Zeal or Patience

The Wheat and the Weeds.

Matthew 13: 24-30 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

So many ways to take this parable; so many directions that could apply. Well, scanning some of the resources at The Text This Week I came across a sermon from Dr. Eugene Winkler that had a challenging thought:

So the householder answers, "No, let them grow together until harvest." The question and answer reach out beyond first century Palestine, and beyond the problem concerning unfaithful members in Matthew's church to whom the evangelist directed it. The questions have to be asked of so many decisions that life forces upon us: What shall we do about evil that unexpectedly appears alongside the good? What shall we do about the contradictions in our own personalities? How does one distinguish between a hypocrite and a genuine person?

The dialectic is between quick zeal and faithful patience. Not an easy distinction to make.
--Dr. Eugene Winkler on 30 Good Minutes

Zeal and patience. What a way to bring one up short. Aren't we supposed to be filled with zeal for the Gospel? Aren't we supposed to be passionate? So what's all this about letting the evil live along with the good? What's this idea that we should let the evil grow right along with the holy?

As if we could separate them. I'm not even sure that we would like what we found if we got rid of the weeds in our midst- we might discover the weeds in our lives. If we eliminated all the evil others we would then have to confront the evil in our own selves. In fact sometimes I think our zeal to point out the evil in others can be a way to ignore or move attention away from our own evil. Or to point out how pious and good we are in comparison.

Patience, however, doesn't have the excitement that zeal has. Patience sounds boring. Patience sounds like compromise. Patience sounds like neglecting what we think God wants us to be doing. It sounds like ignoring evil or even accepting it if only by not opposing it.

We need only look at the extremes to which this can be taken to see how dangerous and harmful it can get. Take the zealot who insists that a divorced person can't serve in the church because they are committing adultery by getting remarried. Take the person who has discovered the tendency to evil in their own life and they can't get rid of it. The first can tear apart a community. The second can end up taking their own life since they can't win over the sinfulness.

Yes, I am being simplistic. But so was Jesus. It comes down to the question underlying the parable itself... Can any farmer (in the days before herbicides) get rid of the weeds in any gardening plot. Of course not. To root all of it out would take the good with the bad. Better to wait till the harvest.

I have no real idea what the harvest means in the whole picture of the Christian life. The basic is of course what happens when we die. Whatever the final judgment will look like. However Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats and how we can be ready for it. There are no easy answers. Which is good or we would probably mess them up, too.

In the end I just have to let the idea remind me to be patient instead of zealous. Trusting God is another way of describing patience. Maybe that's just what Jesus meant.

Listen! The Choked Out Seeds

From today's Gospel:

Matthew 13: 3b-8
“Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

A commentary by Clarence Jordan says all I want to say- and better than I can say it:

People are preoccupied with other things. They’re fine people. They’re good-hearted people. They mean well. But they’re just cut off from ever realizing their potential by the rat race, or whatever kind of race people are puttin’ on now. The cares of the world, the distractions of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, these things just choke them out and prevent them from ever maturing.

By and large, I think, Christians are good people. They’re nice, middle class, suburban people. They’re well-educated; they mean well. They don’t hate Jesus. In fact, they love him, if he’ll stay in his place. And they don’t mean him any harm. It’s just that they are so busy. They’ve got to go here; they’ve got to go there. They’re busy with their houses; they’re busy with their automobiles; they’re busy with their business. They just don’t have time to think and they don’t have time to get on the ball. So, they’re choked out.

Source: Cotton Patch Parables of Liberation

Not Again....

Over and over and over it goes. Year in and year out. We hear the same old Scriptures. Even on a three-year cycle some of them just seem to come up more often than others. Like this week:

Matthew 10:37-42 - Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.

Worthiness is in rejecting my family? Worthiness is giving up all that is important to me and leaving it behind? Worthiness is losing my life? Don't we in the church ever get tired of preaching and hearing those words?

Well, probably. That may be why we don't live them. They are too familiar. Background words of the Christian life.

Then there's the question of rewards. We talk about a Gospel of grace and we hear words of works. It gets confusing so we just go on with our lives and stop trying to figure it all out.

Which may be the smartest thing we can do, as long as in the stopping figuring we don't stop worshiping. It is when we give up our control of things; our interpretations that have to be the right ones; our worship and Bible and denomination and on and on and on, only then can we begin to hear what it may be that God is telling us in these passages.

I wish I could tell you because I still struggle with them on a daily basis. I guess I'll just keep listening.

No Added Value Needed

Value added is one of those economic or business terms I remember from some course or another. As I simply remember it, value added means what happens when you take one product or raw material and make something more out of it. You "add value."

I thought of that first when I read this morning's Gospel where Jesus mentions that sparrows are so important to God that God knows when even one falls. He then says:

Matthew 10:31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

I don't know what Jesus meant in the original context. In Matthew's context Jesus is telling his followers that they didn't need to be afraid of persecution, threats to life and limb, or even death itself. But as I read it today I thought of the whole idea of "value added."

In short what I heard was that we don't need any "value added." As we are, we are valuable to God. As we are God cares. As we are!

Wait a minute. Haven't I heard that we are abhorrent to God when we are in sin; God can't get anywhere near us because we are sinful, unclean? How many times have we heard an evangelist trying to convince us to follow Jesus by pointing out how bad and sinful we are? How often have we then translated that into all kinds of self-depreciation, shame, fear, self-loathing?

No one is worthless or value-less, says Jesus. If we are that bad that God can't come near to us, then what do we truly believe about the Incarnation, about Jesus as true God not only walking among us- next to us- but living in the very flesh we share?

For me that is but a tiny little step, inches, at most, away from the just as powerful understanding that this promise of "no added value needed" isn't just for me and my type (take your pick, I have a number of different "types".) Jesus is talking to people. Humans. Walking, talking, breathing, eating, sleeping humans. How then I can make a judgment about any other of those who share my humanity with me? How can I say it is all right to ignore or put down or put out or worse hate or kill them?

At least that's where my pondering takes me this week. Thank God that God made me just as I am.

Two Sets of Thoughts

As I was reading this week's lessons, two separate thoughts came to mind from looking at each end of the assigned Gospel. Let's start at the beginning:

Matthew 9: 35-38 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Sort of seemingly straightforward. A good set-up to the sending out of the 12 which immediately follows it. I have always been struck by that one little phrase that Matthew used to describe the crowds: Harassed and helpless. What a powerful description of humanity in just about any time and place. And to deal with it Jesus himself went about teaching, preaching the good news and healing people. Again a good set-up to what The Twelve were to be doing:

preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.

So far so good.

Note: I am not going to deal with the "poverty" aspect of the sending of the Twelve and compare it to the prosperity gospel. Just pretend I didn't even mention it. Thanks.

Sounds like a good job description. Jesus is simply pointing out- do as I do and as I say. Should be a piece of cake.

Not.

Matthew 10: 21-23a "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another."

Oh. Which is the way the second thought starts. Oh! Oh? Oh. Another example of Jesus' "Family Values." They may not always produce one big happy family. In fact Jesus might even say there are values greater than "family values" which of course the First Century church wouldn't even understand.

Fortunately we do live in a much different world where families and fathers can have a different definition than they would have in biblical times. But that doesn't mean that all things will always work out smoothly. Which is where I think the first past of this passage comes back to challenge us into a more basic and spiritual life that can bring healing.

It is the getting back to basics. Look again at what we are to be doing:

preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.

Even if we take a moment and "modernize" raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and driving out demons we still come down to a true, broad, deep, and revolutionary ministry of healing. As one who works in a secular setting where that kind of ministry is happening every day (without the explicit religious aspect) I can tell you that it is not impossible. And I can also tell you that fathers and sons are often reunited where once they had been figuratively and spiritually and emotionally killing each other.

What a calling it is to follow Him in the non-religious world. We may often forget that this is exactly where he went. Do as he did and said. We can do far worse.

Quick Theology

I had a friend who we used to kid that he had a "bumper sticker theology." What we meant was that he liked quick sound-byte type statements to summarize theology. At times he was probably mocked for being too simplistic.

Well, I should probably make amends to him. I have discovered that much too often we make things much too difficult. Of course part of the problem as I have said here before is that theology is twice removed from the spiritual experience it is trying to explain and therefore is naturally wordy. But I have found that putting an idea on a bumper sticker forces you to get down to the bare basics.

But I'm not here to argue the pros and cons of quick, terse statements. All this is simply an introduction to one of those quick, terse statements that hits you over the head and makes you sit up and pay attention. Hence, the bumper sticker I saw the other day:

Faith is a journey
Not a guilt trip

(Stop. I don't want to hear any "yes, but..." anti-bumper sticker comments. Hang in there.)

With that stuck to our bumpers, then, let's read the beginning of the Gospel lesson for today:

Matthew 9: 9 - 13 As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Let me propose that this statement of Jesus is about a journey of grace and mercy rather than leading someone into guilt. I would probably also make the guess that most of what Jesus says and teaches (not to mention what he does) is anything but guilt inducing under 95% of all circumstances. So I react with sadness that people think that we have been given a task of making people feel guilty, something Jesus himself didn't do.

And the answer is probably in our human weakness (even sinfulness) that wants to be better than someone else, that wants to believe that we have answers that no one else has, that wants to act in a way that shows what we are saying. Instead of a humility that recognizes that we are in this human race together and some of us get into trouble in different ways, we try to life ourselves higher as the arbiter of what is right and what is wrong.

Show mercy- and we will do what Jesus wants. With that we can't go wrong.

And They All Fall Down

Matthew 7: 24 - 27-- “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

It makes so much sense, of course. Many times children make these castles in the sand and along comes the next high tide and all signs and remains are gone.

Many years ago a very good friend of mine introduced be to a short little poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It comes from her collection A Few Figs From Thistles. It is entitled simply "Second Fig":

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

To Donald the meaning was clear- "Don't build up there where it's safe. Come on down here to the beauty of the sand. Live a risky life, a life on the edge. Take chances." Without getting into the details, his life was more like what Jesus warned of. Great was the fall.

The mistaken understanding in the poem is striking as I look back on it from this place and age. Why do the houses up there on the safe and solid rick have to be ugly? I never thought of that until writing this post. Take a look at what Jesus said and you see that he doesn't mention anything about the style of the house that was built on the rock or the one built on the shifting sands.

Is it a question that we think if we follow the tried and true or the basic foundations around us that we will, by nature be ugly? Is it that we don't think that anything new and beautiful can be built on such a foundation?

When in the end everything that is built will fall down. We humans do not build anything of eternal ability to remain standing. Not with anything but being something of historic significance. We all fall down. Eventually. So, as Donald might ask, why then build on that ugly old solid rock?

Because it doesn't have to be ugly. It probably won't even be dull and boring. But keeping it tied to a solid foundation is important, at least in my mind. A solid foundation like Jesus is talking about is God. However we may define "God" we need to have that foundation. That solid spirit. Yes, I know that is a paradoxical statement. But that is part of the joy and wonder and beauty of God.

It doesn't have to make logical sense, it just have to be true. So when we end up falling down the basics will be there, in this life, and as we Christians believe in the next as well.

So Go To the Manual

So I finish writing the above "lead" post and turn to look at what today's Gospel is and I find the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 6:

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, ... do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I had two thoughts, after I stopped shaking my head.

• 1. Too often, because of natural concerns and buildings and maintenance, etc. the organized traditional church often finds itself serving money. I know that this is one of those customary and standard criticisms of the church. Sadly it is not that far from the truth. Many pastors spend a great deal of time studying budgets and financial statements- or at least the results of them. Yes, the church needs money to survive. But it is difficult to continue to serve God when money becomes the center of attention. If we are to have an organized church, this will always, always be a problem.
  

So then I came to the other thought.

• 2. Stop worrying. It is not for me to figure out. It is God's work and direction however it's being done; wherever it's happening. Maybe if I stop worrying so much and looking at the lack I will begin to find the presence of such places and people and communities. Maybe I will even find The Presence alive and well just as I expect Him to be.

Trinity Sunday

I don't want to talk about theology. Theology is much too head-level thinking. It is twice removed from experiences of God. It is often a way of explaining something that we really don't know. Take the theologies of Holy Communion. We could talk forever about what the correct theology is. We could further split Christianity into more smaller groups just by doing so. Remember, personal experience is first; telling someone else about your experience is second; explaining the experience is third.

As far as I'm concerned getting back to the original experience of the Trinity is probably much easier than with some theological doctrines. Yes, the Trinity is a doctrine. It is only peripherally biblical. It is an explanation of something that we can't explain. We can only experience it.

God the Father,
God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit.

Any way you try to describe what that means will make you a heretic to someone.

In short, to me, it is simply the three ways that God had been experienced by God's people. There was no problem with any of this until Jesus came along. He really threw things into a theological uproar. How could he be God when God was God. Then this Holy Spirit. Wait, God is God, Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God? I can't wrap my human mind around that.

Which is good because we can look at the many ways we have gotten into trouble when we have tried to wrap our human minds around something with human logic and reason. Human logic and reason don't work. We're talking about God here. We're not talking about something we could understand. John Chrysostom (345-407) said it well in a quote I read recently.

A comprehended God is no God.

So I'm not comfortable talking about theology in times like this. God is Father- Creator, yes, but more than that. Father is a relationship word. As is Son- God the Son. These aren't cold theological constructs. These are words we understand if only poorly in some families and better in others. In the end for me faith is always about relationships more than it is about correct theology. None of us will ever have a truly correct theology. So we might as well work at the relationships.

The Week In-Between

The text for the week between:

Acts 1: 10 - 11: They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

What I have always seen here is the challenge, as the old saying goes, to not get so lost in the heavenly that one is no earthly good. To stand around and wait for Jesus to come back is not what he wanted. We can say that over and over yet we are all tempted to a life that looks to feel better, be touched by God, to revel in the wonderful relationship that we are called into.

Instead we need to be doing the work that Jesus did. We talked about this a few weeks ago when considering Jesus' words that we would do even greater works than he did. All that is clear, at least to me. What isn't as clear, though, is how this fits together with the reminder that Jesus would return in the same way he was seen leaving. If he is to return the same way, why not look up in the sky?

Perhaps it is the suddenness of his departure; maybe it was the fact that clouds hid him; maybe it's just more than I can ever begin to understand on my own. Which brings me back to remember that this is the Sunday In-Between: after the Ascension and before Pentecost. It is a reminder of how little I truly know and understand. It is a reminder of the powerlessness that exists in the Christian life without the Holy Spirit.

This is not a deep or profound idea. It is not something that takes a panel of theologians to figure out. It is not about having the incredible human wisdom to have all the answers or even to act like I have all the answers. The Bible- and faith- is filled with mystery and questions that have no answers in our human wisdom. In these ten days in-between Jesus is gone and the Spirit has not yet come. How empty is the life without either.

You CAN Do It

Jesus was calling his disciples to live and love in ways that seemed impossible. They couldn't do it, not without the Spirit. Yet with the Spirit- there’s very little they can’t do. A little bit before he promises the Spirit Jesus says promises something daring and bold- and crazy sounding. "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these because I am going to the Father."

Huh? This is not the same way Jesus is portrayed in the other Gospels. In fact John is such a different telling of the story that it stands out- on its own. Why?

Well one of my hunches is that since John was the last of the Gospels written and circulated it is as much a reflection on what the early Christians themselves experienced. I can hear John, a very old man, sharing his thoughts to his students many years after the event. They sit there trying to capture them. Time is running out. The times have changed. The memories of Jesus are all oral or written tradition.

They may have been discussing something that had just happened in their city. They may be responding to an event they have heard of from some other early Christian community. It might be of some miracle or some new conversion or something that seems beyond possibility.

John stops the discussion with a wave of his hand and a deep and soul-affirming smile. You know, he says, that is a great example of what the Master told us on that Passover night. He told us that we would do greater things than even he was able to do. See, he says as the power of the Spirit fills him- See. It’s true. It IS true.

Look around. Not just here, but wherever two or three or hundreds gather today. Miracles- hope and life- are happening. Promises are coming true. It’s all in the Spirit- and it’s all in the love that he started with. And is now ours to share. Greater than what he did? Sure. 2000 years ago he couldn’t have touched the people we can touch today. More people will have heard the Good News in the last couple hours right here in Minnesota than in all of Jesus lifetime. And that doesn’t count the TV and radio shows or the private conversations or readers on their computers.

It’s all in the love. His love for us- and our call to love others. It’s all in the Spirit- His Holy Spirit that is right here keeping us in touch. Forever.

Beyond Getting By With Our Faith

I guess you could say that we "practice" our faith. I have a hunch that somehow or other in God's incredible grace we could just "get by." After all, that is what "justification by faith" - and "grace"- really mean. You don't have to do anything to receive it. (I am not going to get into arguments that believing is an act on our part. That's for theologians and thinkers far deeper and smarter than I.)

But, and here is where something more comes into the picture. There is a relationship between faith and action. The famous passage from James reminds us of that. So does the word "disciple" which comes from the same root as "discipline." You can be simply a "follower" and "just get by" or you can jump in deeper and "practice" which takes "discipline" to become a "disciple." It may be okay with God for you to "just get by." If it wasn't it wouldn't be grace.

John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Jesus wasn't only interested in grace. It was clear that he wanted more from those who would follow him. Grace, as far as it goes (and it goes far) and in spite of Bonhoeffer's well phrased words to the contrary, is easy. If it wasn't, to repeat myself, it wouldn't be grace. But grace is not all Jesus offers. Here is where we often get mixed up. Jesus is also offering us more- that ability to do more than even he did. THAT is discipleship.

And that takes practice- the living practice of our faith. It doesn't make be a "better Christian;" it does make me a stronger disciple within the gifts and calling I have been given. Nor does it give me a more (or less) honored place in heaven or the church or the kingdom. Those workers hired in Jesus' infamous parable all got the same pay regardless of whether they worked an hour or eight in the blazing sun.

So we don't practice our faith to get more rewards or to get into heaven. We practice our faith because we have been called to. To do what Jesus did- and more- because he promised that to us.

Behind Locked Doors

As I sat and listened in church this morning I was reminded of that great sub-genre of the mystery writers- the Locked Door Mystery. The police or investigators face a death of someone in a room that is clearly locked from the inside. There is no way a killer could have done the deed and left. At least not using normal means. There is always a trick or some sneaky thing that solves the mystery.

The difference with this morning's Gospel is that the locked door didn't work. Well, I guess it did. But it failed in the way it needed to fail. The apostles were locked behind their fears and uncertainties and misconceptions. They sat there pondering a mystery- an empty tomb mystery. That and some unusual sightings of their teacher they knew died and was placed in that now empty tomb.

No wonder their door was locked. Strange, other-worldly things going on. These were not some modern reasoned and rational people. They believed in things that we would laugh at today. That, and the all-too-real-and-rational authorities who might be after them- and you have a locked door.

The mystery though was not the sightings or rumors or empty tomb. The mystery came and stood before them without opening the door. The mystery- or better- The Mystery came into their room and stood there with them breathing the Holy Breath onto and into them. Shalom Aleichem!

Never had that greeting sounded so filled with meaning. It no longer sounded like the daily greeting. It sounded like the blessing it was always meant to be. Shalom Aleichem! he repeated.

And the mystery became irrelevant. The Mystery of God stood before them in person. No locked doors can keep him out.

But sadly we don't often even know He's there. At least I tend not to notice. I get busy with my fears or joys, my dreams or nightmares, my ways of doing things or my ways of hiding from doing them. I lock the door and ignore the possibilities around me.

I keep looking for answers to my mysteries instead of seeing Him who is both the Mystery and the Answer. For it is in giving up the ways I want- in becoming powerless in the face of the greatest Mystery that I can never solve or explain or even begin to imagine. What I can do, though, is keep my soul open to see Him when He is there. Listen when he greets me in words that are as common as the daily rising of the sun- and yet as fresh as each sunrise itself.

Shalom. Shalom Aleichem.

Palms and Parades

This is one of those weeks when you sit and stare at the screen and think to yourself, "I don't have anything new to say." You know the Gospel, backwards and forwards. You have heard it yearly for what, nearly 50 years? We always seem to think about it terms of parades- triumphal parades- and those palm branches littering the road into the city.

On top of it I am in my second day of feeling under the weather. Not so sick that I am stuck in bed- but not so healthy that I feel like I can do much of anything. So I think of this passage, having missed church this morning, and have nothing new to say.

So I will give you the highlights, in bullet form.

• The week before Passover
• Jesus riding a donkey into the city
• Humility
• Yet forcefully stating his kingship
• People falling all over themselves to honor him
• The people's choice

So there is the parade. But we always point out the change in the fortunes in the next week. By this time next week the change in the world will be monumental. Yet only a few will know it. So what good is "The Parade" if no one is willing to keep on keeping on?

Here's the clip from the original Jesus Christ Superstar that catches that tension:



When you have reviewed that, pause for a moment. What is the Word for today coming out of that day? well, being in the state I am in today, I will let this video that uses the same pictures from above, with some others, and the music of U2- Peace on Earth. Ponder and pray for the Holy Week.

Sunday - Life Is Coming- In Fact It's Here!

The Old Familiar Stories can be both dull and exciting. The dullness happens when we think we have heard it all before and there's nothing new to see. The excitement happens when we "get it" in a new way that applies eternally- and today. Sarah at Dylan's Lectionary Blog always seems to get it.

When we cry out from the depths, God hears. When Jesus seems slow in coming, he is coming nonetheless. And if we worry that it is too late, Jesus shows that it is never too late. After we have become convinced that all is lost, when we are ready to concede to death and are seeking only to contain the damage or bury it, Jesus demonstrates that there is no loss, no death, no tragedy, no depth, no power in heaven or on earth or under the earth that can place a person, a situation, or a world beyond God's redemption, beyond the reach of infinite love and abundant life.
--Dylan's Lectionary Blog

That paragraph is nothing short of powerful and life-changing. Go ahead, read it again. Did you catch it again. I have read and re-read it several times in these past days as I put this post together.

When we become convinced that all is lost...

When we are ready to concede to death...

We seek only to contain or bury the damage...

Sounds like a Friday on a Cross or, perhaps more powerfully and poignantly, a Sunday morning in the garden by The Tomb.

Sounds like many a day that most of us humans face when things don't look or feel or go right.

Sounds like the way of the world we live in- a place of death and darkness and the temptation to throw our hands in the air and give in or up.

And there was Lazarus. As good a metaphor for all this as anyone could ever want. But to Mary and Martha he was anything but a metaphor. And to Jesus he was a friend. Life is not a metaphor. Activities are similes to be used only as illustrations. Not when the healing power of God is at hand, or when the light is beginning to dawn. The metaphor becomes real. It isn't "like" anything else. It IS something else that we can only begin to grasp.

Which moves us to be those who live in the light. We become the carriers of that light. And no matter what, darkness does not cover light. It can never, ever, be more powerful than light.

So, as Sarah ended her post:

Open every dark place to light and air; this is the time to uncover and unbind!

Sunday- Lent 3

It doesn't take someone with a lot of skills of observation to notice that Jesus is often found around women who he shouldn't even be talking to. What may be the most surprising thing about that is not that he hung around them- and them around him- but that the stories actually got into the Bible. Just look what the happened with John McCain last week- it was the appearance of impropriety that was talked about. And Jesus lived on the edge of that impropriety constantly.

He didn't actually have to do anything. Just being with them and letting them be with him was all that needed to happen. And his followers who finally put the book together, who gathered and edited the Gospel stories were brave enough to put them in. In spite of the breaking of cultural mores and turning things upside down, they were open and honest about it and didn't try to spin or hide it.

That tells me a great deal about the early church. It was radical and even revolutionary. It also saw itself as the place where those who were outcast in one way or another in their cultures could come to be accepted and loved. We have runaway slaves, and prostitutes, and tax collectors, and women, and Samaritan women- all right there as part of the church's pre-history in the history of Jesus.

Unfortunately an institution like the church (or any other one, probably) can find it hard to maintain that cutting edge. It becomes an Institution and Institutions have to survive. Things and times and people change. There's not much we can do about that, of course. But perhaps we can do something about ourselves in the midst of those Institutions. We can still read the radical stories and not sentimentalize them or turn them into some nice, safe Sunday School story.

In that is the power of the Gospel- and of salvation.

Lent 2 -- 3:16

--Jesus Mafa

Nicodemus and Jesus

And it was all summed up like this:

For God


so loved


the world


that he sent His only Son


that whoever


believes in Him

shall not perish


but have everlasting life

First Sunday in Lent- Those Temptations

Every year as Lent rolls around we hear the same message. Jesus is sent off into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. To give myself a different view of temptation I went looking for some appropriate quotes to enlighten the story in new ways.

[Jesus] fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

Which made me think of a quote from Shakespeare from Romeo and Juliet.

• Tempt not a desperate man.

Now that would seem to be the time to go for the kill. Which may very well be what the Devil is thinking as he steps forward with his first offer...

“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

That's catching Jesus where it hurts- both his divinity and his humanity. "Use your divinity," says the Devil, "to solve the problems of your humanity. You are starving. Do it. Turn your divinity into a magic act- and I will have you."

How true are the old-time preacher Billy Sunday's words. The accepting of the tempting offer opens the way:

• Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.

So, the Devil looks for another way when one doesn't work.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Now Jesus is to prove his divinity and his trust of God- by tempting God. What a concept. Now, we would never do that! But alas, to want that kind of relationship with God is to fall to what Jean Anouilh said, through the voice of Thomas a Becket in the play Becket.

• “Saintliness is also a temptation”

But the Devil has one more trick up his sleeve.

the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

The down and dirty nitty gritty. Thats what the Devil has been after from the beginning. When the sly sideways acts fail he offers the world in return for simply worshiping him. It's sly in its straightforwardness. Columnist Earl Wilson mentioned this power:

• Ever notice that the whisper of temptation can be heard farther than the loudest call to duty.

But throughout this whole scene Jesus doesn't falter or fail.

• He's hungry - but not for stones of his own creation.
• He's the Son of God - and doesn't need to test it.
• He knows worship - and the Devil isn't the focus.

Oh how nice it would be if we could be that strong and aware and faithful. But truth be told, we don't need no Devil to come after us. Humorist Sam Levenson understood that:

• “Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is; we'll find it.”

But what Jesus shows us is that we don't have to give in. Yes, he is God become a man, but he is still a man. If he can do it, he will certainly assist us in our temptations. I have a hunch that part of the original context of this passage was to remind early Christians that if even Jesus was tempted- and overcame it in his humanity- so can we. It was not through magic or even his special relationship that this happened. It was his trust in the Word and the One who gave the Word.

Your Point of View

I preached this morning. Here's the written version of the sermon. I had fun.

Something that becomes clearer and clearer to me with each passing year is that things are not often as easily understood as we think they are. When we learn something we think everybody knows it. When we understand something, we expect everybody to understand what we are saying.

This just isn’t true. Understanding often depends on what you already know, what you think you know and your angle of vision.

Take the Super Bowl. (You didn’t think I would preach today without mentioning it, did you?) The way we all hear so much about what’s happening this afternoon, the stories that have gone on and on for two weeks, you’d think the whole country would know. Yet just last Wednesday I overheard a conversation that consisted of one simple question. “So, tell me. Who’s playing on Sunday?”

But that is only a small part of the lack of understanding. We haven’t even gotten to the game yet. When that happens, well, the announcers often sound like they are speaking a foreign language. Let’s take a moment and review some of the things you will hear.

Are they talking about money when they mention a Nickel defense, Dime coverage, the Quarterback sneak or a Single Wing formation?

What about the firepower of playing out of the Shotgun, or with that same gun, having a Pump Fake

Then there’s Play action, (which I don’t think is something children do at recess) and an item I would think any player would need- a Nose guard, which, as everyone knows, is one of the players on the field. (But which one?)

If you ever do go to a game you will discover that what you see on TV is often quite a bit different and usually more exciting than what you may see in person. All those TV cameras at all those locations with all the slow-motion or the really neat one that flies over the field and gets overhead shots of things happening gives a different ball game. Which is why the Monday morning quarterbacks have such a better understanding of what went wrong. They saw it more clearly. Or at least think they did.

Of course none of this is just a problem just for football. It is a human problem.

Which means it can be a problem for us in the church as well. We know what we are talking about. We know all the inside phrases and words and patterns. But there are a lot of people in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and daily travels who know next to nothing about the church and Christianity.

Even in some of the more highly churched parts of the US, there is still 30% of the population that is unchurched. Most of them wouldn’t know an offertory when it came out of the organ. And their understanding of what Christians believe and who Jesus is would probably stun most of us.

Yet week in and week out we worship and talk and pray in ways that would be a foreign language to many. When one of these unchurched people walks into one of our worship services or Sunday School classes they would be as lost as I feel every time I watch a football coach trying to diagram something on the whiteboard.

Yes, it depends on what you think you know. What is a Christian? Especially in an election year we get all kinds of definitions and interpretations. Many of them are right, many of them are wrong. Most have a grain of truth, some do not. It depends on how you look at it- your angle of vision.

Jesus took his friends up the mountain. While they were there something truly remarkable happened- Jesus changed right before their eyes. There was light and energy and who knows what. Matthew tells us that Jesus’ “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. … a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!’”

Peter, who always thought he knew what was going on is amazed and thinks this is something about Jesus being a prophet, next in line with the great ones – Moses and Elijah. We know this simply by Peter’s reaction. He said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." But then the words from the very mouth of God came from the bright cloud that was not just low-hanging fog from the Sea of Galilee.

They fell face down to the ground, terrified. They realized that they didn’t know what they were talking about. They were surrounded by a great mystery, the wonders of God’s own Son- whatever that meant to them- and the only response was simply to be terrified- and silent.

We often approach Jesus the same way- with what we think we know, our lack of understanding, our own expectations, - and finally our point of view.

Now I know I have painted a fairly broad picture here. I have jumped from non-Christians to us- from the unchurched person’s difficulty in understanding what we are doing to our own inability to capture all there is about the faith.

What I am trying to say is that patience is important- patience with others and patience with ourselves. They will find our language at communion odd and out of place. They will have no idea different churches actually have significantly different understandings of everything from Scripture to politics and whatever else may be found in-between.

In order to develop that patience we need to have the humility that reminds us that we do not have the final answer. At the heart of it is how do each of us discover who Jesus is? For that the example of the apostles on the mountain comes clear.

First, we need to spend time with Jesus (and His Father!) Prayer, worship, reading scripture, meditating on readings and music can all lead us into an openness to Him that we have not had before.

Then we need to listen. I have heard many great pray-ers in my life. They can give eloquent voice to the deepest understandings and longings of the soul. But if they don’t stop long enough to listen- it will be a pretty dull relationship. But that’s not easy. Look at Peter speaking his mind- on the mountain- but over and over in the Gospels. In the end it took God breaking through that made the difference.

Which is the third part of how we discover who Jesus is- the revelation given to us from God. God does this in all kinds of ways, of course. From the quiet times, from the reading of scripture, to the words of a preacher on Sunday morning or a friend on the phone on Wednesday evening. We learn when we listen. More will be revealed each and every day.

After all these years of taking communion, for example, I can’t explain it any better than I did say 40 years ago- or even last year. Each time I come to this table and hear a pastor- or myself- use the awesome words- this is my body, this is my blood- I am aware that something exciting and far, far, far beyond my poor human understanding is happening.

Which means that with that humility must come an openness to not have to know the answers and listen for what word from God is coming to me today. Like that cloud surrounding the apostles on the mountain, there is an invisible presence that is here when we gather as his people.

Another Calling

Clips from today's Gospel in Matthew 4:

Jesus saw two brothers and said to them,

“Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ...

He saw two other brothers, ... and he called them.

Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Preachers have often pointed out a couple of things in this passage.

#1. That Jesus must already have been known by these fishermen since he doesn't introduce himself or anything else. He just invites them along his way. Others will use that tidbit of trivia to point to how powerful a person Jesus must have been since he could just walk up to some strangers and they follow him. I tend to agree with the first interpretation.

He was living in Capernaum, Matthew has told us, so evidently he was not a stranger. I like better the idea that Jesus is, in essence telling them, "OK, the time is now. Let's go." Perhaps he had shared something of what he was about to do, perhaps not. When God's time is at hand, it is time. Which leads to...

#2. When God's time is at hand you drop whatever it is you are doing and follow. You even leave behind what you have been doing and let the old man finish repairing the nets. Talk about irresponsible. Over the centuries I am sure there have been many who have done the same thing with Jesus and have been called irresponsible, etc. But when it is God's time, well, it's God's time.

I am tempted to say that in our much more complex 21st Century world this is a more difficult thing to do. I don't think so. It is always difficult to make the moves that God is calling you to make. In spite of the political rhetoric of the Religious Right, it will always go against the grain of whatever society, culture, political system, or century you are living in.

That may be the deep message of this passage. The more we are hooked into the culture, etc, the more difficult it will be to follow Jesus in all his fullness. We will always make excuses for staying behind or defining God's will and direction too narrowly.

I like to think of what happened in this morning's Gospel is that the call finally broke through- and they saw the need to follow. They were finally ready- on some level or another- to begin the journey. They continued to struggle- hard and often as even a quick reading of the Gospels shows. But they went.

Will I?

Which is not really the question for many of us. Rather, when the call comes the next time will I be willing to put it into my life in whatever new ways it is being presented? No matter what I am doing at the time? No matter if it doesn't seem to fit either my culture - or my prejudgment of what that call might mean?

That is part of the excitement of Jesus. You are never sure when or where he will show up and simply invite you to follow.