Scripture for 9-1-13 Luke 14:25-33

Gospel Reading:  Luke 14:25-33                            

25 Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them,

26 "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,

30 saying, 'This man began to build, and was not able to finish.'

31 Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace.

33 So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

 

 

Sermon 8-25-13 Mercy

Sabbath laws were very important in Israel. Sabbath was a time of rest, a time of renewal, a time reserved for worship and remembering all that God had done for the Israelites.

     I don’t think Jesus is suggesting that we should not be faithful in observing the Sabbath.  What Jesus is teaching us is that Compassion and mercy are more important than observation of the law!   

     Whenever Jesus encountered someone suffering, whether blind, or deaf, or with any kind of disability, Jesus immediately responded with healing. He never refused to heal anyone he encountered. Jesus even healed people without their having to ask. Not only does Jesus free the woman in today’s reading from her crippling condition without her even asking, but he does this on the Sabbath right in front of the leaders who taught that any kind of work on the Sabbath day, including the work of healing, was contrary to the will of God!

    Jesus insisted healing on the Sabbath was honoring God.  He reminded the leader of the synagogue that he let his livestock get a drink on the Sabbath, which was technically working. So why would God oppose the healing of this “daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years” on the Sabbath?

     In Matthew’s version (Matt. 12:1-14), Jesus’ hungry disciples pick heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus defends them by reminding his listeners of an example from the Old Testament. In 1 Sam. 21:1-6, David asks the priest, Ahimelech, for five loaves of bread to feed his soldiers. When the priest has no common bread, only holy bread, David persuades the priest to give him the holy bread to feed his soldiers. Jesus is clearly teaching that Compassion and mercy are more important than observation of the law! Laws should be set aside so that people have the resources they need for life.

     Being a disciple of Jesus, trying to live as Jesus lived is not natural for human beings. Two recent psychology experiments have caught my attention. Studies of revenge have demonstrated that revenge is very pleasurable to humans. When we think about revenge, our brain experiences the same pleasure we receive from narcotics. Yet, every Sunday we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Clearly, actually forgiving those who have wounded us is a challenge!  It’s not in our nature to forgive.  It’s a choice we have to make if we want to live as Christians.

     The second was a typical psychology experiment where undergraduate students were randomly assigned to two different conditions.  In one condition they were led to believe they had power and in the other condition that they did not have power. Then the researcher measured the empathy shown by each group. Those who believed they had power showed substantially less empathy.  Now these are just randomly assigned undergraduates, but the results do seem to fit with our experience of persons in power.  Having power makes it all too easy to believe your perspective is the only right way to see the world.

     We humans have a strong desire to be in control of our lives. Yet, that power, that control, interferes with our capacity to live as Jesus lived. Disciples have to choose to behave in an unnatural way! As Christians, we are called to give those around us the benefit of the doubt, to imagine sympathetically the challenges they may face, to emphasize and identify with them rather than see them as opponents or obstacles.

     We are faced with the choice between self-absorption and compassion and mercy on numerous occasions nearly every day of our lives. Unless we consciously choose to act with compassion and mercy and forgiveness, it will be all too easy to assume our challenges are greater than those faced by others, our frustrations more valid and vexing, our excuses more understandable, our priorities more important and so on and so on until, suddenly, we really have moved ourselves to the center of our universe.

     We are called to practice “intentional compassion,”  to see those ALL around us as fellow children of God worthy of respect, honor and love. We need to remember that  compassion, mercy and forgiveness are more important thatn the law. And, I think we also need to honor the Sabbath as a time to remember all God has done for us and to renew our commitment to following the way of Jesus. We need the Sabbath to remind ourselves to pay attention, to be aware, to notice those around us and to choose compassion with those around us rather than putting our goals and concerns first.

Scripture for 8-25-13 Luke 13:10-17

 

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." 13 And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." 15 Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" 17 As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Quote of the Day

A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what gospel is that?  -Archbishop Oscar Romero

Sermon 8-18-12 Running Our Leg of the Race

Today’s New Testament lesson ends with two images to motivate us to persevere in faith, enduring suffering and striving for a better world:  The race and the cloud of witnesses.

     I love the image of this congregation as one leg of a relay race that began with God’s covenant with Abraham about 2000-1500 BCE. The next legs of the race were run by Abraham’s descendants, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and his brothers. The race continued with Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt about1300 BCE and Joshua leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, the time of the judges (The writer of Hebrews mentions Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah. I would add Deborah. The time is now 1200-about 1000 BCE) and the time of the kings (Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon (1020 – 930 BCE). There were many subsequent kings until the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE and of the southern kingdom of Judah in 587 BCE. But the race continued as the people kept the faith alive through the exile (587-538 BCE), the return to Judah  (538 BCE-332 BCE),  the occupation of Palestine by the Greeks and Romans, and the persecution of the early Christians.

     Today’s Scripture list of models of faith begins with the period of judges and the early monarchy, highlighting the accomplishments of faith. Despite these achievements, the emphasis on suffering is strong. The biblical story is a long story of those with persevering faith who look beyond the present with hope. Then as now the reality is that much remains to be fulfilled. It is in this context of the struggles and sufferings of persevering faith, that the writer tells us what Jesus did. Instead of the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. The writer is encouraging us to pick up our cross and carry it through our leg of the face of faith.

     Think about that image. This congregation is one leg of a relay race that has been run for almost 4000 years. We are surrounded by a cloud of faithful Christians from down through the centuries cheering us on as we run our leg. Loyalty to the reign of God connects us with generations of prophets and martyrs who suffered for God’s covenant. This is not just a list of historical persons. All these women and men are truly alive and gathered around us like the crowd in a stadium. They are our fans, on the edge of their seats cheering us on now that our turn has come in the relay race of faith. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, . . . let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith . . . (Hebrews 12:1-2)

     That sense of history is both inspiring and encouraging. It gives us a sense of a larger purpose which we all need to rise to meet the challenges of our time. It places our struggles in the context of a long, long struggle toward a vision of a world reigned by God, a world of peace and justice, a world of abundant life, of healing, hope and love.

     The thing about a relay race is each leg has to be run well. No matter how good the runners of the first and last legs are, if the runners of the middle legs don’t also perform well, there’s no chance of winning the race. This is not one of the glorious times in the history of the Christian church. We are not like the disciples converting thousands in one afternoon.  We are not ending the crusades like St. Francis, or saving England like John Wesley. We are just running one of the thousands of the middle legs of the race.  Yet, it is our responsibility to run our leg well.

     When I think about running a race, I immediately think about training.  No one runs a marathon without many weeks, even months, of training. As Christians, we are to be in training.  We’re not just to live our daily lives following the Great Commandment to love God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and all our might and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are to adopt a training regiment to make God our first priority throughout each and every day. I believe this requires the disciple of prayer, prayer to begin our day, prayer to end our day and prayer throughout our day.  It is so easy for us to become so focused on our problems that we forget God is always speaking to us—to our hearts, to our minds, to our spirits.  We just have to be willing to stop long enough to center ourselves on God and to listen. To center our lives on God is to learn to sense God’s presence with us throughout each day, to be strengthened, encouraged and guided by that presence. To recognize that we are in training as a congregation to run our leg of the race well, is to recognize our need for discipline.

     I also find that loving God and loving others is so intertwined that when we stop to listen to God, we become more aware of the needs of others. Somehow listening to God always ends up with awareness of things we need to do to help others. 

     A second important aspect of running any race is pacing. You can’t start out running full tilt or you’ll never have the strength to finish the race.  Somehow we have to keep our lives focused on God over the long haul through all the important and minor changes in our lives. This is where perseverance and endurance come in. We train and we run not just when the weather is good, not just when we feel like it or it feels good.  Not just when we are aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We pray regardless of how we feel.  We are helped to persevere when we hang on to the moments of peace and joy we have experienced in the past, through any moments of doubt and despair.

     A marathon racer doesn’t just cross the finish line and walk off and sit down. Usually they have to slow down gradually to recover from the effort.  We all need times of recovery, re-creation. That’s why it’s important to remember that it’s the congregation that’s running the race, we need to help each other pace our lives.

     One can't help but be inspired by today’s reading from Hebrews. Seeing ourselves in the context of 4000 years of faithful devotion to God motivates us to persevere. We are not the first ones to run the race of faith. Faithful saints before us have run the same race, fought fatigue, battled discouragement and, even occasionally, have won! But winning is not the most important criteria. The most important criteria is faithfulness. The struggle continues. We are not required to succeed, only to be faithful. 

Scripture for 8-18=13 Hebrews 11:29 -- 12:2

29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given friendly welcome to the spies.

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—

33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life.

36 Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment.

37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—

38 of whom the world was not worthy--wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39 And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

 

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,

2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Quote of the Day

Our present ecological crisis, the biggest single practical threat to our human existence in the middle to long term, has, religious people would say, a great deal to do with our failure to think of the world as existing in relation to the mystery of God, not just as a huge warehouse of stuff to be used for our convenience.                                                                                     -Archbishop Rowan Williams