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.

Finding Ourselves

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

Jesus is sounding a bit harsh in our reading today, y’all. He can’t really be telling us to hate our families, can he?

No, I don’t think he’s saying that at all, it just doesn’t jive with the God of Love but when the words of Jesus as recorded by the writers of our scriptures make us say WHAAAT? it’s intentional. We are supposed to stop and really pay attention to the questions in our heads and hearts. Then we prayerfully consider what has Jesus said just before and after this? What’s the context in which he’s saying and doing? Who’s he talking to? Who’s he talking about? We have to be willing to acknowledge our own undiscovered biases that prevent us from seeing and hearing the Kingdom of God-on-earth-as-in-heaven.

Jesus is not saying that families don’t matter. He’s saying that our understanding of family needs to be grounded in God’s Kingdom not our own. The label ‘family’ doesn’t make us a family, how we love each other does. A particular last name doesn’t make us family, seeing each other as God’s beloved children does. Jesus is expanding and deepening our understanding of family so that it isn’t some artificial loyalty based on human ideas but healthy relationships nourished by love as God loves us. When Jesus says ‘hate’ here, he’s using hyperbole to help us look deeply at what we call ‘family love’ and assess it with God’s Love. Are we demanding loyalty regardless of behavior or are we loving as Jesus shows us in flesh and blood how to love. Do we live in a way that makes family loyalty more important that our faithfulness to the Good News of God in Jesus?

Jesus is speaking of our orientation toward the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven and the core of our identity. I first posted the following list on social media a few years back and I have added to it and reposted it a few times.

  • When we find our identity in our romantic relationships, when we lose those relationships we lose who we are.
  • When we find our identity in our spouse, we are not honoring them (or who God made us to be) by offering our authentic selves to them but rather giving them a false selfie of who we think they want us to be.
  • When we find our identity in our children, and they grow up and leave home (as they should), we are as empty inside as our nest.
  • When we find our identity in our job, we become human “doers” rather than human beings. And a job loss or even retirement means a loss of identity.
  • When we find our identity in the things we own or how much money we have, we are seeking fleeting pleasure rather than everlasting life.
  • When we find our identity in our social status or political party, we begin to rewrite the Gospel to define how we want the world to be so we can maintain our standing in it instead of letting the Good News of God’s Love shape us.
  • When we find our identity in the power we hold over others, we’ve completely lost the Jesus-plot and are no longer following him.

When we find our identity in God, The One who created us in the divine image of love and community, who we are is eternal. We are who we are created to be, able to offer our real selves to others and to see them for who they truly are. In God, our identity is lived out through all our relationships as we seek to see God in all people, striving to love them as God loves us.

All of these types of relationships are significant in our lives but they are not to be the foundation for who we are. We are not defined by others in our life nor should we let other’s definition of who they think we should be determine who we are. God made us good and holy as his beloved children. This is the core of our identity that can never be lost or destroyed, although sometimes we do forget.

Jesus’ invitation to follow him is an invitation to remember who and Whose we are. It’s an invitation to live in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven here and now. In our reading from the book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people of Isreal that God has offered them the choice of life and goodness or death and evil. The word we translate into English as life isn’t an individual word, it is used to mean relatives or community. God did not make us to navigate this complex world individualistically. As images of the Triune God we are made in the image of the ultimate community, the perfection of communion.

When we live from the image of God within us, when this is the core of who and Whose we are, we are most fully human because we cannot help but see the image of God in others and work with God’s help to live for the greater good of all. This is how we are to experience family in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. This is the life and the good we are made of and for.

Life in God’s Kingdom is life lived in relationship with God, others, and ourselves. It isn’t self-centered to do the hard work of pealing back the layers of the false selves we create to maintain power over others or fit in or people-please or survive difficult or abusive relationships. To go deep within ourselves to find the light of the image of God within is the Jesus-centered work of discovering who and Whose we are so that we thrive in our relationships with others, accepting the responsibility for our own behaviors, thoughts, and emotions and letting others be responsible for theirs. In community with each other as we all do our best with God’s help to follow Jesus here and now, we are family. We have chosen life and goodness. We have chosen to be fully human. We are the Kingdom of God.

NOTE: The image is by Natalia Kadish. Here’s her explanation of her piece:

Artist’s statement: Each of the seven species of fruit represents a different kind of Jewish person. We should all be growing on one tree together in harmony.

The water represents how Hashem feeds us spiritually as well as physically. Torah and spirituality are likened to water.

Answering the Call

A sermon preached at Grace Episcopal Church, Cuero, TX. The lectionary readings for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost are here.

Good morning! Before we dive into todays readings, let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Nancy Springer and I’ve been a priest in the Episcopal Church for 13 years. My first posting out of seminary was at St. John’s in McAllen, the same church where Peter Thaddeus was a member. I was privileged to work with Peter on the vestry and when he was Senior Warden, we led Bible Studies together, and worked tirelessly alongside other churches in the area to minister to the migrants who came to our country trying to find a better life for their families. Like Peter, I was a “second-career” priest although I got a bit of an earlier start in this calling he and I share. Each of our stories of ‘how we got here’ go to show that it’s never too late to learn to hear God’s calling to be who God made us to be in this life.

One of the studies Peter and I led together was a book called The Call by a man named Os Guinness, the great-great-great-grandson of the founder of Guinness Brewery. Os is a theologian and social critic who’s writings weave together faith and everyday life. In The Call, Os says that every person has two Calls in life. Our primary call is toward God, always deepening our relationship with God as we journey through our secondary call which is the way, with our particular and unique talents and skills, we each participate with God in the building up of the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.

In other words how we live our ordinary, day-to-day lives in relationship with God and following Jesus. Our calling isn’t about doing something grand and world-altering, although for some it is. For a few of us it is about working in the church. For some, like Peter and like me, our calls changed later in life. For everyone, each of us here, our Call is living life as image bearers of our loving God, with all that fills our days regardless of our age, occupation, or social status.

In our gospel story today, Jesus is watching a group of folks gather for a meal on the sabbath. If you noticed, we skipped a bit of the story in which Jesus heals a man and then asks the Pharisees if it’s permitted to heal on the Sabbath but they don’t give Jesus an answer so he asks them if their child or animal fell into a well on the Sabbath would they save them. The Pharisees, the ones looking for Jesus to say or do the wrong thing, still don’t answer because they are worried what their answer might expose about their worldview. And so Jesus turns his attention to the dinner guests and tells them all a story of a seating chart at a wedding banquet. Here’s a hint to interpreting Jesus’ parables: when he talks about a wedding banquet he’s really talking about the Kingdom of God and we are the invited guests.

The point of Jesus’ story isn’t to teach them image-management tactics, but to show us how silly trying to orchestrate how others see us really is. We don’t want to risk being asked to vacate an honorable place by someone who is more prestigious so we sit in the back so that everyone will see how important we are when we are asked to sit closer to the host. Pretending to be humble in hopes of being honored is just as prideful as seeking to be honored to begin with. When we seek to be first we will be last but when we put ourselves last in order to be the first we’ve still put ourselves first.

The point of Jesus’ story is to illustrate the equality of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. Living in God’s Kingdom isn’t about rank or status but about everyone being equal. There is no first or last. There is only mutuality. When the powerful are brought low and the poor exalted it’s because everyone is brought to the same level, which is lower than the powerful are used to so it feels like being last and higher than the poor are used to so it feels like being first.

Our life as we follow Jesus isn’t about our own glory but revealing God’s glory to the world. And God’s people have struggled with this since the beginning. The prophet Jeremiah gives us God’s lament “my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.” Instead of relying on God they sought their own source of living water.

In God’s Kingdom, no one’s Call in life is more important than anyone else’s. Everyone’s primary call is growing deeper in relationship with God, growing in the wisdom that we all are called to reveal the image of God within us so that others see the light of God’s love in this often dark and scary world. Whether we do that in our secondary calling by wearing priests robes or volunteer name tags or with a mop and a bucket or in an office or factory or on a ranch or sitting at the highest bench in the court house or the serving line in a soup kitchen, when we live into our secondary Call from the Divine Image within us all, we are taking up the unique and particular place intended for us in God’s Kingdom.

There is nothing any of us can do or not do in this life that would cause God to love us any more or any less than God loves us. We don’t have to pick the right seat, in the front of the room or the back, to prove ourselves worthy to God or anyone else. We are all worthy of God’s love and are given a place in God’s Kingdom. When we try to prove ourselves more worthy than others, we’ve lost the Jesus-plot.

Instead of competing for the best or worst seats at the banquet, we need to be looking for those who aren’t at the banquet and invite them in. Our motivation and goal in God’s Kingdom isn’t to be first or last but to love because we are loved.

Life in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven is about lifting each other up, not trying to outshine each other. The Pharisees were more concerned about their reputations than they were about the man whom Jesus had healed. When we listen to the call from God in our lives, we discover that life isn’t about reputations or prestige or monetary wealth but about living in right relationship with God, our neighbors, and ourselves. With all that we are and all that we have and all that we do, we participate in the building up of God’s Kingdom, right here and now. We participate with God in answering the prayer ‘your will be done on earth as in heaven.’

This is the good news and freedom Jesus offers us as we follow him into the Kingdom. Amen.

Learning from stories, part 2 (MMOW7)

Matthew shares a parable of Jesus in which a landowner hires laborers throughout the day and then pays all of them the same daily wage (Matthew 20:1-16). It doesn’t surprise us that those who were hired first thing in the morning are upset that those who were hired late in the afternoon are paid the same. The landowner explains that everyone received what they were promised, a day’s wage. Those who were hired first felt entitled to more because others received the same as they did.

Why are we often discontent with having the same as others? Why do we think we deserve more? These are not characteristics of the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. In God’s Kingdom there is no first or last. We are all first and last. There is no greater than or less than. We are all joint heirs with Jesus. There is no holding power over others but power with that enables the mutuality of all who are in God’s Kingdom.

All three of our gospel writers share another parable of Jesus about entitled laborers (Matthew 21:33-45, Mark 12:1-12, Luke 20:9-18). In this story, the landowner leases the vineyard out and moves far away. At harvest time, the landowner sends his representative to collect the rent and the tenants beat him and throw him out. This happens repeatedly. Finally the landowner sends his son. The tenants kill him. At this point in the story, Jesus asks those listening to the parable “what will the landowner do to the tenants?” They say that the landowner will kill the tenants and get new ones. Jesus doesn’t completely confirm their answer as he reminds them of the prophet Isaiah’s words “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” God had entrusted the ancient Israelites with the fruit of God’s Kingdom and they tried to take it for their own.

The tenant farmers thought that they were in control of the vineyard. They felt entitled to take what they wanted even at the expense of the lives of others. They made power and wealth more important than other human beings. The fruit of all that we do is to be for the building up of God’s Kingdom, not our own.

God’s kingdom was never to be exclusionary. God has from the very beginning wanted to include all human beings. God chose to spread this news through a particular people but always provided provision for all to be welcome and equally included. It was never God’s people’s responsibility to decide who was allowed in and who isn’t. We’ve never been given the authority to design God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven by our own standards. We are the laborers given full benefit of the Kingdom. We are the tenant farmers and the produce of the vineyard is not ours to take but entrusted to us so that all benefit from God’s provision.

God’s provision isn’t the extra we get over and above our needs. All that we have and all that we are is God’s provision. Our very life is a gift of our Creator. Nothing is of our own creation. We have an active role in nurturing and maintaining our lives but our life is a gift. Whenever we begin to live as if we know better than God what the design for our life should be, we disrupt the equitability and mutuality of God’s Kingdom.

We are not ‘owners’ in this life but stewards of the greatest gift of life. And this does not mean we are worthless or insignificant. We are invaluable. We are made by God in love, by love, and for love. We do not, nor can we, earn God’s love. God loves. We have the choice to receive God’s love and enter into relationship with our Creator. The invitation is always open. We have the choice to live as we are created to be, beloved children of God, or as gods of our own kingdoms. Either way, God loves us because God’s love is not transactional. We have the choice to live relationally with God and each other or transactionally for our own benefit. We have the choice to lead our own kingdoms or follow Jesus into the Kingdom-on-earth-as-I-heaven.