Bully Jesus?

Lent 5 B

John 12:20-33

I think it is kind of cool.  I was looking over my friends from Facebook and realized that my friends cover all sorts of faiths, all sorts of beliefs.  I have friends who are Jewish, friends who are pagan, and friends who are atheists.  What is especially interesting is that no matter what, so often the conversation comes to Jesus.  Even the atheists know about Jesus!  And many of the atheists are, quite embarrassingly, more knowledgeable about Jesus than many of the Christians I know.  No matter what you may say about Jesus, it is almost impossible to live in America and not have some kind of knowledge of Jesus.

But even after all these years, and with all these people talking about Jesus, I still think we don’t really understand Jesus.  I really think we have a concept of Jesus in our head and then we do what we can to make Jesus fit inot our concept.  And actually, that is nothing odd; we do that to just about everything.  But the unfortunate thing is that so often we forget to look at our assumptions of Jesus, and when we fail to look at our assumptions, we begin to do all kinds of things and attribute those actions to Jesus.

A while ago, there was the whole WWJD phenomenon going around.  It sounds like a simple question to ask and a simple question to answer.  What would Jesus do?  But just a look at our gospel reading of two weeks ago should jar us.  Jesus was running through the temple with a whip!  Would we think that Jesus would be doing that?  Or how ‘bout tax collectors and prostitutes?  Jesus was eating with them.  Would we be wanting to do that?  I know, as a priest, if I am seen out regularly with prostitutes, most people are not going to be thinking, “Wow, he is doing what Jesus did!”  No, so often WWJD becomes, “What Would I Do and obviously that is what Jesus would do.”  We tend to want to turn Jesus into our follower instead of trying to follow the way of Jesus.

Now in Biblical times, they probably wouldn’t have had WWJD t-shirts, but they may have had WWTMD tunics and caftans.  WWTMD?  Well, of course, that stands for “What Would the Messiah Do?”  And during those days, there were some pretty strong opinions about what the Messiah would do once he showed up.  The Messiah, the anointed one of God, would be a strong warrior.  The Messiah would come in and fight the battle and lift the people up.  The Messiah would take out the evil king of the time and establish himself as the true ruler.  This is what the people were looking for, and this is not what they found in Jesus.

In Jesus, the people were getting something that was totally unknown to them.  Biblical people didn’t have Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. to help them understand the concept of the servant leader.  All they would have had were the warrior gods; the whole “might makes right” concept.  In their experience, the one who would save them was the one who would conquer those who were evil through a show of force.  But Jesus was not a “go out and attack” kind of Messiah.  And so, for the people of Biblical times, Jesus was an unknown quantity.

I would like to think that with time, we have become more able to understand Christ’s way of “being” in the world.  That over the past 2000 years, we have become more and more learned in the way Jesus has been leading.  I would like to say that, but, unfortunately, I don’t think we have.  I think we have continued to look for the bully Jesus.  We keep looking for the Savior who is going to “take care of” all those other people in the world.  And this searching for the big, violent, Jesus, keeps getting us in trouble.

How do we regain an understanding of what Jesus stood for?  How do we move beyond the tales that the world tells us and see the truth which is before us?  How do we do this?  Well, it is not easy.  Just about everything in the world tells us that those who have the most strength, prestige, or wealth have the most power.  In our society, those with the biggest guns, or the biggest fists, or the biggest bank accounts can hold others hostage.  And when we see these people seemingly succeed through these types of bullying techniques, we have to wonder if it is really worth it to follow Jesus in the way of servant leadership.

It is worth it, I will tell you that, but following the way of servant leadership requires we view the world from a totally different perspective.  Servant leadership means that we must bury our ego, our pride, our need to stand out, and look for ways to help others mend their bruised egos, build up others’ sense of self-worth, and help others to feel they are special and loved. 

So often, what I find is that when I go out looking for ways to make me feel better, make me feel more important, all I end up doing is feeling more alone and more down.  In trying to life myself up, I end up doing just the opposite of what I intend.  But when I allow myself to be a servant, when I move beyond myself and help to build up others, I find that I end up feeling better.

Now, of course, when Jesus speaks of the seed dying and coming back producing more fruit, we are correct to assume that Jesus is speaking of himself.  But also, we need to ask ourselves what might Jesus be asking of us?  I think Jesus is asking us to say “No” to ourselves.  I think Jesus is asking us to look for ways that we can be of service to those around us.  How we can stop asking, “What will happen to me if I help,” and start asking, “What will happen to them if I don’t help?”

This is a quite different way of looking at the world. The Messiah as a Powerful Warrior is the way the world believed Jesus would show up, and is still the way the world believes.  The world tells us that we need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and that “God helps those that help themselves.”  But Jesus models for us a different way.  Jesus models for us the way of reaching out and loving a hurting world.  As Christ laid down his life for us, he asks us to lay down our lives for others.

I think the hardest part of this whole thing is Jesus’ call for the seed to die.  This is so against the world’s call to be strong and tough.  Jesus asks us to be caring servants.  The world tells us to be self-sufficient Lone Rangers.  Christ calls us to act contrary to ways of society and beckons us to follow.

Lent is coming to a close.  I hope you have been able to use this time as a time of growth, a time of clearing those things that were preventing you from experiencing God in your life.  I hope these last weeks continue to be a time of growth and a time of discovery.  I hope that Christ’s love is a tangible presence in your life.  And I pray that as we approach Passion and Resurrection of Christ, you may be a instrument of Christ’s love in the world.

Clear the Way!

Lent 3 Year B 

John 2:13-22

     Wow! We are almost half way to Easter! Can you believe it? I love this time of year when we can actually start to feel things warm up.  Last week was wonderful!  Being able to get out of the house and be out in the sun was wonderful!  And I find that with the warmth in the air, there is that rush of energy.

 And as we begin to approach Easter, at least I know I start thinking of Easter Morning worship.   I love Easter Morning worship!  I love all the flowers. I love sounds and the smells. And I love seeing families gathered together to come to worship.

I know for many families, Easter morning worship is especially important. It is a time for families to gather together and a time to put on one’s best. We tend to dress better for Easter than for other worship services, and that is great! I especially love when the little children show-off they new Easter outfits. I have a picture of me with my little suit on and my little fedora hat.  It just brings back such wonderful memories! 

Usually, there are extra people in worship, and with all the extra people in worship, the Easter offering tends to be bigger than usual. More people in worship usually equals more people putting money into the collection plate. And I am pretty sure the vestry is NOT opposed to more money coming into the church!

But what would you think if, in the midst of all this normal activity on Easter Sunday, a madman from the street came running into the church? He comes running through the fellowship hall, throwing coffee cakes everywhere. Grabbing the collection plates, he tears up all the checks and money. Smashing all the flowers and throwing the dirt on everyone’s new clothes. AND GET THIS! After doing all this destruction, this nut expects us to believe that he was sent by GOD -- to destroy all of this -- and now this guy wants us to follow him!

Why would this madman come into our sanctuary and create all kinds of disturbances when nothing particularly unusual was happening? Why would he ruin our Easter celebration, the celebration where we were honoring and worshipping God and Jesus? What would provoke this madman to destroy so much?

So often, I think we hear the story of the cleansing of the temple and don’t give it much thought. We think that, because Jesus was doing it, it was a good thing to doing. He was getting all those evil people out of the temple. They were being offensive, so then needed to get out of the temple. But we fail to consider what actually happened on that day back in Biblical times.

John, in the gospel, tells us that the Passover was near. Now all good Jews would go to the temple in Jerusalem for Passover. With all these people around, the temple would be quite busy. (We could think of this as the family coming home for Easter.) And the moneychangers? They served a vital function in the temple; the people could not use the coins of the Romans in the temple because the coins had the face of the emperor on them and that was considered a graven image. So for coins to be given in the temple, the Roman coins had to be exchanged for other coins. So the moneychangers were providing a service vital to the temple. Without the moneychangers, there would be no donations to the temple. We may not realize that with Jesus disrupting the moneychangers, there would be no offerings given at the temple on that day.

The same would go for the people selling animals. The pilgrims that traveled to the temple would have difficulty in bringing livestock to the temple. So the sellers were providing a valuable service for the pilgrims, they provided animals for the required sacrifices. With the disruption of the people selling the animals, no sacrificial animals would not be available and the people would not be able to make their Passover sacrifices.  Passover sacrifices were an important part of Jewish worship life.  The sacrifice was an important gift given in thanksgiving to God.  So the animals were there for the sacrifice.

Now, imagine the anger, dismay, offense you would feel if someone came into our midst and began to trash the church here at St. Swithin’s. You would probably not be too happy with the person, would you? Actually you would probably be trying to prevent the guy from leaving while someone was busy calling the cops.

Now, transfer this feeling onto the people of Jesus’ day. Imagine that you have traveled a long distance, across the desert, to get to the temple. You packed up your family and a good chunk of money so you could worship properly at the temple. Now also imagine that after going through all of this, the whole worship service was disrupted by some madman brandishing a whip. I think you can get a feel for what it was like to be one of the people in the temple when Jesus came running in with his whip.

Why should Jesus do this? Why would Jesus want to disrupt the excitement and the worship that was part of the Passover festival? If you think about it, tearing up the temple is not a very good way to win friends and attract followers. If I were to come running in here on Easter brandishing a whip and tearing things apart, you would be looking to send me to a mental hospital -- or jail -- rather than cheering me on for doing God’s work.

To use such shock tactics, Jesus had to be quite sure of himself. He HAD to know what he was doing was going to cause some big problems with some people. But he also would know that his actions were sending the message that a different way of interacting with God was in the works.

At the temple, people would present their sacrifices to the priests and the priests would make the sacrifice for the people. It was through the priest that the people would have access to God. Through his actions, Jesus was telling the people that there was a new authority. The temple and the priests and the Pharisees were not the authority any longer. The institutionalized practices in the temple were no longer to be looked upon as the only way to God. A new way was literally crashing through, right into their midst.

The practice of ritual sacrifice was turning the temple into something that it was never meant to be. In order to fulfill the requirements of the law, the temple was becoming a place of commerce. In order to gain God’s favor, money needed to be changed and animals needed to be bought.

But Christ was redefining the temple. No longer would animal sacrifice need to occur, Christ himself would become the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. No longer would an animal be sacrificed on the hope that the sacrifice would be pleasing to God. Christ was the ultimate “Lamb without blemish,” the truly pleasing sacrifice to God. Jesus, in a way that was pretty hard to ignore, was ushering in a new age.

As you continue on your Lenten journey, have you stumbled over some of those things that are getting in your way of finding God? Have you discovered the merchants and moneychangers that prevent you from being in the presence of God? Have you found those things that seem necessary but, in actuality, only preserve your distance from the one thing that is truly important?

Finding these things in your life is one thing, clearing them is another! We can understand the resistance the people had in the temple, we can understand how we would feel if the madman were to rush through the congregation. But we need to realize that the madman is Jesus, the one we claim to follow! The madman is presented as an example for us to follow! The madman gives us an example of how we can start anew.

Now this can be scary, Jesus is running through the temple doing a fair amount of damage. We may not really want to have this kind of damage done to us! How can this be helpful? The one thing that we need to remember that Jesus is NOT destroying the temple, he is clearing the things that are getting in the way; he is clearing the things that are preventing the temple from functioning properly. When Jesus comes to help us clear the temples of our lives, it may feel like our lives are being destroyed. While thinking about this, we need to realize that Jesus did not hate the temple, and Jesus does not hate us. In trying to clear the temple, Jesus was returning it to its true purpose. In clearing our lives, Jesus is once again trying to return us to our true purpose. Just like we may not understand and fear the madman in the temple, we may be confused by the actions of Jesus in our lives. But considering this seeming madman is our loving lord and savior, this clearing is only for the best.

This clearing is not something that we must do on our own, though. In the temple, we can assume that the people didn’t even realize that the merchants and the moneychangers were getting in their way of experiencing God. It was when Jesus came whipping through, that change began to happen.

Jesus will help us! If we ask, Jesus will help us to find the places where the things of life are coming between us and our experience of God. But I have to warn you! When Jesus starts to clear your temple, you may not like it! When Jesus starts to clear the way for a true relationship with him, we may rebel at the things that are disrupted. We may feel we want to go back to the way things were before. Yet, if we remember, as with the temple, the discomfort of the disruption is only temporary. After the disruption comes the transformation of our lives. After Jesus clears our lives, we will find that the sacrifice has already been made in Christ and that it is a truly pleasing sacrifice to our God.

The Great Lie (Lent 2)

Genesis 17:1-7. 15-16

 Are you familiar with the concept of “The Great Lie?”  This is the concept that if you tell someone something enough times, eventually the person will believe it.  Often, when we discuss the Great Lie, we are talking about such things as Jews are genetically inferior, as are blacks and women.  Or we are talking about things such as all unemployed people are lazy or all Muslims are violent and make bombs. 

But it doesn’t have to be that big of a lie; it can be lies on a smaller scale.  When I was a kid, we had the Great Lie that all the kids that lived in a small town called Sheryl were stupid hicks and all the girls chewed tobacco.  In college, it was the concept that if the nursing students could pass a class, then anyone could.  And I am sure if we think about it, we can all think of Great Lies that we heard about each one of us.  My sister continually told me that I could not sing.  Even after being in musicals and having solos, I doubted my abilities.  I also heard that I was a “scatter-brain” and would never amount to much because I could never keep on track.  These Great Lies hurt!  And when we are constantly bombarded by them, we begin to question our own reality.  If all these people are telling us something that seems counter to our own experience, then maybe it is OUR perception that is wrong.  That is often what we begin to believe.

Advertisers LOVE the Great Lie.  The way advertisers sell stuff is by making us believe that we are not good people if we do not have their product.  Advertisers tell us that we are not good enough unless we have a specific car, or wear a specific style of clothing.  We are not good house keepers if our counters are dusty.  We should be ashamed to walk out of the house if we have “ring around the collar” or “dingy whites.”  We keep getting told that we need specific things to make us acceptable or happy and as these messages sink farther and farther into our subconscious, we begin to believe them.

Now, advertisers are not the only ones who do this; religions do this too.  I have been told that if I did not speak in tongues that God really didn’t love me.  We keep getting told that we have to have a Mega-Church to be taken seriously as a worshipping community.  And so often we are told that unless we have children running up and down the aisles then we might as well pack it up and head home.  And when we hear this enough, especially coming from people whom we consider authorities, we begin to believe it.  The Great Lie takes hold of our minds and begins to beat us down.

But I’m here to tell ya!  The thing that we forget about the Great Lie is that it is, in fact, A LIE!  Just because it is repeated over and over and over does not make it true!  For every Great Lie we hear, we can most assuredly find exceptions to these lies.  And in many cases, we can find multiple exceptions.  Unfortunately, since we are bombarded with the Great Lie, we need to continue to search for those exceptions and remind ourselves that the lie is just that, a lie.

Abraham could have just given into the common thought that he and Sarah we just too old to do anything.  I am sure this had crossed their minds.  And it would have been the commonly held “wisdom” that these old people couldn’t possible contribute to their community anymore. And I am guessing that Abraham and Sarah had bought into the prevailing belief.  But God was not going to give into the Great Lie.  God was going to make a promise to Abraham that would blow the Great Lie right out of the water!  God promised Abraham that he would become the Father of Nations.  Now, frankly, that just sounds silly.  He was old, Sarah was old.  How was this supposed to happen?  God had plans for Abraham and Sarah, and God wasn’t about to let something like biology get in the way!

What are the Great Lies we have been told and continue to tell ourselves?  What are the things we want to do but either society tells us we can’t do or we tell ourselves that we can’t do?  What could we do if we stopped telling ourselves that we just can’t do it?

I am constantly shocked by the miracles that surround me everyday.  I got here in a car; people said we could never go that fast.  I have my cell phone; something that was purely science-fiction when I was born.  I typed this sermon on a laptop computer; I don’t even know if science-fiction writers even considered these things!  We are constantly surrounded by things that take the myth of the Great Lie and break it wide open.

But still, those Great Lies that we have been surrounded by hold tight.  I still question every time I open my mouth to sing.  I still wonder if I am just kidding myself and that I sound horrible.  I still question every time I stand up to preach.  I worry that people are right and that I have nothing of value to say.  I think we get sucked into the Great Lies because we do not want to be seen as being foolish.  We are afraid of failing and having people think we are silly.

Abraham must have felt pretty silly listening to God’s schpiel.  Abraham must have felt odd to go ahead and believe, to act “as if.”  Abraham must have felt silly.  But Abraham trusted.  And in trusting, God’s will was brought forth.  And those of us sitting here are the living proof that God can smash the Great Lie.  Abraham did not believe everything that society was telling hem and was putting his trust in God.

Are we willing to risk looking silly?  Are we willing to put aside the Great Lies we have been told by the world and trust in God?  Are we willing to step out in faith and believe that God can do more that we could ever consider? 

Are we willing to believe that the God who could use Abraham and Sarah at an advanced age could use us?  Are we willing to trust that a God who could use all kinds of people could use us?  So often we keep believing the lies we are told.  We believe we are too old, too small, too whatever to matter.  But here we have God telling two people, two OLD people, two OLD CHILDLESS people that they were going to be the parents of nations.  Would we believe?

That is the tough thing, but that is a challenge we must face.  We must see that with our God, we are able to so much more than we could ever conceive.  But we need to be willing to step out, to take the risk, to be possibly look silly.  We need to look to Abraham as a role model in trust and belief.  We need to see that because he believed, we now are here today.  God is willing to do a lot through us, but we need to have the faith to move into those areas that seem beyond us.

Get Out in the Wilderness! Advent 2 B

They say that the way something starts gives you a clue as to what you can expect for the rest of the journey.  And in today’s gospel reading, we have the very beginning of the gospel of Mark.  And the way that Mark begins the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God is by telling about John the Baptist.  Doesn’t this seem kind of odd to you?

We would expect the gospel to jump right in and give us all the good stuff about Jesus.  We would expect Mark to start telling us all the deep theological stuff.  And if we don’t get right to the Good News, then at least we should start with the birth story of Jesus.  But we don’t get this.  We don’t get a birth story of Jesus.  To start the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ, we are sent…out into the wilderness!  (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)

And when we get out into the wilderness, we don’t find what we think we should find.  We get out into the wilderness and we find John.  Now, in biblical times, there were a lot of strange things, but John was strange, even by biblical standards.  We are told about his dressing and eating habits not as some kind of interesting sideline, but to let us know that this guy is weird!  John is not someone most people, even in Biblical times, would choose to associate with.  John was a fringe person.  Again, we are being told to not search for Jesus in the usual places.  We are not sent to the temples, we are not sent to the palaces.  We are sent out into the wilderness and sent to see the lunatics.

But why?  Why do we have to go out and see the lunatics?  So often we seem to assume that we are sent out to see the people in the wilderness so we can help them and bring them back with us.  And yes, one of the reasons that we go out to those who are in the world is to spread God’s love to those who need to hear the Good News, but also, we go out into the wilderness to be blessed.  We are not going out to John to bring John to the church.  John is never going to be in a church.  So if we don’t go out to John because John will never be a “good member,” then we are going to miss the things that we can learn from John; we are going to miss the blessings that only John can bring.  And we will not find John by sitting here hoping John comes in the doors.  John is never going to set foot in the building.  The building is just not big enough to John.  No, to get the blessings that can only come from John, we have to go out to John.  And to find John, we have to go out into the wilderness.

So the question becomes, for St. Augustine’s, what does a trip into the wilderness look like?  Often, we want to claim that because we are older or we have been at it for a while, that we do not need to go out into the wilderness.  But that is just not the case.  John does come into the temple to do the baptizing.  We are not told to wait until Jesus wanders into town.  We are sent out there, out to the weirdo John.  The story of Jesus begins with John out ranting and raving in the wildness; eating weird things and wearing strange clothes.

Wildernesses can be just about anyplace.  Wilderness can be someplace way far away or it can be someplace nearby viewed in another context.  I worked in a camp for a few summers.  Walking the trails during the day, we got to know the trails pretty well.  Got to know some of them so well that we would go running down them, at night, with no flashlight.  We got to know the trails well.  But once, I was taking a group of kids on a night hike and I stepped off the trail.  And I dropped about a foot down the side of a hill.  I suddenly was in a wilderness.  I had to figure how to get back on the trail and get the kids with me back on the trail.  (Oh, I would not leave anyone bring a flashlight on a night hike!  Well, after this event, I would ALWAYS carry a flashlight.  Well, this and the situation of running into a tree at night.  But that is a whole different story.)  I went out expecting to give the kids an experience they had probably not had living in the city, and I learned the lesson of carrying a flashlight!  I learned that I was responsible for these kids and it was negligent of me to not have a light, just in case!

Wilderness was something that was right there, just beyond the well-worn path.  So often when we think of wilderness we think of things like the jungle, or Borneo, or Detroit.  And all of these places can be wilderness, but again, how do we here in Mason, we who may not have the money or the health to travel to far-flung Jackson to find Jesus in the wilderness.  How do we find wilderness?

A colleague of mine came up with a wonderful idea for an outreach project.  It involved going out to the wilderness of the Mini-Mart!  She had suggested that her congregation make Christmas stockings for the people who worked on Christmas Eve at the local mini-marts.  That they could bring a stocking to the people and sing them a carol.  It was not a big thing, but it was a way of saying that the Church was thinking of these people who had to work.  And it was not to be done as a way of dragging people into church.  It was to be a gift of love to those in the wilderness. 

You see, the wilderness does not need to be that far away.  It can be the people working at Meijer.  It can be the folks in the bar.  It can be at the coffee shop.  The thing is, in trying to find Jesus, we can’t just sit in the temple—we have to go out.  Mark, in the gospel, reminds us of that.  The story of Jesus starts with John in the wilderness.  The way to find the love of Christ is to be out in those scary, uncomfortable places; encountering people who stretch our comfort levels.  If we are searching for Jesus, we need to go out into the wilderness.

It doesn’t take a whole lot, but it is something that WE have to do.  We can hold a door open for someone.  We can let someone go ahead of us in line.  We can smile at someone who is frowning.  We can reach out to those who may feel that the world has forgotten them.  Especially at this time, when so many things are telling us to have a Holly Jolly Christmas, some people may feel all alone.

During this second week of Advent, Mark again sends us out, out into the wilderness.  In Advent as we await the coming of Christ, we are also called to search out Christ in our world.  Wherever those places may be.

It's a Train! Advent 1 B

Mark 13:24-37

I got a joke for you:  (I will use Germans, since I am of German descent.)  There were two old Germans out arguing one day.  The one German said, “Those are deer tracks!”   The other said, “No, those are moose tracks!”  They stood there and argued and argued over who was right.  The question is, “Who WAS right?”  Well, we’ll never know, because they got ran over by a train.

In our gospel reading for today, Jesus is talking all about signs.  Jesus is talking about looking for signs of the coming of the end.  It may seem weird that we would be talking about the end of the world at the beginning of the new church year.  And it may seem weird that we would be talking about the end of the world when we are starting Advent, the time when we are anticipating the coming of Christ to the world.  But weird or not, that is our reading for this Sunday. 

Jesus tells us to look for signs in our world.  He uses the things that the people would have known, things like the fig tree.  Jesus uses the natural progression of the tree to help people realize that the coming of the messiah will occur within the workings of daily life.  He tells the people to look to things and try to read the signs.  But the thing that we miss in the reading for today is the part that happens just before today’s reading.  You see, the disciples were looking at the wonderful buildings and temples in the city, and although they looked big and beautiful, Jesus was saying that these buildings would tumble.  The signs that the disciples were to be looking for would not be found in the temples where the people would expect to find the signs, they would be found in the wilds, where they would be least expected.

Jesus would not be found in the temples.  The messiah was not to be held in the glorious buildings.  And looking for the savior in the established places would be futile.  The places where the savior is SUPPOSED to be will end up in an empty search.  The buildings will fall, and the people will still be searching.

The poor old Germans in joke were searching.  But they were searching in the wrong place.  They were searching moose and deer, but they were not looking in the right place.  They were looking at the tracks that were obvious to them, but the obvious tracks were not going to lead to the end the old Germans desired.  Looking for deer and moose by following train tracks led to a disastrous end.  And Jesus would point out that the most obvious ways of searching are not necessarily the best ways.

Anyone who has gone hunting knows that looking for the trails of deer or other game requires some knowledge of the animal.  The person who is tracking has to be aware of the subtle changes that surround them.  They have to be aware of the broken branches and the leaves that have been eaten.  It is by following the subtle signs, not the big glaring tracks of steel that will lead hunters to they quarry.  All that following the large, man-made tracks will do is scare the animals away and lead to dissapointment.

Granted, Jesus does talk about some big signs; “The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light;” but these are still the natural signs.  These are the signs out in the world.  We have to be out of the building to be able to see the signs Jesus speaks of.  We have to be out in the wilderness to see the subtlety of the changing of the fig tree.  The buildings will fall apart, but the signs of Jesus coming are not found in the buildings!

For the people of biblical times, this would be a surprise.  You may remember I have said that the Messiah was supposed to be a warrior king.  The Messiah was supposed to come in and clear away all of the peoples’ enemies by a show of force.  To the people of biblical times, kings, leaders, rulers would all have palaces and great monuments; and it would be in these monuments that the king would be found.  So for Jesus to be telling the people that the great temples will fall and that the Messiah will not be found there is quite shocking.

But for us, this should not be too surprising.  We, the ones who know the story from our vantage point two-thousand year in the future should comfortable with this.  We should know not to look for Christ in the “usual” spots.  We should be used to finding the tomb empty.  We should be used to finding the King eating with the tax collectors, beggars, and prostitutes.  We should be comfortable with the idea of the Son of God being born in a stable.  We should know – as a part of our being – that we need to look of our Savior “outside” of the expected places.  But so often, we find ourselves in the place of the old Germans, we are looking for moose and deer but end up following the train tracks.  Now granted, the train tracks are easier to follow, but those old Germans are never going to find what they are looking for.

So often we are surrounded by people who think they have found the right signs, and they are very willing to do all kinds of things to follow those tracks.  They are willing to spend two weeks sleeping in a tent to be the first to purchase their savior.  They are willing to spray pepper-spray on others in order to grab their savior out of the hands of another.  They are willing to put those around them in jeopardy just so they can get what they feel they deserve.  But I have trouble believing that our Savior is going to be found on an X-Box 360 or appear on a waffle made with the $2 waffle iron, the acquisition of which sent three people to the hospital.  I have trouble believing the Savior will appear in the Summer House in the Alps or the Winter House in Cancun.  I have trouble believing our Savior will appear in any monument we build to ourselves, even if we say we are building it to the glory of God.

The problem with the “expected” tracks is they WILL always lead to SOMETHING.  Who knows, maybe the old Germans will convince themselves that trains are actually moose and deer.  But just because they call the train a moose, doesn’t make it a moose.  Just because we have been told that church is a place we are to find comfort, doesn’t mean that our search for Christ should end when we are comfortable.  We can try to convince ourselves of this, but then we are left trying to chew on a train instead of having venison.

Christ calls us to look for signs.  Christ calls us to search.  But Christ calls us to look for the signs in the wilderness.  Christ calls us to look beyond what our world would tell us.  Christ is not found on the cross.  Christ is not found in the tomb.  Christ is not found in the palace.  Christ is not even found in the comfort of the maternity ward.  We find Christ in the wilderness.  We find Christ on the fringes.  We find Christ in those places that most of society would choose to avoid.

In searching for Christ this Advent, where will you search?  What wilderness are you being drawn to?  The tracks you are following; will they lead to Christ or to a train wreck?  Christ is calling us to him.  Christ wants us to find him!  Christ will give us the opportunities we need if we will only search.  The search will probably be difficult, but I am sure the results will be worth it!  And if our search ends up sending us headlong into an on-coming train, then I am also sure Christ will be there to help us back on our way.

Christ the King

Well, we have made it to the end of the church year.  Today is Christ the King Sunday.   This is the day that we celebrate the reign of Christ over the world.

Since we so often hear how America is such a Christian country, I figured I should be able to just look around and see all kinds of signs that Christ truly is the King.  But for how much I looked, I had some difficulty finding any sign that anyone truly believed that Christ was the king.  People were crabby.  Drivers were mean.  No one seemed to care about anyone except themselves.  For being such a Christian country, we seem to be so far from living our Christian heritage.

Why do we, and I am not just talking about us gathered here this morning, but all of us in this “so called” Christian country, have difficulty showing to the world just how Christian we are?  If Christ really is the King of our lives, why is it so hard to see? 

One of the big arguments our Jewish friends have is exactly that question:  If Jesus was the Son of God; then why isn’t it more obvious in the world?  And I really think they have a point.  As a friend of mine always asked, “If being a Christian were illegal, could people find enough evidence to convict you?

I think one of the problems is with the whole “King” thing.  We don’t have a whole lot of experience with kings, and often the experience we do have has more to do with Elvis as the King of Rock ‘n Roll or Michael Jackson as the King of Pop.  Quite often, when we think of King, we think of someone who is out in front, out seeking popularity.  We may think of some of the tyrants from third world countries, but we probably have the most experience dealing with the King as showman.

When it comes to Christ the King, Christ OUR King, we don’t have a showman.  We don’t have someone who is out seeking fame; we don’t have someone who is out there trying to dominate all the things, quite the contrary.  We have a King who is a servant.  We have a King who is not seeking the limelight.  We have a King who is not out seeking popularity; and to us, this can feel odd.  In our world, the things that we are TOLD are important are those things that are constantly seeking our attention and seeking our adoration.  We are told our politicians are important because they are always on TV.  We are told celebrities are important because they are always seeking our adoration.  We are informed by the media that these people are important, and that we are supposed to follow their leads. 

But our King, Christ the King, is different.  I think if Jesus were in the world right now, we probably wouldn’t hear much about it on TV.  He wouldn’t be making the headlines.  He wouldn’t be on the 11 o’clock news.  I don’t know if he would even make it to the morning talk shows.  Jesus didn’t make it onto the radar of the leadership of Biblical times until the end of his ministry.  And then, when he did make it into their consciousness, it wasn’t in a positive manner.  No, I think Jesus would more likely be one of the Occupy Wall Street people than one of the politicians.

Now, you may wonder why I would say that.  Well, look at what Jesus says to the sheep and the goats in today’s parable.  Jesus does not separate the sheep from the goats by how much they have acquired.  Jesus does not separate the sheep from the goats by the size of the house the creature has.  Jesus does not use the usual, or worldly, methods of separating the sheep from the goats; Jesus’ method of judgment is a challenge to us.  Jesus’ method of judgment is a challenge for us to move beyond the expectations of the world and move on to something quite incredible.  Jesus’ method of judgment asks us to look beyond caring for our own needs and reaching out to care for the needs of others.

Our world tells us to look out for ourselves.  Our society holds the “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps” in high regard.  Our world seems to think that if you are poor, unemployed, or have some kind of disease, then this is your own fault and you are getting what you disserve.  Our world keeps telling us that the people who are industrious are the ones whom God helps.  You know, “God helps those who help themselves!”  (Actually, this is not in the Bible at all.  It is most often attributed to Ben Franklin, but more accurately came from Algernon Sydney in 1698.)

But this is so opposite of what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel.  When Jesus lifts up the sheep, he doesn’t praise them for being frugal; he doesn’t praise them for not creating dependent deadbeats.  He does not praise them for helping those who help themselves.  What he does do is praise the sheep for helping those who were in need.  He praises them for feeding the hungry, for bringing drink to the thirsty, for visiting those in prison.  (What we need to remember about visiting those in prison, this wasn’t just a social visit, prison did not supply for those in prison.  It was up to visitors to bring supplies for the in prison.)  He tells the sheep that when they helped the least in society, that they were, in fact, helping Jesus.  This is no, “God helps those who help themselves,” this is God looking with gladness upon those who reach out the hand of love to those around them.

On Christ the King Sunday, we are once again reminded that the way of the world is not the way of Christ.  We are reminded that our King is not a showman or someone seeking fame.  We are reminded that we are to be followers of Christ and that we are to reach out to others in Christian love.  We are reminded that when Christ looks to us, Christ is not interested in what we have acquired for ourselves, but what we have given to others.

What ways can we reach out?  How can we feed the hungry?  How can we clothe the poor?  How can we become the people of God out, in the world?  How do we trust in our King more than we trust in our own bootstraps?  We claim Christ as our kind, but do we really believe this?  This is the tough part.  Do we trust that we can give?  Do we trust that God will care for us when we step out in faith?

Do as I do

Proper 24 Year A        1 Thess 1:1-10             The Rev. Benton Quest

     I have a confession to make: The last time I preached on this Sunday’s scripture, I had the best AND the worst reviews that I have ever received from a congregation. When I meet with former congregants, often, the conversation will get back to this sermon. They either comment that they still remember the sermon or they comment that they still cannot believe that I would ever have done such a thing. So with that in mind, I have decided to give preaching on this scripture another go and see what happens!

Last time I preached on the epistle reading, I was trying to come up with a way for the people of the congregation to directly experience the hypocrisy of one’s words and one’s actions. I was trying to impress upon them what it looks like and feels like when someone’s actions are in direct violation to their words.  How I demonstrated this was to stand up at the pulpit, light up a cigarette, and proceed to tell people about the evils of smoking. Needless to say, it made quite an impression. Many people understood the point I was trying to make. As I said, I was told that it was one of the best sermons they heard, but there were some who where so upset that I would even think of smoking in the pulpit! What kind of example was I setting! “THINK OF THE CHILDREN!”  Some threatened to never come back.

But you know what? Even these people who got so upset about the whole incident demonstrated exactly the point I was trying to make: When our actions and our words are in conflict, people are far more likely to remember our actions rather than our words.

In our reading from First Thessalonians, Paul discusses what it means to model behavior for the people. He talks about how he and his companions went among the Thessalonians and how, now that they had been among them, the Thessalonians have begun to imitate the behavior they had seen. Paul and his companions went among the people of Thessalonica, acting in the name of Christ and showing the people what it meant to live as a Christian.

This reading represents one of the more difficult reading to preach: How do you preach about grace when the reading seems to be lifting up the wonder of works? Paul was telling the Thessalonians, and is telling us, that works are important. Works are what the world sees and what the world uses to judge us. Works are the fruit by which we will be known. As the song says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” Probably more accurately, “They will know we are Christians by the love they see us demonstrate.”

Now here lies the tension: We are told that we are saved by grace through faith, not works. So it is God’s good grace and pleasure to save us, not some form of repayment for the works we do. We don’t have to do anything to earn God’s love. There is nothing we COULD ever do to earn God’s love. However, how we act effects how others perceive God and how others respond to God’s good gift of grace.

Just like it would be hard to believe a lecture on the hazards of smoking given by a person puffing on a cigarette, it is also hard to believe that God is important to some people when you look at their lives. When we claim to be Christian, people begin to look at our lives to see what difference being a Christian actually makes. When we claim to be Christian, our children and our grandchildren look to see if we are being true to our word.  Would the people we encounter on the freeways or in the grocery line know we are Christian by our interactions with them? Are we practicing what we preach or are we doing the Christian equivalent of telling them to not smoke while waving around a lit cigarette? If, to the world, our lives appear indistinguishable from the lives of anyone else, why should anyone consider being a Christian? I personally think it does make a difference and I hope that difference is evident in my life.

How does your Christianity play out in your life? As a seminary classmate of mine used to say, “If being a Christian were illegal, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” When people look at your life, are they seeing God’s love as something that is important or are they seeing it as something to be used when necessary and forgotten when convenient?

For most of us, we learned our faith from those around us. We learned our faith by watching our parents, watching our grandparents, watching those who were close to us. It was through these people that we learned what it means to be people of faith and what it means to be Christians. It wasn’t through something that we read in a book. It wasn’t through some well thought out theological treatise; it was through the one-to-one interactions with other Christians that we came to faith and continue to grow in faith. And it is through interactions with US that others come to faith and grow in faith.

All of you who are parents and grandparents, the faith you leave to your children and grandchildren has so much more to do with what you do than what you say. Your children and grandchildren are watching WHERE you place God in your lives. They are watching the prominence or lack of prominence you give to your faith. Just as the Thessalonians watched Paul, our children and grandchildren are watching us. They notice if and when we go to church. They notice if and when we pray before meals. They observe how we handle our finances or what we say about people when those people are out of earshot.

Even if our children are long gone, we still continue to teach by example. I remember things older people in my church did as I grew. I remember which people seemed nice, and which to avoid. There were people who were just nice to be around and others who seemed to be constantly scowling. In this way, in the way these people conducted themselves during something as simple as coffee hour, these people also taught me about faith and about what it means to live one’s faith.

Are we committed to our faith? Do we live out this commitment in our lives? Do we hold our faith out proudly or do we hide it away? Do we say one thing in Church and something totally different on Monday morning? If Paul were writing to us today, to the Floradians, would we be commended on our risking persecution to live out our faith? Would we be commended for being a model for other people?  I would venture that these could be some tough questions to answer. But, I think that if we delved into why the questions are hard to answer, we might learn some things about our person faith.

I think the extent to which we are uncomfortable living our faith is the extent to which we have forgotten God’s love. We forget that our worth has already been established. We are free to model love because we have first been loved and we have been loved totally. When we forget this love, it is then, that we begin to model behaviors we would rather not have those around us copy.  When we forget that Christ loves us so much that he would die for us, it is then that our behavior can take some embarrassing turns.

We, as followers of Christ, are to pattern our lives after Christ, and that means we are to live a life of service. Although we don’t earn our salvation through our actions, our actions are a reflection of the salvation we have already received. We are role models to our children, our grandchildren, our families, our co-workers, and those around us. How we live out Christ’s love in our lives can greatly effect how those around us live out the love of Christ in their lives. As Paul explained, we look to Christ as an example, but others are looking to us.

Now this could weigh very heavily on us. We could walk away from this whole thing feeling like it is our fault if people don’t fully experience the love of God. We could feel like our ever action is under a microscope. But that kind of overly self-conscious existence is not what a loving God would want for us.

The life of example is really not that difficult. When we bring the love of Christ deeply into our lives, we can’t help but have that love show through. It is not some kind of show we have to put on, it is a way of living our lives as a celebration of extravagant love God has for us. It is a way to celebrate the gift of life we have been given. This gift of love is freely given to us; how we live this love is our gift back to God. How we live it is our gift to our family, friends, our congregation, and our world.

Our example is our legacy. How we live our lives is our gift to our children, our grandchildren, and those around us. The example we set will stay with the people we encounter, especially with our children, for the rest of their lives. But we are not alone. We also have our role models. We have Christ as our mode. We have the Bible to lead us! And we have each other to support us along the way.  We do not earn salvation through our actions, but our actions tell the world the story of Christ. 

As individuals, what story are you telling?  Are you telling the story of love and forgiveness?  Or are you telling the story of grudge and judgment?  As a congregation are you spreading the truth of Christ to those in the world?  Or are you maintaining a safe distance from those around?  I know you to be a very kind and considerate congregation.  I have been luck to experience your hospitality on many occasions.  I just pray that your kindness and caring is being released into a world that needs to experience Christ’s love!

Well, no cigarettes this time through, but I hope that we can see that we, when we call ourselves Christian, represent Christ to a world looking for truth.  And it is through our actions that the love of Christ is spread, throughout the community and from generation to generation.

Rejoice in the Lord

There has been an interesting thing floating around Facebook the past week.  It was a sign that read, “What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?”

A friend of mine responded that she would be a lot skinnier!

Yah, I would be a lot skinnier, too, but I also would be sitting on the floor, or maybe even on the grass.  I would be twiddling my thumbs being totally bored.  Or maybe I wouldn’t even have thumbs to twiddle.  I would be walking everywhere, barefooted.  But I would have a parking place at Meijer, near the door, to park my non-existent car!

Part of our problem as people in America is that we forget how truly blessed we are.  We bemoan our situation while talking to our friends and family around the world as we sit in our kitchens drinking our coffee from Brazil.  We get so used to having the miraculous around us that we forget that each of these people and each of these things are a real gift.

As I said, one of the downfalls of being so richly blessed is that we forget what we have and we begin to look for more.  We begin to look at the blessings of others and want those blessings for ourselves.  But the problem is that when we look at the blessings of others, we stop rejoicing in the blessings that have been given specifically to us.

Probably most of you know that I have had some trouble rejoicing the past few weeks and months.  My former congregation closed.  An opportunity for a congregation fell through due to bigoted thoughts on their side.  Nick’s daughter has had some major medical problems which entailed trips to Tampa.  Now we are looking at moving, again, which is always so much fun.  And in the midst of all this “Yuck” stuff, Paul, in the epistle reading, is telling me to “rejoice.”  And to make the situation worse, not just to rejoice, but to “rejoice always!”  In the midst of moving and family hardships, I am supposed to rejoice.

I look at Facebook posts from friends and see pictures of their trips to Italy.  I hear about seminary classmates with thriving congregations.  I hear from former congregants about how wonderfully the congregation is doing.  All these things come into my life and seem to point out how I have failed, not how I should be rejoicing.  But even with the world showing me my failures, Paul is telling me that I need to REJOICE!  And Paul is not just telling me, Paul is telling us all!

Being part of a small congregation can also have that feeling.  We hear how good the large churches are doing.  We hear how these large congregations have all kinds of programs and all kinds of people.  We hear how they have building funds and too many kids for the Sunday School program.  We hear these things and then we look around as see the remnant gathered here and wonder how we should rejoice.  We gather here and wonder why we should rejoice.

But like I said, rejoicing is a tricky thing!  We are so often surrounded by so many things to celebrate that we become complacent.  We forget that, for us, this congregation IS the right size.  We forget that we have gifts to offer that larger congregations do not.  We offer care and support at a level that is not possible in a larger group.  When someone is gone, it does not take a couple of weeks to notice!  We are able to respond quickly and we are able to respond with our whole heart.

The world tells us that “bigger is better,” but Jesus seemed to like the smaller, more intimate groups.  He surrounded himself with his twelve friends and this small group changed the world.  Jesus did not go out and build a mega-church with a professional choir and a youth program staffed by child psychologists, he worked with the people who were around him and helped each use their gifts for the glory of God!  He taught them to truly rejoice in what they have received.  He helped his followers to find the blessing in what was there, and then helped them to work toward God’s vision of the Kingdom.

In my former congregation, I kept hearing people bemoan the fact that “we are too old.”  Which was quickly followed by, “We need young people.”  We were being the church with the older people, and we were doing okay.  We were not doing “Mega-Church wonderful” but we were surviving.  But, in terms of the Facebook post I mentioned earlier, we were not thanking God for the gifts we had.  We were not rejoicing in the Lord!  We had something there that the world needed!  It may not have been all the new and improved gadgets.  It may not have been a ton of kids running up and down the aisle.  (Although a few people would have had a stroke if that happened!)  It was not the Mega-Church model that is lifted up as the way things are supposed to be.  But what we did have is what I called “Grandparently Wisdom.”  We had a view of community that is becoming more and more rare.  We had something that we could provide to the world; something that the world was sorely lacking.

Here at St. Swithin's, we also have “Grandparently Wisdom!”  And that is something that we can share.  We are exactly what God wants us to be.  We need to rejoice in that!  We have a loving community that supports each other.  In a world where indifference and self-service is the norm, we can show those around us a different way.  We can rejoice in our small congregation!

But we need to NOT get caught in the opposite trap; we need to rejoice in what we have and in what we are, but we need to remember that God is not done with us yet!  We also need to be rejoicing in what we are becoming!  We can be given the gift of a guitar, and we can rejoice in that gift, but unless we spend time practicing, the gift is not going to come of much.  We can enjoy our own music, but it is in sharing that music that the gift grows and the rejoicing is spread!

That is the balance point we need to find:  We need to rejoice in what we have and what we are, but we also need to rejoice in what we are becoming!  We need to learn, daily it seems, to rejoice in the giftedness that we are while waiting in anticipation of what God has in store.  Will I ever be Howard Hughes rich?  Probably not.  But I am also not starving.  Will I ever be Robert Schuler famous?  (Just a side note, how famous is Robert Schuler?  The computer did has his name in its dictionary.  My last name it claims is misspelled.)  Probably not, but I have good folks who tell me that I have touched their lives.  Will St. Swithin’s ever be a Mount Hope Church?  Probably not, but would you really want to?  Will St. Swithin’s ever be St. Peter’s downtown, again probably not.  However, we are not called to be those things. We are called to be St. Swithin’s and to be the best St. Swithin’s we can.  We are called to pray; to pray for ways of bring the gift that is the congregation of St. Swithin’s to the community.  Paul tells us, “if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  Focus on the great gifts we have been given!  It is in celebrating our giftedness that we spread Christ’s love to the world.  And it is in seeing our rejoicing that attracts the attention of the world.  Our society is craving joy.  It has bought the idea that joy comes from money or power, but Christ tells us that true joy comes from love; God’s love for us and our love for one another.  This is a gift we can give, no matter what our age, no matter what our financial situation.  Loving is something that we all can do and something that we can all strengthen.

Rejoicing in the Lord becomes self-reinforcing.  The more we rejoice, the more things we find to rejoice in!  The more we rejoice in the wonder of the world, the more wonder we find.  As we thank God for the gifts in our lives, the more gifts we find waiting!  We can look at others and long for the gifts they have, but we then lose sight of our own giftedness.  I am about to break into a scene from “It’s A Wonderful Life” here.  “You see George; you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?”  When we long for what is not, we neglect what is here.  When we forget to rejoice in the Lord, we miss the great love that surrounds us.

We are lucky that God continues to bless us, even when we don’t rejoice in our giftedness.  God continues to shower us with gifts, even when we long for the gifts of others.  But know that as people and as a congregation, God is here and God is at work!  You are exactly what you are to be, but thankfully you are not all that you will be!  We can rejoice in the lives that we have and with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we can let our requests be made known to God.  

Think it then DO it! Proper 21 A

Well, you know what they say:  “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”  But from what I have seen, they have just repaved the road to Hell, so it is much smoother now!  But before that repaving project, that road was bumpy enough to knock out your fillings!

But isn’t it true; the whole thing about the road to Hell being paved in good intention?  So often we have such good intentions to do things, but then, in the end, nothing happens.  We may have good intentions to feed the poor, but unless we go out there and do it, the poor still go hungry.  Or, if you are like me, you have good intentions of sending out that birthday card or Christmas card, but even though I may actually BUY the card, the card still sits on the desk, waiting to be sent.

We say that it is the thought that matters, but I think that is just to make us feel good.  If it was, indeed, only the thought that mattered, then there would be world peace, no hunger, no violence, and droopy pants would be a thing of the past.  But, like I said, I think this is just a way to allow us to not feel guilty about those things we are not doing.  “You know, I didn’t really didn’t get the present, but it’s the thought that counts!”

I think another way we Christians say, “it’s the thought that counts” is “I’ll pray for you.”  Now, I could get in trouble for saying this, because I do believe that prayer is important and I do believe that God does answer our prayers.  But, as most of you know, I believe God uses us to answer peoples’ prayers.  I believe that God uses us as God’s eyes, ears, hands, and heart in the world.  We now have the privilege of being able to go out and spread Christ’s love to all those who need to feel it.  Hopefully our prayer doesn’t just end with “God bless Freddie;” hopefully we are looking for ways that we can personally reach out to Freddie and be a blessing to Freddie.  And if we can’t be a blessing directly to Freddie, then hopefully we can find another person for whom we can be a blessing.

Yes, I believe that prayer is a good thing, but I don’t think prayer is just something that should end with our head bowed and our eyes closed.  Prayer should move us to raise our head, open our eyes, and search out those places where we can become prayer in action.  Our personal prayer to God and our congregational prayers and petitions should move us to search out those ways we can bring God’s grace to the world.

When I think back to the road to Hell, like I said, before they fixed it, it was really rough!  It was enough to knock your car out of alignment and to bounce your fillings around in your head!  It was nasty!  And if we think about it, this is the way our lives and our world can become if we are just full of good intentions.  We say we will do something and then we get distracted into something else.  Well, while we are off doing that something else, the task we said we would do does not get done.  The pothole we said we would fill gets left empty.  If enough of these potholes are left unfilled, soon the whole road becomes impassable.  And, although the intent to fix the pothole may have been given in total sincerity, when the task is left unfinished, sincerity doesn’t matter; the road is still impassable.

So what are the things that we have every intention of doing, but we just never get around to doing?  What are those things that we could be doing that we just don’t seem to find the time for?  And really, I am not trying to shame you or find things that are beyond your ability.  I’m not going to tell you that you need to be going to Haiti to help rebuild the country or that you have to join the Peace Corps to go teach in Ghana.  Not that those are bad things to do.  However, we need to realistic here and admit that for the most part, these things are just beyond our abilities.  But just because these things are beyond our abilities, this does not leave us off the hook.

The one thing that we ARE asked to do as Christians is to love. And this is something that we all can do.  We may not get around so well, but we can love.  We may be busy in our life, but we can love.  No matter what is happening in our lives, we can love. 

What I find sad is so often, what we see in our world today are people who say they love others but are, in fact, quite unloving.  We see people claiming to be Christian but then act in ways that are not loving or Christlike.  We see those who claim the mantle of Christ but are unwilling to help their neighbors in need  Christ speaks of feeding the poor and caring for the needy but so many, in the name of Christianity, want to blame the poor and the needy for their suffering.

This is probably as close to a political sermon as I will ever get, but I think that we, as Christians need to be willing to speak out for those things that we feel are right and true.  We need to be willing to speak our faith and to follow through on those words.  We need to love the world as Christ has loved us.  We need to forgive as we saw in the gospel reading of a couple weeks ago.  We need to forgive as Christ forgave us.  We need to love a God loved us.  We need to show the world the peace and love that we have found so that maybe the world can find some peace and love somewhere.

I see in our world today a place where we as Christians can do more than just say good things and then go out and do whatever we please.  I see a world where we can speak the words of Christ and be the people of Christ.  We can say that Christ loves the world, and then go out there and love the world.  We can be a little kinder to the people on the roadway.  We can smile at the person checking-out our groceries.  We can donate food to the local food pantry.  We can give our kids a call and just say, “Hi.”

Paul tells us that we are to be of the same mind as Christ, and that also means we are to do as he did.  Although I do not believe that we are redeemed by our actions, I do believe that it is through our actions that the living Christ is brought to the world.  We won’t do it perfectly.  We are going to make mistakes.  Some days we will say one thing and do the opposite.  Some days we will reconsider what we originally planned and go do those things we should.  But hopefully, as a community of faith, we can remind each other to be the people of Christ that we are called to be.  We may not change the world, but we can be an influence to those around us.  And who know, maybe our actions will start a trend that will, in fact, become the change we would like to see in the world.

Proper 19 A     September 11, 2011     Matthew 18:21-35       The Rev. Benton Quest

St. Swithin's in the Swamp

It has been a weird week for me.  My usual pattern for writing sermons is on the Monday before I am to preach, I look at the scripture readings and just let them sit in my mind.  Then, as the week unfolds, I often find themes emerging which usually find their way into the sermon.

Well, this week, all the themes seemed to be quite troubling.  The gospel reading for today has to do with forgiveness; forgive, forgive, forgive!  God has forgiven us and we are to forgive others.  Even when we think we have forgiven enough, we are to forgive some more.  Forgiveness, this is one of the basic tenets of Christianity!  Christ came to the world to bring us forgiveness from our sin.  Forgiveness is one of the things we profess in our creeds.  We have been given the gift of forgiveness and through this gift, we are to reach out and forgive others.  However, when I look at the world, it seems I see anything but forgiveness.

We seem to have become an angry society.  People don’t talk to each other anymore.  All that people do is point fingers and make outrageous accusations.  People claim we are a Christian nation, but then these very same people go out and act in a decidedly un-Christlike manner.  You would think having so many Christians around would mean that forgiveness would abound.  You would think that if we claim to be a Christian nation, that we would be a nation of peace and love.  If someone who knew nothing about Christianity were to look at our society, would they believe that Christ came to the world to spread forgiveness to all people?  Or would they believe that Christ came to the world to make the world knuckle under and say “uncle?”

Then we throw into the mix all the talk and TV shows about the 9/11 tragedies.  We see how anger and hatred can be manifested into acts that can only be described as “pure evil.”  Now please her me:  I am not saying that the people who participated in the events of 9/11 were evil and I am not saying that the Muslim faith is evil; I don’t believe either of these things.  I do believe, however, that combined effect of these people fanatically following a fringe belief created something that was truly evil.

So this is the whole “weird” thing; we as Christians are tasked with trying to spread the joy, peace, and love that IS forgiveness while being surrounded by just about anything EXCEPT joy, peace, and love.

If we claim to be a Christian nation, why doesn’t forgiveness abound?  A recent Gallup Poll places the percentage of Americans who claim to be Christian at 78%.  You would think that with that many people claiming the mantle of Christianity, forgiveness would be the rule as opposed to the exception. I truly believe that the people who claim the mantle of Christ do so honestly and faithfully.  But I also know that we are dealing with people; people who make mistakes, people who get caught up in the trials of life, people who forget that they are not only to say they are Christian, but are to truly be FOLLOWERS of Christ.  I personally believe that Christianity is the true and perfect faith, it just happens to be professed by a whole bunch of flawed people.  And with flawed people comes a flawed expression of faith.  And with flawed expressions of faith comes the need for love, care, and forgiveness.

Why do we find extending forgiveness so difficult?  We must assume that the only reason Peter asked how many times he needed to forgive was NOT so he could make sure he exceeded that amount but so he could be sure he did not forgive too much!  We only ask questions like the one Peter asks when we are trying to avoid doing something.  I can imagine someone asking how many times they really needed to floss their teeth, but I cannot imagine someone asking how many times they had to kiss their husband or wife.  Forgiveness just seems to be something that is hard for us humans.

And why is that?  For the most part, it really doesn’t cost us much to forgive someone.  We may protest saying that is could cost us a whole lot of money, but if we take the money thing away, we still have a lot of forgiving that is not happening in the world.

You see, when we forgive, we give up our right to revenge.  We have all seen this; two brothers fighting.  One says, “Ok, I forgive you!”  And as soon as the other turns his back, the first (and usually younger) brother proceeds to take a pot shot at his older brother.  The younger brother really didn’t forgive the older one; he was just looking for the right time to get his revenge.  This seems to be the state of the world today; we never really forgive anyone, we just look for the right time to get revenge.  Although we don’t call it “revenge” anymore, now we call it “closure.”  But whatever we call it, revenge does no one any good.  It is only in forgiveness that we find peace.

Let’s go back to the fighting brothers.  So the younger one takes a pot-shot.  Now, if the older one does not forgive, what happens?  Right!  He smacks his younger brother.  Then the younger brother finds his opportunity and another pot-shot is sent to the older brother.  If someone doesn’t find the strength to forgive in this situation, we will soon have two bruised boys on our hands.  And if allowed to really continue, the outcome could be that the brothers never talk again to each other, or worse.

We may feel that by forgiving, we are admitting weakness.  But forgiveness comes out of a position of strength.  Forgiveness is something that we give.  And I think that is where we get tripped up; we feel that something has been taken from us, and then we are expected to forgive without any kind of revenge or apology.  We feel justified in holding a grudge because in our opinion something had been taken from us.

Now, forgiveness does not say that the forgiven act was right or justified, it just says that revenge will not be sought.  In the gospel reading, the master did not say that the slave was right in getting so far into debt, but in forgiving; the master was giving up his right to get repayment.

Forgiveness may not be easy, but it is what we are asked to do as Christians.  We are to place our need for revenge aside and allow the love of Christ to infuse the situation.  We are to put aside our hurt and move forward in the strength that we receive from God.  We need to look to our Lord in faith and then move on, trusting that in Christ, all will be well.

Who do you need to forgive?  Right here, right now, what revenge can you release to God?  Who can you forgive?  Holding this anger cannot be pleasant, so Christ tells us to let it go.  You don’t need an apology.  You don’t need to tell the person, “I forgive you.”  Just release that need for revenge and give it to God.  Know that God looks favorably on our willingness to forgive.  And the more we forgive, the easier it becomes.

I think forgiveness is the gift that we give to ourselves.  The anger, the betrayal, the need for revenge that we hold are those things that make us bitter and prevent us from fully living the life God has intended for us.  When we let go of those thing, we release the energy we were using to seek revenge.  When we forgive, we have more joy with which to celebrate the life that God has given!

Wouldn’t it be nice if we who take the title of Christian would be willing to forgive with the same forgiveness that Christ lavishes upon us?  I believe we try, but I also believe the troubles of the world distracts us from our goal.  And when we get distracted, it is then that we see the troubles that have been plaguing our world.  But just because we can’t be totally forgiving all of the time, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.  Part of the reason we join together on Sundays is to remind ourselves of status as Children of God.  And why we gather, is to hear the story of Christ and to be reminded of the great forgiveness we find in his life, death, and resurrection.  And finally, we come together so that we can be sent out.  We go out into a world that has forgotten the wonder of forgiveness; and through our actions, we bring forgiveness to our hurting world.