No peace at all

Years ago I was taking a walk with a neighbor and her two year old.  The little one wanted a piece of gum.  "Piece, piece!" she begged.  Mom said, "I have no gum." The little one was nothing if not persistent.  "Piece, piece" she cried.  Mom answered, "I have no piece......no peace at all."

Being the Mom of a two year old often feels like that.....no peace to be found anywhere.  But then I think that being a teacher or mechanic or retail clerk or town highway worker....or a thousand other places that demand, demand, demand from us sets us up for a moment of longing for peace.

Even so, we know that the longing for peace is much larger than our day to day frustrations.  It has something to do with our dog eat dog world and with greed and hunger for power.  It has something to do with our fear of strangers and struggle to protect ourselves and our own.  It has something to do with those who have and those who have not rubbing up against each other.  Somewhere under our normal activity is a tension and pressure that keeps us from relaxing into a state of peace.

Jesus came so we might know peace but he wasn't naive about the work it would take to separate us from all the stuff we have and all the habits we have developed.  Jesus knew that achieving peace among nations and peace among peoples and peace within families would be a great deal like ripping off a bandaid.  There is no way to do it that it isn't going to hurt.

But we need to discard the old bandaid so real healing can happen and wholeness can be experienced.  We will  come to realize that we cannot have our cake and eat it too - we cannot live with one foot committed to 'the way things are done now' and one longing for God's vision of peace for all.  As long as we dither, we will have no peace.....and until Christ comes again, the world will not truly know the joy that is life in God, the creator and maker of all peace.

Are you looking for peace?  Seek Jesus.

In for a nickel, in for a dime

Do you know this saying?

It means, once you've decided to do something, there is no point in holding back.  Give it a good effort, a full effort. Do what needs to be done.  Spend what needs to be spent (penny wise and pound foolish fits here too).  If you're going to have fun, have fun!

Or, you could say.....if you are only going to spend what you aren't going to miss you'll probably end up with something that gives little pleasure.  In for a nickel, in for a dime.

This applies to being a servant of God as well.  If you are going to serve, serve.  Experience the power of giving more than just the leftovers, or the ends of the loaf of bread, or the broken cookies, or (my most famous example) canned peas.  Give.  Step out.  Risk that little bit more.  Serve.

When you are ready, let's sit and reflect on what it was like to give more than you planned, maybe even more than you thought was possible.  Good?  Too much?  Changed your perspective?  Left you exhausted?

What wonderful conversations these would be.  Let me know.

And the people of God say.....Alleluia

                             For what are we thankful?  How has God moved us to say Alleluia?

Couldn't help but notice that joy is a characteristic of Luther Memorial this past Sunday.  Lots of folks stood up and shared their answers with everyone and the whole congregation responded with an Alleluia.  All ages, all kinds of circumstances, all kinds of stories....lots of people wanted to say out loud that they have met God through Luther Memorial, or grown in their faith, or been cared for, or learned to pray.  New members, long time members, multi-generational members, young members.

This community, called together by the Holy Spirit is a vibrant, moving community.  God has called us together through the Holy Spirit, to worship, to be fed, to share and to serve.  God calls us beloved and sends us out to share that good news.  Isn't it time you invited someone to come and see what this God is all about?

How about this Sunday?

Why God....when I've won the lottery?

No matter how you define, 'winning the lottery' I wonder how quickly God fades away once the prize is confirmed.  We are talking about when things are more than good, they are great! Why should I call on the name of the Lord?

You are going to pay off your mortgage.  Buy your mother a house.  (My mother doesn't need one but that is popular choice).  Buy yourself a bigger house.  Retire.  Give money to your kids. Buy a boat; a BMW; a new snowmobile.  Why would you need God?

Did you wonder if this (new money, great job, deal of a lifetime) was the great temptation that would finally push you beyond your faith zone? That a handful of dollars was all it would take to empty your faith of meaning?   In your previous life you thought of  yourself as generous and compassionate and far from greedy....and then all this wonderful stuff falls into your lap.  You don't 'turn evil' you simply make different choices; choices that, up until the Lottery Office called, weren't even possible.

Then a shadow appears.  You begin to avoid certain people because they expect a hand-out.  You fall out with certain relatives because they feel entitled to a 'gift.'  When you have coffee with your friends you are always expected to pick up the check and it gets a little old.  You are sure the church is looking at you like a hungry wolf looks at a lamb.  It seems everyone wants what is yours.

What happened to God?  You are willing to call yourself blessed but not even conscious that it takes someone to give a blessing....and who might that source of blessing be?  New York State?  What happened to your call to be the hands and feet of Jesus?

Generosity is a hallmark of a life of faith.  Love of God.  Love of neighbor.  Caring for the widow and the orphan.  Feeding the hungry.  Clothing the naked.  That wonderful prize that just fell into your lap is just another tool to faithfully life out the life of a follower of Jesus Christ.  Too much of anything often becomes the great temptation to turn away from the life of faith.

Need some biblical references to check this out?  Try the rich man and his barns (Luke12.13ff) , or the young man who seeks eternal life (Mark10.17), or that old camel trying to get through the eye of the needle (Matthew 19.23ff).  Not everyone gets it wrong; Joseph of Arimethea was a rich man who gave his tomb to Jesus for his resting place, although in 3 days Jesus didn't need it any longer.

Caveat emptor and learning trust

"Fool me once shame on you; fool me twice shame on me."

We tend to have a caveat emptor approach to most of our economic interactions: buyer beware.  Perhaps the toughest thing to learn as we grow up is who to trust and how much to trust.  We all know you should not trust everyone, especially when money is changing hands.

For some people, wealth is a temptation beyond temptation.  Generosity always comes in the small size and at the last minute.  For some people, counting the cost is an automatic operation and it takes very little for them to deem anything 'too costly.'

I know this.  You know this. Perhaps you even wrestle with yourself in this very place in your spiritual life - this inability to freely give, to share without weighing against self interests.  On really good days you can open your hand and press a gift into the hand of another - sometimes you surprise yourself and it is a $20 instead of a $1.  But on bad days, you cannot see past your own self-interests to compassion for another.  You rarely experience joy in giving.

Keep at it.  It will come.  The great generosity of God's heart which gave to us the gift of Jesus and in him the gift of forgiveness will transform your heart.  Pray that you will see opportunities to share yourself all around you.  Pray that Jesus will intervene when your heart starts cramping up.  Deliberately choose to give more than you have originally planned - more time, more gifts, more money....more anything.

God calls that opening of your heart: love.  In time, it will be the very thing you give the greatest thanks for.

Ripe tomatoes and a rich man's barns

It's going to start happening any day now: the tomatoes will begin to turn from pink to red to luscious...and after about a week you will have more tomatoes than you can handle.  It's  a wonderful time of abundance and the best tasting tomatoes you are going to eat for at least another year.  Yet, enough is enough and eventually you will have more tomatoes than you can creatively use.

What are you to do?

The rich man had the same problem: the harvest was so heavy he couldn't fit it all in his barns.  What to do? His solution was to pull down the barns he had and build new, bigger ones.

I wonder if he ever considered throwing a party for all his neighbors (who knew he had more than he could store) and give away a bag of grain to each of them - "Take it with you!  I have more than I can handle already!"

Did he ever think that God had sent this amazing harvest into his hands so he would turn and share it with his neighbors in need?  So he could feed the hungry?  Did he ever consider that he was blessed so that he could bless others?  Not only that, Jesus tells him that this harvest was to be his last.  He would never again get the opportunity to spread the wealth around like this again, because tonight he would die.  The time had run out; there would be no more blessings received nor blessings to give.

What a shame!  What a crying shame.

Forgiveness hoarder: all the ways I fail to measure up

You and I know about measuring up.  Sometimes we do; many times we don't.  We aren't the smartest or fastest or strongest or kindest or wittiest or.....well, you fill in the blank.  No matter what, we just aren't. 

So when we get to that petition in the Lord's prayer which we Lutherans translate as  "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" we either race past or stumble over this place where we clearly don't measure up.

We are not the best at forgiving others.....and it is a bit off-putting to think that God forgives us with the same measure we use with others.  That's the way we read it:  God is measuring out our forgiveness with others, and will give us just the same amount of forgiveness back.  And I know two things:  I am short on the forgiving others side and in great need on the forgiveness needed.  My scales are way out of balance.

What if we turned this upside down?  What if God's great gracious generous love is the starting point of God's great gracious generous forgiveness?  How would that change the manner in which we balanced the debts that others owe us?  What if forgiveness isn't a tool to control others but rather is given and received without any measure  or expectation - because we are family, we are one in Christ, because that is how life moves forward?

What if we stopped being forgiveness hoarders?  Could it change our lives?  Could it change the world?

Stingy at heart...a look at the Good Samaritan

Stingy - always counting the cost, cutting a corner, leaving stuff behind, refusing to share....is a condition of the heart.   Stinginess like generosity has little do with the state of your wallet.

There are lots of ways to be stingy - with our love, in our relationships, with our commitment, in our service or care of others.  There are an equal number of ways to be generous - always looking for a way to do more, leaving more behind for others, using our resources to ease the burden of another.

Underneath the parable of the Good Samaritan is this contrast between stingy and generous.  The lawyer was stingy.  In asking Jesus, 'Who then is my neighbor?' he reveals a very narrow worldview, one might even say a 'stingy' worldview where he is looking for people he can eliminate from his 'obligation to love' list.

Jesus answers his neighbor question with the parable of the Samaritan whose great outpouring of care and concern has made him a literary icon.  This Samaritan not only cares for an anonymous stranger - he goes over and beyond anything expected of him.  He secures the beaten man's safety and then secures his healing with his own money.  The lawyer is left looking very, very small while the Samaritan becomes larger than life.

The Good Samaritan is one way that Luke demonstrates God's abundant, over-the-top, never stingy love for those God has created.  When Jesus asks us to follow him this is the way he is going...down that road of generous, over-the-top, overflowing store of mercy, thankfulness and forgiveness.  Let us follow where he leads.

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

Generosity

Generosity is not an accounting of coins.


 It is a condition of the heart. 


Exercise your heart.

Remembering

It wasn't until my husband died that I began to understood the purpose of those memoriam on the obit page in the newspaper.  Memoriams usually have a picture, include the dates of birth and death, and have a message to the deceased.  I always wondered, "Who are these for?  Why do folks pay to have these printed?"

So the remembering will continue.  As long as the lost one is remembered, their life retains value and substance.  As long as some one remembers, the lost one is not lost forever. 

Remembering a loved one lost also keeps us mindful of the frailty of human life, gone sometimes in seconds.  In those moments we are reminded that life is not a contest but a gift.

You honor the fallen by remembering them.  Pray for them by name.  Remember them to the loved ones left behind, then live life full of compassion and generosity and grace. 

"Almighty God, look with pity upon the sorrows of our neighbors for whom we pray.  Remember them Lord, in mercy; nourish them with patience; comfort  them with a sense of your goodness; look upon them with grace; and give them peace."  Amen    (adapted from the Book of Common Prayer)

Plenty left over for me

That is center of my message for Sunday.

That is the rule by which we too often 'discern' what is right and appropriate when it comes to money.

And even when we have been what we would describe as generous, the truth is, in the end,
there is always

Plenty left over for me.

Lord grant me the courage to look this truth in the face and discern your will and your path and then follow.  AMEN

Let's talk about God....

The true God, the God who creates and gives life.  The God who loves first, unconditionally, always.  The God who is active in this world, today.

Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem.  In his crucifixion he will be revealing a dimension of God's interaction with this world that is mind boggling even today.  At the cross, we will encounter God.  Not an academic God.  Not a God who is far off.  But God who is one with the suffering of human life, in God's own body......and for the sake of the world.

The time is running out.  The cross is ahead and Jesus knows this.

So it is crucial to Jesus that our conversation shift from what we are doing, what we need to do, what we want to obtain......to what God is doing for us, how God is at work in this world, and the grand invitation God extends through Jesus for us to be a part of this adventure.

This is the focus of the text on divorce (Mark 10.1-15) and the story of the rich man (Mark 10.17-31) and now this request of James and John to sit on the right and left hand of Jesus in his glory (Mark 10.35-45).  Jesus pushes us to engage in a new conversation, a new possibility of who God is and how God is at work in the world. 

It's all about God; once you grasp this you are set free to live generously, graciously, with forgiveness, and joy.  This is the challenge we face these next several weeks: to make it about God and not us.  We are along for the ride and thank God that God has invited us in Jesus.

The creativity of God, part II

Every Lutheran pastor has a copy of our Lutheran confessionals documents known as The Book of Concord.  It costs about $40 in the states, is the core of our Lutheran Confessions course at seminary and for many, has no use after they graduate.

This is considered a luxury for the pastors of the ELCZa.  Where could they get $40 + shipping?  Even if travelers from the US brought copies with them, how many could any one person carry at a time?   And once they were in Zambia, how could the copies get out to the pastors who are scattered across a country the size of Texas?  Mail?  They would never arrive after you had paid outrageous fees to send them.

Technology to the rescue!  Today, as a result of a creative and generous gift of some donors in the US, all 15 pastors of the ELCZa received their own Kindle, loaded with reference books, biblical books, children's books, and two portions of The Book of Concord.  (only two sections are available without charge at this time).

They were entranced with this e-reader that put at their fingertips books they would never have access to.  They worked to learn how to use all the features.  They checked out the different offerings.  And they were thankful.

For a creative God and similarly faithful and creative servants, we all give thanks.  AMEN

Serving others......

Since my week started off with 5 hours of work at Ten Tons of Love, I think I will start there.  All kinds of thoughts run through your head when you do the work of sorting the cast-offs of SU students going home for the summer. 

One bag had 8 pair of women's underwear and an equal number of bras.  How many did she own? 

One pair of leather boots were so soft, and in such good condition, you are lead to wonder, what will she do next year when the snow comes?

Apparently the men at SU shower immediately before filling their donation bags because the towels are very damp when they get to the sorters.  (You can tell they are 'male' towels because of the other contents of the bag.)

And even as I applaud the generosity of those who are filling the donation bags, I am also aware of how much they must have if they are able to simply throw this stuff away (for if Ten Tons did not pick it up, it would all go to the landfill).  All that is donated will find its way into the hands of needy folks in Syracuse (and at no cost to them) and so it is well used.

At the same time, I wonder if those bags are really being filled with generosity when what you are giving is something you would have thrown away anyhow.  This is not giving 'out of our substance' - that is, this is not sacrificial giving, it is convenient giving.  Perhaps convenient giving is on the pathway to generosity of the heart, but I'm not so sure.

Thanks to all who worked, cooked and prayed for us.  Good work was done today. 
PW+