tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80253980712493788222024-03-16T07:30:13.368-07:00Sermons 'n' ThingsKirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.comBlogger790125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-24295888441628507412024-03-16T07:29:00.000-07:002024-03-16T07:29:27.608-07:00The Voice Is For You Lent 5B<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>The Voice Is for You</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Previously in John Chapter 12: Six days before the Passover,
Jesus spent time in Bethany with Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead, and
the sisters Martha and Mary. A crowd had gathered because of Lazarus, and some
Judeans from the Temple began a plot to kill both Jesus and Lazarus because of
their popularity. The next day, Jesus entered Jerusalem with great pomp and
circumstance, when suddenly, out of the great crowd, some foreigners, Greeks,
gentiles, show up for the Passover festival. They say to Philip, <i>“We wish to
see Jesus.” </i>Philip runs to Andrew and says “Hey, there are all these Greeks
who want to see Jesus! What should we do?” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The two of them run off to tell Jesus that foreigners are at
the gates looking for him. Jesus says, in effect, if anyone wants to see me,
really really see me, then stick around. You’ll have to deal with my death at
the hands of Rome to really really see me. Are they ready for that? Are you
ready for that? Begging the question: Are we ready for that? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He then says it is necessary. It’s like a grain of wheat
dying in the ground and then coming to life to bear much fruit. A metaphor of
dying to life in this world to gain a life in the world as God imagines it can
be. <i>“Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life
in this world will keep it for eternal life.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then, quoting Psalm 6 Jesus says, <i>“Now my soul is troubled!
What should I say? Father, save me from this hour. No, this is why I am here
now. Father, glorify thy name!”</i> The English translation is timid. His heart
is not “troubled.” The text says, <b>“My very being is struck with terror!”</b>
As well it should be. Then comes a big noise! Some thought it was thunder, so
it must have been loud. Some thought it looked as if Jesus was talking to
someone, but there was no one there. Must be angels, some surmise. It was the
voice from heaven. The same voice he heard at his baptism that said, <i>“You
are my beloved. I am well pleased with you.”</i> The same voice from the cloud
on the mountain top with Peter, James and John and Jesus that said, <i>“This is
my beloved, listen to him.”</i> Are we listening yet? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now when Jesus says, “Father, glorify thy name,” the voice
returns and says, <i>“I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”</i> It
was just thunder. Now he’s talking to himself. It sounds as if he’s lost it.
Should we even think of letting the foreigners see him like this? Out of the confusion,
Jesus announces, <b>“This voice has come for your sake, not mine.”</b> That means
for our sake, not his. This voice that keeps coming around is for us, not for
Jesus. Which makes perfect sense. He knows the voice. The voice knows him. He
has always heard his Father’s voice. Jesus comes to urge us to listen to his
Father’s voice. To listen for the voice of God! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The question is: Are we listening? Are we listening for the
voice of God? It may surprise us to learn that to this very day, not just in
the olden days, but today 90% of the peoples of the world regularly hear such
voices? That we modern Westerners are the minority, the anomaly, as those
people who do not regularly access this kind of communication with God and
Spirits. The question is quite naturally, why not us? Most people say we are
too busy to be listening, or think we are too sophisticated to hear voices, or
think you have to be crazy or mentally ill to hear such voices. Someone has
suggested that maybe it is because we are too grown up. Someone else has pointed
out that most other cultures do not make such a big deal about needing to grow
up. After all, it was Jesus who says we are to come to God’s kingdom like
children! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, it may be that we don’t want to hear anything
about having to watch him die, watch him be tortured and executed, the victim
of state sanctioned capital punishment? Oh sure, dress it up as being like a
grain of wheat, call it what you may, but that is what it is: state sanctioned
public execution. In all the debate on capital punishment in our country, how
often are we asked to reflect upon what it means that the one who calls us to
“follow him” is himself the victim of state sanctioned capital punishment? The
same voice that says we are to “<i>love our enemies,</i> <i>“and pray for those
who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This he says just after those liberal talking points called The Beatitudes in
his Sermon on the Mount. Are we still listening? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Listening to his Father’s voice that says, “<i>You are my
beloved. I am well pleased with you. I have glorified my name and I will
glorify it again.”</i> We are left feeling that for God’s name to be glorified,
we need to be listening to God’s voice and learn how to become part of the
world’s glorifying process. Holy week, and all it portends, is dark and scary,
and lays bare just how uncivilized we really can are. In Sunday School we
rarely hear anything about this voice and its being for us. We typically do not
spend much time on how to listen for this voice. Yet, Jesus says it is for us. And
that suggests that we play a crucial role in the process of the world’s glorification. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The creeds do not appear to discuss listening for this voice.
The catechism does not seem to discuss it. Yet, there it is. “<i>This voice has
come for your sake, not for mine.”</i> Seems as if we best get listening to
hear what this voice says. Nothing less than the glorification and future of
the whole world is at stake according to what Jesus says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p> </o:p>I think that what Jesus is saying, is that those of us, who
like the foreigners want to see Jesus, are the very people to whom others come
expecting to see Jesus. In us. In what we say and what we do. In his book, <b>By
Grace Transformed</b>, the late Gordon Cosby of the Church of the Saviour in
Washington, D.C., discusses just how it is others “hear the voice” and come to
see Jesus. Gordon puts it this way:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Every single one of us is
significant to somebody else. The people to whom we are significant will catch
this thing from us if they know that we are, beyond a shadow of a doubt,
absolutely devoted and loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the trouble is that,
in those moments we think of as off moments, others decide whether or not we
are truly committed. The times a person says, “I must talk to you,” or, when we
are weeding the garden. Or, working in an office. Grading a road. Nailing on a
molding or painting a room. Cooking a meal. Speaking to a child. These are the
times and places where the other person decides who we really are. There can be
no “off moments” for Christians if our faith and its vitality are to be
contagious. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">That is, the glorification of God’s name comes in our most
mundane moments. Jesus leaves it up to us to glorify God’s name. To do that we
need to listen for The Voice. The Voice that is for our sake, not for his. The
Voice speaks to us so that we might know just how Beloved we are. And just how important
we are to join with Jesus in re-creating the world in the image of God. For it will
be in listening to the voice and following Jesus that we will come to know how pleased
God is with us. Once we hear this voice, know the voice, and become those
people the voice calls us to be, others will come to see Jesus in all that we
say and all that we do. And this is Good News! Amen.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 12:20-33<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> John
12:25<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Matthew 5:43-48<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/This%20Voice%20is%20for%20You%20Lent%205B%202024.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Cosby, N.Gordon, Transformed by Grace (Crossroad, NYC:1999]) p.10</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-41624946561635952492024-03-09T08:17:00.000-08:002024-03-09T08:17:09.135-08:00Serpents and Eternal Life Lent 4B<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Serpents and Eternal Life<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus says to Nicodemus who comes to find out who Jesus is, <i>“Just
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”</i> Adding the
all too familiar sports stadium staple, <i>“For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may
have eternal life.” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an astonishing analogy, Jesus
self-identifies himself with “the serpent.” The people escaping Egypt were bad-mouthing
Moses and God, thus separating themselves from the love of the God who had
engineered their escape from slavery. To teach them a lesson, God releases some
serpents, which, if they nip you on the heel, you die. Learning their lesson,
they repent. <i>“We have sinned…please pray for the Lord to take the serpents
away.” </i>The Book of Common Prayer defines sin as all desires and actions that
separate us from the love of God. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Note: no one accuses them of sin. They know it and renounce it themselves. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Lord of the Passover and Exodus instructs Moses to make
a bronze serpent, put it high on a pole, so that when the people who have been
bitten look up to the serpent, they are healed. And restored to a life with God
once again. The people look up to the serpent and live. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This all may strike us as bizarre. But
there is ample evidence from the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE) of bronze serpents as
cult objects throughout the world of the Bible. Especially in Egypt, where a
single serpent on a pole, the Rod of Asclepius, which in both Greek and
Egyptian mythology was a deity identified with healing. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We might note that paradoxically, God saves the people from
their affliction by inviting them to gaze on the very image of their
affliction. The suggestion seems to be that a problem cannot be solved unless we
face it and accepted for what it is. Perhaps God is offering a hard but
life-giving lesson to God’s beloved people as they suffer in the wilderness:
There is no way around. The only way out is through. Lent is a time set aside
to remind us of this most important lesson. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus seems to say, “When I am lifted high upon a Roman cross,
I am like the bronze-serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness, which
represents our God’s steadfast love and forgiveness, and desire to relent from
punishment. God so loves the world that God gives his only Son, not to condemn
the world but to save all who renounce all their desires and actions that
separate themselves from the love God.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The very heart of John 3:16 tells us that God loves and God
gives. What God loves is the world, the cosmos, all creation and everyone and
everything therein. God does not love only the church. God does not love only
Americans. God does not love only white people. God calls us to love our
neighbors, whomever they are and from wherever they come. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus and Nicodemus both know that in the beginning, it says
we are created, male and female, in the image of God. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
God’s image from the very beginning is to love and to give. We, therefore, have
been placed here on this fragile Earth our island home to love and to give. To
be gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abound in steadfast love, and to
relent from punishing – as we hear that God does in the episode with the
serpents in Numbers. This is what I understand Jesus means by his astonishing
self-identification with the bronze-serpent of Moses. Jesus enters into a world
of people that through word and action repeatedly separate themselves from
God’s love and God’s forgiveness. It’s a world filled with anger and derision
toward others – especially those others who are in any way unlike ourselves,
unlike our tribe, unlike our country, unlike me. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Each Sunday in Lent we begin by saying, “Hear what our Lord
Jesus Christ says! Love God with your whole self, and love your neighbor as
yourself.” Jesus does not make this up. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, <i>“You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your might.”</i> And Deuteronomy 10: 19, <i>“You shall also love the
stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”</i> And Leviticus
19:34, “<i>The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born
among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the
land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”</i> That is, the Great Commandment and
the Second that is like unto it, come from Torah, the first five books of the
Bible. To be made in the image of God, is to embody God’s love and God’s
infinite capacity to give to others, all others, even, as in Numbers, when they
are speaking against God and you. Especially when they are speaking against God
and you. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Look at the bronze serpent and live. Look at Jesus on the
cross and have eternal life. Which is not simply a long life, or even life
after death, but rather a character of one’s life here and now that embodies
being made in the likeness of a God who loves and who gives – who gives
everything that we might live. That we might have life eternal. Life lived with
God never ends. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ilia Delio, a Franciscan nun and scholar, tells us that Clare
of Assisi, an early follower of Francis, <i>“was known as ‘the mirror saint’
because she drew her spiritual insights from her deep reflection on the cross
of Jesus Christ. She wrote to her friend, Agnes of Prague, princess and
daughter of King Wenceslas, that the cross reflects your true image. ‘Gaze on
this cross every day,’ she admonishes Agnes, ‘and study your face within it, so
that you may be adorned with virtues within and without.’” </i>Delio then asks<i>,
</i>“Does your face reflect what is in your heart. When the image of who we are
reflects what we are; when our face expresses what fills the heart, then we
image Christ, the image of love incarnate – God’s agape love.” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus self-identifies with the bronze serpent as an agent of
healing. Jesus self-identifies with all people in this world who suffer. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Jesus self-identifies with all those whose lives seem to be lived day after day
on a cross of separation, deception, and all the brokenness of the world. His
astonishing self-identification with the bronze serpent and the cross stands as
symbols of his love of God and love of Neighbor. He gives his life for the
world. The whole world. Not for the church, not just for Christians, but for
the whole world, everyone and everything therein. Lent, Good Friday, and Easter,
all call us to reflect on the man on the cross as a reminder of just who we are
created to be: images, icons, of a God who loves and who gives for the life of the
world. As we look upon Jesus on the Cross, we are to see ourselves: agents of
love, forgiveness, and healing for a broken world of broken people. There can
be nothing more astonishing than this! Imagine what the world could be like
were we to live into the astonishment of Jesus. This would truly be eternal
life, here and now, and for ever and ever. Amen.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 3:14-21<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Book of Common Prayer, p.302<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Numbers
21:4-9<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Genesis 1:26<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Delio, Ilia, The Primacy of Love (Fortress Press, Minneapolis: 2022) p. 49-50<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Jesus%20As%20Serpent%20Lent%204B.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Matthew 25: 31-46</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-8642849252896713932024-03-02T08:12:00.000-08:002024-03-02T08:14:19.787-08:00No Catfish Messiah! Lent 3B<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>No Catfish Messiah! </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Listening to the wild and wooly <i>Rondo-Burleske</i> of the
Mahler Ninth Symphony while pondering this episode of Jesus driving out the
animals for the Passover sacrifices and overturning the tables of the currency
exchange in the Temple, <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
three things suddenly came to mind: 1) when I make my epic movie about Jesus,
Mahler’s <i>Rondo-Burleske</i> will be the soundtrack for this violent scene in
the outer Temple precincts; and 2) Rabbi Edwin Friedman’s Fable of the catfish.
Catfish patrol fishtanks to clean up the mess all the other fish make,
literally consuming their excrement. One day, however, the catfish goes on
strike. The water in the tank gets cloudy, messy and disgusting. All the fish
complain. “Do something about all this, Catfish!” “I’ve had it with cleaning up
your messes! Clean up your own messes!” the catfish says. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And finally, 3) it seems that Jesus, in this violent prophetic
gesture, makes the same point as to what a messiah’s job really is: to lead all
of us in ways to clean up our own messes! His action is similar to Ezekiel’s
public demonstration, some 700 years before Jesus, eating ritually impure, and
disgusting, barley cakes baked on <i>human dung</i> to get the people’s
attention to the impending destruction of Jerusalem and Exile to Babylon as a
result of their continuing inattention to God’s true desires. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Desires which were expressed at least eight centuries before Christ by Hosea, “<i>For
I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than
burnt offerings;” </i><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
and Isaiah, <i>“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I
do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
God’s appetites evidently had changed significantly, as that other eighth
century prophet Micah sums it up: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">“With what shall I come before
the Lord and bow myself before God on high?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Shall I come before him with
burnt offerings, with calves a year old?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams, with ten thousands of <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">rivers of oil? Shall I give my
firstborn for my transgression, <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">He has told you, O mortal, what
is good, and what does the Lord </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">require of you </span></i><i style="font-size: large;">but to do justice and to love
kindness </i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in;"><i style="font-size: large;">and to walk humbly with your God? <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vi]</span></b></span></span></a></i><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Suffice it to say, Jesus takes it upon himself to make the
point that the Lord God of the Exodus, the Exile and the current Roman
Occupation has had enough ritual bar-b-que to last for all eternity, and would rather
have us simply be kind to one another, fight for justice for those who are
oppressed, and to humble ourselves walking in God’s way instead of our own way
believing that we know everything there is to know about God, Jesus and Life
itself. Living, as we do, in what will one day be looked back upon as the most
hubris-ridden period in human history, we can honestly say that after 2000 more
years of ignoring what God really desires, we still need to learn the lessons
this outburst by Jesus has tried to place squarely in front of us. No catfish
messiah, he! Time to stop thinking someone besides us will do the heavy
lifting! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Although Peter, at Caesarea Philippi, seemed to correctly
identified Jesus as the Christos, the Christ, God’s anointed messiah, he still
believed that that meant that Jesus, on his own, would turn the world
right-side-up again dispensing with all of our sinfulness, and remaking the
world as God dreamed it to be: devoid our perverted understandings of “free
will” as human arrogance that wants everything “go my way, which everyone must
accept as their way, or take the highway;” rather, God dreams of <i>“a friendly
world of friendly folk beneath a friendly sky,” </i>as was so often expressed
by the African-American mystic, Howard Thurman. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vii]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like Ezekiel before him, Jesus knows the Roman occupation,
and the Zealots’s attempts at insurrection against the Empire, will not end
well. And like Ezekiel before him, it will not be long before once again there
will be no Temple where God’s name can dwell and sacrifices made. The lessons
of Isaiah, Hosea and Micah will come to pass, but not without greater violence
than shooing some animals away and turning over the currency exchange where one
changes coins of the Empire for coins acceptable for offering in the Temple – coins
with the emperor’s face declaring that “Caesar is God” cannot be used. The time
is now, Jesus seems to be saying in this prophetic outburst, to honor God’s
true desire of shalom, peace and justice, for all people, respecting the
dignity of every human being as God’s beloved. Seeking and Serving Christ in
all persons; loving our neighbor as ourselves. The hardest work of all, of
course, is loving one’s self. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">All four gospels recount a version of this episode. Mark,
Matthew and Luke, however, place near the end of the story just before the
showdown with Pilate. This would suggest that this outburst, which interrupts
the commerce of the week-long Passover festival, would displease the folks back
in Rome are skimming the cash offerings for themselves! As trues as this may
be, John instead places this at the outset of the story to make sure the
listener understands: Jesus is God’s Beloved Son; The Temple is God’s House;
once The Temple is gone (which it was as John’s community was writing this
down), God’s presence will heretofore reside in person of Christ. Therefore, it
is important to follow this Jesus who walks humbly with God, seeking justice
for all people, and exemplifying what it means to be kind to one another; to be
friendly people beneath a friendly sky! And to clean up our own messes! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This seems to be why he is talking about rebuilding the
“temple”. <i>“But he was speaking of the temple of his body.” </i><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
He looks forward to Good Friday and Easter, as we do in Lent. And back to the
world as envisioned by the prophets nearly 3,000 years ago, where there is no
place and no need for animal, grain, oil and wine sacrifices, but a
never-ending need for justice, peace and humility; for kindness; for shalom,
peace, understood as all of us working together to meet the very real human
needs of all people, all creatures, and creation itself. No messiah, no single
figure, no one anointed by God, will ever be the catfish for our fish-tank.
Every time Jesus says, <i>“Follow me,”</i> he invites us to clean up our own
messes with justice, kindness and humility. This is God’s Dream for us all: A
friendly world, of friendly folk beneath a friendly sky! We are given “free
will” so that working together we might one day make God’s dream come true.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 2:13-22<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Friedman, Edwin, Friedman’s Fables, (Guilford Press, NYC: 1991)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ezekiel 4:9-15 “12 You shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight
on human dung.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Hosea 6:6<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Isaiah 1:11<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Micah 6:6-8<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Dozier, Verna, The Dream of God, (Cowley Publications, Boston: 1991) p.31<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/No%20Catfish%20Messiah.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 2:22</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-50833775688286737332024-02-24T04:03:00.000-08:002024-02-24T04:03:07.617-08:00Do We Understand The Bible? Lent 2B<p> <b>Do We Understand The Bible? 2B</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s back up a bit. Jesus and his disciples are near
Caesarea Philippi. It is as far north as he is recorded to have traveled. It
was an ancient Roman and Greek city known for its revelations by the God Pan.
It is a lush region at the base of Mt. Hermon, and the headwaters of the Sea of
Galilee and the River Jordan. It’s here, about as far away from Jerusalem as
one can get, in a land of revelations, that Jesus asks the central question in
Mark, <b>“Who do you say that I am?”</b> Peter alone answers, “You are the
Christos, the anointed, God’s messiah.” And Jesus scolds them to speak to no
one about him. This may strike us as odd. But that’s not all. He teaches them
that it is necessary that the son of <i>adam</i> [man] suffer many things, be
rejected by the Judeans and Romans in power in Jerusalem, and be killed, and
after three days rise. He says this all plainly. [i] </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then Peter begins to scold him. Jesus, turns and sees the
rest of the disciples, and scolds Peter. <i>“Get behind me, you satan. You
don’t judge things the way God does, but the way people do.”</i> Ouch! We
remember the <i>satan</i> is not a guy with a pitch fork and horns. In Hebrew
culture and literature, it is someone sent by God to be sure everyone
understands. To test people’s faith. In this case, however, it is the tester
who does not understand at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is the heart of the Good News, the <i>evangelion</i>,
that Mark is proclaiming. This episode is dead center in Mark’s gospel. Set in
this historic region of revelations, this truly deserves to be called, Breaking
News! Jesus is revealed for who he is, the Christ, and reveals the rest of the
story. Peter does not yet understand who this Christ, this messiah, really is.
Begging the question: Does the Church really know who Jesus is? Do we really
understand who Jesus is? </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As I pondered all of this, along comes this on Facebook by a
Pastor named Brian Zahnd:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">"I have a problem with the
Bible. Here’s my problem…I’m an ancient Egyptian. I’m a comfortable Babylonian.
I’m a Roman in his villa.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">“That’s my problem. See, I’m trying
to read the Bible for all it’s worth, but I’m not a Hebrew slave suffering in
Egypt. I’m not a conquered Judean deported to Babylon. I’m not a first century
Jew living under Roman occupation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">“I’m a citizen of a superpower. I
was born among the conquerors. I live in the empire. But I want to read the
Bible and think it’s talking to me. This is a problem. One of the most
remarkable things about the Bible is that in it we find the narrative told from
the perspective of the poor, the oppressed, the enslaved, the conquered, the
occupied, the defeated. This is what makes it prophetic. We know that history
is written by the winners. This is true — except in the case of the Bible it’s
the opposite! This is the subversive genius of the Hebrew prophets. They wrote
from a bottom-up perspective. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">“Imagine a history of colonial
America written by Cherokee Indians and African slaves. That would be a
different way of telling the story! And that’s what the Bible does. It’s the
story of Egypt told by the slaves. The story of Babylon told by the exiles. The
story of Rome told by the occupied. What about those brief moments when Israel
appeared to be on top? In those cases, the prophets told Israel’s story from
the perspective of the peasant poor as a critique of the royal elite. Like when
Amos denounced the wives of the Israelite aristocracy as ‘the fat cows of
Bashan.’ <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">“Every story is told from a vantage
point; it has a bias. The bias of the Bible is from the vantage point of the
underclass. But what happens if we lose sight of the prophetically subversive
vantage point of the Bible? What happens if those on top read themselves into
the story, not as imperial Egyptians, Babylonians, and Romans, but as the
Israelites? <b>That’s when you get the bizarre phenomenon of the elite and
entitled using the Bible to endorse their dominance as God’s will.</b> This is
Roman Christianity after Constantine. This is Christendom on crusade. This is
colonists seeing America as their promised land and the native inhabitants as
Canaanites to be conquered. This is the whole history of European colonialism.
This is Jim Crow. This is the American prosperity gospel. This is the
domestication of Scripture. This is making the Bible dance a jig for our own
amusement. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">“As Jesus preached the arrival of
the kingdom of God, he would frequently emphasize the revolutionary character
of God’s reign by saying things like, ‘the last will be first and the first
last.’ How does Jesus’ first-last aphorism strike you? I don’t know about you,
but it makes this modern day Roman a bit nervous. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">“Imagine this: A powerful
charismatic figure arrives on the world scene and amasses a great following by
announcing the arrival of a new arrangement of the world where those at the
bottom are to be promoted, and those on top are to have their lifestyle
“restructured.” How do people receive this? I can imagine the Bangladeshis
saying, “When do we start?!” and the Americans saying, “Hold on now, let’s not
get carried away!” [ii]<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As I read this from Pastor Brian Zahnd I said, Wow! Who is
this guy? This is brilliant! Can we see the problem here? Do we begin to
understand? Do we understand who Jesus is? Do we even know who we are? We are
Peter. Peter the <i>satan</i>. Hold on there, Jesus, he says. Let’s not get
carried away. We want a Christ, a messiah, who can vanquish these Romans and
deliver us from this Exile-at-Home we have suffered for generations now. A
messiah who can make all our problems go away. Not a messiah hanging on a Roman
cross! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then what do we hear as Jesus concludes, “<i>For those who
want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my
sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit
them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give
in return for their life?”</i> There’s some more upside-down, right-side-up
thoughts to ponder. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, there is this: according to news accounts, we
live in a time where in many churches across the land, people are chastising
their preachers and pastors for talking about The Beatitudes. Calling them
“liberal talking -points,” and saying “they’re too weak.” This is no time for
humility, they say. How dare Jesus say the meek shall inherit the earth! And
Jesus wept. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lent is a time to “meditate on God’s Word,” and begin to see
just where we truly fit into Mark’s story of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Pastor Zahnd correctly suggests we need to see ourselves as Pharaoh, as
Nebuchadnezzar, and Caesar. And we need to hear Jesus calling us to lift up the
meek, the poor, the humble, and those who mourn. The last will be first, and
the first will be last, he says. Perhaps we need to stand on our heads as we
try to read The Bible right-side-up! It’s a good thing we have forty days to
begin to sort this out before launching ourselves into Easter and Pentecost.
With God’s grace and God’s Spirit, we may begin to understand. We know that
eventually Peter did. There’s hope for us yet to begin to read the Bible right.<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">[i] Mark 8:27-38<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">[ii] https://brianzahnd.com/2014/02/problem-bible/ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by Pastor & Author, Brian Zahnd<o:p></o:p></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-85873656587436440962024-02-17T07:51:00.000-08:002024-02-17T07:51:39.637-08:00The Hokey Pokey Is What It's All About Lent 1B<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Hokey
Pokey Is What It’s All About!<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I remember being in awe as Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel
explained that the manuscript that became his book <b>Night</b> began as a one-thousand-page
memoir of his time in the Auschwitz camps as a teenager. He edited it down to a
mere 120 pages so that it might be a bare-bones, metaphysical and existential
account with no elaboration of the horrors he and some 12 million people
experienced at the hands of Nazi Germany, including six million European Jews. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among the four gospel accounts of Jesus the Christ, Mark,
long understood as the earliest of the four, stands as a similar bare bones
existential account: a mere six short sentences sum up his baptism by John, his
hearing the voice from heaven and an experience of the Spirit of God, the same
Spirit drives him into an extended time of testing in the wilderness, and the
beginning of his public ministry. His time in the wilderness in Mark consists
of only two short declarative sentences, with no details of what his “testing”
by “Satan” consisted of. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">If one brackets out the familiar accounts in Matthew and
Luke, which are nearly identical and all too familiar, one might be able to
imagine this testing as a sign of an internal struggle to make sense of what
the Spirit and Voice had told him: that he is God’s beloved Son, and that the
God of his ancestors Sarah and Abraham, Rebecca and Isaac, Rachel, Leah and
Jacob is well pleased with him. Too many years of Sunday School, too many years
of sermons, too many annual publications around Christmas and Easter time
purporting to tell “the real story” of Jesus the Christ, make it difficult to
imagine anything other than what others have told us about the man from
Nazareth in Galilee as he is in the wilderness. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Only Mark leaves us to sort it out ourselves. We might ask
ourselves, why? Why no details about a time away from everyone and everything
else in a place with no resources but himself and the presence of God as
angels, and some sort of wild beasts? And of course, the Satan, who throughout
the Hebrew scriptures is portrayed as an agent of God’s to test people’s faith. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Is it possible that after hearing the voice from heaven,
that the one who would later by called the Christ, God’s anointed one, himself
has some questions about just what on earth all this means? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The immediate outcome of this extended stay in a wilderness
is his confidence to proclaim the closeness of God’s “kingdom,” and the need of
everyone, all the time, to “repent and believe the good news.” It is a
trademark of Mark’s spare, bare-bones account to suggest in the very first
sentence of chapter 1 that this Jesus who joined in John’s ritual bathing in
the River Jordan is himself, his very self, the good news that he proclaims!
And that Mark intends only to reveal “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.” Which, similar to John’s account decades later, indicates
that there is no ending to the story – at least not until God’s kingdom of
Shalom covers the entire face of the Earth. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">After forty days, which is meant to denote something like
longer than a Lunar Cycle, more than a month, Jesus calls on everyone to change
their minds – <i>metanoia</i> – and turn, or re-turn to God and God’s way of
Shalom. Further, Mark’s choice of the Greek <i>metanoia</i>, as opposed to the
more definite Koine Greek word for full and total conversion, <i>epistrophe</i>,
suggests that this repentance this Beloved Son of God calls us to is not a
once-and-done affair, as depicted in the epic Burt Lancaster film, Elmer Gantry
– nor as often depicted in endless televangelist shows or tent revivals – but rather
is an ongoing process of conversion in most of our lives, as the still popular
Shaker song has it: <i>“To turn, turn will be our delight / Till by turning,
turning we come round right.” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></i>
It seems part of the human condition that we continually need to turn and
re-turn to God and God’s way of Shalom: justice and peace for all people,
respecting the dignity of every human being. Like the Hokey Pokey, we need to
turn ourselves about. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Very few of us can take more than a month away from everyone
and everything to get this turning back to God and God’s way “just right” as
Jesus appears to do. Repentance, then, is an ongoing, often never-ending,
process in which we mean to never look back, but…inevitably we stray from the
path, re-turn to bad habits, creating the need to “turn, turn, turn, turn
again” until we “come round right” once again. Repentance is characterized as a
coming to our senses and once again grounding ourselves in the presence of God
– or for Christians, to see ourselves once again grounded in the promised
presence of Christ <i>“until the end of the age!”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">That is, it’s OK for us all to go astray. There are few, if
any, of us who do not! One imagines this testing going on with God’s own
administrator of Godly SAT’s, Satan, is based as much on our own doubts about
our own belovedness as it may be in any direct questioning of our faith by God’s
own tester. It was the great 20<sup>th</sup> century theologian, Paul Tilich,
who suggested that doubt is not the absence of faith, but rather is an
essential element of faith. Frederick Buechner says it best: <i>“Doubts are the
ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It ought to be noted, this ritual to turn back to God is depicted
in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, or Torah. The word is <i>shuv</i>
(pronounced shoove) – which can mean to turn from one place or direction toward
another, or to re-turn to one’s beginnings. Thus, in Genesis 3:19 Adam is told
by YHWH in the garden, as we were just reminded on Ash Wednesday, that
ultimately, <i>“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you
return ( shuv ) to the ground ( a damah ), since from it you were taken ; for
dust ( a damah ) you are and to dust ( a damah ) you will return ( shuv ).”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">As we were also reminded on Ash Wednesday, our God is an
awesome God since the repeated description of God in Torah, the scriptures of
Jesus, is often repeated:<i> “Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from
punishing.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> There
it is again! We are to <i>shuv, shuv, shuv,</i> turn, turn and re-turn to the
Lord our God because our God is not finished with us yet! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lent is that time of year for us all to find ways to <i>shuv</i>,
to turn, to re-turn to the Lord our God whose Good News IS Jesus the Christ,
God’s beloved Son! In his life, death and resurrection, the Christ shows us how
to <i>shuv, shuv, shuv</i> until we come down right! And since he promises to
be with us to the end of the age, we have lots of time to get it just right!
And that is Good News for us all!</span></p><div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Mark
1:9-15<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Simple Gifts, a Shaker song written and composed in 1848, generally attributed
to Elder Joseph Brackett from Alfred Shaker Village.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Matthew 28:20b<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Buechner, Frederick, Wishful Thinking: a theological ABC (Harper & Row, New
York:1973) p. 20<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Lent%201B%20%20The%20Hokey%20Pokey%20Is%20What%20It.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Joel 2:12-14<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p></div></div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-83973126458967880392024-02-10T06:38:00.000-08:002024-02-10T06:38:19.745-08:00Death and Transfiguration<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Death and Transfiguration</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This episode in Mark’s gospel is singularly the most
mysterious episode in the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God: Jesus is
Transfigured – has become blindingly white light – and is seen by three
disciples speaking to Moses and the prophet Elijah. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The text in Mark begins, “Six days later….” Six days later
than what? Then when Jesus asked the disciples, <i>“Who do you say that I am?”</i>
and Peter answered, correctly, <i>“You are the Christ!”</i> Then Jesus told
them that he would suffer many things, be rejected, killed, and after three
days he would rise again. And he followed that by saying those who want to
become a follower of his must pick up their cross “and follow me.” Peter
objects strenuously and is told to be quiet and get with the program. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Six days later is also another way of saying, “On the
seventh day…” which for the Bible means much more than just “a week later.” God
created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the Seventh. The
seventh day is ordained in the Ten Commandments as a day of Sabbath rest.
Sabbath rest is meant to take us out of the tedium of our day-to-day activities
and thoughts and use the time to remember and experience the presence of God in
all things, in all places, at all times. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then there’s the location on a mountain. Mountains have long
been considered “thin places,” higher in altitude, thinner in air, and closer
to God. Moses sat atop Mount Sinai for six days, and on the seventh day God
spoke to him. And Elijah wanted to see God, hid in a crevice as God passed by. After
much thunder and violence, he heard a still, small voice, a sigh, and knew at
once that YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was there nearby. Moses
and Elijah were experienced mountaineers who both were known to have spoken
directly to God. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Curiously, the Bible offers no narrative account of either
of them dying – Moses literally just disappears from the narrative, and Elijah,
as we read in 2 Kings, flies off in his chariot of fire into the wild blue
yonder we know not where! <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Both are believed to have the capacity to return to planet Earth. Therefore, who
better to be seen with Jesus on a mountain top than Moses and Elijah – the Law
and the Prophets. The text tells us they are talking to Jesus who suddenly
appears to be radioactive, blindingly bright. His appearance, the location and
the presence of Moses and Elijah suggests that the two visitors are once again
talking to God. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Try to imagine for a moment viewing this scene. At the very
least, it would leave us breathless, even speech less. Not Peter! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter decides to get in on the conversation. He
calls Jesus <i>“Rabbi,”</i> and offers to set up three dwellings, or three
booths. Why booths? Could it be because that is how the people Moses led lived
in the wilderness for forty years? It has been suggested by some that Peter wants
to turn this into an extended mountaintop campout retreat. The Transfiguration
of Jesus Christ the Son of God will be held over for one more week with cameo
appearances from Moses and Elijah! In a rare moment of candor, the text tells
us Peter has no idea what he’s talking about because he and the others are terrified.
Which Moses and Elijah would agree is the proper response to a direct encounter
with God. Which seems to be the meaning of this entire episode: if you want to
know who Jesus is, to be in his bright white presence is to be as if you are in
the presence of God.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then comes thick darkness. And a voice, <i>“This is my Son,
the Beloved. Listen to him!”</i> We, the listeners have heard this voice before
when Jesus heard it at his baptism by John, who by the way, dresses a lot like
Elijah. That voice was addressed to Jesus alone. This time it is addressed to
Peter, James and John, and of course every one of us. The voice comes with a new
commandment: <i>Listen to him!</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">One suspects the first reaction from Peter to this voice
will be, “Whoever Jesus is, he’s no ordinary rabbi chatting it up with Moses
and Elijah! He’s God’s Son. God’s Beloved!” No doubt, followed by, “What does
this all mean?” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mark is anything but subtle in his purpose of telling us
these stories. He begins the Gospel, “The Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. A few verses later, a voice tells Jesus standing in the River Jordan, “<i>You
are my Son, my Beloved.”</i> Midway through the Gospel Jesus asks the
disciples, “<i>Who do you say that I am?”</i> After several failed attempts,
Peter blurts out, <i>“You are the Christos, the Anointed, the Christ Messiah of
God.”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as we know, as in this
story of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Transfiguration, Peter once
again has no idea what he is talking about. Six days later the voice from the
baptism returns in the midst of this terrifying mystical experience to remind
one and all, this is <i>the Son of God, God’s Beloved</i>. And in case we were
to forget who he is, as the story now turns us toward Jerusalem, the final
words that are spoken at the foot of the cross by none other than a Roman
Centurion who proclaims, <i>“Truly this man was God’s Son!” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></b></span></span></span></a></i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We should not forget this all happens on the Sabbath – a
time to stop all else that we are doing to listen to God. To remember who we
are and whose we are. To ponder a text like this one in which truly astonishing
things are going on. And then remember, amidst all the other hub-bub and the
endless fire-hose-like stream of events, information, disinformation all aimed
at getting and maintaining our attention, if we were to simply stop, and
“listen to him,” we will see more astonishing things than this going on all
around us every day. If only we take the time out. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps this story is meant to remind us of the most
astonishing truth of all: by water and the holy spirit we have been
incorporated into the body of Christ in our baptism, which, we are told, is a
bond that is indissoluble. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
We are Christ’s own forever. When we take time out to listen to him, he tells
us, <i>“You are my beloved; I am well pleased with you!”</i> I am always with
you. Our God is not far off. We are those people who know who Jesus is. Truly
he is the Son of God, who promises to be with us always, to the end of the age.
And for this we give thanks! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">PS On the way down from the mountain, Jesus <i>“ordered them
to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen
from the dead.”</i> Could it be because he wants everyone to have a chance to
see him for who he really is for themselves?</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Mark
9:2-9<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> 2
Kings 2:1-12<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Mark 15:39<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Transfiguration%202024%20Love%20Not%20Fade%20Away.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p.298</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-35039520960793126582024-02-03T06:28:00.000-08:002024-02-03T06:28:26.062-08:00The Gospel of The Old Ones Presentation/Candlemas 2024<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Gospel of The Old Ones</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are days when it seems easy to imagine the end of the
world. Whether it comes from a nuclear holocaust or a super-heated climate
crisis; whether it be from the collapse of republican democracy or the advent
of a fascistic dictatorship; whether it comes from an asteroid crashing into
our planet or the outbreak of civil wars throughout this fragile earth, our
island home; whether it be random acts of gun violence or a gradual stripping
of individual rights, first for one group, then another, and another; from
another pandemic or the simple lack of a well vaccinated population. If we do
not imagine these apocalyptic events on our own, there are entire industries
devoted to injecting all kinds of fears into our day-to-day existence, whether
those fears are from the right or the left; from red or blue ideologies; from
fear of education, fear of science, fear of modern medicine, fear of
genetically modified foods. There seem to be no end to the kinds of fear
entering our lives through radio and television; through social media
platforms; through endless conspiracy theories; through cult-like ideologies. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">On good days, we try to keep our heads down to somehow
believe we can screen all these fears out and power our way through an equally
endless series of tasks and responsibilities we believe we must attend to lest
life itself come crashing to a halt. We try to avoid or ignore interruptions of
what passes as our necessary “routines.” It becomes more and more rare to allow
ourselves to take time-out, take sabbath time, time to look at the sky, let
alone time to sit in silent meditation and contemplation. To give ourselves
space and time to just breathe and wait. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The world into which God chose to arrive as one of us, a
vulnerable child, a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes that also look strikingly
like a funeral shroud, was a world full of the loss and fears of an occupied
people. The child is just one among millions born into this world that seems
hell-bent to destroy itself. When Luke wrote this account some 80 years after
the child’s birth, Jerusalem and its Temple again lay in ruins, and factions of
people were struggling, often against one another, to find a way forward. It
seemed like the world had come to an end. Luke writes that forty days after the
birth of this baby boy, the baby’s unwed young mother goes to the Temple in
Jerusalem for her own traditional ritual purification by the priests, and to
present this boy-child to God the giver of all good things. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
She and the older gentleman with her no doubt saw nothing extraordinary in observing
these generations-long rituals of their people. For her purification she is to
offer a lamb for sacrifice. But for those who could not afford an unblemished
lamb, a pair of turtle doves or pigeons would do. One imagines in the
hard-times of the Roman military occupation which sought to extract all
possible resources out of the country to send back home to Rome, the seat of
Caesar’s Empire, that all most people could afford were the birds. No doubt Mary
had hoped they could make their offering quickly and unnoticed so they might
turn around and head right back home to Nazareth. It was not to be. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Enter the Old Ones. Simeon and Anna were unique among their
septuagenarian peers. They had taken time out of life to stand and wait outside
the Temple. Waiting to see what God might do this time. After all, their
ancestors had escaped a life of slave-labor in Egypt, a forty-year testing
period in the wilderness, and the destruction of the first temple followed by
40-plus years exile in Babylon. Each time the Lord had saved them from the fear
and danger surrounding them on all sides. Simeon had avoided joining with the
zealots who repeatedly tried to oust the Romans by violent force. He had stayed
out of the debates between Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes as to what kind of
life would evoke a response from the Almighty. Taking a path of non-violent
resistance, Simeon had been visited by the same Holy Spirit who had announced that
Mary would have a child. This Spirit had promised Simeon that he would not die
before getting to see the Lord’s Anointed One. Ever since, Simeon had been
waiting for a glimpse of a new and better future. The old woman, Anna, had been
married, but has long been widowed. She too, like the old man, spent day and
night at the Temple where she saw the endless stream of pilgrims come and go.
She could see how some of the Temple priests would collaborate with the
occupation and corrupt the life of their people. She had seen many babies, many
such rituals, as she waited and prayed year after year after year to see what
God might do. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Just one look at this child and Simeon and Anna knew they
were looking at the future – and they somehow sensed that the future starts
now! What did Mary think as the old man grabbed the child from her arms to get
a better look and begin singing? Or, why her old man, Joseph did nothing. Then
Anna begins to tell everyone that this child is the One to redeem Israel. What
did Simeon and Anna see? They probably saw nothing - and everything! <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
They saw a family of humble means and demeanor, a young and tender mother and
her awkward aging old man – the essence of simplicity. They seemed the kind of
people who sadly would ordinarily leave no lasting impression whatsoever. Simeon
and Anna knew this was God’s next intervention. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, Anna and Simeon had seen plenty of people come and go
from the Temple. What they had not seen was the simple truth these ancient
rituals of presentation and purification proclaimed. Until now. Looking at the
infant Christ, it all comes together. Something like light emanates directly
from him into them. And in its simplicity and plainness, this family represents
all that it means to be human. As Sam Portaro writes, <i>“They had neither the
arrogance that pretends to greatness, nor the brooding hostility that hates the
human condition. They were neither better or worse than any of God’s creatures,
and they came to make an offering. Even they had no idea what an offering it
would be…Simeon, who had seen all the world has to offer, and Anna who had seen
all that the human soul seeks, took one look at the child and saw the
truth…These eyes that had seen it all, for the first time saw all that God
desired, and it was a little child.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Simeon and Anna do not only see the future of the world.
They see new meaning for their lives, and the lives of all people everywhere.
They see love personified in a little child. Their hearts were filled with love!
Their lives had been fulfilled. God’s promises to them had come true as they
waited patiently upon the Lord. They could now leave this world in peace. They
saw at the end of long and very full lives, in the blessedness of life’s wisdom
and God’s grace, that God requires far less than we may think; only what we
already are. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Pema Chodron, that beloved Buddhist nun, writes, <i>“Things
happen to us all the time that open up the space. This spaciousness, this
wide-open, unbiased, unprejudiced space, is inexpressibly and fundamentally
good and sound. It’s like the sky. Whenever you’re in a hot spot or feeling
uncomfortable, whenever you’re caught up and don’t know what to do, you can
find someplace where you can go and look at the sky and experience freshness,
free of hope and fear, free of bias and prejudice, just completely open. And
this is accessible to us all the time. Space permeates everything, every moment
of our lives.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
That’s what happened that day in the Temple forty days after the Christ child’s
birth. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look to the sky and we can see
it, feel it and be it. Just take the time to stop everything and look up and
remember the old man and the old woman. God requires far less than we may
think; only what we already are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Luke 2:21-39<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Portaro, Sam, Brightest and Best (Cowley Press, Boston: 2001) p,40-41<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ibid Portaro<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ibid Portaro<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Look%20To%20The%20Sky%20%20%20%20Presentation2024.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Chodron, Pema, The Pocket Pema Chodron (Shambala Press, Boston: 2008) p.70</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-64102817147507141212024-01-26T18:00:00.000-08:002024-01-26T18:00:55.513-08:00Who Is The Disrupter Here? Epiphany 4B<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Who Is The Disrupter Here?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Capernaum by the Sea was a fishing village in 1<sup>st</sup>
Century Israel. Of interest are the ruins of two ancient synagogues: one very
small, barely able to hold a minyan – 10 adults needed to worship; one larger,
but still not all that big, perhaps able to accommodate 50-100 or so adults. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">One thing we learn from this episode in Mark 1: 21-28 is
that Jesus and his new companions, Simon, Andrew, James and John, regularly
attended synagogue on the Sabbath. That is, Jesus is very much a traditional
Jewish young man who is fluent in teaching and following Torah in his life.
Indeed, when he enters, he joins with at least ten people already there in
discussing the Torah portion to be read that Shabbat. People are immediately
astonished at the authority with which he knows Torah – another sign that Jesus
was an observant Jew. People say he seems to know Torah even better than the
Scribes – the scholars of interpreting the texts. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Just prior to this story, Mark Jesus proclaims that a new
reign of God is at hand, has come near, and to repent and accept this Good
News. Suddenly, there is a commotion. A man with an unclean spirit cries out to
Jesus, <i>“What is all this to you and to me, Jesus of Nazareth? You came to
destroy us! I know you. I know who you are: the Holy One of God!”</i> Jesus
scolds him and tells him to be quiet and “come out of him.” Making a lot of
noise and commotion, the unclean spirit departs. Can we imagine what the rest
of the assembly in the synagogue are to make of this disruption of their weekly
teaching and worship? If people were astonished before, now they are truly
astounded! <i>“What is this?”</i> they say. <i>“A new teaching! With authority!
Even to the unclean spirits he gives orders and they obey.”</i> And suddenly,
Bang! His fame began to spread throughout the region surrounding Galilee. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This story is often interpreted as not only a rebuke of the
unclean spirit, but a rebuke of the Scribes and Jews in general. And of course,
nothing could be further from the truth. And yet, there are dimensions of the
story that are, well, odd. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">For instance, the word translated as “Nazareth” is <i>netzer</i>
– which can refer to Jesus’s geographical home village. But more often it means
“root,” or “shoot,” as in Isaiah 11: 1-2<i>: “A shoot shall come out from the
stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesse of course was the father of David, the shepherd king. Calling Jesus
Netzer would astonish everyone as it seems to announce Jesus as a new David! <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Who%20Is%20The%20Disrupter%20Here%20%20Epiphany%204B.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>Just
as our first lesson in Deuteronomy infers that Jesus is the new prophet like
Moses! <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Who%20Is%20The%20Disrupter%20Here%20%20Epiphany%204B.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Yowser! Could this kid from the region of Galilee, considered a land of country
bumpkins by the authorities in Jerusalem way down south, be all of this rolled
into one? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And what about this unclean spirit? This means the man in
the synagogue is unclean for ritual purposes in the Temple not necessarily ill,
mentally or physically. Nearly everyone is unclean most of the time, and would
have to observe cleansing rituals, not unlike John’s baptism, to be made ready
to enter the Temple. Unclean spirits, however, were believed to lead people
astray to magic, war, conflict and bloodshed. That is, this man is not a
sinner, nor does he have Covid or the Flu, but is in danger of being led down a
path contrary to Torah which urges love of God and love of neighbor. Strangely,
people tried to perform exorcisms or magic to drive out such unclean spirits
and demons. But not Jesus. Jesus needs only his Word to command the departure. This
signals that his Word is similar to the very Word of God who at creation speaks
a command, <i>“Light!”</i> And there is light. This is Truly a sign that God is
with this Jesus Netzer from Nazareth, west of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. Can
we begin to see just how Mark, in a few short sentences, connects Jesus to the
history and traditions of Israel? And as a “new authority” on Torah. This does
seem to foreshadow a collision course with the religious and political
authorities in Jerusalem as the story unfolds. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">But that’s not all. Do we notice how odd it is that this
unclean spirit is the only one present that day in Capernaum who knows Jesus is
<i>“the Holy One of God”</i>? Jesus knows. Jesus found out at his baptism by
John, in which the words, presumed to be the Word of God, proclaimed, <i>“You
are my Beloved Son; I am well pleased with you.”</i> Only Jesus and Mark’s
audience know this. And yet, the unclean spirit knows this too. This is true of
other unclean spirits in Mark as well. Do we notice how odd it is that unclean spirits
agree with God about who Jesus is? <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Who%20Is%20The%20Disrupter%20Here%20%20Epiphany%204B.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">But that is still not all. Southwest of Capernaum, along the
shoreline of the Sea, near the city of Tiberius there are some hot springs. Hot
springs believed to have healing properties. One can see the springs from
Capernaum. We know that people from all over the ancient world, not just
Israel, but gentiles and Jews alike would come and pay money to take advantage
of these healing springs. Presumably, these springs could also make one
ritually clean to head down to Jerusalem and make sacrifices in the Temple.
While at the springs, no doubt people would find lodging in Tiberius, and
restaurants, and no doubt entertainment venues as well. That is, the local
economy was fueled by the alleged healing and cleansing properties of these hot
springs. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Along comes a young man, who needs but speak the Word, and
voila, free healthcare for all – especially for most of the people of the land
who did not have the means to take advantage of the natural resource of these
hot springs. It surely could not have gone unnoticed by many that whatever and
whoever this Jesus character is, he is potentially bad news for the local
economy should he continue this behavior of his. It is not surprising this news
would travel quickly, as the story in Mark takes Jesus to Jerusalem where the
religious and civil authorities would also be concerned. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mark, in just a few sentences, signals that Jesus’s mission
on behalf of God’s kingdom is to have deep social, religious and economic
consequences. Who is the greater disrupter here in Capernaum? The man with the
unclean spirit? Or, Jesus the Netzer, the shoot from the stump of Jesse, the
new David and the new Moses all rolled into one? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This story, then, hinges not on the dismissal of the unclean
spirit, but oddly, the spirit’s question to Jesus: <i>What is all this to you
and to me?</i> Inviting us to ask, <b><i>“What is all this to Jesus and to us?”</i></b>
In every time and place, the Church has had to answer this question. Sometimes
the Church has responded in faithfully following Jesus with people like Paul,
Dorothy Day and Martin King leading the way. And in other times, the Church has
acted tragically. We need only think of times like the crusades, the
Inquisition, and the Church’s promulgation and support of anti-Semitism. It
seems that this text means to ask us as community of Christ: <b>How are we meant
to read the signs of our time, and respond faithfully in following Jesus?</b> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Born in Spain, Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) entered a
Carmelite convent when she was eighteen, and later earned a reputation as a
mystic, reformer, and writer who experienced divine visions. Here is her answer
to the question from the unclean spirit: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>Christ Has No Body</i></b> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Christ has no body but yours,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No hands, no feet on earth but
yours, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yours are the eyes with which he
looks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Compassion on this world, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yours are the feet with which he
walks to do good, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yours are the hands, with which he
blesses all the world. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yours are the hands, yours are the
feet,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yours are the eyes, you are his
body. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Christ has no body now but yours,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">No hands, no feet on earth but
yours,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yours are the eyes with which he
looks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">compassion on this world. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Christ has no body now on earth but
yours.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Amen.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Who%20Is%20The%20Disrupter%20Here%20%20Epiphany%204B.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Swanson, Richard W., Provoking the Gospel of Mark (Pilgrim Press, Cleveland:
2005) p.95<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Who%20Is%20The%20Disrupter%20Here%20%20Epiphany%204B.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Deuteronomy
18:15-20<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Who%20Is%20The%20Disrupter%20Here%20%20Epiphany%204B.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ibid Swanson p.98</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-46808435806699481482024-01-20T06:06:00.000-08:002024-01-20T10:51:59.647-08:00Voyage To The Bunny Planet Epiphany 3B<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Come To The Bunny Planet</b> Epiphany 3B <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We have before us four texts that one way or another seek to
address what ought to be the primary focus of any and all faith communities:
What ought we be doing in the present time? And, being from the Hebrew and
Christian scriptures, more specifically: What does God call us to be and to do?
How might we respond to God’s call? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the first instance, we have Jonah.<a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
For reasons not explained, Jonah has been chosen by the Hebrew God to take a
message to a mighty gentile city, Ninevah. God is angry with their wickedness. Jonah
knows this is not good news and takes off in the opposite direction to get away
from God and the mission. I get it. And I suppose all of us at one time or
another have tried to ignore what the Lord God of Israel tells us to do. We are
meant to identify with Jonah, who learns, thanks to landing in the belly of a
very large fish, there is no escaping what the Lord calls us to do. Like Jonah,
I tried myself to head off in several different directions. Alas, here I
am. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jonah is not told what to say, so he improvises, “Forty days
more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” Astonishingly,
the Ninevites repent of their evil ways. They fast and cover themselves with
sackcloth and ashes. Even the king! That is, they take God more seriously than
Jonah does. The lesson here: act more like the evil, gentile Ninevites than
Jonah! But that’s not all! God is so moved by the Ninevites that God repents
from overthrowing the city. Because, as Jonah later notes, our God is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger and abounds in steadfast love and compassion, and
relents from punishment. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Paul, as the first ever recorded church consultant, has been
petitioned by some folks in Corinth on just what they ought to and ought not to
be doing as a community of Christ. We are given only a few verses which in our
world nearly 2,000 years later seems like somewhat bizarre advice: The
appointed time is short. If you are married, don’t act like it, and if you’re
not, don’t bother to get married; if you are mourning, don’t mourn; if you’re
rejoicing, don’t rejoice; quit buying more and more stuff; forget about what’s
going on in the world. The key to his advice, however, is that things are about
to change. “The present form of the world is passing away.” Oh, that that would
be true and come sooner than later! And yet, history tells us that this is
true, just not on our preferred timetable. What Paul is really saying, had we
more of the letter, is that we must focus on what God in Christ calls us to do,
not what we think we want or need to do. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span></span></a> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">His insistence that buying more and more stuff may be good
for the economy, but distracts us from being the community of God’s love and
compassion that God in Christ call us to be. Besides, we begin to lose our very
identity as Christ’s own forever when we begin to believe that all this stuff,
the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the investments we make, somehow become
who we are. We identify with and accumulate so much stuff that many, if not
most of us, have to rent the aptly named Self-Storage lockers to store all of
our excess Self! </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then along comes Jesus. After accepting the baptism of John,
and skipping over his time in the wilderness, Jesus emerges proclaiming John’s
message of repentance, but with a significant addition: “The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the good news.” Like
Paul, Jesus proclaims that the present form of the world is passing away, and
the way God creates the world to work will soon come to pass. Next, he calls a
bunch of fishermen to follow him. And surprisingly, they drop their nets, leave
their work behind, leave their families behind, and given no idea whatsoever
lies ahead, they follow him. So unlike Jonah! One of them is actually named
Simon the son of Jonah! Personally, I think that’s meant to make us laugh – a
family of fishermen whose father is named after the guy who became fish-food! <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span></span></a> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like Jonah, like Andrew, Simon, John and James, no one is
asked for a resume, given a test, or in anyway examined to see if they are
qualified to do God’s work. Because everyone is. And some go another way. And
some of us follow. It’s said that Jesus finds ways to qualify us. I don’t know
if that’s true, but I do know that God’s kingdom is near. We see signs every
day. It is at hand. I think when our youngest daughter, Cerny, was born,
someone dropped off a book by Rosemary Wells, author of such other children’s classics
such as Max’s First Word and Max’s Disappearing Bag. The book is called First
Tomato, the first of a series called Voyage to the Bunny Planet, and goes like
this: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Claire ate only three spoons of cornflakes for breakfast (the
rest she spilled on the floor). On the way to school her shoes filled up with
snow. By eleven in the morning, math had been going on for two hours. Lunch was
Claire’s least favorite – baloney sandwiches. At playtime Claire was the only
girl not able to do a cartwheel. Once again, the bus was late. Claire needs a
visit to the Bunny Planet. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Far beyond the moon and stars, twenty light-years south of
Mars, spins the gentle Bunny Planet, and the Bunny Queen is Janet! Janet says
to Claire, “Come in. Here’s the day that should have been.” I hear my mother
calling when the summer wind blows. “Go out to the garden in your old, old
clothes. Pick me some runner beans and sugar snap peas. Find a ripe tomato and
bring it to me, please.” A ruby red tomato is hanging on the vine. If my mother
didn’t want it, the tomato would be mine. It smells of rain and steamy earth
and hot June sun. In the whole tomato garden, it's the only ripe one. I close
my eyes and breathe in its fat red smell. I wish that I could eat it now and
never, never tell. But I save it for my mother without another look. I wash the
beans and shell the peas and watch my mother cook. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I hear my mother calling when the summer winds blow. “I’ve
made you First Tomato Soup because I love you so.” Claire’s big warm school bus
comes at last. Out her window Claire sees the Bunny Planet near the evening
star in the snowy sky. “It was there all along, says Claire. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The kingdom of God is at hand. You can reach out and touch
it. Take one step forward with Christ and you are in it! It’s been here all
along, like the Bunny Planet. Like Claire we think we want the First Tomato.
But God our Mother knows just what we need: God’s Love and Compassion. First
Tomato Soup. God’s kingdom is all about what we need, not what we want. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The story Mark is telling says that Jesus calls us with no
qualification but that we follow him. He is calling us right now to take one
step at a time forward with him. He has prepared a meal for us. He sets it
before us every week so we will remember him. And remember to follow him. He
wants to share the Love and Compassion of God his Father with all who listen
and respond to the Good News. It is a chance to heal those who are broken, and to
heal a broken world. With the Psalmist we pray, “Be silent, my soul, for God;
for my hope is from him” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Can we hear him? Do we follow? Dare we take one step into God’s kingdom,
leaving the rest behind? </span></p><p>
</p><div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-size: medium;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Jonah
3:1-5, 10<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> 1
Corinthians 7:29-31<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Mark
1:14-20<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Come%20To%20The%20Bunny%20Planet%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Epiphany%203B.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Psalm
62:6-14 </span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gustav Holst, composer
of the music for the hymn “In the bleak midwinter…” and The Planets, once said,
“Music, being identical with heaven, isn't a thing of momentary thrills, or
even hourly ones. It's a condition of eternity.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>
</div>
</div><p></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-49201211741607014082024-01-13T14:45:00.000-08:002024-01-13T14:45:36.831-08:00Shine With God's Glory Epiphany 2B<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Shine With God’s Glory</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is said, “Watch out what you pray for! You just might get
it!” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This Second Sunday in Epiphany we pray, “Grant that <i>your
people</i>, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, <i>may shine with the
radiance of Christ's glory</i>, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to
the ends of the earth.” Bishop Carrie has been urging those of us in the
Diocese of Maryland to focus on practicing Love in community – within the
Church community and within the community in which we live. That is,
Christianity which is focused on following Christ is not a personal
self-improvement program. We pray that we, as “God’s people,” may “shine with
the radiance of Christ’s glory. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">At Christ’s birth the angels sing, “Glory to God in the
Highest, and on earth, Peace, Shalom, among those whom he favors!” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Earlier in the first chapter of John we
read, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his
glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
And now we pray, as a community of Christ, of those he favors, to shine with
this same glory. In Christian worship we sing, “Glory to God in the highest…”;
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Begging the question: What is this glory we sing about? Just
what is this glory with which we pray to shine? Frederick Buechner suggests
that “Glory is to God what style is to an artist.” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
One can recognize a painting by Picasso, a sonnet by William Shakespeare, or a
symphony by Gustav Mahler. In the Hebrew scriptures the word is <i>kabod</i>,
which represents the aura, the very essence, of God’s splendor, power and
absolute sovereignty. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>And
it is this aura of splendor, power and sovereignty which both Luke and John
assert is experienced and able to be seen in the presence of Christ. Those
shepherds and magi who visited him at his birth sensed it and experienced it. Christ
reflects the Light and Love of God his Father. Light – the very first thing God
speaks into being “In the beginning!” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This glory, or aura of God’s essence, is described
throughout both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures as Love of all creation and
all creatures; as light that shines in and through all darkness; justice for
all peoples; and “peace,” which in biblical terms is shalom. God’s shalom
encompasses much more than an absence of war or conflict. Again, Buechner says
it “means fullness, means having everything you need to be wholly and happily
yourself.” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Shalom might be said to be the sum total of justice and peace, or justice for
all that leads to ultimate peace among all peoples. And one might add, peace
for creation itself. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Not only do we sing of Christ as the Prince of Peace, he
says to us and to his disciples in John’s gospel, “Peace I leave with you; my
peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your
hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”<a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
He gives us his shalom for us to give and share with others – all others. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It has been suggested by some of my colleagues that before
any meeting of the church, whether vestry, committee, or all-parish meetings,
there is a question that needs to be answered first: Does the business of this
meeting have anything at all to do with establishing the kingdom of God in our
midst? Will we be talking about how we can bring Christ’s peace, Christ’s
shalom, to others? To the world? And if the answer is “No,” then there is no reason
to meet. In the context of our prayer today, we might ask, “Does what everything
we say and do help us to shine with Christ’s glory? We read in the story of the
young man Samuel that one night he begins to shine with God’s glory and becomes
a prophet. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
In our reading from John we see how Nathanael is transformed from sceptic to
one shining with God’s glory and becomes a disciple. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
And Paul’s pastoral concern for Christians in Corinth who frequent the
prostitutes in the temples of pagan gods threatens the glory and life of the
entire Corinthian church. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
For Christ’s glory which we pray to radiate is the glory of God his Father, and
our Father; his God and our God. This glory is the very essence of what it
means to be a Christian. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The question then is: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just how do we begin to sense this glory and
embody this glory we pray for? By letting ourselves be “illumined by…Word and
Sacraments.” And there is no better place to start than with <b>Psalm 139.</b>
While in seminary studying with The Reverend James Forbes, he shared with us
something he learned when he was in seminary. A preacher in the seminary chapel
one day recommended reading Psalm 139 once a day for thirty days. He said it
would be life changing. Transformative. Illuminating! One reason Psalm 139 is
so powerful is that nearly every verse has one of the following words: I, me,
my. We seek to be illuminated so we might be those people who radiate Christ’s
glory. To get a start on this together as a community of God’s love in Christ,
let’s turn to <i>page 794 in the Book of Common Prayer</i> and read Psalm 139
together, followed by a period of silence, with eyes closed if you are
comfortable with that. In the silence we will let these ancient words settle
down within us and begin to spark and illuminate God’s glory right here in our
midst. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://christchurchforesthill.org/psalm-139/">Psalm
139</a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">(Silence) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light
of the world: Grant that as your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments,
we may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory. We trust that you as Father,
Son and Holy Spirit will walk with us and fill us with your light these next
thirty days that we may radiate your glory in all we say and all we do. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.</span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-size: medium;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Luke 2:14<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 1:14<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Buechner, Frederick, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (Harper & Row, New
York: 1973) p.30<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Brueggemann, Walter, Reverberations of Faith (Westminster John Knox Press,
Louisville: 2002) p.87-89<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ibid, p.69<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 14:27<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
I Samuel 3: 1-20<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
John 1: 43-51<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202%20B%20Shine%20With%20God.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> 1
Corinthians 6:12-20</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-72641305019767478392024-01-05T14:58:00.000-08:002024-01-05T14:59:50.912-08:00Lost In Translation: The Baptism of Christ 2023<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Lost In Translation</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Professor Theodore “Ted” Mauch taught New Testament at
Trinity College when I was there. It was his practice to begin the semester
with a study of the prophet Isaiah. Many of us didn’t immediately understand.
We now understand that the gospels are largely written symbolically, not literally,
and Dr. Mauch was helping us to see the bigger picture. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">For instance, as Jesus comes up out of the water he sees <i>“the
heavens torn apart.”</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isaiah, writing
to a community in captivity in Babylon, writes imploring the Lord God to <i>“Look
down from heaven and see…our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We
have long been like those whom you do not rule, like those not called by your
name<b>. O that you would tear open the heavens and come down</b>…to make your
name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your
presence!”</i> [Isaiah 63:15 – 64:2] </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus and those listening to Mark for the first time would
recognize: we’ve been here before; we are in captivity as of old, here at home
among Romans who do not know you; the Temple, God’s sanctuary, lies in ruins;
we are calling out to God to save us again, like God sent Cyrus-Messiah long
ago; open the heavens and come down that your name may be known! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mark tells us Jesus then sees <i>“the Spirit descending like
a dove on him.”</i> The word translated “Spirit” can, and does, also mean,
breath or wind – which recalls the opening cadences of Genesis 1:1-2, “<i>When
God began to create the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was complete chaos,
and darkness covered the face of the deep, <b>while a wind, [the breath of God]</b>,
swept over the face of the waters.”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And in Genesis 2:7, <i>“…then the Lord God formed man from
the dust of the ground <b>and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life</b>,
and the man became a living being.”</i> Might Mark be telling us that once
again, the God of everything that is, seen and unseen, has heard the people’s
cry, has opened the heavens and breathes new life into the world. New life, new
hope. And a new name! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">For Jesus then hears a voice. The Voice. And like Jacob before
him, Jesus is given a new name: <i>“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am
well pleased.”</i> Whatever Jesus had been doing before this moment receiving
the baptism of John, he now has a new name: Son of God. God’s Beloved. This
phrase is a mashup of Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah (here he is again) 42:1, where the
prophet urges the people in captivity to imagine God sending God’s own son, God’s
own beloved, to be with us in our suffering, and to lead us to eternal life
with God and one another. And eternal life with God starts now! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Can we imagine Jesus catching his breath as all this unfolds?
Catching the animating breath God blows upon him like the wind over the face of
creation? Can we imagine what that moment felt like to the young man who had
come all the way from his home in Nazareth of Galilee to join all the people of
Jerusalem and the Judean countryside in this ritual bathing of renewal – renewal
of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a right relationship with God and one
another. A ritual reminder of not only who we are, but whose we are. Jesus,
standing in the water is a living reminder of God’s fulfilled promises in the past,
present and future. He stands at that moment as an icon of God’s love for all
persons, and all of creation – everything seen and unseen. And as science tells
us, most of creation so far remains unseen. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">John, we are told, was inviting one and all to “<i>a baptism
of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”</i> Like those in Babylon, like
Isaiah, the people in Jerusalem and all of Judea who found themselves under the
brutal occupation of Rome, assume they had done things wrong in the sight of
the Lord to have landed in the current predicament. And the primary instrument
of communication with their God – the Jerusalem Temple – once again was in
ruins. They rush to repent their sins hoping to urge God once again, as in
Egypt, as in Babylon, to hear their cry, tear open the heavens and come down.
And now, standing in their midst, and always in our midst, is the one come down
to gather us in right relationship once again with God and with one another. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">On this Feast of our Lord’s Baptism, we will renew our Baptismal
Vows and Covenant. We do well to remember a few things. Although baptism is
often thought of as a beginning point in our Journey with God and one another, faith
really begins before we are even born. The community of Christ stands ready to
welcome us, and it is God who chooses to incorporate us into the Body of
Christ. As our Book of Common Prayer says, baptism is “<b>full initiation into
Christ’s Body, the Church.”</b> I believe this gets routinely forgotten as we scurry
about thinking that we are simply friends of Christ. We stand, as Jesus stood
in the River Jordan, as representatives on Christ’s behalf to the world – the whole
world. Ambassadors of Christ, as St. Paul once wrote. Would that the whole
church might ponder just what this means. It has little to do with whether we
get the liturgy just right, or that there be no errors in the bulletin, or
doing things as they have always been done, or even balancing budgets. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">As important as some or all of that may be, it is to
remember that we promise, with God’s help, that everything we say and do will
proclaim the Good News of God in Christ. That we will be those people who seek
and serve Christ in all persons - not some people, not most people, but all
people. And that we are those people who will strive for justice and peace for <b>all
people</b>, and to respect the dignity of every human being. That is, we are to
be Icons of Christ as Christ is the Icon of God made flesh who dwells among us. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In our baptism, a ritual cross is traced on our foreheads
marking us as Christ’s own forever – forever being a very long time. I was
reminded by a little girl named Eleanor many years ago, that we ought to live
in such a way that people can see the cross on our foreheads. That each one of
us, like Jesus standing in the River Jordan, is God’s Beloved. And that God is
well pleased with us. Which means, being well pleased with our very selves. We
are to love God as God loves us, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It’s
a tall order. But the whole world is waiting for us to tear open the heavens
and breathe a Spirit of Justice and Peace among all peoples. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">When we see ourselves incorporated into the entire sweep of
salvation history, going back to the very beginning of creation itself, we do
well to stand and look up into the heavens, feel the wind of God’s breath
filling us with God’s love so that we might be bearers of God’s love to one
another, and to all the Lord sends our way. May God the Father, his Son Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Spirit, breathe blessings us this day, and make us as a community
of God’s Beloved a blessing to others all the days of our lives. Amen.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-45333466759783881812023-12-30T06:30:00.000-08:002023-12-30T06:30:31.896-08:00The Wise Man Epiphany 2023<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Epiphany 2023 The Wise Man v1<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We magi are a dedicated lot. We came from all over the far
east, and for generations before us we magi have been dedicated to reading the
ancient texts of many different cultures in an attempt to understand the world
we live in, and what we ought to be doing. For centuries we and those magi
before us have been keenly interested in the Hebrew prophets. Especially this
text from Isaiah:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="initcap">A</span>rise,
shine; for your light has come,<br />
and the glory of the <span class="lordsmallcaps"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span></span> has risen upon you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For darkness shall cover the earth,<br />
and thick darkness the peoples;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">but the <span class="lordsmallcaps"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span></span> will arise upon you,<br />
and his glory will appear over you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nations shall come to your light,<br />
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lift up your eyes and look around;<br />
they all gather together, they come to you;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">your sons shall come from far away,<br />
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then you shall see and be radiant;<br />
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,<br />
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A multitude of camels shall cover you,<br />
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;<br />
all those from Sheba shall come.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">They shall bring gold and frankincense,<br />
and shall proclaim the praise of the <span class="lordsmallcaps"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal;">Lord</span></span>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="poetrytext" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 30.0pt; margin-right: 24.0pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center; text-indent: -24.0pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">[Isaiah 60:1-6]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Not long ago, a few of our guild, after numerous
calculations and scanning the heavens for the arrival of this Light, there
suddenly appeared this one star which we were sure was the “Light” about which
Isaiah had written centuries ago. A large group of us, including me, gathered
to go and see for ourselves. And so, with a few gifts, and a multitude of
camels, off we went. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">After a nearly year-long trek westward, always following the
star, we arrived in the historic land of the Jews, now a province of the Roman
Empire. Upon inquiry, we learned that a man named Herod, himself neither a Jew
nor a Roman, was the appointed King of the Jews. A group of about ten of us were
able to get an audience with this King of the Jews. Almost immediately we
sensed he did not feel at home in this land, and as we talked it became clear
that he believed neither in the God of Israel, nor did he give much thought to
the gods of Olympus. He thought only of himself. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Before talking about our search, he questioned us, and asked
if we had any wisdom that might be helpful to him. <i>“Beware of family
entanglements,”</i> one of us said. <i>“And do not travel by water on Friday.
As the sun moves into the house of Jupiter, affairs of the heart may prosper.”</i>
A desperate man, he took it hook, line and sinker. But it became evident that
he wanted more than simple jingles. He became quite serious and asked where we
thought this new “king of the Jews” we were looking for, this “light of the
world,” might be born. We allowed that that’s precisely what we were asking
him. He put his Hebrew consultants to work on it. Coming back the next day they
announced that we should go to Bethlehem, the city of David. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then his face grew dark. Ominous really. With his hands
shaking, he spoke: <i>“Go and find the child. Then come back and tell me so
that I too might go and worship him.”</i> Never had I felt so cold. And so fortunate
to be one of the magi and not a king. I ask you, does a man need to consult the
stars to know that no king has ever bowed down to another king. He took us for
fools, that sly, lost old fox, and so like fools we bowed and answered him, <i>“Oh,
yes. Of course! Of course!”</i> As we went on our way, a demonic smile crossed
his face, and the rings rattled on his boney fingers. Silently we vowed, never
to see Herod again. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Why did we go? Was it not enough to know this thing was
happening without having to be present to the birth? To this, not even the
stars had an answer. It was another voice altogether urging us to go and see –
a voice as deep within ourselves as the stars are deep in the ever-expanding
universe. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">But why did I go? I could not have told you then, and I’m
still not sure. It’s not that we had no motive, it’s that there were so many.
Curiosity, I suppose. And being wise, we magi are a very curious lot. We wanted
to see for ourselves the One about whom it was said even the stars bow down –
and to acknowledge that even the wise sometimes have their doubts. And longing.
Why does a thirsty man cross the desert sands as hot as fire at simply the
possibility of water? As much as we longed to receive, we also longed to give.
Why does a man labor and struggle all his life long so that in the end he has
something to give to the One he loves? To the One who loves him? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We finally arrived in Bethlehem, at a <i>kataluma, </i>a
large, square, two-story edifice built around an open inner courtyard, to which
the star had led us. We crossed the courtyard, past the well, and took the
stairs up to the second story above the barns where the animals were kept. Our
camels remained in the barns below. We could only go inside in groups of ten or
so at a time, the room being quite small, but there they were. The man. The
woman. Between them the king. We did not stay long. A few minutes as the clock
goes; ten thousand thousand years our ancestor magi seeking the way, the truth
and the life. We set our foolish gifts down on the floor and left by another
way. Herod need not know, let alone see, what we had seen. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I will tell you two terrible things. What we saw on the face
of the newborn child was his death. The wood of the crib would one day be the
wood of a Roman cross. Any fool could see it as well. It sat on his head like a
crown. And we saw, as sure as the ground beneath our feet, that to stay with
him, to follow him, would be to share in that death, and that is why we left –
giving only our gifts, withholding the rest.<a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And now, sisters and brothers, I will ask you a terrible
question, and God knows I ask it of myself as well. Is the truth beyond all
truths, beyond the stars, beyond all wisdom, just this: that to live without
him is the real death; that to die with him is the only life? <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I now know, what I did not know then. I went to find out that
the mystery my fellow magi and I had been chasing all these centuries had
always been right before us the whole time. That the mystery that is the source
of all life dwells among us and within us all. For what we saw in the child’s
face was not that of any earthly king, but one who was born as one with the One;
one with the true power, the true source of all that is, seen and unseen: the
source of eternal love. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now, I no longer look to the stars for answers, but for
beauty, wonder and love. I no longer spend hours each day consulting ancient
texts, as beautiful as they are. I spend my days sitting in silence, what the
Hebrews call prayer, to become ever closer to the light and the life we saw in
that upper room, so that in some small way, I can become that which we seek. I
sit and listen. And to set aside all the noise within and without that stands
between us – between me, and the One we saw that day in Bethlehem – and whom I
can still see every day in those he loves, his beloved of all generations, of
all nations; he who is good news for all the people; he who comes daily to bring
peace on earth and good will for all the people. For all the people. I sit. I
listen. And then I sing with the prophet: </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Arise, shine; for
your light has come,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">and the glory of the
LORD has risen upon you! </span></p>
<div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-size: medium;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Buechner, Frederick, The Magnificent Defeat (The Seabury Press, New York:1979)
p.69<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Ibid p.70<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Ibid, p.71<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Epiphany%202023%20The%20Wise%20Man%20v1.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Ibid, p.71-72<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-2046589499376171702023-12-23T06:49:00.000-08:002023-12-23T06:49:07.941-08:00Christmas Eve 2023 That's The Mystery!<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Christmas Eve 2023</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Christmas comes but once a year! Yet, it used to last from
Thanksgiving to Christmas. Then Christmas shopping began around Halloween. And
now it seems as if September is not too early to begin seeing Christmas items
on sale. By my calculation, Christmas consumes, and I mean consumes, roughly
one-third of the year! And still, I hear people saying, “I’ll never make it to
Christmas! I will never get everything done! I’m not ready for Christmas!” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Breaking News: that night in the manger, as Luke tells the
story, or in the house, as Matthew tells it, or sometime before the beginning
of creation as John tells it, guess what? Nobody, no one, was ready for the
Word to become flesh and dwell among us. No one was prepared for Emmanuel, “God
with us!” to show up. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are shepherds on the outskirts of Bethlehem – which by
the way, means something like “House of Bread,” and much like parts of Ukraine,
Bethlehem was known as the “breadbasket of Judea,” producing large amounts of
grain for the entire region. These shepherds are just settling down for a long
winter’s night watching and protecting a flock of sheep. Sheep. The only sheep
I have known personally can be quite cantankerous and unruly, so these fellows
had no easy job. There is no way they were ready for a multitude of Heavenly
Hosts to arrive out of nowhere proclaiming the birth of a child who would bring
Peace on Earth. AND, goodwill among the all the people. Go and see for
yourself, sing the hosts! You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths,
lying in a manger. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oh my goodness, they must have said to themselves! I’m not
ready for this. We will be expected to bring gifts to the baby shower, and it’s
a week until payday, and what do you buy for someone who can get people to
respect one another and help one another? We’ll never get there on time! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">But alas, they do as they are told by their heavenly
visitors. There was a manger, a corn crib, with a man named Joseph, a woman
named Mary, and between them, a child, wrapped in swaddling cloths. This must
be the One! As they hurry back to the business of sheep-herding they tell
everyone along the way what had happened and what they had seen. As if it could
possibly be put into words. Yet, Luke tells us, all who heard what they did say
were amazed. Meanwhile, back at the manger, the young girl pondered all of this
in her heart, exhausted and yet radiant for having delivered the child the
angel Gabriel had announced she was to name Jesus – Yeshua, “he who saves, or “he
who redeems.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It should come as no surprise that Luke writes a somewhat
coded tale of just how the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood –
as is proclaimed every day on the sign outside Christ Church Rock Spring
Parish. Beginning with the name: perhaps we are meant to see the irony in the
child’s name. Named after the first Yeshua, or Joshua, who “fit the battle at
Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down,” this new Yeshua would be among us
as a man of peace and goodwill. His only weapons were prayer and a healing
presence. People felt renewed, restored, or just plain different after an
encounter with Jesus. He tells his disciples to put down all weapons. He
redeems his very name from being that of a mighty warrior to one who cares for,
transforms, renews and feeds everyone in sight; all who come to him; all whom
he seeks and gathers like a shepherd for people in need, people who are lost,
people who need some kind of new direction in their lives. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We may also notice that “a child in swaddling cloths” is
mentioned three times: first, we are told Mary wraps him in swaddling cloths;
next, the shepherds are told to look for a child in swaddling clothes; and
indeed, there they find him, lying in a manger. Many who first heard Luke’s
tale would recognize at least two passages in Hebrew Scripture mention
swaddling clothes. King Solomon, in the book of Wisdom, reflects on his common
connection with all humanity: <i>“...with swaddling clothes and with constant care
I was nurtured. For no king has any different origin or birth, but one is the
entry into life for us all; and in the same way they leave it.”</i> [Wisdom
7:6] This image is meant to direct us to reflect on our common humanity. As St
Paul prays, our God <i>“has made of <b>one blood</b> all the peoples of the
earth.”</i> [Acts 17:26] Do we see this? Do we hear this? Do we believe all
people are of one blood as we hear this story told? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And just how curious is it, that God sends his messengers,
the Heavenly Host, to announce this astonishing news to a seemingly random
group of shepherds? God might have sent them to Caesar, who at the time was in
possession of the land and all the peoples therein. Or, to one of the Herods, Caesar’s
appointed regents. Or, more locally to Pilate. Or, even to the Chief Priests in
Jerusalem, or to the utterly faithful Pharisees, to name a few more likely
candidates. But shepherds wander; they journey from place-to-place seeking food
and water for their sheep. They know how to sustain life not only for their
sheep and goats, but for themselves as well. It is no accident that the first
and most famous King of Israel was a ruddy young shepherd boy, David. He had walked
the hills and the valleys, the rough roads and the smooth, watching and leading
his father’s sheep. Prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel use the image of
shepherds for those chosen to lead the people of God: Jesus’s father’s “sheep.”
Shepherds know that life, especially the spiritual life, is a journey, a never
ending, always changing, journey. Suggesting that all of us who come into this
world in swaddling clothes are wanderers, people on a journey with others – all
others. The babe in the manger will grow up to be a good shepherd, caring for
the “sheep” of his Father’s pasture. In just a few sentences, Luke manages to
take us deep into the mystery of this child’s birth. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Once upon a time, years ago at St. Peter’s in Ellicott City,
we delivered invitations to our entire neighborhood to come visit our church on
a Friday evening in Advent. It was an intentional act of evangelism. With one
small hitch: we forgot to put the address of the church on the invitation!
Nevertheless, people came. Someone suggested lighting a little incense to give
the full flavor of what Anglo-Catholic worship is like in all its ritual and
transcendence. I was in the hallway, having prepared the coals in the thurible,
placing some grains of frankincense on the coals. As the vapor began to rise, a
tiny voice behind me said, “That’s the mystery!” I turned, and there was our
youngest daughter, Cerny, with her friend Allison, pointing to the incense and declaring,
“That’s the mystery!” I thought, “Yes, that’s what Christmas is all about – the
mystery that God loves us so much as to come down and dwell among us.” That’s
the mystery, just as she said. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">A few grains of incense<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Scattered on the coals<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Smoke begins to rise<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The little girl<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Standing there <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Opens wide her eyes<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See that star up in the sky<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Shining on the place<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Where the tiny child lies<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lighting up his face<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Can you see the angels there<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Up there in the light<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Singing songs for all the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Singing through the night<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hear those angels flying by<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Calling out His name<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Telling us He’ll change the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Nothing will be the same<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus lying in the manger<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Listen to him cry<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He already seems to know that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He was born to die<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To die to hate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To die to greed<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To die to power and sin<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To die to everything that blocks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The God who lives within<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Within our hearts<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Within our souls<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Within our minds and hands<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The God who is Emmanuel<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Breaths His Spirit through all the lands<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">A child looks and sees the scene<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Eats bread and drinks the wine<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Seems to know what all this means<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now and for all time<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Can we see him<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Can we hear him<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Can he make us all his own?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">If he came down here right now<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Would he recognize this as home?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Whenever there are two or three<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gathered in my name<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">You’ll see the brokenhearted and the poor<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The blind, the sick, the lame<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Being welcomed, being served<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Given dignity and love<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Giving thanks for all good gifts<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">That come down from above<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See the baby<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See his mother<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See the bread and wine<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See the angels<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See the stars<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See that everything is fine<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He lives in us<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He gives us breath<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He calls us to be his own<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">He calls us to the manger stall<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To make that place our home<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then he rises on the clouds<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To wake us from our sleep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">As we gather to see Him one more time<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the darkness that is so deep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The angels and the stars<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The shepherds and the light<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The incense and the bread and wine<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">All call us to this night<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To enter deeper into the tale<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of how God came to Earth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">To sing the mystery of love come down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The mystery of his birth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery,” she says!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“That’s the mystery!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
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</xml><![endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-66289865359908098872023-12-16T06:53:00.000-08:002023-12-16T06:53:38.879-08:00Forty Years in the Wilderness 12/17/2013<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Forty Years in the Wilderness - 12/17/23</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We read in Second Samuel chapter 7 and Luke chapter 1 that
the “Word of the Lord” came to Nathan, prophet to the shepherd king, David, and
to a young woman in Nazareth in Galilee. The messages to both are astonishing
and detailed. The consequences of both are far-reaching. And whatever we may
think about such stories, experience has told me that this is in fact the way
things happen if we are open to the possibility. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's difficult to pinpoint when it all began, this journey
of mine. When I was moving my mother from our home in Illinois to Maryland, I
came across a Sunday School project I had made: a piece of cardboard, on which
I had pasted on one side a cross with the words, “I am come that they may have
life [John 10:10].” On the reverse side is a picture of Jesus, lantern in hand,
knocking on a door. It is a reproduction of a painting by the Pre-Raphaelite
artist, William Homan Hunt titled, The Light of the World, 1851. I, of course,
had forgotten this project my mother saved all these years. Perhaps it was a
precursor, since I have since served two churches, including Rock Spring
Parish, that have windows based on Hunt’s Light of the World, and I have used
the image extensively in sermons and workshops throughout these forty years –
curiously, the stated length of time the people who escaped Pharaoh’s Egypt
were in the wilderness becoming a people of God. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The distinguishing detail of the image is that there is no
door knob on Jesus’s side of the door. This suggests that when Jesus knocks on your
door, it is up to you to open it. Which is, in part, how I end up here some
sixty or more years since I first saw Hunt’s Light of the World. It was December
of 1979, and I was in Kroch’s and Brentano’s book store in Oak Park, Illinois
looking for possible Christmas gifts. For reasons I cannot explain, I pulled a
book by Thomas Merton off the shelf. Merton, a famous Trappist monk and priest,
curiously ordained a priest the year of my birth. I opened the book to an essay
titled, Love and Solitude which began:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>“No writing on the solitary, meditative dimension of life
can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine
trees. These pages seek nothing more than to echo the silence and the peace
that is ‘heard’ when the rain wanders freely among the hills and forests. But
what can the wind say where there is no hearer? There is then a deeper silence:
the silence in which the Hearer is No-Hearer. That deeper silence must be heard
before one can truly speak of solitude.” </i><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Forty%20Years%20in%20the%20Wilderness%20%20Dec%2017%202023.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">There was a knock on my door. I opened it. I found myself
standing on the shore of the ocean, with waves crashing over my head. Each time
a wave crashed, a voice whispered, “It’s time.” Time for what, I asked. “It’s
time.” Time for what? “Time to go to seminary.” This went on for what seemed a
long time, but perhaps was only a moment. The cash register rang, and suddenly
I was back in a bookstore on Lake Street in Oak Park. I bought the book. I told
my friend Bill about my experience. His father, The Reverend William Arnall
Wagner, Jr., was an Episcopal priest. He said, “You better talk to my dad!” I
did. And guided by his father’s wisdom, I began a journey which, as I look back
on it now, took off at lightning speed – for the following September, 1980, I
was in New York City beginning my first year of seminary. How that was even
possible, I don’t know, and still can hardly believe. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I told my rector, The Reverend David Ward, at Grace Church,
Providence, Rhode Island. He <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pointed out
that there would be numerous ‘hoops’ to jump through. This included getting the
Bishop of Rhode Island to Confirm me as an Episcopalian; complete vocational
counseling in Boston; paper work to fill out; the writing of a Spiritual
Autobiography; and a somewhat contentious meeting with the Standing Committee
of the Diocese. I ended up at The General Theological Seminary of the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America on Ninth Avenue,
New York City, provisionally – and if my first semester went well, I would be
granted retro-active Postulancy, which is the first stage of the ordination
process. All because, like the prophet Nathan, and Mary of Nazareth, I took the
risk of opening the door and letting Jesus into my life. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">My first parish as a rector was St. Peter’s, Monroe,
Connecticut. The window of Jesus knocking at the door was just to the right of
the pulpit. It’s a scene from the book of Revelation, chapter three: <i>Behold,
I stand at the door and knock! If you hear my voice and open the door, I will
come in and eat with you, and you with me.</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Forty%20Years%20in%20the%20Wilderness%20%20Dec%2017%202023.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Looking at that window, I realized that I had heard his voice, opened the door,
and have been eating with him, and him with me, ever since. And this was a
comfort. I also realized, however, that standing at the pulpit week after week
the primary dimension of my task was to prepare others to hear His voice, open
the door and let him in. To this day, I find this a daunting responsibility,
and at the same time my greatest privilege. That I am still a part of a
community of disciples of Christ whom I urge to listen for his voice and open
their doors is truly astonishing. To think that I have been doing this as long
as those who in the wilderness sought freedom from a truly brutal empire, made a
covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus, and learned how we
are all to Love God with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul, and to
love our neighbors as ourselves – it all seems utterly impossible, and yet, a
most wonderful circumstance, all at the same time. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among the very first things we learned at General
Theological Seminary was what we now call Centering Prayer, or Mindfulness, or
Contemplative Prayer – prayer that is silent. Prayer that is about silence and
solitude as Merton describes it. That is, we are to clear our mind of all else
and allow God in Christ to speak to us; to knock on our doors; to come in and
become our companion – literally, one with whom we share bread. Dean James
Fenhagen, a son of the Diocese of Maryland, took all of us freshmen and women
aside one day to teach us a simple way to enter into the world of solitude I
had read about back in that bookstore in 1979. This form of prayer has become
so important to my journey with Christ, that I have taught this simple method
to countless others wherever I find myself. During the pandemic, we practiced
this kind of prayer at Noonday Prayer online five days a week. It’s how many of
us made it through, together. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In a world of increasing busyness, increasing division,
increasing violence, increasing noise coming at us from all sides, we could all
use a little solitude, quiet time, alone time, with the One who stands at our
door, day and night, 24/7, knocking on our doors, wanting us to hear and to
open ourselves to Him. When we do, it is like the wind whispering in the pines,
and the rains wandering freely across the mountains and the forest. There is
silence. There is peace. And there is his voice: You are my beloved. With you I
am well pleased. Hear me, listen to me. I shall always be by your side, your
companion along the Way. I will come in and eat with you, and you with me. We
are One.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Amen.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Forty%20Years%20in%20the%20Wilderness%20%20Dec%2017%202023.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Merton, Thomas, Love and Living (Farrar-Straus-Giroux, New York:1979) p.15<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Forty%20Years%20in%20the%20Wilderness%20%20Dec%2017%202023.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Revelation 3:20</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-60944101683629724752023-12-09T07:36:00.000-08:002023-12-09T07:36:08.097-08:00The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God <p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b><i>The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God</i></b> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/John%20the%20Baptist%20advent%202%20v2.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mark begins, <i>“The beginning of the good news…”</i> Mark echoes
the story of creation: the methodical taming of the deep waters of chaos into a
life sustaining world. Mark’s world was chaotic due to the demonic powers of
captivity under the empire of the competing gods called Caesar. Those listening
to Mark’s <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“gospel,” <i>evangelion</i> in
Greek – literally good angel, or good messenger –stood among the ruins of
Jerusalem, among the ashes of the Temple, atop Mount Zion after the Roman
legions had crushed the attempted Jewish Revolt of 66-70 CE. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gospel, or “good news/good tidings” was a phrase used to
describe the core message of hope and deliverance by the prophet Isaiah [chapters
40-50], delivered to those held captive in Babylon some six centuries before
the time of Jesus and Mark. Ironically, the word Gospel also referred to Roman
propaganda, delivered by messengers sent throughout the empire to proclaim new
military victories such as the defeat of the recent revolt in Jerusalem. Those
listening “atop Zion” to Mark’s gospel would recognize its long-ago origins in
Isaiah, while people everywhere in Judea and Galilee were hearing the <i>“good
news”</i> of the destruction of Jerusalem. Like those held captive in Babylon,
now they were captive once again, this time captive at home. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then Mark begins his story of Jesus with words drawn from
Exodus, Malachi and Isaiah: <i>“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who
will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: <a name="_Hlk152930543">‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”</a></i><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk152930543;"> </span>Thus, signaling that once again God
promises to send a messenger to lead them out of the wilderness of captivity
into freedom from the demonic powers of the empire. It will be like the
deliverance from Babylon as Isaiah had announced, but his time rather than a
physical roadway home, it will be a way “made straight” in human hearts: repentance,
a turning back to the message and ministry of the Lord. Mark connects the
current crisis to earlier cycles of captivity and deliverance. The good news of
Jesus has its origins in these stories of our people going back over one
thousand years. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We might imagine the people listening to Mark remembering how
it all began. Once upon a time, in an ancient and faraway country, before there
were cities and towns, only small tribes and caravans of people living on the
land, wandering from place to place, looking for fresh water and green
vegetation, there was a mountain top. Those who climbed up to the top of this
mountain, like our father Abraham, said they could feel the presence of God. A
presence that says, <i>“Love the One God who loves you and cares for you
always, and love and care for one another, especially the others, the poor, the
widows, the orphans and strangers.”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">When they came down from the mountain, they would repeat
this good news to others: to Love God and Love others, all others. Throughout
the years those who would go to the top of the mountain would leave a stone at
the place where they felt the presence of God as a reminder. Even those who did
not experience God left a stone to remember the stories they had heard of those
who had. Each placed a stone, one atop the other, year after year, until first
a monument was built. Years later a magnificent Temple covered the place on the
mountain top where God’s presence could be felt and heard: to Love God and Love
Others, all others. People would come to the Temple, and entering they would
know that something important was there, something sacred and true. There was a
presence, sacred and holy. They would stop and praise God and remember the
stories of all those in the past who had been to the mountain top. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Over the years as more and more people made the journey to
the top of the mountain leaving more and more stones one atop the other, soon a
city was built around the Temple with long winding, narrow streets, lined with
homes and shops and plazas and fountains. People coming to the mountain to
experience God and hear the stories of the past would need to stop and ask
directions to find their way to the Temple so as not to get lost in the back
streets of the city. And each in turn would leave a stone to remember the great
events and stories of the past. Soon there were so many stones a great wall
surrounded the city with majestic gates and ramparts. People coming to the
mountain to go to the Temple would have to find a gate they would be allowed to
enter. Sometimes the gates were open, sometimes the gates were closed. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">For many people, even in the city, the top of the mountain
became more difficult to find. It had been covered with so many many stones.
The gates were crowded, the streets noisy and narrow. There was so much
activity, so many distractions and attractions that no one could hear the
directions to find their way to the top of the mountain where God’s presence
stood ready to remind them to Love the God who loves and cares for them always,
and to love and care for one another, especially the others including those beyond
the walls of the city. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then, a deep darkness covered all the mountain. An empire
took over the city and the Temple. The leader of the empire was believed by
some to be a god. Life for the pilgrims traveling to and from the city to
experience the Love of God found instead a harsh military occupation. The
people were praying for relief. The people were taxed severely. Their produce
and goods were sent back to the emperor to feed further expansion of the
empire. The people were afraid and found themselves captive once again. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Far away, beyond the walls of the city, was a man, lonely in
the wilderness. His name was John. He would cry out loud in the wilderness, <i>“Prepare,
prepare the way of the Lord. Make a way for God to return!”</i> High above the
crowded and noisy streets, above the gates, above the walls, above the top of
the Temple itself, his voice could be heard floating on the wind. Some people,
discouraged at no longer being able to find the top of the mountain could hear
his voice, so loud and lovely was the voice of the man, lonely in the
wilderness. First one, then another went beyond the gates of the city and
followed the sound of that voice. They followed the sound floating on the
winds. They could hear it like music in the sky! When they found John, he was
singing, <i>“Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">All the people came out of the city and from all the
surrounding countryside to be with the man, lonely in the wilderness, until
soon, all the inhabitants from both inside and outside the walls of the city
found themselves standing with the man, lonely in the wilderness. They joined with
John in singing, <b>“</b><i>Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Prepare ye the way
of the Lord.” </i>Everyone everywhere could hear the cry carried on the wind to
the four corners of the Earth! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then John led them down to the River – the River their
ancestors had crossed long long ago to leave the wilderness and come to the
mountain the first time. John invited them to bathe in the water, to confess
their sins of forgetting God’s Way, and to remember their God – the God who
loves them and cares for them always. <i>“Remember to love God and to love the
others, all others, especially the poor, the widows, the orphans and the
strangers. And I tell you, another will come, stronger than me, who will show
us the way back to the God who comes to lead us home. Remember, remember,
remember today – the one who shall come will show us the way!”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">As it was then, so it is today. When we listen above the
noise of the city, above the demonic noise of empires, above the noise of the
crowds, when we are still and listen wherever we are, a voice can still be
heard, floating on the wind, beyond the noise and the gates of the city, above
the tops of the highest mountains, still calling to us, <i>‘Prepare ye the way
of the Lord; Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Open your heart to receive the
message and ministry of our Lord.’</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is the beginning of the gospel, of the Good News, of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Always we begin again!</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/John%20the%20Baptist%20advent%202%20v2.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Mark 1:1-8</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-84811002389029493692023-12-02T08:53:00.000-08:002023-12-02T11:14:37.842-08:00Apocalyptic Boogie Advent 1B<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span><b>Apocalyptic Boogie</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Second Coming. It cannot be about Jesus returning. For
in truth, he never really left. Ask the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Ask the disciples in the upper room. He himself said, “Lo, I am with you always
to the end of the age.” That’s what we watch and wait for: the end of the age;
the Day of the Lord; <a name="_Hlk152406153">the complete and full unfolding of
God’s gracious reign of unending mercy and love of all, for all.</a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mark chapter 13, often referred to as the “Marcan
Apocalypse,” or “the Little Apocalypse,” is yet another example of New Testament
Apocalyptic. It speaks of the ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with power and
great glory. We need to remember that despite its origins in Old Testament
apocalyptic literature, New Testament Apocalyptic appears to be less predictive
of a future; rather it is more descriptive of life on the ground here and now. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Apocalyptic texts urge perseverance and faithfulness in
times of tremendous community crisis, such as the exile to Babylon, and
engenders the hope that one day, as in the days of the Passover/Exodus event,
God will one day intervene in human history to rescue his people again. Although
Mark 13 draws upon numerous texts from Hebrew Scripture, along with Daniel’s
image of a figure called ‘the Son of Man,’ it is descriptive of what was
happening – the brutal Roman occupation and the total destruction of Jerusalem
and the Temple. Listening to the totality of the thirteenth chapter of Mark,
Jesus urges perseverance and faithfulness until ‘the end of the age’ when the
unfolding of God’s reign is complete. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Further, although there were those, like Paul, who believed
or hoped Christ would return soon, the delay in such a return for many gave
rise to a belief that Christ’s life, death and resurrection is the saving
action, and that the earthly Jesus prepared his followers for life after the
destruction of the Temple to live lives devoted to God and to love one’s
neighbor as oneself – with a true broadening of just who our neighbors are in
the story of an historic enemy Samaritan who provides assistance for someone in
need, no questions asked. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Australian Jesuit, Brendan Byrne, in his commentary on
Mark observes, <i>“For most Christians today the expectation of Christ’s return
in glory (“Second Coming”), though still proclaimed in liturgy and creeds, is
hardly a daily preoccupation. We ‘look back’ to his life, death and
resurrection as the chief elements of his saving work. For the early
generations, however, the emphasis was the other way around. It was as the Son
of Man returning to glory that Christ would perform his principal messianic
role: be the agent of the final victory of G_d. Cohabiting with a lively faith
in the risen Lord was a strong sense of unfinished business…The same
concerns - and not a few more – linger
on for us today, and raise the same issues about the faithfulness and power of
G_d. Both in its original context and as it can be read today, the discourse
[in Mark 13] has about it a large aspect of theodicy: in the face of all the
evidence, is it still possible to believe in G_d – and cling to the promise of
Jesus?” </i><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, that is a mouthful! First, it may surprise some that in
the United States today, according to the Wikipedia article, <i>Second Coming</i>,
“A 2010 survey showed that about 40% of Americans believe that Jesus is likely
to return by 2050. This varies from 58% of white evangelical Christians,
through 32% of Catholics to 27% of white mainline Protestants.” Belief in a
Second Coming was popularized by Dwight Moody in the late 19<sup>th</sup>
century, and became a core belief of fundamentalism in the 1920s. It is
interesting to note, that the crisis both Moody and the fundamentalists addressed
is <i>modernism</i> – trying to reconcile traditional faith with scientific,
philosophical and theological trends and discoveries of the past several
hundred years. Both Moody and the fundamentalists, ironically, appear to be
modern themselves as they and others introduce new and novel teachings to the
life of the Church: including specific predictions about when a Second Coming
will be. As to predicting when? Jesus
says: No one knows when the end of days, the end of the world, or a possible
second coming will come to pass. Not even me! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">As to <i>theodicy: </i>This was an Enlightenment question:
if God is good why does evil persist in the world? A simplistic answer would
be, because in Mark chapter 13 Jesus says it will, but not to worry. Because
this is the wrong question. The real question is: Where is God in all of this
upheaval, the persistence of evil, and persecution of the faithful. Answer: Emmanuel
– God with us. Just as God is with Christ on the cross and at the dawn of the
resurrection, so God is with us in the midst of human suffering. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, the discourse addresses one final question: What are
we, those who follow the Way of Jesus, to do in the meantime? Jesus says as we
serve those in greatest need: the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, those in
prison, widows, orphans, we serve him.<a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
To illustrate, Jesus tells a story. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">A man goes on a journey, and appoints his servants to
continue the work he has given them to do. He does not say when he is getting
back. They are to stay the course, and watch: stay awake! To make his point, he
assigns one as a watchman to specifically make sure all are ready when he will
return from his journey. <i>“For you do not know when the master of the house
will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else
he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to
all: Keep awake.”<a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></b></span></span></a></i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In this pastiche of apocalyptic imagery, we find language of
parable, symbol and myth, since there is no literal language to describe the
transcendent ways of God. It is a language of assurance and hope. All shall be
well. For Jesus is not sitting idly by doing nothing while his disciples face
the persistence of evil, and the insecurity of not knowing when the Day of the
Lord will appear. Through the Holy Spirit the Christ already exerts his
messianic rule through the very same means by which God has provided the means for a
response to the persistent presence of evil – and we are that means. We are God’s
intervention to provide comfort in the face of great suffering. This is the
cost of discipleship. It is our privilege to serve Christ’s presence among the
poor. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Despite the cost of discipleship and the persistence of
evil, Mark’s Jesus proclaims that the divine victory has already been evidenced
in the life, death and resurrection of the Son of God. Soon this will be
evidenced throughout creation and universally in place as we, like the servants
in the parable, continue to do the work he has given us to do. We are to remain
watchful and awake as we participate in the complete and full unfolding of
God’s gracious reign of unending mercy and love of all, for all. Only because
he is with us, here and now to the end of the age, are we able to do all of this.
And greater things than these! <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div>
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Byrne SJ, Brendan, A Costly Freedom (Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN:2008)
p.200-201<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Matthew
25:31-46<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Mark 13:32-37<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20B/Apocalyptic%20Boogie%20Advent%201B.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span></span></a>
John 14:122</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-70149739810959990402023-11-25T07:12:00.000-08:002023-11-25T07:12:29.174-08:00One with God, Creation and One Another<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">One with God, Creation, and One Another<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are asked in Baptism: <i>Will you seek and serve Christ
in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? </i>Once you experience this
– seeing the Christ in one person – it then becomes easy to see Christ in “all
persons.” This is what storyteller Matthew imagines what the Day of the Lord,
or the Day of Judgment, will look like (Matt 25:31-46). Whether or not we
recognize Christ in others, there he is right in front of us in all these poor,
forgotten, marginalized people he is talking about serving. As you feed the
hungry, you are feeding Christ, whether you recognize him or not. It’s what the
ancient Celts were getting at by seeing and talking about the Oneness of us
all; the Oneness of all creation! People must have experienced this in Christ,
in Jesus. He was capable of seeing no distinctions among different people. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is a possible translation problem It says “all,” <i>pantes,</i>
“nations,” <i>ethne</i>. Which is possible. Yet, biblical documents written in
Greek, <i>ethne</i> more often is used to translate the Hebrew <i>goyim</i>, or
Gentiles. Broadly, gentile simply means non-Jewish. Matthew writing after the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, gentile would also include
non-Christians as well. This markedly changes how we might read this passage.
And perhaps explains why both groups, those who serve those in need and those
who don’t, neither is looking for Christ, nor do they recognize Christ. Despite
Jesus declaring his Oneness with all those who are poor and disinherited. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the first times I saw the face of Christ in another
human being was in a movie called, <b>Excuse Me, America</b>, featuring Dom
Helder Camara, Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, in North-East Brazil. In the
movie he comes to America and meets with Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa, Caesar
Chavez and others who, like himself in Brazil, worked for dignity and justice
for all people – most especially the poor. Near the end of the movie Dom Helder
is at an organizing meeting for the farmworkers in California, the crowd is
singing <i>We Shall Overcome</i>, and the camera zooms in on Dom Helder’s face.
With a beatific smile on his face, tears streaming down as he listens to the
singing of the poor farmworkers, I could only see the Transfiguration of
Christ. It was then that I instantly knew what he means when he says, <i>“Although
for some people it may appear strange, I declare that here in the North-East
Christ is called Jose, Antonio, Severino, Maria, Ana, Fernanda. Ecce Homo! Here
is Christ the human. The human being who needs justice, has the right to
justice, deserves justice.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Christ%20the%20King%202023.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's important to know that Dom Helder’s life-long campaign
on behalf of the poor everywhere met official resistance within the church.
Yet, it was his deep understanding of this imagining of The Final Judgment in
Matthew 25 that kept him true to serving the Christ in all humanity. Even his
love of those who fought him in his quest for justice for all. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Ever since, it has been my experience that those who practice
the most devoted service to others have always been the most Christ-like
persons I have ever met. And in every instance, they would be the last people
to even think that they were Christ-like in any way – which, of course, makes
their service to others, especially the poor and disinherited, even more Christ-like.
As Dom Helder also says <i>“He [Christ] said, whoever is suffering, humiliated,
crushed is he. In our own time, when more than two-thirds of the human race are
living in sub-human conditions, it’s easy enough to meet him in the flesh…For
my part I am as sure of Christ’s existence as I am of my own hand with its five
fingers I can touch and see. I meet Jesus every day. And we are one. No doubt
about it.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Christ%20the%20King%202023.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I meet Jesus every day. No doubt about it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We call this Christ the King Sunday – and yet our Lord and
King is best seen among those who are hungry, thirsty, in jail, naked, sick,
and strangers in the land. It’s a very different kind of King whose kingdom is
realized among those who serve those most desperately in need. Those who serve,
as Matthew tells it, do not seem to recognize the Christ in those they serve,
and least of all in themselves. They are not necessarily Christians, or Jews,
or of any other religious practice. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I believe Matthew’s Jesus challenges the Church itself. He
seems to say: If these Gentiles, non-Christians, non-Jews, know how to love God
and love neighbor without ever hearing my teaching, how much more must our
community of Christ be so directed in all that we say and all that we do? There
is no other reason we are here. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Before we, or any church, says or does anything at all, it
is paramount that we recognize this mystical Oneness that Dom Helder lived and
breathed all of his 90 years among us. It is utterly freeing to abandon the
natural tendency to focus on our differences and those dimensions of “self”
that divide us, and to focus wholeheartedly on our inherent Oneness. It changes
everything. Those in power, those who wield power, want us to believe life is
about fighting for all we can get – individually, and as a nation. It’s every
man, woman and child for themselves. This is what is most often recognized as
kingdoms and empires: grabbing for ourselves the land and the resources of
others for our own consumption. Many of the parables of Jesus recognize this as
human sin. Instead, Jesus advocates a reversal, a turning of the world
right-side up again! And people like Dom Helder, Dorothy Day, Caesar Chavez,
Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez and countless others throughout the
centuries have worked for such a just and dignified society, with or without any
personal knowledge of Christ – just like the folks in our vision of the Final
Judgment who ask, <i>“When did we see you naked, hungry, thirsty, sick and in
prison?”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We do well to remember just how this feast of The Solemnity
of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe came to be. Pope Pius XI, writing
in the aftermath of World War I, noted that while there had been a cessation of
hostilities, there was no true peace. He deplored the rise of class divisions, unbridled
nationalism, and a world that was being gripped by anti-Semitic and
authoritarian-fascist dictators. He felt the church, of all institutions,
needed to return to being icons of Christ – those who day in and day out see
Christ in all persons, respecting the dignity of every human being. We must ask
just how important this vision of Pius is for our time? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Oscar Romero, Archbishop of El Salvador, in a homily on
March 24, 1980, in a small hospital chapel said, <i>“God’s reign is already
present on our earth in mystery. When the Lord comes, it will be brought to
perfection. That is the hope that inspires Christians. We know that every
effort to better society, especially when injustice and sin are so ingrained,
is an effort that God blesses, that God wants, that God demands of us.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Christ%20the%20King%202023.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Minutes later, while celebrating the Eucharist, Romero was shot down by
government assassins. For serving the poor, the destitute, the disinherited.
For living a Christ-like life. For seeing Christ every day in the poor he
served. May we ponder the symmetry: November begins with All Saints and ends
with Christ the King.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Christ%20the%20King%202023.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Hall, Mary, The Impossible Dream: The Spirituality of Dom Helder Camara (Orbis
Books, Maryknoll, NY:1980) from his Inaugural Address, quoted on p.75<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Christ%20the%20King%202023.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
McDonagh, Francis, Dom Helder Camara: Essential Writings, (Orbis Books,
Maryknoll, NY:2009) p.120<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Christ%20the%20King%202023.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Brockman, James R., SJ, The Violence of Love: Oscar Romero (Orbis Books,
Maryknoll, NY: 1988) p.206</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-74583126295962207652023-11-18T07:12:00.000-08:002023-11-18T07:12:18.962-08:00Fearlessness Proper 28A<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Fearlessness</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>God has not given us the
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Tim: 1:7</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fearlessness. Stories of fearlessness. Which I fear we
confuse with ruthlessness. When it really is about abandoning our fears so we
may be more attentive, more present, to the ways of the Lord. Which itself is
about risking to use the gifts we have been given profligately, rather than
fiercely holding onto them, which results in a false sense of security. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We see this illustrated in the story in Judges chapters
4&5. We are told that the people had sinned. No specific sin is mentioned,
but most often it is forgetting that as we have received God’s love and mercy,
so we are to extend these gifts not only to one another, but to all others. The
narrator tells us the result of this lack of love for our neighbors resulted in
God sending a foreign army and a foreign king to reign harshly over Israel for
twenty years. Two things in this. First, twenty years is not meant to be a
specific amount of time, but rather suggests it was a long, long time.
Secondly, it does not mean that God literally sent King Jabin and his 900
chariots under the command of General Sisera. Rather, Hebrew scripture is
unique in the world of ancient literature, and assumes that the conquest was a
result of the people having lost their way, burying the love of God, ignoring
the needs of others, and that therefore it must be offensive to God. That is,
they assume responsibility for their actions, or inaction, and accept that
their own behavior resulted in a long-time crisis. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Indeed, God’s bountiful love and mercy is evidenced by God
raising up a new prophet and leader for Israel to meet the current crisis. A
woman. Deborah. We are not told how she communicates with God, and God with
her, but she sends Barak of Naphtali to meet the 900 chariots of Sisera and
drive out the foreign invaders once and for all. Barak insists that she
accompany him. She agrees, but makes sure he understands that it will be a
woman who fells Sisera. The armies of Barak prevail, but General Sisera escapes
and seeks comfort and a hiding place in a home he believes to be safe. The woman
of the tent, Jael, takes Sisera in, covers him with a blanket, and provides him
with milk and curds to eat. Weary from running, and filled with Jael’s
provisions, Sisera falls asleep, ordering her to tell no one that he is not
there. Yes, she says. But then, while he sleeps, she drives a stake through his
temple, fulfilling the prophecy of Deborah that Sisera would ultimately be
felled by a woman. Deborah and Jael, because of their fearlessness on behalf of
the whole community, are two of the most
popular female names in Israel to this day. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In what many think is one of the oldest poems in all of the
Bible, the Song of Deborah celebrates this saving event: <i>“…when people offer
themselves willingly, bless the Lord…Most blessed of women is Jael…of tent
dwelling women most blessed. He [Sisera] asked for water, and she gave him
milk, she brought him curds in a lordly bowl.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
This ancient tale of God’s ultimate forgiveness and mercy still has lessons for
us all today. Jabin and Sisera stand as symbols of the many oppressive
consequences of human sin. Just as Deborah and Jael highlight God’s choice of these
two women to fearlessly remind one and all of God’s concern that oppression
needs to be rooted out and not allowed to stand. The commemorative poem also
shows surprising compassion for Sisera’s mother: <i>“Out the window she peered,
the mother of Sisera gazed through the lattice – Why is his chariot so long in
coming? … Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? …Spoil of dyed stuffs
for Sisera, spoil of dyed stuffs, embroidered, two pieces of dyed work
embroidered for my neck as spoil?”</i> This ancient Israelite poem recognizes
the sadness and pathos of so many others on both sides when the battle is over. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then there is another odd story from Jesus about a man
leaving on a journey. He entrusts his property to three servants: five talents
to one, two to another, and one to a third. A talent was roughly equal to 20
years wages for a common laborer, perhaps in the neighborhood of anywhere from
$1,000 to $30,000 in today’s dollars! When the master returns, the servants are
asked to account for what they have done with what he gave each of them. Two
invested wisely, and doubled the value of what had been entrusted to them. The
third was fearful and had buried the talent entrusted to him. He returns just
the one talent to the master. To say the master is unimpressed with the
servant’s excessive prudence, has him <i>“cast into the outer darkness where
there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.” </i>The story ends with an easily
misunderstood proclamation: Ordering the one talent to be given to the servant
with ten, the master says, <i>“For to all those who have, more will be given,
and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what
they have will be taken away.” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></b></span></span></a></i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's easy to misunderstand the lesson here if we think
strictly in terms of the money involved. What if the talents represent the
power of the Holy Spirit given to the disciples when Jesus returned to the
household of God’s eternal love. Jesus left them with two gifts, two charges:
Love God, and Love your neighbor as you love yourself; as God has forgiven and
loved you. There was great hope throughout the church that Jesus would return
to subdue the Roman Empire once and for all. Jesus’s telling of this odd story
suggests that in the meantime, in the days between, his followers are to be
fearless in loving God and loving neighbors – all neighbors, including people
with whom we have had historic differences like the Samaritans. As the Second
Letter of Timothy declares, <i>“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of
power, and of love, and of a strong mind!</i>” <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
And as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 13:11, “<i>And the God of love and peace
will be with you.”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">These are the “talents” that have been generously given to
us all: the very means to be a people of love and peace, and the promise of
God’s presence wherever we may be, no matter what the current crisis may be.
Paul further instructs the Corinthian church, and thereby all of us, <i>“Examine
yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you
not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless, indeed, you fail to meet the
test. … but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.
For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is the fearlessness God in Christ wants for us. Gives
to us. Expects us to use for the spread of the Kingdom of God here and now. The
One who came to us from Love, returned to Love, so that we might be his people
of Love throughout and all around the world. God was with Deborah and Jael. God
was with the two servants who risked using the talents entrusted to them,
rather than give in to fearfulness, saving God’s love and mercy for a rainy
day. Every day is a rainy day. How might
we be the good and faithful servants of the Lord like all those who have gone
before us? How might we, in times of great crisis, be fearless on behalf of the
truth? On behalf of God’s kingdom of mercy and love? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-size: medium;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Judges 5: 1-31<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Matthew 25:14-30<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
2 Timothy 1:7<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Fearlessness%20%20Proper%2028A.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iv]</span></span></span></a> 2
Corinthians 13:5-10 </span></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-16041865100178152262023-11-11T02:59:00.002-08:002023-11-11T02:59:40.805-08:00Apocalypse Now! Proper 27A<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Apocalypse Now! Proper 27A</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Back in the beginning of the present century, on my way to
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Old Ellicott City, I would pass a billboard that
said something like: May 21/Be ready. It was paid for by radio evangelist
Harold Camping who had predicted that Jesus and the Rapture would arrive on May
21, 2011, to transport faithful Christians to His Heavenly Banquet! Needless to
say, May 21 came, and went, and here we are. This expectation was a total
fiction. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Rapture is not found in the Bible. An English pastor in
the 19<sup>th</sup> century named William Miller came up with this idea. He
predicted a specific date. He and his followers watched and waited. The day
came and went, and there they were. Despite this failure, Millerites and others
have persisted in making other predictions, none of which have come to pass,
and here we are. If one Googles, “Does the Bible speak of The Rapture,” the
answer is: <i>The word rapture isn't used in the Holy Bible, but the idea of
Judgment Day appears in all the canonical gospels. </i>Rapture is a modern, not
a biblical, contrivance. Such expectations are a complete fiction. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Imagine my surprise last weekend when I opened the Sports
section to find the comics, first opening to the Arts page, to find the
following book listed in the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers at # 9: <b>The
Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to Be Rapture Ready</b>, by David Jeremiah! God
bless Dr. Jeremiah, for outlining with authority, step-by-step, how the Rapture
will take place whenever it does. But really, I thought to myself, “Shouldn’t
this be on the Fiction top ten list?” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Not entirely. Our spiritual foremothers and forefathers
wrote of a day of judgment. Such an idea exists in both Old and New Testament
texts. Not necessarily as a literal expectation. Not as a literal truth.
Rather, more like a genre – a genre of literature called apocalyptic that
occurs in historical periods when the People of God are in crisis. The
principal crises are slavery in Egypt, the captivity in Babylon, and the
Occupation by Rome and destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Such texts write of a hoped for and extraordinary
intervention by YHWH, the God of the Exodus with whom Joshua calls the people
to renew and reaffirm their covenant relationship. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Apocalypse%20Now%20%20Proper%2027A.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
As they leave the Wilderness Sojourn to enter the land the Lord has promised to
be their new home, they are to swear off the local gods and idols and renew
their loyalty to the Lord YHWH and no other, as had been outlined at Mount
Sinai. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Carried off into slavery once more to Babylon, along with
the writings of the prophets who do their best to explain how this crisis
arose, were some apocalyptic writers who urged the people not to worry. As in
our shared past, the Lord shall intervene once more. In the meantime, remain
loyal and continue to live life according to the covenant and its 613 Torah commandments.
Indeed, it came to pass that Cyrus of Persia (modern day Iran) liberated the
people and facilitated their return to Jerusalem, and the lands of Judah and
Israel. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The next crisis was being a colony of first the Greek and
then the Roman empire. Faithful living of Torah became increasingly
challenging. The Pharisees advocated strict following of the commandments. The
Sadducees advocated strict observance of the ritual sacrifices in Jerusalem.
Some groups returned to the wilderness and lived strict ascetical lives of
excessive purification. And some followed Jesus who advocated love of God and
love of neighbor to be The Way, or The Path, to eventual salvation from the Roman
occupation. By the time the Temple was destroyed there existed nascent
Christian communities throughout the Mediterranean. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Again, there arose those who wrote apocalyptic visions
urging the now two communities in crisis to stay the course of Torah, of the
commandments, but with one obvious change: with no Temple there could be no
more sacrifices. Thus, was born rabbinic Judaism as we know it today, in which
most important festivals are celebrated around the family dinner table, and
Christianity, with its unique sacrificial and eschatological meal we call The
Eucharist, or Holy Communion. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The most controversial New Testament document was an
apocalyptic vision called The Revelation of John, presumed to be written by an
exile on the island of Patmos with an extraordinary grasp of the texts of the
Old Testament. It is estimated that fully 80-90% of John’s Revelation is
directly quoted from or refers to Old Testament texts. This was truly
ingenious! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although classic apocalyptic literature in the Bible often
looked forward to a “day of the Lord,” John’s Revelation makes an astonishing
and breathtaking claim: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is that day
of the Lord. That is, God’s saving event has already happened! Now we are to
live accordingly no matter what the current crisis may be. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Enter our story about Ten Bridesmaids and a banquet in
Matthew 25. It’s a rather awkward story about ten maidens who have lamps, but
only five of them have enough oil to light their lamps. There is a long delay
of the bridegroom coming; he arrives in the middle of the night; we are meant
to think that shops will be open at that hour; the unwillingness of the wise
maidens to share their oil; when the five return from town the door is shut on
them; followed by the strange injunction to “Keep Awake.” (Stay Woke?) Strange,
because the failure of the unwise maidens is not that they have overslept, but that
they have not prepared for the arrival of the Bridegroom. All this adds up to a
truly odd story indeed. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Apocalypse%20Now%20%20Proper%2027A.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yet, way back in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, <i>“In
everything, do to others what you would have them do for you.” </i>Then insists
that this “doing for others” is bearing the good fruit of the kingdom. Trees
that bear bad fruit will be thrown into a fire. Therefore, he concludes, if you
are not prepared, not living the Golden Rule, the door will be shut. “I do not
know you!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Apocalypse%20Now%20%20Proper%2027A.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Two takeaways from this odd story. First, we must remember
it is addressed to insiders, members of the community of faith, not outsiders. This
is no condemnation of those beyond the Church. Ignoring to love God and love
neighbor here and now is the problem. We make ourselves outsiders by not loving
our neighbors – all neighbors, no matter who, what, or where. Second, it is <b>“Apocalypse
Now,”</b> not later. There is no time to wait. No time to be idle. As John the
Revelator declares, <i>“He is risen! He is here! He is with us now and always!
Live accordingly!</i>” The Day of the Lord has already come. Now is the time
for the rest of the story. We are to be the rest of the story! It turns out that
instead of 31 ways to become “rapture ready” there are just two. The Greatest
Commandment of all; the summary of the Law and the Prophets: Love God and Love
Neighbor. Now! If not now, when? For The Rapture is here and now! Christ is
alive!</p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Apocalypse%20Now%20%20Proper%2027A.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Joshua
24:1-3a, 14-25<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Apocalypse%20Now%20%20Proper%2027A.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Matthew 25:1-14<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Apocalypse%20Now%20%20Proper%2027A.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Matthew 7:12-29<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-60177108431108022722023-11-04T09:25:00.000-07:002023-11-04T09:25:08.408-07:00I Meant to Be One Two All Saints Sunday 2023<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>I Mean to Be One Too!</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">All Saints Day. We do not tend to think of ourselves as
saints. And yet, in the early church everyone who chose to follow The Way of
Jesus were often referred to as “the saints.” All were seeking to repent –
literally turn their lives around – and accept Jesus’s invitation to live one’s
life “as if” the kingdom of heaven could become a reality as the kingdom of God
here and now. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We read the opening passage of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount,
chapters 5-7 of Matthew’s gospel, for it is this teaching that forms what Amy
Jill Levine calls <i>“A Beginner’s Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven.”</i> <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/I%20Mean%20to%20Be%20One%20Too%20%20All%20Saints%202023.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Jesus begins with a series of blessings which we call The Beatitudes, Matthew
5:1-12. A resource I used to use in leading Youth Groups called these blessings
Be-Attitudes – Attitudes of Being – how to be a follower of the Christ in this
world. How to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth – as later in Mathew Jesus
teaches us to pray, <i>“on Earth as it is in heaven.”</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have long found it curious that certain people who
identify as Christians insist on posting the Ten Commandments all over the
place, rather than these core principles of kingdom living, these Be-Attitudes,
in which Jesus calls us to be merciful, to be peacemakers, to be humble and
meek, to be pure in heart, to be righteous. Most of all, to feel blessed and
rejoice, even in the most difficult of times. For even the prophets, often
faced the most difficult of times, found time to rejoice and be glad. Most of
us can agree, the times have become difficult no matter how and from what
perspective we might look at things. The first thing we neglect to do is to
rejoice and be glad that despite how dark things may appear, we have these
Attitudes of Being to fall back on, no matter what. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">First of all, these opening words of the sermon seek to
remind us of the most fundamental dimension of being human: we are created in
the image – the <i>eikon</i>, or icon – of God. That is, we are placed on <i>“this
fragile earth, our island home”</i> as something like a marker one uses to spot
one’s ball on the green of a golf course. We have been placed here as a
reminder that this planet comes from a force, an energy, a life-giving source
greater than ourselves – beyond our tiny selves in the vastness of this seemingly
endless universe! At the same time, we are placed here as those beings who have
been blessed with memory, reason and the skills to be the caretakers of the
planet and all the creatures that inhabit it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Second of all, these Attitudes of Being mirror the very
characteristics of the God, the Source, the Energy that has placed us here as
caretakers: humility, which comes from a root meaning “of the earth;” purity of
heart and mind; mercy; righteousness; joy and gladness. Yes, even when things
are at their worst, as when they threw the prophet Jeremiah into the bottom of
a well to shut him up from telling the truth no one wanted to hear, even then
we are to be glad that we have lived up to these Attitudes of Being with
faithfulness and righteousness, talking truth to power. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">AJ, as Amy Jill Levine likes to be called, points out
something I would never have noticed on my own. This word “righteousness” in
the Sermon on the Mount points back to the genealogy at the beginning of
Matthew’s gospel and the inclusion of four women in a long list of patriarchs:
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. These four women, each in her own peculiar
way sometimes, represent what righteousness is all about – putting the needs of
someone else ahead of your own. Which, as we know, is the basis of the kind of <i>agape</i>
love of neighbor the Bible always reminds us that we are to practice. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Judah, Tamar’s father-in-law, by whom she conceives twins, is
the one who says that she <i>“is more righteous than I.” </i>Rahab, a Canaanite
woman in Jericho, not only deceives her king to save the lives of two Israelite
spies, but also strikes a deal with them to save her family after the walls
come tumbling down. Ruth, a Moabite widow, does the hard work of harvesting a
field to save and protect the life of her widowed mother-in-law Naomi, as the
two of them are refugees seeking asylum in Israel. And Bathsheba reminds us
also of her husband, Uriah the Hittite, a faithful foreign soldier who refuses
to leave his forward unit despite the danger that ultimately takes his life. And
of course, the genealogy tells us of Joseph, who refuses to dismiss his
betrothed Mary who is pregnant, he knows not how; refuses to humiliate her; but
rather marries her, and protects her and her son by fleeing as refugees to seek
asylum in Egypt when Herod threatens to kill her child and all other infants in
Bethlehem. These otherwise ordinary people are icons of God and icons of
righteousness. People who put the needs of others ahead of their own – and even
beyond generally accepted norms! <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/I%20Mean%20to%20Be%20One%20Too%20%20All%20Saints%202023.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In honor of the four righteousness women, we do well to
honor the first woman listed in our calendar of saints in the Book of Common
Prayer: January 9, Julia Chester Emery, Missionary, whose life spanned from
1852-1922. One of eleven children of Sea Captain, and devout Episcopalian,
Charles Emery and his wife Susan. Like most of her siblings, Juila devoted
herself to religious service to others. <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/I%20Mean%20to%20Be%20One%20Too%20%20All%20Saints%202023.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
At the age of 24, like her sister Mary before her, Julia became National
Secretary of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Board of Missions for forty years.
This lay woman, visited every diocese in our church to raise money and support
for missionaries around the world, and started the United Thank Offering in
which people throughout the church would have a small blue box with a slit on
the top. One is to put a few coins or bills in the box each time you feel
thankful. These offerings are collected to this day to support mission efforts
at home and abroad. Under her guidance, women received canonical status to
become deaconesses in the church, and were granted special status at our
church’s General Convention. Each year on January 9, we are to remember the
righteousness of Julia Chester Emery, a laywoman, who worked tirelessly on
behalf of the kingdom of heaven on earth. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We sing, <i>“for the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.”</i> A hymn first published in 1929, authored by
another woman, Lesbia Scott. Ms. Scott composed a number of hymns and tunes for
her own children, and published them in a collection, <b>Everyday Hymns for
Little Children</b>. As we sing this song, we are to remember, not all the
saints were martyred or performed heroic deeds, but folks like you and me.
Ordinary people who live faithful lives according to the principles outlined in
the Beatitudes, Attitudes of Being. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">All Saints Day. A time to remember just who we are and whose
we are. We are all of us saints created in the image of God, to bring forward
these Attitudes of Blessing and Being: humility, righteousness, peacemaking,
courage, and mercy. Being merciful, wrote Kurt Vonnegut, is the one good idea
we have been given so far. As we seek to embody the kind of life Jesus
announces in his first public teaching, we are promised a life for which we and
others can all rejoice and be glad! We are God’s beloved. God is well pleased
with us! Amen.</span></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/I%20Mean%20to%20Be%20One%20Too%20%20All%20Saints%202023.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Levine, Amy Jill, Sermon on the Mount (Abingdon Press, Nashville:2020)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/I%20Mean%20to%20Be%20One%20Too%20%20All%20Saints%202023.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Ibid, p.xv-xvi<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/I%20Mean%20to%20Be%20One%20Too%20%20All%20Saints%202023.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Book of Common Prayer, p.19</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-57165319391457085662023-10-28T06:34:00.003-07:002023-10-28T06:34:55.650-07:00All You Need Is Love - Yes, or No? Defend Proper 25A<p> <b>All You Need Is Love – Yes, or No? Defend.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This was one of the essay questions on our Christian Ethics
final in Seminary. After the events of the last several weeks, love seems more in
short supply than ever. There was already the ongoing Russian invasion of
Ukraine. Now an attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, and the Israeli
retaliation with air-attacks on multiple targets in Gaza. Followed by the 565<sup>th</sup>
mass shooting in the United States this year in Lewiston, Maine. The most-deadly
such attack this year, 2023. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As the reporting from Israel and Gaza unfolded, I found
myself feeling despair. I’ve spent much of my adult life and ministry combating
anti-Semitism, fostering Christian-Jewish dialogue, teaching World Religions
with special emphasis on the relationships of the three Abrahamic faiths:
Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all from a perspective of mutual respect and
love. And now this. Then after hours of watching reports from Lewiston it
struck me: I used to travel with a group of musicians up and down the Maine
coast, often stopping at a particular diner in Lewiston for a rest stop and a
bite to eat. At another time and place, we could have been sitting in the very
place this Reservist opened fire with an automatic weapon. Since those days
I’ve been the survivor of a smaller shooting event, putting me in a national
fraternity of survivors, for whom an event like this brings it all back as if
it was once again happening here and now. I cannot get the number 565 out of my
head. All you need is love. Yes, or No? Defend with examples from scripture was
the question. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It seems that when put on the spot to answer the question:
which commandment in the law is the greatest, Jesus answers with two. From
Deuteronomy 6:5, the great Schema Yisrael, “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” The passage
goes on to say you shall teach it to your children, place a tiny scroll with
this command at the entrance to your house. And it is traditional to pray this
passage from Deuteronomy three times a day. Jesus’s interrogators should know
it by heart. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Then from the very center of Torah, Leviticus 19:18 he
quotes: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The passage in Leviticus goes
on to define neighbor as especially including widows, orphans, and resident
aliens – foreigners in the land who are fleeing danger in their own country, or
simply looking for work, usually to send something back home where there may be
a famine, a drought, or other disaster, natural or human. When asked, Who is my
neighbor? Jesus replies with a story that says even Samaritans, an enemy
people, can be our neighbors. All you need is love. Yes or No? Defend. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The story of the Good Samaritan illustrates that the agape
love the Bible speaks about is not affection, not brotherly love, not romantic
love, but simply putting someone else’s needs ahead of your own. The old King
James translation of “charity” is much closer to the mark of what Torah, the
Prophets and Jesus are all talking about. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From the beginning, the earliest Christians understood that
it is God who loves us first. And that our love of God is reflected in how we
treat one another. We are to be the love of God to help one another in natural
disasters, like the category 5 hurricane that just leveled Acapulco. As some
have suggested, we are to be the hands of God for one another at all times of
tragedy. Because no one person, no one community of persons, can survive and
rebuild after such disasters. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If we were to love God as God loves us, we ought to love one
another as God loves us. This is what Jesus is saying to his interrogators. The
trick in Leviticus is allowing ourselves to love ourselves as God loves us. I
find in my nearly 40 years of ministry, many of us, perhaps most of us, find it
difficult to really truly love ourselves. I see people, phenomenal people,
people who do heroic things for others, doubt their own self-worth. What else
could possibly lead a person to own an automatic military-style weapon, let
alone walk into a bowling alley with men, women and children having a good time
and open fire on everyone there? Or, invade a music festival of young people
dancing and singing and begin killing people and capturing people and murdering
children in front of their parents? Or, walk into a church office and shoot two
women, one priest, one lay persons, execution style in the head, and walk out
into the woods and takes one’s own life? Where has love been missing in their
lives up to that moment? Where has any sense of compassion for the needs of
others been? Why has no one noticed how empty, lonely and unhappy my life has
been, people must ask themselves, over and over until something snaps? Until
the only solution is violence. Against others, against oneself. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So-called “Social Media” seems only to make things worse.
Young people are cyber-bullied until they take their own lives. Political
discourse devolves into mud-slinging at best, bullying and demeaning at its
worst. Hatred in the name of race, or religion, or political ideology devolves
into violence. Easier and easier access to guns and ammo make it easier and
easier to take out one’s hatred for others or self-loathing on others – either
specific others, or all others. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I keep going back and going back to Professor Turner’s class
on Christian Ethics and the haunting question on that exam. All you need is
love. Yes, or No? Defend. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One impulse is to blame the other, all others, for all the
inhumanity we heap upon ourselves and one another. The next most frequent blame
is aimed at religion itself – all religions. On one hand, it is true that most
all the world’s religions teach the golden rule in one version or another – <i>do
not do to others what you would not like them to do to you.</i> On the other
hand, at one time or another, every world religion develops some kind of
toxicity – a sub group that believes our way is the only way. That the world is
divided into us and them. And unless we work to eliminate “them,” we, us, won’t
survive. It’s the lie of the serpent. It’s Cain and Abel. And we allow
ourselves to believe it. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I was reminded this week of something our Presiding Bishop
Michael Curry once said: <i>“To love, my brothers and sisters, does not mean we
have to agree. But maybe agreeing to love is the greatest agreement. And the
only one that ultimately matters, because it makes a future possible.”</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That week in Jerusalem, just days before he
was crucified on a cross of the Roman Empire, Jesus tried to remind anyone who
would listen that above all else we need to love God and love one another. And
that in agreeing to love one another is the only way to make a future possible
In two thousand years we seem not to have tried this. The time to begin to love
one another would seem to be now. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A contemporary of Jesus, Rabbi Hillel, once said, “If I am
not for myself, then who is for me? If I am not for others, then who am I? And,
If not now, when?” And if not now, when?</p><p class="MsoNormal"> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/us/these-are-the-victims-of-the-maine-mass-shootings/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/us/these-are-the-victims-of-the-maine-mass-shootings/index.html</a></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-66646477109696585252023-10-21T05:58:00.004-07:002023-10-21T05:58:35.951-07:00Caesar? Or, God and Neighbor? Porper 25A<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Caesar? Or, God & Neighbor?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">After three parables challenging the authorities and
leadership of Israel under Roman occupation, we now hear the first of three
attempts to trick Jesus into making a fatal error in judgement. The first trap is
a question about taxes, something to which we can all relate. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This attempt at entrapment in Matthew 22:15-22 is so
familiar and domesticated such that it is hard to notice the nuances of what is
really happening. Some Pharisees send a delegation of their disciples along
with some folks identified as Herodians. This should raise a red-flag:
Pharisees are those Israelites devoted to sincerely following of the
commandments in Torah despite the Roman occupation, and also deny any idea that
members of the Herod household are legitimate Jews at all; Herodians support
the Herods who rule Israel on behalf of Rome and therefore are collaborators
with the Empire, and had been accused by John the Baptist as being unfaithful
to the way of Torah. Previous episodes in Matthew suggest that John still had a
strong following, and that Jesus has taken up his mantle and his call for
repentance. Even worse, the Herods serve as kings of Israel in at least several
regions under Roman control. They are Kings of the Jews. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">These strange bed-fellows ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay
taxes to the emperor, or not. They flatter him as sincere and faithful to
Torah, and suggest that he does not allow himself to be manipulated by others.
If he says yes, his followers will abandon him. If he says no, he will be
arrested. Clearly, they have no idea who this is. Jesus steadfastly avoids all
flattery directing people to honor only his Father, the God of Moses and the
escape from Pharaoh, the first Caesar. Jesus sees through this ruse, and calls
them out as fakes – hypocrites, as moral and religious counterfeits, as
play-actors devoid of any and all sincerity. Ouch! That had to hurt. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Getting right to the point, Jesus says, <i>“Show me the coin
with which to pay the tax.”</i> This suggests he has no such coin himself. And
that he suspects they have a Roman denarius in their pockets. Sure enough, they
produce the coin. The Pharisees now have hoisted themselves on their own
petard! Exposed! They are carrying an image, literally an icon, of the emperor
who claims to be God in their pocket. This violates the third of the Ten
Commandments that there ought to be no icons or idols of other Gods. It’s
likely that they already pay the tax so as not to disturb the peace, while of
course the Herodians do as well. After all, they are on the administrative
payroll. Indeed, these are bad actors, role-players, and self-disclosed
hypocrites. Who forget they are created in God’s image, God’s icon, not
Caesar’s. Jesus could leave it right there. There’s nothing much more to say. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">But now Jesus has established a tactical advantage in this
clumsy attempt to trip him up. As he had done just after entering Jerusalem,
once again he turns the tables on them, putting them in position to justify
themselves. He puts a question to them in front of all onlookers: <i>“Whose
head is this, and whose title?”</i> he asks. <i>“The emperor’s,”</i> they
reply. <i>“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and
to God the things that are God’s,”</i> says Jesus. Check and Mate! Off they go,
tails between their legs, amazed at just how shrewd this Jesus character is.
For all their pretensions to being faithful to the God of Moses and the Exodus,
it’s now left to them to decide what belongs to Caesar and the Empire, and what
belongs to God. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Next Sunday we will learn that the choice is not simply
between Caesar and God. There is a third party for whom resources are to be pooled
together – the neighbor. Our neighbors. Which the same Torah to which the
Pharisees look for moral direction is uncomfortably specific: the community
will arrange its resources to care for those with few or no resources
themselves: this includes widows, orphans, and resident aliens. As an addendum
to the Ten Commandments, Exodus 22:21-24 says: <i>“21 You shall not wrong or
oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 22 You
shall not abuse any widow or orphan. 23 If you do abuse them, when they cry out
to me, I will surely heed their cry; 24 my wrath will burn, and I will kill you
with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.” </i>Double
ouch! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It has been pointed out by many, such as Walter Brueggemann,
that this definition of just who our neighbors are lies at the very heart of
Israel’s, and therefore Jesus’s, core narrative and values. The Ten
Commandments list the bare minimum requirements to sustain and become a people
of the God who saved us from the land of Pharoah’s Egypt – a land of
conspicuous and endless monopoly and hoarding of resources for the few at the
expense of the many. Double the quota of bricks those Hebrew slaves must make
so I can build more and more storehouses for food and other stuff for me and my
cronies, says Pharaoh! And at the end of the day, tax their meager wages to add
to my personal treasury! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps the most overlooked of all the Ten Commandments,
despite its being the only one that is stated twice, is the Tenth: Thou shall not
covet your neighbor’s herds, and you shall not covet anything else of your
neighbor’s. This is the first time the neighbor is mentioned in the Bible. Covetousness
is often misunderstood as mere envy, or wanting, but covetousness also results
in the action of taking. Like the other nine commandments, covetousness is a
behavior: <i>“wanting and desiring quickly becomes seizing and acquiring and
produces an acquisitive system of money and possessions that is self-propelled
until it becomes an addiction that skews viable social relationships so that no
one is safe from predatory eagerness.” </i><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Caesar%20or%20God%20and%20Neighbor%20proper%2025a.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And it has been noted that the commandment to observe
Sabbath one day a week is in part to pause, take time out, from any and all
systems of covetousness that threaten to destroy all viable social
relationships with our addictions to money and possessions. Jesus recognizes
there is no binary answer to begin with. God and Caesar are not the only
choices here. There are the neighbors. The people of the land. Especially those
without resources. His answer to those trying to trip him up assumes that
whatever you give to God and/or Caesar better be used for those in need, the
neighbors we have in Jesus, and not to fatten the already fat-cat storehouses
and bank accounts of the empire and its elite rulers, nor the storehouses of
whatever institutions claim to serve the Lord God of Israel. Which of course,
includes the Church. Which at the time Matthew was writing was well into its
infancy if not already in full-blown toddlerhood! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus knows these traditions of the Bible. And calls one and
all who dare to listen to what he has to say to decide once and for all just
what we are to do with all that the good Lord has given to us. Which in
practical terms means some sort of return to Manna Season where everyone was
given enough, no one got too much, you could not hoard it, and where people took
a day off from all work and acquisitive and consuming behaviors. Nothing much
has really changed. What belongs to Caesar and the empire? What belongs to God
and our neighbors? How we answer these questions makes all the difference. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-size: medium;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/Caesar%20or%20God%20and%20Neighbor%20proper%2025a.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Brueggemann, Walter, Money and Possessions, (Westminster John Knox Press,
Louisville, KY: 2016) p.17</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-69007817408568265942023-10-14T07:39:00.003-07:002023-10-14T08:32:17.539-07:00What Can We Say After a Week Like This?<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">What To Do After A Week Like This?</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The past week has been for many, grueling and simply
unbearable. Images of the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists have been
unimaginable. The responding air strikes inside Gaza have been equally
upsetting. We want to believe that we, that people, that human beings, can be
better than all of this. We want to believe we have seen this all before: the
poison gassings of World War I; images of concentration camps, gas chambers,
and pits filled with corpses in World War II; the ravages of nuclear explosions
over Hiroshima and Nagasaki; defoliation and destruction of lives with Agent
Orange in Viet Nam; the Killing Fields of Pol Pot; the butchery in Rawanda. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is not even to go into the long list of how many of our
European Ancestors, often in the name of Christ, treated the native first-world
peoples of this land, imported Africans slaves, and other immigrant groups with
terror, beatings, slaughter and all manner of human brutality. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">And now this. On the nightly news. And the immediate
reaction of so many of us is equally repugnant. And we want to assign immediate
blame. As if pinning it down on one person or one group of persons will somehow
make it easier to manage. As if tragic moments like that unfolding before our
very eyes is a call to judgment of others – any others. All others. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">One result of quick judgment has been a meteoric rise in
anti-Semitism. We fail to remind ourselves that Jews and Arabs/Muslims are all Semitic
peoples. We rush to choose sides. Rather than look at ourselves to question
just what we may have done or said that feeds into the kind of hatred being
force-fed into our homes on TV and Radio day after day, night after night. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We hear a Jewish mother whose daughter was dancing and
singing at a music festival one minute, and the next has either been captured
or slaughtered, plead for peace, crying we are all of the same genetic
material. When will we ever stop and see that, she says? It is hard to watch.
It is even harder not to watch. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">We come to church on Sunday looking for a word of hope, of
peace, of justice, of love. Instead, we are confronted with a story of a king
who orders people be invited to a wedding feast. The servants sent to deliver
the invitations are beaten and killed. The king in turn marshals his troops and
destroys the city and everyone therein. Then he orders his servants back into
the main streets to find more guests, and they do – some good, some bad, - all
are admitted into the feast. But that is not good enough. The king spies a man
with the wrong clothes. He is not wearing a wedding robe. “How did you get in
here without the proper wedding robe?” The man is speechless. He was just
hustled in off of the streets with no time to stop and think, let alone go home
and change. The king orders him bound hand and foot and tossed into the “outer
darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but
few are chosen.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This episode from Matthew 22:1-14 is unbearable to read
aloud, let alone listen to it against the backdrop of the events of this past
week. In one sense, this parable seems to have arrived right on time, bearing
such eerie resemblances to the ongoing events of horror and destruction. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">First, we need to stop and remember that the biblical texts
do not ever offer the last word on any subject other than the graciousness, mercy
and abounding love of God for humankind. These texts, most especially parables,
are meant to simply be the first word, discussion starters, meant to provoke us
to somehow do better than we are doing. And remind us, as Holocaust survivor
Elie Wiesel, and South African leader, Nelson Mandela, spent life-times urging
us to see that doing nothing in the face of such evil is the same as allowing
it to happen. There is no such thing as remaining neutral. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Second, we must see and acknowledge what damage such texts
as this Parable of the Wedding Banquet can cause. The standard interpretation
says it is about Jews rejecting Jesus, and Gentiles, properly dressed of
course, are the good Christians. It could stand as a condemnation of irrational
and unacceptable violence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, the
Church, has allowed the standard interpretation to persist. So doing, the
Church allows anti-Semitism to persist day after day. After day after day,
after day. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">There ought to be no world in which the destructive behavior
of this king is to be emulated, condoned or allowed. Matthew, writing after the
holocaust that was the destruction of Jerusalem in 70CE, most likely portrays this
king as the Empire of Caesar’s Rome who destroyed any and all opposition to its
insatiable appetite for money, power and land. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then there is the wedding robe: just what might that
represent? Most likely it is the Robe of the Gospel, of the Good News of Jesus
Christ the Son of God, who calls one and all to reach out to the others, rather
than reject, demean, accuse and destroy the other. A gospel that calls us to
love others the way we are meant to love God, which means to love others as God
loves us and them. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Finally, with such challenging texts, we might try to
imagine just how Jesus presents this story. Matthew does not indicate if he is
angry or sad as he tells this tale of a king and a wedding banquet. What is his
tone of voice? Can we imagine his facial expression? His body language? Does he
look serious, or is there a slight smile on his face? Is he encouraging violence
against others? Or, is he asking the Church to look at itself and its behavior
toward others? <a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/The%20Blame%20Game%20%20Proper%2023A.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Does the text encourage us to stop pointing our fingers at
someone or some group to blame? Or, are we to look deep within ourselves and
the Christian community to see if we have been living our lives as if we are
following Jesus? As a nation that some like to claim is adherent to
Judeo-Christian values, do we walk the walk? Or, just talk the talk? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">When we listen, really listens, to this story, we must
conclude that such a response to people turning down an invitation to a party
is unacceptable. Such a response to someone showing up in the wrong clothes
to the party is unacceptable. And yet, throughout centuries and down to this
very day, there have been Christians who have slaughtered those who refuse to
be baptized, and turn away people who are not “dressed” just like us. And yet,
we still find the time, as a Church and as a Nation, to have the hubris to say
the problems of this world are with everyone else but us. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">[Coda: As I finished writing this, I walked outside into a
misting rain around sunset in New Hampshire, to see a rainbow, full end to end
and then doubled across the sky as a reminder of God’s promise and hope that
one day we will become the people God creates us to be.]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><span style="font-size: medium;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="file:///D:/Sermons%20A/The%20Blame%20Game%20%20Proper%2023A.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> For
this suggestion on how to reflect on such parables I am indebted to my friend
and teacher Amy Jill Levine and her book: The Difficult Words of Jesus
(Abingdon Press, Nashville: 2021) p.151-155.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-52200936608623997272023-10-07T07:28:00.005-07:002023-10-07T07:46:16.655-07:00How We Read The Texts Proper 22A<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">How We Read The Texts<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">A few days ago, I thought I knew where I was going with
today’s parable, most often called The Parable of the Wicked Tenants. But then I
began to dig deeper and everything changed. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Matthew’s Jesus in chapter 21:33-46 speaks of a “landowner”
who creates a vineyard on his property, similar to how the prophet Isaiah
describes God creating our Earth. He sends his servants to his vineyard to
collect “his produce.” The tenants killed one, beat another and stoned a third.
He sends more servants, and it comes to the same end. He sends his son thinking
surely, they will respect him, But no, they toss him out of the vineyard and
kill him hoping to “get his inheritance.” Jesus asks those who are listening, <i>“When
the owner comes himself, what ought he do to those tenants?”</i> [Note, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he does not call them wicked!] They reply, <i>“He
will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other
tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”</i> Jesus gives a
quotation again from the prophet Isaiah about a rejected stone that becomes the
cornerstone of God’s kingdom which will be taken away “from you,” and given to
those who will bear the fruits of the kingdom. “From you” presumably means the
chief priests and elders who challenged by what authority Jesus was turning
over tables and withering fig trees. Suddenly. they say among themselves, “He
is talking about us, the gatekeepers of the rituals and traditions of our
people!” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beginning with the early church and through the centuries to
the present day, it has been presumed that God is the landowner, Jesus is the
Son, and the tenants are the Jewish people who reject God’s Son. Which is why
people call it The Parable of the Wicked Tenants. This has caused no end of troubles.
It is a parable in Mark, Matthew and Luke that Nazi interpreters used to
justify killing the Jewish people in the Holocaust. But a god who would “put
those wretches to a miserable death” does not sound like the God of the Exodus
and the Ten Commandments who is described in the Hebrew Testament (Old Testament)
as “gracious, merciful, abounding in steadfast love, and who relents from
punishing.” This is not the God of the Exodus and Ten Commandments. This
landowner is not the one Jesus tells us to love along with our neighbor. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">If it were not already called The Parable of the Wicked
Tenants, what would we think all this might mean? First, the landowner. The
Greek text calls him an <i>oikodespotes</i>. He is an oiko despot, literally a
home or property despot. <i>Despotes </i>is the word from which we get the
English word despot. Its meaning is precisely the same in Greek as it is in
English. It means an absolute and arbitrary ruler, from whom there can be no
appeal. It was the title slaves were required to use in addressing the master
who owned them as property. [i] </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Typically, in first century Roman occupied Israel, <i>oikpdespotes</i>
meant some rich city slicker, or even a foreign investor, who has usurped farm
land from peasant farmers who were in debt and then hired the former owners of
the land to work the land as slaves or tenant farmers. Try to imagine what it
is like not only to lose farmland that had been in your family for generations
to some large agri-business corporation, and then have to suffer the
humiliation of working that land to produce profits to the oiko despot.
Suddenly, this story sounds like a possibly justifiable peasant revolt, which
revolts were not uncommon throughout the land. Suddenly, Jesus seems to be
telling an all too familiar and recognizable tale – especially since the chief
priests and elders in Jerusalem were enmeshed in this economic enslavement
collecting their share of taxes on the land, and collecting further taxes to be
sent on to Rome – The Ultimate Oiko Despot! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rome, seen in this light, becomes the very Oiko Despot that
the Israelite peasant farm slaves would love to overthrow so as to get their
family farmland back. Which makes this a tale about another kind of justice.
Jesus begins and ends the parable with references to Isaiah, a prophet poet who
is deeply concerned with God’s care of justice for the people of the land, the
poor peasant tenant farmers, widows, orphans and resident aliens. Beginning
around the year 63CE the people of the land did revolt against the Roman occupation,
resulting in the Temple and all Jerusalem being burnt to the ground. The chief
priests and elders ultimately have had no place to be authorities over the
traditions and rituals any longer. Rabbinic Judaism as we know it was born
shortly thereafter. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The problem and danger of giving these parables a title and
a singular interpretation becomes obvious. In his book, <b>Parables as
Subversive Speech</b>, William Herzog II suggests that “…Jesus’s parables…were
not meant to be stories with either a clear moral or a single meaning that
could be gleaned by reading them ‘correctly.' Rather, they were meant to be
discussion-starters, whose purpose was to raise questions and pose dilemmas for
their hearers. They were open-ended stories that invited their hearers to enter
into conversation for the purposes of exploring the social scenes they
presented and connecting the hearers to the realities of their lives to the
larger systemic realities in which they were caught.” [ii] </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jesus says, let those who have ears, hear. What do we hear? In
which “larger systemic realities” do we as a society, or a church, find
ourselves caught? Has the Church been a good steward of the Kingdom of God?
Could the vineyard be the creation which God “in the beginning” hands over to
us as stewards, caretakers? Do we care for Earth’s resources? Or, do we exploit
them? Or, could the vineyard be all of humankind in our beautiful and creative
diversity? Are there such things as systemic racism? Do we honor the dignity of
all people? Are there places where workers today are being exploited? Do we
care for women and children everywhere? Do we care for our democracy and
republican form of government? Or, is it time to overthrow it and hand it over
to the oiko despots of this age? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">These are just a few of the systemic realities which
surround us every day. And letting stories like Jesus’s parables be
discussion-starters in which we listen to the texts and listen to one another
and the nearly endless possibilities of application to our lives. And we must
be cautious when an English translation of the Bible assigns a title to a story
like the story of this vineyard. It is one thing for Matthew, Mark and Luke to
portray the chief priests and elders to think its all about them. But they
already thought everything was about them. And many of them were just doing
their level best to live within the friendly confines of the Ten, and
ultimately 613 commandments found in Torah – the first five books of our Bible. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">What this story is not, I am convinced, is a story that
means to conclude “the Jews were wicked and killed God’s Son. This is the most
wicked and perverted reading of this tale, and to think anything like could
come from the mouth, heart and soul of Jesus is offensive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rome, and Rome only, was responsible. When it
comes to biblical interpretation, we can do better than that. May God, in God’s
infinite mercy, love and graciousness help us to be compassionate to see the
best in one another, and especially to see the best in all others. No
exceptions. Amen. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">[i] https://godswordtowomen.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/oikodespotes/ </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">[ii] Herzog II, William, Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus
as Pedagogue of the Oppressed <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY:
1994) p.259.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8025398071249378822.post-86523853558613115282023-09-30T07:43:00.008-07:002023-09-30T07:43:35.710-07:00Wither and Grow: Turning the Tables Proper 21A<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b>Turning The Tables: Wither or Grow?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>“By what authority are you doing these things, and who
gave you this authority?”</i> It’s a fair question. The chief priests and
elders have every right to ask Jesus who has authorized him to “do these
things.” (Matthew 21:23-32) Disembodied as this question is from its greater
context, it helps to know just what these things are, and just why those who
have long been entrusted and authorized to protect the traditions and The
Jerusalem Temple would be concerned. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are three things he has done, which some have
suggested are mirrored by the three parables that follow - of which we have the
first of those parables before us about two adolescent brothers. What Jesus had
done, in the eyes of his questioners and his equally perplexed disciples is: to
storm the royal city with as rag-a-tag a group of followers imaginable cheering
him on; he storms into the Temple precinct overturning the tables of commerce
that make it possible for all people, including foreigners, ie gentiles, to properly
worship the One God of the Covenant; then he curses and withers a fig tree for
bearing no fruit, despite it not being the proper season for fruit to appear.
(Matthew 21:1-22) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">In short, he has appeared to do nothing but cause one ruckus
after another during Jerusalem’s busiest time of the year, The Feast of the
Passover - commemorating the foundational event that forged a disparate band of
refugees into a people - a people that God loves and entrusts with God’s own
wishes and deepest desires for life on this fragile Earth, our island home.
These chief priests and elders, protectors of the traditions, believe they know
what they are doing and are obviously aghast at what Jesus has been doing in
the very House of the Lord they have been tending for generations. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like any good rabbi, Jesus answers their question with a
question of his own: <i>“I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the
answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the
baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” </i>They begin to
argue with one another. Already the disrupter has caused a fourth ruckus! There
is no good answer for them. If we say “heaven” he’ll ask us why we did not
believe John and follow him; if we say “human origin” this crowd gathered for
Passover who believed John was a prophet will turn on us. “We don’t know,” they
meekly reply. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">See what Jesus does there? He turns the tables on them! He
validates John’s call for everyone, even the chief priests and elders, to
repent and return to the very principles of the Covenant: to love God and love
all neighbors. Which is what Jesus has been announcing as well. And again, like
any good rabbi, to illustrate, he tells them a story. Three stories really, of
which we have the first. Stories which are meant to act as a mirror into which
we are to see ourselves - to really see our true selves, and whether or not we
are ready to repent and live in the very ways God has asked us to live,
especially to love and care for others - all others, no questions asked. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The story is one about two brothers whose father (hint-hint)
needs their help and cooperation. The first one is deep into playing Call of
Duty on his X-Box and says, “No way, dude!” But later, he relents/repents, and
heads out into the vineyard to help. The second is in the middle of a virtual
reality tennis match against Novak Djokovic and says, “Sure, sure. I’ll be
right there.” But he is just starting the fifth set and is still playing at his
console to this day! <i>“Which one, “ asks Jesus, “is doing the will of his
father (hint-hint).”</i> Finally, a question the chief priests and elders can
answer. <i>“The first!”</i> they cry out triumphantly. Not so fast, says Jesus.
Tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners will get into the kingdom of God of my
Father ahead of you, because they heeded John’s call to repent and you still
have not! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">What isn’t said, but is implied by reading the whole of
chapter 21, is that like the fig tree, there is still time to get with the
program. When the disciples saw the withered fig tree they were amazed, saying,
<i>“How did the fig tree wither at once?”</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus answered them, “<i>Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not
doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you
say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.
Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”</i> Understand,
as long as your prayers are aligned with the principles of God’s Covenant
Kingdom. The challenge of the fig tree is just this: Wither, or Grow? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The parable of the brothers calls us all to set aside the
distractions of techno-life and political strife and whatever other nonsense
takes up all of our time and begin bearing the fruit of God’s kingdom - which
in chapter 25 Matthew’s Jesus lays out in no uncertain terms at all: feed the
hungry, assuage people’s thirst, welcome strangers, care for widows, orphans
and resident aliens so that we all can enjoy the fruits of this astonishingly
beautiful and abundant creation spinning through the vacuum of an otherwise
cold and hostile universe. If only we work together and love one another the
way God my Father loves and cares for us. Which means being merciful, which
Kurt Vonnegut once said is the one good idea we have been given so far. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Imagine this for just a moment. Jesus enters our hearts and
minds, not Jerusalem. We witness his actions and look into the mirror of his
parables. What do we see? A withered fig tree? Or do we see fruit on our tree?
Do we see someone who allows Jesus to turn the tables on us so we might break
free from all our assumptions and beliefs and be made new? Do we see ourselves
taking off our cloaks, laying them on the roadway into our hearts, and welcome
the Father’s Son into our hearts to change us? To free us from ourselves? To
make us One with God, One with creation, and One with one another? Do we see
ourselves out in the vineyard to work for the kingdom of heaven on Earth? “Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Or, do we continue to dabble in virtual reality, take endless
selfies, ignore the needs of a planet and its people while Antarctica melts
away and the Siberian tundra burns? While millions beg for just a drop of water?
While millions more beg for just a crust of bread? Do we continue to play
Church and protect the traditions of our elders, while the very Earth stands on
tip-toe and groans awaiting all of us, some of us, just one of us to stop what
we are doing, repent, turn our lives around, turn the life of our Father’s
world right-side up again, so that there really is justice and peace and mercy
for all people and all creatures great and small? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is what Jesus is asking the chief priests and elders.
That’s who we are. This is what he is asking all of us. To look into the
mirror. What do we see? Someone who will let him turn our sacred tables over
and follow him?</span><o:p></o:p></p>Kirk A Kubicekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04567296388551421888noreply@blogger.com0