Colombo, Culture, Christian Living

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Thessalonians Three C’s: Colombo, Culture and Christian Living, and my focus is our Epistle (1^st Thessalonians 4:13-18). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

One TV series that I could watch again and again is Colombo. It starred Peter Falk as Lieutenant Colombo, a homicide detective with the LAPD, and originally ran from 1971-1978 on NBC, and 1989-2003 on ABC. Colombo wore a rumpled beige raincoat, smoked cigars, drove an old Peugeot, and often asked a final question with the famous catchphrase, “Just one more thing.”

I mention that catchphrase because for the 23^rd Sunday after Pentecost the lectionary ends with verse 12. Today, we resume the Letter beginning at verse 13. Paul introduces a new topic not wishing his audience to be ignorant or uninformed, and like Colombo, repeats his own catchphrase: “I do not want you to be unaware.”[1]

                Are You Aware?

Like Colombo, Paul’s “Just one more thing” is the parousia, a Greek word meaning coming or presence. A parousia can refer to anyone, such as a dignitary or family member. Here, the Parousia refers to the Second Coming of Christ. The Parousia speaks to the times and ways Christ has been, is, and will be present to us. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote of the Threefold Advents of Christ in these words: “In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty.” Christ became present to humanity by taking on our flesh, our body (see Hebrews 10:5); He continues to be present with us through the Holy Spirit and most exultantly in the Eucharist; and He will be present again when He comes to judge the world. So, it is good for us to be aware of Christ’s threefold presence to us.

Aware of this, how did the Thessalonians respond? To shorten our speculation about their behavior, let me rephrase the question. Knowing that Christ was, will be, and is present to us, how do we respond? Are we filled with excitement and anticipation? Do we liken it to someone special coming to visit us?

When we were kids, and learned that company was coming, my mother would clean the house, prepare a meal, set the table, and dress up. My dad wore dress slacks, a collared shirt and polished shoes. When our guests arrived, we didn’t wait for them to knock on the door, we went outside and opened the car doors for them, greeted them in the driveway, and escorted them into the house. If you’ve done that, you have an understanding of how the ancients greeted their guests.

When a dignitary would visit the city, a greeting or welcoming committee went outside the city gate to meet and escort the person. Cicero wrote of Julius Caesar’s victory tour through Italy, “Just imagine what a royal welcome he is receiving from the towns, what honors are paid to him.” He wrote of Augustus, “the municipalities are showing the boy remarkable favor. … Wonderful apantesis and encouragement.” The word apantesis refers to the actions of a welcoming committee as it went forth from the city to escort the dignity into the city for his official visit. During that visit, the dignitary dealt not only with the honorable citizens, but with the dishonorable as well.

John Chrysostom noticed these nuances, and in his sermon on 1^st Thessalonians, wrote, “For when a king drives into a city, those who are in honor go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within. And upon the coming of an affectionate father, his children indeed, and those who are worthy to be his children, are taken out in a chariot, that they may see and kiss him; but those of the domestics who have offended remain within.”

So, how do you respond to the awareness that the real King is here, and is waiting to see you? It’s a good question to ponder during the month that we remember the dead and observe the end of the church year. That also allows me to move on from Colombo to Culture.

When I say culture, I mean the customs of a particular nation or people. The Latin word is cultura, an agricultural term for tilling and preparing the soil. Before I planted my garden on virgin soil, I plowed the earth at least twice. After that I disced it, and finally tilled it several times before planting. Throughout the year, I compost discarded vegetation and add aged manure to enrich the soil. This promotes crop growth.

As Americans, we see many different ethnic cultures, and blend some of those into our lifestyle. Generations ago, we did not know about Mexican, Korean, Brazilian or Indian cuisine. Likewise, Paul’s audience, Gentiles not Jews, did not know about the culture of Paul. He was Jewish, and observed all the practices of Jews.

Gentiles who had not been exposed to Judaism found the whole idea of resurrection more than a little strange. The Greeks were used to the notion of immortality, but not a person coming back from the dead in new and improved body. They believed that a person survived death and went into the underworld. Coins would be placed on the eyes to pay the boatman (Charon) to carry the person down and across the river Styx, and avoid obstacles on the way that would steal the body.

There are stories about contacts with the dead. Odysseus went to Hades to consult a dead seer. This resembles Saul contacting Samuel through the Medium of En-dor (1 Sam 28:6-25). Such stories were to give information about the fate of the dead because there was concern about what happened to them after death. Others held birthday parties for the deceased which included a straw into the grave so the deceased could imbibe.

Given that few Gentiles had been exposed to Jewish-Christian teachings on the resurrection, Paul took great pains to counter their inconsolable grief with assurance that the afterlife is a positive image like a large family reunion. John Chrysostom wrote, “If you seek [the deceased Christian], seek him where the King is, where the army of angels is; not in the grave, not in the earth (Homily on 2 Cor 1:6).

This teaching was necessary because Paul either ran out of time or failed to teach this while he was in Thessalonica. So, when some Christians had died unexpectedly, questions arose about the afterlife. In a couple of words, Paul instructed the Thessalonians to stop grieving. Paul was not talking about the emotional states that people experience when a loved one dies, but the pervasive Greek view that there is no hope.

                Do You Have Hope?

Pagans had no hope of a positive afterlife, but Christians did (and do). That is why Paul wrote that “you turned to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thes 1:10). And why later in this letter, he wrote, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:9). He expanded upon this in writing to the Romans (1:18-32). Folks, there is a difference between true Christian believers and unbelievers.

Verse 14 is basically a primitive Christian confession. It shows that what follows from believing that Jesus died and rose has a consequence about the fate of the Christian dead. When Jesus returns at the final Parousia, He will bring back or raise up only deceased Christians to a new and glorious state. That’s not my opinion, that is what Scripture tells us. Here, and in 1^st Cor 15, Paul operates with a concept of the resurrection of the righteous, not the unbelievers. He wrote about Christ as the first fruits and those in Christ as the latter fruits of the resurrection. For Paul, the resurrection of the believer means full conformity to the image of Christ, which is something those outside of Christ will not receive when he returns. In other words, when Christ comes again, He will then raise your body and soul to be with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Verse 15 provides the reason we believers can be confident about the resurrection of deceased Christians, namely that Jesus himself spoke of this and affirmed this truth. The living will have no advantage over the deceased when Jesus returns, and vice-versa. All believers will be on the same cloud.

It was easy then and it is easy today to get caught up in anxiety or questions regarding the end of the world. The Thessalonians became so consumed with worrying about when the Parousia was going to come that they stopped caring about daily life and the things that really matter. That is why St. Paul wrote his Second Letter to the Thessalonians. He admonished them for their inaction, telling them that those who do not work should not eat. It was St. Paul’s way of trying to snap them out of their obsession with the Parousia and get them to re-focus their attention on the work of the Gospel.

If you have ever been coached or ever coached, you have heard the command, “Focus!” Focus not on what will happen in a year or ten, a hundred or a thousand. The Good News is that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, and he will prepare a place for you. He will receive you. It’s His promise. Our “job” here and now is to focus on living the Good News. Live the Ten Commandments. Believe the Creeds. Pray the words Jesus spoke. Love people. At least ask them how they are doing. Focus![2]

It’s important to know that Paul was writing to Christians living in a Greek or Gentile world, and that they were heavily influenced by the surrounding culture. So, when Paul wrote – “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” – he was well aware of Cicero’s report of Julius Caesar’s victory tour through Italy in 49 A.D. It read, “Just imagine what a royal welcome he is receiving from the towns, what honors are paid to him.”

Paul co-opted the imperial rhetoric and applied it to Jesus. His opposition to Caesar and adherence to Jesus were all part of one package: Jesus was Lord; Caesar was not. The imperial cult suggested that a human being (emperor) was divine and walking around on the earth bringing peace and security. Hence, Paul’s letter and his teaching in this age were considered subversive.

Enough about Colombo and Culture. Let’s talk about Christian Living. November is an interesting month for us. We recover from a hectic Halloween by remembering all the saints who have gone before us starting with the first Christian martyrs up to those faithful witnesses who have influenced our lives today. Last Sunday, we remembered those who died. We now prepare for Thanksgiving and start thinking about Christmas and the New Year. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Retailers may want us to focus on what’s ahead. Our readings call us to focus on the here and now. Christian living is all about the here and now because while we acknowledge that Christ will come again, He is here and now. The five foolish virgins in our Gospel (Mt 25:1-13) lost focus, and when they finally returned with enough oil, they found the door locked. The lord would not open the door for them, and so they missed the fun.

Among the four teachings that we should recall daily in addition to the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Creeds are the Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian living requires us to remember daily that we were baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who will one day raise our mortal bodies so that we share in His new creation. (Think of your Baptism when you bathe or shower.)

Now, reading Paul’s words to the Thessalonians might give you the impression that he should have been more pastoral and less dogmatic when it comes to advising Christians not to grieve, but telling people the truth about what we believe is pastoral. As Christians, we don’t want to sugarcoat what happens after we die. In short, we are dead. Our bodies are in the ground, and we are waiting for the Day of the Lord, the day when Christ returns and raises our bodies into a new and glorious state. That’s what we believe and teach, and it’s why we remember our Baptism daily. Baptism is a reminder that God loves you deeply.

                          God is Pleased with You

In closing, have you ever considered that right now God is pleased with you? Most of the time that does not cross our minds. But considering the truth that the Son of God, who suffered and died for you, is returning to raise up your body is a reminder that He loves you and is pleased with you. And so, my friends, from now until the Day Christ returns, bear in mind that Christians live joyfully because the Spirit of the Risen Lord dwells in you even on your worst days. Copy that, and just one more thing, when you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] See also 1 Cor 10:1; 12:1; Rom 11:25.

[2] Focus was a favorite phrase from my first music teacher, Pat Mancini, from whom I took trumpet lessons as a kid. If you want to read how the trumpet worked its way into Paul’s Epistle, you can read my footnotes. Read Isa 27:13; Joel 2:1; Zech 9:14. See also 1 Cor 15:52; Ps 24:7-10.

 

Carefree Highway

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon today is entitled Highways, Wildernesses and Waiting, and my focus is Isaiah (35:1-10). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that we are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Highways. People must love movies, TV shows and songs about highways and roads because there are hundreds of them. There were seven Hope and Crosby’s “Road” movies, and several remakes of Mad Max. Audiences still enjoy Route 66 and Highway to Heaven. More than entertaining us, highways get us places and tell stories about people.

When I was a student at Potter Township Elementary School in the 1960s, the Lothrop and Larson families moved from Potter to Monaca because their homes were located right where the I-376 interchange is located between the Beaver Valley Mall and the Shell Cracker plant. I am sure that you have memories to share how a highway changed life for you, and in a moment, I will touch upon the highway built by God, which has made all the difference in the world for all of us.

In secular terms, a highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads but also includes other public roads and public tracks. Highways connect cities and towns, and are maintained by counties, states and countries. Highways were originally the main roads that ran through towns and villages. The Romans get the credit for building a system of highways, but we find its use long before Rome came to exist.

We find highway is used frequently in Isaiah, we find earlier uses of the word in Judges and Numbers. “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned, and travelers kept to the byways” (Judges 5:6). When Moses and the Hebrew people were in the Wilderness of Kadesh, his messengers went to the King of Edom. “Please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or vineyard, or drink water from a well. We will go along the King’s Highway. We will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory” (Numbers 20:17).

In Isaiah, the highway is sometimes translated as a causeway or raised road. It runs through the desert, which is transformed into an attractive landscape. We are not told where it goes, only who can and cannot be on it. No unclean person can be on this road. The prophet tells us that the unclean disqualified themselves by failure to use the means of grace. Those walking in grace availed themselves to grace. Whoever walks on this highway, even the simple and the fool, shall not stray.

Later, John the Baptist referred to such a highway leading to the Lord in his preaching. Referring to himself as a voice crying out in the wilderness, he said to the people, “Prepare the Lord's highway.” Luke elaborated on John’s prophesying by writing, “Make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:4-6).

In Mark, we find Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, sitting by the highway side begging as Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho (10:46ff.). In Luke, we hear in the Parable of the Great Banquet the master instructing his servant, “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.” (14:23-24). And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way” (Matthew 7:13).

I suggest that the next time you drive on any highway to recall this. God does not want us winding our way through a mountainous desert on a pothole-filled, two-lane road where drug lords rule. He wants us to come to him with pleasant companions on a four-lane highway through a garden spot where each new view is more charming than the last. This is what God promises to those who will abandon their trust in humanity and hurl themselves on him.[1]

We exit the highway and enter the wilderness. Throughout my years, I have travelled to some wild places. Driving through western Utah and Nevada, across New Mexico and west Texas, I wondered why anyone would live here? Travelling through the Holy Land and the Badlands, I wondered the same question. Even a couple of trips into the bush in Ecuador and Venezuela left me wondering the same. Then I realized after looking up the etymology of the word that I own a piece of the wilderness. The wilderness is a wild, uninhabited, or uncultivated place. The word in Old English is wild-deor, meaning wild animal or wild deer. I can see the wild deer emerge from the steep banks behind my house.

The word wilderness appears 400 times in the Bible, and in every book. From Genesis when Joseph’s brothers throw him into a cistern in the wilderness to the mention of Mary fleeing into the wilderness in the Book of Revelation, wilderness has played a significant part in God’s plan of salvation. After feeding thousands, Jesus reminded the people that their ancestors ate bread in the wilderness (John 6:49). John the Baptist lived and preached in the wilderness, and following his baptism by John the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The wilderness is spoken of in Acts by Stephen and Paul (chs 7 and 13).

The wilderness is a physical place, but it can also be a symbolic place. You may be isolated from others. That is your wilderness. You may be constantly exposed to evil. That is your wilderness. Then again, as the Prophet Hosea reminds us, the wilderness may be a place where God calls you and speaks tenderly to your heart (2:14). That wilderness attracts you and you should go there to experience intimacy with God.

The desert wilderness is where the early roots of Christian monasticism are found. Christian hermits and ascetics, who lived primarily in the desert of Egypt, beginning around the Year 270. Anthony the Great heard a Sunday sermon stating that perfection could be achieved by selling all of one's possessions, giving the proceeds to the poor, and following Jesus. He followed the advice and made the further step of moving deep into the desert to seek complete solitude. Anthony and other Christians lived in the desert wilderness during the Diocletian Persecution, the last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, beginning in 303 AD. Only ten years later, Christianity was made legal in Egypt by Diocletian's successor Constantine I. I am not suggesting you leave everything behind and move to the desert, but you should find a place, even in your own home, where you can be alone with God.

Personally, even though I spend the first hours of the morning praying, reading, studying and working on my sermons, I love the time outside where I hear nothing but the songs of birds and feel the breeze of the wind. Now, let me segue to my third point, Waiting.

Advent is a time of waiting. Sometimes, we wait longer than other times. Advent always has four Sunday, but this year, our Advent Season is a full four weeks. Today, we mark the midpoint of Advent by lighting the pink candle of the Advent wreathe, but much more importantly, by observing Gaudete Sunday. Today’s pink color is an ancient symbol expressing joy. So, we wait with joy in our hearts for the Christmas Season to begin and for the Second Coming of Christ.

While we wait, we do all the things necessary for the birth of any child. We stay busy, and as we engage in activities as a mother, father, sibling or grandparent, we also ponder thoughts, feel emotions, pray and work. When the moment of new life finally arrives, we behold the child.

Behold. Behold is not a word we us very often. It means to see or observe, and we favor those words over the archaic behold. It is used quite often in the Bible, almost 2000 times. In our study of Isaiah several weeks ago, the word behold is used three times in two verses in chapter 62. My study led me to the musings of John Oswalt, one of America’s leading scholars on Isaiah. He wrote about how we all find ourselves in a situation where we are completely abandoned and rejected and then, unaccountably welcomed and taken in. If you have ever felt that you should read Isaiah 62.

When Oswalt was in college, he admired a pretty, witty, popular girl in his speech class. The professor assigned each student a partner, and the assignment was to assess the personality of another class member through what we project while speaking. They were to share their observations with each other privately. Well, you guessed it, Oswalt was partnered with the girl he admired.

Upon learning this Oswalt wrote, “I can hardly describe the terror I felt. I knew that she was going to fillet me like a fish. I knew that when she finished with me, I would be able to slither out under the door of the room without opening it.” Then, he said, “To my surprise yet today, she singled out trait after trait of mine that she found attractive and compelling. She handled areas that needed improvement with tact and insight. In fact, when I left the room, I could have floated out the window. She had found some things in me that were valuable. I have never forgotten that gift.”

Oswalt’s point is that is what God does to each one of us. God says that he sees worth and value in you. In You! God wants to be with us because he likes us and that we are important to him. This is so because of who God is. “Because God is the kind of person he is, he is able to see all things in us that lie buried beneath layers of sin and shame. He is able to see possibilities where nothing, but failure would be perceived by anyone else. But even more than that, he can uncover those hidden things, to let loose those possibilities, because he has taken all the failure, the sin, and the shame into himself. He can not only show us what there is but set it free. He can give each of us on a cosmic and eternal level the kind of gift that girl gave me so many years ago in speech class.”[2]

Behold, the child of God this Christmas. See in that child one who will uncover hidden things in you; one who will let loose possibilities in you. See in that child one who takes all your failures, your sins, and your shame into himself. Behold, the child of God. Behold, the Son of God! My friends, as you wait for Christ’s Second Coming and Christmas, behold the wonder of God within you, and when you do, may the peace of God keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

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[1] John N. Oswalt, Isaiah: The New Application Commentary: From biblical text … to contemporary life. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan (2003), p. 393.

[2] Ibid., pp. 656-657.

Lift Your Eyes

 

When you need help, who do you call? Ghostbusters? Some people think they don’t need help from anybody, but everyone eventually needs help from somebody. When I need help finding a contractor, I ask my friends to suggest someone. When I need help with my tractor, I call my cousin, Justin. When I need help making dinner, I look up a recipe. When I need help writing a sermon or a children’s message, I look at my Bible study guides.

I mention that because our Psalm (121) reads, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Did you know that Psalm 121 is the basis of poems, hymns, songs and even a movie? The Sound of Music features Psalm 121. I was 8 years old when the movie was first shown. We saw it at the ABC Drive-In Theater. If you have not seen the movie, you should ask your parents to show it to you.

In the movie, the Von Trapp family escapes the Nazis by going up into the hills of Austria and crossing the border into Switzerland. Before the family makes its way, the Mother Abbess encourages the family by saying, “Remember: ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.’”

My point is that when you need help, you can ask your family and friends, but remember that your help comes from the Lord. God is never asleep, and as you go out and return home, He is always at your right hand to protect you and keep you from evil.

Remember the many ways God helps you, and when your family members and friends need help, you can help them best by turning to Psalm 121 and to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

With that, we pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their fathers and mothers the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Engage through Prayer: A Sermon on Luke 18

 

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon today is entitled Three Ps of Engaged Christians: Parable, Passage and Prayer, and my focus is our Gospel (Luke 18:1-8). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that we are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

I have spoken about the definition of a parable previously, but it bears repeating. Simply defined, a parable is a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson. It comes to us from the Latin, parabola, and the Greek, parabole, which meant ‘a throwing beside.’ Its origin is from the term para, meaning alongside, and bole, a throwing, casting, beam or ray.

The geometrically gifted understand that a parabolic curve refers to a comparison between fixed points and a straight line. The St. Louis Arch and your satellite dish are parabolic curves. Jesus, however, did not teach math or build arches. Rather, he compared real life situations to teach a lesson about God.

Parables were part of Jewish tradition. The Hebrew term for a parable was mashal. We find mashal in the allegories, proverbs, riddles and taunts of Judges, Samuel, Proverbs, Prophets and the intertestamental Book of Enoch. We are familiar with Nathan’s powerful story to David of the rich man who stole and slaughtered the poor man’s prized lamb. It transformed David to a humble, contrite sinner. So, we see that Jesus did not invent parables, but like his ancestors, used them to win people over to his views.

Jesus spoke parables to proclaim the gracious advent, disturbing presence and challenging implications of the Kingdom of God. At times, he opened with, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” or “To what shall I compare?” Often, he concluded with a question. “Which of these three … proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” Today’s parable asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

While Jesus’ questions did not pressure listeners to choose any one direction, they confronted them with the necessity to make a choice that determined their future. No doubt, his listeners who viewed matters one way now discovered a better way. Discovering a better way resulted in conversion, reconciliation and changed behavior. Once they experienced conversion and reconciliation, his followers transformed society and changed the world. As I conclude my first point on parables, I repeat that last sentence. Once they experienced conversion and reconciliation, his followers transformed society and changed the world.

From parable to passage, my second point. I repeated the last sentence because repetition is effective pedagogy. We learned our catechism by repeating answers to questions. As Luther employed repetition, so did Luke. He emphasized continued prayer in this passage, and humble prayer in the next. The conclusion of the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector reads, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We also find a parallel between today’s passage and chapter 11, where Jesus said, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’” In both, the main character is the petitioned, not the petitioner. The petitioned represents God, who listens and answers, but the attention goes to the petitioner, who asks, seeks and knocks. In other words, do not be afraid to bother God. Do not give up on prayer.

Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray earnestly to the end. Luke recorded that when Jesus was in the Mount of Olives, he was in agony but prayed more earnestly. In Acts, when Peter was in prison, the church prayed earnestly to God for him. Like the widow seeking justice, the disciples’ goal, even amid difficulties, was never give up before the Son of Man returns.

Jesus then described the judge as unrighteous, unaccountable to God and inconsiderate towards people. The listeners understood that this man was not a religious figure, but a secular judge who ruled through the authority of the occupying power, a widespread practice in the Ancient Middle East. Think Pontius Pilate. In many cases, people sought justice in these courts because the judicial process was quicker and smoother. We find an indication of this practice in chapter 12. Jesus said, “As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.”

The oppressed widow symbolized the helpless and defenseless. She knew she had right on her side, appealed for vindication and expected swift justice. As a favor to her oppressor, a rich and influential man, the judge delayed her hearing.

The judge did not decide according to the exhortations to give widows their rights according to the Law and Prophets. There, we read, “You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.” In another, we read, “Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.” And “I will be a swift witness against … those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and fatherless, [and] those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord.”

Yet, the unrighteous, exasperated judge yielded to the widow’s relentless pursuit of justice. He could do nothing to appease her short of giving her a swift hearing based on Roman law. He did so because he was tired of having his reputation sullied and his name ridiculed among his peers because this poor, defenseless widow never gave up seeking justice.

If the unjust judge does right by the widow for whom he does not care – a case in which the chances for a positive outcome are very slim – how much more will God respond to the unceasing cry of his elect, since, in contrast to the judge, he listens favorably to them. The unjust judge did not care for the widow and hardly wanted to listen to her. Our righteous, loving God has a lively interest in his elect and is always prepared to listen to them.

God is always prepared to listen; however, as I mentioned earlier, Jesus often concluded parables with a question. Here, he asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Will he find disciples actively engaged in prayer?

Will he find disciples actively engaged in prayer? That, folks, leads me to my third point, prayer. Prayer is the necessary foundation of our work as church and individuals. It is communal and personal. We pray in our sanctuaries and rooms. To paraphrase one holy person, prayer is God looking at me, and me looking at God. It is from the heart, but it is also vocal. We speak the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus taught it to his disciples.

Prayer involves reading Scripture. Daily, my wife and I read aloud the Psalms. Prayer involves thought and imagination, gifts Jesus employed as he formed parables. Praying over Nathan’s story to David may reduce me to a humble, contrite sinner. Pondering Jesus’ closing question in the Parable of the Good Samaritan may leave me wondering if I show mercy to diverse neighbors. Meditating on the Parable of the Prodigal may challenge the depth of my love for father and brother, mother and sister. So, friends, you see why my last point is prayer. When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith in me? Will he find me praying earnestly to the end – like Peter in prison or Jesus in the Mount of Olives?

Jesus based this parable on trust and confidence in God’s help and assistance. He could be so straightforward in his assurance that God hears the cry of his people because he took seriously the action of God in his own life and ministry. He saw it in Israel’s history and the world around him.

We do not live in that history and world. We live in a country with a different history and a different world. Therefore, we pray over this parable to relate it to our daily lives. When I pray over the passage, many questions rise to the surface but let me focus only on a few.

First, who are today’s widows? Who are God’s elect who cry out to him day and night seeking justice? Whose voices are the exploited and oppressed?

Second, Jesus promises that God will give justice to his elect. If I – created in the image and likeness of God, baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, a redeemed sinner and child of God – If I am to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, how do I extend mercy to those who seek justice? If the unjust judge who neither feared God nor respected man knew how to extend justice to the poor, exploited and oppressed widow, to whom do I extend justice?

I asked myself, “Who are the exploited?” Recalling my work at World Neighbors, an international organization that solved hunger, I saw the immensity of poverty in rural Asia, Africa and Latin America. As a fundraiser for a homeless service provider in Berkeley, California, I met many homeless vets and people with mental health disorders. As a program manager for Pittsburgh’s Jubilee Kitchen, I interviewed dozens of women exploited by pushers and pimps. I could list scores of exploited and oppressed people who cry out to God seeking justice, but only the unborn do not have a voice.

According to the World Health Organization, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day. In the US, there are over 3,000 abortions per day. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies in the USA (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.[1] Lutherans for Life, Priests for Life, Operation Rescue, Guttmacher Institute, the CDC and others publish pages of statistics and stories on their websites. Read them. Think about the 125 babies aborted during the length of our worship service, or the 31 during the length of this sermon. Ask yourself if these exploited and oppressed elect of God cried out when aborted because of the primary reason: they were inconvenient to the parents.

I concluded my first point by saying that once people heard Jesus’ parables, they experienced conversion and reconciliation, transformed society and changed the world. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Will he find that Lutherans Engage the World is a reality or simply a magazine?

Friends, these exploited and oppressed people created in the image of God have no voice and yet cry out for justice. As men and women who experienced conversion and reconciliation, our prayers and actions can transform society and change the world. As we approach our local elections, seriously consider not only people, but also political parties and policies that ignore or respond to those who cry out to God. Let your vote express justice and mercy for those who cry out to God yet have no voice.

Beyond the ballot box, pray and protest the inhumane slaughter of the innocents, and tax-payer funding of agencies that abort unborn persons. Do this, and know that when the Son of Man returns, he will find you engaged in prayer and in the practice of your faith. When He returns, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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[1] See https://www.worldometers.info/abortions/

THANKSGIVING

 

Do you know what holiday tomorrow (Monday) is? In the United States, the second Monday of October is Columbus Day. If you have never heard of Christopher Columbus, you should look up his biography. In our country, people remember Columbus for discovering America.

Tomorrow is also Thanksgiving … in Canada. There are similarities and differences between our celebration of Thanksgiving, and the one Canadians celebrate, eh? The reason I mention Thanksgiving in October is because our Gospel (Luke 17:11-19) is often read on our Thanksgiving Day.

It's easy to see why we read this Gospel on Thanksgiving. It’s because the Samaritan man who was healed from his skin disease or leprosy, realized who gave him this gift of healing. He knew that God acted through Jesus, and so he returned to give thanks to Jesus for healing him.

When he thanked Jesus, he got down on his knees and bowed his face to the ground. He realized that Jesus was his Lord, and he was in great awe of Jesus.

It’s good to have reminders to be thankful to God, whether it’s on our American Day of Thanksgiving or the Canadian one, or any day of the year. We recognize that doctors and nurses are the people who are involved in our healing, but God is the one who heals not only the body, but also the soul.

The man’s faith in Jesus not only healed him but also saved him. When Jesus said to him, “Your faith has made you well,” it also meant that his faith saved him. We are saved by faith in Christ, and after we receive His Body and Blood through Holy Communion, we sing a song of thanksgiving.

 With that, we pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their fathers and mothers the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Requests: Lepers in Luke and a Look at Life

God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. My sermon today is entitled Requests, and my focus is our Gospel (Luke 17:11-19). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that we are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Meaning

We make many requests in life. In my relationship with Cindy, I first requested that she dance with me. I then requested that she meet me for dinner. After that, I requested that she marry me. She has also made requests to me which resulted in us building a new house and getting Maggie, our Golden Retriever.

The word request is simply defined as asking politely or formally for something: a dance, a date, a hand in marriage. We request lenders for a home mortgage or a car loan, our bosses for a raise or a day off. We request our young ones to turn down the volume on their video games, and as we age, we request that the TV volume be turned up. With the introduction of music on the radio, disc jockeys accepted requests for songs to be played. The root of request comes from the Latin word requisita, meaning a “a thing asked for.”

Lepers

The ten lepers request Jesus to have mercy on them. Before we get to that, let’s reverse to the setting of today’s passage. Luke wrote, “On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.” This verse puts today’s text within context. That Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem reminds us that he is moving toward his passion and that this context washes over the text. So, the opening verse reminds us not to forget the destination and the purpose of Jesus’ journey.

Outside of the Bible, geographical journeys make sense. The price of gas prompts us to make fewer trips using the shortest routes. River transportation was a good reason people settled on the banks of the Ohio, the Mississippi and the Danube. However, when we read about geography in the Bible, it does not always make geographical sense, but it does make theological sense. The border between Galilee and Samaria is a fitting location for a story that involves both Jews and Samaritans.

Luke does not report which village Jesus entered, but we know that he encountered lepers. This is not Jesus’ first encounter with a leper. We read in chapter five that a man full of leprosy fell before Jesus and begged him to make him clean, which Jesus did. Lepers kept their distance from non-lepers. These ten stood at a distance before requesting that Jesus, their Master, have mercy on them. Leviticus required not only that a leper keep his distance, but also how to dress and where to live. Lepers formed their own colonies and positioned themselves where they could appeal to others for support. The law required that after healing they show themselves to a priest. Only the priest could determine if they were clean or not.

The Text

So, this text has two parts. In the first part, the ten lepers request for mercy is received. Jesus replies with the law, and off they go. Among them was one Samaritan leper. Was he required to show himself to the priest? Did the Jewish priest have to confirm his cure and release from his status of being unclean? Luke is silent on the matter. The healing, however, occurred during their act of their obedience. Jesus commanded them to follow the law, and they obeyed and were healed. When they realized that they were healed, nine kept going, but the one turned around, praised God with a loud voice and fell on his face, thanking Jesus.

Luke plainly states that he was a Samaritan, a foreigner to the Jew. The first part of the story is about the healing. The second part is about salvation of a foreigner! The foreigner returns, praises God and thanks Jesus. He received the same blessing that the nine other Jewish lepers received. And Jesus’ response to this act of thanksgiving? The statement, “Your faith has made you well.”

Another way of translating this verse is, “Your faith has saved you.” We will find this in chapter 19 when Jesus speaks to Zacchaeus. The point is that all were healed, but only one was saved, and the point should not be lost on us is that in Luke, God treats the marginalized favorably.

This man was a social outcast, a leper, and a religious heretic, a Samaritan. Note that one’s religious affiliation did not matter in leper colonies. There are no distinctions when you are in the leper colony. Furthermore, there are no distinctions when you are in the presence of Jesus.

The social outcast who realized who healed him and returned to praise God received the full blessing of Jesus, and it is regrettable that the other nine did not receive His full blessing because they too were received and healed. Within the greater context of Luke, this story anticipates what is to come later in Acts: a growing blindness in Israel and receptivity among Gentiles.

You may ask why this is the case. The answer is that Israel’s special place in God’s plan for the world had turned in on itself. Duty became privilege. Favors settled into familiarity. Yet, this story does not give license to point fingers at others. It serves as a reminder to us as how much Luke enjoyed telling ‘Jesus stories’ based on the Old Testament. For example, this story is clearly based on Naaman the Syrian who was healed of leprosy by the Prophet Elisha. After he was healed, Naaman converted to Israel’s faith.

The story of Naaman, like the story of the Samaritan leper, reminds us that faith entails openness to God’s grace. All 10 lepers believed Jesus could heal them. Their mistake was in taking that healing for granted. Only one realized that his healing was an unmerited grace, and he returned to give thanks to Jesus who with His Father and the Holy Spirit made healing and salvation possible.

Power and Faith

This passage reminds us not only of the power of God, but also that God does not make deals or offer transactions. Faith is not a thing God demands from us; it is a spiritual stance, an open heart that gives God room to maneuver. If discipleship without faith is servitude, then faith without thanksgiving is commerce.

It is easy to fall into this trap. It might become easy to feel that we have built up some kind of credit with God, that our acts of discipleship are like cash deposits in a bank. It is easy to forget to give thanks when a subtle whisper in our psyche suggests that God owes us.

True discipleship, as demonstrated by the Samaritan leper, is an expression of thanksgiving. The utter freedom of divine grace prompted him to acknowledge his own need to respond by giving thanks. In that, he was a model disciple, someone with enough faith to give God room to act and enough humility to be grateful. The grace we receive every day is a gift from the God who loves us. It is the power with which we overcome obstacles, find healing, resist temptation and serve the needs of the kingdom. That we can receive that grace and act out of it is cause for a lifetime of thanksgiving.

Our Requests

Now, a request from you. In many of our churches the pastor names the people who have requested prayers for healing of body. mind or soul. Others request prayers for employment, companionship or some other need or desire. Not long ago I was asked to visit a young boy who was awaiting brain surgery. I spent time with him and his parents at their home and prayed with them and for them.

I later asked the mother to write a few words to the congregation with a specific request for her son. This is what she wrote: “A prayer request for George to have a successful brain surgery. Please pray the surgery will end the seizures for once and for all without any complications or any deficits. Please pray for the surgical team as well and for all the nurses and doctors who will be in my son’s care. And please pray for our family. To guide us through this difficult time.”

After I asked her to request prayers from the congregation, I came across this meditation while reading a morning devotion. It is from a treatise on Cain and Abel by Saint Ambrose, the 4^th century Bishop of Milan, who was a philosopher, theologian and diplomat. He is also known for baptizing St. Augustine. In the treatise, Ambrose makes a crucial point about prayer that we should never overlook – that we should always pray for each other and all.

“If you pray only for yourself, you pray for yourself alone. If each one prays for himself, he received less from God’s goodness than the one who prays on behalf of others. But as it is, because each prays for all, all are in fact praying for each one.

To conclude, if you pray only for yourself, you will be praying, … for yourself alone. But if you pray for all, all will pray for you, for you are included in all. In this way there is a great recompense; through the prayers of each individual, the intercession of the whole people is gained for each individual. There is here no pride, but an increase of humility and a richer harvest from prayer.”

My friends, as we request prayers for ourselves and those dear to us, let us remember to pray for all. When we do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

TREES: A Look at St. Timothy's Grandmother and Mother

 

Trees. We have many different types of trees on our property. We are now planning to plant some apple and peach trees behind our garden. Today, I am going to talk about a different type of tree called a Family Tree.

A family tree is what we use to show all the different members of our family. On my family tree I discovered information about my grandparents and where they lived before coming to the USA. I also met with a cousin on my mother’s side who also searched for family information.

I mention this because in our Epistle (2 Tim 1:1-14), we read about Timothy’s mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois. They were the people who brought Timothy to the Christian Faith. Grandparents are like the roots of a tree firmly planted in the soil. Parents are like the trunk standing straight and tall. Children are like the mighty branches spreading out all around. Grandchildren are like new buds at the end of the branches growing ever further into the sky.

In your family, where are you, your parents and grandparents? Like Timothy’s mother and grandmother, how are they the trunk and root of your family tree? How are your grandparents grounded firmly in the Christian Faith? How do your parents support your faith like a mighty trunk of a tree?

My grandparents made sure all my aunts and uncles were baptized. My parents made sure we learned our faith by attending church and Sunday school. My brothers were with me like branches on a tree. Now, our grandchildren are just learning about the Christian Faith like new buds. I hope that you continue to learn about your faith not only when you are like buds, but also when you become the trunks and roots of trees. With that, we pray.

Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their fathers and mothers the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.