Reconciling Love

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Our lessons today are full of forgiveness and reconciliation; of hope and embracing those who are different.  In our first lesson, Joseph embraces his brothers, forgiving them for selling him into slavery.  Joseph forgives them, and assures them that God used those events for the purpose of preparing a way of salvation for his chosen people.  

Joseph not only forgave his brothers, but then he provided for their welfare and that of their families for the duration of the famine. For us to understand, if Joseph, who suffered injustice after injustice can forgive the brothers who initiated the whole thing, then we need to look at our own lives to see where God may be calling us to forgive those around us.  This is but an example of the kind of love God has for us and that he wants us to extend to others. 

Our gospel lesson is also an interesting study.  Jesus starts out redefining Jewish dietary laws.  It is not that the laws themselves are bad - they served a purpose when they were given.  The problem was that the religious leader of the time had made those same laws into a kind of religion apart from God.  

What Jesus is saying is that these laws mean nothing if your heart is not in a right relationship with God.  You can follow the laws to the letter, but if you are not treating people right, then the laws by themselves cannot save you.  The traditions that the Pharisees follow no longer mean anything.  They have made a religion of being “holy” and he says that doesn’t matter to God.  He is saying that God cares less about these rules than he does about the condition of your heart. And then we get this vivid example of a right heart.

Jesus leaves and goes into Gentile territory.  The Pharisees are beginning to take offense at him and he may be tired of defending himself against them.  This is probably still in his first year of ministry – he’s maybe still learning what God is calling him to do – how he is to behave.  And he finds himself confronted by a Canaanite woman - a Gentile.

Now remember that Jesus has been raised as a Jew – to have compassion for Jews but Gentiles are outside that scope.  Gentiles generally have other gods, they are outside the covenant given to the Jews. Jesus sees his mission as bringing back the lost sheep of Israel, bringing the children back into covenant with God.  

Jesus has travelled outside Palestine, taking some time off, something of a vacation.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m on vacation I want to rest, I don’t want to have to do any thing that looks like work.  

So here he is, on vacation, confronted by the Gentile woman – and he ignores her.  She calls him “Lord, Son of David.”  She has some understanding of the Jewish traditions and history.  The disciples tell him to send her away.  She is a Gentile woman – two strikes against her – she is a woman – a second class citizen – not even a citizen.  She is a Gentile – unclean, unworthy.

Have you ever noticed that the disciples often do that?  They seem to feel that they are above certain things – let’s look briefly at the times that they encourage Jesus to blow someone off.  In the 19^th chapter of Matthew we will see people bring children to Jesus – and the disciples try to send them away.  They are just little children – not important in the ancient world.

In the 20^th chapter of Matthew we see the crowds rebuking two blind men who call to Jesus as he is leaving Jericho.  “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us.”  And once again the crowd tells them to be quiet and not bother the teacher.  This is a common theme – and each time Jesus eventually responds.

With the Canaanite woman, when Jesus says he was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, she kneels before him showing honor and once again says, “Lord, help me.”  She is persistent – she doesn’t give up.  

And then Jesus, the Jesus I love, insults her, “It’s not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  Most people I know would get huffy and say something like, “Well, I’m not going to stay around here and be insulted.  I’ll go find someone who cares.”  Our pride would probably get in the way of our healing.

I don’t think that Jesus started out intentionally to hurt her.  I think he was probably tired – the reason he was on vacation – and I think his human side – his human pre-conditioning just sort of took over.  

But her love for her daughter and her deep need to see her daughter well keeps her rooted to the spot.  She still addresses him with a title of honor, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat what falls from the master’s table.”

Jesus may also have been on a learning curve.  We want to think of Jesus as above human pettiness, but he was raised with Jewish values and like the disciples, he may have first responded in accordance with his upbringing.  

But the woman’s persistence and her continued respect for him in the face of adversity, may have made him begin to realize that Canaanites were human too, worthy of consideration.  Here we begin to see his ministry open up to others.  Most of his ministry was to his fellow Jews – he was determined, almost driven, to bring them back into covenant with God.

But then we see him break that mold to reach out to others – as he is confronted by various Gentiles - and in these instances, we see the Kingdom of God extending, stretching and growing.  We see Jesus reaching out to and embracing those who are different; who live differently, who have different values, who have different priorities, who may not have the same opportunities we have.

 I have been deeply troubled by the unrest that has settled upon this country and the violence that has become all too familiar in today’s world. I think part of the problem today is that we have not treated each other with respect, we have not treated others as we would like to be treated.  Too many people today have taken offense without taking time to listen or to try to understand each other.

I would really hope that we as a Christian people have grown past looking at others as inferior - unworthy of God’s love. Jesus would call us to reach out to those who are different, who have different value systems, and who have different life styles.  I don’t know where all this is going, or where it will end up, but I do know that God abhors the violence, the polarization, the inability to sit at table and be civil to one another.

We are all children of God, whether it’s our family of origin, our church family, or the human family.  I would ask that each person make it their responsibility to pray for peace and reconciliation in our world today.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of David, help us to see you in the world around us – to reach out to those you bring into our realm of influence.  Lord, you have loved us, now help us to love as you love, to see with your eyes and hear with your ears.  Stretch us to reach out to those who are different, to those who are marginalized.  Help us to be your hands in city, in this community and within this church family.  Amen.

Walking with Jesus

Fear, more than anything else, can distort our view of the world around us.  We fear things that we don’t understand, things that are different, and things that threaten us.  We fear people who we don’t understand, people who are different, and people who threaten us. When we fear, the proclivity is to want to get away from or to rid ourselves of the thing or person we fear.  Hatred or anger are natural responses we allow ourselves to have in order to compensate the helplessness we feel when we fear.  

We see a lot of fear in today’s lessons.  What is left out of our Old Testament reading is the part about Joseph’s dreams - the ones that represent his brothers bowing down to him.  Joseph’s brothers are jealous of their father’s love for Joseph, and fear that they will not measure up or will be left out or slighted.  Out of that fear grows hatred and the hatred causes the brothers to act, to rid themselves of the source of their discomfort.  Although some of the brothers want to kill him, at least two brothers, Reuben and Judah, seek ways to preserve Joseph’s life.   (Remember this story, because I will probably preach on the sequel to this next week.)

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Matthew is by far my favorite rendering of this gospel lesson.  His is the only gospel in which Peter steps out of the boat to walk to Jesus.  In his excitement, Peter momentarily overcomes any kind of fear to step out in faith.  Of course as we read this gospel, Peter looks around at the waves and his fear returns.  He begins to sink.  

Now, how many times have you heard a sermon on the necessity of keeping your eyes focused on Jesus?  I know we’ve all heard them - over and over.  This world swirls around us and there are many things that can make us fearful.  You may be fearful of the political climate in today’s world.  How about all the animosity in the Middle East?  Especially if you know someone who is over there.  Or how about people plowing cars into crowds of innocent people in Europe?  There is now the newer threat of North Korea and their development of missiles and nuclear weapons.  But you don’t have to go overseas to find violence and mayhem.  Here in our own country, tempers are rising and people lashing out at others who hold a different political view, or religious view or the racial tensions that are rising.  (And I might just insert here in view of the most recent outbreaks, that violence over racism, nationalism or any other “ism” is not okay.   It is totally against the gospel of Jesus Christ.  You know, the one in which he talks about loving your neighbor, forgiving those who have hurt you, and helping those who are less fortunate than you.)  

But to get back to our sermon, even in your own life, you might have job worries, or money troubles, family illnesses or relationship struggles.  The world around us, not unlike the raging sea around the apostles, can be a scary place.  

In our lesson today, you will notice that the disciples are not scared of the wind and waves that have risen up around them.  They are fighting the wind and the waves and not making much headway - but they are fishermen and they are not scared.  It’s not until they see Jesus coming across the water that they get scared.  This is something beyond their experience and they think he is a ghost coming out of the mist.  It isn’t until he says, “Take heart, fear not, it is I,” that they understand that it is Jesus and they will be okay.   

More than anything else, this is a story of faith, and hope.  Peter shows his impetuousness by asking Jesus to call him out, but he doesn’t step out of the boat until Jesus says “Come.”     

I know what it feels like to step out of that boat.  I did that 20 years ago when I left for seminary.   It was scary and exciting at the same time.  And there have been times during the past 20 years that I’ve called out, “Oh Lord, what have you gotten me into?”  

What Peter discovered, and what I discovered, is that the world is going to swirl around you regardless of who you are or what you do.  And sometimes we lose our focus - that’s human, isn’t not a fault nor a failure.  But the beauty of it is, when that happens, all we have to do is call out and Jesus is right there, ready to take your hand and to help you back in the boat. How reassuring that is, to know that Jesus is there.

Too often, the world around us tries to convince us that it is up to us to make things happen, or to improve our status, or to follow faithfully.  Self-help is still all the rage.l. Just look at Pinterest - all kinds of way and instructions on how to ‘do it yourself.’  But that’s the thing about church, or religion, or faith.  When life gets too hard, there is Jesus - just waiting for us to call out so that he can help us to do what needs to be done, to weather the storm that rages around us, or to reach out and save us when we begin to sink.

That reminds me of one of the songs I learned a long time ago.  It goes like this:

Here comes Jesus, see Him walking on the water,

He'll lift you up and He'll help you to stand;

Oh, here comes Jesus, 

He's the Master of the waves that roll.

here comes Jesus, let him take your hand.

Amen.

 

Mountaintop and Valleys

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Today is August 6 the day set aside for the reading of the transfiguration story, the day that Jesus is revealed as the Son of God.  The disciples have been following this man, knowing in their hearts that he was something special.  But here, they can’t escape the fact that Jesus is the chosen son of God.

At this point, they are all overshadowed by a cloud.  The cloud in many ways represents the darkness that might surround us at various times in our life.  There is a small book, written by an English Monk called the Cloud of Unknowing.  It is sometimes referred to as Christianity with a Zen outlook.  It encourages its readers to seek God, not through knowledge, but through love.  It has been derided by many as being anti-intellectual and therefore not worthy of serious consideration.

Long before I went to seminary, I began to discover that there two different approaches to God, one was experiential and the other was intellectual – and for the intellectual, these two paths never cross.  Any personal experience of God was derided as bunk, unworthy of God, and yet, - that was exactly how the disciples experienced Jesus Christ.  Yes, his words may have thrilled them at times, but more often than not, they were confused by his words, asking him over and over to explain what he meant.  It was their experience of the living God that drew them in over and over.  

But to get back to the cloud, the cloud scares the disciples – not unlike the cloud that covered the mountain where Moses met with God.  The Israelites were scared by the thunder and lightening and the darkness that overshadowed them.  I think often we find ourselves in darkness and it scares us, too.  

But from the darkness experienced by the Israelites, they received the Ten Commandments, a light to live by, a way to walk in God’s favor.  

For the disciples, out of the darkness came a voice – assuring them of God’s love in the presence of Jesus Christ – “This is my Son, listen to him.”  This is a reassurance to all of us that even when things seem darkest, there is always hope when God is at the center of your life. 

We are human and being human, we can go through types of transfiguring events, but just as with the Israelites and with the disciples, when the transfiguring events are ended, things seem not so different from before.  The Israelites still sinned – that’s why they spent 40 years wandering in the desert.  

Even Peter, who was so enthusiastic about this mountaintop experience, is the same Peter who later would deny Jesus in the face of the cross.  I used to have a sign on my door that started out, “Being Christian doesn’t mean we are perfect.  It just means we’re forgiven.”

We can rejoice in an exalted passage of scripture, be moved by emotion during the singing of a hymn, find great joy in receiving the sacrament, marvel at the goodness of God in our midst, and then go out and live no differently than before.

A primary symbol for Cursillo is a rooster.  There was a song written for the Cursillo movement that goes something like this – “The rooster crows reminding me who I am and what I believe.  Hello rooster, you know me inside, faces I wear and love that I hide.”  We forget at times, through fear, or distraction, or negligence…  We need that reminder from time to time that God is with us, even in the darkness, even when we turn away, even when we forget him.  

We have a monthly meeting of clergy the first Wednesday of each month.  One of the things we have started doing is an experiential study of the upcoming Gospel lesson based on the Bible study method introduced by the African bishops at Lambeth Conference 16 years ago.   Imagine a room full of 10 or more clergy bouncing ideas around concerning this transfiguration.   

This kind of study starts with three readings of the passage from three different translations and after each reading everyone shares a word that stood out to them, next an idea that strikes them and finally what they believe God is calling them to change or do based on the scripture.

In this lesson, it was the contrast between dark and light that stood out for most.  Someone brought up a idea thrown out by Bishop N.T. Wright, bishop of Durham.  Bishop Wright is a popular author around the Anglican communion.  Writing under the name N. T. Wright for scholars and under Tom Wright for everyone else.  In one of his commentaries on the Transfiguration, he put forth the contrast between the mountaintop experience and the cross that was being discussed by Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

On this mountain, Jesus’ clothes are bright and shining, 

at Calvary, he is stripped naked.

On this mountain, Jesus is flanked by Moses and Elijah, 

at Calvary he is flanked by two criminals. 

On this mountain, Jesus is surrounded by his friends, 

at Calvary, he has been deserted by them.

John Newton, Bishop Doyle’s chief of staff, added in a sermon that it is not on the mountain of transfiguration that we are saved - it is on the cross in that valley of darkness that Jesus saves us.

Mountaintop experiences are wonderful, inspiring and life giving.  And we sometimes go through periods of darkness in the gullies of this world.  But it is somewhere in between that we are called to live and minister.  It is in going to that mountain that we are inspired to go back down into the gentle slopes or planes to live out our lives and to share and minister to those around us.  When the mundane world gets you down, or your life seems to be overshadowed by the worldly worries, listen for the voice of God coming out of the darkness.

For Sam and I, Cursillo was something of a mountaintop adventure that sent us back fired up and ready to see where God was leading us.  I wouldn’t trade that experience or what has happened since then for any other possible variation of life.  

God reveals himself to us over and over, reminding us of who he is, of his great love for us, and of his place in our lives. 

Two thousand years ago, the disciples experienced Jesus walking beside them and teaching them.  Three questions:  

Have you been aware of Jesus walking with you somewhere in this life?  

Where has God spoken to you out of a cloud that has over-shadowed you?   

Where have you been inspired by God’s glorious presence? 

I invite you to sit now quietly for a few moments, and contemplate where God has made his presence known in your life.

(Silence)

Amen.