Beyond the Blue

I had this dream one time.  Do lord oh do lord oh do remember me.  I got a home in glory that outshines the sun.  Way beyond the blue.  One of the songs of my youth.  A song that comes to me often when I am alone.  We have a scripture today that entwines memory and remembering.  We are reminded of all those times we thought we knew what we were seeing and had no idea.  It is remarkable the ability's of our brains to believe whatever it wants.  

Dr Lars Muckli, from University of Glasgow said: “We are continuously anticipating what we will see, hear or feel next."  Well today we have a story that clearly captures this idea that we don't usually see what we don't expect to see.

Recently I showed my students the famous clip of a gorilla coming into frame ignored by most.  In the scene there is a person jumping on a trampoline and viewers are told to count how many times that person jumps.  As the person continues to jump a gorilla comes into the scene then departs.  As I ask how many times the person jumped no one says anything but numbers.  As I ask them to rewatch the video and look for the gorilla I get a number of strange looks.  Working with children is fun.  When they see the gorilla the second time through they mostly claim to have seen it.  They don't like to be tricked or admit when they are.  I don't think any of us really do, but we make errors almost as much as we make positive progress.

Luke 24:13-35, I will read from the Amplified Bible.  This passage is well know as the Road to Emmaus.  Before we set off let me just mention where we are here in Luke.  The resurrection was reported by the women who found the tomb empty.  We find In Luke 24:11 But their report seemed to them like idle talk and nonsense, and they would not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping [at the small entrance] and looking in, he saw only the linen wrappings; and he went away, wondering about what had happened.

So we see here even before they could not see they would not hear.  

One of the women with them was Joanna.  She joined our story back in Luke 8:1-3  Soon afterward, Jesus began going around from one city and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve [disciples] were with Him, 2 and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases: Mary, called Magdalene [from the city of Magdala in Galilee], from whom seven demons had come out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household steward, and Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means [as was the custom for a rabbi’s disciples].

Richard Bauckham argues for identifying Joanna, the wife of Chuza, with the Junia mentioned in Paul's letter to the Romans 16:7, "Joanna" being her Jewish name, and "Junia" her Roman. 

Romans 16:7 from the Amplified Bible

7 Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and [once] my fellow prisoners, who are held in high esteem in the estimation of the apostles, and who were [believers] in Christ before me.

In footnotes to Romans 16:7 from the Amplified Bible it says: Or Junia (feminine). There is a higher probability that the name is feminine; no masculine forms found in this or near time periods.

Well that would seem to solve the mystery.  But you have to want to solve the mystery.

Joanna is a Hellenized, Grecian, adaptation of a Hebrew name, Junia is a Latin name.  Jews often adopted a second, Latin name that were nearly sound equivalents to their original name.  Joanna and Junia act as near sound equivalents in the native languages, which Bauckham says is indicative of the identification between the two. Finally, Paul describes Junia as being "prominent among the apostles". Given that Junia is described as an earliest member of the community, and as one of the most prominent members, that she is not named elsewhere is indicative, as Bauckham argues, that she and Joanna are the same individual, given Joanna's high prominence during the ministry of Jesus.

But the men do not listen and along the road to Emmaus at first they also do not see.  I would just point out to them the women seemed to not make sense even after Jesus had told them that he would rebuild the temple in three days.  Prominent among the apostles clearly didn't mean you would be listened to.  Although I am fairly certain she was there to vote for the replacement of Judas well established among the 120 people who did.

13 And then, that very day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, which was about [seven miles from Jerusalem. 

So it was nonsense to them.  The women could not convince them would Jesus be able?  There internal dialogue told them they had lost because that is what they had always done.  

14 And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. 15 While they were talking and discussing it, Jesus Himself came up and began walking with them. 16 But their eyes were [miraculously] prevented from recognizing Him. 

As much as I do love the Amplified bible I don't think the miraculously adjective applies.  It is more miraculous that we see anything.  I would almost argue that they could not see him because they did not expect to see him.  They listened to their internal dialogue that had done nothing but lead them astray.  Men get set in their ways.

There are several open questions in philosophy about whether we can see what we don't expect to see.  What we are not looking.  I think it is also a testament to the distain with which they received the report from the women.  I am quite certain they did not see Jesus because it was not possible for them to believe what women said could be true.

Now I also don't think they changed much their views of women.  We are their legacy and have the luxury to do so,  I do not condemn anyone in a story that requires all of us.

17 Then Jesus asked them, “What are you discussing with one another as you walk along?” And they stood still, looking brokenhearted. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, answered Him, “Are you the only stranger visiting Jerusalem who is unaware of the things which have happened here in these [recent] days?” 

Well before we get to far we are told that what was happening everyone knew.  These dramatic events lead directly to Luke wanting to make another record of this time. We read in Luke 1:1-3 Since [as is well known] many have undertaken to compile an orderly account of the things which have been fulfilled among us [by God], 2 exactly as they were handed down to us by those [with personal experience] who from the beginning [of Christ’s ministry] were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word [that is, of the teaching concerning salvation through faith in Christ], 3 it seemed fitting for me as well, [and so I have decided] after having carefully searched out and investigated all the events accurately, from the very beginning, to write an orderly account for you...

19 He asked, “What things?” And they replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel and set our nation free. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

So they were hoping. They were no longer.  Don't think they knew what they were going to do.

 22 And also some of the women among us shocked us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and they did not find His body. Then they came back, saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive! 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women had said, but they did not see Him.” 25 Then Jesus said to them, “O foolish men, and slow of heart to trust and believe in everything that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and [only then to] enter His glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and [throughout] all the [writings of the] prophets, He explained and interpreted for them the things referring to Himself [found] in all the Scriptures.

O foolish men, how important do you think context is for Jesus?  Some of the women among us shocked us.  O foolish men in response.  It is remarkable that they can be schooled upon the road and not see the teacher.  Had this been the regular occurrence of their lives?  

28 Then they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as if He were going farther. 29 But they urged Him [not to go on], saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening, and the day has just about ended.”

They still don't really know at this point but something in them knows.  I think of this as muscle memory.  I like to joke that my favorite food is oysters even though I have not eaten any in more than ten years.  I have a muscle memory of them.  I don't really miss them because I have unfettered access to this muscle memory I can recall at will.  What I loved is they were each unique.  These guys along the road had a muscle memory.  Even if their brains could not piece it together their bodies wanted to remain with this person they met along the road.

I wonder if they wanted to be in-between.  They were in the new reality of the good news, but it was women that had brought it to them.  Why was it done this way.  If you believe that God has a plan this was part of it.  It was gonna take the holy spirit to get us eventually hopefully down this road where what is important is the news, not who brings it.

 So He went inside to stay with them. 30 And it happened that as He reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were [suddenly] opened [by God] and they [clearly] recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. 

What would they tell the women.  They wouldn't have to tell them anything.

32 They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was talking with us on the road and opening the Scriptures to us?” 

Not talking about, but opening to us.  More than explaining.  Teaching with the authority only one teacher has.

33 They got up that very hour and went back to Jerusalem, and found the eleven [apostles] gathered together and those who were with them, 34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon [Peter]!” 35 They began describing in detail what had happened on the road, and how Jesus was recognized by them when He broke the bread.

After a few," I told you so."  The news finally accepted.

He vanished from their sight.  They were used to Jesus as a teacher and no one had ever had a better one.  Why they thought he did this is not reported.  He would be more explicit with his followers after and explain, but we today find ourselves on the road to Emmaus.

What comes to my mind is when we recognize our lord in other people.  It is hard to do. "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?"  We wonder how they could not recognize him even as we often do not.

“There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.”

― William Shakespeare , Julius Caesar

They sure didn't think they won.  We all love an underdog.  Come from behind.  We don't believe it will happen.  Doesn't always.  To me it shows the fracture in our society.  Jesus really didn't have to appear at all to them.  He had taught them everything they needed to know.  It was the fracture in our society that made it necessary for him to appear so many times.   Some of the women among us shocked us.  Poor guys.

We often don't see what is in front of our face  We have internal dialogue that leads us down paths that we expect to go.  Often times I joke at work that I need a sign to tell kids when I am doing something nice.  I imagine first holding up a big sign that says, "I am going to do something nice for you."  The children I work with seldom see what is in front of them.  They expect the worst in many cases.  Now in fairness they have a pretty good excuse: they are children.  In my world the excuse limit is : 1.

Do lord oh do lord oh do remember me, way beyond the blue.

Let Us Pray

Lord help us to see

Help us to show

Lord we need you in our lives

Take us down the road to Emmaus

Let us see your face

Bring us Home

To do your work

We need you for we are blind

We see only what we expect

Be patient with us

We ask in the name of your son Jesus we finally hope to recognize

Amen

Benediction

Go out on the road

And bring the Good News

You have a home in glory land

that out shines the sun

way beyond the blue

Nottingham UMC 4/23/2023

Great Love

It is the way he said it that I remember
We had not slept six days but that was not it

I told him the story

There is a many worlds theory of love

Any significantly great love requires countless ones of desolation

Given the mathematics of infinity this is easy to calculate

You may argue

I wonder do you know there are different types of infinity

To make your math work

All an approximation of what you see from a certain perspective

Some see hatred as real as the driving rain

Others see the same storm love

Observed from different places

Seen in divergent ways

Every world its consolations

I was younger then

I didn't think I could do desolation

These worlds are bountiful 

Creative destruction

How you know it was great

He said we only get one

Would be enough for me

These worlds are not lost

Creating a cosmological constant we thought imagination

John Crow

Here lies the body of John Crow

by Thomas Paine

Here lies the body of John Crow,

Who once was high, but now is low;

Ye brother Crows take warning all,

For as you rise, so must you fall.

There was a confluence of names working on this sermon this week. John at the center of the vortex.  We have a very long scripture to talk about this week.  Almost the entire chapter 11 of John.  Twenty-one chapters in all we are at the beginning of the end.  

The only part of the chapter not in our scripture is the beginning of the conspiracy to kill Jesus.  John 11:49b“You know nothing at all! 50 Nor do you understand that it is expedient and politically advantageous for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”

There is a beautifully written section at the end of the chapter.  We are shown that God is doing what God is doing regardless of what people think.

51 Now he did not say this [simply] on his own initiative; but being the high priest that year, he [was unknowingly used by God and] prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not only for the nation, but also for the purpose of gathering together into one body the children of God who have been scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.

Why was it that day?  Well this is this long scripture we have today.  Jesus had been revealed and glorified the father in a way that could not be ignored or explained away.  54 For that reason Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but left there and went to the district that borders on the uninhabited wilderness, to a town called Ephraim; and He stayed there with the disciples.  Can you feel what is coming?  We know the story.  We know the end.  But can you feel what is coming?  This is the lesson of lent.  

The other name that came to me was John Crow.  This is an alternate name for turkey vultures in parts of the world.  Specifically there is a ridge in Jamaica where this name comes.  The poem Thomas Paine wrote at eight years old was about a pet crow.  An actual crow in that case.  I find the association our buzzards and John Crow not surprising.  There is this similar intelligence.  A large group of turkey vultures is called a kettle when they are flying.  I think that is amazing.  You see them mostly alone, but they live and roost in large groups and are quite social in their kettles.

When you see a flock of vultures in flight, you're witnessing a kettle of vultures. When you see vultures at rest in a tree or on a fence post, that's a committee of vultures. And since vultures feed mainly on dead animals, when you see a group feeding, you're in the presence of a wake of vultures.

You could almost imagine them Methodist.  Nottingham does have something in common with them: as much as the neighborhood has changed over the years we still belong.  You might wonder why I am talking about turkey vultures.  I on the other hand have so many reasons.  Sure they leave every year, but they always come back.  As different as this place we call Nottingham becomes they continue to call it home.

If your in tune with the wilderness around us you might notice they are back.  Maybe the best reason to write about them: they fit so well into this world.  For the most part they do their thing.  For the most part when you see a six foot wing span in Collinwood it is them; as I saw the other day driving out of the church parking lot.  Six feet wing span and the real world so real it shocked me for that first second.  I know enough about science to doubt everything I see to some degree.  Six feet of wing swooping low to the ground is one of the things that is hard to mistake.  Clear sign.  Another reason you might think I am talking about buzzards: a sure sign of spring.

You might already know this or you might have been in my art class then you would know for sure: the buzzards always return here on the ides of march.  People have been gathering in the Metroparks in Hinkley for the last sixty plus years watching for their return.  If you ask them they say they always arrive on the fifteenth, but I can tell you they don't look before the fifteenth.  

They travel far and always in familiar places.  They are at home wherever they go.  Everyone welcomes them.  Even my first graders understand why they are welcome everywhere.  They provide a service.  We spoke last month of this mysterious connection we and Jesus had to the wilderness.  These fifty years of witness in the park at Hinkley ridge is a whisper of this connection we had.  When we knew things directly from nature.  Our buzzards are remnants of this knowledge that isn't completely lost.  As it swooped by I felt spring in the air.

John 11:1-45 I will read in parts from the Amplified Bible.  The title of the section The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus.  So this resurrection is first met with conspiracy, but first our story today:

11 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 

So we start here where I usually end.  The importance of understanding the role of women in the ministry of Jesus.  This is where Jesus finds the least amount of support even today.  So few words written about Mary in the Bible.  So many written elsewhere.  If we look at just the words we see the place they take with Jesus.  Center stage or as some say apple of the eye.  It is everywhere you just need to want to see it.  

3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, he [our brother and Your friend] whom You love is sick.”

What Jesus would do that would finally get him killed he did for women.   Like something more than center stage.  Jesus didn't bring balanced scales, he balanced them.  The active participant.  

 4 When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death; but [on the contrary it is] for the glory and honor of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” 

 Women set it in motion.  You say yes, but I just say this is what I do.

5 Now Jesus loved and was concerned about Martha and her sister and Lazarus [and considered them dear friends]. 6 So [even] when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed in the same place two more days. 

There is then an interesting conversation about waking someone from sleep and waking someone from death.  Jesus is at first confounding then explicit with his disciples.  They ask if he is sleeping will he not wake.  Interesting because it tells us that for Jesus there is not much difference even as he understands that it is the biggest difference for all of us: being alive or dead.  Or so we would think.

17 So when Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away; 19 and many of the Jews had come to see Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning [the loss of] their brother. 

After the interment, mourners return home to sit Shiva for seven days. Shiva is a Hebrew word for seven. During the Shiva week, mourners are expected to remain at home. There are seven relatives for whom a Jew is required to observe Shiva: father, mother, brother or sister, son, daughter, or spouse.

Jesus arrived on the fourth day just past the halfway point.  Something like chapter eleven of twenty one.  Jesus knew they would be home.  What is more they knew he would come.  

20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, while Mary remained sitting in the house. 21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give to You.” 

There is a strength of faith here that is difficult to relate to here.  Lord, if You had been here is not a luxury we have.  It was extra help for those who didn't have extra help.  Speaks of a new covenant with an old people too.  As well as they understood they would have to come to understand again.

23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise [from the dead].” 24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise [from the dead] in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, relies on) Me [as Savior] will live even if he dies; 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me [as Savior] will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed and continue to believe that You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of God, He who was [destined and promised] to come into the world [and it is for You that the world has waited].”

We cross the bridge from the old to the new covenant here with Martha.   There is no going back.  This is what gets Jesus in trouble.  This is where we stand as Jesus followers.  And our fifth I am of John. 8:12 (Light); 10:9 (Door); 10:11 (Good Shepherd); 11:25 (Resurrection); 14:6 (Way, Truth, Life); 15:5 (Vine). 

28 After she had said this, she left and called her sister Mary, privately whispering [to her], “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” 29 And when she heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.

So most of the facts about Mary where whispered by men later.  We know she was quick.

30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. 31 So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her, saw how quickly Mary got up and left, they followed her, assuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came [to the place] where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her sobbing, and the Jews who had come with her also sobbing, He was [f]deeply moved in spirit [to the point of anger at the sorrow caused by death] and was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him [as a close friend]!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the blind man’s eyes, have kept this man from dying?”

“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” repeated again here by another Jesus loved.  The old covenant no longer worked is what they seem to be telling him.

38 So Jesus, again deeply moved within [to the point of anger], approached the tomb. 

What made Jesus Mad?  This is for you to whisper I think.  I imagine he was angry about what had come and what would come.  That he would soon comfort Mary by another boulder.  It was tiresome.

It was a cave, and a boulder was lying against it [to cover the entrance]. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be an offensive odor, for he has been dead four days! [It is hopeless!]” 

Martha saw what she saw.

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe [in Me], you will see the glory of God [the expression of His excellence]?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised His eyes [toward heaven] and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 I knew that You always hear Me and listen to Me; but I have said this because of the people standing around, so that they may believe that You have sent Me [and that You have made Me Your representative].” 43 When He had said this, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 Out came the man who had been dead, his hands and feet tightly wrapped in burial cloths (linen strips), and with a [burial] cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and release him.”

 if you believe Martha, but I have said this because of the people standing around, here we see why we have such a long scripture.    Maybe we found our focus for next week: the people standing around.  As you count them notice that we all fit in this category.

45 So then, many of the Jews who had come to [be with] Mary and who were eyewitnesses to what Jesus had done, believed in Him.

This is the way.  Old covenants don't die they lead to knew ones.  When you know better you do better you might say for you and me.  When you know everything you do it all we might say for Jesus.  John likes to point out that Jesus is a divine messiah and that is the main point of his ministry.  I don't know that it is, but it is as important as any other aspect of the ministry of Jesus.

Where people see things broken I see different aspects.  Where religion fails is the same place banks fail: the people department.  Sometimes it really is all because of the people standing around.  Don't just stand around always be in service like Martha and our Savior.

This model we finally have, but what Martha and Mary had was something different.  What they both said is surely true.  If Jesus had been there he would have healed him.  They had seen it done before.  All they had seen.  If he was there he would not have died.  I think that is why we need the comforter.  We do always have Jesus but people sometimes die.  Martha and Mary knew something different.

So we have our brother John Crow as another model I am reminded this week.  We will fit into this world if we are always providing a service.  Taking death and making life is a resurrection.  I keep mentioning this service in indirect ways instead of like Jesus: they clean up dead things.  Everything is happy to see them.  Things that are not going to wake up or confuse the disciples.

It is listed as a species of least concern by the  International Union for Conservation of Nature  Red List.   So the model is working.  A species of least concern unless he swoops by you an early spring day.

Ye brother Crows take warning all,  For as you rise, so must you fall.  The opening poem hints of the pride, but these are the words of an eight year old.  Children don't have agendas is my experience and what I hear is preparation for resurrection: lent.  As surely as the turkey vultures know their roosts and return each year.  Even so, as Martha and Mary said, Had he been there he would not have died.  It was special is why it endures.  

Filter out people from the message and you will find your lord blameless even as those two did not.  

Let Us Pray

Because of the people standing around

We ask your strength to be shown to them in Nottingham

Bring your messengers near 

Make them loud

Let them repeat themselves

Save us from ourselves

That we would glorify God in All we do

 You are the Light, Door, Good Shepherd);

The Resurrection, the Way, Truth, Life

Vine

Amen

Benediction

Because of the people standing around

Let the light you have received shine

Ye brother Crows take warning all,

Be of service

Nottingham UMC 3/26/2023

John Crow

Six foot signs are hard to miss

We do it all the time

Here lies the body of John Crow

by Thomas Paine

Here lies the body of John Crow,

Who once was high, but now is low;

Ye brother Crows take warning all,

For as you rise, so must you fall.

The other name that came to me was John Crow.  This is an alternate name for turkey vultures in parts of the world.  Specifically there is a ridge in Jamaica where this name comes.  The poem Thomas Paine wrote at eight years old was about a pet crow.  An actual crow in that case.  I find the association our buzzards and John Crow not surprising.  There is this similar intelligence.  A large group of turkey vultures is called a kettle when they are flying.  I think that is amazing.  You see them mostly alone, but they live and roost in large groups and are quite social in their kettles.

When you see a flock of vultures in flight, you're witnessing a kettle of vultures. When you see vultures at rest in a tree or on a fence post, that's a committee of vultures. And since vultures feed mainly on dead animals, when you see a group feeding, you're in the presence of a wake of vultures.

You could almost imagine them Methodist.  Nottingham does have something in common with them: as much as the neighborhood has changed over the years we still belong.  You might wonder why I am talking about turkey vultures.  I on the other hand have so many reasons.  Sure they leave every year, but they always come back.  As different as this place we call Nottingham becomes they continue to call it home.

If your in tune with the wilderness around us you might notice they are back.  Maybe the best reason to write about them: they fit so well into this world.  For the most part they do their thing.  For the most part when you see a six foot wing span in Collinwood it is them; as I saw the other day driving out of the church parking lot.  Six feet wing span and the real world so real it shocked me for that first second.  I know enough about science to doubt everything I see to some degree.  Six feet of wing swooping low to the ground is one of the things that is hard to mistake.  Clear sign.  Another reason you might think I am talking about buzzards: a sure sign of spring.

You night already know this or you might have been in my art class then you would know for sure: the buzzards always return here on the ides of march.  People have been gathering in the Metroparks in Hinkley for the last sixty plus years watching for their return.  If you ask them they say they always arrive on the fifteenth, but I can tell you they don't look before the fifteenth.  

They travel far and always in familiar places.  They are at home wherever they go.  Everyone welcomes them.  Even my first graders understand why they are welcome everywhere.  They provide a service.  We spoke last year of this mysterious connection we and Jesus had to the wilderness.  These fifty years of witness in the park at Hinkley ridge is a whisper of this connection we had.  When we knew things directly from nature.  Our buzzards are remnants of this knowledge that isn't completely lost.  As it swooped by I felt spring in the air.

Did the wolves leave us their dogs?

So last time I spoke here we were celebrating the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus.  A quirk or perhaps a feature of the calendar we find ourselves backing up this first week of lent.  Something the people like to describe as mercury in retro-grade.  There are so many definitions of the Lenten season all of which are pretty accurate.  One image I would like to start with is just the word lent.

It is the past and past participle of lend.  If you know anything about the past participle this is the form typically ending in -ed.  Lent is not a typical word.  It reminds us that everything is on lend from the creator.  Our life.  Our love.  Our longings.  Our possessions.   Our possibilities.  Our next breath.  Are Lent.

On the surface we seem a helpful people.  But to a certain percentage of us we think apparent motion is relevant because we think we are in the middle.  All of the precepts of horoscopes and astrology were created in a world where the majority of people believed they were the center.  Now people almost joke about it more than anything, but mercury does not go in retro-grade.

We have a story today of wilderness and inherently wildness.  The possibilities of creation and what it could all be to be a man.  How do you test a man?  Well God had a plan for his son.  We read this story from Mathew today who was writing to new Christians who understood the Jewish context.  They all had plans for their sons as well.

It comes to me this idea that Jesus was up against impossible odds.  If he came today he might find a few people who agree with him; he found no one then.  The first sent surely did go, but they had as many questions as answers much like us.  I think of the last sent, if you will, Paul and his clear difficulty with women.

I have spoke before that he had a vison to go to Macedonia of a man who needed help and the first person he really helped when he got there was a woman.  God uses people where they are and that I will just tell you as you already know is harder to do in human form.  I think it was almost too hard for Jesus.  That is really where you want to be I think.  If you are going to score the goal you are almost offsides if you are doing it right.  Almost doesn't go is some sort of sweet spot with people.

Here we are in quite a different church then I grew up in, looking through some meeting notes from the early eighties I read the fear in them.  What I saw was a list of some of the most important people in the history of Nottingham.  This was 40 years ago.  It was almost too hard for them.  I saw some notes from the first meeting we had to pay hospitalization for the pastor.  It was $275 for the year.  They duly recorded the conference had always done this but would no longer be able.

Lot of ups and downs.  Too many people gone and dreaming of Nottingham.  That first $275 more than anything else responsible for where we are now.  Do we recover?  Are we in retrograde?

Well I wasn't quite done with our friend Paul and the difficulties of Jesus.

In Genesis 3:6 from the Amplified Bible we read:

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then Paul writes in Roman 5:12

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all people [no one being able to stop it or escape its power], because they all sinned.

You might say I am picking on Paul, but that is not my intent.  I often get accused of living in the past, but it is where my faith comes from.  What I am trying to show is how hard it was gonna be for Jesus.  No one was gonna really get him and he knew this before he started.  Think of that.  If no one was gonna get him during his earthly life that was just what he was gonna be: the great example.  So that eventually some people would understand the bounty of creation.

He was dealing with people who just threw away the value of women.  This is why we call Joseph his father also because he was the man.  And perhaps the only one who would have supported Mary.  He was a in small minority for the next two millennia.  Actions are in the end what matter,  

So we are between here.  Between the begging of the public ministry of Jesus and after his baptism.  It was gonna be so hard he did something impossible first.  We call it the temptation of Christ but it really is a miracle.  Even today people try and repeat this feat.  There was someone in the news this year who had died trying to fast for 40 days like Jesus did.  I don't see anything really of an invitation here.  I see a girding of loins.  I see doing something impossible to get ready to do something impossible.

We read Matthew 4:1-11 from the amplified bible.

4 Then Jesus was led by the [Holy] Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Because we are in Mathew this makes me think of Job and the interplay in that book.  This opportunity in the end was also lent to this devil.  We know who holds tomorrow also holds today, but Jesus seems to need this after his baptism.  Before he does anything else.  We often speak of the relationship between Jesus and God because God more or less uses words.  Here Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit who is not big on details.  So I ask this spirit and the word that come to me is: preparation.

 2 After He had gone without food for forty days and forty nights, He became hungry. 

So the devil it seems waited till our savior was hungry.  Could he not tempt Jesus before?  Would he not temp Jesus before?  It was only a human weakness that the devil thought he might exploit.  God had not been wrong so far.  But there really hadn't been a test.  Perhaps it had been too easy.  Radical empathy is also lent from our creator.  How would you be a God?

3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”

Stones to bread before a feast.  The devil and the astrologer miss the bounty.

5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city [Jerusalem] and placed Him on the pinnacle (highest point) of the temple. 6 And he said [mockingly] to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command His angels concerning You [to serve, care for, protect and watch over You]’;

and

‘They will lift you up on their hands,

So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’”

Well there is an invitation, but not to the temptation.  That is what I meant.  There is no invitation to not eat or drink for forty days.  God helps those who help themselves maybe, well not in so many words: ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’  -  why?  I think it is the bounty.  If your asking for something and your not getting it, maybe it is because you are missing the bounty God already gave you.

Some people say pray and pray and pray and you will get.  I say pray and pray and pray and you have.  Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz is a song, not a prayer.  You need to dig into what you have.  What do you suppose Jesus did for forty days before he got hungry?

8 Again, the devil took Him up on a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written and forever remains written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” 11 Then the devil left Him; and angels came and ministered to Him [bringing Him food and serving Him].

…showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory [splendor, magnificence, and excellence] of them; a moment of bounty is only possible in context.  Jesus was that context.  The devil was out of his league.  It would almost be too hard.  But it would take a savior.  And it would take some angels on stand by with food in the grand scheme of things.  ‘You shall not test the Lord your God.’

I have wrestled this week with these forty days in the wilderness.  John had been in the wilderness.  Jesus was going to come into the city to proclaim his public ministry.  Did he leave something there in the wilderness or gain something?  We have entered the section of the sermon for speculation.

Did the wolves leave us their dogs?  I wonder if we are really the top species.  I would argue that the wilderness is even more remote to us than those people Jesus first worked to save.  There was something there in the wilderness essential to Jesus.  Can it be any less essential to us.

I think of these wolves and imagine they represent this wilderness that we are now stranger to.  They had these dogs that had no business in the wilderness and they left them with us to care.  They took better care of their marginalized than we have in the final equations of life.  We care for them still.  You might not agree, but I have come to see dogs as special needs wolves.  It is us that allow the wolves to be in balance in their environment perhaps we have some positive impact on the environment.  Well our pollution has created the most beautiful sunsets. 

We like the dogs separated from the wilderness are also special needs at this point.  We are not going to make our own way.  We don't have the discipline.  We don't even have the desire of a dog to please.  That in the end is mostly what they are.  One gene re-coded and they care if we are happy.  At times more than we are able,  

But we come again to this bounty and this savior that is pass key to all realms.  The wilderness.  The wildness.  The retrograde idea that it was one person responsible for the fall.   

So in an end we look where we often do: Isaiah 65:24-25  again from the Amplified Bible

24 “It shall also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox [there will no longer be predator and prey]; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain (Zion),” says the Lord.

Let Us Pray

Creator of All

Help us to see the bounty

Help us to now join your public ministry

Help us to Zion

Thank you for everything we are lent

As we remember everything you did and will do

Thank you for letting us know your love

Thank you for some clues to your suffering

Make us worthy of suffering in your name

Make us worthy of the bounty your family brought us

Amen

Benediction

Walk out into the wonder

Head for Zion

See the bounty you are

See the bounty we have

Share the bounty of our lord.

Nottingham UMC 2/26/2023

Did the wolves leave us their dogs?

As a species we like to think of ourselves
Above separate

I wonder if we are really the top species.

I think of these wolves and imagine they represent this wilderness that we are now stranger to.  They had these dogs that had no business in the wilderness and they left them with us to care.  They took better care of their marginalized than we have in the final equations of life.  We care for them still.  You might not agree, but I have come to see dogs as special needs wolves.  It is us that allow the wolves to be in balance in their environment perhaps we have some positive impact on the environment.  Well our pollution has created the most beautiful sunsets. 

We like the dogs separated from the wilderness are also special needs at this point.  We are not going to make our own way.  We don't have the discipline.  We don't even have the desire of a dog to please.  That in the end is mostly what they are.  One gene re-coded and they care if we are happy.  At times more than we are able

Race

Find myself no longer in a hurry

I'll be honest with you this new thing now tired

Of concern

I don't sit in the back very often

We drank coffee from ten to four

Often just to start the day

I think they tell you to run

They were told to run

Would they believe me no

This is about two things

Neither one I can tell you

Poetry the quantum entanglement of language

The first business of the day was then to get something to eat

When you work all the hours no one counts

Maybe three things then and counting