Love isn’t Fair

A sermon preached at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Mason, TX.
The lectionary readings for All Saints’ Sunday are here.
(And some notes for those who are reading this: St. Martin’s is affectionately known as the ‘dog church’ welcoming our canine friends into the worship space. They are an inclusive congregation and following the sermon, the congregation engages in ‘holy discourse’ about the readings and sermon!)

Good Morning!  What a pleasure it is to be with y’all today at St. Martin’s.  I would have brought my dogs but like most clergy kids, they do not always behave well in church, or anywhere for that matter.  They aren’t mean dogs, they are more what I call “aggressively affectionate”.  They would insist on being everyone’s best friend whether you want them to be or not.  

I guess you could say they love unconditionally, its just that they force you to receive it, which I’m not sure really lives into the ‘unconditional’ part.  But I do believe that God gave us dogs to remind us what unconditional love is, just in case we didn’t get the message or forget from time to time what our ancient faith stories teach us about love.

In our gospel reading today, Jesus offers us perhaps the most famous of his teachings: “do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Every known religion in the world has some form of this statement and in it’s simplest understanding it can appear to be a statement about fairness.  But it follows on the heals of some statements that don’t sound very fair, at least not by the world’s standards.  

In God’s Kingdom, the poor, the hungry, the sad, and the marginalized will receive what they need and those who lack nothing will feel like they are being mistreated because others will have what they view as theirs alone.  God’s Kingdom won’t feel fair to those who are used to taking what they want at the expense of others. 

But Jesus goes on to say even more challenging things.  Loving enemies doesn’t seem fair, doing good to those who cause us harm, blessing those who curse, and praying for those who hurt us, none of this feels fair.  Because it isn’t.  Life in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-Heaven isn’t fair.  Life in the Kingdom is about Love.  

Love, as Jesus shows us how to love, doesn’t seek to be fair.  Love is compassionate and humble and seeks the well-being of all.  But, neither is Love passive.  When Jesus says to turn the other cheek, he isn’t telling us to be doormats.  In the culture of Roman occupied first century Palestine, a slap was a derogatory gesture done only to those beneath your station and there were societal standards as to who you could slap openhanded or backhanded.  To offer the other cheek means to stand face to face with the one who harmed you as their equal. It was a statement that you will not cower nor will you sink to their level of violence to retaliate.  

By offering your other cheek or giving more than what is taken, you are undoing cultural oppression and breaking the cycle of revenge and retaliation.  You are living in the Kingdom economy of love, compassion, and forgiveness.  This is true Kingdom justice because holding those who want to harm or abuse us accountable is the most loving thing we can do because love works to end harm and abuse. 

Living into the Way of Jesus isn’t passive victimhood but courageous action that shows the true power and nature of love.  Love can only grow when we give it away.  Love can’t be hoarded or withheld or taken or even returned.  Love can only be given.  And the more we give it the more we have to give.  Listen to that again – the more love we give the more we have to give.  It isn’t ‘the more we receive’ because Love isn’t transactional.  I can only give love and you can only give love because if I do loving things for you with the expectation that you will do them for me, that isn’t love, it’s reciprocation.  

The world says to only love if you are loved in return, to only be kind to those who are kind to you, to hate your enemy and seek revenge, to take what we want and protect what is ours.  The world says love is earned or deserved.  Jesus shows us in flesh and blood that love can only be given away.  

When we live this life in a way that gets us all that we want regardless of what other’s need, we get what we want.  

When we seek to use all the we have and all that we are to build up God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, we get what we want.  

When we do to others as we would have them do to us, we are loving our neighbor as ourselves.  We want for our neighbor what we want for ourselves.  To love our enemies means we want for them what we want for ourselves – life in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  And when we let love guide what we do, we bring glory to the God who made us in love, for love, and to love. 

In our baptismal vows and we are reminded of who and Whose we are – the people of God’s Kingdom, here and now in Mason Texas. People who with God’s help proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ,  who seek and serve Christ in all persons, striving for justice and peace, and respecting the dignity of every human being.  

We join with all the saints who have come before us in these ancient vows that provide the pathway for following Jesus in the Way of Love.  Amen. 

Goodness

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the twentieth Sunday after Pentecost.

I’m still in the UK, spending time with friends, touring cathedrals and churches, eating and drinking my way through villages, towns, and cities.  It’s quite lovely.  I enjoy so much experiencing different countries and cultures.  I told my friend I wanted to experience real England and not just the fairy tale version I think I have in my head.  I am grateful she’s able to drive me around as the thought of having to relearn to drive on the other side of the road through countless roundabouts quite frightens me!  So far, I don’t think I’ve made any major ‘American tourist’ faux pas.  I’ve learned I quite like steak and ale pie and a full English breakfast.  And my favorite part as been feeling the centuries of prayer in the churches and cathedrals we toured and prayed in.  

I am soaking in the history of these places – the good, the bad, and the ugly – the church has not always sought God’s goodness nor have we always reflected God’s love in this world.  Yet, all that has come before is part of who we are.  The stories of the past, like the stories in scripture are a learning tool that enable us to see into our own motivations and ponder what it really is that we want from our relationship with God.  

The writer of Luke tells us that Jesus told this parable of two people praying in the synagogue in order to reveal how sometimes we trust in our own righteousness rather than God’s righteousness.  It is yet one more way Jesus tries to help us see the many ways we live competitively and transactionally rather than relationally.  

For example, I know of a small parish in the US that was formed because of a split at another Episcopal parish.  That split happened many years prior and yet the newer parish never has been able to describe who they are but defines themselves by splitting from “that other” parish.  Much like the pharisee in today’s parable, “thank God we aren’t like them.”  Of course, to tell that story I run the risk of being like the Pharisee myself.  Jesus doesn’t give us parable to tell us we are better than others but to offer us an invitation to look into our own self and ask God to forgive us when we do put ourselves above others.  Whenever we try to define ourselves by how we are better than others, we are falling into the same trap as the Pharisee.  

When we strive to see life through the lens of love there is no comparison.  Love enables us all to be who we are as God uniquely and wonderfully made us.  When Jesus uses the metaphor to describe all who follow him as one body, it is to help us learn that we are all a unique and necessary part of the whole.  There is no earning or deserving our way into the Kingdom, only an invitation to come as we are and let the journey of our whole life following Jesus help us grow more and more into who God made us to be.  

It is because of God’s goodness that we are good, made in the image of God; it is God’s righteousness that makes us righteous.  Yes, we do good things in response to God’s gift to us, but it is not our spiritual practices that make us good or righteous or earn us a place in God’s Kingdom.  Spiritual practices are ways to deepen our relationship with God and each other, they are not ways to prove how good we are.  

Your goodness does not make me bad nor do my acts of service make you any less than me because yours are different than mine.  Some of us have the ability to travel other far off lands and build hospitals or schools or churches.  Some of us have the ability to give generously to fund big projects.  Some of us have the ability to pray for these projects.  Some of us have the ability to sit with others in suffering and pain.  Some of us can organize events.  Some of us can speak encouraging words.  Some of us can help others see other points of view.  Some of us can write thought provoking articles.  Some of us can cook and feed others.  Some of us can make others feel at home and at ease no matter the situation.  This could go on and on and since some of us can use more words than are necessary, I’ll wrap it up with ‘you get the idea’.  

When Jesus was asked how to know God, he said “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life.” (John 14) He didn’t answer by saying who he wasn’t but by knowing who he is.  Jesus invites us to follow him so that we can come to know who we are and each use our abilities to participate in the building up of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  God calls us to be who God made us to be: beloved children of God who journey together with the intent that we all have what we need to thrive.  

The true motivations of some who built these amazing churches and cathedrals may not have been pure but the centuries of faithful prayers in them saturate the atmosphere with God’s loving power.  To sit in worship and prayer, imagining the craftsmen who carved and laid the stones, the artists who painted, those who formed the stained glass, carved the wood, forged the metalwork, along side the clergy who led worship, the musicians, those who’ve worshiped and prayed through the centuries, I am bound deeply to God and all who are with me, have come before, and all who will come after.  

It is the love of God who made us good, and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that make us citizens of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  All that we do on this earth is our response to God’s goodness.  God invites us to live in relationship with God, each other, and ourselves.  Jesus shows us in flesh and blood how to live relationally instead of transactionally so that our lives reveal God’s goodness.  Amen. 

Gaining Perspective

A very short reflection on the lectionary readings for the nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

I have been traveling this past week and haven’t prepared a proper reflection.  But as I have some quiet time before we begin today’s adventure and I read the lessons for today, I am again reminded how important it is to make time to get out of our regular routines so that we can observe the patterns and rhythms of our lives from a distance.  Based on Jesus’ parable and what Paul tells Timothy, letting the atmosphere of our culture blind us to the ways of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven isn’t anything new to our day and time.  

The judge in the parable dismissed the widow who was asking for justice.  He was only interested in maintaining his own power and comfort.  But the widow did not give up.  She kept her eyes on God and held the judge accountable by not letting his dismissive attitude diminish her faith nor her confidence in God’s justice.  Even as our world seems to going to hell in a handbasket we must be encouraged by God’s love and justice to work toward what we know is right.  

The whole of our scriptures tell stories of the injustices of this world juxtaposed with God’s love and justice.  Like the persistent widow, we must keep our eyes on God and not put blinders on in order to maintain our own comfort level.  We learn from God and the earthly ministry ofJesus what it is to be on-earth-as-in-heaven.  We are called and taught to live ‘as if’.  Even as others seek to bolster their own power at the expense of the wellbeing of many, we follow Jesus into the Kingdom.  

We must receive from the Spirit the eyes to see and hears to hear when we are mired down in the unjust, fearful, coercive ways of the world and to recognize when we are setting aside the wisdom of the Kingdom.  We must never give up on calling out the injustices we witness.  Our work is to participate with God in building up the Kingdom.  The power of God’s Kingdom is Love revealed through justice and compassion for all people.  

Paul tells Timothy that “All scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for good work.”  

This is the way to know if a person is living with the wisdom of God – if they are doing good and equipping others to do good, too.  So, have courage.  Seek the wisdom of God.  Tend to each other’s needs.  God hears us and sees us and wants the best for us; we all belong to God.  We are all God’s beloved children and our best response to God’s love for us is to live in the here and now grounded in and guided by love.  

Keep your eyes on Jesus and your feed in line with his.  Keep loving louder than the hate.  

Made Whole

A Sunday Reflection on the lectionary readings for the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

“As they went they were made clean.”  I grew up in a denomination in which most instruction was about the moment of the decision to invite Jesus to us and not so much about how we follow Jesus on this journey of our life on-earth-as-in-heaven.  When I first began attending the Episcopal church it made so much more sense to me to talk about how we follow Jesus in our culture and society, in our ordinary days, in our struggles and celebrations, in our joy and our grief.  Our faith in God is a way of life, not just a momentary decision.  Our continuous transformation into who God made us to be begins with that decision, yes, but the Kingdom road is made as together we follow Jesus day in and day out.  

In the culture of our gospel story, those with skin diseases lived under strict rules of oppression.  They were not allowed to make contact or even come close to anyone without a skin disease.  They couldn’t work or go to the market for provisions.  They couldn’t even go to the temple or synagogue to receive food or care.  They were literally cast out of their community and made to fend for themselves with no resources.  So, many grouped together to help each other as best they could to survive.  

This group of outcasts approaching Jesus was a BIG DEAL.  They know Jesus can heal them so they get close enough to shout and ask for mercy.  Jesus doesn’t make a big show of it, he simply tells them to go and see the priest, the normal thing to do.  No, really, at least in their culture.  In the jewish culture of first century Roman Occupied Palestine, it was the priests who declared anyone either clean or unclean. If y’all have a skin issues and come to me, I’ll pray with you and then ask if you’ve been to the doctor.  

Jesus telling these folks to go to the priest to show they’ve been healed so they could be declared clean was the first step in being reaccepted into their community.  And, so, they go.  All ten turn and head out to find a priest.  And as they went, they were made clean.  So, before we give the nine too hard of a time, remember that they did begin by stepping out in faith.  They weren’t clean before they went looking for the priest, it was on the journey they were healed.  So, they do get some credit for doing exactly as Jesus said.  

We don’t know why they didn’t turn back to give thanks.  Perhaps, like the commander Naaman from the Old Testament story in the Second book of Kings, they were disappointed because their healing wasn’t some dramatic spectacle.  Perhaps they believed they were entitled to the healing and gratitude wasn’t necessary.  Perhaps even as they are visibly healed, they don’t feel worthy of the gift nor to be in Jesus’ presence.  Or perhaps they didn’t believe the healing would stick if they didn’t find the priest as they were told.  The gospel writer doesn’t tell us of the nine but leaves Jesus’ question “the other nine where are they” ringing in the ears of our hearts so that we can ask ourselves “were am I?”.

The gospel writer does tell us of the one, the Samaritan.  Remember, the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other, even though they were both descendants of the original twelve tribes of Israel, with each group considering themselves the ones of ‘true’ faith.  The Jews considered the Samaritans unclean because of their way worshiping God and so to encounter a Samaritan with leprosy was a double whammy.  

But it was this despised man who turned around – the meaning of repentance – and praised God and gave thanks for his healing.  This changing of heart and mind is when Jesus tells him he is made whole (translated as ‘well’ in the NRSV).  The others were healed physically, but this man experienced a spiritual transformation also, praising and loving God with all of his being, heart+soul+mind+strength.  

Modern psychology reveals the need for complete healing.  Research into stress, trauma, and abuse reveals that what happens to our bodies (strength) impacts us emotionally (heart), alters our thought processes (mind), and shapes how we move through life (soul).  And what happens to us emotionally impacts the whole of who we are.  

We are made by God to be whole and holy humans.  All that we experience in life shapes the entirety of our being.  The experience of physical and emotional pain is designed by our Creator to teach us something about ourselves.  It’s our warning system.  If I touch a hot stove, I am burned and I learn not to touch the hot stove.  If I am ill and don’t get treatment (be it medicine, rest, nutrition, surgery, or any combination) healing is inhibited.  If, through my careless or intentional behavior I cause harm to another, the whole of who they are is impacted.  And it goes even deeper – I am impacted as well because we are all connected to and interdependent on each other to be truly whole and well.  My pain and suffering impacts you and yours impacts me.  

The Samaritan man honored this relational connection when he returned to Jesus to show gratitude.  And in this moment of relational connected he is not only made clean on the outside but he is made whole.  This man’s journey would be one of deeper growth as a child of God and in turn, he would show others the journey toward wholeness.

Transformation into the beloved people we are made to be is a lifelong journey.  And the vast majority of the time, this transformation takes place as we go about the ordinary events of our days.  God’s gift of a whole and holy life doesn’t often come in dramatic spectacle.  It isn’t something we are entitled to or can earn.  T

Together as we follow Jesus we are made whole as we deepen and nurture our relationship with God and with each other, as we walk the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven path giving thanks for all that we are and all that we have and praising God with each step we take.  This is the faith that makes us whole.  

Unprofitable

A reflection on the Lectionary readings for the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost.

I have to admit, y’all, that reading the word ‘worthless’ in either the scripture or the Book of Common Prayer, really troubles my heart.  First of all, I don’t like hearing I’m worthless from any source and secondly, I know that God doesn’t view any human being that way.  We are not worthless to God.  God made us good, as beloved image bearers of the divine goodness.  Jesus often uses hyperbole to grab our attention to help us listen more deeply. So, I often translate the word worthless to human and much of the time, I believe the authors of our scriptures and the prayerbook theologians were trying to communicate just that. We have to be reminded sometimes (often?) that we are humans and not gods or that we are human and not less than that.  Being human doesn’t make us worthless.  It is who we are made to be, with all of our potential faults and our limitations we are God’s beloved.

To be human is to have limits and there is great freedom in accepting and living within those limits.  When we try to be limitless, we become slaves to fruitless pursuits that will never come to fulfillment.  We become slaves to the impossible task of trying to be what we are not.  Mustard seeds don’t try to be anything but a mustard plant.  Jesus show us the way of freedom, life lived as we are made to live.  

In our prayer today, we ask God to give us the good things that, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, are ours for the asking, even though they don’t fit within our human limits.  So, just what are the good things we are not worthy to ask for? The God who pursues us, who was willing to become one of us, to live as God made us to live, to experience the joys and pains of being human, to go through death so that we, too could pass beyond physical death to everlasting life in God’s presence.  This everlasting life isn’t something we have to wait for but begins in our here and now as God is with us, the help of the holy spirit living in us.  

Jesus tells the disciples that they don’t need to increase their faith but need to learn how to live into their faith.  They need to “work” differently, not harder.  The first thing they need to do differently is to let go of the concept of earning or deserving when it comes to our relationship with God.  From the beginning of creation, God made humans to participate with God in God’s purposes in this world.  God’s love and the gift of life is just that: a gift.  It isn’t something we have to earn.  It isn’t something we have to prove ourselves worthy of.  God loves us and gives us life.  It isn’t something we can have more or less of than others. We have the choice to live in a way that honors God or struggle to live contrary to who we are made to be as humans.  

Who among us expects exceptional praise for doing what our jobs pay us to do (if you do, we need to have a different conversation, but I digress…)?  When we make a contract with an employer, we do what our job description requires of us and our employer pays us.  It is a simple transaction (yes, I’m speaking in ideals here. I know some employers expect an amount of work and commitment that isn’t equal to the amount of pay and the use of the words slave can inhibit our modern imaginations but this is the way parables and metaphors work, bear with me).  The employer in Jesus’ parable has defined and culturally acceptable expectations of the people she pays to tend to the fields and herds and household.  It’s an equitable transaction of work for payment as it was understood in their time and culture.  

It’s easy, and for most of us preferable, to envision ourselves as the employer rather than the employee in this parable.  Jesus is well aware of this as he turns the table on us at the end asking if we as the employee would consider ourselves deserving of anything beyond the defined and culturally acceptable expectations.  In other words, who among us feels entitled to what we haven’t earned.  In what ways do we expect from others more than we are willing to give ourselves?  It’s that scandalous ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ thing again!  

Another translation of the word NRSV translates as ‘worthless’ is ‘unprofitable’.  Does it help to read the last bit of Jesus’ words, “we are unprofitable employees, doing only what we ought to have done”?  Do we even do what we ‘ought’ to do?  We all have responsibilities and we shouldn’t expect exceptional recognition for doing what is ours to do.  In the economy of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, what we do for others isn’t transactional but relational.  We do for others because we want for others what we want for ourselves.  We don’t keep score.  It isn’t a zero sum game.  Life isn’t about having more than others (being profitable) but working together to ensure everyone has what they need (unprofitable).  The defining factor for the economy of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven is loving God, our neighbor, and ourselves.

When we begin to see the world through the lens of love, our faith in the God who made all there is becomes a way of life not a tit-for-tat, transaction based existence.  Other human beings are not a means to get our own expectations fulfilled but companions and fellow image-bearers with whom we journey together, following Jesus into the Kingdom here and now.  Together and with God, we strive to meet everyone’s needs and respecting the dignity of every human being. This is true freedom and God’s unconditionally given gift to each and all of us.  

Some of us need to let go of the idea that we need to prove ourself worthy.  Some of us need to let go of the idea that we are worthless.  Some of us need to let go of the idea that we deserve more than others.  Each of these comes from a place of pride – thinking we know better than God who and Whose we are.  We all need to let ourselves be the humans God made us to be and receive the gift of God’s love freely given.  We are all God’s beloved, made to live the Kingdom life with the spirit of power and love and self-discipline journeying together in love.  Amen. 

Greatness (MMOW9)

Following the story of the entitled laborers (see MMOW7) Matthew tells us the story of the time one of the disciples’ mom told Jesus to give her sons special ranking in the Kingdom of God. As a mom, I can see where she’s coming from. As a follower of Jesus, I have to chuckle at the audacity of her request. Jesus has just told a story of all being equal in the Kingdom and privately instructed the disciples about what is in store when they reach Jerusalem. And still they sought to appear great as the world sees greatness.

True Greatness isn’t being stronger or better than others. When Jesus says ‘my yoke is easy and my burden is light’, the word we translate as ‘easy’ means well fitting or fit for use. A yoke is an apparatus that links two or more animals together so that they work as a team with each other and with the one leading them. For a yoke to work properly, without causing harm, it must be fit specifically to each animal. With this metaphor, Jesus is calling us to the life we are made for, following him in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.

God did not make human beings to dominate others or to be dominated by others. God made us in love, by love, and for love. We aren’t made to carry the burden of domination; we are made to wear the yoke of love.

Think of the phrase “fitting a square peg in a round hole.” We use this to talk about someone or something that isn’t meant to fit where it is and the frustration that arises when we try to force it. This is what Jesus means when he asks “can you drink from the cup I will drink.” He is asking if they will be able to set aside the very egos that are causing them to ask for higher status.

Jesus reminds them of the very freedom they have chosen to follow him into, “You know that those who rule the Gentiles show off their authority over them and their high-ranking officials order them around. But that’s not the way it will be with you. Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant.”(Matthew 20:25-26 CEB).

When we have the privilege and responsibility to lead others we must always remember we ourselves are still following Jesus. One of the greatest messages from the stories we have of the early church in the Acts of the Apostles is that no one tries to be the new head of the Church. They know the only one who is is Jesus.

Inciting fear or threatening others with harm isn’t leading. It is at worst coercion and at best control. Pretending to serve others in order to win favor or be known as the ‘greatest servant’ is still coercion and control. There is nothing loving in statements like “this is going to hurt me more than you” or “this is going to hurt but it’ll be good for you” or “look at all I’ve done for you.” When we are willing to intentionally cause harm to another or use guilt and shame, we are not leading, we are abusing.

Jesus-led leadership never willfully causes harm; it will never use guilt and shame as weapons. When a leader who is following Jesus unintentionally does harm those they are leading (because we are, after all, human), they admit it, learn from it, make reparations, and does the self-growth-work to not do that which caused harm again.

At times, each of us is a leader of sorts, whether it is with our kids and in our families, at work, on a team, navigating traffic as we drive, or a cart jam at the grocery store. We are given opportunities every day to model what it looks like to follow Jesus. This is leading. This is greatness in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.

This is how we love louder than the hate.

The God of All

A sermon preached at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, San Antonio. The lectionary readings for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

All of our readings for today teach us that God is the God of All – of all people and of all that we think, say, and do. God is God of our whole life. The houses we buy and rent, the businesses we own and frequent, our families, our work, our hobbies, our friendships, all that we are. This is why we gather as we are today in worship and prayer and praise, because God is the God of all.

In our Gospel reading today Jesus tells a story in which it is the rich man who isn’t given the dignity of a name. As a literary device this can be for several reasons: in God’s Kingdom things aren’t as they are in worldly kingdoms and to encourage our imaginations to place ourselves within this story and discover who it is we place in the margins of society, who are the Lazaruses of our world? Just to be clear, however, this Lazarus is not the brother of Mary and Martha whom Jesus raised from the dead. This Lazarus is a literary figure who represents those who tend to be invisible in society: the poor, the service workers who many take for granted, the suffering side of our world that makes many uncomfortable to notice.

The rich man has realized that the monetary wealth that was so important to him doesn’t guarantee anyone anything and he wants those he loves to benefit from this gained wisdom. But Abraham tells him, “if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

Moses and the prophets spoke of God’s promises and faithfulness since the very beginning as God chose to reveal the Godself to the world through a particular people group, not so this people group could be better than others but to show the world how to live in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, where all people matter and all are loved and valued. This isn’t anything new with Jesus. When the ancient Israelites demanded a king, God reminded them God was to be their king and no one else. But they demanded to look like the people around them instead of showing the world what it is to be people of God’s Kingdom.

The ways of God’s Kingdom are not the same as the ways of worldly kingdoms. And by worldly kingdoms, I don’t mean literal monarchies but the lives we construct for ourselves to satisfy our own desires for power and wealth. The power of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven is the power of Love. The wealth of God’s Kingdom is relational ways of being: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness, as Paul describes in his letter to Timothy. Healthy relationships are the true building blocks of God’s Kingdom here and now, the Kingdom Jesus said over and over again is right at hand.

The message of this parable isn’t that wealth in and of itself is bad. The world needs money and commodities to operate. As with all things, it is what we do with them and how we let these things shape our lives that matters. What do we consider the most valuable part of our life? Do we see the world through scarcity or abundance?

The accumulation of wealth for one’s own personal benefit is the same distortion of God’s goodness as in the Garden of Eden. That story tells us that our earliest faith ancestors were content to be with God in their life, the life of tending to God’s creation, until the serpent distorted the abundance into scarcity. They had all that they needed in limitless supply from the many trees in the garden. The serpent deceived them into thinking God was holding out the best from them. And people have been falling for this lie since. It is a scarcity worldview that convinces us we need to fight or defend what is ours. Moving through this world with the abundance of God’s Kingdom enables us to see the image of God in all people and want for all what we want for ourselves.

Through his parables, Jesus shows us what it is to live our ordinary, everyday lives within God’s Kingdom where we are, just as the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah. Our lives are to be different from those who don’t walk with God so that with our lives we reveal God to them. The lens through which we see everything, the compass we let guide us, the wisdom we let shape who and Whose we are is God’s Love. When we choose to follow Jesus and live as God’s People we show the world the Way of God’s Love with all that we have and all that we do and all that we are.

We are to take hold of eternal life here and now, the life that really is life by stepping in behind Jesus and living to be more like him always. Our life is to be built up by the relationships we foster and grow. All that we have is to be used for the good of all.

Our life, grounded in the promises of God, is lived in the now and not yet. We live in the midst of the pain and joy, suffering and freedom, difficulties and delights of this world holding fast to the promise that some day, in God’s timing, all will be put to rights, that God’s Kingdom will come to earth in it’s fullness. For now, we live as if that has already come to be. We feed the hungry, welcome the outsiders to the banquet table, we love God and our neighbor with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We show the world that God is our refuge and stronghold, our shield and buckler, bound to us in love. We live in godliness combined with contentment, knowing that we brought nothing into this world and take nothing from it and that all that we have and all that we are is a gift from the God of Love. Amen.

Things Heavenly

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

This is another one of those “WHAAAAAT” moments with Jesus that makes us shake our heads and ask is he really encouraging us to be dishonest?  No.  Just like he wasn’t telling us we had to hate our families, Jesus is intentionally making us stop and ponder what he’s saying so that we will think about what we are thinking and doing.  

This passage is so often used to talk about our relationship with money and that is a very important topic.  How we behave in regards to money does reveal so much about our relationship with God.  

And so before we dive into the “but wait there’s more” part of today’s reading, let’s me tell you another story.  

Once upon a time, there was a whole community who was suffering.  There was a church in this community that had an abundance of resources so the priest asked those in charge of the parish finances to use their abundant reserves to help provide relief in the midst of this major crisis.  Those responsible for managing the parish’s finances wanted to hold onto the reserves for a proverbial ‘rainy day’.  The priest asked them how much more ‘rainy’ could it get than when the whole community was suffering because of an pandemic?  The debate went back and forth with the priest offering the teachings of Jesus about money and naming the pain and suffering of the greater community and the money folks telling stories of when they didn’t have enough and no one shared with them.  The priest showed them how much they had and described how much good they could do and still have some left.  The money-centered folks told the priest to leave God out of their money.  

With this one demand, this group of folks revealed exactly what they believed to be the relationship between God and their money.  And like the manager in our reading, they revealed so much more about how they viewed the world.  For them, the world is a place of scarcity, there’s never enough for everyone and there might not be enough for tomorrow so the safest thing to do is hoard whatever we have, even if it means others might go without.  These people let scarcity shape their life, not God’s Love.  

A scarcity mindset is the very thing introduced into the world by the talking serpent in the Garden.  God said, “I will give you all you need to thrive as my beloved children.”  And the serpent convinced the humans that what God gave them wasn’t enough, that somehow God was keeping from them something they wanted and that God couldn’t be trusted to keep God’s promises.  A scarcity mindset leads us to lie and manipulate others to serve ourselves instead of serving God so that everyone has what they need.  

The manager of Jesus’ parable, instead of owning up to the consequences of his dishonesty, twisted and manipulated others for his own benefit and gain.  Instead of admitting to being dishonest, he used more lies and manipulation to try and survive regardless of the harm it may bring to others.

In this parable, Jesus is showing us how people’s behavior reveals their inner motivations.  When we place our own needs, our own comfort, our own need to be right or in control or in charge above the needs of others, we reveal that we don’t trust God and the teachings of Jesus to show us how to live in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  We’ve chosen ourselves over our relationship with God and others.  

The deeper meaning of this parable is that character matters.  And what and who we let shape our character matters.  We are all discipled by something or someone or some group, be it the news we watch or the algorithms that determine what we see on social media, or time spent intentionally deepening our relationship with God or doing life with others.  All that we give our time and attention to shapes who we are becoming.  When we follow Jesus our relationship with God is the foundation of all that we do with all that we have: how we manage our resources, how we live in relationship with others, how we see and move through the world.

Following Jesus in the Way of Love means we work with God and each other to ensure we all have what we need in the abundance of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven..  We live with God at the center, not ourselves.  

When Jesus says make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, he isn’t encouraging us to be dishonest, he’s pointing out that regardless of how we make our earthly wealth, it is only temporary.  It isn’t our friends who ensure we are welcomed into God’s everlasting Kingdom, it is God.  And God’s Kingdom, Jesus tells us over and over is right here at hand.  The only thing that is everlasting is our relationships.  God’s Kingdom is built by relationships, not bricks and mortar.  

Ok, yes, I know we need money and to manage it well so that we can be responsible adults.  Jesus isn’t saying otherwise.  If we take the whole of what our scriptures have to say about money, it boils down to the last thing Jesus says in today’s story: We can’t serve God and wealth.  If our main focus and goal in life is to build our own wealth at the expense of others, we’ve lost the Jesus plot.  

In God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, there is always abundance because when we are focused on serving God and each other, all that we have is more than enough for everyone to thrive.  Life in the Kingdom isn’t a competition of who has more.  It isn’t about elevating ourselves above others.  It isn’t about taking advantage of other people’s kindness and giving nothing ourselves.  It isn’t about earning or deserving.  

Life in God’s Kingdom is about being good managers of all that we have and all that we are and all that we do so that everyone thrives.  And before anyone starts taking on the impossible pressure of having to fix all the ills of this world, God knows that we struggle to do it well all the time.  All that God expects from us is that together we do our best with God’s help and as we grow in our relationships with God, each other, and ourself, we become better at this Kingdom living thing each day.  This is the journey Jesus invites us to when he says ‘follow me’.

The wealth of God’s kingdom is love, compassion, mercy, and justice.  And the more we invest in these by offering them them to others, the more we all have.  This is the peaceable life of godliness and dignity that Paul writes of in his letter to Timothy.  The prophet Amos offers the same admonition as Jesus – when we put aside God’s Way for our own, God knows our hearts and God is not pleased, not because God is sitting high on the throne waiting for us to mess up so he can use his smite button, but because God knows we are made for so much more than a scarcity mindset.  

God made us to know the abundance of the Kingdom, to thrive when love, compassion, mercy, and justice are abundantly shared.  God’s desire for us is to live outwardly as we are created inwardly – as image bearers of the Loving God who always offers us compassion and mercy and justice.  The Kingdom life is the life we are made for, in the here and now and for all eternity.

Worth Finding

A reflection on the lectionary readings for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

These short parables follow on the heels of what we read last week about finding our identity in God and counting the cost of being a disciple.  Jesus doesn’t coerce or manipulate others to follow him. He doesn’t paint a false picture of a world without challenges or struggles.  Jesus speaks the truth of living in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven and lets us decide for ourselves.  It isn’t that God is indifferent.  It is God’s desire that every person be in loving relationship with God.  To truly enable humans to love God, God gave us the freewill to choose God or not because Love requires choice.  Love cannot be demanded or controlled or coerced.  People aren’t shamed or guilted into loving God as Jesus shows us in flesh and blood how to love.  

In the first of the two parables we read today, the shepherd seems willing to risk the entire flock for one.  But that’s the human point of view.  The Kingdom point of view says everyone one is worth searching for.  As always, we have to read this in light of all that Jesus teaches us.  The one who has wandered from the shepherd is loved just as much as each of those who remained.  Love, life in God’s Kingdom, isn’t a competition.  God loves all whom God has made.  We don’t earn or qualify for God’s love.  God loves.  

Jesus goes on to tell of a woman who goes to great lengths to find one of ten lost coins.  The story is set up the same way as the shepherd and one sheep story.  The woman represents God and we are the coins.  At the end of the story, Jesus himself interprets the story as a glimpse into the Kingdom: the angels rejoice each time a human being changes their way of thinking, each time one of us turns toward God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven and follows Jesus.  This is repentance – to reorient our way of thinking and living to God’s Way, the Kingdom Way, to change our hearts and minds so we are open to the transforming love of God. 

It is God who seeks us out.  It is God who became one of us to show us in flesh and blood what it is to live in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  We are the sheep worth venturing out into the wilderness for, the coin worth moving the furniture to sweep for.  We are each and all invaluable to God because God loves us.

The true cost of a life following Jesus and learning to live as God intends life for us to be is God’s life.  The God who made us and searches for us relentlessly, who became one of us, gave God’s life so that we could remember who and Whose we are.  The gift is offered to us and we have to give up our culture’s and history’s ideas of what life is for to receive it.  Our purpose on this earth isn’t power or money or prestige or domination.  For those in power and with the most money and status, that is a high price indeed, but nothing compared to what God has done for us.  Our purpose on this earth is to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves. 

Following Jesus costs us everything not because God wants us to have nothing but because the life we are made for is not the life the world tells us to construct for ourselves.  The life we are made to live here and now is life in healthy relationship with God, each other, and ourselves. To be a disciple is to live the whole of our life following Jesus – our work, our play, our relationships, our politics, our money, every part of our life.  

The economy of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven isn’t built with money or possessions or power or status.  God creates God’s Kingdom with love and relationship.  There’s no score keeping or bottom lines or investors or people in power to please.  There is only love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  And the more we offer these gifts to others the more there is for everyone.  

The only appropriate response to God’s gift of life is to give our whole life to participating with God in bringing about the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  And we do this in community with each other.  Because without others, love can’t exist.  We are most fully human when we are other focused and not self-centered.  Life in God’s Kingdom isn’t a competition to get the most or be better than others but a collaboration to bring about the fruits of love for everyone.  

Our current culture is overflowing with hate and violence and we must keep our hearts and minds oriented toward God, toward Love.  Neither Love nor the empathy love inspires is conditional.  Jesus tells us to love both our neighbor and our enemy.  Empathy means we remember that the Divine Image is in every human being, not just those we like or are like us.  Unconditional love and empathy do not, however, require unconditional acceptance of harmful words and behaviors.  We can have empathy for those causing harm and hold them accountable for the harm they cause.  This is how loving community works together with God to shine the light of love so we all stay oriented toward God. 

In those moments when we forget who and Whose we are and wander away, God still seeks us and invites us back to the Kingdom path following Jesus.  Love as God loves doesn’t guilt or shame us into compliance.  God doesn’t seek to punish or harm us to prove how bad we are.  God is with us as we may face consequences of the sins of humans, our own and others, and God loves us into the everlasting life of the Kingdom here and now and for all eternity.  

The cost for this life is our life given back to the God who made us to be in relationship.  And all of heaven rejoices when we turn around and allow Holy Spirit to reorient our hearts and minds toward God.  The grace of our Lord overflows for all of us with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Remembering How to Lead (MMOW8)

Jesus-led leadership isn’t something new to us with the teachings of Jesus. We begin to learn what it is to lead as God intends in the very beginning of our faith stories.  God, the ultimate of communion and community of persons, the image in which we are all created, we are told in the first creation story said ‘let US create humans in OUR image’.  There is no distinction between the male and the female, God created both in the likeness and image of God.  The author of the second creation story said that after creating the male of our species, God says it is not good for this human to be alone and then has some fun making all sorts of animals to keep him company until finally making another human so the two could make more humans.  The Hebrew word used to describe why God made the woman is the same word used over and over again in the Psalms to describe the help that comes only from God, a rescuing, restorative help the completes and makes whole that which has been disrupted by human frailty and failings.  The word is never used to describe a submissive form of help.  Neither of the creation narratives indicates that one human is supposed to be over another.

It isn’t until the humans act less than the humans God made us to be that God tells them they will struggle together.  Had they not listened to the lies of the serpent that caused them to doubt God’s word (this is the true sin), perhaps they would not have gone on to act competitively toward each other and toward other humans.  

When we back our theology up to the beginnings of our faith origin stories we start with equality and mutuality as God intends.  It was human behavior that brought about the discord between us. It was not God’s design that we compete for power or control of others.  Both the man and the woman made the choice to not trust God.  God named the consequences of their actions, God does not ‘curse’ them.  The serpent is cursed and the ground is cursed because of the man’s behavior.  God doesn’t discard the humans or send them out to fend for themselves.  God works within the disruption the humans caused and provides them with clothing better than they could make themselves and sends them to continue to do what humans were made to do – to care for and make use of God’s creation (see Genesis 2:15 & 3:23).  

Just as the first woman and man pointed the finger at each other and the serpent instead of taking responsibility for their own behavior, we humans have continued with the tendency to make God responsible for our own troubles.  But if we look to these stories for God’s intent for us and all of creation, rather than for excuses, we see what it means when Jesus tells us we are to die to ourselves.  We have to, with God’s help, let go of our tendency to compete, our need to control, our desire to be better than or have power over others.  

Those of us who are in leadership positions cannot lead as God intends for us to lead when we are distracted by competition and our need for control.  To be Jesus-led leaders, we have to follow Jesus daily, moment to moment, into the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.  And this means seeing others not as beneath us or separate from us but as part of who we are made to be: humans interdependent on each other to be whole and complete in our relationship with God our Creator.  To be Jesus-led leaders, we lead with love as we are enabled and equipped by God to love.