A Most Unlikely Sword

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church on Sunday August 21, 2016, the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Reading Paul’s epistles to the churches is a lot like reading a Jeopardy board. The board is filled with answers and the contestants come up with the right questions. His first letter to the church at Corinth contains the answers to questions from that congregation which are still used. The latter part of Chapter 14 deals with answers about worship.

Starting at verse 26, Paul gives instructions about psalms, doctrines, tongues, revelations, and interpretations and their use in worship. The verse ends saying that the purpose of these things is to edify, to build up the Church. Through verse 39, Paul goes into who can, who must, and who mustn’t participate in worship. He also speaks to propriety in worship. He sums up his talk in verse 40 which I share with you from the King James because it cuts to the chase, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

There is a joke among Presbyterians that this verse is tattooed on us before leaving seminary. Actually Presbyteries quit mandating the tattoo in the early 80’s. (Small joke, very small.) But I say this because pastors, especially freshly minted pastors, often get wound a little tight. Everything has to be just so… I was a basket case on my first Easter Sunday in the pulpit. If I knew then what I know now. A couple of years later, I was so comfortable in worship that on a Sunday when preaching on “good gifts” my children’s sermon included me taking a bite out of a Milk Bone brand dog biscuit.

Just so you know, you will never find a Milk Bone in the Communion tray replacing our traditional wafer, and that is not a joke.

I imagine all denominations have their own stories about “decently and in order” and today we hear one where Jesus is the star of the story.

We begin with a woman. There isn’t much we know about this woman. There is much we assume, but not much we know. We know she has what the King James calls “a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.” While the NIV’s language may be more accurate, “she was bent over,” there is a poetic quality to being “bowed together” which captures her plight better than “bent over.”

We really know nothing else about her. She could be in her late 20’s, her back bowed because of an accident. She could be in her 30’s and bowed from childbirth and work. She could be older and with these same conditions and have a disease like arthritis. We know so little about her, she could have a birth defect and this eighteen year “spirit of infirmity” may be visited upon an eighteen-year-old.

There is no talk of other family. Is she a teen? Are there children? Are they young or adult? Is she a respected woman, a real “Proverbs 31” gal whose body has paid the price? Is she a widow? We know nothing. What do we know?

We know this. Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath in one of the synagogues. The crippled woman was there. Jesus saw her. Jesus called her forward. Jesus said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he laid hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. This we know. Then we get an earful from a synagogue leader who seems to have been a fan of Paul from his “decently and in order” Pharisee days.

Back to the King James, “And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people,” Notice his indignation is toward the people, not Jesus, “‘‘There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.’” The synagogue leader is doing what he’s supposed to be doing, keeping order in the assembly. If he doesn’t, worship doesn’t glorify God. Right?

Jesus made a rookie mistake, he’ll get a talking to in the coach’s office in the clubhouse after the game, but not in front of the press or the other players.

But Jesus isn’t going into the clubhouse. This is the second time in two weeks of readings Jesus has called people “hypocrites.” Last week he dropped “the H-Bomb” on the crowd who couldn’t tell what direction the wind was blowing. This week he drops it on religious leaders who think order is more important than relationship. Hypocrite is a word that’s bandied about often, especially these days, so what does it mean?

Random House tells us a hypocrite is somebody who pretends to have virtues, morals, religious beliefs, or principles that they don’t actually possess. Especially a person whose actions go against those stated beliefs. Another slightly different nuance is someone whose public persona doesn’t match their private attitudes.

In biblical Greek it literally means to judge or to decide from under. Not very helpful, is it. It’s because it’s an idiom, an expression, one that came from the theater. It means “to act from under a mask” like the Greeks did in the theater, using masks so you could see what character they were portraying. Another way to approach that, two-faced. That’s what Jesus was calling the people when he was calling them hypocrites. He was calling them two-faced.

Jesus is saying that it’s time for the church to take the lead and make a difference in the lives of the people who need the Church to make a difference. It’s time for the church to take the lead and make a difference in the lives of the people who need the Church to make a difference.

There’s more flooding in South Louisiana. The Disciples of Christ and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance are already on the ground in South Louisiana, and do you know why? It’s because they’re still down there because of Hurricane Katrina. There is still so much to do post-Katrina that the people of God are still on the Gulf taking care of God’s business. They are there ready to meet the challenges of this new crisis. What they need is reloading.

Our denominations are working with disaster assistance in Syria and throughout the Middle East. They are in Nepal after the latest round of earthquakes. They are working in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and other nations to help settle refugees. Here in Oklahoma they have helped provide emergency relief and helped rebuild after tornadoes and ice storms. They do this seven days a week, even on the Sabbath.

Last week our Gospel reading talked about how Jesus would separate families. Jesus wields a most unlikely sword, a sword of love, separating the people of faith. Today he separates those who only serve in robes from those who serve with their heads, hearts, and hands. Jesus shames the leaders, all powerful, affluent men. They untie their livestock so they can get water on the Sabbath, but they disgrace a sister, a daughter of Abraham who has been bowed under crippling pain for eighteen years. They will free their animals, but not their own people.

Eighteen years of crippling pain, Jesus sees her and “Plan A” takes a back seat to grace and mercy. “Decently and in order” get put on the back burner and a relationship is kindled instead. Jesus could have gone along with the liturgy, but his spirit is grieved by the condition of one of his lambs. She is lifted to a place she never imagined being, a place known only to those who know Jesus.

We end hearing, “When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” We have to be careful with this though. Forgive my foray into the political, but there’s a problem with people who delight in gaffes, when someone powerful is disgraced. There are people who wait for the humiliation and find elation. They find joy in others’ embarrassment. They delight in shame. They don’t find relief or relationship.

What our reading says is “the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” They were not delighted in the humiliation of the powerful, but in the lifting of the infirm. They found joy in the building of the synagogue through the new work of Jesus Christ, the work of relationship and service. Joy was found edifying the body as Paul would tell the church in 1Corinthians. As tempting as it may be to delight in the shame of others, it never glorifies God.

You know, there’s a funny thing about Jeopardy. The questions the contestants give aren’t always the ones that go with the answer Alex Trebek reads. We read Paul’s answers, but we really don’t know the Corinthians’ questions, just like we don’t know exactly who the bowed together woman is. What we know is Jesus, the fully human and fully divine Lord of all chose that moment, stopping all that was seemingly holy, to make a holy moment of gracious connection.

It was out of everybody’s comfort zone, I imagine the leader, the woman, and the crowd wondered what Jesus was doing. I imagine the woman was both physically and emotionally uneasy coming forward too. But she did, and she received the blessing of encountering God. Let us rejoice! It is good to worship decently and in order, but we can’t let decency and order become a straightjacket that prevents us from encountering God and being healed.

God, Christ, Earthly Things, Life

This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday July 31, 2016, the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary

Time.

Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

On the cover of your bulletin is a piece of art known as a word cloud. This particular one is called a Wordle. To make one, you put together a piece of text, this is Colossians 3:1-11, paste it into the Wordle generator, make a couple of style choices, and “Bingo!” your Wordle is created.

To create the design, Wordle takes out words like conjunctions, prepositions, and articles. If it didn’t, words like “and,” “but,” “about,” “a,” and “the” would dominate the piece. Then it takes the words used most often, makes them larger, and moves them toward the center of the design. In its way, Wordle shows us the most used, most important words in a piece of text. In Colossians 3:1-11 that would be God, Christ, Earthly, Things, and Life. “Honorable Mention” goes to Self, Also, and Now for their importance, but let’s look at these.

Paul wrote this letter to the church at Colossae. He wrote from his prison cell having never been there. This congregation was a church plant by a man named Epraphas who had filled Paul in on their plight. Modern church leaders think they have it tough, Paul was in jail and local pastors were seeking his advice. In this part of the letter, Paul was giving instruction and encouragement.

He reminded them that they have been risen with Christ! Since they have risen with the Lord they should set their minds, hearts, and hands to the things of the Lord. They should “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God,” not on earthly things.

Oh, and what a list of earthly things we have. He tells the Colossians to do away with whatever belongs to their earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed. Now here’s something tricky where the original languages come in handy. When this was read in worship today, Marie read “greed, which is idolatry.” Because of how English arranges itself, it sounds like greed is the only item on the list which is idolatry. When we take a closer look at the Greek, the word “idolatry” actually describes the phrase “whatever has to do with your earthly nature.” So greed isn’t the only thing on the list of “earthly things” which is idolatry, they are all idolatry. None worse than any of the others.

From here, people tend to ask a lot of questions, technical questions, about what exactly idolatry is. Here’s the easiest answer, anything that anyone puts between themselves and the Lord is an idol. Worshiping that earthly thing is idolatry. I mentioned the Rev. Bill Clarke to you a couple of weeks ago, the Pastor from First Presbyterian Church in Lamar, Colorado. He considered professional football an idol because of the way it is worshiped. Stay with me here…

Being raised in the Central Time Zone, and a fan of a Central Time Zone team, games begin at 12:00 Noon. I could easily go to church, pick up some Pizza-Pizza, and get home before the end of the first quarter. First Presbyterian Lamar started worship at 10:30 but because Colorado is in the Mountain Time Zone, the early game begins at 11:00 am. Folks who went to church and had lunch with the family might make the fourth quarter.

This was the 1990’s, John Elway’s first Super Bowl victory run, and people stayed home from church to watch the games. People who had tickets to Mile High Stadium in Denver were minor celebrities next Sunday, especially if it was a good game. People would take AMTRAK from Lamar to Kansas City to wear orange in the sea of red. To Bill, the NFL was idol, it came between the congregation and worship, between the people and the Lord.

Idolatry, it’s not just the Baal’s anymore.

Paul not only wants us to do away with our earthly nature, the things that rest in our minds and in our hearts, Paul wants us to change our behavior. Since we are raised with Christ, new creations in God, setting our minds above earthly things; Paul now expects us to change our lives!

Paul wants the Colossians to be rid of ill will from your lips. Once again, the English would have think it was only filthy language that Paul wants rid from our lips, but no, it’s the entire laundry list. I suspect this was literal in the day, but now must be dealt with on social media. Paul not only wants that language from our lips, but from our fingertips, which calls for the need to be rid of anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from Facebook and Twitter too.

So, in God, in Christ, our old selves are gone. Everything we were before is now gone. So what are we? Well, we aren’t Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. Thank you, Paul, The Artist formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, you have told us what we aren’t but not what we are.

In God and in Christ, we aren’t who we used to be, separated by our faith like Jews and gentiles. In God and in Christ, we aren’t who we used to be separated by the scars put on bodies by our faith like circumcision. In God and in Christ we aren’t barbarian or Scythian. Now that one escapes us because we don’t know their history, but the Scythians were a tribe of, for want of a better word, Black Sea pirates, worse than barbarians. Then whether we are slaves or free.

We look a little deeper into what Paul said here. First he said that the Colossians were no longer worse than barbarians and people worse than barbarians. He also said that they weren’t slaves. These people lived on the Black Sea, modern day Turkey. Many of these people were Roman citizens, most were free locals. I imagine they looked at this letter and asked “Paul, buddy, you’re the one in jail, we were never slaves?” Paul says they were raised, so we had to be raised from something? What they were slaves to was, wait for it, the people they were in the beginning of this reading. They were slaves to everything they put before God. They were also slaves to rage, anger, malice and slander.

For any Colossian who wanted to believe the misguided assumption Paul wasn’t talking to them, they must not have paid attention to the preceding sentence, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

These are people Paul never met, but he knew them. He spoke with them just like they were friends because they were. They were friends in Christ. He spoke to them like he knew them because in a way he did, they were all washed in the same baptism as the children of Christ.

I’ve often talked about our Lord’s vocal inflection. In the “Parable of the Rich Fool” as the NIV calls it, I imagine Jesus looking at this man and mourning “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is the way Jacob Marley cautions Ebenezer Scrooge, with pity that is filled with love.

We read this and we don’t see him as such a fool. This man is the essence of the Protestant work ethic. He’s a hard worker, not a freeloader. He’s not sitting around, he’s about to begin an expansion project and God calls him a fool? Yes, he is a fool.

In this parable there is no mention of family or heir or even a friend. God’s question about who will get what he has prepared isn’t mocking. It’s a real question. Who will get his goods? Recently the rock star Prince died without a will or family. Who will receive his wealth? Half of it will go to the lawyers who act as the points on the swords of the people battling over his wealth. As for this rich fool, who, indeed who, will receive what he leaves? Who will receive what he leaves? Ashes to ashes. Rust to rust.

The reason this man, steeped in hard work and careful planning, successful by every measure the world uses, the reason he’s a fool is that he’s alone. He’s a fool because he is surrounded by all of his wealth, and he’s all alone. In a world where he is judged a success he’s about to die alone, judged by his God who sadly declares him a fool. Say this for the Colossians, whatever they had, they had each other.

Life isn’t about tools and schools and programs and projects. It’s about living together. It’s about caring for one another. It’s about fellowship. It’s about community. It’s about coming together. It’s about living with, in, and by the words and life of Christ as our one best example. It’s about seeing what’s important, God, Christ, and Life; Life in God and in Christ. It’s about who we bring along for the ride. It’s about sharing all these things. All of that, all of that is worship. It’s not about our stuff.

So here’s our Wordle. God, Christ, Earthly Things, Life. Important either for what they should mean or important for what they shouldn’t. Jesus isn’t telling us not to work hard, he is telling us to balance our time and other scarce resources between God, family, and work. As for wealth, I like what John Wesley says, “make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Work hard, be fruitful, be prudent, and be generous. I like that. And always put relationships before wealth. Wealth fades, but love endures. Amen.

Treasure--The Verb

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday December 30, 2012, the 1st Sunday after Christmas, the day of the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi.

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

Psalm 148

Colossians 3:12-17

Luke 2:41-52

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

Over the last several weeks when we have been talking about stewardship, one of the words I used is “treasure.” In that context I had been talking about financial treasure, the asset side of the balance sheet. More often than not treasure means something liquid like cash and coin, although there are other kinds of assets like life insurance, stocks and bonds, and real estate. But this introduction to accounting is not our focus today. We’re not talking about treasure as a noun, but as a verb. The New Testament only uses the word treasure as a verb twice, both in Luke’s gospel, and both with the way Mary thinks about her family’s life.

The first time is found early in the second chapter of Luke. The shepherd boys have just heard the blessing of the angel announcing “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” They were so excited and motivated by this message and by the chorus of the heavenly host singing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” that they took their leave from the fields to go to Bethlehem and see what has happened, this thing which the Lord has told them about. Luke tells us Mary treasured up all these things.

The other time is in our reading from today. You’ve just heard the story so I won’t rehash the whole thing, but here are some highlights: Jesus went with the family to Jerusalem for the Passover. When it was time to go, Mary and Joseph and the family caravan journeyed a day before they said to one another, “I thought he was with you.” It took a day of travel to get back and then three more days before Mary found her son in the temple. For five days the twelve year old Jesus was on his own in the big city and not only was he holding up better than McCauley Culkin in “Home Alone,” but the people who heard him teach were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

The family reunited at the temple and Jesus wondered why it took three days of wandering around the city before finding him in the only place he would be. It was then when they returned to Nazareth that Mary had time to reflect on all that had happened and she treasured all these things in her heart.

Believe it or not, there are two different Greek words to show how Mary treasured, two different verbs. The root of these words means to preserve or protect. To guard is also a definition of the root.[1] It’s the prefixes that make the difference.

The first, the one we read on Christmas Eve, means treasure, but it also means to preserve against harm, to protect, and to defend along with hold and treasure up.[2] Another source[3] says this word means to keep in the way one would keep a memory. It’s like thinking about someone and caring for them. On Christmas Eve it would seem that it would be way too soon for Mary to treasure the memories of her son, not in the way the word is defined here. It’s more likely Mary treasured the memory of the events of the evening. “Scrapbooking of the mind” might be one way to put it.

The version we have today means to keep something mentally with implication of duration, to keep in mind forever.[4] Compared to the Christmas Eve translation of “treasure,” this version is a more careful and permanent storing in memory. This is locking something deep, deep into memory. In this case, in today’s reading, Mary locks this memory deep, deep into her heart.

There is also the implication that this way to treasure something allows a deeper look into the memory. Where the first is like a picture image, this treasuring allows us to think back in time and forward to the implications of what is being treasured. Luke’s gospel tells us that to Mary it’s one thing to have a bunch of rag-tag kids coming to see your son, it’s another when a bunch of Rabbis hang on his every word. That is the treasuring Mary is doing today.

Today we will share a memory worth making. Today we celebrate the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi. It should be a joyful memory locked into each of our hearts, especially Patrick and Chrystal. I bet there will be some proud grandparents too. What a moment this will be! There will be water, lots of water. There will be water from the font and there will be plenty of tears too. But let me ask you a question, what’s the most important thing about our baptism? Is it the water or is it something else? Friends, it’s something else.

The water is a symbol. Mr. Al gave us all the perfect example of a Christmas symbol in today’s children’s message, the candy cane. It’s not the hard white candy with the red stripes that’s important; it’s what the symbols represent. It’s the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus. It’s the solid rock, the foundation of the Church and the firmness of the promises of God. It’s the name of Jesus and the staff of the “Good Shepherd.” It’s the blood of Christ from being scourged and from the cross, the blood of eternal life.[5] It’s not the thing, it’s what it represents.

In our baptism, water is a symbol of cleaning. It’s a symbol of birth and the womb. It’s a symbol of death and the tomb, both womb and tomb. Water is a sign of chaos in the creation story and in the gospels. It’s also a symbol of refreshing life. The water in the font is as we say a symbol of the living water of Jesus Christ.

There’s nothing overly special about this water. It was taken from the tap in the fellowship hall, a place where we break bread. It is where we have celebrated fellowship dinners, wedding receptions, and bereavement meals. It is where we, this part of the body of Christ shares many stages of life together. The water will be poured from a Marshall Pottery jug. Is there anything that says more about our community than pouring the tap water from a Marshall Pottery jug? This is a symbol; this is how we celebrate baptisms here.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, these are our two sacraments. They are the outward signs of God’s inward grace. They aren’t magical. They’re intentional. Our Lord Jesus participated in both sacraments. Jesus was baptized by John and he instituted the Supper. They don’t beckon supernatural blessings. They don’t cause salvation. What they do is remind us of what Jesus has done and continues to do. Friends, with everything else our sacraments accomplish, they must give us memories to treasure.

So, what do we treasure? Let’s treasure today as we celebrate the sacrament of the baptism of Mathieu and Chelsi. In a couple of weeks when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we should treasure the gift of the meal that satisfies our soul and our palate. When we meet together, let us treasure not the things, but what the things represent.

Over the past two weeks it has been difficult, for me and especially for Georgia. What has been difficult is taking the phone calls from people trying to pick the still warm bones of this part of the Body of Christ.

Last week a woman came to see her Sunday School room which hasn’t existed since the education wing renovation of the 1950’s. A woman who was once a member was here last Sunday suggesting we get into the wedding business because that’s where the money is. I have heard more requests for the family pew than I care to recall. Shreveport TV stations have called to get the scoop. Friends offer comfort in one moment and ask “what happened” in the next, not a move of pastoral care as much as it is a try to get the latest gossip.

What’s sad to me is people wanting the stuff, not what it represents. Some people treasure the things, not what they stand for. What our sacraments stand for is the relationship our Lord seeks with his people, with all creation. Mathieu and Chelsi’s baptism isn’t about the water and the words spoken over them, but the relationships we forged as the body of Christ; relationships that transform time and space, even this time and space.

We will make covenant with these children to be good Christians and good role models and good teachers of the faith we have received. We will promise to support and encourage. We will promise to guide and nurture by word and deed with love and prayer; encouraging these children to know and follow Christ and to be faithful members of God’s holy church. This is what we must remember, this is what we must hold close to our hearts, this is what we must treasure; not the water, but the promises we make over the water.

Mary treasures all of these things in her heart. She treasures the shepherds. She treasures the looks of the people in the temple. Above all she treasures her son who is of her body and not of this world. What do we rejoice? Friends, we must treasure our relationships more than we treasure the treasures of this place and time.

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are things which over time are used and used up. It is the relationship with our Lord and with one another which fade only if we let them. Like Mary, let us treasure these things in our hearts.

---

[1] thre,w, Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. VIII, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1972, page 142.

[2] sunthre,w, A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Christian Literature, Third Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, electronic entry.

[3] Ibid Kittel, page 151.

[4] diathre,w, Ibid Greek English Lexicon.

[5] The Candy Cane Story, http://www.kidtokid.org/candycanestory.html, retrieved December 29, 2012

Living Wet

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 9, 2011, the First Sunday in Ordinary Time also known as "Baptism of the Lord" Sunday.

Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

If you have not seen the Walden Media movie “Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader” in the theater or if you have never read the C. S. Lewis Book, then consider yourself warned: This is a “spoiler alert.” I am going to share an important plot point. Not the most important, but still very important. Now, on with the sermon.

Last week, Marie and I saw “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” at the theater. It was the first time we had seen a movie in the city where we lived in years, and it was great. We sat there with our 3-D glasses, a far cry better from the last two generations of 3-D entertainment I’ve seen, along with a dad, his teen daughter, and her BFF; and we all enjoyed this wonderful movie. My short review: good story, nice effects, good use of the 3-D, but do read the book.

It was a good movie, but it is a far better book.

This book introduces a new character to the Narnia universe, a cousin of the Pevensie children, Eustace Clarence Scrubb. For me, the easiest way to describe this young boy in the first half of the book is to say that Eustace rhymes with useless. While Lewis is more subtle about this in his writing, the screen writers take a ham handed approach as Edmund rhymes, “There once was a boy called Eustace/who read books from the facts that were useless.”[1]

On the voyage, Eustace becomes a dragon on account of his selfishness, his self pity, and his greed. In the movie, the great lion Aslan shatters the dragon skin from Eustace by the power of his mighty voice. The power of his roar, a lion’s words if we want to think about words as acts like we have over the past couple of weeks, separates Eustace from the physical curse of being a dragon.

But that’s not the way that it happens in the book. As for me, the movie’s speech wasn’t terribly memorable. Eustace did describe the power of Aslan, but the images from the book are burned on my psyche, and especially on this Sunday the words from C. S. Lewis’ work are far more important.

Eustace describes his encounter with the great Lion to Edmond. [2] Aslan convinces Eustace to follow him from the valley into the mountains; follow him to the top of the mountain; follow him to a wonderful garden. The garden was unlike any Eustace had never seen before. It was green and lush. It’s trees were full of fruit and flowers. And in the middle of the garden was a well.

Eustace was in considerable pain because a piece of jewelry, a bracelet, was biting into his arm. When he was a boy the bracelet was very loose on his arm, but on his thicker dragon upper arm it was terribly small and very painful. He sensed, he knew that if he could soak his swollen arm in the well it would be healed. But Aslan told him that first he would have to undress, he would have to shed the dragon’s skin. So Eustace began by scratching. His scales began to come off like a fish being cleaned. And as he scratched, he noticed that he was able to take off his entire skin, like peeling a banana.

After a couple of minutes, he was able to step completely out of his skin. He stood next to it, and he was sickened by its sight. He was glad to be rid of the skin and began to enter the spring. That was when he noticed that he was unable to shed the dragon’s skin. There was another layer of skin under the first. And there were more layers under that one. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how many times he peeled a layer of skin, he was not able to rid himself of the dragon’s skin.

After Eustace tries on his own several times, Aslan tells Eustace, “You will have to let me undress you.” Eustace was frightened. He was positive that having the dragon’s skin torn by the claws of the great lion would be excruciating. But his arm hurt so badly that he was willing to take the risk. Eustace laid back and the first cut from Aslan’s claw was so deep that Eustace thought it went to his very heart. The pulling of the dragon’s skin was more painful than anything he had ever felt. After a time, Eustace was able to see the dragon’s skin set aside. It was not like the layers of skin he had taken off. This skin was far thicker, and far greener than what Eustace had been able to remove himself.

His skin being removed, Eustace felt raw. Aslan came to him and lifted him (which was also pretty painful since he had just lost his skin) and tossed him into the well. It stung for a time, but quickly the pain was gone and he felt refreshed. His arm was healed. In fact, he had been restored. Eustace was no longer a dragon, he as a boy again. And while Eustace could not remember how, he had been dressed in new clothes by Aslan and was taken near the camp of the rest of the crew of the Dawn Treader.

When Eustace returned to the camp, there was great joy and celebration. They shared a wonderful breakfast and shared great stories about the island, and about Aslan. The way I like to look at this story, it is as if Eustace receives the baptism of Aslan. His old skin is shed and he is made anew in the waters of Aslan’s well. It is only when he lives wet, in relationship with the lion, that Eustace quits being, well, useless.

John says “I need to be baptized by you,” then he asks Jesus, “do you come to me?” John knows his role. Matthew 3:11 John clearly tells the Pharisees and the Sadducees, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” So John knows that he is not the one, he is the one who makes his path straight. John knows Jesus doesn’t need his baptism, he needs Jesus’.

But in a word, Jesus let John know he needed John’s baptism and everything was right in creation. John knew Jesus’ words were the answer to his question, the words that overcome all objection. “It is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” This is when John allowed the drama to unfold the way it had been ordained.

“It is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Righteousness, in a word, in a moment, John knew what this meant, so what does it mean to us?

Our reading from Isaiah reminds us that the Lord calls the prophet in righteousness. The Lord has given him to the people as a light to the nations so that he might open the eyes that are blind, bring out the prisoners from the dungeon and release from prison those who sit in darkness. The Lord gave Isaiah to the world to show us that the former things have come to pass, and the new things the Lord now declares will be shared with the prophet before he shares them with the rest of the world.

The Lord tells Isaiah the former things have come to pass, and Isaiah will be told of the new things now declared before they spring forth. These are not the sort of things that one would tell a causal acquaintance, someone on the street. There was a relationship, [3] a relationship between the Lord and the prophet, an intimacy I can scarcely imagine. I imagine John was experiencing this same intimacy with the Lord Jesus in the waters of the Jordan.

John knew that righteousness exists in relationship. John knew as the readers of this gospel knew in the first century that righteousness only exists in relationship. In the language of our gospel reading, in ancient Greek, righteousness can only exist in relationship.

And there is more to this righteousness.

The obvious question that comes from this reading from Matthew is why in the world Jesus would need a baptism for repentance of sin? He is without sin, so of course he didn’t. But in presenting himself for baptism, Jesus emphasizes doing what is right. The action which he fulfills in this moment and will continue to fulfill throughout his life on earth is what he was supposed to do, what he had to do.[4] While remaining fully divine, Jesus empties himself of all Godly status and privilege; accepting life on earth as a human being; human life to the point of facing life’s death, even death upon the cross.

He wasn’t forced to do these things. But being Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, integrity demanded he could do nothing else.

Jesus could have come to the river to establish righteousness, but that is not what he had come to do, not in this moment in time. When John consented to Jesus’ coming to the river, Jesus was immersed into the waters of the Jordan. When he arose from the waters, Jesus saw the heavens open. He saw the Spirit of God descending on him like a dove and lighting upon him. And then a voice was heard from heaven.

Hear the words of the psalmist who wrote:

The voice of the LORD is over the waters;

the God of glory thunders,

the LORD, is upon the mighty waters.

The voice of the LORD is a powerful voice;

the voice of the LORD is a voice of splendor.[5]

As our gospel reading comes to an end, the voice of the Lord is heard over the waters, a voice of power and full of splendor. The voice which thunders over the mighty waters tells all who are assembled,[6] “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

In due time, Jesus would give the world a new righteousness, a new relationship with the Lord open to all of us, not just the prophets of the Old Testament. But this was not the reason he came to the river. Jesus had come to the river to do the right thing. He came to accept the baptism of John, creating a with him relationship available to all who seek it.[7]. And in his obedience to righteousness he did what was pleasing to God, receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit, hearing the glorious voice of the Lord.

This is as far as I got by Saturday afternoon. Then I checked facebook and when I did I found out about the shooting in Tucson. I read about a mad man who took more than a dozen shots into a crowd at a political event, killing six including Federal Judge John Roll and a nine year-old girl, wounding twelve including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

It seems that in times like these, when chaos looks like it is going to swallow us all, that people come to church seeking answers, seeking a word from the Lord. Today I speak about righteousness that comes through relationship. I speak of a man who takes a baptism that is not his, but he takes it on behalf of all of us. He accepts the baptism of water to stand with us in the waters of the church. He has chosen to live wet in the waters of our baptism, a baptism he does not need, but chooses to accept.

It’s funny how many of those images will return around Easter time. Then he will take what should be assigned to us again. Then he will accept a punishment that we deserve, not him. And he will do it on our behalf.

Today, we come to the font, accepting three new members into this community, a community established in the waters of his baptism and in ours. Today we will come to the font and ordain and install new leaders, Elders into this part of the Body of Christ. One of these Elders has served the congregation and the Session faithfully. The other has served the congregation faithfully and begins serving in a new ministry today.

Today we will come to the table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper sharing the Bread of Heaven, the Body of Christ broken for us and the Cup of Salvation, the Blood of Christ shed for us.

In our reading today, through the Baptism of the Lord, we are again called to remember our own baptism. Our baptism is a bath, a tomb, a womb. Our baptism is a gift which identifies us with the community Jesus calls into existence every day. A community he founded and a community he joined in the waters of his baptism, done through righteousness which is a gift freely offered which we freely desire.[8] In the waters of the baptism we share together, we live a wonderfully wet life.

As for yesterday’s shooting, I have no new word. I have no new insight. I have no new wisdom. What I have, the only thing I ever always have, is the promise of the Lord our God. The only thing I really have to say about this is that as we are called to live in righteousness, in relationship with Jesus Christ. And as in the life of Christ, sometimes we live wet in the waters of our baptism; and in other more horrific times it is in the blood of the cross.

---

[1] “Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0980970/quotes, retrieved January 5, 2011.

[2] Lewis, C. S., Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The. Harper Trophy: New York, 1952, 1980, pages 113-117.

[3] Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, volume II, page 195.

[4] Ibid, page 198.

[5] This version of the Psalm is found in the Presbyterian Church Book of Worship.

[6] Not all scholars agree that the assembly heard the words of the Lord. But because Matthew’s gospel says, “This is my Son” instead of “You are my Son,” I am inclined to side with the scholars that say everyone heard the words. On the other side, I believe only Jesus saw the Spirit come based on the pronouns used in Matthew’s gospel, “…the heavens open to him and he saw the Spirit…”

[7] Kittel, ibid, page 198.

[8] ibid

Living

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday November 7, 2010, the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Haggai 2:1-2:9
Psalm 98
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Luke 20:27-38

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

There’s an old joke, a riddle, a brain teaser if you will, you may have heard it before. It goes like this: “You have two coins, together they add up to thirty cents, and one of them is not a nickel. What are the coins?” Does anyone know the answer? Does anyone know what the two coins are? The coins are a quarter and a nickel. You may be asking yourself, “I thought he said one of them wasn’t a nickel?” You’re right, I did, and that’s the joke. One of them is not a nickel. The other one is. Ha-ha!

The purpose of this kind of riddle is so that the person who asks the question can feel witty and superior at the expense of the riddled. It’s not particularly funny as jokes go; it’s a moment to show off for the one who tells it. (Honestly, I think it’s nice when someone else knows the answer and spoils the joke. It takes the teller and pierces them right in their pomposity.)

Today’s reading from Luke takes that sort of tack as the Sadducees test Jesus on a point of levirate marriage. The Sadducees were the priestly, aristocratic party in Judaism, whose interests centered in the temple.

The views and practices of the Sadducees opposed those of the Pharisees. One of the differences between them is that the Sadducees represented the interests of the temple and its priesthood while the Pharisees represented the interests of the synagogue and its teachers. (Notice how no one was focused on the Lord or the people?) The Sadducees and the Pharisees also disagreed on the matter of the resurrection. The Sadducees did not believe in the prospect of the resurrection and the Pharisees did.

What the Sadducees and the Pharisees did agree on was that Jesus was dangerous.

To help understand what was at stake with the Sadducees’ question, we should know a little about something called levirate marriage. Quoting Deuteronomy, levirate marriage was a legal concept where “when brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.” The purpose of the law was to prevent marriage of the Israelite woman to an outsider maintaining national purity and to continue the name of the dead husband in Israel.

So as our reading opens, the Lord is at the temple. The triumphant entry of Palm Sunday happened a couple of days earlier. Jesus has run the money changers out of the temple. He has taught in the temple and his authority was questioned—then made stronger by the words he spoke. And he has been tested by the Jewish authorities, foiling their efforts at every turn.

So our Savior receives a question that could only come off of the “Sadducee Ordination Examination” about levirate marriage, but for them it was a trick question. After the resurrection, whose wife would this seven time married no child bearing woman be? She would be no one’s wife because there is no resurrection. Ha-ha! It’s the quarter and the nickel all over again.

But Jesus isn’t going to be taken in by their tricks. He takes another tack to answer their question.

Jesus tells the Sadducees and all who will listen that there is life in the resurrection because “The Lord is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him [Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] are alive.” And he makes this point using the Lord’s very own words from the second Book of Moses. In Exodus, the Lord tells Moses at the bush which burns but is not consumed by the fire that the Lord is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not the Lord was their God, but the Lord is their God. The Lord is still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord continues to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

To the Lord, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob live. In the Lord, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob live.

If we had read on we would have learned that this truth so amazed, maybe even dumbfounded, the Scribes who were there that they said, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” And because Jesus could leave the Sadducees speechless with such ease, composure, and style; depending on who “they” are in verse 40, either the Scribes or the Sadducees or both decided in that moment they wouldn’t ask Jesus another question.

There is life in the resurrection that the Sadducees couldn’t fathom. The new life is nothing like they have ever seen, experienced, or conceived. It is new life and does not resemble the life they know in any way. It’s not like life on earth only better; it is something completely new and different. It is life transformed.

This is why Jesus makes the distinction between the children of this age and the children of the age to come. The children of this age worry about questions of law and levirate marriage. Children of the coming age are concerned with praising and worshiping the Lord in the resurrected life, much like the angels live to praise and worship the Lord.

The children of this age are concerned with function and law. The people of the age to come are concerned with relationship and worship. Hold that thought, we’ll get back to it soon.

When I read this passage in the New International Version, I get the impression of this being just another test from the Jewish officials. But when I was reading this passage translating it from the Greek, there is a tone that I find missing in the English reading. Imagine the Sadducee stroking his beard and saying: “Teacher, there were seven brothers, and the first after taking a wife died childless, and the second and the third took her likewise and also they died and they left no children, then in the resurrection (which as we know, the Sadducees didn’t believe existed anyway) the woman becomes a wife to which of them?

As I read this, I found a sort of “butter won’t melt in his mouth” quality in the Sadducee’s question. Also I found, what we would consider, an antiquated view of the woman taken, being the possession of the husband.

It’s as if the lawyer says to a man “you get the house, the car, the Plasma TV, and the widow, in that order.”

The purpose of levirate marriage underscores the value of marrying within the clan and the importance of sons. There is truth that levirate marriage protects the woman who would have been without support after becoming widowed, but this is a bonus for her and had little to do with the rationale for the law. The value of the national purity and the family name took precedence over the value of the woman in levirate marriage.

So considering the purposes of levirate marriage and the words and the tone of the Sadducee, the value of the woman for the purposes of this test is just the value of her womb and her death. Her womb and her death, without these things, she would have been useless to this hypothetical situation. And considering she was barren, for the purposes of the test, as far as the Sadducees were concerned, the only thing she had of any value was her death.

Not her life, but her death.

The words and the tone of the Sadducee took a woman, a child of Abraham, a child of God, and made her into nothing. She was nothing more than ashes and dust—miraculously brought back to life in the resurrection—a resurrection the Sadducees didn’t believe existed—waiting to see whose wife she would be again. The hypothetical woman’s only purpose was as a pawn in a story to try to trick Jesus.

If you find this interpretation of the story offensive, I find this offensive too. And based on his response, I believe Jesus found it offensive too. Jesus would have nothing to do with a story shrouded in abuse and death just to make a point.

Finding the Sadducees take on this woman offensive shows we don’t live in their world either. Thanks be to God! We have taken at least one step past the legalistic functionalism of the Sadducees and moved toward the age to come and the grace of resurrected life.

As this life in the Lord changes people then, it continues to change us now.

We are called to live the resurrection life revealed to Moses and explained to the Sadducees in the temple by Jesus.

We are to live in the resurrection life Jesus promises one and all. We are to live in the resurrection life Jesus gives so graciously. We are to live the resurrected life of worship and praise. We are called to live the resurrected life in relationship with God and with one another.

The resurrection is not about death and return to the life we have lived on earth amplified. Life in the resurrection is a radical transformation. Resurrected life takes flawed sinful men like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and makes them patriarchs, fathers of the faith. Resurrected life takes humanity and places us in holy communion with the Lord and with the angels in a life that will never perish. Resurrected life is like the bush which burned before Moses, it burns, it radiates with the light of the Lord God, but it is not consumed.

The Sadducees consumed the life of the hypothetical woman, in Christ she lives.

The Sadducees consumed the life of the hypothetical woman, in Christ she lives.

Resurrected life is unlike anything the Sadducees know, but it was available to them through life in the Lord. More importantly, it is available to us now. Resurrected life in Jesus is not something that has to wait for our death to join; it is available to us now. Jesus made this clear when he declared that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live—present tense-live—before his resurrection, indeed before his earthly birth.

Aye, when we share in the presence of the Lord we will share in the resurrection life in the presence of the Triune God, and the Lord our God does not want us to wait for our deaths to live the resurrection life. As stewards of all God’s good gifts, the Lord our God wants us to begin living that life today, a life of relationship and worship. We are called to seek to live in the Lord our God. We are called to live in the resurrection now, long before our own deaths.

I am happy that we live in a time and place that sees women as more than the sum of their lady parts. Yet this is not true everywhere. I would love to say that women and men are equal partners in this realm, but this is not true either.

Yet, to quote Paul’s letter to the Galatians, despite our earthly divisions, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” In the resurrection life, we are one.

We are called to live, live our lives in the resurrection now. But we don’t, not yet. But this is not something for us to beat ourselves up about, it is a simple fact of our earthly lives in a sin stained creation. As stewards of life in Christ we are called to do is discern how to best respond to God in our situation and context. We are called to discern what God is calling us to do now.

It’s about asking better questions than “whose wife is she?” and it’s about seeking better relationship with God and with one another. It’s not about trying to maintain life as we know it; it’s about being transformed through life in Christ. We are called to this because we are called to something far better than the life we live now. We are called to something seek and strive for a life worthy of relationship with God, not within function and law.

We are called to be transformed in Christ, not maintained in our own plans and purposes. We are to be transformed in and through relationship with God and with one another. This isn’t easy; if it were easy we would not need Christ.

Life in the resurrection is glorious. Life in Christ is life eternal. Resurrection life transforms us into the people the Lord wants us to be, the people we were intended to be from before the beginning. Living is more than the day to day existence many face today. Real life is lived in the love, peace and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Call to Live

I looked so bad this morning that the congregaton sent me home. I can't blame them, my head cold is pretty bad and Marie has a touch of pneumonia. Still, this sermon would have been heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berrryville, Arkansas on Sunday October 11, 2009, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Job 23:1-9, 16-17
Psalm 22:1-15
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

From time to time, you might be curious about what is involved in preparing the sermon, the Word of God interpreted. Let’s begin here, that’s what I start with. The sermon is the Word of God interpreted and if it is anything less than it is wholly and holy inadequate. The purpose of the sermon is to share the Truth of the Word of God (with a capital “T” here) with the people of God in this time and place; and the first priority is God’s word before all else.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:

“We must not be afraid to spend the time and effort required [to become acquainted with the Holy Scripture as the Reformers knew it, as our fathers knew it]. …How are we supposed, for example, to achieve certainty and confidence on our actions and in our personal life and in the church, if we do not stand on solid scriptural ground? Not our own heart but God’s word decides our path.”[1]

Yes, time and place matter, but the Word of God matters more than the time and place where they are heard. Only through the Holy Spirit by critically reading and seeking the Word of God in the written Text, in the Holy flesh or in the spoken word; only by being in the word of God will we live Bonhoeffer’s words achieving “certainty and confidence on our actions and in our personal life and in the church.”

So this, this particular piece of scripture gets dicey. If I bring this message of the Good News of Jesus Christ poorly, I will make you shut it out considering it to be what we call in the United States very, very bad news. There is a “Gospel of Prosperity” heard in churches around the world that is as pervasive as the “Law of Prosperity” heard in the time of Jesus. In Jesus’ time and even long before, those who were rich, or as in this case “have many possessions,” were considered to be very blessed by the Lord God. Where the world and the common interpretation of the Law saw this man as blessed, Jesus saw what this man lacked and told him what to do about it.

Most Presbyterian Churches are blessed to have members of power and wealth, but there is a slippery side to power and wealth. Marie Bolerjack tells the story of a Mississippi man who wanted to join the Presbyterian Church in their town because that’s where the “movers and shakers” were. While I do not see that man’s motivations in this part of the Body of Christ, I will not say it’s absent from every church in America, particularly the Presbyterian.

So yeah, this gets a little dicey.

An unmeasured look at this Word reminds me of the title of an old song by Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “Give Me Your Money Please.” A more measured take would be from the 1990’s; “Give It Away” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But being the guy reading the scripture, and being the guy who will later say, “Do good and share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God,” it is perfectly reasonable for you to hear “Give Me Your Money Please.”

The man runs up and kneels before Jesus and asks him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” What must I do to inherit? The man tells our Lord that he has been a good boy, and a good man. He has kept the law; the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

Jesus loves the man and tells him what he did not expect to hear, he begins with this little phrase, “you lack one thing.”

So here’s the good news, the man is doing all of the right things, or at least he’s doing nothing wrong. He’s keeping the law; he’s evidently not cheating anyone. He honors his parents and doesn’t covet his neighbor’s ox or ass. I assume he gives his tithes to the temple and keeps a kosher table. He’s a good doo-bee, but he lacks one thing.

That’s when Jesus drops the bomb.

“Go and sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” The man goes away grieving because he has many possessions.

I love the word “grieving” in this passage. I don’t have a lot of stuff, not compared to many who “chase the American dream;” but I love my books. I love to read them. I love to study them. I love to use them in work and in play. I love to organize them. I love to discuss them. I love to teach them. So if I were told I had to give away all of my books, I am sure that I would ultimately ask, “You mean this one too?” Surely as I would ask that question I would hear “Especially that one.” I get that kind of grief.

Jesus looked around at his disciples and said, “How hard will it be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.”

Yes Paul, “Especially that one.”

But did you notice what Jesus did here? He shifted the focus of the dialogue. The man asked what it took, what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus shifts the talk on life to talk on the kingdom of God.

Eternal life and the kingdom of God are two distinct things, if it were not so, Jesus would not have made the distinction. But is there a difference between these distinctions? Let me share a couple of stories with you.

This look at eternal life comes from the Kiester, Minnesota Courier Sentinel:

A little girl was distraught that her cat had been hit by a car and killed. Her mother, seeking to console her, said, “Well, honey, at least you know that your cat is now with God.” The girl screwed up her face, thought for a second, and said, “I don’t think so. What would God want with a dead cat?”[2]

This look at the kingdom of God comes from the C.S. Lewis classic “The Screwtape Letters.”

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is “finding his place in it,” while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on earth, which is just what we [the “we” here are demons of which Screwtape is a manager] we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle-aged and the old.

The truth is that the enemy, having oddly destined these mere animals to life in his own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else.[3]

The little girl and Screwtape have the right ideas. What does God want with a dead cat? What is eternal life if we are dead? It is in our living here on earth that we have our foretaste of the kingdom of God. The Lord has given us a place and it has little to do with our place in the world. Our life in the kingdom has little to do with power and importance, good work and an agreeable home. As we strive for the things of this world, we often feel that the important things in life are slipping away, and this is Lewis’ point. As we strive for life on earth, the kingdom presses on us oh so much more, making us realize that it is not stuff that makes life worth living.

Life worth living is about relationships. Kingdom life begins with a relationship with Christ and flows into relationships with people and the world around us. In a way, this is what Jesus was telling the man. Eternal life is something we receive, but it is in the kingdom of God that we live.

The man asks what he has to do to receive the inheritance. Let me ask you, what have we ever done to receive an inheritance? Our inheritance laws are a little different from those of ancient Israel and Judea. In that day and time what you had to do to receive an inheritance is to be a son. To inherit eternal life we are called to be disciples of Christ Jesus, this is how we join the family. We become heirs of the eternal life. There is nothing we can do to earn an inheritance. An inheritance comes from family and we are the family of God.

We are called to be members of that family, we are called to take up our cross and follow God. We are called to become citizens of the kingdom. These passages from Mark make it clear that one of the crosses we all have to bear as citizens, particularly those who have much, is dealing with how we use our wealth.

We’re back to the dicey part.

So here is a point worth making, we are to give, but if we don’t give well it can be worse than if we never gave at all. This is perhaps our most difficult undertaking. You know, anyone can just give it away, but giving it away well is a completely different matter.

Living in central Austin, the Seminary warned us students and family not to answer our doors to strangers; seems pretty obvious. Honestly, as students on financial aid, if we answered the door for every person who came by for a handout, we would soon be opening a café. The only difference between our set up and a regular restaurant would be that nobody but us would be picking up the check. There was one woman in our complex who did open her door and give and give and give; until it became a revolving door. It made her so anxious that it ruined her health and a barrier formed between eternal life and the kingdom of God in her life.

Say every single one of us liquidated our stuff; land, property, cars, the whole kit and caboodle; say we took this pot of funds and went to any one of the hundreds of homeless shelters between Memphis and Fort Smith. Suppose we tossed the accumulated millions of dollars into the air giving it to the poor, what do you think would happen? Honestly and horribly, I can say from experience, that the next millionaire would be the owner of the closest liquor store owner. I don’t say this to be cruel; I do say it because unfortunately it is true. I have seen people begging for money in Austin and Kansas City and walk away when someone offers to buy a sandwich instead of giving cash on the barrelhead.

To give well is important in the call to give. Giving poorly, as these circumstances show us, is giving dangerously. This is the difference between giving and good stewardship.

We never hear what happens to this man with many possessions after he goes away. Here’s what I would love to have happened. I would love to believe that the man did as Jesus commanded. I would love to hear that he liquidated his assets and helped the poor. Maybe he gave to the temple, maybe the Salvation Army; maybe he started a foundation or a school. Maybe he started a school for kids in places where schools are uncommon. What if he funded the Qumran community, sitting on the library board perhaps? This is my hope; that he followed Jesus without ever leaving home.

And maybe, just maybe, we never hear from him again because he is so busy living his life in the kingdom of God, he no longer worried about eternal life. To paraphrase Bonhoeffer, maybe he was able to achieve certainty and confidence on his actions and in his personal life and in the church by standing on solid scriptural ground with God’s word deciding his path.

Life in the kingdom of God is better than a dead cat any day.

[1] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, I Want to Live These Days with You, a Year of Daily Devotions, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, page 294.
[2] From the Keister, Minnesota Currier Journal, cited in http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1593
[3] From C. S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters” cited in Christianity today found at http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1034.