It's Amazing

Based on Luke 1:36-45

This is a hard time of year for preachers. It’s Christmas time. And, just like Easter, the Bible stories we hear has been told so many times in so many ways that it is extremely difficult to say anything really new about it. What new twist can be found? What new kernel of wisdom or insight? We have heard the story of Elizabeth and Mary so many times. We almost have the telling of Jesus’ birth memorized. These stories are so familiar to us. What can anyone say about these stories that we haven’t already heard before? It seems all we have left to ponder is the story itself and maybe that’s enough. Maybe that’s all we need, to hear these familiar stories and marvel once again at how God came into our world as one of us, taking on human flesh, in this way, with these women, in that time in history. It is a marvelous story.

Consider how marvelous this story is. Some may even say it is absurd. Mary has just had a conversation with the archangel Gabriel, telling her that she would get pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and will have a boy who is the Son of God. That is some big news for a teenage girl who, according to tradition, had spent all her life within the Temple of Jerusalem, having been offered by her parents Joachim and Anna in service to God, just like what Hannah did with her son Samuel. Of course, when you get news like this, that you are expecting a baby, you don’t just sit on that news. You get up and tell somebody. And the first person you tell is likely the most important person in your life. Notice that apparently it wasn’t Joseph. Maybe that was for obvious reasons. She would have some explaining to do! Instead, Mary gets up and hurries to a small, unnamed village in the hill country of Judea, to a relative who must be the most important person in her life, Elizabeth. Tradition tells us that Elizabeth was Mary’s aunt, which would make John and Jesus cousins. Isn’t that amazing? What a family! Elizabeth was someone who was dear to Mary, who Mary was comfortable sharing such amazing news. In those days, Mary had to slip away from the watchful eyes of the priests in the Temple and run to the village where Elizabeth lived to tell the good news. In these days, Mary could have just called Elizabeth. I doubt if she would have posted it on Facebook though. “I’m pregnant and God is the father.” Would you click the “like”, “love”, or “ha ha” emoji? Would you respond with “congrats”? That would be an odd Facebook post.

With a story like this, that you are expecting, and the pregnancy is the work of the Holy Spirit, this is a story you would only tell the closest people that you can trust; someone who would believe you and not think you are crazy. Elizabeth fits the bill. After all, Elizabeth’s pregnancy was unusual as well. She was barren and an old woman. She was just like Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who although well advanced in years conceived and gave birth to a son and named him Isaac. These ancient stories are coming to life with these women, aren’t they? The word was out that Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, had seen an angel that told him that Elizabeth, barren and well past childbearing age, would give birth to a son who is to be named John. Mary surely reasoned that if anyone in the world could understand the message she had received from the angel it would be Elizabeth. In fact, there would be no one else in the world who would understand what Mary was experiencing than Elizabeth. So, Mary had to go to Elizabeth to share her news.

But what happens next is even more amazing. As Mary approaches Elizabeth, John kicks her. Now there is nothing amazing about a baby kicking their mother’s uterus. What is amazing is what Elizabeth says. She doesn’t say, “Oohhh, I felt that one.” Instead, she said, “The child inside me leaped for joy as soon as I heard you say hello!” And, the scriptures say, the Holy Spirit fell on Elizabeth. Now this is something impressive. In those days the Holy Spirit rarely fell on anyone. Only prophets received the Spirit for the purpose of speaking God’s message. And 99% of those prophets were men: Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, etc. But here is elderly Elizabeth, the priest’s wife, who has been granted the blessing of carrying a special child who will prepare the way for Jesus. John is already preparing the way in utero by leaping in his mother’s womb. That’s how Elizabeth interpreted that kick. The one who carries the greatest prophet in her womb becomes a prophet herself.

Elizabeth is a prophet because as soon as she saw Mary and felt John leap in her womb, she knew that Mary was pregnant. Mary had not yet told anyone she was pregnant. She just found out herself! But Elizabeth already knows. The Spirit had revealed it to her. And right away Elizabeth sings a song of blessing over Mary and the baby in her womb. Mary follows up by singing a song of her own which, by the way, seems like an improvisation of the song Hannah sang after she gave birth to Samuel. Go back and look at 1 Sam. 2:2-10 and you will see the similar theme of how God turns things upside down, lifting up the poor and hungry and lowering the arrogant and greedy rich.

And there you have it, two women carrying two miracle babies in their wombs. Here, in an unnamed village in the hill country of Judea, you have an old woman and a young woman embracing each other with joy and singing songs of blessing. One has inside her womb the greatest of all prophets. In the other, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior. Amazing.

Why did it happen this way? This is why some think this whole story is absurd. Here is the account of how the greatest prophet of all time and the savior of the world came into being. It isn’t among the powerful. It isn’t in Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria or Rome. It isn’t among the elites. And men are only ambiguously involved. Zechariah is only involved by divine intervention and is not allowed to speak because he didn’t immediately believe what the angel said to him. Joseph had nothing to do with it at all! This amazing event, an event that turns the tide, that ushers in the salvation of the whole world, is first experienced and shared by an old woman and a young girl in a small village in the hills of Judea. This is how God decided to break into our world. And we are left to puzzle why, of all the ways God could have come into our world, that God chose this particular time, in this particular place, with these particular women.

As hard as you may try, the question of why this way and not another can’t be answered except to conclude that this is how God does things. God tends to act in ways that we don’t always expect or notice. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. God’s ways are not our ways. God has a bigger view of things than we will ever perceive. It’s almost as if God intentionally chooses to act in unexpected ways among unknown and marginalized people to further demonstrate just how amazing God is. We are all left to marvel at how it happened, that two women on the margins of society are the first to realize how it is that God will come to save the world. Not only do they know how it will happen, they are instrumental in its unfolding. It’s just amazing. I don’t know what else to say about it.

If there is one message we can take from this, it is that God can work through anyone who has a heart open to God. It’s not just the wise people, or the people of great talents, notoriety, and wealth. It is anyone who is open to the possibility that God could use them for ministry. And it’s not the size of the ministry that counts. It is true that large ministries can have large impact. People who have successfully grown ministries from just a few people to the participation of thousands can be inspiring and may have some things to teach us about God and about the practicalities of growing a ministry. Leaders of these large ministries have people coming up to them all the time asking for guidance or encouragement. They have tons of Facebook friends and thousands of Twitter followers. They command a lot of influence for good. God definitely uses people like that and the large ministries they shepherd. But if the Bible shows us anything, it is that God tends to work through people who are not well known or well connected. Elizabeth and Mary were ordinary people, at least on the outside. But on the inside, they were open to the possibility of being used by God to accomplish amazing things. We can follow their example by allowing ourselves to be open to what God may want to accomplish through us. Whether God’s intention is for you or me to one day birth a massive ministry that reaches thousands or even millions or it is to bless just one person today, that is up to God. Who God is looking for is people who are open to God’s leading, who are willing to say “yes” to God, no matter how challenging or even ludicrous that invitation may be. Elizabeth and Mary said “yes” to a couple of mind blowing and life altering invitations. They are ordinary people, like you and me.

Elizabeth carried a prophet in her womb. Maybe you have a prophetic word inside of you that needs to be expressed. Mary carried in her womb our Savior Jesus. We believe that by accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior that he dwells in our hearts. As Mary carried Jesus in her womb so we carry Jesus with us in our hearts. Every day we have opportunities to share Jesus with others, by what we say but mostly by what we do. We can announce the good news that no matter what, God is with us. Perhaps this is something we can take with us as we rush toward Christmas: that when it comes to being available to be the means through which God blesses the world, all of us are included. When God is looking for faithful servants, God is looking at you and me. Just like Elizabeth and Mary, you and I can be in on what God is up to, something that most people miss entirely because we aren’t famous. Being famous isn’t required to be selected by God to do something that can literally change the world, at least the world of one person, maybe even your world.

What Should We Do?

Based on Luke 3:7-18

You have been traveling for days. Others have joined you on your journey through the wilderness. People from all over are making their way out to the desert to hear from a prophet named John. A large crowd has gathered to hear a word from the prophet and to receive from him a baptism for repentance. The crowd quiets down as John steps up, eager to hear what he has to say. He opens his mouth and shouts, “You offspring of snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming wrath?” That’s a provocative opening statement.

Maybe there’s a reason why John lived his whole life in the wilderness. No social skills! Can you imagine going all that way into the desert only to be called names and humiliated by the person you came out to see? Some who were more sophisticated about the crude nature of prophets may not have been surprised and even expected John to lead off with salty language. Prophets are known for using provocative language that gets a rise out of people. It’s the smooth talking prophets that tickle the ears of their listeners that you have to be concerned about. But I imagine there were a good number of people who were put off by John’s opening words, and maybe a bit defensive. Who is he to call me the child of a snake? Does John wish I would have stayed away so that God’s wrath could get me? How rude.

John may not have been everyone’s cup of tea. But he stands in a tradition that is a gift for the rest of us. Like drill sergeants and no nonsense supervisors, we need people who will speak hard truths, who are direct and to the point. We sometimes need someone who will give it to us straight, no chaser. Sometimes we don’t need the teaspoon of sugar to help the medicine go down. We need prophets who tell us the plain truth of the matter in a way that gets our attention and communicates that this is serious business.

When John saw this crowd, he wanted to make sure they knew that what John was up to was serious business. He didn’t want them to get the impression that they could get off easy just by going out into the wilderness and getting wet in the Jordan river. It wasn’t enough to say “I’m sorry” when it came to all they had done that had offended God. They couldn’t rely on being descendants of Abraham to escape the wrath of God and being cut off from the people. John wanted the crowd to know that just showing up wasn’t enough. If the people wanted to escape God’s wrath, they had to live differently. They had to do life differently. They could not continue to behave the way they were and expect to avoid judgment.

So, John let them have it. If they want to come out here to receive the word of the prophet, good. If they want to repent of the way they have been living and want to make a change, good. If they want to mark that repentance by receiving a baptism of purification in the Jordan, good. But it’s not enough if they want to avoid the wrath of God. They cannot leave this place in the desert and go back to business as usual. They had to live differently, or this was all a big waste of effort. All God cares about is what people do. That’s what people will be held accountable for, the kind of life they live.

Here’s the bottom line of John’s message to the crowd. Time’s almost up. The wrath of God is coming. The ax is lying at the root of the trees and getting ready to be swung. If you aren’t bearing good fruit, if you aren’t living right, then God is going to cut you down and throw you in the fire.

That message was enough to get the attention of the crowds. They were properly provoked and alarmed. John had given them a dose of truth and they were engaged and determined to not get struck down by that divine ax. So, the crowd cried out to John, “What should we do?” They want to be trees that produce good fruit. But how?

I can almost see John rolling his eyes. “You all don’t know what to do? Are you really that clueless?” John gives the crowd simple, practical examples of what producing good fruit looks like. If you have two tunics, give one to somebody who doesn’t have a tunic. If you have extra food, give it to somebody who doesn’t have any food. In other words, share. Tax collectors asked what they should do. John told them to be fair. Soldiers asked what they should do. John told them to not take money from people and be satisfied with their wages. Don’t be greedy. Don’t abuse your power.

This isn’t complicated. Do you want to avoid God’s wrath and produce good fruit? Put your love into action. Do good. Share. Be fair. Practice the golden rule. Express love with deeds. That’s it. You don’t have to believe the right things. You don’t have to know all the answers. You don’t have to say the right words. The fruit God is looking for is simple acts of kindness and generosity. You know, like what we learned in Kindergarten? If you can do that, then you will be ok.

I thought of John’s message when I caught a clip of an interview given by Bob Dole. I don’t know if it was the last interview he gave but he was clearly well advanced in years when he gave it. He said that every day he would try to make a difference in one person’s life. He said he didn’t always meet that goal, but he committed to always work at it. That is an admirable goal to set. Make someone’s day each day of your life. Bearing good fruit.

The homily at Bob Dole’s funeral was given by the Senate chaplain Barry Black. He did not serve the Senate when Dole was there, but he did help him in the process of building the World War II memorial. About Dole, Black said that he didn’t wear his religion on his sleeves. It was his deeds that demonstrated his faith. Black said that Dole lived his life in the words of someone who said, “I want to see your sermon instead of hear it.” Or, in the words attributed to St. Francis, “Preach the gospel at all times, using words only when necessary.” Bearing good fruit.

One of my favorite times of the week is around 6:50 on Friday evening. CBS evening news ends their broadcast with a segment of Steve Hartman “On the Road.” Do yourself a favor and go to YouTube and type in the search box “Steve Hartman on the road.” You will be inspired by one story after another of people doing something simple, an act of kindness, that has an impact that will warm your heart.

There is a story about a high school that was plagued with fights. Over a period of days over twenty young people were arrested. It was out of control. In response, a group of men took it upon themselves to hang out at the school. They greeted the students in the morning. They wandered around the halls during the day. They said goodbye to the students at the end of the day. They joked and teased the kids. They occasionally gave “the look.” The presence of this group of men changed the atmosphere of the school overnight. Hartman said to the group of men, “None of you are social workers. You do not have masters degrees in social work. You are not trained in law enforcement. No education degrees. What are your qualifications?” One of the men said, “We are dads.” They talked about how for many of these kids they do not have any male role models in their life. They said that these students are all their kids. They act like dads for these students. And it has made all the difference. Bearing good fruit.

There is the story of a general store in a small town in Vermont that was on the verge of closing. Why? Because there were literally no employees. The last worker had quit. It left the owner alone to run the store. But for the community, this general store was the heart of the town. So, people took it upon themselves to do the work that needed done, whether it be stocking shelves or running the cash register. Retirees, professionals, people who just had spare time, they would come in and work at the store, volunteering their time. All these people did it because they didn’t want to lose that store. Bearing good fruit.

Closer to home. Debra, the director of the Free Store, was sharing with me a story about the recent Holiday Express Breakfast. She said that as a family was going along to get their breakfast of pancakes and sausage, one of the kids, with a big grin on her face, said, “This is like Bob Evans!” Bearing good fruit. A neighbor in Westgate put out on Facebook that her husband was coming home from the hospital after having back surgery and asked if anyone had a wheelchair they could borrow. At Parkview, we have a couple that are never used. So, I met her at the church and loaned out the wheelchair. She brought it back when they were done with it and expressed gratitude about how helpful that chair was so that her husband could get around the house. Bearing good fruit.

“What should we do?” That was the question that the crowd asked John the prophet. Maybe John rolled his eyes. Maybe not. But actually, that’s not a bad question. I invite you to carry that question with you. Have that question on hand when you are confronted with a situation. When you learn about someone in need, or a problem in our community, ask yourself the question, “What should I do?” And then, listen for a response. It doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. It can be as simple as sharing what you have. Do you have spare clothes, spare food, spare time? Share what you have. Bear good fruit.

What is Your Assignment?

Based on Luke 3:1-6

When our kids were younger, we would read them a bedtime story. One of the books they wanted us to read every night was the classic “Good Night, Moon.” Kim and I almost had that story memorized by the time the boys were ready to hear a different story. Night after night, we would read that story, kiss them good night and turn off the light. “Good Night, Moon” was part of the bedtime ritual. We couldn’t change the story.

This time of year, we hear the same stories, again and again. Soon, on Christmas Eve, we will hear again the story read from the gospel of Luke of the birth of Jesus and the shepherds keeping their flocks by night when all of a sudden a host of angels appears in the sky. It would make no sense but read the birth story of Jesus on Christmas Eve.

There is another story that we hear every year during Advent, and that is the story about John the Baptist, the one who was out in the wilderness, wearing a cloak made of camel’s hair, who eats locusts and wild honey. John and Jesus were cousins. And while Jesus was trained by his father Joseph to be a carpenter, we are told that John grew up in the wilderness. It was out in the wilderness where John received a word from the Lord. And he proclaimed that message to prepare the way for the Lord.

Just as it makes sense to tell the birth story of Jesus on Christmas Eve, it makes sense to tell the story of John the Baptist in the weeks leading up to Christmas because John’s message was one of preparation. Advent, these four weeks before Christmas are a time of preparation for us. But what are we preparing for, exactly? It has to be more than just the preparations involved with decorating the house, buying and wrapping presents, and preparing the Christmas Eve service. Advent should be a time when we are doing some inner work, some preparation in our hearts. We want to create some space so that we can ponder and marvel over what Christmas is all about, that God became human, being born as a baby. God became one of us. God can relate to what it means to be human because God became human. We need to take this time to pause, to consider the mystery of the birth of Jesus, and prepare ourselves so that when Christmas Eve comes, and we hear that birth story again we are ready to receive this mystery and delight in it.

How do we prepare our hearts? That’s where John’s story comes in. He tells us to make the paths straight. We are to fill in the valleys and lower the mountains, straighten out the crooked paths and smooth over the rough places. It’s like he is telling us to create a smooth, flat surface. It’s a lot easier to go from one place to another when the surface you are walking on is flat and the road is straight.

The first church I served was in Alva, Oklahoma, home of Northwestern Oklahoma State University. It is located just to the east of where the Oklahoma panhandle is located. Sometimes, I would have to drive from Alva to Guymon, which is located in the middle of the panhandle. I would point my car west and drive along. I could go for miles without passing another car. The road was as straight as an arrow. So, as I flew down the road, I would maybe prop a book up on the steering wheel and read a little bit. When Kim was driving out there, she would also be balancing the checkbook. When the land is flat, there are no cars, no towns, and the road is straight, that’s an easy trip.

What does this have to do with John’s message? John is saying that the Lord is coming, so we need to prepare the way of the Lord. We prepare by making the passage as smooth and easy as possible. We want the Lord to get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. We don’t want the path to be weaving back and forth. We don’t want anyone to stumble over a stone. We don’t want to deal with walking down and back out of a valley or have to walk up and back down a mountain. We want it to be straight and smooth for the Lord. We don’t want any obstacles blocking the way of the Lord.

But I want to draw our attention to what is unique about how Luke tells the story of John the Baptist. In his telling, he doesn’t tell about how John wore camel skins and ate locusts and wild honey. Instead, he expands on the quote from Isaiah that the other gospel writers include. And he lists the names of all these institutional leaders: the names of the emperor, the governor, all these tetrarchs, and who were the high priests at the time. All these people, with the exception of Phillip and Lysanias, have roles to play in the story to follow. So, Luke is introducing some characters in the story if you will. But what else may be going on here?

Partly, Luke is locating this event in history. When the word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness, this took place in a specific moment in history. By naming these leaders, Luke is stressing the point that this is not a legend he is describing but is something that happened in real time. We do this today, when we talk about historic events, by naming periods of time based on who was president: the Bush era, the Obama years, the Biden presidency. Naming presidents, those in power, is a handy way to note the time frame we are talking about. So, this is what Luke is doing.

But also, Luke is setting up a tension around power, about who is really in charge. After naming all these officials, the emperor, the governor, the tetrarchs, the high priests, Luke says the word of God came to John in the wilderness. These powerful leaders live in cities. Everyone knows their names. They are “somebodies.” John is a “nobody” who lives in the middle of “nowhere.” Yet, John receives a word from God. Not the emperor, not Pilate, or Herod, or even Annas or Caiaphas. It’s John. How is it that someone who has no institutional power gets a word from God? Who has more power and authority? 

Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, they all have titles: emperor, governor, tetrarch, high priest. Their titles give them power and authority. And it is significant. No one was more powerful than the emperor. He had the command of an army to back up his power. He had control of the economy. All these other titled people derived their power from the will of the emperor. And it didn’t matter what you or anyone else thought about it. This is the way it was. Love him or hate him, Tiberius was the emperor and if you didn’t fall in line, you would suffer the consequences. Just look at the people who were crucified as a consequence of rebelling against the emperor to see what would happen to you. Clearly the emperor had a lot of power.

Except God has more power. And the word of God has more authority than any word that the emperor or any of these entitled leaders would proclaim. John, a nobody who lived in the middle of nowhere was given a message that had more power and authority than that spoken by the emperor. That’s just bonkers. But here’s the really amazing thing about how God’s power is on display through the words spoken by John. People could ignore John, could pay no attention to the word of God spoken by John, and absolutely nothing would happen to them. I would not be surprised that Tiberius didn’t even know who John was, much less hear what he had to say. And that didn’t impact Tiberius one bit.

Here’s the amazing thing. For the word of God to be effective, to have the impact that God intended, people had to hear the message and believe it. No one held a sword at your throat and demanded you listen to and accept this message from God spoken by John. You had the freedom to decide for yourself if you would listen to, believe, and act on this message. You had to give consent.

Not only do you have to give consent to accept this message, you had to go out of your way to hear it. If the emperor wanted to get out a message, he could send messengers all over the place, to every city, town and hamlet, to declare his message. Not John. Someone had to tell you about John, and then you had to leave your town and go out to the middle of nowhere to find John and hear his message. It took some effort. There was no straight path to where John was. To make that kind of journey you had to at least be open to what John was saying. No one would go into the wilderness to hear John if they didn’t care what he had to say. You couldn’t miss the emperor’s message, whether you cared to hear it or not. But to hear a word from God through John, you had to care. You had to work to get there so you could hear it. You had to contribute to the process of receiving that word. It wasn’t going to be handed to you or delivered by a town crier.

So, let’s say you have decided to make that journey into the wilderness so you could hear a message from God delivered by John. You hear the message. Now what? Do you shrug your shoulders and say to yourself, “Wow, that was a waste of my time.”? I would think that after going all that way, probably on a road that curved, where there was some rough places, and maybe even a valley or mountain to deal with, and having received that message, you would want to respond in some way. John told you what to do. You are to prepare the way of the Lord by making that path straight and easy. You are to repent, change your way of living, and mark that decision by getting baptized. Now, let me quickly say, John’s baptism is different from the baptism that we receive when we come to belief in Jesus. The baptism John offered was like a ritual act of purification that you could do, with anticipation that your sins will be forgiven. But the main thing I’m trying to say is to believe the message of God spoken by John, you have to respond. You have to do something. Or not. Like I said before, no one was going to be able to threaten you if you chose not to do anything or believe what John was saying. John had no army to back up his authority. You are free to take it or leave it. But if you decide to accept the message, then there is a needed response.

Now, wouldn’t it be a lot easier to hear the message, believe it, and then go back home and continue on with your life? The problem is that the message John speaks is not something that you can just believe and then go on like nothing happened. The message includes an assignment. We have to prepare the way of the Lord. We have to fill in the valleys and level the mountains. We have to straighten out the curves and smooth out the rough places. We have work to do. We have to be about the work of removing obstacles out of the way so that the Lord can come through.

Just think about that. What are the obstacles that obstruct the way of the Lord? What gets in the way of the Lord passing through?  Maybe one of the biggest obstacles are the mental blocks. People think they have to go on this long spiritual journey. They have to do certain things, say the right prayers, read the right books, listen to the right preachers, go to the right churches. Some people even get the idea that to find God they have to go to some theological school or be ordained as a minister. Finding God is the business of the professional.

The reality is that the way of the Lord doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t have to go down valleys and up mountains to find God. As a matter of fact, to find God, all you have to do is look inside your own heart. I think I heard someone say once that the path to God is the distance from your head to your heart. It’s that journey from knowing about God in your head to knowing God in your heart.

What is your assignment? How do you need to prepare the way of the Lord? Maybe your work is to do your own straightening out, to reconnect that path between your head and your heart so that the God you know about can be the God you come to know in your heart. Or maybe your assignment is to work on moving those obstacles for others, to help them see by your own example that the path to God is not complicated. I invite you to consider your assignment. The voice of the one crying in the wilderness says, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, fill the valleys, level the mountains, straighten the crooked places, smooth over the rough places.” What is your assignment? How will you accomplish this task?

How Will You Live?

Based on Luke 21:25-36

Christmas is coming! What an exciting, busy time this is. Some of the best music we sing is right now. All the decorations and parties, the anticipation of being with friends and family, giving just the right gift and receiving some surprising ones, Christmas carols, snow, there’s so much to like about the coming of Christmas. This is a time of great anticipation and preparation. It’s almost as if the holiday season just picks us up and takes us on a ride.

Christ is coming! This truth is a bit more uncomfortable for many. Some can’t wait for Christ to return. For many others, the bearer of this message is like the man walking the streets with the sign that says “The end is near!” To talk of Jesus coming back is a lot harder to get our minds around than the annual celebration of his first coming into the world as a baby born in Bethlehem. The church has been on tip-toe in anticipation for about 2,000 years waiting for his return. It’s hard to keep the anticipation level up with that kind of wait.

Besides, when the Bible speaks of the end times, it describes times that are very troubling before Jesus comes back. I remember being profoundly disturbed when I was younger and the topic of the rapture would come up, when all of a sudden people just disappear and the rest are left behind. I remember seeing bumper stickers that said “Warning: this vehicle will be unmanned in case of rapture.” In my young faith I would anxiously wonder, which will I be? The moment of truth: will I be left behind? The descriptions of a final battle between good and evil, the sun going dark like a lunar eclipse or the moon turning to blood like a solar eclipse, the world being burned up by fire, plague and war, it’s not a happy picture. It’s certainly not something to anticipate, right? It gets really bad before Jesus comes back, and when he does, everything is turned upside down and the End arrives. One day, the sun won’t come up and there won’t be a tomorrow. What then?

It was a normal spring day. People were going to work or school or heading out on their morning errands. At the water resources board, a couple who desired to tap water on their land and bottle it for sale were meeting with others who were concerned about the impact that might have. The person assigned by the board to be the arbitrator of the hearing introduced herself, shared the agenda and the process to work through the issue, and without warning, BOOM, a bomb blast from across the street shatters glass and knocks them out of their seats. A few seconds of collecting themselves and the people who were concerned about selling water are now concerned about their own safety. They exit out of the building and look at the Alfred P. Murrah building across from them. Half of the nine story building is gone. People are strewn about wounded and in shock. Emergency workers are pulling in from everywhere. The beautiful spring sun is occluded by thick, black, and grey smoke. Confusion, disbelief, and fear permeate the air. An average day in April turns into a horrific catastrophe where 168 people, including 19 children, were dead and over 850 injured, many of them permanently disabled.

As the dust settled, and the rain came to help wash away this terrible mess of destruction, love and support came from all over the nation and world to Oklahoma City. The stories of the heroes and survivors and victims were told. Countless numbers of people stuck between the links of hastily thrown up fencing all kinds of mementos and expressions of solidarity. Funerals were planned, of which 20% of the area population went to at least one. A huge memorial service, with prayer offered by Billy Graham, was a powerful testament to faith in the midst of broken hopes and dreams, and the power of unity and love against the forces of hate and division. A national memorial was constructed. The survivor’s tree, a huge elm located right next to the building yet somehow withstood the force of the blast, even though being embedded with concrete, steel and glass, expressed for many the deep roots of faith.

Life returned to normal. The regular day-to-day stuff of life worked its way on all who went through that experience. Back again were the days of average existence, the petty bickering, the soap operas of dysfunctional relationships, the everyday anxieties of life. And then it happened again that fall morning in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania six years later, when the act of terrorism in Oklahoma City seemed like a warmup to the main event. And the vicious cycle of catastrophe, rebuilding, and normalcy spins again. In the back of our minds, we wait with anxiety and discomfort for the next catastrophe to hit, those shocking events that eclipse the relatively minor disturbing events like we saw in Waukesha, Wisconsin a few days ago. Some of us wonder, are these shocking events signs of the End? Is Christ coming soon?

But there is a difference between catastrophe and The End. When the cowboy rides off into the sunset and the music comes up and the script comes across the screen The End, that’s true. The movie is over. Whereas the Greeks and Romans in Jesus’ day conceptualized time as an unending cycle of seasons, Jesus held the Hebrew understanding of time as a line that has a beginning point and an end point. There is a time when there won’t be another tomorrow. As Jesus put it, heaven and earth will pass away. But whether it is The End with capital letters or the end of your life, for every one of us the time will come when we won’t see another sunrise. What then?

I want to share a story told by William Willimon. “When I was serving a little church in rural Georgia, one of my members’ relatives died, and my wife and I went to the funeral as a show of support for the family. It was held in a small, hot, crowded, independent Baptist country church. They wheeled in the coffin and the preacher began to preach. He shouted, fumed, flailed his arms. ‘It’s too late for Joe,’ he screamed. ‘He might have wanted to do this or that in life, but it’s too late for him now. He’s dead. It’s all over for him. He might have wanted to straighten his life out, but he can’t now. It’s over.’ What a comfort this must be to the family, I thought. ‘But it ain’t too late for you! People drop dead every day. So why wait? Now is the day for decision. Now is the time to make your life count for something. Give your life to Jesus!’ It was the worst thing I had ever heard. ‘Can you imagine a preacher doing that kind of thing to a grieving family?’ I asked my wife on the way home. ‘I’ve never heard anything so manipulative, cheap and inappropriate. I would never preach a sermon like that.’ She agreed with me that it was tacky, manipulative, callous. ‘Of course,’ she added, ‘the worst part of all is that it was true.’”

When we consider the end, either the end of our own life or the end of everything when Christ comes back, there is a call to decision. And the decision you and I make in the face of the end makes all the difference. The decision will lead to fear or anticipation. Living with fear or living with anticipation, that is what is at stake. How will you live?

In the 1330s the Bubonic Plague broke out in China. In October 1347, Italian merchants brought the plague to Europe. In five years, one third of the population of Europe, 25 million people, died of the Black Death. An Italian writer of the times, Boccachio, wrote that its victims often “ate lunch with their friends and ate dinner with their ancestors in paradise.” Cyprian, a priest who had the challenge to guide people through an apocalyptic moment in history, where death was everywhere, noted that the plague killed Christians and pagans. But there was a difference in how these two groups faced this time of catastrophic disruption. While many fainted from fear and foreboding of what was coming upon the world, the Christians were able to stand up and raise their heads, because their redemption was drawing near. In the midst of unimaginable misery, Cyprian wrote: “We regard paradise as our country – we already begin to consider the patriarchs as our parents: why do we not hasten and run, that we may behold our country, that we may greet our parents? There a great number of our dear ones is awaiting us, and a dense crowd of parents, brothers, children, is longing for us, already assured of their own safety, and still solicitous for our salvation. To attain to their presence and their embrace, what a gladness both for them and for us in common! What a pleasure is there in the heavenly kingdom, without fear of death; and how lofty and perpetual a happiness with eternity of living! To these…let us hasten with an eager desire; let us crave quickly to be with them, and quickly to come to Christ.” How will you live?

Os Guiness tells the story about what happened early in American history when the Connecticut House of Representatives was in session on a bright day in May, and the delegates were able to do their work by natural light. But then something happened that nobody expected. Right in the middle of the debate, there was a total eclipse of the sun, and everything turned to darkness. Some legislators thought it was the second coming of Christ. A clamor arose. People wanted to adjourn. People wanted to pray. People wanted to prepare for the coming of the Lord. But the speaker of the house had a different idea. He was a Christian believer, and he rose to the occasion with good logic and good faith. “We are all upset by the darkness,” he said, “and some of us are afraid. But the Day of the Lord is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. And if the Lord is returning, I, for one, choose to be found doing my duty. I therefore ask that candles be brought.” And men who expected Jesus went back to their desks and resumed their debate. How will you live?

Christ is coming! Are you preparing? Are you anxious or anticipating? Fred Craddock observed, “today is a gift of God…tomorrow we stand in the presence of the Son of Man.” One day, the sun will come up one last time, and Christ will return. Until then, how will you live?

Ultimate Loyalty

Based on John 18:33-37

One of the interesting things about belonging to a church tradition that stretches back many centuries is that we have special days in our tradition that does not immediately connect with our lived experience. This is one of those days. This Sunday is the last one in the Christian year. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. On this last Sunday of the year, it is called Christ the King Sunday. The year ends with a day to acknowledge and celebrate that Jesus is the king, indeed the king of kings and lord of lords.

We call on Jesus by many names: savior, comforter, friend. We also call him lord and king. But what does it mean to call Jesus lord and king? For those who live in a kingdom ruled by a king, calling Jesus lord and king are terms people can relate to. But we live in a country that is not a kingdom. In fact, America specifically rejected royal rule. Our ancestors fought a war of independence to escape the monarchy. We live in a constitutional republic in which people govern by the consent of the governed. Rulership is not granted through bloodlines and divine right, but through elections. We don’t know what it’s like to live under the rule of a monarch. So, when we identify Jesus as lord and king, this requires of us the need to do some work on what that means since we don’t know what it is like to live in a monarchy. We are going to spend a few moments today to do this work, to reflect on what it means to claim Jesus as our king.

Kingship is the topic of the scripture we heard today. Pilate is trying to figure out who Jesus is and why the religious leaders want him dead. He isn’t getting anywhere with them, so he asks Jesus directly, “Are you a king or not?” Jesus gives an ambiguous answer, saying “You say I am a king.” Then he says his kingdom is not of this world. If is was, he would have his loyal subjects rising up to defend him. That’s obviously not happening. His loyal subjects, that is, his disciples, have abandoned him. So, he is a king but not of this world. I can imagine Pilate doesn’t quite know what to make of this, probably wondering to himself if he is talking to someone who is delusional. But if Jesus is just delusional, why are the religious leaders hell bent on having him crucified? For Pilate, Jesus must have been an enigma.

This talk of Jesus being a king didn’t start here at the end of Jesus’ public ministry. We can go back to the beginning and see that Jesus was identified as a king then. The wise men, who saw in the stars that the king of the Jews had been born, go to Herod to find out where the new king was born. Of course, Herod misunderstands right away about the nature of this kingship. He naturally thinks that a rival to his power has been born who will rise up and take his throne and rule over the land in his place. So, he plots to kill all the boys in the land to make sure this newborn king is exterminated. But his kingdom is not of this world. It is a different kind of kingdom. Jesus is not a king like the king of England or the emperor of the Roman Empire. The kingship of Jesus is different. How is it different?

First, let’s compare how kings are portrayed and how Jesus was in the world. Kings are portrayed as powerful and regal. They reside in palaces. They have a court. They control armies. Jesus does not look or act like a king, certainly the kind of king that the people in Jesus’ day associated with kingship. Jesus does come from a royal lineage. His bloodline traces back to King David. But Jesus has no wealth. He controls no land. He does not live in a palace. He has no royal court or army. Instead, Jesus is a traveling teacher and healer with a group of disciples. We are told that he grew up as a carpenter’s son. There is nothing about Jesus that would immediately make someone associate him as a king.

Except that Jesus acts like how a king should act. Jesus is doing things with authority and wisdom. He orders demons to depart. He uses his authority to forgive sins. He teaches with wisdom and authority. He commands the seas to be calm and the winds to stop blowing. He commands a person dead four days to get up and walk out of the tomb. There is no doubt for those who can get past Jesus’ appearance, background, and material circumstances that Jesus has authority. If the function of a king is to protect and provide for his subjects and to instruct with wisdom, then Jesus fits the bill. By his actions and the demonstration of his authority Jesus is a king. But where is his crown? Where is his palace? His army? His fancy robes and piles of gold? What kind of king is this?

It requires eyes of faith and the capacity to see beyond outer appearance to believe that Jesus really is a king. The religious leaders couldn’t get past their preconceived notions about what a king is supposed to look like, failing to see that Jesus really is a king. In spite of all this evidence that Jesus has authority, they just could not get their minds around the possibility that he actually was a king. They were trapped in their limited thinking. They couldn’t see it. But for those who could see it, the wise men, the disciples, it was clear to them that Jesus is a king, the king, the king of kings. And although they had their doubts, especially when they saw who they believed to be the king be abused by the authorities and then crucified, their doubts evaporated when they saw the resurrected Jesus, the one who even conquered death.

We believe that Jesus will return in glory someday. This is, by the way, one of the central themes of Advent which begins next Sunday. And when Jesus returns, it will be obvious that he is a king. He will come wearing a white robe with a host of angels, as our tradition tells us. We claim that one day every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth, and every mouth will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But what does it matter? If we lived in a kingdom under the rule of a king and made the claim that Jesus is our lord and king, that could create a bit of tension. To whom do you give your loyalty? If Christians live in a kingdom under the rule of a king who does not claim his authority as granted to him by God, then that could lead to the need to make a hard choice. But we don’t live under the rule of a king. Does it matter that we claim Jesus as our king and lord even though we live in a constitutional republic? What does it even mean for us to claim Jesus as lord when in our society we don’t live under the rule of lords?

Even though we don’t have to make a choice between being loyal to a particular king and king Jesus, making the claim that Jesus is our lord and king does raise the issue of loyalty. Some may find it ironic, but there it is, printed on our money, “In God we trust.” That reminds me of a sign I saw by a register at a convenience store many years ago that said “In God we trust, all others pay cash.” Do we trust God, or do we trust money? In our pledge of allegiance, we have that phrase “under God” added in the 1950s when we were engaged in the cold war against godless communism. One nation under God. That line in our pledge of allegiance taps into that issue of loyalty. We are loyal Americans. We pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States of American and to the Republic for which it stands. And we claim that we are one nation under God. This suggests that God is above America in power and authority. So, where does our loyalty lie? It seems our pledge forces us to claim two loyalties, to the republic and to God who is above the republic. The phrase “under God” was added to show the Soviet Union that we as a nation believe in God. But saying that phrase also gives us an opportunity to acknowledge that our ultimate loyalty is to God. Because here is the truth. Nations rise and nations fall. America is a great nation. But even great nations fall. The kingdom of God is eternal, timeless, and unshakable. It will never fall. As Americans who claim Jesus as our king and lord, we are left making a choice of where we place our ultimate loyalty and trust. It doesn’t have to be a choice between loyalty to America or loyalty to God. But there is a choice between where we place our ultimate loyalty.

Every day, we can choose to be loyal to Jesus our king. We can choose to trust in Jesus as our protector and provider and serve him by following his command which is to live a life of love. That’s a good choice to make. We live in chaotic times. There is so much uncertainty about where everything is headed. The world is so different from what it was like just a few decades ago. The ties that bind our nation together are frayed and have been for some time. I for one take comfort in knowing that every day I have the opportunity to recommit myself to serve Jesus. There is so much going on in the world that is beyond our control. But we can control how we live our lives and who or what we are loyal to. We can choose to serve our lord and king Jesus and follow his command of love. It’s not easy. But it is in our power to choose.

This is why it matters to us that we claim Jesus as our king. As Americans, we will never really get what it means to call Jesus our king. But by making this claim, we are making a statement about first loyalties. We are loyal Americans, but we are first of all loyal to Jesus. In a world awash in change and instability, we claim our first loyalty to the eternal lord. It is in making this claim, that Jesus is Lord, and honoring that claim by faithful obedience to his command to love, that we find solid ground to stand on, that we can live a life that makes a difference, that makes it possible for this nation to be the best it can be. But most of all, it gives us the anticipation that one day we will stand before our lord and king and hear from him these words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Community That Lasts

Based on Mark 13:1-8

One of my favorite bends in the road is in northern Kentucky on I-71 northbound just before you get to the Ohio River. If you are driving at night, it is a bonus. As you go around the bend you suddenly find in front of you on the other side of the river the spectacle of downtown Cincinnati all lit up. Usually when you are driving toward big cities you see the skyscrapers from a distance. But with Cincinnati you are just driving along and then there it is in front of you. It always puts a smile on my face, and I am struck by the beauty of the skyline of those buildings.

I remember when I got to visit Great Britain. For someone who grew up near a city founded at the end of the 19th century in a state that was founded at the beginning of the 20th, everything over there was so old. We toured a church somewhere in England that had worship services held every Sunday in the sanctuary since 1058. Oak pews that were hundreds of years old. The indentations in the stone floor where generations of priests had stood behind the altar. It took my breath away and I marveled at all that had happened in that holy sanctuary.

Recently, Kim and I were walking on Gay Street over to the Palace and we walked past someone who had his phone held up like he was filming the tall buildings around us while talking to someone on the phone about them. His eyes were wide. For him, it was so cool to be walking in downtown Columbus that evening. We assumed he must be from the country or some small town and that this was his first time in the big city. Kim and I giggled about it. But I remember walking around with my head looking up the first time I visited Chicago or New York City. Being at the top of the Sears tower and watching clouds float by below us was amazing. Standing next to one of the World Trade Center towers, looking up, and not being able to see the top of the building because it went up so high was dizzying. These are impressive structures, skyscrapers. City skylines at night are beautiful. Being inside buildings that have been used for 1,000 years is memorable.

Jesus’ disciples were doing the same thing as they walked around the Temple with Jesus. It was an impressive structure. The walls were constructed of large and thick white stone blocks. The east side of the Temple was plated with gold. Being built on the top of a hill, people could see the Temple from miles away. And when the sun rose, and the light was reflected by that gold plate the brightness would make you have to avert your eyes. It was an impressive structure, and rightly so because in the holy of holies it was understood that God was present. Some believed the Temple to be the literal center of the universe. The building was built to impress. And the disciples were duly impressed.

But Jesus didn’t seem impressed as they walked away toward the Mount of Olives. Jesus said to his disciples, “You are impressed with that building? One day every one of those stones will be pulled to the ground and that building won’t be there anymore.” Oh, to have been there in that moment to see the expression on the faces of the disciples. To say that the Temple, that impressive edifice, the place where God lives, would one day be torn down must have been very concerning to those disciples. So much so that later some of them meet privately with Jesus so he can tell them what to look for before the end of the world because only in the end times would the Temple be destroyed.

We do get attached to our buildings. We all remember the horror of watching the collapse of the twin towers, not only over the loss of so many lives but the shock of seeing those buildings come down in billows of dust. The thought of the White House or the U.S. Capitol building having potentially met the same fate that September morning is disturbing. We expend resources and do the best we can to maintain the church building we are currently in even though it is a burden and takes a good bit of our resources. We do it because we feel we need a church building to function as a church. We need somewhere to gather, a sanctuary space that is beautiful, that helps us worship. So many holy moments have happened inside these walls. These structures are important to us.

Jesus challenges us to instead focus on building and maintaining community instead of building and maintaining structures. Jesus didn’t seem to be too concerned about maintaining property. There was that person who once asked to follow Jesus and Jesus responded that foxes have holes and birds have nests but there is nowhere for the son of man to lay his head. In other words, to follow Jesus meant to be always on the move and staying wherever someone would let you. Jesus never said no to a dinner invitation, probably because he didn’t have anywhere else to go to get something to eat. The main point I’m trying to make though is that Jesus was focused on two things: sharing his message and building a community of disciples who would continue to share his message after he was gone. Jesus was building a community of relationships, not a community of structures. And when he blew off the impressive structure of the Temple by telling the disciples that it would be destroyed someday, he was letting them know that their energy and focus ought to be directed at building something that won’t be destroyed and that would be a community of relationships.

As I said, when Jesus told the disciples that the temple would be destroyed, that prompted in them some curiosity about when the end of the world would come because that’s what the destruction of the temple would be like…the end of the world. They wanted to know what else to look for that would serve as an advanced warning so they could get themselves mentally prepared for what would be happening next. Everyone wants advanced warnings, from what the weather will be like in a few days to when will be the destruction of the planet, so that we can prepare.

Instead of talking about signs, Jesus first talks about false leaders who will lead many astray. These false leaders make claims about themselves that are not true. But desperate people will follow charismatic leaders who make boastful claims about themselves and who seem to have a plan to ease their desperation. We see this happening all the time. When the disciples brought up the scary topic of the end of the world, Jesus’ first concern was to talk about false leaders.

Leaders gather followers and they build a community. It has become a truism. A leader without and followers is just someone going for a walk. Leaders need people and together they build a community of relationships. But what kind of community is it? What holds it together?

These false leaders make it about themselves. They claim that they are the saviors, that they can fix it, that they have the answers, the solutions to your problems. They claim that they can lead us in fighting back against our enemies who are trying to take something from us. These false leaders say that they will protect you and keep you safe from all the evil in the world.

One false leader in particular went by the name of Bar Kochba, which means in Hebrew “son of a star.” He led the Jewish revolt against the oppressive Roman empire that ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem, including the temple, around 70-72, about 40 years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. More modern examples would be Jim Jones and David Koresh. There are many cults that have come and gone. There are always people who are willing to follow one of these cult leaders. But cults come and go. And in the case of the cults of Jim Jones and David Koresh the end is abrupt and deadly.

What so many of these leaders have in common is that they say they can read the signs of the times and know how the world will come to an end. They can answer the question that the disciples asked Jesus. You want to know the signs of the coming of the end of the world? These false leaders have answers for you. These are the leaders, the ones who can answer those questions and claim that they can lead us through to the other side of destruction, that Jesus warns his disciples not to follow.

In the end, all these false leaders distract from what should be the main focus. Rather than predicting the end of the world, fighting back against the enemies, protecting the community from the evil outside world, the focus should be loving God and loving your neighbor as you love yourself. That is the kind of community that Jesus was building. Not to focus on building impressive structures. Not to focus on who can answer our questions about the signs of the times and who will keep us safe from the evils of the world. The focus should always be on loving God and loving neighbor.

After warning the disciples about not following the false leaders who make it about themselves and focus on the wrong question, who focus on interpreting the signs of the end times rather than focusing on loving God and neighbor, Jesus speaks about these signs of the end times by describing what is common to the human experience since the dawn of humanity: war, earthquakes, and famines. How are these signs of the end times? People have always fought each other. Earthquakes happen naturally. Famines, either as a result of natural causes or as a tool of war, is nothing new. Why does Jesus point to these common sources of human suffering as signs of the end?

Jesus says that these common forms of suffering are but the beginning of the birth pangs. That is so evocative that Jesus brings in the experience of childbirth with this talk about when the end will come. Childbirth is a natural process. There are visible signs that a woman is pregnant. Although, I have learned the hard way never to assume that a woman is pregnant. You witness the signs. And when the time comes for delivery, there is a great deal of pain. But the pain is tempered with the anticipation of new life. And it is a natural process that unfolds. It is not to be resisted or controlled. Birth just happens.

When the disciples asked Jesus about the signs of the end, Jesus’ response was to tell them that there is not anything really to know or to resist or manipulate. The end will come. The new life that God is making possible will happen. What the disciples need to do is trust the process and instead focus on loving God and loving neighbor.

This is the community that we build as followers of Jesus: a community that loves God and loves one another. By building and maintaining this community, we can trust that we can endure war, earthquakes, and famines. We are building a resilient community. This community of Jesus followers will endure long after the communities of false leaders fade. As we live together focused on loving God and loving neighbor, we trust that the process God has initiated a long time ago will unfold and that in due time there will emerge new life, even a new world.

Every Moment Matters

Based on Mark 12:38-44        

        All Saints Day, which is November 1st, has been a tradition in the church for many generations. Its purpose was to be a kind of “catch all” day to recognize the heroes and heroines of the Christian faith. A lot of these heroes and heroines have their own day. For example, Saint Mark is on April 25th, Saint Mary Magdalene is July 22nd and Saint Luke is October 18th. But there have been so many saints over the years that there just aren’t enough days to include them all. So, the church set aside November 1st to recognize all the saints. It has been our tradition over the past many years to let this be the day that we remember our family and friends and members of our church who have died since last All Saints Day.

I want to tell you a story about one of my heroes of the Christian faith, Saint Francis. One day, someone saw St. Francis hoeing in his garden. This person asked St. Francis, “Father, if you knew that you would die today at sunset, what would you do?” St. Francis responded, “I would finish hoeing my garden.” Isn’t that a wonderful perspective on work and life? St. Francis was such at peace with God that he saw no need to do anything before meeting with God. He was ready to go, doing whatever he had put his hand to that day. Even the chore of hoeing the garden was an act of devotion to God.

Compare that story with the person who ran up to the preacher one Sunday following church, anxiously telling him, “That lady there says she saw a vision of Jesus at the altar! What should we do?” And the preacher responded, “Look busy.” Maybe this kind of response would be a more common one than the one St. Francis gave. If someone told you that Jesus was showing up any minute, that would likely stir up in us a feeling of anxiety and the need to be doing something impressive or important if we knew that Jesus was about to show up or that our life was about to end. We certainly would want to be on our best behavior.

I remember getting asked that question once when I was young. It was likely at some evangelistic meeting. The evangelist asked us kids, “If you knew Jesus was coming to your house tonight, what would you need to do to get ready?” My response was as if someone important was coming to my house. I would need to hurry home and clean up my room. I would want my mom to make the best meal she knew how to make. I would invite my friends over. I would get a haircut and get new clothes to wear. I would make sure to be on my best behavior. I may even come up with a short list of questions I always wanted to ask Jesus. I would do everything within my power to present a good impression, to show Jesus that I had it all together. Hoeing the garden would not be on the priority list. I wonder what that’s about? To think that someone could impress Jesus seems a bit vain.

Hear these words from Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.” Here is another passage about vanity. It comes from a whole book about vanity, the book of Ecclesiastes. From chapter 3 we find: “What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time…It is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him.” St. Francis saw no need to try to impress Jesus. He would keep on doing what he was doing: hoe his garden. Getting your house all clean and trying to impress Jesus with a good meal and a list of thoughtful questions…for what purpose? Really, when it comes to impressing God, that seems backward. God will always be more impressive. Why would we ever think that God would be in awe of us? Rather than trying to impress God, the prudent action is to stand in awe before God.

But those teachers of the law that Jesus saw parading about the village wanted people to stand in awe before them! That was Jesus’ critique. They wore those fancy robes, demanded the best seats at dinner, offered long prayers, with the expectation that everyone else would be impressed with their holiness. They wanted to be seen as people who have it all together. Everyone else was beneath them. They were so entitled, as Jesus saw it, that they would devour widow’s houses. What does that mean? I take it to mean that they would demand of widows to give all they had to the temple, only to use that money to purchase for themselves those fancy robes. How pretentious and vain.

The truth is that none of us need to stress about impressing God with our holiness and having our lives together. Nor do we need to stress about impressing other people. Each one of us are precious to God. Each one of us is important to God, just as we are. And every moment of life we receive is a gift. Why waste it doing things to try to impress people or to impress God? As the writer of Ecclesiastes would say, using our limited time that way is vanity.

In all the days of life, I encourage us to take on the attitude that is expressed in Psalm 127, Ecclesiastes 3, and in this little story about St. Francis hoeing his garden. Let us be fully present each moment, doing what we are doing with diligence and gratitude. There is no need to dwell on the past or be anxious about the future. Simply live in the present moment, do what you are doing, and be thankful. Live for the moment. Understand that every moment is holy, is a gift, is an opportunity to express devotion to God through the task at hand. The past can’t be changed. The future is yet to arrive. All we have is the present and we have control over how we live in the present moment. Live for God in the present moment and be thankful.

There is a story I ran across regarding the making of parachutes in WW II. These parachutes were packed by hand in a tedious, painstaking, repetitive, boring process. The workers crouched over sewing machines and stitched for eight hours a day. The endless line of fabric was the same color. Then they folded, packed and stacked the parachutes. All that was left was for someone to pull the rip cord.

How did they stand it? They withstood the tediousness of the work because every morning before they began their work they gathered as a group. One of the managers reminded them that each parachute would save someone’s life. They were then asked to think, as they sewed and packed, how they would feel if the parachute was strapped to the back of their son, their father, their brother. These laborers worked sacrificially, unerringly, uncomplainingly, because someone connected what they were doing to a larger picture, to a larger mission that involved the saving of lives. Maybe even the lives of those they loved.

Every moment of your life and whatever you are doing, from household chores to doing “church work,” is all a part of a greater plan, of God’s plan for your life. There are no insignificant moments, even the tedious ones. Of course, it may seem that most of what we do in a day seems rather insignificant. But it’s all a matter of perspective. Think of the widow’s mite. It wasn’t much but it was all she had. And she offered it. Jesus acknowledged how much that insignificant amount was, declaring that it was not insignificant at all.

If you look at a brick wall, you see lots of individual bricks. Each brick looks about the same. If you were bored, you could stand there and start counting how many bricks make up the wall. That would get tedious pretty quick. If you stand back and look at the wall as a whole, the bricks all sort of blend in together. If you took out just one of those bricks, it would weaken the entire wall. Every brick is important. Every brick fits in its place. Every brick belongs. Every moment of your life is like one of those bricks. Lay your bricks, one at a time. And trust that as you lay your bricks, as you build your life, one moment at a time, just as everyone else is building their lives, that somehow God is involved. Trust that God, through our lived-out moments, is building a house, a world house, with many rooms, spacious enough for every life, for every saint, to inhabit for eternity.

What is Essential

Based on Mark 12:28-34

    Earlier this week, I was attending a learning event offered by United Way. The topic was on the challenges of high school graduation rates that are lagging, especially for young people of color. In the conversation, someone talked about the opportunity non-profits have as we emerge into this pandemic changed world. He said it is like we have a clean slate, an opportunity to do things differently rather than go back to the way things were before the pandemic, ways that were not helpful. His example was that before the pandemic non-profits tended to work in silos, offering their service without much coordination with other non-profits who offered different services. But when the pandemic hit, the demand to respond in ways that carried people through the pandemic required coordination and collaborating to meet the challenge. The panelist asked, why would we want to go back to the way things were when we have the opportunity to continue to work collectively moving forward?

Mainline churches like ours are in the midst of a long-term crisis and disruption to the way things used to be for the church, that is, in the 1950s-60s, when being a church going Christian was a social and cultural norm. That hasn’t been the case in the United States since the beginning of the 70s. The pandemic really forced change on the church and revealed again how much we have lost over the decades, a loss of resources and energy, and in light of the pandemic the need to re-assess how we “do church” when we couldn’t gather in person. Even as we have been coming back to in person worship for some time, we still feel this sense of crisis, that we can’t go back to the way things used to be. The world is different, and we find ourselves as a church to again focus on what is essential to being church in the 21st century, almost post pandemic world. 

We have been here before. In the 18th century, the Church of England priest John Wesley looked around at the state of the church and the state of society and what he saw was dysfunction and pettiness in the church and a society filled with depravity and needless suffering. The church and society needed reforming as Wesley saw it. He and his collaborators were convinced of the need to get back to the essentials of what Wesley called scriptural Christianity. He wanted to see the church get back to what the church was all about, not in the fifteenth century when the Church of England came into existence when Henry the VIII decided he no longer desired to have the pope tell him whether or not he could get a divorce and marry someone else. Wesley wanted to get back to the essentials demonstrated in the book of Acts, the primitive church. He wanted to be part of a primitive church that was relevant to the society of 18th century industrial revolution Britain, a society in the midst of great crisis and disruption.

Over and over in the course of history we see how social crisis and disruption creates opportunities to start fresh, to no longer maintain a status quo that simply does not work because it doesn’t fit the challenges of the times. Crisis and disruption force us to set aside secondary things and get back to what matters most, the essentials that respond to the core needs of the human experience.

It is here that our time of crisis and disruption connects with what was happening when the gospel of Mark was likely written. It was a time of disruption for Israel, an existential crisis demonstrated by the destruction of the Temple by the Romans. You think it was bad when we couldn’t gather for in person worship. The sacred place where Jews would go to offer sacrifices on high holy days had been destroyed. The status quo was deeply disrupted. Judaism was forced under these circumstances to rethink how to carry on the tradition without a temple. Secondary issues had to be set aside in order to get to what was essential and still be a Jew.

If we keep that sense of crisis in mind when we look at this passage from Mark, it helps us get a better picture of what is being said between the lines that serves as a guide for the people in those days. But it also gives us help as we navigate through this time of crisis and disruption and we find ourselves in need of setting aside secondary things and instead focus on what is essential to still be a Christian.

Before we jump in, let’s look at what has been going on before the scribe asked Jesus this question.

Jesus is at the temple being grilled by the religious leaders: first, the chief priests and elders, then the Pharisees, last the Sadducees. They all take their shots at Jesus. The chief priests and elders, the guardians of the Temple, start off by asking Jesus who he thinks he is. They question his authority. The Pharisees, a group more concerned about how to live a righteous life, ask Jesus a political question about whether it is righteous for a Jew to pay taxes to Caesar, the source of their oppression. The Sadducees, an elitist and overly educated group of people, ask Jesus a theological question about the resurrection, a belief that Sadducees did not hold but Pharisees did believe in. Authority, politics, and theology. Those were the issues raised by these different religious leaders as they confronted Jesus while they were gathered at the Temple, the center of the Jewish tradition.

What I find interesting is that in times of disruption and crisis, leaders, those who are the guardians of the status quo, first respond to the crisis by obsessing over who has authority and other secondary concerns. I think back to the worship wars of the 80s and 90s when there was a strong push to make worship more contemporary, with modern music, drums and guitars, pastors who wore blue jeans, and questioning who had the authority to offer communion and how it should be done. Living through the worship wars, I remember the debates about who had authority to change worship styles or who could offer communion. I remember the loud shouting over the appropriateness of these changes in worship style. What drove the worship wars in the first place was the felt need to connect to a certain generation, namely baby boomers and early Generation Xers like me who were not really interested in traditional forms of church. The thought was if churches could change how they do church that this would draw people back to church and thus restore the power and influence of the church in American society. In the time of crisis, the first move was to argue over authority and the secondary issues of the proper and permissible ways to worship God in the church: ordained or lay leadership, organ or guitar, Fanny Crosby or Amy Grant. The essentials of what it meant to be a Christian in the late 20th century was overlooked. And the disconnect continued. Yes, churches that offered contemporary forms of worship grew and still do to this day while churches that are more traditional like ours continue to decline. But that’s often because people leave more traditional churches for more contemporary churches. The actual number of Christians and overall attendance in worship has been steadily declining for decades. Nothing has really changed. And younger generations are more disconnected than ever. Is it because the essentials have not been tended to and instead energy is directed toward secondary things?

After Jesus had been through this gauntlet, a scribe who had witnessed all of this found in Jesus a wise teacher. He deserved an opportunity to answer a sincere question, a question that cut to the heart of the matter. He asked Jesus what is the most important commandment. With that question, the scribe is taking the conversation to a deeper level. He is pushing aside arguments about authority, politics, and theology and instead wants Jesus to address what is essential to the Jewish tradition.

Jesus goes directly to the Shema, the prayer lifted up by every righteous Jew at sunset and sunrise, taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Then Jesus adds the command found in Leviticus 19:18, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

The scribe affirms what Jesus says. His response to Jesus that obeying these two commandments is more important than offering the ritual sacrifices is a scripture informed view, which Jesus and the scribe knew, especially Hosea 6:6, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

That verse from Hosea I imagine became an anchor for Jews in Mark’s day when they were living after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans. They had no way to offer the sacrifices. What are they to do? Hosea, this scribe and Jesus point out what is essential. It is not the sacrifices, nor for us is the worship style. It is staying in love with God and expressing that love in our neighbor relations. That is what is essential for Jews: to love God and love neighbor. It doesn’t take a temple to do that. It didn’t ultimately matter that the Romans destroyed the Temple and literally erased Jerusalem from the map. That didn’t stop them from loving God and loving their neighbors. Of course, Jesus also takes it to the next level by calling on his followers to also love their enemies, which would be those Romans.

This essential teaching of loving God and neighbor also creates an opportunity to be more inclusive of who can be a part of this tradition. The sacrificial system and the Temple itself prevented Gentiles from being included. Now that this system has been dismantled because of what the Romans did, this disruption opens up a possibility to expand the circle of inclusion. Gentiles can love God and neighbor too.

But here’s the thing: living up to these essential commands to love God and neighbor is really hard sometimes. Maybe loving God isn’t that hard, although our recent exploration of Job gave us opportunities to name those times in our own lives where our relationship with God has been tested. When it comes to loving our neighbors though; that can be hard.

I wonder if when we face times of disruption we tend to first obsess on secondary things because it’s easier than getting at the essential issue. It is easier to argue over authority and power. It is easier to argue over politics. It is easier to argue over theology. It is easier to offer ritual sacrifices, or in our case to show up for worship on Sunday morning. All of that is easier than loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Living a life of love is harder than tending to and fighting about secondary things.

The essential things are not always the easiest things to do. But we must strive to tend to the essentials regardless. For us as Christians our essentials have been named in different ways. John Wesley offered those three simple rules that have been expressed in a modern way as do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. But we really can boil down our essentials into one word: love. It is that simple and that hard.

When the scribe made his response, Jesus said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Where is this kingdom the scribe is not far from? Is it a place, a region of territory under God’s rule? Maybe Jesus means to say that the reign of God is some future reality when Rome and all the other emperors and despots will be brought low and only God will rule the earth. But maybe what Jesus was telling the scribe was also something that Mark’s church needed to hear and that we need to hear today. What if the reign of God is made real when people express love for God and neighbor? The scribe was not far from the kingdom of God because he had named what it takes to realize that kingdom. All that was left for the scribe to do to enter that kingdom was to do the things, to love God and neighbor. To obey these two commands is to live your life under the rule of God, Roman oppression or otherwise. No matter what crisis and disruption, to love God and to love neighbor remains as what is essential. This was true in Jesus’ day, in Mark’s day, in John Wesley’s day and in our day. The crises and disruptions are different throughout history, but the essentials remain the same. I find comfort in that and I find an anchor to hold on to in these storm-tossed times. It may not be easy. But at least it is clear and something that we can do. We can always love. And that is enough to occupy our energy.

Lessons From Job

Based on Job 42:1-6, 10-17

Today we come to the end of the book of Job and hear Job’s response to God’s response. It has been quite a journey for Job. Having lost so much and burdened with unimaginable suffering, Job has had to contend with three friends who tried to reason with him. But as each one made their case that surely Job had done something to deserve all this suffering, Job would argue back, making it clear that he had done nothing wrong. His responses to his friends were filled with angst, bitterness, sometimes with a tinge of despair. He cried out to God, demanding to be heard, to make his case, to even put God on trial.

Finally, God responds to Job’s cries and venting. But God doesn’t answer Job’s “why” questions. Instead, God details how God created everything that exists, and not just creates but sustains creation, from worlds to baby ravens. Rather than answering Job’s question of why God brought all this suffering on him, God reminds Job of who God is, the one who creates and sustains all life, including Job’s. Job still doesn’t know why he had to suffer so much. But it is made clear to Job how awesome, powerful, and providential that God is. God had not abandoned Job, but was there all along, knew everything that had happened to Job, and sustained Job even as he cried out in anger toward God. God’s grace and mercy bathed this whole terrible and traumatic experience of apparently to Job random and unjust suffering.

So, what is Job’s response? He finally has his audience with God. The one who Job was convinced had either made a mistake or who was uncaring, perhaps even cruel, the one who needed to be held accountable for what had been unleashed on Job, he finally has God’s attention. Job now has his chance to tell God face to face what he really thinks of this whole situation. What does Job say?

He starts by summing up his understanding of God’s response. In a short and sweet summary, Job says, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Job had gotten the message that God had a hand in making everything that exists in the universe. And further that God’s creative activity was not done randomly, but that God did this in an ordered way, in which everything fits together. And God didn’t just create everything and then sit back and watch how everything works out. No, God’s creativity was done with purpose, the purpose of demonstrating who God is, the one who cares for and provides for all that God has made. That God created anything at all, and maintains all that God has created, was done for the purpose of revealing who God is: creator, sustainer, restorer. That’s what Job got out of God’s response.

Job then takes the first two sentences of God’s response and reacts to them. The first sentence is: “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?” It’s God basically telling Job, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Job admits as much, saying that he did utter things that he didn’t understand. He talked about God without knowing the whole picture. The ways of God are too wonderful, too complex, for Job or any of us to fully comprehend. That is, after all, why God is God. Aspects of God will always be a mystery to us. And Job acknowledges his presumption, of thinking he understood God when he didn’t.

The second sentence God spoke was, “Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.” It was God telling Job, “Now it’s my turn to talk. I have some questions for you, and I want you to answer them.” Then, as we know, God’s barrage of rhetorical questions communicated to Job just how awesome, powerful, and providential God is, that everything in creation has God’s fingerprints on it, that God knows what is going on, and that God acts to provide for all that exists. Job’s response is that he has heard what God was saying. But not only has Job heard God, he now sees God in a different light. His understanding of God, his perspective, has been broadened. He doesn’t only know about God he knows God in a deeper way. Their relationship has been established because God has graciously revealed a bit of Godself to Job so that now Job more clearly sees who God is. And this new understanding, this broader perspective, prompts Job to confess his repentance.

In both of his responses, Job is basically saying that he admits to his prior ignorance. After this experience of God, Job revealed his character by humbling himself. He was willing to admit that he had made a mistake, that he didn’t know everything about God. Having gained a new perspective about God, he had the capacity to repent, to leave behind his old beliefs about God and to embrace a new understanding, not based on what others have told him, but by his own direct experience of God.

Perhaps most of all, Job came to terms with the fact that, at least for now, he isn’t going to get all his questions answered. Why God allowed such suffering to pour down on Job will remain a mystery for him. But even though Job’s questions aren’t going to be answered, he now knows deep in his heart that God cares for him and provides for him. Even when he was crying out against God and railing against God, God still cared for him and sustained him in his grief. God never abandoned him. For whatever reason, whether God was complicit or not, Job knows that God cares about him and about every little part of all of creation.

Now, with this response of humble confession from Job, his confession of a deeper knowing of God, a deeper and stronger relationship with God, then God responds again. God does not respond with words toward Job this time. God does have a few words to say to Job’s friends, however. God was not happy with them. But for Job, God responds by doing what God does, which is restoration. God restores Job’s blessings of material wealth, a big family, and good health. How does God do it?

The restoration of Job doesn’t just fall from the sky or rise up from the ground. It didn’t just magically appear. We are told that Job’s family and friends started coming around. They had a banquet for Job. They consoled him in his suffering. They gave him money and rings, restoring his fortune. Apparently, Job’s relationship with his wife was restored because Job received more sons and daughters. In time, he was able to build back up his livestock. He got his health back, able to live to a ripe old age, another 140 years, and got to see four generations of his offspring. God restored Job’s fortune, not with the wave of God’s magic wand but through Job’s family, his friends, his wife, and his own efforts. With the co-operation of many people, God restored Job. God, working through all those people and through Job himself, made Job better off than he was before his great suffering.

So, what are we to make of Job’s story? What are the lessons? I suppose there are many lessons. It’s a big and complicated book. We have only been exposed to a few snippets over the past few weeks. If you dig down deep into the speeches of Job and his friends, there is a lot of issues that are brought up. All through the book, Job is challenging the standard view of his day about God, justice, the linkage of sinfulness and suffering, and more. The big question of why bad things happen to good people runs throughout the book. But, of course, that’s the “why” question that God doesn’t answer. So, what can we take from this story that we can apply to our lives today? I have thought of three takeaways.

One lesson we can take is that our perspectives are limited in comparison to God’s perspective. I know that sounds obvious, but we sometimes forget obvious things. We forget how broad and deep God’s perspective is. God is everywhere in the universe. God is present and aware of everything that happens, everywhere, every second, from right here to the farthest reaches of the universe. Our minds literally cannot conceive how vast God’s awareness is. I believe that God not only knows everything that is happening all the time everywhere in the whole universe, but that God also knows every possible future happening. In every instant in time there are multiple possibilities of what might happen next. This is very basic but later today you will make choices about how you will spend your afternoon. God knows all the potential choices you might make. That’s just one example of how much God knows. We often speak of how God is all knowing. That means that God knows all that can be known, including all the possible futures that might unfold based on the choices we make or the random events that happen. It just boggles the mind. Because God knows everything that is happening in the universe and everything that might happen in the future, God’s perspective is total and clear, without confusion. This is good news for us. Whatever happens to us, good or bad, and whatever choices we make or others make for us, God knows about it, God knows what might happen next, and God, through the Spirit, is always present and trying to influence each of us to make the best possible choice and respond to what happens to us in the best possible way, so that the best possible outcome manifests itself. What I am trying to say is one of the lessons we learn from the book of Job is that we don’t know the whole picture, or why things happen, or what might happen in the future, but God does know, and God is always at work to influence the best possible outcome in every situation.

Here’s a second takeaway. Even in times of great loss and suffering, God is with us. When we are faced with the reality that there is so much of our life that we cannot control, that life happens to us, that situations are inflicted on us, nevertheless, God sustains us. That’s maybe the biggest lesson Job learned and it’s a lesson that we can hold on to. It is this lesson that keeps our chins up, that empowers us to keep moving forward instead of collapsing into despair or bitterness, or become frozen in fear. To claim this lesson that no matter what God is with us and sustains us, provides for us what we need moment by moment, this is what helps us be resilient when life gets hard. With God, we can get through anything. That is good news.

Finally, a lesson we can take from Job is that healing and restoration can come to us when we stop trying to figure things out and instead submit to the mysteries of life. We have to make peace with the fact that there are a lot of things that happen to us that we will never understand why it happened. We will not know the reasons for everything that happens in this life. Why did he die and not me? Why am I suffering from muscular dystrophy? Why do children suffer with cancer? Why would a white man, a U.S. citizen, feel so threatened by Jews that he feels the need to get a semi-automatic rifle and go in and shoot a bunch of people gathered in a synagogue? There are a lot of questions that we will not get answered. And even if we did, how does that help? The pain remains. The suffering, the brokenness, the sorrow and grief, none of that goes away when “why” questions are answered. God doesn’t go away either. God is still in relationship with us, still providing for us, sustaining life. For that we can be grateful. We can be grateful for those people in our lives who can be with us like God is with us…no matter what. In times of suffering, loss, tragedy and grief, we don’t need answers. We need friends. If you are suffering today, please know that you are not alone. God is with you. And hopefully you have friends who will stand with you. Do you know someone who is suffering? How can you let them know that you are there for them and will stick with them no matter what?