Be Different

Today we find ourselves in the 18th chapter of Luke.  We have the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  We are told Jesus was teaching about some people who trusted in themselves.  This is a common theme that often confuses people.  We should trust in ourselves after all shouldn't we.

Well the context of our scripture helps us to understand this better.  Right after this parable ends people bring babies forward for Jesus to bless.  It is hard to miss the juxtaposition of these humans.  If you know anything about babies they don't trust in themselves.  If they did this crying strategy would have never developed.  If there is something a baby must trust in it is the kindness of strangers.

“Allow the children to come to Me, and do not forbid them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God [with faith and humility] like a child will not enter it at all.”

Before our parable Jesus talks about the importance of prayer, perhaps that what crying is in the end.  We hear of a judge who gives justice because it is easier; ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will give her justice and legal protection; otherwise by continually coming she [will be an intolerable annoyance and she] will wear me out.’  

This is rather a remarkable clue to life.  Justice is easier.  This is why I believe what Martin Luther King Jr once said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  In my mind this is also shown by the fact that there is more matter than anti-matter in our universe.  Reality is biased towards existence.  Peace is the way because it is easier in the end.

On either side of today's scripture we are given two images.  One of someone who thinks they have control.  One of someone who knows they have no control.  So in between we are confronted with this idea of trust in themselves, which doesn't sound like a problem.  Would it be better to not trust in ourselves?  This is not what seems to be the idea.  Really it is about trusting that there is something larger than you.

In the end of our searching for meaning in life.  This is what we are confronted; is there something larger than myself.  To believe there is no God and that things happen by chance the answer would seem to be no.  The super galaxy structure that seems to defy entropy would be transitory.  In any case it probably is that way.  Did the universe make something greater in you or is the universe greater than you?

Jesus almost seems to tell each person that he meets that they are greater than the universe.  We learn how he treats people.  We learn how confused people are by him.  It is a real paradox how Jesus is so clear to his audience and at the same time missed.  When Jesus speaks of a tax collector this is a shorthand for the worst of humanity.   His audience would certainly believe.  Collaborators.  Profiteers.  All the bad words of commerce.

Juxtaposed again with the Pharisee.  Two thousand years later our dictionaries spell it right out: a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law, and commonly held to have pretensions to superior sanctity: a self-righteous person; a hypocrite.  People listening to Jesus needed no definition, but they would have thought of the tax collector as the hypocrite.

Jesus takes what people know and turns it upside down.  Without God we are like fish out of water.  More than ridiculous.  Unsustainable.  There are no stories of Jesus about what is right in the world, beyond the children.  Luke 17: I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God [with faith and humility] like a child will not enter it at all.”

Failure brings us here even more success

Bottle necks have function

They are crafted in the end

Billions of years trillions of things did not work out

You are different

The bottleneck effect describes the phenomenon when a population has a sudden reduction in the gene pool due to natural environmental events, natural disasters, disease, or human involvement. This reduction in the gene pool will likely cause a bias that did not exist in the original population.

Some people can be distressed when someone mentions evolution or genetics in church.  I find it rather funny.  Do you doubt that the universe is larger than it seems to need to be?  Comes down to the question of what is hard for God.  Evolution certainly doesn't seem too difficult for God.  Maybe giving up and losing one person might be hard, why else would it take so long?

In Colossians 1:16 and17 we read:

16 For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. 17 And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.]

We are to the point now that human involvement is becoming the dominant force in our environment.  We recently had what politicians in Florida said was a 500 year storm.   We need new vocabulary for what is happening in the world.  

What I want to say is all our problems are created by us and all our salvations are created by Jesus.  And here between the unjust judge who is just because it is easier and the child which is completely dependent upon others for life we find our scripture for today.

 Luke 18, 9-14 I read from the Amplified Bible:

 

 9 He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves and were confident that they were righteous [posing outwardly as upright and in right standing with God], and who viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple [enclosure] to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood [ostentatiously] and began praying to himself [in a self-righteous way, saying]: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men—swindlers, unjust (dishonest), adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

Trust in ourselves here we see some redeeming qualities.  The real problem is viewing others with contempt.  God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of men.  Well I often find myself thinking almost something similar.  God, I thank you that I do not have to live their life.  In my mind there is no contempt for my fellow man, but a joy that I get to live with my decisions.  I get to be a fish in water.  You can argue that there are other ways, but I don't have to live them.

In Romans 8:28 we are reassured: And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.

13 But the tax collector, standing at a distance, would not even raise his eyes toward heaven, but was striking his chest [in humility and repentance], saying, ‘God, be merciful and gracious to me, the [especially wicked] sinner [that I am]!’ 

Whatever can be said about this man, his prayer was about him and God.  This is what the hypocrite misses I think.  When we come to the thrown of the creator of the universe we come alone.  It does not matter what anyone else has done.  Now I would agree that we are connected and in many ways in this together, but in a real sense we are reminded we are in real ways also alone to choose.

Jesus highlights this tax collector as people would instantly see the evil, but in hearing the story would understand that each person is redeemable in the eyes of our creator.  This is a very profound thing to understand.  I think it supports the idea that God really would have a preference to save us all.  Seems to me as I have mentioned many times if there was some elect only then it would not take nearly as long.

14 I tell you, this man went to his home justified [forgiven of the guilt of sin and placed in right standing with God] rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself [forsaking self-righteous pride] will be exalted.”

We can leave behind types of people mentioned here.  We have in our world moral tax collectors.  We have in our world moral religious leaders.  We have the luxury to study Jesus.  Those being taught were like a bottle neck for the message of Jesus.

It needed to get through a tough time when it could have easily been lost.  Seems the choices made by Jesus to bring the importance of being earnest.  These almost cartoon characters were used to hammer a message into the world.  It had to stick.  Now after hard fought and often lost times we have this luxury to see the message below the true propaganda.  

Failure brings us here even more success

Bottle necks have function

They are crafted in the end

Billions of years trillions of things did not work out

You are different

So be different and worry about yourself.   Let's remove the plank from our eye.

I think it is a simple message we have here today.  It doesn't really matter what you do if you turn to God you are alone.  As it really doesn't matter what you do, only less important can be what others do.  Each person a chance for God to love forever.  We are given this free choice for reasons I don't fully understand, but seems rather silly to ask a fish do you want to live in water?  Be different: don't make the simple complex.  

Let Us Pray

Creator of the Universe

(Jeremiah) 20 We know and acknowledge, O Lord,

Our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against You.

21 Do not treat us with contempt and condemn us, for Your own name’s sake;

Do not disgrace Your glorious throne;

Remember [with consideration] and do not break Your [solemn] covenant with us.

Help us see the choice before us

Help us to learn in this luxurious time we live

Help us to see our lives in your will

Help us to leave our judgements of others behind

Help us to see the simple messages of creation

We ask for your continued help in all we do

We ask in the name of our savior Jesus

Amen

Benediction

Go in the world

Failure brings us here even more success

Billions of years trillions of things did not work out

You are different thanks be to God

You are a servant thanks to God

Go Serve to the glory of our lord

Amen

Nottingham UMC 10/23/2022

Be Different

Failure brings us here even more success

Bottle necks have function

They are crafted in the end

Billions of years trillions of things did not work out

You are different

Sarajevo Dreams

You can walk in on your dreams

In different places they tell similar stories

We don't hear the same

I remember this window out on to the city scape

Not yet in dreams they said your first one here would come true

I had never heard this story

Dreams were something to break you where I came from

Here they said the first one you had would come true

Cubism

There is an interesting tradition in art.  Often the insults hurled land so well.  They become the name.

Every time there is something new.  There are people to say this is not how it is done.  This is what time is around in circles.

Cubism is what they called it because that was all they could see.  What it was at its heart was an attempt to bring more than one perspective to one picture.  I think it was the development of the camera that pushed artists to be something more.  A camera could take a picture from any perspective, but it took an artist to show more than one at a time.

In literature Crime and Punishment had already began what almost seems like it has been around forever: the multiple perspectives of different narrators.  We can look at things from different perspectives, but what is different is how we see not what we see.  There are those perspectives of reality the camera catches and then there are those ones the artist creates.

In our scripture today the man wears purple as a sign that he was the most important.  You couldn't buy purple on the clearance rack like I did two day ago.  Why purple? The first shade of purple produced was Tyrian purple, created from Bolinus brandaris sea snails. Dye makers harvested mucus from the shell and heated it in an alkaline solution. They dipped yarn in this solution and exposed it to sunlight, turning it purple.  In other words it was the hardest color.  It was pure extravagance.

19 “Now there was a certain rich man who was habitually dressed in expensive purple and fine linen, and celebrated and lived joyously in splendor every day. 20 And a poor man named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, covered with sores. 21 He [eagerly] longed to eat the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 

Luke knows how to set a scene here in chapter sixteen.  There was a color to extravagance.  A short hand here told we were talking in two extremes.  The two perspectives we find at the end of the spectrum of us.  Celebrated and lived joyously, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.  Some might even imagine the dogs bringing comfort, but in reality they brought more infection.  We imagine that we can understand the situation of both.  These two extremes speak to us in the middle.

22 Now it happened that the poor man died and his spirit was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom (paradise); and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom (paradise). 24 And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in severe agony in this flame.’

We leave here something familiar.  We have a story of an afterlife.  We have this common name we remember from Greek tradition.  Hades is "the place or state of departed spirits", borrowing the name of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. It is often associated with the Jewish concept of Sheol.

Near the end of the Old Testament, God declared that there will be a resurrection of the dead. Sheol will devour no longer; instead, God will swallow up Death. The faithful will be rewarded with everlasting life while the rest will experience eternal contempt. This theology developed further before the New Testament era began.

“But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” we find in Isaiah 26:19 NIV

 25 But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things [all the comforts and delights], and Lazarus likewise bad things [all the discomforts and distresses]; but now he is comforted here [in paradise], while you are in severe agony.

We arrive somewhere familiar.  This then in many ways is what forever attracts the powerless to Christ.  They are given a promise that worlds will be flipped on their heads and roles will be reversed.  This is what people were looking for when they thought the Romans would no longer be in charge.  But Jesus had come to end the rule of a greater one: death.

26 And besides all this, between us and you [people] a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to come over from here to you will not be able, and none may cross over from there to us.’

Explicit instruction is what I use at school.  Research has shown that what people learn first often sticks the most.  Our goal is to be precise in what we are teaching.  Asking my students to guess something was always enjoyable to me, but under this system we recognize that as distraction.  A child might remember more what another child guessed than what I have to teach.  In this sense we want to be explicit in what we teach as we recognize the way people learn.

Explicit instruction is underscored by a learning theory known as the information processing model. It is based on the assumption we only remember what we think about, and keep thinking about.  Explicit teaching involves directing student attention toward specific learning in a highly structured environment. It is teaching that is focused on producing specific learning outcomes. Topics and contents are broken down into small parts and taught individually. It involves explanation, demonstration and practice.

You would be surprised, we don't even ask children to raise their hand anymore.  It makes the job harder, but the results better.  We use nonverbal as much as verbal.  We take polls.  We get everyone involved.  It can take longer so we plan backwards.

"While you are in severe agony."  This as a child I thought about quite a bit.  Everything was love it seemed up to a point, but I remember what I was first told.  I talked about many things with my father and explained many things to him.  There were things he explained to me which I still remember.  I certainly had trouble with this popular concept of hell.  I liked that bad people would suffer, but would wonder about good people who never knew Jesus.  It was enough for a wide ranging conversation.

The thing about suffering is that it is very personal.  We like to imagine the suffering of those who persecute us.  I certainly enjoy the confusion God often sews in our enemies mind.  But this confusion in my mind was put aside by a simple question, where does the suffering derive from?: separation.

A great chasm has been fixed.  Imagine that God could not be reached.  I don't think you can imagine.  I think your here because you can feel the presence of  God.  People in great trouble always know where to look.  God does not hide, we do.

 27 So the rich man said, ‘Then, father [Abraham], I beg you to send Lazarus to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may solemnly warn them and witness to them, so that they too will not come to this place of torment.’ 

What is torment.  In this context it is being cut off from God by their own actions.  I imagine there are people who have never noticed God and they still do not in the end.  We are given chance after chance after chance.  It is never too late I believe, but their are people that never see a choice and suffer.  Is their skin peeled from their bodies?  Well what suffering would compare to being forever separated from the creator of the universe and what would be the point?

I think of baby Sea turtles hatched rushing to the Sea, extravagant joy of those who make it and those who make a meal.  Nature tells us something about God.  There is an equation that we are equal to.

We read from Timothy 6,6-19 AMP

But godliness actually is a source of great gain when accompanied by contentment [that contentment which comes from a sense of inner confidence based on the sufficiency of God]. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so [it is clear that] we cannot take anything out of it, either. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who [are not financially ethical and] crave to get rich [with a compulsive, greedy longing for wealth] fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction [leading to personal misery]. 10 For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows.

Again we find ourselves talking about separation and this ultimate perspective to avoid.

11 But as for you, O man of God, flee from these things; aim at and pursue righteousness [true goodness, moral conformity to the character of God], godliness [the fear of God], faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith [in the conflict with evil]; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and [for which] you made the good confession [of faith] in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and [in the presence] of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession [in His testimony] before Pontius Pilate, 14 to keep all His precepts without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about in His own time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign [the absolute Ruler], the King of those who reign as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, 16 He alone possesses immortality [absolute exemption from death] and lives in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal power and dominion! Amen.

17 As for the rich in this present world, instruct them not to be conceited and arrogant, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share [with others]. 19 In this way storing up for themselves the enduring riches of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

With God in our lives we can almost say it isn't as important what we do as why we do.  We don't turn to God to avoid suffering.  We turn to God because we suffer without.  We like to often talk and think about how people suffer.  We like to put on our passion plays and think about how Jesus suffered.  We think suffering is important.  In the end I think that is God suffering in the loss of every single creation that turns away.  I guess there must be apart so we could know together.

29 But Abraham said, ‘They have [the Scriptures given by] Moses and the [writings of the] Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 He replied, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent [they will change their old way of thinking and seek God and His righteousness].’ 31 And he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to [the messages of] Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Or if they did not want to listen to Jesus that day or this.

Ebenezer would certainly agree.  Well we have someone returned from the dead, in fact the person teaching here we have returning from the dead.  We have this holy spirit as well to test everything we think and feel.  Are there people or will there be people suffering in a place called hades?  I don't know, but I can imagine no greater suffering than to be separated from God.  Even the worst things I know people have been through there was God.  Paradise is knowing and seeing and turning to God that much is clear.  

Backwards only would seem to matter to us

But we all know where we are going

You may not find the words to tell me

The new insults for the new art give name

Art is a voracious consumer and the only commodity

We have many hold overs from ancient Greece like: "the gods help those who help themselves."  This is one of the widest supposedly know verses of the bible.  Problem is it isn't in the bible.  What people mostly think the bible is about it is not.  Our God helps everyone with an offer of grace and the holy spirit.  Jesus does not save the select few.   It can take longer so we plan backwards.

God helps those created who are given to suffer so they will know its end. 

Let Us Pray

Creator of the Universe

Keep us from suffering more 

Keep us from wandering too far

Help us to understand your will for our life

Help us to find comfort in comforting

As your creation we celebrate 

Help us bring more to your feast

Help us to see the equation and know what we are equal to

We ask today in the name of Jesus our great teacher

Amen

Benediction

Go and listen

Go and help

Bring your soul with you

Share your gifts to God's glory

Nottingham UMC 9/25.2022

Cubism

There is an interesting tradition in art
Often the insults hurled land so well

They take to name for the centuries

Every time there is something new

There are people to say this is not how it is done

This is what time is around in circles

Backwards only would seem to matter to us

But we all know where we are going

You may not find the words to tell me

The new insults for the new art give name

Art is a voracious consumer and the only commodity

Life as Fire 3

Born to many languages
Would she ever love anything as much as watermelon

When the Doctor first scheduled my son September 11 I thought of her

Been a good day longer than bad

The Nazi tanks separated her from her mother

It took a Village

Opportunity would separate them again

And bring her watermelons beyond her dreams

Uncle at the News paper and the best house in town

There was something I could relate to

Evacuated again from where she raised her own children

Not another language but some extra sounds

Imagine me with all my relatives fighting in all those wars

Finally again to her shores

NATO bombed the hospital her granddaughter was just born

We had a trust forged and we just shared our concerns

Never made it to the bomb shelter before they stopped but that once

I would never think I could not go to my granddaughter's wedding

There are many things I cannot relate to

But to the fire or the vinegar she could take 100 kinds of mushrooms

I could not count the variety

I could eat them

I could enjoy them

All to this trust we had forged

Happy Birthday

Rođen na mnogim jezicima

Da li bi ikada volela bilo šta kao lubenicu

Kada je doktor prvi put zakazao mog sina za 11. septembar, pomislio sam na nju

Bio je dobar dan duže nego loš

Nacistički tenkovi su je odvojili od majke

Trebalo je selo

Prilika bi ih ponovo razdvojila

I donesi joj lubenice van njenih snova

Ujak u novinama i najbolja kuća u gradu

Postojalo je nešto sa čime bih se mogao povezati

Ponovo evakuisana odakle je odgajala sopstvenu decu

Ne drugi jezik, već neki dodatni zvukovi

Zamislite mene sa svim mojim rođacima koji se bore u svim tim ratovima

Konačno opet na njene obale

NATO bombardovao bolnicu njena unuka je tek rođena

Imali smo povjerenje i samo smo podijelili naše brige

Nikada nisam stigao do skloništa prije nego što su stali, ali to jednom

Nikad ne bih pomislila da ne mogu da odem na venčanje svoje unuke

Postoje mnoge stvari sa kojima se ne mogu povezati

Ali na vatru ili sirće mogla je ponijeti 100 vrsta gljiva

Nisam mogao da prebrojim raznolikost

Mogao bih ih pojesti

Mogao bih uživati ​​u njima

Sve ovo poverenje koje smo stekli

Sretan rođendan

Life as Fire 2

When we see the movie the mistakes are never a mystery
What those first theaters discovered

Up was far and down was near

Not what we talk about

What we are

Aflame to the future

We can add to the refining

There is more than one way

The fire loves its children too

What is brought forever now

People debate many things

People do not know what time is

When we live the mistakes are never a mystery

We each have our own relations

You have only an approximation of me as do I

Like I see the fire