"Doubting or Faithful" - Easter 2C

Saint John 20:19-31

I cannot imagine what it would be like to have my name mentioned specifically in a Sunday confession of the church.  I would be mortified!

I have enough trouble with the general confessions that we say every Sunday which remind me that I have sinned in “thought word and deed.”  That is general enough not to cause too much anxiety but when we get to something more specific like “we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves” I get more antsy.

You probably can breeze through all this without any problem  but I think of the shouting match I had with my real neighbor last week.  I think of the times I have yelled at my friends.  And please, don’t even mention the things I have said to people while driving!

The good thing is I have never been called out by name but poor Thomas has.

In the church we worshiped in on Palm Sunday here is what was said about him in the confession no less: “Thomas, servant of doubt, where are you?”  And we were all supposed to respond: “I am here!”1

How would you like to be known as a “servant of doubt”?  Sure, there are times when we all have doubts that creep in every once and awhile but we are not their servants.  On the contrary we’d like to get rid of them as soon as possible and get back to making this uncertain life as certain as possible.

Poor Thomas is forever stuck with the moniker “servant of doubt”. But what if he isn’t?  What if this whole episode is not about doubt but faithfulness?
The only thing Thomas is guilty of is absence on that first Easter evening when Jesus made one of his appearances to the whole group of disciples.  They were all gathered together but Thomas is not there.

Perhaps he got tired of the endless speculation about what happened.  Perhaps he was as confused - as we can sometimes be - by all the stories of resurrection encounters with Jesus.  Perhaps he was just tired of staring at the wallpaper and wondering what to do.  Perhaps he needed a breath of fresh air.  We don’t know what Thomas was doing. All we know for certain is that he wasn’t in the room when Jesus made his grand re-entry into the disciples’ lives.

Upon his return all Thomas does is wonder if what his friends are saying is true.

Remember, what they are telling him is that his friend Jesus who was stone cold, definitely dead a few days ago is running around making guest appearances to everybody Thomas knows.  Everybody that is but him. 

We’ve been celebrating Easter for all of our lives and while the story has not lost one bit of its power hearing it for the very first time must have been an entirely different matter.  This is not something that is taken in easily and Thomas is not sure he can believe it just based on word of mouth.

It is then, I believe, that faithfulness begins to appear.  It is visible and invisible.  Faithfulness is there in what is done and left undone.
The disciples who were there do not try to persuade Thomas that they are right and he is wrong.  They do not berate him for being gone when the big moment came.  They don’t even doubt the sincerity of his doubt.  They just keep the faith for him and isn’t that what we do?

I am sure that there were lots of people who came to this church last Sunday that we won’t see again until Christmas.  Where I used to attend we called them “CEO’s” for “Christmas and Easter Onlys.” 

We may wish they were here every Sunday.  We wish they would walk with us and discover that there is more to this Jesus guy than a manger full of baby and a tomb full of empty but they have decided that twice a year is plenty. 

Our job is to do for them what the disciples did for Thomas.  We are to keep the faith for them so that when they need it, when they want to have a real experience with Jesus, a place and a people will be there for them to do just that.

That is what the disciples did for Thomas and that is our work in the world - to remain faithful.

Thomas didn’t just doubt.  He hung around.  This is the second invisible moment in this story that we miss.

Thomas didn’t listen and dismiss the other’s story as being out of hand.  He didn’t say, “Ah, you’re nuts!” or “What have you been smoking?”  He stays with his community.  Even amid his doubts he sticks with his friends.  He lets their certainty buoy up his uncertainty. 

We do that for each other too.  In difficult times when those doubts begin to creep in, at our best, we are there for each other with a word of reassurance that all is not lost and God is not finished.  We can say this because of the faithfulness of Jesus. 

If you don’t remember anything else I say this morning remember this: Jesus was faithful too.  Jesus never gave up on Thomas! 

Jesus could have responded: “All right then, don’t take your friends word for it.  Don’t listen to them for all I care.”  He could have even said, “Listen I’m not going to subject myself to your cockamamie tests.  Either believe or don’t believe but don’t you be poking me.”

Instead Jesus says: “Whatever you need Thomas.  Poke, prod, ask, talk, do whatever you want.  While your doubts may have rocked your faith a little  I have never lost faith in you.”

It is then that the doubter, the one we have mistakenly labeled “the servant of doubt” makes “the supreme christological pronouncement of the Fourth Gospel” when he says: “My Lord and my God!”  This confession, this acclimation, these words go far beyond any titles bestowed anywhere else in the Gospels.  The greatest doubter has become the greatest believer.

As you know we follow a three year cycle of readings called the lectionary.  Very few stories appear more than twice, most only once but every year like clockwork on the second Sunday of Easter we have Thomas. 

As the sound of the trumpets have died out, as the crowds have returned to their normal size, there is the story of Thomas because he is us.

Sometimes we doubt.  Sometimes we believe.  Faith is a struggle.  It waxes and wanes.  Faith is sometimes strong and sometimes weak.

In this story we hear Jesus tell us.  “Yes, you weren’t there to see my miracles first hand but here you are in church anyway faithfully working your way through your doubts and opening your eyes to faith.”

When that moment comes and faithfulness triumphs over doubt maybe we will be able to say with Thomas - perhaps in a shout, perhaps only in a whisper - “My Lord and my God.”  And we’ll no longer be servants of doubt but servants of faith. 

Thanks for listening.

Sermon preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church

Aurora, Illinois

28 April 2019

"Holy Family Dynamics" - Christmas 1C

Saint Luke 2:41-52

The Saturday before last my partner and I went downtown to the Christkindle Market in Daley Center.  By Chicago standards it was a mild Saturday evening and the place was packed.  It was cheek to check packed.  If someone would have fallen down or had passed out the market would have been closed by the time they were found.

Times like that always make me smile and remember what I was told to do as a little kid if I got lost.  My Uncle Herb’s first rule on becoming separated was that I was to “stop and stay”.

The theory behind this is simple: If two people are wandering around looking for each other it becomes like Brownian motion - two people, in this case, just wandering around and perhaps even passing each other without either one knowing it. While if one just stops and the other does the searching all the searcher has to do is retrace his or her steps and allowing for a reunion to take place more quickly. 

This is exactly what today’s gospel is about. 

But I must warn you that I have read countless sermons and articles on this reading and most of them have missed how very human the whole business is while they focused on the divine.
The facts are simple.

Mary, Joseph, Jesus and a whole group of relatives, friends and neighbors from back home are making their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem in a first century tour group for the Passover.

The city is as crowded as the Daley Center was and somehow, someway, Jesus becomes separated from his parents.  The text says only that he remained in Jerusalem but whether it was by accident or choice remains unclear.  What is clear is that the whole party was a day’s journey out of town before it was discovered that Jesus was missing.

Anyone who is a parent or who has ever been charged with the care of a child knows all about the mixture of fear and anger Mary and Joseph must have felt.  The overwhelming fear that some harm may have befallen their son mixed with the anger of a parent who says: “I hope he’s okay because when I find him, I’m going to kill that kid!”

That last option was not open to Mary and Joseph because of the divine nature of this story.  While they were frantically searching every wagon and asking every relative and friend if they had see Jesus  Mary was remembering the visit from the solitary angel named Gabriel, the shepherds, and finally the multitudes of angels who hailed her son’s birth.

Joseph was remembering his visit from that same angel, and three years later, the wise men. \

I cannot believe that at this moment Mary and Joseph were serene people of prayer with hearts and minds at peace.  No, they were remembering and they were worried because it was not just their son but the son who had been entrusted to them by God who was missing.

There is only one thing to do but make the long journey back to Jerusalem.  Two exhausting days of traveling and worrying.  Two sleepless nights spent tossing and turning.  Then another day searching in shops, and markets, and anywhere else they could think of asking everyone they had met if they had see their son.  Frantically they searched for Jesus.

Finally they try the temple maybe to look and maybe to pray. And when they do, lo and behold, there is their son sitting among the teachers asking questions and amazing eavesdroppers with his understanding.

Mary is not as impressed as the other and instead expresses her relief and frustration in one loaded sentence: “My child, why have you done this to us?”

Do you hear the guilt in that question?  It is almost as if she is saying:  “Why have you done this to us?  Why have you made us suffer so?”

Then Mary continues: “See how worried your father and I have been looking for you.”  Now she is bringing Joseph into it.  “Its bad enough you have done this to me but look at what you have done to your father. You know he was never sure about this whole business in the first place and now you’ve made him a nervous wreck.”

This is real family dynamics at its best. Not Holy Family dynamics but real family dynamics because all of us in this room have been involved in the same type of situations and conversations.

Every child who has ever stayed out too late or forgot to call home to tell his or her parents where they were or that they had arrived safely has heard, “We were so worried.”

And every parent has had to endure the kind of answer Jesus gives.  “Why were you searching for me?”

You can almost hear Joseph, can’t you?  “Why? Why? I’ll tell you why! What did you expect us to do? Were we supposed to go home and wait for you to show up?  You’re twelve years old pal!”

To add fuel to the family dynamic fire that is now raging Jesus says: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house. But they did not understand what he said to them.”

And neither do we because we load so much theological baggage onto this encounter that we fail to see the reasonableness of his response.

What was he supposed to do, check into an inn? He was a little young for that and besides, his previous experience with inns and innkeepers had not been that pleasant.

No, when he was separated from his parents he headed for the safest place in town, the temple. Here is would be sheltered, secure, and cared for until his parents showed up.

This is the only story we have of Jesus between the time of his infancy to his adulthood. So, it leaves one to wonder why it, above all others, is remembered.

I have no proof of this but I think that, as he grew, Jesus told this story to any who would hear to remind himself just how much his earthly family loved him. That even though his family may not have understood what he was up to, or even approved of what he said or did, they still loved him enough to search every nook and cranny of Jerusalem until they found him.

And I think he told us to remind us that there wasn’t anything in this life that he did not experience.  He told it to remind us that now God knows that even the simplest of family outings can turn into disasters of frustrations and frazzled nerves. 
Several years ago someone gave me a sermon preached by Dr. Frederich Niedner of Valparaiso University.  In this sermon he quoted from a seven year old child’s letter to God:

Dear God,
 I worry about you since you must not have a family the way we do. You must get real lonely. How about sharing my family? They argue a lot but they’re good to have mostly.
     Love,
     Ann Marie

  “That’s it,” Niedner wrote, “we argue a lot but we’re good to have mostly.  In Jesus God did come to make a home with us and be family with us. Here we discover that our love and our capacity to forgive is bigger and stronger than all our arguments put together.”

That is what Jesus taught at twelve and teaches still. There will be times when we feel like we have been left behind.  There will be times when our lives and schedules will be as crowded and confusing as the Christkindle market during Advent or Jerusalem at Passover. But it is just there where God has promised to be with us.

Jesus came to remind us that we are part of God’s family - God’s confusing and confused; God’s wandering and wonderful family; God bemusing and blessed family - all wrapped up in the love of God who came to be family with us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

That is the best news for all of us who have ever been caught us in the same crazy family dynamics that the Holy Family was on their annual outing to Jerusalem. Don’t you think?

Thanks for listening.

__________

1. St. Luke 2:48b (JB) [JB = The Jerusalem Bible]

2.  St. Luke 2:49a (NRSV) [NRSV = The New Revised Standard Version]

3.  St. Luke 2:49 (NRSV)

“The Triumph over Anger and Fear” - The Reign of Christ

Saint John 18:33-37

Unless you pay particular attention to the opening credits of  television’s most popular comedy series you don’t know this man’s name.

I didn’t either until a couple of weeks ago when he was profiled on CBS Sunday Morning. 

Chuck Lorrie is the creator of some of the most popular TV comedies “in the past three decades, including the original ‘Rosanne,’ ‘Cybill,’ ‘Grace Under Fire,’ ‘Mike and Molly,” and ‘Two-and-a-Half Men.’”

Even if you are a news, sports, and British mystery guy like me while you may have never watched more than a minute of these programs you have heard of them.

“And that’s not even counting what [Lorrie] has got going on now.  ‘Young Sheldon,’ ‘Mom,’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ [three shows that [together] average more than 40 million viewers a week.”

Even as Lorrie was making viewers laugh he was making co-workers cower with his infamous explosive temper that once got him labeled “The angriest man in television.” 
 

He’s mellowed over the years and now refers to himself as a Teddy Bear.  

In a reflective moment he looked back at his tumultuous years and said: “Fear for me exhibits as anger.  ‘Cause I am not going to show you fear; I’m going to show you anger.”1

It seems to me that there is a lot of fear exhibiting itself as anger in today’s Gospel.
We can see the fear on the angry faces of almost every member of the cast in order of appearance.

Anger is there on the face of Pontius Pilate who had been awakened at an early morning hour by a mob with a prisoner.  His relationship with the people standing before him has been tumultuous from the start when he, full of himself, insulted “their religious sensibilities ... [by hanging] worship images of the emperor throughout Jerusalem and had coins bearing pagan religious symbols minted.”2

They ware not his supporters and Pilate was afraid that it is possible to lose control of this angry mob very quickly.  If word of a Jewish revolt got back to Rome it would call his leadership abilities into question.  It might cost him his job, his pension, his security, even his life.

We must understand that matters of religion do not matter to Pilate.  He has only one legitimate concern, and that is whether Jesus poses a threat to Rome.  If Jesus is assuming the role of king, that is treason—punishable by death.   

However, Pilate can hardly imagine that this ordinary looking man would be trying to pass himself off as a king.  His question to Jesus is really a mocking question of the crowd: “Are you the king of the Jews?”  He is bating them and appealing to their sense of tribalism.

We know all about that.  A leader who may be afraid keeps showing us his anger.  Exploit divisions that may already exist and make them deeper.  Play to the people’s fears.

The people in front of Pilate were exhibiting their fears in their anger as well.  They too were afraid that they were going to lose everything.  

Herod the King had curried their favor by rebuilding their temple.  He didn’t do it out of any sense of religious obligation but because he saw the financial advantages.  If the temple was magnificent people would flock to it and tourism in Jerusalem would prosper. 

While the religious leaders saw the temple as the center of their worship life Herod saw it as his Disneyland.  For him it was a tourist attraction.  Think of it like that re-construction of Noah’s Ark in Kentucky.

With political leaders there is always a catch.  For Herod the catch was this: He would build them a temple and they would give him peace.  They would be free to practice their religion any way they wanted so long as they didn’t question the authority of the state. 

If Herod found out that they were swearing their allegiance to another king there would be trouble.  Big trouble.  The people knew that!  Even Pilate knew that!  That is why he uses the title “King” for Jesus.  

If the designation of Jesus as king was done to get the Romans involved they were now and their involvement was a two edged sword.  Their fear and anger has forced the people into a Hobson’s choice.  Is Jesus their king or is Caesar their king?  Choose Caesar and deny their faith.  Choose Jesus and lose whatever freedom they had.

Anger born of fear can lead us to terrible places.  Anger born of fear can lead us to do terrible things.
It can lead some people to define truth as anything they want it to be.  It can lead some to believe that anybody who opposes them should be locked up.  It can lead some  to want to separate families lest they, while searching for a better life, take jobs that few are willing to do anyway.  Anger born of fear can cause us to call out the military to “protect” us from a group of men, women, and children who are  fleeing their home counties for the lives.  Anger born of fear can cause some to see a  group so small that it wouldn’t even fill the average minor league ballpark as a national security threat.  Anger born of fear can cause any who have a heart or fear for their mortal souls to look back at what they have done and be very, very sorry.

And today’s gospel tells us that anger born of fear can lead to the death of an innocent man.

Yet this innocent seems to be the only one in this little tableau to not be fearful or even angry.  Instead, he seems to be the only one who is in control.

Instead of referring to Jesus’ trial and crucifixion as a Passion Narrative Father Raymond Brown in his book The Death of the Messiah calls it “The Book of Glory” in which Jesus comes to do what he ultimately came to do.

He came to do what he is recorded as doing today: Challenging the powerful. 

Pilate, who may see himself as the most powerful man in the city, is ultimately the one Jesus puts on trial here. 

When Pilate asks him sarcastically here, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus replies in effect, “Who told you that?”

At this point Pilate has to admit that he is just listening to the cries of a fearful, angry crowd.  He is not his own person.  He is not thinking for himself.  He is just parroting what others have told him.
He will actually be doing the will of the high priest Caiphais who fear is so great of this itinerant carpenter that, in a moment of frenzy, he says to the crowd:  “You know nothing at all!  Nor do you understand that it is expedient and politically advantageous for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”3

Kill this guy and we’ll have nothing to fear.  Kill Jesus and we will have one less thing to be angry about.  Kill this rabble rouser and maybe his crowds will go home and our nation will be safe.  Kill Jesus and maybe, just maybe, everything will be great again.

It is not as Pilate asks “What have you done?” but a matter of what Jesus about to do.  He is about to do that for which he was born and for which he came into the world.

Amidst the anger and fear of his crucifixion Jesus is about to show us a kingdom not built on anger and fear but a kingdom based on something else.  God reign and rule begins with an act of redemption and love.

It begins with a conversation between Jesus and the two thieves hanging on either side of him.  One is fearful and angry that Jesus won’t save himself and them.  The other’s fear is not turned into anger but trust and absolute dependence.   All he asks is that Jesus remember him.  All he wants to do is to be remembered.  In his fear of God all he desires is not to be forgotten.  

Jesus promised him more than that.  “Today you will be with me in Paradise. This is a solemn promise.” Jesus says.

That is Jesus promise to us not for sometime, somewhere, out there but for here and now.
When fear manifests itself as anger Jesus shows us a better way. Even from the cross he shows us that the way of God is the way of love that is so deep, and broad, and high that it can embrace the two thieves on either side of him.  

Jesus is showing us that God’s love can’t be defeated by anger or fear but always triumphs. 

Jesus shows us that God’s love always has the last word.  Jesus shows us that even in the darkest hours of our national or personal lives God’s love will triumph. 

It will triumph over despots, the Pilates of our day.  It will triumph of the mindless amid the crowds that march out of fear born of anger.  We hold on to faith that tells us that God’s love will ultimately win.

In Jesus we know that the love of God is for every single one of us.  In Jesus we discover that God’s love is a stunning, beautiful, expansive love that is for everybody, everywhere.
It’s for you.  Yes, it’s even for me.  It’s for us when we are fearful and yes, even angry.  God’s love never fails. 

That is something that can give us a glimpse of paradise on this Sunday we celebrate the Reign and Rule of Christ.  Christ’s love can reign over fear and anger on this Sunday,  every Sunday, and every day of our lives if we would only allow it.   Don’t you think?

Thanks for listening. 

_______________

1.  Tony Dokoupil, writer, "’Big Bang Theory’ Creator Chuck Lorrie Reflects on His New Netflix Series," on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS, November 4, 2018.

2.  Encyclopedia Britannica, , s.v. "Pontius Pilate: Govenor of Judea," accessed November 21, 2018, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pontius-Pilate.

3.  St.  John 11:49b-50.  (AMP) [AMP = The Amplified Bible ]

Sermon preached at Faith Lutheran Church 

Bellingham, Washington

"Never 'Reformationed Out'" - Reformation Sunday 2018

Saint Mark 10:46-53

Last year was a very big year for all things Reformation.

You would have been hard pressed to squeeze yourself into one of the numerous tours of the Luther lands in Germany.  There were several books about Luther published.  Even the Presbyterian church I attend in Chicago had me do a three week presentation on Luther’s life and works. 

They also had a replica built of a church door like the one at the castle church in Wittenberg and invited people to place “post-it” notes about things they would like to see “reformed” in the church.  This made the pastors on staff nervous for fear that someone would suggest that a good place to start would be to fire them all.  Nobody in the congregation did.
The pastor of the Lutheran church Lowell and I worship at in Bellingham, Washington said that when the big day was finally over  she was “all Reformationed out.”

Major anniversaries can do that to you.  They can wear you out planning for them, reading about them, and then celebrating them when the day finally arrives.  They can all get to be a little much.

Minor Anniversaries don’t effect us that way.  The 501st anniversary of the Reformation will not raise very many eyebrows.  We may sing great hymns, have a fine brass choir, celebrate with balloons and a special cake but I’ll bet you could have booked a trip to the Luther lands this year for half the price you would have paid last year. 

I think that minor anniversaries may be more important than major anniversaries because they remind us that we have managed to keep being the church for another year. 
Today’s Gospel tells us what the church needs to keep doing year after year, day after day.

The personification of the needs of the world comes to us in the form of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus.

Considering he is one of societies outcasts we know more about him that any other recipients of Jesus’ miracles.

We not only know his name but his father’s name and, considering his present condition, they may seem to be an oxymoron.  “Bar means “son of” in Aramaic and timao means honor, so Bartimaecus means, “son of honor.”1

This “son of honor” is sitting by the side of the road begging.  He is a person in need whom the crowd no longer sees.  His blindness has made him an outcast who calls for help fall on deaf ears until Jesus comes along and listens.

The first thing the church offers to the world is a God who listens.  Who stops and pays attention to our needs. 

When Jesus stopped, you can bet that his disciples stopped and then the whole crowd stopped. Everybody stopped for this guy who they saw as a nobody from nowhere.  They stopped because the man was shouting. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

You can imagine their reaction.  Think of how you would feel if you were in a crowd of people and someone started yelling.  I know that my first inclination would be to do what that crowd did.  I’d try to get the guy to be quiet, to pipe down, or at least use his inside voice.

Jesus doesn’t do that.  He stops.  Jesus sees him for who he really is.  The man is  a son of honor who is in trouble.  Jesus wants the crowd and us to see him that way too.  So he gives them the task of bringing the man closer to Jesus. 

That is the second job of the church.  It is to, quite simply, bring people closer to Jesus.  To hear Jesus say to the least, the lost, and the lonely, “What can I do for you?”

If you were here last week and have a very good memory you’ll remember that this is the same question Jesus asks of James and John when they asked him for the best seats in the house.  They wanted to be seen and envied but they didn’t get what they wanted. 

Bartimaeus just wants to see and maybe for the first time in his life be seen as a member of the community rather than an outcast.  Bartamaus doesn’t want to be extraordinary he just wants to be ordinary.  All he wants to do is just see.  He doesn’t want to rule over others, he just wants to join them in their experience of a normal life.

Jesus has the crowd bring Bartimaeus closer so that they could, maybe for the first time in a long time, see him. Jesus was forcing them to pay some attention to the needs of this blind beggar.
There is a part Bartimaeus plays in this little drama as well.  It is such a small part that we might miss it.  Saint Mark tells us that: “Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.”2
That cloak was everything to Bartimaeus.  It not only kept him warm but it was spread out to catch the coins of the occasional passersby who took pity on him.  It was his only visible means of support.
That is the third job of the church and for the church in our day and it is a very tough task.  

In Luther’s day the people were burdened by life in general - dirty streets, drafty homes, terrible sanitation.  Life in the sixteenth, or even nineteenth century was barbaric compared to ours.  So when the people heard of a new notion of God who was love and grace instead of offering more hardship and judgement is it any wonder they flocked to it.

Now things are more difficult for the church.  People like us think they have it pretty good.  They have two cars in the garage and a nice house in a nice place.  They may be worried about what is going on in the world and would like to live in quieter, more peaceful times, but the economy is good and chances are very high that we will survive all of this as we have survived much worse in the past.  
Their cloaks are fitting just fine, thank you very much, and their schedules are so packed that they just don’t have an hour to give up to read or watch television much less to get up, get out of bed, get dressed, and get to church to get a little Jesus.

Bartimaeus may have been blind but he was notblind to his needs.

Today it is just the other way around.  People can see but think their needs will be met by a big breakfast, a long coffee and the paper at the local Starbucks, a walk in the park, another hour at the health club, or just watching the Sunday morning gabfests on television. 

Dr. Eugene Peterson, who recently passed away, and who was the man who gave us the excellent paraphrase of Scripture called The Message that I quote from often, would tell people who think church is just another something on their to-do lists, what they are missing out on.  In leaving his job as a professor of Greek and Hebrew for a job as a pastor he said:

“In the church everything was going every which way all the time — dying, being born, divorces, kids running away. I suddenly realized that this is where I really got a sense of being involved and not just sitting on the sidelines as a spectator but being in the game.”3

The final job for the church is the biggest gift Jesus gave Bartimaeus.  He gave him his sight but he also got him back in the game.  He was restored to his community. He was restored to his rightful position as a “son of honor,” a child of God.  He was given a new life.  

That’s what the church offers to people when they come and follow Jesus.
Bartimaeus’ story doesn’t end there.  His story never ends.   

“‘On your way,’ said Jesus. ‘Your faith has saved and healed you.’ In that very instant he recovered his sight and followed Jesus down the road.”

We almost never get a name for anybody who was healed by Jesus.  They get their healing, receive what they need, and fade back into the anonymous faces of the  crowd.  We never get to know who they are, or their family, or anything about them.

Bartamaeus is different.  We not only know his name but we know his family of origin.  Why?  Because he followed Jesus down the road.  He went with him on the way.

Dr. William H. Willimon suggest that the reason Bartamaeus’ name was remembered was because “even as the story was being told in the early church, Bartimaeus was there.” He followed.

 “Healing? Yes. It happened to one of us. You know old Bartimaeus?”

 “Bartimaeus, Sunday school superintendent over at Rock Creek Church?” 

 “Yep. He was one.”

“One who was healed?  One who Jesus touched and cured?

 “Yep.”4

Every time someone throws off their cloak of self-sufficiency and follows Jesus there is a reformation.  Every time someone leaves the pressures of the world and follows Jesus there is a reformation.  Every time someone sees themself as a child of honor rather than one of the world’s outcasts there is a reformation.  Every time someone, any one, any where is following Jesus there is a reformation.

So we celebrate this day not only the 501st Anniversary of that Reformation started by Martin Luther but we celebrate this day the continuing reformation in all of our lives started by Jesus Christ when he said, “Follow me!”

Maybe if we see Reformation not as a once a year event but something that is continuing this day and every day we’ll never be all reformationed out.

Don’t you think?  Thanks for listening.

__________

1.  Richard Donovan, "What Do You Want Me To Do For You?" Sermon Writer: Making Preaching More of a Joy! 22, no. 10 (October 9, 2018): , October 9, 2018, accessed October 26, 2018, https://www.sermonwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018-10-28-Proper25B.doc.

2.  St. Mark 10:50.  (NIV) [NIV= The New International Version ]

3.  Emily McFarlane Miller, "Ministry Matters,” Eugene Peterson, Author of The Message and Pastor to Other Pastors, Dies at Age 85", October 23, 2018, , accessed October 26, 2018, https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/9307/eugene-peterson-author-of-the-message-and-pastor-to-other-pastors-dies-at-age-85.

4.  St. Mark 10:52. (MSG) [MSG=The Message]

5.  William H. Willimon, "Faith to Follow," Pulpit Resource, B, 43, no. 4 (October 25, 2015), p. 19.

Sermon preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church

Aurora

"Getting Back on the Right Track" - Pentecost 23B

St.  Mark 10:17-31

“Getting Back On the Right Track”

Last Thursday I ushered for the memorial service of a titan of Chicago business.  His family was huge in publishing and when the need for their product was made obsolete by the internet he turned that fortune into an even bigger fortune in financial services.

Close to three hundred people attended the funeral which became a celebration of him.  His brothers talked about his business acumen.  His son talked about all the places his father took the family for vacations and his daughter spoke about how he taught her the value of a dollar.

This guy has so much money and was such a big fan of train travel that what he used to do was lease a private car to take his family and friends across the country for their vacations.  As a rail fan I must admit I was becoming a little jealous of all the places they visited - the California Coast, the U.S. and Canadien Rockies, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest.  All viewed from the back of a private car stocked with fine food, top shelf liqueur, and the highest quality cigars.  (I would skip the cigars!)
Admittedly he was a larger than life character.

When it came to the homily the preacher was the priest in charge of a large social service agency for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

He took off on the topic of trains and how they were made up.  It was a pretty good idea.

 The baggage car was where the man placed all his accomplishments.  The second car was the business associates.  The third was friends while the private car was for family.

Preacher that I am I kept waiting for God to be mentioned and when Father turned his attention towards the engine I thought it had.  You know, God pulling you through the tough times and giving you the energy to move forward in life.  But no, Jim the deceased was the engine. 

Then he talked about the couplings between cars.  Once again my mind turned to God.  Surely it was God who kept us all bound together.  Nope, that was Jim too.

In the homily God was nowhere to be found - not even the caboose.

As we were walking out of the service another one of the ushers said to me: “There were a lot of egos in that room.  So many that there wasn’t any room for God.”

The funeral train went off the tracks because there wasn’t any room left for God.  Riches, the man’s personality and his lucrative business career didn’t leave much room for God because he was so successful.

I wonder if he ever thought to ask the question another rich, successful, man asked of Jesus.  “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”1

Most people don’t give the rich guy kneeling in front of Jesus much credit for coming up with such a really good question.  Instead they try to psychoanalyze him.  Something must have been missing in his life.  Maybe managing all his money was burden too great to handle?  Maybe he was rich in things but poor in spirit?  Or, maybe he had a great question that he just had to ask about eternal life and how to get it?

Jesus doesn’t care to talk to the man about his psyche, or even his spiritual being, he asks the man about his actions. 

His commandment keeping score is outstanding.  This man has a lot going for him.  If we were Jesus we’d snap him up in a nano-second as a member of our church.  He’s pious and he’s rich!  What more could you ask for in a member of the congregation.

Instead of signing him up Jesus gives him an assignment with a demand so high that it is impossible to meet.  He tells him to “Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”2

This is one of those things, as they say on television, that you should not try at home.  Don’t take this sermon so literally that tomorrow when your partner or spouse gets home there no furniture, no appliances, not even am an empty house because even the house has been sold.

I don’t want you telling your loved ones that you took something Pastor Nelson said in a sermon to heart and liquidated everything. You’ll get us both killed!

When the rich man goes away with a frown on his face we may be led to ask the same question the disciples did.  With the criterion that high who can make it?  Eternity is going to be really empty if the standard to get in is unattainable. 

At this point Jesus gives a really crazy analogy.  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Scholars have wasted gallons of ink trying to explain this away.

Some have suggested that is was a mistranslation of the word camel.  In the Greek a simple vowel change can make the word for camel into the word for rope.  Nope.

Then there was the interpreter [who around 850AD] came up with the brilliant idea that there was a low gate into Jerusalem called “the eye of the needle,” through which camel could squeeze in if unburdened. Get it! If we let go of some of our stuff we can indeed get through the needle’s eye. Sorry, no such gate ever existed.3

 So what are we left with?  I think we are left with Jesus telling us about our God who is so gracious, and so winsome, and so powerful that God could, if God wanted, take a full sized camel (One hump or two, take your choice!) a drop that camel right through the eye of a needle and have that dromedary emerge dazed but unscathed on the other side.


That is the God Jesus tells us to put our trust in.

If we continue to put our trust in what we have accomplished, or what we have, or our 401(k)s (And hasn’t that been a scary ride this past week?) we are going to be on the wrong track.

Trust God more than the laundry list of characters and things Jesus goes on to describe and the train will be back on track. 

Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor explained what we receive this way.

It is a dare to [us] to become a new creature, defined in a new way, to trade in all the words that have described [us] up to now – wealthy, committed, cultured, responsible, educated, powerful, obedient – to trade them all in on one radically different word, which is free”4

We’ll be free to serve God and our neighbors without any thought of reward.  We’ll be free to serve God and our neighbors without any cost/benefit analysis.  We’ll be free from trying to save ourselves by parading our good deeds before God. 


When we forget about thinking about all we’ve done and think about all that God can do with us and through us we’ll be free to follow Jesus wherever he leads.

Jesus turned the rich man’s question about eternal life into a challenge to follow him. 

That’s all Jesus asks of us. All he asks is that we follow him and if we do people will say of us - whether we are rich or poor - at least, they were always on the right track.

Thanks for listening.

____________

1.  St.  Mark 10:18b.  (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

2.  St. Mark 10:21. (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]

3.  William H. Willimon, ""How Hard to Be a Disciple"," Pulpit Resource, B, 46, no. 4 (October 1, 2018), p. 8.

4.  Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life, (Cowley Publications, Cambridge, Massachusetts), p.121-126.

"Calvinball" - Pentecost 20

Exodus 19:3-7 & 20:1-17

Every other Tuesday morning a group of men gathers in the downtown offices of the Kirkland and Ellis Law Firm to study scripture.  Most of them are members of The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago and somehow, in ways too convoluted for a sermon, I got recruited to attend and help keep the guys biblically and theologically on track.

It is mostly led by the laity but every once an awhile one of the retired pastors who attend steps up to lead.  I chose last Tuesday because I was preaching here and wanted to do a good job.  ☺

The first question I asked them was: “How would you preach this text?” 
One of the brighter lights in this group responded (and I am not making this up!)   “I would probably find the equivalent in a couple of other religions and societies: Buddhism, Hinduism, the code of Hammurabi and see what they have in common.”

Now I ask you, when was the last time you heard a sermon on the code of Hammurabi?  Probably never and your not going to hear one today because I like you a lot and I’d like to be asked back.

Instead we are going to ease ourselves into shallower waters, much shallower waters, by beginning with what the children and I were talking about together with Calvin-ball.

It was a game invented by Bill Watterson for his two comic strip characters - a young boy who was an only child named Calvin and whose best friend who was a stuffed Tiger named Hobbes who could be seen in action only by Calvin and the readers of the comic strip.

It is not that Calvin-ball didn’t have any rules it is just that Calvin and Hobbes made the rules up as they played.  So, one moment a tree would be the goalpost and the next, on a whim, it would be the fence, or a fireplug, or the house.  Inbounds and out-of-bounds lines would change at a moments notice.  What was fair and what was foul was always open to interpretation and reinterpretation.  It was a crazy game that usually ended up with them getting hurt, getting angry, or getting in trouble.

If you are like me and have been walking around with your stomach in a knot over what has been going on in our nation and metropolitan area since we have seen each other1  I suggest that it is because we have found ourselves caught up in a game of Calvin-ball where rules are enforced or unenforced on a whim and there is no longer any in-bounds or out of bounds causing people - sometimes innocent and sometimes guilty - get hurt.

The fact of the matter is that we need rules and the Ten Commandments are a very good place to start.

They are known to our Hebrew sisters and brothers as as "the ten words", "the ten sayings", or "the ten matters".

They are words about two very important matters: How we are to relate to God and how we are to relate to our neighbors. 

Legend has it that the first three - which deal with our relationship to God - were inscribed on one of the two tablets Moses carried down from the mountain while the other tablet contained the “sayings” about how we are to relate to our neighbors. 

People have viewed them through Christian eyes as being cruciform.  The trunk of the cross being the three that talk about God and the crossbeam the other seven about how we should live our daily lives.

We know them.

Those of us who come from the Lutheran tradition and endured confirmation classes memorized them along with Luther’s explanation of them in his Small Catechism to the point where the words: “You should so fear and love God” send shivers down our spines.  Not because of our fear of God as much as having to stand in front of the class and recite them from memory.

We know that they are the framework upon which almost all civil law is built.  And if we read on in Exodus we see them forming what almost looks like a civil code that covers almost everything from marriage rites to property rites to what you should do with the local psychic.  The answer to that last one is the very extreme, “put them to death.”

Hebrew scholar Michael Carasik, known for his The Bible Guy blog reminds us:

Everyone is familiar with the image, made famous in art and so much a part of how we think of the Bible that it is used in movies and cartoons, of Moses coming down the mountain with two stone tablets that have the Ten Commandments engraved on them. But not everyone remembers that, when Moses finally did come down the mountain, [in Exodus 32] he saw the Israelites worshiping the Golden Calf, lost his temper, and broke the stone tablets.2

 It is at this point it is almost as if a game of Calvin-ball breaks out. 

Moses seems to be taking forever and the people conclude that something must have happened to him.  So, they turn to Aaron and ask him to build for them a golden calf which he does.  “The people exclaimed, ‘O Israel, this is the god that brought you out of Egypt.’”\\

It isn’t.  But this is what happens when you are making things up as you go along.  Suddenly you can make a god out of anything - gold, money, power, prestige, you name it and humanity can make a god out of it.

When inning becomes our god we can celebrate when our side wins and another side loses.  We can tell ourselves then that the ends really did justify the means.   Rules from God and even the rules we made up get changed in mid-game and people wind up, just as they did in Calvin-ball, hurt, angry or, when adults play, even destroyed.

Listen to how  Eugene Peterson paraphrased the scene in The Message:

Early the next morning, the people got up and offered Whole-Burnt-Offerings and brought Peace-Offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and then began to party. It turned into a wild party!

 God spoke to Moses, “Go! Get down there! Your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have fallen to pieces. They made a molten calf and worshiped it. God said to Moses, “I look at this people—oh! what a stubborn, hard-headed people! Let me alone now, give my anger free reign to burst into flames and incinerate them.3

 .
God is angry because at this wild, wild party the people had not only a good old time at the punch bowl but a good old time at the finger bowl.  They were doing all the stuff to each other that God had expressly forbidden including treating each other like physical objects instead of human beings.  If the first three commandments bit the dust with making of the golden calf the last seven were smashed to bits in the wild party that ensued. 

I think that when we treat others like that God does get angry.

A conservative rabbi, Louis Ginzberg, stated in his book Legends of the Jews, that Ten Commandments are virtually entwined, that the breaking of one leads to the breaking of another.3

And it doesn’t take much to see that in our day either.  Think of the turmoil we put ourselves through.  A nation and a city on edge  is no party.  Being  separated from God as we are separating into tribes that won’t even listen to each other is no picnic.  This is Calvin-ball turned into something ugly when it gets played at this kind of high stakes level. 

You and I know that.  We know it is not right to be angry and divided from one another.  We know it is not right to believe or disbelieve somebody because they don’t belong to our tribe.  We know it is not right to kill one another by our words and certainly not by our deeds.  We know we are breaking God’s heart and leading to our own destruction whenever we start to follow our own wills and ways instead of listening to God.

Another one of the guys in my bible study shared a cartoon from The New Yorker that shows Moses holding the commandment tablets and yelling at God: “Now, how about some affirmations to balance all this negativity?”

How about this affirmation to balance things out?  Jesus said: “I give you a new commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This means that we treat one another in a vastly different manner, see each other from a vastly different angle, feel compassion for one another.

More directly it means that we see every survivor of abuse as if they really were a faberge egg.  It means we weep with and for the families of victims.  It means we look beyond our tribal and political loyalties and reject those who would try to capture hurt and pain for their own political purposes.  It means we love those who are injured in the process.  It means that in all we do  we strive for healing that love may triumph.

Saint Paul was right!

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.4

At the end of every game of Calvin-ball Calvin and Hobbes, broken, bruised and angry as they might have been, make up.  Their love never for each other never fails, never ends.

Let’s hope that we, all of us, everywhere, everyone who bear the name of Christ, can do as well or better, than a cartoon boy and his pretend tiger.

 Thanks for listening. 

_____________

1.  This sermon was preached on the weekend when the McDonald/Vandyke trial concluded and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court was confirmed.

2.  Mark Rooker,  The Ten Commandments: Ethics for the Twenty-First Century.  (Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), p. 3.

3.  Michael Carasik, "The Ten Commandments," The Bible Guy, April 20, 2014, , accessed October 06, 2018, https://mcarasik.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/the-ten-commandments/.

4.  Exodus 32:4.  (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible]

5.  Exodus 32:6-10.  (MSG) [MSG= The Message]

6.  Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, trans. Henrietta Szolt, vol. 3, 5 vols. (New York, NY: Jewish Publication Society of North America, 1969).

7.  St.  John 13:34-35.  (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

"All In the Same Boat" - Pentecost 19B

Saint Mark 9:38-59

There is and old saying from the African American Church that goes: “We Americans came to America on different ships but we’re all in the same boat now.”2

You may not feel this way and after the events of last week you would be well within your rights.1
  
Who lives like this?  Who talks like this?  Who can be this angry all the time?  Apparently some in Washington have made careers out the encouraging the belief that “we are split between hostile groups, each with its own TV networks, fast-food chains and sporting apparel - FOX News vs.  MSNBC, Chick-fil-A vs. Chipotle, Under Armour vs.  Nike.

But all of those great divides says Steve Chapman, editorial board member of the Chicago Tribune, is “an image from a fun-house mirror, composed of mis-leading distortions.”

Independents now make up a plurality of the public.  Self-described moderates outnumber either liberals or conservatives. [And]most people don’t spend much time watching cable news.
Most people are not very conservative or very liberal.  But “the middle has no home in either party.”3

Still politicians in their ads and by their actions try to divide.  They tempt us to come to the conclusion: “A plague on both your houses.” No more of this he said/she said!  No more of this “well I may be a crook or a kook but my opponent is a bigger one.”  No more of this mud slinging.  No more of this “I’ve made up my mind, don’t confuse me with the facts.” A plague on both of you. 

And the reason why some of us give up is that their behavior is godless.   “Washington is a place,” said Mark Shield of the PBS NewsHour, “where everybody is expected to belong to a church or synagogue but nobody is expected to go.”

So they probably have never heard of this encounter with Jesus and his disciples about who is “for us” and who is “against us.”

The disciples were more than put off by a man who was using Jesus’ name to cast out demons.

It could be that they had just tried to do the very same thing themselves only a few hours earlier by Mark’s time and failed.  They had just tried to cure someone of the very same malady and came up empty.  They also may have been upset about this or they may have been upset that the other guy may not have been following Jesus for as long or as closely as they had been.  To them he is just one upstart doing what they couldn’t do so they stop him.

If it had been our day they might have said, “Call the legal department!  File an injunction!  Charge him with copyright violation or patent infringement – anything to stop him from poaching on our territory.”

As usual, Jesus does something that is completely unexpected, counter intuitive.  He says: “Do not stop him.  For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad against me.”4

Then he goes on to tell us what we should be doing.  “Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of cold water in my name is on our side.  Count on it that God will notice.”5

Bible commentator David Donovan told about his daughter “hiking the Pacific Coast Trail, a 2600 mile trek through desert and mountains. She has been blessed at numerous points by “Trail Angels” – people who provide water or other support.  My wife and I thank God for the Trail Angels.  Never once have we suggested to our daughter that she should check their doctrinal beliefs before accepting their aid.”5

There is always the temptation to ask a lot of question or at least wonder about their motives.  Do they want something from me?  Are they trying to get my vote or convert me to their church?  And that’s only about a cup of water!

The nation and the church can become divided over deeper issues.  Democrat/Republican, Liberal/Conservative, Red State/Blue State, you name it politicians can fight about it while the ship of state sinks.

The church isn’t much better.  Mega-churches/Local churches; liturgical/contemporary, fundamentalist/mainline, those who do/those who don’t...  You can fill in the blank for what ever those dos and don’t are.   

My partner grew up in a really, really, really, conservative church in the very northwest corner of Iowa.  His church was one of those “don’t churches”.  They didn’t like the Presbyterians because they were a social club.  They didn’t like the Episcopalians because they were a country club.  And they didn’t like the Lutherans because all they did was drink beer.  My first guess is that the people in those other churches didn’t have very nice things to say about them either.  There were leaks in the ship of the church.

My second guess is that all of them were doing a good work - giving that cup of cold water, if you will, in Jesus name.

Yet they were all cut off from each other for reasons that Jesus describes as no less than being trashy.

Somehow a word got mistranslated in today’s gospel.  The word “hell” in our text in the original Greek is Gehenna and comes from the Hebrew, ge Hinnon, the Valley of Hinnon,  which was the place were all the rubbish from Jerusalem was taken to be burned.  It was a stinking, steaming, garbage dump.

The church has always been referred to as the body of Christ and so what Jesus is saying in a very graphic way is that if there is anything in us that is hindering us or any of his little ones from following him it must be removed lest we wind up literally “down in the dump”.  If there is anything that is causing the church to be divided we need to find out what it is and do anything we can to remove it so that the body of Christ might be united in witness to a world that desperately needs what we have to give.

I’ve come to believe that maybe God doesn’t see what we think are divisions in the same way we do.  I think that while it is not my cup of tea God may like a little “smooth jazz” in worship on a Sunday morning. I’d like to think that while you and I like a formal, structured worship God may like the freedom of those non-liturgical churches or the blessed silence of a Quaker meeting.  I think that God can like the “smells and bells” of what the Anglican or Episcopal church call, with tongue firmly planted in their cheeks, “a smoking service” while at the same time enjoying the red hot emotion of a charismatic revival.

The saying about America can also be said about the way we approach God.  We may have come on different ships but we are all in the same boat now.

And we are to sail on by being salt and light to a world that seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into the bland, bland, darkness.

In one paraphrase of Scripture Jesus says, “Don’t lose your flavor!  Live in peace with one another.” 7

How do we do that?  By coming to the conclusion that people who are not against us are really on our side.  That even if we disagree with them, about religion or politics, or what sports team to root for (Even the Packers or the Bears!) they can still be our sisters and brothers in Christ. 

By admitting that, by and large, very few evil people have ever walked this earth.  And concluding that we all need each other because we are all in the same boat.

Let the motto of Northwestern University, my Alma Mater, borrowed from Saint Paul, be our guide:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. [Do this} and the God of peace will be with you.8

May the God of peace be with us as we salt of the earth people sail on trying to be a light for the world.

Thanks for listening.

____________

1. Sermon was preached during the confirmation hearings for an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

2.  Clarence Page, "Even in Our Diverse Tribes, We're Still Americans," Chicago Tribune, September 26, 2018, Morning ed., sec. 1; p.  19.

3.  Steve Chapman, "A Polarized America? Not Quite," Chicago Tribune, September 23, 2018, Sunday ed., sec. 1; p.  24.

4.  St.  Mark 9:38.  (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]

5.  St.  Mark 9: 41.  (MSG) [MSG=The Message]

6.  David Donovan, "Salt & Fire," Sermon Writer: Making Preaching More of a Joy, September 13, 2018, , accessed September 28, 2018, https://www.sermonwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018-09-30-Proper21B.doc.

7.   St.  Mark 9:50.  (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible]

8.   Philippians 4:8-9.  (NKJV) [NKJV=The New King James Version]