Author: Chip Salzgeber

Luke 6:20-31

 

 

Well…there’s the To-do list:

• Such as weekend tasks to complete or things to buy.
• Driven by necessary chores…completed and discarded upon completion.
• Just a list.

 

There’s the inventory list:

• Such as Items for sale.
• Or items to insure.
• Just a list.

 

There’s the brainstorming list.

• Like the list I wrote out when I was working on this homily.
• Just a list.

 

There’s the check list:

• Like the list I check off when I am getting things ready for worship on Sunday mornings.
• Just a list.

 

There’ the shopping list:

• Built up slowly…completed all at once.
• But hugely lengthy when I’m hungry.
• Just a list.

 

There’s the bucket list:

• Things to do before we die.
• Aspirational…a striving after something larger than ourselves.
• And once again…just another list.

 

Irene is a person I found while visiting folks in a nursing home several years ago.

• She was all alone. Elderly. No family. Homeless. On Medicaid. No one to visit her.
• The head nurse in the facility shared with me that Irene was found in a nearby park…homeless.
• During the next several months I got to know Irene. I loved talking with her. She liked sharing her past with me.
• She had a large photo album of much of her past. Pictures of her mother and father. A sister and a brother. All gone now.
• She had been a well-known star…her name shone brightly on numerous marquees…on Broadway.
• Irene passed a year or so after I met her. She was placed on our All-Saints Sunday list that year.
• It’s not just a list!

 

Jerry was a dear friend of mine…a member of the church I retired from.

• He was from Texas. A hard worker. When I met him…he was 81 years old.
• He led numerous mission trips to Guyana and communities in Florida that had been hit by terrible hurricanes during the first decade of the 2000’s.
• He received an engineering degree from Perdue University. Several tours in Viet Nam.
• He led a team of men and woman at Wright-Patterson Air Force base in Ohio who invented radar for supersonic aircraft as well as the first flat screen TV.
• Jerry was a wonderful churchman.
• When he passed several years ago…he was placed on our All-Saints Sunday list.
• It’s not just a list!

 

Jane was 92 years of age when I first met her at her home in Wilmington, NC where I was serving at the time.

• She was bright and cheerful and full of life.
• During our first conversation that day Jane shared with me that she had been a member of the Rockettes precision dance touring company in the 1920’s.
• She went on to share with me how strict the show producers were with all the women.
• She was such a delight and when she passed…she was placed on the All-Saints list that year.
• It’s not just a list!

 

Richard was a guy who sat next to me in the church choir.

• He was shy and introverted and quiet.
• A kind gentleman. Knowledgeable.
• And over the years sharing thoughts and ideas with each other I found out that he had a PhD in Biochemistry.
• One day he shared with me…demurely…that he was on the team that developed the MRI…the magnetic resonance imaging machine.
• He too was put on our All-Saints list.
• It’s not just a list.

 

I met Mary at a church camp retreat I was leading.

• The retreat theme was about redemption and redeeming moments and experiences.
• At the outset I knew only that Mary was a certified public accountant and a proofreader for a local newspaper.
• During the program Mary shared with the group that her husband had been shot and killed by a police officer…he had been mistaken for someone else.
• And then a few months later her 6-year-old son was stabbed to death by gang.
• And Mary…as you can imagine was devastated…broken.
• At the time she was pregnant with her second child…a son.
• She languished in a hospital from deep depression for weeks.
• But then she got out of bed and promised her Lord that she would birth her unborn child and make that her life mission.
• And after the birth Mary raised that son.
• She took in laundry and cleaned houses…scrubbed floors and washed windows.
• And then one day when her only surviving son had graduated from college he said:
• Mom…now its your turn…and Mary went to college and graduated the same night that her son graduated with a PhD from the same university.
• And a few years later she remarried…happily.
• And when she died…her name was added to the All-Saints Sunday list.
• It’s not just a list!

 

Jerry Belanger was a friend of mine…a brother.

• When his wife died of a terminal illness…she asked me to promise her that I would watch over him.
• And for 32 years we had coffee with one another once a week.
• And if our politicians have not been able to solve our many issues…
• Jerry and I solved them all.
• Miss Susan and I had Jerry over for Thanksgiving dinner last year.
• We had a wonderful time giving thanks for all that God had blessed us with during the previous year.
• And Jerry joined the Saints of Heaven a few days later.
• He is on our All-Saints Sunday list of those who have passed this past year.
• It’s not just a list!

 

Today we celebrate all those who have shown us how to live abundant…God-centered lives.

• All those Saints on that special list.
• It’s not just a list!
• We celebrate their love…their wisdom…their faithfulness…their gentleness…their power.
• We celebrate the saints…the arms of Jesus…who have wrapped us in their love.
• As we remember them…we pray for the wisdom and power to follow their example.
• As we name those on our list during the prayers in a moment…we will remember.
• It’s not just a list!

John 8:31-36

 

When Columbus lived…people thought that the earth was flat.

• They believed the Atlantic Ocean to be filled with monsters large enough to devour their ships…
• And with fearful waterfalls over which their frail vessels would plunge to destruction.
• Columbus had to fight these foolish beliefs to get men to sail with him. He felt sure the earth was round.

You might think that Columbus went out on a limb by assuming the Earth was round…or that it was Magellan who proved it for certain a few years later with his global circumnavigation.

 

Magellan said:

• “The church says the earth is flat…but I know that it is round…for I have seen the shadow on the moon…and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.”
• With those sentiments and other words like that the Church Inquisitors went to work with their terror and torture.

 

But contrary to popular belief…this question wasn’t settled in the 1400s and 1500s but more than 2,000 years ago.

• It was solved in the ancient world by scholars and scientists from Egypt and Greece.
• All over the Mediterranean these scholars went to work at the Library of Alexandria.
• One of these scientists was the Ancient Greek Astronomer…Eratosthenes of Cyrene.
• He proved the earth is round!
• Jesus said: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

 

Well…a few years later the Passover of the Jews was near.

• And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
• In the temple he found people selling cattle…sheep and doves and the money changers seated at their tables.
• Jesus drove all of them out of the temple…with the sheep and the cattle.
• He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
• He told those who were selling the doves:
• “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”

 

It wasn’t really the money or the animals that angered Jesus.

• It was the extortion.
• It was the lying.
• It was the deceit.
• Making the poor purchase sacrificial animals that they could not afford to buy.
• Having to change their money into temple currency and being charged an outrageous exchange rate.
• The Jewish elite hoodwinking the poor into believing that you had to pay money and offer sacrifices to be saved.
• Hoodwinking the poor into believing that Jesus Abba…his daddy kept a torture chamber.
• And if you wanted to stay out of it…well…pay up!
• This so outraged Jesus.
• Because salvation…grace…is a priceless gift.
• Jesus said: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

 

Well…1500 years later…here we go again.

• 1517 Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the castle church door in Whittenburg, Germany.
• Why? Because he realized that the church was lying to the poor people.
• They were simply being deceitful.
• He wrote them to challenge church officials on certain issues in the church.
• Among these were the peddling of indulgences.
• Selling receipts to forgive sins to get out of Purgatory sooner and go to heaven.
• The money collected would go to build St Peters Cathedral in Rome…one of the biggest in the world.
• Well…we all love great cathedrals.
• But why must the poor pay for them?
• Do not the rich…the elite…have enough money to build them?

 

Okay then…the poor must pay money to buy indulgences to lessen their time in purgatory.

• Once again…its like the establishment believes that God is dumb.
• That our loving Lord would make us purchase something that is priceless.
• That God is a sadistic…loving to see his beloved creation suffer.
• Loving to see his beloved creation miserable…hungry…cold…and homeless.
• Martin Luther said NO to all of this nonsense.

 

And the church went after him for it.

• Thank goodness…Prince Frederick hid him away at in the Wartburg Castle.
• Here he translated the Bible into the German vernacular language.
• And the church killed people for writing the Bible in the peoples own language.
• And that’s another story for another time.
• Now isn’t it interesting that church leaders…as smart as thay are…would believe that God only communicates in Latin.
• What a world!
• Here…at the Wartburg Castle…Martin also threw his inkwell at the wall…in the room he was staying in…to keep the devil at bay.

 

Now isn’t it interesting…2000 years later…we must continue to keep the “powers and principalities” (St. Paul’s words) at bay.

• The poor are still messed with.
• The hungry are still sent away empty and malnourished and dying.
• The little ones are still cold and naked.

 

Jesus said:  

• “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…because he has anointed meto bring good news to the poor.
  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind…to set free those who are oppressed…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
• And when they heard this…all in the synagogue were filled with rage.
• They got up…drove him out of the town…and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built…so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
• But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

 

Jesus said:

• You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

 

Martin Luther said:

• “Lord Jesus…You are my righteousness…I am your sin. You took on you what was mine…yet set on me what was yours. You became what you were not…that I might become what I was not.”

Luke 18: 9-14

There are two idioms…one from China and one from Spain…that apply to our gospel reading for today.

• The Chinese idiom is translated: “A crane among a flock of chickens.”
• Referring to someone who is better than those around them.

 

The Spanish idiom is translated: “You think you’re the last Coca Cola in the desert.”

• It refers to someone who is proud…someone who acts superior to everybody around them.
• Those are the people Jesus is speaking to in today’s scripture lesson.
• People who think they are the last Coca Cola in the desert.

 

Our story begins with these words:

• Two men went up to the temple to pray…one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: God…I thank you that I am not like other people…robbers…evildoers…adulterers…or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
• This is a man who thinks he’s the last Coca Cola in the desert…A crane among a flock of chickens.

 

The Pharisee in our story seems to think he’s God’s gift to the world.

• That he created the heavens and the earth.
• But…according to conventional values…he’s an upright guy.
• Jesus is holding him up as an example of how we should all live.
• But Jesus began this story by saying two men went up to the temple to pray…a Pharisee and a tax collector.
• Now…the Pharisee was the polar opposite of the tax collector.

 

Tax collectors were hated by the Jewish people.

• They were often Jewish citizens who were hired by the Roman government to collect taxes from their fellow Jews.
• And Rome looked the other way if the tax collector added a few extra surcharges on top of the already-high taxes.
• Tax collectors were held in such disrepute that they were not allowed to give testimony in court.
• They were considered societal outcasts…and utter disgraces to their families.
• So much so that they were excommunicated from the synagogue.

 

Now let’s listen in on the tax collector’s prayer:

• The tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven…but beat his breast and said…God…have mercy on me…a sinner.
• OK then…this man knows what he is…a sinner in need of God’s mercy.
• Then Jesus delivers the punch line:
• I tell you that this man…rather than the other…went home justified before God.
• For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled…and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
• So…what does Jesus want us to learn here?

 

Over 1600 years ago…the theologian and philosopher St. Augustine wrote to one of his students about what it takes to understand the truth of God.

• He said it requires three qualities.
• The first is humility…the second is humility…the third is…humility.

 

We protect our ego…our image…our self-sufficiency as much as possible.

• I’m a good person…especially compared to them!
• Look at all the good things I’ve done.
• We try to earn God’s love.
• But we cannot earn something that is priceless.
• God desires that we simply receive his love…his grace…his mercy.
• The tax collector stood before God…utterly broken.
• And then opened his arms and simply received God’s goodness.

 

In our story today…the tax collector prays: “God…have mercy on me…a sinner.

• He uses an unusual word for mercy.
• He uses a Greek word that refers to pardoning a criminal or making atonement for another’s sin.
• Atonement in the Hebrew Bible is translated as…to cover.
• God instituted the practice among the Hebrew people of making an animal sacrifice to cover over their sins.
• When the tax collector pleads for mercy in his prayer…he is saying:
• God…I’m a sinner. I’ll never be good enough to deserve your forgiveness. I need you to take my place…to cover my sin.
• Christ himself came to cover our sin.
• To offer us the mercy we could never be good enough to earn on our own.

 

Paul said: Instead…put on the Lord Jesus Christ…

• Wear the robe of Christ.
• And so…we cover ourselves with his grace. (Romans 13:14)

 

The tax collector stood in the presence of the holy God and did not try to hide his sin and his brokenness and his shame.

• He recognized God’s holiness and his own helplessness.
• So…he confessed his sin and cried out for mercy.
• And he received the fullness of God’s love.
• Justification by God’s grace.
• Not because he deserved it.
• But…because…that is who God is.

 

The Dutch Catholic priest and author Henri Nouwen seemed to understand our struggle with self-righteousness and humility when he wrote this beautiful prayer:

• Dear God:
• I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
• (Man in the parking lot at Dockside).
• Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
• Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
• Please help me to gradually open my hands.
• And to discover that I am not what I own.
• But what you want to give me.

 

 

Two men went up to the temple to pray.

• Only one of them left there pardoned…changed…set free from the burden of his sin.
• What made the difference?
• One man showed up…broken…with empty hands…
• And asked God to do for him what he could not do for himself.
• And God did the rest.

ke 18: 9-14

 

 

The widow…in our story…realizes that she cannot resolve her situation on her own.

• She has nowhere to turn but to the judge.
• To him she pours out her heart and pleads her case.

 

In the parable…the judge has the authority to act…to effect change.

• But he is self-centered and lacks compassion.
• And so…the point of the parable is that Jesus compares the worst in people to the best in God.
• Fortunately for us…God is a righteous…compassionate Judge… willing to “step in” and help us.

Courtrooms in the Middle East were not in buildings but in the city gate.

• And the judge…not the law…set the agenda.
• Only those who were approved and accepted could have their cases tried.
• This usually meant paying off the judge to get a case heard.

 

The widow had several obstacles:

• She was a woman…with little standing before the law.
• And she had no husband or male relative to stand with her in court.
• And because she was poor…
• She could not pay a bribe.

 

Jesus tells this story to contrast our status before God.

• The widow was poor…we are spiritually rich.
• The widow had limited access…we have an open door any time.
• The widow had to beg…plead…or offer a bribe…we have free access.
• The widow was a stranger…we are members of God’s family.
• God is attentive…never bothered or annoyed by our prayers.
• He is our Advocate.

 

Why do we need to pray over-and-over for the same thing?

• God only needs to hear our prayer once…does He not?
• Yet prayer changes us…it causes us to keep on…keeping on.
• To consistently submit our needs in faith.
• Even after long periods of waiting.
• Even when God appears silent.

 

We don’t like being put on hold.

• Patience in prayer does not come easy.
• I will be the first to admit there are things I am tired of praying for.
• Yet I am compelled to continue.
• Not knowing the outcome.
• God is telling me…don’t give up.

 

The unjust judge grants the widow’s request in order to get rid of her.

• But God does not want our relationship with Him to end.
• Unlike the judge in the parable…
• God does not get worn out by our asking.

 

The point of the parable is not:

• “If you pray hard enough… I’ll grant your request.”
• The point is:
• Just “keep on praying” … not knowing what will happen.
• Keep in mind that God alone knows the best possible outcome.
• His answers are wiser than our prayers.

 

Jesus touches on an important Old Testament theme here:

• That of waiting patiently for God to vindicate the suffering of His people.
• Justice will come.
• Maybe not according to our timetable.
• But according to God’s perfectly timed…providential plan.
• In the meantime…we pray.
• Not my will but Thine be done.

A friend of mine…a journalist for a religious magazine…assigned to Jerusalem…was living in an apartment overlooking the West Wall…or Wailing Wall.

• Every day she saw the same Jewish man praying.
• One day she went down and introduced herself to the man.
• She asked him how long he had been coming to the wall.
• He told her that he had been praying there every day for 35 years.
• The reporter asked him how it felt to pray for such a long time.
• The man answered:
• “Like I’m talking to a wall.”
• If we are honest…we will admit that sometimes prayer seems like we’re talking to a wall.
• Yet the parable encourages us to not give up.

 

An Israeli internet company offers this:

• Simply email your prayers to them and they will stuff them in the crevices of the Wailing Wall.
• It’s like sending an email to God!
• During a recent visit…the Pope prayed at the wall and placed a written prayer in a crevice.
• I prayed at the wall during my visit to Israel and stuck my own prayer into the wall (illustrate this).

 

In Isaiah God says:

• “Before you call…I will answer…while you are still speaking…I will hear” (65:24).

 

Someone said to me:

• “I prayed and God didn’t answer.”
• I replied:
• “Yes…He did…He said NO.”

 

Sometimes God’s answer is “no.”

• If God gave us the reason for saying no…
• There is no assurance we would be able to understand it.
• God’s ways are above our ways.
• And His thoughts are infinitely more complicated.

 

For God to explain His purpose might be like someone attempting to explain chemistry to a 4-year-old.

• Sometimes God’s “no” seems unjust.
• At times like these…we have to trust that his “no” comes from a compassionate understanding of what is best.

 

In the meantime…St. Paul said:

• “For now…we see only a reflection…as in a mirror…but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part…then I will know fully…even as I have been fully known. And now faith…hope and love remain…these three and the greatest of these is love.

 

Why pray?

• For God prays for us even when we do not know how to pray (Romans 8:26).
• Prayer is a humbling act.
• It says that we don’t have all the answers.
• That we need outside help.
• This is difficult for me to admit.
• Like when I am lost and refuse to ask for directions.
• Pride…self-reliance keeps a lot of people from praying.
• Prayer is an act of submission to God’s will.
• Not an attempt to force His hand.

 

St. Augustine said:

“He who sings once prays twice.”

So…we will sing.

Luke 17: 11-19

 

A while back I received two checks:

• One was payment for a class I had taught.
• And the other an unasked-for…unanticipated gift from a relative.

 

I generally support the expression:

• “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
• Paul even said that: “we should carry our own load” (Galatians 6).
• But this was one of those moments of exception when I sat with an earned meal on one knee…
• And a delicious…surprising gift on the other.
• For which do you suppose I was the more grateful?

 

It is easy to take a lot for granted.

• Including good luck and unexpected gifts…in this life.
• Indeed…in this secular age…
• We are encouraged to think in terms of luck.
• As if good fortune has no more meaning than a roll of the dice.
• Or as they say: “when I hit the lottery.”

 

We imagine everything to be a matter of mere accident or chance.

• Assuming that good luck and bad luck are equal…
• That they balance out and add up to zero or nothing.

 

This attitude easily leads to the philosophy of despair called nihilism…

• Derived from nihil…
• The Latin word for “nothing”.
• When it is brought to its logical conclusion…
• Nihilism ultimately holds that there is nothing of any worth.

 

Yet there is another way to look at good luck and unexpected gifts.

• This theory posits an extraordinary giver…God.
• Who likes to give gifts to human creatures because he loves us.
• For this charitable pattern of gift-giving we have a name: Grace.
• If something is earned it is not a true gift.
• Grace…however…is unearned.
• It is free…it is gratis.
• The words grace…gratis…and gratitude flow into one another.
• If you perceive grace…you will naturally feel grateful.

 

In my experience…the ability to appreciate pleasant surprises as gifts tends to be good for one’s mental health.

• Those who perceive grace in the world are more likely to be grateful than those who do not.
• And grateful people are more likely to be happy…joy-filled…thankful!
• Feeling given to by the world…
• They feel eager to give back to the world.

 

Why do some people have such obviously grateful hearts while others have distinctly ungrateful ones?

• And why do still others fall in between?
• Seeming relatively bland in both their gratitude and their resentment?
• I don’t know.

 

It would be simple to believe that children from nurturing homes will automatically grow up to be grateful adults.

• And that deprived homes regularly turn out malcontents.

 

The problem is there is not much evidence to support this.

• Exceptions are many.
• I have known many who were raised amid neglect…poverty…and even brutality who seemed to quite naturally live their adult lives praising the Lord.
• Or at least praising life itself.
• Conversely…I’ve known those from homes of love and comfort who seemed born ingrates.
• A grateful heart is a mysterious thing.

 

So…an “attitude of gratitude” and an attitude of thanksgiving may not entirely be a matter of choice.

• Indeed…a grateful heart is itself a gift.
• In other words…the capacity to appreciate gifts is a gift.
• A thankful heart is a gift.

 

It is also the greatest blessing a human being may possess other than a strong will.

• But that doesn’t mean that a grateful heart cannot be nurtured by choice.
• Moses says “Choose life” in Deuteronomy 30:19.

 

Indeed…how one responds to adversity and good or bad luck may be one of the truest measures of our ability to grow into gratefulness and thanksgiving.

• We can look at some bad luck as a blessing in disguise.
• We can also maintain a sense of humility and not take good luck for granted.

 

Do we complain about how bad the weather is most of the time?

• Or can we learn to appreciate the beauty and diversity of weather as a gift to us?
• If we are stuck in a traffic jam on a dreary…rainy day…
• Do we sit and stew…even want to chew out the drivers around of us?
• Or do we concentrate on the fact that we are blessed to have a car amid a rainstorm?
• Are we inclined to complain about our jobs rather than work on ways to improve our skills?

 

If you woke up this morning and were able to hear the birds sing…

• Use your vocal cords to utter human sounds…
• Walk to the breakfast table on two good legs…
• And read the newspaper with two good eyes…
• You are more blessed than millions of those who could not do these simple things.

 

If you have never experienced the danger of battle…

• The loneliness of imprisonment…
• The agony of torture…
• Or the pangs of starvation…
• You are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

 

If you can attend a church service without fear of harassment…

• Arrest…
• Torture…
• Or death…
• You are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

 

If you have food in the refrigerator…

• Clothes on your back…
• A roof overhead and a place to sleep.
• You are richer than 75% of the people in this world.

 

If you have money in the bank…

• In your wallet.
• And spare change in a dish some place.
• You are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.

 

If you are over thirty and either of your parents is still alive you are very rare.

• Over a billion people are orphans by then.

 

Then one of them…when he saw that he was healed…turned back…praising God with a loud voice.

• He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.
• And he was a Samaritan.
• Then Jesus asked: “Were not ten made clean?
• But the other nine…where are they?

 

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful…

• You are blessed because the majority can…
• But most do not.
• Giving thanks reminds us how blessed we are!