god keeps working on us: 3rd sunday of lent

the holy gospel according to luke, the 13^th chapter.  glory to you, o lord.

13At that very time

there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans

whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

²He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way

they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?

³No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,            

you will all perish as they did.

⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?

⁵No, I tell you;

but unless you repent,            

you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.

⁷So he said to the gardener, ‘See here!

For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree,

and still I find none.

Cut it down!

Why should it be wasting the soil?’

⁸He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.

⁹If it bears fruit next year,

well and good;

but if not,

you can cut it down.’”

the gospel of the lord.  praise to you, o christ.

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some people in the crowd come to jesus with an age-old struggle about evil and sin in the world.

the jews are living under occupation.  pilate continues to rule violently over them, working hard to quash even the smallest sign of rebellion.  violence and oppression are daily realities. 

the cross and crucifixion are political instruments of torture and punishment and won’t be made into religious symbols until well after their political purpose has ended. 

life is uncertain. so it makes sense that the jews want to find a way

to make meaning out of,

to place blame for,

and to be excused from

the violence and the oppression around them.

and the issues they raise are important.

how responsible are individuals for the bad stuff that happens to them?  does god punish us?  why are these bad things happening?

were the galileans killed because they were such bad sinners?  were those killed by the tower of siloam really worse offenders? 

are the victims of violence in neighborhoods east of troost worse sinners?  are the people of haiti or joplin greater offenders? 

was she asking for it?  did he deserve it? 

i have to admit, i like to find out who is responsible for bad things, for mistakes, for hurt, so that i know where to place blame… so that i don’t have to worry about being blamed or being hurt.  it’s pretty easy to look at the violence in the world around us and blame the victim.  if it’s the victim’s fault, it means i’m safe.  if he deserved it or she was asking for it, then it couldn’t possibly happen to me, because i wouldn’t ask for it, i’m not that bad.                          i’m nice!  i’m a good person.                       

it makes us feel safer because: we’re not like them.  we’re not so sinful.

but when asked if “they”—those other people—were worse sinners, twice jesus says,

“no,             i tell you;                        

but unless you repent, you will all perish.” 

just like today, sin was not simply an individual thing—an issue of personal piety.  systems were set up to reinforce inequalities.

today racism and sexism are two forms of sin that have become institutionalized.  that is, they’ve been knitted into the fabric of our society in such a way that many people, especially those who seem to benefit from them, don’t even notice.            

it’s how it’s always been.

perhaps the jews had become so accustomed to the occupation, that they forgot that it was a reason for killing and death, like some who think the children of god east of troost are to blame for the violence they suffer.  they forgot.  and we forget that the pain and violence experienced so often by women and people of color are part of a larger system that we might not notice, but that affects us all.

institutionalized sins, like racism and sexism are all around us.  they infect our economic and social systems, our entertainment and our politics.  they are an epidemic that continues to spread as it goes unnoticed or, unacknowledged. 

they have become embedded in our culture in such a way that many of us who are oppressed can feel it, even if we can’t articulate what it is we’re feeling or struggling with, and many of us who are oppressors don’t even notice it.  and so often many of us can find ourselves in the role of both oppressed and oppressor with conflicting feelings and emotions as ever-present struggles inside of us.

yet jesus knows what we need.

repent.

he says. 

“unless you repent, you will all perish.”

it is not their fault, but we as a culture must repent for the role we all play in continuing and upholding institutionalized sin.  we are connected.  each of us, one to another.  sexism and racism don’t just harm women and people of color, they harm us all.  it is not good for our souls to be put, for arbitrary reasons, above or below another person; to be put on a pedestal and pressured to maintain that position at all costs keeps us from being in relationship with others.

as does being constantly knocked down from any pedestal. 

these systems of oppression can prevent us from recognizing everyone as children of god, worthy—always—of god’s love and grace.

repentance is key.

repent, turning around—re-turning—to the goodness of god’s way.  to the recognition of each other as beloved children of god.  in calling the crowd and, by extension, us to repentance, jesus brings us back also to the cry we heard by the river jordan.  as john was baptizing and proclaiming a baptism of repentance, he told the crowd gathered then, “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”

jesus knows the difficulty we face.  he knows what it takes to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”  that’s why he tells the parable.

because the thing about that fig tree is that on its own in the vineyard, with no second chances—no grace—that fig tree would be chopped down.  and if we are that fig tree.  we cannot, by our own power, put an end to systems of oppression.

but we have a god who never gives up. 

a god who is bigger than sexism and racism and all the powers of evil.

every time we repent, we recall our baptisms:

we get to again renounce racism, sexism, and all the forces that defy god. 

we get to renounce these systems of oppression—the powers of this world—that rebel against god. 

and we get to renounce the ways of sin that draw us from god. 

and god comes to us again and again and again, as the gardener; cultivating the ground, spreading manure, nourishing us that we might bear fruit.  we cannot and do not do it ourselves.  only god can.  and god chooses to do it through us.

god nurtures us into bearing fruits like immanuel’s involvement in the struggle to level the economic playing field by working to raise the minimum wage and cap interest rates on payday loans, both of which would positively impact primarily women and people of color, those most likely to live in poverty.

god is working in us to bear fruits worthy of repentance in involvement to reduce gun violence as part of the movement to change our culture of violence.  reducing gun violence would positively impact us all and especially those most likely to be victims of gun violence:  african american youth and women who are, or could become victims of domestic violence.

god works through us as we repent, re-turning to god to bear fruits worthy of repentance.  god works through us as we advocate to expand medicaid coverage for those without means to afford health care on their own, giving those who are more likely to live in poverty the help they need.

there is so much that god can and does do through us as we repent,

renouncing racism, sexism, and all the systems of oppression at work in the world.  and god is at work in our repentance.             

always forgiving                                    

and always working to nourish us

so that the fruit we bear may be fruits worthy of repentance.

repent.  re-turn to god.  for in god there is life.  and we can trust that god will always work for one more year, one more chance—more time to work with us, to feed us [table], to water us [font], to help us bear fruits worthy of repentance.

thanks be to god!

dream day

this colorado girl's dream day!!  today was one of my monthly reading days (scheduled about a month ago with no knowledge of "winter storm q"'s plans to come visit--what does the q stand for, anyway??).  the snow just kept piling up and after a visit from jesus (or was she just a homeless woman in need of shelter?), i headed outside.

this is my rain meter - something i didn't know about until coming to kansas city. 
yes, it is full of snow with snow piled all around it.

my car, approximately five minutes (or less) after i had brushed it clean - as in, black like it's painted. 
when i was getting my snow gear on, it wasn't even snowing!

the snow would not pack together for a snowbaby on my porch, so i had to at least make a snow angel!

this is my happy (and maybe a little cold and tired) face!

for a girl who was beginning to give up on winter here in kansas city, this snow was a dream come true!!

may you be covered in the dust of jesus: ash wednesday

the psalm with which we began the service was psalm 51.
the first reading was joel 2:1-2, 12-17.

the holy gospel according to matthew, the 6th chapter.  glory to you, o lord.

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ²“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ³But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁵“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.⁶But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

¹⁶“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

the gospel of the lord.  praise to you, o christ.

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remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

just as joel sounds the trumpets for a solemn assembly, much of our lives are marked by funerals and loss.  sometimes i find myself keeping track of the events of my life in relationship to those who have died.  it’s not necessarily every year that someone close to me dies, but it’s often enough that they can be time markers.  my uncle in third grade, my grandfather at the end of eighth grade, my high school classmate my second year of college, and my grandmother this past year.

you are dust and to dust you shall return.

death is all around us and yet the world that surrounds us does not like death or mortality.  it does not want to be reminded that we will all die in the end—you can see it in commercials most clearly.  denying mortality, the underlying message is that you will be more alive, more immortal, further from death—or, at least, that is how you will appear.  you will look younger, more alive, vibrant if you would just by this one product.

but we were created out of the dust to be a dusty people.  god formed the first human from the dust of the ground.  it’s even in the hebrew of the words.  adam from adamah.  we are dusty people,    from dust,    and when we die, we will return to the dust of the earth. 

as god has provided us with nourishment from creation for our living, so, in our dying do we respond with nourishment for creation.  returning to the earth at the end of our lives, continuing the cycle for generation after generation.

you are dust and to dust you shall return.

we come today to put ashes on our foreheads, to proclaim the good news of our mortality to the world.  we come today to stare death in the face,   to face our mortality    in the grace of god because even as we embrace mortality, we know that in jesus christ, death does not have the final word. so we can come to join the solemn assembly of joel to honor that life is precious and short—even when it lasts for over a century.  we come to say that yes, we will die, we will get sick, we will be sad and lonely and angry, we will mess up and sin and hurt, and,   even in all of that,   we have a god who loves us.

a god who loves us in all our messiness and a god who knows not only our shadow sides, our sinfulness, but also our original goodness.  this is the god who creates us, the god who comes to dwell with us, to be the Dusty One among the dusty many.  a god who comes to us, even knowing the path ahead.

you are dust and to dust you shall return.

that is what these long 40 days are about.  we begin our lenten journey marked by dust—the dust of the cross.  we know this road.  we have traveled it before.  this is the road to jerusalem.  the disciples walked it so many years ago, not knowing how it would end.  we know where the road leads, to the top of the hill, to the cross.  yet our call is to discipleship.

in high school sunday school, we talked about discipleship in jesus’ time and learned that in jesus’ day, disciples were the people who tried to be just like their rabbi.  they would try to follow the rabbi so closely that the saying for disciples was, “may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.”

you are dust and to dust you shall return.

we are covered in the dust of our rabbi, marked with the cross of christ.  looking forward to these 40 days as a time to deepen our discipleship—to be covered in the dust of jesus not just today, but every day.

it is in light of our dusty situations that we hear jesus’ words to us that in our alms giving, in our praying, and in our fasting we are to do it not for the recognition that the world gives, but for our own growth.  we do it as a way of helping our hearts to get to the right place.  jesus says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

my heart does not always go where i want it to.  psalm 51 makes it clear, requesting, “create in me a clean heart, o god, and renew a right spirit within me.  cast me not away from your presence, and take not your holy spirit from me.  restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with your bountiful spirit.”

jesus’ promise that where we decide to store up treasure will help our heart to go where we choose gives me hope that even when i am struggling in my heart, my mind and intentionality matter and they can guide my heart in the long run.  it is a promise that says i have agency and i get to choose where i lead my heart. 

my heart, though very much influenced by it, is not bound to evil or consumerism, spite or fear.  i get to help my heart live into its original goodness, which came before and is stronger than any original sin, and part of how i get to do that is in how i respond to what god has provided.  i get to store up my treasures where i choose.

and lest i get too full of myself, believing my salvation might depend on me rather than on god, i am reminded:

you are dust and to dust you shall return.

even as i get to choose where to store up my treasure, where i want to lead my heart.  here on ash wednesday it is clear.  i am not dependent on my own heart or my will or my actions.  even as i seek to be covered in the dust of jesus, i am not jesus and i am not the one with all the grace. 

even as i store up my treasure, as i come for repentance, for forgiveness, for comfort, i am reminded of my favorite definition of grace: there is nothing you can do to make god love you any more and there is nothing you can do to make god love you any less. 

because although we are dust and to dust we shall return, that is not all we are.  in our baptisms we are claimed as god’s beloved children.  so when we come seeking clean hearts and right spirits, we know that god will cleanse us as with hyssop and make us clean because god has already cleansed us with the waters of baptism, where we were joined to jesus in his death so that we might be raised with him in the resurrection.

so i come to be covered in the dust of jesus, trusting that god’s grace, poured down at baptism and made known in jesus christ, covers me long after the dust of ashes has been washed away.

you are dust and to dust you shall return.

jesus chooses his disciples: narrative lectionary

the holy gospel according to luke, the 5th chapter, glory to you, o lord.

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ²he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” ⁶When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

the gospel of the lord, praise to you, o christ.

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in high school sunday school, we’ve been watching a video series by rob bell.  a couple weeks ago when i taught sunday school the theme was discipleship.  we learned a couple things about those who were disciples to a rabbi that really stuck out to me.

1-disciples were the best of the best of the best as all others were filtered off into their family business and being a disciple was the dream job, such that a rabbi would go to a potential disciple—who had memorized the torah (the first 5 books of the bible), the talmud (the rest of the books that make up what we call the hebrew bible or old testament genesis through malachi), and the midrash, or commentary from the rabbi (referred to as the rabbi’s yoke)—and say “come, follow me” and a disciple would do it in a heartbeat.

2-the goal of discipleship was to be like your rabbi—to the extent that you walked right behind them and walked in what they walked in and the saying was “may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.”

so, when jesus as a rabbi comes to simon and james and john to call them as disciples, he is not calling the best of the best—they’re already well into the family business, after all—but it’s no wonder they say yes!

it’s the dream job of the day!  the catch with jesus is that try as anyone might, they cannot follow him as they would another rabbi.  jesus is god incarnate—grace made real—and so while we can try to be like him, we will never be him.  we will never fully succeed.  his love and grace is so overflowing that it breaks the nets we cast and nearly submerges our boats!

this is the part of the sermon where i invited people to make use of the crayons, pens, and paper in their pews to reflect individually and then with someone next to them on the following two sets of questions:

1- what is your dream job?  if you could do anything and get paid for it, what would it be?            

what would you say if somebody came by out of the blue and offered you that job?                       

2-when has someone chosen you for something?  how/for what do you wish god would choose you?

as we move through lent this year, i invite you to reflect on how you might deepen your discipleship.  what would it take and what would it look like for you to be covered in the dust of jesus?  what would it mean to you?