Luke 17:5-10; 2 Timothy 1:1-14 

     As World War II was drawing to a close, the Allied armies gathered up many hungry orphans. They were placed in camps where they were well-fed. Despite excellent care, they slept poorly. They seemed nervous and afraid, unable to settle down. Finally, a psychologist solved the problem. Each child was given a piece of bread to hold after he was put to bed. This particular piece of bread was just to be held—not eaten. The piece of bread produced wonderful results. The children went to bed knowing they would have food to eat the next day. That knowledge gave the children a restful sleep.

     Bread. You can get it anywhere. Our options here in the 21st century are endless.  On our most recent grocery shopping trip we discovered that the row of bread in our local store is six shelves high and forty-five feet long. This forty-five-foot row of bread is divided as follows: at the far right, are all the very sweet breads such as Ding Dongs, Twinkies, Zingers, and Brownies. The next set of breads are the bagels that come in many different flavors and tastes. The next set of breads were the buns. These are numerous hot dog buns and hamburger buns. Next came the rolls. There were hard rolls, French rolls, sour dough rolls and a host of other rolls that often appear at our dinner table when we are serving a more formal dinner. Then, after thirty feet of these breads, come the actual loaves of bread. I discovered that there were twelve grain breads, nine grain breads, eight grain breads, and the numbers of grains slowly declined until we got to rye, pumpernickel, tortilla bread, pita bread, gluten-free, until we got to the Wonder Bread which must have had next to no grains in it at all.  

         Bread has been a staple food in many countries for tens of thousands of years.  Not surprising, it has even become a weapon.  Oppressive forces gain control grain warehouses so people will lose access to bread – the staple of their diet.       
           
         Bread plays even a significant role in Jesus’ life. He was born in Bethlehem, which means “House of Bread.” At the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness to turn bread into stone to appease his hunger. Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matt. 4:4).  Jesus taught his followers a standard prayer to say, the Lord's Prayer, in which he included one important material request: "Give us this day our daily bread." God, give us the basics we need to sustain life. Only one miracle is told in all four gospels (actually 5 times) – the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to feed the crowd of 5,000.  And course there is the most significant account of all – the Last Supper that Jesus spent when he blessed bread and broke it, gave it to his disciples mandating that the do this, and remember him.  And when Jesus was reason, what was one of his first acts?  He breaks bread in Emmaus with disciples.

        Bread seems close to Jesus’ heart.  Jesus strove for the common touch, to be accessible to ordinary people, and there is nothing more ordinary than a loaf of peasant’s bread, an abundant treasure to those with such a limited diet. But throughout his ministry, Jesus wanted us to make a leap of understanding. Jesus boldly proclaims to the crowds that followed him that he is, in fact, the bread of life.  Jesus talks to us about the hunger that is often buried in our hearts, underneath hardship, disappointment and fear.  Hunger for love. Hunger for acceptance.  Hunger for a meaning, a purpose to our lives. Hunger for connection. Hunger for friendship.   Hunger that only God can fill.

         It is not surprising that Jesus gives us the Lord’s Supper as an act of love. Of all the amazing miracles he did, of all the teachings he uttered, of all the work he did, Jesus forged a new way. As he prepared to die, he wanted to leave behind something powerful that people would remember him by. Something that would bring them together. Something nourishing. Something simple. So, he took a simple meal. The Bread. The Cup.    Something we would receive over and over, month after month, for some, day after day, just like our regular meals. In the taking, in the remembering, something deep down would awaken. We are loved. Jesus claims us as his own.  Jesus nourishes our souls so we might be whole.

       So, Christ feeds us spiritually in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  In this meal, we are all members of the body of Christ. All the breads on this World Communion Sunday table represent breads from all parts of the world. Although different in texture, ingredients, size, and color, the purpose is the same.  To nourish our bodies, so we might in turn nourish our world.  As the body of Christ, the bread of life, we are members of one another. We celebrate World Communion Sunday because it reminds us of our unity in diversity –to increase our faith through a diversity of believers that only Christ can hold together, because he is the head, to which the whole body is knit together. 

   There was a young boy living in Paris at the end of the World War II. He had been orphaned by the atrocities committed within his city by the occupying German forces. He scrounged around the ruined city as best as he could to find food, clothes and shelter. But everyone was living in desperate times and he found that people either ignored him and or could find nothing to give him. Even the soldiers who had freed Paris from the German army seemed to not care about his situation. 

     He had heard the Priest in the church, long before war had broken out, talk about God and Jesus and living the Christian life. But with the hell on earth that the war had brought he had since lost hope of any sense of Heaven.

     One cold morning, he was wandering down the street, staring into the windows of shops and cafés. He stopped outside the window of a small bakery. The smell of the fresh bread made his stomachache with pain. He was so held by the smell and sights of the bakery; he didn’t notice the American soldier who had stopped in the street and had begun watching him with interest. The boy hardly noticed the soldier as walked past him and into the store. He did however notice the soldier’s large bag the baker was filling with rolls, breads, pastries and other foods. And the boy could hardly breathe when the soldier exited the shop, knelt down and handed him the bag.

    The boy looked at the soldier with astonishment. Finally, he looked at the soldier and asked him the question that was running through his mind: “Mister, are you Jesus?”  To the hungry, Jesus appears as bread.

 St. Teresa said that Christ is disguised as bread so that we will not fear to approach Him -- so that we can go to Him in confidence, daily, needing Him daily as we need our physical bread … So, Christ has taken the form of ordinary bread that we may more readily approach Him, and feeding daily, assimilating Christ so that it is not we--but Christ working in us … In bread, Christ has become so simple -- that a child… can understand and eat the sacred food with love and gratitude.

      The word “companion” means “with bread.” We are Jesus’ companions.  You are bread. We are bread. As we are nourished by this table today, filled with so many breads, let our faith increase by this good treasure entrusted to us so we in turn may nourish our hungry world. Amen. 

 Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Luke 16:19-31

        What is in a minute?  A short span of time for sure, we won’t count it out now but suffice it to say that in the minute that will pass, at the rate of minimum wage of $15 an hour, a worker will 25cents a minute.   During that very same minute multi-billionaire Warren Buffet will earn $25,694 dollars.  Just in one minute.   That is a chasm for us to ponder.

        Other chasms to consider.  There are currently 128,000 ultra-high net worth individuals (that’s what they’re called now) in the world – which has spawned the proliferation of exclusive stores to shop- by invitation only-- to a boon in crocodile farms (for their skins not as exotic pets).    However, 1.3 billion people on our planet live in extreme poverty existing on $2 a day. 805 million don’t get enough to eat a day.  750 million lack access to clean water.   Just the tip of some profound chasms in our world.

        We could count many chasms around us – based on income, education, access to technology, healthcare, safety from violence, and profound moral, religious and ethical perspectives.  How do we close these chasms?

        Our gospel lesson could not depict our world’s moral crisis more perfectly.  A rich, unnamed man is dressed in purple, a modern day Kiton 5-50 suit; coordinated with his salvadore ferrangamo shoes.   At the front of his house are towering marble columns to announce his wealth to his guests.  Every day he eats the finest food his chefs can offer: foie gras, brown-tipped abalone, Iranian Beluga fish caviar, lobster frittata, beef imported fresh from Argentina, bagels with white truffles.  Isn’t your mouth watering just thinking of it?  He spares no expense to indulge himself.  He cleans his plates with left-over bread and throw it on the floor as was the custom, to be gobbled up by the dogs.

        All during these sumptuous feasts there is a poor, ill man name Lazarus, whose name means “Whom God Helps” -  lays at the rich man’s gates. It is noteworthy that Jesus names the poor man.  Gives him an identity. Such a detail wouldn’t be given a second thought by a prominent person.  A poor person was just a blip on the screen. Yet Jesus makes his needs and suffering real, just as vividly as he describes the posh lifestyle of the rich man, who ironically is not named. His wealth gives us more information than his name could.  He is just known as “the rich man” whose wealth keeps him at a distance from Lazarus.

The poor man sits not on beautiful cushions but on the ground at the gates of the rich man home.  He is not covered in fancy suits but sores.   He is ravishingly hungry, longing for even the throw-aways from the table that the dogs get.  The rich man knows of Lazarus’ plight, yet he did nothing for Lazarus. He could’ve helped but didn’t.   His focus is solely on himself and his own comforts. The only one who intervenes on behalf of Lazarus are the dogs, who lick his sores.

Then in a minute - everything changes.  Lazarus dies and is carried away by angels to Father Abraham where he finally receives comfort that has longed evaded him. It is a figurative phrase that appears to have been drawn from a popular belief that the righteous would rest by Abraham's side in the world to come, an opinion described in Jewish literature at the time of Jesus. Figuratively, as in this case, it refers to a place of honor reserved for a special guest, a place that Lazarus now enjoys.

 Then the rich man dies and he ends up in Hades where he is tormented by eternal flames which are a startling new experience.  In the first part of the parable there is no dialogue.  The Rich man is self-sufficient but now the rich man, in need, cries out over and over again to Abraham.  He’s rich, he’s used to getting his way.   He is in great torment.  He wants Lazarus, who he ignored in life, to come now and dip his figure in water and cool his tongue. Can’t be done, says Father Abraham.  Then the rich man wants Lazarus sent to his father’s house to warn his brothers of Hades and to amend their ways.  Abraham again says no, they have Moses and the Prophets - that is enough.   Throughout the entire story Lazarus is silent, but his place at Abraham’s side makes him righteous.  The first part of the parable describes Lazarus’ torment – the second half tells the torment of the rich man. In both scenes there is a chasm. A chasm created not because the Rich Man had wealth but because he didn’t use his resources to help and share with those in need. Instead he ignored and built a chasm between the haves and have nots, resulting in a chasm between heaven and hell.

Even in the afterlife the rich man is only concerned to alleviate his torment.   He doesn’t ask how he got there. He shows no curiosity how he contributed to his situation. He doesn’t apologize to Lazarus for not helping him. There is a chasm in his awareness and actions that results in his eternal punishment.  He seems totally unaware of his sins and only focused on his comfort and the comfort of his family. Therefore, a chasm remains in the rich man’s heart, enveloped now by the pain of Hades. So, as a result there is a great chasm that exists in the parable in the space between Heaven and Hades.  The focus of the parable is that the chasm in our world is real and God wants us to fix it.  God is not going to send Lazarus to us to lead us to repentance.  God wants us to follow the Scriptures, the teachings of Jesus which teaches us to close the chasm in our hearts, in our lives, in the world we live in.

        The truth is, we all experience different sorts of chasms in our life.

        Once there was an article in the New York Times Magazine about Dale Earnhardt, Jr. a popular Nascar driver. He is the son of the legendary Dale Earnhardt, Sr., the great car racer, who died in 2001 after crashing at the Daytona 500. In this article he shared about the chasm he experienced in his relationship with his father: “My daddy… never really did anything with me. He never told me things. We were raised by six or seven nannies. I always thought he felt I wasn’t much like him.” This chasm in the relationship with his father still impacts him. At 35 he said, “I don’t want to get married and divorced like my dad.” In fact, “He lives alone… (and) plays video games by himself eight hours at a clip. He’s a multimillionaire, yet he lived alone for months in a 20-by-20 garage loft.” (New York Times Magazine, August 8, 2010). 


What a chasm caused by fame and achievement, where relationships take a back seat. Many of us experience these painful chasms within our relationships. Misunderstandings, disagreements, different beliefs and morals, lack of expressing help, ignoring other’s needs, that can keep us apart, creating chasms we fail to close.  How will we close the chasms around us? Any ideas?

        Everyone has to find out what works for them to close the chasm.   It might be volunteering at a nursing home or assisting someone who is ill. Giving an extra tithe or offering, especially with the peace and global witness season upon us?    How about inviting someone new out for coffee or tea?   Advocating for issues that matter to our world?    We need to take that minute. Open our eyes, hear the call, and close a chasm.  That’s what we’re called to do.

The good news is that Jesus Christ closed the greatest chasm of all.  Jesus took on flesh, reached out to all kinds of sinners, self-absorbed indifferent rich men like the rich man in the parable and helpless crippled beggars like Lazarus. Jesus was clothed with a purple robe, just like the one the rich man in the parable wore. And later that same day Jesus, like Lazarus who had been thrown out at the gate of the rich man, was literally thrown down outside a gate of Jerusalem and nailed to a cross. Jesus died on the cross to reconcile us to God, to bridge the great chasm, and to give us the hope that the great chasm that divides us from others will close or be eliminated.  Jesus rose from the dead to be that sign:  the chasm can be closed, just follow him.

 So today, whether we are like the rich man, self-absorbed and indifferent to the needs of others, or like Lazarus, feeling alone and helpless in our suffering, the good news is that God in Jesus has bridged the chasm. The chasm between us and God is no more. And we can be chasm-closers too.

So, let’s take a minute, do the things to close the chasm.  Give the money. Feed the poor.  Be reconciled. Be involved.  Put the needs of others first. Turn to Jesus. Then one day not only will we find the chasm between us and the ones we love bridged, we will also find ourselves in the bosom of our Heavenly Father.  It’ll take just a minute.  Amen 

http://www.christchurchcville.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Sermon-9-26-10.pdf

Amos 8:4-7; Luke 16:1-13

        “You’re fired!”   Remember those famous words pronounced by Donald Trump in the TV show called “the Apprentice”?  Mr. Trump now has bigger fish to fry.   But for the person who’s fired, the opportunities are stopped, the plug on the dream is pulled, and the rug is yanked out beneath you.

“You’re fired!” has anyone heard or known someone who’s been told those stinging words?  You want to fight back.  What do you mean I’m fired? 

 I gave the best years of my life to this company!  Fantasies of revenge start to creep in.  Emptying out the supply closet.  Leaving condemning comments on Facebook. Slashing the bosses’ tires.   However, most of us would rein in our impulses and behave ourselves and, in fact, try to be on our best behavior for one thing only: a good reference.

Today’s gospel lesson is one of Jesus’s most unusual parables.   People have tried to make heads and tails of it for centuries.   It appears Jesus is applauding the actions of a crooked man who cheats his employer.  How can this be?

The story is clear.  A rich man, with lot of properties, has an incompetent manager who apparently is squandering his employer’s business.  He’s not being a good steward in other terms.  He’s mismanaging the business and losing money and resources. 
 
The rich man learns of this, so he calls the manager in on the carpet and reads him the riot act:  he calls for an audit and by the way, he says, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. The manager sees the writing on the wall.  The boss is going to find out the extent of his sub par work and how he has been slacking on the job all this time. 

The manager faces a dilemma: “I got a bad back so I can’t dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg.  I need to keep these business contacts so I can be welcomed, fed and clothed, and can still live comfortably.  

So, the manager comes up with an ingenious plan.  One by one he goes to each of his employer’s debtors and gives them generous discounts.  He reduces their debt by 20 percent, 50 percent.  The olive oil guy, the wheat guy, the carpet guy, the grape juice guy, the fig man. All the vendors.   He earns their gratitude for the discount so know he can bank on their support in the unforeseen future.

Did the rich man get angry when he found out that his manager had not only been a poor steward but now swindled him out of all this money? 

The astute, rich man begrudgingly praises, even commends, his crafty manager for his shrewd, proactive ways, even though it was sinful.  Too bad he hadn’t been so industrious like this all along -- he might not have lost his job.

Jesus says something important here: the children of this age are shrewder in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light. 

Does this mean that we are to become like Bernie Madoff, the great fraudster, and rip people off?  No, we are to learn to understand the world we live in and see that everything works for the kingdom of God.  And we are to get involved in the gospel’s future.

Jesus wants us to see ourselves as managers of God’s wealth – which includes everything – our very bodies, nature, the goods of the earth, our talents, our wealth and money. It all belongs to God.  

Will we be good, shrewd managers, or poor managers?  To use another parable of Jesus, the poor manager is like the slave who buries the talent in the ground out of fear.    The good managers are the slaves who invest their talents in the world and double their return.  

God wants us to be good managers.  To work hard to get a return on our investment.  Managers who are honest, generous, hard workers, even shrewd, clever for the kingdom, willing to invest and keep the kingdom running well. To heal the world; to make it prosper by gospel standards. 

So, we take risks and invest in the world – not just here in our church or where it’s safe, but out in the world—in the community – in the homeless shelters, in out neighborhoods in how we advocate for righteousness, mercy, justice and peace.
We reach out to those who are unchurched because God wants us to invest in this way.  We take risks with our resources; we don’t hoard on to them. That person on the subway? Help him.   That woman with the grocery cart of bottles?  Stop and buy her lunch.  That hurting, acting out teen? Get involved.

Because the world’s view of riches are self-centered and corrupt.

In 1928 a group of the world's most successful financiers met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Collectively, these tycoons controlled more wealth than there was in the U.S. Treasury, and for years newspapers and magazines had been printing their success stories and urging the youth of the nation to follow their examples.

Twenty-five years later, this is what had happened to these men:  They ended up broke, in prison or several committed suicide. All these men had learned how to make money, but not one of them had learned how to live.

How do we encounter true riches as we kick off a new season in our church life?  How are we to live well, as good managers in the kingdom?

Remember the comments we wrote about goals and visions for the church on Rally Day/Welcome Home Sunday:  Please turn to the back of the bulletin/insert to see our collective list.  Which ones pop out at you?  (Please don’t select the one you wrote!)

What stands out to you?  What’s still missing? Don’t be afraid to name it out loud. Our task is to prioritize and embrace the actions that will develop the true riches of the church in this new church year.

We want to be the source of new life, the purveyors of hope, we want to bring forth the wealth of God’s kingdom to God’s people – especially those new to Christ, unknown to Christ, who know nothing of the church. 

These are the true riches that all of us, as managers in the kingdom, need to sign up for.   It’s either one or the other, Jesus says. 

We can’t serve two masters. One will be loved, the other, despised.   We cannot serve God and wealth.   We must choose the world or the kingdom.  Let us choose True Riches.

This is this message underneath it all that Jesus wants to lead us to.   The worldly cleverness of the dishonest manager may be admired in the world, but he doesn’t cut it by kingdom standards. 

So, God says:  You’re hired!   To be my servants in the world!

God says: You’re hired!  To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ – in your words and deeds.

God says:  You’re hired! So be the true riches that proclaim God’s love and the salvation of Jesus Christ in the world. Amen.
​
file:///C:/Users/Gracie/Documents/The%20Parable%20of%20the%20Dishonest%20Manager%20%E2%80%93%20Pastor%20Mark%20Driscoll.html

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28, Luke 15:1-109
 
When my daughter Hannah was a toddler, she had a treasured and well-loved blue elephant that she took everywhere.  It sat with her in her highchair and stroller; it was tucked in nearby for naps and nighttime. She would walk around the room with the trunk of the elephant hanging from her mouth.  Its fur was matted – to be honest, it was stinky -- but she refused to be parted from it.  

One day our worst fears come true.  We were doing errands in the neighborhood and we got home to discover that Mr. Elephant was missing.  Propelled by Hannah’s cries, we retraced our steps, asking every shop owner if they had seen a scruffy blue, stuffed elephant.  When we reached the grocery store – the culprit confessed.  A stocker found the elephant and instead of putting it aside, he threw it away with the rest of the store’s garbage. Instead of seeing it as an object of love and affection, he just saw it as a discarded, worn out toy that needed to be disposed.  Hannah for inconsolable for several days.  

      Loss raises its painful head in all our lives.  Some of us are more losing prone than others.  Have you ever parked your car and discovered you couldn’t find where you parked after shopping (or partying?)?  How many of us have lost car keys? House keys? A credit card?  Important documents?   Have you ever taken a wrong turn in an unfamiliar area that not even the GPS could fix?  How many of us have lost our children – or other family members or friends – to death, conflict, addiction, illness, changing values, to the lures of the world?  I don’t know about you, but I can say yes to about every item. Last week, my family lost our beloved scraggly 181/2 year old cat – and I still find myself tearing up.  Loss, even the small stuff, can leave us disoriented, upset, frustrated.  Along comes that sinking feeling that we’re not on top of things; our game is slipping.  There have been times, I admit, while searching for something that my Catholic roots slip out, and a prayer to St. Anthony -- patron saint of lost items-- escapes my lips: “"Tony, Tony, turn around. Something's lost that must be found."

         Our lessons today talk also about loss.  Especially loss from God’s perspective.  In Jeremiah, the prophet relays God’s judgment on a leadership and nation gone astray, a nation filled with evil schemes, a people skilled at doing evil, which will now result in an invasion by foreign powers, war and defeat.  God suffers as his people are captured, killed and no doubt tortured and injured – God suffers as his people fall apart due an unwillingness to act righteously and follow the laws God has set forth for their life as community.  

         In our gospel lesson, Jesus tells a few parables about loss --  loss from the perspective of God-- images that his audience could relate to – a lost sheep and a lost coin.  The owner of the 100 sheep loses one sheep is clearly not engaged in an “act of frugality” by seeking the one lost sheep.  The 99 are left in the wilderness, not in safety. The owner doesn’t even leave the sheep with a shepherd.  It sounds as if they are left on their own – the owner just trusts they will stick together. There is a sense of recklessness in the owner’s actions since he could, for the sake of finding one sheep, potentially losing the other 99.  Not wise human business practices.  In the eyes of God, we, respectable church members, can be left in the wilderness while the one sheep, the least sheep, the lost, foolish sheep is rescued. In a rich irony for our age, Jesus turns our modern metaphors on its head in this story by showing our God as the God of the one percent! Not the one percent wealthy, but the one percent lost –that one percent that God does not forget – and is willing to risk the 99 percent for.

Jesus next tells a parable about a woman, a poor peasant, who lost one of her ten silver coins – which corresponds to ten days’ wages.  The coins-- called a drachma-- worn often as an ornament and was vital for her and her family’s welfare.  This poor woman lost 1/10 of her income. For a poor family this was especially significant.    

The woman’s home is typical of the time. It was small room, had a dirt floor, and no window.  The woman does three things; lights a lamp (which wouldn’t normally be done in daylight), sweeps the floor, and searches diligently – with effort and with great care.  Imagine if ten percent of your savings were lost.  In a poor household, a woman on a tight budget would mean the family would have to choose – which meal do we skip? Which child doesn’t get shoes – which child doesn’t get their school fees paid?  No wonder that woman tore the place apart looking for the coin. 

Jesus tells us that this is how God initiates action. God is a seeker.  A searcher for the lost. God risks on behalf of the lost. Jesus teaches – we too, who know what it is like to be lost, must find those who are now lost.  Once found, we must celebrate.

We begin our Church season confronted by loss. Today is great, but numbers are down.  Offerings are down.  Our commitment to church is down.  Why is this?  We are like that lost sheep; it’s lost its way. It’s lost it’s home in the flock. We need to be found.
​
Jesus wants us to know, that God of the one percent will leave the other sheep behind, and search until he’s found us.  As we begin a new season, we are given the mandate to seek the loss, to find what’s missing in our lives. To sweep every inch of the house, use up the precious fuel, until what is lost is found. God will find us in every mistake, in every wrong turn, in every lost place we find ourselves in. Once we are found, no matter what we have done, there is no recrimination. No punishment.  No judgment. There is rejoicing --- with friends, neighbors and the angels of heaven.

Let the lost be found – let faith be found, let our commitment to God be found, let our commitment to church be found -- because God has shown us that nothing that is truly loved is truly lost – but will be found on the loving shoulders of our forever seeking, searching God, to the rejoicing of the angels in heaven and to all God’s people on earth. amen.
 
Interpretation: Luke [Louisville: John Knox, 1990], 185.). 

  Deuteronomy 30:15-20;  Luke 14:31-33 
Shopping in the store recently I saw a bottle of juice with the following description on its label:  "Blueberry Pomegranate, 100 percent juice, all natural." The label featured a picture of a ripe pomegranate and mounds of fat, perfect blueberries.

Then I read the ingredients list: 'Filtered water, pear juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, grape juice concentrate." Where were the blueberries? Where was the pomegranate? Finally I found them, fifth and seventh on a list of nine ingredients, after mysteriously unspecified 'natural flavors.'

By law, food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. That means a product contains the greatest proportion of the first ingredient on the list and successively less of those farther down. So according to this list, the jug in my hand held mostly water and other juices, with just enough blueberry and pomegranate for flavor and color.  The enticing pictures and clever labeling were decoys to sell a diluted, blueberry-pomegranate flavored product, convincingly disguised to look like something it wasn't. I put the juice back on the shelf.

As I left the store, I couldn’t help thinking: What if we had an ingredients list printed on us? Would Jesus be the main ingredient? If not, how far down the list would he be? Would our 'label' accurately represent our contents? Or would we falsely project a misleading outward appearance that cleverly masked diluted ingredients? Our packaging may be convincing. We may look and sound like the real thing. But what if someone came to me looking something beneath our "Christian" label and found something else? Something Jesus-flavored, but not Jesus-filled?

        According to Luke, Jesus discovers large crowds were following him. There were many reasons to follow Jesus.  He performed miracles; he healed people.  He told good stories.  He knew how to jab it to the Pharisees, and other show-off leaders.  Maybe village life was too boring and following the latest itinerant preacher would provide some spice and variety to life.   Maybe for some, Jesus’ words hit hard, hit true, and they wanted to hear more of what he had to say.  Jesus sees this crowd.  Do really know what they are getting themselves in for?  Because high on the ingredient list of discipleship is commitment, forbearance, self-sacrifice.  Jesus doesn’t mince words.  We can’t follow Jesus and follow our possessions, those ingredients we fill our lives with. 
 
        Many people would prefer the label of Jesus-Lite. Discipleship watered down, with nice-sounding things like going to church on Sunday, reading the bible now and then, contributing some money to good causes.  But discipleship is more – Jesus says we have to give up our possessions; earlier in this passage, which we read last week, Jesus said we have to hate our family.  While Jesus no doubt spoke with hyperbole common in the Semitic culture – the point is clear.  Possessions possess us and can hinder our spiritual life, and be at the top of our list – not the bottom.

In our lesson from Deuteronomy, Moses is preparing the people to enter the Promised Land. The people have traveled 40 years. They have endured getting lost in the dessert, thirst famine, snakes and other nasty dessert creatures. 40 years. The span of an entire generation.  As the people stand on the banks of the Jordan, listening to Moses, waiting to enter the land of Canaan, they are warned: before them is life and prosperity, death and adversity. Will they be good disciples and chose life?  As they enjoy the milk and honey --will they have the strength to choose a life of blessing?

        Moses’ last words to his people was clear:  the past forty years have been discipleship training.  Now they were about to enter the real thing.  So what did choosing life mean?   They were once slaves and wanderers, they were to remember and be kind to slavers and wanderers.  They were to remember how to worship and live as a community of God, following the laws laid down by God on Mt. Sinai.  This is what discipleship is about.  Choosing a way of life that puts God first, God’s laws first.

        What is discipleship today?  If being a disciple is in essence, being an apprentice to Jesus, learning to apply his teaching to how we live – we are asked:  what are our priorities?  Is Jesus the number one ingredient?

 Today, on the Welcome Back Sunday, each of us is asked to take the index card in your bulletin and choose up to three words or phrases to create a vision for Merrick Church -- which we will put in the offering plate and bless.  What ingredients will we put in the mix?  What will come first?   What priority will we give to discipleship? We will share these thoughts in weeks to come.

As we choose, let us remember the words of Moses: choose life. Be a disciple.  Let us strive to be the real deal. May our label show that we are disciples –by loving God, obeying God and holding fast to God’s ways – so may we live, transform relationships, and so bring abundant life here in our church, as we fellowship with one another and our community, and where ever God places us. Amen.

 Deuteronomy 30: 15-20; Luke 14: 25-33

 
        This is Labor Day Weekend.  In some ways it’s one of the most peculiar holidays on the book.  We celebrate the social and economic achievements of the labor movement- which are by no means insignificant – 8-hour work days – a 5 day work week – stricter labor laws—and most of us will get to acknowledge these victories not working but with a day off work.

        Labor Day has become alongside Memorial Day the holiday that book-marks summer.  Instead of marches and strikes, it is now most known for picnics, BBQs, and beach outings.   Yet for all the leisure and relaxation, Labor Day reminds us of something very important.  Whether we like it or not, work is a very important part of our lives.   Most of us will spend the majority of our years at some employment or other.  Add to that - the work we do around our houses or apartments, lawns - the volunteer hours at charities - the hours we invest in care for ourselves or loved ones - a significant majority of our time is invested in work of some sort or another.  Labor Day asks us not only to remember those brave souls that fought for justice and safe workplaces, but it asks us to look at ourselves as workers and claim our identity as workers dedicated to building a better world, following the example of Jesus.

Our identity as workers is rooted in our Christian tradition – in the very nature of God. Created in the image of God, we are created in an image of a worker God – whose first acts in Genesis were to create a world, indeed, to create us – and then resting from all that was done.  Jesus worked:  he learned the trade of the trade of the carpenter before he preached, and invited working men of various trades to be his disciples:  from what we know mainly fishermen and a tax – collector.  We are called to see the intertwining of life and work.  Work supports life, and life gives us hope, direction and purpose to our work.

So, our scriptures today call us to make important choices.  Since work is such an important part of our lives it is important we work well.  We must choose between life or death. Jesus takes us further:  our primary work is our discipleship.  Hebrews talks about our love we must express for one another in all we do. Who knows?  We are entertaining angels in our very midst in our loving-kindness.  This caring-kindness must inform how we file our taxes.   It must guide how we treat our employees and employers, stockholders and the decisions that will affect their lives.  It must guide how we use our work time as well as our leisure time.   Our work life is not separate from our spiritual life- if anything, it is the key place where we live out our lives of discipleship.  Think of it a minute.  The average person spends two hours at church a week, but 35-40 hours on the job.  Where would Jesus want discipleship carried out?  
Of course, discipleship should be carried out wherever we go – to church or to our office – but discipleship is a total life-encompassing experience.  It doesn’t exclude any part of our lives – especially our work.

We see this in Jesus’ stunning words: some of the strongest hyperbole he has ever used: “whoever comes to me and does not hate father or mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” He says to be his disciples we must give up all our possessions. Jesus is using such strong language to make a point: That we are not to love those near to us, or to necessarily throw everything away.Jesus is saying that yes, discipleship must be our priority. 

Jesus already had large crowds following him, and he suspected they might not know what they were getting themselves into.  Jesus was traveling from town to town, so if you wanted to follow him, you really did have to leave your family behind.  The disciples did it.  They also risked their lives by following Jesus into Jerusalem, where he told them plainly, he would be crucified.  So, Jesus warned the crowds against following him.  There would be a cost.  And he said, if you don’t carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

What does it mean when Jesus says to carry your own cross?  When some people talk about bearing their cross, they often mean putting up with an illness, a handicap, or a bad situation that won’t go away.  But that’s not what Jesus meant.  Jesus was not talking about the suffering that is just part of life, that we don’t choose.  He was talking about the things we take on voluntarily, because we love God and are following Christ. 

        So being a disciple is our life’s calling and work – more than being a musician, teacher, engineer, a minister – whatever vocation we have chosen.  We choose to act like Jesus, meaning we must choose to love and care for others. We learn to sacrificially love those who need our help.  We must be willing be perform caring tasks day in and day out, over and over again.  When we fail, we must get up.   We must envision everything we do as contributing to discipleship

         So, we count the cost, Jesus says.  We are disciples, workers in the vineyard of the Lord.  Our work has value and gives glory to God.  God, who works ceaselessly spread the Good News invites us to embrace this task.    We are workers and may the complete dedication of our work, whatever we are called to do, so inspire others as to bring glory to God. Amen.

Luke 13:10-17

 When you sit opposite from my neighbor Geraldine, you don't notice that there is anything amiss.  She is a spry and sparkling example of 89 years old at its best, when seated.  She sits up, looks you in the eye, and makes casual conversation with a clever  wit on almost any topic.  She picks up her teacup and cookies like there is no difference between the any of us.  Nothing is out of place..., that is, until she stands up.

It is then that the 89 years seem to drop on her body like a heavy weight, born about the shoulders, crushing weight bearing down upon her small, and now frail looking body.  Deterioration of the spine, the result of years of degenerative disease, has taken its toll and it  has left Geraldine bent and broken.  As she stands, the sparkle goes out of her eyes and the breath is drawn, with more with intense labor.  You wish it were possible to attach a string to her head, like a marionette puppet, to help pull her up straight.  But her body is not limp, but gripped with pain.

Yet, without complaint she labors to the door, opens it and lets me out.  I think of her and pray for her, body and soul.  Although I know my body is not bent like that, there are parts of me, indeed all of us, that on the inside are of a bent and broken nature not visible to any but the most trained of eyes, perhaps visible only to the eyes of God.  So some of us are like the woman in our Gospel for today and Geraldine, literally bent over, bound by some evil, the rest of us, simply out of shape, not as God intended, seeking to be set free.

        This passage from Luke is all about how Jesus can set us free. As we watch Him deliver this sick woman from the bondage of her sickness, we get a picture of what He can do for us. 

This was a woman who, like Geraldine, was in severe physical pain. Her body was bent double at the waist. Every day was a struggle for her. She found herself in a physical condition that prevented her from looking up. She could not see the sun, or the faces of those she loved without pain. All she could see was the ground, and her feet below her. She could not, by her own power, overcome her condition. Sadly, many of us have found ourselves in a spiritual state in which we cannot look up either.  We are totally unable to see past the torment we are experiencing in our lives.  We to are bent over and cannot see the possibilities or potential that exists around us.
This bent-over woman is one of the most powerful pictures of faith and faithfulness in the New Testament. She has been in this condition for 18 years. If she has been to the synagogue every Sabbath for those 18 years, she has attended some 1,000 meetings there. She has been sick for 18 years – a generation. She has not been healed, still she believes in God. She prays, but even when it seems like God isn’t going to answer, she remains faithful. She comes to the services, in spite of the fact that no one would think a thing about her if she did not.  She attends services even though she is in pain.  She makes it a priority in fact.  She persisted in her faith, even when life didn’t go her way, because she loved the Lord.  She continued to be faithful because she knew that God knew best. She loved Him and she would worship Him in spite of the obstacles she faced.  Like Geraldine, she is an example of living faithfully in the midst of chronic adversity.

This woman wasn’t the only one who came to the synagogue to worship. Jesus was in attendance that day and He came to worship as well. The Bible says, “He saw her”. Jesus initiated the healing, not her. When Jesus saw her, He called her to Him. When she had struggled her way to where He was, He spoke to her. He called her “Woman”. Others may not have recognized her significance, but Jesus did. He loved her like she was. Then He spoke the words that must have thrilled her soul, “Woman, You are set free from your ailment.”  What she or anyone could never could have accomplished, Jesus did with a word. 

When this miracle occurred, the people in the synagogue began to rejoice, as the woman herself praises God, as well they should have.  This is true Sabbath worship. However, the ruler of the synagogue told the people that they could be healed any of the other six days of the week. He was implying that the Sabbath was more important than the needs of the people. The ruler of the synagogue was showing how crippled he was – crippled in heart for not rejoicing in the old woman’s healing. His religion was a crippled form of the true Law. Jesus told this man that he was placing the needs of animals above the needs of people. Jesus calls him a hypocrite – someone who processes one thing but whose actions or words say another. He loves his religion more than he loved God, or God’s people. In contrast, Jesus calls the healed woman a “daughter of Abraham.”  Nowhere else does this appear in the New Testament.  It means Jesus sees her as an intricate member of the covenant community – a loyal descendant of Abraham, the Father of the Jewish people.  She is precious is God’s sight and worthy of healing.

Life would never be the same for her again. Her condition had forever been changed. She was whole she was straight and she was free from the bondage of her condition.  That is the power of His touch. It is life changing and it is powerful. When God touches us, straightens out what is wrong and gives us His healing, we will never be the same again.

In this story, notice that Jesus made the first move. He called the crippled and bound woman to come to Him. She responded to His call, came to Him and got the help she needed. Jesus is alert and attentive to the needs of those around him. We can take confidence that Jesus is already moving toward us. Is there something in our life that has us bound or crippled? Some past hurt? Some secret sin? Some guilt over things long gone? Some bitterness and unforgiveness that has wedged itself into our hearts?  He is already there.  The passage teaches us to go to him -- that the only way to get the help we need is to go about His way. That is, when He calls, we come to Him. When He calls we respond. When we do, we are promised that He will be there to meet us and to help us get the healing we need for our lives.

      We have all heard the statement, “Let go and let God.” Have you ever thought about where it originated? The story goes something like this: A college student back in the nineteenth century took six postcards and wrote a large letter on each one of the postcards: L–E–T-G–O–D. He then put them on the mantelpiece in his room where he was living at school. One evening a draft blew through the window and the “D” blew away. As he picked it up, what he saw seemed to be a message from God, the secret of the Christian life. Only by letting go can we let God carry out His will in our lives. Let God and Let Go – so we can be children of Abraham – set free indeed.   Amen.
 
 

Hebrews 11:29 - 12:2
 
        Have you heard any of these names recently?  
Gerek Meinhardt, Kim Rhode, Maggie Steffens, Mijain Lopez, Caterina Ibarguen, Yulimar Rojasand Paola Longoria.
They represent some of the finest athletics in the world, about 5,000, who participated in the 2019 Pan American Games, in  Lima, a multi-sport event which was held in Lima, Peru from July 26 to and concluded last week on August 11, 2019.   How about that amazing Simone Biles, who landed a triple-double at the US Gymnastics Championships?
​
        It is estimated an elite athletic trains anywhere from four years to 10 years plus, depending on the sport, to become a top hopeful.  The athletic trains his or her body up to seven hours a day, five to six days a week.  The athletic follows a regimen of plenty of sleep, a nutritious diet, and condition their mind in positive, motivational thinking as well.

        An athletic doesn’t make it to or any serious competition on their own. They need excellent coaches and teammates.    They need fans, or a supportive network that believe in them and are there for them to cheer them on. They need the moral and financial support of family and sponsors.  Athletics who aren’t funded by a government agency or corporate entity must go to gofundme sites or depend on the largesse of friends and family.  It isn’t easy to follow that dream to the medal.

        Our passage today from Hebrews talks about the gold medal winners of faith – this passage is often called the “the hall of faith” fame.   From the people of Israel crossing the red sea; to those unknown persecuted individuals who wandered the deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground and everyone in between.  There are the judges who fought invaders and defended the ways of God:  Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthath; there’s King David who united the kingdom, and the seer Daniel who stood up for the faith against foreign rulers at the risk of his life, and many more.

These people, these individuals found themselves in times of trial and tribulation.  Their faith was tested.  Imagine the people of Israel, called to leave everything behind them; facing the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s Army closing up behind them, with no choice but to trust God to make a way.   Think of David spending all those years in the wilderness escaping the clutches of King Saul, and later fleeing his own son, the rebellious Absalom. Yet David remained faithful to God in these dark times.  These are athletes of faith.

What our passage from Hebrews speaks to us today is to a race of faith to which we are all called. Not many of us can swim, participate competitively or even leisurely in gymnastics, or archery, volleyball, basketball or diving or biking.   Yet as members of God’s family we are called to the race of faith.  We have each been given a gift that we are called to exercise and train.  We are to put our faith into practice—not just five hours a day, but all day, for as long as God want us.    We are called to train like the best of them.

Very few of elite athletics even get medals.  Yet those athletes go to the games, train hard, for something greater.  Something pushes them on, to break records, to endure even harder, to push themselves to the limits of what is capable.   That drive is in us too.   To come close to human possibility.  We are called, like the great cloud of witnesses to live a life of grace and witness that Jesus, the author and pioneer of our faith, models, and the Holy Spirit coaches us daily to follow. We must run with perseverance the race of faith
We are called to struggle with our faith. We are called to care for our families, for our communities in the face of violence, to struggle in a divided community about carrying for immigrants, carrying for our own poor, all the while trying to find our way to peaceful co-existence.  What a race we face.
That’s why we come to church, read the bible, pray; to bring a bag of groceries in for the food pantry it is like a backstroke in our exercise of faith.  When we bring school supplies in for needy children, it is like a perfectly executed high jump, because we exercise the race of faith.  When we offer a bottle of water or buy a sandwich for a homeless man or a stranger, it’s like performing a triple lutz.  This is because a race of faith has its eyes on the prize.
Byron Pitts, black journalist, co-anchor of Nightline on ABC, and author of Step Out on Nothing: How Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life's Challenges and Be the One: Six True Stories of Teens Overcoming Hardship with Hope, faced a lifetime of challenges.  As a child he stuttered terribly and struggled academically. He had to go to remedially classes and was teased cruelly.  At 10 years old Byron still couldn’t read. His mother spent hours every night on schoolwork.   Keep your head up. We’ll just work harder. We’ll pray when we start and pray when we get tired and pray when we’re done” his mother said.  It is ironic to remember that, according to today’s New York Times Magazine devoted to  articles on African American contributions and history in the United States, that  black Americans are the only group in our country once barred from learning to read and write.Young. Byron would pray everyday, “God please help me read.”
By the end of the sixth grade Byron improved. He worked harder and harder in Junior high and high school.  He was determined to go to college. His proudest moment was when his mother dropped him off at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Byron soon felt out of his league again, He English Teacher said, “I’m sorry but you are not Ohio Wesleyan material. I think you should leave.”  Byron went numb. He went to get the forms to withdraw from school. Papers in hand, he sat down on a bench and started to cry, dream shattered,
“Young man, are you OK?” said a middle-aged woman passing by.  Stuttering, Byron told her “I don’t belong here.  Everything poured out, how stupid he felt.“That’s nonsense.  Promise me that you will speak to me tomorrow before you make any decision to drop out.”  It turned out the woman, an English professor, committed to working with Byron 3-4 hours a week.” Never settle for less. Push harder” She reminded him.  Another speech professor worked with Bryon on his stutter.  The professor encouraged Bryon to work on the college radio station.  He never stuttered on the air. Bryon discovered his vocation to Broadcasting.Over the years Bryon earned that God had watched over him. God, he prayed, I am going to trust you and your purpose for me. Not my plan but your plan.  Byron got a dream job working for 60 minutes.  Thus, began a career to tell stories to help people, inform them and inspire them.Like the stories in Hebrews 11, we are encouraged to keep running, to persevere, no matter where we are in our race. Obstacles are par for the course.  Life is full of challenges.  God has a race for each of us, a plan for each of our lives. We are called to be a part of the living cloud of witnesses, like Byron’s mother, and professors, who gave of their time to help.  Let us remember that we too have great crowd of witnesses who are cheering us on, praying for us. The church saints who are now members of the triumphant body. Our family members and loved ones who have gone one, to cheer us on.  The Pioneer and perfecter of our faith, Jesus went the course to the cross and emerged victorious. And He’s there waiting, too cheering us on, to finish the race. Let us push harder, never settle for less. Amen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Pitts

Freeport/Merrick, Hebrews 11:1-16,  “Assurance of Faith”
 
If you were sick and went to a trusted doctor and you were prescribed antibiotics or some form of treatment, how many would follow your doctor’s recommendations?

If you found yourself in complicated some legal mess, and had to go before a judge, would you go by yourself or would you retain a qualified lawyer?

If you had a child, would you leave her care to someone you implicitly trusted or pick a name out of the phone book or from Angie’s List or Craig's List?

Day in and day out we have to make choices.  Our choices our decisions our actions are guided by the faith we have in the people we turn to.  Faith, according to the author of Hebrews, “Is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Faith whether it’s faith in Jesus in God, or simply faith and confidence in stepping into the unknown is a fundamental law of the spiritual life.   We have faith in our doctor because she has a track record of making people get better. We have faith in our teacher because we see their effectiveness from their training.  Why do we have faith in Jesus?  Because of the witness of the Bible, because of the power of his words and deeds, because we experience a difference in our lives that faith brings us.  Faith, however, is characterized by a certainty of something we cannot entirely see, of conviction in what is not yet come to pass.  And so, we have faith even when asked to make hard choices that may seem impossible to accomplish.

My friend, the Rev. Kate Dunn, recently shared that “The Letter to the Hebrews we which are studying today is actually a sermon, written to be read aloud to a congregation facing a crisis of commitment. Their growing awareness of delay, that God’s timetable is different from their own. They were questioning, if Jesus is not returning in their lifetime after all, is all this effort of faith worth it.  They were losing their faith.  "During this sermon, the preacher offers a dejected congregation words of encouragement that have stood the test of time.”


The preacher recalls people throughout the Biblical timeline who have chosen to participate in God’s story, beginning with Abel, and continuing with Abraham and Sarah, and continues in the later part of chapter 11 with other characters from the Old Testament. The chapter is called the Hall of Faith.” Abel and his acceptable sacrifice, Enoch who pleased God, Noah who followed God’s warning, and Abraham and Sarah, then Isaac and Jacob, who sojourned forth for a better country, strangers and foreigners on earth, as God commanded them, dying without yet achieving the promises God declared. The author of Hebrews reminds his audience, and us, that God calls us to great things, difficult things, things impossible with faith and trust.  Without faith it is impossible to please God.

One of the great practitioners of faith in our generation was Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Imprisoned for 27 years as an anti-apartheid activist, were completely isolated, got little to eat and had to undertake the grueling work of pounding rocks into gravel.  Through it all, he kept faith in his vision of a new South Africa.

He was released in 1990, and declared from his 27 years of suffering, to a nation still divided: “The need to unite the people of our country is as important a task now as it always has been. No individual leader is able to take on this enormous task on his own. It is our task as leaders to place our views before our organization and to allow the democratic structures to decide.”

Mandela’s words are as pertinent to us today, as we live in a divided time, a time where faith is challenged.  We find our faith in Jesus who declared that the kingdom of heaven is within us and called us to realize this kingdom in our very midst. Our faith is shaped by our longing for a righteous, just and peaceful world even in the midst of stories of mass shootings, stabbings, and other demonstrations of violence and oppression.  The substance of our faith asks us to conform to the reign God is establishing, a reign where we live in a society that lifts up the poor, the fatherless, the orphan, the foreigner in our midst as the scriptures repeatedly lay out for us.  But the kingdom has not materialized and so we are, like the Hebrews congregation, tempted to despair.

Faith makes our lives substantial in loving as we have been cultivated and strengthened to love by the teachings of Jesus.  Despite the horror of the mass shootings we witness too often, we think of the first responders, the anonymous citizens, even those individuals who gave their lives to protect others: Lori Kaye who saved her rabbi in Poway CA, Anthony Borges who put sacrificed himself to save his friends at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Parkland, most recently we recall Jordan and Andre Anchondo, who with their bullet-ridden bodies shielded the life of their two-month baby in El Paso TX. We must not forget their faith to love sacrificially for it is this faith that will enable us to painstakingly, like Nelson Mandela, to build the seemingly unobtainable kingdom of God that God insistently beckons us to.

This week our world lost a literary luminary, Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Morrison’s faith reminds us of the future that is calling to us, in this troubled times: Morrison writes:

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence.” We must have faith.

“Toni Morrison’s commitment to work toward a future she could imagine, even if she would not personally experience it, surely earns her a place in that great cloud of witnesses whose courage and testimony will continue to inspire and sustain.”

Who are our saints, the historical figures whose faith has buttressed your own? Who are the people we’ve known personally whose trust in God’s promises has sustained you through your own times of suffering and doubt?   (Name them)     I think of Rev. Fred Rogers, of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, who reminds us in times of turmoil, when our faith is challenged, to look for the helpers. Think of those first responders.  Those who willingly get involved in spite of great risk to themselves.    Remember during the evils of overt segregation, such as in separated pools for blacks and whites,
Mister Rogers in 1968 had on his show the black character, Officer Clemmons, cool his feet with him in a child’s wading pool. Without saying a word, Fred Rogers taught what it meant to be a faithful believer in a time of division.

      This, is the faith God is planting in our weeping, hurting, often divided hearts. To trust the Journey Maker, believe in the Heavenly King, that our contribution matters even when we cannot feel the results.  Let us be God’s faithful people in this time of division and this journey of Divine Love, peace and mercy we have been called to. Let us be faithful and strive to build for the Kingdom of God that Jesus gave his life for, for our salvation and our commitment to his teachings.  In the midst of delay, when goodness seems lost, let us remember the witnesses of faith, let us celebrate the faith in the resurrection of the One who saw the journey through and encourages us to remain faithful.  Amen 
https://mail.aol.com/webmail-std/en-us/suite
https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/nelsonmandelaprisonrelease.htm
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/11/15/toni-morrison-art-despair/
https://www.afscme.org/union/history/mlk/ive-been-to-the-mountaintop-by-dr-martin-luther-king-jr

Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20
Most of us are winding down from a 4th of July extended weekend.  About 150 million hotdogs were consumed on the 4th, including the 71 dogs chomped down by Joey “the Jaws” Chestnut, who won his 12th all-round world-record at Nathan’s Hotdog eating contest at Coney Island.  700 million pounds of chicken found its way on the grill, along with 190 million pounds of ground beef and sausages.  25 million pounds of fireworks lit our skies and we waved about 5 million dollars’ worth of American flags.  Add to those figures platters of hummus and baba ghanouj.  Not to mention other gatherings with whole pig, whole lamb, lamb shanks, roasted pork belly, carne asada, gallo pinto, gallons of Chinese sweet soup dessert  or sweet green-bean soup  --  look out America – we are fast becoming a minority majority nation: just like New York City, where no racial-ethnic group holds the majority. Immigrants have claimed Independence Day as their own. There are at least 143 origin countries and 325 languages in this great land of ours.   What a beautiful Harvest our country has produced.
Today we hear how Jesus sends 70 disciples to go before him, to prepare the way…to go into new villages, meet new people to begin the harvest. 70 is a potent number in the Jewish tradition, referring to universality and leadership.  70 nations that came together to create the tower of Babel.  70 individuals from the clan of Jacob first went to Egypt. Moses selected 70 elders to help him lead. The leadership body of the Jewish nation was comprised of 70 elders.  Following this tradition, Jesus chooses 70 disciples to engage foreigners and strangers - the beginnings of Jesus’ universal vision for his church. This is a harvest of souls, a harvest that God has tenderly, patiently loved and grown.  Now it’s time to bring them to the table for the heavenly feast.
Jesus tells his 70 -us- how to harvest. Disciples of Jesus need to be on the go – not resting on their laurels at home.  We are called to meet and greet new people. We are called to go outside our comfort zone – meeting people different from ourselves.   Jesus is clear: don’t take purse, bag, sandals –greet no one on the road.  Jesus isn’t encouraging anti-social behavior – but he implies that we need tobe unhindered by worldly objects or solely focused on our comfort and overlook the needs of those we are trying to reach. Jesus wants us humble. To depend on God.  We’re not to engage in lengthy salutations and conversations as was custom by the traveling rabbis of the day.  Jesus wanted his disciples to be focused, eager to get to their destination. Once in the village they were to offer peace. To eat as they eat. Live where they live. We are to work to cure the ills around them.  We are to work to cure the ills around them.  Then, we speak – the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is near.
        Interesting.  Our churches are empty but Jesus insists that the Harvests are full.   We need more laborers.  How does this make us feel?  It is overwhelming? Or is it exciting?
We see the distant past…when the pews were filled, the church ran dozens of programs and when church attendance on Sunday was a priority in people’s lives, not an option. We see the distant future, cobwebs in the organ and faded framed pictures from the glory days past. But in our present we are surrounded by Harvest: Around us are our neighbors come with many different beliefs and customs.
        We celebrated secular freedom this past week.  Now let us embrace spiritual freedom.  Let’s train our eyes to see the need around us, right here, – and with our arms reach out to embrace the people God has placed in our midst.  You and I are the laborers God is sending forth in this brave new work.  Bringing peace. Curing ills. Living and eating and being united as one people. It is our calling as leaders in the universal movement Jesus began.  To make friends out of strangers. The kingdom of God is near – and the Harvest is plentiful, and we are the laborers  God yearns to send.  Let us go forth – all of us –with the grace of Jesus, and  welcome our new brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.