“The Lord’s Prayer sermon – II”
OT 17 C
Luke 11:1-13
28 July 2013
Since it is most likely the best-known portion of New Testament Scripture, you’d think that we would have this text before us in worship more often than once every three years.
But no – we don’t – but yes, TODAY, the Lord’s Prayer … from Luke’s Gospel … is our lectionary Gospel text.
Prayer … in general … and the Lord’s Prayer … more specifically … one would think that there wouldn’t be much new ground for us to cover here.
But that would assume that we know ALL there is to know when it comes to prayer, and growing in faith, and the Spirit’s working in and among us as we pray and meditate and study God’s Word.
Geez … even the DISCIPLES THEMSELVES couldn’t claim that.
They, who were closest to Jesus, even they came to Jesus and asked him to teach them to pray.
And so he did.
And so we too should note – carefully – how “we are to pray.” Because, through the words of this prayer, Jesus also teaches his disciples that praying ... and living ... are one and the same. Through our prayers we breathe in God’s Spirit who moves us to life ... real living ... in Jesus’ name.
First – Hallowed, or Holy be your name.
This word is first because it’s most important. Jesus reminds us that the first thing in prayer is the first thing in life – the first commandment of all, as we have heard earlier in this Gospel time during these summer Sundays … Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.
Loving God in that way is the way we keep God’s name holy.
Receiving all that God has to give us through worship … God’s word of forgiveness … God’s gifts of love in the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion … that’s the way we keep God’s name holy in and among us.
And yet … how many of us start our prayers in this way?
More often … when, if we pray at all … we’re like good fundraisers … we go “right to the ask.” Right?
If we get around to mentioning how great God is in our prayers … in our lives … more often than not … it’s at the end … the end of our prayers … the end of our days.
Now this prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples, though, here, he puts God … who he calls “Father” … actually, it’s a more endearing form, like “daddy” … Jesus puts God first, acknowledging God to be God, thanking, praising God for being God.
So is this just ‘buttering God up’ for what will come later? Maybe. But then, why is that such a bad thing? Children know how this works better than anyone. “Mommy, you’re so smart ... you look so nice today.” “Daddy, you tied my shoe so well …” and then, the road smoothed …. they go in for the kill. “So can I … ?”
Jesus knows this, too.
If you then, who are evil … and that word, although harsh, is simply meant to serve as a contrast to how holy God is … if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children …. And don’t you know, we’re suckers for our kids, every time … how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
See, I think Jesus is pointing out that our faith relationship with God … pointing it out through using words like “daddy,” pointing it out through this “good gifts” example … Jesus is pointing out that God wants to be an intimate, a playful, trusted, beloved companion and friend in each of our lives … as Luther puts it in his Small Catechism;
With these words God wants to attract us, so that we believe he is truly our Father and we are truly his children, in order that we may ask him boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving children ask their loving parents.
So go ahead. Hallow God’s name. Keep God’s name holy first. Don’t hesitate to point that out as you pray. And God will be pleased.
Then – Your kingdom come.
We can think of this prayer-example Jesus gives his disciples – and us – as a pyramid. The foundation is the broadest of all … God’s holiness, and we’re called on to keep it that way in our own lives.
But the next thing Jesus reminds us is that we are to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom.
This is a deeply spiritual prayer. Here we move from thanking God for God’s holiness, to praying that God’s holiness would fill the earth, the heavens … all of creation.
But we don’t leave it there, all with God, “Well, God, your kingdom come, that’s well and good, but it’s up to you, God, to do this.”
Not at all.
Remember that we are in Luke’s Gospel here. And praying “Your kingdom come” needs, must inexorably drive us back to the most well known statement about God’s kingdom coming upon us and all of creation … Mary’s song of joy and praise in Luke’s first chapter, we know it as the Magnificat …
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior …
He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
Martin Luther, in his commentary on the Magnificat, said this:
Those of low degree are here not the humble, but all those who are contemptible and altogether nothing in the eyes of the world. It is the same expression that Mary applied to herself above: “He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden.” Nevertheless, those who are willing to be nothing and lowly of heart, and do not strive to be great, are truly humble.
Behold, how strong a comfort this is, that not man but God gives to the hungry, and that (God) not only gives them this or that but fills and fully satisfies them. Mary says, moreover: “with good things.”
On the other hand, how could one bring a more damning accusation against riches, or more grievously terrify the rich, than by saying that God sends them empty away? Oh, how great and overflowing are both God’s filling and God’s sending away! How utterly vain here is the help or counsel of any creature!
Be not mistaken … praying “Your kingdom come” to God our Father is a wildly, revolutionary, counter-cultural, political prayer. Because it means the end of inequality, poverty, rich oppressing poor, strong oppressing weak, racism, sexism, discrimination of any and all kinds … in short, it’s The Great Leveling Prayer For All Creation.
As Jesus says, we are evil. In our lifetime, in our world, injustice, poverty, oppression, hatred, all of these will continue to exist. It is our way of things. And yet, we are called on to pray Your Kingdom Come.
But we don’t just dump it all off into God’s hands to solve either, pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye for those who suffer in the here and now. NO. In spite of and despite a world which works against God’s Kingdom Come at every turn, we continue to work for it here and now as well … we do not lose heart, because we know the Good, Good News of how this will All Turn Out in Jesus’ name. Thus every breath which prays “Your Kingdom Come” needs, must come with other breaths, inhaled and exhaled in service to and for these least of these, those breaths, that work in service-prayer as well, prayer to meet each day’s needs in service, service by God’s children to our brothers and sisters far and near.
Next – we pray Give us each day our daily bread.
Here Jesus instructs us to turn our prayer from the spiritual to the temporal or worldly … although, as noted, “Your Kingdom come” is also a spiritual prayer with deep worldly implications.
Ah – finally … we get to pray for ourselves! we might think.
Well … not so fast.
Note that the prayer is clearly about “us.” Give us each day our daily bread.
So it is a plural prayer … God, we pray that there would be enough for everyone.
Again, it’s a wild, counter-cultural prayer. May the inequalities of the world which cause some to have much and others to have little or nothing – may these cease, O God. May everyone have enough, O God.
And again, this prayer is not complete unless God’s people carry words to action. And so we are called to work and give and share so that others will have enough … enough to eat, enough to wear, enough to live.
I’m reminded of a quote from the late Republican senator – and committed Christian – Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon:
I have no patience for those who say that people are poor or suffering because it is 'God's will' and thus there is nothing we should do for them. The command and compassion of Christ compels us to respond to the physical and spiritual needs of a hungry world.
Pope Francis, on his current tour of Brazil, said this just days ago:
Everything that is shared is multiplied; only when we are able to share do we become truly rich.
Precisely. That service to our neighbor is truly praying “give us each day our daily bread” into our lives, into others’ lives.
And finally – Luke concludes this prayer with these words:
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us into the time of trial.
Now, here, Christ brings the prayer down, further, closer, to each of us. We began, remember, with a call for us to acknowledge the holiness of God. Then, to ask for and work for God’s kingdom to come. Then, to be given and to share our bread – not just food, but our material wealth – with our brothers and sisters who have less, so that all will have enough.
Finally, here, Christ brings us face to face with the fact that all of what we have prayed for so far, all of this, we work against, with all our heart and soul, mind and strength, because, as he says, we are evil. We’re sinful people who fight and steal, claw and hoard, pollute and wreck and ruin God’s good creation.
We are people who are tempted by our sinful selves, the evil within us and the evil which surrounds us in the world to make choices which curse God’s goodness, work against the coming reign of God, and take the very bread of life from the mouths of our brothers and sisters.
We are people in need of forgiveness.
Every day, every hour of our lives.
And so here, in the final petition of this prayer Jesus teaches his disciples, teaches us, that our prayers for our selves must start with asking God forgiveness for not living into that which God calls us to pray for and live into first.
But more ... this prayer is also a call to live into community. When we pray forgive us, we acknowledge that in working against all that God calls us to live into, we are hurting each other, and so as we ask God for forgiveness we also and at the same time seek forgiveness from our brothers and sisters we have wronged, through our selfishness, our self-centeredness.
And so we come to the end of this prayer, as Jesus teaches his disciples ... us ... to pray.
It’s a lot to sink in, especially early on a Sunday morning after a busy week. Sometimes, what I need to help me process a lot of thought like this is to draw it out. That’s what I did with this prayer. And when I did it, it came out looking like this:
(drawing of a triangle, wide base on bottom)
It’s a triangle, a pyramid. The broadest part, the foundation of our prayer as Jesus calls us into it … is a focus on the holiness of God. Then everything else fits well, and sits well, atop that firm foundation.
However, I know I don’t pray like this. Most of the time we start with ourselves first …. Then the prayer diagram looks like this:
(drawing of a triangle, point down)
This is not a secure design for prayer, to be sure.
And yet ... even in our unbalanced prayers, God is listening to us.
That’s the word we receive in the final part of our text today.
Jesus tells a little parable about two friends, one of whom is making a request for “daily bread” at the midnight hour. Jesus says because of the persistence of the one friend’s request, he gets what he needs.
But that word persistence ... it really means, shamelessness. Now here’s a freeing word. God wants us to be shameless in our prayers. Shameless, as in, put it all out there to God, for God, to hear. Don’t hold anything back.
How many of us can say that we pray shamelessly to God?
And yet, that’s precisely what Jesus is saying to us here. Pray shamelessly, as a child makes requests of their loving parent. Yes, learn how Jesus teaches us to pray ... in the holiness of God, for God’s kingdom to come, for the feeding of the world and sharing generosity of all, for forgiveness from God and reconciliation between brothers and sisters, children of God when relationship is broken ... but just, simply, pray.
For to pray is to live, and how we pray is indeed, how we live.
A pastor-colleague of mine puts it well:
I think that in many ways prayer ... is a relationship. It’s the presence of daddy or mommy, not always saying or doing things to change the situation, but their presence can often change you as it brings their comfort and love to the situation – and perhaps you are better able to accept what lies in the future with their support. You can live with the uncertainty of the “we’ll see” answer. Patiently waiting together to see what will happen.
Prayer is the presence of God – not that God will always change the situation, but knowing that God is with you, that God is going through the tragedy or suffering or depression or even death with you, not as a far off God, way out in space, but as your very close and loving (parent).
And so ... Jesus says ... “When you pray, say ...”
And do.
And live.
Pray and live ... balanced ... and confident.
Confident … and shameless.
Shameless … that’s the way Christ calls us to pray … in asking God for anything … trusting that God is as close as our own breath. Trusting that, as Christ calls and wills our prayer lives in order, we will have our faith lives put in order, indeed, we will have our WHOLE LIVES put in order … as Christ calls us to order them, for life in this world ... and into the next ... in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
21 July 2013
“Not to be taken away”
Luke 10:38-42
OT 16C 21 July 2013
Once again, from our Gospel text:
The Lord answered … “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
As we’re gathered here this morning, I wonder … I wonder how many people, how many stories are here this morning, how many people and how many stories of “better parts” of people’s lives, “better parts” which have, for one reason or another, gone away … changed … been taken away?
Maybe the “better part” you are missing today is your summer vacation. After all, in just a little more than a month, vacations will be over, school will be starting, and homework will be assigned, too. The back to school ads have been out in full force for a week or two now, so you had better get with it and get that list together before the stores are all sold out of everything. But still … it’s hard to get ready for school again, when back just a month or so ago, the summer seemed so exciting, so full of promise – trips, camp, fun with family and friends. Now it’s nearly gone, and too soon … well, at least for you … maybe your parents feel different.
Maybe the “better part” you would like to see again is the way you used to look … 5, 10, 15 or more years ago. Put on a little weight? A little gray around the edges? A few more wrinkles?
Maybe the “better part” of your life you miss the most is the past. Simpler times, simpler lives … maybe the neighborhood you grew up in, the church where you worshipped as a child or youth, the community where you knew all your neighbors. Maybe for some of you, that’s this community, of 40 years ago or more. A quieter, simpler time, perhaps a “better part” for you which will never be seen again.
Or maybe the “better part” you miss today is something more serious … a love, a mate, a spouse … maybe they are on a business trip or separate vacation right now, but they’ll be back soon. Or maybe they aren’t coming back. Maybe your relationship, your marriage is in trouble. Maybe there were some harsh words said and you wonder whether things will ever be the same as they used to be when they were good.
Maybe the “better part” of your life today is slipping away from you because of a transition … going to a new school, a new job, friends being transferred or moving away.
Or maybe your “better part” is something much more personal and painful to you … someone, a friend, a loved one, who is suffering or in mental or physical pain right now, or a loved one who has passed away. You see the names on our prayer list, in the bulletin, received by email. They are more than names … they are lives who touch many, many other lives, in this community of faith and outside it as well.
What, this morning, this place and time in our lives, what is “the better part,” the part of our lives which, when we look at them, is the time or person or activity or feeling or place, the loss of which we feel most deeply right now … or the time or person or activity or feeling or place without which, we would feel a huge hole in our lives? What is it? For we all have one.
Martha may well have thought that she had the "better part," at least, the part that made everything happen. Or maybe, since it was the only “part” she knew in her life, she naturally assumed it was the best. She thought that what really mattered in life was to be as busy as she could possibly be, running around, constantly doing doing doing ... making this, cleaning that, and so on.
Now, we all know a Martha ... if we're not one ourselves. Marthas can't just sit still and enjoy life as it comes. They have to constantly be doing something ... indeed, their self-worth, how they view themselves, is based on what and how well they are DOING.
Thinking about a Martha, hearing about her "many tasks," kind of makes me think of all the other “better parts” in our lives … the happier times in the past … the vacations, or trips, or our past bodies, or accomplishments … or co-workers, or loved ones, people we’d counted on always being there, the same, the picture of health, part of our lives.
But then something happens, really jogs us ... kind of hits us upside the head and throws us. The sameness in our lives changes, maybe subtly and then one day we notice things are different, or maybe suddenly – and either way, it makes us take big notice … in surprise, in hurt, in fear, in sadness, or in pain. And that's what Jesus’ presence, and how Martha’s sister Mary reacts to him, does to Martha in our reading.
Martha was so busy doing doing doing that she started to get peeved that her sister, Mary, was doing nothing to help. Mary was sitting around, listening to Jesus, not DOING anything. "What a worthless sister," thought Martha. "I'll get Jesus to set her straight."
But the one Jesus ends up setting straight is Martha. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
Now Jesus doesn’t say this to Martha to devalue work ... keeping busy ... doing things. Certainly things need to be done in the world so that we can survive and have a civilization ... things need to be cooked and cleaned, built and worked on, made and bought and sold. Jesus isn’t promoting laziness here. What he is saying is that, Martha, look at your priorities here. Work has its place, to be sure, but look at what you are missing ... what is right here, right now before you.
Jesus knew that one day, Martha's busy-ness would come to an end ... maybe she would become sick or arthritic, unable to move around and do her many tasks. Maybe an earthquake or other natural disaster would strike, and wipe out the whole village. The "many things" which "distracted" Martha would become pretty trivial then, as her ability to do them, or other circumstances, changed ... Martha’s "better part" would be taken away.
Martha’s sister Mary really had the better part. Mary realized that here before her in Jesus was the start and source of all good things ... in the words which he was saying to her and the others who sat at his feet and listened. Here was one who spoke of God's love for humanity, who offered forgiveness of sins, who spoke of a kingdom of God where the suffering and troubles of this life were nowhere to be found. Here was one, indeed, who through his own suffering, death, and resurrection, held out the promise of an end to death itself, and instead, eternal life with God. And here was the one whose presence could set the priorities of life straight ... through him and this Word which he brought, work could find its proper place ... not as a busy-ness or drudge, but as a joy ... not waiting on God, as Martha was insisting on doing ... but instead, serving God by waiting on our neighbor.
So what does Jesus’ word to Martha have to say to us today? Is it a harsh word, telling us what we feel, what we think, doesn’t really matter … just chuck it all and trust Jesus, everything will be OK? Of course not. I doubt that Martha reacted that way to Jesus when she heard his words to her – she more likely got angry and stomped off to do her chores alone. I know I would have if I would have been in Martha’s shoes, and if you think about it, you probably would have too. We are in our own lives so deeply sometimes that we don’t believe anyone can possibly understand us, know what we’re going through, know the pain and loss we are feeling. Right?
But the reading of the Good News today does bring good news for us … for Mary, for Martha and everyone like her, for us in whatever state of happiness or sadness, fear or mourning or blah we are feeling today, for all the “better parts” of our lives which we feel wistful about or just miss or painfully, gut wrenching feel the loss of with all our heart. For the one who said to Martha that only “one thing” was needful, “one thing” was the better part for all of life, well, he knew it and lived it to be true.
Because, in the seemingly crazy, mixed up way that our God decided to do things, he sent the One closest to him to be as one of us, a baby, a kid, a teenager, a man, someone who certainly experienced life with all its gifts and, yes, all its losses too – even until the day when it all seemed lost, that day when all that was good and right seemed to lose and all that was wrong seemed to have won, that day on the cross when even Mary’s “better part” died … for a time. But rising from death, he proved that he was right all along … that the “better part” of God’s plan for humanity was not eternal loss, not eternal suffering, not death … but life. And hope for all whom he claims as his own that the same “better part” shall be for them … for us … as well.
And this hope is rooted in something we have all been given; something that, no matter what changes we individually or as a congregation or community or a collective people of God may face, no matter what changes come over us in the future, this will not be taken away from us. It is the better part which Mary and Martha had right before them ... the better part ... the gift of forgiveness, the gift of new life, the gift of love, from God, through Jesus Christ.
And it comes to us freely ... without any "Martha-ized" rushing around, working like crazy. It comes as a gift ... in his Word, we have heard it and will continue to hear it ... "your sins are forgiven" ... the very same as Mary heard in Jesus’ Word while sitting at his feet. In his gift of baptism, we have felt its cleansing splash. In his Meal, we have tasted and will continue to taste it. "You are valued. You are loved. You are mine. And in everything you go through in life, I will be there with you, I will share and understand your joy and your pain, I will not abandon you ever, and at the end, you will be with me.”
So here is our better part. Here is our better part which shall not be taken away, even though many things around us, even we ourselves, change and grow, come and go and move on, get sick, heal, or pass away. Here is our hope, as we look out toward the future ... a future with both challenges and possibilities, for us personally, for our friends, and for our community and this community of faith … but a future where we will as brothers and sisters of our Lord continue on our pilgrimage in this life, working together, not frozen in fear but moving in love, emboldened, comforting and consoling and building up one another, in the path of our Savior, who is with us always, even until the end. Amen.
Luke 10:38-42
OT 16C 21 July 2013
Once again, from our Gospel text:
The Lord answered … “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
As we’re gathered here this morning, I wonder … I wonder how many people, how many stories are here this morning, how many people and how many stories of “better parts” of people’s lives, “better parts” which have, for one reason or another, gone away … changed … been taken away?
Maybe the “better part” you are missing today is your summer vacation. After all, in just a little more than a month, vacations will be over, school will be starting, and homework will be assigned, too. The back to school ads have been out in full force for a week or two now, so you had better get with it and get that list together before the stores are all sold out of everything. But still … it’s hard to get ready for school again, when back just a month or so ago, the summer seemed so exciting, so full of promise – trips, camp, fun with family and friends. Now it’s nearly gone, and too soon … well, at least for you … maybe your parents feel different.
Maybe the “better part” you would like to see again is the way you used to look … 5, 10, 15 or more years ago. Put on a little weight? A little gray around the edges? A few more wrinkles?
Maybe the “better part” of your life you miss the most is the past. Simpler times, simpler lives … maybe the neighborhood you grew up in, the church where you worshipped as a child or youth, the community where you knew all your neighbors. Maybe for some of you, that’s this community, of 40 years ago or more. A quieter, simpler time, perhaps a “better part” for you which will never be seen again.
Or maybe the “better part” you miss today is something more serious … a love, a mate, a spouse … maybe they are on a business trip or separate vacation right now, but they’ll be back soon. Or maybe they aren’t coming back. Maybe your relationship, your marriage is in trouble. Maybe there were some harsh words said and you wonder whether things will ever be the same as they used to be when they were good.
Maybe the “better part” of your life today is slipping away from you because of a transition … going to a new school, a new job, friends being transferred or moving away.
Or maybe your “better part” is something much more personal and painful to you … someone, a friend, a loved one, who is suffering or in mental or physical pain right now, or a loved one who has passed away. You see the names on our prayer list, in the bulletin, received by email. They are more than names … they are lives who touch many, many other lives, in this community of faith and outside it as well.
What, this morning, this place and time in our lives, what is “the better part,” the part of our lives which, when we look at them, is the time or person or activity or feeling or place, the loss of which we feel most deeply right now … or the time or person or activity or feeling or place without which, we would feel a huge hole in our lives? What is it? For we all have one.
Martha may well have thought that she had the "better part," at least, the part that made everything happen. Or maybe, since it was the only “part” she knew in her life, she naturally assumed it was the best. She thought that what really mattered in life was to be as busy as she could possibly be, running around, constantly doing doing doing ... making this, cleaning that, and so on.
Now, we all know a Martha ... if we're not one ourselves. Marthas can't just sit still and enjoy life as it comes. They have to constantly be doing something ... indeed, their self-worth, how they view themselves, is based on what and how well they are DOING.
Thinking about a Martha, hearing about her "many tasks," kind of makes me think of all the other “better parts” in our lives … the happier times in the past … the vacations, or trips, or our past bodies, or accomplishments … or co-workers, or loved ones, people we’d counted on always being there, the same, the picture of health, part of our lives.
But then something happens, really jogs us ... kind of hits us upside the head and throws us. The sameness in our lives changes, maybe subtly and then one day we notice things are different, or maybe suddenly – and either way, it makes us take big notice … in surprise, in hurt, in fear, in sadness, or in pain. And that's what Jesus’ presence, and how Martha’s sister Mary reacts to him, does to Martha in our reading.
Martha was so busy doing doing doing that she started to get peeved that her sister, Mary, was doing nothing to help. Mary was sitting around, listening to Jesus, not DOING anything. "What a worthless sister," thought Martha. "I'll get Jesus to set her straight."
But the one Jesus ends up setting straight is Martha. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
Now Jesus doesn’t say this to Martha to devalue work ... keeping busy ... doing things. Certainly things need to be done in the world so that we can survive and have a civilization ... things need to be cooked and cleaned, built and worked on, made and bought and sold. Jesus isn’t promoting laziness here. What he is saying is that, Martha, look at your priorities here. Work has its place, to be sure, but look at what you are missing ... what is right here, right now before you.
Jesus knew that one day, Martha's busy-ness would come to an end ... maybe she would become sick or arthritic, unable to move around and do her many tasks. Maybe an earthquake or other natural disaster would strike, and wipe out the whole village. The "many things" which "distracted" Martha would become pretty trivial then, as her ability to do them, or other circumstances, changed ... Martha’s "better part" would be taken away.
Martha’s sister Mary really had the better part. Mary realized that here before her in Jesus was the start and source of all good things ... in the words which he was saying to her and the others who sat at his feet and listened. Here was one who spoke of God's love for humanity, who offered forgiveness of sins, who spoke of a kingdom of God where the suffering and troubles of this life were nowhere to be found. Here was one, indeed, who through his own suffering, death, and resurrection, held out the promise of an end to death itself, and instead, eternal life with God. And here was the one whose presence could set the priorities of life straight ... through him and this Word which he brought, work could find its proper place ... not as a busy-ness or drudge, but as a joy ... not waiting on God, as Martha was insisting on doing ... but instead, serving God by waiting on our neighbor.
So what does Jesus’ word to Martha have to say to us today? Is it a harsh word, telling us what we feel, what we think, doesn’t really matter … just chuck it all and trust Jesus, everything will be OK? Of course not. I doubt that Martha reacted that way to Jesus when she heard his words to her – she more likely got angry and stomped off to do her chores alone. I know I would have if I would have been in Martha’s shoes, and if you think about it, you probably would have too. We are in our own lives so deeply sometimes that we don’t believe anyone can possibly understand us, know what we’re going through, know the pain and loss we are feeling. Right?
But the reading of the Good News today does bring good news for us … for Mary, for Martha and everyone like her, for us in whatever state of happiness or sadness, fear or mourning or blah we are feeling today, for all the “better parts” of our lives which we feel wistful about or just miss or painfully, gut wrenching feel the loss of with all our heart. For the one who said to Martha that only “one thing” was needful, “one thing” was the better part for all of life, well, he knew it and lived it to be true.
Because, in the seemingly crazy, mixed up way that our God decided to do things, he sent the One closest to him to be as one of us, a baby, a kid, a teenager, a man, someone who certainly experienced life with all its gifts and, yes, all its losses too – even until the day when it all seemed lost, that day when all that was good and right seemed to lose and all that was wrong seemed to have won, that day on the cross when even Mary’s “better part” died … for a time. But rising from death, he proved that he was right all along … that the “better part” of God’s plan for humanity was not eternal loss, not eternal suffering, not death … but life. And hope for all whom he claims as his own that the same “better part” shall be for them … for us … as well.
And this hope is rooted in something we have all been given; something that, no matter what changes we individually or as a congregation or community or a collective people of God may face, no matter what changes come over us in the future, this will not be taken away from us. It is the better part which Mary and Martha had right before them ... the better part ... the gift of forgiveness, the gift of new life, the gift of love, from God, through Jesus Christ.
And it comes to us freely ... without any "Martha-ized" rushing around, working like crazy. It comes as a gift ... in his Word, we have heard it and will continue to hear it ... "your sins are forgiven" ... the very same as Mary heard in Jesus’ Word while sitting at his feet. In his gift of baptism, we have felt its cleansing splash. In his Meal, we have tasted and will continue to taste it. "You are valued. You are loved. You are mine. And in everything you go through in life, I will be there with you, I will share and understand your joy and your pain, I will not abandon you ever, and at the end, you will be with me.”
So here is our better part. Here is our better part which shall not be taken away, even though many things around us, even we ourselves, change and grow, come and go and move on, get sick, heal, or pass away. Here is our hope, as we look out toward the future ... a future with both challenges and possibilities, for us personally, for our friends, and for our community and this community of faith … but a future where we will as brothers and sisters of our Lord continue on our pilgrimage in this life, working together, not frozen in fear but moving in love, emboldened, comforting and consoling and building up one another, in the path of our Savior, who is with us always, even until the end. Amen.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
14 July 2013
“Being neighborly”
Luke 10:25-37
OT 15C
14 July 2013
For today’s Gospel, we have a text … a parable of Jesus’ we commonly call “The Good Samaritan” … which is well-known to many of us. Just the words “Good Samaritan” describe a very nice person, someone who helps others, no matter if they believe in Jesus or not.
As for this story … we’ve heard it before, either in the way it was read today, or in other ways, in other stories, told about different people but the same basic thread. Someone is robbed and beat up … the supposed holy and righteous men of the time pass by and don’t offer to help … but a foreigner, an outcast in the land, is the one who actually stops to help the unfortunate traveler; through his actions, he saves the man’s life.
It’s the golden rule in action, we say; treat others as you would like to be treated.
But if we sum up this story in one sentence, and move on, we lose so much of the meaning Jesus has in it … for the pushy lawyer who asks him the question, “Who is my neighbor?” … and for us, as well.
For we also need a good lesson, a sure word, in what Being Neighborly is all about.
It all begins with a question, a question asked of Jesus by a lawyer. The lawyer actually asks Jesus two questions … the one, “Who is my neighbor?” is the one we likely remember better here, because it’s the one Jesus uses to set up his story … but the lawyer’s real motivation …what he is really after … is all wrapped up in his first question, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Now, there’s a whole sermon here on how Jesus doesn’t answer the lawyer. Because the lawyer, in how he asks his question, unknowingly answers it as well. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Well – duh - nothing – because for us to inherit something, anything, someone has to die who has made us a promise. Aha. Eternal life is all gift to us because of Jesus’ promises.
But that’s not where Jesus is going here and so that’s not where we’ll go either. Jesus sticks with the Law – the rules for life in this world – so we should be clued in by that, that what follows will be about life in this world – not making ourselves better before God, not inheriting eternal life.
But it’s still important stuff … for the lawyer as well as for us.
Jesus knows that this lawyer is no dummy … so Jesus turns the question back on him. “What is written in the law?” Of course, the lawyer knows this, from the Old Testament, and answers perfectly … he quotes the Shema, the defining words of what it means to be one of God’s chosen people … Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord alone, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and strength … and then, he makes the even better move of linking love of God with love of neighbor, which all the good rabbis have done through the centuries … And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The golden rule. The central legal statements of Judaism. And Jesus congratulates him for his “book knowledge’: “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.
But then … but then … the lawyer makes what he thinks is the smart legal move. “But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” This isn’t a dumb question on the part of the lawyer. For the debate of that age was about who and what actually constituted one’s neighbor, and what being a neighbor was all about, the exact legal definition … so you could do well and right and just enough … to justify yourself, to make sure that you’d done the minimum of what the law required of you.
So let’s look at the parable Jesus tells the lawyer, to answer this question. “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.” And already a trap is set for the lawyer. For this man in the parable is, by the definition of the religious law of the time, sin waiting to happen. He’d been beaten, and very badly hurt; he was maybe even near death. And there were strict laws about having contact with human blood and dead bodies. They made one unclean; anyone touching blood or a dead body would have to be ritually purified before they came back into the fellowship of other believers.
Now along came the priest and the Levite … the two highest religious orders in the religion of the Israelites … and isn’t Jesus just a little hard on them? After all, they’re only obeying the Law. For if they were to have contact with this unfortunate person, not even picking him up, but merely going over and checking on him, they’d become unclean. They couldn’t do their jobs, leading worship in the Temple for the assembly of Israel. They would have to go through a long purification process before they would be allowed to do their jobs again. And so they obeyed the letter of the Law … they kept themselves clean … and they probably went back to Jerusalem to do their tasks.
And the lawyer, being the skilled interpreter of the Law he most certainly was, would surely have understood this.
But the story continues …. “A Samaritan while traveling came near him ….” Whoa, wait just a minute! Now Jesus introduces a totally different element here. And we’re sent back in Luke’s gospel, to a text we had just a couple of weeks ago, when Jesus passed through the village of the Samaritans, and they wouldn’t receive him, because he was going to Jerusalem. And why wouldn’t they receive him? Because the Samaritans felt that only they had the proper Temple in which to worship God, and that the Jerusalem-bound Jesus and his followers were sorely mistaken if they thought they were going to the place- Jerusalem - where God was worshipped properly. So because of this, Samaritans didn’t have much to do with Jews, and Jews looked upon Samaritans with contempt, and considered contact with them to be, if not illegal, at least unclean.
So the real point of the story is that the Samaritan … the one who wasn’t supposed to help out, did. He aided the man, cleaned and bandaged his wounds, put him up at an inn, and took care of him. More than took care of him. He cared for the unfortunate traveler into making him well once more, making sure that the injured man would be able to recover fully and get back about his business once again.
And so Jesus puts the question to the lawyer. “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Jesus asked. And the lawyer knows he’s been outwitted by Jesus. “The one who showed mercy, of course,” he said. And then, Jesus’ final words to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Now we, we know this story so well after the centuries of telling it, we surely shake our heads at hearing it again and go, “Duh! Well, of course. Who else is really the neighbor to that poor beaten soul but the Samaritan. It’s a great irony, and points out how following the letter of the Law isn’t always the same as following the Spirit of the Law … or, how the Great Commandment, the Golden Rule, should always take precedence over the other laws that might contradict it.” And so we might pass this story off as a nice little sermon on living, how we’re to treat others the way we’d like to be treated, and so on.
But to do that misses the whole point of what Jesus was trying to get the lawyer to hear.
For today, we still have a debate going on over who exactly is our neighbor. Oh sure, we hear the term enough … today, we’re trying to get back to that old concept of neighborhoods and knowing our neighbors … people returning to small towns for their friendliness … people in the bigger cities building new houses in “intentional neighborhoods” with picket fences and front porches, so they can see their neighbors and get to know them better and, hopefully, form better communities where people know one another and talk to them.
Oh yes, we hear a lot about that word neighbor today. But as far as how it relates to the word as Jesus uses it in this story of the Good Samaritan, we … our “intentional neighborhoods” and ideas of “neighborliness”… are all off base.
We are off base because the meaning of neighbor as Jesus intends it isn’t someone who lives next door or across the street from us that we wave “hi” to every day, or water their plants or feed their cat while they’re on vacation … and it doesn’t mean “friend” … even though these are fine things, things we ought to be about in our lives that help make the world a better place to live. No, being a neighbor as Jesus uses it here doesn’t mean a spatial relationship that’s centered around me … my house … my neighbors … or, even a friend, an emotional relationship, that still has a lot to do with me … my friends. It doesn’t imply how these people relate to me … but instead, how I relate to them.
It’s really the same debate of the age that Jesus and the lawyer were in. Listen again to his question. “Who is my neighbor?” What does it mean for me, me, which people do I need to relate to in this way and which ones can I just walk away from, that’s what the lawyer was asking. But to Jesus that wasn’t the question at all. For it’s not “who is my neighbor” as the lawyer asks the question, but “who is a neighbor to the man” as Jesus answers it.
To Jesus, to be a neighbor means having a relationship of love, care and concern with them. Being a neighbor is more than just living next door to a person, it’s more than the selective process of choosing a friend. Really, to Jesus, it’s not “being a neighbor” to someone at all. It’s “being neighborly” to people in general, all the time, everyone we meet in the world.
It’s seeing all people, everywhere, as children of God, created in the image of God just like us, deserving of the same respect and care with which we ourselves would like to be treated.
It means, as Luther uses the term in his Small Catechism, that the “neighbor” to which he constantly refers, as the one we’re obligated to treat with respect, dignity, and great worth, the one whose property we are always to protect, the one of whom we’re always to speak kindly, the one whom we are not to wrong in any way, is every single person in the world.
So what does that mean for us, here today? Well, if everyone is my neighbor, each one deserving of being treated just like the Samaritan treated the badly beaten man, then … “being neighborly” means every person here being in a relationship of faith lived out to someone else … a classmate in school who is sad because they don’t have any friends … a young person, who needs an adult presence, to listen to how complicated life is for them sometimes … a widow who recently lost her spouse of many years, wondering how she will manage … a young family, struggling with children and workload and debt, needing prayers and support and a hand with things every now and then.
“Being Neighborly” is no easy task. It isn’t the same as someone new moves in next door and we take them a pan of brownies. It isn’t the same as a selective, emotional, limited in number friend-type relationship.
“Being neighborly” is answering Jesus’ missional call to each of us to live the Christian life, to and for and with everyone.
And it’s a daunting task if we believe we have to do it all alone. For we are all like the lawyer in our reading for today … he is an archetype, a character who stands for all of us … for we too want the easy way out, the limited relationship, the quick and clean answer to “who is my neighbor?” … the self-justification that comes from knowing we’ve obeyed the law perfectly and can get on with our lives without getting messed up, entangled in someone else’s problems, someone else’s life. We want to stand right before God, alone, clean and neat and unencumbered.
But that’s not what it means to be neighborly. It’s being in Christian relationship within our community, our school, our church, our workplace, our world.
And none of us, not one of us, can be neighborly as Jesus calls us to be, all by ourselves. For Jesus’ call to be neighborly … to “do this, and live,” now, it’s overwhelming. Once we get started being neighborly, where does it end, where can we stop, where can we rest? It isn’t clean and neat and unencumbered at all, but instead incredibly messy. And we just can’t do it all alone.
And so there is One with us to help us, to guide us, to bring us through it all, to give us the strength for Being Neighborly when we don’t feel we can anymore, to give us strength and courage to take the daily risk of being neighborly in our own little corners of God’s world … in our church, our school or workplace, our community … to forgive us when we lose our temper, when we see the injustice in the world, when we get frustrated and want to just walk away … to strengthen us when we feel overwhelmed, to let us know we are not alone, as we dine at his table with other Neighbors and are formed into his Body in the world. With our Lord, the one who both sets the example of Being Neighborly as well as makes us into people who can Be Neighborly, we will do that which he calls us to do … to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind … and Our Neighbor as ourselves.
Not because we have to “justify ourselves” like that lawyer thought he had to do … because, remember, we have an inheritance coming, already promised to us by Jesus in his death and resurrection. We do this because … Being Neighborly is just who we are as Jesus’ brothers and sisters.
So let us go … let us go and do that which our Lord calls us to do … to Be Neighborly, to give of ourselves in Christian relationship to and for our neighbor … young, old, white, black, wealthy, poor, Hispanic, cancer ridden, mourning … yes, those around us right now … but more, those around us, outside these walls.
Let us “go and do likewise.” Amen.
Luke 10:25-37
OT 15C
14 July 2013
For today’s Gospel, we have a text … a parable of Jesus’ we commonly call “The Good Samaritan” … which is well-known to many of us. Just the words “Good Samaritan” describe a very nice person, someone who helps others, no matter if they believe in Jesus or not.
As for this story … we’ve heard it before, either in the way it was read today, or in other ways, in other stories, told about different people but the same basic thread. Someone is robbed and beat up … the supposed holy and righteous men of the time pass by and don’t offer to help … but a foreigner, an outcast in the land, is the one who actually stops to help the unfortunate traveler; through his actions, he saves the man’s life.
It’s the golden rule in action, we say; treat others as you would like to be treated.
But if we sum up this story in one sentence, and move on, we lose so much of the meaning Jesus has in it … for the pushy lawyer who asks him the question, “Who is my neighbor?” … and for us, as well.
For we also need a good lesson, a sure word, in what Being Neighborly is all about.
It all begins with a question, a question asked of Jesus by a lawyer. The lawyer actually asks Jesus two questions … the one, “Who is my neighbor?” is the one we likely remember better here, because it’s the one Jesus uses to set up his story … but the lawyer’s real motivation …what he is really after … is all wrapped up in his first question, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Now, there’s a whole sermon here on how Jesus doesn’t answer the lawyer. Because the lawyer, in how he asks his question, unknowingly answers it as well. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Well – duh - nothing – because for us to inherit something, anything, someone has to die who has made us a promise. Aha. Eternal life is all gift to us because of Jesus’ promises.
But that’s not where Jesus is going here and so that’s not where we’ll go either. Jesus sticks with the Law – the rules for life in this world – so we should be clued in by that, that what follows will be about life in this world – not making ourselves better before God, not inheriting eternal life.
But it’s still important stuff … for the lawyer as well as for us.
Jesus knows that this lawyer is no dummy … so Jesus turns the question back on him. “What is written in the law?” Of course, the lawyer knows this, from the Old Testament, and answers perfectly … he quotes the Shema, the defining words of what it means to be one of God’s chosen people … Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord alone, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and strength … and then, he makes the even better move of linking love of God with love of neighbor, which all the good rabbis have done through the centuries … And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The golden rule. The central legal statements of Judaism. And Jesus congratulates him for his “book knowledge’: “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.
But then … but then … the lawyer makes what he thinks is the smart legal move. “But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” This isn’t a dumb question on the part of the lawyer. For the debate of that age was about who and what actually constituted one’s neighbor, and what being a neighbor was all about, the exact legal definition … so you could do well and right and just enough … to justify yourself, to make sure that you’d done the minimum of what the law required of you.
So let’s look at the parable Jesus tells the lawyer, to answer this question. “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.” And already a trap is set for the lawyer. For this man in the parable is, by the definition of the religious law of the time, sin waiting to happen. He’d been beaten, and very badly hurt; he was maybe even near death. And there were strict laws about having contact with human blood and dead bodies. They made one unclean; anyone touching blood or a dead body would have to be ritually purified before they came back into the fellowship of other believers.
Now along came the priest and the Levite … the two highest religious orders in the religion of the Israelites … and isn’t Jesus just a little hard on them? After all, they’re only obeying the Law. For if they were to have contact with this unfortunate person, not even picking him up, but merely going over and checking on him, they’d become unclean. They couldn’t do their jobs, leading worship in the Temple for the assembly of Israel. They would have to go through a long purification process before they would be allowed to do their jobs again. And so they obeyed the letter of the Law … they kept themselves clean … and they probably went back to Jerusalem to do their tasks.
And the lawyer, being the skilled interpreter of the Law he most certainly was, would surely have understood this.
But the story continues …. “A Samaritan while traveling came near him ….” Whoa, wait just a minute! Now Jesus introduces a totally different element here. And we’re sent back in Luke’s gospel, to a text we had just a couple of weeks ago, when Jesus passed through the village of the Samaritans, and they wouldn’t receive him, because he was going to Jerusalem. And why wouldn’t they receive him? Because the Samaritans felt that only they had the proper Temple in which to worship God, and that the Jerusalem-bound Jesus and his followers were sorely mistaken if they thought they were going to the place- Jerusalem - where God was worshipped properly. So because of this, Samaritans didn’t have much to do with Jews, and Jews looked upon Samaritans with contempt, and considered contact with them to be, if not illegal, at least unclean.
So the real point of the story is that the Samaritan … the one who wasn’t supposed to help out, did. He aided the man, cleaned and bandaged his wounds, put him up at an inn, and took care of him. More than took care of him. He cared for the unfortunate traveler into making him well once more, making sure that the injured man would be able to recover fully and get back about his business once again.
And so Jesus puts the question to the lawyer. “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” Jesus asked. And the lawyer knows he’s been outwitted by Jesus. “The one who showed mercy, of course,” he said. And then, Jesus’ final words to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Now we, we know this story so well after the centuries of telling it, we surely shake our heads at hearing it again and go, “Duh! Well, of course. Who else is really the neighbor to that poor beaten soul but the Samaritan. It’s a great irony, and points out how following the letter of the Law isn’t always the same as following the Spirit of the Law … or, how the Great Commandment, the Golden Rule, should always take precedence over the other laws that might contradict it.” And so we might pass this story off as a nice little sermon on living, how we’re to treat others the way we’d like to be treated, and so on.
But to do that misses the whole point of what Jesus was trying to get the lawyer to hear.
For today, we still have a debate going on over who exactly is our neighbor. Oh sure, we hear the term enough … today, we’re trying to get back to that old concept of neighborhoods and knowing our neighbors … people returning to small towns for their friendliness … people in the bigger cities building new houses in “intentional neighborhoods” with picket fences and front porches, so they can see their neighbors and get to know them better and, hopefully, form better communities where people know one another and talk to them.
Oh yes, we hear a lot about that word neighbor today. But as far as how it relates to the word as Jesus uses it in this story of the Good Samaritan, we … our “intentional neighborhoods” and ideas of “neighborliness”… are all off base.
We are off base because the meaning of neighbor as Jesus intends it isn’t someone who lives next door or across the street from us that we wave “hi” to every day, or water their plants or feed their cat while they’re on vacation … and it doesn’t mean “friend” … even though these are fine things, things we ought to be about in our lives that help make the world a better place to live. No, being a neighbor as Jesus uses it here doesn’t mean a spatial relationship that’s centered around me … my house … my neighbors … or, even a friend, an emotional relationship, that still has a lot to do with me … my friends. It doesn’t imply how these people relate to me … but instead, how I relate to them.
It’s really the same debate of the age that Jesus and the lawyer were in. Listen again to his question. “Who is my neighbor?” What does it mean for me, me, which people do I need to relate to in this way and which ones can I just walk away from, that’s what the lawyer was asking. But to Jesus that wasn’t the question at all. For it’s not “who is my neighbor” as the lawyer asks the question, but “who is a neighbor to the man” as Jesus answers it.
To Jesus, to be a neighbor means having a relationship of love, care and concern with them. Being a neighbor is more than just living next door to a person, it’s more than the selective process of choosing a friend. Really, to Jesus, it’s not “being a neighbor” to someone at all. It’s “being neighborly” to people in general, all the time, everyone we meet in the world.
It’s seeing all people, everywhere, as children of God, created in the image of God just like us, deserving of the same respect and care with which we ourselves would like to be treated.
It means, as Luther uses the term in his Small Catechism, that the “neighbor” to which he constantly refers, as the one we’re obligated to treat with respect, dignity, and great worth, the one whose property we are always to protect, the one of whom we’re always to speak kindly, the one whom we are not to wrong in any way, is every single person in the world.
So what does that mean for us, here today? Well, if everyone is my neighbor, each one deserving of being treated just like the Samaritan treated the badly beaten man, then … “being neighborly” means every person here being in a relationship of faith lived out to someone else … a classmate in school who is sad because they don’t have any friends … a young person, who needs an adult presence, to listen to how complicated life is for them sometimes … a widow who recently lost her spouse of many years, wondering how she will manage … a young family, struggling with children and workload and debt, needing prayers and support and a hand with things every now and then.
“Being Neighborly” is no easy task. It isn’t the same as someone new moves in next door and we take them a pan of brownies. It isn’t the same as a selective, emotional, limited in number friend-type relationship.
“Being neighborly” is answering Jesus’ missional call to each of us to live the Christian life, to and for and with everyone.
And it’s a daunting task if we believe we have to do it all alone. For we are all like the lawyer in our reading for today … he is an archetype, a character who stands for all of us … for we too want the easy way out, the limited relationship, the quick and clean answer to “who is my neighbor?” … the self-justification that comes from knowing we’ve obeyed the law perfectly and can get on with our lives without getting messed up, entangled in someone else’s problems, someone else’s life. We want to stand right before God, alone, clean and neat and unencumbered.
But that’s not what it means to be neighborly. It’s being in Christian relationship within our community, our school, our church, our workplace, our world.
And none of us, not one of us, can be neighborly as Jesus calls us to be, all by ourselves. For Jesus’ call to be neighborly … to “do this, and live,” now, it’s overwhelming. Once we get started being neighborly, where does it end, where can we stop, where can we rest? It isn’t clean and neat and unencumbered at all, but instead incredibly messy. And we just can’t do it all alone.
And so there is One with us to help us, to guide us, to bring us through it all, to give us the strength for Being Neighborly when we don’t feel we can anymore, to give us strength and courage to take the daily risk of being neighborly in our own little corners of God’s world … in our church, our school or workplace, our community … to forgive us when we lose our temper, when we see the injustice in the world, when we get frustrated and want to just walk away … to strengthen us when we feel overwhelmed, to let us know we are not alone, as we dine at his table with other Neighbors and are formed into his Body in the world. With our Lord, the one who both sets the example of Being Neighborly as well as makes us into people who can Be Neighborly, we will do that which he calls us to do … to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and mind … and Our Neighbor as ourselves.
Not because we have to “justify ourselves” like that lawyer thought he had to do … because, remember, we have an inheritance coming, already promised to us by Jesus in his death and resurrection. We do this because … Being Neighborly is just who we are as Jesus’ brothers and sisters.
So let us go … let us go and do that which our Lord calls us to do … to Be Neighborly, to give of ourselves in Christian relationship to and for our neighbor … young, old, white, black, wealthy, poor, Hispanic, cancer ridden, mourning … yes, those around us right now … but more, those around us, outside these walls.
Let us “go and do likewise.” Amen.
Sunday, July 07, 2013
7 July 2013
“Jesus needs HELP! … our help”
OT 14 C
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
7 July 2013
It was a quiet summer day at Luther Seminary. I was at work in the seminary relations office doing data entry for my work-study job, and Kathleen was across the hall in the business office.
Enter Roy Harrisville Sr. … our retired professor / prankster. On this quiet summer day, he decided to have some fun at all our expense … walking quietly into the business office, he slammed his hands down on the counter and yelled, “ I NEED HELP!!!!”
We all came running.
Dr. Harrisville – who just needed a question answered … thought it was funny. None of the rest of us thought it was that funny, though.
However, on this somewhat quiet summer Sunday morning, I think I need to take a cue from professor Harrisville … by saying “WE NEED HELP!”
You’ve seen the announcement in the bulletin and heard it in person from Cydney and Shirley. Our Kids’ Church Christian Education time for our youngest youth is expanding right along with the numbers of youth who take part in it. But we need more teachers, helpers, leaders and assistants to make it happen for next fall.
That’s probably our most urgent need right now. There are some others, seasonal, like mowing the grass and edging and weeding, our much-asked Resources team could use some assistance in keeping our yard and grounds looking good during the summer months. And our Servant Cluster Leaders always need help as they schedule worship servers each month.
This is part and parcel of life in a congregation the size of Nativity. No, we’re not small, but we’re not large either. Which means we all share in the life and ministry and, yes, work of the congregation. We have to. We don’t have a large paid staff to “do all the work for us” … you have one full time staff member and you’re looking at him … the rest of our staff is part time and specific-ministry-focused, on music and choir and administration … so that means the rest of the work of the parish … and there is a lot of it, because we’re an active parish … the rest of the work of the parish must be shared among us.
Yes, we may at times wish we could be part of a huge, anonymous church which has countless staff to do all the work that needs to be done … but guess what … those churches were the ones hit hardest by the Great Recession and they suffered the most losses … losses in stewardship, and losses in staff.
I think that’s because in a congregation our size, people feel ownership … they, we, are part of what happens, and that personal connection makes a difference.
In Nativity’s case, it’s central to our ministry model, the way we organize ourselves in our three-team arrangement. The center of all the ministry here is NOT the staff … it’s certainly NOT the pastor … it’s Christ. Jesus’ saving Word of forgiveness, hope, and life; and the Sacraments, Baptism and Communion, which make that Word real, For Us ... because what we receive at the font and the table feeds ALL OF US and sends ALL OF US OUT to do the work Christ calls us to do, in and through this place.
Today, we have a Gospel word before us which is at once relevant to, and consistent with, that Word.
Jesus is appointing others to go ahead of him, into the towns and villages where he himself intends to go, sort of an advance team for the work of the Kingdom of God.
Now, yes, the work Jesus is appointing these seventy to do is different from my standing up here and asking you to consider being a leader or helper for Kids’ Church, or mowing the lawn, or pulling weeds, or serving in worship. Different, but not alien from it.
Let’s look at how he directs them … and us … to be about his work.
• Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.
I think it’s important to note that the first word Jesus gives to those he sends out ahead of him, is to have faith.
Have faith that he – Jesus – will provide what will be needed for the journey.
Have faith that the journey itself will be and bring enough provision that we who are called to be on it, will be sustained
And have faith that those whom we will meet will be generous to us ... providing us with enough food and protection for the journey – that their hospitality, with its source and ground in Christ, will give us optimism and hope.
That is surely a different word than the one we usually hear.
“Trust the experts,” we’re told. “Hire it done.” “There isn’t enough to go around ... we live in a world of scarcity, so we’ve got to look out for ourselves, first, last, and always, to make sure we have enough, that we’re properly prepared, ready to have control in every single scenario that might come along.
But that’s impossible. You just can’t do it. And you’ll die trying.
Jesus knows this. If you get all wrapped up around the preparation, you’ll never get on to the journey. That’s true in every circumstance of life ... and most certainly, when it comes to being evangelical ... spreading the Word about him. If we just study it enough ... read enough books ... have enough classes in it ... bring in experts ... then we’ll get it right.
Nope. Just go, Jesus says. No purse, no bag, no sandals. In this case, it’s not foolish to say “God will provide.” When it comes to showing and telling the world about Jesus, his cross, his death, his resurrection, his forgiving and saving Word for us and for the world, just go and show and do as he has done for you.
• Greet no one on the road.
Now, yes, this word may sound mean, or haughty, or stuck up. A recent article ranked Seattle the 5th most stuck up city in the US, behind San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Minneapolis / St. Paul. The survey says we’re “aloof and like it that way” ... we’re the kind of people who will glare at you if you throw your coffee cup in the garbage can rather than the recycling bin.
Perhaps that’s true ... but that’s not what this word means.
Recall in last week’s Gospel word that Jesus had “set his face toward Jerusalem.” This word here means the same thing. It reflects a singularity of purpose ... focus, that’s Jesus’ word here. Don’t be sidetracked along the way by the little bright shinies you encounter, the bugs you might find under the rocks. This is serious business we’re called to be about ... and just as Jesus admonished those who wanted to do “something else” before they followed him, so he reminds us here, too ... this is most important, what I’m calling you to be about here ... don’t get distracted.
• Then, there’s a word about “people of peace.”
People of peace see what life is like where they are, and live fully in it; they don’t impose an agenda upon it (an agenda on their life or your life, as yours crosses with theirs) … theirs is to simply be, and be simply, in this life. Life for people of peace is not a series of destinations to be reached or a battle to be daily won but a journey on which we are all fellow travelers. Life is not a contest; nor is it all fun and games, a big joke. There are times and seasons of this life ... kairos moments ... moments found in “round time” or “Jesus time” ... amid the chronological clock or straight line time of this life.
I know people of peace. You know people of peace. They stay calm and focused and are fully alive in the moments they are in, so that they can live life fully.
They are the ones who reflect those familiar words of the Rudyard Kipling poem, “If”:
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
Seek out the people of peace as you are on your journey, my journey, Jesus says, for they will be receptive to my Word ... they may already be living in my Word ... they shall provide for you as you journey in my Word ... they are the Ones to whom the Kingdom of God has come near.
• It’s all gifts-related.
As we are on the road with and for Jesus, we live and serve out of abundance ... “the harvest is plentiful” is the first word Jesus says here. There is enough to go around ... enough for us all to do, in living and serving, loving and leading, discipling and being discipled in Jesus’ name. We simply need to pay attention, to focus, to take this work seriously because it is most important.
And part of that “most important” is serving as we’re gifted. We are called to serve ... each and every one of us ... but to serve as God has gifted each of us. Not everyone is gifted to be a teacher, a helper, a leader for our youth. Not everyone can do yardwork. Reading Scripture in public is not something all can do. But we are all gifted in some way by God to do something to bring the Kingdom of God near and nearer to people. Each and all of us.
The “laborers are few” when we don’t pay attention to those gifts God has given us for serving, for living and loving and sharing in the Word of Jesus.
So how will you find out what your gifts are? Simply, by trying things out. By listening to and speaking with and sharing with others, in community, which is the Body of Christ in the world. Those people of peace can help. We can all help each other, as we’re on the road, on the journey, together.
The point is, that we’re called to be on the journey. We don’t just sit back and watch and applaud others in their serving. We all serve, in the way God has gifted each of us. So try it out.
And finally, when we try ... when we come away from this font and this table and seek to live in the journey, on the journey, to which Christ has called us, through these gifts, gifts we are called to share ... we will indeed find that The Kingdom of God has come near ... to you, to me, to them – we will see it in, as the PROOF of what has happened and is happening in Jesus’ name.
This is not the end and the conclusion for all we do in Jesus’ name … IT IS THE BEGINNING.
That’s why the seventy returned with so much joy … they were amazed, in the joy and the freedom, the giftedness they’d discovered, the being fed and led and simply living in and among people of peace ... they had found that the Kingdom of God is alive and well and working through them ... through you, and me, as we are fed and filled and changed, forgiven and freed and sent, in Jesus’ Word, in his name, through these gifts, with our gifts, into God’s world.
So Yes, we still need HELP! And I hope you’ll consider being a leader, a teacher, an assistant for Kids’ Church … that you’ll help cut grass or pull weeds or trim the yard this summer … that you’ll consider serving in worship when your servant cluster leader calls you.
But more ... may your serving be done in JOY ... JOY through the journey that is the life of God’s servants, in Jesus’ name ... living in the hope, peace, and joy that the Kingdom of God has come near in Jesus, and is coming near in and through your service, done from your God-giftedness, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
OT 14 C
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
7 July 2013
It was a quiet summer day at Luther Seminary. I was at work in the seminary relations office doing data entry for my work-study job, and Kathleen was across the hall in the business office.
Enter Roy Harrisville Sr. … our retired professor / prankster. On this quiet summer day, he decided to have some fun at all our expense … walking quietly into the business office, he slammed his hands down on the counter and yelled, “ I NEED HELP!!!!”
We all came running.
Dr. Harrisville – who just needed a question answered … thought it was funny. None of the rest of us thought it was that funny, though.
However, on this somewhat quiet summer Sunday morning, I think I need to take a cue from professor Harrisville … by saying “WE NEED HELP!”
You’ve seen the announcement in the bulletin and heard it in person from Cydney and Shirley. Our Kids’ Church Christian Education time for our youngest youth is expanding right along with the numbers of youth who take part in it. But we need more teachers, helpers, leaders and assistants to make it happen for next fall.
That’s probably our most urgent need right now. There are some others, seasonal, like mowing the grass and edging and weeding, our much-asked Resources team could use some assistance in keeping our yard and grounds looking good during the summer months. And our Servant Cluster Leaders always need help as they schedule worship servers each month.
This is part and parcel of life in a congregation the size of Nativity. No, we’re not small, but we’re not large either. Which means we all share in the life and ministry and, yes, work of the congregation. We have to. We don’t have a large paid staff to “do all the work for us” … you have one full time staff member and you’re looking at him … the rest of our staff is part time and specific-ministry-focused, on music and choir and administration … so that means the rest of the work of the parish … and there is a lot of it, because we’re an active parish … the rest of the work of the parish must be shared among us.
Yes, we may at times wish we could be part of a huge, anonymous church which has countless staff to do all the work that needs to be done … but guess what … those churches were the ones hit hardest by the Great Recession and they suffered the most losses … losses in stewardship, and losses in staff.
I think that’s because in a congregation our size, people feel ownership … they, we, are part of what happens, and that personal connection makes a difference.
In Nativity’s case, it’s central to our ministry model, the way we organize ourselves in our three-team arrangement. The center of all the ministry here is NOT the staff … it’s certainly NOT the pastor … it’s Christ. Jesus’ saving Word of forgiveness, hope, and life; and the Sacraments, Baptism and Communion, which make that Word real, For Us ... because what we receive at the font and the table feeds ALL OF US and sends ALL OF US OUT to do the work Christ calls us to do, in and through this place.
Today, we have a Gospel word before us which is at once relevant to, and consistent with, that Word.
Jesus is appointing others to go ahead of him, into the towns and villages where he himself intends to go, sort of an advance team for the work of the Kingdom of God.
Now, yes, the work Jesus is appointing these seventy to do is different from my standing up here and asking you to consider being a leader or helper for Kids’ Church, or mowing the lawn, or pulling weeds, or serving in worship. Different, but not alien from it.
Let’s look at how he directs them … and us … to be about his work.
• Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.
I think it’s important to note that the first word Jesus gives to those he sends out ahead of him, is to have faith.
Have faith that he – Jesus – will provide what will be needed for the journey.
Have faith that the journey itself will be and bring enough provision that we who are called to be on it, will be sustained
And have faith that those whom we will meet will be generous to us ... providing us with enough food and protection for the journey – that their hospitality, with its source and ground in Christ, will give us optimism and hope.
That is surely a different word than the one we usually hear.
“Trust the experts,” we’re told. “Hire it done.” “There isn’t enough to go around ... we live in a world of scarcity, so we’ve got to look out for ourselves, first, last, and always, to make sure we have enough, that we’re properly prepared, ready to have control in every single scenario that might come along.
But that’s impossible. You just can’t do it. And you’ll die trying.
Jesus knows this. If you get all wrapped up around the preparation, you’ll never get on to the journey. That’s true in every circumstance of life ... and most certainly, when it comes to being evangelical ... spreading the Word about him. If we just study it enough ... read enough books ... have enough classes in it ... bring in experts ... then we’ll get it right.
Nope. Just go, Jesus says. No purse, no bag, no sandals. In this case, it’s not foolish to say “God will provide.” When it comes to showing and telling the world about Jesus, his cross, his death, his resurrection, his forgiving and saving Word for us and for the world, just go and show and do as he has done for you.
• Greet no one on the road.
Now, yes, this word may sound mean, or haughty, or stuck up. A recent article ranked Seattle the 5th most stuck up city in the US, behind San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Minneapolis / St. Paul. The survey says we’re “aloof and like it that way” ... we’re the kind of people who will glare at you if you throw your coffee cup in the garbage can rather than the recycling bin.
Perhaps that’s true ... but that’s not what this word means.
Recall in last week’s Gospel word that Jesus had “set his face toward Jerusalem.” This word here means the same thing. It reflects a singularity of purpose ... focus, that’s Jesus’ word here. Don’t be sidetracked along the way by the little bright shinies you encounter, the bugs you might find under the rocks. This is serious business we’re called to be about ... and just as Jesus admonished those who wanted to do “something else” before they followed him, so he reminds us here, too ... this is most important, what I’m calling you to be about here ... don’t get distracted.
• Then, there’s a word about “people of peace.”
People of peace see what life is like where they are, and live fully in it; they don’t impose an agenda upon it (an agenda on their life or your life, as yours crosses with theirs) … theirs is to simply be, and be simply, in this life. Life for people of peace is not a series of destinations to be reached or a battle to be daily won but a journey on which we are all fellow travelers. Life is not a contest; nor is it all fun and games, a big joke. There are times and seasons of this life ... kairos moments ... moments found in “round time” or “Jesus time” ... amid the chronological clock or straight line time of this life.
I know people of peace. You know people of peace. They stay calm and focused and are fully alive in the moments they are in, so that they can live life fully.
They are the ones who reflect those familiar words of the Rudyard Kipling poem, “If”:
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
Seek out the people of peace as you are on your journey, my journey, Jesus says, for they will be receptive to my Word ... they may already be living in my Word ... they shall provide for you as you journey in my Word ... they are the Ones to whom the Kingdom of God has come near.
• It’s all gifts-related.
As we are on the road with and for Jesus, we live and serve out of abundance ... “the harvest is plentiful” is the first word Jesus says here. There is enough to go around ... enough for us all to do, in living and serving, loving and leading, discipling and being discipled in Jesus’ name. We simply need to pay attention, to focus, to take this work seriously because it is most important.
And part of that “most important” is serving as we’re gifted. We are called to serve ... each and every one of us ... but to serve as God has gifted each of us. Not everyone is gifted to be a teacher, a helper, a leader for our youth. Not everyone can do yardwork. Reading Scripture in public is not something all can do. But we are all gifted in some way by God to do something to bring the Kingdom of God near and nearer to people. Each and all of us.
The “laborers are few” when we don’t pay attention to those gifts God has given us for serving, for living and loving and sharing in the Word of Jesus.
So how will you find out what your gifts are? Simply, by trying things out. By listening to and speaking with and sharing with others, in community, which is the Body of Christ in the world. Those people of peace can help. We can all help each other, as we’re on the road, on the journey, together.
The point is, that we’re called to be on the journey. We don’t just sit back and watch and applaud others in their serving. We all serve, in the way God has gifted each of us. So try it out.
And finally, when we try ... when we come away from this font and this table and seek to live in the journey, on the journey, to which Christ has called us, through these gifts, gifts we are called to share ... we will indeed find that The Kingdom of God has come near ... to you, to me, to them – we will see it in, as the PROOF of what has happened and is happening in Jesus’ name.
This is not the end and the conclusion for all we do in Jesus’ name … IT IS THE BEGINNING.
That’s why the seventy returned with so much joy … they were amazed, in the joy and the freedom, the giftedness they’d discovered, the being fed and led and simply living in and among people of peace ... they had found that the Kingdom of God is alive and well and working through them ... through you, and me, as we are fed and filled and changed, forgiven and freed and sent, in Jesus’ Word, in his name, through these gifts, with our gifts, into God’s world.
So Yes, we still need HELP! And I hope you’ll consider being a leader, a teacher, an assistant for Kids’ Church … that you’ll help cut grass or pull weeds or trim the yard this summer … that you’ll consider serving in worship when your servant cluster leader calls you.
But more ... may your serving be done in JOY ... JOY through the journey that is the life of God’s servants, in Jesus’ name ... living in the hope, peace, and joy that the Kingdom of God has come near in Jesus, and is coming near in and through your service, done from your God-giftedness, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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