+Well these are some interesting readings aren’t they? Raging, whiny Israelites, a vengeful and mean God (I mean, really….poisonous snakes, biting people left and right? Seriously, God?) and then “God so loved the world, God came to us in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ.”
Which is it? Does God love us beyond all measure or does God also have that dark and vengeful side?
Now, I do think that the God of the Hebrew scripture was, well, a little moody, but I don’t think our God has ever been mean, vengeful and spiteful.
Even though, after reading our story from Numbers today, one could make a case for a mean God, I maintain that God is, like God’s creation, evolving, growing, moving, changing.
To me the wonder of today’s readings is this---our behavior toward one another and toward God hasn’t gotten any better over the generations—but God will not be deterred. Even though when God came to live among us, as one of us, in the person of Jesus Christ, we killed him on that tree, God still loves us.
Seriously folks, our God is indeed an awesome God, because I don’t know about you, but I can’t even IMAGINE being able to forgive the death of my child. And yet, God did forgive us, God does forgive us. Again and again and again.
God’s reaction to our ultimate rejection---the death of Jesus-- was an act of Love …it was an act of unmitigated, inexplicable, unquantifiable Grace-filled Love.
You see, as we head toward the last two weeks of Lent, I think it is important that we get real clear about what is about to happen. Humanity, the very people God came to live among in the person of Jesus killed God. And God forgave us. Jesus had to die, it’s the cornerstone of our faith, but why he died is a matter of theological debate. My stance is that Jesus died to defeat death---the Jewish authorities and the Romans thought death by crucifixion would, once and for all, squash this crazy movement about love for all, no exceptions… but they didn’t know the rest of the story, did they? They didn’t know that death was no match for Love.
But Love still hasn’t won the day…there are still those who maintain that God sacrificed Jesus due to our sins. This is known as “Atonement Theology.” Atonement theology states that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. That Jesus dies because we were bad.
Now while we often use phrases that suggest atonement theology in our liturgy, that isn’t what they—at least to me and many others—mean.
Yes, Jesus died for our sins, this is true. But not as a ransom. It wasn’t like God decided: “ the only way these people will learn is to send them my Son and then have him killed. That’ll teach ‘em.”. And when you hear today’s first reading it makes sense…in many instances God does appears vengeful, spiteful and down right mean. Mean enough to send Godself in the flesh to be tortured and killed….just to get a point across.
But that’s not it.
By the time God decided to walk among us as Jesus, God had changed. Our evolving, dynamic God is still figuring it all out. When God gave humanity free will God gave up a lot of control. And so, as we have engaged in free will, we have made a boatload of lousy choices. We have rejected God’s overtures again and again and again. So finally…finally God came among us, as one of us, to help God “figure us out.”
A significant part of this “figuring out” is outlined in today’s Gospel.
But, here’s the surprise… instead of figuring US out, God coming to us as Jesus helps US figure this out: God loves us. No matter what.
For God so loved the world, God came to be among us and God experienced us at our worst as we took God in the flesh and nailed him to a tree, once more turning our backs on God.
And God so loved the world—God so loved US that God didn’t turn God’s back on us.
God took the worst that humanity could offer and turned it around. It’s the ultimate re-frame, the ultimate “life gives you lemons you make lemonade” scenario. God took God’s own death and made it the singular most loving action of all time. God, once again, turned it all upside down and inside out.
God, in the person of Jesus Christ, didn’t die on the cross as a ransom for our misbehavior-- Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t tit for tat, Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t the point. It’s what happened after Jesus died on the cross that’s the point….there’s the Resurrection—that’s important---but that’s not what I mean.
No the thing that happened after Jesus’ death, the thing that is so amazing, incredible and unprecedented is:
NOTHING HAPPEN.
Or maybe EVERYTHING Happened.
God so loved the world that after the world killed God in the flesh, God continued to love us.
God’s grace just kept flowing and flowing and flowing.
Jesus’ death isn’t about paying a ransom or atoning for sins. The death of Jesus on the cross is about endless waves of love-filled grace.
The message of the cross isn’t just forgiveness, though we are certainly forgiven by God for our misdeeds, small and large.
The message of the cross is LOVE.
The message of the cross is GRACE.
Our job, then, is to live into this grace, to live into this Love.
Our job is to stop worrying about everything we haven’t done and wish we had; to stop worrying about what we’ve done and wish we hadn’t. Our job is to allow ourselves to be washed through and through by God’s amazing, astounding and abundant grace. And then, thoroughly awash in this Love, we will, we must, respond in kind. Loving others as we have been loved. The message of these next few weeks, the lesson of Jesus’ death upon that cross isn’t punishment for who we’ve been, it’s hope for who we can be. The message as we walk up to Calvary and descend deep into the grave isn’t punishment for our sins, it’s love in spite of our sins. +
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
Outrage and the 10 Best Ways to Live Lent 3 March 8 2015
+ Modern day Jerusalem is divided into East and West Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is part of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory and West Jerusalem is part of Israel. East Jerusalem includes the “old city” which is the Jerusalem referenced in the Bible. At the center of the old city is the temple—well what remains, part of the western wall and most of the northern —so whenever I hear the gospel we just heard I’m transported back to my time in the old city. And I totally “get” Jesus’ rage. The old city, including the area around all the Christian hot spots the hill that is Calvary, the tomb and the courtyard where Jesus was “tried,” is crowded, dirty, loud and everywhere you turn someone is hawking this that or the other thing. It is really difficult, until you’ve been there a few days, to find the Holy in the old city. My first few days I really disliked the Old City, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. So yes, I really get Jesus’ rage at turning his “father’s house” into a den of thieves.
The Middle East has the same problem that we here in the relative peace and tranquility of the Great Lakes’ region of North America have---people don’t resepct the sanctity of sacred space. You’ve heard me lament about the people who clamor to see our windows, walking in and treating this space as a museum rather than a worship space. But it isn’t just tourists---a few weeks ago I did a private baptism on a Saturday morning---one of the people attending the baptism sent the entire service taking pictures of our windows!!! People don’t respect the sanctity of our worship space, nor do people respect the faith that is proclaimed within these walls. It’s a special challenge here at GS. Mr. Jewett wanted this place to be a community gathering spot for the Parkside neighborhood and we certainly try to honor his vision. Usually the two functions, a sacred place of worship and a community gathering spot works, but when it doesn’t work, the sanctity of our worship is what suffers. Yep, I get Jesus’ rage.
Some days I become discouraged, feeling as if the world is simply passing us by.
Of course, the most common response to laments such as mine is: well people just don’t know, they aren’t taught respect for the church, they don’t know that their behavior is offensive.
And these folks are probably right—people don’t know. People aren’t taught. People don’t learn.
Not now, and not 3500 years ago when Moses was given the ten commandments on Mt Sinai.
In Godly Play the lesson about the Ten Commandments is called The Ten Best Ways to Live. I think this is a better title, for they really serve as guidelines for a better living. These guidelines--these best ways to live---will, when followed, keep us on the right track, keep us focused.
They help us keep our side of the street clean.
And that’s the real link between today’s reading from Hebrew Scripture and our New Testament reading. Jesus was cleansing the temple---ridding his Father’s, our Creator’s, house of trash. Clearing the way so the focus of the worshippers would be on God instead of on stuff. The ten best ways to live do just this, they cleanse us, freeing us from distraction and misdirection, allowing us to give God the attention and focus God deserves.
Listen to the Ten Best Ways to live again, hear them in a new way!
1. Love God and Love people. People are God’s creation, so loving people is loving God. And that is good.
2.God Loves us beyond all reason, so don’t worship other gods and don’t confuse stuff with God. [This is a big one because we easily confuse stuff with God.] Seeking happiness and security, a sense of worth from the stuff we have (or the stuff we want) instead of seeking our joy, our contentment in the one who is always ready to give us that security: God.
3. And speaking of God: Be serious when you say God’s name. Don’t toss it around as an expletive or in exasperation.
4. Keep the Sabbath holy…make one day solely for those whom you love, including God. These relationships need nurturing, our relationship with God, with all our loved ones: devote one day a week to this nurture.
5. Honor your parents and all who raise you. There is no more important job than raising children. We must always honor those who devoted themselves to our growth, our health, our well-being. And then we get into the don’ts. But these don’ts seem pretty reasonable:
6. Don’t kill. And don’t stand for the killing of others!
7. Don’t break your commitment to your spouse, your partner, your husband, your wife!
8. Don’t steal.
9.Don’t lie.
10. Don’t even want what others have.
These are GREAT guidelines. We really can’t go wrong if we follow them. Of course, we often confuse everything, complicating things. It really is as simple (not easy, but simple) as these best ways to live: keep our focus on God and on all those things in life which are God-given: love of family and friends, respect for creation, respect for each other. The Ten Commandments, if taken seriously, keep us from getting too self absorbed, keep us from getting too distracted, keep us from getting off track. The Ten Commandments keep us clean.
I don’t know if I’ll ever stop a wedding or a baptism or a funeral to rage at the drunk bridesmaid, or the oblivious photographer or at the man who insists on wearing his baseball cap throughout the service… I hope not. I don’t know if I’ll ever interrupt a tour group and scream, “this isn’t a museum, it is God’s house,” but I understand the desire to do so….but really, the frustration I feel, and the frustration Jesus felt isn’t for the merchants in the temple or the ignorant tourists, the frustration is for a culture, a society, that is so distracted, so wrapped up in the here and now, in the gaining more and more, in the having this and that, that the Love of God and respect for all that God has given us, gets lost in the shuffle.
So, as we settle into the middle of Lent, rage against those things that get in your way, rage against the distractions of your daily life, and free yourself to follow the good road, the one paved with the ten best ways to live.
The Middle East has the same problem that we here in the relative peace and tranquility of the Great Lakes’ region of North America have---people don’t resepct the sanctity of sacred space. You’ve heard me lament about the people who clamor to see our windows, walking in and treating this space as a museum rather than a worship space. But it isn’t just tourists---a few weeks ago I did a private baptism on a Saturday morning---one of the people attending the baptism sent the entire service taking pictures of our windows!!! People don’t respect the sanctity of our worship space, nor do people respect the faith that is proclaimed within these walls. It’s a special challenge here at GS. Mr. Jewett wanted this place to be a community gathering spot for the Parkside neighborhood and we certainly try to honor his vision. Usually the two functions, a sacred place of worship and a community gathering spot works, but when it doesn’t work, the sanctity of our worship is what suffers. Yep, I get Jesus’ rage.
Some days I become discouraged, feeling as if the world is simply passing us by.
Of course, the most common response to laments such as mine is: well people just don’t know, they aren’t taught respect for the church, they don’t know that their behavior is offensive.
And these folks are probably right—people don’t know. People aren’t taught. People don’t learn.
Not now, and not 3500 years ago when Moses was given the ten commandments on Mt Sinai.
In Godly Play the lesson about the Ten Commandments is called The Ten Best Ways to Live. I think this is a better title, for they really serve as guidelines for a better living. These guidelines--these best ways to live---will, when followed, keep us on the right track, keep us focused.
They help us keep our side of the street clean.
And that’s the real link between today’s reading from Hebrew Scripture and our New Testament reading. Jesus was cleansing the temple---ridding his Father’s, our Creator’s, house of trash. Clearing the way so the focus of the worshippers would be on God instead of on stuff. The ten best ways to live do just this, they cleanse us, freeing us from distraction and misdirection, allowing us to give God the attention and focus God deserves.
Listen to the Ten Best Ways to live again, hear them in a new way!
1. Love God and Love people. People are God’s creation, so loving people is loving God. And that is good.
2.God Loves us beyond all reason, so don’t worship other gods and don’t confuse stuff with God. [This is a big one because we easily confuse stuff with God.] Seeking happiness and security, a sense of worth from the stuff we have (or the stuff we want) instead of seeking our joy, our contentment in the one who is always ready to give us that security: God.
3. And speaking of God: Be serious when you say God’s name. Don’t toss it around as an expletive or in exasperation.
4. Keep the Sabbath holy…make one day solely for those whom you love, including God. These relationships need nurturing, our relationship with God, with all our loved ones: devote one day a week to this nurture.
5. Honor your parents and all who raise you. There is no more important job than raising children. We must always honor those who devoted themselves to our growth, our health, our well-being. And then we get into the don’ts. But these don’ts seem pretty reasonable:
6. Don’t kill. And don’t stand for the killing of others!
7. Don’t break your commitment to your spouse, your partner, your husband, your wife!
8. Don’t steal.
9.Don’t lie.
10. Don’t even want what others have.
These are GREAT guidelines. We really can’t go wrong if we follow them. Of course, we often confuse everything, complicating things. It really is as simple (not easy, but simple) as these best ways to live: keep our focus on God and on all those things in life which are God-given: love of family and friends, respect for creation, respect for each other. The Ten Commandments, if taken seriously, keep us from getting too self absorbed, keep us from getting too distracted, keep us from getting off track. The Ten Commandments keep us clean.
I don’t know if I’ll ever stop a wedding or a baptism or a funeral to rage at the drunk bridesmaid, or the oblivious photographer or at the man who insists on wearing his baseball cap throughout the service… I hope not. I don’t know if I’ll ever interrupt a tour group and scream, “this isn’t a museum, it is God’s house,” but I understand the desire to do so….but really, the frustration I feel, and the frustration Jesus felt isn’t for the merchants in the temple or the ignorant tourists, the frustration is for a culture, a society, that is so distracted, so wrapped up in the here and now, in the gaining more and more, in the having this and that, that the Love of God and respect for all that God has given us, gets lost in the shuffle.
So, as we settle into the middle of Lent, rage against those things that get in your way, rage against the distractions of your daily life, and free yourself to follow the good road, the one paved with the ten best ways to live.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Lent 2 Yr B March 1, 2015: All Sufficient Lenten Love
+Abraham laughs.
God gets a little needy.
Paul hits the nail on the head.
And Jesus loses it a bit.
Yes, we’re in Lent, where all pretense is stripped away and we get down and dirty with this thing called faith.
Lent is when we’re reminded just why God had to come and be among us in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ…
..Lent is when we’re reminded that our relationship with God has been, more often than not, pretty rocky and that together we, humanity and God, have had our ups and downs…
..Lent’s when we’re reminded of just how difficult it is for God to understand us, God’s beloved; and how difficult it is for us to understand God.
Things gets all stripped down in Lent because this stuff can be confusing and we don’t have much time---40 days give or take---to make sense of God’s love for us and our love for God before we dive headlong into the crux of our faith, those heart wrenching, faith challenging three days.
It’s in Lent when we wrestle with our limitations while learning to accept God’s limitlessness.
Lent is when we get clear that while we may see through a glass dimly, God sees all that has been all that is and all that will be.
Lent is when we get real clear about who God is, The Divine and who we are, the Not Divine.
Lent is when we practice living fully into who we are rather than who we are not.
Scary? Sure.
Exciting? Yes.
Surprising? Always.
Lent’s not easy, but when has being a Christian ever been easy? What we learn from our readings today, what we learn from the beautiful struggle of our individual wilderness experiences is this: standing up for those who have no standing, demanding dignity for all, protecting our children, our elderly, our downcast isn’t easy, pretty or fun.
But we don’t tackle any of this alone because, as promised to Abraham in the book of Genesis and as promised in the birth of Jesus himself, God never stops reaching out to us, reaching out for us. God never leaves.
We have a great example of this in today’s first reading from Genesis. This reading is famous for being the one where God renames Abram and Sarai, Abraham and Sarah, making them the parents of a multitude of nations rather than just parents of one…but the first name change, the first change of focus, the first new identity isn’t theirs….it’s God’s. You see, up until now in Genesis God’s name has been The Most High God (El Elyon) or the God who sees me (El Roi), here in chapter 17 is the first time God refers to God’s self as El Shaddai, the All Sufficient, All Encompassing One. Today, God, Abram and Sarai all get new names,
New identities.
It’s seems clear here---God is making something all together new and God has begun with God’s very self.
Now embracing a new identity, whether it’s a name change, a life change or a faith change, can be pretty unsettling. So God, in God’s All Sufficient and All Encompassing manner paves the way by going first. God tells Abraham, “yes I am leading you into a new identity, I am leading you into the all together new, but I’m going first, just follow me.” God then proceeds to tell Abraham that he and Sarah will have many descendants that God will make fertile and lively that which had been infertile and dying---
Of course Abraham has no idea what God’s talking about---our translation says that Abraham falls on his face which, at first blush, suggests that he assumed a posture of adoration and worship but in truth, the Hebrew word used here suggests less adoration and more incredulity, less worship and more shock. Less falling down in joy and wonder and more tripping over his own feet while saying, “you’re gonna what?????”
And, in a scene of beautiful longing, El Shaddai, the All Encompassing All Sufficient One, doesn’t smite Abraham for disbelief, doesn’t move on to to someone else. No God persists. Imploring, maybe even begging, Abraham to believe. “Yes, Abraham, I’m talking to you, YOU and Sarah are the ones through which I am going to do this marvelous thing. I want, I need I long for YOU to do this with me.”
Here it is in black and white: God reaches out to us, God longs for us, God, even in God’s all encompassing, all sufficient divinity, does not, can not, will not walk this path alone. God needs, God wants, God longs for us, the descendants of Father Abraham and Mother Sarah, to walk alongside.
This is where the rest of today’s readings come in…. Paul, in Romans, goes on and on about the Law vs. Faith, what he’s working out, what he’s realizing is, to coin a phrase from another of Paul’s letters:
there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman…every one, all of us, any of us, each of us, are invited to journey with the Almighty, All Encompassing All Sufficient Love that is God.
This is why Jesus loses it with Peter…Peter can’t bear the thought that Jesus would have to endure what Jesus will endure. He cannot fathom it, so he denies that it is true.
What Jesus is saying to us, through Peter, is this:
Yes I have great trials ahead—we all have great trials that we endure, we all have great crosses to bear, we all are constantly and relentlessly pulled toward the darkness of Not God but through the promise of the Almighty One, El Shaddai, we can walk through the dark and barren valleys of life because we are never ever alone. Jesus is telling Peter and us just what God was telling Abraham, just what Paul figured out in his letter to the church in Rome: we are in this together. We are invited we are all wanted, we are all needed. The path won’t always be smooth, the way not always easy, but together, walking with the God who created us, the God who redeems us and the God who sustains us we will make it. So, welcome to Lent, welcome to faith, welcome to the all-encompassing, all sufficient Love that leads the way. Amen.
God gets a little needy.
Paul hits the nail on the head.
And Jesus loses it a bit.
Yes, we’re in Lent, where all pretense is stripped away and we get down and dirty with this thing called faith.
Lent is when we’re reminded just why God had to come and be among us in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ…
..Lent is when we’re reminded that our relationship with God has been, more often than not, pretty rocky and that together we, humanity and God, have had our ups and downs…
..Lent’s when we’re reminded of just how difficult it is for God to understand us, God’s beloved; and how difficult it is for us to understand God.
Things gets all stripped down in Lent because this stuff can be confusing and we don’t have much time---40 days give or take---to make sense of God’s love for us and our love for God before we dive headlong into the crux of our faith, those heart wrenching, faith challenging three days.
It’s in Lent when we wrestle with our limitations while learning to accept God’s limitlessness.
Lent is when we get clear that while we may see through a glass dimly, God sees all that has been all that is and all that will be.
Lent is when we get real clear about who God is, The Divine and who we are, the Not Divine.
Lent is when we practice living fully into who we are rather than who we are not.
Scary? Sure.
Exciting? Yes.
Surprising? Always.
Lent’s not easy, but when has being a Christian ever been easy? What we learn from our readings today, what we learn from the beautiful struggle of our individual wilderness experiences is this: standing up for those who have no standing, demanding dignity for all, protecting our children, our elderly, our downcast isn’t easy, pretty or fun.
But we don’t tackle any of this alone because, as promised to Abraham in the book of Genesis and as promised in the birth of Jesus himself, God never stops reaching out to us, reaching out for us. God never leaves.
We have a great example of this in today’s first reading from Genesis. This reading is famous for being the one where God renames Abram and Sarai, Abraham and Sarah, making them the parents of a multitude of nations rather than just parents of one…but the first name change, the first change of focus, the first new identity isn’t theirs….it’s God’s. You see, up until now in Genesis God’s name has been The Most High God (El Elyon) or the God who sees me (El Roi), here in chapter 17 is the first time God refers to God’s self as El Shaddai, the All Sufficient, All Encompassing One. Today, God, Abram and Sarai all get new names,
New identities.
It’s seems clear here---God is making something all together new and God has begun with God’s very self.
Now embracing a new identity, whether it’s a name change, a life change or a faith change, can be pretty unsettling. So God, in God’s All Sufficient and All Encompassing manner paves the way by going first. God tells Abraham, “yes I am leading you into a new identity, I am leading you into the all together new, but I’m going first, just follow me.” God then proceeds to tell Abraham that he and Sarah will have many descendants that God will make fertile and lively that which had been infertile and dying---
Of course Abraham has no idea what God’s talking about---our translation says that Abraham falls on his face which, at first blush, suggests that he assumed a posture of adoration and worship but in truth, the Hebrew word used here suggests less adoration and more incredulity, less worship and more shock. Less falling down in joy and wonder and more tripping over his own feet while saying, “you’re gonna what?????”
And, in a scene of beautiful longing, El Shaddai, the All Encompassing All Sufficient One, doesn’t smite Abraham for disbelief, doesn’t move on to to someone else. No God persists. Imploring, maybe even begging, Abraham to believe. “Yes, Abraham, I’m talking to you, YOU and Sarah are the ones through which I am going to do this marvelous thing. I want, I need I long for YOU to do this with me.”
Here it is in black and white: God reaches out to us, God longs for us, God, even in God’s all encompassing, all sufficient divinity, does not, can not, will not walk this path alone. God needs, God wants, God longs for us, the descendants of Father Abraham and Mother Sarah, to walk alongside.
This is where the rest of today’s readings come in…. Paul, in Romans, goes on and on about the Law vs. Faith, what he’s working out, what he’s realizing is, to coin a phrase from another of Paul’s letters:
there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman…every one, all of us, any of us, each of us, are invited to journey with the Almighty, All Encompassing All Sufficient Love that is God.
This is why Jesus loses it with Peter…Peter can’t bear the thought that Jesus would have to endure what Jesus will endure. He cannot fathom it, so he denies that it is true.
What Jesus is saying to us, through Peter, is this:
Yes I have great trials ahead—we all have great trials that we endure, we all have great crosses to bear, we all are constantly and relentlessly pulled toward the darkness of Not God but through the promise of the Almighty One, El Shaddai, we can walk through the dark and barren valleys of life because we are never ever alone. Jesus is telling Peter and us just what God was telling Abraham, just what Paul figured out in his letter to the church in Rome: we are in this together. We are invited we are all wanted, we are all needed. The path won’t always be smooth, the way not always easy, but together, walking with the God who created us, the God who redeems us and the God who sustains us we will make it. So, welcome to Lent, welcome to faith, welcome to the all-encompassing, all sufficient Love that leads the way. Amen.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
The Last Sunday in Epiphany: The Transfiguration of the Lord Sermon preached by Deacon Pete Feb 15, 2015
Jo, are you the same person you were 28 years ago? 14 years ago? 7 Years ago? How about you Char? Or you, Charlie?
No, you are not. None of us are. Researchers at Stanford tell us that “every one of us completely regenerates our own skin every 7 days. A cut heals itself and disappears in a week or two. Every single cell in our skeleton is replaced every 7 years.” And, that’s just the physical transformation that we all undergo. We also know that we change emotionally, we mature, we fall in love, we suffer great losses. We change spiritually, as time goes by we understand more clearly the need we have to walk through this life in the company of Jesus. So for us, transfiguration, transformation is a constant, sometimes un-noticed, sometimes fearful process. We are all about change, every day, every way, even though we are not always aware of it.
Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to the mountain top with him where they are joined by Moses and Elijah. When Jesus is transfigured, it is spectacular, sudden and dramatic; it is definitely not a 7 day or 7 year process. Poor Peter, he is, as he frequently is, unable to find the right words for the event. Just before today’s Gospel Jesus tries to tell his disciples that he must suffer many things, be rejected and then be killed. Peter begins to correct him and Jesus utters those famous words: Get behind me Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts. Here on the mountain Peter once again misses the point; he wants the moment to last, wants this special, mystical, supernatural event to be somehow contained and made familiar, so he offers to make three shrines for Moses, Elijah and Jesus. Peter is thinking human thoughts. This time Peter is not rebuked, he is ignored, no one responds to him. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be rebuked than ignored. The message here is that Peter is so far from the mark that no response can be made. The point of the Transfiguration is that Jesus is human AND divine; Peter, James and John are being given a glimpse of Christ’s mystical body, a body that most certainly does not belong in a Shrine. They have been given a view of transcendence, and it cannot, will not be made ordinary.
Every year, on the last Sunday of the Epiphany we get the Transfiguration story. It is the hinge between the end of Epiphany and Lent. The first 8 chapters of Mark are chock full of events, everything in Mark moves at a rapid pace. It is one miracle, one healing, one exorcism, one exchange with temple leaders, one teaching moment after the next. The whole season of Epiphany, the season of ‘showing’, of ‘manifestation’ is meant to show us the light of God through the face and works of Jesus. It culminates today, as Jesus becomes transformed and dazzling. And, as spectacular as this is, we need to remember that on the mountain top Jesus did not become something new, something different, something he was not already. “Peter, James and John are given a chance to see Jesus as he already is, as he really is. They see the light of his divinity shining through his humanity, the same humanity he shares with all of us.”
The three disciples are rescued from all of the brightness when they are overshadowed by a cloud. But, don’t be fooled, the strangeness continues. They hear a voice from the cloud saying “this is my Son, whom I dearly love, listen to him. By now, Peter, James and John have seen and experienced enough of Jesus to believe that he is the Son of God. After all, who else could have done all of the things they have witnessed: calming the sea, walking on water, feeding thousands from a handful of fish and a few loaves, and even raising the dead. They have been privileged to hear Jesus speak to crowds and also to have been taught by Him in small groups. But….they are being told that now it is time to really listen.
God knows that when Jesus told the disciples in chapter 8 of Mark that in order to truly be his disciples they must pick up the cross and follow, they didn’t really listen. Really listening is not passive, really listening requires action. Listening to Jesus means that what Jesus said and did makes a difference in our lives and that we are making a difference in the lives of others. It means “hear, see and act”.
As we near Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, let us reflect often on how we can listen, how we can hear, see and act so that others can come to know Jesus through us. Following Jesus is not about being stronger, wiser, better than, more powerful than; it is about service. We are not transformed physically, emotionally or spiritually so that we can be bright shiny beings high upon some mountain top. We are transformed by the love of God so that we can come down from the mountain and feed the hungry, visit the lonely, and clothe the poor. We have the food pantry, we have the pet food pantry, we are really good at collections and donations. How else can we transform the lives of others?
The season of Epiphany is over, we have been shown the light of Christ being made manifest in the world. The season of Lent is upon us, we will walk with Jesus the way of the cross. If we give them the chance, Epiphany and Lent will transform us and our transformation will make a difference in the world. AMEN.
No, you are not. None of us are. Researchers at Stanford tell us that “every one of us completely regenerates our own skin every 7 days. A cut heals itself and disappears in a week or two. Every single cell in our skeleton is replaced every 7 years.” And, that’s just the physical transformation that we all undergo. We also know that we change emotionally, we mature, we fall in love, we suffer great losses. We change spiritually, as time goes by we understand more clearly the need we have to walk through this life in the company of Jesus. So for us, transfiguration, transformation is a constant, sometimes un-noticed, sometimes fearful process. We are all about change, every day, every way, even though we are not always aware of it.
Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to the mountain top with him where they are joined by Moses and Elijah. When Jesus is transfigured, it is spectacular, sudden and dramatic; it is definitely not a 7 day or 7 year process. Poor Peter, he is, as he frequently is, unable to find the right words for the event. Just before today’s Gospel Jesus tries to tell his disciples that he must suffer many things, be rejected and then be killed. Peter begins to correct him and Jesus utters those famous words: Get behind me Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts. Here on the mountain Peter once again misses the point; he wants the moment to last, wants this special, mystical, supernatural event to be somehow contained and made familiar, so he offers to make three shrines for Moses, Elijah and Jesus. Peter is thinking human thoughts. This time Peter is not rebuked, he is ignored, no one responds to him. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be rebuked than ignored. The message here is that Peter is so far from the mark that no response can be made. The point of the Transfiguration is that Jesus is human AND divine; Peter, James and John are being given a glimpse of Christ’s mystical body, a body that most certainly does not belong in a Shrine. They have been given a view of transcendence, and it cannot, will not be made ordinary.
Every year, on the last Sunday of the Epiphany we get the Transfiguration story. It is the hinge between the end of Epiphany and Lent. The first 8 chapters of Mark are chock full of events, everything in Mark moves at a rapid pace. It is one miracle, one healing, one exorcism, one exchange with temple leaders, one teaching moment after the next. The whole season of Epiphany, the season of ‘showing’, of ‘manifestation’ is meant to show us the light of God through the face and works of Jesus. It culminates today, as Jesus becomes transformed and dazzling. And, as spectacular as this is, we need to remember that on the mountain top Jesus did not become something new, something different, something he was not already. “Peter, James and John are given a chance to see Jesus as he already is, as he really is. They see the light of his divinity shining through his humanity, the same humanity he shares with all of us.”
The three disciples are rescued from all of the brightness when they are overshadowed by a cloud. But, don’t be fooled, the strangeness continues. They hear a voice from the cloud saying “this is my Son, whom I dearly love, listen to him. By now, Peter, James and John have seen and experienced enough of Jesus to believe that he is the Son of God. After all, who else could have done all of the things they have witnessed: calming the sea, walking on water, feeding thousands from a handful of fish and a few loaves, and even raising the dead. They have been privileged to hear Jesus speak to crowds and also to have been taught by Him in small groups. But….they are being told that now it is time to really listen.
God knows that when Jesus told the disciples in chapter 8 of Mark that in order to truly be his disciples they must pick up the cross and follow, they didn’t really listen. Really listening is not passive, really listening requires action. Listening to Jesus means that what Jesus said and did makes a difference in our lives and that we are making a difference in the lives of others. It means “hear, see and act”.
As we near Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, let us reflect often on how we can listen, how we can hear, see and act so that others can come to know Jesus through us. Following Jesus is not about being stronger, wiser, better than, more powerful than; it is about service. We are not transformed physically, emotionally or spiritually so that we can be bright shiny beings high upon some mountain top. We are transformed by the love of God so that we can come down from the mountain and feed the hungry, visit the lonely, and clothe the poor. We have the food pantry, we have the pet food pantry, we are really good at collections and donations. How else can we transform the lives of others?
The season of Epiphany is over, we have been shown the light of Christ being made manifest in the world. The season of Lent is upon us, we will walk with Jesus the way of the cross. If we give them the chance, Epiphany and Lent will transform us and our transformation will make a difference in the world. AMEN.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Epiphany 5 Feb 8, 2015 yr B We Plan, God Laughs
We plan, God laughs.
Again. And Again. And Again.
My week has not gone according to plan. Now I think most of you know that I am VERY distractible, what some call being “stimulus bound,” so very often, even though I have my day carefully scheduled out, the schedule doesn’t get followed.
It’s completely foreign to me when someone tells me that they’ll be working on such and such a project from 4-6:30 pm next Tuesday…and then they actually do! So, while I may have a touch of the ol’ ADD… the reality is, “Life is what happens when we’re busy making plans.”
Life happens.
I have a to do list that I am working my way through when the phone rings and I drop everything because a parishioner is in need, or the phone rings and I am told that my mom is desperately ill so I drop everything and fly to Chicago for three weeks, or the power goes out, the fire alarms go off, the snow blower breaks, my office ceiling starts to collapse, the food pantry needs help or, or, or, or…..
Predictability isn’t a strong suit of these jobs I have.
yet what I know is that I am not in the least bit unique. This happens to many of us. A lot. We have good intentions, exquisite plans, a stunning to do list.
And then, life happens.
In today’s Gospel, “life happened” to Jesus. Capernaum, was a pretty busy place with a lot of people in a not very large area.
We could call it the Buffalo of first century Galilee—you could get just about everywhere in 20 minutes. For reference, consider where we sit right now the synagogue; the Sea of Galilee was about 2 blocks down the road and Peter and Andrew’s home was about as close as the Darwin Martin House is to us.
So, to set the scene, Jesus has just wrapped up worship in the synagogue where he’s healed a man from demonic possession, Jesus is taking the short walk across the street to Simon Peter’s house for dinner and, hopefully, some downtime.
He must need it right? Look at what’s happened so far in the first chapter of Mark---
Jesus has been baptized by John; thrust into the wilderness for forty days, thrust out of the wilderness and into his ministry due to John’s arrest and imprisonment; he’s called Andrew, Peter, John and James, and is establishing himself in his new “hometown,” Capernaum. All in 39 verses! Phew!
My guess is that as he strolled over to the house he was thinking---hoping, longing?---that this crowd of people at the synagogue would go home—to their home, and give him a chance to catch his breath….but….his plans, his hopes, his wishes, his desires, whatever it was he was planning on doing at Simon Peter’s house, doesn’t happen because, of course, Peter’s mother-in-law is sick---really sick.
So of course, Jesus heals her. He does what needs to be done, regardless of his best laid plans. And then, before he can say “hey, what’s for dinner,” half of Capernaum is lining up to get healed by this preacher man. And, of course, he goes ahead and heals them, accepting the change in plans and helping out. And then, the next day, after going to that deserted place to pray, Peter arrives, clearly annoyed that he had to waste all that time searching for Jesus, and pulls Jesus out of his planned and no doubt needed solitude to attend to the throngs of people seeking him.
Can’t the guy catch a break?
But, Jesus doesn’t snap, he doesn’t whine, he doesn’t complain. Jesus simply gets up and goes to where he perceives he’s being called to go.
This doesn’t mean that he wasn’t frustrated, or annoyed or mad, it means that he realized something we all can benefit from realizing:
While distractions may take us away from what we think we need to be doing, even what we want to be doing, they don’t take us away from God. As a matter of fact, God is there, smack dab in the middle of the distraction. God is in the distraction. That doesn’t mean God isn’t in our carefully laid out plans, what it does it mean is that God is also in the distractions, the change of plans, the interruptions.
I think for a lot of us, the distractions of life can feel like catastrophic derailments ….especially in our faith lives………”well I meant to pray every morning and every evening but this and that happened and I didn’t. I’m such a failure
Or
“I signed up for a committee, a job, a role at church and then I forgot about it, or I was late, or I made a mistake while I was doing it, so I can’t show my face there again. I messed up, there’s no going back.”
What the readings this week tell us is this---none of that is true. It may feel accurate, it may seem true, but it’s not.
God doesn’t have a scorecard about who stays on task and who doesn’t.
God, as Isaiah puts it in our first reading, God is in everything. God sees everything, God knows everything, God is truly in our going out and in our coming in. So God knows our intent, and God knows our desire.
And, as our psalmist phrases it, there is no limit to God’s wisdom….so trust that God knows we aren’t distracted because we reject God, we get distracted because. …well because life happens. The life God created, gave to us and lives with us.
And as Jesus so brilliantly exhibits in today’s Gospel….if you intended to pray, if you intended to volunteer to help out at church, if you intended to finish your to do list, but things—life---got in the way? Give yourself a break. Because God? God is right there with you, in the midst of all those distractions, detours and changes of plan.
Every single time.
We plan, God laughs. And on we go. Amen.
Again. And Again. And Again.
My week has not gone according to plan. Now I think most of you know that I am VERY distractible, what some call being “stimulus bound,” so very often, even though I have my day carefully scheduled out, the schedule doesn’t get followed.
It’s completely foreign to me when someone tells me that they’ll be working on such and such a project from 4-6:30 pm next Tuesday…and then they actually do! So, while I may have a touch of the ol’ ADD… the reality is, “Life is what happens when we’re busy making plans.”
Life happens.
I have a to do list that I am working my way through when the phone rings and I drop everything because a parishioner is in need, or the phone rings and I am told that my mom is desperately ill so I drop everything and fly to Chicago for three weeks, or the power goes out, the fire alarms go off, the snow blower breaks, my office ceiling starts to collapse, the food pantry needs help or, or, or, or…..
Predictability isn’t a strong suit of these jobs I have.
yet what I know is that I am not in the least bit unique. This happens to many of us. A lot. We have good intentions, exquisite plans, a stunning to do list.
And then, life happens.
In today’s Gospel, “life happened” to Jesus. Capernaum, was a pretty busy place with a lot of people in a not very large area.
We could call it the Buffalo of first century Galilee—you could get just about everywhere in 20 minutes. For reference, consider where we sit right now the synagogue; the Sea of Galilee was about 2 blocks down the road and Peter and Andrew’s home was about as close as the Darwin Martin House is to us.
So, to set the scene, Jesus has just wrapped up worship in the synagogue where he’s healed a man from demonic possession, Jesus is taking the short walk across the street to Simon Peter’s house for dinner and, hopefully, some downtime.
He must need it right? Look at what’s happened so far in the first chapter of Mark---
Jesus has been baptized by John; thrust into the wilderness for forty days, thrust out of the wilderness and into his ministry due to John’s arrest and imprisonment; he’s called Andrew, Peter, John and James, and is establishing himself in his new “hometown,” Capernaum. All in 39 verses! Phew!
My guess is that as he strolled over to the house he was thinking---hoping, longing?---that this crowd of people at the synagogue would go home—to their home, and give him a chance to catch his breath….but….his plans, his hopes, his wishes, his desires, whatever it was he was planning on doing at Simon Peter’s house, doesn’t happen because, of course, Peter’s mother-in-law is sick---really sick.
So of course, Jesus heals her. He does what needs to be done, regardless of his best laid plans. And then, before he can say “hey, what’s for dinner,” half of Capernaum is lining up to get healed by this preacher man. And, of course, he goes ahead and heals them, accepting the change in plans and helping out. And then, the next day, after going to that deserted place to pray, Peter arrives, clearly annoyed that he had to waste all that time searching for Jesus, and pulls Jesus out of his planned and no doubt needed solitude to attend to the throngs of people seeking him.
Can’t the guy catch a break?
But, Jesus doesn’t snap, he doesn’t whine, he doesn’t complain. Jesus simply gets up and goes to where he perceives he’s being called to go.
This doesn’t mean that he wasn’t frustrated, or annoyed or mad, it means that he realized something we all can benefit from realizing:
While distractions may take us away from what we think we need to be doing, even what we want to be doing, they don’t take us away from God. As a matter of fact, God is there, smack dab in the middle of the distraction. God is in the distraction. That doesn’t mean God isn’t in our carefully laid out plans, what it does it mean is that God is also in the distractions, the change of plans, the interruptions.
I think for a lot of us, the distractions of life can feel like catastrophic derailments ….especially in our faith lives………”well I meant to pray every morning and every evening but this and that happened and I didn’t. I’m such a failure
Or
“I signed up for a committee, a job, a role at church and then I forgot about it, or I was late, or I made a mistake while I was doing it, so I can’t show my face there again. I messed up, there’s no going back.”
What the readings this week tell us is this---none of that is true. It may feel accurate, it may seem true, but it’s not.
God doesn’t have a scorecard about who stays on task and who doesn’t.
God, as Isaiah puts it in our first reading, God is in everything. God sees everything, God knows everything, God is truly in our going out and in our coming in. So God knows our intent, and God knows our desire.
And, as our psalmist phrases it, there is no limit to God’s wisdom….so trust that God knows we aren’t distracted because we reject God, we get distracted because. …well because life happens. The life God created, gave to us and lives with us.
And as Jesus so brilliantly exhibits in today’s Gospel….if you intended to pray, if you intended to volunteer to help out at church, if you intended to finish your to do list, but things—life---got in the way? Give yourself a break. Because God? God is right there with you, in the midst of all those distractions, detours and changes of plan.
Every single time.
We plan, God laughs. And on we go. Amen.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
The Presentation (tr) 1 Feb 2015 Do You See what They See?
+It’s loud. It’s smelly. It’s crowded. There’s nothing about temple worship in the first century that would draw a small town family to undertake the two-day trip into the maze that is Jerusalem, other than duty. As an observant Jew in the first century it’s just what you did.
So, Joseph and Mary—on the 40th day after the birth of Jesus---travel to the temple so Mary can be “purified,” and Jesus, their first born son, can be presented to God.
They did what was expected, what was usual, what was normal.
But, once they got there, once they entered the temple, there was nothing expected, nothing usual, nothing normal, ever again.
Because, once they arrive at the temple, Jesus is recognized.
Not in the “ohmygoshMaryhelooksexactlylike your fatherdidasababy” kind of way…no Jesus is recognized for who he truly is:
A light to enlighten the nations, to bring glory back to the people of Israel. A savior. The Savior. The one Simeon had been waiting for. The one Anna had been waiting for. The one Isaiah longed for, the one Abraham was promised would come.
That one, the one was here!!
And good ol’ Simeon and nutty ol’ Anna saw him, recognized him and praised him.
Do we?
The Christmas story, in many ways, reaches it’s conclusion today.
Because today the story that began with Gabriel’s visit to Mary and then Joseph, the story of no room at the inn, the story of a choir of heavenly hosts shouting “Glory Hallelujah” to the shepherds tending their flocks in the fields at night, the story of that wild star guiding the magi from the far east to worship at the edge of the crib…that story, this story, our story reaches it’s conclusion….the birth narrative ends.
Christmas has left the building, one story ends and another begins.
Today, on this 40th day after Christmas, today, on this 17th day before the first day of Lent, today, just about two months before Easter we begin a new chapter in the story of who we are, of who we were born to be.
Today we take one more definitive step toward what Simeon was singing about in today’s Gospel: God’s love has come down to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Just as God had promised.
Today is all about recognizing the rest of the story.
Today is about recognizing that God came to live among us, as one of us, for us.
Today is about recognizing that choosing to follow this God in the flesh is not the easy choice.
Today is about recognizing that following Christ in all that we do, that seeking and serving Christ in all whom we encounter will, at times, pierce our heart.
Today is about recognizing that following Christ means we’ll be destined to do and say things that others will find disgusting, abhorrent and just plain wrong.
Today is about recognizing that loving God with all our heart, mind and soul is and will be messy, difficult and frightening.
Today is about committing ourselves to join Mary in walking out of this temple, noticing where Christ is at work in the world, and where Christ’s work is needed in the world.
Today is about noticing, recognizing, embracing and doing what needs to be done. Today it’s our turn.
The Christmas story is bookended by song. Mary’s Song and Simeon’s are similar in celebrating who Jesus is, what Jesus will become and how we are to follow Jesus into changing this world, one peaceful and loving encounter at a time into a place where the weak are strengthened, the lost are found, the lonely are embraced, the destitute are enriched and the hated are loved.
Today we are called to follow Mary and Joseph’s boy, to recognize Christ at work in the world, to be Christ at work in this world. Not just inside these familiar and comforting doors, but out there in the unpredictable and not always welcoming world.
You see, the world? The world doesn’t expect us to take the lessons we learn within these walls and carry them with us everywhere we go and in everything we do.
The world out there expects us to keep our faith, our worship, our Love of the Lord, encased.
In many ways, we aren’t that different from Mary and Joseph. There are things that we, as Christians, as people of faith, are just expected to do. We have our babies baptized, we have our loved ones buried, we donate our time our talent and our treasure to this place. We help out in the food pantries, we visit the sick, we pray for each other. And all of that, all of that is very good. And, frankly, it’s pretty safe. But today we are called to recognize that the work of Christ isn’t in here, it’s out there.
We’re at a turning point in our church life, in our diocesan life in our regional life. The Bishop preached about it on epiphany, he preached about it last week at the Cathedral, he wrote about it in his response to Ferguson, and in his joint pastoral letter with Bishop Malone. The message is clear: For the church to remain relevant in the 21st century, for the church to make a difference in the world today and tomorrow, for the church to fulfill the dream of God as given to us in the person of Jesus Christ, we, the church, must be willing to do something different. Something new. Something unfamiliar.
Today represents a turning point, not only in our church year, but in our church and faith life.
The trail, thus far has been sweet. We’ve had angels singing, sheep baaing and babies cooing. But today, if we choose to follow the trail of Mary and Joseph, of Anna and Simeon, of all the heroes of our faith, we’ll leave that all behind and set our eyes on all that we have left to do.
The journey we embark on today, the journey toward Calvary, the journey toward the cross, the journey into death and out again isn’t sweet and it isn’t easy…but, if we, like Simeon and Anna recognize Christ and if we, like the apostles, follow Christ then we, each and every one of us, will be set wonderfully and eternally free. Amen.
So, Joseph and Mary—on the 40th day after the birth of Jesus---travel to the temple so Mary can be “purified,” and Jesus, their first born son, can be presented to God.
They did what was expected, what was usual, what was normal.
But, once they got there, once they entered the temple, there was nothing expected, nothing usual, nothing normal, ever again.
Because, once they arrive at the temple, Jesus is recognized.
Not in the “ohmygoshMaryhelooksexactlylike your fatherdidasababy” kind of way…no Jesus is recognized for who he truly is:
A light to enlighten the nations, to bring glory back to the people of Israel. A savior. The Savior. The one Simeon had been waiting for. The one Anna had been waiting for. The one Isaiah longed for, the one Abraham was promised would come.
That one, the one was here!!
And good ol’ Simeon and nutty ol’ Anna saw him, recognized him and praised him.
Do we?
The Christmas story, in many ways, reaches it’s conclusion today.
Because today the story that began with Gabriel’s visit to Mary and then Joseph, the story of no room at the inn, the story of a choir of heavenly hosts shouting “Glory Hallelujah” to the shepherds tending their flocks in the fields at night, the story of that wild star guiding the magi from the far east to worship at the edge of the crib…that story, this story, our story reaches it’s conclusion….the birth narrative ends.
Christmas has left the building, one story ends and another begins.
Today, on this 40th day after Christmas, today, on this 17th day before the first day of Lent, today, just about two months before Easter we begin a new chapter in the story of who we are, of who we were born to be.
Today we take one more definitive step toward what Simeon was singing about in today’s Gospel: God’s love has come down to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Just as God had promised.
Today is all about recognizing the rest of the story.
Today is about recognizing that God came to live among us, as one of us, for us.
Today is about recognizing that choosing to follow this God in the flesh is not the easy choice.
Today is about recognizing that following Christ in all that we do, that seeking and serving Christ in all whom we encounter will, at times, pierce our heart.
Today is about recognizing that following Christ means we’ll be destined to do and say things that others will find disgusting, abhorrent and just plain wrong.
Today is about recognizing that loving God with all our heart, mind and soul is and will be messy, difficult and frightening.
Today is about committing ourselves to join Mary in walking out of this temple, noticing where Christ is at work in the world, and where Christ’s work is needed in the world.
Today is about noticing, recognizing, embracing and doing what needs to be done. Today it’s our turn.
The Christmas story is bookended by song. Mary’s Song and Simeon’s are similar in celebrating who Jesus is, what Jesus will become and how we are to follow Jesus into changing this world, one peaceful and loving encounter at a time into a place where the weak are strengthened, the lost are found, the lonely are embraced, the destitute are enriched and the hated are loved.
Today we are called to follow Mary and Joseph’s boy, to recognize Christ at work in the world, to be Christ at work in this world. Not just inside these familiar and comforting doors, but out there in the unpredictable and not always welcoming world.
You see, the world? The world doesn’t expect us to take the lessons we learn within these walls and carry them with us everywhere we go and in everything we do.
The world out there expects us to keep our faith, our worship, our Love of the Lord, encased.
In many ways, we aren’t that different from Mary and Joseph. There are things that we, as Christians, as people of faith, are just expected to do. We have our babies baptized, we have our loved ones buried, we donate our time our talent and our treasure to this place. We help out in the food pantries, we visit the sick, we pray for each other. And all of that, all of that is very good. And, frankly, it’s pretty safe. But today we are called to recognize that the work of Christ isn’t in here, it’s out there.
We’re at a turning point in our church life, in our diocesan life in our regional life. The Bishop preached about it on epiphany, he preached about it last week at the Cathedral, he wrote about it in his response to Ferguson, and in his joint pastoral letter with Bishop Malone. The message is clear: For the church to remain relevant in the 21st century, for the church to make a difference in the world today and tomorrow, for the church to fulfill the dream of God as given to us in the person of Jesus Christ, we, the church, must be willing to do something different. Something new. Something unfamiliar.
Today represents a turning point, not only in our church year, but in our church and faith life.
The trail, thus far has been sweet. We’ve had angels singing, sheep baaing and babies cooing. But today, if we choose to follow the trail of Mary and Joseph, of Anna and Simeon, of all the heroes of our faith, we’ll leave that all behind and set our eyes on all that we have left to do.
The journey we embark on today, the journey toward Calvary, the journey toward the cross, the journey into death and out again isn’t sweet and it isn’t easy…but, if we, like Simeon and Anna recognize Christ and if we, like the apostles, follow Christ then we, each and every one of us, will be set wonderfully and eternally free. Amen.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Epiphany 3 January 18, 2015 Deacon Pete's sermon
Wouldn’t the story of Jonah make a great Disney movie? After all, we frequently think of it as a children’s story, every Sunday school program always and forever includes it, it is a story that fascinates children. Imagine the graphics, a solitary and reluctant prophet lodged inside an ooey, gooey big fish. And, that’s the better translation; Jonah was inside a big fish, not a warm and more appealing mammal. He was stuck in a cold, dark, slimy and smelly creature. And, like a good Disney movie, it has layer after layer to also hold the interest of adults.
Jonah is a minor prophet, not one of the big names like Isaiah or Jeremiah. And, God gives him a relatively minor task; he is not charged with calling the whole Israelite nation to repentance, no, he is sent just to Nineveh, to warn only this one city to straighten up and fly right. And, he is resistant, reluctant and recalcitrant about his mission. Jonah does not want to be with the people of Nineveh and, as we find out later on, he certainly does not want them to be saved. He runs away from God, boards a ship and gets thrown overboard into the belly of the big fish. When Jonah comes to his senses and prays to God, he is vomited up onto dry land. God comes to Jonah a second time and orders him to Nineveh to deliver this short and powerful sermon - “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown”. A sermon of merely 8 words, but it caused the Ninevites to proclaim a fast, put on mourning clothes and stop their evil behavior and violence. Now that’s a sermon!
Jonah however, isn’t thrilled with this outcome. No, Jonah is angry with God, resentful of God’s mercy and compassion. He leaves the city in a snit and builds himself a hut to sit in. Jonah is angry with God for showing God’s grace to people he doesn’t approve of. Using a shrub and a worm God teaches Jonah that God will always be available, abundantly available, to those who work toward being in right relationship with their creator, regardless of whether or not we find them worthy of God’s grace.
Our readings today take us from the story of a big fish to the story of four fishermen. Like Jonah in Nineveh, Jesus is in Galilee is preaching repentance. Jesus witnesses Simon, better known to us as Peter, and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea. He invites them to follow him and they immediately drop their nets, leave their livelihood and their families to join up with Jesus. Likewise James and John stop mending their nets, the tools of their trade, leave their father with the hired hands and walk away from the sea into the company of Jesus. Like Jonah, Jesus uses few words, and the results are almost unimaginable. The fisherman get up and follow immediately, with no arguments or demands for details they leave everything and everyone behind. They show us the true meaning of repentance: to change one’s whole way of thinking and being in the world.
The words Jesus uses: “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” are so familiar to us that we almost ignore them, we gloss over them and don’t spend a lot of time discerning what they might mean for us, in our day and age, in our circumstances and situations.
Let’s think for a moment about the fishermen’s nets. Nets are of utmost importance to fishermen, they are the means by which great quantities of fish are caught, the tools used to provide the living that support their families, that sustain their way of life. Boats are important, strong and savvy sailors are important, knowledge of tides and winds are important, but no nets means no fish and therefore no income. It is impossible to conceive of fishermen, then and now, making a living without nets. Nets are familiar to them, nets are a source of safety, and nets are part of their identity. Nets are not merely important, they are iconic to fishermen. So, when Andrew, Peter, James, and John drop their nets, they are dropping everything that they previously thought, believed and treasured.
So, the first thing we need to know about fishing for people is that it will disrupt our usual patterns; this means it will force us to drop our beloved safety nets, it will challenge all of our assumptions about the worthiness of others, it will take us out of our comfort zones and completely turn us around.
The second thing we need to know about fishing for people is that it happens in relationship. And, as we will learn from Jesus throughout the Gospels, it happens in relationship with people that God places in our paths, not just the people we are used to being with, not just the people we are comfortable being with. Jesus takes these fisherman and exposes them to prostitutes, tax collectors, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, all of the outcasts they have been raised to avoid, all of the outcasts they have been taught are unclean, unsavory and unsafe. Just as God didn’t need or want Jonah’s approval before saving Nineveh, God is not likely to ask or want our approval before putting people in place for us to fish for. Nope, the good news of God’s kingdom come, here on earth, is for everyone- no strings attached, no exceptions.
The third thing we need to know about fishing for people is that it involves putting ourselves out there, out there in the often cold, cruel, messy world. Jonah had to go to Nineveh, our four fisherman had to leave the shores of Lake Galilee and we have to leave our pews and these four walls. God isn’t asking us to fish in an already stocked pond.
Jonah was called. Andrew, Peter, James and John were called. We are called. We are called to proclaim and demonstrate the good news, the good news that God is here, always and forever…the good news that we are all loved beyond measure by our creator, the good news that God in Jesus models for us, and we are to receive and share that love, not only with one another, but with the world. The church is here for our renewal and refreshment, it is up to us to offer that renewal and refreshment to everyone else. AMEN.
Jonah is a minor prophet, not one of the big names like Isaiah or Jeremiah. And, God gives him a relatively minor task; he is not charged with calling the whole Israelite nation to repentance, no, he is sent just to Nineveh, to warn only this one city to straighten up and fly right. And, he is resistant, reluctant and recalcitrant about his mission. Jonah does not want to be with the people of Nineveh and, as we find out later on, he certainly does not want them to be saved. He runs away from God, boards a ship and gets thrown overboard into the belly of the big fish. When Jonah comes to his senses and prays to God, he is vomited up onto dry land. God comes to Jonah a second time and orders him to Nineveh to deliver this short and powerful sermon - “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown”. A sermon of merely 8 words, but it caused the Ninevites to proclaim a fast, put on mourning clothes and stop their evil behavior and violence. Now that’s a sermon!
Jonah however, isn’t thrilled with this outcome. No, Jonah is angry with God, resentful of God’s mercy and compassion. He leaves the city in a snit and builds himself a hut to sit in. Jonah is angry with God for showing God’s grace to people he doesn’t approve of. Using a shrub and a worm God teaches Jonah that God will always be available, abundantly available, to those who work toward being in right relationship with their creator, regardless of whether or not we find them worthy of God’s grace.
Our readings today take us from the story of a big fish to the story of four fishermen. Like Jonah in Nineveh, Jesus is in Galilee is preaching repentance. Jesus witnesses Simon, better known to us as Peter, and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea. He invites them to follow him and they immediately drop their nets, leave their livelihood and their families to join up with Jesus. Likewise James and John stop mending their nets, the tools of their trade, leave their father with the hired hands and walk away from the sea into the company of Jesus. Like Jonah, Jesus uses few words, and the results are almost unimaginable. The fisherman get up and follow immediately, with no arguments or demands for details they leave everything and everyone behind. They show us the true meaning of repentance: to change one’s whole way of thinking and being in the world.
The words Jesus uses: “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” are so familiar to us that we almost ignore them, we gloss over them and don’t spend a lot of time discerning what they might mean for us, in our day and age, in our circumstances and situations.
Let’s think for a moment about the fishermen’s nets. Nets are of utmost importance to fishermen, they are the means by which great quantities of fish are caught, the tools used to provide the living that support their families, that sustain their way of life. Boats are important, strong and savvy sailors are important, knowledge of tides and winds are important, but no nets means no fish and therefore no income. It is impossible to conceive of fishermen, then and now, making a living without nets. Nets are familiar to them, nets are a source of safety, and nets are part of their identity. Nets are not merely important, they are iconic to fishermen. So, when Andrew, Peter, James, and John drop their nets, they are dropping everything that they previously thought, believed and treasured.
So, the first thing we need to know about fishing for people is that it will disrupt our usual patterns; this means it will force us to drop our beloved safety nets, it will challenge all of our assumptions about the worthiness of others, it will take us out of our comfort zones and completely turn us around.
The second thing we need to know about fishing for people is that it happens in relationship. And, as we will learn from Jesus throughout the Gospels, it happens in relationship with people that God places in our paths, not just the people we are used to being with, not just the people we are comfortable being with. Jesus takes these fisherman and exposes them to prostitutes, tax collectors, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, all of the outcasts they have been raised to avoid, all of the outcasts they have been taught are unclean, unsavory and unsafe. Just as God didn’t need or want Jonah’s approval before saving Nineveh, God is not likely to ask or want our approval before putting people in place for us to fish for. Nope, the good news of God’s kingdom come, here on earth, is for everyone- no strings attached, no exceptions.
The third thing we need to know about fishing for people is that it involves putting ourselves out there, out there in the often cold, cruel, messy world. Jonah had to go to Nineveh, our four fisherman had to leave the shores of Lake Galilee and we have to leave our pews and these four walls. God isn’t asking us to fish in an already stocked pond.
Jonah was called. Andrew, Peter, James and John were called. We are called. We are called to proclaim and demonstrate the good news, the good news that God is here, always and forever…the good news that we are all loved beyond measure by our creator, the good news that God in Jesus models for us, and we are to receive and share that love, not only with one another, but with the world. The church is here for our renewal and refreshment, it is up to us to offer that renewal and refreshment to everyone else. AMEN.
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