May 19, 2019 5th Sunday of Easter Luke 20:27-44

            Every time I read the gospels’ account where the Sadducees confront Jesus with this hypothetical situation of this woman who has husband after husband after husband die, I can’t help but think this woman must be putting something in the Jello.  I mean, to have seven husbands die – all within her childbearing years.  You gotta wonder!

            This is the only time in Luke’s gospel that we meet this Sadducee faction within Judaism.  We should remember that there appear to be five major factions, or denominations, within Judaism at that time.  Four of them show up in the Bible.

The Sadducees were closely aligned with the aristocratic and priestly classes.  They left no writings and little is known about them.  Let’s call them a conservative movement in Judaism.  The only writings they recognized as scripture was the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 

They held that the only proper place for worship was the temple in Jerusalem.  Thus, not surprisingly they were centered there.

Another group we often hear about are the Pharisees.  For lack of a better word, let’s call them a more liberal branch of Judaism.  They accepted the whole of what we would call the Old Testament as scripture.  While they maintained that the central place of worship was the temple in Jerusalem they also had lots of other houses of worship called synagogues.  Jesus was almost certainly one of the Pharisee faction.

When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 the Pharisees survived.  Jerusalem wasn’t essential to them like the Sadducees.  I would argue that all modern day Jews come from the Pharisee sect.

Another group we may not be as familiar with, but do show up in the Bible is the Herodians.  As their name suggests, they supported the rulership of the Herod family.  You’ll remember that the Herods were not actually Jewish.  They had cooked up some creative genealogy to make themselves look Jewish.  It was good enough for the Romans, but most Jews didn’t buy it.  For all their incredible corruption the Herods were capable of bringing about good for some Jews from the Romans.  So, despite their faked family tree and incredible abuses of power, some Jews supported them.

When the Romans finally had had enough of the Herod family, roughly the same time they destroyed Jerusalem, the Herodians also died out.

The least mentioned faction of Jews mentioned in the Bible are the Zealots.  These often militaristic people wanted to kick the Romans out by force.  Obviously the Romans weren’t fans of the Zealots.  When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem they took out the Zealots as well.

And finally there were the Essenes.  Little is known of this reclusive group although the Dead Sea Scrolls are probably one of their libraries.  They rejected Jerusalem as the center of worship.  They felt the religious leaders were corrupt.  They didn’t spread out like the Pharisees but stayed in reclusive communities; perhaps like many religious communes.  Some people suggest John the Baptist was an Essene.  Some scholars see Essene influence in Jesus’ teachings as well.  Whatever the case, the Essenes ceased to exist as well.

In Jesus’ last week before the crucifixion the gospels record him having run ins with the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees.  Regardless of their religious and political views, no one wanted Jesus!  We see the Sadducees turn today.

With only the books of Moses and scripture the Sadducees did not have any belief in eternal life or the resurrection.  Luke tells us as much.  For them the only way for a person to live on was through one’s offspring.  And so, their question about marriage.  According to Deuteronomy 25, the way to assure offspring in case a man died was for his brother to “marry” his widow.

The woman herself had no say in the matter.  So I suppose if you’re dating a guy you’d better check out his brother too, just in case something went wrong.  And as for the brother, well, if he’s already married, his wife doesn’t get a whole lot of say in the new woman who moves into the house!

Actually the guy could reject his brother’s wife.  According to Deuteronomy if this happens the widow is to summon the elders, pull a sandal off the guy’s foot, and spit in his face, thereby showing she is free from any further obligation to her husband’s family.  That’s certainly different from the way people break up today!  Thereafter the house would be known as “the house of him who sandal was pulled off.”  So, it was really expected that the guy would take his brother’s wife.

The Sadducees intend to trap Jesus with his Pharisaic view of resurrection, for the Pharisees did believe in eternal life.  Jesus teaches that eternal life is not bound by the limits and expectations of this life.  Especially, if the whole point of marriage was to have children so as to continue after one dies, then if there is eternal life the necessity of having children is removed.  And thus, marriage in eternal life is no longer relevant.  He’s showing the failings of their arguments.

And Jesus does something subtle, but very important.  Jesus is not going to quote from the scripture the Pharisees recognized.  He does that elsewhere when talking to Pharisees.  No, here he will quote from the scripture of the Sadducees.  If Moses is all they accept then he’ll quote from there.  I think it is very much worth noting how well Jesus knows his opponents.  He doesn’t just spout things at them that he thinks are worthwhile.  He engages them with things they think are worthwhile.  He calls their attention to the familiar story of the burning bush.  There Moses speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 

The logic of this argument hinges on the idea that God is not of the dead but of the living.  Therefore, the patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – must be in some sense alive to God or in God. 

What does that actually mean?  What does is resurrection, or what is ‘life after death’?  We make a mistake if we try to glean too much about eternal life from Jesus’ words to the Sadducees, but there are things that come from it.

First, I think we do well to understand “life” as not so much the biological activity between the moment of birth – or conception – and when the chemical processes we call being alive cease at death. 

Life is something more.  Life is God’s creation – God’s gift.  Life is dynamic, growing, and changing.  Don’t mistake me here.  I’m not trying to make a statement about existence before birth or life after death, I’m just saying that life is God’s and it is not confined to the limits of time and space.

We do well to remember the mystery of the unknown that we face, much as we want to know.  There are very serious limits to our understanding.  A child cannot grasp the complexities or the pleasures of adulthood.  What child finds a quiet evening on the back porch talking and watching the sun set more enjoyable that running to catch fireflies or playing hide and seek in the dark?  St. Paul wrote, “When I became an adult I put an end to childing ways.  For now we see in a mirror, dimly.” (1 Corinthians 13:11-12) 

We are all but children when it comes to understanding resurrection and eternal life.  The God who created life sustains it beyond the bounds of what we understand.  Life is God’s gift.  Our understanding of it has serious limits, but those are not God’s limits.

As R. Alan Culpepper says in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary (Volume 9, pg. 390), “There is nothing in or of the human being that is naturally or inherently immortal.  If there is life beyond death, it is God’s gift to those who have accepted God’s love and entered into relationship with God in this life.” 

 The core of Jesus teaching is not to reveal what it will be like after you die, but to draw you into a life-giving relationship with God now.  Live that day to day and moment to moment.  Do not do it as a strategy to get to heaven and stay out of hell.  Do it as a way of being connected to the source of all life.  And let that guide you.  Let that remove your fears of failure.  While I will not go so far as to say it will completely remove your fears of death, it will take the edge off such fear.   It will give you strength in the face of hardships and confidence in the face of anxiety.

Life is God’s gift to you.  It is God’s promise to you.  It is God’s will for you.  So whether it be short or long, simple or complex, easy or hard, it is the gift of relationship that will take you into forever.

May 12, 2019 4th Sunday of Easter Luke 20:1-26

There is a topic about which almost everyone has declared themselves to be an expert.  And that is highway design.  I remember my professor for the highway design class I had in college saying that everyone thinks they can design roads better than the experts.  They say things like, “They should have built this ramp longer.”  Or, “This turn should be wider.”  Or, “They should put a traffic light here.”  And on and on it goes.  Everybody has a solution to a problem.

            My expertise was never in highway design but I did a couple co-op semesters in the design division of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.  Indeed there is much that goes into designing a highway that few people are aware of.  If more people knew that they’d understand why things were done the way they are; but everyone thinks they can do better than the engineers. 

            Now, I will say there are plenty of truly bone-headed designs out there, and the engineers should have their sanity tested.  What were they thinking?  It was before my time, but I suppose the “Can of Worms” is an infamous local example.

            Still though, whatever our jobs or expertise may be, we don’t like it when outsiders come in and tell us how to do it better.  They just have no idea!

            Keep that idea in mind and put yourselves into the role of the religious leaders in Jerusalem when Jesus comes to town for Passover.  You, the experts understand the complexity of things.  You’re studied in the Law and the history of how it has been applied.  You have first hand experience with the temple and all the logistics involved in making it work.  You also know the Romans are breathing down your neck to keep the peace.  It’s a tricky arrangement to keep the Jewish faith alive at all under Roman oppression. 

For example, the Romans considered the Jews to be lazy because they wouldn’t work on the sabbath.  Romans wanted work seven days a week.  You’ve also used your skills and expertise to make the best of some bad situations.  Another example, Roman coins all have graven images of the gods and emperors on them.  They are an offense to God.  But Hebrew currency isn’t legal tender throughout the empire.  So, you’ve struck a compromise.  Jews can use the money they have to use to live day to day, but for religious purposes they are to use Hebrew coins.  Money changers are set up in the courtyards outside the temple building in order to help people change currency.

            It’s all complex.  Times are stressful.  But, as best you can, you’ve created something that works and is as faithful as possible.

            And then you have these nit-wit self-proclaimed religious experts and zealots who show up from the countryside from time to time.  They threaten everything you work hard to achieve.  One particular one is this charismatic preacher from Nazareth and his bunch of uneducated followers, all of them having various states of ill-repute, and they show up at the biggest holiday of the year and cause a ruckus.  Some crowds welcome this Jesus guy with a parade.  That’s okay.  They can have their hometown hero.  But then when he overturns the tables of the money changers and starts challenging everything you’ve worked for years to develop you have serious concerns.

            The religious leaders question to Jesus that began our gospel reading is a very legitimate one: “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things?  Who is it who gave you this authority?”

            From our Christian perspective this is a very offensive thing to ask the Messiah.  But stay in the perspective of the Jewish leaders.  They are basically asking Jesus for his credentials:  What college did you go to for undergrad and graduate work?  What board and legal certifications do you have?  What school of thought, or great leader are your ideas coming from?

            Maybe think of it this way.  If you went to college, how would it be if you turned in a research paper with no works cited, no bibliography?  You just said that you were your own authority, you knew what you were talking about because you have determined you are an expert, and the professor better just accept it.  What grade do you think you’ll get?

            Or how about this, it’s Mother’s Day.  If you’re a mother how do you feel about getting parenting advice from a person who never changed a diaper, dealt with a temper tantrum, or took care of a sick kid?  Yet from the perspective of the religious leaders that’s exactly what Jesus is doing!

            In order to understand this passage, and the ones we have coming up in the next two weeks, we need to put ourselves in a very uncomfortable place - the role of the religious leaders - and then we discover some very very important things.  We discover that their words are not the words of evil people opposed to God’s will.  Their words are the perspective of people with credentials, wisdom, experience, and education.  They know what they’re talking about. 

Who is Jesus?  By all human standards he’s a nobody.  At most people would call him insightful; for an uneducated man.  But certainly not someone who has any claim to authority.

What we have here is not so much what we would consider to be a conflict between good and evil.  It is a conflict between human logic and God’s grace.

Logic says the forms of religion, and the temple, and the rules that keep it orthodox, and the unavoidable compromises that have to be made in life all have to be taken into account in order to preserve and grow faith.  Grace throws all that out the window.

And sadly, orthodox and faithful as the religious leaders thought they were being, they missed essential things.  In their logical work of preservation they missed the deeper call to love.  Jesus hadn’t come to attack them, but to witness to something deeper.  Nevertheless, good order came before caring for people.  Success came before mercy.  Maintaining the status quo became central.

Let’s not let ourselves off the hook, for do we not do the same things?  What would happen if we decided to cancel this worship service and just have one at 8:30?  Would you still come?  What if we moved weekly worship to Tuesday evenings?  What would attendance be like?  Or if we sold the building and rented space in a storefront on Main St? 

All of these things would be stupid by human logic.  Attendance and income would decline.  Perhaps the church would close.  Many would attend a church who held worship at the proper time – Sunday mornings. 

Yet isn’t that the same as the temple, and keeping the Romans happy, and making sure all was in good order?  You see, we discover a good deal of ourselves in the Jews of Jesus’ day.

God’s grace sounds really great until you really start to apply it.  Then everything can go to chaos.  If there is grace, what are the expectations?  What is to create order?  How do you keep faith from turning into people just following the most charismatic leader of the day?   These are all questions the earliest Christians had to work through.  St. Paul’s writings that made their way into the Bible helped a lot.  But grace is always a challenge.
            I don’t think Jesus was being mean with the parable of the wicked tenants that we read.  You’ll remember that the tenants rejected the owners servants sent to collect the rent.  Eventually he sent his son, who was then killed.

Jesus was just telling a truth.  Humans like to claim and take and keep.  It seems to be deep in our nature.  We just don’t trust God.  And God may not exactly reject us, but we can become so set in our ownership of our own lives that we just leave no room for God to work.

Let’s keep our hearts and minds open.  God will call us to new and unpredictable things.  They will be challenging!  Sure, there will be established things in our lives that will change.  And there will surely be risks.  And some things will seem stupid.  But there is also the joy and delight of seeing God’s grace at work.  There is refreshment when all is turned over to God.  There is freedom when you are not limited by conventional expectations.  And there is joy when God’s kingdom – God’s ways of being – take shape in our lives.

May 5, 2019 3rd Sunday of Easter Luke 24:36-53

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to have Jesus visit your house for dinner sometime?  I’m sure I’d be a nervous wreck.  Even though we know Jesus sees and knows everything I’d still want to make everything as perfect as possible.  The house would be scrubbed clean like never before.  Absolutely everything would be put away and perfectly tidy.  All those little tasks that I’ve been meaning to get to but keep putting off would get done.

            As for food, I don’t know what I’d want to have.  I’d probably be heading to the organic and whole foods section at Wegmans.  I certainly wouldn’t be putting out Twinkies for dessert!

            And then what would I actually say and do?  I mean, he knows everything, right.  So there’s no point in trying to hide anything, but shouldn’t I at least try my absolute best?

And I’d be nervous about what he’d say to me.  What sinful practices do I have that he would call me out on?  Would he find anything to praise me for?  And what things am I unknowingly doing wrong that he will want to correct? 

And what, oh what, would I do if he looked me squarely in the eye and said those most fearful and dreaded of all words, “Go, sell all that you have and then come, follow me”?

I think we all live with a limited knowledge of what God wants for our lives, and we take comfort in that.  We tell ourselves that since we can’t be sure, maybe what we’re doing now is okay and therefore we’ll keep doing it.  We avoid doing anything extremely different from anyone else around us.  After all, why risk embarrassment or being called a religious weirdo if God really is okay with us as we are?  We just tell ourselves that we’re good people as we are, and when it comes to judgment day we hope we can use the argument that we tried our best, and hope it’s good enough.  Yet all of us has at least a little feeling of fear and guilt because we know we don’t really try our best for God’s kingdom.  We just hope God’s grace will get us through anyway.

But if Jesus comes to visit – face to face – from then on there’s no denying what he tells us to do.  And we’ll certainly run into that uncomfortable position of telling ourselves that since Jesus knows what’s on our minds that we should think only good, healthy, wholesome thoughts.  Of course the moment we tell ourselves to do that we can’t help but think of the meanest, ugliest, or naughtiest, or most inappropriate thoughts possible.  It’s just like going down a hallway with a bunch of blank doors on either side.  You could care less about what is behind any of them until you get to one that says, “Do Not Enter.”  Of course you’re immediately filled with curiosity and want to do just that!

In our gospel reading Jesus shows up with the disciples.  It’s still the evening of the resurrection so it’s all pretty new to everyone.  He arrives completely unannounced so they have no chance to prep ahead.  And if anyone deserves criticism it’s the disciples.  They all -not just Peter- promised to stay faithful to him no matter what.  Then they all failed abysmally.  They fled at the first sign of hardship.  And crucifixion was just beyond anything they could comprehend.  Perhaps they thought Jesus would get a reprimand or maybe some sort of a penalty; but not death and certainly not crucifixion.

Sometimes critics of Christianity say the disciples just made up the whole thing about Jesus, or that there was no resurrection and the disciples just created myths that there was.  These critics have no idea what crucifixion was really like.  It was not only a painful way to die but it was the ultimate shame.  No one wanted to be associated with a crucified person.  It would do damage to your family honor for generations if someone had been crucified.

Crucifixions themselves were horrific – gory, loud, and raucous.  There would be fighting and screaming and vomiting.  You’d have nightmares for a long time afterward.  There is no way a religious movement could have begun out of a crucifixion.  No one, absolutely no one, would join a movement based on a crucified leader!  The only way Christianity ever got off the ground is through divine help.

Anyway, the point is that the disciples truly deserve an upbraiding from Jesus!  They should be shaking in their shoes to see him.  They have failed, failed, failed.  You’d have nothing to worry about what Jesus would say if he visited your home for dinner compared to the disciples.

And indeed they are terrified when they see him.  Of course they really think he’s a ghost – some evil specter from the grave come to haunt them.  But he’s not a ghost.  He’s real flesh and blood.

Is he mad at them?  Is he ripping into them for their failings?  Is he warning them that they’d better shape up or he’ll be sending them to hell?  No.  There’s none of that.

Commentator Joel Green points out that Jesus says to them, “It is I myself!  It is really me!”  (NICNT, 854)  He seems happy, delighted even, to see them.  He goes out of his way to prove to them that he’s real flesh and blood.  He lets them see him and touch him.  He eats in front of them.  This is truly him, truly and completely resurrected!

            The remarkable things continue.  Not only are they forgiven but he continues to equip them to do what they have been failing at all along.  He opens their minds to explain the scriptures, he explains why what happened had to happen, and he promises they will be receiving power to do the work ahead.

            God is truly amazing and awesome.  Think about it – God lives a lifetime for us, then dies at our hands (we kill our only hope), but God is still not condemnatory in return.  Instead God forgives and still wants to empower us for the future.

            If you look over the gospels you see that Jesus does challenge his followers.  He points out their flaws and he does push them to do better.  But his greatest criticism is not for those who fail.  It is for those who think they are right already and have no need to improve.  In other words, his criticism is for those who think they are righteous.  It is the religious leaders, those who consider themselves to be legally righteous, those who think they know what God is and is not up to that really receive Jesus’ harshness.

            The fact that we’d probably all be nervous to have Jesus have dinner at our homes because we know we are falling short of what is required of us by God is probably the exact attitude we should have.

            What would Jesus really say to us?  I don’t know.  It would vary from household to household and individual to individual.  Indeed we should always be examining our lives and seek ways to improve, for all of us can be better as disciples.  But more importantly, I think we should recognize the delight that Jesus has in us.  He loved his disciples – not love in a mandatory and grudging way – but love in an ‘I like you’ sort of way.  The remaining eleven disciples, the women who were followers, and the others who were close were all friends.  These were people who enjoyed hanging out together.

            While God is all-powerful and aloof and frightening to approach, God is also filled with smiles and joy and delight in us.  God loves to see us grow and flourish.  God loves to see us succeed and have happy times.  Certainly God gets disappointed in us and probably frustrated with us, and even angry with us.  But God’s chief interest is to find delight in us, his creatures whom he made in his own image.

            I hope that your faith is not a burden in your life, but a source of joy and happiness.  I hope it is a connection you can use for comfort and support.  And I hope the future that God calls you to is filled with brightness and possibility.  This world is important.  You are important.  God died for it all, and like the disciples God invites you to share in that so that God’s kingdom can abound.

April 21, 2019 Easter Sunday Luke 24:1-12

            I confess that I am disappointed with the gospel reading of the resurrection.  Why am I disappointed?  Because Jesus, the main character, doesn’t ever appear!  This story is about him, after all, and we’re at the climax of it – but no Jesus!  Several women who followed Jesus are in the story.  These two mysterious men in the tomb are in the story.  Peter gets a shout out, and the disciples are in the story too.  The closest thing we get to having Jesus is an empty tomb.

            Of course I can’t change the past, and I didn’t get to do things my way, but if I did get to do things my way I’d have Jesus’ resurrection be something like those old TV commercials for Snickers candy bars.  Picture this:  The women are hurrying to the tomb on a bright and sunny Sunday morning.  They’re carrying all the spices they planned to use to anoint Jesus.  And since it’s a commercial, let’s have Jesus and the women all be portrayed by supermodels.  As the women approach the tomb, which is in a perfectly manicured garden, we see the confusion and surprise on their faces as they see the stone rolled back.  There is a pause.  Then as they tentatively enter the tomb we don’t have two unnamed men in there, we have Jesus himself.  He’s dressed in a perfect white robe.  He’s standing and casually leaning back against the stone shelf on which his body was laid.  He has a smile on his face, and in one hand he’s holding up a partially unwrapped Snickers candy bar; with one bite taken out of it.  Keeping the smile on his face he says, “Being resurrected sure works up an appetite.  Packed with peanuts, Snickers really satisfies!”

            My version is stupid, I know that, but keep that stupid image in mind and consider what has really happened in Luke’s gospel. 

If you’ve been worshipping with us since we began reading Luke last December you’ll know that in Chapter 1 Luke give us the back story of several of the characters.  Then in Chapter 2 Jesus is born!  From there on it’s pretty much all about him.  We get to see his parents take him to the temple when he is eight days old.  Luke tells the story of his childhood when his parents accidentally leave him behind on a trip to Jerusalem.  The beginning of the scene of Jesus’ baptism is all about John the Baptist but that’s still pointing to Jesus.  Then Jesus’ public ministry begins and he not only present but front and center in absolutely every scene. 

Matthew and Mark, the other two gospels who tell the story of Jesus from the same point of view as Luke (John’s gospel takes a totally different approach) both have asides along the way or scenes where Jesus isn’t present.  The most notable scene is the execution of John the Baptist.  Luke, however, never takes the camera off Jesus.  Even in the scene where Peter denies Jesus three times Jesus is present and sees Peter!

Again, after Jesus is baptized there is not one single scene in Luke’s entire gospel where Jesus is not front and center.

And then there’s the resurrection.  We’re at the triumphal climax of the story and the main character isn’t anywhere to be found!

If we read on we have the famous Road to Emmaus story.  That takes place Easter evening.  Jesus is in that.  And he’s also in every story to the end of the gospel; but not here.

In my fictitious version of the resurrection Jesus would be front and center.  I’d even make it a multi-sponsor commercial.  I’d make sure the camera caught a glimpse of the Nike swoosh on his sandals, and after the women greet Jesus they’d all pull out their iphones and snap selfies, which they’d immediately post to Instagram with the caption, “Look who’s been resurrected!” 

But none of that is possible with an empty tomb.

My version of the resurrection would indeed be a happy one, but it would be a limiting one.  It would be holding Jesus back into what I want him to be, someone to suit my needs.  He’d really be no different than a product sponsor who could be used to make money.  He be a famous person I could take a selfie with and proudly show to all my friends that I had met Jesus.  Jesus at the tomb would be all about me.

But the empty tomb is a totally different story.  It is a story with no limits, no boundaries.  There are no controls.  It is a scene of limitless possibilities; and absolutely no possibility of being about me – my wants, my needs, my desires.

And let’s make sure we notice one very important detail.  Why was the stone rolled back?  Was it rolled back to let Jesus out, or to let the women in?  It was rolled back to let the women -and us- in.

As the story goes on we discover that the resurrected Jesus is no ghost.  He’s solid.  He’s real flesh and blood.  He meets people.  He talks to them.  He shows the disciples the wounds in his body.  He eats with them.  His presence is no dream or illusion.  Yet at the same time he comes and goes without any regard for the laws of physics.  There’s something about his resurrected reality that just isn’t bound by limits and rules.

Jesus did not need that stone to be rolled back in order to get out of the tomb.  The stone needed to be rolled back so the women could get inside it; inside it and find it empty – so the story could reach its climax and have no Jesus!

Jesus is present among us.  He does meet us in our needs and troubles.  But Jesus’ resurrection does not mean the story continues as it did before.  Jesus’ resurrection is not about helping us to live our own lives in our own ways and on our old trajectories.  Jesus’ resurrection is about opening us to new possibilities.  In fact, opening us to the impossible!

On Friday, with the crucifixion, the religious establishment in Jerusalem thought they had done away with this troublesome Jesus fellow who’d come from the rural north with a rag tag bunch of disciples, and the charisma to whip up a crowd.  For the religious leaders now the threat was dealt with.  Problem solved!  It was time to go back to religion as usual:

services,

sacrifices,

debates over the law,

alms for the poor. 

This was all the stuff that had been doing for ages and knew how to do well.

But the tomb was empty!  Jesus will not be confined.  He will not be confined to:

the traditional,

the safe,

and the predictable. 

There is no knowing where this story is going to go when we have an empty tomb!

For many Easter is a lot like the religious leaders that Passover so many years ago.  It is a holiday time.  It’s school break week so many people have gone on vacations or visited family.  There are traditions to uphold.  Even now all over this nation there are hams in ovens, and scalloped potatoes too, cooking in preparation for Easter dinner.  Perhaps you are looking at your watch and hoping the service will end on time.  Perhaps you are anxious that something in Easter dinner will not be fully cooked, or perhaps overcooked.  Or if you’re eating in a restaurant you hope the wait won’t be too long or that the reservation is set.

And with Easter there are decorations, and flowers, and Easter egg hunts.  Perhaps there aren’t Snickers candy bars as a part of your Easter but there may be Easter baskets with chocolate rabbits, peanut butter eggs -my favorite-, and jelly beans.

In time it will all be eaten.  The dirty dishes will be washed.  The visits and vacations will end.  The decorations will be put away.  The blooms on the Easter flowers will wilt.  And like the religious leaders, it will be time to get back to the usual: work,

school,

paying bills,

running the kids and grandkids to all their activities,

mowing the lawn…

and on and on goes the list.

But the tomb was empty.  The anointing the women expected to do never ever happened.  The Easter story leaves us with possibilities; and no way to create limits. 

Easter is about God doing something new; forever something new.  So let us not return to the “normal” and expect to find Jesus there.  The two mysterious men at the tomb told the women, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has been raised.  Remember… he is going ahead of you…”

April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday Luke 29:28-48

Every time I read of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday I get an image of cowboy Jesus in my head.  He’s wearing jeans and a flannel shirt.  He has on a cowboy hat, cowboy boots with spurs, and a rope in his hand.

It’s a silly image, but the Bible makes it clear that no one’s ever ridden this colt.  Now Jesus plans to not only break it in but even ride it in a parade!

This whole Palm Sunday text shows us just how completely Jesus is in control of things.  Obviously he can break-in and control a never before ridden colt.  But we also see just how complete Jesus’ knowledge is.  When he’s getting close to Jerusalem he tells two of his disciples to go ahead into a village.  He gives them details about finding a colt, and what to do if someone asks why they’re taking it.  Then it all comes to pass just as Jesus describes.

I often wonder what those two unnamed disciples thought about being sent off to effectively steal someone’s colt.  Presumably Jesus returned it, so it wasn’t exactly stealing, but did the owner of the colt know that?  Just imagine Jesus is coming to Rochester from Syracuse.  He sends you ahead and says, “Go into Victor and stop at VanBortel Subaru on Route 96 and pick up a brand new red Subaru Outback for me.  Don’t worry about keys.  They’ll be in the ignition.  Just hop in and drive it back here.  If anyone at the dealership asks you what you’re doing just say, “The Lord has need of it.”

Ah… yeah… right… Jesus.  That would be a felony level theft.  I’m not going to jail just so you can have a new ride!

Who knows what all really happened, but just as Jesus predicted: the colt was there, the owners asked what the disciples were doing with it, and then they let it go!

Yes, we see here that Jesus knows everything and can control everything.  An irony begins to develop in the story.

Crowds of disciples await his arrival.  These crowds are probably rural people from the north who had seen Jesus or heard about him.  They were in Jerusalem for the Passover holiday.  They spread their cloaks on the rode as a royal welcome to him.  They don’t really get it.  They don’t really understand who he is, but they love him and expect great things as their hometown hero makes his way into Jerusalem.  They praise him calling him king and the one who comes in the name of the Lord.  They say, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!”  If those words sound familiar it is because they are.  It is exactly what the angels said to the shepherds when Jesus was born.  Now these words are in the mouths of the crowds.

Think about it.  The angels have praised Jesus.  The shepherds, notorious for being petty crooks and criminals recognized Jesus.  The animals submit to Jesus.  The crowds are praising Jesus.  Who is not praising Jesus?  The people we would most expect to praise Jesus – the Jewish religious experts.  These are the people who know the scriptures.  These are the people who should know how God acts.  These are the people entrusted with the task of making sure the commoners know how to live.  What do they say about Jesus?

Pharisees in the crowd say, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”  They, in their educated wisdom, see Jesus as a charismatic teacher from the rural outskirts of society.  They expect him to know, as they know, that he is not real and that the devotion of the crowds is misplaced.  They see it as his duty to inform his followers where their loyalty should lie, and where their praises should be directed – to the city of Jerusalem, to the temple, and to the priestly leaders whose holiness is the model that all should aspire to.

What does Jesus reply?  His reply is very interesting, especially in light of the angels, shepherds, crowds, and animals all recognizing who he is.  He says, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out!”

Even the elements of the universe, things as basic as rocks, recognize God’s presence among them.

Yes, this truly means that the religious leaders are dumb as rocks.

We aren’t done with the stones yet.  They get a second mention in what we read.  Jerusalem, the city that should so clearly understand what God is up to is completely blind.  You can feel God’s lament over this in Jesus’ words, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.  Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies,” and notice that Jesus is not one of those enemies, “…your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.”

If the religious leaders want the crowds to be silent over Jesus because it may cause a riot and thus danger to the city, they are so totally wrong.  No harm will come to Jerusalem because of Jesus’ presence.  Jesus continues, “They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you…”  Who is the “they”?  The Romans, those whom the religious leaders are working so hard to keep happy.

And here we have the stones again, these mute stones that would cry out if the crowds were silent, “… and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

            As Christians we look back on this and see both a blessing and a warning.  It is a blessing because God, in his eternal mercy, will forgive even these stubborn religious leaders who are less informed than the rocks.  These religious leaders will insist that there is no way on earth that God could act the very way God will be acting in the days to come.

            We see a warning, because like the religious leaders of that day, we too are the religious people today.  We are the ones who should be expected to recognize the actions of God, and not get in the way.

            I don’t think we’d describe those religious leaders as bad people.  Surely there were some rotten apples among them, but for the most part we’d call them good upstanding citizens.  They were people of respect.  They knew their duty.  They knew what was expected of them.  They knew how to be models of righteousness.  I think we’d like most of them.  But they had misplaced loyalties and commitments.

            Sure, we do things that are wrong and sinful and indulgent sometimes, but for the most part we want to do what is good and right.  Let us be careful that doing what we think is right does not get in the way of God’s work.  The religious leaders thought they were preserving the faith and protecting Jerusalem.  But they missed it.

            Even when we mess up – mess up as bad as they did in Jerusalem that day – God’s plans continue.  I invite you to read in your Bibles at home all week what happens with Jesus day to day during Holy Week.  We’ll certainly be doing that on Thursday and Friday when we are here in worship.  And notice what happens.  Even though humans are so committed to undermining God’s plans they are ironically carrying it out. 

            Jesus has displayed throughout the gospel that he is on his way – which is God’s way.  He is carrying out God’s plans and nothing will deter him from it.  Now on Palm Sunday we see how Jesus is in charge of everything, from the rocks to the beasts to the crowds.  Even those who reject him are carrying out his plans.  And let there be no doubt as the week goes on, that while Jesus appears to be losing more and more control with each passing day, everything is actually happening according to his design.

            You know well I don’t like to say that God micromanages our lives, with specific plans for each of us for each and every moment of every day.  However, God does have a cosmic plan that is moving forward.  Whenever we live and act and move we are participating in God’s great work.  Let us rejoice to have such a role.  And let us be smarter than the religious leaders, smarter than the rocks even, and like the crowds have eyes open to see God at work.

April 7, 2019 Zacchaeus and the Ruler Luke 18:18-19:10

            If you are my age or older and you grew up going to Sunday school you surely know the song about Zacchaeus.  I’d sing it to you, but you don’t want me to do that:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.

He sat up in a sycamore tree, the Lord he wanted to see.

And when the Savior passed that way he looked up in the tree.

And said, “Zacchaeus, you come down! 

For I’m coming to your house today.

For I’m coming to your house today.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, but a happy man was he.

For he had seen the Lord that day

And a happy man was he.

And a very happy man was he.

            It’s a cute song and it helps us remember something about this short man in the Bible and something about how Jesus calls people.

            The song, however, is only the second half the story.  Today we want to look at both halves.  The first half is the beginning of our gospel reading.  There we meet, “a certain ruler.”

            And if it helps us understand that we’re to interpret these two stories in parallel, notice the same word is used of Zacchaeus, though our English translations miss it.  In Greek Zacchaeus is not called a “chief” tax collector, but a “ruling” tax collector – just like the “certain ruler” of the previous chapter.  The “certain ruler” is not given a name.  Zacchaeus, of course, is named.

            The certain ruler approaches Jesus and asks him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

            How about Zacchaeus?  He doesn’t approach Jesus at all.  He knows he can’t even see Jesus so he does a very unmanly thing – he climbs a tree.  And from up there Jesus calls out to him.

            The stature of Zacchaeus is more than just a bit of trivia about him.  It also carries symbolic significance.  He was short, not very manly, and not very well received in polite society.  The “certain ruler” was surely a highly desired guest in one’s home.

            The “certain ruler” approaches Jesus with what seems like a genuine question at first, but we pretty quickly realize it’s more of a business calculation; and it drips with arrogance.  “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

            This man’s heart is not in it.  He’s asking for a strategy.  He’s asking Jesus about eternal life with the same calculations I use when I have to buy a car.  Car salesmen don’t particularly like selling to me.  Oh, I’m hardly a tough negotiator, I’m just a boring customer.  I know what I need from a vehicle and I do research ahead of time.  I research makes and models, read reviews, compare gas mileage and overall ownership costs.  I put almost no emotion into car buying at all.  Then, based on my research I look for what I think will suit me best.  I never walk into a dealership and say, “Show me what you have.”  More often than not I search a dealer’s inventory, select the exact car I want to look out, and then make an appointment to take a look at it.  If I like it I buy it.  If not, I’m not interested in looking around.  Again, I’m a boring customer.

            The ruler knows his assets and his needs.  He’s done his research.  He’s followed the commandments to the letter.  He knows how to be righteous and he lives that way.  He knows how to be on God’s good side.  And obviously he is on God’s good side because his life is good.  He’s rich, he’s prominent, he has it good.  Everyone looks to him as a model of life.  You can just imagine a crowd around listening with anticipation as to what advice the “good teacher” will give to this fine, upstanding citizen.

            Then there’s Zacchaeus, a grown man up in a tree.  And why is he a grown man up in a tree?  Because a famous man is going to walk by and he wants to get a peek at him.  But no one respects Zacchaeus enough to give him a space in the front of the crowd. 

You know how at parades little kids are often allowed to sit or stand up front because they can’t see over the adults.  No one complains if a little kid wants to see.  They surely don’t get shouldered out of the way.  But Zacchaeus was not a cute little kid.  He was a grown man.  He was a scoundrel, a traitor.  He was not only a tax collector, but he was a ruling tax collector.  And while we don’t like the IRS in this nation it is nothing to what they thought of tax agents in those days.  At least the IRS is of our own government.  How would it feel, however, if Mexico conquered the United States, and then they hired some disloyal American citizens to be tax collectors?  The taxes were then used to pay for the armies that continued to occupy us.

When the Romans conquered and then occupied a nation they would use the earnings of that nation to pay for the armies that perpetuated the occupation.

Zacchaeus was in no position to go to Jesus and say, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He knew he was the filth of the earth, a traitor to his own people.  He was hated and had no place in polite society.

Jesus gives the “certain ruler” some advice, “Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

The ruler asked for the terms of a business deal to get into heaven.  Jesus gave it to him – sell your stuff and give the money to the poor.

This is way more than a call for charity.  If this ruler gave what he had to his wealthy friends they would feel indebted to him.  It would still be a business transaction and while he might be considered an odd ball he would still live in successful society.  But if he gave his money to the poor – well, what’s the advantage to that.  There is none!

The ruler would be powerless, friendless; and most importantly, helpless.

Heaven is not accomplished through a business deal.  Heaven is gifted through a relationship of trust with God.

Now look carefully at the Zacchaeus story.  Does Jesus anywhere criticize Zacchaeus?  Nope.  He just says that he wants to stay at his house.  Does Jesus tell Zacchaeus, “Now you know most of what you have you have acquired by exploiting the taxation system of the Romans.  You need to stop being a disgrace to you own people and you need to stop exploiting others”?  Nope. 

Without Jesus saying another word Zacchaeus volunteers, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

Look also at how Zacchaeus addresses Jesus.  Does he call him, “Good Teacher”?  Is Zacchaeus approaching Jesus as if he intends to begin a formal student/teacher relationship?  No.  He calls Jesus “Lord” right off the bat. 

Jesus then says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.”

The “certain ruler” wanted a business partnership for his own gain.  Zacchaeus wanted a relationship, he wanted to be seen, he wanted to be valued.

Jesus commends Zacchaeus.  Of the ruler he says, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  Wealth is the mistaken belief that you can take care of yourself.  Wealth is the lie of safety.  Wealth is the lie that you can create your own value.

Two rich men: one tall, proud, and prestigious, one infamous and short.  We leave one delighted.  We leave one heartbroken.

Let’s learn from both that the key is relationship with God, not strategies and business transactions.  Strategies and business transactions are fine for buying a car or leveraging in a corporate buyout, but they have little in the way of relationship with God.  And whether we are short or tall, let us be delighted when we see our Lord at work, knowing that he is the key to salvation.