Who's your Daddy?

I remember this line from the movie "Remember the Titans" a true story about the 1971 racial integration of the football team at TC Williams High School in Alexandria, VA.  Coach Boone, an experienced African American football coach, is named Head Coach for the perennial football favorite.  There is some serious tension, which leads to him asking the star (white) quarterback who presents his demands about the make-up of the team: "Who's your Daddy?"


Who's in charge here?  Who's got the final say?  Who do you owe respect? Who's your Daddy?

I only bring this up because the rich man in our parable about Lazarus at the gate has his Daddy confused.  He may call Abraham 'Father" but he offers him no respect and is both deaf and blind to the wisdom and desires of the heavenly one. He does not share Abraham's values.

Instead, when he realizes that he is stuck in the flames of Hades, he begs Father Abraham to send Lazarus to 'his father's house' to warn his brothers.  He is serious about saving his 'brothers' from this same fate.  What he doesn't realize is this:  the whole of creation is Abraham's house*, it is Abraham who is ultimately his Father and all of God's children are his brothers.

This rich man cannot see Lazarus as anything but a servant put there to serve him.  He has no compassion for this poor man at the gate because he cannot see him as a brother.  Although he knows him well enough to know his name, he is blind to his hunger and want.

He is deaf to the cry of the prophets reminding all of God's children to care for the poor, the orphan, the widow and the stranger in their midst.  He is deaf to God's words of love active in relationships with our neighbors.  He thinks it is all about him.

For the writer of Luke, our wealth makes us blind and deaf to God's call to love.  We are busy protecting our own instead of trusting in God.  We fail at this all the time, which of course, makes me ever more thankful for Jesus' powerful forgiving love.

At the same time, we might want to keep our eyes open as we go through this next week paying attention to whom we are blind to in our lives - whom do we pass by each day - whom do we think is not a member of our Father's house.

In the end, it's about remembering Who's your Daddy.

* I often get asked why this parable mentions Abraham instead of God.  If you look back into the Old Testament, it is customary to speak of those who die as being 'gathered to their ancestors'.  Abraham was considered the ancestor of all of Israel.  Clearly this is an image of comfort much as we would assign to being in God's house, comforted by God....what many people call 'heaven.'

.....how long shall I cry for help?

We welcome Pr. Krista Mendoza as a guest blogger today reflecting on this passage from the lesser prophet Habakkuk. Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4   The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous- therefore judgment comes forth perverted. Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy

MUSINGS I have spent more time in a state of Lament over the last year than I would care to admit. So much violence, so much hate, so many broken relationships, so much illness, so much fear, war, famine, drought, death.....and it is happening at every level of our lives from the personal to the local to the national to the global. There seems to be no escape from the cruelty we humans seem all too willing to inflict on one another and God's creation. Not to mention the daily pain of the incomprehensible deaths from incurable disease, accidents, unknown circumstances and age....the loss of jobs, the ending of marriages, trying to fit in at school... Ever since I first read this passage from Habakkuk as an undergraduate, I understood it. At least, I understood the first part. I understood Habakkuk and the place of heartache he spoke from and I understood the deep desire to turn that heartache and cry out to God and demand some tangible response. I had recently returned from serving in El Salvador for a second time when the passage first floated across my desk in a Hebrew Prophets course....I never forgot them. I held tight to them as I served in the Philippines and I read them with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in our darkest moments while holding the grieving families of those whose lives were cut short by political assassinations. I read them over and over and heard myself add my voice to Habakkuk as I turned to a God I wasn't sure I could trust....who seemed to do NOTHING in the face of such violence. It took me a long time to read the next chapter....what will God say to us, to you? What is God's great response to the suffering and pain of this world? Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. I will admit that I laughed from a place of utter despair when I read this the first time because all I could hear was the phrase, "wait." That laughter was followed by some words I will not repeat here! It took me while to go back to the words of God spoken to Habakkuk and written and passed down from generation to generation for some 2,500 years...something must be worth discovering in words carefully handed down for so long. This won't be a surprise to most of you, but it was to me in that moment...Jesus. Jesus is the vision, Jesus has come, Jesus is here. Let's back up for a second. For Habakkuk the vision and hope would come in the form of a remnant begin spared and taken into captivity at the start of the Babylonian Captivity...for Habakkuk it would be the eventual release of that remnant back to Israel...but for us, for you and me? Habakkuk's writing is far more than history. The vision and hope is Jesus. God's response to the world is, "I'm coming in the flesh." Jesus' words are, "I'm sending the Spirit." God's response is, "I'm here among you." Jesus' words are, "Do not be afraid." The Spirit says, "I am in you." Have courage. Jesus took care of the scary part; death. Jesus took it, looked at death, smiled, and shattered that darkness with light that can never be overcome. Jesus turned to us and said, "I have a gift for you. I give you new life and no one and no thing will ever take it away from you." In the midst of my Lament for this broken world and my broken life I am reminded where my strength comes from. I am reminded on who I can lean, on whose shoulder I can cry, on whose ears I can cry out in despair and on whose presence I can always depend...Jesus, my Lord and my God. From this foundation I am not afraid to stand to face the darkness. It is time.

Justice at the gate

What do you do when your 'friend' won't pay you the money he owes?

Well, if you lived in Israel, you would go to the gate in the city wall (the walls had gates to close at night for safety).  Sitting 'in the gate' would be one of the wise elders of the community.  Sometimes they were called judges, but all of them functioned as judges, helping resolve disputes great and small for members of the community.

If you wanted justice, you went to the city gate.  You could count on finding justice there.  So it had been since Israel first settled in the promised land.

Lazarus sat at the gate of the rich man's estate.  Lazarus never found justice at the gate.

The rich man offered fine banquets for his honored guest day after day.  The droppings on the floor were there for the dogs to eat.

Lazarus lay by the gate.  He would have gladly eaten the crumbs that fell on the floor which were given to the dogs.  The rich man gave him nothing.

Day after day after day after day.

Just in case you want to excuse the rich man because there were probably many folks who were begging and in serious need outside his gate so perhaps he overlooked this one..........

the rich man knew Lazarus' name.  He knew him....and yet he passed by him in his suffering.

In this parable, Jesus points us to our personal responsibility for others.  It is our responsibility to grant justice to those who live just outside our gate, in our community, right next door.  It is our responsibility, as a child of God, to be sure that in our lives, justice can be found at our gate.  It is our responsibility to live as if we have received our very life (along with a lot of other valuable things) from God.  We love because God first loved us.

If the love that you are claiming for youself isn't flowing through you to another, do you really have a relationship with Jesus?

In the bosom of Abraham

It's where we want to be for all eternity - in the bosom of Abraham (at least metaphorically).  We want to be able to finally rest, be provided for, be comforted, be at peace.

It's where the rich man wanted to be as well.  It didn't turn out that way.  The bosom of Abraham was reserved for poor Lazarus who had never experienced peace, and plenty and comfort in this lifetime.  Now he was with the Father and all was well. (check out Luke 6.20ff)

The rich man was surprised at his predicament - tormented by 'flames' and desperate for a touch of water.  We can sympathize with him a bit, and yet watch what he does as he implores his "Father" for some relief.

                                 "Father Abraham, have mercy on me,

                                  and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water

                                  and cool my tongue,

                                  for I am in agony in these flames."  Luke 16.24

Well, well.  Seems as if Lazarus is expected to serve this rich man even on the other side of the vale.  'Come and help me' (note he doesn't even address Lazarus directly even though he knows his name).  'Help me, help me.'

How ironic.  Seems in this lifetime this very rich man had never once 1) shown mercy to Lazarus, nor did he 2) make a move to bring him comfort.  Yet, he expects that this will be done for him.  Why?  perhaps because he can imagine Lazarus as no more than someone put there to serve his needs.

Think that's too harsh?

Well, keep on reading.  Let's see how quickly this rich man realizes that he has failed to actually honor his Father Abraham by following the Father's teaching.  Let's see how quickly he changes his attitude.  Or does he?  Does he realize his broken relationship with this Father and is only concerned about the sons of his earthly father?

Spiritual blindness makes us blind to God at work not only 'in the world' but in every person and place of the world.  It keeps us from seeing others as God's beloved children.  It allows us to walk into the dark corners of this world and take up residence, assuming our own righteousness.

What caused the spiritual blindness of the rich man?  How did he get himself into such a predicament?  Why is he not in the bosom of Abraham as he expected?

Good questions.  Here's another:  Who are we in this story?

10 silver coins

Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?  Luke 15.6-10

A couple of things to note about this parable. First, if the woman needs to light a lamp, the house has no windows.  Second, these 'houses' are about the size of your small living room.  Third, those silver coins were probably her dowry, her personal wealth.

She searches in every nook and cranny of the house, sweeping through the dirt of the floor until the coin reveals itself.  Perhaps the silver catches a bit of the lamplight and it gleams in the darkness.  Perhaps she steps on it in her sweeping and she can feel it under her feet.  Not matter what, she doesn't give up.

Because she certainly could give up.  It's a small house, and the coin isn't going anywhere.  She doesn't get a lot of visitors so the coin is probably fairly secure.  But that's not the point.  The point is this:  once there were 10 and now there are only 9 and every single on of those coins is critical to her.

In these parables in Luke, Jesus is trying to paint a picture for us of the powerful and everlasting Divine Love - a love that will not let us go, that will not forget about our existence, who will diligently search and sweep until we gleem like that silver coin in the light of the lamp.

This is God.  You can't out love God.  You can't out give God.  You can't run so far away that God cannot and will not call you back home again.....because all is not well unless all are well.

It is good to be reminded of how much God loves us.  It is a love that is strong enough to bring us to resurrection once again.

The lost one

Consider the man having 100 sheep and having lost one leaves the 99 and goes and searches for the one until he finds it.

That is the premise of the opening parable of the 15th chapter of Luke.  Leave the 99; seek the one.  There is no indication that the shepherd has secured the welfare of the 99.  99 are put at risk in order to locate the 1.

We can barely wrap our heads around that when the parable concludes.....and having found the one, he brings it home rejoicing.  For I tell you there is more rejoicing in heaven over the 1 who is found than over the 99 who were never lost.


From a strictly economic point of view, the shepherd is foolish.  The shepherd risks 99 percent of his investment at the possibility of recovering a lost 1 percent.  This is a bad business decision; a gamble.

So just perhaps, the Divine Economy is different from ours.  Perhaps, in the divine economy, every single individual 'one' is critically important.  The goal is a perfect 100: the whole flock, with no one out there wandering around.  Until the whole 100 are together the flock isn't whole and there is no rest.

It is not about 'enough', it's about 'all'.  All is not well unless all are well.

To the 99 standing around waiting for the last one to be found it might appear foolish,
 but it is life to the one who stands in the wilderness.

"Draw me to Yourself"

Draw Me to Yourself

In this moment

draw me to yourself, Lord,
and make me aware
     not so much of what I've given
        as of all I have received
            and so have yet to share.
Send me forth
     in power and gladness
        and with great courage
             to live out in the world
                 what I pray and profess,
that, in sharing,
     I may do justice,
         make peace,
            grow in love,
                enjoy myself,
                    other people,
                        and your world now,
                             and you forever.

Ted Loder,  Guerrillas of Grace, p. 89

Your sins are forgiven.........

If ever there was church talk, this is it.   Your sins are forgiven.

It is a phrase that brings great comfort to me, even though I am certain that I can neither imagine the depth of my own brokenness (read 'sin') nor the depth of God's eternal, abiding love for me (read 'mercy' and 'grace').

We could probably have a good conversation around what exactly 'sin' is, but my theory is 'if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck,....'   That is, most of us know sin when we see it.

There is difference of opinion around the 'really bad sins' and the 'really you want to count that?' sins. Some folks think you cannot separate sins into such categories - either you have broken your relationship with the Creating and Redeeming God (i.e. sinned) or you haven't.  Either you are living as a reflection of God's perfect love for you in Jesus Christ, or you aren't.

I would guess that we have our own techniques for distinguishing the big v. the smaller sins.  I think it might be dependent on how permanent the damage turns out to be.  It might depend on how many people are hurt.  It might depend on how deeply or terribly we sin against ourselves by failing to honor the gift of life given to us by God.  So, 'snitching' my daughter's cookie off her plate when her back is turned (really, that's a form of stealing, right?) doesn't seem quite as terrible as stealing the pension funds of 1000 people.

At my core, I don't think it really matters how 'big' the sin is (if cookie stealing is a sin), but rather the crack it causes in our relationships with one another and then ultimately, the crack that it makes in our relationship with God.  Small acts can make big cracks and big cracks can lead to a whole building crumbling.

Since we usually begin our worship with an order for confession, I enter into each Sunday worship thinking about the state of my relationship with God that week.  I am never foolish enough to think that God and I are in perfect harmony, although there are weeks when nothing specific comes to mind.  That's when I know that I have been a bit distracted from God during the week.  It's a good time to breathe deeply of the Holy Spirit's gift of loving forgiveness, making God really present in the moment, or to use the prophet's oft used phrase.......to call on the name of the Lord.

to give thanks for God's presence and promises.

to remember Jesus' model of life lived bringing life to others.

to open myself to all that might be.

then, most importantly, to listen closely to these wondrous words of grace

"Your sins are forgiven"

Come beloved, live again the resurrection life.

"Loosen My Grip" by Ted Loder

Loosen My Grip

O God, it is hard for me to let go,
     most times,
and the squeeze I exert
     garbles me and gnarls others.
So, loosen my grip a bit
     on the good times,
        on the moments of sunlight and star shine and joy,
that the thousand graces they scatter as they pass
     may nurture growth in me
        rather than turn to brittle memories.

Loosen my grip
     on those grudges and grievances
        I hold so closely,
that I may risk exposing myself
     to the spirit of forgiving and forgiveness
        that changes things and resurrects dreams and courage,

Loosen my grip
     on my fears
that I may be released a little into humility
     and into an acceptance of my humanity.

Loosen my grip
     on myself
that I may experience the freedom of a fool
     who knows that to believe
        is to see kingdoms, find power, sense glory;
     to reach out
        is to know myself held;
     to laugh at myself
        is to be in on the joke of your grace;
     to attend to each moment
        is to hear the faint melody of eternity;
     to dare love
        is to smell the wild flowers of heaven.

Loosen my grip
     on my ways and words,
        on my fears and fretfulness
that letting go
     into the depths of silence
        and my own uncharted longings,
I may find myself held by you
     and linked anew to all life
        in this wild and wondrous world
           you love so much,
so I may take to heart
     that you have taken me to heart.

Why then the cross?

Perhaps that is the heart of the Christian dilemma.  Why the cross?

First, understand that the cross could have been an electric chair or lethal injection or any other number of ways that the powers of this world have chosen to execute their criminals.  The Romans used the cross.

Why would anyone want to get rid of this Jesus who loved everyone and welcomed everyone and offered hope and healing to those around him?  It's a fair question. In general, people of power are threatened by anyone espousing a system where mercy is available to all and no one is left outside looking in.  There is no point in having power and status if you aren't distinguished from the other people.  Power is meant to be exercised.  That's the way the system works.

Of course Jesus was powerful but his power, the power of the creator who gives life, was the power to bring life to those around him.  Sometimes it looked like feeding hungry people and sometimes it looked like casting out demons and sometimes it was healing from a disease.  But after an encounter with Jesus, folks had access to life in new and different ways (and sometimes for the first time in their lives). In the end, it looked like a cross.

Even forgiveness was a function of healing in the ministry of Jesus.  You and I both know there are many ways that we are sick and in need of healing.  Frequently it is the wounds that are invisible that are the most damaging.  Broken relationships can sap the energy out of a family or a marriage or even a friendship.  Betrayal, abandonment, violence mar these relationships and leave wounds in their wake.  Watch as Jesus not only brings healing to people but he often brings them back into relationship with their families and their communities.  They are no longer on the outside edge of real living and each one has been reassured that they are a child of God: that is their name for all eternity.

It's hard to see the downside to that.  Unless your function in this society was to decide who was worthy of healing.  Unless you began with an understanding that some people (Gentiles? women? slaves? children?) were simply not as valuable and so not as worthy to receive any consideration.  The unworthy ones could be swatted away like flies without concern.

Unless you are convinced that giving life to others meant taking some away from you,...and it would.  Lifting up the lowly inherently decreases the gap between the high and the low leaving the high and mighty less high and mighty than before.

It wasn't just the wealthy that opposed Jesus, nor is it today.  In the gospel of Luke, wealth is a frequent target.  Jesus pushes against the attitudes, indifference and entitlement that too often accompanied great wealth.  Like most of us, he knew that not all wealth was the result of fair and honest trade.  He knew that protecting one's wealth could easily become more important than building a community of life for all the people.  Wealth often becomes the god we worship, protect, give homage to.

At the same time, Jesus' opponents were also the established religious leaders.  They had a system to protect as well, and the truth is, Jesus' message was and is radical and beyond the imagination of most of us.  It was hard for them to see God in Jesus or to hear God's message through him.  Jesus threatened the status quo and the powerful pushed back and the powerless stood by.  Yet Jesus' mission was the healing of the world and from that mission he would not waver.

In the end, the powerful were sure they had rid themselves of that pesky rebel when they sent him to the cross.  Three days later they would begin to understand with whom they were dealing.

The cross was Jesus' final sign of the power and steadfastness of his love for all of God's creation.  In the end, the cross was the end of the power of this age and the beginning of healing for us all.

That pesky question..........

"When were you saved?"*

The person asking this question is expecting you to respond with the date when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  Lutherans have long rejected this idea that each of us 'decides for Christ.'  Rather, we always emphasize that it was God who acted first, came to us, called out to us, loved us before the beginning of time.

In the end, however, Lutherans are too often left unable to speak about those moments in their lives when the power of God's love and the gift of mercy and forgiveness became so real to them that they felt flattened and lifted up at the same time; that moment that called them into a new way of living.

We don't know how to talk about that sense of the Spirit's presence that led us to follow Jesus instead of taking another path.  We are at a loss for words to express that unreasonable calm and peace that descended on us in the midst of a disaster, or that solid presence of love that assures us that we are worthy of the air we breathe.

We struggle to find a way to express how Jesus meets us in Holy Communion and once again reminds us of God's unfailing love.  We avoid speaking of those parts of our lives where we are in need of confession and absolution, not because someone has called it sin but rather because we know they are obstacles to an ever deepening relationship with God.  And yet, all these things are true and a part of our spiritual life.

Perhaps our liturgy can help.  Throughout our 500 year history, Lutheran liturgy has been a vehicle for Jesus to meet us again, remind us of the forgiveness that is found in Jesus, feed us on the Word of God so we see life differently and then feed us again on the bread and wine so we are strong for the journey.  Its constant form can carry us when we are wounded and fill us when we are empty.  We call out to God, God calls back to us.  Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

We can lose ourselves in the liturgy.  We can find ourselves in the liturgy.  Each time, we have a new opportunity to come into God's presence and hear God's amazing words of forgiveness and mercy.  Each time we are sent out with the charge to share that good news with the world....so others might come to know God as well.

Its language shapes our language and faith as well.  Language like "Our Father, who art in heaven" and "into your hands we commend all for whom we pray"  and "blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" and, for me, the most important "this is my body given for you".  The liturgy provides us with a treasure chest of language to talk about our faith.

 "Go and tell" was Jesus' command to the disciples from the tomb and so our faith is personal, but it was never intended to be private.  If we do  not tell, how will others know?  Is not the love of God so precious that you want to share it with everyone?  Let's practice telling our story.

* BTW  You were saved at the cross and in the waters of your baptism.

A prayer for this morning......

Eternal Spirit of the living Christ,
I know not how to ask or what to say;
I only know my need, as deep as life,
and only you can teach me how to pray.


Come, pray in me the prayer I need this day;
help me to see your purpose and your will,
where I have failed, what I have done amiss;
held in forgiving love, let me be still.



A powerful prayer when spoken, a beautiful hymn when sung.  May it feed  you this day.