Monday, July 7, 2008

Sermon: Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Edgebrook Lutheran Church

July 6, 2008

Eighth Day after Pentecost

Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30

16But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
17'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.'
18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
25At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Good News: We are yoked with God.

Watch for the Cue

Ok, we're going to try this. I'm going to give you a cue, and we'll see how you respond.

Marco (Polo)

773-202-(LUNA)

Hey Chicago, whaddya say? (Cubs are goin to win today)

All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought it was a joke, (pop goes the weasel)

Cues. We live in a "cue" society; our advertisement industry banks on it. You didn't know that you needed that prescription medicine, but you should probably ask your doctor about it. You didn't know that you needed that new car, the one given at Christmas with big bow on it, but it turns out you do. Jingles, catch phrases, they are intended to cue us into something that we need but didn't know, that we desire but don't realize.

In today's Gospel lesson, Jesus is talking about cues. These aren't the jingles and the catch phrases of today, these are good cues. And he's talking to the Pharisees about how they don't recognize the cues of God, even though they're right there in front of them. They want Jesus to play their own games, they want John the Baptist to play their own games, but Jesus is saying that God has a different game in mind. And he uses the example of children's games, much like Marco Polo or Pop Goes the Weasel.

Children would sit in the market place while they're parents would shop or do business, and they'd play games. Two very popular games were "Wedding" and "Funeral". I remember my brothers and I playing "Cops and Robbers," or "School," or "Space Travelers" much the same way. If it's a marriage game, you start singing. And the Pharisees were singing, but, as Jesus points out, John the Baptist didn't want to play.

John was yelling about repentance, and the kingdom of God. He wore rags and ate strange food, not the kind of stuff you'd bring to a wedding.

You see, the Pharisees wanted something different out of John the Baptist, they wanted John to fit into their own mold. He wouldn't play, so they called him a demon.

And, likewise, Jesus was a little too outgoing for the Pharisees. He ate with sinners, partied at weddings, he cavorted with the lowliest in society. The Pharisees wanted to play funeral with Jesus, they wanted him to be more serious than he was willing to be, they wanted him to fit into their own mold of what a Rabbi, a Messiah was supposed to be.

Ironically, they did end up playing funeral with Jesus in a very real way.

Jesus says to the Pharisees, "You are like children playing a game, and you get mad when we don't play," because you cannot give God cues and expect God to play your games.

And we still do that, sometimes, as well. We still expect God sometimes to follow our cues, to play our games.

God doesn't play.

But in this passage, God is giving us cues. God is giving us a different framework, a different game to play in the work and person of Jesus Christ.

This last part of this section, this final part, where Jesus says,

"28Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

This is the cue that God is giving to us.

You know, just as often as we expect God to play our games, I think we spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out if God is giving us cues for how to conduct our actions, how to move to the next station in life.

I remember hearing about how Oprah once was about to get on a plane and there was some delay and they wouldn't get out that night. She went back home to return the next morning. In the meantime, a huge storm came up, and when Oprah arrived back home, her basement was flooded. As she sat on her stage, she told her audience that she thought God had caused the delay so she could go home and sump-pump her basement.

Now, on the outside, that seems like an ok thing to conjecture. But if I was one of those passengers on the plane, and I thought God had delayed my vacation, my visit to see my grandparents, or a funeral, or a baptism, or anything so that Oprah could sump-pump her basement, I'd be pretty ticked off.

You see, I'm pretty convinced that the cues we get from God are 90 percent in hind-sight. I can't say that it wasn't God that caused that airplane to fail, but I can't find the ability to utter the words that it was.

But today God is giving us, giving you, giving those Pharisees, and those disciples, giving the world an unmistakeable cue. And it is not game, it is life.

God is telling you that you are yoked to God. And not just yoked to God in Christ, but this yoke is unlike any other yoke you've ever experienced.

See, a lot of us are yoked.

We're yoked to success. We're yoked to drugs, sex, violence, charity, good works, self-righteousness, workaholism, alcoholism…tons of yokes to be under.

But God's yoke is different.

Jesus describes this yoke as being "easy". That is not really a great translation. The godly life, the Christian life, is never "easy," at least not in our modern conceptions of the word. The word "easy" is better translated as "well suited."

My yoke is "well suited."

On a bright June day, I sat with Larry and his family in hospital room 603 at Northwestern Medical Center. Larry would not live the night. He had been unresponsive for days, and the family had made the difficult but loving decision to remove life support.

As they gathered, family and friends, cousins and children, they told me stories about Larry. I didn't know Larry, never shook his hand, but I held his hand. I didn't know Larry, never heard him laugh, but I heard his children laugh as they told stories about his life.

Larry would not make it through the night.

I stayed with the family for much of the day. As my shift was changing, we prayed and I left them, and I walked outside.

And as I walked outside, I observed people going about their day, laughing and smiling. The birds were chirping, the cars were honking, and I wanted to go up to them all and shake them.

"Don't you know whats going on upstairs? There is a family that is about to go through a difficult, life-changing event. A father, brother, son, is about to die tonight, and here you are laughing, and chirping, and honking. Don't you know?!"

But then I thought back to my time with the family. How we had talked about God and faith, about the promises found in the good news that God is with us, even in death. About the good news that Jesus has promised eternal life.

And, somehow, that burden was lightened, if just a bit. It wasn't easy. Lord, it never is. But it's true. The hope, the promise that God has given, the cue that God has given in the person of Jesus Christ: that God is with us, in life, death, and everywhere in between, was well suited.

It was well suited for life.

You see, I don't know that we can always tell when God is giving us an individualized, specialized, situational cue, not until hind-sight. But if there is one cue that I see in writing, one cue that I see plain as day, one cue that is life giving: it is that we are walking with God through this life, yoked with the Christ no matter what ground of life we're tilling. Just as Christ moved past death into true life, we live with that promise as well. No matter what storms may come, whether it be weddings or funerals, drugs or self-righteousness, self-doubt or sump-pumps, we walk yoked with Christ, a yoke that is well suited to deal with them all.

Take the cue: you are yoked with Christ, and this is freeing news!

So, lets try one more cue, a cue that speaks to this life giving word:

Christ is risen! (Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia).

Amen.

Sermon: Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Edgebrook Lutheran Church

June 22, 2008

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 10:24-39

24A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; 25it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
26So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. 27What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36and one's foes will be members of one's own household.
37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Good News: God, through Jesus, has erased all fear.

Do Not Fear. Follow.

This is a strange June, my friends.

Last week I was eating a Whopper at Burger King with my nephews, which is a big deal because Rhonda and I make it a point not to each fast food. But the nephews wanted it, and far be it from me to displace their view of me as the uncle who is fun, so of course we stop off there to eat.

And as I’m eating this Whopper, something doesn’t taste quite right. You see, in my younger days, I was a Whopper connoisseur. I ate them bi-weekly. I can still remember the taste. But this didn’t taste right.

And I opened the burger and realized that there was, indeed, no tomato on my burger. The salmonella outbreak had taken its toll and it totally affected the taste. I somehow found the will to finish the burger, but I was reminded of a Laurie Colwin quote that rang true at that moment:

“A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.”

Luckily, we’re getting our violins back.

And for much of the past two weeks, we’ve all been glued to the reports of our neighbors to the West and North, Iowa, Wisconsin, border Illinois, hoping and praying for safety, even as we see the rivers well up to the point that the banks overflow, and the river borders are no longer sand and shore, but homes and businesses.

Our prayers and our support are still with them as we pray for receding waters.

And to go along with our strange June, today, we have a very strange text.

It mentions demons and swords, crosses and dissention.

and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

This is the only mention of the cross that Jesus has in Matthew before his actual crucifixion, and so we have to try to get at the heart of what Jesus is saying here.

You see, Jesus is not advocating that we go looking for crosses. Sometimes I think there is this idea among Christians that anything hard, or anything troubling is a “cross to bear.”

Sometimes I think we see any burden as a “cross to bear.” That’s simply not the case.

A difficult decision is not a cross. Taking children to school, or Sunday School, going to church, putting up with an annoying friend who dominates your time. Those are not crosses. And I think our strange June has made that abundantly clear to us. My scheduling conflicts are nothing compared to losing my house, my land, a family member or friend in a flood.

And suffering in general is not a cross. Illness, sickness, disease, these are not crosses. They are moments where God’s grace works wonders, they are moments where God can work and move in and through us. But I cannot, in good pastoral conscience, tell my brother or my sister suffering with AIDs, suffering from malnutrition, suffering from even glaucoma or hypertension, that that is their “cross to bear.”

And when we equate those to the cross of Christ, we cheapen that event. We cheapen that grace.

You see crosses are those things in our life that we run into when we follow Jesus Christ, and God’s work through him. Crosses are those things we run into when are faced with the reality of suffering, not in ourselves, but in the world, in others. Crosses are redemptive pieces of machinery.

You see, we don’t go looking for crosses because, in our life crosses will come looking for us.

And when we face a cross in our lifetime, we have a decision. We can pick it up and follow Christ, knowing exactly there it leads.

Or we can turn away.

Pastor Heidi Neumark, in her memoir Breathing Space, speaks of crosses. The memoir is full of crosses.

In one particularly moving entry, she speaks about going to see a woman named Ruby. Ruby comes to the food pantry of the Transfiguration Lutheran Church, where Heidi is called, and Heidi has only seen her there a couple of times. Ruby is not a member of the church. She doesn’t attend services. But Heidi goes to see her.

She knocks on the door, and after a moment or two of shuffling behind it, Ruby opens it up. And the place is a mess. There are no lights on because the power has been shut off. There is old food and clothes everywhere, and a small toddler in dirty clothes is seated on the floor. Ruby has struggled with abusive relationships, with crack, with a daughter who won’t go to school because her clothes are too ratty and wrinkled, to an apartment infested with rats to the point that they gnaw on the mattresses at night. And, most recently, Ruby has been diagnosed with HIV.

Now, these are not crosses for Ruby to bear. And think about it. If Ruby were to die on any of these crosses, from abuse or crack, from HIV or infestation, where would the redemption be?

No. You see, the one being faced with the cross at this moment is Heidi.

Is you and me.

Heidi followed Christ, the Christ that says, “Love your neighbors as yourselves.” The Christ that says, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And in following Christ she has found herself at this cross.

What will she do? What will she do?

Now, believe it or not, Heidi has options. When faced with this dilemma, we’re torn I’m sure. Helping Ruby out could be a serious investment of time and money, could be a serious investment of sweat equity, and could be impossible.

Or, Heidi can continue to visit with Ruby, and at the end of their exchange, simply walk away. Perhaps visit another day.

So what do they do? They pray. And, believe me, prayer is the first thing to do when faced with a cross. After all, what did Jesus do when faced with his cross. He went up to the garden of Gethsemene and prayed for a way out. He prayed that there might be another way. There wasn’t in that case.

You see, when we follow the footsteps of Jesus, when we follow the commands that say, “Love your neighbor, embrace your enemy.” When we do those things that God has said are important in this life, we’re going to find crosses.

So, do we pick them up, or pass them by?

Well, I think the answer is that sometimes we pick them up, and sometimes we pass them by.

And that’s OK. It’s OK because, well, if we’re following in the path of Christ, crosses will appear at our feet all the time, every day. And folks, we can’t pick them all up by ourselves. We simply can’t. Even Jesus says we can’t. At the beginning of this section of Matthew he says, “The disciple is not above the teacher, the servant above the master.”

We are not gods. We cannot be crucified on every cross that is out there.

But then again, we are commanded to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. There are some crosses we simply can’t pass by. And so we are commanded to do so in following Christ. It is our vocation to do so. It is our calling.

But what happens when we do?

What happens when we pick up a cross?

Well, Jesus lays it out for us. You see, the disciples who were following Jesus thought he would be bringing military and political peace to the world. But Jesus says that disciples shouldn’t expect peace. In fact, if you teach and preach, if you reach out as Jesus did, you should not expect peace, but a sword.

Yes, a sword.

And you should expect to be called names. “Beelzebul” is the word used here. It literally, in Hebrew means, “Lord of the flies.” Expect to be called King or Queen of the dung-heap, it says.

And you can expect family discourse. Because, you see, sometimes following Christ puts us at odds with others, even our families. We live in a world that calls us to be greedy, to put people in a hierarchical order, to degrade some while lifting up others. But Christ calls us to be giving, to turn hierarchy on it’s head, to uplift all even if it means taking a lower place yourself. And that’s not going to sit well with everyone, even in families. Mothers will disagree with mother-in-laws, fathers with sons. There is dissention on the way of the cross.

But there’s Good News.

You see, the love of God that calls us to reach out to others, calls us to take up our crosses. But we don’t do it alone. We do it with God’s help.

Throughout this section of Matthew, Jesus continually reminds the disciples, reminds us that we are not to be afraid of this path.

“Do not fear.” You see, the work of Jesus has freed us from fear. The work of the Messiah has freed us from those things that hold us back from doing the work of God in this world.

Do not fear if people call you crazy for picking up the cross of that neglected child in your neighborhood, the one who is violent and mischievous, but also hungry. Jesus was once called crazy.

Do not fear the financial loss of taking some time out to work for the Red Cross in flooded parts of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota. God calls us to care for our neighbors and is working in and through that effort.

Do not fear the derisive looks that some in this world will give you when you stand up against racism, sexism, homophobia, and greed. Do not fear their jokes, their snide remarks behind your back. Jesus is standing there with you, taking up that cross with you. They might be able to cut you with a sword of words, or even real swords sometimes, but they cannot touch your real self, your true self, the self that God knows. That is God’s!

Do not fear. Follow.

The hymn of the day today called The Summons, and is speaks to following Christ, no matter what crosses it leads to. The fourth verse is especially poignant:

“Will you love the you you hide, if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear inside, and never be the same. Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around? Through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?”

Do not fear, quell that fear inside. In following God we are standing with God against those things that threaten the world, against those swords that cut. And do not be afraid of those swords. God has promised that swords will be plowshares, that violence will not be the end of us. In following Christ, in picking up a cross, we can reshape this world with God’s help.

And yes, we are only a few. There are few people who pick up crosses, and the swords of this world are many and great. But in the face of such things, I am reminded of the poetic words of Tennessee Williams “The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.”

So lets not fear, lets follow. We’ll find crosses, lets pick them up. Jesus has laid it all out for us: there will be swords, there will be slander, there will be tough patches on this journey with Christ. But God walks with us, walks this path beside. God tells us not to fear, for what do we fear when God is near? With God’s help, we violets can break those mountain rocks.

The last verse of that hymn The Summons says it well:

“Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name. Let me turn and follow you and never be the same. In your company I’ll go where you love and footsteps show. Thus I’ll move, and live, and grow in you and you in me.”

Do not fear. God has erased all fear. Follow.