June 23, 2013 5th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 8:26-39

    26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,[a] which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torture me!" 29 For Jesus had commanded the evil[b] spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
    30 Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"
   "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
    32A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
    34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.
    38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.

As you struggle with the meaning of these words for today, I would share with you these words from Richard P. Carlson, who writes in the New Proclamation series.
     

“Preaching on demon possession and exorcisms in a postmodern era is never an easy task. Yet powers of evil are still in existence (be they political, social, or economic in nature) that seek to dominate, isolate, and alienate their victims. At times such powers can even try to negotiate with the church, to strike a deal so that if the church does not name them and their tyranny of oppression, then the powers will leave the church alone.

This story, however, announces anew that the mission of the gospel includes liberation, wholeness, and restoration. In naming the powers of evil that hold others in captivity.  The gospel seeks to bestow status, peace, and belonging to community. Perhaps the greatest challenge in proclaiming this text is not in demythologizing its demonic elements but in having the courage to name the powers that seek to enslave people for their own ends and in announcing anew the liberation that Jesus' mission of wholeness and restoration brings to the captives of today's world.”
                                    Richard P. Carlson
     

Another quote from New Proclamation, Year C, 2010, p. 111

“The man (demon possessed) is completely separated - culturally, socially, and geographically- from his own people.  Thus, once again we find Jesus reaching out to one on the margins, and here we encounter marginalization to the extreme.  The man is not only a social outcast, but a spiritual pariah.  He is a Gentile, and one controlled by a legion ofd Satan’s forces.  Yet even to one such as this, God’s gift of salvation is freely given.”    Karl Allen Kuhn

June 16, 2013 4th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 7:36-50

  36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
    39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."
    40 Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
      "Tell me, teacher," he said.
    41"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,[a] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"
    43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
      "You have judged correctly," Jesus said.
    44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
    48 Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
    49 The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
    50 Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."


 “Empowered To Love”

Before it is possible for us to truly love God, it is necessary for us to experience the love of God.

Simon was not aware of his need for forgiveness; thus he was not able to be forgiving.  The woman was - and could.
What ever love he might have had was self-generated; hers was forgiveness generated.

To be loved is to be forgiven.
To be forgiven is to be able to love, beyond human imagination.

It is the nature of God to forgive, not to condemn.
To accept, rather then dismiss.
To reconcile, rather than reject.

God forgives first - as much as needed - grace sufficient to cover what ever sins - then waits for something beautiful to happen.
Those who are forgiven much (and know it) will love  much ( and show it).

It is not moral perfection which pleases God - perfection which creates an attitude of condemnation rather than compassion.
It is being forgiven much which pleases God, for then our lives will make a difference and the Kingdom of God will come - through us!

June 9, 2013  3rd Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 7:11-17

  11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."
    14 Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
    16 They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." 17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea[a] and the surrounding country.

“God Has Visited His People”

It is no small thing to say and believe that God has visited his people.  It means God reveals who God is,  as God is, not as we would have God be.  It is no small thing to say Jesus is God.  it is with fear and awe that we say such a thing.

Faith is not a matter of understanding God; it is a matter of recognizing my need for God, and then recognizing the God I need - who has revealed himself in Jesus.  Faith is not a possession; it is a possessor.  It is, as P.T. Forsythe so ably describes it, “A power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life.”

The secret of resolving the dilemma of death lies in faith;  in daring to believe the message and promise which God has made to us in the face of death - fear not!  The gift of God is life; the enemy of life is death; the gift of God is victory over death through Jesus Christ.

We didn’t invent this truth. We discover it in the mystery of God’s presence in our world in the man Jesus. who performed miracles we will never understand and find hard to believe. For God comes to us in the mystery of revelation, in the mystery of grace present in Word, Sacraments, and people.  And especially present in the mystery of Jesus!

Albert Einstein:  “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all true art and science.  ( We can add religion.)  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and be  rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

Einstein also said, religion “ consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding can comprehend of reality.”

God’s promise is that He will wait us out, and come to us for the awesome truth is, God cares about us and tries His hardest to intervene in our lives with the miracle of a “love which never dies and a dazzling grace which always is!”  William Sloane Coffin

June 2, 2013 2nd Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 7:1-10

    1 When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.

   He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

   9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

“ A Miracle Of Faith”

This is a story primarily about faith, not faith healing.  It is an example of someone from the outside whose faith put to shame those on the inside. He was a Roman, a centurion, yet a sensitive man who was open to the mystery and miracles of life.  He cares about his slave enough to send friends to Jesus to see if something might happen which could be called nothing short of a miracle.
Such faith is a miracle!

 His case is presented to Jesus and Jesus is impressed.  Impressed by his honesty, compassion and faith.  Jesus commends the man for his faith and does as he requests.
It is a miracle of healing which points to a faith which is to be remembered and duplicated.  A strong faith which is open to miracles and leaves room in life for the mysterious presence of a loving God.


 “All Are Welcome"

Jesus came with what sounded like a different Gospel then what the Israelites heard and knew.  No one is excluded! (Acts 10:35)

Grace is always unmerited and undeserved.  Mercy is not getting what I deserve.  Grace is getting what I don’t deserve.

God is a God of grace who will not stop until He can love us all!

May 26, 2013 Holy Trinity Sunday

John 16:12-15
12  "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

Without mystery life looses something deep and beautiful.
Without mystery God becomes something less then God.

The Trinity is a mystery.  After all is said and done to know God, the mystery remains.
Today we celebrate that mystery even as we worship God the Father, creator of all things; God the son, Redeemer of all humankind, and God the Holy Ghost Sanctifier of all who believe.
“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion.”  I Tim 3:16

Guide You Into The Truth

When I go fishing in Canada I want a guide with me but I do not want the guide fishing for me.  Even if I lose the big one.

Life is like fishing - we often need a guide but the guide cannot live for us.

Truth is something we discover in the process of living.
We learn truth as we live.
We have to experience what we know before we can know it.
We have to be vulnerable to make discovery.

The Holy Spirit guides us into the truth of life lived in God’s name, confessing Jesus as Lord.  As we go we discover what it all means - and it is far beyond our wildest imagination.

May 19, 2013 Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
    5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine.[b]"
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
    17" 'In the last days, God says,
      I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
   Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
      your young men will see visions,
      your old men will dream dreams.
    18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
      I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
      and they will prophesy.
    19I will show wonders in the heaven above
      and signs on the earth below,
      blood and fire and billows of smoke.
    20 The sun will be turned to darkness
      and the moon to blood
      before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
    21 And everyone who calls
      on the name of the Lord will be saved.


Something was set loose in our world on that first Pentecost - just as surely as a Babe was born on Christmas and a resurrection happened on Easter.  That something we call the Holy Spirit - the energy of God set loose in our lives and in our world.

The first, last and greatest gift of the Holy Spirit is our faith.

A primary evidence of the Holy Spirit is that we hear one another - really hear one another.  As Walter Brueggeman says, the Holy Spirit give us “a fresh capacity to listen.”

To risk hearing is to risk being changed and challenged to do things differently.

A second strong evidence of the Holy Spirit is that we understand difference and embrace it, even celebrate it.

God loves us with an unending love, and God expects us to be caught up not in making a name for ourselves, but in making His name known and celebrating the beautiful diversity which makes up the colors and design of the human race.

To this end the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives and in our world.

 “In Remembrance Of ...”  John 14:23-31a

We humans have the great capacity to remember, which both enriches and empowers our lives.

God’s spirit works in and through our capacity to remember.  God calls to our remembrance that which we have known and loved in the past so we can be better equipped to live in the present.

This is what Pentecost is all about.  Remembering what has been so we can be more alive in what is yet to be.  We are not to live in the past; we are to remember it and be empowered to live in the present, doing what we are called to do in the context of our day, living creatively today with the promised help of the Holy Spirit, daring to try new things, even change old things.

May 12, 2013 7th Sunday of Easter

John 17:20-26

20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

 “One-ness And Change”

One-ness is not a matter of theory or theology - it is a matter of experience.  It is not sameness, it is respect for differentness in the unity of love.

It is to be an individual who trusts and hopes with others.  It does not mean we are to be all alike; it means we are to be together in being loved by Jesus and our love for one another.

“The Gospel for Easter 7 is a prayer for change.”

Yet change often brings conflict, separation, disagreement, even alienation and disunity; the opposite of what Jesus is praying for.

This is a call for us to be open to the movement of the Spirit and have our attitudes and motives changed by His Spirit into His likeness, day by day.

Change is a sign that the spirit is at work in our lives, and in the life of the church.
Unity comes as we change into His likeness and love as we have been loved.

“Consecrated To The Word”

The Church is the result OF the Word of God.
The Church lives IN the Word of God.
The Church is consecrated TO the Word of God.

We are the Church!

For the Word to get into the world, someone has to speak it, live it, be it.
This is our task as the Church.

What ever else this means, it does mean we have a word of love to carry to a world of hate.

Bertrand Russell, a very vocal opponent of Christianity said it well:

“There are certain things that our age needs...The root of the matter is a thing so simple that I am almost ashamed to mention it for fear of the derisive smile with which wise cynics will greet my words.  The thing I mean - please forgive me for mentioning it - is love, Christian love, or compassion.  If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide in action, a reason for courage, and imperative necessity for intellectual honesty.”

To be the Church in the world is to be caught by the Word of love and be compelled to ‘meddle” in the world’s affairs because of this Word.
Even as we love to tell the story, we must love to live the story.