The devil? You've go to be kidding me.

Perhaps it is the red suit and the horns, but reasonable, educated people don't talk about the Devil.  Of all the things we are willing to talk about: how you spend your money, your sexual identity, how you raise your children, we don't like talking about the devil.  I'm not sure why because most of us truly do believe that evil is powerful, it is present in our world, and we have experienced it first hand.


The Bible has no such problem.  The serpent in the Garden of Eden takes on the role of the tempter, the sly one who manages to turn the heads of Adam and Eve with disastrous and long lasting results.  When we get to the New Testament, Jesus himself is tempted by Satan (the tempter or tester) both at the beginning of his ministry and during Holy Week when the end is frighteningly close.

So what are we talking about here?  We're talking about powers that want nothing to do with God and God's mission of life and well being.  We're talking about powers who try their best to turn our heads away from the reality of God's love for us.....who try to convince us that we are better off without God and God's notions of love for others and building community.

We're talking about that whisper that says to you: "You are not enough."  You are not smart, pretty, rich, tall, strong, talented.....you fill in the blank.....enough.  Press forward.  Push your way to the top.  Be the winner of all.  Don't listen to that God who claims you as a child of God and calls you beloved. Don't be fooled.

We're talking about that voice which assures you that you are entitled.  You are entitled to the extra money, the front row seat, the fancy title.  You are entitled to have so much food you throw 20% of it away as scrap.  You are entitled to own 10 pair of shoes, or 3 homes, or 4 winter coats.  You are entitled to it.....so pay no attention to that God who calls you to love your neighbor and to care for them.

We're talking about that voice that says...go ahead.  Be snarky, take more than your share, make fun of that weakling, ignore the system that incarcerates too many minority folk, give no thought to the ones who are hungry.

That's the devil.......who wants you to forget the God who created you, loves you and invites you to live a full life which includes life for all.  Good old Satan....he's a me, me, me kind of guy who works to shade the truth, grab your attention and leave you in the dust when it's all over.

Jesus, on the other hand, calls you brother and sister and who, by the time it is all over, will take the cross for the sake of love.  You are a baptized child of God.  Cling to that reality in the face of all.  Amen

The face of love

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

and with fear and trembling stand

ponder nothing earthly minded,

for with blessing in his hand

Christ our God to earth descending 

comes full homage to demand.   

ELW 490

Watching, waiting, silence, peace, patience, yearning, hope.

These are the words of Advent - the season when the future comes to meet us now.

We are comforted that our God chose to walk our walk.

God comes down with blessing not lightning in his hand.

The blessing of wanting to forgive more than we want to confess.

The blessing of calling us daughters and sons.

The blessing of love.

In the beginning, that love looked like this.

Suffering, Christ, you, me and the world

How does the struggle and pain and loss and suffering of our day to day lives intersect with our spiritual lives?  Does our spiritual life support us in those times?  Give us some framework of meaning?  Is our spiritual life a source of strength.....and if so, how?

Of the many questions that come to me as a pastor, questions about suffering - the pain that comes from physical hurts, or relationship betrayals or social rejection...are the most challenging for both the one who is asking and for me.  They are the questions and answers that count in the final analysis.

Yes, some folks get all exercised over whether Noah was a real person living at some time long ago.  Some folks draw the line at Jesus walking on water or 7 days of creation.  But the real kicker, the one that really counts is suffering.  Why?  Why me?  Where is God?  When someone cannot find a their way through the haze that suffering creates; when the anger and fear overwhelm them, their grasp of God and God's good will slips away.

One might say that at the cross - the cross that we will all encounter in our lives - our faith is tested almost beyond bearing.  At our cross, the simple almost glib explanations of faith fall away; the discussions about female clergy or gay bishops becomes inconsequential; the Sunday School stories of Abraham or Peter or King David look too much like fairy tales.  

So what do we reach down and cling to when everything else has been stripped away?  
That's the question.  What has worked for you?  What message or practice or image or ritual was the source of strength for you?

For it is in suffering that we are truly challenged to walk with one another.  Perhaps our experience can help us strengthen the spiritual lives of others for that moment when there cross comes into their lives.

Cautiously avoid sin or actively do God's will?

"Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about actively doing God's will."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer*

Bonhoeffer had a lot to say about what it means to be a Christian.  The fact that he was thinking and writing during years when God began to be spelled Fuehrer and the line between Church and state became almost invisible had a lot to do with it. What could have been academic or theoretical questions in another time and space had very real consequences in the Germany of the 1930's.

Who is Jesus?  What does it mean to call Jesus, "Christ"?    What does it mean for me to follow this person?

These were not the questions that were being raised in Lutheran churches during the rise of the National Socialist Party.  "Christian" was a recognized social label, not necessarily a description of a life lived in communion with the risen one.  The fact that Jesus was executed by the state, and was, in fact, a Jew was lost or ignored.

For too many, in Germany and throughout the western world, the cross had become a decoration, a historical fact, but not the center of a life lived in obedient discipleship.  Jesus had become a nice, if slightly misguided, leader of men (!) who called on God with appropriate verses from the Old Testament (Hebrew scriptures).  Faith was a Sunday morning activity and not a total response, a way of life with Christ at its center.

That is what Bonhoeffer was trying to re-capture: a life with Christ at the center.  I am certain he wasn't surprised that following Jesus led to more questions than answers, more dilemmas than solutions.  But that was what he was calling people of faith to do: to put Christ at the center of their lives and then live on. Cost of Discipleship, is an extended discussion of just this question.

So each day we either cautiously avoid sin or step over the threshold of faith and actively do God's will.  What will you decide today?  What will I?

*I apologize but I don't have the source for this and after an long google search, apparently no one else knows it either.  Sorry.

Lord of the Dance

That's what he is.  The Lord of the Dance....the dance of life, the dance of joy, the dance of community.  First he reaches out and moves towards us; then we pick up the rhythm and learn how to follow his lead until we move in harmony and grace.

Jesus the Christ, eternally leading the dance of love.

Who do people say that I am?

          

This is the crux of the issue:  who exactly is this Jesus?   The disciples answered, "John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets."  We are no more agreed on the answer today than the people were of his time. 

Christians have proclaimed this Jesus to be : Christ, the King (Chi Rho),  the Alpha and Omega (God's first and last), and, using the fish symbol Jesus, the Christ, God's son, Savior.   [that is what these symbols for Jesus Christ mean.]

Every believer needs to answer that question for themselves.  Who is this Jesus?  What is Jesus' relationship to the Creator God?  What benefit is there for me in the life, ministry and death of this Jesus?  How is my life changed by this one called Jesus?

Yes, the Church can give you answers, as the symbols above attest.  But, it seems to me, until you wrestle with this question yourself those answers have little traction in your life.  And as Jesus will begin teaching his disciples, without the cross, those answers mean nothing at all.

Bless us in our seeking O Lord.  May we see your presence each day.  AMEN