Sorting Ourselves Out: December 7

 Year A, Advent 2                                                                   Matt 3:1-12                                                                 

    Like many of you, I have been busy trying to get things decorated and festive.  We have a lot of Christmas decorations as that is a go to present for a priest and there are two priests in our family.  I think we are up to 7 crèches…only one of which we purchased.  Yet you know what decoration you never see—John the Baptist in his camel hair with a dead locust hanging out of his mouth.  Yet, John the Baptist pops up twice in our Advent readings, calling people names, telling them to repent.  It’s a wonder he doesn’t have his own Advent calendar.

It’s interesting that he shows up during Advent for a few reasons. Remember this is the adult John the Baptist.  John the Baptist and Jesus are born within a few months of one another.  What is adult John the Baptist doing preparing us for something that happened 30 years before? John the Baptist was not preparing people for the birth of Jesus— he was preparing people for the reign of God.

Many people at the time thought that he was the prophet Elijah, who had lived 100s of years before and was also a little rough in his appearance.  Elijah did not die, he was taken into the sky in a chariot.  Since he didn’t die, many Jews expected him to return right before the Messiah was to come. Some Jews are still waiting for Elijah to return, which will herald the coming Messiah.  From the few texts we have in the Bible about John, he never said he was Elijah, but the author of the Gospel was obviously trying to make a connection.  If John was Elijah and pointing to Jesus, then that’s further proof that Jesus was the Messiah that they had all been waiting for.

At Christmas, we tell the story of Jesus’ birth…which is a pretty great story. I never weary of hearing that story.  But Christmas is also supposed to be about the incarnation itself, which means that God became a human being and lived among us.  John’s presence in our readings during the season of Advent wasn’t preparing people for the birth of Jesus, but he was preparing people for the life and ministry of Jesus. 

John had a very specific vision of this ministry.  He said, ‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me…He will baptize you with  the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

Whenever I read this, I recoil a little. I have to wonder, did John the Baptist get it wrong, or am I wrong about Jesus? Next week we will read another story about John the Baptist after he has been arrested where he asks Jesus if he is the one they have been waiting for, or if perhaps there is someone else coming.  He wasn’t yet convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, because he wasn’t what he expected. To that Jesus responded something along the lines of “I am healing people, raising the dead and bringing good news to the poor. “  Jesus clearly thought that those things were what made him the Messiah, not the winnowing fork and unquenchable fire.  That said, Jesus did talk about the fires of hell a few times in the Gospel of Matthew.  We don’t like talking about that in the Episcopal Church, but it’s definitely there. 

However, I wonder if there might be a way to consider this message that John the Baptist delivered as an opportunity for growth, rather than a judgment.  Typically when we think of the separation of the wheat and the chaff, we see them as groups of people. You are either the good wheat that is gathered lovingly or you are the chaff that is burned in the unquenchable fire.  Fire can be destructive, but it can also refine or purify when the fire is controlled.  At the time Jesus lived, they refined metals like gold and silver using intense heat, which would melt away the impurities. 

What if the fire that Jesus brought was a fire that refined, rather than a destroyed?  When Jesus talked about repentance, I believe he was asking us to look at ourselves, and how we might allow ourselves to be refined.  That refining would require that we release the sins that hold us down, our judgment of other people, our selfishness…whatever it may be.  That is what repentance is, it’s not only examining ourselves, but also accepting God’s guidance as we do so.  It’s allowing God to burn away the parts that get in the way of us being loving, generous, faithful and brave.  It’s not about sorting the good people from the bad people, but sorting ourselves out. 

At the end of the world, Jesus will still judge (if we are looking at it from a Biblical perspective), but I really don’t think that is what we should be focusing on right now.  The way we prepare for the incarnation, which is God in the flesh (God among us), is by acknowledging that while we are flawed and there is room for improvement, being human is at least partly divine because we are children of God.

There is not one single person in this church (or world) who is perfect.  There is not one person in this world who is worthy of God’s love because of who we are or what we do.  And there is such freedom when we can accept that.  What makes us worthy of God’s love—what makes us perfect, is that God loved us first.  When God came to this earth, God decided, these people who keep making the same mistakes over and over again, are worth everything to me.  Maybe, just maybe, showing up as a human, showing them God in the flesh will help them see —see what their worth truly is.  That’s what the incarnation is.  That is what we are preparing for in this season of Advent.  It is about preparation and repentance.  But it’s not about becoming someone else, it’s about returning to who we were created to be, beloved children of God.  That will take some work.  We might need some refining, but it will be worth it.

Uncomfortable Words: Sept 28

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 tended to associate obedience and faithfulness with wealth and prosperity. One can understand why they did.

            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 seems 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 his 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 didn’t even give away his leftovers to the poor soul who waited outside his home every day.  As the story goes, the wealthy man went to Hades and Lazarus went to heaven and was 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 (at least in this story) 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 allow us to ignore 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 prophets; 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 identify 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, so we would 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 am really proud of what the people in our outreach committee have done. They are making at least 2 meals a month for people who are in need. Cheryl has told me that there are different people volunteering every week and I am grateful that so many of you are committed to this work.  But I think there is more we can do and I am hoping that we as a church can discern the needs of the people who call our streets their home.  In order to do so, we have to allow ourselves to witness the suffering in our community, to 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.

 

When the Gospel Gets Risky: Nov 19, 2023

 Year A, Pentecost 25                                  Matthew 25:14-30                                                                                         

If you were so inclined, you could read 10 different commentaries about this gospel reading and discover 10 different theories about what this text means.  I am not going to pretend to have the definitive answer on what this should mean for you.  But here is what I keep coming back to.  Risk. This is a story about risk and what or who enables us to take risks. 

In our parable for today, we hear about a man who entrusted three slaves with an incredible amount of money. He gave one slave 5 talents, another 2 and another 1.  A talent was a unit of measure and one would have been worth about 20 years wages for an average day laborer.  That’s a significant amount of money to leave a servant or a slave, or really anyone for that matter.  It would seem that this man had a lot of confidence in these three slaves.  This man didn’t provide them much direction. He didn’t tell them what to do with the property or even how long he would be gone.  It just says that he entrusted his property to them. If it were me, I would have wanted a lot more information and direction.

The slave who received 5 talents traded with them and doubled his money.  The slave who was given 2 talents also doubled his money.  Not bad.  The 3^rd slave dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.  When the master returned, he rewarded the slaves who were able to double the money they were entrusted with and the third was punished for…for what? That’s what I am not clear on.  It would be easy to assume that the third slave was punished for not making money, but given that this was Jesus talking, it’s has to be more than that. 

In order to figure out why he was being punished, I kept looking at what the master said to the third slave before he cast him into outer darkness.  However, the answer might be more easily discovered not in the reprimand of the third slave but in the accolade for the first two slaves.  To the first two the master said, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” They were not commended for the money that they made.  They were commended for being trustworthy in what they were given. They had taken what they were given and they had used those things well.

The other clue is in how the 3^rd slave addressed the master. The others met the master by simply saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents, but I have made 5 more talents.”  The 3^rd slave told the man on his return, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”

            He was afraid of his master.  He perceived him as a harsh man with questionable business practices.   But it would appear from the way the two others addressed the master (and maybe even by the way that they acted in his absence) that they didn’t fear the master.  If they had feared him, they probably would have not had the confidence to take the risks that they did.

Was the master as bad as the slave described him?  It would seem that the master affirmed what the 3^rd slave said, but not necessarily.  The master did not say, “You are right, I am all of those things you said I am.”  No he said, “You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?” It was a question, almost a challenge.   He was challenging the way the slave perceived him. You see, I don’t think the issue was his trust of the slave, as much as the slave’s trust of the master.

The slave was anticipating a harsh and unfair man, and that was what he got.  Because that was what he was anticipating…because that was the master he knew, he didn’t have freedom to actually use what the master gave him.  No, instead he buried it.  He had no desire to serve the master…he simply wanted to keep what had been given secure.  That provided not only security for the talent, but security for him.  His main priority was protecting himself.

            I confess I struggled with the language of slave and master.  But remember, parables were meant to be understood by the people who were hearing them at the time. This would have been familiar language to people in the first century.  Jesus was constantly trying to teach people another way of seeing things.  At the time, many people perceived God as a harsh master who punished without good reason.  But Jesus wanted people to know that God wanted more out of God’s relationship with humanity.  Yes, there is judgment.  The text right after this is the story of God judging those who did not care for the poor and the suffering. 

However, God’s relationship with humanity is more than judgement and punishment.  It’s a relationship that involves trust in God and in ourselves.  God has given us each gifts.  We can look at it more broadly and consider that God has given us the gift of life or love.  Or we can look at it as the unique gifts that we each carry.  I am not sure it matters. The point is that these gifts are meant to be used---sometimes…in ways that challenge us and others.

I am a risk adverse person. I hate taking risks. I definitely don’t do it as much as I should.  If we never take risks, then we are saying that we have no confidence in God’s call to us.  It’s saying that we don’t believe that we can actually be God’s hands and feet on this earth.  It’s saying that we care more about how other people perceive us, then how God judges us.  I am definitely guilty of that. 

You know when I was first working on this sermon, the thing that kept nagging at me was not why this 3^rd slave got punished, but I really wanted to know, what would have happened if he had trusted his master and then lost the money.  That is the question that haunted me.  Do you know why that question was bothering me? Because I just really wanted an excuse not to take a risk. I kept thinking, well of course these other two were rewarded, because they succeeded. And this other was reprimanded because he refused to risk.  But what about the one who took the risk and failed.  What happens to them?  Where are they in this story?

They fail. And then they try again.  I wonder how long the master was gone. I wonder how much money the slaves lost before they gained anything?  Ultimately this is a story about the 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ-- when Jesus comes back.  This isn’t a few months we are talking about.  This is a lifetime.  We have a lifetime of opportunities to use the gifts that God has given us, to take risks, to fail, to fail again and maybe eventually to get it right. The only real failure is when we stop trying.  I am talking about us as individuals, but also as a church. If we aren’t taking risks.  If we aren’t failing a little.  We aren’t living the Gospel.