Moving Outside the Lines

Based on Matthew 1:18-25
Revision of a sermon first delivered Dec. 22, 2013
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            What was Joseph to do? Here he is, a righteous Jew, believed by tradition to be an older man, perhaps a widow, who has agreed to take as his wife this young, orphaned girl, so that she will have someone to care for her. He is trying to be helpful. And what happens? Mary is pregnant and Joseph knows he is not the father. What is a righteous Jew to do?

            Now, if he keeps Mary as his wife, it will be a disgrace. He will have to lie and say that he impregnated Mary before they had wed, which would put him to shame. Or he could tell the truth and say that someone else impregnated her, which is adultery and puts her to shame. He is righteous so he would not lie, even if that would protect her honor in the eyes of the public. But his gentleness prevents him from putting Mary to public shame.

            Joseph has two ways to end their betrothal. One option is to go to the city gate and gather together a group of ten men to serve as a court and announce publicly what Mary has done, to get that public ruling so everyone knows what has happened. But there is another option that is much more discreet. All Joseph has to do is have written a note of dismissal, place it in Mary’s hand, and send her out of his house. He chooses to dismiss her quietly so that she does not have to endure public shame. Mary could then go in hiding. Or perhaps Elizabeth, her aunt, may take her in? They could figure something out. That way Mary and Joseph could move on with their lives. Sending Mary off with discretion seemed to Joseph as the most righteous and compassionate choice.

            But this is not what God had in mind. It was God’s intention that Jesus be in the ancestral line of David. For that to happen, Joseph, who is in that line, had to be the father, at least so that the case can arguably be made that this boy is of his line…even though he is the son of God. It’s a complicated situation. So, God intervenes. In a dream, an angel speaks to Joseph, saying to him, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” The angel goes on to assure Joseph that Mary was not impregnated by another man. This is a holy child, indeed, the very son of God. Mary has conceived by the Holy Spirit. Every conception is a miracle. A number of things can go wrong that prevents conception. But this conception is a miracle of miracles. God is the father. But this child needs an earthly father from the line of David to fulfill the prophecy of the messiah as one who is of the line of David. So, Joseph is told not to be afraid to marry Mary and to adopt the child as his own. God even gives Joseph the responsibility to name the child, to give the child legitimacy in the eyes of society, even though Joseph and Mary know the truth. How the conception happened is to be kept secret, at least for now. The time will come for this miraculous truth to be spoken. For now, God tells Joseph to set aside what the law required. In this unique case, what was required for righteousness was for Joseph to remain with Mary through her pregnancy, to name the child, and to claim him as his own, even though he and Mary knew the truth about who the father is…none other than God.

            Can we just acknowledge that this whole situation is messy? It really put Joseph and Mary in an awkward situation. The easiest and, frankly, the righteous decision was for Joseph to dismiss Mary, to wipe his hands of the whole affair. But this situation had complications. The father is God, but Joseph is needed so the child will have legitimacy. Joseph doing what the law required would have messed up the divine plan. What righteousness required in this case required moving outside of the law that God had established. What a dilemma.

            I wonder if sometimes the plan God has for us, the dilemmas we find ourselves in, require us to do things outside of the lines. I’m not saying that God ever calls us to do things that are immoral. What I am saying is that sometimes what is required of us pushes us outside the constraints of written regulations or what has traditionally been believed about what is right. For the situation that Mary and Joseph found themselves in, there were written regulations, established by God, that were to be followed. Except in this case God was asking them to act outside those regulations. God placed them in a moral dilemma. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was in on a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, reflected on how sometimes what God requires means using deception and taking a life. What righteousness requires isn’t always clear cut. It can be messy. For Joseph to make the right choice, rather than default to what the law demanded, God had to make an intervention, to speak to Joseph in a dream, asking him to do something that was morally complicated.

            After Joseph receives God’s message through the dream, Joseph changes his mind and consents to God’s will. This is a point not to be missed. Joseph, with good intentions, was going to go in a way that put a kink in God’s plans. God intervenes, to persuade Joseph to choose another way. He did not compel Joseph to change his mind. He gave Joseph the freedom to decide, to consent, to say yes to God’s will, even if that meant moving outside the lines. What great freedom and power we have, to reject or accept God’s will for us. We are never forced to do what God wants for us. We get to choose.

            Life is full of dilemmas. What is the right thing to do isn’t always clear in real life. Life gets messy. Rev. Frank Schaefer found himself in a dilemma. His son asked him to preside over his marriage to another man, a same-gendered marriage that our Book of Discipline forbids clergy to perform. Perhaps the easy way out, the most righteous, at least according to the tradition, would have been to handle this discreetly, to work out some creative way to honor his son’s request without actually performing the marriage. But how would that affect his relationship with his son and the rest of his family? What harm would be done? Rev. Schaffer presided over his son’s wedding, sacrificing his own ordination due to a process that held the line on the written laws but missed the discernment that Frank came to of what God called him to do.

            This dilemma of honoring the ordination of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender expression, and the celebration of same-gender weddings, is a dilemma that we have struggled with as a church for as long as the United Methodist Church has existed. The question that drives so much of our struggle is over what is the righteous thing to do. What is God’s intention? It appears increasingly likely that as we move to General Conference in only five months, our church will determine to dismiss each other. Will it be public and loud or will it be quiet and discreet? Who knows? But the division, which in many ways has already happened, will likely be finalized. It is a dilemma that is pushing our church apart. But is that God’s will for us? Or is God trying to persuade us that there is a way to remain together that requires moving outside the lines?

            Our nation is caught in a dilemma, with a president who generates such sharp reactions positive and negative and a party spirit between Democrats and Republicans that have become even more polarizing. It does seem at times that the political divisions in our nation are so great that in some ways we are experiencing a schism of some kind. Each side on the divide are convinced of their own righteousness. Are we meant to dismiss each other? Will the ties that bind our nation together hold? I wonder if the gulf that divides our nation requires finding a way to stay together that may require us to move outside the lines, to get out of our political camps and find some way to reason together without demonizing each other. I feel that is what God’s intentions are for us as a nation. But where is this happening? Do we have the courage to do this?

            What we do know is that God has a plan. God has intentions. God’s intentions are for salvation, for the mending of creation that is broken, fractured into a million pieces. God’s intentions are to make all things new, to restore, to reconcile, to establish order out of chaos, to establish righteousness, peace, harmony, and joy. God’s intention is to generate a community of all creation that sings God’s praises.

            In this world of brokenness, sin, confusion, God has intervened. The issues were different but the world was as broken and confused 2,000 years ago as it is now. But 2,000 years ago God became one of us, being born of Mary and adopted by Joseph as his own son. And now, 2,000 years later, the Church remains as a community through which God’s presence endures. God dwells in our midst. God is with us. God will never leave us, nor forsake us, in this broken, dilemma filled world in which we live.

            This is what we celebrate this time of year. In our time of dilemmas, in our time of uncertainty about which way is best, which way is righteous, we believe that God is with us all along the way. Today, let us pray for the church, for the United Methodist Church, and for our nation, where there is so much division and the open question if we are to dismiss each other. We need divine intervention. We need to hear a word from God to help us know how we are to find a way to stay together, even if that means moving outside the lines. Let us be open to God’s leading and consent to what we hear, no matter the cost, so that God’s will can be done, so that the brokenness of the world can be mended.

Go and Tell What You See and Hear

Based on Matthew 11:2-11
Revision of a sermon first delivered Dec. 15, 2013
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” That’s the question John had in his mind as he sat in jail. Here is John, who last week was proclaiming a coming messiah with an ax in one hand, a winnowing fork in the other, and a bag of unquenchable fire in his back pocket. The messiah was coming, who would purge all the wicked and redeem the righteous, clean house, make everything right. The righteous would be gathered together like wheat in the barn while the wicked would be like chaff thrown in the fire.

            But as John sits in prison, he gets word somehow that Jesus was out there, doing his thing, but there was no judging going on. The wicked powers that be were still in charge. Those who struggled to be righteous were still facing all kinds of hardships. John himself is a perfect example. He was sitting in prison because he made the mistake of speaking truth to power. He called out Herod for his illicit affair with his brother’s wife. Little does John know that before long he will have his head cut off as a consequence of the drunken foolishness of Herod and the heartless scheming of Herodias. So much for the expectation that the messiah was coming with judgment to gather in the righteous and destroy the wicked.

            John appears to be having some doubts about Jesus. And who would blame him? In those days there were great expectations that the messiah was coming to fix things, to bring down the foreign occupation, to throw Caesar off his throne and cast the Roman empire into the abyss and restore the rightful place of the House of David as the royal nation to which all the other nations will be drawn toward. That’s the kind of messiah that John was expecting. And when this wild and noble prophet of the wilderness was presented with the responsibility to baptize Jesus he resisted, saying that he ought to be the one to be baptized. He thought he knew who Jesus was…the long-expected messiah, of the line of David, who would reestablish that line and make Israel great again.

            And yet, John sits in prison. John’s imprisonment is a perfect example of what was so wrong in the world he lived in. Here is the great forerunner, the one whom Jesus declares is the greatest of all prophets, the one whose righteousness drew people out into the wilderness to see, to receive a baptism of repentance, a great and holy man. Yet he is in prison while the wicked Herod and the even more dastardly Caesar remains in charge. The messiah is here yet nothing is changing. Something is wrong. John finds himself needing some reassurance from Jesus that he is the one, or if they are to wait for another to make things right.

            So, John’s disciples go to Jesus to ask him the question. Jesus gives them an answer, but, as is typical with Jesus, he doesn’t give them a straight answer. It would have been nice if Jesus had flat out said, “Yes, I am the messiah.” Instead, Jesus gives John’s disciples a ministry report. He lists for them all the ways that he demonstrates that he is the messiah. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. No judgment? No casting the bad people into the fires of hell? No separating the wheat from the chaff? No winnowing fork? No axe lying at the root of the trees? No unquenchable fire? No. None of that. The messiah that John described in the wilderness is not the messiah that Jesus is demonstrating.

            Now it is up to John and his disciples to decide for themselves if Jesus is the messiah or not. He’s not using an axe or a winnowing fork. He’s not throwing around unquenchable fire. But he is healing people and raising people from the dead. He’s declaring good news to the poor, the downtrodden, the forgotten ones, the marginalized, the nobodies, the deplorables. John was doubting if Jesus was the messiah because Jesus wasn’t acting like John thought a messiah was supposed to act. He doubted because his expectations were wrong. John needed to rethink his preconceived notions of what the messiah was supposed to do.

            We shouldn’t be hasty in judging John’s misconceived expectations, though. In those days, messiah and king were nearly synonymous. Messiah is Hebrew for “anointed one.” Kings are anointed ones as well. When you call someone a messiah you are calling him a king. Jesus is the king of kings and Lord of Lords, as George Frederich Handel reminds us in the Hallelujah Chorus. So, what is King Jesus doing? He is healing people. He is caring for the poor and vulnerable. Jesus was acting like how a king is supposed to act. But that’s not John’s experience of kings. For John, kings are more like tyrants. A tyrant comes in guns blazing, or, in John’s day, with an axe, a winnowing fork and unquenchable fire. The tyrant, like the Caesar, takes over and gathers his chosen elite, the successful, the wealthy, the winners, the sycophants, are all gathered into the tyrant’s palace while the rest are oppressed and forced into servitude. Tyrant kings are comfortable with wielding axes and winnowing forks. When John thought of kings, the images that came to his mind were grounded in his own experience, so he laid those images on Jesus, the true messiah. But this messiah would take his axe and winnowing fork and fire to restore justice, to burn up the wicked and gather in the righteous. But Jesus is not a tyrant. Jesus is a true king. He does not confine himself to palaces. This king is with the people, helping the poor and sick, socializing with sinners, calling out the hardened hearts of the supposed leaders who care more about themselves than the people they are to shepherd. Jesus is acting like how a messiah is supposed to act and John doesn’t recognize this. John did not understand how kings were supposed to act. His experiences of kings had been quite different.

            But there is something else about John’s question that bears mentioning. Maybe the question John asked is the question the world is asking. I have a hunch that if you ask anyone if they think everything is right in the world, that person would say no, things are not right with the world. I bet that response would be at 100%. The examples of how broken the world is are massive. We get new examples every day.

            But are people looking for a messiah to come and fix everything? I’m not sure. We live in a jaded world. Most people don’t believe in messiahs anymore. We don’t have confidence that a single great person, like a superhero, will come to save the day, riding in on his white horse, or coming down his escalator in a building with his name on it, who is going to come in and make everything right in the world, someone who alone can fix it. The assassinations of John Kennedy, of Martin Luther King, of Robert Kennedy, killed the delusion of the single great leader who will turn everything around. The 20^th century as a whole destroyed for many the idea that the world can be made right. The world wars, the Holocaust, nuclear annihilation of cities and the threat of the destruction of the planet during the cold war that is being renewed in these days, the scandals that have brought down so many. It seems the best we can hope for is to muddle along somehow and hope for the best.

            Still, even though we live in a jaded world, there is still a yearning for something better. Every now and then, a great leader does touch a nerve buried deep in the heart of the world that calls forth a better world. Not a better world that the singular leader can bring about on their own, but a better world that we can create together. Martin Luther King did that with his vision of the beloved community. Although some of his luster has worn off, the first few years of the reign of Pope Francis inspired the world to be more compassionate toward the poor and to care for God’s creation. Even though the world is full of cynics, there is still a yearning to be inspired, to be given an example of how the world should be.

            Guess what? Jesus has given us a message to share with the world, a message about how the world should be. Our message is not only that Jesus is the messiah, but that Jesus heals, sets free, brings good news to the poor. Jesus is the real messiah, the true king. The message we have been given to share goes beyond words, however. It is a message that we are to demonstrate. We, the church, are sent out into the world to witness about who Jesus is, both by what we say, and especially by what we do.

            And what is so powerful is that when we are faithful witnesses, both by sharing our experience of Christ and sharing what we have to make lives better for others, those who see and hear can have their own experience of Jesus as their messiah, their king. They receive an experience through our hands, our voices, our presence, that can shape their lives and move them to bear witness themselves.

            I am thinking about those who come to the Breakfast with Santa at the Westside Free Store at Westgate and those who come to the food pantry at Parkview. I am thinking of Jordan’s Crossing and The Refuge, who bring healing and good news to the homeless and addicted. I am thinking of CATCH Court that brings new life to women trapped in the life of prostitution. I am thinking of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of churches throughout central Ohio, big, small and in between, who in big ways and small ways demonstrate a different kind of world, a world in which people are loved, embraced, built up, made well, restored, filled with hope and joy.

            We live in a world that is tired of the mindless consumerism and sappy sentimentality of the “holiday season.” People need to hear about a messiah, an anointed one, a king, who does not singlehandedly come in to dismantle and rearrange the world. We tell a story of a messiah who gives us an example of how we are to live differently in the world, a messiah who leads us to embody, make real, an alternative world. By bearing witness to this alternative story, in which people are healed, people are given new life, people are hearing good news, we give the world an example of who Jesus is, the true messiah, the anointed one, the king.

            Jesus told John’s disciples to go back and tell John what they see and hear. Jesus tells us to go and tell others what we see and hear, the ways that lives are still changed, how love is made real, that there are still moments when joy bursts forth in the darkness. Let us bear witness to the truth of the gospel, that we are created from love for love. Let us demonstrate that there is a messiah, there is one who we serve, one who, little by little, is establishing here and there peace, hope, and joy.

Getting Past John

Based on Matthew 3:1-12
Revision of a sermon delivered Dec. 8, 2013
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            Christmas is only a few more weeks away. Homes are decorated with beautiful lights and all kinds of creative lawn art, inflatable snowmen, manger scenes, Santa’s sleigh. Television has lots of holiday programming. Christmas cards are filling up our mailboxes. We are gearing up for all the holiday parties and family traditions that mark this special time of the year.

            But before we get to Christmas, we must get past John the Baptist, the one whom Barbara Brown Taylor dubs God’s Doberman Pinscher. We are walking merrily along the way to Christmas, humming Christmas carols as we go, enjoying all the pretty lights, when all of a sudden ROOH-ROOH-ROOH, and we jump back and see this snarling dog barking at us and chasing us away from their house.

            Repent, confess your sins, you brood of vipers, who warned you about the coming wrath, bear fruit worthy of repentance, an ax, a pitchfork, unquenchable fire, all these disturbing and challenging images are thrown at us, when all we want to do this time of year is light our little candles and sing “Silent Night.” Yes, John the Baptist with his clothing of camel hair and diet of locusts and wild honey and jarring message disturbs our move toward Christmas, snapping us out of our sweet musings, candy canes and sugar plum fairies and into some hard truths. Before we can get to the baby Jesus, we have to get past John. We have to hear his call to repent. That’s part of our Advent preparation…to repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And like we talked about last week, when that kingdom comes is unknown to any of us. It could happen at any moment. So, to be ready, we have to repent.

            Repentance must be the first step of our preparations for the coming of the Lord. And that makes sense. Why? Because of grace. Everything about God is bathed in grace. But grace means nothing unless you realize you need it. Grace is only needed if you have messed up first. Grace is getting to work late but not having your pay docked. Grace is a chance to retake your test if you fail the first time. Grace is getting more time to pay back your loan without a penalty. Grace is being told after you have screwed something up that it’s going to be o.k. Grace means nothing, unless we first realize that we need it. That’s what repentance, confessing our screw ups, is all about. Repentance is the key that unlocks the treasure chest of grace. To have the opportunity to repent, to confess our sins, and to hear the words, “I forgive you,” is good news indeed!

            Yet, repentance is so hard for us sometimes. We rationalize, saying to ourselves that what we did wasn’t that bad. Or we deny that we did anything wrong. We become defensive. We have a tendency to blame others for our messes. There was someone I worked with during my seminary days. He was the director of the choir, both at the church I attended and the seminary choir. I served as his secretary, which mainly meant regularly breaking copyright laws by making multiple copies of music for choir members who had a tendency to lose their music every other week. Steve was a passionate man, a real charmer but also temperamental and stubborn. Someone gave him a coffee mug for a gift which fit Steve perfectly. Written on the side of the mug was, “The boss takes full and direct responsibility for assigning blame.” Sometimes we much rather wish to assign blame than take the blame. To admit wrongdoing takes some humility. We don’t always want to admit that we failed, that we were wrong, that we are responsible for the mess up.

            Sometimes we resist repenting, acknowledging our mistakes, because we don’t expect anything better for ourselves. We sometimes think we screw up because we are screw ups. Julie goes from one relationship to the next, leaving a trail of broken hearts all along the way. She knows she is hurting people. She knows she is hurting herself. But she can’t make long term commitments. She remembers how bad her mom and dad got along. She doesn’t want to be stuck in a bad relationship. So, she always finds a way to wreck the relationship. And she doesn’t see things changing for her. It’s just who she is. She will never be able to settle down in a relationship. She will never find her soul mate.

            When the pressure builds, and he’s feeling the stress with the demands of work and family, Carl does what he always does. He escapes into the internet, shutting himself off from his family, from his job, from everything, numbing himself with the mindless diversion of computer games. He’s always been this way. He remembers how his dad would get lost in his books. Carl would have to pry the book out of his dad’s hands to get his attention when he was a boy. His father was distant at times, almost molded into his reading chair. Like his dad, Carl tunes everyone out, except instead of reading books he stares at a computer screen. This is how he is. For Julie and Carl, the idea of repenting, of acknowledging their shortcomings and committing to make a change in how they live, how they relate with others, they just don’t see that happening. They are who they are. They don’t think they can change. So why even bother repenting? There’s no point.

            Sometimes we look around us and the situation we find ourselves in, and we don’t like what we see. Our lives are not what we want them to be. They haven’t been for a long time. We’ve tried to change, but we fall back to old habits and patterns, things don’t change, and despair creeps in. Repent? Change my way of living? Been there, tried that, didn’t work.

            I am sure there were people like that who were coming out to hear John. They had tried and failed over and over. There were times when they felt bad about themselves, like they couldn’t do any better, damaged goods. But there was still a small flicker of hope. They came out to hear John’s message of repentance, to hear him say that we can start over again, that the past doesn’t have to determine our future. The past can’t be changed. What is done is done. But the future is wide open. The future doesn’t have to reflect the past. Change remains possible.

            Not only is change possible, for God change is expected. No matter what has happened to us, no matter how much we have screwed up, hurt others, hurt ourselves, we are not damaged goods. We are precious. That we were even born was a miracle. We are cherished by God. We are formed in the image of God. Because of who we are, as children of God, we are expected to live like that. We can’t use our past as an excuse for not living a holy life. We are made for holiness. When we live right, we are living as we were designed to live. When we mess up, it’s not because we are living as we were designed. That’s a manifestation of sin that distorts our inherent goodness. It is sin that has gotten us off kilter. God expects us to repent because God knows that when we mess up, it’s a failure to be who God has created us to be. We are good trees, not bad trees. God expects good fruit. God knows we can produce it.

            Like those who went out to John, we need to hear that message that repentance is possible. We want to know that today can be a new start. We want to experience the cleansing waters of the baptism of repentance, to wash off our mistakes and hurts, to start over again, and again, and again. That’s what repentance is. Repentance, acknowledging our sin and committing to change for the better, is an act of faith, the faith that God forgives and renews, the faith that God never gives up on us, the faith that change is possible. It is an act of hope, the hope that we can make different choices, that we can start over, that we can live differently.

            So, today, let us respond to the preaching of John who says to us, “Repent!” Let us confess our sins to God. Let us admit our failures to others. Let us face the hard truths about ourselves. Not to beat up on ourselves. Not so that we will feel ashamed or think that we are screw ups. Let us be honest about our shortcomings in the light of God’s mercy, the One who judges us but also graciously forgives us when we repent. God is for us. God is not against us. God believes in us and knows that we can live the life God desires for us because we are designed to live that life of holiness. We are God’s children. Today, we can begin again, and live today the life we are meant to live, as sons and daughters of God. Today, let us hear the plea of John, heed his call, and move past John toward the return of the King.

Some Deadlines Are Best Not Known

Based on Matt. 24:36-44
First delivered Dec. 1, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            If you knew for a fact that today will be your last day of life, how would you live it? Where would you be right now? I suspect most of us would be spending today saying good bye to those we love, saying what needs to be said. If we have an appetite, we would be eating our favorite foods. We would make sure our affairs are in order. We would spend the day with our family and friends. We would not want to waste a moment. It would be so striking to us of how precious life is when we know that in less than twenty-four hours it will be over, at least on this side of the veil. The promise of eternal life becomes much more meaningful when we know that our life on earth is about to end.

            If you knew for a fact that the Lord was coming back today, what would you do? Would it be any different from how you answered the first question I asked? I would think that if we know that Jesus is coming back today we would want to make sure that we are right with the Lord. Who do we need to forgive? Will we not be on our best behavior? We would definitely want to be our best self. We would want to make sure that when Jesus comes we are doing something good. We wouldn’t want to be angry at anybody. We would want to be in a good mood with a song on our lips, preferably a hymn or praise song. You don’t want to be caught sinning when Jesus comes back, right?

            Knowing what the future holds makes a big influence on how we live now. Everything we decide to do, how we spend our time, who we spend time with, what plans we make or what things we care about, all of this is shaped by what we believe the future holds for us. And the sharper the understanding of what is coming has a greater effect on the present.

            For example, when you know a deadline is looming, it has a tendency to sharpen your focus. For me, I know that Sunday is coming. So, once Friday rolls around, and Sunday is only two days out, my focus begins to sharpen around the need to get my sermon together. This is how deadlines work. They are a powerful motivator to set everything else aside and focus on the task at hand. It is impressive what can be accomplished when there is a hard deadline with consequences if you miss the deadline. Clarity about the future, especially the immediate future, gives us great motivation to focus and to use the time we have to accomplish what needs accomplished.

            But when you don’t have a set deadline, then there is a tendency to lose focus. Imagine if going forward you had to file your federal income tax whenever you can get around to it. If you can’t get your forms in by April 15, there is no need to apply for an extension. Just, whenever. Any thoughts on the percentage of American taxpayers who will submit their federal tax forms by April 15? I bet the percentage will drop dramatically if April 15 is just a date and not a deadline with consequences. I would like to think that I would still come to church on Sunday with a sermon to deliver, even if having a sermon for you became optional. Preparing and delivering sermons is one of the main things I do. It’s a process that I get a lot of pleasure from. But if our tendency is to not focus on things without deadlines, there is a good chance that there would be a Sunday or two when I would show up without a sermon if it’s no longer expected I have one every Sunday. If it’s a particularly hectic week, or maybe I decide to just be lazy, then I can just shrug my shoulders and say to myself, “Eh, I’ll skip this Sunday. Having a sermon for the people isn’t a requirement. They won’t mind.” If that was the case, then there is a good chance that you wouldn’t get a sermon from me every Sunday, even though it is part of my life purpose. An ambiguous future with a lack of deadlines has the tendency to influence us to live a less focused life. When we don’t know what we are aiming for, what we are working for, what is expected of us, what deadlines are laying out there to meet, then our tendency is to bounce from interest to interest, fritter away time, and live without a sense of purpose or urgency. Just ask someone who is recently retired what this must be like when they suddenly have no job to go to, no one to report to, no work-related tasks to complete. Adjusting to retired life takes some time, to get some kind of structure in your life, some purpose and focus. I imagine retired life can be a wonderful time, when you finally have the time to do all those things and take up all those interests and hobbies you didn’t have time for when you were working. But until you get some kind of established routine or set some kind of deadlines for yourself, I imagine life can be pretty unfocused and, if not addressed, can become frustrating and maybe even a bit depressing. What is it like to live without a purpose or goal in front of you to work toward? As kids we didn’t have purposes or goals. But once you hit the age of responsibility, purpose and goals are critical to having a meaningful life. Without them, life can be less meaningful. And the clearer the purpose of our living, the sharper the goals, the more pressing the deadlines, the more focused and meaningful is our lives. We need clarity to help us live with intentionality.

            This is part of what is a little frustrating about what Jesus says in this passage today. No one knows when the end will come and the Lord will return except the Father. There is no hard and fast deadline. It’s going to happen but no one knows when. It’s open ended. It could happen today or it could happen next week, or it could happen next year, or not until another century, or two, or ten or twenty. No one knows.

            Because there is uncertainty about when the Lord will come back, what are we to do? I think for most of us, since there is no hard date for the Lord’s return, we don’t really think about it. We have more pressing concerns, other deadlines that need met, other plans to make, tasks to be done, work to do. As Jesus puts it, we have harvesting to do and grain to process at the mill. We have to get supper ready and plan Jenny’s wedding. The return of the Lord may be in the back of our minds from time to time. We may think more about it when it is brought up this time of year, in the season of Advent. Or we might hear a song about the Lord coming soon, or maybe we hear someone who points to signs of the end times and gets us thinking about the Lord’s return. But most of the time we don’t even think about the Lord’s return. It’s something that will happen but there is such uncertainty about when that it’s just not something that demands our attention or focus. I wonder how things would be different if we all knew for a fact what date that would happen. What difference would it make in how we live our lives?

            I have heard of a military base in Iraq that has this sentence written above the exit out of the base in huge letters. You see it every time you leave the base. It says, “Is this the day?” What a striking statement. Every time the troops head out of the base to go on patrol or execute a mission they are reminded that today could be the day that they lose their lives, pay the ultimate sacrifice, in service to our nation. It is a sobering reminder that when they leave the relatively safe confines of the base they need to be aware of their surroundings, be vigilant, do everything possible in the execution of their mission to make sure that they and their team get back alive. They don’t know the answer if this is the day. But the posing of the question generates a powerful motivation to be vigilant, to do everything possible so at the end of the day you can say, “no, today was not the day.” The possibility that this could be the day was all it took to give them the motivation they needed to be vigilant and to look after their brothers and sisters in uniform.

            Let me ask a slightly different question than the first one I asked. What if you knew for a fact that your life will end in two months? What would you do with that time? Well, you probably won’t be making long term plans for yourself. You would be wanting to go to as many places as you have been wanting to go as you are able. There would be pressure to complete your so-called “bucket list.” You probably won’t be wanting to spend your time on trivial things. At the same time, would you be able to have a good night’s sleep? I can imagine that the knowledge of that literal deadline would weigh on you like nothing else. It would press on everything you think about. Who would you tell? Would you want people to know? I can imagine that if you told people when you got the news that you only have 60 days of life left some people wouldn’t believe you, others would start acting differently around you and maybe others would avoid you. I just think that if we knew that we only have 60 days of life that this knowledge would be overwhelming. It would spark a wave of emotions and quite a bit of anxiety. I bet there would be times that we would wish we didn’t know the day.

            I wonder if it is part of God’s wisdom to keep from us when will be our last day of life and when the Lord will come back. Even though we are more focused and intentional about how we live and what we do when there is a hard deadline in front of us, the end of our lives or the end of this world are pretty heavy-duty deadlines. To know that date would just be too much. The weight of that knowledge could be crushing. So, perhaps it is an act of grace that the knowledge of when the end will come is kept from us. We all know that the end will come. We all know that one day each of us will die and we believe that one day the Lord will return. Exactly when is kept from us. And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing to keep it in the back of your mind that today could be the day. Not something to obsess over, but just as a gentle reminder that life is precious and how we live day by day matters. If we have the privilege of being alive when the Lord returns we want to be ready. When the time comes for us to draw our last breath we want to be ready. There is wisdom to live each day as if it could be our last. Because it might be.

The Glory of Jesus

“The Glory of Jesus”
Based on Colossians 1:11-20
First delivered Nov. 24, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr
             This morning marks the end of the liturgical year. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, when we begin our annual journey along the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, followed by the pouring down of the Holy Spirit and the ongoing growth of the church as disciples of Jesus. The year is capped off with a focus squarely on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the king of kings and the lord of lords, who shall reign forever and ever.

            It makes sense that we end the liturgical year focused on giving glory to Jesus. When you boil it all down, our identity, as Christians, is rooted in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is the reason we are gathered on Sunday morning. We are called Christians because of Christ, after all. We have responded to the call of Christ to follow Him and be a disciple of His. We have been baptized in His name. When we gather for Holy Communion, it is His table we gather around, and His body and blood that we receive as spiritual food and drink, a mystery that we cannot comprehend.

            This is what today is about, to simply lift up Jesus, to acknowledge and celebrate who He is, to give him the honor due His name. I know, we say or sing something about Jesus every Sunday. We pray to Jesus and we say together the prayer Jesus taught us. But today we are focusing just on who Jesus is, to be reminded of how awesome He is.

            Part of the scripture we heard this morning is, scholars believe, a modified version of a hymn to Jesus. Colossians 1:15-20 appears to be a rewrite of a contemporary song that amplifies the majesty of Jesus to the highest degree possible. For the rest of this brief message this morning, we are going to linger on this hymn and reflect on what it says about who Jesus is. This hymn describes Jesus in a way that makes clear why we give Jesus our greatest praise and put all our trust in Him.

            This hymn has two verses. Verse one is about Jesus being the firstborn before creation and verse two is about Jesus being the firstborn from the dead. Another way to say it is that verse one is about Jesus as lord over creation and verse two is about Jesus as lord over the new creation. In other words, Jesus is lord of all that is.

            The first line of the song is that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. The word for image here is icon. What is being said here is that when people looked upon Jesus as he was walking the earth they were seeing an icon of God. Jesus is what God looks like. But is that what this means? Are we supposed to take this as saying that God’s facial features for example are the same as Jesus?

            Remember back in Genesis when we hear the story of how God made the heavens and the earth, and God decided to make human beings in God’s own image. So God made us, both males and females, in God’s image. In a sense, all of us reflect the image of God. So this is not really about physical appearance. This is more about our essence as human beings, our capacity to create and to express love. The best of what it means to be human is an image of God. But, of course, this image has been marred in all of us because of the stain of sin. This is not the case with Jesus. Jesus, who is without sin, is a perfect image of what it means to be human and, thus, is a perfect image of God.

            The next line is that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation, not was, but is. It is in the present tense. Why does that matter? Because God always exists in the present tense. Do you remember when Moses asked God for his name so that Moses could tell people who sent him to deliver the message to let the people go? God said, tell them “I am” has sent you. The point here is that before anything existed, before time existed, there is God who is Father and Son. This phrase about Jesus being the firstborn of creation is trying to capture that Jesus exists before time existed. It doesn’t mean that Jesus was created. In fact, the rest of the verse declares that by Jesus everything, both visible and invisible, were created. God, through Jesus, created everything, including time itself, angels, spirits, powers, all the invisible forces, were created by God through Jesus. The last line of this first hymn sums it up by saying “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” In other words, before anything existed, there is Jesus and whenever anything comes into existence Jesus has something to do with it. This is part of what it means to declare that Jesus is lord over all, because Jesus is involved in the ongoing creation of all that exists.

            Let’s move to the next verse. It begins by saying that Jesus is the head of the body, the church. If the church is like a person walking around, the head on that body is Jesus. Or it could mean that in an assembly of people which can be called the body, Jesus is the presider of the assembly, or the head, the chief, the leader. Or it could mean that if the body is like a body of water, say a river, that Jesus is the headwater, the source out of which the river flows. In whatever way to take the body to mean, the point is that Jesus is the head, the leader, the source of that body. The body exists because of Jesus. And this body, which is called the church, which you and I belong to, is the new creation.

            Remember how I said that this hymn has two verses? Verse one is about Jesus as lord over creation and verse two is about Jesus as lord over new creation. What does Jesus as head of the church have to do with new creation? It is in the line in this second verse that goes “[Jesus is] the firstborn from the dead.” This is pointing to the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the first to conquer the grave. Jesus is the first to exist in which death is defeated. This is the new creation, where the cycle of life and death ceases, the new creation where there is only life and no death. Jesus is the lord of the resurrection, the lord of the new heaven and the new earth in which death and the grave is vanquished.

            What does this have to do with the church? Recall in the first verse it is declared that God creates everything by Jesus. In verse two it is declared that Jesus brings forth the new creation by the church. The church is the means through which death is defeated and resurrection comes forth. We, the body of Christ, the church, are the community of the resurrection. We are an image of the new creation.

            This is symbolized when we are baptized. Paul speaks of how we are baptized into death and raised up into new life. Although it is our practice to place a small amount of water on the heads of those who are baptized, the most ancient practice was full immersion. Men and women would be baptized separately. Gathered together with the rest of the church, those about to be baptized would strip down naked and then enter the baptismal waters. They would then go completely under, symbolizing their death. They would then rise up out of the waters, symbolizing their resurrection. They would then come out of the water and be clothed with a white robe and be given honey and cheese curds, to symbolize they were now living in the land of promise, the new Jerusalem, the new creation. Who we, as the church, are intended to be, are signs, a demonstration, a symbol of the new creation. We are the ones who are living our lives as if death has already been defeated because it has. We know that because of Jesus the death we experience is a transition to the fullness of life that we are already living in anticipation of its future fulfillment. We are living our eternal life now. I will say it again, because of Jesus, death has already been defeated. The new creation is already emerging and we, as the church, are a manifestation of this new creation. You can say that the church is the resurrection of which Jesus is the head.

            Someone may ask, “what about those who are not in the church?” This points to the charge that Jesus has given us, to go and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything that Jesus has taught us. The answer points to our responsibility to be witnesses of Jesus, to point others to Jesus and invite others to join us and be a part of the church. We are all called to be engaged in evangelism, to share the good news.

            But I want to conclude with us looking at verses 19 and 20. The reality of sin causes a rupture between God and creation. God is holy and creation is corrupted and marred by sin. There is need for reconciliation between God and creation. So we read that by Jesus all of creation is being reconciled with God. How? Through the blood of the cross. All of the sin that corrupts and distorts creation, that causes alienation and separation from God, is covered by the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross. This is why we have crosses in our churches. It was on the cross where Jesus shed his blood for the sins of the world. Right then, in that moment, Jesus offered his life for you and for me and for all who will come after us. Our reconciliation with God was manifested in that moment. As far as God is concerned, when God looks at you and looks at me, God sees someone for whom Jesus shed his blood on the cross. As far as God is concerned you and I have been made right, redeemed, by the blood of Jesus.

            What else can we do but receive this precious gift with deep gratitude, to offer our lives as a sacrifice of praise to the one who has saved us from the power of sin and death? This is why we gather every Sunday, to give praise to God who saves us through Jesus. Truly, Jesus is worthy of all our honor. It is because of Jesus that, not only do we exist, but we have the promise of eternal life, of life beyond the grave. Jesus makes that happen. Give Jesus praise!

No Matter What

Based on Luke 21:5-19
First delivered Nov. 17, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            I remember standing at the base of the World Trade Center and looking up. It was disorienting. It actually made me a little dizzy. The building went up and up. You couldn’t actually see the top of the building. To this day, eighteen years after that tragic day in September, the image of those towers coming down triggers an emotional reaction. You saw the looks on the faces of people as they watched. Eyes wide open, hands to their mouth, the color draining from their faces. It was the look of horror mixed with incomprehension. For those who were there and for those of us watching on TV, we will never forget that sight.

            If there had been some kind of advanced warning, what a difference that would have made. If anything, to get the buildings evacuated as much as possible before the impact of those planes. Or, better yet, stopping those planes from flying into the buildings in the first place. There had been some intelligence that something was afoot. But whatever warnings our intelligence community had, it wasn’t enough to prevent such a tragedy that to this day impacts us all.

            There was a popular science fiction movie back in 1976 that got turned into a TV show called Logan’s Run. It is about a time where people were forced to live in these cities enclosed in these huge plastic bubbles. In order to control the population, once you reached the age of 30, you were randomly selected to enter this coliseum in which you would be zapped by this laser and killed while everyone is cheering. There was a man named Logan 12 who didn’t want to be that fate, so he and a female companion managed to run, to break out of the city and into the wilderness. Their fate out there in the wild was uncertain. But they found an old man who was living out there in the wild. He led them to a building where he was living. That building happened to be a partially destroyed U.S. Capitol building. What used to be the House of Representatives had desks and chairs strewn about. Everything was dusty. A feral cat was wandering around.

            It was a shock to see on film Washington D.C. in ruins, overgrown with trees and underbrush, the buildings dilapidated and abandoned. We just don’t think about our nation’s capital being laid waste. Can you imagine it? What would it be like if our capital was destroyed? I know some people would think, good riddance. But I think for most of us the idea of the capitol building, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the Pentagon, all those buildings being wiped out and the impact that would have on our nation…it’s hard to wrap our minds around. And we would certainly hope that before such destruction befell Washington, D.C. that there was some kind of advance warning, so at least the city could be evacuated, our elected leaders and the career federal employees protected in some way so that our government would continue to function.

            People joke that you know if someone is from Oklahoma when the tornado siren goes off and they run outside to look for the tornado. Guilty as charged. Those tornado sirens truly are life savers. They give us time to seek shelter so that even if we lose our house we won’t lose our lives. It is good to have those early warning signs for tornados, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. But the truth is that those warning signs won’t prevent those natural disasters from happening. They only help us get prepared, to seek some kind of shelter. But we don’t have the power to stop tornados and hurricanes and we can only do so much against flooding and wildfires. Early warnings at least give us a chance to survive.

            The people traveling with Jesus were admiring the beauty of the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem. It was impressive. It was a huge building with thick walls. You could see the Temple from miles away. It was full of precious stones. It was a building worthy for the dwelling place of God. For many, the Temple was considered to be the very center of the universe. And as they were marveling at its beauty, Jesus says that one day this strong, magnificent Temple, the house of God, will be torn down. Not one stone will be on top of the other. It will be razed to the ground. For Jesus’ companions such words must have been unfathomable. How can this be that God’s Temple could be destroyed? How would God allow that to happen? Naturally, they wanted to know what were the signs that such a catastrophe was about to happen. They wanted Jesus to tell them what they should look for, what would be the advance warning before such unspeakable destruction. Hopefully lives would be saved. The priests would be protected. Disaster plans could be enacted.

            What is interesting about this is that they don’t doubt the Temple will be destroyed. They don’t say to Jesus, “How can you say such a thing? How is that even possible?” Nor do they ask Jesus to tell them what they can do to prevent the destruction of the Temple. They don’t ask Jesus, “Is there anything we can do to keep that from happening?” No, they accept what Jesus says, as shocking as it sounds, to be the case. One day the Temple, the very dwelling place of God, the center of the universe, will be destroyed. The only question is, how will they know it is about to happen so they can be ready to respond when the disaster comes. They want to know what are the advance warnings.

            The signs Jesus describes though are not warning signs so much as descriptions of history. Jesus talks about how before the Temple is destroyed there will be wars, insurrections and natural disasters. Jesus might as well have said there will be seasons, cloudy days and hot weather. What are wars, insurrections and natural disasters signs of but signs of the fallen world we inhabit? The truth is that destruction, upheaval and tragedy are part of life. They are signs of the reality that there is evil in this world, there are forces that we can’t resist, that tragedy and catastrophic loss is woven into the very fabric of our existence and knowing these signs of destruction and tragedy won’t prevent them from happening. The Temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed because that’s what happens. Things humans build eventually crumble, even if they were built for the glory of God.

            We can hear this and affirm that destruction, tragedy, deep loss happens. We look at history and see evidence of this truth all across its pages. In our sober moments we would have acknowledged that the World Trade Center wouldn’t exist forever. And we can acknowledge the same thing about the Capital building and the White House. We can acknowledge the same about the building we are worshipping in and the city we live in. Scripture tells us that nations rise and fall. The United States is no exception.

            But living through such catastrophic destruction is surely something altogether different from acknowledging the possibility. New Yorkers had to live through the experience of losing the World Trade Center and all the loss this destruction inflicted on so many people, even, to a small extent, on the entire human family. To actually experience tragic loss of any kind is to experience grief but also fear, fear of what the future holds after the immediate experience of loss. How many were afraid of flying in the months after 9/11? How many survivors of mass shootings jump when they hear a bang that sounds like a gun shot? How many people, after the stock market crash of 1929, decided that their money was safer under the bed mattress than it was in banks? Hearing about or watching on TV various destructive events can cause people to become fearful.

            Fear of the future, of what might happen, is alive and well in our times. Since 9/11 we have been engaged in a global war on terror. It is fear of what might happen that motivates the quest for security. Yes, there is good reason to be prudent, to try to do what can reasonably be done to keep people safe. So, we have metal detectors at airports. You have to take off your shoes and belts. Only ticketed passengers are allowed through the security checks. There are strict guidelines on what you are allowed to carry on the plane. Once the cockpit door is shut it cannot be opened until the flight is over. All these safety measures are driven, partly, by fear that another 9/11 could happen again. Fear is what partly drives us to lock our doors, install alarm systems, erect fences, carry guns. Fear makes us turn inward and become closed off from those who we don’t know. We become hyper vigilant. We want to protect what we have and avoid risk as much as possible. Fear prevents us from taking risks. Fear builds walls, emotionally and physically.

            But Jesus tells us not to be afraid. In verse 9 we read, “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified.” An interesting choice of words. Jesus directs us to not be terrified, to reject the force of terrorism on our own psyches. How are we supposed to manage that? How are we to resist the force of fear that presses all around us? Jesus tells us that we are not to be afraid because “not a hair of your head will perish.” What does that mean? I’m sure Jesus was aware that many men, as they age, do find their hair perishing. Receding hairlines are not a new thing. So what is Jesus talking about?

            The reason we are not to be afraid in times of terror is because no matter what happens, we are still God’s children. Disasters can rock our worlds. Catastrophe can overwhelm us. Great loss can leave us feeling at a loss and not knowing where to turn or what to do. But we are still God’s children. We are still held by God. No matter what life throws at us, no matter what tragedy we endure or loss we experience, we will always belong to God. God is for us and not against us. Of what should we fear? God is with us.

            Jesus also tells us that in times of catastrophe and upheaval, when our worlds are turned upside down and we are cast about in the storms of life, that this is an opportunity for us to bear witness to the gospel. When everything is bad news, it is then that we can declare good news. This is not an invitation to be pollyannish, to see the world through rose colored glasses, to be in denial about the pain and loss and grief and disruption that catastrophe brings. The good news does not deny the reality of bad news, that things are not right in the world, that things are breaking apart, that death and decay is part of our reality. The good news we proclaim is that death does not have the last word, that what is broken, by God’s grace, can be mended, that what is wrong in the world can be made right because that’s what God does. God is in the business of bringing order out of chaos. Our good news we proclaim in times of tragedy is that this is not the end of the story. God isn’t done working to make things right again.

            So, in these times of terror, of loss, of brokenness and decay, where things are not as they should be, we can give witness to hope. We can point to signs where God is still active in the world. Not everything is gloom and doom! Just as an example, new Christian communities are exploding all over Africa and throughout Asia. Last night, Kim and I attended a worship service at Nationwide Arena led by Elevation Worship, Hillsong Worship and Casting Crowns. There were no empty seats and the Spirit moved in a powerful way. In our city, although many churches like ours are struggling, there are other churches that are experiencing dramatic growth. Every day in Columbus people are being blessed by Jesus followers. Lives are being transformed all around us. God’s love is an active love that is relentless. Not only is God’s love reaching into the hearts of people who are lost, drawing them into a relationship with Jesus Christ, but God’s love will not let us go. No matter what, we are loved by God. That is good news.

            So, when you go through times when you are afraid of the future, or times of loss, or even tragedy, when it seems like everything in your life is falling apart, know this: the Lord is still on the throne. God is still sovereign over the heavens and the earth. Nothing escapes God’s notice and nothing is beyond God’s redemption. Know that God still loves you and that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. Sometimes, when times are hard, we try with all our might just to hold on. I give you permission to let go and allow yourself to be held by God. When life becomes too much, and anxiety and trouble are pouring down, take shelter under God’s wings. When life becomes wearisome and you don’t think you can keep going, then stop. Rest for awhile in the presence of God. Allow God to bless you, energize you, refresh your soul, feed your spirit. Rest and let God renew your strength. Then, get up and keep going, keep living your life, keep being the hands and feet of Christ, no matter what else is going on around you. Keep loving God and loving others. Keep offering up your life as a living sacrifice to the eternal God, the God of life, of love, of hope, of inexpressible joy.

Glimpses of Heaven

Based on Luke 20:27-38
First delivered Nov. 10, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            Things were starting to get pretty intense for Jesus. As he draws nearer to Jerusalem and all the events that lead up to the cross, Jesus has to deal with a number of confrontations with people who want to argue with him and publicly humiliate him.

            First up were the Pharisees, who had been dogging him his entire public ministry with their accusations and complaints. They demand that Jesus tell them where his authority comes from for what he teaches and the ministry that he does. They basically want him to tell them where he gets off saying what he says and doing what he does. But Jesus throws it right back at them, demanding they tell the crowd where they think John the Baptist got his authority, from heaven or from men. Now the Pharisees are put on the spot. They don’t want to look foolish before Jesus by saying they believe it is from heaven but they also don’t want to look foolish before the crowd if they say it was from men because the crowd believed John was a prophet. So, they bailed and say, “We don’t know.” That’s not a very flattering look either. Basically, Jesus turned the tables on them and they fell in the trap they were setting up for Jesus. So, Jesus says he won’t tell them where his authority comes from either.

            Jesus hadn’t gone very far when some other seekers slipped up beside him. Well, they appeared to be seekers but in fact they were spies sent to try to catch Jesus in a trap. They first butter him up by saying they know that Jesus is right about everything he says and teaches the truth of God, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to some. He tells it like it is. So, they ask Jesus his position on a controversial topic that they think is going to force Jesus to say something that either way is going to get someone mad. They ask, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not. We talked about taxes last week, how those tax revenues propped up the Roman empire that was oppressing the people. If Jesus says it is lawful then that will cause the people to be upset at him. If he says it is unlawful then these spies will be able to report back that Jesus is encouraging a rebellion against Rome. But, of course, Jesus sees past the trap, asking to see a coin. He probably didn’t have one himself. He asks whose image is on the coin. Why, it is the image of Caesar. After all, the money belongs to Rome. So, Jesus tells them to give to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God’s. But everything belongs to God. What kind of answer is that? It was an answer that got Jesus out of their trap. The spies were left speechless and there were probably a few in the crowd who looked at each other and whispered, “Nice.”

            After these two confrontations. Jesus had not walked very far when the next one comes at him. This time the provocateurs are Sadducees. These are the royal priests, full of education, well cared for, elitist by nature. They only considered the books written by Moses, the first five books of the Bible, to be authoritative. They had no use for the prophets, probably because if they were self-critical they would have seen the prophetic writings targeting their character. They did not believe in angels or spirits, nor did they believe that there would be a resurrection. And they want to get Jesus on record whether he believes in the resurrection as well. They probably think he already does since Jesus isn’t as sophisticated as they are. So, they lay before Jesus a plausible but ridiculous example. A woman marries but her husband dies childless. According to the tradition she is to next be married to one of her brothers-in-law so that hopefully she will bear a son through him. The point of this practice is to assure that her original husband’s name continues through a son. Having a girl doesn’t count. And to die childless is even worse. In this scenario, the purpose of the woman and of marriage was to perpetuate a paternal line. This woman may have had love for her original husband, but her brother-in-law? As Tina Turner famously sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” This widow has now become the means to an end. And as the Sadducees spin out this example, they say the first brother-in-law dies without her birthing a son. So, another brother-in-law gets to try to make her pregnant. Same result. Then comes another. Her original husband had six brothers. They all get their chance and, amazingly, they all die. She is widowed seven times. You have to wonder by brother-in-law number four they would be preparing their last will and testament before bedding with her. At any rate, the whole example is absurd. Having set up this silly hypothetical they ask Jesus whose wife she will be since she was married to all seven of them.

            The Sadducees may not have realized this but when they brought up the question of resurrection it must have struck a chord with Jesus. I bet resurrection had been on Jesus’ mind a lot in those days. He was drawing closer to Jerusalem. He knew what he would face; the betrayal of his disciples, the beatings, the show trial, the crucifixion, the worst, most painful form of dying in those days. Anticipating all that suffering and pain must have weighed heavily on Jesus. I can imagine that when he mulled over what he would have to endure that what helped him take that next step toward Jerusalem was to shift his wanderings toward what happens after; his glorious resurrection. It must have been anticipation of his resurrection that gave Jesus the courage to keep moving toward the pain, suffering and cruel, humiliating death that was waiting for him.

            Do you ever wonder what it will be like in heaven? Most of us have heard stories of people who have died and come back to life who talk about the tunnel of light, who have gotten a glimpse of heaven, and then have come back to life. I have even met a couple people over the years who have had an after-death experience. These experiences bolster our anticipation that one day we will be in heaven. That can be a comforting thought when we are going through difficult trials or when we are confronted with mortality, the death of someone close to us or even our own mortality. We look around at all that is going on in the world, or our own situations, and we find ourselves wondering wistfully what heaven will be like. I wonder if many of us here are looking toward heaven with anticipation.

            We learn from Jesus a little about what heaven will be like when he responds to these educated fools who try to trap Jesus in their absurd example. First, Jesus tells them that there will be no weddings in heaven. Why? Because there will be no need. Look at how marriage is being understood here. At its foundation, marriage is understood to be the legitimate, legal way for a man to continue his paternity through his sons for the purpose of keeping his name going and to pass along his inheritance. The wife in this scenario is but a means to an end. And this needs to happen because the man will die someday and needs at least one son to pass his property to when he dies. But in heaven no one dies. So, there is no need to arrange inheritance transfers. The way Jesus lays it out, immortality undermines a core reason for marriage. Why get married when no one is going to die? This understanding of the purpose of marriage is a little different from our own. People don’t get married these days primarily so that a man will have a son to pass his inheritance. Men don’t get married by thinking to themselves, “Hey, I’m going to die someday. I better go get married.” Most couples get married mainly because they love each other and want to do life together as partners. If they don’t have children that’s fine. Some couples never intend to have kids. For most, marriage is primarily about their love for each other. Our understanding of marriage is not the same as how marriage was understood back then. But the main point Jesus is making here is that since there is no death in heaven there is also no reason for people to get married or even be married in heaven. Jesus doesn’t say it, but I wonder if there were women in the crowd who were relieved to know that in heaven they would not find themselves being objectified as baby producers. Maybe in heaven they will have their own dignity as full human beings and not means to an end.

            Speaking of equality, Jesus also tells us that in heaven we will be equal to the angels. Matthew Henry, a commentator of the Scriptures from the 19^th century, reflects on this by saying when we enter the heavenly country we will become “naturalized citizens” of equal standing with the native-born angels that walk that land. In heaven, we will live as equals with the angels. They will receive us as citizens and help us assimilate to life in heaven. The angels will assist us in our heavenly citizenship, teaching us what we will do and how we will live in this new world.

            And that leads to the last thing that Jesus tells us about heaven in this passage. Jesus says that God will still be our God. As I said a moment ago, the Sadducees believed that Moses was the only authority of God’s will. Jesus uses Moses to make his argument for the resurrection. When Moses was at the burning bush and God is speaking to him, God says, “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Jesus then tells them that to God these ancestors are still alive. Jesus says that God is not the god of the dead but of the living. God is still God for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They are still in relationship. Thus, they must still be alive. In the same way, we will always be in relationship with God. As Paul says later in his letter to the Romans, not even death can separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. God will always love us. God will be our God for eternity. Our relationship with God endures forever. So, in heaven, as we live out our heavenly citizenship with the angels, we will continue to nurture our relationship with God, loving and serving God, forever. This is our destiny.

            Until that time comes, we still have our mortal lives here on earth: our lives filled with a lot of joyful moments, but also with times of challenge, struggle, suffering and loss. Our lives will never be as challenging as was Jesus’ final week before his crucifixion, but still there are times when life is hard, the losses mount, and we can be overcome with grief. We get through one challenge and another one is just a few more steps along the road toward the eventual end of that road when we breathe our last breath. I don’t have to convince you that life is hard. And sometimes we are discouraged and grow weary.

            It is one of the gifts that Jesus has given us, to give us a few glimpses of what heaven will be like. These glimpses remind us that this world is not all there is, that the life we live here is just the beginning, the launching point for eternity. Some have said that the life we live now is a school that trains us for the resurrection life we will live in heaven. These glimpses of heaven give us the strength to keep pushing forward, to face our challenges and endure our struggles, knowing that we will get through this and one day there will be a new day, the eternal day, when the sun will always shine and there will be no night, an eternal Spring, when everything is becoming new, where life is bursting forth everywhere. And we will tend that good land, working alongside the angels, serving God as the Spirit directs, and joining with those on the earth below in worship of our God and King. The day will come when we will see the one who has journeyed with us every step of the way, from life, to death, to resurrection…Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Rich People Might Surprise You

Based on Luke 19:1-10
First delivered Nov. 3, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            Tax collectors get a bad rap in the gospel of Luke. Then again, who likes tax collectors? No one enjoys paying taxes. Sometimes people are annoyed with the IRS. Have you ever received a letter from the IRS? If you are like me, when you flip through the mail and see a letter from the IRS your heart starts to race and you get a knot in your stomach. A letter from the IRS is usually bad news. I guess someone has to do that work. And I am sure most employees of the IRS are fine people. But tax collectors are not the most popular people in the world.

            In the days of Jesus, tax collectors weren’t just unpopular. They were often deeply disliked. And it wasn’t just because they were the ones collecting the taxes. In those days, Israel was under Roman occupation. The tax money being collected was going into the coffers of foreign oppressors. And tax collectors made their living by levying more taxes than what was due. And they had liberty to set their own rates. Everyone knew that when they paid their taxes they were being overcharged and the tax collector was taking that money, not just for their own living, but so that they could have a comfortable life. Who were these tax collectors? Not Romans. They were local people. Do you see why they were despised so much? These were fellow Israelites who were not only serving the oppressor but exploiting their own people to have comfortable lives for themselves. It was sickening.

            So, you may notice that there are a few places in the gospels where people grouse about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners. You catch that? You have your garden variety sinners. But tax collectors get their own category of scorn. As someone might say, there was a special place in hell for tax collectors. And it wasn’t just because people don’t like to pay taxes. It is who they represent and how they made their living that caused tax collectors to be especially loathed. And, of course, that’s who Jesus would hang out with.

            Zacchaeus, though, was not just any tax collector. We are told that he was a chief tax collector in the city of Jericho. These are important details. First, Jericho was not an ordinary town. It was the winter capitol of Herod. To escape the cold and wet winters of Jerusalem, Herod would spend his winters in Jericho where the weather was a bit drier and more pleasant. That meant Jericho was a major city with a lot of wealth. A lot of well to do people would live in Jericho to be close to King Herod. There would be lots of commerce, lots of activity, and lots of opportunities to tax people. Tax collectors would do well in a busy city like Jericho. As the chief tax collector, Zacchaeus likely had a team of collectors he was in charge of. He didn’t have to be out in the tax booths dealing with people as they grudgingly paid their taxes and argued over how much they were being taxed. Instead, he would oversee the work of the team and in turn receive a percentage of what they collected. I imagine there was some stress related with that job, having to manage those tax collectors. Still, it was a good life. Zacchaeus probably had one of the finest homes in Jericho. He was well known to Herod and his court. He was somebody. And he likely had a reputation greater than his height.

            This leads me to a few questions. First, how did Jesus know Zacchaeus and why did he want to go to his house? Now we get the impression that Zacchaeus knew something about Jesus. When he heard that Jesus and his disciples were travelling through Jericho on their way to Jerusalem he had to catch a glimpse. Jesus had quite a reputation that was spreading all through the land. You could say Jesus was becoming a bit famous.

            Zacchaeus wasn’t tall in stature but perhaps his reputation made up for that. I would not be surprised if Jesus had heard about Zacchaeus. Did Jesus know what Zacchaeus looked like? Or did he only know he was a wealthy tax collector who also was really short? At any rate, when Jesus was walking through town and looked up at the sycamore tree and saw Zacchaeus, he recognized him and told him he needed to stay at his house today.

            Why his house? Well, Jesus probably had a good idea that Zacchaeus’ house would be big enough to accommodate him and his twelve disciples and whoever else was in his traveling party. Not only that, Jesus knew that Zacchaeus was a wealthy man. He had the capacity to feed and care for the needs of Jesus and his crew. So Jesus wasn’t shy about laying the demand of hospitality on Zacchaeus. But, I wonder if there was something else Jesus already knew about Zacchaeus, something about him that prompted in Jesus the desire to go to his house that day.

            There is something curious about how verse 8 is often translated from Greek into English in our Bibles. Usually we see something like Zacchaeus saying, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus says that salvation has come to this house. The verbs being in future tense, like this is something Zacchaeus has decided to do because Jesus has chosen to come to his house is supposed to make the point that his generosity is a sign that he has been transformed by the presence of Jesus. He is saved and demonstrates his repentance by announcing his intention to be very generous to the poor and to make things right with people he has defrauded with the most stringent restitution possible, four times what is owed.

            But, here’s the problem. Those verbs that are translated into the future tense are actually in the present tense. A literal translation would go like this: “Look, Lord, I am giving half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated someone of something, I make a fourfold restitution.” What Zacchaeus is actually telling Jesus is what he is currently doing. And it isn’t a one time act of generosity. It is his ongoing practice. Giving away half of his income to the poor and making restitution four times the amount which, perhaps, one of the tax collectors working for him defrauded someone out of, is what he does. Zacchaeus is a rich chief collector who is incredibly generous and goes above and beyond to make things right when people are cheated over the taxes they owe. And this might be the real reason Jesus wanted to spend time at Zacchaeus’ house. It could be that Zacchaeus had a reputation that got Jesus’ attention. Zacchaeus was looking for Jesus but I think Jesus was also looking for Zacchaeus. He had to spend time with a rich chief tax collector who had a heart of gold.

            If this is the case, that Zacchaeus was already doing all these things that got Jesus’ attention and prompted Jesus to spend the day with Zacchaeus, when did salvation come to his house? In verse 9 we read: “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.’” I think what Jesus means by that is to say that because Zacchaeus was so generous, in spite of his wealth and the way he made his money, that he was living a righteous life. He had mastery over his wealth. His wealth did not have mastery over him. If the choice was between serving God and serving mammon, this rich man was serving God. So, in the presence of everyone Jesus announced that salvation has come to this house. Jesus, who is the savior, declared this house to be saved. The way Zacchaeus lived his life was evidence of his right relationship with God. It was his generosity that demonstrated that he was also a child of Abraham.

            There is another group of people that get a bad rap in the gospel of Luke: rich people. You may recall the story of the rich ruler who asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. He had already inherited a lot of wealth. But what about eternal life? Jesus tells him to obey the ten commandments, which he says he already does. So Jesus tells him to sell all he owns and give it all away to the poor and then follow him. And he goes away sad because he was very rich and he doesn’t want to part with his wealth. Then Jesus says it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. Then everyone asks, “who then can be saved?” That is, can any rich person be saved then? Looks like all the rich are doomed for hell. But Jesus says that with God all things are possible. And, sure enough, here comes Zacchaeus as an example. God was able to work through Zacchaeus. With Zacchaeus, God has done the impossible. God has saved a rich chief tax collector… who everyone had to literally look down on because he was short.

            Notice that Zacchaeus was saved by God even though he didn’t give away all of his possessions. He did not live in voluntary poverty. He still had a big house, big enough to entertain Jesus and his disciples. He still was making lots of money, a daily stream of tax revenue was pouring in. Even though he was generously taking half of his income and giving it to poor people he was still living in a big house and was still a big shot. And he had enough money coming in so that he could pay back people four times the amount they were cheated out of. In spite of his great generosity, Zacchaeus was by no means a poor man. And that was fine with Jesus. He still saw salvation in Zacchaeus’ house even though he was very rich.

            So, it makes me wonder if the rich ruler would have been saved if he had said to Jesus, “I can’t give it all away. I will give what I can. Will you help me get to a place where I can divest myself of everything I own?” I bet Jesus would have accepted that. Jesus would have looked on him and said, “do this, and you will live. Go in peace. Your faith has saved you.” The rich ruler didn’t have to go from zero to one hundred. And, look, Zacchaeus didn’t have to give all his money to the poor and he was saved. Maybe all the rich ruler had to do was give what he could and trust that it would be enough. It is the intention and the effort that Jesus is looking for. Not perfection. If you are on your way in the journey to righteousness, Jesus will meet you where you are and help move you along. For Zacchaeus, Jesus didn’t have to ask him to do anything. He was already doing it. He was already living a life of generosity, providing for the poor and making things right for those who have been cheated. He was already living a right life. The rich ruler didn’t have to walk away sad. All he needed to do was step toward that needle eye and Jesus would have helped him through.

            Sometimes I think rich people get a bad rap these days. People point to statistics that show that wealthy people give less to charity based on percentage of income than middle class or working class people. Although, honestly, no one gives much as a percentage of income. I think the national average of charitable contributions per household is like 3%. In our political discourse, particularly among Democrats, we often hear about how the wealthy don’t pay their fair share of taxes. Maybe true, maybe not, but the impression is that rich people are greedy and out of touch and need to do more so that there is a more shared prosperity. Bernie Sanders in particular is always talking about the 1%. It feeds this class struggle between the wealthy class and the working class. I admit, there are times I get sucked into that. I drive through parts of our city where people are living in these huge houses on large lots and I think about the abandoned and broken down houses not far from where we are and think to myself, “There is just something wrong here. It doesn’t seem fair.” I’ll admit it, I sometimes find myself feeling a little righteous indignation toward rich people who live in their big mansions in their gated communities who go to their private country clubs and cocktail parties, sit on their boards, and host private fundraisers for whichever political candidate they want to influence. I know I’m not the only one who, honestly, are prejudiced against rich people.

            But you know what? Zacchaeus gives us an example that not all rich people are greedy and selfish. Not all rich people are like the rich man who refused to give comfort to Lazarus who died of hunger at the front gate of his mansion. Not all rich people are like the rich ruler who wasn’t even willing to meet Jesus part way with his demands to divest of all his wealth. Not all rich people are like the rich man who decided to build bigger barns and live off the surplus instead of share his bumper crop with others. Zacchaeus is an example of a rich person who maintains a very comfortable lifestyle based on earnings that are ethically questionable who is incredibly generous and more than fair in making things right when people are cheated. Not only did Jesus not have a problem with Zacchaeus, he wanted to hang out at his big house for awhile. Jesus was willing to include rich people in his community.

            Maybe all Jesus was looking for as he journeyed on this earth was to find a community where everyone could belong, a community where everyone is recognized as sons and daughters of Abraham, whether you were a leper, a child, a fisherman, or even a rich chief tax collector. I think that’s part of what Jesus was about: trying to create a space where everyone can eat together at the same table, Pharisees and prostitutes, tax collectors and scribes, disciples and Roman centurions. Maybe that’s part of what salvation is about: it is about the experience of hospitality, where all are welcome at the table, where there is enough for everyone, where all can find their place, where no one is lost or left out. Zacchaeus modeled that level of generosity. God forgive us when we allow our own prejudices to blind us to examples of generosity and hospitality all around us. For surely there are Zacchaeus’ in our midst.