You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Faith ...as Something Done ...not Said ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
Dear “The End is Near
Christians,”
It seems
backwards. The calendar says we’re
entering the last quarter of the year …but for decades, churches have practiced
it as the first quarter of the new year!
That’s because September brings the “traditional” END of summer (Labor
Day), the “traditional” BEGINNING of the school year, and the Church’s “traditional”
Christian Education programming year—even though for decades and decades school
has started in August, and “Fall” is not the first Season of the year! Still, here we are in the church and
elsewhere around us, acting as if we’re “getting back into the swing of things”
or “starting something new”!
I get it. But only “sort of.”
We’re coming toward
the “end of things” seasonally. The
growing season that concludes with harvest; and THEN winter finally comes, when
the earth “takes a break.” The work doesn’t
have a break, but the seasons are winding down for a rest. And, in the lectionary, September, October,
and November bring us to the END of the Jesus story—when Jesus entered
Jerusalem, offered his last teachings, parables, stories, and advice …just
before Jesus is arrested, tried, and crucified.
It would make far more liturgical sense, to celebrate Lent and Easter at
the end of the calendar year, and Advent and Christmas in February and March! …But this kind of “reversal” would uproot a
lot of things in our lives; and make us seasonally out of step with the rest of
the world.
But here’s something
that Jesus asks of us …being “out of step” with the rest of the world. Jesus’ words and teachings have pointed over
and over to a “fulfillment” in which the first are last and the last are
first.” The idea that the have-nots will
“have” and the “haves” will still have enough.
That sinners will repent and enjoy the fruits of righteousness and the
righteousness will still enjoy their fruits.
It’s the world of “doing unto others as we would have them do unto us,”
or even better, the world of “doing unto others as GOD does unto us.” And doing what Jesus asks of us, puts us in a
“backwards way” to what the world teaches us: that there are winners and
losers, that we always have to “be the best,” where life can’t be good if your
football team isn’t winning, a world where you have to work hard and pull
yourself up by your own boot straps, where God only helps those who help
themselves.
Jesus invites us into
a different way of being in the world …a way that mimics the Kingdom of God—where
the lost, the least, the wanting, the penitent, and the thankful, all have standing.
But I hear people
saying it all the time—that Jesus doesn’t want believers to be “weak, to lose,
or to have less,” even that Jesus desires that we “prosper.” I get it; but I don’t understand their
thinking. Where does Jesus teach
this? In fact, I believe Jesus demands
that we not prosper at the expense of others.
This “reversal” isn’t an “either-or” like winning and losing; it’s about
blessing! It doesn’t end with us NOT
having what we need, it ends with enough for all. But here’s the thing, the Kingdom seems to
work “backwards” from the world, just like Jesus shows us.
Thus, the seasons
conclude with thankfulness and joy, and our being invited to give or share with
our neighbors. A time to delight in
athletic competition but not think of it as only winning or losing. A time to find the least or the lost, so we
all might glimpse the Kingdom of God among us.
We’re
not dying on the vine; we’re living our best life. Even if it seems backwards.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ A World Where Forgiveness Begets Forgiveness ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Baptisms and Censure-isms ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Embodying Hope in the Messiah ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
Dear Cross-Taker-Uppers,
We’ve come to that
time in the lectionary cycle where we turn toward the end of Jesus’ ministry. It happens one day when Jesus reveals that he:
“ …must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.
…Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ”
It sounds like Jesus is
challenging “followers”—or those who wish to come after him—to follow him into
death. …This would be a new definition
of “following.”
When Jesus says, “Follow
me” to the first “followers” on the shores of the Sea of Galilee at the
beginning of his ministry, no one expects that to mean that “followers” were
committing themselves to die like Jesus will die. Yet here we are, a dozen or so chapters
later, and Jesus is saying, “take up your cross.” But before you go looking to get and take up
a cross, perhaps we might consider what denying ourselves and what following
after Jesus might mean for us aside from a centuries-old model of public
execution!
I believe Jesus is
speaking somewhat metaphorically. He
reminds his followers that it’s possible to “win the world” but that it costs
you your life. So, it’s possible to have
the things of the world, but only at the expense of not having the things of
God. Those that “follow Jesus” …give up
self, bear the burden of discipleship, and follow where it leads. For Jesus …that clearly leads to Jerusalem,
great suffering, death, and resurrection.
For followers of Jesus …taking up our cross and following, likely doesn’t
lead to Jerusalem, great suffering, being killed and raised in the same
way.
It wouldn’t be fair to
try and make “cross-taking up” as just anything we want to trade it for. Following Jesus means living out the values
of the Kingdom of God—loving God and neighbors and ourselves. Helping to feed the hungry, while it can
include “suffering” generally isn’t suffering.
But being committed to justice for all, surely might mean taking risks
that require courage and conviction. None
of us is likely to end up in a public trial and being executed for “following
Jesus.” In general, Jesus was a man of
peace—who can argue with being peaceable.
But there are times when true “peace” requires action, resistance, maybe
even civil disobedience. But the
question here is not how quickly we might die for Jesus’ teaching or beliefs,
but really, how we live them out!
I believe Jesus is not calling us to die for what he or we believe in, but to LIVE FOR IT. Our “following” isn’t the commitment to end in death, but to transcend it. It’s about living …so that our lives are indistinguishable from the Kingdom of God.
So that “taking up our crosses” isn’t a hill on which we die or a belief for which we suffer—but is the work of living fully, as best we can, the values Jesus proclaims.
So, live long …and
prosper the work of Jesus’ hands!
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ There Ought To Be A Title ...but Jesus said, Don't Tell Anyone! ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ A Relentless and Indefatigably Kind Canaanite Sage Changes Everything ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Four Things You Can't See In English ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
You can hear an audio recording of the second scripture reading and my sermon entitled,
“ Repast on the Grass ”
being preached, by CLICKING HERE.
