Devotion.

Daniel 3:1, 8-30
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Investment Opportunity

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-14

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Amos

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God is calling you.

NLPent18 2017

October 15, 2017

1 Samuel 3:1-21

John 20:21-23

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We have come a long way from the manna in the wilderness.  So we begin today’s sacred story with a brief video introduction to bring us all up to speed. [1Samuel 0:00 to 3:37]

Some of the videos we watch in worship have handouts that go along with them.  You may want to take them home to review the events of the Sacred Story as they unfold.  The poster-sized handouts are on a small table in the narthex.  [The Bible Project Print 1 Sam Poster]

A couple of weeks ago, we heard the Sacred Story of Moses’ call.  Today we hear Eli’s.  Between times, the whole people have heard God’s call on them to live in God’s way.  In the wilderness God created a covenant with the people, that included the ten commandments and more, about how the people would have Life.  This is God’s intention – to give the people Life!  As God calls the whole people of Israel to live in his ways, he calls us too.  And so today, we are going to think about what it means to be called people of God. 

What does it mean to be people who have received God’s way of life, and to follow God’s call to live it?

God’s way of life is often referred to as the Torah or the Law.  And in these Old Testament stories that we are reading, the Law is much more than just a list of rules, but I hope you already know that.  The Law is the code for a life of freedom for all – a life regulated by God’s perfect justice, rather than human flailing for fairness.  We know that God’s perfect justice is both difficult to follow, and an enormous gift as we are able to live it.  Because we are Lutherans, it is always present for us that we are unable to live the law as God intends[i].  In fact, we know that we are bound to break God’s law.  We are bound by sin to speak poorly of our neighbor, or to stretch the truth, or to constantly want more stuff, or to neglect the needs of others.  And we believe that the law is a gift to us, not just because if we follow it we know we are living with a fullness of life – though that is most certainly true (as Luther would say).  That is the first use of the law[ii], to give us good order as a society and to know when our behavior is out of bounds.  The second use of the law is equally important to our spiritual health.  The second use is that when we are confronted with the law, we realize that we cannot keep it in its entirety.  In fact, there are times that we have utterly failed to live in the justice God intends.  To live rightly in the world for the sake of our neighbors as well as ourselves.

The law is powerful.  It is expected of us, just like it was expected of Eli’s sons who failed so miserably.  And of Eli himself, who was unable to keep his sons in community, to keep them from stealing from the offering plate for their own gain.  This powerful law condemns us.  And we hate that.  We don’t come to church to hear condemnation, we come to hear hope and comfort.  Hey, me too.  But the Lutheran process for hearing hope and comfort always starts with being confronted by the law.  That is why we confess our sins at the beginning of worship.  We take that opportunity to remember that the law has demanded of us so much more than we are capable of doing.  That God’s justice is far more perfect than is possible for us. And we confess to God that we have not lived within it. 

Then, in this confession, we are open to begin to hear that God has already done everything necessary for us.  Even though it is true that we have not lived as God asks.  God has come to earth to vanquish sin and death – God’s love is the point of God’s law.

This is the pattern we have begun to see in the Sacred Story, and will continue to see repeated over and over again. 

God invites the people to a full life.  And instead, we choose to break God’s way of life and instead have power over one another.  God welcomes the people back, amazingly.  No matter how many times the ultimate being of the universe gets snubbed by humanity… God offers another call to another broken human being.  Urging, cajoling, the created goodness within us to breathe again.  Inviting the justice that is within us, the Imago Dei that God breathed into us at creation, to live again. 

Each time we break God’s law, we break our relationship with God.  And we break ourselves as we break this connection.  We are created to be creatures.  Beings connected to their creator – not autonomous divine beings.  That is for God alone, as we say in the Shema.

What is at stake here?  Your relationship with God, of course.  But also God’s relationship with the world.

All that I have been talking about is described in a pithy fashion on the handout in your bulletin.  You will see that one side has a page from The Lutheran Handbook II, “The top three uses of the Law” and “How to tell if your will is in bondage to sin and what to do about it.”  That is our starting point.  On the other side of the page you will see two pages from the Lutheran Handbook I: “How to tell the difference between Law and Gospel” and on the other side is “How to Reform the Church when it strays from the gospel.”

What does it mean to be people who have received God’s way of life, and to follow God’s call to live it?  It means that God is calling us to be right relationship with him.  To connect with the divine in our proper place, as non-divine beings. And to hear the gospel àGod, your creator loves you! So much, he came and died as a human and overcame death for you.

This past week, someone asked me an excellent question.  It is part of my calling to invite good questions.  I was thrilled.  They asked why we continue to repeat the same bible stories over and over again in church.  There is so much to the bible, why do we pick just a few stories to read repeatedly?  And I LOVE this question.  It is Such a Good Question. 

My answer was this.  We choose a selection of stories because as Christians we understand that God revealed Godself through these stories.  And some stories are easier to see the grace of God than others.  We do not always read only the easy ones, by any means, but we do read stories that help us teach central tenants of the faith.  That help us to see what God was up to in Jesus and how that impacts our daily life.  When we use the Narrative Lectionary we are adding a few stories, but mostly just telling them in a more consecutive order to help you get the gist of how they fit together.  The good news about having a select few in the lectionary is that you have 313 days of the year to read all the rest of it!

The trouble with my answer was that I forgot a piece of it… We also read the stories that reveal who WE are.  We read about the repeated patterns of the people in scripture because they are us.  We are them.  Over and over again throughout the Hebrew Bible (OT) and throughout the gospels, and even beyond Jesus resurrection in the early church, all the way to the revealing of the end times in Revelation – the time before which we still live.  In all the ages of scripture we see who we are.  We are creatures made in connection to a divine creator who loves us and does everything to bring us back into alignment with him.  To bring us into relationship – and not some sentimental relationship like touched by an angel, and it’s not like a human to human relationship – this relationship is about us being in the right place in the created order and in orientation to our limited selves, and in orientation to our amazing capacities, both of which deeply impact the rest of creation which God has made.  For when we are in right relationship with our God and our neighbor and all of creation, the world has LIFE.  And the sacred story tells us that God is inviting us to have something to do with God’s making that happen.  It’s awesome.

What does it mean to be people who have received God’s way of life, and to follow God’s call to live it?  It means that God is calling us to be in right relationship with him.  To connect with the divine in our proper place, as non-divine beings. When we live in that right-relationship, when the law works on us, and the gospel is a gift, we have freedom to live/for Life!

For only when we are awake and aware of God’s presence around us and the awesomeness of all the world, and our place in it, will we be able to use the significant powers that we have to impact it for God’s purposes.  God’s will.  God’s justice. 

It is 500 years after Luther nailed those 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door, seeking the reformation of the church.  The church, and the world, still need reforming today. 

God is calling you.  Calling you to know these stories so deeply that you remember your orientation.  God is calling you to know your neighbor well enough to know what he or she needs, whether your neighbor is your child, or a Muslim from half-way across the world.  God is calling you, like Samuel, to listen to God’s voice calling in the darkness of night when no one around has bothered listening for a long time.

God is calling you.  How will you respond?

Amen.

---

[i] LH II p. 178

[ii] LH II p. 142

ROI

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Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 

The Holy Gospel according to ______. Glory to you, O Lord.

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!" 

18 "Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."  

The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In our Sacred Story for today, Jesus tells a parable.  A parable is, literally, a story that puts two things side by side, similar to a metaphor or simile, except bigger – parables are stories that paint a picture, using familiar scenarios in ways that teach a spiritual lesson.  Often, Jesus uses parables to teach about what the Kingdom of God is like, and he will get there… Here, however, Jesus uses this first parable in Matthew to paint a picture of how the good news about the kingdom will get out to people.  How it is that the Word of God will be spread. Spread like a sower tosses out seed. 

I thought it might be helpful to think of this parable as Jesus explaining God’s Business Plan.  God is going about God’s business – that is, to spread the good news of the kingdom. So let’s take a look at it.  [God’s Business Model ppt]

First we have our raw materials: soil and seeds.  The seeds are God’s Word, so God has an infinite supply of that.  The question is: where will he invest it? Let’s talk about God’s investment opportunities here.  We have rocky soil, hard-packed path, thorny patches and good soil. [soil] Well, that sounds like the whole earth!

God invests the Word into the soil… and do you remember, if you took catechism, what is the Word?   Scripture is always the first thing we think of, but scripture only cradles the Word, not every jot and tittle of scripture is necessarily God’s Word….who is the Word?  Jesus! [investing God’s Word – seeds]

And what is God looking for here?  What will be the Return on Investment, the ROI, of God’s enterprise?  Fruit! The Fruit of the Spirit, even, that Paul talks about in the latter verses of chapter 8 of Romans that we read today. [Return on investment is Fruit]

First we learn that God scatters seeds everywhere, we are going to assume an equal distribution – because it is random distribution. [pie chart]

25% will produce ALL of the ROI, not most of the ROI or the biggest percentage… ALL.

Why is it still important to do the 75%?  Because we have no idea which seeds will get rooted deeply enough to produce ROI.  

Now back to the types of soil we are investing in again.  Imagine who is whom. We won’t share this out loud. Think about a person that you know that you would guess is rocky soil… hard packed earth?  Thornbrush? And Good soil…It wasn’t too hard to come up with someone for each category was it? We think we know people, we think we can tell which is which.  Who is worth our time, our sharing with them the transformative power of the gospel…

No one has developed this technology, and no one ever will.  No matter how precise we get at farming, with our puff-air planting technology and our soil chemistry…we will never be able to tell the precise chemical equation of the growth of the Word in the human Spirit.  The Spirit of God that lives in each of us, planted there by the hearing of the Word, by the gift of baptism, nourished by the ongoing Word and feast on Christ’s body…we usually want to know how to have the most “success”  how to be sure that the efforts we put in will produce more believers…how to pick the most likely candidates… 

Maybe we think that young families will be most likely to produce fruit, or maybe we think it is the elders of society, or maybe we think it is those who already know the church culture, like those who grew up in it, or maybe we think it is those who have the most visible gifts already…

But The truth is, no matter how we judge others, only God knows what the Word will produce in them.  

This whole parable gets misunderstood when we seek out the “right” people to bring into our church… because we think we are the planters, the farmers, the agent of change, the ones who take action.  But that’s not what God says. It is not our job to make the church grow, or to convert everyone to our beliefs. This is the key point of our faith: God does the planting. All we get to do is receive the gift, like soil receives the seed. 

God is investing in Cali Bella today as the Word is proclaimed in baptism and as she is washed into the family of God.  God is investing in each one of you. You are God’s investment opportunity. And God has invested in you. Today, and each time you hear the Word of God – through the Scriptures, through a word of grace and forgiveness, through a retelling of the sacred story in your own life, anytime you encounter Jesus in your neighbor… and notice that God has come to dwell among us, has fully taken on human flesh and has died on a cross to take away the brokenness of the world.

And you… you are good soil. You are growing good fruit.  You are the first fruits of the harvest, groaning as we await God’s good work in us, and as we see it come to life: the fruit of love for the world. 

Amen.

I'm having Difficulty Remembering...

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Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Recall with me a time in your life when you were thrilled with a new turn of events… Maybe you just found out your best friend was moving to live in your town or you had gotten a slot in the perfect summer camp.  Maybe you were about to take your dream job, or had just learned you were becoming a grandparent for the first time.  Maybe you just realized that you found the love of your life, or even, you recently learned that you were, finally, cancer-free…   

In those first few days, weeks or months that you were still new to that reality.  Life was totally different, and yet, exactly the same.  You knew that something very good had happened and it probably buoyed your mood throughout the days, but…  Did you ever forget?  You know, in your day-to-day life, just going about your business – forgetting about it – not remembering that a whole new world had come to you and then… something would tug you into to the reality that something Truly Great was happening… ?

It was like that for me when I was pregnant for the first time, I would go about my day and forget I was becoming a mom.  Then someone would ask me how I was feeling and it was like hearing the news for the first time all over again – Wonderful!  I am feeling wonderful!  A new life was beginning, and not just the child, but a mother was about to be born.  Each time I remembered that tiny new life that would be coming sometime soon it was like a fantastic gift over and over again.

Now, 6 years later, I have some significant moments completely amazed at the honor and joy of motherhood.  And I also spend – probably more – moments forgetting what an honor and joy motherhood is.  We all know what those moments look like… How quickly we can forget. 

It’s easy to forget stuff.  But Remembering is a tricky thing. 

We forget stuff all the time.  Simple things like keys and phones or even big enormous things like a new baby growing or a major life change. Remembering is a strangely passive process.  Sometimes we know we have forgotten, and so we wait around, trying to remember… but usually Remembering happens when we are just going about our work and it suddenly comes to us.  Even when we use tricks like walking back to the spot you last knew that thing, it is up to our environment, often the people around us, to help us remember. 

What if God designed it that way?  What if God gives us families and friends and communities to help us Remember?  Because Remembering – even the most important things – is hard. Especially alone. It is much easier to forget.

Just ask the women in the Easter story. 

“Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. Then they remembered his words.”

Here’s the tricky thing about remembering.  Before that very moment, when the light shines bright and the men encountered the women in that tomb.  The women had forgotten.  So they were living in the old reality, the one that has actually passed away but they had forgotten because they didn’t remember!  Remembering changed their world.

These women have been through a lot the past few days.  They woke up very early this morning remembering certain things… bleary eyed from their three days of weeping.  They remembered the people’s cries for a King that day he rode on a donkey.  And they remember their cries turning on him.  The unjust trial.  And the pain of that cross.  They remembered where they saw Joseph lay his body. Remembering, like any of us who have lost a loved one do… it is fresh each morning, each time we drive down that same street or think we need to check in with them, and they are no longer there.  All they could remember confronted the reality of their friend, their teacher, their beloved connection to God – dead, on a cross, killed by Romans because his own people wanted it so.  We weep with them and feel the searing pain slicing through our hearts each time we recall it.

They go to the tomb, because they remember Jesus’ death. 

But they have forgotten something. 

“Suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them: Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

The women find themselves lying on the ground as if pleading in prayer. And then They. Remember!

The women, frozen in fear, are stunned.  They remember.  Jesus told them.  This would happen.  He would not be in the tomb.  He would rise again. 

This Remembering rips them out of their painful reality with the hope that… he lives! 

Everything that Jesus has been teaching us about… Remember!  Remember your life is not your own, but God has saved you!  Remember, you have been given abundant daily bread!  Remember, Our God finds the lost at all costs – even the cost of his very own life.  Remember, even if this is the one person you would rather die than take help from - He has given you life. Remember, God’s will is for a life lived in connection to God and to each other. Not even death can separate us from God’s love. …Remember?

The women could not do this remembering on their own.  They needed those men to show up. Those dazzling white, frightening men who clearly knew something the women did not – the women needed those angelic “men” to remember with them.  The ones who live with God and have experienced God’s reality.  God’s will for Life.  God’s drive that led God to let the evil one think he had won for a time, so that God’s reality might break open the world that thinks God is captive. 

The women show up at that tomb thinking Jesus has been defeated, and as it turns out it was in the defeat that the reality of God’s power over this world could be realized.

God changed the world order.  He who died – Lives.

Those women ran from that tomb, entrusted with the greatest news of all time – He Lives!  And the disciples think they speak nonsense.  But it isn’t nonsense.  It isn’t nonsense to believe the world can be different than it is.  “It isn’t nonsense to believe that weapons of mass destruction are not necessary, and that war is not inevitable.  It is not nonsense to believe that a child’s race and class and sex will not always determine their future share of happiness and well-being.  It is not nonsense to believe that we who have been divided from each other can, and will one day sit down together at the welcome table of God’s love and God’s grace.  These are not nonsense thoughts. With the Easter eyes of resurrection faith, we can see that this is hope…Hope is the door from one reality to another.”  Hope is not about a feeling.  Hope is action based upon faith.  Hope is what happens when we Remember!  The world has changed!  And though the disciples think they speak nonsense, we all sit here today because of the hope of those women.[i] 

It’s a lot to remember.

I cannot remember by myself. 

None of us can.  

But that’s why God gives us to each other, The church.  We are a Remembering Community.

We’re here every week.  Each week, God re-members us.  Brings us into one body by assembling us together here.  Gathering together, we remember that Easter happens every Sunday. Every day in each one of our lives as we remember together that we have Easter Hope! Hope found because we have died with Jesus in the waters of baptism and are raised with Jesus to new life here and now. 

Remembering not something that happened in the past but remembering the new reality we live in now!  Together we Remember God’s promises of life and salvation. We remember that we Easter people have hope. Hope for the world to be different than it is.  Acting in Hope for God’s love to be made real in the world. 

You are God’s beloved child, it is for you that God has done all this – come to suffer, die and rise again.  Is that hard to remember? Well, yes, it is.  But don’t worry, we’re here for you.  We’ll help each other Remember.

Amen.

---

[i]Jim Wallis, Sojourners magazine “While the Men Were in Hiding, Women Delivered the Greatest News the World Has Ever Known.”

Connect

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Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our theme this Lent is “Connect.”  Last week I talked about “connectors” in scripture – those little phrases that string together the narrative like “Once, Then, Now, While this was happening, On the next day, etc.” Today our piece of the sacred story starts with a similar connector: “Just then.”  So as we pay attention to these connectors, we wonder: What happened “Just then” before the lawyer stood up to test Jesus?

This is when we are all sad that we do not have pew Bibles.  Though if you want to get out your smart phone to pull up your Bible App, please do – it’s Luke, chapter 10.  If you do, you can check out the verses immediately before our “Just then,” …/// Here, Jesus is rejoicing upon the return of the 70 returning.  The 70 disciples had been sent out to minister to many places and they returned, surprised of the great power the Spirit of God had done through them – specifically to cast out demons!  - Remember last week’s reading, when Jesus cast out a demon that the disciples could not?  So Jesus rejoices – in verses 18-24, I’ll read just 19-20:

¹⁹ See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰ Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Jesus is celebrating with the disciples and praising God for the work God is doing to bring in the kingdom.  To heal the world, and “Just Then”… a lawyer stands up.

What do you think he was thinking, that lawyer?  What is he trying to do? Is he challenging Jesus, or is he trying to connect with Jesus?  Is he setting up a road block, or inviting Jesus to explain further?  Something else entirely?

You have probably heard this parable before – the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Parables are great fun for they give us a story to unpack again and again in new ways for every new time.  Today we look at the connection of the parable to the people who were listening to it.  The context of this parable isn’t simply that a lawyer or scribe is asking Jesus a challenging question.  That question is asked “just then” after Jesus has been rejoicing with the 70 disciples who have just gathered together again after doing powerful ministry among the people.  Was this lawyer one of those disciples?  That’s what I am going with today.  Rather than the lawyer being an opposing force, what if he is one of those 70 disciples who has just had the awesome and life-changing experience of casting out demons with his own hands?  What if he is simply, being lawyer-like, trying to pin down that experience in words and rules he understands and can defend in court?  What if he is looking for the way to spread this good news further?  To explain it in plain terms?

Ok, Jesus… make it clear: what must I do, precisely, to harness this most amazing power I have seen working through my very own hands, this “Eternal Life”?  How do I make this feeling last forever? How do I give it to more people?  What’s the formula?  How can I codify this transformation happening, even now, in me?

And Jesus tells him a story.

But we cannot attempt to grasp this parable without knowing who Samaritans are.  For us, due to our Good Samaritan laws, “Samaritan” is generally thought of as a positive word.  But, let me remind you… a only a few verses ago, in chapter 9, verses 51 and following:

⁵¹ When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.⁵² And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; ⁵³ but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”^[k] 55 But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶ Then^[l] they went on to another village.

These Samaritan villages rejected him.  And it was a sore point for the disciples.  This is not a new sore point.

Samaritans were the people who worshipped the same God (Yahweh), but came from the northern tribes of Israel, the kingdom which was destroyed before the southern kingdom of Judah.  The people from the Southern tribes were called Jews.  These are all descendants of Abraham.  But the Jews, when they came back from the Babylonian exile, did not recognize the Samaritans as people worshipping God rightly, as, of course, they were.  So the nation of Israel was split, along kingdom lines… that kingdom that God had not wanted in the first place, remember?

Religiously, Samaritans are the first cousins of the Jews of Jesus’ day.  And like often happens with tribes, it is easier to let the differences divide us, no matter our many similarities.

And so when the lawyer stood up in the midst of the rejoicing over the 70 who had just had such a beautiful experience of God’s restoring work… He speaks the same sentiment that Peter spoke on that mountain top at the transfiguration, “Tell us Jesus, how do we make this last?”

And Jesus’ response is… less than satisfying.  Did he really have to bring up the Samaritans?

How do you make this last?  Jesus says…You know the law and the prophets, what do they tell you? 

Love God, love your neighbor, replies the Lawyer.

Do this and you will live. Says Jesus.

But this is not enough for the lawyer. 

Who is my neighbor? 

Well, everyone knows the answer to that… “You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34).

It is a basic tenet of the Jewish Faith, and therefore the Christian faith.

But who is a “neighbor”?  Who is an “alien”  the one we have never met?  The one who lives next to us?  The one that is so strange to us… the one we despise and reject? 

And then Jesus tells the story.  Not about the Samaritan in the ditch, that would not have been so surprising – we all know that the one in the ditch needs a neighbor. 

Jesus tells the story starting with the men in front of him, Jewish man.  And says, suppose one of you was in a ditch, robbed and beaten. 

Now imagine who would come along to help you.  Would it be a priest?  A levite?  A scribe?  All Jewish authorities… well, not these, Jesus says. 

But imagine you are in a ditch, Jesus says.  And another man comes along who is not of your tribe.  The one person you would rather die than take help from. 

Who would that be for you?  

·        The brother you haven’t spoken to in years

·        The junior high bully who wouldn’t leave you alone

·        The investment banker who cheated you

·        The people who ignored you in a time of need

·        The politician you most despise

The good brother, the good bully, the good cheat, the good politician…That’s the Good Samaritan. 

…

The theme for us this Lent is “Connect.”  Jesus invites those faithful, dedicated disciples to consider with whom they may be denying their human connection.  Us too.  Jesus invites us, to think about what that kind of re-connection would mean for our lives. 

Who are our neighbors? 

·        The person across the street we just can’t stand?

·        The one who has more than us? The one who has less?

·        Those we serve at The Closet?

·        The Muslims who came to visit us last week? 

·        The Jews from whom we came as Christians?

·        The ones who are suffering hate at the hands of others?

And in re-defining “neighbor” one more time, Jesus invites to connect with God.  This is God’s will, that we might connect with God and each other. It’s as simple as the lawyers first answer, and as hard as the parable lets on. 

It’s as simple as serving with Martha’s heart and listening with Mary – not thinking we have to choose between one and the other.  And as hard as not resenting our sister may be. 

As we connect with God this Lenten season in prayer, fasting and giving, may God transform the connections among us at Bethlehem, and between each of us and the world. 

Amen. 

Back Down to Lent

Watch & Listen Here

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.”

Today’s gospel is a long one for us in a Lutheran worship service, we usually read just a snippet of scripture at a time.  But it is part of the gift of the narrative lectionary that we begin to embrace how those snippets fit together to make the whole story of the Good News of God. 

Notice how in our reading today there are several bridges from one scene to the next.  It starts off with “Once Jesus was praying alone…” as the gospel writer begins a new section of his story.  Then these bridges, “Then he said to them all,” “Now about eight days after these sayings,” “On the next day,” and “While everyone was amazed” serve to connect the action in the story.  What happens in one scene connects to the next.

Today’s good news is incredibly basic to our Christian faith, and also the greatest stumbling block for many.  So much so that Jesus has to tell the disciples three separate times.  Two of them frame our story this morning.

The story begins with Jesus in a time of prayer, engaging his disciples, his students, in the primary lesson of his life.  “They say I am John or Elijah reincarnated, but you know differently…” and Peter confesses, “Jesus, you are the Messiah.”  Then, their teacher
reminds me of an adult speaking to children who need to understand the dangers they may find themselves in if they are not careful: The fact that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of Man, as Jesus says, is a dangerous idea.   If caught thinking this way, the students will be in danger.  When the authorities hear this dangerous idea, Jesus’ life will be threatened.  In fact, Jesus clarifies.  It isn’t just a threat.  This will happen.  He will suffer, be rejected by their own beloved tribe and be killed.  Then, on the third day be raised. 

I wonder if the students could even hear that last bit.  By the time Jesus had brought the danger of the situation to their attention, could they even hear through their own hearts beating in their throats that Jesus would be raised again after death?

But Jesus plows ahead, apparently disregarding their level of comprehension. Or maybe he’s trying to make them understand? 

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. ²⁵ What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? ²⁶ Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. ²⁷ But truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

These are powerful words: Shame, Deny yourself, Take up your cross, voluntarily lose your life for Jesus sake.  Jesus doesn’t mince words.  Following Jesus is not about getting power, profit and glory for ourselves.  Being a student of Jesus is about learning from him how we should live, even to the point of denying ones’ self for the sake of Jesus.  The sake of those in whom we see Jesus.  The sake of our neighbors, like us and unlike us – for this is where we know Jesus comes to us. 

Now about eight days after that conversation.  That’s when they go up to the mountain to pray.  Goodness knows, I am looking for more opportunities to talk with God after hearing that speech from Jesus. 

Since there is nothing between these two scenes, it leads us to believe that even if there was healing and preaching going on in those 8 days, everyone was a little distracted by that speech.  And I have to wonder what God was doing.  Did God make sure to put some space between the speech and this Transfiguration moment?  Did God give them plenty of time to excuse themselves from being Jesus students any longer?  Certainly, God knows we humans cannot handle all the information at once – and a little time between these events helps us to integrate them into our experience. 

On that mountain, there they are praying and Jesus starts shining – and it probably makes those students think about the other time in their Israelite history that someone’s face glowed – when Moses was up on the mountain getting the ten commandments from God!  And then, lo and behold, who shows up?  But Moses himself!  And Elijah, the whispered name of the prophet that people have been thinking Jesus might be. 

Then Peter, the spokesperson for the bumbling disciples, says “let’s build some houses up here!”  What was Peter hoping to do?  Mark the place like Jacob did at Peniel?  Naming that place “the Face of God”? But as the words are falling from his mouth, a cloud comes over them, they are terrified – because our God is a Fearsome God.  And they hear these words, “This is my Son, my Chosen;^[i] listen to him!”  

It’s true!  Jesus is the Son.  This isn’t just an amazing experience of encountering God on the mountain, this is God revealed in the human before them!  It isn’t even just that Jesus is the Messiah, the human who would save them from their oppression.  Jesus is actually God’s Son. And all he has been teaching them is more than just another wise man’s words.  This is divinity.  Fearsome, Awesome, Overwhelming divinity. 

“And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.”

Because wouldn’t you?

Then on the very next day.  Peter and the rest of the disciples, still grappling with the reality that has been revealed to them once again, and a father comes to plead with Jesus.  I imagine the disciples, continuing their stunned silence, gazing every so often at Jesus, the God-Man.  I imagine they have no doubt that Jesus can heal this child, though they could not when they were sent on their missionary journeys earlier.  And I imagine that they have a whole new understanding and empathy for Jesus when he says, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you?”   And they notice when he also says, “Bring your son here.” 

For this God does not leave the desperate father and the tortured son.  This father IS the desperate father and the tortured son.

…though they may not yet be able to comprehend it.

“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.”

Let us enter Lent this week, letting it all sink in… God the desperate father, God the tortured son, God the one who will not let us go. 

Amen.