Today is a busy day for us. It is Christ the King Sunday, the day that we think about Christ as our leader, guide and master and we are meant to reflect on what kind of king he is. How he compares with other kings, presidents, and leaders. It is also the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a time when we are called to give great thanks to God who provides for us. It is also the last day of the church year. The day before we begin advent and start looking forward to the coming of Christ among us at Christmas. And it is a day when our gospel lesson has this refrain: When did we see you? This is a lot to fit in, lets see how we do, you guys can keep score. I'll start with a story.
Some of you might not realize this about me but I am rather short in stature. In fact, I often end up on my tip-toes at some point during my sermons because I'm not quite tall enough for most pulpits. And like most other people who are short, this shortness is not new to me. I have always been on the smaller side of things. I remember as a child having a very hard time with it. Adults, you might know, tend to overlook children as it is. Turn a blind eye to them, filter them out, whatever. And I think the smaller the child the easier this is to do.
So as I became a pre-teen with an allowance and was old enough to do some things for myself, buy items, ask questions and the like, I was often frustrated and hurt by the way I would be overlooked or flat out ignored by people in authority, shop keepers, librarians, whomever. It was like they didn't even see me. I think this is the experience of most children short or tall but I felt like I must have been even easier to dismiss, because of my size.
But every once in a while there was some remarkable grown-up who could pick me out of the fray. Who would look past all of the big tall, important adults around. Who would look past business suits and credit cards down to me with my 50 cents for a candy bar or two dollars for some little treasure. This magical adult who could see me when no one else could, would reach out to me with kindness and I would feel like the most important person in the world even if I was only a 4' 9" little girl in the midst of a bunch of grown ups.
Looking back I remember very clearly a few of these people who saw me when no one else did. I think my parents, watching from a distance might remember one or two as well, being moved by my excitement to take notice. But I doubt seriously that any of them remember me, I doubt that most of them realized, even in the moment, that they were reaching out to someone that no one else could see. Their eyes were so trained with love or compassion or fairness or respect that they didn't even know how remarkable it was to notice a kid in a grown up world.
I was watching a TV drama about police recently on which an officer was newly assigned to be a detective. On her first day out the other detectives are trying to help her learn how to do her new job and they tell her that she needs to have "soft eyes". She needs to learn to look at things in a new way. Look at the same streets that she has always been on, the same types of homes that she has always been in, the same sort of people that she has always seen and notice new and different things, a little bit like each time she looks is the very first time she ever has. She has to learn how to see, to train her eyes in a new way.
In our gospel lesson today Jesus is talking to people about how they see. About what kind of eyes they have. There are two groups of people. One group with the right kind of eyes and one group without. Jesus tells both groups that they encountered him many times in life that he was in the midst of the hungry and the thirsty, the naked and those in prisons of all kinds. Both groups were exposed to these people throughout the years and both groups had no idea at all that they had seen Jesus.
So the difference between the two groups was what they did see. The first group saw the hungry, thirsty, naked and those in prison and they treated them with love and compassion. Once they saw them they cared for them. Jesus tells them that by doing so to those, little ones, those overlooked ones they were acting toward him as well. The second group, it seems, didn't even see those in need. They looked right through them or around them or past them. They didn't have the right kind of eyes. They needed gospel eyes. Eyes that were so sure of the message of God's love that love spilled over wherever they looked.
The two groups here are both in shock when Jesus tells them about themselves, the ones who saw and the ones who didn't. So clearly no one was trying to see. No one was trying to earn merit with God or be the ones who did the best job of caring for Christ so how is it that the one group knew how to see and the other didn't?
For that we need to go back to the text. It turns out that it was not the looking, the seeing or the doing that designated children of God in this story. It was being children of God that opened their eyes. It was knowing the message of the gospel. Those who saw were already identified as children of God before any mention of what they did. The seeing was a gift given to them, an ability apparent in them because of who their leader was.
That is where one of our themes for the day comes in. Today is meant to teach us about Christ as our king and leader and the lesson we get is all about taking care of the least among us. Kings in Christ's day, and other rulers for that matter, like governors and feudal Lords were all known for taking things from the people. Tax collecting was the chief endeavor of a king, taxes were collected in order to get enough money to run the state, to ensure lasting power, to fund wars and to live in comfort. So collecting both money and goods from people was common. In fact, even the first fruits of the harvest that were given to temples as a thanksgiving sacrifice to God or to some Gods were subject to confiscation by both the Greeks and Romans around Jesus' time. The king was paid even when people were giving thanks to God. Kings took what they wanted and sometimes they were benevolent and good to the people and sometimes they were greedy and cruel.
But on Christ the King Sunday we don't hear about the King taking from us, only what the king gives for his people.
The king is chief among us to have gospel eyes. Chief among us to see the least, the smallest, the neediest, the littlest. A good king even in Jesus' day would have dealt fairly with the people returning them protection in accordance to what they paid. Offering them freedoms in line with their tax bracket. But our great king sees those whom everyone else overlooks and instead of taking from those littlest ones gives them the kingdom. Gives them his mandate for peace to share with the nations, gives them his great bounty to celebrate at the harvest and most of all gives them one another and eyes with which to see both the love of God and the needs of God's people.
This is the close of the church year. We started with a baby, tiny, meek and fragile who was welcomed like a king and now on this last day we are welcomed by the great King of Kings to see like him and to be like him and to care for all those who are tiny, meek and fragile. This is a great gift, let us give thanks to God. Amen
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Pentecost 27 A; Matt 25:14-30
I heard a story this week about Robert Louis Stevenson, the man who wrote Treasure Island. While living in France, before he was much of a writer, he set eyes on a woman once, one time, and knew he was in love with her. She lived in California. When she returned home he dropped everything and made the exhausting trip to find her just to try for a chance at winning her love. When he got to her he collapsed on her doorstep. They later got married and lived happily ever after, more or less. The details of the story are not all great examples for us but you have to admit that was a pretty bold move and a big risk.
So with that warm up today we're going to begin with a question for you to reflect on. What is the biggest risk that you have ever taken? It might have been a relationship risk like Mr. Stevenson. It might have been a career risk. It might have been a recreational risk (any hang-gliders or parachuters in the bunch?) It might even have been something that you only count as a risk when you look back at it. But take a minute, what is the biggest risk you have ever taken?
Why do I ask you might wonder? Well we have talked a lot lately about what following Christ and living a Christian lifestyle means. From forgiveness to charity, from faith to action in our community. One thing that we haven't talked a lot about is the risk that is involved in living in a Christian lifestyle.
But the gospel lesson today has something to do with risk. Let's look at it again:
A master leaves town and he leaves some slaves in charge of his household, his farms, his accounts, everything. He leaves them some money to operate with too. To the most capable he leaves the most and doles out money to the rest accordingly.
There seems to be no direct instructions for the slaves about what to do with this money. They are just free to use it as they see fit. They are not the lords all of a sudden, he did not give them his whole estate but he did leave them as functional masters, to do with what was his as they saw fit. They were to see to operations as best they could, using him and his work before he left as an example. He trusted that the skills that he had taught them and those that they had always had, that he had chosen them for, would see them through and help them to see his property through too.
So two of the servants took what they had been given, they followed the example of their master and they increased what he had left for them. They seemed to do it with little fear and little trouble. And they took huge risks. They invested it in high yield, therefore extremely high risk, places and it paid off!
But the third servant kind of missed the bus. He was confused. He misjudged his master. He heard only a threat in the promise of trust that he was given. And so he took the little money that he had been given and he hid it away, absolving himself, as far as the law at the time was concerned, of any guilt at all, whether the money remained, disappeared or somehow magically increased. You seee, in those days if you have buried money and it was stolen you weren't legally held responsible.
And so that last slave despite inflation and whatever else only had the first sum of money to give to his master upon the master's return, not even enough to run the place for a month.
I know a good next line would be that he had to ask for a government bailout because he had invested the money poorly. He should have asked for a bailout from the master I think. I think then he would have had rather better luck. If he had asked for mercy and acknowledged that everything that he had came from the master first anyway I think there might have been some mercy for him. But instead he blamed the master for the whole thing.
Saying: "Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours."
And then, much to the surprise and dismay of this man, the master was not pleased at all that his fearful servant had chosen the hide the treasure. Instead he reprimanded the servant for feeling so fearful of him. It was clear to the master and clear to the other slaves that being left as stewards was both a sign of trust and an indication of freedom.
That is what allowed the servants to have hope. So they took what had been given knowing
that their master, their benefactor, their Lord, was loving and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
And that is why we are thinking about risk with this text.
Our master has been gone for thousands of years now and he entrusted us with much more than a little bit of money. He entrusted us with his church. Some have been thrilled with the responsibility and they have gone out and joyfully and spread the gospel all around bringing even more gospel back with them. Some have heard the gospel and buried it in the ground. Today's questions is which group are we part of? What have we here done with the great treasure entrusted to us?
Well, we've done some great things, we worked hard this year to take the gospel out and multiply it. Opening our doors to new people, welcoming them in our midst. Considering what our community needs and where our church fits into that. We have been good and faithful servants up to this point. But! we haven't taken very many risks and that is a shame because we have the freedom to. We are expressly invited in this lesson to take chances as a church and as people of God.
The popular theory right now about creating healthy churches says that the best thing to do, if you want to become a vital place where people are excited to come and hear the gospel, is to take chances! To take a risk. The idea is that very little that you do is really going to be the end of the world, especailly if it is done prayerfully. And so you always have the freedom to reach out and to try soemthing new. To reach God's people in a different way. To start a ministry in a coffee shop or to plan a big service project in your community. Even to start a little group that gets together on Tuesday mornings and reads the bible or one that has cookies together on Thursady night in the name of the Holy Spirit. Whatever it is, you are free to try it and to celebrate it if it works and to change gears if it doesn't work. Because part of taking a risk is being willing to fail. If Robert Lewis Stevenson from our story a minute ago hadn't gotten the girl? His life would have gone on and he probably even would have found love again but imagine the great gifts and the great accomplishment that he would have missed out on if he had never tried.
The servants who multiplied what they were given by the master were praised by being called good and faithful servants. And they were assured the chance to "enter into the joy of the master". First they got to enter into the work of the master spreading the gospel. And because of that they got to enter into his joy, the joy of sharing the great good news of God's abounding and steadfast love for us. So let us too, start taking risks and entering into the joy of our master. Amen.
So with that warm up today we're going to begin with a question for you to reflect on. What is the biggest risk that you have ever taken? It might have been a relationship risk like Mr. Stevenson. It might have been a career risk. It might have been a recreational risk (any hang-gliders or parachuters in the bunch?) It might even have been something that you only count as a risk when you look back at it. But take a minute, what is the biggest risk you have ever taken?
Why do I ask you might wonder? Well we have talked a lot lately about what following Christ and living a Christian lifestyle means. From forgiveness to charity, from faith to action in our community. One thing that we haven't talked a lot about is the risk that is involved in living in a Christian lifestyle.
But the gospel lesson today has something to do with risk. Let's look at it again:
A master leaves town and he leaves some slaves in charge of his household, his farms, his accounts, everything. He leaves them some money to operate with too. To the most capable he leaves the most and doles out money to the rest accordingly.
There seems to be no direct instructions for the slaves about what to do with this money. They are just free to use it as they see fit. They are not the lords all of a sudden, he did not give them his whole estate but he did leave them as functional masters, to do with what was his as they saw fit. They were to see to operations as best they could, using him and his work before he left as an example. He trusted that the skills that he had taught them and those that they had always had, that he had chosen them for, would see them through and help them to see his property through too.
So two of the servants took what they had been given, they followed the example of their master and they increased what he had left for them. They seemed to do it with little fear and little trouble. And they took huge risks. They invested it in high yield, therefore extremely high risk, places and it paid off!
But the third servant kind of missed the bus. He was confused. He misjudged his master. He heard only a threat in the promise of trust that he was given. And so he took the little money that he had been given and he hid it away, absolving himself, as far as the law at the time was concerned, of any guilt at all, whether the money remained, disappeared or somehow magically increased. You seee, in those days if you have buried money and it was stolen you weren't legally held responsible.
And so that last slave despite inflation and whatever else only had the first sum of money to give to his master upon the master's return, not even enough to run the place for a month.
I know a good next line would be that he had to ask for a government bailout because he had invested the money poorly. He should have asked for a bailout from the master I think. I think then he would have had rather better luck. If he had asked for mercy and acknowledged that everything that he had came from the master first anyway I think there might have been some mercy for him. But instead he blamed the master for the whole thing.
Saying: "Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours."
And then, much to the surprise and dismay of this man, the master was not pleased at all that his fearful servant had chosen the hide the treasure. Instead he reprimanded the servant for feeling so fearful of him. It was clear to the master and clear to the other slaves that being left as stewards was both a sign of trust and an indication of freedom.
That is what allowed the servants to have hope. So they took what had been given knowing
that their master, their benefactor, their Lord, was loving and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
And that is why we are thinking about risk with this text.
Our master has been gone for thousands of years now and he entrusted us with much more than a little bit of money. He entrusted us with his church. Some have been thrilled with the responsibility and they have gone out and joyfully and spread the gospel all around bringing even more gospel back with them. Some have heard the gospel and buried it in the ground. Today's questions is which group are we part of? What have we here done with the great treasure entrusted to us?
Well, we've done some great things, we worked hard this year to take the gospel out and multiply it. Opening our doors to new people, welcoming them in our midst. Considering what our community needs and where our church fits into that. We have been good and faithful servants up to this point. But! we haven't taken very many risks and that is a shame because we have the freedom to. We are expressly invited in this lesson to take chances as a church and as people of God.
The popular theory right now about creating healthy churches says that the best thing to do, if you want to become a vital place where people are excited to come and hear the gospel, is to take chances! To take a risk. The idea is that very little that you do is really going to be the end of the world, especailly if it is done prayerfully. And so you always have the freedom to reach out and to try soemthing new. To reach God's people in a different way. To start a ministry in a coffee shop or to plan a big service project in your community. Even to start a little group that gets together on Tuesday mornings and reads the bible or one that has cookies together on Thursady night in the name of the Holy Spirit. Whatever it is, you are free to try it and to celebrate it if it works and to change gears if it doesn't work. Because part of taking a risk is being willing to fail. If Robert Lewis Stevenson from our story a minute ago hadn't gotten the girl? His life would have gone on and he probably even would have found love again but imagine the great gifts and the great accomplishment that he would have missed out on if he had never tried.
The servants who multiplied what they were given by the master were praised by being called good and faithful servants. And they were assured the chance to "enter into the joy of the master". First they got to enter into the work of the master spreading the gospel. And because of that they got to enter into his joy, the joy of sharing the great good news of God's abounding and steadfast love for us. So let us too, start taking risks and entering into the joy of our master. Amen.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Pentecost 26 A; Matt 25:1-13
Let's go back over the story from the gospel real fast here. There was a wedding planned for just after sundown. There were 10 young women, acolytes, whose job it was to hold lamps for a wedding procession, light the way for the bride and groom to come into the wedding celebration. Like most weddings, the wedding was delayed, one thing and then another, the dress needed to be taken up, the shoes weren't quite right, it started to rain. An aunt got lost on the way to the celebration and on and on until it was way past twilight and inching on toward midnight. So late! But the party must go on so everyone, finally ready, made their way to the groom's house in a procession, tradition at the time.
Finally it was those ten young acolytes' time to shine! Time for them to get up, wake up, because they had fallen asleep waiting, get their lamps going nice and bright and lead the way into the prepared hall. Oh but oh, some had been those types of people who are always ready for anything. The ones who seem to always have it together, especially when you don't really have it together. And others were, well...less prepared, they had come with lamps and plenty of oil for the wedding that was scheduled, but as time wore on, as it took longer and longer for the wedding to begin, their oil started to run out and they had no more. They asked for some from the others, asked if they would share but they said no, no way. We brought what we needed you didn't, go get your own oil. So the five bridesmaids without oil, went off in the middle of the night in search of oil. The text says that five of these bridesmaids were wise, and five were foolish. My question for you today is which ones were foolish? Which ones made the worse decision?
Here is another story for you. Once there were eight children on a playground. Four had remembered to bring a ball out for recess, four had been in such a hurry to finish their assignments before recess that they had forgotten to grab any toy or game. When they all got outside the four with the ball set up to play a game and the four without a ball realized that they didn't have anything to do. They asked the other kids, can we join your game? The first four said no, we brought the ball out and we don't want to play with people like you, especially ball forgetting people who took to long to do the same work that everyone got and finished. Go find your own game to play. So the four without a ball wandered away sad and sat out the rest of recess and when recess was over the four with the ball were scolded for not sharing with their fellow students. Who made the more foolish choice in this story?
Or how about in this case. Once there were four very hungry people. They had always looked out for each other and pooled what they had and never went hungry for very long. But one day someone gave two of them a huge sack of rice and promised them another at the end of every two weeks, totally free. It would feed all of them sufficiently until the next bag came but the two who recieved it decided to take it with them and hide from their friends. More for them that way and it was a more sure thing, just in case the next bag never came. But without the group of four life became much more difficult for the other two, now there were many nights when they went without anything at all to eat. At the end of the two weeks when the first two got more rice there was still some left over from the first sack, they had much more than they had needed but they had lost track of their two friends and now couldn't share even if they wanted to. Who made the foolish choice in this story?
Now a story from the New Testament, with a few extra details, one of the disciples was traveling on a road and he came upon another traveler, they rode together and they talked about the new church that was starting and finally they came up to some water. The traveler said here is water, what is to keep me from being baptized. But the disciple was going to be late for an important meeting, if he stayed to baptize this man, he wouldn't make it to worship on time, maybe not at all that day and he would miss the meal that the church shared, plus he was just so tired from traveling and he preached and baptized all the time, travel time was supposed to be time for him to relax. So he thought to himself, I don't have to share salvation, no one will know if this once I don't, besides God came to the people in Jerusalem, not to this traveler from Ethiopia. But then he thought to himself Jesus gave me very few commandments, mostly just to love my neighbor as God loves me and to go forth baptizing. I could stay and baptize this man making us both right before God or I could go and make it to worship on time and look right before God which would be the foolish choice? He was a wise disciple, he stayed and he baptized the man even at the risk of missing a worship service and a feast!
So the question again.
There were ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom to come. He had promised them all a place at the wedding feast but some ran out of oil in their lamps just as the wedding party was near, as they could see it coming up the street. The five who were out of oil asked of the other five, please, can we borrow just enough to make it inside where there is more light but the first five were proud of how prepared they were, they were tired from the wait, they wanted to be absolutely sure that they had enough oil and they felt no responsibility for the other five so they said no. And the five without oil went out on a futile mission at midnight in ancient Palestine to try to find an oil merchant. They didn't find one, and when they got back they had already been left out in the cold, unable to take part in the feast and utterly shamed. Who made the foolish choice in this story?
The prophet Amos in our old testament lesson speaks for the Lord saying. I don't want your festivals or solemn assemblies. Almost literally the Lord says through Amos, I'm not worried about the candles that you light before the wedding feast or the other ceremonial stuff. All that I desire of you is Justice and Righteousness. To receive the great gift of salvation from the Lord your God and share it with all of those who don't have enough or fall short at a crucial moment.
God requires these things of us as Christians, to share God's love with our neighbor at every opportunity, to do justice, to love righteousness and to share what we have. We can sympathize with the five bridesmaids who didn't share. Perhaps they didn't know that there were better lamps filled with oil just on the other side of that gate, that all they ten would have needed to do was keep their little lamps burning for a few minutes longer, just long enough to light the way for others, and they would receive all that they needed.
But don't sympathize too much because we don't have that problem. We know that we have plenty of this proverbial oil. We aren't being asked to share literal oil from a meager supply but rather the love of God with our neighbor and we know before we are ever asked for it that it comes to us in great abundance. It comes in the ever flowing waters of baptism, it comes in the ever ready feast at the communion table and most of all it comes in the comfort, love and sustenance that we can share this week, this day even, having come away from this place hearing God's promise that there will always be enough for us, that the more love we share, the more comfort we share, the more abundance we share and the more peace we spread, the more love, comfort, abundance and peace there will be in the world for God to share with us, we won't run out, we will never run out. This is good news, thanks be to God. Amen.
Finally it was those ten young acolytes' time to shine! Time for them to get up, wake up, because they had fallen asleep waiting, get their lamps going nice and bright and lead the way into the prepared hall. Oh but oh, some had been those types of people who are always ready for anything. The ones who seem to always have it together, especially when you don't really have it together. And others were, well...less prepared, they had come with lamps and plenty of oil for the wedding that was scheduled, but as time wore on, as it took longer and longer for the wedding to begin, their oil started to run out and they had no more. They asked for some from the others, asked if they would share but they said no, no way. We brought what we needed you didn't, go get your own oil. So the five bridesmaids without oil, went off in the middle of the night in search of oil. The text says that five of these bridesmaids were wise, and five were foolish. My question for you today is which ones were foolish? Which ones made the worse decision?
Here is another story for you. Once there were eight children on a playground. Four had remembered to bring a ball out for recess, four had been in such a hurry to finish their assignments before recess that they had forgotten to grab any toy or game. When they all got outside the four with the ball set up to play a game and the four without a ball realized that they didn't have anything to do. They asked the other kids, can we join your game? The first four said no, we brought the ball out and we don't want to play with people like you, especially ball forgetting people who took to long to do the same work that everyone got and finished. Go find your own game to play. So the four without a ball wandered away sad and sat out the rest of recess and when recess was over the four with the ball were scolded for not sharing with their fellow students. Who made the more foolish choice in this story?
Or how about in this case. Once there were four very hungry people. They had always looked out for each other and pooled what they had and never went hungry for very long. But one day someone gave two of them a huge sack of rice and promised them another at the end of every two weeks, totally free. It would feed all of them sufficiently until the next bag came but the two who recieved it decided to take it with them and hide from their friends. More for them that way and it was a more sure thing, just in case the next bag never came. But without the group of four life became much more difficult for the other two, now there were many nights when they went without anything at all to eat. At the end of the two weeks when the first two got more rice there was still some left over from the first sack, they had much more than they had needed but they had lost track of their two friends and now couldn't share even if they wanted to. Who made the foolish choice in this story?
Now a story from the New Testament, with a few extra details, one of the disciples was traveling on a road and he came upon another traveler, they rode together and they talked about the new church that was starting and finally they came up to some water. The traveler said here is water, what is to keep me from being baptized. But the disciple was going to be late for an important meeting, if he stayed to baptize this man, he wouldn't make it to worship on time, maybe not at all that day and he would miss the meal that the church shared, plus he was just so tired from traveling and he preached and baptized all the time, travel time was supposed to be time for him to relax. So he thought to himself, I don't have to share salvation, no one will know if this once I don't, besides God came to the people in Jerusalem, not to this traveler from Ethiopia. But then he thought to himself Jesus gave me very few commandments, mostly just to love my neighbor as God loves me and to go forth baptizing. I could stay and baptize this man making us both right before God or I could go and make it to worship on time and look right before God which would be the foolish choice? He was a wise disciple, he stayed and he baptized the man even at the risk of missing a worship service and a feast!
So the question again.
There were ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom to come. He had promised them all a place at the wedding feast but some ran out of oil in their lamps just as the wedding party was near, as they could see it coming up the street. The five who were out of oil asked of the other five, please, can we borrow just enough to make it inside where there is more light but the first five were proud of how prepared they were, they were tired from the wait, they wanted to be absolutely sure that they had enough oil and they felt no responsibility for the other five so they said no. And the five without oil went out on a futile mission at midnight in ancient Palestine to try to find an oil merchant. They didn't find one, and when they got back they had already been left out in the cold, unable to take part in the feast and utterly shamed. Who made the foolish choice in this story?
The prophet Amos in our old testament lesson speaks for the Lord saying. I don't want your festivals or solemn assemblies. Almost literally the Lord says through Amos, I'm not worried about the candles that you light before the wedding feast or the other ceremonial stuff. All that I desire of you is Justice and Righteousness. To receive the great gift of salvation from the Lord your God and share it with all of those who don't have enough or fall short at a crucial moment.
God requires these things of us as Christians, to share God's love with our neighbor at every opportunity, to do justice, to love righteousness and to share what we have. We can sympathize with the five bridesmaids who didn't share. Perhaps they didn't know that there were better lamps filled with oil just on the other side of that gate, that all they ten would have needed to do was keep their little lamps burning for a few minutes longer, just long enough to light the way for others, and they would receive all that they needed.
But don't sympathize too much because we don't have that problem. We know that we have plenty of this proverbial oil. We aren't being asked to share literal oil from a meager supply but rather the love of God with our neighbor and we know before we are ever asked for it that it comes to us in great abundance. It comes in the ever flowing waters of baptism, it comes in the ever ready feast at the communion table and most of all it comes in the comfort, love and sustenance that we can share this week, this day even, having come away from this place hearing God's promise that there will always be enough for us, that the more love we share, the more comfort we share, the more abundance we share and the more peace we spread, the more love, comfort, abundance and peace there will be in the world for God to share with us, we won't run out, we will never run out. This is good news, thanks be to God. Amen.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
All Saints A Matt 5:1-12
Today is All Saints Day. It is a day set aside by the church for us to think about the saints. Not just the big ones like Saint Peter or Saint Paul or Saint Stephen but all of them. So what's a saint?
In some traditions a saint is one who acts on our behalf toward God, intercedes for us and provides us with someone less daunting to share our woes with. Certainly 500 years ago that was a very common way to think of the faithful departed. But we don't really need saints for this because we believe that any mediating that needs to be done on our behalf has already been done by Christ.
Another way to think about what saints do is to consider them great examples of faith. I was at the East Greenbush Library book sale on Friday and I came across a book called 365 Saints. It was a devotional with a page for everyday of the year and each day told you about the saint or shared with you a writing by them or about them and then ended with a prayer. Many times the prayers had to do with how a saint was martyred. How they died in the faith and it asked you to reflect on how you can grow in whatever faith area that involved. This is not a problem. It is great to have role models for your faith and the Catholic church has set aside some very remarkable people to fill this role. But this also isn't exactly the best way to think about saints.
For us the greatest example that a saint can provide is not how great their faith was but how great the faith was that God had in them. That God has in us all.
This is part of the reason that when we talk about saints in this church we don't just talk about folks who have been canonized by Rome but instead we talk about all baptized believing Christians who now enjoy communion with God. We consider all Christians who have died in the faith saints. Our New Testament text calls them those who have been through the great ordeal.
Those who have come through death and now stand washed clean in the presence of the Lord. But death isn't the only great ordeal, they all, any human person who lives, have been through a great many ordeals here on earth through which God and their faith carried them and all of those ordeals, along with all the people they knew and all the lives they touched are part of their identity now as saints.
This year, as a parish we have celebrated the lives of several saints who lived among us and finally finished their great ordeal. Between them we had a range of ages, a range of experience. Many of them were great examples of people who lived with faith but they all provide us with examples of God's faith for us, and in us, even in the midst of great trials.
Looking back over the year I was surprised to remember how many people who passed away this year had lost children when they were young adults. At least one in a tragic accident, several others to sickness and disease. They would have been the first to tell you that that is one of the very worst ordeals that a person can come through but they also seemed keenly aware that God was with them even in the midst of it. That when it was hardest to have faith they were bolstered up by the faith that God had in them, the faith that God provided them with.
Then, we had a funeral at Trinity for one young man whose life had barely started. Who was just into his adulthood and died suddenly, heartbreakingly in an accident. Having maybe just started to come through the throes of youthful rebellion but in the midst of quiet family pain and a huge church funeral there were witnesses to God's faithfulness even in that tragedy.
We had a funeral for sweet Dorthy ______ who came through the great ordeal of slowing losing grasp on reality, a painful and terrifying thing but God remained faithful to her even in those days when having faith by herself became difficult, if not impossible, she was wrapped in the promise of faith from God.
We had a funeral for a St. Stephen's member who died suddenly and without pain after
a full life of 97 years, he was a blessed example of another kind of faithfulness. His great ordeal was simply living long enough to lose so many others, to nurse a sick wife until she finally passed. To live beyond even having many friends or family to attend his funeral but God ever faithful, never left him.
How do I know that God never left and remained ever-faithful to Walter, or Dorthy, Chris or Ed, Julia or so many more? In part, I know because it was evident in who they were and how they are remembered, that is one of the great gifts of the saints, showing us how God has been faithful in lives even after they have ended. But I also know because I know that we were sent the great gift of Christ among us. Who died to win for us a place with God and who rose again as the greatest sign of God's faithfulness to us even in death. We were baptized in his name, sealed with the cross and marked with Christ forever, which is the church's way of saying with words what God is promising with God's whole self, that we are ever-beloved, ever-blessed and ever promised the gift of faith which leads to everlasting union with our God.
We get the beatitudes as the gospel text for this day, a list from Jesus' lips of who all is blessed, when, why and how. One of the Blessings it mentions is this:
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
We who mourn, who throughout our lives have, and will, mourn the deaths of so many are blessed not only because the pain will lessen as time goes on and our hearts will heal. But, we are blessed because in the memory of each saint we learn about the love and faithfulness of God and because on this day especially we are promised that with all the saints who have gone before, those we knew and loved and those multitudes we never knew we will at the last stand washed clean of all great ordeals in presence and union with our God.
We will have time in a short while to remember those who have departed this year and those who died longer ago but that our hearts still ache for. As you do, remember not only who
they were to you but who they are to God. Beloved Children and now blessed saints and give thanks for their lives, the good and bad, the easy and the impossible knowing that God was with them all along, leading them in faith when they were weak and using them as examples of faith when they were strong and that God offers that same promise of faithfulness to all of us and provides us with the saints when we need reassurance and proof. Thanks be to God. Amen.
In some traditions a saint is one who acts on our behalf toward God, intercedes for us and provides us with someone less daunting to share our woes with. Certainly 500 years ago that was a very common way to think of the faithful departed. But we don't really need saints for this because we believe that any mediating that needs to be done on our behalf has already been done by Christ.
Another way to think about what saints do is to consider them great examples of faith. I was at the East Greenbush Library book sale on Friday and I came across a book called 365 Saints. It was a devotional with a page for everyday of the year and each day told you about the saint or shared with you a writing by them or about them and then ended with a prayer. Many times the prayers had to do with how a saint was martyred. How they died in the faith and it asked you to reflect on how you can grow in whatever faith area that involved. This is not a problem. It is great to have role models for your faith and the Catholic church has set aside some very remarkable people to fill this role. But this also isn't exactly the best way to think about saints.
For us the greatest example that a saint can provide is not how great their faith was but how great the faith was that God had in them. That God has in us all.
This is part of the reason that when we talk about saints in this church we don't just talk about folks who have been canonized by Rome but instead we talk about all baptized believing Christians who now enjoy communion with God. We consider all Christians who have died in the faith saints. Our New Testament text calls them those who have been through the great ordeal.
Those who have come through death and now stand washed clean in the presence of the Lord. But death isn't the only great ordeal, they all, any human person who lives, have been through a great many ordeals here on earth through which God and their faith carried them and all of those ordeals, along with all the people they knew and all the lives they touched are part of their identity now as saints.
This year, as a parish we have celebrated the lives of several saints who lived among us and finally finished their great ordeal. Between them we had a range of ages, a range of experience. Many of them were great examples of people who lived with faith but they all provide us with examples of God's faith for us, and in us, even in the midst of great trials.
Looking back over the year I was surprised to remember how many people who passed away this year had lost children when they were young adults. At least one in a tragic accident, several others to sickness and disease. They would have been the first to tell you that that is one of the very worst ordeals that a person can come through but they also seemed keenly aware that God was with them even in the midst of it. That when it was hardest to have faith they were bolstered up by the faith that God had in them, the faith that God provided them with.
Then, we had a funeral at Trinity for one young man whose life had barely started. Who was just into his adulthood and died suddenly, heartbreakingly in an accident. Having maybe just started to come through the throes of youthful rebellion but in the midst of quiet family pain and a huge church funeral there were witnesses to God's faithfulness even in that tragedy.
We had a funeral for sweet Dorthy ______ who came through the great ordeal of slowing losing grasp on reality, a painful and terrifying thing but God remained faithful to her even in those days when having faith by herself became difficult, if not impossible, she was wrapped in the promise of faith from God.
We had a funeral for a St. Stephen's member who died suddenly and without pain after
a full life of 97 years, he was a blessed example of another kind of faithfulness. His great ordeal was simply living long enough to lose so many others, to nurse a sick wife until she finally passed. To live beyond even having many friends or family to attend his funeral but God ever faithful, never left him.
How do I know that God never left and remained ever-faithful to Walter, or Dorthy, Chris or Ed, Julia or so many more? In part, I know because it was evident in who they were and how they are remembered, that is one of the great gifts of the saints, showing us how God has been faithful in lives even after they have ended. But I also know because I know that we were sent the great gift of Christ among us. Who died to win for us a place with God and who rose again as the greatest sign of God's faithfulness to us even in death. We were baptized in his name, sealed with the cross and marked with Christ forever, which is the church's way of saying with words what God is promising with God's whole self, that we are ever-beloved, ever-blessed and ever promised the gift of faith which leads to everlasting union with our God.
We get the beatitudes as the gospel text for this day, a list from Jesus' lips of who all is blessed, when, why and how. One of the Blessings it mentions is this:
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
We who mourn, who throughout our lives have, and will, mourn the deaths of so many are blessed not only because the pain will lessen as time goes on and our hearts will heal. But, we are blessed because in the memory of each saint we learn about the love and faithfulness of God and because on this day especially we are promised that with all the saints who have gone before, those we knew and loved and those multitudes we never knew we will at the last stand washed clean of all great ordeals in presence and union with our God.
We will have time in a short while to remember those who have departed this year and those who died longer ago but that our hearts still ache for. As you do, remember not only who
they were to you but who they are to God. Beloved Children and now blessed saints and give thanks for their lives, the good and bad, the easy and the impossible knowing that God was with them all along, leading them in faith when they were weak and using them as examples of faith when they were strong and that God offers that same promise of faithfulness to all of us and provides us with the saints when we need reassurance and proof. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pentecost 22 A Matt 22:1-14
In our gospel lesson today we hear about a wedding feast. In these days wedding feasts were a huge deal! They are a big deal now in many cases but they were a huge deal then. They lasted for a week. There were certain codes about what people should wear and how they would act and most importantly for our puposes it brought great shame if no one came. So the man holding the feast, a king, the father of the groom in this case did all that he should have, he invited people in advance, those people RSVP'd, they said they would come. But then the day of the feast came and the food was cooking and the flowers were out and everything was decorated and the bride and groom were ready. But no one came. And the host was getting anxious. What shame that no one would come, what kinds of friends were those anyway. He sent messengers out to check on people. They each made an excuse. I have to work, I'll be away for the week, that kind of thing. Some even chased the messengers away and gave no answer.
So the messengers came back dejected. Sad and unsuccessful they told the host that no one was going to come. After his rage had passed he said, "well then, we will invite the common people. We're still going to celebrate with great joy." He says to his messengers alright, go down to main street. You will find good people and bad people there, people in all walks of life and all stations. Bring them all! We will have the most fantastic feast. It will be filled with people, together we will express our love and well wishes for my good son and together we will share what we have to give each other, our time, our goodwill, our love and our possessions.
So the messengers brought people to the door and as they showed up gave them each a clean, new garment to wear. It was tradition to have garments provided at weddings for all those who didn't come in proper attire, there was a certain, uniform and ritual way that they were all supposed to look. In this case the clean garment did a little something different, it made them all equal in the eyes of the one holding the feast and in the eyes of all who were there. They were no longer there as rich or poor, as people who wore their occupation on their sleeves, as people who had a questionable history or even as people who had an important role in society, they were all just there to share in generosity and fellowship.
So they were all were ushered in, they were all seated and feed.
What a feast they must have had, a refined man who had planned an elegant feast now had a banquet filled with unrefined and unknown people but out of great love for his son he feed them, wined and dined them as if they were kings and queens. And we are led to believe that he was quite happy about it and so were they.
This story comes as a parable in a series that Jesus uses to put the Pharisees, the religious elite in their places. To explain to them that the kingdom of God comes in unusual ways, not just to the usual people but to all people, especially those people who are left behind and left out. But this parable unlike the ones that came before it focuses on the messengers. Those who go out and bring people into the wedding feast and who offer them the new garments to wear.
Luther says, remember that we're going to have a little bit of Luther every week for a while. Luther says in this case we are the messengers, we members of the church who go out in the main streets and invite any and everyone up to feast with us. The ones who call out to all people around us asking them to join us in the great joy of knowing God's love. He also says that, in the case of this story, the garment that everyone put on is Christ. That unlike a normal wedding feast the people here were brought in by messengers instead of by invitations that they had earned by their own merit and instead of silk or satin to wear they were offered the love of God as a common garment.
The whole thing is a reversal of the normal wedding rites and rituals.
Instead of elaborate invitations and qualifications all are welcome into this feast right off the street.
Instead of fine wedding garb of silk or satin all are made equal wearing the same clean garment.
Instead of a gathering of the elite, the proud and the important, the poor and hungry and those longing for comfort are brought together and fed the fine food and drink.
Instead of wedding gifts of gold and fine fabrics what is needful is provided to those in need.
Jesus says that this is what the kingdom of God is like. This is a picture of what it means to put on Christ. As messengers of the kingdom of God we respond to the love of God and the great gifts that we have been given by putting on this new garment that Christ offers and by offering it to other people. Mother Theresa, as she did work with the poor in India encountered many people putting on Christ in many ways but she tells a great story about one couple that she met trading in earthly wedding garments for the garments of messengers of Christ.
"Just a few days before I left Calcutta, a young couple came to our house and they gave me lots of money to feed the poor. In Calcutta every day we cook for 7,000 people. If we don't cook, they don't eat. And so these young people gave, me this money and I asked them, "Where did you get so much money?" And they said, "Before marriage—we have been married just two days—but before marriage we decided that we will not buy wedding clothes, we will not have wedding feast, that we'll give you the money to feed the people." And I asked them, "But why? Why did you do like that?" Because that's a scandal for us in India not to have the wedding clothes, not to have the wedding feast. [It is] one of the most beautiful days in their lives. And they gave me a most extraordinary answer: "Out of love for each other, we loved each other so tenderly that we wanted to give each other something special. And that was our love for the poor. We gave that love for each other by making that sacrifice." See, this is something so wonderful. To show that tender love for each other, they made that big sacrifice. Every day I get something like that from all over the world. You would be surprised what people write. And you must have experienced it yourselves if you have all worked for the beautiful project of the house.
Jesus made Himself Bread of Life to satisfy our hunger for His love, and then He makes Himself the hungry one so that you and I can satisfy His hunger for our Love. That is why I ask you [to] ask your priests to teach you to pray. Ask them to give you the beautiful opportunity to be alone with Jesus in adoration. Ask them to help you to come as close as possible to Jesus in the Eucharist. And often during the day say: "Jesus, in my heart I believe in your tender love for me, I love you." God Bless you."
This is what it looks like to be a messenger of Christ. this is what we are called to when we are called to love our neighbor. This is how we should live out our baptisms with the promise that just as often as we invite others into the love of God we ourselves are invited in as well. This is good news, Thanks be to God. Amen
You can find the text of this speech from Mother Theresa in several places, I used the version in this speech: http://www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/speeches/82autteresa.htm
So the messengers came back dejected. Sad and unsuccessful they told the host that no one was going to come. After his rage had passed he said, "well then, we will invite the common people. We're still going to celebrate with great joy." He says to his messengers alright, go down to main street. You will find good people and bad people there, people in all walks of life and all stations. Bring them all! We will have the most fantastic feast. It will be filled with people, together we will express our love and well wishes for my good son and together we will share what we have to give each other, our time, our goodwill, our love and our possessions.
So the messengers brought people to the door and as they showed up gave them each a clean, new garment to wear. It was tradition to have garments provided at weddings for all those who didn't come in proper attire, there was a certain, uniform and ritual way that they were all supposed to look. In this case the clean garment did a little something different, it made them all equal in the eyes of the one holding the feast and in the eyes of all who were there. They were no longer there as rich or poor, as people who wore their occupation on their sleeves, as people who had a questionable history or even as people who had an important role in society, they were all just there to share in generosity and fellowship.
So they were all were ushered in, they were all seated and feed.
What a feast they must have had, a refined man who had planned an elegant feast now had a banquet filled with unrefined and unknown people but out of great love for his son he feed them, wined and dined them as if they were kings and queens. And we are led to believe that he was quite happy about it and so were they.
This story comes as a parable in a series that Jesus uses to put the Pharisees, the religious elite in their places. To explain to them that the kingdom of God comes in unusual ways, not just to the usual people but to all people, especially those people who are left behind and left out. But this parable unlike the ones that came before it focuses on the messengers. Those who go out and bring people into the wedding feast and who offer them the new garments to wear.
Luther says, remember that we're going to have a little bit of Luther every week for a while. Luther says in this case we are the messengers, we members of the church who go out in the main streets and invite any and everyone up to feast with us. The ones who call out to all people around us asking them to join us in the great joy of knowing God's love. He also says that, in the case of this story, the garment that everyone put on is Christ. That unlike a normal wedding feast the people here were brought in by messengers instead of by invitations that they had earned by their own merit and instead of silk or satin to wear they were offered the love of God as a common garment.
The whole thing is a reversal of the normal wedding rites and rituals.
Instead of elaborate invitations and qualifications all are welcome into this feast right off the street.
Instead of fine wedding garb of silk or satin all are made equal wearing the same clean garment.
Instead of a gathering of the elite, the proud and the important, the poor and hungry and those longing for comfort are brought together and fed the fine food and drink.
Instead of wedding gifts of gold and fine fabrics what is needful is provided to those in need.
Jesus says that this is what the kingdom of God is like. This is a picture of what it means to put on Christ. As messengers of the kingdom of God we respond to the love of God and the great gifts that we have been given by putting on this new garment that Christ offers and by offering it to other people. Mother Theresa, as she did work with the poor in India encountered many people putting on Christ in many ways but she tells a great story about one couple that she met trading in earthly wedding garments for the garments of messengers of Christ.
"Just a few days before I left Calcutta, a young couple came to our house and they gave me lots of money to feed the poor. In Calcutta every day we cook for 7,000 people. If we don't cook, they don't eat. And so these young people gave, me this money and I asked them, "Where did you get so much money?" And they said, "Before marriage—we have been married just two days—but before marriage we decided that we will not buy wedding clothes, we will not have wedding feast, that we'll give you the money to feed the people." And I asked them, "But why? Why did you do like that?" Because that's a scandal for us in India not to have the wedding clothes, not to have the wedding feast. [It is] one of the most beautiful days in their lives. And they gave me a most extraordinary answer: "Out of love for each other, we loved each other so tenderly that we wanted to give each other something special. And that was our love for the poor. We gave that love for each other by making that sacrifice." See, this is something so wonderful. To show that tender love for each other, they made that big sacrifice. Every day I get something like that from all over the world. You would be surprised what people write. And you must have experienced it yourselves if you have all worked for the beautiful project of the house.
Jesus made Himself Bread of Life to satisfy our hunger for His love, and then He makes Himself the hungry one so that you and I can satisfy His hunger for our Love. That is why I ask you [to] ask your priests to teach you to pray. Ask them to give you the beautiful opportunity to be alone with Jesus in adoration. Ask them to help you to come as close as possible to Jesus in the Eucharist. And often during the day say: "Jesus, in my heart I believe in your tender love for me, I love you." God Bless you."
This is what it looks like to be a messenger of Christ. this is what we are called to when we are called to love our neighbor. This is how we should live out our baptisms with the promise that just as often as we invite others into the love of God we ourselves are invited in as well. This is good news, Thanks be to God. Amen
You can find the text of this speech from Mother Theresa in several places, I used the version in this speech: http://www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/speeches/82autteresa.htm
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