Transfiguration Year A - Exodus 24:12-18

Exodus 24:12-18

Ancient stories sound odd to modern ears. The glory of the Lord in thick clouds and a devouring fire on the top of the mountain sounds a lot like lightning and even if a close one warrants an “Oh my God!” we understand lightning in scientific terms. The ancients saw God’s hand at work in the timing of what we know as a naturally occurring phenomenon. But then we “moderns” often do the same thing by giving extra-ordinary meaning to everyday events as when instead of turning left we turn right and a chance encounter bears blessings. So I guess I’m okay with the children of Israel camped before the mountain giving glory to the Lord for what may well have been Mt. Sinai having a little volcanic hiccup and spewing some smoke. It’s Moses entering the cloud of mountain top devouring fire that defies explanation. He was a reluctant leader in the beginning and even though he carried on a barefoot conversation with a burning bush he was always looking for a way out. Of course the Lord provided that through signs and wonders, not the least of which was the parting of the sea, but that’s not what Moses had in mind. In some ways God has worn down this reluctant leader so that when summoned to come up to the mountain and camp Moses obeys and does not complain. Maybe a faith that follows without complaining or seeking a way out has less to do with spiritual discipline and more to do with God wearing us down so that like Moses the only way out is really the only way in.

Epiphany 7 A - Matthew 5:38-48

Matthew 5:38-48

These are dangerous words and those who attempt to practice them don’t last very long. Evil doers not resisted are free to do evil to those who fail to fight back. Giving away coat and cloak, going the extra mile, giving to everyone who begs or wants to borrow means the giver goes without. Loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you means they win and you lose and no one wants to be a capital L loser. We’d much rather bring a world of hurt down on the head of those who mess with us and given the opportunity we utterly destroy our enemies and turn the table on those who persecute us making them rue the day they were born. We can always fall back on “saved by grace” and confess like the apostle Paul that the good we would do we don’t do and the evil we don’t want to do we do, although a more truthful confession is that loving enemies is the last “good” thing we’d ever want to do. Look at what being perfect and forgiving those who “know not what they do” got Jesus. If that’s what perfection leads to I want no part of it and if you are honest neither do you. So let’s resolve to be less than perfect and keep the practice of our faith safely inside the four walls of our sanctuaries and maybe a little charity on the side as long as it doesn't cost too much and the people who benefit from our generosity are sufficiently grateful. I trust Jesus will understand, after all he’s got to live by his own words and I’m begging I can borrow a little slack and get a free pass on loving my enemies and if that’s a slap in Jesus’ face I’m sorry, but I know he’ll turn the other cheek. That just sounds wrong doesn't it? It even makes me uncomfortable and I wrote it, but that’s what we do when we fail to take these words seriously and put them into practice. We call that failure sin and sin is never more deceptive than when it is practiced by the pious who insulate the life of faith from the life in the world, the world that Jesus died to save by a perfection that got him punished. So what do we do? Maybe perfection is a process and what I do today is the foundation for what I might do tomorrow and slowly but surely the life of faith has less to do with an hour on Sunday morning, as important as that is to many of us, and more to do with using the other waking hours of the days of our week to practice the perfection of mercy and kindness and love. God knows there are plenty of opportunities in a week to get it right. And all sarcasm aside we can always rely on grace without slapping Jesus in the face because Jesus has a robe of righteousness he’s more than willing to lend us.

Epiphany 7 A - 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

I am always grateful to God and not a little surprised when the foolish church works in wise ways. It is more often the case that God’s temple is adorned with the architecture of this world, jealously and envy, competition and pride, where each one believes their way is the only way. Or in religious terms, the church in it's zeal to be righteous lives the law which is secondary at the expense of love which is primary. That being said, unconditional love can be an excuse for excess and the love that comes from God does not last long when it is consumed by indulgence. Which is why the foundation of faith is not in us or in human leaders or denominational loyalty but is built solely on the foundation of God in Christ becoming one with a humanity easily deceived by self, wise in the ways of the world and enamored by futile thoughts. How is it we cannot get this right? How can we who know in our heart of hearts that we depend fully on God’s mercy for ourselves not extend it to others? It could be that we really don’t believe it for ourselves and run from God like the younger son in the parable of the prodigal or like the older brother stay home and work like a slave for that which already belongs to us. But when the party happens and everyone is invited the wise church acts in foolish ways and the grace of God that created such an unlikely gathering makes the future appear in the present and the one thing we get right makes up for all the things we so often get wrong.

Epiphany 7 A - Psalm 119:33-40

Psalm 119:33-40

Teach me your decrees. Give me understanding. Direct me to delight in your commands that my heart might be turned from selfish gain and my eyes from worthless things. Fulfill your promise and take away the disgrace I dread. It would seem the psalmist has firsthand knowledge of the disgrace of selfish gain and worthless things as do we all. “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us to our own way”  is how the prophet Isaiah describes the time before we came to our senses to see how far we had strayed and in all our longing how secure we might be, if only… That “if only” is the pivotal point of these verses but the whole point is that the psalmist is wholly dependent on God to teach, give, direct, turn, fulfill and take away. The psalmist is wholly dependent on the Lord to turn the course of worthless wanderings to life preserving paths of righteousness. So what part do we play in all of this? The same part the psalmist plays which is to pray the longing of the heart to know and be known by God or to quote a Kris Kristofferson country classic, “Lord, help me, Jesus…”

Epiphany 7 A - Leviticus 19:1-18

Leviticus 19:1-8

I am not a big fan of Leviticus, in fact in my less pious moments I wonder if the Levites didn’t make a good bit of it up just to pad their pensions. And I question what seem to be arbitrary laws as I am highly suspicious of the tyranny of religious systems. On the other hand I cannot escape my Augustinian understanding of the depravity of the human creature, mostly because I know myself all too well. So what turns out to be saving grace for me in this lesson full of law is the refrain. “I am the Lord your God.” It’s not a threat. It’s a promise. It’s not conditional. It’s guaranteed. The grace that is found in the whole of scripture is God’s desire to be in relationship with us. And like all relationships of significance there are sacrifices made and a joining that calls for compromise. We who are less than perfect are made perfect in God and God who is more than perfect takes on imperfection for the sake of loving us. The part that we often miss or worse reject entirely is the prominent feature of Leviticus. To be “holy” has more to do with how we care for others, especially the neighbor, ones in our employ, the poor, the alien, the deaf, and the blind than the sacrifices we make to God because God’s holiness has everything to do with how God cares for us. So serving the other is serving God and the refrain “I am the Lord your God” is just another way of God saying remember “I love you”.

Epiphany 6 A - Matthew 5:21-37

Matthew 5:21-37
No one can escape this laundry list of sin but those who are angry with brothers and sisters can do so silently, whispering “You fool” under their breath. Those who fail to keep vows to the Lord keep it to themselves and the Lord isn't talking either. Those who look upon another with lust can do so without anyone being the wiser even the one being objectified. But those who carry the certificate of divorce, even when re-married, hear these words of Jesus differently. If Jesus knew the whole story, knew how painful and lonely and hurt I felt, and that I resisted divorce as long as I could because it was the wrong thing I never wanted to do but in the end was the only right thing I could do, what then Jesus, would you still condemn me? The church throughout the centuries has used these words of Jesus to condemn women, but some men as well, to a life of cut off hands and plucked out eyes demanding they deny themselves rather than divorce the one who beats them every night, or day after day makes them feel stupid or dirty or inadequate or simply unnecessary. We can sanitize these words of Jesus and say he’s speaking in hyperbole. We can say he means what he says and we better get serious about sin or suffer the consequence.  Or maybe the anger that destroys relationships, the lust that makes us less than human on both sides of the equation, the dishonesty of vows made and not kept and yes, the promise of the wedding day, so full of hope, so full of joy that ends under the cold hard light of the court is as much hell as anyone needs to know. So isn't there a day of judgment? Of course there is. And we’re all guilty for the way we have failed to live these words or tried to avoid them or worse, the ways in which we who claim the name of Christ have twisted them. Heaven help us. And of course heaven did, though for Jesus it was hell.

Epiphany 6 A - 1 Corinthians 3:1-9

1 Corinthians 3:1-9
I think it is worth noting that Paul never speaks critically of Apollos and since Paul never pulls his punches it must mean that Apollos did not encourage the Corinthian’s divided loyalty. According to Acts 18:24, Apollos was “an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures” while Paul describes his own abilities as possessing neither wise nor persuasive words. Sadly those who plant and those who water often do not value each other’s roles and promote their own position while demoting the other. Congregations can also sow the seeds of clergy competition, feeding preacher’s egos with flattery and before you know it divided loyalties have fanned the flames of jealously and quarreling. But when servant leaders working together recognize in each other the gift of unique abilities for shared mission and ministry the church is strengthened for the common purpose of blessing the world with the grace of God. That calls for a maturity of faith and the solid food of humility in the pulpit and the pew. That happens when both preacher and parishioner remember that “it is grace, nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community.” (D. Bonhoeffer Life Together) On a personal note I am blessed beyond measure to share ministry with a gifted pastor who is a trusted colleague and also a friend - except where there is a 5 K race involved.

Epiphany 6 A - Psalm 119:

Psalm 119:1-8

At first blush it looks like the psalmist believes the blessed walk according to the law in ways that are entirely blameless or that following the Lord’s ways means doing no wrong. But then verse four begins with an exclamation “Oh” that is really a lament. Oh, that my ways were steadfast. Oh, that I would not be put to shame. Oh, that I would consider your commands. Even the declaration, “I will obey” is followed by the plea, “do not utterly forsake me.” Now it may be that the psalmist really thought that doing no wrong was within the ability of the blessed but my experience of those who claim to be blameless is that they’re just passing the buck. Even as those who walk in ways that bring shame live the lament “Oh!” in ways that are utterly forsaken. But if these first eight verses of psalm 119 begin where we are, lamenting “Oh” and praying “do not forsake me” then we are walking the walk that seeks the Lord. And while seeking the Lord in honest lament and desperate plea is the beginning of blessing the real blessing is in the life of faith that follows; not a walk that does no wrong but an honest walk that depends fully on the blameless One not forsaking us. 

Epiphany 6 A - Deuteronomy 30:

Deuteronomy 30:

“Choose life” (verse 19) seems an obvious choice and would be if death didn't wear all the cool clothes. By that I mean there must be something compelling about cursed ways of being that make them attractive otherwise we would all choose life and never engage in ways of living that cost more than they can deliver. But then these verses are not so much about personal piety as they are about a communal decision to enter a new reality according to the commandments, decrees, and ordinances of God. Of course the promise of prosperity to Israel was not good news to the people who possessed the land the “choose life” people of Israel were about to enter and in fact the people of God choosing life meant death for every man, woman and child who lived in the land God swore to give to the ancestors of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Which means in the context of possessing the land choosing life for self was to choose death for others and choosing death for oneself meant choosing life for others. If we of the Christian tradition believe Jesus had any insight into what God meant by the commandments, decrees, and ordinances then “love God” and “love others” says it all. (Matthew 22:36-40) Maybe the children of Israel were okay with their decision to choose life for themselves and deal death for everyone else as they were desperate to get out of the desert but it seems to me that if choosing life for one’s self means death for everyone else the only God pleasing choice is life for others and death for self or in other words “we preach Christ crucified.” 

Epiphany 5 A - Matthew 5:13-20

Matthew 5:13-20

Given my passion for all things culinary I like to think that Jesus uses the image of being salt to mean we are to flavor the world not overpower it. After all the purpose of salt is to enhance a dish and bring out the flavors that would otherwise be missed. In the same way light illuminates what is already there by creating a contrast making an image more interesting. We are to flavor the world and shine light upon what is already there. Salt of the earth and light of the world celebrates the human spirit which is able to overcome insurmountable obstacles and endure hardship and suffering with courage and fortitude. These things are not exclusive to the Christian church though for too long in our arrogance we have acted as if salt were the whole dish and light existed for itself. That does not mean there are not bitter dishes that cannot be salvaged or darkness in the human heart that no amount of light can banish. But the salt of the Gospel flavors the best qualities of being human and the light of the Gospel shines on what is noble and good. In the same way that salt without a dish to flavor it is useless and light with nothing to illuminate serves no purpose the fulfilling of the law and the prophets doesn't add to what is already there, it just makes it more visible and if you like, more appetizing. 

Epiphany 5 A - 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

The people living in Corinth in the first century AD were not that different from the urbanites living today in two thousand fourteen. Of course the Corinthians could not Google the answer to mysteries or consult Siri for all wisdom but they were in every way as sophisticated in their time as we are in ours. So the foolishness of proclaiming a crucified criminal in Judea as God was beyond believing for the Corinthians in the same way that people outside the shrinking Bible belt have come to question the facts of the Christian faith. At the same time we find those who hold onto the faith while denying the obvious inconsistencies in scripture. On the other side we find those who make no sense of the mystery of God and have little trouble living outside the boundaries of the conventional faith. I think God lives between the orthodox and the absurd and invites us to believe the absurd while clinging to the orthodox. Or in other words I determined to know “nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 

Epiphnay 5 A - Psalm 112

Psalm 112

Psalm 112 might be titled the “early to bed early to rise makes one healthy wealthy and wise” psalm. But it might also merit a Gospel title as in “to whom much is given much is required.” (Luke 12:48) So even if the psalm sees a direct correlation with “delight in the Lord’s commands” and “wealth and riches are in their houses” the righteousness of those well off comes from being gracious and merciful, honest and generous, by distributing freely to the poor and conducting their affairs justly. So their hearts do not skip a beat when evil tidings come knocking for they are secure in the knowledge that the Lord is infinitely more generous than they are. So I guess the best title for Psalm 112 might be from Romans 14:8 : Whether we live or whether we die, we belong to the Lord.”

Epiphany 5 A - Isaiah 58:1-12

Isaiah 58:1-12

I’m not a big fan of the theological conditional clause “If” which is why I lean towards the Lutheran understanding of saved by grace and even more to Karl Barth’s way of hoping that God’s ultimate plan is the salvation of all people. But then this text is not about eternal consequences and/or rewards just yet. This conditional clause is about the consequences of ignoring God’s “if” in the here and now as imagined long ago by the prophet Isaiah. The consequence of not sharing our bread with the hungry poor is that the poor go hungry. The consequence of not bringing the homeless into our house is that they have no shelter. The consequence of not clothing the naked is that they have no clothes. You get the picture. The consequences of our inaction are borne by those we refuse to help, house or clothe. But we suffer the unseen consequence as the life we think the Lord loves, namely ours, is not known by the Lord which makes all our fasting foolish and our claim to be followers of Jesus a mockery of the One we say we love and serve. But on the reverse side of the conditional clause if we heed the call to meet the needs of the lost and the least we will be what we thought we were all along, namely Christ like.

Epiphany 4 A - Matthew 5:1-12

Matthew 5:1-12

Those of us who have been forever contaminated by close contact to Monty Python’s movie “Life of Brian” are no longer able to listen to or read these verses without thinking of the line “blessed are the cheese makers.” I’ll risk an explanation for those of you who are still pure of heart as long as you agree to never ever watch the movie. In the movie those who are on the edge of the large crowd are having trouble hearing Jesus so one of them asks, “What was that?” The response is, “I think it was blessed are the cheese makers” which in turn prompts the response, “What’s so special about the cheese makers?” I don’t think many outside the church are offended by Life of Brian and probably laugh during it unless they find British humor too British. But I bet a good number of Christians think a movie that makes fun of the sacred story nothing short of blasphemy. So is it? I don’t think so and here’s the point. Satire cannot exist in a vacuum. The reason Monty Python is able to play games with these powerful words of Jesus is because those who follow Jesus have failed to live them. The movie is not a satire of Jesus but of us. To quote another British comedic saying, “It’s a fair cop.” 

Epiphany 4 A - 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

I've spent significant time, energy and resources learning the proper way to talk about this foolish message. It seems ironic to me that maybe a good bit of theology or God talk (theos=God logos=word) is about making the foolish message sound wise. By that I mean (you see how it happens) religious professionals (or is that the professionally religious) carefully define this foolishness so as to fit it into an orthodox box, lest we sound silly and stray into heresy. Don’t get me wrong, how we talk about God matters, but the cross is not a theological construct. It is a sadistic instrument of torture conceived by the wise and powerful human mind. And in Jesus God decided foolishly in weakness to die on one. I think I’ll stop and stay with that thought for awhile before dressing up the ugliness of the cross in carefully constructed theologizing. 

Epiphany 4 A - Psalm 15

Psalm 15

These are not requirements for entering the tent of the Lord but a description of what happens to those who abide there. Ones who slander and do evil to friends, despising their neighbors, who charge for favors and take bribes to pervert justice, prefer mansions in the valley to the tent on the hill. Doing what is right and speaking the truth from the heart, walking the blameless way, is produced by one’s proximity to the Lord who pitches the tent in the first place. It is not a heavenly hill, but it is none-the-less a “hill far away”. The One who really was blameless stood by his oath to save and in His suffering death made the hill where the wicked had their way, holy. There is a transformation which takes place when we consistently see the sunrise from that Holy Hill and days are spent not in pursuing selfish desire but sacrificial love, as in standing by an oath, even when it hurts. 

Epiphany 4 A - Micah 6:1-8

Micah 6:1-8

It is one thing to be told what the Lord requires and quite another to do it. And even though there is no middle ground with a requirement we still try to live there. I’ll work for justice but only for the worthy. I’ll love mercy but not too much lest the guilty go free. I’ll walk humbly with the Lord for an hour a week; isn’t that enough exercise? And like the people of Micah’s time we substitute superficial acts of sacrifice or piety for a real relationship with the One who tells us what is good.  Doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly with God is good. Good for others. Good for us. Good for God. In the sacrifice of justice, mercy and humility God is pleased and the reign of God is continually coming as the will of God is done. That is why the prophets speaking for God imaged the future day of peace in poetic language; so that we would long for it so desperately we would work for it in the here and now. Not that lambs trust lions well enough to lie down with them just yet but that we would trust God enough to live the dream of the future before it is fully realized. So you know what to do. Just do it.

Epiphany 3 A - Matthew 4:12-23

Matthew 4:12-23

I understand the sentimental attachment Christians have to this call story but truthfully it is not a positive metaphor for evangelism. Fishers of people might be quite happy with the idea that God uses them to catch people for Christ but being caught by those who “fish for people” means the “fished” are ensnared in a net or deceived by a lure or hooked by bait none of which paints the process of conversion in a positive light. More than that there is no life for the fish once caught as living outside their watery world is not an option. Granted I might be overthinking the metaphor. Maybe what Jesus was saying to those fisher folk stripped down and sweating is that getting people to accept Jesus as “God with us” is not that different from sweating over nets and dragging one’s livelihood from the Sea of Galilee. Which means we do what we can do with what we’ve been given. There will be those who object to any effort we make as a violation of their territorial waters of secularism or outright unbelief but truth is we have no reason or right to fish in those waters anyway. What we can and must do is fish every day in daily waters calm or stormy. But not with net or lure or bait but with all our heart, mind and soul so that those who object to the arrogance of the church are won over by the humility of Christianity. We love others so that others will love Christ even though we have all learned the language of love as a foreign tongue.

Epiphany 3 A - 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in case you didn't know. It wasn't on my radar either but then I read what I wrote on this text three years ago and there it was in black and white. I suppose with all the other things that occupy the beginning of a new year we might be forgiven for not remembering that the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity always begins with the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter and concludes with the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (January 18-25). Unless of course you live in the Southern Hemisphere in which case it’s celebrated at Pentecost. (Probably a concession for the sake of unity) Truth is Christians live pretty well with each other as neighbors (as long as they mow their lawn and keep their dogs quiet) or when they meet on the street (unless they are driving in traffic) or at Starbucks (unless they take forever to order a latte) or at sporting events (as long as they support the same team) but come Sunday believers circle the wagons and hunker down behind doctrinal divisions or styles of worship or any number of rules, real or imagined, that make the letter to the Corinthians as relevant today as it was when it was penned. We learn the language of love as a foreign tongue. (1 Corinthians 13:1) The sad truth is the church was never one and even those who knew Jesus face to face failed to live fully into the dream that God had for humanity. So why does anyone bother setting aside one week (observed at two different times) to pray for something that has never been realized? Well, maybe the prayer is not that we would be unified but that we would recognize we already are. I happen to follow Luther (but not exclusively, I hope) whose explanation to "Thy will be done" might be helpful. “The good and gracious will of God is done indeed without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.” Jesus prayed that we might be one even as He was one with the One he knew as Father. (John 17:21) So maybe the prayer of Christian unity is that we would live what we already are. Crazy, huh?

Epiphany 3 A - Psalm 27:1, 4-9

Psalm 27:1, 4-9

I don’t know about you but I can think of more than “one thing” to ask of the Lord and even when I’m all “pastored up” I’m not sure I want to “dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” Of course we tend to think these passages refer to the house of the Lord in heaven but that is not quite true to the text. David longs for the comfort of the sanctuary where the “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) can find sanctuary and be “hidden” from the real life enemies that surround him. But let me take some liberty with the text as well and say we might be too good at hiding in the sanctuary and an isolated life that longs to gaze forever on the beauty of the Lord doesn't help a single soul. On the other hand if the song of the sanctuary is sung fearlessly outside the sanctuary so that the “enemies” hear it in the same way the singer does there may come a time when the light and salvation of the Lord is shelter for everyone.