Pentecost 13b - Joshua 24:1-18

Joshua 24:1-18

“Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other god’s” turns out to not be too far from them at all. In the future the prophets speaking for God will lament, “These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13) I suppose after forty years in the wilderness you’ll say anything to get some relief in the Promised Land. I’ve read the Old Testament more times than I can count and far be it from me to find times these people pledging faithfulness made good on the promise. Oh there are times they listen to what the Lord is saying (as for me and my house we will serve the Lord) and experience blessing, but the land promised (albeit taken violently from others) is ultimately divided between two kingdoms who hate each other more than they fear their enemies. I think the truth of the scriptures is that it doesn’t sugar coat the story of the people of God who turn out to be just as unfaithful as everyone else. But in the same way that the scripture speaks the truth about us it reveals the unique nature of our God.  Every other god would visit vengeance on promises made but not kept.  This God declares through the crucified and risen Christ, “far be it from me” to forsake you. 

Pentecost 12b - conclusion

Twenty-one years ago Lisa and I bound our lives together “in freedom and joy” in the Trinity Lutheran Seminary Chapel. The Reverend Dr. Walter Bouman preached the sermon during which he encouraged those in attendance to be “cheerleaders” for our marriage. The Reverend Dr. Leland Elhard presided over the marriage while The Reverend Valerie Elhard presided over the meal. There was a procession with cross and torches and my brother carried the Bible and we had a choir and a brass ensemble that blew us away. Good friends stood with us in the wedding party and family traveled from far and near to celebrate and there were even a few folks from Calvary Lutheran, Fort Worth who made the trip north to witness the event. The reception was downstairs in the Koinonia Center where we ate good food and cut a great cake and Lisa and I danced to Travis Tritt singing “Let’s Hold Hands on the Porch Swing.” Twenty one years later we’re washing horses tonight because they’re dirty which seems to us a good way to celebrate life together even if it doesn’t sound all that romantic. Truth is the freedom and joy with which you bind your lives together has to be stronger than all the other things that bind you and might make loving the other the last thing you are able to do. When all is said and done every day calls us to decide to bind our life to the other. Twenty one years ago we didn’t plan on it but the great gift of our life together are named Joshua and Mary Ruth who are kind and generous and the sort of people you just like because they make you laugh out loud and you know if you ever needed something they’d do their best to help you. They believe in Jesus, which as a preacher I know is important, but more than that they embody the spirit of Jesus which is what the faith is all about. So here’s to twenty-one years of deciding to be bound together as husband and wife and if we get our chickens to stop roosting on the porch swing we might hold hands there again. 

Pentecost 12b - John 6:51-58

John 6:51-58

This is the Gospel of John’s take on what Jesus meant the meal to be. More than a ritualized remembrance, the living bread from heaven is the life of God in bread baked and grape fermented that at the same time is the real flesh and blood of Jesus.  When she was young and her brother younger still, Michaelann told Austin, “I know it tastes like bread but it’s really Jesus’ body” to which he replied, “Ewwwww.” (and rightly so) That’s the trouble with texts that want to be taken literally and figuratively at the very same time. It is bread but it is really Jesus body. It is wine but it is really Jesus’ blood. Or we might just as easily say it is Jesus’ body but it is really bread. Or it is Jesus’ blood but it is really wine. The Lutheran take on what Jesus meant the meal to be proclaims the paradox and accepts both statements to be true at the very same time. And in the very same way, the simple meal of bread and body, wine and blood, transcends time and space so that joined with Christ we are united with those who are and those who were and those who will be. That is how the forever future feast is fully found in our present even as we remember the past, “in the night in which he was betrayed Jesus took bread…”  It tastes familiar, like the things of the earth we eat at home but as the bread we will eat in heaven it declares what no eye has seen, no ear heard, no mind conceived…. (1 Corinthians 2:9) 

Pentecost 12b - Ephesians 5:15-20

Ephesians 5:15-20
If the days were evil when the apostle Paul wrote these words to the Ephesians what are they now?  Truth is every age competes in the evil age idol contest and seems to believe their days are more evil than the ones that came before. There was at least one moment in history when a good number of Christian people thought the world was getting better and better, but that dream died in the trenches of World War One and the church has never fully recovered its optimism for the kingdom come on earth. So should we occupy the street corners and the air waves with doom and gloom and prepare for the worst, declaring our age to be the evil age idol contest winner? I think that would be unwise. If anything is evil it is living comfortable lives singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among ourselves while others suffer and we do nothing about it. If we understand what the will of God is we will sing the song sung among ourselves as loudly as we are able outside the confines of the church. We sill sing the song of suffering that declares evil cannot overpower it; the song of hope that dares evil to defy it; the song of redemption that challenges evil to limit it. The “making melody to the Lord in our hearts” is the song the world needs to hear and if we sing it clearly and with compassion we might, by God’s grace, lose the evil age idol contest.

Pentecost 12b - Psalm 34:9-14

Psalm 34:9-14
Pleasure and prosperity comes from pursuing peace. We tend to equate pleasure and prosperity with possessions, or at least the resources to live free from want. But it seems no matter how much one has there is always room in our wanting for just a little more. Those who seek the Lord and live in reverent fear – which simply means acknowledging that God is God and we are not – lack nothing that is good. That is not to say life is free of difficulties but rather one’s perspective changes about the transitory nature of the pleasure the world pursues when one is seeking the peace that passes human understanding. To turn from evil and do good is to be at peace with God and self and neighbor which is as good as good gets. L'chaim! To life!

Pentecost 12b - Proverbs 9:1-6

Proverbs 9:1-6
Wisdom called to me and invited me in for a body works plus abs class at the West 7^th Street LA Fitness (where the pretty people work out). I was the only man in the class and as far as I could tell a good deal older than everyone else as well. Now I’m blogging from Bar Louie where the Calvary Flash Mob will be meeting for an evening of “ask the pastor”. So it’s an afternoon and evening of working out the body and the mind and hopefully walking in the way of insight.  Wisdom is a feminine noun in Hebrew and what she offers, along with wine and bread and roasted meat, is order. The book of Proverbs is dedicated to the premise that the world is ordered along predictable paths and Wisdom knows the rules for living that will make life follow the rules. The book of Ecclesiastes begs to differ and calls that sort of wisdom "vanities of vanities" (btw if you ask this pastor I prefer Qoheleth over Wisdom) but that is a pericope for a different day. So let’s just say that laying aside immaturity, even when the world is not orderly and predictable, is a good thing and leads one to live through less than predicable times in a more orderly fashion. Which is to say a more faithful way – and on that I believe Qoheleth and Wisdom would agree.

Pentecost 11b - conclusion

I delivered a load of Pastor Phil's Holy S##t to the Southside Community Garden this morning. The garden provides produce for the Tarrant Area Community Food Bank. (that is when it rains enough to produce produce) There are plans to put in irrigation and with the addition of what Seraphina, Desperado and Panda have to offer there will be good things growing for the hungry in Tarrant County. The Food Bank is a far cry from last night's dinner at Nick and Sam's where we feasted with friends on Chateaubriand and Diver Scallops with Sweet Potato Hash along with champagne and a bottle of red wine well beyond my price range complements of Chef Samir (along with numerous other offerings). It's been over ten years since I spent my sabbatical working in Samir's kitchen (contrary to popular opinion I did not go to culinary school) but he greeted me in a way that blessed me even more than the beautiful dessert plate he sent to the table to celebrate my recent birthday. The bread of life from heaven is like that. I know community gardens that feed the hungry and high dollar Dallas destinations provide sustenance (each in their own way) but the real meal is the relationship around the table that connects us to each other and gifts us with grace that warms the heart and feeds the soul. Elijah is strengthened by bread and water but it is the knowledge that he is not alone that enables him to go on. Delivered from all his troubles David declares, “taste and see that the Lord is good.” The Ephesian text describes the way we “follow God’s example” and live in love which is fine feasting indeed. And Jesus wants us to understand that the only way we can be satisfied is if we eat of the bread of life from heaven which is to believe that Jesus' way of being is what God is about and while imitation is the highest form of flattery, in this case it is the only way to be faithful, which is to say, well fed.

Pentecost 11b - John 35:41-51

John 35:41-51

“Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” It is a legitimate question for those in the crowd “who knew Jesus when” even if they have followed him across the lake expecting to see something more. Of course they didn’t ask any questions when the meager meal was multiplied into a feast for five thousand plus (and twelve doggie bags besides). Everyone likes a magic trick and even if you ask to see it again (but more slowly) you can suspend disbelief for the thrill of the illusion or in this case your fill of fish sandwiches. But when the magician claims a higher status than “watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat – presto - oops wrong hat!”” (Bullwinkle Moose) objections soon follow. After all a good trick accomplished with mirrors is one thing; claiming to be the trick is quite another. “I am the bread of life come down from heaven” is a bigger trick than the crowd can believe or even understand. But then are we any different? We live comfortably within the confines of our religious systems that determine WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) on the basis of personal preference or denominational bias or desire to demonize whoever is not like us. Is it any wonder the world has wearied of the Christian trick and has determined we follow Jesus to feed our belly or ease our conscience or maintain the status quo? But there are moments when we are so captured by the mystery of the bread of life from heaven that we change the way we distribute that bread in the world. Since Jesus claims to reflect the will of the One he calls the Father then God the Father is no different from God the Son and “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do (even though they seemed to know exactly what they were doing) is a bigger deal than feeding five thousand with a few loaves and a couple fish.

Pentecost 11b - Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Falsehood is a hard thing to put away since it is so deceptive and evil speech often comes out of our mouths masquerading as truth spoken to neighbor. (The proverbial log in our own eye that is blind to everything except the speck of sawdust in the eye of the other – Matthew 7:3) So we need to make an effort to “put away” what comes naturally and “imitate” what does not. Maybe if we were painfully aware that in grieving others we grieve the Holy Spirit of God we would make every effort to imitate God for God’s sake. (That is if we love God.) So being angry without sinning means we do not nurse resentment or wrap ourselves in indignation as if it were a comforter but seek to resolve whatever grievances we have against each other for the sake of God. And if as beloved children we are truly members of one another then we cannot be whole without forgiving one another as we have been forgiven. So loving the other for God’s sake turns out to be a very good thing for us as well and since we are most often motivated by self interest... forgiving others may be the best way of being selfish.

Pentecost 11b - Psalm 34:1-8

Psalm 34:1-8

I've been delivered more than once from “all my terrors” and saved from more “all my troubles” than I care to count so that this fifty-sixth anniversary of the end of my mother’s pregnancy is a cause for proclaiming the greatness of Lord, or more to the point, the incredible mercy and grace that has encamped around me all these years through no effort of my own. Indeed, maybe my parents are more thankful this day than I am for however it happened my life was spared because on more than one occasion they called to God in their affliction and God saved them from all the trouble Phillip caused. The really good news of the day is that I’m not very good at math or memory and so I’ve been thinking that this is the fifty-seventh anniversary of my birth but since I was born in 1956 and not 55 I’m suddenly a year younger than I thought I was. Woo-hoo! So I’m going to celebrate the gift of my mother’s labor (and my father’s time in the waiting room – it was 1956 after all) by making a slow roasted pork with chilies and oranges served over cilantro lime rice along with Olatha sweet corn roasted in the husk and jalapeno honey corn bread. I’ll be eating with our homeless friends who come to Calvary’s Room in the Inn to find relief from the heat and be delivered, if only for one night, from all their troubles. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the gift my parents gave me for even if my mom did most of the work that day the person I am took more than a moment of blood, sweat and tears and the lessons of loving God and caring for others and contending for the poor were the lessons that I learned from parents who believe God gifts us to be a gift to others. 

Pentecost 11b - 1 Kings 19:4-8

1 Kings 19:4-8

Elijah is despairing under the solitary broom tree because Queen Jezebel is determined to kill him, which makes sense because Elijah killed all her prophets and burned up the altar of Baal with fire from on high. (1 Kings 18) Of course Elijah despairing means he doesn’t believe God is able to repeat the feat and his fear of Jezebel is more present than his faith in God. I’ve not called down fire from heaven to consume a wet sacrifice or slain any prophets of Baal but I will admit to failing faith in the face of circumstances that make me forget God’s faithfulness. What is forgotten in those circumstances is that faith is not about our ability to believe. When Elijah is ready to lie down and die God is not and so God provides what is necessary for the journey that would otherwise be too much for Elijah. So it is with us on this journey of life that would be too much for us were it not for God who gifts us with companions, like a cake cooked on hot stones, who warm our way and give us courage to face each new day with confidence that we will have the strength to meet whatever challenge lies ahead of us. In the end faith trusts that God’s faithfulness is all that is necessary for the forty days and nights of however long our life lasts until we will reach the promised mount of God. (Isaiah 25:6)

Pentecost 10b - conclusion

I've been wearing a green wrist band for the last three weeks as a reminder to pray every day for the staff at Ebert Ranch Camp. Today was their last day with campers which means they can get on with the kind of things we do in the outside world and I can take this band off and stick it on my office door as a reminder to let the memory of the staff and campfires and trail rides and sunsets and silly songs be a prayer for me. I was fortunate – blessed – privileged – gifted – to spend two weeks at Ebert this summer and I’m still living the “joy of the Lord” that I experienced at camp. “I could sing unending songs of how you saved my soul…” Not that the staff doesn’t experience stressful weeks filled with difficult days where making a joyful noise is the last thing they are able to do. They have their own troubles and live into uncertain futures even if they have plans for continuing ministry or school or professions or relationships. But for a summer they step outside the every-day rest of their lives to do some extraordinary things that bless young people and (older) pastors alike. And for that I will sing unending songs… 

Pentecost 10b - John 6:24-35

John 6:24-35
John is the only Gospel that details the aftermath of the multiplying feast. The people (well fed) are apparently not satisfied with leftovers (12 baskets of barley loaves) and so chase after Jesus to see what is on the breakfast menu. Jesus rightly calls them out when they ask, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” which means, “Have you baked the bagels and cured the lox?” But Jesus should not be surprised at their desire to be fed on the cheap as we all enjoy a happy hour now and then. That is to say we’d all like to be taken care of, provided for, live in the lap of luxury, etc. etc. etc. But Jesus would have us look beyond what is to what will be so that the work of God, believing Jesus was sent as the sign of what will be and already is, means we no longer lust after that which cannot satisfy. “You wanted breakfast?” Jesus asks. “How about a feast that never ends?”

Pentecost 10b - Ephesians 4:1-16

Ephesians 4:1-16
Living “a life worthy of the calling” is often understood in terms of personal piety reflected in a disciplined life, especially as it relates to resisting behaviors identified as the ways of the world. But the apostle Paul defines a “life worthy of the calling” in ways that relate to living in relationship with others. Living in “humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” cannot be accomplished unless one bears with those whose life is less than one’s own “holier than thou” or on the flip side bearing with those whose life is “holier” than you are or care to be. The point is patience is not necessary when others are as you are and there is no need for humility or gentleness or making any effort at all when the bond of peace does not require negotiation. But then we tend to “speak the truth in love” loudly without first quietly growing up in every way into Christ so the truth spoken has little to do with love and everything to do with pride or prejudice or one’s own particular point of view. But when “each part is working properly” those who are patient assist those who require patience (and vice versa) to grow and in doing so all are built up in love. Easier said than done, which is why one must make “every effort.” 

Pentecost 10b - Psalm 78:23-29

Psalm 78:23-29

Not satisfied with water from the rock the children of Israel wondered aloud about the ability of God to provide meat and make bread. (78:20) God was furious (78:21) and yet responded to the people’s complaint with manna (what is it?) and quail. They ate and were well filled for God gave them what they craved. Of course at the time they craved whatever would satisfy their hunger and it would not be long before they tired of quail and complained about detestable manna. Calvary’s Room in the Inn program hosted thirteen homeless men tonight in our family life center. One of the men offered the prayer before dinner and gave thanks for the goodness of the Lord with whom all things are possible and without whom nothing can be accomplished. It was profound yet simple prayer of faith and thanksgiving for the everyday miracle of God with us and the warmth of friendship. We heard again from our guests how much they appreciate Calvary and that our Room in the Inn has got serious street cred. (that’s a good thing)  I don’t think it’s primarily the food or the accommodations, as good as they are. I think it’s the hospitality and the genuine love expressed through smiles and conversation and generosity of spirit. When it comes right down to it that is what we crave and that is what God provides whenever God’s heart is expressed through human hands. 

Pentecost 10b - Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15

Exodus 16:2-15
Those who complain in the wilderness, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt” forget the family members who never made it out of Egypt and that the Egyptians didn't need the Lord’s hand to help kill them. But then we tend to reconstruct the difficult days of the past in the light of present troubles thinking that what was was not as bad as what is even though what is and what was are often the same thing. Dying at the hands of the Egyptians or of starvation in the wilderness is still dead. It is to God’s credit that this constant complaining does not lead God to “walk like an Egyptian” (The Bangles) and be done with the whole assembly. It is a preview of God’s struggle with a people whose “love is like the morning mist.” (Hosea 6:4) The God who provides manna and quail to ungrateful people will continue to give them bread to eat, even if it is the bread of tears, in the hope that they will recognize that freedom in the wilderness is better than slavery in Egypt. God’s hope for us is that in following the way of the Lord we would prefer to live in radical freedom, no matter how difficult it is, than to dwell in the comfortable prisons of our own design.

Pentecost 9b - conclusion

I’m blogging from the Longhorn Cafe, Harper, TX while waiting for my order of Migas with ham and chorizo. Clint Black is on the radio singing “The lights are on, but nobody’s home” while a table of ranchers sit in the corner catching up on the week’s events. A man in a John Deere cap stops to tell a farmer in overalls and his wife sporting an Aggie t-shirt that he “picked twenty-five pounds of tomatoes yesterday.” Apparently he would have had more if the goats had stayed out of the garden. The lone waitress stops at each table making chit chat and refilling coffee cups as no one seems in a hurry to go anywhere. The texts for Pentecost 9b are about abundance coming from meager means in the same way a bottomless cup of coffee keeps you sitting at the Longhorn even though chores are waiting and the goats are in the garden. The twenty loaves of barley and fresh heads of grain are multiplied by Elisha so that a hundred are well fed with some left over for the next day. The eyes of all wait on you, O Lord, only do so because those who wait believe the drought will not last forever and the “due season” will come in God’s time. The abundance of God’s love cannot be contained or explained or understood so that even when we dimly perceive how high and deep and wide is the love of God we've only just begun to know the riches of God’s grace. And Jesus feeding the five thousand foreshadows the day when the vast multitude will toast the Holy with fine wine and feast on rich food while God dines on death and swallows it up forever. 

Pentecost 9b - John 6:1-21

John 6:1-21
The feeding of the five thousand is found in every Gospel which means it was a big deal to the early church. My guess is it was the Galilean Woodstock of sorts (without the music and drugs) so that it occupied the popular imagination and even those who were nowhere near the mountain that day wished they were until the five thousand magically multiplied and everyone claimed to have been there for a bite of fish and a morsel of bread. Well, maybe not, but it really was a big deal. In fact those who actually were there ran around the lake to meet Jesus (who walked across) thinking that the one who provided supper might also make them breakfast. (John 6:26) Of course we do the same thing when with limited vision we value temporal needs over eternal truths. Not that God is disinterested in our everyday. But the miracle of the story is that God takes what is and multiplies it into what can be. We are tempted to tell the crowd to go away which devalues both our own resources and the multiplying effect of faith. But the story of the first century Galilean Woodstock is that what appeared to be too little was more than enough.

Pentecost 9b - Ephesians 3:14-21

Ephesians 3:14-21
If we are able to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus we have a clue as to what God can accomplish beyond the limitations of our imagination. Far too often we turn this all surpassing power into a temporal wish list thinking that what we ask is what God will provide. I think the clue to what God is about is in the “far more abundantly” clause of the contract rooted and grounded in love. Our vision is limited at best and more often than not myopically distorted so that what we want, need, or desire has little to do with the love that surpasses knowledge. But if we take our cues from Christ we might begin to understand that what God intends to accomplish is for us to act “far more abundantly” than we otherwise would so that every family in heaven and earth might experience the benefits of God’s grace.

Pentecost 9b - Psalm 145:10-18

Psalm 145:10-18
"The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord" especially if those eyes run cattle or grow cotton in Texas. We've had more than one cotton farmer and cattle rancher in the Northern Texas Northern Louisiana Mission Area Parish Lay Academy and I've always thought they have more to tell us about faith than we could possibly teach them. I’d like rain now and then so I don’t have to water my lawn, but they pray for rain to sustain their livelihood and then endure week after dry week moisture laden clouds that pass over them with nary a drop. I wonder how they can hold onto to the notion of a benevolent God when their crops are shriveled or when they have to sell their breed stock to save the farm that can’t survive without water no matter what they do. But then we of the wired world weary if our 4G slows down to 2G or heaven forbid, doesn't “G” at all. The closer you are to the land the more dependent you are on things you can’t control and the more we understand that there are things we depend on that we can’t control the more our eyes look to God.  It might not make it rain and it certainly won’t make our 4G download faster but as my cotton farming friends have taught me it will uphold you when you fall and sustain you when you are bowed down. Our eyes look to you, O Lord.