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8-29-2010 GUESS WHO IS NOT COMING TO DINNER Luke 14:1, 7-14 Grace mercy and peace to you from God
our Father and our Lord and risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Human beings are by
nature somewhat tribal. We are likely most comfortable with people who are very much like we are.
That doesn’t mean these tribal tendencies cannot be overcome or set aside. But it does take
some effort. For most people, intentionally becoming aligned with a group of which we are not naturally
a part will take some discipline and determination. This is not a new situation.
In Jesus’ day there were all sorts of groups, and groups within groups that tended to congregate with each other.
Some of these are fairly well known to us. Jews and Gentiles were not normally found eating together.
Even men and women ate and worshiped separately. The ill were often segregated from the healthy,
and the poor and homeless were left to congregate with each other, but not with the population at large.
Bruce Malina wrote about these various factors in a wonderful book entitled The New Testament World: Insights
from Cultural Anthropology. In this important book, now in its third edition, Malina describes
how different social groups functioned, or didn’t function, within the larger matrix of first-century Judaism.
One of his important insights applies directly to the lesson we are considering in this lesson. Malina describes how,
at all levels of society, persons were organized around principles of honor and shame.
Honor comes from accomplishment, or acclaim. Shame comes from the lack of accomplishment or acclaim.
To walk into a room and take a seat of honor, only to have the host take it away would be an instance of great shame.
However, to take a seat lower down from the seat of honor and then have the host offer an even better seat, that is
the very definition of acclaim and would demonstrate great honor. One of the most
humiliating experiences in the honor/shame relationship is when something is done for someone and that person is not in a
position to reciprocate. As a matter of course, the wealthy would not invite the poor to a dinner party,
not because they would be afraid the poor would come, but the mere act of inviting them would inflict unnecessary shame.
The invited poor probably would not have accepted such an invitation because they knew that under no circumstances
could they ever repay such a gesture. Obviously Jesus understood the rules of
the honor/shame value system, but he seems intent on turning matters upside down. In his vision of the
kingdom of God, disclosed in many, many places in the New Testament, Jesus seems intent on reversing the honor/shame game.
Not only does he counsel his disciples not to seek places of honor, don’t go for the best seats, but he even
goes so far as to suggest they should shatter honor/shame transactions by inviting those who can never repay into their homes.
The disciples are encouraged to take those whose lives are normally characterized by shame and treat them with honor.
Who are the people we normally invite into our homes? Are they people like us or different from
us? A young seminary family far away from home found themselves all alone
one Thanksgiving. Most of the students had left the dorms and apartments to be with extended family for
the holidays. But the young family didn’t have enough money to make the long trip. They
settled in for what seemed to be an intimate and low-key family celebration on their own.
As they looked around, however, they began to notice that they were not the only ones staying on campus.
There was a young African-American family that also didn’t have travel money. There were several
students from Korea who couldn’t go home. There were some people who had to work, even over the holidays,
just to make ends meet. All these people got together and combined their resources for a huge Thanksgiving celebration.
Under normal circumstances, this group would not have been together. Had there been enough money,
all of them would have been with family, with people just like themselves. But in the midst of the realities
they all were facing, they forged a new family; they found a basis for a different kind of togetherness. And
around the table of Thanksgiving they found a way to create community, overcome differences and defeat loneliness.
Everyone remarked that it was one of the most meaningful Thanksgiving dinners they had ever attended.
The church in the world today faces its greatest challenge in trying to fulfill Jesus’ vision of one big family
--- a family that takes everyone in. As we study church life in many places, we find there what is also
evident in the general population --- people gathered with people just like them. There is no shame in
this, and much good is done. But much is missed as well. Worst of all, there are some in our society for
whom there is not a naturally forming group. We may see large groups of homeless people sleeping under
bridges and overpasses, and a rough sort of community may emerge as they live in proximity to each other. But the pressure
of survival often stifles the real advantages of social networks. Rather than helping each other, sometimes
out of necessity it becomes every man, woman and child for him-or-herself. Communities of faith
respond to this in many ways, but often times the response of Jesus’ family is seasonal. The poor
and the homeless hear from the faithful at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but then seem invisible to the faithful for the rest
of the year. Municipalities, in an effort to keep residents safe, often
subject the least powerful in our society to inhumane treatment. We can’t blame law enforcement officials
for wanting the streets of the city to be safe, but as followers of Jesus, we know these are the very people Jesus said we
should invite to dinner --- the ones who under no circumstances could ever reciprocate.
It’s probably not practical or even reasonable to expect individual Christians to go out and take the poorest
of the poor into their homes. There are those who do such things, but prudence suggests it’s generally
not a good idea. So how are the ideals of Jesus’ social ethic to be
balanced with the practical needs of safety? For one thing, we need
to stop thinking individualistically. Poverty and homelessness are problems that belong to communities
of people, not individuals. One way churches can make a difference is by working alongside community officials
to address the needs of the poor. If each community in America, with all of its attendant churches, took
responsibility for just the poor within their reach --- not the poor of the world, but just the poor of the neighborhood ---
great strides could be made in changing things for the better. In this way Jesus has
reversed the process of honor and shame. It’s a shame for so many to have so much, and yet for hunger,
disease and poverty to continue. It’s a shame that we yield to our natural tendencies of congregating
with people who are just like us. It’s a shame that we have such high ideals offered to us by the
one we call Lord, and yet often fail even to attempt to reach for those ideals, much less attain them.
On the other hand, it’s an honorable act of faith to find ways as communities to care for those who have so little.
It’s honorable to challenge policies and practices that hurt the poorest in our midst. It’s
honorable to say as a community of faith, “No one who lives in our neighborhood will be hungry today.”
Jesus said, give a banquet, invite the poor.
They can’t repay you, but God will. Amen.
08-15-2010 BEYOND MOM AND APPLE PIE Luke 12:49-56 Grace mercy and peace
to you from God our Father and our Lord and risen Savior, Jesus Christ. It
would be easier, wouldn’t it, if we could just put Jesus on the shelf next to Mom and apple pie and all the other uncontroversial,
happy-place things that nobody will disagree with? Like baseball. Walt Disney movies.
Hand made quilts. Daisies. Wouldn’t you like to line Jesus up next to all
those good things? We would see him sitting on that pleasing row of things that we love and we’d
say, “You look good there, Jesus! Thanks for everything.” If only
Jesus would just stay there. Maybe you’ve
seen those commercials for the Yellow Pages. In that cupboard or drawer where you’d expect to find
that big yellow paperback book of telephone numbers, there sits a man. He waits patiently, standing by
for your questions: Is there a bakery near the corner of Elm and First? Where’s
the nearest auto supply store with parts for my Ford pickup truck. What time does that big church on the
corner have their worship services? In each case, this man promptly and politely gives the answer
that we’d expect to find in the Yellow Pages. And he doesn’t even mind when the cabinet door
closes on him. You just know he’ll be there the next time, ready to answer to your every need. We try to make Jesus like that sometimes.
We want to come and talk to him when we feel the need to reconnect. He’s our go-to guy when
we are in trouble or need reassurance or want a dose of “Sunday” in the middle of the week.
If he really could be waiting there, in that cupboard, maybe Jesus would quote scripture for us or remind us how much
God loves us. Fortified with that, we could turn back to our own pursuits with energy, trusting that he’d
be right there for us the next time. But then again,
Jesus never was much of a shelf-sitter. Rarely do we find Jesus in the gospels just sitting around waiting for something to
happen, wondering when someone might come and ask him a question. More often, he’s the one directing
the action as he and his disciples move from place to place, reaching out to people, some of whom couldn’t reach for
him first. He’s a man on a mission, with the urgency of an important message and a sense that time
is short. Jesus knows, and he has told his disciples --- before what we read today --- that
he will suffer and die, and be raised in three days. The people who first heard that didn’t like
it. They would have put Jesus on a bench somewhere out of the way, safe and hidden. They could have turned
to him at critical moments, and they would have had his holiness and insight to draw on, just when they needed him.
But Jesus knew he came for more than that. We
know it, too. We know a Jesus who brings salvation, grace, reconciliation and forgiveness.
We know a Jesus who changed people’s lives with the touch of his hand. We know a Jesus who
could change a person’s entire world view with a few words, a parable, or maybe a question. We worship
this Jesus who did all those things, and then left it all behind to go to the cross and fulfill his mission to the world,
so that we might have life, and have it abundantly. And for all the
times we recite and remember and celebrate all these things that Jesus was and is, we rarely dwell for long on “the
rest of the story,” to use Paul Harvey’s well-known phrase. The coin of salvation
and healing and truth comes with a flip side, and the flip side is harder. The flip side is change. The
flip side is people deciding that what they once believed was incomplete. The flip side is people leaving the certainty of
settled, predictable lives to follow this revolutionary Jesus. As these people’s families stand in
the doorway, watching them go, waving, left behind, Jesus doesn’t seem much like a “prince of peace.” And Jesus
calls that. He predicts exactly that. He says in essence, “Households
are going to be divided. You’ll see: It will be two against three and three against two.”
And he enumerates some of the possibilities: a father will be against his son, and a son against his father.
A mother will be against her daughter, and vice versa. The same with mothers-in-law against daughters-in-law.
Have you seen a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law divided? It’s not pretty. So Jesus comes right out and says, “This conflict is going to happen.”
And then he says the part that we so easily forget: He (Jesus) will be the cause of all this discord!
This Jesus that we wanted to place in that neat row of uncomplicated, easily accepted “good things”
for our lives --- he is going to be at the very heart of this division. Why? Because
following Jesus is complicated. “I came to bring fire on the earth,” Jesus said. In the gospel of Thomas, which didn’t make it into our bible,
Jesus is reported to have said, “Whoever is near me is near fire.” Being near
Jesus is being near fire, because Jesus offers a whole new perspective on the way things are. We still
don’t fully understand some of these teachings: The last shall
be first, and the first, last. Blessed are the poor. Whoever
tries to follow me and does not hate [hate!] father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters --- even life itself!
---cannot be my disciple. People hear words like these, and
they see what happens when Jesus comes in contact with them, and they go away different! When everything
you thought you knew and valued and trusted gets turned on its head, it’s like a fire has swept through you. But
the fire doesn’t singe everyone the same. Some people hear once and they’re changed.
Others are right there, listening and eager, and yet something happens and they walk away. Even
within a single family, not everyone is equally receptive. We don’t need Jesus to tell us that.
Within families today, some are eagerly faithful and others --- not so much. It’s no wonder
Jesus warned people that he would bring division. But if all that’s
true, then what about that shelf where we wanted to put Jesus? If Jesus is so dangerous, so unsettling,
then how could we have even tried to put him on that calm, uncontroversial shelf? It’s
easy for us to lose track of the Jesus who was like a fire to those around him. We don’t want to
be unsettled and uprooted anymore than that mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of Jesus’ day. So it’s no surprise
when we embrace the kind, gentle Jesus that you see in those paintings that hang in so many church buildings.
We don’t have many paintings of the Jesus who’s like a fire. But
maybe we need to create some. Maybe we need something more like a video --- or a hologram --- or an avatar
--- of the living breathing Jesus who came to bring fire on the earth, who longed for it to finally be kindled.
Better yet, aren’t we supposed to be that avatar --- doing what Jesus would do and carrying on the work of Jesus
in the world? Imagine that: Our hands and feet and hearts and eyes and minds, no longer our own, but all
yielded to Christ who lives through us! And what would
that life look like? We would be alert to the world around us; we’d have that ability to interpret
the appearance of things that Jesus described in today’s reading. Only we wouldn’t so much
be interpreting whether it’s going to rain and when the economy is going to turn around for us, like we have in the
past. Instead as avatars of Jesus, we would be interpreting the signs of need and openness that are all around us.
What’s happening in the lives of people --- down the street and across the world, and do they have their daily
bread, and what temptations and evil do they face that we might have a hand in averting? Imagine
how reading those signs would propel us up off the couch and out into the world! Picture us, as avatars
of Jesus, going boldly into places of emptiness and need. Think how keenly we would feel other people’s pain, and how
urgently we would share Jesus’ Good News, and how deeply we would savor the privilege of serving him in this way.
Once that fire is kindled, it burns and burns, deep within. And
yes, some of our relationships will get singed. That shelf where we used to keep our happy things --- it’s
gonna get lonely. Yet Jesus calls us to know, as he did, that that is part of the baptism with which we
must be baptized; we will bear that distress until it’s completed. So
let’s join Jesus in the fire, shall we? Amen.
8-08-2010 “There Are Such Things” but “Do Not Be Afraid” Luke 12:32-40 Grace mercy and
peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Back
in the 1920s, a very popular stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s vampire novel Dracula toured England. At
the end of each performance the actor-manager came back on stage to talk briefly with the audience. He
hoped, he said, that the play wouldn’t give them bad dreams that night. So when they got home, when
the lights had been turned out and they started to worry about things that might be hiding behind the curtains or peeking
through a window, he advised them to “just pull yourself together and remember that after all --- “there
are such things!” In spite of the current popularity of the vampire theme in films, television and
books, you don’t have to be afraid of getting bitten by one. (There are vampire bats in the tropics
and people with pathological behaviors but those are different concerns.) There aren’t really any
Dracula-like vampires who have lived for centuries, sleeping in their coffins by day and feasting by night. The
monsters that populate the old horror movies --- or who are found in today’s “men who are vampires and
the women who love them” genre --- don’t get out into the real world in which we live. But that is small comfort in the real world. There
are such things as terrorists trying to blow people up, religious conflict, melting glaciers and icecaps, high unemployment,
a divisive political climate and other threats. With all of that to deal with, a few vampires would hardly
be noticed. There are some very frightening things alive in our world. They can attack
you right out in broad daylight and they won’t be scared off by garlic or a crucifix. “Do not be afraid, little flock,”
Jesus says, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Jesus said that in a world whose problems differed from ours in detail but were as threatening as are ours.
And it would be easy to think of these words of Jesus as the kind of soothing reassurance that parents may give frightened
children at bedtime. “There are no monsters under the bed or hiding in the closet.
The shadows on the wall won’t hurt you. Your mother and I are right in the living room.
You’re safe.” But there are such things --- and there were going to be such things for Jesus’
disciples. What was going to happen to Jesus --- his arrest and execution because those in power wanted
to hold on to their privileges --- was a sign of what followers of Jesus might expect. They could get caught
up in the economic and political turmoil of the world. If they proclaimed and lived the message of Jesus,
they shouldn’t be surprised if there really were people out to get them. Then,
too, we shouldn’t think that all the dangers are outside us. If we get in the habit of thinking of
ourselves as a “little flock,” we can, if we’re not careful, develop the kind of mentality
that is found in members of a cult. It’s the few righteous “us” against
the evil world. But our own sin and the ease with which we yield to temptation can be as much of a problem as anything that
the rest of the world can throw at us. Sin, in fact, is the basic threat --- the sins of the rest of the
world but also our own sins. Jesus isn’t trying to tell
the disciples that there are not such things. But in spite of all that, “It is your Father’s
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God’s purpose and God’s promise to his
people cannot be defeated or stopped by persecution, poverty or conflict, or by our own weakness or unfaithfulness. Two
thousand years later, the reign of God has still not come in its fullness. Nevertheless, Jesus’ words
are not just another of those attempts to comfort frightened children or people who have been hit by some personal tragedy.
“It’s going to be all right. Things will look better in the morning.”
When Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, he told us to ask God that “thy kingdom
come,” and the church has not been praying that in vain down through the centuries. When
Luther addressed that petition on the Lord’s Prayer in his Small Catechism he posed the question, “How
does this come about?” How does God’s kingdom come? And his answer
was: “Whenever our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that through the Holy Spirit’s grace we
believe God’s Holy Word and live godly lives here and hereafter in eternity.” When we
believe God’s promise of forgiveness and acceptance for Jesus’ sake, when we put our trust in the God revealed
in Jesus Christ, we are reconciled with God and his kingdom is a reality for us. In God’s future,
it will be a reality for all the world, but even now it is a spiritual truth that can determine our priorities and direct
our lives. If the reign of
God determines our priorities, then we can begin to understand Jesus’ words in our lesson about selling our possessions
and giving alms. It isn’t that possessions or wealth are in themselves evil. Far
from it --- everything God has created is good. But we are not to hoard up wealth or just use it for our
own pleasure or security. Instead, these gifts of God are to be used for the purposes of the kingdom.
Jesus doesn’t tell us to throw our money down a rat hole, as if it were something that defiled us.
Instead, we are to “give alms” --- to share with those in need. In
the same way when he tells a wealthy ruler to sell all that he owns, he is to “distribute the money to the poor,”
and follow Jesus. Our earthly possessions are threatened,
as Jesus say, by thieves and the natural processes of decay. And, to put a different twist on a popular
slogan, “the one who dies with the most toys --- still dies.” It makes little
sense to put those things first. Our primary concern is instead to be about the state of our relationship
with God. That “treasure” is not some store of merits that we can use to stay in God’s
good graces, but just the opposite. It is the gift of faith that God gives us freely and the love and hope
that flow from it. And we have this treasure, as Luther said, when “we believe God’s
Holy Word and live godly lives.” The reign of God is also to direct our lives. The Father does
not give us the kingdom just so we can sit around in idleness. “Be dressed for action,”
Jesus says, and it’s a command, not simply some good advice. Talk
about “action” can call up the idea --- never far away --- that we’ve got to do our share
in order to earn our place in God’s realm. And then we get another thing to worry about, because
how will we know when we’ve done enough? But this misses the very point of Jesus’ words that
begin our lesson. “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
God has already determined to make the followers of Jesus honored citizens of that kingdom, so “Do
not be afraid.” Instead, let the knowledge that you are one of God’s people give you
courage to act as God’s ministers to further that kingdom. “But
what if I make a mistake? What if I make the wrong choice when I’m faced with a critical decision?”
And it’s true that sometimes we won’t be sure just what the best course of action is.
But again, Jesus’ assurance that God has already chosen us makes it possible for us to decide and act in uncertain
situations. Of course we should pray about such choices, think them through as clearly as possible and, when possible, seek
expert guidance from trustworthy people. We want to act in ways that will indeed further the coming of
God’s kingdom. But when all is said and done, we can act in the knowledge that our relationship with
God is secure. The idea that salvation is entirely God’s
gift that we receive through faith alone is, you see, not just an abstract doctrine. When we understand
its implication, it’s a tremendously liberating message. In spite of the fact that “there
are such things,” we are freed by it from fears about what may happen and free to act as God’s people.
“So if the Son makes you free,” Jesus says in another place, “you will be
free indeed.” Amen.
8-1-2010 DEFINITION OF A FOOL Luke 12:13-21 Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father
and our Lord and risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Some
people say that words are cheap. Jesus didn’t think so. He thought words are both
wonderful and dangerous. They are eternal in their power. Jesus said that on the Day
of Judgment, our words will justify us or condemn us. I find that very frightening. In
fact, Jesus said that at the Day of Judgment we will “have to give an account for every careless word”
we’ve spoken. In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus said something even more
emphatic about words. He said that the language we use can be like an act of murder. So
if we call somebody a fool, it’s such an evil act that we “will be liable to the hell of fire.” And yet, one day Jesus himself called a man a fool.
If Jesus, who taught that every word makes us open to judgment, and who warned especially against using a word like
fool --- if Jesus himself called a man a fool, he must have been very sure of what he was saying. The word
came in the midst of a lesson, near the conclusion of a story. Jesus must have been very conscious of what
he was saying if he dared to use this forbidden word. So it would be good to know how Jesus defined a fool. It happened this way.
One day while Jesus was teaching, a man in the crowd interrupted him. He said, “Teacher,
tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” It’s interesting, isn’t
it, that people were arguing over wills and inheritances in Jesus’ day, just as they are today! The
man who threw out the request obviously respected Jesus. He wanted to have Jesus on his side, and he felt
that if Jesus spoke, the brother would pay attention. But Jesus answered quite sharply. He refused to be an arbitrator
between the brothers. Instead, he warned against “all kinds of greed.”
He said that a person’s life doesn’t consist in the abundance of his possessions.
And then Jesus told them a story. He made his point by telling a story, a parable. It’s
a fascinating story, partly because some things about it are so familiar. You might have read it this morning
in the business section of your Sunday paper, or in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. Or
for that matter you may have seen the story come to life before your eyes in one of our shopping malls. But let’s go on with the story.
Jesus said that there was a rich man whose land “produced abundantly.” In
fact, the crops were so great that he didn’t have storage facilities to handle them. He asked himself,
“What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” And then --- clever,
ingenious man that he was, he answered his own question. “I will do this: I will pull down
my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.” See:
We might well have read this story this morning or witnessed it in the shopping mall. Perhaps we’ve
heard someone who said, “My business is prospering to the point that I have to expand. We’re
opening another restaurant in the western shopping mall.” Or, the story is in The
Wall Street Journal, the executive says, “We project opening 137 new stores this year, with special
emphasis on the West Coast.” And we applaud. We may even add, “the
American dream still works. Private enterprise is alive and well.” And
if you’re a pastor you may also say, “I hope he tithes part of that prosperity to the church.” But the successful
businessman in Jesus’ story has more to say. He continues, “And I will say to myself,
‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
This man is very happy in his success. More than that, he is very secure. When
he says, “eat, drink, and be merry,” he’s saying that he intends to enjoy the best restaurants,
the most engaging entertainment, the most sophisticated vacation spots and watering holes. He’s
got it made. It’s at this point that Jesus uses strong language.
And he puts the language in the voice of God, and perhaps he’s saying that only God has a right to use language
like this: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded
of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” This is
really quite shocking. Remember again that Jesus said we should never call someone a fool.
Yet Jesus --- Through the parable --- is calling this man a fool. Why? What has
he done wrong? Obviously he has been an astute manager, using his resources well, and it has paid off for
him. Nothing in the story suggests that he has gotten his wealth dishonestly. And isn’t
he being a good manager --- which is a quality that Jesus seems to praise in other parables? And can you
blame him, really, for feeling secure? His wealth is tied up in the most necessary of commodities, food.
Why would Jesus call this man a fool? Jesus answers our question as he concludes the story. “So
it is,” Jesus said, “with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward
God.” I believe Jesus is saying that a person is a fool when he or she is rich in earthly
things but poor toward God. Without a doubt the main point of this parable
has to do with material possessions --- our money, our property, our investments, our pension and retirement programs.
But I think it is proper to extend its influence and say that it also applies to our talents, our abilities, our social
standing and even our physical health: If we are rich in these things, worthy as they may be, and are poor toward God, we’ll
end up playing the fool. Why do we say this? Because you and
I are bigger than money or social standing or public recognition! At the least, you and I are creatures
of character. Even if we didn’t believe in the eternal soul, most of us would still believe in our
worth as persons --- and we humans are more than the position we win, the headlines we create, the awards that come our way
or the net balance of our assets. We are creatures with a soul, creatures with the capacity to demonstrate
character and creatures that dare to dream about being better than we are. That of itself is reason to
pause. But beyond that, you and I are eternal creatures.
We are creatures who bear the image of God and who long to know God. Hear me: If we try
to satisfy ourselves with financial security or physical comfort or business or athletic or political success, we are fools.
We have missed the point of who we, as human beings are. Jesus said it quite clearly and
sharply: If we are rich in all those things that constitute the rat race, and poor toward God --- the angel race,
if we may say so --- then we are fools. It is really quite simple. Painfully so! This
brings us back to the incident that caused Jesus to tell this incisive parable. Remember, Jesus was teaching
and a man in the crowd interrupted with a request: “Teacher,” he said, “tell my
brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Jesus had been telling his audience about
the danger of sinning against the Holy Spirit and how they must live godly lives with courage in the face of persecution ---
and this man interrupts to solicit help in getting what he feels is his share of the family estate. While
Jesus is talking about eternal conduct, this man is thinking of a lawsuit --- thinking about it so intently that obviously
he doesn’t hear what Jesus is saying. The poor man was a fool. I
wonder: When Jesus told the story of the wealthy farmer who was rich toward himself and poor toward God, and said
that the farmer --- in spite of all his economic cleverness --- was a fool --- do you think the fellow who brought the question
to Jesus knew that Jesus was describing him? Do you think he realized that he was a fool? But
more pertinently just now: Do you think you and I realize when we’re playing the fool? Do
you think we understand how easy it is to seek our security in things that can’t ultimately save us? And
do you think we know how important it is to be rich toward God, and to live accordingly? Jesus
was careful about the language he used, but he called the smart farmer --- and the brother who was seeking a lawsuit --- a
fool. I think I’d rather have Jesus call me a fool so I can get over it than to live and die without
knowing the truth about myself. I would like to be wise enough to believe Jesus and to live my life accordingly.
Amen. 7-25-2010 THE HEALING OF THE WATERS Luke 11:1-13 Grace mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our
Lord and risen Savior, Jesus Christ.
Imagine living in the dry Middle East some 2,800 years ago, when people had no comprehension of microbes or of how
to make water safe for consumption. And now picture yourself living in a town with only one spring, the
water from which is bad.
That, so one Old Testament account tells us, was the situation in Jericho when the prophet Elisha came there.
According to 2 Kings 2, the water from the main spring was unsafe. People considered its waters
responsible for several deaths and miscarriages. Thus, when the residents told Elisha of their problem, he requested some salt,
which he threw into the spring. That literally “healed” the waters, making
them “wholesome to this day.” Most
of us, of course, take safe water for granted, but there is a spiritual lesson in this old story. There
is a sense in which each of us has “springs” flowing within us ---springs of kindness, trust,
hope, love and more.
Sometimes, however, life deals us painful blows that can so poison those inner springs that they flow with bitterness,
resentment, hatred, anger or some other troublesome emotion. And sometimes, it seems beyond our power to
change the properties of those bad waters.
Here’s a true story that author Lewis Smedes tells. Jane and Ralph had finally raised their
three children, and Jane was just beginning to enjoy a life without mothering duties. But then Ralph’s
brother was killed in a car crash, leaving three children, ages 8, 10, and 12. Ralph felt duty bound to
take them in, and, although Jane really didn’t want to, she was too compassionate to turn the kids away.
However, since Ralph’s job kept him on the road a lot, Jane ended up doing most of the parenting.
Nine years later, having raised this second crop, Jane finally felt free to pursue some interest of her own. It was then, however,
that Ralph announced that he had fallen in love with his secretary. Ralph left Jane and married this new
woman, but felt that he could not be completely happy while Jane continued to resent what he had done. So
he telephoned Jane to ask her to forgive him and be glad for his newfound happiness. He said, “I
want you to bless me.” She said, “I want you to go to ---“
well, you can guess what she said.
Can any of us really blame her for how she felt? She had been dealt a rotten blow. Could
any of us go through such an experience without finding our inner springs of trust and love poisoned by bitterness and hatred? But the problem with the
bad waters within is that they sap the soul of the person in which they flow. Jane’s hatred of Ralph
hurt Ralph some, but it hurt her even more. And hate, bitterness, resentment or whatever can leave us too
weak to create a better life beyond the pain.
One pastor tells of seeing this very thing carried to an extreme. The pastor knew a man, “Frank,”
who, because of some unusual circumstances, was acquainted with someone involved in organized crime. Frank
once became so angry at someone else that he contacted this mobster and put a contract out on the other person’s life.
Later, when Frank cooled off, he realized what a terrible thing he had done and canceled the hit. Nonetheless,
Frank was in agony over what had happened inside him. His springs of anger had poisoned his soul and disrupted
his life. Thank God most of us do not have
the means at our disposal to carry out our every angry wish. But the inner damage is bad whether we actually
harm others or only wish harm on them. Our resentments can pile up until what flows within us is toxic.
Resentment can cause us to waste energy that could be put to more constructive use. Upsetting emotions
that are left unresolved are in a sense buried alive, and thereby they become parasites eating away at us. Forgiving
others is one of the ways we heal the inner waters of bitterness and resentment, but forgiving is easier said than done.
Yet, consider the alternative when we refuse to forgive.
For one thing, we begin to live on the basis of bad memories. The person who had been disappointed
in love or betrayed in marriage may look at every new relationship in terms of what happened before and wonder, “Will
this person also hurt me?” Such negative memories can interfere with a person’s new
friendships.
We all have painful memories, but unless we allow them to be healed, they may continue to have a powerful but negative
directing force in our lives. How sad to have a bad experience, but how much sadder to be shackled to it
after it is over.
Anne FitzPatrick writes of coming home one night after a pleasant outing with her husband and friends to find that
their house had been broken into and robbed. The house had been ransacked and many of the things taken
had not only monetary value, but sentimental value as well. Anne was at first shocked, then angry and finally
frightened. Her inner spring of security had been poisoned. For weeks, the break-in
was never far from any of Anne’s conversations. She became suspicious of anyone she didn’t recognize and had trouble
sleeping. She had become shackled to bad memories. Another thing that happens when we can’t forgive is that
we deny ourselves happiness. In an old Dear Abby column, Abby asked readers who had caught their spouses being unfaithful,
but had forgiven them and gone on to have a happy marriage, to write and tell her their story. She received a rapid and overwhelming response.
The gist of these letters was the same. Although each of these betrayed spouses was truly hurt,
they consistently recommended the “rewards of forgiveness and the futility of harboring a grudge.” Forgiving someone is not the same thing as excusing the behavior.
Forgiving does not mean that we label another person’s actions as acceptable. Sometimes we
must prosecute even after granting forgiveness. Remember several years ago when there was an assassination
attempt on Pope John Paul II? After that man was apprehended, the pope visited him in jail and freely forgave
him. But he made no attempt to have the man freed. Back in Jericho, when Elisha threw salt into the spring, he
was acting as an agent for God. It was God who healed the spring, and it is God who can heal our inner
springs of poisoned waters as well.
To return to Anne FitzPatrick’s story, one evening, several weeks after the robbery, the theft was again the
topic of family conversation. Anne’s teenage son, Bill, said, “We should stop dwelling on what happened
to us. We lost only things, but the thieves lost a lot more. They’re out of grace
of God by breaking his law.” Bill went onto suggest that they should pray
for the intruders. Slowly, Anne began to understand the godly wisdom her 17 year old son had spoken.
She later said that as she was able to forgive the thieves, and her own sense of inner peace returned. The New Testament reading
for today gives us Jesus’ response to a request that he teach his disciples to pray. As a model,
he gives what we now call the Lord’s Prayer, which appears not only here but also in Matther 6. There
are several petitions in the prayer, but in the Matthew account, the only petition Jesus chooses to add any commentary to
is the one about forgiveness. He says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” We sometimes hear that as though it were a threat, but the point
behind it is how to live in a godly way. If you want to live as a godly person, then you need to do what
God does, forgive people their trespasses.
A priest in San Salvador tells the story of an 11 year old boy named Juanito he met in an orphanage. A
few years previously, the boy had been found beneath the bullet riddled bodies of his mother, grandmother, and three older
brothers. Juanito was covered with blood but unharmed. Since then, he had had a difficult
time, sometimes spending entire days totally withdrawn, without speaking a word. While the priest was there, Juanito came to him for confession.
Afterward, the boy said to the priest, “Father, pray for me, so that I can forgive the soldiers who killed my
mother and brothers. I do not want to live with hatred in my heart.” Juanito,
it would seem, was wise beyond his years. He somehow understood the damage an unhealed spring could do
to him. There
are many stories like Anne FitzPatrick’s and Juanito’s, but the common element in most of them is that the victim
opened his or her heart to God so that those inner springs could be healed. Forgiveness isn’t pretending nothing happened or that
it didn’t hurt. In fact, initially at least, it is not even something you feel; it is something you
do. It isn’t starting over as though the offending incident had never happened. But
forgiveness is refusing to let what happened diminish the soul and character of the injured party. Sometimes,
but not always, it is also allowing a relationship to be restored. But always, it is allowing God to heal
what is inside us so that we can be mentally, emotionally and spiritually whole. Amen. |
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