Easter 3c - John 21:1-19

John 21:1-19

By the third appearance the disciples have gone back to what they know. “I’m going fishing,” is what you do when your world has been turned upside down and inside out and even though you’ve come through without a scratch you retreat to the security and comfort of the familiar. The rhythm of casting out and hauling in, casting out and hauling in, casting out and hauling in, even if you don’t catch anything, is simple and satisfying and safe. But Jesus just can’t leave them alone and appearing again turns the catch into an object lesson. Cast on the other side even though you’ve been fishing all night with nothing to show for it. Recognition comes with the catch. John wants us to know there were 153 large fish but the more important detail is that the net isn’t torn which is just another sign that what you should expect in the new reality is the unexpected. After breakfast it’s Jesus who goes fishing for the answer that is really a confession. “You know I love you” three times on the beach reverses “I do not know the man” three times in the courtyard and the curses Peter called down upon himself are lifted with the charge to feed and tend and feed . His fishing days are over and what will become familiar in following Jesus will be suffering and death. God still interrupts the familiar of our everyday with the extraordinary in chance encounters that after the fact are encounters clearly not by chance. God enters our everyday in the help and healing of one enduring with another sorrow and suffering so that courage is renewed, hope restored. We see God present in the flock that feeds and tends those whose welcome place of worship has been torn by dissension and strife. In all this we are invited along with Peter to stretch out our hands and be bound to something beyond our own doing and in that even the familiar is always something new.

Easter 3c - Revelation 5:11-14

Revelation 5:11-14

I remember the sound of angels singing in our backyard years ago. They must have been around three and five at the time and from somewhere inside the castle their father built for them they were singing “This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia!” That’s the only part they knew so they just sang it over and over again. Maybe that’s the only part we need to know when it comes right down to it. The Lamb who was slain is worthy and has won the victory over death so that songs of rejoicing might spring forth from children and angels alike. To that the living creatures say Amen which means Let it be so. To live into let it be so is to invite the future into the present so that we hear and sing the song in our everyday. Granted it is more difficult when life is anything but playful. In those times the invitation is a prayer and this is the feast is sung through clenched teeth. Which is why it is the only thing we need to know. Despite all the difficulties of the day the battle is done, the final victory won. One day the feast of victory will be for all of us as children playing and singing this is the feast over and over again and the sound of suffering and sorrow will be stilled. And so the memory of angels singing in the backyard in the past enters the present of this morning so that one is reminded of the future. Amen. Let it be so.

Easter 3c - Psalm 30

Psalm 30
At least three of the Heinzes are big Dancing with the Stars fans and while we all have our own favorites we do rejoice when someone who can’t dance gets a standing O for effort or entertainment as the case may be. Of course, Lisa will tell you I’m not one to talk. Psalm 30 is a song of deliverance dressed up in joy even I could dance to. Rescued from the foe, helped by healing, brought back from the depths of the pit the psalmist has seen it all. But perhaps the worst of it is understated. “When you hid your face I was dismayed.” Weeping through the night watches the psalmist is clothed in the sackcloth of God’s absence and the moment of God’s anger seems to last a lifetime. Crying into that silence for help the psalmist is not above making a deal. “What good am I to you dead?” When the morning of deliverance comes the rejoicing is unrestrained and one jumps for the joy of it, for even if silence and sorrow and suffering are remembered the new dawn trumps whatever one went through to see the sun rise. So the standing O belongs to God who by dying our death ensured that one day we would dance with the stars, even with two left feet.

Easter 3c - Acts 9:1-20

The street called Straight - Damascus

Acts 9:1-20

Saul may be the one blinded, but Ananias is the one who wants to make sure God sees clearly. “Here I am Lord” is followed quickly by a just in case you don’t know “Lord, I’ve heard of this man…” According to Luke’s tale all Ananias needs is a little more information to call Saul brother, but I image he had an exit strategy when he headed down Straight Street in Damascus. Even so his only scene in the Gospel is a story of faith that makes Paul’s possible as his baptizing Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me means Paul can suffer for the sake of the name which in turn makes the name of Jesus known. We don’t have nearly as much at stake on either side of the story but there are those times when we are willing yet reluctant witnesses. My blogging was interrupted by one of those chance encounters that you realize after the fact was too much of an encounter to be a chance. Baptized by the spirit of shared story the one who interrupted me was the one whose journey was interrupted with the chance that healing may happen. Ananias could have said send someone else but he didn’t. Maybe God seeing clearly is how we receive our sight. Here I am Lord.

Easter 2c - Conclusion

Acts 5:27-41; Psalm 150; Revelation 1:4-7; John 20:19-31
I’m having lunch at the bar in The Elephant & Castle in downtown Chicago because there’s no room in the inn. It’s like trying to find a pew or a parking place on Easter Sunday. I imagine in an hour or two when the lunch crowd goes back to work things will settle down but by then I’ll be Texas bound and taking my ya’ll out of cold storage. Unlike the E&C at lunch time and church last week there’ll be plenty of open seats on the second Sunday of Easter, liturgically labeled low Sunday. It might cause one to lament or at least long for more but the lessons for Easter 2 remind us that Easter is less about lilies and more about everyday living. The disciples living into the message of Jesus rejoice that they are worthy of persecution. The psalmist can’t be silent and along with clanging cymbals and trumpet sound everything that has breath is playing in the band. For John, exiled and in chains the end of the story written at its beginning makes his life and the lives of his people bearable despite hardships. And for us as for Thomas, living between doubt and faith, seeing is believing and believing is life whether pews are empty or full.

Easter 2c - John 20:19-31

Lincoln Park, Chicago (Last week according to Chicagoans)

John 20:19-31

I’d been looking forward to running through Lincoln Park and along Lake Michigan for a week. The weather forecast was promising and Tuesday when I arrived could not have been more beautiful. I went to sleep anticipating a morning run with the sun but sometime during the night winter woke up. Waiting for the bus in the cold and rain I said to the person next to me, “What happened to spring?”

“You should have been here last week,” was the reply. All day long Chicagoans told me, “You should have been here last week.” Of course I wasn’t here last week, I was in Texas where we know a thing or two about unpredictable weather, so telling me I should have been here when I wasn’t doesn’t warm me up. Thomas missed the resurrection dawn by a week and nothing the disciples said could warm him up. Unless I see and touch the marks of death on a living Jesus I will not believe. Of course seeing is believing and no matter what Jesus says no one believes without seeing something. It is true for us who have not seen as Thomas but have been blessed into faith by the witness of others. In the Word that is living and the meal that is shared and the community gathered to be sent Jesus shows up to be our Lord and our God. Granted there are times when doubt wakes up and for that the memory of a last week when all was well is a reminder that what was true then will be true again, if not in the present then in the resurrection dawn that awaits us all. So this morning under grey skies with borrowed windbreaker and gloves I ran the run I had been thinking about for a week. Of course I remembered it as being warmer, but then, that was last week.

Easter 2c - Revelation 1:4-7

Revelation 1:4-7

I’m blogging from the 29th floor of 1660 LaSalle in the apartment of still Calvary members at heart Keith and Barbara Holm. With a spectacular view of downtown Chicago to the south and Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan just outside the lobby it’s a far cry from my blogging chair at Roots Coffeehouse on Grapevine Highway. John blogging to the seven churches doesn’t have it so good. Exiled from Ephesus he is a prisoner on the island of Patmos at a time when the Romans were beginning to take note of this Jewish sect that worshipped a crucified criminal from Galilee. John the pastor, kept from tending his flock, is writing to encourage them to remain faithful and remember that the end of the story was written at its beginning and despite the hardships and persecutions of the present everything is proceeding according to the plan. In that sense Revelation is as much a pastoral letter as any of Paul’s and speaks to us in the same way. For while we are not persecuted in any sense of the word we are called to remain faithful despite hardship and remember the end of the story was written at its beginning.

Easter 2c - Psalm 150

Psalm l50

Psalm 150 is the alternate psalm for Sunday. It’s a noisy praise the Lord psalm and if you were at Calvary on Easter it should bring to mind cymbals and tympani and brass that made our singing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” rise to new heights. Or the strings and woodwinds that brought “Because He Lives” to life. Now I know the human voice can make a joyful noise all by itself –I’ve been to a Church of Christ service – but when it comes to noise the voice can’t compete with a clanging cymbal. The mighty deeds and surpassing greatness of God calls for an orchestra and everything that breathes as well. So if our praise of God is to be worthy of notice, as I suggested yesterday, we’ll have to make some noise. Not clanging cymbals alone, which Paul tells the Corinthians are as useless as noisy gongs without the melody of love, but grateful for God’s goodness and moved by mercy our praise should be a symphony of sound not unlike the roar of Texas Ranger fans yesterday when after nine innings the Rangers finally caged the Bluejays.

Easter 2c - Acts 5:27-41

Acts 5:27-41
For a group of guys who in the Gospels didn’t get it the disciples got going pretty quickly in the book of Acts. With a sound like the rushing of the wind and tongues of flames on their heads and languages not their own they were transformed from confused followers into bold witnesses who rejoiced that they were considered worthy of persecution. How do we enter such a text given that the message which caused such a stir has settled down to become the status quo? It may be that Gamaliel’s advice, ignore them and they’ll go away, accomplished what the Pharisees desired. The church becomes irrelevant to the culture when it is indistinguishable from it. I’m not nostalgic for the days when the Gospel enraged but I would like to rejoice in being worthy of attention. If we tell the truth the journey of the last four days was mostly about us, the respectable church goers, and for many of our neighbors and co-workers and friends and even family it was just another weekend. If Monday happens right on schedule and holy week like Christmas is carefully wrapped and put back on the shelf until next year it will be just another, albeit it busy weekend for us well. But if we were to do something worthy of attention today, speak and act as those who have something worth living and saying then like disciples we would rejoice in being followers who take the lead.

Easter Year C - Conclusion

Isaiah 65:17-25; Psalm 118; 1 Corinthians 15:19-28; Luke 24:1-12

It seems strange to be blogging about Easter on Good Friday but then Easter is the only way this Friday can be called Good. Without resurrection his was just another crucifixion and while Jesus might have attracted a larger crowd it was business as usual for those who did the dirty work of death. So even though the ground shook at his passing as the sun’s light failed and his innocence was proclaimed in the end he was still dead. But in the pregnant pause of the Sabbath while the women wept and the disciples hid and the chief priests and scribes danced a jig the new thing was announced in heaven and cursed in hell for as in Adam all die so in Christ now all are made alive. And so in the pregnant pause of the Sabbath the songs of victory began to be sung by angel choirs while Jesus mocked the one who had tried to tempt but failed to seduce. Isaiah saw it coming. “No more shall they labor in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune for they shall all be blessed by the Lord.” The psalmist saw it coming. “I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord” Paul saw it coming.” The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” The women no longer weeping tell the disciples who stop hiding and the chief priests and scribes have to pay the piper and dance to a different tune. It is the idle tale that informs every tale that ever was or ever will be told. “He is not. He is risen!”

Easter Year C - Luke 24:1-12

Luke 24:1-12

I ran ten miles yesterday, not to get to an empty tomb, though after I was finished I went to bed early and slept like the dead. It’s because last week I decided to change my exercise routine and play less racquetball in favor of more running. The trouble was my routine had become routine and my body knew it by heart. Sometimes when you know something by heart it ceases to surprise or in my case stopped a point short of my optimum BMI. “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” was the question the women were asked. A strange question given that they had come looking for the dead, prepared to do the proper thing the Passover had denied them the opportunity to perform and the living was the last thing they expected to find. But now no longer terrified reminded of Jesus’ words they rushed back to those whose hopes and dreams had died with the one they had left all to follow. Without the benefit of dazzling clothes the women’s tale seemed tall at best and according to Luke everyone but Peter was satisfied to continue believing once dead always dead. The story is familiar to those of us who make the church our home and can lose its ability to surprise and have its way with us. That is what it would do given the chance. There are those moments when with dazzling clarity the veil between the present and the future becomes transparent and one can hear the song of the infinite choir and taste the forever feast. In those moments we are transformed from those who expect the living and the dead to stay in their own rooms to those who see dead people living. Not in some ghostly apparition or chill in the room but in bread and wine shared in the present even as it remembers the past and anticipates the future. Joined to Christ in the meal of thanksgiving the women’s idle tale has its way with us and now expecting the unexpected we are united with the dead now living. So you and I, inhabiting bodies not yet worn out can, if only for a moment, imagine the joys that are for them routine.

Easter Year C - 1 Corinthians 15:19-28

1 Corinthians 15:19-28

The day of resurrection is only five days away when the faithful will gather in the sanctuary in Arlington, TX to hear the word of life, “Play ball!” I don’t doubt there will be in attendance a good number whose hope has less to do with what happens on Sunday and more to do with the Ranger's season that begins Monday afternoon at The Ballpark. Perhaps they are most to be pitied, except for Cub fans, of course. Don’t get me wrong, the only opening day I’ve missed since 1994 was the year it fell on Good Friday which just goes to show how little Holy Week matters to MLB. But then we are living in the post-Christian era and not because we are in the end times but because in changing times the church forgot to remain the same. By that I mean to remember that the Good News was always simple and meant to be free of unnecessary encumbrances (like laws about food and festivals and circumcision?) lest the Gospel be held in bondage to human tradition. The Good news is Christ died and was raised from the dead so that the world should not be pitied for hoping in something less, something that cannot resolve the question of our opening day that leads inevitably to our closing day. Born into this world without being consulted, some will face it sooner than others but in the end as my seminary professor, Walter Bouman, liked to say, “The death rate is still one per person.” The Gospel begins and ends with what Jesus for the world did on a Friday afternoon, dying every death, for us, ahead of us so that death would not be the last thing to be said about anyone. If death is not the last thing to be said then life can be lived without the fear associated with one’s inevitable end and that is where we have a choice. Not a choice to turn Jesus being raised into a system of reward and punishment that depends on getting a ticket as hard to come by as box seats on Opening Day, but a choice to live this life for others as Jesus did, trusting that in the end God was and is and will be all in all. “Play ball!”

Easter Year C - Psalm 118

Psalm 118

On the morning of May 25th 2000 I was sitting in my brother’s backyard in Chicago drinking way too much coffee and nervously waiting for inspiration. Months before I promised my dad I’d write a song for my grandmother’s memorial service. At that point all I had was “I hope” which was how Grandma Heinze described faith in Jesus. Not “I hope” as in “I wish” but “I hope” as in “I know.” So with grandma’s faith in Jesus on my mind I waited impatiently for a song that was scheduled to be sung that afternoon. And then I remembered a funeral the week before where I spoke the words of Psalm 118. “There are shouts of exaltation in the tents of the righteous for the strong arm of the Lord has triumphed" and within ten minutes I had three verses and a chorus in the key of E and a few hours later “Our Hope” was sung as promised. Of all the parts of the funeral liturgy Psalm 118, appointed to be read at the graveside, seems to fly in the face of reason. When it is obvious that our loved one has fallen and is not getting up again we claim that “I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.” But that is the way of faith where the stone the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone of “I hope.” Defeat is victory, loss is gain, and sorrow is prelude to joy. While it seems like the truth of “I hope” comes to us as suddenly as it did to me in my brother’s backyard the truth is the only thing sudden about it is that it is the end of waiting. It took Martha sometime to learn the song of Jesus but when she did she sang it with everything she had for her best friend, Jesus. And so like Timothy whose faith first lived in his grandmother Lois the faith of Martha is sung every Easter at Calvary Lutheran, Richland Hills, TX in three verses and a chorus in the key of E.

Easter Year C - Isaiah 65:17-25

Isaiah 65:17-25

Isaiah 65 is the alternate reading for Easter or the pitch hitter for Acts 10. No offense to Luke but given the choice I think even Jesus would choose Isaiah. Granted he never read Acts but he did choose Isaiah 61 as the text for his first sermon in Nazareth, even if it did end badly (they tried to throw him off a cliff). His faithfulness brings forth the justice of Isaiah 42. He is light for the Gentiles as he gathers Israel in Isaiah 49. In Isaiah 50 he has been given the tongue of the teacher to sustain the weary. He is the servant described in Isaiah 53; a man familiar with suffering and aquatinted with grief by whose stripes we are healed. And so given the choice I’m going with Isaiah 65. That’s not only a liturgical decision but a choice of what future informs our present. Is that future a rerun of the old or is it something so new the old cannot even be recalled? All I know is that when I think of the alternate vision where few are taken and the vast majority is left behind, where a personal relationship with Jesus is a password to paradise and everyone else can go to hell it feels a lot like the world I live in today. I want God’s future to be more than that and when I read Isaiah I get a sense that we’ll all be surprised. But how can we say that given all the Biblical evidence to the contrary? We can’t, but we can hope. That’s all. A hope that even though it seemed to end badly for Jesus when God made a choice to do something different on a Friday we call Good it really was a brand new thing.

Passion Sunday Year C - Conclusion

Some of us remember when Passion Sunday was Palm Sunday and if you wanted to hear what happened between “Hosanna!” and He is Risen!” you had to go to church on Thursday and Friday. At some point the passion was added to the palms and on this Sunday most churches will read the entire narrative. My good friend Pr. John Foster is going to preach against the tide and stick with the palms and I might be inclined to join him were it not for two words the congregation speaks in the passion narrative. “Crucify him!” The texts for Passion Sunday all point to that moment when the one who has been given the tongue of a teacher is condemned by those he was sent to teach. He embodies the psalmist lament facing those who schemed to take his life but trusting the One whose will he prayed be done. Emptied of power, prestige, and privilege he is found in human likeness as one familiar with suffering and acquainted with grief. And in the Gospel we follow the crowd from “Hosanna!” to “Crucify him!” so that there can be no mistake in identifying the guilty party.

Passion Sunday Year C - Luke 22:14 - 23:56

"The Tortured Christ" by Guido Rocha

The Passion According to Saint Luke

 If a picture is worth a thousand words then the sculpture "The Tortured Christ" by Brazilian artist Guido Rocha says it all. Its obscenity evokes revulsion in those, including myself, who prefer a crucifix to be more polite. But the incarnation cannot be fully grasped except when depicted as offensive. Granted, we generally associate incarnation with the babe of Bethlehem, angels singing, shepherds adoring, wise ones worshipping. But the incarnation, Jesus emptying himself of the power of God, is only fully and finally revealed in the offense of the cross for he empties himself not to be cuddled but to be crucified. In the end Jesus, the life of love, dies naked and alone, his humanity beaten out of him, screaming like a wounded animal with no one to offer comfort, no one to come to his rescue. When Luke recounts the story, Jesus remembers a thief who is dying next to him even as Jesus forgives the ones who crucify them both. That is the final offense of the crucifixion. Someone should pay. Someone should be held accountable. Someone did. Someone was. Jesus. Remember me.

Passion Sunday Year C - Philippians 1:1-13

Philippians 1:1-13
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” How is it that the church has failed so miserably at mimicking the mind of God? As it is we are more often the object of God’s lament. "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Selfish ambition, vain conceit, thinking of oneself to be better than the other are more often the way we think and truth to be told we suffer not as Christ but as those who looking only to their own interests cannot escape the lonely consequences. Of course we dress up our differences in doctrinal arguments and clothed in self righteous piety are quick to claim conformity to Christ without giving an inch lest our brother or sister be tempted to take a mile. God is grieved when in claiming to defend the Gospel we fail to live it. Holding forth for whatever we hold as sacred or worth fighting over must be able to stand the litmus test of Christ. Though he was fully God He emptied himself to inhabit our flesh and die the death we deserve and therefore in the end He will be the judge. It’s not What Would Jesus Do but What Did Jesus Do that matters. If that is the mind we are to have then giving up is the only way to hold on.

Passion Year C - Psalm 31

Psalm 31
The psalms don’t shy away from suffering and psalm 31 is no exception. Lamenting a life spent in sorrow and sighing, weakened by misery, an object of scorn and derision to friend and foe alike the psalmist is as useless as a broken bottle and as good as dead. But, and there is always a “but” in a lament, but I trust in you, despite my eyes wasting away from grief for I will see the light of your face. But I trust in you for my soul and body in distress is in your hands and will be delivered. But I trust in you, though terror is all around, for you are my God and in your steadfast love I am secure. As it is for the psalmist so it is in all our laments, sorrow and sighing turn on that three letter word, but.

Passion Sunday - Year C - Isaiah 50:4-9a

Isaiah 50:4-9a
The word that sustains the weary is that the teacher himself was wearied by beatings, insult and spitting. Wakened by the word, the Lord God will be my help at the break of the day, the student who is at the same time the teacher set his face like flint and gave his back to the whip, his head to thorns, his hands and feet to nail. The suffering and sorrow of God is the word for those who are wearied by life contending against them, confronted by inconsistency, struck by down by grief, insulted by trouble. The Lord will be my help at the break of day because the Lord was broken for all my days. To waken to this word despite all that would weary the soul and crush the spirit is to be opened to the distant song of vindication that is always near. It is not an easy answer, a simple solution, a wish fulfillment. It is a Word that inhabits flesh and blood, yours and mine, for when one is wearied by weeping and too tired to sing, when the difference between giving up and continuing on hangs in the balance, we become for each other in shared sorrow and suffering the Word that sustains until the day when all weariness will be a thing of the past.

Lent 5c - Conclusion

Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:4-14; John 12:1-8
I have a weather app on my pc. (app, short for application, is a word Apple applies to gotta have gadgets which nickel and dime you to death) My weather app has alerts which are never good news for my zip code which means never good news for me. The not good news for me is that winter, which is never welcome, is coming back for a weekend visit. Surprise! The lessons for Lent 5c are full of surprises where never good news becomes forever good news. Isaiah speaking for God proclaims a new thing for those who are living former things they cannot forget. The psalmist waking from a dream prays for the dream come true where seeds sown in sorrow will reap joy. Paul rejects a pedigree that would make a Pharisee proud to be joined to the suffering of Christ and know the power of his resurrection. And finally the Gospel of John recalls a dinner party for dead men; one recently raised who will live forever because the other soon to die won’t stay dead. The bad news / good news of Lent 5c is that former things are temporary and good things are eternal. So too, I hope and pray, a weekend of winter in Fort Worth, Texas.

Lent 5c - John 12:1-8

John 12:1-8
What do you do when the man who raised your brother from the dead comes for a visit? If you are Martha you serve dinner. If you are Mary you spend more time at the feet of the teacher. It appears as if nothing has changed and yet everything is different. It is as it always was for Martha, table set, bread baked, food and fellowship with friends. A week before she could not have imagined it would ever be this way again. But now her brother, for a moment lost to life and here found again, sits at table with the One who weeping called him out of the tomb. And with laughter and much toasting “L'Chaim!” To Life! everything is as it was and she hopes always will be. And then Mary, perhaps weeping herself, does the unthinkable and brings death back to life. Nothing has changed but everything is different. Her act of extravagance, scoffed at by Judas, “What a waste” is prophetic. The one who raised my brother has a date with death himself but instead of the stench of four days the fragrance of perfume filled the house. You can’t think of death in the same way when Lazarus is sitting at the table with you. Like Lazarus Jesus will be lost for a time but when he is found again death itself will be defeated and everything will change and even what is the same will be different. The poor who you always have with you will be made rich to sit at the table as bread baked and wine poured ushers in food and fellowship and feasting like has never been before and will be forever and ever. Amen. L’Chami! To Life!

Lent 5c - Philippians 3:4-14

Philippians 3:4-14
If anyone has reason to be confident in their Lutheran pedigree, I have more. Baptized as an infant, bearing a German surname, a Lutheran born of Lutherans, as to education Lutheran grade school, high school, college, and seminary, as to employment nine years a Lutheran school teacher & youth director, and Lutheran pastor for nineteen. Of course the same could be said of other things as well. Years spent in Bible Study Fellowship, giving more than a tithe, status as a deacon or elder, or even quiet and unassuming piety. It is a sign of our separation from the surpassing value of knowing Christ that even humility can be a source of pride. While we can consider all of that loss we cannot enter into this text as Paul or his first century readers as for American Christians to cry persecution is rubbish. Loss of status, if indeed we have even lost much of that, is not blood shed. So how do we share the sufferings of Christ without beatings, imprisonment, hardships and the like? Maybe it begins when we really do count our status as Christians in a culture shaped by Christianity as rubbish. Maybe it continues as we forsake labels of conservative or liberal, progressive or orthodox and churches stop competing for clients by claiming to be better at making disciples. When the surpassing value of knowing Christ means I skip a meal to provide food for someone who is starving, when the debate over health care remembers the children who suffer because parents are poor, when living a moral life is not an option or an obligation but a reflection of Christ. We share in his sufferings when we can no longer follow the crucified by taking up a cross that is comfortable.

Lent 5c - Psalm 126

Psalm 126

The psalmist laughs out loud anticipating the new thing God promised through the prophet Isaiah. Like a dream come true freedom is the fortune restored and the captives shout and laugh as the nations offer commentary. But as with all dreams there comes a time when one wakes up and even if pleasant memories remain the demand of the day is that you get out of bed and get on with it. Waking from the dream of the promise the psalmist prays for the dream come true. Be for us water in the wilderness that the seeds of sorrow sown in captivity will be a joyful harvest of home. Held captive by circumstance, in bondage to desire, controlled and controlling we weep what we sow. But longing for the dream come true the harvest of hope is for us water in the wilderness and like a pleasant dream recalled might even make us laugh out loud.

Lent 5c - Isaiah 43:16-21

Isaiah 43:16-21

“Do not remember former things…” is written to a people who taunted by their captors, “Sing us songs of Zion” sit by the waters of Babylon and weep. Forgetting former things is not easily done and so Isaiah calls to mind a time before the former things. Remember the time when the Lord called his people out of Egypt and made a way through the sea and wilderness to the land of promise. Forgetting the former and remembering something before when the threat of chariot and horse, army and warrior was extinguished leads to the perception of something at once the same and new. Like those of the time before you will be led out of captivity and weeping songs will be turned into songs of praise and even the jackals and ostriches will get it. The something new that springs forth is the hope of the promise that what you can’t forget will one day not be remembered. It is a new thing for us as well when weighed down by former things of shame and pain we live into the promise that one day we will not remember what we cannot forget.

Lent 4c - Conclusion

Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:11-32

The Flying Fish Restaurant, on the corner of Montgomery & Lovell, has declared itself to be Lent Central. So it has come to this has it? I can understand marketing Christmas because of the gift giving and Easter because of Lisa’s favorite candy, the marshmallow Peep®, but Lent? Lent is a season of sacrifice and fasting and even if fish takes the place of meat for many, the Flying Fish - Catfish, Oysters, Crab, Gumbo, Po’Boys, Grilled Fish and more! - is hardly a Lent like atmosphere. But then the lessons for Lent 4c are a mixture of contrition and celebration. Forty years of wilderness wandering end as the children of the exiles make it to the land of milk and honey where manna is forever taken off the menu. The Lord’s heavy hand keeps the groaning psalmist awake and wasting away until confessing transgressions and not hiding sins makes the psalmist happy are those…” For Paul the old becomes new because Jesus who knew no sin was made to be sin and we who have been reconciled are called to respond in kind. And in the Gospel the Father happens to the son who stayed as much as to the one who returned. “Everything I have is yours” means ring and robe and fatted calf and although we don’t know if the son who stayd ever came to his senses “everything I have is yours” means your brother who came home is yours as well.

Lent 4c - Luke 15:11-32

ROMARE BEARDEN (American, 1914-1988)
Return of the Prodigal Son, 1967

Mixed media and collage on canvas, 50 1/4 x 60"

Luke 15:11-32

Like a joke you’ve heard once too often the fate of parables is to become familiar and like the parable of the prodigal lose their punch. So desperate preachers tell the story from the perspective of an imaginary sister or ask “what did the fatted calf think about all this?” or use the father to talk about codependency and enabling destructive behavior. But the parable has lost its punch as we all know the younger son will come to his senses so the father can forgive and his brother object and at the end of the sermon the congregation will sing “amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me” even if most sympathize fully with the older son in the story. And so the surprise that should come as no surprise is that every three years we spend time and energy trying to put the zing back into a parable we will largely ignore. If, on the other hand, we dare to live into the parable then like my good friend and soon to be Pastor Tara, the older sister/brother in the story, the parable can be so upsetting you are tempted to preach the epistle. But you don’t because even though you’ve done everything right and worked like a slave all these years you’ve been invited to the party. And even if you think your brother is a “that son of yours” the sound of the music and the smell of BBQ break down your righteous indignation at the extravagant waste of grace so that peaking in the door the Father happens to you as well. That’s the surprise the parable can still muster, when the Father happens to hardworking and hedonist alike, and the fatted calf and ring and robe are as much for children who stay as children who leave only to come home. Surprise!

Lent 4c - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:16-21
The theology of atonement or “Just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me” simply stated is we are guilty but Jesus is punished. He is the Lamb of God without blemish that takes away the sin of the world. His is the sacred head now wounded whose grief and bitter passion are for our gain. Jesus takes our place and in dying suffers the consequence of sin. All that is true but in some ways it doesn’t fully balance the equation. Sin is not so much forgiven as paid for and something paid for, even if we don’t write the check is not free. The books are balanced, the accounts settled because innocent Jesus pays for guilty you and me. But what if in the making him who knew no sin to BE sin Jesus deserves to die because he really is guilty? In being made to be sin he becomes lust and greed and pride. He embodies every act of murder and rape and abuse. He is forsaken because he deserves to be forsaken and hell is not enough of a punishment for the crimes Christ commits. The dying and the descent are deserved but God forgives and sets Jesus free from suffering eternal forsakenness. In the person of Christ who is sin all the sin of all the world of every time and space is forgiven all at once so that God can be reconciled with a world that given a choice would rather not be. The good news is that we are new creations because the one who was made to be sin was forgiven; therefore God’s being reconciled to us does not depend on our being reconciled to God. But what follows good news is always about us and the choice is simple. Will you live what is true about you or continue to live what was?

Lent 4c - Psalm 32

Psalm 32

The sad truth about ourselves is that we don’t get to “happy are those” until our bodies have done some wasting away. It comes from being so good at hiding iniquity or living “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” even though we’ve never left home. Hopefully sooner, rather than later, we come to our senses and realize that acknowledging our deceit has a direct effect on whether we live as “happy are those” or as those who are “dried up as the heat of summer.” That is the gift of groaning all day long for if we were not made uncomfortable by a hand heavy upon us our ignorance would grow content with the bit and be curbed only when caught by torment or trouble. “Happy are those” who both hear and tell the truth about themselves and determine to be less stubborn next time so that groaning would more quickly give way to glad cries of deliverance.

Lent 4c - Joshua 5:9-12

Joshua 5:9-12
Forty years of “what is it?” manna and now finally something new! Time and again in their wilderness wanderings the children of Israel lamented of their meager fare. “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"” Complaining of their present they forgot the pain of their past as the memory of fish and fruit failed to recall the disgrace of Egypt. In reality the no cost meal was the manna God provided. The fish and fruit, the no cost meal in Egypt, was paid for by slavery and harsh treatment. Of course those who complained never did get off the manna diet and dying in the desert their only comfort must have been that their children would see the land they had lost. That hope did not disappoint as Joshua and the children of disgrace are set free and manna is forever off the menu in the land of milk and honey. When in our wilderness wandering we lose our appetite and misremembering the past long for something that never was God calls us back to faith through a no cost to us meal that cost God’s life. Sustaining us in our weakness God provides for the journey until manna is taken off the menu and we sit down to dine at the forever feast.

Lent 3c - Conclusion

Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9

Big Red, aka Evelyn Wilkerson, her body thirsting as in a dry and weary land, looked upon the Lord in the sanctuary yesterday and beholding God’s power and glory sat down to dine at the forever feast. As one temporarily left behind, I am grateful that her familiar face is now joined to the vast crowd of witnesses as I am encouraged and strengthened by remembering her faithful witness even as I anticipate what she now knows. Living into that future is like waiting for a fig tree to produce as the work we do here, digging around the roots, watering and fertilizing only fully bears fruit when the tree dies. And so I think of the meal of bread and wine we shared last week now multiplied in the presence of the Holy, a proper feast. I think of the body worn and weary now new and whole, the mortal clothed in immortality, the temporal with the eternal. I think of patient endurance and faithful service rewarded as promises hoped for are realized. So as those who are temporarily left behind we bid our sister Godspeed until we too hear the heavenward call of Christ and sit down with those who are saving a seat for us at the feast that never ends.

Lent 3c - Luke 13:1-9

Luke 13:1-9

There is no cause and effect between sin and a tragic death, but if you don’t repent you’ll suffer a tragic death. It seems as if Jesus’ answer to why bad things happen to people raises more questions, but maybe that is the point. Jesus challenges the need for a reason for why bad things happen because for us even a bad reason is more comforting than no reason at all. But then we have been curious from creation and like the first humans not willing to live with God knowing something we don’t, even if it means getting kicked out of the garden. And so we keep trying to put the puzzle together, though a good number of the pieces are missing. Jesus would have us live into God’s answer to Job’s why? “I’m not telling, but trust me anyway.” The answer that wants us to live with the question is like a fig tree that has had enough time to get busy doing what fig trees are meant to do but has not. Cutting it down to make room for another is the correct answer to three years of wasted waiting. But the gardener wants the owner to live with the question, “will it produce?” another year and while we would rush to the yes or no end of the parable I think as with most parables we are supposed to live with the question, which, of course, is God’s answer.

Lent 3c - 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, or in other words, “you better not shout, you better not pout, you better not cry, I’m telling you why…” What do we do with Paul’s warning or veiled threat, depending on which side of the line you are standing? I suppose the first thing we have to ask ourselves is do we believe what Paul is saying? That 23,000 fell in a day for getting up from the table to play and others putting Christ to the test had good reason to fear snakes, while still others should have kept their mouths shut and their complaints to themselves. And further that this is a Divine object lesson to keep the Corinthians, and us I suppose, from making the same mistake and suffering a similar fate? From the perspective of God’s grace these verses carry less weight than the “still more excellent way” of the thirteenth chapter of this same letter but they cannot and I might add, dare not be dismissed so easily. The reason being, as Paul will tell the Romans, is that God has determined to be both just and the one who justifies. There will be a reckoning and a pardon will be necessary for whether we think we are standing or not we have all fallen into temptation and are without exception guilty. To think or claim otherwise is to engage in theological immorality by testing the grace of God without accepting the consequence of sin or acknowledging the cost to Christ. In spite of our weakness God is faithful and the strength to be tested is not our will power but whether we endure our falling by trusting the way out God has provided.

Lent 3c - Psalm 63:1-8

Psalm 63:1-8

I can’t remember what a dry and weary land looks like since we’ve had a swamp in our backyard for over a month making life more difficult on the Tiny Acre Ranch. Although the chickens don’t seem to mind, Panda the miniature horse has stable fever and even bad Mr. Spud, the dirty dog, finds less joy rolling in the mud and tracking it through the house. Of course I know come June, July & August we’ll be looking at clouds and longing for even a drop of rain. We go through times of spiritual dryness when like the psalmist longing for God is a soul thirsting, flesh fainting desire. In seeking after God you are my God, our thirsty soul and longing flesh, clinging to the hand that holds us, hungers to be satisfied by the feast of God’s help. It is the remembering of steadfast love in the watches of the night or hours of the day that opens joyful lips and prompts praise for the One who is as close as our own breath. The good news for us, living through spiritual feast or famine, drought or flood is that the God we seek remains constant and though our grip might weaken the hand that holds us never will. And the good news for Tiny Acre Ranch is that the backyard will dry out and Panda will be released from her stable to kick up her hooves and whinny with joy, but I’m afraid even when he’s clean bad Mr. Spud will always be a dirty dog.

Lent 3c - Isaiah 55:1-13

Isaiah 55:1-13
When I do the math God’s economy appears too good to be true, for we know that nothing worth having is free because if something is free it’s got no resale value. The first hearers of this no money market, the exiles returning from captivity in Babylon, spent everything they had to come home to bitter wine and sour milk. Their homes were occupied by strangers, the temple remained in ruins, and the trees of the field, overgrown by thorns and briers, had stopped clapping a long time ago. Hopes and dreams of returning unto Zion with everlasting joy had all been spent on the reality of a land that was less than welcoming and in many cases downright hostile. The home again exiles, hungry, thirsty and broke had forgotten what got them home in the first place and that even in its sorry state home was better than Babylon. So God speaks up calling the exiles to the table for a prix fix menu of rich food, fine wine and fresh milk. But if we think God’s new economy is free we haven’t read the fine print. No money will be exchanged but getting to the table will take some effort. Forsaking wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts the Lord calls all who would come and eat to listen, look and seek and in so doing return to the hope of the promise. So we too, overwhelmed and under funded, discouraged and downhearted, are called to remember God’s higher thoughts and ways inform ours and not vice versa. In the no money market of God’s economy we hold on to the hope that holds us as we trust God is too good not to be true.

Lent 2c - Conclusion

Genesis 15:1-18; Ps. 27; Philippians 3:14-41; Luke 13:31-35

If we didn’t know the end of the story we might have been as concerned for Jesus’ safety as the Pharisees and like the disciples abandon him when a mob breathing violence made good on Herod’s threat. But we do know the end of the story and so did Jesus. He knew the beginning as well. Remembering the promise he made to Abraham, answering the cry of the waiting Psalmist, he set his face towards the prophet killing city so that he could transform Paul’s body of humiliation, and everyone else’s as well, into the body of his glory. So tell that fox, Jesus says, that the door to the hen house is open but instead of a free meal deal it’s you who will be surprised that this mother hen is no chicken. As Abraham’s promised offspring, chicks under the wing, living between the beginning and the end, we fear no fox as we press on towards the heavenward call (or cluck?) of Christ.

Lent 2c - Luke 13:31-35

Luke 13:31-35

If the Pharisees, who know a thing or two about plotting to kill Jesus, are concerned maybe Jesus should pay attention. After all the only hope a hen has is in hiding and praying the fox isn’t as crafty as, well, a fox. And although the lament of Jesus, “how often I have longed...” ends with a word of judgment, “have it your way” the image of Jesus as chicken should do more than cause us to chuckle. It is always surprising to me, and not a little troubling, that we often miss all the ways in which God’s self revelation sets aside what we think of as God like qualities for the less than majestic and powerful. None are more striking than Jesus as mother hen and Herod as fox. But then if we miss the most obvious, God choosing to die exposed and shamed, hanging naked between common criminals then I suppose it follows that we would gravitate towards what our youth and family director Janelle might call a Big Dog God for that’s what we think we need to send foxes into hiding. To be gathered under the wings of Jesus is to accept God as God chooses to be revealed which is always different from what we expect and when gathered under those wings we get it, we begin to look less like foxes and more like chickens.

Lent 2c - Philippians 3:14 - 4:1

Philippians 3:14-4:1

On Saturday morning at the Cowtown Marathon in downtown Fort Worth I am pressing on toward the goal of anything under a 26:04 5K, my best time to date. I won’t win a prize because there are people in my age bracket who show off by running the Cowtown as if it were a race. But then they’ll be beat by 8th grade Calvary member Molly who’ll run faster than everyone else as well. Pressing on towards the prize requires desire and will power and physical fitness which doesn’t happen overnight. The apostle Paul had more than a little practice pressing on as many pressed in on him for his holding fast to heavenly citizenship. It may be that without opposition it is more difficult for us to keep spiritually fit as minds set on earthly things dull our desire, sap our will power and weaken our resolve. So what are we to do? Stand firm in the Lord, Paul would say, but that doesn’t mean stand still. Someone said to me it was easier for her to give up things in Lent because she thinks about Jesus death more and giving up something you like seems the least you can do. So too our pressing on begins with eyes, not on the prize but on what made the prize possible. "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of your faith" or so goes another Biblical running text. So if you have taken that first step to be more spiritually fit during Lent don’t let yourself go just because Easter rolls around. The race isn’t over until you cross the finish line, even if Molly gets there first.

Lent 2c - Psalm 27

Psalm 27

If you ask me this psalm asks too much. No Fear might work as a bumper sticker for a pick up truck but I’m afraid I would experience more than a little fear if evildoers sat down to dine on me. And while the adversaries and foes stumble and fall in verse two they are back on their feet breathing violence in verse twelve. Even the Lord’s face is hidden and to the psalmist cast off and forsaken the light of salvation should seem dim and distant. Which is why the psalm needs to begin where it ends, waiting. Wait for the Lord; be strong for the Lord is your light and salvation. Wait for the Lord and let your heart take courage for the Lord is the stronghold of your life. So is that it? We just grit our teeth and bear whatever life throws at us or take a deep breath and go to our happy place when all around is chaos? No. Confident waiting hope does not depend on our own strength or ability to endure. It depends fully on the One who has prepared a place for us and has himself waited through all this psalm asked him to endure. Surrounded by enemies, forsaken by family and friends, accused falsely by witnesses breathing violence he was forsaken even by God. But for the joy set before him Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice as his head crowned with thorns was lifted up above the enemies he was dying to forgive. And dying our death he became our life so that our waiting would not be in vain. No Fear? Maybe so.

Lent 2c - Genesis 15:1-18

Genesis 15:1-18

I imagine PETA members would object to this text as in “I’d rather go childless than cut an animal in two” and I might be inclined to join them. The Bible contains a lot of material that I find odd and even offensive and when I read stories like this I can’t imagine God needs to be so dramatic just to make a promise. So if we were to demythologize this story, or take out the bits that don’t fit our view of what is real and what is not, what would be the harm? Maybe it is in making the mysterious less so. We need the mystery for the part of this story that is real to us when like Abraham we find ourselves between what is and what we hope and pray will be. If we have worked out all the details, made God fit our way of thinking, determined what is and what isn’t what do we do when we don’t fit God’s way of being? Abraham’s faith reckoned to him as righteousness, or right relationship with God, depends on believing the promise when the promise is not yet. It means trusting God is present when all evidence would indicate God is not. Faith lives between what is and the hoped for, between the revealed Word, the Bright Morning Star, and the mystery of God invisible yet present. So Abraham believed what he knew could not be and we are the offspring he was promised, counted among the stars he could not number.

Lent 1 c - Conclusion

Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Psalm 91; Romans 10:5-15; Luke 4:1-13

The lessons for Lent 1C do not seem to have a central theme, or at least at first glance. The Old Testament gives instructions for the ritual of bringing first fruits. The Psalm is a promise of providence despite the terror of the night and dangers of the day. The epistle is an assurance that the name of Jesus is more than able to save. And the Gospel recounts Jesus overcoming temptation in the wilderness. It’s as if the lectionary people, whoever they are, just opened the Bible at random and picked whatever popped up. But at second glance the epistle speaks of the word of God that is always near to you for one does not live by bread alone. The first fruits ritual recognizes that God is the one who gave you the land flowing with milk and honey, therefore worship the Lord your God and serve only him. And while the devil uses the words of the psalm to tempt Jesus, Jesus is the one who believes the promise of providence without needing proof. So when in doubt remember the answer is always Jesus who in this case ties everything together quite nicely on Lent 1C.

Lent 1c - Luke 4:1-13

Luke 4:1-13
Country singer Lari White sings a song about temptation but she doesn’t need any help from the devil. “Lead me not into temptation I already know the road all too well. Lead me not into temptation I can find it all by myself.” Of course she’s singing about a “good looking thing” that caught her looking at him, but she’s the one who will tell him to “just get thee behind me and I’ll show you the way.” That is true for us as well. We know the road all too well and despite the best of intentions make choices based on our hunger, whatever need real or imagined, that demands to be filled. We believe the lie because it promises much and even though the lie never delivers we are willing to take whatever crumbs it offers. Tempted to live for self we turn stones into bread but are hungry still. Lusting after power and wealth and possessions we sell our soul but are hungry still. And when in the practice of our faith we look for proof of God in emotional experiences or carefully constructed theologies, or lives of rigid rules with self righteousness as our reward we find we are hungry still. That is the truth about us and the first step in a different direction is admitting we know the old road all too well. Honesty stills the voice of our hunger, whatever need real or imagined that demands to be filled, so that we hear the voice of Jesus singing a different song from another road that will one day be the only one we know. So hear the voice of Jesus say, “Just get thee behind me and I’ll show you the way.”

Lent 1c - Romans 10:5-15

Romans 10:5-15

Calvary’s Director of Youth and Family Ministry, Janelle, is always saying my feet would feel neat if I got a pedicure. I tell her I’m a guy and guys don’t do neat feet. Besides, I preach every week so according to the Bible my feet are just fine, thank you very much. But as pretty as the feet of the preacher may be the beautiful thing in this text is that there is no distinction between one foot and the other. The Jew and the Greek stand on the same Word. The generous Lord is Lord of all who call. With that in mind I had the distinct pleasure of preaching at a wedding to a couple who are “in the choir” so to speak, while some of their friends who are not listened in. Is there a distinction between those who can sing the song by heart and those who hearing the song, maybe for first time, just like the sound of it? Maybe if the Lord is really generous calling on the Lord doesn’t mean knowing how to pronounce the Lord's name. Maybe calling on the Lord is a heart or mind or spirit just longing for the song it doesn’t know how to sing and the Lord does the rest. I don’t know, but the better part of me hopes so. Of course the better part of me has such a hope only because I confess with my lips and believe in my heart the One who has the authority to do the rest. For while he washed his disciples feet his feet were put to shame by the nail and in the end those feet bearing the scars of suffering raised from the dead will have the final say. In the meantime I’m grateful I know the name and hopeful that others hear it through my neat feet – with or without a pedicure.

Lent 1c - Psalm 91

Psalm 91
I can’t read Psalm 91 without humming “On Eagles Wings” and rightly so. This is a psalm that has to be sung in the same way as a child I sang “I am trusting thee, Lord Jesus” walking down our basement stairs in the dark. The snare of the fowler, deadly pestilence, terrors at night, arrows by day and the charge of the light brigade can only be faced by a chorus like, “And I will raise you up on eagle’s wings.” And while it is true that the way out is up, it takes some going through before the Lord can be the wind beneath your wings. That is what songs and pslams like this are for, the going through times. Such songs and psalms encourage the heart in the dark and difficult, strengthen the spirit in the unpredictable and unnerving, restore hope in the face of despair, faith in times of doubt. The only thing better than a song sung in such times is a song sung together. One day when raised on eagle’s wings, borne on the breath of dawn, shining like the sun we find ourselves held in the palm of God’s hand we’ll sing a new song with a chorus that never ends. In the meantime this one will see us through.

Lent 1c - Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Lent has always been my favorite season of the church year. I attribute it to being fed a steady diet of sad country western songs as a child and having a fondness for hymns in minor keys. Or maybe it was that all the effort put into Lent, the shrouded cross, the purple banners, the symbols of pain and suffering just made church more interesting. I do know I first came to love Jesus during Lent because the story was so sad and Jesus did it for me, though I’m sure as a child I didn’t understand why. That is what is happening in this text. The giving of first fruits is connected to the story of Israel’s beginning so they will understand why they offer first fruits at all. We were treated harshly in Egypt but God heard our voice and saw our affliction and did something about it and so we do something in return. That distinction, the doing something in return, is what makes this a story of grace and not just paying for a piece of property. It is the gift of freedom, land flowing with milk and honey, which prompts giving something to the gift giver. Like the children of Israel we were in bondage to sin but God heard our voice and saw our affliction and did something about it. So in the giving up or the taking on, the effort put into Lent, we give something to the gift giver and enter more fully the sad story with a happy ending.

Transfiguration c - Luke 9:28-43

Luke 9:28-43
The lectionary allows the option of including the verses that describe what happens when Jesus comes down the mountain and while it might appear to be two different stories they belong together. The transfigured Jesus talking with the law giver and the end of all things prophet is sent to be with and bear the faithless and perverse generation. “How long…” is a lament not a rebuke and has more to do with Jesus than the perverse generation for Jesus knows he will be with this perverse generation until he bears their perversity in his own person. How do you give up glory when you know that? You do it for a father who cries out “Teacher, I beg you…” You do it for an only child convulsed and mauled and beaten by a demon. You do it for well meaning but ineffective disciples. You do it because that is what love is. The beloved only Son is convulsed and mauled and beaten and killed for the faithless and perverse of every generation, every last one of us. If the disciples want to stay on the mountain and bask in the glory how much more so Jesus who has every reason to stay and doesn’t.

Transfiguration c - 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

When Paul writes to the Romans of his kindred according to the flesh his sorrow is unceasing and his anguish great. So much so he would gladly himself be cut off from Christ, go back behind the veil as it were, if it meant the children of Abraham would see clearly. The hope that makes Paul bold is a confidence that the freedom of the Spirit will work its will, even on those whose minds are hardened and vision veiled. Changed from glory into glory they will one day with unveiled faces gaze upon the glory that is the Lord. That is the ministry of mercy that makes Paul’s heart beat faster. And that is why we do not lose heart when friends or spouses or children or parents, our kindred according to the flesh, are veiled to the freedom in which we live. If one day we are blessed to see them gifted by sight it will not be by cunning or changing the Word to fit the world, but by living what we believe. We renounce the shameful things that promise much and deliver nothing and live the gift of freedom that is the law of love. We trust in hope that the glory to be revealed is bigger and better and more inclusive than we can imagine. For the open statement of the truth is that we love others so others will love Christ who has always loved them.

Transfiguration c - Palm 99

Psalm 99

The psalm begins as one might expect. The Lord who is King, enthroned above angelic beings, terrifying in their own right, causes people to tremble as the earth quakes. Before the Lord who is exalted over everyone and everything, praise is not an option. Kings of the human variety, with far less power and majesty, tend to magnify themselves at the expense of their subjects. Not so with the Holy God, the lover of justice, who hears the cries of those who pleading for mercy receive forgiveness. But we might pause before we shout alleluia, for while the Holy One forgives the wrongdoer the wrongdoing must be avenged. Like it or not that’s the way equity is established. And as difficult and painful as that is, living outside the boundaries of God’s decrees is more so. The trouble is we always seem to find ways to bear the unbearable and tolerate the painful. So the Holy God who knew no wrong becomes a wrongdoer and is avenged with a vengeance. In that avenging of wrongdoing is our salvation and God’s hope that one day we will love justice as much as God does.

Transfiguration c- Exodus 34:29-35

Exodus 34:29-35
This is a strange story, but then the Bible is no stranger to strange stories. A burning bush, a plague or ten, fire and smoke on a mountain, a glowing face; the Holy shows up and things happen that can’t be explained and people change. That’s the whole point of a theophany or a close encounter of the Holy kind. You are supposed to change and people are supposed to notice. But we tend to take the unknowable, indefinable, indescribable and contain the Holy in a nice neat dogmatic box. Like the veil that hid the effect of the Holy on the less than, all our musings on the mystical are ways we come to God on our own terms. With the effect of Holy on the less than hidden behind the veil we can keep our religion hidden less we practice it and people notice. But when in an encounter of the Holy kind we catch a glimpse such that we see as we are seen, and know as we are known, if only for a moment, then like Moses we are changed and people are supposed to notice.

Epiphany 5c - Conclusion

I'm posting this from American Airlines flight 460 non stop to Columbus, Ohio currently at 30,000 feet. How cool is that!

Isaiah “Here I am send me” speaks to a people who are dull, deaf, and blind. Paul writes to a people who should know better but act in ways that demonstrate they don’t. The disciples leave their boats to go fishing for people but won’t really get started until tongues of fire get them warmed up. And the psalmist anticipates that the way of the Lord will work its will and all the kings of the earth will join the song of praise. Like Isaiah we are sent to speak to a world dulled by distractions, deaf to the Word that is Love and blind to the Holy that longs to be known. With Paul we remind brothers and sisters divided to live the law of love because the story is best told when it is lived. Like the disciples we are not very good at fishing until something happens to us and the voice of the Lord that speaks in unexpected ways tells us to fish in the cafeteria. And so we join the psalmist in singing praise to God for all our speaking, and pleading and fishing anticipates the day when the little g gods will be stilled by the song that never ends.

Epiphany 5c - Luke 5:1-11

Luke 5:1-11

Five years ago I started a lunch hour Bible study in the professional building on the campus of Harris Methodist in the office of Dr. Bob Machos. Dr. Bob is a well known and respected internist but when in causal elevator conversation I mention his name and the Bible in the same sentence I almost always have to repeat myself. “Yes, it’s that Dr. Bob. No really. Dr. Bob Machos.” We’ve worked verse by verse through the New Testament and the first three books of the Old but it’s always been a small group of Calvary members meeting behind closed doors. Last week we learned that holding a Bible study in the office was no longer something we would be allowed to do as it may offend patients or staff to have people walking through the office with a Bible. So after five years we have to move. Now at this point many Christians become militant, as if this were some sort of persecution or declare this to be another sign the country is going to hell in a hand basket or claim the first amendment and vow to fight for their rights. But the truth is we’d been fishing for five years behind closed doors and while we have been blessed we hadn’t caught anyone. Last week through nervous corporate officers Jesus told us to cast our nets on the other side of the building. That is how God works and why we respond not with anger or resentment but with joy for I am convinced that out in the open the opportunities for us to be amazed will break our nets and sink our boat. So like the disciple who gets a new name when he leaves everything to follow I’m going to give my friend a new name badge to wear while we fish for people in public. Pretty soon no one will be surprised to see Bible Study Bob casting a net every Tuesday at 12:30 PM in the Harris Methodist Fort Worth Café. Let the fishing begin!

Epiphany 5c - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Paul’s defense of his ministry has always seemed a little defensive to me. He claims to be the least but believes himself to be the best. And while he gives credit to the grace of God working in him that implies the other apostles have less of whatever makes Paul more. But then he is a man of passion and contends for the faith with the same zeal with which he persecuted it. The Corinthians are no strangers to passion either. Speaking in the tongues of humans and angels they have divided the body of Christ and given themselves over to spiritual excess or perverted the freedom of the Gospel in lustful pursuits. Confident in their own wisdom they neither respect nor appreciate Paul or each other for that matter and are not afraid to say so. How is it that a faith that celebrates the ultimate act of sacrificial love sacrifices love so quickly? It is human pride and selfishness that turns good news into bad and resurrects what Christ was raised to destroy. But even when church conflict is so commonplace as to be the norm and we think it a miracle when the church actually is what it claims to be the story keeps getting told. Jesus died for sin, was buried and was raised on the third day. You can check the scriptures if you like. As long as the story is told the church has reason to hope that the grace of God was not given in vain.

Epiphany 5c - Psalm 138

Psalm 138
This is a psalm with high hopes. All the kings of the earth will sing of the ways of the Lord, despite the lyrics “he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away” for kings, or queens for that matter, are not generally addressed as “your lowliness.” But they have been humbled by the words of God’s mouth and so they join the psalmist in praising God and even the little g gods have to listen to the song. In the Large Catechism Martin Luther defines a god as anything or anyone “upon which you set your heart and put your trust.” The pantheon of little g gods, wealth or ability or intellect or religious pedigree, etc. would prefer to stop up their ears and ours to the sound of the song of praise to the big G God. In times of trouble when souls grow weak they sing their own song offering comfort or escape in the small g god of indulgence or denial. But little g gods always disappoint for only a big G God can save us from ourselves and fulfill the high hopes of the psalm. Humbled by the words of God’s mouth who hears our cry for help, preserved and delivered in the day of distress, God’s purpose is fulfilled for us. And that is the highest hope, that in spite of our addiction to little g gods the big G God sang for us the endless song of enduring, steadfast love and invites us to join the chorus.

Epiphany 5c - Isaiah 6:1-13

Isaiah 6:1-13
The lectionary gives the option of stopping after verse six and maybe Isaiah would have preferred to end with “Here am I; send me!” as well. Despite his enthusiasm the people to whom he is so anxious to go will be dull, deaf and blind and won’t begin to listen until it is too late. The exile is inevitable and the destruction will be total because they were a people of unclean lips who didn’t know or wouldn’t admit that they were lost. There is no turning, no confession; no cry of “Woe is me!” to move the Lord of Hosts to mercy. But in a far away land they will come to their senses and the prophet’s voice will be heard and understood by the stump that is the seed. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” We would do well to listen for when with unclean lips we claim the grace of God without confessing, “Woe is me!” we are dull, deaf and blind and exiled from inhabiting forgiveness. It is the hallmark of the Lutheran expression of the faith that the Law and the Gospel work together as the Law exposes who we are so the Gospel can reveal who God is. From the stump that is the seed will come the One who high and lifted up will cry out “Woe is me” for the world. Confession is the only response when with dull senses we finally understand the truth about ourselves and hear the cry from the throne of the cross and see the agony he endured that our guilt would depart and our sin be blotted out. Woe is me.