Ultimate Questions - God is God

Pentecost 23a, Nov. 16,2014 (Zeph. 1:7,12-18; I Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

      I am convinced that the lessons literally cry out asking two questions. These questions run to the heart of who we are, to the core of whose we are, to the very purpose of our lives. Such questions are not peripheral. They are not about what kind of car we shall purchase, or where we should meet for lunch or travel for vacation. Such questions aren't even about whether we should purchase a home or rent. We do so worry about these lesser questions. We often invest so much of who we are in wrestling with such questions. We may even toss and turn at night thinking about whether we got the best deal or not. But after all is said and done, these lesser questions don't matter a hill of beans. Today, tomorrow, five years or fifty years from now as we look into the eyes of those we love the most, these lesser questions will not be in the forefront of our minds. They won't lift up our hearts.  Nor will anyone else remember us, rejoice with us or weep over us because of how we answered these lesser questions.

 

But there are questions that do matter: ultimately.

 

DO WE CARE?

 

I know that we care about some things, some people. We care about our kids, our grandkids. We give of ourselves so that they have all kinds of opportunities, a variety of experiences. We bend over backwards, work over-time, make sacrifices so that they can have such experiences. Most of that is good.

 

I also know that many of you care about your friends. Many of you care about your spouse. Those of you who are blessed to still have living parents care about them. All of that is very good.

 

But let me ask this. In our caring are we aware of God? Do we count on God to guide us, to help us in setting priorities and living with them? Do we believe, do we trust that God is God? Do we realize that God is more powerful than anything or anyone else? God has the power to both create life and to overcome death! Who else can do that, here and now? Truly!

 

God knows and loves us and this world in ways that defy our imagination and comprehension! Do we realize this? Are we living from the foundation of God's love and hope – God's great compassion for us and all whom we will ever meet?  NOW THERE ARE QUESTIONS THAT MATTER.

 

When we don't actually trust God and God's ability to love and care for us in this world in ways that make incredible differences, well then we are where Zephaniah's people were. Then we are literally counting only on our own abilities to "manage" things. Let me tell you in stark terms (so that we don't miss this) – trusting in ourselves first and foremost is a huge mistake. It flies in the face of reality. All flesh is dust. That's a fact. Or as Zephaniah puts it, when we try to live as if God weren't God the ultimate result is that all blood becomes like dust and all flesh becomes like dung – something that is offensive, disposable, to be avoided. When we lose sight of God as God – the cosmic powerful things of life and death most certainly can and will overwhelm us.

 

When we aren't aware of God, aren't trusting God, we are far more blind than anyone with a white cane. Then we become like my very first dog, Lucky. Lucky was blinded because he had an obsession with chasing cars. He ended up being run over numerous times, resulting in literal blindness. Yet Lucky refused to stop chasing cars. When we aren't aware of God, when we refuse to trust God, we are blind to so much truth. This results in decisions and actions that are far less than wise.  We are not of infinite value because of what we do or don't do, because of our successes or failures. Instead, we are of infinite value because God loves us. God yearns to be near us, to be trusted by us, to enliven us. It is from this love that we can actually care with and for each other and all others. As we lose sight of God our little "life boats" are easily and devastatingly swamped by so many things – fear, illness, jealousy, greed, injustice, catastrophe. 

 

When we act as if God is irrelevant to everyday life, think or feel that God couldn't or wouldn't care about this or that in our lives or in the life of the world – then what we "have" is not God but merely some incredibly small, false idea of God.

 

Acting as if there isn't a God we become like a ship without a rudder, a person without a heart, a dog without a loving master.

 

The implied question that is the genesis for all of our lessons this morning is, "Does God care about us?" This question is more important than any of our resulting ultimate questions. If God doesn't care about us – it makes absolutely no difference if we care about God!

 

I could never begin to describe how much God cares for us. God is the only one who knows us before we are in our mother's womb. God is the One who forms our DNA, our lungs, our hearts our minds. God is the One who places us in relationships with people and with all of creation. God is the One who dreams incredible possibilities for us – and for those who have gone before us. Look at the ones you love. Know that God has formed and makes them. Is that not the most incredible love? From dust and fluid to living beings. Wow!

 

Granted - there are times when it is incredibly difficult to trust God, to sense God's love. As we are miraculously and wonderfully delivered into this world, not everything is well. Not everything goes well. Too often, we hurt others. Too often others hurt us.  You know what I mean...Too often we demand more than what we need, thinking, feeling that "more" will help us. Meanwhile others are hungry, lonely, despairing. Too often there is little justice and far too little mercy.

 

Hurt yields more than mere pain. Untended hurt yields broken relationships. Being broken we are unable to hear others. Our vision is compromised. Then we do not see the others as people.  They are then no longer "we" but somehow "them". It's somewhat like losing a friend. Once there was harmony, joy, being together. But now there is nothing. Death is powerful.

 

But God refuses to leave us in such places. Because God cares about us and this world, God acts. When we care, we act. God does this radical thing. God becomes human in Jesus. God becomes human. In God's humanity we might see, we might know, both within and around  – the truth about ourselves and the truth that God is. Death, evil, fear: nothing is more powerful than God's love.

 

So, let me ask you again – DO WE CARE? Are we trusting God in the way we are living our lives right now? Or, are we allowing ourselves to be sucked into a powerful whirlwind of thinking that everything depends on us? Do we just keep on running, fretting frantically. Are we living as if we have to get what we can, while we can?

 

I know and experience these temptations.

 

When we find ourselves in such places dear people, it's time to be in Zephaniah's words, "quiet". In silence we glimpse God and ourselves. We can ask God for help – help to be still, help to know - God. God is our refuge and strength. We do not need to mourn as those who have no hope. We can live anew.

 

God desires that we experience God's love and peace in heart and mind, no matter what is happening – especially in the darkest times of this world and ourselves.

 

We can depend on God.

 

But to depend on ourselves as if there were no good or even worse that we are God – such "belief", such "action" is beyond foolishness. Instead, call out to him! Kyrie eleison. God is listening. God cares. God will help. Even now we might hear a baby crying... Amen. 

 

Beginning and So Much More

Advent 2a,14 (Mark 1:1-8 with Isaiah 40:1-11 in b.g) December 7, 2014

Beginnings are important. From my childhood and beyond I have been repeatedly told that beginnings are important. I believe it's true. Our development in-utero matters. The love we receive during our infancy and childhood matters. How we start each day matters. The sustenance we receive at the beginning of each day -physically, emotionally, spiritually – starts us off in a healthy direction with strength or limits us.  Beginnings are important. How are we 'beginning' these days?

 

Sometimes we are allowed into the depths of another person's life. Pastors are often so privileged. I mean to really be allowed into the depths of another's life– beyond the facade, the pretense, the picture that we present to others. For me this has sometimes occurred through something called a 5th step. 5th steps are part of a 12 step program that was originally designed for people who are battling addictions to alcohol or other drugs. The 5th step for a person in recovery is to confess to one other person the exact nature of their wrongs. It is a truth telling – what the church sometimes calls confession. But the truth telling of a 5th step isn't just about the little stuff that we might think we have messed up or made "mistakes" about. No, oh, no! A 5th is about the stuff that goes on deep within our minds and hearts and that then gets played out in what we say, do, think or refuse to say or do or think. Let me tell you, it's not easy to be on the "telling" side of a 5th step. The 5th step is only shared after completing a 4th step which involves taking a fearless moral inventory of one's life and then writing it down.

 

Whenever I have been privileged to listen to a 5th step, I have marvelled at that person's honesty. Sometimes they begin to say something and then stop mid sentence by interrupting themselves by saying something similar to  this, "Wait, that's not completely true. Here is what actually happened". They caught themselves, not in telling an outright bald-faced lie – but rather in saying something that put themselves in a better light than what actually happened in their interaction with another person or persons.

 

By the time they have arrived at doing their 5th step they have learned that if they are to be free of the power of alcohol and other drugs they must be honest with themselves and others about themselves. If they aren't completely honest with themselves and God and just about always others – well then, the power of their addiction will ramp up in their lives and soon control them again. That leads not to new life but to brokenness and to death in so many parts of their lives. Admitting the truth about themselves can lead to freedom. 

 

I don't think this is only true for people who are struggling with addiction to alcohol or other drugs. I believe that this is true for all of us! If we are to be free to love, to risk, free to live a life that is not controlled by fear, insecurity, the powers of evil and death we must admit and tell the truth about ourselves.

 

But it ain't easy! Looking in the mirror – a mirror held up by the One who cares about us and knows us as we are – is extremely difficult. In such a mirror we see the thoughts of our minds, thoughts that cut us off from others. We see our actions and words that are far less than kind and deeply hurt others. We view our insecurities which drive us to accumulate things, money and time, keeping us from joyfully giving away to others so that they too can live. These are just some of our realities. Until we can face them, admit them and ask God for help with them, to let them go, to be done with the power they have over us, well they just continue surfacing, driving us to do more of the same. Such destructive behavior leads not to new beginnings but to brokenness, even to endings that are EMPTY.

 

This is also true for us in the communities we belong to. It is true for us as church. It is true for us as families. It is true for us in cities, neighborhoods and countries. Until we are able to look in the mirror and see the good, the bad and the ugly within, to stop blaming others, we will keep on perpetuating our brokenness, hatred, fear and jealousy. Until we are willing to ask God for help with all of this – it will be the same old, same old.

 

I suspect this is why at the very beginning of Mark's Gospel, the very beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God this character named John appears. John is into truth telling. He will not beat around the bush. He is stark, perhaps at first quite unattractive. But, boy or boy, John draws the truth out of us. Even though seeing and admitting that truth about ourselves is anything but easy, we are longing to be able to do just that! People from the city and the country come out to hear John, to venture down into that river and be washed clean. It's good....It's necessary. But even then, that's only the beginning.

 

John points beyond himself to someone else, someone named Jesus. He says that Jesus is coming. John says that Jesus is way more important than him. John says that Jesus will wash others in God's very Spirit – and that will result in new life - more beginnings.

 

In some ways what John invites people into is like a house cleaning. The cleaning is important. But the cleaning is just the beginning. A home isn't a home unless others are welcomed in – to eat and drink, to sleep and be in relationship with others there. In a true home, the more people who are present, the merrier it is. Some people just live in houses, or apartments or condos. They don't really share a home.

 

It's Advent. It's a time when we focus on getting ready for Jesus, God's own self to come to us and this world. An important part of that, maybe even the beginning of that on our part is truth telling. Such truth telling often opens others up to see both us and then perhaps themselves. Our truth telling also shows us our great need – for someone and something much more than just us. We need One who loves the way we often don't, can't, unconditionally. We need One who forgives us long before we could ever do anything that might "earn" such forgiveness. If we aren't experiencing forgiveness, we will not be able to forgive. We need One who can transform our hearts and minds to dreams beyond ourselves and our little worlds. This One is coming and comes.

 

Are we open to beginning?

 

Or will we persist on pretending – denying the truth about ourselves, while wanting to blame others? Both John and Elijah are speaking to us "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!"

 

May God move among us leading us to new beginnings, and abundant new life.  Now's the time. Come into that cleansing water with me. Amen. 

 

Darash? YOU BET!

Praise Appeal Sunday, November 9, 2014 (Micah 6:1-8 with Mark 12:28-34 in b.g)

Praise. This is a word not often heard in Lutheran circles. At least the word "praise" isn't used by Lutherans in the ways that it is usually employed in Pentecostal or Baptist circles. For some of us, praise may conjure up images of people with their hands held high in the air, swaying back and forth, singing repetitive but somewhat simple yet powerful tunes.

 

But what if praise is actually different than all of that? What if praise isn't at all about what we feel or even primarily about what we think? Instead, what if praise is about focusing on and responding to someone else – someone "larger" than ourselves? What if praise is about focusing on and responding to God in all the parts of our lives?

 

The prophet Micah, whose words we hear in the first lesson places us in the midst of a controversy. The controversy is between 8^th century Israel and God. The people of Israel, as they often have been in their history, are caught between a rock and a hard place. Then they were caught between two world powers, Egypt and Assyria. They were also caught between trusting  primarily in their own means, political acumen and military might or going with their gut, the direction of God underlined by the words of their prophets, a direction which called them to care for each other and obey God before and above all else.   Since for some time now they have been primarily following their own devices, betting on the power they thought would "win" – while forgetting their own poor and most vulnerable -things weren't going well. And when things aren't going well, what do we humans do? We often look around to cast blame upon someone else, ANYONE ELSE but ourselves. In this particular instance the people are saying that God demands too much of them.

 

This may be difficult for us to identify with. These days our feeling and thoughts may be that God doesn't expect much of us. We may even feel or think that God is content with the left-overs of "our" time, "our" money, "our" prayers. Among our temptations, fueled by advertising, is for us to spend as much if not more of our time in wishing that we could holiday or win the lottery, than we do in listening for God, speaking to God or even inquiring of God what God may be calling us to do in the various circumstances of our lives.

 

Micah doesn't give up on the people of Israel, even though they are blaming God. I suspect that God isn't giving up on us – even though sometimes we try to relegate God to the sidelines of our lives. Speaking on God's behalf, Micah reminds the people of all that God has done and is doing for them. We do well to listen. After all God is God. God is doing similar things for and with us. The same witnesses Micah points to as witnessing God's controversy with Israel witness to our controversies with God. These witnesses stand the test of time. They are the hills and mountains – indeed all of creation.

 

Micah reminds the people that God has rescued them from slavery. Isn't this also true for us? But we have never been slaves to anyone! Really? What about our fears: the fear of illness, of death, of failure. Sometimes we even shy away from unconditional love – the incredible power of someone seeing and knowing us as we are and choosing to love us anyway.

 

God  gifts the people of Israel with leaders who sometimes hear and obey God. God uses these leaders to guide the people through their fears to new life and eventually a new land. These leaders remind the people of their identity. They are God's people – cherished, being forgiven. Nothing/no one can change that. God is their God. And they are God's children. This is God's choice. Their identity is not dependent upon their intelligence or physical attributes. Their identity is because God chooses to love and work through them.

 

So, let me ask. Are we not also chosen to be God's daughters and sons? Through the water and the promises of God which wash over us at different times in our lives, even when we were so young that we couldn't form coherent thoughts or control our bowels, God chooses us.  Intimately knowing us, the Creator works through the Spirit grafting us into this diverse collective body of Christ. It is Christ who reaches out to care for and about all whom he meets – regardless of their race, gender, religious background or marital status. Not only in his life, but also in his death and resurrection Jesus does this. Ray Stevens had it right when he wrote, "red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight, Jesus loves, the little children of the world."

 

This is amazing, wondrous, mind blowing – God loves us, brokenness, strengths, weaknesses and all.

 

After Micah has reminded the people of all this, he asks, "What does the Lord require of you?" Now we need to understand that require is not like obligation – you must do this in order for this to happen. That wouldn't be love. Rather the word translated require in English arises from the Hebrew word "darash". The word darash, says James C. Howell, a Hebrew translator, has undertones of affection, or the healthiest sort of dependency, as in "the child requires his/her mother's love", or "the flower requires rain and sunshine". There is also a mood of seeking in darash; lovers seek each other out, the shepherd seeks his lost sheep.

 

It is this sense that Micah asks – given all that God has done for Israel, "What does the Lord require, yearn for, long for, seek for in you and through you?. He answers (WAIT FOR IT!). The Lord requires of Israel to do justice, to love kindness and walk humbly with God. This is compact and yet HUGE. This is an incredible invitation and challenge! This can come about only because of God's love for all!

 

Do we know this? Justice in the first testament isn't so much about 'getting even' or 'being fair'. Instead, justice is about insuring that everyone has what they need. In calling us to do justice God is inviting us to share, as an integral part of our identity, to build a deeper, more interdependent kind of community. This will also involve learning to love kindness. We are all gifts.

 

Such dawning reality leads us to humility. I am not speaking of self deprecation – of how "bad" we sometimes are, of how  clearly we frequently miss God's intention. Rather, humility is a realization that comes about in experiencing God's love for ourselves and all creation. We are gifted individually and together in order to employ 'our' gifts for the well being of many others.

 

This LIVING dear people is what praise is. Part of such praise may occasionally involve hands held high, perhaps even bodies swaying in time. For sure there will be times when we lift our voices, melodious tones somehow arising among us. Thanks be to God for all of that! But always, praise of God involves seeing, hearing and caring for others with open arms, minds being opened, wallets and credit cards that are not designed  or limited primarily for us and those nearest to us.

 

Praise involves seeing beyond ourselves to God's love for us and for all others. Praise involves our saying thank you God with the many gifts God has deemed to entrust to us. Praise means living out of God's love in Jesus so that love is not just a word to us or others.

 

In all of this journey of life may we again experience whose we are, the very children of God. From that reality may we then live lives responding to God who deeply loves this crazy, broken, wonderful, hungry and abundant world so very much, dreaming that all may have enough, experiencing God's love themselves. Darash you see is not a four letter word. Darash springs out of the gifts of God. Alleluia. Amen.