Come and Join the Party, Every Day! Lent 4C

Come and Join the Party, Every Day!

Hey hey, hey, come right away

Come and join the party every day. [i]

That’s the refrain from The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion, the first song on the first Grateful Dead album. Which pretty much sums of the 15^th Chapter of Luke: Come Join the Party! Jesus is telling stories to a crowd of outsiders, including tax collectors and sinners. The Pharisees and Scribes grumble and do not approve. Story one, a shepherd loses one out of 100 sheep, and leaves the 99 to find the one, returns home and invites his neighbors to a celebration party. Story two, a woman loses one coin, sweeps out her whole house, every nook and cranny, until finally she finds the one coin. And what does she do? She throws a block party for the entire neighborhood. Finally, a story we call The Prodigal Son, as if somehow this profligate spend-thrift son deserves top billing. It might better be called The Story of Two Sons, since stories of older and younger sons is a common tale throughout the Bible: think Cain and Able, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Manasseh and Ephraim, in which the younger sons end up supplanting the older sons. This may be why Jesus is always talking about the last becoming the first?

This third parable could be called The Parable of the Loving and Compassionate Father. I cannot help but think, however, that it is The Party theme in all three that becomes the central character of this story – once in Jerusalem, Jesus will initiate a party we call The Last Supper, of which perhaps this parable offers insight and foreshadowing! For what this party represents is what my dear late friend and mentor, N. Gordon Cosby calls a Grace Party:

 When we hear the invitation to claim our membership in God’s family, it’s like we’ve stumbled onto a Grace Party. We can hardly believe our good fortune. The sights and sounds of it are pure delight. Abundance characterizes the whole shindig. The most delectable manna is falling everywhere, and wine overflows as though from an Artesian well Everyone is eating and drinking endlessly, yet not being harmed because this food and wine are not of the world but New Life.

 And get this: Everyone’s invited! That’s the really good news. No one has to crash this party, there’s no limit to how many of my friends I can bring along with me. Or, my enemies for that matter. It’s such a blast that I want everyone to come – those with wealth or not a penny to their name, those who are down and out or who thought they had some power. I do notice, though, that the so-called nobodies seem to be having the most fun. It takes others a while to lay down everything they brought with them and start to play.

What are people doing at this party? That’s the funny thing – We’re not ‘doing’ much at all. We’re just being. We’re being our real selves, relaxed and eager to help out with whatever the host asks of us. Love is flowing all over the place. Whatever you need, we’re ready:

             Do you want someone to listen? We’ll hear whatever you need to say.

Are you bleeding from wounds of the past? We’ll soothe and bandage your wounds.

Do you need to be held for a while, just being quiet in a safe place? Not a problem. We have all the time in the world.

Looking for respect, even reverence? You’ll get such a dose of it you’ll wonder if you can take it all in.

 In fact, there’s so much peace and joy at this party that it can be hard to absorb. Some of us just aren’t able to let in this much unimpeded Love and Goodness. That’s right. The host isn’t pushy. We can come and go as many times as we need to until we can handle this much joy.

 This is simply the nature of a Grace Party. None of us is here because we deserve to be. We haven’t earned any of it. And although some of us might keep turning down the invitation, the host will never stop inviting. And neither will we who have decided to stay. We’ll be spreading the news of this unbelievable Feast everywhere we go. Come to the party! It won’t be the same if you’re not there.[ii] 

The older son refuses to join the party. We can suspect the Pharisees and Scribes agree with him. And we may as well admit it, his reasons are justifiable: his eventual inheritance has been significantly reduced by his younger brother’s “dissolute living.” But we also know that this rather self-centered point of view is completely at odds with everything Jesus has to say about living here and now in the Kingdom of God: where the last will be first; where love of neighbor, outsiders, and even enemies is the absolute measure of our love; and where ultimately, we are all going to give it all away when it is all said and done! This is what Jesus was trying to say to his disciples when the night before he died, he washed their feet, and gave them a sacramental meal of bread and wine, his own Body and Blood, as a reminder that the love he is proclaiming is meant for others - all others, not, as the older brother assumes, for ourselves alone, or just those like ourselves, no matter how good and righteous we think we are!

 L. William Countryman, in his little book, Good News of Jesus, sums it up like this:

 “The life of the community that celebrates these sacraments is a life of mutual giving and receiving. The early Christians were convinced that the Spirit has a particular care for the church, supplying the community with all its needs. She does so, however, in a peculiar way. The gifts you need she gives to someone else. The gifts you are given are meant for others. The Christian community can live only by the sharing of these gifts. (1Cor 12-14) The church at its best is a community that lives by this kind of sharing, exercising generosity not only within its own circle, but toward outsiders as well. Jesus, after all, came for the outsiders. None of us has any higher claim on God than the claim to God’s willing forgiveness. We are all outsiders, miraculously included within the community of the gospel by God’s call to us.”[iii]

 This is why this is The Parable of the Grace Party for Outsiders Everywhere. This is the Party we are meant to share with all people, everywhere, all the time, every day:

                                                 Hey hey, hey, come right away

Come and join the party every day!

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[i] The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion, on The Grateful Dead (Warner Brothers:1967)

[ii] N. Gordon Cosby, Church of the Saviour, Washington, D.C.

[iii] L. William Countryman, Good News of Jesus (Cowley Press, Cambridge, MA:1993) p.105. 

I Am with You Always to The End of the Age Lent 3C

 

I Am with You Always, to the End of the Age

I listen to quiet music coming from a hand-pan as a gentle snow falls upon a Colorado mountain. I ponder suffering. It seems to be as the Buddha said 27 hundred years ago – there is Suffering. So very much suffering that even our planet Earth is suffering. As chapter 13 of Luke opens up, some people tell Jesus of the suffering in Jerusalem as Pontius Pilate had slaughtered pilgrims from Galilee and “mingled their blood with their sacrifices.” Appointed sacrifices that could only be offered in the Jerusalem Temple. Jesus then recalls those killed when a tower in Jerusalem crashed and fell to the ground. One tragedy the result of an intentional calculated act of terror by a powerful Roman official; the other an accident? Or, perhaps the result of shoddy workmanship in an effort to save time and money and maximize profit.[i]

 

Suffering. Like the intentional act of violence and terror against the people of Ukraine. Or, people still suffering the effects of the earthquake-tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown in Fukishima, Japan.

 

Earlier Luke tells us, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”[ii] He has already told his friends and disciples that he goes there to enter into the suffering. Who knows, once he is in Jerusalem, perhaps he will recall Psalm 63, “O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.” We know this feeling all too well. We internalize the world’s suffering; that of our loved ones; our own sufferings. When talking to the people about the fate of the Galileans and the Jerusalemites, what he says is what he always says, “Repent.” By which he means, as Psalm 63 concludes, “My soul clings to you; your right hand holds me fast.” There is so little time to turn, to re-turn, to the Lord. For who knows when our end will some. But fear not, for I am there. I will be there with you through any and all suffering. It has nothing to do whether you have been naughty or nice. I will always be there. If you turn, you will see me. You will know that I am with you.

 

Then he tells them a story about a tree. William Countryman in his little book, Good News of Jesus[iii] tells the same story about a woman and her two trees:

The new life of the good news is like this. There was a woman who lived in the country in Sonoma County, near Sebastopol. She had no relatives there – not even any close neighbors. The nearest was an elderly man who lived a half-mile away. Behind her house she had a garden, and at the foot of the garden, two apple trees that were her pride and joy.

Once she was called away to care for her only living relative, who was sick and lived very far away. She gave a key to the elderly man, who promised to look in on her house every week or so; but he was too infirm to care for her garden. She thought she would be away a few months, but she was gone for two years. From far away, she heard about drought and fires and storms.

When at last the woman came home, she found her house had lost some shingles, and there was a little water damage inside. Otherwise, things were much as she left them. Then she went through the house and out into the garden. It was overgrown with tall grass and nettles. At the foot of the garden were her two apple trees. They were in bloom – at the height of their bloom, when apple trees look like white clouds with a touch of pink and the petals are just beginning to fall and carpet the ground with white as well.

She stood thee awhile and drank it all in, and her heart filled with delight and thanks. Then she unlocked the toolshed, took out her pruners and, wading through the weeds, went down to the apple trees and began cutting out deadwood. And she thought. She thought of the day when she would have apples for herself and her neighbor.

 

The snow continues to fall, the music continues to fill the air. I once read that our image of God creates us. Like Pilate, like the woman in the story, we make choices. We can be reactive like Pilate, like the man in the story Jesus tells, and cut the tree down. But is that what we really think our God wants us to do? Is this what our God wants to do to us, whether or not we have been naughty or nice? Our God is not Santa Claus. That is not a God of good news. My God is more like the woman who bears no anger toward her neighbor who let the property go while she was attending to her sick relative. Instead, her heart is filled with delight and thanks. She looks forward the day when she will have apples for herself and her neighbor.

 

Yes, there is suffering. The Buddha, like Jesus, also said there is a way through suffering. A path. A hand to which we may cling when we feel we are in a barren and dry land where there is no water. Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem – Jerusalem, which at the time, was the center of much suffering. He sings Psalms, songs, as he enters into our suffering to be with us. Jesus, who also says, “I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”[iv]

 

What is our image of God? Just how and who does it make us? Can we reach out in our suffering and cling to God’s hand? These are the questions that race through my mind as I listen to the sound of a hand-pan as snow gently falls upon a Colorado mountain. I ponder suffering. I ponder Jesus setting his face toward all that suffering in Jerusalem. I ponder the Buddha’s path through suffering. I ponder the psalmist who sings of our constant need to turn our souls toward the Creator. And oddly, I begin to feel delight and thanks in the midst of great sorrow. Amen.

 

The Sound of the Hand-Pan

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[i] Luke 13:1-9 NRSV

[ii] Luke 9:51 NRSV

[iii] L. William Countryman, Good News of Jesus (Cowley Publications, Cambridge, MA:19993) p.109

[iv] Matthew 28:20 NRSV

The Fox is In the Hen House Lent 2C

The Fox is In the Hen House

The Fox is in the Hen House, and the Mother Hen is quickly gathering her brood under the safety of her wings – yet as soon as she gets six under her right wing, two squirt back out from under her left wing. And once she gets the two back under her left wing, three more escape from under her right wing. Of course, it would be funny to watch if it weren’t for the fact that the Fox is in the Hen House looking to kill the Mother Hen.

 

If that’s not enough, a group of Pharisees, often misunderstood as antagonists in the Gospels, show up out of nowhere, this time to warn the prophet Jesus to walk away, as Herod, the Fox in the Hen House, wants to kill him, just as he has already beheaded the prophet, John.[i]

 

Jerusalem, literally “city of shalom,” “city of peace,” is described here by the Mother Hen as a killing field for any and all prophets who come to challenge those who wield Power over all of Israel on behalf of Caesar’s Empire, Rome. The roadways in and out of the city on the hill are lined with wooden crosses and corpses to remind those, who like Jesus, are on a mission, sent by God, to announce the news as that hapless one Jonah did in Ninevah, “Return to the Lord. Turn around, and walk in the Way of the Lord, the God of creation, the God of the Rainbow, the God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, ready to forgive, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to begin again a life together under his gracious and protective wings!”[ii]

 

Jerusalem, city of the Hen House, the Temple, which is no longer the safe-haven household of God’s people, for that other Fox is in the Hen House, Pontius Pilate is his name. He who slaughters innocent Galileans and mingles their blood with their sacrifices; the hometown sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles of the Christos, the one anointed as the Beloved Son of God Most High. See what’s left of your Hen House, profaned as it is by the Foxes on Caesar’s payroll.[iii]

 

“Get away from here,” say the Pharisees. It’s really the Greek translation of the Hebrew halak - walk. Tell that Fox I will walk, but I walk not away. I will continue to walk in the Way of Halakha - the Way of the Lord - casting out demons, healing people of every dis-ease, gathering my Father’s brood back under the Protective Wings of his Torah, his Halakha, his Statutes, his Word – for his Word is a lantern for my feet, and a light upon my path.[iv] I must continue my Father’s work today, tomorrow, and on the Third Day I will finish his work of Halakha! I will Rise Again on the Third Day and gather my brood under my wings. For I am the Wings of God.”

 

Life under those wings is Halakha, is the Way of the Lord. It is where the hungry are fed, the thirsty have their thirst quenched from the Fountain of the Waters of Life, where demons are cast out, those cannot see will see, the poor, the lame, male and female, Gentile and Jew, slave and free, prophet, farmer, artisan and day laborer, all will be sheltered under the Wings of God where life is eternal. Life lived with God never ends! Walk back and tell that Fox Herod I am walking to Jerusalem.

 

Caesar and his foxes will burn the Hen House to the ground, but will never capture those protected under the Mother Hen’s wings. Walk we will, but we will not walk away. You who take shelter under my wings will continue the work I do, and greater things than these will you do, In My Name.[v] For you are my Beloved, you are my Body and Blood, you will continue to walk in The Way of the Lord until that day I return and you sing, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”[vi]

 

Today, Kyiv, Ukraine is Jerusalem – the City of Shalom for us all. The Fox is still in the Hen House. So many people are in danger, so many being killed for no reason other than to feed the ravenous hunger of the Fox. We are the Wings of God. Those in need must find shelter under our wings. So that the Earth may be filled with the Glory of the Lord. That the Earth may be filled with mercy, filled with forgiveness, filled with the steadfast Love of the Lord. For Life lived with God never ends.

 

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to us and to all go astray from your ways, and bring us again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

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[i] Luke 13:31-35

[ii] Jonah 4: 1-5

[iii] Luke 13:35a

[iv] Psalm 119:105

[v] John 14:12

[vi] Psalm 118:26a

This Is a Test Lent 1C

This Is a Test

When you are about to buy a house, you hire a home inspector to test the construction and major household systems. When people about to become a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, a priest, an electrician and so forth, you are tested and certified or licensed to go to work.

As it turns out, if you are going to be God’s anointed (christos) and God’s Beloved Son, you need to be tested. The Holy Spirit received at his baptism leads Jesus into the wilderness, an area beyond any of the regional settlements; an area of few resources, some danger, and inhabited by wild animals. A character familiar throughout his sacred texts shows up: known only as “the sat-tan,” or satan. Who is nothing like what we think of as “the devil.” No horns, no tail, no red leotard. He is more like a building inspector who is not opposed to God, but is sent to see just what shape God’s creation is in. As we know all too well, things are frequently in rough to bad shape with troubles of multiple kinds: pandemics, inflation, a fragile and threatened ecosystem, mass shootings, thirst for power, and war. If the satan were to turn in a quarterly report at the end of this month, it would certainly bring tears to the eyes of God.

The satan knows that human beings appear to have two inclinations: one good and one bad. The good inclination is the ability to follow rules, behave ourselves and cooperate. The bad inclination is to make our own rules, push the envelope and compete. The first woman pushes the envelope and reaches for the stars believing the slithering serpent’s Big Lie: you can be like God! And the first man, like most men, will eat anything put in front of him without a second thought.

The Jewish understanding of this story has nothing to do with “a fall,” but rather to recognize we need to learn how to cooperate and compete with some sort of balance: we need to clean our rooms and reach for the stars, and no real human accomplishment from walking on the moon to running a successful business is possible without the productive tension between these two inclinations.[i] When these two inclinations are out of balance, however, our troubles begin. All humans need to keep this in mind. Jesus is no exception, being flesh and blood like the rest of us.

In the fourth chapter of Luke we find Jesus Christos the Son of God on a silent retreat: away from so-called civilization, fasting, a traditional spiritual practice in Israel, and sorting out for himself just what happened down by the River Jordan when God’s Spirit-Breath took hold of him. And of course, the announcement that he is God’s Beloved Son. Note: the first thing the satan puts in front of Jesus is food: you have not eaten for a long time, why not turn stones into bread! Jesus quotes Moses from his farewell sermon in Deuteronomy to say that we need more than bread to really live in this world (Deut 8:3). The next two tests are for absolute power over all the nations of the Earth, and putting the way God’s mercy and love to a test. To which Jesus replies, “Only the God of love has absolute power, and I will not put God to a foolish test like jumping off the roof of the Temple (Deut 6:13 and 6:16). We saw Jesus talking with Moses last Sunday, and yet long before that he quotes Moses chapter and verse! This suggests if nothing else, Lent is a good time to re-read Deuteronomy since on that basis, and that basis alone, Jesus passes the test – and the satan leaves until some future opportunity makes itself available. In Luke’s story that will be when he whispers in the ear of Judas Iscariot. It does not turn out well.

It's interesting to note that when that happens, Jesus turns to the other disciples and says, “You have stood with me even in my sorrow and testing. My Father has made me Chief of the Good Road of God’s love. As Chief, I give you the right to walk the Road of God’s love with me, and share my table.”[ii]

The wilderness story has little to do with Jesus defeating the satan on our behalf. A brief scan of the day’s news tells us the sat-tan is alive and well. What this episode suggests is that what we need most has little to do with accumulating life’s externals: food, power, and trying to be our own gods. Rather, when our time of testing comes, will we walk the road of God’s love with Jesus and share his table? The Franciscan nun and theologian, Ilia Delio, calls this The Primacy of Love. Do we truly love God, our neighbor, and our enemies?

She reminds us that the deepest reality of love cannot be found in those externals found outside of ourselves, because divine love dwells deep within us.[iii] It is there that we discover that we are God’s Beloved. It is there we experience the mercy, forgiveness, and steadfast love of God in Christ that makes it possible for us to love ourselves, love our neighbors, and even love our enemies. Because love, says Delio and a host of scientists and theologians, is the source and energy of the entire universe.

“Given the primacy of love, if we have only one choice to make today, let us choose to love, let us seek love in all aspects of our lives. If love really is the truth of our existence and the truth of God, then may we not aim to meet the minimum requirements of love; rather, let us love to the point of tears. Let us breathe in the pain of the world and breathe out the goodness of love, letting go in love, from the simplest act of gratitude, to caring for another, or perhaps risking out lives for a stranger – or better yet – loving our enemy. For every act of love is a personalization of God, and when God is born through our lives, heaven unfolds on earth. All that we long for and anticipate becomes a reality in this moment, in the here and now, in every particular act of love.”[iv]

This life is a test: a test of the Emergency Love Network which Jesus passes with his knowledge of God’s Word. He gives his disciples and us just one choice to make: Do we accept his commission to walk the road of God’s steadfast love self, of neighbor, and of enemy? For it is not what we believe, but what we say and what we do that will reflect the mercy, forgiveness and steadfast love of God. Only our actions on behalf of others will tell the world whether or not we pass the test.

Let us breathe in the pain of the world and breathe out the goodness of love, letting go in love, from the simplest act of gratitude, to caring for another, or perhaps risking out lives for a stranger – or better yet – loving our enemy. Amen.

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[i] Richard Swanson, Provoking the Gospel of Luke (The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland: 2006) p.116.

[ii] First Nations Version: An indigenous translation of the New Testament (Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL:2021) p 156.

[iii] Ilia Delio, The Primacy of Love(Fortress Press, Minneapolis:2022) p 51.

[iv] Ibid, Delio p 82.

When Will We? Last Sunday after the Epiphany C

 When Will We?

In the midst of unfolding war, we are reminded of the Primacy of Love. The story of the Transfiguration[i] ends, “And all were astounded at the greatness of God.” What does that tell us about the Transfiguration of Jesus? His appearance changes. Three witnesses, as unreliable as they may be, see him talking with Moses and Elijah. Moses represents the spiritual formation of God’s people in the long and difficult wilderness experience. Elijah is perhaps the earliest of God’s appointed prophets sent to speak truth to power – to chastise and call Israel’s leadership to return really to the Way of God. They are discussing Jesus’s exodos, his Exodus, his departure that is to be accomplished in Jerusalem – the power hub for Israel, the Temple and Rome to which Jesus has been sent by God to speak truth to power.

 

Peter, James and John hear a voice from a cloud: “This is my Son, my Chosen, my Beloved. Listen to him!” So far, the question in Luke has been, “Who is this Jesus from Nazareth?” After all, isn’t the expected and desired anointed one of God supposed to come from Bethlehem, the City of David? Nevertheless, Moses and Elijah are the archetypal consultants for anyone who is anointed, christos, by God to speak Truth to Power. It is no wonder Peter wants to build them some dwellings to keep them around for a while.

 

This is the second time the voice has spoken. We heard it at his baptism by John. This Jesus is sent to be God’s expression of the Primacy of Love in God’s Creation, now transfigured as Love incarnate. His first act after being transfigured is restore a convulsing young man, dismissing an unclean spirit, and the crowd who has been hanging around for at least two chapters, like a Greek chorus proclaim, “Look at the greatness of God!” They look at transfigured Jesus and see God.

 

They all see the God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Transfiguration appears to be the very moment in the story that the young man from a backwater village in the hills of Galilee embodies the very image and power of God. Which image and power is Love.

 

This is no doubt why Moses and Elijah show up in the midst of his prayer time, his quiet time to get away from the crowds and all their demands and all their speculations and all their neediness. Moses and Elijah both see that this is God, this is Love, this is the Love of God incarnate, love become flesh and blood to reveal the Love that is baked into our DNA from before the beginning of time. Little wonder his face and raiments radiate a brightness only Love can shine into this world.

 

The great Franciscan priest and scholar, John Dun Scotus says that sin is not the reason for Christ, love is. For all eternity God willed to love a creature to grace and glory. Before the stars were born, Christ was in the heart of God, “hidden from the foundation of the world” (Colossians 1:26).[ii]

 

In her book, The Primacy of Love, Ilia Delio writes, “God is most deeply actualized not in individual beings, but in the multitude of love they exist to enact. Albert Nolan posits that it is better to say that the mystery we call God is personal rather than a person. In this sense, God does not exist as an absolute being in love with a separate existence, but rather God loves in and through our love for one another.”[iii] Which Jesus makes clear is to include love for our enemies.

Given the current state of affairs vis a vis the crisis in the Ukraine, such love is challenging to say the least. We allow such crises to divide us rather than unite us – which undoubtedly is what Vladimir Putin and his like intend to do by such heinous and tragic actions. These divisions deeply sadden to the point of breaking the heart and the love of God.

 

Another Franciscan, Bonaventure in reflecting on the resurrection says this about transfiguration:

“Christ shares existence with each and every thing: with the stones he shares existence, with the plants he shares life, with the animals, sensation … all things are said to be transformed in Christ since in his human nature he embraces something of every creature in himself when he was transfigured.”[iv]

 

That’s what was happening up on the mountain – Jesus the Christ was revealed as he embraces something of every creature and everything in himself! This is the Greatness of God the people at the base of the mountain call us all to see. Look at the transfigured Jesus, they say; see that God lives in and through our love for one another – including our enemies. Sadly, there are those like Vladimir Putin who resist being embraced and transfigured by the Love of God in Christ.

 

Sin is not the reason for Christ, love is. God loves in and through our love for one another. When Christ was revealed, when Christ was transfigured, when Christ sent away the unclean spirit from the young lad at the foot of the mountain, it was another moment of the transfiguration of us all as the Love that God wills to exist through all creation – through all creatures. Yes, sin, and its notorious twin, evil, has entered the world, and persists. Unclean spirits seek to convulse and divide us while Christ continues to seek to unite us. This most mysterious of all episodes in the Bible begs the question, ‘When will we?’ When will we allow ourselves, all of us, everyone, to be embraced by God’s mercy and steadfast Love? When will we show forth this transfigured love in all that we say and all that we do, all of the time? When will we? If not now, when? Amen.

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[i] Luke 9:28-43a

[ii] Ilia Delio, The Primacy of Love (Fortress Press, Minneapolis: 2022) p. 34.

[iii] Ibid p.36

[iv] Ibid p. 43

Mercy Now Epiphany 7C

 

Mercy Now

Even knowing the results ahead of time, it was still hard to imagine that anything could look more lonely, isolated, painful and tragic than what took place on the Olympic Ice to end the Women’s Free Skate as I watched it Thursday evening. To see the fifteen year-old Kamila Valieva having to pick herself up off of the ice over and over again; at the end of her skate bent over, head in hands, unable to look up, a blank look in her eyes as she attempted to make the obligatory arms in the air “thank you” to what passes for a crowd; then skating off the ice only to be criticized by her coaches for not “fighting” through the errors, rather than them showing any compassion or comfort for the girl who had become the flashpoint of multiple layers of failures and scandal among the adults entrusted to care for one who is arguably one of the greatest talents ever to glide across the ice. She was made to carry the burden of a drug doping scandal onto the ice and into her routine. It was too much.

 

While Valieva was in tears, her body heaving and shaking as she sobbed uncontrollably, backstage, the Gold Medalist, Anna Shcherbakova, sat alone, clutching a teddy bear, no one there to congratulate her, a vacant far away look in her eyes trying to grasp how it had all come to this; while teammate Alexandra Trusova, in disbelief that throwing five quads in one program was not enough to win Gold, angrily shouting and crying how unfair it all is and refusing at first  to go out to the podium for the Mascot presentation. Then there were the tears of joy cascading down Kaori Sakamoto’s face in mixed joy and disbelief that without the “big jumps” of the Russian girls she somehow landed in third place for the Bronze.

 

Half-way around the world, it was heartbreaking in so many different ways that one was forced to agree with Jesus addressing that huge and diverse crowd on the plain who suffered from troubled spirits and all kinds of dis-ease; Jesus who says to them, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” [Luke 6:36] no doubt invoking the psalmist who declares, “God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” [Psalm 103:8] If ever there was a scene deserving such steadfast love, graciousness and mercy, it was in Bejing’s Capital Indoor Stadium on Thursday, February 17, 2022.  

 

 The Court of Arbitration of Sport deemed it would be damaging not to let Valieva skate despite the evidence of a banned substance in her blood test. By the end of the night, however, it looked as if it was even more damaging to her emotionally and physically not to have withdrawn her from the competition. It was hard not to be angry. Angry that any number of adults and agencies allowed had failed her. It was hard not to judge and condemn all those who put Valieva in position to fail.

 

Yet, Jesus says, Judge not lest ye be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven. [Luke 6:37] And, Be merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful. At times like this it is just so so hard to live into the essence of what Jesus means when he speaks about Love and Mercy. It was as if there was a murderer’s row of enemies to lash out at, and yet, we are to be merciful, forgiving, and, oh yes, we are to love our enemies. One day each week at Noonday Prayer John Philip Newell urges us to pray:

We wake to the forgiveness of a new day.

We wake to the freedom to begin again.

We wake to the mercy of the Sun’s redeeming light

Always new, always gift, always blessing.

We wake to the forgiveness of this new day. Amen.

 

If you love those who love you, says Jesus, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. To love one’s self, we need to wake to the forgiveness of each new day, and wake to the freedom to begin again. This must also be our prayer for those young women who skated the other night – all of them. For all of them, no matter where they placed, no matter where they were from, every single one of them had to feel that not only the eyes of the world were watching them, but must have felt the weight of the entire world on their shoulders as they attempted to fly across the ice and leap through the air to bring wonder and joy and astonishment to those of us who were watching.

 

Mercy now, Lord. Mercy now for Kamila, Anna, Alexandra and Kaori. Help us, dear Lord, not to judge, not to condemn, but to accept your forgiveness, accept your mercifulness, accept your belovedness; that we too may become merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; that we may love our neighbors, love our enemies, and be merciful. May we be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful.   Amen.

Mercy Now - Mary Gauthier

It is Good! Epiphany 6C

 

It is Good!

Jesus went up on a mountain to pray. While there, he gathered his twelve apostles. The next day they come down from the mountain to level ground where they are met by people from all over Judea, Jerusalem, Tyre and Sidon. It’s a great crowd of disciples and a multitude of others: a mix of Jews and Gentiles with all kinds of disease and unclean spirits, all trying to touch him, “for power came out from him and healed all of them.” [Luke 6:17-26] All of them. Everyone, no questions asked, no qualifications to be met, no triage, no discussion. It just happens: free healthcare for everyone. Imagine that.

 Then he looks up at everyone and begins to speak:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now,

for you will be filled.

“Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets."

 Those of us following Luke’s Story of Jesus have heard some of this before when his Mother Mary sang to her kinswoman Elizabeth: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

 Mary envisioned a coming Reign of God in which the current status quo undergoes a reversal. The poor in the land are economically destitute, land and debt poor, and who claim no power and reap no benefits from the dominant economic system. These poor and hungry people will inherit  the kingdom, be filled with good things, will laugh, and achieve the status of prophets. Beginning now, thanks to the new power that is already coming from Jesus!

What is in store for those who currently benefit from the current economic imbalance? A mirror image of “Woes,” in which the reversal continues: They will experience hunger, mourning, weeping, an end to the enjoyment of their accumulated wealth, and a loss of their status in the community.

Sharon Ringe, in her commentary on Luke,  has observed that “In each case, the blessing makes a statement of fact: one is blessed because of a future that is a sure part of God’s reign. There is no note of threat or challenge in these blessings: Nowhere do they say, ‘Do this in order to guarantee a specific result.’ They announce a truth about the divine agenda rather than a mandate for human morality. In a similar way the list of woes is not one of behaviors to be avoided or changed in order to avert disaster. Instead, it states facts: People who are rich, well fed, laughing, and enjoying good reputations will also experience the alternative. They are not being punished for their actions; rather, they have enjoyed the blessing and now the turn passes to others.”[i]

 One other fact: Unlike in Matthew where the blessings are assigned in the third person at some future time, both the blessings and woes in Luke are in the second person, for those being addressed right now. This suggests that amidst this great multitude of persons that have come to be with Jesus, those in Luke’s own audience, and of course all of us who are present thanks to the power of story, those who benefit from the status quo hear the woes directed to them, while those who presently suffer with economic hardships hear a word of blessing. In eight succinct statements of blessings and woes, Jesus has managed to give every single person present a glimpse of the Great Reversal of fortunes that constitutes God’s plan, as Luke has already made clear in the hymns and birth stories, and most especially in Jesus’s announcement of the Jubilee year which he had made in his hometown synagogue when reading the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

Ringe further suggests that, “To see the beatitude as rewarding an attitude (as Matthew seems to imply) or an economic condition for its own sake (as Luke seems to imply) is to miss the principal point.”[ii] Rather, in all announcements of the Great Reversal, that the last will be first and the first will be last, one dimension of the good news of Jesus is that all calculations of both economic station and social status is ended. God in Jesus Christ institutes a social structure founded on the generosity, respect, and equal treatment of everyone; Jew and Gentile alike.

 The invitation to each and every one of us who are now a part of this story is that right now we are given the opportunity to mirror the just and loving generosity of God.[iii]

 As we try to imagine just how these blessings and woes were received that day among that great and diverse crowd with Jesus, may we begin to feel his power his power to cast out all unclean spirits that trouble us; may we begin to see ourselves as a part of that great multitude from all over the ancient world, Gentile and Jew, female and male, slave and free; once and for all may we see ourselves as one with all humankind, and one with the God who looks at all things created, seen and unseen, and who still says, “It is good. It is very very good. Now and forever. Amen!” 

 

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[i] Sharon Ringe, Luke (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville: 1995) p. 93.

[ii] Ibid p.92.

[iii] Ibid, p.95.