Christ the King Year A - conclusion

If you celebrate Christ the King Sunday you’ll probably sing Crown Him with Many Crowns. It was written in 1851 by Matthew Bridges, an Anglican who had converted to Catholicism. The hymn was based on Revelation 19:12 “and on his heads were many crowns.” He wrote six verses and the hymn became hugely popular. Godfrey Thring, a devout Anglican priest, was suspicious that Catholic theology was being sung in Protestant churches (heaven forbid!) so he wrote six verses of his own for use in Protestant circles. Over the years the twelve verses were used in varying combinations so that now most hymnals contain four, two by Bridges and two by Thring, but truth is no one can tell the difference. And Christ the King is pleased.

Christ the King Year A - Matthew 25:31-46

Matthew 25:31-46
The sheep didn’t recognize Jesus in the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned stranger but they provided help anyway. The goats didn’t recognize Jesus either but it sounds like if they had they would have done something about it. That’s why this text is not about works righteousness and the reward, or punishment, is not about what you do. It is about who you are because “being” and “doing” is the same thing. The sheep were motivated by the obvious need of others and did what they could to alleviate the suffering of the Jesus hidden in the sick and isolated. For whatever reason the goats were not motivated by the obvious need of others and so did nothing to help the Jesus hiding in plain sight. So if you see this text as primarily about gaining reward or avoiding punishment you’ve missed the point and perhaps the Jesus hiding in the need of others. But then it should not come as a surprise to those who claim Christ as King that God is interested in the welfare of those who live on the margins, after all Jesus was born into poverty and died a stranger, thirsty and naked imprisoned by nail and wood.

Christ the King Year A - Ephesians 1:15-23

Ephesians 1:15-23

Paul writes more run on sentences than I do and sometimes his thoughts and mine can be lost in the language, so let me keep this simple. This is the hope I want to know. I want to know a hope where God makes all wrongs right. I want to know a hope where all questions are answered. I want to know a hope that includes more rather than less. I want to know a hope that is more merciful than I am. I want to know a hope where fear and doubt and self-loathing disappear into perfect peace. Of course that is the hope of the cross; we just tend to run on about it until the simple meaning is obscured. You do not have to be afraid of a God you can strip naked and nail to a piece of wood. I hope the cross of Jesus Christ is everything I hope it is.

Christ the KIng Year A - Psalm 90:1-7

Psalm 90:1-7

I can’t read psalm 95 without thinking of the Venite from the Office of Matins in the Lutheran hymnal of my youth. (The 1941 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod red book – the hymnal preferred by God and the angel choirs) As a child it seemed a long song sung every Sunday and was printed on two pages that required flipping back and forth to sing the next verse. Of course we all had it memorized so the flipping was just liturgical calisthenics, which in some ways is the whole point of liturgy. It’s like breathing, something that generally goes unnoticed but is essential for life itself. The Venite wasn’t very interesting musically and it would be hard to think of it as shouting with joy to the rock of our salvation but it became so familiar that fifty years later it reminds me of so much more than singing the song. That sort of foundational memory is present even when our everyday memory fades and in that way the great God who made the seas and molded the dry land is always present until the last song of this life becomes the first song of the next and we enter God’s face to face presence with thanksgiving.

Christ the King Year A - Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
The Lord God is critical of what seems to come naturally to sheep - pushing with flank and shoulder, butting each other with horns. Maybe the same is true for us for when push comes to shove we would prefer not to be on the receiving end. But God as shepherd prefers lean sheep to fat ones and promises to bring back the strayed, bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. The image of God as our shepherd is for the encouragement of all who have been pushed and shoved by events beyond their control so that rescued from the clouds and thick darkness of despair, well watered and fed on the good pasture of hope; we would no longer be ravaged by doubt and fear. And if we feel secure we might be less likely to push and shove and scatter others to preserve a place for ourselves, which would be pleasing to shepherd and sheep alike.

Pentecost 22a - conclusion

My Morey Baja® boogie board arrived in the mail today ahead of schedule. Unfortunately the red tide has not left the Texas coast and water that kills fish is not something I want to wade in or ride on. It’s a shame since over the years we’ve weathered high winds and driving rain, a blue northern that dropped the temperature by 30 degrees and fog and mist that kept us in our tents praying the bet your bottom dollar sun would come out “tomorrow, tomorrow.” But we’ve also known days of endless waves, beautiful sunsets, gentle breezes and balmy weather to slow the pace of life and your heart rate at the same time. But you can’t weather red tide. You just have to stay away until it goes away. So I’ll put on my wet suit and sit on the couch with my Morey Baja® and watch Blue Crush and maybe God will see me and have pity and push a cold front through that will spare both the fish and our Thanksgiving vacation at the same time. The hope in Zephaniah for something different than destruction comes in the last chapter where the God offended in chapter one gathers a remnant from the offenders to be a pleasant planting and a people pleasing to the Lord. The psalm begins and ends with the Lord as refuge but the verses in between name the killing tide that is our willful rebellion. Paul encourages the Thessalonians to build each other up even though the Lord is going to tear everything down. And in the economics of the Gospel lesson those who have get more while those who have nothing get less than that but only because they believe God operates in such a manner. Like the risk everything five and two talent servants I’ll be watching the beach reports for the red tide to go out and even if I have to drive eight hours for one ride I’m catching a wave on my new board.  

Pentecost 22a - Matthew 25:14-30

Matthew 25:14-30
The servant who is given one talent believes his master is harsh, reaping where he does not sow and gathering what he did not scatter, while the first two servants take advantage of the master’s generosity to the benefit of both master and servant. It could be that the one talent servant reaps what he sows and gets the harsh master he imagines. Even so it hardly seems fair that from those who have nothing even what they have will be taken away, but then again the image of God as a harsh master can be found throughout the scriptures and would give us good reason to fear judgment and bury our lives in rigid rules, not risking anything lest everything be taken away. But there is a more profitable image of God as one whose “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” compassion compelled him to reap the harvest of our sin that he did not sow and gather those scattered by their own will. To live that vision means we take advantage of God’s generosity and risk the kind of things Jesus did investing the five and two and one talent of the Gospel in our everyday and everywhere so that in the end God might reap a harvest of abundance beyond our one talent servant imagination.

Pentecost 22a - 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
“Therefore encourage one another” seems uncharitable at best considering the impending doom for everyone else where the “will come as a thief in the night” is a day of the Lord from hell. Surprise! And doesn’t the idea of an eternal from the beginning plan to make the biggest surprise of human history sudden destruction bother you? Even the most vicious small g god humans have invented is capable of that. So what if the surprise “thief in the night day of the Lord” is mercy not judgment? And staying sober is living in the light of radical love, the kind of eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners life that got Jesus killed so that the destiny of humanity would be salvation not wrath. Now that would be a surprise, wouldn’t it?

Pentecost 22a - Psalm 90

Psalm 90
The Lord “our refuge from one generation to another” also knows our secret sins. No wonder the psalmist rightly fears God’s indignation. We prefer anonymity where sins are concerned and even though we suspect others are consumed by sin we like to believe no one suspects the same of us.  But the Lord knows the things we even try to hide from ourselves. The memories that still make us shudder with shame. A lifetime of things done and left undone, said and left unsaid set before the Lord in whose anger “all our days are gone and our years come to an end like a sigh.” But the truth about us is not as great as the truth about God “our refuge” who knowing us full well still satisfies us in the morning with unfailing love, teaching us the gift of each day so that our hearts weighed down by sin might be lightened by wisdom.

Pentecost 22a - Zephaniah 1:7:12-18

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18

Zephaniah is very popular with the “Save Fort Worth” people that spend the weekend standing on Sundance Square street corners warning of impending doom for having too much fun. I must admit I don’t find much worth saving in Zephaniah’s graphic description of the day of great distress and anguish. The violence visited on people just like you and me and our children and the image it evokes of God acting out of a fit of jealous rage is offensive. Of course God has every right to punish people resting “complacently on their dregs” who treat God with disdain. You’d be jealous too and might be tempted to express your righteous indignation violently. But that would be wrong wouldn’t it? We might even call it sin. So how is it sin for us to kill someone who treats us with contempt while God can destroy a whole city; men, women, children, animals and call it justice?  And even if the Jerusalem elite were worthy of the most dreadful death the Babylonians didn’t discriminate as the guilty and innocent shared the same fate. Of course years later the Persians did the same thing to the Babylonians. And so the story goes. Maybe the prophetic word is about the destruction we visit upon each other, from Cain and Abel to the Holocaust. So even if the faith of Zephaniah requires him to give God the credit it’s always humans who do the dirty work.

The Feast of All Saints Year A - conclusion

I’m going to order a new body board today for our yearly Thanksgiving week pilgrimage to Mustang Island State Park which means I’ll smell the salt air and ride the surf in my dreams tonight. It happens every year that as the day draws near to trade my pastored up shirt for a wet suit I’m able to be on the beach long before we get there. In theological terms we say that is future present which just means we live the promise before it’s fully realized. The Feast of All Saints would be a sad day indeed if it were only about remembering those who have died. But it is at the intersection of memory and expectation that the saints and we are most present. They with us in fond memory and we with them in hopeful expectation. In the same way the first lesson imagines the God far removed being so present as to reach out and wipe away tears. The psalmist already tasting the goodness of the Lord invites the still afflicted to hear and rejoice. In the epistle the hope that purifies is that we will be what we already are. And the Gospel promise is that “blessed are you” doesn’t wait for circumstances to change but lives the promise in the present. Surf’s up!   

The Festival of All Saints Year A - Matthew 5:1-12

Matthew 5:1-12
“Blessed are those” becomes “blessed are you” when you live the Beatitudes. By that I mean the “rejoice and be glad” not the persecuted for righteousness sake. In our everyday the "blessed are you" has a tough time overcoming the persecuted (period end of sentence). But the “blessed are you” is and was an invitation of what we are to be because they are a promise of what will be. That does not deny “persecuted for righteousness sake” as your reality. That’s pretty much a promise too. But to look beyond being poor in spirit, meek and mourning, starving for justice means one is a merciful, pure in heart peacemaker. As far as Jesus is concerned that is blessed indeed.

The Feast of All Saints Year A - 1 John 3:1-13

1 John 3:1-3
The hope that purifies is that we are what God says we are, beloved children. I know the analogy to human parenthood falls short of the glory of God, but when I consider that God loves me in the way that I love my children, Joshua and Mary Ruth, I am purified from all that would make be believe I am less than I am; a beloved child of the creator of the universe. The love God has for us cannot be limited by all the things said and unsaid, done and left undone that limit our response to that love, in the same way that not a day goes by when I don’t marvel in the miracle and give thanks for the gift of my children. That is the hope that purifies, God giving thanks to God for the miracle and gift of a child that is you.

The Feast of All Saints Year A - Psalm 34:1-10

Psalm 34:1-10

Delivered from terrors and saved from troubles the psalmist rejoices in the goodness of the Lord. Sometimes the only way out of trouble is through it which is what the cross is all about. To fully bear the weight of human sin the cross must have struck terror in Jesus, if only for a moment. “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” But the terror of the cross is temporary and “into your hands I commend my spirit” is the beginning of the forever life that shines forth in radiance from the empty tomb to bathe the world in the light of resurrection hope. Because Jesus endured the trouble and terror of the cross we can sing “taste and see that the Lord is good” even when the days we face are not.  

The Feast of All Saints Year A - Revelation 7:9-17

Revelation 7:9-17
These words were written to encourage and comfort people who were suffering terribly for the sake of the faith. Let’s put aside the thought that Revelation is a road map through Divine destruction with promises of paradise for a select few and consider that the God who wipes away the tears of a multitude too great to count might not want to poke the eyes out of everyone else. Maybe within the necessary narrative for a persecuted people there is a word that speaks to all humanity created in the image of the holy. There are innocents who suffer all of life as a great ordeal, starving for food or affection with no hope for happiness. Will God wipe away their tears? There are those less innocent who scarred by neglect or abuse suffer the great ordeal of lives doomed to misfortune and out of their pain visit it others. Will God wipe away their tears? There are those not innocent at all but acting out of selfish interest suffer the great ordeal that looks like prosperity but lacks love and mercy and kindness and if they knew perhaps they would weep as well. Will God wipe away their tears? Can God wipe away every tear from every eye and still be a God of justice? I don’t know but I hope so and not because I need a happy ending to the sad human story, but because I hope God does.

Reformation Year A - conclusion

It’s early in the morning on Reformation Sunday. I’m sipping a tall bold at my Starbucks. On the way over here NPR was featuring a professor of religion who was discussing the current state of affairs in the American religious life. We’re still a spiritual nation but not quite as religious as we used to be. That’s not good news for “organized” religion but then we should be used to that by now. Even if Jesus said the church would be founded on a rock it has never been stationary. Even so the life of faith was never meant to be lived alone. It’s just in our nature to congregate and when we do organization inevitably follows. So the church goes through times of plenty and times of want, times that call for correction and times when we really do get it right. Today we’ll see a lot of red in the pews, even if you live in a blue state, and we’ll sing “A Mighty Fortress” with choirs and brass adding to the festival feeling and we’ll remember Martin Luther, the saint and sinner who got us started. But while it might seem Reformation Sunday only celebrates things Lutheran it’s really about the freedom found in the Gospel that, organized or not, is what our religion is all about.

Reformation Year A - John 8:31-36

John 8:31-36
Maybe if I knew what my “we are descendants of Abraham” was I would know what keeps me from being free. But the sad truth is that those who claim to be “truly my disciples” are often just as bound as those who could care less. The truth is not as easily defined as one might think and as soon as you “name it and claim it” you have lost it. “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose” (Janis Joplin - Me & Bobby McGee) might not be Gospel but it is truth. When you get to the place where what matters to you is not as essential as to what makes a difference so that nothing matters but everything is important you come close to freedom. It is not a freedom we fight for or protect as crazy as that sounds. No one has ever been freer than Jesus, but not when was healing or preaching or praying. Freedom for Jesus was the cross and the sad and wonderful truth is that it is the same for us.  

Reformation Year A - Romans 3:19-28

Romans 3:19-28
God is the one who is just and the one who justifies; period, end of sentence. So why do we work so hard for what is none of our business? I don’t mean sin, we don’t have to work at disobedience or doubt or self centeredness or disregard for the needs of others or neglect of the planet or any of the ways we are guilty of being less than human. No, sin is all about us, which is why the just one who justifies the creation gone its own way enters the fray to contend with the inevitable consequence of human rebellion, death. Faith does not activate or complete what God has already done in entering the human story. Faith means we enter God’s story in the Christ and stop working for what is already ours because we no longer doubt what is beyond comprehension. We are already justified, made right with God, because God won’t have it any other way which means we are free to be fully human.

Reformation Year A - Psalm 46

Psalm 46
To “be still” in the presence of shaking earth, falling mountains and roaring seas is not the natural response to natural disasters, unless being still is fainting dead away. In the same way that the uncertainty of nations in uproar and falling kingdoms typically lead us to circle the wagons and prepare for the worst by doing our best to make sure our piece of the earth doesn’t melt away. But the command is to “be still” while God does the heavy lifting of breaking bows and shattering spears. Being still in the face of personal and collective calamity only happens if we stand still on the foundation of faith which is the “know I am God” part of the equation. So being still doesn’t lead us to know God as much as knowing God allows us to be still.

Refomation Year A - Jeremiah 31:31-34

Jeremiah 31:31-34
When will the “days are surely coming” finally get here? I know some will quickly point out “the days are surely coming” came with the new covenant signed and sealed by the blood of Jesus. But if that is true, and of course I believe it is, the "days are surely coming" are not yet fully here. Even those who have the new covenant written on their heart and claim to “know the Lord” filter that knowledge through denominational lenses or personal experience and believe they have 20/20 vision while everyone else has to squint.  The “days are surely coming” won’t get here until my “know the Lord” doesn’t deny the truth of your “know the Lord.” But surely there is a right and a wrong way to know the Lord? For something to be true something else is necessarily false. Well, yes but how can we tell the difference when everything we know is subject to our own bias, even the way we come to the scriptures? Maybe we can agree on this, at least for this text. God is the only actor and the people are passive for the heart of the promise is that God does not treat law breakers as they deserve but forgives iniquity and remembers sin no more. Maybe the day will surely come when we do the same.