2 Corinthians 5:17-6:10 Ash Wednesday Sermon, February 26, 2020

Jonah 3:1-10 and Love For Enemies

Observation: After being swallowed by God's fish and spat out on the land, Jonah resigns himself to following God's command and prophesying to Nineveh. Still, he does the bare minimum, not even mentioning God's name or the specific sins of the Ninevites. All he does is walk into town and shout aloud, apparently just once, "Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" But the Holy Spirit won't be counted out. The Ninevites' response is overwhelming. Not only does the king announce a mandatory fast for the people, but the animals too! God's word breaks through despite Jonah's intentionally lackluster performance.

Application: During Lent I'm going to be talking about something that has been somewhat controversial in contemporary culture: "Christian values." The value I see in today's text is love of enemies. It should be obvious, since God made all humankind, but it needs to be said, over and over. God made people from every country in our world, not just our own, not just those with friendly relations with our country, not just those who look or talk or love or worship like us. In fact, to drive the point home, God often calls us to do what Jonah does, and talk to our least favorite people--our enemies. Those who wish us harm, and those who, deep down, we are not sad to see in pain. Like Jonah, God calls us to start the conversation, and leave the response up to God. If God can turn hundreds of thousands of Ninevites into repentant believers, what could God do if we were to simply open our mouths and speak a word of care, even to people we'd rather see get their just desserts?

Prayer: God, I pray for the strength to speak in love to those whose ways are different from mine. Help me speak boldly and lovingly to my enemies: those who offend, and maybe even seek to offend me. Help me value their lives as you do. Amen. 

Costly Grace: The Call is the Promise

It's Shrove Tuesday, which is a great time to get back into Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship.  In the 1930s, a time when the vast majority of Christians in Germany had bought into a nationalistic distortion of Christian faith, Bonhoeffer warned of cheap grace: grace as a doctrinal idea, requiring no repentance or commitment to actually follow Jesus. Instead Bonhoeffer lifts up costly grace: grace that comes with Jesus' call to follow him and model our lives on his.

When I first read The Cost of Discipleship, my little Lutheran mind was blown. I had grown up learning about grace: God's gift of love and salvation that we can never earn by any action we do. Now, here's Bonhoeffer, saying we have to follow Jesus, and that doing so will cost our lives. I remember telling a friend, "that sounds like works-righteousness!" But there's one sentence in there that has been rolling around in my head for fifteen years now: "It is costly because it calls us to follow; it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ."

If Jesus is God's presence made flesh, and heaven is to be with God, then the call to follow Jesus is the call to participate in Heaven starting right now. Faith isn't just believing Jesus has saved us; it's putting down what we're doing and experiencing what salvation feels like. It's more than just believing we'll go to Heaven someday. It's seeing Heaven happen around us and being Heaven for those who need it.

It's not about grace versus works. The grace is the chance to get to work, today, for Jesus.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for calling me to follow you. Help me say "yes" with my thoughts, words and actions, day by day, moment by moment. Amen. 

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:3 Spiritual Dieting Doesn't Work

Observation: Lent is coming, so instead of the daily lectionary text I'm going to use a traditional Ash Wednesday text. Paul encourages his readers to "be reconciled to God", and there's no time like the present: "See, now is the acceptable time!"

Application: As Lent approaches, those who observe the season may be thinking about some kind of discipline: either "giving something up," or "taking up" a spiritual practice, or maybe just getting more regular with something we are already doing, like prayer or worship attendance.

Following Paul's lead, I'll repeat, "now is the acceptable time!" You don't have to wait until Lent, and if Ash Wednesday comes and goes and life gets in the way, there's no reason to count yourself out.

Here's my annual reminder: spiritual dieting doesn't work. Not any better than nutritional dieting does. Any doctor worth their salt will tell you: rather than take some extreme measure you'll abandon after two days, do something small, but sustainable. What you're looking for is long term behavior change, not immediate results.

What does that look like spiritually? Depends on the individual. Look, I'd just love it if life allowed for everyone to attend worship weekly. But that may not be reasonable for you. Still, it's better to commit yourself to once a month, than go three weeks in a row then forget for long stretches when stuff gets busy. Same thing with daily prayer or devotions. Honestly, I don't do them seven days a week either. But I've committed to do it at least three times a week, and more when I can.

Let's not tear off into the desert and try to become spiritual paragons within 40 days. Instead, let's do what we can, what makes sense in the chaos of our lives, right now.

Prayer: God, help me do the next right thing, and not put it off until tomorrow. Amen. 

Hebrews 8:1-6 A Faith that Walks With Us

Observation: The sermon known as "Hebrews" is known for lifting Jesus to the role of "High Priest", which was a very important role in First Century Judaism. Especially after 70AD when the Romans leveled the temple, all Jews (including Jews who proclaimed Jesus as Messiah) had a crisis of faith. If temple worship and temple sacrifice could no longer take place, many Jews felt their connection to God had been cut. In Bible studies I've likened it to if all of a sudden we could no longer do Communion. That's how big a deal this was. But Hebrews makes the case that 1) a heavenly temple, after which the earthly temple was modelled, still stands, and 2) Jesus' sacrifice of himself for us is our new connection to God, no matter whether a new temple is ever built or not.

Application: So, sometimes global political concerns are also theological concerns, and that always makes me uncomfortable. But I made a vow to be a public theologian, so I'm working through it.

Here's the deal. There are Christians whose view of the End Times requires that the Jerusalem temple be rebuilt, or Jesus can't come back. Unfortunately that is a non-starter for Muslims, whose third holiest mosque stands in Jerusalem where the temple was. The efforts of these Christians are damaging to any future peace there.

AND. It is against the witness of the New Testament itself, to say the temple needs to be rebuilt. If that's true, then Jesus' sacrifice was not effective, and he is not our High Priest. Y'all. This is Biblical. And it is not some side issue. It's, "did Jesus' death atone for my sins or not?"

So. If you believe Jesus is in fact your savior and high priest, then you have no dog in the centuries old fight about the Jerusalem temple. The fight you want is the fight for peace in the city over which Jesus wept. Rant over for now.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for your all-sufficient sacrifice. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the city in which you gave your life on the cross. Guide people of all faiths there, into greater wisdom, courage and love. Amen.

Psalm 119:9-16 Ode to Rules

Observation: I'll admit there's a lot about Psalm 119 that rubs me the wrong way. Hey, I'm a Lutheran. I believe God's grace alone saves us, not our ability to follow God's law. And along comes a 176-verse-long acrostic love poem devoted to divine statutes and rules. What's not to love? But in an age where we are so ready to reinvent the wheel, there is worth in knowing that real wisdom is timeless.

Application: I'm a bit of an individualist sometimes. As a musician I'm mostly self-taught. I've never been especially gracious about receiving unsolicited advice... I'm trying to get better about that. Often in order to really learn something, I have to learn it the hard way. What I take from Psalm 119 is that life doesn't have to  be like that. You don't have to learn everything the hard way. I still believe the Bible is primarily a book about Grace. But it's also a book with some timeless wisdom and guidance, that can save us, and those with whom we interact, a lot of  heartbreak if we're willing to trust God more than ourselves. That's a hard sell for me some days, but if I reflect on it, as the Psalm says, it makes sense.

Prayer: God, help me trust you and do things your way, dare I say it, the first time around. Amen. 

James 1:12-16 Talk to Your Thoughts

Observation: We don't normally think about temptation as a blessing, but here in this text I read, "blessed is anyone who endures temptation." Still, though James' letter does not condemn anyone just for being tempted, it also makes clear that temptation is not from God. God doesn't toy with us to test our faithfulness. Temptations come from our own desire. From our own drives as humans, to survive, to reproduce, to have acclaim and self-determination. None of these drives is bad in itself, but unless we understand them and what they're for, they can lead us to do harmful things. 

Application: We are not in control of our thoughts. Let me say that again. We. Are. Not. In. Control. Of. Our. Thoughts. But we do have some control in how aware we are of them, and how we engage with them. Too often for me, the road between random thought and knee-jerk words or actions can feel quite short, to the point of feeling nonexistent. The thoughts I've picked up by the side of the road are often at their destination before I even acknowledge that they're there. What I don't often pay attention to is the fact that, while I can't predict which thoughts will be hitching a ride any given day, I can slow down and decide which ones we will pick up. And even once I pick them up, I can engage them in conversation, to determine if these are going to be good company on my mental road. Bottom line: It is neither effective or helpful to be ashamed and beat ourselves up over the fact that we have negative thoughts. Temptation is a natural part of life. But we have more control than we think we do in determining which thoughts will be helpful in our life of faith, and which ones are better left on the side of the road. 

Prayer: God, thank you for my mind. Help me to be mindful. Amen. 

Proverbs 6:6-23 Right from Wrong

Observation: Proverbs is pretty much a book of common sense. Work hard, learn right from wrong, follow the way your parents raised you (assuming of course that you had parents or guardians who were willing and able to provide good instruction) and all will be well. God actually does not seem to play a starring role in any of this. It's more about setting up personal rules and guidelines for success.

Application: The book of Proverbs contains some wonderful poetry, but all of this moralizing about hard work, following the rules, and doing the right thing to get ahead in life just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Not because I don't believe it or I think it's bad advice, but because it so perfectly fits the stereotype of what people think the Bible is, when the Bible is so much more. I remember learning in Sunday School that B-I-B-L-E stands for "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth." It's catchy but it's completely wrong! If you want that, you can hang out in the book of Proverbs for a while, but elsewhere there are countless stories of humankind gone wrong: broken people in need of grace, and a God who grants it, over and over. Maybe my resistance to the kind of home-spun common sense I find in Proverbs is that the Bible itself bears witness to human nature, that just because advice is good does not mean anyone will actually follow it. In fact, time and time again, what I see is that the better the advice is, the more people will test it, and learn the hard way exactly how good the advice is. Or maybe that's just me. Maybe the best thing about wise counsel is not necessarily that we will follow it, but that it will remind us when we are off course, and make us more ready to reach out to God. It's better than making it all up as we go along, I suppose. 

Prayer: God, thank you for mentors. Thank you for the people who tried to tell me I was wrong even when I needed to find out for myself. Thank you for lessons learned both the easy way and the hard way. Amen.  

2 Kings 23:1-8, 21-25 Radical Reform

Observation: This is the story of the recovery of the books of the law under king Josiah, after the Jews return from exile in Babylon. Idols are burned, practitioners of other faiths are exiled, and the whole land is called to observe the Passover again, in a way that has not been observed since the days of Joshua and the judges. These reforms are "radical" in the truest sense.  The word "radical" refers to going back to one's "roots". 

Application: Not going to lie, reading a text like this in a twenty-first century context is more than a little disturbing. Our society today values religious tolerance and coexistence. The reforms of Josiah, idol-burning and wizard-and-medium-exiling among them, seem historically bound to me. In other words, this strikes me as a descriptive text that recounts what happened then, rather than a prescriptive text commenting on what should happen now. All that said, I know in my own life there could be a lot of value in being "radicalized"...that is, going back to the roots of my faith, rather than hanging out in my comfortable nest of faith far above ground. Just as Josiah and the people discovered a treasure--the full Passover liturgy--right under their noses, maybe there are treasures of my own faith waiting to be uncovered, if I just open my Bible again, even the most familiar texts, and meet Jesus fresh, praying for my assumptions, my prejudices, and my unhelpful attitudes to burn away. 

Prayer: Holy Spirit, take me back to my roots. To your story. To the Word made flesh, Jesus, my rabbi, my Lord. Amen.   

Isaiah 29:1-12 God is In Control, But God Isn't On Our Side

(No, not this Ariel).

Observation: I had to look up the Biblical meaning of "Ariel" in Isaiah. In this case it is just a more obscure name for Jerusalem. God plans to attack the capital of Judah, but later, to have the city's attackers be defeated.


Application: In our Thursday Bible study, we've been talking about the Babylonian exile, and the terrible religious crisis it presented to the people of Judah. Facing such a national dilemma, they could come to one of only two conclusions. Either God has been defeated, or God was on the other side of this conflict. Hard as it was to accept, they chose the second option.


Too often, we assume that, by default, God is on "our" side, whatever that means for our own context. The side of my country, the side of my region or community, the side of my football team (???), Whatever constitutes "us" for the moment, God must be on our side. One of my favourite Bob Dylan songs explores this theme at length.


But we forget two things: first, that the last thousand years (if not longer) have yieldeded hundreds of examples of people of the same religion, reading the same Bible and praying to the same God, on opposite sides of a violent conflict, both believing God to be on their side.





So who's right? Well, probably no one. In a time of flagrant intra-religious conflict, the American Civil War, Lincoln said, "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."






That's the sticky wicket. Putting "sides" aside, and finding God in our community, our conscience, our sacred texts.






Prayer: God, on whatever "side" we find ourselves today, help us to leave camp, and run to your side. Amen.

1 John 5:1-5 Christian Deal-Breaker

Observation: First John is a letter or sermon written for a Christian community toward the end of the first century. It was a community trying to define itself: who are we? What do we believe? What are the essentials? Top of the list is faith in Jesus as the Son of God. This is the faith that "conquers the world", which does NOT mean military expansion of Christian territories (sorry Constantine, Charlemagne, et al), but rather a spiritual anchor in the hearts of believers that holds true through the worst indignities the outside world can throw at us.

Application: I am a huge proponent of interfaith dialog. One sadness of living in a more rural, predominantly Christian area now is that I have less opportunity to do it. But a key to real, authentic and respectful interfaith dialog is owning your own exclusive truth claims. Every faith has them. Buddhists have the Four Noble Truths. Jews have their Covenant with the Lord. Muslims have the Qur'An as revealed divine truth. And as a Christian, a defining feature is recognizing Jesus to be God's Son. That does not mean I don't respect those who believe differently. But it means I understand who and whose I am, so that I can go into any discussion sharing my authentic self with others. Knowing our differences leads to deeper, more meaningful discussion than glossing them over and keeping things surface-level. The "I'm nice, you're nice, we both like to love our neighbors" talk is good for as far as it goes, but it withholds key parts of ourselves that we would be blessed by exploring.

Increasingly, life for Christians is a life of interfaith dialogue. This can mean dialogue with adherents of other ancient faiths, yes. But it can also mean dialogue with those with no religious faith, or for whom other, non-religious truth claims have become central. Understanding who we are, whose we are, and what we stand for equips us to be real in those discussions...and frankly, in my view, the more closely connected we are to our roots, the less threatened we feel when we encounter those who differ. The discussion becomes less about "winning them over" than demonstrating my truth with how I conduct myself, and how well I'm able to listen to your truth.

Prayer: Jesus, I know you as God's Son. I praise you for saving me from sin and death. I ask your help in sharing you with my neighbor, not as a weapon inflicted but as a gift bestowed. Amen.  

Ruth 2, Welcome to a Foreign Widow

Observation: Ruth is a foreigner in the land of Israel. Not just a foreigner, mind you, but a Moabite: a traditional enemy of Israel. After being widowed, she follows her Mother in law, Naomi, also a widow, back to her homeland. She plans to glean in a wheat field for food, collecting the excess left behind by harvesters to feed herself and Naomi. When Boaz, the field's owner, hears of Ruth's faithfulness to Naomi and to Naomi's God, Boaz shares generously with her.

Application: Reading this love story that crosses barriers of ethnicity and nation is inspiring to me. Especially so, because last week, after thirteen years as a legal permanent resident in our country, my brother in law, Gonzalo, passed his US citizenship test, and will become a citizen this month. Gonzalo was born in Nicaragua, and moved to Costa Rica for the economic opportunity. There, he met my sister, a college student serving an internship as a Lutheran Deaconness. They fell in love, and long story short, they have lived in Pennsylvania for over a decade and have two beautiful, brilliant daughters.

When I think of Ruth's loyalty, love, and willingness to risk everything for the people she loves; when I think of the hospitality and generosity of Boaz, God reminds me that this story repeats itself through history. God brings different people and nations together through the power of love. This isn't ancient history. It's the story of people I know and love. And incidentally, it's also the story of some rather important historical figures: you see, Ruth and Boaz become the great grandparents of King David, who became a distant ancestor of Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God that, by the Spirit's leading, this couple got it right.

Prayer: God, I thank you for gathering together the nations, and for uniting us in the light of your love. Help our love for one another shine and light the way forward for our chaotic and fearful world. Amen.