Guess who showed up for dinner

A man, a woman and a guest of honor show up at the same dinner party.  He was the host; she wasn't invited and the honored guest was the most recent media celebrity.  She hadn't been invited for solid socially acceptable reasons.  Her behavior proved the host right.  The honored guest's behavior left the host wondering what he was thinking when he extended the invitation.

Really!  All that weeping and groveling! Washing the guest's feet with her tears; anointing them with oil.   Her demeanor and her behavior told the truth about who she was - even if no one ever got her name and in fact she left without speaking.  But this I can tell you- the host had his shorts in a knot!  She had the audacity to touch his guest of honor. And his very important guest permitted this outlandish behavior as if it was to be expected and then forgave her. [see Lk7.26ff]

What to do?  What to think? Just who was in charge here?

Jesus of course.  Jesus wasn't just some generic 'guest of honor' he was the one with the authority and power to forgive - to grant a cosmic 'do-over', to make possible a new beginning, a re-framing of how one lives life. Caught up in all the drama of a dinner party where no one follows the rules, Jesus is simply Jesus, the one who forgives. 

We talk about forgiveness all the time here in church.
    We listen to the words of absolution granting us forgiveness.
       We hear stories about Jesus forgiving others.
          We are called to make forgiveness the motto of our lives as people of faith.
But how has it changed us?  Where have our lives gone after receiving this awe inspiring gift?

Because either forgiveness changes you or you haven’t really understood what was at stake in the first place.   Either it gives you freedom to live within that forgiveness; free to go where you are not invited; free to thank others; free to serve others; free to make a fool of yourself for Jesus, or you have no idea just how much you need this forgiveness that Jesus is offering.

And if you don’t understand forgiveness, you don’t understand Jesus or his mission in the world – or yours for that matter. 

What we think we know (about God)

Most of us have a 'pieced together' theology.  We have pieced together what we have heard about God from parents, Sunday School teachers, friends, pastors (hopefully) and about a thousand other sources [including Oprah, social media, our own thoughts, pundits on TV, and a few inspirational authors thrown in] to come up with 'What We Know About God'. 

This collection of voices has varying degrees of thoughtfulness, basic knowledge, and piety.  Not all of these voices have thought through the implications of their positions in the face of tragedy, evil, personal suffering, loss, fear and the unknown (to name a few).  A couple of them have limited knowledge of the Bible, which for Christians is the significant source for material about the God who reveals Godself (rather than the god who everyone thinks up themselves).

I have my own pieced together theology, and perhaps I have studied more than some and because of my call I get to think about these things as my job, but I too have been known to say, "My God would never do that."  You have to wonder what I was thinking.

"My God?"  Since when was the Creator of the Universe my God?  I don't have ownership rights.  I don't get to set the boundaries nor define who and what and where and how the God of all is, acts, says, doesn't act, speaks, doesn't speak.  On most days I try to live as a child of this God of all Creation, the Son who poured himself out for me and the Spirit who continues to call us into life.  On most days, I am comforted and inspired by this God.  But I don't own God.  God is God.  I am not.

I mention all of this for one reason.  No matter what you think you know about God, God will surprise you.  God continues to move and bring life in a creation that we try very hard to keep stable and stationary.  I am prone to take today's revelation (and whatever it was, of course, it was a surprise to me) and expect that tomorrow's God action will be exactly the same!  I take a few tiny steps into the unknown thinking that I am a top-flight explorer, and God is miles ahead, working to bring life to dark corners I don't know exist. 

I make judgments about who really hears and understands and lives as a child of God.  All the while, God is using the talents of a woman who can't cope with much of anything in this world, to do a job that no one else wants to do, in a ministry that serves thousands of people.  Even as I offer help to someone who 'just can't get their lives together' (my not very kind thought) God is pouring out help from many sources to this one who is treading water as fast as they can.

My education has given me the tools to understand doctrine, explain Bible stories, organize worship.  But, in the long run, I don't know God any more than most folks.  So I will keep it simple.  God loves.  God will continue to pour out that love as a gift so we might find life, and just perhaps, we will then turn and thank the Creator of All for the gift. 

God loves.   I should do no less.

Surprised by the Spirit

A Spirit surprises everyone on Pentecost.  That Spirit is the Holy Spirit - the breath of God which renders a space holy, sacred, set apart to God's purposes.  That Holy Spirit always comes as a surprise; occasionally unwelcome.  It comes as fire or wind, as warmth or light, as breath or breeze.  It comes through the open windows and rushes out again, enticing those within to be about the Creator's work of bringing life to others. 

It comes and goes as it wants, where it wants and anoints who it wants.  Therein lies the rub.  Our well-prejudiced conception of who ought to be instruments of God's creative, reconciling, forgiving, moving spirit ....is rarely the Spirit's ideal. 

Look up the text in Acts 2.  The Spirit anoints the Galileans, everybody's definition of a 'hick' to speak God's Word into the midst of educated (possibly) cosmopolitan (probably) Jews.  Galileans!  Just like God made his son a Galilean, so again God moves these 'redneck' equivalents to be God's messengers. 

Oh, and to call the Church into being.  To tell the story of the risen Jesus.  To baptize. 

When Jesus tells us that everyone is welcome to the table, he means everyone.  In fact, God will use a truly motley crew of people to even set the table so we can all feast together.  I know this because the Spirit called me.

Like I said, the Spirit is always surprising us.

A time for every purpose....

I think you have to be of a certain age to remember The Byrds singing Turn! Turn! Turn!....the 60's version of this text from Ecclesiastes 3.

 "To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.  A time to weep and a time to laugh.  A time to mourn and a time to dance.   A time to be born and a time to die."

 

Whatever the season is....good or bad, rain or sun, health or illness, laughter or tears....its time will pass and another season will begin.

 We count on nothing lasting forever.  We remind ourselves of this truth when mired in the muck of unfathomable disaster, and try to forget its wisdom when everything is going our way. 

For many 'this too shall pass' is their only source of hope.  Unfortunately, as winter becomes spring becomes summer, even a welcomed up tick in our lives will inevitably turn yet again.  There is no end to this 'seasonal' perspective; it turns, turns, turns.

Perhaps the folks in Moore, OK will find some comfort in that.  They have nowhere to go but up.  Things have to get better, don't they?

And, if I stand back at a rational distance I know that every person who is born will one day die; that is the way of things.

But it will be a long time before the folks in Moore OK or Newtown CT or any number of places we can name will be able to embrace the brightness of a new day and trust in that tomorrow.  And it is too soon for my friend Mark, father to 3 adopted siblings who had been left orphaned, to finish his season of living.

So I will not build my hope on the turning of the seasons but rather on the resurrection of the Lord.  Tomorrow is in the hand of the Creator and Redeemer.  So I will pray for folks far away and a friend near to home because I want the One with the power to move heaven and earth to do just that.  AMEN

believing is like 'faithing'

There are some technical theological terms for the difference between what we believe and the act of believing.......they are in Latin of course.......but let us not confuse the two.

Believing is a verb that depicts an action - active faith in another.  It is not a doctrinal test. 

Instead, belief is "more like a marriage vow - 'I do' as a pledge of faithfulness and loving service to and with the other"* - in this case our Lord Jesus and the Creator God.  Hebrews 11.1 says it nicely.

When we go out and serve our neighbor it reflects our trust in the promises made in and through Jesus: his work, his gifts, his forgiveness, his resurrection.  We can talk about doctrinal stuff later.  For now, trust.

* Diana Butler Bass gives us this description in her book Christianity after Religion, p 117.

more than a fleeting moment

 

Spirit or breath or wind.....those are translations of the Greek word 'pneuma'.....and all of them give the impression of something fleeting, just out of our grasp, always on the move.  That description works.  God's Spirit moves among us, tantalizing us like the touch of a breeze or the mere wisp of a fragrance.  The Spirit is always on the move - bringing life to others and others to a place of life. 

If, however, you are under the impression that this moving, changing, ephemeral Spirit lacks power then I want to remind you of two things: Hurricane Sandy and the resurrection.  A wind that knocked houses off their foundations and a tomb that could not contain death.

Never underestimate the power of God's breath at work.

the spirit of Truth

Did you notice what I did?  I made the 's' of spirit lower case and the 'T' of Truth upper case. We Christian believers are more accustomed to capitalizing that Spirit - which is a nod to the Holy Spirit and not just any old spirit - but I want to focus on the word Truth. 

Jesus promises that the Advocate, the Comforter, the Spirit he is sending is the spirit of Truth (John14.17). Pilate asked, "What is truth?" (John18.38) when Jesus was standing right in front of him.  I think that Pilate had no idea that truth was a synonym for revelation of God in the gospel of John.

"What is truth?" The answer is as concrete as it is eternal. Truth:  the love of the Creator for those who were created is so profound that Jesus emptied himself and took on the form of a servant so to reconcile this world to the one who created it.

That's you.  That's me.  That's every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Now that's a Truth well worth capitalizing.

An ancient faith no longer practiced.....

 

When Barbara Brown Taylor visited the ruins of a church from the land where St. Paul baptized the first Christians she found only "vestiges of an ancient faith no longer practiced in the land."

"Such a thing is not impossible [here]; that is what I learned in that ruin on the hillside.  God has given us good news in human form and has even given us the grace to proclaim it, but part of our terrible freedom is the freedom to lose our voices, to forget where we were going and why.  While that knowledge does not yet strike me as prophetic, it does keep me from taking both my own ministry and the ministry of the whole church for granted.  If we do not attend to God's presence in our midst and bring all our best gifts to serving that presence in the world, we may find ourselves selling tickets to a museum."

The entire book is worth the read for all who claim the name of Jesus.
The Preaching Life, Barbara Brown Taylor, Crowley Publications, 1993, p 5.

How might I pray for you?

Not, who do you know that needs prayer?
Not, what situations weigh on your mind?
But, how might I pray for you?

Broken places, fears in the night, frustrations with loved ones, dread about the future, concerns that weigh you down.....what is it YOU need prayer for?

First you must stop and open up the hidden places of yourself to tell another of your needs.  Then you have nothing to do but to receive the blessing of knowing that someone has brought you before the throne of God.

I recently learned that a colleague had been praying for a concern of mine....for TWO years!  I was struck dumb, and eternally grateful for there had been moments during those years that I couldn't even pray for these burdens myself.  Yet he prayed; God listened and I have participated in God's hope.

To pray for someone else is a powerful gift.  To know that you are being prayed for is a humbling experience.  Be generous in your prayer, pour it out upon the creatures of this earth near and far, make it an offering of love.  And when you need prayer, allow someone else to pray for you.  It is what we do as the body of Christ.

How can I help?

 

"How can I help?"

This is the first step in living a generous life - or maybe generously living life.  Either way, it is a beginning from which we can grow and mature like fruit from the vine that is Christ.  Someone could use your help today.  Be sure to offer.  It is the whole reason God has given you so many gifts.  Wherever you are, is where you are needed.

Too many folks think that they must be rich before they can be generous.  Folks who think like that are rarely rich enough to start being even a little generous.  Generous folks look at their resources and see how they multiply when shared with others. 

"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."  Hebrews 13.16

Long ago and far away

 
 
 
If 'the resurrection' is nothing but an ancient story....

if Jesus is only 'long ago and far away' to you,

come, see the power of new life in our midst.

I'll meet you at 10 Tons of Love this afternoon and all next week.

Come and meet Jesus.

Objection or Avoidance?

Not on the Sabbath!  That was the objection they raised.  Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath!  I have no trouble imagining these folks huddled in the parking lot saying to one another, "There is no healing on the Sabbath!"  (Can you hear the echoes from A League of Their Own  There is no crying in baseball"?)

 

The Law supported their position.  Tradition supported their tradition.  The solid, observant, faithful members of the congregation supported their position.

God didn't.  God's desire is for wholeness and each and every agent of God is called to bring forth healing and wholeness and life whenever possible.  That means Jesus, God in the flesh, and that means you and me and everyone else touched by the resurrection power of Jesus.  Bring life, wherever and whenever we can.

It was a HUGE leap of faith to trust that Jesus was acting in accordance with God's desires - even when the old rules and the old ways of doing things were turned upside down.  It required first, that believers focused on God's central activity of giving life and second, that they join an unfolding, unclear and scary future.

Having God's power on the loose through Jesus.....and through you and me....is a whole lot harder to 'nail down' than a Jesus we keep confined by rules and traditions.  So, was it an objection....or simply avoidance of a reality they could not handle?






e

Just folding clothes????

The energy crackles around the room - people moving, hauling, asking, answering, laughing, sharing stories, sharing names!  And folding.....Tshirts, and shirts and bedding and socks; searching out the second of a pair of shoes, untangling hangers.  It's the kind of work you wouldn't want to be paid for doing, because then it would be work instead of the caring, giving ministry it is.

10 Tons of Love is open for business, and business is good.  Donations of unneeded goods, clothes, food come in from students at SU and OCC and the volunteers at First English sort it, fold it, box it for the next weeks.....just so they can give it away.

Offerings of goods; offering  time; offering a hand to those in need. 
This is the power of the resurrection at work in this little corner of the world. 
Come any day M-F from 10 - 3 and be a part of it all.

No Hunger Games here

Too many children go to bed without enough food in their stomachs.  I have read as many as 1 in 5 children in the US are hungry.  Add to that number the children and adults around the world who are unsure of where their next meal will come from, and we have a serious problem on our hands.

The World Hunger Appeal and the Good Gifts program of the ELCA address just these issues at home and abroad.  Go to elca.org and participate in making a difference.

The Church provides more than nourishment for the soul and spirit; it fills tummies as well.  We will gather at the communion table this Sunday and be nourished by the hand of Jesus.  Let us reach out our hands and help nourish the hungry in our world as well.