November 26, 2017 Christ the King Sunday Matthew 25:31-46

            Some time ago a person who is not a member of our church asked me what my thoughts were on apocatastasis.  Now, maybe you use that word on a daily basis, and if you do, good for you… I guess.  But I replied that the first thing I have to do is to look up what apocatastasis means!

Now I could have pulled out my phone and looked it up, but I was hesitant.  In matters of theological terms I don’t trust Google.  I like to turn to stodgy old textbooks and dictionaries.  Google is too often wrong, and also other books are often wrong. 

This may seem like an aside, but it will be relevant in a couple minutes, with all our Reformation celebrations in the last few months I saw a posting in the Sunday School wing about the five solas in Lutheran thinking, and they were linked to the Luther’s Rose symbol.  Five solas?  No.  There are only three: sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura.  Grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone.  But online people will tell you there are five.  They add Christ alone, and sola deo gloria, which means, “To God alone be the glory.”  And not just online.  I’ve seen a children’s book that lists five also. 

You have to be able to go to the raw sources if you want to be right.  Even Wikipedia notes that the extra two solas are not supportable.

Anyhow, so I turn my Handbook of Theological Terms to apocatastasis and read this, “a Greek word referring to the final and complete salvation of all beings.  It suggests universal redemption or universalism.”  The idea developed in Christianity in the second century by church leaders who could not believe that if God was loving he wouldn’t condemn anyone to eternal punishment.  In other words, everyone goes to heaven regardless.  This is a key teaching in the Unitarian Universalist Church.

The idea of apocatastasis is both supported by scripture and rejected by scripture.  In support we have passages like Ephesians 1:9-10, “With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

            But of course there are other passages like our gospel reading today.  Some go to heaven.  Some go to eternal punishment.  The Matthew scene is a frightening one.  But what is perhaps the most disconcerting about it is that it contradicts the idea of the three solas: grace alone, faith alone, scripture alone.  From the Matthew text it looks like not only is it all about doing the right works to earn God’s pleasure, things like grace and faith have no part!  If all we had was Jesus’ words in Matthew we’d have to teach that salvation come exclusively by helping the poor and needy.  That is a mess too!

            After doing a bit of research I got back to this person saying I don’t know.  (How’s that for a professional answer!?!)  And truthfully we don’t know.  It is God’s business, not our own.  In regards to salvation this is what we teach.  We know we are loved by God and we live in confidence in that love.  That confidence drives and shapes our lives.  As for those who from our perspective appear to be outside of God’s love, or who reject God’s love, we just can’t speak.  As St. Paul wrote, “It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?”

            So how should we understand Jesus’ teaching in our gospel?  Commentator Eugene Boring says that we should not force our gospel writer Matthew to be more consistent than he is.  We spent the first half of this year reading through Matthew’s gospel and you may remember that it is full of contradictions.  In fact, teaching in contradictions is a technique often used in ancient Hebrew thought.  That doesn’t do much for you if you want a concrete answer, but some things don’t have concrete answers.

            If someone asks you, do you believe in universal salvation; or do you believe God eternally punishes some people for their wrongdoing on earth? they’re actually asking an entrapping question.  They’ve gotten the whole idea of life and salvation wrong.

            My kids used to like playing Mario Kart with a neighbor boy.  And if you’re familiar with that game there are twelve competitors in each race.  The fastest six characters seem happy and cheer when the race is over.  The slowest six seem sad and moan and groan.  The neighbor boy used to call it the, “happy cut.”  If you at least made the top six you should be happy.

            Questions like heaven and hell and who goes where make an artificial distinction.  They’re asking who made the happy cut.  And being the humans we are, we’re going to try to leverage it.

            I remember guys in college asking, “What’s the least I can do yet still get a passing grade?”  That’s missing the point of the course!  The point of the course is not about passing.  The point of the course is to learn and to be effective.  Passing or failing just shows whether you understand the material or not.

            Life is not about doing the minimal amount necessary to get to heaven.  Life is about knowing you are loved by God, and then you live out that love.

            In the weakness of our faith I think we all ask ourselves the heaven or hell question.  But a deepening and maturing faith stops asking the question, because it isn’t a real distinction at all.  Simply trust God and live in that trust.  God will work out the rest.  Live in trust and all the judgment stuff that Jesus talked about in our gospel reading will automatically be taken care of.  The faithful ones even answer Jesus that they didn’t know that what they were doing was actually serving him.

            Thanksgiving was last Thursday and I asked myself what I am thankful for.  I can list a lot of things, but central to the things I am thankful for are things like my ability to work, my ability to learn, and my ability to grow.  I realize that the things I value the most in life are not things that have come cheap or been free.  They are things I have worked and worked hard to have.  Somehow in working for something you invest a part of yourself in it.  Because of that you appreciate it more.  If I were to win the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes I don’t know what I’d do with the money.  Many people would be thrilled to be able to buy just about anything they wanted for the rest of their lives.  I don’t think I’d be so happy.  I’d have lost appreciation for all that I get.  It wouldn’t cost anything.

            I think our ability to work and to earn and to grow are actually examples of God’s grace.  God doesn’t make life easy for us.  That would deny us appreciation, and it would make our lives meaningless.

            If God miraculously solved all the world’s problems simply because we prayed about them then this would be a pretty pointless life.  Instead we have meaningful work to do.  It costs us.  It hurts us sometimes.  We do things right and we do things wrong.  We don’t see that work as getting us to heaven and keeping us from hell.  That work is shaping our identity and making us stronger and deeper.

            May you do for others not for the purpose of buying God’s favor so you make the happy cut after you die.  May you do for others because you realize God has empowered you to do for others, and like God, you do not overlook the broken parts of the world around you.

November 12, 2017 Joseph's Coat Genesis 37

It seems like everyone has seen the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  The only thing is, what does the Bible say about that amazing coat?  Was it actually colorful?  No, the distinguishing characteristic of it was long sleeves, not colors!

            The idea that the coat was colorful came about because of a mistranslation from Greek.  And that mistranslation happened 500 years ago and it can be traced to the source, one man – Martin Luther.  When Luther was translating the Old Testament into German he found it difficult to know how to translate what Joseph’s coat was like.  What was distinguishing about it was that it had long sleeves.  So what?!?  Luther’s writing to Germans.  Winters are cold.  Everyone’s coat has long sleeves!  But what people don’t have is colorful clothing.  Only rich and powerful people have colorful coats.  A colorful coat was a sign of leadership and power.  The long sleeved coat that Joseph was actually given was a sign of power in his day.  It was a sign of authority in the family and leadership.

            Do you remember the parable of the Prodigal Son?  What does the father do when the prodigal returns?  He commands the servants to bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger.  The robe would have been a long sleeved robe and the ring was the signet ring used to seal official documents.  All of this conveyed authority in the family.  That is why the faithful brother is so jealous.

            It is this priority and leadership Luther wanted to convey in his translation.  And a father giving his son a long sleeved coat just wasn’t going to cut it in Germany.  Somehow though Joseph’s colorful coat has caught people’s imaginations for centuries.

We’ve stepped away from Genesis for several weeks so let’s remind ourselves of the family dynamics that have led to Joseph getting a special coat from Jacob, his father.  You’ll remember that Jacob is far from a perfect man, but in later life he starts to show some courage.  He was tricked into marrying his first wife, Leah.  His really loved his second wife, Rachel.  But Leah could have children and Rachel couldn’t; at least not at first.  In competition and jealousy Leah and Rachel throw their maids into the mix, and by the time we get to our story today Rachel has died giving birth to Benjamin, the youngest of all the children; and Jacob’s had a total of twelve sons and one daughter to four different women.  The true firstborn is Reuben.  He is the first son of Jacob’s first wife, Leah.  Joseph is the firstborn of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel.  You’ll note that both Joseph and Reuben had a part in today’s story.

The Bible’s story is far more complex than the musical it inspired.  But we should not be surprised that the ten brothers older than Joseph are jealous of his position.  Is he daddy’s favorite only because of his mother, or is he truly of superior moral character than the rest?  As the story goes on we’ll discover that he is truly better, but that all the other brothers aren’t the same.  Even in today’s story we learn that Reuben doesn’t want to kill Joseph, but he doesn’t want to stand up to his brothers either.  It is interesting because you’d expect Reuben to be the most jealous.  He is, after all, the true firstborn.  He should be getting the special coat.  In the end Reuben though comes off being spineless.  He participates in the deceit of destroying the coat and smearing it with goat blood.

The brother Judah also stands out for being scheming and seeing a way to make a profit for selling Joseph, rather than killing him.

No family is perfect.  I’d say this one is as messed up as it can get, except we meet the Herod family in the New Testament and they’re even worse!

Anyway, what to make of all this…

What stands out the most to me is something that I find still existing strong in human nature.  People can be very tolerant of an opposing viewpoint or something they disagree with, but only until it starts to hurt their bottom line.  The other brothers certainly did not like Joseph.  They could tell he was daddy’s favorite but they didn’t do anything about it.  However, when Joseph receives the coat which proves his superior status then it is time to take action.

Last week I brought this up to the confirmation class.  I used the example of Martin Luther and the 95 Theses.  Don’t for a minute think that one day Luther got mad at what he was seeing in the church and suddenly decided to post his complaints and immediately the church went wild.  No, Luther had been preaching against the sale of indulgences for years.  And in September of 1517 he released what he called Disputations Against Scholastic Theology.  These 97 theses were far more challenging to the church than the famous 95 Theses he posted on October 31^st of 1517.  But no one responded to Disputations Against Scholastic Theology, and it has largely been forgotten. 

Why did the 95 Theses stick, while a more shocking document earlier didn’t?  Because Disputations Against Scholastic Theology didn’t hurt anybody’s wallet!  The 95 Theses only got Luther into trouble because Albert of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, was in desperate need of cash.  The 95 Theses ruined his fundraising campaign.  Otherwise the 95 Theses would have been ignored as yet another silly theological rant by an over-zealous monk stuck in his own righteousness.

I told the confirmation class that they should always stand up for what is right.  But that they will probably be ignored until standing up for what is right starts to impact someone’s wallet or their power or their public image.  Then watch out!

It happens every day.  We know what is right and what is wrong.  We like to think we’ll choose what is right, but that gets hard when it starts to cost us.  Sexual harassment has been in the news a lot lately.  I certainly hope you’re not guilty of it, but when you see it happening do you do anything about it?  Maybe, maybe not.  I have a feeling that for most people they will consider the cost to themselves or their careers when they decide whether to do anything about it.  If there’s no cost, then standing up against it isn’t hard.  But if you know it’ll cost you your job or an advancement then you think twice.

Racism is another big issue.  The entire membership of this congregation is categorized as either white or Asian/Pacific Islander.  We don’t experience racial discrimination as a group.  It’s an issue for us, but not one that really hurts us.  My colleague Imani O’Lear, the black pastor at Reformation Lutheran Church is only one of two black pastors in our conference.  She leads excellent presentations and workshops about racial issues.  I’ve thought about bringing her here to do one.  But how many people would actually come?  I’m sure you’d appreciate what she does and you’d be impressed if I had her do something during worship time.  But of course she’s a pastor and she has her own church on Sunday mornings.  If I scheduled something some other time would you feel a pressing need to make time for it in your schedule?  Maybe, maybe not.  The point is, you can afford to ignore it.  If violent racial riots erupted in Ontario County and several of your homes were vandalized and people were killed you’d have a different approach.

There is so much brokenness in the world.  We pray “thy kingdom come” but it is so easy to not do anything about it. 

Now there’s nothing wrong with living in a nice and safe community.  And there is wisdom to knowing when to fight and when not to fight.  But it is very easy to cross the line into doing nothing about an injustice because it doesn’t impact you, or if doing something will hurt you.

Remember, we are children of God.  That is our first and our last identity and it is our identity every day of our lives.  Let us not be selfish weaklings who go through life seeing only to ourselves and avoiding all conflicts except those that directly impact us.  Let us use being children of God with boldness and confidence, knowing that God is by our side.  Next week we’ll again look at Joseph, then we’ll see he’s become a powerful man who could seek revenge against his brothers.  We’ll see that his brothers have not changed.  Not surprisingly though, Joseph will stay true to what is godly and right, even though it brings him no benefit.

November 5, 2017 All Saints Sunday 1 Corinthians 15:35-44

                I love this line from Mark Twain, “I did not attend his funeral; but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of it.”  Hmm, you can take that any number of ways. 

                On All Saints Sunday we remember those who have died and gone on before us, and we also consider our own mortality.  I recently saw a bumper sticker that read, “I plan to live forever.  So far so good.”  But of course that only works for a while. 

                The way we consider our mortality and death changes as we go through life.  Little children take a very simplistic view, like dying is just a long nap.  Adolescents tend to think they will live forever.  They act and drive like it too.  Young adults become a bit more introspective but they see it as something that is still too far off to worry about.  Middle age people consider their mortality more, but they still see death as being decades off.  In senior citizens I see a variety of responses.  Some deny it.  Some see death as looming ever closer.  Some, like Harry Braunlich, say they refuse to buy more than one or two bananas at a time lest they not live long enough to eat them.  I know senior citizens who would go to the post office and only buy enough stamps to mail what they had to mail that day, lest they die and the stamps go to waste.  I roll my eyes thinking that someone is sure to use the stamps.  And who really cares whether they get used or not!

                My colleague Mary Johnson used to be a hospice chaplain.  She says that typically as a person approaches death their priorities change.  Many day to day things that they used to think were important aren’t so important anymore.  The traffic, or getting to appointments on time, or how the Bills season is going, or the stock market, or how many likes their post received on Facebook doesn’t matter anymore.  They are focused on deeper and more significant issues.

                When I’m visiting someone in the hospital I sometimes look out the window and see all the people scurrying around in their day to day tasks, all of it seeming so important at that moment, but not really so in the grand scheme of things.

                And yet not everyone who is about to die has deep thoughts.  I remember working with one person who was endlessly concerned that her income taxes would be filed correctly and on time.  I imagined the IRS having a special operating room where they have auditors gathered and they endlessly revive people until they pay their taxes!

                William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania said, “He that lives to forever, never fears dying.”  It’s a noble thought, but one that is hard to live into.  Death is the great mystery.  It is something we all must face sooner or later; but what is it like?

                Our gospel reading was the Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  They speak of a great reversal of fortune for many who are suffering now.  The text from Revelation shares a great vision.  A vast multitude from every nation is gathered around the throne and the Lamb crying out praises to God.  We are told they will never hunger any more or thirst any more.  The sun will not strike them nor any scorching heat, and God will away every tear from their eyes.  It is a wonderful vision and sounds great.  But if you think about it for a while you start to have questions.  Do I really want to stand around the throne of God and sing praises to God forever and ever?   That doesn’t sound like fun.  Plus, how narcissistic can God be?!?  And if you are like me, doesn’t everything get boring after a while?

                By the time my one grandfather died, well into his eighties, he developed the sense that he had seen what he wanted to see in life and done what he wanted to do in life, and he was ready to die.  He wasn’t depressed or anything and he didn’t become a recluse, just things of this life no longer attracted him. 

                Eternity is a long time.  Just about anything is sure to become boring.  I love a meal of prime rib, potatoes, grilled vegetables, a nice glass of wine, and hot apple pie with ice cream for dessert.  But to have that every meal forever and I’m going to get sick of it!

                What is eternal life, resurrection life like?  If we are to be as William Penn suggests, living to forever, what does that mean?  If we are to look forward to God’s promises and use them to help us get through the hard times of today, then it would be good if we had a clear and solid sense of that.  The more clearly I can imagine a good future the more able I am to get through a tough time now.

You can search the Bible all you want.  You won’t get definitive answers.  Eternal life is simply something beyond what we can comprehend.  I suppose we could call it unimaginably good.  That might be good news for you, but I still want more.  I want something more concrete to understand. 

I think St. Paul was trying to help the Corinthian Christians with just that when he wrote what we read as our second lesson today.  He doesn’t give an answer.  That would be impossible.  But he does try to describe what God is really up to.

He uses the image of a seed and the way the seed contains all that is needed to grow a plant, but the plant and the seed may not look at all alike.  While no image is perfect, Paul’s image here is powerful.  Throughout Christian history people have said that things in this life don’t really matter.  Not so.  If this world and this life really don’t matter at all then why the crucifixion?  Jesus could have just come a been a teacher that told everybody to be nice and good to each other and that would be that.  No, this life is vitally important.  Just like a seed is vitally important to grow the plant.  And so, we, the seed, will be transformed but still recognizable in a further stage of existence. 

Paul’s writing also teaches us something else.  Salvation is not just an individual act between God and ourselves.  Salvation is a cosmic undertaking on God’s behalf. 

St. Paul understood that everything had a body, and that nothing exists outside of a body.  He doesn’t mean just people but all creatures and all plants, and the air and the ground and the water and the whole planet and the moon and the stars; and if he had known about them, whole galaxies. 

All of those bodies are seeds.  All of them are part of God’s cosmic work of salvation.  We think ourselves pretty high and mighty if we think God is at work just saving us and the people we love; or saving our lifestyles.  We are kidding ourselves is we think that heaven is like living forever at Disney World with no lines and no waiting. 

God’s salvation isn’t about making you happy forever.  While God certainly considers you worthwhile, God is at work saving the entire universe.  Somehow, someway, every blade of grass your lawn mower has ever cut and every fly you’ve ever swatted is part of God’s redeeming work.

Now I have absolutely no idea how mosquitoes will have a place in heaven, but they are part of God’s work of salvation.

Perhaps the best way for us to live out the promise of eternity is to not think about ourselves.  I think people make a mistake if they think something like, “I have to suffer now so that God will reward me later.”  That is pure nonsense.  Better to think that the world is broken.  You are suffering and if you are suffering and there is a way out of it then take that way.  And in so doing you help to ease the brokenness of creation.

When you think about heaven and eternity think about God’s great work, and pray to find ways to engage in it.  That will bring about satisfaction this day and in every day to come.  God is not saving the universe alone.  God has equipped your body to help.