March 27, 2022 Luke 8:22-56

In the gospel reading we see miracles of Jesus’ power. Perhaps the one that seems the biggest is the stilling of the storm. But I want to go to Jesus healing the woman with the hemorrhages. That one, I think, takes us to the center of all the miracles.

This story shows up in Matthew and Mark as well with little alteration. Biblical interpreters (esp. Joel Green: Luke, New International Commentary on the New Testament.) note that while the woman’s bleeding condition may have been healed by touching a fringe on Jesus’ clothes, her real healing doesn’t come until Jesus pushes until she reveals herself to the crowds.

This may seem almost mean of Jesus. If he is always kind and loving why would he put this woman on the spot. Why can’t she just touch him, be healed, and then go on without bothering him further?

Why? Because that wouldn’t be real healing. We are told that this woman has been suffering for twelve years and spent all that she had. She’s now poor, hopeless, and desperate. I’ve said before that people would often become ritually unclean. It was no big deal. You just waited the proper time, performed the proper cleansing rituals, and then you were clean again. But twelve years of bleeding meant twelve years of perpetual uncleanliness. Not only was she barred from the temple and holy places, she shouldn’t be in public at all. Everyone and everything she touches would be made unclean by her. Just like today, dirtiness rubs off on cleanliness. Cleanliness does not rub off of uncleanliness.

We don’t know exactly what happened before she touched Jesus, but she seems to have slipped out, she wants to secretly touch Jesus without being noticed, and the slip back into the shadows. Is Jesus going to let that happen? It that really going to heal her?

This woman reminds me of the song Rachel Racinda by Lost and Found. Let’s listen to it. (This is about the saddest song I’ve ever heard.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ECHwyM_Wac



Rachel Racinda's small sister Melindas

had come to the end of her rope

trying and vying and sighing and crying

and dying to meet the boy Hope



[Verse 2]

but Melindas stayed firmly and tightly secure

inside her house where her life could be sure

the windows were bolted and doors they were locked

and every day Hope came to visit and knocked

but Rachel Racinda's small sister Melindas

made certain the entrance was blocked



[Verse 3]

he couldn't come in and she wouldn't come out

no matter how loudly she'd scream and he'd shout

the walls were too thick and the glass was too strong

and even though both of them knew it was wrong

Rachel Racinda's small sister Melindas

had been in her house for too long



[Verse 4]

she saw herself ugly and called herself dumb

but Hope had seen beauty and brilliance and fun

the world was too scary she wouldn't partake

but Hope talked of what a fine leader she'd make

she lowered the shade and she fastened the curtain

her future was scary and love was uncertain

Rachel Racinda's small sister Melindas

knew all she had known was at stake



[Verse 5]

no matter how Hope begged her please to come out

she valued her fears and she trusted her doubt

and soon even she couldn't open the lock

or break out the window of turn back the clock

or let Hope come inside and show her his care

her house was too solid, her house was despair

And Rachel Racinda's small sister Melindas

grew used to her life and stayed there



[Verse 6]

she talked of adventure, but dreamed from inside

and most of the days, well she slept or she cried

and even though Hope and the others had tried

Rachel Racinda's small sister Melindas

learned early and well how to hide



Whether or not this song actually fits this woman’s situation, I think it is a faithful way to interpret her and all the miracles we read.

Is she really healed, is she really restored to wholeness of life if she continues to live in the shadows of uncleanliness?

In the raising of the dead girl of the synagogue leader Jesus does more than just resuscitate a corpse. She is the only child in the family – the family’s future. Jesus restores the family to wholeness.

In the dramatic and lengthy story of the casting out of the legion of demons from the guy from Gerasene Jesus does more than just restore him to mental health. The man gets his entire life back. He had been living in tombs instead of a house. He was kept under guard. He was shackled and chained. He would do self-harm. And as an absolute contrast to the hemorrhaging woman, he escapes and breaks free. He comes to Jesus screaming at the top of his lungs.

We get a sense of the violence of this man when the whole herd of swine that the demons enter into drown themselves in the lake. What’s going on there is a whole different sermon. We’ve talked about that before and I don’t want to sidetrack into that today. So despite the violence of this man, Jesus’ healing restores him to productive life. When the townspeople come they see him seated at the feet of Jesus. He is clothed. He is calm. He is in his right mind.

And then going back one scene earlier – the calming of the storm. It’s more than just stopping wind and waves. It’s about getting the disciples back to a place of safety.

In Jesus there is calm. There is healing. There is wholeness of life. It is not a wholeness that lurks scared in the shadows. It is wholeness that wants to engage the world. Every person we encountered in our gospel today was equipped to go out and witness to what God had done. This was not some street corner evangelism with a megaphone. This was authentic sharing of God’s goodness.

In the video series we’re using for Lent we learned last week that, “When you fear, love, and trust God above all things, you are freed to be a good neighbor, not worrying about what people are thinking about you, and not pretending to be something you’re not. You live in peace, caring for God’s creation knowing that on the last day God will raise you and give you eternal life. This is most certainly true.”

And that is the wholeness Jesus will relentlessly pursue you to bring about.

 

March 20, 2022 Parable of the Sower Luke 8:1-21

  Our gospel reading is a collection of teachings.  I’m guessing your mind was drawn to the Parable of the Sower at the center of the reading.  Within the Parable of the Sower many people are drawn to the types of soil.  Many people find themselves wondering if they are the category of good soil which is productive?  This parable engages us because we know the temptations of the other types of soil. 

We all know the feeling of being the path where the seed is snatched away by the birds.  Indeed, in our own lives we can probably remember times when we’ve chosen to ignore a truth that is inconvenient for us.  Preferring instead to believe a lie that we like.

We also know the feeling of being the rocky soil, where we may have a moment of joy in faith but it fades away in time.  I think of those who come to church when their lives are in crises, but then when they feel like they’re back in control they slip away.

Similarly, we know what it is to be among the thorns.  Our lives are full of competing interests.  We don’t have time to do everything we want to do; even if everything is a good thing.  It is easy to let faith slip to the side and other things take over.  God just isn’t loud enough in the midst of all the rest of the world’s noise.  Even though we know we need God ultimately for salvation, we can just let the other demands control our lives.

And then there is the good soil – what we want to be.  It sounds simple enough, but seems all too hard.  We think it is the rare type of person who is super-religious, perfect; far too good for our failing lives.

But I’ve deliberately led you down a false path.  There’s an absurdity to this parable that we miss in our lives of abundance.  The absurdity is the actions of the sower.  And if we are the soil types, then the sower is God.  How strange indeed does this sower act!

I doubt any of us have actually gone out and sown seed by hand in a field.  However, many of us have sown grass seed in our yards.  We get the image.  If you have a small area you reach into the bag of seed with your hand, grab a handful; and it immediately starts trickling through your fingers.  It’s hard to keep a fist full.  And as it’s trickling out we pull our hand out of the bag and scatter it to the left or to the right.  Then we reach in for another handful. 

Or maybe if we have a big area to cover we’ll have one of those fun little broadcaster contraptions that you pour the bag of seed into.  Just start pushing, open the little door at the bottom, the seed starts falling on the spinner underneath and it does the broadcasting for you.

I don’t consider grass seed to be all that cheap, but you could hardly consider it to be expensive either.  And it isn’t hard to come by.  Just drive over to The Home Depot, or any number of other stores, and buy a bag… or several.

Here’s something I’m almost sure you’ve never done.  You’ve never harvested your own grass seed!  Imagine what it would be like if that’s how you had to get grass seed.  You’d have to let part of your lawn grow tall and go to seed – or you’re starting a new lawn from bare earth you’d have to have a friend or neighbor let some of their lawn grow tall and go to seed.  You’d have to let it die off and dry.  It would probably fall over and get pushed down in a tangle.  Then somehow you’d have to cut it gently.  It’s no job for a weed whacker, which would scatter the seeds everywhere.  No, it would be a job for scissors, or more likely a sickle or scythe.  I doubt you have either of those in the pile of unused junk that’s in your garage.  Unless, of course, you have one for your Grim Reaper Halloween Costume.

You would have to carefully slice off the dried grass, keeping the seed attached.  Then you’d have to gather it and carry it somewhere for threshing.  How often do you come across a threshing machine when you’re shopping for bargains at yard sales? 

So you’d have thresh the seed by hand- either literally by rubbing the grass stalks in your hands to loosen the seeds, or by attaching strips of leather to sticks and beating the grass to loosen the seed.

Now you have to separate the seed from the grass stalks.  That’s another laborious process.  Ever seen someone do that in your neighborhood?  Nope.  With a combination of rakes and fans you could scratch and blow to get the grass stalks and chaff separated.

And after all that work you’d have a couple handfuls of seed.

Now it’s time to sow it in your lawn!

How are you going to handle that seed?  Like it’s gold!  You’re not going to just throw it around willy-nilly.  You’re not going to scatter it such that it scatters over onto the sidewalk or the street.  You’re not going to scatter it on rocks thinking, “Well, what grows will grow and what doesn’t, doesn’t.”  And you’re not going to throw those seeds in a thistle filled patch of grass.  Before you put the precious seed in that area you’re going to get rid of those weeds!  You’re only going to put that seed where the soil is good and it is likely to grow and grow well!

That’s the part of the parable that we miss.  This seed is valuable!  You don’t scatter it willy-nilly everywhere.  Jesus does not have the sower in the parable go to The Home Depot and buy a bag of seed on sale.  This is valuable seed that came about through hours and hours of labor.

God the Sower is throwing the valuable seed of his love here there and everywhere.  God throws it where it is likely to grow and where it has no chance whatsoever, but God sows.

If possible, as a follower of Christ put yourself in the role of the sower from time to time too.  Consider it from God’s perspective of sharing goodness and hope in places where it is likely to flourish and places where it has no hope whatsoever.  Sowing grass seed in the street has almost no chance of growing.  But God sows it anyway, and we do too.

As you think about what kind of soil you are, keep in mind God’s perspective of sowing anyway.  Whatever soil you think you are, God is putting value into you whether it is likely to grow or not.

That’s easier to say than to believe.  Sometimes you want, want, want to be good soil.  You want to be productive.  You want to do good things.  But you just don’t feel like God is sowing seed at all.  The path, the rocks, the thorns can feel like all too likely.  But God is sowing anyway.

There’s something else we have to remember about growing things.  It takes time.  A seed planted today does not produce tomorrow.  It takes weeks, months, maybe even years for a seed planted to become productive.

Perhaps a good example for us are the apple trees we planted I think it was seven years ago.  They weren’t planted from seed.  They came as trees a few feet high and we put them in the ground.  Even so they grew the first year but didn’t produce anything.  They grew the second year and didn’t produce anything.  The third year they produced some apples but still not much.  Then the last couple of years they’ve been full of blossoms.  We still haven’t had a good harvest.  I suspect the deer are getting most, but in general they will produce more and more.  It takes time, and it isn’t entirely predictable.

Let us not put God’s growing schedule on our schedule.  Be patient with God.  Or perhaps I should say, be patient with yourself.  God does not sow bad seed.  God sows only good seed.  And God is sowing it into you constantly.  Give it time to root.  Give it time to grow.  Give it time to ripen for the harvest.  Some trees take over a decade to produce fruit.  We are far more complex than trees, why should we demand faster results?

Don’t forget Jesus’ final words in the Parable of the Sower, “But as for the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” 

God’s not usually into quick fixes.  God is into lasting growth and productivity.  May you find the patience and endurance to see your life bear a harvest of abundance from God’s good seed. 

3/13/22 Words Put into Action Luke 7

     Luke makes what I find to be a fascinating statement in the middle of our gospel reading, “And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.  But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purposes for themselves.”  To me that is the hub the whole chapter revolves around.

You may remember from last week that we had a special insert in the bulletin.  One side was labeled the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation.  That is the way the world worked in Jesus’ day and is it the way it works now.  The world was like a pyramid with the elite on top down to a large base of people who were being exploited.  It is a world of limited commodities and trading favors.  The other side was labeled the Divine Economy or Promised Compassion.  There God was on top.  Jesus was God’s chief agent, but all Christians were also agents in the world bringing God’s love and mercy to humanity in need.  There is no trading favors, no one more or less deserving.  It is a very different way to live; and a very challenging way to understand God’s way of working in the world.

 Last week we read the great sermon that Jesus gave to a large crowd.  This week the story continues with Jesus’ words being put into action.  And again, it all seems to revolve around receiving or rejecting God’s purposes for life.

In the first scene we meet a centurion who has Jesus heal a beloved servant sort of by “remote control.”  Interpret it in light of the clash of economies.  Look at how the Jewish leaders try to get Jesus to help the centurion.  They say, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.”  Notice they suggest he deserves something from Jesus?  He’s been nice to the Jews now the Jews should be nice to him.  It all makes perfect sense!  But remember, that’s the whole favor trading system of the world. 

What does the centurion say to Jesus?  Does he say that he deserves something good from God, or the God of the Jews, for being a giving person?  He says, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you.  But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.” 

There’s no leverage here at all.  All he’s doing is asking for help on behalf of someone else from a person he knows can help.  When Jesus commends the centurion’s faith he is not commending him for trusting that Jesus can help.  He is commending him for embodying what he just taught.  The centurion is acting as an agent of God on behalf of humanity in need.

The next scene is Jesus raising the widow’s son in the village of Nain.  In the previous scene the centurion didn’t want to have Jesus come into his house because he knew that would offend Jewish boundaries of clean and unclean.  In this scene, without anyone asking Jesus to do anything, Jesus does an unclean thing.  He touches the bier of the dead man.  Then he says, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” 

There’s nothing about merit or worthiness or deserving or anything like that here.  Jesus is simply God’s agent bringing God’s promised compassion to a situation in need.

Let’s jump to the final scene with the woman anointing Jesus’ feet with her hair.  (We’ll come back to John the Baptist in a minute.)  Jesus is still in Nain and is the guest of honor at a meal hosted by a Pharisee.  Presumably this Pharisee was quite wealthy.  He appears to have the house of a wealthy person, which would include a central courtyard open to the street.  This woman who comes to Jesus did not sneak into the house and go wandering through until she came to the dining room.  The whole event would have been quite open to public view.  She simply saw Jesus there and wanted to express her appreciation of him.

If you are like me, the first image that pops into your mind is some gorgeous young seductress with a reputation in the town.  But there is nothing in the story to suggest that at all.  Luke appears to be deliberately spare on his details about her.  She is just a local woman labeled as a “sinner.”  She could just as easily be an elderly woman with a broken body and sparce hair.  Indeed there are sexual overtones to it all, and that raises the eyebrows of the host as well as the guests.  But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, turns the tables on them.

They are thinking that she does not deserve God’s mercy.  Clearly she is a sinner, and doing such a thing as coming to Jesus like this, is proof of it.

But in a masterstroke Jesus turns the tables on them.  He points out the Pharisee’s failure to observe the rules of hospitality.  When Jesus says you gave me no water for my feet, no kiss of greeting, and no anointing with oil, he is pointing out that if the Pharisee wants to play by the rules of who deserves what, the Pharisee has failed miserably.  In other words, the Pharisee isn’t even playing by the rules of his own game!  But this woman, unable to fit into the game at all, is showing thankfulness.  She has received knowing she does not deserve.

There is a very important thing to learn from this woman.  This whole idea of the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion where you receive mercy whether you deserve it or not can quickly run into a ditch.  Last week I talked to a friend who recently retired from Catholic Charities.  He shared about cleaning out a group home they had run.  They threw out loads of clothing and games and items, much of which was worthless because it was ill-treated.  He said that since everything had come freely to the residents of the group home they didn’t have appreciation for anything.

Indeed, when you have to work for something you value it more.  Too often programs in this nation designed to help needy people end up perpetuating problems and giving people a sense of entitlement.  But that is not the intention of God’s Divine Economy of Promised Compassion.  If anything, God’s ways should drive people to be more appreciative and work even harder.  You don’t work harder for a greater reward.  You work harder because you are driven to share what you yourself have received.

This woman did not take the love she received from God and become lazy about it.  It drove her to greater work!  When Jesus says to her, “Your faith has saved you…” he is not talking about some intellectual belief in her head.  He is affirming that she is living as an agent in God’s economy of compassion.

Again, when God’s forgiveness and compassion and mercy are received as they are intended, it does not lead to laziness.  It brings us to a greater sense of God’s nature and it spurs us to continue working.

I stared by quoting that the Pharisees and lawyers had rejected God’s purpose for themselves.  I hope that is coming into greater clarity.  God did not reject them at all.  They, in their own limitations, just could not accept God’s true nature.  And indeed, accepting God’s true nature is very challenging.  At the center of our reading is the visit to Jesus by some of the followers of John the Baptist. John is being very challenged by Jesus too.

Do you remember earlier in Luke’s gospel when we heard the message of John the Baptist?  John preached, “I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  (3:16-17)

That’s some fire and brimstone preaching!  Is Jesus living up to that?  Is he the one from God?  Jesus replies to John’s inquiry, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.”  That is God’s divine economy of promised compassion.  It is certainly not what John expected but it is indeed God’s true nature showing through!

Jesus is serving as the judge.  But he isn’t kicking anyone out.  No.  He’s just bringing in God’s reality.  People are kicking themselves out.  I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, when Luke talks about Pharisees and religious leaders he is not making a universal statement about them.  Just like not all Republicans are alike and not all Democrats are alike, so not all the religious folks were alike.  They were a mixed group and had a divided response.  Some accepted Jesus.  Some rejected him.

What was the real challenge was that for those for whom the ways of the world worked, they had a very hard time grasping God’s nature.  The same is true for today.  But for those whom the ways of the world did not work, God’s true nature was good news indeed.

May God bring to your life his great economy of promised compassion.  And may it inspire you to receive, and to work, and to give in return.  And may it also fill your heart with joy, delight, and even silliness, because God really is thrilled with the work he did when he made you.

3/6/22 Sermon on the Plain Luke 6:17-49

(The worship bulletins contained an insert which does not tranfer well into this format. If you would like an electronic version of it please email the church at sjlcvictor@gmail.com)

In your bulletin is a handout labeled, “Understanding Luke’s Gospel, a clash of two economies.” I invite you to pull that out because that is where we want to begin. This is something Dr. Rick Carlson, one of my New Testament professors in seminary, gave us to understand what is going on throughout Luke’s gospel.

We start on the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation side. There at the top we find the Elite. These are high ranking government officials. Think the emperor, regional governors, military generals. They are truly at the top of society. Below them are the Clients of the Elite. These are merchants, mid-level government officials, lawyers, large land owners, and possibly even some highly skilled slaves. (We have to remember that slavery in those days was very different than the American use of slaves. Some slaves rose to be very high ranking and have tremendous power over others.) The elite would make decisions and use their power. The clients of the elite would then carry them out. The arrow is shown pointing just down but it could go both ways. The elite knew they couldn’t be total bullies. They’d do favors for each other and for their clients. The clients would do favors for the elite in the hopes of recognition and favor.

On the way down below the clients of the elite we find small farmers, skilled tradesmen, free peasants, and skilled slaves. I suppose this could be considered somewhat of a middle class. Life was very hard but they had what they needed to enjoy some sense of security. They had little power over the government or economy around them but they could navigate the world with some autonomy.

This whole thing functioned like a pyramid. There were very few elite. Somewhat more clients of the elite. And somewhat more than that of these lower middle class folks. And then like a distorted pyramid the base becomes hugely wide. There was the Exploited, or Exploitable. These were the farm laborers, unskilled laborers, the unclean and degraded, and expendable slaves. This was the vast majority of the population. The goods and services they provided were consumed by the clients of the elite and the elite. These people would hope for favor from those who were above them. And if you were someone above them who did something nice for them you expected them to be able to do you a favor in return.

A big part of this whole economy is the idea of, “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine.” Life was a series of favors given and obligations owed.

At the bottom of the page we see some of Dr. Carlson’s thoughts.

This system believes it is divinely established and has the blessing of God (or the gods). People believed that if you were on top that meant that God liked you and was blessing you. It became a self-fulfilling dynamic. If you were in the upper levels you exploited people beneath you because you thought you had every right to it, and those below you deserved it as an expression of God’s dislike of them.

This system believes there are limited resources. In some ways this was understandable. There was only so much good land. There was only so much space within the walled cities. There was only so much food, only so many fish in the Sea of Galilee. But there was also the belief that there was only so much love, That takes us to the next point. “The same system applies to the religious world. God’s love is a limited commodity. For example, God loves the Israelites but God doesn’t have enough love for the Gentiles too. Also, there is limited forgiveness. God can only stand so much. God can only forgive so much. Beyond that and you’re out of luck. And, God’s favor absolutely positively must must must be earned through good works and righteous living.

This economic model is a Satanic model. Think back to the testing of the Jesus by the devil in the wilderness. Remember when the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth and says they can be his if he just kneels down and worships him? You can see the trading favors ideas and the client and elite model there.

This economy is the economy of the world, even the American economy. However there are indeed more opportunities in our economy to move us the ladder than there was then. Still though, there are perpetually the haves and the have nots. If you don’t have brains and looks you’re simply out of luck in our world.

Luke’s gospel is trying to subvert this economy.

The central conflict in Luke’s gospel is between this economy and the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion; which is the other side of the sheet.

On the other side we find God at the top. Below God is God’s chosen agents. Jesus is the greatest agent, but all Christians are also agents. And they are agents to bring God’s promised abundant love and mercy to humanity in need.

This economy is based on mercy, not merit. God’s love is unlimited. And surprisingly (although this one really stretches our sense of reality) there are unlimited goods. Think about the miraculous catch of fish and the Feeding of the 5000.

The Divine Economy of Promised Compassion really has no hierarchy at all. The arrows only indicate the flow of grace and mercy.

Now, don’t go trying to make judgments on whether one of these economies or the other is more ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’. If you want to know where conservative and liberal thinking lie, then you need to put both of them on the side of Redistributive Economics of Exploitation.

Think of it this way, and this is how I encourage all followers of Christ to understand their lives. There is a major conflict going on throughout the world. It is a downright war between the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation and the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion. You live in hostile territory. And you are one of God’s chosen agents to bring his mercy and compassion to humanity in need. Does that make sense? Don’t even think about trying to put any sort of political philosophy or economic theory onto the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion. You just can’t. That’s human (and thus Satanic) thinking.

You are God’s chosen agents in a hostile land. Don’t ever consider America to be a Christian nation. It never has been. When America makes that hymn we sang a couple weeks ago to note the invasion of Ukraine, This Is My Song, the national anthem, then maybe, just maybe we could dare to call this a Christian nation. That hymn exemplified the Divine Economy of Promised Compassion. We may be a democracy that seeks freedom and justice for all. That is certainly commendable. I wouldn’t want it any other way. But that’s still not God’s economy of Promised Compassion.

Keep in mind that you are an agent of God’s grace in a hostile world and then hear these words from Jesus again:

27“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.34If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;



These words are not intended to make you into a saccharine sweet nice person that the world just runs over. This is an agent’s manifesto for traveling into hostile territory.

Of course life is hard! Our world operates by the Redistributive Economics of Exploitation. We, along with everyone else, is in competition for attention and comfort and fun. And if you pray to God for God to help you do better in the Redistributive Economy of Exploitation you really can’t expect God to give you what you’re asking for. That’s only a path to more stress.

What God will do is strengthen you as an agent in his economy.

Many people hear these words of Jesus in light of the Redistributive Economy of Exploitation:

38give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”



They think, “Hey, being a follower of Jesus is just a different path to success. I’ll follow God and then I will be blessed in abundance.” But that is flawed thinking. That’s the redistributive economy way of being.

Give and you will be running over with abundance only makes sense in terms of God’s divine economy of compassion. Be an agent of God in this hostile world and you will not have an abundance of possessions. But you will have an abundance of the value and purpose, wholeness and fulfillment, that God made you to have; when God made you in his own creative brilliance.

Remember the very first line of Luke’s gospel? He wrote it to you. It is the Bible looking you squarely in the eye and saying, “…after carefully investigating everything carefully from the very first, [I decided] to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Lover of God (Theophilus), so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.