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!

at 1 comment:

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/

at No comments:

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.

at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)