Beyond Tumbling Down

Pentecost 25b, November 18, 2012 (Mark 13:1-8 with Hebrews 10:11-25 in the b.g.)

How many of you like change?

 

It depends, doesn't it? Is the change for the better or for the worse? Perhaps that depends on our perspective. Take this I phone. In some ways it's amazing. Even with my limited skills I can receive and send text messages, emails, phone calls. I can even take pictures. At the last 2 clergy conferences I have attended many of the younger pastors no longer bring Bibles. They have the Bible instead on their phone. Now that's a good app to have.

 

But the I phone technology can be also be misused: to bully, to spread false information, to defame and slander. And that is not good.

 

Change is all around including the church. In fact the rate of change seems to be continually accelerating. When I was a kid we had Communion maybe 4 X a year. One had to be have been confirmed to receive.  Everyone under 14 was excluded. And the lay people, well they didn't come up to the front of the church – never no way, except occasionally to kneel for communion.  Not that long ago there was an abundance of pastors. Now very few men and women are entering our Lutheran Seminaries in Canada.

 

The last couple of weeks have been particularly unsettling. The earth has quaked near Haida Gwaii. Super Storm Sandy has wreaked havoc in the Caribbean and on the Eastern seaboard. What does one do when that which we believed to be unchangeable, even unalterable completely changes and is forever altered? What shall we do when the oceans rise up over the coastlines destroying much in their path? What shall we do when people we had counted on let us down? What do we do when illness strikes, when the people we love suddenly become sick and even die or have their capacities forever changed because of an "accident"? Such "changes" can shake us to the foundations. Where is God in those times? What does my trust in God or lack thereof mean then?

 

In today's Gospel Jesus leaves the temple for the last time. The Temple was a massive structure. Inside it's holy of holies is where God was thought to particularly dwell. It had taken Herod's many artisans a long time to build such an edifice. The stones (building blocks) were 12 by 35 by 18. Those are big stones. Even more imposing than the actual structure itself was the place that the "Temple" held in the peoples' psyche. That being said, as Jesus leaves the temple for the last time we hear him saying that even the Temple will not stand. It's "end" is coming quickly. Not only that, but there will be all kinds of things happening to his earliest disciples and to all those who follow him. Such "things" will not be easy. In fact they will be difficult, even earth shattering.

 

Jesus' words came true. Many of his early disciples, significant numbers of his followers today, give their lives to live out his message of death and resurrection, of forgiveness and love in Christ. The cost of following Jesus is often high in terms of relationships and families. Many of the early Christians were kicked out of the faith they had grown up in.

 

What about us? Are we convinced that there is a goal, a purpose an "end" for which Jesus has come? In using the word "the end" here I don't mean so much that's all she wrote – there's no more. Instead, I mean that Jesus has come to earth – He has lived and loved, suffered and died for a purpose.

 

The writer to the Hebrews underlines this purpose when he talks about the importance of Christians gathering together to provoke or irritate one another to love, to do good deeds for others. This is all in response to Jesus' actions in his life, death and resurrection.

 

Jesus comes and goes to Jerusalem to suffer and die. As he lives and dies He reaches out to all whom he meets, showing them a different way. His way is not the way of  violence or envy, jealousy or hatred, fear or being "grasped" (i.e. held) by how much we have or don't have. Our purpose, our meaning, does not arise from any of those realities.

 

Sometimes it's tempting to think that a lot, or maybe even all of "it" somehow depends on us. But – when the waters come over the shorelines, when we face the truth about ourselves – we begin to realize that we need help, a great deal of help. When Jesus tells his disciples that all the stones of the temple will be overturned, well we need to realize that the stones of our temples, whatever they are, could also be overturned. 

 

Jesus tells us this even as He is moving towards his own death. Because he dies, whatever the changes in our lives, whatever the devastation, the loss, the uncertainty, we must see that we are not alone! God is with us, before us and after us. Our suffering is not in vain because his suffering was not in vain. There are overarching goals, purposes even though we may not be able to visualize or comprehend them. As Jesus said then, these are the beginnings of the birth pangs.

 

Changes continually come within and without – individually, collectively, locally, globally, universally. Some change will be hailed with great joy. Other change will bring about untold pain, struggle, suffering. This is the reality of mortal life, of good and evil, of the mystery of their mixture. There are times when we can sense God/Christ/the Spirit's presence. Such times are uplifting. There are other times when we are so hurt that we don't feel much of anything except anger, pain. It is OK to cry, to yell to call out God.

 

But whether we able or unable to sense God's presence in the most difficult times, we are called to look to the Cross. There we see that God does actively care. God takes on our suffering, struggling predicament. The "third day" will eventually come. Death and evil eventually do give way to God and new life!

 

Let us daily turn our eyes to the cross. See Christ who knows so deeply that everything will eventually come tumbling down. See Christ who also leads us through such tumbling down  to new beginnings in Him. Let me tell you, such beginnings are ultimately good because He is good! Amen.

 

 

Give 'Til It Hurts?

 November 11, 2012 (I Kings 17:8-16, Hebrews 9:24-28 and Mark 12:28-34)

There are times when it is absolutely essential to have open eyes, open hands, and open mind to receive a gift. For instance when one is about to catch a baseball, it just won't work if one isn't paying attention, if one doesn't have open eyes (to see the ball), open hands to catch the ball and an open enough mind to actually trust that the ball may be coming your way. If those realities are in place – well then one can receive the ball. That's sometimes why a catcher in baseball is referred to as a receiver.

 

Love – that is true – that is an unconditional gift is like that. Love can only be at first received. We see this from the time we are first born – when we are cared for by another or others: from our bottoms being wiped, to feeding at our mother's breasts, to learning words. We need open minds, hands and hearts.  Sometimes we do well with all of that in amazing ways. At other times we are afraid and closed. Then we don't receive the good gifts that may have been intended. Fear and even conflict can result.  

 

Today's gospel text is one that I have come to wonder about more and more. Often this poor widow has been portrayed as an incredible example to emulate – to give everything we have away. It has been assumed that Jesus was honoring her in his comments to the disciples that she gave more than everyone else had.  But I wonder now if that was indeed Jesus' tone as he spoke to the disciples that day. Was he actually holding her up as an example to be emulated by them? I am no longer convinced. To be sure she gave more  in every way. But was that the point of Jesus' comment – that others should also do the same now and forever? What is the context?

 

In the preceding verses Jesus had been criticizing the scribes. The scribes were taking advantage of the very people that their religious conviction called them to care for. The scribes had become more concerned with their reputations than doing God's good and gracious will.

 

In fact that particular religious system had created expectations in this poor woman that she should give her all to the temple system. That very temple system would itself soon be destroyed. To be sure she did give more than everyone else. But I now suspect that Jesus' tone may have been critical – not criticize her but rather to criticize a system which fueled, almost demanded that the poorest of the poor must give everything to be acceptable or accepted.  

 

Would we think that someone had "done well" to give all they had to any charity, including the Church while leaving themselves destitute?

 

I reflect upon this on Remembrance Day as we remember veterans of wars long ago – and more recent wars. Hopefully we not only remember veterans but also their husbands, wives, partners, children, parents, friends. Most of them have made incredible sacrifices. Some have given their very lives. Others have made untold physical, emotional, mental and spiritual sacrifices.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is very real for many veterans. Some wonder if there ever can be healing?  Our truth is that we continue to live in a world where the expectation is that some should give more – even their all. This is not a critique of them, but of the way we live and organize in systems and nations, haves and have-nots, the majority and minority worlds. God help us to change!  

 

To be sure, we must remember them. How committed to ideals of fairness and mercy, equality and democracy, many of them are or were.  We must remember their sacrifices and those of their loved ones on so many levels. Those of us who have not been in combat or had loved ones in such combat may never know such sacrifice.

 

But we also need to ask why/ even should it be so? Are there alternatives – that we can be part of in advocating for any who are poor, lacking - without opportunity for education, health care, safe drinking water, food, rights to travel, expression of their opinions, observing religious conviction?. Can we do anything about that individually, collectively, as Church, as part of this amazing country called Canada and all our Canadian alliances and church alliances including CLWR?

 

As your Pastor I acknowledge that prayer is part of this. But I also underline that as we honestly pray with opened hearts and minds, the Spirit will lead us to action of some kind. That Spirit has done so again and again and again. The Spirit of God is alive and moving.

 

I wonder what we are open to, receiving and offering in our living this Remembrance Day, 2012? In any way are we seeing Jesus the Son of God. Perhaps some days he sits opposite our "temple treasuries". Not that he is opposed to our giving to causes, including the Church, whenever those causes seek to love God and all neighbors especially the most vulnerable. Then I believe he commends us, especially when our giving is done out of compassion with no regard for what others think or notice.  But whenever we partake and support, either actively or by acquiescence in systems that rob and deprive especially those most in need – then we oppose God's love for this world. And that dear people is most serious.

 

As we mark another Remembrance Day  and near the end of another Church year, may we experience both Remembrance and Advent. Let's remember those who have gone before us with good intentions and to the best of their ability honest actions. May we thank God for them refusing to take for granted that which they gave significant parts or all of their lives for. May we also remember  those times when by God's grace we have acted and continue to act for the well being of others – especially those most vulnerable and hurting – the least, the lost and the littlest. Finally may we seek God's forgiveness for those times when we have forgotten such others or been part of systems that actively damage them – so that who already have so much might have more. May we then change and be changed.

 

Finally may we also be caught up in the miraculous reality  of Advent. Christ has come, is coming even now among us and will come again, eventually to wipe away all tears, to usher in a new earth. All will be valued, fed and experience love. Yes, Lord may your kingdom come – even in and among and through us.

 

So – open our eyes.  Let our hands, hearts and minds be ready to receive from God and then to give joyfully but respectfully, to others in need. For Christ's sake, Amen.

Beyond Death's Stench

All Saints Day, November 4, 2012 John 11:17-44

 

"My hands are tied!" "I can't think clearly." "Lord already there is a stench, because he has been dead four days."

 

We have many different ways of speaking about our reality. We are less than free.  Death and all its relatives can rock us, control us, limit us, suck all life and hope from us both individually and collectively.

 

Unless we have stood with, cried with, listened to ones we have loved die, unless we have actually stood beside their open graves, I don't know if we can realize the depths of the powers of death. Death's power pervades our lives like the skunk's stench. At first you can't escape it. It's too overpowering. But even after a long while - days, months and years, that stench still finds its way into the nostrils of our minds and hearts, into the pores of our being and imaginations. We might have thought we were all done with it, but death doesn't just "go away".

 

Quite often we'd rather not talk about death. Denial is tempting. We may refuse to draw up our own will. We may avoid cemeteries, hospitals or nursing homes. We may not make any kind of plans for our own funerals. We may even become convinced that there aren't new possibilities for our relationships, our workplaces, our schools, our churches. Even our language may betrays our attempt to avoid the reality and power of death. If we don't say "the word", will death really be delayed? So we say things like, "He passed away". "She fell asleep peacefully". "They left this life". But whatever we say or think, death is real. We do die. The people we most deeply love also die. The power of death is alive and very, very strong.

 

Death can also rule our families, our institutions including the church, governments and schools. If we refuse to talk about any of the things that matter, refusing to face them head on, if we refuse to grapple with realities that can result in loss, suffering and death for many – then the power of death controls or at the very least limits us. In those times we are not fully alive nor free.

 

Do you ever wonder why? Why do we have such an abundance of water and food, even wasting them, while so many others continue to die from lack of safe water or starvation? Can we as Jesus' followers do anything about this? Should we? Will we?

 

Or, have you ever asked yourself, what are we doing, so that everyone will experience a sense of belonging here? What can we do to invite others, to make others once they are here, feel welcomed? If we do make such changes, how about others who are here now – will they still experience a welcome from us, from God?  Maybe we shouldn't do anything – just try to keep things the same? What do you think? 

 

I remember Harold and Emma. When they were married Harold was 40 and Emma was 17.  That's a huge age gap, one that many would sneer at, perceive to be an untenable age difference for marriage. But Emma had been a displaced person during World War II. Only she and God knew what had happened in her life. She was mature well beyond her years. Harold was a huge man but gentle. He loved Emma deeply. Some 25 years after their wedding day Harold had been diagnosed with cancer. He had undergone the requisite surgery and subsequent treatment. But that insidious cancer continued to ravage his body.

 

Near the end of his life he, Emma and myself would frequently share Communion. Now Harold had sought to live his life as a Christian man. He worshipped weekly. He and Emma gave a significant percentage of their income to the church and to a number of charities. He attempted to honor God in all his business dealings. Harold also was a man of few words. On one of the last afternoons of his life, Emma held Harold's big hand in her tiny hands. Softly she asked, "What can I or the Pastor do Harold?" Looking at her not with resignation, but with a genuine smile and profound hope he responded, "Emma- we have the cross – and that's all we need."

 

Lazarus had been dead 4 days. The Jewish people believed that the Spirit hovered around a person's body for up to 3 days. Then that spirit departed accepting the reality of the person's death. Lazarus had been dead four days. At that point Jesus arrives at Lazarus' tomb. He orders the stone to be removed from the entrance of the tomb. But Lazarus' sister, Martha, objects, "No Lord, there is already a stench, he has been dead 4 days."

 

Yet Christ is not deterred. The stone is removed. Christ then yells, "Lazarus come out". and Lazarus, once dead, now alive, emerges bound in his grave cloths.

 

Many are skeptical about this. But I ask, cannot God the creator of the universe, restore a dead person to life? The One who creates, cannot that One bring life out of death?

 

Lazarus' restoration to life births something of lasting significance for all of us. Now the opposition to Jesus grows. Only a few verses later, the high priest, Caiaphas is heard to say, "You do not understand that it is better for one man to die than to have the whole nation destroyed."

 

Too often this has been our human mantra. Better for Abel to die than Cain. Better for thousands if not millions of soldiers to die, than for – well, you fill in the blank Better for other nations to suffer or die than our nation. Better for another family to be poor than my family. Yet is any of this true? Why must so many suffer and die, be engulfed by poverty? Is it either or?

 

Into the powerful depths of hatred, fear and death wades Jesus. By raising Lazarus, Jesus continues his move towards Jerusalem. There, amid great struggle Jesus willingly suffers and dies. On the cross Christ begins to work out a reality, a mysterious power that can shatter the bonds and power of all death. Do we see Him? Are we trusting Him?

 

He continues to speak, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do… This is my body, my blood. Take, eat and drink for the forgiveness of sin – your sin, the world's sin". Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection birth new possibilities within us, for us and the world.  

 

His surrender is beyond the limited comprehension of our minds. Just when the forces of evil seem to have the upper hand, even as God's own Son is spat upon, tortured, humiliated and dies, just when God seems so distant, perhaps totally absent, even  irrelevant, in that very moment as Jesus dies, God is with us, for us and all creation birthing accompaniment and hope, here, now AND FOREVER.

 

It is the dying and rising Christ who entrusts the less than reliable disciples to go out and share their new life in him with others. They are enabled to let go of their fears, their envy and jealousy. They are being freed to go, to tell, to live. The cross of Christ is before them and behind them.  

 

Today is All Saints Sunday. Those who have gone before us in  faith were far from perfect. But by God's grace they were gifted with trust in Christ to move forward with hope in life and death to new life. Through them somehow, some way, the God's light shines.

 

This can also be our way. Death in all of its forms doesn't need to control nor paralyze us. Christ is the resurrection and the life! As powerful as death and all its forms, Christ's death and resurrection overcome them, calling us to think of, dream of and be part of  new realities that are filled with wonder. Only God can remove the stench of death by submitting to all those powers Himself/Herself. And the result  - well, let's trust, live and see.               Amen and Amen.

             

           

              

           

New Hearts Happening

Reformation sermon, October 28, 2012

Jeremiah 31:31-34, Romans 3:19-28 and John 8:31-36

Have you ever had your heart written on? You know, deeply inscribed upon – not like sidewalk chalk which marks the sidewalk for awhile but then when the rains come – it can be gone in a day or a week – and maybe gone forever, only a fleeting memory.

 

No, I mean your hearts written on – you know, someone "writing" upon the essence of who you are. The way that a child "can get into" your heart. A child that trusts you – or looks up to you or calls you by name in the way that no one else can. For when our heart is truly written upon - we are never the same.

 

Do you know that experience? It can be joyful – such as when a child who has never met you is told by their mom or dad, ones whom they implicitly trust that their friend is coming over to their apartment for supper that night. And when that "friend" buzzes the apartment to enter – that little 3 year old boy opens the door and runs headlong down that long hallway to thrust himself headlong towards you whom they have never met but whom their parents have told is their friend. In that moment your heart is written upon by a little boy. The message is clear and multi-faceted. At its core is a depth of trust and energy that is humbling. What stranger would you or I race towards trusting them with "catching us" just on the word of someone else?

 

At other times having our hearts written upon arises out of a painful experience. A couple with 3 young children have decided that they can no longer live together. This is heart wrenching for their entire family. They can only begin to imagine what it might mean for their kids  - twins that are 8 and a little boy who is 4. They need all kinds of help, even to tell their children. They call their Pastor. Can he come over and be with them to help them tell their 3 kids – twin girls ages 7 and a young boy 3? The Pastor agrees to accompany them. They are all sitting in the living room on a couch and 2 chairs. The 3 year old boy is in his mom's lap. One of the twin girls sits by her dad, the other one by her Pastor, whom she has known for as long as she can remember. When the message is given  there are tears, sobs and hugs – assurance of ongoing love for the kids no matter what. . Indeed there is writing on everyone's hearts about love and pain, loss. I hope that someday there can also be hope inscribed on each of their hearts.  (Pause)

 

I am convinced that God wills to write on our hearts, individually and collectively. I am convinced of this both because of many experiences I have had – but even more importantly because Scripture points us to this reality. The prophet Jeremiah writes to a community embroiled in the reality of being refugees – of losing everything they had held dear – from their Temple, to their religion, to families and property. Following much earlier criticism of their forgetting God and not obeying God, Jeremiah now speaks in a comforting way to them. Jeremiah speaks on God's behalf. Jeremiah says that God WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT WITH THEM. This is a NEW PROMISE, a NEW REALITY THAT WILL BE BORN IN AND AMONG THEM. This is a gift from God for them! In truth this promise, this reality, this gift will be inscribed, written on their hearts.

 

Jeremiah speaks about this in terms of LAW. But we need to understand that LAW for people practicing Judaism is gift – not a burden. They will know God, not just about God. And their sin, those times they have fallen short of what God has hoped for and intended with others, with creation and with God, will be forgotten by God. They will experience new beginnings, live into new possibilities. God loves them unconditionally. And God is not only God, but their God.  

 

I'm not sure we can ever fully grasp this. Instead by God's grace we can only be grasped by this reality – caught up in the embrace of God. There, in God's embrace miraculously our hearts and minds can be transformed.

 

Tragically, in so many ways we are counters. In different ways we attempt to keep track of who has done what and for whom/ or of whom we think is right and whom we are convinced is wrong – always or usually with ourselves in a favorable position. When we structure our "reality" in that way we begin to think of God in that way – of endlessly keeping track mostly of others rights and wrongs – I mean the really bad ones. We wish that God so understood in our minds might overlook what we have done wrong. Such endless, futile, destructive counting.  This has absolutely nothing to do with the love of God, with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Such counting should have absolutely nothing to do with the centre of our lives – but so often we attempt to exist that way. So often it's what we know.

           

 

But our lives don't have to be "lived" that way. God wills for us to have freedom – absolute freedom to love others unconditionally even as we are loved by God in Jesus. To care for others who don't deserve it – because as we honestly look at ourselves, who really does deserve to be loved – except and unless we are all loved by God? And this DEAR PEOPLE is what Jesus' life, death and resurrection are all about. God comes to love us, to let go of our wrongs, our rebellion, our tendencies towards counting and keeping track and trying to somehow be "better" than others. God comes to be human in Jesus so that we can know not just in our heads but in our hearts that we matter. We matter infinitely to God, despite of what we have or haven't done.

 

St. Paul, that one who spent much of his life hating and counting is right: Nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS WHO DIES AND IS RAISED FOR US. Christ Jesus is the One who has overcome those things that so easily can get hold of us and control us – fear of death, the powers of this world, and the forces of evil. Jesus overcomes those things in his suffering, death and resurrection by subjecting himself to them.  NONE OF THOSE FORCES CAN HOLD HIM. They cannot restrict the power of his love to embrace and transform and write upon human hearts and minds, our hearts and minds.

 

So don't be afraid! Give up all such counting. God is doing a new thing. Do we behold it, see it, reflect upon it, experience it, and exuberantly run with it, with all the gifts we have?Wouldn't that be great! What kinds of new things could happen? Amen.