Sept. 1, 2013, 15th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 14:1, 7-14

1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.    7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
    12 Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

“Humility Is Our Key Word”

These words are about how it is in the Kingdom of God and how God would have us be.

With God there are no “greats”; no “ inner circles”; no “less or more important”; no social status.  No game playing, pretending to be humble so we can be great.

“Half of the harm that is done in this world, is due to people who want to feel important.  They don’t mean to do harm - but the harm does not interest them.  Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”  T. S. Elliot _”The Cocktail Party”

We live by grace not by our accomplishments.   Humility is our key word.

Humility is a sigh of strength.  It is a fruit of healthy ego-strength; liking myself but not hung up on myself.  It comes out of the honest struggle with my weakness; and the gracious acceptance of forgiveness.  It comes when I forget myself and remember who I am - a sinner - and who my God is - a gracious, loving, forgiving God.  Humble people like themselves and don’t need the acclaim of others to do so.  They just go about being their forgiven selves.


“True humility doesn’t consist of thinking ill of yourself but on not thinking of yourself much differently from the way you’d be apt to think of anybody else.  It is the capacity for being no more & no less pleased when you play your own (bridge) hand well then when your opponents do.”  Buechner, “Wishful Thinking”, p. 40

Humility is loosing oneself in living and not keeping score.  It is letting the love of God consume us until nothing is more important then the privilege of being a servant.
It is getting lost in doing good.  And letting God keep score, if God want s to, which God probably doesn’t.


Nelson Mandela - “Invicitus”
“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory, when nice things occur.”



“Be All You Can Be - Yourself”

Jesus is doing more then changing social customs.  He is challenging the games we play; the sham which is ours because we don’t know how to be real with each other or with ourselves.

We find it hard to affirm our strengths and acknowledge openly our weaknesses.  Being humble is often a cover up for our feelings of pride.  Yet, the best thing we can do for ourselves, others and even God, is to be ourselves and accept ourselves as a child born in the image of God.

It is good to be human; we don’t have to play games to try hide our strengths or weaknesses.  We can be who we are, in the grace of God.  A forgiven sinner who is loved by a gracious God.  Jesus died to show us our value, our priceless value to God our Creator.  Our challenge is to be real with ourselves, others and God in the light of this awesome truth!

Aug. 25, 2013, 14th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 13:10-17

  10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, 11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." 13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
    14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."
    15 The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"
    17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Two haunting questions raised by this text:

“Do Christians (we) hide behind obscure biblical passages and ancient prejudices as a way of avoiding the call to be a healing presence in the world?”  Lisa W. Davison

Consider homosexuality as one example.  Do we hide behind the few verses of Scripture which seem to condemn homosexuality, so we don’t have to face the many verses of Scripture which call us to be “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Ps. 103:8) as Jesus was!  Thus being a healing presence in the world.


How do we keep the Sabbath today?

Weekly worship is still with us, yet few of us worship weekly.
Sunday is still a “special” day yet it is full of that which happens the rest of the week.

Reflect on these words from Gary E. Pelukso-Verdend, a United Methodist pastor at Phillips Theological Seminary inTulsa, OK.

“Keeping Sabbath is also a weekly reminder of God’s household economics in which economic justice is a foundational virtue of any society and in which the value of liberation for the bound takes precedence over normal prohibitions.  In today's 24/7/365 globalized and commercialized economy, keeping Sabbath thus understood will involve striving that rises to the level of agony.  We Christians have little external support for Sabbath stewardship.  It is not easy to be a good steward of time, money, energy, and attention in a world that never sleeps or rests, in which faith in the global economy sometimes crosses over into idolatry.”

Aug. 18, 2013, 13th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 12:49-56

49"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
54 He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?

“Is not My Word Like Fire?

There are things we do not want to hear.  Even in God’s Word!  The Prophet Jeremiah (and other prophets) got in trouble because they said what God wanted them to say, not what the people wanted to hear.

God’s word is not only a word of peace; it is also a word of challenge which brings unrest.

It is not just to comfort the afflicted; it is also to afflict the comfortable!

It does create division among people between those who hear and those who don’t want to hear.  This is true because God’s Word is fire and it creates a dangerous spirit - the spirit of love!  The kind of love which brings God’s kingdom to this world in ways which make it a different yet better place for all.

“Fire On Earth”

A difficult text.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace, not of division.

When what we hold sacred is challenged,no matter what it is,
 division is going to result.

Jesus challenged a lot of sacred cows in his day - and there was division!
Yet Jesus did not let this keep him from the sacredness of life. He did what he had to do to show God’s love and mercy to all and let no religious tradition stop him.
What we forget is that God’s Word is like fire and like a hammer which seeks to create in us a dangerous spirit - the spirit of love - and calls us to a radical way of living - as those who forget not the name of God no matter what price has to be paid.

To live as God’s chosen people does not mean we can have our cake and eat it too!
That we can presume on God’s generosity and take it for granted;
keep our faith and our love private;
  live off the fat of God’s love with little thought for others;
judge and condemn those who are different;
  gloat over what we have and condemn those who have not.

To live as God’s chosen people is to live as radicals who dare believe in love as the most powerful and most important power in all of life.
Nothing, not even our most honored and sacred relations must keep us from living as those who are servants of love; disciples of a God of love.

The words spoken by a young boy in the south during the racial struggle of the 1960’s  touch the heart of Jesus words to us today.

“I don’t know why I said no to segregation.
I’m just another white Southerner,
and I wasn’t brought up to love integration.
But I was brought up to love Jesus Christ,
and when I saw the police of this city
use dogs on people,
I asked myself what Jesus Christ would have
thought and He would have done
- and that’s all I know about how I CAME TO BE HERE,
 ON THE FIRING LINE.”

Telhard de Chardin captures Jesus words in prophetic words still seeking fulfillment.

“Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love:  and then for the second time in the history of the world man will have discovered fire!"
                                                   

Aug. 11, 2013, 12th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 12:32-40

32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  35 "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

“Our Treasurer and Our Hearts”

What we live for is what we become.  I will end up - my heart will end up - where I put my energy and hope.  We become possessed by what we set out to possess.
i.e. addictions of all sorts.

We need to remember that life is a gift not a possession; and so is the Kingdom of God.
To lose life is to find it; to be possessed by the gift of the Kingdom is to become a servant in the work of the Kingdom.

Gospel feels like a double whammy.

It contains grace pure and clear - God is pleased to give us the Kingdom.
It contains a warning - we can miss the kingdom by living for the wrong reasons.

To live by faith is to live in openness to God as the faithful promise maker and promise keeper.  It is to live in readiness for the unpredictable arrival of God’s grace; it is to journey through life seeing more then can be seen and certain of that which cannot be seen.


“The Gift Of The Kingdom”

God wants to give us a great gift - a tremendous, valuable, priceless gift.
We are not sure we want it.

God wants to give us His Kingdom!
We are afraid to accept it for the gift cannot be kept to ourselves - we in tern must give it.

God’s Kingdom is a free gift, but God is never thrown at us for free; it costs us our lives given in thankful service for so great a gift, freely given.

For God’s Kingdom, freely given, joyfully received, becomes not a possession we have but a possession which has us!

We become possessed by the gift and all of life becomes a means of giving the gift.