April 22, 2018 Easter 4 John 4:46-54

            As I began to do some research for this sermon on the second of the seven signs Jesus does in John’s gospel I realized that, for us at least, the sign isn’t as significant as what led up to the sign.  What led up to the sign is the reason why Jesus is back in Galilee.

            Right after the turning of water into wine that we read last week, John’s gospel reports that Jesus goes to Jerusalem.  There he is not well received by the religious leaders, so he goes back to Galilee.  Now when I say he was not well received I’m not giving you the whole picture.  The reason why he wasn’t well received is because he went into the temple in Jerusalem and upset the tables of the merchants and money changers, and he made a whip and drove out the sheep and the cattle.  That’s not a nice way to endear yourself to the powers that be!

            There’s an important side thing to note here.  In John’s gospel this symbolic shutting down of the temple Jesus does happens at the beginning of his public ministry.  It’ll be two years until he is crucified.  The way the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, portray it, Jesus upsets things in the temple at the beginning of Holy Week.  And it is doing that that gets him executed. 

            Some people try to get out of this timing problem by saying that Jesus upset things in the temple twice – once at the beginning of his ministry and again at the end.  But I think that’s an imaginative solution to get out of a scriptural contradiction.  In my opinion, historically it happened as the other gospels report.  John has moved it here to make a major point right from the beginning of the gospel.  Jesus went to the religious leaders – he started by going through the proper channels - but the proper channels wouldn’t have him.  The experts, those who should have recognized the truth for who he was, wouldn’t have him.  It is as if then Jesus thought, alright if they won’t have the grace of God then they will be rejected, and it will be proclaimed to those on the outside.

            If someone were to come in here during worship and started criticizing our worship and then started throwing things around what would we do?  We’d probably have that person removed and possibly call the police.  We’d probably talk about security during worship at our next council meeting.  What we may not do is to stop and ask ourselves, did this person have a point?  Were their words and actions justified?  We would probably not invite that person to come back for worship and to come to a council meeting and to maybe change things based upon what we learn.

            If we’re going to criticize the religious leaders for rejecting Jesus, maybe we have to criticize ourselves too.  I think it is very easy for us who have relatively stable lives to start rejecting anything that would cause instability.  This seems to be human nature.  We almost expect adolescents and young adults to upset the apple cart, but we definitely expect them to settle down into stable and productive lives.

            Of course there’s nothing wrong with being stable in and of itself, but it does become a problem when God’s call takes us out of the stability we’ve created.

            Let’s see just how deeply rooted and subtle that stability can be.  For years I’ve said that this church needs to hire a youth director.  Our your programming is the future and yet it’s consistently the weakest part of our church.  But we never have enough additional money to hire someone who would be good at it.

            At church council meetings I’m always trying to encourage outside the box thinking as well as being highly realistic.  I’ve raised the idea of sharing my time with another church.  That way a chunk of my salary could be redirected towards hiring a youth director.  It sounds like an okay idea until we get to the issue of Sunday morning worship.  Of course we’d be all for it if the other congregation would worship at a different time and we could keep our Sunday schedule unchanged.  But what if we had to drop to just one service?  What if we had to get rid of this service?  What if we had to give up Sunday morning worship altogether and start worshipping Sunday afternoons or on a different day of the week?  We wouldn’t be so keen on the idea then.  Jesus says nothing should come in the way of worshipping him.  We say the church should come first in our lives.  Okay, fine, as long as the church fits into our molds of what it should be.

            And if we would try something as off-the-wall as worshipping sometime other than Sunday morning I’ll almost guarantee that attendance would plummet immediately.  There’d be conversations in the parking lot that this whole idea of moving worship to be able to share the pastor in order to save enough money to hire a youth director, was the most stupid idea ever brought up.  It would destroy the congregation rather than help it grow.            We would have logical and practical reasons for not doing it.

            I don’t mean that we should ever set logical and reasonable thinking at the door and act stupid.  But I hope we can get more of an understanding of why Jesus was rejected in Jerusalem.  It is all too easy for a person with a well-organized life to turn Jesus away; and in doing so miss great signs of God’s presence. 

Jesus goes away from Jerusalem where those who should have recognized and celebrated him turned him away instead.  They turned away a great thing because it did not conform to expectations.

The healing of the official’s son doesn’t follow expectations either.  There is a formula way of telling a story about a miraculous healing.  It goes something like this:  Someone has a problem and needs to be cured.  That person comes to the healer and asks for healing.  Then, if the healer agrees to do the healing, there is some sort of face to face struggle.  The healer overcomes the struggle and the person is cured.  Then there is amazement from the witnesses.  Think about it.  Almost every healing Jesus does is told in a way that fits that pattern, but not this time.

Here Jesus doesn’t conform to patterns either.  The sick person doesn’t come to Jesus, nor is he brought, nor does Jesus go to him.  The boy’s father comes to Jesus and begs him to come and heal his son.  Jesus just says, “Go, your son will live.”  We’re told that the man believed it and he goes.  There is no meeting with the sick person, no struggle, no real witnesses and no amazement.  All we’re told is that the household of the boy came to believe.

That’s it.  No conventions, no nothing.  The whole miracle itself takes place offstage.  This is the second of Jesus’ signs, but it is showing no predictability at all.

Commentators tell us that the point of this second sign is that it teaches us that Jesus has the power to heal.  That may be what John intended it to mean.  But for us at least, it takes us to something deeper.

Who is Jesus to you?  Is Jesus someone you only pray to when you need help?  Do you unintentionally limit Jesus to only acting in ways that would keep a well-organized life in a well-organized way?  Do you unintentionally think Jesus prefers solemnness and orderliness and thus miss him when he’s other places as well?  When you help people are you trying to give them a well-organized and orderly life that you would find appealing, or are you trying to bring Jesus to them in whatever form might actually work?

One of the greatest problems of living in the suburbs is how successful we are at creating order.  While that is hardly a bad thing we forget the real messiness of rural poverty.  We stop looking at the chaos of Rochester.  We just shake our heads and walk away from urban schools that are totally failing.  We do it because we can afford to.  We can pretend that the opioid crisis exists only far away.  Refugee issues, civil wars in the Middle East and Africa are just things on the news.

Jesus is in all of those places.  He is performing signs and working miracles.  He is building communities where faith and hope can give wholeness and healing.  But we miss it.

One of the best things about Family Promise is the way it will bring at least some people into our space, our lives, so that the brokenness of the world ceases to just exist in a far away place.  Or if it exists in our lives, it is something we can hide.  Instead it is real.

Jesus would have loved to bring new life and wholeness to the leaders in Jerusalem.  But they were too interested in getting wholeness through orderliness.  And so Jesus went elsewhere.  May we be open to the truth Jesus teaches, even when it upends our lives, so that we may know the joy of being his child and seeing him at work.

April 15, 2018 Easter 3 John 2:1-12

            I don’t know how many times I’ve heard things along the lines of, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  Or people being worried about the destruction of storms, volcanoes, and earthquakes.  Pain and destruction are real and they are overwhelming.

            But so is joy, happiness, and abundance.  We do well to remember those times in life too.  Our gospel reading today is all about that experience.  It’s the famous miracle where Jesus turns water into wine.  But he doesn’t turn just a little bit of water into wine the quality of Wild Irish Rose.  This is lots and lots of water turned into lots and lots of excellent wine!  If this miracle makes no sense to you then you’re actually on the right path to understanding it.

            First, this is the first miracle Jesus performs in John’s gospel.  We’re only in Chapter 2.  And it’s no mistake that John puts it here – God incarnate, as Jesus and his inaugural act.  This may not be the best example to explain this, but have you ever had a new puppy?  When you get home from work your puppy greets you at the door; all full of excitement at your return and enthusiasm.  The puppy twists and wiggles in delight.  His or her tail whips around almost violently.  He or she will jump up and try to lick your face.  All is excitement and joy.  It’s not uncommon for a new puppy to be so overwhelmed with excitement that it pees on the floor.  That’ll probably change your mood pretty fast, but you get the idea of unbridled delight.

            John’s gospel starts with the words, “In the beginning was the Word…”  Those are the same words that start Genesis and you realize he is tying the story of Jesus into the story of creation.  The story in Genesis starts off great but doesn’t stay great for long.  Humans enjoy life with God in the Garden of Eden, but then they sin.  They get kicked out and God becomes more distant.

            But now, in Jesus, God is back.  The garden of creation is still a mess from humans but God’s come back anyway.  And it is as if creation is a little puppy wagging and wiggling with delight at seeing God.  I know molecules don’t have feelings but I imagine the water molecules in those stone jars so thrilled and delighted at being reunited with their creator that they can’t help but jump into the finest and most excellent thing they can possibly be – excellent wine.

            John’s gospel wants us to think about creation and the Garden of Eden all the way through.  Of the four gospels John’s gospel notes something specific about the location of Jesus’ tomb.  It’s in a garden.  Where does Jesus go to pray when he is arrested?  In Matthew and Mark it’s a place called Gethsemane, and it’s hinted that it’s on or near the Mount of Olives.  John, however, doesn’t say Gethsemane.  He just says Jesus goes across the Kidron Valley (which takes you to the Mount of Olives) to a garden.  You see the whole idea of the Garden of Gethsemane is a conflation of the gospel accounts.

            Anyway, the stories easily synchronize.  There’s no way to archeologically verify the location of any of it, but you know well enterprising people have created the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives and have set up souvenir shops in it!

            And when Mary Magdalene meets the resurrected Jesus by the garden tomb, who does she mistake Jesus for?  The gardener.

            As John’s gospel portrays it it’s almost as if God’s an obsessive gardener: Garden of Eden, prayer in the garden, tomb in the garden, resurrection in the garden, Jesus mistaken for the gardener.

            The garden of creation is rejoicing to have God back.  That’s what’s going on behind turning water into wine.  It is a celebration of excellence.  It is a celebration of abundance.  It is a celebration between God, creation, and humans.  It is about the unexpected, about something new.

            Commentator Gail O’Day notes, “…the miracle challenges conventional assumptions about order and control, about that is possible, about where God is found and how God is known…  Jesus works an unprecedented act, the transformation of many gallons of water into good, rich wine.  It is a miracle of abundance, of transformation and new possibilities.  The grace the miracle offers and the glimpse of Jesus’ glory it provides run outside conventional expectations and place the reader at odds with how he or she thought the world was ordered.  The interpretive task is not to put this miracle in a framework in which it “makes sense” but to free the faith community to receive the extraordinary gifts this miracle offers.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, pg. 540)

            Let’s note two details about the text itself.  One, the six stone water jars.  These would not be ordinary clay pots for ordinary duty.  Stone water jars took a lot of work to create and they were valuable.  We’re told these were used to hold water for purification.  Thus they had a holy purpose.  They weren’t Rubbermaid containers bought at Walmart.  They were like our own communion ware.

            These jars stood empty, waiting to be filled.  And they were filled with a wondrous new gift.  What was made for a holy purpose of purification rituals has been transformed by God into vessels for celebration.

            We do well not to confine God to only somber prim and proper things.  We need to remember that God enjoys a good laugh, God likes to have fun.  In fact God likes to take delight in us and in our lives.

            And with all of this, let’s note a second thing about the text, the way Jesus’ mother acts.  John’s gospel never gives a name to Jesus’ mother; he never calls her Mary.  Instead she is just Jesus’ mother.  Like many mothers, when she sees a problem she is all too quick to volunteer her child to save the day.  Jesus replies to her request that he do something, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?  My hour has not yet come.”  He’s not being disrespectful here when he calls her “woman.”  Commentators suggest it is simply creating a distance between himself and his mother.  He’s not going to change his life course or give preference to something because his mother asks him.

            And like many a good mother when her child says no, she completely ignores him and says, “Do whatever he tells you.”  There’s something really significant there and let’s not overlook it.

            When Mary says, “Do whatever he tells you.” she is showing that she hasn’t given up.  She knows full well that her son can do something about the situation.  However, she puts it all in Jesus’ hands.  She does not tell him to turn water into wine.  Filling the stone jars was Jesus’ idea.  Mary trusts that Jesus will act, and allows him to act in whatever way he deems best.

            That is an incredible show of faith and trust.  I think that all too often we ask God for help and we don’t realize that we have all sorts of conditions and expectations along with it.  It’s best to just raise an issue to God in prayer and then trust that God will do something about it; in God’s own time and in God’s own way.

            But be ready for the unexpected.  This is Jesus first sign, his first miracle.  It is glorious and wonderful.  But at the end of the gospel we find a greater and more glorious thing.  It’s not the resurrection.  It’s the crucifixion.  John’s gospel sees Jesus at his most glorious on the cross.  So when you truly turn things over to God be truly ready to not have even the faintest clue of what to expect.  God will work as God knows best.

            Jesus will go on to perform many miraculous signs.  Changing water into wine is the first and truly the most extravagant.  Know that no matter how hard or black life begins to look, God has such extravagance in store for us for eternal life.  It will be beyond all reason, all logic, and all sense of propriety.  But God is not bound by the rules we place upon him.  It is God’s good will to be gracious to us, we who do not deserve it.  Let us rejoice that no matter what comes our way, God has something great in store.

April 8, 2018 Easter 2 Mark 16:9-20

            I read this addition to the end of Mark’s gospel and I’m drawn to the amazing things Jesus says those who believe in him will be able to do: by using Jesus’ name they will cast out demons, speak in new tongues, pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing it will not hurt them, and they will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.  I could do with some of those skills.  Well, I don’t have much use for picking up snakes or drinking deadly things, but I sure would like to heal sick people.  And my grades when I took Spanish in high school would certainly have been better with some divine help!  But I can’t do any of those things.  Does that mean my faith is too weak or that I don’t believe?

            Wouldn’t belief in Christ be so much easier if there was a measurable difference between a believer and a non-believer?  Wouldn’t it be easier to believe the power of prayer if the prayer studies that have been done would show with statistical significance that people who were prayed for were more likely to be healed or be successful than those who were not.

            There have been times in our nation’s history where Christian faith would open doors for you that would not be opened for others, and times when Christian community has saved the day for a person; but you are hard pressed to show that believing in Christ brings about anything miraculous in any rate greater than any other religion or non-religious people at all.

            Do we just throw up our hands and walk away from it all?  If there are no benefits to faith then what’s the point after all?  And yet to walk away doesn’t seem possible either.  To walk away from faith is to give up hope.  The world is a broken place, and without God what is the point of life?  If your life plan is to die with the most toys you still die!  And someone else gets all your toys!  At some point doesn’t some sense of fairness and justice come into your life that says it’s wrong to exploit other people for your own benefit?

            I’m reminded of my colleague Johanna Rehbaum, who when she was a teenager found out about some tragedy that had befallen a good friend.  She turned to God and said ‘that’s it, I quit.’  And her atheism lasted for about three days before she returned to God and said, “Okay, I’m back.  Where else can I go?”  I’m reminded of the disciple Peter’s statement to Jesus, “Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  (John 6:67)

            Our struggle of faith is nothing new.  I don’t think we have a lack of faith or a weakness of belief that we cannot perform miracles with our own hands or drink poisons or handle snakes.  Look at the first disciples.  They had the same struggles.  They struggled to believe in the resurrection.  The addition to Mark’s gospel that we read echoes the same struggles that we find in Luke’s gospel and in John’s gospel.  The disciples didn’t believe Mary Magdalene when she told them about Jesus.  They didn’t believe the two followers who met the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus.  Only when Jesus appears to them in person do they believe.

            And listen to these verses that some ancient manuscripts of Mark add.  If I start with what we have with verse 14, “Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.”  And then this gets added, “And they excused themselves, saying, ‘This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who does not allow the truth and power of God to prevail over the unclean things of the spirits.  Therefore reveal your righteousness now’ – thus they spoke to Christ.  And Christ replied to them, ‘The term of Satan’s power has been fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near.  And for those who have sinned I was handed over to death, that they may return to the truth and sin no more, that they may inherit the spiritual and imperishable glory of righteousness that is in heaven.’”

            And then it continues with verse 15, “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.’”

            Whether there is any truth to those verses or not, you can see how even the earliest Christians are struggling with belief and how to evangelize.

            Evangelism is hard.  And if we admit it, it’s embarrassing.  How weird is it if you carpool with someone who is forever talking about Jesus?  And you’ve heard me say before that I cringe when I’m on an airplane and someone beside me asks what I do for a living.  Conversation suddenly gets very forced.  They either think I’m a simple-minded weirdo for being a pastor, or they may launch into a conservative evangelism spiel that turns all eyes on the plane towards us and I find my face burning in embarrassment.

            Maybe I should be more bold, but I’ve never had what I consider to be a productive faith conversation with someone on the street.

            Yet I think all this awkwardness gets us to the real root of the issue.  And I think this is powerful evangelism in our world today too.

            I disagree with those who suggest that being a Christian will make you healthy and wealthy and wise.  And I completely disagree with the Joel Osteens of the world who preach that God wants you to be rich and successful.  That’s not faithful and it’s just plain silly.

            Our powerful evangelism is to offer hope.  We live in a crazy world with people running around so broken they don’t even know it.  They look for hope in all the wrong places, all too often turning to destructive drugs or substances.  Or they turn to atheism and mix it with twisted science believing religion is what is wrong with the world and if we humans got it right we could fix things.

            Here’s a nasty statistic for atheists.  More people were killed in the name of atheism in the 20^th century alone than Christianity has killed in twenty centuries combined. 

            If you think you’re going to solve the world’s problems by rejecting Christianity you’re heading the wrong way.

            Jesus says he died for the sins of the world.  There’s nothing fancy about that.  There’s nothing prideful either.  It is a humble statement of reality.

            We don’t have to go out and prove our faith to people by curing diseases and casting out demons, drinking poison and surviving, or handling dangerous snakes.  And we shouldn’t expect to live lives that are somehow easier or more prosperous because of our faith.

            However, we know where there is hope.  It is in Christ.  And we should be able to quietly and confidently acknowledge that God is our only hope.  Only God’s love and grace turn this mess of a world around.  And God has empowered us to be the people to do it.

            Is it hard to believe sometimes, and certainly to believe with confidence, yes.  That is just part of faith. 

            But you don’t have to be embarrassed by your savior.  And there is no embarrassment letting it be known in public where you put your hope.  When we humans try to fix things we just make things worse.  History has proven that the faith God is inspiring in us is the answer.

            Jesus’ commission to the disciples is the same commission that comes to us.  Proclaim to the world hope.  When the world has that hope it improves.  It is a wonderful gift of deep happiness, wholeness and contentment.  May you find opportunities to proclaim that hope, and may you have the words to express it so that you can also bring hope, faith and joy into the world around you.

April 1, 2018 Easter Mark 16:1-8

            When you read a book or watch a movie I assume you’re like most people in that you connect with a certain character that you can relate to.  Maybe it’s the hero of the story and you’d like to think yourself capable of such things too.  Or maybe it’s a side character whose life mirrors your own.  I think we do the same thing when we read Bible stories.  We like to connect to some character in the story, or take on a point of view that puts us in the story.  Most people don’t put themselves in the role of Jesus.  That feels too arrogant, but we pick some character.

In our gospel reading for today I think the gospel writer Mark wants you to identify with one character in particular, although you may think this a bit strange, and it may make you blush.  That character is the young man at the empty tomb.  Now don’t let what you think you know about the story cloud your understanding of it.  Don’t say, “Pastor, it wasn’t a young man.  It was an angel.”  Doing that is bringing in ideas from the other gospels stories about the resurrection.  This is Mark.  The way Mark tells it, it is one young man.  And Mark makes one other very very important point – what he is wearing.  He is wearing a white robe.

Now that may seem like a completely bizarre thing to note, however, it is important because we’ve met this young man in the gospel before.  His clothing was noted then too, and this is where it makes you blush.  If you were here on Maundy Thursday you may remember we read about the Last Supper and Jesus going out to the Mount of Olives to pray.  Judas leads a crowd to Jesus and he is captured.  And let me read a couple verses from that scene to you.

Jesus said, “’Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit?  Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me.  But let the scriptures be fulfilled.’”  All of them deserted him and fled.  A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth.  They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.”  (Mark 14:48-52)

My, my, what to do with that detail?!?  What on earth is the point of including that in the story of Jesus?

Well let’s note something.  This “linen cloth” is an okay translation but it would be better translated as a “burial shroud.”  Now the mystery has gotten even deeper.  Why would a young man be running around on the Mount of Olives in a burial shroud?  This is sounding like hazing from a college fraternity!

If you’ve been with us all the way through our reading of Mark’s gospel you’ll remember that Mark’s story is quirky and unpredictable.  We realize Mark has other writings and ideas in the background that he builds from.  You may especially remember the way he spoofs of Greek philosopher Plato.  And another thing in the background that we haven’t looked at yet is baptism.

Let me read to you about how the early Christians did baptism, especially for adults.  Keep in mind from Mark’s gospel the young man dressed in a burial shroud, then it taken off him at Jesus’ arrest, then appearing again in a white robe at the empty tomb.

This is from the research of Frank Senn, “On the [night before Easter those to be baptized ] assembled at the font while the faithful kept a solemn vigil waiting for the Lord’s appearing.  [Those about to be baptized] received a final exorcism, renounced the devil, confessed their faith in God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the holy church, were stripped, anointed and immersed [in water].  They emerged from the pool in the same way in which they emerged from the womb: naked.  As a sign of their new birth they were clothed in new white garments.  They were then led into the assembly of the faithful, still damp and aromatic from their anointing.”

Are you getting a feel for what Mark is getting at with this young man, the attention to his clothing, and why Mark wants you to identify with him?

For Mark the resurrected Jesus has already happened.  Jesus is gone and on the move.  That’s why he doesn’t show up!  Jesus is no longer part of the story.  His part is done.  The resurrected Jesus never shows up in Mark’s gospel!  Now you are the newly dressed one, fresh from your baptism, and at the empty tomb.  What are you going to do?

Mark’s going to give you an answer.  But before we get to his answer, which you may have already guessed, let’s take a moment to really understand the transformation Mark wants us to understand from baptism – and that goes for whether you were baptized as an adult just yesterday, or as a baby years ago.

Let me get at it this way.  Many of you know that I had an old farm tractor that we used at the garden project.  It was worn out and had lots of problems.  Last fall I decided to rebuild the engine and make a lot of other needed repairs.  I tore the engine apart and sent the head and block and crank shaft off to a machine shop to be tested and trued up again.  The machine shop then contacted me and said that they found cracks in the engine block that couldn’t be repaired.  What did I want to do?

I did what I think was the right idea.  I gave up on the tractor, listed the good parts on Craigslist, and was prepared to scrap the rest.  A guy called me and offered to buy the whole thing.  I was all too glad to get rid of it quickly and sold it to him for little more than it’s worth in scrap metal.

A week ago I happened to see that tractor appear for sale on Craigslist again.  Except now it was all in one piece and freshly painted.  Had he figured out how to fix the cracks in the engine?  Had he gone to all the work and bother of repairing everything that was broken and making the tractor like new again?

I read his description, which wasn’t exactly a lie, but nowhere near the truth.  He basically put it back together, flaws, cracks, and all.  Hastily sprayed a fresh coat of paint on it – even painting over the numerous dents and dings it had, and listed it for sale at almost nine-times what he paid me for it.

For a moment I was livid!  I felt stupid.  Why had I let him have it for such a low price if he was just going to turn around and put a lot of money in his pocket.  But then I noticed that the ad had been up for a while and no one had bitten.  Apparently he’s not taken in anyone – at least not yet.  Some fool may buy it.  I’m sure it’ll run great for several hours but then all the problems will start to show themselves.

I’m appalled at the ethics of some people, but I’m not surprised.

The ancient baptismal practices Mark is using in the gospel were symbolic of what happens to a person as they die and enter eternal life.  God is not a con artist.  We are not to have a quick paint job put on us over the outside of a ruined old person: pretty on the outside but still a wreck on the inside.

If I would have kept that tractor I would have searched out and paid for all the right parts in good shape.  I would have carefully reassembled it all to the original specifications.  I would have taken out the dents, cleaned off the rust, and when I was done the tractor would have not only looked like new it would have run like new too.

The resurrected life God promises us will be like that.  God’s already done the work for us.  He did it on the cross.  Then is when God took all the brokenness, all the cracks and warps and flaws onto himself.  God took all the rust and dents of the world upon himself.  God put in the work to make it all right and good again.

Now you, clothed in the resurrected promises of God are ready – inside and out.  You are the young man in the story.  Jesus has already gone ahead.  Now is your time.

I made the translation of Mark’s gospel myself in order to highlight the bizarre last sentence.  “And nothing to nobody they spoke, they were terrified because.”

You may remember me saying many times these last few months that Mark’s gospel is circular.  And if you remember that you’ll also remember that Mark’s gospel ends with an incomplete sentence and it begins with an incomplete sentence.  You put the two incomplete sentences together – that is 16:8 and 1:1 and you get, “They were terrified because the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

What are we to do?  The story is now our story.  The actions are now our actions.  Our lives, rebuilt from the core up, are to be lived bringing Jesus’ will into reality.  Jesus said many times, “The kingdom of God has come near.”  Or, “The kingdom of God is at hand.”  That was not some poetic turn of phrase.  That was a statement of reality that he brought.

We are to do the same.  With the same boldness, certainty and strength we are to be Christ in the world.  There is no need to shirk.  No need to second guess yourself.  No need to wonder what to do.  Act with rebuilt strength and boldness living in powerful love.  Though our bodies may age and break down, for we must still live this life and God’s not done with us, we are surely God’s people and nothing can cause permanently damage the new life God gives.

March 25 2018 Palm Sunday Mark 14:1-11

I consider myself to be a logical person.  I like to think I make decisions that make sense.  I like to collect objectively verifiable data, analyze the data, reach a reasonable conclusion, and then act on it.  For the most part it serves me well.

As a pastor in this day and age I find I’m also having to defend Christian faith as logically as possible too.  I can’t count the number of times people have said something like, “So how can you not believe in evolution?”  It is their automatic conclusion based on what they think a Christian leader believes.  It is as if to be committed to Christian faith one must believe in myths and fairy tales.  Fortunately Christian theology and history are filled with excellent scholarship and sophisticated doctrines; even if people these days aren’t interested in learning them and would prefer to dismiss Christianity as a leftover of the ignorant past.

The problem is that logic and rational thinking can’t reveal everything about our faith.  Look at the woman who anoints Jesus that we read about in the gospel.  There were plenty of people around who, like me, applied good logic to the situation.  “Why was this ointment wasted in this way?  For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denarii, and the money given to the poor.”  Mark tells us that the people scolded her.  I’m all too ready to agree with them.

Let’s pause a moment to really focus on what Mark tells us, and what he does not.  I think we’re most familiar with a woman anointing Jesus from Luke’s gospel.  Luke tells this story with some different details.  Luke portrays this story as if it happened early on in Jesus ministry, not two days before he dies as in Mark and Matthew.  In Luke, Jesus is at something like a public banquet and a woman of the city who is called a “sinner” comes up and anoints Jesus’ feet and then wipes them with her hair.  The whole thing makes us blush with its sexual overtones.

But any number of biblical interpreters say we can’t combine the stories.  They say that when reading Mark just stick to just what Mark says and only what Mark says.  Commentator Pheme Perkins notes that as Mark portrays it this woman was probably a woman of the household.  Maybe it was Simon’s wife or his sister or maybe a daughter.  There’s no reason to suggest she has a sordid past.  And there’s also no reason so suggest she was poor.  Perkins suggests it is likely she actually had enough money available to her that she could afford some nice luxuries in her life – like a bottle of expensive perfume.

Let’s keep this picture of her in our minds as we consider what she did.  It’s impossible to know how much she actually knew about Jesus.  I imagine she was around hearing the conversation between Jesus, the disciples, Simon and other guests.  If she heard how the events of the last days went she had every reason to believe he was in trouble: overturning the tables of the money changers on Monday, then a whole day of argument and conflict with the religious leaders on Tuesday.  We aren’t told what happened earlier in the day on Wednesday, but I bet it wasn’t good.  Now it’s Wednesday evening and tensions are running high.  Something big is about to happen, and it will be scary.

Whether she sensed this and this was the case or not, she brings out a jar of expensive ointment.  The contents are said to be worth 300 denarii.  A denarii was a day’s wages for a laborer, so that’s about a year’s salary.  The economy was different and it’s impossible to give a real value in today’s dollars, so let’s just say it was excellent stuff that was worth a lot of money.  We do know the nature of this ointment.  Spikenard the plant grew in the Himalayas.  It could be processed into ointment and it was shipped in alabaster boxes.  Ointment of this kind would be used sparingly, and then only for special occasions.  Yet here this woman breaks the container and pours it all on Jesus.

Her gift is lavish beyond lavish.  A logical person like me is offended.  So were others at the table.  And yet she anointed the Savior of the world for his burial.  That smell was certainly with Jesus the next day during the Last Supper.  It was with him when he was praying on the Mount of Olives and then arrested.  It was with him throughout his trial, mocking, and beating.  That smell would have been with him through the torturous hours on the cross, and right up to the moment of his death.

This anointing is the only act of human kindness that lingered with Jesus through it all.  The disciples, male and female, didn’t stand up for him.  He was abandoned and forsaken by all – alone.  And yet the smell of the anointing was with him.  This was humanity’s only expression to God of appreciation for who Jesus was and his willingness to die for all our sins.

We should be deeply grateful for this woman’s act of service.  It was lavish, yes, but it still falls far short of the appreciation we humans should have shown to the one who saves us.

That she dumps it all out, all of it, unreservedly is deeply important.  She did not make a calculated decision of what would be an appropriate amount to dispense upon an honored guest.  She did not pour out a few drops of this valuable stuff and think to herself, “Well, I guess that ought to be enough for this occasion.”  This was completely and totally without logic or stategy.  It was the most complete way this woman could unreservedly give to Jesus.  This was self-emptying love in about as pure a form as it could be. 

I love these words from theologian Halford Luccock, “The verdict of these shocked onlookers reappears in the feeling of many that worship is waste… [Worship] builds no barns, yields no compound interest… To this type of mind the sacrifice of life for a faith is waste.  We hear that judgment daily passed on one who chooses a vocation of obscure service to God and man in preference to what is called… ‘making good.’  Francis of Assisi wasted his life.  He might have been a lord of the manor instead of a beggar… So was John Wesley’s.  What a major general or parliamentary whip he would have made with all that executive capacity!”  Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume 7, Pg. 869

This woman loved so much that she gave everything to show love, and respect, and thanks to him.

That still leaves people like me in a sticky situation.  What about all that money that could have helped poor people?  But that is the problem of my logical mind – a mind interested in value, calculation, and measurable effect. 

We need to have those qualities, but not exclusively.  Some things are beyond dollars and cents.

When we talk about giving everything to God that is not a calculated response.  I think many people unknowingly live as if they are executing a strategic plan for eternal life.  They think they have to be good now and behave themselves so that they can get to heaven, because, they think, God doesn’t like bad people.

I think, “Do you really want to spend eternity in heaven being forced into good behavior?!?”  They’ve got it all wrong.  The unnamed woman had it right.

Don’t be a good and kind and generous person as a strategy.  And don’t force yourself to be genuinely good and kind and generous because that’s the attitude you think God wants from you.  Those life plans lead to anger and misery.  Know that God loves you – God loves you so much that God takes the brokenness of the world upon himself so that you don’t have to.  In fact, God loves you so much that he took the brokenness of the world upon himself without you having to even ask him to do it.  God just did.  Pure gift to you – and totally lavish.

If you have to focus on anything to be a righteous person focus on that.  When you can realize you are loved so much then goodness and kindness and generosity flow out of you without you even having to try.  They become a part of who you are, right to the core.

I’ll never forget being at the one Penn State vs. Miami football game while I was in college.  Miami was beating us, and it was a pretty sure thing they would win.  But there was still some hope Penn State could win it.  A guy on the bench in front of me starts saying, “God, if we win this game I’ll go to church tomorrow.”

Um, while God can use anything as a conversion experience I doubt that God wanted to get this guy in church the next day so badly that he’d swing the outcome of the game!  Plus, if we did win I doubt he would have gone to church anyway!

The guy was being stupid, but it was still calculating.  The woman with the ointment may have been stupid too – but there was no calculation involved at all, and in so doing she gave God one of the greatest gifts a human ever has.

Know that you are loved by God.  Certainly keep a logical brain in your head, but let God’s love guide you through life.  Then you will know the joys and freedom Jesus gave you from the cross.

March 18, 2018 Lent 5 Mark 11:20-13:37

In the first part of our gospel reading Jesus is getting asked about a whole lot of hot button issues of the day: authority, the place of the temple, paying taxes, eternal life, and the commandments.  His answers to any one of them could get him into trouble.  I don’t want to suggest that the current state of our political climate is a parallel to Jesus’ day, but I do think the way he handles things gives us some principles to live by.

            I’m sure you’ve all sat around the table with a bunch of relatives at a holiday and somebody brings up a hot button topic.  It seems to happen a lot these days.  There might be a ringing silence, and your anxiety may shoot through the roof.  What’s going to happen?  Is it going to be ignored?  Is someone going to blow up?  Is there going to be a fight?  A great holiday with lots of anticipation may turn into a disaster.

            Some people bury their heads in the sand – probably a bad idea.  Some people instantly blow their top and start an argument – probably also a bad idea.  Some people try to be diplomatic and see things from all sides and then try to be the peacemakers.  That’s kind of sweet – but it could also be a bad idea.  In some things there is no room for diplomacy.  Some things are simply wrong.  They must be stopped or rejected.

            I say it is our faith responsibility to be able to engage in conversations about hot button issues or political issues.  We should not shy away from them when they come up.  Although we also have to remember that following the example of Jesus when you engage something may still get you in a lot of trouble.  Good Friday didn’t exactly turn out sweet for Jesus now did it?

            So what does Jesus do?  Every time Jesus is asked about something it’s presented in a limiting way.  For example, should they pay taxes to Caesar or not?  It’s an either/or situation.         Last Wednesday many high school students held a 17 minute walkout as a protest to gun violence and in memory of the school shooting in Florida.  I was pleased with the way the students decided to express themselves, and in Canandaigua at least, I was pleased with the way the administration honored the students’ desires.  They were allowed to walk out, or not; no punishment, no judgment.  And yet I couldn’t help feeling like it was all limiting.  It seemed like students were either for or against.  There was no room to express anything more complicated, and it that’s the end of the situation then the complications can never be expressed.  Only time will tell with this one, but a lot of hot button issues turn into either/or situations; people battling for their side to win.  They rejoice when they do, and they get mad and want revenge when they don’t.

            How many civil conversations are there on Facebook over hot button issues?

            The same limits were being placed on Jesus.  But he refused to let society’s ways of defining an issue be his way of defining an issue.  Look at all his answers.  He redefines things according to his own terms, which are God’s terms.  Jesus’ answers take thought.  They are seldom simple.  They honor the value of people and they honor how complex issues are. 

I think that people are by nature lazy.  We want simple solutions to complex problems.  How many times do politicians on the campaign trail say that an issue is complex, there are no easy solutions, and that everyone is going to have to work hard on it for a long time?   What do politicians usually say?  That the opposing party is the problem and just kick them out and everything will automatically get better.

Lea Schweitz is a systematic theology professor at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.  She talks about what she calls the “wicked problems” of the world.  By wicked problems she doesn’t necessarily mean they are particularly evil.  She means that they are not easily addressed – things like poverty, racism, and addiction.  You can’t just hire experts to study the problem, then implement a solution, and have the problem go away.  That’s the way people want things to work, but it doesn’t.

No, for Lea “wicked problems” are problems where you do the best you can today to address it.  But you know that the problem isn’t going away.  Six months or a year from now you have to restudy it, see how your solutions worked or didn’t work, and then adjust them and move forward.  You can’t stick to party lines or ideological purity.  And no one ever gets to claim victory, and maybe the problem is never solved.  But constant thoughtful attention can minimize it.

I think this is how Jesus wants us to address the problems of the world.  We have to be careful to avoid being blinded by our own desires, our own concepts of how things work (or should work), and blind attachment to particular authorities or parties. 

Let’s wrap all this up by pointing out something easy to overlook.  This week’s reading began with the disciples noting the withered fig tree.  You’ll remember from what we read last week that this is the tree Jesus cursed because it didn’t have figs.  The whole thing raises more questions than it answers, but the point of it was a prophetic action.  The withering of the fig tree to its roots symbolizes the withering and rejection of the temple in Jerusalem.  And now Jesus uses it to talk about prayer.  He says that if you have faith in God you could say to a mountain, “’Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.”  (Mark 11:24)  If that were the case I’d never lift a shovel again!  I get all sorts of wild images in my mind of how I’d use such powers.  And in that imagination I miss how Jesus teaches to apply it, for that is the real thrust.

What is his practical application of prayer and it’s power?  He uses it for forgiveness.  “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses.”  (11:25)

There’s nothing triumphal in asking God for forgiveness and in forgiving others.  If mountains are hard to move, so also forgiveness can be hard.  I don’t think Jesus means to just ignore the wrong people do.  No, there needs to be accountability.  A parent needs to establish discipline and consequences in his or her children.  Jesus isn’t talking about no consequences for wrongdoing.  Jesus is talking about rooting your understanding of yourself and others in your common brokenness before God and your need for God’s grace.

If you can see yourself in the proper light before God, then you will also see others in the proper light before God.  From there the real issues of the world can be addressed, and we can all grow in faith and hope.