(Preceded by the song Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better from Annie Get Your Gun)
That song has no theological meaning whatsoever, and yet I can’t help thinking about it every time I hear someone trying to make a deal with God over something. Perhaps it’s something selfish like, “God if I win the lottery I’ll donate so much to charity.” Or the ridiculous: “God, if we win this game I’ll go to church on Sunday.” Or even the deeply sincere: “God, help me develop this skill,” Or, “God save him through this surgery,” “…because through that I can serve you better.” To all of which God can genuinely reply, “Why? Anything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you.”
While we may not get into a childing argument over it, the truth is just the same. We are reminded of the doctrine of the utter depravity of the soul. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that we can offer to God. We have no talents, no skills, no resources, no wealth that God can’t get better some other way. You know the old saying, “If you want something done right you’d better do it yourself.” The saying could easily go for God! If God wants creatures better than humans it is a simple matter of creating them.
Perhaps your mind wanders to scriptural passages like Hosea 6:6 where God says, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Or Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
These passages make it sound like God is pleased by us having a certain life attitude or direction before God. But that is not what these passages mean. God does not need nor desire our praise, or a certain attitude from us. That would suggest God is some sort of egotistical maniac wanting proper adoration from his creatures. We’ll come back to these passages later. For now, we turn to our gospel reading where we meet a young man who asks Jesus about inheriting eternal life.
It is easy to turn this man into a caricature of greed, but that is a mistake. I like to describe him as a model citizen. If you are a parent, this man is the sort you want your children to grow into. He is polite, reverent and obedient. He addresses Jesus as, “Good Teacher.” And he does that multiple times. He has kept all of the commandments. He is successful. Clearly he is a critical thinker, hard-working, and reliable. He is a model of integrity and authenticity. You want to have him on your team at work. You want to have him in your neighborhood. You want to have him in your church!
But despite all of these superb attributes, he sees things the wrong way.
The clue to his wrong way is his first address to Jesus, “…what must I do to inherit eternal life.” “Inherit” is legal language. That is the way his faith operates. If you are going to inherit something it means that you are somehow close to a person who has died. Most likely you share family ties. You are a blood relative, or maybe adopted into the family. You have exhibited some qualities the deceased appreciates, and/or trusts with their life’s work. Or perhaps you are a charity or a church or some organization whose principles align with the life goals of the deceased. You don’t just inherit money from a person you have no connection with! Even though you haven’t actually earned what you are going to inherit there is something about you that makes you favored.
So the young man comes to Jesus and asks, what must I yet do to get God’s favor so that God rewards me? What does God want from me?
God could very easily reply, “Anything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you.” Despite the superbness of who he is, he still has nothing to offer God.
Jesus’ reply yanks the rug out from under his entire life. Jesus says, “Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
Said differently: lose your ability to do anything better than others. Give up your self-reliance. Then you will in a place for a genuine relationship with God.
Let’s be clear. This is not a different relationship with God that will then get him eternal life. This is about chucking out that whole way of being. The new way of being wouldn’t even ask, “What must I do to inherit eternal life.”
The passage turns to the disciples asking who then can be saved if not rich people. We have to remember that in those days wealth was generally considered to be a sign of being blessed by God. A person was obviously living the right way and God was rewarding them. Sure, wealth could be corrupted. Wealth wasn’t a guaranteed sign of God’s love. But in the case of this upright and hard-working young man, the cultural assumption was that he was doing life right; and being rewarded by God for it.
So if those who are doing things right are not being rewarded by God with eternal life for living their lives right, then who can be saved?
We return again to the idea that we have nothing to offer God. God created us and loves us. That’s all there is to it.
God does want to be in relationship with you. But that is not a transactional sort of relationship at all. It is the sort of relationship where by you recognizing that you are created, held, and loved by God, you then interact with the world in a way that is healthy and fulfilling. It is that you recognize God’s love coming to you and you sharing it outwards.
I can’t come up with a good example that fits in our age of digital technology, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Perhaps though, if you’ve ever driven an old car that has just been perfectly tuned up, you can get it. Or the example that works for me is when I operate my family’s antique John Deere Model B tractor in the fields. (If my uncle is online, as he sometimes is, he’ll get it.) It takes some skill to do it, but when you are working in the fields you are tying to adjust things such that every gauge on the instrument panel points exactly straight upward. That’s ideal engine temperature and ideal oil pressure, and everything else monitored operating exactly where it was designed to operate. The entire machine is operating exactly where its designers intended it to operate for maximum power and efficiency. When you reach that point you can hear it in the way it runs. You can feel it in the controls. You can even smell it. It feels strong, responsive, and unstoppable.
That is what God wants for you for your life. God does not want you to live being motivated by what would make God happy, or what would put you in the place to inherit eternal life. Of what value is that to God? God can do anything better than you.
What you can do is live according to your designer’s design for you. You are not an accident. You are not a careless collection of molecules that happen to be animated for a span of time called life. It is as if you are precision engineered by God. God wants his love to be the fuel that makes you perform at your best. And God does not want you to sacrifice that for poor substitutes.
Our gospel scene concludes with Jesus saying, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age – houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.”
That is life as God intended it for you.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Monday, February 19, 2024
February 18, 2024 Lent 1 Mark 9:9-10:16
In the first scene of our gospel reading the man of the epileptic boy says to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” The statement makes no sense at all… and yet, it gets at a truth that we all know well: We believe. We want to believe. But there are still doubts. We need to believe more strongly. We want proofs for affirmation.
In the case of the epileptic boy the father has just said previously to Jesus, “…if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” Jesus says to him, “If you are able! – All things can be done for the one who believes.” To which the man says his statement of belief but wanting help with his unbelief.
In this case the setting of belief is based on the need to perform a healing miracle. I think we all wish we could perform miracles. We’d solve a lot of the world’s problems – or at least we’d try! And yet, this idea of “believing” but wanting help with “unbelief” has a big effect on everyday life; not just the miraculous. After all, most of Jesus’ teachings about faith and belief are not aimed at making people capable of doing miraculous things.
“Belief” in everyday life centers around the idea of trusting God’s love for you. At the Ash Wednesday service I preached that whether we like it or not, we are completely and forever entirely dependent upon God for existence. John’s gospel tells us that all things came into being through God. And without God not one thing came into being. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you love God or even hate God, you are still dependent upon God for existence. The entire universe exists only because God created it and sustains every-last inch of it; and for as long as God wants it to.
We talk about relying on God while we are alive. But what about after death? Do you ever realize that even then we depend upon God. There will never be a time when we will exist on our own as ourselves.
That offends many people. Those who want to be their own creators (and sustainers) are never going to be okay with being eternally dependent upon God’s goodness for existence. Yet that is true. We have nothing that we can give to God that God cannot get otherwise. You can’t make deals with God. Any deal means that you have offered something of value to the other and you are leveraging that value for getting something for yourself in return. But, anything that we can do God can do better. Also, God is not a narcissist sitting on a throne and wanting the adoration of his creatures. God has simply created the universe, and life, and humans, out of God’s own sense of creativity and delight.
That is all easy to believe… in theory. It is harder to believe in the scrapes and bangs of day-to-day life. Where wealth and luck and popularity and limited resources all come into play in very tangible ways. We too cry out, “We believe. But God, if you really want us to live by this, help our unbelief!”
When we cNtruly and fully believe that God made us, and that God loves us, it shows in all our life’s priorities. And when we do not believe that, the ways of the world take over.
Let’s look at the rest of the gospel reading with that in mind.
The scene after the curing of the epileptic boy is the scene where Jesus and the disciples return to Capernaum. Jesus asks them what they were arguing about along the way. It turns out they were arguing about who was the greatest.
If you know deep in your heart that your value and your existence are forever entirely secure in God, then do you care about earthly greatness? Does earthly rank matter at all? No. But… the dynamics of status and rank impact every aspect of life.
We believe. Help our unbelief!
Then the disciple John tells Jesus about others casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John says he tried to stop them. It is as if someone else is benefitting from the ‘Jesus brand’ and they haven’t bought the licensing rights. Or, they are using the name without full understanding. Doesn’t Jesus want to keep an eye on those who act in his name? What if they use it wrongly? Jesus says no, let them do it. No one who does a deed of power in Jesus’ name will soon after be able to speak evil of Jesus.
This strikes close to home. I am often bothered by a lot of what people do in Jesus’ name in our country today. I see conservative evangelicals using language about Jesus that is embarrassing and insulting to anyone with intelligence. Plus, Jesus’ name is used for endorsing political ideas. On the other side I see liberals using the name of Jesus to support their own brands; the concepts and teachings of Jesus being used to endorse all sorts of critiques. And it is used to build ivory towers of superiority from which liberals can throw stones at those they vilify.
I suppose I have my own ideas of what the Jesus brand is and is not. Maybe mine are more accurate. But maybe they are not. Ultimately we have to realize that we use the name of Jesus with humility, and know it represents something beyond ourselves, even as we don’t understand or control it. And so we say we believe, but help our unbelief!
Jesus then goes on to teach about having millstones hung around your neck, and hands cut off, and feet cut off, and eyes gouged out if they cause you to “stumble.” Stumble meaning a scandal to faith – either your faith or the faith of others.
Of course Jesus is using highly exaggerated language here. Don’t take this literally! We can get his point. Earthly ways, earthly priorities, earthly limitations seem completely absolute to us. But they are not. It is so easy to get hung up on them. They drive our lives! We believe that who we are is measured by what we can do. That belief is reinforced for us all the time.
The Super Bowl puts the world’s ways on full display. The Super Bowl is a test of the best of the best. It is a combination of a team’s talent on the field, the skill of coaches, and the thinking of strategists. It is a mix of strength and skill and cunning. Who has put together the best combination? Those who do win. Everyone else loses. That is the way of the world.
But let’s not pick on sports. The Super Bowl is ultimately a stage for entertainment. It gets far more serious.
Put yourself in a dry wilderness. You live in a village. If the village well dries up you have to find water. If the well in the neighboring village still works, and if they let you get water from it, all well and good. But what if they don’t? What about when the competition is about food and water; not a Super Bowl ring? What about when it is about who will get the life-saving resources and who will die?
If you are in a village where the water runs dry, and a neighboring village has water, but won’t let you have any… and your children are going to die, and you have a gun and the neighboring village has none, what are you going to do?
God, we believe. Help our unbelief!
Further into our gospel reading Jesus is asked about divorce. He doesn’t get into the technicalities of the situation. He roots it in God’s creative intentions; and the breakdown thereof. He doesn’t give an easy way out. His followers are not to be changing relationships based on whims, new desires, or by finding technical loopholes. The practical effect of Jesus’ teaching is to create families where children grow up in safety and security, and so that people feel stable in their lives.
And yet many people do say you only live once, so get as much out of life as you can get away with. But that is not Jesus’ teaching.
A person who knows that fulfillment and happiness rest in knowing they are loved by God, is not frustrated when relationships and families are troubled.
Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief.
Our gospel reading wraps up with children being brought to Jesus. These days children are given far higher priority in society than then. Then a child had no status, other than their potential to grow up. Nothing was to be gained by paying attention to children. Nothing was to be gained by giving them priority over adults. If an important person like Jesus was around then the important adults should get access. Children could learn from their parents from there.
But in God’s kingdom where all recognize that their existence is forever and securely held by God, no adult is above another and no child is lesser. Children become the example Jesus uses. Though they have no present practical value, they are valued by God.
They are an example of faith because they are needy and they know it. They know they depend upon their family for everything they need. Their very existence depends upon their family.
Similarly, our existence depends upon God. We know that. We believe that. But it is so hard when the limits of life hit us. God seems far away. The world seems so absolute.
We believe. God, help our unbelief.
I suspect we will never reach a point in life when we are truly beyond feeling our hearts tugged by the ways of the world. But we are still in God’s care. We pray for more faith. And we live in the hope of God’s promises of full unity with him, when all our doubts are forever gone.
In the case of the epileptic boy the father has just said previously to Jesus, “…if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” Jesus says to him, “If you are able! – All things can be done for the one who believes.” To which the man says his statement of belief but wanting help with his unbelief.
In this case the setting of belief is based on the need to perform a healing miracle. I think we all wish we could perform miracles. We’d solve a lot of the world’s problems – or at least we’d try! And yet, this idea of “believing” but wanting help with “unbelief” has a big effect on everyday life; not just the miraculous. After all, most of Jesus’ teachings about faith and belief are not aimed at making people capable of doing miraculous things.
“Belief” in everyday life centers around the idea of trusting God’s love for you. At the Ash Wednesday service I preached that whether we like it or not, we are completely and forever entirely dependent upon God for existence. John’s gospel tells us that all things came into being through God. And without God not one thing came into being. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you love God or even hate God, you are still dependent upon God for existence. The entire universe exists only because God created it and sustains every-last inch of it; and for as long as God wants it to.
We talk about relying on God while we are alive. But what about after death? Do you ever realize that even then we depend upon God. There will never be a time when we will exist on our own as ourselves.
That offends many people. Those who want to be their own creators (and sustainers) are never going to be okay with being eternally dependent upon God’s goodness for existence. Yet that is true. We have nothing that we can give to God that God cannot get otherwise. You can’t make deals with God. Any deal means that you have offered something of value to the other and you are leveraging that value for getting something for yourself in return. But, anything that we can do God can do better. Also, God is not a narcissist sitting on a throne and wanting the adoration of his creatures. God has simply created the universe, and life, and humans, out of God’s own sense of creativity and delight.
That is all easy to believe… in theory. It is harder to believe in the scrapes and bangs of day-to-day life. Where wealth and luck and popularity and limited resources all come into play in very tangible ways. We too cry out, “We believe. But God, if you really want us to live by this, help our unbelief!”
When we cNtruly and fully believe that God made us, and that God loves us, it shows in all our life’s priorities. And when we do not believe that, the ways of the world take over.
Let’s look at the rest of the gospel reading with that in mind.
The scene after the curing of the epileptic boy is the scene where Jesus and the disciples return to Capernaum. Jesus asks them what they were arguing about along the way. It turns out they were arguing about who was the greatest.
If you know deep in your heart that your value and your existence are forever entirely secure in God, then do you care about earthly greatness? Does earthly rank matter at all? No. But… the dynamics of status and rank impact every aspect of life.
We believe. Help our unbelief!
Then the disciple John tells Jesus about others casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John says he tried to stop them. It is as if someone else is benefitting from the ‘Jesus brand’ and they haven’t bought the licensing rights. Or, they are using the name without full understanding. Doesn’t Jesus want to keep an eye on those who act in his name? What if they use it wrongly? Jesus says no, let them do it. No one who does a deed of power in Jesus’ name will soon after be able to speak evil of Jesus.
This strikes close to home. I am often bothered by a lot of what people do in Jesus’ name in our country today. I see conservative evangelicals using language about Jesus that is embarrassing and insulting to anyone with intelligence. Plus, Jesus’ name is used for endorsing political ideas. On the other side I see liberals using the name of Jesus to support their own brands; the concepts and teachings of Jesus being used to endorse all sorts of critiques. And it is used to build ivory towers of superiority from which liberals can throw stones at those they vilify.
I suppose I have my own ideas of what the Jesus brand is and is not. Maybe mine are more accurate. But maybe they are not. Ultimately we have to realize that we use the name of Jesus with humility, and know it represents something beyond ourselves, even as we don’t understand or control it. And so we say we believe, but help our unbelief!
Jesus then goes on to teach about having millstones hung around your neck, and hands cut off, and feet cut off, and eyes gouged out if they cause you to “stumble.” Stumble meaning a scandal to faith – either your faith or the faith of others.
Of course Jesus is using highly exaggerated language here. Don’t take this literally! We can get his point. Earthly ways, earthly priorities, earthly limitations seem completely absolute to us. But they are not. It is so easy to get hung up on them. They drive our lives! We believe that who we are is measured by what we can do. That belief is reinforced for us all the time.
The Super Bowl puts the world’s ways on full display. The Super Bowl is a test of the best of the best. It is a combination of a team’s talent on the field, the skill of coaches, and the thinking of strategists. It is a mix of strength and skill and cunning. Who has put together the best combination? Those who do win. Everyone else loses. That is the way of the world.
But let’s not pick on sports. The Super Bowl is ultimately a stage for entertainment. It gets far more serious.
Put yourself in a dry wilderness. You live in a village. If the village well dries up you have to find water. If the well in the neighboring village still works, and if they let you get water from it, all well and good. But what if they don’t? What about when the competition is about food and water; not a Super Bowl ring? What about when it is about who will get the life-saving resources and who will die?
If you are in a village where the water runs dry, and a neighboring village has water, but won’t let you have any… and your children are going to die, and you have a gun and the neighboring village has none, what are you going to do?
God, we believe. Help our unbelief!
Further into our gospel reading Jesus is asked about divorce. He doesn’t get into the technicalities of the situation. He roots it in God’s creative intentions; and the breakdown thereof. He doesn’t give an easy way out. His followers are not to be changing relationships based on whims, new desires, or by finding technical loopholes. The practical effect of Jesus’ teaching is to create families where children grow up in safety and security, and so that people feel stable in their lives.
And yet many people do say you only live once, so get as much out of life as you can get away with. But that is not Jesus’ teaching.
A person who knows that fulfillment and happiness rest in knowing they are loved by God, is not frustrated when relationships and families are troubled.
Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief.
Our gospel reading wraps up with children being brought to Jesus. These days children are given far higher priority in society than then. Then a child had no status, other than their potential to grow up. Nothing was to be gained by paying attention to children. Nothing was to be gained by giving them priority over adults. If an important person like Jesus was around then the important adults should get access. Children could learn from their parents from there.
But in God’s kingdom where all recognize that their existence is forever and securely held by God, no adult is above another and no child is lesser. Children become the example Jesus uses. Though they have no present practical value, they are valued by God.
They are an example of faith because they are needy and they know it. They know they depend upon their family for everything they need. Their very existence depends upon their family.
Similarly, our existence depends upon God. We know that. We believe that. But it is so hard when the limits of life hit us. God seems far away. The world seems so absolute.
We believe. God, help our unbelief.
I suspect we will never reach a point in life when we are truly beyond feeling our hearts tugged by the ways of the world. But we are still in God’s care. We pray for more faith. And we live in the hope of God’s promises of full unity with him, when all our doubts are forever gone.
Monday, February 12, 2024
Sunday School Children’s Worship, February 11, 2024
This creative dialog was part of what the Sunday school children presented as the sermon when they led worship on February 11
Cast: Peter
God
Set: Peter at a microphone. God at the pulpit.
Peter: Jesus, this is awesome that we are here with you and Moses and Elijah! Moses is the one who received the Law from God. Elijah is the greatest of the prophets and who was taken up into heaven. And you, Jesus, are the Lord’s Anointed!
Let me build a football stadium for you. We’ll call it High Mountain Stadium.
I’ll include three luxury boxes:
One for you.
One for Moses.
One for Elijah.
You can watch the games in style and comfort. The TV cameras can zoom in on your reactions when there are big plays.
We’ll form a football team and call it the Galilee Bills.
I’ll be the quarterback.
Andrew can be a back as well.
James, and John are fast and good with their hands. They can be receivers.
Simon the Zealot, well he’s as big as a mountain. He can be center.
Philip and Bartholomew we’ll make guards.
Matthew the Tax Collector is good with number but not much good in the way of athletics. But we’ll throw him in as a tackle.
We’ll do the same with James, the son of Alphaeus.
Thaddaeus, he’s versatile. We’ll make him a tight end.
That’s eleven of us.
Which leaves out Judas. Let’s put Judas on special teams. He can be the kicker. He’d better have thick skin, though. If he were to…, say…, miss a field goal that would tie a game during the playoffs, he’ll be known throughout history for that failure!
God: Peter.
Peter: Who’s that? I only see Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in front of me.
God: This is God.
Peter: Whoa, you’re here too!
Cast: Peter
God
Set: Peter at a microphone. God at the pulpit.
Peter: Jesus, this is awesome that we are here with you and Moses and Elijah! Moses is the one who received the Law from God. Elijah is the greatest of the prophets and who was taken up into heaven. And you, Jesus, are the Lord’s Anointed!
Let me build a football stadium for you. We’ll call it High Mountain Stadium.
I’ll include three luxury boxes:
One for you.
One for Moses.
One for Elijah.
You can watch the games in style and comfort. The TV cameras can zoom in on your reactions when there are big plays.
We’ll form a football team and call it the Galilee Bills.
I’ll be the quarterback.
Andrew can be a back as well.
James, and John are fast and good with their hands. They can be receivers.
Simon the Zealot, well he’s as big as a mountain. He can be center.
Philip and Bartholomew we’ll make guards.
Matthew the Tax Collector is good with number but not much good in the way of athletics. But we’ll throw him in as a tackle.
We’ll do the same with James, the son of Alphaeus.
Thaddaeus, he’s versatile. We’ll make him a tight end.
That’s eleven of us.
Which leaves out Judas. Let’s put Judas on special teams. He can be the kicker. He’d better have thick skin, though. If he were to…, say…, miss a field goal that would tie a game during the playoffs, he’ll be known throughout history for that failure!
God: Peter.
Peter: Who’s that? I only see Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in front of me.
God: This is God.
Peter: Whoa, you’re here too!
God: Yes Peter. I’m here too. And you need to stop talking.
Peter: Why? I’ve got lots of ideas just pouring out of my head. I’m in a real stream of consciousness here! Don’t you realize how brilliant my idea is of the disciples creating a football team. And we’ll build a luxury stadium right here on the mountain. I tell you, God, this is genius!
God: You don’t know what you’re saying. Now is not the time for talking. Now is the time for listening.
Peter, you and the disciples are all on a team. You are on the team of my kingdom. You all have different talents. And yes, like a football team, different talents fill different roles. Some are preachers and teachers. Some are artists and musicians. Some build things. Some grow things. Some are managers. Some make rope or cloth. Some are cooks or cleaners. There are many talents and many tasks. They are all essential. All are important. No football team can win if positions are unfilled. No quarterback can be good without good receivers and good linemen.
Peter: (in a singsong voice) Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. But some positions are more glorious than others. And some take more talent than others.
God: No Peter. In my team all positions take a person’s full talent. And all positions are glorious.
Peter: (defiantly) Okay, fine. If you say so.
God: Peter, I told you to stop talking because you don’t know what you’re saying.
Peter: But I do know what I’m saying!
God: No, you don’t. And you’re still talking too!
All are equal in my kingdom because all need my love. All fall short of deserving it. But I love them anyway.
Peter: I don’t fall short!
God: You’re still talking! You don’t know what you’re saying. So now is the time to be silent.
You, Peter, will fall short.
You will fail, Peter. At a time not too far in the future you’ll make boasts and promises about your commitment. And then you will fall apart when the going gets tough.
You will deny that you know Jesus. You’ll even call a curse upon yourself denying that you know Jesus.
Then when you fail you will feel ashamed. You’ll wonder how I could ever love you after such a failure.
But I will still love you. I will welcome you back. You will be restored.
Then you’ll understand. Then you will know.
Then you’ll know that being loved and accepted by me is the greatest thing.
Everyone in my kingdom will feel the same way and know the same thing.
Stadiums and luxury boxes and winning big games are ultimately not important at all.
We’re not here for earthly glory.
What is important is being on my team. My team works to bring about my kingdom.
For now, until these things happen, listen to Jesus. He is my beloved Son. Learn from him. Follow him. He will make you a true victor. It many not happen in the world’s eyes, but you will in my eyes.
Peter: I don’t understand.
God: No, you don’t understand because you don’t know enough in order to understand. But you will understand. For now, just listen.
Peter, you and the disciples are all on a team. You are on the team of my kingdom. You all have different talents. And yes, like a football team, different talents fill different roles. Some are preachers and teachers. Some are artists and musicians. Some build things. Some grow things. Some are managers. Some make rope or cloth. Some are cooks or cleaners. There are many talents and many tasks. They are all essential. All are important. No football team can win if positions are unfilled. No quarterback can be good without good receivers and good linemen.
Peter: (in a singsong voice) Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. But some positions are more glorious than others. And some take more talent than others.
God: No Peter. In my team all positions take a person’s full talent. And all positions are glorious.
Peter: (defiantly) Okay, fine. If you say so.
God: Peter, I told you to stop talking because you don’t know what you’re saying.
Peter: But I do know what I’m saying!
God: No, you don’t. And you’re still talking too!
All are equal in my kingdom because all need my love. All fall short of deserving it. But I love them anyway.
Peter: I don’t fall short!
God: You’re still talking! You don’t know what you’re saying. So now is the time to be silent.
You, Peter, will fall short.
You will fail, Peter. At a time not too far in the future you’ll make boasts and promises about your commitment. And then you will fall apart when the going gets tough.
You will deny that you know Jesus. You’ll even call a curse upon yourself denying that you know Jesus.
Then when you fail you will feel ashamed. You’ll wonder how I could ever love you after such a failure.
But I will still love you. I will welcome you back. You will be restored.
Then you’ll understand. Then you will know.
Then you’ll know that being loved and accepted by me is the greatest thing.
Everyone in my kingdom will feel the same way and know the same thing.
Stadiums and luxury boxes and winning big games are ultimately not important at all.
We’re not here for earthly glory.
What is important is being on my team. My team works to bring about my kingdom.
For now, until these things happen, listen to Jesus. He is my beloved Son. Learn from him. Follow him. He will make you a true victor. It many not happen in the world’s eyes, but you will in my eyes.
Peter: I don’t understand.
God: No, you don’t understand because you don’t know enough in order to understand. But you will understand. For now, just listen.
Monday, February 5, 2024
February 4, 2024 Feeding of 5000 Mark 6:30-44
“Panem et circenses.” I’m not a Latin scholar so I don’t know if I’m pronouncing that correctly. It is a line I am hearing more and more. Panem et circenses; bread and circuses. The line is attributed to Roman poet Juvenal from late in the first century. It means that in order to get public approval leaders do not have to show good public service, or appeal to morality, or have good public policies. What they really have to do is offer diversions and instant gratification. Give the general population food and entertainment and they’ll love you!
That phrase may be from almost 2000 years ago, but the fact that it endures to today shows that it is getting at something fundamental in humans. We like to be told what we want to hear. We want to be fed without hard work. We want comfort. We want entertainment. Give people that message and they’ll be happy.
Given the incredible luxuries we have in our lives today that not even the wealthiest could have dreamed of 150 years ago – think air conditioning, hot and cold running water, electricity, automobiles – you’d think we’d all be the happiest people to ever live in human history!
But, wait… no. Why?
Because people want ever more, and think they are entitled to ever more. And when they can’t get it they turn on each other and start blaming each other so as to get more.
I think that is a fair depiction of American culture, perhaps western culture, today.
I hear a lot about people in our own nation who do not have enough food, or about food deserts and food insecurity. I understand the dynamics they are getting at. And yet it is missing the point. We have a glut of food. It is cheap. It is easy. We wouldn’t have a public health crisis of obesity (and all that goes with it) otherwise! There may be poor nutrition, but there is food. It is economically possible – and not even all that expensive - for government agencies to make available to every person who wants it: milk, apples, potatoes, and walnuts. But I’m pretty sure people wouldn’t take it and they wouldn’t be satisfied.
As for circuses, well, literal circuses seem to be a thing of the past. But we do have our live entertainment. Sports! We build cathedrals to all sorts of sports and call them stadiums. We build new ones every few decades.
And look at the success of Dick’s Sporting Goods. Eastview Mall outperforms most malls, but its stores still struggle. Dick’s doesn’t.
There’s also fantasy sports; sports betting.
And of course there is youth sports – all too easy to pick on! They run our society. I’m not going to go bashing the dynamics that many parents struggle to navigate. Most parents I talk to feel like they’re in a bind. The sports are essential for their kids to not feel left out, but the sports really aren’t benefitting them all that much, if at all.
The ugly truth about our culture-wide obsession with sports is that it really doesn’t do anything to build us up. You certainly don’t want to build your sense of self-worth on the success of the Buffalo Bills! (Or the Cowboys, Eagles, or Steeles for that matter!) Some say that, where youth sports are concerned, they develop teamwork and discipline. But I’d say that’s a stretch. Sure, sports are fun to play. I don’t want to undermine that at all. But at the end of the day, they accomplish little that is tangible. They’re entertainment. They’re diversions. We need some of that, but not a culture built on it!
Panem et circenses – bread and circuses.
There should be little wonder why depression rates are high and people feel purposeless in life.
Alright, that’s a long enough introduction to get into Jesus’ great Feeding of the 5000 Miracle. Your mind may easily jump to, “Didn’t Jesus just give them bread? And weren’t the miracles ultimately a great show?” Indeed, that would be a logical ‘bread and circuses’ response! But that is a misunderstanding.
If you can remember our gospel readings from the last few weeks, you’ll remember that Jesus is being hounded by the crowds. He tries to get away for some time of restoration. He also wants to get away for some time with his disciples, but he isn’t having much luck.
Our gospel reading today opens with the disciples returning from their first missionary trips. They are tired. Jesus says to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” But despite going to a deserted place the crowds follow them. Mark’s gospel tells us they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Now what are they supposed to do? Jesus is tired. The disciples are tired. What Jesus does is have compassion for the crowd. He somehow digs up whatever strength is necessary within himself to continue ministering to them.
I think people today are like sheep without a shepherd. Like I said before, depression rates are high. People’s lives feel pointless. They don’t know where they’re going in life; if they’re going anywhere at all!
They have their bread. They have their circuses. And many say they are, “spiritual but not religious,” but that sort of self-made faith isn’t giving them what they need.
They need Jesus! Jesus is the true bread of life.
They need Jesus and we are Jesus’ disciples, whose role it is to give them that bread.
Notice what happens in the Feeding of the 5000 Miracle. Jesus says to the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Remember, the disciples have just gotten back from their first missionary journeys and they need a place to rest. Jesus’ instructions to them before he sent them out were, “…take nothing for their journey except a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.”
They’ve just gotten back and Jesus says, “You give them something to eat.”
How?!? How could they possibly do that? They have no bread. They have no money… at Jesus’ command!
Somehow, out of nothing, in their tiredness they manage to come up with five loaves and two fish.
Then, Jesus like a shepherd, orders them to get all the people to sit down in orderly groups on the green grass. The crowd sat in groups of hundreds and fifties. This is not a crazy mob. This is an organized event.
Then Jesus blesses the food and he gives them to the disciples, who in turn give it to the crowds. Notice that: from Jesus, to the disciples, to the crowds. That’s our pattern for discipleship.
Our translations overlook a verb in verse 41 that is in Greek is in the imperfect tense. It would more accurately read, “and [Jesus] was continuously giving [the bread] to his disciples to set before the people.” It wasn’t a situation of – Poof, a huge pile of bread! It is a situation of the disciples giving to the people and then coming back to Jesus over and over again to get more bread.
So there we have the picture for our discipleship. Jesus is still Jesus. We are the disciples. We may feel like we have nothing of value to give. We’re spent. We’re tired. There’s no way we can come up with what is needed to solve the problem. Perhaps people today are like sheep without a shepherd. Yet they don’t realize it. They have their bread and circuses. They don’t want to hear anything about commitment and discipline and discipleship. How do we respond to that?
We respond to it by letting that be God’s problem! It is not our problem to fix. I think that is where a lot of good intentions fail. People don’t see how it can really help and so they give up. But that is the wrong approach. Jesus fixed the feeding problem, not the disciples. What we do is focus on our own discipleship. We put effort into on our own spiritual journeys and needs. We continue to listen, to learn, to pray, and also to serve. What we do is be faithful disciples in the midst of the world’s ongoing problems.
We entrust Jesus with the meagerness that we do have. Just like the feeding miracle, with an insignificant amount Jesus turns it into an abundance. We prioritize our own lives towards the goodness of God. As the disciples of today we then return to Jesus over and over and over again, and we set his abundance before those who need it. God is still providing abundantly.
That phrase may be from almost 2000 years ago, but the fact that it endures to today shows that it is getting at something fundamental in humans. We like to be told what we want to hear. We want to be fed without hard work. We want comfort. We want entertainment. Give people that message and they’ll be happy.
Given the incredible luxuries we have in our lives today that not even the wealthiest could have dreamed of 150 years ago – think air conditioning, hot and cold running water, electricity, automobiles – you’d think we’d all be the happiest people to ever live in human history!
But, wait… no. Why?
Because people want ever more, and think they are entitled to ever more. And when they can’t get it they turn on each other and start blaming each other so as to get more.
I think that is a fair depiction of American culture, perhaps western culture, today.
I hear a lot about people in our own nation who do not have enough food, or about food deserts and food insecurity. I understand the dynamics they are getting at. And yet it is missing the point. We have a glut of food. It is cheap. It is easy. We wouldn’t have a public health crisis of obesity (and all that goes with it) otherwise! There may be poor nutrition, but there is food. It is economically possible – and not even all that expensive - for government agencies to make available to every person who wants it: milk, apples, potatoes, and walnuts. But I’m pretty sure people wouldn’t take it and they wouldn’t be satisfied.
As for circuses, well, literal circuses seem to be a thing of the past. But we do have our live entertainment. Sports! We build cathedrals to all sorts of sports and call them stadiums. We build new ones every few decades.
And look at the success of Dick’s Sporting Goods. Eastview Mall outperforms most malls, but its stores still struggle. Dick’s doesn’t.
There’s also fantasy sports; sports betting.
And of course there is youth sports – all too easy to pick on! They run our society. I’m not going to go bashing the dynamics that many parents struggle to navigate. Most parents I talk to feel like they’re in a bind. The sports are essential for their kids to not feel left out, but the sports really aren’t benefitting them all that much, if at all.
The ugly truth about our culture-wide obsession with sports is that it really doesn’t do anything to build us up. You certainly don’t want to build your sense of self-worth on the success of the Buffalo Bills! (Or the Cowboys, Eagles, or Steeles for that matter!) Some say that, where youth sports are concerned, they develop teamwork and discipline. But I’d say that’s a stretch. Sure, sports are fun to play. I don’t want to undermine that at all. But at the end of the day, they accomplish little that is tangible. They’re entertainment. They’re diversions. We need some of that, but not a culture built on it!
Panem et circenses – bread and circuses.
There should be little wonder why depression rates are high and people feel purposeless in life.
Alright, that’s a long enough introduction to get into Jesus’ great Feeding of the 5000 Miracle. Your mind may easily jump to, “Didn’t Jesus just give them bread? And weren’t the miracles ultimately a great show?” Indeed, that would be a logical ‘bread and circuses’ response! But that is a misunderstanding.
If you can remember our gospel readings from the last few weeks, you’ll remember that Jesus is being hounded by the crowds. He tries to get away for some time of restoration. He also wants to get away for some time with his disciples, but he isn’t having much luck.
Our gospel reading today opens with the disciples returning from their first missionary trips. They are tired. Jesus says to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” But despite going to a deserted place the crowds follow them. Mark’s gospel tells us they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Now what are they supposed to do? Jesus is tired. The disciples are tired. What Jesus does is have compassion for the crowd. He somehow digs up whatever strength is necessary within himself to continue ministering to them.
I think people today are like sheep without a shepherd. Like I said before, depression rates are high. People’s lives feel pointless. They don’t know where they’re going in life; if they’re going anywhere at all!
They have their bread. They have their circuses. And many say they are, “spiritual but not religious,” but that sort of self-made faith isn’t giving them what they need.
They need Jesus! Jesus is the true bread of life.
They need Jesus and we are Jesus’ disciples, whose role it is to give them that bread.
Notice what happens in the Feeding of the 5000 Miracle. Jesus says to the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” Remember, the disciples have just gotten back from their first missionary journeys and they need a place to rest. Jesus’ instructions to them before he sent them out were, “…take nothing for their journey except a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.”
They’ve just gotten back and Jesus says, “You give them something to eat.”
How?!? How could they possibly do that? They have no bread. They have no money… at Jesus’ command!
Somehow, out of nothing, in their tiredness they manage to come up with five loaves and two fish.
Then, Jesus like a shepherd, orders them to get all the people to sit down in orderly groups on the green grass. The crowd sat in groups of hundreds and fifties. This is not a crazy mob. This is an organized event.
Then Jesus blesses the food and he gives them to the disciples, who in turn give it to the crowds. Notice that: from Jesus, to the disciples, to the crowds. That’s our pattern for discipleship.
Our translations overlook a verb in verse 41 that is in Greek is in the imperfect tense. It would more accurately read, “and [Jesus] was continuously giving [the bread] to his disciples to set before the people.” It wasn’t a situation of – Poof, a huge pile of bread! It is a situation of the disciples giving to the people and then coming back to Jesus over and over again to get more bread.
So there we have the picture for our discipleship. Jesus is still Jesus. We are the disciples. We may feel like we have nothing of value to give. We’re spent. We’re tired. There’s no way we can come up with what is needed to solve the problem. Perhaps people today are like sheep without a shepherd. Yet they don’t realize it. They have their bread and circuses. They don’t want to hear anything about commitment and discipline and discipleship. How do we respond to that?
We respond to it by letting that be God’s problem! It is not our problem to fix. I think that is where a lot of good intentions fail. People don’t see how it can really help and so they give up. But that is the wrong approach. Jesus fixed the feeding problem, not the disciples. What we do is focus on our own discipleship. We put effort into on our own spiritual journeys and needs. We continue to listen, to learn, to pray, and also to serve. What we do is be faithful disciples in the midst of the world’s ongoing problems.
We entrust Jesus with the meagerness that we do have. Just like the feeding miracle, with an insignificant amount Jesus turns it into an abundance. We prioritize our own lives towards the goodness of God. As the disciples of today we then return to Jesus over and over and over again, and we set his abundance before those who need it. God is still providing abundantly.
Monday, January 15, 2024
January 14, 2024 Mark 4:1-34
It feels like tension and anxiety are running ever higher in our society with each passing day. There are almost no significant topics that we can talk about in a civil way. Talk about immigration and people immediately divide into two camps. Talk about politics and people immediately divide into two camps. Talk about climate change and people immediately divide into two camps. You can do the same with abortion, gender issues, Israel and Palestine, racial dynamics, and more.
A big part of the problem is that people hear what they want to hear and they ignore what they don’t want to hear. You may have heard, especially with social media, that people live in echo chambers always getting reinforcement for the ideas they already agree with.
For a class I had last week I was assigned to read the book, Fantasyland; How America Went Haywire, by Kurt Andersen. The book is, ironically, proof of what it critiques. It talks about the way Americans have always been easily duped by half-baked religious beliefs, pseudo-science, and downright lies. The book is ironic because it makes countless unfounded claims. It contains few scholarly citations. And it is downright wrong countless times. In fact, every time it talks about a topic I am even remotely familiar with, it is factually inaccurate.
And yet, here’s the real irony… it’s on the New York Times bestseller list! …proof that Americans will buy up lies and believe them wholesale. In the case of this book, it was a publication pushing liberal ideology. But the book the professor chose have just as well chosen a book pushing conservative ideology because there are also countless best-selling publications out there that are promoting similarly half-baked conservative lies.
What are we to do? How do we know what is true and what is not? How are we to faithfully live in this society as followers of Jesus?
The first thing I think we need to recognize, although this is a truth we do not at all want to hear, is that our economy is pretty much built on deception. That isn’t news to you because I’ve said that very same thing before. The retail market – both online and brick-and-mortar stores – are designed to hide the truth from us.
If you want to have a chicken for supper and you walk into Tops or Wegmans is there a pen of roosters inside that you go up to and can grab one? You then take it home, kill it, pluck it, gut it, and then bake it? Nope! The lie that we literally buy is that chicken comes on a foam platter wrapped in plastic with a price sticker on top. I’m not going to belabor the point, but I could do the same with each and every product in the retail world. And the waste and disposal streams equally hide the truth from us.
We really do like lies!
But we also like the truth. The truth is what sets us free. And the truth is what creates genuine good in the world. I can’t give you the full truth about politics and economics and immigration and racism, and what all. But the Bible does give us the truth we need to engage all of that well.
We read Mark 4:1-34 as our gospel reading. It is a collection of parables that Jesus gives about the kingdom of God. The first of the parables is the famous Parable of the Sower, where someone sowing seed scatters it indiscriminately. The seed goes all over the place – where it is likely to grow and where it will almost certainly fail. Despite seed being valuable, it is sown everywhere. We understand that the sower is God and the seed is God’s love.
When we hear the interpretation of the parable we immediately start questioning what kind of soil we are. Are we the good soil that produces abundantly, or are we one of the problematic soils that ultimately fails? I would suggest that if you’re asking yourself that question you’re probably among the good soil. So do not worry. But ultimately that approach misses the point of the parable. As what we read today shows, the Parable of the Sower is just the first of a series of parables about the kingdom of God.
Jesus creates a parable about a lamp. A lamp lights a room and should be allowed to shine, not be hidden. In regards to that, Jesus adds that the measure you give is the measure that you get; and more.
Jesus says another seed-scattering parable. The seed sprouts and grows and we don’t know how. Well, technically we do know how these days, but we get the point. The growth and produce of the kingdom of God is not always clearly evident.
In the next parable Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. In Jewish tradition the kingdom of God was usually portrayed as a great cedar tree – a Cedar of Lebanon. These can be tall and majestic trees that could live for hundreds of years. They are symbols of power and permanence. Perhaps think of a white oak in our own forests. White oaks are the kings of the eastern forests. They can reach over 100 ft in height and about that wide as well. They’ll live for 500 years. The Lebanese Cedars the Israelites usually used to describe God’s kingdom grow even taller and live longer.
But a mustard shrub is a truly humble thing. They are more like weeds. They don’t live long. They don’t inspire a sense of grandeur at all. Think of honeysuckle around here. They are a tangled mess that grows maybe 15 feet tall and have no constructive or economic value whatsoever. They’re worthless by all human standards; just like mustard shrubs. And yet, as Jesus says of the mustard, they put forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make their nests in it.
All of these parables are to be read and interpreted as a group. They help us understand the kingdom of God – kingdom of God not meaning eternal life, but life in God’s reign here on earth – something that we can create… in community with God.
There’s nothing new to what I’m going to say next, and yet it all speaks to how we respond to the world around us.
I think there is something in all of us that wants to make a lasting impression on the world. We want to do something significant. We want to be like Lebanese Cedar or a white oak. But it is to the mustard that Jesus points. That means that we should not set our sights on changing the world; and then give up when we think we can’t really change anything, or give up because we don’t see ourselves having any extraordinary talent. No, just be a mustard shrub. Be a common honeysuckle bush. Nothing special. Nothing talented. Unremarkably ordinary. And yet, God’s true kingdom.
Simply live God’s love. Treat all others like they have value, whether they look like you or not, and whether you disagree with them or not. Do not accept the polarized views our society likes to create to cause divisions. Instead, truly see people and their life experiences as more complex. You will be a lamp shining light into the world.
I know that’s simple – too simple. How can that change the world? How can that be productive? How can that be good soil that produces a hundred-fold? How can that be the truth in our world so full of sophisticated lies and deceptions? Yet God’s kingdom is indeed that simple.
The effects of God’s kingdom can remain quite hidden for what seems like ages on end. Just like a little kid who plants a seed and wants to see results right away. But it takes days, or maybe even weeks, for something to sprout and grow. And grow it does!
Like God the Sower, we sow goodness. Sow it indiscriminately, not strategically. Be patient. In many places the Bible talks about seed being planted, growth happening later, and the harvest later still. It’s often done by multiple people.
Perhaps look at it this way. If you seek to do some great and splashy good in the world it will fail. But if you simply seek to live the ordinary with God in mind, God’s kingdom will sprout and grow through you. Do simple things. Do mundane things. Do things that people may or may not notice. Don’t be afraid of truly hard work. For all of that is really a huge thing. It is a thing that changes all the world.
A big part of the problem is that people hear what they want to hear and they ignore what they don’t want to hear. You may have heard, especially with social media, that people live in echo chambers always getting reinforcement for the ideas they already agree with.
For a class I had last week I was assigned to read the book, Fantasyland; How America Went Haywire, by Kurt Andersen. The book is, ironically, proof of what it critiques. It talks about the way Americans have always been easily duped by half-baked religious beliefs, pseudo-science, and downright lies. The book is ironic because it makes countless unfounded claims. It contains few scholarly citations. And it is downright wrong countless times. In fact, every time it talks about a topic I am even remotely familiar with, it is factually inaccurate.
And yet, here’s the real irony… it’s on the New York Times bestseller list! …proof that Americans will buy up lies and believe them wholesale. In the case of this book, it was a publication pushing liberal ideology. But the book the professor chose have just as well chosen a book pushing conservative ideology because there are also countless best-selling publications out there that are promoting similarly half-baked conservative lies.
What are we to do? How do we know what is true and what is not? How are we to faithfully live in this society as followers of Jesus?
The first thing I think we need to recognize, although this is a truth we do not at all want to hear, is that our economy is pretty much built on deception. That isn’t news to you because I’ve said that very same thing before. The retail market – both online and brick-and-mortar stores – are designed to hide the truth from us.
If you want to have a chicken for supper and you walk into Tops or Wegmans is there a pen of roosters inside that you go up to and can grab one? You then take it home, kill it, pluck it, gut it, and then bake it? Nope! The lie that we literally buy is that chicken comes on a foam platter wrapped in plastic with a price sticker on top. I’m not going to belabor the point, but I could do the same with each and every product in the retail world. And the waste and disposal streams equally hide the truth from us.
We really do like lies!
But we also like the truth. The truth is what sets us free. And the truth is what creates genuine good in the world. I can’t give you the full truth about politics and economics and immigration and racism, and what all. But the Bible does give us the truth we need to engage all of that well.
We read Mark 4:1-34 as our gospel reading. It is a collection of parables that Jesus gives about the kingdom of God. The first of the parables is the famous Parable of the Sower, where someone sowing seed scatters it indiscriminately. The seed goes all over the place – where it is likely to grow and where it will almost certainly fail. Despite seed being valuable, it is sown everywhere. We understand that the sower is God and the seed is God’s love.
When we hear the interpretation of the parable we immediately start questioning what kind of soil we are. Are we the good soil that produces abundantly, or are we one of the problematic soils that ultimately fails? I would suggest that if you’re asking yourself that question you’re probably among the good soil. So do not worry. But ultimately that approach misses the point of the parable. As what we read today shows, the Parable of the Sower is just the first of a series of parables about the kingdom of God.
Jesus creates a parable about a lamp. A lamp lights a room and should be allowed to shine, not be hidden. In regards to that, Jesus adds that the measure you give is the measure that you get; and more.
Jesus says another seed-scattering parable. The seed sprouts and grows and we don’t know how. Well, technically we do know how these days, but we get the point. The growth and produce of the kingdom of God is not always clearly evident.
In the next parable Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. In Jewish tradition the kingdom of God was usually portrayed as a great cedar tree – a Cedar of Lebanon. These can be tall and majestic trees that could live for hundreds of years. They are symbols of power and permanence. Perhaps think of a white oak in our own forests. White oaks are the kings of the eastern forests. They can reach over 100 ft in height and about that wide as well. They’ll live for 500 years. The Lebanese Cedars the Israelites usually used to describe God’s kingdom grow even taller and live longer.
But a mustard shrub is a truly humble thing. They are more like weeds. They don’t live long. They don’t inspire a sense of grandeur at all. Think of honeysuckle around here. They are a tangled mess that grows maybe 15 feet tall and have no constructive or economic value whatsoever. They’re worthless by all human standards; just like mustard shrubs. And yet, as Jesus says of the mustard, they put forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make their nests in it.
All of these parables are to be read and interpreted as a group. They help us understand the kingdom of God – kingdom of God not meaning eternal life, but life in God’s reign here on earth – something that we can create… in community with God.
There’s nothing new to what I’m going to say next, and yet it all speaks to how we respond to the world around us.
I think there is something in all of us that wants to make a lasting impression on the world. We want to do something significant. We want to be like Lebanese Cedar or a white oak. But it is to the mustard that Jesus points. That means that we should not set our sights on changing the world; and then give up when we think we can’t really change anything, or give up because we don’t see ourselves having any extraordinary talent. No, just be a mustard shrub. Be a common honeysuckle bush. Nothing special. Nothing talented. Unremarkably ordinary. And yet, God’s true kingdom.
Simply live God’s love. Treat all others like they have value, whether they look like you or not, and whether you disagree with them or not. Do not accept the polarized views our society likes to create to cause divisions. Instead, truly see people and their life experiences as more complex. You will be a lamp shining light into the world.
I know that’s simple – too simple. How can that change the world? How can that be productive? How can that be good soil that produces a hundred-fold? How can that be the truth in our world so full of sophisticated lies and deceptions? Yet God’s kingdom is indeed that simple.
The effects of God’s kingdom can remain quite hidden for what seems like ages on end. Just like a little kid who plants a seed and wants to see results right away. But it takes days, or maybe even weeks, for something to sprout and grow. And grow it does!
Like God the Sower, we sow goodness. Sow it indiscriminately, not strategically. Be patient. In many places the Bible talks about seed being planted, growth happening later, and the harvest later still. It’s often done by multiple people.
Perhaps look at it this way. If you seek to do some great and splashy good in the world it will fail. But if you simply seek to live the ordinary with God in mind, God’s kingdom will sprout and grow through you. Do simple things. Do mundane things. Do things that people may or may not notice. Don’t be afraid of truly hard work. For all of that is really a huge thing. It is a thing that changes all the world.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
December 31, 2023 1St Sunday of Christmas Mark 1
Perhaps it is a sign of aging, but I don’t like the pace of many movies today, especially action movies. They seem to be one superhuman crisis after another. Everything is loud, fast, and jarring. People survive the impossible and do the impossible. Of course, in the Marvel universe of movies the people doing the impossible are superheroes. But that still doesn’t make for an enjoyable story. As for me, I like the pace of the original Star Wars movies, for example. There was some plot development, some humor, a couple high drama action scenes, and a bit of romance to round it all out.
We begin reading Mark’s gospel today. It is surprising that I like it as much as I do because its pace is even faster than today’s action movies. It is one crisis after another and another and another. Scenes shift every few seconds. Try this some time. Sit down and read Mark’s gospel with a stopwatch. Time how long it takes you to read before the scene changes. You’ll probably find that as you read the scenes change several times a minute. There are nine scenes in Mark 1, plus the introduction in verses 1-3. Which, by the way adds words in our translation to what Mark actually wrote to help us read it easier.
Mark’s gospel doesn’t start off with, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” It is literally, “Genesis, of the gospel Jesus Christ, God’s Son.” And then we’re right into a quote from Isaiah.
You’d think this gospel was written in an age of text messages. It’s like a story being told on X, formerly Twitter. There are no developed sermons like in Matthew. There are no long stories or parables like in Luke. And there are no developed discourses like in John.
One of Mark’s most-often used words is “immediately”. Mark uses it 27 times in only 16 chapters. That’s the highest concentration of the use of the word immediately in all of scripture.
There are no soft edges in Mark’s gospel. It’s like trying to order food from a street vendor in New York City. Know what you want. Be strong. Talk loud. Keep it simple. Rudeness is expected.
Every time you turn around in Mark’s gospel something is getting torn apart, drown, silenced, cast out, or killed. Yes, not even the makers of action movies could keep up with the pace of Mark!
Mark’s gospel is also confusing and deeply mysterious. Much of Mark’s gospel has biblical scholars guessing. We’ll talk about that some Sunday in the future because in the last several years a whole bunch of answers have been emerging. For today we’re going to focus on just one of the nine scenes that flew before us. We’re going to look at Jesus’ baptism.
In that scene, like so many in Mark’s gospel, the translators are smoothing over the roughness and abruptness. We easily picture the scene as we hear it from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. There it’s a serene scene where Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River. As Jesus is coming up out of the water the Holy Spirit descends onto Jesus like a dove. A voice then speaks from heaven. Not in Mark!
First, the scene takes only two verses. As Jesus is coming up out of the water the heavens are ripped apart and the Spirit comes rocketing down as a pigeon and hits Jesus so hard it actually goes INTO him. It does not alight upon him as a gentle dove settling on his shoulder. Then from the ripped apart heavens an unidentified voice announces, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I have willed the good.”
Now, everything happening fast and often with violence. But don’t think Mark is just a careless writer of high adventure. We’ll talk about this later in the gospel, but in what we read today Mark has also crafted numerous parallels with the end of the story. For now, just know that while Mark may be fast and somewhat violent, it is also very skillfully crafted.
But, to our scene. The heavens are ripped apart. There is no going back. There is no fixing this. Think of violently ripping a piece of cloth in half. You can’t just go back and fix it. The damage is done. No repair can cover it. It isn’t a coincidence at all in Mark’s gospel that he uses the exact same words to talk about the curtain in the temple being ripped in two at the death of Jesus. In both scenes, the normal dividing line between God and humanity has been irreparably changed. A new age has begun.
In the remaining scenes in Mark 1 we start to see what the new age is like. Jesus goes throughout Galilee proclaiming that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Jesus’ message is very simple. Everyone is invited into God’s reign of grace. This is completely open.
Jesus goes along the Sea of Galilee to recruit his first followers. You’d expect a new world order to begin by recruiting in the ivy league schools of the day and the head-hunting titans of business and politics. But Jesus does his recruiting among common laborers like fishermen.
You’d expect Jesus to head to Rome to make appointments with the religious and political leaders of the day to introduce God’s inbreaking kingdom. But Jesus doesn’t go there. Jesus doesn’t even head to Jerusalem to talk to the Jewish leadership. Jesus goes to the synagogue in Capernaum. Who’d ever heard of Capernaum?!? You don’t start world-ripping movement in Capernaum! The rest of the chapter is Jesus ministering to ordinary people in obscure places. Yes, it’s all very faced paced. But it’s happening in nowhere-ville.
Maybe we can understand it this way. Imagine what it would be like if Marvel set the latest Spiderman movie to happen in… Penn Yan!
Huh?
That tells us a lot about what God’s new reign is like. Do not make the mistake of thinking that because you do not have super powers you cannot do things that rip apart the fabric of this world.
Here is the fabric of this world. It’s been almost 2000 years since Mark wrote but some things never change:
-Those who have continue to have. Those who do not have will not get.
-The best way to move up in this world is to rub shoulders with the rich and powerful.
-Form friendships and relationships with people who are advantageous to you. There’s no point in spending time with people who aren’t an asset to you.
-Along with that – it’s perfectly okay to be generous and charitable to those beneath you, but leverage your charitable giving to improve your image.
-Work hard to protect what you have. Once it’s lost you’ll have to fight to get it back.
-Your value as a person is measured by what you can do.
The list could go on.
Live a life in God’s kingdom:
-work hard,
-be patient,
-ask for help when you need it and give help wherever you can,
-be willing to do those tasks that are boring and mundane,
-consistently choose that which is healthy rather than that which is convenient,
-and make your personal decisions with an eye towards the community rather than yourself…
Do those seemingly simple obscure things, even in places where they don’t feel like they are significant at all- and you are ripping the ways of this world to pieces. God’s kingdom is coming roaring into this world through you.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that if you are doing God’s work effectively you’ll be living the dynamics of Mark’s gospel. That’s the opposite of what Mark is trying to say! Mark is raising up the ordinary and obscure in his gospel because that is exactly what God is doing.
We are mere hours from the end of 2023. 2024 lay before us. But by God, the all-important work of God’s kingdom is our past, our present, and our future. Through us, and through ways that probably seem too insignificant to notice, God rips apart the things that destroy. In their place God brings about goodness and wholeness for all. We are invited into that new kingdom now and for forever.
We begin reading Mark’s gospel today. It is surprising that I like it as much as I do because its pace is even faster than today’s action movies. It is one crisis after another and another and another. Scenes shift every few seconds. Try this some time. Sit down and read Mark’s gospel with a stopwatch. Time how long it takes you to read before the scene changes. You’ll probably find that as you read the scenes change several times a minute. There are nine scenes in Mark 1, plus the introduction in verses 1-3. Which, by the way adds words in our translation to what Mark actually wrote to help us read it easier.
Mark’s gospel doesn’t start off with, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” It is literally, “Genesis, of the gospel Jesus Christ, God’s Son.” And then we’re right into a quote from Isaiah.
You’d think this gospel was written in an age of text messages. It’s like a story being told on X, formerly Twitter. There are no developed sermons like in Matthew. There are no long stories or parables like in Luke. And there are no developed discourses like in John.
One of Mark’s most-often used words is “immediately”. Mark uses it 27 times in only 16 chapters. That’s the highest concentration of the use of the word immediately in all of scripture.
There are no soft edges in Mark’s gospel. It’s like trying to order food from a street vendor in New York City. Know what you want. Be strong. Talk loud. Keep it simple. Rudeness is expected.
Every time you turn around in Mark’s gospel something is getting torn apart, drown, silenced, cast out, or killed. Yes, not even the makers of action movies could keep up with the pace of Mark!
Mark’s gospel is also confusing and deeply mysterious. Much of Mark’s gospel has biblical scholars guessing. We’ll talk about that some Sunday in the future because in the last several years a whole bunch of answers have been emerging. For today we’re going to focus on just one of the nine scenes that flew before us. We’re going to look at Jesus’ baptism.
In that scene, like so many in Mark’s gospel, the translators are smoothing over the roughness and abruptness. We easily picture the scene as we hear it from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. There it’s a serene scene where Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River. As Jesus is coming up out of the water the Holy Spirit descends onto Jesus like a dove. A voice then speaks from heaven. Not in Mark!
First, the scene takes only two verses. As Jesus is coming up out of the water the heavens are ripped apart and the Spirit comes rocketing down as a pigeon and hits Jesus so hard it actually goes INTO him. It does not alight upon him as a gentle dove settling on his shoulder. Then from the ripped apart heavens an unidentified voice announces, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I have willed the good.”
Now, everything happening fast and often with violence. But don’t think Mark is just a careless writer of high adventure. We’ll talk about this later in the gospel, but in what we read today Mark has also crafted numerous parallels with the end of the story. For now, just know that while Mark may be fast and somewhat violent, it is also very skillfully crafted.
But, to our scene. The heavens are ripped apart. There is no going back. There is no fixing this. Think of violently ripping a piece of cloth in half. You can’t just go back and fix it. The damage is done. No repair can cover it. It isn’t a coincidence at all in Mark’s gospel that he uses the exact same words to talk about the curtain in the temple being ripped in two at the death of Jesus. In both scenes, the normal dividing line between God and humanity has been irreparably changed. A new age has begun.
In the remaining scenes in Mark 1 we start to see what the new age is like. Jesus goes throughout Galilee proclaiming that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Jesus’ message is very simple. Everyone is invited into God’s reign of grace. This is completely open.
Jesus goes along the Sea of Galilee to recruit his first followers. You’d expect a new world order to begin by recruiting in the ivy league schools of the day and the head-hunting titans of business and politics. But Jesus does his recruiting among common laborers like fishermen.
You’d expect Jesus to head to Rome to make appointments with the religious and political leaders of the day to introduce God’s inbreaking kingdom. But Jesus doesn’t go there. Jesus doesn’t even head to Jerusalem to talk to the Jewish leadership. Jesus goes to the synagogue in Capernaum. Who’d ever heard of Capernaum?!? You don’t start world-ripping movement in Capernaum! The rest of the chapter is Jesus ministering to ordinary people in obscure places. Yes, it’s all very faced paced. But it’s happening in nowhere-ville.
Maybe we can understand it this way. Imagine what it would be like if Marvel set the latest Spiderman movie to happen in… Penn Yan!
Huh?
That tells us a lot about what God’s new reign is like. Do not make the mistake of thinking that because you do not have super powers you cannot do things that rip apart the fabric of this world.
Here is the fabric of this world. It’s been almost 2000 years since Mark wrote but some things never change:
-Those who have continue to have. Those who do not have will not get.
-The best way to move up in this world is to rub shoulders with the rich and powerful.
-Form friendships and relationships with people who are advantageous to you. There’s no point in spending time with people who aren’t an asset to you.
-Along with that – it’s perfectly okay to be generous and charitable to those beneath you, but leverage your charitable giving to improve your image.
-Work hard to protect what you have. Once it’s lost you’ll have to fight to get it back.
-Your value as a person is measured by what you can do.
The list could go on.
Live a life in God’s kingdom:
-work hard,
-be patient,
-ask for help when you need it and give help wherever you can,
-be willing to do those tasks that are boring and mundane,
-consistently choose that which is healthy rather than that which is convenient,
-and make your personal decisions with an eye towards the community rather than yourself…
Do those seemingly simple obscure things, even in places where they don’t feel like they are significant at all- and you are ripping the ways of this world to pieces. God’s kingdom is coming roaring into this world through you.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that if you are doing God’s work effectively you’ll be living the dynamics of Mark’s gospel. That’s the opposite of what Mark is trying to say! Mark is raising up the ordinary and obscure in his gospel because that is exactly what God is doing.
We are mere hours from the end of 2023. 2024 lay before us. But by God, the all-important work of God’s kingdom is our past, our present, and our future. Through us, and through ways that probably seem too insignificant to notice, God rips apart the things that destroy. In their place God brings about goodness and wholeness for all. We are invited into that new kingdom now and for forever.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
December 24, 2023 Christmas Eve Luke 2:1-20
I’m considering this holiday season to be a success. It’s Christmas Eve and I haven’t watched, or felt any pressure to watch, any Hallmark holiday movies; or anything similar. You know exactly what I’m talking about – those sappy Christmas spirit movies where there is some righteous cause that is in a crisis and in solving that crisis the main characters – a man and a woman, somehow both innocently but tragically single, fall in love and live happily ever after. It is always a triumph of good values and right priorities. As a result of those good values and right priorities they discover the truth and peace and love of the holidays. And of course the man and woman are played by actors who have perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect bodies, and stylish wardrobes.
All is calm. All is bright. Sleep in heavenly peace.
Bleh!
If that’s the way your Christmas is going, or if you have ever had a Christmas go that way… well, you have my congratulations. You’re a better person than me!
Almost certainly you are experiencing some version of stress right now. You’ve been cooking and cleaning and shopping and decorating for weeks. Not everything has gone smoothly and not everything has gotten done. Maybe in getting to this worship service everything went perfectly smoothly. Or more likely something went wrong: Someone was late or not ready. The thing you were going to wear got a mess on in just as you were about to leave. Someone grumbled who you had to force to come – or maybe you are one who felt forced to come. You figure the pastor better say something worth listening to or this whole affair is a complete waste of time.
Tensions are high. Tempers are short.
And while family Christmas traditions vary a lot, you probably have some version of these things going on too. There is all sorts of food to cook. Will it all be done well and at the right time? Christmas dinner will not be a calm peaceful time with everyone eager and ready and perfectly sitting down with quiet reverent joy in their hearts. At the Christmas dinner table you’ll have Uncle Fred spouting his conservative political views. And you’ll have Uncle George arguing from his liberal political views. Kids will be noisy and spill things. You’ll have Aunt Bertha show up with that horrible casserole that she makes each and every year. It’s disgusting but she wants everyone to praise her for how wonderful it is. When it is passed to you at the dinner table you stare down at the pan and you are making a careful quick calculation in your mind. You figure you have to take enough to show that you like it, but you don’t want to take too much because you know you’re going to have to choke it down while keeping a smile on your face.
Grown-ups will politely unwrap presents. Some of the stuff you get will be perfect, but some may not be what you want or you can use. You’ll put a brave face on. Someone may give you something quite expensive and suddenly the gift you’ve bought for them seems shamefully inadequate.
Kids will unwrap presents. They’ll probably be less polite about it than the grown-ups. It’ll all happen way too fast. Maybe the kids will be happy. Maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll get into fights.
The place will be a mess. There will be piles of dishes. There’s still tons of work to do. Not everyone is having fun. You’ll end the day feeling tired, broke, and unfulfilled.
Take that Hallmark! That’s the best we normal people can do.
Okay, I’m exaggerating. I hope your Christmas isn’t that bad. But I think you get the point. Silent night, holy night… not happening.
Or perhaps the opposite is true. If this is your first Christmas after the death of a loved one, or after a divorce, or if you’re filled with anxiety about work or something in your family, or if you’re depressed, or if you’re lonely… and all the world seems happy and bright, what are you to do? You may find yourself in a room full of happy people but you just want to cry inside. Nevertheless, you put on a happy face because you’re expected to. Or perhaps you find yourself all alone because for one reason or another you can’t travel to family, or family can’t travel to you. Maybe you didn’t get invited to anything. This is a dark and depressing season for many people. Suicide rates go up during the holiday season.
Here's good news. Hallmark’s got Christmas wrong. Way wrong!
Let’s look at the actual Christmas story. Joseph and Mary are on the move because of a census ordered by powerful people living far away. Mary is several months pregnant but she has to travel some 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem on dirty rough trails and roads. It is several day’s journey.
When they arrive there is no room for them. Biblical scholars point out that almost all Bible translations and cultures get the Christmas story wrong. The gospel does not actually say there was no room for them in the inn. It literally says there was no room for them in the guest room. Bethlehem was too small to have a commercial lodging establishment. Think about it for a minute. This census is requiring all sorts of people to travel. Joseph, along with his entire extended family is traveling back to their home in Bethlehem. The house is crowded. It is packed with people.
Peasant homes were often two stories. People lived on the upper floor. Animals were housed in the lower floor. And so when Joseph shows up with a woman ready to give birth, and then she goes into labor, what do they do? The guest room is already full. They send her downstairs with the animals.
And then there’s the birth itself. Joseph Mohr wrote the hymn Silent Night in the early 1800s. Apparently Joseph Mohr was never around when a woman gave birth. There is no silent night!
Pain, probably yelling, mess, confusion, blood, gore. All is not calm. All is not bright. All is not silent. This is a mess!
I’d like Hallmark to make a real Christmas story sometime. They won’t because people won’t like it and they won’t watch it.
But that is actually getting to the truth of Christmas!
Do not try to have everything perfect at Christmas. Do not think that if you plan far enough ahead and organize properly that you might, you just might, get it all right enough to have a sweet gentle fulfilling experience this season. …that you might actually accomplish the real meaning of Christmas.
The Bible doesn’t ask that. God doesn’t expect it.
Here’s the truth. Jesus was born into a mess. That’s all there is to it. Tired, haggard parents; an animal stable; noise, pain, confusion, fear, instability… the list could go on and on.
We humans did not roll out the red carpet for the arrival of our Savior. God came into the messiness of regular human life. And with no fanfare or dramatic pause, God revealed a new world order.
There is hope for the hopeless. There is value for the rejected. There is justice for the suffering. There is healing for the shamed. There is hope for the vast majority of people who have messed up this Christmas and who do not have their lives perfectly together.
Later in the service we will read the opening lines of John’s gospel by candlelight. You know the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…. And the Word became flesh and lived among us…”
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being…” Are you a “being”? Are you here? Yes you are. You have come into being through Jesus. He knows you. He cares about you. He has saved you so that you can live a life of wholeness. That’s true even if you don’t have: perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect body, and a stylish wardrobe.
God doesn’t care one bit how your holiday plans are coming together. God doesn’t care if tomorrow is a wonderful perfect day for you, or if tomorrow is a day of chaos and pain and heartache and anger and dashed hopes and everything else. Jesus was not born into a Hallmark movie. Jesus was born into a noisy gory mess. In other words, Jesus was born into reality.
I made fun of Silent Night a few minutes ago. I probably ought to redeem it before I wrap up here. Silent Night written in haste in a bit of a crisis on Christmas Eve 1818. The organ at St. Nikolaus Church in Obendorf, Germany was suddenly not playable. Assistant pastor Joseph Mohr and organist Franz Gruber hastily threw the song together in the afternoon for the choir to sing that evening accompanied by guitar.
I roll my eyes at the first two verses of Silent Night. It’s sweet but it isn’t real. But those first two verses have a purpose. They set up the last verse. The third verse is where the truth and the power is to be found. We’ll sing its truth soon.
God does bring about a new world order. It is a world order of redeeming grace. It is a world order of peace, humility, honesty, and radical love.
Whether you feel it or not, whether your holiday looks more like a Hallmark movie or more like a horror film, God has made your being and God has come to be with you.
If that gives your heart a sense of peace and wellbeing for this Christmas season, that’s great. Maybe I’ve said something worth listening to. And if it doesn’t, that does not mean that you are lacking or that you have done anything wrong at all. You are still in God’s grace forever.
That’s the message of Christmas. Wholeness, fullness, wellbeing, and even joy are God’s promises and God’s gifts to you always.
All is calm. All is bright. Sleep in heavenly peace.
Bleh!
If that’s the way your Christmas is going, or if you have ever had a Christmas go that way… well, you have my congratulations. You’re a better person than me!
Almost certainly you are experiencing some version of stress right now. You’ve been cooking and cleaning and shopping and decorating for weeks. Not everything has gone smoothly and not everything has gotten done. Maybe in getting to this worship service everything went perfectly smoothly. Or more likely something went wrong: Someone was late or not ready. The thing you were going to wear got a mess on in just as you were about to leave. Someone grumbled who you had to force to come – or maybe you are one who felt forced to come. You figure the pastor better say something worth listening to or this whole affair is a complete waste of time.
Tensions are high. Tempers are short.
And while family Christmas traditions vary a lot, you probably have some version of these things going on too. There is all sorts of food to cook. Will it all be done well and at the right time? Christmas dinner will not be a calm peaceful time with everyone eager and ready and perfectly sitting down with quiet reverent joy in their hearts. At the Christmas dinner table you’ll have Uncle Fred spouting his conservative political views. And you’ll have Uncle George arguing from his liberal political views. Kids will be noisy and spill things. You’ll have Aunt Bertha show up with that horrible casserole that she makes each and every year. It’s disgusting but she wants everyone to praise her for how wonderful it is. When it is passed to you at the dinner table you stare down at the pan and you are making a careful quick calculation in your mind. You figure you have to take enough to show that you like it, but you don’t want to take too much because you know you’re going to have to choke it down while keeping a smile on your face.
Grown-ups will politely unwrap presents. Some of the stuff you get will be perfect, but some may not be what you want or you can use. You’ll put a brave face on. Someone may give you something quite expensive and suddenly the gift you’ve bought for them seems shamefully inadequate.
Kids will unwrap presents. They’ll probably be less polite about it than the grown-ups. It’ll all happen way too fast. Maybe the kids will be happy. Maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll get into fights.
The place will be a mess. There will be piles of dishes. There’s still tons of work to do. Not everyone is having fun. You’ll end the day feeling tired, broke, and unfulfilled.
Take that Hallmark! That’s the best we normal people can do.
Okay, I’m exaggerating. I hope your Christmas isn’t that bad. But I think you get the point. Silent night, holy night… not happening.
Or perhaps the opposite is true. If this is your first Christmas after the death of a loved one, or after a divorce, or if you’re filled with anxiety about work or something in your family, or if you’re depressed, or if you’re lonely… and all the world seems happy and bright, what are you to do? You may find yourself in a room full of happy people but you just want to cry inside. Nevertheless, you put on a happy face because you’re expected to. Or perhaps you find yourself all alone because for one reason or another you can’t travel to family, or family can’t travel to you. Maybe you didn’t get invited to anything. This is a dark and depressing season for many people. Suicide rates go up during the holiday season.
Here's good news. Hallmark’s got Christmas wrong. Way wrong!
Let’s look at the actual Christmas story. Joseph and Mary are on the move because of a census ordered by powerful people living far away. Mary is several months pregnant but she has to travel some 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem on dirty rough trails and roads. It is several day’s journey.
When they arrive there is no room for them. Biblical scholars point out that almost all Bible translations and cultures get the Christmas story wrong. The gospel does not actually say there was no room for them in the inn. It literally says there was no room for them in the guest room. Bethlehem was too small to have a commercial lodging establishment. Think about it for a minute. This census is requiring all sorts of people to travel. Joseph, along with his entire extended family is traveling back to their home in Bethlehem. The house is crowded. It is packed with people.
Peasant homes were often two stories. People lived on the upper floor. Animals were housed in the lower floor. And so when Joseph shows up with a woman ready to give birth, and then she goes into labor, what do they do? The guest room is already full. They send her downstairs with the animals.
And then there’s the birth itself. Joseph Mohr wrote the hymn Silent Night in the early 1800s. Apparently Joseph Mohr was never around when a woman gave birth. There is no silent night!
Pain, probably yelling, mess, confusion, blood, gore. All is not calm. All is not bright. All is not silent. This is a mess!
I’d like Hallmark to make a real Christmas story sometime. They won’t because people won’t like it and they won’t watch it.
But that is actually getting to the truth of Christmas!
Do not try to have everything perfect at Christmas. Do not think that if you plan far enough ahead and organize properly that you might, you just might, get it all right enough to have a sweet gentle fulfilling experience this season. …that you might actually accomplish the real meaning of Christmas.
The Bible doesn’t ask that. God doesn’t expect it.
Here’s the truth. Jesus was born into a mess. That’s all there is to it. Tired, haggard parents; an animal stable; noise, pain, confusion, fear, instability… the list could go on and on.
We humans did not roll out the red carpet for the arrival of our Savior. God came into the messiness of regular human life. And with no fanfare or dramatic pause, God revealed a new world order.
There is hope for the hopeless. There is value for the rejected. There is justice for the suffering. There is healing for the shamed. There is hope for the vast majority of people who have messed up this Christmas and who do not have their lives perfectly together.
Later in the service we will read the opening lines of John’s gospel by candlelight. You know the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…. And the Word became flesh and lived among us…”
“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being…” Are you a “being”? Are you here? Yes you are. You have come into being through Jesus. He knows you. He cares about you. He has saved you so that you can live a life of wholeness. That’s true even if you don’t have: perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect body, and a stylish wardrobe.
God doesn’t care one bit how your holiday plans are coming together. God doesn’t care if tomorrow is a wonderful perfect day for you, or if tomorrow is a day of chaos and pain and heartache and anger and dashed hopes and everything else. Jesus was not born into a Hallmark movie. Jesus was born into a noisy gory mess. In other words, Jesus was born into reality.
I made fun of Silent Night a few minutes ago. I probably ought to redeem it before I wrap up here. Silent Night written in haste in a bit of a crisis on Christmas Eve 1818. The organ at St. Nikolaus Church in Obendorf, Germany was suddenly not playable. Assistant pastor Joseph Mohr and organist Franz Gruber hastily threw the song together in the afternoon for the choir to sing that evening accompanied by guitar.
I roll my eyes at the first two verses of Silent Night. It’s sweet but it isn’t real. But those first two verses have a purpose. They set up the last verse. The third verse is where the truth and the power is to be found. We’ll sing its truth soon.
God does bring about a new world order. It is a world order of redeeming grace. It is a world order of peace, humility, honesty, and radical love.
Whether you feel it or not, whether your holiday looks more like a Hallmark movie or more like a horror film, God has made your being and God has come to be with you.
If that gives your heart a sense of peace and wellbeing for this Christmas season, that’s great. Maybe I’ve said something worth listening to. And if it doesn’t, that does not mean that you are lacking or that you have done anything wrong at all. You are still in God’s grace forever.
That’s the message of Christmas. Wholeness, fullness, wellbeing, and even joy are God’s promises and God’s gifts to you always.
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