A lack of imagination a.k.a. marriage in the Kingdom of God - Pentecost XXV

Luke 20:27-38

It all started with the cleansing of the Temple.

Now all the religious authorities have a major beef with Jesus and are out to get him.

Their underlying question is

“by what authority is this man defying our leadership, our authority”

in society, in our political and religious circles?

They all want him out of the way, and the easiest solution is to trap him into a conviction for sedition, rebellion, slander, or blasphemy.

So, according to Luke, they “watched him and sent spies”.

Since time immemorial, money and sex are powerful tools to make human being look like fools,

so first, we see how the Pharisees place in front of Jesus the stumbling block of taxes,

"Do we or don't we pay them? Does Roman law supersede Jewish law?"

As we all know Jesus gets quickly out of that particular quagmire.

You know, being Jesus and all...

Now the Sadducees want to trip him with a question about relationships in the afterlife.

To begin with, a word on the Sadducees – in case you don't remember who they are.

The Sadducees were a Jewish sect that belonged to

the upper socio-economic echelons of Judean society.

They had the extremely important responsibility of maintaining the Temple.

Which mean sthat they had a lot of power and a lot of financial resources.

And were friendly with the Romans.

They differed from the Parisees on an important theological point:

they believed that the soul is not immortal, and that there is no afterlife with penalties/rewards after death.

The Sadducees’ question was making fun of the idea of resurrection, 

embraced by the Pharisees, and their purpose was to make it sound ridiculous

thus making Jesus look ridiculous through the use of simple logic.

Their question has to do with Levirate marriage as it is set in Deuteronomy.

According to Jewish law, if a man died childless,

his widow was to marry his brother (the one next in line to inherit)

and their first male child would be considered son and heir of the first husband.

In this way the family name would be perpetuated.

In Hebrew scripture – in the very genealogy of Jesus,

two famous women found themselves involved in such marriages.

Tamar with terrible results that led her to take radical and scandalous action,

And Ruth, who found in the practice a redeemer for herself

and her mother-in-law, Naomi.

The law of Moses was meant for two reasons: to perpetuate the family name, to insure a legacy, and to protect the widows, whose fate was potentially really grim if they didn't have a male relative (including a male child) to take care of them.

Now let's go back to the Sadduccees.

Their problem is a lack of imagination.

They are starting from the presupposition that if it even existed, life in the Kingdom of God

would be like life in this broken world of ours.

And why not? They belonged to an upper-caste, they were perfectly happy with life as they knew it, they had no interest in believing in a nebulous better place someday/somewhere.

Jesus disabuses them of the notion.

The rules of “this age” are for us in the here and now,

where the weak need the protection of law and tradition,

where we all need clear, codified rules of conduct that apply to everyone.

Pay taxes, get married: it's the way of the world.

But the Kingdom of God is not the world.

And eternal life, resurrected life, is not the life we know.

Human rules do not apply in “that age”.

When that age comes, all human bets are off.

It will be the Kingdom of God,

something so “other than” the world we know

that we cannot imagine it, let alone find words to describe it.

All human constructs will become useless.

There will be no need for a law to protect, and guide, and order.

God will be completely in charge

as all that we now see through a glass darkly

(as Paul says) will become clear.

God, who knows all, and sees all, and loves all,

already lives in that Kingdom, in that age.

God already lives the eternal life that we are promised

and will share when God's time comes for us.

God is already the God of the everliving joy, peace,

and love that we can barely, just barely begin to imagine.

The Sadduccees are unable to imagine the Kingdom and therefore do not believe in it.

The Sadduccees are unable to believe that Jesus is the emissary

and the promise of that Kingdom.

But we- the Church, the Body of Christ - are called to be better than that.

We are called to faith and to hope.

We are called not to limit our imagination,

so that we may bear all things, believe all things,

hope all things, endure all things (1Cor 13:7)

as we await the coming of Christ in glory.

OR, as somebody aptly put it:

imagine the universe beautiful and just and perfect,

then be sure of one thing:

God has imagined it quite a bit better than you have.

Amen

All Saints' Day at All Saints'...a sermon on a plain

Here it is, the Sermon on the mount.

one of the most famous readings in the lectionary.

quoted and misquoted here and there,

appropriated by many to prove a point or another.

We are all very familiar with it and we all feel that we know what it means. Right?

Well no. Not really.

First of all this is no Sermon on the mount.

See, most people have Matthew's version of the discourse stuck in their minds,

but this is Luke’s version so I’d like to clarify a few things, like the where, when, who and why of this passage.

Bear with me.

On one fine evening, Jesus went out on a mountain to pray.

He spent the night in prayer and when the day came, Jesus called his disciples

(all of the disciples who had camped right around there) and chose 12.

And those 12 he named Apostles.

This is very important: of all the disciples (the followers) around him,

Jesus picks 12 and names them Apostles which means messengers, those who are sent forth.

A huge change in job description if I’ve ever seen one.

And then, he comes down with them and stands on a level place-

I am not making it up, I am quoting Luke!

I told you it was not on the mount: this is the Sermon on the Plain.

AND he is surrounded by his brand new 12 Apostles AND a great crowd of disciples (followers)

and a great multitude of people coming from all over the place

Judea, Jerusalem, as far as the coast of Tyre and Sidon

and this multitude is eager to hear him,

and also (probably especially) to be healed of their diseases.

We need to see in our minds where we are and who is there

b/c through all these details Luke is alerting us to the fact that

what is going to happen now is supremely important.

Before major events Jesus prays - that’s our first indicator.

And here we have a multitude of people and they come from really far - another indicator.

Imagine concentric circles around this amazing man-God

who then looks up at his disciples and speaks.

he is talking to his disciples, the ones he is training,

those men and women who had already made the choice of following him,

who had already dropped everything to make Jesus a priority,

who had already found themselves in difficult places,

unexpected even dangerous places b/c of him

and who will soon find themselves in places even more painful,

more overwhelming and difficult to understand:

the passion, the cross, the death

And this is what he tells them:

Love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who abuse you.

Give to everyone who begs from you

and if anyone takes away your possessions, do not ask for them again.

In other words: do to others as you would have them do to you.

This is what it means to be a disciple - a follower.

You can take it or leave it, but here it is.

And Jesus also says, as you do all this, remember

that you who are choosing to be poor with me are blessed.

you who are choosing to be hungry with me are blessed

you who are choosing to weep with me and to be excluded, reviled, and defamed with me, you are blessed.

Because you have ME. Because you are following ME, because you are becoming like ME.

And for emphasis, he adds that if you instead choose otherwise as is your prerogative -

if you choose to focus on your needs and desires,

to accumulate riches for yourself, in simpler words,

if you put not to put Jesus at the center of your life -

then you will be in trouble, you will not be blessed.

Because you will not be following ME, you will be separated from ME.

It is not a threat.

Not everyone is cut out to be a disciple.

But if you say you are one, if you choose to be one,

don’t say that Jesus didn’t tell you how it was going to be.

It’s right there, spelled out with extreme clarity.

Love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who abuse you.

Give to everyone who begs from you

and if anyone takes away your possessions, do not ask for them again.

In other words: do to others as you would have them do to you.

Now Jesus is not expecting immediate perfection.

Jesus is not telling us

Woe to you if you don’t give to every single charity that sends you an envelope in the mail

or if you ask your neighbor who borrowed your toolbox two months ago to kindly give it back.

Jesus understands that when pledge time comes you want to take some time

to think about how to allocate your money

and that when someone hurts you it may take some time to forgive them.

Jesus understands that. And more.

That is why we have community around us.

The community of the Church, of all the baptized all around us,

men  and women like us who struggle as we do to be disciples.

That’s why we have the Saints who have gone before us, to be role models of discipleship.

That’s why we have the Sacraments - tangible, visible signs of God’s constant presence in our lives.

Of how the Holy Spirit protects, empowers, and readies us for discipleship.

In his sermon on the plain,

Jesus is not expecting immediate perfection.

Jesus is defining discipleship.

WE don’t have to be disciples.

We can be like those who showed up on the plain to be healed and then once they got what they wanted went back to Tyre and Sidon to live regular lives of selfish behavior and personal gain.

But if we do that, we miss the blessing.

The joy of discipleship.

The amazing reward of a struggle conquered,

of a job well done,

of the love of God given freely,

of knowing that by loving our neighbor we love God first.

Amen

Of a Pharisee and a Tax Collector - Pentecost XXIII

Pentecost XXIIIc

Luke 18:9-14

A Pharisee and a Tax Collector walk into a temple…

it’s a very well-known story, and I bet you have heard a number of sermons about it.

Just to clear the air let me tell you what, in my opinion, this parable is not about.

This parable is not about humility. This parable is not about pride.

This parable is not about how we ought to pray.

It is not even a parable about repentance.

This parable is about GRACE.

We need to understand this right off the bat before any of you fall into the trap

of thinking that you know better than the Pharisee.

This would make you just as self-righteous as he is.

Which is not Jesus’ purpose.

This parable is about grace.

So now please ponder that:

When I tell you that God loves you, how do you feel?

When from the height of this pulpit, my collar, the three years in Seminary,

I tell you that God loves you how do you feel?

Incredulous? Honored? Warm and fuzzy?

When I tell you, as I have already told you many times before, that you don’t have to do anything to deserve God’s love, that it is a given, how do you feel?

Relieved? Doubtful? Cynical?

When I tell you that God loves you, yes, you

just as much as God loves every one of God’s children,

no more and no less, how do you feel?

Humbled? Appalled? Shocked?

I think the difference between the Pharisee and the Tax-collector

is that Mr Pharisee wouldn’t believe me

while Mr. Collector would look at me and go “well, duh”.

I know this because of how they pray.

Mr Pharisee’s prayer is all about him:

Look at ME, he’s saying.

Thank God I am not like everybody else

(and please note the real meaning of that “thank God”, totally perfunctory).

Thank God I am so much better.  I am righteous. I am blameless according to the law;

I am a pillar of society and a model to aspire to. I don’t need to ASK for anything.

Thank God.

Mr Pharisee lives in a world in which if one works hard God will notice,

just as everybody else will notice.

And sooner or later one will be recognized, maybe with a blue ribbon.

Mr Pharisee lives for that recognition, and is very grateful -to himself -

for having achieved such a high status in his world.

Mr Collector doesn’t have a prayer, just 7 words:  God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Mr Collector lives in a world where everything and everyone is somehow broken

and utterly dependent on God. Where everyone, high and low on the totem pole,

is equally sinful, equally in need to be forgiven and taken care of.

In fact he is not repenting of something specific he has done.

He is not pledging to be a changed man,

to get a different job, to render restitution to those he has wronged.

He is simply acknowledging his broken state,

his inability to do what he ought to do,

and therefore to be entirely dependent on God’s grace.

That knowledge doesn’t leave any room for self-righteousness, or even for humility.

It is what it is and we are all in this together.

I told you. This parable is not about humility or pride, about religiosity or lack thereof.

This parable is about God’s grace.

And about the only human prayer that makes sense in a world of grace:

God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

– continue to give me your grace because without it I am nothing.

My friends, God loves. God forgives. God gives.

To the proud and to the humble, to the weak and to the strong,

to the faithful and to the messed up.

To the Pharisees and to the Tax collectors.

And there is nothing we can do about it.

If we really all grasped that and were able to keep it in our hearts at all times

we would live lives of constant gratitude

and I would have no need to stand here

and remind you of the Pledge campaign

because we would all be too busy giving back to God what God has given us first.

I would have no need to challenge and push you

to give more of your time to feed the hungry, to visit the sick, to be kind to the stranger,

because we would all be too busy sharing the story of how much God has done for us

and eagerly doing the same for each other.

We would automatically give our first fruits, our ten percent,

to benefit our communities, to help the poor, to support the needy,

because when we are given so much the only thing we can do is to share with others.

It’s human nature.

And you wouldn’t have any need of a reminder - which would leave me and the rest of the clergy without a job.

As someone very wisely said: there’s no need for clergy in the Kingdom of God.

The problem is that we are not there yet.

The problem is that in our brokenness we are blind to the gift of grace.

We only see sporadic glimpses of light, and we quickly fall back into the darkness where we forget for long stretches of time what grace is.

It is so very hard for us to remember that God loves us

that we need to constantly remind each other in word and deed - that’s how I got the job!

It is so very hard to give our heart to God totally and completely

that we forget to trust that the One who has given us everything

will continue to take care of us for all eternity.

It is so very hard for us to remember that God gave us eternal life

that every so often we forget that death is only a transition.

So we become unhealthily attached to our possessions,

desperate when one of us dies,

and unable to love and to be truly present to one another in our moments of need.

A couple of years ago, Bishop Burrill was asked

to describe the essence of the Christian faith in seven words.

This is what he said: GOD IS LOVE. LIVE THANKFULLY WITH HOPE.

My brothers and sisters, let us graft these words in our hearts

and keep repeating them to each other like a mantra.

God is love. God has mercy. God forgives. We are all sinners.

Yet we live in a grace-filled world.

Let us live lives of gratitude for the undeserved gift of God’s love,

and give a little bit back, out of all that we have received,

to those among us who need it the most

as we await the coming of Christ,

when the dream of God will be realized for all Creation

and there will be no need for pledge campaigns because

there will be plenty for everyone

and the lost will be found

and all clergy will have to go on mandatory retirement!

Amen