Noah

Genesis 6:1-10 (NRSV) When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the LORD said, "My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown. The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD. These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  There is a new film about to come out soon about Noah.  I'm rather surprised there hasn't been a huge Biblical movie epic about Noah already - one of the scope of The Ten Commandments.  (I'm not counting Steve Carrell's turn as a modern Noah, cartoon versions, or one of the TV epics that came out several years ago).  It's been since 1928 that the big screen saw the story of Noah and the flood come to life.  I imagine some of it is because Noah is such a story of huge scope, that filming it must be daunting. It's a story of such huge scope also for most Sunday School classes.  I would imagine that if you were to poll most Sunday school students (current and former) and ask them what the biggest and most famous story from the Bible would be, they would say Noah. (with maybe Moses coming in second). Noah has captured such imagination that searches have gone on for the ark to this day.  There is indeed big stuff to take hold of our minds in this story.  Added to the allure is the mention of the mysterious Nephilim and the wonder if they are somehow tied to the wickedness of humankind. Yet for all Noah's bigness, and our fascination with his story, it comes down to something small and almost easy to miss:  the evil done by humans grieved God to God's very heart and yet through one of those very humans, hope remained.  Over and over we see in the Hebrew Bible that God is a creative and active and involved God and wants more than anything to be in relationship with his creation.   It is hard for many to fathom that the story of Noah may just be that - a story.  But as we have seen other places, most often in Jesus' parables, sometimes the deepest truth comes through stories.  Our point is not to find the real ark or to dissect the mysterious parts of the story of Noah.  The point is to see God's truth coming through over and over again.  Our ways lead to death and despair and yet over and over God, who loves us and wants to be in relationship with us, reaches out through creative and active means to get our attention and to save us.  That God even will go so far as to make promises to us that we can count on - even when we can't keep our own promises. The truth of God is indeed more epic than anything our minds can create. Creative and loving God, you save us time and again and forgive us time and again.  We often get bogged down in the details of your actions, missing the heart of the truth - that you want to be in loving relationship with us.  Forgive us, and help us to turn always to you in prayer and faith so that we can see your reaching out to us, and so we can be aware of that relationship growing and flourishing. Amen.

Day of Thanksgiving

11/28/2013

Psalm 122:1-5 (NRSV)

I was glad when they said to me,
"Let us go to the house of the LORD!"
Our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem — built as a city
that is bound firmly together.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD,
as was decreed for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
For there the thrones for judgment were set up,
the thrones of the house of David. 

I write this in between going to the house of the Lord for Thanksgiving Eve worship and going to the house of my mother for Thanksgiving dinner.  Both places I am bound to firmly, not really of my own doing, but by virtue of grace and gift.  And for both connections I feel a deep gratitude.  Neither of them are the places I live, but both are places I can call home.

This is the time of year and the day especially, when we look with gratitude on what we have been given - things, people in our lives, experiences that have molded us, and places that have made us home.

It is places this year that are on my mind mostly as I give thanks.  I am thankful for those homes, not my own, but yet still houses where I can feel warmth and hospitality and connection: places I have stayed for rest and places I have stayed for nostalgic reasons.  Places where I haven't been in a while, and places I know I can go to at anytime.  Though my childhood home is no longer available to me, I have the homes of my parents - one far and one near, where I can know I will still feel I belong.

But mostly the place of the Lord.  Church.  Not, this year, the church where I spent the last 17 years, but a church instead where I have been called.  That is a new and exciting kind of home: a place where new relationships are being formed connected by the one relationship that makes all things possible.  

There is much to be grateful for there!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Good and gracious and generous God, we give you so much thanks for all that we have and all that you make possible.  Thank you for connections, new and old, to places and to people that you have put in our lives.  Help us in those connections to move ever closer to you.  Amen.

Making the truth known

Luke 1:1-4 (NRSV)

Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.

What would you do to make sure the truth is known?

Luke, by accounts a physician and by writing a historian, is the only one of the Gospel writers to include an introduction to his audience about his stated purpose.  As to who Theolphilus (or God-beloved) is, that is another of those unknowns.  He may have been one person or he may have been a stand-in for a group. It may not even be a name, but a descriptor of Luke's audience.

Does the answer to who affect the truth of Luke's account?

There are "facts" in Luke's gospel that can be disputed by our 21st century rational minds.   But the truth that Luke is seeking to present is much deeper than the "orderly account" he claims to present.  The truth is much more magnificent than that.  Luke is bearing witness to the most amazing truth the world had known - the truth that the Gospel writer of Mark puts much more simply as "The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

For the first century mind, "truth" did not equal "facts."  Truth was something bigger, stronger, and wider than that.  Truth was most often conveyed in stories - in parables even. 

For Luke the truth was The Kingdom of God and he would spend his whole orderly account laying it out for his audience in the best way he knew.  Like other followers of Jesus, he knew the truth was far too wonderful to be silent about.

So, what would you do to make sure the truth is known?

Amazing God, you have given us many accounts of your truth so that we have chance after chance to be filled by it.  Thank you for your gospel of love.  Help us to spread your kingdom in our words and deeds so that others can see the truth of your love. Amen.

Lectio Divina

Isaiah 33:17-22 (NRSV)

Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
they will behold a land that stretches far away.
Your mind will muse on the terror:
"Where is the one who counted?
Where is the one who weighed the tribute?
Where is the one who counted the towers?"
No longer will you see the insolent people,

the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a language that you cannot understand.
Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!
Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be pulled up,
and none of whose ropes will be broken.
But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
nor stately ship can pass.
For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler,
the Lord is our king; he will save us. 

The book of Isaiah has always been a thing of beauty to me.  It calls out to be read aloud.   This morning I read through it several times and the last, aloud.  Just in that reading of it, I felt comforted and strengthened.

What strikes me is that each time I read it something else jumps out at me.  This would be a wonderful text to use for Lectio Divina, a Benedictine practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer that promotes communion with God and treats scripture as The Living Word - not something simply to be studied.

The four steps in Lectio Divina are read, meditate, pray, and contemplate.  Here is a link to the Beliefnet website that gives step by step instructions how to work through the steps: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Catholic/2000/08/How-To-Practice-Lectio-Divina.aspx

As I read this morning, two phrases jumped out at me:  "your mind will muse on the terror" and "a quiet habitation, an immovable tent."  

What would it be like to simply be able to let your mind quietly muse on terror?  To not have something terrifying have power over you?  God's very presence is the kind of place where that happens.  As someone who has an active imagination and a mind that tends to always jump from thought to thought, the idea of not letting terror weigh on my mind and to find shelter in a place of quiet habitation is grace.

What words and phrases capture you in this passage?  I encourage you to give Lectio Divina a try and engage in God's word in a way that brings it to life.

Gracious God, remind us that scripture is Your Living Word.  It is not static and fixed, but living, breathing and full of life.  Help us to find ways to see the new possibilities your Word offers us each day.  Amen

God with us

I have just returned from a short but appreciated time away in Dallas, Tx to see one of my dearest friends.  I was in Dallas on 11/22/13 - a day observed by the city (and the nation) as the anniversary of one of our darkest national memories: the day John F. Kennedy, Jr. was assassinated in Dallas.  The weather that day seemed intent to identify with the day itself: it was cold and rainy and miserable.  So, we didn't spend much time outside - and felt for those souls who did choose to mark the occasion out at Dealy Plaza.  

Instead we watched for a good part of the afternoon the local coverage of that day: their ABC affiliate played the news exactly as it had unfolded on 11/22/63.  I hadn't been alive yet then so have no memories of JFK myself, but watching that coverage took me back nevertheless and was heart rending.

In all the news this Friday about JFK's assassination, another commemoration got pushed to the background of the news.  11/22/13 also marked the 50th anniversary of CS Lewis' death.  I was pleased to see that on Friday, his plaque was unveiled at Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner.  

JFK and CS Lewis both had a heavy impact on our world - privately, publicly, politically and in terms of faith.  In my own life, CS Lewis has probably had more influence and I am thankful for his witness and wonderful way with words.  Lewis often gives me a way to frame my own faith story when my own words fail.  I share a famous quote by him that sums it up perhaps perfectly:

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."


On with todays devotional:

Jeremiah 46:18-28 (NRSV)

God will save Israel

As I live, says the King,
whose name is the Lord of hosts,
one is coming
like Tabor among the mountains,
and like Carmel by the sea.
Pack your bags for exile,
sheltered daughter Egypt!
For Memphis shall become a waste,
a ruin, without inhabitant.

A beautiful heifer is Egypt --
a gadfly from the north lights upon her.
Even her mercenaries in her midst
are like fatted calves;
they too have turned and fled together,
they did not stand;
for the day of their calamity has come upon them,
the time of their punishment.

She makes a sound like a snake gliding away;
for her enemies march in force,
and come against her with axes,
like those who fell trees.
They shall cut down her forest,

says the Lord,

though it is impenetrable,
because they are more numerous
than locusts;
they are without number.
Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame;
she shall be handed over to a people from the north.

The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: See, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him. I will hand them over to those who seek their life, to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.

But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob,
and do not be dismayed, O Israel;
for I am going to save you from far away,
and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
and no one shall make him afraid.
As for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob,

says the Lord,

for I am with you.
I will make an end of all the nations
among which I have banished you,
but I will not make an end of you!
I will chastise you in just measure,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished. 

It has been a long time since I've read the book of Jeremiah - too long perhaps.  The verse from Jeremiah that perhaps is best known to us is from Jeremiah 31: "The days are surely coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…" We know that in terms of our New Testament lens - and see in it the promise of the new covenant in Jesus Christ.

But for Jeremiah's initial hearers, there was also promise in those words, as well as the words from today, that extended beyond our Christian understanding.  The Northern Kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed and the Southern Kingdom had already been subjected to the ongoing suffering of being a pawn between the Assyrians, Egyptians and the rising empire of the Babylonians.  In the midst of national trauma, come the words of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, that hope remains.  Punishment for the sins of the kingdom of Judah will come, but God will not destroy them.  And more importantly, God is with them.

Suffering has been an ongoing theme in these these ELCA texts recently, and remind us where God is during suffering: not above, winding the puppet strings to see how we will take it; not absent, allowing us to be miserable alone.  

But with us.  Walking through it with us.  Even before we get the Cruciform image of God's redeeming work from the New Testament, God reminded God's people and us through Jeremiah, that a steady hand is leading us through the worst we can imagine.  That God is in the pain and in the sorrow and in the crevices of our hearts that feel like breaking.

God of our heart, you are with us.  Remind us always when our hearts and minds fail us; when tragedy strikes and by our own strength we feel we can not go on.  Be the strength that gets us through.  Amen

The Christ

* A quick note.  I will be away from my computer for the next week and a half - at a conference and then vacation.  I will return to writing the devotionals on Monday, November 25th. 

John 5:19-29 (NRSV)

Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

"Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 

We have had a lot of resurrection narratives recently from Jesus - in Luke last Sunday, along with Job, and now with John.  (albeit in John's unique style which differs greatly from Luke's!)

Because John has such a high Christology of Jesus (the nature and person of Jesus seems to be centered more on his incarnational nature as the divine than in the other gospels), everything in this text today seems to focus on Jesus' intimate connection to God.

How differently Jesus comes across in the Gospels is often a stumbling block for a lot of people, and John in particular is weighty and dense and presents Jesus sometimes in a way that is difficult to relate to.

I used to read a lot of biographies, so I know that Luke and John aren't alone in the  differing descriptions of their subjects or the focus of their subject's life.  So, I am thankful that we have the four Gospels to give us all these shades of life to Jesus and his mission and ministry.

Since we've been in Luke all year, I get awfully fond of that version of Jesus - and his description of the Kingdom of God.  It reminds me that this life is not going to be how it ultimately is.  Kingdom life - resurrection life - will be different.

But John reminds me that Jesus didn't just come to proclaim this resurrection life as different.  He - even before his own resurrection - had power over life itself because he was not only human, but also God.  That mysterious nature of the Christ is often confounding, but Jesus reminds us today that it is also saving.

God of mystery and salvation, you are here.  You are with us and the mysteries of your nature often bewilder us.  We thank you today for your Logos, your Word that saves us even though we can not understand.  Continue to lead us to deeper understanding that we may be drawn ever closer into the wonderful life that you have prepared for us.  Amen.

Just Be

Job 21:1, 17-34 (NRSV)

Then Job answered: ...

"How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does calamity come upon them?
How often does God distribute pains in his anger?
How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
You say, 'God stores up their iniquity for their children.'
Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.
Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what do they care for their household after them,
when the number of their months is cut off?
Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those that are on high?
One dies in full prosperity,
being wholly at ease and secure,
his loins full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of good.
They lie down alike in the dust,

and the worms cover them.

"Oh, I know your thoughts,
and your schemes to wrong me.
For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'
Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony,
that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity,
and are rescued in the day of wrath?
Who declares their way to their face,
and who repays them for what they have done?
When they are carried to the grave,
a watch is kept over their tomb.
The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
everyone will follow after,
and those who went before are innumerable.
How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood." 

As a Lutheran, I believe that we are both 100% saint AND 100% sinner all the time.  So innocence is a relative term, and the ideas of saint and sinner are always in the background to me when I read this text.  We have yet also to hear God's own reply in this story, and that's important when taking this passage out of context.

However, that all taken into account, Job's hutzpah here is something kinda satisfying.  His three friends have come to him with what really amounts to a "blame the victim" mentality.  You must have done something wrong to deserve this.  And Job is having none of it.

Job knows he has done nothing to deserve the level of misery that has befallen him, and he is looking for a reason: a real accounting of what's happening to him. 

Not sure about you, but I've been there.  

How wonderful it would have been had his friends been there to walk with Job through his valley of pain.  To hold his hand.  To sit.  To be.  Not to rationalize.

It's just as hard to know sometime what to do with someone's suffering now as it was for Job's friends.  I'm not always elegant with it myself.  Sometimes I've heard platitudes - ones I know I hate - slip from my lips before I can stop them.  Sometimes I've tried, like Job friends, to answer the question "why" for the suffering person, knowing full well that I can give no answer.

We have Job here then as one who stands up for the suffering person and says basically "cut the crap!  I'm in pain and I don't know why, but I know you can't give me a reason."

We can't answer why.  And even if we could, when someone is in the midst of pain, they may not really be ready for an answer even if they are asking for it.  They need us just to be.  To be present.  To hold a hand or to wipe a tear.  And maybe, just maybe, that very presence will remind them that they are not alone.  That standing with them also is Christ.

Gentle Jesus, you are always in the midst of our pain.  When we are suffering, remind us we are not alone.  And when we are called to answer "why" for a friend or loved one who is suffering, give us the strength to just be for them.  Be present, be loving, be listening, be there.  Amen.

Is suffering retribution?

Job 20:1-11 (NRSV)

Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
"Pay attention! My thoughts urge me to answer,
because of the agitation within me.
I hear censure that insults me,
and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.
Do you not know this from of old,
ever since mortals were placed on earth,
that the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
Even though they mount up high as the heavens,
and their head reaches to the clouds,
they will perish forever like their own dung;
those who have seen them will say, 'Where are they?'
They will fly away like a dream, and not be found;
they will be chased away like a vision of the night.
The eye that saw them will see them no more,
nor will their place behold them any longer.
Their children will seek the favor of the poor,

and their hands will give back their wealth.
Their bodies, once full of youth,
will lie down in the dust with them.

Job is one of those books from scripture that I really believe needs to be read as a whole.  Most know that Job has suffered because God has allowed Satan to test Job's righteousness through a series of misfortunes and suffering.  But the book is structured in such a way that it's heart is most apparent in its entirety.

Zophar is one of Job's three friends who come to Job to sit with him in his suffering.  Their series of their speeches to Job show their theology: that God punishes the wicked and therefore Job must have sinned.  Job's blamelessness is something they can't conceive.  For them, God is a God of ordered discipline for sin and reward for righteousness - despite evidence to the contrary in the life of their friend Job.

It's still something we believe on some level sometimes, isn't it?  I admit that in some dark moments - moments of pain and suffering, occasionally my mind goes there.  

But it doesn't stay their long.  I have only to look at this morning's headlines after the devastation in the Philippines to know that God isn't simply parceling out retribution through suffering. 

Some famed TV evangelists still act as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  How many natural acts have we heard them attribute to God's anger at the sinfulness of the place that was stuck?  Rather than comfort the afflicted, they afflict them more with a theology that the book of Job laid to rest long ago. 

We will always undoubtedly as a people ask the question "Why do good people have to suffer?"  The answers to that are never pat and never easy.  Be wary of those who try to give answers that are.

But we know we have a God who, rather than sit back and enjoy the view of our suffering, walks through that suffering with us.  Accompanies us and lifts us up when we stumble.  We have a God who knows suffering and weeps with us as we suffer.

St. Paul's letter to the Romans may not give an answer to "why" we suffer, but it explains much better the outcome than Job's three friends do:  suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Gracious God, walk with us today when we are faced with trials and evils we cannot account for.  We also ask that you be with the nation of the Philippines as they deal with the aftermath of unimaginable loss.  Remind us that they are our neighbors and help us to reach out in comfort to them as they try to put their lives back together.  Amen.

The Way

Acts 24:10-23 (NRSV)

When the governor motioned to him to speak, Paul replied:

"I cheerfully make my defense, knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation. As you can find out, it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem. They did not find me disputing with anyone in the temple or stirring up a crowd either in the synagogues or throughout the city. Neither can they prove to you the charge that they now bring against me. But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets. I have a hope in God -- a hope that they themselves also accept -- that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience toward God and all people. Now after some years I came to bring alms to my nation and to offer sacrifices. While I was doing this, they found me in the temple, completing the rite of purification, without any crowd or disturbance. But there were some Jews from Asia -- they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, if they have anything against me. Or let these men here tell what crime they had found when I stood before the council, unless it was this one sentence that I called out while standing before them, 'It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.'"

But Felix, who was rather well informed about the Way, adjourned the hearing with the comment, "When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case." Then he ordered the centurion to keep him in custody, but to let him have some liberty and not to prevent any of his friends from taking care of his needs. 

I wish often that we were still called the people of the Way.  It encompasses so many of the complexities of being a Christian.  It's active.  It moves.  It reminds us of not just the way of life, but also the way of Jesus' death and the way of our hope.  

It says simply that we are a people of a journey.  

And it says simply that God is also about a journey.  To us.

When I am being the least faithful, whether to God, or really to anything important in my life, it is because I have gotten settled.  I've gotten comfortable in a place and don't want to move.

But a person of the way is always moving.  Always part of the action.  Always being tuned to where God is leading.

There is nothing about The Way that implies a straight line.  The Way twists and turns.  The Way is full of change.  Change isn't something that we as a people like all that much, but Jesus' Way was all about change.  Jesus came as Change.  He came to initiate a new Way.  A life that continues with the promise of the resurrection.  A life that is meant to have meaning, fullness, and abundance.  A life that reaches out to our neighbor in love and gives them a hand on their Way.

The Way is often fraught with sorrow or danger, but also filled with hope and joy.  

We are meant to be a people of the Way still.  It isn't always an easy way, but it is a way in which you are in good company.

God of the journey, prepare us.  Help us not to fear the changes that come before us on our way of faith.  Help us to trust always in your gracious guidance and follow where you lead.  Amen.

Paul confronts religious leaders

Acts 22:22-23:11 (NRSV)

Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live." And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him. But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?" When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, "What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen." The tribune came and asked Paul, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" And he said, "Yes." The tribune answered, "It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship." Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, "Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God." Then the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth. At this Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law you order me to be struck?" Those standing nearby said, "Do you dare to insult God's high priest?" And Paul said, "I did not realize, brothers, that he was high priest; for it is written, 'You shall not speak evil of a leader of your people.'"

When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.) Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees' group stood up and contended, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?" When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks.

That night the Lord stood near him and said, "Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome." 

Exciting stuff!  Paul before the council as Jesus was not long before him, but quite a different scene.  Paul knows his politics.  Paul plays his politics and Paul stands defiant, and divisive before this group that holds his fate in their hands.  He plays the Sadducees and the Pharisees against each other, thus getting (at least temporarily) the Pharisees on his side.

It's seems initially quite an earthy or worldly way to do things.  "Wise" indeed to the ways of the world.  Paul often spoke of wisdom, contrasting and comparing it to foolishness and God's ways vs. human ways.  In 1 Corinthians he talked of how he first came to the Corinthians:  "I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.  I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling."

This was not a Paul who was timid and trembling.  But as Paul told the Corinthians, he did speak with a wisdom - one that was of God and of the Holy Spirit, and not discernible by the rulers of the world.  How could they discern it?  God's wisdom, as Paul says over and over, comes in weakness.  And it is important to remember, that as confident as Paul was in this scene, his weakness before those judging him is also apparent.  He could have been torn to pieces in the melee. 

Yet he still stood with confidence and courage.

It's hard to face sometimes - really hard - that our strength before a world that is often violent, oppressive, condemning and cruel, comes in weakness.  It comes from a baby born in an animal trough, who as a man died a cruel and seemingly pointless death.

But not pointless.  Far from pointless.  We will hear again this Sunday about the Sadducees - the group that led the council that condemned Jesus - and how they did not believe in the Resurrection of the dead.  They had all the power and all of their power was tied to the power of the Temple.

When the temple was destroyed in AD 70, the Sadducees as a group disappeared.

As human power often does.

Our hope lies in weakness.  Hard to comprehend sometimes, but when like Paul, we trust in that strength that lies beyond us, all things are possible.

God of wisdom and strength, remind us always that with you all things are possible.  Help us to find our courage.  The courage to speak of your great love to everyone.  The courage to remember that your ways are not our ways and that your power is ultimately the only true power we can rely on.  Amen.

The parable of the pounds

Luke 19:11-27 (NRSV)

As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, "A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, 'Do business with these until I come back.' But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to rule over us.' When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, 'Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.' He said to him, 'Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.' Then the second came, saying, 'Lord, your pound has made five pounds.' He said to him, 'And you, rule over five cities.' Then the other came, saying, 'Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.' He said to the bystanders, 'Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.' (And they said to him, 'Lord, he has ten pounds!') 'I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.'"

Slaughter isn't one of those words I like hearing from Jesus.  This parable of the pounds is similar, but not identical, to the parable of the talents found in Matthew.  However, here the twist has been added to this story of making this man a king who is getting a kingdom from unhappy residents.  It adds another level of power he wields and fear his servants must feel.  And then there's the whole slaughter thing...

Truth is, God does wield an awful lot of power.  And part of that power has been endowing us with gifts - spiritual, and otherwise.  And as I've been stretching out in an extended theme, everything God does ultimately is about relationship.  Sharing is perhaps the best way to build relationship.

What good are the gifts we have if all we do is wrap them in a piece of cloth and hide them from the light of day?

The other day I said how blessings are intended to be passed on - we are blessed to be a blessing to others. The same is true of the gifts we are given. They are meant not just for our benefit.  Sometimes they are even meant to be used for others to "reap what they did not sow."  Sometimes we are sowers.  Other times we are reapers.  But at all times are we meant to be engaged in the dance of life.  Giving, sharing, taking, using, building, creating, reaping: taking the gifts we've been given, both spiritual and material, and helping God turn them into something that lifts up our neighbor.  Making sure that we aren't alone in our reaping.

The slaughter word is still troubling, I admit.  It helps that this story was told in a particular context and has ties to the real life story of Herod Archelaus, which Jesus' hearers would have known.  But there is also another connection that comes to mind.

There is a part of me that needs to die in order for me to live - the part of me that keeps to myself, hold everything back, hides lights under bushels and wraps gifts in pieces of cloth.  Holding back brings death.  It brings death to the mission of the church, it brings death to the kingdom to God, and it brings a kind of death to my own gifts, talents, and faith.

God is the God of life.  God's good gifts sometimes benefit us, but other times they are given to us that we might us them to benefit others.  In all ways, they are given so that we may continually be engaged in relationship and life.

Giving God, thank you for all the gifts you have given us.  You ask us always to share what we have.  Sometimes that is easy, and other times, not as much.  We ask you to remind us.  Prod us. Help us.  And always forgive us!  Amen

Wholeness

Zechariah 7:1-14 (NRSV)
Fasting versus justice and mercy

In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the Lord, and to ask the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, "Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?" Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves? Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited? 

The word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear. They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Just as, when I called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts, and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate. 

And today, again we are reminded of God concern for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the poor.  Or as Jesus would call them, "the least of these."

In Biblical times these groups of people were considered the least.  They had unprotected status.  Often these days they still do.  

The questions Zechariah asks in the first paragraph for God - "When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?" are ones that get to the heart I think of God's hope for relationship with us.  When we follow the law, do we do it simply because God has told us to?  Or do we do we participate in it as we do things that bring us joy - because it we feel compelled physically to do it?

As far as eating and drinking goes, during Lent, I admit that sometimes this has been where I've come from:  I give up something because I think I should.  But boy…when it is time to eat it again, I partake with my whole being!

God's after our whole being, and quite simply, being in relationship with God - through prayer, worship, service, and really, just plain old faith, is the way be begin to get a glimpse finally of who that whole person is.  

Relationship is so important to God it includes even the least of these. We are reminded of that over and over again by the prophets, and then by Jesus himself.  As we begin to see those who normally don't fall on our radar as part of the wholeness of God's plan for the world, we begin to feel whole ourselves.  Our wholeness is expressed then not alone, but with others always.  And those others might not be the ones we would naturally think of first.  

Saving God, you want us to be whole. You want for us good and right relationships that both strengthen ourselves and strengthen your communities.  Cleanse our hearts and open our eyes so that we can see those before us who you are calling us to help make whole.  Amen.

Relationship and hospitality

Nehemiah 13:1-3, 23-31 (NRSV)

Israel separates from foreigners 

On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them -- yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. When the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent. ...

In those days also I saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab; and half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke the language of various peoples. And I contended with them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not King Solomon of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?"

And one of the sons of Jehoiada, son of the high priest Eliashib, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I chased him away from me. Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, the covenant of the priests and the Levites.

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; and I provided for the wood offering, at appointed times, and for the first fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. 

This is one of those readings that my first temptation is to simply dismiss.  God is always throughout scripture reminding his people to care for the widows, the orphans, and the "aliens."  So reading about separating the foreigners from God's people sounds harsh and doesn't quite jibe with what God is about.

God is indeed a God of relationships, and the first paragraph gives some sense to what's going on for me.  The Ammonites and the Moabites didn't greet the Israelites upon their return.  Hospitality was not given, but instead, those holding the land cursed the returnees.

There's a lot else that's going on here - all about the Jewish people returning to their home and the rebuilding and re-purification of the temple and repopulating God's chosen people.

But at the heart of it is always this God who is a God of relationship. The Hebrew Bible is all about the love and relationship between God and his people.  God had brought them home and their first impulse it seems, as you read Nehemiah, was to go back to many of the foreign ways the pulled them from God to begin with.

Martin Luther famously said that we are people who are "in the world, but not of the world."  We are God's people but we live in a world that often has ways of living and being that are separate from God's ways.  They are, for God, foreign ways.

Yet time and again, God comes and brings us home.  Reminds of God's ways.  Forgives our wanderings and calls us to right, solid, and whole relationship.  Reminds us that on this side of the cross we live to share the good news with all of God's children.  Reminds us that the promise is for all.

We don't keep our churches pure by keeping "foreigners" out.  Temple worship is not part of our tradition.  Instead now we live into the promise that while we are in this world, the God of relationship calls us to live and love with hospitality with all.

God of relationship, remind us of your ways.  Remind us of your love for all people and your desire to bring everyone into relationship.  Give us a heart for hospitality so that we continually reach out and share your love, your goodness and your mercy with all we meet.  Amen.

Community of Love

2 Peter 1:1-11 (NRSV)

Participants of the divine nature

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self control, and self control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you. 

This is one of those passages that reminds me woefully how much I fall short.  Coming the day after Reformation Sunday, where we are reminded that we are justified by faith, not works, Peter here pushes us on to "make every effort…"  In other words, work hard.  

The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  As I look at Peter's list - goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection - I do know that they are God's good intention for us.

But what strikes me this time as I read this passage is something I never noticed.  It is, I think, the habit of Westerners to read passages like this on an individual level.  But see what Peter says:  "for if these things are increasing among you.."  In other words, the plural you.  So in your community.

Paul reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.  Myself included.  But when we are together, we are stronger.  We lift each other up.  We support and love and guide and strengthen in ways that on our own we can not.

On my own, I am likely to keep messing up and staying mired in sin.  But God did not mean for me to be alone.  God meant for me to be in relationship.  And God meant for the church to be a place where we together become participants in the divine nature and workers of God's kingdom.

Today is All Saint's Day.  As Luther reminded us, we are all saints AND sinners.  As Peter reminds us, when we are together, supporting each other, loving each other and guiding each other, the church's saints can do amazing things and live into being the creatures God intended us to be.  Sometimes those individual saints will mess up, be ineffective, and blind.  But where mutual affection abounds, forgiveness happens and life erupts with newness and hope.

Forgiving, gracious God, thank you for the community of your church.  Thank you for all of my fellow sinners and saints who guide and endure and have strength when I do not.  Help me to be a worker for grace in your community of love, supported by and supporting those around around me. Amen