"Welcome Home"

Luke 15:11-32

Last week we talked about the dissonance that sometimes occur when you try to 'go home again,' and no one understands who you have become.  But this week's 'home' scripture takes us down a totally different road... so to speak. 

The prodigal son story is one of the most famous ones in the Bible and almost everyone who has been to church knows it. In this parable that Jesus relates to his followers, a wayward son goes away and spends his inheritance, but when things turn sour he decides to head home to his family.  And this story is the opposite of dissonance, at least between father and son... Because when he is just within site, his father sees him and rejoices, runs to him with open arms and welcomes him fully back into the fold.  No dissonance, just full, inclusive love.

But the older son, his brother, does have dissonance... jealousy. He wonders why he has done everything his father needed or wanted, but his father seems more than overjoyed to welcome the wayward son back, but doesn't seem to show that exuberance with him.

Welcome home.... my wayward son... so happy to see...you are always welcome here... we will always kill the fatted calf and bring out the finest robes for those we love who come home.    That is the kind of inclusive love Jesus is trying to get the followers to see. This kind of love is what God offers.   But Jesus also shows us the kind of welcome we often give one another out of jealousy or misunderstanding or spite in the reaction of the brother.

What sorts of welcome homes to we give each other?  What sorts of welcome homes have you received in your life?  Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.

Here's a good old song from the '70s to ponder... 

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming,
I can hear them say

Carry on my wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man,
Well, it surely means that I don't know

On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about, I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune,
But I hear the voices say

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more no!

Carry on,
You will always remember
Carry on,
Nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry,
Don't you cry no more.

"Far From Home"

Luke 4:14-30


John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, says this of Luke 4:24: "No prophet is acceptable in his own country - That is, in his own neighbourhood. It generally holds, that a teacher sent from God is not so acceptable to his neighbours as he is to strangers. The meanness of his family, or lowness of his circumstances, bring his office into contempt..."  

I agree with Wesley. Why is it that we are often most criticized and condemned by those closest to us? Why are we more likely to harshly judge our family members than our friends?  This story about the people from Jesus' hometown synagogue turning on him when he talks about his call to the other is partially a commentary by Jesus on how we see our own.  And yet, it is also a story about how insular we are.... angry when we see one of our own embracing the 'other' instead of us.  It's a complicated mix of relationship spotlights.

When Jesus first speaks to those in his hometown synagogue, they are exuberant and elated! How exciting to see this "hometown boy made good."  But when he lets them know that what he is declaring is not a pollyanna message of good tidings and he flat out tells them that they are going to reject him, the tides turn.

Jesus seems to incite this crowd. It's amazing how they go from patting him on the back to him saying, "No you won't like me for long." It's hard to read between the lines here. I mean, they would not have turned on him if he hadn't given the two examples of foreigners receiving the message the hometown crowd would reject.

Why does he say this to rile them up? Is he uncomfortable with the idea that they seem to see him as a hometown hero who might help their star to rise instead of as a prophet with a counter-cultural message to share?  Is he afraid that he will be seen as a do-gooder who works the crowd to his advantage instead of one who turns the status-quo on its head? Is he afraid his message has been misunderstood?

Jesus' message was misunderstood because he was seen as 'one of them' and his ministry was always about reaching out to the 'other' instead.  When the hometown crowd gets so angry they want to run Jesus off a cliff because he tells stories about prophets helping foreigners, you can just feel the xenophobia in the air.  And it may indeed remind some of us of our hometowns.  The people who never leave there have a difficult time expanding their horizons. Those who leave, either by traveling the world or relocating or both, gain a different perspective because, at least to some degree, they have been the 'other' somewhere at sometime themselves. The perspectives become broader. The empathy wider.  Not always, but often.

The old adage "You can't go home again," rings true here.  It wouldn't be a bad title for the sermon, actually.  But 'far from home' also rings true here. Sometimes we grow so much that when we do 'go home' we don't fit in. We can't blend back in. We have become the other.  Everything seems far away.  Home isn't here anymore. And even though the familiar haunts of home (like the rocking chairs I LOVE seeing in the Knoxville, TN airport) are comforting and reassuring, there is a dissonance that rings true.

Jesus never returned to his hometown. His ministry took him elsewhere.  What does this story teach us about embracing who we are, who we aren't, and opening ourselves up to the 'other' that we have yet to let in our doors, our world, our lives.  What does it highlight about our own tendency to remain insular?

Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.

"He Is Risen! Are You With Him?"

***************

Don't forget!  This Friday, March 25 at 7 pm is the Good Friday Service, presented by the youth.  Please plan to be here for this reflective service.  Audio, visuals, readings, sound effects. You don't want to miss it.


***************
For Easter Sunday:

Luke 23:55-56, Luke 24:1-12

This scripture has the women coming to the tomb to do what women did. Anoint the dead and decaying body with funerals spices.  Only, the body is not there.  And some guys in dazzling clothes that must have looked like they belonged on a Broadway stage tell the women that "He is not here, he is risen."  Then they remind the women that Jesus told them this would happen. That he would rise again.

 When the women go to tell the men they don't believe them. They believe their story to be 'an idle tale.'  It figures.  But Peter decides to go have a look, and he, too, finds an empty tomb. He, too, is amazed.  

What transforms the people from 'cold as stone theology' to 'empty tomb theology'?  How do they take what happens to them in this moment of resurrection transformation and spread a message that makes its way all the way to 2016?  It requires belief.  Not belief in some fantasy, but belief in the message of goodness and love. Belief in the sunlight that shines on an open door that was once closed shut and entombed. Belief in a tomorrow that can outshine any dark day.  That is primarily what these earliest disciples had.  They became not only disciples, but, in the moment at the tomb, they also became believers.

We need to let the word believer become a word we embrace once again in the progressive church. To say I am a believer means you have the trust and hope that, with God's help, the peaceable kingdom can be realized.  To say I am a believe means that you trust Jesus' message of love triumphs over power.  Belief is not a pie-in-the sky concept. Belief is deep within and real and true.

Easter is about belief.  What can you say you believe?

On Sunday we will be singing Alleluias! On Sunday we will be singing He Lives! It is a big day. The day we recognize that no matter the fear and agony, the pain and heartache, the contempt... Jesus stood strong and let God's message of "love never ends" and "love will always prevail" win the day.  We don't know exactly what happened in those resurrection days... but we do know that a passion was fueled that has never gone out, that has kept the church fires burning for over 2000 years now... the message that Jesus came to bring about reaching out to your neighbor, even your enemy, with love and kindness and compassion has never ceased to be.

Comments? Email at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below by clicking on the comments link.

"Were you there shouting Hosanna?" (Palm/Passion Sunday)

Luke 19:28-40

Luke 23:10-16, 20-24

So, here we are... back where this whole thing started. At least the parts of the story of Jesus that we have been reading about during this Lenten season. Since mid-February we have been looking at Luke 22, mostly, and the various events that lead to the build up of anger against Jesus that culminates in his crucifixion. But this week we go backwards a bit to the beginning of this time in Jerusalem.

And it begins with a makeshift parade, of sorts, as  most of you well know from years of attending Palm Sunday services. The events of the gospels report things differently, but we will look at Luke 19 for this retelling this year.  Strangely, in Luke 19, there is no mention at all of palm branches being waved in this parade. It's the only gospel that doesn't mention the branches.  So, we have to at least honor that nuance a little bit.  So we will focus more in our service this week on the cloaks the crowd placed in the path than on the palm branches. Oh, I know it's traditional to have palms, and we will definitely have them in the service, but we won't do things quite like we usually do. To honor Luke's intent.

The story is familiar to most of you. Jesus tells a couple of disciples to go into the city and there they will see a colt tied up and they should untie it and prepare it for him.  So they do. The colt's owner asks what they need it for and they said "The Lord needs it."  So they take it.  And they spread their cloaks on it.

And as he moves down into the city on the colt, Jesus hears the crowd shouting "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And this crowd, too, lays down their cloaks on the road to honor the path.  They are honoring him and take great joy in seeing him among them.

But the Pharisees ask Jesus to tell the crowd to stop and he tells them that even the stones would cry out now.  Jesus is trying to get the Pharisees to see that the kingdom of God and God's message cannot be silenced by some religious rulers and their cynicism.

Two themes I'd like to address this week:
1) This message of the cloaks. What did that represent that cloaks were laid down on the path?  How does that honor Jesus and his message?  How does that show a sacrifice on the part of the people? For some reason this reminds me of that Mean Joe Green commercial for Coke from years ago when he throws the kid his jersey.
2) The words of Jesus when he says "even the stones would cry out." Does that mean that God's message is for the whole of creation? That even the natural world is waiting patiently for God's love to overcome it and overcome the religious rules that inhibit full love from forming?

Later in this passage Jesus cries for Jerusalem. He is sad that the city is under siege from the authorities who are iron-fisted and filled with anger. He says "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace?" A phrase that he cries out in lament, for the city is anything but peaceful. So much unrest and hostility.

How is this passage setting the tone for what is to come?  How does it relate to what we should or shouldn't be thinking, doing and feeling as Holy Week looms?

Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.

"Were you there as he stood accused?"

Luke 22: 54, 63-71; Luke 23:1-5

The whole assembly, the elders and the chief legal experts, came together and accused Jesus of claiming to be a Messiah and thus usurping the authority of Caesar.  They are threatened by the teachings of Jesus and how they seem to go against the legalities of the church and state.  And when he is standoffish in his answers, responding to their questions with answers like "You say that I am, " and "That's what you say, " well, it just infuriates them even more.

This passage is interesting.  On the one hand, we have the crowd of leaders saying to Pilate that Jesus is guilty of trying to go against the leaders and stir up a following of people who will somehow try to overthrow them.  On the other hand, you have Pilate saying, "I find no legal basis for action against this man."  Pilate is saying you might be mad at him and what he is saying about religious rule and order, but he hasn't broken the law.  But the crowd of leaders insist.

The theme that comes to mind for me in this passage is 'following the crowd' versus following your principles.  Jesus and the disciples weren't following the crowd and, in this passage, at least at this point, neither is Pilate.  But the crowd keeps on insisting that things go their way. That Jesus is a threat. That he must be stopped.

What sorts of 'crowd bullying' do we give in to today?  In what sorts of circumstances do we have to stand up for what we individually believe rather than listening to the mad shouts of the crowd in our ears?  When do we stand up for the teachings of Christ as opposed to just blending in with the sea of people?

It is hard to see the crowd moving a certain way, or the leadership of an organization moving a certain way, when you feel in your heart that you can't move that way.  Many in church denominations and other organizations have felt the tug to move away from the status quo and the crowd when things don't seem to be fair.  I have talked more than one member of Niwot UMC, for example, in to hanging around for at least a while longer while the UMC tries to get its act together on LGBT issues. And it gets harder and harder for me to personally speak for the denomination all the time. I pray General Conference 2016 may change things, but I admit that sometimes I have little hope that things will become better in the near future.

In our world stage, the bullies seem to be taking center stage and harassing all of us into listening to their rhetoric, even if we don't want to hear it.  It makes you want to retreat into a corner and never come out.  But, of course, that's the fear taking over. That's what happened with Judas. And with Peter. And the others.  But not with Jesus.  He stood strong against the tide against him and thanks be to God, he let love prevail.  We should look to Jesus in times when we want to retreat. He would go away for a while alone and pray and think, but he always came back out into the crowd and kept his mission alive.  So, we need to keep our eyes focused on Jesus in this passage. On what he does.  He is the role model here.

Questions? Comments? Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below. Thanks!

Were you there in the upper room?

Luke 22:7-23

This week, on our monthly observance of Holy Communion, we read the Passover story, the Last Supper story in Luke 22. Jesus asks Peter and John to go into the city and there someone will meet them and show them where to go to prepare for the meal.

Someone is in the city, working on their side, to shelter them and protect them from the deadly forces that are coming after Jesus and anyone with him.  They aren't totally alone, it seems. There are believers still standing with them to protect Jesus.

As the followers gather in the upstairs room of a house, Jesus shares with them the traditional Passover meal, which would have been celebratory in nature, Jews celebrating the time when they were spared and saved by God from annihilation, but what an atmosphere to celebrate it in.  A time when their leader is in grave danger... the story would have had a special and significant import for them this night. Can God save and spare us now?, they must have asked themselves.

But Jesus says something to change the tone. More than one thing, actually. He uses the Passover elements to demonstrate for them what is about to happen.... "the bread is my body given for you.  The cup poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." He is trying to get them to see that saving him may not be possible . . . that his sacrifice for the new covenant may be necessary.  It may be that the powers in charge DO kill him, but he is trying to get the disciples to see that they have formed a new covenant together to bring God's love to everyone and that they must keep that mission alive. They must become the body and the blood for the path ahead, no matter what.

Then he tells them that one of them will betray him. One with his hand on the table.  Now, everyone's hands were likely on the table at this point, and so they get into a discussion over which one of them might betray him.  They get distracted from the covenant by this argument among themselves and perhaps don't digest the importance of his symbolic body and blood metaphor just a moment ago.  Or perhaps the weight of it is just too much to take and so they idly chat about this instead.  (Keep in mind Judas had already secretly gone to the chief priests and declared he would betray Jesus at this point.) 

What is Jesus trying to say to us in the elements today?  Why has this tradition carried on so long and so consistently throughout all the twists and turns of Christianity?  Why do you think Jesus tells them that one of them will betray him just after he shares the message of his body and blood in the Passover meal?  What is the relationship between the new covenant and Jesus' announcement that one would betray him?  Wonder what Judas' body posture and facial expressions were like during this time of the Passover meal?  

Thoughts? Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.

"Were you there betraying him?"

Luke 22:1-6, 47-53

This week's piece of the journey to the cross is the toughest to navigate.  There's this line that says "Satan entered Judas" which made him look for a way to betray Jesus.  And though conventional wisdom tells us he did it 'for 30 pieces of silver,' this scripture says he went to the chief priests first and pitched the plan to betray Judas and they just gave him money, almost as a thank you, and not as a bribe.   And then Jesus seems to know what Judas is doing when he walks in with a crowd behind him and kisses Jesus. "Judas, do you betray me with a kiss?" Jesus says.  He has mentioned earlier at the Passover meal that one who was seated among them would betray him. Did he know then that it would definitely be Judas? Or does he figure it out when Judas walks in with a crowd?

I find this story so disturbing.  There is a part of it that implies Judas has no agency to choose right or wrong in this.  There is a part of it that implies that Jesus needs someone to betray him. There is a part of it that implies that Satan can control a situation, even when Jesus is a part of it.  And, frankly, lets face the simple truth that this is Luke's account... Luke's version written for a specific reason. So we should look a bit at that, too.

Later on in the book of Acts (which is basically the second part of Luke, since they were written by the same person to be read together), we hear of Judas one more time, in this gruesome account: 

Acts 1: 16-20

Friends,[e] the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus— 17 for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong,[f] he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead become desolate, and let there be no one to live in it’; and ‘Let another take his position of overseer.

So Judas dies a very gruesome death and then he lives on, remembered forever, but in infamy. There isn't a part of this story that ends the way Peter's betrayal does, when it says "Peter went out and wept bitterly." (Luke 22:62)  We don't know if there was remorse in this account of Judas. It doesn't tell us there is or isn't, just that his guts explode and he dies.

 Is the message, then, that betrayal is different than denial only when there is no remorse shown?  In some ways Judas and Peter both deny Jesus, but Judas doesn't in this account weep over the fact. Or do they do something so different in this story that you can't really compare the two at all?  

I find Judas to be a complicated character.  I mean he was a disciple, so that meant he was a trusted member of the group.  In fact, when Jesus says one will betray him, they don't know which one of them it will be... so he obviously wasn't an obvious choice.

When do we become like Judas in our faith journey?  Do we ever betray ourselves or our faith for the lure of something that seems more important?  Or is any comparison to him to difficult to make? Why is he so difficult to understand? 

Email me at peverhart@niwoutmc.org or comment below.