Second Chances

Third Sunday in Lent – Year C

February 28, 2016

Luke 13: 1-9

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Growing up in a family where there were just two kids (my brother and I) there were many, many times when we connived and planned with each other about things we were going to try and get away with. Some of those things were pretty harmless – sneaking into each others rooms well after bed time, or figuring out ways of getting an extra snack after school. But there were other times when our plotting involved much more nefarious activities – like sneaking a few dollars out of mom's purse. There were times we got away with our little criminal escapades, and there were times when we were caught and punished. That's the way it is.

One of the things about life, most people try to get away with what they can. At work, you might try to get away with not doing your job all the time. At your check-up, you might try to get away with telling your doctor you are watching your diet and exercising. You might tell your dentist you floss after every meal. You might try to time your paycheck deposit and the check you wrote knowing you didn't have the funds in your account yet (hoping it doesn't bounce). How many people drive down the highway at exactly the speed limit, and how many people go just a few miles over? I tend to try to get away with not filling up my gas tank on my car until the last moment (I've only run out of gas once, but there were many times I'm not sure what the car was running on, because it definitely wasn't gas.)

We all try to get away with things. But, eventually, we know, we are going to get caught. So, we weigh our actions against the potential punishment waiting for us when we get caught. Will speeding bring a warning, a small ticket, or the loss of our license? Will lying get a scolding, or will the punishment be worse? Many of our actions are done in the light of either a potential reward or punishment. “Just wait until your father gets home!” Either makes us squirm in terror, or shrug our shoulders.

Of course, it's one thing when you actually did something wrong; it's something completely different when you didn't do it and you still get the blame, still get the punishment. Anyone who has a sibling knows what that's like. Anyone who works with another person knows what it's like when you get blamed or reprimanded for the work of someone else.

In the last few years, one of the trends in criminal justice that has become common is the setting free of wrongly accused individuals from prison based on new investigative techniques; mostly involving DNA. Sometimes these individuals have been in prison for decades. How would you feel if you had been found guilty of a crime you didn't commit, punished for it, and eventually spent perhaps the rest of your life in prison serving a sentence for something you never did? If you think you complained bitterly when you were blamed as a child for something your sibling did, imagine how you would feel in this situation.

It would be nice if we in the church could claim innocence, but that is not the case. Immediately following the tragic events that cost the lives of so many people on 9/11, the televangelist Jerry Falwell gave an interview where he put the blame for the events of that day not on the terrorist hijackers, but on others. He said, “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen.”¹ After Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans, pastor John Hagee said, "I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that."² I don't know about you, but when I hear things like that, especially when I hear so-called 'Christian leaders' say those things, it makes my blood boil.

The situation we are given in our gospel text isn't exactly a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, but it's close enough that we can draw some connections. Jesus is speaking, and is told about the deaths of some people from Galilee, and how their deaths were treated. Was the way they died, the way they were treated in death a result of the way they lived? Not, in the sense of dying from lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking, but dying badly because God viewed you as somehow worse than the person who dies peacefully in their bed. The claim being made it they died badly because they deserved it; their sins were worse than other people sins.

Jesus makes it clear in his response that the severity of the perceived sins of a person, or a group of people have nothing to do with their death or their punishment. Sin is sin. Dante may have described the circles of hell in his Inferno, with the sins getting worse as you got closer to hell; but Jesus is clear in his response that there is no classification system where we can grade sins, where one sin is worse than another, where different sins deserve different levels of punishment from God. In God's eyes the sin of killing someone is equal to the sin of lying – whether we want to admit that fact or not. And, as Jesus says, the punishment for sin without repentance is death.

It's unfortunate, but it seems people have put their focus on just that sentence, and not on the sentences that preceded it, and most definitely not on the story of the fig tree that came right after. Often in the church, pastors and theologians talk about the relationship between law and gospel; how law is what convicts us and gospel is what sets us free. If that is true, then Jesus' declaration that destruction will come to those that do not repent is the law that is balanced by the story of the fig tree.

In the parable, there is a fig tree that does not bear fruit (perhaps this is its sin, not doing what it was created to do), the vineyard owner comes to the gardener demanding it be destroyed, The gardener however, begs for one more year, to give the fig tree another chance. This is, I believe the message of hope we can cling to. But, perhaps, we need to unpack the parable first.

Have you ever noticed how we tend to assume that in Jesus' parables God is always the wealthy one? The king, the land owner, the vineyard owner. It’s not like that’s wrong it’s just not the whole truth of who God is. And this week it seemed to me that the vineyard owner doesn’t sound like the God I know, the God reveled in Jesus Christ. The God who came to dwell with us full of grace and truth, the God who passes out forgiveness like candy, eats with sinners and invites all to God’s table. No, the vineyard owner who was angry and impatient and wanting results doesn’t sound like the God I know.

The God I know, the Savior I serve, sounds a whole lot more like the gardener that begs for the life of the fig tree. Who gives time for fruit to be developed. Who comes to us in our times of need and nurtures us, feeding us, providing for us; that we might bear fruit.

The season of Lent is one of renewal and return. It's a time when we look closely at our lives, when we examine the fruit that we are or are not bearing. Then, we seek to grow, become more of who we are created to be. One of the blessings of Lent is that it comes around every year. Year after year we examine ourselves; year after year we seek to grow, and year after year the gardener pleads our case from the cross, for mercy, for pardon, for one more year.

One more year, people of God. One more year to do what needs to be done. One more year to believe you really are the beloved child of God God has claimed you to be. One more year to trust in God more than money. One more year to forgive others. One more year to forgive yourself. One more year to put your mistakes behind you or better yet see them as the fertilizer God puts around you so that you can produce fruit. One more year to be fed at the table of God’s grace. One more year to be enchanted by the story of Jesus. One more year to help someone else. One more year to feel loved. One more year to love. One more year, because you are a beloved child of God who God has named and claimed and forgiven and loved as God’s very own so that you can bear fruit. So to all of you God again says…one more year. Amen.

1http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a091301falwellaclu911

2http://www.thewire.com/technology/2010/01/pat-robertson-blames-natural-disaster-victims/20350/

Tests of Faith

First Sunday in Lent – Year C

February 14, 2016

Romans 10:8b-13 and Luke 4:1-13

Do you like tests? Some people do, but for most of us just the word is enough to make us squirm a little. Think back to your school days when the teacher announced, “pop quiz”. Your heart skipped a beat, your hands started to sweat, you suddenly wanted to be away from there – at least I did. I get nervous when it comes to taking tests. I worry if I will do okay, if I know what I am doing. Then, because I'm worrying I tend to make mistakes. My daughters will tell you they think I can drive a car better than their mom; but only one of us has failed a driving test – and it wasn't her!

Tests can be stressful. Your doctor comes in and tells you they would like to run a few more tests. Words you really don't want to hear. Your child comes home from school, and just based on the way they say, “I got my test back”, you know the results before you ever see them. Then there are the times when you feel like your future depends on a test. College aptitude tests like the S.A.T. or the A.C.T., are often looked at with great interest by colleges and universities. Tests I took in school and after were used to determine if I should be a pastor. I came and gave a test sermon (you were nice and called it a trial) before you called me as your pastor. Tests can be stressful.

Today is Valentine's Day. In the last few days leading up to the holiday of love and roses, I'm not sure how many “love tests” I saw posted on the internet. How do you know your in love? Are you married to the right person? What is your love style? How in love are you? Tests that tell you they can provide the answer if you just answer their 10 or so multiple choice questions. All will be revealed. The test on the computer will tell you if you are in love.

Sounds silly doesn't it? How can a test know what is in your heart? How can a few questions know of the hours you have spent at someone's side praying and caring for them? How can a computer understand the feelings and butterflies you have when you see someone? It's seems really artificial, yet hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people will take those tests and share the results with friends. Some may even use the results as reason to leave a relationship. That sounds even sillier, tests can't be used to tell us about love – especially a test given by someone who doesn't know us and only asks a few questions.

Yet, that tends to be the way it is. Some tests are on paper, like in school. But, far more tests are not written down, they happen almost instantly throughout our day. You meet someone new, and you check them out, is this someone you want to get to know better. It's a test. Your child wants to go over to a friends house, so you give them a test to find out about the friend and about their family, you might even call the parents and give them a test over the phone. You go to a new store, to test it out. You're shopping for a new pair of shoes, and test them out in the store. You go on a test drive. You take a taste test. You probably didn't realize how many tests you either give or take every day. Of course, none of those tests are likely comparable to the tests Jesus was given during his 40 days in the wilderness.

There he was hungry, wasting away and the devil shows up and reminds him he has the power to turn the very stones around him into bread. And Jesus doesn't do it. He knows there are more important things he can do than turn stone into bread. The devil offers him power, and the chance to show the world how important he is in God's eyes; he refuses both offers. Jesus knew where real power resided, and it wasn't in thrones and palaces, and his desire was not to be served but to serve. If I were in Jesus' place I really don't think I would want to know how I would have done on those tests, probably failed greatly. Tests of faith are like that, so often it seems like they are there to show us how poor or unsubstantial our faith is.

When I think about tests of faith, what comes to mind first aren't the tests God has given me, but the numerous tests I have had to take from other Christians. When were you baptized? How old were you? How were you baptized – were you sprinkled or dunked? What version of the Bible do you read? Do you believe the Bible is infallible? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? What do you believe about communion? Should children receive communion? Is it wrong to use grape juice instead of wine? Do you have guitars in church? How do you define marriage? What is the proper biblical understanding of the roles of men and women? Is divorce okay? Is homosexuality a damnable sin? How much are you required to give to the church? Are women allowed to be leaders in the church? Is Gandhi in heaven? Every single test seemingly put out there to trip me up and give the test giver the opportunity to fail me and then give me the 'correct' answer.

Really!? Those are the important questions? With so many things that happen in the world, with so many things that happen in the church in and in our daily lives, those are the tests of faith that are important? Why not ask what color hymnals are supposed to be? I wonder if that's the way Jesus felt when the devil showed up with his questions? Really?? That's the best you've got?

Tests can be annoying, and tests of faith can be just as annoying. However, in the church, in our faith community, in our individual relationships with God it is often important that we have some standard by which to determine how we are doing. What is the condition of our walk of faith? How is the church doing? As a pastor, I want to be able to trust that God is doing something powerful in your life? Is there a way of knowing? Is there a test of faith for that?

Yes. The apostle Paul gives us that test: “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” Do you believe it? Then let me hear you say it. Good, test passed. Now that's a test I can get behind. Two questions. Short and simple. Do you believe? Then say it out loud. A test not concerned about a lot of other details or things that really don't matter in the long run, but we tend to make a big deal out of.

I wonder what the church, what the world would look like if we actually listened to Paul's words, if we forgot about our own little agendas, if we left behind the things we think are so important in and for the church, and instead focused on this definition of what is important? What would it look like if we looked beyond the external things, beyond the denominational differences, beyond the way we look, the way we love, the way we live and instead looked to the presence of God in someone's life? I think it would be an incredible change in the world as we know it, but it wouldn't be an easy change.

One of the reasons we have all the other tests is that they are in reality a lot easier to trust than Paul's two question test of faith. It's a lot easier for us to look at what church a person goes to than trust the declaration of faith coming from their lips. It's a lot easier for us to say, 'you have false beliefs, or false doctrine, or are living in sin,' than to trust in the grace of God present in the declaration that Jesus is Lord.

That's the real test of faith. Not so much what we say or believe, but trusting in the promise of God that we are saved by grace through faith. Trust. That's why it's so hard. When we believe someone or something, we tend to do so based on evidence of some kind. When we trust, we sometimes have to do that despite the evidence we see. We believe the bridge is brown, we trust that it will hold our weight. Do you trust in the promise of God that you are loved, that you are saved?

It is only when we believe, when we trust, that we ourselves have been saved by the incredible grace of God that we will be able to live in the freedom of that promise. It will only be when we trust in God's promises, that we will be able to extend the grace of that promise to a world that is hungry for a test of faith, for a message of grace that unites rather than divides. A test designed for us to pass rather than to fail. Believe in God, confess it, trust it and then share it with others. Amen.

Dangerous Love

Fourth Sunday in Epiphany – Year C

January 31, 2016

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

What is love? It's a question that most of us have asked ourselves or another person at some time. Love is one of those subjects that seems to return every year about this time. It seems like every store we go into is decked out with red and pink hearts. The card aisle is full of sappy sayings printed on cards. We are seeing the commercials and suggestions to buy the candy, to order our flowers before it is too late. Valentine's Day is just around the corner. It seems somehow fitting that as we prepare for that holiday, our lectionary calendar presents us with the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians; the so-called 'love chapter.'

Ask any preacher if they have ever preached on this text, and they will likely say yes. I'm not sure how many times I have been asked to preach on this text at a wedding. This is the 'go to' text for most couples getting married. It's easy to see why. The words are beautiful, the ideas and images it presents are wonderful; something to aspire to. When two people are beginning their lives together words like these help to set the stage, give everyone the warm fuzzies. Love is like that.

Love like that, when it's all warm and fuzzy is easy. When you look into another person's eyes and your heart skips a beat, or you get butterflies in your gut, love is easy. Love is easy when buying a box of chocolates, or a dozen roses tells someone how you feel. Love is easy when taking someone out for dinner and a movie is all that's required to show your undying devotion. Loving your brand new baby is easy. Loving the cuddles and the coos, the little fingers and toes. Loving your animals is easy, the way they love you, the way they crawl up into your laps and purr, the way they wag their tails and greet you when you get home. Love is easy like that.

But, what about when your spouse takes off their clothes at the end of the day and just throws them on the floor? What about when you find out they spent more money than you had in your bank account? What about when you ask them to do something, expect them to take care of it; and discover that they totally blew you off? What about when your teenager looks at you with disgust, or outright disobeys you? What about your baby when it's the third night in a row when you haven't slept more than 30 minutes, and you just changed their diaper for the third time in the last hour? What about when your dog eats your favorite pair of shoes, when your cat destroys your furniture? Love gets much harder then.

But, we all know love can be tough. Anyone who has been in a loving relationship, whether with a parent, a spouse, a child, or a pet knows that love can be hard. It's not always going to be those warm and fuzzy moments. There will be those times when you just have to shake your head and walk away. It's one of those reasons why the old, traditional marriage vows had that bit about 'for better, or worse.' We all know love can be tough, no matter how much a congregation and a pastor seek to love and support one another, there are times when conflicts come.

And, yet, no matter how bad those conflicts are, no matter how bad my sermon might be on a given week, no matter how badly I may have put my foot in my mouth, no congregation (yet) has gathered as a mob and tried to throw me off a cliff like the good folks in Nazareth did in our gospel lesson this morning. What was it Jesus said that was so angering, so radical, so challenging, that the reaction from the folks gathered in the synagogue was to drive him out of town and try to kill him?

Well, Jesus had just finished reading from the book Isaiah, that passage we heard last week. It was a passage that most people interpreted as having to do with the coming of the Messiah, and what the Messiah was going to do: bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. If he had just ended there things would have probably been okay. You see, this was the fuzzy level of love. The people of Israel understood that God loved them, that God was going to send a Messiah to do great things. It was great, and it was even greater that one of their own, a child they had watched grow up in their community, was claiming to be that Messiah. Things couldn't have been better.

But then, Jesus had to go off script, and say that God's Messiah, God's redemption, God's love wasn't just for the folks in Nazareth, or just for the Jews. God's love was also for people that the Jews viewed as foreigners, as those outside of the covenant they claimed with God. That went too far. They were the special ones, they were the ones that had been going to temple for years, they were the ones who had been following all those rules Moses had brought down from the mountain, they were the ones that God loved. Not those others. Jesus tells the folks in Nazareth about the love of God, and they go and try throw him off a cliff. The message of God's love that Jesus was sharing was too much for them, it was too challenging, it was too dangerous.

Love, the love that Paul talks about in first Corinthians, the love that Jesus preached, the love that Jesus lived, the love that Jesus calls us to, that love is dangerous, that love is risky; that love is threatening to the world. You see that day in Nazareth, Jesus preached about the love of God; and in particular, Jesus talked about who God loves; and they tried to kill him for it, they tried to throw him off a cliff. Jesus hadn't threatened anyone, he wasn't like John the Baptist who called people out as sinners. Jesus hadn't broken the rules, those of the synagogue, or the state (at least not yet.) All Jesus did that day was talk about the kinds of people that God loves. And they tried to kill him.

Love is dangerous, love is risky. Love is not warm and fuzzy, a nice card and some flowers. They tried to kill him because he talked about love, about loving people that are hard to love, about people that might be dangerous to love. Later, he would tell his followers that they are to love their enemies and pray for them. That's where the rubber hits the road. God loves the people that you hate. On that day in the synagogue, that's really what Jesus said; yes, God loves you, but God also loves the people that you hate.

That is not a statement, a fact, that is easy for any of us to accept. The people in Nazareth tried to kill Jesus for pointing it out. So, what does that mean for you and I? What does it mean when we think about the fact that God loves those people, those people in Afghanistan or Syria or Iran? That God loves the people that we would list as our enemies? Or that God loves those people that really get under my skin and drive me crazy; not that you have any of those, but I do. The God who loves the people who hurt me, the people who hurt my family, hurt my child. What does it mean to talk about that God? The God who loves the people that we hate.

If you think for one minute that love is easy, if you think for one minute that love does not make a difference, then I invite you to spend just one minute of your prayer time every day this week thinking about and praying for the person or people that you hate. Think about the fact that God loves that person as much as God loves you. And then, ask yourself, what it would take for you to love that person the way that God does? What would it take for you to see that person the way that God does?

Love is hard. Love takes strength. Love takes patience; not that I have to be patient with you, but that I have to be patient with myself, because I'm not good at this love thing, not the way Jesus wants me to be. Love takes courage; to love the people that no one else wants to love, to love the people that it would hurt your personal life, your career, your standing in the community to even be associated with. Love takes courage.

Love is hard. Love is dangerous. Love is risky; real love leads to the cross. Every single time, real love leads to the cross. It is hard, it is dangerous, and it may cost us everything. That is exactly what Jesus calls us to: dangerous, risky love. It's hard. I'm not going to lie to you, it's hard. And yet we try; again and again and again, we try at this love; because we know the truth of what the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, what he says to us: that without love, without dangerous love, without risky love, without love that leads to the cross, we are nothing. Without love, everything else we do is pointless. Without love it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter, without love, how good of a person you are. Without love it doesn't matter how often you come to church. Without love, it doesn't matter how much money you give away to charity. Without love, we are nothing. Without love, everything we say, everything we do, nothing else matters. It has to be with love.

Not with Hallmark love, not with good feelings and niceness, with flowers and chocolates. Real love, dangerous love. Love that costs us. The whole of the Gospel, from the manger to the cross to the empty tomb, the whole of it, is God's invitation to us, to love. Real, dangerous, gets you thrown off a cliff, love. Real, dangerous, cost you everything, change the world love. That's what we're called to. A love that makes everything else matter. A love that changes us, and changes the world.

The apostle Paul says, these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these, the strongest of these, the most important of these, the most valuable of these, the most dangerous of these; the greatest of these is love. Amen.