Uncomfortable Words: Sept 25, 2022

Year C, Pentecost 16                                               Luke 16:19-31                                             It’s that time of the church year when many of the Gospel readings are confusing, depressing or distressing.  Last week’s was confusing.  This week’s seems clear as a bell, and a little distressing.  We are Episcopalians and we don’t typically talk about things like judgment and eternal damnation, which might make us reluctant to study this Gospel text.  But this reading from Luke is about the more than judgment and consequences.

The final line of our reading from last week was, “No slave can serve two masters for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”  After that, we have 5 verses that we skip before we come to our reading for today.  Those 5 skipped verses are important because they create a connection between last week’s reading and this one as well as providing some context.  Right after Jesus says that you can’t serve God and wealth, the author of the Gospel writes, “The Pharisees who were lovers of money, heard all this and ridiculed him.”  Bad move Pharisees.  Bad move.

            The Pharisees get a bad rap when we Christians talk about them. Sometimes it’s fair, but often not.  There were some good and devout Pharisees who cared for the poor.  There were others who didn’t.  There was one thing that all Pharisees had in common.  That was that they knew the Hebrew Scriptures—which for us is the Old Testament.  Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy says that if you obey the commandments, ^“The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your land...”  You will vanquish your enemies.  You will be successful in all things.  Therefore, the Pharisees weren’t wrong to associate obedience and faithfulness with wealth and prosperity. 

            Jesus wasn’t contradicting them as much as he was attempting to deepen their understanding and he did that by setting an example in the way that he lived and the company he kept.  He lived with just what he needed.  He certainly spent time with the rich and powerful, but he spent most of his time with the poor and oppressed because that was who needed him the most.  Those were the people who were so often forgotten and ignored. 

            However, it seemed his example wasn’t quite enough, so he did what he often did when confronted with a stiff necked audience, he told a story.  This is a fairly well known story. There is a rich man and a poor beggar who sits outside his gates.  The rich man feasts every day behind his high walls.  He is wrapped in the finest clothing.  He has everything he could possibly want.  But he ignores the beggar at the gate.  There were no social safety nets back then.  The rich were the only safety net.  Many wealthy homes even had a bench outside the gate for the poor to wait for handouts. But this rich man couldn’t even give away his leftovers to the poor soul who waited outside his home every day.  The wealthy man goes to hell and Lazarus goes to heaven and is seated by Abraham (that’s a good seat in heaven).

            Many people think that Jesus is vilifying rich people with this story.  It is much more nuanced than that. Remember, he was talking to the Pharisees who were lovers of money.  But they were also supposed to be followers of the law.  At the beginning of this sermon, I quoted Deuteronomy 28---about how those who obey God will reap rewards.  Chapter 15 of Deuteronomy says that “You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy, to the poor in the land.”  The Old Testament is full of passages commanding the faithful to take care of the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the strangers in their land. 

            So this put the Pharisees in a pickle. This rich man clearly was not obeying God’s law in his treatment to the poor.  How did he get so rich?  Maybe there isn’t a direct correlation between being successful and being faithful.  Maybe success and wealth can even insulate us and enable to be become blind to certain needs of the community.

            What is particularly tragic about this rich man is that even when he is sent to hell, he still doesn’t learn his lesson.  He is still bossing Lazarus around asking him for some water.  He then demands that Lazarus sends a message to his brothers.  But here’s the kicker, he doesn’t even know what to say in the message.  He just asks that his brothers be warned so they don’t end up in hell with him.  To that Abraham responds, “They have Moses and the prophet; they should listen to them.”   But no, the rich man says, if someone comes back from the dead, then they we will listen.  Abraham replies, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”  (A bit of foreshadowing there.)

            When we read and interpret parables, we often find ourselves identifying with someone in the parable.  Usually when I read this one, I find an uncomfortable familiarity with the rich man. I am not rich by many standards, but compared to most in our world, I definitely am.  I have passed by many people asking for money.  Sometimes I give them something, sometimes I don’t. 

            But I wonder if in this story, we are actually those 5 brothers who the rich man wants to warn.  When Abraham refers to Moses and the prophets, he’s talking about Holy Scripture-the Bible.  We have an Old and New Testament now. And in that New Testament is a story about a man named Jesus who told these wonderful stories, cured the sick, loved the unlovable, died a horrible death and then returned from the dead so he could prove that he was the Son of God and maybe, just maybe, you should listen to what he taught.  We have more than we need to be disciples of Christ.  We don’t need someone coming down from heaven to tell us some great secret, because we have it all. And one of the most consistent teachings in the Bible is that we care for the poor, the hurting, the oppressed, the marginalized.  It’s in the Old Testament.  It’s in the New Testament.  And it’s definitely in the words and actions of Jesus.

            We can read this parable as one of judgment.  This is what happens when you are selfish and don’t help people.  Or we can put ourselves in the position of one of the brothers. We can read this parable as an opportunity to be better. Those opportunities never end.

 I could give you countless examples that I have seen at St. John’s of people caring for the poor, the oppressed and the hurting.  I see how much you care and it humbles and inspires me.  However, I think it’s also important that we never get too comfortable with what we are doing.  We must allow ourselves to witness the suffering in our community and be uncomfortable.  The problem with the Pharisees is that they were able to separate themselves and even use their faith to justify that separation.  Our faith should not give us excuses to separate, but inspire us to remove the chasms between us, to love deeper and seek God in all people.

Is God Always Good?: September 11, 2022

 Year C, Pentecost 14                                   Exodus 32:7-14 & Luke 15:1-10                                                        

           We are going to try something right now that we don’t usually do in the Episcopal Church.  It’s called “call and response.”  I am going to say, “God is good” and you will respond “all the time.”  Let’s give it a try.  “God is good.” “All the time.”   I have been in faith communities when they have done this—never in an Episcopal Church of course… And when I hear it, I feel a couple of things.  For a moment, I get swept up in the optimism, the sheer joy.  But then a moment later, I think, “But is he?”  Many of us can think of times in our lives when things seemed so unfair, so desperately sad, we wondered, why is God doing this to me?  Why isn’t God showering me with the goodness I deserve?

            And if you have thought this, that’s ok. The Psalms are full of questions like this.  In the Old Testament, we see a number of examples of when God seems a lot more like an irritable human than a good and loving God.  For instance, was God good when he told Moses to leave him alone so his wrath could burn hot against the people and he could consume them?  He even offered to start a new nation with Moses as the father (rather than Abraham).  That means he was going to destroy the whole group, even though he promised after the flood he would never do that again.   

I will admit that God had some good reasons to be angry.  He was probably expecting that the people would be a little more grateful.  After all, God had brought the people out of Egypt, where they had been slaves.  He had shown them miraculous displays of power and mercy.  God had then given them 10 commandments to follow.  The first commandment was to not to create any idols.  Yet when Moses was delayed coming down from the mountain—where he was talking to God, the people began to panic and asked Aaron (Moses’ brother) to make gods for them.  Aaron complied. 

Now, in defense of the people, being lost in the desert is no small thing.  People die when they are lost in the desert. When your fearless leader disappears on a mountain, that would be fairly anxiety provoking.  So they turned to what they had known for so long…worshipping the most convenient and most accessible gods.  Unfortunately for them, there is nothing that makes God angrier in the Old Testament, than worshipping other gods.   

            God’s reaction is completely understandable to us humans.  We have all lost our temper at times.  But shouldn’t God be above such hair trigger anger?  Fortunately Moses is able to reason with God and this is where things get even more interesting.  Despite the fact that God is determined to punish his people, he is swayed by Moses’ arguments.  Moses reminds him of the promise he made to Abraham.  He basically says, “Remember Abraham? Do you remember how you told him that his descendants would be like the stars of the heaven?  Remember Abraham God?  He was a good guy.  Those are his descendants you are about to destroy.”  God changed his mind.

            This part of the story disturbs some people and I admit that it always makes me a little uncomfortable.  Most of us assume that God doesn’t change.  If God is all knowing and all powerful, he should not change.   Why would he? But when we talk about an unchanging God, we are really talking about God’s character that doesn’t change.  In the end, God is always good.  God is always merciful.  The fact that God was able to change his mind is further proof of his wisdom and goodness.

            If you look at our Gospel reading, you will see God’s character on full display, without any anger to cloud the true nature of his character.  Both parables tell a story of reckless love, compassion and devotion. In the first, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who searches for the one lost sheep, leaving the other 99 to wander in the wilderness.  The other story is of a woman searching her entire house for a lost coin.  In both stories, the searcher rejoices upon finding the lost item.  The shepherd and woman don’t simply rejoice on their own, no they call their friends and family to rejoice with them.  Jesus then tells those who are listening that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than 99 righteous.  In these stories, we see God as patient, determined and merciful.  We see a God who is good, all the time.

            One of the reasons I have a hard time with that phrase, is that I think about how I would feel if someone said that to me at a difficult time in my life.  I imagine someone walking into the ICU and saying, “God is good” and expecting me to respond, “All the time!”  I consider all the times I have counseled someone going through a difficult time and imagine myself saying that—saying “God is good” and expecting the weeping person to respond: “All the time.” It would not go over well.

Yet what I realized is that those aren’t examples of God not being good, those are times when life wasn’t good.  There is a big difference.  It’s tempting to blame God in times when life is difficult or unfair, but it’s important that we remember just because our circumstances have changed, doesn’t mean God’s character has changed.  It doesn’t mean God’s love for us has changed. God is bigger than what is happening in our world right now.  God is definitely bigger than what is happening in our individual lives right now.

 But here is what is astonishing about out God.  Just because God is bigger than our problems doesn’t mean that God is too big or too important to care.  In both our Old Testament reading and our Gospel, we hear of a God who cares deeply for his people, and not just the group, but every single person.  There is a moment in all our lives, perhaps many moments, when we are lost, even the most righteous of us.  God will not give up until each one of his people is found.  God will not give up on any of us until we are found, perhaps found many times. Not only that, but God will rejoice in those moments as well.  God will gather his angels in heaven and throw a party. That’s not just a good God. That is a great God.

Cheap Grace: September 4, 2022

 Luke 14:25-33                     Pentecost 13, Year C

Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a very promising career in academia and the church.  He received his doctorate at age 21 and began teaching at the University of Berlin at 25.  He was also an ordained Lutheran Pastor. Two years after his ordination, in 1933, Hitler seized control of Germany.  Bonhoeffer could have gone the way of the majority of the Protestant Pastors in Germany and sworn allegiance to Hitler while covering the cross with a swastika, which was not uncommon at that time.  Instead, he created the anti-Nazi Confessing Church.  He also started an independent seminary for the Confessing Church.  During that time, he wrote The Cost of Discipleship which remains on many seminary’s curriculum to this day.  While the seminary met in secret, it was discovered and closed after only two years.   

It was soon after that when violence against the Jews became publicly sanctioned and people like Bonhoeffer realized that it was only going to become worse.  He joined a resistance group which was made up of political, military and religious leaders.  One of their accomplishments was providing for the safe escape of seven German Jews to Switzerland.  Unfortunately, that was also the last piece of evidence needed for the SS Guards to arrest Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He was 36 years old when he was arrested and newly engaged to woman named Maria.

Jesus was known to use a fairly common oratory tactic, that of the hyperbole, exaggeration.  I like to remind people of that whenever they mock me for my tendency to exaggerate, as it is God ordained.  Today’s Gospel reading is a good example of this tactic.  “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”  This is a little extreme even for Jesus.  Hate, as we often like to say, is a strong word.   

The word that is translated to hate was a fairly common Hebrew* expression meaning “to turn away from, to detach oneself from….”  The text would then read, “Whoever comes to me and does not turn away from father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”  While this is a little more palatable, it’s still pretty uncomfortable.  I am pretty sure you are never going find that on a book mark or magnet in a Christian Bookstore.  

One of the reasons that people struggle with this text is because it contradicts so much of what we consider Christian family values.  However, the Bible sends us mixed messages about family.  One of the 10 Commandments commands us to honor our mother and father.  But there are also horrific examples of violence against family. The first murder in the Bible is a man killing his brother.  Abraham, one of the great patriarchs of our faith was ready to kill his only son.  There are countless other examples of violence within families in the Old Testament.  While the New Testament lacks much of the violence we see in the Old Testament, it still has some mixed messages on how we consider families.  

The only stroy we know about Jesus as a child is when he leaves his parents so he can worship in the synagogue, never considering how his absence might affect them.  There is a story in Matthew where Jesus appears to ignore his family.  Jesus was addressing the crowd and someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you…” Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but that would have hurt my feelings…just a little.

There is no doubt that Jesus loved his family and his family loved him.  Even after all his disciples abandoned him, it was his mother who stayed at the foot of the cross.  According to the Gospel of John, one of his last acts was to make sure that his mother was cared for after he died.  Jesus did not hate his family.  What he hated was the fact that so many people put other things or people above God.  Usually when we critique things that distract us from God, we mention things like wealth and success.  Yet, anything, even good things can get in the way of God.  Any time we put something, or someone over God, we are making a compromise in our lives as disciples. 

One of the books of that Bonhoeffer is best known for is the Cost of Discipleship.  In the book he argues vehemently against the idea of cheap grace.  He wrote, “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without the discipline of the community, it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross...”**    Bonhoeffer had seen all too clearly what happened to a church that chose safety and convenience over the sacrificial discipleship that Christ calls us to.  

For most of his life, Bonhoeffer was a confirmed bachelor, with no intent on marrying.  But he fell in love. During his two years in prison he and his fiancée Maria corresponded regularly.  She urged him to free himself to write emotionally and during that time some of his views softened a little and he went from writing theology to love poems.  Two days before his concentration camp was liberated he was hung.  When the liberators came, they buried or burned all the bodies because there were too many to identify.  Maria wandered Germany for months looking for him because she did not know he had died.  His parents learned of his death when they heard his memorial service on the radio.  His brother and two brothers in law were all killed at different concentration camps within days of each other.  Bonhoeffer loved his family and his family loved him. But in the end, he chose discipleship over them. That is what Jesus meant in our Gospel for today.

Most of us, probably none of us, will have to pay that kind of cost for discipleship.  But we are still called to make sacrifices.   In our Gospel reading, Jesus is telling his followers and all of us that there is nothing easy about the Christian life.  It’s not meant to be easy.  But if you think about your life, I think we often find that some of our most rewarding experiences have been the result of hard work and sacrifices. There will be times when we fall short and can’t make the sacrifices that are required. We can’t all be Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  We definitely can’t be Jesus.  But we can try to follow their example.  When we have an opportunity to choose between what is easy and what is right, we can choose to do the right thing.  We can choose God over convenience.   We can do that because we know that God’s love has already been poured out on us and there is nothing cheap about that.

[*] It was actually a common Semitic expression.   Semitic language includes a wide variety of languages in the Near East.  Hebrew is one the Semitic languages.

[**] Bonhoeffer, Dietrich.  Discipleship. p.44