Blessed All Saints Day Eve to you and yours

Dearest e-votees,

For those of you who observe Halloween--happy Halloween!  I hope you have a safe and good time making memories with those you love.

Tomorrow is All Saints Sunday.  It is a day set aside in the church year to commemorate our blessed dead.

Peace,

Karl

- - - - -

Here is our appointed 2nd reading in the Revised Common Lectionary (aka RCL) comes from 1st John 3:1-3:

1See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (NRSV)

God has called us God's children.  We have been adopted, welcomed and grafted into the family of God.  In baptism we are reborn as children of God.  

Part of the work of family is to commemorate and celebrate our blessed dead.  We got to where we are today (successes and wrinkles both) through the legacy of our families.  Our forefathers and foremothers have shaped us into our very selves.  Everything we have comes as gift from the hands of a gracious God and often conveyed through our family members.

If we have had great success we do well to paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton:  If we have seen further it is because we have stood on the shoulders of giants (read giants as our foremothers and forefathers).

As you remember, celebrate, commemorate, grieve and however else recognize those who have gone before you, biologically and spiritually, I invite you to light a candle, ring a bell and say a prayer of thanks for who they were and how they've helped you to become.

God, thank you for all those who have preceded us.  Help us never forget them and look forward to when we will be reunited with them again.  In the strong name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Eve of Reformation: Justified by Grace

 Dearest e-votees, 

I hope and pray that this e-vo finds you happy and well.  It is the night before Reformation Sunday.  I have been looking forward to this worship service for a while now.  It is a festive day for our expression of faith and it will be good to gather in the parking lot once again with the saints of Messiah.  I hope and pray you have somewhere good to gather in worship.  If you are so inclined we will be streaming a version of this service on Facebook at a watch party this coming Thursday (October 29, 7:00 EST).  You are welcome to join us if you are free and so inclined.  

Peace, 

Karl 

- - - - - - - - 

One of the key insights that was perhaps re-discovered and certainly lifted up by Martin Luther and the other reformers is the central concept that we are saved by grace (pure gift from God) and not by the works we do.  For those of you who watch "The Good Place" this concept would certainly undo one of the underlying drivers of the show.

We believe that there isn't a running odometer ticking off our good deeds.  Neither is their a sin-o-meter tracking our demerits.  The truth is that we can't begin to do enough good and shun enough evil to save ourselves.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God as Paul wrote in the 3rd chapter of Romans.  And even if we could do enough good--which we can't--if we're doing it merely to save our sorry skins than it isn't such an altruistic endeavor after all.  Our old Adams and old Eves are always quick to do something for our own sake and to point an accusing finger at a nearby snake or spouse or whoever else falls into our crosshairs. "The Good Place" really is an interesting look into some of our more primal and self-serving motivations.  You might want to give it a watch some time. 

This isn't to say that good works don't matter.  How we respond to God is crucially important.  How we respond to neighbor is crucially important.  Jesus says the whole law and the prophets can be fulfilled  by loving God and loving neighbor.  At one point in scripture it even includes the psalms (Luke 24:44) among the things fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus.

We couldn't do what was required--Jesus could and did.  We can't do what is required today on our own (we are still sinners and fall short of the glory of God) without God's help.  We do good works not to earn God's favor--not attainable--but rather as a way to thank God and serve neighbor in response to God.

My wife has a Bonhoeffer quote in her pastor's study--"Salvation is free but discipleship will cost you everything" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  We can't earn the healing.  We can't earn the right standing.  We can't earn God's favor.  It comes to us as a free gift (which cost Jesus everything).  But we can learn and grow in following in the ways of Jesus.  We can become disciples.  We can take up our crosses and follow after Jesus.  If we do it will cost us everything.  That's what it means to grow in the likeness of Jesus.

I hope and pray you have a blessed celebration of the Reformation.  May God's grace and free salvation bless you again and again.  Blessings as you allow God to grow you in the likeness of Christ.  That is, after all, what it means to be a Christian.

Dear God, have your way in our lives.  Teach us to stop trying to please you in order for a reward.  Help us to accept the give and learn to do as you please as our humble way of saying "Thank you.".  Amen.

Jesus the master of Kobayashi Maru

Dearest e-votees,

This Sunday's gospel lesson sure seems like the world hasn't advanced very far in the last two millennia.

Jesus is approached by Pharisees and Herodians (a very unholy alliance) and they seek to capture him in his words with yet another "Gotcha!" question.  

They simply ask if it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not.  If he says "yes" then the religious leaders can point out Jesus supporting the occupying force of the Romans and write him off as one who sides with the enemy.  If he says "no" then he can be turned over to the Romans as one undermining the "Pax Romana" (see meditation in 10-14 Taize worship service).  No matter how Jesus answers he is trapped.  For you Trekkies is is really a Kobayashi Maru.  Yet Jesus, aware of their malice, channels his inner James T. Kirk and escapes the inescapable.

Peace,

Karl

- - - - - -

The trap of the Pharisees and the Herodians is that implied in their question are two competing human loyalties--the emperor and to one's people.  By forcing Jesus to pick one they were trying to force him to antagonize the other.  

Jesus rewrites the question by taking out of the human realm (are you loyal to the person of the emperor or the people of your heritage?) and elevating to a higher authority (are you remembering a Hebrew National ad campaign just about now?).  

He essentially says do whatever you will in terms of your questions about loyalty to people.  But never forget loyalty to God.  Whatever is God's (and what isn't?) ought to be rendered to God.  Neither the Pharisees nor the Herodians would ever suggest withholding from God what is God's.  Check mate.

Jesus has danced out of their snare and got to the crux of the matter.  Soon, in the gospel of Matthew, he will get to the crux of the crux.  Good Friday is looming.  He will have other opportunities to bow to Herod and Pontius Pilate coming soon but he will defer his loyalty to God.  He will give to God what is God's which will release that to us too.

What things of human origin seek to unduly distract and ensnare us?  What "emperors" are coming after us wanting their fare share?  Can we learn a little something from Jesus here?  For God's sake I hope so. 

Dear God, rescue us from the snares set in our paths.  Give us focus and courage to put you above others.  Thank you for all you give us.  Help us return to you with faith and gratitude.    Amen.

Philippians 3:10-11

Dearest e-votees,  

Our appointed epistle lesson from this Sunday comes from Paul's letter to the community of  believers in Philippi.  In a letter that is full of powerful, deep and resonant themes and quotations is the following verse:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Paul is at a place in his life and ministry where his imminent death is certainly becoming more apparent.  He doesn't shy away from that fate but rather embraces it.

When we are facing a literal or metaphorical death in our own lives, our work, our relationships, our vocations and our avocations, our social, political or religious contexts how do we respond?  Might Paul have something to teach us? 

Peace,

Karl 

---- 

Jesus calls on his followers to take up their crosses and follow after them.  That is not a call to comfort, wealth and undisturbed existence despite the turmoil and woundedness in the world.

Jesus came to do a work in the world.  It required confronting religious and political leaders.  It required seeking justice and healing for those who had been neglected, dismissed and ostracized.  It required calling out hypocrisy and holding up a mirror to those around him then and to us to this very day.

When we abide the call to take up our crosses and follow after Jesus we are called to come and die (as was brilliantly expounded upon by Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship).  In baptism our old Adams and our old Eves are brought to be drowned so that our new Adams and our new Eves could be raised.  In our daily lives of faith and discipleship we are called to repentance (to allow that which must to die in order to bring to life that which should come to life).  Our concern is not for our own welfare alone but for our neighbor as well.  We can't love God fully if we ignore neighbor.  We can't fully love ourselves if we ignore neighbor.  If we want to grow into Jesus' work of fulfilling the law, the prophets and the psalms we have to love God more fully and loving our neighbor and ourselves more fully.

Jesus laid down his life fully and completely for the sake of the world, for the sake of his friends and for the sake of all--those in the mainstream and those on the fringes.  We are called to engage in this work as well.  And in doing so we just may see Jesus' resurrection power at work in us--literally and metaphorically.

Lord of life, bring us to the deaths that we must endure.  Work your resurrection power in us that we might have life and be bearers of that life and resurrection hope in the world.  Thank you for the call towards the cross.  Amen.