Opening the future

God opens the future through the radical promises made by and through Jesus Christ.

That is a mouthful.  It is also a perspective on this world, this lifetime, the whole idea of eternity, and possibly a lot of other much more mundane things that I haven't even thought about.

God opens the future..........Was the future closed?  Well, of course.  Even though we try hard to ignore or deny this truth, we will all die.  That's about as closed a future as you can name.  Some day I will be no more.  Perhaps I will be a memory (both good and bad I expect) or a headstone in a cemetery.  Perhaps something I did will live on through the life of another.  But me?  I'm toast.  Gone. Caput.  Finito.

God opens the future beyond death.  A future for the dead me.  That's the claim.  God, who created this world and all that is in it, has a future for this world that is beyond the death that we know.  God is about life and life and life.  In spite of us watching as Uncle Harry is lowered into the grave and dirt is piled on top, God has a future for Uncle Harry.

That is a radical promise; in fact it is so radical many cannot even pretend to believe it is possible.  Believers point to the horrific death of Jesus on the cross, and the 3 more days surprise of resurrection and say - there you have it.  Hard to believe, but even we couldn't keep God down.

This means that God's life is more powerful than our death.  God's life can emerge from the ashes of death - any death: financial, spiritual, emotional, physical, relational.  God's life is emerging from within all those places even as the forces of death work to press it down.

Forces of death?  What about that power play that lost you your job but promoted several who the company could pay less?  What about a school system that ignores the fact that your child is not learning?  What about a government who promises health care to veterans and then runs such an incompetent system that some are dying?  What about an economic system that needs unskilled workers but refuses to pay them enough to live on.....and then complains when they seek help from the government to make up the difference?  What about a country that hoards its wealth, concentrating it in the hands of a very few and allowing others to go hungry?  What about those forces of death?

So, how can we be a part of God's radical future of life?  That's a great question.  Let's talk about it.

The saga of the wallet on the roof........

In a moment of forgetfulness, I left my wallet on the roof of my car.  Then I drove away from the gas pumps.
You could ask, "What was she thinking?"  but I think I wasn't thinking very well at all.

A stranger found some of my credit cards in the grass along Route 11 and with the help of an employee at the AT&T store called me, searched out quite a few others and retrieved my wallet.  Ended up minus some real cash, one credit card and, well, of course, the wallet.

I know that most of you would have done the same thing (not left your wallet on the roof of the car, but tried to find the owner of lost credit cards).  It is what we believe people like us are called to do.  And you'd be right.  People like us do things like that.

But we both know that God has much bigger work waiting for us.  Work that will take some sweat equity or extra mile giving or even walking into something we know little about.  BIG WORK, because God is at work redeeming all of creation and we are the hands and feet and wallets of that operation.

So we teach our children to be thankful for what they are given, even beyond the mannerly please and thank you.  We step out and work for a cause that we believe is God's work in our town.  We open our wallets and give a little more to make something life-giving happen.  We are those people, and people like us do things like this.

So I went to the bank and took out a couple more twenties; I want to be ready when I hear God calling me.

Let us cross over to the other side.........

That is how the story of Jesus calming the storm begins.  It is a journey to the other side.  There is no indication that the disciples are concerned about going to the other side of the lake, even though it means they will be going into non-Jewish territory.  No one raises an objection to this little trip to a place where they may not be welcomed.  You might contend that they were bold because they were traveling with Jesus in the boat. (We see how that plays out in just a few puffs of wind).


Let us cross over to the other side......

No one objected!  Let me suggest that my experience in the church counts this fact to be quite amazing. Rarely do worshiping communities set out to journey into unknown territory especially not when they might not be particularly welcome.  Rarely do worshiping communities step up and join the movement that will take them away from the familiar and send them into the even mildly hostile, even though we believe - or so we tell ourselves - that Jesus travels with us and we are not charting this course alone.  There are always objections.

Let us cross over to the other side.....

Time after time in the Gospels, Jesus shows the disciples that this kingdom of God he is talking about is not interested in being bound by the old ways.  God's promise to Israel is made manifest in Jesus, but God's plan for Israel also includes the entire cosmos.  Therefore, the path into God's future will not strictly follow the old ways but will branch out to Gentiles and sinners and publicans and well, you and me.  It will involve healing and sharing meals and welcoming women and children and the blind and the lame.  In order to get where God is leading us, we will all have to cross over to the other side.  Jesus is with us to make the path straight, to give us the courage to follow his example and to open the door to real life just beyond what we know and see.

We will not get to the other side - the place where the church is being called - without some storms on the way.  Some of the storms are going to scare the pants off us.  But Jesus travels with us, and like the disciples, it is to Jesus we must cling.

Of course, first we need to get in the boat.

We can stay on this shore.   We can avoid the storms.    We will die.

This is for your own good......

This is for your own good!

Did you ever hear those words from your parents when you were young?  Did you ever say them yourself?  We were highly suspicious of this claim in our youth and I expect much more aware of its truth as we parented the next generation.


Here's a take on how hospitality does us good..........

"We show hospitality to strangers not merely because they need it be because we need it too.  The stranger a the door is a living symbol and memory that we are all stangers here.  This is not our house, our table...This is God's house and table..."   Thomas G. Long

I know it is not your job to welcome the strangers you see on a Sunday morning in worship, nor to invite strangers to come and get to know the God you know.

I know it is easier to fill your coffee cup and choose a donut (if you manage to get ahead of the younger connoisseurs) than to make sure that the new face feels welcome pouring her coffee or taking his bagel.

'I understand that there are Sundays when you arrive at the building with your good humor stitched together and deeply in need of care rather than ready to care for others.

I too would like the liturgy to carry me away into God's presence rather than ascertain that the guy next to me knows where we are in this complicated thing called Lutheran worship.

I surely know what it feels like to greet a 'stranger' only to find out they usually attend the 'other' service.

I know; I have felt all those things.  You could even make a case for it all being my job.  But really more than being some one's job, it is every disciple's calling. To welcome the stranger; to invite them in.

Come and know this God who welcomes me and calls me by name.  Meet this God in worship, in liturgy, in the coffee line, when you are seeking a home.  Come - welcome to God's house - where everyone is welcome......and I am going to be the one to welcome you.

Suffer the little children..........

Undocumented children are crossing into the United States in order to flee the violence and poverty of their own countries.  Undocumented: this means they have no papers; they are 'illegals'.  Children from ages 8 to 16 are traveling across dangerous ground alone in order to get to the United States.

People who flee violence and poverty or famine are generally called refugees......at least when they are fleeing to a country other than the United States.  There are Palestinian refugees and Syrian refugees and Ukrainian refugees and Somalian refugees and Congolese refugees.  Refugees.  They are seeking refuge.

Is that what the United States is offering these children?  Refuge?  How are we preparing to host those who must flee impossible conditions in their own country?  Warehouses?

There is some discussion of hosting some of these children in an empty convent here in Syracuse.  They will need some help, perhaps a change of clothes, a friendly face, a book to read.  How will we be a part of welcoming these young refugees even as our country's laws are being followed? Are our laws what they should be?

"Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

What kind of a kingdom will we be.....in God's name?

Our own little idol in the sun...............

The Church is not ours.  This church is not ours.  Nor is the congregation or any portion of our work together that you might want to claim as 'yours' - for your benefit, because you write a check, so that you feel good. This is at the core of what it means to be wholly Christ's, to pour yourself out for others.  This is what it means to be a part of God's great mission of redemption for all of creation.

This idea that we might be working hard to build something which is not ours in the end is so counter cultural that I expect many of you are scratching your heads and wondering what I could possible mean.  I mean this - all we have, including our work together here - belongs to God: to do God's work redeeming every corner of creation.  Most of the time we fool ourselves into thinking that we are the owners, the source of all that happens, the builders of a better tomorrow.  Maybe you don't but I do.  In fact I often lose sleep over it.

Foolish woman that I am.  The world is God's and God created it.  All of creation is Jesus' and Jesus redeemed it.  From the smallest cell to the largest cosmic planet, everything belongs to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives it life.

Either all that we have, do think, breathe, build, publicize, improve, decorate.....either it all belongs to God, or we are simply building our own tower of Babel here in North Syracuse, our own little idol in the sun.