Good Call

The scriptures referred to are Romans 8:26-39.

In the 1989 movie Batman, there is a question asked by the Joker which is not answered until much later and in a different film. It is prompted by Batman rescuing Vicky Vale and escaping from the Joker by just happening to have on him one of those gadgets that is oddly specific in its suitability for the situation. The Joker muses, “Where does he get those wonderful toys?” That line always gets a laugh but if you think about it, it is a valid question. Sure, Bruce Wayne is a millionaire but you don't just go into Home Depot or Sharper Image or to the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and pick up bombs that drop from your hubcaps or sleeping gas pellets or ice skates that come out of your boots. Last I time checked Harley Davidson does not make motorcycles with fixed machine guns. Does Alfred build this stuff in his spare time? It wasn't until the 2005 movie Batman Begins, that we find out that Bruce has his own Q, so to speak, working in Wayne Enterprises' defense division.

And while he has specialized gadgets for, say, dealing with Mr. Freeze as well as Poison Ivy, they are all for fighting or protection. The Batcave does not have, so far as I know, a luxurious hot tub with robotic hands to massage his aching back and shoulders. Batman is essentially a soldier and he is equipped with everything he needs to carry out his mission.

The reason I bring this up is that there is a Christian heresy called the “prosperity gospel” and like Gnosticism did in the early church, even parts of the church that explicitly reject it are often influenced by it. Many believers feel that God will supply not just their every need, as it says in Philippians 4:19, but everything they want. Such people point to places where Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) and “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:14). They think God is like a genie, duty-bound to grant our wishes provided we use the magic words “in Jesus' name.” But that's not what those passages mean. The context of those verses reveal that when Jesus tells us he will give us what we ask for in his name, he is using that phrase the same way we say an ambassador is acting in the name of his country. He is carrying out his mission, acting as a representative of, say, the United States, and not acting for himself. Just as when a person in command gives a soldier a mission and says he will provide whatever he needs, he doesn't mean sports cars or sexy companions. He means “What equipment do you need? Do you need air support? Do you need team specialists?” He'll give you whatever you need as long as it's for the mission.

This was easier to grasp when the church started out because it was a movement, not an institution. There were no church buildings; Christians met in people's houses. There were no worship books or hymnals. There were no Bibles, at least not any that were inexpensive, easy to carry and available to all. Your church group was started by a visiting apostle. When he left, one of his associates stayed behind to teach that church the faith. Eventually the apostle would appoint and lay hands on a group of elders, who organized things, and deacons, who took care of the poor and needy, and an overseer or bishop who presided over the Eucharist. If the bishop had questions he could write a letter to the apostle and get a traveler to drop it off, and then wait for a reply. There were no existing church supplies or manuals which is why they really did have to ask God for what they needed and trust him to supply it.

Today's churches take such things for granted. There are church publishers that offer Bibles and hymnals and Sunday school curricula and bookkeeping software. There are church supply companies from which they can get specialized items like podiums and choir robes and offering plates and communion vessels. Most local churches are part of an organized national church that can supply forms and training and clergy candidates. That's where we get our wonderful toys. But what the church can't supply is the call to mission. That comes from God.

Our passage from Romans says, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” This is another promise that God will do good things for us, but Paul explicitly ties it to being called by God in accordance with his purpose. So this doesn't mean that God will make all things work together so that you win the Miss America pageant or that you win the lottery or even that you never get sick. It doesn't mean that God will see to it that a church gets what it wants in order to build a 10,000 person worship space or that the pastor will get a million dollar private plane to fly to venues where he can preach to stadiums of people. It means that God will supply what you need for the mission for which he has called you.

We tend to think that only clergy get called by God. That motivates them to get into the ministry. But if everyone thinks that way, the clergy will run into problems when they take on a church which does not realize it too has been called by God for a purpose, or if it is filled with people who don't think they as individuals are called by God for specific purposes. And that's odd because the Greek word which we translate as church is ekklesia, which literally means “those who are called out.” A church is an assembly of people called out by God for a purpose. And it's not just to sit in a building one hour a week, any more than a squadron of soldiers are simply to meet in the briefing room, or police officers in a muster room, and then just go about their ordinary lives. The church is where we get information from our Commander, where we get training, where we get equipped and where we get our marching orders.

In the Transitional Training webinar I have been attending all week, they have been emphasizing the proper relationship of God and ministry. We tend to think that ministry leads the church. But it's God who calls and leads his people which in turn leads to ministry.

Pr. Tom Weitzel, to whom I am indebted for a lot of this, points out that before we can do ministry, we first have to understand our identity. We need to know who we are and whose we are. If we take our identity from anyone or anything other than God, it will warp the church. Some churches think of themselves as holy businesses and use the same metrics of success that corporations do. Some churches think of themselves as clubs and try to bring in people like them and not attract those unlike them. Some churches think of themselves as organizations dedicated to promoting certain issues, sometimes to the point of feeling the ends they hope to achieve justify whatever means they deem necessary.

We get our identity from God. He tells us who we are—the body of Christ, those called out by God to spread the gospel or good news of God's love and grace as seen in Jesus. Which tells us whose we are. We belong to God, who, Paul tells us, chose us “to be conformed to the image of his Son,” or as J.B. Phillips translates it, “to bear the family likeness of his Son.”

If we are to be like Christ and act as his body, his presence in the world, what is our purpose? Well, what did Jesus say was his purpose? In the gospel of John, Jesus says more than 2 dozen times that God has sent him. And he says that he is sent to do the will of God. (John 5:30) This means he speaks and acts on God's behalf. He says, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (John 7:16) He also does the work of the one who sent him. (John 9:4) And those works also testify to that fact that God sent him. (John 5:36)

So Jesus was sent not only to save the world through his death on the cross but also to speak and act as God's agent on earth. And then after his resurrection Jesus says to the disciples, “As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” (John 20:21) More fully Jesus says. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

Our purpose is to go and make disciples and baptize them and teach them to obey all that Jesus commanded. And chief among those things he commanded is to love God with all we have and all we are and to love other people: our neighbors, our enemies, the outcasts of society, in whom we are to see and serve Jesus. And our ministry is to implement those things for which God called us.

When we forget our call by God, we forget who we are. And when we forget who we are, we forget out purpose. And when we forget our purpose, our ministry suffers or even ceases to be ministry. It can become merely activities we do, ways we keep busy, motions we go through because they are familiar and comforting. But they are not conveying God's love and grace as they should.

When the temple in Jerusalem existed, people thought that it was where God resided and for the high holy days, people would go there. The problem is that once people thought that Zion is where God is, then they thought anywhere else is where God isn't. But when Jesus came, some people realized that wherever he was, God was. And in Jesus God went where the people were.

Jesus foresaw the destruction of the temple. But that would happen decades after Jesus returned to his Father. And so he passes the torch of embodying the presence of God in the world to the church. It becomes the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:27) As Paul says, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

The temple in Jerusalem couldn't go where people were, but Jesus could. Jesus could bring God into places where people thought God wasn't present: in places where tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners lived. As the body of Christ, we are called by God to bring his presence, his love and grace, his words and his works, wherever people don't think of God being.

I love church buildings. I've been to Canterbury Cathedral and St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and many others. And the buildings are huge and awesome. The art is beautiful. But I didn't get much of a sense of God there. As Stephen, the first Christian martyr, said, “the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands.” (Acts 7:48) Rather, as Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23) In that vein, Paul writes, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” (Ephesians 3:16-17)

It is only because Christ is in us that we can hear and answer God's call and take up Christ's mission to make disciples, baptize them, teach them and obey his command to love. And to that end, “...to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” (Ephesians 4:7) Through his Spirit he has given us all gifts and roles “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ...” (Ephesians 4:12) The Greek word for ministry can also be translated “service.” God is equipping us to serve one another.

Similarly the Bible is not given to us just to satisfy our curiosity about God, or about obscure references in the Old Testament, or to create a timeline of the last days. Instead, Paul says, “Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The church is the assembly of those called out by God and sent out to love and to serve God and those created in his image by spreading the good news and doing good works. And God will supply whatever we need for his purpose. That means right now, we have what we need to serve God. Yet we don't have a building we can meet in. We don't have the physical presence of each other We don't have the means to physically share the body and blood of Christ. What do we have?

We have faith in God. We believe that everything is in his hands. We believe he is much wiser than we are. We believe that he loves us and makes all things work together for good for those who love him, according to his purpose.

We have hope in Christ. We put our hope in the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, that he is at God's right hand and that he intercedes for us. We put our hope in God choosing us to be conformed to the image of his son.

We have God's love which has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5) This love for us has been shown in how he did not withhold his own son but gave him up for all of us. And we know that nothing, absolutely nothing, not even Covid-19, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As Paul spread faith, hope and love beyond his physical location through the technology of his day—pen and ink and papyrus and travelers—and as the churches spread these things during the flu pandemic of 1918 through the technology of the early 20^th century—newspapers and church newsletters and the mail—so we can spread faith, hope and love through the technology of the 21^st century—computers and phones and emails and social media.

After the 1918 pandemic, which killed half a million Americans, and between 17 and 50 million people worldwide, the churches reopened. And I hope that afterward, humbled by an event humans could not control, the churches rediscovered God's call and their identity, purpose and resulting ministries.

We will be different after this event. The world will be different. The way we minister will be different. But let us use this time, each of us, to listen to God's call in worship, in prayer, in studying his Word, and in what fellowship we can engage in under the circumstances. And let us ask ourselves “Where is God leading us in this time, in this situation? And what and who has he supplied us with to carry out the mission he has given us?”

Making the Best of the Bad

The scriptures referred to are Romans 8:12-25 and Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

Director Howard Hawks defined a good movie as one that has 3 good scenes and no bad scenes. Which means that Casablanca is one of the great movies because not only does it have no bad scenes, it has more than 3 good scenes. It also has great stars, a great story and a cornucopia of good, quotable lines. One of my favorites takes place when the Nazis decide to close Rick's establishment and tell Captain Renault to make it happen. When Rick asks, “How can you close me up? On what grounds?” Renault replies, “I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” And just then a croupier walks up to the captain and says, “Your winnings, sir.”

The point is that the corrupt official is not really shocked to find out about the gambling, nor should he be. That's the kind of place that Rick's Cafe Americain is. And that line always comes to mind whenever people express shock that corporations put profits and dividends before people or that people who make or enforce the law don't always follow the law themselves or that politicians who are supposed to represent everyone actually favor their friends and those who contribute to their campaigns. Well, duh! As Lord Acton pointed out, power corrupts.

I just read a short story where it turns out someone is using magic to siphon the life force off of a innocent magical creature. And is he using this magical power to conquer the world? No. He is using it to fight his baldness and grow hair! I laughed but then I thought, yeah, I could see that happening if magic were real. It's a good thing we don't have the power to alter reality that way because even those who are not megalomaniacs would be using magic for petty things, like altering their tax bills or appearing handsomer on dates or giving the guy who just passed you on US-1 car trouble. And justifying it by saying that they deserved it.

As it is, people abuse their earthly powers. One of the things I learned on the HBO documentary series I'll be Gone in the Dark was that the Golden State Killer may have been able to avoid capture in the 1980s for reasons I never would have guessed. When this criminal changed his base of operations from the Sacramento area to Santa Barbara and his crimes escalated from rape to murder, he did not change his very recognizable M.O. But, a former detective says, because Santa Barbara was the home to rich and powerful and famous people, the sheriff had an agreement with the local board of realtors not to publicize crimes like burglary and rape because property values might go down! So potential victims were not warned nor were the detectives in his old hunting ground made aware of his new outrages. Eventually this criminal got away with more than 100 burglaries, more than 50 rapes and at least 13 murders. But at least resale values stayed high.

Bad behavior by the powerful is not new. After the release of the musical Hamilton on streaming services people got upset that more attention was not given to the fact that many of our founding fathers were slaveowners. Writer/performer Lin-Manuel Miranda has said the criticism has validity, though the subject was brought up in the play a number of times. To be fair, Hamilton is trying to cram the entire life of an amazing man into 2 ½ hours and I, for one, was surprised by how much it did cover. The musical 1776 does highlight the problem of slavery in the colonial US rather powerfully. In fact in the chilling song, “Molasses to Rum to Slaves” the Northern colonies are explicitly implicated in the slave trade for which they condemn the South. Hopefully, these plays will send people to books on the history of slavery that can set the issue out in the detail it demands.

Nor is the church immune from corruption. As I said in a recent sermon, sociologist Rodney Stark speaks of 2 churches: the church of piety and the church of power. There was probably very little corruption in the church when it was illegal and persecuted. The benefit/risk ratio was way off in worldly terms. But then Constantine made Christianity legal and the beneficiary of his favor. And later Theodosius made it the only legal religion in the Roman empire. Given that much power, corruption of the church was inevitable. And this set up what Stark sees: a conflict between the those who are in the church for what it does for them and those who are part of it because of what it does for all people, between those who worship power and those who worship the God who is love.

But why does God tolerate evil in the church, or for that matter in the world? Why doesn't he just eliminate it? In today's gospel Jesus gives us one reason. In the parable of the weeds and the wheat, a man plants good seed and an enemy then plants bad seed. When the workers ask the one who sowed the seed if they should pull out the weeds, the sower says, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.” In other words, the world is so interdependent that it would be impossible to destroy bad people without there being collateral damage to the good people.

Let's says God decides to strike dead every slave owner among the founding fathers. There goes Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence. There goes George Washington who lead the Continental Army. There goes James Madison, who was pivotal in the drafting of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. And there goes Benjamin Franklin, who owned slaves up till 1781! Eventually Franklin came to change his position, divest himself of slaves and became the president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. He even signed a petition to the First Federal Congress calling for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. But if cancel culture had existed in 1776, there never would have been an independent nation that declared all men were created equal and had rights, and which has been slowly and imperfectly trying to make that ideal a reality. We're still not there. But we wouldn't even be close if we insisted that first the people involved had to be free from all sin.

No one meets that standard. Your grandparents were not perfect. If God decided to eliminate them, you wouldn't be here. And if he waited till they had your parents before taking them out, your parents would have been orphans. But your parents weren't perfect either. Neither are you. We are all sinners. Do we really want God to start wiping out people not completely good? I remember the X-Files episode where Mulder finds a genie and for his wish he asks for world peace. He finds an earth emptied of all human beings.

Ok, maybe God shouldn't get rid of us everyday sinners but what about the really bad ones? Like Adolph Hitler? The British did have plans to assassinate him. The logistics would have been difficult but the real reason they mothballed Operation Foxley was this: while Hitler may have been a political genius, he was a military moron. He had good generals but as the war turned against the Third Reich, Hitler was vetoing their suggestions and dictating how they should fight. And the British realized that they were much more likely to win the war should Hitler stay in charge. Take him out and someone more capable might be directing the German military. So rather than weed out Hitler, it made more sense to let him continue to lose the war to them.

Also smiting sinners right away makes nonsense of any free will we have. Does God bump us off before we do a bad thing? That smacks of the Pre-Crime police in the Tom Cruise film Minority Report, where people are arrested before committing the crimes they are predicted to be about to do. Is it fair to punish people for things they haven't actually done?

Or maybe God kills the person right after they did something bad. That would pretty much stop people from not only doing wrong but also from doing anything they fear might turn out to be wrong. Moral courage would evaporate, especially in ambiguous situations. If I think someone is about to do something bad, do I try to stop them? If I'm wrong I might be punished. So it might be best for me to let them do what they are going to do and let them take the punishment if it is wrong. But then would I get punished for the sin of doing nothing to stop them? A situation like that generates only anxiety and moral paralysis, not goodness.

And besides sparing good folks from the collateral damage of obliterating the bad, maybe another reason God is holding back judgment is that he wants us to learn to do good in bad situations. C.S. Lewis calls this complex goodness. Certain forms of goodness can only be learned in the presence of evil. Mercy, forgiveness, healing and certain forms of understanding others are species of goodness that are responses to evil. In the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy a Coke bottle is discovered by African bushmen. They have never seen anything like it. They find it is useful in so many ways, like mashing vegetables and making circles and even for making music. But it is unique and soon they are fighting over it. One person hits another with it and so they conclude that the bottle is evil. The movie then follows the quest of one bushman to dispose of it. But there is another thing they could do. They could learn to share it. But rather than learn this complex form of goodness, they go for the easier action: get rid of it.

And while God chooses not to simply eliminate bad people, human beings do. Those that are troublesome we get rid of. We lock them up. Or we execute them. Or we go to war against them and try to eliminate as many as we can. You know where Hitler got the idea for his concentration camps? From the Indian reservations created by the US government. Getting rid of troublesome folks is a policy as old as mankind. Cain saw Abel as troublesome. So he got rid of him. And we never want to take that possible solution off the table, do we? We refine it, make it subtler, make it more technological, make it legal. But we never get rid of the option of getting rid of others.

Our passage from the book of Wisdom says, “Your care, O God, encompasses all of creation...Although you rule in boundless power, you administer justice with mildness; you govern us with great forbearance though you are free to act without constraint. You have taught your people by such deeds that all who would be righteous must be kind. You have filled your children with good hope by stirring them to repent of their sins.” Maybe that's why God doesn't get rid of us, as troublesome as we are: so we can learn to administer justice with mildness, as he does, and to realize that those who would be righteous must be kind, as he is.

It's humans who in the name of justice have created the electric chair, the gas chamber, the gallows, and the cross. And it was humans who decided a troublesome person like Jesus should be put on a cross. But Jesus didn't retaliate. In fact, at his arrest, when Peter cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant, Jesus says, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:52-53) Christ could have gotten rid of those evildoers but didn't. Instead he heals the man's ear. (Luke 22:51) And Jesus lets them take him to be tried and crucified. That's the contrast between God and humans. One heals and the other kills. One is kind and the other isn't. And yet it is the one with all the power who doesn't use it to harm the other.

All analogies break down and that's true of the parables. In real life, weeds never turn into wheat, but bad people can become good people. Just as Benjamin Franklin changed his mind about slavery, we can change our mind about continuing to do wrong. And that's another reason God doesn't get rid of bad people. At least not by killing them. He prefers to get rid of bad people by giving them the chance to become good people. We can become followers of Jesus and children of God. And, as Paul says, “if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Talk about amazing grace: we will get what Jesus will get!

Paul continues, “—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” Never forget that God did not exempt himself from suffering. In his son he took the brunt of the evil in the world. And since the way of Jesus is to be kind in a cruel world, we who follow that way can expect to suffer. We must turn the other cheek. We must go the second mile. We must give to those who ask. Like he did. Real righteousness is kind. God's justice includes mercy. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy,” (Matthew 5:7) Only a fool thinks that mercy costs you nothing. It's not only the wicked who suffer; the good suffer as well, often for a good cause. And if it is a good cause they find it's worth it.

Paul suffered a lot worse than most of us will, yet he says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” And then he goes on to talk about birth. That's a form of suffering that women regularly undergo and yet find the result worth it all. And many women go through it more than once. Because they think having children, their children, is glorious.

Paul says the whole creation is groaning in labor pains. What is it giving birth to? A new creation. And as the new children of God, we have the “first fruits of the Spirit.” The first fruits of the harvest were selected as representative of the harvest and offered to God. They can also be seen as the down payment and guarantee of one's inheritance, which is how Paul is using it. We are to be proof of concept, to show that a people led by the Spirit of the God who is love can be the core of the new creation. First God is recreating us as citizens of his kingdom, then comes the creation of the kingdom itself. First God is making new people able to live in love and capable of complex good, before he gives us the new heavens and the new earth in which to put those things into practice.

The Bible, the story of God and humanity, begins with creation and ends with the new creation, and in the middle, Isaiah 65, we get a glimpse of what that will be like. God says, “For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! The former ones will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore. But be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy, and her people to be a source of happiness. Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again.” (Isaiah 65:17-19) Compare this with John's vision in Revelation: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: 'Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist anymore—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.' And the one seated on the throne said: 'Look! I am making all things new!'” (Revelation 21:1-5)

Poetic and true. In fact, perhaps only poetry can express how glorious the new creation will be. And all the suffering and sacrifice and working to bring good out of bad situations will be worth it: all of our skills at learning complex goodness, all of the ways we have learned to make peace, all of the ways we have learned to express love to every person in every situation. We will fulfill our purpose to love God and enjoy him forever. And he will find joy and happiness in us, his beloved.

The Insider

The scriptures referred to are Romans 8:1-11 and Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.

In his book How Silently, How Silently, author Joseph T. Bayly offers a parable in which someone talks about the way a Christmas present is decorated. The colors represent elements of Jesus' birth and life. The person describes how, say, the blue side represents the starry night on which he was born and the gold his glory, etc. The red panel representing his passion and death is considered disturbing and turned to the wall so it won't be seen. Finally, after the person rhapsodizes over the beautiful decoration of the Christmas gift, he is asked if he is going to open it. To which he replies, “Why? Is there something inside?”

Bayly perfectly captures what is wrong with a lot of people's approach to Christianity. They are really attracted to the externals and they go on and on about them: the liturgy, the music, the rituals. And they are beautiful. But there's more to the faith than that.

The core of the Christian faith is internal. And that's what Jesus and Paul are getting at in our readings today.

We call the parable in today's gospel “The Sower and the Seed.” But the different results have nothing to do with the sower or the seed; what is different is the soils. The growth of the seeds is dependent on the soil in which they land. Going to Jesus' explanation of the allegory, there are 4 kinds of reactions people have when exposed to the good news of God's love and forgiveness.

First there are people who just don't get it. The gospel doesn't penetrate and they really don't understand it.

Then there are those who do respond, even enthusiastically, but it is short-lived because their faith is shallow. When bad things happen to them, their faith evaporates.

Then there are those who receive the gospel but the things of this life restrict its effectiveness in that person. Matthew's version of the parable lists these hindrances as literally "the anxieties of the present age and the deceitfulness of wealth.” Mark adds the “passionate desire for other things.” Luke adds “pleasures.” So the ephemeral things of this world which distract and attract us can stunt the full blossoming of the gospel in our lives. While running from the things which worry us and running towards the things we think will fulfill us, we pass by what we really need: God reigning in our hearts.

The seed or word of the kingdom of God only fully manifests itself in good soil. Matthew describes this as the person who hears the word and understands it. Luke's version fleshes out such a person as one “who, after hearing the word, hangs onto it, with a good and honest heart, producing fruit by patient endurance.” (Luke 8:15, my translation) So the good news of Jesus has the most impact in the life of a person who is open to it, honest, and will not let it go but who perseveres in letting it change them. That last part is key. In the other soils or types of person, they don't hold onto their faith. They let it go when things get hard or when they are under pressure or under the delusion that wealth or power or other worldly attractions hold what they need instead.

Which reminds me: I have been watching a lot of TV lately--documentaries, movies, musicals. Some have been on the mafia, some have been on politics, some have been on show business. And I have noted a common theme. And it is best expressed in the words of the song in Hamilton where his sister-in-law diagnoses the title character's problem. “You will never be satisfied.” That inability to ever be satisfied drove Hamilton to great heights but also to his downfall. The play posits that it was his sense of mortality that impelled him. Never being satisfied drove Bugsy Siegel to turn Las Vegas into a gambling mecca, and then to defy his boss Lucky Luciano and his investors and get himself killed. He could not resist the lure of wealth and power. Never being satisfied drove Freddy Mercury to make Queen a great rock group and then drove him to make bad business and personal decisions. The unaccountability given him by his recognition as an musical genius blinded him to who his real friends were.

The superficial things of this passing world can mesmerize you and make you forget the internal and eternal truths God offers us. They can stir up dissatisfaction with what we have and make us chase after what we think is better. We always want more but what we get is more dissatisfaction. Today's achievements and honors and accolades fade. The new height you've arrived at loses its novelty over time and just becomes the new normal. And so you will still be chasing the next shiny gold ring when time and death overtake you, denying you ultimate satisfaction.

Jesus said, “What does it benefit a person if they gain the whole world but lose their soul?” (Mark 8:36, my translation) And how often have we seen someone do just that: achieve the pinnacle in their own field and yet to do so they have sacrificed their family, their integrity, their honesty, their decency, the trust of their fellow human beings, and the respect of those who know them? To make more of their lives they destroy their lives. How often have monarchs or emperors called “the Great” had personalities that were anything but and personal lives that were failures when measured in terms of love given and received? Folks like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Constantine, Genghis Khan and other rulers are rarely happy people, often ending up consumed by paranoia. And rightly so, considering how many are assassinated or die under mysterious circumstances. Their importance in history, for good or ill, is undisputed. And yet few would change places with them if they knew the details of their personal lives.

The alternative to the external and ephemeral glory of trying to rule in this world is the internal and eternal glory of being governed by the Spirit. That's what Paul means in our passage from Romans 8. He is not saying that our flesh or bodies are inherently evil but that they are weak and leave us open to temptations. Even God's good law cannot save us because we cannot follow it. Not perfectly and not unaided. 9 times out of 10 what brings us down is not the lack of good rules to follow but the lack of will to follow them. There are plenty of good, common sense ways for me to lose weight. It's just really hard for me to find the motivation to do them consistently. Just so I need the help of God's Spirit if I am to put the rules of life which Jesus reveals into practice.

Did you ever make your kids apologize to each other for a fight they had? “Tell your sister you're sorry.” “Now tell your brother you're sorry, too.” And they each give the most insincere “I'm sorry” they can muster. The words are being said but they are not being said in the true spirit of regret for what they have done. Instead, they regret being caught by you and they resent being made to say things they don't feel.

Every Sunday we say together a confession of our sins and a prayer for the church and the whole world and recite a creed of things we say we believe in. How often do we just turn on the automatic pilot and say these things without even thinking of what they mean, much less having them resonate within us? Or how often do we say these things and mean them at the time only to let them slip from our minds when we interact with the outside world? Do we think of loving others when we drive and so restrain ourselves from tailgating or speeding or passing when the signs say not to? Do we show love for others when we park, not taking up 2 spaces or parking in the handicapped spot when we aren't handicapped? Do we resist going after people on Facebook who post things we don't like and pray for them instead? Do we pray for politicians who don't act as we would like? Do we try to understand why people are upset about certain issues and listen to them to learn about their experience, and not just to come up with a crushing retort? Do we make sacrifices for the good of others, seeing it as taking up our cross as part of following Jesus?

No. Not consistently. We are not as loving or as forgiving or as understanding or as selfless as Jesus, not naturally. We need supernatural help.

Usually when people talk about the supernatural, they are thinking of ghosts or miracles or something that seems physically impossible. They think it is stuff like a pillar of fire leading slaves to the promised land or a kid's lunch feeding thousands or a man who is killed coming back to life. And because they do not see such things happening in their own lives, they think that "supernatural" is just a synonym for "unreal." But the word “supernatural” comes from the Latin, meaning “above or beyond nature.” So I submit that it can also mean whatever goes beyond what our nature would have us do.

When Joseph, the second most powerful person in Egypt, sees the brothers who sold him into slavery come begging for food, the natural thing is for him to take revenge on them. But, no, Joseph welcomes them to live in a land of plenty, viewing all his misfortunes as a plan by God to put him in a position to help multitudes. That's not the spirit of a being of mere flesh and blood who gives way to natural reactions but the Spirit of God at work in him.

When Nathan exposes David for arranging the death of a soldier with whose wife he had an adulterous affair, the natural thing is for the king to imprison or execute the prophet. But, no, David publicly confesses and repents. That's not the spirit of a person driven only by his fleshly desires but the Spirit of God at work in him.

When Peter, who denied Jesus 3 times during his Lord's trial, is later arrested and told to stop preaching in Jesus' name, the natural thing is for him to keep quiet. But, no, even after Herod executes the apostle James, Peter keeps preaching and getting arrested again and again. That is not the spirit of a person who is still ruled by the very natural fear of death but the Spirit of God at work in him.

When Francis, the son of a rich man, is publicly disowned by his merchant father for giving nice fabrics to the poor, the natural thing is for him to beg his father to take him back and continue his soft life. But, no, Francis strips off his fine clothes and embraces poverty and serving the poor. That is not the spirit of a person who naturally pursues the good things in life but the Spirit of God at work in him.

When Martin is told to renounce his writings which go against the official positions of the church or face excommunication and assassination, the natural thing is to take his criticisms back and return to a quiet but assured career as an academic. But, no, Martin stands firm, knowing that the minute he leaves the Diet of Worms both his career and his life may be over. That is not the spirit of a man who naturally thinks breathing is better than defending theological beliefs but the Spirit of God at work in him.

When another Martin, named after the first, confronts the fact that his peaceful protests against racial injustice are going to be put down violently by the authorities, the natural thing to do is to bring weapons and fight back. But, no, Martin continues to lead peaceful marches, despite vicious dogs, deluges by fire hoses, and death threats. That is not the spirit of a man giving into his righteous anger but the Spirit of God at work in him.

Just because something is natural does not make it OK. Anger is natural but James tells us that “The anger of man does not produce the righteous of God.” (James 1:20) Revenge for being wronged is natural but Peter says, “Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9) Hating your enemy is natural but Jesus says, “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27-28) Being afraid of threats is natural but Paul says, “For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

And yet our world is awash with anger and insult and hate and revenge and fear and lack of self-control. And the answer is not to be found in superficial things like wearing crosses or putting bumper stickers on our cars or even putting the Ten Commandments on public buildings. We do not put our trust in things. We do not believe in magic. If I could wave my hand and make all weapons disappear, angry people would still pick up sticks or use their fists. It is what is wrong inside us that must be changed. And that can only be done by letting the Spirit of God work within us.

Not even having a Bible is sufficient. 88% of Americans say they own a Bible. The average home has more than 4 Bibles. So why isn't our country more Christian? Because 57% of Americans say they only read their Bible 4 times a year. Only 26% say they read it regularly, 4 or more times a week. People have a Bible like most folks wear a cross: as a magic talisman. But that's not how it works. Like the Christmas present in Bayly's parable, you have to open it. And then you have to open yourself to its message, the good news of God's love and grace revealed in Jesus Christ.

Right now we are having riots because people are treating other people differently with fatal results because they look different. But as Shakespeare said, “There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.” Or as the Bible says, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) What's important is whether a heart is full of light or darkness.

But light can change that darkness into light. If we let the light in. If we are good soil for the Word. If we let the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus dwell in us.

There is a comic strip on the internet called “Coffee with Jesus.” It consists of average people talking to Jesus over a cup of joe. In one strip a guy with a local business tells Jesus that he is thinking of putting a fish symbol on his work van. Jesus asks why and the guy says it's to let people know that he's a Christian. Jesus says that if he just gives people good, honest service, they shoud be able to figure it out.

What about you? If we took away your Jesus fish, your crosses, your bumper stickers, all of the outward trappings of your faith, would people be able to figure out you are a follower of Jesus? Would they know you have within you a supernatural source of love and peace and forgiveness and grace? If not, go beyond the surface. Let the seed of God's Word put down roots in you. Open yourself to God's Spirit. Let him pull out the weeds that are choking your spiritual life. If the Spirit of God is truly within you, you won't be able to contain him. His light will radiate from everything you say and do. And others will see it and want to know more about God's free gift, Jesus.

Holy Misperception!

The scriptures referred to are Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30.

We associate certain characteristics with holy people: they are ascetics and solitary. The monk who is also a hermit is an example. At the opposite pole are the bad boys: they like to party. They enjoy eating and drinking and being around people, especially disreputable people. So what do we make of what Jesus says in today's gospel about how the people of his day contrasted him and John the Baptist? John lived in the desert, ate a restricted diet and was the last person you would invite to a party. But Jesus is seen as someone who likes to eat and drink and hang out with folks who are not welcome in polite society. The point that Jesus is making in this comparison, as well as in the parable of children who won't respond to either dances or dirges, is that some folks won't be pleased with anyone God sends, however he or she acts.

But what struck me is how today most church members would not describe Jesus as anything like the caricature of himself he ascribes to the crowd. And a good caricature doesn't make things up; it exaggerates what is actually there, like Nixon's jowls and LBJ's nose and ears. A caricature has to be recognizable or it is just bad art. But if someone said to you, “What person in the Bible could people say was awfully fond of food and wine and hung around with bad people?”--would your first guess be Jesus?

Probably not, because Jesus is too holy. After all, he's God. We think of him as somewhat apart from humanity, walking in a stately manner, rather like a king deigning to meet with the common people. But you don't get that in the gospels. Rather than parting for him, crowds jostle him so much that the disciples think it is absurd for him to ask who touched him. He can barely find time to rest so that he nearly sleeps through a raging storm though he is lying in the bow of a ship that's almost being swamped. Getting a meal break is also a challenge so he accepts anyone's dinner invitation, be they a tax collector or a leper or even a Pharisee. In Jesus' day there was a category of religious leader so holy he was called the Bruised and Bleeding Pharisee because he would close his eyes while walking lest he look upon a woman and be tempted. So he would walk into walls or fall on his face. Could you imagine what such a person would do if a notorious woman started kissing and washing his feet while he was at a banquet? He's probably scramble across the table, stepping in everyone's food in order to get as far from her as possible. But Jesus didn't go scurrying off to get ritually cleansed when a bleeding woman touched him. In fact, Jesus actually taught women, which was considered scandalous. He even talked with Samaritan and Gentile women and publicly defended an adulterous woman.

Jesus is not an ascetic or a recluse or a hermit. He is a people person. He is holy but that doesn't mean he is standoffish. If we can't reconcile that with our idea of holy maybe it's because that word doesn't mean what we think it means.

At the root of the word “holy,” both in Greek and Hebrew, is the idea of being clean or pure. And if something is pure, that definitely sets it apart from the ordinary or common things of this world. Lots of things in this world are not pure. You could even see them as tainted. But with what? People will avoid things adulterated with something poisonous, something that will make you sick or kill you. Now we don't mind mixing things that are good, like spices and food. But you don't want to mix something bad with something good, like borax or formaldehyde and food. And such things were actually food additives in the late 1800s until they were outlawed in the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. But back in the days of the Bible, with much less knowledge of chemistry and biology, and no antibiotics, you wanted to err on the side of purity. You stayed away from plants, animals, and substances that made people sick. You didn't eat anything spoiled or rotten. And you stayed away from people with illnesses you didn't want to catch.

And this idea of separation from things that are poisonous, spoiled or unhealthy was carried over into the moral realm. Because there are ideas that spoil or pervert otherwise good ideas; there are words that poison relationships; there are behaviors that are unhealthy and harm people. So the concepts of good and healthy and pure coalesced into the concept of holiness. To be holy was to be free from the taint of evil.

And this is why Jesus' critics did not see him as holy. Not because he did evil (though some tried to intimate that his power came from Satan) but because he didn't stay away from people they saw as evil. Therefore he must be tainted by their evil. It never occurred to them that he might be purifying those he came into contact with.

To purify is to cleanse from contamination. Along with the many laws about staying away from unclean things, like diseased people and certain foods and acts, the Torah also includes ways for a tainted person to be cleansed. It might involve quarantine for a certain number of days, specific sacrifices and rituals, and often physical cleansing. The priests oversaw the whole process of diagnosing and cleansing everything, from leprosy to mold in a house to sin.

Priests, mind you, not handymen from Galilee. Jesus often sent those he had healed to the priests to have their cure verified. This allowed them to once again assemble and worship with the people of God. But Jesus was doing the actual cleansing. Worse, he was forgiving people's sins, something that was reserved to priests in the temple. As they see it, Jesus is taking over their job. But he isn't from the right family, a priestly family. He doesn't have the training. He doesn't work in the temple, the holiest place on earth.

Jesus does preach in synagogues. But he also preaches from boats and on mountains and on the plain. He touches and is touched by people who are unclean. He eats with them. His followers are fishermen and a tax collector and a former extremist and various women. How can he do all this and be holy?

“Holy” and “pure” are both adjectives. They modify an noun. If Jesus is pure, we have to ask “pure what?”

To figure that out, let's look at the clues.

First and foremost, Jesus heals people. He heals every kind of ailment: blindness, deafness, the inability to speak, paralysis, withered limbs, the inability to walk, leprosy, epilepsy, hemorrhage, fever, edema, and every kind of mental illness. He reattaches the ear of a man who has come to arrest him. He even restores the dead to life. What does this show? It shows he wants people to be alive and healthy.

He saves the wedding of a young couple by providing more and better wine. He provides food for thousands who are far from home. He provides a record catch for men whose nets are empty after a night of fishing. What does this show? It shows he wants people to have enough to eat.

He calms a storm about to sink his followers' boat. He secures his disciples' safety at his arrest. What does this show? He wants people to be safe.

He teaches people that God is just. He teaches people that God is forgiving. He teaches people that God is loving. He teaches people that God is more concerned with the state of their heart than the state of their finances or their position in society. What does this show? He wants people to get closer to God.

He teaches people that the most important of all the commandments is to love God with all they are and all they have. He teaches people that the second most important commandment is to love their neighbors as themselves. He teaches people that their neighbor is anyone they encounter even if they are from a different race or religion. He teaches people that this means they must even love their enemies. He teaches people they must love one another as much as he loves them. Then he demonstrates that by letting his enemies arrest him in exchange for letting his followers go. He lets the authorities kill him, while asking for forgiveness for his executioners and assuring a dying murderer that he will join him in paradise. 

What does all this show? It shows that Jesus is pure, all right: he is pure love.

Or as John Wesley might put it, holy love. When people think of holiness, they think it has to do with pure acts of devotion to God. They also think it means personal purity, staying away from evil. But they tend to forget the third part of it: pure love expressed in thoughts, words and actions towards others. That, too, is part of holiness.

In fact, in the 19^th chapter of the book of Leviticus, we find a Holiness Code. It begins, “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Then there follows a long list of commandments on how to be holy. And ever so often one is followed by the words, “I am the Lord,” or literally, “I am Yahweh.” Why does this follow some commandments and not others? It looks like this is to emphasize specific ones, the way you might underline certain items in a list to make sure that those don't slip your mind. Perhaps because they are not things people normally associate with being holy.

So what commandments are followed by “I am the Lord” so that we pay particular attention to them? Some are the things you would expect in a list of holy instructions: don't worship other gods or make idols; don't misuse God's name; observe the Sabbath.

But half of them have to do with social ethics. “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time, or pick up grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)

“Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block on front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:14)

“Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:16)

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18)

“Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:32)

“When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)

“Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19: 35-36)

Taking care of the poor, the disabled, the elderly, your neighbor and the resident alien and treating them lovingly, fairly and honestly, even in business, are all holy acts.

When we think about holiness, we tend to focus on the easier parts: acts of personal piety and avoiding activities that don't seem holy. We don't do what Jesus did: go out into a world that is not pure and deliberately engage people who are not holy and demonstrate the pure love that Jesus showed in his words and works. Jesus said that it's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. So he didn't focus on the righteous but the people who weren't. (Mark 2:17) And he made house calls. He went where the people who needed him were.

Many Christians have opted for the John the Baptist model of holiness: separation from the impure, which is to say most people, standing apart and calling for folks to come to them for cleansing. Few follow Jesus' model of holiness: wading into the crowds, actively seeking the impure out of pure love. It is harder and riskier Jesus' way. How do we stay holy when we are in contact with things that aren't?

Paul, under house arrest, probably looked at his Roman guard and came up with the metaphor of the armor of God. (Ephesians 6:13-17) Let me, a nurse, tell you about the Personal Protective Equipment or PPE of God. Put on the goggles or eye protection of truth, so you can see things as they are, neither rosier nor darker than the reality of the situation. Put on the hazmat suit or skin protection of righteousness, that is, being in the right relationship with God. Have the nursing shoes or foot protection of the good news of peace with God, so that you are comfortable and supported and stable. Put on the mask or respiratory protection of faith and trust in God, so that you don't inhale the droplets of doubt and fear others are filling the air with. Put on the safety helmet or head protection of knowing your salvation depends on God and not on your own efforts, to keep things from messing with your head. In nursing we don't have anything like a sword, but use the probing insight of the Spirit and the word of God, to make important distinctions and establish priorities rather than getting bogged down in trivial issues. Dressed in the PPE of God you can help those who need the healing which the good news of Jesus' holy love gives.

There may be times when you have to get away from the noise and craziness of the world and go on retreat. Jesus often withdrew in the early morning or at night to be alone with God and pray. But unlike his cousin John, he didn't stay there. He went where people were, where the need was. And he sends us, his disciples, out into the world. Apostle is a synonym for ambassador or emissary. It literally means “one who is sent off.” We followers of Jesus were never meant to stay in our comfort zones.

Switching to a metaphor Jesus, a man who spent all his time with fishermen, would appreciate: as someone once said, a ship is safest in the harbor, but that's not what ships are for. As someone else said, the place for a boat is in the water but you don't want too much water in the boat if it's to stay afloat. Trying to stay holy in a world that is anything but is difficult. But Jesus managed it. And if we let the one who is pure love take the rudder in our lives, we can weather any storm.