have—that, in many respects is the easy way out.
And I don’t want to take the easy way out, I’d rather take the tough way in. You see it’s the defeatist attitude of beating ourselves up by admitting that we say yes and live no more often than not that keeps us stuck.
And that, in my opinion, is a major contributor to the decrease in church attendance across the globe.
Too many of us think that because we’ve had times in our life where we’ve said yes, but lived no—that we aren’t welcome, that there is no room for us at the table of our Lord, in a community of faith-- that “true believers” are those who have always, or at least most of the time, said yes and lived yes. That the only way to take a seat in the kingdom of God, in the fellowship of Christ, in a pew at Good Shepherd, is to clean up our acts get all spiffy and bright and “perfect” BEFORE coming to church. That’s completely backwards!
Why do we feel the need to pull ourselves together BEFORE showing up in a place designed to accept our brokenness, a place designed to heal our hurts, a place designed to forgive, heal, and renew?
It’s like what my mother always did before a cleaning lady came---she cleaned!!!
It’s nuts!
We’re way too hard on ourselves, assuming that the faith of “true believers” is unshakeable… unwavering.
Thinking that if we say we believe in God, we can’t ever question God.
Thinking that if we say we “love everyone, always no exceptions” that we can’t ever dislike or disagree with another.
Thinking that we can’t volunteer to help out on the altar or in the choir or in Sunday School or the food pantry because we don’t know enough or aren’t faithful enough or aren’t good enough.
The temple authorities don’t like that Jesus eats with prostitutes and tax collectors. The temple authorities want everything to look nice and tidy and bright; they’re way more interested in how things look, rather than how things really are.
The kingdom of God hereon earth, isn’t nice and tidy and bright, the kingdom of God is full of people like you and me, people who try our best but sometimes fail, people like you and me who sometimes say no, but then find a way to live yes, people like us who make mistakes but get up and try again.
Living into the yes isn’t a place of perfect people, it’s a place of perfect grace.
So perhaps we’ve all “said yes and lived no” more than we want to admit. The good news is, God doesn’t care about the mistakes we’ve made, God cares about the progress we’ve made.
Like the parent in today’s parable, God cares a whole lot more about what we do and how we live, rather than what we say and how we look, because God doesn’t keep score, God cheers us on.+
***Two Bubbas and a Bible: The Lectionary Lab for Sunday September 28, 2014
A man had two sons---he asks them both to go work in the vineyard. The first says, “sure Dad, I’ll head right over,” and then doesn’t go at all. The second says, ”no way, Pops, I’ve got better things to do,” but then proceeds to have a change of heart and goes to work. The first son said yes and lived no, the second son said no, but lived yes.
Jesus asks, which of the sons did the will of his parent?
Of course it’s son #2 --even though he’d said no, he went and did the work, which is what his father wanted.
So, just why did this story infuriate the temple authorities?
Well, maybe they saw way too much of themselves in the first son and not nearly enough in the second.
You see, even though Jesus tells this story in response to his authority being questioned, he’s really telling it to call them out on their hypocrisy and corruption.
Jesus turns the tables on their so-called righteous indignation by questioning their motives:
• Are they protecting the faith, or are they protecting their status?
• Are they protecting the honor of the temple, or are they protecting their role of prestige in the temple?
• Are they living their faith or are they just spewing their faith?
• Are they living a life of yes, or are they simply saying yes, and living no?
Jesus convicts them with his words and, if we’re honest, he convicts us, too.
But before we shut our ears and close our hearts to this message, hear me out.
It’s certainly easy to point fingers at the hypocrisy of others--our church and political leaders, our sports heroes and matinee idols, our bosses and our neighbors who say yes while most definitely living no. That’s easy.
What’s not so easy, and a whole lot more uncomfortable is to list all the ways we, ourselves, say yes, but live no. But to simply beat ourselves up and say how bad it is that we say yes and live no far more often than we should is, to me, a cop-out. We can say yes we stink, we should do better blah blah blah and then just go on living life as we have—that, in many respects is the easy way out.
And I don’t want to take the easy way out, I’d rather take the tough way in. You see it’s the defeatist attitude of beating ourselves up by admitting that we say yes and live no more often than not that keeps us stuck.
And that, in my opinion, is a major contributor to the decrease in church attendance across the globe.
Too many of us think that because we’ve had times in our life where we’ve said yes, but lived no—that we aren’t welcome, that there is no room for us at the table of our Lord, in a community of faith-- that “true believers” are those who have always, or at least most of the time, said yes and lived yes. That the only way to take a seat in the kingdom of God, in the fellowship of Christ, in a pew at Good Shepherd, is to clean up our acts get all spiffy and bright and “perfect” BEFORE coming to church. That’s completely backwards!
Why do we feel the need to pull ourselves together BEFORE showing up in a place designed to accept our brokenness, a place designed to heal our hurts, a place designed to forgive, heal, and renew?
It’s like what my mother always did before a cleaning lady came---she cleaned!!!
It’s nuts!
We’re way too hard on ourselves, assuming that the faith of “true believers” is unshakeable… unwavering.
Thinking that if we say we believe in God, we can’t ever question God.
Thinking that if we say we “love everyone, always no exceptions” that we can’t ever dislike or disagree with another.
Thinking that we can’t volunteer to help out on the altar or in the choir or in Sunday School or the food pantry because we don’t know enough or aren’t faithful enough or aren’t good enough.
The temple authorities don’t like that Jesus eats with prostitutes and tax collectors. The temple authorities want everything to look nice and tidy and bright; they’re way more interested in how things look, rather than how things really are.
The kingdom of God hereon earth, isn’t nice and tidy and bright, the kingdom of God is full of people like you and me, people who try our best but sometimes fail, people like you and me who sometimes say no, but then find a way to live yes, people like us who make mistakes but get up and try again.
Living into the yes isn’t a place of perfect people, it’s a place of perfect grace.
So perhaps we’ve all “said yes and lived no” more than we want to admit. The good news is, God doesn’t care about the mistakes we’ve made, God cares about the progress we’ve made.
Like the parent in today’s parable, God cares a whole lot more about what we do and how we live, rather than what we say and how we look, because God doesn’t keep score, God cheers us on.+
***Two Bubbas and a Bible: The Lectionary Lab for Sunday September 28, 2014
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Pentecost 14 Yr A Sept. 14 Forgiving is Fundamental
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
No matter how you slice it, Forgiveness IS Fundamental.
Fundamental to our health, fundamental to our faith, fundamental to our life.
Welcome to Forgiveness is Fundamental Sunday.
Many of us are probably like Peter in today’s Gospel, we know that forgiveness is important, that it is something we should do as often as we can but are a little off put by Jesus’ directive to forgive 7 times 70 …to forgive always, forever, everyone and everything, no exceptions… Because that’s what he’s really saying in today’s parable.
We have to forgive everyone and everything, always.
Why?
Because that’s exactly what God does for us.
God forgives us our trespasses, our debts and our sins every single day, every single time, always.
Forgiveness is Fundamental.
To God and to us.
We must forgive all the betrayals and hurts of our lives. All of them… from the most heneious of crimes to the most biting of slights.
Not just the ones we know we SHOULD forgive.
Not just the ones we want to forgive.
Not just the ones anyone would forgive.
All of them.
Each time. Every day.
No exceptions.
Wow.
Think about it
how in the world can a rape victim forgive her rapist;
how in the world can the people of Ferguson MO forgive the police department;
how in the world can those who lost loved ones in the twin towers, forgive Al Quaeda;
how in the world can a child forgive the abuse of a parent;
how in the world can a spouse forgive infidelity;
how in the world can an employee forgive an unjust dismissal;
how in the world can we forgive an institution like the church when it fails to live as it teaches?
How in the world can we, let alone God, forgive such things?
It’s important to remember this:
forgiving is not condoning a horrid act.
Forgiving is not endorsing abuse
Forgiving is not excusing hate.
Forgiving isn’t erasing the fact, forgiveness is releasing the pain.
And doing that, releasing the pain, the betrayal, the horror is what sets us free. And being set free, is good, right?
Sure, but just because it’s good for us, doesn’t mean it comes easily to us. Sometimes it seems impossible to forgive, sometimes it feels impossible to forgive.
But what our faith teaches us, what our God models for us is this:
Forgiveness is possible, forgiveness is necessary and forgiveness is healing.
Author Sheila Cassidy puts it this way:
I would never say to someone ‘you must forgive’. I can only say: ‘However much we have been wronged, however justified [our] hatred [may feel], if we cherish it, it will poison us……[therefore] We must pray for the power to forgive, for it is in forgiving that we are healed.
When we hold onto our hurts, our betrayals and our pain, we poison ourselves. Clinging to the resentments, bitterness and rage doesn’t hurt the one who betrayed us, it hurts US.
It doesn’t keep the other person from living a full, happy and free life, it keeps us from living a full happy and free life.
Not forgiving sickens us.
Forgiving heals us.
But. As I said, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Forgiving others is hard and it’s not for the feint of heart.
For five years I’ve had a horrible time forgiving my brother in law Mark for not telling me that my sister Anne had had a stroke.
For two days I was unable to reach her and for two days I just knew that something must be wrong, but for two days, while she was in ICU,she was unaware of who she was, unaware that she was married with children, unaware that she had sisters.
Mark didn’t tell me. For two days she was lost and so was I.
As you can tell, the memory of this still gets to me. It was scary….for Anne, for Mark, for me.
Forgiving Mark has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever tried to do. Some days are better than others….but a bad day is when I am so weighed down by anger, resentment, bitterness and hurt that I can’t get out of my own way.
On those days, my inability to forgive him, poisons me.
Holding on to hurts, hurts.
So, what can we do to shake free of the shroud of resentment and anger that blocks our way to forgiveness?
Well, first we have to admit that forgiveness is possible. Sure, at times I may not know how to forgive Mark, but I sure as heck know that forgiveness is possible. After all, I am forgiven every single day of my life by the all encompassing never ending love of God. A love that forgives and absolves me all my debts, all my errors, all my sin, all the time, every time, no exceptions.
By accepting the forgiveness granted to us by God, we learn how to forgive others.
To fully forgive Mark I must admit, accept and fully receive God’s forgiveness.
Because it’s only in being forgiven that we can truly and fully and completely forgive.
We must embrace being forgiven before we can forgive.
Listen closely to this section of the Lord’s Prayer:
“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Do you see the connection?
Being forgiven and forgiving are relational.
The prayer doesn’t say Forgive us our sins so that then we’ll be able to forgive others. No, the prayer says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
It’s one fluid motion, like a beautiful dance----as we are forgiven we forgive….as we are forgiven we forgive.
As we are forgiven, we forgive.
It’s fundamental my friends: forgiving, forgiven, forgiving, forgiven.
What a dance, what a faith, what a God.
Amen.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
No matter how you slice it, Forgiveness IS Fundamental.
Fundamental to our health, fundamental to our faith, fundamental to our life.
Welcome to Forgiveness is Fundamental Sunday.
Many of us are probably like Peter in today’s Gospel, we know that forgiveness is important, that it is something we should do as often as we can but are a little off put by Jesus’ directive to forgive 7 times 70 …to forgive always, forever, everyone and everything, no exceptions… Because that’s what he’s really saying in today’s parable.
We have to forgive everyone and everything, always.
Why?
Because that’s exactly what God does for us.
God forgives us our trespasses, our debts and our sins every single day, every single time, always.
Forgiveness is Fundamental.
To God and to us.
We must forgive all the betrayals and hurts of our lives. All of them… from the most heneious of crimes to the most biting of slights.
Not just the ones we know we SHOULD forgive.
Not just the ones we want to forgive.
Not just the ones anyone would forgive.
All of them.
Each time. Every day.
No exceptions.
Wow.
Think about it
how in the world can a rape victim forgive her rapist;
how in the world can the people of Ferguson MO forgive the police department;
how in the world can those who lost loved ones in the twin towers, forgive Al Quaeda;
how in the world can a child forgive the abuse of a parent;
how in the world can a spouse forgive infidelity;
how in the world can an employee forgive an unjust dismissal;
how in the world can we forgive an institution like the church when it fails to live as it teaches?
How in the world can we, let alone God, forgive such things?
It’s important to remember this:
forgiving is not condoning a horrid act.
Forgiving is not endorsing abuse
Forgiving is not excusing hate.
Forgiving isn’t erasing the fact, forgiveness is releasing the pain.
And doing that, releasing the pain, the betrayal, the horror is what sets us free. And being set free, is good, right?
Sure, but just because it’s good for us, doesn’t mean it comes easily to us. Sometimes it seems impossible to forgive, sometimes it feels impossible to forgive.
But what our faith teaches us, what our God models for us is this:
Forgiveness is possible, forgiveness is necessary and forgiveness is healing.
Author Sheila Cassidy puts it this way:
I would never say to someone ‘you must forgive’. I can only say: ‘However much we have been wronged, however justified [our] hatred [may feel], if we cherish it, it will poison us……[therefore] We must pray for the power to forgive, for it is in forgiving that we are healed.
When we hold onto our hurts, our betrayals and our pain, we poison ourselves. Clinging to the resentments, bitterness and rage doesn’t hurt the one who betrayed us, it hurts US.
It doesn’t keep the other person from living a full, happy and free life, it keeps us from living a full happy and free life.
Not forgiving sickens us.
Forgiving heals us.
But. As I said, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Forgiving others is hard and it’s not for the feint of heart.
For five years I’ve had a horrible time forgiving my brother in law Mark for not telling me that my sister Anne had had a stroke.
For two days I was unable to reach her and for two days I just knew that something must be wrong, but for two days, while she was in ICU,she was unaware of who she was, unaware that she was married with children, unaware that she had sisters.
Mark didn’t tell me. For two days she was lost and so was I.
As you can tell, the memory of this still gets to me. It was scary….for Anne, for Mark, for me.
Forgiving Mark has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever tried to do. Some days are better than others….but a bad day is when I am so weighed down by anger, resentment, bitterness and hurt that I can’t get out of my own way.
On those days, my inability to forgive him, poisons me.
Holding on to hurts, hurts.
So, what can we do to shake free of the shroud of resentment and anger that blocks our way to forgiveness?
Well, first we have to admit that forgiveness is possible. Sure, at times I may not know how to forgive Mark, but I sure as heck know that forgiveness is possible. After all, I am forgiven every single day of my life by the all encompassing never ending love of God. A love that forgives and absolves me all my debts, all my errors, all my sin, all the time, every time, no exceptions.
By accepting the forgiveness granted to us by God, we learn how to forgive others.
To fully forgive Mark I must admit, accept and fully receive God’s forgiveness.
Because it’s only in being forgiven that we can truly and fully and completely forgive.
We must embrace being forgiven before we can forgive.
Listen closely to this section of the Lord’s Prayer:
“forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Do you see the connection?
Being forgiven and forgiving are relational.
The prayer doesn’t say Forgive us our sins so that then we’ll be able to forgive others. No, the prayer says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
It’s one fluid motion, like a beautiful dance----as we are forgiven we forgive….as we are forgiven we forgive.
As we are forgiven, we forgive.
It’s fundamental my friends: forgiving, forgiven, forgiving, forgiven.
What a dance, what a faith, what a God.
Amen.
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