A Spiritual Almamac

Scripture Luke 12:49-56 (CEB)  

49 “I came to cast fire upon the earth. How I wish that it was already ablaze! 50 I have a baptism I must experience. How I am distressed until it’s completed!  51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I have come instead to bring division. 52 From now on, a household of five will be divided—three against two and two against three.53 Father will square off against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

54 Jesus also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud forming in the west, you immediately say, ‘It’s going to rain.’ And indeed it does. 55 And when a south wind blows, you say, ‘A heat wave is coming.’ And it does. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret conditions on earth and in the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret the present time?

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Derek Penwell is the senior pastor of Douglass Boulevard Christian Church in Louisville, KY, the author of several books published by Chalice Press (the Disciples of Christ publishing house), a regular contributor to a number of publications, a blogger, a colleague, and someone I consider a friend.  He is very political, and we don’t agree on everything but we get along very well, anyway.

Yesterday I was reading the comments on his most recent blog post, and I was appalled at the vitriol and hatred that some people spewed.  Fans and detractors alike were throwing Bible verses around like fragmentation grenades, attacking one another, sometimes with the very same passages!  Not Derek.  He would not engage with any of them.  He just said, “Thank you for reading”, and left it there.  Some of the comments were so threatening that friends were concerned he might be in physical danger.   It was clear to me that the Peace of Christ is not with us.   Rather, it seems that we are in a time once again when father and son square off against each other, and mother and daughter, in the name of Jesus.  It’s sort of cliche that mother-in-law and daughter-in-law might not get along, and I suspect the potential for trouble in that relationship goes back to the first time a son brought a wife home to his mother’s cave . . . but the point Jesus was making was that the household would be divided because of him and his teachings.  And his household, of course, is the world.     

Disagreements about sincerely held beliefs are part of being human.  Even in Jesus’ time there was not one monolithic Judaism that agreed on every aspect of theology and practice.  The Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed on many things — the Sadducees did not believe there would physical resurrection at the end of days, whereas the Pharisees were quite certain there would be.  There were at the time two prominent rabbinic schools of thought which were divided on whether obedience to the letter of the law or the spirit of the law was most important.  We all know which of those schools Jesus belonged to because he was constantly fussing with some of the Pharisees and scribes over their legalism.  After the resurrection, Jesus’ disciples would alienate some of their co-religionists by proclaiming Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, and they would be persecuted by the likes of Saul for their blasphemy.  Even among the Jesus followers, although the 2nd chapter of Acts has them all sharing everything and praying and worshipping together, I don’t think it was even a few months before they were embroiled in conflicts with the potential to kill the movement before it really got off the ground.  Greek Christians and Jewish Christians argued because some of the widows were not getting equal assistance.  Ananais and Sapphira dropped dead because they were greedy.  There were arguments over such details and technicalities as whether circumcision was necessary to be baptized.  Some of Paul’s churches were tempted to follow other preachers.  Eventually, the Roman Church broke away from the Greek Church, heretics were burned, the Inquisition happened, and Henry VII, Martin Luther and others broke away from the Roman Church.  Catholics and Protestants killed each other over details of our shared Christianity about which we disagree.  We are a contentious lot, we humans.  

How many of you are familiar with the Farmer’s Almanac?  It is a great book.  In continuous publication since 1818, the Farmers' Almanac mixes a blend of long-range weather predictions, humor, fun facts, and advice on gardening, cooking, fishing, conservation, and other topics.  It tells Farmers when to plant, when to expect the first frost, whether we could anticipate strong storms in the summer or blizzards in the winter.  My first husband, an avid hunter and fisherman, would not plan a trip anywhere without consulting it.  And that included our honeymoon, because  he wanted to know ahead of time whether there would be enough rain in the Poconos to make the Bushkill Creek a viable trout fishing spot or whether he should try elsewhere.  The Farmer’s Almanac would tell him, and it was nearly always accurate.  It was better than a weather app.  

Jesus said to his followers, look,  you can tell whether it’s going to storm, or if there is a dry spell coming.  You are sufficiently connected to the natural world that you can tell these things.  Why is it, then that you cannot see the inevitability of the conflict that I bring? Because I am telling you to do exactly the opposite of what society tells you to do.  I am telling you to cast aside concerns about your day to day lives and trust that God will take care of you.  I am teaching you to go out and spread the word that the Shema, the commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your being and all your strength, is the greatest commandment of all, greater than all of the others combined.  I have been teaching you that even the laws governing the Sabbath are not as important as the commandment to love your neighbor.  I am teaching you what loving your neighbor really means and who your neighbor is.  I am calling the Temple leadership to account for their collaboration with the Romans, and for their love of money and power.  And I am calling all people to account for their willingness to go along with whatever the rich and powerful say instead of standing up for righteousness and justice.  What I am doing and saying is pretty much guaranteed to cause conflict between the ones with ears to hear and those who are willfully deaf, and it will not be pretty and peaceful and nice.  Why can’t you see this coming? 

Jesus was not the first to bring this message.  The prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, all of them - called out the leaders - the kings and the priesthood - and the people for worshipping God with their lips but not with their actions.  They were the Spiritual Almanac of their times.  Jeremiah called for the leadership of Israel to act right.  “Hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place. . . . if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah” (Jeremiah 22:3-6)   Further, he spoke against false prophets,  “25 I have heard the prophets prophesying lies in my name.  . . .  26 How long will deceitful prophecies dominate the minds of the prophets? Those prophets are treacherous. 27 They scheme to make my people forget me by their dreams that people tell each other, just as their ancestors forgot me because of Baal. “ (Jeremiah 23:25-27) 

One of the commenters on Derek’s writings said repeatedly that Jesus’ commandments were only spoken to individuals, and that governments were not held to them.  That we, as individuals, certainly need to take care of those who need to be cared for, but that governments were exempt.   And yet, Jesus and all the prophets before him most certainly spoke to the leadership of their times.  They called upon those in power to care for their people as God’s laws require of them.  No one was exempt from God’s word as spoken by the prophets.  We must remember too, that the government is made up of individuals, each of whom must make all decisions in accordance with their conscience and with their understanding of God’s will, which might not be in accord with our own understandings.  We must also remember that even the Temple leadership of Jesus’ time were not being evil on purpose.  They truly believed they were doing what was best for their people, for if they did not do as the Romans required, if they were unable to control their people, their entire nation would be destroyed.  And in fact, that did happen thirty-some years later.  The Temple was torn down and the Jewish people were scattered to the ends of the earth.  

We are called upon to pray for those in leadership, as it says in 1st Timothy 2: “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.”  So let us pray for the Peace of Christ to enter the hearts of all those who have positions of leadership. Let us pray that those we choose to lead us will open their hearts and eyes and ears to see the worth of all persons in their care.  Let us pray for the divisions we see in our households, and in our Church, and in our nation to be healed through that very same Lord.  Let us pray for people to stop using the Bible as a weapon and start using it as a means to bring reconciliation to the world, as a Spiritual Almanac,  guiding us in the way that our God has laid out for us, so that the Kingdom of God may come to fruition on earth as it is in heaven.   In the name of Jesus the Christ.  

Home Security

 Scripture Luke 12:32-40  The Message (MSG) 

29-32 “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.

33-34 “Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

35-38 “Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!

39-40 “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”

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When I was deciding which Bible version to use for today’s scripture reading, I was struck by the first line in the Message version, “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving.”  I realized that these first two lines are not usually included when this passage is preached, but it seems that Eugene Peterson thought that this bit belonged with the “You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out.” section.    Although the Message is not my favorite version to use, because it is a paraphrase and not as nearly accurate a translation as some, sometimes we need to hear something we have heard a million times in a new way.

I learned that in a 12 Step meeting years ago.  I always had a rough time on Tuesdays.  Every Tuesday was overly busy and stressful and all kinds of stuff went wrong - dinner burned, things like that, so that by the time I got to my women’s meeting in the evening, I was a mess.  People would say to me, “Did you pray this morning?  Because you know what they say.  If I don’t hit my knees in the morning the whole day goes wrong.”  Well, yes I did.  And frankly, hearing that same old line over and over just irritated me more.  Then one night I heard someone say, “When I get off schedule with God, my whole day goes wrong,” and it was like a light bulb went off in my head.  I was off schedule with God!  Yes, I always prayed in the morning, but I was used to praying my gratitude list at dinner time, and Tuesdays were so busy I didn’t have a sit down dinner.  I just fixed whatever in a hurry on my way to the meeting . . . so I didn’t do my gratitude list on Tuesdays.  I was off schedule with God, and I needed to hear it just that way so that I would understand what was going wrong.  After that I started doing my gratitude list in the morning, and I still do.  

I always find the whole section about servants waiting for their master, and his serving them because they were loyal just a little strange, because that just doesn’t make sense in the real world.  Even on Downton Abbey, where the servants did wait up until Lord and Lady Grantham got home, that was their job, and they weren’t served by the master in gratitude for them doing their job.  If they had not been up waiting, they might have lost that job.   So Jesus was talking about something not of this world, something unusual - a situation in which the master would serve those who typically served him - like when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.  Just like Matthew’s story of the bridesmaids with their lamps, if they were ready at whatever hour he arrived, there would be a reward.  

But even at the time, most of his followers didn’t have servants. Some of them might have been servants.  So Jesus gave another example to make his point.  He said, “You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”   And surely, that was easy to understand.   Because of course, we don’t know when the burglar is coming, and we can’t stay home all the time just in case.  So we have locks on our doors, and security systems, and barking dogs, and moats filled with alligators . . .  alright, maybe not moats.  But we do those other things and we join neighborhood watch organizations to help keep our homes and families safe.  

That works for houses, and church buildings, and businesses.  But what do we do to keep our souls secure?  What about that home’s security? For no one knows when the Messiah will return.   No one knows when the end times will come.  None of us knows the day we will meet our Lord.   Oh there are actuarial tables and life expectancy charts for men and women.  Some have been given a diagnosis which comes with a projected end date.  But even so, no one knows the day or the hour.  Even when the end is expected, as when someone has been ill for a long time, the machines have been turned off, they are in hospice care, and the family is gathered, somehow the end, when it comes, is still a surprise.   And we can no more spend every minute of every day wondering if the next minute will be the last than we can sit by the door of our house all night waiting for the burglar to come - no one can live like that.  

How do we keep ourselves ready?  Many of us have a routine of daily scripture reading, prayer and meditation.  We may read a daily meditation or two or three.  Some of the Young Adults have the same Bible app on their phones and are working through several reading plans together.  It is good to have a routine, as long as it does not become so routine as to be meaningless.  Or as long as you don’t over do.  I know - how can you possibly overdo a good thing like prayer and spiritual practices?  When I was in seminary one professor had us design a Daily Rule for ourselves, to include prayer, spiritual practice, and scripture reading, and we were to follow that Rule for a month.  Because I believe that if a thing is worth doing it is worth over-doing, mine got a little complicated.  I prayed a rosary and chanted psalms and prayed intercessory prayers and used several forms of meditation and read scripture and several daily meditation books, and I did these things several times a day, at specific times every day for a prescribed amount of time every day.  I had a color coded chart that I checked off to make sure I didn’t miss anything.  And by the end of the month I was very well aware that all of this over-doing was not bringing me closer to God.  It was just making me crazy trying to get everything done and all of that was keeping me from doing things I should be doing.  Like helping others.  If someone asked me to help with something at lunchtime, I couldn’t  because I had to do my 15 minutes of after lunch prayer and meditation in the chapel.  Let me think - which of those two things might be more pleasing to God?  Hmm . . .  To paraphrase Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with doing, so you can respond to God’s giving.”  I re-learned the value of having a daily routine for prayer and study - of staying on schedule with God - but I also learned that over-doing even God-stuff is not a good thing.  I was reminded that meditation is about listening for God’s voice with an open mind and heart, not a hoop to jump through.

How do we stay prepared?  How do we keep our home, our soul, secure in preparation for the coming of the Lord?  We ask ourselves in every situation, “What would Jesus do?”  And we remember that sometimes what he did included righteous wrath and whips.  We worship God with all our being - not just sitting and letting the service wash over us, but lifting our voices in song and prayer, serving the Lord’s Supper to our neighbor instead of just passing the trays.  We give generously, sharing what we have with those who have less.   We pray and meditate and follow whatever practices work for us, but we also drop everything to help when we are needed and able.  Remember that the priest and the Levite allowed their religious duties to keep them from helping the man on the road, leaving the Samaritan to do the neighborly thing, the God centered thing.  We open our hearts and our souls to God’s voice and God’s direction, listening for his will for us.   We spend time in silence, shutting out all the many things that distract us from God’s peace.  We spend time in God’s presence, allowing our hearts to be filled with God’s hope, allowing God’s blessing to fill us to overflowing.   And then, no matter when our Lord comes, we will be awake and prepared, and blessed.

The Hoarders: Episode 1

 Scripture    Luke 12:13-21 Common English Bible (CEB)

13 Someone from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  14 Jesus said to him, “Man, who appointed me as judge or referee between you and your brother?”

15 Then Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.”16 Then he told them a parable: “A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. 17 He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! 18 Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods. 19 I’ll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die. Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 This is the way it will be for those who hoard things for themselves and aren’t rich toward God.”

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There were all kinds of articles along with this picture of a barn full of rice being hoarded in the Philippines.  Poor people were going hungry while merchants held out for the highest possible prices.  Jail sentences of up to 20 years were imposed on rice hoarders and profiteers.  The perfect real life example of this parable.  But . . .

At 1:49 this morning multiple alerts on my phone woke me up, and, once I read the breaking news, ended my night’s sleep.  The news alert read:  At least nine people were killed and 16 more were wounded in a shooting early Sunday morning in Dayton, Ohio, the second American mass shooting in less than 24 hours.  The shooter, who was wearing body armor, was killed by police.  

Yesterday 20 people were killed and 26 were injured in a mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart.   The shooter was a 21 year old white man, who was taken into police custody.

And last Sunday afternoon, a mass shooting occurred at the Gilroy Garlic Festival here in California, resulting in four deaths and 12 injuries.  The shooter was a 19 year old white man, who killed himself.

That’s three mass shootings this week! (A mass shooting is defined as three or more killings in a single episode.)  By that definition there have been at least 32 mass shootings in the United States this year.  But if we count those with multiple injuries but less than 3 deaths, there has been at least one incidence of mass shooting every day this year!  That's . . . there are no words. 

This isn’t about guns. And it isn’t about the mental health of the shooters. Although those are both important conversations that must continue because they certainly play a role.   But it is about who we are as a nation, as a people.  It is about what we believe.

This morning Taylor Mayberry told NBC news she was one of the last people to be let into the bathroom at that Dayton, Ohio nightclub, where ten other people were taking shelter. “We were holding the door shut and waiting until the gunshots stopped,” Mayberry said. “People were banging on the doors throughout. We weren’t sure if they were…you know…we weren’t sure if it was people getting in to shoot us or to get safe.”

“We were holding the door shut . . .people were banging on the doors throughout.”   It’s every person for themselves in a situation like this, after all.  Isn’t it?  I found this disturbing, because . . . can you imagine being on the outside of that door, listening to the gun fire, banging on it. . .?  

I mean, we do hear about heroes in the aftermath of these events - someone who has either confronted the gunman or otherwise protected others at the risk of their own lives.  We hear about them, because this is unusual behavior.  But it is Christian behavior.  It is what we are called to do - to act other than the way everyone else acts.  Christian’s are about being the Good Samaritan, not the priest who walks by the injured man in order to preserve his own purity..

So can we talk about greed?  Can we talk about doing the opposite of loving the neighbor?  Can we talk about how not to be the Good Samaritan?  Can we talk about how not to be Christian?

Because holding the bathroom door shut keeping others from safety is so much more greedy than hoarding rice.  Jesus said to those who were hearing his parable, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed.”  Against all kinds of greed.  The usual understanding of greed is “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed.” (Merriam-Webster.com)  However, the Greek word used in the Bible which translates into English as greed has a deeper meaning.  Biblical commentator John Ritenbaugh defines greed as  “ruthless self-seeking, and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s own benefit.”  New Testament Greek scholar William Barclay describes it as an “accursed love of having,” which “will pursue its own interests with complete disregard for the rights of others, and even for the considerations of common humanity.”  (Institute for Faith, Work and Economics. https://tifwe.org/what-is-greed/)

Greed.   The El Paso shooter is thought to have written a manifesto that begins “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”  (Just  want to point out that Texas used to be part of Mexico.  The national language used to be Spanish.  It was invaded by white Americans.  Just sayin’.)   The words of the manifesto, which included the “great replacement” theory, (that white Christian Americans are being deliberately replaced by “others”) echo the slogan that was chanted during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017: “Jews will not replace us.”  Other mass shooters have talked about killing people - non-white or non-Christian - who pose a threat to their “American" way of life.

Preaching passive love doesn’t cut it in situations like these. Preaching obedience to God doesn’t either, because many of these shooters truly believe that it is God’s will they do these things, that they are superior to the people they are killing, that our Christian nation would be better off without gay people or black people or brown people or asian people or transgender people or Jewish people or Muslim people or even Native Americans.   They will take the Bible and twist it to make what they are doing ok.  We have churches teaching hatred in the name of Jesus. I spend hours talking with people who have been abused by their churches, who have been taught to believe that God is disappointed in them at best, or hates them entirely and that they will burn in hell forever.  They have been taught that by their churches!  The Klan and other white supremacist groups and survivalist groups regularly quote scripture to justify their beliefs and behaviors.  The cross of Jesus often features in their logos.  They proclaim their Christianity loudly.

We cannot sit back and say “well, if we just go out and show other people what Christians are really like, that will be enough.  If we are kind and good and nice that will change people’s hearts.”  Because just being nice and loving and kind will not change people’s hearts.  We absolutely do need to be nice, and loving, and kind.  But we also need to actively love our neighbor.  We need to stand up and say something when we see or hear hatred and prejudice, when we hear someone talk about Christianity as hypocritical, hateful, or judgmental.   We need to make our voices heard when such immoral behavior is right in our faces.  In some communities, Christians have stood guard around synagogues or mosques to protect their Jewish and Muslim neighbors against threats from hate groups.   

Someone on Facebook posted that it is sad that we say “Today’s Mass Shooting.”  It is beyond sad - it is terrible that we must use the phrase “Today’s mass shooting.”  There should not be any mass shootings!   And while it is true that not all of these terrible events have been hate crimes, or domestic terrorism, many have.  No one in America, and especially no Christian in America, should be targeting groups to be killed because they are different.  There is that pesky commandment after all, the one that says “Thou shalt not murder.”  That one is hard to get around, but let me tell you clearly - they try.  They will tell you it’s not murder - it’s the extermination of pests, because all those “others” aren’t really human, don’t you know?  But I tell you, all of those “others” are also created by and beloved of God, so they’re really not “other”.  Not in God’s eyes. 

I really wish you all could have been at General Assembly on that last morning to hear the Reverend Dr. William M. Barber preach.  He had us on our feet, clapping and shouting more than once during his message.  He exhorted us to be passionate about our beliefs - to take them out and use them on days other than Sunday.  If we believe that it is immoral to allow babies to be shot in Walmart . . . if we believe it is immoral to target people for death because of their color or ethnicity or religion or orientation or gender identity . . . if we believe it is immoral to stand by and allow hatred to take over our nation. . . .then we must stand up for what is right and good.  We must lift our voices against hatred, against violence, against passive acceptance of the unacceptable, against greed.  Because this hatred is all about greed.  It is all about people pursuing their own interests with complete disregard for the rights of others, and even for the considerations of common humanity. We must stand for our siblings who are also God’s beloved children. 

Family, do not be silent.  Write letters. Sign petitions.  Speak out loud when you witness any one acting on one of the isms that separate us, one from another. Join in demonstrations.  Do whatever it is you can best do to change hatred into love, to beat swords into plowshares.  Let us work together to end greed and hatred, so that we may be rich in God.  Let us work together to actively love our neighbor, in Jesus’ name. 

God will provide

 Scripture Luke 11:1-9   Message

11 One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  2-4 So he said, “When you pray, say,

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”

5-6 Then he said, “Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’

7 “The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked; my children are all down for the night; I can’t get up to give you anything.’

8 “But let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need.

9 “Here’s what I’m saying:

Ask and you’ll get;
Seek and you’ll find;
Knock and the door will open.

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I sat in my Worship and Church Music class at Christian Theological Seminary following along intently as one of my classmates presented the Pastoral Prayer she had written as an assignment, which was to be followed by the Lord’s Prayer.  When she reached the end of her prayer she said, “Now let’s all recite the Lord’s Prayer together.”   I went slightly nuts, screaming (silently, inside my head) “Recite???!!!  No!!!  We PRAY the Lord’s Prayer together.”  After all, the disciples said to Jesus “Teach us how to pray.”

Several weeks ago we heard the news that “Pope Francis has officially approved a change to the translation of the Lord's Prayer found in Matthew 6:13 that replaces "lead us not into temptation" with "do not let us fall into temptation," which many scholars say is a better translation of the original text. The Pope said he thought the current English translation was not correct because it implies that God leads people into temptation, an action that is against his nature as a good and holy God.” (Christian Broadcasting Network 06-04-2019)  Someone asked me whether I was going to make the change here.  A. The Pope really doesn’t determine what we do here.  B.  We already have enough different versions of this prayer.  At every church you sort of have to guess whether to use debts, sins or trespasses, although no one gets huffy if someone in a “debts” church says “trespasses” by mistake.  And C.  I’m not in charge of that decision. 

One thing that bothers me about this prayer (not counting the “lead us not into temptation” part) is that the disciples simply ask Jesus to teach them the way they should pray, not for the exact words to use, and  yet we memorize it.   So I chose the Message version today, in order that we might hear familiar instructions in a different way.   

I will say that presenting this prayer with different wording doesn’t always work.  In that same class on a different day, another classmate had re-written the Lord’s Prayer in non-gender specific language - which is not an easy thing to do! - and no one recognized it.    But let’s try, anyway.

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

Father - set the world right.  At General Assembly we attend business meetings.  We hear reports and discuss resolutions that take the sense of the Assembly on a variety of topics deemed to be important.  These are not binding on congregations, but speak to issues that the people at the Assembly consider to be important.  There were many, but I will only talk about a few.  One of the first resolutions presented came from the General Youth Council.  That’s right.  A bunch of high school students!  Their resolution titled “Spirit of Active Listening” called on the Assembly, all its participants and all the many expressions of the CC(DOC) in the United States and Canada, “to Hear and Listen to all voices as we respect our brothers and sisters in faith, free of judgement and preconceived notion, recognizing and accepting our common humanity.”  One person who stood to speak in favor introduced himself as a Trump conservative, and with tears in his eyes, thanked the Youth for this resolution, for he had felt silenced.   The resolution passed unanimously.  Father, keep us forgiven and forgiving others.

Another resolution “A Call to See and Respond to the Crisis of Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence” calls on all of us to become educated about these issues - which affect way more people than you would hope - and be safe places for people to come forward asking for help.  Too often churches are not safe places, pastors don’t understand the issues involved or how to counsel on these topics, denial and shaming are rampant.  We, here in this congregation, are called upon to use the educational resources available to us to educate ourselves and our children and become truly safe places for everyone.  Father keep us safe from ourselves and from the Devil.

A third resolution I want to lift up was “An Invitation to Education for Welcoming and Receiving the Gifts of Transgender and Gender-Diverse People”.  Many people spoke eloquently and passionately in favor of this resolution - none came forward to speak against it.   It calls upon the denomination to produce and share resources for pastoral care and inclusion of trans and gender diverse people, and to learn new ways of speaking in order to be inclusive of all persons.  For example - instead of saying “Brothers and sisters in Christ,” I might say “Siblings in Christ.”   It means trying to know what pronouns to use if we are not certain how a person identifies so that we are not saying “he” when a person identifies as “she” or even as “they.”   It seems to me like this isn’t all that different from learning to use non-gender specific language for God in seminary, except that making that mistake in seminary only affected the grade on my paper.  Making a mistake with a living person causes real anguish and pain.  Educating ourselves, and asking our transgender and gender-diverse siblings for their help in that education, is important if we truly believe All means All.   Father keep us safe from ourselves and from evil.

Some were celebrating the passage of this resolution on Facebook, and one woman said, “I am leaving the Disciples.  It is no longer the church in which I was raised, when a pastor who lives with her boyfriend, unmarried, can preach at me.”   All of those responding assumed that she was talking specifically about accepting the LGBTQ+ community into her congregation. Some were considerably less than loving in their responses, so I guess they hadn’t read the Spirit of Active Listening Resolution? Last night I suddenly woke up and realized  she had several times mentioned her unmarried pastor who is living with her boyfriend … and that no one had spoken to that.  Naturally, I could not find the post when I looked for it.  I am sad that this woman feels unwelcome in her congregation, and that our Church, which preaches All Means ALL, still allows some to feel silenced and unwanted.  Lord, Help us listen to each other - to all their words, not just some of them.   Keep us forgiven and forgiving others. 

Jesus told his disciples to pray for the things they need, and assured them that God would provide, if they asked - although they may have to knock and yell so loudly it wakes the neighbors..  

He said, 

“Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.”  

He assured them that God will always answer prayers. And God will provide precisely what we need at the very moment we need it.  Of course, what is provided may not look like what we thought we needed.   If we pray for three square meals a day then having to get food at the SMART Center and dinner at Christian Cafe may not look like an answer to prayer.  If we pray for our health to be improved, losing a highly stressful job may not look like an answer to prayer.   If we pray for patience we will get many opportunities to learn patience. (Do not pray for patience! or strength.  Just sayin’)  Sometimes the answer to prayer comes through another person, or words on a billboard, or a Facebook discussion on a General Assembly Resolution or a volunteer opportunity (like fostering kittens) - and it may take us in the opposite direction of where we expected to go.  But whatever we need, God will provide even if we do not recognize God’s hand.   Father, reveal who you are.

When we pray, let us ask for what we need - for those things that Jesus told his disciples are important.  Let us ask God to help us to hear when others speak.  To speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.  To remember that all persons are God’s beloved - even people we don’t like or approve of.  Let us ask God to help us to give where we see need.  To forgive when we have been injured.  To love even when we are not loved.  To keep us safe from evil, and from ourselves.  And God will answer our prayers.  

Looking for a loophole

 Scripture Luke 10:25-37  The Message  

25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

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We’ve heard this story at least a million times.  Even non-Christians have a pretty good idea of what this story says.  We have ”Good Samaritan” laws protecting people from being sued when they are trying to help someone they find injured or in distress.  And may I just say how terrible it is that people will sue the person who was trying to help them?   Anyway, in an attempt to get a different look at this very familiar story I decided to try the Message version today.  And sure enough, there it was.  The lawyer - which in Jesus’ time meant an expert in the Laws of Moses - was “looking for a loophole.”   

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, has this to say about that.  "For our parable, the lawyer’s question is … misguided. To ask “Who is my neighbor” is a polite way of asking, “Who is not my neighbor?” or “Who does not deserve my love?” or “Whose lack of food or shelter can I ignore?” or “Whom I can hate?” The answer Jesus gives is, “No one.” Everyone deserves that love—local or alien, Jews or gentile, terrorist or rapist, everyone.”   (Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (p. 93). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)

It’s easy to pick out the other, depending on which side of an issue you stand on.   It’s what we do when we are at war - we dehumanize the enemy.  In Basic Training soldiers are taught to think of whomever the enemy is right now as somehow sub-human.  This happens in all nations, in all conflicts.  It is lots easier to hate someone enough to shoot them if they are either less than human or completely evil.  Classic Us and Them - we are all things good and holy, they are demon spawn and criminals.  Which is one thing for soldiers, in war time.  But when the divide between us and them gets as deep as it is in our nation right now, even our best friends can suddenly become the enemy, the other, the not-neighbor.  

Today, in many cities around the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are scheduled to begin large scale raids, seeking to arrest and eventually deport thousands of undocumented immigrants.  If you have been following the news you know that some think of the ICE agents as of the devil, while others think the same of the people who are here without proper documents.   I am prepared to state that both opinions are wrong.   

She came to worship one Sunday with her baby daughter Rosie, which of course meant no one heard a word I said all day because, Baby!  We didn’t get a lot babies in worship.  She stayed for coffee fellowship afterwards, and told us she had been an MP in the Marine Corps and was now working for Homeland.  She had been attending her mother’s church which met in our building but preferred an English speaking congregation.  Later she confessed that her job at Homeland was with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that the people at her mother’s church didn’t trust her.  Many lacked proper documents, you see, and they were afraid she would turn them in and have them deported.   She wouldn’t do that, as long as they were otherwise law abiding people, but they didn’t believe her.   When I think of ICE, I think of her - mother, daughter, Christian, friend.    

For those who may be of the opinion that ICE is heartless and the total bad guy in this situation, this notice was on Twitter yesterday:  “The @CityOfNOLA has confirmed with ICE that immigration enforcement will be temporarily suspended through the weekend in the Hurricane Barry impacted areas of Louisiana & Mississippi. Make all storm preparations to stay safe regardless of your immigration status.”  As with all law enforcement agencies, protecting lives is of primary importance. 

He is a Dreamer.  He didn’t even know he wasn’t a citizen until he applied to college.  Then his parents told him they crossed into the US illegally when he was just an infant.   I don’t know for sure why they came here, but probably so their children could have a better life.  His residency has been regularized now, through much hard work on his part.  His younger brother was born here.  Both are college graduates.  But his parents, who have been living and working and paying taxes here for nearly 30 years, are susceptible to deportation.  I think probably everyone here knows or knows of a family like this.  There is a good chance that nearly everyone here knows someone, or lots of someones, who are undocumented and worried, especially today.  

And when we see the horrific conditions in the detention centers where asylum seekers, as well of people caught trying to cross the border unlawfully, are being held, we want to find someone to blame.   Children sleeping on the floor.  Women with no water to drink except the water in toilets.  Hundreds crammed into spaces intended for dozens.   It’s the Government’s fault!  No, it’s Homeland’s fault!  No, it’s the immigrants’ fault!   

It really does not matter whose fault it is.  If we see someone suffering, we are supposed to help.  We are not supposed to worry about whether or not they are deserving.  We are just supposed to help.   We are supposed to find solutions to ease the suffering.  You know - feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, comfort the prisoner.  Don’t care how they got that way.   It would be great if we could solve the problems that caused the refugee crisis all over the globe, but while governments work on that . . . we are to do whatever we can do to help.  There are no loopholes.  

I noticed something else different about this translation.  I am used to seeing Jesus’ question to the lawyer written as “Who was the neighbor to the injured man?”  But here it says, ‘Who became the neighbor?”  Who made a decision to help someone who was so different from themselves that helping them was kind of a big deal?  The Samaritan in this parable provided food and shelter and medical care for someone who would not have sat at the same table with him - who considered him unclean.  He knew that.  He didn’t care.  He saw a person suffering, and he helped.  The image we are using today - a black man helping a white man - could be any one helping an “other.”   An immigrant helping an ICE agent.  A victim helping a rapist.  A parent helping a pedophile.  A Conservative helping a Liberal.  A Liberal helping a Conservative.  This seemingly happens rarely enough that when it does, it becomes a big deal.  And that’s just sad.  It should not be news when people help each other.  There should not have to be laws protecting people who help someone else.  

Our hymn today was written by Carolyn Winfrey-Gillette specifically in response to the planned immigration raids today.   It calls on us to “work for justice for those who live in fear.”    That will mean different things to each of us.  Some may take it as an imperative to help your actual neighbors who are in danger of deportation.  (If that is the case, Leah and I both have links to available resources.)  Others may take it to mean they should work toward changing current policies regarding immigration, especially for asylum seekers.  Still others may hear it as a call to help the responsible agencies in working to ease the conditions in detention centers, where the need is indeed great - because in many cases, the persons working in those facilities are frustrated at not being able to get what they need for the people held in their center (food, water, mattresses, medical care, etc.).  However you hear the words of this hymn, remember that we are to be the neighbor in whatever way we can.  Hear again how the story of the Good Samaritan ends.    

Jesus said, “36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” 37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.  Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

And so you, also, go and be the neighbor, in Jesus’ name.   

**************************************

Hymn     O God, You Give Us Neighbors

tune AURELIA 7.6.7.6 D ("The Church's One Foundation”)

O God, you give us neighbors for whom your love abounds.

They’ve come here seeking refuge; they work here in our towns.

Their children go to school here; they come to church and pray.

O Lord, we grieve when neighbors are being sent away.

O God, you give us neighbors in this world that divides.

We see them at the border; they’re struggling for their lives.

They’re hurting by the roadside, and by the river, too.

You call us to show mercy to neighbors loved by you.

O God, you give us neighbors and call us all to see

our common fears and longings, our shared humanity.

You call us all to listen to burdens they have known,

to hear the truth they tell us, to see the love they’ve shown.

O God, you give us neighbors; and now, what must we do?

This question asked of Jesus is one we ask anew.

May we not make excuses and choose to walk on by

these neighbors fleeing violence— some sent back now to die.

God, may we work for justice for those who live in fear;

may we show Christ’s compassion, and pray and persevere—

and by your Holy Spirit, in all we do and say,

may we stand up for neighbors now being sent away.

Biblical References: Luke 10:25-46; Leviticus 19:33-34; 24:22; Matthew 25:31-46

Tune: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864

Text: Copyright © 2019 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.

Permission is given for free use of this hymn for congregations

Email: carolynshymns@gmail.com New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com

Instant Karma?

 Scripture   Galatians 6:1-10  CEB  

6 Brothers and sisters, if a person is caught doing something wrong, you who are spiritual should restore someone like this with a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves so you won’t be tempted too. 2 Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are important when they aren’t, they’re fooling themselves. 4 Each person should test their own work and be happy with doing a good job and not compare themselves with others. 5 Each person will have to carry their own load.

6 Those who are taught the word should share all good things with their teacher.  7 Make no mistake, God is not mocked. A person will harvest what they plant. 8 Those who plant only for their own benefit will harvest devastation from their selfishness, but those who plant for the benefit of the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit. 9 Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. 10 So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith.

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This is one of those passages that has so much meat in it that it really deserves to be preached verse by verse.  But that would require 40 minutes or more of your undivided attention, and I think we all know that’s not going to happen.  

Typically, when I am deciding which of four or more possible scripture readings to preach on for each week, I see one phrase or idea that leaps out at me, and I decide at that point where my message is going to go.  I chose a title and a hymn to follow-up the point I want to make, and maybe even the artwork a month or two in advance of when I’m going to preach that message.  Obviously, when I read this one I saw verse 7, “Make no mistake, God is not mocked. A person will harvest what they plant.”  And my mind went immediately to the idea of Instant Karma.

I found this cartoon online and thought, wouldn’t that be nice?   Immediate response from God chastising the person who is literally kicking someone while they are down.  But that’s not how Karma works.  Karma is the way things work out over the long run, and by long run the Hindus and Buddhists meant over a period of lifetimes.   Being a bad person in this life might bring you back as a cockroach, while being a helpless victim in this life might mean you are brought back into a life of ease and pampering - maybe as one of my cats.  Being a Mother Theresa might mean that your cycle through lifetimes was over, and it was time for eternal rest.  (This, by the way, is a very general and only vaguely accurate description of Karma.)   Of course we Christians believe that punishment for bad behavior in this lifetime will come after death, when we come before the Judgment Seat to learn whether we enter into heaven or go the other way.  

But somehow the idea of Instant Karma is alive and well in our culture.  John Lennon may have had something to do with that.  But well before the song Instant Karma was released in 1970, we have used phrases like “What goes around, comes around.”  We somehow fully expect people are good to have good things happen for them, and people who are bad to have bad things happen to them.   For that matter, we expect good looking people to be good, and bad looking people to be bad, and vice versa.  It causes us great discomfort when the opposite happens, when bad things happen to good people, or when perpetrators of horrific crimes against humanity seem to prosper.  Waiting for reward or punishment at the end of our days really doesn’t work for us. We kind of want to see Instant Karma, immediate reward and punishment meted out.  This mindset is not new.   The Book of Job was written in order to try to explain that sometimes bad things do happen to good, devout, God loving people, through no fault of their own.    Y’know, people used to tell me that I should read the Psalms when I was going through stuff, but that never really worked for me.  Then my pastor suggested I read Job.  Yes!  Reading Job always cheered me up.  No matter what was going on in my life, it wasn’t nearly as bad as what happened to him!  

Of course, if Job had been in their midst, our Puritan forefathers would have been convinced that his bad fortune meant he was not one of the elect.  That no matter how hard he tried, or how good a person he was, he was never going to heaven, because they believed not only that “God freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass”  but that God pre-ordained precisely who would be saved and who wouldn’t.  So your actions in this life mattered not at all.  As a result of these beliefs, they equated success in business with salvation. If you were predestined to be saved then you would succeed.  If you did not succeed or had a terrible life, it was because you were predestined to go to Hell.  Kind of the opposite of Karma, or reaping what you sow.  This is what can happen when you read the Bible line by line instead of holistically.  

If, for example, we looked at this passage line by line . . .  Verse 2 says, “Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  But verse 5 says, “Each person will have to carry their own load.”   Wait, what?  I am confused.  These seem to be contradictory statements.  The Bible tells us in many places that 1) we are supposed to help each other - remember the Love Commandment? - and 2) we are responsible for and will be judged on our own actions.  Hence verse 4, “Each person should test their own work and be happy with doing a good job and not compare themselves with others.”  It is not good or just to say, “Well yeah, I did this, but did you see what that other guy did?”   Because each person is responsible for their own actions, we should not try to deflect attention from our own behavior by pointing out the flaws of others.  

“Brothers and sisters, if a person is caught doing something wrong, you who are spiritual should restore someone like this with a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves so you won’t be tempted too.”   This is something that is not happening in our world today.  When anyone is even accused of wrongdoing, there is immediate and hateful response.  Ok, I get being angry at a lot of the situations in our world, in our nation, today.   But being hateful, calling names, being violent in our responses to situations is not the answer.  Some months ago, in response to an ongoing and rather ugly disagreement in our City, Jennifer stood up at the beginning of a City Council meeting and gently, spiritually, reminded those present of the need to treat one another with respect and decorum, even though they disagreed.  They listened to her, and behaved better (that night).  That is what we are called to do.  We are called to watch ourselves, to avoid the temptation to get angry back, to repay evil with evil.  We are called to help one another.  Paul says,  “Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity”   

I know how frustrating it can be to keep trying to affect change, not seeing any progress.  It can seem like we are chipping away at a rock with a pencil, hoping to create a beautiful sculpture.  The struggle to change the world, to bring God’s kingdom into fruition on earth as it is in heaven - that struggle is real.  We, Christians, have been working for it for nearly 2,000 years!  But it is our job, to proclaim the Good News, to heal those who are sick at heart, to gently and spiritually reprove and change the hearts of those who have done wrong.  And yes, sometimes turning over tables and public whippings are necessary to get people’s attention.  But over the long run, chipping away at stone hard hearts with the pencil of God’s love will result in change.  It has happened, slowly and painfully.  But it has happened.  Slavery was ended.  Voting rights were extended.  Segregation ended - sort of.  We withdrew from Vietnam.  Christians were in the forefront of all of these struggles and are in the forefront of other struggles for change today.  

John Lennon said, 

“Instant Karma's gonna get you

Gonna knock you off your feet

Better recognize your brothers

(in) Ev’ryone you meet”  

Instant Karma may not be a real thing, as much as we would like it to be, but he was right in that we had better recognize our brothers and sisters in everyone we meet - treat them with respect and love, and “work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity,” in order that we might create a world “where love is lived and all is done with justice and with praise”.  (Marian Therese Winter, O For a World, 1987)  In Jesus’ name.