Word and Story

Abandon Ship

2012-01-23T09:31:00.002-06:00

The title of my sermon is “Abandon Ship.” When I came up with that title way back in 2011, I never could have anticipated the tragic news coming out of Italy this week. I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that ran aground on Giglio island. At last report, there were eleven passengers killed and twenty-eight still missing, including a couple from St. Paul. Captain Francesco Schettino was reportedly showboating in the $570 million dollar cruise ship when it crashed. Maritime investigators will have to decide whether he was negligent in his duties as a ship captain. In the meantime Schettino has already been tried and convicted in the press for 1. deviating from a set route; 2. abandoning ship; 3. failing to return to the ship to lead rescue efforts[i]. Only a judge and jury can decide if Schettino is truly guilty, but it seems unlikely that he will ever command another cruise ship.

As I read the news I couldn’t help but think of the four sailors in today’s scripture. While Francesco Schettino is universally condemned for his actions, we celebrate Andrew and Peter, James and John for deviating from the set course of their lives, for abandoning their ship and following Jesus, and for failing to return to their fishing boats to help feed their families. The difference, and it is a significant one, is that Schettino has been accused of acting in a cowardly manner, leaving a sinking ship instead of organizing the rescue efforts. The disciples on the other hand were courageous, abandoning safety, security, and the comforts of family to go on a rescue mission to save total strangers from sin and despair. Peter, Andrew, James and John were not motivated by self-preservation but by a love that is greater than all their other loyalties. Turn with me to Mark 1:14-20 as the very first disciples abandon their ships to go fishing for humanity.

Mark 1:14-20

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good newsof God, ¹⁵and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;repent, and believe in the good news.’

16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

First: The Disciples Deviated From Their Set Route

James and John’s father Zebedee was also a fisherman. This is no great surprise. In those days it was typical for a son to follow in his father’s footsteps. Instead of spending all day in school, sons served as apprentices and learned their father’s trade. Farmers taught their sons to plow. Scribes taught their sons how to read and write. Tax collectors taught their sons to shake people down for money. Joseph taught his son Jesus how to be a carpenter. Just as a farmer would pass land down to the next generation, a fisherman would pass down his nets and boat to the next generation.

There was not a lot of social mobility in those days. Oh sure, a particularly bright child might get noticed by the rich and powerful; an uncommonly strong boy might be handpicked to be a soldier; the last born or the least gifted son might end up stuck as a shepherd, but generally speaking sons followed in their father’s footsteps. While a girl might marry into a more prosperous family, unless she married royalty she would likely have the same responsibilities her mother had. Children were born with a set course to follow: the well-trod pathway that their parents and grandparents established. There was not a whole lot of deviation from the set route.

When Jesus showed up at the Sea of Galilee he called James and John, Andrew and Peter into uncharted waters. This wasn’t the first time Jesus met Andrew and his brother Peter. John the Baptist had previously told Andrew that Jesus was the long-awaited Savior. In fact, some scholars suggest that Jesus and the first four disciples went all way back to the good old days of working together with John the Baptist. Maybe; maybe not, but there was clearly some trust between Jesus and the disciples, or they never would have deviated from the set pattern of their lives.

When the Lord shows up at the Sea of Galilee, Andrew, James, Peter and John sailed with Jesus into uncharted waters. You never know what rocks or hazards lie ahead when you chart a brand new course. The old mapmakers used to shrug their shoulders and scribble about the unknown, “here there be dragons!” But Peter, Andrew, James and John were not to be deterred. They trusted Jesus as their captain, and would follow him wherever he went- even the cross. Following Jesus would take them far away from Galilee, all over the known world.

Second: The Disciples Abandoned Ship

One hundred years ago Captain Edward J. Smith of the Titanic evacuated as many passengers as he could before they ran out of lifeboats. And then Captain Smith went down with his ship. Maybe it goes back to British naval tradition, where any captain who lost one of the king’s ships would have to answer to his peers. The shame of court martial was so great, that captains preferred to go down with their ship. In any case, we have this grand ideal that captains are so honorable that they would never abandon ship… at least not until everyone else is evacuated first.

James and John must not have gotten the memo. They were out fishing with their father Zebedee and some hired hands. The fact that Zebedee was able to hire some deck hands to help out with the family business suggests that they were making good money. This is a middle class, blue collar family. But that doesn’t mean that Zebedee could afford to lose his two sons.

If James and John were grown men, Zebedee surely wasn’t as young and strong as he used to be. He needed strapping sons to pull in the heavy dragnets. Zebedee needed stable sons to settle down, get married and have children of their own so that the business would be passed along to the next generation. He needed skilled sons to captain the boat and tell the employees exactly what to do. Losing James and John was like losing his right and left hands. I don’t know how Zebedee felt about his sons abandoning ship, but the neighbors would have considered them prodigal sons. At best they were religious eccentrics, following Jesus on some hare-brained mission; at worst they were sinners who failed to honor their father and mother.

Three years later, after Jesus was put to death on the cross, Peter, James and John returned to Galilee to go fishing. Their nets and boats were right where they left them. In fact, those boats were likely put to good use in the meantime transporting the disciples all over Galilee. Their families clearly weren’t in abject poverty, otherwise the nets and boats would have been sold in desperation. For a moment, when Jesus was dead and all hope was lost, the disciples returned to their old jobs and their old ways of life. But when Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples abandoned their ships of security for good.

After the resurrection the disciples spread out all over the globe with the Good News of Jesus Christ. James and John deserted the family business to go fishing for people. Andrew and Peter abandoned ship to tell people about Jesus. More important than their careers; more important than their families was the message of God’s love.

Third: The Disciples Went on a Different Rescue Mission

On Monday I heard a great story about the father of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. Martin Senior was known to his family as “Daddy King.” When “Daddy King” was just a boy his mama wanted him in school, but his father wanted him out in the fields. They played tug-of-war with their son, until Daddy King was eighteen years old and chose to move to Atlanta to study. Daddy King was ashamed when they stuck him, a grown man, in a third grade classroom. But he insisted on learning how to read and write. One day his father took a day off work to come to Atlanta to beg his son to come back; to help sharecrop the land. Daddy King looked at his father and realized that if he left his third grade classroom and boarded the train back home, that he would never make it any further than his father. So Daddy King told his Father “no.” He would not come back to help rescue the farm. He was going to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Daddy King was on an entirely different rescue mission. He couldn’t save his father’s fields. He couldn’t save his son from an assassin’s bullet. Daddy King lost another son and his wife shortly after Rev. Dr. King was killed. He couldn’t save them either. But, he could save others by telling them about the love of God. It’s hard to imagine what our country would have looked like today if Daddy King didn’t tell his father “no.” God called Daddy King and his son Martin on a totally different rescue mission that has changed the world.

Nautical tradition insists that when the ship is sinking it is women and children first. But when Peter left his wife and perhaps some children behind in Galilee, he was on a different rescue mission. The Bible doesn’t tell us if Andrew, James and John were married with children, but they left behind their mothers and sisters and perhaps even sweethearts. None of them put women and children first. The disciples placed the salvation of complete strangers above their own families.

Later on Jesus taught them, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother, of children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.”[ii] Jesus didn’t want to damage families, but the call to discipleship takes precedence. Following Jesus is more important than getting along with our siblings; following Jesus is more important than obeying our parents; following Jesus is more urgent of our attention than even a crying child. While the disciples had to leave the comforts of home to preach the Gospel, they gained hundreds brothers and sister and mothers and fathers and children that have been adopted into the faith.

Usually when I preach on this passage I remind people that they too are called to be fishers of men. But this passage is also about the cost of discipleship. Leaving home cost the disciples much more than three years worth of income. It cost their entire lives.

The disciples’ fishing expedition for new believers spread the Christian Church halfway across the globe. Tradition tells us that most of the disciples were eventually tortured and killed for following Jesus. They gave up everything and then they went down with their captain. But it was worth it, because their lives were changed and they found eternal life. If you’re going to go down with the ship anyway, go down with Jesus. He won’t steer you wrong and he is the only captain in human history captain who knows how to raise this vessel from the dead.

[i] http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/17/travel/cruise-ship-passenger-safety/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[ii] Matthew 9:29

The Thin Place

2012-01-21T18:31:00.002-06:00

Before I get to the Gospel, I’d like to spend a moment talking about the Old Testament reading. Maybe you remember the story of Jakob, who wrestled his twin brother Esau in the womb; who was born clutching his brother’s heel- desperately fighting to be the firstborn; who stole his brother’s birthright over a lousy bowl of soup; who conned his father into giving him the inheritance of God by dressing up like Esau! Now Jakob’s father and grandfather were respectable men who talked freely with God. But Jakob was different. Jakob was sneaky. His name means “heel-grabber,” which is Hebrew for “he deceives.” Jakob certainly wanted something out of God, but he wasn’t exactly close to God.

Jakob caused so much trouble at home that Esau was ready to kill him. So Jakob ran off to find shelter at his uncle’s house. After running all day, the sun set and Jakob fell asleep. He had the most amazing dream. He dreamed he saw a flight of steps reaching to heaven. Thousands of years before Led Zepplin ever sang “Stairway to Heaven,” Jakob dreamed about angels climbing the steps between heaven and earth. At the top of the stairs Jakob had a vision of God. The God of Father Isaac; the God of Grandpa Abraham promised Jakob that he would always be near.

When Jakob woke up from his dream he declared, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He called his campsite Bethel, which means “house of God.” Years later Jakob returned to Bethel, and there God gave him a brand new name: “Israel,” which means “one who wrestles with God.” Talk about close to God! All those years God was grappling with him, bending and shaping him from a sneak into saint. He can do the same for you and me.

In today’s Gospel message we meet two guys longing to experience God. But God doesn’t send them a vision or a dream, he sends them his Son Jesus Christ. And here is the Good News, anyone can be close to God if they only say “Yes” when Jesus says, “Follow me.” If you have ever longed to be close to God listen carefully for the promise in John 1:43-51.

John 1:43-51

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Have you ever felt particularly close to God? There are places in this world that we keep returning to again and again because that’s where we feel close to God. Some people feel God’s presence by the crashing sea shore; for others it’s a grand cathedral where the organ music transports them into the presence of God; and some people head for the mountains where, in the words of John Denver, “You can talk to God and listen for the casual reply.” Is there a spot of beauty or wonder on this world that always reminds you that God is near?

In Ireland, the Christians have a phrase for places like that. They call them thin places. A thin place is where God’s presence is easily felt. There’s an old Irish saying “heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller.” Great Britain and Ireland are speckled with ancient little churches that have a reputation for being really thin. They are usually on the edges of things...like coastal places, mountains, islands, places where land formations come together, and also places where much prayer had taken place. People go there and they forget about their everyday lives. In the thin places the veil is lifted and people actually experience God.

Growing up, my thin place was summer camp. When I was young my family didn’t go to church very often. For a couple weeks every year, I would go to Covenant Beach Bible Camp, right on the edge of the Puget Sound. Camp was the place where I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. At Covenant Beach I learned to sing God’s praises; I learned to read the Bible; I learned how to pray. All the college kids who served as counselors seemed so mature, so wise and so deep in their faith! I wanted to be like them- close to God. The last week I ever went to Covenant Beach the preacher asked us, “Where do you feel nearest to God?” For me the answer was easy, “Right here at camp.”

But that was the last time I ever felt particularly close to God at Covenant Beach. A few months later the camp was sold so that a bigger, better camp could be built. It was a good decision. The camp was being swallowed up by population growth. The pretty little stream that ran through camp was polluted by run-off from Sea-Tac International Airport. Years later I would work at the brand new camp and it became a thin place too. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the first place where I experienced God.

So, I took a sentimental journey back to my old camp. These days it is a much neglected city park. Every inch of ground had some precious memory attached to it- the Tab where we used to worship, the empty swimming pool that we all scrimped and saved to buy, the trail my counselor took us on to hunt snipe, and the parking lot where I once successfully caught a greased pig. But the place didn’t feel the way it once did. Without a couple hundred kids running around; without camp songs in the air; without lives turning to Christ, Covenant Beach didn’t feel so thin to me anymore. In fact, it felt like any old place. It turns out that locations only become thin when our wonder turns us to the Living God.

Bethel was a famous thin place. After all that’s where Jakob had his dream of a stairway to heaven. But that thin place was much abused. Rebellious Jews used Bethel instead of the Temple in Jerusalem; foreign idol-worshippers used Bethel in twisted ways; and some ‘not-so-good Samaritans’ were partial to Bethel. Things got so bad that the prophet Amos despaired saying, “Go to Bethel and sin.[i]” Bethel reminds us that it’s not location, location, location that makes a place thin. A place gets thin when our wonder turns us to the Living God.

In today’s Gospel text, there is another important thin place: Nathanael’s fig tree. We can only guess why the fig tree was special to Nathanael. The Bible doesn’t tell us. We do know that rabbis and holy men of that day would often sit under fig trees to quietly study scripture. Maybe Nathanael was a holy man reading up on the Messiah. Or perhaps he was just an ordinary guy praying underneath the fig tree for some guidance. Whatever the reason, the fig tree was a thin place for Nathanael. It was a place of wonder and closeness to God. When Jesus brings up the tree, Nathanael immediately declares him to be the “Son of God” the “King of Israel.” There was something thin about that fig tree.

Nathanael reminds me a bit of Jakob at Bethel. They both have a little bit of an attitude. When he first hears about Jesus, Nathanael jokes with his buddy Philip, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Clearly, Nathanael is not an easy convert. He needs to hear more from Jesus than just the pious words, “follow me.” Like Jakob long ago, Nathanael was looking to wrestle. I believe that’s why Jesus calls him “a true Israelite,” the very same name that God gave to Jakob. Jesus could see that Nathanael needed to experience God up close and personal.

So Jesus calls Nathanael away from his thin place under a fig tree into a thin relationship. Jesus tells Nathanael “Amen, amen you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” Sound familiar? That’s almost exactly what Jakob saw in his dream at Bethel. There’s just one startling difference- the stairway to heaven isn’t a place, it is a person. The house of God is not Bethel or any other fixed location. God’s true home is Jesus, the Son of God.

You see, Jesus has become our thin place. When you follow Christ, heaven is even closer than three feet away. Jesus said that “the Kingdom of God is among you[ii].” Jesus invited Nathanael to join him and to be close to God in a way he never dreamed of when he was sitting under the fig tree. We can always be close to God because Jesus is the ladder who bridges the gap between heaven and earth.

Experiencing God is not just something for the Biblical heroes of long, long ago. And it doesn’t just happen in your own private thin place. Jesus has bridged the gap for all people everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you are- God is right there in your heart if you allow him to be. The gates of heaven are open wide when you receive Christ as King.

With Jesus, the veil between heaven and earth gets lifted all the time, particularly in worship. Whenever two or more gather in the name of Jesus Christ- things get thin. It happens in the mystery of baptism, an outward sign of an invisible grace. It happens in Holy Communion where you join all the faithful, both the living and the dead, whenever you eat the bread and take the cup. It happens when you hear the Word and you come away changed. It happens when you sing God’s praises, just like the heavenly host above. It happens when we pray for one another and for God’s will to be done. It happens when you forgive others, just as Jesus forgives you. Worship is best when the distance to heaven feels razor thin. It is Jesus who makes it so.

Do you want to feel close to God? Jesus says, “follow me.” Do you want to experience God? In the words of Philip, “Come and see.” Do you want a little more heaven in your life? Heaven has been opened up and it will spill into your life when you call Jesus “Son of God.” The distance between God and us has become so thin, you can see right through it. Respond like Philip and Nathanael and walk in the ways of the Lord.

[i] Amos 4:4

[ii] Luke 17:21

Esther Franklin Memorial Homily

2011-12-11T15:47:00.003-06:00

“Esther Franklin: Steadfast and Immovable.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

⁵¹Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die,but we will all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
⁵⁵ ‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’
⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

The Apostle Paul believed that good theology leads to good behavior. That’s why he spends so much time in First Corinthians writing about the mystery of the resurrection. Paul wants his readers to get their theology right, so they will get their behavior right. When the heavenly trumpet blows, announcing the return of Christ the King, we will all be changed. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, these old bodies of sin and death will be no more. If that was the end of the story, every funeral and memorial service would be nothing but bad news. But of course, there is more to the story.

The Good News is that our bodies will be changed into something new. What is perishable will become imperishable. What is mortal will become immortal. Our fragile bodies that are so vulnerable to disease, destruction and death, will no longer be at risk. Believe in Jesus and death loses its victory. God’s love will transform us into something we can scarcely comprehend: the resurrection and the life.

Esther Franklin got her theology right at First Covenant Church in Willmar. Every Sunday there were two worship services, one in the morning and one in the evening. The Andersons went to both. Esther’s early social life revolved around church and family. This childhood pattern shaped her life. At First Covenant Church in Willmar Esther got a healthy dose of good theology, and she followed it up with a lifetime of good behavior.

Esther lived for the church. While studying at North Park College, Esther worked at Covenant Headquarters, assisting the directors of Sunday school and Youth Work. Years later, after she married Robert Franklin and had moved back to Willmar; Esther was again an active member of First Covenant Church: teaching Sunday School, serving as Sunday School superintendent, directing the choir, and singing solos on the Covenant Hour. When the Franklins returned to Minneapolis, Esther served for 24 years as the Executive Secretary for the Northwest Conference. She also served Edina Covenant Church as Minister of Music. At Bethlehem Covenant Church, Esther directed the junior choir and was an active member of the Ruth circle. Just yesterday we celebrated our 51^st Lucia Festival which Esther began with Bernice Anderson. The identity of this church has been permanently marked by the ministry of Esther Franklin.

Even in her final years Esther was more comfortable being the giver than the receiver. She braided rugs. She knit booties for her friends. When we went to sing Christmas carols for Esther last year she was visibly uncomfortable that everyone was making such a fuss over her. She preferred to sing for others. Esther was sad that all her friends were dead and she had no one left to sing to. During the final months of her life, Esther would frequently express the feeling that she had no more reason to live–-because, as she would say, her last opportunity to minister to read a psalm and sing in Swedish to her fellow residents was no longer possible. She longed to serve, not to be served.

The good theology Esther learned at First Covenant Church in Willmar shaped her identity. Not that Esther thought she could earn her salvation by being good. Not that Esther felt that she had any hope that she could turn her perishable and mortal body into something heavenly all on her own. But in response to the grace of God, Esther was motivated to do something positive in the world, by serving her church; by serving the Northwest Conference; by serving the Covenant denomination. Esther lived for church: not to impress anybody, but because that’s where she was free to do something good in the name of Jesus.

Which brings us to the much neglected final line of First Corinthians chapter 15. We get so impressed with Paul’s poetic turns of phrases like “twinkling of an eye” or “Where O death is your sting?” that we risk forgetting the commission Paul gives us at the conclusion of all that good theology. “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” This is how you behave once you learn all that good theology.

Esther Franklin was steadfast. Esther Franklin was immovable. Esther Franklin was always excelling in the work of the Lord. She knew that her labors for Jesus were not in vain. In fact, the people of Bethlehem Covenant Church are still recovering from yesterday’s Lucia Festival! Our celebration never would have started and it never could have lasted without Esther’s good work.

Just looking at her frail, 97 year old body, you never would have guessed that Esther was such a spitfire. And here’s where good theology helps us once again. Because of the grace of God, we can say in faith that Esther’s fire has not been extinguished. It lives on even now and will be re-ignited into full flame when the trumpet blows and the dead are raised. Trust in Jesus Christ to be your victory over the grave and you too will experience the great mystery of the Resurrection and the Life.

No Small Favor

2011-12-11T15:46:00.002-06:00

A grand holiday tradition came to a screeching halt last year. For some folks it just wasn’t Christmas until this large, jolly person, who often dressed in red, gave out marvelous presents. She checked her list; she checked it twice; she had a good idea who was naughty and who was nice. And so she invited all the nicest folks over to her place for the holidays. She gave them a bag of gifts so extravagant that it would make Saint Nick blush redder than his Santa suit. When Oprah Winfrey hosted her annual “Favorite Things” episode, the crowd went nuts. Last year they got i-Pads, $500 gifts cards from Nordstrom’s and brand new Volkswagen Beetles. No wonder every Oprah fan wanted to be in the studio audience the day she handed out her favorite things!

Like Oprah, we all have our favorites: our favorite people and our favorite things. At Christmas time we have the opportunity to bring the two together. There are gifts to buy and treats to bake for your favorite people. For distant family and long lost friends, all it takes is a well chosen Christmas card to tell them that they remain among your favorites. While I don’t imagine that anyone in this sanctuary has pockets quite as deep as Oprah Winfrey, we all get to play favorites at Christmas time.

This tradition goes back all the way to today’s Gospel story where God picks out a favorite servant for a special task. We don’t know why God favored Mary. For years Jewish women longed to give birth to the Messiah. Mary hit the jackpot in a much bigger way than the nice people who got a car from Oprah. In fact, Mary might be the only woman in the history of the world more universally beloved than Oprah Winfrey! Mary was favored by God, and she got to mother the Son of God. Oprah’s party favors will one day succumb to moth and rust, but the favor of God lasts forever!

But being one of God’s favorites doesn’t mean that all your dreams come true. Just look at previous favorites of God such as Job, Abraham, Sara, Jacob, Joseph, Hannah, Moses and David. Their lives were not made any easier by God’s favoritism. In time Mary’s soul would be pierced by the original Christmas gift: her son Jesus. That’s how God’s grace works: it is absolutely free. You couldn’t buy God’s mercy if you tried, but once you have it, it will cost your entire life. But the gift of Christ the Lord is totally worth it since there is nothing in the world that compares to his grace and love. Turn with me to Luke 1:26-38 (p. 931) to hear the Good News.

Luke 1:26-38

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.’²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ ³⁴Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’³⁵The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be bornwill be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.’ ³⁸Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

Some gifts you just can’t refuse. When Grandma knits you a handmade Christmas sweater, you’re going to have to try it on in front of the whole family. The moment the golden doodle starts licking your child’s face, there is simply no exchanging the puppy wiggling under the tree. Once the fruitcake is out of the box it’s yours to keep, either as a Christmas treat or as your new seasonal door stop.

Jesus is the best Christmas gift ever, but that doesn’t mean that you are powerless to refuse him. Lots of people have exchanged Jesus for another god or some other grand idea. The Christmas miracle doesn’t mean much unless we have the freedom to choose Jesus for ourselves. I’d like to suggest that Mary had some freedom too when the angel of the Lord appeared before her with glad tidings of great joy. Frankly, there’s not much to say about Mary’s encounter with Gabriel unless she had some choice in the matter.

Take her cousin Elizabeth for example. In her old age Elizabeth was miraculously pregnant. Elizabeth had a splendid reaction to her miracle baby, but her husband Zechariah is another story. Upon entering the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense in the Temple, Zechariah heard from Gabriel that he was going to have a baby. ‘How will I know that this is so?” Zechariah interrogated the angel, “For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” Zechariah emerged from the Temple unable to speak. He was mute until the day the baby was born, just in time to name him John as the angel commanded. At first Zechariah was skeptical, only gradually getting on board with God’s plan.

Mary is totally different. In contrast to Uncle Zechariah, Mary is a model disciple. While Zechariah was a mature, old man, a priest of the Lord, at the top of that patriarchal society, Mary was at the very bottom. She was a girl, perhaps as old as sixteen, more likely as young as thirteen. She was engaged. In the eyes of the law, Mary was legally married to Joseph, but still too young to consummate the relationship. Mary was living in “no man’s land”- no longer the little girl of her father, but not yet living under the roof of her husband. In that sexist society where women found identity and protection from the man in her life, this was surely a precarious place to be. Mary was vulnerable and voiceless under the law. Yet this teenage girl had the guts to say, “Let it be” to God’s plan for her life.

Mary was risking her reputation, her marriage and her life by saying “Let it be” to God. Because Mary was engaged to Joseph, as far as the law was concerned, she was legally married. When her belly started to swell, she would not be accused of having premarital sex. Mary would have been charged with adultery! The law is clear in such matters. According to Deuteronomy 22:23-24

“If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her, you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”

In Mary’s day, adulterous women were generally brought to Jerusalem for trial. If she pleaded innocence she would have been publicly humiliated at the city gate. All her jewelry would be taken from her. Her hair would have been uncovered like the prostitutes. Her clothes would have been torn to expose a breast. Men and especially women passing by would have been encouraged to gawk and stare. Then the accused would be compelled to swear an oath that declared among other things “may the Lord cause you to be a curse among your people when he makes your womb to miscarry and your abdomen to swell.” After that, the woman would be forced to drink the bitter waters: a mixture of dust, holy water and ink from the pen of the rabbi who wrote the curse. If the woman survived the poisonous bitter waters and passersby itching to throw stones, the accused would be set free with a clean conscience but a spoiled reputation.

When Joseph learned he was going to be a father to a child that was not his own, he planned to compassionately dismiss Mary so that she wouldn’t have to face such a trial. Again the angel of the Lord intervened and spared Mary from divorce and perhaps prostitution: the only occupation available to a woman of such a questionable reputation. Against all odds, Joseph also said “Let it be” to God and took Mary as his wife. But even Joseph’s love and compassion couldn’t totally save Mary’s reputation.

When Mary and Joseph showed up in Bethlehem, his ancestral town, they weren’t exactly looking for a Holiday Inn. They were looking for some relatives to put them up for the census and to help them through labor and delivery. But there was no room among Joseph’s relatives, except for those half-decent cousins that let Mary deliver Jesus downstairs… where they kept the animals. Mary wasn’t delivered from her shame when she delivered the baby Jesus. The rumors and whispers about her baby would follow Mary all her days.

Years later when he returned to his hometown the neighbors mocked Jesus by calling him “Mary’s son” not “Joseph’s son.” That’s a not-so-subtle dig at the mysterious origins of Jesus’ birth. Is it any wonder that Jesus left town without performing any miracles. No one was willing to put their faith in a man with such a sketchy background.

Mary was just a teenager when she made the radical choice to accept God’s favor. She said “Let it be” to his plan for her life. She was old enough to know that her reputation would be ruined and her very life would be at risk. What she could not possibly know at thirteen was that God would take this boy away from her on the cross. She would get him back after the resurrection, but, Mary’s soul would be cut to pieces over this miracle baby. She never could have anticipated the high cost of God’s favor.

Mary’s life might have been easier without the favor of God, but it sure wouldn’t have been better. I seriously doubt that Mary would have traded her Jesus for a little more peace and quiet. The salvation of God that we celebrate every Christmas is better than a heaping pile of Oprah’s favorite things or anything else we stick under the tree. I can’t promise that saying “Let it be” to God’s plan for your life will make you any happier or safer, but I can affirm that the company and salvation of Jesus gives life meaning.

What is God beckoning you to do with your life? Is this the Christmas you reconcile with your family? Is this the Christmas you quit the job you hate and risk everything to find work that means something? Is this the Christmas you forgo the favorite things under the tree, and instead prioritize quality time with your favorite people? It takes hard work to discern the will of God, but when the clarity comes join Mary and millions of other believers who declared “Let it be.” You life may not be any easier, but you can find your true identity in the favor of God.

John the Initiator

2011-12-06T14:50:00.001-06:00

“John the Initiator”

Robert Champion was 26-years-old when he died. He was the Drum Major of Florida A&M University’s 420 member Marching 100 band. Champion collapsed on the band bus, unable to breathe. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital, but it was too late. The doctors could not save his life. Last week Robert Champion was laid to rest wearing his band uniform.

The facts are not all out yet, but Orange County investigators have announced that hazing was likely the cause of Champion’s death. Four students have been dismissed from Florida A&M University in connection with his death. 30 students have been kicked off the band. The university has suspended all scheduled performances of the Marching 100. The school’s president has moved to fire band director for alleged misconduct or incompetence. At Robert Champion’s funeral the preacher railed against bullying and hazing saying, "I call on every mother, every father, every niece, every uncle: Do what is necessary now to stop this tragedy so that it will never happen again."

For you see, this sort of thing has happened before on the Marching 100. One band member was paddled 30 times until he went into renal failure and almost died. He successfully sued Florida A&M University and the students who almost killed him. Other band members have reportedly been paddled a hundred times. Thighbones have been fractured and knees have been ruptured. Just two weeks before Champion died a young woman who played clarinet on the Marching 100 was hospitalized as a result of hazing.[i] Details of Robert Champion’s death are still fuzzy, but it appears that the Florida A&M band has cultivated a terrible and violent way of welcoming members.

All organizations have rites of initiation. For the church it is baptism. Some denominations require that their members be plunged totally underwater. In the Russian Orthodox Church even the babies are totally immersed! I’ve heard stories of Orthodox priests breaking through the ice in Russian winters, to submerge newborn babies in the frigid waters. At our church, usually a little sprinkle of warm water on the forehead will suffice, but that’s still too much for some crying babies. Perhaps those infants think that I’m hazing them instead of gently welcoming them into the church. You can tell a lot about an organization by how they welcome new people into their midst. Initiations matter.

In today’s scripture we are introduced to John the Baptizer, that wild man of the dessert who thought it was a good idea to dunk people in the Jordan River. John was the initiator, not just of the rite of baptism, but of the coming age when his cousin Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit. All four Gospels begin with John the Baptizer getting the world ready for Jesus. Let’s dip our toes in those waters as we open up Mark 1:1-8 (page 910) and prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus.

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the good newsof Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
   who will prepare your way;
³ the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
   “Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make his paths straight” ’,

⁴John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. ⁸I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you withthe Holy Spirit.’

Sometimes it hurts to be initiated. Last week Pastor Derek explained to me what happens to soldiers and sailors when they move up in rank. When officers reach the rank of Colonel, the rite of passage is that commanding officers don’t just pin an eagle onto the uniform. He jams the bird into the new colonel’s flesh until the uniform is stained with blood. This eagle pin is much more than decoration. That bird cannot be earned without a little blood.

Not surprisingly, the Marines have even more violent promotion rituals. When a lance corporal is promoted to full corporal they no longer are just responsible for doing their job. For the very first time in their careers they have to command. Before they earn their stripes, the corporals have to run the gauntlet. Fifty Marines kick the stuffing out of the new corporal until he has to be carried out of the barracks. Violence is the business of the military, so there is a devastating logic to such brutal initiations. Marines only want to take orders from someone who has felt the boot of violence.

The church aspires to be kinder and gentler with our initiation rites. Generally we are. After all, the church is not about violence, but faith, hope, love and peace. But I’ll be frank with you, when adults ask me to baptize them in a swimming pool I don’t pull them up immediately. I give them fair warning beforehand, but part of being under the water is to identify with Jesus’ death and burial under the earth before the resurrection. I let them stay down there for just a second or two longing for breath and new life. The air tastes sweeter when you’ve been without it for awhile.

When children are baptized, they get off easy. A little water on the forehead and everyone smiles benevolently, even if the baby is screaming bloody murder. But there is a striking practice of the early church that still lingers in some churches today. When those babies grew up to become young adults, they were slapped across the face on Confirmation Sunday to remind them of the offense of the Gospel. My predecessor Pastor Stenberg used to give our confirmands the gentlest slap possible so they could literally turn the other cheek. That practice stopped at this church when a mother declared that nobody was touching her daughter! In its place, Pastor Stenberg initiated the confirmation students by having them weld crosses out of iron nails to wear on their Confirmation Day. As Phil pointed out on numerous occasions, the cross is a far more barbaric image than his tender love tap. The slap is long gone, but the offense remains. No one, not even Jesus, gets to the resurrection without first tasting death.

John invented baptism. He lived out in the wilderness, far away from polite society. Everyone from the small towns to the big city wanted to meet this holy man of the desert, but John didn’t make house calls. Anyone who desired to find John would have to wander into the wilderness. Their initiation began with a pilgrimage to no man’s land.

Finding John meant leaving civilization. There were no farms in the wastelands. The Baptizer lived off the wilderness: eating nutritious bugs and delicious honey. John’s diet was just as odd then as it is now. I’m sure that most pilgrims brought enough food to get them to the Jordan River and back, but there were no quickie-marts to visit along the way. John’s initiation meant abandoning security and risking real hunger.

Previous to John the Jewish people practiced ritual bathing. Women would bathe themselves after childbirth to become ritually pure. Men who touched a corpse or were recovering from a skin disease would bathe in a mikveh to become ceremonially clean again. Priests would take a ritual bath to prepare themselves for worship. When foreigners converted to Judaism, their initiation was to be washed in the waters. John was certainly influenced by Jewish ritual baths, but his baptism was something quite different than what came before.

John’s baptism was not a comfortable dip in a warm tub. At John’s campsite on the Jordan River no one got to wash themselves. John took it upon himself to plunge initiates into the water. Like a parent scrubbing a squirming child, John was the one who did the cleaning.

John was convinced that everyone needed repentance. When the Pharisees and Sadducees showed up by the riverside, John insulted them by calling them murderous snakes. I don’t imagine that John was the hazing type, but he certainly harassed the religious leaders because they had no true interest in repentance. They just wanted another badge of spiritual approval. John’s point is that no one shows up at his river clean. Everyone was in need of some serious scrubbing in the water.

John made the people ceremonially re-enter the land. The River Jordan is the historic Western boundary marker of Israel. John expected everyone to go back to the very beginning. Like the Jewish slaves escaping Egypt and the wilderness it was time for them to re-enter Israel. John wanted God’s people to renew their relationship with the Lord so they would once again be dependent on the grace of God.

But John’s baptism was much more than just another ritual. John wasn’t hazing God’s people like fraternity pledges. He was getting them ready for what was coming next. John initiated baptism but more importantly John initiated a brand new age. All John had to baptize with was river water, but his cousin Jesus was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Water can only get you so far when you are trying to make something clean. Every squirming baby is bound to get messy again. No pot or pan stays clean after a single washing. Water is great for cleaning, but it has no power to make anyone permanently clean. John knew full well that his guests in the wilderness would go home and return to the same dumb behavior; the same bad choices; the same harmful relationships. It was enough for to make a prophet to lose his head! But John did not despair. He knew that God was sending a Savior with the power to deliver his Holy Spirit. When the Spirit came, God’s people would experience real change.

This is why John tells his followers that he was not worthy to untie the shoelaces of the coming Messiah. When Jesus came, he would change everything. Instead of empty rituals and lame initiation ceremonies, Jesus would bring the Spirit of God.

When people are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they are initiated into a relationship with the Living God. They are never ready for it, not if they are drooling infants; not if they are mature adults. Nobody is ever prepared for the power of God in their life. Baptism is the beginning of a relationship, where God in invited to go to work in our lives. If you let Him, God will change who you are.

Most initiation rituals demand something from you: some pain; some blood; some flesh in the game. The Spirit of God is a game changer. With the Holy Spirit the equation is reversed. When you are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus, you only have something to gain. Instead of paying the price and feeling the pain, Jesus has got you covered. He took all the hazing the world could muster when he submitted to the cross. In Christ, the Holy Spirit shows up in your life to give you something. God’s Spirit fills you with love, with hope, with joy, and with peace. The Spirit starts moving in your life so you can let go of some of the old wounds and bad habits that are holding you back. Baptism is our initiation into the grace of God. Trust in God to finish the job by filling you up with his Holy Spirit.

[i] http://www.11alive.com/news/article/215536/3/FAMU-Band-Director-Champion-looked-like-he-had-passed-out

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/30/us/florida-hazing-death/?hpt=us_c2

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/01/four-students-dismissed-from-famu-after-hazing-death/

Apple Trees and the End of the World

2011-12-02T14:38:00.002-06:00

“Apple Trees and the End of the World”

Earlier this year I couldn’t drive down Hiawatha without thinking about the end of the world. Near Walgreens, there was a huge billboard admonishing me to “Save the Date:” May 21, 2011. That was supposedly the Day of Judgment when Christ would return to earth. According to Harold Camping, the Christian radio and television mogul who did the calculations and paid for hundreds of billboards to be put up all over the country, Jesus was going to return on May 21^st and the righteous would fly up to heaven. The next five months were to be filled with fire and brimstone, plagues and locusts, with millions of people dying each day. Then on October 21, 2011, the world would be no more. From the perspective of a Minnesota Vikings fan, the last five months have been admittedly quite awful, but let’s not jump to conclusions about the apocalypse. The Packers are 11-0 and even the Lions are worth watching, but here we are in November and the world hasn’t ended quite yet!

You would think that Harold Camping would know better. He had previously predicted that the world would end on May 21^st…way back in 1988! When that Day of Judgment didn’t pan out, Camping rechecked his math and came up with a new date: September 6, 1994. But Camping was not content being a two-time loser. He had to go for the trifecta. He invested his money and what was left of his credibility gambling again on May 21^st but this time in 2011. This time when the rapture didn’t pan out, Camping retired and retreated from the public eye. According to one report, Camping has finally come to the conclusion that no one can know when Christ will return. It’s about time!

After May 21^st came and went, some other Christian churches rented those billboards and put up their own clever message. “That was awkward!” they declared, followed by the following scripture verse, “No one knows the day or hour…” That is the message we turn to this morning as we open up our Bibles to Mark 13:24-37. Jesus is talking about the end of the world, not to fill us with dread, but to fill us with hope. When Christ returns, evil will be overcome and things will finally be as God always intended. Advent is the season of watching and waiting, not just for the Christmas story, but also for the final chapter when Jesus returns in glory and power. Turn with me to page 925 in you pew Bibles as we read all we really need to know about the end of the world.

Mark 13:24-37

24 ‘But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, ²⁵ and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in clouds” with great power and glory. ²⁷Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

28 ‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

32 ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. ³⁵Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, ³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

When he was asked about the end of the world, Martin Luther responded “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” What did he mean by that? I take it that Luther was skeptical of anyone’s attempt to predict the end of the world. But that’s not all. Confronted with fear and calamity, Martin Luther would still do something productive, even fruitful. He would still plant his apple tree. And years later, when the rumors of doomsday had come and gone, Luther would be able to sit in the shade of what he had planted, sinking his teeth into fruits of his labor, and into the grace of an apple he never could have enjoyed without sun and rain and all the gifts of God.

There are two crucial errors Christians tend to make when they speak about the end of the world. The first we are quite familiar with because of the outlandish predictions of Harold Camping and others like him. They think they can take the Book of Revelation and apply it to their calendars and come up with an accurate prediction of the end of the world. In times of trouble, there have always been those whom claimed they knew when the world was going to end. For some reason these failed mathematicians are not daunted by today’s scripture where Jesus himself says he does not know the day or the hour when he will return in glory. The angels don’t know, the Son doesn’t know, only the Father knows when the world will end. I am always astonished when followers of Jesus claim to know more than Jesus about the end of the world. Not only is such thinking arrogant and foolish, when the predictions invariably fail to materialize, the whole Christian church loses credibility.

The other crucial error that Christians make about the end of the world may not be so obvious. After enduring all sorts of bizarre false predictions, it is tempting to just stop talking about the end of the world. This is just as misguided as claiming to know the day and the hour when Christ will return.

You see, every story needs an ending. Imagine checking a mystery novel out of the library and discovering midway through the final chapter that someone had ripped the final pages out of the book. If the mystery were any good, you would be devastated to be denied the rest of the story. Or imagine getting a romantic movie in the mail from Netflix. A young couple falls in love, only to be separated by unforeseen circumstances. As you near the dramatic conclusion where the man and the woman are about to be reunited, the DVD stops working. The disc has been scratched so badly it has become unplayable. Hollywood loves a happy ending, but without the end of the story you’ll never see for yourself that love really does conquer all.

Christians should be every bit as protective of the dramatic conclusion to our story as mystery readers and romantic movie watchers. We have no business ripping out the final pages; we need to be frequently reminded that God’s love really does conquer all. And that’s what today’s scripture is teaching us: that Jesus who died on the cross and rose from the dirt, will one day return in glory. When Christ returns the sun and the moon will go dark and the stars will fall from the sky. These are actually quotes from the Old Testament. They poetically express that God’s power trumps everything, even the spinning of the planets. No longer will anyone’s life be controlled by fate or the stars, but by the judgment of God. The greater point is that evil will be annihilated, and Jesus, the true light of the world, will shine brighter than anything in the universe. All you have to do is follow Jesus and you too will belong to his heavenly light.

As we await the end of the story, Jesus invites you to stay awake and watch carefully. In fact, he wants us all to be like doormen, waiting to open up the doors for Jesus whether he returns early or late. When we see dark and scary things on the horizon, we don’t need to be afraid. We know that at the end of the story, God Almighty will make things right again. Don’t fall asleep as we get near the end of the story, because it is at the very end that God redeems the world and saves those who follow his Son.

In fact, because we already know the end of the story, we should feel motivated to live fruitful lives right here and right now. The Gospel is not some apple pie in the sky, bye and bye kind of faith. Yes, Jesus will save us at the end, but in the meantime, we are supposed to bear spiritual fruit. Rather than running around like Chicken Little claiming that “the sky is falling, the sky is falling,” Christ calls us to spend our time serving the needy. Rather than hiding underground in a fallout shelter with Spam, Twinkies, a battery operated calculator and some hackneyed schedule for the end of the world, we should remain above ground sharing the hope we have found in Jesus. Once we know that the end of the world’s story is the redemption of all who believe, we should plant as many good seeds as we can in hope that God will cause them to grow and produce fruit on their own.

On May 21^st, 2011 I dug a hole in the ground. Earlier that morning Amy and the kids drove to a municipal impound lot and waited in the pouring rain to pick up a free tree, compliments of the city of Minneapolis. Amy had applied months earlier and got her first choice, a honey crisp apple tree. None of us were thinking about the end of the world the morning of May 21^st, but the torrential downpour was so dramatic, perhaps we should have been. Later that day, when the clouds parted and the sun was shining bright, I grabbed some compost and a shovel, and I dug into the soft turf on the south side of our lot. Amy and the kids ran out to help dig the hole and to save the worms. We did it quite accidentally, but just like Martin Luther we planted our apple tree on the rumored last day of the world.

As I was raking maple leaves away from our new apple tree yesterday, I paused to celebrate that the world hasn’t ended quite yet. From now on, whenever my kids pluck an apple from the tree, we can remind them that no matter how bad things get, they can always produce fruit for God’s kingdom. Whenever they fall from the branches of the apple tree all battered and bruised, we can remind them that this injury is not the end of the world. And the next time someone fixes a date for the apocalypse and sticks it on a billboard, we can show them the photographs of the five of us covered in dirt, planting an apple tree on what was supposed to be the last day of the world. Perhaps that apple tree will remind our children and those of you who park on our street when you come to church, that no one knows the day or the hour of the end of the world. And in the meantime, Jesus wants our lives to be fruitful.

The Royal Treatment

2011-12-02T14:37:00.000-06:00

“The Royal Treatment”

Oh, how the mighty have fallen! In January President Zine El Albidine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled to Saudi Arabia to hide from his countrymen. Then in February, after thirty years of corruption and only eighteen days of massive protests, Hosni Mubarak resigned as President of Egypt. In October the brutal dictator of Libya, Muammar Kaddafi, was killed by his own people. An Arab Spring has swept through the Middle East, and all the old tyrants are struggling to hold onto their crowns, not to mention their heads!

There is one king in the Middle East that seems to have a secure grasp on the throne. There have been major protests in Jordan. Two governments have been sacked by the king. But King Abdullah II of Jordan appears to have the support of his people. Even the opposition party the Muslim Brotherhood concedes that Abdullah is a stabilizing influence on the country. The people want democratic reforms, but so far they are being patient with their king. Perhaps it is because Abdullah is so very different from Mubarak and Kaddafi.

Upon ascending to the throne in 1999, the new king was concerned that he might lose touch with the regular people. “It’s easy for you to get disconnected with the people.” King Abdullah admitted. “You need to be reminded of where the problems are, but a lot of people…around leaders…tell them what they want to hear.” So the new king started sneaking out of the palace disguised as a commoner to see for himself how his government was treating his people.

King Abdullah first pretended to be a reporter, asking citizens what they thought of the king’s new policies. Then, the king ditched his security guards and pretended to be a cab driver to test how the traffic police were treating drivers. Another time the king donned a thick, white beard and waited in long lines at government buildings. He even showed up as an extra on the TV show, Star Trek the Next Generation. Three times the king has snuck into Jordan’s biggest hospital. After his first visit the king made several recommendations to improve service. After the second visit, the king scolded hospital administrators for not following through on his recommendations. After his third visit to the hospital, when his proposed changes were still not implemented, the king started firing people. Government employees are now very cautious about how they treat the king’s people. Anyone of them might be the king in disguise.

King Abdullah II will someday lose his crown. He will get too old; he will want to hand the keys to the country over to his son; or perhaps democracy will eventually sweep even this decent king off his throne. Kings aren’t forever… unless you are speaking of the Prince of Peace and King of Kings. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But sometimes we forget this because like King Abdullah, Jesus was a King in disguise. He put aside his royal glory and his heavenly magnificence, so that he could rub shoulders with his subjects. Jesus promised that he would keep on showing up in disguise wherever there were people in need. This is more than just a promise, it is a threat. If Jesus can be anywhere, even the most humble people deserve to be treated as royalty.

Matthew 25:31-46

31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

Just the other day I had royal visit in my office. She didn’t look much like a princess to me. She was not wearing a fur-trimmed cloak or a golden. Her clothes were not tailor made by royal appointment. Her ragged jacket was well-worn; likely second-hand. She had open sores on her face. It was the third time in three years that she has graced my office with her royal presence. I confess that this time I was reluctant to lay out the red carpet. I was keenly aware of what she wanted. Her royal highness was looking for a handout.

There’s a fair amount of royalty that makes their way through the church door hoping that we can spare a few bucks. Some are the working poor, like this week’s royalty. Every time her hours get cut, she has to scramble to find some extra money to pay her rent. Other times, the royal carriage is out of gas, and so the king runs inside hoping that we can give him enough gas money to make it back to his kingdom. Often the royal personage is not looking for charity, only a loan to keep them afloat in a time of crisis. But these kings and queens of the street have a lot on their minds, and they rarely remember to pay the church back. Luckily, there is a place for these very important people to go when times are tough, Community Emergency Services. We give money to Community Emergency Services so they can manage our charity for us. But that doesn’t stop these kings and queens of neediness from knocking on the front door. At times, the demand can be a royal pain in the neck!

When I first came to Bethlehem as the Associate Pastor in the Nineties, I was admittedly a soft touch. On one occasion the senior pastor was out of town, and there was a homeless family that had abandoned themselves on our doorstop. It was nearly Christmas. It was bone-numbing cold. There were children in the car. Apparently there was no room in the shelter. The little town of Bethlehem is famous for finding no room for Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus, and I didn’t want that legacy to linger on at Bethlehem Covenant Church. So, I used my own credit card to put them up in a cheap motel. I went to Cub Foods with the father and bought them a couple of bags of groceries… but I did not give them cash. After three or four hours of intervening in their crisis I felt pretty self-righteous and quite ready to walk away from the situation. That’s when the father asked me, “What about tomorrow night?” I thought I had given this family the royal treatment, but it was not enough, and would never be enough. The need is far greater than our ability to do anything about it.

Today’s scripture complicates my life because it invites me to see Jesus behind the face of every hungry, thirsty, strange, naked, sick, or imprisoned person that I meet. The world might treat these people as human refuse, but Christians cannot. I am supposed to treat the poor, the homeless, the junkies, the prostitutes, as if they are Jesus incarnate! Everybody we meet is entitled to the royal treatment, because Christ the King has extended his majestic sphere of influence to the very people we might prefer to forget about.

I’ll admit that this gets real complicated when Jesus shows up in my office reeking of alcohol. In fact, anytime Jesus shows up in my office, things tend to get complicated. But since I want Jesus to feel at home in my office, the quickest way to make that happen is to open the doors to people in need. I would be a fool to sheepishly ignore the fact that I might be enabling an addict. Neither do I want the poor to ever get my goat, changing me into a cynic that turns his back on the needs of the world. Sometimes I have to say “yes” to Jesus and sometimes I have to say “no.” But because Christ the King is in the room, I always have to treat the poor as if they are royalty in disguise.

There are two key elements to the parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats that I want to leave you with this morning. The first point in the parable is that no one really knows if they are a sheep or a goat. The good guys are quite surprised to discover that they ever did the right thing. The bad guys are quite surprised to learn that they ever did the wrong thing. If this parable makes you feel uncomfortable: good! That means you are paying attention. This parable is designed to make us squirm in our seats and ask ourselves some tough questions that we are frankly unqualified to answer. Until we stand before Jesus in judgment, we will never know if we more resembled a sheep or a goat. And that uncertainty should repeatedly provoke us to outrageous acts of compassion, justice and mercy.

The second key element in the parable is that when Jesus returns in his glory we will finally have a judge who is qualified to separate the sheep from the goats. I can’t accurately evaluate my own charitable giving, much less yours. But Christ the King can. Maybe you’re a sheep right now; maybe you’re a goat, but Jesus has the power to change who you are and save you with his love. The Good News is that we know the character of this king who has committed to love us, forgive us, teach us, and equip us to be who he wants us to be. This king can transform a cynical old goat into a humble sheep, and to help an innocent, wooly-brained lamb say “no” when they are being taken for a ride. God’s love transforms you into who you need to be. Trust in Christ’s love to give you wisdom in this world and salvation in the next.

If I Had A Million Dollars

2011-12-02T14:34:00.001-06:00

“If I Had A Million Dollars.”

What would you do if you won a million dollars? Just imagine for a moment standing in front of the television cameras as a representative of the Lottery Commission hands you an oversized check for 1 million dollars. A million dollars may not be what it used to be, but reporters still dutifully show up to take your picture and ask their routine questions: “How did you pick the winning numbers?” “Are you going to quit your job?” “What are you going to do with all that money?”

Have you ever day-dreamed about winning a million dollars? The lottery is a long-shot- about 135,145,920 to 1. Your odds of winning the grand prize in the lottery are roughly the same whether a buy a ticket or whether you don’t buy a ticket. But that doesn’t keep people from dreaming about a million dollars. Have you ever dreamed about a long-lost rich uncle; or a really good stock tip; or a Big Mac with a winning Monopoly sticker; or getting selected to play “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” What would you do if you suddenly discovered that you were in the money?

Would you buy a Mercedes Benz? Would you travel to Europe? How about a toasty cabin somewhere up North? Are you the practical type who would invest it all in blue chip stocks? Would you pay off family debt? Would you loan money to your friends? What about church and your favorite charities, would they get a slice of the pie? Dreaming about a million dollars is a nice fantasy, but big money means big decisions. What would you really do if that kind of money came your way?

Today’s parable from Matthew 25:14-30 is about three guys who win a million bucks. Your Bibles say that they were given talents, or bags of gold, but what does that mean? These days it adds up to about one million dollars. As I read today’s scripture, every time you hear bags of gold I want you to translate it in your heads to one million dollars. Listen carefully to the parable, because there is great wisdom here on what to do with all of the good things in life that come our way.

Matthew 25:14-30

14“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

19“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ 21“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 22“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ 23“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 24“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned

I would have received it back with interest. 28“ ‘Take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29For those who have will be given more, and they will have an abundance. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Talk about hitting the jackpot! The master is tired of the daily grind, so he decides to go on a permanent vacation. But what is he going to do with all his vast fortune? He takes three trustworthy employees and he shows them the money. One gets 5 million dollars, another gets 2 million, and the last gets a cool-hard million bucks. The master obviously believes in these guys. He trusts them with his checkbook and his life. That’s as startling as Donald Trump skipping town and dividing his great wealth between three contestants from Celebrity Apprentice!

When Jesus preached this parable a million dollars was called a “talent.” A talent was the ancient measure of gold or silver that added up to 6,000 days of hard work. Or to put it another way, a talent was equal to 20 years of strenuous labor. These days talent means something else. The old Greek word for a million dollars now means special gift or a unique ability. It’s funny how a word changes over time, but maybe word talent will help us understand the parable better.

You see, Jesus wasn’t just talking about money in today’s passage. The parable is about taking good care of whatever God gives you. Most people never see a million dollars, but everybody has great gifts. In Romans 12 Paul writes that we all have gifts from God, “some in serving, some in teaching, some in encouragement, some in giving, some in leadership, and some in showing mercy.” We don’t need to wait for our lottery numbers to come in. God has already blessed us with gifts worth a lot more than a million dollars.

We have already hit the jackpot! Your bank account may not have one million dollars in it; your bank account may not have one hundred dollars in it; but we have all been given a great treasure. You have been given totally unique gifts and abilities that can help change the world. Today’s parable is about much more than money. Jesus was talking about being good stewards of all that we are given.

Don’t let your God-given abilities go to waste. In the story, two of the servants put their new-found fortunes to work. By the time their master came back to town, they had doubled their money. But one servant buried his talent in the ground. He was too lazy to make use of his gifts. He was too scared to take a risk. Maybe he was just hoarding the money, hoping that the master would never come back. The story ends in tragedy. The servant loses his fantastic gift like a lottery winner who tries to cash in her million dollar ticket exactly one day after the deadline. We are all born into this world with spectacular gifts, but if you refuse to use it, you are bound to lose it.

Today’s passage leaves us with a daunting challenge. We are saved by grace alone, but if we want to hear those beautiful words at the end of our lives, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’ it means making the most of what we have been given.

Just in case you don’t win the lottery, it’s probably a good idea to make the best use of what you have right now. You have already hit the jackpot; now is the time to think about what your most noble priorities are. Snap out of the million dollar day dream! What do you want to do right now to make this world a little more like heaven?

It all starts with time. Time is unfair. Some people get a lot of years to live; others have to pack a lot of living into a very short time. The clock and calendar are cruel taskmasters. I like the old quote that “if the Devil can’t make you bad he’ll make you busy.” If you want to be a good steward of what God has given you, it all begins with time.

What are you doing with the rest of your life? Maybe you are in the spring of life; maybe you are in the winter, but we all have some time to work with. What do you want to give your time to? Family? Friends? Work? Sleeping in late? Watching a few more hours of TV? I’d like to challenge you to take ten percent of the time you have left in this world to extend the Kingdom of Heaven. That means worship and prayer; that means justice and mercy; that means offering people the hope found in Jesus Christ. Your time is precious; it’s too precious to waste on anything less than the Kingdom of God.

Stewardship is about time, but it’s also about talent. God has given you some unique abilities. All modesty aside, you are a pretty talented group of people. Don’t pretend that I am not talking to you- you have gifts from God that make you special. Do you think it’s possible that you could take ten percent of those abilities to extend the Kingdom of Heaven?

Some gifts are obvious. If you can teach, you can teach about God’s love. If you can sing, you can sing God’s praises. If you can build a deck for your house, you can volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. But what about non-traditional gifts? If you can bake a pie you can bake one for the non-believers next door. If you were on the high school wrestling team you might just be qualified to volunteer with the youth group. Do you know how to rock a baby? Volunteer at a hospital with sick and addicted new-borns. Think creatively, what can you do for the Kingdom of God. There has got to be a way that you could take 10 percent of who you are and give it to God to use.

I’ve mentioned time; I’ve mentioned talent; but I can’t talk about stewardship without talking about treasure. From the earliest days, God’s people have given back 10 percent. Why? Out of guilt? No thanks! To buy their salvation? God forbid! To demonstrate that we own money, but that money doesn’t own us? That’s getting closer. But the real reason we give any of our time, talent, or treasure away is that it doesn’t really belong to us. It belongs to God. We are just using it for a while.

Quite frankly, giving 10 percent is not for everyone. Most people would rather bury their time, talent and treasure in a hole than to put it to work in the Kingdom of Heaven. Tithing is counter-cultural behavior. I don’t know if giving 10 percent is right for you right now; but I do know that tithing sets people free. Giving ten percent is always an invitation, but it is never an expectation.

Stewardship is a different way of looking at the world. Greed is always fearful, but seeing everything as a gift from God is the way of freedom. Would you like to know freedom? Find some new ways to share your time, talent and treasure with the God who blessed you everything you have.

Saints Alive

2011-12-02T14:33:00.002-06:00

“Saints Alive!”

I don’t like rumors, but I recently heard a great one about my cousin Jim Sundholm. It was such a good story that I had to call Jim and ask him if it was true. Some of you may know Jim. For many years Jim Sundholm was a preacher in North Minneapolis. He dresses the part of a blue eyed cowboy, but if you close your eyes when he talks you’d likely think that you were listening to a great black preacher. After years of faithful service to Community Covenant Church and the Northwest Conference Office, Jim took leadership of Covenant World Relief, travelling the world to help the poor and forgotten. All my life I have heard crazy stories about my cousin Jim. Most of these tales are flattering… but not all of them. The funny thing is that the stories usually turn out to be true. Thus was the case with the wild rumor coming out of Seattle this week that my cousin Jim had been canonized as a Saint.

Jim has a special relationship with some Sudanese refugees stranded on the Ethiopian border. They live within spitting distance of their home country, but they don’t dare cross the border. The refugees love my cousin because when they felt totally invisible, Jim came to live with them. When their camps were flooded out, Jim showed up with money strapped to his body. When the refugees were told that they would get no financial assistance to build permanent structures on the Ethiopian border, Jim talked to Sudanese immigrants living in the United States and found the money. When Bibles were finally printed in their native tongue, Jim pulled some strings and “redirected” the new Bibles to his friends in the refugee camp. The Sudanese were so thankful that they wanted to honor Cousin Jim by naming a church in his honor: Saint James Sundholm Church.

Jim has spent the last year arguing with his friends in Ethiopia, insisting that they change the name. “Why not just call it St. James Church in honor of the James of the Bible?” he asked them. “A church really should have a Biblical name.” So they asked Jim, “What is the name of your church?” Jim replied, “First Covenant Church in Seattle.” They parried, “Is Seattle in the Bible?” “Well, no.” Jim answered.” One of them said, “My brother goes to Fridley Covenant Church. Is Fridley in the Bible?” “Well, no.” Jim confessed. They told my cousin that they don’t care what he thinks. They are going to name their church Saint James Sundholm Church whether he likes it or not. They are, however, waiting until he shows up in person to dedicate the church. Jim is appropriately humbled by this honor and is taking consolation in the fact that they are, after all, refugees. As Jim put it, “It won’t be much of a sign!”

Jim is family, so I can say this publicly. In fact, he insisted I say this when he gave me permission to tell his remarkable story: the man is both a sinner and a saint. In fact, there are no saints that weren’t first sinners. Saints don’t conquer sin with their good behavior. Sin is overpowered by the love of God. And that love changes people so they start making some wonderful choices. Because we all still need God’s grace, we are all still sinners; but if we believe that the love of Jesus has us covered, we are also saints.

In today’s scripture, Jesus starts his Sermon on the Mount. It is a tough sermon to live up to. He doesn’t just condemn adultery, Jesus tells us not to look lustfully on each other. He doesn’t just condemn murder, Jesus tells us not to be angry. He doesn’t just tell us to forgive each other, Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek. A lot of Christians despair at ever being saints when they read Jesus high expectations, but only when see ourselves as sinners, do we have chance at becoming a saint.

Hear the Good News from Matthew 5:1-12. These are the Beatitudes, the preface to the Sermon on the Mount which helps us understand what Jesus is talking about. You’ll hear the word “Blessed” a lot in the passage but a better translation might be “Fortunate.” Because right when you are needy, hurting, humble, and persecuted, that’s when Jesus has the freedom to change who you into a living Saint.

Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesussaw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You don’t have to be poor to be a saint, but if you are poor you’re in luck because Jesus is looking for some needy people to transform with his love. You don’t have to be in mourning to experience the comfort of God, but if you are, you’re one of the fortunate ones, because God wants people like you to fill with his love. You don’t have to be meek to be one of God’s friends, but if you are God love you! You’re the type of person that God can really use in his Kingdom! If you’re hungry and thirsty for righteousness, or persecuted for righteousness sake, good for you! God is going to show up in your life! You merciful; you pure in heart; you peacemakers, certainly can’t earn your salvation with good behavior, but keep it up! God is able to use your talents to change the world.

The Beatitudes are not a job description for what it means to be a saint. If it were, they would be just another list of rules that we need to complete in order to make ourselves right with God. In fact, most of them are nothing at all like rules. These are counter-cultural values that share the common denominator of neediness. When you are needy, God can do something miraculous in your life. He can change you from being a sinner to a saint.

We don’t talk about saints a whole lot in the Covenant Church. That’s too bad! My cousin Jim jokes that he’s worried about getting booted out of the Covenant Church because his Sudanese friends are naming a church after him. We get nervous when our Catholic friends talk about venerating saints or praying to saints, but remember this is Biblical language to describe followers of Jesus. It is appropriate to call our friends saints. We are doing just that as we remember Saint Amanda and Saint Marty this morning, as well as all the saints in your life that you can scribble down and bring forward during communion. But we shouldn’t stop with the dearly departed. Everyone who confesses their need for Jesus is already a saint.

What a difference it would make if we started calling each other saint around here. Perhaps this is a lesson we can learn from the saints living on the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. What if started calling each other Saint Evie; Saint Marge; Saint Lowery; Saint Blake; Saint Vanda; Saints Alive! We would be bound to treat each other better in public and to behave ourselves in private if only we had saint in front of our names.

Back in July I was listening to NPR and I heard a story about someone who acted like a saint. I don’t know if he is a Christian, but in this story he behaves like a character straight out of a parable of Jesus. The story has stuck with me, and I wanted to share it with you today. Here is the report as it was produced by Michael Garofalo for Morning Edition

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says. As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm." The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'" "No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'" Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?" "Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says. The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to. When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you." The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know.” Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch." "I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."[i]

Julio’s mama treated him like a saint and he acted like a saint. Jesus also wants you to be different. You can start by thinking of yourself as both a sinner and a saint. Don’t go halfway and think of yourself as just a sinner! If you are a believer, you are a saint! So act like one! Not out of guilt and certainly not out of shame, but in response to God’s love, be different! Be needy and let God fill you up with his grace.

[i] Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo. March 28, 2008

Adoption Papers

2011-10-30T12:51:00.004-05:00

Adoption Papers

On October 31st, 1517 Martin Luther brought his hammer and nail with him to church. The front door of the castle church in Wittenberg also served as a community bulletin board. Luther hammered up 95 good reasons why the Pope in Rome should not raise money by selling indulgences to the poor people of Germany. There was a notorious religious huckster running around town claiming to set souls free from eternal damnation, but only if their friends and relatives chipped into the offering plate. The salesman promised, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul into heaven springs." Luther wrote his 95 Thesis in Latin, because he was trying to start an academic debate, not rile up the masses. Luther never intended to split up the One, Holy, Apostolic, Catholic Church, but sometimes the truth is even more important than unity. No one gets to buy their way into heaven.

Today is Reformation Sunday, the day we grieve the splintering of Christ’s Church that began when Martin Luther started hammering away on the Wittenberg Door. But mostly, Reformation Sunday is a day of celebration. Today we celebrate that the Good News of Jesus Christ will ultimately triumph over any attempt to domesticate it, marginalize it or contradict it. Today we celebrate that the Church really can change for the better. Today we celebrate the core of Christianity that was recovered in the Reformation: only by grace through faith are we saved.

Fifteen hundred years before Martin Luther spoke up, Jesus taught his followers that if they wanted to be free that they had to totally depend upon the grace of God. His words were about as popular as Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis’ were in Rome. These followers of Jesus placed their confidence elsewhere. They trusted in their own righteousness. They trusted in their religious pedigree. They certainly weren’t pleased to hear that we are saved by grace alone! But grace is the only way we will ever know the truth, and grace is the only way we will ever be set free. Hear the Good News.

John 8:32-36

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ 33They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free”?’ 34 Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus was sitting down at the Mount of Olives and his followers gathered around him to hear what he said. Before he was done with his lesson plan, Jesus’ students told him that he was a half-breed and demon-possessed. They even chided Jesus that he was an illegitimate child! Then they picked up stones and tried to kill him! Most of us had at least one teacher we didn’t like so much, but what in the world could Jesus have said that would cause his own followers to turn on him like that? Jesus taught that we are saved by grace alone.

The Jewish people were proud of their special identity. Unlike most people conquered by the Roman Empire, the Jews maintained remarkable religious liberty. Eleazer the Priest boasted, “Long ago we determined to be slaves to neither the Romans nor anybody else!” It’s a beautiful sentiment, but not really substantiated by reality. The Jews endured Roman occupation, just as they had put up with Egyptian slavery and the Babylonian captivity. For most of its history Judea was just a pawn on the world chessboard, constantly being pushed back and forth by the great empires of the world. But because they held onto their religion, the Jews refused to believe that they were anyone’s slaves. Freedom was a part of their cultural identity, and the crowds got testy when Jesus challenged them on it.

What offended the crowd was Jesus’ line, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Because they were Children of Abraham the Jews believed that freedom already was their special inheritance; a treasure passed down from generation to generation. Jesus wasn’t very impressed by their claims. Elsewhere Jesus had taught that Children of Abraham can go to hell[1], or that Children of Abraham can spring up from stones[2] or that Children of Abraham can start out as foreigners and strangers.[3] It was not the Jewish heritage of religious independence that was the true treasure of Israel. Their greatest heritage was God’s truth. And anyone could be set free by that very same truth…if only they believed.

This is Good News to anyone who can receive it: that we are justified neither by our bloodlines nor our religious heritage; that we are right with God neither by circumcision nor our diet; that we are saved neither by our hard work nor our good behavior. All you have to do is accept the truth that God loves you, and the truth will set you free. Anyone can become a “Child of Abraham” if they simply believe in God. All the religious orphans of the world are welcome into God’s family, if they only accept the grace that Jesus offers.

The key to receiving the grace of God is seeing yourself as an orphan. No one has a special claim on the love of God. You can’t inherit faith the way you inherit green eyes, dimpled chins or male pattern baldness. It’s always a choice to become a Child of Abraham. But this was offensive to Jesus’ students because they thought they were already covered by their long and painful history which set them apart from the rest of the world. Just imagine a natural born-child being told that if they wanted to continue to belong to the family they would have to fill out some adoption papers. Let’s acknowledge that this was hurtful talk! But the only way that grace can work for anybody, is if it has to work for everybody. We all have to see ourselves as orphans in need of a home.

Years before Martin Luther rattled the Christian world by banging on the church doors in Wittenberg, he was a simple monk. Even after as he took his oath of celibacy and hid away from the fallen world Luther was consumed with his own sin. There were days when young Martin would spend six fitful hours racking his brain, trying to remember all the ways he had sinned the day before. No matter how he tried to purge himself of sin, Luther despaired that he would ever be worthy to serve God. He writes:

Although I lived a blameless life as a monk, I felt that I was a sinner with an uneasy conscience before God. I could not believe that I pleased him with my works. Far from loving the Righteous God who punished sinners, I actually loathed him. I was a good monk, and kept my order so strictly that if ever a monk could get into heaven by monastic discipline, I was that monk. All my companions in the monastery would confirm this….And yet my conscience would not give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, “You didn’t do that right. You weren’t contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.”

Luther had reached a dead end with God. After all that good work, instead of loving God, Luther hated God. Not because he was a prodigal son, but because he was the obedient son that stayed home and did everything that was ever asked of him. No matter what he did, Luther’s best efforts could never be enough to satisfy the Almighty. As the story of Luther reminds us, even the best among us remain slaves to sin until we are adopted by grace. None of us can free ourselves by having the right heritage, or by praying without ceasing, or by doing all the right things. We are all spiritual orphans, prodigal sons and daughters, cut adrift by sin, and in need of a Heavenly Father to adopt us as his very own. And that is the promise of today’s scripture, that by grace we are no longer slaves. We have become children of God.

Earlier in the service we celebrated the baptism of Maguire Andrew Shelby Kingsley. Today, Maguire is not capable of making his own choices. Of sure, he might cry in hunger or cry to be changed, but he’s not crying out because he feels guilty before an Almighty God. Nevertheless, we welcomed young Maguire forward for the sacrament of Baptism. This too is grace. In the waters of baptism we celebrate that the curse of sin drowns in the tidal wave of God’s love. Maguire has a loving Mother and a loving Father, but today we celebrate that God is beckoning him into his loving family as well. One day Maguire will have to choose for himself if he wants to accept adoption into the family of God. We all have to make that choice for ourselves.

On February 18, 1546, the day Martin Luther died, they found a slip of abandoned paper in his pocket. Luther’s dying words were therefore written, not spoken. The last line on the Luther’s last slip of paper reads “We are all beggars.” The concluding statement of Luther’s life is that none of us can make it on our own. We all need Jesus to be our salvation.

With apologies to Martin Luther, I want to tweak his final words to conclude my sermon. “We are all orphans.” None of us has earned the love of God. Not your religious heritage, not your good works, not your great knowledge, nor the sum of your accomplishments will save you. We are all salves of sin, orphans in need of adoption. Like young Maguire, we all come to the Father needy and wholly unprepared for the magnitude of God’s grace. And yet, the adoption paperwork is all filled out, ready for you to sign on the dotted line. Can you accept that you are an orphan in need of adoption? If you can, trust in God to be your loving, adoptive Father by grace alone.

[1] Luke 16:24

[2] Matthew 3:7-10

[3] Matthew 8:11-12

Cliff Notes of the Bible

2011-10-30T12:51:00.002-05:00

“Cliff Notes to the Bible”

I have a confession to make: I never completed Moby Dick. I remember the opening line, “My name is Ishmael.” I remember Herman Melville going on and on about Leviathans, the great monsters of the deep. I remember the whale was white and that Captain Ahab was missing his leg. That’s as much as I know about Moby Dick. I never finished what many scholars consider to be the greatest American novel. There is no shame in failing to complete an important work of literature, except there was a paper due in my high school English class.

At the beginning of the school year my English teacher had recommended that we use Cliff Notes. You’re honest, church-going folks, so you’ve probably never heard of Cliff Notes. Allow me to explain. Cliff Notes are tidy summaries of great works of literature. My teacher told us that they were a perfectly appropriate tool to study for the test and to help write our papers, but they were not supposed to replace reading the book. Maybe I had another big assignment due; maybe there was a big dance coming up; maybe I had no excuse at all, but I stopped by the B. Dalton’s bookstore at the Cross Town Mall and purchased the Cliff Notes instead of finishing the book. I’m not proud of it, but Cliff helped me write the paper and pass the test. But to this day don’t know if Captain Ahab, Ishmael and Starbuck ever killed the great, white whale. The teachers were right. Whenever you cheat, you are really only cheating yourself.

In today’s scripture Jesus is confronted by a lawyer who has no qualms about cheating. The Pharisees wanted to publicly embarrass Jesus. Right after Jesus triumphed over the Sadducees, a lawyer for the Pharisees stood up and asked Jesus the impossible question: “which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Every Rabbi; every teacher of the law had their own idea about which commandment was the greatest. But it was dangerous question to answer in public. No matter what Jesus said, there were legal scholars in the crowd ready to pounce. The lawyer is cheating himself and the crowd because he doesn’t honestly want to learn from Jesus. He just wants to trap Jesus in his words.

Because he is a great teacher Jesus doesn’t let this teachable moment go to waste. Jesus is more than happy to summarize the law. What he offers in today’s scripture from Matthew 22:34-46 is the Cliff Notes of the Bible. Better yet, let’s call this passage the “Jesus Notes” of the Bible. Like Cliff Notes, Jesus’ words are not intended as a replacement for all of scripture. But they are a helpful tool for understanding the Bible. And if you just can’t finish reading the Bible, here’s everything you need to know about God’s law. Turn with me to page 900 as Jesus sums up all the law and the prophets.

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

There are 613 laws in the first five books of the Bible. That’s just too much for most of us to remember! Even if you have read all the way through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number and Deuteronomy, it’s not likely that you are going to memorize all 613 laws. Most of us need a Cliff’s Notes of the Bible.

The most famous summary of Biblical law is the Ten Commandments. God in his infinite wisdom made his expectations on his people pretty simple by giving us an easy to remember Top Ten list. But how many of us actually know all ten on the list? Just a quick review of the Ten Commanments.

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.

3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

A recent survey conducted by Kelton Research discovered that Americans know the ingredients of a McDonald’s Big Mac better than we know the Ten Commandments. 80% remember the “two all beef patties;” 75% remember the “sesame seed bun,” but less than sixty-percent remembered “Thou Shalt Not Kill” was among the Ten Commandments. 66% knew that the Big Mac has “special sauce;” 62% remembered the pickle, but only 45% remembered “Honor Your Mother and Father” was on God’s Top Ten list. 25% of Americans correctly identified all the ingredients of the Big Mac, but only 14% knew all Ten of the Commandments.

Kelton Research also quizzed Americans on the names of characters from the 60’s television show The Brady Bunch. Most folks remember Cindy, Greg and Marsha, Marsha Marsha, but Poor Bobby and Peter! Only 43% could recall their names. But that was still a much higher percentage than the Americans who could identify such commandments as “remember the sabbath” (34%) or “do not make false idols” (29%)[i]. Americans know our burgers; we know our Brady’s, but we don’t know our Bible! Even though God gave us a wonderful summary of the law in the Ten Commandments, we apparently need Cliff Notes for our Cliff Notes.

Isaiah 33:15 makes it even easier by summarizing the law into six simple bullet points. In answer to the question “Who among us can live?” Isaiah tells us…

1. Those who walk righteously

2. and speak uprightly,

3. who despise the gain of oppression,

4. who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,

5. who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed

6. and shut their eyes from looking on evil.

The prophet Micah (6:8) suggests three convenient rules: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to:

1. do justice, and to

2. love kindness, and to

3. walk humbly with your God.

If that’s still too much to remember, Isaiah 56:1 captures the law in two succinct points: Thus says the Lord:
1. Maintain justice, and

2. do what is right.

Habakkuk 2:4 sums it all up in a single verse: “The righteous live by their faith.”

Amos 5:4 wraps up the law in an even shorter verse “Seek me and live.”

Those are all fine summaries of God’s law, but none of them is completely satisfactory. A debate raged among the legal experts of the day about which commandment was the most important of all. Some Rabbis taught that charity was number one. Others suggested that honoring mother and father was the most important. Some of you parents like that one don’t you? Rabbi Akiva argued that loving neighbors was the supreme commandment. But no matter what commandment was nominated as greatest of all time, there was always some critic to poke holes in the theory. The lawyer in today’s story put Jesus in a no-win situation. It’s not so easy to wrap up the whole Bible in a single sentence. And if you dare try, you are vulnerable to attack.

Nevertheless, Jesus takes up the challenge. He begins by suggesting that the greatest commandment is found in the Shema. The Shema was a prayer that every observant Jew offered twice a day to God. You’ll find it in Deuteronomy 6:5, “Hear of Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul and strength.” The Shema was written on the doorframe of every Jewish house. The Shema was written on the tassels of men’s robes. The Jews were commanded to talk about the Shema as they walked down the road, as they sat around the house; when they woke up in the morning and as they fell asleep at night. Every man, woman and child knew this prayer by heart. Not only was there no danger that the Jews would ever forget the Shema, no one could possibly say a bad word about Jesus’ choice of Greatest Commandment.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Jesus refuses to play the lawyer’s game. He offers two greatest commandments for the price of one. While the Shema is about honoring God the Father, Jesus’ next commandment concerns how we treat other people. For this, Jesus turns to Leviticus 19:18 “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Again, Jesus leaves the lawyer no room to argue, because who can possibly disagree with loving others?

In the Ten Commandments, the first four are all about how to love God, and the final six commandments are about how we love each other. Jesus wraps up all Ten Commandments; all 613 laws in the Old Testament; all the wisdom of the prophets into a single word: love. Jesus breaks it down more efficiently than Cliff Notes ever could. If we could just love God and love each other we would totally fulfill the law.

The Greatest Commandment is like the Cliff Notes of the Bible. It is a great summary of all the laws that God has given humanity. If you master loving God and loving neighbors, Christ will certainly welcome you into eternity with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” But just as I don’t understand Moby Dick because I never really read it, we won’t understand the Greatest Commandment and the rest of the Bible until we actually take the time to read it.

Jesus tells us to love the Father with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. A good way to learn what it means to love God with all your heart is to read about David who was a man after God’s own heart. If you want to love God with all your soul, learn the story of Job who knew God to the depths of his being. The story of Samson teaches us what it means to love God with all our strength. The story of Solomon instructs us on what it looks like to love God with all our minds. Because Jesus has given us the Cliff Notes on the Bible we know that all these stories are about love, but unless we actually read them we won’t understand what kind of love God is looking for.

In the same way Jesus told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. But we won’t understand the Golden Rule until we read the Apostle Paul’s words that “love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” That’s not the kind of love you can possibly figure out without spending some time reading the Bible. No one would ever “turn the other cheek,” or “go the extra mile” and they certainly wouldn’t ever “love their enemy” unless they were persuaded by Jesus that this is what love really means.

Jesus sums up the law by telling us to love God and love neighbors, but we’re going to need more than just the Cliff Notes if we are ever going to grasp what that means. Dig deep into the Bible and discover what love really looks like.

[i] Reuter’s Life, NEW YORK, | Fri Oct 12, 2007 3:23pm EDT

“Undebatable Devotion”

2011-10-16T17:06:00.002-05:00

Matthew 22:15-22

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. 20Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ 21They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ 22When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

In every great political debate there is a “gotcha” moment. In the midst of all the mind-numbing policy talk, all of a sudden one of the candidates uses some verbal jujitsu to flip his opponent upside down. Debates are often won and lost because of clever one-liners. As a former high school debater I love to hear those zingers. Classics like Lloyd Benson’s “You’re no Jack Kennedy!” and Ronald Reagan’s “There he goes again” are amusing years later. During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Steven Douglas accused Honest Abe of being two-faced. The rather homely-looking Abraham Lincoln replied, “I leave it to my audience. If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?” Lincoln lost his Senate campaign against Douglas, but his debate win propelled him to the presidency!

On Wednesday night the Republican candidates for president gathered for a roundtable discussion at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. The candidates were allowed to aim questions and potshots at each other. Since Herman Cain’s candidacy is rising like pizza crust, his opponents tried to roll him flat! John Huntsman attacked the Dominoes Pizza executive’s 9-9-9 tax plan saying “I think it’s a catchy phrase. In fact, I thought it was the price of a pizza when I first heard about it.” Then Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachman went apocalyptic on Herman Cain by declaring, “And one thing I would say is, when you take the 9-9-9 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil is in the details.”[i] I don’t know if those zingers will sway the primaries, but they certainly are the most memorable moments in the debate.

There is nothing particularly new about these “gotcha moments.”

Consider today’s scripture. The Pharisees have ganged up with their political enemies the Herodians to trap Jesus in his words. The Herodians were the political party that supported paying taxes and collaborating with the occupying Roman forces. The Pharisees, on the other hand, cautiously and quietly supported the Zealot Party who advocated overthrowing the Romans. They say “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” Imagine Barney Frank and Paul Ryan teaming up to fix Social Security and you have some idea how bizarre it was that the Pharisees and the Herodians were teaming up against Jesus.

Last week Hank Williams Jr. was fired from Monday Night Football for comparing President Obama’s golf game with House Speaker Boehner to a pairing of Adolf Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The country music superstar was incensed that politicians he supported would have anything to do with “the enemies…the three stooges.” I don’t like the analogy or that American politics have become so polarized that our public servants can’t even golf together without being criticized. But that’s the kind of hostility the Pharisees and the Heodians had for each other. It was generally not in their self-interest to work together on anything.

The last time these archrivals banded together, the Pharisees and

Herodians were plotting to kill Jesus! This time the goal is merely character assassination. In front of large crowds the Pharisees and Herodians flatter him with false praise and then they ask him the impossible question: should the Jews pay taxes to the Romans? Roman taxation was the “third rail of Judean politics;” if you touch it, you die! If Jesus tells his followers not to pay taxes then he will be branded a revolutionary and put to death by the Romans. If Jesus tells his followers that they should pay taxes to the despised Romans, he would lose his popular support. The Pharisees and the Herodians constructed the perfect trap for Jesus. The only politically expedient thing for Jesus to say was “No Comment!’ But Jesus does not shrink from this or any debate.

As a concession to the Jews, the Romans locally minted cheap copper coins without the Emperor’s face on them. This was because graven images like paintings, sculptures and even the faces on coins today were totally anathema to the Jews. But only the Imperial Mint in Rome produced higher value coins made out of gold or silver like the denarius. These higher value coins always had the Emperor’s face on them. Underneath the Emperor’s face on the silver denarius was the inscription, “Tiberius Caesar Son of the Divine Augustus.” On the flip side was the Emperor’s mother Empress Livia dressed up like a goddess with the words, “High Priest” running at the bottom. Roman coins were a propaganda tool designed specifically to promote worship of the Emperor.

The denarius was the coin laborers would earn for a days’ work. It was also the coin that everyone had to pay just to live in the Roman Empire. Over and above sales tax; on top of property tax; and completely at odds with the religious tax levied by their own Temple, the Jews had to pay Rome one denarius a year. The denarius was completely unavoidable in the Roman economy. There was a false idol in the pocket of every single Jew, except for the very, very poor.

Jesus didn’t have a denarius. Maybe Judas Iscariot had one in the common purse, but Jesus didn’t have a single denarius in his pocket. So he asks to see one from the purse of his opponent. Jesus is careful not to touch the false idol. He asks whose image and whose slogan is on the coin. Even the penniless people in the crowd knew the answer to that: Caesar’s! And the Jesus lays down the gotcha moment that wins the debate and sends his enemies home with their heads hung low. “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

A few years earlier when Pontius Pilate first arrived in the provincial capital Caesarea with Roman soldiers carrying golden shields decorated with the

Emperor’s image, the Jewish people rioted for five whole days. And it wasn’t peaceful like the Occupy Wall-Street protests. Huge crowds of people threatened to lay down their lives to prevent those graven images from entering Judea. But most of those rioting people probably had a denarius or two residing in their pockets. To amass wealth beyond mere pennies, everyone had to compromise with Rome. Jesus caught the Pharisees and Herodians in their own trap by having them show off the pagan idols in their pockets. Every single person with significant money was already collaborating with the Roman Empire! Why not give Caesar his ridiculous coin back? After all, it has his picture on it! Surely it must belong to him!

Two political parties were trying to lay hold of Jesus for their own selfish gain, but Jesus would not be pinned down by either one of them. When the

Pharisees and the Herodians tried to force him into an uncomfortable political position, Jesus sidestepped the thorny issue and reminded the crowd that true devotion is always about giving to God what is God’s. The pressing issues of the day matter, but they are not the sum of our being.

Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians, “You are the image and glory of God.”[ii] It is not the bumper sticker on your mini-van, or the campaign sign in your yard, or who you vote for that forms your identity. As much as we admire the faces on the coins that we have in our pockets: Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR and Washington, your identity does not come from those guys either. Paul teaches us in Ephesians that your true identity comes from being “adopted… through Jesus Christ in accordance with [God’s] pleasure and will.”[iii] Everything else is just chump change compared to the identity you have in Jesus Christ.

The Pharisees, the Herodians, and all the average people in the crowd were willing to sell out their religious identities for silver and gold. Jesus didn’t tell his followers to toss their coins away or melt them down to their base metals. Jesus explains that if they are going to be complicit in a corrupt financial system that they are going to have to play by the established rules. And why not, because accumulating wealth was not the central focus that Jesus intended for his followers. Go ahead and pay your taxes, go ahead and ride the roller coaster stock market, but you are not going to find your true identity in money. Give it to Caesar; give it to IRS; go on and give it all away, because you are created in the image of God and your identity is not determined by money.

Who do you belong to? That’s what this story is really about. Do you belong to a political party; do you belong to the money in your pocket; or do you belong to God? If you belong to God, then give to God what is God’s. Before you decide on God, you better count the cost. I feel that I really must to warn you that God wants your whole life. Notice in the text that when the crowds heard this, “When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.”

C. S. Lewis explains this far better than I can. He writes, “We are all hoping that when all the demands of morality and society have been met, the poor natural self will still have some chance, some time, to get on with…life and do what it likes. …[W]e are very like an honest man paying his taxes. He pays them, but he does hope that there will be enough left over for him to live on”.

“The Christian way is different—both harder and easier. Christ says “Give me ALL. I don’t want just this much of your time and this much of your money and this much of your work—so that your natural self can rest. I want you. Not your things. I have come not to torture your natural self…I will give you a new self instead. Hand over the whole natural self—ALL the desire, not just the ones you think wicked but the ones you think innocent—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead.”[iv]

In Timothy Keller’s bestseller, “The Reason for God’ he quotes a young woman who found God’s grace after growing up in a legalistic church. Confronted by grace, the woman fearfully explained, “If I was saved by my good works there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with “rights”—I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by sheer grace—then there is nothing[God] cannot ask of me.”[v]

Jesus Christ is a lot more demanding than Caesar. Rome only expected one measly day’s work a year. Jesus wants your every single day! God wants more than your loose change; he wants your life to be changed! There is no debate about it! If you want Jesus, you better be prepared to give him everything.

[i] ABC News Blog, Oct. 12, 2011

[ii] 1 Corinthians 11:7

[iii] Ephesians 1:5

[iv] The Reason for God, p. 171

[v] Ibid, p. 183