New Year

The New Year always brings up a mixed bag of cultural stuff for me--the whole big party, New Year's Eve, watch the ball drop/resolutions/next year will be better/top ten lists, baggage. The New Year will be both good and bad, like most other years. What is constant is the love and care of God. Psalm 139 says "If I ascend to heaven, you are there, if I make my bed in utter darkness, you are there". We might say: "In 2011, you are there, O God. No matter what the time, or where we are, you are always there." No matter what 2011 brings, we can trust in God, who is always there.

Christ the King

Colossians 1:11-20 p956
11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross

Luke 23:33-43 p859
33When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and

saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43He replied, “Truly I tell you, this day you will be with me in Paradise.”
This is the Word of the Lord….thanks be to God

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom…” We sing that sometimes (sing it here…)
Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.

There are three crosses on the hill that day—3 men being crucified—and all of them are charged with sedition. They are considered insurrectionists, traitors, and Jesus is there too—as just another traitor against Rome—because nobody goes up against Rome and lives to tell about it.
Rome’s punishment is harsh, and fast, and public—the 3 men are all there on the hill to serve as a warning and a lesson—do not mess with Rome—but that is not the lesson we learn—
The inscription that hangs over Jesus’ head got it right—“This is the King of the Jews”. Ironically, or prophetically, the soldiers got it right. This is the King of the Jews…
But what kind of King? What kind of King would let himself be crucified? What kind of King would die such a public and shameful death? What kind of King would say this about the very people who crucified him: ”Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing…” “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom”—what kind of kingdom can that possibly be?

Colossians says that Christ is the firstborn of creation, for in him all things in heaven and earth were created—all things have been created through him and for him—that Christ is the image of the invisible God…..but what kind of image is this? A suffering savior? A broken king? A failed Messiah? Who would want any part of that?
In the movie, Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, an unlikely hero. He is a racist, a misogynist, a bitter, warped old man, recently widowed, estranged from his children, furious about all the Hmong immigrants that have moved into the neighborhood. And yet—he acts in a saving way to the family next door, and especially to their young son, who is bullied and threatened and beat up. Mr. Kowalski shares food, and time, and his car, his vintage Gran Torino, with the boy. He does not look like a savior—he looks like an old man, waiting for death to come to him. And yet his actions bring hope and healing to others.
We have talked about apocalypse, about unveiling—about how what is unveiled, what is revealed, is the realest reality, the truest truth—
And in Christ’s crucifixion, we have an unveiling—that THIS is what a Messiah looks like, that this is what God is like—that this is what love looks like—
This is what our rescuer looks like—for in Christ’s dying, and in his rising, God has “rescued us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son”.
This is not a king like we read about in fairy tales. And we Americans, who have a history, a story and identity based on rejecting kings, have trouble with this image. But this king is not like any human king. And this reign, this kingdom, is not like any earthly empire we have ever seen.
This is not a king like Caesar, in which peace (because the Romans were famous for the Pax Romana) is peace built upon fear, and oppression, and threats.
This king is a paradox—a ruler who was killed like a criminal, among criminals—but a king who is able, even at the moment of his life giving death, to respond, to forgive, to hear, and bless.
And one of the criminals asks to be remembered—Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom—how ever far away that is, however long it takes, however wildly improbable it is that a Palestinian peasant, a man hung up in public on a tree could even have a kingdom-
And what Jesus does is answer him—“This day” This day, you will be with me in paradise. Today- right now—this day
The Gospel of Luke is full of “this day”

Unto you is born THIS DAY, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord (lk 2:11)
When Jesus goes to his hometown, and reads from the prophet Isaiah in the Synagogue, he says “This day the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing…” (lk 4:21)
In the story of Zaccheus, Jesus says to Zaccheus “I must come to your house THIS DAY” and then announces “THIS DAY salvation has come to this house because he, too is a son of Abraham” (19)
That is the kind of king we have, this is the kind of King Christ is—one who hears us, and responds to us, not later, or when he gets around to it, or in the way of politicians and earthly kings, never, but THIS DAY—a king who hears our cries, who responds to us—“even before they call, I will answer, while they are still speaking I will hear” says God in Isaiah (65:24) We have a king, we worship a king, who is not in some heaven, light years away , not too busy, not to disconnected, to hear us and listen to us.
And yet—it is a paradox—a mystery—Walter Brueggemann reminds us that a mystery is not “something that can be solved, if only we think harder or better”—no, Christ as king is mystery and paradox- and the kingdom of God, the Reign of Christ, si also a mystery. We look at the world, and think “where is this kingdom?” And yet, we say that it exists, in an already here and not yet kind of way. Sylvia Dunstan, in her hymn Christus Paradox, writes of Christ “you, who walk each day beside us, sit in power at God’s side”….”you Lord, are both lamb and shepherd, you lord are both king and slave”
That is the kind of king we have. Not Caesar, and not whoever, or whatever, it is the current empire says should be Lord—we have a King who listens to us, and hears us, and rescues us. Jesus, remember me, remember us, when you come into your kingdom. This day, we are with him in paradise. Amen.

Apocalypse Now?

Apocalypse Now?

Isaiah 65:17-25 p 607
17For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 21They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD— and their descendants as well. 24Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
Luke 21:5-19 p 856
5When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6“As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” 7They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. 9“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17You will be hated by all because of my name. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your souls.

We are standing here, outside of time. Or, rather, in a wrinkle in time, In the calendar of the cultural year, we are getting close to the end—we have come through the cycle of elections, and are looking at the whirl of holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. In the church calendar, we are even closer to the end—next week we will celebrate Christ the King Sunday, which the church marks as the last Sunday in the year, and Advent, starting on Nov 28, will be the beginning of our new year.
Here, in Luke’s Gospel, we have a weird wrinkle as well. Jesus is speaking to the disciples as they are in Jerusalem- right before the Passover, in the middle of Holy Week. He has already had his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his Palm Sunday moment. And while they are admiring the Temple, Jesus tells them it will all be thrown down. To the people in Luke’s community, who are hearing this a generation later, this has already happened—the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans.
And we, sitting here in modern times, are caught in a kind of time warp. Because what Jesus is talking about is the end—the end of the world. And the disciples ask for signs, so they can be prepared, but what Jesus gives them instead is a non-answer, a speech about wars, and insurrections, and famines and plagues, and persecutions and betrayals and death. Not very fun, and more than a little scary. Certainly not what they were hoping for. But we see, today, wars and rumors of war, famine, plague—cholera in Haiti, devastation in Indonesia, Christians being persecuted and murdered in Iraq, people going hungry in our own counties—and we don’t know what to make of all this.
And then, Jesus says this even more odd and less comforting thing. After telling the disciples about persecutions and arrest, being brought before the authorities, betrayals by families, being put to death, Jesus says “This will give you an opportunity to testify”. “An opportunity”—Frankly, Jesus, this sounds like cold comfort to me. A sales pitch gone wrong. “This will give you an opportunity to testify”

The adult classes in both Hector and Lodi are studying the book of Revelation. We are using the excellent study guide put out by the Presbyterian Women, written by Barbara Rossing. Dr Rossing is a professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary in Chicago. Her testimony is this: the book of Revelation to John, the last book in our Bible, is a book of comfort and hope. It is a book of love, given to us by a loving God. Now that does not mean there are not some terrible and scary images in it. But through it all, it is a testimony of comfort.

The book of Revelation is a specific kind of literature, a type common in the first century and even earlier, called “an apocalypse” Apocalypse comes from the Greek word for “unveiling”, or drawing back the curtain. This passage in Luke is known as “the little apocalypse”. And what we find in apocalypse, strangely, is comfort, because what we see when we draw back the curtain is this: the vision we are given in Isaiah, the vision we just heard. In that vision, in that reality—and it is the realest reality, the truest truth—we see that God is still creating, that God is with us. We see what actually is, rather than just the way things appear to be. We see this vision of the world the way God intends it—that people will live long and healthy lives, that someone who dies at 100 will still be considered a spring chicken, that people will actually plant things, and have the freedom to eat what they produce, instead of growing for another, that people will actually build lives, and have the freedom and grace and time to live in them, instead of always struggling for somebody else. No more will there be weeping and crying, no more will there be infant mortality or people unable to live out their full life times. I will delight in my people, says God. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating, says the Lord.

And that is what we are called to testify to and about. That is WHO we are called to testify to and about. Now, I know, nearly all of us here are not comfortable with “testify”. It brings up scary images of street preachers, or people who button hole you in a coercive and aggressive way. When we talked with Session about what the Book of Order describes as the first responsibility of an elder, which is “To provide opportunities for evangelism to be learned and practiced in and by the church” (BOO G-10.0102a), there was a palpable wave of uncomfortableness—and silence-- around the table.

But what Jesus gave the disciples, clustered there, looking at the Temple, is both bad news and good news. It’s almost like a joke. The bad news is things are going to get tough, really tough, BUT this is an opportunity. An opportunity to testify. The good news is I will be with you- This is comfort—the gift of Himself, and of the Holy Spirit. He tells them--“I will give you words and wisdom.”


We are here this morning, because everywhere along the way, somebody has testified. If those early disciples had not testified, there would have been no church. The church grew and expanded. Through the centuries. We are the beneficiaries of the testimony that was brought about by the persecution and oppression of somebody else.

Now, testimony looks like many things. Sometimes it looks like concrete action—feeding people, giving them rides to the doctor, helping them pay the heating bill and have a safe place to live, or a warm shelter at night. Sometimes, testimony also looks like teaching—teaching children in Sunday School, teaching others what you have learned. Sometimes testimony is joys and concerns offered at the Session meting, or in church. Sometimes testimony is simple: “I don’t know how we got through it. It must have been the power of God.”

Testimony always involves what we have seen, what we have known, how we have experienced God at work in the world and in our lives. In two weeks, we will ask those of you have received the seed money grants to speak about that act of faith. And we know that public speaking is the #1 fear on most people’s charts. We all hated it in 2nd grade, and we hate it still. But “do not fear”, Jesus says to us. “Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance.” So the Christian life is not about having pat answers, having a handy instant response ready. In Revelation, we are told, the saints sing. Mahalia Jackson said she would only sing gospel music, because, “when you sing gospel, you have the feeling there is a cure for what’s wrong.” Listen to what Jesus says “I will give you words, and a wisdom.” There’s a promise there, that God will be with us, that God will see us through, and bear witness through us to others.

David Livingstone, the legendary missionary to Africa, prayed, "Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me." And he testified, "What has sustained me is the promise, 'Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."

This is the promise Jesus conveys in the midst of his prophetic warnings of what will yet come. It is the promise that we testify to today. It is the promise for all time, and even for the end of time. Amen.

More than Enough

Psalm 73

Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek. They are not in trouble as other are; they are not plagued like other people.
But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. Who have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
But for me, it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.


We have been working our way through a number of parables this fall. We have heard the parable of the dishonest steward, the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the persistent widow. Today we have another parable. And as we have come to understand, a parable might seem simple, or clear, on first reading. But it is usually more complicated than that. Clarence Jordan said that a parable is like a Trojan horse- once you let it in, BAM its got you. One of the things we need to know, in opening up this parable, is that Jesus is telling stories about what life in the Kingdom of God is like. It is like ten women, waiting for the bridegroom’s return. It is like a mustard plant that grows from a tiny seed. It is like a master going on a journey…..Listen now for the word of the Lord….
Matthew 25:14-30
14“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; 15to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another, one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. 29For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This is the word of the Lord…..Thanks be to God
On first glance, this seems to be a story about venture capitalism. Two slaves are given money by their owner. They invest it- wisely? Luckily? Who knows? But they get a great return on their investment. When their owner comes back, they are happy to report the good return, and they are rewarded. The third slave, on the other hand, doesn’t do anything with the investment—well, he does one thing— he doesn’t lose it. He buries it in the ground- and, no surprise--it produces no yield, no return. And when he reports to the master, he is thrown out into the outer darkness. Not exactly a happy ending?

There are some things we need to know about this story. The money is the master’s. It is his to do with as he pleases. And what pleases him? Entrusting porperty to his servants. The master gives his own money to the servants, in full trust. This is what the business world calls a “fiduciary transaction” – that is based on the Latin word, fide, for trust.

Second, the master gives them an enormous amount—in today’s dollars, the sums would equal between half a million and several million dollars. I don't know about you, but Id be a little nervous to entrusted with that amount of money.

Third, irt seems teh master gives without any restrictions, any prerequisites—but we are told that the master gives “according to their abilities”. The master knows the slaves, knows what they can handle, what they are capable of accomplishing. Then he leaves.
Well, the master finally returns to settle teh accounts after being gone "a long time." And we hear the reports of the slaves to the master. We don’t know what the slaves did, how they invested- but we do know that “trust” and “joy” are involved. The servants are described as “trustworthy”- the version many of us know is “well done, good and faithful servant”. Faithful, dependable, trustworthy- take your pick. And then the servants enter into the “joy of their master”. They have acted in trust, and are proclaimed trustworthy themselves.

The third slave, however, has not acted in trust. He has acted out of fear. He buried the money- the text says “concealed it”. Now, he could have told the master he hid teh money for safekeeping. That was accepted practice in teh first century. Instead,he tells the master “I was afraid” He feared the master, describes him as greedy and dishonest, and acted out of fear—fear of not enough.

In many ways, the third slave is like the person described in Psalm 73—who sees others, sees how well off they are, sees how “sound and sleek” their bodies are—no disease, no health problems, no putting off going to the doctor because of worry about how much the bill is going to be, no letting the car go with that funny noise because you can’t afford to get it fixed, and because you’re afraid of how expensive its going to be. The writer of Psalm 73 sees those rich, sleek people, and is filled with fear and envy. He says about himself “but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled….until I went into the sanctuary of God”. When the writer encounters God, his mind is made clear—he sees what is trustworthy: “Whom have I in heaven but you? You hold my right hand”

The parable is, at heart, not a story about money markets and good investment strategies. It is a story about trust. And, it is about risk. Because the two alwasy travel hand in hand. The kingdom of God is like a master who gives. Extravagantly. Abundantly. Good gifts, that produce good fruit. We learned in the parable of the mustard seed that we already have enough faith. And we learned in the parable on the unjust steward that God wants, expects us, to use our minds, our imagination, our talents. We learn in this story to trust.
I think the first two servants knew their boss and teh thrid one didnt have a clue. The first two knew he expected results, but that resluts were less important than effort. Tom Watson, former head of IBM is quoted as saying "To increase your success rate you have to double your failure rate." Why? becase great success can rarely happen withput taking some risk.

When we act, trusting those gifts and that God, we are acting out Kingdom of God living. The Kingdom of God is not ruled by fear of not enough—it is based on trust in a God who is giving—so giving that he comes to us, eats with us, invites us to eat with him.
We live that out, here, as a community of faith, gathered around this Table. I am not telling you anything you don’t already know, that the past few years have been very difficult. And yet—and yet—God has blessed us richly, so that we can be a blessing to others. God is always a God of enough—more than enough. God feeds God’s people with manna and quail in the wilderness, with so much fish and bread—out of nothing—that there is enough for everybody, and enough for baskets of leftovers to be taken up. The economy of the kingdom of God is abundant and knows no scarcity. God feeds us so well, we have food to give to the food pantry, and to the Free lunch, and the OFA luncheon, and to shut ins, and to the Community Turkey Dinner. God has blessed us, so that we can be a blessing to others. Which is what we will do, in the giving of the seed money grants later this morning. The Session acted, trusting God, and trusting you, faithful servants, to use your imagination and skills and talents, to produce a return for God, and to share that blessing with others.
God blesses us here, at the Table. In overflowing love, in abundant grace, we are called. To be fed, to be nourished, and to go out into the world to reflect that abundant love to others. Because God is always a God of more than enough. Amen

Faith as a mustard seed

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 p. 762
The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.







Luke 17:5-10 p 852
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God










Those of us who are a certain age can remember the jewelry- the mustard seed jewelry. A tiny glass bubble contained one, tiny, yellowy-brown mustard seed, and that was fashioned into a bracelet or a necklace. It was to be a visible reminder of what size of faith, what kind of faith we are to have.
“If you have faith as a grain of mustard” Jesus says to the disciples when they ask—no, demand—more faith. “Increase our faith” they say, as if faith were a commodity, something they could measure or weigh out, something we could somehow accumulate, somehow have more of.
This passage has often been preached to scold people—or we feel ashamed and guilty when we read it. We ask ourselves: Is my faith even smaller than a grain of mustard? Or, perhaps, we feel that is the truth of our life- we don’t have EVEN faith the size of a grain of mustard- that our faith is infinitesimal. We look at other people, and they seem so serene- because of faith. When they go through hard times, their faith doesn’t seem to waiver. When they are suffering, they do not complain—they have faith. They are pillars of faith, we might say. And we look at ourselves, our own internal life, and compare. We see ourselves as lacking in the faith department. We want that, we think. We want to be like that. Give me more faith, make my faith stronger, we pray, just like the disciples.
But what if, when Jesus was speaking to the disciples, holding his thumb and finger apart only this far, he was not scolding them? What if he was telling them: not, you don’t have even this much faith, but, this much faith, that you already have, is enough? In the original language, the “if” presumes a positive answer: Yes, you do have enough faith!
Earlier this year, we talked about “faith” as a verb—faithing is really a better translation of the word used for faith. And that is where we come to the parable of the slave. We are uncomfortable with language about slavery. And the story we heard sounds harsh to our ears. The slave in the story has just finished a hard day’s work in the fields, and now has to come home and prepare dinner and serve at the table, with no thanks at all. But slaves and masters were common in Jesus’ time, and are part of his world. Jesus says that we are to be like the slave: get to work! If faith is a verb, then “faithing” is the work we are called to do. The issue then becomes less about the amount of faith that we have, and more about what we are doing with that faith.
“Faithing” sometimes looks like the words we heard in Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a prophet, and he is speaking to God, lamenting to God—in a pretty bold way. “O Lord, how long shall I cry to you, and you will not listen? How long will there be violence, and injustice, and you don’t do a thing? I will stand here at my watchpost—I will stand right here and wait—I will watch to see what he will say to me” says the prophet. This is what faith looks like: Habakkuk, is a prophet in Jerusalem, probably in the Temple itself, in the 7th century BCE. He is, essentially, yelling at God: Don’t you see what I am seeing? God, come down and DO something!
Now, we might expect Habakkuk to get struck by lightning, or struck with boils and sores, or something- do we dare talk to God like this? But this IS faith talk, this is faith in action, because it is faith in a person, a relationship—with God! A God who is always trustworthy, who hears us, who listens to Habakkuk’s cry—because this is what God says:
“Write the vision, make it plain, so large that even a runner running by may read it. There is indeed a vision, which I, God, am creating. If it does not come as soon as you want it, then wait for it—it will surely come, it will not delay.” Then, there is this little blessing at the end—“the righteous live by their faith.”
The righteous live by their faith. When times are tough, we feel like we can barely breathe, much less live. But, God tells us, the righteous live by their faith. You already have enough faith—even when it is the size of a grain of mustard! It is enough because it is faith in Christ, the One who is among as one who serves, the One who calls us—and everyone—to Come here at once and take our place at the table. Amen

Parable of Lazarus and what's his name

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 p643

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, 3where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him. Zedekiah had said, “Why do you prophesy and say: Thus says the LORD: I am going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; 6Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came to me: 7Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.” 8Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. 9And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; 12and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.


Luke 16:19-31
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19-21"There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22-24"Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, 'Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.'
25-26"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and you're tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.'
27-28"The rich man said, 'Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won't end up here in this place of torment.'
29"Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.'
30"'I know, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but they're not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.'
31"Abraham replied, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they're not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'"
This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God


There you have it- a simple story- black and white—the rich man lived sumptuously, Lazarus laid in the street and begged. The rich man died and went to hell, Lazarus went to heaven, the rich man was bad, Lazarus was good—right? So simple—and yet, Scripture—and life—are more nuanced, more complicated than that.

We have a portrait of the rich man—he feasted sumptuously, he was clothed in purple, a color worn only by royalty, and was dressed in fine linens- according to the text, even his underwear was fancy and expensive- that’s the fine linens they are talking about. Lazarus, a poor man, is so weak from hunger that he is laid—or, literally, dumped- at the rich man’s gate—so weak that he cannot even shoo the dogs away who come to keep him company and lick his wounds. They both die—isn’t that the great leveler? And the rich man is buried and winds up in Hades, the home of the dead. And Lazarus is carried by angels, and goes to heaven, where he is comforted in the bosom of Abraham. Quite a reversal.

But—did the rich man sin so badly? Is it right to equate the description of his opulence with sin and evil? Was Lazarus rewarded in heaven for his suffering on earth? Ancient though equated prosperity with goodness and God’s favor. So when we see the rich man doing well, and Lazarus on the street, the standard thinking would be that they were getting what they deserved. We hear this today in people who preach the Prosperity Gospel—that if you are good, God will reward you. And if you are suffering? Then you need to get right with God—and God will reward you with wealth.

The Gospel of Luke is a gospel of reversals. It is especially favored by liberation theologies, which rose up out of the poverty and suffering of South and Central America, who know the kind of suffering Lazarus has endured. We hear of reversals in the very first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. And, because we need to be reminded of what God is doing, of what kind of god our God is, we hear it every year at Advent: Mary’s Song, the Magnificat, in which she sings “my soul rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant…..He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

I guess God has brought down the powerful, and lifted up the lowly—Lazarus is certainly feasting at the table with Abraham--but still, the parable doesn’t tell us that the rich man is an evil man. But look carefully at what he does do—when the rich man is in hell, suffering, dying for even a drop of water—he still thinks he has power and privilege, he still is trying to run the show. He goes directly to the top man—he goes to Father Abraham, and asks Father Abraham to send a servant…who just happens to be Lazarus. Now, at some point in life, the rich man has noticed Lazarus enough to know his name—in fact, Lazarus is the only person in any of Jesus’ parables who is named—a privilege Mr. Megabucks doesn’t get—but the rich man still doesn’t really see Lazarus—not as a person. He doesn’t speak to Lazarus, but only speaks about him—Send Lazarus to me. And Abraham has pity on the rich man- he even calls him “my child” but he cannot send Lazarus to him. The rich man then asks for Father Abraham to at least send Lazarus to warn his brothers—again, there it is- sending Lazarus—as if Lazarus was just a waiter, or an errand boy, instead of another one of the rich man’s brothers.

Because that, I believe, is the problem—the rich man doesn’t see Lazarus, doesn’t see him as a human being made in the image of God. Last week, we talked about both the Unjust Manager, and the Prodigal Son. Both of those men had moments of clarity—where they saw, clearly and definitively, what the truth of their situation was- the prodigal son when he was a long way from home, and came to his senses—the Unjust steward, when he saw the truth of his situation- I am too weak to beg, and to proud too dig. But here, the rich man doesn’t really see at all. He doesn’t have any clarity about his situation—he is still trying to call the shots. The rich man didn’t really see Lazarus when he was outside his gate, and he doesn’t see Lazarus as a person now, even after this great reversal of fortunes.

Jeremiah was a prophet in Jerusalem. The weeping prophet, he is called, because he laments and cries over the city and the people, as Babylon is pounding at the doors and taking the city and people captive. In this morning’s reading, the Babylonians are already in the city—and Jeremiah begins to see something—a message from God—to go and buy a field. Now, Jeremiah is in prison, he has no children to pass the land onto, and the real estate future looks pretty dim. But he buys a field, and makes quite a big production of it. There is a scribe, Baruch—and witnesses- the Judeans and people in the courtyard—and there is a public exchange of money and deeds- and they are preserved for posterity. Jeremiah is doing what is called a prophetic sign act- a public performance of what the kingdom of God is like, of what God is calling him to do.

Now, Jeremiah is a prophet. And prophets don’t see the future, or at least not in a “crystal ball’ kind of way—but Jeremiah sees God’s future, all the same. Jeremiah sees the future that God is securing, is preparing—a future, with hope.

Last week, we talked about being savvy—being shrewd. Jeremiah’s action is the exact opposite of that—if there is anything more “unshrewd” I can’t imagine what it could be—buying a field in a city that is occupied by a foreign army. While you are in prison. And you don’t have any children to inherit the field of land.

But sometimes, this is what God’s economy looks like. It looks a lot like foolishness. St Paul wrote that “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom” (1 Cor 1:25) Father Abraham himself knows about foolishness. God told him to leave his country and his family, “to go to a place I will show you.” And Abraham and Sarah did just that

Perhaps Jeremiah’s actions are foolish—But he is acting in hope—hope in a future that God is both promising and creating. He trusts in God.


I am sure we would not consider ourselves rich, like the rich man. And we would not consider ourselves poor, certainly not as poor as Lazarus. Perhaps we are the brothers—the ones who do not listen- do not listen to Moses and the prophets.

The text has Father Abraham saying : “ they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”. “Even if”…. But we do have someone who rose from the dead- for our sakes! He is both the wisdom of God, and the world’s foolishness. By the grace of God, we have Jesus Christ.

The vision in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is one of judgment. Both the rich man and Lazarus have lived their lives, and now they are reaping the rewards. Father Abraham tells the man: “if your brother did not listen to Moses and the prophets—and Jeremiah was one of them—if we listen to Jeremiah, who acts because he believes in a God of future and hope, then what will we do? How will we act?

One of the ways might look like this: Habitat for Humanity. It is foolishness, at least according to prevailing economic thinking, to give credit—and a house—to someone who has never had either. But Habitat is a mix of both savvy and foolishness—people who have never had a house, are trained in finances, trained in budgeting. And they put sweat equity into their homes—and the houses of others, who are also looking to a future, with hope.

Most of us, I imagine, know that every dollar bill and coin in the US has written on them “In God we trust”. If that is true, then, and if we take the time to read that, or remember that every time we spend some money, what will we spend it on? What economy of God, what spending for a future, and a hope, will we do?

School starts soon

School starts soon- for some college students, it has already begun. For me, school has always been a mix of fun-- I love to read-- and frustration--I am really bad at math. No matter where we go, though, we can remember God is always there. John Calvin said that "the knowledge of all that is most excellent in human life is said to be communicated to us through the Spirit of God." We learn, not only in school, but on our families, our churches, our daily interactions with others. As an early childhood teacher for over 20 years (before I came to full time ministry) we used to say "parents are a child's first teacher." What are we teaching--in our liturgy? In our actions? In our words?
Here is a poem about God in school:

Paradise High
by Marcus Goodyear

God slouches at the front of the universe
leaning against his desk, taking roll
with a red pen in his spiral book of life.
He teaches every subject himself,
every grade, every student. He leads
every parent conference appearing
as principal, department head, counselor,
and teacher. At night he walks the halls
alone with a broom and a trash can.
He’s not too grand to pick up
the wad of gum some kid mashed
onto a door frame. He’s not above
using divine elbow grease to scrub
away bathroom graffiti. Sometimes
he finds drawings of himself
cross-eyed with a caption,
“What a dork!” the picture of a fool.
But every morning he’s back
in the cafeteria, handing out
his own body for breakfast
with a pint of 2% milk—
or chocolate if you like.
He wears a Padres ball cap
to keep God hairs out of the food.
He runs the register, too,
though he never makes us pay.
“I’ll get this one,” he says—
and every time we wonder why
there’s a register at all? Why receipts?
When the bells ring, students rush to class
past God the hall monitor into the room
of Mr. God, the teacher. He greets us
by name wherever we are.
But only in his room do we find
a seat while he watches. God’s voice
crackles and pops over the PA
during announcements while God
lines up the hooligans in the hall
to assign tardy detentions.
I hold my breath when God walks
the aisles in his classroom collecting
our English themes like prayers.
Dear God, I pray, I pass.


hat tip to www.adamjcopeland.com for both the Calvin quote and the poem

Sermon Aug 15, 2010

Sermon August 15, 2010
Genesis 1:1

1. When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was void and vacuum, and darkness was upon the surface of the deep while the breath of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Then God said “Let there be light”. And there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God divided between the light and the darkness. God named the light “Day” and the darkness he named “Night.” Evening came and then morning, day one.-

Day 6 1:24-2:4a
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living beings, each according to its kind: domestic animals, crawlers and wild animals, each according to its kind. And it was so. So God made the wild animals, each according to its kind, and domestic animals, each according to its kind, and everything that crawls on the ground, each according to its kind. God saw that it was good. Then God said “Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish of the sea, and over the winged creatures in the heavens, over the domestic animals, over all the land, and over everything that crawls on the land. So God created the human being in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the winged creatures in the heavens and over every creature that crawls on the ground.

God said: VOILA! I hereby give to you every seed bearing plant that is upon the surface of all the land and every tree whose fruit bears seed. To you shall it be for food. And to every wild animal, to every winged creature in the heavens, to every creature that crawls on the ground in which there is a living self, I hereby give every green plant for food. And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and voila, it was extremely good. Evening came, and morning, sixth day.

Thus the heavens and earth and all their hosts were completed. On the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, he ceased on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because on it he ceased from all the work that God had done in creation.



Luke 12:13-21
13Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”


Quite a difference, huh? We’ve gone from “it was good!” to “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

In this creation account, the first one, because there are two, the priestly one, all is in order, all is in stately, worshipful procession. We move from Day Zero, in which there is vacuum and void, to Day 7, in which creation is completed, and holy, and God ceases from activity, because all is done, and all is good.
Did you notice how late in the story humanity comes in? It’s not until Day 6 that humans make an appearance. And they—or we—are described in this way: “So God created the human being in his image, in the image of God he crated them, male and female he created them.” The creation of humanity is unique. No one else is described as “in the image”. Cast in God’s image, women and men are to reflect and refract God’s presence in the world.
As God in Genesis 1 is no imperious warrior, so human beings are not conquerors of creation. The language of dominion lacks all sense of exploitation. The hoarding of resources is implicitly forbidden in the account: seed bearing plants and fruit trees are granted to both animals and humans alike. God’s gift of sustenance is one of abundance, not scarcity, to be shared, not hoarded. Humanity’s regime over the world in Genesis 1 is constructive, consonant with God’s life-sustaining creation. In the hands of the Priestly writers, the language of ruling and subduing is transformed. Humanity’s “dominion” is unlike any other kind of dominion. It is modeled on and filled with the collaborative, life-sustaining practices set by the creator God.

Terence Fretheim, Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary , writes this: while creatures are deeply dependent upon God for their creation and life, God has chosen to establish an interdependent relationship with them with respect to both originating and continuing creation. God's approach to creation is communal, relational, and, in the wake of God's initiating activity, God works from within the world rather than on the world from without. The importance of God's word in creation is often a communicating with rather than an independent word.

… what human beings do count with God, make a difference to God with respect to the future of creation.

In Genesis, God calls upon already existing, nonhuman creatures to be part of creating: God says “let the earth bring forth…and the earth brings forth.” God shares creative power with that which is not human. And those who are human, who are created in God’s image, are also called to be part of the creating, imaginative action and work. Human beings are invited—indeed, formed for and called—to take part in this work.
The words that appear in v 28, “have dominion over” are phrased in such a way to remind us of the power rulers have over their subjects. But we are not called to be tyrants, we are called to be good stewards of all that has been given to us. In the same way, humans beings, made in the image of God, are called to “subdue” the earth. In this, humans are called to act in God’s image again—to make order out of disorder. Creation is not seen as static, but as constantly changing, reacting and interacting. We are called to be part of that “good” that God has declared the world to be.

So, again, how do we get from this “good”ness, to “tell my brother to give me my inheritance?” And even more, how do we get from interacting with creation, with God’s good gifts, to “a man built bigger barns.”

Jesus once again has answered a question with a story, a parable. If creation is a gift to us, as the children learned in Vacation Bible School, a parable is also a gift to us. We might be puzzled or dismayed by this gift, however.

Among the questions we want to ask is” what’s wrong with building barns? What s wrong with preparing for the future? Noah prepared for the future—at God’s orders! Joseph built barns, and stored up grain, saving from the fat years to get through the lean years, for the saving of the nation of Israel, and the saving of the Egyptians—so what is wrong with this barn building? Isn’t it, really, a form of good stewardship?

But look carefully at the parable—we are told that the land of the rich man produced abundantly. The rain and the soil, the days and the nights, have worked to produce a bumper crop- so big that the man can’t store it all. But we have no word about how hard the man, or even his workers’ worked. There is now word about the rain, or the soil, or the fruitfulness of the grain itself. There is nothing on the rich man’s consciousness about what worked in concert to deliver to him the abundance. . Look at how many times the man uses “I”, “me” and “mine” — Here the concern is only for himself, not for neighbors, not for his workers, not for those who are landless and cannot produce food for themselves, not for the aliens, the widows, those at the margins of society. And nowhere in the man’s thinking does God appear. No word of thankfulness, no attitude of gratitude, no word of the tithe, only “me” and “mine”.
With all this excess at the center of his thinking, the man plunges into idolatry—the idolatry of things.
The problem is not that things are bad in and of themselves, but the problem for the man—and perhaps for us as well—is that the rich man is placing his trust, his faith, in them, rather than in the sustaining, creating, redeeming God. That is the definition of idolatry—putting something else in God’s place.

Jesus’ last words in this story are these: “those who are not rich toward God.” What does that mean to be “rich towards God?” It’s not even a phrase we use—to be rich towards something or someone. But I would suggest it looks like this: to be rich towards God is first of all, to be reminded that we are formed in the image of God. And to be rich toward God means that we behave like it—we are able to see what is good—and name it, and give thanks to God for it. We are called to be good stewards of all that we have been given. We are also called to be part of God’s creative and imaginative work in the world, restoring the earth, working for justice, building barns for the care of others and not just ourselves. In our Adult Sunday School class in Lodi, we have working our way thru the 6 Great Ends of the church. The Last Great End is “The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World.” We do that, we live out that example, by being good stewards, imaginative stewards, creative stewards, of all that we have been given--time, money, talents. Ask the kids from vbs—they have been talking about taking care of this great gift, the earth, that we have been given by God.
In Vacation Bible School we talked about the “R” words- you know these- “reduce, reuse, recycle” They added a fourth one—Rebuy- and the attic sale here at the church was a perfect example of rebuy writ large—and successfully. But the last R the kids talked about was “remember”—Remember who made you, and who made the earth. Remember who supplied the rain, and who made the crops to grow. Remember who you are, and whose you are. Remember—what we are called to do with all our good gifts. Remember in whose image we are made.

Amen


credits to Dr William P Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation

Sermon Aug 8 2010

Colossians 1:1-14
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
9For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.


Luke 11:1-13
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” 5And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 9“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.



“Lord, teach us to pray.” Can you hear the request behind the request? All the great rabbis like John the Baptist taught their disciples special prayers, and wasn’t Jesus a greater rabbi than John? Look at all the amazing things God did for Jesus. “Lord, teach us to pray…and the unspoken text is “teach us to pray prayers
that work,” and we’re standing right there next to the disciples hand cupped over our ears to learn Jesus’ system.

Seems every so often books come out with the latest sure-fire 5-step or 30-day method that will get God to respond favorably. A few years ago, it was the Prayer of Jabez. According to this book (only 9.99 at Amazon.com) if you keep praying this prayer from 1 Chronicles every day, you, too, will be abundantly blessed. Frankly, I’m suspicious of anyone who claims to know how to unlock “The Power of Prayer” because one way or another they turn God into some kind of cosmic vending machine. Put the right prayer into the slot, push G-10 and out pops what we want. Yet, we have stories in the bible in which prayer seems to change God’s mind. We have stories of both Abraham and Moses who argue with God—and get God to change God’s own mind.

“Lord, teach us to pray,” and we want to know what we can do. And Jesus does what he always does. He challenges us to look at prayer differently. This is good news. There are no magical words or special way to pray. What’s important is that the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ teaching focuses first on the nature of the One to whom we pray. Prayer like worship and Christian discipleship is first and foremost about putting God at the center. And prayer is about a relationship.
In the Colossians text we heard, the first time we hear about prayer is in the 3rd verse, nearly the very beginning of the letter to the church, in which the writers tell the church in Colossae that prayers of thanksgiving are being offered to God because of their faith in Jesus Christ and their love for all the believers. The writers have a relationship with the church, and with God. More than simply thinking about them, or wishing them well, the apostle is connected to the church in Colossae and through them to everyone else.
In the early church, the ancient monks understood this connection. They believed that a life of prayer manifested itself in a relationship with others and that prayer, as dialogue and union with God, had the effect of holding the world together. Prayer is not only what binds the church to God; it is what holds these communities—and ours—together.
Many of you have received post cards from the youth on their mission trip. They wrote as a thank you, to us, and even to the Sunday School children, thanking the church for our support of them. This is what some of them said: “We are doing a great thing. Please keep us in our prayers—we are praying for you….I am keeping you in my prayers…Please keep us in your prayers and we’ll do the same!...Thank you very much for your help that made this trip possible. Please keep us in your prayers as we pray for you….Remember that we are praying for you, and please continue to pray for us!” These are teenagers, writing to small children—and what binds them together is prayer—they have a relationship that is expressed and shown through prayer!
In The Way of the Heart, Henri Nouwen says that one problem with our view of prayer is that many Christians view it largely as “an activity of the mind”- an intellectual exercise, that reduces prayer to simply speaking about God or thinking about God. And that is a problem, Nouwen writes, because viewing prayer as thinking makes God into an object that needs to be scrutinized or analyzed. Nouwen acknowledges that we do use our mind, our intellect, when we pray, but pushes us to see prayer as an activity of the heart. I would push us to see it as an activity of our whole lives.
In the Colossians text, we are told that Paul and his friends “have not ceased praying for you”. If prayer were only an intellectual exercise, then Paul and Timothy would be in a marathon prayer session where each must take turns sleeping and eating so as to never stop speaking to God. If we understand prayer rather as an exercise of the heart, of our whole lives, then to pray without ceasing is to understand that prayer continues when one is talking with God, or with others, at work or at play, in meetings or at meals. Prayer of the heart is the active presence of God’s Spirit in our lives. But prayer of the heart also pushes us to take action.
Rabbi Abraham Heschel marched in Selma with Martin Luther King, Jr, and famously wrote: “"For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying."
In Zen practice, one is called to do a task purely—with no outside thoughts—sweeping the floor is entirely sweeping the floor, and nothing else intrudes. Looking at things slightly differently, the Shakers had the phrase “Hands to work, hearts to God.” All work could be seen as a prayer, a way to worship and glorify God. Dr Rodger Nishioka used to start classes with this instruction: Breathe. Breathe in the mercies of God, and breathe out those mercies onto others.
In the Gospel of Luke, what we know as the Lord’s Prayer begins simply: “Father.” It is a view of God as a parent. And like a parent, God is ready to listen anytime, anywhere, during the day when life gets hectic and seemingly out of control; during quiet times when we can thank God for the blessings of peaceful moments; even in the middle of the night when a crisis occurs, as we are walking, as we are working. What I like about Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is that it addresses God simply as “Father”, not “Our Father who art in heaven” which seems to put God somewhere out there. In Luke, we have a greater sense of God “with us,” right here, in our daily lives, in our daily tasks.
But it is being in relationship with God that matters. In the parable of the friend woken in the middle of the night, he gets out of bed, we are told, because of the first man’s insistence—even pushiness—not because of the friendship. But he would not have gone to his sleeping friend if the relationship did not already exist. And the mutuality of the friendship is such that there is an expectation—the next time, if I need bread, I can come to you. If a pushy stranger had knocked on the door, the parable would have had quite a different result. Like all relationships, it grows deeper with time, with conversation, with attention—with more prayer.
“I’m praying for you” is often just a cliché, or something we say when we don’t know what else to say. But when we understand prayer as located in the heart, then all who are in our lives, and even those who are beyond our knowing, are brought into God’s presence at the center of our being. According to Nouwen, this is a mystery for which there are no words, but it is the very nature of God, Father, that in some wondrous way we are redeemed, fed, strengthened, and joined together with the whole church . Amen.


credits to Dr Rodger Nishioka in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol 3

Sermon Aug 1, 2010

Micah 6:6-8
6“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Luke 10:25-37
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."
29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."




A parable, we are told, is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. You heard me tell the children that a parable is like a gift. It is something that God gives us. And, like a gift box, the story has a lid on it. It’s only when we open the lid that we can begin to see what’s inside.
In the Middle East, stories are told—long stories. It is no surprise that the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights came out of that culture. Ken Bailey, who was the son of missionaries, and grew up in the Middle East, says that rather than direct answers, which our culture favors, a Middle Easterner will tell a story. In Luke, we have many parables, many stories- Ken Bailey has written a book about these stories, about the “losts”- the lost coin, the lost, or prodigal son, the “lost” sheep- I would add this parable to his list. For the lawyer, in asking his question, is really lost, and looking for directions- directions for his life. And Jesus, good teacher that he is, answers the lawyer’s question with a question-
The man, the lawyer, was a learned man, a scholar of Scripture. And as so many learned people do, he just had to show off- just a little bit-The word used in the text for justify means “make righteous”- but wanting to righteous himself, we might translate. But he gets that wrong. We can’t “righteous” ourselves. That is the work of God. Even in Micah, when the question is asked “What does the LORD require of you?” the requirement is not what makes us righteous—it is what the kingdom of God, lived out, looks like.

In the same way, the lawyer’s premise that he begins his argument with is wrong- “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” the lawyer asks- well, you can’t do anything to inherit eternal life- or to inherit anything else, for that matter- You can’t make your Uncle Fred leave you any money, and you can’t make Grandma leave you the family silver- an inheritance is a gift- a bequest- so the lawyer is wrong from the git-go- but bless his heart, he does know the law- he quotes a passage from Deuteronomy (6:5) , and a passage from Leviticus- (19:18b)-
John Calvin talked about the 3rd use of the Law- law as a guide for grateful behavior- law as a guide for how to live a life of gratitude for all that God has done for us. This is what the Micah passage is about.

You know, when we hear this story, we immediately think “Where am I in this parable? The priest? The Levite? Would I be the Good Samaritan? That’s just human nature- we place ourselves in the story. For the Jews of Jesus’ day, it would have been shocking for the Jews to think of being in a ditch, beaten, left to die- and being rescued by a Samaritan. The Samaritans were hated, thought not to worship God rightly, thought to be a kind of half-breed, to use a derogatory term, in some ways to be colluders with the enemies of Israel- and so it would have been outrageous for a Samaritan to be the hero of the story. In fact, it was so outrageous, that the lawyer, at the end, can’t even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan” – when Jesus asks “which one of these was a neighbor…” the man can only mumble “the one who showed him mercy…”

But we need to see this story as about God. God is the one who shows mercy. God is the one who rescues us from the ditch. Just as God is described in the other “lost” stories (God searches for us as diligently as a woman searches for a lost coin, God will go after the lost, just as a shepherd will search for a lost lamb,) This story tells us what God is like- God is the one who rescues us, and binds up our wounds, it is God in Jesus Christ who pays for us- it is God who shows us mercy when no one else will….
God is like the Samaritan

This really hit home for me when I was sitting next to a dying man. He was 30 yrs old, in end stage kidney disease. I didn’t know him very well, having only met him during the last stages of his disease, when he was almost speechless- so lethargic that speech was difficult for him- so we spoke only a little. I knew that he had not gone to church as a child, that his friends, who were all church goers, tried to get him to come with them, with little success.
And, at a loss for words, sitting at his bedside, I began to tell him the story of the Good Samaritan-in much the way I might tell a bedtime story to a child…. this man had, essentially, been left in the road to die. His family had abandoned him because he was HIV positive. The medical group had walked past him, because they couldn’t offer him anything, the chaplain assigned to his floor was very uncomfortable with him, and the church certainly hadn’t visited him. So, I was the chaplain who got him- and, at a loss, not knowing what to say, I began to tell him this story. And that’s when I got it- God is the good Samaritan- God is the one who picks us up, and takes us to a safe place, who binds up our wounds- The prophet Jeremiah asks: is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? (Jer 8:22) Well, yes, there is- God in Jesus Christ rescues and heals us- and others, who are rejected --
and as hard as it might be for us to hear it, God does this out of great mercy, not out of anything we do. We cannot earn it- it is a free gift- an inheritance of grace-

Listen again to the end of the story-Jesus asks the lawyer-

36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
Go and do likewise. Now I’d like us to look for a moment at the behavior of the Samaritan- he bandaged the man’s wounds, and put him on his donkey, and took him to an inn. The Samaritan paid 2 days wages- that’s what 2 denarii was worth. The Samaritan did small things- bandaged him, put oil and wine on his wounds, paid for his hotel stay—but at great risk to himself. Ken Bailey, to help us understand this, tells the story this way: what if, in the Wild West, a Native American were to bring into town a cowboy draped over his horse, a cowboy, with 2 arrows, sticking out of his back. And what if the Native American were to bring him to a hotel, and spend money, and take care of him. What would the townspeople have thought? Amy-Jill Levine asks “who is there, if you were lying in a ditch, what group is there that you would rather die than be rescued by?” That is how shocking this story is—that is how risky the Samaritans actions are.

The Samaritan did small things- at great risk, with great love--
You know, there’s a culture in American, of BIG- we need to do big things. And this is true even for churches- we read about BIG churches, we hear about BIG mega-churches, maybe we see them on tv- what can we do, we might ask ourselves? What can we accomplish? We’re a little church- we’re just one church, I’m just one person-

In his book Messy Spirituality. Michael Yaconelli relates this story:
During WW II, a British Air force bomber plane was flying back to England after a night’s duty. While in flight, they received 5 bullets from a German plane in the fuselage of the bomber. The crew braced for the explosion, but nothing happened. They could see the fuel pouring out of the bullet holes, but there was no explosion. Miraculously, they were able to make it back to England and land safely at their home base.
A few hours after they landed, the mechanic came and found the crew. He had found the 5 bullets inside the fuel tanks, crumpled but not exploded. He handed them to the pilot. The pilot carefully opened them, and found, not gunpowder, but a tightly wrapped piece of paper. When he unfolded it, he found a note which read: “We are Polish POW. We are forced to make bullets in the factory. When the guards are not looking, we do not fill with powder. Is not much, but best we can do. Please tell our families we are alive. And it was signed by 4 Polish prisoners of war. “

Michael Yaconelli goes on to write: “The power of goodness is found in the tiny. Since the beginning, God has chosen the small over the large…David over Goliath, Elijah over the prophets of Baal, one sheep over the ninety nine.”

Go and do likewise. Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God. That’s what the kingdom of God looks like.
In a few minutes, we will be fed at the Table. We will be fed with what might seem like small things- a small portion of bread, a little cup of juice—but they are the gifts of God offered out of the compassion of God. We are called to do likewise along our journey. To do small things, risky things, with great love. Amen.

Sermon July 25, 2010

Luke 10:1-11,16-17

After this the LORD appointed 70 others and sent them on ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever house you enter, first say “Peace to this house!” 6And if any one is there who shares in peace, your peace shall will rest on that person, but if not, it will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are there, and say to them “The kingdom of God has come near to you”. 10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into the streets and say 11”even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.” Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.

16Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. 17 The seventy returned with joy, saying “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.



Perhaps some of you know the book, Marvin K Mooney, will you please go now- that I talked about with the children. In it, as you heard, Marvin K Mooney is to go—somewhere. We don’t quite know where- but the time for going is NOW-
In this section of the Gospel according to Luke , Jesus is sending some 70 people out—apparently for the, the time is now as well. These are 70, besides the 12 disciples. So the Jesus movement has grown. It’s sort of a mission trip writ large. The mission team went out earlier this morning, with 3 vans, and lots of people, and a huge list, and many, many months of planning and preparation. It was necessary, to do all that planning. With that many people, you need to make sure all the documents are in order, there is food enough, water enough, bathroom stops along the way, band aids, medicines, games for the car, Bibles, music- Kleenex, sunscreen, bugspray, Twizzlers, you name it, I’m sure it got brought along.
But when Jesus sends out the 70 (or 72, some versions say) they don’t have a packing list. They don’t have an itinerary. They don’t even have a map, or a gps, or a AAA trip-tik, or even a plan that we know of. Jesus seems to give them, in fact, a sort of anti-list- a list of what not to bring- no bags, no purse, no extra sandals. No money, no food, no juice boxes or water bottles. They are not to greet any one along the way. (meaning, they are not to hang out with friends, but are to get on their way, like Marvin K.) They are to make their way through Galilee, proclaiming “The kingdom of God has come near”
Would any of us travel like that? Suppose we started out- no extra gas, no cash, no credit card, no water or food, no toothbrush or spare socks….would we dare to do that? I sure wouldn’t. But that’s just what the disciples did-
In other places in the Gospels, we are told things like this. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear…strive first for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Same idea- no packing list. Just proclaiming “The kingdom of God has come near to you. Peace be to you. God’s grace is present among us”
And listen to the description- “I am sending you out as lambs among wolves…” Note that in that anti-list that Jesus gave the travelers, there are also no weapons for defense- not even a stick or a staff- Sounds great, huh? How many of you would sign up for that?
But that is just what you signed up for—every day of your life—or, rather, what your parents signed you up for—long ago, or not so long ago, in your baptism. In the waters of baptism, God claimed you as one of God’s own. And God called you- at that time, and every day since.
As part of my seminary education, I did an internship as a chaplain at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. I have never, ever, felt so unprepared for anything in my life—unless it was parenthood. And I have to say I was probably too dumb, 25 years ago, to realize what I was getting myself into. This time, I knew better- or at least I thought I did. I knew there would be death, and grief. I knew it would be hard to stand at someone’s bedside, to comfort the grieving families, to be the one who had to sit with the body, or help the husband work through a careplan to place his wife of 57 years in assisted living. I knew all that…I thought. But I gotta tell you, at times it felt like I was the lamb, and the whole system was the wolves- the death, the disease, the despair that has gotten into people, the system that conspires against people getting the medical help they really need, the poverty, the sin, the bad decisions and addictions that have landed people in the hospital--
And I tell you this not because I think my life is harder than any of yours-but because I know you all have times when you feel like the lamb…and the world looks like a circle of hungry wolves, about to pounce…maybe those wolves are illness, or unemployment, declining health and capabilities, or an estrangement in the family….maybe those wolves are the culture, grabbing at you to make choices and do things you don’t want to do-
But to go out, with no baggage or weapons, as a lamb before wolves- this is what Christ calls us to—Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who courageously stood up to Nazi Germany, wrote “When Christ calls a person, he bids that one come and die” Whoah…so its no wonder, then, that in this story it is not the calling of the 70, but the sending of the 70… I wonder about this story-
Did Jesus push them out the door? Did he give them a slap on the back, between the shoulder blades, to get the 70 going? Was he like the jump sergeant in the airplane to the airmen, yelling “Go, Go Go!” The story tells us Jesus sent them 70 ahead of Him. I have read this story many, many times, but that little bit jumped out at me- they were going,. .But Jesus was coming right behind them…
So when you are sent, you can rest in the assurance that Jesus is coming right behind you—wherever you are sent—to work, to school, to the gas station or the grocery store, to your ailing loved ones in the nursing home, to the mission fields of Pittsburgh, to the people down the street….
We also read that the 70 were to say “Peace” to everyone- to the ones who welcomed them, and to the ones who rejected them. They are not to make a judgment- that is God’s own doing. I have a friend, a fellow pastor, who says of people he meets in life “Love ‘em all- let God sort it out.” When we meet people, no matter how they treat us, we are to say “The kingdom of God has come near to you” That’s it—no threats, no frowny faces, no matter how they receive us and our news. Peace. We are to say to everyone, even the ones who reject us, “the kingdom of God has come near.” Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus was rejected- and the disciples want to call fire down upon the cities- but Jesus says the disciples are to say, even to them, “the kingdom of God has come near…”
And what do we read at the end of their journey? They returned – not with souvenirs, or an awesome tan, or calluses on their hands, but- with joy! Where do you have joy in your life? Where do other see joy in you? An old saying is that Joy means: putting Jesus first, Others next, yourself last—is that what these 70 did? Is that how they found their joy?
We don’t know if Marvin K Mooney experienced joy on his journey. What we do know is this: the time had come, so Marvin went. And, like the 70 Jesus sent, Marvin K Mooney had no packing list—no map, no extra sandals, no worrying about what to eat.
Later in the gospel of Luke, Jesus asks the disciples “When I sent you out without a purse, did you lack anything?” “No, not a thing,” the disciples answer. Sent out, not on a glamorous trip, not on a photo opportunity, news worthy mission trip, but as lambs before wolves. But look what these 70 carry- peace- and the great good news- “the kingdom of God has come near.” This is what the Christian life looks like. This is what we are all sent to do. May God strengthen us, and bless us in this journey. Amen








Psalm 46:1-7, 10-11
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
4There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
5God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
6The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
10“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”
11The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

I, Legion Sermon July 18, 2010

Psalm 42
1As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
3My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
4These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.








Luke 8:26-39
26Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”— 29for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. 32Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. 34When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. 37Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.


What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. The writer of the Gospel of Luke is no Shakespeare, but he does tell quite a story, huh? A dramatic one, with demon possession, and pigs hurtling over a cliff, a healing and restoration- and also fear and suspicion and unbelief.

Just prior to this, Jesus and the disciples have been out on the lake of Galilee. A storm had come up, and Jesus had silenced the water and wind. The disciples were dumbfounded: they asked themselves “Who is this, that he commands even the winds and water, and they obey him?”
And then they all head over to the other side of the lake, the area known as the Decapolis- the 10 cities. This is Gentile territory. This is the only time in Luke that Jesus goes into Gentile territory. You know, the other guys, the unclean people, the “nations”. Now remember, the disciples have just asked the question “who is this” about Jesus.

But as soon as Jesus steps out of the boat, out onto that foreign shore, he is met by a man who knows who he is—or, at least, the demons possessing the man know- they call him Jesus, meaning “One who saves.” And they know who He is “Son of the Most High God”. In biblical times, and even now, to a certain extent, knowing someone’s name, and using it, was powerful- it meant you knew somebody, deeply—and it was also thought that if you knew someone’s name, you had power over them. This is part of what is going on in the commandment, “Thou shalt not use the Lord’s name in vain”- because using someone’s name, and especially Gods name, is serious, powerful business.
The man runs to Jesus, and bows down, and cries out in a great loud voice. We are told a very few details about this man- he has not worn clothes in years, he has been living among the tombs, he is possessed by demons. Jesus has stepped out of the boat, into the frying pan, it seems. The man is, in rabbinical law, about as unclean as one could get—not in his right mind, not wearing clothes, living among the dead—all taboos according to Levitical law—and a Gentile, an unclean foreigner to boot! What was Jesus even thinking, going to this side of the lake?
He was going there to heal—for we are told he commanded the demons to leave the man. And then Jesus asks the man’s name.

And this, I think, is one of the saddest things in this story. The man doesn’t answer his name, doesn’t even say “I am one possessed”, even “I used to be…”. When asked his name, what he answers is this: “Legion”. That is, a multitude.
What is so heartbreaking about this, is that the man is so bound by his ills, his demons, that he can’t even give his name. He has ceased being his self. It is as if Jesus had asked him “what’s wrong?” and the man had said “everything”. Or as if, one of us, meeting someone, would answer the question “who are you” with “I am cancer, or I am Multiple Sclerosis, or I am unemployed, or I am alcoholism.”
This is a story about identity. It is about who Jesus is. The demons know it, even if the disciples don’t get it. AND it is about the man’s identity—he has none—he is no one—he has stopped being himself. Jesus heals him, and saves him (because in Greek the two words are the same) and restores him to wholeness.
Ellen was a Christian, and an alcoholic. We like to think that the two are mutually exclusive. But that is not so. And Ellen began to live into sobriety. And she began going to AA meetings. And, as all AA meetings begin, hers began with the introductions. “Hi, My name is Ellen. I am an alcoholic.” And the group would respond “Hi, Ellen”. But as she grew in her sobriety, and in her faith journey, she began to see she was more than that. And so she began, timidly at first, to go to her meetings, and say “Hi. My name is Ellen, I am an alcoholic….and I am a child of God.”
In her journey towards health, Ellen knew that an alcoholic was not all that she was. She began to regain her true identity.

The man at the side of the lake, running out of the graveyard, is both saved and healed: he is restored to his right mind, he is clothed, and he is sitting at the feet of his Lord and Master, Jesus. He is not his possession, his demons, his illness. He has his rightful identity again. .He is a child of God.
But what is the reaction of his neighbors? There it is, in one small sentence: “they were afraid.” (v35) These were the people who had chained and bound him, tried to protect him, tried to take care of him. Surely, along the way, they had hoped for a cure for him, prayed for him to get better. But we also think, “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”.
The text tells us the people are afraid—the swineherds who had seen the demons leave the man, had gone and told what they had seen. The neighbors, who have heard the report, go out by the lake, to see if what they had heard was true….and it was. The man is healed, he is saved, he is restored.
And they are afraid. So much so, that they want Jesus to leave. To get in his boat and get out of town. Pronto.
And we shouldn’t be surprised. This is how Jesus started his ministry- remember? When Jesus went to his hometown, Nazareth, and takes down the scroll, and reads and then teaches in the synagogue- his own home town people, want to throw him off a cliff.
Because change is scary. Change upsets the apple cart. We may not entirely like the way things are, but at least we’re used to it.
But the good news in Jesus Christ changes things—and it changes us. If you look in your bulletin, you will see some headings “We Hear The Word” and later, “We Respond to the Word”. Hearing the Word of God, we are called to respond—this life giving, this healing, this saving, is so amazing—what will we do?
The man in the story, healed, restored- knows what he wants to do- follow Jesus. He begs Jesus to be allowed to follow him. But Jesus gives him an even harder task.
So the man goes, proclaiming- preaching--. And the words here are very understated for a life healed and restored: just- “so he went.”

“So he went away, proclaiming how much Jesus had done for him”

Two weeks ago, we heard the text from Galatians: “For freedom Christ has set you free” and we talked about freedom FROM and Freedom FOR- the man in this story has been freed FROM his demons- what is he now FREE FOR?- what will he do with his freedom? There used to be a number of commercials on tv, asking the winners of the game “Now that you’ve won the Superbowl, what are you going to do? I’m going to Disneyworld! The winners would shout.

Now that you’ve been saved, been healed by Jesus, what are you going to do?
What are you going to do- what are we going to do, as a saved, forgiven, healed people? As a church called to tell of all the greatness of God?


Perhaps the people in the Decapolis need, not Jesus, but the living testimony of the man who has been healed and restored. Perhaps they need to see, to live with, the man who had been formerly known as “Legion”. If the man were to leave, how easy it would be for his neighbors to revert to the status quo. With the man constantly among them, renewed in body, mind and spirit, restored to his true identity, they must reckon with God’s determined action for health and life. Perhaps Jesus is bequeathing to him—and to them—the authority and responsibility to effect communal change to those in the community who have felt and witnessed Jesus’ presence and power
In her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass has looked at mainline churches that are alive and healthy and thriving. One of the congregations she studied was the Church of the Redeemer, in New Haven, Connecticut. In the shadow of Yale Divinity School, the church was a model of Yankee restraint and understatement. But an amazing thing began to happen when people began to give their testimony. Now, to many of us, THAT sounds scary. But the pastor, Rev. Lillian Daniels, says this: “Our church’s practice is giving testimony, having people talk about their experience of God. We didn’t invent it. It was in the early church” and the Rev Daniels goes on to say “Words are like an earthquake.”
In the seventeenth century, New England Puritans elevated testimony to dramatic democratic expression. They required anyone seeking church membership—a coveted status in New England Society—to be able to testify publicly to the works of God in his or her life. In those days, however, the Puritans used testimony as a way of fitting people into the roles that had already been decided for them. Now, testimony is, as Rev Daniels puts it “who we are and who we are becoming.”
If you look at your bulletin, you will notice that there is one more heading “We Bear the Word into the World.” We are called to bear the word into the world, and into our own corner of the world. In Lodi, we have been studying the 6 Great Ends of the Church- the very first one is “The Proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation (the healing) of humankind.”
This is our response- we are called to tell “how much Jesus has done for us,” to talk about who and what Jesus is calling us to be, as people and as a faith community, to live a life that bears witness to God’s intention for healing and wholeness for all. Now, I want us all to look back at the text again—in v 37, Jesus gets into the boat and returns. Returns to his home. So what we are asked to do is no different than what Jesus himself did—went back home, and talked about the goodness of God.
Now, perhaps that sounds scary—and, I admit, going back to your family, and your hometown, and the people who knew you before, is scary- telling them of Gods great love is hard. But when we are changed by the Gospel, people can’t help but notice. When we are saved and healed, restored to wholeness, people will not always be happy—they might be afraid. But it is what we are called to do, in word, and deed. Amen.