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"Dawn" Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016

3/29/2016

Luke 24:1-12 “Dawn”
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It was dark outside, early dawn in fact, when they got up, that group of women which included Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and other women, women Jesus healed, and women from whom had exorcised demons. Women Jesus loved and treated with respect.   In turn these women loved Jesus and stayed faithful to him to the end. As Jesus traveled to Calvary, carrying his cross, the women accompanied him. They stood watch as Jesus suffered and died, never turning away, even though others did.

They didn’t speak, as they didn’t speak in those early hours, when the pall of darkness is still in the air, evaporating very quietly, slowly, as signs of life awakens, through the birds, a breeze, perhaps a mist. It was at early dawn on that third day, the first opportunity they had, that the women prepared the spices to take to Jesus’ tomb and anoint his dead body.

At dawn they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. At dawn they went in the burial cave and didn’t find the body. They were perplexed, the same word used for Mary, the Mother of Jesus, when she was perplexed and didn’t understand the Angel Gabriel’s greeting, bringing her news of the conception of a new, Holy life.   So the women are perplexed as these signs of new, resurrected life that they too don’t yet understand.

At dawn the women encounter two men in dazzling clothes, we presume them angels like they are recorded in the Gospel of John. These two men/angels are the dawn speakers, for they proclaim “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” They remind the women of Jesus’ prophetic words in Galilee that he would suffer and die, but rise again. At dawn, the women do indeed remember, and run to tell the rest.   The others, roused from their sleep so early, believe this an idle tale, but Peter ran to the tomb and was amazed to see the linen cloths but no body there. All at dawn.

        Dawn is a special time of day. Not night anymore, not quite day, it is an in between time, an in-between place. Darkness is giving way to light, but the mix of the two is there. The world for the most part is still quiet, only a few are awake. Some of us find getting up extra early at dawn to be rewarding. It is a perfect time to get a head start, to meditate, exercise, pray, attend to a special project without the disruptions of daytime busyness, while the quiet of the night lingers.

Jesus chose to rise at early dawn.   Not in the dark of night. Not in the light of day. But at rosy-fingered dawn, “gold throned dawn, the “bright throned dawn,” as the Odyssey puts it.

In the scriptures dawn was a time of spiritual significance, commitment and renewal.   The prophet Zephaniah affirms that “morning by morning God dispenses his justice, and every new day he does not fail” (3:5). The new dawn requires that every day people are to be judged fairly, and God’s called leaders must deliver those who had been robbed or oppressed in any faction.If you recall, Jacob in the book of Genesis, on his first night he was exiled from home, has a vivid dream of heaven and he rose early and worshiped the Lord before he continued his journey (Gen 28:18-19).   Job made it a regular practice to worship God early in the morning (Job 1:5). Such also probably was Joshua’s custom (Josh. 3:1; 6:12; 7:14, 16; 8:10). Indeed, when crucial decisions were to be made or important activities needed to be accomplished, it is often reported that godly people in times of trouble rose early to pray and be with God. When Abraham was tested to sacrifice Isaac. When God called Moses called to ratify the covenant. When God called Gideon to be a judge over Israel. When Samuel’s parents, Elkaniah and Hannah prayed for a longed for child. The prophet Jeremiah and King Hezekiah of Judah rose early to address their problems and worries with God (Gen. 22:3; Exod. 24:4; Judges 6:35; 2 Chron. 29:20, Jeremiah 7:13, 1 Sam 1:19).   The psalms repeatedly talk about dawn as a time of prayer and encounter with God, as Psalm 5 reminds us: “In the morning O Lord, you hear my voice, in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” (Pss. 5:3; 88:13, Pss. 59:16; 90:2, Ps. 49, Ps. 143:8 Ps. 92:1-2).   It is not surprising then that the gospels remind us that Jesus got up in the morning, while it was still dark, and went to a solitary place to pray (Mark 1:35).

So this faithful band of sisters went to Jesus’ grave out of love and loyalty but in a tradition of their ancestors. To somehow find strength. To find God’s justice.   To find the presence of the Holy One. To find a way to face the troubles of the day with God’s help.   In the midst of darkness, to find hope.

Dawn symbolizes not only darkness giving way to light, but the old making way for the new, fresh beginnings.   For believers, dawn symbolized an eager desire to meet the Lord, serve God, and live in accordance to God’s will. It is not surprising then that even the word, Easter, is derived from the proto-Indo-European root, for the word Dawn. Today we celebration dawn. The divine dawning of God’s light in the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

We need the dawn in our lives. Although called to be an Easter people, many of us live in darkness or a night of some sort or another. Some of us live with a sense of alienation from God or from loved ones. Perhaps there is a darkness of an illness, financial stress, conflict of some sort. For some of us, This Easter Sunday has shadows of Good Friday that cling to our hearts.   We wonder, where is the dawn? Where is the dawn in a world filled with conflict, suffering and war? Yet Easter is strong enough to handle all the pain, all the doubt, all the hurt in our hearts.   As dawn surely follows the night, Easter rises from the ashes of pain and sorrow.

Easter is our reminder that Jesus rises in our darkness, shows us life in the scarred places and leads us to new possibilities.   Life, new life, new possibilities. The old life is gone…yes…Easter does not deny that. Easter does not deny death or the tomb. However Easter proclaims that a new life, unknown is on the horizon and beckons us forward…where Jesus is – in resurrection glory.

Easter Dawn reminds us of this prayer:
God make me brave for life: oh braver than this.
Let me straighten after pain, as a tree straightens after the rain
Shining and lovely again.
God make me brave for life; much braver than this.
As the blown grass lifts, let me rise from sorrow with quiet eyes
Knowing Thy way is wise.
God make me brave, life brings such blinding things.
Help me to keep my sight;
Help me to see aright
That out of dark come light.

Like those women who came to the tomb in the early dawn, let us not be afraid. It is Easter. We are indeed braver than this.   We will straighten. We will rise.   We will see aright.   Because we see the dawn. At some place on this good earth, it is dawn. It is always dawning.

If we follow the example of the faithful and sages we will see: dawn always approaches. A stone rolled away. An empty tomb. Linens by themselves. The angels’ message: He is risen.

     It is Easter, and no matter where our lives are, dawn will find us. Remember Jesus’ words. His promise.   Because Jesus is risen. We will rise too.

He is risen indeed.   And so will we.
Amen.

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Casting Lots March 20, 2016

3/23/2016

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Luke 22:1-23:1-49

Brothers and sisters, we have just heard one of the most profound stories we will ever hear in our lives. This passion narrative, which we just heard read, along with the resurrection account of Jesus we will hear next week, form the most important story of our spiritual lives.   These few chapters from Luke forge the epicenter of scripture.   This story has the power to change us. It has the power to affect the choices we make. It has the power to direct the course of how we are live and ultimately our destiny.

The story of Jesus’ suffering and death is more than a story of a good man who found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. It is our story. All the roles we play in life are contained in this story: the disciples, Peter, Judas, Pilate, the crazed mob, the chief priests and scribes, the soldiers, the women from Galilee who follow & cry for Jesus, Simon the Cyrene, the thieves on the cross, the centurion. They are all a part of us. Together they make up the story of our lives.   They each have something to say to us. They are here to guide us. They ask us how we shall cast our lots with this story.

Casting lots. It’s the story of our lives. It’s what we do everyday to get along. You have a set of dice stapled to your bulletin, I invite you to take them out. Hold them as we meditate on casting lots. It’s important to know what role we will take, for the stakes are high. How we cast our lots determines our lives. Let us look again at how we cast our lots.

Some of us cast our lots like the disciples at the last supper. Even after receiving the cup and the bread they end up in a dispute over who will be regarded as the greatest, now they think Jesus is going to enter political glory. They are clueless about Jesus and the suffering he is about to undergo. They only think of themselves. They are fixated on how they will benefit. For three years they haven’t listened. Can we be just as intent on getting ahead that we forget to listen to Jesus and follow his example?

The game goes on and we come to the role of Judas.   Who would consciously cast their lot with him?   Judas leaves too much unanswered. Why did he sell out Jesus? Did he want to force Jesus’ hand, so he would take messianic action?   Was he disillusioned, realizing Jesus didn’t measure up to the kind of messiah he wanted? Or was he basically a shiftless thief whose run was up? We don’t know what was in his mind. But we do know how he succumbed.   Greed ultimately clouded his vision. In the end he sold out Truth.

We succumb too.   We compromise our integrity. We prefer to be right that we forget about being righteous. Judas is there, lurking in our hearts, he encourages us to go with what is easy rather than what is right.

If Judas is the one we hate to identify with, Peter is the one we can most relate to. Peter tries. We want to do our best. We can’t imagine caving in.   We love the way Peter makes us feel. His enthusiasm carries us along. His bravado makes us feel like we can do anything. When others drop out, we hang in there. But when the heat’s all the way up, and the fingers point, “You are one of them!” What do we say? Who hasn’t been an armchair activist who has found our calendars all booked up? Who hasn’t been at a meeting or party, forced to take a stand and watering down the truth? So we often cast our lots like Peter, denying truest selves out of fear. Many of us never leave this role our entire lives, shedding bitter tears, full of regret.
As the game continues we come to the real movers and shakers – the masters at casting lots. The Chief priests, scribes, Pilate and Herod. They are all over the place. They plot and plan. They are the power brokers, sitting on a heap of influence, money and prestige. They can pull the strings to get what they want.

Not many of us have access to the degree of power of a Pilate. But it is possible to cast our lots like them. We do wield influence, even if its within our home, over our children, family immediate circle of friends and co-workers, or in church. It’s easy to cast our lot to get our way, even if it hurts somebody. When was the last time we lied or feigned innocence? Caved into peer pressure? We play the game, we save our skin, even as we sacrifice the truth.

The game’s not finished.   The role that we most often roll is with the mob. We do it to be like everyone else. What the authorities tell us to do or say. In a mob rule we don’t bother to take a real stance because we are caught up with the emotions of the crowd and we don’t have to think. Might makes right. The crowd that adored Jesus on Sunday sentenced him to death on Friday. Whose next on the list?   Immigrants? The poor? Prisoners? We cast our lost as a mob when we do not speak up for what we know is right. That is mob rule.

Then there are a few different voices we can cast our lot with. The women, who have no power but to lament, watch and be faithfully present. The dying condemned thief who recognizes Jesus’ goodness and asks to be remembered. The Roman centurion who is a witness, and praises God and proclaims, “Surely this man was innocent.”   In the face of despair and pain, they cast different lots on the side of faith and hope. So can we.

Let us not forget that Jesus also casts his lot. When he celebrated the Passover meal and gave the bread and cup, he cast his lot. Overcome with distress in the garden of Gethsemane, he cast his lot. In front of the chief priest and scribes, Pilate and Herod, he cast his lot. Hanging on the cross, scorned, watching the soldiers vying for his clothes, he cast his lot.

Over and over again, when it came to Jesus’ turn, he cast he lot for us. He played true and faithful until the end.

His throw covers us all. He shows us how to play the game differently. We learn to cast for love and healing. We learn to cast like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus carry the cross, and like the women who didn’t flee but who accompanied Jesus every painful step to Calvary.   Like them, we learn to cast our lot with the suffering, because even when words fail, what matters is presence. We learn penitence and peace along with a thief. We learn faith from a pagan military official of an oppressor army.
In this epic tale, as all the characters speak to us, let us fix our ears and hearts on Jesus. That’s what this game is all about. Learning to cast our lot with Jesus who always sides with us, no matter which side we take.   Look at your dice again. It is a reminder that Jesus cast his lot for us. At his arrest. On his day of torture and crucifixion. As he lay in the tomb. As he rose through the power of the Holy Spirit, and triumphed over the grave. In all this, Jesus cast his lot for us.

Let us choose this week to cast our lots differently. Now is the time to change. To listen to the story that can change the course of our lives. To recognize in this story the roles we have played, the throws we have cast. To accept the role God wants to play in our lives. God has cast God’s lot with us, in Christ. Now it is our turn, the dice is in our hands. Will we roll with God?

It’s a new game in this ancient, sacred story. When we are ready to make our choice, let us cast our lot with the crucified Risen Lord, and learn, that in him, in all things, we can be victorious. Amen.

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"A Costly Gift" March 13, 2016

3/12/2016

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Isaiah 43:16-21; John 12:1-8

Have a few dollars burning a hole in your pocket and need some ideas about how to spend your excess funds?   Perhaps you can be inspired by Hong Kong real estate magnate who spent 16.7 million dollars for two crane-shaped antique incense burners, which symbolize longevity in China. Or how about a $3,200,000 Diamond Dog Collar for your beloved canine that sports 18K white gold, platinum, and a crocodile leather collar? Or can you imagine spending $330,000 for two white truffles, “grand champions,” in the truffle world but entirely unusable for culinary concerns. I guess it’s a truffle thing.   Still out of your price range? How about a $34,000 computer mouse, with White Austrian strass and covered with Swarovski crystals. OK, OK, let’s just go with Gold plated staples for $175. That should add a bit of bling to your reports. It’s all in the detail folks.

Without question our gospel story details the most extravagant gift Jesus received in his lifetime. We find Jesus at the home of Lazarus, whom he had just raised from the dead, along with his sisters Martha and Mary. Jesus is a frequent visitor to this Bethany home. As we recall from the gospel of Luke, Martha was busy serving as she does in today’s lesson, while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. Today Mary still sits at Jesus’ feet, but engages in acts that unfolds one of the most touching dramas in Jesus’ life before his passion and death.

At some point in the meal, Mary takes a pound of costly perfume made from pure nard; a fragrant, imported oil from a root found in the Himalayan Mountains. She liberally anoints Jesus’ feet, and wipes them dry with her hair. The smell of the perfume fills the entire house.

To the eyes untrained by the love of Christ, this is a scandalous act. Judas the thief demands to know why this costly item was not sold and the proceeds given to the poor? He determines that this perfume could fetch 300 denarii, almost a year’s worth of wages; anywhere from $14,000 to $24,000 in today’s market.   A vintage 16 ounces of Chanel No. 5 eau de cologne at $509 on eBay seems like a paltry sum compared to the perfume Mary acquired.

How did they do it? Were they a well to do family?   Was this some sort of family inheritance? We just don’t know their economic circumstances. Further, Martha and Lazarus are especially quiet in this story, as if they agree with Mary’s act and supporting her and the implications of what she does. Jesus’ disciples are the ones who raise the criticism, here and in the other gospels.

Equally outrageous as the anointing of Jesus feet with this priceless perfume, is Mary’s act of drying his feet with her hair.   Cleaning feet was an act left to servants. In the patriarchal culture of the New Testament, respectable women knew to keep their hair bound and covered, even with unrelated guests in their own home. Mary’s act of wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair was scandalous, had the air of the erotic to it to an untrained, unschooled eye. Yet Mary had learned well from Jesus, who taught about the scandalous nature of God's love, who withholds nothing from us.

This Jesus, who at Cana of Galilee turned the water in six stone jars into the finest wine for a wedding feast. This Jesus who brazenly met and talked with a scorned Samaritan woman at the well, turning her the first Samaritan evangelist. This Jesus who healed a royal official’s son with just a word, and a paralyzed man on the Sabbath.   This Jesus who feeds the five thousand out of compassion and walks on water in the midst of a storm. This Jesus who healed a man born blind and raised Lazarus from the dead. This Jesus, at whose feet Mary’s sat and learned from. She learned how to give 100 percent of herself, as Jesus did. She is generous, like Jesus is generous.

So the week before Jesus’ death, without ever saying a word, Mary gives what she can.   It is a costly gift. It is costly not just in that she uses up a commodity that could support her family in a time of need.   It is costly in that she puts her reputation, and her family’s, on the line with no thought of herself.
It is costly in that in taking a stance, she opens herself up to the criticism of the inner group, other disciples who do not understand her actions. In Matthew and Mark, all the disciples are indignant, self-righteous.   They call her act a “waste.”   They question this act of giving, and her spiritual judgment in not selling this perfume to help the poor, instead of using it to anoint Jesus. Surely some local, cheap variety would suffice? Where are your priorities Mary?

So Mary, in this great sacrifice of herself and her perfume, reveals herself a true and faithful disciple.    The verses before and after this passage of John, chapter 12, speak of the plotting of the chief priests and Pharisees to kill Jesus once and for all. Jesus is drawing close to the end of his life, betrayed into the hands of the enemies by Judas, who is the most critical of Mary. It is silent Mary, who sits at the Master’s feet, who seems to understand it all and take it all in.   She has heard his prophecies about his betrayal, suffering and death. She feels it too drawing near. She cannot stop it. However there is something she can do.

When Jesus is present, she can express love. Without words. She can make Jesus feel loved before he must face all the rejection and suffering that lies ahead. She can anoint him while he is still alive, not dead as is customary, so he knows that she understands. He is the Anointed One. She can anoint him, just like Kings and prophets are anointed, but instead of anointing Jesus’ head, she anoints his feet, perhaps with Isaiah 52:7 in mind:

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

It is a bold act to anoint Jesus’ feet, acting as a servant, anointing the feet of the One who brings Good News. Mary puts it all on the line. It is most revealing that it is only in this gospel, John’s gospel, do we have the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet at the last supper. His act is also met with misunderstanding and indignation. So Jesus emulates the faithful disciple Mary, and the costly gift continues to be given. The costly gift Jesus gives -- his very life -- is reinforced and affirmed by the costly gift of Mary.

So Mary, the one without words, fills the room with the aroma of beautiful perfume. It comes on the heels of the reminder of the stench of Lazarus’ decaying body before it was raised. It comes in the midst of the stench of betrayal, denial, and plotting to kill. It comes in the face of the stench of Jesus’ torture and death on the cross. Mary reminds us that love has an aroma that is ultimately irresistible to those who can sense it.

   The Apostle Paul would later pick up on this in his second letter to the Corinthians: But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing… And who is adequate for these things? (2 Cor. 214-16)

So as we approach Holy Week, it is Mary’s quiet but bold example that guides us. Are we willing to give the costly gift? Not the item in our possession, the priceless heirloom that cost thousands of dollars. Are we willing to give the costly gift of ourselves to the Lord?   Can we anoint him with our sacrificial acts of kindness? Can we fill our space with the aroma of forgiveness and selfless love?   Are we willing to say the scandalous and act scandalously for love, peace, righteousness and justice?   Through this we pass on the costly gift, the life-giving gift, first bestowed on us in Jesus Christ, God’s son.

This past week, our denomination, the Presbyterian Church USA, was among 24 other faith based organizations that filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of the current administration’s November 2014 executive actions on immigration.

The amicus brief, also known as a “friend of the court” brief, supports the administration’s appeal of a previous injunction blocking the programs’ ability to keep families and communities together. Should the injunction be lifted, more than five million people would be granted relief from potential deportation and granted the ability to travel and work legally in the U.S. The amicus brief details the disservice that the injunction poses to immigrant communities and the public at-large by keeping individuals and families in fear of deportation, hesitant to report crimes, and prohibited from seeking educational and employment opportunities. “Every day that the U.S. Congress refuses to address comprehensive immigration reform is another day at risk for millions of immigrant families,” said the Reverend Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA). “The relief … will at least abate that risk for 4.5 million of our brothers and sisters.”

This is an example of a costly gift we can participate in and pass on.   Let us find it out at our Annual Meeting today what costly gifts this congregation possesses and can share. Find your gift – our gift-- your costly gift and pass it on. Anoint the feet of the suffering.   Fight the stench of injustice and suffering and fill the space with the aroma of our love. Let us be scandalous in love and service – the most precious anointing we can give the Lord in thanksgiving for all he has done for us.   Amen.

https://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/4/6/pcusa-signs-amicus-brief-seeking-change-fate/

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The Lost & the Found March 6, 2016

3/10/2016

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        A number of years ago, when our children were much younger, we went annually for a week of Family Camp at a YMCA facility known as Frost Valley, up in the Catskill Mountains. One week with no TV, not having to cook and clean up, hiking, swimming, arts and crafts, horseback riding, campfires, it was great. The kids could disappear after breakfast and we would only see them at mealtimes – who could ask for anything better?

    Then one year when Andrew was 13 he took a jog on one of the trails. He didn’t return. Dinner time came and went. We began to get worried and notified the camp. The rodeo event was cancelled so that all staff could participate in a search. With over 5,000 acres, mostly densely woods, and dusk approaching, it was a challenge.   While waiting, my Manhattan mother’s mind went into overdrive.   What if a bear had attacked him? (Black bears are not overly dangerous and would tend to stay away from a big guy like Andrew). What about snakes bites? No dangerous snakes or even poison ivy at Frost Valley. What if a demented drifter, just happened to wander on those 5,000 wooded acres and was holding Andrew by knifepoint? Or what if he tripped and fell, broke a leg and was in pain?   My mind couldn’t stop racing. It wasn’t until about ½ hour later, when Andrew sheepishly jogged into the camp, obviously unharmed, that we learned that he simply got lost off the trail and it took him extra time to figure out his bearings. I wanted to hug him and strangle him at the same time – I was so relieved! Since then I’ve been called “Mama Bear” by my kids.

     Our Gospel lessons today from Luke are often split up but should be read together. The tax collectors and sinners are coming to Jesus in droves. Jesus had just finished healing a man on the Sabbath and was teaching the crowds about the kingdom of God and about the cost involved to be a disciple.   So people were responding – but not the right kind of people in the eyes of the official religious leadership.   The Pharisees and scribes grumble and complain, “this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” They can’t even bear to think of him by name, or as a teacher – Jesus has become “this man,” “this fellow,” or we can imagine other derogatory titles they which they devised for Jesus, like demon or crazy man. For that’s how they saw Jesus. They didn’t like the attention he was attracting.

      So Jesus directs his attention to the scribes and Pharisees. He tells them three stories about being lost and being found. These stories are individually famous in their own right.   The story of the shepherd with 100 sheep who lost one, and went out diligently to find out and when he does he lays it on his shoulders and says to his neighbors, “rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost.”

    Then there is the story of the woman who has lost one of her ten silver coins. The coins, called a drachma, is mentioned only here in the New Testament. It probably equaled a day’s wage, and most likely her dowry, worn as an ornament, and was vital to her family’s welfare. So the woman lights a lamp, not practiced in daylight to conserve precious resources, but she lights it anyway, sweeps and searches diligently until she finds it. She too, calls out to her neighbors, “rejoice with me, for I have found the coin I have lost.”

       Then we come to the third story, the most famous and scandalous of all. We can imagine a sheep wondering off and a coin being lost.   Now the ante is raised. A younger son demands his inheritance from his father. Such impudence! Such lack of manners and respect.   Yet the father complies and the young son takes off for the bright lights and big city of foreign lands where he spends everything, every last cent of his inheritance, on riotous living. So this son spends everything and his friends desert him. Now in a time of famine finds himself in the low state of pig keeper, who are eating better than him. So he comes to his senses, devises a plan to beg forgiveness from his father in exchange for being a hired hand on his father’s property. So he returns.

   Meanwhile the Father has diligently scanned the horizon every day. When he sees his son returning, the father runs to him, a very undignified and scandalous act for a man of his stature (men of wealth and prestige don’t run – others do the running for them); he, kisses his son, returns him to his state by putting a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet – highly symbolic acts of forgiveness and re-integration. The father orders a feast. Now the younger son would have expected that the townspeople would conduct a gesasah ceremony on his return. This is a ceremony for a son of the village who had lost his money to Gentiles or married an immoral woman. They would gather around him, breaking jars with corn and nuts and declare that he was to be cut off from the village. His entry into the village would be humiliating as his townspeople expressed their anger and resentment toward his actions (Stiller, 111). Instead his father counteracts this and orders the fatted calf killed, and soon there’s music and dancing. As we know, the elder son brims with indignation and refuses to enter into the joy and celebration of the feast. He wants the gesasah, he wants the party for himself along with his friends for all his faithfulness.   The parable is left hanging. What will the elder son do? Does he change his mind and obey his father or does he hold fast to his self-righteousness and stay away? We don’t know.

      All three stories tell us of the radical love of God and God’s relentless desire to restore the lost to the kingdom of God. Anyone who has been oppressed, sinned, are shut out, left behind have a place at God’s table. Those of us who are the regular faithful, who have never strayed, are just as welcome. However God is asking us the old faithfuls to shift our perspective from thinking of people in terms of right and wrong, to what is their proximity to the table? God wants everyone at the table. God wants us, us old faithfuls to be out there issuing invitations, to be seeking out the lost sheep, sweeping the floors diligently, to wait faithfully for the lost to return when they are ready, with the knowledge that there is a loving and forgiving home to return to in our midst.

     Each of us knows what it’s like to feel lost, to have lost something, to be shut out.   Women have been shut out of positions. Members of the LGBTQ community have been excluded from family, schools, church and harassed in many situations. People of color have faced racism. We have been looked over, passed over, shut out. We have lost precious friendships or have strained family relationships. We have lost precious jewelry or deals or jobs.   So we can certainly, in a dim way, understand God’s love for the lost – for those who don’t realize how much God loves ,cares and accepts them us—and all who are lost or have been lost?    If we look at the parables at a deeper level, it is the Pharisees and scribes who are lost, because they have forgotten and don’t experience the radical love of God.

     This chapter of Luke, about being lost and being found, is central to Christian life and teaching.   It is what should inspire and fire our understanding of mission.   As we come to the table today, we are reminded no one is excluded. No one.   As we come to our church annual meeting next week, the gauntlet is laid down – God’s radical love is our guide and measuring stick. As our Mission Review wrestles with important issues, embracing the lost is at the top of the list. Can we develop the determination of a searching shepherd, the diligence of a seeking housewife, the patience and forgiveness of a waiting parent – the force of a mama bear – to serve the kingdom of God? What a different faith community we would be if we stirred up that fire for the lost. The spiritual practice Jesus wants us to develop is to know the feeling of the lost lamb on our shoulders, the lost coin in our fingertips, the embrace of the lost son in our arms.

        Jesus wants us to engage in the spiritual practice of rejoicing when someone or something is found, to keep the feast.   We must be a people who know how to throw a party and invite the neighbors. We cannot keep our findings to ourselves.

    So let us learn to be a rejoicing people, a people who not only seeks the lost but truly rejoices when the lost becomes the found. Let us be the shepherd with the lost lamb on his shoulders. Let us be the housewife beaming with joy with the coin now in her hands. Let us be the elder brother who puts all aside and joins the party. In this we learn to sing and dance with the angels. In this we bring a piece of heaven to earth. That, according to Jesus, is all that matters. Amen.
        http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/Prodigal-Son-Alyce-McKenzie-03-04-2013
https://books.google.com/books?id=lnuixtl0RM0C&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=a+gesasah+ceremony&source=bl&ots=S_XdcugLKl&sig=ZvgoO9vLEuFpSVG81td73dG8LaE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3vrmn_6vLAhXj74MKHSUaDIkQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=a%20gesasah%20ceremony&f=false

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Thirsty February 28, 2016

3/4/2016

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Isaiah 55:1-9; Luke 13:1-9

Somewhere in the world today, instead of joyful, playing children, there are listless children: perhaps a bit fussy, with sunken eyes, dry skin, low blood pressure, a feeble pulse. These are thirsty children, but may become too weak to even sip life-giving water.    900 of these children will die today due to lack of safe water and poor sanitation which contaminates the water available, leading to disease and death.   The World Economic Forum calls this a world crisis: 1 out of every 3 persons lacks access to adequate sanitation. There are more cell phones in the world than there are toilets.   It is estimated within eight years more than half of the world’s population will face a growing water-based vulnerability.

The worldwide demand for water tripled in the past century, largely due to Agricultural and industry use. And it is currently doubling roughly every twenty-one years. The places that will be hit hardest, in Africa and the Middle East, are places that are already having serious water shortages. Some people call clean water the new oil.

Water is all around us.   71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water, and the human body is between 55 and 78 percent water, depending upon body size.   We need to take in about eight glasses of water a day to stay well hydrated. It doesn’t happen automatically. We must seek out clean water if we are to stay healthy keep our bodies in balance.

Less perceptible but just as urgent is the spiritual crisis. There are people who are lost on the inside. People whose hearts have been darkened. There are people out there whose lives are out of joint, who lack peace, the capacity to have compassion and to love. People languish spiritually as surely a dehydrated person lingers between life and death.   The clear, clean thirst for God has been contaminated by materialism, greed and selfishness, among other pollutants, that masks deeper spiritual needs. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” The prophet Isaiah asks us.

       Like water, Spirit is the fundamental building block of life. Our spiritual lives require its 8 glasses a day – it can be listening to a moving piece of music that moves our spirit, reading the scriptures or a devotional, spending time in nature, praying, serving our neighbor. However it requires conscious acts, of seeking God, seeking Holy Spirit and calling out, just like deliberately picking up that glass of clean, fresh water.     Jesus says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7:37-39

  Spiritual sustenance depends on relationship – with God and with each other.   So a healthy, balanced, spirit infused life of living water is one characterized by gratitude. Today Jesus gives us examples of spiritually-deprived lives, thirsty lives that seek other avenues to be fed. There were some people who were talking to Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. This reflects a sadistic act of the Roman Prefect, a spiritually bereft man - who we will meet personally at Jesus’ trial on the day and be the bureaucrat responsible for Jesus’ death.

It is a spiritually deficient heart that would blame these victims and look for signs of sin in their lives for their terrible fate. No Jesus says. Just like those 18 people upon whom the tower of Siloam fell – another tragedy – that people sought to blame the victim – Jesus says there was no particularly evil thing these poor people did to cause their deaths. A spiritually parched heart would locate blame and guilt on others, or some sick sense of enjoyment or vindication. This is not the case with a spiritually healthy heart – which instead would feel compassion for the victims and their families.

For this reason Jesus tells the parable of the fig tree that hasn’t bloomed in three years, despite the expense, time and effort involved.   A spiritually thirsty heart would say enough is enough! Three years is adequate time, and most would agree with this assessment. It is a spiritually evolved heart, filled to the brim with living water, spirit and love, that says give it one more year.   I’ll pull out the stops, I’ll do everything I can think of – I will not give up on it.

That is what Jesus wants and prays for us. To have hearts that are spiritually fully hydrated; brimming, overflowing. Hearts that see and act as God sees, whose ways are not our ways, whose thoughts are not our thoughts. Hearts that see a world with a water crisis and not say, “It’s not my problem, I have plenty of clean water to spare. Let them solve their own problems.” Instead, Jesus wants us to see that the poor are no different from us, and ultimately the water crisis, which is already impacting parts of our own country – is a we problem, not a they problem.
There has been a big brouhaha over whether Pope Francis called Donald Trump not a Christian, given comments the candidate has made on immigration.   However one may construe the situation, the Pope’s actual comments give us all room to pause and reflect on our own practice of following Jesus. The Pope said, in brief: “… a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the gospel.”

A spiritually well- hydrated person builds bridges, makes connections, forges relationships, and invests time in others. This is what Jesus is teaching in Luke. We see suffering people and ask “how can we help,” not wonder what they did wrong, how I can avoid their mishap, or remove what is problematic from my sight. The explanations Jesus faced were all about building walls: those people did something bad to die that way. That fig tree is unproductive, so let’s remove it from sight. These are walls we build when we are spiritually dehydrated. Walls separate people: bridges connect. Christians, Pope Francis says, are bridge builders not wall builders. Filled with living water, well-hydrated, we automatically overflow with compassion, kindness, forbearance and patience. We build bridges.
We are all thirsty people. Every day we thirst. Every day we must drink water to survive.   We can go up to three weeks without food.   We typically cannot survive more than 3-4 days without water.

The same is true for our spirits. We are a chronically spiritually dehydrated people. How many of us are thirsty for God? Do we yearn for God as much as we do for rain when we’re in the middle of a drought? Do we long for God the way we long for glass water when we’re very thirsty? In Psalm 63 we read where David, writes, O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

We are usually aware when we are physically dehydrated. Our body literally screams for water. Our throats are parched; our mouth and skin are dry.   Are we attuned to our spirit and its’ needs to be replenished?

The Lenten season is a time for us to become awaken to our need for God and Living water.   We are asked to give up special treats, do something extra for someone, to pay more attention to our spiritual life. We are called to Lenten exercises to awaken ourselves to our fundamental thirst for God; to deepen our awareness of our need for Jesus, our living water. Lent in a sense should not be a season of deprivation, but a coming out of deprivation, an awakening to the life God has envisioned for us:   As Isaiah so richly recorded: “You shall go out with joy and led back in peace.” Such is a spiritually full life.

Lent reminds us that, like the world’s water sources, our spiritual sources have become polluted through the excesses of materialism, with distractions from technology, from our alienation from our very souls.   We drink polluted waters – no wonder our spirits become ill – with the ill-judgments and impatience that also plagued the disciples of Jesus.   This is not God’s will for us. God wants us to have fresh clean water for our body and spirit, every day.

   So today let us choose to stay hydrated – thanking God for clean water, but for the many ways we can hydrate our Spirit – through Jesus; in music, in silence, in time spent reading scripture or devotionals, in serving our neighbor. Let us rediscover how thirsty we are for God – as vital as the breathe we take each moment. May we see how thirsty everyone is – and may we thirst to be a part of the solution to a healthier, and a more whole world.   Amen.
http://www.who.int/elena/titles/bbc/dehydration_sam/en/
http://water.org/water-crisis/water-sanitation-facts/
http://www.wateraid.org/what-we-do/the-crisis/statistics
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=water%20the%20new%20oil
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/20/what-pope-francis-really-said-about-trump-not-being-christian.html
http://www.biblecenter.com/sermons/spiritualthirst.htm

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"Dawn" Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016

Casting Lots March 20, 2016

"A Costly Gift" March 13, 2016

The Lost & the Found March 6, 2016

Thirsty February 28, 2016

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