Return of the Baby

 So here we arrived four week from King to baby.  We come to the most unusual of Sundays: the first after Christmas.  Unlike our other great holiday Easter which we celebrate on a Sunday, and actually every Sunday, Christmas finds us on different days of the week each year.  A silent night can be every night is the first lesson of Jesus.

Before people watched their screens they watched the skies.  I think their is a great misunderstanding of the connection between the bible and nature.  In many ways the bible is the culmination of our desire to understand our environment.  Whenever the bible talks about the greatness of God it is done by describing what has been created.  Nature itself is the greatest witness to our God.

Before people watched their screens they watched the skies.  I want you to understand this idea.  Just as we take important and relevant information from our screens our ancestors read the world around them in a similar way.  We haven't really created any new human talents as put them to use for other things.

Caesar spoke in awe of the Druids for their ability to remember everything.  We still have this talent if not need for it.  Our ancestors created this world with God.  They were God's as we are.  The world was predictable for them.  Remarkedly so.  Ten thousand summers so.  Our place started to make sense.

The first notification as it were was the sun setting in different times and places during the year.  This enough to stir wonder, but would return each year as well.  This time of year the days stopped growing shorter in the north and started growing longer.  This has long been a time between even long before the first date was decided.

And onward to spring.  And so are we returned to the same places and stories of Jesus year after year in the Methodist Church.  Here in this time between, after this most precious gift we continue to celebrate.  More than a birthday we celebrate the beginning of our own return to God.  Our day republic.  In this story from our scripture we listen for our lesson for today. 

Luke 2:22-40
Amplified Bible

22 And when the time for their purification came [that is, the mother’s purification and the baby’s dedication] according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord [set apart as the Firstborn] 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy [set apart and dedicated] to the Lord)” 24 and [they came also] to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord [to be appropriate for a family of modest means], “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

In this first part of our scripture today we are welcomed into a time and place.  We are reminded once again of the expectation and constraints of society.  Not so much important what is done as that everyone in the community knows what is to be done.  Even we see accommodations for class is made.  This old news of division.  It reminds us that Christmas is the beginning of the idea that would grow into new good news of equality.  As we learn in our own body each part is vital.  Each piece needed.

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout [carefully observing the divine Law], and looking for the [a]Consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed). 27 Prompted by the Spirit, he came into the temple [enclosure]; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, [b]to do for Him the custom required by the Law, 28 Simeon took Him into his arms, and blessed and praised and thanked God, and said,

When we think about our Christmas story we think in broad strokes and we often focus on Jesus being rejected later, but the story like any is deeper and we see it here.  Simeon is a type of man that we could all hope to be like.  In his right time and right place.  The religious experience is one of the most personal experiences we can have, but we have his words,

2
“Now, Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to leave [this world] in peace,
According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your Salvation, 31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 A Light for revelation to the Gentiles [to disclose what was previously unknown],And [to bring] the praise and honor and glory of Your people Israel.”

That something like this is experienced is what keeps us building churches.  Here is the heart of religion both our own and the Jewish one as well a Venn diagram of the good news, without one there is not two.  A man can live a good life and come to an end such as Simeon.  

If we imagine God, Simeon is the type of man we might envision.  This long loving relationship that comes to a final moment to fruition.  An inevitability of a man well loved by God to find the right place and right time.

What is truly remarkable is that he could reach out to these young parents at this critical time.  He speaks first for himself, but continues for them,

33 And His [legal] father and His mother were amazed at what was said about Him. 34 Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Listen carefully: this Child is appointed and destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for [c]a sign that is to be opposed— 35 and a sword [of deep sorrow] will pierce through your own soul—so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Mary and Joseph and Jesus were certainly not alone.  These sign post for them placed by God to the Glory of God.  We have these too.  People in our lives.   Places in our lives.  Times in our life.  There is agreement all around.  When we listen to God and try to follow we find agreement.  When we try to go our own way we also find agreement.  We have a sign post here for us as we start a new year.

The agreement is always there because we choose to see certain things in certain way.  They, like Simeon have their own nature, but we see what we choose.  We know of the sorrow for it reveals our heart as well.  

Between Christmas and New Years this time in-between we think of this baby we worship growing into this man we follow.  Each year we finish with a King and start again as a baby.  We find this lesson to keep our own faith fresh and for new growth each year.  We start over and over again secure in our destination.  How we mark our time and our good works which by the grace of God we are lucky to find.

As we talked about during this season of advent God is not hiding salvation from anyone and certainly to the glory of God we still speak of Simeon and this fine day.

“Listen carefully: this Child is appointed and destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for [c]a sign that is to be opposed— 35 and a sword [of deep sorrow] will pierce through your own soul—so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Listen carefully, indeed and when the scripture itself tells you to listen carefully...will pierce through your own soul-so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

We all know of the straw that breaks the camels back, but what we have here is quite the opposite.  A small thing that makes all the difference.  This moment for new parents along with others would keep them going through long years.  Jesus was a young child and a teenager and a young adult and gone too soon.  Before he was gone too soon he talked in the middle of the night over a kitchen table about life.

As a new father information is the key commodity.  Joseph and Mary had difficulties to overcome, but they had an understanding and what is more a guarantee of struggle.  While struggling to travel to Bethlehem and find shelter on the silent night, they are reminded again by Simeon.  Sorrow would not be a signal of failure but a sign post from God that they were on the right road.  Almost as if the time to worry is when things go well.  Joseph and Mary never had that concern.

36 There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old, and had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She did not leave the [area of the] temple, but was serving and worshiping night and day with fastings and prayers. 38 She, too, came up at that very moment and began praising and giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all who were looking for the redemption and deliverance of Jerusalem.

As she takes her place on the list of thing that happened  to the inevitable we remember this day that day.  And we see our God in relationship with this women as well.  Set in place next to Simeone here in this story.  We look back at who was there then and find Anna not out of place.  We see God speaking to those who listen.  We don't see any other separations than those who listen and those who will not hear.

39 And when they had done everything [in connection with Jesus’ birth] according to the Law of the Lord, they went back to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. 40 And the Child continued to grow and become strong [in spirit], filled with wisdom; and the grace (favor, spiritual blessing) of God was upon Him

And Christmas came and they went home.  We have hints and traditions about these times in Jesus' life but nothing very substantial.  In many ways there isn't much substantial.  We are born and then we become who we are.  This we see in Jesus and his story.  He was born and then we learn who he was and how he lived and how we should live.  

I think of teen-agers when I think of these missing years of Jesus.  When we are born it takes awhile before we are able to ask any questions.  We love babies because they do not ask questions.  Need sleep food or dry mostly.  Communication can be loud and strained at times but essentially very simple.  It takes us years to start to formulate our own questions.  Often when we are confronted by questions we are surprised.  I think being a teen-ager is mostly about the answers you are given.  

We hear about this context again in Galatians 4:4-7

Amplified Bible

4 But when [in God’s plan] the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the [regulations of the] Law, 5 so that He might redeem and liberate those who were under the Law, that we [who believe] might be adopted as sons [as God’s children with all rights as fully grown members of a family]. 6 And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, [a]“Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave (bond-servant), but a son; and if a son, then also an heir through [the gracious act of] God [through Christ].

As children of God our communication is once again simple.

In our faith journey as in our life journey we do walk in circles.  We must take this faith of a new baby and nurture and grow each year so that we can face the challenges of each new generation.  Sometimes we only see the baby then the savior, but we have mostly this in-between time.

People like to talk about when they were saved, but I like to think that I am saved everyday.  Somedays we find ourselves in the temple in front of our community as a family held up as the example of examples.  And then we can find ourselves refugees in another land.  Things change and stay the same.  God is the one in charge of times of celebration and struggle.  God doesn't change our understanding can.

I don't think I know much of God.  I think of Simeon on that day after the first Christmas and what a good life he led and what a good time he found himself.  I wouldn't call it jealousy, but almost to see what he saw and to know.  To tell people.  Doesn't seem that much until you try to.  I find joy that such a person lived.

There is much we can get wrong about God, but there are certain things we know.  We know about God's love and how it brought both Jesus and Simeon there.  Makes me wonder who that day was for if not for me and you as much as Mary and Joseph.

We take these signposts of God like Simeon and we say the world would not be this way without God.  Our Children become teen-agers and it is messy, but what is more is we nurture them and they grow in their own place and time with the grace of God to the Glory of God.

Complicated to tell simple to live.  Easily confused but joyous.  More than anything else that is how you know.  More than anyone perhaps that ever lived that was Simeon. 

Let Us Pray:

( https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scotty-smith/a-prayer-for-adoring-jesus-like-simeon/ )

Dear Lord Jesus, what a breath-taking image and holy paradox. Eight days after your birth, Simeon took you into his arms; yet it was by your arms that all things have been made and are sustained—“things above the earth, on the earth, and below the earth.” Everything has been made by you and for you, including Simeon and us.

We praise you for the humility of your incarnation, the magnificence of your salvation, and our accessibility into your presence. From eternity, you came close; for eternity, you remain closer, for our Father has hidden our lives in you.

Lord Jesus, it’s only because you’ve embraced us in the gospel that we have a good measure of the same peace Simeon experienced; for you are God’s promised salvation for Israel, for Gentiles, and for us. In you we’ve found the consolation that cannot be found anywhere else. You are our righteousness and redemption, our holiness and hope, our sanity and surety, and a whole lot more. The saints in heaven are more joyful than us, but they’re not more loved or more secure than we are.

As we stare the beginning of a New Year in the face, we want the peace of your grace to help us live by the rhythms of your peace. Slow… us… down, Jesus. Like Simeon, we want to live thankfully and expectantly. Continue to show us the difference between the things that matter, and the things that don’t matter “squat“. If we’re going to be in a hurry about one thing in the upcoming year, may it be to linger longer in your presence. Everything else will take care of itself. So very Amen we pray, in your glorious and grace-full name.

Benediction: Luke 2: 29-32
Here’s a closing benediction based on the Song of Simeon (Luke 2: 29-32). It was written by Bruce Prewer.
Going On Our Way with Confidence
(based on Luke 2:22-40)

Loving God, now your servants may go in peace,
just as your word has promised;
for our own eyes have seen your salvation
made ready with everyone looking on,
a revealing light for outsiders,
and a glory for all your faithful people.

Grace mercy and peace,
from the Creator, Saviour and Counsellor,
will be with you now and ever more. Amen!

Nottingham 12.27.2020

Oppression

 Art is a product of response

Struggle is a product of its lacking

Power corrupts people who think they are in control

Blind to abundance they steal

Great ugly is what makes great beauty

Return of the King

 

There are many themes that bind the human family and the idea of royalty.  Some of our oldest stories lost to the shadows of time are of prince and princess.   We often are confused by their messages. This one lost.  That one sleeping.  Always one clear problem to overcome.  Royalty to us is about things being fixed.  About division ultimately.  

There are many contexts to these stories.  I studied Russia in college and loved learning of this idea the peasants held that the Tsar would always do right if he knew what was going on.  This organic structure in their culture that could answer every question.  Evil and wrong were only temporary manifestations of the Tsars ignorance.  If he knew what was going on he would fix the situation. We in the west forget that Moscow laid claim to the title of a New Rome as a powerful orthodox culture.  Christ the King is something like their Tsar.

Much like the Israelis of the old testament they made the same mistakes time after time.  This theme of history repeating itself.  Even God's first chosen people wanted royalty.  Give us a King.  They wanted to be like others.  They got their kings.  Still to this day there are things to be fixed and divided.  

As Christians we find ourselves at the end of our year with our Christ the King Sunday.  Banner and processionals to be sure.  It can be easy to forget that we are talking about Jesus.  Almost a trinity in him this King this human this son.  Our scripture today helps us to see this our King.  

Matthew 25:31-46  
Reading from  the Amplified Bible we will break down a few verses at a time.  Coming directly after two parables Jesus teaches we come to a section titled: The Judgment

31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory and majesty and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him [for judgment]; and He will separate them from one another, as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right [the place of honor], and the goats on His left [the place of rejection].

Jesus is teaching what the kingdom of God is like. Verse 13 we hear:  13 Therefore, be on the alert [be prepared and ready], for you do not know the day nor the hour [when the Son of Man will come]. and Verse 14 14 “For it is just like a man who was about to take a journey, and he called his servants together and entrusted them with his possessions."  Jesus brings us to a point many who first followed Jesus were waiting.  Seated on his throne of glory!  

I often thought about how objectively evil societies could use these same treasured scriptures to defend the most vile things known to Man.  But the real source of their power comes in their ability to sustain the oppressed.  Oppressors have few questions.  It does me good to know that battles fought in the past are harder than those I face today.  

People tell me we are divided more than we ever have been.  In our own brief two hundred year history I find the abolitionist faced an opponent that was a slave holder.  I think we lack perspective in our political battles.  We see this new way with Jesus.  When the Son of Man comes in His glory.  We first feel we are told to tarry.  Those first followers thought Jesus would fight the obvious villainy the Romans.  Jesus fights sin in our world which is why he seeks out sinners.  This was a long term battle no one could truly comprehend that we have trouble understanding because we feel the story is stale, uninteresting.  Turning the other cheek is a long game, nice to say, but something we leave everyday.

I say again that Jesus entered the world as a bolt of lighting two thousand years ago and we struggle to maintain the electricity.  What is radical about Christianity is equality.  We often speak yet seldom experience equality.  Why people are skeptical of Christianity is because they seldom see equality.  A large number of people who call themselves Christian don't believe in equality and certainly not grace.

It is something that has always been hard to believe in and what is always new about Christianity.  In this new age our belief systems seem old and antiquated until you ask a simple question where is the equality?  Where is the grace?  Something to be asked of every theory or belief system.

34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father [you favored of God, appointed to eternal salvation], inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me [with help and ministering care]; I was in prison, and you came to Me [ignoring personal danger].’

Finally our King triumphant heaping praises it would almost seem upon us.  But this is where the story is often confused, no:

 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘I assure you and most solemnly say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it for Me.’

The sheep didn't know.  It is their defining quality.  We often laugh of this idea of sheep following, but they didn't feed the hungry to go to heaven. That a person was thirsty was enough reason to give a drink.  Opportunities to serve are the true blessings.  "Lord, when did we?"  

41 “Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Leave Me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (demons); 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me [with help and ministering care].’ 44 Then they also [in their turn] will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will reply to them, ‘I assure you and most solemnly say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these [my followers], you did not do it for Me.’ 46 Then these [unbelieving people] will go away into eternal (unending) punishment, but those who are righteous and in right standing with God [will go, by His remarkable grace] into eternal (unending) life.”

The goats and the sheep here have the same question.  Here is the equality.  Jesus upends both his foes and his followers.  No one it seems is comfortable with our Lord.  Sometimes we like this vision of an all powerful king because the world can be so hard.  Jesus has layers.

Some of us often dwell on the rewards and the punishments.  It is difficult not to.  I don't think that there can be a greater punishment than to be separated from God.  I do believe the details to be irrelevant.  We are often tempted to read grand schemes into this scripture today. What remains is grace.  The left and the right with the same questions.  This isn't a small detail this is the detail.

We are lost in all of our ways.  We look for ourselves among the sheep and try to define these goats in our life.  What Jesus is telling us here is that at the end of this line when he will finally bring a final judgement everyone will be confused.

People approaching life from completely different sides of the equation will come to the end to find what they equal not knowing.  Like the lost sheep that the Shepard left so many to find. 

We see in Ezekiel 34:11-16
Amplified Bible
The Restoration of Israel

11 For thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd cares for his sheep on the day that he is among his scattered flock, so I will care for My sheep; and I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed My flock and I will let them lie down [to rest],” says the Lord God. 16 “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bandage the crippled, and strengthen the weak and the sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong [who have become hard-hearted and perverse]. I will feed them with judgment and punishment.

Jesus talks to each of us.  Even as we look for ourselves in these scriptures.  Our translation here makes a fine point of grace being the final vehicle of salvation :  "those who are righteous and in right standing with God [will go, by His remarkable grace] into eternal (unending) life."  As to those others the vehicle seems to be themselves: "Then these [unbelieving people] will go away"

"Then these [unbelieving people] will go away"  Huh?  I think maybe till that last moment the vehicle of grace is available till they finally leave.  I think again what happens after your separated from God is kind of moot, what could be worse.  Maybe some will argue the goats were already separated and it was too late.  I'm not gonna argue, but I see something finally different in the two sides.  One saved by grace and one that gives up.  In the end the battle of good and evil is a forfeit.  

For even before there was good news we knew:

Ezekiel 34:20-24 continues
Amplified Bible

20 Therefore thus says the Lord God to them, “Behold, I Myself will judge between the [well-fed] fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you push with side and shoulder, and gore with your horns all those that have become weak and sick until you have scattered them away, 22 therefore, I will rescue My flock, and they shall no longer be prey; and I will judge between one sheep [ungodly] and another [godly].

23 “Then I will appoint over them one shepherd and he will feed them, [a ruler like] My servant [a]David; he will feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.

So especially this Christ the King Sunday and our thanksgiving holiday we remember who we serve. Also what we are thankful for: a chance to serve this inevitability in the world.  Working all day in the field or just arriving we are equal.  You can't win more than grace.  We serve finally a King who has an answer that fixes the world.  This aspect of love: equality that confuses the goats and the sheep.

Let Us Pray,

Holy One, enthroned in glory over all creation, you are a shepherd to the lost and the least. Teach us to see your face among the poor— feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting those who are sick or in prison— so that we may share in your eternal realm prepared from the foundation of the world; through Jesus Christ, who is coming indeed, to reign with justice, compassion, and love. Amen 

Benediction
"Christ Has No Body,” – Teresa of Avila
Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.

*It is not enough to acclaim Jesus Christ
as our Lord and King.
Our mission in life is
to make his kingdom a reality among us
and to bring it to those around us
by our words and deeds.
The way to do this is to live as he lived:
for others, in love and service.
May almighty God bless you for this task:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
and to give shape to his kingdom.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.

*~ from Liturgies Alive, Models of Celebration.
http://www.bibleclaret.org/liturgy/CycleA/

Nottingham 11.22.2020

Those Who Can

Family serves many purposes.  One of them is a form of external memory much like many organisms use.  There is a story I have heard so many times I think I can remember it.  I was sleeping over my grandfather's house and asked a fateful question, "when am I gonna be boss?"  It was in response to his statement that he was the boss.  As the story goes i was promptly picked up.  That part of the story always seemed odd as I was rarely promptly picked up in my memory as a child in the 70s.

Something foreign to me now.  I'm not much to boss people around.  Most people don't really listen.  I feel like I'm a follower, which is why I feel comfortable with Jesus.  My standards certainly raised it is a difficult thing in life to find people worthy of following.

There is a certain truth to the fact that most people are lost in life.  I would argue much of what we do almost performance art.  I certainly feel that way in our garden.  Yesterday I picked up bags of trash down on the beach with my daughter.  The garbage in the dumpster not as important as the pictures of people involved inspiring more people to be involved.

We should be further along in taking care of our environment.  Maybe the end of the beginning, but not much further along.  

The phrase "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches" from George Bernard Shaw's drama series 'Man and Superman' written in 1903  has survived the test of time to become a consistent irritation to teachers far and wide.  I would like to offer it this morning in juxtaposition to our scripture.  The quote in context, from a section titled:

"EDUCATION - When a man teaches something he does not know to somebody else who has no aptitude for it, and gives him a certificate of proficiency, the latter has completed the education of a gentleman. A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education. The best brought-up children are those who have seen their parents as they are. Hypocrisy is not the parent’s first duty. The vilest abortionist is he who attempts to mould a child’s character. At the University every great treatise is postponed until its author attains impartial judgment and perfect knowledge. If a horse could wait as long for its shoes and would pay for them in advance, our blacksmiths would all be college dons. He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."

Matthew 22:34-46
Amplified Bible

34 Now when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced (muzzled) the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 One of them, a lawyer [an expert in Mosaic Law], asked Jesus a question, to test Him: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Here we find Jesus continuing to be tested by these religious authorities.  Last week we spoke about giving unto Caesar what has Caesar's mark.  We were beautifully reminded by Pastor Wilma that we all have been made in the image of God, have the mark of God, and need to give unto God what has God's mark.

Jesus is in many ways most himself in these passages and time in his ministry.  The Sadducees were stumped by this concept that the God of Abraham has meaning in the past and the present and the future tense.  A God of the living.  The Pharisees must have been much like me laughing at their closed minded political opponents.  They thought they would show everyone.  The progressives in this story. The Pharisees were the most like Jesus — believing in resurrection, angels, and spreading their message among the common people

37 And Jesus replied to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for others].’ 40 The whole Law and the [writings of the] Prophets depend on these two commandments.

He had given them their answer but then Jesus did something unexpected.  Which is his thing.  He had a question for them.  Now we know they liked his answer.  In Mark we surprisingly find more detail to this story: 

Mark12 32-34:32 The scribe said to Him, “Admirably answered, Teacher; You truthfully stated that He is One, and there is no other but Him; 33 and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to [unselfishly] love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered thoughtfully and intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one would dare to ask Him any more questions.

Jesus had answered all the questions asked.  The different authorities had more questions I am sure, but my impression is they really didn't want to risk hearing his answers.  They were holding onto something fleeting.  Jesus offered something eternal.  This stumbles us as well.  Jesus has questions for us as well.

41 Now while the Pharisees were [still] gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: 42 “What do you [Pharisees] think of the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “[a]The son of David.” 43 Jesus asked them, “How is it then that David by the inspiration of the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord,’ saying,

44
‘The Lord (the Father) said to my Lord (the Son, the Messiah),
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I put Your enemies under Your feet”’?

45 So then, if David calls Him (the Son, the Messiah) ‘Lord,’ [b]how is He David’s son?” 46 No one was able to say a word to Him in answer, nor from that day on did anyone dare to question Him again.

The Pharisees like Don Juan in Man and Superman:  

"If the really impressive books and other art-works of the world were produced by ordinary men, they would express more fear of women's pursuit than love of their illusory beauty. But ordinary men cannot produce really impressive art-works. Those who can are men of genius: that is, men selected by Nature to carry on the work of building up an intellectual consciousness of her own instinctive purpose. Accordingly, we observe in the man of genius all the unscrupulousness and all the "self-sacrifice" (the two things are the same) of Woman. He will risk the stake and the cross; starve, when necessary, in a garret all his life; study women and live on their work and care as Darwin studied worms and lived upon sheep; work his nerves into rags without payment, a sublime altruist in his disregard of himself, an atrocious egotist in his disregard of others. Here Woman meets a purpose as impersonal, as irresistible as her own; and the clash is sometimes tragic."

For one the female form for the other the law, the old news.

all the unscrupulousness and all the "self-sacrifice"...sounds something like David to me.  No one is able to say a word to him in answer.  I don't have an answer, but we can dare ask questions because we want answers..

Too often people see Jesus and religion as a dead end.  Here we find eternity.  The sound of one hand clapping.  Grace is the answer to the question. Grace is the question of the answer.  This is not jeopardy.

We live our lives with stories, but mostly partial ones..."He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."  In a certain way we hold this truth to be self evident.  I sure did and until recently I didn't even know where it came from.

God helps those who helps themselves is something I had assumed was somewhere in the bible.  It's not.  That probably from the ancient Greeks and more the Gods help those who help themselves.  Neither here nor there.  We at once see teachers as less, but the most common thing our savior is called is teacher.

We need to finish our stories and we do this with questions.  Why didn't people ask more questions: they didn't dare to.  Was this the intent of our lord?  I don't know, but I believe Jesus would stay and answer questions with more questions and we would be led were we are being led.

There is one destination if many different ways to travel.  

In Luke 20 45-47 we have this bit added to the end of the story:

45 And with all the people listening, He said to His disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes [displaying their prominence], and love respectful greetings in the [crowded] market places, and [b]chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets. 47 These [men] who confiscate and devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense [to appear devout] offer long prayers. These [men] will receive the greater [sentence of] condemnation.”

Today we might look in the luxury boxes of our otherwise emptied stadiums with questions.

And in Mathew 23 we continue with the 8 woes where Jesus continues to let them have it.  We find ourselves in the end of the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  We are heading to the stories we are most familiar with.  Here we are with an unfamiliar savior.

Often we wonder what it might have been like to be able to ask Jesus questions.  What we find is people given the opportunity quickly found they didn't want the answers.  Certainly those in authority quickly didn't want to hear those things they knew.

“How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me, a [a]Samaritan woman, for a drink?

“Sir, [b]You have nothing to draw with [no bucket and rope] and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?

Are You greater than our father [c]Jacob, who gave us the well, and who used to drink from it himself, and his sons and his cattle also?”

“Sir, I see that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one ought to worship is in Jerusalem [at the temple].”

“I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ—the Anointed); when that One comes, He will tell us everything [we need to know].”

Back to school impressions?  Good kids have all this pent up good.  Bad kids don't know what to do.  Now there are no good kids or bad kids, but teachers seemed to revel in letting the good roll.  Usually in school you have to force greater participation.  After seven months, for a bit anyways, you don't.

Not good kids or bad kids.  We often take shortcuts with our language.  There are kids who ask questions and kids who don't have any questions.  This is what I am talking about with these words.  Children should be curious.  Kids who ask questions are easier to teach.  Rare genius perhaps, but really more security.  Authority should welcome questions as Jesus did.

The authorities of various stripes had real issues with what Jesus was saying because it undermined their security.  In the retelling of this story in several gospels we get these nuisances and this real excitement of those around.

People actually understood much better what Jesus was talking about then.  Not two thousand years old but as new as a bolt of lighting to their world.  We are left to take this good news not as old news but alive.  A God of the living.  We need to study really to understand the joy of the gospels in their context.  We are lucky if we find joy from these stories, but we are making ourselves even more secure to understand the context and the viral nature of Jesus' message.

In our modern world we think we are so connected.  Things have always went viral.  For the same reasons they do today.  A guy having a tough moment with his ocean spray on tik tok spikes the sales of fleetwood mac in Australia.

Now, here you go again
You say, you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down
It's only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully, to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat, drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
And what you lost
Oh, thunder, only happens when it's raining
Players, only love you when they're playing
They say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know

On Friday I worked with a fifth grader who I remember her first day of kindergarten.  About my third class since this change in life that brings us here to zoom today.  It was hard for me to leave with no warning in March and it is hard for me to return in October with no real assurance from my employer of the future.  In that moment though I knew I was in the right place and right time.  I knew it was harder for her.  As I thought of what I brought that young child I realized she brought it for me too: normalcy.  Just a taste.  We were supposed to do twenty minutes we did forty good minutes.

We read about sword masters in Japan.  This father told his son he had no skill to be a sword master like him.  The son wanted nothing more than to be a sword master like his father.  He found his way and returned to his father as a sword master.  His father was again disappointed.  First that his son had no talent.  Then that he did not see his sons talent.  What did it mean?  Can't make people happy.  Maybe.

But the real reason for sharing the moment is to say I didn't have a question for a moment.  I was secure..  Seven months had swirled around and I found myself in familiar place and I was doing.

Let us Pray

Marquette.edu 

PRAYER FOR EDUCATORS

Jesus Christ, Lord of all learning, You sat in the midst
of the teachers and doctors, hearing their words and
questioning their conclusions.

Encourage all of us who teach Your people.
Help us to understand our place as mentors and figures
of authority. May we stand tall as teachers of human
dignity and purpose.

Give us grace to fill the emptiness we often experience
and the endurance to serve what may seem to be futile.
Let us enjoy with You the reward of a person made
whole, made wise through Your lasting intercession and
love. Amen.

17. 2 Th. 2:16-17 - Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Nottingham 10.25.20

agreement all around

From Shelby county Tennessee

Made to remember and forget

I read ten books by Carlos Castaneda

I remember a few things

Better to walk with nothing in you hands

A revelation at the time I never found quarrel with

And one more thing:

There is agreement all around

Always found this so

Down a diversity of roads

Separated by oceans

Love that line

You can be wrong

Agreement all around

A Don Juan I had never heard about

Not a superman

A law of entropy derived from experience

None of the math but showing all the work

Balkan Peace Team

 There is this place I stayed one time for a week,  The cook had learned cater to people in Romania working with nuns.  She had a small garden in her backyard that looked more like a forest path.  A larger garden was a short drive away.  It seemed she didn't buy anything.  Seven days thirty-five different greens just in the salads.  Didn't seem possible.  Gathered from around the world.  Away in the Netherlands.

I had worked in the Balkans a number of years.  Both Bosnia and Serbia.  Bought a bus ticket from Nis to Bonn.  If you live on the Balkans you take busses.  Don't miss them.  The bus driver asked if I was going exactly, as they say in southern Serbia, to Bonn.  Headed to the next country they showed me a better way.

That first day I knew I had never eaten that way.  There are many good ways to eat, but not many ever ate this good.  Within seven days we all changed.  Not in some metaphysical way only that we could not see.  We all knew ourselves well enough to know we were physically different.  Different things went in and different things came out.  Enough of a change that people started to almost complain.  You can't complain about perfection is what I told her.

Never did and never will eat so well.  A lost continent.   

Before

  So I thought what I would preach today, contrary to what I have been preaching: something not so practical.  Kind of a wonder.  Sharing something that I have thought about.  We are a religion of stories.  And our faith is mostly the stories we tell ourselves.

In the beginning we are faced with a difficult story for us to understand.  We find Adam and Eve in Eden and this tree they are not supposed to touch.  My first question as a child was why something to not be touched would be created.  We know the story of our fall.  We ate the fruit and found this new awareness.

This story is difficult because we find it difficult to understand why God would think this expanded awareness was bad.  Everything in me told me curiosity was something inspired by God.  Knowing more could be bad?  We are forced to come to some sort of understanding with the first stories of our religion.

In truth we can think more or less about them, but we need some sort of accommodation if that is only to ignore the difficulty.  In my youth I did not see anyway to understand what God was hiding from us in plain site,  I searched for more answers and found I certainly wasn't the only person to wrestle with these questions.  Entire new movements of Christianity developed to wrestle with this difficulty.

The Gnostics as they were called believed in a secret knowledge.  There must be more to the story.  They went as far as to make new Gods.  In their theology there was a better God who had placed that tree there.  They saw the God of genesis as the bad God keeping us from the true reality of the world.  As a scientifically minded person this was unsatisfactory for me.

Occam's razor tells us that if two explanations are competing the simpler one is more likely to be true.  More likely may seem a thin thing to place a journey upon, but this is a faith journey.  Creating more Gods and more stories did not seem to be the answer for my confusion.

Religion gets nervous when we struggle.  Many an alternate theory has been burned over the years, but luckily God doesn't get nervous when we struggle.

 I had reached an impasse.   I had similar difficulties identifying God the Good news with the God of the Old News.  God seemed different.  Destroyed the world more than a few times.  I am counting our exit from Eden as destruction of the world as well.  Could we have been different.  What was God thinking.

Today I can tell you were I have arrived.  I have learned to see the one God of the bible.  That was my first step after years of study and practice.  It is easy to see difference, but when you look close it is easy to see the identifying things of God.  We learn of God.  We can see the story as a love story.  Time after time.  Scheme after scheme.  Failure and redemption.

But this story starts with God keeping something from us or so it would seem.  Today I look at this story through one lens.  God didn't want us to partake of the fruit.  God's motivation is love.  This was loving and in character to our creator.  

No we have some familiar aspects to our creation story.  There is an idea that as we fell into sin we might also be stuck forever.  God also kicked us out for our Good.  No that doesn't mean you can kick out your kids for their good.  Unlike God, you don't know everything that is for their Good.

It is kind of the same logic of not needing another God.  We don't really need another.  Why.  There is more to our God than we could ever comprehend.  But at this point we can rest assured the intentions God has for us are good.

I don't know maybe the Angels were not so different from us.  Perhaps they were in a garden with a tree and they didn't eat.  Again from my scientific mind intelligence seems to be destructive on the whole.  We have all these wonderful and sublime things.  We have the unspeakable all around us.  Having a big crisis in my family I look around and saw crisis is the norm.

Maybe all this awareness and intelligence in the end doesn't serve us well.  I guess I don't really believe in us at this point.  I wonder if intelligent life destroys itself all the time.  In a universe with billions of galaxies perhaps the Angels were the only ones to take the short-cut.  Little speculation but most things with God and Angels is.

There is an answer to this.  We may have failed, but God still believes in us.  Sure many times God has come close to ending this grand experiment, but the destination is not in doubt.  There is something redeeming about us because we have a redeemer.

So right here now lets look through this lens to our scripture today:

Matthew 21:33-46

Amplified Bible

Parable of the Landowner

33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to tenant farmers and went on a journey [to another country]. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his [share of the] fruit. 35 But the tenants took his servants and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first time; and they treated them the same way. 37 Finally he sent his own son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son and have regard for him.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This [man] is the heir; come on, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took the son and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes back, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to Him, “He will put those despicable men to a miserable end, and rent out the vineyard to other tenants [of good character] who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

42 Jesus asked them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

‘The [very] [a]Stone which the builders rejected and threw away,
Has become the chief Cornerstone;
This is the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous and wonderful in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to [another] people who will produce the fruit of it. 44 And he who falls on this Stone will be broken to pieces; but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was talking about them. 46 And although they were trying to arrest Him, they feared the people, because they regarded Jesus as a prophet.

Traditionally and conventionally we look at this as a prophesy from the psalms specifically verse 42: ‘The [very] [a]Stone which the builders rejected and threw away,

Has become the chief Cornerstone;
This is the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous and wonderful in our eyes’?

This familiar parable is comforting in many ways.  We often find rejection in this world.  As painful as rejection can be it can lead to entirely new places that we can't even identify.  In many ways this is like the old and new testament I saw as a child.

These were such different places they didn't seem to be talking about the same thing.  Yet it also can be reassuring for us today in new ways.  We can see God as the builder and humans as thrown away.  Thrown away from Eden to be sure.  Yet we are still in the heart of God's creation story today.  

It is reassuring to know the greater context of this parable.  Something was being taken away, but it was offered then freely to all.  Tore down the tent to build a larger one.

As our psalm today says : 80:14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,  80:15 the stock that your right hand planted.

It has been a long road.  It has been one road.  Where we are going is the important thing.  We didn't have to do many things, but this awareness we gained we lost our way.  We see other creations of God's doing different things.  We can talk about angels again, but how about slime mold?

Did you know slime mold remembers.  Even the simplest forms of God's creation:  This is the Lord’s doing,  And it is marvelous and wonderful in our eyes.  I will save you today my slime mold stories, but just to say single cell organisms have robust systems of memory.  They don't however have agendas.

In the end this might be all there is to this long walk.  We took on this awareness and we found these agendas.  I would be ready to say all of human achievement was for nothing if not for one thing: God.

I have spoken to you how science finds no light at the end of the tunnel for now.  They only see the heat death of the universe.  Rather telling that the same people at a loss to describe the beginning are happy to tell you the end.  I hope you understand that I am saying even intelligence and awareness as well may have no light at the end, but God.

Yes God kicked us out of Eden and said some kind of mean things on the way out.  Maybe God knew what we would do or Maybe God gives all creations this test in some way.  For all I know we may be the only failures.  Perhaps the cosmos is riddled with failure more than likely.  But God didn't give up on us.  

As parents we can hope to be the same.  I have a daughter that I am very proud of, but I believe and hope that if she had made all the wrong decisions my feelings would not be different for her.  This I can understand.  I rather wonder.  

Isaiah has something of an answer for us in his fifth chapter verse 7: 

5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry! 

 What could we do to lose the love of God?

The Vineyard of the Lord.  What about our vineyard.  You know we have grapes growing all around us don't you?

Earlier in Chapter five Isaiah says:

5:1 Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

5:2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

We have gone a little wild it is true at Nottingham.  We reach our two hundredth anniversary with trepidation.  Did those fist members expect two hundred years.  Well I don't think we expect two hundred years.  But if it is the will of God there will be.

We wonder what  should be our focus.  Well the buildings around us continue to fall.  We find ourselves with new opportunities and new hope.  I walked into the building and gasped as I saw the abandoned house next to our church finally down.  I have done many things and served many roles at church.  I have never gasped.  There is this thing that has stuck with me my whole life: an attraction to the novel.  I've never gasped on my way into the building and I know I haven't by my own reaction to myself.

Remembering that we are created in God's image I think now God too has a love of the novel.  May not have loved everything we have done but there is new things that happen.  Creation creating I would guess something God notices.

The really interesting thing about the buildings being demolished next to us is that we have a real opportunity to open ourselves to the neighborhood.  For too long we have been at the end of the street.  This new green space will actually open up our church to the neighborhood.

When the neighborhood had great strength it wasn't as important that we were at the end.  In the current struggles of the neighborhood we can be that balm in Nottingham.  There is a balm in Nottingham.

I see green space.  I see wide paths.  I see a larger garden with vines planted and tended.  Not to just look pretty but give people a real chance to learn skills in a real Ohio industry.  To work close with Chateau Hough which is a re-entry program at its heart.  If you don't know them I recommend you look them up.

Where we are headed also informs us where we have been.  This is probably the real reason I have grown more comfortable with God and this story of creation.  I see where we are and where we could go.  Intentions are much more powerful than we think.  If we know anything about God it is intention.  People ask why the world is a mess if God is in charge.  Not a hard thing to understand.  People involved.  Always say to those who ask why there is evil is why is there good when that is a lower percentage occurrence.

― John of Damascus offered this view: Had God kept from being made those who through His goodness were to have existence, but who by their own choice were to become evil, then evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Thus, all things which God makes He makes good, but each one becomes good or evil by his own choice. So, even if the Lord did say: 'It were better for him if that man had not been born,' He did not say so in deprecation of His own creature, but in deprecation of that creature's choice and rashness.”

― John of Lennon said:

“Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”

Let us pray

(from the Canticle of the Creatures- Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi)

All praise be yours, My Lord
through all that you have made.

And first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day...
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;
In the heavens you have made them, bright and precious and fair.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air...

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
So useful, lowly, precious and pure.

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
through whom you brighten up the night...

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us...and produces various fruits
With colored flowers and herbs...

Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility.

We ask our hearts to be as open as our green space.

In Jesus' name

Amen

Nottingham 10-4-2020