Gospel text for Sunday 23 October 2022

 Luke 18:9-14       Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Reflection        Have you ever overheard someone spewing a list of laments about a person or group of “those unworthy people” while assuming a morally superior stance insisting “I am not like that? I would never do such things?” And while we are excavating, shall we be painfully honest? Have you ever heard yourself rehearsing your exceptional credentials, thanking God that you are not like “those disreputable people?” 

Being a respected religious man who goes to the synagogue for all of the appointed prayers, steers clear of contact with undesirable folk and exceeds the biblical obligation to give ten percent of his income to the temple, the Pharisee in Luke’s text assumes he is in God’s favor.. But Jesus does not concur. When Jesus commends the sinful tax collector for humbly petitioning God for mercy, Jesus turns the Pharisee’s self-righteous assumptions upside down. The upstanding Pharisee is shocked.  

I am willing to wager that when most of us hear this teaching tale comparing the Pharisee and the tax collector, we identify with the pious Pharisee. We go to church, say the appointed prayers, we read books and blogs about scripture, we steer clear of contact with undesirable people and fulfill our biblical obligation to give ten percent of our income to the Church (well, maybe not so much). We trust in ourselves and believe we deserve God’s grace. So, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Pharisee our eyes glaze over when Jesus commends our law breaking neighbors and condemns us to humility.

I believe this troublesome teaching tale requires we take out the windex, wipe the dust off our mirrors to look through a new perspective. “Yes, there I am.  No, I am not a thief, a scoundrel, or two-faced deceiver. I worked for everything I have and I give sensibly to my church.  Just look at me Lord. I am not like those reprehensible people.  I am pious and practice the way of perfection. I am law abiding and above reproach.”  But our flourishes hold no sway with Jesus who roundly rejects our litany of “look at me” statements.  In a sleight of hand that we do not foresee Jesus brings us to our knees. 

From our corrected perspective we listen to  Jesus’ confounding comment just a few sentences following this text. While blessing the little children Jesus admonishes us,  “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” (Luke 18.17) 

Again we join the Pharisee protesting. “How can this be? We are meant to read, mark, study, digest and keep God’s law. Children cannot even read! They do not know the law and furthermore, they have nothing to offer God.” Can you see Jesus scratching his head, screwing up his eyes and muttering, “Precisely! Children never presume they have anything to give to God or anyone else. Guileless and unguarded children simply turn to the One from whom their blessings flow. Children and admitted sinners stand naked before God. Being empty, open and receptive they are available to receive God’s favor.”

Mirroring cloudless contrast between those who put their trust in themselves and those who put their trust in God, Jesus is crystal clear.  There is only one way to be in right relationship with God. Humbly. Those who exalt themselves will be deflated, disgraced and degraded. Those who humble themselves will be filled, favored and pure.

Oh, Jesus, this is hard. Too hard. From the time we are tiny children we are told to prove ourselves, master the world, and accumulate the social, political and religious badges of success. I do not know about you but I cannot count the times my child self heard, “What have you got to show for yourself young lady? What have you done to deserve being here? God helps those who help themselves?” Not until I was well on my way to old did I receive the counsel “To receive the wisdom of the wise you must be empty, open and receptive.” Even then this sage advice did not come from the Christian tradition. It came to me through Taoist wisdom tales.

Assuming the unaffected sincerity of children we find a new perspective. Now cheek to jowl with the tax collector in today’s gospel text, we  are “standing far off… not even look(ing) up to heaven, but beating our breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'. Just in case your eyebrows scowl and your alarms howl when you hear the word, ’sinner,’ relax. This is not an invitation to self loathing and flagellation. This is a summons to a new perspective.

If sin means we miss the mark and the mark is right relationship with God, then being a sinner means we are turned away from God. A sure and certain way for us to know we are turned away from God is when we hear ourselves announcing our virtues instead of humbling ourselves and proclaiming the goodness and mercy of God. This is why Jesus insists we stop singing our holier than thou sonnets and turn to the One from whom we receive all blessings, blessings we only receive when we are open, empty and receptive as unspoiled children.

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Epistle for 7th Sunday of Easter 24 May 2020

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11        Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

Reflection        Please join me mounting a ten thousand feet above the ground perspective from which to scan the course of life and it’s ordeals?

From the beginning of our faith traditions narrative some thirty four hundred years ago, there has never been a time without ordeals and suffering. In the third chapter of Genesis our first named human ancestors succumb to the temptation to aggrandize themselves by “eating from the tree of good and evil,” and the man blames the woman and the woman blames the serpent and our human propensity to shirk responsibility and look for someone to blame for our troubles is born and the consequences of our choices are; shame, hard work and consciousness of pain.  The next thing that happens is sibling rivalry. Cain is jealous of Abel, so kills his brother. Before we wander through seven chapters of the first book of the Hebrew Testament humanity is nearly extinguished by a great flood. 

Here is the thing. The Genesis stories are not historical records of events. They are our ancestors attempts to understand and make meaning from their mysterious ordeals. Why are some people favored more than others?  Why do women have pain in childbirth? Why is there suffering? Why do people die? Humanity’s questions echo from the beginning.

And so the writer of 1 Peter entreats us, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” There has never been a generation that did not face fiery ordeals.  But here is the thing. When the writer includes in his exhortation, “to test you,” he is not describing situations designed for us to either pass or fail. Testing means proving or refining. In the text from 1 Peter, testing is being “restored, supported, strengthened, and established.” Established in relationship to something greater than us, a ubiquitous perspective, something that we call God, something that has been emerging through billions of fiery ordeals.

4.5b years ago there was the birth of a planet we call earth. Perhaps we could think of this as the big ordeal that set the stage for the first microorganisms that predicated life 3.5 billion years ago. The earth’s surface broke into rocky platelets that moved and gave birth to the first continent named “Ur.” That was 3 billion years ago. Sex started about 1.7 billion years later with red algae which led to multicellular life but then on two occasions the entire earth froze. A subsequent explosion birthed animals with shells and massive diversification then, you guessed it, the first mass extinction about 450m years ago. Next fish that walked inhabited the single earth continent that then tore itself apart and another mass extinction preceded dinosaurs. We know what happened to them. 

Question is not, “Why are there ordeals?” The question is “How do we choose to walk through ordeals?”  The writer of 1Peter continues with good counsel. “Humble yourselves… Cast all your anxiety on (God)… Discipline yourselves, keep alert.” Because during ordeals we are vulnerable. 

Early Wednesday afternoon, sitting in my office with a laptop recently gave to the church. The thing is, it is a PC and I am a Mac user, so I decided to get it set up ahead of time for our 2 pm Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina  meeting. Much to my relief I managed to get the zoom site running then left the laptop open and continued to work on my own computer. At some point I noticed the image of a beautiful lion’s head looking at me from the PC. I actually stopped and thought about the beauty of this noble beast before closing the laptop and carrying it to the library for the meeting.

At 1:58 when I opened the laptop, the screen was bright blue. No matter which key I touched I could not get past the sea of blue nothing. Depressing the power button failed to turn it off. Time is passing, my cell phone is buzzing with texts from meeting participants wondering where I am. Huffing and muttering things that I shall not write, I grab the recalcitrant laptop and retreat to my office, hoping against hope that I can access zoom and open the meeting on my unreliable Mac. Stomach churning, heart pounding, mind racing, you might think I was being chased by a lion rather than late for a Centering Prayer meeting. And there we have it.

“Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” Humble yourself Debra. Stop being anxious about all the changes and how to lead the church through this Covid-19 ordeal. Put your faith in God and resist the devil’s temptation to assume you have to figure this out, make everything work. Stay alert and know “your sisters and brothers in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering.”  

Whether we choose to begin our story 13.7 billion years ago with the massive fiery ordeal that blew space into smithereens, thirty four hundred years ago with our Hebrew ancestors’ attempts to make sense of their mystifying ordeals, or the most recent time the roaring lion showed up to steal our peace or shake our faith, there is no escaping life’s ordeals.

So what shall we do when the lion roars? Be disciplined and alert saying, “Welcome, welcome, welcome. I let go of my desire for things to be different than they are.”

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Gospel text for Sunday 17 August 2014

Matthew 15.21-28        Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly

Reflection        Oh dear, how shall we deal with this incredibly rude Jesus? How will we justify his heartless behavior? How could the son of God behave this way? And then the Canaanite woman reminds us, Jesus is Lord and he is also the son of David, born of Mary, of woman. He is also fully human. He was raised as an observant Jew. He knew the Hebrew scriptures and the temple customs. It was as natural for Jesus to see the Canaanite woman as an untouchable stranger who had no business approaching him and asking for his help as it is for many Americans to see the Central American women and children entering this country illegally as strangers or aliens who have no business entering this country and asking for help. 

Yes, Jesus is the son of God and Jesus is the son of humanity; fully divine and fully human. For reasons we will never know the Canaanite woman recognized the dual natures of Jesus, Lord and Son of David. After all his healing, preaching, exorcisisms and raising people from the dead, this story offers a glimpse of Jesus’ humanity. Just like every one of us, Jesus was subjected to the conditions of his social, cultural and religious context. And, just like us, Jesus had the capacity to stretch beyond the limits of his condioned social and emotional responses and become more compassionate. 

Something happened to Jesus in his exchange with the Canaanite woman. His original idea of who he should and should not relate with was changed. His notion of who was eligible for his help and healing was radically challenged. The Canaanite woman’s persistent faith pierced the depths of Jesus’ humanity and sparked the mercy of his divinity.  And he was changed. Who are the people seeking mercy from us? With our human and divine natures balanced and engaged, how shall we respond? Do we dare follow Jesus, step into foreign territory, meet the stranger face to face and allow ourselves to be changed?

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Gospel text for Sunday 22 December 2013

Matthew 1:18-25        Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Reflection             Joseph had two pair of glasses. When he looked at the world  and his situation through one pair of glasses he confronted the complex structure of social custom and law. Through this lens Joseph saw Mary, the woman to whom he was betrothed and with whom he had not had sexual relations as pregnant, in breach of their personal and social contract. Whether she had been raped or had consented to sex with another man, Joseph was not the father of Mary’s child and Joseph was justified by law and custom to divorce Mary which would incite shame and shuning for Mary and her family.  Let’s call these the glasses of justification. Joseph was wearing this pair of glasses when he decided to quietly dismiss Mary, then turned in for the night and went to sleep.

Joseph must have changed his glasses as he fell asleep that night because he had a dream in which he recognized that there was another lens through which to look at his situation. It was the spiritual lens, the lens that enabled him to recognize God present in his dream, and “know” in a deep, personal and unequivocal way “God is with us, (with me)” Emmanuel. Through his second pair of glasses Joseph saw beyond the personal, social and legal perspectives of his situation to the spiritual. The ill-bred child in Mary’s womb was not a blasphemy or degradation. The child in Mary’s womb was a gift of Divine Presence; it was godly, to be honored and praised.

Then Joseph “awoke from sleep,” which is bible-speak for becoming conscious of the divine perspective and acting on it.  Joseph took Mary to be his wife and followed the instructions he received in his dream.You see, recognizing “God is with us” without changing our behavior to receive Divine Presence and allow it to come to life within us is like dying of thrist while looking at a spring of cool fresh water but refusing to kneel, cup our hands and be refreshed. 

Often I am tempted to action while wearing the glasses of justification; tempted to dismiss a person or situation that has complicated my life and quietly move on. But true life in the Spirit comes  for me when I put on the glasses of the spiritual perspective and allow myself to "see" and be changed by the nuances of Divine Presence, even and perhaps especially in the messy moments of ordinary life.

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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 25 August 2013

Luke 13:10-17

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Reflection     What is truth? I ask that question because unless I know what is truth how will I know how to live? For the religious leader in Luke’s text truth was revealed in the Bible and involved lots of rules about purity, fasting and sabbath. According to his version of truth, a view he shared with the Jewish religious authorities of his time, in order to live a good, right and holy life one had to obey the rules, the religious codes as written in Liviticus and interpreted by religious officials. Then along came Jesus for whom truth had a somewhat different flavor. 

Every time Jesus turned around he managed to break the rules and offend the authorities. He hung out with (even shared meals with) the wrong people, he ate the wrong foods without washing his hands, and he dared to cure people on the sabbbath. Jesus’ actions suggest that he was not bound by the priests’ elaborate holiness codes that originated some 600 years earlier in the temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, when some of the Pharisees (religious officials) asked, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath?” (Luke 6.2) Jesus answered, “The son of man is Lord of the sabbath.” I read that as an ancient way of saying, “Your rules, your customs, have nothing to do with me when they prevent me from being merciful as my Father is merciful.”

Apparently Jesus understood truth to be a matter of perspective. Was the bent over woman a sociallly unacceptable cripple or a daughter of Abraham and full member of God’s family? Is the sabbath a day for withholding goodness or a day when even ox and donkeys require care? What is truth? 

Humanity in the early stages of social and spiritual development needs straight lines drawn in the sand; e.g. This is  black, this is white. This is left, this is right. We know which side we stand on and have little tolerance for the other. This perspective works fairly well with children and mathmatics; fire burns therefore do not put your hand in it, five plus seven is eleven. Things are either correct or incorrect. Dualistic thinking is helpful... for a season. And then there is wisdom.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. “(Ecclesiastes 3.1-9)

Jesus embodies the inclusive wisdom of Ecclesiastes. The more simple, dualistic, externally oriented perspective of the religious officials may be a helpful starting place but was not sufficient for Jesus and is not sufficient for maturing Christians In our complex and rapidly changing world today. Jesus reminds us that the question we must ask is, “For whom is this true? “

Is the sabbath holy for a woman considered unclean and cast out of her community? Is the sabbath holy for a homeless family? For a high school student whose parents illegally entered the country when she was seven years old? For an elder person unable to receive adequate care? Is the sabbath holy for those who mourn? Those who are hated? Those whom we call enemy?

For Jesus truth is interior, personal and not relative. “Do to others as you would have them do to you... But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6,31,35-6) As Jesus did so must we dare to think differently about the world and our place in it. To do so we must stand on the shoulders of biblical revelation and reason and stretch into the unside-down world perspective modeled for us by Jesus.

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Gospel Text for Sunday, August 14th, 2011

Genesis 45:1-15

Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, "Send everyone away from me." So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come closer to me." And they came closer. He said, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, `Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there-- since there are five more years of famine to come-- so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.' And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here." Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.