7 Epiphany Yr C Feb 24 2019

Audio  7 Epiphany Yr C Feb 24 2019

Genesis 45:3-11, 15, 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50, Luke 6:27-38, Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42

The kingdom that Jesus preached and lived was all about a glorious, uproarious, absurd, generosity. Think about the best thing you can do for the worst person and go ahead and do it. That’s what this continuation of the Sermon on the Plain is all about. We remember what comes immediately before the passage we just heard, we call that the Beatitudes, and we heard all about that last week. This continues Jesus painting the picture of what God’s absurdly abundant love looks like.

The trouble in the text is that it can’t be true. Love your enemies? Do good to people who hate you? Bless people who curse you? Pray for people who treat you badly? If someone hits you on the cheek offer him the other cheek? If someone takes away your coat don’t stop them from taking your shirt?

That is not the way the world works. That is not the way business works, or government. And why would we want it to be that way anyway. Who cares about enemies, who cares about people who hate you, or give you a raw deal, or curse you. Who cares about the people who treat you badly, you want them out of your life! Who cares? This is the cause and effect world we live in. Love deserves love, hate deserves hate, deeds both good and bad should be repaid in kind, force must be returned with force, violence begets violence, and so on and so on. It seems that many people are involved in the unholy work of ripping and shredding our social fabric, through dehumanizing language, racial prejudice, misogyny, and exclusion. Sound bites lead news stories that heap judgment upon judgment, and unless we question, research, and educate ourselves, we are lead to believe that what we read is all fake news anyway. 

But the kingdom that Jesus preached and lived was all about a glorious, uproarious, absurd, generosity. That is the good news that we hear in Luke, even though it makes no sense. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Is this a command or a promise? If it’s a command then it is just one more thing someone has told us and that we’ll be held accountable for and then we’ll likely continue to live in fear and, while we may behave a little better, at least when someone’s watching, ultimately be no different.

But if it’s a promise, then we might just imagine that there is another way, a way of love, available to us at this very moment, and see each other as gifts of God and experience the transformation Jesus offers. I believe this is the case, and that other world, that kingdom, that way of love, is right here in front of us, right here for us to participate in.

Because Love itself, when you think about it, makes no sense in a kind of mechanistic view of the universe, or a transactional way to interact. For love, defined most simply, is seeking the good of another above your own. Love is not a means to an end, it is an end unto itself which, in turn, creates morality and justice and all the rest of the things we strive for yet fail to find or manifest without love. Love is not about how you feel, it is about what you do.

So we are about the holy work of love. And this kind of work is about building relationships. If people in our community and in our neighborhood are about the unholy work of ripping and shredding our social fabric through dehumanizing language, racial prejudice, misogyny, and exclusion, then we must be about the holy work of building relationships.

And the good news is that is possible because of God’s absurdly abundant love. It is possible because each and every one of us is created in God’s image, each and every one of us has the mark of God’s love upon us. Even those who don’t know it; even those who would not do to others as you would have them do to you. The holy work of love is possible because Jesus is showing us how. Do not judge. Forgive.

And ultimately the place where Jesus shows us about judging and forgiving is on the cross. Jesus says from the cross, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing. It is in that horrifying moment, it is in that place of death, that love wins.

I am reminded of the story of Ruby Bridges. In 1960, young Ruby was six years old, and one of the first children to be bused to an all white school to begin the process of integrating people whose skin colors where different. Ruby was called names, and some wanted to hurt her. Ruby was accompanied by federal marshals to protect her. She would stop on her way to school and on her way home each day to pray, “Please, God, try to forgive those people. Because even if they say those bad things, they don’t know what they’re doing. So you could forgive them. Just like you did those folds a long time ago when they said terrible things about you.”

The kingdom that Jesus preached and lived and died for is all about a glorious, uproarious, absurd, generosity. A generosity that includes all who are created in God’s image, all of God’s beloveds. An absurdly abundant love that includes all and forgives all, loves all. Let us pray it is so. Amen.

6 Epiphany Yr C Feb 17 2019

Audio  6 Epiphany Yr C Feb 17 2019 Jeremiah 17:5-10, 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, Luke 6:17-26, Psalm 1

You just heard Deacon Doug read this passage from Luke, that we often call the Beatitudes. I want you to hear it again, this translation is from N.T. Wright, who is the former bishop of Durham, in the UK.

Blessings on the poor: God’s kingdom belongs to you!

Blessings on those who are hungry today: you’ll have a feast!

Blessings on those who weep today: you’ll be laughing!

Blessings on you, when people hate you, and shut you out,

But woe betide you rich: you’ve had your comfort!

Woe betide you if you’re full today: you’ll go hungry!

Woe betide you if you’re laughing today: you’ll be mourning and weeping!

Woe betide you when everyone speaks well of you: that’s what your ancestors did to the false prophets.

The trouble with this text is that it is hard for us to hear. It is hard for us, who are not really very poor, who are not usually hungry. We don’t really know what to do with it. And Luke’s version has these woe statements. Matthew, the other gospel writer who included the Beatitudes in Jesus’ sermon on the mount, didn’t do that. We hear the sharp edges of these woes and wonder where we find ourselves in this sermon of Jesus’.

I remember sermons that tried to teach me about Be-attitudes. You know the ones, where we learned that these are all about having the proper attitude toward the challenges in our lives. If you just have the right attitude or do it the right way you can overcome the obstacles in your path.

I’m not sure that’s the correct approach, I think that misses out on the incredible grace these blessings offer, and the corrective the woes offer. The word itself, blessed or blessing, could be translated happy or fortunate, and has been so in many of the bibles we read. But even happy or fortunate does not come close to depth of meaning of blessed. Happy is a great word, a great way to be, but being happy is really up to me, isn’t it? It is much like having a good attitude. Fortunate is a word that makes me think of lucky, as in, “I was lucky that car didn’t hit me!” and maybe a bit capricious or arbitrary.

Blessed and blessing is not capricious or arbitrary. Being blessed is not a result of a transaction with God. Blessed is who you are. Blessed is who you are created to be. Blessed is connection and relationship. We are blessed, we are related, we are known. And that blessing is for all of us. Every part of God’s creation is blessed, the whole of God’s creation is blessed. That’s the point in the first chapter of Genesis, God created and God blessed. God creates and God blesses.

So when I hear these blessing that are beatitudes, what I hear is blessings on you, all of you, even the poor, who society shuts out. Blessings on all of you, even you hungry people, yes even you, you people who are excluded from the finer dining establishments, you who are excluded from getting jobs that pay a living wage, even you are blessed. Blessings on you people who weep, even you, blessings on you when you close yourself off in your home and cry, thinking that no one wants to hear you. Blessings on your tears when you think no one can see you. Blessings on your broken heart. And blessings on you, even when you stand up for what is right, blessings on you when you stand for justice and peace, blessings on you who preach with your lives that God loves all of creation and weeps when this earth is mistreated. Blessings on all of you.

And in this gospel, blessings bestowed on all of God’s creation, even on those who society has forgotten, or turned out, turn into anguish and grief for those who misuse wealth, money, and power. Woe betide you, aren’t those great words? This is not simply do or do not. Because it is not a transaction. This is a call to deep transformation, not just to doing good, no matter how good that is. It is a call to us who are blessed, to all of us, to participate with God in the healing of our planet, in the healing of our nation, in the healing of our hearts.

You see, this is the sermon on the plain. In Luke’s good news, Jesus stands shoulder to shoulder, side by side, with the people who gather to hear him. In Luke’s good news, remember, at the very beginning, we hear Mary sing,
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children for ever.”

The words that Mary sings as she learns of her child, and this sermon that Jesus delivers in this field, form the foundation for Jesus’ teaching in this gospel according to Luke. For Jesus this life is not about what you have and who you are, this life is about empowering those without power. This life is about raising up those who have been cast out. This life is about filling the hungry with good things.

This life is about standing together when our hearts are broken, and being filled with the only thing that can put us back together again, Jesus. This life is about loving no matter what, even when it seems absolutely impossible to love.

Jesus’ very life and death and resurrection shows that. On the cross, in the midst of the pain and anguish, Jesus gives his life, and Jesus forgives those who hate. Blessed are those who forgive when it is easier to hate. Blessed are those who love when it is so very hard to love. The good news of this sermon on the plain is that Jesus stands with us, all of us. Jesus stands with those who are hungry, those who are grieving, those who downtrodden. And we are all joined on this plain because we are all in need. And, through our need, by God’s favor for us and all who are in need. “Jesus’ came down with them and stood on a level place, so that we might, too. So that we may be blessed to be a blessing.

Blessings on you today and always. Amen.

5 Epiphany Yr C Feb 10 2019

Dad on his fishing boat

Audio  5 Epiphany Yr C Feb 10 2019 

Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13], 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11, Psalm 138

My dad loved to fish. I remember being very small out in the boat with him holding my fishing pole. I don’t remember catching anything, which I think was a good thing because I really didn’t like the worms or the fish. But I’d sit with him in the boat, for hours. Years later my dad finally built his lake cabin, out of concrete blocks of course, because he was a block layer, and he loved fishing in the summer and ice fishing in the winter. In his later years it was catch and release, but I don’t recall too many fish either way. For my dad, fishin was always more about recognizing the wonder of the lake, the cool breeze in the summer, the amazing trees forming the cathedral that is the shore of the lake, and the eerie and beautiful call of the loon.

This fishing story we hear today is about that same kind of recognition and amazement, as much as it is about fish. I think it is about recognizing Jesus and then following. The setting is out beside the lake, where there was a huge crowd that had gathered to listen to Jesus teach, it was such a huge crowd it was pressing in on him. It’s in the morning, the fisherman had come in for the day, after having fished all night, that’s the way fishermen did it on the lake of Gennesaret, they could get their biggest catch in the night. They were cleaning up, washing and repairing their nets. Jesus needed some relief from the crowds, so he asked Simon Peter if he could get into one of the boats and do some teaching from out in the water. When he was finished teaching, he told Simon Peter, the captain of the fishing boat, to put out into deep water and let down his nets.

This is where the story gets quite interesting. Jesus, who is the son of a carpenter, and who we assume to be a carpenter himself, is telling Simon Peter, a well seasoned fishing boat captain, how to do his job. Jesus is like a city boy telling a farmer how to farm. Jesus is absolutely out of his element, he has no fishing credentials. Simon Peter told him that they had been out all night and hadn’t caught anything. But, Simon Peter conceded, and put the nets out one more time. And when they put their nets out, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. And then, Simon Peter, the fishing boat captain, the big fish if you will, drops down at Jesus’ knees, and confesses, right there in front of his whole crew, he acknowledges Jesus as Lord. And everyone was amazed.

And Jesus tells those fisherpeople not to be afraid, from now on they will be fishing for people, not fish. How stupid is that. Fishing for people sure won’t pay the bills. So what is this story about? It’s not about how to pay the bills. Simon Peter, James and John, and all the others left the catch of their lives, what they caught that morning probably would have kept them all in food, clothes, and new sandals for the foreseeable future.

Simon Peter recognized that day something amazing. He recognized Jesus. Simon Peter recognized Jesus and was willing to leave life as he knew it, life that was probably not cushy, but comfortable, for something that was completely unknown, for something that would scare him to death.

Jesus introduced to them that day a new way, a new economy if you will. So what does that have to do with us, we’re not fisher people.

You see, we live in an absurdly abundant world. A world where worldly success rests in our power to choose and our power to get. Our world is about an economy of getting, having, possessing. But Jesus’ economy costs us everything. After an absurdly abundant catch that Simon Peter, James and John and the others made that day, what on earth would make them pull their fishing boats up on the beach, leave them, and follow this prophet, this Jesus, the one who ate with sinners and women, the one who healed anyone, Jews and Greeks alike, the one who would be tortured and put to death. Wouldn’t they say, wouldn’t you say, do it again? Just do it again Jesus, we can all be rich. But instead, Simon Peter recognizes Jesus, and falls on his knees. And Jesus responds to Simon Peter and the rest with the call to bring in people, not fish. In the midst of the abundance, in the midst of this new wealth, they turn to follow Jesus and the new economy that he has for them.

What on earth would make anyone of us say yes to Jesus’ call of a new life, a new economy? In the midst of the absurdly abundant life many of us live, how do we recognize Jesus in our midst? People who recognize Jesus are not necessarily holy people, just ordinary people, we are ordinary fisher people and wives and mothers, fathers and children, youth and elders.

Recognizing Jesus in our midst is the call to be fishers of people. Recognizing Jesus is recognizing the truth that God loves us so much, God came into this world as one of us, so that we may love God and one another. God’s love is absurdly abundant. God’s love washes over us, as do the waters of baptism. God’s love nourishes us, as does the bread we break each time we meet together. God’s love is absurdly abundant, as the fish that were caught that day in the boat. How can we not be fishers of people, how can we not spread the Good News, when we know this truth.

But following Jesus is costly. Being fishers of people is to speak, and live, and behave in ways that Jesus in our midst is evident. It is to be with the other, as grace and gift and wonder.

It is to go to the grocery store and give thanks for the opportunity to choose, and it is to choose to fill the food bin at church each Sunday. It is to give thanks for the opportunity to be able to afford to buy food, and it is to advocate for those who cannot.

It is to go shopping and give thanks for the opportunity to choose, and to choose to dress modestly in fashion and in price, and it is to give a pair of shoes away for each pair of shoes we have sitting in our closets. It is to work for fair wages for those who make shoes.

It is to give thanks for the opportunity to learn each day, to go to school or work each day, and it is to approach those who are different than us with love and respect. It is to stand up for those who are teased or mistreated. We live in an absurdly abundant world. A world in which all that we have, and all that we are is bestowed upon us by an absurdly abundant God. Thanks be to God.

4 Epiphany Yr C Feb 3 2019

Audio  4 Epiphany Yr C Feb 3 2019
Jeremiah 1:4-10, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 4:21-30, Psalm 71:1-6

On a Saturday afternoon, when I was in elementary school, all of us would load up the yellow school buses, our moms and maybe our dads, and all the kids, would head downtown Minneapolis for the Shrine Circus. What an adventure, people squished together to get in, people squished together in their seats. The smell of cotton candy wafting through the air, hot dogs, and cracker jacks. All of those light up whirring toys tempting us, calling to us, and our moms saying no. At least my mom saying no. But it's the trapeze that I am imagining today. The men and women climbing all the way to the top of the big top, swinging the swings back and forth. One person on each swing, swinging back and forth. And then the flyer, hands clasped to the swinger, swings back and forth, until it's time to let go and fly. That's it, right there, flying through the air, exhilarating and frightening all at the same time. 

That's the place Jesus puts us. That's where this story puts us. It continues the story we began to hear last week, Jesus takes up the scroll in his neighborhood synagogue, the place he grew up, the place he crawled around on the floor as a kid, the place he played with his friends, the place he learned to read. His friends and his parent's friends in the synagogue were thinking, this is Joseph's son, isn't he a nice boy. And he knows his Bible so well. 

And then as Jesus is reading from the prophet Isaiah, he claims that he himself is in the line of the prophets. He is a prophet like Elija and Elisha. And just like that the story takes a dramatic shift. The story had always been told about events in the future, the messiah will come, the messiah will be a political event, and all of a sudden the tense changes from Messiah's fulfillment in the future, to now, this is happening now. It gets really tense. And it surely doesn't look anything like any of them had imagined. 

And that's where we are, like the trapeze flyer, we have left one swing behind, and have not yet grasped the other one. We live in this place of exhilaration and fright all at one time. We live in this presence that Jesus gives us. The past has been, the future is yet, and Jesus pulls us squarely into the present, and claims that God's love and grace are available to you right here and right now. Not only is it available to you, it is available to everyone, God's love knows no bounds.

And the reading from first Corinthians shows us what we are doing while we are flying. We are loving. And if we are not loving, we are falling. 

The good news though, might actually be about the net, the net that is always there under those flyers. Now, you may think the net is there to catch you when you miss the connection, and that is helpful. But I would suggest it's even more than that. I suggest the net is there to make us bold and courageous. Without the net we tend to be timid, and you can't be timid and fly, the net helps us to love boldly and courageously. The net helps us to let go and live the life of love that Jesus invites us to live, not in the past, not in the future, but right now. 

Love is patient and kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Love wins. 

And the net reminds us there is a cost to flying, there is a cost to following Jesus. Because the Word of God is for all people including the poor and the oppressed, the outcast and the sinner, those we love and those we hate, you and me, the Word of God threatened and continues to threaten those who are in positions of power. Jesus tells stories that show God’s grace, available to all, not to just some. Like rain, God's grace falls touching all – Gentiles as well as Jews, insiders as well as outsiders. To speak and act in God’s name sets one apart, and sets one up for ridicule, sets one up to be thrown over the cliff.

And the net also reminds us that forgiveness is about living boldly and courageously. Loving, loving as first Corinthians encourages us to love, does not mean that we get it perfect or even right. But not loving, not even trying, is to not even live at all. We may miss our mark, but you can't miss if you don't fly, you can't miss if you don't Love. The net reminds us that when we miss, God's forgiveness and grace is there to catch us. 

When they realized what Jesus was saying, they got angry, is this not just Joseph's son? Who does he think he is? They led him to the cliff so that they could hurl him off. Now, in the movies what would be really exciting is the hero hurled off the cliff, and somehow he flies, or is rescued with a lot of special effects. But Jesus doesn't get rescued in a dramatic sort of way, instead, he passes through the midst of them and goes on his way. And that too is bold and courageous.

Jesus is in our midst, Jesus is fully and completely present with us. Jesus didn't get somehow whisked off the cliff, and Jesus doesn't get whisked off the cross. That's not the way the story goes. After some pain and suffering, Jesus dies on the cross. Pain and suffering are a part of living and loving. The new life that is offered goes through the cross, not around it, and Jesus is not magically whisked off of it or out of it. 

Nor are we. We might fall or fail when we are living and loving boldly and courageously, and as we hit the net there's nothing that guarantees that we don't get hurt, it may even kill us. But that's not the end of the story, because you and I know that Love wins.

The claim that Jesus makes, that God's kingdom is fulfilled in the present, in our presence, is transformational. We are partners with Jesus in kingdom building, and we have our roadmap in Corinthians, "And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love." And as partners with Jesus we love boldly and courageously. We remember that love is not a way we feel, but that love is what we do. It seems to me, in these days, loving boldly and courageously is hard work. But we've already acknowledged there's no guarantee for easy. This call is to live and do mercy, compassion, and justice. There is so much injustice happening in the world around us. God's love calls us to do it differently. And God's love helps us to fly. Let's fly together. Amen.