How Long, O Lord?

 Psalm 90, Matthew 22:34-36

Most people who preach on this passage stick with the two commandments part of this.  And this is a good topic to preach on because it is the grounding of our faith: these are the things Jesus tells us that God requires of us first, foremost, always and in all things - to love God and love one another. 

But today I’d like us to take a bigger look at today’s lectionary passage and especially focus on the part of this passage where Jesus turns the tables and asks the Pharisees a question that they cannot answer.  And I think we have to begin in our understanding of this passage to look at the scriptures that surround this story and especially those that proceed it. 

Do you remember the passage from last week?  The Pharisees were trying to entrap or trick Jesus by asking him questions that would anger a particular group in the crowd.  Last week they asked about paying taxes.  This is followed by a section in scripture that is not included in the lectionary in which the Sadducees try to trick or entrap Jesus by asking him about marriage.  They ask if a person has been married and widowed several times, to whom are they married after they die?  They are again attempting to get the crowds angry at Jesus and so they ask a question that

they believe will elicit an answer that will isolate either one group of Jews that does not believe in a resurrection at all, or another group that does.  But Jesus didn’t not fall into this trap, either.  Instead he simply says that they really don’t understand about the afterlife, they haven’t read scriptures carefully and he leaves it at that.  The final question, and their final attempt to trap him is presented in today’s scripture. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 

Read out of context, the question looks innocent enough.  But in fact they are still trying to trap him.  They are asking him to tell them who he “sides” with in the debates among the Jews, and they are again trying to set a crowd against him.  Which of the ten commandments is most important?  They are asking if Jesus is going to rank them or if he believes they are all of equal value.  For example, is it just as bad to lie as to kill someone?  Is it just as bad to worship idols as to covet?

How does Jesus deal with this trap?  He avoids this final trap as well by answering not with one of the ten commandments at all but with the Sh’ma.  The Sh’ma is even more central and calls us to an even clearer understanding, a summary really of the ten commandments.   The Sh’ma is a passage that every Jew of that time and even today is required to commit to heart as central to their faith.  To quote Deut. 6:5.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.”  He takes the second part about loving your neighbor as yourself again as a summary of all scripture.  But he also takes it directly from Leviticus 19:18b which says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  By quoting these even more central scriptures, he again shames those who would shame him.  He also avoids the whole ranking of the ten commandments by summarizing them: the first four of which are about loving God, the second six about loving your neighbor.  He calls his listeners back to the center of their faith and reminds them of what they should be remembering at all times - especially when they are trying to entrap a fellow Jew: “love the Lord your God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself - including JESUS whether you feel threatened by him, or not: whether you agree with him or not!”

This, then, is the context in which we find Jesus turning the tables and asking the Pharisees a question instead. As I read this I found myself thinking about the psalm that was also part of today’s lectionary.  Psalm 90, which we also read this morning as part of our lectionary scriptures, has this appeal in the middle of it, “Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants!”  How difficult it must have been for Jesus to be tested again and again with the desire, with the hope, of entrapment by the people.  He must have felt with every new day and every new trial, how long must he endure this?  How long would he have to endure the “not getting it” of his own disciples?  How long would he have to endure the constant attempts at entrapment from the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees?  It must have been exhausting.  Utterly exhausting.

How many of you have felt that kind of tired?  Have any of you felt that kind of “how long, O Lord, must we endure this?”  How much longer can we stand being tested - either by someone who doesn’t like us or feels threatened by us, or just by the trials of life?  Sometimes I think when we are down it feels like the kicks just keep coming and coming and coming! 

I think about many of the homeless people I’ve met - who ended up homeless for exactly the reason that they had a series of bad luck things happen all at once: the loss of a job, followed by the loss of a house, followed often by the death of a close one, followed by depression which ends them up on the street.  Many times these tests or trials are all related: a person has a problem with alcohol which leads to loss of job, family, etc..  But other times they aren’t related - and yet these big stressors can fall together.  I have a close friend whose mother died and a week later her husband asked for a divorce.  I’ve been thinking about a friend of mine who lost her son three months ago and now her husband.  How hard to endure both of those losses.  How do we endure these extremely difficult times?  And again, the question has to be asked, whether it happens aloud or not, “How long, O Lord, must we endure this?”  Right now with all that is going on around us, the pandemic, the fires, the social unrest, the national stress around this election. And we as a country find ourselves asking “how long, O Lord, must we endure this?”  My father made the comment to me last week that my sermons are different now.  He said it has become obvious in these recorded services that I am highly stressed, that I am struggling. He is not the first person to have said this to me or named this for me.  So I name this as true though I also tell you there is nothing you need to do to take care of me around this.  This is just a reality of the times.  I am stressed, I am struggling.  I am a social being who is not handling this separation and staying at home well.  I don’t preach easily to an empty room but rather find it difficult, exhausting even, and extremely stressful.  I usually bounce off of your energy, I can tell by your reactions, though often subtle, if I have said enough or not.  I have no feedback in preaching in this space.  Connecting through zoom and through the phone can only go so far.  Add to that that when people are unhappy and choose to deal with it by ignoring or avoiding and there is no way to address it because we cannot get together, it weighs on me in a completely different way.  There is no “in person” contact to give me more positive feedback.  Again, you do not have to take care of me around this, but I want to say to you that your cries of “How long, O Lord!” are mirrored by my own.  “How long, O Lord, will we need to continue in this way?  How long will this go on?  How long can we sustain and endure and connect in these weirdly distant, detached ways?!”

This feeling can also make me impatient in other things, as I’ve seen with those around me.  The “how long” makes us want to reopen things too soon, taking the risk of a backwards step.  But it spills into other things too.  “how long” spills into impatience with lines at stores.  People are even nuttier in their driving now than before and I think their impatience on the road is a reflection of the pain they are experiencing in other areas.  Patience is not a part of our fast-paced, instant gratification society.  So when we cannot speed things up, everything can feel “how long?”

It is in the midst of these questions that we are given the scriptures and we are reminded, first by the psalmists that God can handle that anger, God can handle that pain, God can handle our questions.  The psalmist not only gives us permission to express those deep pains, but also gives us the words when sometimes they are hard to find to cry out to God.  It is a myth that says that God needs us to be “nice” all the time - especially with God.  God wants us to be real, God gave us the ability to feel ALL of our feelings and God has given you the very words to cry out in that pain – “how long, O lord.  How long?”

And then God gives us Jesus.  Through Jesus we can see that God has been there, too.  Jesus has experienced the “how long must we endure this?”  The testing kept coming.  The threats kept coming to Jesus.  He knows what we go through.  He has experienced it too.

Finally, Jesus shows us another way to handle it when we’ve hit that “how long” place.  How does Jesus finally deal with all of these tests and entrapments being sent his way?  Jesus deals with the tests finally by turning the tables and asking them a question - one they can’t answer. 

How do we turn the tables when life is full of trials and struggles?  How do we reclaim our power and our sense of living life when things are really difficult?  There isn’t always an easy answer to that.  Almost all of us are victimized at some point.  Some people have really awful things happen to them from which they cannot recover.  Some live with victimization on a daily basis, some had childhoods in which they were abused regularly, some live in situations from which it is almost impossible, if not impossible to recover.  There are some injustices from which people simply cannot recover, or can only recover with serious intervention, a great deal of time, and a great deal of support, love and professional help.  I am not speaking to those people right now, though I have the greatest sympathy and compassion for them and for their suffering.

Instead I am speaking to the majority of people in middle class America who at some point grow up and have to choose how we are going to deal with the many things that have victimized us.  Are we going to pass on those bad behaviors?  Are we going to be walking professional victims, telling everyone we meet how awfully we were treated and how unfair our life has been and how unfair it continues to be?  Or are we going to choose instead to be survivors and hopefully even thrivers - people who have not only survived the victimization and who choose not to be victims any longer but people who thrive, who live, who have learned from their victimization and who choose strength both for themselves and for those they encounter?  Are we going to use our experiences of injustice to insist on a better world for all?  Are we going to stand up for ourselves and others, helping to empower others to do the same?  I know it is not easy to choose to be survivors rather than victims.  And it is even harder to be thrivers.  But these are choices we can make.  I am reminded of a Curtis comic strip I saw some time ago (March 30, 2008). The father pointed out that many rap artists both in the past and in the present talk about (among other things) how terrible everyone has been to them, and then he suggested that maybe it would be better if instead they talked about how they could make different life choices and make things better.

Choosing to be a survivor may not be as “interesting” as complaining about the injustices that we’ve experienced.  It may not be as attractive.  It may not be as easy.  It involves feeling some hard feelings - grief, for example, must be felt, must be experienced, must be lived through to come out the other side.  But choosing to feel those feelings is part of turning the tables: not allowing the trials of life to defeat you - choosing instead to seize life and no longer be the target, the victim, the pursued.  Jesus did this by again, turning the tables on those who would entrap him, not attacking, but asking questions that required his listeners to make a choice between being genuine or being true to the image they were trying to put forward.  He forced them to look at themselves, look at their own theology, look at the inconsistencies and hypocrisies in their own faiths.  He used the same method as they did - asking questions, but he did so in a way that told them volumes about themselves and about him.  We may not have the same ability to do that, but chances are that our trials will not be the same as those Jesus faced either. 

            Today is reformation Sunday and in many ways, the Reformation was an answer to the question of “how Long”.  Martin Luther said, “enough.  No longer will I endure the injustices I am witnessing.  No longer will we walk in this way.  We must change or forge a new path”  And he did.  As an aside I want to point out that what Jesus shows in this passage is that confrontation is not the opposite of love.  Jesus is the embodiment of love, and he follows this passage about loving your neighbor with a confrontation.

            Sometimes we will endure.  Sometimes we will grieve and walk through.  And sometimes, we are called to make changes, to stand up against injustices and to answer the question of “how long” with “no longer.  It is time for this to change and that change will start with me.”

We can make a choice - are we going to be victims, survivors, or thrivers?  Are we going to go out of this life doing the work, healing, living and engaged?  Or are we going to let life plow us and other people over?  How do you want to run this race?  Do you want to live life so fully that you cross the finish line exhausted but fulfilled?  Or do you want to walk to the finish line - still whole, but without having lived?  Or do you want to limp along until you are finally called home?  Jesus calls you to live.  Jesus calls you to be engaged.  Jesus calls you to stand up for yourself and for those around you who suffer injustices.  Jesus calls you to love God and love your neighbor, all of your neighbors, as yourself, even when we are asking “how long”, even when we are struggling, even when we are tired.  “How long, O Lord?” we ask.  And answer is, “you do not know the time or the place”.  So live now, live today, in whatever way you can, in whatever ways are life-giving for you and for those around you.  Amen.

Rendering Unto Caesar

 

Matthew 22: 15-22

     What do you all think about this passage from Matthew?  How do you understand it?

I want to start by telling you that the commentaries all seem a bit confused by the passage - many ignored it completely, others said opposing things about it. 

That being said, there are some basic things that all the commentaries I read agreed on.  It is clear that the Pharisees in the story are trying to entrap Jesus with the question of whether or not they should pay taxes to Caesar.  If Jesus were to have answered yes, the people should pay taxes, then the nationalists, the Zealot movement of the Jews would have become very angry because they believed that Israel should be separate from Roman rule and should not have to pay taxes to the Romans.  Additionally, the coins that he was discussing all lifted up Caesar as a deity.  So honoring this was against Jewish religions (after all, thou shalt have no other gods before me).  As a result, the pharisees should not have had any of these coins with them or it would have been considered as going against Jewish belief and Jewish law. 

But in the face of that, if Jesus answered that they shouldn’t pay the tax, he faced the possibility of arrest by the Roman government.  At this point in time, every year a census was taken, and this particular census tax had to be paid with the Roman coin to Caesar.  Because this was such a hardship on the Jewish people and a grave injustice, it is this very tax and the rebellion of the Zealots in AD 66 which led to the disastrous war that destroyed the temple (where they believed God lived) and therefore Judaism as they knew it by the year 70.   Matthew wrote his gospel sometime after this and he was looking back on the results of this as he wrote the story.                 

Because of this history many commentators believe Matthew was trying to convince his readers that they should have just paid the tax, no matter what the hardship, and that if they had done so, the temple and Jerusalem would not have been destroyed.  Other commentators point out that in this story Jesus is entrapping his entrappers. In response to their question, he asks the Pharisees for a coin which they give him.  Roman coins contained the image of the emperor on one side ‑ at this time the infamous Tiberius, with the inscription "Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus" ‑ and on the other his title "Pontifex Maximus" (which means high priest). Since Matthew locates this incident in the temple area, the questioners are discredited from the start, because they have carried the image of a pagan emperor into the temple.  Therefore, according to these commentaries, Jesus is confronting their hypocrisy in having the Roman coin in the temple which is firstly, supposed to be about God and not about money, and secondly is a place for the Jews and therefore certainly not a place where money from the oppressing Romans would be acceptable.  Jesus is trying to entrap and point out the hypocrisy of the people.

Still other commentators say that the point here is that the Kingdom of God is much bigger than Caesar, much bigger than taxes and that everything that is owed is owed to God.  Biblical Scholar Sarah Dylan Breuer puts it this way, "What belongs to God is everything.  And if we really take seriously the claim that God is rightful Lord of the earth and all that is in it, the world and all people in it, over what is Caesar a rightful lord? Nothing. Squat. Nada."  Therefore what do we “owe” Caesar?  Nothing, squat, nada.

But we know that life is not that simple.  If we don’t give to “Caesar” or our government something, if we don’t pay our taxes, our country can’t function.  We need our roads and our firefighters and our schools. And we know that things in this life “belong” to more than God.  My food, my clothing, my house, yes, primarily they belong to God.  But at least temporarily they also belong to me.  And I keep them and take care of them by participating in a culture which requires things from me in return - work, taxes, contributions of time and energy.  This is how our culture functions.  And it is interesting to note that in the happiest countries in the world, part of that happiness equation is that people feel good about contributing to their cultures, to their societies through their taxes.  They remember it as an honor to be able to give, rather than seeing it as a burden.  This is such a different attitude than we have here, isn’t it!  We know that the very richest people, people who have way more than they could possibly need, still do whatever they can to AVOID contributing, having forgotten that it is a gift and privilege to give back.  Are there things we disagree about the government money being spent for?  I can’t think of one single person who is completely happy about how the government money is spent.  No matter what “sides” you are on, we will never be completely happy.  But this, too, is part of what it means to be in community.  We will not agree with everything, ever, in any kind of group, in any kind of society.  But hopefully we will find some things that we do agree with.  And we can agree that as members of our culture, we should give back and give to those who are most in need.

This was not the case at the time of Jesus, by the way.  It was different because the Romans were completely oppressive and demanded a religious fidelity to Caesar, one that went against everything Judaism spoke against.  And yet, it is in this context that we still hear Jesus say to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.  And we are left to wonder what exactly he meant by this.  We are told that they went away amazed.  Jesus side-stepped the trap, expertly, truthfully, but in a way that just left the listeners unsure.  “As wise as serpents and as innocent as doves”.  He doesn’t tell them what to do.  He doesn’t tell US what to do.  He leaves us to ponder in our hearts, but more, to pray, to ask God directly for direction, for guidance and for wisdom.

Ultimately, this is a conversation about what values we choose.  Those of the world, or those of God.  But I’m not going to explain that for you.  This is something you have to work out on your own.  Instead, I want to say that whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  Your actions have consequences and they are farther reaching than you know.  So I want to tell you a story about consequences and choices for you to ponder.

“Good morning,” said a woman as she walked up to the man sitting on ground. The man slowly looked up. This was a woman clearly accustomed to the finer things of life. Her coat was new. She looked like she had never missed a meal in her life. His first thought was that she wanted to make fun of him, like so many others had done before..

"Leave me alone," he growled....To his amazement, the woman continued standing.  She was smiling -- her even white teeth displayed in dazzling rows.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

"No," he answered sarcastically. "I've just come from dining with the president. Now go away."  The woman's smile became even broader. Suddenly the man felt a gentle hand under his arm.

"What are you doing, lady?" the man asked angrily. "I said to leave me alone.

Just then a policeman came up. "Is there any problem, ma'am?" he asked.

"No problem here, officer," the woman answered. "I'm just trying to get this man to his feet. Will you help me?"

The officer scratched his head. "That's old Jack. He's been a fixture around here for a couple of years. What do you want with him?"

"See that cafeteria over there?" she asked. "I'm going to get him something to eat and get him out of the cold for awhile."

"Are you crazy, lady?" the homeless man resisted. "I don't want to go in there!"

Then he felt strong hands grab his other arm and lift him up. "Let me go, officer. didn't do anything."

"This is a good deal for you, Jack" the officer answered. "Don't blow it."  Finally, and with some difficulty, the woman and the police officer got Jack into the cafeteria and sat him at a table in a remote corner. It was the middle of the morning, so most of the breakfast crowd had already left and the lunch bunch had not yet arrived.

The manager strode across the cafeteria and stood by his table. "What's going on here, officer?" he asked. "What is all this, is this man in trouble?"

"This lady brought this man in here to be fed," the policeman answered.

"Not in here!" the manager replied angrily. "Having a person like that here is bad for business.."

Old Jack smiled a toothless grin. "See, lady. I told you so. Now if you'll let me go. I didn't want to come here in the first place."

The woman turned to the cafeteria manager and smiled. "Sir, are you familiar with Eddy and Associates, the banking firm down the street?"

"Of course I am," the manager answered impatiently. "They hold their weekly meetings in one of my banquet rooms."

"And do you make a goodly amount of money providing food at these weekly meetings?"

"What business is that of yours?"

“I, sir, am Penelope Eddy, president and CEO of the company."

"Oh."

The woman smiled again. "I thought that might make a difference." She glanced at the cop who was busy stifling a giggle.

"Would you like to join us in a cup of coffee and a meal, officer?"

"No thanks, ma'am," the officer replied. "I'm on duty."

"Then, perhaps, a cup of coffee to go?"

"Yes, ma’am. That would be very nice."

The cafeteria manager turned on his heel, "I'll get your coffee for you right away, officer."

The officer watched him walk away. "You certainly put him in his place," he said.

"That was not my intent. Believe it or not, I have a reason for all this."  She sat down at the table across from her amazed dinner guest. She stared at him intently. "Jack, do you remember me?"

Old Jack searched her face with his old, rheumy eyes. "I think so -- I mean you do look familiar."

"I'm a little older perhaps," she said. "Maybe I've even filled out more than in my younger days when you worked here, and I came through that very door, cold and hungry."

"Ma'am?" the officer said questioningly. He couldn't believe that such a magnificently turned out woman could ever have been hungry.

"I was just out of college," the woman began. "I had come to the city looking for a job, but I couldn't find anything. Finally I was down to my last few cents and had been kicked out of my apartment. I walked the streets for days. It was February and I was cold and nearly starving. I saw this place and walked in on the off chance that I could get something to eat."

Jack lit up with a smile. "Now I remember," he said.. "I was behind the serving counter. You came up and asked me if you could work for something to eat. I said that it was against company policy."

"I know," the woman continued. "Then you made me the biggest roast beef sandwich that I had ever seen, gave me a cup of coffee, and told me to go over to a corner table and enjoy it. I was afraid that you would get into trouble. Then, when I looked over and saw you put the price of my food in the cash register, I knew then that everything would be all right."

"So you started your own business?" Old Jack said.

"I got a job that very afternoon. I worked my way up. Eventually I started my own business that, with the help of God, prospered." She opened her purse and pulled out a business card. "When you are finished here, I want you to pay a visit to a Mr. Lyons. He's the personnel director of my company. I'll go talk to him now and I'm certain he'll find something for you to do around the office." She smiled. "I think he might even find the funds to give you a little advance so that you can buy some clothes and get a place to live until you get on your feet. If you ever need anything, my door is always opened to you."

There were tears in the old man's eyes. "How can I ever thank you?" he said.

"Don't thank me," the woman answered. "Thank God who led me to find you."

Outside the cafeteria, the officer and the woman paused at the entrance before going their separate ways. "Thank you for all your help, officer," she said.

"On the contrary, Ms. Eddy," he answered. "Thank you. I saw a miracle today, something that I will never forget. And, and thank you for the coffee."

In the book, Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson tells the story of helping a man who was clearly extremely mentally ill who was put on death row for an incident that ended with the accidental killing of a cop without the circumstances of the incident or his profound mental illness and years and years of abuse being taken into consideration. Bryan Stevenson talked about his visit, as a lawyer, to the prison where the guard treated Mr. Stevenson with extreme cruelty and abuse, undoubtedly because he was an African American lawyer.  Mr. Stevenson, though, came to help this inmate and after working with the system he had to go and see the inmate one more time.  He saw that the horrible, cruel, abusive guard was there again.  I want to read to you part of what transpired after that. (For copyright reasons I'm not including this here, but it is pages 200-202).

The guard’s witnessing of the work Mr. Stevenson did changed him.  Stevenson’s actions were for the inmate.  They were not intended to help the guard.  But they did.  His actions had long ranging consequences.  Ours do too, though we rarely are given the chance to see what they are.

In today’s scripture Jesus took the coin and asked whose image was on it.  Caesar’s image was on it, so Jesus said return the coin, therefore, to the one to whom it belongs.  But to take this a step further, whose image is carved onto you?  We are made in the image of God.  Therefore all that we are is owed and should be returned to God.  We are called to give God everything, including all of who we are, because everything belongs to God.  That means when we give our money to taxes, we are called by our faith, by our God to do so with an eye to serving God’s people, all people, with those taxes.  When we vote, we must do so with an eye to serving God’s people, all people with our elected officials and our propositions.  When we eat our food, when we bathe, when we drive our kids to school - we have to do it all - everything with an eye to serving God’s people, ALL people with those actions.  Everything else is to be subordinate to God, everything else.  And we are called to remember that in all that we do.  Amen.

Trusting that God is with Us

 

Exod. 17:1-17

Phil 2:1-13

Matt. 21:23-32

               In the Exodus passage, we continue with the Israelites retreat from Egypt.  We also continue to see them complaining, and complaining against Moses and against God.  After everything that has happened, being led out of Egypt, being led through the red sea, being fed Manna in the wilderness, they still do not trust that they will be taken care of.  They still experience their journey as hard, too hard to bear and they do not experience or trust God’s presence with them.  They complain bitterly, railing against God for everything that has happened.  They ask, “Is the Lord among us, or not?”              In the Philippians passage we hear, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for God’s good pleasure.” And we are called through those words as well to trust in God’s presence working through us.

               And then finally we come to the parable from Matthew.  And we see our own wishy-washy faithfulness in great contrast to God’s presence with us.  How many of us recognize in others or in ourselves the behaviors of the two sons in the parable?  With my kids I see this on a regular basis.  It is often the case that I will ask a child to do something and receive the promise that they will, only to find that they have forgotten to do so.  This happens regularly in our house.  Two of my kids are quick to promise and just as quick to forget to do whatever I ask.  In contrast, one of my kids is usually quite quick with a “no” to come out of his mouth but he none the less often actually DOES whatever I’ve asked.  I have to admit, I would prefer neither of these choices.  I would prefer that the kids both SAY yes and DO yes.  But both sons in the parable point out to us human folly.  We are a rebellious people.  We are not faithful, in our decision making, to our relationships, or to our God.  We waver and slip and slide, usually in very small ways, but we do not succeed, any of us, in complete faithfulness. 

              Have any of you found yourselves making promises to God that you end up not completely fulfilling?  I’ve been at this church five years now, so I am going to make a confession to you all.  I struggle daily to live up to the promises I make to God.  For example, I believe it is very important and so I commit regularly to spending a set amount of time daily in intentional prayer.   I pray constantly, hourly,  but I know that the constant prayers throughout the day in the midst of other activities are not the same as taking an intentional period of time in which I will let nothing come before God, in which I sit in conscious prayer, without interruption.  I know the importance of this and so I regularly commit to doing this, but then other things come up and interfere.  Another example - I ask God for direction, promising to follow, but there are times when I feel pretty sure I’ve heard from God about what I should be doing and still find I don’t do it.  More specifically, I know we are supposed to keep the Sabbath holy, I feel deeply the call to do that, to take a day each week “off” and to spend that time resting and in prayer.  I commit constantly to doing this, to having a day that just belongs to my family, and yet inevitably I work on my day off, answering emails, making phone calls, even writing sermons.  It is a challenge for me to always match my words of good intentions with my actions.  Have any of the rest of you had this trouble?  

              In contrast to our own actions, we have God’s actions.  The Exodus passage from today shows us a grumbling people.  These are a people who complain and complain.  They’ve been led out of slavery, but they complain that they don’t have enough to eat.  They’ve been set free from a life of hardship, but they threaten Moses because they worry they won’t have enough to drink.  God responds to these complaints not with anger, not by yelling back that they should just be grateful, not even by showing them the bigger picture.  God responds by giving to them what they ask for.  First, God gives manna.  Then God gives water.  God gives them directions and guidelines in the form of the 10 commandments.  God gives them leaders and people to support them in their times of fear and discomfort, people like Moses, Aaron, and later, Joshua.  God’s actions show us who God is – a God who loves God’s people so very much that God gives again and again to the people, even when they are unfaithful, even when they are whining – God gives them what they need, and often much more than they need.  Just as our failure to act as we intend says something about us, God’s actions show us a God of deep love, again and again.

In light of all this, there are two quotes from one of my favorite children’s authors, JK Rowling, that I’d like to share with you.  The first, “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  What we do with our lives, how we act, what we do with the gifts, the talents, the time that God has given us- this is what defines us – for ourselves and for those around us.” 

The second quote is, “If you want to know what a person is really like, take a good look at how he or she treats their inferiors, not their equals.”  Again, our actions – not those towards people who can report on our behavior or can talk about our behavior or who can affect our lives in a positive or negative way – but our actions towards those who don’t have that power over us – that defines and tells the world what we really value and who we really are.

            What do we do with our time?  What do we do with our talents?  What do our actions say about what we believe about God and about God’s call for our lives? 

One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest - a huge woodland was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire, except for one little hummingbird.  This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream and picked up some drops of water and went into the forest and put it on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again.  All the other animals watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't bother, it is too much, you are too little, your wings will burn, your beak is tiny, it’s only a drop, you can't put out this fire." 

And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird’s efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked. Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a mocking voice, "What do you think you are doing?" And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said, "I am doing what I can."

It is our choices that show who and what we truly are, far more than our gifts, our skills, our abilities.  What we do with our opportunities, how we act in each moment, what we do with the gifts, talents and time God has given us – this is what defines us – this is what tells us and everyone around us who we really are. 

Do we do what we can?  We show our own personhood by what we choose to do…we are how we treat each other and what we choose with our time, with our lives, with our relationships.  While what we say we will do is a component of these things (what we agree to, how we say the things we say, what we consider as important in the way we speak), our actions speak louder than our words.  Our actions tell others who we really are. 

So today I want to tell you what I see and who I see when I look at you.  Your actions, by being people who are “attending” church this morning, even when we cannot be together, by praying with each other and singing praises to God, your actions by passing the peace of reconciliation to each other, virtually if not in person for this time, by calling each other, reaching out to each other, caring for one another, listening to one another, show you to be faithful people for whom your commitment to God is important.  Your actions by supporting Winter’s Nights, Hope Solutions (formerly Contra Costa Interfaith Housing), our adopted family, the Unsheltered Neighbors program, the food pantry, Monument Crisis Center, Glide Memorial, White Pony with your time or your money show you to be people who believe in living out your faith.  Your actions, by supporting the children’s center show you to be a people who genuinely care about children.  Your actions, by loving and supporting each other through visits, cards, calls, rides, meals, and by supporting those in the larger community through their times of difficulty show you to be a people who say you love your neighbor as yourselves and work hard to do exactly that.  You are a people who do not “play” at church but who truly and faithfully live out your faith.  Your actions show you to be the people of God.  And I am thankful to have your example teaching me how to be more faithful.  I pray we can continue to strive to stick to our commitments, to live out our faith, to be the people of God we desire to be.  My prayer is that we continue to reflect the light by all that we do, to pass forward love and peace and compassion.   Amen.

Our choices determine how we respond to crisis

           I think that crisis brings out in all of us an exaggeration of the things that we've practiced daily, both the good and the bad.  We become more fully the people we have chosen to be, with all of our good qualities and all of our challenges when things are stressful.  That means that strong people can become stronger, kind and compassionate people become more so, generous people tend to step up, and people who are good under stress show themselves to be capable and hard working. People under stress can live more fully into being the best that they are, especially if they are trusted to do so, expected to step up and become the people they are called to be, meant to be.  Unfortunately, people who have acted out badly in the past to deal with discomfort, people who have not built up the skills to handle challenges can end up acting out in extreme ways their personality issues during times of crisis as well.
            On an individual level, I've watched several people in my life deal with difficult diseases.  In one case, the person tended towards victimization before the illness struck and she embodies that to a much greater degree.  She sees herself being mistreated in every situation and, as the disease progresses, she becomes more helpless, more quick to blame, attack and accuse, and more prone to dwell on previous insults whether they were real or simply perceived.  Another person with the exact same illness is acting the opposite way: continuing to be positive, to have good humor, to be kind and gentle, even as he grieves the limitations that the disease is imposing on him.  It is difficult to watch and see that personal choices throughout one's life about how to be in crisis, how to face challenges, how to walk through difficulties, are manifesting in these exaggerated ways when those with these illnesses have less choice later on about how they will react.  It is hard to not proclaim to the first person, "you could still be choosing differently!  You would be happier if you chose to see how you do have power rather than focusing on the places you don't!" But I know that a lifetime of choosing predominantly to focus on her limitations has engrained in her very being a pattern that will not allow her, now, in this time of decline, to choose a different perspective.  In contrast, the man with the same disease has also had a lifetime habit of looking for the good, seeing the humor in life, and treating others with kindness.  And his lifetime choices are also manifesting in this pattern of response to crisis.
          I've watched this with people "out in the world" as well.  Some people are becoming angrier during this time, more confrontive, more attacking; while others have become kinder, more compassionate, more caring.  My guess is that again, those acting out that hatred and anger were people who chose to respond this way before the crisis.  The crisis has just exaggerated this behavior.  As I take walks around my neighborhood, I've experienced some people being kinder, saying "hello" as we pass, laughing with me about the situation we are currently in.  I've also had people in cars drive by cursing and screaming obscenities for no apparent reason.  This crisis has brought the best out in some, and the worst out in others.  Still, these are choices that people are making.  And every time I do hear someone yelling or being nasty to someone else, I want to say to them, "this day you choose if what you give to the world is kind or hurtful.  Why are you choosing to give harm today instead of something good?"
           This doesn't just happen at an individual level, but in communities as well.  I think about one of the congregations I served in for a time. Every church has its challenges, every church has its problems, and every church has members in it who "act out" behaviors such as gossip, power-mongering, and a desire for drama that can lead to dissentious behavior and even splits in congregations.  In this particular church, when crisis hit, the congregation did an incredible job of banding together, of supporting one another, of caring for one another.  As a congregation, they had practiced kindness, always, regularly.  When crisis hit, then, they did what they knew best how to do, and they still practiced kindness and compassion.  Still, there were a few members who went into negative, destructive behaviors in response to the stress of the crisis.  At first their acting out was extremely upsetting to me.  But what I saw in this congregation utterly and completely amazed me.  Because it was a healthy community, the "acting out" behavior was given no power.  The gossip did not take root and spread into poison.  The dramatic demands for people to "choose sides" did not morph into anything concrete.  The congregation simply did not empower the bad behavior.  As a result, the few truly dissentious people in the community ended up leaving.  This was not reassuring to me.  The usual understanding of systems of behavior suggests that if one person leaves the group structure or family "mobile", that undoubtedly someone else will rise to take their place.  Family systems theory says that if a person who is acting out badly leaves a community, they will be replaced with someone else acting out in a similar way.  But again, in this very healthy congregation, in a crisis situation, that simply did not happen.  I think, again, using systems theory, that the mobile had never made room for this behavior.  The choices of the community were to not empower that behavior at any time, and that choice continued into the crisis situation.  The difficult pieces had never claimed a real place in the mobile.  We worked through the crisis time, therefore, and the church continued to be a loving, caring, supportive place.  The people who left did so feeling that surely their leaving would impact the church in the way they had tried to do so by being problematic when they were part of the community.  But instead, the feeling I got from most of the members was one of relief that those who tried to incite disruption were no longer there to do so.
       As we know, this could have gone the other way.  In communities where unhealthy and problematic behavior has taken hold, has become part of the DNA, has carved out a place for itself in the system mobile, problems can often grow.  When people in a group thrive on being key players in drama, where bullying is rewarded, and choosing polarizing sides becomes the norm; crisis situations provide fertile ground for painful implosion and turmoil.
        Our society right now is under incredible stress.  Nothing is normal, nothing is what it was or as it has been.  And we are seeing different responses to that stress, as individuals, as small communities and in the larger communities of state, country and world.  How we will respond to crisis will vary.  Some will act out with insensitivity, a failure to self-reflect or to learn, violence, anger, and hate.  Others will use this time to deepen as communities, to build networks of support, care and love, to step into new ways of doing things that are more inclusive and kind, to learn and connect with others in different ways.  Each of these must start with the individuals that we are, with the choices that each person in a community makes.  Then, as a community of individuals strives for compassion, forgiveness, understanding and communication, those communities will grow, learn and become what they are called to be.  In places where dissention is exacerbated and fed through behaviors such as gossip, intolerance, and violence of word or deed, communities will be disrupted and may fail or become more entrenched in unhealthy behaviors.  We will have to make some choices about who we choose to be during this time.   And that has to start with each one of us.
             Who will I be this day?  What behaviors do I want to practice in my person that will be habits that may be hard to break in the future?  How do I want to respond to crisis?  And how do I want to choose to interact with those around me when they are upset, acting out of crisis, or misbehaving?  Can I love and support a person without exacerbating their worst behaviors, passing on or even acting out gossip?  Can I care about someone without feeling I have to choose sides?  Can I respond to anger and violence with peace and love?  Can I take a step back from drama and choose to see a bigger picture, a picture that recognizes the stress of this time and chooses to be a grounded voice of peace?  These are questions we will not only have to ask ourselves in the larger context, but perhaps in each moment of every day.  The answers to those questions will determine the future of our communities.  May you have the space within you to listen for the Spirit's guidance in this day.

Outreach to the Slipping Away

Exodus 32:1-14

Philippians 4:1-9

Matthew 22:1-14

Today I want to talk about faith – our commitment to our faith and our call to share that faith with others.  And I want to start by asking your opinion about why, in the United States in particular, people are so much less committed to going to church.  If you were here in person I would ask you to actually give me your answers, but since we are not together in person, I invite you to take a moment of silent reflection to consider why this might be.

            In the Exodus passage for today we are given a glimpse into one of the reasons people slip away from their faith.  In this Exodus story, Moses has gone up on the mountain to commune with God and he has been gone a long time.  This leader for the Israelites has been the person who, like the Saints for Catholics, has been the intermediary for them with God.  The Israelites seems to be unable, uncomfortable, or unwilling to connect to God directly, so they rely on Moses to do it for them.  So when Moses, their connection to God, is gone for too long, they beg for something else concrete to connect them to the divine and to lead them forward…in this case, they beg for an idol – a golden calf – who will “go up before us.” 

            This story shows us that one reason people leave church or leave their faith is that they have no one to help them experience God.  Do you think this applies to today as well?  I would say it absolutely does.  That while many more of us recognize that we can connect with God directly, for many people experience of God does not come easily.  For whatever reason, many people don’t hear God’s voice or experience the mystery of God in direct, personal, acknowledgeable ways.  Or, maybe what’s more accurate, we all go through dry spells in which we don’t recognize God’s actions or don’t feel God’s presence or hear God’s voice in the way we may feel we need at that time.  I think that this time where we connect to each other virtually only, through zoom or phone or YouTube or Facebook or whatever medium you use is in some ways a mirror for the ways we successfully or not so successfully connect with God – not face to face the way we like to connect with one another.  And for those for whom this way of connecting to one another is hard, think how much harder it is for them to feel and experience God’s presence.    

The shared experiences of others who are connecting well with God, who are feeling God, seeing God, then, can be very helpful to us during those faith crises.  Hearing the stories of others’ experience of God can help us to remember times when we did feel more connected to God in a concrete way, and can help us to hold on to the faith as we remember and experience God through other peoples’ experiences of God. 

But in our mainstream churches, and perhaps especially in the Presbyterian Church, we don’t share or hear these stories very often.  As the “frozen chosen” Presbyterians are, we have become so intellectual, and so suspicious of the experiential and emotional when it comes to spirituality, that we won’t talk about or share our living and real experiences of God: or we don’t share them very often.  Not to say that there isn’t good reason for this suspicion.  We’ve all heard about folk who claim God has led them and who do horrific things, or worse claim that God is leading them to do the specific horrible things that we see.  We’ve all heard about leaders of various kinds who lead others to mass suicides and other acts of destruction under the guise of Divine guidance.

But we also, as people of faith, are called to trust that God really does communicate with us here and now.  And when we do have those experiences, but fail to share our stories, when we fail to stand up and say, “well, this is how I’ve experienced God, this is how God has touched me, and through that I hear God’s call to love my enemies and to care for all people and all creation – not to destroy it”  - when we fail to communicate this, then the only voices that get in the news as claiming connection with the Divine are often voices of hatred, voices of people who claim God hates all the people they hate, people claiming God’s voice as justification for outrageous and cruel behaviors, or people who know that they can claim divine connection as a way to control and hold power over others.  Is it any wonder in the face of this, that so many are leaving the faith and leaving the church?  The only thing they hear about faith is from people who spew hatred and claim it is God’s will that they do so.  People don’t hear about the beautiful and life-giving experiences of those connecting with God on a regular basis because we are afraid to share those stories, afraid we will be labeled as crazy.

While it may sound like I’m lecturing you on this, I’m really not.  I’m not because I think that pastors are especially culpable in this.  In talking with my pastor friends about why they are pastors, most of them became ministers because of their real and tangible experiences of God.  And while it used to be that preaching was testimony – an every week sharing of the experiences, informed and interpreted by scripture, of the real and living God, we no longer do this, or we don’t do it to the same degree. 

So, one of the reasons people slip away is that they don’t connect to the Divine and don’t hear enough from people who do. We fail to translate for folk the experience of a present God into today’s world, leaving people to build idols of work or money or fame, or sometimes even unhealthy relationships because they have been left out in a faith desert for too long.

In today’s passage from Matthew we see another reason.  The Matthew passage shows us  a God who invites into the faith and into God’s kingdom those who are God’s “chosen” people, beloved people, who seem like they would be most anxious to come and express gratitude for what they have.  But the master in the parable is surprised by their response.  Instead, those God invites in first often choose not to come, but rather they go about doing their own thing, oblivious to the fact that everything they have is a blessing from God – sure of their own self-sufficiency in what they have achieved and gained in their lives.  So we see from this that some people turn away from the faith because they are, frankly, too comfortable.  They claim credit for their own comfortable situations in life and don’t feel they have a need for God.

Jesus continues in his parable to show that God is angry with this response, but God turns instead to those who seem less likely to come, those who are struggling, who are suffering, and invites them in instead.  And most of these, who need God, and need God’s banquet, come - and come prepared to delight in the feast God has spread for them.  But even then there is one who does not come prepared.  There is one who chooses not to make any effort, but assumes that the grace of the celebration that is offered comes without any effort on our part.  He comes dressed inappropriately – or rather, he comes without respect or a committed heart.  This part of the story can be hard to understand, so let me flesh this out a tiny bit.  As my lectionary group discussed this, someone said it was like the person showed up right now at this big celebration without a mask.  They did not come prepared to think about others, take care of others, do what was generous and compassionate by showing up appropriately for this wedding celebration.

He, too, then is left out of the party.  Because faith does require a very minimal effort on our part.  Continuing in genuine faith requires more than just showing up for the party.  It requires offering respect to God, and love to God’s people.  It matters what we do.  And there are consequences for our actions.  And for some, the responsibilities of faith will seem to outweigh the gifts of faith.  They, too, then, do not remain.

In our adult study some of us read a book called Mary Magdalene Revealed by Meggan Watterson.  And she says it this way, “Spirit is ethical.  You have to ask in order to receive.”  This has stuck with me for a number of reasons.  God’s love is always offered, God’s grace is always offered.  But God does not force it on us.  It is in our asking for it that we open ourselves to receive it.  That means it is a mutual meeting, again a meeting within the contract of genuine, respectful relationship.  God will not force God-self onto us, will not force us to join the party.  God makes the biggest effort, always, to meet us, to find us, to seek us.  But we are never made to join, to be open to that grace, to recognize the blessings that are there for us every day.

So today’s scriptures show us three of the reasons people do not remain in faith or in church.  They fail to experience or be shown others’ experiences of the Divine, they feel they don’t need God but are self-sufficient, and they don’t want the work that comes with being people of faith.

In his book, Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom also describes some of these reasons and adds some others as to why he, too, had slipped away from faith.  He explains it this way, (p11-13): “It wasn’t revolt.  It wasn’t some tragic loss of faith.  It was, if I’m being honest, apathy.  A lack of need…Who had time?  I was fine.  I was healthy.  I was making money.  I was climbing the ladder.  I didn’t need to ask God for much, and I figured, as long as I wasn’t hurting anyone, God wasn’t asking much of me either.  We had forged a sort of ‘you go your way, I’ll go mine’ arrangement, at least in my mind. … Over time, I honed a cynical edge toward overt religion.  People who seemed too wild-eyed with the Holy Spirit scared me.  And the pious hypocrisy I witnessed in politics and sport – congressmen going from mistresses to church services, football coaches breaking the rules, then kneeling for a team prayer – only made things worse.”  At another place he says, (p.6) “[Humanity] likes to run from God.  It’s a tradition.  So perhaps I was only following tradition when, as soon as I could walk, I started running…”.  Albom slipped away out of apathy and the sense of self sufficiency, just as the rich folk in our parable.  He slipped away because for him it was an intellectual exercise rather than an experience – just as in the passage from Exodus.  He slipped away because the religious people he saw and heard from most weren’t made perfect by their faith and that seemed hypocrisy to him.  He slipped away because the culture is suspect of religion, and it was easier to not participate in something others judge and see as superstitious, or as he put it in another passage (p157), “Part of the reason I drifted from faith was that I didn’t want to feel defensive about it. ”  And he slipped away because it is easier to run from God – because God does call us to a life that is different from what our culture says is acceptable and appropriate.  Again, as with our parable, faith requires commitment and action on our part as well…and that is not easy.  To quote once more from the book, his Rabbi said, “’Now commitment is something you avoid.  You don’t want to tie yourself down.  It’s the same with faith, by the way.  We don’t want to get stuck having to go to services all the time, or having to follow all the rules.  We don’t want to commit to God.  We’ll take Him when we need Him or when things are going good.  But real commitment?  That requires staying power – in faith and in marriage.”  And if you don’t commit, I asked.  ‘Your choice, but you miss what’s on the other side.’ What’s on the other side?  ‘Ah,’ he smiled. ‘a happiness you cannot find alone.’”(P 145).

            These are just some of the reasons that people drift away or fall away or stay away from faith.  And yet our scriptures tell us to “go and make disciples of all nations.”  Again, in the Presbyterian faith, we tend to be afraid of the “e” word- evangelism.  So I want to ask you, why should we care if people don’t have faith, don’t go to a church?  What business is it of ours?  Is evangelism important and if so, why?  Let me put this another way.  What does your faith do for you?  What does your church do for you? 

            For me, there are a number of reasons to be part of a church: our faith communities provide care.  80% of soup kitchens and food pantries are supported solely by faith communities.  Faith communities provide safety nets and places of care for us and for others.  More close to home, our faith communities support one another when we are in tragedy or crisis, they send cards, make phone calls, offer rides, bring food, offer child-care, pray with one another.  One of my favorite movies that really shows what community can be is “Lars and the Real Girl”.  It’s an odd movie about a person suffering a mental illness crisis.  But when he went through a tragedy that, for all intents and purposes was not even “real” for anyone else, the community of faith still showed up to support him.  They still brought casseroles and sent cards and presents and offered support to Lars when he was in crisis, despite the fact that he was grieving something that didn’t exist.  They came by the house with their knitting and with food and they just sat.  “We sit.  That’s what we do when tragedy strikes.  We sit,” a church member declared.  That’s what we do for each other in faith communities.  When tragedy strikes, most people find their help and support from their faith communities.

            Secondly, churches tell us “I am somebody because God loves me.”  I am somebody, because I have the love of God.  Isn’t that worth sharing with others?

            Granted, for some people faith is just about fear and guilt and shame.  But we claim to believe in a good God, and my personal experience of that God is that She/He is a God of life, a God of daily resurrection, a God of love. 

            I want to share with you a piece of my experience of God today (today’s “testimony” for you).  I remember having a conversation with a pastor friend in which we were discussing hard times that we both had gone through.  And he asked me if the hard times had changed my faith at all.  “Oh absolutely!” I responded.  “So, does that make it harder for you to preach, especially whenever you were or are in the midst of crisis?” he asked.  And for a minute I couldn’t answer because I was confused by his question.  It really took me a minute to understand that he had assumed that difficult times threw my faith into crisis.  But that is not what I meant when I said that challenges and crises changed my faith.  The crisis in my life has indeed changed my faith – but always, every time, by deepening it.  Each time, I’ve had to look hard at things I never wanted to see.  I have had to face things I never, ever could have imagined or dreamed that I would face.  But through it all, God’s presence each time has become tangible for me in a way that I cannot deny.  It has been tangible through the love of people in my congregations; through their words, hugs, smiles, care.  It has been tangible through the love and outreach of my friends and community – and the deepening of those relationships.  It has been tangible as faith has encouraged people here and elsewhere to share their own hard experiences at a much deeper level, deepening both my ability to pastor to them and our mutual friendships.  It has been tangible as I have received e-mails right when I needed them expressing love, care, support, and encouragement.  It has been tangible as music with words and sentiments I needed to hear showed up in my life exactly when I needed to hear them.  It has been tangible through the scripture passages that have come up or that I have read right when I needed to hear them.  It has been tangible by the strong, strong sense of God’s presence with me, by the whispered words from the Holy Spirit, by the face of Jesus remembered and shining through you.  It has been tangible through my children, their words, their challenges even and of course their daily blessing.  That is the God I know. 

            Finally, while God does ask of us commitment and while God calls on us to be God’s people, which is not easy, at the same time, what we gain from the giving is always so much more than we actually give.  Again to quote Mitch Albom, “As is often the case with faith, I thought I was being asked a favor, when in fact I was being given one.”

            God gives us life.  Our faith gives us life.  For these reasons, we are asked to share our faith. 

            If you had just discovered a wonderful restaurant wouldn’t you want to share that?  If you had just discovered a wonderful new food, wouldn’t you want to share that?  People recommend books to me all the time, movies, YouTube videos. 

            We feel like somehow sharing faith is different because we don’t want to be pushy and our experience with most evangelists is that they are.  But we don’t have to be pushy about our faith.  We can share our excitement about our church, our community and our faith in the same way we share about a good book, or good food or a good restaurant.  We can share our excitement without insisting that people commit to something they know nothing about yet!  The people who say, “Commit to Jesus now and he will save you,” without first inviting people to get to know Jesus are really missing something.  How can you commit to something or someone you don’t know?  We don’t marry people we don’t know.  And if you do commit to something you don’t know, in these days, what is likely to be the depth of that kind of commitment?

            So one of the ways we share our faith is simply by expressing our enthusiasm for it.  Another way is by living that out in such a thorough way that people are excited by what they see and want to be part of it.

            Jewish tradition actually tries to discourage converts, emphasizing the difficulties and suffering that the Jewish people of faith have and do endure.  Maybe we should try that.  I mean, frankly, I am much more intrigued by something when people tell me I can’t be part of it then when they try to convince me I want to be part of it.  After all, as the saying goes, many of us don’t want to join any club that would have us as members, right?  And people like to suffer for a good cause, something they really believe in.

            Finally, I strongly encourage you to share more of your experiences of God with one another.  Because these tie us to each other in the hard times and boost our faith when it may waver. Bottom line, there are lots of reasons why people fall away from faith or their faith communities.  But there are more reasons to share our faith and to invite people to be part of that.  So I invite you to try, to invite others into the good news of your faith.  We have little to lose. They have everything to gain.  Amen.