Gimme thanks?

Thanksgiving Sunday, October 10, 2010    John 6:25-35

I am wondering if you have ever received a phone call or letter in the mail like this: "Dear Mr. Le Drew. We are delighted to inform you that you have won ONE MILLION DOLLARS!  Call us immediately to claim your prize".  Or, "Dear Mr. Le Drew, we are delighted to inform you that you have won a FREE TRIP TO THE CARIBBEAN. All that you need to do is reply using the self addressed envelope and purchase a small token to claim your prize."

 

Have you ever received one of those? If so, what did you do with it? File it in the big round file, or shred it in the shredder? Absolutely! Why? Isn't it because we know that such offers are not trustworthy. We have lived a little. And so, we don't just entrust ourselves to anyone. No way!

 

But whom do we trust? Will we actually listen to anyone?

 

Now there's a question for Thanksgiving Sunday.

 

Today's gospel reading originates in John. There we encounter a number of people, indeed thousands, who have been fed by Jesus just the day before. The way that they were fed is miraculous. Biblical commentators argue over how this may have been accomplished. Some say that the loaves and fish were miraculously actually multiplied. But at least one other commentator speculates that in the act of giving thanks, Jesus moved those who had brought food with them but who were hestitant to share their limited portion with others because of the masses, to all change their minds and share. Then, as they all shared, there was more than enough. Is it not miraculous when people are moved beyond their fears for sustaining to sacrificially care for others? In any case everyone has been fed. Sometime after that Jesus departed, separate from the disciples.

 

In today's Gospel, those who have been fed are looking for him. The literal translation from the Greek says, that they are seeking him.

 

But what are they looking for? What are we looking for in our lives, even as we come to this place? It's important to be honest with ourselves. If we aren't honest with ourselves, whom are we fooling? And who might we be hurt then?

 

Jesus is upfront with the people. The reason you are looking for me he says, "is that you want more bread!" I suspect that he means that they either want to see some more amazing stuff and or that they want to have their bellies filled again. What could be wrong with that? Daily we need our bellies filled. And if we could see something amazing alongside of that, well, why not?

 

But Jesus tells them and through them he also speaks to us, that there is so much more to life than simply having our bellies filled. There is also much more to life than simply seeing or witnessing something amazing. He may also be saying to us, "There is so much more to life than thinking only and always about yourself!"

 

Oh, really? Lately I have been listening to an ad on the radio. It goes something like this. A man phones into a talk show host. The talk show host's job is to talk about the importance of money. The man calling in begins the conversation this way, "You know there's more to life than money". The talk show host replies, "Like what?" And then there is a very long silence!

 

The message is that life is all about money" how much we can get and what we can do with it, because money it is assumed brings power and life (DON'T YOU KNOW IT?) is all about power. Whether we want to admit it or not, this is the dominant message of our culture. This is the message that we all are invited, commanded, coerced into buying with our unqualified acceptance. There is our security! There is our hope – in the stuff we have, in the investments we have socked away. God knows a "rainy day" could arrive anytime now.  

 

It's all about us, right!   

 

Not according to Jesus! In fact when Jesus confronts the people who want more "bread" about their motives, which are self centered and self seeking as evidenced by their own request, give us this bread always, he is working to have them move their trust to him. His words here are, "Believe in him whom God has sent!"

 

This is a vital command. As such we do well to pay attention. Believe means to trust. Trust means to put our weight down, to really count on, to be open to. This is anything but easy for we human beings. Try this exercise sometime. I used to do it with youth for many years. Put someone inside of  a circle of people standing. Have that person inside the circle close their eyes. Then, invite them to fall backwards trusting that those forming the circle will catch them, preventing them from being hurt. Such "falling" requires trust. My experience is that very few people can do it.

 

This is the trust that Jesus calls those people who came seeking him that day to give him. It is a trust that may be easy to talk about. But it's not so easy to live out. Examine your check-books, your online banking transactions over the last 2 weeks and see whom you trust. If we had the sense that God were calling us to a new endeavor – to move to a different place or to live in a different way, would we be willing to undertake that?

 

If we wouldn't be so willing, whom are we trusting?

 

Even as Jesus calls us to believe in him, to trust him, we need to realize that we are given many gifts. Sometimes we don't see these gifts until we are moved to be able to trust. Such gifts include being joined not only to Jesus and to God, but also to a whole host of people – even people we don't know. In trusting Jesus we begin to see and believe (that word again) that we are not different from others. Instead we are joined to them and to this world, because we all belong to and are cherished by God. Such a realization presents us with an entirely new set of dilemmas, but at the same time also an entirely new arena of possibilities, even blessings.

 

What might happen if we actually listened to each other and cared for others without an ulterior agenda for ourselves? Might we grow and change? Might we actually care and be cared for as we are, without any pretence? And as that began to unfold what might happen to the rest of the world? Might thousands if not millions be fed, educated, receive physical, emotional and spiritual care. Might we not walk more gently on God's good and wonder-filled earth?

 

This is Thanksgiving Sunday. We are a people who are loved and claimed by Jesus. He has given his all for us and this world, so that we may know and experience that we are loved and belong to God. Death and all of deaths' compatriots because of Jesus, can not dictate to us how we live and move and have our being. As we are moved to actually trust God, we may also be moved to live joyfully, thankfully, generously and humbly. Every day we are receiving the bread of life, this bread from "heaven," that does not spoil. Being so fed we too can daily take a leap of faith, to live joyfully, hopefully, generously, knowing Who it is that we depend upon.  

 

May it be so with us, and through us, for Christ's sake, Amen

A Smidgeon of Faith?

 

Pentecost 19c, October 3, 2010

Luke 17:1-10

 

I am wondering if you have ever seen this bumper sticker, "Lord, save me from your followers"?  It makes you wonder what Jesus' followers have ever done to that person. But if we stop to think about it, what that person has experienced could be many things. In fact it might have everything to do with the history of we Christian people. There have been the crusades where Christians sought to eliminate many and sometimes almost anyone who wasn't Christian. For millennia there has been the anti Semitism of Christians – blaming the Jewish people as somehow being Jesus killers. There has also been our own infighting. Read the history of Lutherans battling against Roman Catholics and Mennonites. In my own career as a Pastor I have served and loved a congregation where the Pastor who preceded me worked to divide and leave the ELCIC. After 7 years as their Pastor he took 187 people with him out of our National Church while at the same time dividing and separating families, some of whom would no longer even talk to each other about any reality to do with their faith. I will never forget moving into that community. For the first years we lived in a parsonage just across the parking lot from the church building. Shortly after our necessary boxes had been unpacked my neighbor from across the street ambled over. His words from that first conversation etched themselves into my being, "So you are going to be the pastor of that church where the people who are members can't even get along". It is a sad commentary for we who hear our Lord praying that we, his followers may all be one!" It became even sadder for him when within 10 years his own congregation had split apart.

 

Of course there is also our history as Christians in this country with residential schools, with clergy abuse of parishioners, and occasionally parishioner's abuse of clergy.

 

Truth be told there is something to that bumper sticker, "Lord save me from your followers!"

 

But is there nothing good, wonderful or amazing about following Jesus? If Jesus is Lord, that One of God who takes on our flesh to lead us and all people beyond and through ourselves, our self absorption our envy, our greed, our insecurities to a new life, where we realize that we are God's children, where by the grace of God we seek to love and care for each other and this world, trusting that death and evil, that murder and violence do not, should and will not be our way or even ultimately the way of this world because of God- shouldn't it be amazing to be among and with his followers? For any of us, who have intentionally been on this way, well there are amazing realities to be shared and experienced – as well as the far less than pleasant. 

 

Such observations, such realities throw us into today's Gospel.

 

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. No he's not going to pro development day on how to become a better Rabbi, better Son of God, or even a better teacher. He is going to Jerusalem to die. While on the way he is imparting to his closest followers what really matters. He accomplishes this through his relationships with others, which includes his entire being. This includes what he says to them. The verses that the lectionary skips over today, but which I read to you has to do with what trusting Jesus and seeking to follow him have to do with living with other people, yes particularly with other would be followers of Jesus.

 

Jesus acknowledges – he does not deny – that people, his followers will hurt one another. Sometimes this happens consciously. Often this happens unintentionally. But it happens. And people are devastated and angry. Angry, hurting people sometimes strike back in word and deed. Or they simply decide to leave the community.

 

Jesus tells his followers that when someone so hurts another, so misses the mark of loving even their enemies or caring for the poor and oppressed, that others in the community of his followers are to rebuke that person, to lovingly and carefully bring the reality of their actions to their attention. This isn't to "lord" it over them. But rather such actions are undertaken out of genuine care for the other and for the entire community. Is living in such a way easy? Heck, no!

 

That one whose actions are confronted may become angry with us. They might shun us or point out to us in less than kind ways our own shortcomings, our own hurtful actions. And that would be, as one couple I was doing premarital work with said to me, AWKWARD. But if we care, if we are serious about Jesus' own words to his followers, we will be willing to be made uncomfortable, to actively care about the other's best interest.

 

But Jesus doesn't end there. He moves on to something even more difficult. If that person hurts you, sins against you and asks for forgiveness, my goodness, even 7 times! you are to not hold onto your grudge, to any self righteousness over against that person. As followers of Jesus, his exhortation to us is to let that go – to forgive them. 

 

Do you have any inkling how hard that could be/is? If someone murdered your child, your grandchild – and afterwards genuinely asked for your forgiveness, could you, would we be able to do that? I am not sure about you – but I suspect that forgiveness is not anywhere near to what my personal inclination might be!

 

But Jesus n speaking to his followers about the importance, the necessity of forgiveness, underlines this. It's at that point that the apostles (all those who are being sent out by Jesus, because they are followers of Jesus) ask him to "increase their faith".

 

Do we want Jesus to increase our faith? If God would answer such a prayer, what might happen then?

 

On the one hand I am not sure that any "faith" is quantifiable. It's not like faith is doctrine, or the answers to skill testing questions, that I then somehow know more than you, and so have more "faith" than you. I mean, look at the early disciples. Certainly they had a lot of faith didn't they? In a very real way hey are the fathers and mothers of the Church. But when Jesus was up against it, when his life was being wrenched away by forces and powers through which evil was seeking to have its way, those disciples mostly abandoned him. They hid. They were overcome by fear.

 

But thanks be to God - that isn't the end of the story, nor the end of our story. Christ dares to approach them again. The very Spirit of God is stirred up within them and among them. They confront their fear to go out to show and to tell others that Jesus is alive. Everyone matters because that God loves the world! Death and violence are ever so real, but ultimately they can and will be defeated.

 

Now, this last statement is a profound statement of faith. It's a statement that for many borders on the ludicrous as together we look around at the power of death and violence so much in evidence. But it's also a statement that followers of Jesus seek to live by not because we are so strong, or so self-assured in and of ourselves. That statement is a creed we are willing to try to live by only because of the One we seek to follow, this Jesus, the Son of God, the One upon whom the Spirit of the Lord is ever upon.

 

There are many forces that seek to influence us, to control us, yes, even to enslave us. From putting inordinate trust in things, to worrying bout what others think, to being captivated by fear - of loss or of others who hate us, or dislike us. But we need to behold this amazing reality. In Jesus we glimpse and are confronted by God's decision for this world, for you and me, for our children and grandchildren, our neighbors and our enemies. God loves this world. And God wills this world to trust God. How God longs for us to let go of hatred and violence, fear and enmity, greed that flows from our insecurities, which damages and destroys so many and so much.

 

May our prayer not be exactly the same as the disciples – to GIVE US MORE FAITH. Jesus points out that even just a little faith is more than enough, to in following him, be vehicles through which the most amazing things can and do occur. Rather, let our prayer be, "Lord we believe, forgive our unbelief". For the Spirit of God wills to work among and through us to reshape us, while changing the way we think and believe, including our daily actions  – so that new life may be born in the face of death, despair and violence.

 

May it be so among us, and through us for Christ's sake, Amen

Bridging the Gap

 

The Sermon:

What do you see? What do you see as you look around the church this morning? What do you see as you travel to church, as you go to work, to school, move around the complex you are living? What do you see happening in this world?  (Pause)

 

When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee Scotland, it was felt that she had left nothing of any value. But later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem. You be the judge of the value:

 

"What do you see nurses, what do you see? What are you thinking when you are looking at me? A crabby old woman, not very wise, uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes? Who dribble her food and makes no reply, when you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!" Who resisting or not, lets you do as you will, with bathing and feeding, the long day to fill…

 

Is that what you are thinking? Is that what you see?

 

Then open your eyes, nurse; you're not looking at me.

 

I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still, as I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will. I'm a small child of ten, with a father and a mother, brothers and sisters, who love one another. A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet, dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet. A bride soon at 20 – my heart gives a leap, remembering the vows that I promise to keep. At 25 now, I have young of my own, who need me to guide and a secure happy home. A woman of 30, my young growing fast, bound to each other with ties that should last. At 40, my young sons have grown and are gone, but my man's beside me to see I don't mourn. At 50 once more, babies play round my knee. Again we know children my loved one and me. (Pause) Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead. I look at the future, I shudder with dread. For m y young are all rearing young of their own, and I think of the years and the love that I've known. I'm an old woman now… and nature is cruel. 'tis jest to make old age look like a fool. The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart, there is now a stone where I once had a heart. But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells, and now and again my battered heart swells. I remember the joys, I remember the pain, and I'm loving and living life all over again. I think of the years…all too few, gone too fast and accept the stark fact that nothing can last. So, open your yes people, open and see, not a crabby old woman, look closer, see ME! (Pause)

 

This aged woman begs the nurses to look closer, see me.

 

This leads us to Jesus' parable this morning. There are two men. They live only meters away from one another. Only a gate divides them – but gate that divides them has significance. If the story was set today there would be security cameras and a security person at the gate. The rich man's name we never learn. But we do hear that he feasts sumptuously every day. He lives high on the hog. In contrast the poor man "exists" at the gate. He is covered with sores, feet probably broken out. The dogs come to lick his sores. He lacks the basic strength to fend them off. To be sure this poor man would gladly have eaten the crumbs from the rich man's table, the bread that he had cleaned his dirty hands on, or swiped the plates clean with, but not one crumb was extended.

 

There is a deep chasm, a gulf dividing these two men, the rich one from the poor one. 

 

I suspect that we know something about such chasms. Attend a hockey game at Rogers Center. Then notice whom you meet as you leave. There are people outside the stadium, hats in hands, signs around their necks or attached to their backs. Do we see these people as people, those who are begging? Or do we place them in some interior mental category of our own making, in essence depersonalizing them? They must be lazy, addicts, not at all like us, we who are so privileged. Do we actually see them as they are: someone's son or daughter, someone's mother or father, a friend, a child of God who needs some help. To be sure the help they need is probably much more than a quarter or a loonie. Yet you can also be sure that the help they need includes a person to make contact with them.

 

Or, do we see the aged in care facilities: whether they are afflicted with dementia or living into that time of life where they need assistance with basic functions that you and I take for granted? Do we see these elderly people as people with wisdom, people who have contributed in their own unique ways: mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors, people who by their very being have brought gifts to us? Would we spend any of "our" time with them? And if we did, what might that mean for us?

 

Or, what of people who live with different religious convictions? Do we see them or hear them? Might we realize that they also are children of God, created by God? They are part of a culture and heritage that has also been seeking God and being found by God in some different ways than we are. Could we learn from each other? Might we grow together in the fullness of God – if we but dare listen to each other and God, daring to be challenged and grow in our own faith, understanding and experience of God in Jesus Christ?  

 

Finally, do we dare see any of the people caught up in the throes of the tragedies around our globe? Have we heard or listened for, done anything about the Pakistani people displaced by floods? Would we if we actually heard them, were able to see their cries, their disappointment, their fear? Would we make sacrifices or changes in the ways we spend our money, if we were lifted by them out of our own small orbit to a larger orbit?

 

Jesus' parable leads us even beyond this moment, this life, to glimpse in some way into the afterlives of Lazarus the poor man at the gate covered in sores and the rich man. Jesus points us to a stark reality: there may come a time when there is a lasting gap –that cannot be bridged. That reality is not only painful. It is also deeply tragic.

 

But we are not dead – not yet. The chasms that exist between and among us, caused by our fear or our misplaced trust – by systemic forces that are beyond us and yet somehow also part of us are not unbridgeable. We may think they are. We may even feel that they are impossible to cross. As a human race, certainly as individuals we may not know how to bridge such gaps. Sometimes our actions only widen and deepen the divide between us. When a Christian pastor threatens as a Christian to burn a Koran – the chasm is getting deeper and wider.  (Pause)

 

But Jesus, this one Who is risen and alive comes to us through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit approaches working to have us see ourselves honestly: our blind spots, our fears, the ways that we have and continue to build chasms and gulfs between ourselves and others. Upon such insight, such realization the very Spirit of God beckons us, begs us to turn around. We don't need to be obsessed with ourselves. By God's grace and through God's empowerment we can actually trust God letting go of our fears. The divisions between us can be bridged. There can be reconciliation!

 

We are not poor. On so many levels we are extremely wealthy. But when we refuse to see others in relationship with ourselves, regardless of how painful such "sight" may be, we are not only blind, but lost. In the midst of such refusal, such blindness, the gaps between us continue to deepen and expand. And death's vale swells.

 

This day may we ask that the Lord opens our eyes to all others. May God open our hearts and minds to God's love in Christ, that we may see and love. May God free us to move beyond our fear to actually care about others who live beyond our immediate. In that reality may we seek God's direction in all that has been entrusted to us. May this be so for Christ's sake and for the well being of all. Amen.