Category: Homilies

John 8:31-36

Reformation Sunday…a day in the liturgical year where we celebrate the protestant reformation…and there is indeed…a lot to celebrate.

• We’ve come a long way Baby.
• We are no longer under the Pope.
• Our clergy can marry…we let people read the Bible for themselves.
• We now ordain women.
• And so today we celebrate

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Yet…what do the texts assigned for today talk about?  Sin.

• What we get on Reformation Day is a lot of talk about sin and law.
• All sin and fall short of the glory of God and all who sin are slaves to sin and that through the law comes knowledge of sin. Sin…sin…sin.
• The people who decide what the readings are for things like…Reformation Sunday…
• Did not get the memo that what we are really celebrating is our own awesomeness…
• And how much cleverer we modern Christians are than those who came before us who naively believed in things like sin and Law.

Plus…in an age of self-care and therapy and high self-esteem…

• And especially in so-called progressive Christianity…sin is not such a popular topic.
• As a matter of fact…in the Lutheran church planting business these days…
• There is a trend toward eliminating the confession and absolution at the beginning of our liturgies.  Why?
• Because it is a downer and people do not want to hear they are sinners.

But Martin Luther had a way of talking about sin that makes a whole lot of sense.

• He reminds us that sin is bigger than simple immorality.
• Sin…according to Luther…is being curved in on self without a thought for God or the neighbor.
• In that case…sin is missing the mark…
• And it is all the ways we put ourselves in the place of God.
• Sin is the fact that my ideals and values are never enough to make me always do what I should.
• The “shoulds” in our lives are the things that make us see how far off the mark we are.

No matter what we think the “shoulds” are:

• Personal morality and family values and niceness and conservative political convictions…
• Or inclusivity and recycling and eating local and progressive political convictions…
• There is always…no matter how hard we try…a gap between our ideal self and our actual self.

And…only we know…just how short we fall from the glory of God.

• And in those moments…
• When we are beating ourselves up or trying to deny it…
• Or making promises of self-improvement…
• In those solitary moments we know.
• It looks like a social worker who does not actually look into the eyes of the homeless man he passes every day on the street corner.
• We all know what the law can do to us.
• How cruel the distance between our ideal self and our actual self can feel.
• And that feeling of not ever really hitting the mark.
• And that feeling…is the feeling of the Law convicting us.

Martin Luther knew what it felt like for the Law to convict him…accuse him…and leave him with nowhere to rest.

• And if you want to know what really sparked the Protestant Reformation it is this.
• Feeling this way…Luther read that passage we just heard from Romans:
• Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…they are now justified by his grace as a gift.

And he believed it to be true…

• And because he believed that God’s grace is a gift…
• He no longer accepted what the church had for so long taught:
• That we are really saved by the works of the Law.
• The medieval church had pawned off Law as Gospel and Luther dared to know the difference.
• And then he became a preacher of Grace and that changed everything.

But here’s the thing: pawning off Law as Gospel is not a medieval thing.

• And it is not a Roman Catholic thing.
• It is a human thing…and we do it all the time.
• The church does it…we do it…society does it.  It is like a disease.

So…in celebration of Reformation Sunday…I offer you a way to spot the difference between Law and Gospel:

• You can tell the Law because it is always an if-then proposition.
• If you follow all the rules in the Bible God then will love you and you will be happy.
• If you lose 20 pounds then you will be worthy to be loved.
• If you live a perfectly righteous Green eco lifestyle then you will be worthy of taking up space in the planet.
• If you never have a racist or sexist or homophobic thought then you will be worthy of calling other people out on their racism and sexism and homophobia.
• The Law is always conditional and it is never anything anyone can do perfectly.
• Under the Law there are only two options: pride and despair.
• When fulfilling the “shoulds” we are either prideful about our ability to follow the rules compared to others.
• Or we despair at our inability to perfectly do anything.
• Either way…is bondage.

The Gospel is different…the Gospel is a because because because because proposition.

Because God is our creator and because we rebel against the idea of being created beings and insist on trying to be God for ourselves…

• And because God will not play by our rules and because in the fullness of time when God had had quite enough of all of that…
• God became human in Jesus Christ to show us who God really is.
• And because when God came to God’s own and we received him not…
• And because God would not be deterred…
• God went so far as to hang from the cross we built and did not even lift a finger to condemn…
• But said forgive them they know not what they are doing.
• And because Jesus Christ defeated even death and the grave and rose on the third day…
• And because we all sin and fall short and are forever turned in on ourselves and forget that we belong to God…
• And because God loves God’s creation…
• God refuses for our sin and brokenness and inability to always do the right things to be the last word…
• Because God came to save and not to judge and therefore…
• Therefore…we are saved by grace as a gift and not by the works of the law…
• And this truth will set us free like no self-help plan or healthy living or social justice work “shoulds” can ever do.

This….is why we will never get rid of the confession and absolution in the liturgy.

• It is Law that puts us in the position of hearing Gospel.
• It is a moment when truth is spoken…without apology and without hesitation.
• And for the only time all week…it will crush us…it will break us…and then put us back together.
• It re-forms us…it is re-formation.
• And this is most certainly true.

Mark 10:35-45

In today’s lesson…Jesus’ disciples…pay no attention to Jesus’ words.

• Instead…James and John…frequently called the sons of Zebedee…change the subject completely.
• They try to arrange a great eternal future for themselves.
• They want to sit on the left and right of the soon-to-be-risen Christ’s heavenly throne.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

It is a crude…inappropriate and self-centered request.

• But it should remind us that eternal life is a gift of grace from God.
• Meaning that we can do nothing to earn it.
• So…Jesus responds to James and John by telling them that such a high heavenly position of sitting next to the throne is not his to give.
• But he first asks them something about this life:
• Are they able “to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
• Can they suffer the way that Jesus is about to suffer?
• The flight of the disciples at Gethsemane will show that James and John’s confident ‘We can’ response is overly optimistic.”

 

In many ways…this story is also a challenge to Christians alive today to be all in on following Jesus.

• But at the same time…to be realistic about our inevitable failures to do just that.
• We once resolved to be generous with our time…talent and money.
• But then we allowed ourselves to get overcommitted to our golf game…to our professional club.
• And to a mortgage required to buy a house that is bigger than we need.
• We promised our children that we would be there to love them…teach them…support them.
• But then we got overscheduled.
• And didn’t have much time to talk to them regularly about what they’re learning in school.
• We ended up missing a lot of their sporting events…their dance recitals and their questions about life’s purpose.

 

The lesson here is not to let less-important interests and commitments eat up our time so that our commitment to Christ gets downgraded.

• So…John and James…with misplaced priorities…thought it would be a great goal to sit at Christ’s side in eternity.
• But by focusing so much on heaven…they risked being no earthly good.

 

When Jesus tells James and John that they will be baptized into the suffering that Jesus was baptized into…

• And will drink the cup of sorrow that Jesus will drink.
• He is simply warning them of all the trouble that is ahead of them because they have committed themselves to being his followers.
• In the case of Zebedee’s boys…what they got wrong was their self-centered desire to become favored citizens in eternity…
• Sitting next to the throne.
• What is it or what will it be that we get wrong?

 

The good news is that we are promised God’s forgiveness for getting things wrong.

• It is what the old hymn calls “Amazing Grace.”

 

When James and John focus on an imagined future of glory for themselves…

• Jesus knows that they are missing the point not only of his life and ministry but also of their own lives.
• And what is that point?
• OK…Jesus says: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant…and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”
• We see that same counter-cultural approach in the Beatitudes…
• Where Jesus says that the weak shall inherit the Earth and that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit.
• And later in the same chapter of Matthew Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to pray for people who persecute us.

 

Now this is precious…multiple pastors…in the Southern Baptist Convention…

• Have reported that congregants have objected to their preaching about Christ’s Sermon on the Mount…
• Because they believe that “love your enemies” is a liberal talking point that does not work anymore.
• I would love to hear a response to that directly from Jesus.
• The fact is that Christ’s whole life and purpose constituted a response to that.
• He told everyone that if they want to follow him…they must take up their cross.
• And surely it can be a cross to love your enemies.
• And…frankly…sometimes even to love your friends and family.

 

But trying to love our enemies can be enormously liberating.

• It means we are freed from debasing others.
• It means we need not fight fire with fire.
• If…instead of wanting to sit at Christ’s side throughout eternity…
• We simply commit ourselves to loving others the way Jesus loved…
• We will be so busy comforting the afflicted…
• As well as sometimes afflicting the comfortable…
• That we will not have time to worry about where we will be in eternity.
• And that can make the present feel a lot more like heaven than it does today.
• Now…one final thought.
• Again… What is it or what will it be that we get wrong?

 

I was only 18 years old.

• Late one night I got a call from a close friend.
• “My dad is on the way to the hospital” he said. “It’s really bad.” His voice was shaking.

 

I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do.

• I told my friend that I was so sorry.
• I told him I would pray for him.
• And then I went to sleep.
• I called my friend the next morning. No answer.
• I asked around.
• He was at the hospital.

 

The same pattern repeated for two long days:

• I would call. No answer.
• I’d ask about him and find out he was at the hospital.
• But I did not go.
• I remember feeling some irrational confidence that his father would be fine.
• I remember being busy.
• I remember feeling not quite prepared to face such pain and loss.
• Then I got the call: My friend’s father had died.

 

I did go to the visitation. I knew that is what friends do.

• What happened next is burned into my heart.
• When I walked in the door…my friend came up to me…looked at me with immense hurt and said:
• “Where were you?”

 

I had no answer then. I have no answer now.

• I failed…and the older I get the better I understand the magnitude of my failure.
• I had violated the first commandment of friendship: presence.
• Simply being there was all that had been required.
• I could not pass even that one simple test.

 

The most Christ-like service we can offer is simply “being there.

• To be the “servant” envisioned by Jesus means putting aside our own needs to extend the compassion of Jesus to another.
• Jesus acknowledged that what he is asking is not easy.
• Emptying ourselves of our own sense of self for the sake of others demands a great deal from us.
• But there is also a promise here:
• That when we resolve to imitate Jesus’ compassion…
• The grace of God’s wisdom and strength will be upon us.
• It starts with loving enough to “be there.

Mark 10:17-31

He was any parents’ dream match for their daughter.

• He was rich…he was successful…he was intelligent…he was religious…he was moral.
• What more could you ask for?
• He was respectful…he knew when to speak…when to keep silent.
• Anyone would have been glad to have him as a husband for his or her daughter.
• Yet this man…full of promise and used to being in the good graces of those around him…
• Came to Jesus happy and left sad.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

He was the only man in the gospels who spoke with Jesus…

• And when the conversation was over…
• Left sorrowful and disheartened.

 

This man referred to as the “rich young ruler” from the composite picture of him from Matthew…Mark and Luke…

• Came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life.
• He came with various assumptions.

 

His first assumption was that something was missing in his life.

• Looking at his very successful life he realized that there had to be more.
• Perhaps he saw people with far less stuff than he had…
• And yet they seemed more content than he was.
• Happier…more joy filled.

 

It is as if he had hit the lottery big.

• Promising him great happiness.
• But stories abound of those who indeed hit it big.
• Only to lose it all and be far less happy than before.
• This man…for all his wealth… realized there was something lacking in his life.

 

His second assumption was that Jesus had the answer he was looking for.

• “Good teacher…what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
• While Jesus said “good” was an attribute only for God…
• He did answer the man’s question.

 

But the man came to Jesus that day with some mistaken assumptions too.

• “What must I do?”
• Living a prosperous life…this man apparently had discovered a formula for success.
• The gospels do not tell us how he became rich.
• But we can speculate from the formulas that lead to riches today:
• “Buy low…sell high.”
• “Work harder than everyone else.”
• “See a need and fill it.”

 

Whatever his formula was…it worked for him.

• So…it was only natural that he would apply this same formula to his spiritual life.
• Jesus had an answer for this assumption:
• “It’s not what you do…
• But what I do.”

 

Another mistaken assumption was that he would get credit for what he had already done.

• He came to Jesus with impeccable credentials.
• He looked at the Ten Commandments…
• Well…those from the second half of the list anyway…
• And said that he had already accomplished them.
• He had learned the commandments and had kept them all since he was a boy.

 

A third mistaken assumption this man brought to Jesus was that God is pleased by good people who do not do anything wrong.

• Who keep their name off the front page of the newspaper.
• Who pay their taxes.
• Who are decent neighbors.

 

This assumption lives as strong as ever today.

• If you ask someone walking down the street:
• “If there is a heaven…why do you think you will go there?”
• Their answer will be:
• “Well…I’m a pretty good person…
• I mean…it’s not like I’m going out and robbing or killing people.
• So…yeah…I think I’m going to heaven.”

 

At first glance…Jesus’ response to this man seems to be right on target.

• The man asked what he must do…
• And Jesus told him:
• “Go…sell everything you have and give it to the poor…”

 

The command by Jesus to go and sell everything was guided by Jesus’ love for him.

• “Jesus…looking at him…loved him.”

 

What Jesus was asking of the man was that he remember the first two Commandments.

• You shall have no other gods before me.
• You shall have no idols.

 

Jesus was not telling him what to do.

• He was telling him that he had too many gods!
• The way to enter the kingdom of God…
• And to inherit eternal life…
• Is to have no other gods before God.
• Jesus rightly identified the man’s god.

 

The rich young man’s brief encounter with Jesus quickly revealed his god:

• “He went away sad…because he had great wealth.”

 

In a world where the goal for many is to live well and behave morally…

• As this young man did…
• It’s easy to say:
• “I’m doing okay by myself.
• I’ve got enough stuff to see me through.
• I know there’s something missing…
• But just don’t ask me to give up what I’ve got.”

 

When the disciples asked Jesus:

• “Who then can be saved?”
• Jesus told them this could only happen with God.
• When the disciples said they had already given up everything…
• Jesus reminded them that whatever they had given up or left behind…
• Paled in comparison to what they would gain in the age to come.

 

 

Like the rich young ruler…we are challenged by Jesus too.

• Not to do more…
• But to bein the presence of the risen Christ.
• By following him and trusting in him alone.
• By gladly surrendering our whole self to him.
• And living by faith and joy?
• Now this is something to sing about!

 

Mark 10: 2-16

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) died over 60 years ago.

• Born in Ireland and educated in England…he lost his mother at an early age.
• He served in World War I…
• Turned to atheism for answers.
• He spent his life in academia and was ultimately…as he put it in the title of his autobiography…Surprised by Joy.

 

The Lord be with you

And also with you

 

CS Lewis’ return to Christianity led to a stream of Christian books that continue to challenge…inspire and convert many skeptics to this day.

• Toward the end of his sojourn on earth…he met the love of his life…Joy Davidman (1915-1960).
• Joy was an American admirer who sought him out.
• Their love story was capped with her heroic struggle against cancer…
• And after her death in 1960…Lewis wrote one of his greatest works…a slim volume titled A Grief Observed.
• The book was so personal Lewis published it under a pseudonym.
• His friends…observing first-hand his struggles with grief…
• Gave him copies of his own book…hoping it would provide him with comfort.

 

The one jarring note in this love story was the struggle Lewis and Joy Davidman had in getting married during Joy’s battle with cancer.

• Davidman was a divorcee…and many clergy…some of them Lewis’ close personal friends…
• Refused to perform the marriage ceremony because of Jesus’ words regarding divorce and remarriage.
• At last…though…the couple found a sympathetic clergyman and the two were married before Joy’s death.

 

Perhaps no words by Jesus have been interpreted so literally and so misinterpreted so painfully.

• Women who flee brutal domestic violence are nevertheless told they cannot remarry.
• And must remain single parents…necessitating working two or three jobs.
• Some Christians who divorce and remarry discover they are not welcome in the church they loved.
• Others attend church but do so as second-class citizens…
• Unable to become full members or to take part in certain aspects in the life of the church.
• Some feel driven away from Christianity entirely.

 

OK then…here’s the thing:

• Some Pharisees asked Jesus: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
• According to Mark…they asked the question to test Jesus.
• To trap him…those asking the question were not interested in the issue of divorce.
• They were interested in spinning any answer Jesus might give to make him look bad…to trap him.

 

So…Jesus answered their question with a question:

• “What did Moses command you?”
• Their response gets to the heart of the matter.
• They said: “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”

 

“Moses” was a term used to refer to the Torah…the first five books of our Bible…Genesis through Deuteronomy.

• There are…starting with the Ten Commandments…612 laws in those books of the Bible.
• Some…like the ten commandments…are foundational.
• Some expand on the ten.
• And some are what are known as case law…written to address specific cases…and not necessarily every instance.

 

So…what was Moses addressing in that statement?

• In Deuteronomy it says: “Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman…
• But she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her…
• So…he writes her a certificate of divorce…puts it in her hand…and sends her out of his house.
• She then leaves his house and goes off to become another man’s wife.”

 

Well…straight forward and cut and dried…right?

• Please the man or get out.
• Indeed…there are some men who would use this law to become tyrants in their homes…
• With a biblical warrant for their actions.
• But the devil is in the details.

 

That word “objectionable” whose translation of this passage appears in the Word Biblical Commentary…reads:

• “Because he finds in her some shamefully expressed thing or an obnoxious thing or a naked thing.”
• What seems to be implied is public…lewd activity…
• Not some question of whether dinner is served at 5:05 instead of 5:00 o’clock sharp.

The Deuteronomy passage is an item of case law designed to address a specific problem.

• And not meant to be used universally or literally for all marriages.
• And the text assumes that it is normal and natural for the woman to remarry.
• Jesus knew they were quoting this so far out of context that they might as well be operating from another religion’s book altogether.

 

OK…this is important…the passage assumes that the wife will marry another.

• She is not barred from further marriage.
• And now listen…there are additional words in this passage that directly address abuse by men:
• “Then suppose the second man dislikes her…
• Writes her a certificate of divorce…puts it in her hand…
• And sends her out of his house.
• Her first husband…who sent her away…is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled.
• For that would be abhorrent to the Lord…
• And you shall not bring guilt on the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession.”

 

So then…men cannot divorce and remarry their spouses as a way of swapping wives…nor as a way of draft dodging.

• What? Let’s read the next verse:
• “When a man is newly married…he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty.
• He shall be free at home one year…to be happy with the wife whom he has married.”

 

You hear that? You don’t marry a woman…get a year free from military service…

• Swap wives so you get another year’s exemption.
• And then remarry your first spouse so that you get yet another free pass.
• And perhaps by this time the war is over anyway.

 

So…there it is…since women were in a vulnerable position in first-century Judea…Jesus created a case law of his own:

• Stop abusing women by misusing Deuteronomy.
• Instead…care for your spouse.

 

When Jesus says we need to become like a little child…he is suggesting we ought to stop having such a high opinion of ourselves…

• Thinking we are God’s gift to humanity…and to stop acting like dictators.
• Our value comes from God’s eyes.
• And fortunately…God’s eyes are the eyes of love.

 

Jesus himself is a model of how this should be done:

• When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well…
• Divorced five times and living with her current companion…
• He saw her as someone who could hold up her end of a complex dialog.
• An outcast who had the potential to evangelize her whole village.

No one should go into marriage thinking: “At the first sign of trouble I’m bailing.”

• Yet…there are abusers and users…tyrants and those who want to drag others into their damnation.
• But most of all…if we believe in death and resurrection…
• Then the death of divorce should lead to hope and new life.
• Offering grace…hope and love to the vulnerable among us.
• That is what I call gospel.
• That is what I call Good News.

Mark 9:38-50

Growing up I was scared stiff of these verses in Mark’s Gospel that we just heard…

• Where Jesus says that if your hand causes you to sin cut it off…
• And if your foot causes you to sin cut that off too.
• And if your eye causes you to sin gauge it out.
• I remember when I was 5 years old…I stole candy from the little mom & pop store across the street from my house.
• And then hid it under my bed.
• And I remember hearing this passage soon after that and thinking how my hand had indeed caused me to sin.
• And then and there I decided to never steal again lest Jesus insist I hack off my hand.
• Well…Jesus did not hack off my hand.
• But my mom made me give the candy back to the store owner and apologize for stealing his candy.

 

The Lord be with you

And also with you

 

Here’s the thing though: My hand and my eye and my foot cannot be blamed for my stumbling.

• To find the culprit behind my sin do not look at my hand.
• Look at my heart…my poor feet just do what they are told.
• But…it would seem…based on this text from Mark’s Gospel…this is what discipleship looks like.
• Being willing to mutilate yourself to avoid sin.
• This is a text of terror for children.
• It’s like the Gospel according to Beetlejuice.

 

The reading we just heard talks of stumbling…not of sin.

• So…I started getting curious about the word stumble.
• Stumble in Greek is scandalizo from the word group scandalon…from which we get scandal.
• So…then we might think of this text as saying we need to cut from us the things that trip us up.
• The things that cause scandals and dramas?

 

Since it is political campaign season…I was thinking about what the word scandal means in the political world.

• Scandals are when everything stops so that something small can be made into something huge…
• So that no one will pay attention anymore to the real story.
• Scandals are always a distraction from the main thing.
• And no one seems to love a scandal…a stumbling block…more than Americans do.

 

So…I wonder…rather than suggesting we literally hack off our own limbs…

• If Jesus is making a strong point about how critical it is to remember what the real story is.
• Maybe his warning against stumbling is a warning against focusing too much on anything that is not the main thing.
• And this is really a simple definition of sin:
• Placing something or someone or some accomplishment at the center…
• And making it…and not God…the source of our identity.
• It is loving something…as God…that is not God.
• It is giving our heart to that…which cannot love us like God can.

 

When these things feel like the main thing…they need to be cut away.

• Sometimes we might have the insight and will to cut from ourselves the things…the scandals…that distract us from the main thing.
• Perhaps…we may know the thing that needs to be cut out of our life…
• And we may even have the fortitude to do it.

But sometimes these things get ripped from us by God.

• I have had acquaintances tell me things like:
• “I still cannot believe I actually am coming to church.”
• Meaning: “My resentment toward religion and how it has hurt me is no longer the main thing.
• That scandal has been cut from me enough that I am now part of a spiritual community again.
• And I am happy it happened.”

 

Or someone says to me:

• “I cannot believe I am going to seminary.”
• “I can’t believe I am giving away 10 percent of my income.”
• “I can’t believe I see my work in corporate America as a Christian vocation now.”
• “I can’t believe that I no longer hate some of the people I use to love to hate.”
• “I can’t believe it. “

 

When we say: “I cannot believe such and such has changed in my life”…pay attention to that.

• Because our bafflement at this stuff is called being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
• It’s called living as a person of faith.
• I thought all this stuff about following Jesus was a matter of mustering up enough self-discipline to amputate my own limb.
• We figure that we are the ones who must hack off our hands and feet…
• And gouge out our own eyes and give away all our possessions…
• And shrink our camel-sized selves down to needle-eye size.
• But in fact…it tends to be God who does this for us…
• Who prunes us…feeds us…cuts us and our bank accounts down to size and shapes us.

 

This is why we gather every single week and tell the same story.

• We gather as the people of God and tell the same story because THAT STORY is THE STORY.
• And we simply must be reminded of it again and again because we are so easily distracted.

 

And here’s the thing:

• THAT STORY of God’s redeeming work for all of creation that happens in the birth…life…death…and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we tell every single week.
• THAT STORY is an axe.

 

And anything that we put in the center:

• Job…relationship…money…status…pride…accomplishments…politics… security.
• The things that lure us with promises that can only be given by God.
• The things that cause us to stumble.
• The promise in the Gospel text is this:
• All that stands in the place of…
• And all that would keep us from God will be burned away.

 

My confession is this:

• I do not go to church to have my needs met.
• I go to church to have my needs changed.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ will never meet my needs.
• But watch out.
• Because it WILL change our needs.
• And that is the most beautiful thing I can tell you.

Mark 9:30-37

Miss Susan and I raised four children…and they are all wonderful adults…

• But we must tell you…that children really are a mess.
• And yet it is children who Jesus uses to teach us today in our Gospel reading.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

So…here is what is happening:

• Jesus and his disciples are on the road…and he starts talking some nonsense about how he will be betrayed and killed and raised from the dead and his disciples had no idea what that meant.
• But they were too faint-hearted to ask…so instead…they just start trash talking with each other.

 

And then when they go inside Jesus just kind of stretched his arms out…yawned and said:

• So… what were you guys arguing about on the road.
• And they all totally freeze up…guilt stricken…
• Since they were not exactly talking about how to care for the poor.
• Or who might need some extra prayer.
• They were talking about themselves…
• And like insecure high school boys they were arguing about who was the greatest among them.
• And then they were ashamed to tell the truth about that.

 

To which Jesus says: whoever wants to be great must be least.

• So…he takes a small child and places that child among them.
• And he takes the child into his arms and says: whoever welcomes such a child as this in his name welcomes him…and indeed…welcomes God.

 

But here is a caution.

• Lest…when we hear this story…we picture a cute little well-dressed kid from an ad for the Gap.
• We should consider how differently children were treated and perceived in Jesus’ day.
• It is difficult to remember that the sentimentality we Westerners attach to childhood is a recent thing.
• It really was not until the 18^th century that children were viewed as innocent and angelic.
• These days our images of children come from Norman Rockwell paintings emblazoned in our minds.
• But it was not like that in the first century.
• In Jesus’ time…there was not a growing market for adorableness like there is today.

 

These children did not take bubble baths before being tucked into their Sesame Street bed sheets and read The Cat and The Hat.

• There was no sentimentality about childhood because childhood was a time of terror.
• Children in those days only had value as replacement adults.
• Children were more like mongrel dogs than they were beloved members of a family.
• Children died all the time.
• Children were dirty and useless and often unwanted.
• And to teach his disciples about greatness and hospitality…Jesus puts not a chubby-faced angel…
• But this kind of child in the center.
• Folds this kind of child into his arms and says…
• When you welcome the likes of this child you welcome me.

 

That is a serious lesson in Christian welcome that Jesus is teaching us.

• And we…like the disciples…should welcome the messy reality of having children among us as if we are welcoming God’s own self.
• I often wonder if the distracting noise of children in worship is more pleasing to the ears of our Lord than even the most perfect choir anthem.

 

OK…here’s the thing:

• What if the child is a stand-in for us…not a generic us…I mean us…here…in this place.
• I started to wonder why it was…earlier in the story…that the disciples did not ask Jesus some simple clarifying questions.
• Why were they having an argument about who was the greatest?
• And why could they not admit to it later when he asked what they were talking about?
• And that made me think about times when I had been too afraid to ask a question about something.
• Feeling others would think it was a stupid question.
• I thought about the times when I had been showoff-y like the disciples.
• And the times when I was too ashamed to admit the truth about my smallness.

 

What I want to say is this:

• I want to say that it is the parts of us that differ very little from 1^st century children which are welcomed into the arms of our loving savior.
• The parts of us that are like a useless child who has dried mucus wiped across his unwashed face.
• A child who cannot understand Jesus’ teaching at all.
• A child who has nothing to offer.
• Who no one else wants around.
• Who no one else even notices is there.
• A child who has zero ability to make himself worthy.
• These are the very parts of us that Jesus folds into his arms and says…welcome.

 

Jesus folds us into his loving arms…that which is messy and worthless and unable to help itself…and God says “welcome”.

• We are placed in the center and are held in the arms of Jesus…
• And are welcomed into the life of God and God’s people.
• God bless the children.

Mark 8:27-38

Think with me about what we can learn from the life that Jesus lived.

• I believe that there is no one who has ever walked this earth who has lived a more meaningful life.
• Jesus knew who he was and what he wanted.
• And he lived the life that he knew he was supposed to live.
• The life that he was born to live.
• Jesus was not disappointed in himself or in his life.
• It was just the way it was meant to be.
• It was not always easy…but it was always right.
• Jesus never got it wrong.
• And he lived his life exactly as God wanted him to.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

How many of us can say that?

• If we are being honest…none of us.
• But think again about the life that Jesus lived.
• As meaningful as it was…and as fulfilled a life as he had…think about what he did not

 

Jesus never owned a home.

• The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head.
• Jesus never traveled the world.
• He spent his whole life within walking distance of where he was born.
• He never married. Never had children.
• He was neither a husband nor a father.
• Jesus never drove in a car…or flew in an airplane.
• He never watched television…or rode a roller-coaster…or played a video game.
• And not only that…but his life was cut short when he was just 33 years old.

 

Jesus did not live a complete life…by the measure of our world.

• But without a doubt…he lived a meaningful
• So…if Jesus is any guide…none of those things that he missed out on are necessary to live a meaningful life.

 

Let’s think about this a little.

• What gave meaning to Jesus’ life?
• Well…let’s look at today’s gospel reading.
• Jesus lived his life based on his teachings in our gospel reading.
• He told Peter to set his mind on divine things…not on human things.
• And that is what Jesus did.
• He lived every day with his mind set on his divine purpose…on his relationship with his Heavenly Father.

And then he told the crowd that the only way to save their life is by losing it…

• For his sake…and for the sake of the gospel.
• I think what that means is that the only way to live a life of real meaning…
• Is by giving up on the life that this world thinks matters…
• And instead living the life that matters to God.

 

That is what Jesus did.

• And that is what he invites us to do.
• He invites us to find the only life that matters by losing the life our world thinks matters.
• He invites us to deny ourselves…and take up our cross…and follow him.
• Why? To save our lives. To find our true lives.
• The life that he died to give us.
• Not just eternal life in heaven.
• But a meaningful…purposeful life here and now.
• A wonderful…grace-filled…abundant life.

 

It is not easy to do this…though.

• Because the world constantly persuades us to place our hope in the stuff of this world.
• Hope that we can purchase…or achieve.
• Not hope that depends on someone else.
• It is tempting to place our hope in the stuff of this world.
• And we are bombarded with it.
• Every day in countless different ways.

 

Susan Ritz taught me this lesson in a powerful way 27 years.

• Susan was a member of St. Matthew Lutheran church…a congregation I served in Wilmington, NC.
• One day over coffee she shared this with me:
• “I grew up on a lovely dairy farm in Michigan.
• And when I was 12 years old…I crouched in a ditch along with my mother and father and brother…
• We hunkered down in the ditch that ran alongside the road that led to the farm.
• And we watched in fear and trembling.
• We watched a mighty tornado that engulfed and destroyed our home and barn and outbuildings.
• Helpless to stop it.”

 

“The home I grew up in was a beautiful…very large historic classic farmhouse.

• It had a small lake where we swam and fished…and ice skated in the winter.
• It was a wonderful place to grow up.
• I loved my bedroom…and I loved that house.”

 

“And it was a difficult…sad day…the day that I stood there and saw the rubble of what was.

• But it was an important day in my life.
• And especially in my life of faith.
• Because by God’s grace…I began to learn…that day…the lesson that Jesus teaches in the Gospel of Mark chapter eight.
• That the most important stuff in this life is not found in the stuff of this life.”

 

“In the rubble that was our home we found a few items.

• The most important being the pearl necklace that my father gave my mother on their wedding day.
• I found my old piggy bank…broken…with some coins in it.
• I keep the piggy bank…in my den…at home…
• As a reminder that the most important stuff in this life is not found in the stuff of this life.
• It is a lesson I learned the hard way…and one that I keep needing to be reminded of.
• I do not believe that it was God’s will that my family home was destroyed.
• I do not believe that God causes natural disasters to punish us or teach us.
• But I do believe that God can bring good things out of bad situations.
• And so…when I was 12 years old…God helped me rearrange my priorities in life.”

 

“I went back to my Bible in the days and weeks after the tornado.

• And I looked at Jesus and his life.
• I was reminded then that Jesus never even owned a home.
• Never married. And lived only 33 short years.
• But there was no doubt in my mind that he lived a fulfilled…meaningful life.
• Why? Because he set his mind on divine things.
• He lived his life constantly aware of His Heavenly Father’s loving presence in his life.
• He knew that nothing else really mattered.”

 

Well…that is what Susan shared with me that day we had coffee together.

• And so…today…Jesus is inviting us to once again let go of human things…and set our minds again on divine things.
• He is inviting us to lose the only life that the world believes matters.
• For his sake and for the sake of the gospel.
• And by doing so save the only life that really matters.

 

Finally…Susan said: “I must be honest with you.

• I still miss that house.
• I miss all the stuff from my childhood that was lost.
• I miss it all.
• But even when I am missing it…I am reminded that the life that really matters is not there.
• The life that really matters is only found in Jesus.
• Our way…our truth…and our life.
• And when I forget…I am thankful to have my little piggy bank to remind me.
• If I want to save my life…I must lose it…for Jesus’ sake…and for the sake of the gospel.
• For what will it profit me to gain the whole world…
• But forfeit the only life that really matters?”

Mark 7:24-37

Albert Einstein once said:

• There are two ways to live your life.
• One is as though nothing is a miracle.
• The other is as though everything is a miracle.

 

Yes…everything in life is a miracle…but we need to leave room for those rare instances that occur every once in a while.

• When something so extraordinary happens that there seems to be no other explanation than that God intervened.
• Intervened in a wonderful way.
• And something that was not supposed to happen…did happen.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Well…there would have been no miracle if it had not been for the deaf man’s friends bringing him to Jesus.

• The deaf man was afraid to approach Jesus…since it was difficult for him to speak.
• Most likely…he had become something of a recluse.
• So…we are glad for heaven’s accomplices to miracles.
• Those people who help in small and unspectacular ways.
• But in ways that open the door for great things to happen.
• These angels…unawares…asked Jesus to touch their friend.

 

Jesus took the man aside in private…away from the crowd.

• An empathic and sensitive thing to do.
• Crowds were a problem for this man…with his difficulty in communicating.
• Because of his deafness…he felt left out…never sure of what was going on.

 

So…Jesus put the man at ease.

• He took him alone…away from the crowd.
• Jesus healed the man’s sense of inferiority before he healed his body.
• We often need emotional healing before medicine or treatments even begin.

 

Then Jesus put his fingers into the deaf man’s ears.

• As a way of telling the man he understood where the problem was.
• And in doing this Jesus was accepting the man at the very point of his sense of rejection.
• No words could have done this.

 

And then Jesus spits on the ground.

• And he touched the man’s tongue.
• Jesus was saying…dramatically:
• “We will spit out this thing that binds your tongue.”

 

Then Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed. 

• A sigh is often a sign of weariness or of longing.
• What was in Jesus’ mind as he “sighed” while looking up to heaven?
• Well…Jesus was weary with the load of human need?
• Jesus was expressing his longing for God’s intervention in still another lamentable human case.
• He was also thinking of the Canaanite woman’s daughter he had just healed.

 

When Jesus made his comment referring to the woman as a dog…

• He was not speaking directly to the woman in distress.
• He was responding to his own Jewish disciples.
• Speaking out of their own narrowness and insensitivity.
• Remember…they had told him to send the woman away.
• They were steeped in the values of their own culture.
• To them Canaanites were dogs.
• They had yet to learn that with God no one is a dog.
• So…Jesus becomes…once again…their teacher.
• He mirrors back to them their own thinking…
• In a way that would allow them to hear just how terrible it sounded.

 

Jesus said: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”.

• And the Canaanite woman responds:
• “Yes Lord…yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
• Even his leftovers are enough.
• Jesus is our last resort.
• He is the profligate one.
• He wastes his crumbs…his leftovers on us!
• And so…he sighs!!!
• And the woman’s little girl is healed.

 

And then Jesus spoke.

• “Be opened.”
• The man’s ears were opened…so he could hear.
• And his tongue was released…and he spoke plainly.

 

Jesus then ordered the healed man and his friends to tell no one.

• But of course…the more he ordered them…the more they proclaimed it.
• How could it have been otherwise?
• Especially for the man who had been healed.

 

Why did Jesus order silence?

• Because those who were opposed to him were becoming increasingly agitated.
• Jesus wanted to delay his arrest and trial until he had accomplished more of his earthly mission.
• But it was hard to silence people who had been the recipients and witnesses of something so wonderful.

 

Well…here’s an afterthought:

• I cannot count the number of times I have started to complain about something…
• Only to have my friend cut me off after two or three sentences with a well-intentioned but misguided…
• “I know exactly what you are going through.
• The same thing just happened to me.”
• Suddenly we are talking about the other’s ungrateful kid…
• The other’s lousy boss…leaky fuel line.
• And I am left nodding my head in all the right places.
• Feeling angry and ripped off…wondering if we have not all come down with a bad case of emotional attention disorder.

 

Nothing is more natural than trying to soothe an overwrought friend with assurances that they are not alone.

• But calamities resemble each other only from afar.
• Up close they are as unique as fingerprints.

 

What we all hope for…when we turn to a friend because we are feeling low or agitated or wildly happy…

• Is to find someone who sounds as if they have all the time in the world.
• Someone who does not rush us.
• We do not always want answers or advice.
• Sometimes we just want company.

 

“I am learning (in my old age) to follow the other person’s lead.

• To pay attention to body language…facial gestures…tone of voice.
• To hear what is left unsaid.
• To recall relevant details and make helpful associations and connections.
• This ability to be with someone in their pain and happiness is the cornerstone of genuine empathy.
• We must immerse ourselves in the other person’s experience.
• We must pay attention to the other person.
• We must listen to the other person.

 

Jesus restores the deaf man’s hearing with the word be opened.

• Our prayer is that we too…be given this gift of generous…selfless openness of heart and spirit.
• To bring healing and life to those who need the support…
• The affirmation and the peace that the simple act of listening can give.

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

A few years ago…I met a woman who told me about a big mess her congregation had gotten into.

• It seems the church council had voted to move the grand piano…
• Which sat in the front of the worship space.
• They voted to move it five inches.
• So that they could make room for some new handicap-accessible seating.
• I am not sure why the church council was voting on something like this.
• But they were.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Anyway…the council members agreed on a date and time for meeting at church to move the piano.

• Now…I am not sure why they were going to do this themselves…either.
• But apparently word got out that this was happening.
• The appointed time arrived.
• The church council members gathered in the sanctuary…dressed…I suppose…
• In appropriate clothing for piano moving and…
• Maybe…feeling a little bit scared.
• You know…like lightning was going to strike or something if they dared move anything in such a holy place.

 

But before they even had time to think about it…

• The director of music burst through the doors of the sanctuary and barreled up the aisle.
• She said not a word.
• But rather communicated her position clearly by hoisting up her generous frame and throwing herself across the top of the piano.
• We must guess that she was dressed for piano straddling.

 

At any rate…she flat out…do not-even-try-to-mess-with-me…

• Refused to come down off the piano until the church council agreed not to touch it.

 

Who…or what…was lord in that place…do you think?

• It is easy to get confused.
• Putting tradition or culture or “my” ideas or whatever…
• At the center of our life together as believers.
• But I wonder how many of our problems…at church…
• As well as in our own personal lives…
• Would be solved if we simply remembered that JESUS is Lord.
• No thing and no one else.

 

So…ritual is engrained in our lives.

• Just as it was heavily engrained in the lives of the folks during Jesus’ time on earth.

 

In our lesson for the day…the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law had come from Jerusalem to “investigate” Jesus.

• On the outside these Pharisees personified respectability.
• On the inside…however…they were full of fear and envy.
• Really…they were growing in their hatred for Jesus.
• They looked for any excuse to smear him and his followers.

 

On this day…they observed some of Jesus’ disciples eating food without first washing their hands.

• This…of course…offended them.
• Understand…this was not about sanitation.
• There was no sign around saying employees must wash their hands.
• It was not about preventing germs.
• They knew nothing about germs then.
• Instead…this was about maintaining a religious tradition.

 

In fact…Mark pauses for a moment and explains to his Gentile audience living outside of Palestine…the Jewish practice of ceremonial washing.

• “Unclean” …the Greek word is koinais…
• As Mark explained it…
• Meant “ceremonially unwashed.”
• It was a technical term among Hebrews denoting whatever was contaminated according to their religious rituals.
• And…for that reason…was unfit to be called holy or devoted to God.
• Unclean could refer to practices or to people.

 

The most common ritual cleansing was the washing of one’s hands before eating food.

• Disregarding this regulation was considered a sin for a loyal Jew.
• We would say that these disciples were engaging in unsanitary behavior when they did not wash their hands before eating.
• In the Pharisees’ minds…though… Jesus’ disciples were indulging in sinful behavior when they did not wash their hands.

 

Let’s pause for a moment.

• We need to acknowledge here…that this tradition of ritual cleansing…
• Would have had a positive effect on the health of the Jewish people that observed it.
• Many of the Jewish ceremonial laws protected them from disease.
• And this was certainly one of those cases.
• But protecting their health was not why they washed their hands before eating.
• It was because they were keeping the tradition of their fathers and mothers.
• And Jesus’ disciples were not observing those traditions.

 

So…the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus:

• “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders…but eat with defiled hands?”
• Well…Jesus knew what this was all about.
• Jesus knew the Pharisees were not nearly as concerned about whether his disciples washed their hands as they were determined to find fault with his ministry.
• He makes no reference to his disciples’ apparent ungodly conduct.

 

Instead…he replies:

• “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites…
• As it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips…
• But their hearts are far from me.
• They worship me in vain…
• Their teachings are merely human rules.’
• You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

 

Who we are…what we do…the kind of persons we are…begin within the heart.

• The place where God dwells.
• The evil we are capable of…the hurt we inflict on others…the degrading of the world that God created…begins within our hearts:
• When God is displaced by selfishness.
• When God is displaced by anger.
• When God is displaced by greed.
• When God is displaced by hatred.

 

Saint Paul insists that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

• So…it is right that we conclude with the words of the psalmist:
• “Create in me a clean heart…O God…and put a new and right spirit within me.”

John 6:56-69

Jesus had been invited to preach at the synagogue in Capernaum.

• By most accounts…the sermon was a flop.
• As soon as he finished speaking…the sideways glances began to fly.
• One person scowled…another ground his teeth…others stood shell-shocked by the vivid phrases that lingered in their ears.
• Several listeners were confused by what they had heard.
• The consensus was clear…the sermon was hard to swallow.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Jesus’ supporters agreed…several of them huddled outside…having one of those conversations that people sometimes have in the parking lot.

• Quiet complaints…muttered beneath the breath.
• When Jesus came near…he did not make things any better.
• He said his words are “spirit and life.”
• That did not smooth out the conflict.

 

Some grew uncomfortable and began to leave.

• Others stood around not knowing what to do…or whether they should leave.
• When Jesus asked about it…Simon Peter replied: “Lord…to whom can we go?”
• Peter meant that as a rhetorical question…but you and I know…there are many places for people to go.

 

In her memoir…poet Annie Dillard…says that she left the church as a teenager.

• On Sundays…her father dropped her off at the door and kept driving.
• The building reeked of affluence and pretension.
• By the time she was a teenager…she grew disturbed by the hypocrisy of what she saw.
• A barefoot Jesus depicted in a gold mosaic…the minister’s affected accent and parents who forced her to attend when they did not.
• Her anger simmered and she decided to quit.

 

One day…the church secretary called to make an appointment for the minister to meet with Annie.

• Her mother asked why and discovered the precocious teenager had written a letter to resign from the church.
• Both parents were appalled.
• Her father suggested she should have slipped away quietly…as many people do…making no fuss.

 

The meeting date arrived. Annie met with the tinselly minister.

• He listened for a while and said: “This is rather early for you to be quitting the church” …adding under his breath… “I suppose you’ll be back soon.”
• He figured there was nowhere else for her to go.

 

It was a naive position to hold…then and now.

• People have always been leaving churches.
• Sometimes they leave because of pretentious ministers.
• Others leave because of angry arguments with fellow Christians.
• Perhaps there was a disagreement over a political stance by a church leader.
• Or maybe something terrible happened that was never addressed.
• And sometimes they leave because it is the only day to catch up on sleep…the only available day to rest after a stressful week.
• Plenty of reasons…all too human reasons.

 

Ceaseless activity often masks a deep unsatisfied hunger at the heart of all our pursuits.

• If anything defines us as human beings…it is our hunger.
• We are creatures who received our lives from the hand of another.
• We do not have the capacity to fill our souls with what they need…we are incomplete.

 

So where do we go? What can fill our emptiness?

• Our culture would turn such questions into google searches.
• There are websites to meet every perceived human need.
• Our desires are marketed aggressively.
• We sift through empty words and wade through false promises.

 

Two decades of summers ago…I announced that in an upcoming Sunday our lay people would conduct worship.

• A church member was invited to preach.
• He was well respected by the congregation.
• He had a pleasant speaking voice and a calming presence.
• Best of all…he was incapable of saying no.

 

Sunday arrived on schedule…the congregation sang and moved through the liturgy.

• At sermon time…the man stood in silence…long enough to initiate a nervous rustle in the pews.
• Then he said: “I have never stood in a pulpit.
• Today I will read to you the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John.
• I will put them in the air and then sit down.”

He began: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

• Again…Jesus spoke to them…saying…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
• If you continue in my word…you are truly my disciples…and you will know the truth…and the truth will make you free.
• I am the good shepherd. I know my own…and my own know me…just as the Father knows me…and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
• I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me…even though they die…will live…and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
• So…if I…your Lord and Teacher…have washed your feet…you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example…that you also should do as I have done to you.
• Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God…believe also in me.
• In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so…would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
• Peace…I leave with you…my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled…and do not let them be afraid.
• I am the vine…you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…because apart from me you can do nothing.
• This is my commandment…that you love one another as I have loved you.
• No one has greater love than this…to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

 

He went on like that…reading out of his Bible.

• Then he sat down. Nobody moved.
• The congregation inhabited a silence that nobody felt the need to interrupt.
• There was a clear and abiding sense that Jesus had addressed them personally.

 

“Lord…where else are we going to go?”

• There are a lot of places we could go.
• There are a lot of other voices we could hear.
• But there is only One whose word gives life.
• It is the Christ…One who says:
• “Those who love me will keep my word…and my Father will love them…and we will come to them and make our home with them.”¹

 

Oh…and by-the-way.

• Remember teenaged Annie Dillard who walked out of her pastor’s office.
• And on her way down the hall…she heard him mutter to himself out loud:
• “She’ll be back!”
• Young Annie Dillard wheeled around…
• Went back into the office and said:
• “What did I hear you say?”

 

He said… “Oh…I said I presumed that you’ll probably be back.”

• And she said: “Look…this is my life.
• I live my life like I want to live my life.
• I’m not coming back!”

 

Well…Annie Dillard wrote in her life story:

• “As I write this…I’m 48 years old and I’m back.”