February 28 Lent 3 Mark 10:13-31

At first glance it appears as if the scene where Jesus blesses the little children has nothing to do with the second scene of Jesus talking to the rich man about eternal life.  But the two are very deeply connected.

Commentator Pheme Perkins notes this:

“Modern readers find it difficult to avoid romanticizing the ideal of a child.  They typically look at some characteristic of children, like innocence or dependence or acceptance, as the meaning of ‘become like a child.’  However, ancient societies lacked such romantic notions of childhood….

“The child in antiquity was radically dependent upon the pater familias.  The father decided whether the child would even be accepted into the family.  Children belonged to their father and remained subject to his authority even as adults.  The saying ‘to receive the kingdom like a child,’ …refers to the radical dependence of the child on the father for any status, inheritance, or, in families where children might be abandoned, for life itself.  It warns the disciples that they are radically dependent upon God’s grace.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8, Pg. 647)

            Jesus means nothing about naiveté or innocence when Jesus talks about receiving the kingdom as a child.  He is talking about dependence upon the Father – God; depending on God for any status or inheritance or life itself.

            Return your thoughts to the story of Adam and Eve.  What is at the root of their sin, the eating of the forbidden fruit?  It is their desire to define themselves apart from God.  Their action was an act of rejecting God as Father.  A child has nothing to do with age.  It has everything to do with who defines you.

            Now let’s look at the story of the rich man.  He comes to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  That’s contract language… What must I do to inherit eternal life.  That’s the kind of conversation you’d have at a business meeting.  He’s trying to figure out how to make a deal with God.  He treats salvation with legalism.

            You’ll remember from previous weeks that Mark wants us to know that God loves us, and God loves us abundantly and radically.  That we can depend upon.  However we can never think that love means that we can limit God, predict God or manipulate God.  You simply can’t.

            But behind this rich man’s words we discover that he wants to.  He’s followed all the rules.  Jesus says to him, “You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness’ You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’”

            You can almost feel the warmth rising in his heart and the smile spreading across his face as he jubilantly says, “Teacher, I have kept all these… from my youth!”  He’s ready to walk away with that good feeling you have when you’ve done a truly good deed, and while you don’t feel smug about yourself, you feel happy and content.  This guy’s got it.  He works hard.  He’s a good guy.  People like him for his virtues.  And now he knows God will reward him for his goodness.

            And then Jesus keeps talking, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

            The man is crushed.  His whole life of virtue has just been pulled out from under his feet.  We learn that he has many possessions.  He is probably a generous guy.  He knows the pleasure of helping out someone less fortunate.

            He can’t bear the shame of being needy himself and being on the receiving end of charity.

            His possessions and money give him status.  They give him safety.  If there’s suddenly a famine or economic catastrophe, that’s okay.  He can pull some from savings and weather the trouble.

            He loses that earthly safety if he sells it all and follows Jesus.

            He can walk down the street with his head held erect.  He’s a solid dependable person.  People know him.  He’s respected.  He’s responsible.  People turn to him for advice about how to be successful because he is a model of success.

            Giving it all up and following Jesus is going to mean that people are going to look down on him.  They’ll think he had a nervous breakdown or became a religious freak.  People will whisper behind his back.  He’ll go from the model of success that he is to falling to the bottom of society.

            He walks away grieving because he can’t do it.

            Subconsciously he wants eternal life on his terms, which are the terms of earthly honor and status.  He wants to be a good guy as he and others define a good guy, not how God really thinks.

            The disciples are just as shocked as this man is.  They say to one another, “Then who can be saved?”  In their opinion rich people were rich people because God liked them.  Poor people were poor people because God didn’t like them.

            Perhaps that’s too cut and dried.  They certainly had the idea that God loved the poor and the orphan and the widow.  They knew God would be with those who suffer innocently.  That was part of their Jewish faith.  But they had the same subtle belief that still exists today.  Good, hard working, clean cut people are to be emulated.  They’ve got it together.  People like them.  Therefore God must like them too.

            That doesn’t mean that God can’t love dirty, drug-addicted, lazy people, but they are more of a burden to society, so of what value are they?  If they want to be noticed and worthwhile then they’ve got to get their act together.

            From the disciples perspective, if even the good, clean cut hard working people can’t enter the kingdom of God, then who can?

            Jesus says the key thing, and it is impossible to overstate its importance.  “For mortals it is impossible.”

            Can you get to heaven?  Can you have eternal life?  I have bad news for you.  You can’t do it.  It’s impossible.  You’re helpless.  You’re powerless.  You’re trapped.  You’re lost.  If you hope in yourself or your possessions or your goodness or your reputation you’re hoping in vain.

            Jesus goes on, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”  When it comes to salvation or eternal life or going to heaven we’re all hoping for the impossible.  Because that’s the only hope we have.

            Notice Jesus said to the disciples, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!”  He calls them children.  And we go back to the previous scene where Jesus says, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child will never enter it.”

            To be a child is to be subject to the pater familias, be subject to the Father.  The Father alone gives us worth.  The Father alone gives us safety.  The Father alone gives us an inheritance.  It is the Father’s power alone that can save us.  Returning to Pheme Perkins thoughts again, she says we are radically dependent upon God’s grace.  We cannot set the conditions for entering the kingdom.

            The rich man wanted power and order in his salvation.  He wasn’t willing to become needy.  He wasn’t willing to become a child again.  He wanted to be the pater familias, not be radically dependent on God.

            It is a challenge for us who are often so successful at being successful.  We know how to look to ourselves to meet our needs.  We can provide for our own food and shelter and comfort and entertainment.  We feel that our reputations rest in our own hands, in our own efforts.  It is difficult to imagine giving all that up.  And it is just as difficult to imagine being a child that is needy and dependent.  It is difficult to imagine being a beggar before God just like every other person, but it is true.

            It is not all bad news.  In fact there is quite good news.  Jesus promises abundance for those who do come to trust in God: needs being met, friendships, acceptance and worth.  These are all part of God’s kingdom on earth.  So may we be able to trust God.  We have to.  It is our only hope for the impossible.  And blessings will come with it too. 

February 18, 2018 Lent 1 Mark 9:14-10:12

The passage from Mark has a lot to challenge us and maybe even frighten us.  These are not the kind of teachings we like to have from Jesus.  All too often I think people imagine Jesus as this all around nice guy who never really says anything mean.  But today we read him giving a blanket condemnation of divorce and remarriage.  He talks about cutting off limbs and plucking out eyes.  He has these strange teachings about salt losing its saltiness – that is chemically impossible.  And there is the scene where Jesus is mad because the disciples couldn’t cure the epileptic boy.  He tells them, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you?  How much longer must I put up with you?”  (Mark 9:19) 

You may remember me mentioning when we started Mark’s gospel that this writing will pull the rug out from under your feet time and time again.  Every time you think you understand and you think you have Jesus figured out Mark will upend your understanding.  I think that is part of his point.  He wants us to know that God is deeply loving, and that God is very generous, and that God’s cares for all people.  But we cannot think that because this is God’s nature that we can figure God out or control God or even intellectually understand what God is up to.  Instead, we are called to trust, and trust God more deeply than our brains can comprehend.

Let’s look at some of these scenes in reverse order.  Some Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus by asking him about divorce.  It’s an entrapping question because there’s no way out.  If he says no then he has gone against Deuteronomy 24:1 which says that a man may divorce his wife for any reason.  The exact wording is, “…she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her…”  That’s it – grounds for divorce were simply failing to please a man.  You may remember me joking that a man could divorce his wife on the grounds that he doesn’t like her meatloaf! 

On the other hand, if Jesus says yes a man can divorce his wife then he’d get into trouble with the powerful Essene community, a large Jewish sect that forbade divorce under any circumstances.

Jesus’ answer rightfully turns the question on its head.  Marriage is based on God’s order of creation, not about rules and regulations.  Jesus’ private teachings to his disciples about remarriage being adultery are also rooted in God’s order of creation, not rules and regulations.  His teachings acknowledge the emotional feelings of betrayal, hurt, and shame that any emotionally healthy person feels at the break down of an intimate relationship and the beginning of another.

Notice Jesus does not say people who remarry will burn in hell forever.  He simply roots the situation in God’s order of creation and names the pains that go with it.

The scene prior to that talks about dismembering yourself if part of you causes you to sin.  Fortunately I see you have not followed that advice or I’d be talking to a bunch of blind people without arms and legs.  I’d be like that too.  Remember, Jesus often uses exaggerated language in his teachings.  And here he is picking up on an ancient Greek teaching, “Cast away every part of the body which leads you to intemperance; for it is better to live temperately without it, than to live whole.”  (Sextus Sentences 13)

It reminds us of the seriousness of sin.  A person who takes his or her sin lightly also takes God’s grace lightly.  A person who takes his or her sin seriously also appreciates the undeserved-favor-that-is-God’s-grace as a wonderful gift.  Again, can you see that this is rooted in creation and right relationship with God.

Going back another scene we have the disciple John wanting to stop who’s doing good work in Jesus’ name.  John is acting like Jesus’ name is proprietary and this other guy hasn’t paid the licensing fee.  Once again we see how human logic wants to put limits on God.  The same can be said for the scene previous to that where the disciples are arguing over who was the greatest.  This is a human tendency to always want to rank and measure ourselves against other people.  We want to feel like we are better than them, and we certainly don’t like being beneath others.  But this is all thinking from the human point of view.  It is not God’s way.  As I said before, Mark’s gospel will always witness to the abundance of God’s love, but never let us think we have control over it, or that we can limit it, or predict it.

And I think that leads us to the very first scene we read from the gospel.  The disciples are unable to cast a demon out of a boy.  Based on his symptoms we can conclude he has epilepsy.  The whole scene is filled with anger and chaos.  There’s a crowd, there are religious experts, there are the disciples, there’s this father, and his boy who he wants to have cured.  Jesus enters the scene as well and he seems angry at everyone, calling them a faithless generation.  Then the boy has a seizure right then and there and Jesus forcefully drives it out.

In the midst of all the chaos the boy’s father says something that has become famous.  “I believe; help my unbelief!”  What a strange thing to say!  But it is an authentic and deeply revealing truth.  I think we all have felt just like that man.  We want to believe.  We need to believe.  But it just seems so impossible and we want to have solid assurance right then and there.  The boy and his father are fortunate that they get it from Jesus.

The final word on this scene is an interesting one.  The disciples ask Jesus why they could do nothing.  He replies, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

I think Jesus’ word on prayer and the father’s words that he believes but help his unbelief go hand in hand.

Prayer is definitely powerful, but many people treat it like a magical formula:  It is as if God was a divine magician who is available with miraculous powers if and only if you call upon God correctly.  You have to say the right words and say them in the right way and be thinking the right thoughts and if and only if you do, then God will act.

But what have we been talking about Mark’s gospel?  God is guaranteed to be loving, but is God able to be predicted, controlled or understood?  No.  Never.  Prayer is not a human being’s ability to dictate to God what God should do.  Prayer is a conversation of trust between God and people.

I suppose we could ask the question, do we trust in the power of prayer, or do we trust in the one to whom we pray?  If you say you trust in the power of prayer I’d suggest that is coming from a human point of view.  It is as if prayer in and of itself has power.  But if you trust in the one to whom you pray then you are trusting in God.

When Jesus says this kind only can come out by prayer he is not suggesting that with the correct prayer technique the demon, or the epilepsy could be cured.  He is saying that God should be trusted to have the power to cure.

The cure then, is God’s, not ours.

Now don’t get me wrong in what I say about prayer.  Many a hurting and angry Christian has swallowed their hurt and anger and prayed to God, “This is what I want, but thy will be done and I’ll be okay with whatever it is.”  That is a commendable thought, but is it a true prayer?

When you’re scared or hurting or angry then is not the time to pray prim and proper prayers.  A prim and proper prayer with fear and anger subdued within yourself is a very weak prayer indeed.  Martin Luther taught to let it out.  If you’re scared let God know it.  If you’re angry let God know it, even if you’re angry at God!  And if you’re hurting let God know it.

God knows what you’re trying to hide in your mind.  True prayer, powerful prayer, is when you are bluntly honest and truthful with God.  Then is when you trust not in the power of your prayer but the power of the one to whom you pray.  Then you are bold to trust that God’s love has a hold of you and won’t let go.

All of today’s gospel reading is about not legislating how God should act, but knowing with surety that God will act with love.  It’s easier said than done.  The disciples messed up plenty, and we do too.  But God’s love always gets the final word, and in that we rest our hope.

February 11 2018 Transfiguration Sunday

Like many things in Mark’s gospel, the transfiguration brings in many layers of meaning.  For many years biblical scholars thought Mark’s gospel was a history of Jesus’ ministry written by a well-intended, but simple-minded author.  Not so.  The same goes for the disciples as they’re portrayed in Mark’s gospel.  They seem like a bunch of loveable, but bumbling idiots at one level – as if instead of Jesus choosing twelve apostles, he chose twelve stooges.  But when you look at them more you see a lot of yourself – a well-meaning, but struggling person; wanting and meaning to be a faith-filled disciple, but feeling like you fall short all too often.  And even if you don’t want to admit it in your mind, I think most people have a sense of frustration.  If God only gave a sign, or some proof, or created some sort of supernatural source of belief inside them, then they could be good disciples.  Think about what we’ve learned so far from Mark’s gospel about both the disciples and the Pharisees.  They’re really asking Jesus for the same thing.

But faith is different.  People want faith to be a business transaction or a contract.  Each party in the contract has a clear list of privileges and responsibilities; rewards and consequences are clearly spelled out.

I’m reminded of the joke about the wealthy businessman who had a reputation for being mean and abusive to his employees, his children and his wife.  He was notorious for lying and being deceitful.  His wife was a kindhearted loving woman who always prayed for her husband.  The man suddenly became very sick and doctors told him he would die, so he better quickly get his affairs in order.  He asked for his wife’s pastor to come and visit him.

The pastor arrived and the man said, “I know you are an honest man, trustworthy and you will not lie to me.  I have been a bad person all my life.  I’ve lied.  I’ve hurt lots of people.  I’ve manipulated and exploited things.  So I have a question for you.  If I gave everything I own – everything: all my money, my cars, my house, my business – everything over to the church right now, will I go to heaven?  Tell me the truth.  I know you’re an honest man.”

The pastor paused for a few seconds contemplating his answer and said, “Well, it’s worth a try.”

Silly, but people want faith to be a give and take mechanism.  It’s a relationship, which is unique in each person’s experience, and it’s layered and complicated. 

We see some layers and complications in the transfiguration.  You may remember me preaching this before, but from one point of view, Peter’s offer to build three dwellings on top of the mountain – one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah is absolutely silly.  I imagine a delivery truck from Home Depot struggling its way up a steep mountain road delivering lumber and roofing materials!  But from a different point of view, Peter’s offer is commendable.  The three dwellings Peter offers to make are tents, or booths.  Peter is offering to do set up work for a Festival of the Booths.  This was a late-season harvest festival.  It commemorated the years the people of Israel spent wandering in the wilderness under Moses.  And in Peter’s day the festival had come to mean the end of time.  It was believed that at the end of time there would be a great Festival of the Booths.

So Peter sees Moses and Elijah and Jesus and thinks the end has come.  He has willingly offered his services to them.  Notice he does not offer to build four or six dwellings.  That would then include a place for himself and James and John.  If he had offered that we could reasonably conclude that Peter wants the event to go on and on and he will then live up there with these three great guys.  But no, Peter’s offer is genuine.  It is well thought out.  It is commendable.  And it is totally wrong.

If you were here last week you may remember talking about two levels of sight, as we saw it took Jesus two attempts to cure the blind man.  We talked about how there seems to be two levels of sight in the disciples too.  They seem to be able to see Jesus as the Messiah – which was the image of glory and triumph and power.  And then there is the second level of sight which was seeing Jesus as the Son of God.  In Mark’s gospel Son of God –or Son of Man- is always a reference to Jesus as the crucified one.  It has to do with suffering, loss and death.  The disciples do not have this level of sight.  At least they don’t have it yet.  They will get it after the crucifixion.

So Peter’s offer is commendable from the point of view of this first level of sight.  He is offering the glorious and triumphant Messiah he sees standing in front of him with Moses and Elijah his services.

But what does the voice from the cloud say?  Does is say, “This is my Messiah”?  No, it says, “This is my Son, the Beloved…”  So we have both – Jesus as the glorious Messiah shining and bright white; and Jesus as the Son of God, the suffering crucified one.  I think we are to understand both from the Transfiguration.

What are we to do with this contradiction?  What does it mean for our lives? 

Mark’s original readers knew what it meant to be persecuted for their faith.  They were suffering for what they believed.  When you’re suffering for something it is easy to question the validity of it.  Would you stick with a financial advisor if every time you followed that person’s advice your investments lost money?  And why would you invest your life in believing something that was only going to cost you?  Like St. Paul writes, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ we are of all people most to be pitied.”  (1 Corinthians 15:19)

Mark’s original hearers needed to know that persecution and suffering were going to be part and parcel of faith.  But, it was worth it.  Because, again as St. Paul continues, the promise of the resurrection was coming.  That would be joy and glory.

And yet, Christian faith is not intended to be a strategy for suffering now in order to be rewarded later.  That would be back to being a simple business transaction – you’re doing what you think God wants so that God rewards you in the end.

As we look at this for our own lives, let’s always keep in mind something greater.  This message appears to be infused in every word of Mark’s gospel.  Following Christ does have rewards now.  They are not the rewards of being blessed by God and having an easy luxurious life.  They are the rewards of working hard and doing something worthwhile, even if that worthwhile doesn’t bring you glory.

Maybe I’m an oddball in this, but I don’t think so.  At the end of the day I sleep better when I’ve done an honest day’s work; when I feel like I’ve made a meaningful contribution to the world around me; when I haven’t knowingly defrauded anyone or exploited anyone.  Of course hard work is not the same as suffering, and hard work does not equate to being a faithful Christian.  But it makes a good example of investing yourself in something worthwhile.

I think you will suffer today for your faith, although that suffering will be mild compared to what Christians experienced in Mark’s day.  Standing up for justice and fairness will cost you socially.  Christian faith is not always welcome in the workplace, especially when Christian faith does not go along with questionable practices.  And there is the whole cultural arrogance that suggests atheism is the only thing a truly rational person would accept as truth.  People of faith are ignorant weaklings who use their faith as a crutch.  We know this is not true, but it doesn’t really matter.

And perhaps this isn’t suffering at all, but it certainly isn’t glorious.  In the 1980’s theologian Fred Craddock wrote, “We think of give our all to the Lord is like taking $1000 bill and leaving it on the table – ‘Here’s my life, Lord, I’m giving it all.’  But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us exchange the $1000 for quarters.  We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there…   Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious.  It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time.”  (Leadership (Fall 1984) 47)

January 28, 2018 John 3 - Preached at St. Paul's, Penn Yan

             I’m sure an image comes to mind the moment you hear the phrase, “I’m a born again Christian.”  Of course it’s rooted in the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus where Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born again.”  Nicodemus doesn’t get it and the conversation unfolds in an almost ridiculous way as Nicodemus tries to figure out how to climb back inside ones mother’s womb.  But the way many people who call themselves “born again” understand it is almost as off the mark as Nicodemus’ understanding.

            The word in question is the Greek word  It has a double meaning.  It means both “born again” and “born from above”.  The way Jesus uses it requires us to keep both meanings at work simultaneously.

            Often when people talk about being “born again” they are talking about a personal conversion experience that has happened to them.  That’s not only not what Jesus had in mind at all, but it also misses the double meaning of the word. 

            The idea of being born again does indeed suggest being born into a new way of thinking and being as a human.  Including the idea of being “born from above” moves the focus to what has been done for us by Jesus.  Here are the words from biblical commentator Gail O’Day, “Contemporary usage of ‘born again’… emphasizes personal change more than the external source of that change: the cross.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, Pg. 555) 

I’ve met far too many people who are smug about being “born again.”  They use it like a slogan and look down long judgmental noses at people like Lutherans who don’t do much with the idea.  When someone does that he or she has completely missed the point of being born again.  Born again is not a religious conversion experience.  It is an entirely new way of recognizing reality as it has been created for us by Jesus.

We live in politically charged times.  It seems like whenever either major political party has a legislative win they hold a press conference to tout what they have done.  There may be speeches and those speeches include praise for backers and supporters.

Indeed it is good to thank people who have worked to make something possible, but there is also a lot of, “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine,” kind of thing going on.  It becomes an exchange of glory and a condemnation of opponents.  The focus is on what we did, and it tears down the losers.

The new way of recognizing reality as it has been created for us by Jesus is totally different.  There the focus is first and foremost what Jesus did for us.  When Jesus died on the cross he did not do so because he was a depressed man who felt he was worthless and had given up on life.  No, Jesus was full, strong and capable.  He could have changed things any time he wanted and in any way he wanted.  But he chose to let things happen as they did.  It is always ironic that just as the religious leaders are trying to thwart God’s plans by killing Jesus they actually are carrying them out.

A phrase I like to use is, Jesus did not give up his life.  He gave away his life.  Giving up is quitting and admitting defeat.  Giving away means that you know you have something of great value to offer and you are providing it to someone else because it will be a benefit to them.

There is a true selflessness involved when you give away and don’t have any expectations of a return.

Truly being born again/born from above – and I think it’s best that we use both, not just one, even though it’s awkward – means that you have moved your life’s orientation away from the: give and take,

I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine,

Let’s make a deal,

sort of life.  It’s when you can make every decision of your life, whether it be big or small, based on what Jesus has done for you, and you know you have been saved by his work.  Therefore everything that you are – all you skills and abilities, your money, your connections, your education, and everything becomes tools you can implement to bring about God’s kingdom.

But this is very very radical thinking.  It is a very radical way of life.

If you bought a house in your lifetime what was going through your mind as you selected it or shopped for it?  Maybe things like whether you liked the floor plan or not, or how new the roof and furnace was, maybe the condition of the electrical and plumbing systems.  Certainly things like price and location were factors in your decision.

I would love to see the look on a realtor’s face if someone went in and said, “I need to buy a house that will best equip me to share the love Jesus has for me.  What do you have that’ll fit that bill?”

How did you choose your car?  Size, age, price…  How about how well it would equip you to be an evangelist.

I’m waiting for a Christian clothing store to open up that will carry fashions designed to maximize our effectiveness at spreading the gospel.  If such a store ever opened do you think it would stay in business long?

And of course, ideally you’d choose your spouse based on which person in this world best compliments your life of discipleship in Christ – in other words, finding a partner who best helps you to work for God’s kingdom.

I can’t speak for everyone, certainly not the women, maybe you are truly better in this, but as a guy I can tell you that men don’t go checking women out and ranking their attractiveness based on the sophistication of their faith!

That, however, is the radical life reorientation that comes from truly being born again/born from above.  It is building life based on what Christ has done and then seeing everything –everything - that you are as a tool you can use to share Christ’s goodness with others.

Being born again doesn’t mean you’ve got a stamp of endorsement on your “Get into Heaven Free” card.  It is a way of being focused on what Christ has done.

            From that perspective I think we all fall short, way short.  At least I do.  Maybe you’re better than me.  Thanks be to God that God is loving and patient and kind with our sinful failings and that God will forgive us over and over and over again as we forever struggle to get it right, and seem to forever fall back into the dark ways of the world which so foolishly promise us happiness apart from God. 

The full character of God has been revealed in Jesus.  Our gospel reading included the ever famous John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that those who believe in him may not perish but have eternal life.”  God is love.  God wants there to be light, life and joy among his people.  God’s love knows no bounds.  God’s love is afraid of nothing.  God’s love can do anything. 

May you wake up every morning and remind yourself that you are loved by God, and know that you are born again/born from above.  Your life’s orientation is on what God has done in the past and what God is doing through you.

God does not want to condemn the world.  God wants to save the world.  In fact, through the cross of Christ God has already saved the world.  He invites you to live out that reality and share it, so that indeed all may know of God’s great gift and be willing to accept it.

January 21, 2018 Mark 5

             The passage we read from Mark is a wonderful collection of miracle stories.  They show the full extent of Jesus’ powers.  In the stilling of the storm we see that Jesus has power over the forces of nature.  In the casting out of the demons in the Gerasene man we see Jesus has power over chaos and evil spirits.  In the healing of the woman with hemorrhages he shows his power to cure medical problems doctors can’t fix.  And in the raising of dead little girl Jesus shows power over death.

            In each case he does it to provide people with health and safety.  At least a few of the disciples were fishermen.  They knew a bad storm when they saw one, and if even they were scared, they were in one.  Jesus provides them with safety.  The demon possessed man lived as a wild outcast away from civilization.  He was chained and restrained to keep him under control.  Jesus gives him a right mind and fullness of life.  Similarly, the hemorrhaging woman would have been considered perpetually ritually unclean and unable to participate in many religious and social activities.  And what parent isn’t devastated at the serious illness and death of one of their children?

            As the front of the worship bulletin suggests, this is all fine and good for them.  They get to have their lives miraculously fixed by Jesus.  But what about us?  Are our problems somehow less?  Are we second rate that we do not get such treatment?  Is our pain somehow less real?

Does the person suffering from chronic heart problems have less faith that her condition is not healed the way the bleeding woman was?

What about the parent who loses a son or daughter to cancer, or the boy or girl killed in an automobile accident?  Why not being raised from the dead for them?

Is the person struggling to overcome an addiction to drugs really all that different from the Gerasene Demoniac?  Maybe he or she isn’t tethered with chains, but the feeling of being out of control is the same.  Lives are ruined.  Families are destroyed. 

And what about the chaos of the person who suffers at the hands of an abusive spouse or parent?  Why when he or she prays for God to help does that help not come?  Are we not taught to pray for our enemies and do good things for them?  Why doesn’t God respond to such sincere and righteous prayers?  Is such a person’s suffering all that different from the disciples being tossed around in a boat in a storm-tossed sea?

These are all good questions.  They are fair questions to ask.  And it is okay to get mad at God for the unfairness of it all.  A look at the passage from Mark shows us that not everyone who had a miraculous healing was a faithful person.  While Jesus praises the faith of the bleeding woman, he criticizes the disciples for their lack of faith.  But both get a miracle.  The Gerasene Demoniac doesn’t even ask to be cured.  Jesus approached him without even having an invitation and sets his life to rights.

The passage we read from Mark does not give us answers, but Mark’s gospel does respond to our questions, even if it isn’t the answers we want to hear.

Here’s the thing.  We need Jesus to be powerful.  We need to know he has power over nature, and over evil, and over medical problems, and over death itself.  How could we ever trust God with our lives if we weren’t sure God was fully powerful? 

We need Jesus, and we need to know he is powerful; but we do not need his miraculous powers in our own lives. 

Any number of times we see in Mark’s gospel that Jesus tells people not to tell about the miracles he has performed.  Sometimes, like with the Gerasene Demoniac, he does tell him to spread the word.  Other times he does not.  You’ll remember me saying before that it’s impossible to say for certainty why this is so.  But a very reasonable conclusion is that Jesus is to be known first and foremost not as the miracle worker, but as the crucified one.

In a couple weeks we’ll explore the dimensions of Jesus identity more, but for now let’s just say that Jesus wants the center of our identity with him to be, not one which is based on getting supernatural solutions to problems, but instead based on Jesus’ self-emptying love.  Your salvation came through Jesus’ death, not his miraculous powers. 

We need to know Jesus is powerful so we can trust in his promises.  Then when we truly trust in his promises they become a force that shapes our lives. 

You are what you believe.  That’s what shapes your life and forms your identity.  In Christian faith you bring God’s promises to life.  That is how God wants his work to be done.  That is how he wants his kingdom to come into reality in this life.  It is as strong as we make it. 

Why doesn’t God fix problems beyond our control for us?  It is not because God doesn’t care.  It is because he holds us in his power no matter what.  From there, we are empowered to embody God’s love.  That’s how God wants it to be real in the world.  He wants his love to be alive because we make it alive.  It can be a tough challenge, but it honors us and gives us a meaningful place in God’s work. 

January 14 Mark 4:1-34 Sermon

             We’re going to discover that just about every time we encounter Mark’s gospel there is going to be something that’s going to trip us up.  Even the biblical experts can’t make sense of it most of the time if they’re honest.  Today we read a collection of parables from Jesus.  Or maybe we should call them riddles since the word can be translated either way.  Jesus gives the riddle in public but often doesn’t give its answer, or a way to interpret it.  Then in private Jesus gives the answer to the disciples.  Fortunately we get to be an insider too and hear the answer. 

Why does he do this?  Loosely quoting from Isaiah 6 he says, “To you has been given the secret to the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in riddles; in order that, ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”

What?!?  Is Jesus deliberately teaching in a way that excludes people?  Is God damning people and hardening their hearts so that he has all the more reason to do it?  No, of course not.  That would be counter to everything Jesus embodied.  But that is just the kind of question biblical scholars wrestle with in Mark’s gospel.

Actually it gets at a bigger question.  Mark isn’t the only gospel that has Jesus quoting from Isaiah.  It also shows up in the gospel of John, in Acts, and in Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Always the question is why don’t people accept the loving Word of God as it comes to them?

I think Jesus is getting at a deep issue within people.  Why don’t people respond to the pure and simple truth?  Why can’t people believe that God loves them and then live that out?  I think we’d all like to say of ourselves that if you give us pure and simple information for our own good we’ll follow it.  Sometimes we may approach the Bible’s teachings and say, “Forget all this complex nonsense.  Keep it simple.”

Yes, that would be nice.  Or would it?  How many times has a doctor sat down with a patient and said, “Your blood sugar is too high.  You have Type 2 Diabetes.  You can control it but you have to lose weight, eat less sugars and carbohydrates, and exercise more.”  Or, “Your blood pressure is too high.  You’ll have to severely cut your sodium intake.”

Or my favorite I heard from a speaker whose name I’ve long since forgotten.  In a different lecture he had asked the crowd how many people had major bypass surgery.  And then he asked them how many people had changed their lifestyles because of the surgery.  Few had, and one guy raised a donut in his hand and said, “You mean like not eating these!?”

The sad truth is that we don’t respond to the simple pure truth.  People believe what they want to believe.  They ignore what they want to ignore.  You’ve probably heard sayings like, “Don’t bother me with the facts.”

Generally people will believe any truth that is convenient and beneficial for them.  They will reject anything and everything that has a deep cost.  That goes for religion, politics, economics, science, or quality of life.

We all remember and love to hear the things that make us feel good about ourselves and our way of life.  We reject and forget that which challenges us.

Why does Jesus preach in riddles?  Why do so many of the Bible’s authors use complex patterns and strategies and contradictions?  Why does Jesus use stories rather than straight facts?  Because maybe, just maybe, they will stick with us longer.  Maybe, just maybe, we’ll remember them later.

I wish I were a better story teller, because people remember stories and images better than facts.  When I tell a story in a sermon or relate an antidote far more people remember it than the facts I preach.

May we all have the insight to hear God’s truth, and believe it, and live it; whether it be a convenient truth or an inconvenient one for our lives.  Jesus promises good things for those who can hear God’s truth.  He doesn’t mean just in eternal life, he means for this life too.

Let’s turn to the parable of the sower.  It’s a detailed parable, or riddle.  It’s a familiar one and it’s very vivid.  Even if you’ve never scattered seed in a field or even grass seed in your lawn, you can get the picture.  You also get the absurdity of it.

If you’re seeding a new lawn you would not scatter the seed so crazily that it flies out onto the street or the sidewalk.  That’s pure waste.  And if there is a series weed problem somewhere, or too many rocks, or whatever the case may be, you’re probably not going to waste seed on those areas.  Maybe you landscape it rather than seeding it.  Or maybe you dig out the rocks or put in another layer of soil overtop them.  Whatever the case, even though grass seed isn’t overly expensive, you still don’t waste it.

But the sower in the parable does.  And we know that sower represents God.  The seed is God’s love, God’s word, and he scatters it wildly – on places no smart person would waste a valuable commodity.  I’ve never seen a person mow the grass in the street outside their house.  A bit of grass may grow in a crack in the pavement, but not a lawn.

Jesus wants all his hearers to know that God sows indiscriminately.  God’s goodness is for those who think they deserve it, and for those who people would say don’t deserve it.  God’s goodness goes where it is likely to do some good, and it also goes where it will probably do no good at all.  The key is that it goes there, because you never know.

When hiking in the Adirondacks it’s not at all unusual to come across a tree growing from the crack between rocks.  Somehow it’s there.  And often it’s even flourishing.

And flourish God’s goodness does!  Jesus says that when it truly takes root and produces the yield is incredible: thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.  Even with all the advances of modern agriculture, yields like that are almost impossible.  I think corn is about the only mass grown crop that can produce a hundredfold of what was planted.  Usually thirty fold in other grain crops is doing well.  And you can forget it when you get out of grains.

Consider our church’s garden project.  Last year we planted 150 pounds of seed potatoes.  It was a bad year, and from those 150 pounds we harvested a little over 900 pounds of potatoes.  It is said that a good potato yield is a tenfold increase, so you get ten pounds of potatoes for every pound you plant.  If it had been a good year we would have harvested 1500 pounds of potatoes.  But can you imagine if we would sometime get a hundredfold increase in potatoes?  That 150 pounds of seed would then be 15,000 pounds of potatoes!  I don’t know what the food cupboard would do with so many!  I don’t think our harvesting equipment could handle it, let alone our volunteers pick them all up!

Let’s not turn this into a prosperity gospel though.  Jesus has no teachings where those who follow him are blessed by being healthy, wealthy, and wise.  Many people think that is what being blessed by God means.  But the abundance of the kingdom is the abundance of the kingdom in God’s terms.  Ideas of wealth and prosperity are our ideas, not God’s.  How many miserable rich and prosperous people are there?  A lot!

Let’s conclude by noting an evangelism part about the abundance of the kingdom.  The fields yield an abundant harvest, the lamp is put on the bushel to give light, the mustard seed grows into a large shrub providing shelter, and on it goes.  Notice how the abundance of the kingdom has a purpose and direction that benefits more than just the listener.  Evangelism is not about embarrassing yourself and your neighbors by inviting them to go to church with you.  Evangelism is a sharing of the abundance.  It is faith that is not turned in upon its own consumption.  Rather it is turned outward so that the blessing continues.

People have a hard time believing the truth.  So our job is to not only speak it, but to share it in such a way that others benefit from it.  Provide: light, shelter, food, blessings to others.  That is effective evangelism.  That is growing the kingdom in word and deed, and in language that many people will understand.

December 17, 2017 Advent 3 Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

The cover of our bulletin brings up the contrast between the love of power and the power of love.  That is the basic conflict in just about every story ever written.  It’s the basic premise of the Harry Potter book series.  And also the Hunger Games, and Divergent.  Disney cartoons from Snow White all the way to Aladdin, Mulan, and Frozen are all about the contrast between the power of love and the love of power.  With a new Star Wars movie coming out I’d better not ignore that.  I’ll bet just about anything that it’ll be about love and virtue overcoming evil.

            Who wants to read a book or watch a movie where power wins and love gets defeated?  Of course some stories are that way.  Look at The Diary of Anne Frank.  And yet, that book is only interesting because the Nazis lost the war. 

            The story of Jesus from beginning to end is about the conflict between the power of love and the love of power.

            Despite the fact that about the only kind of story we love is this kind of story it is a much harder reality to live out.  Most everyone thinks he or she is a basically good person, or tries to do what is right, but when it comes down to it the love of power usually wins in their lives.

            The love of power wins whenever a person’s chief aim in choosing a house is status it bestows upon the buyer; or when a person chooses a car mostly because of how it will make him or her look when driving it.  The same goes for clothing.  How many times have teenage girls said, “I don’t want to be seen in public wearing that!”  I have a colleague whose daughters, when they were teenagers, would only carry things in bags from the Gap.  They would certainly not carry anything in a bag from Walmart.  And they probably would have died of shame if they were forced to go in public with a bag from Kmart.

Boys are no better.  How many teenage boys at the height of cool go cruising the streets in minivans?  Adults are also no better.  At that business meeting when everyone puts their cell phones on the table don’t you check out what other people have; and then make a subtle judgement?  Admit it, you do!  What do you think of that person who whips out an old flip-phone?!?

This may not seem like the love of power, but it is.  It is about creating a preserving your image and status; in other words, your power.  No one wants to slip down.

The book of Isaiah had something to teach the people of that day, but they had a hard time getting it.  And it has something to teach us too, but we’ll also have a hard time getting it.  It is about how the power of love truly works and expands.

Last week I mentioned that the book of Isaiah was almost certainly not written by just one person.  Almost all biblical scholars agree that chapters 1 through 39 are based on the teachings and writings of the historical prophet Isaiah.  His writings come from the time between 740 and 701 B.C.  That is the time period when ten of the northern tribes of Israel were destroyed by the Assyrian Empire.  Only two southern tribes were left with the city of Jerusalem as the capitol.  It was a tense time for the Jews.  They were too weak to defend themselves against the mighty empires that surrounded them, for there was also Egypt threatening from the south.  Isaiah exhorted the Jewish leaders that they should trust God because God had promised to divinely protect Jerusalem forever.  That sounds like a good teaching, and it was, but it also led to arrogance, the idea that God would protect Jerusalem no matter what.

A century later the Babylonian Empire had grown in the east and it not only threatened Jerusalem, but it 587 it destroyed Jerusalem and hauled off the Jewish leaders into exile in Babylon.  You’d have expected a small nation, only the size of a couple counties with a population of a few thousand, to go extinct.  But it didn’t.  Ironically it was in total loss and defeat that the Jews began to realize how big and powerful God really was.

If you look at Jewish writings prior to the destruction of Jerusalem they describe God as being their God, and while they understand God as being big and as the creator of the universe, it is still more limited than later writings.

When you hit chapter 40 in Isaiah you’re reading from a different author.  While there are connections to the historical prophet Isaiah, which is probably why these chapters were attached to Isaiah and didn’t become their own independent book, the understanding is bigger.  Ironically, in dealing with economic collapse, loss of the Davidic dynasty, and military conquest their view of God becomes bigger.  The only thing they have left is God, and that reveals greater things about God’s power and God’s love.  They begin to realize that while they are God’s chosen people, the world is not about them.  Rather, God will use them as a vehicle to work in the whole world.  They start to see God’s work as being cosmic, and God holding everything together.  As the Jews see themselves as smaller they start to see God as bigger.

The first week of Advent we read from the original prophet Isaiah.  Last week we read from this second author in Isaiah.  His work goes up through chapter 55.  This week we’re reading from a third author whose work covers the rest of Isaiah.  He is writing from an even later time period.  By this time the Babylonian Empire has be destroyed by the Persian Empire.  The Persians allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it.  The Jews have spent decades in exile.  An entire new generation has arisen.  It should be a time of rejoicing and restoration, but it is not.  Corruption is back.  Pagan practices are back.  Work on the temple and the city is slow and stumbling.  Nothing has improved!  Plus, the Babylonians did allow some people to remain in Jerusalem, mostly poor and weak people not worth hauling off.  Even so, those who remained have scraped out a living.  Now they aren’t too happy about all these people coming back and wanting to rebuild the city, upending all that they have created to survive.

Do you have a friend or family member or maybe a co-worker that whenever they show up they completely upend all that you had planned?  That’s what the people who stayed felt about those coming back.

Where was this blessed time of peace and prosperity and restoration that the second author in Isaiah wrote about?  Is God still failing them?

            You can guess what happens.  In this third author in Isaiah they realize God is even bigger.  They realize that God is not only interested in saving Jerusalem and the Jewish people, God is at work saving the entire world.  The entire way of living called the love of power will be destroyed and the power of love will prevail.

            This will all be done by God, not by people.  Prior to our verses we read for today we find this in Isaiah 59:15b-18, “The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.  He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm brought him victory, and his righteousness upheld him.  He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury as a mantle.  According to their deeds, so will he repay; wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render requital.”

            Notice God does the work, not people.  Notice how God dresses himself as a warrior for battle.  Now contrast that with our verses where the prophet says, “…for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.”  God is again doing the dressing, and it is dressing the faithful people for a celebration.

            God’s work.  God’s celebration.  This is the power of love overcoming the love of power.  As the ancient Jews discovered their incapability they became aware of God’s capability.  God’s full capability would not be seen for a few more centuries, when Jesus is crucified.  Then we see the true power of love.

            The love of power is easy to see.  It is intoxicating and all of us fall victim to it, at least from time to time.  The power of love is sometimes almost impossible to see.  Yet its great strength is there always.  It is God’s way.  May we, like the ancient Jews before us, recognize God’s enormous power and tendency to work in unpredictable ways.  And then trust in that so that we too can be dressed by God for celebration as God’s ultimate victory comes.