Category: Homilies

Matthew 1:18-25

 

There are three versions of the Christmas story.

• There’s the Gospel According to Matthew…where we get Joseph’s dream and the wise men and the star in the East.
• Then there’s the Gospel According to Luke…where we get the shepherds and the angels and the fact that there was no room in the inn.
• And then there’s the Gospel According to Hallmark…in which we get a smorgasbord of all the above including the wise men…the shepherds…a host of angels…lowing cattle and a partridge in a pear tree.

If you’d like to see a visual representation of the Hallmark version…just drive by the house near the intersection of Trevesta Place and Hevena Court in my neigborhood.

• In addition to Santa…Frosty…Rudolph and the other reindeer…it includes Mickey…Pluto and Donald Duck.
• There’s also a nativity scene…but you’ll have to look hard to find it.

The Hallmark version is the most popular because it gives us the whole nine yards.

• Yes…I’m mocking Hallmark…but truth be told…I have a subscription to Hallmark on my TV.
• Also…take a good look at our Nativity in the Narthex.
• It’s not true to the text.
• So…let’s take a look at Matthew.

We hear a lot about Mary…and rightly so.

• She was…after all…the mother of Jesus.
• The only person constant in the life of Jesus from the cradle to the grave.
• But what do we know about Joseph?
• In all the New Testament he never utters a word.
• Yet…he’s one of the principal figures in the Christmas drama.

Joseph was a simple man of an honorable trade: A carpenter from Nazareth.

• Sometimes you see Sunday school pictures showing him in a wood shop making furniture.
• But “carpenter” in Joseph’s day referred to a wide range of trades.
• Joseph most likely worked with metal…stone and wood.
• The Greek is “tekton” and literally means stone mason.
• The regional capital…Sepphoris…was under construction during this time.
• And it was within walking distance of Nazareth.
• Joseph…and his sons…were stone masons there.

Craftsmen worked with strong shoulders and callused hands.

• They were educated by apprenticeship.
• Their place was respectable but not on one of the higher rungs of the social ladder.
• Remember the flap in the synagogue in Nazareth when Jesus preached his first sermon?
• The elders raised their eyebrows and asked: “Isn’t this the carpenter…the son of Mary and brother of James…Joses…Judah and Simon?”

Jesus’ father was neither a rabbi nor a scribe nor one of the civic leaders.

• He had but two qualifications in the Christmas drama.
• He was a descendent of David and he was God’s choice.
• A common man who dared to be obedient to God.

His place in the Christmas story is that of Mary’s husband.

• OK then…Joseph and Mary were “betrothed” but not yet married.
• There were three steps in a Jewish marriage:
• The engagement…which was often arranged by the parents through a matchmaker when the boy and girl were children.
• The betrothal…which was a formal ratification of the marriage-to-be.
• Usually done a year before the couple was married.
• And the wedding itself…which lasted an entire week.
• During the week of celebration…the marriage was consummated.

During the betrothal…the couple was legally bound to each other so that…if the man died before the actual wedding took place…

• The woman became a widow.
• They were referred to as husband and wife…though they refrained from having sexual relations.

It’s at this stage in their relationship that Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant.

• I think it’s safe to say Joseph blew a gasket.
• Joseph was beside himself to learn that his fiancé was pregnant.
• He was angry and upset.
• If Mary were pregnant…the only explanation would have been that she had been unfaithful.
• In which case…he had a legal right to have her stoned to death.

It’s at this point Joseph proves his faithfulness.

• First to Mary and then…to God.
• When Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant…he was not willing to make her a public example.
• And so…he intended to put her away secretly.

Joseph was a man of quiet strength.

• He was a man of integrity…true to his convictions.
• Yet…he was compassionate and considerate of others.
• He found himself in a no-win situation.
• He could not in good conscience…go on with the wedding.
• Yet…he could not bring himself to humiliate Mary…much less put her to death.

Breaking off the relationship…but not making a big deal of it…seemed to be the most honorable thing to do.

• But wait! There’s more!
• Joseph had a dream in which an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that the child in Mary’s womb was of the Holy Spirit.
• And that he should become a father to the child.
• Well…there you have it…the angel explained everything.
• I don’t know many people who make major life decisions based upon what they think they saw or heard in a dream though.
• Yet…Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
• Joseph took his wife to himself…and did not know her sexually until she had brought forth her firstborn son.

And then…in an act of faithfulness and obedience to God…

• Joseph publicly named the child.
• He named him Jesus…which means…the Lord is salvation.
• In so doing…he claimed the child as his own and gave him a noble ancestry.
• Making him a descendent of the house of David.
• Because of the faithfulness of Joseph…
• Jesus would have a father.
• And Joseph would have a place in the drama of God’s salvation.

I have a friend years ago whose girlfriend got pregnant.

• Naturally…he assumed he was the father.
• But the scuttlebutt around school was that she’d been seeing other guys…
• And that my friend wasn’t the father after all.
• Of course…back then we didn’t have paternity testing.
• So…there wasn’t any way to know for sure.
• But there it was…enough to give him an out…if he wanted it.
• He decided to ask his girlfriend to marry him.
• She accepted…and they got married and shortly after…she gave birth to a daughter.
• Who quickly became…and is to this day…the apple of his eye.

He would be the first to tell you that…beyond all his many accomplishments…

• It was in becoming a father to this little girl that he found his true vocation in life.
• When I think about my friend…I’m reminded of the faithfulness of Joseph.
• It has something to do with getting your own self out of the way and putting others first.
• It’s an exercise in humility and it’s based on a simple trust.
• That by God’s grace…all things really do work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. (Romans 8:28)

To the world…the faithfulness of Joseph may seem foolish.

• But to those who are willing to follow his example and surrender their wills to the will of God.
• The faithfulness of Joseph is not simply a way of pleasing God.
• It’s a way of fulfilling your own life’s destiny.

Matthew 11:2-11

 

 

For some…the wilderness is a desolate place…devoid of human civilization…

• Where plants grow wild…or not at all.
• An arid desert or an exposed moor or heath.
• A place of too little food and water.
• A place of too many predators.

 

The wilderness can be an urban jungle…a city that never sleeps.

• With lights and traffic and honking horns and loud noise.
• Being lost without a map.
• Taken advantage of by a dishonest huckster or just feeling lonely.

 

We seek out the wilderness. But why?

• There is a common literary arc-type about the rugged individual who seeks time in the wilderness…
• To be alone as a balm for the trials she has met up with in life.

 

This is the idea that made famous the memoir and movie…Wild…by Cheryl Strayed.

• Strayed tells the story of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail without any prior hiking experience.
• Carrying a pack that was too large and boots that didn’t fit.
• Strayed took to the trail after her mother died of lung cancer at age 46.
• Her mother’s death left her emotionally bankrupt.
• Strayed’s behavior became erratic and sometimes dangerous.
• She left her husband…abused heroin and just lost herself.

 

What better way to find oneself than to take to the Pacific Crest Trail. Right?

• It was 1995 when Strayed decided to begin the more than 2,000-mile hike.
• The trail was known to be difficult and dangerous.
• Particularly ill-advised for single women.

 

This did not seem to deter the inexperienced Strayed.

• She walked and walked until six toenails fell off.
• She walked even after losing a boot down the side of a mountain.
• She walked through snow…rain…sleet.
• She kept walking when she was lost.
• Sometimes she had no choice but to depend on the kindness of strangers.

 

But…why? Why did she do it?

• It seems she was driven to the wilderness because she had lost a bit of herself in her grief and trauma.
• Indeed…her story is redemptive.
• She needed to find and learn a truth that only she could learn…
• In a way and place unique to her.

 

Near the end of the story…Strayed wonders what her life could be like if she forgave herself?

• What if she was sorry and just forgave herself?
• Sometimes it takes 2,000 miles on foot through treacherous conditions to conclude that we need to forgive ourselves.

 

Matthew tells another wilderness story in today’s Gospel.

• Jesus asks the crowds about John the Baptist:
• “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?”
• People do not go to the wilderness to seek fame or to find power.
• People do not seek the wilderness to become rich or popular.
• What do you hope to see in the wilderness…Jesus asks?
• Why come to the wilderness? What do you expect?
• A prophet…we go into the wilderness to find a prophet…Jesus says.

 

Jesus did not mean a fortune teller or soothsayer or a clairvoyant.

• Real prophets are not future-casters.
• Genuine Prophets are people who can see and state the truth more clearly.
• Often uncomfortable truths.
• Like calling out corruption or advocating for the oppressed.
• Prophets tell us when we are not living up to the people God calls us to be.

 

Prophets encourage us to be courageous…to make the tough decisions that are the right call.

• Prophets push us to do hard things.
• They tell us when we are being overbearing or too judgmental.

 

Cheryl Strayed went into the wilderness to find a prophet.

• She sought an experience of time and space that prophets offer.
• She wanted to hear the truth about herself…about her relationships.
• About the world she lived in.
• She went into the wilderness to find hope…forgiveness…grace.

 

In the Bible God’s people go through the wildernesses.

• In every case the wilderness is a defining experience that refines what it means to be the people of God.
• Through the Exodus…the people of God received the Ten Commandments that shaped their identity as a people.
• It was in the wilderness that Elijah heard the still small voice of God.
• The wilderness can be an uncomfortable experience.
• But it is also one way people come to understand themselves more clearly…
• As individuals or as community.

 

John the Baptist invited people to the wilderness to hear about something new.

• Not just something new…but someone new.
• He wanted to tell people about the Son of God who has come to make them new.
• The blind will see.
• The deaf will hear.
• The poor will receive good news.

 

This wilderness experience would change the world.

• God sent his son to gather God’s people in.
• To upset unjust systems that enslave his creation…his people.

 

Every one of us will have a wilderness experience in our lives.

• Part of being human is walking through times and spaces where we wonder who we are.
• Wondering where we belong.
• Wondering what our purpose is.
• Wondering if we can be forgiven.

 

Few of us will choose to walk through a literal wilderness as Cheryl Strayed did.

• Though each of us will have times and places where we seek a prophet to help us see the truth.
• The truth of who we are and whose we are.

 

During Advent we listen again to the stories of a young…pregnant Mary perched on a donkey making her way with Joseph…

• The expectant father…to be counted as part of the census.
• Talk about a wilderness journey!
• Not only would this trek through the wilderness claim Mary and Joseph as citizens of a particular region.
• But it helps define them as people…too.

 

No longer simply “Mary.”

• She is becoming the mother of God.
• Not “just” a carpenter.
• Joseph will soon be the father of the Son of God.

 

We can imagine that Mary and Joseph were seeking their own prophet on this journey.

• Someone who would tell them the truth about the mysterious baby that was coming.
• And the truth about who they are in relation to the baby.
• And they get just that when the angels…shepherds and Magi come to bear witness to the birth of the Christ child.

 

 

Jesus taught us that individual people can be spiritual.

• But that societies and institutions cannot…because they have completely different purposes and motivations.
• There has never been such a thing as a “Christian society” or “Christian Nation.”
• Even though we hear those words a lot.
• What I am saying is that no society…including our own…has ever been willing to live the actual teachings and values of Jesus Christ.
• Theocracies (that is…governments run by religions) simply do not work.
• Take a good look at the country of Iran (their world cup soccer team) and you will see what I mean.
• That’s why in the USA we have the separation of church and state.
• In this way the church is able to challenge the state when it has lost its way.

 

There have been societies that have used Christian institutions and doctrines to consolidate their power:

• Such as The Holy Roman Empire.
• Such as Jim Jones’ People’s Temple in Jonestown Guyana and their mass suicide…drinking “Drinking the Cool aide.”
• But the relationship of these societies with real Christianity is at best flimsy.
• As was the relationship of the Jewish hierarchy with real Judaism in the time of Jesus and John.

 

In other words: Societies and institutions are guided by the principle of self-interest and Self-perpetuation.

• A Christ disciple is guided by the opposite principle of selflessness and sacrifice.

 

When John attacked the religious leaders of Judea…

• He was showing people that what they called “Judaism” was a sham…a fraud.
• He was saying: “What you call ‘spiritual’ is not spiritual at all.”
• He was saying that the entire conventional fortress of religious tradition was so far from the truth that it could not even be rehabilitated.
• He was saying that it could not be rehabilitated.
• He was saying that it could only be uprooted and demolished.

 

We should not be surprised…then…that John…and Jesus…

• Were perceived as a threat to the state.
• And they were a threat!
• And they died like lambs.
• But the challenge they raised was the challenge of lions.
• The state and the religious hierarchy acted to preserve itself by killing them.

 

The Hebrew preoccupation with the bloodline of Abraham was based on a dark tribalistic idea of spirituality.

• Now…I need to explain this.
• Most ancient peoples…the Hebrews included…
• Did not perceive themselves as fully individualized beings…like we do.
• But instead saw themselves as parts of groups…and clans…and tribes…
• With whom they shared a common identity.

 

The blood link with Abraham was believed to reward them with salvation.

• Because Abraham was pleasing and acceptable to God.
• All who descended from him would likewise be pleasing and acceptable to God.
• And John was saying that this was not true.
• It was as if I said: ”I know that I’m not a good person but my grandmother was good…so that makes me good.”

 

John was saying that a sorting process was underway.

• Symbolized by the winnowing fork.
• Ties to the group…the clan…the tribe…were not enough.
• A million people agreeing to a false or shallow idea of spirituality could not give it credibility.
• The winnowing fork would scatter falsehood and retain only the kernels of truth.

 

What John was saying went against the whole fabric of conventional Jewish belief:

• He was saying that the Messiah was not going to embrace the whole of the Jewish nation in one vast uniform glob.
• And that Christ was going to look at people as individuals.

 

For example:

• Immediately following World War II…
• The court of war crimes heard the repeated defense of Nazi criminals.
• That they were only following orders when they slaughtered defenseless civilians.
• The reaction to this…across the world…
• Was of horror and self-righteousness.
• The horror was real.
• The world had never witnessed such well-orchestrated and mechanized brutality.
• But the self-righteousness was hypocritical.
• It obscured the fact that most of us…
• Most of the time…
• Live in a state of compliance to the dictates of the group.
• That is…we do not call the person out who tells a racist Joke.

 

Fortunately…that compliance has never led us down a path as destructive as Nazism.

• For most of us…compliance remains relatively nondestructive.

 

The attitude of consumerism…for example…is one which is not consistent with being a follower of Jesus.

• To be a follower of Jesus in America…then…means resisting the preoccupation with acquiring stuff.
• Even while living and working in the middle of it.

 

What John is saying is that our relationship with Christ cannot be given to us by anyone else.

• Our relationship with Christ will…at times…isolate us from other people…
• And exile us from our own cultures.
• This is the cost of being personally accountable to Christ.

 

When John talked about “unquenchable fire”…

• He was saying the fire and winnowing fork of the Messiah will sweep through the lives of us who are in the process of wide-awake redemption.

 

We are missing his meaning if we think that the fire and fork will spare the believer…will spare us.

• The reality is that we suffer the advent in a personal way.
• Remember…Advent is a penitential season.
• We are brought face to face with realities we may very much wish to avoid.
• The fire and fork pass through our lives as a sorting out of truth and lie.
• What is false is burned and scattered.
• And we feel…at these times…that the very roots of our identity are being hacked to pieces by an unmerciful force.

 

One of the problems with “cosmic ‘left behind’ scenarios” is that they project the idea of judgment onto everybody else.

• With the hidden smugness that some are going to be spared.
• And allowed to watch from a safe distance.
• But Jesus wanted us to understand that we are all part of this winnowing.
• Each in our own way.
• That no one is to be excluded from the process of being purified.

 

John sounds as though he is warning of damnation in this passage.

• But this is only because of the tone of his message.
• John is really talking about the spikey and knotty personalized process of redemption.

 

Our story is of us trying to find something other than God to make us happy.

• Resulting in poverty…war…prostitution…classes…empires…slavery.
• But God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself.
• John is saying that there is no such peace apart from the grace of God.

Matthew 24:36-44

 

 

What we might think of as “the rapture” in our Gospel reading is really a collection of war images:

• “Two men will be in the field…
• One is taken and one is left.
• Two women will be grinding at the mill…
• One is taken and one is left.”

 

When Babylon was capturing Judea…this is what was really happening:

• Those who were fit and skilled and young enough to work were taken away into captivity.
• They took the best and the brightest.
• Those who were old…ill…
• Or who posed no threat to the state were left behind.

 

So it was that two men working side by side were separated by enemy soldiers.

• One woman was carried off in conquest.
• But not the woman at her side.
• All of this had already taken place centuries before.
• At the time when Jesus made this prophesy it would occur again…
• Forty years later.
• When the Romans would finally put down the Jewish insurrection in 70 CE.

 

So…Jesus was telling his followers that his advent would be like a war.

• Like the onslaught of a powerful army.
• It is important for me to say that what Jesus predicted here literally took place.

 

The Jewish Diaspora (the dispersion of the Jewish people beyond Israel) was a trauma from which that nation never recovered.

• And which today involves the entire world.
• It was a wound that will not heal.
• Which continues to bleed into our present day.
• The middle east muddle: Israel…Iraq…Iran…Saudi Arabia…Libya…Syria…The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)…Dubai has replaced Casablanca as the black-market capital of the world.
• A day does not go by that one of those places is in the world news.

 

Christ’s Advent was not limited to his physical incarnation though.

• Christ’s advent really is the detonation…the explosion…of his spiritual work in the world.
• This work is varied and all-encompassing and ongoing.
• And so…we find contradictions like the Prince of Peace announcing a coming war.

 

We must get rid of the idea that spirituality is passive.

• Spirituality is a dynamic energy that changes…breaks up…alters and transforms the world.
• Without a single act of violence.
• Note our first reading: He shall judge between the nations…and shall arbitrate for many peoples…they shall beat their swords into plowshares…and their spears into pruning hooks…nation shall not lift up sword against nation…neither shall they learn war anymore.

 

Spiritual energy will often provoke violence from the opposing side:

• As in the case of Gandhi’s campaign to free India from Britain.
• Spiritual action forces hidden realities (the elephant in the room) out into the open.
• And much evil is exposed.
• Along with signs of grace…mercy and redemption.

 

So…the Advent…Christ’s detonation of spiritual energy…is compared to war.

• Jesus was saying that his Advent would have that kind of powerful impact on the entire world.

 

Every time Jesus spoke of his Advent…he was speaking to two different kinds of listeners.

• On the one hand: some people wanted to know what was going to happen in the course of history.
• With Israel and Rome.
• With the prayed for return of the kingdom of David.
• Their military hero and warrior king.
• This had been the arena of prophecy recorded in Old Testament scripture.

 

But there was also a second kind of listener:

• The one who wondered.
• “What will this man’s appearance here mean to me personally…
• In my relationship with God?”

 

In other words:

• What is the importance of human history…
• Whether happy or horrible…
• If the individual is not restored to a state of intimacy with the Creator?
• What good is life if life ends in oblivion?

 

What is the worth of God…if God cannot be personally known?

• This person has learned that nothing in life is important unless one is somehow important to God.
• “If I am not loved by God…then there is nothing worth living for.”

 

This new awareness brings the realization that we cannot love unless we are loved.

• Nor can we live if we believe that life can be taken away by physical death.

 

That is…what enables a Christ disciple to become selfless is that a hole or ache in the center of his being has been filled with love…

• And the recipient discovers there is a surplus to be given away.

 

Christ spoke to many people who were on the fringes of orthodoxy but were not friends of the Temple…

• They were seekers of God but enemies of the Jewish priesthood.
• And they were looking for direct… personal answers.
• Our gospel reading pertains to them!

 

Jesus is saying that the world at large will go on eating and drinking and living in its customary rut.

• When the Advent comes…who will know its meaning?
• Who will be aware of the spiritual riches suddenly flooding creation?
• It will happen to one and not to the other.
• Identical citizens…having the same jobs…the same duties…the same general look about them…
• Will come to a different experience.

 

One will be taken…in a spiritual sense…

• Will come awake…
• Will become connected to Christ…
• And the other will remain oblivious.
• One will realize that creation is being reborn…
• The other will only see hard times and wonder what it is all coming to.

 

God’s “Advent”…Jesus is saying…has signs and symptoms that appear in advance.

• Yet when it happens it happens in its own way.
• And despite all the warnings…
• It always comes as a surprise.
• Like a thief whom everyone knows is likely to invade the house…
• But whose plans and strategies we cannot fully predict.

 

So…for those of us who are hungry and thirsty for God…

• Jesus’ instruction is to stay alert and awake and look for him.
• We must look for him as though he were a thief…
• Hiding somewhere out there…
• Because suddenly one day we will find him not out there…
• But in here…in our lives…and in our hearts.
• And we will be transformed beings.
• A New Creation.
• In this way…
• The Advent will have happened in us.

Colossians 1:11-20

 

 

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast” wrote the poet Alexander Pope.

• To an aspiring U.S. citizen…no hope sings more compellingly than the hope of a green card.
• Few things in life appear more attractive than the vision of themselves…some day in the future…taking the oath of US citizenship.

 

It’s a story that was played out in the lives of most of our ancestors.

• Most of the masses of immigrants processed through Ellis Island arrived in this country with no papers.
• They carried with them little more than a battered suitcase or a sack slung over their back.
• And not much money.
• Many had yet to learn English.
• But still they came…so eager to have their citizenship transferred from one country to another.

 

Paul…in Colossians…speaks of another sort of transfer of citizenship:

• “God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son…in whom we have redemption…the forgiveness of sins.”

 

We have been transferred into God’s kingdom.

• We continue to dwell here making our mark on this world for good…the best we know how.
• But our true citizenship is elsewhere.
• Paul says: “we are in…but not of the world.”

 

Advent is just around the corner…and it reminds us how much we Christians are out of sync with the rest of the world.

• Out of sync because our citizenship is elsewhere!
• When the rest of society is engaged in a frantic…materialistic rush toward December 25^th.
• That huge secular holiday called Christmas.
• We will be engaged in Advent observances.
• A time of preparation for the Nativity of Our Lord.
• When the shopping-mall sound systems are crooning: “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
• We will be singing “O Come…O Come…Emmanuel.”
• And we will still be singing Christmas Carols for weeks after the holiday.
• Even as secular society is dispiritedly waiting in line at the department store returns department.

 

Now…please…do not misunderstand me about the secular calendar of the Christmas season…

• Which in present day starts up several weeks before Thanksgiving.
• What I want to say is that our Lord is just as involved in the Spirit of Christmas…the church calendar…
• Jesus is the reason for the season…
• As he is in the Christmas Spirit…the secular calendar.
• God came into the world in the form of a baby…the incarnation.
• God so loved the world!
• There is no judgement here.

 

But what I also want to say is this:

• On New Year’s Day…the secular year begins with a hangover and ends twelve months later with overindulgence.
• The Christian year…on the other hand…begins with the bright hope of Advent.
• And ends with the all-encompassing reign of Christ…Christ The King.
• A much more uplifting vision…wouldn’t you say?

 

Around the turn of the twentieth century…the Jansen family of Norway…father and mother and two young children…had booked passage on a steamship to America.

• They had used up all their savings on the tickets.
• Sympathetic neighbors had given them bread and cheese for the journey.
• Which they took with them into their accommodations in steerage…
• The humblest part of that mighty ocean liner…the Stavanger.

 

The parents calculated they had enough cheese and bread to last the ten-day journey.

• They were grateful for the simple food they had and figured they would find much better fare in America…once they got established.

 

About six days into the trip…the couple’s young son…Ole…let it be known that he could not look at another cheese sandwich.

• His father took pity on him.
• He gave the boy a few coins to go to the ship’s store and buy an apple.

 

Well…two hours went by.

• Ole did not return.
• His parents grew worried.
• Jansen set out to find his missing son.
• Up and up he climbed…up each successive ladder out of steerage.
• With each flight of stairs…the surroundings grew more luxurious.
• Jansen felt more and more out of place.

 

Finally…after a very long time…he found Ole…in the grand dining room.

• There he was…seated at a table…surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of food.
• Everything good you could possibly imagine.

 

“Ole…Ole” the father earnestly scolded:

• “What have you done? I can’t pay for all this food. They’ll arrest me for sure…and send us all back home!”

 

“It’s all right…Father” Ole replied…as he gave back the coins.

• “None of this food costs a thing.
• They told me it’s included in the price of our ticket.
• We could have been eating like this the whole trip!”

 

How very much like us is the Jansen family…when it comes to our spirituality!

• Christ says we have been rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into another country…another Kingdom.
• Yet we live as though we do not believe it!
• We sit on the edge of our bunks down in steerage.
• Gloomily munching on week-old cheese sandwiches.
• When all the while a rich banquet awaits…up on the main deck.

 

We look around at our situation and we see so much scarcity.

• When in reality…we have been blessed with more riches than we can imagine.
• Many of us fear that we are about to slip into poverty.
• Viewing ourselves as members of the rapidly shrinking middle class.
• A detached observer would find either insight very hard to believe…
• From one glance at our Thanksgiving tables this coming week.

 

“In Christ” writes Paul to the Colossians… “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”

• The Greek word for fullness…pleroma…ple-roma…was often used…in ancient times…to refer to merchant ships heavily laden with cargo.
• It’s the same word Mark uses as Jesus feeds the five thousand.
• When the miracle was all over…Mark tells us…they had 12 baskets of leftover fragments of bread and fish.
• Those baskets were full: pleroma.
• And Jesus…as Christ The King…reigns with a pleroma of grace.
• “And the Word was made flesh…and dwelt among us…and we beheld his glory…the glory as of the only begotten of the Father…full of grace and truth” (John 1).
• The proper response to all this fullness is to give thanks.

Luke 21:5-19

 

Yvon Chouinard (Evon Shwee-naard) is an outdoors guy…

• Surfing…fly-fishing…rock climbing. The riskier the better.

 

To finance his hardscrabble lifestyle…he taught himself blacksmithing to design and make climbing tools for friends.

• Before he knew it… Shwee-naard was a leading manufacturer of climbing equipment in North America.
• Soon…the kid from Maine who dreamed of being a fur trapper like his French-Canadian forebears…
• Had become what he did not want to be: a successful businessman.

 

On a trip to England with his future wife…Malinda…they discovered a small factory that made clothing from vintage corduroy.

• Shwee-naard began fashioning heavy-duty shorts and shirts suitable for climbing.
• Adding a clothing line to their climbing equipment.
• Their company…Patagonia…was born.

 

Since they began Patagonia in 1973…the Shwee-naards have always run their company with a deep concern for the environment in which their products would be worn and used.

• They designate one percent of their annual sales to grassroots organizations working to protect the environment and combat climate change.
• They were among the first companies to use sustainable materials…
• And insist on fair labor practices and just wages from their suppliers.
• Patagonia’s marketing campaigns focus on asking people to buy only what they need.
• The company famously ran an ad on Black Friday in The New York Times with the headline:
• “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”
• Today…Patagonia is valued at $3 billion.

 

Now 83 years of age…Yvon Shwee-naard is looking to the future.

• He wants the values of Patagonia to continue.
• So…he gave away the company.

 

The reluctant billionaire who would rather go mountain climbing or fly fishing than manage his business…

• With the full support of his wife and family.
• Has transferred ownership of Patagonia to an irrevocable trust and nonprofit organization to ensure that Patagonia’s profits…
• Some $100 million a year…will be used to combat climate change…
• And protect undeveloped land around the globe.
• Patagonia will continue to operate as a private…for-profit company…
• Selling more than $1 billion worth of jackets…hats and ski pants each year.
• But the Shwee-naards no longer own it.
• The trust is irrevocable…the Shwee-naards cannot take the company back.

 

And that’s how Yvon Shwee-naard wants it.

• “I didn’t know what to do with the company because I didn’t ever want a company” Shwee-naard explains.
• “I didn’t want to be a businessman.
• Now I could die tomorrow and the company is going to continue doing the right thing for the next 50 years…and I don’t have to be around.”
• “Despite its immensity” Yvon Shwee-naard says “the Earth’s resources are not infinite…and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits.” 1

 

While our lifestyles change and adapt because of the development of new technologies and advances in science and medicine…

• The values of our lives remain constant.
• The good people at Patagonia realize that and have taken extraordinary steps to make sure their company is more than a profitable company.
• But a socially responsible one contributing to the care of the environment.

 

Jesus asks us to do the same:

• To embrace the Gospel spirit of gratitude and generosity.
• The spirit that continues to grace the world long after our temples of materialism and consumerism crumble.
• Luke writes: “When some were speaking about the temple…how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God…
• Jesus said:“As for these things that you see…the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another…all will be thrown down.”

 

You see…our assets of compassion and justice will hold their value.

• They will hold their value far beyond the time when far lesser things…for which we have leveraged our lives…prove empty and valueless.

 

Jesus desires us to seek much more precious and lasting gifts than this world is capable of offering.

• Treasures like compassion…reconciliation…justice…peace.
• Today…Jesus is asking us to give up the extreme greed for wealth and material gain that make possessing the things of God impossible.

 

Jesus is asking us not to be obsessed with the stones that will one day collapse and become dust.

• Jesus is asking us to seek…instead…the lasting things of the soul.
• The things of God.
• Jesus said: “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
• The English word “souls” in that sentence is a rendering of the Greek word psyche…
• Which means yourself…your very being.
• By our endurance we will gain our very being…our souls.

 

This is our prayer today:

• May love that never ends.
• Compassion that never fades.
• Forgiveness that never falters.
• Be the focus of our journey to the eternal dwelling place of God.

 

1.The New York Times, September 15, 2022; The New Yorker, September 12, 2016; CNBC, September 14, 2022.

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.