Pentecost 8 B - Jeremiah 23:1-6

Jeremiah 23:1-6

It appears that the days that “are surely coming” still haven’t arrived as the righteous Branch raised up for David was “despised and rejected” (Isaiah 53) and crucified by the sheep he came to shepherd. Of course the righteous Branch was resurrected and the remnant gathered on Pentecost would proclaim the reign of the righteous Branch from Jerusalem to Samaria to the ends of the earth. Unfortunately the empire figured out assimilation was the best way to stamp out the Holy Spirit fire so the remnant would be more true to Roman rule than the righteous Branch. And so even if there are days of righteousness and justice and wise dealings they don’t last as one tyrant is overthrown only to be replaced by another. So what shall we say about this promise as yet unfilled? Well maybe Jeremiah’s idea of what the Branch would accomplish and God’s “plans to prosper… with a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11) were not exactly the same thing. In the temporal realm branches raised up are not like the capital B Branch that comes humble and riding on a donkey and in the grand scheme of things we should not look to small b Branches to be anything more than twigs. We are citizens of a realm that exists simultaneously in the finite present and the infinite future and as such are free like Jeremiah to speak truth to “the powers that be” without counting the cost even if the cost is a cross. In that way the days that “are surely coming” have already arrived and are still coming as we work to transform what is into what will be waiting with eager expectation for the day when “they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing” will have fully come.

Easter 7 B - Mark 6:14-29

Mark 6:14-29

It is a gruesome story and sad end for the Baptizer who made straight the way in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. I know Stephen is the first martyr of the church but John is the first one to die for the cause. That is not to say he fully understood it even if in baptizing Jesus he recognized the One who was greater than he. (Mark 1:7) While in prison John sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one or should they look for another. Jesus sent them back to tell John “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Matthew 11:5) Maybe Jesus’ response emboldened John to continue to be a voice in the wilderness, albeit confined in Herod’s prison, telling “that fox” (Luke 13:32) to get out of the hen house. (aka Herodias) But then John was not a “reed shaking in the wind” or one destined to wear fine clothes. (Matthew 11:7) He was born to be a prophet and “more than a prophet” but like so many prophets before him he paid the price for speaking the truth to power. Jesus will have his own day in court when the crowd demands its due and the prophet from Galilee suffers the same fate as those who went before him. The difference is that even the grave could not silence the Word made flesh. John the baptizer was blessed to know he was included in the word that Jesus sent him. We stand in that prophetic tradition as people called to speak the truth and not count the cost for the word sent to John includes us. The dead are raised.

Easter 7 B - Ephesians 1:3-14

Ephesians 1:3-14

To be chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the earth” is a long time to be loved. But we were destined for adoption for the good pleasure of God’s will. That means we are the object of God’s eternal affection so that love lavished upon us has as much to do with God’s desire to love as to be loved in return. It is a mutually pleasing arrangement. God gifts us with glorious grace and we live for the praise of God the giver’s glory. The mystery of God’s will made known to us through the apostle Paul is that God is somehow incomplete or unfulfilled without us. And we are less than we were destined to be without God. The church has not always done justice to describing this reciprocal relationship casting God as a stern judge who merely puts up with us or excusing continued rebelliousness on our part by a cheap grace that that does not count the cost of our redemption to the Christ. But when we understand ourselves to be dearly loved children we can no more be afraid of God’s wrath than a child laughing while bouncing on the knee of a devoted parent fears rejection from that same parent. And in the same way we live to make God laugh with pure delight and joy just as we desire to please a beloved parent.

Pentecost 7 B - Psalm 85:8-13

Psalm 85:8-13

Because steadfast love and faithfulness embrace righteousness and peace are bold to come out of the closet and engage in a PDA (public display of affection) so that faithfulness springs forth and the righteousness of heaven rains down upon the earth. But before these delightful verses the psalmist pleads for God’s displeasure to be put away and God’s anger to dissipate so that the people might be revived. Therefore the most important verse of the psalm is verse 8. “I will listen to what the Lord God is saying…” Revival happens when God responds to the people’s pleading and they listen and act on what they hear. Then the righteousness that springs forth to be kissed by peace is found in acts of kindness and mercy that mimic the ways of the Lord. And like a sweet embrace or a passionate kiss the world blushes at first but in the end is blessed by the PDA of God's faithful people.

Pentecost 7 B - Amos 7:7-15

Amos 7:7-15

There comes a time when the harsh word is the only word left to speak for one cannot forever endure those who continually abandon the truth and expect no consequence for living the lie. And so the Lord hijacks Amos from dressing vines to speak a harsh word against Jeroboam and the vineyard that is “my people Israel.” Even if the Lord is merciful and slow to anger there comes a day when the steadfast love of the Lord is compelled to say to the wicked, “Thy will be done.” There is a loss for God as well, like a parent of wayward child or the partner of an unfaithful spouse, as the Lord goes into exile and all the hopes and dreams begun in the rescue from Egypt – I will be your God and you will be my people – are for naught. But God’s anger does not burn eternally as God’s desire for intimacy cannot withstand exile forever. Long after Israel is abandoned and Judah is exiled and returned God will write a new covenant on the hearts of humans. The true nature of God will be revealed in the living and dying and rising of Jesus who creates for himself a people to bear witness to the grace of God. The desert will bloom like the Texas Hill Country after a rain and the dry land will rejoice and the people will prosper not because we abandon rebellious ways but because God refuses to abandon us.

Pentecost 6 B - Mark 6:1-13

Mark 6:1-13

The home town crowd is astounded at Jesus’ teachings and deeds of power. Jesus is astounded that it doesn’t make a difference.To the town-folk he is still the simple carpenter, the son of Mary, even if he can cast out demons and heal the sick and speak with wisdom which defies explanation. To be fair Jesus is asking neighbors and relatives to suspend logic and move beyond anything they could imagine about him. That is the difference between knowing and believing. They can see that there is something different about him and even name it but they cannot (or will not) believe he is more than the Jesus they have always known. That is what happens to the twelve sent out two by two as well. Called and commissioned to proclaim “the kingdom come” they do the things that Jesus does, casting out demons, healing the sick and preaching the Jesus sermon. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” And they receive the same reception as Jesus does. Aren’t you James and John, the fishermen, the sons of Zebedee? There is no indication that Jesus did any dust shaking when rejected so perhaps the instruction to shake the dust off their sandals has as much to do with the disciples not being discouraged as it does with the house that will not welcome them. But like the disciples sent out the message received is meant to move one from knowing to believing to doing. We might know a thing or two about Jesus and be able to recite the tenants of the faith as described in creeds and catechisms. Faith calls us to move beyond what we know in order to believe what cannot be known. Or in other words what you know becomes who you are and who you are becomes what you do and what you do looks more like the Jesus you know.

Pentecost 6 B - 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

“Power made perfect in weakness” is not a pleasant sort of life even if Paul is content to boast of his long list of calamities. Indeed it would seem that the thorn in the flesh is the least of his worries. But then the lesson to be learned is that the ability to endure all things does not come from a position of strength as if all one had to do was double down on spiritual steroids or stoically channel your inner Norwegian - if you happen to be Lutheran. No. It is grace that allows weakness to be strength. That means one can be content and still lament of the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” (aka - channeling the inner Dane) It means that even though you pray for what you want (three or more times if you like) there comes a day when you accept what is and there is some measure of contentment in acceptance. But that is not the end of the story. The grace that is sufficient points us to the “things that are not to be told” so that the future balm for present woes might be applied to the wounds made by thorns in the flesh. In that way “my grace is sufficient for you” transcends whatever keeps us from being too elated with the promise of whatever waits for us in the paradise “God knows”. 

Pentecost 6 B - Psalm 123

Psalm 123
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, for we have had more than enough contempt from the proud and those who are at ease except that in our context “we have met the enemy and he is us.” (Pogo) Not that we are the “indolent rich” only that in comparison with the vast majority of those who inhabit the planet we have won the lottery a few times over. So if we were to translate the lament of the psalm it might be that we have had more than enough of lusting after the lifestyle of the rich and famous (Robin Leach) Or keeping up with the Joneses. Or competing to be the “winner is the one who dies with the most toys.” But when with eyes lifted up to the heavens we search for God’s mercy we are set free from the allure of possessions and the siren song of power. In that way we have had more than enough of the ways of this world and long for the day when with eyes lifted up we shall see the salvation of the Lord.

Pentecost 6 B - Ezekiel 2:1-5

Ezekiel 2:1-5

This is not the sort of job description one wants to receive but then it seems to be the prophet’s lot. Ezekiel is sent to speak truth to a nation of rebels, obstinate and stubborn. Isaiah is sent to a people “ever hearing but never understanding… ever seeing but never perceiving.” (Isaiah 6:9) Jeremiah is made to be a “fortified city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall” to stand against the kings of Judah, the officials, the priests and the people of the land. (Jeremiah 1:17) I’d prefer to be a kinder, gentler prophet like the “Comfort, comfort, ye my people” Isaiah (40:1) or the “I know the plans I have for you says the Lord” Jeremiah. (29:11-13) But the healing words cannot not be heard unless harsh ones till the soil of stubborn souls in the same way that the “Thus says the Lord” truth to be told about us makes us receptive to the good news of the Gospel. “Come let us reason together. Though your sins are scarlet they shall be as white as snow…” (Isaiah 1:18) Bad news becomes good news when we receive the corrective word of the Lord as an invitation and not a condemnation. Or as Ezekiel will say much later  ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.” (33:11)

Pentecost 5 B - Mark 5:21-43

Mark 5:21-43

It is a story of two women healed (even if one is girl). Both are anonymous – one named by a condition – the other by a relationship. The bleeding woman is as dead as Jairus’ daughter will soon be. She is cut off from the community by her unending flow and has been impoverished by physicians whose skills have failed her. She would have been invisible to those who did not know her and those who did would have shrunk back for fear of contact contamination. In her desperation she doesn’t care. “If I but touch the hem of his robe…” I imagine through twelve years of bleeding she’s had faith in other options. The reputation of the Mayo Clinic of her time, a perfect sacrifice offered in the Jerusalem temple, the dedication of her first born if God made it possible, etc. etc. That is until they failed to live up to her hope. That means the faith of this moment has less to do with her and everything to do with the One in whom she has placed her trust. The faith that follows and is more remarkable than a desperate act is that after having been made well she is free to walk away without anyone being the wiser but instead steps forward and admits to touching a man in public while she was bleeding and that Jesus did what no one else had been able to do in twelve years of trying. The daughter of Jairus has been alive as long as the woman has been bleeding. Her father shows the same sort of courage born of desperation that the woman did. No doubt members of the synagogue have heard of the Galilean preacher and wonder if their leader has lost his mind but Jairus believes Jesus is his and his daughter’s only hope. Even when the dreadful news reaches Jairus he listens to Jesus (who by the way is now unclean by virtue of the woman’s touch) and no doubt urges him on, “hurry then!” Jesus passing through the wailing crowd, ignoring the ridicule of their prognosis, takes the hand of “the little girl” and speaks life into her dead body.  So it will be with us, maybe in the here and now if God chooses to gift us with healing of earthly aliments but most certainly in the life to come when with our hand in his he will say, “get up!” And so we shall. 

Pentecost 5 B - 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

2 Corinthians 8:7-15

The context for this portion of the Corinthian correspondence is the collection for the saints in Jerusalem who were suffering extreme poverty during an extended famine. The fundraising has stalled and the weekly installments (1 Corinthians 16:2) have come up short. I image there were a good number of wealthy Corinthians who used the occasion to point out the foolishness of selling all your possessions and holding everything in common. (Acts 2:44-45) Paul, ever the pragmatist, appeals to their pride, the very thing he has previously argued against. But maybe this is where the thirteenth chapter of his first letter “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels and have not love I am a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal” is wedded to the words of Jesus’ half-bother James. “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed, “but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? (James 2:15-17) If we have been made rich by the poverty of Christ how can we not be generous toward the needs of others? Paul would not have said it that way but James, who as blood kin is closer to Jesus than Paul, states the obvious. Faith without works is no faith at all. Maybe that is why James sounds more like his half-brother than Paul does. If someone is hungry give them food. If someone is thirsty give them something to drink. If someone is naked clothe them. If someone is in prison visit them. If someone is without shelter house them. If your brothers and sisters in Jerusalem are in need, do whatever you can to help them. It's a no-brainer. But Paul, ever the politician, cleans it up a bit and says, in doing so you will excel in the generous undertaking of doing for others as has been done for you. Which is Paul's way of speaking like James. "Just do it."

Easter 5 B - Psalm 30

Psalm 30

Psalm 30 knows a thing or two about suffering. Enemies threatened. Health was lost. The mouth of the grave was wide open. The night was filled with weeping. But Psalm 30 sings of sorrow from the perspective of deliverance. You lifted me up. You restored my health. You denied death its due. You met me in the morning with joy. That is good news for anyone on the other side of trouble. But can we sing the song of deliverance before the song of suffering is stilled? As difficult as it may be the answer is yes. Because Jesus was surrounded by enemies, pierced by nail and thorn in hand and foot and forehead and descended into the grave we can be confident that there is nowhere that we will go that God has not been. And more that Jesus broke free from death's grip so that we can be confident that even when all of life is dressed in sackcloth and wailing we are destined for an eternity of dancing dressed in garments of joy. That will be the day when the song without ceasing is fully sung. In the meantime if all we can do is hum a few bars of the forever song it will be enough to get us through the night of weeping until we are welcomed by the eternal morning of joy.

Easter 5 B - Lamentations 3:22-33

Lamentations 3:22-33
Lamentations is not the happiest book in the Bible. It may be the most honest. The good news is that honesty can be encouraging without being “happy” so that Lamentations can proclaim God’s never ceasing love and mercies while keeping the parenthesis in place - (there may yet be hope) vs. 29. Wes Word, a Fort Worth, TX singer songwriter, sings it this way, “Tomorrow is just another yesterday – don’t worry ‘cause it’s all over soon.” I suppose you could hear that as a depressing commentary on life but when you wed it to his comment “we are the community we create” it is really an invitation to live fully into the day that exists between tomorrow and yesterday. So we wait quietly (or maybe not so quietly) for the Lord to act trusting that in the life between the forever tomorrow and all our yesterdays the community God creates in us through the Christ for the sake of the world is abiding grace, confident hope, enduring love.

Pentecost 4 B - Mark 4:35-41

Mark 4:35-41
It was Jesus’ idea to sail across the lake but it was the disciples who took him in the boat “just as he was.” It’s an odd thing to say but perhaps that explains why Jesus is sleeping in the stern while the disciples struggle to keep the boat from sinking. Just before setting out to sea Jesus was teaching all day. Before that he was hemmed in by crowds trying to touch him. He was “outed” as the “Son of God” by demonic spirits and at the same time accused by Pharisees of being in league with the devil. And to top it off his own mother told him to stop acting like a lunatic. No wonder he needed a nap. But “just as he was” is more than a reference to how he was at that moment. Jesus is the voice in the whirlwind “where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations” (Job 38:4) and yet he cannot keep his eyes open and sleeps like the dead in the center of a cyclone. He is weakened and wearied by wearing human flesh, not as a garment one can take off and send to the cleaners, but rather he fully dwells in real life flesh and blood, skin and bone, muscle and sinew, organs and beating heart. When the storm causes the disciple’s courage to melt away and they “stagger and reel like drunkards at their wit’s end” (Psalm 107:27) they wake him to question his motives and ability. “Don’t you care..?” means they need him to be more than “just as he was.” Hum? Maybe we do too? Perhaps we’d prefer a superman Jesus who swoops in to save us or a supermarket Jesus who provides for all our needs or a problem solving Jesus who resolves all our dilemmas. I’m not saying Jesus doesn’t save or provide or address dilemmas. Jesus stills the storm for the disciples and for us as well for He is a very present help in times of trouble. (Psalm 46) But an equal if not greater truth is that Jesus became just as we are so that we might become just as he is. Or better, maybe his being as we are allows us to be “just as we are”? Frail and foolish and yet filled with faith that on a good day might even still a storm or two for people who are perishing. 

Pentecost 4 B - 2 Corinthians 6:1-13

2 Corinthians 6:1-13
If the contentious Corinthians were not the proverbial “thorn” in Paul’s flesh they were certainly a pain in his you know what. And yet his heart “wide open” is willing to endure ridicule and rejection for the sake of these people puffed up with pride who have accepted the grace of God in vain. Not that Paul is without fault. Lord knows he can be arrogant and rude but in this case I believe he is genuine in his affection and his desire that the grace of God overcome the obstacle the Corinthian Christians have put in its way. That’s because the unity within the body of Christ is essential to the mission of the church. So it is with us when relationships within the body of Christ are strained and divisions and dissent cause us to close our hearts to one another. But if we recognize that today is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation, then the temporal matters over which we argue lose their import and we are able to live the freedom found in the grace of God. That means we live today in the way we will when all things will be made new. There will be no divisions in the forever future. The vast multitude of every race and language will sing the same song and eat from the same table on the holy mountain and no one will be greater or less than anyone else. The church is meant to be a reflection of that future so that those outside the church will come to believe that the Lord has listened to them as well and the acceptable time is always now, the day of salvation always available.

Pentecost 4 B - Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32

Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32
Psalm 107 is a long song that details the troubles the people of God get into when they rebel against God’s commands. They wandered in desert wastelands, were imprisoned in darkness, afflicted with sickness and set adrift on stormy seas. But when they were humbled by oppression, calamity and sorrow they cried out to the Lord and every time they did the Lord delivered them. We might not be set adrift on the sea but we experience times when we stagger and real like drunkards and all our skill is to no avail. When hope hangs on by a thread we cry out to the Lord in our distress and whether God stills the storm or us the truth is God is always present with steadfast love and wonderful works that are worthy of thanks and praise. 

Pentecost 4 B - Job 38:1-11

Job 38:1-11
After 37 chapters of complaining and fending off "un-friend" Fb advice Job finally gets his day in the celestial court although after God’s opening argument Job surrenders and cops a guilty plea; “Surely I’ve spoken of things too great for me to understand.” (Job 42:3) God’s “where were you when…” might mean the question “why did this happen to me?” is not even ours to ask. It certainly means God doesn’t have to answer our “why?” We, like Job, his wife and his friends, would prefer a more predictable process where we can explain and in that sense control what happens to us. At the very least being the cause of what happens to us means we have someone to blame and in a weird way there is some comfort in that. But when life refuses to play by any rules we can identify or codify we are tempted to complain bitterly like Job does while protesting his innocence, or hold onto our theologies more tightly like his friends do, or take Job’s wife’s advice and “curse God” (Job 2:9) and let faith die. But I think living “I have spoken of things too great for me to understand” allows us to face circumstances beyond our control with a faith that depends fully on the One who was there when the foundations of the earth were laid. And the reason we can live without question or answer is because the God revealed in the cross asked the question for us “My God! My God! Why have forsaken me?” and answered it in “It is finished.” That does not mean we live through sorrow and pain as a prelude to the hymn of heaven but rather that we sing the forever future song even if our “light and momentary troubles” (2 Corinthians 6:17 are heavy and drawn because we.believe God is present in both the suffering and the song.

Pentecost 3 B - Mark 4:26-34

Mark 4:26-34

I think explaining a parable is like repeating the punch line of a joke and asking “get it?” It never works quite as well because it loses the element of surprise. And so without explaining it I think a parable of the kingdom is like the kingdom in that it is plainly stated and yet remains hidden. It is fully visible in unselfish acts and deeds of kindness that sprout from hearts and minds animated by the wind of the Spirit especially when like a seed that sprouts it appears out of the dry soil of everyday lives. And yet a good bit of the time it is barely perceived in the same way we have a dream that upon waking lingers for a moment before being erased from our conscious memory. That is because our part is simply to participate in what already is. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray the reign of God come down wherever and whenever and for whatever reason God so chooses so that we can live it. That happens when human beings get caught up in the mystery of God’s acting out in our world and act and speak in ways that mimic what God does which is always about life and love. When we participate in what already is the branches of mercy are extended well beyond anything we could imagine or manufacture or explain. Surprise!

Easter 3 B - 2 Corinthians 5:6-17

2 Corinthians 5:6-17
Before you get overly concerned (and therefore less than confident) with “all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ” read on to verse 14. “The love of Christ urges us on….” When we are motivated by fear of punishment or desire for reward we do not live the life of love even if we are as obedient as is humanly possible. If your first thought upon reading that is I’m am trying to excuse disobedience you are still thinking in terms of judgment. There is no freedom in that dynamic and therefore no Gospel. Every religion invented by humanity works on the principle of reward for good behavior and punishment for bad. But if we regard Jesus “no longer from a human point of view” – the innocent One died for the guilty multitude - a new creature is born who loves for the sake of love, which is to say for the sake of God because God is love. Now there may eternal consequences for choosing to live otherwise (there are without doubt temporal consequences) but thinking that the sum total of the Christian life is to get to heaven or to avoid hell is equally damning because in the end it’s all about you and that means even an act of love is self-serving. So let’s leave the future in God’s hands and trust that in Christ everything has indeed been made new for only then can we be “always confident.”

Pentecost 3 B - Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15

Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15
Psalm 92 is a song for the Sabbath day but it is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord every day, morning, noon and night. Or as pop culture icon Spongebob Squarepants sang in Attitude of Gratitude. “Oh, I’ve got a whole new attitude, a life-time subscription to gratitude…I’m grateful for the life I am living, who knows how long I will have it...” Of course you can’t manufacture such an attitude but you do have the option to decide to live each moment as best you can considering each breath as a gift. Maybe that is how we continue to bear fruit even in our old age.