Glimpsing the Kingdom - a sermon for September 29

Glimpsing the Kingdom

September 29 / 2013   Luke16:19-31

When I was in high school there was a boy named Brian whom I never got to know even though he and I shared many of the same classes.  He was a pretty average looking boy – but very quiet, never answered any questions in class, kept to himself, didn’t seem to have any friends.  He always seemed to wear the same thing – brown pants and a brown plaid shirt.  I do not know where he lived; I do not know whether he had any brothers and sisters, I don’t know anything about his family – and I don’t think very many people knew very much about him.  He seemed to be invisible – attending all classes, but a complete unknown to those around him.  When we were planning our Grade 13 reunion a few years ago – we could not find him –no one on the planning committee had knew anything about where he went to after school, he was not connected to any social media that I could figure out – even the high school did not have a address for him that panned out.  When I inquired about him to my former class mates – few remembered him at all and no one knew where he is today.  I sometimes wonder about Brian – what is was like to be a teenager and not be connected to any of his peers - I wonder where he is – I wonder who he was – and I also wonder how many other invisible people did I go to school with that I missed?  And I wonder if I too was an invisible person to others.

Invisible people are the people that we see and kind of look away or look through them or pass quickly so we don’t have to interact with them –maybe they live on the street, often they are dressed poorly – sometimes they smell – sometimes they mumble – but sometimes they look just like you and me – sometimes they are you and me.  In a culture that values youth and beauty and thinness - the farther we are from the ideal the more invisible we become.  I have been invisible at different times in my life –it is the place where I have no power, where I am overlooked, where no one hears my voice even if I am talking really loud.  Every once in a while I am invisible – some people however, are invisible most of the time – these people often are poor, they live on the margins, they may have disabilities physical or mental, they may have cultural disadvantages, they may have addictions, they may be developmentally challenged, or they may just be weird – have strange behaviors that are hard to understand.  There are many many invisible people in the world.

Jesus talks to and about invisible people all the time –today’s story is about an invisible person – a person name Lazarus –but before we hear the story it is helpful to know the context of the parable.

We are continuing to listen to Jesus speaking to crowds around him – remember where we have come from – This last couple of chapters we read in the preceding couple of weeks saw Jesus in the midst of speaking and teaching and sharing wisdom with those who are following him –the crowd that is listening are his disciples, the general population and some scribes and Pharisees – sometimes Jesus is addressing the whole assembled crowd, other times he is addressing specific parts of the crowd – today’s parable is part of the response Jesus gives to the scribes and Pharisees after they ridicule him for his previous  parable about the dishonest Steward and the Prodigal Son and the lost sheep and lost coin.  Jesus tells them that God knows their hearts – reinforces the law and then tells this parable about the rich man and Lazarus.  

Jesus says:  Once there was a rich man – who lived in a rich house and had rich clothes and a rich life.  On the steps of his home was poor man, who had no house and poor clothes and a poor life – the life of a beggar and the dogs would come to lick his sore – yeck! – you get the picture – two very different men, living very different lives – and this is all we know about how they lived on earth – and they died – and went to the afterlife – where the poor man – Lazarus - who is named in this parable-  was gathered into the arms of Abraham and was comforted for the first time in a long time – now the rich man who does not have a name in this parable goes to Hades where he is being tormented and in agony amongst the flames – the rich man looks out over a wide chasm and sees Lazarus being comforted by Abraham and the angels – he calls over – help me – send Lazarus to bring me water to quench my thirst…I am in agony says the rich man – Sorry says Abraham – you have had a life of many comforts – Lazarus had none – now he is to be comforted you are not.   But wait says the rich man – let me warn my family so that they do not suffer the same fate I am – please send them a sign.   But Abraham says – sorry – they have had Moses and the Prophets already and they do not listen to them – but wait says the rich man – what if you sent someone who had died then for sure they would listen to him – Alas says Abraham, if they did not listen to Moses or the prophets why would they listen to someone who has come from death.  

This is the parable that Jesus tells to the scribes and the Pharisees.   What do you think it means? I am pretty sure that it is not about heaven and hell and the afterlife – even though  that is the stage where it is set – and I am also pretty sure it is not about making judgments on how rich people live compared to poor people – nor is it a story to assure us the presence of angles and Father Abraham meeting us at the gate of heaven – this is a parable – a story with a slant – a literary tool to open the ears of the listeners so that some deep understanding comes in the midst of the telling of the tale – and often because it is a parable and because Jesus is the one who tells it this short story- it shakes up the listener to bring a new way of looking at the world.  

David Lose:   First, a parable is a parable, ….. Parables aren’t told to give you a complete theological system or to address ultimate questions once and for all. They are meant to give us a glimpse -- often surprising, even jarring glimpses -- into the kingdom of God. They present various slivers of the “kingdom logic” of the God who regularly surprises us with God’s compassion and concern. So maybe this parable isn’t interested in explaining to us how people get to heaven but rather invites us to look at the people around us -- right here, right now -- from the perspective of this peculiar logic of God.”[1]

Kingdom logic – that place where for just a moment we get to experience the world as God would have it – as God’s kingdom come – the place when 

·        Justice prevails

·        Peace occurs

·        Hope lives

·        Love is all around

·        And the invisible people are visible

·        God gets in and grace is exposed

People like Lazarus become visible and

And the kingdom comes and God will is done.

This parable is about seeing the invisible people – making what is hidden revealed, and removing our glasses that blind us in our world of seeing what we expect to putting on the glasses of God which help us to see the world as God sees the world and to see each other as God sees us – as beloved children, all of us as beloved children – not that she is poor and that he is mentally ill and that they are unrespectable….even Lazarus – the man with weeping sores that the dogs licked – every single one of us – with no exclusions – we all are God beloved children and visible to each other and the kingdom comes.

Sometime it is hard to get glimpses of the kingdom in the midst of the wars and turmoil that rage on around us.  This world seems like a crazy place – there is the civil war is Syria, just this morning a college dorm was attacked by armed gunman in Nigeria and 50 people died, a ferry in Nigeria capsizes this week killing dozens of others - Pakistan has been hit with a second earthquake in a week – and the number of dead continue to rise – a building collapses in Mumbai and more people die – the monarch butterfly population is declining rapidly, and hundreds of Floridians accept an offer of a free shotgun offered this week by ‘armed citizens project’ I wonder if by accepting a gun people feel more visible- a girl with autism was asked not to return to a dentist office in British Columbia, an invisible person being denied dental work.  But even on a day like today when all that news is so bleak and despairing – God can get in and the kingdom can come.

Sometimes it is what is going on in our own little worlds that makes it hard for us to see the glimpses of the kingdom that are all around us.  We struggle to get by, our finances are tight, our relationships are strained, our children are defiant, our bodies are breaking down, we are mourning the loss of a beloved, and our world seems scary and sad, fear and anxiety are a daily occurrence – and the kingdom of God seems like it is far far away – yet - God gets in – and the kingdom comes, even if it just for a moment –

·        And every time an invisible person like Lazarus is seen and acknowledged and treated with respect--God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done.

·        And every time someone takes a risk to follow God’s calling like Patricia did in Pike Bay this morning as she covenanted with Presbytery and the congregation--God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done.

·       

 And every time patience is used instead of anger and kindness is shown instead of meanness--God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done.

·         

And every time someone stops to think and then changes a direction because the former direction would harm someone --God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done.

·         

And every time a person is valued for who they are and their skin colour or gender or sexual preference or culture is not an issue--God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done.

·       

 And every time the voice of the silent is heard and the invisible is seen -God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done.

God’s kingdom comes and God’s will is done, in the world and all around us –shifts

By what we do, what we say, how we live, and how we use our resources, the choices we make –God’s kingdom comes.  When we care and share and connect and participate –God gets in and the kingdom comes and God’s will is done.  Thanks be to God.  Amen

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[1] David Lose:  https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2754

Lost - A Sermon for September 15

Lost?

September 15/13        17^th after Pentecost    Exodus 32:7-14 and Luke 15:1-10

Lost!  There is a lot of emotion in that word.  You probably all know what it is like to lose something.  You know that sinking feeling in your stomach when you realize that something you value has just gone missing – a lost purse, a lost key, a lost child – that is the worse – I had a very scary half an hour once when my four year old son decided to wander out of the fenced back yard – all my children love to climb –so the fence was mostly for show– and he head down the street – we searched high and low for him – we went up and down the street calling for him, we knocked on the neighbours doors – we sent my older son out on his bicycle to the school yard and the play ground and the arena.  My then husband Rolly got in the car and patrolled up and down calling and calling.  we finally called the police when after what seemed like forever we couldn’t find him- just as the police arrived we found him a few houses away playing in a neighbours back yard sand box – he said he didn’t hear us calling – when I found him – I was so relieved I cried, I hugged and held him so close– and I was so angry I could have strangled him so I hugged and held him even closer.  The relief that I felt was profound – such a contrast from the worry and the fear that I felt when he was lost. 

I’ve been lost, in fact I have been lost many times – following directions is not my strong suit.  Most of the time I am able to drive around and get my bearings and find where I need to go, and I am only lost for a few minutes – but every once in a while I get myself totally turned around.  Once I was attending a workshop in Waterloo – but I lived 7 hours north so the time I arrived in the KW area it was after nine and quite dark out and I am driving around a city I am totally unfamiliar with – I thought I knew where I was going – I stopped at a university – drove around until I found a building with lights on – parked went in found a person finally  - only to discover that  I was in the wrong city – I was in Guelph – so I got more directions to Waterloo and drove away – but half way there I started to doubt where I was going, and I got myself turned around and drove and drove – it is now after 10 and finally I pulled of the 401 and stopped at the police station in Cambridge – wrong city again.  I am pretty freaked out by this point – feeling lost – feeling afraid, feeling stupid that I can’t seem to get to where I am suppose to get to at this point I just wanted to go home – but home was 7 hours away– I had to get out and use the phone on the door of the police station where a kind a helpful police officer, was able to talk me down – give me the directions I needed (which I actually followed this time) and within a half an hour I was pulling into the residents of Conrad Grebel at the University of Waterloo – it was such a relief to see my name on a check in list. I was found!

It is a whole other type of lost that the people of Moses time are experiencing.  For their lostness is about losing a sense of who they are and whose they are.  They lost themselves and allowed their fear and anxiety to rule.  So as soon as Moses heads up the mountain – chaos follows.

So the people of God – the chosen people of God have come into the desert after they have been freed by God – have come into the desert as a sanctuary as they have now are no longer slaves but are free – they have all the food they need – although it is a bit redundant – manna – but it is nutritious, and make bread and comes every morning – enough so no one is going hungry – and they have water – and they have leadership and they have friends and family surrounding them – and the big deal is that they are no longer slaves – no one is working them to death – they had been liberated from their bondage are free  - you think that they would be content, that they would be happy, that life although difficult is easier and freer.  But no – because not long after Moses – their leader – goes on the mountain to spend time with God – the people become restless – and anxious and fearful and discontent – and pretty soon all these emotions start to play out in a destructive manner – Where is God – they say – God is not here, how could God do this to us – to leave us here in the middle of this barren lands – where is God, there is no God – we need to make a god – we need to create a god a god we can understand and a god we can see in front of us – a god that is not like Moses god - we don’t like the ambiguous God of Moses – the one we can’t see that is so big it is hard to get a handle on – who comes in wind and fire and thunder – so let us make our own God – one we can control – one we can understand one we can see and touch.

Let us build us a god – let us gather up our jewelry – our valuable our gold and melt it all down and create for ourselves a golden statue – of a calf – let it look like a god of our past – the Apis bull, which will connect us to the pharaoh – the self proclaimed god of Egypt – what better than to use Egyptian god to mold out of the decorations of the former slaves – and create a statue that we can worship and bow down to and make offerings to.  We have lost our way – so let us return to what we know even though it enslaves us – even though it is ridiculous – paying homage to a gold cow so that our fears will be assuaged – bizarre!

How lost the people have become.  The people are so lost that it takes Moses quite a bit of effort to get God – the God – Yahweh - God of Abraham and Isaac and Joseph and Moses – to not punish the people for their faithlessness – to remember the covenant and to forgive them their lostness.   Brian Jones at Working Preacher writes:  “Humans cause God grief and suffering, but God does not withdraw or give up. In costly love God embraces humanity, though pierced in the act. God suffers none to be lost but pursues each wandering lamb, frantically searches for each lost coin. And when the lost turn back, God’s heart is glad.”[1]

A shepherd looses a sheep out of his flock of 100 – and he goes and searches until the one lost sheep is found – and then he celebrates – this says Jesus is how God loves the lost.   A woman has lost one of her precious 10 coins, and so she sweeps through every nook and cranny of her home until the lost coin is discovered and then she celebrates the finding of the coin – this says Jesus is how God loves the lost.  A father’s youngest son get lost in the world but eventually finds his way home again – and the father runs out to great him and throws him a huge welcome home party – this says Jesus is how God loves the lost. 

 It is easy to get lost – to lose our way - to get turned around - to become confused about the direction we are going.  Sometimes we become lost on our life  journey’s – the reasons are many– and yet they all can leave with a feeling of being disconnected, alone, sad, hurt, distanced from others,  a feeling of being lost – it could be if you

·         Have a chronic disease that is unrelenting

·         You are in the midst of a financial crisis

·         A child you love is making choices which are harmful to themselves or others

·         You lost the love of your life to death or divorce

·         There is a rift in your family and members have not spoken to each other for years or

·         Your just plain sad – for no outward reasons but the spark of life has faded away

It is easy to get lost – but it is gift and grace to be found.  And God wants to find us – like the sheep that has wandered away from the fold – like the shepherd God searches for us, and like the coin that has gone missing from the purse – God sweeps though the household looking, leaving no drawer unopened.   Like the son who returns home after a long exile, God embraces the prodigal and celebrates his return.

Being found is gift and grace.  

God’s community is not complete without everyone being accounted for – it’s about God’s desire to bring everyone into community so that it will be complete. 

A commentator at Feasting on the Word writes:  “When we are lost, for any reason, be it foolishness, grief, sorrow, loss of faith, ignorance, fatigue, anger, or obtuseness, God searches us out and never leaves our side. Whether we know God’s presence or not, God is with us. We are wise when we trust this reality and allow this truth to be our guide. God loves us unconditionally and will never let us go.”[2]

God searches for us until we are found – just like me searching for my son – you do not give up no matter what and that is how God seeks us.  We are God’s beloved children, always welcomed home in God’s loving embrace.

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[1] Brian C. Jones:  www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1759

[2] Feasting On The Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary for proper 19C

A link to the audio version of the sermon: 
 https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zf4zsq56unrjeo/Lost%21%20%20A%20Sermon%20for%20September%2015.wav

Counting the Cost - Sermon for September 8

Moliere:  "It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable."

Counting the Cost

September 8/2013       16^th after Pentecost     Luke 14:25-33 and 

Jeremiah 18:1-18

It is September and school is back and the fall routines have begun.  In our house we are adjusting to the new rhythm slowly – I think we could get on board a little quicker if Erica would just not wake up so many times in the night – but I digress – we are managing to get up and off to our various classrooms and offices and daycares without too much hassle – the girls have not been late for school yet – and Erica has made it to day care before nine all four mornings – not bad so far.  We are also looking into the fall as we organize the activities that the girls are going to participate in.  We have to look at schedules and the fees and the time of activities take and whether they require a parent available throughout the event and place of activities because an hour drive on either side of an event makes it more difficult to do –what we are doing is counting the cost –

·         the actual money cost,

·         the time cost,

·         the family routine cost

·          my emotional cost (that’s the nagging I do every day to get someone to practice)

·         the emotional cost to the child – how many afterschool activities are good for each child

There are lots of things to consider even when just deciding a simple thing like whether Elizabeth will be taking skating or gymnastics this year.  But you know – just like Jesus reminds us:  it is always a good idea to count the cost of something before you undertake it.

Counting the cost is what is going on in the world at this moment –as the US and UN count the cost of whether to intervene in Syria – with Europe now recommending that the US wait and Russia saying not at all – the cost of such an intervention must be on everyone’s mind – how will it happen, where will it happen, how much force to use, how many troops, airplanes, helicopters, guns, bombs – more and more decisions to make – more and more costs to consider.  And then there is Syria counting the cost as well – how much resistance to its own people can it use before the rest of the world says – no – what price is the government willing to pay to bring the people of Syria back in line and laying down their weapons – what price are the other governments willing to pay in order to indicate to Syria that chemical weapons are never an option.

 I wonder if this is what Jesus is talking about when he says:  “Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?” Counting the cost of an action has far reaching implications; it is always a good idea to count the cost of something before you undertake it, especially when a country and its civilian’s lives are at stake.

Jesus is on the move according Luke – he is on his way to Jerusalem, but along the way he gathers a crowd of folks who are smitten with him – and have left their everyday lives - for just a little while to follow this itinerant preacher and listen to what he has to say.  For what he is saying is compelling if not a little confusing – and who know today may be the day he offers up a miracle or two just to keep things very interesting – so as he goes along, the crowd goes with him –and as he walks he talks and says things –some good, some perplexing and some downright intimidating –like –you must hate your family – your mother and father, wife / husband and children if you want to follow Jesus – really – hate my family – that is a pretty high price to pay in order to follow Jesus – in order to be Jesus disciples you must hate – your brothers and sisters too – and even life itself – life itself – well if truth be told – how realistic is that hating all those I love and my life as well – in order to be a disciple – I think if I heard those words from Jesus mouth I would have turned on my heels right then and there – done an about face and returned home to what I knew and to whom I loved.  And left him and his strange disciples who hate their families - they are welcome to go merrily along without me, thank you very much.  But wait just a minute - – this is Jesus we are talking about here – and this is a Jesus moment we are witnessing – and experience teaches us that probably there is something more going on – something deeper than the surface conversation about who to hate – because we know – that with Jesus there is more to the story, something else is brewing.

I wonder whether the point that Jesus was trying to make was about clearing the room for those who were serious.– I wonder if the strong language Jesus used , and enormous emotionally laden imagery like hating family members was used in order to weed out the potential half hearted folks that were walking along with him – I wonder if there were folks that did make that abrupt turn, who decided pretty quick that they did not want to be part of something that alienated them from their loved ones – that implied that they needed to hate their own lives – I wonder whether this was his way of letting the people know that there is a very high cost to discipleship – and also to remind them that it is always a good idea to count the cost of something before you undertake it. 

David Lose:  “That is why this passage -- this difficult and demanding passage -- has so much to offer. Because in this part of the story, Jesus asks his disciples both then and now to sacrifice. Actually, he doesn’t ask. He tells us that he expects, even demands, undivided loyalty (and it's where the hyperbolic language of hating comes in). This is why we are asked to count the cost -- because the Christian life is expensive, it demands our commitment in terms of our time, attention, and money....Because that’s what Jesus is talking about here, the cost of discipleship.”

But what if we think that we can’t pay the price – what if when you hear the phrase like you must give up what we know and love in order to become a disciple and follow Jesus – what if we think

·         I’m too old to change

·         I’m too set in my ways

·         It’s too late for me

·         I am not worthy to be a disciple

·         God really does not want me

·         There is too much wrong in my life

·         There is too much wrong with me – God would never want me to be a disciple

What those really are excuses we use to justify why we have not journeyed with Jesus – I say balderdash – yes balderdash!!!  – we use excuses like these as reasons not taking the first step – because if Jeremiah teaches us one thing this morning from the beautiful piece of prophecy that was read a few minutes ago – he teaches us that it does not matter how old we are, how late it is, how set we are in our ways – or how worthy we believe ourselves to be– we are like clay to God – clay that shifts and changes and transforms into the vessels we were meant to be.  

Let’s go down to the potter’s house – where Jeremiah discovered yet another wonderful thing about God and who God is and how God loves us – God loves us enough to reshape us –and and not just once – the wonderful thing about using clay as a metaphor is that it can be re-shaped and re-shaped – and if it dries out – just add a little more water.  That’s part of why I like the metaphor so much – is that with God – it is not an only one time thing – thank goodness – because look at the people of Israel to whom this image was first presented.  They are in a time of upheaval and unrest – the first half of Jeremiah is the time before the exile – when they are being attacked and inundated with outside pressure from other nations – eventually the state of Judah is conquered by the Babylonians – and the people are dispersed from their nation, the temple is pillaged and desecrated – and the time of the exile began – God spoke to the people through Jeremiah all through this time of upheaval – and more than that – God spoke to the people while in exile and as they returned decades later as well.  And God as potter and the people as clay must have been a hopeful image –even in the midst of unrest – God says turn towards me – and I will re-shape you – in all times and places says God – return to me, for you are mine and I am yours.  And if God can keep the covenant made with the people of Israel and Judah, even after conquest, even during exile, until now and beyond – God keeps the covenant – and can reshape and remold and transform us in spite of how misshapen our pots have become.  You are my people and I am your God – you are my disciples says Jesus – and there is a price to pay.

So how pricey is it to follow Jesus? – what is the cost of discipleship?  David Lose writes:  This is about the caliber and character of our Christian lives. And, like anything else worth doing, discipleship takes time, energy, work, and practice -- in a word, it takes sacrifice.”  It is about the choices we make in our day to day lives – it is about how we live, how we treat the world around us, how we treat the people around us.  Think about it like a filter – a film that is kept in front of your eyes – so that when you view the world, you do so as a Christian - so instead of seeing a poor person taking advantage of the government’s welfare system, you see instead a person who is struggling to get by and needs compassion and understanding.  And when you witness a rude person in your midst you don’t snark back, instead you smile and speak politely and treat them as you wish to be treated. And when you drive you do so as a person who cares and is polite and respectful of others on the road. Any you take responsibility for your actions, and you seek forgiveness when you have harmed another.  And you spend your resources with that Christian filter, and you share your time using your Christian filter to guide you.  You open yourself up to God through Jesus and you walk out on the journey of discipleship with an open mind and an open heart and you see where it leads you.  Because you know the journey will be amazing, and if perchance you begin to get a bit warped – some of you bends and cracks – you know that God’s hands will reshape you, and God’s love will support you and God’s grace will enable you.  There is a cost to discipleship – but it is worth it, for a life of discipleship is a life full of rich and rewarding experiences and deep and abiding relationships and beautiful and gratifying moments.  A life of discipleship is a life well lived.  We are all invited on the journey – let’s go!