It Is Sufficient*

October 5, 2019
17^th Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 22

Luke 17:5-10, Habakkuk 1:1-4. 2:1-4
2 Timothy 1:1-14

The last part of the gospel reading –

The parable about the slaves

Is difficult to hear in our 21^st century context

It makes my skin prickle a bit

Clearly Jesus’ crowd of poor fisherman---and the like

were not slaveholders

But in the Lukan community
there were those who held slaves

This week I learned that in 1^st Century Rome

Up to 40% of the population was made up of slaves

And the majority of those slaves were from the consequence of war

But the point of the parable seems to be 

that WE are the slaves…or servants…of Christ

The parable seems to warn us against trying to ‘just get by’

With the least amount of effort

No…let’s give it our all

Do more than what the master expects

Christianity is no place for minimalists

It’s the first line of the reading that really grabbed my attention.

We hear from Jesus’ closest friends

They are begging and pleading

INCREASE OUR FAITH!

Jesus has just finished giving them further instructions on the life of discipleship:

1.   Make sure no one stumbles

2.   Offer correction to those who are offensive

3.   Forgive those who repent---not just once but over and over again -infinity times!

No wonder

No wonder they ask for more faithfulness

My guess is that all of us have had that plea on our lips a time or two

I have certainly wished for more or deeper…more steadfast faith

And then…Jesus’ reply

What does he mean?

I don’t think it is a scolding

BUT it is an ABSURD reply 

…a bush can’t be planted in a sea!

He’s messing with them…he must be

Because Jesus criticizes magical thinking 

and the need for signs...throughout the gospels

…this is not what he would want his followers to be about!

To me…it sounds more like he’s telling them 

that they are asking the WRONG QUESTION

IF FAITH…or faithfulness…

If it WAS a commodity

If you could measure 

And quantify it

And so INCREASE it

IF THAT IS WHAT FAITH IS (but of course it isn’t!)

Then all you would need is a mustard seed

This made me think of the story of the rich young man in Luke 18

He asked Jesus “What must I do to POSSESS or to GAIN eternal life?

And Jesus answers by subtly switching the verbs:

“If you wish to RECEIVE eternal life…”

Eternal Life/Faith

He switches the verb in order to teach about the nature of faith

It isn’t possessable

It can’t be stored in bigger barns

Or behind a locked gate

It’s not like money in a bank

One of my favorite spiritual writers,

Ron Rohlheiser likened faith to the air we breathe

it is free…it is everywhere

So when we are confronted with that sense of not having enough

It isn’t because of a lack of faith…or air

But rather…it’s the health of our lungs!
…or our soul

I believe Jesus is answering the disciples' plea- sympathetically

I think it’s a vote of confidence

“LOOK...You already have all the faith you need

Don’t worry about what you think you don’t have

Just keep spending what you do have

You’ll see

It’s amazing…it will be like when we had five loaves and two fish 

And, remember???
…there were leftovers!” 

Rather than focusing on quantity

Jesus holds out sufficiency

This short reading from Luke’s Gospel poses the mystery 
of faith and faithfulness

Our reading from Habakkuk and Paul’s 2^nd Letter to Timothy

also have something to add to this pondering about faith and faithfulness

The first 4 lines of the Habakkuk reading

Are in the form of a prayer

A prayer raised in desperation and grief:

O Lord---How long?

Why do you make me suffer so???
Why so much evil all around???

In a way it is also a plea for help

And God answers:

Wait. Trust. There is a vision.  It WILL come to be.

This reading from 2 timothy has always been one of my favorite passages

I used to use it when I did preparation with young couples who were bringing their children to baptism

I love it because it is so concrete

It testifies to a 

relational faith

In a relational God

In a very real sense

Any ability I have to recognize the love of God

Is made richer by my experience 

of loving and of being loved

These experiences are founded in trust

If I was unwilling to trust

If what I expected from relationships 
was betrayal and deception and being used

I would negate the very possibility of friendship or love or trust

Without trust...I could not possibly have faith in a loving God who I cannot see.

Paul longs to see Timothy

He longs to see the concrete faith made visible in him

It fills him with joy

But what Paul sees is more than Timothy
He sees deeply…he sees behind 

He sees Lois and Eunice

He sees the gift and transmission of faith

I love-love-love that Lois and Eunice are named…specifically

This is faith that is alive in people…real people

People with names

It is like a virus

It is caught

And it infects…and it spreads

It stays alive…maybe even it gets more alive
in the transmission

Which seems to take us back to the Gospel.

We have all we need.

We share it and pass it on.

And in the passing 

We experience the miraculous sufficiency of 5 loaves and 2 fish

Over and over again

It’s not a math problem

It’s a mystery…

But, it is a mystery that we experience concretely

We do…don’t we

Right here

whenever we gather 

to share whatever faithfulness…deep or wavering

whatever is within reach on any given day

And...All of us leave blessed and strengthened

I’m hoping that some of you are familiar with the hymn

It is Well with My Soul…because WE are going to sing;) 

It was written by Horatio Spafford in 1860-something
He was a prominent lawyer in Chicago

And was active in the abolitionist movement
He and his wife Anna lost a toddler son to scarlet fever
then in the great Chicago fire he lost his business and property
His wife and four daughters sailed to France for a needed fresh start

He was to catch up with them after he settled his business

On the crossing, their ship collided with a steamer and 290 of the 307 passengers were drowned.  All four girls. Anna Survived.

ON his journey to join his wife,
as the ship passed the place of the collision

Horatio Spafford wrote this hymn.

To me it sounds like someone trying to pray himself back into belief

The last time I sang this in church 

I noticed that I was standing next to a woman…I didn't know her name. 

But I did know that she had recently lost her husband to cancer.
I thought…How can she sing this song? 
How does she even get the words out?

Perhaps that’s when

We just do it

we just sing the words

Even with no strength to believe

Perhaps then it is the one nearby

The one who has the strength 

Who picks up the slack

In the community singing

We all rest a bit closer to the faithfulness that is sufficient

That is always present

That is the air we breathe

C’mon down make-shift mini choir…let us sing.

preaching quotes continued...

Bridging Chasms

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Proper 21

Luke 16:19-31

Lately, JESUS in the Gospel of Luke

Has a lot to say about riches

…and wealth

…and the meaning of money

Last month

It was the story of the rich fool

Building all those barns

To store his bumper crop

a cartoonish-like character

Talking only to himself

Never grateful

Never concerned about others 

Just pacing back and pondering what to do with all his fortune

…And…as luck would have it…the next day he died.

That is one way to get rid of the problem of what to do with an overwhelming bumper crop!

And last week

Was the tricky story about the dishonest Steward

With that famous last line

“You cannot serve both God and Money”

And then today we have the familiar story of

The Rich man and Lazarus…not to mention Amos, Psalm 146, and Timothy

Jesus in the Gospel of Luke has a lot to say about riches, wealth and money.

In my 4 ½ year career as a wandering preacher

I remember only once telling a full-fledged joke in a homily

It was here

3 years ago

When we last heard this parable

The joke was one of those cheesy 

St Peter at the Pearly Gates jokes.

I did it to illustrate how today’s gospel passage is a type of story

A motif that was popular in Jesus’ time

And it still lives on in all those St Peter and the Pearly Gates jokes

The point being

That today’s parable is not a story told to give us a picture of the architecture of heaven and hell

It is a reversal story…a crystal clear warning story

A story about not procrastinating

If we wanted a bottom line/bumper sticker version 

it might read

“Live your BEST life NOW!”  

(...but I want a little more;)

First a retelling…always dangerous…but fun anyway:

SO there was a multigazillionaire

Who dressed in $1000 jeans, $500 white t-shirts and Italian leather loafers

Which he wore without socks

and one day

he thought he would take a walk in the beautiful park across from his estate.

1) Though he had had a large breakfast 

He wondered to himself
“I just might feel like eating something while I am out

…best to be prepared”

And he asked his cook to make him a picnic lunch…just in case

2) Then he wondered “If I do get hungry, I’m not sure what exactly I will get hungry for” 

…so…again BEST to be prepared…
so he asked his cook to make 5 different sandwiches 

…meatball, Italian sub, BLT, tunafish, and a Rueben…best to have all the bases covered…just in case

3) He also wasn’t sure…IF he did get hungry…just exactly HOW hungry he would get…

…so BEST to be prepared
He asked the cook to and make each one a foot long…just in case

Prepared for any eventuality, he strolled down his tree lined driveway and approached his gate.

As he unlocked the gate to his property, there was Sam…of course.

…yep, Sam…always present…day after day…year after year… Sam.
Multigazillionaire knew his name
because he was a constant presence at the gate. 

Covered with sores and beyond half-starved Sam longed for a bite of the left-over crust of just one of those ‘just in case’ sandwiches.

Locking the gate behind him

He gave his ritual line to Sam “Have a good one!”

Mutigazillionaire left for his stroll with his ‘just in case’ picnic basket

When he returned

An hour later, carrying his still full ‘Just in case” picnic basket

The multigazillionaire was having trouble with the lock on the gate

So he bent down and asked Sam to hold his picnic basket with the five foot-longs getting soggy inside

Having jiggled the lock open, he reached down to grab his ‘just in case’ basket…And he thanked Sam for being so helpful.

He ‘saw’ Sam…Physically…their worlds actually touched.

he even knew his name. 

But what he saw was a thing…a fixture

…a kind of entry table that proved helpful now and again.

He did Not see a fellow human being.

So far…we have a very vivid colorful parable. 

Not at all mysterious to understand really.

In fact, it is OBSCENELY clear.

In most stories of this type

---think: Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol---

The one in need of new insight or conversion

Is given a glimpse into the future 

and then begs for a second chance…usually yielding a nice happy ending

…like for Scrooge

That does not happen here

For one thing…Scrooge wasn’t dead yet.  And our Rich man was.

The time for repentance and change and new awareness is now…

While on the green side of the grass…as my Dad says

The parable makes clear that the way the world works

Is not how God works

Our petty social categories don’t translate

Money is not a sign of God’s favor

Nor is Poverty a sign of God’s displeasure

I think

It is the ending of the parable that gets interesting

Still blind to Lazarus

The rich man wants to send word to his brothers

Notice how gentle and patient and kind Abraham is…calling him ‘child’ and asking him to remember
But he squarely dismisses his ask:

“Look, caring for the poor is nothing NEW

You’ve heard the law and prophets…
every. single. day. of. your life.

You’ve had more than enough time”

The tricky part about this parable is remembering who the audience is

We are in the travel narrative

And as we’ve been moving along in Luke’s Gospel

…On the way to Jerusalem

Things are heating up

The soundtrack is getting more ominous…the bass is getting more and more pronounced

Jesus goes back and forth 

speaking to the crowds,
and then to the disciples, 

and then to the Pharisees. 
Different audiences, need to hear different things.

This parable is directed at the Pharisees---

A few verses prior to today’s text it says:

“The Pharisees were money lovers. 

They heard these things (Jesus’ teaching about money and wealth) and mocked him.

And then he (Jesus) directed this parable to them

The parable is directed at a particularly obtuse fraternity of Pharisees

AND the disciples and the crowds---just like us today---

We are in the position of overhearing(like when my sister would get in trouble…I would listen just outside the door wanting to overhear everything…hopefully learning something)

Today...as I overhear the Rich man’s pleading:

“…but…but…how about if someone goes to them from the dead!”

I ask myself

Do I listen?

… to the voice of the prophets?

Do I believe that someone did come?

And has been raised from the dead?

Jesus came

He died…as a Lazarus figure…abandoned, alone, on a cross

But that wasn’t the end

His presence was made known to those who loved him

He rose from the dead and was alive in the midst of those gathered in his name

So REAL was his presence

That, around that presence, 

a community grew and grew and keeps growing still

And all of us here…we are inheritors of that community

We aren’t Lazarus

We aren’t the multigazillionaire
we aren’t the stubborn unbelieving brothers

We are Over-Hearers
We have tasted that same presence 

We have taken the name Christian

Each time we come here and pray our prayers

And recite our creeds 

and say AMEN

We recommit ourselves to Christ

to a life of Christian discipleship

This side of death

The Chasms are many

Divides…too deep

Too many locked gates

Walls…too high

But ours is a mission of 

Bridging Chasms

I’ve been taught that homilies are supposed to both comfort and challenge

Today it seems that the challenge is clear enough

Comfort isn’t quite the right word

…but I want to name the grace in these pews

Here, in these pews

is grace at work bridging chasms.

That ramp outside…that welcomes Scotty and Gwen and anyone who comes to this place unable to walk up those steps.  

I don’t know the story of how it came to be

But that ramp and the commitment and effort and money…that brought it to be

…bridges a Chasm

And the work of the food pantry volunteers
and those donating to the effort

That work is a participation in Bridging a Chasm

The work of marching in solidarity with the marginalized

Participates in bridging a chasm

I got an email a couple days ago from a friend who teaches at St Meinrad.

The St Meinrad faculty comes to New Harmony for a retreat every year

And every year those ‘Catholics’ come through those always open doors

To pray evening prayer in these pews. 

Those always open doors

Bridge a Chasm

And individually, as teachers, and artists, and merchants and business people of all kinds…retired or still at it

Can you imagine all the ways that the lives in these pews are bridging chasms?

Seeing the unseeable

Caring for those left out or left behind

Feeding the hungry

Clothing the naked

setting the oppressed free

these are not only moments when the kingdom of God is made visible

they are moments of bringing life from death

moments of Bridging Chasms

My friends

We belong to the risen one

And Bridging Chasms is just what we do!

Being Rich Toward God

August 4, 2019 (forgot to post this last month;)

Luke 12:13-21

Pentecost 11, Proper 13, Year C

When I read the Gospel out loud to Rob early this week he said: 

This one is pretty clear.  Don’t be greedy.

And then there’s the corresponding sayings:

“You won’t ever see a U-Haul behind a hearse”
“You can’t take it with you”

“There are no pockets in shrouds”

But it isn’t satisfying to me

Because one thing we can be sure of

Is that when Jesus tells a Parable

There is trouble in the text!

Parables always upset the apple cart.

Retell

What does it actually say?

The occasion is a question from the crowd

Presumably, there are two brothers having a dispute about inheritance

And then it doesn’t say: Don’t be greedy

It says beware! Be on guard against ALL KINDS of greed…

(because greed is sneaky)

And then it tells the parable

Which is interesting because it is in response to someone who wants more possessions

By telling a parable about someone with an abundance of possessions

The land of a rich man produced abundantly
and he thought to himself

What should I do? I have no place…
and then he said: I will do this…

And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul…

So this is kinda Comic

We have a guy having a conversation with himself

And then he has a conversation with himself 

Within the conversation with himself!

It’s a short parable

It has one character (until God comes into the story)

6-I’s and 2-Psyches/Souls

The UnHoly Trinity

Me, Myself, and I

What doesn’t it say? What’s missing?

The parable never gives the rich man credit for his wealth.

And yet the man

Never mentions the bountiful Land

Or the blessing of good weather

Or the hard work of the laborers 

No words about family 

or community

No mention of anyone or anything that had a role in producing this bumper crop

NO…the parable paints a picture

of a man in complete isolation
A man whose vision begins and ends with himself

A man whose only conversation is a monologue

And conversations with oneself

Even ones as robust and active as this one

Rarely yield a depth of wisdom

Fool!!!

He is a FOOL not because he makes provision for the future

But because he believes that by his wealth he can own his future

He gives infinite value to finite things

A conclusion he came upon---all by himself

And what he missed out on

All wrapped up in himself as he was

What he missed was the gift of gratitude

But how could there be gratitude?

Gratitude is a response…it implies a gift

It is always directed toward another…and there was no other in sight.

(describe the painting)

In a sense 

Rob was right

WE KNOW THIS

We know it isn’t that God doesn’t want us to save for retirement
(which is perhaps a convenient interpretation for me because Rob would be out of a job)

It isn’t that God doesn’t want us to eat, drink and be merry

…enjoying what God has given us

WE KNOW from the Gospels themselves
that Jesus spent lots of time around tables enjoying the gifts of life’s richness

But Jesus in the Gospels is also very clear about where ultimate meaning lies

And we KNOW that too

We KNOW it 

We KNOW that being rich in God is what will keep us from turning all those other things (money, fame, approval) into idols 

But what we DON’T know

Is how to keep 

WHAT WE KNOW --- right here---

Front and center

In front of us as we go through our day’s decision making

What I don’t know is how to keep from being seduced and tempted 

Over and over again by the desire for more

A desire that blinds me to

WHAT I REALLY DO KNOW!

Two stories from the past week

How to be and how not to be

Rich toward God

I went to a funeral on Thursday
The mother of a large family died

The father died several years back

There was a family business

And I don’t know what happened but

It had to do “with getting one’s share”

Three of the children are not on speaking terms

And the priest…who was a friend of the family

Took several occasions…

And almost begged for reconciliation in the family

I don’t know the story 

but the resentment was palpable…

and then yesterday

I went to a bridal shower

And there was this game where everyone got this cheapy plastic ring

And the idea was to trick others into saying the word “Bride”
and if you were successful you got to steal their ring.

Well there were three little girls ages 4-6 there

And they were completely into this game…trying to collect more and more loot!

So the adults started to just try and give them the rings 

pretending that they were so clever…because they were having so much fun!

And then…the youngest, Tatum

Came up to Ellie, the eldest, and asked how many she had

Ellie said 9

And Tatum said, “I have 11”

And then she opened up her wide pocket offering to share.

Somehow there are hints in these stories about how to become rich toward God.

Jesus is asking me

Cindy
Where is your heart?

Keep track of your heart

You will become rich toward God

By keeping track of your heart.

I feel like this isn’t really a homily

It is a confession of a struggle
Money is powerful
If we don’t talk about it here

About its religiously significant sense

It will be the culture at large that gets to set the definition

And my guess is that it’s a struggle for most of us

---as an addendum---

This morning

I don’t know how to engage the devasting tragedy in El Paso
But somehow

If it is, in fact, the Gospel being preached

there must somehow be a connection

ON the side of the victims

And the family and community that loved them

I imagine it will be hard to keep track of the heart

In the aftermath of such violence

And so in light of this reflection

I can pray for hearts open to the wisdom and peace of God

…no matter how long it takes

And the gunman…why was his heart so very lost?

How did it get so?

I have no idea

But I can’t help but imagine

That, perhaps, like our rich fool

His only source of wisdom was the wanderings of his own mind

Interpreting the world alone

With his own familiar voices being the limit of his wisdom

And I can pray…that I, that we, that our people and communities and families
meet isolation with invitation

Invitation into shared lives trying to become rich toward God

So perhaps we can wonder together

Maybe we can even continue this at coffee hour

Let’s not be like the man who talks things over with himself

Let’s learn from each other

How do you live, move, and act your way into becoming rich toward God?

I’d love to know