February 28, 2016

The Third Sunday in Lent

I’m not much of a suburban gardener. Most of the plantings around my house were put there by the former owners. In my back yard, I have an ornamental tree. I always thought it was an ornamental pear tree, as there are many in my neighborhood. To my surprise, last year it started growing apples! The pear tree, which is really an apple tree, always was what it was – no matter what I thought of it.

This is our existential question in lent. Who are we – really? What are we becoming? We may appear to be one sort of people but our identity may be quite different. What does God intend for us? Are we apple or pear? Are we bearing fruit? Are we becoming our true selves or are we wasting away as false selves?

Moses has an identity crisis. He lost his old way of life and began a new life as a shepherd with the Midianites. He sees a burning bush. What is this? A person once asked a Rabbi why God chose a common thorn bush. Why not something spectacular, like a cedar tree? The Rabbi replied, “Even though you are ignorant, you have a good question, so you deserve an answer. God used a common thorn bush to show us that God is everywhere.”

God pursues Moses through his life. He is an Egyptian prince, a murderer on the run, and a simple shepherd in the middle of nowhere – except that God is even there! “Let my people go!” God declares. “When they ask for a name, tell them ‘I am who I am has sent you.’”

God seeks justice and righteousness. God seeks that all people are living rightly and that all people seek God’s rightness. Not only does God want this for us, this is who God is. It is God’s nature. God’s desire and God’s identity are one. God is what we know as integrity. This is also what God wants from us – that we live with integrity – that our words match our actions.

God uses imperfect people to reveal who God is. God uses Moses, who is far from perfect. He has issues with anger. He is held back with fear. God uses him anyway and makes him a prophet who speaks truth to power. Moses stands up to Pharaoh. Moses leads his people into unknown paths. He leads the people to freedom and a new relationship with God.

Our identity is not in the great works of God that we witness. We are children of God because of how God works in us. Paul reminds the Corinthians that even though the people of God saw the cloud of glory and even though they ate manna in the wilderness – they still died. Our salvation is not a birthright. We are not saved simply because of what we know and what we have seen. We are saved through God’s transformation.

We know God in a new way. Therefore we are urged to live in a new way. God has given us new life. What good is it if we don’t live transformed lives?

I think this is some of what is annoying Jesus. The worriers or the gossips have their tales to tell. Some poor people were killed by Pilate as they were offering sacrifice. Some other people were killed when a tower collapsed. Tsk, tsk. Ain’t it awful?

We are surrounded – bombarded – with endless reports about how rotten the world is. War, disease, and corruption are everywhere. How do we cope? Should we be smug if we are safe? Jesus gives us a warning. Those unfortunate people did not die because they were worse sinners than other people. (Sin may be the reason – but not everyone who suffers deserves it.) Jesus warns us to look to our own lives. If we do not repent, we will die just like those unfortunate ones.

We are used to hearing the call to repentance in lent. We remember that we are to turn away from our sin. We forget the important turn towards life. We are called to turn around – to stop walking the path that leads to destruction and take the different path that leads to life.

Sometimes that path is simply turning aside to see the burning bush. Sometimes that path is choosing to live differently. Sometimes that turn is towards our true selves – and rejecting our false selves.

Moses was a prince, a murderer and then a shepherd. Then he discovered he was a child of God and that made all the difference. Remember that you are an apple tree no matter how many people think you are a pear tree. If that is what you are, then create what you were made to create – and be a child of God.

February 21, 2016

The Second Sunday in Lent

In a world of run by foxes, who would want to be a chicken? Yet this is how Jesus refers to himself. Perhaps with good intention, some Pharisees warn Jesus about Herod (a son of the Herod the great who tried to kill him years ago.) There were some religious leaders who listened to Jesus and wanted to hear more. Instead of gratitude or fear, Jesus is defiant and then a little sad. Herod is a mere fox - a shifty and calculating animal that snatches what it can. Jesus is like a mother hen, who wants to gather her brood around her.

Jesus could be anything. He could have strength or speed. He could imagine himself an enormous or noble animal - immune to anything Herod could do. Jesus chooses the common hen and he chooses to appeal to love and mercy. Even though Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets, and the city that will one day kill him, Jesus wants to love and embrace that city. He wants to reach every person. He wants to bring all the people together in a relationship of love with God.

It is easy for us to lose sight of God's intention for us. We are so worried. We have so many problems that are beyond our power to solve. No wonder we want to run and hide. Even when we can hear the words of assurance from God, we have trouble believing. God is love, but our bills are real. The dangers of this world are real. People still get sick. The news never gets better.

Abram is promised a family and a land to live in. He is old. He is making a living in a foreign land, encountering enemies and famine. Even with material success, he still grieves that he has no son. God appears to Abram again and makes an agreement. This ancient ritual binds the agreement in that the participants would swear that they would be killed just like the sacrificed animals. What is unique is that God alone passes through the midst of the sacrifice. God alone agrees to abide by the covenant. Abram must only believe.

God promises that Abram's descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. That's a lot of stars. As Abram looks up at the night sky, he is reminded that whatever God is doing, it is much bigger than Abram. This is difficult for us to do. We try to apply God's promises so locally, so personally. Of course, God wants us to prosper and live well. More fundamentally, God wants us to become new people, growing in new life.

We are invited into a relationship of eternal love. God wants to gather us and draw us into a place of life and love. It is a form of safety and a kind of protection. God's desire is not merely our comfort and care. God's deep desire is for our transformation so that we can live joyfully in awareness of God's love. The sign of this change is how we are able to live together as God's people. Are we jockeying for position or quarreling over resources? Or are we serving each other so that we can become our best selves? Paul is concerned that members are comparing each other, and some are proud of their devotion to sets of rules. In lent, we do well to remember that we are not better or worse in how we follow a particular devotion. We are better if, in the end, we are better able to love.

Perhaps this is the best way for us to show our trust in God. We are promised so much. We are asked to believe so many impossible things. It is not easy to believe the promises when all the particulars of our life together are difficult and unclear. The work of faith is not to ignore these worries. We are asked to act on what we believe in the midst of all our worries.

Faith is not holding onto an unassailable argument, nor is it living with a kind of logical certainty. Faith is a choice to live in love despite all the noise and confusion around us. We are not called to somehow make ourselves better or to improve our souls through hard work and sacrifice. God calls us to follow. We are called to follow into the promises. We are called to live as if God's love is true. We are called to lift up those beside us and keep on the path of new life and salvation. God's love is as numberless as the stars. Even when we cannot see, we can look up and know it’s there.

Herod is the fox. He is always calculating the best way to snatch up anything he can find. Jesus is the mother hen. He does not seek the easy path. Jesus loves us and gathers us. Somehow, this is ultimately more powerful than all our calculating and planning. God doesn’t need us to fix everything or to force anything. God wants us to live into the power of love. As God gathers us, God also urges us to reach our arms around a hurting world – and seek something better.

February 14, the first Sunday in Lent

Valentines day is today. We are surrounded by images of pink hearts and chocolate and flowers. We remember love and seek to show expressions of love to our partners. We may hope to begin some new relationship or we are already lucky enough to have someone who is our beloved. Whatever we do will be a grateful response to love we have known.

Perhaps this doesn’t have much to do with Lent. Even if we consider that St. Valentine was a martyr who died for the faith and because helped soldiers get married who did not have an official right to be married – what does this have to do with our Lenten disciplines? A rule-breaker for the sake of love doesn’t seem like a Lenten inspiration.

In Lent, we do consider our motivation and our purpose. Why do we do what we do? In this season, what should we do instead? This is just the sort of thing that is going on as Jesus is tempted by the devil. The devil asks questions. The temptation is to do something good for the wrong reason, or to do some good thing that isn’t at the right time.

The shorthand understanding of the temptation of Jesus would be, “Don’t eat the rocks. Don’t worship the devil. Don’t jump off a building.” The temptation isn’t towards something we would normally reject. We are only tempted by what is attractive to us. We are tempted to do the right thing the wrong way.

We are tempted with the desire to change our purpose. We don’t eat rocks, but we are tempted to take things into our own hands. We are tempted to speed things along and use our sense instead of following what we know to be God’s timing. Think about how we would fail to show our love with the gift of a vacuum cleaner or a free oil change. We have to consider what the one we love truly desires. The sin is in misdirection. Instead of doing the hard work of listening and discerning, we want to rush off and do what we already know how to do. The sin is in letting go of the possibility that God may have something else in mind. The sin is the assumption that we know best – instead of admitting we don’t know at all. We want the mediocre we know rather than the mystery we must wait for.

Unlike Jesus, we have not been offered all the riches and powers of this world. We are not in a position to rule the world. We are tempted to have power over others instead of submitting to God. What would happen to our gift giving if we tried to control the one we loved? So many relationships are unhappy because one of the partners seeks to change their beloved. When we are always waiting for someone else to change, we lose the opportunity to change ourselves. We lose sight of the gifts the other person has that attracted us in the first place. Whenever we seek to push or dominate without cooperation – we are creating a world for our convenience.

Instead, God invites us into communion. God invites us to recognize how we are all in this together. Consider the words Paul writes to the Romans, “there is no distinction, there is neither Jew nor Greek, the same Lord is Lord of all and generous to all.” Instead of controlling and ruling, God invites us to sharing and working together.

We are not tempted to jump off a building. Yet sometimes we are tempted to excess. If we are tempted to do anything to impress the one we love, perhaps it is not a true relationship. Do we need to prove love? We are tempted to make our little side agreements with God. We participate as long as we get something out of it. The truth is, God isn’t putting on a show for our entertainment or our satisfaction. God calls us into new life – but life on God’s terms. We think we know what we need. We think we know what will work (if only God would listen!) Except we are learning that the big show and fancy advertising don’t work anymore. People don’t need to be distracted. We need to be saved. We need to know the love of God and we need to know the way of life.

We know love when we see it. It’s not something we can buy. When we find real love, there’s nothing we can add except ourselves. In fact, this is what we must do – give ourselves completely to the ones we love.

The temptations we face are different from Jesus in magnitude. We are always being tempted to give up the way of life and salvation for some sort of easy and cheap substitute. Let’s have none of that. Let’s keep to the path we know God calls us to. For now we may find ourselves in a wilderness. We may be discouraged. We also know that if we keep faith, God will help us along the way.

Ash Wednesday, 2016

What are we going to do for lent? We don't have these questions with other holidays. We know what to do and how to celebrate. We have a vague idea that we ought to do something penitential - if we can remember what that means. We think about giving something up. Maybe we think about taking on some sort of discipline - we will pray more or give more. It used to be quite popular to give up chocolate (or wine or TV). I have friends who give up Facebook or plastic bottles. What are we trying to accomplish? What end are we seeking.

The discipline of giving up or taking on begins with discernment. What part of us is in need of revision? What burden are we tired of carrying? How can we most effectively make room for God in our lives?

We know that it is useless to try and improve ourselves in order to impress God. The harder work is letting go of impressing ourselves. We try to be humble and there is also a little part of ourselves that is secretly proud of our success. If we can make through all of lent! Aren't we cool to give up Twitter! Maybe some of us should try it for forty days!

Maybe we recognize our little pride in the midst of humility and we can laugh at ourselves. Maybe we have more earnest concerns. We find ourselves in the grip of some difficult habit or addiction. Maybe we have lost an important relationship. Maybe we don't even know what we have to do. Lent is a time to let go and make space. We fast to feel hunger. We give up to make room in our day in our over scheduled lives. We may have the ability to turn these disciplines into resources we can give away. Even as we turn inward we remember our neighbor as well.

Lent can be private and personal. We are not alone on our journey. This is not another way that we are forced to create our own personal religion, tailored to our tastes and needs. Jesus reminds us to fast and pray, and to extend our hand to the poor. God wants us to practice a religion of devotion, which is never complete without love for others.

We may be tempted to create for ourselves a perfect expression of love towards God. We may have deep and rewarding feelings of intimacy with God. We may feel ready to experience the joy of resurrection. Then we gather together as the people of God and we find ourselves stuck in the midst of a bunch of imperfect people.

In my private place of prayer I may be quite ignorant of how far we all have to go. Jesus gives us to one another to help us set aside all these illusions of perfection. I can see how far my friend has to go. My friend can help me find my way as well. I am not so perfect. I have my blind spots. I cannot see what I never experience. I need my broken friends to help me bear my own brokenness.

I often think that people who say that they are spiritual but nit religious are like people who say that they are athletic but never exercise. I'm not so sure it will last. I know why many people claim to be spiritual but not religious. They want to be rid of the hypocrisy and narrow mindedness of the outspoken devout. we need to be rid of this noisy and judgmental religion as well. Jesus doesn't want us to make a show. He does want us to do the work. This doesn't make us better than others, but it may make us better than we were.

This is the purpose. God always loves us. There is nothing we can add to this. We are also invited to live differently. Since we are loved, let us live ever closer into this love. It is time to let go of the things that are in the way. It is time to be open to what else may be possible. God loves us always. It is time to learn even more how we can love.

The last Sunday after Epiphany, February 7, 2016

Epiphany is the season when we celebrate how Jesus is made known to the world. What a wealth of examples we have! The face of Moses shines when ho comes away from conversation with God. Saint Paul reminds us that the veil (of Moses) is not for us! We who know Jesus do not need any barrier between us. Peter and James and John are on the Mountain with Moses and Elijah. They get it all wrong, yet they see Jesus as he is and they see what he can do.

We have a tendency to not take these manifestations seriously, as if they were written for someone else. We assume that we are hearing a selection of the bible intended to make us feel superior. Those silly Israelites! - Too afraid to look at Moses! The silly church at Corinth! - Too easily erecting barriers to God and a veil over the gospel! Those silly disciples! - Sleepy and stupid - talking about tents and unable to heal a boy!

We have these words not to make us proud but to humble us. These stories are about us. We fear true intimacy with God. We don't see faces shining, but we are a little afraid of those who can spend many hours in prayer and contemplation. Perhaps we are even a little ashamed that we can't.

We are quite ready to create our own barriers between God and us. We make our own veils that keep us from experiencing the freedom of the gospel. We are quick to write our own list of rules or requirements to be a good person - or to be a good citizen or to pursue the good life. We often substitute this pale copy for the true gospel.

We are the tired disciples. We follow Jesus up the long and steep climb to get to some mountaintop. We are not sure where we are going and we have no idea what will happen when we get there.

Once in a while, we find ourselves in an unfamiliar landscape. We discern who Jesus is and we know we are loved. We want to preserve the experience and keep it safe. This is why we argue over liturgy and hymns. We want to re-create some precious moment. We want to hold it and remember it forever. This is not possible. We hold our memory silent and go back down the mountain. There we find the same old problems that we don't know how to fix.

To our surprise, Jesus is not sympathetic. He is mad! How long will he have to put up with us! He calls us faithless - perverse! Who, us? The truth about us is that we find it very hard to live what we believe. We have spent the last month celebrating the many ways that Jesus is made known to the world. We act as if it were not true. We have forgotten what we were told. "Listen to him!"

The voice does not tell us to do or make or try. The voice tells us to listen. What does Jesus say? Jesus tells us to love. Jesus tells us not to worry. Jesus tells us to follow him - even into places we would rather not go. We have trouble believing because we keep on trying to tell Jesus what we want to do instead. We keep replacing the good news with our own plans and desires. We keep busy doing many good things instead of the few that Jesus asks us to do that would give us life.

To follow Jesus, we have to give up our own path. We have to let go of all the ways we perfect ourselves and have pride in ourselves. It is not wealth or success or status or power that will help us follow more faithfully. We have to embrace what Jesus offers. We are free to grow in love. We are free to grow in faith and trust in God - this means believing the truth about God and believing with the same trust as Jesus. We can grow in hope that God's promises will come true even if we can't see when. We can grow in generosity, in openness, in wonder and in joy.

This requires that we first be listeners. We keep our ears open to the right words and the right message. We have some choice in what we mediate upon. Maybe we can turn off the noise of the media and the noise of the cultural messages that surround us. We can ignore the pleas of resentment and fear. We can choose to listen to the voice of love and reconciliation. When we hear the voice of Jesus, then we can begin to follow.

Jesus asks the disciples to climb the mountain right after he tells them that he must suffer and die - and that we might have to as well. It's not easy climbing the mountain. Sometimes we catch a breathtaking sight. Sometimes we get to the top only to find another mountain to climb. God puts before us many difficult paths to follow. We will always be tempted to find our own short cuts. We always have the freedom to choose the path we are given. We can listen and follow and trust. We will find God in those difficult places. God will work in us and make us into the people who are able to live in freedom and climb every peak. We will become the people Jesus hopes we will be. We will be free and able to love. We will do the work set before us. We will be transformed for the sake of others.