Late for What?

MARK 11:1-11

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

“It was already late”
What if it had not been late?
Now that it is late, what is going to happen?
I like this line I just heard on a podcast by Willimon, that the people were offended, not by the message that Jesus saves, but who he saves, AND HOW he saves. . .
Yes, that is the problem, isn’t it?
Give me Palm Sunday glory.
Of course, some might suggest that the Palm Sunday parade is more pathetic than majestic.
That is the problem, isn’t it?


p.s. I used this Sunday as a sort of “prelude” comment for my sermon it is a good story. . . from REvSis of RevGalBlogPals. . .

"I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts" reminded me of this Hasidic tale I heard at a recent Spiritual retreat
"A disciples asks the rebbe, 'Why does the Torah tell us to "place these words upon your hearts"? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?'
The rebbe answers, 'It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay, until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.'"
Through heartbreak, we find compassion and grace. The cross can be seen as "God's heart broken for the sake of humankind, broken open into a love that Christ's followers are called to emulate."
Jesus' words about the grain of wheat dying in order to bear fruit seem to point to our need to have our hearts broken open in order for us to bear fruit.

Wait. We Wish to See Someone Else!

John 12:20-33
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Interesting, isn’t it? That we never hear about Jesus actually meeting the Greeks? Or, should we say, the Greeks seeing Jesus? In some way or another, the seeking is more interesting for the story, than the actual meeting. Perhaps it serves the story to leave that open, so that we might all place ourselves in there, and OUR meeting of Jesus. I can’t help but think that the Greeks - and you and I - would like to meet a Jesus a little less oriented toward the cross. Willimon has a nice opening in a sermon on this text. . .

“…I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32)
The latest ruckus to hit the house of God here at 435 Summit Drive was precipitated (as was the previous one) by the pastor. All I did was to suggest to an amateur woodcarver in the congregation that it would be nice if he turned his talents toward the carving of a processional cross for our church.
I had in mind something simple, modern and clean, something congruent with Northside Church’s minimalist architecture, something light enough for a white-robed adolescent to carry on Sundays. What we got on the first Sunday of Lent was a dramatic sort of cross, heavy, complete with a realistic, bleeding corpus, a hanging, crucified Christ, blood and everything.
. . . many were upset because it was “more Catholic than Methodist,” “gory and depressing,” or didn’t “go with our colors.”
What is a modern, progressive, slightly liberal, well-budgeted Methodist church to do with a bloody cross these days?
A few Lenten seasons ago, my friend Ed Covert put up three crosses draped in black on the front lawn of St. Stephen’s Episcopal and received a dozen calls complaining that the crosses made the neighborhood look bad.

What is ANY modern to do with a bloody cross these days?
Or, is the question to ask, "What will the cross do to us?" or "How do we proclaim this one whom the Greeks wished to see? Or, more accurately, the Jesus they didn't know they wished to see, rather than the Jesus they [probably I guess, but I suspect I'm right] thought they wished to see? "

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO

John 3:14-21
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

I wonder if - part of the problem of preaching on a text like this, is that we don’t know what the heck to do with it. . .
Yes, the text is to do it’s thing with us, THEN we do something with it.
But, texts this familiar are easy to keep at arms length. It is easy to skip the “text working on me” step altogether.
Another thing I wonder: Can ANYONE preach this text WITHOUT mentioning placards at ball games? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)
I find myself thinking of a rich line by DJ Hall, in The Cross in Our Context, page 55. Concluding the opening of his chapter “Engaging the World” - Hall says,

Faith, if is faith in the God revealed in “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” is a journey toward the world; if it said that such a definition confuses God with God’s creation, confuses theo-centrism with geocentrism, one must answer, as a Christian, that that confusion seems to have been introduced by God himself, who will be loved only as one who loves the world.”

If like me, this leaves you confused, I suspect the confusion is worth engaging, and we might consider the “geocentrism” which Hall finds in Christ crucified. Makes one wonder at the disconnect, that this Word from John - which points to God’s great love for the world - that this Word has been appropriated in such a frighteningly individualistic - shall we say? - solipsistic manner.
For God so loved. . .
I have to quote more from this chapter (a bit earlier)

That suffering will accompany discipleship, that one will have to become a participant in the suffering of the crucified one - this is inevitable, in one form or another. Why, asks the writer of the first epistle general of Peter, should any Christian be surprised at the “fiery ordeal” that accompanies the companioning of the crucified? (1 Peter 4:12) All the same suffering is not the object of disipleship, only its consequence. The object is greater and ever greater solidarity with the creation that God loves and, in Jesus Christ, seeks to redeem from within. pg 55

While I have no idea what to do with that - I suspect there is the possibility that it might help our text do its thing to me, and then. . . .

Turning it Over in My Mind

John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

I found a few folks who argued that Jesus is not acting violently here. That Jesus does not set aside his pacifistic ways here. I didn’t read the entire articles, but I think that later, they suggest that Jesus drove a Prius with a “save the Whales” bumper sticker next to their Obama Got Hope? sticker. Sorta like the article (linked in textweek last week) that said that in calling us to take up our cross, Jesus did not mean for us to be self sacrificing. That would be a fundamental misreading. It is the suffering of persecution - not suffering of self sacrifice - that is included in the call to take up your cross.
ok
I am not sure I like Jesus turning over the tables any more than the next person. Yet, I’m not sure that one can find Jesus the pacifist here. “He turned over tables, did not do violence to people” sorta thing. (Of course, if it was your table, you couldn’t exactly describe it as “an economic stimulus” either.)
I wonder.
It seems folks want to talk about this event in terms of systems. It was the “sacrificial system” Jesus went after. It was the systemic economic oppression of the common people.
yeah
Maybe he turned over the tables in the temple.
Maybe the questions to ask might be more about how Jesus turns the tables on us. . .
Perhaps the talk of systems and non-violence and such - seek to keep this story at a distance.

Jesus turns the tables, here in John, at the beginning of his ministry.
Rather than make apologies about Jesus. Rather than try to figure out a way to keep Jesus in the box we’ve placed him. . . I wonder if we might best wonder at how Jesus enters the temples we’ve constructed and turned things on their head.
Jesus turns over all our pretensions - all our self-righteousness - our selfishness - our certainties - our self-sufficiency - all.
Jesus turns over whatever we set as our center - our palaces (I meant to write place, accidentally added an a, and that looked strangely right) - the lives we construct and defend.
It is Lent. . . a season of repentance.
A season to re-center - on God.
A season to re-center on our mission to love.
Jesus turning over the tables shows how urgent and radical this is. It is time to throw off those things that separate us from God. Throw off, the self-absorption that blinds us to the needs of the poor. Throw off, the selfishness that makes us so uncharitable. Throw off, the violence we justify in the name of security. Throw off, perhaps even our religious answers to life, and to take on the way of the cross.
It crosses my mind that Jesus already did the throwing. Then he did the lifting.
Time to follow. . .

Not Much

Mark 8:31-38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

It seems to me, that this is kinda a central text - and I have no idea what the heck to do with it.
Sorta disconcerting.
Perhaps part of the problem is that there is not much you CAN do with it.
It does something to you though. . .
We might well wonder together at the theology of the cross.
It is much easier to talk about what it is NOT, than what it is.
It is so dang elusive. The moment you start talking about it. . .
Like a lot of things in the Church.
I don't want to denigrate talk.
Words are our only tools. That's it.
Unless you're one of those "ministry of presence" types.
If your presence is as depressing as mine, you'd have set that aside a long time ago...
Here's a quote from Berntsen Cross-Shaped Leadership

For Luther, “true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ” (Forde) God reveals God’s self not by lifting us out of this world, but by hiding in its midst, and exactly in the thick of things as they have been disfigured by human sin. In Christ, God does not bypass fallen human existence but enters into it as God’s dwelling. Our “vision” of God, therefore, shines forth from an unwelcome baby in a manger, a criminal on the cross, and a body in the grave. Knowing God in this way is a “knowing’ in the bliblical knowing: not a theory or even information, much less a blueprint, but rather God’s act of radical and intimate trust. We know only as we are known. Our knowing isn't’ something we do, but something we undergo. Our knowing is cruciform, partial and patiently awaiting the promise of its completion not in this life but in the next. So, too, any vision for mission is cruciform. We don’t “lift up” the vision; it call out from the depths of the assembly’s often tangled existence. True vision is always blurred and unfinished, and it emerges from below, not above. Visionary leaders are made - indeed, forged - by their solidarity with the Body’s suffering in the depths of its crucified Self. pg 72

Pray Away

John 17:1–11
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

I have an ordained person in my congregation. She attends my ramble-on-the-text class between services. I have mentioned in that gathering that I don’t really like John. She loves John, and she gets a sort of hurt puppy look as she chimes in with her great love of the Gospel of John. Last Sunday, she walked out of worship and thanked me for the sermon which she really liked. “Now do you like John?” she said.
“No.”
I’m looking at William Loader’s reflections on the text.
I cannot recommend this reflection highly enough.
I’m going to quote extensively from Loader. Perhaps he likes John, and is therefore able to find something here. Perhaps (read certainly) he is also smarter than me, and can give some helpful insights, and maybe even help to cure me of my misJohnogy. . .
He opens by talking about how John is using a convention in summing up Jesus’ teaching in a prayer as part of his farewell words. . . He states this with this well crafted thought:

“It is not that there was such a prayer which Jesus spoke in this distinctively Johannine way of which the rest of the tradition, reflected in the other gospels, had no knowledge. Rather in John’s story of Jesus’ life and importance he has creatively imagined what Jesus might have said and what would have been the issues for him in this final prayer.”

What do you do with this notion, if you don’t like John in the first place? Preach on the Ascension instead? aaaaarrrgggghhh (ok, I'll quit whining now.)
Let me continue with Loader - he points to salvation as relationship. That Jesus has come to bring an “offer of life in relationship” with God the Father.
Really - read Loader - as he works through a pretty nifty read of this High Priestly Prayer - he tosses off some wonderful lines:

Christianity has been plagued with the ‘thinging’ of eternal life and John’s gospel is an excellent antidote.
John helps us avoid the commodification of the gospel and invites to an understanding of being good news by being community in which love is lived out. Jesus had needs. It is not about pretending we do not have them and that the gospel does not address them. Jesus states that he wants the closest relationship with God possible. That is what he is asking for. It is OK to ask for that. But that is not a commodity. It is a hope for communion. John’s gospel is also pointing us to that as our hope. It does have a future - generously Jesus wants nothing less than that we share the same hope which awaits him. It has a future because it has a present in which already here and now we share and delight in the life of God who is always taking initiatives of compassion. The greatest antidote to greed is to want only the reward of being one with the God whose being is self giving love.
John’s gospel has a wonderful way of bringing it all together in focus and within the gospel John 17 does this especially. It can help us recognise what matters. Its distinctive model of christology helps make this possible, but also offers us a way of thinking of Jesus and his significance which works where John’s elaborate model is not assumed, such as in the earlier gospels and in the earliest traditions. Combined with their earthiness you can then see how what John is saying in abstract takes us into being a community of compassion which touches every area of life and challenges all systems and instances where it is absent.

Could it be? that John is gives us a great way to conclude our Easter season.
The resurrection is FOR YOU - and in living this good news, you are called out to a life of relationship - with God the Father, with the crucified and risen one, and with this world in need. . . this is calling, responsibility and promise - made sure and certain in the gift of the Spirit. . .
That dog will hunt.

Advocate now

John 14:15-21.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

How long, O Lord, must we deal with the Gospel of John?
How long must we suffer so? Have compassion on your servants
Hasten to our side, and deliver us from this ethereal stuff.
May Holy Trinity Sunday come quickly and not tarry!
Oh Matthew, first of the Gospels, how long has it been since last we looked upon your words?

OK. I’m done with that. . .

"I will not leave you orphaned...”
This is a rich and abiding promise of the rich and abiding presence of God in Jesus Christ. I think often of something that Pat Kiefert said - he claimed that a Gallup poll asked Americans if they could be described as an “emotional orphan” - and over half said yes. . .
I wonder at how loneliness is among the pervasive issues of our lives. Two songs come to mind, the Beatles “All the Lonely People” and America “Lonely People”. The Gospel of Jesus Christ comes to lonely people and promises. . . what? Friends? a life of purpose and meaning? presence and calling?

The Advocate - here’s a question - from Stoffregen - “for whom does the Advocate advocate?” Well, I always thought, “for me.” But he suggests that the Advocate advocates for Jesus. And there are probably many directions we could go with that. Stoffregen goes off on a sin/judgment/forgiveness track. That we're convicted of our sin, judged etc. Kinda negative.
But what if the Advocate advocates for Jesus - calling you to forgiveness and love received, and sending you to live forgiveness and love shown toward others. The Advocate - not as the Spirit acquired - not the Spirit making me better, giving me powers, not even as the Spirit sanctifying (which might be kinda positive, but ultimately, I think, fruitless and inspiring to self righteousness) - RATHER the Spirit equipping and sending. That is an interesting way to speak of the advocating that the Spirit does. . .

Now You See Him Now You Don't

Luke 24
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

There is a meditation on this text from the Christian Century that has this paragraph

One Sunday I heard a preacher claim that the point of the Emmaus story is that we can recognize Jesus only in the broken bread. I hadn’t become an Episcopalian until I was in my 20s, so my inner Presbyterian child began to mutter, "And what about their hearts burning when they heard the word?" I was certain that I was missing some deep Anglican truth, so I sought out a fellow parishioner with a strong Anglo-Catholic bent, knowing that she would set me straight. I found her in the kitchen opening and slamming the cabinet doors. I ignored her frustration and asked her to explain how we find Jesus only in the Eucharist. She answered me between gritted teeth: "That’s just baloney! It’s all about power. If Jesus is only in the bread, then the priest is the only one who can dole him out, as it were.”

I know that is a bit much, but here is my point in quoting it- - >
Luke says that the knowing is in the “breaking of the bread.” I suspect the priest was a bit off in pointing to worship. The meditation I quote goes off and finds the knowing in “the everyday” in “hospitality”. But Luke says that the opening of the scriptures is to show that the suffering was “necessary” - that the scriptures pointed to Jesus. Luke says

“Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. . .”

Looking back to Luke 22 we hear. . .

“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Susan Briehl used this text to speak of the “heart of the matter” for worship. She spoke of the disciples walking the “sorrow road” with Jesus on the way to Emmaus.
Not only is Jesus made known in the breaking of the bread, the cross, the resurrection, the presence of God in this singular event is made known.
That might preach, but it seems kinda tough.
Easier to just say that you have to go to church and take communion. . .

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.