Identity Crisis

Lent 1a

March 9, 2014

Matthew 4:1-11

In 1953, a very controversial novel was published.  In 1988, Martin Scorsese adapted the novel into a film of the same name “the Last Temptation of Christ.”  Both the novel and the film have caused quite a bit of anger and have even been banned in some countries.  The basis of the novel is that Jesus, though without sin, was tempted daily just like every other human on the face of the planet.  But the final temptation is for Jesus to come off of the cross.  As he hangs there in pain, he sees a young girl approach him and reveal to him that he is not, in fact, the son of God, but that God is very pleased with him and now wants him to live and be happy.  She then helps him off of the cross and leads him in to a long, happy, comfortable life.  It is not until much later, when confronted by Judas, that Jesus realizes that the young girl was the devil, who had seen Jesus’ most vulnerable moment as the time to bring forward one final temptation.  Upon realizing this, Jesus runs to a now destroyed Jerusalem and begs to be crucified so that all can be made right.  And then the viewer watches as we go back to the beginning, to Jesus on the cross, a Jesus who stays on the cross despite the mocking and the jeers of those around him.

I’ve wondered before if part of the reason that this novel and movie are so controversial because the notion of Jesus being 100% human, as we confess in the Nicene creed, is something that makes us a bit uncomfortable.  And I still do wonder that.  But I also wonder if the reason that this movie has been banned and burned and its author deemed a heretic has to do with the question of identity.  If Jesus really is the Son of God, could he have chosen to come down off of the cross?  And I think that positing a ‘yes’ answer to this question makes us just a little bit uneasy, if we’re honest.

(pause)

Immediately after being baptized by John in the Jordan, Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting, he was at a weak point, famished.  It is then that the devil decides to approach him with three temptations, IF you are the Son of God, he says, command these stones to turn to bread…IF you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…All this can be yours, IF you fall down and worship me. 

IF

IF

Prove yourself to me, Jesus.  If you are really the Son of God, you can feed yourself…you can throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple and not suffer any harm, for the angels will protect you…OR, you can pledge your allegiance to me and I will give you more power than you know what to do with.

The ultimate temptation that the devil levied against Jesus, really wasn’t about bread or angels or an all powerful authority over thrones and dominions, but rather and attempt to undermine Jesus’ confidence in his identity, an identity which had just been vocalized at Jesus’ baptism 40 days earlier when God said, “this is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

But even in his a moment in which he was weakened by hunger, Jesus does not give in to the devil’s attempt to rob him of his God given identity.  Instead, he relies on and is strengthened by this identity, secured for him through his relationship with his God and father, and that is what gives him the strength to resist the devil and all of the ways in which he tried to tempt Jesus from letting loose of his dependence on God. 

Have you ever noticed that the devil likes to pray on us in times of weakness?  In Genesis, as in Matthew, the devil preyed upon Adam and Eve when they were hungry and looking for food.  “Did God really say you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?” Having sown the seed of doubt into their heads (and, for the record, Adam and Eve were both there), the devil goes in for the kill and tells Adam and Eve that, indeed, they will not die if they eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…contradicting what God had told them earlier.  And unlike Jesus, who relied on his identity in God and used that to resist the devil, Adam and Eve gave into the temptation and relied on the words of the serpent instead of the words of God.  They let their identity as children of God take a back seat to an identity of independence created when they bit in to the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

This is what the devil likes to do to us, too.  If you are a child of God, why can’t you find a job? If you are a child of God, why are you suffering from a chronic condition?  If you are a child of God, why isn’t your life going just as you always thought it would?  And it doesn’t happen in moments when we are strong and confident, but in times when we have hit road bumps, when we have been challenged or vulnerable.  It’s like the devil knows just when the perfect moment is to plant an earworm in our brain that plays a tune which repeats themes of self-doubt and questioning our identity over and over until we start to believe that it might actually be true.  

But the devil is not the only one who likes to get us questioning who we are.  The really sad thing is that some preachers have latched on to the notion that this is true.  Those who preach the prosperity gospel tell folks that if their faith is strong enough, if they give enough to the church, then God will reward them beyond their imagination with worldly riches.  But if you’re struggling financially or have chronic health issues, it’s time to start questioning the strength and the commitment of your faith.  

And it doesn’t stop there. There is a myth that has been going around for quite a while that self-sufficiency is the only way of being a worthwhile member of society.   We come from cultures that praise the protestant work ethic, we preach that if we are going to be successful in life, you have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.  And I will be the first to confess that my biggest sin in this life has been giving into the thought that if I am not in control of every facet of my life, then I am somehow failing.  We are bombarded day in and day out with messages that we are not good enough, skinny enough, rich enough, smart enough, worthy enough to be valued by others because we do not possess the image of the photoshopped models who grace magazine covers.

And if we’re bombarded enough, we start to believe it.  We start to believe that we are the ones who can control whether God loves us or not. We start to believe that we are the ones to blame for not fitting into a cropped and edited version of what we are supposed to look like, dress like, how much money we are supposed to make, etc.

When we believe this the lies that the devil and the world tell us, we stop believing the truth.  The truth that in the waters of baptism, we were named and claimed as children of God, that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, nothing we do or fail to do can keep us from the love of God.  That regardless of our age, gender, profession, and income bracket, we are invaluable members of the kingdom of God, made precious in God’s sight through the blood shed on the cross.  That no matter what, God has our back and God will be with us and for us all the days of our lives.

So when the devil or society tempt us away from the truth, away from believing in our identity as beloved Children of God, pushing our sins and our shortcomings in our faces, we can look the devil in the face and say, in the words of Martin Luther “Away with you Satan, I am baptized!”

Funeral sermon for Freda F.

Readings

Job 19:23-27b

‘O that my words were written down!
   O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock for ever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
   and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

Psalm 23 (read in unison)

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, 

I shall not be in want. 

² He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters, 

³ he restores my soul. 

He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

I will fear no evil, for you are with me; 

your rod and your staff, they comfort me 

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 

⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Revelation 21:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.²And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
⁴ he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ ⁶Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 

John 14:1-6

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. ²In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. ⁴And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ ⁵Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’⁶Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

SERMON

It was the night of the last supper.  Jesus had humbled himself to wash his disciples feet.  He had spoken of his betrayal and his denial, commanded them to wash one another’s feet, to love one another as he had love them.

Their hearts were troubled. 

What else can hearts do when people know that someone whom they love and respect is going to be betrayed and denied and ultimately lay down his life for them. 

If only there had been more time.  If only there had been more time for teaching, for stories, for meals, for fishing and praying and healing.  If only there had been more time before a kiss, a trial, a cross. 

Indeed, their hearts were troubled. 

And as we gather this morning to say goodbye to Freda in this earthly life, our hearts are troubled, too.  No matter how long a person lives, no matter what the circumstance of their death, saying goodbye to someone whom we love and respect and cherish is a hard thing to do. If only there had been more time.  If only there were more hugs, more hair do’s, more time spent discussing whether or not Freda should be resting in the shade or out trimming the bushes and pushing the wheelbarrow,  more cookies, more time to celebrate the milestone of turning 100.  Indeed, our hearts are troubled.      

The first two times I went to visit Freda, I interrupted her in the middle of reading her bible.  Her bible was not in pristine, mint condition, mind you.  It was the bible of someone who walked slowly through its pages multiple times, making notations everywhere, writing down passages and facts to help sort out who was who in the story of God’s people.  Freda’s bible was the bible of someone who loved her Lord with all her heart, all her soul, and all her mind.  So it wasn’t surprising when I had the honor to read some of her poetry, the beautiful words of a woman of faith.

Let me read one of them to you:

"This is the day the Lord has made

so why should we despair

for we know he has us in his keeping

as we kneel in humble prayer

as we bless the Lord our Savior

for all the love we share

He will lead us into glory

when our work is finished here"

Freda was truly an example of faith.  And I can imagine that she would be nodding in agreement with Job at the words that he wrote which were read this morning. 

Oh that my words were written down, oh that they were inscribed in a book, oh that with an iron pen and with led they were engraved on a rock for ever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

Throughout the book of Job, we see that Job, a very faithful man, is put to the test.  He endures trials and loss, he is accused by his so-called friends of having sinned or not having enough faith…but even when he was at his lowest, even when he was almost to the point of cursing God, Job proclaims with absolute confidence his faith in God, his redeemer, his comforter and his advocate.   When things are at their worst and it seems from an outsider’s perspective like God may not even be there for him anymore, Job states with certainty that he knows that God is there and even at the last, even when Job’s body is no more, in his flesh he shall see God standing beside him.  Job knew that despite all that had happened to him, God was there standing beside him giving him the strength to keep going even when things seemed the most difficult. 

I am confident that the strength of Freda’s faith is echoed in these words of Job.  I am confident that in the good times as well as in the difficult times, ones that become more and more prevalent towards the end of her life, Freda knew that God was standing by her side.  In not just talking the talk of faith, but also walking the walk and demonstrating to others the depth of her faith, Freda introduced her children, and many others around her to God.  And it is because of this faith that we can take comfort that not only has Freda met God in the flesh, but we also know that she is in the place that Christ has prepared for her as a baptized child of God. 

When Freda was washed in the waters of baptism, God claimed her as his own, and in his death and resurrection, Christ destroyed the power of death so that nothing could keep Freda, or any of us from being with him in the place that he has gone to prepare for us. 

And though our hearts are troubled, we know that one day we will all be reunited and it will be a bigger and better party than we can ever imagine.  For we will gather with our family and friends of all times and places in the physical presence of Christ. 

So, as we say goodbye to Freda, it is not a forever goodbye, it is a see you later goodbye.  For one day, we too will be led into glory when our work is finished here. 

Amen.

Car commercials and Ashes

Ash Wednesday

March 5, 2014

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

There are two car ads which have come out in the last two years that have caused me some consternation.  The first is the Mercedes commercial which came out on the day of the Super Bowl a year ago.  A man sits in a restaurant in New Orleans with the Devil, who offers him a Mercedes-Benz, and all the fame etc, that will come with this status symbol…if he will just sign his soul over.  About to sign the contract with the devil, he then realizes that he can afford the car without the devil’s help.  The other commercial came out during the Olympics this year.  It is an ad from Cadillac that puts the work harder, buy more culture of the US on a pedestal while mocking folks from other countries for strolling home from work, stopping off at cafes, and taking August off. Off. 

Now, I like cars.  I like nice cars.  The car of my dreams is a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT fastback.  So that’s not the issue.  The issue is what these commercials suggest about having cars such as these.  You get the Mercedes-Benz and it comes with the red carpet, your picture on the cover of a magazine, hoards of people of the opposite gender running after you.  And according to Cadillac, the American dream is to work yourself into the ground, take sacrifice vacation time so you can buy expensive stuff.  In other words, what these two commercials…and many others like it, are trying to tell consumer America is that it’s all about us.  It’s about status, it’s about money, it’s about fame and fortune…it’s about bragging rights.  It’s about Me.

There’s nothing wrong with having things.  There’s nothing wrong with having nice things.  And there is nothing wrong with working hard and trying to get ahead or working hard so that you can play hard.  Anymore, though, getting something nice for yourself is less of a fulfillment of a desire to treat yourself to something nice and more of a fulfillment of a desire to be noticed.  But I think that the mistake that we make is in thinking that this is life.  The nice cars, the fancy clothes, the parties, the masks, the jewelry, the parades, the myth that it’s all about us.

Because the truth is, at some point, it all comes to an end. 

No matter how much we don’t want it to, no matter how much we think we can go on forever…all good things, as they say, must come to an end.  The $75,000 car will eventually break down.  The clothes will eventually fade.  The house will eventually need repairs. The parties and the parades will eventually need to be cleaned up.  The masks eventually have to come off.  This life will, eventually, come to an end for all of us.  And when it does, regardless of whether we drive the high end Mercedes or the low end Chevrolet, whether we are rich or poor, famous or unknown, male or female, it will be said of all of us that we are dust and to dust we shall return. 

But on this day in which we are urged to return to the Lord our God, we hear Jesus urging us to go down another path. 

Here again what he says.

‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others.

 ‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others.

‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.

‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

Just as it was during the transfiguration of Christ when the cloud overshadowed the mountain to help Peter, James, and John refocus on Jesus, so it is here that Jesus is pointing us towards a different focal point, one that looks away from ourselves, away from the me’s, the my’s, and toward something bigger.

In the early church, part of the purpose of the season of Lent was to prepare those desiring to become full members of the church for baptism.  And when baptized at the Easter Vigil, these individuals would take off their clothing, walk down into a pool to be fully immersed in water and would exit the other side of the baptismal pool, being clothed with a brand new white robe, symbolizing that they had left the self enslaved to sin at the entry to the pool and the self freed and given new life in Christ was the person who exited. 

And though we don’t have baptismal pools big enough to do full immersion, that’s what baptism is all about, dying to the sinful self and rising to freedom in Christ.  Because the Christian life isn’t about the me’s and my’s, it’s about us collectively as a family in Christ. 

So when we give alms, or pray, or fast, Jesus isn’t bashing practices around such things.  In fact, earlier in the sermon on the mount, he tells us to let our lights so shine before others that they may see our good works and glorify our father in heaven.  What Jesus is talking about is the heart with which we give alms, the heart with which we pray, the heart with which we put on ashes and remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return.  If we do these things for fame and notoriety, so that people will notice us and see “what good Christians” we are, we are doing it for the wrong reason. 

Instead, we gather this day to return to the Lord our God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  To remember that we are creations of the almighty, that we came from the dust of the earth and that eventually we will return to the dust of the earth. We put on ashes as a reminder that all good things in this life will eventually come to an end.  We eat bread and drink wine to be strengthened for the journey through the wilderness that is Lent. And we go out into the world as people who live on the other side of the cross and the tomb.  People who have been given new life in the waters of baptism…people who, when the ashes come off, still bear a cross on our foreheads.  A  cross signifying that we have been named and claimed by the one who walked to Jerusalem and to the cross for us so that we could have life in him. 

God’s blessings to you as we begin this holy journey.

Amen.    

Equipped and transformed

Transfiguration

March 2, 2014

Matthew 17:1-9

On the last Sunday in January, when we cancelled church because of the weather, I was going to preach on the call of the disciples to be fishers of men.  The first to be called into service as Jesus’ co-workers were fishermen, Peter and his brother, Andrew, and James and his brother, John.  They knew the work that fishing entailed and so to be called fishers of people probably made more sense to them than it can for us sometimes.  I do wonder if, when Jesus called Matthew, the tax collector, he called him to be a collector of people instead of taxes, but who knows.  When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow and become fishers of people, they may not have been the best candidates for the job.  They were a part of the lower class, under the control of the whims of those to whom they supplied their catch, and they were probably not the cleanest people in the world working with fish all day.  And judging from their call story, they may not have even been good fishermen since they immediately dropped everything to follow…leaving their families to take care of whatever catch there may or may not have been. 

But Jesus was never known to call the elite and highly educated and respected into service.  He didn’t call the equipped in order to help him spread the Gospel, he equipped those whom he called.  He took empty tackle boxes and filled them to the brim with everything that the disciples would need in order to follow him and share the Good News. 

This being the case, however, I don’t know if Peter, James and John were completely prepared for the day in which Jesus brought them with him up to the mountain top.  I imagine Peter, James and John (who knows where Andrew was) following Jesus up the mountain thinking it was a regular day and that they were going to go up to pray…Jesus liked to go up to mountains to pray for some reason.   It wasn’t a regular day, though, for suddenly Jesus was transformed in front of them.  His clothes were no longer the color of the linen he wore, but they were a dazzling white and his face shone like the sun.  And then Moses and Elijah showed up (though, how they knew it was Moses and Elijah puzzles me…the photo directory hadn’t come out yet).  And as I imagine this scene, I doubt that if I had been there, my reaction to these events would have been any different.  I imagine it would be like the time I met Kasey Kahne 6 years ago…only a million times better. 

Who wouldn’t want to stay and linger in the presence of the man that God chose to lead the Israelites to freedom and the man who was the greatest of the prophets?  There would be so much to learn from them…so many questions to ask them!  What was it like when you lifted your hands and God parted the Red Sea?  What about the time, Elijah, when you faced off against the prophets of Baal and won? 

So let’s build tents, one for you, Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.  You must have a lot to talk about and we don’t want for you to have to be uncomfortable…we can stay as long as you like.

Poor Peter, he always comes so close to getting it and then he misses…like six days before this when Pater made the powerful profession that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God…and then five minutes later, Jesus is calling him Satan and telling him to get behind him because Peter rebukes Jesus and the notion that Jesus will have to die.  We see Peter try so hard and wind up like Charlie Brown over and over, running to kick that football and winding up on his hind end.  He gets it, but he doesn’t.

But before Peter is done speaking, God interrupts. 

Now, not only are have they seen their good friend and teacher become transformed before them, not only have they physically been in the presence of Moses and Elijah, but now the voice of God is speaking directly to them, instructing them as to who Jesus is and that they are to listen to him. 

What do you say in a moment like this? Are there even words to describe the awe-some nature of hearing the voice of the heavenly father speaking directly to you? I don’t know if there was any better of a response than to fall on their faces in fear…not like a terrified that something is going to hurt you fear, but an awe-struck, heart is pounding, oh wow there is my favorite celebrity of all time, what do I say, what do I do, don’t look stupid, reverent kind of fear. 

And what about the cloud?  Well, my experience with foggy days is that fog forces us to focus because you can’t see too far ahead of you.  And I can imagine that with all the excitement of seeing Moses and Elijah, and a transformed Jesus, they needed a “Peter…Peter, look at me…focus, Peter.” And in enveloping the mountain with a cloud so that they could only see Jesus, they were forced to focus on him and on the voice from the heavens and in doing so, they got to see a preview of the fullness of the glory of Christ that would be revealed when he rose from the dead. 

Jesus wasn’t the only one transformed in this trip up to the mountain…it’s impossible to stand in the presence of Moses and Elijah, see the fullness of the glory of Christ, and hear the voice of God and not be changed…to not have ears opened to hearing the words of Christ in a new way, to not have eyes opened to see just how much work needs to be done…to not have minds opened to seeing new ways of being disciples and to not be strengthened for the journey to accompany Jesus to Jerusalem.  But having ears and eyes and minds and hearts opened can leave us intimidated, overwhelmed by just how much work there is to do.  Maybe it would be easier and safer if we just stayed up on the mountain…if we just stayed within the walls of a church building…

But Jesus didn’t come to sit on the Mountain top and spout off decrees like traditional royalty…he came to get his hands dirty, he came to sit with us in our unbelief, to cry with us in our grief, to calm us in the midst of uncertainty, to celebrate with us in our joys and our triumphs, to transform us and equip us to go out into the world and be co-workers in spreading the Gospel through our words and our actions. Jesus came down the mountain for the soldier tormented by battle scars…for the actor tortured by the demons of addiction…for the young mother widowed after her husband’s 6 year battle with cancer…for the high schooler so afflicted by the words of his tormenters that he starts to believe the awful things they say to him.  We all have dark places, places of struggle and doubt and fear that we would rather no one else knew about. But as much as we try to hide and mask these dark places in our lives, we cannot hide them from Jesus. Jesus knows our pains and he is there with us in those dark places to bring us life. We are never alone…Jesus himself went to hell and back so that he could give us what we need to endure and walk with us and so we would know and be transformed by his light, his love, and his peace.
Out of his love, God sent Jesus to come among us…and even after experiencing the fullness of his own glory, Jesus came down from the mountain. There was work to do…there were people to heal…there were tackle boxes to fill…and in the end, there was a cross waiting for him…a cross that would set us free from the grasp of death and bring us in to the fullness of the new life that is in store for us…a new life in which we are transformed and called to go out into the world, equipped with what we need to share the Good news and transform the world. Amen.

Loving your enemies is exhausting

Epiphany 7

February 23, 2014

Matthew 5:38-48

This past week I received an e-mail from one of my best friends, Kirsten, who is a fellow pastor and missionary at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church and Refugee Service in Cairo, Egypt.  In her e-mail, she reflected on the violence that has been going on in Egypt, violence that almost forced the ELCA to hold her back from going over there this August, even though her husband was due in Cairo to begin teaching at the American University in Cairo.  The last time this Gospel text came around, three years ago, there were peaceful protests taking place in Cairo.  Folks demanding that President Mubarak step down during a wave of peaceful revolutions that happened in the Arab Spring.  But now things are not so peaceful.  Here is a portion of what Kirsten wrote to me this week.

“There are days when I want to shout and scream, "Why? What do you want to accomplish?  Do you really think this is working?"  It is so frustrating and sad to see the violence that has become regular news.  My Twitter feed on Saturday morning almost always includes the "body count" from Friday protests around the country.  In that case, it's primarily State Security Forces firing live ammunition at Muslim Brotherhood supporters, who continue to insist that Mohammed Morsi is the legitimate president and should be returned to power.  In the last 6 weeks or so, there have been more attacks from Islamist groups targeting State Security (police and army) posts, vehicles, members, etc.  There was a horrible bombing in Mansoura on December 24, where the city's security building was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing 16 and injuring well over 100 people.  On January 24, a bomb exploded outside a security building in central Cairo, killing 4 people and injuring several others.  In that case, the bomb exploded early in the morning (6:30 AM on a Friday, which is like 6:30 on a Sunday in the States) so there were not many people out and it could have been so much worse.  Sunday, a tour bus was attacked in the South Sinai (coming from St. Catherine's monastery), killing 3 tourists and the driver.  All of these attacks have been perpetrated by Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an al-Queda linked Islamist group based in the Sinai.  It is horribly disturbing and so very, very sad.

Granted, I am not Muslim and, while improving, my Arabic is pitiful, so my Egyptian contacts tend to be well educated, English speakers, and are mostly Christian.  But among the Egyptians I do know, everyone reiterates, this is not the country we know and love.  The violence & hatred are limited to such a small, but loud, powerful, and well-armed group, who are making life tense for everyone, Christian, Muslim, Egyptian, and foreigner.  The Egyptians I have met are kind, generous, and want peace in their country.  While there are sometimes tensions between Christians and Muslims…for the most part, people seem to generally want to mind their own business, go about their lives, and do what they need to do to care for their families”

“You have heard it said ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evil doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;”  In a continuation of exhortations that began last week, Jesus has changed focus from relationships with families, friends and spouses, to relationships with our adversaries.  And he begins with a very familiar passage that originated in the Code of Hammurabi but also found its way into the Hebrew Scriptures.  “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot,” (Exodus 21:24).  It sounds harsh, but this rule was actually put in place to limit one’s ability to retaliate for a wrong done to them and made sure that the punishment for a crime committed was not outlandish in comparison to the crime committed. In other words, it was a law written to prevent incidents like what has happened in Florida under the poorly written Stand Your Ground Law which has gotten so much press with the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and Chad Oulson.  But Jesus takes eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth one step further…’do not resist an evil doer.  But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. If someone sues you for your coat, give them your cloak as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” 

Now, taken the wrong way, this text has been used in some inappropriate ways.  Some have used it against people who are being abused, that if they continue to turn the other cheek, they will eventually be delivered from their abuser and their reward will be great.  Others have used this passage to convince people to accept where the injustices of life have left them, because God put them there for a reason.  I’m convinced that this is not what Jesus is saying.  If this was what Jesus intended by turn the other cheek, the concept of non-violent protests to stand up against injustice for the oppressed, like those of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Arab Spring would not have been inspired by these words of Jesus. 

Jesus’ words to the people on the mount are revolutionary and they are inspiring.  I believe that what Jesus is trying to teach the people is that when faced with situations where injustice and oppression are bearing down, don’t let anyone take your dignity, humanity, or your child of God-ness away from you.  Instead, show them by your peaceful actions that you will not sit idly by while you or your neighbors are being trampled upon. 

Jesus doesn’t stop there, however.  He goes yet another step further. “You have heard it said ‘love your neighbors and hate your enemies.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” So not only are we to not retaliate against those who oppress us, we are supposed to love them, too, and include them in our prayers.  Now, gathering for peaceful protests Tahrir Square is one thing, it’s an entirely different thing to summon up enough love and prayers for our enemies…and yet, this is what Jesus is asking us to do. 

If you took a poll of Egyptians today, I am guessing that very few would admit to having prayed for Al-Queda…I doubt that many members of the Muslim brotherhood would admit to having prayed for the State Security forces, and so on.  And if you were talk to the average American mother of a teenage boy, many of them may be surprised that Jordan Davis’ mother has said publically that she has forgiven Michael Dunn for killing her son over loud music. 

But this is what Jesus is telling us that we should do, love our enemies and pray for those who we would rather not love. It’s a hard task to contemplate and an even harder one to carry out.  In fact, it would probably be much easier to be a good Lutheran and respond to Jesus by saying “well, that’s interesting, Jesus…but to be honest, we’ve never done it THAT way before.”

But if we take a look at the bigger picture, here, like in the rest of the sermon on the mount, Jesus is calling us into kingdom living.  A way of life in which we do radical things in response to the love of God.  And if we look at it this way, it is possible to suggest that Jesus is not telling us that we should pray that we may return to a relationship with those who persecute us in hopes of reconciliation, but rather that we forgive, and by doing so, release our persecutors and enemies from their ability to hurt us.  When we forgive, our enemies might not be changed, but we will be changed for the better.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t an easy thing to do.  And to be fair, Jesus never said it would be.  However, amidst the difficulties and the struggle to be good disciples and to live lives following in Christ’s example, there is also amazing blessing.  When it seems that the world is crumbling around us, we have a call and a challenge to be agents of love and forgiveness.  Love and forgiveness that bring freedom, for ourselves and for those around us.  And, though we are not perfect and sometimes we need help engaging in this kind of living, we can always look to the cross and there we will see an innocent man beaten and bruised praying these words for his persecutors:  “father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing.” May Christ’s example empower us to peacefully stand against injustice, to love those that we find the hardest to love, and to look beyond the letter of the law to find the radical nature of God’s love for the world. Amen.     

It's not enough...

Epiphany 6

February 16, 2014

Matthew 5:21-37

If there were ever a text that revealed to the world that there is truly no such thing as a biblical literalist, this is one of them.  “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.”  You can’t be serious now, Jesus, can you?  And the answer is no.  Jesus is merely using an exaggeration.  He really doesn’t want us to maim ourselves.  But he does want to get our attention.  And if telling you to tear out your eye or cut off your hand doesn’t do it then, well, you may be physically present but your mind definitely isn’t.

As we become witness to this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, we really have come a very difficult portion of the message this week.  Anger, lust, cutting off hands, divorce, vows…so much time and so little to think about…wait, strike that, reverse it.  A sermon on this passage, if we got really in depth, would keep us here until midafternoon...and seeing as though football season is over, NASCAR starts next week, and Olympics coverage doesn’t start until 2pm…let’s dive in!

Don’t worry, I’m only joking. 

There is a whole lot in this passage to unpack, but here is really what it all boils down to…God cares about our relationships.  God wants us to be in relationships that are healthy and life giving.  That was the ultimate purpose behind why God gave Moses the Ten Commandments in the first place, so that people would have a guide for how to be in relationship with one another and with God…so that they could, in the words of Deuteronomy, Choose Life.  But the problem is how these commandments have been interpreted.  According to Martin Luther, the 5^th Commandment – Thou shalt not murder – in the eyes of the Jewish community, only condemned a person as a murderer if they had physically committed an act of murder.  Therefore – as an example- in their eyes, David was innocent of murder when he had Bathsheba’s husband killed on the battlefield…because he was not the one to strike Uriah down, though we all know that David sent Uriah to the front lines because he coveted Uriah’s wife. 

And then there is 6^th commandment – Thou shalt not commit adultery.  When it came to marriage and divorce in the time of Moses there were a couple issues going on.  The first is that when a woman was married to a man, the act of marriage was seen as a business deal in which the woman was transferred as property from her father to her husband.  It then became her job to care for the house and provide children for him.  According to Deuteronomy 24, if a wife found no favor in the eyes of her husband, he could write her a certificate of divorce.  In some circles, the grounds for divorce were unfaithfulness.  But in most circles divorces could have been granted because the woman was unable to bear children, or because she did not provide her husband with a son, or, in the teaching of the rabbi Hillel, a man could write a certificate of divorce because the indecency he found in her was that she could not cook.  So, in essence we are looking at a situation in which women were seen as disposable and could ultimately be cast off from their husbands for any reason.  

Finally we come to the oaths.  There really is no commandment that speaks directly to oaths, however, the second and eighth commandments are related to it.  In the Old Testament, God set up a system for taking oaths.  In Leviticus 19:12 God says ““Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.” and then in Deuteronomy 23:21, we hear “If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin.”

So God takes oaths seriously.  But the interpretations of these commands from the Lord, like the interpretations of the 5^th and 6^th commandments, became so skewed that it actually became a basis for telling lies.  You see, back in the time leading up to Jesus’ day, there were considered to be stages of truth telling and stages of telling falsehood.  The system of taking oaths when telling truth and telling falsehood became so convoluted that you couldn’t tell whether a person was lying or telling the truth. 

So we have murder, adultery, divorce, and oaths.  All in one passage.  What in the world do they have to do with each other?

If we are looking at the trees instead of the forest, we see in all of these laws a violation of human relationships.  And, as Jesus said last week, he did not come to abolish the law but, instead to fulfill it so that now one letter or stroke of the letter of the law would be removed.

But it is not enough to not physically commit the act of murder, we must also refrain from letting angry words and actions prevent us from treating others with respect and value. For we know that the old adage, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, isn’t true…I’d prefer a stick or a stone to a word that breaks me down any day. 

It is not enough to not physically commit the act of adultery, we must also refrain from treating people as objects that satisfy our sexual desires.

It is not enough to keep the letter of the law when it comes to divorce, we must also refrain from treating our spouses as disposable and protect those who are most vulnerable when marriages do dissolve.   

It is not enough to take an oath so that people will believe that you are telling the truth, we must also be truthful and faithful in what we say and do so that people will believe our yes when we say yes and our no when we say no. In the Amish community, this portion of scripture is taken so seriously, that the Amish are exempt from taking oaths in a court of law. 

What Jesus is saying is that it is not enough to keep the commandments, we must go above and beyond so that we may do everything that we can to show those around us that we value who they are as human beings and that we honor and respect them.  And in relationships that have become broken beyond the point of reconciliation, that we would at least have peace so that any anger or hurt does not prevent us from fully living our lives.

God cares about our relationships. 

Jesus knows the importance of being in relationship with others.  His ministry was ultimately about the relationships that he had with those around him, those he taught, those he fed, those he healed, those in his inner circle.  Jesus showed us, through his own life, that every human life is valuable, if you notice in the Gospels, the people who labeled the folks that Jesus hung out with as sinners were the Pharisees and the scribes…never once was it Jesus.  He helped people who were lost to see that they are people of value because they are children of God and that as children of God, that they deserved to respect, love, and life giving relationships.

And not only did Jesus focus on the importance of relationships, he experienced firsthand the hurt that happens when the trust of a human relationship is violated.

That was not the end of it, though. For even on the cross, Jesus cried out “father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”  

You are the salt of the earth

Again, another messy manuscript.  But I've learned in my short time in the ministry that messy manuscripts don't always mean messy sermons.  My mentor once told me that when it comes to the proclamation of the Word through preaching, the preacher can only do 50% of the work...the other 50% is the work of the Holy Spirit, and to think otherwise is arrogance.  

Epiphany 5

February 9, 2014

Matthew 5:13-20

You are the salt of the earth, Jesus said. 

One of the things that I have noticed when visiting with folks who suffer from high blood pressure is that there is a common complaint about the difficulty in finding a seasoning combination that brings a similar flavor profile to food as salt.  Just ask judges in cooking competitions. In the competitions we can see on television, the number one complaint is a lack of salt in dishes.  Food without salt tends to be bland, no matter what else we add to it.  Even sweets taste better with a bit of a salty element to them.

You are the light of the world. Jesus said. 

I learned some very important information this fall.  What I learned is that a deficiency in Vitamin D levels is linked to the occurrence and worsening of depression. Although vitamin D has been added to milk products and naturally occurs in a small number of foods, such as mushrooms, it is the human body’s ability to produce vitamin D from sun exposure that provides a good chunk of the vitamin D that our bodies need.  This is why seasonal affect disorder, a depressive disorder, occurs in the winter in colder climates, when the amount of sunlight we are exposed to is at its lowest because of the cold and dreary days.  Getting out into the sun is good for our health and wellbeing.  Certainly after a winter like this, getting a little sunbathing in can only be good for our mental health after all of this time being cooped up indoors because of all the cold and the snow that we have had this summer.   

The Rev. Anne Howard, the executive director of the Beatitudes Society, tells us a bit about what Jesus’ first hearers would have experienced when they heard that they were salt and light. She writes:

“Jesus’ first listeners knew that salt was necessary for life, a notion reinforced by the many references in the Hebrew Scriptures to salt’s essential nature. Thus the prophet Elisha sprinkled salt into the spring at Jericho to purify the water (2 Kings 2:21.)  To eat salt with another person was a sign of loyalty, sort of a passing of the peace pipe, a breaking of bread, a sign of commonality (Numbers 18:19.)  Priests strew salt on sacrifices, and seasoned incense with salt. Parents rubbed salt all over their newborn baby’s body as protection against all kinds of ills (Ezekiel 16:4.)”

Salt is a basic element, it is something that sits on tables in fast food restaurants and fancy restaurants, on home kitchen counters and on soup kitchen counters.  If we are able to, salt is something that we use every day…it isn’t something reserve for special guests.  But in and of itself, it is not a useful element.  Before it is mined and refined, salt just sits in deposits doing nothing and affecting nothing positively or negatively.  But when it is used, it adds flavor, it preserves, it changes the soil, and affects how our bodies function. 

So if we are going to be salt of the earth, we can’t be content to just sit on the sidelines and let life pass us by.  We have to get mixed in to recipe that makes up life around us, adding flavor and seasoning.

And just like salt is necessary for life and is one of the basic things necessary for us to thrive, so is light. Light illumines the world and helps us so that we can see.  But more important than that, light gives life.  Light makes it possible for plants to grow and produce the food that they need to grow.  Light can be converted into usable energy.  Light is beneficial for our bodies.  And light brings hidden things into view, allowing us to see them in a different way. 

So if we are going to be the light of the world, we can’t be content to let the darkness in this world.  We must spread the light so that every corner of the earth can be illuminated. 

You are the salt of the earth, Jesus said.  You are the light of the world. 

It can be easy to look at this portion of the sermon of the mount as an urging to be salt and to be light.  But when we do that, it can easily become burdensome because so often the world tells us that we are not good enough, loveable enough, worthy enough to be the people that Jesus wants us to be. 

Instead, we should look at these words from Jesus as blessing.  He didn’t say “you will be salt if…” “before you become light you need to…”  There were no conditions put on being salt and light…we already are salt and light.  You ARE the salt of the earth.  You ARE the light of the world.  Salt does not lose is saltiness…and we know this. As it dissolves, it lends its saltiness to whatever it is dissolved in.  And if you hide a candle under a bushel…it’s either going to put the candle out or start a fire.  But maybe this is Jesus’ point.  You are salt, you are light…that is the way it is and that is the way it’s going to be, and nothing is going to change it. 

God love us and made us as part of his good creation.  When darkness was starting to show itself, he sent Jesus into the world to be the light of the world.  But the great thing about light is that when it is divided and shared, the original light isn’t diminished, and so as light is spread – it only gets brighter. 

We are the light of the world.  We gained Christ’s light in our baptism when we were joined to Christ in his death and resurrection.  It’s a light that can never be taken away from us, just as our saltiness can never be taken away.  It can only be spread. 

Let us go and be light, let us go and be salt. Let us add flavor and zest to the lives of others, let us change the world and, through our words and our deeds, continue to spread the light of Christ.

Jesus is the light of the world who came into the world to break the darkness

Jesus gives us his light so that we can bring light to the dark places of the world

We are the light, we bring the vitamin d that the world needs

Think of the times when your life has been seasoned

Think of the people who are the salt in your life

Think of when you have been salt to others