Political Prayer

Sermon 10.23.16

Luke 18:9-14

...an excerpt

That bigger picture is much harder to grasp when we only get one tiny slice of the pie on a Sunday morning -- God’s redemptive work is cannot be encapsulated in the simplistic teaching to “be humble.”  Keeping the greater context in our hearts and minds this morning I want to work with the short gospel scene and consider how it would sound coming from a Christian person in our time and place...

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”

The Lutheran stood by herself and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: I don’t want to be a democrat for they are reckless and naive.  I don’t want to be a republican either for their selfishness and fear-mongering is tiring. Thank you God that you clearly bless my political leanings so I can celebrate the line between us and them and never have to cross over.

God, thank you that I am not another sect of your church because I like not having to worry about good works and I like the way we interpret the bible and I’m pretty sure other churches get it wrong and so I’m happy you’re here with us and not over there with them.  

God, thank you that I am not like other people who have criminal records that will haunt them all their days no matter how much corrective work they have done.  Thank you that I do not come from a broken home which would make it harder to come to church every week, thank you that I fit the perfect little model of the family you intended -- a real, one-size fits all family is what you meant, right?

Thank you God that I am not like the tax-collectors or other people who serve corporate greed, oil companies or any other evil structures on this earth.  I’m a self-made human, and would never be complicit in injustice never mind where my clothes come from or the fact that I guzzle so much gas each day without a second thought.  God, I thank you that I am not like other people but rather am here, in your house on a Sunday morning (unlike the heathens who stayed in bed or did other activities on this holy day), I am righteous because I’m so darn good, a shiney Christian in my nice clothes and upright living.  Thank you God that I don’t even need to ask you for anything because I’ve got it figured out -- the answers to faithful living are so black and white, I’ve made all the right choices, I’ve kept your law to the very letter, I attend worship every week and tithe the perfect 10% of my income to support the church.  God, I thank you that I am not like other people.  Amen.

Now, this contemporary take on the Pharisee’s prayer is laced with an exaggerated smugness. We know we are not to pray or think like the arrogant, independent Pharisee -- he is clothed in religious hypocrisy! But who among us hasn’t ever thought, “I’m glad I’m not like….” and then we can fill in the blank with the people group or label that is irritating or threatening us most at any given moment.  And in that phrase, “Thank God I’m not like other people” I believe we hit on the deep sin of this prayer.  The Pharisee, and so often the contemporary Christian celebrates the lines between us and them. Even though this scene from Luke’s gospel is very short, the author took the time to tell us exactly where both the Pharisee and the tax collector are...the Pharisee is “standing by himself” set apart from the whole community to his self-righteous prayer.  And he thanks God for the distance between himself and those who are not like him -- especially calling out those that society has deemed dangerous and wrong. From the Pharisee’s vantage point on his high-moral pedestal, God was with him, he was righteous because he had earned it through proper living and good choices.

This very religious man drew lines around himself, drew lines to divide the worshipping community and tried to draw lines around God Almighty.

In this election year our country has become obsessed with line drawing. Social media posts are filled with self-righteousness and opinions, political rallies filled with moral superiority and smug attitudes. It seems to me that the citizens of the nation have allowed themselves to be drawn into tiny corners and taught to celebrate the lines that divide.

As God’s children, as people of the cross, we have a unique and important voice in our nation.  We get to share a story that God began and continues to write through the lives of all God’s children -- we get to share the story of a God who absolutely cannot be contained to a political party, or to a moral box that is black or white, we get to share the love of God that is blurring the lines we celebrate and working salvation in the lives of those we call dangerous and wrong.

In sharing the story of God’s love we are called to be marked with persistence, humility and reconciliation. And in the next few weeks our neighbors, no matter what sign they have stamped in their yard or how humble or arrogant we may be...our community and our very souls will hunger for a story like the story God is telling here today.

I saw this story take on flesh and blood this week.  On Monday night nine people gathered in our fellowship hall in front of the fireplace.  Five people were from this church, four people were from the Islamic Society in Woodbury.  I heard about the beauty and mutual appreciation that was born out of the “Meet Your Neighbor” even that happened here last summer.  Two very different faith communities came together to celebrate something, and it wasn’t the lines that divide (and there are lines that divide) but instead the celebration lifted up all that unites! I heard about fear of the unknown, but also about the comfort of knowing our neighbors.  Lines were blurry and community was cultivated.  

So we, the Lutheran church of Memorial will continue to attempt to tell the story of our God.  We’ll tell it to our neighbors and we’ll tell is alongside our neighbors.  And lest we believe that our righteousness will come from our own good works or thoughtful behaviors, we must remember the prayer of the tax-collector as well this morning.

The prayer of the tax-collector from our story is this, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” and if we were to set it in our contemporary setting, making it unique to every political, racial, religious, moral situation we all find ourselves in...it would sound like this...“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  

The prayer of the tax-collector is timeless, the prayer from mortal to Divine speaking the truth of our nature to the truth of God’s nature.  “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”  With a repentant heart we learn more about the unfolding story of God’s love and unfailing mercy that we are called to share and so we say, “Thanks be to God.”  Amen.

Turn, posture, praise & thanks

MLC Sermon 10.16.16

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, ¹³they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ ¹⁴When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. ¹⁶He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? ¹⁸Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ ¹⁹Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’ (Luke 17:11-19)

Ten people are miraculously healed and only one says thank-you.  This is a bible story every parent can stick in their back pocket to really hit home that lesson on the importance of saying “Thank you” Whether or not one’s heart is really in it when one is being forced to say “Thank you” is of course, an important point of consideration.  But I do believe that words matter and help to shape our character and ritual is also a power force in our lives.  When we practice saying words of gratitude we are changed, as the words become easier and easier to say and the spirit behind them is strengthened.

Saying “Thank you” or taking a posture of humility and gratitude is exactly what that one healed man did in our gospel lesson today.  This man’s ritual of gratitude was four-fold; first he turned back -- turned from rushing away and doing what he wanted, he turned back to his healer.  He praised God with a loud voice, we are not told exactly what his words were but whatever they were he was yelling them boldly and praising God for this healing! Third, he took a posture of humility, prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet because his words were not enough, he used his whole body to show his gratitude for new life.  And lastly, the healed man thanked Jesus.

Turn, praise, posture and thanks.  

Turn, praise, posture and thanks.

As you may have expected, I believe there is much more to this story than a simple “Say Thank you” lesson. This short story opens with a line that sets the stage for the radical healing we heart about.  The story begins by telling us that Jesus is in the region between Samaria and Galilee and when he approached the edge of the village he then saw the ten lepers.  It is important to note that the lepers are not in the town square, or in the synagogue, these lepers had been cast out to the village edge.  At this time, when a person was diagnosed with a contagious, feared disease they were set away from their homes, living in packs on the edge of their communities and forced by law to keep a wide distance between themselves and healthy people.  To make matters worse, the lepers were also asked to call out a warning to anyone that was passing by yelling “Unclean! Stay away!”. Their words, rituals and postures certainly gave this group of 10 a new identity: unclean, dangerous, sick and alone.

Throughout the gospel of Luke there is a clear, dangerous pattern of rule-breaking and boundary crossing.  This story picks up on that pattern, Jesus is radically, dangerously going outside the bounds of what is socially acceptable to bring mercy and healing to this group.  

He crosses the village lines and hangs out on the edge of town.

He crosses social law and approaches the sick group that is typically obliged to keep a distance.

He crosses ethnic boundaries and heals Jews and he heals a foreigner.

I don’t know what the exact modern day equivalent to this story is, but the news this weekend had me thinking a lot of those we label, disregard, disrespect, undervalue. From this painful presidential campaign to the overshadowed suffering of Haiti to the continued horror of Syria.  And to be honest, I found the news around the presidential campaign so disturbing this weekend that I wrestled greatly with a gospel response to such ugly, disrespectful attitudes and what systems are at play that allowed these voices to brought to the top of a presidential ticket. What is the Christian response? What is the church’s posture here?

Today’s gospel story reminded me that Jesus is on the move, and Jesus is moving to all the places I’d rather not go.  Jesus is on the move speaking redemption in the face of abuse and calling beloved that which we cast aside.  Systems of abuse, power and inequality are strongly at work in our lives, and so is our God.  Could we fill the world with a ritual response such as Turn, praise, posture and thanks? Could the foreigner of this story be the modern day model of Christian response to abuse and corruption?

Jesus goes to the margins of the world and there breaks in the kingdom of God into the lives of ten hurting and isolated people who are sent back to their communities as visible signs of God’s mercy and presence in our world.  And note where this in breaking kingdom was at work -- God’s kingdom broke open there in a group of people that had been labeled as sick, unclean and abandoned and that is exactly where Jesus is so often bringing the power and mercy of our loving God.

That is what God is up to in our scripture story today; messy, scandalous, healing miracles.

Now let’s turn and consider what the healed people are up to in our scripture story.  Nine of them are obedient, doing exactly what Jesus commanded and most certainly what their hearts are so happy to do which is run back to their communities and show themselves to be walking miracles!

But the tenth guy, he crossed even more lines.  He broke out of his isolated, unclean, ethnic prison to “Turn, praise, posture and thanks”.  Jesus doesn’t really talk to the man, rather looking around for others to follow suite Jesus calls the man and foreigner, the wrong person did the gracious act to turn, praise, posture and thanks.

The foreigner teaches the disciples, the foreigner teaches the status quo what a grateful heart looks like and moves like and worships God like.  The foreigner is a reminder that GOd’s promises know no boundaries or borders.  God’s grace will not abide by the arbitrary lines we draw between one another.  The foreigner consistently finds the most unlikely proclaimers of the good news to be the best choice to announce God’s mercy.  The outsider continues the in-breaking of God’s kingdom and he does it with gratitude. What a powerful force!

Turn, praise, posture and thanks.

That pattern of our Christian worship services enacts the healed man’s ritual.  We begin with confession, the spiritual act of turning towards God and away from self and sin.  Turn.

We worship God with our singing, “worthy is Christ the lamb who was slain whose blood set us free to be people of God!” praise.

We stand or sit, moving our bodies with heads bowed, or eyes closed, or maybe hands up or hearts open to hear God’s word read.  Posture.

We give God our thanks.  Through more singing, through offering a portion of our financial gifts to God, through serving each other and forgiving each other with a sign of peace.  And finally, we celebrate the Eucharistic feast.

Eucharist is a very churchy word -- more often we call the eucharist holy communion, or the sacrament of the table.  But this morning I want to use the word Eucharist because this english word comes from the Greek word Eucharistia and that word is the very one found in our bible ready.  The man prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and Eucharistia, he gave thanks.

When we come to this table week after week we come to celebrate what scandalous redemption we have been given by God through Jesus Christ our Savior.  We come to celebrate that the table of mercy is set for us despite our diving lines and sinful nature.  We come to the table at the invitation of Jesus who knows our sickness, our labels, our division and our pain...and we receive mercy anyways.

Turn, praise, posture and thanks.

So how will you turn, praise, posture and give thanks?

How has God broken into your life to bring mercy and healing? What foreigner has revealed to you a measure of Divine goodness you had not already known?

Turn, praise, posture and thanks.

Thanks be to God who moves beyond our lines.

Thanks be to God who turns our messy stories into walking miracles of healing and grace.

Thanks be to God who claims us as helpless infants and washes us in healing waters and promises to be with us forever.

Thanks be to God who is ever turning towards us and who alone is worthy of our praise.

The Ruin of Joseph

Sermon 9.25.16

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
   and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
the notables of the first of the nations,
   to whom the house of Israel resorts! 
Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,
   and lounge on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
   and calves from the stall; 
who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
   and like David improvise on instruments of music; 
who drink wine from bowls,
   and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
   but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 
Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,
   and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away. (Amos 6:1, 4-7)

Alas for those who are at ease, for those who feel secure and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.

Do you grieve over the ruin of Joseph? Media strikes every day, all day, continually breaking news, reporting more than any one person can possibly consume.  

News of bombings and we change the station.

Reports of exposed and exploited refugees and we scroll on.

A warlike political season we excuse inexcusable behavior and language.

Sidestepping the imbalance of racial inequality in our lives has become the new normal and we are unclear about which lives matter anymore.

We justify our opinions and rationalize the distance we place between self and those who dare to disagree.

Our earth-home groans beneath our weight and greed and still we invest and mame so as not be disturbed in our ease.

O God, save us.  Our hearts are hardened, our minds are numb, our capacity to see your suffering is blinded by fear.

Alas for those who are at ease...but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.

The prophet Amos speaks the words of God’s judgement to us today.  The ruin of Joseph refers to the northern kingdom of Israel.  Amos is angry that God’s people have chosen to seek wealth while ignoring the rest of God’s people.  Amos is angry because God’s anger swells over such profound, human indifference.

Amos begins with that haunting words, “Alas..” with one words we know we are hearing a warning and also a surrendering.  “Alas…” you had your chance to care for your neighbor more than you care about yourself, you had your chance to trade your precious oils for the gain of Joseph…”Alas…” people of Israel, God’s chosen and beloved people, you are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph -- “Alas…”.

This judgement and flippancy carries us right into the gospel story as well! Normally we can hear a condemning Old Testament reading and then turn to our gospel reading for comfort and salvation.  Not this morning.  Judgement, surrendering, hopelessness...it is the biblical tone before us.

Every day the rich man walks past the sick and hungry man at his gate.  Now in the afterlife they stare at each other from either side of the great, fixed cham and Father Abraham tells the rich man it’s too late.  Alas, he had his chance with the prophets, alas he never once showed grief over the ruin of the man sitting at this gate. and even though he now has concern for his family, they would even ignore a resurrected man. No grace, no second chances.  

There are days or maybe whole life times where we carry the arrogance and selfishness of the rich man.  Mostly likely we will now know the level of poverty of social marginalization of Lazarus.  But I think this story places us in another role.  Luke is the only gospel writer to include this story and Luke is very invested in proclaiming the salvation we receive in Jesus in the many way that manifests in our lives -- social redemption, physical redemption, economic, community and spiritual redemption is proclaimed in this gospel.  So it carries his theme of urgency and awareness if we remember that we are really the five siblings that the rich man wants to warn.  We are those five siblings of the rich man. We who are still alive have been warned about our urgent situation, the parable makes clear. We have Moses and the prophets; we have the scriptures; we have the lessons of God’s economy, about God's care for the poor and hungry. We even have someone who has risen from the dead. The question is: Will we -- the five sisters and brothers -- open our eyes? Will we tend to the impoverished person laying at our gates?

People of God, we come here this morning to worship a God who will never leave us with “Alas…” like the prophet Amos did.  God will never be satisfied with a great chasm fixed between God and God’s people. It will not be our own efforts that move us from alas to healing or from fear to hope or from darkness into light.  

God gifts us with a more holy and eternal power that far outshines our feeble efforts and short attention spans...God gifts us with the power and movement of the Holy Spirit.  This was the gift given to the church by our resurrection Savior.  

Our hardened hearts are not left alone to rot and break...we are softened and healed every day by the love of God that just won’t leave us alone!

I want to leave you with a picture and story of hope this morning.  A story that I believe is possible by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through God’s people.  Unlike the rich man who was too consumed with his own well being to see the suffering at his doorstep, there is a community in Philadelphia that began to work together to ease the suffering in at their doorstep.  Modern day Christian activist, Shane Claiborne lives and works in this neighborhood.  He has authored a few very thought and faith provoking books that tell the story of his life and the life of his neighbors that attempt to live out kingdom of God values as they feel so called.

Now, we are going to move into a congregation conversation about how we are called to serve and work in our neighborhoods as God’s people.  I offer this story not because I believe we are called to do exactly what they are doing.  But they are a beautiful example of flawed, hurting people joining together to do more together than they could ever do alone.  

Listen for this pattern: They stay in their neighborhood, they know their neighbors, they discern the need, their work to meet the need.

Let us pray...God, in this moment we know the the privilege that allows us to not see the needy outside our gate, we confess we see the poor as other than you. Risen Christ, this is how you come to us, this is your visitation. Let us be poor in keeping and rich in sharing. We pray for your Holy Spirit, for a softened heart that will let you in. God, open our eyes, open our hearts, open our gate.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, “Give this person your place”, and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.  For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’ He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’  

Luke 14: 1, 7-14

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our provision and from Jesus our gracious host and teacher.  Amen.

According to our gospel reading, we should take some time this morning to go around and make sure everyone is sitting in the right spot! Are you sitting in an exalted place, maybe in a spot that you haven’t rightly earned? Are you sitting in a pew that is really beneath you and need to be brought up to a more righteous cushion in the sanctuary? In a couple of weeks we will be entering the programmatic year where in the past, Memorial has held to two different worship services.  This year we are remaining at one service at 9:30am which will allow the whole of the community to be worshipping God altogether.  My worry however, is over the inevitable turf wars about to blow up for many of you will learn that there is someone from the other service who calls your church pew home and there will have to be some shuffling going on!

Of course, for churchy folk this is a common joke -- pew placement.  Church goers of every kind can get stuck in their ways faster than most and while I don’t actually anticipate fists being thrown on Rally Sunday, it is good to acknowledge that even our simple actions like where we sit, are often symptoms of some intentions or fears that run deeper.

Our gospel reading this morning reads a bit like a Ms. Manners article with Jesus teaching the guests and hosts at the meal how to pick just the right seat so as not to bring about embarrassment or to appear arrogant. Yet, as always, there is something much deeper underlying this teaching of Jesus.  This is not simply a dinner among church friends or family, Jesus is dining with powerful religious leaders, it was a selective invitation list and where one sat during the meal and afterwards for the time of discussion and teaching was paramount to one’s standing both in the earthly society. The seriousness of this meal is made known to us as the gospel writers sets the scene with the phrase “they were watching him closely”.

Luke’s gospel is all about food.  This week I read a delightful little commentary on Luke’s gospel entitled, “Eating your way through Luke’s Gospel” in which the author says that according to Luke’s gospel Jesus is always on his way to a meal, having a meal or leaving a meal and Jesus, sinners and food always go together! What good news for us sinners who love to feast!

This story we heard this morning is not Jesus’ first meal with religious leaders, they have already seen him dining with tax collectors, allowing women to be a part of the post-dinner discussion, they have witnessed him bringing in drunks and sinners to their precious feasts. So now, they watch him closely as Jesus once again breaks apart their laws of good order and says they ought to make their seating arrangement more flexible and change the guest list so that all might have a glimpse into the feast that is promised in God’s heavenly kingdom.

While not actually related to the sermon topic,
this picture is from our first year at the seminary!

All of this talk of food and community dining reminded me of my first year at Luther seminary.  My daughter I lived in a hallway that held four apartments.  Next door to us was a married couple and their teenage boy -- they were from Kenya and both parents were pursuing their PhDs.  Across from them was a family from South Korea, with a 3 year old and new born who had been at the seminary for a couple of years while the father of the family also pursued a PhD.  Across from our apartment was a family from western North Dakota, they had two little boys that spent their day with Dad while their mom was finishing up her Masters of Divinity on her way to becoming a pastor.  No family make up was exactly the same, no one’s paths of origin was similar in anyway and yet we were thrown together into one hallway as we all set out on a journey of academic study for the sake of the church.  Very quickly after moving in we were invited to a hallway dinner, family dinner as they were called.  This international group would cram into someone’s living room, the dining room table would be filled with a wide variety of food from all over the world and our children would run up and down the hallway as we attempted to feast, talk and pray together as often as possible.

Elsewhere on campus I had a hard time feeling like I really fit in at Luther seminary and the invitation to these meals helped me to feel some sense of belonging.  It wasn’t all roses living in that hallway together, we had different parenting styles and stresses because of our studies.  When we cooked in our individual apartments we would all stink up that hallway with varying global smells that appealed to some and disgusted others.  But the welcome and support in that hallway was something fierce, I felt cared for, protected and nourished because of my neighbors -- I glimpsed the heavenly banquet that Jesus talks about in our gospel reading.

This hospitality is not easy to come by, this is painfully true in places of worship.  One morning that same year at seminary walked into the chapel and saw my Korean neighbor sitting by himself.  I joined him in the back pew and opened my hymnal so familiar with the liturgy.  I sat next to my neighbor who was a pastor in his own country, here in America getting advanced degrees and something about the way our worship was formatted and led left him feeling lost.  It was very awkward sitting there that day as I thoughtlessly flipped pages next to my neighbor who could not follow along with the many page flips, did not know the sitting and standing that was not led and who decided not to make his way to the table for communion because he felt so very “other” that morning in worship.

Stories and experiences like my former neighbors’ are repeated all over the church.  Sunday morning is often said to be the most segregated hour of any given week in America.  How is it that the same loving people who can feast together in seminary apartments cannot also create hospitable and accessible practices of worship?

We all are beautiful saints and fallen sinners capable of loving feasts and ugly division. Suddenly Jesus’ teaching of seating arrangements and guests lists is speaking to our all too divided world. Jesus’ meal was shared with the highest religious leaders of the community, his teaching that we heard read today is for the church, very specifically and directly teaching us to constantly be pushing against our own patterns and traditions that may lead to exclusion or division.

And I do not believe this teaching is given to the church in order that we may win any blue ribbons in the “nice-est church” division (though, Memorial really does have a gifting here!), nor are we taught about breaking open our patterns and hearts to others so that we will grow...Jesus is taking a risk sitting at the rabbi’s table and teaching about welcome because of the welcome we are given by God.

Jesus is revealing a nature of God that is pursuing the poor in spirit, a God who is extravagant with welcome, a God who compiles guests list of the least deserving, arrogant, self-righteousness, grieving, lonely, sick and hurting children of the earth and bringing them to the feast of life and joy in God’s presence. Because of the mercy we have experiences at the hand of our God, we can hear Jesus’ teaching on seating charts and be broken open for the sake of the world God loves.

In a few moments you will be invited to the feast of victory.  The bread of life is offered to all who hunger, the cup of salvation is lifted for all who thirst -- this is the work of our God, this is the grace of our Savior who will not be satisfied until all know this welcome and feast at this table.  So when you come today, come to be fed, come to be broken open to those who are not yet at the table.  Come and be fed so that you may be feeding the poor in spirit and nourishing the least likely table guest you encounter.

None of us are deserving of this invitation, yet to all of us it is extended.  May God give us the vision of the heavenly kingdom and the heart to extend the welcome to others.  Amen.