Sept. 25, 2011 15th of Pentecost

Matthew 21:23-32

    23 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”

   24 Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

   They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”

   27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

   Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

  28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

   29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

   30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

   31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

   “The first,” they answered.

   Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

 “Changed Into His Likeness”

“It is not easy to ‘change our minds and believe’ something we don’t want to believe.

We do it slowly, cautiously, reluctantly, if we do it at all.  Most of the time we try not do it at all.”

All too often even our religious beliefs help us to not change our minds and believe something new and different.  To not get “a new heart and a new spirit.”  Ezek. 18:31

Going to church is meant to be a change agent in our lives.  So we can  “be of the same mind as was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.”

Phil. 2:5-7

We are not to just live in the past and stay locked in our old paradigms.  We are to be ‘guided in the way of salvation’ and say yes to what is yet to be.  This also means we will have to say no to some of what has been.

For the fact is, “the absolutes of yesterday become the obsoletes of today.”

There is only one absolute - “God is love!”  Everything else is relative and up for grabs.

To say yes to love is to say yes to change as a way of life; change into His likeness!

“No = Yes”

The parable of the two sons is a biting parable which confronts the people of Jesus day - and us, who are trying to be religious, moral, good, and God fearing  - with the disturbing truth that it is not enough to just talk the talk.  It is necessary to walk the walk.  That means we may have to do something we don’t want to do, something we are not inclined to do, something we even say no to, then have a change our heart, and go do it.

It is better to say no and mean it then to say yes and not mean it.  In fact, we cannot say “yes” without  also saying “no”.  No is an important little word which establishes our identity, gives us dignity, and opens the door to our choosing to say yes.

To say “yes” to God is to never be free again to go our own way and do our own thing without a second thought as to what this means to others.  It is to live out our words in how we handle our money, our time, our gifts, our energy.  It is to be deeply aware that what God asks of us is not easy, yet it is full of grace and love, which makes it more then worth while.

Sept. 19, 2011 14th of Pentecost

Matthew 20:1-16

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

   3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

   “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

   7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

   “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

   8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

   9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

   13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

   16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

“Gods generosity far exceeds Gods fairness”

God is more generous than we want God to be.

God is more generous than we want to be.

God is so generous it seems unfair to us.

To complain about the pay is to miss the joy of having labored long and hard in the Kingdom.  It is to miss the emptiness of “ standing idle in the market place.”

God calls us, invites us, urges, to get involved in Gods Kingdom on earth.  There is something God needs doing that no one can do like you.

Riddle:  “What do you have that nobody else has?”

Answer:  “You!”

Your slant on things;

your way of doing things;

your creative thoughts;

your twist on things.  

To turn this loose is to try something which has never been tried before.  Make what you can of that!

  “Is God Fair?” 

No!  God is not fair.  God is generous!

None of us deserve God’s love; all of us are loved by God.  The good, the bad, the indifferent.  This parable drives home the truth of the old hymn, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”  All have sinned and fall short.   All enter by grace alone!

The challenge for we who enter Kingdom work early is that God’s generosity (grace) can easily seem unfair when we are not included.  We are included but when we work so hard we subtly and not so subtly begin to think that we deserve it.  That is the great danger of being religious!  

What we need to remember is that no matter how religious we are, no matter how long we have labored in God’s Kingdom it is “By grace we are saved through faith.  It is not a work...lest anyone should boast.”

 “The Unfairness Of Grace”

Jesus is lucky there were no unions around in his day.  He would have been in big trouble.  Even though the master in this parable did no wrong.  He acted with generosity toward the late comers, and fairness toward the rest.  This was his right and privilege.

There is something inherently unfair about grace.  It doesn’t try to be just, but merciful; fair, but forgiving, equal, but special, uniform but unique.  Our God is a God of grace!

We can never predict what God will do and we can never limit who God will do it with.

It is a privilege to be hired at the first hour.  These are the lucky ones who know the joy of living in the kingdom.  Idleness is not a blessing.

Norman Cousins in “The Anatomy Of An Illness”, says there are two things necessary for longevity of life:  creativity and meaningful  involvement with others.

We who have never known what it is to be without a God we call Father (Mother); who have never known what it is to not  be forgiven, loved, cared for;  who have never known what it is to be “lost in a haunted woods,  children afraid of the night who have never been happy or good.” (Auden)  We are the lucky ones.  And we dare not forget it nor resist God’s graciousness towards the less fortunate.

Sept. 11, 2011 13th of Pentecost

Matthew 18: 21-35

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

   22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

   23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

   26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

   28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

   29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

   30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

   32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

   35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

 “The Echo of Forgiveness”  

Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian faith.  Without it there is no faith.

Forgiveness does not seek to cover up the wrong; it is not soft, blind or unconcerned about evil; nor is it soft on justice.  Forgiveness never looses sight of the person behind the act; the person who is in need of help.

The limit to forgiveness is the degree to which we have been forgiven.  And that is much!

Only the person who receives forgiveness can pass it on;

only the person who passes on forgiveness really receives it.

Forgiveness begins with being forgiven.

Forgiveness is an echo.  It does not originate with us and it does not end with us.

We forgive as we have been forgiven.

”My Rights And God’s Mercy”

To live with mercy as the heart beat of our lives means that what is loving, forgiving, merciful, and thus life giving, comes before just being right.

“If there is anything which keeps us out of the Kingdom of Heaven, it is our own goodness and rightness which forgets how much mercy we have received, and refuses to pass it on.”

“Principles, as important as they are, are never as important as people.  To stand on principle when people are hurting is a gross sin in the Kingdom of Heaven!”

“It really doesn’t make much difference, if any, if we play bingo in church.  That really isn’t much of a concern in the Kingdom of Heaven.  What is of great concern, is whether or not our lives are being lived out in a style where mercy is integral to our living.  Where we live not  to ourselves and we die not  to ourselves, but  to the Lord who has forgiven us much!”

“To Be Forgiven Is To Be Forgiving”

                                             

Forgiveness is not an option in the Kingdom of Heaven...it is a requirement.  We cannot choose if we are going to forgive or who we are going to forgive or not forgive...we are to forgive as we have been forgiven!

There also is to be no limit on our being forgiving, for there is no limit on God’s forgiving us. And once we give it, we are not to take it back any more then we are to withhold it to get our pound of flesh. 

Forgiveness - showing mercy - is at the center of everything God is about, even justice and judgment  and it is to be at the center of our lives too.

“When somebody you’ve wronged forgives you, you’re spared the dull and self-diminishing throb of a guilty conscience.

When you forgive somebody who has wronged you, you’re spared the dismal corrosion of bitterness and wounded pride.

For both parties, forgiveness means the freedom again to be at peace inside their own skins and to be glad in each others presence.” 

Frederick Buechner “Listening To Your Life”, p. 305

                                                                                       

Forgiveness is something we all need and we all need to give, for without it there can be no meaningful relationship in our lives and with it nothing can stop us from creating a new future out of pasts failures and unfairness.  It is, as Lewis Smedes says in his book “Forgive And Forget”, “...love’s revolution against life’s unfairness”

 for  “When we forgive we ride the crest of love’s cosmic wave; we walk in stride with God.”  and then anything can happen!

 Forgiveness makes “done things undone.”  There is no revenge to be had; no grudge to be satisfied; no left over wrong to be righted.  That has all been forgiven and when something is forgiven it is undone!  That’s how powerful forgiveness is, if we only dared believe it and live it.

To be forgiven and forgiving is to live believing that we can have a common future even with our enemies and even with those who have treated us unfairly.  It is to live believing in forgiveness, which is “...love’s revolution against life’s unfairness.”  Lewis Smedes “To Forgive and Forget”

                                                     

“Forgiveness is love’s toughest work, and love’s biggest risk.  If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it can make you a doormat or an insufferable manipulator.”  Lewis Smedes“ To Forgive and Forget” p. xii 

Forgiveness opens up new possibilities and  offers health and wholeness - salvation if you please - to me and to the one who hurt me.  For “when we forgive we ride the crest of love’s cosmic wave; we walk in stride with God.  And we heal the hurt we never deserved.” Lewis Smedes“ To Forgive and Forget”, p.152

Sept. 4, 2011 12th of Pentecost

Matthew 18: 15-20

15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

   18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.

   19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

On Being Forgiving 

A very dangerous passage which could lead us to the worst of all sin - spiritual pride and self-righteousness.  Need to approach this passage with a deep sensitivity to our own “faults” and an equally deep awareness of the grace of God who forgives me for my secret as well as my confessed sins.

We are not given permission to be piously judging and condemning; we are reminded to  be accountable to each other and not be indifferent about that which causes disharmony in our lives and relationships.  Love is the fulfilling of the law, as Paul says.

These words are easy to misinterpret.  So dangerous it would almost be better if they had been lost and we didn’t have to deal with them.  They seem to give us a power and authority we dare not exercise.  A power and authority which runs contrary to the spirit and will of Christ.  A lot of bad has happened because of these words.

What ever else we do with them we must interpret them in the light of the strong and clear call to be forgiving rather than condemning which echoes throughout the Gospels.  This means we don’t make things black and white; rather we struggle to work at the dynamic of reconciliation and do not settle for anything less.  We remember how often forgiveness is necessary - not 3 times but 77 times!  We are not into controlling people but in setting them free to live in the grace of a loving God.

Nothing makes any sense in the words of our Gospel UNLESS...unless there is something to the power of love to overcome all things.Then, maybe, just maybe, it is possible that all things do work together for good for those who dare to love. Love in the sense of deeply and genuinely wanting the best for all. This is the ideal of Christian love.

The challenge is to help a person find his/her truth and live in it. It is the challenge of tough love. Love enough even to cut them off...kick them out...not to destroy them but to help them come to their truth and want back in again. Want to be loved again. This is the format of AA - and it works!

August 28, 2011 11th of Pentecost

Matthew 16:21-26

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

   22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

   23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

   24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

   28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

“Life Without Limits?”

The challenge for all of us is not only to try figure out what God’s will really is;

it is also to be willing to suffer rather then lose our integrity.  The secret of life is that it has to be lost to be found; it has to dare suffer to be real and have integrity.

 As a poet once said, “Life is a sum of habits disturbed by a few thoughts.”

When we try make it be easy we lose what it really is - as Henry James has said - 

“Life is effort, unremittingly repeated.”  It is not without limits.  

Life without limits, without a purpose beyond having it bigger and better; without struggle, commitment to something beyond my own happiness and economic security; without denial, without the struggle which comes in loosing oneself in being an instrument of love in a world of hate; life without integrity and responsibility, servant hood and compassion is no life at all!  It is indeed very thin!

“Get Behind Me Satan”

Peter had the best of intentions at heart when he tried to talk Jesus out of the way of suffering. He had no intention of being an evil temptation.

Peter wanted suffering eliminated from Jesus life.  We all would like to see the same.

Suffering is so costly; it hurts so much, demands so much, takes so much.

Helmut Thielicke has said the problem for Americans is that we don’t know how to deal with suffering.  We regard it as something “which is fundamental inadmissible, distressing, embarrassing, and not to be endured.”

What Peter and we do not understand is that suffering belongs to the very nature of this world and to the very nature of Jesus - the suffering servant who emptied himself.

To be caught up with the will of God is to take on suffering as a part of loving.  The only way to eliminate suffering is to eliminate love.  Love makes sense out of and gives meaning to life, even suffering.

“...life without any kind of suffering would be no life at all; it would be a form of death.  Life - the life of the spirit like the life of the body- depends in some mysterious way upon the struggle to be...suffering-as-struggle belongs...to life’s foundational basis and goodness...A pain free life would be a life-less life. 

We suffer because we are human and out of our suffering comes our capacity for compassion.  For ‘suffering integrates us into life and makes us more fully and truly ‘alive’.”

 Douglas John Hall, “God And Human Suffering”, pp. 57-66

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August 21, 2011 10th of Pentecost

Matthew 16:13-20

  13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

   14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

   15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

   16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

   17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

“Saying More Then We Know”

“The genius of the poet is that he says more than he knows.”

The genius of faith is that it says more than it knows - always!

God is unsearchable and incomprehensible;  grace goes beyond human understanding and logic.  Faith is believing more then we can ever know.

Peter was saying more then he knew when he confessed Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  

The words came strangely to his lips from beyond his own understanding.  It is so also with us,  as Luther wrote long ago: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to him...”

Faith is not having all the answers to the riddle of life;  not never having to doubt again; or be perplexed about things; or afraid; or confused; or ever having to feel lost again.  It is not a magical formula which takes away all the hurt, pain, and fear out of life.  

Faith is the God given capacity to hope when all looks hopeless; laugh when much is heavy; dance when there is little reason to dance; pray when God seems far away and not tuned in.  It is the God given capacity to list all the reasons why there is no God, and yet...and yet believe in God!

“Faith is a power and passion in authority among the power and passions of life.

P. T. Forsythe

It is the sure and certain hope that God is for is, not against us.  No matter what!

“What If...

What if what is really important is not what we think about Jesus but what Jesus thinks about us?  What if what is really important is that we let Jesus tell us who God is and who we are in God’s eyes, and let God love us with a love which will not let us go, let us down, let us off - ever!

What if the main point of it all is not that we love God but that God  loves us!

How incredible this truth is!

Faith is not our doing!  It is God’s doing in us.

It is more important to be doing the works of God then to be talking about them.

Our challenge is not to figure out who is saved and who isn’t.  Our challenge is to let the great and precious promises of God not only live in our hearts but live in our world through us.  To be who we say we are - the people of God who live by grace and want to pass it on.

August 14, 2011 9th of Pentecost

Matthew 15:21-28

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

   23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

   24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

   25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

   26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

   27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

   28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

“Great Is Your Faith”

The Canaanite woman wanted something of the goodness of God’s grace in her life too.

She persisted until she got it.  She took the rebuke, came back for more, and hung in there until Jesus could only do what he came to do - bless her.

It is often our vulnerability, our deep needs, which lead us into the arms of a loving, gracious God.  It is also our persistence - our faith which will not give up - which sees the worst in life redeemed and turned into blessing.

Expect to have something of the goodness of God’s grace in your life - and don’t give up until it happens!

 “A God Of Grace” 

There are no favorites with God.  God loves all equally much.  He is a God of grace.

It sounds like Jesus is saying there are favorites, but he isn’t.  He is identifying his ministry- he is not excluding anyone.

The miracle here is not just the healing; her faith is a miracle.

God’s grace comes to us in Word and Sacrament.   AND in acts of kindness, compassion, and friendship experienced and shared in the human experience.  

 i.e. Don Quixote:  When he looked at that cheap and gaudy woman through the spectacles of his grace, he saw a splendid woman.  He said to her, “It’s all right even though everyone says you’re all wrong.  When, she embraced that grace and began to feel it’s power, she became what Don Quixote saw.