25 August 2013 Be Set Free Luke 13:10-17

It began a week or so ago. There was a tear in the universe and various events unfolded bringing new hope. There was a shift in the cosmic arrangement of the cosmic arrangement and new beginnings snuck up on us.

 For Barrett, it was his ordination to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. For Bob and Gene, it was heart surgery. For the Genesis campus, it was major air conditioning repairs and a pesky water leak that has come back. For others it will be the first day of a new school year tomorrow.

 With fond memories from Barrett’s ordination and installation this past Sunday where the church gathered to bestow upon another of our little ones we have worried over and watched grow the high and exalted call to adulthood, to our celebration for Bob and Gene that they are now better, to our heavy sigh at yet another series of repairs to our beautiful but ageing campus, to the high hope and anxiety of another the school year, we find life moving on with unpredictability and a sameness we have come to expect.

 Of course, summer has not ended. We have more heat and less rain to contend with. Time seems to really drag these hot days. They are so bright and seem to take any energy we have left.

 But we know change is upon us. Choir begins practice this coming week, their retreat is Saturday, and our new and familiar Carol is here bringing a friendship of comfort and a right ordering of those forever moving stars. Soon Labor Day will follow and before we know it we will be reaching for our sweaters and coats. Ok, I dream a bit. It’s cheaper than driving to the mountains.

 But like many of you, I am ready for the fall. I am ready to get ready for a change. That is the thing to do isn’t it? Through graduation, and healing, and fixing things up, and the start of school, and the coming of fall, and the return of choir we mark the end of one season and the beginning of another.

 I know, I know, we are getting older. But getting ready is the right thing to do. We do not want to be surprised by the surprising unfolding of time and circumstance, though that is exactly what it does to us.

 Jesus, for one, was seldom surprised by the surprising. Throughout his life God had been preparing him for his adult ministry. God was filling him with the knowledge of God’s Holy Word and God’s ways in the world.

 Jesus was ready for what lay in store and he was not disappointed when people acted like people. No, Jesus was prepared and there were few surprises in his life.

 In Luke this morning, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. It was Saturday and the synagogues were the center for all manner of life. There we would find high religious hyperbole surrounded by the energy and surging of all of life. There, in the synagogue, Jesus was prepared for all imaginations of social ills and political parlays and mystery and intrigue.

 All of first century life, at its best and worst, whether friend or foe, ultimately found its way to the synagogue, because that is where the action was. Jesus knew he would always be in the mix with the push of his theology and the tussle with the law and the power players there in the holy place, especially on Shabbat, on Sabbath day.

 The drama for this particular day was to be no different, for there came a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was unable to stand straight. Spirits, especially in first century Israel, were common place presences in the lives of many of the people Jesus came in contact with. Actually, at times, it seems he sought them out.

 These people with spirits were woven throughout all of society and there was a cottage industry of sorts that formed to respond to them. Some folks tried to contain them for prophecy and profit. Others tried to exorcise them, to cast them out.

 Yet many who were so afflicted where seen as a sign of God’s judgment, or as a consequence of particular willful disobedience to God’s law. And I suppose, like today, many saw reminders of their own afflictions in those seriously possessed or affected.

 Whatever their case, folks were just as used to the presence of those under the influence of spirits as we are to the homeless folks on the  street corners. Some we see through, others we stop to consider, and some we reach out to help.

 These were just the sort of folks Jesus waited for. He used the most difficult cases, in the most shocking places, to teach his most revolutionary ways to change, to restore healing, to bring hope in the midst of hopelessness.

 This particular woman was apparently sought by Jesus for he called her over and surprised everyone saying, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” Then he laid his hands on her and immediately she stood up straight and began to praise God.

 The leader of the synagogue took high offense to this act and he began to incite the people. “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.” We do not know how the people responded, but we do know Jesus’. He did not hesitate. “You hypocrites!” he yelled.

  Jesus knew what to expect from the leaders of the synagogue and they did not disappoint.  He knew the undercurrents of the synagogue scene. He knew how these leaders where.

 We quickly learn from the scriptures Jesus knows what to expect from us too. Jesus knows our every thought, our uniqueness, our tendencies, because our human predictability is ever before us. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.

 He would not be the one to say, “Why did he or she do that?” No, he knows us so well he can explain us before we can explain ourselves.

 The woman who appeared there in the synagogue was doing what she had always done. She had gone there as she had many times before. Who knows, after eighteen years, all she had left was her hope in being healed. Or perhaps she had long ago lost any real hope and was just hanging on. Eighteen years is a very long time.

Jesus, on the other hand, may have entered there with his eye open for the predictable. Knowing the hypocrisy surrounding Sabbath, his corrective vision waited patiently for the inevitable. This woman, this day, this Jesus, had final come together.

 Perhaps today is to be our day too. Perhaps we are to be the person Jesus is looking for. Perhaps ours is the heart that Jesus is waiting to enter, the one to whom he will center his ministry.

 When Jesus laid his hands on the woman, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. Have we been the one stooped over by the weight of our sin, the weight of our tired and worn love for God, the weight of our weariness at waiting for God’s peace, God’s kingdom?

 In his book, The Knowledge of God and the Service of God, the great theologian Karl Barth helps us know how to lift such weight from our stooped life.

 He said, “In the church to act means to hear. That is to hear the word of God, and through the word of God revelation and faith. It may be objected that this is too small a task and one that is not active enough. But in the whole world there exists no more intense, strenuous or animated action than that which consists in hearing the word of God – hearing it, as is its due, ever afresh, better, more loyally and efficaciously.

 Everything beside this is a waste of time here. It is in this act that the content of the church service consists. It is because the church hears the word of God and must hear it again that she meets.

 It is by listening to God that she serves God. And it is by listening together that her members serve one another, as of course they must do.”

 We hear God’s word as it is read from the scripture and we hear God’s word as it is spoken by God directly to each of us. When we are seen by God we may be called over and hear, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” We may feel Jesus lay his hands on us and immediately we will stand up straight and begin praising God.

  Hearing God’s simple yet powerful word, feeling Jesus’ hands upon us, will straighten us from our stooped ways. These words of God give us the love, grace, and power of God setting us free. Free to live in service to God, to this faith community, and to our brothers and sisters who are stooped and longing for new hope. Longing for a new Sabbath hope where all will stand and praise God.

  We therefore stand with joy this day for Barrett’s ordination and installation, for the healing for two of our members, for the funds we have to repair our broken parts, and for the return of school. For in our joy we find our freedom, our hope restored.

 We also praise God who straightens our stooped ways because that is what God does. Jesus sees us and comes to us, especially in the midst of the new changes God brings through our predictable and unpredictable seasons, to show us how to live the faithful life, and to assure us we are forgiven, loved, and risen to kingdom living.

 Such are the powers of the word of God.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one

God, now and forever. Amen

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11 August 2013 “Take Time to be Holy” Luke 12:32-40

 From the road, driving by, living in the country looks so peaceful. From the other side of the fence, it is a very different place. 

  It was not long after we moved to the farm near Brenham the romance faded and I realized, I was on the wrong side of the fence. I was a city boy. I knew very little about so much I needed to know and so much of it was on such a grand scale. But I was resourceful and I soon discovered my education for all things country was as sure as my nearest neighbor.

 I knew enough to know the health and safety and well-being of our young family depended on our neighbors.  Living in the country it is critical you spend the time and energy necessary to be ready for any and all surprises and the generations of experience from neighbors is invaluable.

 For those of you who were “country before it was cool” you will agree, surprises come fast and without warning when you live in the country.

 There were those times when frozen water pipes thawed and began to leak. So, you crawl under the house and learn about pipes and wet cold ground and closed in spaces. When the well stops working you learn what ants can do to electrical boxes and you learn how to fix the problem, prime the pump and get water back to the house and animals. When water percolates from the ground you discover the end of your field line from the septic and you get to fix that too.

 When the tractor will not start, the fence breaks, the cows get out, the chicken snake finds the hen house, or one finds its way into your house, you cannot turn to anyone but yourself and your knowledge from neighbors to be a mechanic, fence builder, cowboy, or snake charmer.

 Trial and error, along with conventional wisdom, and the help of kind neighbors, and you get done what needs to be done. Then you fall in bed and sleep like never before.

 We are often in similar settings with our faith life. It seems peaceful from the pew. But, we know better. There is a lot we need to know from our nearest neighbor to just survive, let alone flourish. Faith seems to demand every ounce of our wit and wisdom and then some.

 In the Isaiah and Luke readings this morning, God is our dependable neighbor as God lays out wit and wisdom for us and offers sound steps for our faith development and life on the other side.

 The vision from Isaiah tells us, “wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” If we will do these things we “shall eat the good of the land,” but, if we refuse and rebel, “we shall be devoured by the sword.”

 Then from Luke, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms.” “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But know this; if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

 It sounds like we are on the other side of the fence again. The nature of the unexpected hour sends us knocking on doors for help. We are not equipped, we are not ready. We need a wise neighbor.

 It must be human nature for us to so easily make the leap from worry or concern to worst case scenario when faced with the challenges of life’s little vicissitudes, as my mother called them. You know the times. Those unwanted phone calls, frightening doctor’s visits, contentious family meetings, knowing the boss is looking our way.

 Isaiah’s words this morning offer little comfort. If anything, they confirm worst case situations. God is fed up with the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah. God will not let them make their usual offerings for forgiveness. God will not listen to their usual excuses. God knows they will not change their ways.

 That is what God wants from Sodom and Gomorrah and it is what God wants from us. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. Apparently we do none of these well enough. If we refuse we shall “be devoured by the sword.” Oh, great, worst case scenario!

 Then in Luke we have an impossible response, “Do not be afraid.” Oh sure, we are about to be devoured by the sword and the message is “Do not be afraid.”

  Doesn’t God remember we live in worst case scenarios! Luke is right.

 We are afraid our sins are completely unforgivable and we are afraid that we never do enough to be as good as God wants us to be and we are afraid that we will never “eat the good of the land and receive God’s kingdom.” Because we know ourselves.

  Jesus, ever the understanding neighbor tries to comfort us. He says we will be blessed if we are living our lives dressed for action and waiting for our Lord, waiting for him in the midst of his life for us.

 We easily forget Jesus has a life for us and if we will be found waiting for him to return, so we can open the door to our hearts and love him when he knocks, our life with him will be blessed.

 In our waiting we get ready by spending time with God in a best case scenario. We pray and we talk with God. We study and learn who God is through scripture revealing who Jesus is. We love Jesus and do things for him. We are alert.

 This does not mean we will not be anxious, worried, or afraid. It does mean that we will always have Jesus in our hearts to turn to in those “keep you awake at night” moments for comfort and assurance and instruction about how we might grow closer and deeper in our love. Where we will be safe on his side of the fence.

 God’s promise is clear. No matter how things turn out, Jesus will come to us and serve us. He will tend to our hearts to sooth and comfort us in joy or in pain. For, dear ones, it is God’s love and God’s grace that makes us ready for the unexpected hour.

 This truth about God’s love is at the heart of God’s grace. God, we forget, creates us out of love, never ending limitless love. So, instead of worst case scenario’s, what if we project instead God’s scenario?

 I had a friend in Uvalde who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He prayed for two miracles. His first prayer was for his miracle, the one where he would be healed to care for his family.

 His second prayer was for God’s miracle. Where God would give him the strength he would need if the worst case scenario happened. He was not afraid, because he knew without a doubt it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, the kingdom here, or the kingdom there in heaven. Either way, Farris lived with God, which was his best case scenario.

 Our response is to find equal joy in loving God back and living in God’s kingdom, God’s best case scenario, in a state of grace. Our response is to fill the kingdom with God like love. To make ready and preparing our lives and the lives of those whom we love. Which according to Jesus, includes everyone. For God’s kingdom is inclusive, not exclusive.

 Our call this morning is to respond to God’s grace with grace. Grace that helps us sell all that we have and give alms. Grace that draws us to pray for God’s scenario so we can give up on creating our own kingdom filled with Sodom and Gomorrah doings.

 Perhaps most comforting of all, with God’s grace, we are to give up on creating for ourselves a kingdom filled with our own worst case scenarios. Scenarios of death, and destruction, and impossible pain and suffering.

  We have not been blessed with an abundance of rain these past few years and the farms and the country are dry. Our land and rivers are thirsting for rain. Yet, they retain a different beauty.

 Many of us love to spend time being in those places where we can fill our souls with God’s blessing from God’s natural created order. Just being in those places where smells, colors, and textures are calm and quite soothes the most troubled soul and restores our hope. Seeing the occasional rain cloud and knowing the rivers and ponds will run deep again keeps worst case scenarios from defining our lives. We hear ourselves say again how we love the out of doors, the country. We love this world we feel alive in and the world where we feel God’s blessing refreshing our souls.

 It is a bit easier to see the possibilities of God’s desires in our lives, living with purpose, in the beauty of place and land. We see a glimpse of the profound truth that God’s grace is constantly being given to each of us as the sun rises, the day stretches with new wonder, and the sunset colors our hope.

 Yet, we still may not imagine God’s plan for us. We do understand God’s blessings create God’s kingdom. We do believe God’s blessings unfold for this little flock as only God can desire. But our scenarios have extreme limits. God’s, we have faith, have none.

 So we prepare ourselves to always be ready to receive God’s grace and through our life to give that same grace to others. We give grace to others when we love as Jesus has loved us. We give God’s grace to others by giving our lives to God as God gave his Son’s to us. Not for our sakes, but for Gods.

 For the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour to take all those who live by grace to the kingdom of grace.

 Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is our Father’s good pleasure, as loving neighbor, to give us this grace and this kingdom where from either side of the fence we will be ready for that unexpected hour.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.  

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04 August 2013 “Wise Up” Luke 12:13-21

 The summer seems an ideal time for folks to go back home. It is often too hot for much else. We visit family, we see old friends, we have those quaint High School reunions with those strangers who join us in our longing for the “good ol’ days.”

I am not so sure we really want to return to those days long gone. Actually, I am pretty sure we do not. As attractive as the notion may be, I would wager the old house is not as big as we remembered, the street not so wide, the neighbors no so young any more. Our buddies, our playmates, even the bully down the street, they have all gone on and yet, like us, they too may remember and long for the “good ol’ days.”

 Those memories and our longings awaken in us a desire to just go back home. To lie in the bed in our old room and nestle in to old familiar daydreams and rich longings for just another moment to relive it all.

 Unless things were really bad, we felt safe back home. That is where our imaginations had no limits. Where dreams and wishes could really become true as we played and had fun and life was not so serious.

 As time has softened the edges of the hard parts of growing up we tend to remember more and more of the good and we find it easier to admit, those were good days and we felt more alive back then.

Now, in 2013, well, we have matured and our longings change. We look forward to the rest from full-time work or we are already there. Our ‘good ol’ day’s’ dream has been replaced with a desire for lazy care free days where life is simpler and filled with new riches.

 This question of the simpler and richer life is taken up in this morning’s gospel.  Prompted by a question from the crowd, Jesus is quick to recognize a deeper age old problem. This request for him to tell a man’s brother to divide the family inheritance is a request driven by greed.

  During the past few weeks in the gospels lesson’s, and the passages in between, Jesus is teaching and modeling for his disciples the kind of behaviors and practices that make for a God-centered life. In this morning’s offering someone in the crowd makes a rather rude intrusion asking Jesus to intercede in a family matter concerning “stuff” and how it is being divided.

 In response, Jesus makes clear that life is not about stuff.  And he tees up pretty high the moral to the story. Life is about God and relationships and we are to be on guard against the greed of stuff. Be it money, possession, or collections. We are to be wary of our justifications for our riches when they are based upon our greed.

 Of course, recognizing our greed can be tricky. We may not even realize our greed until one day we wake up and someone asks God why we will not divide the family inheritance with the family. Why we hoard our gifts and our blessings. Why we fail to share and give until we have nothing left because we have so much to lose. So much that makes us rich.

 Now Jesus comes to say to us that our life is not to be valued by the abundance of our possessions. It is foolish to think about having larger barns or houses or storage units or second homes. If we think we can store in those places ample goods for our soul, we are mistaken.

 Ok, perhaps we did not expect this to be a lesson about our riches and our soul. One or the other, ok. But both. Not so much fun. And now, given our riches, we are to look into our souls for evidence of our greed.  Oh great, now the greed card is being played too.

 Apparently, all we have in this world will eventually belong to someone else. If our souls have been validated solely by our rich goods, well, that too will belong to someone else.

 Now, before I get too far from the truth that is clearly here in this morning’s gospel, there is nothing in our Luke passage that is preaching against our valuing our goods, our possessions, our work, who we are or who we hope to be. No, having things and people in our lives are not what make us the fools God predicted we may become.

 Digging in and screaming to all who hear that we will not tear down our larger barns convicts us and makes us suspect in God’s eyes. It marks us as a fool. For this very night our life may be demanded of us. The things we have invested our life in, whose will those be?

 That is so not God’s question. No, instead, God says, be rich towards God. Build a rich relationship with God. The goal of life is relationship and interdependence rather than independence and self-reliance. It is a rejection of the notion that he or she who dies with the most toys wins. Eternity and the reign of God function as a great equalizer.

  The rich man in this morning’s parable is physically and fiscally secure. His business prudence is obvious. He is living what he thinks to be ‘the good life.’ But, as the parable tells him, he has foolishly impoverished his soul. He may be rich in substance, but he is poor in the quality of his life because he has made himself poor with God.

 Before we become too judgmental, we must ask, where is our spiritual prudence in light of how our good life has unfolded? Do we feel our good life guarantees a goodness in our soul? Do we feel that we are connected to God’s will or just to our own?

 Perhaps most troubling, how will we know? How will we know our riches have turned us from the ‘good ol’ days’ when Jesus’ message first caught our attention? When we thought Jesus is the answer. When we decided to give our life to the Lord. To follow him and love and serve only him.

 The answer to our spiritual richness lies not in finding the good life or reliving the ‘good ol’ days,’ but in finding instead the blessed life. The answer lies in having a goodness in our soul. That goodness, of course, is in a person, Jesus Christ.

The way to a life of lasting richness lies in becoming rich toward God. By creating experiences through which God can be encountered and allowed to reveal who God is for each of us. By celebrating  the ways we can live into God’s intent for our lives.

 Our God lives in Jesus Christ, and through each of us as we live simply with humility. Enjoying the harvest that comes from living with family, having friends, and community. Living a vocation of blessed service to God and to one another. Where we learn to share ourselves and our gifts and our bounty with others. Where we worship and pray and offer and give thanks for the signs of the blessed life around us.

 Jesus says we are not here to live the good life. We are not here to build bigger barns, or houses, or to have more stuff, more money, more more. 

 No, we are here to seek an alternative life, a blessed life. A life where we begin each day desiring to deepen our relationship with God. To live beyond our means and our efforts in humble service to our God.

 Do not forget, God is a real presence in our lives. One with whom we can share the life experience. One with whom we can form a relationship like no other. One where we are loved by our God. It would be pleasing to God if we loved God in return.

We are being called in our inheritance as children of God to be a place where we are “rich toward God.” Where God is present and God is alive and God is known. We are called actually and truthfully to see ourselves as the Body of Christ. To see ourselves as having a vibrant sense of faith, a yearning hope and love in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

 We are also challenged to begin to see ourselves as a church filled with God’s purpose, God’s presence, and God’s power. To see ourselves as embracing the sacred, where communion and baptism are central ways to reveal and connect us with God. To see ourselves as not afraid to serve God in our own unique way as Genesis Presbyterian Church having come from the richness of Trinity and Wilshire churches to form a new place. A new ‘good ol’ days’ where others are welcome, where others are encouraged, where they see life, a rich life found in the presence of Jesus’ abundant grace and love.

 Dare we live with these truths and reach out to share them in our ministry with one another in ways that take us beyond the ‘good ol’ days’ to one new day and then on to another, and another, and another. New day after new day where new ways reveal God to our soul. To one another. To the world. Then we will know we are rich toward God.

 Augustine has written, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

 We give thanks Lord God, for as our life has become one with yours our hearts and souls are no longer restless. For we rest in you and we are rich. We are rich because these new days, dear Lord, are truly the everlasting ‘good ol’ days’ newly alive in us, your children.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.  

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