....there ain't no answer

"There ain't no answer.

 There ain't gonna be any answer. 

There never has been an answer. 

That's the answer." ~ Gertrude Stein

This is probably the longest thing I've ever read written by Gertrude Stein, but I like it.  

Frankly, it answers so many questions but most importantly it answers the question, 'Why?'   

Ain't no answer.

You can believe in fate.  

You can believe in your own strength, courage, intelligence and willingness to work.  

You can believe in the government.

I choose to hold fast to the promises of the divine, the Creator, the giver of life.

But in the end, there ain't no answer. 

 There's God's promises and hope built on Jesus the Christ.

What's your hope built on?  What's your answer?

"You are the salt of the earth"

Before we begin taking bows for this accolade, perhaps we should be clear about what salt is all about.

Let's start with table salt.  Makes stuff taste good, especially chicken soup.  Too much contributes to high blood pressure but it is critical for continuing health.  Around the world, various compounds are added to salt as an easy delivery system for iodine, folic acid, iron and fluoride which address a variety of health issues.  It can preserve fish and meat, it can purify water.  In the Old Testament, it was offered as a sacrifice.

The salt trade was an important source of wealth especially during the Roman Empire when 'salt roads' were built to get the commodity to the market.  Now a days, a salt road means safer driving in the northern climes.

You are the salt of the earth.  So which one is Jesus pointing to?  Purification?  Sacrificial offering?  Chicken soup seasoning?  Road salt?  Valuable commodity?

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of heaven.  It is a place where the poor in spirit are blessed and the meek inherit the earth.  It is a place like none we know now; for many of us it is a place where we would like to dwell.  That is where the salt comes in.

We are to function like salt - bringing a new taste, a better taste to the world we all know.  We are to protect the weak as a preservative and offer ourselves as a sacrifice when necessary.  We are to be purificators - focused on living as Jesus' followers, insisting on the right and the just.  It won't take a whole lot of us to make a difference in the world - a difference that can bring health and wholeness.

Being salt in Jesus' eyes equals being that bit of seasoning which can turn a dull dish into a delicious one.  We are to be the active ingredient in this world to carry the truth of the world that is coming.

We are to follow 'on the way' as children of God, our own salt road which will bring the treasure of heaven to those who join us.

So, what happens when salt loses it saltiness?
Exactly.

....you can't possibly mean them.

You and I both know we've thought this even if we haven't said it aloud.  We frame these sentiments around issues like appropriate dress, or good manners or adequate hygiene or educational background.  All these categories are defensible in particular areas of our lives......

but not in the church.  Because the church isn't ours.  It is God's.  God's Spirit calls the church into being and our being is centered on the crucified and risen one.  This is 'God's tent' as Pastor and author Nadia Bolz-Weber puts it in her book Pastrix.  God can and will and does extend the tent to include ....well....everyone (bad manners, adequate hygiene, poor education and appropriate dress notwithstanding).

When you find your life in the crucified and risen Jesus, when you take your seat at the table in God's tent, well, you are called to follow the house rules......EVERYONE is welcomed, loved, accepted.  Hurrah! when it is us.  Oh no! when it is 'them.'  You can't possibly mean them.

You'll never believe how this plays out in the House for all Sinners and Saints, a congregation Pr. Bolz-Weber serves in Denver.  This is a fellowship for all the folks who have a hard time fitting in with the conventional world. [Or you could say, the conventional world finds it hard to make room for them.]  You can fill in that blank however you want, but picture all the folks who wouldn't be at my suburban congregation on any given Sunday.  They come because they heard of God's love and experienced that radical acceptance at HFASS,  in that fellowship of believers.  It is a safe place for them.

...and then the word of this alternative, radical fellowship of believers got out to the mainstream.  Turns out that folks who 'wear dockers and button down shirts,' were also seeking a fellowship where acceptance was the norm, where folks were trying to live the radical grace of Jesus.  They wanted to be a part of it all so they showed up at church.

Really?  You can't possibly mean them!  That was Pastor Nadia's response!  Those folks who are soccer moms and dads with corporate jobs.  Those folks who take vacations and have retirement accounts and family Thanksgiving celebration.  Those people.  Was God's tent at House for All Sinners and Saints large enough for them too?  How could they fit in with the LGBTQ crowd, those fighting addictions, those who lived on the street?  Wouldn't they ruin HFASS?  Were they really to be welcomed?

I'll bet that you never imagined that your washed and ironed button down shirt could keep you from a fellowship of believers.  In the end, neither could Pastor Nadia.  In spite of what she might have wanted, this was God's tent and God welcomes all.  Even them.  Even us.

It's a radical invitation that we too often want to dilute with meaningless exceptions.  God says come.  Will you stand in the way?

....when I am good enough

Oh wow!  That's too true for words.  The kingdom of God will be ours when we are good enough.  How we hold onto this.....as if our lives depended on it.

Now, I'm a Lutheran and we pride ourselves (which might be a problem in itself) on preaching grace.  It is by grace you have been saved, not by your own works.  Jesus as the Son of God is God's gift to all of creation for the sake of creation.  Jesus' death points to the death dealing commitments of the current creation and his resurrection is the last word on who is in charge.  Life will be the last word, not because any of us deserve this wondrous gift of life with God but because God wants it to be that way for us.

See, I get it.

Until I don't.  Until the average attendance at church declines and I think I must solve this problem.  Until I avoid speaking with someone because I behaved badly the last time and I am embarrassed to face up to that truth.  Until I look in a mirror and rain down criticism on myself for not being perfect.  Until....I breathe my next breath.

We are strivers for sure....and that's not a criticism.  It is what works in this world most of the time.  It keeps us moving forward and working at improving ourselves and things around us.  Until...it becomes the source of our pride and our energy is expended in self-congratulations instead of building community.  Until we turn towards God and say, "Don't worry.  I've got this.  I can do this.  I'm good."  Then down the rabbit hole we slide again.

God created this world out of God's desire for this world.  It was God's gift to humankind.
God sent Jesus into this world out of God's desire for this world.  He was God's gift to humankind.
God is present among us as the Spirit because of God's desire for this world.  The Spirit is God's gift to humankind.

God invites us to live in the light and life of divine glory because that is God's desire for this world.  It is God's gift to humankind.  Gift.  Absolute gift.  To everyone.  You.  Me.

It is a radical gift that will bring about radical change.  You are already good enough.  God says so in Jesus Christ.  Some days that alone is too much for us to bear.

....but without the traffic jams

It is hard to hold onto a belief in a kingdom to come.....a world that is divinely formed by, in and with the Spirit.....a community of grace.  It is just hard to believe that it just might be so some day.

Most of the time we think of the kingdom of God as this world minus the traffic jams, and cancer, and probably wars and child abuse.  But the kingdom that Jesus keeps talking about where the meek will be blessed and the hungry full is too good to be true.  It is beyond....beyond here, beyond our imagination, and beyond our ability to bring it into being.

Which, I guess, is a good place to start.  We cannot bring this kingdom into being.  Jesus did.  In his body, among us, and for our sake.  Jesus was the opening.  God hides in, with and under Jesus and together they break into the world we know and begin to bring into being the kingdom where God's way is the only way.

So we 'watch' as Jesus feeds 5000 with a meager lunch and heals a man born blind and walks on water (why not?  If you can heal a man born blind, what is walking on water?).  We certainly know we can't do these things and so we are faced with at least two possibilities:  the stories are exaggerations because nothing like that can occur in the world as we know it.....OR.....Jesus has access to a world beyond this one.  It is a world where God's rule is absolute: not in a power hungry sense but rather in an 'absolutely best case scenario' sense.  Or as the Bible is wont to say, a place and time where we will live in God's glory.

My guess is that you have (at one time in your life) experienced this time and place where the demands and brokenness and rejections and hurts of this world fall away and you are infused with the power of life and light.  For a moment you glimpse the better you and a purity of oneness with the world or your family or possibly even your God.  For a moment you don't even need to breathe.  For a moment you experienced God and the kingdom God invites you into.

Then we move back into this time and this place and seek to see the Lord's face again, to taste the power of God's presence, to be the better you that you glimpsed.  It is here that believing in a kingdom to come is so difficult.

Don't let go of the vision, the hope, the promise that Christ brings to us.  Seek after the face of God like you'd seek after a great deal on a new car...because in the end the car will rust and the kingdom will be yours forever.

Who are God's beloved children?

The poor, the sorrowing and the meek are God's beloved children.

That's what the Beatitudes, those iconic "blessed" statements from the gospel of Matthew, are trying to teach us:  in God's eyes, these (the ones who many think are of no worth) are the beloved ones.

My question is:  How are you personally and the community of faith to which you belong making that belovedness evident in the world?

Or, put another way, how would the world come to know that these are God's beloved children?  Are our actions and words consistent?  Are we living out what we claim to believe?

What do we need to do together to assure that both the world and the poor know that God's love is for them?