July 21 -- Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Grace to you and peace…from Jesus, who is with us.  Amen.

Friends in Christ, we are distracted by many things.  Often times when this text comes up or this story is told, we are invited to think about whether we are Mary’s — sitting at the feet of Jesus, or Martha’s — worried and distracted by many things.  [It’s true, we can be both Mary and Martha at different times in our lives.]  But today, for the sake of this sermon, I’m going to just assume that we’re all Martha’s — worried and distracted by many things.  Yes, there’s a little Mary in each one of us too, but in this day-in-age, we are almost programmed to pick up and respond to distractions...  

I’d like to just take a moment and ask you to jot down about 10 things things that are distracting you right now…in this place and in your life.  

Are we relating to Martha yet?  (Distractions in the world, in your life, in the news, in the community...) And how when we’re busy/serving, it’s easy to be judgmental of those who aren’t?  “Huh, must be nice to go on vacation.”  “Huh, maybe someone ought to work a little harder.”  And then Martha pulls a classic triangulation with Jesus.  Do you know what triangulation is?  Concept introduced by Dr. Murray Bowen.  (We see this all the time in the church:  Instead of going directly to the person with whom we’ve got a problem, we go to someone else, and try to rope them into our conflict and get them on our side… For example, if I’ve got a problem with another pastor in the area, instead of talking face-to-face with my brother or sister, I go to the bishop: “Tell him to behave...but don’t tell them..”  Another example: Husband and wife:  She’s very frustrated by her husband’s work habits:  long hours, time away from the children.  But instead of talking to him, she calls her sister, and tells her, but tells her not to say anything because she doesn’t want to damage her relationship with her husband.  Is triangulation a healthy way of communicating?)

Kacy Brown of the Well Counseling Center (just one of many resources out there) suggests some ways to avoid triangulation:  1) Go directly to the person with whom you have the conflict.  2) Avoid trying to draw others in and get them on your side behind the scenes.  3) And try as much as you can to de-triangulate...stay out of triangles.  Encourage others who are venting to you to go directly to the person with whom they have the conflict.  

This little side note on triangulation may be an unintended gift of this gospel text for us today, helping us communicate better with one another and reminding us of some unhealthy pitfalls in our communication styles, to which we’re all susceptible.

So, poor Martha.  Poor you and me.  Not only is she getting nicked just for being busy, but also for being a poor communicator.  Yep.

But here’s where Jesus gives her a gift:  “Martha, Martha, stop, sit down, breathe.”  Rather than getting hooked into the triangle Martha is trying to form, Jesus offers her a path out of bitterness: to stop.  To breathe.  (Probably doesn’t help that he uses her sister as the example, but we do get an image of the human being from Mary...as opposed to the human doing.)   “Stop, sit down, breathe.”

How we too can be distracted by so many things in our lives, in our world, even as we sit here in the sanctuary on Sunday.    How we in the church can be all about church all the time, and yet never truly worship...even when we’re in worship.  

    [conversations about Martha’s bitterness: another distraction from Jesus’ point?]

How is Jesus inviting you to stop, sit down and breathe?

This, Christ says, is the “better part”.  There is so much here that relates to us today.  We are called to listen, more than talk; to watch and wait, rather than run, run, run all the time.

Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance: "Divine rest on the seventh day of creation has made clear (a) that YHWH is not a workaholic, (b) that YHWH is not anxious about the full functioning of creation, and (c) that the well-being of creation does not depend on endless work."  

Christ invites us to rest this day.  To stop.  To center.  To listen.  And to know that God is God.  We are human beings, not human doings.  And Christ makes us that this day, Christ redeems us from our incessant doing-ness — making us fully human being.  We are made to sit at Jesus’ feet.  (pillows in the sanctuary)  In our busyness, in our fallen communication styles, in our running around we can almost loose a piece of our humanity, becoming like robots knocking tasks off our lists.  I heard a story recently about “a mother who coached, drove her kids around and volunteered for every school committee.  She was a supermom.  She loved her kids. Thing is, one of the kids [at church youth group], confided in [her pastor] that she hardly ever saw her mom. Her mom was so busy coaching, leading, volunteering ‘for her kids’, she was too busy to spend time with them.  This is a phenomenal lesson for those who are leaders in the church. We can become so obsessed with doing ‘God’s’ work, we lose track of God.” 

But Christ redeems us today.  Our humanity is restored, and we are offered a place and a time to center, and breathe and refocus.  Prayer, listening, centering — it’s precisely when we say we don’t have time for these things, that we know we need them.  It’s not that we shouldn’t serve, of course.  It’s that centering and listening, sitting at the feet of Jesus like 

Mary, must come before the serving so that we don’t loose sight of the vision.  (scrubbing the deck of the ship, but not at the wheel, so the ship crashes)

Jesus speaks gently to you this day.  Calls you by name.  Invites you to slow down for a change.  “There is need of only one thing,” Christ instructs us.  God is love.  In Christ, is our hope.  We are gathered this day back to the center, the ultimate concern.  And here at the center, we are forgiven and we are fed.  The time will come to go and serve.  But not before sitting at Christ’s feet, receiving God’s gifts at the table, the manger, which are poured out for you in abundance.  

God’s forgiveness washes over you in this time.  God’s peace shines upon you.  God’s presence fills every fiber of your being.   And in a moment God’s very body, the bread of life, will fill your body, Christ’s own blood, will co-mingle with yours.  Stop, listen, watch, breath.  Christ’s own gifts are being poured out for you and for many.  There is peace and grace to go around, that never runs dry.  Come and rest, here at the wellspring of hope.  Here at the center.   Here at the feet of Jesus.  AMEN.    

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Hymn of the Day is “Will you let me be your servant” #659 which might seem counter intuitive to this Gospel text today. But I chose it because of the second half of the first and last verses: “Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.”  ...which may be our greatest challenge: to sit and receive and breathe.

July 14 -- Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Grace and peace from Jesus the Christ, who loves us and calls us to love our neighbors. Amen.

I want to start with the idea of the Parable of the Good Muslim.  I’ve imagined this before in sermons on this very familiar text, where I invited folks to compare the Samaritan for the people listening to Jesus to a Muslim for us listening to this parable today.  The Parable of the Good Muslim.

I don’t think that’s fair or honest now.  Maybe for some of us, Islam does not make our blood boil.  Muslims certainly get a bad rep in the larger culture still, but maybe you don’t actually hate Muslims.  I don’t.  Maybe you, have friends or family members or co-workers who are Muslims.  The individual Muslims I’ve known have been awesome — funny, faithful, friendly, forgiving.  That’s not the attitude to have when listening to Jesus’ story.  “Hey, the Samaritans I’ve known have been great.”  No one in Jesus‘ audience would have said that.

So the way to really get at the story fairly and honestly today, the way to put yourself into Jesus‘ audience today, one commentator has suggested, is to ask the question, “What person would you rather die in the ditch than be rescued by?”

Jesus was trying to elicit groans from his hearers.  Maybe the Muslim example does work for you, but if you remember, Jesus and his disciples have just been rejected themselves by Samaritans.  (I haven’t ever received personally an unwelcome, rejecting word or gesture from a Muslim I’ve known.)  Jesus and his disciples had just been rejected…by Samaritans.  It was chapter 9: “They did not receive Jesus because he had his face set for Jerusalem.” And it angered his disciples James and John so much that they wanted to punish those Samaritans with a violent revenge.  But Jesus rebuked his disciples and just kept moving on peacefully.

So — that is to say — Jesus is not just picking some person out there that some people despise, but others are actually friends with so can’t relate.  Jesus is using a personal — and in his case a collective — example that is going to elicit audible groans.   

(He was also, btw, doing a twist on a punchline:  See, the trio is supposed to be a priest, a Levi, and a scribe.  [Probably a scribe listening.]  So everyone’s expecting the scribe to be the one to stop — almost an “I know, I know a priest doesn’t, a Levi doesn’t, but the scribe does.”  He’s the example and that’s how we should be.  But Jesus twists the punchline.)  

Jesus is really catching the people off guard and scandalizing them with an offensive example at the same time.  There would have been audible gasps in that crowd.  What’s so bad about Samaritans?  (GS law, lunch group) But Samaritans were the Jews in the Northern Kingdom who were not taken into Babylonian captivity, who didn’t experience the exile, who didn’t know what real suffering means, and what it means to remain a faithful Jew all those years.  The Judean Jews thought the Samaritan Jews were polluted by the other cultures that had come into the territory while they were gone in captivity.  

In other words, we’re talking about family that’s deeply estranged here.  They’re all descendants of Abraham and Sarah, but are now seeing themselves as arch-enemy siblings.  

Who is that for you?  Who would you rather die in a ditch than see that person coming to help you?  [pause]

Maybe, like in the story here, that’s a member of your own family.  Maybe die-rather-than-being-rescued-by-that-one is a little hyperbolic (as story tellers tend to be), but you get the idea, don’t you? 

I think it’s no coincidence that the very next story is about a family conflict.  Here it is again:  constantly in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches something...and then we see it played out.  First he tells a story and then a real life example.  The very next real-life event after the famous Good Samaritan story (next week’s text), is the two sisters Mary and Martha.  [paraphrase]

Now, I can’t quite imagine that they (and particularly Martha) were so at odds with each other that they’d rather die than be rescued by the other.  But there is definitely some deep resentment on Martha’s part (at least), right?  Almost like the Judean Jew toward the Samaritan Jew resentment: “She doesn’t know what it means to work and suffer,” Martha is complaining to Jesus.

And that’s were we can really touch down into this text.  (Who are you complaining to Jesus about?)  First an extreme lesson, and then a tangible, down-in-our-guts, incarnated example.  

The whole Gospel of Luke is about Jesus ushering in a society with mercy, including and climaxing with Jesus’ work on the cross and the resurrection.  All mercy.  He’s always over and against hard heartedness, bitterness, resentment, anger, fear.  It’s one story/event after the next about Jesus ushering in mercy.  

And these two episodes today are no exception.  The Samaritan shows mercy.  (But did you notice the man, when Jesus asks, “Now which of these three was the neighbor?” couldn’t even say the word?  He couldn’t even say ‘Samaritan’.  He just said, “The one who showed mercy.”)

Anyway, the Good Samaritan is a story about mercy, and not just of the hated Samaritan’s mercy, but calling us the hearers to mercy...to giving a second look to those we deem enemies, even and especially those opponents who are closest and most visceral to us.  And just to drive it home, it’s followed by a real-life example:  A sister.  A brother.  A parent.  A child.  A former best friend.  A  next door neighbor.  A co-worker.  A church member.  We’re talking not about some big enemy “out there”, but about a family member, a real person who makes your stomach turn, who makes you tense up, or keeps you awake at night.  How about giving that one a second look.  Who do you need to give a second look to, who is that person in your life — you’ve been so backed up with anger, fear, resentment, bitterness toward?  That’s your neighbor.

That’s where our new journey begins, friends in Christ.  With a groan.  And a challenge.  And a call to honesty…and mercy.  Christ calls us always to mercy, peace and grace.  

Christ offers us that mercy, peace and grace, even if we have wronged those around us in some way — those locally and immediately, like our sisters or brothers or neighbors...and those broadly, indirectly and globally.  Even if, even though we have fallen short.  This amazing grace and mercy is for us too.

And Christ walks with us as we continue to seek new ways of extending that grace and mercy to all those we meet here and out on our roads.  Thanks be to God, that we don’t do this hard work of Christian love alone.  We do it together, and Christ is right there with in our midst.  AMEN.

July 7 -- Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Grace to you and peace….well maybe…  :)
Jesus sends us out like lambs out into the midst of wolves!

That’s us he’s talking about!  When it says he sends “the 70” out, scholars are pretty clear that’s referring to all humanity.  Everyone is sent!  (I haven’t preached Luke’s Gospel since Lent, but remember that Luke is very interested in the Gospel of Christ radiating out, locally then globally, from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria...and to the ends of the earth.)

So how do you feel about that?!  Being the ones Jesus sends?

Ever wonder, like I do: What are we you doing, listening to and following after this Jesus?  I published that question in the newsletter this week, with my email asking for responses and got like 0!  :)   Uhhhh.  What are we doing following after Jesus, sends us, like lambs into the midst of wolves?

Why do you follow?  It’s good, in these hot humid days to ask what this is all about?  And to stop and take in the fact that Jesus asks us to go into some pretty terribly risky situations.  I love how he says (vs.2-3), “Go on YOUR way.”  My way?  My way is always the a easier way.  The most calculated, safest way.  The path of least resistance.  Jesus is telling us that we’ll most likely be rejected, even eaten up here!

I’m amazed Christianity is as strong as it is!  Aren’t you?  I mean, this faith stuff is not for the faint-hearted.

When tragedy strikes (my 42 year old friend from seminary’s husband died suddenly and mysteriously last week), when disease creeps in, when friends abandon/even betray you, when marriages fall apart, why do you keep following after this Jesus?
And then, at the core of this passage, like so many in the Gospel of Luke, is the call to stand up to the forces of evil in this world.  It’s not just rah, rah hang in there passage.  It’s not just about survival as lambs among wolves.  At the core of this mission Jesus gives to us (the 70) is the call to get face to face with the powers of this world and proclaiming a bold NO to the ways and means that hurt people and earth itself.

When you embrace, preach and live the peace of Christ (that we’ll share in a moment), ironically, you actually create conflict!  When the powers of this world are threatened, by a higher vision of Divine peace, the peace of Christ — where all are included, all are fed, housed, clothed, welcomed, educated — the powers start to get very disturbed, the dragons start to wake up and snarl and try to squelch the disturbance.  (Mother Theresa: feed hungry =saint; ask why there is hunger = communist)

See, everything in Luke is tying back to Jesus‘ inaugural address that we shared together back in January, where the poor have good news brought to them, the captives go free, debts are forgiven, the year of the Lord’s favor.  Luke, remember, I often like to call it: the Mercy Book.  When you start talking mercy, especially to strangers in power, like where Jesus sends us — out there! — you’ve got another thing coming.

Wait, wolves?!!!
Where is the Good News for us in that, friends?

Well, I believe it’s in the journey!  See, Jesus says it over and over, and it’s still really hard to get, but I’ll say it again (even to myself):  The kingdom of God is here!   It’s right here (at hand, upon us!  (candidacy essays: “I want to usher in the kingdom.”)
Our Creator God is already with us.  Christ is right by our side.  The Holy Spirit is moving all around in this sanctuary and in your home and your car and your office or classroom!  Out on the open road.  It’s in the journey!

Do you know the kinds of adventures you’ll have when you risk the call that Christ has for you here?  Don’t wait any longer.  Have the conversation that needs to be had.  Make the change in your life that will lead to deeper faith.  Let the investment go that’s been tying you down.  This is Christ calling us.  Sending you.  And do you know the kinds of fellow travelers you’ll meet?  The kinds of joys you’ll share, even amid the great struggles and pains?   The kingdom of God is here!  Now.  It’s all part of it.

I’m afraid I’m not making sense.
Church stories…
I have a friend who’s been the pastor of small church.  Opportunities for growth and renewal keep knocking on their door...literally but he cannot for the life of him get the congregation to trust God and open that door.  It would revitalize the whole ministry, but they are so stuck on protecting their building and their traditions.  He told me the other day, “It’s like there’s no room for God in there.  It’s like the Spirit is locked up in a cage, like a bird.”  The divine is crowded out by fear of the unknown.  And they just can’t take that step.

Meanwhile, here’s another church I knew in San Diego a few years back: They were literally dying.  Maybe that’s what it takes: my friend’s congregation wasn’t quite at that point yet.)  Anyway, Calvary Lutheran (aptly named in the moment) came together to have that really tough meeting about closing the doors.  It was a younger member of the church who stood up, faced with the realities of budget and staffing shortages, that said, “Well, if we’re going to die, let’s die serving.”  The whole congregation agreed.  This became their rally cry.  And with that they opened up a food pantry in their underserved neighborhood, where in a couple months and with some miraculous grants that came through they started feeding literally hundreds of families a week!   More than one of the more popular organizations downtown.  They just quietly kept feeding people — the whole congregation, not just a few dedicated members.  It became their whole identity.  Suddenly they weren’t worried as much about all they didn’t have.  Their whole perspective changed.  They heeded the call that Christ had for them all along.  And in that came true peace.

And it’s not romantic, it’s not like all their problems were solved and the church grew and recovered by leaps and bounds.  The renewal came in the paradigm shift, the radical re-envisioning of what it means to follow Jesus.

These are the kinds of adventures we have as we risk the call that Christ has for us.  The kingdom of God is not something far off, someday down the line — it’s right here, now (even as we’re dying)!

I love when babies scream during a baptism.  Well, I don’t love it, but I see a powerful reminder every time it happens:  this Christian life is not an easy one.  We should all shed a few tears.  It’s lambs-amid-wolves business.  And yet in this same crazy commission, Jesus talks about peace, true peace.  Finding and knowing God’s peace, right where you are.  Not moving around from place to place, always in search of a better deal, or more comfort or tastier food.  Right?  He says, “Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide.”
So here we go.  Jesus told them to go, and so they went.  And God stays with them.  God stays with you, this day and always.  AMEN.