7 Epiphany A 2014
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Epiphany/AEpi7_RCL.html
“And it would have been enough…”
Our text from Leviticus proclaims a vision of generous justice to a people used to raiding and abusing and plundering one another’s goods. “I am the Lord” God thunders, loud enough to get them to take their hands off the hilts of their knives and off of one another’s throats. Don’t cheat, don’t abuse, don’t lie, don’t swindle. When you harvest, don’t pick the field clean. Leave what’s left behind and what’s left on the edges for the poor and the homeless. Don’t hate, don’t do blood-feuds, don’t do pay-back. What’s more—love your neighbor as yourself. It is the word of a God who chose to love a rough and ragged people, who called them to be more that desert bandits. It was radical justice and forbearance in a brutal age.
“And it would have been enough…”
Some say that proclaiming justice in a greedy age is foolish. Well, we’re about to become even bigger fools. Because Jesus takes this vision of God’s justice, a radical vision in its time to a new and frightening level, a level beyond justice.
What’s beyond justice? Costly love.
Do not resist the bad guy—give him another cheek to punch. Got your wallet snatched? Hand over your watch as well. Asked again for a dollar? Hand it over, and maybe add another. That’s what Jesus’ teaching looks like in today’s language.
And there’s more—“love your enemy.” And, “be perfect.” That word “perfection”—many of us were taught this saying as a source of shame, like our lives never measured up. But the word “perfection” here is related to “whole.” “Be whole, be complete.”
Complete what?
Complete fools, says anyone with sense. If justice is foolish, this kind of over-abundant love and mercy is lunacy.
But Paul says that we have only one foundation on which to build—the One and Complete Fool himself, God’s Fool, Jesus Christ.
A traditional Jewish chant on Passover goes something like this…
“If he had led us through the desert
and not led us to Mount Sinai—
it would have been enough
“If he had led us to Mount Sinai
and not given us the Torah--
it would have been enough
“If he had given us the Torah
and not led us to the Promised Land--
it would have been enough”
With the God of the Gospel, the generous and foolish God, it is never enough.
It is never enough to simply be tolerant. God goes beyond tolerance. It is not enough to simply be just. God goes beyond justice.
God goes to self-giving, self-sacrificing love. God makes God’s own self vulnerable and foolish. The Gospel really is a joke in most people’s eyes I think. Who can love that much, forgive that much, check out of the culture of greed and self-interest and payback that much?
So now, go do likewise.
As a church, there was a day when it would have been enough to be a nice church, kind, forbearing, courteous to the stranger. That is a good thing. But as we saw at Annual Meeting, we are called to be more.
We are called to be love. We are called to the grand foolishness of Jesus. We are called to be one, humble with one another, grateful, to make no peace with inequality or separation, to be one. To take a new road.
Perhaps it will be enough if we leave behind all our former assurance, our old securities, our long-held opinions, and walk out on the road with new companions in humility and vulnerability and peace. One congregation, two languages, a small and foolish gathering in a large and cynical and divided world, a racist world, a world that measures people by power and wealth and skin color and gender and preference and so many other things that are nonsense in God’s eyes.
We will see if it is enough. And perhaps we’ll find ourselves joined on the road by someone whom we did not expect. Perhaps we’ll find Jesus there, not the Jesus of gilded images or gold crowns. The foolish, vulnerable Jesus. The Jesus of the Gospel.
And this road, and this Jesus, will be enough.
archived musings and preachments
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Sunday, February 9, 2014
How big is your house?
EPIPHANY 5 2014
I TOOK AN ECONOMICS COURSE IN COLLEGE, AND LEARNED TWO MAIN THINGS. FIRST OF ALL, “ECONOMICS” MEANS MEASURING THE HOUSE. ECO IS GREEK FOR HOUSE, AND NOMICS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH NUMBERS. THE SECOND IMPORTANT POINT I DISCOVERED IS THAT THE PURPOSE OF ECONOMICS IS TO ALLOCATE GUNS AND BUTTER. THIS MEANS DETERMINING HOW MUCH OF THE RESOURCES OF A COUNTRY, A STATE, A CITY, OR A FAMILY GOES TO BUTTER, FOOD, OR WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS, AND HOW MUCH GOES FOR SECURITY, POLICE, MILITARY OR FOOD INSPECTORS.
IN TODAY’S BIBLE PASSAGES, ISAIAH AND MATTHEW ALSO TALK ABOUT RESOURCE ALLOCATION, THOUGH NOT NECESSARILLY GUNS AND BUTTER. THE ALLOCATION THEY TALK ABOUT IS TIME, ENERGY, AND PASSION. THEY ARE SAYING THAT WE SHOULD SPEND OUR TIME, OUR ENERGY, AND OUR PASSION ON HEALING A BROKEN WORLD, NOT ON SELF AGRANDIZING.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM ISAIAH: “WHY DO WE FAST, BUT YOU DO NOT SEE? WHY HUMBLE OURSELVES, BUT YOU DO NOT NOTICE? LOOK, YOU SERVE YOUR OWN INTEREST ON YOUR FAST DAY, AND OPPRESS ALL YOUR WORKERS. LOOK, YOU FAST ONLY TO QUARREL AND TO FIGHT AND TO STRIKE WITH A WICKED FIST. SUCH FASTING AS YOU DO TODAY WILL NOT MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ON HIGH.”
JESUS TOLD US THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT IS THIS: “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT, AND THE SECOND IS LIKE IT; YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE LAW AND PROPHETS.”
THE GOSPEL IS NOT ABOUT EARNING POINTS TO GET INTO HEAVEN SOME DAY; THE GOSPEL IS ABOUT DOING WHAT WE CAN TO HEAL A HURTING WORLD RIGHT TODAY.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM MATTHEW: “YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH, BUT IF THE SALT HAS LOST ITS TASTE, HOW CAN ITS SALTINESS BE RESTORED?”, AND ALSO : “YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. A CITY BUILT ON A HILL CANNOT BE HID. NO ONE AFTER LIGHTING A LAMP PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL BASKET, BUT ON THE LAMPSTAND, AND IT GIVES LIGHT FOR ALL IN THE HOUSE.”
THE VALUE OF SALT IS NOT IN AND OF ITSELF. THE VALUE OF SALT IS THAT IT IS ADDED TO OTHER FOOD TO PRESERVE IT OR TO IMPROVE ITS TASTE. THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS NOT SO THE LAMP CAN SEE OR BE SEEN, THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS SO THAT OTHERS MAY SEE. “WE (SHOULD) IMPACT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.” 1
WHEN OUR LECTIONARY STUDY GROUP LOOKED AT THIS PIECE OF ST. MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, ONE OF OUR GROUP QUOTED JAMES SLEDGE. JAMES SLEDGE IS SOMEONE WHO WROTE A COMMENT ABOUT THIS PASSAGE AND HE SAID: “CHRISTIAN FAITH IN AMERICA TENDS TO BE A PRIVATE AND PERSONAL THING. FAITH IS WHAT WE BELIEVE, AND THAT CAN BE SAFELY TUCKED AWAY IN OUR BRAIN SOMEWHERE.---YOU CAN BE A FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN IF YOU GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY AND ABIDE BY SOCIETAL NORMS FOR MORALITY. SO, IN ESSENCE, IF PEOPLE DON’T CHECK THE CHURCH PARKING LOT ON SUNDAYS, NOTHING ABOUT YOUR FAITH WOULD DISTINGUISH YOU FROM ANYONE ELSE WHO FUNCTIONED AS A GOOD CITIZEN.” AND THIS REMINDS ME OF AN OLD SAYING THAT IF IT WERE ILLEGAL TO BE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST’S GOSPEL WOULD ENOUGH EVIDENCE BE FOUND TO CONVICT US?
JAMES SLEDGE THEN WENT ON TO SAY: “IT’S WORTH NOTING THAT PROPHETS GENERALLY WERE NOT PERSECUTED FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED. THE PEOPLE WHO PERSECUTED THEM WERE FELLOW MEMBERS OF THEIR FAITH, FELLOW WORSHIPPERS OF YAHYEH. THEY WERE PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY INSISTED THAT BEING GOD’S PEOPLE DEMANDED THAT THEY LIVE DIFFERENTLY THEN THEY WERE DOING. THE PROPHETS INSISTED THAT THEY COULD NOT CLAIM TO BE GOD’S PEOPLE WHILE EXPLOITING THE POOR, WORRYING ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL FORTUNES MORE THAN GOD’S COMMANDS, AND SO ON.
AMEN
John Nesbitt+, Feb 9, 2014
I TOOK AN ECONOMICS COURSE IN COLLEGE, AND LEARNED TWO MAIN THINGS. FIRST OF ALL, “ECONOMICS” MEANS MEASURING THE HOUSE. ECO IS GREEK FOR HOUSE, AND NOMICS HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH NUMBERS. THE SECOND IMPORTANT POINT I DISCOVERED IS THAT THE PURPOSE OF ECONOMICS IS TO ALLOCATE GUNS AND BUTTER. THIS MEANS DETERMINING HOW MUCH OF THE RESOURCES OF A COUNTRY, A STATE, A CITY, OR A FAMILY GOES TO BUTTER, FOOD, OR WELFARE OF THE CITIZENS, AND HOW MUCH GOES FOR SECURITY, POLICE, MILITARY OR FOOD INSPECTORS.
IN TODAY’S BIBLE PASSAGES, ISAIAH AND MATTHEW ALSO TALK ABOUT RESOURCE ALLOCATION, THOUGH NOT NECESSARILLY GUNS AND BUTTER. THE ALLOCATION THEY TALK ABOUT IS TIME, ENERGY, AND PASSION. THEY ARE SAYING THAT WE SHOULD SPEND OUR TIME, OUR ENERGY, AND OUR PASSION ON HEALING A BROKEN WORLD, NOT ON SELF AGRANDIZING.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM ISAIAH: “WHY DO WE FAST, BUT YOU DO NOT SEE? WHY HUMBLE OURSELVES, BUT YOU DO NOT NOTICE? LOOK, YOU SERVE YOUR OWN INTEREST ON YOUR FAST DAY, AND OPPRESS ALL YOUR WORKERS. LOOK, YOU FAST ONLY TO QUARREL AND TO FIGHT AND TO STRIKE WITH A WICKED FIST. SUCH FASTING AS YOU DO TODAY WILL NOT MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD ON HIGH.”
JESUS TOLD US THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT IS THIS: “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT, AND THE SECOND IS LIKE IT; YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS HANG ALL THE LAW AND PROPHETS.”
THE GOSPEL IS NOT ABOUT EARNING POINTS TO GET INTO HEAVEN SOME DAY; THE GOSPEL IS ABOUT DOING WHAT WE CAN TO HEAL A HURTING WORLD RIGHT TODAY.
TODAY WE HEARD FROM MATTHEW: “YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH, BUT IF THE SALT HAS LOST ITS TASTE, HOW CAN ITS SALTINESS BE RESTORED?”, AND ALSO : “YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. A CITY BUILT ON A HILL CANNOT BE HID. NO ONE AFTER LIGHTING A LAMP PUTS IT UNDER A BUSHEL BASKET, BUT ON THE LAMPSTAND, AND IT GIVES LIGHT FOR ALL IN THE HOUSE.”
THE VALUE OF SALT IS NOT IN AND OF ITSELF. THE VALUE OF SALT IS THAT IT IS ADDED TO OTHER FOOD TO PRESERVE IT OR TO IMPROVE ITS TASTE. THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS NOT SO THE LAMP CAN SEE OR BE SEEN, THE VALUE OF A LAMP IS SO THAT OTHERS MAY SEE. “WE (SHOULD) IMPACT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.” 1
WHEN OUR LECTIONARY STUDY GROUP LOOKED AT THIS PIECE OF ST. MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, ONE OF OUR GROUP QUOTED JAMES SLEDGE. JAMES SLEDGE IS SOMEONE WHO WROTE A COMMENT ABOUT THIS PASSAGE AND HE SAID: “CHRISTIAN FAITH IN AMERICA TENDS TO BE A PRIVATE AND PERSONAL THING. FAITH IS WHAT WE BELIEVE, AND THAT CAN BE SAFELY TUCKED AWAY IN OUR BRAIN SOMEWHERE.---YOU CAN BE A FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN IF YOU GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY AND ABIDE BY SOCIETAL NORMS FOR MORALITY. SO, IN ESSENCE, IF PEOPLE DON’T CHECK THE CHURCH PARKING LOT ON SUNDAYS, NOTHING ABOUT YOUR FAITH WOULD DISTINGUISH YOU FROM ANYONE ELSE WHO FUNCTIONED AS A GOOD CITIZEN.” AND THIS REMINDS ME OF AN OLD SAYING THAT IF IT WERE ILLEGAL TO BE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST’S GOSPEL WOULD ENOUGH EVIDENCE BE FOUND TO CONVICT US?
JAMES SLEDGE THEN WENT ON TO SAY: “IT’S WORTH NOTING THAT PROPHETS GENERALLY WERE NOT PERSECUTED FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED. THE PEOPLE WHO PERSECUTED THEM WERE FELLOW MEMBERS OF THEIR FAITH, FELLOW WORSHIPPERS OF YAHYEH. THEY WERE PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY INSISTED THAT BEING GOD’S PEOPLE DEMANDED THAT THEY LIVE DIFFERENTLY THEN THEY WERE DOING. THE PROPHETS INSISTED THAT THEY COULD NOT CLAIM TO BE GOD’S PEOPLE WHILE EXPLOITING THE POOR, WORRYING ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL FORTUNES MORE THAN GOD’S COMMANDS, AND SO ON.
AMEN
John Nesbitt+, Feb 9, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Of headaches and fire
Brigid’s Day 2014
Isaiah 61: 1-3; Ps 138; 1 Cor 1: 26-31; Mt 6: 25-33
When we read Brigid legends, we find a lot of headaches.
One story tells of Brigid traveling to visit a family that had suffered tragic loss. All their children had died except two daughters, and these two were mute. Brigid took the two young women with her when she left. On the way, Brigid suffered a terrible headache. Then the horse pulling her chariot shied and pitched Brigid out. She hit her head on a rock and gave herself a bad gash. Strangely, Brigid’s headache vanished, and she told the two girls to bathe their necks with the water from the tiny stream by the road that had been mixed with Brigid’s blood. Immediately they began to speak. It’s a bizarre enough story to be true.
Brigid is a wounded healer in this tale. Headaches come up so frequently in her stories that I suspect she suffered from migraines. Brigid takes two young women with her, takes them to herself, voiceless and powerless. Brigid herself is wounded but shares her blood, her wound, with the two girls. The voiceless then begin to speak.
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives…to give them the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”
The prophet speaks from the standpoint of wounds and vulnerability. Not many chapters before, he sang of the Suffering Servant, the one who “by his wounds we are healed.” Here and in this old Brigid story, it is the wounded who take to themselves the wounded. It is through wounds and vulnerability, not through power and coercion, that the voiceless are given voice, that the powerless are set free.
Brigid’s Mantle, the traditional cloth laid out on the eve of Feb 1, is strangely enough said to cure headaches. Behind this sweet old custom lies a powerful Gospel mystery. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept one’s wounds and one’s need. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept the healing that the wounded share with us. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to believe that the poor and voiceless will have hope and voice. It’s strange that the Isaiah passage actually mentions a “mantle of praise.”
Some years ago we cast open our doors to Brigid. She’s been bringing her poor and wounded ever since
It was her fire and her passion that kindled our hearts to renew our meal program. Brigid vowed to “save every miserable person.” Misery is easy to come by on this street. Many of us have looked into misery’s eyes and given food to mouths often mute with their suffering. It is a hard, rich ministry, and as in all such ministries we get back more than we give.
And Brigid walked on the street outside casting her mantle around the women in the sex trade. Love and dedication were kindled in the hearts of those who began the Friday night ministry to this day.
This consciousness, this mad casting of Brigid’s Mantle, only deepens and grows. We have become a community that welcomes and reaches out. I think that is the single most important aspect of who we are.
Not many of us are wise, not many of us are powerful. Not many of us are famous in the world’s eyes. But God chooses a broken vessel like this church, and broken hearts like ours, to reach out to the poor and broken.
And how do we continue our life? That’s not clear. But this is what we’re told: “Do not worry about your life, or about your body…But strive first for the Kingdom of God.”
It is said of Brigid that her monastery was rich because she was always giving everything away.
To be the people of Brigid’s Mantle is to trust, to give, to reach out from the vulnerability of our own wounds. It is to know that when we do, headaches and all, the mad and generous Christ who loves his outrageous Brigid will reach out to us, through us, in us, to work rich and wonderful things, for us, through us, in us.
Isaiah 61: 1-3; Ps 138; 1 Cor 1: 26-31; Mt 6: 25-33
When we read Brigid legends, we find a lot of headaches.
One story tells of Brigid traveling to visit a family that had suffered tragic loss. All their children had died except two daughters, and these two were mute. Brigid took the two young women with her when she left. On the way, Brigid suffered a terrible headache. Then the horse pulling her chariot shied and pitched Brigid out. She hit her head on a rock and gave herself a bad gash. Strangely, Brigid’s headache vanished, and she told the two girls to bathe their necks with the water from the tiny stream by the road that had been mixed with Brigid’s blood. Immediately they began to speak. It’s a bizarre enough story to be true.
Brigid is a wounded healer in this tale. Headaches come up so frequently in her stories that I suspect she suffered from migraines. Brigid takes two young women with her, takes them to herself, voiceless and powerless. Brigid herself is wounded but shares her blood, her wound, with the two girls. The voiceless then begin to speak.
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives…to give them the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.”
The prophet speaks from the standpoint of wounds and vulnerability. Not many chapters before, he sang of the Suffering Servant, the one who “by his wounds we are healed.” Here and in this old Brigid story, it is the wounded who take to themselves the wounded. It is through wounds and vulnerability, not through power and coercion, that the voiceless are given voice, that the powerless are set free.
Brigid’s Mantle, the traditional cloth laid out on the eve of Feb 1, is strangely enough said to cure headaches. Behind this sweet old custom lies a powerful Gospel mystery. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept one’s wounds and one’s need. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to accept the healing that the wounded share with us. To be wrapped in Brigid’s Mantle is to believe that the poor and voiceless will have hope and voice. It’s strange that the Isaiah passage actually mentions a “mantle of praise.”
Some years ago we cast open our doors to Brigid. She’s been bringing her poor and wounded ever since
It was her fire and her passion that kindled our hearts to renew our meal program. Brigid vowed to “save every miserable person.” Misery is easy to come by on this street. Many of us have looked into misery’s eyes and given food to mouths often mute with their suffering. It is a hard, rich ministry, and as in all such ministries we get back more than we give.
And Brigid walked on the street outside casting her mantle around the women in the sex trade. Love and dedication were kindled in the hearts of those who began the Friday night ministry to this day.
This consciousness, this mad casting of Brigid’s Mantle, only deepens and grows. We have become a community that welcomes and reaches out. I think that is the single most important aspect of who we are.
Not many of us are wise, not many of us are powerful. Not many of us are famous in the world’s eyes. But God chooses a broken vessel like this church, and broken hearts like ours, to reach out to the poor and broken.
And how do we continue our life? That’s not clear. But this is what we’re told: “Do not worry about your life, or about your body…But strive first for the Kingdom of God.”
It is said of Brigid that her monastery was rich because she was always giving everything away.
To be the people of Brigid’s Mantle is to trust, to give, to reach out from the vulnerability of our own wounds. It is to know that when we do, headaches and all, the mad and generous Christ who loves his outrageous Brigid will reach out to us, through us, in us, to work rich and wonderful things, for us, through us, in us.
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