2 Corinthian 8:1-11

2 Corinthians 8:1-11

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints— and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertakingamong you. Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.

I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.

How do we approach texts like this?

With guilt that we don't give or do enough?

With satisfaction that we don't?

With worry about what we will lose if we are more generous?

With anger at those who have but don't give?

Or with hope?

Or with joy?

It is important to me that Paul says outright here that he is not giving a command.

He wants the Corinthian church to learn the joy that the Macedonian church has gotten from their generosity.

Generosity breeds joy. That's the promise Paul offers here.

Studies have even born this out. Some of the different data discovered in scientific studies on generosity?

- Generosity keeps stress at bay by keeping the stress hormone cortisol at lower levels.

- Generosity keeps us more committed and content in our jobs.

- Generosity helps us live longer.

- Generosity improves relationships.

- Generosity promotes good mental health.

Discover joy, Paul tells his church. Discover love. And generosity will help get you there.

Generous God, help us to share in your bounty

Jeremiah 10:23-24

I know, O Lord, that the way of human beings is not in their control,
    that mortals as they walk cannot direct their steps.
Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure;
    not in your anger, or you will bring me to nothing.

The way of human beings is not in their control.

Does that make you feel better or worse?

Secure or afraid?

Free or held back?

Powerless or emboldened?

Our freedom is something still hotly debated within and without faith communities.

There is something to knowing we have free will and that God allows us to make some judgments for our own lives.

But there is also something freeing in knowing, as those in AA know, that we are powerless over some things in our lives. Whether that be alcohol, gambling, food addiction, dysfunctional families, etc.

Yet that powerlessness does not mean we are completely powerless over every aspect of our lives.

Just as knowing that the way of human beings not being in our control also does not make us powerless in every aspect of our lives.

There are things about being human we cannot control: our birth; our death; our taxes, (Ha, thanks Ben Franklin!); some things about our health, security, and emotional status; and more.

And yet how we live into and react to our humanness and the boundaries that God has given us is very often in our control.

That learning to live into and react to our humanness is very much the journey of life and faith. That learning to trust God's grace, as well as God's sense of justice, is part of that journey.

Lack of control need not always mean powerlessness.

And powerlessness does not minimize us.

It makes us human.

Holy one, I am powerlessness over the human condition. Teach me how to be human. Amen.

Exodus 23:1-9

You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness. You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit.

When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.

When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.

You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty. You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

God wasn't finished on Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments. The law was expanded upon and clarified before those stone tablets came into being. God needed to let God's people know what the expectations were for this community of people.

Those commandments have been passed down and taught in confirmation classes and preserved on courthouse walls.

And here we can see an expansion of "you shall not bear false witness." Honesty is clearly defined here. Bearing false witness gets context.

And that gives some heft behind teaching the commandments today.

But what is most interesting to me in this breadth of a definition of honesty is the last verse:

"You shall not oppress a resident alien."

An honest people, a people who elevate the law enough to put it outside a courtroom, expand that honesty to the aliens who reside in their land.

Imagine that.

There's a lot of quoting of God's law to the Israelites these days for all kinds of purposes. 

But we do well to remember that the God of law is also the God who said "what you do to the least of these, you do to me."

Honestly.

Lord, help with lead with integrity and justice to help those who are often left outside of the protection of the law. Amen.

I Corinthians 1:18

1 Corinthians 1:18

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

If you remember nothing else today, remember this.

That foolish cross is the power of God that saves.

When you look at the cross, remember it is God's folly.

And God's folly is more powerful and hopeful than any of our wisdom.

Human wisdom would say "what kind of people worship a guy who gets himself killed by a world superpower in a horrible, torturous way?"

Human wisdom says: that guy's not a winner. That guy's a loser.

Human wisdom says: worship a criminal? No way.

Human wisdom sees the cross as the ultimate sign of weakness.

But it is that very folly that saves us.

Saves us from our own egos.

Saves us with humility and patience and love.

Saves us by service and hope.

Human power does not side with the weak or the criminal or the marginalized or the "losers" of the world.

But God's power does.

God's power meets us in our most broken, foolish moments and saves us from ourselves.

One of my favorite recent quotes on the cross comes from "Science" Mike McHargue, a Christian writer, blogger, and speaker on Science and Faith. He says:

"The cross was not God's invention, it was ours. In all our need for an eye for an eye, I have to wonder sometimes if God listened to our cry for blood and offered his own - if Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was not to sate God's wrath, but to show God's response to ours."

For humans, the cross is foolish.

But God takes foolishness and turns it into life.

God of folly, save me from my own certainty. Amen.

Luke 15:1-7

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Not the reading for today, but something has been nagging me to talk about since this Sunday when it was part of the Gospel reading.

This has always been a puzzling parable for me, partly because, as Pastor Mark Singh-Hueter said in his sermon this Sunday, for most of us, the answer to the question, "which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost," is: Me...I wouldn't leave 99 sheep in the wild to go after one!

But then this weekend, I went and saw the film "Sully," about Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the hero of the Hudson River water landing of US Airways flight 1549.

It isn't really a spoiler to say that everyone lived, but there was a moment that struck me with it's perfect illustration of Jesus parable here.

After everyone had gotten off the plane, Sully was the last one to leave. And before he left, and as people were trying to hurry him off the sinking craft, he went aisle by aisle to the back of the plane, leaving no stone unturned to make sure that everyone had gotten off. 155 lives had been on that flight, and he was going to make sure every one was accounted for, even at risk to himself.

When everyone was celebrating back on land, he knew it wouldn't be over until he'd heard that magic number, 155. 

And when he did, the joy was palpable.

Our God loves us that much.

Every single sheep is important.

Every life is meaningful.

God comes after us time and time again - even those that we might not think God would come after.

And when the lost are found, the joy is palpable!

Lord, your love and faith in us is boundless. Help me to continually reach out to those who need to hear of that love. Amen.

I Timothy 1:18-19

1 Timothy 1:18-19New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith,

What is conscience?

How do you know what is right?

How do you know what is of God?

I have heard many people claim to do God's will - and yet it seems as far from God's will as I can imagine.

And of course, I'll bet I've thought I was doing God's will at some point and someone else might have thought that was as far from God's will as they could imagine.

What determines it?

How do you know?

What IS conscience?

To answer, we have to know something about who God is.

Something about who Jesus was.

Something about who the Cosmic Christ is.

Something about how the Trinity operates.

And something in there I'll bet has to do with love.

With service.

With compassion.

Does it exclude?

I doubt that is of God.

Does it hate?

I'm betting that's not of God?

When is your conscience clear?

When there is love?

When there is community?

What does conscience tell us?

Lord of compassion, help us to follow our conscience to do your will. Amen.

I Timothy 1:3-5

1 Timothy 1:3-5

I urge you, as I did when I was on my way to Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach any different doctrine, and not to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies that promote speculations rather than the divine training that is known by faith. But the aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

If you have talked to me at all recently either in a church setting or about church, you've heard that I tend to avoid using the terms "Sunday School" or even Christian Education. I prefer saying "faith formation," and this passage from Paul to Timothy, is at least a little bit why.

"School" and "teaching" come as loaded terms. For kids, they are loaded one way - and not always pleasantly - and for adults, they are loaded another. Usually loaded toward the brain. Toward knowing more.

But Paul wants Timothy to understand that it isn't just about what we know. Because the things we know or learn, aren't always grounded in truth. They might tickle our brain and make us feel more intelligent and knowledgeable, but they aren't the reason for teaching.

Instead, our faith is meant to be formed. God - our creator - is always busy re-creating us. Forming us. And that is what our "instruction" is meant for.

So that we may be formed in the ways of love and faith.

Not simply knowledgeable about facts.

This isn't to say that knowing something about our doctrine isn't important. Or that catechetics or Bible Studies aren't important.  They are.

But the reason for them is not simply that we know more or have more facts or head knowledge. It is for our ongoing formation as God's creatures. It is that we may more closely follow our call to love and serve our God and our neighbor.

We are a new creation. One that is still being formed. With faith that is still being formed.

By a Creator who wants us to share in the love for all of creation.

Lord, melt me, mold me, fill me, use me, form me. Amen

Luke 18:18-25

A certain ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother.’” He replied, “I have kept all these since my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “There is still one thing lacking. Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” But when he heard this, he became sad; for he was very rich. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

I've read and heard many different ideas about this particularly difficult speech from Jesus. Some tough, and some more liberal. 

Over time, however, I've found that every single time I read this text, I ask myself: "What is it that Jesus is trying to say to me specifically here? What are the words I need to hear?"

And most of the time, those words are literally what Jesus is saying: "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God."

Because truth is, I have more than I need.

And like the rich young ruler here, it makes me sad to think of giving all of it up.

Where's the grace in that?

Well, I think it is in understanding how Jesus speaks these words. In other versions of this story in the other gospels, Jesus looks with love on this ruler before he gives his words.

And how do his words change if we remember they are spoken with love?

They change in that we remember Jesus is not speaking these words as condemnation or punishment. He is speaking them as understanding and truth.

Jesus sees just how caught up we - like this rich young ruler - can be with our money and possessions. And Jesus knows what we are missing by that.

We are missing the community of love that binds us together in the Kin-dom of God.

Now.

Not simply in some distant reality.

But now. 

If I am so heavy laden with the wealth I possess, then seeing the treasure of God's kin-dom becomes difficult.

But when I let go...I begin to see. I begin to experience that community of love and fellowship once I get past all that is in the way of it.

It's an ongoing struggle for those of us who have much. The chance that we are missing out on something else - something deeper, something bigger - is always there.

Lord, help me to let go of everything that keeps me from you and your people. Amen.