Thompson's Blog

Spiritual Shrewdness

Luke 16:1-13

1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

It’s not easy to see what Jesus was trying to reveal when he told this parable of the dishonest steward.  The parables that Jesus told were never designed to reveal all aspects of the kingdom of God, but with this parable you have to make an effort to convince yourself that there’s anything in here worth understanding. Neither the master nor the steward have characteristics that are obviously redeeming. On the surface it appears that a questionable character is commended for altering the books and generating a soft landing for himself.

The conclusion of this entire passage is pretty clear and easy to embrace. I think we all can see the value of not dividing our allegiances, but the parable that sets up this conclusion isn’t so easy to grasp.

And there’s another thing that compounds the confounding nature of the parable. There is some commentary attached to the parable that is worth noting, but it doesn’t help us understand the parable itself. The actual parable seems to end midway through the eighth verse with the master expressing pleasure with the behavior of the steward. I want to focus on the actual parable, and I think it’s helpful to hear the parable without the commentary that follows, so here’s what it sounds like by itself.

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. ²So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ ³Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ ⁷Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ ⁸And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly;

Now as we think about what this may mean I think it’s helpful to remember that Jesus didn’t tell this as an anecdote in a business ethics workshop. Jesus isn’t functioning as an instructor in a management seminar. Jesus is being more like an EMT who’s trying to administer a proper shock to the heart of a dying patient than as a teacher in continuing education class. What we know about Jesus is that he was perfectly distressed by the absolute lostness of the religious leaders of his cherished faith, and he was trying to disrupt the false teaching that had been going on.

Jesus was out to expose the lostness of the religious leaders of his day and to reveal the mysterious truth about our God. And one of the tools he used in his effort to transform the way people were wrongly thinking of God was to tell these shocking tales with odd twists.

This is a strange parable without an obvious lesson, but one of the things Jesus was doing when he told this parable was to totally contradict the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees in a shrewd manner. He didn’t just stand up and proclaim that they had no idea what they were talking about, he told a story that revealed an opportunity for those who had been doing the wrong thing to behave in a new way and to reestablish themselves. On one level I think this parable is an invitation for the Pharisees and scribes to see themselves in a new way and want to change their ways.

This may be a stretch, but I think if I had been in the role of a Pharisee, and if I heard Jesus tell a story of a person in a management position who had been caught squandering the goods – I think I would have leaned in to hear what he was saying. And I think I would have liked what I heard. Because this manager who knew he hadn’t been doing things quite right didn’t react defensively. This manager made an honest assessment of the situation and he responded creatively. He found a way to provide for himself in a clever manner, and he was commended by the master for his ingenuity. It’s not an ethical business model, but I think it was a way for Jesus to invite the dishonest managers of Israel to see our God in a new way.

The one redeeming characteristic of the dishonest steward was that he recognized the authority of the master. He had taken advantage of his position in the absence of the master, but when he was confronted with this accusation he didn’t even try to pretend that this was not the case. He didn’t consider trying to make excuses for himself. He didn’t even try to promote the illusion of propriety. He knew that he was seen for who he was, he made an honest assessment of his situation, and he did what he could to preserve his lifestyle.

He knew the gig was up, and he knew that he wasn’t going to reestablish a relationship with his master under the same circumstances. He had no illusion about his ability to continue to defraud his master, and he did something that provided him with some new options.

This is an interesting parable (to say the least), and it’s important for us to make a distinction between the immorality of the steward’s behavior, and the cleverness of his solution. We aren’t to imitate his dishonest behavior, but we are to take note of the whole new life that he established for himself. He reveals what it looks like to serve one master or the other, and it calls for us to identify in an equally clear manner which master we have chosen to serve.

The behavior of this steward isn’t a good thing if you are trying to understand what it looks like to actually serve God, but it sheds some clear light on the difference between serving one master or the other. This parable provides us with a lesson on the value of self-understanding, and the importance of seeing who it is we seek to serve.

We don’t generally see shrewdness as a spiritual characteristic because when we exercise shrewdness it’s usually done in a self-serving manner. I think we often associate shrewdness with people who see clever investment opportunities, and we generally think of shrewd investors as those who find ways to make lots of money for themselves. It’s not a bad thing to be a shrewd investor, but I think we would all agree that shrewd investing is not a spiritual endeavor – it’s an economic endeavor. Some people are inclined to think if you make a lot of money at something you have been favored by God, but that’s not anything that Jesus ever taught. I think what Jesus was trying to teach with this parable is that there’s more than one way to be shrewd, and if it’s God that we want to serve we need to engage in some spiritually shrewd behavior.

I think the point of this parable is to encourage us to see who it is we seek to serve, and to ask the question of how diligent and creative we are being in our effort to develop that relationship. I don’t think it’s news to any of us that the most satisfying experiences in life are the ones that enhance loving relationships with other people and draw us closer to God. And if this is what we want we need to understand if that’s what we are working for or against.

I’m advocating that we engage in some spiritual shrewdness, but I don’t want you to hear me saying that we’ve got to be as clever and conniving as this dishonest steward was in order to gain God’s attention and favor. I’m absolutely sure that it’s not through our own creative efforts that we find ourselves in the company of God, but I do think we’ve got to be pretty shrewd in order to see through our own illusions of ourselves. We aren’t just good as presenting nice godly images of ourselves to other people, we’re pretty good at keeping ourselves from seeing who we serve and what we love more than anything else.

The best thing that ever happens to any of us is for us to have those experiences where we come to realize the gig is up, and we understand ourselves to be perfectly exposed as the frail, flawed, misguided, and confused individuals that we all have known ourselves to be. I’m not actually wishing that on anyone next week, but there’s something beautiful that happens when we encounter personal failure. There’s something redeeming about seeing ourselves as incredibly limited human beings in need of the love of God and our neighbors.

Sometimes those experiences are foisted upon us. On a show last week on CNN I heard Mitt Romney talk about how it feels to lose a presidential election. One of the most memorable illustrations of the emotional cliff you fall off of when you lose such a race was when he talked about being on the world stage one week and being in line to check out at Costco the next week in order to restock their empty refrigerator. Personal failure happens, and that’s a terribly painful experience, but it can put you in a beautifully redeeming place. Often God’s love becomes the most clear to us when our illusions of personal accomplishment have been stripped away.

But I don’t think we have to experience public disgrace in order to put ourselves in such spiritually rich places. I think the kind of shrewdness Jesus was calling for us to have is simply for us to develop yearning for the truth. We should want to see ourselves for who we are, and to see God as God really is.

When Jesus told this parable I think Jesus was offering an opportunity for some terribly misguided people to wake up and see how wrong they were about him, about themselves, and about God. It was an odd invitation for them to serve the one true master. But it wasn’t just for them. We all need to recognize the ways in which we squander the true master’s goods, and give ourselves fully to false gods.

It happens to all of us, and such temptations never cease, but neither does the love of God. Opportunities for redemption continue to come our way, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we sometimes find the wisdom and the courage to step in to that beautifully searing light of truth.

Thanks be to God. Amen

The Strong Language of Christ

Luke 14:25-33

25 Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Something I enjoyed about my time in campus ministry was getting to hear fresh slang. Of course by the time I tuned in to it, it wasn’t necessarily fresh anymore, but there was one student in particular who liked to say things that he knew I wouldn’t quite understand. I remember hearing him refer to a girl he knew as a hater, and what I knew about that situation was that he was a lot more interested in her than she was in him, and that clued me in to what it meant to be a hater.

I don’t know if young people still use that language. I found it to be an entertaining use of the word. Haters aren’t necessarily hateful people – they just don’t do what somebody expects them to do. And I actually think that use of the word is pretty close to the way in which Jesus used the word. Certainly Jesus wasn’t advocating for people to treat other people in a hateful way when he said that we must hate our closest relatives and even ourselves if we want to follow him, but I do think he meant that we shouldn’t let anyone or anything get between ourselves and God.

On a significant level you’ve got to be a hater if you want to follow Jesus. If you want to say yes to God you’ve got to say no to some others. If you said no to someone in 2008 that turned you in to a hater, and I think that’s the kind of hate Jesus was talking about in this passage of scripture.

Jesus used this strong language in order to describe the high cost of following him.  Jesus wanted us to know on the front end that following him is not a matter of tagging along on a sentimental journey. Some churches probably do a better job of highlighting the cost of discipleship better than we do in the United Methodist Church, but I’m not unhappy that we are as agreeable as we are.

Jesus says you can’t follow him unless you hate your family and give up your possessions, but we encourage family life in the United Methodist Church and we celebrate economic success – when it’s done in an ethical way. I’m not saying we should ignore what Jesus had to say about the spiritual perils that are posed by our most cherished relationships and our fortunes, but like most matters of the heart – it’s not so simple. It might be that we err on the side of reason at the expense of some commitment, but I like to think we United Methodists do a good job of encouraging people to integrate their faith with their family life and for people to allow their faith to inform their economic decisions.

I didn’t see the episode, but I understand that the comedian, Jon Stewart, once said that becoming a United Methodist is a lot like getting an online degree from University of Phoenix. I don’t know if any of you have a degree from the University of Phoenix, but if you do I hope you find it to be as helpful as it is to be a United Methodist.

I know that what Jon Stewart said is true on some level. We make it easy to join our body, and we aren’t very demanding of one another in regard to the way we live out our discipleship, but I don’t like the alternative. It seems to me that when churches become overly restrictive and highly judgmental they become hateful in a way that Jesus didn’t intend. Some say we United Methodists have more questions than answers and to that I say Amen.

We don’t pretend to have all the answers, and that makes it possible for a lot of us to embrace this community of faith. Our lack of hardline positions on various issues may make for an element of confusion, but I’ll take confusion over fundamentalism anytime. There’s an element of humility that goes with not knowing everything, and anyone who thinks they know exactly what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ hasn’t paid close attention to what Jesus had to say.

I find this morning’s passage to be particularly humbling. I’ve indicated that I think there is some hyperbole involved in what Jesus had to say, but what I also believe is that Jesus is all but impossible to follow in a perfect way. The cost of following him in a totally committed manner is more than most of us are willing to give. Few of us would say that we wouldn’t give everything we have to take care of a child or a parent or a spouse, and I dare say we all aspire to live in nice houses. Who can give what Jesus seems to be asking?

Who is qualified to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Who has made the kind of sacrifices Jesus seems to be requiring? I know I haven’t. I don’t know the inner life of anyone else, but on a significant level I can see what it costs to be a follower of Jesus Christ and I don’t measure up. To use his language – I don’t have enough raw materials to build the tower, and I can see that my army is no match for my enemy. I guess I could use this as an excuse to forget the whole thing, but I can’t. I’m guessing I’m like a lot of people in that original crowd who continued following Jesus on the day he uttered these words. They found what he had to say too hard to hear, but they couldn’t turn away.

Jesus was uncompromising in what he knew to be true about the path to true life – that it costs far more than we can imagine being willing to give, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t welcome to fall in behind him. Jesus didn’t want us to be misinformed about how difficult it is to find our way in to the bright light of a truly holy life, but he only wanted to put off those who expected it to be easy. What Jesus wanted us to understand is that there isn’t a shortcut to the life of spiritual abundance. Nor did he want us to think that pursuit was going to provide us with the kinds of treasures that we generally go after in this world.

Speaking as the United Methodist that I am, I fully embrace the idea that it’s possible to be a fully engaged member of society who gets the kids to school and goes to work every day in an economic system that is far from perfect, and who also pursues life in the kingdom of God. I don’t believe it’s essential to renounce all that we generally hold dear in order to be a serious follower of Jesus Christ, but I don’t think we need to ignore how difficult it is to live in this material world and to seek a spiritual life.

We need to understand what we’re up against. Self-understanding and authentic spirituality are not encouraged by the socioeconomic systems that surround us, and it’s hard to resist the claims of these systems on our lives. To live a spiritually authentic, creative, and obedient life is to recognize the ways in which we are being lured in to serving false masters, and one way that this is manifested in our lives is our tendency to want to separate our material lives from our spiritual lives.

One of the great challenges we face is to resist the temptation to create dual lives – to think that our internal spiritual life is somehow separated from our external material life. With this kind of thinking there is this tendency to think that if we can somehow please God with our gestures of spiritual obedience through acts of worship and devotion we can turn around and conduct business in whatever manner will provide success – and that God will somehow reward our godless efforts. In some ways I think this is the primary characteristic religious life in our day and age, but that isn’t what Jesus taught, and that isn’t what we should expect. I believe what Jesus invited us to do is to engage in one pursuit. Our challenge is to live in this world as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and that means more than asking Jesus to bless whatever it is we choose to do. It means saying no to some of those powerful systems that expect us to be fully accommodating.

It’s hard to break out of powerful systems, and when people do break free from established systems their actions can be interpreted as forms of hatred for the people they were supposed to love and respect. We live in a confusing world, and it’s not easy for us to see the ways in which we are living those dual lives of loving God and serving godless systems, but that is what we are called to do.

I’m convinced that one of the great challenges that we face in life is for us to simply understand the double lives that we live. I believe we are conditioned to believe that this is the way God designed the world to be, but that’s not the way that Jesus saw it. Jesus made this strong demand for us to hate the claims that worldly institutions place upon us. He wanted us to see the way that godless systems shape our lives. He wanted us to understand how they not only define who we are, but they define who God is as well. In many ways our greatest challenge is to reject the way that God is primarily defined in this world. Our challenge is to understand God as Jesus did – which is not necessarily the way that any of us have been conditioned to understand God.

I’m speaking in some very general terms, but what I’m trying to say is that Jesus didn’t want us to sleepwalk through our lives. Jesus said some downright alarming things because he wanted us to wake up and pursue the truth. I mentioned how easy it is to be a United Methodist, and how I’m not unhappy about that, but being connected to a church is not exactly the same thing as being a disciple of Jesus Christ. The church is sort of like a clubhouse – it’s the place where we find refuge and encouragement, and where we get organized to do some things that serve our vital cause, but following Christ is a very personal journey. It’s good that we have this community of support, but following Christ is an individual enterprise.

The best we can do is to try to understand the challenges and the obstacles that stand between ourselves and our God. It’s not easy, but it’s a beautiful opportunity. It’s not just difficult to follow Jesus – it’s also the best thing that we can ever do.

Jesus spoke some difficult words to us so that we would not be inclined to think that things are as they should be. Jesus wanted us to remain hungry for the truth for our entire lives, and he didn’t want us to settle for an incomplete understanding of God.

The good news is that none of us are alone in this difficult journey of following Jesus. We are not alone in this challenge to move from where we are to where Jesus is calling us to be. The United Methodist Church is full of people who fall short of fulfilling the call of Christ to hate everything and everyone that stands between ourselves and our God. You’re in good company if you have some sense of not measuring up to what Christ calls for you to do.

But we not only have good companions on this difficult journey, we have access to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t just have hard words for us to hear. Jesus had genuine love for us, and he is with us on this journey. Jesus loves us, and Jesus wants us to continue to grow in our understanding of ourselves and of God. Jesus wants us to see the truth about this world, and Jesus wants us to understand how we can more fully integrate life in this world with life in the kingdom of God. It’s hard, but it’s the way for us to fully experience the greatest sense of belonging and to obtain the greatest treasures. The only thing Jesus really hated was our ignorance of God, and he loves us so much he did all he could to expose us to the truth.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Mr. Manners

Luke 14:1, 7-14

1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. 7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

My 40^th high school reunion will be taking place in October. I was in the Wynne High School Class of 1976. There are two notable things about that year. It was the bicentennial year of our nation and the peak year in popularity for men’s pastel-colored polyester leisure suits. These things made me feel like it was a very special year to graduate from high school. I don’t know what came of my baby blue leisure suit, but I so regret not being able to pull it out for the event.

I sent in my registration for the reunion, and there was a bit of questionnaire included in it. I was asked to provide some basic biographical information about my family and my work and my interests. And that wasn’t too hard to pull together, but there was one question that sort of stumped me. On one line it said: Notable accomplishments. And then in parenthesis it said: (Please be brief).

I wasn’t really expecting this request, and I struggled to decide how to respond to it. I really didn’t know what to say, and it’s not that I was trying to figure out how to keep it brief. I couldn’t really think of anything that rose to the level of a notable accomplishment, so I responded by saying: Yet to be determined.

Of course the truth is that I greatly value the appearance genuine humility, and I take great pride in my ability to seem unconcerned about my lack of notable accomplishments. I feel very successful at that. Vanity and self-serving behavior can assume many different forms, and I have chosen to excel in the field of false modesty. I have the amazing ability to shield my raging ego behind the façade of a humble person. They wanted me to keep it brief, so I chose not to explain how masterful I am at appearing to be comfortable with my modest level of accomplishments.

You however, are not so fortunate. I am here to testify that spiritual deficiency can manifest itself in many different ways. There is this temptation to believe that arrogance and self-important indulgence only manifests itself in the kind of behavior that was exhibited at the dinner Jesus attended at the home of the leader of the Pharisees, but it’s not. Spiritual poverty doesn’t always take the form of aggressive self-assertiveness. It can emerge in any number of ways.

Of course it’s not uncommon for pseudo-spirituality to turn in to unbridled self-promotion, and such behavior was on full display when this large group of well-positioned men attended the dinner at the home of the leader of the Pharisees. There wasn’t any false modesty on parade that night. What Jesus witnessed in that house was raw self-promotion and he was disturbed by it. He was troubled to find that these men who were in positions of spiritual guidance for the people of Israel were totally oblivious to the nature of true spirituality.

We’re told that Jesus told them a parable, but in some ways this story doesn’t fit the formula for a parable. Generally speaking, parables were fictional stories that went in odd directions in order to illustrate a particular aspect of the kingdom of God. A good example would be the story of the good Samaritan. That story took a turn that served to disrupt commonly held feelings about a group of people that they generally considered to be spiritually unfit. It was designed to be provocative and unsettling.

What Jesus told the Pharisees wasn’t as much of a fictional story with a startling conclusion, it’s more along the line of straight advice on how to behave, but the advice rises to the level of a parable because it’s such unexpected advice. The intention of a parable is to enable a person to see a situation in a new manner, and that’s exactly what this story does. What Jesus had to say to the people who were in attendance at that dinner was shocking advice, and in so doing he was trying to help them see God in a new manner.

The advice columnist, Ms. Manners, came to mind when I read this passage of scripture. I’m really not sure if she’s still dispensing wisdom about etiquette, but what Jesus did was similar to what she did and may still do. Only Jesus gave his advice in person and it was unsolicited, which is probably something Ms. Manners would advise against. And the instructions Jesus provided don’t exactly fall within the guidelines of the traditional rules of etiquette.

Traditional rules of etiquette are useful to understand on some level. It’s not good to be known for the sounds you make at the dinner-table or to be remembered for the manner in which you grab the salt. There is a good amount of consideration built into the rules of etiquette. But the traditional rules of etiquette aren’t just about training people to be considerate and respectful. There is another purpose of these traditions, and it is to distinguish between people who know how to act in proper society and those who don’t. The rules of etiquette are designed to reflect polish and refinement, and it’s essential to exercise proper etiquette if you want to fit in with people who live in nice places.

And you might say Jesus was trying to do the same thing, but instead of trying to be pleasing to people who live in nice places on earth, Jesus was instructing people on how to behave if you want to be at home in the kingdom of God. The Pharisees were trying to figure out how to impress one another, Jesus was talking about the way we should live if we want to make an impression on the saints in heaven.

After giving his unsolicited advice about where to sit, Jesus then shared some unconventional thoughts on developing the guest list for an important social event. It comes across as odd advice to invite people who are unable to return the favor if you are oriented around your social standing in this world, but it makes perfect sense for a person who is oriented around the Kingdom of God. There is a sense in which Jesus assumed the role of Mr. Manners at this dinner party, but his advice was not on how to navigate through society in a graceful manner. He gave his advice on how to act when you want to gain entrance in the Kingdom of God.

The fact that Jesus engaged in this critique of the guests at this dinner party was an odd turn of events, because Jesus was the one they expected to scrutinize. Jesus had been invited to this dinner so the most powerful people in the community could make an assessment of who they thought he was. They were wanting to take a good look at him, and they weren’t just wanting to see if he knew which fork to eat his salad with. Jesus was suspected of leading people astray — of doing things that defied their rules of religious etiquette.

The Pharisees recognized that Jesus was a person with a growing amount of power and authority. He wouldn’t have been invited to this high-powered dinner if that had not been the case. But the Pharisees didn’t approve of the way in which Jesus used his power. He touched people who they considered to be defiled. He didn’t observe the Sabbath in the way they thought it should be observed, and he didn’t say nice things about powerful people. Jesus didn’t do things that would endear him to those who were in high places, and that fueled their suspicion of him.

They were right to eye him with suspicion, for he was interested in turning people away from their way of thinking. When Jesus told them where they should sit when they attend a wedding banquet, he was revealing the radical difference between the attitude and activity of a person who wants to be faithful to God and the attitude of those who live to serve themselves.

And he was talking to us as much as he was talking to them. It’s always been easy to confuse our own personal agendas with what we consider to be righteous behavior. It’s not always easy for us to see the way in which we do this, but it was obvious to Jesus, and Jesus wants us to avoid that most profound form of humiliation. Arrogant behavior can feel very satisfying to our fragile egos, but in actuality, the ways in which we try to assert ourselves over other people can be detrimental to our souls.

Jesus spoke of what it takes to be at home in the Kingdom of God, and the manner in which the Pharisees lived placed them on the outside of that community. When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God I’m convinced he was speaking of a community that is both in this world and beyond. It isn’t just a community that we enter upon departure from this world – I believe we can step into it while we’re still in the flesh. I think Jesus experienced it among the people who were cast out of the official religious community, and this is why he advised inviting such an unusual group of people to dinner. I think Jesus saw the Pharisees as living apart from that holy community, and he doesn’t want us to make that same mistake.

Jesus said that when we find ourselves in the position of hosts we shouldn’t invite people who can somehow repay us, but we should reach out to people who have more needs than resources. His advice to invite victims of various infirmities wasn’t about charity, it was about getting in touch with people who understand true dependence on God. It was about associating with people who actually live without pretense. It was about getting a taste for life in the Kingdom of God.

To abide in the Kingdom of God is to live with values that are opposed to that which is generally valued on earth. Jesus’ advice is that we seek to satisfy God and God alone. Jesus wanted us to know that we are not receiving the best reward if we’re only going after the stuff and the status.

I sort of hated that I didn’t have a few powerful awards and titles that I could have listed as notable accomplishments for my high school reunion. It’s hard not to want to be measurably successful, but I think we all know that the most powerful things any of us accomplish are largely immeasurable in our worldly ways.

Our faith doesn’t require us to somehow live in a manner that’s disconnected from the operations of this world, but our calling is not to be defined by the standards of this world. It’s not a bad thing for us to consider what we would list as our notable accomplishments. In fact it’s probably a good thing to assess where we are and what we are seeking to do. It’s also good to know that much is yet to be determined for all of us, and by the grace of God we will continue to grow in our understanding of what it will take to actually accomplish great things for the kingdom of God.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Another Teachable Moment

Luke 13:10-17

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” 13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” 17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

I think some of you saw the picture on my facebook page of the mattress strapped on the back of my truck as we set out to take Lucas’ large items to his apartment in New York City. Some of you might even have seen the second picture we took after my brother-in-law topped off the mattress with a small rocking chair – which seemed particularly fitting. You could almost hear bluegrass music playing in the background. It’s no small undertaking to deliver a mattress 1250 miles. I’m particularly aware of this because I once lost a mattress as I was driving down a freeway.

It was at the end of my first semester in seminary and I was in the process of moving. The last thing I needed to relocate was a mattress. It was getting late in the day and rain was on its way and I only had some lightweight twine on hand (ok it was kite string, but it was strong kite string). What came to my mind was that image of the small Liliputians keeping the huge Gulliver tied to the ground with many tiny ropes, and I decided to utilize that same concept. I know it’s a fictional story, but the cartoon version of the story looked entirely plausible. I had a small Chevrolet LUV pickup with a camper cover on the back, so I put that mattress on the top of the camper, and I ran that kite string back and forth over the top of it many times.

It was right at dusk as I took off, and it had begun to sprinkle as I got on to the freeway between Durham and Chapel Hill. I was moving at a pretty good pace when this car pulled up beside me and started pointing to the rear. I instantly knew what they meant, and when I looked in my mirror I saw my mattress over on the shoulder of the road. I don’t always make quick decisions, but I don’t even think I slowed down when I saw that the mattress was at least off the road.

That’s what you call a teachable moment. I immediately realized I had made a huge mistake. I should have cut my kite string in to about 25 pieces and tied each piece independently of each other. That’s how the Liliputians did it. Instead, I just went back and forth with the same continuous line about a dozen times and when that line broke in one place the whole system collapsed.

Some would say there’s another lesson I should have learned, and I did. I did not use kite string to tie the mattress on my truck as we struck out on our trip to New York. I’ll see a mattress on the side of the road every once in a while, and when I do I always wonder if someone found that experience to be as instructive as I did.

I hate teachable moments – at least when I’m on the learning end. Of course we all need them, and teachable moments are actually good things. Educators speak of teachable moments as those moments in which a unique, high interest situation arises that lends itself to discussion of a particular topic. Good teachers are always trying to find those special moments when their students might be the most open to understanding a new concept.

There was a high-school math teacher in Queensbury, New York, who was always trying to show the actual relevance of math in life, and he realized he had a very teachable moment when Oreo came out with their Double Stuf Cookies. He had his students measure and compare the amount of white cream filling in a regular Oreo Cookie with the amount of white cream filling in a Double Stuf Cookie, and in the process they unearthed a scandal. They determined that an Oreo Double Stuf Cookie doesn’t have twice as much filling – it only has 1.86 as much white cream filling as a regular Oreo Cookie!

I don’t know if they changed their advertising or their formula, but the results of their findings got reported in the Wall Street Journal and on NPR – which is where I heard it. This turned out to be a teachable moment for those students and for Nabisco. If you are going to claim something you better make sure it’s the truth. We’ve got a lot of fact checkers in the world today and they all have twitter accounts.

Teachable moments are great – and horrible. They are great if you are the teacher, and you see an opportunity to help your students grasp a new concept. They are horrible when you are the one who has come to discover that you only thought you knew what you were doing.

I think what we have in this morning’s scripture is a snapshot of a teachable moment. The very first verse in this morning’s scripture says that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and I’m thinking that one of the reasons God prescribed a Sabbath day for the people of Israel was to enable ongoing learning. God wanted to establish a regular teachable moment in the life the Jewish community. We generally think of the Sabbath day as a day of rest, but it also involved this tradition of coming together for learning. And I think we all do our best learning when we take a step out of what we are doing every other day of the week and to take a good look at ourselves.

If you never stop you never contemplate how you might do things differently or dream of how things can be better. Asking large questions is an exercise that requires some leisure – some stepping out of the work mode. Of course good things almost always turn in to far different creatures than what they were established to be, and this seems to have been the case with the keeping of the Sabbath Day. It had become more of an institutional requirement than a day set apart for spiritual development. It had become so fiercely regulated it probably generated far more distress in people’s lives than it created the opportunity for reflection and rest.

Jesus was trying to teach, but he was probably having a hard time getting people to understand what he was saying until he saw an opportunity to show what he was talking about. When he saw this poor woman who had been crippled for eighteen years he realized he had a teachable moment. By using his power to repair the life of this woman who had been so limited for so long he was able to reveal what it is that God wills for all of us.

The act of healing this woman was not just an act of benevolence for one person – it was an action designed to heal the sickness of the community. And this was a sick community. They didn’t understand what God’s intentions really were. The religious leaders of the day thought God intended for them to simply maintain traditional rules at the expense of human life and dignity. This was a very teachable moment for the leaders and the community. It wasn’t as pleasant for the leader of the synagogue as it was for the people who were hungry for relief from their religious oppressors, but it was good for everyone.  We don’t know if the leader of the synagogue was set free from his crippling teaching, but when Jesus asked him whether he would untie a donkey and lead it to water on a Sabbath I’m guessing he felt the sting of the truth.

The point of this passage isn’t hard to get. It’s a clear portrayal of the way in which religious institutions and religious people can be at odds with the source of their faith. Speaking as an official religious leader I must say that this passage grabs my attention. In fact it sort of grabs me by my religious collar and gives me a shake.

I don’t think I’m a person who is overly legalistic about insignificant matters, nor do I think that’s what our church represents, but we’ve got some religious regulation conflict brewing in our denomination.

I’m guessing most of you know that our denomination is undergoing some significant institutional stress. The battle line is over our policies regarding human sexuality, and it’s very likely that our denominational structure is going to get reshaped within the next few years – and when I say few years I mean 2 to 4 years.

Nobody knows what this means, but it’s hard for anyone to see the way in which we can maintain our current structure. On one side, there are people who are offended by people who blatantly violate the rules within our Book of Discipline. And on the other side there are people who find those rules to be untenable. A commission is currently being established to produce recommendations for how we can move forward.

I don’t say this to create alarm about what’s going to happen, but I think you should be aware of what’s going on. I also think it’s important for all of us to be aware of how we deal with people who have different opinions about what God intends. This passage reminds me that the primary intention of God is to repair our brokenness, and I’m thinking one of the great temptations of our current denominational conflict is to demonize whoever it is that we happen to disagree with. It’s so much easier to establish blame than to seek understanding, and I think this is the case regardless of what you think is right or wrong. I think this same tendency can be seen playing out within our national political situation.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to have opinions about what needs to happen in any giving situation. I even think it’s important for people to engage in the work of advocacy for what you think is right or wrong. It’s good to care about what’s going on in our world and in our community, and in our denomination. And it’s important to work for what you think needs to happen, but none of us should ever be surprised when we end up on the learning end of a teachable moment.

Sometimes we find opportunities and ways to help someone else see some truth that had formerly escaped them, but we all have our blind spots, and it’s always good to get exposed to the truth – even when it lands like a blow to the head.

Fortunately, none of us as individuals are charged with fixing the United Methodist Church, but we are all engaged in our own truth/untruth struggles. We are all called to be advocates for the truth and lovers of God, and I dare say that is a significant challenge for each of us. None of us are always going to get those things right, but God will always provide us with new opportunities to see what’s right. Teachable moments will never stop coming our way, and if we are more interested in being faithful than right, we will continue to grow in our knowledge and love of the One who Jesus Christ so perfectly revealed.

Thanks be to God!

Amen

The Blessing of Discomfort

Luke 12:49-56

12:49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” 54 He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. 55 And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. 56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Bear with me on this passage of scripture. This isn’t a particularly comforting passage, but I think I can point out some things that will leave you feeling good about it.

This world is such a strange place. The range of human experience on this planet is just more than I can get my mind around. I’m dumbstruck by the extent to which some people suffer and other people prosper. It seems that there is no limit to the pleasure or the pain that this world can provide, and in some significant ways the pain and the pleasure are doled out in a seemingly random fashion.

I think our inclination is to believe that things will go well for us if we eat right, do right, exercise, and say our prayers, and there certainly is some truth to this, but this isn’t the way it always works. Good people suffer. Selfish people prosper. This seemingly random nature of the way in which our lives are torn or propelled would be incredibly distressing to me if it wasn’t for this odd twist that Jesus so clearly taught and demonstrated. What Jesus revealed and what we know to be true is that some of the most painful things in our lives are the very things that bring us richness.

I think it’s in light of this reality that our scripture lesson this morning makes the most sense.  Jesus was painfully aware of how badly things can go in this world. At this point in his ministry he was on his way to Jerusalem where he anticipated rejection, prosecution, and crucifixion. He also knew how crossed up we can become with the most important people in our lives – even when we are doing exactly what God is calling us to do.

We don’t always end up at odds with our loved ones when we seek to align our lives with the truth of God. Prosperity can be derived from faithful living, and people who engage in devilish behavior often get what they deserve in a timely fashion, but as I say – these results aren’t guaranteed. You can’t be guided through life with simple formulas. This is a complex world, and it’s not unusual for us to suffer in ways that we would never expect. The trials that we face are often more difficult to navigate than we could ever have imagined. We don’t just experience challenges from the people we expect to be opposed to us – our most challenging adversaries can be our friends and family members.

I’m not trying to stir anything up if you are getting along with everyone right now, but Jesus had a clear understanding of what goes on in this world and within our very families, and he didn’t want us to be surprised by the things that come up. He also wanted us to keep an eye on ourselves. I think he wanted us to be aware of the ways in which any of us can become aligned with the wrong things and at odds with the truth.

Jesus was facing some real stress, and he didn’t keep his thoughts to himself. He was about to undergo great suffering and death and that moved him to turn up the heat on his followers. He said he didn’t come to bring peace but to cause division. He said he came with fire and some people were going to get burned, and he wasn’t talking about the afterlife – he knew that the course he was following and advocating was going to generate some extreme interpersonal conflicts in this life. He didn’t take pleasure in the conflict, but he knew that the truth would be very painful for some people to hear.

Jesus didn’t just come to play nice – he came to reveal deception and to expose the truth, and that doesn’t go over so well with people who are in love with distorted images of God and unjust patterns of existence. When Jesus spoke these words he didn’t have much time left, and it generated a new level of clarity to his message. He knew he was about to become the target of some misguided religious zeal, and he didn’t want his followers to be surprised when they found themselves in similar situations.

Jesus clearly didn’t offer us a painless journey, but the pain we encounter in life can be very fruitful. The suffering we experience can very well be the source of our redemption.

I’ve recently become quite a fan of a writer named Richard Rohr. Father Rohr is a Franciscan monk who has written several books on the subject of spiritual development. I find his perspective to be powerfully refreshing and inspirational, and in an essay I recently read he identified the way in which there are two things available to every one of us that provide us with access to union with God. One of those things is love, and the other is suffering. There are no words that can do what love and suffering can do for us. There are no teachers who can provide us more access to truth than love and suffering. Unfortunately, not everyone has easy access to people who touch them with great love, but there’s never any shortage of suffering to go around, and as surely as we can be spiritually transformed by the power of great love – suffering can open that same door.

Of course spiritual development isn’t the only avenue that’s available to us when we suffer. You might say there are two ways to go when you encounter great suffering in life. When you face circumstances that leave you in pain and without any control you can go in one of two directions: you can move in a direction that leaves you bitter and hurtful to others, or you can allow your suffering to soften your heart and to expand your compassion. Richard Rohr doesn’t say that it’s easy for our suffering to lead us in to that place of unity with God and compassion toward other people, but he believes that suffering is truly an avenue to a form of wholeness that you can’t find in any other way.

He also believes that people who have great love in their hearts will experience great suffering – which is what I think Jesus is pointing to in this passage. People who have great love are people who don’t insist on their own ways and who in significant ways relinquish control of their lives. To have great love for other people is to give yourself to others, and such profound giving can be profoundly painful.

I think the inter-familial stress that Jesus spoke of creating is rooted in the way in which he was calling for people to expand their love beyond the boundaries of family life. This is not to say that Jesus didn’t think it was important to love our immediate family members, but it’s not unusual for people’s lives to be defined in very narrow ways by their families. Families can be very restrictive with their love. People rarely fit in to the mold that the family expects, and it can be very disruptive for a person to say no to the life that is expected by their family structure.

There’s a whole school of psycho-therapy built around the way we are affected by our family systems, I won’t inflict my shallow understanding of that upon you this morning, but what I know is that we are always better off seeking to hear the instruction of the Holy Spirit to instruct our lives than we are to simply assume the role that is expected of us by our families. I’m not advocating the abandonment of our families, but I do believe our highest calling is to live in response to the greatest love of all. We are called to live in unity with the family of God.

There are so many stories of the ways in which children had to leave their family in order to do the thing they were called to do. Bruce Springsteen, one of my favorite rock musicians, once said that there were two things unwelcome in his father’s house – him and his guitar. They had a very stormy relationship, and Bruce Springsteen said it was best for the both of them to stay away from each other for an extended period of time.

It can be an act of love to not do what is expected of you in order to step in to that more mysterious relationship with God. And such steps can be very painful, but I heard an interview on the radio last week with a man who spoke of the way in which we are inclined to grow when we are in places of discomfort. This man had left home at an early age and moved to a city where he had to be very resourceful to survive, and he attributed his success as a writer to that decision to step in to a place that was very challenging to him. He considered his discomfort to have been a great teacher to him. As he said, You learn to swim when you experience the discomfort of drowning.

Of course the other option is to drown. Suffering doesn’t always produce a softened heart and a more authentic life, but suffering is always available to us as a teacher. It’s not the teacher that we prefer, and we often take actions that we think will enable us to avoid the harsh lessons that we get when we aren’t able to be in total control of our lives, but none of us are able to keep that severe instructor away forever. And what Jesus wants us to understand is that we can have access to something more satisfying than comfort if we are willing to trust and embrace the love of God.

Jesus didn’t want us to confuse having a comfortable life with having abundant life, and I think he was frustrated with the people who were surrounding him because they seemed to be more concerned with their immediate circumstances than they were of their eternal lives. They were more inclined to predict the weather than they were watching for what God was doing in their midst.

Jesus was worked up because he doesn’t want us to be content with the comforts of this world and to ignore the joy of abiding in God’s kingdom. Jesus wants our attention, and I believe the more attention we give to what he taught and how he lived the more likely we will go down that road that leads to unity with God and compassion for our neighbors.

The truth is that none of us really have to go out of our way to encounter discomfort and suffering. You don’t have to leave the house in order to find it. It finds us, and it’s important for us to know how to handle it. Suffering doesn’t come to us as a cheerful companion, but it can guide us to a happy place. God is with us in our times of trial and by the grace of God we can be transformed by our difficulties and brought in to greater unity with God and our neighbors.

The journey Jesus made to Jerusalem wasn’t easy, but by doing what he did he revealed to us the true picture of God’s enduring love. The image of Jesus on the cross isn’t a pretty picture, but it’s the most powerfully transforming picture we will ever have. It’s a perfect portrayal of both love and suffering.

This is a confusing world. It’s hard to know what to think of much of what goes on in this world, but there’s one thing that doesn’t change, and that is the nearness of God to us when we encounter our times of trial. Thanks be to God for this enduring truth, and regardless of what may be swirling around us or within us there is this ongoing opportunity to find our way in to the calm of God’s eternal love. Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Unconventional Wisdom

Luke 12:13-21

12:13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

One of the wisest things Jesus demonstrated on more than one occasion was the importance of not getting drawn in to the middle of a family conflict. Jesus was fearless in the face of armed and malicious adversaries, but he was very careful when it came to getting enmeshed in a family squabble. He refused to get enlisted by Martha to shame Mary in to helping with the dishes, and here we see him bolting from the request of a man who wanted him to resolve a family property issue. Those situations can get ugly fast. Jesus preferred to deal with people who actually hated him than to get between a couple of brothers or sisters.

So if you have a problem with one of your family members don’t go looking for Jesus to help you get what you want – you’re better off getting a lawyer. Jesus isn’t going to touch it.

But Jesus did have a few things to say about how we are to deal with abundance. And what he had to say can be pretty challenging to us. This is one of those passages that serves to remind me of how difficult it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Because what Jesus taught doesn’t conform to the way we generally think. Jesus was not what we would call a successful financial planner. Jesus was a perfect spiritual director, and he was wise about material things, but what he taught takes us in a far different direction than the one we would choose if our only interest is in accumulating financial wealth.

But it’s not a simple problem. We don’t just get to decide if we love God or money and consequently go in one direction or the other. As we all know, life is much more complex than that. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was virtually homeless and he didn’t have any dependents. This is not to say that his teachings on money aren’t relevant to our lives, but it is to say that our relationship with money is more complicated than his was. If you don’t have to pay rent or a mortgage and provide for the needs of children you don’t have to worry as much about money.

The church I served before coming here hosted a breakfast each Sunday morning for anyone who needed a free meal. It had some other food ministries as well, but that event was a powerful part of my Sunday morning experience. I would go down each Sunday and visit with the servers and the attenders of that meal. I became acquainted with a man who I knew as Mr. Irvin, and I often invited him to say our blessing before the meal. Mr. Irvin was a very devout Christian. He spent most days in the public library reading and studying the Bible.

Mr. Irvin came to Little Rock from New Orleans when he became displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and he had been homeless for a couple of years, but he told me that the move had been a blessing for him. Mr. Irvin was homeless, but he wasn’t desperate. He had figured out how to live on the streets of Little Rock. He didn’t like sleeping in the shelters. He had slept in a vacant boxcar for a while, but he said he usually stayed in a parking garage. He generally wore clean clothes, and he told me it’s not that hard to find clothes or decent food. He generally looked very well kept, and when I asked him where he kept his stuff he responded by saying, In my pockets.

Mr. Irvin had what I would call a very vibrant relationship with God, but he didn’t have a lifestyle than many of us can relate to. He had lost contact with his family, but from what I could tell he wasn’t very unhappy about that. I consider Mr. Irvin to have been a person with a good heart and a rich spiritual life, but there aren’t many of us who can keep all of our stuff in our pockets, and I don’t think Jesus expected us to live like that.

I think the thing I learned from Mr. Irvin was that desperation is something that we can either overcome or be afflicted with regardless of the level of our wealth. I certainly encountered a lot of desperate people who came to that Sunday morning breakfast, and I never could have had enough money to solve some of their problems. I also believe there are some wealthy people who are tormented by their need for more of something that their riches are unable to meet.

Balancing our need for money with our need to be dependent upon God is one of the great challenges of life for those of us who have the good fortune to have well-paying jobs, nice homes, children and grandchildren. Where exactly do we draw the line between providing for ourselves and our families in a world that’s increasingly expensive and being rich toward God?

There are preachers who can give you an exact figure. In fact I’ve been instructed in more than one workshop that we are to be enthusiastic advocates of the tithe. There are people who think God has instructed us to provide the church with 10% of our incomes. I’ve never heard God declare if that’s before or after taxes. In fact I’ve never heard God be so clear about the number. Certainly there are some verses in the Old Testament that talk about bringing the first fruits to the Temple, but I’ll never be convinced that Jesus wants us to give an exact figure of any kind.

What I hear Jesus say is that we are to give our whole selves to God. We aren’t to give a slice of ourselves and a correspondingly similar percentage of our income. I believe that in a profound way we are to give ourselves entirely to God – to be ridiculously generous toward God. And at the same time we are to manage our assets in a way that we provide for the needs of those to whom we are responsible.

I may be wrong about this. In all honesty I may be so compromised by the assets I have at my disposal that I’m providing us all with justification for not reducing ourselves to the most moderate level of existence possible and being an absolutist about giving 10% — before taxes. But I don’t believe Jesus was legalistic in this or any other way. I think Jesus understood that this is a challenge for us. Jesus didn’t give an exact instruction on what we are to do. He told us we are to love God and we are to love our neighbor, and I assure you this does mean we are to be generous, but we’ve got to figure out what it means to not be as spiritually foolish as was this man in our text this morning.

It’s not easy for us to embrace the unconventional financial wisdom of Jesus. We are challenged by Jesus to do be wiser than this man who couldn’t think of anything to do with his good fortune than to create more financial security for himself. I believe what this story primarily exposes is the foolishness we are inclined to practice if we don’t make an effort to hear the alternative wisdom of God. This man only seemed to have consulted his own store of wisdom, and he hadn’t bothered to store up much of that. He didn’t give thanks to God for his bountiful harvest, he didn’t seek guidance from God on what he should do with his abundance – he only: … thought to himself, what should I do …

He didn’t think long or hard about what he should do. He did what many people might have done – he did the thing that was most advantageous to his selfish soul, and he went on to congratulate his soul for providing himself with such an ample supply of grain. A supply of grain that was of no use to him when his life came to a sudden end.

It may be that the real curse of money is the way in which it can deaden our imagination. It’s not that money is evil, but if we aren’t careful it can become the thing that rules us.

There’s a very tragic movie that came out a few years ago called: Into The Wild. It’s the true story of a young man who had become very disillusioned with life, and he disappeared from his family and friends. Following college he took the money his family had set aside for him to attend law school, and he gave it away to a charitable organization that sought to eliminate hunger in the world. He set out for Alaska, but before he did he drove into the desert, abandoned his car, and burned his credit cards as well as the remaining dollars he had on him.

He was both disturbed and noble. He worked a few different jobs as he made his way to Alaska, and after he worked at one job for a while he built up a bit of an account. It would have gotten him pretty far along in his journey, but he ended up giving a big chunk of it away to a new friend. In a letter he wrote that accompanied the gift he said, Life is more exciting when I don’t have any money.

And there’s certainly some truth to this. Part of the problem with an abundance of money is that it can be very dulling to our wits. If you can afford to buy whatever you want you don’t have to be very resourceful or creative. An abundance of money can put distance between people and it can put distance between ourselves and God. It’s not the only thing that can get between ourselves and other people and God, but it’s not uncommon for it to get in the way. Unfortunately the lack of money didn’t resolve the problems of the young man in the film. He remained very isolated and his isolation contributed to his untimely death.

Gaining more money doesn’t generally solve our most pressing problems, but getting rid of it won’t automatically fix things either.

Certainly greed is a terrible obstacle to our spiritual development, but there isn’t a good formula for eliminating that spiritual obstacle. Greed can afflict someone without enough money as well as someone with too much. Our only hope is to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and to be diligent in our efforts to love God and our neighbors more than anything else.

People who nurture love in their hearts for God and for their neighbors aren’t just going to consult themselves on issues of money. Money can cause any of us to do foolish things, but it’s power over us diminishes when we work to allow the unconventional wisdom of God to replace those automatic plans that pop in to our heads when money rules our lives.

Money isn’t an easy thing for any of us handle. It’s probably one of the most universally challenging things we have to deal with. It can be used to do a lot of good for ourselves and for others, but it can lead us down some foolish paths. We all need help as we seek to navigate those dangerous waters of wealth and want, and there is help.

Thanks be to God that we aren’t alone in this treacherous journey, and by the grace of God we will find ways to use what we have to bring joy into our hearts, peace into the world, and glory to God.

Amen.

The Language of Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” 5 And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

A preacher appears at the pearly gates. He knocks on the door and is greeted by St. Peter in a cordial manner, but he’s told to take a seat in the reception area, and that there would be a short wait before he could see the Lord. While he’s waiting, he hears a knock at the door, and when St. Peter opens the door he sees St. Peter give this guy a big hug and he ushers him straight into the mansion. The preacher is a bit put off by the situation, and he can’t help but say something to St. Peter. He points out to St. Peter that he had spent his entire life doing his best to preach the gospel, and he doesn’t understand why the other guy was welcomed with so much more enthusiasm. St. Peter assures him his good work has been acknowledged and that he has a room in the big house, but he points out that his preaching had a tendency to put people to sleep, while that New York City taxi driver had consistently moved his riders to pray with great urgency and sincerity!

The necessity and the mystery of prayer – that’s what we’re thinking about this morning. The disciples themselves weren’t entirely clear about the practice of prayer, and that’s what moved them to ask Jesus about it. What they asked is sort of amusing to me. They seem to be feeling a little deprived. Apparently John the Baptist had instructed his disciples on how to pray, and they wanted Jesus to do the same for the them. We don’t know what John was teaching his disciples about prayer, but Jesus responded to their request in a clear but brief manner.

He gave them a straight answer, and he included an illustration to emphasize God’s interest in relating to us, but Jesus isn’t very instructional. I wish they had come back at him with a few follow up questions. Does it matter how we sit? Does it matter where we face? How long? How often?

Jesus offered some basic instruction about how we are to direct our hearts, but he didn’t get specific about the technique of prayer.

On another occasion he told his disciples not to pray like the guys who made great productions of their prayers, but Jesus didn’t really elaborate on how we should practice prayer. Jesus responded to this request for instruction by telling his disciples what they should desire. He didn’t talk about prayer as if it is a skill to be acquired. Jesus spoke of prayer as if it is a language that we are to learn. It’s as if prayer is the language that proceeds from our hearts, and he provided us with instruction on what it is that our hearts should be saying.

This is difficult business if you ask me. It’s not that hard for me to control what comes out of my mouth, but it’s not so easy for me to direct the impulses of my heart. Of course Jesus didn’t preface his answer by saying that it was easy. Jesus just gave them an answer, and then he gave an illustration of how important it is to be persistent in prayer – which is probably a way of saying that it takes a lifetime to learn to pray.

This is not to say that there isn’t some practical advice in the instruction that Jesus provided. The brief way in which Jesus said to address God is probably in contrast to the elaborate way that devout Jews of the day were taught to address God. In that day there was a prayer called The Prayer of Eighteen Petitions, which devout Jews were instructed to pray three times a day and it began with the phrase:

Blessed are You, O Lord our God and God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the

great, mighty and revered God, the Most High God who bestows

loving kindnesses, the creator of all things, who remembers the good deeds of the patriarchs and in love will bring a redeemer to their children’s children for his name’s sake. O king, helper, savior and shield.

Now that’s a beautiful phrase, and it’s one that devout Jews continue to pray three times a day, but you might say Jesus was eliminating a few layers between us and God when he instructed his disciples to just say Father.

This “Prayer of Eighteen Petitions” not only uses many words to address God, it uses many words to address every circumstance that humans find themselves in. It certainly was a sign of devotion for people to recite the prayer a couple of times each day, but Jesus was doing something significant when he taught his disciples a prayer that you can just about say with one breath. I’ve moaned a little bit about the lack of specifics Jesus provided in regard to technique, but it’s very clear to me that in a significant way Jesus was trying to eliminate the burden of many words when he gave this instruction in regard to prayer.

The prayer that Jesus taught condensed many words into a few essential phrases. What we have in our scripture today is an abbreviated form of what we call and recite as the Lord’s Prayer. It’s even a bit different from what we find in the Gospel of Matthew, but there aren’t significant differences. What we have here is the most condensed form of the prayer that Jesus taught, and here is what he seems to be saying that we should train our hearts to express:

When we say:

Father, hallowed be thy name: We are to think of God as being more intimate than exalted. God wants to be loved more than revered.

When we say:

Thy kingdom come: We are to have reverence for God and desire for God’s order to be established on earth. It’s God’s kingdom that we should pursue and we need to be careful not to confuse our own selfish pursuits with God’s kingdom.

When we say:

Give us each day our daily bread: It’s not unreasonable for us to desire the necessities of life, but we don’t need to be overly concerned with laying up treasures on earth.

When we say:

And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us: We make mistakes, and we do harm to others, but by acknowledging our mistakes we can be forgiven. We also must learn to practice forgiveness toward those who have caused us harm or have somehow become costly to us.

When we say:

And do not bring us to the time of trial: It’s not unreasonable for us to seek deliverance from those things that cause us trouble or do us harm. And it’s important for us to avoid putting ourselves in positions that cause harm to our bodies, minds, or souls.

I love the way in which Jesus condensed the essentials, and what we have here is what Jesus considered to be the critical issues of life. It is as if Jesus was saying that these are the desires that should fill our hearts and be reflected in our lives.

It’s a simple prayer, but it’s not so easy to train our hearts. There are some substantial and fundamental obstacles to this heart-training business, but I’m not without hope because we aren’t without help.

God is there for all of us, and God can do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. God wants to open doors for us and fill our hearts with redeeming desires.

I’m wishing Jesus had given us some kind of special technique for accessing the wisdom and power of God to transform our lives and repair our wounds, but there isn’t any kind of secret prayer sauce. Jesus didn’t reveal any kind of hidden code, but he did tell us what we need to do if we want to live in communion with God, and it’s very simple. He told us to pray with persistence.

It’s not complicated. If we want to gain access to the riches of God we need to spend time opening our hearts to God. This is not to say that there’s some kind of formula for getting what we want from God. Jesus didn’t include that clause in the prayer that he taught. He didn’t say we should ask God to grant us whatever we want. He told us to love God. He told us to seek sustenance. He told us to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others, he told us to pray for deliverance from the time of trial, and he told us to be unrelenting in this exercise of prayer.

I don’t believe God grants us whatever we want if we are persistent in our petitioning of God, but I believe our efforts to pray are always rewarded by God. Knock, and the door shall be opened – what’s behind that door is likely to be different from what you want or expect, but it will be good. I believe the more we make ourselves available to God the more in tune we become to the will of God. I believe the blessing of prayer is the blessing of becoming closer to God.

In some ways I don’t think we can keep ourselves from praying. As someone once said, As long as there are math tests there will be prayer in school,! But there’s a way of praying that’s much more fruitful than sporadic outbursts of immediate needs. Jesus sought to give focus to our time of prayer. Jesus wanted us to learn the language of spiritual growth. He wanted us to learn what to seek for ourselves and for others. He didn’t teach us magic words, but he pointed us in the direction of life, and the more we align our lives with those words the more we become aligned with God.

The good news is that we aren’t alone in this world. We have a God who cares for us more than a loving parent. God isn’t as easy to touch as a living parent, but the love of God remains when those we love the most pass away. This is a hard world, and none of us are immune from the pain of live. Jesus never said we would avoid suffering if we would follow him, but what he offered can sustain us in those times of great pain and loss. In fact it’s in such times that the love of God can become the most evident.

God speaks a language that is more mysterious than we can ever fully learn, but the more we get quiet and seek to hear those loving words the more we are able to discern what God is saying. God has a profoundly good message for all of us, and by the grace of God we will get quiet enough to hear it.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Unitasking

Luke 10:38-42

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

I’m not sure when the concept of multitasking became a common way for us to describe the way many of us are inclined to behave, but I think it has become a familiar concept. We’ve sort of accepted it as a legitimate form of behavior, but is it possible to watch a movie, send and receive texts, do homework or office work, and shop online at the same time? It used to be that you had to be in one spot to watch a movie, you had to have a pen and some paper to write a message to someone, and you had to get in the car to go shopping, but that is not the case anymore. You can watch a movie, communicate with friends, and order anything in the world without getting off the sofa. Luckily, the combination of texting and driving is becoming as taboo as drinking and driving, but we do a lot of device manipulation while we’re driving, and I’m as guilty as anyone else when it comes to multitasking.

If my wife didn’t stand up and shout amen, it’s a testimony to her incredible personal restraint. She’s not as convinced of my ability to do two or three other things as I drive as I’m inclined to be, and I think this may be the one area where she’s right.

I think there’s probably a lot of mythology about multi-tasking. I read one person describe the phenomena of multitasking as less of an ability to take care of several things at once, and more of an exercise in giving partial attention to several different things. Multitasking isn’t a form of extra-efficient behavior. Multitasking is the practice of providing continuous partial attention.

And while our amazing new electronic devices have opened up tremendous new opportunities for multitasking, the truth is that it’s always been possible to provide partial attention to a variety of different things. You haven’t always been able to watch videos of grandchildren during slow sermons, but it’s always been possible to split our attention between what we want to be doing and what we aught to be doing.

This is not to say that there aren’t some good reasons to do more than one thing at a time. I can tell you that the parsonage yard is much more likely to get mowed on a regular basis because I can listen to a book while I’m riding a mower and operating a weed-eater. Multitasking has made some tasks much more bearable, but one thing I have learned is that I can’t think and listen at the same time. If I’m engaged in any kind of activity that requires me to figure something out – I have to hit the pause button on my book. If I’m listening to my book I can’t add or subtract, and if I find myself thinking about what I’m doing I lose track of what’s going on in my book. I can only listen to a book when I’m engaged in some kind of mindless activity, and there is evidence that I spend a lot of time engaged in mindless tasks. There is no telling how many hours of listening I’ve engaged in over the past few years.

I’m pretty sure my brain pretty much does one thing at a time, but it can jump from one thing to the next with remarkable agility. My attention level can be pretty shallow, and I don’t think I’m alone in this way. In fact this is clearly an old problem. What we see so well illustrated in this story from Luke is this problem of being distracted by many things – of being overly focused on the wrong things and oblivious to the most important thing.

This is what Jesus identifies as Martha’s main problem. Martha was a multi-tasker – she was trying to be a good host, and she was probably trying to listen to what Jesus was saying, but she was primarily thinking about how irresponsible her sister was being. And she built up enough righteous indignation about what she thought her sister should be doing that she actually tried to enlist Jesus to join her in her criticism of her sister. I guess this story is a perfect portrayal of the way we can be so wrong about what is most important. And it serves to remind me of how wrong we can be about what we think other people aught to be doing.

Last week’s story of the Good Samaritan emphasized the need for us to spring into action at the right moment. This week’s story reveals the importance of knowing when it’s time to sit down and do nothing but pay attention. This business of following Christ is tricky. Sometimes we need to take action. Sometimes we need to stop and listen. We probably don’t ever need to insist that our siblings behave in a particular way.

I don’t know about you, but it’s much easier for me to identify with Martha than with Mary. I’m much more familiar with the problem of being distracted by many things than I am with the joy of engaging in the one needful thing. I’m not so much like Martha in that I get worked up about what the other people who are close to me aught to be doing – I’m usually too confused about what I should be doing to be overly clear about what anyone else needs to do. But I share in Martha’s tendency to be distracted from what’s most important. I rarely have the clarity she had for what her sister should be doing, but I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how I should spend my time and energy, and this usually turns in to some form of multitasking – of giving continuous partial attention to many different things.

One of the joys of that bicycle ride I made to the east coast two years ago was the opportunity to be single-minded for an extended period of time. For twelve days I didn’t have to think about doing anything other than how I was going to get myself from one spot to the next. My job was to keep my body operating, to stay on the right road, and to watch for cars. It wasn’t perpetually joyful – there was a little misery and tedium, but it was so nice to step out of my multi-tasking routine. I didn’t have to check email or answer the phone if it wasn’t someone I wanted to talk to. I had these automatic responses that said I was out of pocket for a period of time and I would get back to them when I returned.

I felt so released from all the different things to which I gave partial attention, and I was focused on one thing. It wasn’t exactly the one needful thing that Jesus talked about, but it was a spiritually enriching experience. I wish I could say I came back from that trip with an entirely new way of approaching life. I wish I could say it put me in touch with perfect focus on that one needful thing, but it didn’t fix me. Maybe I’m a little better. Maybe I only give continuous partial attention to 25 things instead of 50 things, but Jesus invites us to keep our focus on the one needful thing.

I think this story is far more challenging to all of us than the story of the Good Samaritan. In fact, I’m thinking many of us are pretty good at the Good Samaritan thing. We United Methodists are good at being good neighbors. I dare say we United Methodists are as good as anyone when it comes to being good neighbors. We take care of people. When somebody is in trouble we’re pretty good at stepping in and doing what needs to be done. I’m proud of our neighborly reputation, and I don’t want to belittle the value of what we do to help other people, but in some ways it’s easier to be a good neighbor than it is to be a Mary.

This thing Mary did was amazing.

Of course we don’t really know what Mary did. It appears that she really wasn’t doing anything, but Jesus said: she was doing the one needful thing. What is it that Mary was doing?

What Mary was doing is more mysterious than what the Good Samaritan did. What Mary was doing is something less tangible than reaching out to someone in need. What Mary was doing takes equal courage and commitment, but it takes more sensitivity to the presence of God. What Mary did was to override the expectations of her sister, and of her society, and of her peers, and to do what God was calling her to do. Her primary focus was on the expectation of God, and Jesus could see that in her. He could see that she was doing the one needful thing.

It’s hard to say how we can train ourselves to be more sensitive to the presence of God, but it’s not so hard to see how it is that we desensitize ourselves to God’s presence in this world. It’s easy for me to believe that the umpteen things that we fill our days pursuing serve to keep us oblivious to the one thing that could actually satisfy us.

This is not to say that we are hopelessly lost or that our time and place is particularly out of sorts with God. The one needful thing was as illusive to Martha as it is to us. It’s always been hard for people to see through the clutter of their day to the genuine presence of the Holy Spirit, but we do have our challenges. The easy thing is not to be focused on the one needful thing. The easy thing is to maintain partial focus on many different things – including the presence of God in our lives. It’s easy to give God a little bit of attention and to think this is good enough.

And it is good enough if you want to live like Martha – who was someone that Jesus seems to have appreciated on some level. But Martha didn’t really get Jesus. She was so clueless she thought Jesus would join with her in getting Mary to leave what she was doing. Martha wasn’t a bad person, but she wasn’t able to see what Mary could see, and she wasn’t focused on the most important thing.

As I say, I don’t know how we can train ourselves to see what Mary could see and do what Mary knew to do, but I do believe we can become more conscious of how we use our time and to what we give our attention. I don’t believe it’s helpful for us to maintain continuous attention to many different things. I think that probably serves to keep our hearts and minds trained to be distracted.

I also believe God seeks to get our attention. I believe God is present in this world in a way that jumps out at us every now and then, and if we aren’t so distracted those experiences can touch us in compelling ways. There isn’t one way of living that’s necessary. God isn’t calling us to either be quiet or busy. What I believe is that if we are focused on the claim of God on our lives it doesn’t matter if we live as secluded monks or fast-paced executives. I believe if we are focused on the one needful thing we can carry that in to whatever it is that we do in life.

It’s not that there is only one way to live, but there is only one needful thing, and our challenge is to maintain continuous full attention on the source of true life. Our challenge is not to become better multi-taskers. Our challenge is to become committed unitaskers – people who are able to see and embrace that one needful thing.

We can, and by the grace of God we will!

Amen

Touched By A Neighbor

Luke 10:25-37

10:25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

A Jewish Rabbi went to get his hair cut one day and when he stood up to pay for the haircut the barber said, No, you are a man of God and this is my contribution to your good work. When the barber got to work the next morning there was a bag of fresh bagels at the door and a note from the rabbi expressing his gratitude for the nice haircut the man had given him. Later that day a Catholic priest droped by for a haircut and once again, when the priest went to pay the barber said, No, you are a man of God and this is my contribution to your ministry. When the barber arrived for work the next morning there were a dozen warm donuts at his door and a note from the priest thanking him for the fine haircut. Later that day a United Methodist minister dropped in for a haircut, and once again, when he went to pay the barber said, No, you are doing God’s work and this is my contribution to your ministry. So, when the barber showed up for work the next morning there were a dozen United Methodist ministers waiting for him to arrive.

I apologize if I’ve told that joke here before. It’s my favorite preacher joke. I’m sure you could substitute a lot of other denominations and professions with the United Methodist minister, but there’s a lot of truth to this suggestion that we United Methodist ministers are highly sensitive to financial matters.

Being a cheapskate isn’t the worst form of in-hospitality, but I think this morning’s lesson focuses our attention on the importance of being extra-hospitable. This passage of scripture isn’t hard to understand, but it may be one of the most difficult lessons to actually follow. What this passage reveals is how Jesus saw no justification for treating anyone with anything less than total respect and compassion. Who is our neighbor? Everyone! There isn’t anything complex about this passage of scripture. In fact what it reveals is how empty our excuses are when we operate with anything less than authentic concern for those we encounter who are in need. And it’s a particularly Godly thing to reach out in concern and service to someone who is outside of our comfortable social circle.

The contrast between the inaction of the religious men who should have reached out to the man who was in need and the action of the man who was the least likely to behave with compassion is unforgettable. The message in this story is clear. If you want to be in touch with the abundant life that God offers we have to live with compassion and understanding toward those we have been trained to distrust and disregard.

In light of the events of this last week I don’t guess there’s a more important message for any of us to hear. What we seem to have seen last week are examples of people acting on their instincts of prejudice and dehumanization, and it’s easy to use those events as opportunities to reinforce our own prejudices and our inclinations to dehumanize members of other ethnic communites. This is a critical story for us to hear because it reminds us of how holy it is to disrupt our divisive traditions. This is not a time for any of us to increase our defensiveness toward people who are somehow other than ourselves – this is a time for us to find new ways to eliminate barriers that traditionally divide us. This may be some of the hardest work anyone ever does, but it’s probably the most important work we ever do. Our calling is to see the humanity of people that our society has trained us to see as others.

After my father died, my sister and I were cleaning out this space he used as his office, and we came across a group of letters in one of the drawers of his desk that were addressed to my grandfather. There were five letters from four different German men who had been prisoners of war at a camp that had been set up in Wynne. I guess there were a number of POW camps set up within the United States during WWII. We actually haven’t been able to read one of them because it’s written in German, but the other letters reveal an appreciation for the kindness and generosity of my grandfather as well as an appeal for him to help them. The letters were written after the war had ended and the men were back in Germany and living under very harsh conditions.

I’m going to read one of the letters to you because I think it represents the spirit of neighborliness that Jesus sought to generate. I’m not saying my grandfather was a champion of human rights and unprejudiced thinking in every way, but I was touched by the way in which he treated an official enemy with some basic humanity. (But here’s a short disclaimer – this letter was written during a time when the sharing of cigarettes was considered to be a symbol of hospitality and not the nasty avenue to all kinds of cancer and death that we now understand them to be – so children, please keep in mind that I am in no way advocating the use of tobacco!)

March 12, 1948

Dear Mr. Murray!

When you get this letter you will be much surprise and don’t know of whom it is. Though I introduce again at first. Once I was a prisoner of war and lived at the camp in Wynne for about a years time. The last two months of my staying in Wynne I worked for you, sometimes in your big garden for picking strawberries or cleaning the field of your farm and sometimes working by your pond where the ox frogs quacked with their dry voices. Yes I remember very well too this things when you brought us Coca Cola and other refreshments and food for dinner. And still today I hear your words saying we have done a good days work. I am the blonde fellow who worked together with Hans Keindle, the only fellow who spoke English, if you remember. The last work we have done for you was to build the weekend house on the hill near the spring. But in the meantime a lot of years have gone. And I think you cannot remember to me.

When we left America we thought we would sail to Germany. No, in the contrary, we were unloaded in Liverpool.  There I stayed for another 19 months and in January of this year I was discharged after a long time as a prisoner. Now I am in Germany and at home. I haven’t had a good life as a prisoner, but when I saw the conditions in Germany where I live, I would like to go back to America at once. Because it is no life here it is a starvation. Maybe you don’t believe the story I tell you, but it is true and if it doesn’t change nobody knows what and when the end is and how it looks. There is nothing to buy and less than nothing to eat. When I came from England I had no suit and no shoes to find just the battle dress I wore on my body. The things I had before the war were taken. The time I lived in Wynne we didn’t get a lot to eat at the camp. But everyday I worked for you you brought us a good meal sometimes made by your wife and cigarettes.  You always had a nice word or a joke for us and we could be laughing once again and you helped us over some bad hours of our prisoner life.

But now I am no prisoner and all the same and I ask you for a favor. I told you the present conditions and I think you will help me now too. I will be very glad and thankful to you if you could send us something. I use everything because I have nothing. Mainly food, cigarettes, tobacco, clothes or other things you would like to send. If you can disperse with anything I would never forget it.

Please excuse my bad English, but I am just a beginner. I hope you can read my writing. With the kindest regards and with best wishes for you and your wife.

Yours,

Werner Lohr

I’m really proud to read you this letter. It makes me feel like my grandfather was able to see beyond the false boundaries created by nations and see neighbors, but primarily what this letter does is remind me how God endlessly provides us with opportunities to step out of ordinary life and to touch eternal life.

Every time we come face to face with a person who is struggling in life we are presented with an opportunity to find eternal life. This is what the lawyer wanted to know from Jesus – how do we find eternal life? And to answer that question Jesus told him this unforgettable story.

These are challenging times for us. It’s hard not to live with deep distrust of people who we are inclined to think are different from ourselves, and certainly there are always people who behave in ways that reinforce our preconceived notions of those we consider to be other than ourselves, but Jesus calls us to disrupt those traditional ways of thinking and acting.

This is hard to do. I don’t think we are called to simply provide for every need that we ever come across. I certainly don’t do that and I don’t expect anyone else to behave in that way, but we must be forever sensitive to the needs of others and to the opportunities that other people provide for us to live as the kind of neighbor that Jesus described.

It’s not easy to live as a neighbor in a world that trains us to be faithful to our own particular interest groups, but that is what Jesus calls us to do if we seek the gift of eternal life. Jesus calls for us to exceed the level of hospitality that our peers might expect and to show the kind of hospitality that disrupts the world and pleases God.

It’s not easy, but the Lord knows we need to, and by the grace of God we will! Thanks be to God.

Amen.