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September 24th, 2007
07:00 am - Sunday 30 September 2007
18th Sunday after Pentecost
Collect
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The opening words of this collect express our human experience of God quite well. We know for a certainty that God is wonderful, terrible, grand, omniscient, and a host of other things we stretch to describe the One who is. And yet, we are able to relate to that otherness in a very individual way. When we stop for a moment to really consider this we are faced with the reality that it is the mercy and pity of God that we touch so often. We are not quite up to relationship with all that power in its undampened form. Not that we never experience it, we just can’t seem to maintain that level. So we have a name for the daily experience; we call it grace.
Sometimes it is grace that I have one foot on the floor and am struggling to keep the other along side it. That sort of grace often isn't recognized until later when I recover enough strength for reflection. It isn't a splendid eye-caching sort of thing but it is the sort of grace that keeps me going. This ever-present dull ordinary grace sustains life, mine and others. But the truly grand, wonderful, great, marvelous thing is that it isn't restricted to God’s offering it to me. I can pass it on to others. I tie it up in a package and hand it to my mother when I visit her. She really does not know I am her daughter but she is pleased with the visit and that too is grace, direct from God thru me to her. Grace tiptoes silently into every life visiting the grief-stricken with tears, the tired with just enough strength to rest, and parents with the ability to appreciate and cheer for the goalie who just made a marvelous save on the team opposite their own child. Today, look for just one instance of that sort of grace. It might be a good idea to write it down. For those who have the discipline to endure look for an instance every day and keep it posted on the refrigerator this week. And write the mustard seed song from our bulletin on there as well. God provides the grace, we pray for the eyes to see it.
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him.
This first paragraph sets the scene and is a bit of a history lesson. It tells us that Jeremiah lived during what is known as an interesting time under very interesting circumstances. Zedekiah was king of Judah from 598 to 587 BCE. The respite Judah had experienced after the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian army was over. The then current Mesopotamian empire marched out of Iraq through Syria and Lebanon into modern Israel to besiege Jerusalem. For the residents of Jerusalem things were very bad indeed. The siege lasted about two years. The city finally fell to starvation. Jeremiah had made himself very unpopular with his prophecies of doom and advice to the king, which was, surrender to the invaders. The authorities responded to these treasonable words by stripping off Jeremiah's clothing and putting him in the bottom of a dry well. The king ordered him taken out but confined to a small courtyard where his words would cause minimal upset. Everyone knew that if/when the city fell to Nebuchadrezzar those still alive would be either put to death or driven into a foreign land. Things were rather grim in Jerusalem. Thus the action proposed by Jeremiah's cousin strikes a somewhat peculiar note.
Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came to me: Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, "Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours." Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, "Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself." Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
When Jerusalem finally fell to the invading army all but the poorest of the people were removed from the land and the city destroyed. Although foreign peoples were shifted into the area the land remained mostly under-used. For all of his crying of present doom Jeremiah saw far into the future to a time when city and countryside would again be inhabited and productive. He was so certain of this that he bought the field from his cousin in anticipation of going out of the city to plant crops. For Jeremiah the word of God was solid fact to be trusted and acted upon. For generations his act was that of a prophet. The fulfillment was to be trusted and awaited.
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 Page 719, 720, BCP
1
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
2
He shall say to the LORD,
"You are my refuge and my stronghold, *
my God in whom I put my trust."
3
He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter *
and from the deadly pestilence.
4
He shall cover you with his pinions,
and you shall find refuge under his wings; *
his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.
5
You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, *
nor of the arrow that flies by day;
6
Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, *
nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day.
14
Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name.
15
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
I am with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honor.
16
With long life will I satisfy him, *
and show him my salvation.
Although it isn't apparent in our English translation, there are four different names for God in the first two verses of this psalm; Most High, Almighty, LORD, and God. Scholars who read the bible assiduously have noticed that each of these names is used somewhat exclusively in any given story. Different storytellers had favorite attributes they highlighted for their tribes. Thus it is assumed that each name comes from a different tradition of the many people who made up the tribes of Israel. In Psalm 91 the writer is calling the attention of the various traditions into a unified God. He is also calling the many tribes out of their family identities into unity. We all worship the same God although we use many names. Let us all recognize that we are one people. His call is just as relevant today. Instead of being distracted by our little differences we need to remember that we are all humans sharing a single planet.
In ancient times it was assumed that the king got to be king because he had the particular favor of the dominant deity; he was the chosen one. Besides bringing the tribal loyalties together, the Psalmist is about another end. By verse 14, he has woven the many names into a single acclamation - God and the chosen one will be so entwined that they will know each other by Name. The people of the nation state of Israel assumed that their king and God would know each other. The followers of Jesus made another connection. Jesus is The Chosen One. He is the one so intimate with God as to be one with him.
1 Timothy 6:6-19
There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
There it is folks the origin of the "old saying" only it is a little different from the commonly assumed meaning. It is the love of money that leads to evil. Not the money itself. Filthy lucre is still filthy, as a friend who worked in a bank said, “money passes thru so many hands that it picks up all kinds of dirt.” But it generally isn’t the physical dirt that harms us. It is the eagerness to obtain money that overcomes our best intentions and leads us astray.
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time-- he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
This last part might be rewritten for today to say something like this. As for those folks who live in Redondo Beach with houses to protect them from the weather remind them that their security is not the house or the yard or the neighbors. Their lives now and later are bound much more tightly to the Lord. It is worth the remembering.
Luke 16:19-31
Jesus said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
We could make a whole host of erroneous assumptions from this story. To begin with there is the thought that "Hades" is somehow available to wherever it is that Abraham is. The rich man can see Abraham and call to him. Abraham can answer. It all sounds very much like things as they are on earth here and now. This flies in the face of Jesus' put down of the Sadducees with his statement concerning marriage and heaven. This story makes life sound as though it extends into another very similar realm. The big difference is that in the continuum there is a reversal of places. This time the poor man gets the goodies and the rich man is left outside. For the follower of the way in the first three centuries this probably sounded pretty good. Many of the believers were part of the margins of society. They were excluded from the mainstream and wanted to know that it was all going to change and one day they could be on top and gloat over those who had excluded them. Boy does that ever sound like a very human desire; and a rather youngish goal at that. The older I get the less I want to gloat over anyone else. That gloating and getting even just do not promote any sort of genuine community. Right up until the final proclamation this tale seems to be all about human stuff.
Even the end is really about the human view. The request is that someone who has been there should tell the folks on this side of a partition what is on the other side. Jesus says even that is not going to change the basic human nature. The law and the prophets are as good a set of guides as is needed and it is all you are going to get. This view of things sets Jesus squarely in the line of the prophets. He is the fulfillment of the promises. Jesus lives out the demands that the prophets told folks were the demands of God. And we can see from the experience of history that even when one rose from the dead and came back not everyone believed. We have more than the people Jesus spoke directly to. Do we believe? Do we act on that belief?
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September 17th, 2007
08:30 am - Sunday 23 September 2007
17th Sunday after Pentecost
Collect
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
One of the earthly things that causes some anxiety these days is the incarnation of God; Jesus. In my lifetime I have heard several "explanations" meant to sooth the anxiety God causes. In high school there was the argument that Jesus was just a man, a very good man, but still just a man. He was in the line of the prophets and we all know what happens to a prophet. This seemed to fit the times, it was the collision between authority and idealism that caused the crucifixion. It was the collision between authority and idealism that caused many of my contemporaries to spend time in jail or sent them fleeing the country. We listened to "Blowing in the Wind" and heard the call of the Holy Spirit. Then the explanation of Jesus was that he only seemed to be human. He was the Spirit taking on the appearance of a man. Just as Jesus was Spirit so too we could by deep meditation become Spirit and leave behind this puny shell. The thing of it is neither of these views is new. Both were expressed as soon as Jesus died and rose. Oh, I forgot there is also the anxiety calming argument that Jesus didn't really come back it only felt that way to the disciples. Why do we get so very anxious that we tell ourselves these things? Well for starters there is the reality of a very powerful something that made the universe and has an interest in humans. So our collect says don't fight the anxiety and don't try to deny it. Instead reach for the reality behind the anxiety. Get friendly with God. Learn to know the presence that is not only located within the stars but contained in humanity as well. In fact get friendly with the humanity that is you. God the eternal lives very close indeed.
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
my heart is sick.
Hark, the cry of my poor people
from far and wide in the land:
"Is the LORD not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?"
("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with their foreign idols?")
"The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved."
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?
O that my head were a spring of water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!"
This is definitely a lament. The sadness, regret, futility, and pain are all readily expressed. But whose words are they? It seems a mixture of Jeremiah and the Lord. Both see the people of the land of Israel injured, suffering, lost, without comfort. All of the laws meant to guide people in being the presence of God to one another are turned to the letter rather than the spirit. Instead of helping and caring for each other the stronger prey on the weaker. There is no physical solace for the people. There is no community. Not only that but the famous healing that came from the eastern portion of the nation of Israel, across the Jordan, is gone. That incarnation of the spirit into the physical realm is missing. It is the loss of the Spirit of God made present that Jeremiah laments. God laments the loss of a people among whom he can dwell. There are no greater losses than these.
Psalm 79:1-9 Page 701, BCP
1
O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance;
they have profaned your holy temple; *
they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble.
2
They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the air, *
and the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the field.
3
They have shed their blood like water on every side of Jerusalem, *
and there was no one to bury them.
4
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, *
an object of scorn and derision to those around us.
5
How long will you be angry, O LORD?*
will your fury blaze like fire for ever?
6
Pour out your wrath upon the heathen who have not known you *
and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your Name.
7
For they have devoured Jacob *
and made his dwelling a ruin.
8
Remember not our past sins;
let your compassion be swift to meet us; *
for we have been brought very low.
9
Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your Name; *
deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your Name's sake.
1 Timothy 2:1-7
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For
there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself a ransom for all
-- this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
As Episcopalians we assume it is proper to pray for guidance of the president, the right action of the city council, the care of God for our political life in all its forms. It is part of our culture as a church.
It wasn't always this way. The earliest Christians expected a quick change in government when Jesus returned. No point in praying for the old political format. In fact this view of religion and politics in the Roman world led to the charge of atheist being leveled at Christians. Because the Christians did not appear in the public temples to pray for the emperor it was assumed that these atheistic people upset the gods. Whatever problem beset a community, from crop failure to a boat sinking was ascribed to an offended deity. And the Christians were the offenders. What proof of this? They do not pray in the temples.
Paul is trying to counter all of this when he says pray for the political leaders. Ask God to guide them and keep them in good health. Let your neighbors know that you pray for the stability of the empire. There is a very practical side to this, if the authorities know that you do your prayers in Christian meetings you won't be persecuted as atheists. The authorities will allow you to live in peace.
Eventually the Christian church became the political authority. Loyalty to state and God were still assumed to be the same thing. At this time prayers in the church took the place of prayers in the "pagan" temples.
However at the time of the reformation some advocated a true separation of church and state. Their stance was that Christians had no business mingling in the politics of a state; it too often led to involvement in wars for one thing. For another as citizens of the kingdom of God Christians could not be expected to give allegiance to earthly powers. These people withdrew into closed farming communities. We see a remnant today in the communities of Huterites in Canada and Amish in the US.
For most Christians however the words of the letter to Timothy are a guide. In our meetings we pray together for the secular authorities that we may live our lives in peace.
Luke 16:1-13
Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?' He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?' He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 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."
This is another of the “hard” sayings. Can Jesus really be advocating that we use dishonest means to gain friends? It surely sounds like it. He praises the dishonest manager and then goes on to say that his listeners ought to follow his example. This is not the sentimental version of Jesus developed by silly adults for unsuspecting children. This is the real man talking to real people in a real world. A world where scheming and fine print are the norm. A world that will see the teaching of Jesus as so dangerous that he must be killed.
So what do I make of this? Well as a start I see that Jesus is telling me one more time that I will never be able to understand the Kingdom if I can’t understand this world. It is another way to say, “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves”. Keeping in mind that this world and everything in it does not belong to me but to God leads to the next step. I have to know how “the system” works in order to be able to live with it. I need the wiliness of the manager to hold up a mirror to my culture so that we see ourselves clearly. As I accept what is useful but wrong and show it to others my community becomes aware. I am learning to be faithful in what does not belong to me. One day I will be given a piece of the Kingdom that is mine.
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September 10th, 2007
09:57 am - Sunday 16 September 2007
16 September 2007
Collect
O God, because without you we are not able to please you mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
That is an interesting thing we ask in today’s collect. “your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts“ God will indeed send direction via the Holy Spirit but we have to act on what our hearts then tell us. We are taught by example and personal trial and error how to live within our current culture from the day we are born. For most of us knowledge of our culture just seeps in without effort. Learning the culture of the kingdom takes rather more mindfulness. God wants to stretch us out of our human culture into his kingdom. It is a strange place, this kingdom, half in and half out of existence in our physical realm. As new facets are glimpsed, new doors on the kingdom open, we are challenged in ways we do not expect. Many times what is the onset of a new and better understanding of the Way seems to be all confusion and dread. Even when we have accepted the challenge and stepped through the opening door it takes time to grasp the meaning behind a new revelation. And even more time is required to live out that meaning. Thus it is that we know what God was saying to us in hindsight better than in the moment.
Jeremiah 4: 11-12, 22-28
Jeremiah lived at a time when a new glimpse of the reality of God, the kingdom, was seeping out the crack of an opening door. The prospect terrified some folks and others utterly rejected it. Jeremiah stood firm in proclaiming God’s words in the face of both.
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse-- a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.
"For my people are foolish,
they do not know me;
they are stupid children,
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil,
but do not know how to do good."
I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the LORD, before his fierce anger.
For thus says the LORD: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
Because of this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
I have not relented nor will I turn back.
Jeremiah had the thankless task of telling people they were about to leave their precious land, the land given to them by YHWH. More importantly perhaps it was perceived as the land where YHWH lived. As Jeremiah told people what he saw coming he was filled with both hope for a restoration of the people to the land and despair that some were going to be removed from the reach of God into the land of a foreign (and so unknown) God.
He could not imagine the deep change in theology that would grow out of the terrible events he saw coming. For Jeremiah God was tied to the land, to leave Jerusalem was to desert God.
Out of this experience the Jews developed a new awareness, God is not limited by geography, prison walls, or spiritual powers. The Jews arrived in Babylon to discover that their God was present in this foreign land. At first they assumed God had left the temple in Jerusalem to go with them. Gradually they began to understand God is present everywhere. Put another way there is no place God cannot be. They took this astounding knowledge into their future and ours. This awareness has been given freely to us. But all that came after Jeremiah. From his point of view he and the people were being punished. It was a terrible dry wind blowing toward them that would take them away and turn their homeland into a desert. The only explanation Jeremiah could see was God’s anger directed toward the nation.
Psalm 14 Page 598, BCP
1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." *
All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;
there is none who does any good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon us all, *
to see if there is any who is wise,
if there is one who seeks after God.
3 Every one has proved faithless;
all alike have turned bad; *
there is none who does good; no, not one.
4 Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers *
who eat up my people like bread
and do not call upon the LORD?
5 See how they tremble with fear, *
because God is in the company of the righteous.
6 Their aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, *
but the LORD is their refuge.
7 Oh, that Israel's deliverance would come out of Zion! *
when the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.
1 Timothy 1:12-17
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
In the 1928 Book of Common Prayer page 76 there is something known as the comfortable words. Taken from Matthew, John and Paul They are sayings to meant to assure the worshiper they have been forgiven. I always wondered why the "words" came after the confession instead of before. I would like to know that I am be loved before I admit how badly I've lived. In any case today's lesson contains Paul's contribution, "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" The words hark back to Jesus reply that he came to help the sick not the healthy. Somehow the realization that I am a sinner, a sick member of the kingdom, is freeing. If I am still in the sinner classification I don’t have to be perfect. I can take risks while learning how to behave. I have the opportunity to reach beyond my current capability toward the future. This is backed up by something else Paul has to say.
In our civil law "ignorance is no excuse" and yet Paul seems to be saying that God takes intention into account. Paul was a persecutor of the new sect forming within the Jewish faith. He rounded up anyone he could lay hands on and turned them in to the authorities. He stood by at the stoning of Stephen holding the cloaks and admiring the work. But he did so because he was trying with every ounce of his being to serve the God of the Jews. His argument to Timothy and to the rest of us as well is that deeds truly done in an effort to please God may not turnout well but the intent counts. It is a bit like the very young child who wants to help Mom by stirring dinner. Generally Mom has to do a lot more cleaning up afterward. But just as Mom knows that her child has to make a mess in the learning God cleans up after us as we learn. With practice we generally get better at actually helping Mom and at acting out the culture of the kingdom. We become an example of the re-creating re-making work of God.
Luke 15:1-10
All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
From a purely human point of view what Jesus has to say reflects the fact that the child who acts up gets more attention from parents and the truant is closer to the principal. What we are missing is that we are all stumbling about as lost sheep. We are all errant coins. Everyone needs to repent daily, hourly. Jesus is pointing out the obvious that Paul hinted at - God is after the person who has somehow lost their way.
The creation stories of Genesis tell us that God created a good world. The problem is not with creation but humans. It is humans who cannot get along with each other. The first rift was between God and humans and it caused Adam and Eve to hide not only from God but from each other as well. The second big rift was between brothers as one became jealous of the relationship the other developed with God in spite of that brokenness. Both rifts continue to the present. In fact the swirl of brokenness and hate has become a permanent whirlpool. Humans certainly have no way to repair it or even find the quiet back eddy. God is about the business of pulling us out of the ever growing maelstrom.
Jesus came to tell us that we are each one very lost and very important. Each one of us is a piece of the puzzle needed to make creation complete and restored. It is going to take work and awareness. We have to know we are broken. We have to know that the ways we have learned to cope with life are not the ones God has for us. It goes deeper than good manners and right behavior to the way we view the world and others. We cannot, like Cain, take offense at the ones who seem to have a closer relation with God. Nor can we like Jacob seek to use the blessing for our own ends. We are indeed each one of us meant to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
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