Sermon: Psalm 23

Sermon: Psalm 23

              “It seems like we only get together like this at funerals.”

              I don’t know how many times, as a Pastor, I’ve heard that phrase.

              At the same time—I’d imagine funeral goers could flip that around in a way, “It seems like I only hear Psalm 23 preached at funerals.”

              And there is a good reason for it—it is THE Psalm of Comfort.

              It reminds us that God was present with the person who has died, that their whole life was shot through with God’s presence… and for good measure those who mourn are reminded that the same is true for them.

              Additionally, there is that promise of being shepherded through the Shadow of Death and finding a dwelling place with the Lord Forever…

              These are all deeply important promises—they are also promises we Christians ought to be reminded of on the other side of the funeral pall as well… Psalm 23 is for the living too… Psalm 23 is for us here and now—for the living as well as for the dead.

Let us pray

              The Lord is our Shepherd—the one who calls us by name, the one whose voice brings us comfort and awe—Jesus Christ… is God meeting us! God continually meets us in Jesus.

              The Book of Revelation makes this point in a twofold way, it does this strange thing with the Throne of God…
…you see it and there is God, then there is the Lamb, then there is God
It also tells us a paradoxical truth, the Lamb is the Shepherd.

              The Gospel of John makes a similar point by saying it plain, “I and the Father are one.”
              That one, Jesus whom we love and trust, Jesus who is our sibling and our friend—through him we see and know God—we can begin to grasp that the Lord is our Shepherd.

              Grasp as well that when we talk about salvation—what God has done for us through Jesus—that we are saved for this life too…
called to a full life,
an abundant life,
a life of meaning and joy
a life worth savoring!

              You know why “Keep the Sabbath” makes the 10 commandments? Because otherwise we would miss the green pastures and still waters the Shepherd kindly leads us to on account of our many labors and distractions.

              Now, E.B. White, once wrote, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

              That first impulse, saving the world—that’s part of God’s guiding too, part of following along right pathways.

              We are called to follow our Lord. This is the ongoing story in the book of Acts—the Early Church continually acts faithfully… to a point and then call it good—but the Holy Spirit refuses to let them be, instead it prompts them forward in faith, to act like Jesus—Peter raises a woman from the dead in Acts just as Jesus did in Luke—he’s being the Body of Christ in the World, which is what we are!

              The salvation we are given by Christ is not something to be horded or guarded, but instead given away, salvation is multiplied by being divided! We are to open our hands and our hearts to everyone—just as Christ our Lord has done for us and for the whole world!

             

              And then we get to the crux of it all, here in verse 4—there are 26 words before it and 26 words after it—it is the smack dab center of Psalm 23, and the center of the faith.

              “You are with me.”

              “You are with me.”

              “You are with me.”

              This is why we call Jesus “Emmanuel” which means “God with us.”

              This is why St. Patrick prayed that powerful prayer:

“Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, 
Christ on my right, Christ on my left, 
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, 
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, 
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, 
Christ in the eye that sees me, 
Christ in the ear that hears me. “

              What if we were aware of God’s presence
—aware of the way Jesus is always with us
—aware that at this very moment the Holy Spirit is here with you—right now!

              Right now in your neighbor next to you, right now in the scripture you read, right now in the words of my mouth, right now in the holy meal we will eat and drink, right now!

              God present with us in adversity as well, after all when we look for God dwelling among us, where do we find God? On the Cross.

              Even when we are surrounded by enemies—in our lowest moments, comfort and balm are on offer by God.

              Lost in all the weird imagery of the book of Revelation is it’s central message, a message of hope to a bunch of Christians facing persecution—be washed, receive the overflowing love of God! Even in your hour of need!

              Surely this is all good news! God who is merciful and just knows and loves us in Jesus Christ.
 We are called to a meaningful life and to bring meaning and hope to others.
God is with us!
God is with us even in the worst!
Even to the end and beyond the end.
Nothing can snatch us away from the hands of the good shepherd.

              Thanks be to God.

A+A

My initial hot take on the Mueller Report

The Mueller Report by Robert S. Mueller III
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Short summary: The Russians did it, the Trump team bungles everything, there were many instances of obstruction that Congress needs to follow up on, and the President recalls NOTHING.


View all my reviews

An Idle Tale

Alleluia! Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, alleluia!

          That’s our story—Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, alleluia)

          An improbable story, an idle tale, yet it pulls at us. Like the women perhaps we see the empty tomb and are drawn to it, and are told this terrifying and liberating truth, “He is not here, but has risen.”
With that snippet of story we remember the words of our Lord. God willing we then go and tell the story to others… in telling it, we are transformed.

          Or like the disciples we perhaps do not believe, and yet like Peter we are pulled in by it, and go and see, and then are strangely satisfied by a grave cloth—amazed!
The tale transforms us in its telling.

          Alleluia! Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, alleluia!

          Prayer

          Let me tell you our idle tale, our improbable story…

          It was all both unexpected and inevitable
—this man Jesus carried the weight of Holy Scripture upon his body,
the promises of God culminated in his life’s work.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
He was a figure like Moses—liberating his people
and he bore so much of our sorrows like Isaiah’s suffering servant,
he was a second Jeremiah,
stones would gladly have sang psalms of scripture when he arrived in Jerusalem,
he is Living Wisdom,
he is the Word.

          He is God among human beings, Divinity in the flesh, the Son of God… and, as is often the case, those who thought themselves grand, couldn’t stand it
—there was an equal and opposite reaction to his coming among us.
The powers that be, political, religious, and spiritual took a stand against him. They knew his presence
- pulled down the powerful,
-emptied the full,
-humiliated the haughty
—after all they saw his mercy, his uplifting of the lowly, and his feeding of the hungry.
So they arrested him, tortured him, and executed him on a cross.

          Yet three days later, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the sister of James, and others, found the tomb empty.
          As our Bishop would say: Oh my! Jesus is on the loose!
          Heavenly messengers reminded the women of the promised resurrection. The disciples soon came around, and then Christ himself
—Jesus risen from the dead,
appeared to many, that his victory might be known.

          This is his victory over all the Lords of this world, seated on their thrones of sin, the powers of this world can not hold him!
Their power and authority and rule have been proven a lie. What power do they have in their hands? They can bind, beat, and crucify—and that mean nothing!
Jesus’ death and life short circuit all of it! Jesus’ Lordship is one of loving service, solidarity, and humility.
In the face of this victory, surely the powers of this world collapse.

          Siblings of our Savior, please know this is NOT simply an event long ago. It is the start of a new thing
—a new era,
a grand unfolding of life from death,
a new creation.
In Christ we too die and we rise. It is an ongoing story that, by our telling of it in word and in deed, expresses a promise that is redeeming the whole world!

          That is our improbable story.
Jesus is the promised one of God,
crucified and killed by the powerful,
risen from the dead,
victorious over the Powers of Sin and Death.

          This is our improbable story—go tell the world our idle tale.

Alleluia! Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, alleluia!

Maundy Thursday

          In Douglas Adam’s quirky, off the wall, and kinda twisted Science Fiction novel, “The Hichhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” a computer named Deep Thought was asked to calculate “The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”
The surprising answer?
42.

          Well, if we were to ask a similar question of John’s Gospel, if we were to ask it to calculate, “The answer to the Goal of Love, Jesus dwelling among us, and… all of this.”
The answer would be 13.

+++

          John chapter 13 has it all, it is the whole enchilada, the buck stops here, it is, “The answer to the Goal of Love, Jesus dwelling among us, and… all of this.”

          Though Christ will cry “It is finished” from the cross, that finality is a forgone conclusion, for Jesus has already loved his to the end
—he has reached his goal, the three years of his ministry are completed at this meal,
with this washing, with this call to love.

          All of this, Jesus does in an ongoing chain of service, a web of relationship—that’s the consequence of God dwelling among us…
There is Jesus kneeling and washing feet, as he first was washed.
Mary knelt, using her resurrected brother’s burial perfume,
wiped her Lord’s feet with her hair,
shamed by Judas, but hospitable still,
anointing Jesus for the task ahead
—as she did for him, so now he does for his disciples, even for Judas.
Mary’s perfume of new life, there at Christ’s table.

          What is love?
By what authority is he called Teacher and called Lord?
How is God glorified in Jesus Christ?
Through servanthood and through hospitality.
Love through concrete actions, the intimate and uncomfortable earthiness of foot washing.
Lordship, taking the part of the servant
or the humble host, then obliged to all who sup with him.
God glorified at table, kneeling and stripped for service.

          The Disciples are anointed by this washing for the task of love,
given an example so concrete and in their face even they can’t ignore it,
their Lord stripped and scrubbing their feet…
they are called to love…
no they are commanded to love
—as his disciples they are to love one another
…follow after him upon the path of love he has trod…
and yet, this is what always gets me, it is different for us, is it not?
-We are diluted where he was concentrated,
-we are many whereas he was one…
The example and us living it out,
the idea and the deed…
they differ,
 those particulars at play, will play out differently among us…

          Perhaps it is inevitable the way it played out
—perhaps it helps us see it all more clearly-even
—he does this grand gesture, has this last meaningful meal, with Judas there
… Judas who is overwhelmed by evil and seduced by silver… AND he is washed, he eats with Jesus, he is loved by Jesus.

Jesus offers them his whole self in service, and there is Peter almost purposefully misinterpreting this gratuitously gracious act of love…

There is Peter, too, who will deny his relationship with Jesus, that sting is already there… AND he is washed, he eats with Jesus, he is loved by Jesus.
Denial, betrayal, misinterpretation—AND still love.

          Truly, the 13^th chapter of John is, “The answer to the Goal of Love, Jesus dwelling among us, and… all of this.”

+++

          Now, the thing I love about “Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy” is that it doesn’t stop with 42 as a sort of joke, instead the quest for the meaning of life continues, even after it has been found…
A more powerful computer needed to be created in order to understand the question that was asked.
The kicker, is that the machine is the planet Earth itself. To understand the question that was answered with the number 42, the whole history of earth needs to unfold and be understood.

          And so too John 13 and Maundy Thursday
—I can point you to the swirling strangeness of that night,
-Continuity of relationship,
-Lordship short circuited by humble love,
-Discipleship as a process but perhaps not an end,
-Loving in the face of evil…

 but the quest for the completion of all this continues, even as it is found…
the rituals we do this night, laying on of hands to point to forgiveness, washing of feet, eating of bread and wine, stripping of the altar
—these very physical earthy things we do, they, in a different way than words, turn us to love and Christ among us, the goal and end and completeness of all things.

Amen.

My fears about Trump, realized

You might remember going into the 2016 election I had three fears about the election of Donald Trump:

1. He will weaken insurance protections for people like me with pre-existing conditions and mess with Obamacare generally.

2. He’ll say anything and mean nothing.

3. He’s authoritarian.

I checked back last year and concluded that I was not wrong.

How do things look these days?

1. He continues to go after the ACA.Challenging it in court, allowing the sale of plans that can deny people coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and promised to make repealing the ACA a centerpiece of the 2020 election.

2. As for the president lying and wallowing in vacuous slogans… Well, he has 12 pages worth of false statements on politifacts and averaged 15 lies a day last year. He’s fought against windmill cancer, exaggerates his net worth,exaggerates about the benefits of his tax cuts, and there was the whole Kanye West thing… not to mention we had an embarrassing and costly ($11,000,000,000 costly, destruction of national parks costly, hungry people not fed, food not inspected, workers not paid for their work costly… etc) government shut-down because “We’re going to build a wall and Mexico will pay for it” turned into “We’re going to build a wall and I’m going to hold the country ransom to pay for it.”

3. Finally, there is the authoritarianism.
-I’d remind you that the “gloves off” “sometimes you have to break some eggs” approach to ICE enforcement has ruined the lives of a few folk I know personally. We’re now the country of baby jails and what look an awful lot like concentration camps.
-Neo-nazis are being called “very fine people” by the president, and he’s inspiring violence at home, and abroad.

-Speaking of abroad, Trump continues to be cozy with authoritarian leaders, Putin especially.

In conclusions, Trump endangers the health of people with pre-existing conditions, the empty words he planted are now being harvested in unforced errors with unforeseen consequences, and his authoritarian streak is curdling the soul of America and emboldening enemies of freedom everywhere.

Bear Fruit

         Consider the folk shot in Christchurch, New Zealand, were their sufferings and their deaths the result of their sins?

         Or those in Nebraska, who have, due to the horrific flooding, lost their livestock and their crops, and their homes and some even their lives. Were they worse sinners than all the rest of us?

         By no means…

         Jesus decouples sin from suffering—in fact, that’s one of the reasons for Jesus’ healing ministry, he heals people who have been put out from polite company on account of their ailments, because polite company believed their ailments were a sign of sin.

         And this view of a causal-relationship between sin and suffering makes some sense, doesn’t it? Actions shouldhave consequences.  It makes for a well-ordered universe.
If a bad thing happened to me, I know I’m at fault… such a scheme is easy,
but as we all know from our actual experiences in life, it is never that simple.
Yes, actions have consequences, but the connections between them are rarely crystal clear. 

         

         And that ambiguity can get us alltwisted up.
It can cause us to pay much closer attention to the facts of our life and the ramifications of our choices.

When we come near to suffering it can stir up a lot of unspoken things in us.

It can make us take our own lives more seriously…
“What if it had been me instead?”

“Wow, he lost everything, what’s really important in my life?”
“Shoot, he’s dead and I never got to say goodbye, who else do I have unfinished business with?” 

         (To be clear, our primary concern when faced with someone who is suffering, ought to be care for the suffering person, not turning inward and making their suffering about us)

         Yet, those questions linger in the air, they are moments filled with potential, moments of opportunity and peril,
forks in the road…

They can lead down a path where our discomfort with death and suffering can lead us into the arms of idols
—after all idolatry is putting our “fear, love, & trust” in anything other than God… where does our loyalty, love, and awe get tested more often than in the face of suffering? 

         We can go down that idol road, or we can go down another path, the one Jesus points us to… 
in the face of these questions,
to the lonely searching of our soul,
we can cling to the answer Jesus gives, “Repent, bear fruit.”

         You’ve come face to face with those places in your life that are not fruitful, you recognize in a stark way those things that pull you away from the center of life, you are aware of where you’ve fallen short and where you’ve made a wrong turn… 

         Repent—turn around,
fall in line behind our Lord and follow him!
Get back on the path of being a disciple; change your ways!

         And do you know why repentance is possible? Why change can happen?

Because you can repent from a place of stability and self-worth!

Because you can change knowing God will catch you when you fall!

Look! In the heat of the day, God’s wings, a cool shroud shelters you.

Look! Out in the wilderness, far from civilization a cool spring and wilderness meal!

Look! Food and drink aplenty, no strings attached, no debt incurred.

Look! You are a blooming garden, ripe with potential and awash with opportunity!

You are beloved of God, baptized and fed, gathered together in God’s arms!

Gathered together to go out. To be salt and light to the world, a world deeply loved by God! A world that needs to know it’s worth!

Even those far off, those who have shaken off the dust of the faith and intend never to go back—the gift is still there. No one can take God’s promise from you! No idol can stop your ears from hearing God’s call!

Praise be to God whose ways are mysterious and great!

Praise be to God who brings heaven to earth!

Praise be to God who calls forth fruitfulness from us!

         Yes, we can bear fruit, because we are grounded in God’s good soil!

         We can face those big questions stirred up in us in the sight of suffering, avoiding the temptation of idols, because we know God holds us and is with us and will never abandon us.

         Never abandon us, even if it means coming in flesh, suffering with us, dying with us… even then, God will never abandon us!

         We can ask those big questions and find faithful, fruitful, answers, because God loves us!

Fruitfulness…

         Fruitfulness!

         Following after Jesus, being like him, becoming little Christ’s!

         Fruitfulness!

         Living a generous life in such a way that everyone has enough! Are we not entertaining angels unaware?

         Fruitfulness!

         An openness to those on the outside, because we know God is found on the margins, even outside the gates of Jerusalem on a cross! 

         Fruitfulnessalso taking relationships seriously. On Wednesdays we’ve been talking about the concrete steps that it takes to forgive someone.
-telling your story,

-naming the hurt,

-forgiving the offender

and only then deciding whether to restore the relationship, or release it.

         Fruitfulness!

         Trusting that you are not alone in all of this, that there is a Gardner who will dig around your roots and tend us all with good soil
—the Gardner who makes us to bear fruit and at the resurrection calls us by name.

Amen

Sermon after the Christchurch shooting: Sanctuary

Sanctuary

         “For in the day of trouble God will give me shelter, hide me in the hidden places of the sanctuary, and raise me high upon a rock.”

         Sanctuary—this space where we are worshipping at this very moment, and a generic term for a place of safety.
A worship space and a place of safety… Sanctuary.

         A year or so back we did a pub theology that looked about disaster preparedness, the focus was how can we help when the next hurricane hits? What do we do if someone faints?

         Fast forward to last month. We put together a “Congregational Disaster Preparedness Team” and one of the things we’ll need to think about, at least a little, is what happens if our sanctuaryis under attack.

         Sanctuary… a worship space and a place of safety…
We need sanctuary!

Prayer

         At first blush it’s a strange thing, the Pharisees warning Jesus about Herod’s threats of violence. But they realize their fate is directly connected to Jesus’. You see, for Herod, one pious Jew looks very much like another… and it was known that Jesus didargue about interpretation with the Pharisees, and dideat with them
—breaking bread and asking “how do you read”
—as far as Herod cared Jesus was just another Pharisee…
and there is a history of the Royal Family off-ingPharisees, Herod’s great grand-father-in-law once executed 800 Pharisees in a single day.
The Pharisees knew that for Herod, Violence is as violence does.

         So they warn Jesus to cool it!
He’s been describing God’s Kingdom in epic ways, which has King Herod worried… 

“Just cool it or we’re all dead!”

         But Jesus won’t be slowed down, he’s doing what he’s doing
—going to Jerusalem… Jerusalem where the Prophet’s are killed…
(some of you have been asking what this phrase means)
Jerusalem, the center of religion
—where else would a prophet die, except in a confrontation with God’s people
—religious messengers are killed for delivering their message to religious people,
God’s people who reject God’s message due to their religious convictions,
convictions that are ultimately idolatrous!

         And Jesus laments this, that all these people are loved like Children whose lives are cut short,
loved like chicks who refuse to nestle down and are in grave danger…
ultimately the image Jesus conveys about his message to Jerusalem, an image which will be born in his very body on the Cross, is this:
There is a Fox seeking to eat the Hen’s precious chicks,
-the Hen seeks to save them putting her very body in the way of the deadly fox,
-and the chicks, turn on the Hen, their own mother, and kill her…
-and then, in turn, the fox kills the chicks…

God help us… we need sanctuary!

         We need sanctuary!

-Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg,
-Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston,
-First Baptist Church in Southerland Springs,
-the Sikh gurdwara in Wisconsin,
and now the twin mosques in Christchurch…

         It feels like, to the Violent, to people of ill-will, we are all prey.
Wherever groups of goodwill gather together, violence is as violence does… there are no distinctions made… We all need sanctuary!

         Yet, that’s not quite right, with the exception of the shooting at First Baptist in Southerland Springs (which was an incredibly tragic domestic dispute),
there wasa common thread,
there WERE distinctions being made
—in fact, like violent religious martyrs, the shooters gave witness to their faith, they named very clearly why they committed these horrendous acts of violence
—the worship of whiteness… they were all white supremacists, 

They fit the same pattern as:
the murderer who killed 77 people over in Norway 8 years ago,
or the shooter at the Overland Park Jewish Center 5 years ago where three people were killed,

Or Charlottesville nearly two years ago, where neo-Nazi chanted “Jews will not replace us”
… where counter-protestors were beaten and clergy pelted with coke bottles filled with cement, an African American church put under siege,
and the whole event culminated in a white supremacist running over the counter-protesters with his car, leaving twenty eight people injured and one young woman dead.

         They worship whiteness.

         And again, in the name of this hellish God,children, women and men, mothers and fathers, all gunned down while they worshipped together.

         The absurd horror of a refugee who escaped violence in Syria shot dead at a mosque in New Zealand, where he had found sanctuary…

         God help us, we need sanctuary!

         In the face of Herod,
in the face of the tragedy of Jerusalem,
thank God we can see the Pathos of God in Jesus!
Thank God for his tender sorrow,
the tears of God,
and the tragedy tearing at God’s heart!

         Thank God, as well, that he goes to Jerusalem,
that God in Christ Jesus puts himself in the way,
goes forward anyhow,
knowing that he goes forward to be betrayed by religion and authority
—the impulse of every Jerusalem, every instinct to worship that bypasses God… Jesus goes to meet men whogladly sell all that is good in religion, for violence’s sake.

         Do you hear me?
The pathos,
the tender sorrow,
the torn heart of God!

         God is moved!

         God weepsat the attack on the worshippers at Al Noor mosque and at Linwood mosque.

         God weepsevery time sanctuary is supplanted by violence!

         Do you hear me?
Jesus puts himself in the way!

         God is always found between the victim and acts of violence! 

         God was withDaoud Nabi, the attacker’s first victim, the greeter who was at the door to the mosque and whose first and last words to the attacker were, “welcome brother.”

         God was withthe father shot in the back while shielding his two sons, now in a coma.

         Even when the church sells itself out to quietism, get-along-ism, that’s-too-political-ism,
when it turns its eyes from white supremacy and any other idolatry under the sun… even then

—God shows up!

         “For in the day of trouble God will give me shelter, hide me in the hidden places of the sanctuary, and raise me high upon a rock.” 

Sanctuary…
a worship space and a place of safety…
We need sanctuary!

Amen, and God help us.

Temptation

Temptation

(to congregation)        

Look at him, filled with Spirit—and nothing else…

          I’d watched him at the river when he was Baptized, it was a sight to see, the heavens opened, that vile Dove, the Holy Spirit, she was there with him, and the Creator of all that is, seen and unseen, told him, “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”

          Doesn’t look so happy now does he? Bet he’s not filling Ol’ God with happiness now… all gaunt and starved, skinny, wasting away.

          Truly, I wonder, what kind of Son of God is this? The whole thing is so incomprehensible to me. What kind of Son of God is this Jesus?

(to cross)

          Jesus! Since you’re the Son of God, I expect you can follow in your father’s footsteps, you can do for yourself like he did for Moses in the… well… (indicate surroundings) the wilderness… since you are God’s Son, make for yourself bread…

          Take this rock here, make it into manna…

(to congregation)

          And he spits back at me scripture… “One does not live by bread alone.” Nodding to Deuteronomy, to the reminder found there that the 40 years Moses wandered in the wilderness were about God’s people aligning themselves with God’s will, being tested and finding that they trusted God, trusted God’s providing, even when it looked to be the opposite…

(to cross)

          Tell you what! You can’t even make manna from stone…
 you are hardly a Son of God… you are powerless… follow me…
(WALK TO NEW SECTION)
Look at all of this, every nation—look at the strut and strength they have, their glory and authority—it all belongs to me, I’ve taken it from them, they gave it to me willingly, they tripped over themselves selling themselves… and I can do whatever I want with them, I could even give all of this to you…

 If you worship me, then all of this, this magnificent prize, is yours.

(to congregation)

          Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.

          Bllaaa! Again with Deuteronomy… describing one of those powers that I offered him, the might of Egypt, seduced and fallen, describing how the Israelites were strangers and then slaves, and no amount of power freed them, only God freed them, only God is worthy of worship!
This guy, I think I need to try a new tactic.

(to cross)

          Come with me, up to Jerusalem, such a Holy and important place, the belly button of the world, its bedrock, its beginning and its ending…
 no, don’t stop here… come up higher still, up to the tip-top of the temple, up to the highest height, for all to see…

          Look Jesus, since you are the Son of God, spread out your arms, fling yourself from here, and they will see, they will see that you do indeed fulfill scripture, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you” and if that’s not enough scripture for you, “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”

          Huh? How about that, that’s how a Son of God acts, isn’t it? Centering himself and showing everyone his holy power, his heavenly protection—Jesus, that’s how the Son of God acts!!!

(Storm out to congregation in a RAGE!!!)

          And a third time, Deuteronomy, describing the meaning of this God of liberation, this God who took God’s people out of Egypt and through the Wilderness! “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

          What kind of Son of God is this Jesus? He will feed the multitudes with bread, but not himself.           What kind of Son of God is this Jesus? He will bring people from every tribe and race, every nation under the sun under his rule, but not for the glory and authority that nations and races and tribes offer.

          What kind of Son of God is this Jesus?

          Who gets up and goes with that Holy Dove still upon him, who leaves me behind and goes and preaches,

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

          What kind of Son of God is this Jesus?

          Jesus!!!

          Look, back at the temple again! Back in Jerusalem!

          What an opportune time!!!
(GO TO CROSS)

          Look at you on that cross!

          Dear Jesus, now you thirst! Bring out water from a stone! Now is your time to produce manna in the desert—show them you’re God’s Son.

          Now you are abandoned by the very one you worship! “Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani”

          Now you are feeling what it means to reject the power of a nation—executed by the state! There is a simple truth to this world, Oh Son of God, if you aren’t doing the killing, you will be killed.

          Now you wonder, are you God’s Son?

          Now your arms are outstretched! Again, in Jerusalem…

          Show them, just show them, what kind of Son of God you are!

          Call upon angels for protection, worship me, be satisfied by more than gall from a rugged stick and sponge!

          Show them what kind of Son of God you are!

          No… you just quote scripture again, “Into your hands I commend my spirit, you will redeem me, Lord God of truth.”

Ash Wednesday: We are to take up our Lenten Disciplines in such a way that we remain disciples of Christ.

Ash Wednesday

          So here we are… another Lent, so late this year that we were lulled into a false sense of security and it managed to sneak up on us.

          Here we are—on the precipice, ready to follow Jesus down the mountain and head to Jerusalem.

          Here we are—shaping our lives into a unique holy time through a 40 day focus on Alms, Fasting and Prayer.
          Using ELCA World hunger resources for Self-examination and Repentance, Prayer and Fasting, Works of Love and Sacrificial Giving.
          Gathering together on Wednesday to work out the actual nuts and bolts process of forgiving someone and some of us helping each other along the way as prayer partners.
          Many of us searching our own souls and finding particular areas in our life that need 40 days to clear out and re-create so that it more closely clings to the Gospel and to Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the face of all these doings, let me say this as plainly as I can: these efforts are to be taken seriously, seriously enough to fail at them, but they are not to be taken seriously enough to cause other people to fail. Jesus says our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and the Scribes, but that is not a call to self-righteousness or self-satisfaction.

          We are to take up our Lenten Disciplines in such a way that we remain disciples of Christ.

Prayer

          We are to take up our Lenten Disciplines in such a way that we remain disciples of Christ.

          Beloved in Christ, give alms, for doing so will connect you to the real and ongoing needs of the world. Give of your time and your possessions, in so doing you will find that, despite the stories of our society and the voices in our heads, there will be enough—in God’s good creation there is enough!

          Beloved in Christ, do not give of your time and your talent in such a way that you may brag of your busyness or lord your generosity over another person, being their patron. Doing so will breed resentment and you will not be listened to.

          Beloved in Christ, fast, for in so doing you will remember what sustains you—that everything nourishing for the body is a gift from God. You will become aware of the body which God has given you. You will also be reminded that many go to bed hungry, and you will hunger for their fullness.

          Beloved in Christ, do not fast for show or to become proud of your control over your body, for it is not your own.

          Beloved in Christ, pray regularly. Pray for our future and for our greatest needs—they need to be named and known, or we will go quietly and unthinkingly into a future that is not only frightening, but uncaring. For that matter, there is a lot of you inside of you, its good to get it out in the open, express it to God, God’s shoulders are big enough to bear it.

          Beloved in Christ, do not pray in order to manipulate or to gossip, do not pray breathless prayers in the hopes that they take your neighbor’s breath away. Doing so mocks God and dishonors your neighbor.

          Beloved in Christ, Seek repentance and forgiveness, your actions and your inner being are worth taking seriously. So is your neighbors.

          Beloved in Christ, do not seek repentance and forgiveness for show, or to stir up controversy, only do so because the image of God is found in the mirror and right next to you.

          Dearest Christian friends, recognize the weight of taking on a Lenten discipline. It is as heavy as Joel’s religious response to a plague of locusts and the famine that followed, it is as Paul writes becoming reconciled to God.

          Recognize too the goal of such a discipline, you are being shaped into the Image of Christ, not into a hypocrite.

          We are to take up our Lenten Disciplines in such a way that we remain disciples of Christ.

Amen.