"We Give Thanks for Salvation Stories"

Luke 23:33-43

Nothing says the end of the church liturgical year like this scripture reading. This visceral reminder that the world with all its frailties put Jesus to death on a cross. The mocking words of the soldiers, "He saved others, let him save himself..." and "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

On this Christ the King Sunday, it is almost strange to even think of earthly kings. There are very few around today and the ones we do have are often figure-heads, like the King of England, with lots of power in the tradition of the throne, but very little real power in terms of governing the people.  So, we don't even know what to make of a phrase like Christ the King.

So, it is better, perhaps, to focus on the acts that happen in this text. Jesus being nailed to a cross and mocked as a King. Jesus being ridiculed for saving people, but choosing not to save himself. What kind of King is he, if he allows himself to be crucified?

Today we give thanks for selfless acts of salvation.  Jesus who became the Christ in his selfless act of salvation, by choosing to not allow the rule of a governing body to affect his loving ministry to people in need.  And, in all of our holy and sacred everyday moments, we, too have salvation stories to share.

I have heard a few of your stories.  Stories of one who performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved a grandson's life, of a newlywed husband who saved his drowning bride, of parents who pull their adult children out of harm's way in abusive relationships, of out-of-body near death experiences where somehow, someway the body managed to save itself.  Amazing stuff. Powerful testimony of that instinct we all have to save each other and save ourselves in moments of crisis.

I have to think that Jesus, the fully human side of Jesus, wanted to save himself, and yet the loving, far-reaching visionary Jesus, wanted to save us more.  Jesus could see that giving in to the laws and rules of a short-sighted society would not lead anywhere, but choosing to pour God's love and compassion onto the world, no matter the consequences might indeed be life-saving for even him.

If it feels like Resurrection, like Easter, it is. The last day of the liturgical calendar is Easter all over again. To remind us why we will begin to wait with earnest for the baby in the manger next week. To remind us why it is important for that Child to come over and over again.  To remind us THAT salvation story begins not on a cross, but with a mother's obedient answer to God's call.

What salvation stories can you share?  Why are these important in our culture?  Email me or comment below.

We give thanks for new sight.

Matthew 7:1-8


This week we give thanks for glasses, contacts, bifocals, night goggles, 3-D glasses... all those tools we use to see the world in a whole new way. How thankful we are that we don't have to just see things in our blurred views of the world, but can have instruments available to us that can give us a whole new view of things?

A couple of months ago, Todd and I went to see the 75th anniversary re-release of The Wizard of Oz in theaters.  This time the movie wasn't like I had seen it before. It was in IMAX 3-D.  Unlike anything you have ever thought that movie could be.  The Wicked Witch of the West on a giant screen and a little popped out in 3-D.  Intense.  Very intense.  But the 3-D IMAXness of it all gave me new vision and new insights into some of the imagery in the movie that I had never noticed before, so it was like seeing the movie again for the first time.

If you got eyeglasses as a child because of poor vision, you can relate to this, as well. Remember what happened the first time you put on a pair of glasses and could ACTUALLY see the world? I felt like someone had cleaned up Knoxville, Tennessee for me. I was amazed at how different the world looked. So amazed. I can still see that scene in my mind's eye even today. And that was 35 years ago.

Today's gospel lesson speaks to us of what we see and don't see in the world around us. It reminds us to be careful what we notice about those around us... to take caution that we are fist noticing what is going on with OURSELVES before we decide to judge too harshly our neighbors.

Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, "Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye. 

That speck that we complain about in our neighbor's eye may be a problem for you, maybe even a problem for many, but this reminds us that our first order of business as those who want to model the way of Christ is to notice what logs we have in our own eyes first.  Kind of like putting on the oxygen mask before you offer help to another.  Notice what you need to do for your own 'stuff' first before railing on someone else's 'stuff.'

A few weeks ago I struggled all day long with a little tear in a contact lens. Those of you who wear them know that a tiny tear might be smaller than a speck, but feels like a log in the eye. I told Anna, the office admin, that I should really just sit down that very day and write the sermon about the log in my own eye.  The burden and the aggravation I was carrying around by not dealing with that contact lens IS a parallel to the burden and aggravation we carry around when we don't deal with the stuff that keeps us from being the Christians we are called to be.  The next part of this scripture reminds us to ask, seek, and knock and doors will open for us.  To be open to the Spirit moving in our lives will help us to take the log away for good.

What new vision or new insights into the world have you had? What was life like for you once you got a new pair of glasses, either in reality or metaphorically?  Email me or comment below.

We are thankful for turkey day traditions

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

One Thanksgiving tradition that we almost always observe is watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. A couple of times we have been traveling or vacationing and have not been able to do this, but most of the time, that's where you can find us on Thanksgiving morning.  In front of the TV, watching the parade.  I leave between commercial breaks to stir a pot, or baste the bird. It is just a wonderful, lovely tradition that we have of being together on parade morning.

A few years ago, we went to NYC the days before Thanksgiving and left on Thanksgiving morning before the big event. We were flying out of town as the parade was beginning.  But the night before we went up to the area of Manhattan where the parade workers begin inflating the balloons and took a good close up look at some of them.  That was certainly an interesting take on our yearly tradition.

This week's epistle lesson speaks of tradition in this way:

But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. For this purpose he called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter.

We are chosen by God to offer 'first fruits' (the best we have) as we work in tangent with God to save the world.  We have been called to share the good news. One way we do that is by remembering all we have learned and holding fast to the traditions that bind us together. The traditions we learned will carry us into the next generation and spread the good news to a new people.

There is a lot of talk in the church these days about 'the dying church' and the need to remodel or refashion the existing church.  Some of that talk is accurate and some of it is, frankly, alarmist.  The church of tomorrow will likely be smaller than the church of today.  Its numbers are contracting, that's true.  But the traditions that have held us steadfast for generations will continue to hold us tomorrow.

Like our turkey day traditions.  Just because we all have ereaders and tablets and iPhones nowadays doesn't mean that there isn't something strong and valuable and beautiful about gathering in front of a TV to watch a parade. Just because you can virtually play football on your Xbox doesn't mean you won't watch the big game. You know?  We owe it to our future to hold fast to the traditions of of our past.

What traditions are important in your family? Why are they so valuable to you and yours?

Email me or comment below.

We give thanks for Grandma's feather bed!

Ephesians 1:11-19

"In Christ, we have also obtained an inheritance," begins this week's reading.  We are an inherited congregation with an inherited faith, passed down from generation to generation. We are the sum total of everything that came before us in the Christian faith.  We often don't think of faith as something we inherited, or as the 'congregation' itself as something we inherited.  But, it really is.

This month we will explore all the perhaps unspoken thing we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  Things we all are aware of, on some level, but don't give a lot of credence to, in our generic thanksgiving lists.  We begin this week with 'inheritance.'  We give thanks for Grandma's feather bed, passed down from generation to generation.

Remember the John Denver song. "It was nine feet high and six feet wide and soft as a downy chick. It was made from the feathers of forty 'leven geese, it took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick."  That feather bed imagery conjures up for many of us all the many things our grandmas had in their houses, some of which perhaps we have in our houses today.

All of us have inherited something from our families. Perhaps it is an actual physical artifact or a lot of them. Perhaps it is a way of living or a belief system.  I have a ring that belonged to my grandmother.  When my grandmother died, my mom showed me two of Granny's rings while they were cleaning out her house, and told me to pick one. I asked her for the story behind each before I picked. You see, the inheritance we get is not just stuff, it is the memory, the connection to a life that came before us and joined with us at some point along the way.

In Ephesians, we read of that inheritance from Christ as the Holy Spirit... which redeems us and marks us as God's own people.  We inherit our redemption in Christ. We inherit our faith from those who believed in Christ before us. We inherit the gospel and are entrusted to carry that good news forward to those who will inherit it from us.

It is not unlike the items from Granny's house that we inherited. Both require you to care enough about the meaning and intent behind the inheritance to claim it, hold it as your own, and carry it forward into tomorrow. What have you inherited?  Why is it meaningful for you?  I would love to have you share some of those aloud this Sunday.  Or you can send me an email or comment below.

Peace.

“Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one.”

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness . . .At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.

 Disney's Pocahantas has an independent mind of her own. She doesn't think her elders are always right about things. Like most of the modern day Disney 'heroines,' she wants to do things her way.  When she falls for a 'white man,' though, that is a far step off the plan, probably even for her.  But what Pocahantas really wants is for everyone to understand their own place in the whole order of creation. To understand that not everyone has to see things the same way, but everyone needs to be willing to appreciate the journey of the others.  She soon realizes this is too much to ask and finds herself, sadly, wishing that she and the white man she loves, John, had never met.

Grandmother Willow, the wise old tree, speaks to Pocahantas and John. She pokes a branch into the water and shows them the ripples, how they start small at first, but then grow bigger. She reminds them that someone has to start the ripples. That change can never occur without a step into the hardness and harshness of life.  "Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one."

Albus Dumbledore, in the Harry Potter series, says much the same thing in this quote, where he is reminding Harry about the valor his classmate Cedric Diggory who died because he dared to cross the path of the evil lord Voldemort. 

"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory." 

Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one. I would venture to say that you could almost take out the word 'sometimes' and the quote would be more accurate. The right path is not the easiest one. Robert Frost's road less taken comes to mind, as well.  We have so many choices in our Christian walk. We can choose to just come on Sunday and chill out, relax with friends and enjoy life, bring in some money or food or something to help out the needy when asked.  That's the easy path, but as the quote above suggests, it might not be the right one.

The right path likely involves getting our hands dirty. Encountering poverty and despair. Encountering broken children from broken homes. Encountering immigrants and addicts.  How do we get on that path? How did Jesus get on it?  He walked out the door.  

Oh, how hard it is going to be for me personally to walk in the world as Jesus did. Maybe your journey will be easier to take because you have already dared to tiptoe outside a bit here and there in the dirty world of being a real Christian.  I have work to do, though, on many fronts.

Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one. The right path is not the easiest one.  It's supposed to be hard. It IS hard. That's the way of walking with Jesus.  The Road less travelled is going to make all the difference. I can just feel it.

The Road Not Taken

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

“Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy.”

Philippians 4:4-9

Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy more than anything. He was tired of being a puppet and living at the mercy of someone else making his every move happen. And yet, he couldn't just demand that this happen to him. He had to prove himself worthy of being a real boy through the school of hard knocks.

Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus...

Pinocchio is told "prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy." In other words, you have to figure out what it means to really be a human. Do you just get to be one, or do you have to exhibit the qualities that make you 'human'?  

Stands to reason that Paul would hold the Christ followers accountable to the same sort of high standards when they are organizing the early faith communities.  To what standards should someone called Christian be held?  Paul is saying to the people of Philippi, "if we are setting ourselves apart as persons who profess to believe in the Risen Christ, who profess to follow his way, what standards do we hold ourselves to?

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

It is both very simple and very difficult. It really is just about doing whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise.  But, on any given day, there is no more challenging task.  When we would rather have our own way than follow the way of Christ, we fail to meet most of the above criteria.

Our country's political leaders have fallen into this trap. And we let them do it. Long ago we quit requiring of them to do 'whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent' and are content to hold them accountable for almost nothing.

That sentiment follows us into our everyday lives, too. We have got to learn what it means to be a real boy (girl), just like Pinocchio had to learn. We have got to align ourselves with that man who became our Savior and be brave, truthful and unselfish... then, and only then, will we become REAL Christians.

Thoughts? Comments? Email me or comment below.

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all”

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-11

I love the raw beauty of this passage. It isn't a passage about how wonderful life is or how beautiful it is that God blesses us with much abundance. It is about being in exile, being sent far away from those you love and the land you call home and living in a place not of your choosing instead.

What makes it so beautiful is what God tells the people of exile. God tells them, Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare....

This is perhaps my favorite scripture in all of the biblical canon.  Even though you have been sent to exile, says God, go on and live your lives. Build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children... and seek the welfare of the city where you have been sent into exile... if that city does well, you will do well.

So many times today we get into a "poor me" mentality. I didn't get exactly what I wanted, so I will pout and make life miserable for those around me.  We all have done it or been subject to it from time to time.  This scripture suggests that no matter what sort of exiles we have had imposed on us or we have imposed upon ourselves, the best thing we can do is to choose abundant life instead, in all its forms.

Build, plant, grow, produce.

In the Disney movie, Mulan, she exiles herself away from her family and into the army. She doesn't want to be what girls are supposed to be and runs away from that life.  This scripture isn't saying that we should subject ourselves to lives that are harmful or unfulfilling, but it does suggest that sometimes life gives us lemons and the best we can hope to do is create as much lemonade as we can and share it with others, rather than running away from or denying that a present reality exists..    Sometimes we don't get what we want, or think we want, for a long, long time. The exile in this passage of Jeremiah lasts seventy years. But there is a time when God fulfills God's promises.

Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all” is a line from Mulan that suggests we have to walk through the rain to get to the rainbow. It suggests that once we have lived through whatever exiles get sent our way, our blooming moment, our God fulfilled promises, are blessings to be praised and to be shared. And it implies that we have to be in it for the long haul or we might not get the chance to bloom at all.

Thoughts? Comments? Email me or comment below.