Going Nowhere Fast

Matthew 28:1-10

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb

What did they go to see? Were they “disappointed” by what they found?
I suspect that we often make a similar journey - venturing to a tomb that no longer bears the death and defeat we expect to find.
One thought. The angel, sitting on top of the stone seems sort of brash.
I think of the story of The Lord of the Rings where Pippin and Merry are at Isengard after Saruman the wizard has been overthrown. Gandalf has them watch over things until the rest of the Fellowship arrives. They make the most of the time there, having found some excellent brew and good weed to smoke, and when the Fellowship rides in, there they sit, atop the wall, drinking, smoking and welcoming their friends. . .

Whatdyaknow?

Text - John 9

I really like that line:
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
I guess that this can be used to serve a sort of head-in-the-sand approach - it must be a favorite verse of those who don’t want to do any theological reflection - but there is a simplicity here that is rich. “well, you guys are after all sorts of stuff - but I know that he healed me...”
Perhaps this appeals to my inner pietist.

One thing we can do is turn to this story to speak about how each one of us can speak to our neighbors and invite them to Church. You don’t need to have it all down. . .

There’s so much here, it is easy to get lost. . .
Richard Lischer has a real nice sermon that opens

In a church I served, one of the pillars of the congregation stopped by my office just before services to tell me he'd been "born again."
"You've been what?" I asked.
"I visited my brother-in-law's church, the Running River of Life Tabernacle, and I don't know what it was, but something happened and I'm born again."
"You can't be born again," I said, "you're a Lutheran.." . . . He was brimming with joy, but I was sulking. Why? Because spiritual renewal is wonderful as long as it occurs within acceptable, usually mainline, channels and does not threaten my understanding of God.
In her novel Revelation, Peggy Payne tells of a Presbyterian minister who experiences a theophany. One afternoon, while grilling steaks in the backyard, he hears the voice of God speaking to him. It's a revelation. It's the kind of revelation that will change his life; he will never be the same. The rest of the story tells of the price he pays for revelation, Do the leaders of his congregation rejoice with him? Not exactly. They do provide free psychiatric care and paid administrative leave.

Of course, there is a deep danger that when we hear this text, as we judge the Pharisees, we become Pharisees ourselves. . . we are the judgmental ones. . .
As Lindy Black quotes Barbara Brown Taylor:

One reason they are so repellent to us, I think, is because they remind us of ourselves. However much we prefer the role of the blind man, we are not naturals for the part. We are not outcasts, most of us. We have not been set outside the community for our sins. We are consummate insiders--fully initiated, law-abiding, pledge-paying, creed-saying members of the congregation of the faithful--or in shorthand, Pharisees,

I’m not sure what all that means, but one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.

Boundaries

John 4:5–42

⁵So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. ⁷A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." ¹¹The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" ¹³Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." ¹⁷The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" ¹⁹The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." ²¹Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." ²⁵The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." ²⁶Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

²⁷Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" ²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he? ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." ³²But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." ³³So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" ³⁴Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

³⁹Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

Boundaries. I'm struck by the issue of the boundaries raised by this Gospel text for Sunday. Geographical - A Jew crossing through Samaria to get from Judea to get to Galilee. The boundary of social custom being crossed when Jesus asks for a drink. The boundary of clean versus unclean of righteous and immoral. Here Jesus moves outside of religious certainties. We have no trouble affirming the need for boundaries. (We know of the "down side" of boundary free living) But we test them and we cross them much to our demise and/or suffering but also for life. Jesus engages this woman in a conversation which reeks of honesty but also leads for her to desire that which will quench the thirsting of her soul. "Living water." Living (Greek - zao) Something spiritual which leads to eternal life. Jesus' crossing of the boundaries to meet and to engage this woman in conversation leads to her desiring of the gift which leads to life. "Sir, give me this water...."

Jesus' taking risks...his crossing boundaries...led to his suffering and death but to our life. No, we are not called to "boundary free" living but we, too, are called to take risks..to cross some boundaries in order that honest conversations with self and others can take place. In order that we might drink "living water" that will "become in us (and others) a spring of water which gushes up to eternal life."

Follow Me

While all sorts of folks get interested in the fishing imagery - I don’t fish, and I don’t like people who do. . . strike that . . .
While all sorts of folks get interested in the fishing imagery, I have been nudged to simply look at the call “follow me.”
What is contained in this call to follow? Where will Jesus lead you?
I saw an interesting article that suggests that Jesus is not making a polite request for one to consider following him. . . "'Follow Me'" The Imperious Call of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels” by F. Scott Spencer, a NT prof at Baptist Th. Sem. in Richmond. [I looked up imperious, "assuming power or authority without justification. arrogant or domineering" - interesting word choice] He opens with a reference to the song “I have decided to follow Jesus” and does a nice riff from there to suggest that the Jesus we actually encounter is no Mr. Rogers.

[Jesus] insists that they follow him on his own terms — period. Jesus does not negotiate with disciples. He does not force anyone to follow, but those who do follow fall under the force of his call and agenda. Bluntly put, it is his way or the highway.
Such a pushy, peremptory Jesus is scarcely in vogue today. . . . . . . The rule that Jesus promotes, while as totalitarian in scope as anything Caesar might imagine, runs directly counter to the tyrannical character of Caesar's regime. Jesus advances the basileia ton theou, the just and merciful empire of Israel's God, before whom no other gods or kings, deities or powers, are worthy of honor.

In conversing with Pay No Toll, he mentioned the Quo Vadis, and this caused me to take a peek at this reflection in The Cross in Our Context
for a reminder:
Peter is in the act of fleeing Rome, where many Christians are undergoing terrible persecutions under Nero. As he is rushing along the Appian Way, he is apprehended by a vision of Jesus, heading in the opposite direction. "Quo vadis, Domine?" Peter asks him. "Where are you going, Lord?" And the vision answers “Into Rome, to be crucified again.” Then Peter, once more humbled by truth, turns around and returns into the city, where, legend tells us, Peter was martyred, crucified, head down.
Hall offers this reflection:

“What informs this legend. . . is a remarkable sense of the world-orientation of this faith. It is not the SUFFERING of [Peter] that is held up here as the goal we should all emulate, but the indelible connectedness of this faith with responsibility in and for the city of earth - civitas terrena - God’s world. The risen Christ, in his eternal reign as in his historical sojourn, is always going toward this world, the world's rejection not withstanding, and discipleship, when it is authentically so, is always a matter of being taken up into this world-directedness, despite one’s own preference for security and peace.” pg 54

One more line from DJ - this is a bit out of context, but a rich line none the less: he says that God is one - “who will be loved only as one who loves the world. (John 3:16)” pg. 55

Let me suggest that we are called to follow Jesus, not as an idea, nor even as God incarnate. We are called to follow this one who - as God incarnate - ventures to the cross, who loves the least and the lost and expects his followers to do the same.

Baptism - Again

Matthew 3:13–17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

I - sometimes - find myself not too excited about Baptism of Our Lord. In fact, I sorta grimace at the thought of once again going down to the Jordan. . .
However, usually, by the time I preach on it, I see it as a good starting point for the venture into the Epiphany season and the new year.
As the year begins, as folks have thought - a little - about New Years’ resolutions, having thought about themselves in a sort of critical or abstract way, this might well be a good time to touch on Baptism as God’s gift of identifying you as God’s own. As one in whom God is “well pleased.”
I like Daniel Patte’s commentary on Matthew - and he goes on quite a bit about Jesus’ vocation, his identity given in the name Emmanuel, and the name Jesus - “he will save his people from their sins.”
I suspect that our congregations (and our own darn selves) might be well served by reflecting on Baptism - Vocation - other Baptism themes abound, and they are probably all fitting for our preaching on this text. Reflecting on the theme of God’s claim on you in Baptism - I like this line from my sermon last year. Noting that some think their baptism is not meaningful to them because they can’t remember it. . . (names have been changed to. . . ) -

If Bilbo or Frodo were to complain that they did not remember the day when their adoption was finalized, I would tell them, it didn’t matter. “What matters,” I would say, “is that your daddy held you in his arms at the court house and cried happy tears, he knew that no matter what, for all our lives, we belonged to one another.”

As you venture into the year ahead, you are God’s own. You are called. You are sent. I like this idea from Loving Jesus by Mark Allen Powell. He says that we sometimes talk as if forgiveness means that God loves you in spite of who you are. Yet, could the Good News of the Gospel be heard in a fresh way, if the congregation heard ? - “God loves you because of who you are.” God has proclaimed about you, “with you I am well pleased.”

Where is the child?

Matthew 2:1–12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
6 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

One great thing about following an absolute dipwad, is that you end up on all sorts of wacky mailing lists. . . A packet of materials just arrived from Christian Tools of Affirmation. CTA.
I believe that the liturgical response to such a load, is “Uff Da!”
We might well ask whether the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were very affirming.
After I thought of that - admittedly, not very affirming - shot, I began to wonder. Continuing down that road, one might suggest that the gifts do affirm the calling Jesus bears as Messiah, as suffering servant, as one who will bring life and salvation through suffering and the cross.
I know that is a sort of pedestrian reading. Sort of common. The “We Three Kings” carol and all. But, it might not be common at all.
How might that be? Where do we go with this wonderful tale?
I like the bulletin cover art from Sundays and Seasons for this week.
Three kings bow before Jesus, (in a manger - oops). The Magi in front looks to be Asian, the middle, maybe Indian? maybe feminine? the third looks African.
This one, whose calling is foreshadowed in the gifts, has come for ALL.
There is much here.
Which path shall we follow?

What the Heck is a Nazorean

Matthew 2:13–23

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
"A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead. Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean."

I remember, years ago, attending worship on the 1st Sunday of Christmas, and being quite bummed to encounter this text.
Sorta negative.
Sorta explodes one’s hope for a continuation of the warm fuzzies that were stirred on Christmas eve.
Is this choice of texts perhaps an almost necessary nudge, to raise our eyes from our own selves, and to fix our eyes on the refugee, the lost, the one in need?
I think of a meditation by Al Rogness, Never Alone: he says:

In a profound sense we can never be alone, not even with God. When we pray to him and invite him to come to us, we discover that we have no private party with him. He brings with him all who are his. He also brings with him all who are in need and says: “Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.” So, as we go to our private rooms or sit alone with God, we sense the vast company to which we belong in him, and we cannot escape those whom the Lord asks us to help and to love.

Incarnation Mystery and Other Big Words

I often wonder at the power of story.

Why do people come to worship on Christmas eve?
Could it be to simply hear and sing the story?
Wm. Loader touches on this in interesting ways. . .

Christmas is a space which invites the coming together of many very significant life issues, but not as issues to be thought about, more as issues of experiencing, frequently unexpressed and inarticulate. That is why we need the angels, the romance, the symbols, the colour of the story. People can enter the story, find themselves there, make their own exploratory or rededicatory journeys with the shepherds, just to see, to be there.
For some who may make the Christmas service their one church visit for the year, perhaps just to be back with family and old friends, the story is still familiar, a mixture of fantasy and faith, an opportunity to engage that latent spirituality which has not found the church rings their bells. The inarticulate spirituality which will sometimes bring children for baptism in a kind of vaguery too often despised. The Christmas story remains a sacred site for very many people inside and outside our churches. Today is the day to encourage people to enjoy it, to touch its sacredness and let it touch them.

May the story of God’s great love for you be proclaimed, heard, felt and lived in your Christmas celebrations.

a story I’ve used often.

There is a story of an Anglican Bishop who was getting his family ready for Christmas Eve worship. On their way to the candlelight service, the son looked at his father and said, "Dad, are you going to let us enjoy this Christmas, or are you going to try to explain it to everybody?"

Explain well!

It's dark and I can't see. Must be night.

Matthew 11:2–11
When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" 4 Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."
7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written,
'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.'
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

A few years ago, the kids were slow to wake up one morning. The oldest was protesting from bed, and the preschooler was complaining about being too tired to be standing there. “I know” the little one said. “I'll check and see if it is daytime." After checking behind the shade, he turned and said "Mom, it's still night!"
It is not hard to connect with John’s question: “are you the one?” “Shall we wait for another?” “Like one who will ACTUALLY bring about the promised new age?”
As a high schooler, in my pietistic naivete, I made a comment to a classmate that I still regret - though my regret is assuaged by my friend’s instructive response. He is Jewish, and I said to him that reading the New Testament, it was hard not to come to the conclusion that Jesus was the Messiah. (Doh!)
What I don’t regret, is the lesson I carry to this day from his response: With a good measure of passion, my friend replied:
“He’s not at all what we’re looking for in the Messiah!”
"Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
It is still night, and, from what I can tell, the nights are getting longer, not shorter.
Here’s a marvelous line, I turn to often: Edmund Steimle, in his last sermon on the Protestant Hour:

We are delivered in Christ, not from the darkness, but from its dominion and power to bury our hopes. That, as I see it, is the task of preaching, not to deny the darkness, but to shed light on our paths as we walk through the darkness.

I have a suspicion that in preaching on this text on these short days, that one could work well with darkness, and with John’s disappointment in Jesus - a disappointment that we might all well share.

Mark Allan Powell, in a Word and World article “Matthew as Pastor: The Presence of God” (1998) suggests that Matthew envisions a Church that engages culture in a way not suggested by H R Nieburhr. Let me share the quote

. . . we see now a theological assessment of the relationship between church and culture. As I understand it, Matthew's view on this subject would best be systematized as a model absent from Niebuhr's classic study. Matthew operates with what I would call a "Christ beneath Culture" paradigm, which (as the name implies) is essentially the model that Niebuhr calls "Christ above Culture" stood on its head. Matthew is optimistic about the church's influence in the world, but this influence does not derive from the church's acquisition of power within society but from its repudiation of such power. The church becomes the world's salt and light precisely by remaining powerless. pg. 353

then he concludes the article with this paragraph on pg. 354

. . . In responding to the question, "Where is God to be found in this world?" Matthew inevitably wrestles with what we would call christological and ecclesiological arguments, and struggles as well with the question of how matters of faith affect life in the world at large. The practical problem is how God can be present in a world ruled by Satan. The ultimate answer is that God is present through powerless ones whose continual repudiation of worldly power undermines the kingdom of Satan and portends its eventual collapse. The necessary link to affirming that the Lord of heaven and earth is now manifest in such a powerless, oppressed minority is found in the person and work of Jesus. The community of the powerless — the church — is a continuation of Jesus' embodiment of God's presence on earth. To people who are asking where God is to be found, Matthew points to the powerless Christians going out into the world as sheep in the midst of wolves. Welcome them and the message they bring, and you will welcome the one through whom God is with us; indeed, you will welcome the very God who sent him (10:40).

While that is quite a lot of “stuff” I look at this and wonder if John the Baptist isn’t there to help us all ask the question that pushes us to the cross. I’d rather read Left Behind and find God present in a bunch of dead evil doers. In Jesus, God has chosen to suffer the violence, and invited us to work as God’s agents, beneath culture, beneath violence, beneath power, and to make God’s kingdom present in ways we couldn’t imagine.
"Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"
Afraid so. . .
Or, perhaps, you will find, that this seemingly bad news is the only Good News there is.
No need to look anywhere else. Jesus is the one, and you are his.
Forever.

Straight Paths

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” 4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

John the Baptist sorta crashes our Advent party here - like the Residence Hall guy making us put our beer away and turn off the music. . . Well, let’s humor him a bit, pretend we’re back on the straight and narrow, and once he leaves the building, we can turn the music back on, and resume the party. . .
Do we need to reclaim repentance today?
Have we always needed to “reclaim” repentance as a true turning to God?
I think - for some odd reason - of this opening paragraph by Walter Brueggemann in his essay “The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity” Christian Century, March 24, ‘99.

The majority of the world's resources pour into the United States. And as we Americans grow more and more wealthy, money is becoming a kind of narcotic for us. We hardly notice our own prosperity or the poverty of so many others. The great contradiction is that we have more and more money and less and less generosity - less and less public money for the needy, less charity for the neighbor.

I guess this comes to mind because this sounds a call to me to repent. Or maybe, more accurately, because I hear it as something SOMEONE ELSE needs to hear for THEM to repent. Sort of like that Oliver Wendell Holmes quote:

“Humility is the first of virtues - - for other people.”

or John Seldon:

“Humility is a virtue all men preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servants, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.”

Could the same be true for repentance?
Here’s something I said in a sermon on this text once.

Yet, repentance is not at all shame or self righteousness. It is, in fact, a receiving and a knowing. It is receiving the love God has poured out for you, and living in that love. It is setting aside the vain pursuits and powers that threaten to undo us, and a following of God.

Maybe the call to repent is fitting for Advent, maybe it is something I want for myself. Maybe John the baptist hasn’t so much crashed the party, as he has set the tone so the party can actually begin.

Keep awake ! Be ready !

Matthew 24:36–44

36 But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. 42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

“Keep awake ! Be ready !” Sounds like Jesus is speaking to some sleepy people, doesn’t it ? I wonder if those who heard these words from Jesus, actually woke up ? Did they hear them as threatening words,? Jolting words ?. Can we imagine at least that Jesus wants to have us pay attention ? His intervention into our daily lives ?

This time of the year brings an increasing amount of activity and if we are not careful, we can easily be about everything and nothing at the same time. We can be caught up in everything about the season and miss everything about the season.

Jesus wants us to be awake…ready for his coming. On textweek.com Peter W. Marty ( Martin’s son) writes in his article for Christian Century, “Wake Up Call,”

"He comes for us in love to interrupt our routines because he wants us to know that life is far too precious a gift to forfeit for business (or busy – ness) as usual."

 Luther Seminary professor Mary Hinkle Shore writes about God’s intervention in daily life.

“The intervention of God into our human affairs cannot be managed or scheduled the way many of the events of our days can be. Whether God’s advent is as manageable as a heart attack, or as manageable as falling in love, either way, you know that you are not in control, and you can be fairly sure the rest of your day will not go as planned.” New Proclamation Commentary, an online resource

Can we imagine God at work in our worlds… that spin so frenetically this season of the year ? Can we hear the call to “pay attention,” as law and/or gift ?

Mindful of the Future

Luke 21:5–19
5When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down. 7They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" 8And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. 9When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately. 10Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17You will be hated by all because of my name. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your souls.


Ahhh, here we go again, into the end time texts. We wind down to the end of a church year...the end of the calendar year...the countdown is on for the sopping days that are left before.....We all hold a view of the future. We can’t be unmindful of the future. Thinking of it prompts us to plan. Last year, I went to a pre-retirement seminar because I was wondering about my (Kaye’s) future. Will I have enough $ to retire on…to bring me/us a sense of security. The texts for Pentecost 25 C talk about “the day” the future. The disciples were curious, and they asked questions about the future that Jesus told them will come. I’m sure they were at least anxious, no, fearful about his description of the future. We, too, might be anxious or fearful about this kind of future. About our future. Maybe, we might just be complacent ? After all we have witnessed many of these signs that he prophesies will and are taking place. (ie. wars, earthquakes, natural disasters.) But Jesus offers us a different view of the future. He says we are not to worry about this life. (Matthew 6) He has given us the promise of a future and a hope. In our liturgy, Great Thanksgiving , we respond: “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.” Because we confess and believe this…we know the future is not something we have to live in fear of. Yes, there will be struggles…and fears..real and imagined. There will be hatred, betrayal, and persecution for those who are followers of Jesus. But even amidst that – we, too, have opportunities to witness and the promise of Jesus’ presence, his words to speak, and his wisdom…and that“not a hair of our heads will perish,” until that day comes…when he comes again.

I was just curious

Luke 20:27–38
Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28 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. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."
34 Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 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. 36 Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 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. 38 Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

“Hey Pastor, I have a question. . .”
The feeling that rises in my gut when people say that has a lot to do with the person asking the question. . .
Some aren’t really looking for a perspective on the truth of the Gospel - but instead are - in one way or another - picking a fight.
Jesus faced that quite often.
One guy has a sermon titled “The Gotcha Game.” It didn’t say much about Jesus, but it was clear this pastor had faced that “hey Pastor, I have a question” thing about a hundred times too often.
In an excellent take on Jesus being accosted here by the Sadducees, Paul Duke tells a story of ethicist Carlysle Marney visiting Duke and being asked to speak about resurrection. (The entire sermon is on the first page of that link, no need to go to the other 2 pages) He wouldn’t to such young people, he said, they were full of success, had never really known “honest-to-God failure...” “..what can you know of a dark world which only makes sense if Christ is raised?"
Duke goes on... “There are questions that ought not to be asked except by those who are famished for an answer.” Clearly, this does not include the Sadducees. They already know the answer...
That is the take the Dr. PayNoToll took in ‘01 preaching on this text. Using the VBS song “I Just Wanna Be a Sheep” and the line “I don’t want to be a Sadducee, because they’re so sad you see.” PNT rolls off of the insight that the Sadducees live in a closed world.

And now we see the sadness of the Sadducees. They can’t imagine that there is anything beyond what they can imagine. If they can’t grasp it, it can’t exist. If they can’t explain it, it can’t be. They can only think of what they know, and they have nothing on which to base their hopes and dreams except their own puny minds and their own tiny worlds.

I wish I had more to offer of my own insights. Can’t top this from PNT
(shared with you without PNT’s permission)

What’s sad about this is that it shuts out anything new. It shuts out anything beyond my own already made up mind. It shuts out anything beyond my own already certain opinion. “Don’t confuse me with the facts” we sometimes say in jest. But it is awfully easy for our own worlds to become as closed and as sad as we see here. We have our own opinions about what happens when we die, or how God works, or what the Bible says. They may be strongly held convictions. We may not seem capable of perceiving any other way. We can lock ourselves into one idea and never grow beyond it.
Don’t be so sad, says Jesus in effect. The God we think we know in our own small way is always more than we can imagine. And that’s the good news, not the bad. Do we see no reason for hope? Our lack of seeing doesn’t mean God has no ideas. Do we seem to have reached a dead end? That doesn’t mean that God can’t bring a new beginning. Do we think we are stuck in something forever? Do we think we know what God can and cannot do? Have we got God’s ways figured out? Guess again.

PNT - OF COURSE - then goes through how we killed Jesus...
then works toward this

That’s when God’s big surprise hit home. Not only is there a resurrection, but Jesus becomes a living case in point. He is the resurrected one. Beyond the tomb, he lives. Beyond the small opinions of the Sadducees, he lives. Beyond our sin and deadly ways, he lives. Beyond the expectations of the world that put him down, he lives. Beyond our understanding, he lives.
This promise is our hope, and we cling to it in Christ beyond any of our opinions and convictions. We don’t get it. We can’t explain it. We can’t diagram how it all will happen. How could we ever grasp what words can’t even express, what ideas and images can only point to and hint at? But we are invited to leave behind our old ‘not imagining that there could be anything beyond what we can imagine’. We are invited, in Christ, to embrace something new. It is this awkward new position that we only know that we do not know. But that’s a blessing, not a problem, the promise not the curse. Because God works beyond our knowing and gives life beyond our grasping.

Finally - he uses the line from Borning Cry “Just one more surprise.”
I may just preach this sermon. All I’ll have to do is take the sermon, muck it up with some of my own junk, make it a lot less good, and then only some people will suspect I stole it.
I've looked at this as an excellent way to proclaim the Word. What about "hearing" this Word?
Am I too certain of my answers? Am I too closed to that person who accosts me, "Pastor I have a question?" Might God the Holy Spirit speak through them of the hopes and needs of those I serve? When this God beyond our grasping, God outside our understanding is unleashed, there is no telling what might happen.

All Saints - Except maybe you in the third row

Luke 6:20–31
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
"Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
"Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
"Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
"Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
"But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I sometimes think that preaching on All Saints is strangely mundane.
“You are all saints...” Doh!
Of course, it is true. Priesthood of all believers and all that.
And, I guess, if I paid close attention, I could find all sorts of preaching possibilities in these texts. . .
hmmmm
Here’s some good stuff from a sermon by F Dean Lueking

Here Jesus addresses his followers-who-would-be-saints. It is not a template for how society works. It is the pattern of life where saints are in the making.

. . . Taking his place in the midst of that brawling crowd, Jesus "looked up" at the disciples. Apparently they were bystanders, as I would have been too. They were not with Jesus, kneeling down in the wretched thick of it, but off to the side as onlookers.
Saints are sideline onlookers who are moved to "come down" with Jesus to where the needs are raw and the realities untidy. Saints are not always serene, dauntless and inexhaustible. But those pronounced blessed by Jesus are able to stay with him in the thick of it because that is where he is continually found. The saintly ones remember that the kingdom belongs to the impoverished before God, who hunger for his fullness and weep when his righteousness is spurned. The harsh kickback of reviling and defaming goes with the territory; saints are tough-skinned and can’t be taken completely off guard.
Saints are given a clarity about what passes for the good life but is phony at the core. They can hear Jesus’ pronouncement on those who would appear to have anything but woes: "you who are rich. . . who are full now. . . who laugh now. . . who are well spoken of by all." Why woes on these? The good life portrayed here is detached from its foundation in God. These ideals of life have become idols, ends in themselves which finally bring not blessing but blight.

Well, blessings on ya.
We have first communion on Sunday, and my oldest receives her first communon. WOOO HOOOO!

Reform? There's nothing wrong with my form!

John 8:31-36
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Reformation Sunday!!!
Sometimes I will read stuff by this or that guy (almost always a guy) and he will be saying something about how “the Church NEEDS to go through another reformation!”
There are often 2 things that attend that call for reformation
1. They have a specific idea of exactly how that reformation needs to take place - and the attendant wrong-ness of the Church as is.
2. They irritate the crap out of me.

I suspect that - as often as not - it is the certitude (and often self righteousness) that goes with this that annoys me.

But is there not also a part of me that wants to respond...

“We are heirs of Martin Luther! Heirs of THE Reformation! Reformation is our middle name. I don’t need a new anything, (unless it is a new pair of shoes)”

or some variation.

I’m not sure what any of that means but that is my blog entry for Reformation Sunday, and I think you can see that I need more help than usual so please weigh in on this.

One more thing. Why do a good many of the folks who talk about Christian freedom give me the willies?

Waiting for Justice

Luke 18:1–8
Then Jesus told them 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?"

I wonder... This story seems sorta - . . . negative.
Where is God in this parable? While I’ve heard it suggested that God is like - not the judge, but the widow - it seems to me, that is sorta a stretch.
I doubt any allegorical reading will help.
But, this parable makes me think.
A man is dying.
Much too young.
He signed up for Hospice. So he can get the care he needs. . . So he can seek to live his final days with his eyes wide open to whatever blessings these days will hold.
His wife got him to quit Hospice.
She figures they need to keep hoping for a miracle.
That’s the sort of idiotic piety that has been nurtured here for 20 years.
Lotta good it’s doing them.
Might this parable remind us - that the answers to our prayers sometimes are not what we want - that the faith that waits for justice sometimes waits and waits? And that the faith that the Son of Man will find is a faith that waits on what God does, and not on the prescribed path of healing and prosperity that we have laid out for God?
I don’t know.
I’m mostly just sad for these folks, and thankful to those who have pointed me to the theology of the cross. God is here. Not in the way we hoped. But in the God who hides Godself in suffering and death.

Servants with Puny Faith

Luke 17: 5 – 10
"5The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 7Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? 8Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? 9Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

“Increase our faith !” After what the disciples have been hearing and learning about the demands of discipleship and the trials and pitfalls of living faithfully amidst their context – they felt puny of faith…that their faith was sorely inadequate. Is Jesus trying to "pump up their faith ?" He seems to be saying that puny faith is faith enough. Eugene Peterson (The Message) puts it this way, “There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith.” The parable in verses 7-10 speaks to the disciple’s attitude about serving. The example employed here is the one of slave & master. Simply put, the slaves’s (servant's) time and labor belong to the master. The slave has no claim on the master for duties rendered.

If we put these streams of thought together in this Gospel (faith/servanthood) we could say that the call to discipleship is a call to be "servants with puny faith." The hymn quoted in Paul's letter to the Philippians comes to mind (Phil. 2: 5- 11.) Christ emptied self, served and died. Might we say that what God has exalted is self denying service for others to the point of death....with no eye upon a reward ? Yet, we are stuck on rewards for our efforts. Puny faith...worthless slaves.. Puny of faith and worthless slaves are not ways/attitudes which we would choose to describe ourselves in relationship towards God. Yet they seem to be lifted up here. Puny faith is enough faith. Faith enough to do mighty deeds for God. Our time and labor all belong to God (master). We slaves/servants have no claim on the master for duties rendered. Now, where is the good news here ?

A Vast Chasm

Luke 16:19–31

There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' 25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' 27 He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house — 28 for I have five brothers — that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' 29 Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' 30 He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 31 He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

This one leaves me short.
Hard to be glib - funny - light hearted with a parable like this.
Especially after checking on the web site globalrichlist.com and seeing that an annual income of $50K puts one in the top 1% in the world.
Try placing yourself in Lazarus’ shoes now. Not that Lazarus had any shoes. . .
The chasm is deeper than we can imagine, and I find it hard to look too closely at this parable. A bit like staring at the sun.
Interestingly, in his excellent book on parables, Bernard Brandon Scott skips this one. [edit - I thought it did - it doesn't. . . BBS sees here a call to solidarity. . . ]
Maybe I will too.
Or not.
PNT in a sermon on this text works with image of the chasm - chasms of disparity in wealth, chasms in relationships (I’m playing fast and loose with PNT’s much more nuanced read I must confess.) The core chasm, though - he suggests - is the chasm that allows these disparities in the first place. It is a theology that says that the rich get what they deserve and the poor do as well.
He quotes this line: “When money is our idol being poor is a sin.” hmmmm.
God helps those who help themselves.
And yet, in this only parable where someone has a name, it is the poor one who is named, and Lazarus means “God helps.”
God helps those who cannot help themselves.
Blasphemy!
Away with anyone who would suggest such a thing!

Shrewd Discipleship

Luke 16:1-13

16:1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 16:2 So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 16:3 Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 16:4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' 16:5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 16:6 He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 16:7 Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' 16:8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 16:9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 16:10 "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 16:11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 16:12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 16:13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

What a wild text! What in the world is Jesus' point? Does he seriously want us to start ripping people off?

What's interesting is Jesus' use of this worldly situation. Jesus' tells a story about a crooked conniver in order to open our imaginations to creative living as disciples.

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase (from The Massage) of verses 8 and 9 help me:

8 "Now here's a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. 9 I want you to be smart in the same way - but for what is right - using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you'll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior."

What does this "creative survival" and "bare essentials" look like? How is this fleshed out? Illustrations, people!

Furthermore, I think verses 10-13 are Luke's interpretation of Jesus parable in verses 1-9. So, I'm more interested in verses 1-9. Word.

Feeling Sheepish?

Luke 15:1–10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So he told them this parable: Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

I remember being at an event with Rich Omland, and it was time to eat. He led grace, with a line that went something like, “God, we know that your son Jesus sat down and ate with sinners, and that’s a good thing, ‘cause there’s a gathering of them right here...”
I know some folks who wouldn’t have appreciated that. . .
We all know these parables so well. . . what do we say?
In a marvelous sermon, “Clean Sweep” Jennifer Copeland of Duke, suggests that “a broom carries as much weight as a shepherd’s staff for symbolizing God’s care. The point of both stories, of course, is that God will seek us by any means available until we are found.”
She has some great turns of phrase:

In the sweeping, God searches, but also cleanses. I like to imagine God, broom in hand, patiently sweeping away the dirt from our lives and restoring us to our God-given image. In this way we are each uniquely found by God, since we each have our own unique ways of being lost.

and her concluding paragraph touches on something that had not occurred to me

The lost sheep and the lost coin are more than the prized possessions of their owners; they are also parts of a whole. The sheep belongs to the flock and the coin to the purse; without them the whole is not complete. The search, then, is a quest for restoration and wholeness. In this sense, all of us who are part of God’s creation should be just as anxious as God until the lost are restored and we are made whole again by their presence. Then, with brooms in hand, we can answer God’s call, "Rejoice with me.”

I like that idea, that the lost are parts of a whole. I have, over the years, been so enamored of the reading that points to these parables as pictures of God as so very reckless in loving, leaving behind the 99, throwing a big party after the sweeping search. There is plenty in that read, it is true, but Copeland reminds me that there is a richness in recalling that we who are each uniquely lost are uniquely found in Jesus Christ.