god comes even in our waiting: advent 1

other scripture for today were: isaiah 64:1-9, psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, and 1 corinthians 1:3-9

the holy gospel according to mark.

[Jesus said,]

²⁴“But in those days,

       after that suffering,

              the sun will be darkened,

              and the moon will not give its light,

              ²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven,

                     and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

²⁶Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’

       with great power and glory.

       ²⁷Then he will send out the angels,

              and gather his elect from the four winds,

                     from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

²⁸“From the fig tree learn its lesson:

       as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves,

              you know that summer is near.

       ²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place,

              you know that he is near,

                     at the very gates.

³⁰Truly I tell you,

       this generation will not pass away

              until all these things have taken place.

       ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away,

              but my words will not pass away.

³²“But about that day or hour no one knows,

       neither the angels in heaven,

       nor the Son,

              but only the Father.

³³Beware,

       keep alert;

              for you do not know when the time will come.

                     ³⁴It is like someone going on a journey,

                            who leaving home

                            and putting the slaves in charge of their own work,

                                   commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.

³⁵Therefore, keep awake—

       for you do not know when the master of the house will come,

              in the evening,

              or at midnight,

              or at cockcrow,

              or at dawn,

                     ³⁶or else, coming suddenly,

                            the master may find you asleep.

                            ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all:

                                   Keep awake.”

the gospel of the lord.

-----

i have a confession: i am a whovian.  i have become enthralled with the british show, doctor who.  and i am not alone.  perhaps some of you have also discovered the delights of The Doctor.  perhaps others have no idea what i’m talking about.

The Doctor is a time lord from outer space who travels through time and space, saving the world and the universe over and over and over again.  he travels in a time machine called the tardis, which looks, from the outside, like a blue 1960s-style police box and is, as they say, “bigger on the inside.”

as we begin advent, it is quite fitting that the color for this season is what some might call “tardis blue” (others just call it blue).  in fact, i have a friend who is hoping for a tardis stole for christmas, with the deep, hopeful blue of the tardis as a perfect match for the hopefulness of the season of advent.

in fact, this advent time that we’re in is a bit, as The Doctor would say, “more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey…stuff.”  we begin advent well into the gospel of mark, well into jesus’ ministry.  in fact, we begin just two days before the passover that, in mark, marks the last supper of jesus.  tensions are running high and everybody has a different idea of who and what the messiah must be and must do.

jesus has already destroyed property in the temple, upending tables and chairs and ruining the “business” of the temple.  jesus’ followers as well as his detractors are now anticipating a rebellion.  the detractors are already plotting to destroy him.  in the midst of jesus’ followers waiting and hope that jesus’ power will overthrow the powers oppressing them, jesus brings a powerful word of change.   

it is not what they expect, and yet jesus brings hope and the news of an end to the suffering.  “summer—new life, renewal—is near.”  jesus tells us “truly i tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.  ³¹heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  this generation that is now 2000 years long.  like a tardis, it’s bigger on the inside.

and how fittingly timey wimey that as mark looks ahead to the messiah’s power exhibited in suffering, torture, and death on the cross, we look to the power of god made manifest in a weak, defenseless baby born in a barn.

wibbly wobbly timey wimey, we look ahead to the coming of christ who has already come.

advent is a time of waiting, of anticipation.  christ tells us to “keep awake,” to keep watch for god.  keep on the look out for where and when god might show up.  the message is patience—that god works for those who wait for god.  and i have to admit, patience is a virtue… that i don’t have.  each advent we wait eagerly, even impatiently, for the coming of christ.  the tardis of time grows ever bigger in the waiting for the reign of christ, which has already come and not yet been fully realized.

and perhaps it is time to give in to our impatience and join isaiah and the psalmist in begging god to come.  “restore us, o god; let your face shine, that we may be saved.”  “tear open the heavens and come down.”

i confess that i have messed up—sometimes royally.  i have been more like a dry leaf than the fig tree ready to bring forth summer, but god, come be with me, make me better.  make me who you know and want me to be.

i am drawn to isaiah because there is room for my impatience there.  i don’t have to be satisfied with the advice to “wait.”  i also get to blame god for my mistakes.  not only did you, god, form me as a potter forms clay into shape, but your absence is to blame for my sins.  you weren’t there beside me, so i messed up, i sinned.  i let evil rule this world and myself, because you hid yourself.

this week and over the past months and even years, all i want is for god to come down and fix everything.  i want the nations to tremble at god’s presence.  like jesus’ followers, i want god to come destroy those who commit violence, i want an uprising that destroys oppression, inequality, illness, and pain.

i            want            god            to make it      all            go            away.

i don’t want to feel depressed after watching the news each night.  i don’t want my heart to break when people i love are sick or die.  i      want        peace.  i want justice.  i want life and love to rule the day.  …and sometimes i want vengeance or victory over others.  and sometimes i’m scared of what justice will look like if i am the one causing the pain.  if i didn’t hear your cry.  if i didn’t sit with you in sackcloth and ashes, mourning with you.  if i didn’t live up to my end of the bargain—which, i can never really do—then do i really want god to come for vengeance and justice?  do i want to face up to my sins?

but before i tell god to hold off on coming down here to sort everything out, i need to remind myself that the same god who comes as judge is also the god who has already come in love, as a sibling loves family, so jesus loves us.  it is a love that might, at times, roll its eyes at our foolishness, chuckle to itself at our sins, and even cry with and for us at the pain we experience and the pain we inflict on others.

so, ultimately, i return to begging god to come, to be with me, to be with us.  to bring life in the midst of death, to turn pain into joy, tears into laughter, violence and oppression into justice and peace.

then in the wibbly wobbly, timey wimey-ness of it all, i look to the cross and to the font and christ is here.  i look to you and the holy spirit blows through our midst, roughling feathers, stirring up passion for love and justice and peace.

christ came to be with us and comes again in the waters of baptism, “strengthening me and you to the end, so that all may be blameless on the day of our lord jesus christ.”

jesus came 2000 years ago as our companion, savior, and friend.  the son of man, our righteous judge, will come to set all things right, bringing peace and justice.  christ is with us now, in our pain and suffering, in our waiting and our impatience, and in our struggle to keep awake, to keep watch, to seek peace.

thanks be to god

god recognizes us and all our gender: reign of christ / christ the king

the holy gospel according to matthew (25:31-46)

[Jesus said,]

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory,

       and all the angels with him,

              then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

       ³²All the nations will be gathered before him,

              and he will separate people one from another

                     as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

                            ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand

                            and the goats at the left.

³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand,

       ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father,

              inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

                     ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food,

                     I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

                     I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

                     ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing,

                     I was sick and you took care of me,

                     I was in prison and you visited me.’

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him,

       ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food,

              or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

       ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you,

              or naked and gave you clothing?

       ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’

⁴⁰And the king will answer them,

       ‘Truly I tell you,

              just as you did it to one of the least of these

                     who are members of my family,

                            you did it to me.’

⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand,

       ‘You that are accursed,

              depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

                     ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food,

                     I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

                     ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me,

                     naked and you did not give me clothing,

                     sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

⁴⁴Then they also will answer,

       ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you

              hungry

              or thirsty

              or a stranger

              or naked

              or sick

              or in prison,

                     and did not take care of you?’

⁴⁵Then he will answer them,

       ‘Truly I tell you,

              just as you did not do it to one of the least of these,

                     you did not do it to me.’

⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment,

       but the righteous into eternal life.”

the gospel of the lord.

 -----

throughout this month, we have been talking about and sharing where we’ve found jesus and i hope you’ve gotten the chance to check out jesus on the back wall.  if not, take a look today after worship or during communion, because it’s pretty powerful.  you all have found jesus in a lot of different places.  and, today, we’ve heard again who jesus is; where to find him: the hungry, the stranger, the naked, the outcast.  today’s gospel raises the question: how do we recognize jesus, and other people? 

when i began seminary, i had a professor, dr. ralph klein, who was the perfect combination of dumbledore and moses.  he was wise and funny and many of us were convinced that he could read genesis in the original hebrew because he was the one who wrote it.

the first day of class, dr. klein took a picture of us all so that he could study our faces, matched with names, and start to recognize us between classes.  well, after a week, when we came back to class, there was one person that dr. klein couldn’t recognize.

the first week of classes, when he took the picture, my hair was long and i had worn it down and curly, like a lion’s mane as my mom used to call it.  the next week (and much of the semester to follow), it was pulled quickly back into a ponytail.  dr. klein had studied our stand-out, most obvious characteristics in that first week, but hadn’t looked deeper.  he hadn’t gotten past my hair to see even my glasses, let alone who i really was.  since those first weeks, dr. klein has come to know me, and my hair, more fully in all of its diverse lengths and in all of my questions, comments, and experiences.

but, to this day new people in my life still don’t recognize me if i wear my hair differently the second time they see me…and, they tend to grow quite attached to my hair.              i don’t have that same problem, mainly because i am not very attached to my hair and enjoy changing its length frequently, making people recognize me by more than just my hair.

and while dr. klein couldn’t recognize me those first weeks, he was the one to introduce me to a god i knew and yet hadn’t recognized.  dr. klein taught us hebrew bible, or old testament, and that man could find grace anywhere.  as i explained to the confirmands this week, dr. klein was the one to point out: the grace in the 10 commandments, where the first commandment, according to jewish numbering, is “i am the lord your god, who brought you out of the land of egypt, out of the house of slavery.”  not a commandment at all, but a proclamation of god’s love active in our lives. 

dr. klein was also the first person to refer to god with diverse pronouns.  we know from study and from faith that we are made in the image of god—all of us, together—so it would make sense that god would not just be male—in fact, the holy spirit is feminine in hebrew and gender neutral in greek.  dr. klein recognized the fullness of god’s diversity and was the first person i heard refer to god as she as well as he.

these days we spend a lot of time being concerned with gender—usually that of someone else.  we can spend so much time worrying about and policing other people’s gender that we lose sight of the jesus in them.  this past thursday was the annual transgender day of remembrance where we gathered for a vigil and read the names of those beloved children of god who others chose to harm and kill because their gender didn’t fit in the box that person had for them. 

i went to the vigil, as i have the past few years, for several reasons.  i went to bear witness that violence is wrong.  i went to bear witness that god’s love is for everybody.  and i went because sometimes people get confused by the way i dress, when i wear a tie, or by how i cut my hair.

in today’s gospel the son of man is talking to the gentiles, people who don’t know or follow the way of jesus.  people who really don’t have a context in which to recognize jesus.  it’s not just that the “goats” don’t recognize jesus, nobody does!

there are so many ways that each of us can get caught up in our expectations and assumptions that we fail to recognize each other and, more importantly, we fail to recognize jesus            in            the            other.  sometimes it’s because we are more concerned with figuring out their gender than recognizing that god is a god of all genders.  sometimes we are too concerned with what papers they have, forgetting that we are a country of strangers and immigrants and that god comes to us as a stranger in our midst. 

other times we can see too much of ourselves—specifically those characteristics in ourselves that we don’t like to acknowledge.  we see too much of us in them to remember that god created us all—them and us—as beloved children, just as we are.

at this end of the church year, we celebrate christ the king, our namesake.  we celebrate the One whose power and love is made known in the “least of these.”  christ’s presence in the hungry, the stranger, the naked, the outcast, is the way we know: god’s love is for everybody.  we know god’s diversity as we are all made, in our diversity, in god’s image.  we know god’s love as we are all called beloved children.

so whether our hair changes length or style, whether we have the right papers, whether we lose our jobs, or are diagnosed with a grave illness, we never lose the ability to recognize jesus in those we encounter.

more importantly, though, god will never lose the ability

       not only to recognize each of us as beloved children,

              but also to be present in us,

                     to know us more deeply than how we wear or don’t wear our hair,

                     to know us more deeply than our gender,

                            our immigration status, our job, or our health.

god knows us deeply enough to call us beloved, and god knows each person we encounter deeply enough to call them beloved as well.

thanks be to god.

all jesus wants is to be with us: 22nd sunday after pentecost

here is the manuscript from the sermon i preached today at christ the king lutheran church.

the reading referenced from amos was amos 5:18-24.

the format and much of my thinking for this gospel come from david r. henson.

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew.  Glory to you, O Lord.

[Jesus said,] “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this.

       Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

              ²Five of them were foolish,

              and five were wise.

But if you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.  From 1 Corinthians: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (1 Corinthians 3:19)

       ³When the foolish took their lamps,

              they took no oil with them;

                     ⁴but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

       ⁵As the bridegroom was delayed,

              all of them became drowsy and slept.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, from Matthew: “Jesus came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour?’” (Matthew 26:40)

                     ⁶But at midnight there was a shout,

                            ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom!

                                   Come out to meet him.’

               ⁷Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.

                     ⁸The foolish said to the wise,

                            ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

From Isaiah: “A dimly burning wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3)

                     ⁹But the wise replied,

                            ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us;

From Matthew:” Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42)

                                   you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’

From Matthew: Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)

                     ¹⁰And while they went to buy it,

                            the bridegroom came,

From Revelation: In the city of God, “they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.” (Revelation 22:5)

                            and those who were ready went with him

                                   into the wedding banquet;

From Matthew: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Matthew 19:30)

                                          and the door was shut.

From Matthew: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 23:13)

                     ¹¹Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying,

                            ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’

                            ¹²But he replied,

                                   ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’

From Proverbs: “If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard.” (Proverbs 21:13)

¹³Keep awake therefore,

       for you know neither the day nor the hour.

The gospel of the Lord.  Praise to you, O Christ.

 -----

who is foolish?  who is wise?  the parable in today’s gospel has always been one that i struggle with.  the way i’ve always heard it, 5 are bad and 5 are good, but when we dig deeper into the parable, it’s not so simple.  what makes the foolish ones so foolish?  everyone falls asleep on the bridegroom.  in fact, the bridegroom doesn’t even bother to show up on time! 

sure the “foolish” ones don’t have enough oil, but the other 5 do.  those 5 are unwilling to share—to give of what they have, and even if they do need to keep what they have, what’s worse is: they send the “foolish” away, off into the night right when the bridegroom is coming!

this parable could easily be a lesson about being prepared, having enough…stuff?  faith?  oil?  but what if this parable isn’t about having enough, but instead about being authentic community? 

the bridesmaids are the ones invited to an important role in the celebration.  they are important to the couple getting married and yet in the face of being unprepared, the “foolish” choose to miss the arrival in order to be “fully prepared” and the “wise” ones neither share nor encourage them to stay and celebrate as a whole community.

but what is meaningful, authentic community?  if we take a hint from amos here, community has to do with care for those considered the least and the last in this world.  worship, amos says, doesn’t mean anything if our lives the other six days a week aren’t lived out as worship and service to god.  if we aren’t concerned for the well-being of our neighbor, how can we claim to care about god?

this parable also raises the question: what kind of “wise” and “foolish” are we talking about with respect to these bridesmaids?  are they wise and foolish according to god or according to the world?  as paul put it in 1 corinthians, “for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with god.”

are there two groups, one “wise” and one “foolish” at all?  in the end does anyone really win? in the course of the parable, half the people are missing and by not showing up, or not sharing the light and oil they have, or not encouraging each other’s presence, they’ve treated each other such that it’s no wonder the bridegroom says “i do not know you.”  the friends the bridegroom knows would have been there when he arrived, even if he did arrive late.     

what if community and god’s wisdom is really just about showing up?  being there for those who are suffering and being there for those who are celebrating?

you each have papers, hopefully with jesus drawn or written on them.  when bishop jim was with us for my installation, he gave us all homework and we’ve been working on that homework these last two weeks.

he asked us to find jesus and he gave us hints about where we might find jesus.  where did he say we’d find jesus?  do you remember?  this is a real question, so feel free to shout out answers.

here’s my homework report: these last two weeks, i haven’t had to do much searching for jesus, because jesus has called me.  this week i’ve been the emergency pastoral care contact for pastor steve at zion’s while he’s on vacation. 

on wednesday i received a call from a social worker at the huntsman cancer institute.  d was really sick with cancer and he was being transferred to hospice care.  his family had come to be with him and they were from nevada.  they asked for a lutheran pastor to come be with them.

when i walked in the door to the room, there was jesus.  gathered together with tear-filled eyes, a family who had lost touch with each other, and yet gathered again together for this moment.  they held hands and encircled d as he drifted in and out.  together we prayed…for comfort, for healing, for love.  for d, for his family, for peace.  we prayed together and gave thanks to god for the life d had lived, we anointed d with oil for the journey he would soon take. 

i stayed with d and his family as some said goodbye, needing to return home, and i heard of the ways god had brought them back together, and i held the holy-ness of their tears and their sorrow.  and there was jesus.  in their tears, in their sorrow…in their suffering.

today we send our project linus blankets out with god’s blessing, trusting that they will bring god’s comfort and love to those who need it.  that the blankets might be just enough extra love for someone to remain, with the oil in their own lamp running out, but trusting the brightness of jesus’ presence and of god’s love.  or that the blankets might inspire others to encourage those exhausted ones, the ones whose oil is dwindling, to remain, and to be with them in their waiting. 

waiting for god in our vulnerabilities, when we are running on empty, is not a comfortable thing.  it’s easy to think, like the “foolish,” that we need to go off and gather supplies when we feel unworthy or unprepared for god.  or, like the wise, that our preparedness is what is important and others need to be more like us.

all jesus has ever wanted, however, is to be with us.  that’s why he came to earth as a baby—dependent on us and in that way required to be with us.  that’s why, as i say in the eucharistic prayer each sunday, on the cross jesus opened his arms to all.  that’s why jesus comes to us each week in bread and wine.

jesus wants to be with us—all of us.  just as we are.  with lamps barely burning and with extra supplies for weeks to come.  jesus holds us close, wraps us in a blanket, anoints us with oil.  and jesus becomes our light.

jesus comes as the bridegroom.  jesus comes as oil and lamp.  jesus comes to light the way; to make bright the celebration and love that is his body, the beloved community of god.  jesus comes to be all we need at our lowest and at our highest and jesus loves us right where we’re at.

thanks be to god.