Gospel text for Sunday 8 September 2013

Luke 14:25-33     Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Reflection     If I want to stop dancing around the edges of the “large crowds traveling with Jesus” and actually come to him, get close to him and be his disciple, it is not going to be easy. Jesus does not mince words. I imagine if he was speaking today he might say, “If you want to come with me and live the way of peace in the midst of anything and everything but peace, it is like climbing a fourteen thousand foot mountain carrying a hundred pound backpack. Or, it is like trying to feed the 870 million people in the world who do not have enough to eat with one boatload of rice.” 

The way of picking up the cross is not the way of burying our heads in the sand. (Did you know the only animal that buries its head in the sand is humans... not ostriches, emus or pink flamingos)? The way of coming to Jesus asks us to do the impossible, to step up and step out into the hardest places where his peace is most needed because if not we, then who?

Think about it. Estimate the cost. Do you have what it takes to stand on Jesus’ shoulders? to swim against the tide? Are you prepared to be misrepresented? misunderstood? ridiculed? excluded? Jesus counsels. Consider the cost of coming to me. It is everything, You will have to “give up all of your possessions.”He is not talking about books or real estate. Jesus is talking about getting rid of anything that prevents us from cooperating with his mission for peace in the midst of anything but. 

One of my favotite philosophers, Jimi Hendrix, put it this way, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” The question before us is, are we satisfied dancing around the edges of the “large crowds traveling with Jesus” or  are we ready to step up and step out to advance Jesus’ mission for peace?

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Gospel text for Sunday 8 September 2013

Luke 14:25-33     Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

Reflection    How could Jesus who was all about healing and dinner parties and searching for every lost sheep and even the smallest coin; how could Jesus who went to great lengths to tell the story about the prodigal father who spared no expense to welcome home his profligate son who had squandered ever bit of his inheritance; how could Jesus instruct the crowds and us to get rid of all our possessions if we want to be his disciples?

Thank goodness for my seventh grade English teacher who introduced me to that extravagant figure of speech, the hyperbole. Without it to amplify my understanding of Jesus’ words to the crowds of follk that were traveling with him I would be bereft. If I want to become Jesus’ disciple I must “give up all (my) possessions,” including all of my relationships and even my own life! Really! Jesus’ use of exaggeration works with me. It evokes a strong response. There are things and people in my life that I don’t want to give up. And frankly, I prefer not to die today. But as soon as I get over reacting I remember, Jesus’ point is to get me to dig a bit deeper. 

What is Jesus actually telling me to get rid of? What does he mean by possessions? I apologize for being a bit nurdy and going back to my Greek translation of the text. Another perspective from the Greek reads, “Therefore everyone of you who does not take leave of all that he himself possesses is not able to be my disciple.” Notice the slight of hand? Rather than speaking of possessions as a noun, an object or asset that we own I believe Jesus was speaking of possessing as a verb, how we relate or hold onto relationships and all things in our lives. I believe Jesus is telling us, possessing is not the way to relate with people and things in our world.  

We are not to treat people and things (even our own life) as objects to grab, seize, dominate, control or hold onto. That is not the way of being Jesus’ disciple. Rather, the way of being Jesus’ disciple is with an unclenched fist and open heart. Being willing to let go of all ideas of ownership, control, dominion or entitlement can be a bit like dying, dying to our sense of the way things are or ought to be. That is the cost of becoming Jesus’ disciple.

Jesus invites us to become, which is to say, to be reformed, transformed, and reborn in relationship with him. What the master transmits to the disciple is not possessed. It is born. I wonder if that is what Jesus meant when he said to Nicodemus, “‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit...?” (John 3.5-6)

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Text of the Hebrew Testament for Sunday 2 September 2013

Jeremiah 2:4-13     Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.                   Thus says the LORD:

What wrong did your ancestors find in me

that they went far from me,

and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

They did not say, "Where is the LORD

who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

who led us in the wilderness,

in a land of deserts and pits,

in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that no one passes through,

where no one lives?"

I brought you into a plentiful land

to eat its fruits and its good things.

But when you entered you defiled my land,

and made my heritage an abomination.

The priests did not say, "Where is the LORD?"

Those who handle the law did not know me;

the rulers transgressed against me;

the prophets prophesied by Baal,

and went after things that do not profit.

Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD,

and I accuse your children's children.

Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look,

send to Kedar and examine with care;

see if there has ever been such a thing.

Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for something that does not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

says the LORD,

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns

that can hold no water.

Reflection     “Where is the Lord?”  “Where is God in all of this?” I don’t know about you, but sometimes it is hard for me to find God in the world in which I live. Where is God in the kerfuffle I had with my daughter? In the suicide of my friend’s younger brother? Where is God in Egypt and Israel, Palestine and Syria and the whole Middle East for that matter? Where is God in tsunamies, and tornadoes and rising sea levels? Where is God in wars waged with paper and politics and IEDs? Where is God for the homeless, the hungry and the just barely hanging on? All of that reminds me of the story of our ancestor Job.

You may recall Job was a good and righteous man. God said so and the devil agreed. Still a series of underserved events left the successful land and live-stock owner, admired employer of many, benevolent father of ten children and beloved husband sitting in a trash dump, his businesses lost, his employees scattered, his wife and children dead, and his body wracked with disease. Still, Job never stopped calling out to God. “Where is the Lord? Where are you God? Talk to me. Where is the Lord?”

This, I believe, is the kind of faithfulness God desires from us. The word of the Lord as spoken through the prophet Jeremiah wants to take us by the shoulders and shake us. “Don’t you see, the Lord is with you in your times of trial and success? The Lord is with you in your enslavement and as you break away from situations in which you are not free. The Lord is with you when you take risks, when you are lost, when you suffer, when you are healed. The Lord is with you when everyone else is gone. Therefore you must never stop calling out to the Lord. Where is the Lord? Where is God in all of this?”

For the Jesuits, a religous order of the Roman Church, a central spiritual practice is “Finding God in all things.” It is the lived recognition that nothing can seperate us from the presence of God, the love of God, nothing. To speak of finding God in all things is to understand that God is not distant and ‘other,’ rather God is intimately present with and for us no matter what. We are the objects of God’s love. It is the work of our lifetime to smash our litttle clay gods, the ideas, ideals and ideologies that prevent us from finding God in all things, and open the way of our hearts to experience the awesome mystery that is God present. One way to do this is pause at the end of each day, review the course of events asking, "Where did I notice God present? Where did I not?" Then pray for the grace to see more clearly tomorrow the presence and action of God in your life.  
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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 18 August 2013

Luke 12:49-56     Jesus said, "I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:

father against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, `It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

Reflection      “The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enought to get the job done.” (George Carlin)

Apparently Jesus knew that he was close enough to get the job done, to set the people on fire!. Jesus knew his mission was to “bring fire to the earth,” which is to say, he came to ignite passion for the living God within the heart of humanity. And, Jesus was not naiive. He understood the divisive effect of passion inflamed for the living God in the context of pagan or secular culture.  

So Jesus warned the disciples (and us); throughout the earth, passion of and in and for living God will divide alliances, separate families, cull supporters of the common good from promoters of self interest, distinguish keepers of peace and reconciliation from protectors of the status quo and cull comunities of compassion from states of enmity. 

Jesus’ fire turns things upside down, and I don’t just mean moneychanger’s tables. Jesus’ fire makes me look in the mirror and ask, where am I straddling the gap? Where am I holding onto “the way things have always been” in order to avoid the divisiveness of standing with Jesus on the side of the hungry, the stranger, the rule breaker?  Where am I avoiding divisiveness in order to be liked, approved of, or to keep the peace? Where am I throwing water on my passion for living God in order to be socially acceptable? Ooops! If we are honest with ourselves we must admit, we make compromises all the time. Still, Jesus’ sorting process burns on, it has for two thousand years. 

Jesus is on a mission and there is no evidence that he will stop until it is accomplished. “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." (Luke3.17) That stirs up images of hammering chunks of rock from the earth, crushing then heating them to extreme temperatures, all the while hoping to extract a smidge of gold. The Spirit of Jesus within humanity is the refiner’s fire. It is passion burning from the inside out driving believers to distinguish ourselves from the secular realm. Yes, the process of being refined is not particularly pleasant, but it is not optional.

It is a matter of passion. What is it that drives us? What is it that moves us to get up in the morning, step out into the world and do whatever we do? I beleive Pierre Teilhard de Chardin answered this question when he wrote,“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will discover fire.” 

“Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” The Spirit, the fire, the passion of Jesus within will not rest in peace until humanity’s heart of compassion is restored in each and every one of us and our passion is allied with God's own passion.. “Do you not know how to interpret the present time?"

Gospel text for Sunday 11 August 2013

**

Luke 12:32-40     Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

"But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

Reflection    Clearly Jesus is speaking to me and to you. After all, we are the ones with possessions. At the very least we have a computer (or access to one) and electricity and a place to sit and time to read and write and wonder about such things as Jesus is speaking. If you are reading this you are probably not worried about finding your next meal, or trying to remember the last time you had a meal. Clearly, Jesus is speaking to those of us who have possessions, who have more than our daily bread. Jesus is speaking to those of us who have a surplus, who have things to sell, who have enough to share with our sisters and brothers who are wondering where they will find their daily bread.

So Jesus tells the people with possessions, and us, “Do not be afraid.” This is not a zero sum game. There is nothing for you to lose when you are generous and give from your surplus. In fact, there is everything for you to gain. When you find pleasure in giving from your surplus you align your will with God’s will and with God’s “good pleasure.” This is the kingdom come.

Jesus’ parable does not accuse or recriminate people with possessions. Quite the contrary.  Jesus reminds us that the kingdom has everything to do with the nature of our relationship with God and our lifestyle. As servants or slaves we are to be alert, to receive and act on God’s counsel. Rather than store up possessions for ourselves we are to imitate the way of Jesus, we are to align our will with the will of God to be sure every person receives their daily bread. This is what gives us real pleasure.

“The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870 million people, or one in eight people in the world, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012. Almost all the hungry people, 852 million, live in developing countries, representing 15 percent of the population of developing counties. http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm  

To bring it a little closer to home, some 13 million children in the United States live in homes with limited access to a sufficient food supply. http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/family_home/family/childcare/Children_Childcare/Malnutrition+Impairs+US+Childrens+Health+Behavior+Says+LSU+AgCenter+Food+and+Nutrition+Expert.htm 

Even closer to home, in 2011 32% of the children in Phoenix, Arizona lived in poverty. http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/43-children-in-poverty?loc=1&loct=2#ranking/3/any/true/867/any/322 

Jesus teaches the disciples and us to pray to God, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Give us this day our daily bread.” He also teaches us to sell our possessions (our surplus) and give alms to be sure all of God’s children receive their daily bread. When we align our will with God’s will, the kindgom is come and we participate in God’s “good pleasure.” 

                           ** Image  "Daily Bread" by Reggie Duffie

Gospel text for Sunday 4 August 2013

Luke 12.13-21     Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, `What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Reflection    Realizing that there are far too many people with urgent needs for food, shelter and safety, I don’t believe they are the people to whom Jesus directed this parable. But perhaps not for the obvious reason. People with great need tend to recognize their relationship and dependence on something more than their self, on God, and as we read in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” (6.20) 

Back to this text. Can you see the indignant man from the crowd scowling, clenching his teeth and grunting sighs, “It’s not fair? “Clearly his priority was executing justice for personal gain. Unfortunately he lost sight of God’s priority - relationship; relationship with his brother and relationship with God.

Desiring and acquiring goods, riches and power is not of itself problemmatic. God created all things and called all things good, very good. But when desire for and acquisition of goods, riches and power override God’s priority for relationship, it is not good, not very good. It is greed. So Jesus tells the parable of the greedy farmer in which God minces no words. God speaks directly to the man and says, “You fool!” What good are all your riches when you have not been rich toward me... God? 

By clinging to our God given riches rather than to God we lose everything because the very act of clinging exposes the seperation of our self from God. Cinging is failure to recognize self in God and God in self. Clinging is blind to the One Being, the real human, complete and lacking nothing. When the greedy farmer built larger barns to store his excess grain and goods rather than praise and thank God Present for the glorious abundance, the man decisively ended his own life. By depending on his wit and wherewithall rather than on God he set himself apart from God. In other words, the greedy farmer’s will was not aligned with God’s will (remember last week's prayer..."Thy kingdom come.... thy will be done?). It is God's will to be known and expressed in all things. The greedy farmer’s priority was to “relax, eat, drink and be merry.” God’s priority was and always is - relationship. And it is good, very good.