Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Luke 23:42-43 "Paradise Pardon" (11-25-07)

With Thanksgiving still providing us a sense of rest and reflection, I remember that we are all a bunch of turkeys! There was a song I heard in my youth that went something like this: “If God can love TURKEYS, God can love you; you are a TURKEY, but I am one too; So if you're lonely; or if you're blue; just remember friend, if God can love TURKEYS, God can Love You!”[1]

We are all turkeys looking to Jesus to forgive and pardon us from the wages of our sins. Like any other turkey, we need to be pardoned. Her name was May, and she was pardoned on Tuesday, for the 2007 Thanksgiving Turkey Festivities in the Rose Garden by President Bush. He was then flew first class on United Airlines to Disney World in Orlando, where he was served, I mean he served as the grand marshal of “Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” After the parade, you can visit the bird in the backyard of Mickey’s Country House in Magic Kingdom Park; joining the parks permanent animal collection or zoo. In the past two years, the turkeys have gone to Disneyland![2] For eighteen years prior to that, the pardoned turkeys went to live out the rest of their lives at Frying Pan Park in Fairfax County, Virginia since 1988 to live in a safe place never threatened with having their heads chopped off.

But I like the idea of being sent to Disney World. What a great place for a turkey to go and live in this park; this garden like kingdom for pardoned turkeys! This is definitely a paradise!

WHAT IS PARADISE FOR YOU? What would paradise look like for you when you are pardoned? Your debts are canceled and you no longer have anything held against you. What is paradise for you in this day and age?

Paradise is a word which has a rich history in Greek and the Old Persian Empire. It was also has a Hebrew connection when they lived in Babylon in exile (modern day Iraq) when the word paradise referred to a walled garden that a king would build for rest and relaxation. The king would then take walks in it, ah paradise. If you were invited, you would go and walk in this beautiful garden, called a paradise! This was a large estate backyard garden that would be a blissful place of rest! The good life is what that sounds like! There is nothing like having a big backyard. We all are in the business of building our own little garden like paradise! If a king would build this walled paradise, like the European gardens such as Versailles in France, perhaps we too are in the paradise building. We have our own little yards with plants and we have our little fences and patios that we build or live in. We go out to the yard or garden to experience a bit of paradise in the midst of such a chaotic and hectic life. There is some paradise maintenance going on right now, mostly leaf picking up and perhaps bedding down the gardens for winter. We will wait now for spring and the flowers to bloom and the garden to come alive… out little paradise on earth.

But the end of paradise building and maintenance does come and we will return to the earth and our bodies will return to the soil of a different garden.

As the church calendar comes to an end, we hope for a new beginning and a new start. We look forward to a new year and a new season. Yet the end is here for Jesus as he is on the cross for six hours to die for the sins of the world in Luke, chapter 23. The end of his life, which was no paradise compared to the eternal paradise he left and will return to through the cross, in coming to an end!

Yet there are those who had a different understanding of how a KING would create a paradise on earth! They mock Jesus, these different groups of paradise builder, which included the leaders[3], the Roman soldiers and one of the two criminals. Each group taunted Jesus to prove he is a King! Their comments are barbs tossed at Jesus in the form of mockery (v. 36), sneers (v. 35) and insults (v. 39). The sign above his head taunted his messianic identity and the disappointing paradise that never takes place, "King of the Jews”!

“Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom”, the thief on cross asked! Jesus pardoned this little thief, this dying turkey and said to him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus would remember this thief, the only one who actually sees the KING! It wasn’t the disciples; his mother; his friends or his brothers who got it! The one who sees Jesus as a real Paradise Builder on the cross is the THIEF! His request was a last minute Hail Mary that was caught by Jesus, providing this man the final peace and rest to enter into eternity, into paradise!

We remember the kind of paradise our KING wants us to see when we look into the face of the starving child; neglected elderly; overworked parents; troubled youth; workaholic co-workers; crazy commuters; or homeless people; etc.

We celebrate that on this the last Sunday of the church calendar year, we see a paradise pardon of one who was forgiven the last minute of his life and given the chance to walk in that eternal garden. We are called to remember that if this day was our last day, God gives us the chance again to ask to be forgiven, something we are called to do daily! If you have never taken the chance to ask for God’s mercy, let it be today! Let it be today that you acknowledge that you are a turkey! Jesus will remember me and you and welcome us into that final paradise where all of us turkeys will gather and worship the God of grace and mercy!

Let us pray: Gracious God, we remember our faithlessness and we remember your goodness. You re-member us so that all the parts might be brought back together into a glorious paradise. Restore our broken hearts that we may praise your name always! Amen!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

John 6:2-35 - "What Are You Hungry For?" (11-21-07)

Jesus had just fed 5000 at the start of chapter six of John’s Gospel and then goes up to a mountain to get away from the people who want to crown him as the next holy Moses. Then Jesus walks on the water, like Moses who only walked through the water of the Red Sea. They find Jesus and want to eat some more of this great manna! Moses fed the people for forty years in the wilderness. These folks were literally hungry. They were set free from Egypt and started to wander in the wilderness. Then they started to grumble 45 days later to Moses that they were hungry! Yet God provided for them. Yet the people perhaps think it was Moses who is given the credit for feeding them for forty years. These folks were still hungry.

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, what is it that you are hungering to eat? Are you a dark meat or light meat kind of person? I like the dark meat. What is it you are hungry for to eat tomorrow? Football? Pie? Post meal nap? (Wait for responses). I really like sweat potatoes. During the year my wife will make Janette Keller’s sweat potato fries, delicious. The recipe is in the church’s cookbook, on sale in the lobby!

This year I’m hungry to cook stuffing the way my mom made it growing up. She gave me the recipe about seven years ago and I’ll make it and think about her as we share thanksgiving without her for the first time since she passed away this past October.

You see I am hungry to spend time with family and friends and to be grateful even in the midst of the sorrow and struggles of life.

What are we really hungry for? Perhaps we should be hungry for justice in the world. There are more and more working poor in our community, which is one of the main reasons there is an increase in participation in the local food pantries. Your support for these pantries on a monthly basis and through the ELCA Hunger appeal addresses this issue of people who would otherwise go hungry locally and globally.

More than 850 million people in the world go hungry. In developing countries nearly 11 million children die every year from preventable and treatable causes. Sixty percent of these deaths are from hunger and malnutrition. In the United States, 11.7 million children live in households where people have to skip meals or eat less to make ends meet. That means one in ten households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger.[1]

There are many working poor in our community who work very hard and also have plenty of food in there homes and have plenty of resources available to buy good on an ongoing basis. There are many people in our community who have full bellies but are hungry. We gather because we need to admit we are hungry for mercy from the past, peace in our current relationships and hope for a more just world.

We gather to give God thanks tonight especially during difficult times, for it is during those times we are most hungry for gratitude. It is easy to be grateful when things are going well but when there is grief, pain, illness, or suffering, we hunger more than ever for gratitude. That’s why Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving formally as a National Holiday in the midst not of peace but of the civil war.

Yes, Jesus fed them food in the Gospel lesson and they wanted to follow him. They thought he would end their problems just by handing them a fish instead of teaching them how to fish! Jesus would feed the world by offering his body on the cross. He stood up against the powers of evil and injustice and was killed because of it! This is the bread that would feed the world; his very life still feeds us as we remember that it is in being broken that we are filled.

We gather because we are hungry!

Let us pray: Gracious God we gather to be fed your living word; we gather to be fed by the fellowship of those next to us; and we gather to taste and see your goodness. You feed us by being broken upon the cross that we may see you in our broken pieces. Feed us again, in Jesus name, Amen.



[1] http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Psalm 23:6 - "Overflowing Generosity" (11-18-07)

Jesus talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and Christian persecution sounds like a good lesson to focus on generosity. Barbara Rossing[i] referred to an article by Peggy Neunan in the October 27, 2005 Wall Street Journal[ii] that discussed the fear that there is an end coming, the end of something in our lives and we want our kids to have more good memories; I got mine you get yours.

So how do we think about being generous and encouraging people to give of their financial resources? In reality, I don’t talk very much about money directly! I hardly ever have felt the need to do that as I believe with my whole heart that if the good news of Jesus Christ is preached, the spirit of generosity will grow in your lives to levels you can’t even imagine!

Most religious leaders feel awkward about preaching about Stewardship or money or Generosity! It’s like the young woman who wrote Dear Abby saying she wondered how she might approach her boyfriend and ask if he would pay for half the cost of her birth control pills, but said she didn't know him well enough to talk about money.[iii]

It’s too hard to talk about money and becoming a more generous person. It’s too awkward to stand up and ask you to pray and consider growing your generosity 1% of your income this year toward a tithe! Imagine giving 10% for ten or fifteen years, I would like to ask a question as I begin, “Whose birthday are we going to celebrate on December 25th? And at a birthday party, “Who receives the gifts”?

The spirit of generosity has led to the installation process for lights to the outdoor road sign three years this month since we have moved into this facility for ministry. The growing spirit of generosity in this community of faith can be seen with the 15% of our fund go outside of the church; that we are helping forty-one people this year through the Gift Tree; that we are helping out for the first time with the Thanksgiving meal program to provide a turkey dinner through PADS for $12.50 each family of four. In reality, I don’t want you to tell you me your values, let me see how you spend your money and I will tell you what you value.

The Spirit of Generosity can be seen in the first lesson reading of the 23rd Psalm. This is a lesson worth re-reading in the version that I am so accustomed to from my youth, “My Cup Runneth Over” (have congregation repeat it 2 or 3 times). In his book, The Lord Is My Shepherd, Harold Kurschner states that this part of the 23rd Psalm challenges us to move away from the idea that there are two kinds of people in the world when it comes to a cup that is half empty or half full. (Take full glass of water and drink half of it) If you think it is half empty, you are considered a pessimist. If you think the glass is half full then we must be an optimist. When you see that the cup is running over, you cannot help but express yourself through becoming a more generous person. You know that when the cup gets empty God will fill it (pour water from pitcher into glass and hold over the font and let it run into the font and let people listen to the water running over).

You will be more generous with your patience, with your time, with your kindness, with your finances and with your lives. When the Cup IS OVERFLOWING, you are aware that everyday and everything and everyone is a gift of God and we are called to celebrate! You know that when your cup is empty because of pain, loss, hurts, frustrations or things you’ve done or others have done to you, God will fill your cup again and again.

Fred Craddock is a renowned preacher who not only is a preacher, but a teacher of preachers. His father was a non-churched man who wouldn't even let the pastor or members who knocked on the door visit with him. He would just send them away. Craddock remembers his dad saying, "All they care about is money and membership. That's it. That's the only reason why they come." Toward the end of his life Fred's father was hospitalized near death and Fred came to visit him. He saw bouquets of flowers lining the room and he started to read the cards on the flowers. One said, Women's Mission Society. Then he went to another bouquet and it said, Adult Sunday School Class, and others from groups in the church. He said his dad couldn't talk because of his infirmity and so he grabbed a box of Kleenex and on the side of that Kleenex his dad wrote a line from Shakespeare when he wrote, "Draw your breath in pain to tell my story." Fred looked at his dad and said, "What's your story Dad?" Fred's father wrote three more words on the side of that box: "I was wrong".[iv]

Let us pray: Gracious God, you fill our cups again and again; and yet we are afraid there will not be enough. Help us to trust that you will provide so that we pour ourselves out upon others, in Jesus name, Amen.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Luke 19:1-10 - "Overflowing Legacy" (11-4-07)

I was taking Nathan to school on Thursday when he asked me a question as we were walking to the car, “are you going to walk me to the back of the school?” As I was deciding, he said that I could decide today and when I said I would walk him to the back, he said he wanted to decide instead. He didn’t want me to walk him back to the line of kindergarten kids. On that first day when he was shy, I hoped that he would adjust to school being a little shy. It was a legacy that came true when he told me to stay at the car when he went to go get in line. As I reflected with joy and melancholy later, it hit me that it was All Saints Day on Thursday. My own mother left a legacy with her passing four weeks ago.

All Saints Day is always November 1st and it’s the day we remember all those who in the car as we go off to the playground of life, learning and growing with those in our class and school of life. Today is the day we commemorate it on the first Sunday after that day. We remember all the loved ones who have died and now rest from their labors. This is a legacy that has passed down to us, for we have been invited off of the branches like Zacchaeus to go and dine with Christ.

Zacchaeus knew what he was and he would learn whose he was. So I want to ask all those who know what they are and consider themselves a SINNER to please stand up at this time. That includes everyone, so don’t elbow anybody next to you. We know we are a sinner as we think about the fact that we went from spending 3 billion dollars two years ago to spending 5 billion dollars this year on Halloween, myself included. Now I want everyone who considers themselves a SAINT to please sit down and that means you too, so don’t be surprised as to who is sitting.

We know what we are, like Zacchaeus we are the chief tax collectors who know there is something missing. We are going out on the limb to find it and he has found us. Jesus stopped by that tree and told Zacchaeus he was going to eat at his house. This story is one with a Sunday School legacy, as I remember singing this song: “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the lord he wanted to see. And as the savior passed his way, he looked up in the tree, and he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down; for I’m going to your house today. Yes I’m going to your house today.

We know that we are a sinner like Zacchaeus and we are saints because Jesus has invited us down to dine. We have a legacy of daily renewal where you are bestowed sainthood because of whose you are as children of God. This legacy is overflowing, as when Psalm 23:6 states, “My cup runneth over” (have everyone say that a few times). The cup isn’t have full or half empty so we don’t have to worry about either being an optimist or pessimist. Our cups are overflowing with grace.

We have been given this legacy by Christ and it is not one of earned mercy. Zacchaeus responds to Jesus by being generous and leaving a legacy of kindness to others.

We have been given a legacy here at Living Waters fifteen years ago that is a gift today to us. The ELCA paid most everything the first three years to help this faith community get started and Pastor Heaney knocked on doors and invited people on a journey. There are people who are not here anymore because they rest eternally from their labors.

The LEGACY we have received we are passing on. Imagine what this community of faith will look like in another fifteen years, in the year 2022! What will they say bout us and the next few critical years of mission and ministry here in this place? Will they be able to say that those people stepped up and committed themselves to leaving a great legacy? Imagine the three or four year olds here at worship who will graduate from high school, like my daughter. There will be people here who will not be with us on that date. What will be our legacy?

Gracious God, you have invited us to eat with you and have left us a legacy of grace and mercy. Guide us in this journey during the next fifteen years as you call us to live into a legacy of mission and ministry, in Jesus name. Amen

Luke 20:27-38 - "Overflowing Life" (11-11-07)

Jesus was finally reaching the end of his life! He can see the end in site now that he is in Jerusalem! His three years of public ministry will soon but cut like a string as he faces the cross and an overflowing grace will pour out upon all flesh.

He is at the temple, most likely teaching for the last time! Perhaps people were asking different questions like, “Is God punishing my harvest because of something I did”? “Will the Roman Empire always rule over us?” “Will my son ever see?” “Will God ever rid us of cancer and diabetes?” “Will I ever see my mom again?”

They perhaps knew that Proverbs 2 encouraged people to seek out insight and understanding, so that they may know the fear and awesome glory of God. Questioning in life is legitimate and was encouraged in the faith journey of Israel, those who struggle with God. The questions are all strung together with our questions as a part of the faith journey.

Of all the questions he is asked about, he gets one on marriage in the resurrection. If they were asking the question, it must have been a legitimate question others were asking. The religious leaders were trying to trip Jesus up with this question. The religious leaders had a law on the books that answered the question about the creation of life after a husband died. This law was designed to provide a way back into the fabric of family structure for young women left widowed prior to having children. Rather than thrusting them back into the marriage market, through which they might never successfully remarry and thus become more likely to fall into poverty, levirate marriage sought to insure them a place in their new in-laws' family by making them secondary wives to another man in the family, usually their dead husbands' brother. It was a way of providing security for them.”[i] Children also then grew the population and the parents would live on through their kids.

Jesus answers the question, saying that it’s good that people give and take in marriage. It’s important to answer their question. You never know what kind of questions you might get in the faith journey. Like what is the shortest Bible verse? “Jesus wept” is usually the answer but Luke 20:30 actually ties that verse because the greek reads “Jesus, he weeps” and Luke 20:30 reads, “then the second”. Important questions![ii]

Jesus answered the question! But he was expressing concern not about death but about life! They are asking him to explain a heavenly marriage while God is concerned about the union of life in the midst of death. Remember, the wedding vows say unto death parts us and not for all eternity. We know that there are good reasons to ask questions about life in the midst of death!

There are some very good reasons to question in order to experience a richer life. Questioning leads people into a deeper understanding; to find out more; we should fear questioning because then; don’t be afraid of the answer. What if you don’t question? Maybe you don’t want any change in your life or you don’t want to know the answer! Learning to question is the goal of educators as we learn; point of learning in Christian faith should be a deeper obedience. Socrates stated, "The unexamined life is not worth living." (Apology 38a)

Sometimes we are told never to question authority. Sometimes questioning makes others feel uncomfortable because they don’t have the answers. What would it be like to never question? Do we have to get the answers to our questions? In life, there is no such thing as a dumb question – reveals your ignorance.

I discovered Friday at the wedding reception of a member about the “sting theory”. The atom is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons; in that are quarks and inside that are strings. String Theory is one that explains subatomic particles and that the strings are under the atom; under the quarks and hold life and gravitational connections with all things. The more or closer things are the more strings.[iii]

As www.superstringtheory.com states, “In string theory, as in guitar playing, the string must be stretched under tension in order to become excited. However, the strings in string theory are floating in space and time; they aren't tied down to a guitar. Nonetheless, they have tension.” In essence, the theory suggests that there is a connection between all living things.

The Good news is that Jesus demonstrated that death is not the final string. God takes all these strings of sound and creates a string of musical vibrations in the chorus of life. Even when the strings of life are cut, God will hold them together forever and ever, forever and ever…

Let us pray! Gracious God, you hold all things together. We are so marvelously made and created



[i] http://www.homileticsonline.com/

[ii] http://www.drbilllong.com/LectionaryIII/Lk20.html

[iii] http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S17/80/32S21/index.xml?section=newsreleases