What was once alive, once green, once bright, is now in these days dead, withered and dark.
There is
only a faint hint of days long distant in the most recent of times.
What is
it to succeed
and
leave a legacy?
To
overrun others, destroying them with lies, in order to have more, in
order to cover up one’s sins?
Or to
suffer rumours and lies that destroy one’s reputation and finances
leaving one homeless?
This day, Jesus answered God’s call to submit himself to death, a torturous death, and to die.
Did
Jesus succeed? Did Jesus destroy others, or did he allow others to
try to destroy him, and respond with grace and forgiveness?
If more
of the world knew Grace and lived it well, more people would succeed
…
in
bringing the basics of life to others with their sacrifices.
The
world may seem dark, especially in these days when we remember that
God died, and remained so, for three days.
There is
only the reflection in our memories of the light that has guided our
paths. But there will be a great light, that will shine in every
darkness, and bring justice, restitution, and new life to those who
are destroyed by others lies.
And for
those who have destroyed with lies … may God have mercy on them.
This
morning we remember Jesus’ last hours, as the soldiers, by Pilate’s
orders, in response to the crowd’s demands, hung Jesus on the worst
instrument of torture, the cross.
The
characters
Remember
the many characters in Jesus’ last hours. Judas, the soldiers, the
High Priests Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate, Malchus, Peter, the crowd,
Jesus’ Mother Mary, her sister Mary of Clopas, Mary Magdalene,
Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and of course Jesus.
Our part
None
of us were present in that horrific drama more than 2000 years ago.
Yet we are characters in so many terrible dramas that have taken
place in our own life times, dramas that are devastatingly so
similar.
Girard,
Scapegoating
The
French Historian and Anthropological Philosopher Rene Girard
identified the similarity that ties Jesus’ last days with our all
too common dramas as a common human sin, scapegoating. Girard pointed
out that we all greedily strive to have more than just the
necessities of life. Thinking that life is a zero sum project (that
there is not enough for everyone) we try to take from others so that
we will have more. That’s greed. And greed eats at our souls.
What
nearly always happens next is worse. Since we cannot tolerate that we
would be mutually so terrible to those close to us, we together find
an innocent bystander, someone vulnerable and uninvolved, someone who
we do not know well and therefore can bring ourselves to not care
what happens to them. Without any justification we project all our
collective sin and guilt onto that person, condemn them, judge them,
and ruin them. Working together we ease the unbearable conflict
between us.
Like
Joseph’s brothers in the Old Testament getting rid of the evidence
of their horrendous sin against their own brother, we exile the
innocent person. We’ve attached our sins to that person and then
collectively forgotten about them and our sins, so that we can live
together in peace. The darkness hides that our peace is bought at the
price of an innocent bystander’s destruction.
We are
exactly like the characters
In
exactly this manner Judas, the high priests, the crowds, Pilate, and
the soldiers condemn and kill Jesus. And we do this so often to other
people today. We may not use crosses to crucify, because we want to
be able to say we are not as bad as those who have gone before us.
Instead we use gossip, innuendo, and rumours to ruin innocent
people’s reputations, ruin them financially, and drive them from
our communities.
Even
when we are not Judas or soldiers or the crowd, or the high priests
or Pilate, we stand too often with the crowds watching as another
person’s reputation and finances are ruined. We watch and are too
afraid to interfere. We are even entertained and reassured as if to
say to ourselves, “all is well in the world if evil is uncovered in
others and they are made to pay. We, though, are good enough for
God.”
Jesus,
Clear story of God’s intent: the last scapegoat
In
truth Jesus came to be the last scapegoat, the last sacrifice needed
to set us all free from all sins, especially these terrible sins of
greed and scapegoating, of hiding from our own sins.
God
led Abraham to the mountain to sacrifice Isaac. But then God
interrupts the sacrifice providing a goat instead for the ritual. God
says: no more child sacrifice.
Likewise,
God led Jesus to the cross, as the last scapegoat ever needed, and to
give us Jesus’ life and death story so that we might learn more of
God’s intention for us, which includes: no more scapegoats.
Jesus
forgives those who betray, arrest, judge and crucify him. God calls
us, instead of scapegoating innocent bystanders, to be that same
forgiveness for all people.
Yet,
we are still in bondage to sin and unable to free ourselves, and we
continue to sacrifice others instead of ourselves.
Today we
are in the crowd again
Today
we remember how we are just like that crowd again, as Jesus is raised
on the cross to die a torturous death.
We beg for
forgiveness … and time
We
ask for forgiveness. We hope we will learn to stop sacrificing
innocent people as scapegoats. We pray that God will intervene,
transform our sins into blessings, and make God’s will clear also
among us, in our words and through our actions.
…
Even
so, we know we will continue to sin, so remembering Jesus’ story,
we beg God for mercy, and forgiveness, …
Tonight
we remember Jesus’ last supper as he declared Gods’ New Covenant
with us by offering his body, the bread of life, and his blood, the
wine, to all people.
This
Covenant is handed down to us, starting with the disciples present at
Jesus’ last supper, to Paul, and through Paul to generations upon
generations. Each handed Jesus’ story on to the next so that this
Covenant of Life would be remembered and many lives could be lived in
response to it. Jesus uses an ordinary meal.
Salad
There is
nothing quite like an ordinary meal that begins with a crisp, fresh,
green salad, with freshly squeezed lemon on top.
Perhaps
you’d like to add salad dressing, cheese, croutons, or tomatoes.
Or
perhaps you’d actually prefer a lot of tomato sauce, all on one big
crouton with lots of cheese melted on top, with slices of pepperoni.
Okay maybe a big pizza instead of a salad.
Just
an ordinary, nourishing meal.
Setting of the Last Supper
Jesus
knows he and his disciples are at great risk in Jerusalem. For days
now he has taught in public and all has gone well. Jesus is ready for
what must come. They will betray, torture and kill him. He has not
given up, rather he has answered God’s call for him to suffer so
that all people will know about God’s forgiveness for them.
On his
last night he gathers to celebrate the Passover with his disciples.
He makes sure that his disciples for generations to come will
remember him and thereby know God’s Grace. Jesus uses two very
common items of the meal, bread and wine, and instructs his disciples
to remember him every time they eat bread and drink wine. It may
sound like wine was a special component, but the water was not safe
to drink, so, if one could, one drank wine instead.
Each meal, Everyone
Jesus
directed all of us to remember him each time we eat bread and drink
water or wine. The Church ritualized this meal and made it central in
worship so that it would not be forgotten. Still we’ve taken this
common meal, revered it, and reserved it for a special celebration
held sometimes at most once a month. At times we’ve limited who can
take part in the meal to just good people.
Regardless
how we practice it, we do remember Jesus’ words, take it all
of you. Whenever you eat and drink, do this in remembrance of
me.
To drink
Most
of our common meals today include something to drink: a cup of coffee
or tea, or glass of water or even a good glass of fruit juice and
spritzer to whet one’s appetite.
Meal to Remember and Learn from
Jesus
made the New Covenant at their Passover Supper so that his disciples
would take note. He gave us his words to ensure we would remember,
even if we would not practice, what his words tells us.
Jesus
intends that we remember and discover again God’s purpose for each
of us. God gives us Jesus’ example to follow, giving up any
privilege we have, humbling ourselves to serve others, sacrificing of
ourselves so that all others will receive justice, freedom, food and
homes, and everything else they need for the abundant life God
intends for each of us. Jesus shows us how to forgive everyone
always, even as he dies on the cross.
Vegetables
Most of
us commonly have vegetables at our meal, green and dark coloured,
maybe a variety of cut vegetables with a creamy cheese sauce on top.
Common Food Items, With Great Effects
Jesus
does something very uncommon at his last Passover. He washes the feet
of his disciples. It is a task for a servant. Today foot washing is
not part of meal preparation, since we do not walk everywhere on
dusty roads wearing sandals, and we do not recline to eat.
Eating
and drinking, though, will remain common as long as humans live,
ensuring that celebrating the Lord’s Supper may be common enough,
as long as Christians remember and hand on what has been handed on to
them.
Through
the generations remembering Jesus’ Last Supper has held many
families and churches together, kept many falsely incarcerated,
exiled and oppressed people alive when they could not gather for
worship. Along with our simple confession that Jesus is Lord, this
meal has helped preserve the faith in many places many many times in
history when all seeme lost. This meal of simple items has soothed
the anxious souls of countless Christians through the generations.
Protein
The
heart of our common meal comes down to some protein, perhaps a little
roast beef, pork ribs, or chicken. Maybe a fresh fish from the lake
via the grocery store, a handful of mixed nuts, or even eggs.
The New Covenant
At the
heart of his last supper Jesus establishes God’s New Covenant with
us. God has made covenants with the people before.
One of
the first was the covenant with Noah, when God promised never again
to wipe out creation with floods. It is marked by the rainbow in the
sky.
Perhaps
the greatest in the OT is God’s Covenant with Abraham. God promised
Abraham and Sarah descendants enough to make a great people and land
for security and stability. This covenant is marked by the Passover
meal recounting how God delivered our ancestors from slavery,
bringing them through the wilderness into the Promised Land.
The New
Covenant in Jesus’ blood poured out for us is God’s most complete
communication of who God is, and how God relates to us with Grace and
forgiveness made possible through God’s own sacrifice.
Dessert
To top
off our common meal we’ll include a light fruit dish with coffee
hagen daaz ice cream. OK too uncommon and too expensive. So maybe a
slice of apple, cherry or pumpkin pie with a scoop of vanilla ice
cream on top, not a five quart scoop. Just one simple scoop as a bit
of a teaser, on top of a good meal, to help us remember the meal, for
hours to come.
Until we
grow hungry again the next day and start over feeding our bodies so
that we might live.
For Each and Every Christian
God
makes the New Covenant with each of us in our Baptisms with water and
Word. God renews this covenant with all of us at each meal.
When we
offer each person Christ’s body and Christ’s blood, we say
Christ’s body given for you, and Christ’s blood shed for
you.
We
gather as a community to share Jesus’ meal with everyone. Jesus’
gifts, though, are not just generally available. They are very
specifically for each of us, to heal the brokenness and suffering of
each one of us, to nourish our spirits and to give each of us
abundant life.
Tie the two together: our daily meals, Jesus’ Last Supper celebrated
There
are common meals to nourish our bodies. We hope and work so that
everyone has at least one of those each day. We humans also require
meals to sustain our spirits.
There is
no challenge, no work of the devil, no grip of sin, no enemy’s
attack on us that is impossible for us to face, because we feed on
the body and blood of God’s own Son. God’s Spirit in and through
us is undefeatable, even by death.
After
this his last supper, Jesus goes out to pray in Gethsemane, until the
soldiers …
…
Tomorrow
we continue our worship service with the next segment of God’s
story given to us through Jesus’ life, remembered and handed on to
us, so that we can hand it on to others, … so that all may
have life abundant.
Spring Struggles to Break in as Large Flakes Cover the Once Bare Ground Again
My
wood stove, set up to provide heat in the severe -40°C winter worked
wonders. It
even
provided hot water for coffee in
the morning
and tea throughout
the day.
It
was not
without it’s challenges as the stove pipe got so hot that it melted
the plastic tarps of
the shelter around the stove.
Holy
Week is our opportunity to remember and learn ever more from Jesus
story. Jesus’ story is a life full of communication from God to us,
in a way we can understand.
God tried to communicate to us with Word, creating a good creation. We messed it up, with trying to be smarter than we are and blaming others for the results. Kicked out of paradise we even became murderers, for a ‘good’ start.
God tried to communicate to us with the Law, we turned it into control of others.
God
tried to communicate to us with the prophets, and we thought they
were crazy, because they really were, trying to embody God’s Word
does that to humans.
I
rebuilt the damaged tarp sections, put in a heat shield and a remote
thermometer. Now gets as hot as 70°C without problems.
God
sent his Son, a full life story lived that we can learn. Jesus came
to live, teach, heal, and do remarkable things like calming the chaos
of the waters.
God
exists beyond time, matter, limits. Now Jesus has all the limits of a
human. Paul says it well: Jesus emptied himself of being other than
human, and became limited as a human.
Why?
The
real purpose of Jesus’ life was his death. That’s this week’s
story.
No
one really listened at first, and those that did usually got it all
wrong. Listen to the parade as Jesus enters Jerusalem. They think
that Jesus is God’s way of giving them control again of Jerusalem,
maybe. That’s their hope.
Then
things change.
The
harsh winter slowly gives way to cool spring temperatures, and the
2000° C inside the furnace became way too hot in the shelter. Always
the thermometer showed a max of 70°. It dawned finally on me that
the thermometer could read no hotter than 70°C but the actual
temperature could be much more!
Things
change.
After
the triumphant entry parade into Jerusalem, things go downhill fast
and hard. Jesus is betrayed, deserted, tried, denied, whipped,
condemned, mocked, tortured, abandoned, and murdered on a cross.
There
is no greater measure of suffering.
God
came to live and die exactly like this. Why?
God
came to make clear: God understands our suffering, even if our
measure seems to have an upper limit, God has no limits, God
understands us, our pain, our sin, our suffering, our death.
God
lived it to show us God’s intent for us.
As
Jesus dies, he forgives those that mock, torture and kill him.
This
is what God wants us to be to each other. Not sinners, destroyers,
scape-goaters, or mockers, torturers, murderers, or chaos makers, not
even people who cannot listen to others pain and suffering and not
know what to do.
We
know God knows our suffering.
In
our suffering we experience what others suffer. We know what we most
need when we suffer is forgiveness, love and not to be abandoned.
We
learn this so that we can give God’s gifts of forgiveness, love and
being present to others as they suffer.
God
came as Jesus to show us God’s goodness and love for us has no
limits. God’s forgiveness has no limits. We may not easily hear,
listen or understand, but we have Jesus story handed from generation
to generation. We can always learn more if we pay attention.
Jesus’
story is God’s new limitless thermometer by which we can measure
what really goes on in this world. There’s lots of heat. There’s
even more love, forgiveness, and compassion than we are ever capable
of measuring.
This
week, we remember, we listen as we can, we learn anew as we are able.
From
Jesus story we know and trust, no matter what we do, what we succeed
at or fail at, God understands our yearning, our chaos, our
sufferings …
and God
always loves, forgives and is present with us …
No bugs,
lots of water spread across the low spots.
No great
big, throny bushes, no green trees, and no crowds … in fact great
solitude and quiet.
Just a
walk around
a bit
near the
sunset
before
settling in as a guest of the Queen,
honoured
chosen of my Lord,
on the
shores of a small quite lake,
since
the oil company bought it all up,
except a
few pieces
which
means the Queen still has a small plot
that she
shares, by law, with a few homeless,
and
quite a few wealthy land owners looking for
the gift
of nature: health and joy.
There’s also enough detritus left around that proves there are a number of irresponsible beer drinking, condom throwing, and garbage dumping foolish visitors.
So I took a bag with me on my walk around to collect some of the detritus. Lots more, like the condoms, still lay strewn on the ground, things that I needed more than just one bag to be able to pick up and haul out for other fools.
Why does the Queen receive such fools?
Why does the Creator tolerate such fools?
Perhaps because one fool is pretty much like another, and all are fools in one way or another.
My call is to be a fool for Christ, so there is that.
And I took a quiet walk around tonight before enjoying a quiet night, with only a couple parking for hours, depositing another condom and toilet paper to found on a quiet morning walk before the full light of dawn.
Solitude is precious as are a good night’s sleep and the clear light of truth.
The Wide View: God talking to us plainly, profoundly
Procession with Palms Luke 19:28-40 Readings and Psalm Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 23:1-49, The passion of the Lord
My wood furnace is setup for heat through the coldest -40° temperatures. Now with spring arriving, at more than 2000°C inside the stove and at the ceiling hotter than 70°C, the heat is too much. What works for one extreme definitely needs adjusting for other circumstances.
Today’s lessons all (except for the Processional Gospel) speak about suffering. Everyone sees more than enough suffering in a lifetime, suffering of one kind or another.
During Holy Week, starting today with the Passion stories, we hear about Jesus’ suffering. Easily enough we wonder why all this suffering. We mean for ourselves, but it’s Jesus’ suffering we read about. The question really is, why does God not come and save Jesus, and us while God is at it, from all the terrible sufferings that Jesus and we must endure. After all God is all powerful, all loving, all knowing. Certainly God could do this, could he not?
Our
question about our suffering, and Jesus’, is really a small part of
a much larger, problematic question concerning our faith that has
plagued thinking followers of Jesus since the earliest days after
Jesus’ death.
The
question is ‘Why did Jesus have to suffer?’
Or before that, ‘Why did Jesus have
to go to Jerusalem?” Or even before that ‘Why
all of it? Why did God need to become a human? Why
did God need to give up existing beyond time, outside of matter,
and before even words or thoughtsand becomelimited by
time, body, and human thoughts and words? Why did Jesus,
to use Paul’s words, empty himself to become a mere human?’
First
let’s look at the results of God becoming incarnate as Jesus
and ending his life suffering on the cross.
Because
of Jesus’ story you know beyond any doubt that all your sins are
forgiven, that you are made right with God your Creator, that you
deserve death yet you get life and life abundant. And all that
applies to each of us. Then there’s the truly
astoundingly awesome result of Jesus’ life: All of that applies to
every human who ever lived.
The
upshot of all that is that we humans do not need to strive to please
God. God’s taken care of that. We can stand before God without
fear, free from all the destructive actions that stem from unhealthy
fear. We are free. We are free from all the guilt, the missteps, the
risk of future missteps … we are free from all that would bind us,
hold us back, and inhibit us.
What
then are we free for? We are not free for our own selfish interests
or pleasures that cost other people their lives.
We are
free to sing out God’s praise.
We are
free to declare Jesus is Lord with our tongues and actions. We
are free to be Christ’s voice, feet, and hands, bringing the same
news and the same abundant life to everyone on earth now and into the
future.
Martin
Luther named this freedom as a freedom to be slaves to Christ.
Freedom from sin, and bondage to Christ’s way and will for us.
That
is the result of Jesus living and dying as a human.
Now why?
There are lots of answers, but the most profound is this:
How else
is God to tell us about God’s will, God’s hope, God’s desire
for us to be forgiveness for others?
The gulf
between God and humans is incomprehensibly huge, by definition. We
have a problem hearing God speak. Remember God is outside of time,
matter, and any limit.
God
spoke words to create the world, with us in it, and God said it was
good.
Next
thing you know we were messing with God’s goodness, turning the
paradise into a competition to be smarter and blame the other. So we
lost paradise and spiralled out of control … as murderers, just for
starters.
Words
cannot communicate to us clearly enough God’s intent for us.
So God
gave us laws. We turned those into demands we placed on others to
condemn and control them, to take life away from them, and to give us
more of creation.
So
God sent God’s only son. We have his story. It’s quite the story.
We remember the most powerful events of it this week: Jesus’
triumphant entry on a lowly donkey into the capital Jerusalem run by
Herod, controlled by Pilate. Leaders, present, try to minimize the
stir and the inevitable collision. In response Jesus tells the
religious leaders if these were silent, the very stones would cry
out.
Yet fear
permeates everyone around Jesus. The story continues with betrayal,
desertions, denials, buck passing, flogging, mocking, disgrace,
torture and death. The disciples become silent. As
Jesus hangs on the cross, they are scattered, cowering in fear. God
as a human dies.
As he
dies Jesus the Son of God declares forgiveness even for those who
torture and kill him. His followers retreat into hiding. Yet the
faith grows and becomes codified and survives as a distinct religion,
lodged in written Word and faithful people gathering to worship as
often as possible.
God’s
Son’s story is handed on from one generation to the next.
God
gives us so much in one exemplary life, Jesus’ life, a life God
encourages us to imitate as we hold the acceptable fast that brings
justice, freedom, food, and homes to those without.
Jesus
came that we would have and not lose this story, or the profound way
it speaks about who God is and what God wishes for all people.
Jesus
was truly human. He suffered as we suffer. This was not playacting.
Jesus knew what it was to feel abandoned even by God.
As to
our suffering, it’s like the wood furnace set to provide heat for
the severe Canadian winter, which out of time or season overwhelms us
and is as hot as hell (or so it seems.)
But it
is precisely in our suffering that God teaches us how others suffer,
and why it is so important that we not lose sight of God’s intent
for us: that we sacrifice everything we can in order that all other
people may have life abundant. In our suffering we most clearly
encounter God’s Grace for us, and how it is meant to be shared with
others.
The heat
in due season, and our suffering taken on in order that others may
live, give us the ability to survive even the most severe winter of
the soul.
Jesus’
story is a story worth listening to, though so many people in the
story do not listen at all. We pray we will not be one of them. Yet
we are assured that no matter what, God forgives us, stays with us,
and lives with us as if we had never sinned at all.
That is
real freedom.
This
week’s story is not one to celebrate with abandon. Jesus’ Passion
is a sombre story to delve into, to remember and always learn more
about.
God’s
story in Jesus’ life story will never be done teaching us about the
abundant life God has for us, each and all.
The Voice of God reflected everywhere after we know Jesus’ story: God is Good, God is Gracious and we can be, too.
Tonight’s Theme Our continuing theme for this Lent is from Isaiah 58, that we hold a fast acceptable to God, one that brings justice, freedom, food, and homes to those in need. That combines with the weekly theme, always having to do with change, and tonight specifically we look at Changing Plans.
Lessons Psalm 2 Isaiah 52:13-15 Mark 10:32-34
God’s Plans are Large Enough for Everything that Comes our Way.
Plans of Mice and [Wo]Men
We
all have had plans. But God’s plans for us are larger. How many of
us have planned our next steps as children moved out for jobs,
university, trade school or full-time employment and even marriage.
Then they rebound back home to recover before leaving again to make
their way in today’s fast changing world.
The
Lessons: God ‘Changes’ Plans OT vs NT God
Tonight’s
readings seem to reflect an old tradition that God approached humans
one way in Old Testament times. Then God changed his plans with
Jesus.
In
Psalm 2 God observes the nations conspiring against God and God’s
anointed. God laughs at them and speaks to them with fury terrifying
them, before warning them to serve the Lord in trembling submission
or else God’s wrath will be quickly kindled against them and they
will perish.
In
comparison listen to the Gospel from Mark where God’s own people
condemn the only Son of God to death. Then they hand him over to
others who mock, spit on, flog and kill him.
The
roles are reversed: God bears the fury and wrath of the people and in
the end God perishes. It is as if instead of demanding obedience God
finally figured out that humans could never stop sinning so
God decided to bear the whole cost of forgiving their sins.
Thereafter God asks, calls, entices, and inspires the people to do
what is right and needs to be done.
Jesus
reveals to us the heart of God
We
know that Jesus came to teach, cure and care for people, and to die
on the cross as the last sacrifice or scapegoat required. The cross
on God’s heart becomes so undeniably visible with Jesus’ death
and resurrection that we can only be astounded.
Even
though we deserve nothing but death and void, God chooses to forgive
our sins. God claims us as children, and we have the most meaningful
work possible: to follow Jesus’ example of giving everything we are
in order that others will have justice, freedom, food and homes.
Call to
abundant life in response to Jesus
Our
sacrifice may even hurt, yet this is what God created us to be and to
do. This is God’s larger plan for us all so that we have life
abundant. Abundant life has very little to do with abundant wealth,
property, possessions, power and influence over others, or
self-serving pleasures. Instead God calls us to sacrifice and to then
celebrate God’s successes, when lost souls return to God. At times
that is each of us.
We see more
of God’s plan, God remains the same
The
tradition that I accept is that God does not change God’s plan or
approach to humans. Rather God was marked by the cross since the
beginning of time as is witnessed to also in the OT, for example in
tonight’s reading from Isaiah concerning the suffering servant.
What certainly does change, and markedly, is who we people think God
is. What changes is how we understand more and more of God’s larger
plan for us.
Stuck with
the ‘OT’ idea of God
Still
we so often get stuck thinking that God demands and we have to obey;
that as we merit we get rewarded with God’s protection or we
perish by God’s fury, and the next generation starts all over
learning to obey God or else.
Our plans
vs God’s larger plans
In
this view of God’s world, we must take control making worthwhile
plans for ourselves. We plan for a great house, or job, or spouse, or
children, or activities in retirement. Some even succeed with our
plans.
God
always has larger plans for us.
More
than 7 decades ago a farm boy, inspired by a missionary visiting at
his church, decided to become a missionary doctor. He worked his way
through college, through a tour with the army in Korea, through
medical school and reported to the church for service.
The
church eventually sent him to Africa. The man planned to spend his
life there with his wife and children. But God’s plan for him was
larger.
The
man got sick, was forced to return home to a family practice. God had
larger plans for him and the man ended up studying again to become a
pathologist. He set up a business in the ever-changing world of
medicine, brought in a partner to expand and improve their services.
Still God’s plan for him was larger.
On
it went with God always moving the man about, even to Antarctica in
the winter when he was 70, until at the age of 75 with his back
crumbling, a double heart by-pass, and needing both knees and a hip
to be replaced the man was ready to rest and stay home. But God’s
plan for him was larger. The church sought him out to return to
Africa to rebuild a medical delivery system that had fallen apart
mostly due to corruption. Now in his 90’s he still travels six
months of every year raising funds and the other six months he
oversees the building of a children’s hospital in Zinga, TZ.
Sometimes
God’s plan sees that we need to be rescued from disaster. I heard
from another pastor about Sarah, who went to college in the States.
Sarah met Jim, through campus ministry. They made great plans. He
planned to be a surgeon and she a nurse. They both wanted lots of
children. God seemed to agree with their plans as they married and
both were accepted into their respective majors.
But
Jim was drafted for Vietnam. He served as a medic and came back in a
wheelchair with one arm and unable to have children. All their plans
were taken from Jim and Sarah.
I’m
not sure that was God’s plan for them, but God was there for
them. Then Jim died suddenly one night, a hidden complication
from his injuries.
Sarah
changed plans and became a family doctor. She married a farmer and
they had three wonderful children, now grown up with families of
their own. God had a large enough plan for Sarah.
Sometimes
the Devil has his way with our lives, but always God’s plans are
larger.
Surprise
If
we’ve thought God is vengeful, demanding, wrathful, and the warrior
protector of us, then we may be in for a great surprise.
The CIA
regime control
To
protect US interests around the world the CIA often provided wet work
and weapons to bring to and keep in power tyrannical dictators who do
the US’s bidding and keep their people in line. It is a devil’s
plan, in response to which God often brings in a larger plan.
CAI vs CIA
In
Three Cups of Teaand Stones into Schools
Greg Mortenson tells the story of the Central Asia Institute, the
CAI, not to be confused with the CIA.
Mortenson’s
project was born of a plan to change the world toward peace through
providing schools and schooling to girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The girls, who would likely become mothers, would then educate their
daughters and their sons. We know education is the most
crucial piece to help the poorest in the world make life better for
themselves.
The
Central Asia Institute was hardly perfect because Mortenson, raised
in Tanzania, was unpredictable and spontaneous. He rarely operated on
a clock or even a calendar. Still the CAI was an effective project
that made a real difference in a real way: by sacrifice and through
real education.
The
idea of education for young girls was picked up by the CIA as a model
for diffusing hostilities, to little effect. Hatred of the west runs
deep.
Terrorists
also adopted the plan, unfortunately with great success, destroying
schools for girls and establishing madrassas for boys which taught
hatred of the west, and trained them for terrorist attacks around the
world.
In
real life the devil has life destroying plans.
As we Grow,
we see the appropriate fast for us
We
grow and change. Our plans change as we grow. As we learn more of
God’s larger plans for us, we can better be God’s agents of grace
for the strangers, refugees, hungry, homeless, the oppressed, and all
those suffering injustice. Yet often God’s large plans catch us off
guard.
The
challenge is to discern at this time a) what is God’s larger
plan for us to bring life abundant to others, and b) what the devil
is trying to do to our lives that takes life from us and others.
God
is always there for us, no matter what plans we have, but God wants
us to change our plans to better match Jesus’ model for our lives.
Jesus’ model is about making the acceptable fast, the sacrifice so
that others may have life abundant.
In
the Gospel story for this morning Jesus returns to Lazarus’ home
for a meal. This is where Jesus raised Mary and Martha’s brother
Lazarus from the dead. Together with the disciples they share a meal.
Mary
‘wastes’ costly oil washing Jesus’ feet. For a blessing the oil
would have been poured on his head. This, though, is just a foot
washing, a practical kindness offered to guests.
Foot
washing sandaled feet
People
wore sandals. They walked the hot and dusty paths and road ways. On
arrival for a meal, where everyone reclined around the table, feet
washing refreshed the guest and removed the awful smell from the
elite people’s animal waste that lay along the way.
Extravagance
Mary’s
perfume was way too costly for the task – probably worth in excess
of $50,000 in today’s funds. It was an extravagance which no common
person could afford.
It
was an extravagance Mary offered for the man who brought her brother
back to life, for the teacher who carried the Kingdom of God around
him, palpable to all who encountered him, for the man who, Mary
believed from her pondering, was the Saviour, the Christ, God’s Son
sent to fulfill God’s promises of old.
Objections
However
one of the disciples objects to the extravagance, because he would
have liked to have the proceeds from its sale put in the purse that
he stole from. He wanted the extravagance for himself. Who knows what
this disciple really wanted, or if anything would have been enough
for him.
Real
Fear of poverty
Given
all the goodness of life and the luxuries we take for granted, there
is always a part of each one of us that objects to such
extravagances. For we have our hands in the cookie jar, and we want
more. Poor people be … well … ignored, … and condemned to live
lives we are so afraid our lives may become. We justify all kinds of
deceit trying in vain to secure our place far from the poor.
Anxiety is us losing perspective of what is real and large, and what is not.
We
have real cause, every day, to get lost in this and all sorts of
anxiety. Our past is full of sins that should land us not just in the
poor house, but out of the Kingdom of God. Instead Jesus comes to us,
each day, starting by saying, do not be afraid!
What
does Jesus have in store for us?
What
does Jesus have in store for us?
OT
God’s up to something again: something new
In
the OT lesson for today Isaiah writes to the people in exile in
Babylon that God is up to something again. Like they, we too often
give up and stop looking for Christ’s light.
To
the exiles and to us Isaiah repeats God’s words: Do not remember
the things of our past. Yet remember that God is the one who brought
us out of slavery, through the wilderness into the Promised Land.
Free from the anxiety of our past that grips us at the roots, we can
now look to the new work that God is about to begin.
God’s
new thing: living water in the deserts
For
the Creator and Re-creator is acting again: A new thing is about to
become: water will flow in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
Canada’s
water
In
Canada we have lots of fresh water. Of course there are plenty of
small communities who have not had clean, fresh water for many
decades. And a survey a few
years ago estimated that between one-third and one-half of North
Americans are mildly, chronically dehydrated. (Published
by Dr. Susan Kleiner, dietician in Seattle-area, reported in
Chatelaine April 2000.)
Early signs of
dehydration are fatigue and headaches. We need water. Yet when
we turn on the taps and enjoy clean water, it is difficult to
appreciate that we are
not getting enough water or what
it means not to have water.
Salt
water, fresh water, living water
Imagine
the drought driven dry desperation of thirst caught in an endless
desert. It is worse for people who survive in life rafts after being
shipwrecked at sea, who spend days on the ocean waters without fresh
water. On the sea water is everywhere, but it cannot quench one’s
thirst, it only makes it worse.
We
are surrounded by so much fresh water, and yet we thirst for the
living water that gives life. We are surrounded by luxuries the
people of history could hardly imagine, powered by oil, technology,
and seemingly magical realities. Yet we often deeply thirst for the
meaning of life, for our place in it, for something to be and do that
will fulfill what we were created to be. Our past is riddled with
failures we hardly comprehend.
If
it is as if our tongues were parched so dry that we could barely
swallow because it hurts so much, and we know we deserve even worse.
Paul, Our Efforts = Nothing
Like
Paul we try diligently to be the people that we think God wants and
needs us to be. We may not be as successful as Paul. He was quite an
accomplished man of God. But all that effort Paul counts as nothing,
in order that, still striving to be the man of Grace that Christ
called him to be, he might receive, not earn, but receive without
merit, the Grace of God, the righteousness which is Christ’s. This
righteousness is only Paul’s or ours as a gift through faith by
Grace.
Christ’s
Gifts = everything
Paul
cannot own his righteousness, it is only a gift. He must leave behind
all his struggle, straining, and striving to fulfill the law. Instead
he strains forward to whatever Christ has in store for him. God has a
whole lot in store for Paul. Most of it is challenging.
God’s Gift, flowing, living water
And
when God acts with a shockingly new thing, then water flows, not just
out of our taps in small trickles, not just clean, fresh water. The
water of life flows in broad rivers, assuring us that the drought is
done.
Praise
for the water from all
How
astounding it is to undeservedly receive water, flowing fresh water,
the living water from God.
Does
it really take so much to move our hearts, to make things different
in our minds, hearts, and souls … so that we will forget the past
failures and recognize the wonder of God’s gifts, the gifts so
basic to life as even breath itself? All this just so that we might
give God praise!
Drenched
in the new largess of God, we should be barely able to contain
ourselves. No matter what we need, God provides, so that we can and
will live in praise of our Creator and Re-creator.
What
does God have in store for us?
What
has Christ in store for each of us? For all of us as a community of
faith?
Lenten
fast
This
Lent Jesus has in mind for us a fast named in Isaiah 58 (from Ash
Wednesday’s lessons), a sacrifice of all that is given us, so that
those suffering from injustice will receive justice, so that the
oppressed will be set free, so that those who hunger will have food,
and those who have no homes will find homes in our homes, in our
neighbourhoods, in our families of faith.
Celebration
of Easter Coming
At
the end of our fast, Jesus has in store for us a celebration that is
so great nothing is too extravagant to be shared with those suffering
injustice, those oppressed, those hungry, those homeless, who now are
with us. This is the celebration of new life given to each of us.
Baptismal
water promises
Just
as Jesus raises Lazarus back to life, we receive the promise and
assurance in the waters of our baptisms that we will be raised from
the dead as well. We too, sinners though we be, will be brought into
the New Jerusalem with all the saints of all times.
All
will praise God
Even
the despised jackals and hyenas will sing God’s praise. No matter
how despised the animal, or the person, all will sing God’s praise.
Even the reality denying ostriches, or similarly the people who
stick their heads in the sand at the signs of danger … Even those
who deny reality will be unable to deny Christ’s reality. When God
does God’s new thing among us, the anxieties about our past will be
gone and no one will be able to stop from singing God’s praise.
For
this we were created, redeemed, made God’s children, and promised
eternal life in God’s Kingdom.
Smell
the perfume of extravagant celebration, and sing as we love the Lord
our God with all our heart, mind, and strength.
As
at Daybreak celebrate [extravagantly]
When
God does this new thing, as at daybreak, the darkness will succumb to
the rising dawn. Then the sol of creation begins anew to give purpose
and hope for the hours to come. The Light will reach everywhere. The
New Light will catch even the spider’s string
[in the sermon photo.]
So
… leaving behind all our anxieties, we can close our eyes having
kept the watch,
For
the Christ’s Light now keeps the darkness and danger at bay.
The
hyenas of home are driven back into hiding. We will have challenges
ahead, even more darkness to face, but Christ expects us to trust his
promises, as we will then again wait for the dawn to return.
Psalm
119 starts: Happy are those whose
way is blameless
Wouldn’t
it be spectacular if we could change our hearts and follow all God’s
laws and be blameless for the rest of our lives. We would be
profoundly happy,
loving the Lord our God with all our heart,
mind and strength! Nothing
would defile us from within or from outside ourselves.
But
we confess that we are all sinful and unable to free ourselves.
Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Luther and many others have made it crystal
clear that no one can be entirely blameless. If anyone were able to
be blameless the whole course of human history would be changed.
What then can we do to change our hearts? Can we change our hearts of stone for healthy hearts filled with God’s Spirit?
Since
1967, when Bernard Christian transplanted the first human heart, we
can have
surgeons transplant our diseased hearts
with new hearts.
Heart transplant patients report it
is more than just a physical experience. Something more changes, as
another person’s heart gives them life. The other person has met an
untimely death. The transplant patient carries on with life, for
themselves and in a small yet noticeable way for the donor.
Though
our meaning tonight for changing our hearts
is hardly physically accurate,
we are
talking about changing the seat of our
emotions, the centre
of our wills, and
the motive behind our
thinking and doing.
First
off this is
a very complicated idea.
Secondly
it is nearly out of the realm of human possibility.
We so often get it all wrong.
Once
a well-heeled congregation decided to look
outside themselves and do something really
good for a poor neighbourhood nearby.
After carefully looking through the neighbourhood they found a
deserted chunk of land, filled with weeds, stones, and
syringes. They
decided it would make the perfect neighbourhood playground. They
bought the land, and
brought in topsoil, sod, and playground
equipment. Then they headed to the
community centre
to invite
the community to make use of it. The
community leaders said only a
very polite thank you.
“What’s
wrong?” a congregation member blurted out.
“Well,”
said one of the community leaders, “we had plans for that land. We
had been saving money and applying for grants, gotten corporate
sponsors, and invested in getting drawings made up. We were on track
to break ground in 6 months. Our plans included a picnic area, a play
area, community gardens and even a basketball court on one end.
“Now we’ll have to let all that go and enjoy the playground.”
We
can try to fix the world with our privilege, power, and wealth. Or we
can use our ears to listen to those in need, our minds to discern
what the real issues are, and our hearts to empathize with their
plight so that how we act will actually meet the real needs of the
people we try to help.
There are things we can do to change our hearts, to change how we feel about another person, our situation in life, and the events that happen around us. While we cannot change our individual emotional responses to events, we can slowly, through diligent practice of habits, change the range of our emotions. We can over time move ourselves from a destructive, disengaged range of emotional responses, to a hope-filled, engaged range of emotional responses to the same kind of events. It takes lots of time, diligent work, and a motivation that only the Holy Spirit can maintain in us.
The first thing we can do is forgive others. We act as if the other has not sinned against us. We treat them special, even giving them gifts they really want. When we behave as if they were precious, they become precious to us again. In time we will realize, we have actually forgiven them.
Only
with the help of the Holy Spirit can we truly change our hearts. We
need God to send people to help. Hearts change the course of our
lives, and the course of our communities, our churches, our
countries, and even the course of human history.
St. Augustine, perhaps the most influential of Christianity’s early thinkers, writers, preachers, and practitioners of faith, did not start out a Christian. Born of a Christian mother and a pagan father, he was denied baptism. He spent his youth as a Manichaean, and according to his own account lost himself in pleasures and wanton living. He was befriended by Ambrose, who he met since they both shared exceptional skills as orators. While Ambrose’s preaching was exceptional and his message was the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, it was Ambrose’s friendship that deeply affected Augustine’s heart and drew him to convert to Christianity. St. Augustine gave himself to the work of Christ on earth, ending his life serving as the Bishop of Hippo in north Africa, where he wrote and preached. Imperfect, rescued, and saved Augustine steered the course of Christianity to be the faith we recognize today. He also steered the Roman Empire towards Christianity.
Because
there was one human, Jesus, who lived entirely
blameless before God, the whole of human history is
changed. Yours and mine, and each of our lives are inexorably changed
toward God, toward life, and toward giving everything we have and are
in order that others may know God’s Grace as well. Augustine was
one piece of this course of history.
Our
hearts inform and equip us to turn our lives in new directions. As
the Holy Spirit moves our hearts to love the Lord with all our
hearts, minds, and strength, then we focus on faith, ideas, words,
and actions which can affect others’ hearts with the same Grace
that saves us each day.
We
trust that God is always with us. We can be blameless and joyful
therefore, not because we are perfect,
but because Jesus steps in for us and we are reckoned to have Jesus’
blameless track record.
There
is something spectacular to being the donor of Christ’s heart to
those in need. It is to give to another the
seat of our will
and passion, the centre
of our life,
and to give our hearts
to another in order that
they may live, and that living
they may have life abundant.
Have
a heart. Have a change of heart. Because the Holy Spirit helps us
surrender our hearts to the will, passion, and purpose of Jesus
Christ, therefore we live, heart and all, as God calls and equips us
to live.
We
live as never before. We live the fast that is acceptable to God, the
fast that through our sacrifice others receive justice, freedom,
food, and homes.
This is really still way too rough, but here it is, as a way-point along the way. Before it is done it needs to be half as long, and more focused.
There’s work to be done on it.
Lenten Theme: Isaiah 58: A fast that is acceptable to God: sacrifice for justice, freedom, food, homes.
This week’s Theme: Change of Heart
Lessons: Ezekiel 36.22-28 Psalm 119. 1-16 Mark 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Our Hearts are chaotic, reflecting so much of our lives, but they are not without the Light of Christ! We are never alone.
A Change of Heart
Happy
are those whose way is blameless
Blameless No one!
Jesus,
Paul, Augustine, Luther and many more Christian theologians and
teachers have made it crystal clear that if anyone were to be able to
be blameless the whole course of the human species would be entirely
different. No one can be entirely blameless.
In
fact we confess that we are all sinful and unable to free ourselves,
that we require Jesus’ intervention of grace so that we can live in
God’s promise that we are God’s children, God’s ambassadors of
grace to all people.
Only Obey if written on our Hearts
The
only way that we at all can obey God’s commandments and statutes is
if through the Holy Spirit, they are emblazoned on our hearts, so
that we can do no other than follow them.
Change Hearts: God does us right with God
Wednesdays
after a soup supper we’ve looked at change of season, change of
circumstance, change of habits, and today we look at changing our
hearts.
The
starting reminder is that this is not possible for us alone; and
further that not our habits, nor our words, nor our thoughts, nor
even our beliefs put us right with God. We never are right enough
with God. God takes us in as Children, as recipients and bearers of
Good News, as Ambassadors of Christ, as the voice, the hands, the
feet, and the compassionate Grace of Jesus Christ for other people.
God does it all, and then we get to respond, because the Holy Spirit
equips us to respond.
We
can practice responding, bathing ourselves first in reminders that we
need the Holy Spirit to work in us, in order that our practice will
be any good at all. Then we can set forth, practising all we can;
Praying that the Holy Spirit will transform our feeble efforts into
the real Grace of Jesus the Christ.
What
can we do to change our hearts?
Transplants
Since
1967, when Bernard Christian transplanted the first human heart, we
can have surgeons transplant our diseased heart with a new heart.
Heart transplant patients report that having one’s heart changed is
more than just a physical experience. Something more changes, as
another person’s heart gives them life, a person that has met an
untimely death. The patient carries on with life, for themselves and
in a noticeable small way for the donor of the heart.
What is the heart to us? What exactly are we
trying to change?
In
many ways the heart is much more than it was thought to be in old
Hebrew thought, or even in the thoughts concerning heart, mind and
soul in Jesus’ day.
[fill
in OT thoughts of heart, Greek thoughts of heart, compared to mind
and soul, and compared to today: heart, the seat of emotion. Maybe
maybe not?]
In
many minds today the heart is the seat of emotion, of passion, of a
person’s will. This may not match much of what we know about the
physical anatomy of the human body and mind; but it is common in
literature and in everyday thought.
Whether
our understanding of the heart is accurate or not, this evening’s
theme is precisely about more than changing just a physical heart. We
are talking about changing that which is the seat of one’s
emotions, the center of one’s own will, and the motive center
behind one’s thinking and actions.
Nearly Impossible
To
change the seat of emotions, the center of one’s will, the motives
behind one’s thinking and actions is first off, a very complicated
concept.
Secondly
it is so much more complicated to accomplish. It is nearly out of the
realm of human possibility, but not wholly.
So Many Efforts Miss
A
well-heeled congregation decided to do something really good for a
poor neighbourhood nearby. After carefully looking through the
neighbourhood they found a deserted chunk of land, filled with weeds,
stones, even the odd syringe. They decided it would make the perfect
neighbourhood playground. They bought the land, brought in good
topsoil, sod, and finally playground equipment. Then they headed to a
community hall to “hand over” ownership. The community leaders
said a very polite thank you, but seemed lacking in enthusiasm.
“What’s
wrong?” a congregation member blurted out.
“Well,”
said one of the community leaders, “we had plans for that land. We
had been saving money and applying for grants with corporate
sponsors, invested in getting drawings done and we were about 6
months from startup. It would have had a play area, community gardens
and even a basketball court on one end.
“Now
we’ll have to let all that go and enjoy the playground.”
But still we can start trying
There
are things we can do to change our hearts, to change how we feel
about another person, our situation in life, the events that happen
around us. While we cannot change our individual emotional responses
to events, we can slowly, through diligent practice of habits, change
the range of our emotions that we experience. We can over time,
encountering pretty much the same kind of events, move ourselves from
a sad, downward unengaged emotional response to common enough events,
to a hope-filled, engaged, even joy-filled emotional response to the
same common events.
It
takes lots of time, diligent work, and a motivation that is nearly
without limit.
Holy Spirit is writing on our Hearts
And
that is when we see that, though we may like to think we can
accomplish such a change of heart, the Holy Spirit is required to
change our hearts to be those of people to serve Christ and Christ’s
people.
On
the other hand if we ever would want to change our hearts away from
God, then we need to fight off the Holy Spirit first. We need to
fight against the Spirit to be able to think we taken even one step
distance from God who has promised to be with us for life and beyond.
What
we can do, forgive: act as if the other has not sinned against us.
Treat them special, even. Give them gifts they really want. Behave
that they are precious to us; they become precious, and then we
realize, we have actually forgiven them. We’ve moved beyond the
emotional load experienced when we remember what they have done to
us. We still remember, but it is not an emotional drain. It is more
and more like information that does not impact us.
Changing a Heart makes huge differences
In
many ways we suffer what happens to our hearts.
But
we can choose to set parameters for our hearts. We can choose the
universe that our hearts operate in. Other people influence our
hearts more than we will ever know.
We
can try to fix the world with our privilege, power, and wealth. Or we
can use our ears to listen to those in need, our minds to discern
what the real issues are, and our hearts to empathize with their
plight so that how we act will actually meet the real needs of the
people we try to help.
St.
Augustine, perhaps the most influential of Christianity’s early
thinkers, writers, preachers, and practitioners of faith, did not
start out a Christian. Born of a Christian mother and a pagan father,
he was denied baptism. He spent his youth as a Manichaean, and
according to his own accounts lost himself in pleasures and wanton
living. He was befriended by Ambrose, who he met since they both
shared exceptional skills as rhetoricians. It was Ambrose’s
friendship that deeply effected St. Augustine’s heart. He converted
to Christianity, was baptized, and ended his life serving as the
Bishop of Hippo in north Africa, where he wrote and preached; and
steered the course of Christianity to the faith we recognize today,
as well as the Roman empire towards Christianity.
It
is the heart that informs and equips us to turn our lives in a
different direction, which can either be for ill or for the better.
It is our hearts devoted to Christ, thankful for all Christ has done
to give us breath and renewed life, which focus us on faith, ideas,
words, and actions which can help others experience what we
experience from Christ.
Hearts
change the course of our lives, and the course of our communities,
our churches, our countries, and even the course of human history.
Joyful and blameless; a gift
We
trust that God is always with us. We can be blameless and joyful
therefore, not because it is our track record, but because Jesus
steps in for us and we are reckoned to have Jesus’ blameless track
record.
One person, the Christ, was
blameless, gifts his to us
Because
there was one human who lived and lived entirely blameless
before God, the whole of human history is changed, yours and mine,
and each of our lives are inexorably changed toward God, toward life,
and toward giving everything we have and are in order that others may
know God’s grace as well.
Donor of a Heart; call to sacrifice so others may
live with great hearts
There
is something to being a human heart donor, besides that first one is
on the other side of death. It is to give to another the seat of
one’s will and passion, the center of one’s life, and to give it
to another in order that they may live, and living may have life
abundant.
Have
a heart. Have a change of heart. Give your heart to living as God
calls and equips you to live.
Surrender
you heart to the will, passion, and purpose of Jesus Christ.
And
live as never before: live the fast that is acceptable to God, the
fast that through our sacrifice others receive justice, freedom,
food, and homes.
