Colossians 3: 1-11 Luke 12: 13-21
How many of us have had move from a large house into a smaller space. It has been said that for every year you live in a house, you accumulate 1000 pounds of stuff. My mom who lived in her house for over twenty years accumulates over 2000 pounds per year, you do the math. Over ten years ago I helped move my mother from a large two story house with full basement into smallish a two bedroom condominium. It was daunting to say the least. It took one large yard sale, a couple of dumpster runs, and even some stealth throwing away of junk to get my mom to downsize her stuff into a manageable amount for her smaller space.
What amazed me were the contents of her basement. Deep beneath the stairs which went into her cellar were hidden a multitude of rusty and moldy treasures, jars upon jars of rusty nails and screws, broken fans and pots missing handles. There were even extension cords with cloth coverings. But what most surprised me were the old cans of food that she kept in her hidey hole. One shelf upon another held a large number of cans of soup, stew and vegetables. I found jars of tomatoes and fruit that she canned herself when I was a young child. You see, my mom kept a large stash of food hidden her home because she remembered times where she had no food. She grew up in Poland during World War II, most of which she and her family spent imprisoned in a German Labor Camp. Before the war, her family lived comfortably, but then they lost everything when the Nazis invaded Poland. They went from having more than enough to having absolutely nothing. My mother knew first hand what it was like to go hungry and it was the fear of it happening again that drove her to stash food away as a guarantee that she will never go hungry again. Unfortunately, by the time I found all the food in the basement it was not fit to eat because the cans were at least ten years old.
I admit that I have picked up my mother’s tendency to hoard. It is as if it were part of my DNA. Although I did not feel the hunger that she felt growing up in war torn Poland, I feared the hunger almost as much as she did. I find that when I feel especially anxious about scarcity I take more than what I need so that I can gain sense of security, by hiding myself behind the cans of food in my pantry to protect myself from an unknown disaster that is surely lurking around the corner.
I have come to believe that the fear of scarcity is part and parcel of the human condition and some note that our culture perpetuates this fear by telling us that we are in an unending battle to overcome scarcity and it is only through the competitiveness of our capitalistic marketplace that we are saved from all going hungry. However it is this mindset that causes us to create the very scarcity that we fear (1) and left up to our own devices our inclination is to take more than we need and toward stockpile resources rather than distributing them in such a way that all may have what they need. Our fear overcomes our ability to have compassion. It would seem impossible for us to transcend our fear but the gospel reminds us that “those who store up treasures for themselves…are not rich toward God.” (Luke 12: 21)
Prior to this morning’s passage in the Gospel, Jesus was preaching to his disciples to fearlessly confess their faith in God always even if they are in a situation where they are risking their lives for giving such a confession. Then out of the blue a person in his audience interrupts him asking him to tell his brother to divide the family inheritance with him. Now in Jesus’ time, it was not uncommon to seek the help of a religious teacher in matters of inheritance. The bible has much to say regarding who should get what when a family patriarch dies, however Jesus dismisses this request with a parable about how the accumulation of things is not way to lasting security.
The rich farmer has just gotten a bumper crop. As the farmer thinks about what to do with his excess crop he seems to contemplates concern for himself alone, “What should I do? For I have no place to store my crops?” (12: 17) So the solution he comes up with serves himself alone, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, there I will store all my grain and goods.” (12: 18) Do you hear a pattern here, I….I….My, I….I….My, I…My, the farmer sounds just like a two year old. Some say that the farmer has “fallen prey to worshiping the most popular of gods: the Unholy Trinity of ‘me, myself and I’” (2)
Now, we must remember that the scriptures do not speak against saving for the future. All you have to do is read the story of Joseph in the Hebrew Scriptures (or see the musical Joseph and the Technicolor Dream coat), to see how storing up excess in the fat years to carry a community through the lean years is a part of proper stewardship of God’s bounty. (3) However, in the case of the rich farmer in the parable we find that he is not concerned with proper stewardship that takes into account well being for all of God’s creation. Instead he seems more concerned with his own need to accumulate in excess, to keep more than he needs so that one day he can “relax, eat, drink and be merry.” (12: 19) It is noted that “He is not foolish because he is making provision for the future; he is foolish because he thinks his wealth can secure his future.” (4) The parable takes a sharp turn and the rich farmer dies. As he stands before God, God says to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (12: 20) Basically the rich man is a fool because he put his possessions in place of God or as Luke would say, the rich man was not being “rich toward God.”
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he tells his readers to set their minds “on things above, not on things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:2) To clothe oneself with a new self “which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.” (3:10) What happens is nothing short of transformation, where we see the world through God’s eyes and our discernment always takes into account the well being of all God’s creation and faith that in all things God will take care of us.
This is a timely message for us all as we are in a time of economic uncertainty in our country. Many in our community both inside and outside of our church are grappling with the reality of losing jobs, losing homes, losing our very way of life. Now more than ever is the time for us to rely upon the power of God’s grace as shown to us through Jesus. It is now more than ever that we need to be open to the in-breaking of God’s Kingdom on earth. Now more than ever we need let go of our fear and become rich toward God. This means using our resources for the benefit of our neighbor’s in need, just as the Good Samaritan did. This means prayfully trusting that God will provide our daily bread just as Jesus taught us in praying the Lord’s prayer. This means believing that God has blessed all of creation abundantly and investing all that we are on the eternal economy of Christ’s grace and mercy. (5)
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) Frances Moore-Lappe “The Scarcity Myth” Seasons of the Spirit Congregational Life – Pentecost 1 (Inver Grove Heights, Minn: Logos Productions, Inc, 2008), 112.
(2) Davis Lose, “Stewardship Season Already” http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?tab=4 (accessed July 31, 2010)
(3) Stephen L. Cook, David Lyon Bartlett, and Barbara Brown Taylor. Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 312.
(4) David Lose, “Stewardship Season Already” (accessed July 31, 2010).
(5) Feasting on the Word. 314-315.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Harvest of Plenty
A hot summer and plenty of tending gave forth an abundance in crops...and it's only the end of July. I'm turning into one of those neighbors where I ask do you want this...do you want that....I can hardly keep up with the harvest. Pretty soon I'll have to start leaving vegatables in neighbor's unlocked cars.
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| The Garden. It's a growin'. |
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| I've had lots of cucumbers this summer. My best crop yet! |
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| Swiss Chard growing tall. Does anyone have any recipes they'd like to give me? |
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| My cherry and grape tomatoes are doing great. No blight so far (knock knock). |
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| Spices and lettuce soaking up the sun. |
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| Lil' guy soakin' up the sun. |
Saturday, July 24, 2010
"The Prayer That Jesus Taught"
Picture from The Brick Testament
Regrettably for many years I knew the words to the Lord’s Prayer by heart but they were not inscribed in my heart. I could mumble them along with everyone else in the room but I didn’t truly understand what these words meant. Then I left the church for several years and found that when I returned I had forgotten how to say the prayer verbatim. It wasn’t a problem until I began my internship as a chaplain at a hospital where I had to be able to pray on demand. While the families appreciated the prayers that I would say off the top of my head at the bedside, the prayers that gave them most comfort were the ones that they already knew, the Lord’s Prayer being one of the most comforting.
For a long time I had resisted memorizing this prayer because I didn’t want it to become senseless to me to the point where I would go back to merely mumbling it with the crowd. However there was one night at the hospital where a bit of memorization would have been most helpful in my ministry. In the middle of the night I was called in to attend to a dying person in the intensive care unit of the hospital. While I have trouble recalling the circumstances of the situation I do remember that this person was Lutheran and that there was large of family holding vigil around the bedside of this person.
I remember that I was exhausted as I joined them in at the bedside and I asked them what I could do for them and they asked me to pray the Lord’s Prayer. I said I’d be happy to as I looked for my prayer book and then I realized that I had left at home.
Imagine my panic.
I took a deep breath and I asked that we hold hands,
I began to pray
“Our Father who art in heaven” and they began to pray with me.
“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
So far so good, but the prayer is starting to become foggy.
“Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our...”
Oh golly, is this trespasses, sins or debts kind of crowd.
I am quiet as all the family blurted out all three words in unison.
“and lead us not into temptation”
Now I’m starting get the part of the prayer that I couldn’t remember
I began to say it quieter and quieter
“but deliver us from evil”
Now I don’t know the words so I became silent hoping that the family would continue on…unfortunately they became silent too. I don’t know if they suffered the same kind of amnesia I did on this prayer or if they were waiting for my lead.
So I panicked and continued on with a prayer, but not the prayer I started with. Unfortunately the prayer that came out of my mouth was the only other prayer I memorized as a child, the Hail Mary,
“Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners…now until the hour of our death. Amen.”
Thank goodness this Lutheran family was gracious in the midst of my denominational faux paux.
Embarrassing moments aside, this incident made me realize the importance of knowing by heart and taking to heart this familiar prayer. As I recommitted to memory the Lord’s Prayer I also dug deeper into the text to understand what Jesus was teaching his followers with this prayer.
“Our Father hallowed be your name.”
Jesus is tells us that we can address God in the same way he does, as a nurturing parent who has the power to help and the desire to help. A wise woman once told me that when we pray in the name of God or in the name of Jesus what we are really doing is calling out their very nature, the essence of who they are. We are honoring the nature of grace and mercy of God, the nature of inclusiveness and justice making of Jesus.
For those who are leading the struggle for peace and justice this means “That in God’s name there be no abuse, no oppression and no manipulation of the conscience and liberty of God’s children.” (1)
“Your kingdom come.”
This phrase sounds forceful because it is meant to be forceful. What we are saying to God is “Bring on you Kingdom NOW!” Make things as they are supposed to be, not as they are now. End all war, house the homeless, feed the hungry, cease all forms of oppression. Help all of creation to live together in the spirit of shalom which means living in right relationship with each other.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
This is about praying for just what we need rather than praying for what we want. Note that the phrase here is plural, “our daily bread” not “my daily bread.”
“And forgive us our sins.”
This recognizes the fact that we are not perfect, we make mistakes, and we sometimes let our own needs override the needs of others. However the good news is that God is merciful and God forgives us always.
“For we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
The phrasing of this line is present tense, “we forgive those who have sinned against us.” Some note that “the mutual forgiveness of sins is expected to be a regular practice of the community even if it requires great faith.” (2) This is not a remark of justification, “you have to forgive me because I forgave so and so.” It is a given that as people of God we forgive each other with the same grace that God forgives us.
“And do not bring us to this time of trial.”
It would seem that this petition is asking God to help us avoid temptation. However some note that taken in the context of the gospel this petition is really plea to have the strength to endure what is happening and to recover. (3)
It has been said that every time that we pray the Lord’s Prayer “we are staking our very lives on the belief that prayers are answered and that God does respond to human need and suffering.” (4) To stake our lives on this claim means letting God have access to our hands and feet when they are needed, to speak through our voices to proclaim God’s reign on earth.
Since that embarrassing night in the hospital, I have taken the time I needed to learn the Lord’s Prayer by heart. To take it into my heart and make it part of my being. In this practice I realized that I used to pray to God give me things, to do things for me. That I used to be continually disappointed in God for not being like Santa Claus. But in praying as Jesus taught us to pray, instead of asking God to give me things, I ask for God to give me guidance. Rather than expecting God to bend to my will, I ask God for the strength and endurance to follow God’s will whatever it may be.
May it be So.
Amen.
(1) Composed by the Salvadoran Refugees in Mesa Grande, Honduras “Our Father for Today. A Contemporary ‘Our Father’” http://www.respondtothecall.org/prayer_contemporary_our_father.htm
(2) David L. Tiede, Augsburg Commentary on the New Testament: Luke. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1988), 213.
(3) Robert C. Tannehill, Luke. (Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1996), 189.
(4) Joy Douglas Strom, “Living by the Word” The Christian Century, 10 July, 2007, 19.
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Tomatoes...They are a-Coming!
So far...So Good!!!!
I had a couple of parishioners visit me the other day. The wife noticed my pink flamingo and my garden gnome on my balcony. I could tell that she was struggling to say something polite and so I said, "Yep, I know...I'm classy." This made her giggle.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Who is my neighbor?
The Good Samaritan is one of my all time favorite bible stories because it’s all about helping people. It affirms for me that the whole of scripture is based on the great commandment “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” However what does it look like when you are loving your neighbor as yourself. To us modern folk, we tend to look at it in psychological terms, as a matter of self esteem. We will treat our neighbors just as we treat ourselves. However, we must remember that the modern psychological concept of self esteem was not on the radar of the gospel writers. The people that lived during the time of Jesus depended on their families and clans in order to get their basic needs met such as food, protection, housing etc. However, it was also important to care for those who were not part of your family and/or clan. Some believe that “when Jesus said, ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ he was essentially saying, ‘treat all those around you as you would your own flesh and blood’—that is, as sisters and brothers in one family, deserving of equal honor and special care.” (1)
At first glance this story feels very warm and fuzzy. I read it and it makes me feel good because I like to help people. However, when I read it in the context of the audience that Jesus was telling this story to and the characters that he used to prove his point, this story becomes a bit uncomfortable for me. Let me retell the story as Jesus would if he were among us here today preaching from this pulpit now….
A Michael, a young man was riding his bicycle across the park one evening from downtown to his neighborhood. He was a bicycle messenger and had just finished another hectic shift riding his bike from office to office delivering mail and messages. As he rounded a corner on the bike path two robbers jumped him, knocking him off his bike and stealing his messenger bag and wallet. Because Michael was not wearing his helmet, he was knocked unconscious by the fall and lay bleeding. The robbers dragged him to the side of the path and ran off, leaving Michael for dead under a tree in the park.
The sun was setting as Steve walked through Park that evening to get to his car. Steve is an executive Vice President for a multi-national bank and so it was not unusual for him to work a bit later into the evening hours. He parked his car at a mile away from downtown so as to avoid the high parking fees and get some exercise. As he took a shortcut through the park he noticed a person lying underneath a tree. He shakes his head in disgust and thinks to himself, “uuughh, those drunk bums, dirtying up our city. They just sleep all over the place with no regard to how it looks to others. Should I wake him, no…don’t poke the bear I say. Why doesn’t he just get a job?” Steve looks away from Michael’s body and walks faster towards his car.
Evening turns into night as young Pastor Hilary is walking across the park on her way back from downtown where she had attended a concert that she read about in the paper. She decided to walk back and forth to the concert instead of driving and she was now a mile away from her house. She didn’t realize that it would get dark so soon after the concert and was a bit anxious as she entered the park. As she walked down the bike path, she nervously scanned her surroundings in order to feel somewhat safe. She then notices a body underneath a tree and jumps back. She edges up to the body and turns it over. She sees blood across this man’s forehead and becomes even more anxious. She thinks to herself “This man needs to get to the hospital; I have to call for help. Where’s my cell phone…oh darn I left it a home. I have to find a phone to call 9-1-1. The minister reluctantly leaves the body and runs back towards downtown in hopes of finding a phone.
It is 11:00 pm now and Michael’s body has been left beneath the tree for several hours. Alejandro is walking across the park from his apartment to his car in order get to his third shift job at the meat packing plant. Alejandro is a new resident in this city, as a matter of fact, a new resident of America. A few months ago, he crossed the border illegally from Mexico into Texas in order to make a better life for himself and his family. He misses Mexico, especially his wife and children whom he had to leave behind. But life in Mexico was hard, having to live in a shanty town in a house made of corrugated steel. There was no drinkable water or even plumbing to speak of. The raw sewage streamed down the middle of their village, where his children often played. It broke his heart that he and his family had to live in such conditions, and so he made the decision to go to America to make a livable wage and send money back to his family in Mexico so that they could move out of the Shanty town into better living conditions. In America, Alejandro worked many jobs, migrant farming, sweatshop factory jobs, roofing, gardening…any job that he could find that was “off the books” so that he wouldn’t be found by the INS. Being seen anywhere in the city was a dangerous thing for Alejandro because he could be found out as an illegal immigrant and arrested at anytime.
Alejandro sees Michael’s unconscious body from a distance and runs to him. He turns Michael over and sees that he is injured. Without thinking, Alejandro picks up Michael and slings him over his shoulder to carry him to the car. Alejandro drives to hospital and pulls his car into the emergency department driveway. He then carries Michael from the car into the lobby puts Michael into a wheelchair. As Alejandro wheels Michael over to the nurse’s desk, he tries to get her attention. The nurse asks Alejandro for his name, the patient’s name, any information regarding the situation and in broken English Alejandro says, “you take…you take.” She insists on information and all Alejandro can say is, “you take.” He then gives her a twenty dollar bill thinking that it was money that she is asking for but she refuses the money, and so he lays it down on the desk in front of her and rushes out of the hospital and into his car.
Wow….pretty amazing this story. In Jesus’ time it was a very radical thing for Jesus to lift up the Samaritan as the example of loving your neighbor as yourself. The Samaritans in Jesus’ time were reviled by the Jewish Community of which Jesus was a part of. The Jews and the Samaritans shared a common heritage but differed from each other in worship practices and cleanliness laws. (2) Often the Jews referred to the Samaritans with terms such as foreigners or intruders so as to distance themselves from this group of people that were not like them.
Can you imagine the sting Jesus’ listeners felt as they heard him speak of these strange people as exemplifying the great commandment. Similar to how some might feel at my retelling of the Samaritan story. It is hard to wrap our brains around it, however it is in this puzzle that Jesus frames what the whole of God’s commandments rests upon. The business man and the pastor, both highly respected people by standards of our culture, had good reasons for not stopping and/or helping the injured man on the road. They might have been in danger of being robbed themselves or even beaten up themselves. They are not to be vilified because their reactions were very appropriate given the circumstances. Some biblical scholars note that Jesus was not out to make the priest and the Levite the bad guys in his parable. “Their decision to pass by on the other side would not have been a surprise to, nor would likely have been condemned by Jesus’ hearers. The victim in the ditch no doubt seemed to be dead, and priests were forbidden from going where there was a dead body, even when the dead body was a parent.” (3)
It is not an easy thing to love our neighbor as we would ourselves or our own families. Our culture tends to hold up the values of individualism and pursuit of self interest over and above the care of our neighbor, especially when our neighbor is different from us. However in conversations that I have had with some of you folks regarding our recent immigrants, I do hear of your care and compassion for these folks and concern for such issues as the recently passed anti-immigration legislation that were passed in Arizona this last spring. Hearing the call from Jesus to love our neighbor, some of you here have reached out these folk by providing a coat to someone who was new to our state's cold winters or by contributing to the services they use such as the local soup kitchen. This concern and love for immigrants regardless of legal status is alive in many of our local churches in the UCC and it has moved our denomination in resolving to stand in solidarity with Immigrants and to advocate for them.
A colleague of mine who is starting her first pastorate in a small church asked herself what a healthy well rounded church small church looks like and she came up with this vision. They love God, they love each other and they love their neighbors. (4) I immediately thought of you all because all three of these things are in abundance here in this community of faith, Smalltown Congregational Church, UCC.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
(1) Sarah Dylan Breuer, “Dylans Lectionary Blog: Proper 25 Year A”http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/
(2) James D. Purvis, “Samaritans” The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul J Aichtenmeier Gen. Ed (San Francisco: Harper Row Publishers, 1985), 898-899.
(3) Charles B. Cousar et. al. “Proper 10: Ordinary Time 15” Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV – Year C (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 427.
(4) Hat tip to my fellow RGBP Mid-life Rookie.
At first glance this story feels very warm and fuzzy. I read it and it makes me feel good because I like to help people. However, when I read it in the context of the audience that Jesus was telling this story to and the characters that he used to prove his point, this story becomes a bit uncomfortable for me. Let me retell the story as Jesus would if he were among us here today preaching from this pulpit now….
A Michael, a young man was riding his bicycle across the park one evening from downtown to his neighborhood. He was a bicycle messenger and had just finished another hectic shift riding his bike from office to office delivering mail and messages. As he rounded a corner on the bike path two robbers jumped him, knocking him off his bike and stealing his messenger bag and wallet. Because Michael was not wearing his helmet, he was knocked unconscious by the fall and lay bleeding. The robbers dragged him to the side of the path and ran off, leaving Michael for dead under a tree in the park.
The sun was setting as Steve walked through Park that evening to get to his car. Steve is an executive Vice President for a multi-national bank and so it was not unusual for him to work a bit later into the evening hours. He parked his car at a mile away from downtown so as to avoid the high parking fees and get some exercise. As he took a shortcut through the park he noticed a person lying underneath a tree. He shakes his head in disgust and thinks to himself, “uuughh, those drunk bums, dirtying up our city. They just sleep all over the place with no regard to how it looks to others. Should I wake him, no…don’t poke the bear I say. Why doesn’t he just get a job?” Steve looks away from Michael’s body and walks faster towards his car.
Evening turns into night as young Pastor Hilary is walking across the park on her way back from downtown where she had attended a concert that she read about in the paper. She decided to walk back and forth to the concert instead of driving and she was now a mile away from her house. She didn’t realize that it would get dark so soon after the concert and was a bit anxious as she entered the park. As she walked down the bike path, she nervously scanned her surroundings in order to feel somewhat safe. She then notices a body underneath a tree and jumps back. She edges up to the body and turns it over. She sees blood across this man’s forehead and becomes even more anxious. She thinks to herself “This man needs to get to the hospital; I have to call for help. Where’s my cell phone…oh darn I left it a home. I have to find a phone to call 9-1-1. The minister reluctantly leaves the body and runs back towards downtown in hopes of finding a phone.
It is 11:00 pm now and Michael’s body has been left beneath the tree for several hours. Alejandro is walking across the park from his apartment to his car in order get to his third shift job at the meat packing plant. Alejandro is a new resident in this city, as a matter of fact, a new resident of America. A few months ago, he crossed the border illegally from Mexico into Texas in order to make a better life for himself and his family. He misses Mexico, especially his wife and children whom he had to leave behind. But life in Mexico was hard, having to live in a shanty town in a house made of corrugated steel. There was no drinkable water or even plumbing to speak of. The raw sewage streamed down the middle of their village, where his children often played. It broke his heart that he and his family had to live in such conditions, and so he made the decision to go to America to make a livable wage and send money back to his family in Mexico so that they could move out of the Shanty town into better living conditions. In America, Alejandro worked many jobs, migrant farming, sweatshop factory jobs, roofing, gardening…any job that he could find that was “off the books” so that he wouldn’t be found by the INS. Being seen anywhere in the city was a dangerous thing for Alejandro because he could be found out as an illegal immigrant and arrested at anytime.
Alejandro sees Michael’s unconscious body from a distance and runs to him. He turns Michael over and sees that he is injured. Without thinking, Alejandro picks up Michael and slings him over his shoulder to carry him to the car. Alejandro drives to hospital and pulls his car into the emergency department driveway. He then carries Michael from the car into the lobby puts Michael into a wheelchair. As Alejandro wheels Michael over to the nurse’s desk, he tries to get her attention. The nurse asks Alejandro for his name, the patient’s name, any information regarding the situation and in broken English Alejandro says, “you take…you take.” She insists on information and all Alejandro can say is, “you take.” He then gives her a twenty dollar bill thinking that it was money that she is asking for but she refuses the money, and so he lays it down on the desk in front of her and rushes out of the hospital and into his car.
Wow….pretty amazing this story. In Jesus’ time it was a very radical thing for Jesus to lift up the Samaritan as the example of loving your neighbor as yourself. The Samaritans in Jesus’ time were reviled by the Jewish Community of which Jesus was a part of. The Jews and the Samaritans shared a common heritage but differed from each other in worship practices and cleanliness laws. (2) Often the Jews referred to the Samaritans with terms such as foreigners or intruders so as to distance themselves from this group of people that were not like them.
Can you imagine the sting Jesus’ listeners felt as they heard him speak of these strange people as exemplifying the great commandment. Similar to how some might feel at my retelling of the Samaritan story. It is hard to wrap our brains around it, however it is in this puzzle that Jesus frames what the whole of God’s commandments rests upon. The business man and the pastor, both highly respected people by standards of our culture, had good reasons for not stopping and/or helping the injured man on the road. They might have been in danger of being robbed themselves or even beaten up themselves. They are not to be vilified because their reactions were very appropriate given the circumstances. Some biblical scholars note that Jesus was not out to make the priest and the Levite the bad guys in his parable. “Their decision to pass by on the other side would not have been a surprise to, nor would likely have been condemned by Jesus’ hearers. The victim in the ditch no doubt seemed to be dead, and priests were forbidden from going where there was a dead body, even when the dead body was a parent.” (3)
It is not an easy thing to love our neighbor as we would ourselves or our own families. Our culture tends to hold up the values of individualism and pursuit of self interest over and above the care of our neighbor, especially when our neighbor is different from us. However in conversations that I have had with some of you folks regarding our recent immigrants, I do hear of your care and compassion for these folks and concern for such issues as the recently passed anti-immigration legislation that were passed in Arizona this last spring. Hearing the call from Jesus to love our neighbor, some of you here have reached out these folk by providing a coat to someone who was new to our state's cold winters or by contributing to the services they use such as the local soup kitchen. This concern and love for immigrants regardless of legal status is alive in many of our local churches in the UCC and it has moved our denomination in resolving to stand in solidarity with Immigrants and to advocate for them.
A colleague of mine who is starting her first pastorate in a small church asked herself what a healthy well rounded church small church looks like and she came up with this vision. They love God, they love each other and they love their neighbors. (4) I immediately thought of you all because all three of these things are in abundance here in this community of faith, Smalltown Congregational Church, UCC.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
(1) Sarah Dylan Breuer, “Dylans Lectionary Blog: Proper 25 Year A”http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/
(2) James D. Purvis, “Samaritans” The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul J Aichtenmeier Gen. Ed (San Francisco: Harper Row Publishers, 1985), 898-899.
(3) Charles B. Cousar et. al. “Proper 10: Ordinary Time 15” Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV – Year C (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 427.
(4) Hat tip to my fellow RGBP Mid-life Rookie.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Monday Garden Blogging - things are blooming!
Things are growing well at the God_gurrlll gardens. I've even starting harvesting my lettuce and herbs. I've been rocking the fresh herb cooking.
These were the cucumber plants that were struggling a month ago. The garden lady at teh Agway suggested that I fertilize them and like magic they revitalized!!! I'm wondering if there might be a fertilizer that would revitalize churches. There's certainly lots of manure to go round. ahem.
Tomatoes are about to sprout. I like how artistic this picture looks. The stem in the foreground and the blossoms in soft focus in the back.
Another artsy picture of a pepper in bloom with arugula in the background.
I harvested this after I took the picture. Wow was this lettuce delicious. MMMMMM
Lil' guy has taken to napping on top of the entertainment center. He's telling me to stop taking his picture so he can some sleep. This could be a picture for LOL cats don't you think. Feel free to add a caption in comments.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
What You Talkin' bout Jesus?
Romans 8: 26-38
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
This morning in the Gospel of Matthew we hear Jesus using several parables to describe how the Kingdom of God will take hold. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the field.” “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast” “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field” All of these images are comforting to us in our modern day context but how would these sayings been heard by Jesus’ audience in his day.
You see when Jesus told a parable, his aim was not to make sense, but to make his audience think. He did not to want to make those in power feel justified, but to make them feel uncomfortable. These parables that we read this morning I am sure caused much bewilderment in his audience.
Take for instance, the mustard seed. To a farmer of Jesus’ day the mustard shrub was quite a horrible thing to say the least. It really was a nasty weed to be avoided at all costs. Once a mustard shrub sets into a garden, it will spread quickly, and will choke the healthy crops surrounding it. The birds aren’t good news either because they will eat whatever is left of the healthy crop. To our modern ears, what Jesus is really saying is that the kingdom of God is like crabgrass, like dandelions, like thistle, once it gets into your garden, good luck getting it out, and boy once it is in your garden, it will it spread like wild fire, and what ever the weeds don’t kill your crop, the birds who come, will. If I was in the audience I’d be scratching my head asking, “What you talking about Jesus? How can the kingdom of God be like the annoying weeds that I have to pull out so that my crops can flourish?”
However the majority of the people that heard Jesus preaching the sermon would have reacted differently. They probably started elbowing each other, nodding their heads and even snickering a bit. Perhaps yelling an “amen” here and there and even a “you say it brother.” They would have gotten the irony of his message because they were not the land owners, rather, they were the slaves who tilled the fields of the rich land owners and the flourishing of the field was for the advantage of the land owner rather than for themselves. Under the tyranny of Roman Occupied Palestine, most of Jesus’ audience consisted of the oppressed people living under the thumb of Roman imperialism. Scholars note that in the first century under Roman rule, a small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land. Those who were not of the elite class, which was most of the population of Palestine, lived in wretched poverty. The majority of the people living in under the Roman Empire lived in misery, danger, fear and despair.(1) They heard Jesus not as some nice guy upholding the status quo but as a radical upstart saying watch out, because God is bringing on a new world order.
Jesus often used negative imagery and turned it upside down to show how the kingdom of God was about reversals. The last shall be first, the meek shall inherit the earth, the persecuted will attain treasure in heaven. Take for instance the woman who puts yeast into three measures of flour, what we might think of as comforting to us modern day listeners of the gospel, was offensive to the audience whom Jesus was preaching to. In Jesus’ day yeast was thought to be impure, something to be avoided. If Jesus were to use a similar metaphor today, he might say that the Kingdom of God is like a computer virus that infests a large corporation’s computer network, spreading from machine to machine until the infrastructure of this corporation is crippled. To us who benefit from the work of most corporations, this image is disturbing, but to someone who has been harmed by the corruption of said corporation, it might be comforting.
The kingdom of heaven is like a bad investment strategy, taking all you have out your various stocks and putting it all into one stock. The kingdom of heaven is like working harder and not smarter, throwing one’s energy into trying to make a lost cause work rather than working on something that is sure to produce.
Jesus’ Kingdom of heaven did not sense to those who were in power in his day, but it made all the sense in the world to those he reached out to, the people on the margins, those who lived on the underside of an oppressive community. These were the impoverished, the sinners, the impure ones, the poor, the crippled, the rejected. It was those people understood Jesus’ message clearly. They understood that the harsh ways of the Roman Empire are not God’s way. The Empire may live by rules of domination, exploitation and greed, but God’s way lives by love and justice and nothing, absolutely nothing can stand in the way of God’s reign.(2)
Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God was not going to come through a great army with Jesus at the head, but rather it would come about slowly, slyly, led by what some would call a small group of nuisances and nobodies who will through a small drip of a counter-cultural revolution create a new way of being (3) in the here an now by bringing about a world where all of God’s creation will have all they need to live to their fullest potential, where the generosity of all will mean scarcity for none.
The Christian Church has grown exponentially since the days of Jesus, we have moved from being a rag tag group of nobodies and nuisances to become an influential power in the world. However, in the time that the church has grown, the radical nature of Jesus has diminished. His gospel has been watered down through the years and he has been sanitized to become some nice whose only job was to die for our sins.
However in spite of that which would try to get in the way of God’s reign on earth, God’s will does prevail. There is nothing that can get in the way of God’s aim for all of creation to live in right relationship with each other. God’s will and way are going to triumph, it’s our choice as to whether we will work with God or just stand on the sidelines and watch it happen.
God calls each community of faith to take part in being the hands feet and voice of God in building God’s kingdom on earth. It is a particular calling for each church. What we need to do as a community of faith is to continually discern how we are called to take part in bringing on the kingdom. Where in this town of Smalltown and the surrounding communities are we called to spread the good news of God’s love as shown to us through the life and ministry of his son Jesus. What are the needs of our surrounding community and how can we use our resources to meet those needs.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, the good news is this, we have an opportunity to be open to God planting within us the mustard seed and together with the power of the Holy Spirit we will bring about the kingdom of God slowly, sometimes annoyingly, usually radically but most surely.
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor (2007): 325-362.
(2) Ibid., 337.
(3) Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 265-302.
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52
This morning in the Gospel of Matthew we hear Jesus using several parables to describe how the Kingdom of God will take hold. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the field.” “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast” “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field” All of these images are comforting to us in our modern day context but how would these sayings been heard by Jesus’ audience in his day.
You see when Jesus told a parable, his aim was not to make sense, but to make his audience think. He did not to want to make those in power feel justified, but to make them feel uncomfortable. These parables that we read this morning I am sure caused much bewilderment in his audience.
Take for instance, the mustard seed. To a farmer of Jesus’ day the mustard shrub was quite a horrible thing to say the least. It really was a nasty weed to be avoided at all costs. Once a mustard shrub sets into a garden, it will spread quickly, and will choke the healthy crops surrounding it. The birds aren’t good news either because they will eat whatever is left of the healthy crop. To our modern ears, what Jesus is really saying is that the kingdom of God is like crabgrass, like dandelions, like thistle, once it gets into your garden, good luck getting it out, and boy once it is in your garden, it will it spread like wild fire, and what ever the weeds don’t kill your crop, the birds who come, will. If I was in the audience I’d be scratching my head asking, “What you talking about Jesus? How can the kingdom of God be like the annoying weeds that I have to pull out so that my crops can flourish?”
However the majority of the people that heard Jesus preaching the sermon would have reacted differently. They probably started elbowing each other, nodding their heads and even snickering a bit. Perhaps yelling an “amen” here and there and even a “you say it brother.” They would have gotten the irony of his message because they were not the land owners, rather, they were the slaves who tilled the fields of the rich land owners and the flourishing of the field was for the advantage of the land owner rather than for themselves. Under the tyranny of Roman Occupied Palestine, most of Jesus’ audience consisted of the oppressed people living under the thumb of Roman imperialism. Scholars note that in the first century under Roman rule, a small elite class controlled all the production of wealth, resources and land. Those who were not of the elite class, which was most of the population of Palestine, lived in wretched poverty. The majority of the people living in under the Roman Empire lived in misery, danger, fear and despair.(1) They heard Jesus not as some nice guy upholding the status quo but as a radical upstart saying watch out, because God is bringing on a new world order.
Jesus often used negative imagery and turned it upside down to show how the kingdom of God was about reversals. The last shall be first, the meek shall inherit the earth, the persecuted will attain treasure in heaven. Take for instance the woman who puts yeast into three measures of flour, what we might think of as comforting to us modern day listeners of the gospel, was offensive to the audience whom Jesus was preaching to. In Jesus’ day yeast was thought to be impure, something to be avoided. If Jesus were to use a similar metaphor today, he might say that the Kingdom of God is like a computer virus that infests a large corporation’s computer network, spreading from machine to machine until the infrastructure of this corporation is crippled. To us who benefit from the work of most corporations, this image is disturbing, but to someone who has been harmed by the corruption of said corporation, it might be comforting.
The kingdom of heaven is like a bad investment strategy, taking all you have out your various stocks and putting it all into one stock. The kingdom of heaven is like working harder and not smarter, throwing one’s energy into trying to make a lost cause work rather than working on something that is sure to produce.
Jesus’ Kingdom of heaven did not sense to those who were in power in his day, but it made all the sense in the world to those he reached out to, the people on the margins, those who lived on the underside of an oppressive community. These were the impoverished, the sinners, the impure ones, the poor, the crippled, the rejected. It was those people understood Jesus’ message clearly. They understood that the harsh ways of the Roman Empire are not God’s way. The Empire may live by rules of domination, exploitation and greed, but God’s way lives by love and justice and nothing, absolutely nothing can stand in the way of God’s reign.(2)
Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God was not going to come through a great army with Jesus at the head, but rather it would come about slowly, slyly, led by what some would call a small group of nuisances and nobodies who will through a small drip of a counter-cultural revolution create a new way of being (3) in the here an now by bringing about a world where all of God’s creation will have all they need to live to their fullest potential, where the generosity of all will mean scarcity for none.
The Christian Church has grown exponentially since the days of Jesus, we have moved from being a rag tag group of nobodies and nuisances to become an influential power in the world. However, in the time that the church has grown, the radical nature of Jesus has diminished. His gospel has been watered down through the years and he has been sanitized to become some nice whose only job was to die for our sins.
However in spite of that which would try to get in the way of God’s reign on earth, God’s will does prevail. There is nothing that can get in the way of God’s aim for all of creation to live in right relationship with each other. God’s will and way are going to triumph, it’s our choice as to whether we will work with God or just stand on the sidelines and watch it happen.
God calls each community of faith to take part in being the hands feet and voice of God in building God’s kingdom on earth. It is a particular calling for each church. What we need to do as a community of faith is to continually discern how we are called to take part in bringing on the kingdom. Where in this town of Smalltown and the surrounding communities are we called to spread the good news of God’s love as shown to us through the life and ministry of his son Jesus. What are the needs of our surrounding community and how can we use our resources to meet those needs.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, the good news is this, we have an opportunity to be open to God planting within us the mustard seed and together with the power of the Holy Spirit we will bring about the kingdom of God slowly, sometimes annoyingly, usually radically but most surely.
May it be so.
Amen.
(1) Bridges, Linda McKinnish, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor (2007): 325-362.
(2) Ibid., 337.
(3) Crossan, John Dominic. The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 265-302.
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