MOM... I'm Pregnant

Dec. 21, 2014                                                         

Luke 1:26-38

Story: It was the day after Christmas and Pastor Mike was looking at the nativity scene outside when he noticed the baby Jesus was missing.

Immediately, Pastor Mike went to call the police. But as he was about to do so, he saw little Jimmy with a red wagon, and in the wagon was the little baby Jesus. 

Pastor Mike walked up to Jimmy and said, “Well, Jimmy, where did you get the Baby Jesus?”

Jimmy replied, “I got him from the church.”

“And why did you take him?”

With a sheepish smile, Jimmy said, “Well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to the little Lord Jesus. I told him if he would bring me a red wagon for Christmas, I would give him a ride around the block in it.”       beliefnet.com

Prayer:

Our gospel story today can be a really confusing story to many outside of the faith community. Heck… it can be a confusing story for some of us in the faith community. Physically speaking… and given the context of our story… your 15 year old daughter comes home from school one day and says… “MOM… I’m Pregnant!”…

This can be a jaw dropping moment… a wide-eyed pregnant moment…

And…. A huge… loud… W…H….A…T!!!! as a response.

Luke doesn’t tell us the reaction of Mary’s parents or for that matter Joseph’s. Mathew’s gospel records Joseph’s reaction to some extent… as he tries to distance himself a bit… only to have an angel correct him. So… humanly speaking we can over-lay our assumptions and feelings on Mary as well as her parents & Joseph’s. And say… WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!!

No matter how you spin this story it still going to cause quite a stir in the community. And… given the context & Jewish culture of the time… this would have made the front pages of the leading gossip columns for sure. So… whether or not you believe this story… there are a couple of things going on I believe can give us reason for hope and joy this Christmas season.

First… There is Blessings in our life.

Before Mary says yes to anything we see from this story that she is BLESSED. The angel Gabriel greets her saying, “You are truly Blessed.” Does Mary see herself as blessed? Probably not so much… We tend to see Mary as a model of faith and indeed very blessed. We tend to believe Mary believes in God’s promises. Yet… as we see in the story Mary is confused as the angel tells her that she will have a son. She wonders how this will happen… since she’s not married. And… she is well aware of how and where babies come from… Yet the angel states… “God is pleased with her… and favors her… and has great plans for her.”

Blessing is a wonderful thing… sadly it’s a rare thing. We live in a world geared towards rewards & punishments. Often we see blessings as a transaction…whether at work, school, or even at home… we’ve been conditioned to expect people to give us what we deserve. We’ve been conditioned to do or not do something in order to receive blessings. True blessings operate differently. Blessings are never deserved… but always a gift. Blessings have nothing to do with what we do, but just in our being.

I saw this report about a secret Santa in Kanas City, Mo. Let’s watch…

As you can see… blessings are not an indicator of what we’ve done. And given where our country has been in recent weeks look at the blessings despite it all. We are both blessed and the giver of blessings.

Secondly… Trust

I think most people have a hard time believing God favors them… and in turn… have a hard time trusting God. Mary initially didn’t… “How can this Happen?” As Mary’s trust settles in she opens herself to the work of the Holy Spirit.

The same can be for us as well…

One of the hardest times for me is when I wait for my next assignment. I have no idea by and large where I will go. It creates quite a bit of anxiety… but more and more as I trust and I become open to the work of the Spirit… I trust that God provides.

What’s important to see here is that Mary is not the exception… but rather the example of what can happen when you believe and trust that God does notice, favors, provides, and blesses. The angel tells Mary her aunt is also going to have a child… and Mary knows she is old… so… if Liz is trusting in God… If I’m trusting… you can as well. Then Mary says, “Let it Happen.”

How Might We Say YES?

How might we imagine how God is noticing us?

How in the circumstances of our lives may God be favoring us?

How might you be the angel of God announcing blessings to your friends, family, or neighbors?

Can we believe the Lord is with us and has great plans to do great things through us?

CLOSING:

P: Greetings Favored Ones…

    The Lord is with you and plans to do great things through you.

C: How Can This Happen?

P: Whether at work or school, whether at home or in the world, the

    Holy Spirit is with you and will guide you in all you do and say,

    so be a blessing to the world.

C: Let it happen as you said.

Amen…

What's in Your Wallet?

Nov. 16, 2014                                            

Matt. 25:14-30

Story: Waking Up for Church
One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church, to which he replied, "I'm not going." "Why not?" she asked. "I'll give you two good reasons," he said. "One, they don't like me, and two, I don't like them."

His mother replied, "I'll give YOU two good reasons why you SHOULD go to church. One, you're 54 years old, and two, you're the pastor!"

Prayer

No… I've never felt like this… sure....  :) 

We are familiar with the image on the screen as a commercial for a credit card company where they offer cash back as an incentive to acquire their card. The tag line… “What’s in Your Wallet?” No… we’re not going to talk about money… maybe sort of.

One could get the same impression from our bible story today that Jesus tells, which by the way seems pretty cut & dry. Jesus tells another story about what the kingdom of God is like where 3 people are given some money. Jesus doesn't tell them what to do with it… but assume they will put it to good use.

Two of them invest the money and double it. Talk about expectations… or a great ponzi scheme….

One with 5,000 coins earns another 5,000

The one with 2,000 earns another 2,000

The 3^rd guy is fearful and decides to play it safe, so he buries his 1,000 coins.

The owner returns… praises the 2 guys for doing well and the 3^rd guy gets chewed on… “You lazy good for nothing!!” and probably some expletives thrown in for good measure too. The story ends with Jesus saying, “You are a worthless servant, you will be thrown into the dark where people will cry & grit their teeth in pain.” Other translations say, “Where there will be weeping & gnashing of teeth.”

So… on the surface… one could see how the story works…

God is the owner…

God gives people opportunities…

God expects a return…

God punishes if you do nothing…

In other words… one could conclude if you don’t earn something for God… your toast. And… you don’t have to go very far to see this at work within some Christian circles… where some believe if you take part in watching certain movies, alcohol consumption, or some other disobedience you’re going to be locked out of heaven. 

Luther certainly started out this way and it’s still an prevalent understanding in some Christian groups. In fact… many Lutherans believe they must earn favor with God despite Luther’s come to Jesus moment that we are saved by faith, not works. And of course you can see the abuses of this as well.

So… on face value this story from Jesus, it’s easy to perceive God as a harsh, judgmental, and follow the rules kind of God.

Rather than perceiving our God & wallets in this fashion… Perhaps the image of our open wallets could be like this… (I Showed some pictures of my family) 

Pictures of our kids… grand kids… families… 

The numerous gifts given from our debit & credit cards… 

The moments of grace that came when someone gave to us… 

Perhaps we could perceive our wallets as a sign of God’s love… 

A God that cares about us and is inviting us to give out of that love. 

Maybe… God is inviting us to re-examine the gifts we carry in our wallets.

So… what’s in Your Wallet?

I have a question…. And I would like to invite your response…

What picture of God do you have in your wallet?

Closing

Jesus tells this story just days before he goes to the cross, not so much as a punishment, but as a testimony to just how far God is willing to communicate God’s love for us all.

Jesus spent his last 3 years of life and ministry proclaiming God’s kingdom, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, offering forgiveness, and welcoming all.

Jesus… above all is proclaiming the love of God thru the prism of the cross and even through the inconsistencies of human behavior to demonstrate God’s provision for all is more than enough to live a love-filled life.

So… we can either look in our wallets to see there’s not enough…

Or we can look in our wallets to see God’s gracious provision and do something with it….

What’s in Your Wallet?

Do You have a Lite?

Nov. 9, 2014                             

Matt. 25:1-13

Prayer

This is another difficult Jesus parable for us to understand. On the surface it seems simple enough… it’s about a wedding, but the problem is no one in our day would do this… However… we need to remember that Matthew’s faith community is primarily Jewish in culture… And even as we read in the CEV bible this story seems somewhat strange. A reason the CEV uses terms like “Girls” which tends to somewhat neuter the story… we understand girls to be young… 5-10 years of age generally. If we were to look at the NRSV or some other versions we word see terms like virgin… hand-maiden… bridesmaids ushering in the groom to the wedding. We don’t do wedding like this. Another reason Matt tends to be quite harsh on the Jewish culture especially religious culture. So… this story from Jesus brings some difficulty about what Jesus wants to convey.

The short answer to this story is that Jesus is trying to help his friends come to grips with him dying. The context of this story is set during the last week of his life and perhaps Jesus is sensing that his disciples are quite grasping what is about to happen. Why Jesus doesn’t flat out just tell them straight up… hey I’m going to die… pay attention! I don’t know. So the theme about being prepared is quite evident in this story.

However… as easy as this sounds… I don’t think we grasp the over-all sense of what Jesus is trying to convey to his friends.

So… I saw a couple of other themes that seem… at least for me… seem to make sense of what Jesus may be saying to us.

Waiting

We don’t like waiting for much of anything in our culture. It’s uncomfortable to say the least and the waiting Jesus implies in this story is the kind of waiting that makes us fidgety. The kind of waiting… like sitting in a hospital waiting for word about how surgery or a procedure went. Waiting like… are we there yet… The kind of waiting that makes us anxious…. Like when will we get a pastor. For Matt… the waiting is for  when Jesus returns. And…there’s a very high expectation in 1^st century Christianity that Jesus is coming back very soon. So… in this story the girls are waiting for the groom… so the sense of waiting for Jesus to come.

Another theme here is Light.

The girls were charged with providing light for the path of the groom. They were to be prepared and vigilant and in the end they weren’t as they lacked oil and they fell asleep at their watch. The light went out when the groom came. As a response… they were shut out of the wedding. Jesus concludes the story by telling his friends to be ready. And you kind of get the sense it go right over they’re heads.

Waiting & Light…. What does this say for us?

Waiting is very uncomfortable for us. We don’t like waiting for much of anything or anyone. We’ve been conditioned to respond immediately 24/7… we have the technology. Because of this, I wonder if there is anything today worth waiting for.

Light also is uncomfortable because we don’t want others to see our imperfections. To see our inconsistencies…To see that what we say, is often not what we do. You see light often shows our true selves. Oh… we may think we are light… shinning light, but often we are not. Are we light by serving in a soup kitchen along side of the guests? Are we light on the front lines of advocacy? Are we light by staying over-night on our week at the Warming Center?

Oh… we shin brightly when we give money, or collect food and someone comes to pick it up, or collect gifts for needy kids.

Not that any of this isn’t important, but our hands are pretty clean. Please forgive my sarcasm… But our lights do shine brightly with each other. That’s a good thing… but if it’s the only time we light up… Well…. which I believe is the point Jesus is trying to make in this story for us.

In our 1Thess reading they and Paul were waiting for Jesus to return. They expected it so much that they literally quit doing most everything. They quit jobs… caring for others… they stopped most everything. They thought… why do anything… Jesus is coming and going to fix all.

I believe we often think this way… Jesus is going to come and though we’ve been waiting… Jesus is going to fix it all anyway… so what’s the point! Paul and his readers fell into the same trap as us. In chapter 5 Paul walks his statements back from his position and in 2Thess. He clarifies and subscribes to the understanding that while we wait we are to be lights to the world.

Again… this is what Jesus is alluding to as well.

Jesus says to be ready… to use ourselves as lights in our community. That being… while we wait we are to light the world with the love of Christ. So… as we approach the season of Advent can we in our waiting, in our Christmas anticipation light up our faith… light up ourselves to better serve our community? We’re getting help my friends. You can go into any store right now and you can hear it. It’s already being played on the radio. We are getting lots of help to be lights in our community. Can we better demonstrate not only for each other, but our love for the struggling, the hurting, the other in our Berkley community? Can we demonstrate in our waiting that God is still at work in us and in this faith community. Can we demonstrate our imperfect lives in the light of God’s grace so that others may see the light of Christ at work within us?

Let’s not hide our light under a bushel… let’s hold it high! 

Nothing but a Worm... Reformation Sunday

Oct. 26, 2014                                                                

Ps. 22:1-8, Rm. 3:1-28, Jn 8:31-36

Story: Trying to teach the meaning of confession, a Sunday school teacher wanted to make sure the class had understood her point. She asked, Can anyone tell me what you must do before you obtain forgiveness of sin?

There was some silence, broken by a small voice piping up from the back of the room.... You gotta sin!

Prayer

I have to give credit for the inspiration of today’s sermon to Ryan Stephenson. Ryan wanted to use Ps. 22 as the basis for his confirmation faith paper… I thought it was a good idea… but mom decided Not So Much. So… I told Ryan that I would use Ps. 22 for my Reformation sermon. So… here we go…

While I don’t know if Luther actually said this, but it is often attributed to him in academic circles of which I heard often in seminary as a statement to identify humanity… 

“I am Nothing But a Worm.”      

It could also be said, that Luther by posting his 95 thesis on the Wittenberg church door on Oct 31, 1517 was responding to God’s vision for reform of the Roman Catholic Church.

Some 4 yrs later in 1521, Luther who has greater clarity of God’s vision for him, stands before the emperor and church leaders who are demanding him to recant all his writings and ideas. He boldly stands and states, “Unless I am convinced by God’s Word, I’m held captive to it, Here I Stand, I can do no other, I will not re-cant, God help me.”

With these words Luther and the church were “Set Free” from church tyranny and set free to be about “God’s Mission” in the world.

“Set Free” to hear the truth of God’s Word.

Jesus says, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

I can’t help but remember the movie “A Few Good Men” with Jack Nicholson screaming at Tom Cruise… Cruise saying…. “I want the truth… Nicholson…You can’t handle the truth.”

And thus the Reformation is set in motion and it’s not only about changing the heart of the church as a much needed endeavor, but also about changing the heart of humanity… ie looking at our sinful selves.

The truth of our humanity is we are most often not true to ourselves or others. The reality… we are worms in the dirty soil of life. As Ps. 22 says, “I am merely a worm, far less than human, and I am hated & rejected everywhere.” Paul spins it a bit less negatively, 

“All have sinned & fall short of the glory of God.”

My friends… we all live with the condition called sin and it creates in us a state of insecurity, fear, anxiety that we are not safe, not sufficient, and not worthy of love & respect.

We tend to think about this thru the lens of “Original Sin” but when you look at the Genesis story more closely, before there is original sin there was “Original Insecurity.”

That is, Adam & Eve… (and Eve is doing all the talking, but Adam is right there with her) are really insecure and worried that God has not shared with them all they need to know, thereby being seduced into finding their worth, place, knowledge and power and apart from their relationship with God. In other words… Because of their insecurity, they disobey God’s command and sin.

Let’s look at our sin from a couple of perspectives.

Sin as Plural

When we tend to look at sin most often in the plural – Sins – as in describing bad things we’ve done. 

This could be describes as a force – a power that seeks to rob us of abundant life of God – and a condition in which we are trapped. And there are only two things you can do about sins, that is, those things we do wrong: punish them or forgive them. However, this can be lacking as well and the risk here is often the person involved is unchanged. Because the temptation to continue increases the more we accept this force as a condition.

Sin as Singular

When we look at sin in the singular -  Sin -  we have to deal with our own insecurity which is the root of the bad things we do. We are insecure of our Jobs… Money… Possessions… Life. What are you insecure today about? When we are insecure we seek security at most any cost. We lose freedom when we seek security because it just feels better to us. And there is only one way to deal with insecurity…. and that is with “LOVE”

Love creates a whole person no longer plagued with insecurity. When was the last time you felt completely loved and accepted, worthy of dignity and respect, and still felt tempted to sin? If I’m honest… not enough…this happens few and far between.

In our gospel story today Jesus offers freedom. The people believe they are free because of Abraham. They have a heritage, but Jesus implies they are really not free. And… they have a penchant to self-justify, which of course was what Luther discovered, that self-justification somehow earns they’re way in too God.

We tend to look at this self-justification as something we must do…right! We’re insecure people… RIGHT!

You see… there is nothing we can do… heritage… traditions provide no guarantee for us. The fact is… we don’t have to do anything to grow closer to God. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do things for God… it’s all about motive. If our motive is to earn our way… we will find it hard… if our motive is a response to the graciousness of God… well… we will discover how much God does love us.

So my friends… We are accepted Simply because God LOVES US.
Paul says it plainly in Romans 3:22-24, 28.... “God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts us and sets us free from our sins. We see that people are acceptable to God because they have faith, and not because they obey the Law.”

Closing

The Reformation was about changing the heart of the church away from our self-justification or works to salvation. God knows us all to well… even our insecure attempts to justify ourselves through our work, accomplishment, wealth, or status. We are nothing but dirty worms that by faith God loves us more than we can imagine which takes away all our insecurity.

We believe in a God that not only forgives those sins (Plural) we commit, but also promises unconditional love, acceptance, and grace. And God’s gift of grave and love puts to death our attempts to justify our sin (Singular) and raises us to new life so that we might demonstrate God’s love to others.

Puttin on the Ritz

Oct. 12, 2014      
Isa. 25:1-9, Matt 21:33-46

I heard a story from Larry King on the radio this past week where he shared a story of Betty & John who had been married for 60 years. Betty made as part of her commitment to John to have a healthy lifestyle. As best as she could she made sure they ate health foods.

The last 10 years of their lives Betty changed their meal routine to include bran in most of their meals. John wasn’t overly happy about this change.

Then Betty & John died and they’re standing at the pearly gates with St Peter to welcome them. John was amazed at the beauty of heaven and told St. Peter this is a great place… WOW!!! John then asked Peter… do you have bran here? St. Peter just smiled as John took it all in.

Then Peter started showing them around heaven and Betty & John were just amazed at the beauty of it all. St. Peter then asked if they were hungry. Sure… said John, and Peter took them to the banquet room and John’s eyes grew with excitement as he saw the banquet table full of everything imaginable to eat. The fruit & vegetables were so colorful and fresh… the roast beef… lamb… you name it and it was there.

John then turned to Betty and said… “Why did you feed us so much bran?” “We could have been experiencing all of this 10 years earlier.”

Prayer

Here we are again… another difficult story from Jesus. It’s not about a vineyard… but about a banquet. And this story is really bizarre. It starts out simple enough… but then gets really crazy. People don’t show up… and the people who do get beat up and killed. Then the king invites people off the street, then deposes them because they’re not dressed well enough. Then it gets really absurd and the king burns down the city. And those remaining get tied up and thrown out. What are we to make of this story from Jesus?

First… a couple of things this story is not…

1. This story is NOT a real event… this did not really happen. But is a method of speech Jesus uses often to get his point across especially over against the righteous religious leaders. Jesus is using Hyperbole or Exaggeration to make his point again to mostly the Pharisee’s.

2. This story is NOT a matter of “Jews Vs Christians” that often characterizes many a pastor’s sermons. Theologian Lance Pape says, “Matt and his community understand themselves as faithful Jews who had responded to God’s call to the kingdom banquet, but others had inexplicably rejected the great invitation and good news.” So… this story from Jesus is really a parable of an intense family feud. Emphasis on “FAMILY” because Matt. and his community are struggling with what it means to be faithful to the God of Abraham or to whether Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah as the prophets promised. So… Last week’s story was about the Religious leaders failing to nurture the vineyard and today… it seems to be a skirmish within Matt’s faith community.

A little background about Matt’s community…

Matt’s faith community is primarily Jewish and their faith understanding is tied to Abraham and the Torah, and the prophetic promises of a Messiah. Think of the challenge many of you experienced when St. Peter’s & Gethsemane merged…   

They have an understanding of God’s judgment along with God’s promises of salvation through a Messiah. They also have an understanding that they are God’s chosen people. And… they are struggling with their Jewishness is good or bad if they believe in Jesus. To go along with this struggle they are also being marginalized and experiencing alienation & rejection. An illustration of this might be something like… “What do we do with people we love, but don’t believe as we do?”

Often I think our response would be to condemn those who believe differently. We most often see this with very conservative religious groups. They seem to offer an argument of what we disagree with rather than what there is in common. I also think people might view this story out of its greater God context and use it to point out that all Christians are judgmental. Rather than point out where Jesus starts the story as the kingdom of God is like a wedding banquet where everyone is invited. Many tend to focus on the later part of the story as gospel when the good news is actually embedded in the invitation.

I believe we need to hear the latter in this story. That being… God is more interested in inviting all to the banquet despite all the good, bad, and the ugly. God is most interested in an expansive and radical love and inclusiveness.  And… I believe this story really offers us an invitation to forgiveness & Grace rather than punishment & fear.

Closing

I believe theologian David Lose says it best… “If we can practice trusting God enough to resist condemnation but instead pray for those we disagree with, we might find ourselves more capable of sharing why what we believe is important to us rather than just insisting that believing is what matters. If we respect the questions, beliefs, and struggles of those we disagree, we might be able to offer care and support in the name and example of the one who died and was raised rather than condemn, and we may just be the most powerful witness we can offer.”

Finding the Pony

Oct. 5, 2014                                                  

Isa. 5:1-7, Matt 21:33-46

Humorist Steven Wright once said, “If you must choose between 2 evils, Pick the one you’ve never tried before.”

Prayer

Our readings today are in some ways like 2 evils… especially our readings in Isa. & Matt. On one hand our story from Jesus is a tough one to preach on and… it’s about another vineyard. Talking with colleagues this week about our readings they were going to pass on the Isa & Matt readings… the Philian text was more appealing and less confrontational. They didn’t see much grace or joy here…. I thought it was a cop-out.

On the other hand… one could use these two stories and hit the Shift/Alt keys and try to shift the emphasis to the Jews or Pharisees. No matter how you flip the coin we go thru this every year at this time in our church year. Those who follow the lectionary calendar can count on the stories, found in our bibles that get used, and are difficult ones to read and hear, and many pastors shy away from them many times.

These stories are tough because they are reflecting the end of Jesus’ life. The intensity is accelerating as the Pharisees are applying more and more pressure… even Jesus’ friends are getting doubtful. In addition… these stories are hard and difficult because they hit close to home and they are a reflection of us… and we would rather here the stories that are more positive.

So for me…. Rather than cop-out I’d like us to look at these stories as opportunities to look for the pony.

My internship pastor told me a story of a little boy digging in a large pile of manure when his father asked him what he was doing. The boy responded by saying, with such a big pile of manure… there must be a pony in there somewhere.

So … unlike my colleagues… we’re going to look for the pony.

Our gospel readings from Matt & Isa are quite similar. And some look at these final stories of Jesus from a political perspective. I don’t believe it’s so much about the politics of Rome as it is about the politics of the Jewish faith. We can look at it like this…

The Vineyard landowner is God.

The tenants/renters are the people of Jerusalem/Pharisees

Slaves & servants are the Prophets… they get killed.

The Son is Jesus… he gets killed too.

When Jesus asks the Tenants/Pharisees what the owner is going to do to them…

They cowell because they know they’re toast.

We could look at this story as it pertains to us in our day similarly.

The owner of the vineyard/Church is God.

The Tenants are the people/Us.

The servants/Prophets are pastors… they die

The Son is still and always Jesus…

The outcome is the same… it doesn’t bode well for us…

Vs  43 Jesus says, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you & given to the people that will produce fruit for the kingdom.

Isa 5-6… God says, “I will tell you what I will do, I will remove the hedge, it will be devoured, and the vineyard will be trampled, I will make it a waste…”

Not a good scenario is it!!

Where is the pony?

I want to suggest the pony is found in Vs.42… “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Jesus quotes Ps. 118:22-23. The point for Jesus and us is that even though the people…ie us…have killed & rejected him… he is still the one providing the opportunity to enjoy the promise of having the pony. More precisely… what God is looking for from this story & us is to be  disciples of His son Jesus.

To care for… and grow the vineyard… ie the church.

By growing… I’m suggesting it’s both more grapes & a greater quality of grapes.

Being in a disciplining relationship with Jesus and others accomplishes what God desires of his tenants/People… grow the kingdom and grow deeper in faith.

Produce Sweet Fruit.

Produce sweet fruit for the kingdom or God will deal with us in ways we may not like… just as this story from Jesus illustrates with the Pharisees… ie the religious folk. In a sense… Is Jesus is calling us out? I believe we can already see this by looking at the statistics of our church and see the decline. The vineyard is getting smaller across all of the church.

Commitment to Discipleship

Jesus’ words are our invitation and opportunity to draw closer to God by making a strong Commitment to discipleship values as a faith community. To practice the faith thru our 7 Core Values…

Welcome…Prayer… Worship… Learning… Service… Relationship Building… Generosity

The future sustainability of the church is tied to its ability to walk a discipleship path of faith. Without it… we simply wither away.

We talked about this earlier in the year…  What does Jesus command us to do at the end of His gospel? “Go…Make Disciples”

Closing: Story from Bishop William Willimon…  A Letter from Jesus to the Church called Mainline:
You know me, I love to make the old-line new. If you will stick with me, I shall give you a future, new wineskins, and all that. I am Lord of Life, not death. I shall move you from mordant decline to life. I've still got plans for you. You'll be smaller, but small can be good. Ask the Mennonites. You will no longer be in charge of the nation, if you ever were. Remember, the national church thing was your idea of church, not mine. Get back to the basics like worship, service and witness. Don't mourn the downsizing of your bureaucracy. You were once good at mission. Now that much of North America has never heard of me, it's about time to start thinking of yourselves as missionaries.

-William H. Willimon, You've Got Mail: Letters Jesus might write to churches today, Christianity Today, October 25, 1999, 69.

 Finding the Pony

Life in our world is often a big ole manure pile… Often we look at the pile and say it’s to big… I don’t want to deal with it. But, what if we looked at the pile with a sense of wonder & joy… like a child, believing that no matter how big & smelly the pile is… there’s a pony in there some place. And what will that pony be for Cana Lutheran? Could Cana as a faith community be willing to walk the path of discipleship? If we are able… we will begin to experience the life God has in store for us.

What's Fair

Sept. 21, 2014                                                                                     

Matt. 20:1-16

There was a man who had worked all of his life and had saved all of his money. He loved money more than just about anything. 

Just before he died, he said to his wife, “Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me.” He made her promise with all her heart that when he died, she would put all his money in the casket with him.

Well, he died. He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there in black, and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the funeral director got ready to close the casket, the wife said, “Wait just a minute!” She had a box with her, and she came over and put it in the casket.

Then the funeral director locked the casket down, and they rolled it away. Her friend said, “Girl, I know you weren’t fool enough to put all that money in there with your husband!”

She said, “Listen, I can’t go back on my word. I promised him I was gonna put the money in the casket with him.”

“You mean to tell me you really put that money in the casket with him!?”

“I sure did,” said the wife. “I wrote him a check.”

Prayer:

Our story today is a challenging one. There are several ways one could go with this story. A traditional view is found at the end in Vs 16… “The first with be last, and the last will be first.” Another view would be about eternal life. Another would be generosity. And another of which we will turn our focus… “What’s Fair?”

This story is unique to Matt. And surrounded by a parable of the rich young man, and Peter’s claim to have left everything to follow Jesus… Which he seems to make like a badge of honor that he’s been able to do. On the back-side of our story is Jesus’ 3^rd prediction of his death and James & John’s mother begging Jesus for prominent positions in the kingdom.

So… at first blush… there seems to be some coveting going on with Jesus’ friends as they think they’re a bit more special than others. So Jesus tells them a story about workers in a vineyard. Some start first thing in the morning… some at mid-day… And some near the end of the day. Then… at the end of the day the land-owner comes to the vineyard to pay the workers for their work. And that’s when a problem arises because the owner of the vineyard pays those that came to work last the same as those who started the day.

You can understand the rub… it’s not fair… right? Those who started in the morning should get paid the most… right? In the story following this with James & John… you can hear Jesus’ other friends saying the same thing… that’s not fair… we’ve been with Jesus too. You can understand the rich young man having to give up everything.

So… what’s fair in our lives? Over the past few years and in the last several months we’ve heard cries of unfairness as well.

The 99%... what’s fair?         The 1%... what’s fair?

The small business owner…. What’s fair?

The minimum wage… what’s fair?

Racism or the perception of racism…. Cops… Robbers…

Athletes… WHAT”S FAIR?

In our story… didn’t the workers who started in the morning agree to work for an agreed amount?  YES… it must have been a fair wage… they agreed to it! And doesn’t the owner of the vineyard have the right to be a generous as he sees fit with his money? YES… the story isn’t really about fairness as it is about generosity.

It seems to me that in part what Jesus is talking about is covetousness… That humanity covets what God chooses to give others. Think of the 9^th commandment… “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.” And in part we… humanity are thumbing our noses at the good gifts God does give us.

 Let’s be honest friends… covetousness is a problem isn’t it? The problem isn’t that others receive blessing from God, but that they are receiving blessing they don’t deserve. After-all… I go to church… I help out at church… I know how they live the other 6 days of the week…. They just don’t live the Christian life like me. I use to get angry and mad at my supervisor because she seemed to patronize the people who were always screwing around and not doing their jobs. They got the better schedules… all the perks. Until I got it in my head to do my job and do it well the rewards would come… and they did. When I was angry & resentful things often didn’t go well for me.

This is where our OT story in Jonah matches up with our gospel story. Jonah believes the people of Nineveh should be punished because they are bad sinful people. But God doesn’t do that… God forgives them. What we see is the generosity of God in the Jonah story as with the landowner, and Jonah’s covetousness as well as the point Jesus is making.

So… in closing… what I believe we can take away from this story is… in Vs 1 what Jesus is talking about is what the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God is not just a place & time, but where all people recognize God’s generosity and good gifts which we all enjoy. That no matter where we’ve been in our lives… No matter if we’ve been 1^st or last we have a place in God’s kingdom. That God’s generosity is for all… the first… the middle… the last.

Lutheran Theologian Karl Jacobson states it like this… “The scandal of this parable is that we all are equal recipients of God’s gifts. The scandal of pour faith is that we are often covetous & jealous when God’s gifts of forgiveness and life are given to others in equal measure.”

So… my friends… WHAT”S FAIR?

a Pathway to Grace

Sept. 7, 2014                                         

Rom. 13:8-14, Matt. 18:15-20

It seems a certain little boy reached school age, and his mother worked very hard to make him enthusiastic about the idea [of school] -- bought him new clothes, told him about the other children he would meet, got him so excited about the project that he eagerly went off on the first day, and came home with excellent reports of what school was like. Well, the next morning, his mother went into the bedroom and said it’s time to get up. He said, "What for?" She replied, "You've got to go to school." He said, "What, again?" 

Prayer

Last week was a fairly easy message to give… this week not so much… in fact, this is the first time I've ever preached on this story. And … it’s sort-of a tough one… it would have been easier to reflect on our Romans text. After-all… it’s pretty cut and dried as Paul gives us a prescription on how to live and love one another. Although… I’ve never been one to shy away from the tough teachings of Jesus… the truth is… many times I search them out, and as I've reflected and studied this story I've discovered this story is really about “a Pathway to Grace.”

When you look at our bible story today, at first glance you may be thinking or have heard this story from Jesus as a prescription of how the church is suppose to resolve conflicts among themselves. That as if following some simple steps will guarantee & ensure God’s love for us all and as a faith community. The truth is… this passage has often been abused and used to root out people who didn't agree with the power structures in place. For these instances… it was about changing behavior and inviting him or her to repentance and to go along with the status quo. The problem with this of course is… there was no church at this point… Jesus is still present.

On the other side of the coin… unresolved conflict ought not happen in silence either, nor behind closed doors, nor whispering gossip. Rather… we should address the issues as quickly as possible so they don’t ferment into something larger. So… we should really see this story within its greater context as Gentiles or as I like to say… “the regular people,”  thus this story is really about relationships and more intentionally the centrality of forgiveness & grace.

What I believe this story demonstrates to us is a pathway to grace. Without the centrality of forgiveness in our relationships in mind… it’s easy to hear this story as some divine recipe for dealing with troublesome Christians

Step 1… pull the offender aside & show them their error.

Step 2… if that doesn't work, bring a group.
Step 3… shun and or dismiss the unrepentant offender…repeat as necessary.

No… the heart of Matt 18 is about forgiveness and how important it is to God, how important is should be to us, and about how hard it can be to actually extend and receive it.

David Lose says it like this…  “in the verses just before those we read this week, Jesus tells a brief parable, or really uses an analogy, to get at how much God wants to draw us into God’s rich embrace of forgiveness and mercy. God is like a shepherd who will leave ninety-nine sheep to them-selves, Jesus says, in order to find the one that has gone astray. Similarly, the verses just after our passage describe Peter’s question, “how many times must I forgive someone?” followed by his diligent suggestion of seven. Jesus, however, isn’t satisfied with merely towing the line of the law and so instead says, “seventy-seven,” or about as many times as it takes to love your neighbor back into right relationship with you.” 

So… what does this mean for us?

Forgiveness is from God.

Jesus says in John 13… “Love others as I have loved you,”

John 3:16 states… 

“God loved you and me so much that he sent his son Jesus to make that love known.”

In Gen… “God created everything out of love and it was good.”

And from our understanding of God… we believe our God is a God of love. That forgiveness is really about God’s love for us no matter what our life is like.

Forgiveness is for Each Other.

Well… this is pretty much a given… because we all screw up… Because we put our wants & desires before others. Because we hurt others & they hurt us. There isn't a single one of us that hasn't been hurt by someone or that we haven’t hurt someone. This is life… and why forgiveness is an essential part of loving and growing relationships. And why it’s one of Cana’s core values as we strive to have honest, respectful, forgiving & caring relationships in this community. Though forgiveness is hard to do… forgiveness is the only way to keep relationships hopeful and in place.

Forgiveness is The Pathway to Grace.

If we believe God is a God of love and this love is demonstrated in Jesus.

And if we believe Jesus is the forgiving agent of God’s love for us and how we need to respond & love each another. Then it seems… if Jesus is about forgiveness…. Forgiveness is the pathway to grace and a life of love. Though forgiveness is hard, but without forgiveness our lives remain fragmented to a much larger degree than need be. And when this is the case… we lose ourselves and the power we have as a child of God. Forgiveness is never about the other person… but about us.

I saw this posted on FB from motovationgrid.com… “when you choose to forgive those who hurt you, you take away their power.

Who is taking away your power? What issue between you and another person is robbing you of your life? 

Again David Lose says, “ We believe God cares – really cares – about how we treat each other and are treated in turn. God loves us enough to help us better love each other. And God wants to redeem us enough to embody the forgiveness God invites us to in the form of God’s only Son, Jesus, as he lay upon the cross.

Who and or what in your life today needs forgiving?

What pathway are you walking?

No matter how difficult forgiving can be… Jesus provides the pathway to forgiveness and grace.

When I saw this posted on FaceBook the title caught my attention right a way. So I read it and was so moved by it I had to re-post. What moved me the most isn't that my dad is a right-wing asshole... it's because I have viewed my dad as just a plain asshole for most of my life. What moved me was the response. I hope it moves you to a different place... it has for me.

Ask Andrew W.K.: My Dad Is a Right-Wing Asshole
By Andrew W.K. Wed., Aug. 6 2014 
Ask Andrew W.K.

[Editor's note: Every Wednesday New York City's own Andrew W.K. takes your life questions, and sets you safely down the right path to a solution, a purpose or -- no surprise here -- a party. Need his help? Just ask: AskAWK@villagevoice.com]

Hi Andrew,

I'm writing because I just can't deal with my father anymore. He's a 65-year-old super right-wing conservative who has basically turned into a total asshole intent on ruining our relationship and our planet with his politics. I'm more or less a liberal democrat with very progressive values and I know that people like my dad are going to destroy us all. I don't have any good times with him anymore. All we do is argue. When I try to spend time with him without talking politics or discussing any current events, there's still an underlying tension that makes it really uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong, I love him no matter what, but how do I explain to him that his politics are turning him into a monster, destroying the environment, and pushing away the people who care about him?

Thanks for your help,
Son of A Right-Winger


Dear Son of A Right-Winger,

Go back and read the opening sentences of your letter. Read them again. Then read the rest of your letter. Then read it again. Try to find a single instance where you referred to your dad as a human being, a person, or a man. There isn't one. You've reduced your father -- the person who created you -- to a set of beliefs and political views and how it relates to you. And you don't consider your dad a person of his own standing -- he's just "your dad." You've also reduced yourself to a set of opposing views, and reduced your relationship with him to a fight between the two. The humanity has been reduced to nothingness and all that's left in its place is an argument that can never really be won. And even if one side did win, it probably wouldn't satisfy the deeper desire to be in a state of inflamed passionate conflict.

The world isn't being destroyed by democrats or republicans, red or blue, liberal or conservative, religious or atheist -- the world is being destroyed by one side believing the other side is destroying the world. The world is being hurt and damaged by one group of people believing they're truly better people than the others who think differently. The world officially ends when we let our beliefs conquer love. We must not let this happen.

When we lump people into groups, quickly label them, and assume we know everything about them and their life based on a perceived world view, how they look, where they come from, etc., we are not behaving as full human beings. When we truly believe that some people are monsters, that they fundamentally are less human than we are, and that they deserve to have less than we do, we ourselves become the monsters. When we allow our emotions to be hypnotized by the excitement of petty bickering about seemingly important topics, we drift further and further away from the fragile and crucial human bond holding everything together. When we anticipate with ferocious glee the next chance we have to prove someone "wrong" and ourselves "right," all the while disregarding the vast complexity of almost every subject -- not to mention the universe as a whole -- we are reducing the beauty and magic of life to a "side" or a "type," or worst of all, an "answer." This is the power of politics at it's most sinister.

At its best, politics is able to organize extremely complex world views into manageable and communicable systems so they can be grappled with and studied abstractly. But even the most noble efforts to organize the world are essentially futile. The best we can usually achieve is a crude and messy map of life from one particular vantage point, featuring a few grids, bullet points, and sketches of its various aspects and landmarks. Anything as infinitely complex as life, reality, and the human experience can never be summed up or organized in a definitive system, especially one based on "left or right," "A or B," "us or them." This is the fatal flaw of binary thinking in general. However, this flaw isn't just ignored, it's also embraced, amplified, and deliberately used as a weapon on the very people who think it's benefiting their way of thinking.

Human beings crave order and simplicity. We cling to the hope that some day, if we really refine our world view and beliefs, we can actually find the fully correct way to think -- the absolute truth and final side to stand on. People and systems craving power take advantage of this desire and pit us against each other using a "this or that" mentality. The point is to create unrest, disagreement, resentment, and anger -- a population constantly at war with itself, each side deeply believing that the other is not just wrong, but also a sincere threat to their very way of life and survival. This creates constant anxiety and distraction -- the perfect conditions for oppression. The goal of this sort of politics is to keep people held down and mesmerized by a persistent parade of seemingly life-or-death debates, each one worth all of our emotional energy and primal passion.

But the truth is, the world has always been and always will be on the brink of destruction. And what keeps it from actually imploding is our love for life and our deep-seeded desire not to die. Our love for our own life is inextricably connected to our love of all life and the miracle of this phenomenon we call "the world." We must give all of ourselves credit every day for keeping things going. It's an incredible achievement to exist at all.

So we must protect and respect each other, no matter how hard it feels. No matter how wrong someone else may seem to us, they are still human. No matter how bad someone may appear, they are truly no worse than us. Our beliefs and behavior don't make us fundamentally better than others, no matter how satisfying it is to believe otherwise. We must be tireless in our efforts to see things from the point of view we most disagree with. We must make endless efforts to try and understand the people we least relate to. And we must at all times force ourselves to love the people we dislike the most. Not because it's nice or because they deserve it, but because our own sanity and survival depends on it. And if we do find ourselves pushed into a corner where we must kill others in order to survive, we must fully accept that we are killing people just as fully human as ourselves, and not some evil abstract creatures.

Love your dad because he's your father, because he made you, because he thinks for himself, and most of all because he is a person. Have the strength to doubt and question what you believe as easily as you're so quick to doubt his beliefs. Live with a truly open mind -- the kind of open mind that even questions the idea of an open mind. Don't feel the need to always pick a side. And if you do pick a side, pick the side of love. It remains our only real hope for survival and has more power to save us than any other belief we could ever cling to.

Your friend,
Andrew W.K.