February 23, 2025, Meetinghouse Church, God’s Amazing Grace, Jonah 3:1-10, Luke 15:11-24

February 23, 2025, Meetinghouse Church, Rev. Dr. Kathy Monson Lutes

God’s Amazing Grace, Jonah 3:1-10, Luke 15:11-24

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable to you,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

What a story Jonah tells us. A storm, a big fish, and as Christian reminded us last week, a city of truly horrible people, all in our bible, our sacred scripture. And we just heard Lisa read, God saw the Ninevites’ efforts to renounce their evil behavior. And God relented, God relented. Well, that sure made Jonah mad. It’s hardly believable, most of us are with Jonah on this one. How could God relent? They were monsters, and monsters have no place in God’s kingdom, right? 

Monsters. We have so much trouble with this. How can God relent, and not punish those who are monsters? We see it all the time in our news delivered to our inboxes. Monsters who we want to see punished for what they’ve done, those who gun down innocent people, those who kidnap and torture, those who put people who are “other” into detainment camps. These are people and regimes to be feared, and they should be punished, never to be granted compassion or mercy. Isn’t that what justice is all about? 

Or the ones who have lived a life of causing misery for others, the ones who have done unspeakable harm to others, the ones who have never said or been sorry in their entire life, they surely do not deserve forgiveness, or mercy. Or how about the one who just disagrees with us? That person who can’t see it your way? 

Again, as Christian reminded us last week, Jonah needs to be reminded who the God of Israel is. We need to be reminded who God is. God doesn’t act like an expected vengeful, punishing God. Instead, this God relents. Again and again the Old Testament witnesses to the fact that God is responsive to God’s creatures. As people change, as history develops, God is responsive to what is happening. God’s will is to save God’s people. God will always act in ways that bring God’s people back to Godself. God’s dream is to bring all creation to Godself, Ninevites, Israel, Jonah, you, me. Even when repentance doesn’t look like what we expect it to look like. This is a story about that God. This is a story about the God of love, the God of wholeness, the God who desires us to be in relationship with God, with creation, with one another. 

This is not a story about vengeance or punishment, but instead, God shows forth God’s amazing love and grace. 

And then, to make love, and mercy, and grace, even more clear, God takes on our skin, God shows up. God walks, laughs, and even dies among us. God breaks through our lives, our experience, the holy stoops into our lives and meets us in our ordinary places. Jesus takes it all to himself, binding us to God's presence in all times and all places. Jesus bears God's life into our world. 

Where does the holy meet you? Around your kitchen table, as you grab one moment for all of you to be together in the midst of your busy and distracted lives. In the hospital room at the birth of a child. Falling in love. A quiet night at home with your beloveds. In the deep grief of the death of one you love. In joy and companionship. The veil between us and the holy is lifted, God takes on our skin, and we, every one of us, monsters included, are part of God’s kindom. 

This incarnation is so important Jesus can’t stop talking about it. Consider a shepherd who leaves his sheep to find the one that is lost, and when that sheep is found, he lays it over his shoulders and rejoices. Or a woman who has lost a coin, she lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches carefully until she finds it. And when she does, she calls together her friends and neighbors to rejoice.

Or the  man who has two sons. One of those sons demands his inheritance and runs off with it only to squander it all on debauchery and loose living. This son realizes his folly and returns home. While he is still far off, his father sees him and is filled with compassion. His father orders a party, a celebration, because the son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. 

Does not God rejoice with the Ninevites, does not God rejoice with you and me, we have been lost, and we are found. We have so much trouble with this grace. Whether we identify with the older or the younger son, we have trouble accepting the grace freely given. It’s the same for the Ninevites as for us. Grace is not earned, but freely given. Grace is forgiving and nourishing.

We often have trouble accepting the intimacy of love no matter what, from this God who is willing to bring those nasty Ninevites back into Godself, or to run out into the field to welcome us home. But we forget that this is a God who freely chooses us. God continually chooses God’s people even when we have apparently wandered far away.

There is nothing we can do that will keep us from God’s embrace, from God’s love, from God’s grace. And yet, we are so good at keeping our gaze away from all of that. Repent means to turn around, so maybe sin is when we turn away from God, sin is when we set our sights on that which is not God, sin is when we fool ourselves into believing that God does not care. God cares, God loves, God embraces, all we have to do is turn around and let the embrace enfold us.

Have you ever felt like that one who is lost? Have you ever wandered, wondered, if you would ever be found again, scooped up in the arms of anyone who loves you? You may know what that embrace feels like. But maybe not, maybe that return and embrace is yet to come. The one who waits, the shepherd, Jesus, anticipates your return.

The joy of the one who welcomes back the lost, and the celebration that ensues, shows us what the Kingdom of God looks like. It includes the outcasts and sinners, it includes the expanse of time and space. It includes the fellowship we have around our kitchen tables, our communion tables, and our soup kitchen tables. It includes even the one who would rather not be included.

I’m reminded of a movie I watched with my kids, over and over. Hook, with Robin Williams, the kingdom table is piled high with all the wild and wonderful things that can be imagined. And the people sitting at that table, are lost boys, battered, bruised, lost, and found.

God’s kingdom table is populated with all those who have turned from God and returned to God. God’s kingdom table is populated with all those younger children who have been reckless, and all those older children who have been loyal. God’s kingdom table is populated with all those who stand on the margins and look in, and those in the center whose gaze is nearsighted. God’s kingdom table is populated with those who wish to be first, and those who are always last. God’s kingdom table is populated with all of us who are scooped up by the joyful, compassionate one, and ride on those shoulders all the way to the celebration. 

And what’s so very difficult about it is that most of the time we are pointing in the approximate direction, not the opposite direction, but almost the direction of God. We are full of good intentions. You know what this is like, But the reality is that we are human, and we will continue to make mistakes, we will continue to suffer the consequences of our decisions to turn away from God. We will continue to miss the mark. The Good News is that in the midst of our mess, God never gives up on us, God never gives up on us, God takes us back, even when we give up on ourselves, even when we give up on each other.

God’s love is available to all, even those who don’t look like us, act like us, sing like us, pray like us. Our job as followers of Jesus is to go out and be God’s light and life in the world. Our job as followers of Jesus is to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God’s amazing and abundant love. We must carry into the world God’s love and the reality of God’s forgiveness; we must show that no one is ever outside of God’s embrace.

And, we may invite them to the party. We may invite them to this place where we gather together to celebrate God with us, where we are made into God’s body as we pray together, as we hear the word together, as we turn our sights back toward God, as we stand side by side and receive the gift of bread and wine, the gift of life, and are transformed into the people God creates us to be.

I think these stories from the bible that we hear today, and all that Jesus says and does, asks us to consider what kind of party we throw and who is really welcome at the banquet. 

And what kind of people God calls us to be. Not only are we people who are God’s beloveds, we are people who bring our tarnished, messy, forgiven selves into this place of worship.  We are called to welcome all 

Beloved God,

you love us even when we don’t deserve to be loved;

you extend your grace even when we cannot see clearly enough 

to be full of grace ourselves;

you put on our skin so that we may follow you.

Forgive us

when it seems we have done the unforgivable.

Forgive us 

when we look with disdain at those who can’t possibly be forgiven.

Help us

turn our eyes, and our hearts to you.

Help us

reach out to your beloveds, those who sit with us in these pews (seats) 

and those who are not yet in these pews (seats) 

and show forth your love, and mercy, and compassion.

Oh God of grace, 

we pray this in your most holy name.

Amen. 

 

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 14 Aug 8 2021

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 14 Aug 8 2021

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33, Psalm 130, Ephesians 4:25-5:2, John 6:35, 41-51

 

This portion of the Bread of Life discourse reminds me of some of the rhetoric that is carried on in some circles today. Who do we listen to? The experts, or sketchy shared stories on Facebook? That rhetoric has diminished some experts that we really need to listen to. I’m not saying we always defer to experts, that would disempower those of us who write, or sing, or dance just for fun. But in many things, it is important to listen to the experts. 

 

Jesus is the expert here, and Jesus says, I am the bread of life that came down from heaven. Jesus then says, do not complain among yourselves, the father draws you through love, and I will raise that person up on the last day. The people in this story want to diminish Jesus, “isn’t he just Joseph’s and Mary’s son? We know them, they live here in the neighborhood, Jesus can’t be who he claims to be.” But over and over Jesus continues to point them to the truth. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” Jesus reminds them of the manna their forebears ate in the wilderness, Jesus reminds them that that nourishment came from God. And Jesus shows them that now, Jesus is making a direct connection between himself and God. 

 

Let’s take a look. Listen again to verse 35, where we begin today and where we ended last week. Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” As you hear this what you might be reminded of is Jesus and the woman at the well. In that story Jesus says, “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Jesus is building, bread crumb by bread crumb, the truth that he is this living water, this bread of life. Jesus is the source of this abundance. Jesus is I AM, God in our midst. No one has ever seen God, except for the Son. Jesus is saying “in me you see God.” What John the gospel writer does is to heap grace upon grace as the disciples and us are led to the place where deep in our hearts and souls we take Jesus in.

 

But the disciples see but do not trust. They are not unlike those Facebook posters who ignore the science in favor of what the guy down the street or Aunt Harriet has to say. And the people begin to complain, just like the wilderness wanderers complained that they were hungry, and the food God gave them wasn’t good enough. Jesus is trying to move the disciples, and the onlookers, and you and me deeper into the reality that is abundantly offered, because in this relationship with Jesus there is eternal life, salvation, belief, love, grace. 

 

We often define “eternal life” as our future resurrected life in heaven with God but in John, Jesus is clear that eternal life is abundant life with him here and now. Eternal life is not a postponed existence after we die but meant to be experienced in the present. Because eternal life is a relationship with Jesus now, salvation is also a present reality. Salvation, or “being saved”, simply means an intimate relationship with God and Jesus. Eternal life = salvation = belief. And when Jesus says I am the “bread from heaven,” heaven is then given to us. For Jesus in John, heaven is not a place, but a person. 

 

So you see, this is all about how we live our lives today in response to this amazing gift of love, this grace upon grace, this abundance. And what does that look like? 

 

It looks like love. Because love is not something that we feel all mushy about, love is who God is and what God does. It is for love that God, who creates all that is seen and unseen, God who creates the cosmos, comes into our world, to walk this path with us, to show us the way, to carry us when we cannot walk it our selves.

 

 

And how does God carry us? In love, through you. You are God’s hands and feet, you are God’s love in this world. You and you and you, all of us, this community of faith that comes together to pray, to eat bread and drink wine, to share meals, and tears, heartache and joy, and who is sent out into the world to do what we are called to do.

 

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we hear that call as clearly as we’ve ever heard it. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

 

This bread of life is Jesus’ body and feeds us. This bread of life is Jesus’ body that is broken for us, so that the bits and pieces of our brokenness may be put back together. Believe it, Jesus says. Live it, Jesus says. And Love. For Love is the recognition of the truth that we are neighbors. The Love we show is the recognition of the truth that as bad as we think we can get, God’s grace upon grace can embrace us anyway.

 

God’s promise of forgiveness and acceptance, of wholeness and of life, is given to each of us in a form we not only can hear, but also see, taste, touch, and feel. And so the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, bid us to raise our eyes from the confusion and ambiguity of life for a moment, so that we may receive God’s grace upon grace, God’s abundance, and return to our lives in this confusing world with courage and hope.

 

But don’t wait, don’t wait until the time is right, or until you have more or know more, eternal life is now. Don’t wait, until tomorrow or the next day, loving your neighbor is now. Don’t wait, until the world is a better place, make it so today.

 

This is the bread of life, broken for you. Thanks be to God.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 13 August 1 2021

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 13 August 1 2021

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a, Psalm 51:1-13, Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:24-35

 

The fragrant smell of fresh bread is one of my fondest memories from my childhood. When I would enter my house after walking home from school, my mom would have fresh bread ready for an after-school snack. We’d smother it in butter and eat a whole loaf. My memory of that is infused with love and abundance. A mother who was home when I got home from school, fresh bread, brothers and sisters, time to play outside. It was grace upon grace, it was absolute and abundant love. There was no question about my place in my family, even with eight kids I always knew I was loved. This remains one of my most grace filled memories. Today families are made up of all shapes and sizes, with constellations of people who care for children, grammas and grampas, other family members, day cares and clubs, all with the same ability to show children they are loved abundantly.

 

Beginning last week and for the next four weeks we will be reading through the Bread of Life Discourse in John’s gospel, the entire sixth chapter. In these seventy-one verses, John’s themes of grace upon grace, and God’s abundance are mixed in and rise to offer us the fragrant gift of eternal life. 

 

In these next few weeks, I encourage you to read all of John, and most especially this sixth chapter. And, I encourage you to attend Friday morning Bible Study. We’re recording the discussion, so you can listen to it with a click from our website. 

 

But even my experience of love and grace and abundance, pales in comparison to what John is doing in the gospel and in this sixth chapter specifically. John gives us Jesus, who offers the disciples, and you and I, an invitation into a deep, deep, relationship. Jesus reveals more and more of who he is, the bread of life. 

 

Today John offers us the bread of life that fills us, and sustains us, in Jesus whose relationship with us heals us. 

 

We wander around trying to fill up on that which cannot fill us, that which cannot sustain us, that which cannot seep into the cracks of our broken hearts. We look for something that we believe will make us happy and successful. And we come here, looking for something, maybe not quite sure what it is. What we get is Jesus. Jesus is the food that fills us, Jesus is the blood that seeps into the cracks of our hearts and souls and makes us whole. Come and I will feed you. Come, and you will never be hungry or thirsty again. When you eat this bread and drink this wine, you will be healed, you are a new creation, your hunger will be satisfied. That is what the gospel writer John means when he refers to eternal life.

 

The feeding of the five thousand, last week’s reading and the beginning of this Bread of Life discourse, was a massive picnic in the wilderness. Today we hear Jesus say to those who, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Often, those who followed Jesus were confused, they misunderstood. They cannot see beyond the sign to Jesus, whom they have already received. Not only is the bread Jesus' body, but it is manna from heaven, the bread of angels. The wine is not just Jesus' blood, but the free-flowing drink at the messianic feast, the substance of joy. It will fill you up, like nothing else can.

 

A loaf of bread is as practical as it is mysterious. It will fill our hunger in so many ways. And as we partake of the bread we become the body, the body of Christ. We become a new creation, we are made whole. We become a community of faith. We are healed, we are put back together, we are re-membered.

 

As we take the bread into our bodies, and as we are healed, we are formed as followers of Jesus. We come here, finally again, and we take into our bodies the bread of life, we ingest the Word over and over again. Jesus seeps into our very being and fills the cracks and fissures. In this practice, we become the people of God, we become who God creates us to be, who God dreams we can be. Part of the mystery is that the loaf of bread teaches us who we are as well as transforms us into whom we may be. Our practice and prayer surround the loaf of bread with word and action.

 

As we take the bread into our bodies we become followers of Jesus, and as followers of Jesus we embody God's promise and reconciliation in the world. That is our mission. What does God call us to do? God calls us to embody healing and reconciliation in the world. We are a holy community, sanctified by the presence and Spirit of God, sharing the Lord's meal, and as a holy community, God works through us ordinary people, to do extraordinary things.

 

We are a witness to the world of an alternate way of living. We are followers of Jesus, we are the Jesus movement. In the world, the strongest wins, the one who has the most wins, in the Jesus movement, Love wins. In the world the powerful, the well-known, the stars, get the attention, in the Jesus movement, the first will be last, and the last will be first. Our identity as followers of Jesus is found in participating in God's life and love for the world, in creating Jesus' community wherever we find ourselves. We care for our own members, and we love our neighbors the same way God loves us in Jesus. We go into the world bearing a spirit of humility, compassion, and mercy, and we bring Jesus' healing wherever we go.

 

We also receive Jesus' healing from others, we receive Jesus' hospitality from others, and Jesus' body is completed by others, because we don't have all the answers, we don't know it all, we don't have the right way or the only way. There is so much we have yet to learn, so many ways we can be Jesus' body that we do not know yet.

 

It is I, do not be afraid. You will eat and be filled, you will eat and be healed, you will eat and be sent into the world to be Jesus' hands and feet. You don't need to be perfect because you are perfectly loved. It is this love relationship that is faith, that is belief, and that is eternal life. It is grace upon grace. Amen. 

Second Sunday of Easter Yr A

Video

2nd Sunday of Easter Yr A

Acts 2:14a,22-32, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31, Psalm 16

Alleluia! Christ is risen: The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Can you imagine…. Just think of it, you go to the place where Jesus is buried, and he is not there. You see someone you take for the gardener, and when he calls your name you quickly recognize him as the teacher. You run to tell your friends that you have seen the Lord. And then, when it was evening on that day, you gather with your friends in fear and trepidation, and Jesus shows up again. Jesus says, Peace be with you, he shows his hands and his feet, and then breathes on you, receive the Holy Spirit he says. But Thomas isn’t there. When you tell Thomas that Jesus was there with you in that room, Thomas laments missing the unbelievable appearance, who knows where he was, probably out getting snacks and beverages, and Thomas wants to see Jesus too. Jesus hears Thomas’ lament, and shows up again, in that very room where you and your friends were staying.

That’s all Thomas needs. That’s all any of us need, isn’t it? In this story, Thomas is the courageous one. Thomas is the one who is willing to say, I need to see Jesus too. Thomas is not so different from me, or even you. I need to see Jesus too, and feel that breathe of Holy Spirit on my face, in my hair, relieving my fear and anxiety. You see, Thomas is not asking for proof, he is asking for what he needs, Jesus was there with all the others, Thomas wants the same. And what Thomas wants is the promise and the reassurance that they have not been abandoned. Thomas wants this relationship; Thomas must wait a week, but Jesus still shows up. You and I want this relationship, and Jesus shows up.

For a moment, let’s look back at John’s gospel, so that we can establish our place in it today. We know that John’s gospel contains signs and wonders. The word miracle is not used by John, very purposefully the word is sign. Signs point us in a direction, we read and follow them because we want to be on our chosen path. The signs in John’s gospel do that, they point us in the direction John wants us to look. John’s seven signs begin with turning water into wine at Cana and conclude with raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. We know however there are many more than just seven, we just heard that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

That relationship is what courageous Thomas wants, and needs. I think that relationship is what we want and need as well, us courageous followers of Jesus. And as Jesus holds out his hands to Thomas, and invites him to touch his sides, Jesus offers himself to Thomas, fully human, fully God, and in that moment, Thomas realizes he doesn’t really even have to touch Jesus. Thomas breathes out, my Lord and my God. Thomas expresses all of our hope and all of our fear.

John points to Jesus. Fleshy, bloody, incarnate. Jesus eats, sleeps, is prone to anger and capable of deep compassion and sadness; his heart breaks and he cries at his friend Lazarus’s death. And Jesus turns water into wine, makes sure 5000 people are fed, and raises Lazarus from the dead. John’s gospel invites us, you and me, into a relationship with this, this God in the flesh, Jesus. Jesus is fully human, and being human means being born to die. What becomes incarnate, fleshy and bloody, must die, Jesus, you, and me. And Jesus weeps for death, for his own, for his friend, and for us. And yet, Jesus rises. Death cannot keep Jesus in the tomb. The reality John’s gospel points us to is the reality of relationship. Courageous Thomas shows us this lord and God who reaches out to us to offer grace, compassion, and abundant love.

And there it is, the reality in which we live. In the midst of whatever we are feeling in these days, pain, suffering, grief, isolation, Jesus also lives, Jesus shows up. Jesus reaches out to us, with fleshy and bloody hands, and a compassionate grief-stricken heart, and offers abundant love and grace. Grace upon grace, grace that flows from blood, sweat, and tears. Grace that infuses our bodies with the healing possibility that makes new bodies. Grace that flows forth with living water, that cleans and refreshes. Grace that creates in us the body of Christ.

Courageous Thomas shows us Jesus, who shows up in the muck and the mess of life. Courageous Thomas shows us Jesus who is fleshy and bloody – otherwise known as fully human, and Jesus who is God. Courageous Thomas gives us the gift of hope, hope in a dark and fearful time, hope when living is behind closed doors, hope when we just don’t know what comes next.

Courageous Thomas shows us God’s grace upon grace and God’s abundant love.

Courageous Thomas shows us Spirit that breathes peace and forgiveness on us, spirit that revives our weary bones, spirt that that makes us new creations.

You have seen God’s grace and love at work in your places. What does that look like?

You have been God’s grace and love at work in your places, this is Jesus showing up.

4 Lent Yr C March 31 2019

Audio  4 Lent Yr C March 31 2019

Joshua 5:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Psalm 32

A man had two sons.... was a common way to begin a parable. There are other parables in the Hebrew tradition that begin this way, not just the one we have in front of us today. When the gospel writers began in this way, you and I who are hearers of the story are clued in right away to the type of prose we will hear. A parable is a particular form of prose. Although it is like narrative, it is not exactly narrative, it doesn’t tell a story in a straightforward sort of way, although it is definitely part of the bigger story. The purpose of a parable is to surprise you, even to shock you. Jesus often says something outrageous, or tells about something that doesn’t seem on the surface to make much sense. We also know a parable when we hear one because it tells us something about Kingdom living.

This particular parable is quite familiar. Often we jump straight to the place of deciding that this is about the younger son who has squandered all of his inheritance and has been bad, or maybe we even identify with the younger son. And we are quick to label ourselves or people in our lives as prodigal son. But if we make that jump too quickly, we will miss so much that is surprising in this parable. First of all, we miss what prodigal means. Prodigal means exuberant and lavish, excessive and extravagant. Prodigal describes the son because he has been extravagant in spending his inheritance. Prodigal also describes the father because he is extravagant in his love toward both his sons. The younger son was extravagant in his spending and ended up in the worst possible position of shame and brought shame on his family as well. 

Or, we jump too quickly to identifying with the older son. The one who followed all the rules, the one who understood duty to family and responsibility. The one who worked hard all his life only to have his little brother get the big party after having squandered everything and living hard and fast. He was the one who really wished that rewards should go to only those who earn them. The one who at his very worst moments envies his younger brother for all the fun and excitement he had and that the older brother missed out on. The one who is mad at his father for even acknowledging the younger son was still alive, after all that he had done. The one who fails to recognize that the father is always on his side and he need not earn his father’s approval. 

Maybe we even jump too quickly to identifying with the father. The father who raised his kids as best he could and who now has to put up with an older one who doesn’t know how good he’s got it, and a younger one who takes advantage of everyone and everything. This father’s behavior is shocking. First, he runs out to meet the son who left and squandered everything, giving up all semblance of honor that he may have had left by this time. Then, when the elder son chews out his father in the totally immediate and full view of all gathered to celebrate, the father once more responds graciously, saying even in front of the whole village that the kind of father he is must celebrate and rejoice when the lost are found. The father of the parable celebrates every measure of resurrection, of life from death, without pausing to judge whether the one given life deserved it, or what the consequences are for village or cosmic justice, or even how the loyal will respond. He just hopes that those who profess loyalty to him will follow his example.

But today I propose something different, something that may be true for all of us. I propose that you, and me, we’ve got both these brothers inside us. The responsible one and the prodigal one. The one who always followed all the rules, and the one who is or at the least wants to be exuberant and lavish. It is an uneasy coexistence made harder by the reality that none of these people is perfect, and that all of them make real mistakes, just like we do. This is where I think the truth of this parable is, we are imperfect people, perfectly loved by a God who freely chooses us. God continually chooses God’s people even when we have apparently wandered far away. God continually chooses you, and me, God continually loves us, in the glory of our imperfect, broken, lives. Not because we deserve God’s love, but because that is who God is.

I began today with one of the markers of a parable, they tell us about the Kingdom of God. Many parables begin with these words; the Kingdom of God is like... You see, the surprise and the shock of this parable is that the Kingdom of God is like abundant grace for all God’s creation, freely given, and the Kingdom of God is also like you and me being champions of Christ, and therefore reconcilers for God.

The surprise and shock of this parable is that at the very same time we are recipients of the grace the father lavishes upon us, broken though we are, we are also agents of reconciliation, we are the ones who show the world that this abundant grace is available to each and every person whose paths we cross each and every day. 

This parable invites us, as does all that Jesus says and does, to consider being champions of giving, of giving honor, forgiveness, and giving joy, sacrificially and without regard of our own worthiness or the worthiness of our sisters and brothers. It challenges us to consider what kind of party we throw and who is really welcome at the banquet. This parable challenges us to live every moment in the Kingdom that is here and now, the Kingdom that Paul preaches with urgency. It challenges us to bring reconciliation into every relationship, now. It challenges us to live as Kingdom people, as agents of God’s transformation, and as ambassadors of the Kingdom.

We are these brothers, with love and grace lavished upon us, no matter what. Amen.

19 Pentecost Proper 21 Yr B Sept 30 2018

19 Pentecost Proper 21 Yr B Sept 30 2018 Audio

Mark 9:38-50

We enter the gospel of Mark today in the middle of this hard teaching about what it means to follow Jesus. This is the bread and butter of the gospel, wrapped around the Transfiguration story. Mark doesn’t waste a single word as he shows us what this life of following Jesus looks like. What matters to Mark is not who is first or who is last. What matters to Mark is not who is casting out demons in anyone’s name. What matters to Mark is that you follow Jesus all the way to the cross and empty tomb, even though the disciples had a lot of trouble doing that themselves. What matters to Mark is that you follow Jesus all the way to the cross and through the resurrection, and that in the doing, Jesus’ love matters, your love matters.

Remember last week we heard the hard teaching about what it means to be great, and that greatness doesn’t look anything like what we think it looks like in our world, or in Jesus’ world. Mark continues to show us, through Jesus’ disciples, that following is hard. It seems like the disciples keep on stumbling. Jesus has to keep on showing them what following looks like. Jesus puts a child on his lap and tells them that following him looks like this. Mark shows us that those who seek out power are not followers, but those like this child and those who serve, are followers. But the disciples are not really getting what Jesus is saying, and as you and I overhear this conversation, we may wonder why Jesus can be so harsh. Jesus told them of the importance of welcoming the little ones; now he warns of what will happen if they act hostilely toward those same little ones. Jesus takes several runs at explaining the perils of acting scandalously. Jesus talks about the cost of harming people with lies and innuendo. Jesus says this over and over and it feels almost like we’re getting hammered just like those who were hearing Jesus for the first time. But the repetition serves to drive home Jesus’ warning vividly.

Jesus states three times that losing a scandalizing member is preferable to gaining a place in the eternal fire. Mark has warned previously that we must lose ourselves in order to find the fullness of our life in God’s love, and that metaphor in Mark becomes very concrete right here. Hands, feet, and eyes are lost so that one’s self is not.

This seems a little exaggerated, a bit like hyperbole, don’t you think? Really Jesus? Cutting off a limb, losing something as important as an eye, is better than losing my self? But the trouble is, it’s a short trip from deciding Jesus really doesn’t mean what he says and that what Jesus says is really to hard to do, to deciding that someone who speaks their truth is just making it up. Or just maybe overstating something that may have happened, possibly, but not really believable. We do it with our children; maybe that’s why Jesus is using a child to teach this to the disciples. We tell them not to exaggerate or we’ll stop believing them, we call that crying wolf. Hyperbole becomes the convenient excuse to stop listening, to stop believing, to question the veracity of the claims, claims that take an extraordinary amount of courage to utter.

Twisting, turning, tying up the truth, happens now as much as it happened with Jesus’ disciples, and this is the truth that Mark is trying to tell us. We don’t want to hear it, Peter never wanted to hear Jesus tell him the truth, every time Jesus told Peter that the son of man would be put to death, Peter said no, no, that could not happen. But this is what is right in front of us.

But there is also so much grace, so much good news in Mark’s gospel. The truth, the grace, is that following Jesus is about love that is brave, and courageous, and fierce. Jesus is brave, and courageous and fierce in Mark’s story. Jesus keeps at the disciples so that they may believe that it is in living in love, it is living in truth, honesty, integrity that matters. And, life is best lived when we fully and completely embrace the truth that love wins. You see, God in Christ came to be with us and for us, to take on our life and our lot that we might not simply persist, but flourish, not simply have life, but have it abundantly, that we might understand that the God who created and still sustains the vast cosmos not only knows that we exist, but cares. Cares about our ups and downs, cares about our hopes and disappointments, cares about our dreams and despair, cares about all the things we care about, promising to be with us, to walk alongside us, to never, ever let us go, and in time to bring us into the company of saints.

It is best, Jesus says, to love and to live fiercely, bravely, and courageously in the company of others who live and speak the truth. Jesus keeps telling the disciples and us, that it is in dying to selfishness, dying to greed, dying to arrogance and boastfulness, that we are raised to abundant life. A life that is connected, a life that is great, a life that is worth living. And that is exactly what Jesus tells the disciples. Live this life, live it fully and completely, and the gospel writer Mark shows us that it won’t be easy, this kind of love, this kind of truth, this kind of courage, comes at a cost, and the cost for Jesus is his life.

Jesus’ love matters, your love matters. And you do it all the time, you followers of Jesus, you disciples, you courageous ones. You take care of each other better than any group of people I’ve ever met. You show up and you stand up for each other. You are so generous with your money and with your love as you support our own families in need. Jesus’ love matters, your love matters, you courageous ones. You love and support one another when babies are born and when loved ones die. You have stood by each other when conversations have been difficult; you love each other even when it is easier to leave. You are rock stars.

And I want to challenge you to even more. I want you to help people who are not here yet, to find what you have found. I want you to courageously carry this love that wins into the difficult conversations that are happening in our families and our community. I want you to speak truth to power and be carriers of justice and mercy. I want you to change the world, or your little corner of it. I want you to follow Jesus into the difficult places, the difficult conversations, and the unfair and unjust systems. Not only do we remove stumbling blocks, but we create safe places, and opportunities for people to know that truth matters, and love wins. Amen.