Gospeling Your Life ~ Beyond "Supposed to"

 

Read Luke 10-11 ~ One of the reasons why I find it meaningful to read bigger chunks of Scripture ~ whole chapters ~ it allows us to follow the thread of the narrative.  Luke 10 contains one of the most well-known passages and parables of the Good Samaritan.  But before you get to that, you get to the mission of the 72, notice that it is more than the 12 disciples Jesus sends out.  Jesus blesses a whole group of people.  I wonder if there is a connection between being sent out and the story of the Samaritan’s loving kindness to the one in the ditch?  Maybe as we go about our life, we will get interrupted and disrupted by the sacred in serendipitous ways.  Maybe I need to be careful not to let my calendar or agenda or to-do list blind me from seeing the person right in front of me.  Chapter 10 wraps up with another wonderful story about Mary and Martha.  You have probably heard enough sermons about this passage to know that the “correct” answer is to be Mary, not Martha.  We want Jesus to give us the gold star and badge for our heavenly sash.  But wait, am I supposed to be the Good Samaritan out helping/healing a hurting word OR am I to be sitting at the feet of Jesus listening/learning…because honestly…there is a tension here.  Remember back to Peter walking on water in Matthew, how I noted over 90 percent of the disciples stayed in the boat and got to the same conclusion (worshiping Jesus) without getting drenched and doused by sinking in the water?  Part of the problem is when we think we are “supposed” to be like the main character.  We can reduce the complexity to a moral lesson of being like the Samaritan and Mary and the disciples all at once.  The result is that faith becomes demanding rather than grace filled.  We can feel like a hamster on a wheel going nowhere, but we keep racing and running praying that God is giving out good grades for participation and effort.  Grace is not achieved.  Grace is not earned or ever deserved.  Grace is freely given…and that message contradicts everything you learned in college economics class and when your grandma said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch”.  No wonder grace doesn’t make sense, no wonder Jesus seems to be talking in circles and not giving us a step-by-step manual to follow that is sure to bring success.  Faith and life continue to evolve and expand.  There are moments when I am called to sit, moments I am called to serve, moments I am sent out and times to stay.  And the challenge is when all four of those are clamoring for my attention at the same time.  I ask you to ponder the situations you are facing right now, the ones that weigh on your heart ~ should you continue with a volunteer opportunity, should you call that person who hurt you, should you give money to that organization, should you have the doctor do that test, should you continue or change parts of your life?  There are not clear answers in life, we live the questions as Rumi said, and by grace we stub our toes on the love of God as we stumble forward.  Sometimes it helps to talk to others and my door is wide open to chat.  I pray you will find ways to explore how and where God is showing up in your life this day with grace and love to be fully yourself.  I encourage you to pray the words of the Lord’s Prayer in chapter 11, letting every syllable and sentence of this prayer sing/sink to your soul.  Amen. 

Gospeling Your Life ~ Jesus out of the box

 

Read Luke 7-9.  Chapter 7 is complex and convoluted and causes conflict in my soul.  First, the whole premise of the centurion (who is part of the Roman military industrial complex machine) having a slave who needs healing sets my teeth on edge and makes my soul queasy with too many emotions.  And even more flummoxing and frustrating is that the centurion (this outsider) is said to have more faith than those in Israel, which feels like we are rating and ranking faith.  And this would have been offensive to any Jewish person and can still be offensive for us inside the church.  At this point my mind is twisting and turning like Simeon Biles doing her gravity-defying summersaults.  Then, Jesus goes and heals the widow’s son, which seems a bit more in line with the ways I like to define (or should I say, confine?) Jesus.  Like John’s disciples, I come to Jesus asking, “Who are you?”  I have questions about Jesus, who I seek to apprentice under.   Why can’t there be an employee manual for being a Christian that is clear, concise and to the point?  (Steve Cuss likes to say that we are not God’s employees, we are God’s beloved.  Just like I didn’t give my kids a manual for being part of the family, neither does God).  Chapter 7 wraps up and winds down with a woman being forgiven for her past while the Pharisee (one who polishes his halo every day) misses the point ~ which is sort of where I feel I am at when I read this chapter.  I am not convinced I understand what Jesus is teaching and telling.  Perhaps it is to receive the person in front of me ~ whether I fully agree with them, whether my heart breaks for them, whether they are questioning and confronting me, whether they have a past that has some baggage ~ to see and receive the person as beloved.  This is a practice that I will never get “right”, because featherless bipeds (that is humans) are wonderfully creative at causing all kinds of frustration to each other.  I don’t know if squirrels gossip.  I don’t know if trees hide knives in their words with the sugary sweetness of a pecan pie and end by saying, “bless his heart”.  I don’t know if creation causes the amount of emotional and spiritual pain that humans cause each other.  The truth creation tells us that there are predators and prey in the wilderness.  Life is complex and scripture doesn’t frost over the burnt cakes of life saying, “It’s all going be alright”.  When you read these chapters, what is provoked or evoked for you?  What stirs and swirls?  What parts feel like sandpaper to your soul?  Continue to notice and name what stirs to your faith, what stretches your faith (perhaps in directions you don’t want to go), and what is downright offensive to your faith.  May your insights and questions continue to bless you as you seek with Luke to live your faith in service to others amid the mountains and storms of life.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life

 

Chapter 5 of Luke’s gospel mixes moments of calling disciples and healing ~ which I find beautiful invitation to how we live and practice service amid our humanness.  Henri Nouwen coined the phrase “wounded healer”.  Nouwen described how we all have the scars of the world and through our brokenness (woundedness/hurt) we might find ways to bless others.  One quick reminder, that to be called as a disciple (or student or apprentice or follower) of a rabbi in Jesus’ day was a high honor.  Some scholars suggest it is like Harvard or Morehouse College sending me a letter saying, “Congratulations, come study here” out of the blue ~ without applying.  The disciples were minding their own business, going about their ordinary Wednesday activity, when this itinerant rabbi wanders past and invites them to follow.  Nouwen would say that we have moments each day when Jesus wanders/shows up in our life calling us.  In our hyper productive, addicted to our screens, busy life, we can miss these moments.  I say that not to guilt you or me but I need reminders to stay awake and alert to practice the presence of God (see the sermon from September 1).  How might Jesus be calling you over the tumult of these days?  As I read chapter 5, I hear the hymn, “The Summons”.  Here is my favorite verse from that hymn ~ as a prayer for you, “Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name?  Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?  Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around. Through sight and touch and sound in you and you in Me?”  Read and re-read these words as Jesus continues to call us to be partners, collaborators, in service to the world God so loves.  Amen.  

Gospeling Your Life ~ Baptism

 

This is now your third time of encountering John the baptizer, reading about Jesus’ baptism, and the wilderness (wild-ness) temptation of Jesus on the heels of being called “God’s beloved”.  Mark, Matthew, and Luke all have these three stories knit closely together.  What might that mean?  How does weaving John, baptism, and temptation together as an important part of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry tell us something?  This is one of those questions for which there is more than one answer.  As a matter of fact, I think there are answers each time we come to these three moments that commenced Jesus’ public ministry.  A few thoughts: do you remember your baptism?  What you wore/felt/experienced?  Or if you were an infant maybe you have only a few Polaroid pictures of your baptism.  What do you believe about baptism?  What do you make of John calling out people for their mistakes?  His words are harsh and hard – like sandpaper to the soul.  We hear lots of criticism and cynicism around us today.  Some call this prophetic, and some might say that we are caught in cycles of pessimism (perhaps because we consume so much information, that information consumes us).  That we are quick to identify the bad and broken, but the blessings are easily and quickly dismissed.  Where are you like John calling out other people’s stuff (hold this as you remember Jesus talking about taking the log out of our own eye before trying to remove the speck from another’s eye).  Hold this as you also hold your humanness.  I am not perfect, my halo doesn’t shine blindingly bright, my heavenly sash is missing several badges on them because I find it difficult/too demanding to love my enemies, to take time for God (after all I am busy being God’s employee) or love my neighbor or love myself.  Or where do you find yourself in the wilderness?  What temptations are you facing right now?  Our siblings in twelve step programs often note that we all have addictions, just some (like being a work-a-holic) are rewarded by society.  These are powerful and profound stories that all three Gospels include.  I pray today, as you read through Luke’s version, the words might meet you right where you are, in the story of your life, in a holy way.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life Matthew's Ending and Luke's Beginning

 

Yesterday, in addition to reading and playing and praying with one of the parables in chapter 25, you also read chapter 26 where Jesus is anointed with perfume (think of walking through the cosmetic department in Dillard’s were my sense of smell goes into overdrive!).  Then, Jesus, perhaps still with the faint smell of the perfume, celebrates the Last Supper.  One question to ponder, is Judas part of the meal?  Is there a chair at the Last Supper for the one who will betray Jesus?  Note that whatever conclusion I come to says more about me than the text.  Chapters 26-27 wrap up and wind down Matthew’s Gospel (you are halfway done ~ insert confetti being thrown here!)  In Chapter 27, there is a public trial of Jesus.  There is little evidence that Rome would ever release someone like Barabas who was charged with political uprising.  I find it fascinating that Pilate washes his hands in verse 24.  How many of our leaders often sidestep accountability and responsibility?  How many of our leaders say, “Welp, there is nothing I can do.”  The whole “Buck Stops Here” plaque on Truman’s desk has been put out for the rummage sale today.  Make no mistake that crucifixion was a Roman punishment and a message/method of fear to keep people in line ~ remind people who was in charge.  Pilate, the Roman official, can no more wash his hands after signing the execution certificate than the guard who was ordered to nail Jesus to the cross.  In the military complex machinery, it can be easy to discount or disconnect the part any of us play (active or passive).  So often there is violence that is done on our behalf of which we will never know.  I confess my tax dollars go to supply weapons that kill innocent children.  My tax dollars go for incentives for business that hurt/harm the earth.  My tax dollars (giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s) perpetuates racism, sexism, homophobia, and violence.  This breaks my heart, and I can no more wash my hands than Pilate.  As you read Matthew’s take on Jesus’ death and resurrection ~ where do you hear echoes of Mark?  What is the same?  What is the difference?  To be sure the Easter Sunday stories are each unique (Mark 16 to Matthew 28).  You may want to flip back to Mark 15 and 16 to remind yourself as you read Matthew 27 and 28.  Let the details of this holiest part of the Holy Week narrative find ways that interrupt you, surprise you, disrupt or even disturb you.  May you sense the truth that death and new life are always in a dance around us and within us.  The Holy Week narrative is repeated (not just before Easter Sunday), but in the unfolding story of our life, even in later part of September 2024.  May this truth stir in your soul today.  Amen.

 

Wednesday, September 25

We enter our third Gospel of Luke today.  Luke asks the question of how do we mature/live/practice service amid our humanness?  How do we reach out when we are suffering, changing, mixing heartbreak and hope, joy and moments of pain?  One quick note on verses 1-4 in chapter 1.  You will see the name Theophilus (vs. 3).  This name means “God-lover”.  Some scholars suggest that Theophilus might have commissioned Luke to write this Gospel/Good news.  Others suggest that Theophilus is each of us, it is the name of all faithful who seek to live into, it is our fullest expression and embodiment of our baptismal name of “Beloved.”  How might I live the name, “God-lover” today?  Luke then seeks to tell us how Zechariah and Elizabeth (who echo Abraham and Sarah’s story from Genesis) love God.  How Mary bravely and boldly becomes the God-bearer, accepting the social stigma and risking her life to bring God’s love in the flesh to earth in Jesus.  How do you think Zechariah loves God?  How do you think Elizabeth loves God?  How does Mary?  I invite you to pay attention to Mary’s song of praise in chapter 1:46-55.  Slowly savor these words.  Let each syllable and sentence and sentiment settle.  How might your soul/life magnify God?  In some ways, being a God-lover or practicing service amid our humanness looks like Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary.

 

As you turn to the familiar Christmas Eve reading of chapter 2, notice and note how these words sound on September 25 ~ a full three months before we will read these same words in church.  By the way, I did not plan for this to happen this way!!  For me, this is a wonderful God moment of holiness that we read the Christmas story.  You may even want to blast and blare your favorite Christmas Carol for your radio as you read the passage ~ OR ~ sing the words out!  Take time today, make some notes about what is evoked and provoked in you, then tuck these away in a place where you can go back and revisit your insights, ideas, questions, and holy thoughts on December 25^th.  May you be wrapped in wonder, love, and mystery of the silent, holy night when angels from the realms of glory call all ye faithful to come to see God’s love incarnate laying away in a manger.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Playful with Parables

 

Today, we continue with more perplexing/puzzling parables in Matthew 25.  Rather than me offering an explanation, I want to encourage your examination and exploration of the parables.  Which of the parables (Bridesmaids, Talents, Sheep and Goats) do you find yourself gravitating towards?  Once you have one parable, read the narrative several times, perhaps in different translation (you can go to www.biblegateway.com to find different translations of scripture).  For example, I could dwell with the Bridesmaid parable thinking about times I have felt prepared and also about times when I have felt the oil in my lamp of my soul on empty!  Times when I am on the inside and times I feel left out.  Times I have felt ready and moments I am faking it until I try to make it.  Moments when I join the party and times, I am late or never go.  I am both a wise and foolish Bridesmaid.  Or I can ponder how, where, and with whom I share my time, talent, and treasure.  Note your calendar and credit card statements are moral documents that tell you what you really value, and who you value.  When have you shared God’s love with someone unintentionally or unaware (note that the “sheep” don’t remember or recall how they entertained Jesus, they simply sought to share God’s grace with others - see vs. 37-38).  One final note, too often with parables we are so serious/somber.  We treat parables as a puzzle to solve with our Ovaltine/cereal box decoder ring.  We wrestle for a single lesson like we do out of fairy tales, but parables are messy and reflect humanness back to us.  Hold this, let these words soak and simmer in your soul, and I pray you might discover a playful and prayerful spirit as you ponder on of the parables in chapter 25.

Gospeling your life ~ Flummoxed by Parables

 

Matthew 22 can feel like looking at the backside of a quilt where the threads run in all different directions, and it looks like chaos.  Or to put it more bluntly, this chapter is a hot mess!  Jesus starts with a wedding banquet that turns to a scene out of Lord of Flies or Game of Thrones.  As the parable starts off you can hear Pachelbel’s Canon in D playing softly by strings in the background.  You can smell the roasted oxen for miles and miles.  The DJ is setting up in the corner of the dance floor and the disco ball is hung.  The servants go out, wearing tuxedos, knocking politely on the door, and saying, “The King doth requesteth your presence at the party-th.”  And everyone was like, “Nah, just too busy” and others get downright violent.  Good lord who let this parable into the Bible!  And the king gets upset and sends in the troops, because violence often begets more violence ~ we cannot bomb our way to peace.  After the smoke settles, the king has all this food prepared so he says, “Fine, go get the least and lost and lonely”.  Which sounds sweet, until one poor chap gets tossed out on his ear for wearing white to the wedding that was reserved only for the bride.  I don’t get it.

 

That is perhaps the point.  We are not supposed to “get” parables.  They are meant to confound and confuse us.  They are meant to frustrate and flummox us. They are meant to reflect the world as it is, with glimpses of how the world might be, and how messy (like the backside of a quilt) life is.  Beauty and brokenness sit side by side.  Too often, pastors boil down parable’s messiness into an easy to apply treatment for your life.  I am not sure what that would be for Chapter 22?  Throw a party, invite people you don’t really know or like, but become like Tim Gunn judging what they wear?  Or that we are missing the party because of our busyness and excuses?  Or maybe this parable is a mirror to our humanness.  I don’t think the king here is a metaphor for God.  I don’t think the lesson here is wear nice clothes to church.  I think this parable is meant to show us as we live out the realm of God we will bring our full humanness to the adventure.  Our halos will always have smudges and smears on them.  I am like the king.  I have grand plans and when people blow me off, I get angry.  While I don’t send out an army, I do say things that I regret and wish I had not.  I can think I am doing a good deed, only to judge someone I am helping as unworthy.  Keep turning this parable as a lens for your life.  As you do, let the words of Chapter 22:34-40 about loving God, neighbor and self (a trinity of love that is always in process, evolving, expanding as we explore and seek to embody), let this center/core tenet of our faith mix and mingle in your life as we Gospel our life according to Matthew climbing this mountain of faith.  One quick word on chapter 23 – go back to chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount and hold the words here in conversation with the Beatitudes.  There is a lot here in these chapters and I pray you will pay attention to what sparks your imagination, stirs your soul, and what causes you to scratch your head in disbelief ~ I am still looking at you Parable of the Wedding feast!  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Forgiveness Matthew 18

 

In Matthew 18:21-22, Jesus talks (briefly) about forgiveness.  And yet, these two verses could take hours to unpack and even a lifetime to live out.  What do you think about forgiveness?  What have you heard from pastors or books or others on this topic?  Is forgiveness forgetting the past or setting down the hurt so you don’t keep dragging it around, even though you will always bare the scar the words/actions of another caused?  Is forgiveness one and done, or a process of slowly releasing the heartbreak that takes time ~ months or years?  I wonder if Jesus says seventy-seven times because the number seven was seen as a complete number – echoing the number of days of creation ~ maybe Jesus is talking about the completeness of forgiveness – which might take longer?  Or maybe that is a literal number when someone hurts and harms you it is going to take energy and effort to let that go, like more than seventy-seven times! 

 

Everett L. Worthington, Jr. has written a lot about forgiveness (Google his name and you’ll find some of his resources).  He asks us to consider the what of forgiveness, the who of forgiveness, the how and the when.  We will be doing some more work with this in the coming year.  For now, think about what pains/hurts/aches have you been carrying around with you?  Who caused that pain?  How can you imagine setting that down?  When do you hope to do that?  For example, I am very upset with something an extended family member said to us this summer.  I’ve been holding it (feeding that flame of anger with firewood and fanning it into a bonfire) for the last few months.  I can picture the person who said this.  I work at letting go of the power that comment has in my life, because I have tried to talk to the person, and I would have been better off talking to the wall in front of me.  I can’t change people ~ I can barely change myself.  How can I set it down?  For me, I do this moment by moment, day by day.  This process is slow and intentional and prayerful ~ two steps forward and ninety-nine backwards.  It is hard/holy work, which is why we keep tending the fire of anger and outrage, it is just easier.  I would love to talk to you more about forgiveness, I think it is one of the most important faith topics today.  I encourage you to spend time today reflecting on where you might be called to forgive and where you might be praying someone will forgive you too!  As you do, two quotes to ponder.  “On our own strength, we are not capable of really forgiving, especially if it concerns deep hurt.  Forgiving is the most divine thing we do.  It is the completion of love.  When we notice that we cannot yet forgive, we might be care not to blame ourselves or get discouraged, so long as there is a sincere desire to grow toward forgiveness.”  Peter van Breeman.  “We are supposed to forgive everyone; everyone includes (maybe starts) with ourselves.”  Denis Waitley.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Even the messy parts ~ Matthew 19-20

 

In Matthew 19-20 Jesus tackles some of the most difficult topics of his day: divorce, becoming more child-like (not child-ish), To be child-like is to be full of wonder and curiosity.  And if that wasn’t enough, Jesus also touches on wealth, work, death, where we rate and rank in the world, and our need for healing.  Whew.  These two chapters are a marathon through a minefield.  Remember, my reading of scripture follows Karl Barth who said, “I take Scripture too serious to take it literal.”  I want to wrestle with Scripture.  Second, circling back to Monday’s mediation, too often the church has turned Matthew 19-20 into a rules and regulations booklet, a manual that you must pass to earn a badge for your heavenly sash.  Divorce is messy, hurtful, heartbreaking.  Anytime love ends tears are shed and soul’s ache.  I want to be careful not to add theological salt to the wound if you have lived through a divorce.  There are holy reasons why marriage covenants need to end.  In Jesus’ day there were two main schools of thought ~ Hillel and Shammai, both were considered great rabbis.  Each also commented on divorce.  Hillel said that if your wife burnt your toast, it was okay to divorce.  Shammai said maybe we should take the covenants we make to each other a bit more seriously.  Usually, Jesus echoed or expanded Hillel.  Except in Matthew 19.  Here, Jesus sounds a lot more like Shammai.  I don’t believe knowing this will undo the damage the church has caused in divorce.  I believe our human relationships are holy and messy and need forgiveness (see yesterday).  I believe the church has taken a very complex experience of the issues above and sought to make it more manageable with rules and regulations.  I believe that when Paul says nothing separates us from the love of God, nothing means nothing.  If you are divorced, you are beloved of God.  If you were married because you were trying to conform to hetero-normative ways to try to fit in with the believes of belonging until you couldn’t breathe any longer and needed to be true to yourself, you are a beloved of God.  If you struggle with stuffing your life with material goods and measure your success by your bottom line of a balance sheet, you are a beloved of God.  If you doubt and wonder if this faith is even helpful anymore, you are a beloved of God.  If you overwork, over function, fear death, and are constantly refreshing your social media to see if you got another like, you are a beloved of God.  If…fill in the blank with all those reasons that the lawyer in your mind is making, that rational in your mind right now, you are a beloved of God.  I don’t think our messy lives can be swept under the rugs for the sake of tidy theology.  I don’t think our broken lives can be superglued back together because of some words from me in a morning mediation. God’s work is to create in us a clean heart and renewed Spirit.  I don’t think Jesus meant to judge, hurt, force you to stay in an abusive marriage, wanted you to be penniless, afraid, or demean yourself.  You are God’s beloved.  Repeat those four words!  May these four words of that last sentence shout to your mind, heart, soul, and life this day and every day.  Amen. 

Gospeling Your Life ~ Matthew 16

 

Who do you say Jesus is?  (Matthew 16:13) That question is as important today as it was 2000 years ago.  I love that Jesus is wondering what the comments online where saying, wondering if he was trending on social media, curious about the chatter was in the parking lot after the worship service.  And the disciples are happy to share some of what they’ve heard.  I imagine James pulling out a pie chart.  “Well Jesus according to the latest survey data, 44.3 percent are thinking you are John the Baptist; 22.8 percent say Elijah; we have a few people saying Jeremiah and others just a prophet.  I think we need to bring in a consultant to help us with branding here and perhaps come up with a catchy theme song. Everyone loves music”.  Okay, maybe it didn’t happen that way, but still there are verses here that sound like church meetings we’ve all attended.  Then Peter, blessed Peter who like me loves to talk, says, “Jesus, thouest artest the Messiah-est.”  Peter gets it right, he passes the test, until he doesn’t.  In verse 21-23, the rock of the church (Peter) protests that Jesus would suffer and struggle.  Peter pulls out the job description of the Messiah (where the vision statement is to return the People of God to self-government for and by the people) and the only task is to overthrow the oppression of the Roman government.  Suffering is not in that job description, not even in the “other duties as assigned” catch-all. 

 

What does it mean to follow a suffering Messiah?  What does it mean that Jesus doesn’t sidestep the storms, stress, strain of life?  What does it mean that the One whose life is to inspire and infuse our life climbed a mountain of hurt and hate and harm that led to Calvery’s cross?  Not because God needed a transaction to forgive us, but to show us the way to transformation and resurrection (new life) will always involve death!!  Here we are about halfway through Matthew’s gospel, and I encourage you to pause, breathe, be with these questions today.  Not that we must pass a test (see above), but because this remains one of the central questions at the heart of our faith today.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Storms internal and external

 

Steve Cuss recently gave a wonderful insight into Matthew 14:22-33.  He noted that often as preachers we encourage you to be like Peter.  You must get out of the boat.  You must walk on water.  You must risk in order to grow in faith.  Then, Cuss, says that 92 percent of the disciples stayed in the boat!!  Eleven out of twelve, a super majority, stayed in the boat.  And in the end, all of them worshipped Jesus.  Maybe you don’t always have to be like Peter, maybe you can be like James who stayed dry and still got to the same place Peter did without getting drenched by the sea!  I love this take on the passage, because it reminds us to be thoughtful about who we identify with in the passage.  You don’t always have to be the main character.  Scripture is complex and contradictory and sometimes we have moments we are like Peter and other times we will be James thinking, “I am going to hold back for just a moment to see what happens.”  Sometimes in meetings I write the word, “WAIT” on the top of the agenda.  WAIT stands for: “Why Am I Talking?”  As a pastor, it is an occupational hazard to run my mouth too much.  And often when I wait, a member of the church makes the same point I was going say.  I find the Spirit of God letting the people of God speak truth to each other, rather than being the Peter who always must have the spotlight on me, thank you very much.  To be sure, there are moments we need to risk, speak up and stand up, get out of the boat of safety.  But not every moment is a test of your faithfulness, God’s isn’t grading every moment of your life, grace (as we’ve explored this week) is more abundant and amazing than some equation or set of rules and regulations.  Re-read this story.  Where right now, specifically, do you need to step out of the boat?  Where do you need to be on team James, staying in the boat, paying attention, being open to what God is doing? 

 

One note on Matthew 15:21-28, this moment in Jesus’ life where I want to shout at my Bible, what has Matthew done to Jesus?  Did Jesus wake up on the wrong side of the bed?  Was he hangry?  Was he showing his humanness?  Was this showing us how even Jesus can change his mind/heart/soul ~ or repent ~ in his life?  Or that Jesus’ life wasn’t practically perfect in every way?  I don’t know.  I am not sure why Matthew includes this story, but it does invite some wrestling with our shadow sides of faith.  Where am I growing, remember that growth is messy and circuitous and sometimes embarrassing?  Where have I said something I instantly regret and want to nab the invisible words from the air and shove them back in my mouth from whence they came?  Note that the woman is a Canaanite, that is code for “other”.  How do I treat people of other political, social, religious, racial, sexual orientation, gender identities?  Do I “other” them?  Do I treat others as dogs, as less than fully formed in the image of God?  Maybe Jesus is shining a light on not just his shadow side but our own too.  No wonder we’d rather NOT read this story.  May these words rumble and roam around your life today in ways that awaken you to the times we treat others as less than (perhaps because they have treated us in that manner, but there is that annoying “love your enemies” invitation of Jesus).  May we notice that Jesus struggled to walk his own talk sometimes.  May we each embrace our humanness to being open to the holiness in which each of us is still be formed and fashioned.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ Drop the Wheat ~ Matthew 12

 

There is a part of all of us that loves rules and regulations, we like to know what to believe so that we feel like we belong.  All gatherings of featherless bipeds (humans) have guidelines that govern our interactions.  Not all the rules are clearly written, but rather are communicated through furrowed brows and frownie faces and disapproving “tsk-tsk” uttered in ways that shame us.  Jesus’ disciples are following Jesus, suddenly their stomachs start to rumble and grumble, seeing some wheat (which I have never ever eaten fresh/raw wheat ~ how hungry were the disciples!?!), they pluck that wheat and start to munch on it.  When suddenly the Pharisees (who must have been camouflaged and hiding behind a nearby tree spying ~ waiting, just waiting, for the disciples to mess up), they jump out and say, “Gotcha! Drop the wheat and step away from that stalk nice and slow.”  Really?  But then I wonder, how often is my radar just waiting for someone in my life, especially someone I don’t really trust, to step out of line?  How often do our unwritten rules and regulations at the church “tsk-tsk” someone?  Jesus says the Sabbath, resting in God, is a gift ~ not a prize to be earned because we are so holy or deserve a break.  Or another way to say that grace is freely given, not some badge sown onto our Christian sash we wear around.  I encourage you to pay attention to some of the rules and regulations ~ especially in your family or around our church. 

 

Chapter 12 has this fascinating story of the Pharisees accusing Jesus of being Beelzebul or possessed by a demon.  As humans we love to define each other, we love to have boxes to check that categorize and compartmentalize so we can sort you into the proper bin for shipping.  Jesus breaks down the logic and points out how divided we can be.  The truth is that there are many different “yous” that exist within you.  There are parts of yourself that come to the surface when you are around family, perhaps another “you” at work or where you volunteer, and perhaps still another “you” that comes to church on Sundays.  To be sure there can be threads and throughlines that tie and tether together all the ways you show up and speak up.  And we can feel divided.  Hold this image.  Matthew builds on his overflowing basket of metaphors as Jesus talks about good fruit, where is there good fruit in your life?  Or put another way, where do you feel most alive right now?  Jesus quickly moves on to talking about Jonah, a prophet sent to the enemies of God’s people and whose one sentence lame sermon causes a revival of repentance that changes hearts (I have some Jonah envy!).  In August, we talked about Jonah being swallowed up and spit out by the whale, which is a powerful image and metaphor to return to today.  Finally, chapter 12 wraps up with Matthew talking about who are our siblings and family.  Quick note that this can feel like sandpaper to our souls, especially if we enjoy a healthy relationship with family.  However, for those who have been kicked out of families, silenced or sidelined because of who the person loves, this passage opens space.  Moreover, remember that Matthew is written to early followers of the Way of Jesus who had perhaps been kicked out of the Jewish faith or disowned by their family for saying Jesus was the Messiah.  There might have been heartbreak and soul ache, and we still feel that weight when we read these words centuries later. 

 

I encourage you to read Chapter 13 slowly, pondering how are all four types of soil in your soul?  Where do you feel like the seeds of your faith are being gobbled up?  Where do you feel your faith is on rocky ground or amid thorns?  And where is there good fruit (notice how this echoes Chapter 12 where Jesus talked about good fruit).  Let this parable sink and settle and sing to the soil of your soul this day.  And if you finish, and still have time, feel free to ponder prayerfully where there is good soil in our church, community, and world ~ where does the soil feel rough and rocky?  Notice that both exist within us and around us.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ the Luggage we Lug Around ~ Matthew 10

 

Chapter 10 begins with a commissioning and sending out of the disciples.  Part of this passage revolves around what the disciples are told to carry with them and what to leave behind.  Jesus gives them power to heal, help, hold the hurt of this world; they are told they don’t have to bring a change of underwear or an extra coat in case the restaurant’s dining room is doubling as a freezer space!  What do you carry with you?  Yesterday in worship, we talked about God creating in us a clean heart and renewed/refreshed spirit.  Some of what I carry in my heart is clutter and past hurts and things I said that I wished I had not.  I lug all that around in the luggage of my life.  What if setting down the “stuff” (both material and metaphorical stuff) might be one way to clean up the clutter of our heart and open space for the Spirit?  The disciples are told to be open to whoever and wherever they are welcomed.  Who has welcomed you recently?  Where have you been able to be fully yourself?  And when someone slams the door in the disciples’ face don’t carry that hurt, don’t add that to the luggage of life.  I read these words slack jawed whilst simultaneously scratching and shaking my head.  Because honest, I do the exact opposite of what Jesus instructs.  I carry (even cling to!) my possession, I stuff my life with stuff that I have been told by the Gospel according to economist Adam Smith will save me.  Faith?  Faith is fine for Sunday mornings, but I don’t want to be considered weird, so I don’t broadcast to the person next to me on the plane that I am a pastor ~ because honestly who would want to be stuck sitting next to that person in a tin can hurling through air 40,000 feet off the ground?  Moreover, when someone says something that hurts me I hold that for dear life.  When someone takes a metaphorical red ink pen to my life becoming the editor I didn’t ask for, I carry that for too long.  I don’t wipe the dust off my feet, I turn to the closest person and say, “I can’t believe what he just did!”  I love to triangulate and stir the gossip stew talking about those people. 

 

What if the mission of going out to those on the fringe and fray wasn’t just about the disciples back then and there, but for you and me right here and now?  What if we didn’t dismiss this passage quickly because Jesus upends and overturns our modern ways of traveling with enough luggage to clothe a small village?  What if we find one way today to greet those who cross our path?  To hold the hand of someone who is hurting.  To visit someone who is lonely without constantly looking at the clock on the wall.  To practice pay attention to the person, God’s incarnate and beloved, right in front of you.  Maybe chapter 10 might find flesh and breathe and expression in your life in these days.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life through hurts and storms ~ Matthew 8-9

 

One of the threads and themes in chapters 8-9 is healing, stilling the storms that rage within us physically and emotionally and spiritually.  So, the natural question here is, where are you hurting?  Maybe you are praying for family and friends following a surgery or divorce or loss of job.  Remember, Matthew is concerned about the metaphorical mountains of life, when our souls are strained or stressed, when we are exhausted or depleted or defeated.  That might be the weather pattern in your soul right now or in someone you care deeply about.  Hold yourself and those you know of.  Hold the stories of war in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Haiti, Sudan, the election season in the United States, our own community trying to face issues around schools and infrastructure and affordable housing.  Hold all that longs for a Balm in Gilead.  You may want to write down your prayers.  And write down where have you sense relief and release.  It may not be a complete cure.  But maybe the time you laughed with someone living with cancer over lunch or recalling a vacation you took together.  Or maybe it was holding the hand of someone grieving, knowing you can’t solve or fix someone, but you can show up.  Or maybe it was letting your light shine with God’s unconditional love.  Healing happens in many ways.  I pray these stories in Matthew will open you to God tending and mending and holding all that is holy and broken, beautiful and terrible right now.  Amen. 

Gospeling Your Life ~ Sermon on the Mount

 

Chapters 5-7 is the Sermon on the Mount.  I once heard a scholar suggest that if all of chapters 5-7 was preached at one time, the disciples’ minds would have exploded with too much information.  In three chapters we have more wisdom than we could ever understand or stand under letting these words guide/govern our lives.  I encourage you to read the Sermon on the Mount several times and in different translations.  You can go to www.biblegateway.com and find The Voice translation or Message for a different take on these words.  You can read the NIV or Living Bible.  Try and test out two or three versions.  Notice what is different and what sounds the same.  Where do you find your soul soaring in response to Jesus’ words, where do you want to raise your hand and ask questions?  I know for me it is right out of the gate, “Um Jesus, how can the poor in Spirit really be blessed, because the evidence doesn’t seem to convince the jury in my mind?  How can there be life in meekness, have you seen the internet?”  Also, I wonder when have Christians really loved our enemies?  What is your take on generosity in chapter 6 or prayer or fasting?  What about the part on worry?  I am an Olympic Gold medalist in worrying!  While I love what Jesus says about taking the log out of my own eye in chapter 7, I am not sure how good I am at doing that, because sometimes it feels like there is a whole forest blinding me!  Read and then re-read this sermon letting the words sink and settle into your heart, challenge your life, and prayerfully ask what is one passage, just ONE part of this sermon you might seek to embody?  You don’t, DON’T, have to go live every single word and sentence today.  But maybe there is one person that you could be just a smidge, more loving toward today.  Maybe there is one place you want to replace judgement with curiosity.  Maybe there is a meeting where one word of this Sermon can sustain you through.  Hold your insights and questions close, for that might just be where God is working in your life in these days.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life with Matthew 3-4

 

Jesus returns from Egypt and Matthew whisks us away to the wilderness, where we meet John the Baptizer.  Like Mark, John is an odd character, a bit like that relative on your family tree who is a reclose and you are not quite sure how to react to him/her/them.  Yet, John was also charismatic enough to get people off the couch, to stop surfing Netflix, and come to the wilderness.  John’s passionate pleading gets people to wade in the water. John is not subtle, the whole “brood of vipers” in 3:7 isn’t exactly going to win friends or influence people.  As Jesus is baptized, we see God’s claim and name of Jesus as beloved.  This is still your name when you are baptized.  Note that baptism isn’t being ushered into the “good life”.  Rather Jesus is driven (by the Spirit) into the wilderness where there is fasting and temptation.  I think of St. Teresa, who while crossing a stream, fell into ice cold water, drenching her.  Teresa shook a fist at God (see even the saints do that!  You are not the only one).  She cried out, “God if this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few!”  That story makes me laugh, but there is a kernel of truth that there is no money back guarantee in faith.  Faith is not an equation where good deeds/right beliefs equal the good life.  There are trials and temptations, there are twists and turns that leave us disoriented and dizzy.  There is a rollercoaster of life.  Jesus experienced this and Jesus calls us as disciples (or students) into this path that isn’t smooth as an interstate, but as rough and rocky as climbing a mountain.  Sit with the truths of chapters 3-4 and let these words sink, settle, sing and saturate your soul, heart, and life this day.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life ~ with Matthew's Moutains

 

We move from Mark to Matthew today.  Matthew starts off with a family tree of Jesus.  Two things to note: there are four women named in the genealogy.  The four are particularly interesting.  Tamar was sexually assaulted, Ruth was a foreigner (one of those people); Bethsheba (who isn’t named, but referenced in vs. 6 as, ‘wife of Uriah’) had an affair with David, and Mary has a child out of wedlock.  I love how Scripture is not afraid to air our human-size dirty laundry.  I love how Scripture honestly says, humans are messy, and their halos are not nearly as blindingly bright as you’d think.  We have in Scripture stories of abuse and violence; pain and suffering, because this is part of the human story still today.  These stories are traumatic, and they also offer an opportunity for us to talk about the pain that still exists today.  Sexual abuse still happens far too much today.  Too often we treat foreigners not with kindness and humanity, but as “illegal” and unwanted and less than.  We don’t talk about sexual ethics, rather we still shame and shun women who have children out of wedlock ~ while not holding men accountable.  Jesus’ genealogy is dripping and drenched with honesty and humility in Matthew. 

 

Which raises the question: what are the family secrets in your genealogy?  There is a great song in the Disney movie, Encanto, “We don’t talk about Bruno”?  Bruno has been banished by the family for a variety of reasons and the family acts like he never existed.  Go ahead, Google the song, it is really catchy!  And it is so true.  There are family members who have been cut off from the family tree.  The writer of Matthew is willing to say what got us here isn’t a bunch of saints, but people who were human-sized.  To be sure, you don’t have to know the story of every name in Matthew’s genealogy.  But it can help you think about your relatives, the ones you know and the ones you rarely see, even at the family reunion.  Who are some of the relatives that have shaped your life?  What ways are their fingerprints still on your heart?  Who are the family members you don’t know, because you don’t talk about the “Bruno” on that branch of your tree? 

 

In chapter 2, we hear how humans are still motivated by fear where Herod (like Pharoah in the Exodus) let’s his ego cause heartbreak and soul ache by killing boys under the age of 2 when the Magi don’t come back with a full report of where to find God’s son.  It is not a coincidence that Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to Egypt.  In Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses.  It is not a coincidence that on Thursday you will read the Sermon on the Mount, echoing how Moses received the 10 Commandments on the mountain.  Matthew lays his cards on the table by showing us in the first two chapters, God’s presence among us doesn’t mean chocolate rivers and pony rides.  There is suffering and struggles and stumbles as we try to make our way up the mountains of life.  We get lost, wander away, run away in fear, have dreams, and try to be open to God amid the fear that is very real around us.  Too often we read the coming of the Magi without hearing the death/pain that followed by their not following Herod’s demand.  I know they were told not to, but the ripple effects are real.  This is an adult story that is still repeated and replayed in our world today.  What truths do you see in the first two chapters?  Take time to record these in a journal and hold these close as we lean into the promise of Emmanuel, God with us and for us, even when the evidence around us doesn’t quite look to convincing.  May God’s love protect and provide for you this day.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life According to Mark

 

Mark’s ending is a bit unsatisfying.  In chapter 16, your Bible might note that there is a shorter ending, perhaps the original ending, to Mark where the women encountering a “young man” in Jesus’ tomb (16:5), who tells them that Jesus is not there, the women run away afraid.  To be clear, I would be right with the women running away, maybe out in front of them!  Of course, at some point, one of the women found her voice and shared this story.  But one question for each of us is do we share the Good News of new life from the tombs we enter with others today?  How would you share that?  When?  Where?   Do you find ways to let your faith have the first, middle, and last word in how you are living?  For me, sometimes yes and sometimes no.  Sometimes I can be brave and bold, trusting in God.  Other times I stick my head in the sand, on the sidelines of life whilst singing, “La, la, la.  I can’t hear you”.  I can run away with the best of them, especially when I realize that the Good News isn’t just interested in a quick affirmation or a check list of belief, the Good News deeply desires to reorder my whole life.  The Good News can seem foolish and naïve.  Love your enemies?  Who does that today?  Take up your cross?  Um, that doesn’t sound like the good life to me.  Forgive people?  Seriously, after what they did to me?!?  The Good News isn’t just a story, it is a narrative for life.  Rewind and review Mark’s gospel.  What was your favorite part?  Please let me know.  What passage frustrated or flummoxed you?  Where were you inspired?  What new insight did you glean in your reading?  Where do you long to know more?  Hold these questions, letting them roam and rummage around your heart, head, and whole life.  May God, who continues to surprise us like God did on the first Easter with the women at the tomb, show up disguised as your life this day.  Amen.

Gospeling Your Life According to Mark

 

Yesterday, you had the chance to read Mark’s Palm Sunday narrative.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem (the center of religion and politics ~ the capital city ~ a seat of power and privilege) on a donkey.  This echoes King David who also rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  It would be like a person today riding in a boat across the Delaware River evoking memories of George Washington.  This confronts and contradicts Caesar who rides in on a stallion with a show of force.  Two different parades that still dominate our world today.  There are plenty of parades where might makes right is still on display.  There are plenty of parades and pulpit pounding demanding power and fear mongering.  There are plenty of parades where it is about cowering.  Jesus offers an invitation to a different parade, one that is based on humility, unconditional love, and grace.  The people cry, “Hosanna,” which means “save us”.  What really saves us?  Does military force?  Does yelling and scoring points on some imaginary score board on social media?  Does making fun of others?  Does posting cynical and anonymous posts with keyboard courage?  Mark’s Gospel is the shortest, but in chapter 11, the writer slows the narrative down to dwell and dive deep into Holy Week narratives.  Chapter 11 reminds us that Christ-like-ness is about facing suffering honestly, dealing with anger (Jesus turns over tables that unjustly hurt those on the fringe and fray and prey on the vulnerable), being questioned by those in power, how to live in Empire (see 12:13 about paying taxes and remembering God is God), loving God with your full self as you love your neighbor, serving others, facing death, and the promise of life that can be mysterious.  There is so much in chapters 11-13, it is like a dense/rich German chocolate cake.  Take time to go back, re-read, and savor.  Which verses in chapters 11-13 sing to your heart?  Which are like sandpaper to your soul?  Which confuse you (I know for me the whole fig tree image is a bit odd)?  Which passages are flat soda left uncapped in the fridge for a month, where do you think, “Meh”?  Take time with these chapters, remembering that one of this Gospel’s questions is, “how do we face suffering, struggle, and stumbling in life?”  How does Christ face this last week of his life?  How might the truths you read here meet you in your life?  May you also take time to breathe, knowing we are almost done with Mark and his witness to the Good News of God’s love.