Pentecost 18 B - Psalm 19:7-14

Psalm 19:7-14

We tend to think of the law as limiting, for good reasons of course, but restrictive none-the-less. The psalmist sees the law as the kind of freedom that revives, rejoices and enlightens. That is because the law of the Lord reveals the truth about the One who desires all good things for us including clearing us from hidden faults, which is not all that pleasant for us (there is a reason our faults prefer to remain hidden) but it is certainly a good thing to know oneself well enough to avoid being dominated by errors that are not easily detected.  So when we embody the perfect law of the Lord we live the love of the Lord which Jesus said is what the law and the prophets are all about. Love God. Love others. Such words and thoughts of the heart are always pleasing to the Lord, our rock and redeemer.

Pentecost 18 B - Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

The children of Israel, subsisting on manna and quail, weep in the wilderness because they long for the days in Egypt when they imagine they dined on finer fare. Truth is they were slaves in Egypt so it is unlikely that their task masters gave them fish to eat “for nothing”. We tend to color the past in ways that fill in the blanks of our present complaints. Sometimes we imagine the past was better than it could have been. Often we imagine it was worse than it was. But either way we are not satisfied with whatever is and therefore we long for what never was. And so the children of Israel throw a temper tantrum and Moses becomes despondent and the Lord becomes exceedingly angry and the dysfunctional Exodus family tries to figure out how to live together in the desert when no one is happy. When the very angry Lord calms down the despondent Moses is instructed to share the load and the solution to the people’s displeasure is the Spirit of the Lord resting upon the seventy appointed along with two others who were not approved which is often how God acts because the Spirit of the Lord cannot be contained or easily explained. The person who is most moved is Moses which means he will refrain from complaining, “why have you treated your servant so badly?” at least for the time being and get back to leading which is what God called him to do. And the children of Israel will quiet down and be grateful they have something to eat even if it is “what is it” (manna) and the same bird everyday.

Pentecost 17 B - Mark 9:30-37

Mark 9:30-37

On Christmas Eve 1988 I attended worship in the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, England. I sat somewhere in the middle of the second longest nave in the world that houses the largest pipe organ in the United Kingdom. The organ lived up to its reputation while over a thousand voices sang “O Come All Ye Faithful” and choirs and cantors and canons processed down the center aisle with considerable pomp and circumstance. At the very end of the liturgical parade, resplendent in garments of gold and crowned with jeweled miter while leaning on an ornate shepherd’s crook, the bishop of Liverpool walked with a small child in his arms. December 24, 1988 is by far my favorite Christmas Eve ever but I’m guessing the bishop of Liverpool carrying a borrowed baby is not what Jesus meant by “whoever wants to be first must be last…” I don’t mean to disparage that experience but the truth is the institutional church has not only pursued power but on far too many occasions has been consumed by it. I think the current crisis of declining participation in the life of faith in the church is due to the lack of faith people have in the life of the church. And even if we embrace and live into being last our sinful nature will likely turn it into a strategy for being first. The good news is that resurrection is always on the other side of death and that even if wonderful spaces like the Cathedral of Liverpool were to crumble into dust the faithful people who created such spaces have already been built into living stones. (1 Peter 2:5)

Pentecost 17 B - James 3:13-4:8

James 3:14-4:8

If “submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you” was as easy as it sounds the devil would be forever on the run. But then it’s the first part “submit yourselves to God” that is the most difficult to do which is why we are always dealing with “the devil inside.” (INXS) We might be tempted to think that God holds back until we act since “draw near to God and God will draw near to you” seems to be all about us. But if submitting to God is predicated on the belief that God gifts us with wisdom from above then what we become in submitting to God is what God is – “pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy” and the devil cannot long endure such good gifts. So perhaps submitting to God is not about denying oneself but rather choosing to become the child of God we already are. (St. Augustine) 

Pentecost 17 B - Psalm 54

Psalm 54
The lectionary often skips over verses that call for the destruction of enemies even if there are good reasons for enemies to be destroyed. Repaying evil with evil doesn’t fit the pattern of following the Christ who instructs his disciples to turn the other cheek and pray for those who persecute them.Truth to be told we are sorely tempted to ignore Christ's pacifist teaching in a world where people believe inhuman acts of violence are justified to defend their religious world view. But the psalmist does not advocate for actively striking his enemies and even though his prayer is not for their welfare he leaves vindication in the hands of the Lord. (Romans 12:19) That is because “vindicate me” assumes that the psalmist is in relationship with the Lord and that in their rising against the righteous the ruthless are rising against God as well and God can take care of God's honor, thank you very much. We can and should pray for the ruthless to experience just consequences for what they have done to others. But in the spirit of the Christ we might also pray that the ruthless be freed from the ways of deceit and violence for their own sake because a merciless life hell bent on the destruction of others already reaps what it sows. 

Pentecost 17 B - Jeremiah 11:18-20

Jeremiah - Marc Chagall

Jeremiah 11:18-20

Jeremiah gives voice to the cry and complaint of the un-numbered and un-named throughout human history who led to the slaughter have looked to God (or anyone who will listen) for help. But help does not always arrive in a timely fashion as Jeremiah himself will find out when his story of lament and complaint ends in obscurity. Despite all indications to the contrary we believe justice will have its day and the cause of the righteous will be upheld by the God who judges the heart and the mind. However, it may be that we who will have to pray forgiveness for things done and left undone, things said and left unsaid. It may be that we who waited for God to act on behalf of those who suffer while God waited for us to act will be judged as equally guilty. “It was the Lord who made it known to me” means we are God’s agents of mercy and justice in a world that devises evil schemes against the weak and powerless. Too often Christian backs bristle at slights against the practice of our individual piety while the plight of those literally “led to the slaughter” hardly registers a reaction. Granted, the world is not willing to conform to the kingdom of God and indeed actively works against the principles of God’s reign but when we are silent in the face of suffering we acquiesce to the evil schemes that would cut off the word of life from the land of the living. 

Pentecost 16 B - James 3:1-12

James 3:1-12

James does not mean to discourage “brothers and sisters” to become teachers, nor does he expect them to be perfect, he just wants them to be aware that teachers (and preachers) are held to a higher standard by virtue of the task they have taken on. I’ve had some great teachers in my life but one of my favorites was Miss Kruse. She was my fifth grade teacher at Grace Lutheran School in River Forest, Illinois and years later I had the great gift of being her student teacher. She was a remarkable educator, well ahead of her time, but more importantly she embodied this text. I imagine there were days she found it difficult to be gracious and kind but as far as I could tell her way of being was her way of saying. That is, you cannot simply decide to be more disciplined in your speech while harboring anger and resentment in your heart. In the same way springs of water draw from what is down deep and not from what is on the surface. So if Miss Kruse is the bar for who should presume to teach most of us should look for some other work. However, since Christ is the well she drew from we can all tap into the same source and be as gracious as she was (and still is) although I imagine very few will be as remarkable. 

Pentecost 16 B - Mark 8:27-38

Mark 8:27-38

If Jesus thought of his generation as adulterous and sinful what would he say of ours? I know there are a number of well-meaning people of faith who think we’ve gone to hell in a hand basket and fear that it’s fixin’ to get worse. But since the rebellion in the garden there has never been a time in human history when we have not been an adulterous and sinful generation. That doesn’t mean there are not degrees of separation when it comes to what was meant to be and what is. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens) Peter publically confesses the Christ; “you are the Messiah” and then privately rebukes Jesus when Jesus defines what it means to be Messiah in a way that does not conform to Peter’s preconceived notion. Messiahs are not meant to undergo great suffering and be killed even if they promise to rise again. If Peter missed the Messiah boat before the resurrection we, who are on the flip side of the crucifixion, are more likely to cast Jesus in our own image of power and glory. No one is ashamed of the mighty Messiah coming in power and majesty to smash the enemies of God to pieces.  But if we preach Christ crucified the King of Glory is never far removed from the place where the world was saved. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” It was God’s design that the Messiah should be stripped naked and nailed to wood by Roman soldiers so that the Jewish rabbi from the Gentile region of Galilee could change all our ideas about power and prestige. Our problem is that we belong to an adulterous and sinful generation that holds on to this life with a death grip and denies everything except ourselves believing we understand the divine mind when really we are mired in human things.

Pentecost 16 B - Psalm 116:1-9

Psalm 116:1-9

Do we love the Lord because we are heard or are we heard because we love the Lord? It sounds like the psalmist would opt for the former but then there are plenty of passages that lean towards the latter. I’m going to do the Lutheran two-step and say it is both. We love the Lord because the cords of death that choked the life out of us have been loosened. But then we wouldn’t have called on the name of the Lord in our anguish and distress if we didn’t trust the Lord to hear. And trust is just a five letter word for love. The Lutheran song is that the Lord loves us regardless of whether we love the Lord or not (that grace thing) but maybe the Lord is equally adept at dancing the both and. The Lord answers because we love the Lord and the Lord loves because we call out. Grace certainly exists apart from the call and response relationship of love but it is not nearly as noticeable as when faith two steps with the Lord.

Pentecost 16 B - Isaiah 50:4-9

Isaiah 50:4-9

The word that sustains the weary is that the teacher knows a thing or two about suffering. He has endured far more than verbal ridicule and yet morning by morning remains confident of God’s presence and help. It is one thing to suffer and quite another thing to suffer alone. That is a disgrace one cannot long endure which is how laments become songs of praise even when one continues to suffer at the hands of the unjust. The teacher who endured the cross for the sake of the world is more than able to sustain us with a “morning by morning” word of peace that surpasses the world’s ability to understand. Therefore we do not turn back or rebel against difficult things done for the sake of the weary for the One who was wearied for the sake of the world is the living Word that sustains us all.

Pentecost 15 B - Mark 7:24-37

Mark 7:24-37

It is a difficult story to deal with if you wonder what Jesus was thinking when he called the desperate woman a dog. She didn’t object to being called a dog which you might be willing to do when your daughter is possessed and you’ve got nowhere else to go. Pr. Nick Billardello of Abiding Grace Lutheran says she barked. At any rate Jesus recognizes the kind of need that leads one to bow down low and accept ridicule and insult for the sake of someone you love and so he banishes the demon from her daughter. The second story is similar to the first as the deaf man with slurred speech is helped by those who beg Jesus to heal their friend. Spit and speech (Ephphatha!) do what doctors could not. Astounded beyond measure the crowds marvel at everything done well. Jesus' “everything done well” won’t be remembered when he is accused of being in league with the devil. (Matthew 9:34) And it won’t be long before people hurl more than insults at him as they strip him naked and nail him to wood. But when the world is possessed and you have nowhere else to go you’ll go to the cross to save those you love.

Pentecost 15 B - James 2:1-17

James 2:1-17

What good is it my sisters and brothers if you supply the bodily needs of those who are hungry and do not wish them well by warming them with the sharing of peace? What good is that? I’m taking some liberties with the word from James but only because there is a tendency for well-meaning people to provide for people in need without ever getting to know or appreciate the person in need. Calvary’s participation in the Room in the Inn ministry attempts to meet both the relational and physical needs of the guests who spend the night in our family life center and if you ask them I think they appreciate the relational aspect as much as the physical. The homeless need help, no doubt, but what they long for is dignity and that doesn’t come to anyone as charity. It can only be found in true friendship and genuine love that looks past possessions or lack thereof to value another as a human being created in the image of God. 

Pentecost 15 B - Psalm 146

Psalm 146

Trusting in the temporal is no help at all when what one hopes for is eternal. That doesn’t mean we do not put stock in the here and now. And the Lord does not care for the stranger or sustain the orphan and the widow or frustrate the wicked without in some ways enlisting our help. Even opening the eyes of the blind and lifting up the bowed down calls for the righteous loved by the Lord to be involved. But when I’m finished praising the Lord “as long as I live” I hope there is a refrain that follows my life long singing. That means we live our lives anticipating what will be while being fully engaged in what is. 

Pentecost 15 B - Isaiah 35:4-7

Isaiah 35:4-7

Isaiah 35 begins with the parched land rejoicing and ends with the ransomed of the Lord returning unto Zion with singing as they are overtaken by joy and gladness. Between the parched land rejoicing and the ransomed returning are feeble hands and weak knees and fearful hearts that long for redemption. But since the chapter begins and ends with a promise Isaiah can say, “Be strong” to the feeble and weak and fearful instead of “suck it up.” The ability to “be strong” comes from living into the future promise in whatever circumstance we find ourselves so that hands and knees become steady even when the ground is shaking. We are able to endure because we believe the present difficulty will be overcome by the future promise. It means we can deal with what is because we anticipate what will be. In the here and now the blind are still blind. The deaf still cannot hear. The lame still limp and the dumb are still speechless. It is as simple and as difficult as that because we are more accustomed to “suck it up” than what Isaiah means by “be strong” or perhaps we think they are the same thing and therefore are always running too fast in the present for the future to catch up. But when God’s ultimate vision becomes our eternal imagination the future bursts into the present like a rainstorm in the desert and the blind see and the deaf hear and the lame leap and the dumb shout for joy. What will be already is when by faith we stop “sucking it up” and allow the “be strong” of future gladness to overtake us. 

Pentecost 14 B - Mark 7:1-8, 13-14, 21-23

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Thank God we’re back to the Gospel of Mark! Don’t get me wrong. I’m not into gluten free Gospels but five weeks of bread, even bread from heaven, is more than I can stomach. Okay, that might be a little over the top for a lectionary based joke but I don’t think the lectionary needs five weeks to deal with John chapter six. Be that as it may it turns out the Gospel lesson for this week still has something to do with food and the rituals that surround it. I find it noteworthy that necessary things, the everyday act of eating and drinking, are given additional layers of meaning but maybe that is the point. Things basic but necessary are always more than ordinary. Most of us are far removed from the production of our food so that we can grab a burger from In and Out and think nothing of the sun and soil and rain and crops and cattle and rancher and farmer and slaughter house and silo and purchaser and packager and shipper and cook and wait staff that eventually put the burger on the bun with fries on the side so that we could wolf it down without thinking about it. Maybe if we were more aware of how fortunate we are we would become more aware of those for whom the every day act of eating is not a given. Of all the religious things we do being generous with the ordinary gifts we’ve been given brings the most joy to the God who desires the honor of our lips to be a true expression of the devotion of our heart.

Pentecost 14 B - James 1:17-27

James 1:17-27
Martin Luther called James “an epistle of straw” for its less than solid declaration of the Gospel but every time I read it I can’t help but hear Jesus speaking. I bet that’s because James knew his half-brother better than Luther did even if Luther had the apostle Paul to tell him what he needed to know. (Luther was born again while reading Romans and practically gushes over Galatians) That might be why James reads more like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) than Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Of course we Lutherans tend to read everything through the Pauline lens but that being said we’d be well served to apply the lesson of James to the way we live the Gospel. If you look at it that way the epistle of straw is the brick and mortar of the Gospel house. “So be doers of the word and not merely hearers.” (James 1:22) That sounds a lot like “You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16-20) 

Pentecost 14 B - Psalm 15

Psalm 15

So I guess verse 5a (do not lend money at interest) means all the bankers are out of luck when it comes to real estate on the holy hill. I’m not a Hebrew scholar but I’m willing to bet very few people lent anything without expecting something in return so either the holy hill is a vacant lot or there must be another way to walk blamelessly. I think the key verse might be 4c (who stand by their oath even to their hurt) Walking blamelessly and doing what is right while speaking heartfelt truth and not slander is a way of being that considers the needs of friends and neighbors and the needy to be as great as one’s own need. The reason those who do these things are never moved is because they embody the heart and soul and will of God. From the very beginning God refused to abandon those who were made in the image of God even though those made in God’s image chose to abandon God. God’s oath led God to the “hurt” of the holy hill of the cross and if there is interest owed on the loan of Jesus’ life I certainly can’t pay it. Speaking of not being able to pay back what is owed I was set apart for the ministry of Word and Sacrament twenty four years ago at Calvary Lutheran Church. I have not served blamelessly but I think I have always spoken the truth from my heart giving no occasion for false security or illusory hope. I don’t think my labor has been in vain but it has been laborious. It is only by grace and the goodness of the people of God that I can say today I am grateful for the call to “pastor up” twenty four years ago. In the blessing and the burden of serving Jesus is found and in Him I found the truth of Martin Luther’s Sacristy prayer; “…you see how unsuited I am to meet so great and difficult a task… do not forsake me for if ever should I be on my own I would easily wreck it all.”

Pentecost 14 B - Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9

It sounds fairly straightforward. Obey and live. Don’t and die. For some it was as simple as that. But then the wise and discerning people figured out that going through the motions worked just as well so that God speaking through the prophet Isaiah laments, “these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.” (29:13) Maybe it was the do or die that confused them. That’s not the best basis for a relationship. Of course there are consequences and rewards in any relationship but what God earnestly desired was for people’s hearts to be close because they wanted to be close; because they remembered when they were slaves in Egypt God heard their cry; because God led them through the waste land and did not abandon them even though continually complained. It turns out the burden God bears are the people God loves. And so God continually reworks what the relationship is supposed to look like – dumbing it down if you will. Like the prophet Micah speaking for God - how about if you just act justly; love mercy, and walk humbly with me. Would that work for you?  (6:8) Jesus reduces the whole of scripture and the 613 mosaic laws to two - love God and love neighbor.  Now if we do that we’d really be wise and discerning and I bet folks would notice. So take care and watch yourselves in such a way that you love the God you cannot see as best you can and love the neighbor you can see even a little better.  

Pentecost 13 B - John 6:56-69

John 6:56-69

By the end of chapter six the five thousand fed on loaves and fishes have gone home and “many of his disciples” desert him. Only the Twelve are left and as usual Peter gives voice to what they’re thinking. They have come to accept what the crowds cannot and because they believe Jesus is the Holy One of God they aren’t turned off by his “eat my flesh and drink my blood” talk. I don’t think they understand what he is saying any better than those who declare it to be “a hard teaching” but then accepting doesn’t require understanding. Not that they don’t have limits to what they will accept as in Peter’s “God forbid it!” when Jesus says he is destined to suffer and die and rise again. And when the mob comes to the garden to grab Jesus the Twelve (minus one) find another “to whom shall we go” place to hide until the risen Jesus breaks in on their pity party to prove with nail scarred hands that death itself has died. But for now they are the ones enabled by the Father to believe. We too have been enabled by Spirit filled words to believe what we cannot fully understand and only dimly perceive, that all our best hopes and dreams for the here and now and the forever future are found in the Holy One of God.

Pentecost 13 B - Ephesians 6:10-20

Ephesians 6:10-20

Being strong in the Lord is not the same thing as being strong. In fact the only way to be strong in the strength of the Lord is to let go of whatever strength you think you might have. Even the self-discipline of daily devotionals or spending time in the word and worship can get in the way of surrendering self-sufficiency in order to pick up what God would have us put on. Don’t get me wrong. Acts of piety are helpful but they are not the source of strength that allows one to stand against all that is against us. So the first piece of armor to put on is the belt of truth because everything else attaches to it. We admit the truth about ourselves (that we are our own worst enemies) while confessing the truth about the God who dies so that enemies might be called friends. The breastplate of righteousness cannot be attached to dishonesty therefore our admission and confession makes a place for being right with ourselves and God. The mission of the church is often mired in mud and would have the world worship at its altar but the truth of the Gospel compels feet to go to proclaim peace to those who would never darken the door of our sanctuaries. The shield of faith allows us to live with all that threatens without being threatened by those very same things. And heads fitted firmly with salvation means the “here and now” is fully fitted with the “there and then” which is to say we live the forever future in the present whenever we think of ourselves as eternal creatures.