July 29, 2007 at Saint Mark Church Norman, OK

Genesis 18:20-22 + Psalm 138 + Colossians 2:12-14 + Luke 11:1-13

As always, we all start with this text thinking it’s about us. “Teach us to pray.” say these disciples. Along with a response to their request however comes news about God. After all, what good is it to know how to pray if you don’t know the one to whom you pray?

In those times, every rabbi had a unique formula of prayer by which his disciples would be known. Obviously, the disciples of Jesus have been hanging around disciples of John. From what we can tell from the text, disciples of John had their prayer, and with it, their group identity. There’s no way of knowing what that prayer was like; but it is clear that they had one, and with it then, they were known as John’s disciples. Now it’s disciples of Jesus who want to have their prayer and with it, their identity.

They get what they ask for and even more.

It is important to notice that the instruction of Jesus does not stop with passing on of a formula. As soon as he gives them a formula, he goes on to tell them more. The instruction is not about words. The “how” of praying is not about what words to use. It is about how to use them. More is needed than words. Disciples must have a proper interior disposition that is based the right understanding of who they are and who God the Father is. He uses the image of a Father and his children to jolt them into a mindset that makes prayer effective. If there is persistence and confidence in the one who asks, seeks, and knocks, there will be no resistance in the Giver. What Jesus reveals in this instruction is something about God and something about disciples in the right relationship with God. God is willing to give, but one must ask. God is willing to reveal, but one must seek. God is willing to open the door, but one must knock on it.

God is willing to answer prays, but one must pray. The heart of this passage is in the simple verse: If a human parent will give good things to their children: God will do even more to those who ask. So, having established that God is waiting to give, what remains is whether or not we are willing to ask without ceasing.

Prayer for a disciple of Jesus is more than a formula of words. It is a persistent, constant, never-ending way of life. Prayer for disciples of Jesus does not stop. They do not quit no matter how long it takes. The prayer of disciples is a prayer in faith and confidence. No disciple of Jesus ever quits or stops because their prayer rests on a revelation Jesus provides about the Father which encourages and sustains their prayer.

So there is more here than a lesson in prayer. There is a revelation about God that cannot be passed over lightly. God waits and God wants to answer our prayer. The only prayer never answered is a prayer that has ceased. In her great spiritual wisdom, Theresa of Avila insisted that the only time God does not answer prayer is when there have been none.

The real wonder or mystery of prayer is that it changes us, not God. Our prayer may not change situations for which we pray, but it will always change us in the praying.

July 22, 2007 at Saint Mark Church Norman, OK

Genesis 18:1-10 + Psalm 15 + Colossians 1:24-28 + Luke 10:38-42

In Sufi literature there is a story told that leads to the point of these verses in the Journey Narrative. “Master,” said a disciple, “I saw a man who could fly.” “So?” said the master, “a bird can fly.” “Master,” said the disciple, “I saw a man who could live under water.” “So?” said the master, “a fish can live underwater.” “Master,” said the disciple, I saw a man who, in the twinkling of an eye, could move from one town to another.” “So?” said the master, “Satan can do that.” “If you wish to find something truly extraordinary, “the master continued, “find a man who can be among people and keep his thoughts on God.”

Superficial religion often gravitates to the spectacular: Men flying, living under water, instantaneously traveling from one place to another. Some people consider this to be the supernatural stuff of real religion. There are countless other trivial but fascinating examples that excite those who busy themselves with the curious and spectacular. Images of Christ in clouds, the face of the Blessed Mother in a reflection, all provide modern versions of the Sufi disciple’s ideas. The truly extraordinary, the marvelous and wonderful ideal life of a disciple is found in that virtue of being “among people and keeping one’s thoughts on God.”

This is the point of this Gospel lesson. Removing it from its connection to last week’s Samaritan story is not a good way to get to the heart of the message. A question began this section of the Gospel a few weeks back:

“What must I do?” From that dialogue there came an affirmation of what is written in the Law: “Love God – Love Neighbor” to sum it up briefly.

What we see in the story we proclaim this week is the living of the law: Love of God – Mary Love of Neighbor – Martha. The two are not to be separated. This is not an either/or issue, and to make it so misses the point. So, coming on the heels of the Samaritan story, this is a shocking reversal. Having just heard Jesus tell the story of someone who goes the extra mile to help someone, we should expect Jesus to urge Mary to help Martha. First, he praises the one who serves: that Samaritan. Then he praises one who sits and listens to the word of the Master. In a true disciple, these two roles go together.

There is another interesting little twist to this story. Mary is breaking a social barrier. She is behaving like a man. In that time and culture, women stayed in the kitchen and tended to those things. Men sat at the feet of a rabbi, listened, and conversed. In a subtle little way, Luke is opening the role of the disciple to women and confirming their call to ministry.

Bringing home the whole message of this Gospel puts a challenge and an opportunity in every home where Jesus is the guest. Both men and women would do well to think through the layers of meaning possible with these verses. Seeking the wisdom of a balanced life, both husbands and wives might well examine how it goes at home. A husband or a wife who is busy providing like Martha, whose whole focus and identity is on work and providing for others is not keeping the balance Luke proposes for a true disciple. There must also be an equal measure of presence, like Mary; that presence of intimacy, of taking time to simply listen, and sitting with another for the sake of love is just as important as keeping the bills paid. In homes and in relationships where that balance is kept, Jesus is easily found. That balance must be the same in every loving relationship, even with God. It is not always necessary to be doing something, and prayer is not always saying something. Adoration is very silent and done best without words. To a culture like ours, to a people who are so busy and always in the fast lane, Jesus then speaks a word of caution and word of wisdom. It’s not that Martha is better than Mary or the other way around. It’s that one without the other is not the way of a

July 15, 2007 at Saint Mark Church Norman, OK

Deuteronomy 30: 10-14 + Psalm 69 + Colossians 1:15-20 + Luke 10:25-37

This parable would certainly rank in the top five of remembered and well-known parables. Images from it have been reproduced in windows of the greatest cathedrals. Painters like Rembrandt and Giordano have put it on canvas. Hospitals and health-care facilities have named themselves after it. It is a by-word for responding to the needs of others. But all of that is a shallow glance at a profound and important instruction of Jesus along the way to Jerusalem.

In the end, parables are always about God. They reveal something about God, instruct, challenge, and form disciples who would take up the work of Jesus Christ, the work of God. As always, in the retelling, layers of meaning and points of focus develop and shift. Those who first heard the parable from the lips of Jesus would have identified first of all with the man in the ditch. From his perspective, it’s a very different story.

Different listeners can move around from character to character and have plenty to think about. In our age, when story telling is mostly for entertainment, the story hardly says much at all, especially when we are so removed from the whole idea, the whole conflict that lies behind this story. Even the conflicts come at different levels: there is the conflict between the lawyer and Jesus; a conflict within the law itself; a conflict between the cultures as the whole idea of a Samaritan being moved with compassion collides with the hated and racism of that time; and not least of all is the conflict within the boundaries that define who is a “neighbor.”

At the level of Luke’s story telling, this parable is about God, and it might seem a bit shocking to realize that he is using someone considered an enemy to reveal a quality of God for the sake of those who, made in the image of that God, might be called to let that image shape their behavior.

At the same time, there is a confrontation of attitude here that fits in with the three previous stories which we told last week and the week before. First, it was James and John with their outburst of revenge which Jesus rebukes. Then it was the Joy of those returning disciples that Jesus must redirect lest they think it’s all about their power. Now it is another attitude that must be called into question before the journey to Jerusalem delivers Jesus to his Glory. This is the attitude we see in the lawyer. He is trapped in the “do to get” thinking that is still way too common among us
“What must I do to win the inheritance of everlasting life?” he ask. For him, an action or decision only has value when compared to the reward attached to it. Jesus goes right to the heart of the matter when he says:
“Do this and live.” because there is no gap between the present and the future. The action is its own reward. It is not a matter of doing something

and then waiting to be rewarded, presumably after death. What Jesus and Luke would have us understand is that acting with compassion and mercy is an immediate experience of everlasting life, the Reign of God.

This is a tough thing to get our minds around; this business of always deciding what to do because of what we get. It’s back to last week’s issue now moved a step further. We do things because of who we are, and what we do is the very action of God. In terms of the characters of this story, God acts like the Samaritan, crossing dangerous territory with healing and help. God takes risky and foolish actions, like sending his only Son to save life. Eternal life will be able to be inherited only because of the perilous actions Jesus takes on behalf of all who are neighbor. To inherit this life, one must “go and do likewise.” In other words: “Go and do what God does.” When you do, you will be living in the fullness of life and death will have no power over you.

July 8, 2007 at Saint Mark Church Norman, OK

Isaiah 66: 10-14 + Psalm 66: 1-7, 16, 20 + Galatians 6:14-18 + Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20

These disciples have it all wrong, and Jesus corrects them quickly not to spoil their joy, but to root it in the right place. Like last week Jesus had to question their desire to follow their feelings instead of following his lead. This week it’s a matter of what might be the focus of their attention  and the source of success and joy.

They come back all impressed with themselves over what they have seen and what they have done. All of those exciting things, all that power, all those gifts! It’s almost too much for them. You can sense that they came back on the run ready to celebrate their victories. But that’s not the point Jesus says to them.

Their joy, and ours as well cannot come from what we do. It must spring out of who we are, and what we are as God’s children “On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?” Then I will declare to them solemnly, “I never knew you. Depart from me you evildoers.” Jesus affirms for his disciples then and today that every word and work however significant or sensational must be informed and inspired by daily surrender to God’s Will, rooted in God’s Grace, and a revelation of God’s presence and love.

The good things that happen, the peace, the reconciliations, the healings, the comforting, the feeding of the hungry, the welcoming of strangers, the defeat of evil and hatred happens because of who we have become and our deepening awareness of what we are as a people saved and redeemed and free from sin.

The heart of what Jesus would have us understand is that the people who carry the revelation are the revelation.  The dying and rising of Jesus

is not simply a story we tell about Jesus of Nazareth. It is something we too live and breathe and celebrate and believe. Each new generation of carriers becomes the Body of Christ, the visibility of God’s presence on earth.

So, it’s not about doing things. It is about becoming something/someone.

That is cause for Joy. The most astonishing thing that should stir our spirits

has nothing to do with what we do but rather with what God through Jesus does to us. God naturalizes us, so to speak. God takes us out of this world to make us citizens of the Royal Realm. What is promised for the end of the ages is a reality right now. What better news is there, or what better reason to rejoice than to hear the news that our names are written in heaven!

July 1, 2007 at Saint Mark Church Norman, OK

1 Kings 19:16, 19-21 + Psalm 16:1-2,5,7-11 + Galatians 5:1, 13-18 + Luke 9:51-62

There is a way of thinking in our age that has never seemed quite right to me. I’ve heard it expressed as advise to graduates more times than I can count. I’ve heard it from young people advising their peers like the blind leading the blind, and I’ve seen it peddled in advice columns with all the authority of the printed page. It always seems shallow and self serving.  “Follow your feelings.” is the silly suggestion offered when nothing better comes to mind.

The folly of this thinking came to mind as I was reading and reflecting on this Gospel passage for the past couple of weeks. Following one’s feelings is this world’s proposal for success or recipe for feeling good. The truth of the matter is it does not make one feel good. It makes one narcissistic. “If it feels good, do it” is the moral measure of that system.

But that system is not compatible with any communal living or with Gospel life. Confronting or rebuking this silly idea proposes something else for disciples; it is better to be good than to feel good. We shall hear more of that from Jesus next week.

James and John in this gospel want to follow their feelings. Jesus rebukes that idea without exception. Life in the Kingdom of God is not about following feelings. In fact, not many feelings lead to the Kingdom of God.

There is something higher, something greater than feelings that moves a would-be disciple. It is Jesus himself

We ought not follow our feelings through this life he proposes with his rebuke. Our feelings ought to follow us. This powerful rebuke still speaks to us anytime our feelings lead us rather than Jesus. Do not waste time on revenge no matter how justified you think it is. Seek other opportunities. Do not daydream about romance. Face the harsh challenge of real love in an unloving world. Do not commit yourselves to a way of life the kills the spirit. Follow what gives life. Do not keep looking to others for permission or approval. Look within to a higher self that is there by grace and unfolding all the time.  Finding, discovering, celebrating our reason for being alive is not an experience of feelings. It is an experience of faith lived in holy obedience to the Word and the Will of God.

Our decisions, day in and day out, big ones and little ones have to do with the truth of who we are and what we were created to be. Our response to disappointments, rejection, tragedies, and sin may not come out of feelings of anger, revenge, or righteousness, but only from the depths of our faith and our love rooted in and living in the Life of Christ. It is the only way to Jerusalem. As Jesus of Nazareth began to realize and understand what God asked of him, he did not follow his feelings. His feelings followed him. And so, feelings compassion, forgiveness, and mercy followed from the truth of who he was. So, it must be for us. We cannot be led by feelings. But we may see our feelings flow out of what we have become.