The Power of "With"

 

Based on Luke 1:26-38

            There is a lot to be amazed about in the story of the annunciation. As Gabriel appears before Mary and greets her, Mary is puzzled. She is puzzled over what the angel said, not that an angel was talking to her. If an angel appeared before me and started talking to me, I might find that in itself puzzling. For Mary, it seems that this is not the first time she has had a conversation with an angel. Amazing. It is amazing that it is Mary, a young virgin living in the little town of Nazareth that is approached by Gabriel rather than someone with more status and clout. She is just an ordinary young woman in an ordinary town. Yet, the archangel Gabriel comes to her to give her a message direct from God. Amazing.

            What I invite us to focus on is the first and last thing that Gabriel says to Mary. In particular, there is a word that Gabriel says that is a critical word. It is a word that reveals something about God: about how God acts in the world, about how God’s plan of salvation unfolds, about how God relates to Mary and to us.

            The first thing that Gabriel says to Mary is, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” The last statement that Gabriel makes before departing is, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” The word with is an important word. If Gabriel used a different word than “with”, this would have given a different meaning to the message.

            What if Gabriel said this: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is for you.” And at the end, “Nothing will be impossible for God.” Can you tell the difference? By saying to Mary “the Lord is for you” is to mean something like God believes in you, supports you, is on your side. It is a vote of confidence in your abilities, what you are able to accomplish. In the same way, if Gabriel said “nothing will be impossible for God” this is a claim that God can do anything. Nothing is impossible for God to do. In either case, by using that word for implies that Mary and God are capable on their own to get things done. God supports Mary in whatever she wants to do. There is nothing that God can’t do.

            But Gabriel didn’t use the word “for.” Gabriel said to Mary “the Lord is with you.” Gabriel said, “nothing will be impossible with God.” That word “with” implies relationship. To say to Mary the Lord is with her is to say that God is her companion, by her side, in her corner. To say that nothing will be impossible with God is different than saying nothing will be impossible for God. To say nothing will be impossible with God is to make the claim that whatever you and God set out to do together, assuming it is God’s will since God would never do anything opposed to God’s will, whatever that is, even if the project or goal appears impossible, is not impossible because with God all things are possible. It reminds me of that passage in Philippians, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” While the word “for” implies support for someone or personal power and ability, the word “with” implies companionship and even partnership. This is an important understanding of who God is and how God relates to the world, to Mary, to us. If you wanted to boil down Gabriel’s message to Mary it is that God is coming alongside her and together something that seems impossible will happen. Mary, partnering with God, is going to advance God’s plan of salvation in an amazing way.

            A few years ago, I was at the State House participating in a protest over the continued killing of unarmed black men by the police. A number of speakers came forward one at a time to say what they wanted to say. After the speakers on the program had finished, one of the leaders came up to the mic and invited anyone else who wished to come forward and say what they need to say. But there was one rule. No one was to come up to the mic alone. They had to bring at least one person with them to stand by their side. She said, “No one is to stand up here alone.” I had never heard something like that before. It was a powerful symbol of how crying out for justice is not meant to be done solo. It is meant to be done together, people standing with each other, in that pursuit of justice.

            Who is your circle of friends? I remember doing this exercise once where we were asked to take out a piece of paper and draw a small rectangle in the center of the page with enough space where you could write no more than three names. We were then to write in that rectangle the names of those who we can turn to when we need support. It was an exercise that forced us to think about who were those few people who were in our closest circle, who are the ones we trust, respect, and love. Who are those few people who are in your inner circle? These are the ones who are not just for you, but are with you. No matter what is happening in your life, no matter the struggle, in good times and bad, these are the ones who will stand with you, no matter what. I do hope you have that small circle of friends who walk with you through life. That small circle of friends can be a lifeline sometimes. This is the power of “with.”

            And so, here is Mary being told by Gabriel that God is with her. God has come alongside her. This may explain why Mary was puzzled by these words, and maybe even a little scared. She may have thought to herself, “What does God want to do with me?” See, if God was with her, that may mean God has something for her to do. She knew the stories. She knew of God coming alongside Abraham and Sarah, Moses, David, and others. God was up to something, and of all people, God decided to come alongside her. What could that be? What is God up to and what is God going to be asking of me? I bet that’s part of what Mary was puzzling about.

            This can be a bit scary. Perhaps you have had that experience where you sensed God’s presence and began to get an inkling that God has something for you to do, a vision or a calling that God wants you to give yourself to. Or someone in your life has said something like, “God is with you and has plans for your life.” Who, me? What plans? This can stir up some puzzlement, some anxiety, even a little fear. What does this mean?

            Thankfully for Mary, Gabriel is fairly explicit about what God has for her to do. For those of us who have received the message that God has plans for us, they aren’t always clear at the beginning. Mary gets a pretty clear description. She is going to give birth to a son. She is to name him Jesus. That’s it in a nutshell. Mary responds with the question, “How can this be?” This is not a question of doubt. She takes what the angel is saying seriously. She accepts this is the assignment that God has for her. Her question is about logistics. She is a virgin and engaged to be married to Joseph. How is it that this baby she will give birth to will be called son of the most high instead of son of Joseph? She understands what she is supposed to do but unclear about how to do it. For any of us who have gotten a sense of what God wants us to do but with no provided plan from on high on how to accomplish it, we can relate to this question!

            That question Mary asks opens the door for Gabriel to speak of the Holy Spirit that will overshadow Mary. Ah, the mystery of the Spirit. I have discovered in my pursuit of living out God’s call on my life that it is often a mystery how this life I’m living will go. For those of us who sense an invitation from God to be engaged in the work that God is doing in the world, we need to be comfortable with ambiguity. There is a lot of mysterious Holy Spirit that overshadows partnering with God. That’s just the way it is, that the mystery of the Spirit makes things happen in amazing ways.

            After Gabriel explains that the Spirit will be active, will cause things to fall into place, will make the way where there seems to be no way, and then says that with God all things are possible, Mary exercises her agency. She first names out loud her dignity. I imagine with her head held high and her back straight, she says in the spirit of Isaiah who said, “Here am I, send me” Mary says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” With that statement, she places herself in the ranks of Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets. She says out loud that she is one whom God has chosen for an important task in God’s ongoing plan of salvation.

            Then after claiming her dignity as a servant of God, she says “Let it be with me according to your word.” In other words, Mary says “yes” to God’s invitation. This is perhaps one of the most critical moments in the unfolding of God’s purposes. Mary was not forced. She consented to what God was asking her to do. I love that. In fact, love is at the heart of all of this. Remember how Paul wrote that love does not insist on its own way. God is love. So, God would not force Mary to do anything that she would not consent to. Mary, whose love for God is on display, says yes to the One who has given her an incredible role to play in the salvation of the world.

            One of the big themes at Christmas is Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” This means so many things. It means we are never alone. It means that God is always in our corner. It means that God is in a relationship with us, a love relationship. It also means that each of us have parts to play in God’s unfolding plan of salvation. God has chosen to partner with us. Who, me? Yes, you. That can be scary. Not always, but there are times when what we sense God is inviting us to do calls for a big change in what we do in our lives, how we spend our time, what gets prioritized. Sometimes what we sense God calling us to do is radical, and we wonder if we are up to the challenge. Often when we sense that call we start asking questions of logistics: where will I find the time? What resources do I need? Where do I start? While we long for the divine blueprint to drop from heaven we are reminded that partnering with God requires trust in the mysterious workings of the Holy Spirit. And we are reminded that when we engage in pursuing the vision, the work that God has placed on our hearts and in our dreams, that with God nothing is impossible.

            God is with us, Emmanuel. God continues to extend to us an invitation to partner with God as God goes about the work of saving a world that needs saved. Today, we are reminded of the dignity, courage and trust of Mary. We can join Mary today and name our dignity as servants of God and to say with Mary, “Let it be with us according to Your word.”

 

Good News!

 

Based on Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

            I want to begin this message by asking you to take a second and think back to the good news you have received in your life. Anything come to mind? I remember one time when I was at the church in my office when the phone rang. I answered and it was my wife, Kim. She shared with me the news that she was pregnant! I hung up the phone, ran out of the church and across the yard to the parsonage, and bounded into the house to give her a big hug. What great news! What is your good news? Maybe it was something like when your daughter’s boyfriend came over to the house one evening to ask for your blessing to marry your daughter. Or it was your son opening the letter from Ohio State to learn that he had been accepted to attend school there. We get all kinds of good news throughout our lives.

            When we get good news, it gives us a jolt of energy, of excitement, and especially stirs within us a great sense of anticipation. As I embraced Kim and then we sat down and talked about this good news we began to anticipate holding our newborn baby. Giving your blessing to your daughter’s boyfriend, you anticipate the wedding and walking your daughter down the aisle. As you celebrate with your son you anticipate watching your son walk across the stage to receive his diploma in four short years. Good news prompts us to anticipate something good that will come in due time. It lifts our spirits and make us feel excited about the future.

            Good news also moves us into action. After Kim and I knew that she was pregnant and we spent a few moments reveling in the joy, we started thinking about all we have to do to get ready. Kim, the master of lists, was already working out in her head a list of all the things that would need doing. There would be a doctor’s appointment to schedule, a nursery to set up, a baby shower to plan and birth announcements that would need ordered. Now that your daughter and her boyfriend are engaged, there is a wedding to plan. Now that your son has been accepted to attend Ohio State, you now have to plan how to help get that education paid for and get your son moved out of the house and into his dorm. Good news, that stirs in us joyful excitement and anticipation of what is to come also motivates us to plan and get to work, to do the things that need to be done so that the anticipated birth, wedding, matriculation, whatever that anticipated event, can happen, that we will be ready to receive that anticipated event. Excitement, anticipation, action, this is what emerges from the announcement of good news.

            In the scripture reading for today we hear the prophet proclaiming good news to the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the captives. What does he say? “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” God is about to do something. The people, who were enduring a time of great struggle and suffering, were once again going to experience God’s deliverance. The prelude to that deliverance is the prophet who proclaims good news.

            As the good news is announced, the people are filled with excitement. Their spirits are uplifted. They anticipate the exchange of ashes for garlands, the exchange of mourning for the oil of gladness. They anticipate the heaviness of their burdens and suffering to be lifted and for their lives to be better. They anticipate better days ahead.

            And with that anticipation comes motivation. The people start planning, start organizing, gearing themselves up for the real work of building up the ancient ruins, raising up the former devestations, repairing the ruined cities and the devestations of many generations. As they anticipate the time of recovery, of renewal, of restoration, that God is about to commence, they are motivated to action. They know that the restoration doesn’t happen by magic. It takes a lot of work. But it is hope-filled work as they anticipate, assured by God’s power, that the restoration will come to pass in due time. It is the proclamation of good news that initiates this move, from excitement, to anticipation, to action.

            We could use some good news these days. There hasn’t been a lot of good news this past year. In fact, it has been a steady stream of bad news. It sometimes has been so constant that we find ourselves numbed to it. There is a new term that has come into vogue lately: doom scrolling, which typically is referring to those who scroll through their Twitter feed looking at one outrage after another. It seems sometimes that we couldn’t go one day without some kind of bad news. It hasn’t been all gloom and doom. But, honestly, the bad news has been unrelenting.

            That hoped for vaccine that will help us get a handle on this virus has been developed and is beginning to be distributed, and that is good news indeed! I suspect that if we collectively weren’t already exhausted and numbed by everything that has happened this year we would be expressing more excitement and joy about that. It really is amazing how quickly the vaccine has been developed. With this vaccine we anticipate finally getting the virus under control. And we are motivated to action. Lots of planning has already been taking place, work has been underway in anticipation of the release of the vaccine. The protocol of who will get the vaccine has been determined. The logistics of distribution are worked out. The plans are going into action. We now wait to be alerted when we can go get our vaccination. Good news!

            We can anticipate a lot of good news in the year ahead. As we move into 2021, we will hear good news about case numbers and hospitalizations going down. We will hear the good news that mask mandates are being lifted. We will hear the good news that we can start having concerts and festivals again. There is going to be so much good news in the year to come. And this will fill us with anticipation that we will have the pandemic behind us. Good news! And as we anticipate that time post pandemic, we are motivated to action. The work of recovering from what this pandemic has inflicted on us will be extensive. The economic damage and the emotional harm is great. It is sort of like after the 9/11 attack. We have entered a new world. We won’t really go back to the way things were in February of 2020. We have seen more clearly how fragile our society is, how out of whack it is. The politicization of dealing with this pandemic has torn at the fabric of our society. It seems we are living in two different realities. We all have a lot of work to do, to offer our small contribution to the great project of recovery.

            Here’s some more good news. God is still with us. God has been with us all through these past months and God will continue to be with us in the months and years to come. We are still a functioning church. We have each other. The Free Store and the food pantry are still here, still tending to the physical needs of our community. They never stopped. We still are part of a community full of people who are caring, generous, and committed to making things better. We are not out of the woods yet, but the good news is that God is with us and we are still here! We anticipate that God will always be with us and that the church will always be present. This calls us to hopeful action, to keep living out our discipleship in the ways we can as we respond to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our neighbors. Excitement, anticipation, action.

            The year to come will be a year of recovery. As we continue our journey through Advent, as we celebrate the birth of the Christ, and as we then move into the new year, my invitation is that we proclaim good news. May the Spirit inspire each of us to be proclaimers of good news. The good news we proclaim is not based only on the vaccine. Our good news is based on our faith and hope we have in the power of God. We proclaim the good news that God is engaged in the work of renewal and restoration. We proclaim the good news that with God we have a future with hope. With the power of God we will, in our lifetime and in the generations to come, engage in the work of building up the ancient ruins, raising up the former devestations, repairing the ruined cities, the devestations of many generations. Our God will see to it that this happens. Good news!

 

Passing Through the Wilderness

 

Based on Mark 1:1-8

            One thing you can say about Mark, his gospel is laser focused. Matthew and Luke have at the beginning of their gospels the stories of Jesus’ birth, including Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Abraham and Adam. John’s gospel starts with a poetic introduction reflecting on the mystery of the incarnation. But Mark has none of that. He isn’t worried about providing a back story or filling in the gaps. He drills down to the essence of the gospel. Details are at the bare minimum. He uses as few words as possible. No fluff in Mark’s gospel. He gives it to us straight.

            He starts with the opening statement, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And then Mark goes straight to prophecy. He says the prophecy is from Isaiah but in fact the prophecy he quotes begins from Malachi. In Malachi 3:1 we read, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me.” Then, in Isaiah 40:3 we find, “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.’” These prophecies speak of preparing the way for God who is passing through the wilderness. The wilderness is a sacred place. Moses encountered God in the wilderness in the form of a burning bush. Elijah saw God in the wilderness. Israel was led out of Egypt by way of the wilderness, where they saw God in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God is found in the wilderness. These prophecies call those who find themselves in the wilderness to prepare the way because God will be passing through. That’s how Mark starts his gospel.

            Mark then shows how these prophecies from Malachi and Isaiah are being fulfilled by John. Out in the wilderness we find John. How does he fulfill the prophecy of preparing the way of the Lord? He does it by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. There is something about this ritual act of confessing, repenting, and then marking that with baptism in water that links with the prophetic call to make a way in the wilderness for the coming of the Lord. Confession, repentance, ritual washing, all has something to do with preparation, of straightening the path upon which God will walk. We could pause right now and reflect on what this means. In these brief sentences Mark has opened up something deep and profound. But Mark doesn’t linger in his telling. He leaves it to others to take the time to read these words slowly and ponder the meaning. He has a gospel to proclaim. He rushes on to tell of how all the people who live in the country and in the city of Jerusalem come to John to receive that baptism. He describes John in a way that would cause people to associate him with Elijah, who was also described as one who was hairy and wore a leather belt. Then he recounts what John said about the one who is coming after him who is so much greater and who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.  All in eight verses. Again, there is a lot there in a few words. Mark’s gospel narrative is like a bullion cube.

            Now, here is where it gets interesting. Why was everyone going out to John anyway? What was going on in those days that motivated so many people to make the journey out into the wilderness so they could confess their sins, repent and be baptized by John as a ritual act of purification? It must have been a time of crisis. There must have been a sense that everything was out of whack. Things needed to change. There was a collective sense of a need to confess the mess that the people were in, the desire to repent, to choose a different direction, and to collectively start fresh. There was a collective sense of the need to get back to basics, to come back to God, to straighten things out and set a new course.

            Those were hard times. Israel was under foreign occupation, again, this time under the boot of the Roman empire. Many looked on the religious leaders and the whole system built around the temple in Jerusalem as corrupt. Things were bad. Many were longing for a messiah to be sent from God to fix things. We talked about that some last week. The status quo was terrible. Things had to change. The people were looking for something they couldn’t find in the religious system of the day, the sacrificial system based at the Temple.

            And that leads to the other interesting thing: why was John in the wilderness and not in Jerusalem? The obvious answer is because John is fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi and Isaiah. But there may be more to it than that. There is something about the wilderness that Mark is really stressing as he begins the telling of the gospel. I already shared a bit about what makes the wilderness special. It is sacred land. It is where people encounter God. And not just God. If we continued reading Mark’s gospel we will read how Jesus was sent into the wilderness by the Spirit of God where he was tempted by Satan, lived with the wild beasts and had angels waiting on him. Yes, the wilderness is a sacred place, a wild place, very different from the city. This may be where Mark is going with his early emphasis on wilderness and on all the people going out of the city into the wilderness to receive that baptism. The people were being drawn out of the city, a city that was corrupt and oppressive. You could almost say that what Mark is setting up is a new exodus. John is that voice in the wilderness calling the people to come out of the place of their oppression and to prepare for a journey toward freedom led by one whose sandals John is unworthy to untie. There is something about this gospel that calls for a journey through the wilderness, a new exodus from what was toward what is to be.

            What does all this have to do with us? The gospel of Mark was spoken into a specific context, of first century Palestine under Roman occupation and with a corrupt political and religious system. We live in a different time and place. We have a different history. Is there something about how Mark begins his gospel that can speak to us in our context?

            We are certainly in a time of crisis. Like I shared last week, we are in such a mess that maybe we can relate to the word of the prophet who pleaded for God to rip open the sky and come down to fix the mess. I don’t need to give you the litany of the crisis upon crisis we are facing. All I want to say about it is that we are in a big mess and it is the cumulative affect of our actions as a whole that has us where we are. There is not one person or group of people to blame. It is counter productive to try to determine who is at fault when the fact is that we are where we are today because of decisions and actions that have been carried out for decades and decades. The damage has been done. We are in the mess. There is no escaping it.

            How are we to respond to the mess we find ourselves in? We already know trying to identify who to scapegoat is a waste of time and counterproductive. Denying the reality of our current crisis is irresponsible. We have to respond to the mess we find ourselves in, but how?

            We begin with the example given to us in Mark 1:4-5. We give ourselves the space we need to honestly confess what we have done individually and collectively. How have we harmed the planet? How have we propped up white supremacy and systemic racism? How have we contributed to the vicious divisiveness in our politics?

            From confession, we move to repentance. To repent is to change your mind, to change the way you live, to do life differently. If we want to see a change in this messed up world for the better, then we have to change how we live in it. That is what repentance is about, consciously choosing to live a different way. For us, that always means consciously choosing to live our lives guided by the example and teachings of Jesus.

            Then we move to baptism. By baptism, I’m talking about the baptism that John provided. This was a ritual cleansing, a tangible act marking a clean slate, a fresh start, a new beginning. For us, we can simulate that by coming to the baptismal waters when we renew our baptismal vows. We touch the water and remember that we are baptized. Maybe there is something else you can do to symbolically mark your intention to live your life differently, more fully aligned with the way of Jesus. What could you do? I’m giving you the invitation. If, as part of your Advent preparations, you give yourself space to name your confession and make your commitment to repent, to live differently moving forward, how can you mark that commitment? How might you use water to ritually mark your intention to live differently with a clean slate?

            In Mark’s gospel, the people were preparing in the wilderness for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to come. John the baptizer was leading the way in preparing the way for the Lord. Well, Jesus has already come. We are following Jesus on a journey right now. It is a journey of exodus, of leaving behind what was and moving toward what is promised to be. We are on a journey to freedom, freedom from the powers of sin and death toward a community infused with light, life, love and beauty. Jesus is leading us toward that promised land.

            But right now, we are in the wilderness. This journey to freedom that Jesus is leading us on goes through the wilderness. The wilderness is a sacred place. According to Mark 1:13 the wilderness is where we are tempted by Satan, live with wild beasts and are waited on by angels. The wilderness is a space that is, well, wild. There are dangers and possibilities. There are no maps in the wilderness. And this is where we are. This is where Jesus is leading us now. Or, at least, this is where Jesus is trying to lead us. To follow, we first have to prepare the way by confessing, repenting, and then claiming a fresh start. The choice to prepare and follow is yours to make.

 

God is At Work

 

Based on Isaiah 64:1-9

            Have you ever wished God would just rip open the sky, come down and fix things? I have. This has been a year. The pandemic, the social unrest, the fires and hurricanes, the economic turmoil, the ugliness of our politics. And it’s not just this year. Honestly, the past several years has been full of upheaval. And it’s not just in our community, or even in America. The whole world is in an upheaval. There is so much going on in the world that is out of whack. We are living in a time where it would be great if God would just come on down here and clean up this mess.

            Of course, it wasn’t the exact same issues when the prophet wrote these words that were read this morning, beginning with that cry, “Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” The mess Israel found themselves in was what they found when they returned home from exile in Babylon. They were back home, Jerusalem, to rebuild the city and the temple and do the hard work of bringing Israel back to its glory days of old. But when they got back, they discovered that their rebuilding plans were not going to be easy. There were other gods being worshiped in the land. Other peoples were living there, had established villages and towns, and had their own way of doing things. Israel’s God was not a god recognized by the people living in Palestine when the Israelites returned from exile. It was a different world. And so, the prophet spoke the longings of his people for God to show up and let these people who had moved in who the real god of this land was. The prophet wanted God to shake some mountains, to shake things up, to make a big splash, so that the nations would know that the God of Israel was back.

            They knew what God had done in the past. They remembered the ancient stories that had passed down from generation to generation, of how God came down on Mt. Sinai to give Moses the Ten Commandments, and how the mountain shook in God’s presence. They knew the story of how God sent those plagues against the Egyptians, divided the Red Sea in two so that their ancestors could escape from slavery, and led them through the wilderness as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They remembered how God drove out the peoples that lived in Canaan, the land God chose to provide for Israel, the land that they were seeking to reclaim after their exile. They carried with them the stories of what God was capable of. It was this God that the prophet wanted to see active again.

            This is not our history. But as Christians we believe that God acted 2000 years ago by becoming a human being, working miracles, healing people, teaching the way that leads to life, and then suffering and dying as a common criminal, executed by the state, only to rise on the third day promising to send the Holy Spirit on all people, promising to be with us always, even to the end of the age, promising that we will also experience resurrection and live with God forever.

            We have heard stories of how the Spirit of God has acted in the world. We have heard how the Spirit has changed the hearts of people, transforming individuals, families, communities, even nations. The church of twelve located in Jerusalem is now the church of billions spread across the globe. God did that. This church exists by the action of God. God has acted in your life and in mine, in small and in big ways. In fact, your very existence is something that God had a hand in. All around us we see the activity of our Creator.

            But it doesn’t seem enough. The world is broken. And we long for God to come and fix this broken world. We want to be hopeful, that it isn’t too late for God to act, to make things right, to bring the nations together, to have a world where there is peace, where every person and community can thrive, where nature is rebalanced and healthy. We want to hope that things can be better than they are, and that God can and will make sure this renewal happens.

            But will God actually rip open the sky and come down? Will we get to the point where God says, “That’s it! I can’t take it anymore! I’m taking matters into my own hands!” How bad does it have to get until God gets to the breaking point and comes down and fixes things?

            This leads to another question. We have been waiting for Jesus to come back for 2,000 years. How bad does it have to get for Jesus to come back? I wonder what people were thinking during the Black Plague when between 1346 and 1353 it is estimated that anywhere from 75 million to 200 million people died throughout Europe and Asia. Monty Python spoofed this by having someone pushing a cart through the village crying out, “Bring out your dead!” But it was no laughing matter. Death was everywhere. Christians in those days were convinced they were living in the end times. It could not have gotten any worse than those years of the Plague. Yet, we are still here. Most, if not all of you who are listening to this message have wished at least once that God would come down here and fix things. It is part of our tradition as Christians to look for that time when Jesus will come in final victory and we will feast at that heavenly banquet. And yet, here we are in the mess.

            When the prophet wrote these words, a few hundred years before Jesus was born, he confronted the issue of why God had not shown up. The prophet said that the sins of the people had prompted God to hide God’s face from them. He said all of the people were unclean. Even their good deeds were like filthy rags. The prophet acknowledged that the messy world they were enduring was the consequence of their own actions.

            The same is true for us. As we look at the mess our world is in, it is impossible to assign blame. We are all complicit. We are all entangled in the mess. The chicken nuggets we buy at McDonalds are the remnants of chickens packed tight in sterile facilities. The cheap clothes we buy at Kohl’s are made by people in Malaysia and Bangladesh who barely make a living wage. The cell phones we carry around have precious metals inside that were mined in questionable safety conditions. So much of what we buy and consume, the conveniences we enjoy, are on the backs of people who suffer indignities and inflict damage to the earth in unsustainable ways. We are all entwined in the mess. As the prophet said all those years ago, we are all unclean. We are all like dried up leaves blown around by the wind.

            Where’s your holiday spirit, Pastor Kevin? We are all under a lot of stress these days and I don’t mean to add to it by reminding us of our complicity in the brokenness of the world. All I’m trying to say is that none of us our pure. We are all compromised. We are all complicit. We are all in need of forgiveness. We are all in this together and bear some responsibility for the mess.

            Here’s the good news. We still belong to God. That’s the other thing the prophet said. “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter…We are your people.” This is our situation: we have all become like one who is unclean and we are the work of God’s hands. What God makes is precious. You and I are precious. But our actions and the consequences of those actions have knocked everything out of kilter. God is still working on us. God is still attempting to reshape us, as a potter works the clay. God is active, not by ripping open the skies and coming down, but in a quieter and mysterious way, within the secret chambers of our hearts.

            This reshaping is helped along when we are honest with ourselves. This season of Advent which we are now entering in to is a good time to take stock of our lives, confess what we need to confess, and turn back to God. We are all so ready to leave 2020 behind. What else do we need to leave behind? As we begin this annual journey of preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we find ourselves longing for God to act in the world, to renew and restore and heal. Let us begin this journey by inviting God to act in our own hearts, to renew and restore and heal us as we move toward the celebration of Christmas.

 

Love Without Limit

 

Based on Matthew 25:31-46

             This is a transition Sunday for us. For about six months, since we celebrated Pentecost, our Sundays have been identified by the number of Sundays since Pentecost. For example, last Sunday was the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. On this Sunday, we stop keeping track of how many Sundays it has been since Pentecost. We call this Sunday “Christ the King” Sunday. This is a day where we affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord and that one day King Jesus will return and finally establish the reign of God on earth. As Americans, who do not know what it is like to live under the rule of a king, I admit it is a bit difficult to really get what it means to call Jesus our king and our lord. But it is the language that has been handed down to us through the generations, so we try to relate to it the best we can.

            Today’s scripture from Matthew’s gospel was chosen for this Sunday because in it, Jesus is portrayed as the king sitting on his throne with all the nations of the world gathered around him. It fits with the theme of the day. It is also a good passage for today because the way Matthew has laid out his gospel, this passage is the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching ministry. From this point on, Matthew gives the account of Jesus’s passion. So, this scripture marks a transition in Jesus’ ministry on earth, as he moves from being the teacher and the healer into being the one who offers himself for our salvation.

            Often, when preachers or lecturers are getting to the end of their talk, they will say things like “in closing” or “in summary.” They then make that last point or say something that attempts to pull the message or lecture together, tie up the loose ends so that the talk feels complete. Of course, you may still have questions about what was shared. But at least a good summary demonstrates how all the points of the message or lecture fit together. You see how the speaker got from point a, to point b, to point c.

            In the same way, this teaching that Jesus presents in today’s scripture reading serves as a summary. It attempts to communicate the main gist of all of Jesus’ teachings, beginning at the sermon on the mount, to instructions on how members of the community are to relate with each other, to teachings about the authority of Jesus, to what we are supposed to be doing while we wait for the Lord’s return, to now this summary teaching. What Jesus gives us is not a parable. It’s not like a story about a farmer planting seeds or a widow looking for a lost coin. It’s not really an allegory like we have seen where the master represents Jesus and the servants represent disciples. Instead, Jesus gives us a description of a future event. He describes an experience in which, as I said, he is sitting on a throne, all the nations of the world are gathered around him, and he separates all the people in front of him into two groups which are called the sheep and the goats.

            It is easy to get lost in the details of this description and wonder exactly how this will unfold, the whens and the wheres. One part of this story I find particularly baffling is the image of all the nations of the world gathered around him. That must be billions and billions of people, right? Who exactly are they? I also wonder where exactly this judgment scene is taking place. Is it on earth? Is it in the heavens somewhere? I grant you, for a summary statement of Jesus’ teachings this is not exactly the clearest. Jesus doesn’t say, “In summary, point one, point two, point three.” This account of a future judgment does evoke our imagination. It draws us in with its imagery. And I think to spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how this goes, the practicalities of exactly how this judgment works, misses the point of what Jesus is trying to say to us. Instead, I believe we need to approach this story allowing Jesus his artistic license as he describes this future event.

            As we reflect on this judgment story it seems the clear point is that how people respond to the least of these, whoever that represents, has ramifications for their future. Specifically, those who tended to the physical and emotional needs of the typically overlooked and neglected in society will inherit the kingdom of God while those who did not care for the needs of the overlooked and marginalized are thrown into the eternal flames with the devil and his angels. It is what people did or did not do that impacts their eternal future.

            For a lot of us, this sounds like works righteousness. We are taught that we are saved by faith and not by works. Jesus died on the cross for our salvation. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins you will be saved. It is a question of belief that determines our salvation. But in this teaching Jesus gives us, there is nothing about belief. On the face of it, our future judgment is not based on what we believe but what we do or do not do. How do we make sense of this? Do we receive eternal life because we confess Jesus as Lord or because we have cared for the least of these?

            I want to get at this issue by focusing on the question that each group, the sheep and the goats, asked after Jesus rendered his judgment. Both groups responded to Jesus’ judgment by asking the same question: “When was it?” Everyone was surprised that they did or did not feed Jesus, clothe Jesus, welcome Jesus and visit Jesus. The sheep were just taking care of people, no matter who they were. The goats imposed a limit on who they cared for. None of them realized that the least of these, whoever that is, Jesus doesn’t say explicitly, was actually Jesus. Or, better, Jesus so completely identified with the least of these that it was as if they were caring for him. I know, it’s a little ambiguous here. Artistic license, remember? The main point is that none of them knew they were ministering to Jesus or neglecting Jesus.

            And that is a good thing that steers clear from works righteousness thinking. See, if they knew that caring for the least of these was like caring for Jesus and doing so would grant them entrance into the kingdom of heaven or disposal into the eternal flames, the temptation would have been to care for the needs of others as a means to an end. To say it in a crass way, they would have cared for the least of these, used them, as a means to inherit the kingdom. If the motive to care for the least of these is so you can get into heaven, that diminishes the integrity of the act. It’s no longer about love. The least of these are treated as objects, as a means to earn a seat at the great banquet. So, it is best that none of them knew. This is such an important part of this story.

            We know what is at the heart of the will of God. You remember when someone asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment and Jesus answered by giving two: love for God and love for neighbor as love for self. Jesus said on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. If you want to boil it down to the essence of God’s will for us it is truly one word…love.

            This judgment scene between the sheep and the goats leads us to this question: where do we set the limit of our love? Apparently, the goats had a limit. It’s not that they didn’t help people. I’m sure that they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and those in prison. But there were some people they overlooked. There were some people whose needs they chose not to respond to. Who are those neglected ones? We don’t know. But Jesus knows them. He knows them so intimately that Jesus identifies himself as them. But when the goats saw these people in need, assuming they even noticed the least of these, they chose not to respond. They turned aside. There was a limit to the expression of their love.

            The sheep had no limits to the expression of their love. If they saw someone in need, it didn’t matter who they were. No labels. They just saw someone in need, they had the capacity to respond, so they did. Their expression of love was limitless. They wasted no energy trying to decide if they should help someone or not. If they had the capacity to respond they did because that’s what love requires. For the sheep, they demonstrated that love was at the core of who they are. The sheep embodied love. It’s that simple.

            What is the summation of Jesus’ teaching? Whatever Jesus taught, it had to be consistent with the will of God. The heart of God’s will is love. This is the heart of Jesus’ teaching. From the sermon on the mount to this description of future judgment, every teaching Jesus gave at its core is about love, love for God, and love for neighbor as love for self. It really is that simple.

            We are in a transitional time of year. We are transitioning into Advent, our four week preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We are transitioning into winter as the nights get longer and the air gets colder. We are transitioning into potentially the worst part of the pandemic when, God forbid, our hospitals could get filled up, elective surgeries put off, thousands more get sick, and perhaps thousands die. We are transitioning into a season that combines longing and hope, grief and joy, sadness and delight, loss and wonder.

            Our challenge as we transition into these next several weeks is to love others without limit. Not so we can get to heaven. Not so at the last judgment we get to be sheep and not goats. We strive to love without limit because love is the essence of who we are as creatures made in the image and likeness of God. We are made for love. By the grace of God, let us be the ones who love without limit as we move through this present darkness.

 

What Motivates You?

 

Based on Matthew 25:14-30

            The parable of the talents is a fascinating story. It is the second of three stories Jesus tells in this section of Matthew that have a focus on the time between when Jesus leaves the earth and when Jesus returns to establish the reign of God on the earth. Last week’s story was the parable of the ten bridesmaids. We considered what it means to be prudent during this long delay of Jesus’ return. We spend our time now getting ready by living righteous lives. The third story in this series, which we will look at next week, is about the final judgment, that well known scene where people are separated like sheep and goats and what you have done for the least of these you have done to Jesus.

            This week’s story is on the parable of the talents in which three servants are given different amounts of money to manage while the master is away for a long time. Often this story is turned into an allegory. The master is Jesus. His being gone a long time reflects the delayed return of Jesus. The servants are disciples. The talents could be spiritual gifts or skills. It is unclear exactly what the talents are supposed to represent. At the end of the story, the master, Jesus, returns and holds the servants, his disciples, to account for what they have done with what the master has given them. This perhaps symbolizes the final judgement. What the servants did or did not do is either rewarded or punished. The moral of the story is that we need to use the gifts and abilities God has given us to serve God in the world. If we hide those abilities and not serve God with them, we will lose those abilities and be held accountable. That’s basically how this story is usually talked about in sermons. This is often a go to passage for Stewardship Sunday, as you can imagine.

            As we look at this story again, I want to focus on the motivation and actions of the three servants. I believe this is the heart of this story. I want to set aside what this story may be trying to say about Jesus and his role as a judge. I also want to get away from wondering why one of the servants got five talents and why the last servant only got one talent. We are going to avoid trying to figure out exactly what the talents are supposed to represent or what trading money in the marketplace has to do with being a disciple. I want us to instead look at what really separated the first two servants from the last servant. What separated them was not the amount of money they were given to manage but what motivated them and the actions that followed their motivation. If we focus on that, I find this story has something important to say to us in these times we find ourselves.

            The first two servants were motivated by faithfulness. The master was going away for a long time. He had confidence in his servants to manage his money while he was gone. He gives them a lot of money to manage. As you may recall, one talent is equivalent to what a common day laborer would make over fifteen years. So, five talents are equivalent to seventy-five years of labor. Most people would never earn five talents in their whole lives. So that is a substantial amount of money. Two talents are a lot of money. Even one talent is a significant amount. The first two servants receive that money and are motivated by faithfulness. They are motivated to honor the faith that the master has put in them.

            Now, notice this. The master does not give any instructions on what the servants are supposed to do with the money. He just gives them the money and hits the road. Each servant has to make a decision about what they will do with the money they have been given. The first two servants, motivated by their faithfulness, wanting to honor the faith their master placed in them, take the initiative and follow the example of their master. See, the reason why their master has all this money in the first place is because, as we see in verse 24, he reaps where he does not sow and gathers where he did not scatter seed. In other words, he is an investor. He provides the capital the farmers need to grow their crops and expects to get his cut from what they produce. That’s how he grew his wealth. His servants watched and learned what their master did, how he handles his business. So, the first two servants take the initiative to do what their master would do. They put the money to work, exposing it to potential risk, with the goal of doubling that money. That’s how they honored the faith their master had put in them. They did what their master would do. Motivated by faithfulness, the servants took the initiative, took on the potential risk, with the hope that they would make their master proud, so they could demonstrate to their master that he was right to put his faith in them.

            The third servant, however, was motivated by fear. He was afraid of what might happen if he put that money to work and he lost it all. What if he let his master down? What if the faith the master had put in him was misplaced? He was paralyzed by fear. So, what he decided to do was to protect that money. He decided to bury it in the ground where it would be safe. That way, when the master came back, the servant could give him the money back. Safe and secure. Motivated by fear, fear of the master, the servant’s fear of his own lack of ability, he took the route of burying the money for safe keeping. Risk free.

            That’s the thing about fear. When we are motivated by fear, we seek to minimize risk. For anyone who has experience with investing, especially if you are working with an investment advisor, one of the first questions asked is about what your risk tolerance is. An investment advisor might say to you, “OK, you have this money that you are not going to need for ten years and you want to invest it in the market. With a range from very aggressive to very conservative, where would you be willing to place your investments and still be able to sleep at night?” It is a question about how much risk you are willing to take. If you take on more risk than you are comfortable with, that gets into fear mode. You would be so afraid that you won’t sleep well at night. That’s just one example. Fear as a motivation tends to get us acting in ways that conserve, that circles the wagons, that closes in and seals off. Motivated by fear, the third servant acted accordingly by avoiding risk and, frankly, not doing anything except bury the money and then go on with his life.

            Of course, when the master gets back and finds out what the third servant has done he is furious. It’s not even so much that the servant didn’t make him any money. I think the master was mostly disappointed because that servant did not follow his example. All this time the servant had been watching how the master worked with his money. He watched the master go about his business. The master gave this servant an opportunity to do what he did, to follow the example he had set, to take the initiative with the associated risks. I can imagine that if the third servant had followed his master’s example and ended up losing all the money, that the master would have been disappointed but, hey, it goes with the territory. At least the servant tried. He followed the example of his master. He did the right things. We don’t control the results, especially when it comes to investing. Fear did this servant in. The master was not sympathetic.

            Were the first two servants fearful? Were they afraid of what might happen if they lost the money through their investments? Apparently not. Or at least whatever fear they may have had was overridden by their gratitude that their master had placed his confidence in them to do what he would do. They were honored by what the master had entrusted to them and they wanted to do their master proud by following his example and doing what he did, in spite of whatever anxiety they were likely feeling. They were on their own, after all. They had to take the initiative. They had to put in the work. They had to do the things and take on the risk. But their faithfulness to their master was the overriding motivation that got them out there to do what their master taught them to do. If fear motivates us to turn inward, conserve and protect, faithfulness motivates us to be engaged, get out there and do what we need to do.

            What is your motivation these days? If you had to choose your main motivation in your day to day living between faithfulness and fear, which would you choose? Motivational speakers sometimes get a bad rap. They can be the butt of jokes. Many years ago, on Saturday Night Live there used to be that bit where the fictional character Stuart Smalley would give these daily affirmations. He would start his bit looking in the mirror saying, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog gone it, people like me.” But even though they are being spoofed, the truth is that what motivates us does matter. Fear is a powerful motivation. But so is love. You are loved. You are precious to God. God has given you your life. God has faith in you, that you can live your life after the example that Jesus has set for us. Yes, it takes initiative. Yes, there is risk. But you can live your life in a way that honors the faith that God has placed in you. You can live a life that is faithful to God. Even with the anxiety and stress that you are carrying in these anxious and stressful times, you can and are being faithful.

            I want to encourage you today to keep at it. Keep striving, every day, to live your life motivated by faithfulness, faithful to the way of Jesus, confident in God’s faithfulness. Keep living a faith filled life with confidence that the day will come when you will hear spoken into your life, “Enter into the joy of your master.”

 

Are You Prepared?

 

Based on Matthew 25:1-13

            The Boy Scout Motto is “be prepared.” That is a good motto to live by. Although we don’t always know when things will happen, we do know what can or will happen. We will get sick or have significant health issues at some point in our lives. We will retire. We will die. The stock market will go up and down. There is always a possibility that there will be a blizzard, or a fire that could destroy your house, or an auto accident. The prudent thing to do before any of these events occur is to be prepared to deal with them when and if they happen.

            Boards of election across the nation have been preparing for an historic voter turn-out, especially when it came to early voting and mail-in voting. For months they have been getting staffed up, building up the needed infrastructure, to handle all those ballots in the most efficient way possible to get out an accurate vote count so that the will of the American people could be heard. It has been frustrating for many of us who were hoping to know by Tuesday night who was going to be the next president. Imagine if those boards of elections, especially in the states where the vote is so close, had not been prepared to deal with all those mail-in ballots. I think we should be grateful that they were prepared and are getting the job done. Preparing for all those mail-in ballots was definitely the prudent thing to do.

            Above my desk at home is a cork board where I have different things pinned with thumb tacks. One of those things is a piece of paper that is a Disaster Preparedness Calendar from the Red Cross. It provides a 24 week plan. For each week there is a list of things for you to buy at the grocery store or the hardware store and a few action steps. If you follow the calendar, your family will be prepared for any kind of natural disaster that could happen. That calendar has been pinned to that cork board for years. I glance up at it from time to time and say to myself, “I need to do this, get started on this.” But I haven’t started. I think to myself that I’m going to regret not having followed this calendar if we have a big blizzard or something else happens and we will have to shelter in place at the house for a week. I’m not taking the time I have now to get ready for the potential disaster. I’m being foolish because I am wasting this time and not getting prepared.

            The parable of the ten bridesmaids is about being prepared. Prepared for what? In the story they are waiting for the bridegroom to come, so that they can escort him to the house of the bride, where the wedding and the party will take place. Their job is to light the way. But they don’t know when the bridegroom will make his appearance. The prudent thing is to be prepared with extra oil so that they will have functioning lamps when the bridegroom shows up so they can do their job.

            Of course, this story is an allegory that points to something else. For us, this story is about our being prepared for the return of Jesus and the establishment of the reign of God. This is part of our tradition, the belief that Jesus will come back some day. Every time we have communion, we declare the mystery of our faith, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” We don’t know when Christ will return. But we do know that he will. Our task is to be ready, to be prepared for his return. How do we get prepared? This story of the ten bridesmaids gives us some clues.

            In this story, we are told that five were foolish and five were wise, or better prudent. We are told right up front why half of them were foolish and the other half were prudent. The foolish ones did not bring flasks of oil to refill their lamps if needed. The prudent ones were prepared. They brought extra oil with them just in case the bridegroom was delayed. They knew that was a possibility so they wanted to make sure they could do their job and escort the bridegroom into the house where the wedding would take place. Whether or not the foolish bridesmaids considered this possibility or not, they were not prepared.

            The question for us is, what does the oil represent? We get a clue at the end of the story. In the middle of the night, while the bridesmaids were asleep, they hear the shout that the bridegroom has arrived. The bridesmaids trim their lamps but the foolish ones have run out of oil and there isn’t enough extra that the prudent bridesmaids can share. So, the foolish ones are told to go buy some real fast. Good luck with that since it’s the middle of the night. But, in desperation, the foolish ones run off to go see if they can maybe find someone they can buy oil from. While they are off hunting in vain, the prudent bridesmaids escort the bridegroom to the house and they all go in to enjoy the wedding and the party after. The foolish bridesmaids, likely still without any oil, stumble in the dark to the house where the wedding is taking place. They knock on the door and say, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.”

            We have heard this before. If we go back to Matthew 7:22-23 we read this:

 

On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you.”

 

Why did Jesus not know these people who called him Lord and did all kinds of miraculous healings and spoke prophecies? It would seem that since they are doing these powerful things in Jesus’ name that they would be known by Jesus, right? But Jesus says in vs. 21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Jesus knows only those who do God’s will. You may be wondering how is it possible that Jesus only knows those who do God’s will since Jesus died for everyone. How is it that Jesus doesn’t know somebody? Still, the point that is trying to be made here is that doing God’s will is necessary to enter into the kingdom of God. This is what Jesus is teaching. Those who fail to do God’s will are left out. That may sound harsh. But there are consequences for not doing God’s will and that’s what Jesus is trying to stress here.

            So, going back to that question about what the oil stands for. The foolish bridesmaids lacked oil and they were left out of the wedding. There are a few other stories in Matthew where a wedding is a symbol of the kingdom of God. So, by being left out of the wedding, the bridesmaids are being symbolically left out of the kingdom of God. They are being left out because, based on Matthew 7, they did not do the will of God. That’s why the Lord did not know them. Their failure to do God’s will is symbolized by their lack of oil. The prudent bridesmaids who brought oil with them are those who did God’s will. The oil represents doing God’s will, doing the right thing, being righteous.

            One more thing I want to say about this story. It is likely that Matthew’s church struggled with the question of why Jesus had not come back yet. This was a big question for the earliest Christians. They thought that Jesus would be coming back soon to establish God’s reign on the earth. But the first generation of Christians were starting to die off. They were wondering what the delay was. This story helped address that question. Yes, the bridegroom Jesus is delayed. We thought Jesus would be coming back soon but that does not appear to be the case. What should we be doing while we wait? Get ready. Be prepared. That’s the message to Matthew’s church. The last line of the story is, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” By keep awake is meant be ready, be prepared. We look back at the story and see that all the bridesmaids fell asleep. So, by saying “keep awake” that does not mean we can’t go to sleep, obviously. The point is that the followers of Jesus need to be prepared and ready to welcome Jesus on his return. And the way to be ready, to be prepared, is to have extra oil. And that oil is the doing of God’s will. To be prepared is to be about doing the will of God.

            Two-thousand years later, we are still waiting. Our task is the same as those first and second generation Christians who really believed they would see Jesus again in their lifetimes. We don’t know the reason for the delay. We would be forgiven if we drew the conclusion that maybe Jesus isn’t coming back, or not coming back in the way we thought he was coming back. Still, our tradition teaches us that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. We believe that the Lord will return some day and will finally establish the reign of God on the earth. In the meantime, we wait. And we use the time we have to get ready, to be prepared for the Lord’s return. As the first Christians a few thousand years ago, so we strive to live our lives guided by the will of God. If you are wondering what that is, Jesus revealed it in his sermon on the mount. That sermon in Matthew 5-7 is what we need to know and live to be prepared.

            It is prudent for those of us who are working to save and invest for our future retirement. It is prudent to have homeowners insurance in case your house catches fire. It is prudent to have supplies on hand and a backup generator if you are out of power for a few days or stuck inside because there’s six feet of snow blocking your front door. But most of all it is prudent to be prepared for the return of the Lord by doing the Lord’s will in your daily life. It’s not about working miracles, healing people, speaking prophecies, any of that. It’s not about looking for signs and trying to predict when the Lord will arrive. It’s about living your life as Jesus taught us to live.

            Somebody once was visiting a monastery and walked past a monk who was working a garden plot with his hoe. The man asked the monk, “If you knew for sure that Jesus was coming back today, what would you be doing right now?” And the monk replied, “I would be hoeing this garden.” He was prepared. He was doing God’s will. He knew Jesus and was assured that Jesus knew him. Are you prepared?

 

How Fortunate We Are

 

Based on Matthew 5:1-12

            All Saints Day is our version of Memorial Day. It is the one day a year when we as a community of faith remember, not just those who have passed away since last All Saints Day, but all who have passed away since the church began. But not only that. All Saints Day invites us to call to mind all throughout time who have passed into the fullness of God’s presence. If we go back and look at Hebrews 11, the author speaks of the faith of Abraham, of Moses, of Rahab, Samson, David, of men and women whose names are known only to God. This great assembly that stretches back thousands of years are called in Hebrews 12:1 a great cloud of witnesses. These are the saints, the untold millions, billions, countless number of witnesses who surround us. It is these saints, our ancestors in the faith, that we memorialize today.

            All Saints Day is the day we memorialize all the saints, the community of saints, the great cloud of witnesses, who have gone before us. As I think about this image of the great cloud of witnesses, I am reminded of a story I once heard of this man who went to visit a well known Russian Orthodox Church somewhere. The building was massive. For those that are familiar with what the sanctuary of an Orthodox church looks like, this sanctuary was other-worldly. The icons, the ornate tile work, the candelabra. But as the man entered the sanctuary for worship in this famous, well known church, there were a few elderly women in the pews, the priest and a deacon. The sanctuary was virtually empty. After the service was over, the man introduced himself to the priest and expressed his gratitude for the beautiful service. Then he asked, “How does it feel to be offering up the liturgy in such a large space with so few people in attendance?” The priest laughed and said, “What do you mean, just a few people?” We are surrounded by a mighty cloud of witnesses. When we gather for worship, we are joined by the angels and archangels and the mighty throng of the church triumphant.” I know that for some they look at the Orthodox church a bit askance because when you enter the sanctuary you see icons everywhere. In the front, along the sides, on the ceiling. You are literally surrounded by the icons, images of saints, of Mary, of Jesus. Perhaps this is off putting to some. But especially on All Saints Day, it makes sense to be in a space surrounded by icons. It is a visual reminder that when we gather for worship, whether the gathered space is filled with icons, bare walls, or even in a living room or out in the woods, we are surrounded by a mighty cloud of witnesses, the saints who have gone before us. This is the day to remind ourselves of this truth.

            As we remember all those who have gone before us, our ancestors in the faith, we also recognize today that we too are part of that community of saints. I know that in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox churches there is a process in which a person is vetted and, in time, may be officially declared a saint. As an aside, you may have heard that a few weeks ago, the Roman Catholic Church beatified Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15 in 2006. Beatification is the first step toward sainthood, making Carlo the first of the millennial generation to potentially become a saint. I understand why this is done. Those who are declared saints serve as role models for the rest of us. They are looked to as those who embodied the best of what it means to be a Christian. In this light, saints are like Christian heroes.

            But the truth is that all of us who have responded to the invitation to follow Jesus and be a disciple are saints. You and I, right now, are saints and we belong to the community of saints. Belonging to the community of saints is not reserved for after you are dead. We belong to that community now.

            What is a saint, anyway? We find a definition in Rom. 1:6-7, where Paul speaks of those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, God’s beloved and called to be saints. These phrases are all synonymous and point to our calling to be distinct from those who do not belong to Jesus, that is, those who do not follow the way of Jesus. A saint is someone who follows Jesus. A saint is another word for disciple. We often think of saints as great, holy figures. But in the broadest meaning of the term, a saint is a follower of Jesus Christ. If you understand yourself to be a follower of Jesus, that makes you a saint…warts and all. The community of Jesus followers is the community of saints. That’s our community.

            What does the community of saints look like? What are its characteristics? This is where today’s scripture reading comes in. The beatitudes of Matthew 5 give us a glimpse of what the community of saints looks like, both in this world and in the world to come. The beatitudes name current reality and then describe a future promise that can be trusted because the one who speaks these beatitudes is Jesus, the very Word of God. These beatitudes cover the community of saints of this current time and of the future promise that we expect to experience fully when we die and enter into what is sometimes called the church triumphant, that mighty cloud of witnesses that currently surround us and are now experiencing the promise we find in the beatitudes.

            There are two quick points I want to make about the beatitudes. One is that these beatitudes describe a community, not individual disciples. What I mean is, we should not read the beatitudes as a description of an individual disciple. In any given moment, you are not all at once poor in spirit, mourning, peacemaking, meek, and merciful 24/7. You are sometimes expressing some of these characteristics. But no one person is all these things at the same time, all the time. But, if we look at the community of saints as a whole throughout the earth, we will absolutely see these characteristics expressed. The beatitudes describe a community, not individual disciples.

            The second point is that the beatitudes are gospel. They are good news, an expression of hope. When you look at them, they tend to move from struggle to relief. For example, there is movement from being poor in spirit to possessing the reign of God, from mourning to being comforted, from hungering and thirsting for righteousness to being filled. It’s this movement from a tough current reality to a future promise of comfort, fulfillment, salvation. The beatitudes are an expression of a hopeful future. And it is this hopeful future that allows us to proclaim our current blessedness. This phrase “blessed are” could also be “fortunate are.” Fortunate are the peacekeepers because they will be called children of God. It is the future promise that makes our current position one of being fortunate, in spite of the current suffering that we from time to time have to endure.

            And this gets me to the next thing I want to say. As I look over these beatitudes, I am particularly drawn to two of them. In these times in which we live, two of these beatitudes really resonate with me and I think they resonate with you as well.

            The first one is, blessed are those who mourn. We have a lot to mourn over these days. Today we mourn over those family and friends who have died this past year. We mourn over the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to Covid. We mourn over the continuing divisions and polarization in our society, how some of us have lost friendships or seen family ties strained over this political divide. We mourn the loss of civility. We mourn over the lives cut short due to gun violence or drug overdose. There is so much these days that we can mourn about. And we are fortunate that we can mourn. Fortunate are those who mourn. We are fortunate to belong to a community that values mourning, lamenting, grieving. I know what it’s like to be surrounded by my church family when I was grieving the loss of my mother. I had the space I needed to be sad and to take my time to process my grief. And often I thought to myself, how do people get through their grief without the church? We are fortunate to have a community where we can mourn. We are fortunate, because Jesus has declared that we will be comforted. We experience a taste of that comfort in this life and can be assured of our comfort in the life to come.

             The second beatitude that resonates with me is this one: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righteousness means doing the right thing. Another word for that is justice. That really speaks to me in these days. Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for justice. This year has revealed so much injustice. One example: when we moved into shut down mode earlier this year as the pandemic erupted, we discovered who are the essential workers and who are non-essential. And as it turns out, a lot of those non-essential workers are quite well compensated while quite a few essential workers barely make ends meet from paycheck to paycheck. The officer that shot and killed Breonna Taylor as she lay in her bed will face one charge, reckless endangerment, because some of the bullets he shot hit another apartment. He will not be held accountable for killing Breonna Taylor. For many of us, this appears to be unjust. We hunger for a just society free of racism, sexism, all the -isms, where every child has equal opportunity to thrive regardless of what zip code they live in, where people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. We hunger and thirst for justice. And it is fortunate that we do. We are fortunate because that hunger and thirst for justice is what motivates us to be engaged, to speak up, to demand more. And we are fortunate because Jesus has promised that we will be filled. We will experience a taste of justice in this life even as we are promised to experience the fullness of justice in the life to come.

            Fortunate are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they will be filled. Our current reality is marked by mourning and by longing for justice, for people and institutions to do the right thing. We are a global community of saints in which many of us are mourning and longing for justice. These are the times we are living in.

            And we are fortunate to be living in these times. We are fortunate that we live in these times as a community of saints. As we mourn, we comfort each other. As we long for justice, we practice justice together as a community. But above all else, we have the promise of God spoken through Jesus. In these days and in the days to come, both in this life and the next, we will be comforted, we will be filled. We are fortunate because we have hope for a better future. Of this future hope we can be certain because God has spoken it into existence. And there is a great cloud of witnesses that can vouch for that promise because they are currently experiencing it.