Sermon: Unwilling to Give Up

Luke 18:1-8

So here we are in a month of talking about gratitude . . .

But when I look around the world, there are a lot of things that are just plain wrong; things that should be changed. There are injustices and evils that are committed far too frequently. Certainly there are many things that we do not and honestly should not give thanks for – we don’t give thanks that people die in mass shootings, we don’t give thanks that children die from malnutrition, we don’t give thanks for racism or sexism. Instead, we try to change those situations.

At least for a while, often while we are young and idealistic, we believe that we can change the world. But often as we get older, we look at the world and we say, “Nothing ever seems to change.” So it can be easy to around the world and all of the problems and want to give up.

If day after day, month after month we are treated unfairly – it can be easy to quit. One black woman said to a group I was with recently that, she set all of her passwords on her work computer to things that reminded her of her children, not because she wanted to have happy memories, but because if she wanted to keep her job so that the kids could eat and have a home, she had to remind herself to just put up with people who were disrespectful of her simply because of her race, or those who treated her as less intelligent than her coworkers, even though she has a master’s degree. Her passwords were to remind her to just let it go, give in, not say anything, let the racism win, so her kids could eat. Sad commentary isn’t it? When we are being treated unfairly especially over a long period of time, it is so easy to want to give up.

Or sometimes life is just so difficult.

Operation Christmas child tells the story of Lejla living in a poor family in war torn Bosnia. On a frosty morning in Bosnia, “Lejla's mother woke her, had her dress, and put an old pair of shoes on her feet. The toes of the shoes were ripped open. Her father had tried to close them up with steel wire but the leather was so rotten it wouldn't hold together. Lejla's mother wrapped her feet in bags and sent her out into the arctic chill.’

“Lejla may have been walking toward the school five miles away, but she had no intention of showing up there. She was on the brink of giving up. To prove it, she purposely detoured into a landmine field where just the day before her best friend had been killed and another friend had lost his leg in an explosion. Maybe if she walked through the same field she could end her miserable life. She had no reason to live. With no coat to keep her warm, maybe she would even die from the frigid temperatures, she thought. She was tired of being cold, weary of hunger pains, and afraid of the future. She knew that within two years her parents would give her away in marriage, according to tradition—it happened to all girls once they reached the eighth grade. "The horror was so real," she said, "that I felt my soul being ripped from me."’

“After forty-five minutes of wandering through the landmine field with no explosion, she headed toward Sniper Alley with the certainty it promised; one hundred percent guarantee of being shot to death. She slipped under the barricade and waited for a powerful boom to end her misery, but it didn't happen.”[1] When poverty is oppressive, when our future looks bleak, because change seems impossible, we can want to give up.

But Jesus tells us a different story. Luke 18:1-8

Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him, asking, ‘Give me justice in this case against my adversary.’ For a while he refused but finally said to himself, I don’t fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice because she keeps bothering me. Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me.” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Human One comes, will he find faithfulness on earth?”

Although the parable is a teaching about prayer – it addresses how we pray about those things that are unjust, those things that are wrong with the world. Jesus reminds us that we cannot give up, that being faithful in serving God means striving always for what is good and right – so he lifts up the example of the woman in the parable. She has a problem, it is unfair, and the judge doesn’t care. The judge doesn’t fear God or respect people. But the woman doesn’t give up. She keeps coming, she keeps bothering him. In the end, he gives her justice because he knows she won’t stop coming to him and embarrassing him.

Jesus then reminds us that God cares about justice. God cares about what is good, it is part of who God is, just as God is grace-filled and loving, God is also just. So we should not give up on praying for justice. Eugene Cho says, “All of this matters because we are not just talking about ideas. We are not just hypothesizing about a “what if” scenario. This matters because justice involves people and their lives and their value before God. When justice happens to the least of these, God celebrates.”[2]

Let me finish the story of Lejla

“I found myself walking towards the school, disappointed that I had survived Sniper Alley.  As I approached, I saw some kids holding boxes and wondered where they had gotten them. We had nothing new; even primitive items were scarce. As I got closer, I noticed how bright and beautiful the boxes were. One of the boys said, "There are people inside giving these away. You can get one too."

Why do I need a box? Lejla thought. I don't have anything to put in it. It's pretty, but it won't do me any good.” When I walked inside, I saw an older gentleman sitting on the steps. He jumped up and grabbed a box from the top of the pile and headed toward me. But I didn't want any interaction with him; I wanted to be left alone. I was bitter and hateful. To make matters worse, the man had a big smile on his face and gently said, "I want you to have this."

I took it so he would go away quickly, but to my surprise the box was not empty.  I took the box and ran as fast as I could until I found a solitary corner and slumped to the floor, cradling the box in my lap.  My heart was racing and my emotions were fragile.  Do I dare hope for what might be inside?  After all, this is a shoebox.  I looked down at my frozen feet, and then with great apprehension, lifted the lid. Inside was a pair of brand new sneakers and they were my size!’

“For some time I sat and cried while lifting the lid and then closing it. As I drew the sneakers out of the box, my hands bumped into other things. The shoes that fit perfectly were enough, but there was more!  I pulled out a twelve-pack of pencils. My entire class of fifty-eight students had been sharing a nub of one pencil all year long, and now I had 12 of my very own! A notebook was there to replace the one I had used for three years, with hardly scribble space left. Then I discovered erasers that smelled like strawberries—the first smell of anything pleasant that I could remember. We had grown accustomed to the smell of gun powder and decaying bodies. I found a tube of toothpaste, I opened and tasted it. The flavor was so delicious that I nearly ate it all. Energized by the thrill, I gathered my new belongings and ran home as fast as I could.”

Lejla’s life was changed because Christians cared. One person packed a box, others shipped them, another handed them out. They saw the need in the world and decided to do something about it.

If we sincerely want to see change,

if we want to see fairness and justice, we cannot give up. And we have to be personally committed to it. The woman in the bible passage kept going and pleading. And part of the reason was that it was personal to her. Here’s the thing, here’s where it gets personal – because up to now this has all been about the idea of changing the world, now we get to the actual doing it part. And we have to follow through or as Eugene Cho says, we are more in love with the idea of changing the world than actually changing it.

Where do you see injustice, where do you see unfairness? Where is it personal to you? So personal that you are unwilling to give up? Often it is from something you personally experienced, or a close family member experienced. Let Jesus’ words inspire you to act, to pester, to achieve change through persistence.

Look at where persistence had made a difference. Legal slavery ended in the United States. Women earned the right to vote. Malaria deaths are decreasing at an amazing rate. This is where gratitude helps us to keep moving forward. By reminding ourselves that change has happened, by giving thanks for the miracles that God has worked in the past that have brought our world to where it is today, we motivate ourselves to keep working for the kingdom of God.

We remind ourselves change does happen. Sometimes very, very slowly, even too slowly. But other times it leaps ahead in great bounds astounding us with God’s presence. So look at that area where you want to see change, and keep working at it. Don’t give up. Don’t just be in love with the idea of change, but actually set about working for what is good and what is right. Cry out for it.

As Jesus says, Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But we must remain faithful advocates, constant voices, and busy hands for that to happen.

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[1] Operation Christmas Child – no reference, sent to me by Esther Jones.

[2] https://sojo.net/articles/seeing-justice-part-discipleship-and-our-worship-god

Sermon: The Grateful One

Luke 17:11-19

If you have gotten the book and are reading along with it, you probably aren’t this far, but Day 19 in the book A Life of Gratitude shares the story of LaKisha Wheeler. She says:

“It was a cold early morning and I was on my way to work. I was definitely not prepared for the day ahead. When I finally arrived to work and got situated, I received a phone call from my supervisor informing me to pack up my things and leave. I was being laid off and didn't see it coming at all. I believe the worse kind of experience anyone can have is when something happens and you are totally not prepared.”

“Here I was, a single mother of two, driving out of my security into the unknown. As I was driving home and feeling numb, I said a small prayer and I knew that I would find a job in no time. But God had other plans! Days, weeks, and then months went by and nothing. I applied for thousands of jobs and only had two interviews, in which I was not chosen for either job.”

“During my season of unemployment, I had to move in with my parents. I battled with frustration, depression, suicidal thoughts, anger, and fear! Then one day, God began to speak to me and I started reading his words along with other inspirational books. There was one scripture that stood out to me the most: 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

“I slowly began to realize that through my season of unemployment, God continued to supply ALL my needs and I should be grateful for all that he had done! I began to be grateful for having a place to stay, food to eat, a car to drive, friends who loved and encouraged me, family support, two wonderful children, etc. I had all these things but yet complained about what I didn't have.”[1]

In our scripture for the day we face 10 lepers who are healed.

But the most interesting of the 10 who are healed is the one who comes back and says thank you to Jesus. This one we are told is a Samaritan. Samaritans are an ethnic religious group. They were descendants of the northern tribes of Israel, and because of that they were looked down upon by the Jewish people, who tended to come from the southern tribes of Israel. The Jews called them impure, and all kinds of other insults. In other words, the Samaritans were the unpopular group of the day, the ethnic group that everyone else bullied.

So this Samaritan Leper could have focused on the negative. As a Samaritan, he could have heard about Jesus, a Jewish rabbi, and said, he won’t accept me – he won’t help me. The leper could have assumed the worst and not even tried. But it sounds like a group of lepers were going together, a sort of group trip to see Jesus, and despite his fears he goes anyway.

But then Jesus tells them all to go the temple to be declared clean. It sounds like he is giving them a sacred task – do this and you will be healed. Like go and bathe in a holy spring, or visit a sacred site and be prayed over, and you will be healed. If they do what Jesus says, and go to the temple and see the priest, they will be healed. But going to a priest is a problem for the Samaritan: he would not have been allowed in the temple – he wasn’t good enough. He might have some of the same ancestry as the Jews, but as a Samaritan he wasn’t welcome in the temple. There isn’t really anything he can do about it. So as he is leaving he could have cursed his luck, no healing for him.

After they left, the whole group notices something. They have been healed. Their skin is clear, their bodies are well. That is amazing! Jesus must have cured them while they were talking with him. That is why he told them to go to the priest, not to be healed – they healing had taken place, they were to go to the priest to be declared clean.

You see, skin diseases were so contagious that while you had them you were cut off from religious activities. In order to be let back into religious society, one had to be inspected by a priest and be declared clean again – then you could go back to living life as normal. So the other nine head to the priest to be declared clean, so they can go back to being religiously acceptable again.

But this man, he can’t go to the priest and be declared clean. No matter what he does, the priests will always consider him unclean, he will never be religiously acceptable to them. So what should he do? Well, he could just go home, and celebrate with his family and friends.

But instead he returns to Jesus and gives thanks. And Jesus looks at him and asks, “Where are the other nine? No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?” Obviously not. Then Jesus says to him an interesting thing, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.” Your faith has healed you. Interesting isn’t it. Jesus calls him a man a faith, to Jesus he is religiously acceptable. Something he has never been. He is clean. Wow. What a declaration Jesus makes to him!

It is a fascinating story of healing and then acceptance. Equally fascinating is the fact that the others don’t give thanks despite also having been healed. They simply never return.

We all face difficulties in life.

LaKisha Wheeler says, “Gratitude shifts your focus from what your life lacks to the abundance that is already present. Everyone has something in their life to feel grateful for. If you can just take time out to think on these things, and to offer thanks to God for the good he has done, then you heal your mind of any negativity which may be affecting you.”  That is what happened for the leper.

Speaking for myself: I know that when I focus on the frustrations I have, it doesn’t help me. I don’t get better, I don’t do better, I don’t enjoy life more. But when I realize the good that is in my life – when I see what I have, then my attitude changes. I can smile, I can laugh. “Gratitude shifts your focus.” Study after study has shown this to be true. Happiness and gratitude are linked.

One of the things that LaKisha does to help her change her attitude, is she keeps a gratitude journal. This is a popular practice right now that has been shown to give considerable benefits to people who do it – benefits like better sleep, fewer symptoms of illness, and more happiness.[2] All you have to do is once or twice a week sit down and record five things you have experienced for which you are thankful. You see, a lot of us keep informal complaint journals in our mind. So this helps us to be very conscious in thinking about the good things and not just dwell on the bad.

The entries in your journal are supposed to be brief, just a single sentence. They can be small mundane things – like waking up this morning, to more philosophical things – the generosity of my friends, or things that just made you smile this week – a song by the Rolling Stones.

Robert Emmons, a professor at the University of California Davis, and probably the world’s leading expert on the science of gratitude suggest 6 tips for making your gratitude journal have the best possible results.

1.      Don’t just go through the motions. You have to put some thought into it. Don’t just write down “waking up this morning” every time! As you write, think about the reasons you relish and savor this gift.

2.      Go for depth or breadth. Giving five reasons you are thankful for one specific thing carries more benefits than a list of superficial unconnected things.

3.      Get personal. Focus on the people to whom you are grateful, more than the things for which you are grateful. So I am thankful for those generous friends who gave me a new crockpot, rather than I am thankful for a new crockpot.

4.      Try subtraction, not addition. If you are having a hard time coming up with something, think about how your life would be without certain blessings, and list those.

5.      Savor surprises. Try to record events that were unexpected or surprising. You want to remember these!

6.      Don’t overdo it. Amazingly writing every day actually lessens the effectiveness of the journal. Only write in it once or twice a week![3]

The whole point of the journal is to makes us pay attention to the good things that God is doing in our lives. This literally changes our attitudes about our lives.

So let’s practice quick – turn to a person near you and tell them one thing you are thankful for right now. Follow the rules up there, and lift up one thing in a short sentence. [give time for that]

Did you hear the positivity in the air as we gave thanks? As LaKisha said, “If you can just take time out to think on these things, and to offer thanks to God for the good he has done, then you heal your mind of any negativity which may be affecting you.”

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[1] Hitz, Shelley. A Life of Gratitude:  21 Days to Overcoming  Self-Pity and Negativity. Body and Soul Publishing. Kindle Edition.

[2] http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/tips_for_keeping_a_gratitude_journal

[3] http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/tips_for_keeping_a_gratitude_journal

Sermon: When I Remember Your Tears

Lamentations 1:1-6, Psalm 137, 2 Timothy 1:1-14

Tears, crying, weeping, sadness, broken hearts. These are the things of life. They are real. Paul says to Timothy, I remember your tears and then goes on to give great encouragement to the young man, trying to tell him that even in the midst of sadness and tears we can have faith. Apparently Timothy is having a hard time either because Paul was arrested or perhaps in grief over the deaths of his mother and grandmother. Whichever reason it is affecting Timothy’s faith.

Timothy isn’t alone in struggling with his faith during difficult times. Listen to these words from Psalm 137:1-4

Alongside Babylon’s streams, there we sat down, crying because we remembered Zion. We hung our lyres up in the trees there because that’s where our captors asked us to sing; our tormentors requested songs of joy: “Sing us a song about Zion!” they said. But how could we possibly sing the Lord’s song on foreign soil?

The people have been taken from their homelands, they have witnessed the horrors of war, the loss of loved ones, and now their captors want them to sing religious songs for their entertainment, and they can’t do it. Their hearts are too broken to sing. In fact, they aren’t even sure if they can sing God’s song at all right now. Tears can push our faith to the limits.

Another scripture from that same time period. Lamentations 1:1-6

Oh, no! She sits alone, the city that was once full of people. Once great among nations, she has become like a widow. Once a queen over provinces, she has become a slave.

She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears on her cheek. None of her lovers comfort her. All her friends lied to her; they have become her enemies.

Judah was exiled after suffering and hard service. She lives among the nations; she finds no rest. All who were chasing her caught her—right in the middle of her distress.

Zion’s roads are in mourning; no one comes to the festivals. All her gates are deserted. Her priests are groaning, her young women grieving. She is bitter.

Her adversaries have become rulers; her enemies relax. Certainly the Lord caused her grief because of her many wrong acts. Her children have gone away, captive before the enemy.

Daughter Zion lost all her glory. Her officials are like deer that can’t find pasture. They have gone away, frail, before the hunter.

Even the priests are struggling to find meaning, no one is coming to the religious festivals. In this crushing situation, faith is difficult. All three scriptures suggest that people often feel shame in their suffering. So it may be hard for us to talk about our faith, we may find it hard to sing songs. We may feel that God must be angry, or even that we have lost our way. Our beliefs may be challenged.

Let me tell you the story of Janet Perez Eckles.

Janet lost her sight at age 31, dealt with marital infidelity, and lost her youngest son to murder. As you can imagine she dealt with anger, inability to forgive, struggling with self-pity, and more – just like in the passages that we read. But she says, “God has turned my sorrow into joy.” How?

She found hope in the words of a pastor on television who was talking about having an attitude of gratitude. That every day we should be looking at what we have that is good. When we focus on the bad, that is what rules our lives, we make it the most important thing. But when we focus on the positive, it gives us a different perspective, it reminds us that God is at work.

Janet realized that “Yes, I could get up in the morning and begin saying ‘Oh, poor me. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to the bathroom. I can’t even see my way out of the bedroom.’ But, instead, I say ‘Thank you, Lord, that you have given me ears, that you have given me eyes of the heart to see. I can walk. I can talk. I can do so many things. I want to thank you for that and I want to say thank you for what you will do for me today.’

She continues, “I believe that everyone without an exception has something to be grateful for and something to say, ‘Lord, this is what I appreciate and I’m going to focus on that and I’m going to praise you because you deserve the thanks.’”

“So often when I have so many tasks to do with the ministry, and working full-time, and traveling, and preparing, I could begin to think, “Oh, if I could only see I could do so much more.” Or “Oh, goodness, if I could only see I could get to this website,” or “If I could only have my son back, if I didn’t have to…” All that negative thinking would already defeat me. It would change my attitude. It could even affect my health, so I always choose to think “Lord, I am so grateful. Yes, I have a glitch. My screen reader stopped talking.” A glitch like that is similar to a sighted person looking at a blank screen. Instead I say, “Ok, Lord, you want me to say something else” and I begin to repeat a verse. Controlling our thinking is so important.”

“So, I encourage you not to think of what you don’t want to do. Think of something else. So, I always think of the positives; the good, the lovely, the right, the excellent and, of course, we always have the Lord to think about. This will then change your thinking.”

“Now, I don’t want you to think that right now my life is perfect. There are issues in my life right now that are extremely difficult and I don’t know how the Lord is going to resolve them. My oldest son has recently learned he has the same disease I do and he is also starting to lose his sight. So, you see, there’s another issue that could get me down.”

“None of us can expect the Christian life to be perfect, but we have a perfect God who says, “You know what? I always knew this was happening. This doesn’t catch me by surprise. Didn’t I promise you that I overcame the world? I overcame. I triumphed over that. Will you come with me to show you how I’m going to triumph over this too?’” [From A Life of Gratitude: 21 Days to Overcoming Self-Pity and Negativity, by Shelley Hitz]

What Janet is trying to teach us is that despite the tears,

Despite the difficult times, faith endures. Because God is still at work. We cannot allow the difficulties of our present situation to blind us to the good that still exists. We cannot allow the sorrows of today, to make us believe that God won’t overcome them. We cannot allow one bad thing, or even two bad things, or even thirty bad things to convince us that this is a bad week. It is a good week, blessed by God, with some bad things in it. But God is still good, all the time.

The poetry of Lamentations has survived because the community hung onto its faith in the most difficult times. It grasped at the straw of perseverance and would not let go. Paul from prison, writes to encourage Timothy, that our suffering is not the last word. Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality into clear focus. It is faith that, even in times of crisis, sustains Paul. So Paul says, hold on to the faith and love that are Jesus Christ.

We need faith to face to the daily challenges that come our way.

I would also say that we need the community, we need the encouragement of others. When I have been through tough times, it has been the help of others, the hugs of you all, the prayers, the words of encouragement that have helped me on the way. I know that many of you would say the same thing. When cancer hit, or when your spouse was sick, it was the community, perhaps the church, perhaps people of faith outside the church, that helped you along.

So let me give you a challenge. Who can you encourage today as they face a struggle? Who can you listen to as they question if God is angry with them, or if God even exists? Who is having a hard time singing God’s songs? Who needs a hug of understanding, a word of kindness? Who needs you to be like Paul and notice their tears, their sadness? Who can you tell that their suffering is not the last word – that Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality into clear focus? Who needs to be reminded of all the good things that they have to be grateful for? Who needs that right now?

When we do that for one another, we are truly the community of faith.

May God help us, to remember all that is good, all that God has done, is doing and will do, and may we be part of that work by reaching out to others in the midst of their tears. Let us travel together to see how God is going to triumph over these troubles!

Sermon: Isolation or Mutuality

Luke 16:19-31

So earlier in the worship we played clips of some of the most famous songs about money. And right after that we read a parable from Jesus about Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man we are told wears purple and fine linen, and feasts luxuriously every day. His home is large enough he has a gated yard. We learn near the end that he has a father and five brothers. From all appearances this man has it all going for him. He is connected, he has a home, he has family.

And then we are introduced to Lazarus. A man who appears to be completely alone, whose only companions are the street dogs, who is hungry enough to eat crumbs from another’s table. He presumably has no family to take him in and help him. He seems completely isolated, so much so that none of us would want to trade places with him.

Now, it is easy to think, especially since we put the parable after songs about money, that what Jesus is talking about is the rich man’s wealth, that Jesus is saying that being rich is wrong; but actually that is not what Jesus is saying at all. If wealth prevents us from getting into heaven, then Abraham wouldn’t be the one meeting Lazarus because he was a very wealthy man. In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, “The parable’s key theological concern is not the rich man’s wealth (many of Jesus’ followers were wealthy) but the fact that his wealth inhibits his compassion, isolates him from seeing the needs of others, and prevents him from recognizing Lazarus as his neighbour.”[1]

In other words, when we read the parable, we think that it is Lazarus who is isolated and alone in this life, but the irony is that the rich man is really the one who is isolated. He has hidden himself away behind his gate. He has cut himself off from others by simply becoming blind to their needs. His wealth has actually separated himself from the rest of humanity, and it is the state of his heart that Jesus is critiquing.

But wealth is not the only thing that can isolate us in this way.

Our prejudices, our experiences, our hurts, our values, these also can get in the way of our seeing the needs of others and having compassion. Growing up, one of my favorite comic strips was Garfield – you know the fat cat that loves lasagna, that hates Monday’s and lives for naps. One cold winter night Garfield looks out the window and sees Odie the Dog peering through the window. Garfield thinks to himself: This is horrible. Here I am in the comfort of a warm house, well fed, and there is Odie outside begging to get in, cold and hungry. I can't stand it anymore. I just can't stand it. So at that he goes over to the window…and closes the curtains.[2]

Now I realize that Garfield is just a comic strip character, so analyzing him is a little strange. But why does he close the curtains on Odie? It isn’t because Garfield is rich and Odie poor. More likely it is that Garfield doesn’t like Odie, or dogs in general, or that he is a cat and only thinks about himself. Likewise, there are lots of reasons that we close the curtains and refuse to see the needs of others. It may be that we don’t like a certain person, or that a type or person makes us uncomfortable. Whatever the reason – the end result is that we isolate ourselves, and cut ourselves off from others by closing the curtains.

Let me be really controversial here. I think one of the reasons that racial tensions are so high right now is that many people have closed their curtains to the problems and difficulties of being black in our society. White people don’t even see it. We don’t want to see it. And we refuse to even try to understand. We have isolated ourselves from each other to the point where we aren’t listening.

So, what’s so bad about that?

What’s the problem with ignoring other people and their problems?

In Jesus’ parable, the rich man’s isolation is so great, that even after death he is cut off from everyone else. Now he no longer has the comforts of his money to fall back on. He is completely alone. In fact, it is so bad that even when he is alone, and he sees Lazarus from a distance, he doesn’t celebrate at seeing an old acquaintance, he doesn’t look to make a personal connection or to establish a relationship in his loneliness. He only thinks about his own thirst, about the heat, about his own discomfort. He only sees Lazarus as a means for meeting those needs. He only cares about what Lazarus might do for him. There is no sense of equality here, no compassion, no sense of connection. Lazarus might as well be a vending machine serving Mountain Dew, that’s how much the rich man cares about Lazarus’ humanity. And while we may not want to admit it, there is a problem when we only see others as a means of meeting our needs.

Interestingly and perhaps paradoxically, the things that prevent us from recognizing the needs of others, often say a great deal about our own needs that are not being met. In other words, the rich man is unable to see Lazarus’ needs because the rich man himself has needs that aren’t being addressed. These are harder to see, but if you think about it what are the needs of the rich man? [pause] What does he fail to see about himself?

It is the very thing that I have been talking about -- I would suggest that he is blind to his own need for interactions with others – he sees himself as self-sufficient. Like many in our world he is a rugged individualist. He thinks he can do it all by himself. That he doesn’t need other people. Relationships are unnecessary. He is quite fine on his own.

But it is also absolutely false. We are increasingly aware in our global economy, that we are mutually dependent upon each other. We depend upon thousands of people each and every day. The person who planted our food, who picked it, who processed it. The person who wove our fabrics, who sewed the clothes, who sold it to us at the store. The person who paved our roads, the one who installed our electric lines. The person who assembled our car, the miner that brought out the iron to make the steel. Our parents, our teachers, the many individuals that have shaped our lives and helped us to grow into the people we are today. The doctors that help our kids when they are sick, that staff the hospitals, that perform surgeries!

When we admit that we are mutually dependent upon others, this allows us to open up and admit our needs to others, and in many cases helps us to see their needs as well. That’s mutuality – realizing that our lives are intertwined and inseparable. It is different from codependence where we are so needy that it is unhealthy. Rather it is a healthy admission that isolation is impossible, and that each of us contributes to the lives of others.

When I confess that I need other people even to have the food to eat that meal that is in front of me, then I can open my eyes to the needs of others who may not have that meal in front of them. I should look at their situation and say, “Somewhere, something failed. A connection was missed, and they are hungry.”

Or we can go deeper, if I can confess that I have a deep need to love and to be loved. If I am willing to see that I have a desire for others to treat me with respect, to listen to me, to care about my health and well-being. Then it only makes sense that others have that need too – and I have a part to play in making that happen. I can be the one that listens, that respects, that cares for my neighbor – which is exactly what the rich man in the parable fails to do.

What Jesus is teaching us is that God is a God of mutuality in relationships. We lean on each other, we lift up each other. None of us walks this life alone – not even the Lazarus’ of the world who seem to only have the dogs for companions. Thus the example of the cross – God lifts us up, allows us to lean on God, when it seems like no one else is there for us. And in return God trusts us as the agents of the good news, the missionaries of compassion, and the distributers of that grace that God has shown. So the relationship goes both ways – God lifts us, and we work for God.

Our parable suggests that all relationships should be like that, where there is a sense that each individual is important, is filled with the Holy Spirit, and has something to offer, that we are only really human when our hearts are open to one another. If the rich man could have seen that, then he would not have suffered such isolation, and would not have been cut off in the afterlife, and Lazarus would have found mercy and hope in this life.

So it isn’t the money that Jesus is saying is the problem, like he often suggests, it is our hearts that are the problem, our hearts that need the help – and thankfully he comes to help show us the better way. Opening the curtains, seeing our neighbor, showing compassion.

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[1] Seasons of the Spirit, 2016

[2] ChristianGlobe Illustrations by Brett Blair

Sermon from 9/18/2016 -- Praying for Everyone

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Let me begin by saying that some of you may find parts of this sermon political and parts of it may be uncomfortable. And there are very good reasons for that – the original bible text is itself political, and the implications of what the author is saying would make many people uncomfortable.

The good news is that this year has been an exciting and deeply annoying election process. Now you may be saying to yourself, “That’s good news?” Yes it is, at least when it comes to understanding this passage, because it will have greater meaning for us than it might at other times.

Let’s get all historical. Paul, or someone writing on his behalf, is writing to a group of Christians and he says, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” Now at first that sounds pretty tame. But remember, these Christians are not living in a time when the leaders are even remotely Christian. In fact, the emperor has demanded that people treat him as a god, that they bow down before his statue and pray to him. That’s idolatry – worshiping something other than God, and so Christians and Jews refused to do so. But when they refused, they were arrested, tortured and often killed in quite barbaric ways.

So imagine that you live in a place and time like that. Where you are forced to go into a temple, bow down and worship an emperor – if you don’t, you know that at the very least you will be put in prison. And here is Paul, telling you pray for emperor. Doesn’t that make you a bit uncomfortable? Isn’t there a part of you that says, “No! I don’t want to pray for this person! I will not pray for someone who wants me jailed or killed!”

Of course, what Paul is doing is actually quite clever. He is suggesting that instead of praying to the emperor, they pray for him. Whether they like him or not, in fact, whether he is at all godly or not, he deserves their prayers. Everyone deserves prayer – even the worst of us. So Paul suggests, when you go to the temple, carefully word your prayers so that the soldiers think you are praying to the emperor, but when in fact you are simply praying for the emperor. It is really quite smart. But that doesn’t mean it was easy for people to do. They still had to get past their feelings about the emperor in order to pray for him. They had to lay aside the friends and family that may have been arrested, they had to swallow their anger, and pray for someone they didn’t like.

That’s why I think that this passage might come at a good time for us right now. People are pretty polarized politically right now. We have very strong feelings about the candidates for president. I bet that most of us have pretty negative feelings about one of the candidates or all of them. But here is the thing, Paul suggests that no matter what our feelings about the candidate – that individual deserves our prayers. So you can see why I said that the sermon might seem political and it may make us uncomfortable. But it isn’t particularly supporting one party or the other – rather Paul is telling us to do something that we might not like doing – pray for all our leaders, even the ones that set themselves up as gods, or put us in prison, or torture us, or even kill our family and friends.
That being said, What should they pray for the emperor?

I mean, there are lots of ways you can pray for someone. You can pray that they have great health, that everything they do succeeds, or you can pray that they fall and break a leg, or that they are hit by a runaway chariot and killed. But I am guessing that if you are in front of a group of soldiers and pray that the emperor is hit by a runaway chariot and killed that they would arrest you on the spot.
Paul makes a little more subtle suggestion. They should pray for the emperor so that we can lead quiet and peaceful lives in godliness and dignity. In other words, we should pray that they would be good and wise leaders. Which when you think about it is a great prayer. It only makes sense that we should be praying for our leaders, even the ones we don’t like by asking God that they would be good and wise leaders that lead in a way that brings a good quality of life to all of us.

Paul then reminds us that God wants all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. Notice that he does not say that we should pray that the emperor be saved or come to knowledge of the God, once again the soldiers would probably arrest us if we did that.

Of course, we aren’t facing arrest for praying if we pray that one of our elected officials would come to be saved or the knowledge of God. But – here is the thing, praying that assumes that we know what God alone knows –what is in the heart of that leader. Far too often I hear people saying that this leader or that leader isn’t really a Christian, and then they suggest that our country would be a better place if he or she were. The fact is, being a Christian does not automatically make you a good leader, or even make you act particularly Christian. Look at history and you can find plenty of absolutely rotten leaders who were Christian.

Rather he suggests that we pray in a more practical way. He reminds us that Christ came to set all people free – so our prayers are that the leader leads in such a way that all might be free through Christ. Our prayers are about the practical and everyday decisions that the leader makes – for that wisdom from God that brings goodness to the lives of those that leader leads.

So on the political side of things, when you are looking at presidential candidates, what Paul is saying is pray for the practical way they affect us, don’t pray that bad things happen to them; and pray that they would gain wisdom that would enable all of us to live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and dignity. That is a great prayer.

But let’s move this past politics for a moment. This concept does not just apply to our presidents and politicians. It also applies to our bosses, our neighbors, our exes and anyone that just plain may annoy us. As tempting as it might be to pray that our boss would be fired, or our neighbor be attacked by a rabid squirrel, that is not the approach that Paul suggests.

We are to pray that they would allow us to live our lives in quiet and peace, and that all might find the freedom of Christ. And I like that. If our boss would allow us to do that, if our neighbor would allow us to do that, if our ex would allow us to do that, then those people would be a lot easier to live with.
He has given us a great model that we can use to be in prayer for anyone, whether we like the person or not, it is a fitting prayer.

Hmm. I just had a sudden thought. I realized that the person that usually causes me the most grief in my life, is me. Usually when I have trouble it is because I have made a dumb decision. So maybe I ought to be using this prayer on myself! “God, help me to live in way that I may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.” I like it! I think I will have to use it. See that’s not political, it is just plain practical advice on how to deal with my biggest opponent – myself! When I was thinking about this sermon originally, that thought never even occurred to me. Love it!

So to summarize. In this time of political turmoil, we should be praying for all of our leaders, whether we like them or not. In fact, we should be praying for all people, whether we like them or not. And we can even pray for ourselves. “Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

Black Lives Matter

There has been a response by many white Christians to the Black Lives Matter movement that has suggested that Jesus wouldn’t have agreed with the sentiment and that instead by his death on the cross he would have said that “All lives matter”. But I must disagree. Although theoretically Jesus shows love for all, he often did so by lifting up and speaking on behalf of the oppressed, the hurting, the poor, and the downtrodden. I believe Jesus would have said Black Lives Matter, as a way of telling us that we are not living up to his standards of love and justice. Here are 10 of his statements that I believe show that Jesus would have worn a Black Lives Matter t-shirt:

1.      1. ““Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh . . . But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.” – see Luke 6:20-26

2.      2. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” – see Luke 4:18-21

3.       3. “And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.” – see Luke 18:1-8

4.       4. “Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” – see Luke 13:24-30

5.      5.  “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” – see Luke 14:7-14

6.      6. “Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” – see Luke 13:1-5

7.      7. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” – see Matthew  23:23-39

8.       8. The Parable of the Good Samaritan: “So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.” See Luke 10:25-37

9.     9.  “Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’” – see Matthew 25:41-46

1     10. “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you . . .  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.” See John 15:18-16:4

Four Most Dangerous Cities

Anytime someone prefaces a statement by "I'm not racist" or "I'm not bigoted" you can expect the statements that follow to be exactly that -- racist and bigoted. The person knows that or they wouldn't say preface their statements that way. What they are really hoping to do is to convince you that their form of racism or bigotry is okay. They are trying to justify their hatred. Such is the case with the following link:

http://chicksontheright.com/blog/item/28643-four-of-the-most-violent-u-s-cities-have-something-in-common

The mistake made by the author, Red Dawn, is that they believe that the facts prove they are neither racist nor bigoted, when the racism is not in the facts, but the way the facts are interpreted. The author intentionally connects race to violent crime, and suggests that this is the most important connection. That insinuation is what makes the statements racist: saying that cities where a high percentage of the population is black and the liberal policies of their leadership have directly caused the violence. Why? Because the connection itself is an error of causality.

Let's start with race, and turn the statistics upside down. The ten countries worldwide with the lowest crime rates from 10th to 1st are: Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland. These are countries from different parts of the world, representing different racial and ethnic groups. Race itself does not appear to be directly related to the ability to be peaceful.

Let's try something interesting, just to be irritating and generally aggravating to the writer of the article and address the liberal policies connection. Taxation. Of those ten countries with the lowest crime rates, three of them also appear in the list of countries with the highest tax rates. Denmark -- number 3 in tax rate, 9th lowest in crime. Japan -- number 7 in tax rate, 6th lowest in crime. Ireland -- number 10 in tax rate, 7th lowest in crime. If we only look at those examples we might conclude that the way to have low crime is to raise taxes. Apparently the liberals are right, and we should raise taxes to reduce crime, right? A more honest evaluation would be that taxation level, generally considered a liberal policy, is unrelated to violent crime.

Another example of false causality: country size. All of the countries on the list are relatively small geographically. Most are far smaller than most of our states! Does that mean that all the big countries in the world would have less crime if they just chopped themselves up into bite sized pieces? Perhaps if every county was self governing? More likely their is no causal relationship.

Now, let's look at the 'facts'. The writer claims that these four cities are among the highest in violent crime. According to neighborhood scout -- Detroit is number 3, St. Louis is 14, Baltimore is 18, and Washington DC is 29. Hardly the 4 worst in the country, like the writer makes it sound. Ignored are cities with more conservative bents like Myrtle Beach number 12, Indianapolis number 39. The reality is almost all big cities are Democratic in political bent, Of the top 50 cities in population, only two have Republican mayors -- Indianapolis, and Fort Worth, Texas. So most cities are liberal even those that would make the list of the big cities in the US with the lowest crime rates. Political party has no correlation here.

What the writer gets partially correct is the issue of racial segregation. The cities with the highest levels of racial segregation do experience higher levels of crime, but the cause is not the race of the individuals committing the crime nor the political party of their leadership. Rather it is the systemic, subtle racism which has been allowed to continue. When a city has a history of racial hatred and fear which leads to redlining, white-flight, and other formal or informal methods of segregation, it can hardly be surprising that those tensions eventually erupt into violence. Look at South Africa, Israel, Sarajevo, and countless other international examples.

So here's the point. Red Dawn, by drawing the conclusions that the most important issues leading to the violence in the cities are the race and politics of the individuals and not their history of persecution -- is actually perpetuating the very fear that has caused the problem in the first place. It may be subtle, it may be couched in misleading facts, but it is still bigotry. It is still racism.