Sunday, August 28, 2016

the Radical One flips the script: 15th after pentecost


The holy gospel according to Luke (14:1, 7-14)

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.

7When 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;
                     9and 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.
       10But when you are invited,
              go and sit down at the lowest place,
                     so that when your host comes,
                            your host 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.
                                                 11For all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
                                                 and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12Jesus 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.
       13But when you give a banquet,
              invite those who are poor, crippled, lame, and blind.
              14And you will be blessed,
                     because they cannot repay you,
                            for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The gospel of the lord.

-----

Once again, Jesus is eating.  Jesus loves food—or at least our Lukan gospel writer does.  Luke’s gospel, which we’ve been exploring throughout this year, almost always has Jesus eating or talking about eating, being criticized for how and with whom he eats, or inviting himself over to eat with someone.

Today it’s a Sabbath meal at “the house of a leader of the Pharisees.”  At first Jesus sits back to watch and then after some observations, Jesus proposes a new way of being that will ultimately inform the last supper, communion, and what it means to be followers of Christ.

In the culture of the time, honor and shame were as vital as supply and demand are for our own culture.  Every interaction is driven by the need to receive honor and even more so             by the need to avoid shame.

So it is no small thing when Jesus challenges the need to sit in places of honor, encouraging guests to sit in the lower places and then encourages hosts to invite those who cannot repay or those who will not increase the honor of the host.  This doesn’t just slightly challenge folks to think a bit more generously.  It isn’t a simple lesson in hospitality and pride.  This completely flips the script on folks—turning their entire cultural worldview on its head.

It’s like someone suggesting that instead of having a minimum wage, below which no one should be paid, we institute a maximum wage, above which no one should be paid—or just one wage for everyone altogether.  Or it’s like suggesting that the price for much needed medicine be lower the more people need it to stay alive, instead of hiking the price to earn more money.  Jesus completely upsets the status quo and challenges the entire system under which people are living
                        and that is exactly what Jesus does in communion as well.

Communion is the part of worship that most dramatically challenges the way our culture operates.  It flips the script on the narrative that your worth and your access to basic needs like food and shelter are dependent on the economic value of what you do—on the amount of money that you earn—either for yourself or for the company you work for.

That is most certainly not how God works.  In God’s economy, your worth            is intrinsic.  You are valuable and loved because you are you—because God creates you as valuable and God creates you as beloved.  Communion is given to everyone because God loves you, because God loves every single person, because God nourishes us and cares for our well-being, and because God is giving us a glimpse of what is to come—of what God’s reign looks like.  Communion is for each of us and every other person, whether you are full of faith, full of doubt, or full of something else.

Just as Jesus puts those without the means to give honor or to repay at the center of the banquet host’s invites, Jesus, as the host of the meal we share in communion, puts those who don’t find a place in our culture at the center.  In communion, Jesus shows up.  Jesus joins us in the bread of life and cup of salvation, and Jesus gives us practice for life in the world—practice at a new and different way of being in the world.

Whether like in pew communion, Jesus comes right up to us where we’re at, or whether we come up to the table to find that there is a place for us and the food is ready.  When we receive communion, Jesus the Christ is born again in us.  As the crucified one chooses to dwell in us, to make a home with us, those who are crucified in our world also find a place at the Table and in our hearts.

Those whose documentation status keeps them from receiving or even seeking medical attention
            have a place at the Table marked: Beloved. 
Those who flee places of violence like Syria and this week Kabul, Afghanistan
            have a place at the Table marked: Beloved. 
Those who are killed and locked up because it’s easier to perpetuate a system of injustice than it is to care for the justice and well-being of our neighbor
            have a place at the Table marked: Beloved. 
Those who have been told that who they are is sinful
            have a place for them at the Table marked: Beloved.

Jesus opens not only the Table at which we celebrate communion, but every table at which we share food.  Jesus opens all of the food we share, all of our interactions with others.  Jesus flips the script—putting even the ones we feel justified in leaving out or not inviting            at the center.  

 Jesus rejects the system that says our value is dependent on the money we have or the money we earn.  Jesus puts our value back in our heart—in who we are as God’s beloved.  Jesus is the Radical One who calls the outcast, the stranger, the addict, the one without papers, the refugee, the killed, the survivors, the queer, the ashamed, the faithless            first to the Table as the honored guests.

Thanks be to God.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Jesus deepens Sabbath: 14th after pentecost


The holy gospel according to Luke (13:10-17)

10Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
       11And 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.
       12When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said,
              “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.”
              13When Jesus laid his hands on her,
                     immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
                            14But 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.”
                            15But the Lord answered him and said,
                                   “You hypocrites!
                                   Does not each of you on the sabbath
                                          untie your ox or your donkey from the manger,
                                                and lead it away to give it water?
                                   16And ought not this woman,
                                          a daughter of Abraham and Sarah
                                                whom Satan bound for eighteen long years,
                                                       be set free from this bondage 
                                                              on the sabbath day?”
                            17When Jesus said this,
                                   all his opponents were put to shame;
                                          and the entire crowd was rejoicing
                                                at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing.

The gospel of the Lord.

 -----

[Deep breaths]


“If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,” Isaiah says, “14then you shall take delight in the Lord”

What does that even mean anymore?  It used to be, and particularly in orthodox Judaism still is the case, that, among other things, on the Sabbath there was a limit on how many steps you could take—how far you could go—and you couldn’t light a fire or turn on a light.  Not too long ago in this country, it meant that stores were closed on Sundays.  It was the day of rest.  The day to pause, breathe deep, and not work.

But those don’t fit with our TV and internet, car-driving culture.  For those of us who work, we oftentimes work outside the stereotypical 9-5 workday or Monday through Friday workweek.  Then there is the work of housekeeping on top of it—how does that fit in?  Is it work to tend the garden and sweep the floor or is that Sabbath?

And for those of us who don’t work for a paycheck—whether it’s because we care for children or because we’ve achieved that nebulous title of “retired”—what does Sabbath look like?  If Sabbath is a break from “work,” is our whole life now Sabbath by default?  Is it that easy or simple?  Is it that unintentional?

What counts as Sabbath and what doesn’t? 

If we are watching or playing sports, does that count? 

Does playing computer games count?  What about when you sit down for a game of solitaire and look up to find that hours—not minutes as you’d thought—have passed?  What about getting online or on Facebook for one thing and clicking on links until the whole evening is gone and it’s past your bedtime?  Zoning out mindlessly in front of the TV?

In our gospel reading for today, Jesus steps into these messy wonderings about what Sabbath really is.

Jesus is just hanging out at the synagogue teaching, like ya do, and a woman comes by, bound up and curved over.  She is unable to look up or look forward and as she shuffles along the periphery, minding her own business, Jesus notices her.  She is not asking for his attention or begging with faith that he will heal her, and yet Jesus notices her and calls her over anyway.  Curious, and maybe a bit cautious from all the “religious folks” who keep misusing her to talk about sin, she shuffles over to Jesus.

And this is where Jesus broadens and deepens the meaning of Sabbath.  Having taken the time to notice this woman, he doesn’t condemn her or lift up her situation as an example of the effects of sin as some might have expected.  Instead Jesus frees her from her ailment.

Jesus, in this one encounter and subsequent confrontation, liberates us all from a restrictive understanding of Sabbath.  Jesus makes Sabbath more than a day or a set of rules about behavior.  Now Sabbath includes:
1-the space to notice others and to notice how the Holy Spirit might be at work.
2-freedom from the things that bind us.
3-restoration of people and communities.

Jesus notices the woman.  As we have prayed this year as a community of faith—whether it was on street corners in Epiphany or church building basements in Lent—we have been finding small Sabbath moments, opening ourselves to notice the world around us and to glimpse what the Holy Spirit is up to in this community.

After noticing her, Jesus frees this woman from what binds her.  That is the power of grace—God’s love—in our lives.  Because God loves you—I mean really loves you—in the things you’re ashamed of, the things you wish you could take back, the regrets and jealousies.  Jesus loves your whole self.

The gift and fact that God loves you. right now. and there’s nothing you can do to make God love you any less and there’s nothing you can do to make God love you any more                         makes.  You.  Free.  God’s grace and love frees you from the pressure to be perfect or to live up to unrealistic expectations.  Jesus brings us a new kind of Sabbath and frees us with the woman from these pressures that bind us.

In freeing her, Jesus also restores this woman to the community and this community to the woman.  Prior to her encounter with Jesus, she was not recognized as a full part of the community.  As with most women of the time, she was probably off to the side and since she was unable to look up or forward, not fully included in the life of the community. 

Jesus changes that.  Jesus brings her from the margins to the center, from shuffling to celebrating and praising God.  Jesus brings her to the center, frees her from what kept her bound and facing only the ground, and connects the community back to her.

As one who is marginalized and off to the edge, Jesus brings her physically and spiritually to the center.  Her experience and her life become the focus for Jesus, the heart of the Sabbath.  In this Jesus also restores the whole community, which has been lacking while she was not included.  The community becomes more whole as it is able to connect with and recognize this woman.

In these ways, Jesus breaks open Sabbath itself.  And so also breaks open our Sabbaths.  Even in our TV, internet, and work-driven lives, Jesus brings a new meaning for Sabbath, a meaning bigger and deeper than a “day off.”  Whether we set apart an entire day or incorporate Sabbath moments in our lives throughout the week, Jesus creates the Sabbath space for us to notice, to be freed and to be restored. 

Together we all live fuller lives, grounded in God’s love for each person, from every country and race and from every situation in life.  Jesus creates endless opportunities for us to be renewed in worship as we confess our sins and receive forgiveness, as we pass the peace—seeking reconciliation with others, as we receive the bread and cup—new life and nourishment for us. 

There are endless ways each day and each week that Sabbath comes to us, in deep breaths, playing, reading, and praying.  And at the heart of it is Jesus’ presence with us all. together.  Jesus’ Sabbath restores and frees us the whole community and the whole body of Christ.