The Tool For Any Challenge

Luke 17:1-6

The Sower, Vincent Van Gogh c. 1888 (Public Domain)

“Now why would you go and do a thing like that?!”

I heard that one a number of times growing up. 

To be honest, many days, I wasn’t really sure just how to answer. 

When I asked my parents to give me a few examples of events that caused them to ask this question for today’s sermon,  they said they couldn’t narrow it down. There were just too many examples to mention. 

As I got older, I found my answer  to this question became a bit more consistent, and the activities which I engaged in became a bit less juvenile, yet no less foolish in the eyes of others, to include my parents. 

I started rock climbing in high school and college, because I was afraid of heights. 

I joined the Marine Corps, because I had heard how terrifying the experience of boot camp was. 

I resigned from an eight year career to attend seminary, because I wanted to explore the greatest challenge one can face…seeking a deeper understanding of my own faith, which had been challenged by so many experiences. 

And many would ask, family, friends, co-workers, you name it; 

“Why would you EVER, do a thing like that!?”

My answer has remained the same for most of my adult life, 

It’s the same reason many climbers give for attempting peaks like Everest

“Because it’s there!”

The pronoun “it” in that response doesn’t refer to a mountain, a degree, or a title. 

The pronoun in that response refers to the challenge. 

That challenge is not always found in some adventure or mischievous endeavor.

Sometimes that challenge is nothing more than simply living. 

Because we are called into this life to take chances, just by the mere fact that we are born into this broken and challenging world with nothing to protect us but a simple covering of the fragile mortal flesh that we are given. 

Life itself can be a stand alone challenge, so why seek out new ones?!

It is a natural response to avoid challenges, let alone seek out our own. 

Yet, there are unique people who seek out a good challenge. 

And while these people may seem brave, I must say that I for one am not, because I am selective about the challenges I will face. 

And when it comes to Jesus’ challenge of discipleship, I fail to live up to that challenge daily. 

And that’s not brave, it is selective cowardice.

~

Today’s Gospel is a bit comical. 

Jesus’ conversation is with the apostles, a group of men, who probably are used to seeking out life’s challenges. 

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Raphael c. 1515 (Public Domain)

Why else would a group of men leave their families and livelihoods to follow this prophetic itinerant preacher? 

They must have had an idealistic perspective on what this challenge of following Jesus would entail?

And most of them lived out lives that were fairly challenging, if not adventurous in the first place. 

I would at least assume that life for those who had been fishermen was a fairly adventurous and challenging experience, even before meeting Jesus. 

Yet, Jesus’ assurance that life will be full of snares, traps, temptations, and stumbling blocks isn’t what scares them.

It is the warning not to be the cause of another’s stumbling through life. 

And most of all, the call to forgive anyone who should sin against them, if that person merely claims to be repentant,  that is the challenge that Jesus poses, and it seems to be the deal breaker. 

So, on that note, they decide they don’t really have everything they need to face the challenge at hand. 

And apparently, discipleship in Jesus’ day had a fairly short supply list because the one thing they claim to be lacking in order to perform this task… is faith?

It would seem their request falls pretty flat in Jesus’ response which isn’t meant to deny their lack of faith but to affirm that they have already received the faith that is needed to do ANYTHING. 

Matthew’s account of this conversation claims that faith the size of a mustard seed could move a mountain. 

Luke just claims that a mulberry tree could uproot and take on a life of its own, like that old Disney Halloween cartoon I grew up with, based on this tiny speck of faith that they have. 

Jesus’ claim seems a bit outlandish, because a Mulberry fig tree, which is probably the type of tree Jesus is referencing, given the region, may be just as much of a feat as the mountain that Matthew claims can be moved. 

Mulberry trees were massive and the root systems were as massive if not larger than what could be seen above the soil. 

Even today, one must be cautious where they plant these trees because they can easily destroy property with their roots and they are very drought resistant.

These trees are nearly impossible to uproot. 

It would be pretty safe to assume that Jesus is using a metaphor or an allegory to describe the power of faith. 

This is certainly a safer view to take.

It will keep us from  becoming too disappointed after spending countless afternoons attempting to move those pesky neighborhood trees with our Jedi faith skills. 

And this will only make this gospel that much more frustrating. 

So, we could always do the next best thing. 

Avoid the text all together!

We can use this lesson in children’s sermons and for motivational speeches, but don’t reference this one in any real challenges you may face in life. 

~

You will have to forgive my pessimism, but I became a bit disheartened this week as I prepared for this Sunday. 

I love the topic of faith, and I believe that our understanding of faith is truly what sets us apart as Lutherans. 

Yet, as I read the commentary of many scholars on this topic, I found many merely avoided discussing faith at all. 

More and more I have found that the f-word has become something we have a tendency to avoid. 

As a Lutheran I used to think we were alone in our fear of this word, or should I say THIS WORK?

Martin Luther once said,  “Faith is a divine work which God demands of us; but at the same time He Himself must implant it in us, for we cannot believe by ourselves.”

He claimed that faith was the finest work we could do. 

But our Lutheran bumper stickers prohibit such rhetoric!

It has an air of "works righteousness," and even if we really don’t fully understand what all that means, it sounds BAD, right?!

This is why so many Protestants struggle with the topic of faith,  because if it is a "work" that we do, our condemnation and redemption lay completely within our own control 

And time and again, we know how that one turns out. 

The true seed of faith that Jesus speaks of is the faith we receive from a source beyond ourselves. 

It is quite simple.

It is the way we worship each Sunday when we meet, which is simply a play where we all take part, living out the story we have heard. 

That’s right!

We are all on stage right now!

It’s the Meal that we share that allows us to sit at the same table in that story we hear. 

It is the water that is poured onto the head of ______ as we witness the birth of our sister in Christ, into God’s Church through this community here at St Michael!

And through it all, it points to one common thing, the story we receive that assures us of God’s love through the life of Jesus Christ. 

~

Sisters and brothers, God’s grace is the gift that is assured because it depends upon no work, no merit, no worthiness of our own

And thank God for this, because we are ALL so unworthy. 

It is the gift of God’s unrestrained and unlimited love for us, which is described in such glory that we cannot even imagine it. 

Like a treasure on the other side of an ocean. 

But if God’s grace is a treasure waiting just beyond the stormy seas of life, 

Rainbow, Ivan Aivazovsky c.1873 (Public Domain)

The faith we receive in Christ is the vessel that will take us there. 

It is our call to not only enter into that boat, trusting in it to see us safely to the prize. 

But as disciples, we are commanded to call others to face the challenges of these waters with us, assuring them that the reward is not only the treasure, but the challenge of the journey itself. 

~

Much like the apostles in our Gospel today, the mission we are called to doesn’t always sound like the best use of a Sunday morning much less our entire life. 

But we bring ______ to the waters of her Baptism this day with the intent and hope that she will hold to the faith that clings to the waters of her baptism. 

And we face the challenges of this life holding to the promise of the water that was washed over us. 

And THAT is the faith that will drive us up the mountains and through the Mulberry trees that stand in our own paths. 

~

Years ago, there was a pastor working in a small rural congregation in North Carolina. 

One night, an anxious parishioner came knocking on his door. 

When the pastor answered the only words he heard were, “C’mon, c’mon, he’s gonna kill him, he’s gonna kill him!”

The pastor came to discover that after a family dispute, one of his congregants had decided his only recourse was to shoot his brother dead. 

Foolishly, the pastor knocked on the door rather than calling the police. 

When the brother came to the door with a pistol in his hand and advised the pastor he planned on killing his brother, regardless of what was said.

All the pastor’s theology and counseling classes fell away as he stared blankly into the face of the murderous brother. 

And in the midst of the silence that pastor slowly opened his mouth until the words, “You can’t,” simply fell from his lips. 

“Why NOT?!” questioned the brother, a bit shocked.

Confused as much at his own words as he was at the situation, the pastor simply replied,

“Because you have to remember your baptism.”

~

Sisters and brothers, baptism does not serve as our salvation insurance, it is the offering of God’s grace and that grace is the soil by which our faith grows. 

Our faith is the anchor we cling to when the waves are too high, 

And ______'s parents and sponsors, I want you to know those waves will certainly swell over little _____  as she grows and the years pass by. 

She will be challenged, and many of those challenges will be beyond daunting. 

But in a few moments you will be committing to giving her the anchor of faith to cling to.

And this congregation, you likewise, will be making a commitment to support her and this family in the midst of whatever stormy seas may arise. 

Because that is the call of Jesus in our gospel for today,

Not to seek excuses or avoid the challenges that arise, 

But to face those challenges holding firm to that anchor of our faith+ 

Amen

The Crucifixion, Lucas Cranach the Elder c. 1532 (Public Domain)

Sources

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works Volume 23 Sermons On The Gospel Of St. John Chapters 6-8. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan. St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1959.

Tillich, Paul and Mary Ann Stenger. The New Being. Philadelphia, PA, United States: University of Nebraska press, 2005.

The Calves and The Sheep

Exodus 32:7-14 and Luke 15:1-10

Antonio Molinari, Adoration of the Golden Calf c. 1700-1702 Public Domain

Today is a big day, 

perhaps even one of the biggest days of the year for us. 

That’s right sisters and brothers, 

today the Browns and the Eagles will kick off the first Sunday of the NFL season

or perhaps you’re leaning more towards the Packers and the Jaguars. 

I know that will be a big one for many of our cheeseheads out there. 

But that can’t be all we have going on today can it?

Of course not!

We have the Giants and the Cowboys at 4 

and of course the day will be topped off at its conclusion with the Patriots and the Cardinals for the prime time game tonight. 

But I must admit, these events don’t excite Pastor Stephen or I at all today. 

You see?

I’m a Steelers fan and they don’t play until the Monday night game. 

And Pastor Stephen?

Well, he was just a kicker so he doesn’t watch football anymore. 

Right?

I must admit sisters and brothers, I do love to watch football and not just the NFL but especially college. 

But with 32 franchises valued at an average of $1.97 billion a pop, 

and a brand that is valued at an estimated $ 62 Billion, the NFL certainly reigns supreme when vying for our attention through advertisement and even fashion. 

The NFL basically owns this day, the day that once belonged to something that we long ago believed to be a bit bigger than a game, 

But I am not so sure that is necessarily the case anymore. 

We can blame a variety of factors for that and we could certainly claim that this is a modern dilemma, 

But when we look at our lessons for today and find the Israelites opening the 33rd NFL franchise; the Israelite Golden Calves, 

maybe we should consider how humanity has always had a propensity towards idolatry when they find themselves lost. 

As John Calvin said, “The human heart is an idol making factory.”

In our first lesson, Moses has been chosen to lead the people out of Egypt. 

József Molnár, Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt c. 1861 Public Domain

A people who are considered beyond help, beyond hope. 

Certainly not a people that would be chosen by any god to communicate the power and authority of that god. 

But that is what sets THE God of Israel apart from all other gods and religions of the day. 

This is THE God who selects from the lost and the lowly, but selecting from such a group is certainly a risk. 

One need not be too imaginative to consider what it is like to be lost, alone, in the darkness, in the wilderness whether isolated in the middle of a deep forest, the ocean, or a desert.

Anyone who finds themselves lost is always attracted to the brightest light or the loudest sound.

Unless we find ourselves in a place that is completely devoid of any sound or any light, 

and in that case it only takes the faintest sound or sight to draw us near. 

This is how most organisms respond to isolation.

We seem to need to be drawn to something when we find ourselves truly lost, 

but those things that we are drawn to are most often the things that lead us the farthest astray. 

In our first lesson, these Hebrews find themselves in the wilderness, but they are not even truly lost. 

In fact, God is watching their every move which is being shared with Moses blow by blow. 

And God speaks with pain and anguish in God’s voice, 

the kind of pain that only a parent or a spouse who has been betrayed in the most indecent way can imagine, because that is how God has been betrayed in this story. 

“Look at them, they’ve replaced ME, 

THE God who has liberated them, 

THE God who has loved them,

And I, the God of Israel has been replaced with a bright shiny loud THING that not only will not lead them out of their darkness and silence, 

But to make it even worse, they have given it credit for MY love.”

Sisters and brothers, it is not God who has abandoned the Hebrew people in the wilderness.

It is God who has been abandoned, forsaken, and betrayed, left with few other options but to look down on this covenant relationship and watch as their unfaithfulness unfolds before the sight of Moses and God. 

And once this chosen people have committed this act of infidelity, it cannot be undone. 

What is worse, what God has seen cannot be unseen. 

~

This lesson connects to our Gospel in a distinct way. 

Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep pertains as much to the Pharisees and scribes as it does to the tax collectors and sinners. 

Because no one ever seeks out a way to be truly lost. 

And many who find themselves lost are not nearly as isolated as they thought. 

Victor M. Vicente Selves, The Lost Sheep c. 2009 Public Domain

But those who think they are immune to being led astray are often set adrift by their own arrogance. 

We are all capable of finding ourselves off the path which God has intended for us, and when we are aware of that, we rarely take our eyes off of that compass. + 

But even under the watchful eye of the God, the Hebrew people believe themselves to be lost in the wilderness. 

Wilderness, yes

But lost?

No, not if they have faith in the Shepherd. 

But what if the Shepherd isn’t quite what we wanted?

What if this God isn’t quite what the Hebrew people, or we, expected?

Not really how we pictured, nor responding in the way we envisioned the Shepherd should?

For the Israelite people, this is very much the case. 

And so, they are led astray. 

And they are attracted to an image, a god, that mirrors other gods of their day and age. 

This isn’t an ancient dilemma, this is the reality of our human condition. 

We are easily attracted to the god that provides us with the easy answers, the obvious solutions, the prosperous reward for our devout faithfulness. 

But when God doesn’t respond to us the way we think a god should, maybe we need to reconsider just what kind of god we are seeking?

Sisters and brothers, I don’t want the god with the easy answers or the quick solutions because this world is full of complicated feelings, opinions, politics, fears, and ideas that need a God that is bigger then a simple Genie in a bottle. 

~

Late one night a father was walking into a hospital, to identify the body of his son, who was struck by a car. 

His son was pronounced dead upon arrival, and after identifying the body a chaplain was called to be at the father’s side. 

The father stood by the gurney shaking in rage, as tears streamed down his face. 

After taking a deep breath, while looking straight ahead and avoiding eye contact, the father angrily demanded to know where the chaplain’s God was when his son was struck by that automobile. 

Softly and slowly the chaplain replied, “I can’t tell you for certain where my God was, but wherever my God was I’m sure he was watching from the same place where He was watching when His own Son died.”

~

That isn’t the God we want and when we are facing times like the times that father was facing we often try to create an image of the god that we want. 

The god that fits neatly in our boxes, inside our lines. 

Maybe that is what happened over these past 15 years. 

After the countless numbers of books we have written about the decline of the institutional church over the years, one factor we continue to brush over is that we as the church never want to answer the hard questions about God. 

I was at boot camp on this day 15 years ago and when I came off that island, I didn’t even recognize my own country anymore. 

I couldn’t walk down a street without someone thanking me for my service, and if I went anywhere in a uniform, you would have thought I won a raffle!

But what was the most foreign to me, was in the months following 9/11, our places of worship were packed to the brim. 

Those few months of packed pews were fairly short lived, however. 

And as the years went by, attendance in most places of worship continuously declined. 

Perhaps people were drawn to the church on that tragic day because they longed for the god that would grant the vengeance we all craved?

Perhaps people were drawn to the church on that tragic day because they longed for the god that would find their friends and loved ones buried beneath that rubble?

Perhaps people were drawn to the church on that tragic day because they longed for the god that would help them forget what they had seen, or numb the pain they felt?

I know that was the golden calf that I was seeking. It was the golden calf I sought when I came home from Iraq four years later, too. 

Maybe not revenge, maybe not even getting back what I had lost, but was it really too much to ask?

To just numb the pain, to just make those memories go away?

U.S. Navy Photography, Released 15 September 2001 Public Domain

~

We are not led into the wilderness by the shepherd to be lost. 

The Hebrew slaves were not led into the wilderness by God’s shepherd, Moses, to be lost. 

We wander into the wilderness because it was the creation that God granted us. 

Made perfect and good, at least until the gift was given to us. 

We live in a broken world full of sin, hate, anger, and pain. 

But it is also a world full of joy, beauty, and love. 

And it is a world that inflicts pain on more than just the people in it. 

It is a world that inflicts pain on God. 

~

Sitting in my first theology class a few years back, my professor asked a fairly straightforward question. 

He asked if we thought God experiences pain. 

Not a single person in the class that day batted an eye when we all admitted to believing that God experiences pain. 

But after reaching a consensus, he informed us that if God experiences pain then God cannot be immanent, that is, God cannot remain unchanged. 

He was right. 

And in our text today, we can see that clearly as Moses pleads the case of the Hebrew people. 

God does change, and in a world where God can be changed by pain, the fundamental question we all ask remains. 

The same question that all those people that filled our pews asked in the days and months that followed September 11th, 

The question I asked, the question we all ask. 

If that is the God we look to as our Rock, our Savior, our Certainty, 

Then just how certain can we be?

The answer is clear in both Luke and Exodus today. 

What sets God apart is God’s love. 

Because unlike the love we know, 

The love we waste on the golden calves we bow down to, 

God presents a love that is beyond the love we know.

Because even the most perfect love we share is ordinary compared to God’s extraordinary love. 

And what makes that love extraordinary?

No matter how much pain we inflict on God, 

No matter how changed God is by the pain that is inflicted, 

It is God’s love that remains unchanged. 

Even to the point of watching us bow down before our own golden calves. 

Even to the point of watching us nail God’s own Son to the cross,

Because he too, was not the golden calf we wanted or expected.

And through it all, as we pour our own mistrust and unbelief on God, 

God remains the unchanging love that promises to find us, 

No matter how lost we may or may not be. 

Amen

Albrecht Altdorfer, Christ on the Cross c. 1480-1538 Public Domain

Sources

Calvin, John. Calvin: Institutes of Christian Religion: Vol 1. 23rd ed. Edited by John T. McNeill. Philadelphia: Westminster/John Knox Press,U.S., 1960.

Hoefler, Richard Carl and Carl Hoefler. And He Told Them a Story: Background on Luke’s Parables. Lima, OH: C.S.S. Pub., 1979.

Ozanian, Mike. “The NFL Is Still an Undervalued Brand.” Forbes (Forbes), September 7, 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2014/09/07/the-nfl-is-still-a-very-undervalued-brand/#2b2cc4478e9a.

The Lowest Place

Luke 14: 1, 7-14

The Meal, Paul Gauguin c. 1891 Public Domain

One Sunday afternoon at a Lutheran Church in Luray, VA, a southern gentlemen and dairy farmer announced to his family that the pastor would be joining them for Sunday lunch. 

Siram Huffman, my great grandfather was ecstatic to know that his invitation to the pastor and the pastor’s parents -who were visiting from out of town- had accepted the invitation. 

It was a great honor for him, and an honor he was all too excited to share with the rest of the family, which included three branches of the Huffman clan. 

In all there were eleven adults and five children, not counting the pastor and his two parents. 

Being a German Lutheran Shenendoah Valley family, I am certain everyone would have been just as honored and overjoyed, IF Siram had checked the menu first. 

But it wasn’t Siram’s task to cook Sunday lunch and when news of extra mouths to feed was shared, accommodations had to be made to ensure that everyone received a sliver of meat from the single chicken that had been cleaned and set aside, that day. 

My grandmother pulled my father and his four cousins into a side room of that farm house and informed each of them just what portions of that meager bird would be made available to them. 

The tail, the back, and the wings were allotted for the children. 

After the pastor and his parents arrived, grace was said, and the lone chicken was passed around. 

But eyes widened when the pastor’s mother ripped the back off the bird proclaiming, “The closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat!”

Heads shook when the pastor’s father broke off the tail and announced, “I like the part that gets over the fence last!”

And all hope was lost when the pastor shared that he loved the wings because he liked the part that makes the bird fly. It reminded him of angels. 

All faces were frozen with concern, except for Siram's, at how the children would react as the chicken made it’s way around the table until landing in front of my father who just stared at the chicken with contempt. 

“What’s the matter, Jimmy?” asked Siram.

The table fell into complete silence until my father advised, 

“Well, pastor’s mamma took the back, pastor’s daddy took the tail, and the pastor took the wings! 

So what am I supposed to eat!”

~

Today’s gospel is another account of Jesus’ ministry around a meal. 

It is only found in Luke’s gospel, so it’s pretty safe to assume Luke loves table fellowship, but Jesus seems to use meals as illustrations for many complicated concepts throughout his ministry. 

There is a danger in the way we interpret the gospel’s meaning for today, though, and while these are interpretations that are not necessarily harmful,  they don’t get to the heart of the matter either. 

One danger is interpreting this text as a lesson in etiquette. 

And while this isn’t a bad takeaway, there are better books out there when it comes to table manners.

They will probably even tell you which forks and spoons to use, if you choose wisely. 

The second danger is in interpreting this lesson as a mad dash for the cheap seats, as if there is some heavenly trophy for last place, or maybe even the world’s worst game of musical chairs. 

Today’s gospel says something so much more than just where we sit at a table, whether that be a table in this life or another. 

It offers us a perspective on how we respond to an invitation, an earnest request for the presence of the one who has been invited. 

It isn’t a demand that the invited be present, but a heartfelt request. 

A request that we are present at the banquet, without any specific reference to the seating. 

Consider the last time you were invited to a wedding. 

Did you ask the one inviting which seat you would receive?

Is it a matter of where you are seated, or is the important thing that you were present at all?

What is implied is the gratitude for the invitation to such a banquet at all, a gratitude that should be as heartfelt as the invitation that was extended in the first place. 

But there is another issue at the heart of this story. 

What good is an invitation when it is extended with the mere intention of scorn or humiliation? 

What if an invitation is extended for no other reason than to make us the butt of the joke?

Are we to just accept such an insult in life, much less a meal?

The Potato Eaters, Vincent van Gogh c. 1885 Public Domain

 ~

I haven’t had a lot of time since moving here, but as some of you know, one of my favorite hobbies is smoking barbecue. 

I’ve smoked barbecue for years. 

In fact, if I go out for barbecue, it is usually only to try and discover new sauces, rubs, or techniques. 

I would much rather make my own. 

But one of the things that appeals to me the most about barbecue is the history behind the meat. 

Yes, you heard me right, there is a history behind the very meat that is selected when barbecue is prepared. 

Boston butt is cut from the upper part of the front leg of a pig, literally, the shoulder. 

This makes the cut tougher than the loin or the ham, which were the most desirable cuts of swine in the revolutionary era of Virginia. 

In Boston, they found the shoulder such a difficult cut of meat, they shipped them off in barrels, called butts, to be sold off to the poor or eaten by sailors at sea, thus these cuts have come to be known as “Boston Butts”. 

Ribs, regardless of whether they are from beef or swine, are full of connective tissues that keep the muscle tissue and bone tightly woven together to protect the inner organs. 

Because these cuts were so tough, they were often discarded as trash. 

And the toughest cut of them all when it comes to meat; brisket. 

Brisket is cut from the pectoral muscles of cattle, which carry over half their own body weight there. 

This makes brisket one of the toughest cuts of muscle and connective tissues that there is, and by far the toughest cut of meat to smoke. 

What is so intriguing about these meats and the history behind them, is that all of them were either discarded as trash, sold to the poorest and lowest in society, or even given to slaves and servants because these cuts just weren't good enough for those in the places of honor.

Shall we just say that they just weren’t very “high on the hog”. 

But after those from the lowest places received these scraps from the butchers, they learned how to take these difficult cuts and turn them into a specialized cuisine that is cooked at a low heat for an extensive period of time, gently loosening the tissues and the natural oils that make these cuts flavorful and tender like no other cut can be made. 

These cuts of meat are not only found at a far higher price today in grocery stores, but this technique of cooking is now a coveted skill at competitions and restaurants throughout the country. 

It really is an art, and how the lowly have become admired for their ingenuity and wisdom. 

To have taken what was garbage and made it gourmet. 

A Southern Barbecue, Horace Bradley c. 1887 Public Domain

~

What is the difference between humiliation and humility?

Jesus implies that we should avoid disgrace in his words today, but when disgrace is offered, he seems to recommend humility?

For one, humiliation cannot be vindicated. 

It is a dishonor we commit to ourselves as much as another commits it to us, screaming out against it indignantly, despite its inescapability. 

And the harder we fight it, the more trapped in it we become. 

Humility is the acceptance of that lowly position.

But it is an acceptance of it, not a resignation to it. 

Rather than resigning to it, humility calls us to turn it towards something more glorious, turning toward something positive, like a symbol, a person, those around us, maybe even… a meal?

~

Our story, our Christian story, is one in which we cry out to the Lord in our distress, crying out into the temple, crying out into God’s ears (Psalm 18), at our wits end in distress (Psalm 107). 

The Hebrew slaves, Job, Moses, Samuel, David, even Elijah, all cry out to God. 

Not inviting God to be among us, but demanding it. 

Assuring God, the place of honor among us, the highest seat of them all. 

And so God accepts our invitation. 

An invitation to experience our pain, our suffering, and to vindicate us all in our humiliation. 

To lift us all out of our low places. 

That was our cry, that was the sound of our pleading. 

And God responds through Jesus the Christ, the Prophet, the Priest, and the rightful King. 

And we acknowledged his place among us, we acknowledged his role, proclaiming that his seat would be a place of honor. 

And lift him up into his place, we did. 

The God and King we all cried out to, was the God we lifted high, into that lowly place in humiliation for all to see. 

But it is in that image that we bizarrely find an odd hope. 

Because it is in that image we find a God like no other god. 

We worship the God who takes the low place and raises it high above any other. 

And from that exalted lowly place feeds us all, inviting all those whose scorn placed Christ there. 

A feast in which we are implored to sit and receive in faith that bread and that wine. 

We are only asked to extend that table beyond our own walls, extending the meal of hope that we not only cannot repay, but praise be to GOD, we aren’t even asked to. 

Amen

The Raising of the Cross Giulio Cesare Procaccini
c. 1615-1620 Public Domain

Deceiving Ourselves

Luke 13:10-17

Jesus heals a woman on the Sabbath. By Matthias Gerung c. 1530 Public domain

Having been a homeowner, father, and husband, living in a dorm during a semester of seminary away from my family, wasn't the most pleasant experience. 

It was formative, however. 

It is where I met one of my dearest friends. 

Away from my family, we supported one another during a time when we didn’t know many of our classmates. It was his first semester and I had just transferred from Union. 

Adapting to the surrounding culture was difficult for me and one day a classmate offended me so greatly, that I returned to the dorm room, completely enraged. 

As I paced my floor in the tiny dorm room, frustrated and overwhelmed by anger, my friend came knocking on my door. 

He asked if I was okay and when I explained how offended and angered I was, he asked if I had prayed for this particular classmate. 

Shocked at his suggestion, especially given the explanation of the exchange, I simply asked, 

“DO WHAT!?”

“It’s up to you” he replied “but I’ve always found it is healing for me when I pray for those I feel the greatest contempt for.”

There is a reason he is such a good friend to this very day. 

I took his advice, and it actually helped. 

He came back to see how I was a few hours later and I told him how much it had helped. 

It was amazing how my prayer for someone I resented so much, helped me to feel invested in that person, despite the certainty that this same person would chastise and antagonize myself and other classmates many more times to come. 

I shared all of this with my friend and a few days later, I came knocking on his door. 

That day, I found him pacing his room, throwing things, red faced and enraged, while sharing a few choice words. 

When I sat down to talk with him, I found that he had been angered by the very same individual who had angered me a few days prior. 

As my friend took a breath between his rants and descriptions of the same classmate I myself had previously confronted, I seized the opportunity to ask him, with a smile on my face, 

“Did ya pray for him?!”

The response to my advice was a far cry from “thank you” in case you were wondering. 

~

Today’s Gospel tells us the story of a woman who has been disabled by sin, bound to it in fact, for 18 years.

Regardless of her bondage, she enters the synagogue seeking a place to pray, a place to worship. 

She never asks Jesus to heal her. 

She just comes to the synagogue to worship, to be in communion with the Divine.

She doesn’t seem to have come seeking Jesus and she doesn’t seem to know that it is through him that she will be healed.  

She comes to the synagogue, however, to be changed -healed- through worship, through prayer,  because the function of prayer is not to influence an immutable God, but it is to change the nature of the one who is praying to God.

She comes to the synagogue seeking the same thing we should all be seeking when we come to God on the Sabbath, in prayer, and especially in worship. 

God’s redemptive change in us, all of us, no matter who we are, no matter what role we play. 

It is why I, myself, turn to face that altar during the order of confession, because I too am seeking God’s redemptive change in my own sinful self during the order of confession and forgiveness. 

SACRAMENTUM POENITENTIA
By Francesco Novelli - Amad. Gabrieli c. 1800 Public Domain

And although she may not know the change that is about to take place through Jesus, she comes longing for that change. 

Because she knows she should be condemned by her sin, even if we are not told just what sin it may be. 

Her symptoms are irrelevant, but the disease is clear, when Jesus proclaims that she has been bound by the adversary; sin. 

Yes, she is bound, enslaved, tethered to this disease of sin and could justifiably be condemned by it, just as we all could be. 

BUT… She knows it and she does not deny it.

Sisters and brothers, if the Church is called to be a hospital for sinners, who can we expect to come to such a hospital?

Because it is only the one who knows that they are sick who seeks the healing care that is needed. 

The first step in being healed is to know that we are all diseased by sin, afflicted by it, bound to it. 

~

No one likes getting sick, when we initially begin to feel the symptoms of our own ailments, we try to deny what those symptoms are pointing to. 

I am not certain that there is ever a time when this is a greater reality than with children. 

A few years back, my daughter kept rubbing her ear, crying, complaining, and acting agitated. 

I was home, spending a few weeks experiencing the single parent life my wife had been living just prior to taking a trip to Israel. 

Something seemed obviously wrong and my first assumption was an ear infection, but she wasn’t talking yet so I couldn’t ask. 

I called my wife to let her know I was taking my daughter to the doctor, only to be informed that I had NO idea what I was talking about. 

While we were on the phone arguing about my limited medical expertise, my daughter became sick to her stomach. 

Both of us being in such a rational state of mind, I delivered the mature response my wife anticipated upon hearing the commotion through the phone. 

“I told ya SO!” 

I hung up and immediately took my daughter to our pediatrician. 

Whenever I took the kids in to see him, we would always wind up talking about music and Torah. 

Maybe that is why I liked visiting the doctor. 

But on this day, obviously frustrated and angry that my wife belittled my vast medical knowledge and parenting skills, he gave me some sound advice. 

Upon discovering my child’s burst eardrum which is what caused her vast symptoms he advised; 

“Look man, give your wife a break! I’m a doctor. I studied medicine for EIGHT years. 

I’m a partner in a private medical practice. I’ve received awards for pediatrics. 

But when it comes to my kids, my wife still believes that Google will provide the best medical advice she can find, because I’m her husband and all wives KNOW, we are idiots!

I mean, do you really want them to believe we are smart? Consider the expectations that would carry!”

He was right, but I’ve also found that the more we deny the symptoms of our own disease, the tighter the grasp of the illness that takes hold, until eventually it cripples us. 

The Sick Child By Edvard Munch c. 1907 Public Domain

~

The greatest denial of our own symptoms and sickness is to project it onto others.

Sometimes by just proclaiming that another is sicker than we are, believing that if someone else is suffering symptoms greater than our own, we are given the chance to deny our own sin. 

Sisters and brothers, this is nothing more than cheap law. 

God’s law is given to us as a gift, just as God’s grace is a gift, freely given. 

It is meant to be used as a scalpel, a medical tool to cut the infection of sin out of our lives with God’s grace freely given to be the balm that heals those wounds. 

But when we use the law to condemn other’s bondage to sin, the law becomes nothing more than an accusatory broadsword, striking others down maliciously while masking our own sin, denying the reality of our own symptoms. 

It turns the gift of God’s law into a cheaply bought form of illusory self denial.

Perhaps herein lies the cardinal sin associated with the human institution of the church; self righteousness. 

But it is by that truth that we are all equally condemned, not you, not me, but WE, we all. 

This is the reality that the leader of the synagogue clearly denies when he abuses the law by not recognizing that if he too has come to the synagogue to truly commune with the one true God, 

he too has come to seek the redemptive change that this woman undeniably receives.

But it is not the change one can receive if they do not first acknowledge that it is needed in the first place. 

The leader of the synagogue does not directly confront Jesus because he knows that is a fight he isn't going to win.

So he picks on the one whose sin has already been exposed, the one who is most vulnerable to being accused, because it is her sin, fully exposed that has brought her to the synagogue in the first place. 

But Jesus’ response is about as straight forward as it can come. 

He calls it like he sees it, not only comparing their own care for animals to the lack of care they show for this daughter of Abraham -abusing the sabbath as a day off rather than the most important work day of the week-but Jesus is comparing the close attention to the care of animals to their own lack of attention to unbinding their own ties to their own sin. 

It is in that moment that the leaders are not necessarily put to shame, but they are given the opportunity to recognize their own shame. 

The leader is not condemned by the words of Jesus, but he is now freed by Jesus, because he recognizes the shame of his own hypocrisy.

The hypocrisy of denying his own sin. 

And in that recognition he is freed to be healed himself knowing that he himself -although not physically buckled over by the symptoms of his own sin yet- suffers the same disease and is invited to come to the table and be healed by the same hand. 

~

Last week, while attending Churchwide Assembly,  we stayed in a hotel, on the edge of the French Quarter in New Orleans.

While I attended numerous seminars, speeches, and networking opportunities, I couldn’t resist my walks into the French quarter daily, especially Bourbon Street. 

It was probably the most enlightening experience of the entire week.

I’ve been many places in my life; 

But out of all those places, I’ve never seen a place where such an air of permissiveness prevailed. 

It was any wonder why many delegates, Deacons, and Pastors locked themselves in their rooms at night. 

I won’t describe the sights, or even the sounds -although the blues band I heard three nights in a row was amazing- but as I walked among masses of people engaging in behaviors that certainly wouldn’t spruce up a job resume, 

I had to ask the question, what makes me different?

Intersection of Bourbon and Orleans in the French Quarter of New Orleans

As I crossed the intersection of Orleans and Bourbon Street, asking myself this very question one night, I was almost drawn to tears. 

Standing in the middle of this intersection, immersed in the filth and dabauchery of a nighttime Bourbon Street party, I looked straight down Orleans Street where I saw the shadow of Christ -with his hands raised high above us all- a mere block away being reflected on the outer wall of St Louis Cathedral. 

It was in that moment that I realized, in the midst of all the sights and sounds of Bourbon Street there is NOTHING that separates me from the behaviors and actions I was surrounded by. 

But in taking off that Mardi Gras mask that denies just how susceptible I am to sin, maybe I can reach out in faith, vulnerable and exposed, just like the woman in our gospel lesson today, and accept those gracious hands that are reaching out to me. 

Maybe we all can. 

Amen.