January 30, 2011

Zephaniah 2:3; 3:12-13 + Psalm 146 + 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31 + Matthew 5: 1-12

I have a five year old great nephew who until very recently eat, slept, and played all day and all night in a Spiderman costume he first put on for Halloween two years ago. He has worn through the feet of the costume, and his grandmother has modified the legs and other parts as they have torn and he has grown. He has lept around the house, skidded through the kitchen, and jumed down the stairs making strange noices to impress and attract the attention of visitors and his great-uncle. There have been interludes of Batman and Superman but without a doubt, Spiderman is the one to which he returns.

I thought of this recently when I was reading a short article about superhero figures. The article proposed that the proud superhero, all of them from Superman, Spider Man, Batman and Wonder Woman were all versons of the same mythological proposal that an alter-ego is lurking in us all. Superman is there inside the mild-mannered Clark Kent, Batman is there in the effete Bruce Wayne, Wonder Woman is hiding in the prim secretery Diana Prince, and Spider Man is there inside the insecure Peter Parker. It’s a formula that has known great success, made a lot of money, and ignited the imagination of countless children, my Jonah included.  The article suggests that this success is due to the fact that it appeals to a secret belief that deep down beneath our own mild public persona lurks a secret superhero. I believe that Wisdom says otherwise, and Wisdom begins by accepting the fact that there is no superhero, and we are all helpless and hopeless without God.

Beatitude is an adjective. It is a description of someone who acts like God or who acts in a Godly way or acts as God would have us act. Beatitude calls us to be in solidarity with those who live close to God. No one is closer to God than the poor, the meek, the mourning for you see, they have nothing between them and God. Having nothing to idolize, no gold to turn into a golden calf, and no one to put before God, they are the Blessed Ones.

In contradiction of the pagan culture in which we live, some translations use the word “happy” to describe beatitude. Our homes are bombarded with suggestions that happiness is having the right car, a vacation, or the latest technical toy to entertain and dull our consciences. I am fascinated with the policy proposal these days that insists that our economic health depends upon all of us spending again desite the fact that jobs have gone out of the country and wages in real dollars have dwindled since the 60s. At the time of Jesus, wealth flowed to Rome. In our times, two thirds of the wealth produced in this country has gone to the wealthiest five percent of society. Their constant whining that government is taking our money sounds suspicious to me since there is every reason to suspect that they own the government.

God Blesses all of us, not the rich and powerful. So Matthew’s Gospel insists that Beatitudes belong to people who know better, and who have not let anything or anyone get between them and God. Beautitudes are something that happens to us and something we become when we realize the fact and the truth that we are helpless and we are hopless without God. Beautitudes happen when we quit trying to buy, acquire, or earn happiness and simply discover that we are Blessed just as we are.

There are not many of us who understand this and believe it. There is evidence all around that suggests that we are independent and free to do our own thing; that we should claim our rights even when we can no longer tell the difference between what is a right and what is a want. Frank Sinatra had a favorite song that expressed it perfectly entitled:  “I did it my way.” This is not the theme song of the poor in spirit, but the anthem of self-sufficiency. It is a long a long way from Beatitude.

There will be no place for us among the saints, no place for us in glory until we embrace our poverty and helplessness; until we become peacemakers and refuse to think in terms of winners and losers, until we can accept the pains and disappointments of life as easily as we accept the joys; until we become pure of heart, simple and pure, honest and sincere thirsting for what is right rather than for what is profitable.

Finally Beatitude will be us when we are merciful and put away the scorecards we sometimes keep on our friends and loved ones refusing to repay and replay hurts and evil. These are the values of not of this world, but the world to come in which those who are Christ’s own already have begun to live.

January 23, 2011

Isaiah 8:23-9:3 + Psalm 27 + 1 Corinthians 1:10-13,17 + Matthew 4:12-23

Matthew has now finished his presentation of Jesus as the fulfillment of Isaish’s prophecies, so now begins the mission. The transition is marked starkly and simply. The end of one era and the beginning of this new one is announced in once sentence: “When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.”  The voice crying in the wilderness is now a voice thundering in prison. Authorities are doing what they always do when they are threatened: trying to silence the opposition. Matthew tells us that Jesus left Nazareth and went to live by the sea in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. Those details are intended to shake us awake and get our attention. Jesus moved right into the heart of Herod’s territory: that’s Zebulun and Naphtali! As an infant, Jesus ran from Herod. As an adult he does not run. The message of light heads for the darkness. The message of life goes to the land of the dead.

As the message or torch of John gets passed to Jesus, he is quick to pass it on to others, and so he looks around and begins to call out first to Simon and his brother Andrew and then James and his brother John. Do you notice that these are family members? Matthew does not want us to miss that fact. To make sure we don’t miss it, he mentions it twice in one sentence. The first thought of these men is to share their experience within the family. Jesus is about to change their idea and their experience of family. “Family” for disciples of Jesus is not a matter of the clan or blood relatives. Remember how he responds when told that his mother, and family are outside wishing to speak to him? What Jesus has to offer is bigger than our little provincial minds first think about. What Jesus calls us and these first disciples to do is to look beyond the fish in the lake, so to speak. There is something greater to do than just fish for fish or fish for food. The hunger Jesus has is not for fish it is for you and me.

So this Gospel today raises some real issues for us.I think it raises the issue of “family” and family values which some are so quick to claim as their standard. In the last few years every time elections role around we start hearing about “family values.” I’ve never figured out what those are, and those who claim to stand for them don’t seem able to articulate them very well.But one thing is for certain: Hate is not a family value. Taking care of number one is not a family value. Racism, Sexism, and all the issuses around migration are not family values when families are torn apart by deportation.

For the disciple of Christ Jesus, “family” is not defined by DNA.The Kingdom of Heaven does not exist to serve the family.The family exists to serve the Kingdom.The message has been passed on. The Light that must shine in darkness is in our hands because we are in this room together proclaiming the death of the Lord until he comes in glory. We are called to leave what is secure, safe, and predictable for something higher and greater. Like Jesus, we are called to leave Nazareth and it’s safety to with courage into the face of danger, hostility, and power.We are not called to make money, we are called to make peace and secure the Kingdom of God.We are parents, children, spouses, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisiters; but before we were that, we were chidlren of God. That is our true and first identity.

When that finally sinks into our hearts and our minds, chances are we can survive a death or a broken family and go on to choose a better one from the strangers God sends into our life. Pay attention to the kind of people Jesus chooses for a share in his mission. Those brothers were not influential and powerful. They had no great education, influence or wealth. They were not poor. They were simply ordinary working people with not great background or any particular preparation for what was to come, and probably no great future ahead of them.

It is no different today. I can tell you that from my own story. God is calling today for you to become something and then to do something. It works in that order. The issue is not what am I to do, but first, what am I to become. Then God will form, shape, teach, and bless you with what you need to do what God wants. There is no waiting for you to finish your degree, get out of school, till you get married, or till the kids are grown for you to start becoming what God wants. “He called them,” says this Gospel, “and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.”

January 16, 2011

Isaiah 49: 3, 5-6 + Psalm 40 + 1 Corinthians 1: 1-3 + John 1: 29-34

Last week we proclaimed Matthew’s account of the Baptism of Jesus.Today we proclaim John’s account. Notice the difference: no water in John’s version. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, a voice is heard that identifies Jesus;the Spirit Speaks – a voice is heard. In John’s account, the Baptist identifies Jesus by two important titles: Lamb of God, and Son of God.Now when John sees Jesus, it is not a physical sighting.What John sees leads him to testimony about the mission of Christ.In other words, John doesn’t see Jesus of Nazareth, a person.John sees a mission, and begins to understand his mission.John sees the one comes to take away the sin of the world.He has a revelation which in the Gospel is signaled by the word: Behold!

Pay attention to the detail that sin is singular, here, not plural.His mission is not to take away individual transgressions.It is to restore what sin has destroyed: our relationship, our communion with God. The mission of Jesus is to connect us to God. Through Him, With Him, In Him is the message of John to the church today.In the other Gospels the Spirit comes upon and dwells within Jesus.In this Gospel, the Spirit speaks to John. In other words, now John speaks in the Spirit, and with that Spirit he sees, understands, and believes what God has come to accomplish: restore our relaitonship with God.

Now brothers and sisters, John may be the greatest prophet, and the greatest man born of woman; but he is not the only one who has received the Holy Spirit. This church is full of the Spirit filled people.It is full of people who can see more than the physical presence of those sitting beside them if they will just look.It is full of people who can see more than bread and wine on this altar;who can see more in this world than what is around them.Spirit filled people see the work of God in all things see the face of God in all faces see the glory of God in every human life born and unborn, sick, dying, ugly, angry and beutiful. Without that Spirit we are blind fools stumbling the the darkness.

At the beginning of this season which will lead us to Lent in several weeks,we recall and retell the story of the Baptism of Jesus for one reason only:to more deeply understand and consistently live our own Baptism so that we may see as John saw more than just what the meets the eye.So that others might come through our testimony to find in Christhe way to holiness and perfection; the way to God.For having been baptized into Christ,we take on His mission and we become his saving work.Our alienation from God is destroyed. The Sin of the World is finished.We know how and where to find our God.We know what it is we called to become: children of God, children of the Light.The work of John the Baptist was to attract people to Christ and through Christ to lead people to God and a life without sin.If Byron had kept on reading the next verse of John’s Gospel it would have said this: “The next day John was standing with two of his disciples; and he loked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.”

The work of John the Baptist was cut short by the jealousy of Harod. The work of John the Baptist is not finished. In this church is John the Baptist, Tom the Baptist, Joan the Baptist, Mary the Baptist, Edward the Baptist, and every other name by which you were called on the day of  your Baptism. We know from John the Baptist what we must do: lead others to Christ and therefore to God.

We will do that by the life we lead in Joy, lived in the Spirit. We will do that by the integrity with which we live, the truth, and the inclusiveness which is a hall mark of God’s Kingdom.

This season, before Lent begins, we have time to restablish and reaffirm what was begun in us at our Baptism. We should get started, and remember.