Feast of Life

Ordinary 20B – sermon based upon John 6:51-58

 

When I sat down to read all four of the lectionary texts at the beginning of the week, I was struck by how they all pointed to choices we had to make.  It was as if God was saying, My love, My work, My grace are here and now you must choose how you want to participate in it.  And none of the texts highlight that as much as this passage in the Gospel of John.  But there’s more going on here than just an early sneak peek at a ritual we call communion.  Jesus is pushing back hard and we should ask ourselves why. 

To start off, we should look at what’s going on here.  But to do that, we need to put our minds in a different place.  Pretend for a moment that you don’t know what communion is.  Pretend that you live in a culture that is very faithful about observing right and proper ways of handling food as a way of showing thanks to God for the blessing.  Pretend for a moment you live in a time where superstitious groups outside your culture thought there was something mystical about blood and practiced odd sacrifices and sometimes even drank human blood in search of eternal life.  Imagine how scary that must be.  Imagine how much safer you feel holding tight to your rituals.  Are you there yet?  If you are, then you are thinking like a 1^st century Jew. 

 

Now that you’re thinking like that you’re ready to hear just how jarring and bizarre Jesus’ words sound.  So, what was going on in this passage?

 

Well, in typical fashion, Jesus has drawn a crowd.  He’s already been talking to a group of people, probably religious leaders, in a synagogue and sharing wisdom and answering their questions.  While talking to them, he gets the crowd stirred up and anxious because he uses some imagery that appalls them.  He starts talking about eating his flesh.  Even before our passage from today’s lectionary, he says in verse 35, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  So, he’s already rolled out this language.  And they’re getting uncomfortable.

 

Next, in verse 41 it says, “the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?’”  So, they’re just trying to make sense of this.  Has Jesus, the son of Joseph and Marry whom they’ve seen running around since he was knee high to a grasshopper, converted to some pagan religion?  Who is he to claim the power of God?  It would be like one of the young adults from this congregation going off to college and coming back to say, “I’m the son of God and if you want to get closer to God, you need to believe in me and eat what I give you.”  If that happened, you’d think the kid has gone and joined a cult!

 

So, when we break into the lectionary passage for today at verse 51, it’s no wonder the folks are uncomfortable and grumbling.  Jesus is freaking them out.  And in verse 52 when it says “The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” what’s really going on is not just a argument.  The Greek verb is indicates a certain level of anger and violence on their part.

 

And what does Jesus do?  He pushes back even harder.  He says “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”  You may think this is just a restatement but it’s not.  In verses 49-51, Jesus had spoken about “eating” the bread from heaven, using the Greek verb “esthio.” But in verse 53 he starts using a much different verb, “trogo.”  This word is not just to eat.  It means to gnaw audibly.  And the nuance of it indicates gnawing and eating with urgency. It is eating as though life depends on it.

 

Now remember, we’ve imagined ourselves in that day and time.  We have no idea what communion is and we’re very afraid of people who drink blood so hearing this is bizarre and frightening.  Are you disturbed yet?  Do you have a good image of what was going on?  I hope so.

 

Oh, and one more piece of context we should probably know is that the book of John is a Gnostic Gospel.  If you want to know more about that, ask me later.  But for today’s purposes, what we need to know is that more than any other Gospel, when we read something in John, there are always multiple layers of truth.  John uses more metaphor, poetic imagery, and symbolism than any other Gospel. 

 

Now zoom forward to today.  We know the outcome of Jesus’ life.  We hear the words of institution regularly.  We are probably still afraid of cults that drink blood but it’s not part of our everyday life.  So from here, let’s ask ourselves, why would Jesus push at them so hard? What was Jesus trying to do by making them so uncomfortable?

 

Well, I’m no scholar but from what I’ve read and understand, I think it comes down to two things: relationship and participation.  Jesus knew that the people he was talking to needed something jarring to make them have a different relationship with God and their faith.  Remember most of them are likely religious leaders who are not just set in their ways but also a bit arrogant about their faith.  They are sure they know the will and mind of God.  They know what steps to take day in and day out to be faithful.  They live by conforming to rules rather than being compelled by a hunger for deeper knowledge of God.  So, it seems to me that Jesus is trying to jar them into seeking God more fully because they are not just hungry but famished.  He’s trying to tell them that they can participate in the love and creation of God here and now… relationship and participation.

 

A word of caution:  I’m not in any way calling the Jews a people of flat faith.  As the first people of covenant with God, they hold a richness and history of incredible faith that has overcome struggle that would make most of us crumble.  I am only referring to the particular folks Jesus is talking to in this synagogue in Capernaum.  Just like I do standing here, Jesus always tailored his message to the listener so this is not a condemnation of the Jewish faith.  It is a condemnation of living a faith without hunger and passion.

 

Now, why did we just go through that entire context explanation?  Well, first of all, if we just read it without the context, we’re likely to think this is just about communion and it’s not.  But more importantly, just like people then, we need our faith challenged and jarred from time to time to remind us of why we come here and what our calling is.

 

Remember I said two words, relationship and participation.  How often does our faith feel like it gets flattened out into “do this and don’t do that so God will be happy with us.”?  I suspect more than we would like to admit.  Yet, the language of Jesus calls us to be unrestrained and unleash our hunger for God in ravenous, gnawing, messy, satisfying, and mysterious ways.  We are invited to gulp until quenched like never before.  A restrained faith is a faith that has not fully responded to a relationship with God and has not yet claimed full participation in the ongoing revelation of God with us. 

 

And what is our reward for living like this?  Why would we let the wildly whirling Spirit of God fill us?  Because Christ tells promises us eternal fullness when we gnaw at the trough of divine food.  He tells us “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”  It’s about relationship and participation.

 

So what do we do with all this?  Well, I’m going to suggest some steps that might help jar us out of the flat places in our faith. 

1.    Get really honest about the empty places in our lives.  Where are we hungry, even starved for fullness that lasts?  Where have we been drinking yet still remain thirsty?  Where have we tried to fill those holes with flat rules rather than abundant love?

2.    Listen for God’s guidance.  In what ways is God leading us to be filled?  What experiences have we already had of getting a taste of the true divine food?  What can we do to dive deeper into the banquet of love God calls us to?

3.    Make the relationship grow by being open to God’s outpouring to us.  Who can teach us something we didn’t understand before?  Where have we missed God in our presence?  How can we remain open to God even when it’s scary?

4.    Make the participation grow by sharing the passion and feeding other’s hunger.  Who else can we join with in growing our faith?  Who can we share abundant love with?  Who has been unwelcome or afraid to come to this table that we can reach to?

 

Sisters and brothers, we are not called to be the frozen chosen.  We are called to abundant life.  Jesus uses jarring language and images to remind us of the deep hunger that lives in each of us.  He invites us to eat and drink as if our lives depend on it.  We are invited into relationship with God because God sent love to us first.  We are invited into participation with God through the body of Christ.  And we are invited to a feast that will fill us in ways that gives life abundant and eternal.  Amen.

 

Christian and Human

Ordinary 19B – sermon based upon Psalm 130 & Ephesians 4:25-5:2

 

Good morning.  It’s wonderful to be with you this today and I’ll be with you next week as well.  So, I hope to catch up on some of the happenings in your lives and chat during coffee hour and such.  Regardless, I want you to know that you’ve remained in my heart and prayers.

 

Well, I’m sure you won’t find this surprising but I’m enthralled by today’s scripture passages.  They have so much to offer.  Both of them tell us so much about what a lived faith looks like… full of faults and yet hopeful.

 

In fact, on Monday when I submitted my part of the worship planning, including the sermon title, what stuck out to me was this notion of being so deeply flawed yet so full of faith and hope in God’s love, grace, and forgiveness.  From that I submitted the title in your bulletin of “Christian and Human.”  But if I was titling what this sermon has evolved into as I completed it, I might have titled it, “A Guide to Christian Dialog.” 

 

In this passage we get a glimpse into the early church and how they related.  All the Pastoral letters in the New Testament are quite wonderful in that way.  They show us a way of talking with and relating to people that is concerned primarily with the relationship between people instead of drawing lines between them.

 

In just the first few lines of this passage, we find out that lots of people’s flaws and sins are out there in the open for all to see.  So much so that the writer of the letter knows there to be thievery, dishonesty, resentfulness, and bitter backbiting in that church.  You see, the early church was made up as much or more so by people living on the edges of society like criminals as it was by people engaged in more respectable forms of theft like tax collectors.  And resentfulness… well, there isn’t a group or person on this planet that hasn’t been plagued by that one. 

 

So this young church in Ephesus needed guidance on how to live and the writer of this letter, being a good pastor, was offering them such help.  But we can learn a lot more from this than who was in the early church and how they were helped.  In this day and time, we don’t need someone to tell us that stealing is wrong.  We know.  And we don’t need to be reminded that anger chips away at our relationships if we don’t handle it appropriately because we’ve lived it for too long already.  And most of us know that bitterness destroys us, even if we have a hard time recognizing when we’re feeling or being that way.

 

So rather than a guided to do’s and don’ts, the lesson most of us need from this passage is a guide to being Christian together… to walk, and talk, and live together.  Whether it’s us that struggles with how to talk and deal with one another or if we’re on the receiving end other’s struggles, the fact remains that we all need help supporting our relationships with Christian sisters and brothers.

 

Now before you say to me, “But Pastor Lavender, the people I really struggle talking to are people of other faiths or no faith at all…” let me say that what this passage teaches is good for all relationships.  If you’d like to take the lessons out in the world, go right ahead. I’m sure Jesus would approve.  But because the writer of this letter focused on the Christian community I am too.  And it’s good to start close to home because if we as a church can’t figure out how to love and live with one another, then we have no witness for the world.

 

So let’s look at this passage.  We’re still the same resentful, dishonest people today as humanity was then.  But most people in the church today hide it better which makes us act even more indignant when one of our members gets caught for cheating on taxes, reneging on a promise, or treating another badly.  In some ways, we’ve gotten so good at hiding our faults that our biggest fear is being found out.  Deep on the inside, we think to ourselves, “if they really knew how much I struggle to be honest or faithful or generous, they wouldn’t like me very much.” 

 

So, the first big lesson this scripture reminds us of is that we are all deeply flawed.  Not a one of us isn’t constantly struggling with how to be more loving, generous, honest, nurturing, forgiving, and grace-filled.  We are all sinners and I don’t think I need to beat that one into the ground too much because I suspect that most of us beat ourselves over the head enough already.  But what does deserve a reminder is that forgiveness is a gift from God and also a gift we should extend to ourselves and others.  I suspect that we can start from a place of remembering how much we fear the judgment of others and struggle, then maybe our dealings with one another can be a bit more gentle and loving as well. 

 

This brings me to the second lesson from this passage.  The writer is definitely naming right and wrong ways of being but he isn’t wagging his finger in any one person’s face.  His primary concern is with cultivating a relationship and being connected with other members of the body of Christ.  He knows judgment belongs to God.  His job is to love first and the guidance, nurture, and teachings will fall into place later.  Which is our second takeaway: We are to love each other first and foremost.  If something like an ideal or judgment stands in the way of loving someone else, it isn’t their sin that’s the problem.  And when others see us only as a circumstance in our lives or a problem we’re facing rather than as a beloved child of God, the problem isn’t with our situation.

 

This pastor knows as it says in verse 29 that when judgmental or harsh talk comes out of our mouths, relationships are destroyed.  He reminds us to say “only what is useful for building up… so that [our] words may give grace to those who hear.”  Even his own way of talking to them puts their wellbeing and relationship first above ideals and judgment.  And in later verses he reminds us to “Put away… all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander… and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven [us].”

 

When I was researching this sermon I read a commentary by Rev. Mary Ricketts that struck me in some pretty powerful ways.  She wrote, “We might think this is obvious since we believe that God is present in and a part of all of our relationships, but it is amazing how often we speak as though God is nowhere near us… I find it odd how often faith communities want to argue about ‘what the Bible says,’ while ignoring these types of texts that encourage straight talk, forgiveness and extravagant love. Perhaps we should care more about the words we said and how we said them than whether we agreed with one another.”

 

And if you think about that, isn’t it the truth?  How many of us have been sucked in by all the arguing and dialog around Chick-Fil-A lately?  I venture to guess most of us have at least had 1 conversation in the past 3 weeks about it.  But in case you missed it, here’s the rundown:  Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy said with the same consistency that the company has always held that they honor and uphold the “biblical definition of the family unit.”  We can discuss at another time what might be right or wrong or nuanced or complicated with that statement but what is more noteworthy is the vile social eruption this has created.  Of even greater note is the fact that some of the most hateful statements have been said by Christians on various sides of this issue.

 

This is exactly what the pastor writing this letter was talking about.  What we say and how we say it sometimes hurts more than what we believe.  And we can’t even get to the point of talking about what we believe when we’re too busy hurling stones or ducking from ones being hurled at us.

 

If you’ve been one of the handful of people that have actually had meaningful dialog as a result of this Chick-Fil-A brouhaha, I’m glad.  But I’ve been busy dodging the boulders being hurled as people I love say mean things about other people I love… Christian sisters and brothers putting belief about one particular issue ahead of loving each other first.  It’s been hard.

 

Look, y’all know me and know that I spend most of my time wondering how to get it right and if we got it right.  I rarely stand firmly and say that I know fully the will of God because God is just so much more than I can fully comprehend.  But this is one of those times that I will take such a stand.  I know with absolute certainty that the minute I let the ideas in my head stand in the way of loving you as a person is the minute I’m on the wrong side of God’s will.

 

And lest you think I’m judging harshly the folks who have been passionately debating this issue and even the ones who’ve hurled stones, I’m not.  I understand the conviction, earnest faith, and fears that underlie these types of debates gone wild.  In fact, it’s from a position of compassion for just how hard it is to be “imitators of God” like the scripture says that I bring it up.  And I only bring it up here with you because I know you and you know me so we have the relationship to talk about this without fearing the judgment of one another.  I would never mention such a controversy if I were preaching in a church unknown to me for fear of being misheard.

 

Which brings me to the final lesson for us to take from this passage.  This entire pastoral letter to the church in Ephesus would never have been written if people weren’t hungry to continue to grow in faith.  And that’s where we still are today.  No matter how we struggle with sin… no matter which people we struggle to love… no matter where we are in our faith journey as individuals or as a community, as long as we continue to be open to God’s outpouring of love, we will grow in faith.

 

Sisters and brothers, this is our calling: love God, love one another, love ourselves.  Gracious, extravagant, forgiving, nurturing, abundant love… if that’s what we’re seeking or if that’s our starting place with one another and God, then we can’t go wrong.  Amen.

Brief Political Rant

If conservative politicians think corporations will leave the US if tax loopholes are closed, why are they throwing stones at the government? Where is the outrage that companies would function in such unjust and manipulative ways? Exploiting loopholes is still cheating because it violates the spirit of the law. Holding cheaters accountable is not unAmerican.

Further Travels Along the Way

In June of 2010 I began working as the regular supply pastor at a Presbyterian church (PCUSA affiliated) in Northwest Indiana.  At the time, it seemed like somewhat of a cruel irony since I had left the PCUSA to become UCC after meeting and marrying my wife which put me at odds with PCUSA polity.  Nevertheless, this church seemed like the place God was directing me so I tried to stay open to where my faith journey and calling was leading. 

Among my first hurdles were those of ethics and transparency.  I am gay and my wife and daughter would likely come with me to church.  The exiting interim minister had known me for years and knew about my sexuality but I didn’t think she outted me to the church.  So, I had to make a decision.

How was I going to answer the questions?  Would I just go ahead and come out?  What was the right thing to do so that I had integrity while not opening my family to undue scrutiny?  Furthermore, I didn’t want to bring to the church additional turmoil in the midst of a time that was already fragile.

Very quickly I decided to answer any questions from congregants honestly but not bring up the fact that I’m gay.  I advised my family to do the same.  All the same, we did not necessarily go about drawing attention to ourselves in that way.  My reasoning for this choice was three fold.  First, I personally have borne much pain as some of my Christian sisters and brothers have hurled stones of hatred and fear at me over the years.  It’s been a tough journey that I still weep over from time to time.  Second, as a family, we did not have a need to be supported in that faith community so our transparency was not necessary for our well-being.  Likewise, we did not need the pain that would come with a negative outcome.  Third, and most importantly, I believed my time with them would be short and deemed the painful transitions of the church and the existing sorrow of its members to be more important to address than introducing an additional issue that would only serve to distract them from what they actually needed.  They had already been though too much to have someone “dump” an extra issue on them.  They deserved to grieve and grow through their existing difficulties before dealing with one more thing. 

With all that in mind I moved forward and what I thought was going to be a “few preaching gigs” turned into more and ultimately lasted 20 months before they called a full time pastor.

I didn’t realize it would happen but I quickly fell in love with the people at that church.  I saw in them such love for one another and a deep faith.  They could not have endured the kind of pain they had without it.  You see, in the past 10 years they had lost a much beloved pastor and then had a series of short lived calls and interims that introduced various conflicts and near scandals (the reasons for this are so complicated I will not even dare deal with it in this writing because I can never do their experience justice).  In the face of all this strife, the church and its programs survived... they even thrived in some ways.  It was easy to for me to admire and even love them.

It seemed that they loved me too.  They liked my preaching style of balancing teaching with practical ways of living faithfully.  They appreciated my reluctance to make grand claims on behalf of God in favor of journeying together.  Most of all, they loved the way I loved them.  For a group of people who had felt rejected and shat upon, they just wanted so badly to know that it wasn’t their fault and that they were still loved by God... and a pastor.  I could give them that.

One of my early sermons at the church was entitled “Along the Way” and was based upon Psalm 107:1-9, 43.  In it I said, “this is a passage about life happening.  Life includes the joyous and the tragic and all that lies in between.  Not all these events happen because of God but God is in the midst of them and still with us after them.  Our job is to be open to God’s help.  Our job is to keep journeying.  Our job is to share in the journey with others around us.  And we do this with hope knowing God is with us all along the way.”

“Along the way” became a phrase that I would utter many many more times during my service at that church.  It became my mantra to them as I sought to illuminate God’s presence and work in their midst.  It also became a mantra to myself as I experienced a home and sense of calling like I had not previously had or expected.

In my time there, I never did out myself from the pulpit even though I uplifted the justices issues associated with gender and sexuality.  I kept my emphasis on what they needed most.  Even as my sexuality became known to many in the congregation, what people stayed focused upon was what we had in common as people of faith trying to find our way forward.  With all the talk in our culture about what is wrong with the church, let me tell you that what is right was the people of that church staying focused on loving one another and honoring faith. 

Don’t get me wrong.  It wasn’t always easy.  I know for a fact, my sexuality became a catalyst for heated discussion amongst the Pastor Nominating Committee.  Also, I had many conversations with congregants who were unaware of my sexuality as they made their opinions known about Presbyterian polity, theology, and sexuality.  They said things that were insensitive and at times even hateful.  Yet, my response was always to broaden our understanding of love and keep us focused upon what God is doing and calling us to.

In the months since my time ended at that church, I’ve had time to reflect on what this journey meant and how it touched me in ways I never imagined.  I’ve come to believe even more in the mantra of God with us “along the way” because of the relationships that my family and I have formed with the people of that church.  Our lives are forever changed and better because of them.  Furthermore, the church’s constant affirmation of God’s gifts in me and my time with them served to heal old wounds that I thought would always be festering.  Honestly, I rarely know where God is leading me but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that God has been, is, and will be with us all along the way.  Amen.

Rant of Sorrow

Pastors advocating concentration camps, liberals spewing hatred at conservatives, and at the heart of it all there are millions everyday folks suffering. Who are we? This is not Christianity! If we Christians can’t figure out how to be together, then we have no witness for the world. When people who serve the same Christ can’t stomach sitting at the same table together, there is a bigger problem than our theology. Our souls are at risk. God have mercy on us.

Have we stopped to take account of how much money, donated by everyday faithful people, gets sucked up in Christians trying to fight one another on flashpoint issues like homosexuality? I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be addressed. I’m just saying that if we took that money and tried to work together then the fight might dissolve into appreciation for one another’s faith.

Living Among Us

Advent 3B – Living Among Us – sermon based upon Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 & John 1:1-14

Good morning.  We’re halfway through Advent which brings us nearer and nearer to Christmas.  As we’ve been journeying to Bethlehem, we’ve been exploring the themes of our Advent devotional.  So far we’ve looked at the extraordinary faith that it took to journey under such conditions and the unexpected peace that was found in an unlikely place.  This week, we’re going to focus on new life.

New life is a phrase that can mean lots of different things to us depending upon where we are in our own lives.  It can be the very literal experience of having a child.  It can also be an equally momentous occasion of a radical transformation where we find new life through the healing of an old wound.  For example, think of helping someone else through their grief with the power of our own experience or the use of a painful encounters like bullying to help support others.  New life can also be in finding new worth for something that was previously cast away.  An example of this might be the renovating of an old building to usefulness or tapping into an old hobby for new pleasure.  We’ve even used our God given skills to bring new life through organ donation.  And each day we wake up and move forward in hope, we are claiming the promise of new life.

We could make long lists of our experience with new life and we should be able to do this.  Why should we?  Because as our gospel lesson says, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  See, by our faith and I would suggest by our very God given nature, we are seekers of life.  We find darkness and destruction unpleasant, even unbearable.  But life… now that’s something we really crave.

We crave it and God provides it.  God’s love poured out on us and the glimpses of joy we receive when basking in that love are amazing experiences of life.  Those feelings like our Psalm talks about of being held, understood, loved, known, supported, and special invigorate in us a sense of life and liveliness.  To be fearfully and wonderfully made is to know life while at the same time having a sense of just how fragile and precious it all is.  It’s diving into the wonder and experience no matter what the journey may bring.

So, let’s think back to Jesus’ birth for a moment.  The past few weeks, we’ve talked about the uncertainty of this time and journey for Mary and Joseph.  They moved forward in faith and hope but it was still an anxiety filled and treacherous time.  In the time of the Roman Empire, over 30% of all babies born would die before they were a year old.  Compared to today, far less than 1% of babies die in this country.  I think the number is something like 0.6% infant mortality rate.

I believe the courage to bring a baby into a world where you know that 1/3 of your children will die young is pretty remarkable.  And even if the baby lives, lots of other dangerous things awaited.  The average life expectancy in that time was only 28.  If you were lucky enough to avoid being in the army and you made it to adulthood, you might live to be 52 but that was a very hopeful expectation.  So when ask what new life means in Bethlehem, I think we need to stop and realize that it means far more than what we might see at first glance here in the modern era.

You see, I think we don’t realize that when Angels foretold of this special baby becoming a special man, that was nearly unheard of in that time.  Birthrights, future prospects, and such were not things that were typically discussed until a child neared adulthood because there were too many things that could go wrong.  So when we read of God’s promise to this family that a child would be king, we are reading of something that is not only miraculous from a spiritual standpoint but also a miracle in a very practical way as well. 

But assuming that we can wrap our minds around how amazing this story is, we are still left trying to figure out how to take this remarkable narrative and combine it with our God given desire for new life and do something useful with it.  We know the true meaning of Advent and Christmas isn’t in shopping and gift giving or in decorations or holiday treats.  There’s nothing wrong with those things but it’s not what that precious birth or the Word becoming flesh is all about.  So what is it that ties all this together for us in our daily lives?

Well, in our gospel lessons the previous two weeks, we read Christ’s birth stories.  They tell us of a special child who was coming to be a special leader, Emmanuel… God with us.  This week’s gospel lesson reminds us that Christ lived and lives among us even still as the true light of God in our lives.  As much as we love the birth stories in Matthew and Luke, I have to be honest and say that I find the true meaning of Christmas in this passage from John.

Let’s re-read part of this passage from John chapter 1: It goes,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

What we’re really talking about here is creation.  God brought all this forth.  And why?  Was it to prove God’s powerfulness?  No.  At its very core, all of God’s actions are born out of love.  This light that brings things into being is a rich and full metaphor for love.  The act of bringing a child into the world is an act of love.  God’s reaching out to Mary and Joseph and all creation to become flesh and live among us is an act of love.  Our craving for life is an act of love.  The shedding the commercial elements of Christmas to get to the real root of God’s gift is an act of love. 

Everywhere we look in this story, our lives, and God’s promises, we see that God is constantly reaching to us in love and the gift we receive in that is new life.  This birth is “not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”  New life is always about love and hope and promise in God.  And new life is our gift to claim each and every day with the enthusiasm of a child opening the biggest Christmas present under the tree.

See, much like the way Scrooge in A Christmas Carol comes to live with Christmas in his heart every day of the year; we too can do that by embracing the love and new life that God offers us each day.  Love that heals, hope that builds vision, peace that comforts, and faith that guides are ours when we open ourselves to what Christ has for us and God provides to us.  This Word that became flesh, Emmanuel, God with us, is truly full of grace and truth.

But just like Mary and Joseph found it hard to claim God’s promise and new life in the face of so much danger, we too often find it difficult to claim new life in the midst of grief, worry, doubt, financial struggles, and other hardships.  We may not face the same trials as Mary and Joseph but life is still fragile and complicated by adversity.  Yet, our hope always lies in God and the promise of new life that is offered to us just as it was to Mary and Joseph.

Sisters and brothers, Advent, Christmas, and the journey to Bethlehem are times to recognize how remarkable God’s love is and the new life that can be found in Christ.  The opportunity to embrace new life, renewal, and hope are rooted in the gifts God implants within us.  God leads us through all that happens in our lives showing us ways to remember who and who’s we are.  Life in Christ can be new life each and every day, redeemed and renewed.  May we receive the love that God is pouring out and let it breathe new life into this holiday and all days.  Amen.

Peaceful Refuge

Advent 2B – sermon based upon Psalm 34:1-7, 15-22 & Luke 2:1-20

Good morning. As we continue to make our way toward Bethlehem, we are looking more deeply at some of the gifts that Advent brings. In case you missed it last week, each week in worship we are tying in the theme from the Advent devotional in a variety of ways.  The music, liturgy, and even the scriptures have been chosen to walk us through the true gifts of this season.  This past week, we've explored the gift of faith.  On this second week of Advent we're looking at the gift of peace.  And new life and love are the themes we'll connect with in the coming weeks. 

So today, we have a story of what it looks like to  have nearly everything you think could go wrong, go wrong and still it turns into the best Christmas ever... well, I guess it's the first Christmas ever.

All joking aside, it really is one of those stories that we might be tempted to rush to the happy ending and say it all worked out.  But it wasn’t easy to get to that happy ending.  A nine month expectant mother and her fiancé had to take a dangerous trip because the government needed to tax them.  Upon arrival, there wasn’t room for them in the inn nor did they have the money for a nicer place.  We can assume they didn’t have family in the area either.   They were all alone and in a bind.  But they found refuge in a barn and in the end discovered blessings and a peace they could have never imagined.

Most of us are unlikely to have such an experience that is still being told over 2000 years later but it is much like many experiences we have all had.  For example, on the way to what was supposed to be a special dinner out for my grandmother’s 75th birthday, we got a flat tire.  Then, I stained my shirt changing the tire. At this point we’re running late and if you knew my grandmother, you’d know that punctuality is next to Godliness.  By the time we got to the restaurant, we were so late they gave away our reservations.  So, we walk down the road to a greasy spoon diner because it's the only place without a wait and we're tired and hungry and cranky by this point so we go in. 

Once inside, we meet a server who smiles and treats us like family.  She brings us coffee without asking because she can see we're cold.  She tells the soup is no good but the meatloaf is outstanding.  And it turns into an evening of comfort and refuge in an unlikely place.

That is a true story and I can tell you lots of others.  In my work at the hospital, I meet people all the time who think the worst thing that could ever happen to them would be for their child to be sick and in the hospital.  They cry with agony and worry about how they don't think they can handle it.  They wonder where God is and why this is happening.  They feel alone and lost in a strange place.

But if they keep their eyes open and don't succumb to the despair, what they find is people that have their best interest at heart.  They feel hands of care and concern that will hold them in the tough moments.  They experience support that comes in unexpected forms and packages.  And most importantly, they find God working in their lives, even in this unfamiliar and scary place.  I can't tell you how many families when referring to the hospital say to me something like, "This place has been the home we never expected and blessing we didn't know we needed."

Life is like that.  Just when it isn't going the way we wanted, we find that God has prepared a place for us where we least expected it.  And God is like that.  When we toil in the brokenness of the world, God reaches out making a safe harbor in humble and unexpected places. 

So, what do we make of all this?  Why is it that sometimes we find God in the dark places and sometimes we don't?  Is it that God wants to help us some of the time and other times we're on our own?  Is it that God picks and chooses on supporting us?

Well, I don't think it works that way.  From what we learn in this scripture and what I've seen working at the hospital and in my own life, I believe that God is always reaching and supporting us even if we can't always see it.   And more than that, I suspect that we would be far worse off if God weren't constantly reaching toward us to help and support us.  Oh, it’s true that sometimes we succumb to despair or become blinded by bitterness or get lost in the mire of worry so much so that we can no longer see God's work and provision for our lives.  But when we can stay open to God's work, amazing things happen.

Let’s think back on this story for a minute.  If Mary had let the worry of such a long journey overcome her, we wouldn't have such an amazing birth story.  If Joseph had let the frustration about having to travel at such an in convenient time blind him, he might have mouthed off to the inn keeper and not even gotten to use the barn.  If the shepherds had been more concerned with their own matters, they would have missed seeing the young messiah.  Things in this story weren’t going so well for them but they kept journeying forward faithfully.  And because they did, they found God’s love and provision laid out for them.

See, this journey toward Bethlehem is one of unknowns and fears like we talked about last week.  But faith is journeying forward anyway.  Yet, God gives us more than what we need for just a faithful journey.  We can find peace along the way.  We can know safe havens and helpful nurture.  We can experience God's love and work for us that is present and reaching to us even when we can't yet see or receive it.  But when we can, peaceful nights of sleep, calm in the storm, and blessings in the midst of difficulty are there for us to claim.

So how do we tap into God’s support for us when we’re just nearly so overwhelmed that we can’t take another step?  How do we keep from letting frustration about our circumstances and disappointments get the better of how we deal with it so we can be open to the peaceful refuge God has offered?  And what does that refuge even look like?

Well, just like in our biblical story and the stories I told, it requires openness on our part to believe in and see God’s blessing in the tough times.  I’m not saying that we have to just be optimistic.  Being optimistic is not always realistic.  For example, we can’t use positive thinking to take care of mortgage difficulty or brokenness in our relationships.  Optimism alone in such situations would leave us homeless and alone. 

Instead, openness to the goodness around us is more like faith than optimism.  It’s listening to that inner voice to pick up the phone and call a friend for help rather than toughing it out alone.  It’s allowing ourselves to see something differently so that we recognize the blessing instead of seeing just another obstacle.  It’s knowing that we are really not alone and that if we hold fast to what is truly important, we will find safe harbor even if it doesn’t look like what we expected. 

Sisters and brothers, the journey to Bethlehem was a tough one but God provided from them in ways they didn’t know and couldn’t expect.  Still today, God is working in our lives to help us along the way.  As we journey in faith, may we always be open to the peace and refuge that God offers regardless of what it looks like.  May we support one another to ease the burdens.  And may we truly experience God’s provision for us when we need it most.  Amen.

Onward In Faith

Advent 1B - Sermon based upon Psalm 42 & Matthew 1:18-2:12

Good morning and welcome to Advent.  This is a season of expectancy and preparation. A season of joy, hope, and promise.  And given the themes of our advent devotional and sermon series, it is also a season of faith, peace, new life, and love.

You’re going to notice a pattern in the coming weeks that lead us all the way through Christmas.  Each week’s theme that goes with the devotional is going to be lifted up in worship in multiple ways.  The devotional theme is The True Gifts of Christmas: The Journey to Bethlehem. The music, prayers, liturgy, and even scriptures will go along with the weekly theme.  Each week we'll have a Psalm that captures the emotional experience of the theme and a Gospel passage that tells the story.

But for now, we’re here on the first week of Advent.  We enter with the theme of faith and the story told in Matthew about Jesus's conception and birth.  If ever there was a story of faith in God, this is it.

Here we have a young unmarried woman who finds out she's going to have a very special baby.  The scripture tells us that her fience doesn't want to disgrace her but he's still going to “quietly dismiss her.”  After transformative encounters, they both believe in God’s will for this child move forward to have the baby. 

From the Luke story of Jesus’ birth we also know that they had to make a journey to Bethlehem for census and taxation.  That must have been horrible.  Can you imagine setting out on a donkey, a man and a 9 month pregnant woman, in a time when life was so much more treacherous than it is now?

And even after Jesus is born, King Herod sends spies so that he can plot against the young Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us.  But they too had a transformative experience rooted in joy and did the right thing to protect this child.

And our Psalm this morning is also a true story of faith.  It is about the fear and anxiety we experience when we can’t quite feel God’s closeness to us.  We want to lash out as the Psalmist does with “Why have you forgotten me?  Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”  But just as with Mary and Joseph, the Psalmist remembers “hope in God.”
These are some pretty powerful scriptures if we pause to let them capture our feelings and imagination.  So, what do they have to tell us on this first Sunday of Advent?

Well, I think one of the messages is that just because we’re journeying faithfully doesn’t mean that it’s smooth sailing.  It’s often an anxiety and fear filled path.  Even Joseph was going to leave Mary because he couldn’t understand how God’s plan for Mary included him and I imagine he felt a lot of social pressure as well.

How often are our lives like that?  Maybe it’s that we know what the right thing is to do but we feel the pressure and embarrassment of what others are saying around us.  Or sometimes it’s that we are not sure how we fit into God’s plan.  Or sometimes it’s more a feeling like the Psalmist had of wondering where God is in all this and how to remain faithful while it feels so dark.  When faced with loss, uncertainty, and other things that raise our fear level, our lives, just like Mary and Joseph’s are filled with moments that make our faithful walk forward feel more like a burdensome trudge. 

Whether it’s the journey of the PNC in search of a pastor or the daily work it takes to make relationships last, we are ALL journeying… and sometimes it’s a tough one.  But here’s where the story turns. 

God reassures Joseph of his part in all this.  Then God protects Jesus from Herod.  God even touches the wise men and they go on a different path.  Hope and joy healed them from their worries, doubt, and uncertainty.  In the case of the wise men, quite literally, the story tells us that they were overwhelmed by joy. 

I think this is the real heart of our scripture lesson for today.  We worry and struggle in uncertainty quite often. And it becomes a cycle that just gets worse if left to our own devices.  The more we worry, the more we drag ourselves down.  The more we drag ourselves down, the more we fret about digging back out of the hole of fear, grief, and depression.  The more we fret about those things, the more ashamed we feel.  And the more ashamed we feel… well, that’s just a terrible spiral downward. 

But God’s support and love for us is never wrapped up in fear or shame or overly burdensome toil.  God reaches out to us with hope and joy offering us help to put one foot in front of the other and continue our faithful journey.  That support comes in all kinds of forms.  In the case of Joseph, it came in the form of messenger from God and I imagine it also came in the form of support from people around him and most especially from Mary.  For the wise men, they found support from God to do the right thing through an intense sense of joy at the witness of a phenomenon in nature right before meeting Jesus.  And while most of us don’t have an experience of meeting and angel, I know that all of us have met messengers from God or had experiences that coincided with special event that invigorated our faith. 

See, this is what faith is about, whether it’s during the season of Advent or any other time.  We are on a journey and each and every day is another opportunity to keep moving forward toward the hope and promise of God while being open to the nurturing support God gives us.

Now, I’m not trying to make this sound easy.  I’ll give you a deeply personal example.  All my life, even as a little child, I’ve struggled with depression.  It seems to be genetic because most of my family struggles with it.  Depression has gripped me in ways that I’ve often felt forgotten by God.  The way depression chokes off the light is painful.  And after feeling the emptiness and darkness months on end, I’ve even thought that it wasn’t that God had forgotten me.  I’ve felt that God must be punishing or cursing me.  Now logically, I know that isn’t the case.  But depression is an illness that tells us lies about ourselves, others, and God.

Having struggled with this illness for most of my 37 years, I can tell you quite a few things about finding God in the darkness and what faith looks like when you barely have the energy to get out of bed.  But I can also tell you that faith cannot be stifled or destroyed by darkness, fear, worry, doubt, and uncertainty. 

Just like Mary and Joseph, I have found God’s support every step of the way.  Just when I thought I couldn’t bear the isolation any longer, God has sent messengers that reminded me who and who’s I am.  God has placed people in my life to help me when I couldn’t help myself.  When I needed a jolt to point me in the right direction, God has shown me great joy through phenomenon in nature.  God has called me forward in love all along the way. 

God’s nurturing love and my faith in that love have helped me journey forward every step of the way.  In fact, you’ve even been part of God’s work in my life.  As you know, I’m a chaplain and I work night shift at Children’s Memorial Hospital.  Working night shift is more than a choice.  It’s a metaphor for my experience with God.  Because I’ve had to work so hard to find God in the long nights of depression, I want to be part of God’s light to others in the night.  I never thought I’d work in a church because I thought my place was in the darkness.

But being here with you has shown me that God calls me into the light as well.  The way you’ve encouraged me and the relationships I’ve built here have shown me new paths in my own faith journey.  My faithful journey is not only that of holding people in the night but also that of proclaiming God’s radiance in the light and you’ve been the ones who’ve helped cultivate that in me and show me God’s way for which I’ll always be grateful.

Now I didn’t tell you all that to spew out my own story.  I told you about my journey because I believe it speaks to the struggles we’ve all had.  Advent, holidays, faith, journeys, family, church… all of these things are precious but they also stir in us anxiety and fear about the unknown.  But God is with us, each and every one of us.  God is speaking and leading and calling us every step of the way.

Sisters and brothers, as we move forward in Advent, may we have faith that God is alive and well in all areas of our lives.  Even when it feels scary or burdensome, God is with us, offering us support wrapped in love rather than fear.  Our job is to keep putting one foot in front of the other on this journey taking the next step in faith and being open to all the ways God is supporting us.  Emmanuel, God with us… We welcome you!  Amen

Reformed & Always Reforming

Ordinary 31A – sermon based upon Micah 3:5-12 and Matthew 23:1-12

Good morning.  It is good to be with you today.  I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately.  It’s hard not to. You’ve become so dear to me that you stay close to my heart.  And I note that for two reasons.  One: I believe we should all know when we’ve been valued and loved and I love and value you.  And Two: It relates to the ultimate point of today’s sermon.  That if we are living the love of God, then meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth become a way of life.

Now you may be asking how I got that conclusion from two biblical passages about leaders who abuse their power.  Well, let’s start down the trail and I promise that’s where we end.
See, today is Reformation Sunday and that’s a kind of interesting day in the church because we get to remember the past, honor change, and look to see how we’re doing today.  A quick history lesson is that around the 16th and 17th centuries the church leadership, at the time primarily Roman Catholic, had become overrun with leaders who were everything that today’s scripture in Micah and Mathew say not to be. 

They waged war against the most oppressed.  They took bribes and acted with great injustice with their power, land, and money.  They told people to follow God’s law but did as they pleased.  They put heavy burdens and cast harsh judgment upon people, displaying no concept of mercy and compassion.  They did religious activities for the purpose of being seen and honored personally.  To say that many in religious power were corrupt would be an understatement.

For example, the church would rent out its farm land at unfair prices, control what could be grown, and take more than a fair share while leaving the families that worked the farm starving.  And what’s worse, some priests would then tell families that their loved ones were spiritually condemned to hell for not giving even more to the church.  For sure the church has always had people who abused power but this was just a horrible time in the history of religion! 

So, an uprising of faithful people began and they started in separate places and pockets of just a few.  But as the movement grew and communities caught wind of the change the Spirit was blowing in and around Europe, this movement grew into what we call the Protestant Reformation.

The Protestant Reformation brought with it some key changes and some key ideas.  Part of is was a call to return to what today’s scripture says about not being in leadership roles over and above one another.  We are to be in servant roles with each other. I mean that when the bible says don’t be called a Rabbi it doesn’t mean that we are not to have specialized callings.  But it does for sure mean that no calling stands over another.  Those religious leaders that had taken advantage of others would have and could have never done that if they started from a place of knowing that they are but mere servants in the broader, more beautiful body of Christ.

Another idea of the reformation was to recognize that God’s work is alive and well and still being revealed to us.  Just as Micah proclaims that he has power and Spirit and justice and might because he possessed a living faith, we too are called to live with the movement and reflect the ongoing revelation of God in the world.

John Calvin believed that the we must have the presence of the Holy Spirit in order to approach the biblical Word of God because it is with the help of the Spirit that the Word becomes alive in our hearts and lives.  He also reminds us that Jesus Christ is the Word of God and that we live and move and thrive in this ever morphing body… full of truth in this moment and always revealing more.

From Luther and Calvin and others, some important pieces of doctrine immerged that reflected this call back to a more genuine faith.  If it is that we are servants together and that God is working in and amongst us then we must be both redeemed and still being further redeemed, meaning that God’s work is both sufficient in us and that we are called to be more.

Similarly, the near mantra of the Reformation emerged.  In Latin it was said, “Ecclesia semper reformanda est” (Latin for "the church must always be reforming") or semper reformanda, "always reforming.”  It’s not enough that we as individual people of faith grow and change.  The church, both as an institution and as a body of believers, must grow and change.  Complacency and denial of the Spirit’s guiding presence is what had brought the church to the problems it was having at the time.

So here was this uprising and it was at times violent, at times spirit filled debate, and at times exciting renewal.  It was not just about ideas and doctrine.  It was about the lived life of faith.  And while we know that the Protestant Church rose out of this movement, we should also recognize that several other meaningful changes happened in other groups of Christians as well.  The Catholic church did get the message and made some changes.  The Anabaptists, Anglicans, Puritans, and others rose out of the movement.  What could defiantly be said is that this was a time where people were in tune with the call of the Holy Spirit to not be complacent and to be open to where God led them.

So when I look back at that time, I find myself asking what was really going on in people’s lives.  What did the average day in a Christian’s life look like?  And this is where I come to the conclusion that I shared with you earlier. 

See, everyday people were building churches… not necessarily grand cathedrals but just modest churches.  They were connecting with people they would have never come in contact with before.  The walls between pastor and congregation were redefined with servant leadership in mind.  People were reading the bible in their own language for the first time in their lives.  It was amazing!

What were my words earlier?  I said that if we are living the love of God, then meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth become a way of life.  And that’s what that time looked like in the everyday lives of people.  And it’s’ also the history of the reformation and of the Presbyterian Church.  When we think we’ve got it all figured out, the Holy Spirit comes and reminds us that we are called to deeper relationships, other forms of faithful witness, and growth that reflects that love of God.  We are reformed and always reforming.  Both sanctified through God’s grace and always becoming more in the life of God’s ongoing revelation.

Do you like history?  I do.  And I’m especially fond of that history.  It’s the story of us.  And I don’t just mean this church.  I mean it’s the story of our lives.  If we are complacent and don’t listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit we fall into corrupt decay. 

Look at the global economic crisis of today.  How did that happen?  Well, it was too many political and financial leaders were abusing their power and acting unjustly.  Meanwhile, everyday folks extended unearned trust and didn’t question what was going on.  And just like Micah said, it laid to waste our land… or economy in this case.

But this isn’t just paralleled in global issues.  The Reformation is also mirrored in our private lives.  Sometimes we think we are content with our lives.  We don’t want to change.  Yes, there are some things going on like an old hurt or perhaps a relationship that is causing pain but we’d rather ignore it than do something about it.  And over time, it erodes and damages our self and ability to love even more.

You see, the Christian life is one that demands that we honor the holiness of God’s gifts in the present but also live in openness to the Spirit and where it is leading.  Reformed and always reforming.  The global economic crisis would have never happened if people had been living, as I suggested before, the love of God whereby meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth become a way of life.  And the decay and crumble of our lives would not happen either if we were living this way.

Now, a word of caution… this is a “we” thing.  I’m not saying that if someone has struggles that it is their fault for not being faithful enough.  Just as Micah and Matthew both reinforced, we are in community, bound together.  My struggles represent my difficulties but my struggles equally represent the failure on the part of others to respond and support me in healing relationships.

For example, the person mired in grief or bound by a history of abuse defiantly has a responsibility to reach toward and receive the love and healing of God.  But we each also have a responsibility to reach back to them and do the same whereby meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth are reflected in our way of life. 

And this is where we find ourselves today.  Economically, we are in a very anxiety and fear filled time.  The church, both locally and universally, is also having painful struggles that represent the push and pull between being reformed and continuing our work of reforming.  Our lives are places where injustice, pain, complacency, and fear gain too much power over us and abuse us.  It would be easy to feel like this is a pretty dark place.

But there is another motto of the Reformation that applies here.  In Latin it is “Post Tenebras Lux” which translated is “After darkness, light.”  At the dawn of the Reformation, people were nearly hopeless.  They were being crushed by the decay.  But light does come and God is always near.  History would tell us this was the end of the dark ages and beginning of the Reformation.  But we know it was simply being open to the Holy Spirit once again, just like Micah and Matthew call us to today.

Sisters and brothers, our calling is to embrace the love of God and the Holy in the present… to be reformed.  Our calling is also to let that love hold and open us to the Spirit who guides us into ever more meaningful relationships, God inspired changes, and love-filled growth that becomes a way of life… to be always reforming.  We need not fear this path because we are God’s and we are One in the Body of Christ.  Amen.

Building The Kingdom

Ordinary 27A – Sermon based upon Psalm 19 and Matthew 21:33-46

Good morning.  It’s good to be with you on this World Communion Sunday.  It’s a special day when we pause to recognize in gratitude all the different peoples and cultures in which Christianity and the fellowship of the table thrive.  So you might be wondering what today’s scripture message does to uphold that notion because on the surface, it just doesn’t seem to fit.

I mean here we have this story of gang like violence where the workers of a vineyard scheme against the owner, selfishly claim their own superiority, and even brutally kill the owner’s servants and son.  So what is up with this passage that it shows up in the lectionary on World Communion Sunday? 

This passage is one of those parables that stands out from Jesus’ usual teaching parables.  This parable does not use story telling to reveal something of the nature of God, as do so many others parables. One of the reasons is that rather than being aimed at the every day folks of faith, this one is aimed at the religious leaders.  So this parable that seems to have been misnamed “the parable of the wicked tenants" really should be something else. The tenants, of course, play a major role, because Jesus is pointing to the way the Pharisees have mistaken their leadership over Israel for outright ownership of Israel.  But the real focus of the parable is to clarify who Jesus is.

Now when I started writing this sermon, I thought I’d spend a lot of time talking about the history of what all the symbols mean and what it’s getting at but I’m going to do something else instead.  So, I’m going to give as quick an overview of the historical and symbolic significance and meaning as I can.  And then I’m going to move forward to something more practical.  But if you feel like you missed out on some of the nitty gritty of deciphering this passage, just ask me later and we can discuss it for hours.

So we have this cast of characters.  The tenants represent the religious leaders who are more concerned with their own wealth and status.  They want to “inherit” is rightfully Jesus’.  They are responsible for pointing Israel to God, yet they have instead pointed her to themselves. The indictment, then, is not against the people Israel per se, or even against the temple "institution," but rather against God's appointed leaders.  The slaves symbolize prophets sent by God to call the leaders back to God’s purposes.  The son represents Jesus, the son of God.  And the owner represents God. 

Well, the tenants kill the slaves and the son in an attempt to claim the inheritance from the owner.  But then the owner comes and restores the son that was previously cast off… killed.  And all of this points to how amazing the works of God are.

Who is Jesus according to this parable? He is the Son who has come to reclaim what rightfully belongs to his Father. He is the Son whose mission is violently rejected by the Father's own tenants. He is the Son whose rejection is vindicated by the Father. And he is the Son whose vindication prompts the final judgment of the unfaithful tenants.

In coming to reclaim what rightly belongs to his Father, the Son sets out to restore the world to its divinely created order. One need only look at Jesus' ministry to see what this looks like: the sick are made well, sinners are restored, and God is praised.  In short, Jesus brings wholeness to a broken world, providing glimpses into what he elsewhere calls "the kingdom of heaven."

So that is the somewhat quick overview of this passage.  But there’s a part I want to zero in on.  Verse 40 reads, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"

That’s really the million-dollar question, isn’t it? What will he do to them? What will the one in charge do to those who have blatantly, flagrantly disobeyed and violated their roles?  They’ve even committed murder.

Well, listeners said the owner should kill them all and start fresh.  But let’s go back to what all this symbolizes.  Is that what God did to the Jewish leaders?  Is that what God does to religious leaders today that go awry?  Is that how God deals with any of us in our failings? 

No it is not.  Jesus may have been pointing to himself as the savior but he was also pointing to a God that never gives up on God’s people.  This parable tells us that the son who has been killed… you know, Jesus will be restored and become the cornerstone, holding all of this together. 

God’s work is not that of smiting and smacking us down when we fail.  God’s work is that of restoring and reconciling us.  God raised up his son and restored him for the goodness and healing of creation. 

This stands in stark contrast to persons of faith in that time and still today who act with self serving intentions.  They call for judgment of those around them.  They use the failings of others to feel superior while ignoring the log in their own eye. They see control and conquest rather than reconciliation and healing.

But before we get too carried away with all these “they” do this and “they” do that’s, we need to be humble enough to see that sometimes we all fall into that kind of judgmental thinking.  We get focused on our particular ways of doing things and turn those into our standards instead of using God’s measuring stick of love and mercy.

And I think that is the real point of this parable today.  Jesus was talking to the Pharisees but if Jesus told us this parable today, and we replied with “kill the tenants,” I hope we would be able to see that the message of Jesus being a conduit for restoring the kingdom through peaceful means instead of vengeful ones would sink into our hearts and minds.  I hope we could see God’s interest in making creation whole rather than clear cutting the land.  And I hope we can receive the healing of that part in us that calls for retaliation so that we can be co-creators with God in building the Kingdom.

So here we are.  It’s World Communion Sunday where we celebrate the way God has reached out with wide arms to the world.  We collect the Peacemaking offering that goes to programs both near and far that work to be beacons of God’s peace, love, and mercy.  And even if those things weren’t going on, we ourselves need a good bit of God’s love and mercy rather than the judgment and shame we so often heap upon ourselves and one another. 

Sisters and brothers, we’ve gone all the way from a bizarre parable of gang like violence to God’s message that healing comes through the peaceful and loving reconciliation through Christ.  That’s one wild journey.  But I think it mirrors our own experience.  We have no trouble imaging the violence but we have trouble making the leap to peaceful healing.  But that is the point. We don’t have to make the jump.  Christ made the leap for us.  And thanks be to God for that. 

Our charge is to be humble and open to God’s work of healing and reconciliation. May we be every willing to be part of the Kingdom God is building with us.  Amen.