Gospel text for Sunday 6 November 2022

 

                 

                                                       

Luke 20:27-38       Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."

Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

Reflection        Could it be that two thousand years ago Jesus was saying to the Sadduces and whoever else was listening that there would come a time when women would not be considered property to be transferred between the hands of brothers? Could it be that Jesus was looking square into the face of the patriarchy and saying, “Your question about the sexual rights of brothers with regard to their widow wed sister-in-law misses the mark? You are blind to the ways of God of the living because God of the living does not rely on humanly contrived institutions to protect humanity. God of the living gives life eternally to all people; women, men, Jews, nonJews, married, unmarried.” Could it be that Jesus was declaring, “God gives life that does not depend on human understanding or human institutions?”

The Sadduces conspired to entrap Jesus. Their motive was the same when they asked Jesus the question about paying taxes to Rome. But Jesus rises to a ten thousand foot above the ground persective. Jesus claims dignity for all people and righteousness in all relationships... right here, right now, on earth among the living. He  makes the point that this really is a matter of choosing life or death.

Jesus exposes the Sadduces‘ debauched protestations (alleging to protect widows) for what they really were, heartless attempts to rule and exert power over others., including Jesus. But Jesus would have none of it.   He cuts to the heart of the matter. Women are people, not chattel and  “God is God not of the dead but of the living.” All people are meant to be in righteous relationship with each other and with God, “for all of them are alive in God.” The way with God is the way of life,  but the way of the rule mongering Sadduces (and most present politicians) depends on death. The question is, which do you choose, the way of life or the way of death?

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Hebrew Testament text for Sunday 21 July 2019

Amos 8:1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me-- a basket of summer fruit. He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me,

"The end has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass them by.

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,"

says the Lord God;

"the dead bodies shall be many,

cast out in every place. Be silent!"

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,

and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

saying, "When will the new moon be over

so that we may sell grain;

and the sabbath,

so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,

and practice deceit with false balances,

buying the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals, 

and selling the sweepings of the wheat."

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Shall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who lives in it,

and all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

On that day, says the Lord God,

I will make the sun go down at noon, 

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will turn your feasts into mourning,

and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on all loins,

and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son,

and the end of it like a bitter day.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,

when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

Reflection         We are not a single story. We are complex people living in a world drawn in ten thousand shades of grey. There are as many stories as there are people to tell them. When we reduce ourselves and one another to a single story, “Americans are… Republicans are…. Democrats are… Mexicans are… Jews are…Christians are… Moslems are… millennials are… women are… conservatives are… progressives are… we undermine the dignity of every person. 

Increasingly we find ourselves in situations where we are cast in a single story. If you mention something about healthcare, you are one of ‘those people.’ If you say something about abortion, you are one of ‘those people.’ If you utter the word border, ‘you are one of ‘those people.’ And conversation stops. The moment we experience our dignity being despoiled by being cast into a singular group story, we become defensive and either put up a fight or dig into silence. 

How many of you have been with a group of neighbors, parents or coworkers when the subject of immigration comes up and immediately the air is thick with tension as the group divides beneath two banners - are you one of us or are you one of them? In that instant the dignity of every person present is lost. We are not a single story but we have stopped listening to one another’s stories. We have lost the civil ground that enables us to listen and learn from one another.

Today we find ourselves embroiled in a social, political and religious context that is stealing our dignity and undermining our humanity. We feel angry and inclined to either attack or slip into silent retreat, neither of which sets the stage for us to restore dignity to ourselves and one another. Should we continue this pattern there is only one outcome and the prophet Amos says it well.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,

when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

Like the National Forest on red alert for fire danger it is as if we are waiting for the merest spark to insult and ignite us. Our minds close and our hearts harden as we anticipate affront and assume opposition. How dare we claim to be people who believe all beings are created in the image and likeness of God, who affirm God’s presence and action among us and intend to do mercy for our neighbors and strangers if we cannot open our minds and hearts to listen to one another’s complex personal stories?

On Sunday I will invite members and friends of Church of the Apostles into a structured process that I am calling,”For God’s Sake, Listen.” Borrowing a program from Facing History, Facing Ourselves we will create a safe environment in which to strengthen our listening and discussion skills and help us engage controversial topics.  We all have complex stories and all of our stories matter. 

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Hebrew and Gospel Texts for the Great Vigil Saturday 20 April 2019

 Ezekiel 36:24-28         Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 

Luke 24:1-12        On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Reflection        In his book “Befriending Our Desires,” the Jesuit priest Philip Sheldrake, S.J. writes, “Ecstasy is a moment in which some otherwise distant reality is glimpsed as here and now and at one with oneself.” (p 85) Standing at Jesus’ tomb Mary Magdalen, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women experience an ecstatic moment. They are at one with Divine Presence and have a glimpse of the distant reality -  right here and right now. Today we stand in Jesus’ empty tomb with the faithful women and experience a glimpse of the distant reality -  right here and right now, we are at One with the Divine.

I have never seen an angel nor have I heard a booming voice from heaven. But once in my prayers I had an experience of Jesus that was more real than anything I have ever seen with my eyes or touched with my hands. In my heart of hearts I heard Jesus say, “Follow me.” And I stepped behind him. He said, “Come closer.” And I did. And he said, “Closer.” And I answered, “If I come any closer I will step on your heels.” And he said “Closer.” And I stepped into Him and vanished, except I wasn’t gone. What was gone was my sense of separation. I couldn’t see him anymore. I couldn’t sense where I ended and He began. I just knew that He was closer to me than my own breath and that I was so close to Him that there was nothing between us.

I tell you this story because many of you also have stories - stories of how you have been touched by God - and unless we tell our stories we are not living out our lives as the apostles sent to share the Good News.  You see like Mary Magdalene and the other women our stories are meant to be told and retold as reminders that God is not dead. God is alive and with us  - risen right now in our hearts of flesh. 

This is resurrection; our current and ongoing awakening into new and transformed life. You see Jesus did not come to bulldoze the Roman Empire and bury the religious officials in order to rescue regular folks like us into some future utopia. Jesus came as a common man whose on the ground ministry to the sick and rejected gathered a movement of ordinary folks, people whose hearts were broken open and whose spirits were renewed by Jesus’ message of dignity and hope for all people. But the political and religious operatives of his day were threatened by Jesus’ revolutionary message and the crowds he was gathering because it challenged the status quo (read - the officials positions of power and privilege).  So, the authorities counted Jesus a criminal and crucified him between two other criminals. 

Jesus does not protest. He allies himself with the least, the last and the lonely, the broken, the betrayed and the alien, all those ordinary people like me and you whose vision of dignity and hope for all people pose a threat to the status quo. Even though Jesus’ revolutionary vision leads to his brutal execution, his Spirit cannot be extinguished because it rises again and again and again in the fleshy hearts of humankind.  

On Easter we join Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and the other women pondering Ezekiel’s words in the caverns of our hearts, “… A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh…” This is resurrection life. It is not put off for some distant time. Resurrection is now. We are the people of God because the Spirit and fleshy heart of Jesus is resurrected within us again, and again and again, always,  and right now.        

                Alleluia Christ is risen…. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!  

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Gospel text for Sunday 21 February 2016

Luke 13:31-35        Some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’"

Reflection         There is a lot going on in this text, in fact, the verb “to go” is what captures my imagination. The Pharisees’ warning to Jesus to “Get away…” can also be translated “Go away.” Immediately Jesus responds telling the Pharisees to go to Herod and that he must go and finish his work during the next three days on his way to Jerusalem. The irony is, Jesus tells the Pharisees that he has to go to Jerusalem to be killed in response to their warning to go away to avoid being killed.

It is also worth wondering, what turned the Pharisees around? All along the way the Pharisees have gone out of their way to challenge and entrap Jesus. Now, they are going out of their way to warn him that Herod wants to kill him? Why the sudden change of heart and tactic? Frankly, we have no idea what the Pharisees were thinking. Some commentators suggest their motives were genuine. Others suggest that even though the religiously conservative Pharisees secured their lives by working as arms of the state, interpreting Jewish law and maintaining order among the Jewish people, some of them described Herod the Great as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis, the evil genius of the Judean nation.”*  At the end of the day, Pharisees were Jews, not Romans. Their God was the God of Israel, not Herod.  

Apparently some of the Pharisees put their lives on the line when they warned Jesus to “Go away…” They chose to turn away from their comfortable alliance with the occupying Roman officials that insured their protected status in favor of turning toward the God of Israel. Turning toward God, following the way of Jesus, is costly. In fact, it costs everything. As the German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, grace is not cheap.

Grace requires more than being a law abiding citizen. Grace requires more than being socially and politically correct. Grace requires we go, pick up our cross and follow Jesus to Jerusalem, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.” It means dying to our old way of bartering for safety, security, esteem, power and control in exchange for obedience to secular authority.  Grace means being born again as people who put flesh on the bones of our faith by standing up for the dignity of all people. Grace invites us to risk everything, to put our safety, security, esteem, power and control on the line in order to go, to follow the way of Jesus and live according to a higher standard of dignity for all people. It seems, some of the Pharisees acted on this. 

Achtemeier, Paul J., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.), 1985.

Spino, Ken (Rabbi) (2010). "History Crash Course #31: Herod the Great (online)". Crash Course in Jewish History. Targum Press. ISBN 978-1-5687-1532-2. Retrieved 7 May 2013.

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Gospel text for Sunday 10 November 2013

Luke 20:27-38       Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."

Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

Reflection        Could it be that two thousand years ago Jesus was saying to the Sadduces and whoever else was listening that there would come a time when women would not be considered property to be transferred between the hands of brothers? Could it be that Jesus was looking square into the face of the patriarchy and saying, “Your question about the sexual rights of brothers with regard to their widowed sister-in-law misses the mark? You are blind to the ways of God of the living because God of the living does not rely on humanly contrived institutions to protect humanity. God of the living gives life eternally to all people; women, men, Jews, nonJews, married, unmarried.” Could it be that Jesus was declaring, “God gives life that does not depend on human understanding or human institutions?”

The Sadduces conspired to entrap Jesus. Their motive was the same when they asked Jesus the question about paying taxes to Rome. But Jesus rises to a ten thousand foot above the ground persective. Jesus claims dignity for all people and righteousness in all relationships... right here, right now, on earth among the living. He  makes the point that this really is a matter of choosing life or death.

Jesus exposes the Sadduces‘ debauched protestations (alleging to protect widows) for what they really were, heartless attempts to rule and exert power over others., including Jesus. But Jesus would have none of it.   He cuts to the heart of the matter, “God is God not of the dead but of the living.” The people of God are with God, “for all of them are alive in God” because God wills life,  but the way of the rule mongering Sadduces depends on death. The question is, which will you choose, the way of life or the way of death?

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Gospel text for Sunday 20 October 2013

**

Luke 18:1-8        Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Reflection      Jesus’ parable reminds me of when my daughter was a teenager and the master of persistence... “mom, please.... come on mom... pleeeeeeese.......you know you reallly want to let me.” She was relentless in pleading her case until I was worn down. The good news is, her childhood persistence turned into tenacity; once she sets her heart on something that she believes is right or just she will not give up.

I believe that is what Jesus is trying to teach the disciples and us with this parable. Hold onto righteous causes, never stop praying and never give up. Because when we pray we are aligning ourselves in God. When we are aligned in God there is a clear, open channel through which God’s presence and God’s power can flow to bring about justice.... even among people who, like the unjust judge, mutter under their breath, “I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me I will grant her justice...” Yes, God brings about justice even through the unjust.

By linking persistence in prayer with issues of justice Jesus expands the notion of justice from ethics, moral rightness and law to include the spiritual dimension, which is to say, to include God. Justice is more than punishment imposed in response to a proven crime. Justice is more than retaliation, quid pro quo, a life for a life. Justice is more than restorative which provides for a victim to be made whole and for a perpetrator to understand and take responsibility for their offense and be reintegrated in society.

Justice is the will of God that all people have access to dignity, resources and power. This is distributive justice; the reallocation of resources among all peoples. “ This is the justice that Jesus brought to life throughout his minsitry; food for the hungry, healing for the sick, forgiveness for sinners and friendship for the marginalized. The will of God is to dignify, resource and empower all people. Our job is to align our will in God’s and secure justice for all peoples.  The way we do that is by praying ceaselessly and never giving up.

**Salvador Dali  "Geological Justice"

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