"I'm at the end of my rope"

Isaiah 64: 1-6; Jeremiah 33:14-16)


"O that you would tear open the heavens and come down..."

"The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

Ever felt lost, on the edge, hopeless, just certain that no matter how hard you've tried to do the right thing, you still end up at the end of your rope?  Then you know how George Bailey feels in that moment at the bar when he sees an arrest warrant in front of him and the loss of $8,000 looming in his face like a cancer.  He feels absolutely helpless. A powerful scene from the movie:

"Dear Father in heaven,.... show me the way, I'm at the end of my rope."

This, too, is the world of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The world of diaspora. The world of never feeling at home because you might get trampled on again sometime soon.  And this is much the same kind of atmosphere into which Jesus is born. A time when Herod is declaring that newborn sons will die and moms are running scared.

George Bailey shows us the depths to which we can fall into despair as humans, based on circumstances often out of our control.  He is truly contemplating what reasons he possibly has to continue life as he knows it.

All this month, we will be exploring the theological insights in the classic holiday film, "It's A Wonderful Life."  This first advent reading puts us in the right mindset. Times are dark. Life is chaotic and filled with unease. Into this place, we plead for our savior to arrive. Into this world, we ask the Christ Child to come to us.

What does it feel like to be at the end of your rope? What does bringing 'light into darkness' mean to you? How do you prepare to bring the Christ Child into the chaos of your world?  Email me or comment below.

Born to Pay it Forward

John 18:33-37
Revelation 1:4b-8

I just read that Christ the King Sunday (which happens this Sunday) is a recent addition to the liturgical year.  It was added in a time when respect for the church had fallen off and the control of nation states over churches was increasing. This was the time of the rise of Hitler and Stalin. Hitler's Mein Kempf had just been published when Pope Pius XI declared that the Roman Church would have a holiday to celebrate Christ as our one and only King.  Wow. That puts some perspective on the day.

The Catholic Church and also the Protestant Churches deciding to add a day to the church calendar when we would declare boldly that our one and only King is Christ is actually a big deal, it turns out. Not a day we should shove in with the leftover turkey and sit patiently through while we tap our toes waiting for Advent to get here.  This day deserves its own special LOUD AND CLEAR recognition.

This is the day we read of Pontius Pilate asking Jesus if he is King of the Jews.  And Jesus declaring that his kingdom is not of this world because if it was his followers would be fighting to keep him from being handed over to the authorities. His purpose, he declares, is to testify to the truth.

In other words, we can't put Jesus in most of the boxes we have in our world and have him fit. He can't go in the political box. He can't go in the commercial/capitalist box. He can't go in the American Dream box. He can't go in the Hollywood entertainment box.

Jesus is here to speak only the truth. And if any of those categories above were to actually decide to be about the kind of truth that Jesus declares, they would need to do some serious reframing.

Revelation tells us that in his death and resurrection, Jesus made us to be a kingdom, priests serving God forever and ever.  We are called to be the kind of king Jesus is, in other words. We have been called by his great sacrifice for his world to be the sacrificial leaders of our own.

Jesus, the nativity story and prophecies say, was born to pay it forward. Revelation tells us today that we were ALL born to pay it forward. All born to realize that being a kingdom of Christ is not about domination but about truth telling and putting God above any other facet of life.  Being a kingdom of Christ is ultimately about putting ourselves on the line for peace every single day.

Being born to pay it forward is a noble and high cause.  As we come to celebrate Christ the King this Sunday, ponder reverently your own higher calling. What is that "God instinct" calling you to that is noble and sacrificial?  In what part of your life can you truly begin to live as Christ lived?

It sounds large and impossible, but paying it forward begins in small steps. Look at Jesus. His journey begins in a shelter for animals that the innkeeper allowed Mary to stay in so Jesus wouldn't be born on the streets. And his mom has to push him into performing his first miracle. And he is still Christ the King.

What A Building Project Should Be

Mark 13:1-5; 1 Samuel 1:4-20

Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."

These two scriptures hint at the same thing: what we have to offer God is only what God has already given to us.  Nothing more. Nothing less.   Hannah prays to the point of desperation for a child, whom she agrees to give to God, for God's purposes.  She receives her blessing and offers Samuel before the Lord.  Jesus implores those around him to understand that buildings are not lasting offerings to God, that they will be reduced to rubble in the end. His apocalyptic warning to the disciples is  there is nothing that man builds that will last.

Put these two texts into one thought process and you have the idea that the only lasting offering we can offer before God is our fully human selves, just as Hannah offers sacrificially Samuel, her precious only son.  (Reminds us, of course, of Mary, who offers the baby Jesus to God's will.)

We are the temple. Our lives are the temple. Our breath the bricks and mortar.  Not any building we call church, whether that is an actual church building or a more hip place like a bar.  No brick and mortar meeting place is able to be an offering to God.

We. are. an. offering. Our lives are the brick and mortar that builds the 'congregation' and keeps it strong.

But we fail to deliver that offering. We fear the commitment of fully laying our lives on the line to be used for God's purposes.   It's much easier to hide in the pews (or chairs) than to throw ourselves prostrate on the altar area and say, "God, I am yours. Use me to your purposes."

What does it take to create a sustainable building project these days? The first answer is to understand exactly what you mean by 'building.' If you mean adding square footage and some windows and a new front door, that's all well and good, but remember Jesus's words when he says it will all be torn down in the end.

A sustainable building project starts with people who bring themselves as their gift to God. A sustainable building project lists as the primary goal the building up of a congregation, in service and witness to the world. A sustainable building project means caring for children and youth and offering the aged a chance to participate in abundant living.  None of these involve hammers and drills and square footage. But they all require the greatest asset we have to be willing to part with: TIME.

What a building project requires most is TIME and ATTENTION and LOVE and SACRIFICE.  Do we have what it takes to build Christ's kingdom in this place?

When All You Have Is Enough

Mark 12:38-44

As I sit at my desk, writing this blog, with people just outside my office door voting for the next president of the United States, I admit I am a bit taken aback by the timing of this week's lectionary passage.  Really?

We have the gospel passage telling us of the scribes who parade around in their fine garb, 'devouring widows' houses,' which meant, basically, eating and drinking and using up the resources of those who could least afford to entertain them. The scribes, all the while, made sure they were publicly seen and acknowledged. 

The scripture doesn't stop there, but also insists on telling us of the poor widow who gave every last coin she had to the offering at the temple, an offering, by the way, which was not mandatory for her, but voluntary. Jesus notes that the rich gave large sums, but only gave out of their abundance, in no way a sacrificial offering, in fact, money they would hardly miss at all. He notes the woman gave all of what she had, an amount of great sacrifice.

I can't help but think of the ridiculously insane amounts of money given for political ads during this campaign season, billions and billions of dollars...all for mostly negative and mostly false campaign slogans repeated over and over again. An abundant waste of precious resources, while people in this country went to bed hungry each night. And the campaign itself... often times seeming like scribes parading around in poor communities, 'devouring widows houses' and pretending they care about the needs of those who live there...

And yet, I am reminded that these stories told by Jesus are meant to teach us the power of sacrificial giving, the power of paying it forward.

This month we are focusing on that power of Paying It Forward.  Last week we looked at our responsibility to continue paying forward the contributions of the saints who have gone before us.  This week, we are given the example of giving as a form of worship.  The scribes offered themselves to the church for show, for appearances. Any gift they gave was to be paraded around and lauded.  The widow gave all she had, not to a required sacrifice, but to a voluntary offering.

A commentary I read posed this question, "What changes would our churches experience if more of us began to see giving as worship instead of obligation?"  I might add to that: What changes would occur in our personal lives and our communities and our world?

Email me or comment below.  May God be with us as we seek to be a nation of givers, rather than takers.

"Unbinding and Moving Forward"

John 11:32-44

When Jesus comes to the home of his dear friend Lazarus and discovers he has died, he weeps.  He cries, as any of us would, over the death of a dear friend.  Some suggest that Jesus, who just healed a blind man, should have been there earlier to keep Lazarus alive.

Jesus hears unbelief and lack of faith in their tone.

Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus and asks the stone to be rolled away and for Lazarus to come out.  Then he says to those gathered, "Unbind him and let him go."

This is a miracle story. The raising of Lazarus. And we are tempted to either disbelieve this story or to wonder why Jesus can't resurrect those who have died that we love. We are skeptics.

But this story has layers of reality, of stark truth, of grace...

When we lose those we love, we sometimes lose faith. It is hard to see past the reality of our loss. It is hard to understand, especially in the case of sudden loss, death or otherwise, what is going to happen next and how our lives could ever feel good again.

 Jesus, in his raising of Lazarus says, "Unbind him and let him go." We, too, must unbind that which wraps us up in our own 'burial clothes.' We must be willing to let go of what is in the past and move into what lies in the future.

We must be willing to let die that which has died and to embrace whatever forms of new life come out of our time of grieving.

On All Saints' Sunday this year, we will remember those saints of our church and our lives who have gone before us.  We will call out their names, we will take a look around at those memorials that we have within our walls, we will light candles to remember the saints of our lives, we will bring their memories with us as we come to receive the Holy Meal.

But we mustn't hold too tightly to the past. We must allow the great cloud of witnesses that has gone before us to lift us upward, lift us to new heights, new journeys, and new promise.  Those who came before us lived their lives in the hopes that those who came after them would continue that great journey toward a new heaven and a new earth, here and now.

What stories of loved ones do you like remembering? What do you think those who have gone before us would want us to be dreaming of doing here now?  Email me or comment below.

Jesus so loved the world

Hebrews 7:23-28

This scripture tells us that Jesus "always lives to make intercession" for us.  The ministry of Jesus included always thinking of the other person, being inclusive of all people and setting a great example of what it means to love all people.  It says that he does not need to offer daily sacrifices, which was a common temple practice we might equate with our weekly offering.  He does not need to do so because he has offered his life as a sacrifice, and thus made perfect forever.

This does not mean Jesus is perfect. It does not mean Jesus made no mistakes or treated everyone nicely every single time he walked out the door. Instead it means that Jesus understood that being a living sacrifice is understanding that rules don't matter as much as people, that service doesn't mean anything if done for show, that love can only truly be passed from person to person when no one is 'in it' for any reason other than to praise God as a God of love.

In Mark 10, Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, calls to Jesus... "son of David, have mercy on me." Jesus is stopped abruptly by these words. He is stopped by the realization that Bartimaeus understands Jesus is indeed the savior, the chosen son of David.  He tells Bartimaeus he is healed but it is his own faith that has made him well.  Bartimaeus understood that having sight wouldn't heal him if he didn't have his sights set on following God's way.

How do we even begin to love as Jesus loved the world?  Isn't it impossible?  Only if we let it be. We are supposedly created in God's image, in Christ's image, so therefore we should be able to love as Christ loved us.

Jesus so loved the world that he walked a path of complicated, difficult choices. He walked a path that included turning his back on the authorities, being with those the world shunned, and offering people a healing hand, a world of mercy and love, no matter what the rules of the day said he should do instead.

How often do we become radical like this Jesus we claim to love? When was the last time you walked a path that was sure to cause you scorn just so that you could continue to love the world with all your heart?  Do we ever truly love the world with all our hearts?  Email me or comment below.

I So Loved My Place In This World

Mark 10:35-45

"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you... Grant one of us to sit at your right hand and one at your left."

These disciples, James and John, are asking Jesus to sit beside of him, to be important in the land of Disciple.... And Jesus flips things around on them by telling them at the end of this scripture...

"... whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all."

Not exactly what they probably had in mind.

Why is it we often wish to have a high standing among everyone else we are around? Why is it we secretly want to be recognized for doing good and feel hurt and slighted when our good work seems to go unrecognized by others?  Why is it we get jealous or envious of others who seem to 'have it all' when we sure don't.

I so loved my place in this world, O God. I so loved my place in this world that I forgot that my standing among everyone and everything in life is truly for naught if I don't first learn to love.  That golden rule is ever golden: treat others as you would want to be treated.  Show love.  Just do it.

And yet, we can't even really identify lots of times what that might mean. People say that they want this or that from their church, but does God really need for us to 'want' the church to 'give' us anything?  What is church for?  If we answer that church is for showing our love for God and neighbor, then that pretty much does away with whatever we think we are supposed to get out of it.

But, of course, it isn't so easy, is it?  We all have wants and needs from relationships and from institutions and so when we feel unfulfilled, it is easy to look elsewhere and seek something different.  Jesus clearly calls us to love without seeking a higher reward, without seeking a certificate of praise, without wanting to be #1.

What is this scripture telling us about the true job of being a part of the body of Christ?  How do we begin to do that?  Email me or comment below.