Unlikely and Improbable

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. You are our rock, our strength, our life, and our redeemer. Amen.

The Gospel of Luke begins and ends with angels.

A few months ago, we heard about how an angel came first to a childless elderly priest and then to an unmarried young woman, and announced to them both the birth of their respective sons. Nine months after the first announcement, John was born to Elizabeth and Zechariah.

And then, on Christmas, the angels came to the shepherds in the fields to announce the birth of Jesus, the Messiah.

         That’s how the story – the Gospel – begins.

Today, at the end of the story, two angels came to a group of women to announce the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah.

These women had watched Jesus die on Friday, and seen the place where he was buried. They rested on the Sabbath, as was required by law.

But first thing Sunday morning, Mary, Joanna, and a group of other women had come to Jesus’ tomb to pay their respects.

Instead of finding a tomb at which to grieve, these women were greeted by messengers from God to tell them that Jesus wasn’t there! He was no longer dead, but alive!

The women went straight to tell Jesus’ other disciples the good news that Jesus was risen! He had conquered death!

But these words seemed to them an idle tale.

God sends messengers to the world – angels, bearing good news – and they show up in the most unlikely of places, to the most improbable people.

         An elderly priest and a poor teenage girl.

Who would believe either of them, when they told people that they were going to have a son? The priest’s wife was too old, and Mary herself was too young.

But these unlikely people believed the messengers of God, and because they believed, they became    the carriers of God’s Word    to the people.

So it was with the shepherds.

Shepherds were peasants, at the bottom rung of the social ladder. And more than that, they were dirty and probably smelled bad – after all, they lived in the fields with the sheep most of the time. Who would want to get close enough for conversation with people like that?

And yet, the angels came    to the shepherds    to announce the birth of Jesus.

And the shepherds became the first evangelists, the first people to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and then to go tell others about him.

In Luke’s Gospel, angels have a record of showing up to people who may not be taken seriously by society. So today’s story follows right in line.

The women come to the tomb in grief, expecting to complete some of the rituals of burial that had been missed two days before.

But they were surprised.

Jesus’ body wasn’t there, but two angels were.

And the message from God that the angels brought to the women was – why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here! He is risen!

That must have been a confusing and unbelievable message to Mary and Joanna and the others. When we have lost a loved one and are in the throes of grief, often we want nothing more than for the person we loved to return. But deep down, we know it can’t happen.

Except – for these women, and for Jesus, on the very first Easter, it did happen. He came back from the dead. How were the women supposed to make sense of that?

The angels took a few minutes to explain their message to the women. Eventually the women realized the depth of the good news they had just received.  Jesus is risen! Just like he said! Death has been conquered!

Once they understood God’s messengers, the women just had to share the good news. They became the next evangelists, sharing the story of Jesus’ life with others.

But in the patriarchal society of ancient Israel, the male disciples of Jesus just couldn’t believe what the women had to say.

Even Peter, who saw the empty tomb for himself – Peter was amazed, but he didn’t understand. He didn’t tell other people about what he had seen.

The male disciples couldn’t believe in the Resurrection until they heard it from someone they believed to be credible, and the female disciples just didn’t fit the bill.

Too bad for the men. They had to live with their grief and confusion for a lot longer until they understood the good news of the Resurrection, simply because they didn’t listen to the messengers God sent to them.

This happens whenever we let stereotypes dictate our perception of the people we meet. Stereotypes based on gender, race, language, or any other measure, will prevent us from understanding the work that God is doing in the world.

God rarely sends messengers to people in positions of power. Instead, angels bring the good news to people who are outcast, oppressed, marginalized, and dehumanized by the society around them.

And then those people become the evangelists – they become God’s human messengers who can share the good news with the rest of us.

But because God’s messengers come to the people we least expect, our stereotypes can make it hard for us to believe that God’s messengers have come at all, or that the good news that is carried by these marginalized people could possibly be true.

This is what happened with Jesus’ male disciples.

The male disciples still hadn’t learned how God works.

God sends messengers to the most unlikely of places, to the most improbable people.

Angels came to the shepherds, and to a group of women.

         But to the men, it was just an idle tale.

It was the greatest news the world has ever known – Jesus is risen! And they couldn’t hear it.

God continues to send messengers into our world.

And those messengers continue to show up in unlikely places, to improbable people.

Today, we have the opportunity to respond to God’s messengers like the women did, or like the men. And the more open we are to hearing God’s word from unexpected places, the sooner our grief and sorrow can be healed by the words of the angels.

If we want to hear the message of God for our lives today, we need to listen to our Muslim sisters and brothers. As Pope Francis reminded us this past week, we are all children of the same God.

If we want to hear the message of God for our lives today, we need to listen to our transgender neighbors. God can speak to us through them.

We need to listen to our immigrant neighbors, regardless of their legal status, because they just might be carrying a message from the angels.

At some point, the idle tale of the women became the foundation of our faith, a faith that has endured for the past two thousand years.

Eventually, the male disciples came to believe the good news that the women had known right from the start, and they also started sharing the good news with others.

And even when the evangelist was a man, the listeners still probably received the news of the Resurrection as an idle tale sometimes.

The life of Jesus is something so new, so unprecedented, so unbelievable, that it can be hard to find the right words to describe it.

But, thank goodness, the evangelists wrote it down for us. They gave us language and stories to understand, and they kept telling the good news over and over again until that idle tale could become the Word of God.

God’s good news is waiting for us, ready to bless us and give us new life. And if there’s one thing we can learn from Luke’s Gospel, it’s that the good news of God will come through messengers sent to unlikely, improbable, marginalized people and places.

And so, let us rejoice with the outcasts, that today, God’s good news has come, even to us!

And let us continue to find ways to hear God’s messengers, and to tell others the good news.

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed!

Please pray with me.

God, help us to hear your words as good news, and not as an idle tale.

As you have shown us through the example of the women disciples, help us to be faithful in following you, and fearless in proclaiming your message of hope and love to the world.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

March 27, 2016
Easter C
Luke 24:1-12

A Week

Lord, help us listen to your voice, to follow through with actions, to grow closer to you, and find ways to serve others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

A lot can happen in a week.

When I worked at church camp, the staff would be scrambling on Sunday morning to make sure the cabins were clean, the registration table set up, and everything all ready for a new week with campers. The counselors would dig through their piles of laundry to find a staff shirt to put on before the kids arrived after lunch.

There was a lot of excitement on Sundays, and some nervous energy.

That nervous energy went through the roof when campers started showing up.

You had kids who had never spent a night away from home before, and kids who had been coming to camp every summer their whole lives. There were shy kids and outgoing kids, those who loved being at camp in the woods and those who really missed their screens.

And then there were the parents – ready to have a week away from their children, or worried about missing them. Some families had relied entirely on scholarship support to send their kids to camp, and the registration question about leaving money for their kids to spend in the camp store was a stressful one. Some families had parents or older siblings who had served on staff, so being there was like a reunion.

The first day of church camp was hectic, energetic, confusing, exciting, and overall just full of emotions!

Campers and counselors met each other, as the people who would be their roommates for the week.

Bedtime Sunday would be full of late-night talks and teary homesickness and exhausted campers and counselors alike.

Monday was different. On Monday, people started building the relationships that would carry them through the week. Everyone started getting used to the daily schedule of meals, worship, activities, and campfire before bed.

By Tuesday, people were getting good at teambuilding activities – trust falls, low-ropes activities – and they became involved in worship planning.  

By Wednesday, folks had figured out each others’ talents and areas for growth, and could encourage each other to challenge those growing edges. The carefully cleaned cabins by now were a mess, but a happy mess from all the games and craft projects and bonding that folks had been doing all week.

Thursday was the last full day. People would go all out to create memories with their new friends, to last them for months to come. The most elaborate camp games were played, and the most meaningful worship happened.

Friday was a crazy mix of emotions. Excitement of campers to see family, to share the experiences of the week, to go home to parents and friends and pets.

Excitement by the counselors to have a day off, spend a little time online, check in on that job application or school housing option for life after church camp.

Friday was filled with sadness and grief for the amazing memories that had been made but would never be repeated. People would promise to come back and meet up at camp next year. Campers would exchange contact info in hopes of maintaining these new friendships. Parents would come to camp by lunchtime, excited to see everything that their children had learned and all the ways they had grown over the past week.

And really, a lot had been accomplished in that week.

Children learned to overcome fear and shyness.

Staff learned their own capabilities and independence.

And everyone learned about the surprising ways that God can break into our lives to show us something new and amazing, even when we’re not expecting it.

A lot can happen in a week.

Today, on this Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the sound of cheers, being welcomed as royalty. The disciples who traveled with him must have been confused and excited and frightened about what it all could mean.

Even on the first day of the week, there were some who didn’t want to celebrate Jesus. Whatever their motivation – fear, jealousy, anger – the Pharisees warned Jesus and his followers that this day of celebration couldn’t continue forever.

And indeed, the mood changes quickly. Immediately after his triumphal entry, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. He laments for what he sees as the imminent destruction of the city and its inhabitants, due to their unfaithfulness.

And then he gets mad. Jesus enters the Temple and drives out the people who are selling things there. He claims that these people are exploiting the faithful, and perverting religious teaching.

All of that happens on day one. It’s a hectic day of energy, excitement, confusion, learning, and overall just full of emotions!

Throughout the rest of the week, Jesus teaches in the Temple… his authority is questioned, and he tricks the religious leaders. He describes things in parables, comes out on top in battles of wit against religious leaders, and denounces legal experts. Jesus describes a poor widow as blessed, while at the same time condemning the society that has sentenced her to poverty.

As his week in Jerusalem goes on, Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple, and Jerusalem. He tells more parables. And he and his disciples prepare to celebrate the Passover meal together.

On Thursday evening, Jesus and the disciples share the Passover meal, which we remember every time we gather for worship and celebrate Communion.

On Thursday evening, one of those disciples who shared in that celebration chose to betray Jesus to the authorities, thereby ensuring his execution.

Overnight Thursday to Friday, Jesus endured a strange trial in which everyone wanted him to disappear from their lives, but no one wanted to claim responsibility for executing him.

And on Friday, Jesus is executed in public, as a convicted criminal. He dies and is laid in a tomb. And his disciples don’t know what to do.

A lot can happen in a week.

As worship began today, we remembered Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem as a celebrated leader! During the rest of worship, we are going to hear some of those stories from the rest of the week, as Jesus shares his last meal with the disciples, is betrayed and arrested.

It’s a complicated story, encompassing the range of human emotion, with lots of opportunity for finding ourselves in the story. Are we more like Mary or Judas? The disciples, or the crowds shouting for Jesus’ execution? Do we relate to Barabbas, or to the person who owns the donkey?

We can find ourselves in the midst of the action or on the sidelines, but the rich story of Jesus’ passion can and does speak to each one of us, even now, 2000 years after the fact.

And so, this week, I invite you to find yourself in this story.

Listen as it’s read here in worship today. Return for more of the story on Thursday, share in Communion and have your feet washed as the disciples of Jesus did.

Join us on Friday for a time of prayer and song, and reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ death for our sake.

Find where you connect deeply with the story, which pieces bring meaning to you, and where you find God even if you weren’t expecting God to be there.

And in all of that, don’t forget today’s celebration.

Because next Sunday, we’ll be celebrating again! Jesus will be arrested and executed, and placed in a tomb.

But next Sunday, the tomb will be found empty! And the celebration will return.

A lot can happen in a week.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

March 20, 2016

Palm & Passion Sunday C

Luke 19:28-40

Come! Listen!

O God, our God, may my lips give you praise and may our thoughts and words bless you as long as we live. Amen.

The prophet proclaimed God’s word to the people:

Let the wicked forsake their way,

  and the unrighteous their thoughts;

 let them return to the Lord for mercy,

  and to our God for abundant pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

  nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

(Isaiah 55:7-8, NRSV – modified)

Let the wicked forsake their way.

That’s what I’m talking about. Those people who drive us crazy, who have done something to hurt us – those people had better change their ways.

I don’t know about you, but when someone has wronged me in some way, my gut reaction is that I want them to get what’s coming to them.

That person who cut me off in traffic? I hope they get a ticket.

The guy who made a sexist comment about me? I hope he gets passed over for his next promotion, in favor of a lower-ranked female employee.

And you know what? Even if someone hasn’t actively wronged me, I still want them to get what they deserve. One of my colleagues shared a slightly less vindictive example… she and her brother are on the same diet. He totally went off of it and ate a whole bunch of junk food. Didn’t gain an ounce. She ate exactly as she was supposed to, and gained half a pound.

It’s not fair! If he’s going to cheat on the diet, he’s the one who should gain the extra weight!

I would like to say, let’s bring judgment down on these people’s heads, and let them suffer the consequences of their actions!

And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

Thankfully, God’s mercy is broader than mine is.

God’s thoughts are not my thoughts, nor are my ways God’s ways.

Where I see someone who has done something wrong and needs to suffer the consequences, God just sees a beloved child.

God’s grace and love and forgiveness and mercy are shared with all people, even the ones who tick me off.

God’s response to the person who upset me is the same response that God gives to me and to you – God says, “Come! Eat the good food. Listen! Hear the good news.”

It’s a message of love, not a message of judgment.

This is the message that God sent to the people of Israel in today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah.

There is just one catch to that story.

At the time, the people of Israel weren’t actually living in Israel.

A few years back, God’s people had been living in the Promised Land, but then they were conquered by the Babylonians. All the people were taken into exile – at least, all of the important people. If anyone was left in Israel, they were the poor and powerless folks, who were of no interest to the conquering regime.

The people who were the audience for Isaiah’s prophesy were the exiled Hebrew people. They would have been mostly second-generation exiles – people who had never themselves lived in the Promised Land. The only home they knew was Babylon.

They didn’t know anyone who was still living back in the old world. They only knew about the place at all through the stories of their parents.

And yet, Isaiah tells them to go back.

The Babylonian Empire had just been defeated by the Persians. Cyrus the Great, the Persian ruler, released the exiles from captivity and told them to go back to their homeland.

Now that they have the freedom to return to the Promised Land, this message comes from God, through Isaiah – go back home.

People of God, return to the land that your God gave to your ancestors.

Go back to that land flowing with milk and honey.

Abundant gifts await you there!  

A rich banquet and the promise of God’s love are beckoning.

While they were living in exile, some of the Israelites turned away from worshipping God. They became involved with Babylonian culture at the expense of their Hebrew identity.

You might remember the stories from the book of Daniel, which took place in Babylon during this time of exile – the people were challenged to abandon their culture and religion and join forces with their captors.

Some of them did give up their culture and religion.

Those who refused to do so were likely to get thrown into a fire or a pit filled with lions.

Those people who abandoned God when they were challenged by the Babylonians – why should they get to go back to the Promised Land? They made their choice – God shouldn’t be showing any special care to them.

At least, that’s what our human nature would say.

But God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s mercy is bigger than our judgment.

It doesn’t matter how much someone deserves good things – or whether they have done nothing at all to deserve them. As long as that person is focused on God, they can receive the grace that God has to offer.

Come, God says!

Take your fill of all this great food, and don’t worry about the bill! I’ve got this one covered. Wine and milk, rich food and things that satisfy – have as much as you want.

Listen, God says!

Turn to God and listen to the promises that God is making with you. God has glorified you – yes, you! – and will give you a good life. God is making good on the promises that had been made to Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Miriam.  

It doesn’t matter whether you turned away from God while you were in exile in Babylon, or remained faithful.

It doesn’t matter whether you cheated on your diet or cut me off in traffic.

God’s message of love and abundance and mercy is for everyone – not just those people who have earned it.

Return to the Lord – or as Jesus says, repent!

Turn back to God, as the Israelites returned to the Promised Land. When you focus yourself on God, you’ll notice the gifts that are being offered to you.

God’s banquet table is filled with food that bypasses all dietary restrictions and ethical issues and personal preferences.

It is a feast that fulfills all of our deepest desires.

In Isaiah, repentance means, come and get the free stuff that God has to offer! It’s just sitting here waiting for you. All you have to do is turn and accept it.

So why do we spend our time and energy on things that don’t matter and things that aren’t life-giving?

That anger I described earlier – the frustration with bad drivers or sexist colleagues or people who just seem to get an unfair advantage – that anger doesn’t bring me life.

Why should I spend my time on what doesn’t satisfy me? Why should I eat the junk food of bitterness and frustration when God is offering me a table full of peace and love?

When someone has done something that we think is wrong, our human society tends to want justice to be carried out.

And what we mean by justice, in this kind of situation, is usually that the guilty party will pay for their error. That kind of justice, we think, will bring us satisfaction.

But God’s justice doesn’t work that way.

God’s justice means that all people receive mercy. Everyone has access to forgiveness, not to punishment. 

We want people to be held accountable for their actions.

And sometimes that happens.

But making sure that it happens isn’t our job. It’s God’s job.

And more often than not, the way that God carries out that job is to extend forgiveness and mercy and grace to people.

God gives people a second chance, like the gardener did with the fig tree in today’s Gospel lesson.

And really, that’s the good news of today’s readings. Because all of us have found ourselves in need of a second chance at some point or other in our lives.

Sometimes we’re the ones who neglect to check our blind spot and cut someone off in traffic. Sometimes we make an insensitive comment. Sometimes we just get lucky, and we might not notice those others around us who are less lucky.

We all need to be given a second chance when we mess up.

And God tells us today, you’ve got that second chance.

In fact, I’m going to set you up for success by giving you everything that you need to get past this next challenge in your life. And then, go for it!

And if you mess up, there will be a third and forth and four hundredth chance waiting for you.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

So, come! Enjoy the richness of this free food!

Listen! Hear the good news that God loves and welcomes all people!

Give up your desire for justice, and repent – return to God, and live in the light of God’s forgiveness and mercy.

Amen.

Lent 3C, 2/28/16
Isaiah 55:1-9
(with Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9)