March 25, 2012 Fifth Sunday in Lent

John 12:20-33

    ²⁰ Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” ²² Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

   ²³ Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. ²⁵ Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

   ²⁷ “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name!”

   Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” ²⁹ The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

   ³⁰ Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. ³¹ Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up^[a^] from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³ He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

"Life Is Found By Losing It."

To “hate” ones life does not mean that life is bad; something we just have to put up with until we get to heaven, where life will be good.

To “hate” ones life means to not be so hung up on myself that I can’t live.  I can’t risk and fail and try again.  I can’t ever be in a down position, needing forgiveness, needing to lean on someone.  It means to dare die in order to live.

Jack London:  “ I would rather be ashes than dust.  I would rather my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than in should be stifled in dry-rot.  I would rather be a superb Meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.  Man’s chief purpose is to LIVE, not to exist.  I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.  

I shall use my time.”

Life is found by losing it; by risking giving it up, giving it away.  

As one commentary put it:

“He that so prizes his life, (and the Greek work here means excessive love of life), that he cannot let it out of his own hand or give it up to good ends checks its growth and it withers and dies; whereas he who treats his life as if he hated it, giving it up freely to the needs of others, shall keep it to eternal life.”

Ironically, in this text, the word hate opens up for us what we would expect love to do.

It enables us to love as we are meant to love; not just our own lives, but all lives.

“We Wish To See Jesus”

We come here to see Jesus.  To “know the Lord” and have his law of love written on our hearts.  We would see Jesus so that faith becomes a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of our lives.  This is what preaching is all about - young pastor found a note on pulpit one Sunday morning after months of inflicting his advanced theological knowledge on the congregation:  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

To see Jesus is to have to open our hearts to hear what we cannot hear and believe what we cannot understand or comprehend.  It is to let our hearts be filled with the law of God, which is a law of love until we can no longer be self-righteous about anything.  Even so that this very law cannot become a burden for those who don’t fit in or a source of self-righteousness for us.  i.e. using Bible to condemn homosexuals.

To see Jesus we may well have to include those we do not want to include and not use the Bible as a weapon against them.  Sin is not seeing Jesus in those who are afraid to live in the open, and it is condemning those who do not fit my lifestyle.  Sin is first of all - my self righteousness.

To see Jesus is to “learn obedience through suffering”.

Suffering is holy ground - always.

Jesus suffering was his hour of glorification,  glory means the “veiled -yet- evident presence of God.”  Suffering often is a means by which the veiled -yet-evident presence of God is impressed upon us, enabling us to learn obedience in a way which is deep and painful and holy.

Douglas John Hall -” God and Human Suffering”, pp 112,116,117

To see Jesus is finally to follow him as a servant; and learn who He is.

"He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake side, He came to those men who knew Him not.  He speaks to us the same word: "Follow thou me!"  and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time.  He commands.  And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is." 

Albert Schweitzer-"The Quest for the Historical Jesus"

March 18, 2012 Fourth Sunday in Lent

John 3:14-21

¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

   ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

 “The Gift Of God”

One of the most difficult truths for us to handle is that it is...”by grace that we have been saved through faith; and this is not our own doing, it is the gift of God...There is nothing here to boast of, since it is not the result of our own efforts.”  Eph. 2:8,9

We like to boast of how we have God in our control, as one ‘good’ Christian said recently,  “God doesn’t hear Jewish prayers” - as if we know and control who God listens too!

When God becomes predictable, God also becomes impotent!

Grace means that  God loves the person who first said, “God is dead.”  

God has compassion for the person who rejects him.  

For God’s primary concern is that we allow God to love us, to save us, to touch our hearts and change our living; to rescue us from our ability to self-destruct!  

God makes it easy for us, as with the Israelites of old.  Just look and you will live!  Just look at Jesus and live!  God wants us so badly that if we just give him the least little excuse, God will shower his grace upon us and call us his own!  God is the waiting father!

God also trusts that once this gift of grace hits home, things will start happening in our lives.

For the person who truly lives by grace is the last person who can be judgmental towards others.  That is simply a contradiction which leads to hypocrisy of the worst kind.

The line God draws is not a judgment line, but a grace line.  To cross that live is to live in love and forgiveness.  Faith is crossing that line and letting God have at you!

It is looking at Jesus, and living.

“This Is How Believing Works”

Sometimes the most common or familiar is the most difficult to hear, see, experience in a new and living way. This is true when we come to words such as today - “By grace you have been saved...”  “For God so loved the world...”

There is more to this then just hearing it again in the same way.  Believing in Jesus is a lot more then saying I believe.  As verses 19-21 indicate, it is coming to the light of God’s truth, wanting it, yearning for it, searching for it, welcoming it when it comes;  when it comes, as it always will,  in human form.

This means that those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord should be the first to welcome the liberation of the black man, first to struggle with those who are struggling for then own identity, the first to listen to the other side. 

To welcome the light of God’s love into our lives is to open ourselves up to all the evil which is within us...our greed, selfishness, bigotry, envy, jealousy, lust, pride.  It is to have it all out in the light of day.

Woman in NY: “If you’re not interested in the rats in my apartment, I”m not interested in your Jesus.”

Judgment words on me;  it exposes me rather then giving me reason to condemn others.

First act of faith is to confess often that I love darkness more then light.

This leads to true forgiveness and the good deeds which follow; as I then live in the light of God’s love and share it with others - not judgment but compassion.

AA is a good example of this dynamic at work.

March 11, 2012  Third Sunday in Lent

John 2:13-22

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

   ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

   ²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

“Remembered...and Believed.”

I memorized the 10 commandments and meanings by the 5th grade.  I knew them better then, than I know them now.  Yet I know them better now than I ever could have then.  For I have gotten them wrong enough times to begin to know what they might mean and are all about.  

The people in the temple where getting it all wrong.  That is why Jesus drove them out.  They were mixing greed with worship, and all but destroying worship.  

We get it wrong often.  We start to get it right when we have something to remember...

that I am loved with a relentless love

that I can be defeated but now destroyed

that I can blow it, but not lose it.

A key word in finally getting it right is  “remember”.

The disciples understood this experience after the resurrection and they remembered.  Then they got it right.

It is the same for us.  We get it right finally, when we remember the grace and forgiving love of a God who never gives up on us and never forsakes us.  A God who’s love never dies, and who’s dazzling grace always is.

“Jesus, the Intruder”

Jesus had two faces.  He was “meek and lowly in heart”;  and  “he looked at them with anger”.  (Mk 5:5)  He was gentle but not anemic,  as when he called Herod a “fool” or told Peter “Get behind me, Satan!”

Nor was He anemic when he cleansed the temple.  He was a violent intruder, disrupting their comfortable little set up.  It must have been a wild scene!  The disciples must have been stunned, even embarrassed.  The people likewise.  

Jesus was not always an easy person to be with.  For example, when he said:

   “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; for as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."  Lk. 9:60

   “No own who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”   Lk. 9:62 

   “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or                     

            daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”    Mt. 10:37, 38

This may sound harsh and in some ways it is.  It is also an expression of God’s awesome love which will not let us off easy, but expresses itself even in punishment for sin.  It is as Luther prayed, “Ah, God, punish us, we pray Thee...but be not silent...toward us.”

Jesus, would be an Intruder in our lives, harsh though it may seen, to awaken in us our need for a Savior, and then Jesus would be the Savior we need.

March 4, 2012 Second Sunday in Lent

Mark 8:31- 38

³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³² He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

   ³³ But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” ³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.

 “The Great Paradox”

When I try to find life I end up loosing it.  When I give up trying to find it or save it and simply lose myself in it, I find it.

This is true of faith  also.

“He who would take all the uncertainty out of life, will lose it.  He who would live with uncertainty in Jesus name and the gospels, will find it.”

It is not the purpose of faith to take all the uncertainty out of life.  To have all the answers; to save life from its human experience of surprise, shock, disillusionment, fear, doubt, perplexity, confusion and all the rest of the uncertainties which come our way.  To do so would be to destroy the human experience of life.

The most honest expression of faith in the NT; may well be, “Lord I believe, help mine unbelief.”

It is in the face of the uncertainties of life that we discover the truth that

“suffering produces endurance,

endurance produces character,

character produces hope,

and hope does not disappoint.”  Rom. 5:3

 “Have In Mind The Things Of God”

It is not always possible to know what someone “has in mind’ by what they say, or even by what they do.  It can all be very deceptive.  Even in our faith journey.  Even when we try to be open and honest.  Peter faced this in Jesus words and we do too. 

To have in mind the things of God is not something we ever do perfectly.  It is a process by which we are being changed into God’s likeness day by day.  it has to do with our attitude, pride, lust for life; our wanting to make it and make it big.  It has to do with our wanting to bribe God so we will have it easy as we make it.

God has it in mind that we are to be servants, not lords; givers, not takers; helpers not hoarders.  God is not really interested in how successful we are, nor how important, nor how secure, nor even how devout we are.  God doesn’t have these things in mind.  God has in mind how helpful we are, how sensitive we are, how compassionate and loving we are - especially toward the helpless.

To have in mind the things of God is to have in mind the awesome truth that to know God’s love is to share God’s love and to walk as a servant in a world which abuses servants.

The bottom live with God is lowly servant hood - having in mind the things which make for love and letting the love we cherish be felt n the lives we live.

Feb. 26. 2012  First Sunday in Lent

Mark 1:9-15

⁹ At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”¹² At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.¹⁴ After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

 “Repent: Let Go Of”

The word repent is a pivotal word between us and the Kingdom of God.  It means to turn around; to change one’s mind, to let go of something so something better can come.

It may be stimulated by something negative or positive, yet it is the first positive step towards the Kingdom of God.

What we believe is in need of repentance as much as what we don’t believe.  For our beliefs can keep us from seeing the Kingdom of God in our midst as much as our disbelief.  Jesus had more difficulty with the religious then with any other group.  What they believed kept them from seeing what he called them to believe. 

To repent and believe the good news is to let go of what ever it is that keeps us from living in the Kingdom now.  Even what we hold as sacred, so we can discover what is really sacred - God’s promise to love us always. Nothing can stop God from loving us!

“Temptation - No Easy Thing”

Mark keeps it short and simple; sounding easy.

Matthew & Luke add more details but make it sound like just a quick quote of scripture and the devil is on the run.  But really, was it that easy for Jesus?  Is it that easy for us?

Or is Nikos Kazantzokis closer to the truth when he depicts Jesus temptation ending with this  struggle and cry:

“Jesus fell on his face.  His mouth, nostrils and eyes filled with sand.  His mind was blank.  Forgetting his hunger and thirst, he wept - wept as though his wife and all his children had died, as though his whole life had been ruined.

“’Lord, Lord’, he murmured, biting the sand, ‘Father, have you no mercy?  Your will be done: how many times have I said this to you until now, how many times shall I say it in the future?  All my life I shall quiver, resist and say it: Your will be done!””

The Last Temptation of Christ, p.  252

This is no casual thing which is happening.  It is the beginning of a life of testing and staying true to the will of God for his life.  It was necessary for Jesus to be tempted for only when he could say no to God was he free to say yes.

Temptation is not something to be eliminated from our lives.  For to be so pure we are not temptable, probably means we are also so anemic, so passionless, so flat and cautious that nothing exciting and alive can touch us either.

Sometimes we have to get it wrong - and repent - before we can get it right.

As Alan  Jones says in “Soul Making’:

“I wander far from my Trinitarian and communal home and this wandering can be very important because it is the only way I ever learn anything - by getting it wrong.”

When we do get it right we are with Jesus on the road to discovering the joy of living with God in God’s Kingdom, being servants rather then masters.  All the time being loved beyond our wildest dreams and being asked to do more then we ever dreamed possible.

p.s. And remember , God loves us when we are ‘ naughty’ as well as ‘nice’!

When we get it wrong trying hard to get it right!

Feb. 22, 2009 Transfiguration Sunday

Mark 9:2-9

² After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. ³ His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. ⁴ And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁶ (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)⁷ Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

“What Are We For?  

The transfiguration was a unique moment which could not be repeated nor fully comprehended.  It also was a moment which could not be shared openly; it was to be kept to themselves.

Nor were they able to stay there.  Life is not lived on the Mt. top.  The Mt, top is important to both go to and experience.  Then we return to the valley to live our lives.

Mountain top experiences can help us keep in touch with who we are and what we are living for.  It is easy to lose our way and live for the wrong reasons.  To go chasing rainbows.  Jesus needed the transfiguration experience to keep him on his redemptive course.  

What are we for?  We are for intimacy with ourselves, others and our God. 

 Lose sight of this and we will lose out on life!

 “Bold In Our Being”

There are some things too precious and holy to shout from the mountain tops;  to easily and blatantly share with others.  First there has to be a relationship and an experience through which this special moment can be understood.  For Peter, James and John, that relationship is with Jesus and the experienced which would make sense of the mystical experience of the transfiguration is the resurrection.

They are to tell no one, just stay with Jesus and listen to Him.

This is what makes sense when nothing else does - to be loved with a love which will not let us go and to live in a dazzling grace which always is.

We are called to be bold in our witness to the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ.

We cannot always shout it out, but we can and are empowered by that which we cannot tell to do that which is very telling -  which causes people to recognize that we have been with Jesus.

To have had a transforming experience, is to have a spirit within which empowers us to live as those who know we are loved by God.  And that means someone else is going to be better off!

Feb. 12, 2012 6th Sunday of Epiphany

Mark 1:40-45

    ⁴⁰ A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”⁴¹ Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” ⁴² Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.⁴³ Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ⁴⁴ “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” ⁴⁵ Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

“The Miracle of Intimacy”

Jesus didn’t want the man healed of leprosy to tell any one.

But it was too big to keep quiet about.  He spread it freely.

The result was distorted attention by many who wanted some of the same or suspicion by others who saw this as a violation of religious traditions.  Neither was what Jesus wanted.  He wanted true intimacy between him and them.

The leper came asking.  It is not weakness to ask for help.  It is a sign of strength, and the beginning of healing and growth.

Those who heard about it wanted more of the same.  They wanted to get something out of Jesus not be with Jesus.  Others wanted to do away with him.  Jesus wanted to let them know that no matter what - he would be there for them and with them.  A deeper miracle even than healing, the miracle of intimacy,  yet one we tend to miss because we want the easier way

“Telling Jesus story is not enough!”

These words from Deborah Krause, Academic Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament at Louisville Seminary are too good to not pass on.  They get to the heart of what is needed in the church today - mission beyond ourselves.

“Mark manages to tell (in this text) of both the crushing press of Jesus’ ministry and the unrestrained flowing of the spirit of God in his ministry.  It is both success and hardship for Jesus. ...Mark’s story reveals his purpose to portray that in Jesus Christ the kingdom of God is on the loose.  It is beyond even Jesus’ control. Mark shows even Jesus getting knocked off his intended mission and pressured by the force of God’s spirit in the world.  

“The call is to mission, and Jesus’ faithfulness to that call - through conflict, disobedience, suffering, and even death - is a witness that the church must be bold to see.  While we would enshroud ourselves in our worship in the story of Jesus Christ, the ultimate goal of this story and our worship is the mission of the gospel of God in this world.  It is a mission that invites conflict in its challenge to any power that does not intend peace (shalom), justice, and love.  The church must not fool itself that telling Jesus’ story is enough.  The story provokes a mission that calls for our passion in proclaiming and living out the good news of God in the world in the face of conflict, suffering, and death.”  

New Proclamation, Year B, 2005-2006 pp.113,114.