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THINKING ABOUT TIME

1/1/2017

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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

​For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
​
Today is New Year’s Day.  Last night at midnight we passed out of 2016 and into 2017.  Today is a New Beginning – a Fresh Start – a Blank Slate.  Today is our chance to begin all over again.

And yet when we stop to look at it logically we know that nothing has changed – there is no magical fresh start just because a clock has ticked over one second from 11:59:59 to 12:00:00.  We really do understand that there is no dividing line between moments and years.  But …

There is something so compelling for us in the idea of a fresh start, another chance to get it right, to figure it all out, to do better this time.

Time is a human construct.  It’s a protective device, a psychological wall we build to hide ourselves from the immensity of existence that is so huge, while we remain so small.  We speak and act as if time moves in a straight line from the Past, through the Present, to the Future, and yet, truly, there is and has always been, and will ever be, only NOW. 

The past is only a memory at best – and most times it is a flawed memory that we have edited internally to make it more palatable to ourselves.  The Past can’t be touched, it can’t be changed.  It is done and over.  And the Future doesn’t exist either.  We never will reach the Future because as soon as we reach it, it becomes NOW.  All we have – all we ever will have is right now – this moment. 

I like to read articles and books on physics.  The problem is that I never really studied physics beyond a very basic level so I don’t really have the vocabulary to understand half of what I’m reading, but I love the way physicists’ minds work – so I read them occasionally.  Julian Barbour is a British theoretical physicist and author, and he once put it this way:  "If you try to get your hands on time, it's always slipping through your fingers.  People are sure time is there, but they can't get hold of it.  My feeling is that they can't get hold of it because it isn't there at all."  

Or as my friend, songwriter Dave Hamilton puts it, “I’m losing my mind, thinking about time.”

So – today is, in the secular world at least, a day to celebrate something that isn’t even real … and yet the whole idea of a fresh start is built into our faith so deeply that it is a visceral part of who we have become.

In theological terms we call it forgiveness, we call it redemption, we call it being born again.

I’ve mentioned many times over the years that the Hebrew Scriptures part of the Bible recounts the revolving cycle of times that the Hebrew people lived in a way faithful to God’s law, then got cocky and careless, then blew it entirely and lost everything through the agency of invading nations … and then were redeemed as God forgave them and gave them one more chance.  Over and over again, God gave them “one more chance.”

Last week, as my husband and I were driving home from a day in San Francisco, we were talking about our sermons for today and where we thought we would be going with them.  I asked him what he thought was the driving force behind our seemingly urgent need to have “new beginning” points, such as New Year’s Eve/Day, in our culture.  His response, similar to my own, was something like “We like new beginnings because we are always aware that we have gotten things so wrong so far.” 

And I think that need to try to get it right lies deeply at the heart of our faith.  We welcome a chance to try again, to make things better, to get it right this time, and Jesus offers us that chance.  Jesus’ sojourn among us was all about convincing us that we have the right and the ability to be set free from the past, to be reborn, to start anew.  Right from the beginning, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah to announce that he has been anointed by God to
       “… bring good news to the poor.
... to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
All these things offer release from the past and a brand new beginning.  So, what is it that you would like to put behind you?  I'm not asking for a response right now.  It's just a question to take home with you and ponder a bit.  Some things we might like to change are completely beyond our control -- a loved one dies, a serious illness hits -- but among those things we can control - what could we do better?  How could we change?  What would you do with a fresh start?  It is, after all, never too late for a fresh start.  Never too late to be “born again.”

In a commentary on the passage from Luke that I just quoted, Fred Craddock used almost the same language we began with today.  He points out that after quoting Isaiah, the very first word spoken by Jesus as he began his public ministry was “Today.”  Craddock then goes on to say: “Throughout Luke, ‘today’ is never allowed to become ‘yesterday’ or slip into some vague ‘someday’.  In Luke, every astonishing thing Jesus announces happens ‘today’.”

Jesus’ work is always “today” -- “now.”  New Year’s celebrations and anniversaries can be fun, but our faith insists that we really don’t need to wait for some magical calendar moment to start again with a clean slate.  In Christ we believe that every moment is “today” – the “today” when Jesus offers us a new beginning, a clean slate, a fresh start.  “Today” is the day Jesus offered the people of Nazareth a fresh start, and “today” is the day we are gathered here, right now.  And the offer is the same for us as it was for the Nazarean townfolk.  When we gather at the table in a moment it will be to share the same ‘now’ and the same meal Jesus shared 2000 years ago.

Love and forgiveness and new beginnings are always Now.  Thanks be to God.
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SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT 2016

12/4/2016

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This second Sunday in Advent may we all experience peace. Not the peace that comes from sitting back noticing nothing, doing nothing, but the peace that comes with doing the work our hearts call us to do -- standing where our hearts call us to stand. In a world run by nonsense our brains may become chaotic, but our hearts tell us truth. Blessed day, all.
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FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT 2016

11/27/2016

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First Sunday of Advent:

"O Come, Infinite One, and lift me to a place of awakening. I am ready for more."
​
(Kaji Dousa)
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EVERYTHING FINDS ITS PURPOSE IN HIM

11/20/2016

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Colossians 1:15-20   (The Message )
 
God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
​
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
​
Today is the last day of the liturgical year.  Next Sunday we will start a new year by beginning our Advent preparations for the coming birth of the child Jesus, but this week we close the old year out by celebrating the Lordship and authority of Jesus.  This day has been known, down through the centuries as Christ the King day but for many of us today the whole idea of monarchies is pretty irrelevant – really, what do modern-day kings do?  They are largely, it seems, powerless figureheads – most decidedly not how we wish to see Jesus. 

Instead, some modern Christians have taken to referring to today as Reign of Christ day – a name that still leaves Christ firmly in charge but without all the historical baggage that come with “kings”.  I like this name.  You can call it whatever you like.  Marcus Borg and others use the term “Cosmic Christ” and compare the language to the Prologue to John’s Gospel – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God…  The language of today’s reading expresses this same “from the beginning” idea in an earlier version:  He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.

Colossians is one of the letters that is attributed to Paul, but that is often disputed.  Again, since this is one of those things that we are unlikely ever to know with any certainty, I’m going to go with Paul or a near disciple of Paul.  The occasion for the letter is the usual one – Paul had originated the church at Colossae, and now false teachers have come along behind him, diluting and warping his teachings.
​
Specifically, the Colossians have incorporated some pagan themes into their worship – including a belief in elemental spirits.  Paul’s teachings were about creating a place for belief in Jesus in a world already heavily populated by gods and spirits and powers – not a “one among many” space but the place of The One – the One who has always been in charge.   This letter is an insistence that these “spirits” don’t belong in Christian worship because even if they did exist, God has already made Jesus Lord over everything.
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels--everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone.
​
​In Paul’s day, the spirits and powers were believed to be real – actual gods or demons that had power over the lives of people and had to be placated.  We look back on this and think it’s kind of funny, archaic thinking – and yet, we ourselves deal with much the same right here and now, battling against spirits that would tear us apart.

We see this every day lately as spirits of hatred, and racism, misogyny and xenophobia, genderphobia and classism all rage through all levels of our society – each seeking to brand itself as normal, and necessary and most importantly, ordinary.  The proponents of these demi-gods today all labeling themselves as good people – ordinary people – just as the members of the church at Colossae, I’m sure, saw themselves as “normal” yet allowed false teachers in to turn them away from the teachings of the One who came to “get us out of the pit,” as today’s reading says.

Just as Paul exhorted the Colossians to stand up and reject those false teachings, so we too should be moved by Paul's teaching.  This isn’t “politics,” this is deciding if we are indeed prepared to stand against those who would peddle false truths.   Are we prepared to speak and act in the leading of the One who came to gather us all in together?
​
I especially love the last part of this reading:
​
From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
​
This is the leader I choose to follow - one who is so spacious and roomy, so open, that everything finds its proper place within him.  ​This is a teaching well worth fighting for, and if fighting becomes what is necessary here today, then I’m in.

​I’ll fight back with prayer; and I’ll fight back with love; but I’ll also fight back with resistance, if necessary.  I’ll fight back with my vote; I’ll fight back with warm coats and clean socks; and I’ll fight back with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, if that is what it takes.  I’m pretty sure Jesus expects all of us who carry his name to be in on this one -- with all the rest of the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe.
​
We will love, and we will care – and they can’t stop us -- for the Lord of the universe leads us on.

Amen.  May it be so.
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GLORY DAYS

11/6/2016

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Haggai 1:15, 2:1-9

In the second year of King Darius, in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?

Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.

​For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts. The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.

We don’t often read from the book of Haggai.  You may not even remember ever having heard of Haggai before.  Haggai is one of the Minor Prophets and this book is one of the Old Testament’s shortest, at only two chapters long.

The historical setting is Jerusalem, somewhere around the close of the 6th century BCE, just before the time of the beginning of the rebuilding and restoration of the Temple.  Haggai’s two chapters are basically one long harangue against the people telling them that nothing will go right for them until the Temple – God’s home on earth -- is rebuilt.

​In today’s reading, God – speaking through Haggai – reminds the people of their Glory Days – the days before invasion and exile – the days when Israel was a rich and powerful nation, and contrasts that memory with the present reality:
Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?
Haggai goes on to assure the people that if they will just buck-up and start rebuilding the Temple God will restore them to those past levels of glory and riches:
“Remember when we had a powerful king with dozens of wives and a strong army and everybody wanted to trade with us and our goods sold for the highest prices and we always had meat on the table and …?”
Yes, but was it really that good?  And was it like that for everyone?  I wonder if the slaves there thought it was such a great time?  All too often the Glory Days look so much better in retrospect than they actually felt at the time. 

There is a slogan right now in our political discussions – Make America Great Again – that has a whole lot of people asking, which America is that?  Maybe the America that in one year, 1919, saw 237 black sharecroppers lynched in Arkansas, for no other crime than having dark skin and wanting to be paid for their labor?  (And by the way, not a single person has ever been held responsible or punished in any way for those crimes.)

Or maybe the America of the 30’ and 40’s when gay men were imprisoned for their crime of loving another man.  Or maybe the 50’s when no woman could possess a line of credit without having a man sign for her.  Or have a tubal ligation without her husband’s signature.  Or maybe just last week when I was attacked on-line and called a name that no one has ever called me, at least not to my face – I’m not going to say it in my sermon, but it’s ugly -- by a total stranger who somehow got into an online conversation among friends and decided that I, as a woman, had no right to speak an opinion that disagreed with his.  My friends and I finally had to leave that conversation because this person would not shut up or go away.  He just kept on calling us disgusting names because he was so very sure that he had the right to do that.

Now, I’m not trying to take political sides here.  I only used the Trump slogan because it is so apropos to my point – which is that when we look back longingly to the Glory Days, in any collective sense, they are always – always -- highly subjective.   What was glory to me may have been hell to others.

We in the church often look back to the 50’s as the glory days of the church – and, yes, the churches were full, but how many of those people were in church because of a belief in God and a desire to learn and serve and how many were there because it was the center of their social life, a place to meet up with friends?  How many were there because it was good for business to be seen in church?  How many people of color were there?  As with most “Glory Days” it was a different world back then and simply does not transplant to the present day.

What were your personal glory days?  Do you ever look backwards in your life and long to return to something that is in the past?  I’ve known people whose glory days occurred when they were in high school.  Nothing in their lives has ever been as good as those days.  I’ve always found that sad -- to have peaked so long ago.  To never expect things to be that good again.

Is that what God promises us?  You had your good time – it’s all downhill from here.  I don’t think so.  When the people heard the promises of Haggai, the promises of Nehemiah, the promises of Isaiah – what they heard was:  You’re going back to what once was.  But I believe that what God said to them was:  I will give you something great, I will restore you – it may be like what you had before or it may be something so much better that you haven’t even imagined it yet.  But it will be good.

God reminds the people through Haggai that everything belongs to God:  The silver is mine and the gold is mine, it says in our reading.  The blessings to come will not come from the world or from our expectations of the world, but from God.  It all belongs to God to give to us as and when and if God chooses.

If we read the scripture carefully what God says at the end is NOT, I will give you what you lost.  It is:  The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts.

What God promises us is greater than what we have yet known.  We have had moments of greatness in the past, this is true, but I am looking forward to a future that is greater by far than anything we have seen in the past.  I am looking forward to helping to build that better time to come.  A time when we actually live in peace together and respect each other and don't feel a need to scrabble to 'get ahead of' each other.  A time when the poor and the lost and the mentally and emotionally ill among us are as valued as anyone else.   A time when the hungry are fed and the naked are clothed and we see each other as brothers and sisters.

It isn't just a pipe dream.  This is what the God within each of us calls us to be part of - to build and grow together.  God seems to think we can do it.

I don’t need to know yet how it will be.  I just need to trust God’s promise.

And I do.

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A STORY FOR THE REST OF US

10/30/2016

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Luke 19:1-10
 
Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho.  There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich.  He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn’t see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.

When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home.”  Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, “What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?”

Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned.  He stammered apologetically, “Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.”
​
Jesus said, “Today is salvation day in this home!  Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham!  For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”
​
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I TRUST GOD...BUT...

10/23/2016

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Psalm 46:1-6, 10-11
God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
. . . . .
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.
I was talking with a person last Thursday, in a counseling setting, and this person was expressing their frustration about a situation they are currently involved in.  They are frustrated with the other people involved in the situation, and with the way the situation was moving.   They want it all to move faster.  They want it to be all over with … to be behind them.  They kept assuring me they trusted God’s timeline.  “I trust God…but…”

The person used this phrase several times until finally I held up my hand and said something to the effect of:  You know you really can’t say that.  They stopped and looked a little puzzled.  I continued, You really can’t say you ‘trust God … but …’

This applies in any discussion of “trust” but you especially cannot “trust God …but” because the “but’ immediately negates any claim of trust. 

Trust is an all-or-nothing proposition.  You either do or you don’t.  There is no half-in, half-out.

You can say, with complete honesty, such things as “I want to trust God completely” or “I’m trying to trust.”  And I think this is what many of us mean, when we say we trust God.  And sometimes we think we really do trust God … until we get to that “…but.”

In my life I have found myself in dark places where it seemed that trusting God was the only option open to me.  And yet, I knew full well that I wasn’t very good at it – and I found myself forced to confront that unspoken “…but.”  Forced to say things like, I going to trust you even though I don’t feel very trustful – I’m going to say the words and trust that you will help me to eventually feel it. And God honored that pathetic prayer and in time I was able to recognize that God had come through for me – not in the way I initially wanted, but still – God had come through for me and with me.

The Psalm we just read sets a very high standard for us.  It most clearly does not say that we can trust God because God is always going to jump in and fix everything for us – give us everything we think we need.  God is most decidedly not Santa Claus.  [For that matter, when did Santa Claus ever give you everything you thought you wanted?] 

None of us has reached the age we are today without at least once or twice being forced to acknowledge that things around us are most definitely not OK.  This isn’t what we prayed for.  We don’t get the job we really, really want.  The medical test comes back with a not-good result.  Someone we love dearly does die in spite of our best prayers.

What the Psalm does tell us is to trust God even if the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.  Even if everything literally falls to pieces, even if the worst possible thing happens.  And that is hard.  I suspect in actual everyday life that it is impossible.  And so we aim at something close.  We manage the best we can.  We trust God to be there even when it doesn’t go the way we want it to go.

When we honestly trust God with our lives, we pray…and then we accept what comes as the answer for those prayers – even if it is light-years away from the thing we asked for.  We accept that God is with us here and will guide us through.  And if we have really practiced trusting then we one day wake up to realize that where we are is exactly the best place for us to be.  Not only a place that we can make work, but the very place that gives us our deepest joy.  THIS, not the thing we asked for, is what gives us joy and life – and we might never have asked for it because we never even knew it was an option for us.

God knows stuff like this.

"Be still and know that I am God..."  Knowing that God is God lies at the heart of trusting.  Trusting God is going on with our lives knowing that it is going to be all right – somehow, it is going to be all right.  Trusting God is waking up that one morning and recognizing that it is, indeed, all right – somehow it really is.  And life is good.  And God’s goodness surround us.  And there is joy in the world – in spite of all the terrible things that happen.  Somehow – we recognize God’s presence in us and around us – and we know that God is taking care of things.  And God is taking care of us.

​Be still and know .....

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WHAT'S IN A NAME?

10/16/2016

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Genesis 32:22-31
During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.

But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.

The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”

Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.”

The man said, “What’s your name?”

He answered, “Jacob.”

The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”

Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?”

The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him.

Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”
​
The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. (This is why Israelites to this day don’t eat the hip muscle; because Jacob’s hip was thrown out of joint.)
​
When I was younger, back in the days when I was still a loyal Catholic, my husband and I were close friends with the young Irish priest who served our local parish.  This parish had a school attached to it and it was part of Fr. Dan’s day to make the rounds of the classrooms and chat with the kids.

One day when Dan arrived in a certain classroom he was greeted with this question:  Is it true that when Mary died the room was filled with the scent of roses?  Being fairly young and none too versed in parish politics Dan answered honestly:  No – that’s just a nice story that shows the love and reverence we have for the Mother of Jesus.

Well later that day, Dan got reamed up one side and down the other by Sr. Mary-Whoever who was that classroom’s teacher – and the person who had told the children the story in the first place.  Dan learned that day that it is never a good idea to casually discount another person’s mythology.

And that’s what this reading is today – a piece of the Hebrew peoples’ mythologizing of their relationship with God.  This kind of mythologizing is a recounting of an event – most often with grandiose detail added to emphasize the importance of the event and the people involved.  

Everyday human transactions are easy to forget in time.  But the ones that truly have an effect on us tend to grow in our retellings – not because we intend to lie but because they just seem that important to us – we use verbal frills to make sure everyone understands their importance.  In time, these “frills’ become part of the story.  Sometimes – over long lengths of time and many repetitions – they become the most important part of the story, all that we remember. 

The story for today – Jacob wrestling with an angel -- is a story that has puzzled readers for generations.  It seems to tell an exciting story, but when you stop and think about it afterwards it really doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

Let’s set some background, first.  Years ago, after Jacob had cheated his brother Esau out of his legitimate eldest-son’s blessing, he had run away to live with his uncle Laban.  Over the years he had worked for Laban, married his two wives Rachel and Leah and had become a rich man himself.  He was so successful that he was now crowding Uncle Laban and things were getting tense between them.  At this point Jacob received a message from God telling him that it was time now to go home, take up his stolen blessing, and make peace with Esau.  

And so he did, he and his wives and his servants and his flocks.  They packed up and left, stealing as much as they thought they could get away with in the process.  It’s important to remember that Jacob truly is a thief and a scoundrel.  That’s a key piece of this story.  And here is where our reading picks up today.

Jacob is understandably tense at the prospect of facing Esau again so he sends everybody else across the river into home territory but stays behind himself for one last night alone – maybe to wind up his courage.  It is entirely typical of Jacob that he sends his wives and children off to an unknown reception in what he has every reason to assume is hostile territory, and remains behind himself.

Read at just a surface level, this is a nonsensical story.  Some stranger comes out of nowhere and attacks Jacob and they wrestle all night long – and then we have this “important detail” that the stranger throws Jacob’s hip out of joint – this point appears to be important to the Hebrews, signifying something we really don’t get – and then Jacob decides the stranger was God.  

We can – and do – explain the wrestling as metaphorical.  We have all, I suspect, at some point in our lives, wrestled with God – not literally, not really – but still legitimate emotional wrestling.  But if we allow that to be the point of the story then we risk missing what I believe is absolutely the most important part, which is that Jacob was given a new name.  And with that new name, Jacob truly does appear to become a new person.

Jacob was a thief and a con-man.  Israel is not.  Israel makes peace with his brother – acknowledging his wrong and offering to make it as right as he can.  Israel settles into fatherhood and becomes a good citizen.  It appears that Israel, once free of carrying the burden that had been Jacob – a burden that told him he had to cheat and connive to get through life – Israel could now become the one whom God always intended him to be.

What names do we put on ourselves?  What names do we put on others?  Have you ever thought – when you are calling yourself loser, or stupid, or useless or ugly or whichever of the dozens of ugly things we have to choose among that we occasionally decide to call ourselves – do you ever remember that that is not the name by which God calls you?  Do you ever -- when you’re yelling at someone on the TV or that driver who just almost hit you – or the friend who has betrayed and hurt you – do you really think that is the name by which God calls them?

Jacob bore the burden of his name for years before God set him free to be Israel.  God said, in effect, You don’t have to be that Jacob anymore.  You never have been that ‘Jacob’ to me.  Now you will know yourself as the one I’ve always known you to be – you are ‘Israel,’ my beloved child.

What name do you carry in your own heart, your own mind?  Is it the name God calls you when God speaks to tell you that you are loved?  When we talk about others, are the names we use the names that God uses for them?

What burdens do we place on other’s shoulders with the names we give them?  What unnecessary burdens do we carry ourselves when we live the name the world gives us rather than the name that God has given us?

When God calls us by name, that name is always Beloved Child.
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SOME CLOSING NOTES ON LUKE

10/2/2016

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Luke 24:44-49
He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their scriptures this way. He said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem! You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses. What comes next is very important: I am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay here in the city until he arrives, until you’re equipped with power from on high.”
Well, here we are.  We’ve had a few gaps in our summer and it has taken longer than I thought it would, but we have made it through our intensive study of the four Gospels – reading and studying them in the order in which New Testament scholar Marcus Borg suggests they were originally written down:  Mark, Matthew, John and – finally – Luke. 

I have a couple of thoughts on Luke just to wrap up and then I want to hear from you what you think about this experiment we’ve conducted this summer.  What, if anything, have you learned by dealing with these writings in the order in which they came into being and began to pass around the newly emerging Christian world?  Does Borg’s thesis make sense to you?  How has it helped your understanding of the Bible – or has it?

But first a few odds and ends we haven’t covered.  One thing I haven’t mentioned yet that Borg brings out is Luke’s emphasis on the Spirit – in this gospel it is made clear that Jesus’ ministry is facilitated by the workings of Spirit in this world.  Jesus in conceived by the Spirit, and then the Spirit descends on him at his baptism, after which he returned from the Jordan, filled with the Spirit, to withstand the temptation in the wilderness.  Throughout his ministry he makes the claim that he is guided by the Spirit – he is doing the Spirit’s will.

The other gospels – especially John -- refer to the Spirit, of course, but just for fun I checked out my NRSV Concordance and found that the word “Spirit” occurs almost twice as often in Luke’s gospel as in any of the other three.  Jesus’ first public words of ministry are “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor...” and as he was dying on the cross, his last words were into your hand I commend my spirit.

The book of Acts, which as we know is simply a continuation – Chapter Two – of Luke’s Jesus story, begins with the grandest of all Spirit stories – the wide-scale over-taking of the Spirit on the believers at Pentecost.

Another important point to recognize in Luke’s gospel is his inclusivity.  We talked last time about Luke’s social justice emphasis and his inclusion of all the peoples that orthodox Judaism had excluded:  those in certain “unclean” professions, such as those shepherds who were so prominent at Jesus’ birth; the poor and property-less, who rarely count in any culture; women, represented by the many strong and important women in this gospel; and finally, Gentiles – the ultimate outsiders.

All the way back when the infant Jesus was presented in the Temple, the Elder Simeon rejoiced that he had lived long enough for his eyes to have seen God’s salvation, “which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of your people Israel.”

One last comparison:  Both Matthew and Luke recount the parable of the Great Feast.  Matthew’s version is, as we have seen throughout that gospel, directed at “the Jews” and this version ends with an emphasis on anger and punishment against those who were initially invited but  refused to attend the feast properly dressed and in celebratory mode.  Luke’s version, on the other hand, does say that those who were invited are now out of luck, but here the emphasis is on going out and inviting everyone in.  Matthew’s retelling of the story is a cautionary tale.  Luke’s is a worldwide invitation.

To quote Borg one final time (for this season) – speaking of Luke: “The author [Luke] proclaims in both volumes [Luke & Acts] that the inclusion of Gentiles as well as Jews in the Jesus movement was divinely and providentially ordained from the beginning of Jesus’s life.  It was neither an accident nor a mistake.”

If you would be interested I would like – probably next summer – to take this same approach and look into Paul’s letters – and we’ll find out quite a lot there about the troubles that trying to include those Gentiles could lead to.
​
Now … let’s hear your thoughts …
Some thoughts on our discussion:  

Yes, the congregation enjoyed this learning experience this summer.  This is a group of people who truly enjoy growing and stretching their understanding.  We have all been captured by trying to "think ourselves" into the time and place for which and from which each gospel took shape.

It was a challenge to try to "be" in a time when all the teachings and parables we so take for granted were not yet written down anywhere and so, were not necessarily known by all Christ followers -- yet.

And Yes, we are definitely a 'go' on studying Paul's letters next summer -- especially now that we have learned to try to be aware of just why this piece was written as it was and just exactly for whom was it written?

We would unanimously recommend this study to any other church that likes to grow and explore in their faith.
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LUKE, pt. 3:  SEEK JUSTICE, RESCUE THE OPPRESSED

9/18/2016

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Luke 6:20-26
Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Last week we looked into Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus and discussed its many points of difference from the version found in Matthew.  One of those differences – and a major difference, at that – is its emphasis on justice for the poor and oppressed.

Today we will take some time and look into Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, specifically for their social justice content, but before we get to that I want to take just a few minutes and look at the history of justice concerns in the Old Testament.

I would guess many of us, if asked broadly what the Old Testament is about, would answer with maybe the Ten Commandments, and the Exodus story and some of the hero stories, like David and Goliath.  I know that before I began doing this Bible stuff on a full-time basis that would have been my answer.  Maybe Noah and the Flood, Jonah and the Whale – stories about people and particular events.  But if you had asked me what was the reason for all this in the first place, I would have been hard pressed to answer.

We could be excused, I think, for not having a quick and easy answer because the Old Testament is a long and complex story.  It’s the history of the formation of a people, covering over 1000 years – good times and bad – and there were plenty of both. 
​
But there was one teaching that followed them through all those years.  When they paid attention, things went pretty well for them.  When they ignored this teaching, things generally went pretty badly.  And that teaching was to care for the less fortunate among them – never to turn their backs on the poor, the powerless, the voiceless – because they were once there themselves and could very easily end up there again.  The formative narrative of the Hebrew people was the Exodus story when God stepped into their lives to rescue them from oppression.  A people thus rescued should never turn around and oppress others for any reason.
​
And yet they did … over and over … and the prophets thundered against them that unless they changed their greedy ways their lack of mercy and compassion would turn against them … and it always did.

In the first chapter of Isaiah the prophet instructs the people to
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
   remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes;
   cease to do evil, learn to do good;
Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the 
   widow.
The author of Proverbs, in number 31, warns them
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.
Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Again, God, speaking through the prophet Amos tells them
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals, I will not look.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
I could truly – and easily -- go on all morning with justice-demanding quotes from the prophets, but I suspect you get my point, so I’ll just give you one more – one we are all entirely familiar with, from Micah, chapter six:
You have been told, O people, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
What does all this have to do with Luke’s gospel?  Well, simply this.  Social justice did not become an issue when Jesus arrived on the scene.  It was not a new idea that he brought the people.  When Jesus hammers – as he does – all throughout the gospels, on justice issues he is simply insisting on teaching from the traditions in which he had been raised all his life.  And when Luke records these instances for posterity, he isn’t introducing anything new.  These issues are the very heart and soul of Jewish teaching.
​
When Jesus taught the people, as he does in today’s reading:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,”
he was not teaching them something new, he was reminding them of something they should have known all along.  He was also promising the poor and overlooked that they are not forgotten and that God not only continues to love them but chooses them especially for blessing.

These are essentially the same beatitudes that Matthew recounts in his gospel, except that Luke reports some of them in language that reminds us that there will be a price to pay if we neglect to extend justice and mercy when we ourselves have been blessed:
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”
Jesus does not take all those centuries of calls for justice lightly – and neither should we.  Luke makes his point over and over again, with stories like the Beatitudes, or Mary’s Magnificat that we looked at last week, with its lines about lifting up the lowly and sending the rich away empty, which sounds a whole lot like the beatitude I just read.  Or parables that are found only in Luke, such as, the Widow and the unjust Judge, who started out not caring about the widow’s claim but eventually recognized that God was on the widow’s side, and gave her justice for her cause; or the Dishonest Servant, who fearing to be caught out at cheating his master decided on the unique tactic of being merciful to those who owed him, and discovered that this was actually a good choice, and he, in turn, received mercy for his actions.
​
We will wrap up some loose ends and finish up with Luke next week.  I’m thinking that the following week then we will have a general discussion of what we’ve learned from our trip through the gospels and taking them in the order in which they were written.
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