He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Luke 19:1-8
The story of Zacchaeus is a story that catches the attention of most children who often struggle to see in crowds, who pull on the legs of their parents to be held or hoisted onto strong shoulders and who eagerly engage their imaginations and their bodies in climbing trees. This wee man would have been jostled in a crowd, pressing up on his toes only to get knocked over, staring at the backs of other men and women perhaps frustrated by of his diminutive stature. But he is not easily deterred; he is a man who gets what he wants although mostly through use of his power. Today however, he has success because of some ingenuity and physical prowess - he will run ahead of the crowd and climb a tree to get a birds eye view of Jesus. Was he trying to be conspicuous and get the attention of Jesus or was he hoping to go unrecognized in this crowd? After all he was a chief tax collector; chief among the corrupt banking elite, getting rich off the backs of the citizenry, colluding with the Romans against them. In this city Zacchaeus would enjoy his own celebrity of sorts. Truth be told though Zacchaeus is short, he is no victim. He has been a part of a system that has victimized others and through this he has become rich. And of all the people in the crowd on this particular day who does Jesus draw attention to, whose name does Jesus say, whose home will Jesus go to - but Zacchaeus'. Who wouldn't throw up their hands at this! Not Zacchaeus, not his house. Luke's gospel has contained some difficult stories about wealth - the foolish farmer who builds bigger stores for his grain, the rich man who walked past Lazarus each day, the rich young ruler who walks away from Jesus because the cost of discipleship is too great. Surely he will rebuke Zacchaeus, not call him!
Zacchaeus is all too eager to welcome Jesus. People in the crowd suspect this puffs him up - he just got the person of intrigue, the person people are most curious about, to his house. Of course he did, that scoundrel. He always gets what he wants. Will no one deny him? I can feel my own chest tightening at this - think Wall Street corruption. Mismanaged, dishonest and corrupt companies crumble or are bailed out by government resulting in economic collapse and many of those responsible for engineering the crisis walk away with massive severance pay and protection under the law. The people in the crowded are justifiably affronted. Or are they? This is what Luke is chipping away at in us, in me - who is salvation for: the tax collector, even the chief tax collector, the woman caught in adultery, the one who comes home, the older brother, Lazarus, the Lepers, Nicodemus, the Samaritan - and even me. This is the good news, that is sometimes hard news. Because as much as we want people to love, the way the crowds loved Jesus when he rode into Jerusalem, we also want to heap scorn on others - we want to make someone else responsible for all of the injustice in this sad, sorry world. We want Jesus on our terms just like the crowd on this particular day; just like the people whose cries would move from "Hosanna, Hosanna" to "Crucify Him, Crucify Him"within a week.
So what do we do with the salvation of Zacchaeus? Do you ever feel tempted to stand to the side like the older brother not trusting the refund and restitution cheque he hands you? So angry that you just might tear it up? And yet all the while in your heart you know the right thing is throw your arms around your brother. But it stings and you grumble about the past and you want to be stingy instead of welcoming the new and generous work that God is doing in Zacchaeus. Because even the most ethically bankrupt are not beyond his generousity.
If you have been following Jesus for a long you need this story too because it isn't just the story of someone who encounters Christ for the first time and receives salvation. This is a story about being found, hearing your name and responding to Jesus; this is a story that is instructive for how to live as followers of Christ and sometimes the best people to offer that perspective and instruction are the people who glimpse it and receive it for the first time. Our relationship with money is slippery isn't it? We want to hold on, we want to cozy up with the illusion of control and self importance, when the right response to Jesus' grace and generousity to us is to joyfully let go and give back in abundance. Just like Zacchaeus did.
The last line of this story reads: "for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost." Maybe that line will remind children of our earlier story in Luke - Jesus is the shepherd who will find the one lost sheep, the way he found Zacchaeus in that tree, called him by name and offered him salvation. Zacchaeus for his part was an eager recipient! I love the physicality of this story - the man running ahead of the crowd, climbing the tree and then scurrying down from it and standing before Jesus to proclaim: "Look Jesus, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I will pay them back four times as much." May we all respond to Jesus with such vigour and whole-hearted expressions of thanksgiving for the generous gift of salvation.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God I thank you that I am not like the other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.' I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
This is the second of two parables that Luke tells about prayer. The first parable told in the first 8 verses of chapter 18 is about a judge and a widow. The judge is described as a man who neither feared God nor respected people. The women is a widow who seems to be the victim of a grave injustice and is continually pleading her cause before the judge. These two people are almost as far a part as two people can be in this society - the judge, a man whose position and gender make him respected and powerful; the widow - a woman would have been among the most vulnerable and least powerful in society. It is hard to imagine how this woman had the courage to approach the judge in the beginning and harder still to understand why she persisted in pleading her cause before this judge who was known for disrespecting humanity. As I hear this story, I cringe for this woman making a fool of herself. Who does she think she is to get an audience before this man who shows a blatant and intentional disregard for people? Does she not see how awkward this is? Does she not hear the jokes people are telling about her? And yet the judge does a surprising thing, he relents saying: "though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually complaining."
And Jesus urges his disciples, he urges us, to be like this widow - persistent and courageous. After all if the judge, as awful as he is, will grant her justice, how much more will God who is just and good and who loves us come to our rescue. It is the faith of this woman that enabled her to persist and it is faith like this that Jesus is looking for on earth. By praying continually and not giving up hope we are living out the belief that God has surely not abandoned this world, he has not abandoned us. In this story the courage and perseverance of this woman are not abstract qualities - they are connected to her prayerful posture, her petitioning of the judge. And this not only has a value for here and now but in the story it is an eschatalogical necessity. As we pray about the deep injustice and suffering in this world, in our lives, we are bearing witness to the world yet to come, this is part of praying 'thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Luke's Jesus shows concern for the disciples who must endure, who must pray always and not lose heart. I wonder how often these stories Jesus told came to mind for the disciples when he was no longer with them. May the Holy Spirit also grant us courage and persistence in prayer in the midst of our own brokenness and in the face of the grave injustice we see and experience in our world.
The second story, the story which Sunday School centres around today also features two Jewish men: a pharisee and a tax collector. The pharisee is the good man, the respected man, the religious man, the teacher. The tax collector is the wealthy man, the crooked man, the dishonest man, the swindler. And on this day both of them find themselves at the temple; the pharisee prays: 'thank you that I am not like the others: liars, thieves and adulterers and tax collectors. And by the way, God, I gave a tenth of my income and I fasted twice this week.' The pride, self-satisfaction and smugness are suffocating. The tragedy is that somewhere along the way the pharisee has begun to trust in himself, in his own goodness, in his right-ness instead of trusting in the mercy and love of God.
I would hazard a guess that most of us have prayed a prayer something like this in our Christian life. Maybe our language was a little more nuanced and maybe we didn't intend to put down addicts and dead-beat dads and gangsters when we prayed it. Maybe we felt like we really had dodged a bullet in avoiding those sins and calamities and were very grateful - grateful that we had never fallen off the rails like those unfortunate 'other' people. Grateful that we had followed all the rules because look at us, we are pretty good people. We can hold our heads up before God and say thank you.
The pharisee by contrast stood at a distance, he could not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' The tax collector caught a glimpse of who he is and who God is and all he could do was beat his chest, praying through tears of contrition. He sees the truth: he is a sinful man but he is loved by God and he bends toward God in humility, in worship. In that moment the pharisee understands his salvation as a gift, something he did nothing to deserve. In this moment he understands that he can trust the mercy and love of God regardless of what he has done. Can you hear also the contrition of David or Paul crying out: wretched man that I am? Can you remember a time when you have also been overcome with contrition and received the love of God as nothing other than an undeserved gift. Something you did nothing to earn and nothing you could ever repay. Something that laid you low before God and at the same time raised your soul to great heights with such freedom.
And then comes the great reversal - remember Lazarus and the Rich Man of a few weeks back, or the one (former) leper who came back to say thank you and was a Samaritan, this book is full of reversals. And no matter how much we begin to anticipate it - it always leaves us without words: 'The tax collector goes away justified rather than the other.'
At First Baptist Church in Edmonton you can sit in the naeve on a Sunday morning and often you will hear the choir above you singing Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy... In the movement of this song, in the plea of the contrite heart for mercy we join our voices with people throughout history, beginning with the tax collector in Jesus' story who beat his hands to his chest and cried out: God be merciful to me a sinner. It is an ancient prayer. It is a prayer of few words that express so much: our utter dependancy on God, our thanksgiving for his mercy, our confessed need for Him. It is a prayer that helps us to understand that it is not by our own goodness that we can come before God but through the mercy and grace of God through the cross of Christ that we are saved.
Our pride is ever before us - slippery and masquerading in all sorts of attitudes where condescension is barely perceptible but present in thanksgiving for what we are not, in thanksgiving for the right ideas that we have about God and the ways and means of being his people. It is present in the subtle judgements we pass on our brothers and sisters - at least I am not a fundamentalist like her, at least I am not a wishy washy liberal like him, if I had money like them I would live differently, if only they worked a little more they wouldn't always be so hard up and needing so much help from everyone.... The truth is we cannot get too far out the door without getting tripped up by pride. How quickly feelings of self-aggrandisement wash over us until we are nearly drowning in them.
And we come to church and we hear: Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. It is in our worship that we are reminded who we are and who God is. It is here that we renounce our sin, claim the righteousness of Christ and place our trust in Him, not in ourselves.
It is important that children understand that how we live before God matters deeply but that isn't what saves us. In the words of Paul: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God!" (Eph. 2:8) Let us throw ourselves upon God and trust in his unfailing love and unending mercy. Let us trust in his salvation and continue to pray with all humility and with perseverance and courage.
This is the second of two parables that Luke tells about prayer. The first parable told in the first 8 verses of chapter 18 is about a judge and a widow. The judge is described as a man who neither feared God nor respected people. The women is a widow who seems to be the victim of a grave injustice and is continually pleading her cause before the judge. These two people are almost as far a part as two people can be in this society - the judge, a man whose position and gender make him respected and powerful; the widow - a woman would have been among the most vulnerable and least powerful in society. It is hard to imagine how this woman had the courage to approach the judge in the beginning and harder still to understand why she persisted in pleading her cause before this judge who was known for disrespecting humanity. As I hear this story, I cringe for this woman making a fool of herself. Who does she think she is to get an audience before this man who shows a blatant and intentional disregard for people? Does she not see how awkward this is? Does she not hear the jokes people are telling about her? And yet the judge does a surprising thing, he relents saying: "though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually complaining."
And Jesus urges his disciples, he urges us, to be like this widow - persistent and courageous. After all if the judge, as awful as he is, will grant her justice, how much more will God who is just and good and who loves us come to our rescue. It is the faith of this woman that enabled her to persist and it is faith like this that Jesus is looking for on earth. By praying continually and not giving up hope we are living out the belief that God has surely not abandoned this world, he has not abandoned us. In this story the courage and perseverance of this woman are not abstract qualities - they are connected to her prayerful posture, her petitioning of the judge. And this not only has a value for here and now but in the story it is an eschatalogical necessity. As we pray about the deep injustice and suffering in this world, in our lives, we are bearing witness to the world yet to come, this is part of praying 'thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' Luke's Jesus shows concern for the disciples who must endure, who must pray always and not lose heart. I wonder how often these stories Jesus told came to mind for the disciples when he was no longer with them. May the Holy Spirit also grant us courage and persistence in prayer in the midst of our own brokenness and in the face of the grave injustice we see and experience in our world.
The second story, the story which Sunday School centres around today also features two Jewish men: a pharisee and a tax collector. The pharisee is the good man, the respected man, the religious man, the teacher. The tax collector is the wealthy man, the crooked man, the dishonest man, the swindler. And on this day both of them find themselves at the temple; the pharisee prays: 'thank you that I am not like the others: liars, thieves and adulterers and tax collectors. And by the way, God, I gave a tenth of my income and I fasted twice this week.' The pride, self-satisfaction and smugness are suffocating. The tragedy is that somewhere along the way the pharisee has begun to trust in himself, in his own goodness, in his right-ness instead of trusting in the mercy and love of God.
I would hazard a guess that most of us have prayed a prayer something like this in our Christian life. Maybe our language was a little more nuanced and maybe we didn't intend to put down addicts and dead-beat dads and gangsters when we prayed it. Maybe we felt like we really had dodged a bullet in avoiding those sins and calamities and were very grateful - grateful that we had never fallen off the rails like those unfortunate 'other' people. Grateful that we had followed all the rules because look at us, we are pretty good people. We can hold our heads up before God and say thank you.
The pharisee by contrast stood at a distance, he could not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' The tax collector caught a glimpse of who he is and who God is and all he could do was beat his chest, praying through tears of contrition. He sees the truth: he is a sinful man but he is loved by God and he bends toward God in humility, in worship. In that moment the pharisee understands his salvation as a gift, something he did nothing to deserve. In this moment he understands that he can trust the mercy and love of God regardless of what he has done. Can you hear also the contrition of David or Paul crying out: wretched man that I am? Can you remember a time when you have also been overcome with contrition and received the love of God as nothing other than an undeserved gift. Something you did nothing to earn and nothing you could ever repay. Something that laid you low before God and at the same time raised your soul to great heights with such freedom.
And then comes the great reversal - remember Lazarus and the Rich Man of a few weeks back, or the one (former) leper who came back to say thank you and was a Samaritan, this book is full of reversals. And no matter how much we begin to anticipate it - it always leaves us without words: 'The tax collector goes away justified rather than the other.'
At First Baptist Church in Edmonton you can sit in the naeve on a Sunday morning and often you will hear the choir above you singing Kyrie Eleison. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy... In the movement of this song, in the plea of the contrite heart for mercy we join our voices with people throughout history, beginning with the tax collector in Jesus' story who beat his hands to his chest and cried out: God be merciful to me a sinner. It is an ancient prayer. It is a prayer of few words that express so much: our utter dependancy on God, our thanksgiving for his mercy, our confessed need for Him. It is a prayer that helps us to understand that it is not by our own goodness that we can come before God but through the mercy and grace of God through the cross of Christ that we are saved.
Our pride is ever before us - slippery and masquerading in all sorts of attitudes where condescension is barely perceptible but present in thanksgiving for what we are not, in thanksgiving for the right ideas that we have about God and the ways and means of being his people. It is present in the subtle judgements we pass on our brothers and sisters - at least I am not a fundamentalist like her, at least I am not a wishy washy liberal like him, if I had money like them I would live differently, if only they worked a little more they wouldn't always be so hard up and needing so much help from everyone.... The truth is we cannot get too far out the door without getting tripped up by pride. How quickly feelings of self-aggrandisement wash over us until we are nearly drowning in them.
And we come to church and we hear: Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. It is in our worship that we are reminded who we are and who God is. It is here that we renounce our sin, claim the righteousness of Christ and place our trust in Him, not in ourselves.
It is important that children understand that how we live before God matters deeply but that isn't what saves us. In the words of Paul: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God!" (Eph. 2:8) Let us throw ourselves upon God and trust in his unfailing love and unending mercy. Let us trust in his salvation and continue to pray with all humility and with perseverance and courage.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Jacob Wrestles at Peniel
The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids and his eleven children and crossed the ford of Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said: "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said: "I will not let you go unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." The sun rose up upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.
Genesis 32:22-32
If there is a climax in the story of Jacob - I wonder if this would be it? Could it be that the events of this long night at Peniel, all alone with Uncle Laban behind him and his brother Esau in front of him would become a touchstone for the rest of his life? The way the his father and grandfather would never forget that three day journey up Mt. Moriah only to be dramatically rescued by God - by the ram in the thicket. This mysterious, awe/fear-inspiring God who comes down to people - it his he who Jacob has been waiting for, it is he who Jacob would face down on this on the way night.
To understand the gravity of this encounter it would be great if we could give the backstory to the children this morning - perhaps in a verbal re-telling. Some of the children might remember that Jacob stole the birthright and the coveted blessing from his older brother Esau. It is a story that defies a morality gospel - Jacob's shrewdness is rewarded - not unlike the dishonest manager we met a few weeks ago. As Frederick Beuchner puts it "he is strong on guts and weak on conscience." Jacob is a striver, he is the person who will win - he knows it and so does most everyone else. But this doesn't make life is easy for the man - most things involve a struggle with himself, with others and ultimately with God. Upon receiving the blessing Jacob lives in fear of Esau who is plotting his death. So at his mother's behest, Jacob leaves the land of his family to go and find a wife in Paddan Aram, the land of his mother's family. On the first night of his journey, all alone Jacob is not haunted by his conscience and the awful thing he has done to his brother, instead he lays his weary head on a rock and has a dream filled with beauty and wonder. In his dream the angels of heaven are ascending and descending a ladder set on earth and stretching to heaven and God himself stands beside Jacob and says: "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring, and your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." (Gen.28:13-16)
Jacob is received by his mother's brother Laban, a sordid character with few scruples and two daughters. The younger and fairer, Rachel, captures Jacob's heart, he sets his sights on her: he will marry Rachel. Laban demands seven years of work from Jacob in exchange for his younger daughter - only for Jacob to discover, in the night, he has been given Leah. Seven more years of work for Laban and Jacob finally he weds the one whom he loves. Life for Jacob and Leah and Rachel is complicated at best - Leah is unloved, clearly the second sister and yet she brings forth an abundance, sons one after the next. Rachel is adored and yet, barren and grief stricken, until finally she brings forth Joseph. In his time with Laban Jacob begins to prosper and his wealth becomes a threat to Laban's sons. Jacob is on the run again, this time away from Laban, back to the land of his father where he must confront his brother Esau. It has been twenty years since Jacob traded a bowl of stew to get his brother's birthright; twenty years since he put goat skins on his forearms to trick his father into blessing him; twenty years since he has seen his twin brother. Jacob knows the contempt Esau holds for him, he sends messengers and gifts to appease him. But it still remains to be seen how the next day will unfold.
And in the night with the past twenty years bearing down on Jacob and the bold faced fear of what the day will bring, Jacob meets God. This isn't an encounter behind a veil of smoke or a burning bush - this is an all out, winner takes all, wrestling match. Jacob has it all on the line. What has this all been for? All of those years of hard work, exiled with an man who lied to and cheated him; and yet gave him refuge and the women he loves from whose wombs have come all those children sleeping just across the river. Tonight Jacob is a man without a home, who has lost much of his wealth, with a family just as complicated and bitter and weighed down by grief as the one he came from. The more you think about it - the more you grasp what is at stake for Jacob in this wrestling match. He still wants that blessing - he wants to lay hold of it. And with his hands on this stranger he lets it all out - the grief, the anger, the confusion, the desire. The strength of the attacker is fierce but Jacob is tenacious, his will is strong. It looks like Jacob might prevail until the attacker merely touches the socket of Jacob's hip and puts it out of joint - surely it is over for Jacob. Day is breaking and yet "Jacob will not release his grip, only now it is a grip not of violence but of need, like the grip of a drowning man. The darkness has faded just enough so that for the first time he can dimly see his opponents face. And what he sees is more terrible than the face of death - the face of love. It is vast and strong, half ruined with suffering and fierce with joy, the face a man flees down all the darkness of his days until at last he cries out, "I will not let you go unless you bless me!" Not a blessing he can have by the strength of his cunning or by force of his will, but a blessing he can have only as a gift."
Jacob has been a good name for he who supplants, from the time he was in the womb until this terrible night breaks when God gives him the name Israel, "for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed."
A new name, an indication that everything has changed - instead of wrestling with God, he is clinging to him. But this battle was costly, though his life is preserved he will always walk with a limp, a reminder of this treacherous and glorious night.
This is a story that is rich for the imagination - who is this God who attacks Jacob in the night and wrestles with him, who strikes his hip and blesses him - who allows man to get so near to him and preserves his life? It is a story in which we can find ourselves as we struggle with who God is and who we are, with our own strivings and our suffering. A story where we can meet a God who we can wrestle with, who we can cling to. A God who is indeed holding us and who gives us a new identity as his children.
May God inspire you with holy imagination as you bring this story to the children this week.
*** The quotes are taken from one of my favourite sermons by Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat.
Genesis 32:22-32
If there is a climax in the story of Jacob - I wonder if this would be it? Could it be that the events of this long night at Peniel, all alone with Uncle Laban behind him and his brother Esau in front of him would become a touchstone for the rest of his life? The way the his father and grandfather would never forget that three day journey up Mt. Moriah only to be dramatically rescued by God - by the ram in the thicket. This mysterious, awe/fear-inspiring God who comes down to people - it his he who Jacob has been waiting for, it is he who Jacob would face down on this on the way night.
To understand the gravity of this encounter it would be great if we could give the backstory to the children this morning - perhaps in a verbal re-telling. Some of the children might remember that Jacob stole the birthright and the coveted blessing from his older brother Esau. It is a story that defies a morality gospel - Jacob's shrewdness is rewarded - not unlike the dishonest manager we met a few weeks ago. As Frederick Beuchner puts it "he is strong on guts and weak on conscience." Jacob is a striver, he is the person who will win - he knows it and so does most everyone else. But this doesn't make life is easy for the man - most things involve a struggle with himself, with others and ultimately with God. Upon receiving the blessing Jacob lives in fear of Esau who is plotting his death. So at his mother's behest, Jacob leaves the land of his family to go and find a wife in Paddan Aram, the land of his mother's family. On the first night of his journey, all alone Jacob is not haunted by his conscience and the awful thing he has done to his brother, instead he lays his weary head on a rock and has a dream filled with beauty and wonder. In his dream the angels of heaven are ascending and descending a ladder set on earth and stretching to heaven and God himself stands beside Jacob and says: "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring, and your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." (Gen.28:13-16)
Jacob is received by his mother's brother Laban, a sordid character with few scruples and two daughters. The younger and fairer, Rachel, captures Jacob's heart, he sets his sights on her: he will marry Rachel. Laban demands seven years of work from Jacob in exchange for his younger daughter - only for Jacob to discover, in the night, he has been given Leah. Seven more years of work for Laban and Jacob finally he weds the one whom he loves. Life for Jacob and Leah and Rachel is complicated at best - Leah is unloved, clearly the second sister and yet she brings forth an abundance, sons one after the next. Rachel is adored and yet, barren and grief stricken, until finally she brings forth Joseph. In his time with Laban Jacob begins to prosper and his wealth becomes a threat to Laban's sons. Jacob is on the run again, this time away from Laban, back to the land of his father where he must confront his brother Esau. It has been twenty years since Jacob traded a bowl of stew to get his brother's birthright; twenty years since he put goat skins on his forearms to trick his father into blessing him; twenty years since he has seen his twin brother. Jacob knows the contempt Esau holds for him, he sends messengers and gifts to appease him. But it still remains to be seen how the next day will unfold.
And in the night with the past twenty years bearing down on Jacob and the bold faced fear of what the day will bring, Jacob meets God. This isn't an encounter behind a veil of smoke or a burning bush - this is an all out, winner takes all, wrestling match. Jacob has it all on the line. What has this all been for? All of those years of hard work, exiled with an man who lied to and cheated him; and yet gave him refuge and the women he loves from whose wombs have come all those children sleeping just across the river. Tonight Jacob is a man without a home, who has lost much of his wealth, with a family just as complicated and bitter and weighed down by grief as the one he came from. The more you think about it - the more you grasp what is at stake for Jacob in this wrestling match. He still wants that blessing - he wants to lay hold of it. And with his hands on this stranger he lets it all out - the grief, the anger, the confusion, the desire. The strength of the attacker is fierce but Jacob is tenacious, his will is strong. It looks like Jacob might prevail until the attacker merely touches the socket of Jacob's hip and puts it out of joint - surely it is over for Jacob. Day is breaking and yet "Jacob will not release his grip, only now it is a grip not of violence but of need, like the grip of a drowning man. The darkness has faded just enough so that for the first time he can dimly see his opponents face. And what he sees is more terrible than the face of death - the face of love. It is vast and strong, half ruined with suffering and fierce with joy, the face a man flees down all the darkness of his days until at last he cries out, "I will not let you go unless you bless me!" Not a blessing he can have by the strength of his cunning or by force of his will, but a blessing he can have only as a gift."
Jacob has been a good name for he who supplants, from the time he was in the womb until this terrible night breaks when God gives him the name Israel, "for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed."
A new name, an indication that everything has changed - instead of wrestling with God, he is clinging to him. But this battle was costly, though his life is preserved he will always walk with a limp, a reminder of this treacherous and glorious night.
This is a story that is rich for the imagination - who is this God who attacks Jacob in the night and wrestles with him, who strikes his hip and blesses him - who allows man to get so near to him and preserves his life? It is a story in which we can find ourselves as we struggle with who God is and who we are, with our own strivings and our suffering. A story where we can meet a God who we can wrestle with, who we can cling to. A God who is indeed holding us and who gives us a new identity as his children.
May God inspire you with holy imagination as you bring this story to the children this week.
*** The quotes are taken from one of my favourite sermons by Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat.
Friday, October 11, 2013
A Samaritan Leper Says Thank You
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance they called out saying, "Jesus, Master have mercy on us!" When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
Luke 17:11-19
Is it possible that the beauty of a sunset could be the beginning of faith? A theology professor tells the story of a friend who, facing a cancer diagnoses and a long road of treatment, took a journey to the European Alps to fulfill a lifelong dream. In the Alps, surrounded by the beauty of creation, she felt an overwhelming gratitude welling up in her and a desire to say 'thank you.' This desire puzzled and unsettled her. Where was this coming from? Who would she say 'thank you' to? This question remained with her as she returned home and it set her on a path to knowing Christ as the creator and redeemer of the whole world. Her faith began with a simple thank you. Gratitude that brings us to Jesus changes us.
In this story Luke indicates that thanksgiving gives way to faith which in turn becomes sozo: salvation, wholeness. The Samaritan leper realizing that he has been healed, stops, turns around and praises God in a loud voice, falls down at Jesus' feet and thanks him. For me it is as lavish as the woman who pours perfume on Jesus' feet and washes them with her hair. This is an equally evocative expression of love and thanksgiving. The loud voice, the falling down, the thank you's uttered amidst tears and laughter - they belong to a man who sees Jesus and responds with unrestrained passion and thanksgiving. As for the others they are thankful I am sure, but they are racing to the priest, thinking about getting cleared for re-entry back into their families and the community. And on their way they do not stop to say thank you.
Thanksgiving is what this Samaritan outsider expresses that the others do not. It is the reflexive, intuitive response muttered by the woman in the Alps, it is the broken perfume bottle by Jesus' feet. It is a discipline that we practice by which we learn to see the mercy and grace of God all around us. Through thanksgiving we grow in joy, we grow in faith. It is what enables us to persist in the darkest times. It is intimately connected with our salvation: "Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God" (Psalm 50:23). They are the words of Jesus himself who "on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body that is for you..." He gave thanks ... Eucharisteo. Communion. His brokenness - his body and blood - has become our salvation. The bread and the wine. The eucharistic life - the life that we partake in and celebrate each week - is a life of thanksgiving.
Hear the beginning of the eucharistic prayer:
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
It is right to give our thanks and praise
It is indeed our right
It is our duty and our joy
at all times and in all places
to give you thanks and praise....
The children are usually upstairs for the eucharistic prayer and I think it would be wonderful if we could draw their attention this prayer today - to notice the words, the instruction to live lives of thanksgiving because it is our duty and our joy. Sometimes thankfulness overtakes us, it is as easy as our very breath. And sometimes it is a great challenge to be thankful in the face of the suffering that surrounds us all. Yet we learn with Christ, with Paul, with our brothers and sisters that turning to God and giving thanks even in the midst of suffering offers us a way through our pain - a way of seeing and experiencing the mercy of God.
This morning at Moms' Group we discussed this text from Luke. In our meandering conversation we discussed the miraculous way in which thanksgiving can give way to faith, we heard how some people practice the discipline of thanksgiving individually and with children. We sat in silence as we considered how lament and grief co-exist with thanksgiving; some women shared how gratitude sustained them in the darkest times. At the end of our time we prayed, we gave thanks for simple, beautiful things: for trees alive with colour, for sunlight through lead glass windows, for a hand to hold, the company of a friend, a cup of coffee; for the people we hold dear: those who are with us and those who have passed on. We gave thanks for the love and faithfulness of God. For salvation. For joy. For the hope that we have in Christ who gives us the strength to endure: to make it through the hard days, the diagnoses, the losses. And as we offered our thanksgiving I felt the tears begin to roll down my face. Is not thanksgiving where we learn humility? Who am I God to know these graces, these mercies? May I too say thank you with a loud voice, fall down at your feet and worship you.
Luke 17:11-19
Is it possible that the beauty of a sunset could be the beginning of faith? A theology professor tells the story of a friend who, facing a cancer diagnoses and a long road of treatment, took a journey to the European Alps to fulfill a lifelong dream. In the Alps, surrounded by the beauty of creation, she felt an overwhelming gratitude welling up in her and a desire to say 'thank you.' This desire puzzled and unsettled her. Where was this coming from? Who would she say 'thank you' to? This question remained with her as she returned home and it set her on a path to knowing Christ as the creator and redeemer of the whole world. Her faith began with a simple thank you. Gratitude that brings us to Jesus changes us.
In this story Luke indicates that thanksgiving gives way to faith which in turn becomes sozo: salvation, wholeness. The Samaritan leper realizing that he has been healed, stops, turns around and praises God in a loud voice, falls down at Jesus' feet and thanks him. For me it is as lavish as the woman who pours perfume on Jesus' feet and washes them with her hair. This is an equally evocative expression of love and thanksgiving. The loud voice, the falling down, the thank you's uttered amidst tears and laughter - they belong to a man who sees Jesus and responds with unrestrained passion and thanksgiving. As for the others they are thankful I am sure, but they are racing to the priest, thinking about getting cleared for re-entry back into their families and the community. And on their way they do not stop to say thank you.
Have you ever wondered what this Samaritan was doing amidst the other Jewish lepers? Was it the leperasy that broke down the barriers so they could see their common humanity? So that together with one voice they could say: "Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on Us" Have you ever wondered what happened to this Samaritan after they were are all healed? Because the truth is this Samaritan is still an outsider. If he were to go to the priest would he even be received? This Samaritan turns back to the Jewish man who just told him to go to the Priest, and in his turning, in his unrestrained thanksgiving, through his faith in Jesus he receives sozo - salvation: wholeness! It is the thanksgiving that he lays down; that he shouts out that prepares the way for his full restoration. This is Luke's second story about a Samaritan, I think he is being intentional and instructive in this; he is working on the assumptions of the hearers, he is breaking down barriers, he is telling them that the salvation of God is for all people. And guess what? The outsiders they just might be the ones who see it, turn around and receive it while the insiders pass on by.
Thanksgiving is what this Samaritan outsider expresses that the others do not. It is the reflexive, intuitive response muttered by the woman in the Alps, it is the broken perfume bottle by Jesus' feet. It is a discipline that we practice by which we learn to see the mercy and grace of God all around us. Through thanksgiving we grow in joy, we grow in faith. It is what enables us to persist in the darkest times. It is intimately connected with our salvation: "Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honour me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God" (Psalm 50:23). They are the words of Jesus himself who "on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body that is for you..." He gave thanks ... Eucharisteo. Communion. His brokenness - his body and blood - has become our salvation. The bread and the wine. The eucharistic life - the life that we partake in and celebrate each week - is a life of thanksgiving.
Hear the beginning of the eucharistic prayer:
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Lift up your hearts
We lift them to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
It is right to give our thanks and praise
It is indeed our right
It is our duty and our joy
at all times and in all places
to give you thanks and praise....
The children are usually upstairs for the eucharistic prayer and I think it would be wonderful if we could draw their attention this prayer today - to notice the words, the instruction to live lives of thanksgiving because it is our duty and our joy. Sometimes thankfulness overtakes us, it is as easy as our very breath. And sometimes it is a great challenge to be thankful in the face of the suffering that surrounds us all. Yet we learn with Christ, with Paul, with our brothers and sisters that turning to God and giving thanks even in the midst of suffering offers us a way through our pain - a way of seeing and experiencing the mercy of God.
This morning at Moms' Group we discussed this text from Luke. In our meandering conversation we discussed the miraculous way in which thanksgiving can give way to faith, we heard how some people practice the discipline of thanksgiving individually and with children. We sat in silence as we considered how lament and grief co-exist with thanksgiving; some women shared how gratitude sustained them in the darkest times. At the end of our time we prayed, we gave thanks for simple, beautiful things: for trees alive with colour, for sunlight through lead glass windows, for a hand to hold, the company of a friend, a cup of coffee; for the people we hold dear: those who are with us and those who have passed on. We gave thanks for the love and faithfulness of God. For salvation. For joy. For the hope that we have in Christ who gives us the strength to endure: to make it through the hard days, the diagnoses, the losses. And as we offered our thanksgiving I felt the tears begin to roll down my face. Is not thanksgiving where we learn humility? Who am I God to know these graces, these mercies? May I too say thank you with a loud voice, fall down at your feet and worship you.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Increase of Our Faith!
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea' and it would obey you.
"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on my apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!"
Luke 17:5-10
Have you ever asked the Lord to increase your faith? What was it that brought you to that point? Was it a darkness you found yourself groping around in; a growing despair that light might never break? Was is it a calling beyond what you had strength or confidence for; beyond what you had ever imagined and you asked God for faith and faithfulness that you might do the task before you? When doubt was assailing you, did you ask God to encourage the spark of faith that remained, lest it become a smouldering pile of ashes? After experiencing the brokenness of Christian community maybe you asked for faith to believe that God really could reveal his glory and accomplish his purposes through the church. Likely most of us know this prayer for faith/faithfulness well.
On this particular day the disciples asked the Lord to increase their faith after hearing him say to them: "occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were flung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for one of you to cause these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day and turns back to you seven times a day and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive."
It is interesting to me that Jesus' words on forgiveness precede the request of the disciples. Jesus hasn't just told them they would do amazing things in his name, no, he has given them some instruction on how to live and he has given the imperative to forgive. We can almost hear the disciples response - we recognize it as our own - this is too hard, Jesus - give us faith - make us faithful people. We can't do it on our own.
Could it be that having faith, even the size of a mustard seed - that forgives - can do the impossible; the beautiful; the miraculous: "you can say to that mulberry tree, be uprooted throw yourself in the sea and it will obey you"; "you can say to that mountain move from here to there, and it will do it"(Matthew 17:20). Faith that contains the seed of life is potent; we cannot underestimate it. Engage this image with a holy imagination and enter into the enormity of what is possible. Look back into Hebrews 11, recall what God has done. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses... they had their own complexities and fears and doubts; yet they believed and were faithful and through them God revealed himself and worked his plans and his purposes, "though all of these died in faith without having received their promises, they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were foreigners and strangers on the earth. For people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland... a better country, a heavenly one."(Heb. 11: 13-17) Think about others who"left their home and sought a better country, a heavenly one": Martin Luther King Jr, Dorothy Day, Jackie Pullinger ... Who comes to mind for you? Faith enacts the kingdom of God - it brings with it freedom and new life even in the midst of all suffering and death.
I was a university student when the Columbine and Taber tragedies happened in April of 1999; a year later, in the spring of 2000 I sat with thousands of students in Convocation Hall to hear Dale Lang speak on forgiveness. I will never forget the silence that fell in the hall as we sat before this humble and heartbroken man, hanging on his every word and wondering about the way of forgiveness in the world. Extraordinary forgiveness: what Dale Lang gave the boy who murdered his son, what the father offered to his lost son, forgiveness that offers restoration. Our lives are to be oriented around a merciful and forgiving God who forgives us, restores us and welcomes us to his table. This is faith. This is a gift of God, a grace in our lives and a discipline, something we live out.
In Jesus' story of the master and the slave Jesus' followers are reminded to be faithful with the tasks before them. This is a down to earth, every day spirituality that does the dishes and doesn't ask for props. The disciples are not to go seeking for rewards and recognition rather they are to be humble in all things lest ambition and status-seeking become their undoing. They are to be alert, to be an example to younger ones, to remember those in need with justice and compassion, to work for the restoration of the sinner into the community of God's family. With faith that believes and practices this we can only imagine what God can do.
*****
As we come to the gospel this week I think this might be a good opportunity to do a little bit of teaching on faith. What is faith? I do think it is important to be clear that faith is not about trusting that things will work out for me the way I would like, I think many children get this idea along the way. Rather, faith is trusting in the promises of God and bearing witness to them in our lives. Faith is lived and enacted and it is also a gift of God - what does it mean to practice our faith? How has faith that contains this seed of life impacted our world? Perhaps you can share the story of someone whose faith has inspired you or maybe you would like to share your own story.
The epistle for this week is from 2 Timothy, it is a beautiful exhortation which was first opened up for me by my High School Sunday School teacher, I have included it for you here:
2 Timothy 1:1-15
God be with us as we teach and our taught by children; may we all be strengthened in faith to live the life we have been called to in Christ; to enact the Kingdom of God.
"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on my apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!"
Luke 17:5-10
Have you ever asked the Lord to increase your faith? What was it that brought you to that point? Was it a darkness you found yourself groping around in; a growing despair that light might never break? Was is it a calling beyond what you had strength or confidence for; beyond what you had ever imagined and you asked God for faith and faithfulness that you might do the task before you? When doubt was assailing you, did you ask God to encourage the spark of faith that remained, lest it become a smouldering pile of ashes? After experiencing the brokenness of Christian community maybe you asked for faith to believe that God really could reveal his glory and accomplish his purposes through the church. Likely most of us know this prayer for faith/faithfulness well.
On this particular day the disciples asked the Lord to increase their faith after hearing him say to them: "occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were flung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for one of you to cause these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day and turns back to you seven times a day and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive."
It is interesting to me that Jesus' words on forgiveness precede the request of the disciples. Jesus hasn't just told them they would do amazing things in his name, no, he has given them some instruction on how to live and he has given the imperative to forgive. We can almost hear the disciples response - we recognize it as our own - this is too hard, Jesus - give us faith - make us faithful people. We can't do it on our own.
Could it be that having faith, even the size of a mustard seed - that forgives - can do the impossible; the beautiful; the miraculous: "you can say to that mulberry tree, be uprooted throw yourself in the sea and it will obey you"; "you can say to that mountain move from here to there, and it will do it"(Matthew 17:20). Faith that contains the seed of life is potent; we cannot underestimate it. Engage this image with a holy imagination and enter into the enormity of what is possible. Look back into Hebrews 11, recall what God has done. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses... they had their own complexities and fears and doubts; yet they believed and were faithful and through them God revealed himself and worked his plans and his purposes, "though all of these died in faith without having received their promises, they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were foreigners and strangers on the earth. For people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland... a better country, a heavenly one."(Heb. 11: 13-17) Think about others who"left their home and sought a better country, a heavenly one": Martin Luther King Jr, Dorothy Day, Jackie Pullinger ... Who comes to mind for you? Faith enacts the kingdom of God - it brings with it freedom and new life even in the midst of all suffering and death.
I was a university student when the Columbine and Taber tragedies happened in April of 1999; a year later, in the spring of 2000 I sat with thousands of students in Convocation Hall to hear Dale Lang speak on forgiveness. I will never forget the silence that fell in the hall as we sat before this humble and heartbroken man, hanging on his every word and wondering about the way of forgiveness in the world. Extraordinary forgiveness: what Dale Lang gave the boy who murdered his son, what the father offered to his lost son, forgiveness that offers restoration. Our lives are to be oriented around a merciful and forgiving God who forgives us, restores us and welcomes us to his table. This is faith. This is a gift of God, a grace in our lives and a discipline, something we live out.
In Jesus' story of the master and the slave Jesus' followers are reminded to be faithful with the tasks before them. This is a down to earth, every day spirituality that does the dishes and doesn't ask for props. The disciples are not to go seeking for rewards and recognition rather they are to be humble in all things lest ambition and status-seeking become their undoing. They are to be alert, to be an example to younger ones, to remember those in need with justice and compassion, to work for the restoration of the sinner into the community of God's family. With faith that believes and practices this we can only imagine what God can do.
*****
As we come to the gospel this week I think this might be a good opportunity to do a little bit of teaching on faith. What is faith? I do think it is important to be clear that faith is not about trusting that things will work out for me the way I would like, I think many children get this idea along the way. Rather, faith is trusting in the promises of God and bearing witness to them in our lives. Faith is lived and enacted and it is also a gift of God - what does it mean to practice our faith? How has faith that contains this seed of life impacted our world? Perhaps you can share the story of someone whose faith has inspired you or maybe you would like to share your own story.
The epistle for this week is from 2 Timothy, it is a beautiful exhortation which was first opened up for me by my High School Sunday School teacher, I have included it for you here:
2 Timothy 1:1-15
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 2To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.3I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
6For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.8Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, 12and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. 13Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
God be with us as we teach and our taught by children; may we all be strengthened in faith to live the life we have been called to in Christ; to enact the Kingdom of God.
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