Preparing for Christmas: Close, Closer, Closest! Advent 4C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Preparing for Christmas:  Close, Closer, Closest!

Dec 23, 2018        Advent 4-C

The newscasters had a name for yesterday - they called is Last Minute Saturday.  (Like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday and so on.)  They showed scenes of crowded malls and stores, people pushing and loaded down with bags.  In Jimmy Fallon’s monologue Friday night on the Tonight Show, he remarked that unless you got some sort of deal, its too late to order online now. And he had the Toys R Us stores, who closed during the last year, say, “I bet you miss us now!” 

            We’ve been talking of preparing for Christmas in these Advent Sundays -  making comparisons to how we prepare outwardly for company and deep clean the house, how we decorate, and how we look forward to time together with other folks.  We’ve been comparing this to our inner preparations for the new life of Christ in our lives - examining and purifying ourselves, letting go of the old so there’s room for the new.  As this is the 4^th Sunday of Advent, it’s the closest to Christmas Eve, which this year is actually tomorrow, so at home, we’re probably about as ready as we can be. 

We probably have our turkeys or hams or barbecue, our ingredients for stuffing or sweet potatoes or green beans or whatever our sides will be.  We’ve probably cleaned, made up the company beds and put the company towels out.  Maybe there’s some presents already under the tree. I’m making my pumpkin pie today – I love my pumpkin pie more than anyone else’s – yes, it’s the Libby’s recipe, but with a couple personal tweaks.  I like it with so much whipped cream that I can barely see the pie underneath.  My sister bought whipped cream in preparation, but I bought one, too - you can’t have too much whipped cream. 

            So its Last Minute time, when things come together and we kinda panic but are excited, too.  Those are the outer preparations for how Christmas is celebrated nowadays.  Its time for the traditions to begin – welcoming folks who’ve traveled, sharing food, preparing to share meals.  You know, as pastors, we rarely travel for Christmas, but we make our own customs.  The kid’s dad had 3 services on Christmas Eve and I sometimes had one elsewhere.  So I usually cooked a Stauffer’s lasagna as a quick meal between the 4:30 children’s’ service and the 7pm service. At least it was red; and as I usually had the excited kids by myself, it was easy.  I’ve kept that tradition - in fact, I bought one for tomorrow.  We all have our nativity scenes up – I had a crocheted one so the kids could touch it and carry the pieces if they wanted to. 

            Our modern Christmases are kind of a mix of a faith professions and a mid-winter festival.  Sometimes I can go on a rant about the materialism of modern Christmases, although I then think that Jesus certainly wouldn’t object to communal meals, healed relationships, sharing and rejoicing  In some way, in the right spirit, Christmas might show a bit of the celebration of heaven.  At least our holiday still has the name Christ in it, although Santa has become the more looked-for figure - and maybe THE figure in non-churched families.  There are still carols about the holy night and Jesus’ birth, which mix in on our playlists or radios with other songs like Santa Baby and Winter Wonderland.   Lots of families still come to worship on Christmas Eve, even if they’re not involved the rest of the year.  Whenever Jesus’ actual birth was, our Christian ancestors chose to set the celebration at the time of year of returning light, and to put a Christian overlay on the celebrations of the solstice that most cultures already had.  And our celebration of Christ’s birth still carries that mix.

So as our last Advent preparation for the spiritual side of Christmas, let’s take one more look at the meaning of this event we’re celebrating.  You know, God began preparing for Christmas long before we did - all during Advent, we read from the Jewish prophets – Isaiah, Zechariah, Micah, Malachi, and the story of how the refugee Ruth came into Jesus’ ancestry.  There are all kinds of words in the prophets that, looking back, we can connect with the coming of the Christ.  In their time, of course, it was looking forward, a hope, a promise; the idea of the God’s Anointed One, God’s Messiah, kept folks going in terrible times. God’s preparation started way back in the choosing of a special nation to carry that hope, and be a nation of priests in the sense that they carried the truth of God to the world; back with Abraham and Sarah,  Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, and those stories kept and treasured by our earliest faith ancestors. 

God’s last preparations included the parents of John the Baptizer, then Mary and Joseph to parent Baby Jesus.  It doesn’t seem like God chose an opportune period, with the Jewish people being under Roman rule at that time.  And Mary and Joseph were your everyday working poor people - blue collar we’d call them today, without the privileges or entitlements of the rich.  There was risk to Jesus from the time he was conceived.  Risk of being outcast, not of the ruling people, risk from soldiers, disease, accident – as well as the king’s displeasure.  But that’s what God prepared and chose, and brought to fruition.  

When we read Mary’s song of praise and victory, we remember that this birth stands for more than just a cute baby.  The first line in her song is My soul magnifies the Lord – we call it Mary’s Magnificat, from the Latin. She goes on to claim the promises her people held onto for years, and talks of the turning upside down of things by the Messiah, in throwing down the powerful from their thrones, and the poor being fed while the rich are sent away empty.  In our faith, this birth is the beginning of THE major work on behalf of humanity that God does.  

Last Sunday I went to hear a friend of mine sing in a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, accompanied by a harpist, as designed.  It was great! My High School choir learned this piece, so I could almost sing along, in words that moved me even at 18.  I especially love the piece called This Little Babe.  It captures the same spirit as the Magnificat in seeing this birth as God mounting a major campaign against the forces of evil, a cosmic fighting for the salvation of humankind’s souls.  Jesus’ birth is nothing less than the coming of the Divine into our sphere, in order to help us hear the good news of how things are supposed to be, and give us forgiveness and hope to live into that vision.  

So this carol looks at the baby’s birth as a battle scenario, and uses the language of human battle to describe the babe’s situation.  God’s battles sure don’t look like ours….. 

This little babe so few days old, has come to rifle Satan’s fold,

All hell doth at his presence quake, though he on earth for cold do shake. 

For in this weak, unarmed wise, the gates of hell he will surprise.  

It looks like any other birth, but this birth is the opening salvo in the way God is encountering evil!  This is a cosmic event of eternal significance.  And all Hell recognizes what Jesus is, and begins to rally against him in fear.  God has chosen the surprising way of love to overcome evil. 

I love the contrasts and comparisons in this next section– God’s ways look powerless in terms of the world, yet they are God’s master plan and strongest suit – love, incarnation, presence, being true humans.

With tears he fights and wins the field, his naked breast stands for a shield. 

His battering shots are babish cries, his arrows, looks of weeping eyes.

His martial ensigns Cold and Need, and feeble flesh, his warrior steed.

His camp is pitched in a stall. His bulwark but a broken wall.

The crib his trench, haystacks his stakes; of shepherds he his muster makes. 

And thus, as sure his foe to wound, the angels’ trumps alarum sound.

God doesn’t come in a tank or Humvee, but human flesh, dependent and needy.  No fort, no battle command station – just a crib – and a crib in poor housing…..no trained Green berets or Seals or Marines or Combat vets – God just has shepherds.  No noisy horns or roar of jets or sound of bombs falling, God has angels singing.

God fights with the power of new life and love. Not a great show of boots on the ground to mow down enemies; not huge armaments to wipe out cities of the enemy; not missiles and rockets and mortars to batter the enemies’ troops and break their spirits - - no, just the deep, deep love it took to set aside the glory of God’s being and be born in human flesh, all for our sake.  Hate does not drive out hate, Martin Luther King Jr reminded us – love drives out hate. 

The next carol, In Freezing Winter Night, continues the theme of comparing the poor family and its serviceable things, with the possessions of a king that this baby surely is:

This stable is a Prince’s court; this crib his chair of state;

The beasts are parcel of his pomp, the wooden dish his plate.

The persons in that poor attire his royal liveries wear;

The Prince himself is come from Heav’n – this pomp is prized there.

We’re wrong if the only Baby Jesus we know and honor is merely a cute and cuddly newborn – although I’m sure he was a cute and cuddly newborn, like all newborns.  Yet Jesus was also God’s very self; an Advent that was planned and anticipated for centuries!  Talk about preparing for Christmas! And not a Christmas of our kind, but a birth that was the beginning of a whole plan for the kingdom of God, the kindom of God, the realm of God.  In fact, this birth is also a battle, yes - a battle for humanity and its soul.  A battle against the evil, the nothingness, that would kill us, drain us, pull us into despair, pull our eyes from God, and from the realm of spiritual life – a life lived with God in generosity, kindness, peace, thanksgiving, gratitude, hope and love.  

So its right that in our preparations for Christmas, we keep this scenario in mind.  We remember how this little baby grows into Rabbi Jesus, a prophet who teaches with authority and calls people back to true worship, a threat that is so severe to the evil of the world that he is killed.  Yet such is the power of God’ love that Jesus is raised again in a new life, which is now offered to each of us. 

So next to that sweet baby Jesus, keep a reminder of what God did, what battle God engaged, how all evil was taken on in this birth & life.  And join the shepherds in wonder and the angels in crying Alleluia.  AMEN.

Preparing for Christmas: Close, Closer..... Advent 3C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Preparing for Christmas - Close, Closer….

12/16/18        Advent 3-C           Luke 3: 7-18

            I used to groan when it got closer to special company coming (Advent..get it?), because my mom always went into a flurry of cleaning.  Not just the normal, Saturday cleaning, but a dust the windowsills and move the couch to vacuum kind of cleaning.  An on your knees in the kitchen so you got all the corners well kind of cleaning.  An take the mop and dust where the ceiling and wall come together, and over all the doors kind of cleaning.  Missy and I used to say, “Why all this cleaning before they come? Its only going to be a mess again after the party anyway!”

            For all my complaining, I couldn’t escape mom’s training, so I did the same thing to my kids, and they used the same line back at me.  I was especially ardent when it was my mom who was coming for a visit, because I knew she’d notice! Not only for company, but I have to leave the house clean  before I travel, too, because I know I’ll be all worn out when I get back, and at least I won’t have to clean the house.

            Do people still do Spring cleaning?  Its good to do a deep cleaning once in a while - when we do move the couch, its amazing what has gathered under there.  I find all my cat’s little  mousies; a cat I used to have liked shiny things, so often I’d find an earring I thought was lost, or a pen.  When I would take the couch cushions off to pump them and shake them, I’d find so much grime in the back of the couch!  All the cheetos and chips and peanuts the kids had eaten on the couch left pieces dripped down in the crevices. I also found lots of change that fell out of pockets - I always considered that part of my pay, so I kept it. 

            The kids’ rooms were the worst.  At a young age, my daughter made what she called ‘experiments’ where she combined toothpaste, perfume, liquid soap - whatever she could find, and let her creations dry on pieces of aluminum wrap…..at least they were on aluminum wrap!  I would find them under her bed…  I would find the one missing sock from various pairs, or underwear, or toys under the boys’ beds.  On a regular basis, then, all the toys got put back in the toy chest, the books on the bookshelves, any mugs or glasses got back to the kitchen, dirty socks got washed, and the house looked good.  It didn’t last, but it looked good for a couple days. 

            Cleaning out is important, because daily living scatters a lot of mess all around.  A new word I learned - detritus - stuff left around.  Cooking in the kitchen leaves spatters as well as dirty dishes.  Even pouring coffee leaves little spills.  Although I work at using leftovers, every once in a while I need to dig in the fridge and find the stuff that’s starting to mold.  Pens and pencils get left around where we wrote checks or signed report cards. That item we meant to carry back to our room sits on the steps waiting.  Living is messy. 

            Here’s my segue to the texts about John the Baptizer and the spiritual life.  John’ s message was to say, “Hey folks, get your life right with God, clean up your act, quit dilly-dallying about your faith life, quit depending on your parent’s faith & your great heritage.  God is sending the Messiah, and you better get ready.”  And he added an “or else” - the ax is ready to chop down the unproductive trees, friends, so bear some good fruit.  Its pruning time!  God is sifting the wheat, and only the good stuff is going to be kept.

John was preaching to the crowds that came out in the desert to hear him and see him, including the religious folks, and he didn’t spare anybody’s feelings - he called them a “brood of vipers,” some harsh words, and called them to turn around their ways.  That’s what ‘repent’ means - to do a 180, turn around, get going in the other direction towards God.  John is cleaning house with a new broom, getting the corners and the ceilings and under the couches.  Cleaning the house of God, preparing for the Advent of God’s new acts. 

Here 2000 years later, Christian history has seen some reform times and some renewal times.  Just like our houses, religious life is also messy, and over time stuff accumulates if its not cleaned out.  We get lazy about our practices of faith, we relax our vigilance over our morals, we get debating on non-essential points, and the real work and message of the church gets ignored.  I’ve wondered if this is maybe what’s happened to the church at large - we obviously have failed to pass along our faith to much of the next generation; we have lost the respect of people in general; we have moved over to the edge of unimportance to a lot of humanity.  Not totally, and not to everybody.  Whatever it is that has clouded people’s awe of God, perhaps the attraction and growth of a consumerist mentality, the worship of possessions, the race to compete over money, a philosophy of each person for themselves that Ayn Rand popularized in her novels, a clinging to blind belief that is unable to see the value of science and just rejects it - whatever it is that has caused Christian faith to seem irrelevant, we as a church have not been up to the challenge.  No longer can people look at us Christians and say, “See how they love one another!”   Christianity started with a criticism of mainstream religion, and a prophetic criticism of the values of the Roman Empire. When Christianity gets in bed with the Empire, it loses its voice, and it loses its way.  I wonder if that’s part of why our churches are closing at an increasing rate.  In the relay race of faith, as Paul talks of it in a sports metaphor, perhaps we are fumbling the baton.

On the drive down to Georgetown Y, there’s a house that has the sign ‘Pray for our Nation.’  I talk to that sign, and tell it that I, too, pray for our nation, although I probably don’t pray it for the way that sign means…. Although they and I probably desire that the values and faith of Christianity again be important in our country, I’m pretty sure we have a different picture of what that would look like.  I don’t think that the rigid and hierarchical, fundamentalist faith is the path, especially imposing it at the behest of some charismatic leaders.  I think its more a change of heart, a 180 from the way we’re going, a respect of people’s worth to God and to each other, that’s needed.

However, the fundamentalism that I grew up in does have some strengths to offer.  We knew our Bibles - yes, it a very literalistic way, and yet we knew the stories and the ancestors and the teachings - they are in my mind and my psyche for the Spirit to use.  We might mock their literalism as shallow, but most of us don’t know our own faith texts as well.  We might see the devotional readings as sentimental - or perhaps too moralistic, or portraying a simplistic faith - yet how much time to we spend pondering the intersection of faith and life, how much time do we spend in prayer?  We might look down on the way evangelism has turned into buttonholing strangers and turning the idea of salvation into a personal fire escape from Hell, yet have we continued to develop ways to communicate our deepest truths in a way non-church people comprehend and find value in?  How often do we feel the conviction about our behaviors and seek to amend our ways?  And with ardor and passion long for God?  Do we fervently seek to put into practice what we read of God’s will?  Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, working for justice for the powerless?  Seeking resolution for racism, or sexism, or elitism, or homophobia?  Seeking a lifestyle of simplicity, fighting the materialism of our era?  Working for the good of creation and care of this planet’s environment?  Fighting for a livable wage that honors both people and work?  

Have we retreated behind our walls, trusting for personal salvation at the cost of the rest of the world?  My friends, that is not Christianity. Are we laying up treasure in the world, or in heaven? 

This kind of questioning of ourselves and our practice of faith, this kind of examination of our practices - this is the housekeeping of preparation that John preached for the coming of the Christ. Hard questions.  Important questions, especially as we see the waning of the way we’ve done church for so long.  When I attended the 2nd training week for Transitional, or Interim Ministry, I was shocked at the number of stories of local congregations closing up shop. 

Its not all bad - people do join other congregations and live their faith there.  Some churches have voted to sell their buildings and rid themselves of the expense, in order to build affordable housing or do other ministries, while worshipping in a rented space. Individual  churches seem to have a lifespan.  I’ve been to final worship services in closing churches, where they celebrated donating their church organ, communion services and remaining monies to new church plants. 

But by and large, an era is closing, where the “if you build it they will come” view of local churches succeeded.  I don’t have a vision of what comes next - sometimes I see my generation of preachers as bridges to the next form of Christian faith and practice, standing in the gap as one way fades and another emerges.  I want to be open to the future that God will bring in, not stand in its way.  I want to believe that there is resurrection for the church.  Like John the Baptizer, I am looking to the ones coming after me to lead the way - if that’s so, then, like John the Baptizer, I need to be about cleaning house, calling for a deep cleaning among those that profess faith to prepare the way. 

So the Scripture brings us a challenge today, as a part of our preparation, as the Advent of Christ comes nearer.  What needs to be cleaned up in me?  What needs to be set right in the church?  Ask the hard questions, seek the answers - and make the 180 where it needs to be made.  AMEN.

Preparing for Christmas: Close, ..... Advent 2C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Preparing for Christmas: Close,….

12/9/2018     Advent 2-C      

            The word “ADVENT” isn’t used much in common speech - its a kind of churchy word, or a more formal-sounding word.  If we spoke in a formal kind of way about our Grammy coming to visit, we might say that, “I’m looking forward to Grammy’s advent.” That’s what the word advent means…  If we were writing a paper about technology, we might comment on the advent of the television, or the advent of the internet.  A synonym might be the arrival, or appearance, or emergence of a period or a person.

The Church calendar calls these Sundays before we celebrate Christ’s actual nativity, the season of Advent, a time of looking towards, and preparing for Christ’s arrival.  Our lectionary readings during Advent have to do with Jesus’ birth as well as the arrival of Christ at the end of times - the two can get rather mixed in prophecy.  Preparing for Christ’s arrival, however or whenever, is perhaps the shortest way to describe the meaning. 

  For those of us who already worship Christ, who already seek to follow and serve Christ, who already seek to live according Christ’s good news of the realm of God- what does this preparing mean?  Christ is already with us, filling our hearts and minds and imaginations - we’ve already made Christ welcome. 

Of  course, as much as we’ve welcomed Christ to our life, or opened our life to God, or as much as we’ve answered yes when God sound and found us (to be more theologically correct), there is always more. As we live with Christ, we discover more closed doors and secret places in ourselves, more longings in ourselves that are not yet open to God.   We aren’t ever totally transformed into the image of Christ Jesus.  St Teresa of Avila spoke of the inner journey of following Christ as one of exploring a great castle, starting with the grounds just inside the wall, then hearing the voice of God calling us into the next room which is bigger inside than out; then the next room, and so on and so on - closer and closer, more and more depth, more and more lost in love.  As long as we live, Christ can continue calling us closer.

            Our growing relationship with God is the same kind of thing with the coming of the kindom of God, the realm of Christ, which has both come into the world through Jesus Christ, and yet is still coming into the world as we live out the good news, and one day will be here in full. So its both here, and coming. At the same time.

            Now that’s confusing at first.  In attempting to find a good analogy, I once looked to my garden and the yellow squash plants. I planted a flat seed in the ground, and watched as a little spout came up with its split seed carried on a stem; then its first true leaves.   Now, already, at this point, it IS a squash plant, right?  It could be sold at the garden center at this point, with the label yellow squash.  ts not fully leafed out, nor flowered, nor been pollinated, nor grown a yellow squash - but it (IS already a squash plant.  It is both a squash plant now, with the promise of being more of a squash plant in the future. Then it puts out all those large leaves as it takes in the sun’s energy and grows; then comes the day when buds appear, and then the flowers open.  Some of those flowers, with the right pollination, will start to grow little yellow squashes.  And more yellow squashes.  And then more yellow squashes than we know what to do with.  The stem coming out of the ground gets thick, and turns this way or that.  All the time its a squash plant, however, from when it first emerges until it comes to fruition and fulfills its purpose. 

            So the realm of God came in Christ Jesus, grows with the addition of all who believe, and is not yet what it will be.  So as we have Christ in our heart, we then deepen our faithfulness as we live through life with God, and yet Christ is still calling us on to what we will be in the future. 

            We have to keep an eye on our squash plants - there are a bunch of molds and insects that can damage, even kill them.  And they need water and sun; fertilizer can help, too, if the ground isn’t great.  Now that honey bees have become endangered, I’ve read about people going out with paint brushes, and transferring pollen by hand from the pollen flowers to the bearing flowers.  So there is still attention that needs to be paid, and preparations made for the squashes to grow.  The same with our life following Christ, and growing in the realm of God.   So there is still the promise of more; even though we have opened ourselves and our lives to Christ, we still have preparations to welcome Christ even more fully.

St Teresa of Avila, that I mentioned earlier, says that it is Christ who calls to us from the future, and calls us into the next room of the castle, as she calls the journey of faith.  It is God’s Spirit who creates that longing in our soul for more depth, more understanding, more service, more depth.  We may initially feel this as a restlessness or disquiet. A friend of mine called me recently to talk of an urge to look at seminary, something that has occurred to her off and on over the last year - and since she has a career in music that she loves, and even does music for her church, this has bugged her and not gone away.  Not that she saw herself preaching, she quickly added - its not so much that she feels a call to ministry - its more like wanting to dig deeper into the Bible, and to be able to help those who asked her questions.  She is feeling that tug towards going further with her faith; a step deeper wooing her, in the language of spirituality. Christ is calling. 

For me, its been what I call “following my nose” - something I hear about or read about intrigues me, and seems inviting to me, seems to offer answers or insights for my questions - I have to go explore it and find what this next thing God is calling to me from.  For example, when I was doing a youth ministry after college, the pastor there told me that the Presbyterians had women at their seminary, and was ordaining them.  I was intrigued - as a young woman, I was taught  that only men were preachers, although women did a lot as missionaries, and often led music programs.  That’s where I assumed I was headed.  But here was an opportunity to study the Bible more, and test that odd idea that I might be called to ministry among those Presbyterians about whom I knew only a little.  I had met some Presbyterians, and they seemed okay faith-wise.  So I decided to give it a year and see what happened. 

While at seminary, I was intrigued by the worship professor who, along with his spouse, led silent reflective retreats.  I took a class with him, and learned about the ancient art of soul friends, or spiritual direction. I did a silent retreat with the class, and experienced prayer in a deeper way than I had.  I decided that when I graduated, I would seek a spiritual director.  So I did; then did a training course, where I heard about something else, followed my nose to that and got a D. Min. 

Some growth experiences were more like rabbit holes that I tripped in, and fell, like Alice in Wonderland, to a far land - a land of grief, loss and emptiness.  So far, these have also turned out, after a time of grieving, to be further rooms in that castle of the soul with God.  So the journey is not really in our own hands to direct….God is calling, and sometimes God’s ways are not our ways.  Malachi’s text asks, “Who can endure the days of the messenger’s advent?  Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refining fire…”   Sometimes the next room of the castle is this kind of place - a place of examination of buried motives, and letting the light of God shine on our places of wrong decisions, or festering hurts. 

You know, as we talk about it, John the Baptist’s quotes from the Hebrew Scripture are apt - valleys filled in, and mountains brought low - we are healed in some places and humbled in others - but the whole point is to make a way for Christ into our life, a way that is level and straight, a way that welcomes and is made ready.   And God’s Spirit is the one who does the road building. 

When the Spirit moves us to look more deeply into Scripture, then there is something in there for us.  When the Spirit nudges us to make our prayer life more important, there is something going on that is from God.  When we finally give in to being healed of an addiction, God is calling.  When we realize we need to quit a practice we know is wrong, that is the Spirit. When we find ourselves coming to church seeking for something - we aren’t sure what, but somehow we’ve been drawn here - that is God calling.  And in all of these, we are preparing for Christ’s Advent, Christ’s birth in a new way in our lives.

Rather than try and resist, let us recognize that God is calling us to a new thing, a deeper faith, a deeper understanding, a renewed commitment - whatever it is, it is important to prepare the way for Christ.  In this season, may we feel the working of the Spirit building a road into our hearts, and like Mary, say “Yes.” AMEN.

Not the Kind of King You Might Think 11/25/18 Christ the King B

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Not the Kind of King You Might Think

Nov 25, 2019              John 13:33-37             Christ the King B

            I’m going to say a word in a moment, and I want each of us to pay attention to our imagination, and what picture comes to your mind.  OKAY?  You are going to have an immediate picture of what this word conjures up for you - everyone understand?  Okay, here goes - CHAIR.  The word is CHAIR.  You have your immediate picture? Okay- how many of you saw your favorite TV-watching chair?  Hands up, please!  Is it a recliner?  Does it swivel?  Does it have a place for holding a cup?  How many visualized a table chair?  Does it have arms? Is it black?  Brown?  Does it have those shaped dowels in the back?  Does it have a hard seat?  A covered one?  Since we’re in a church, did anyone see a pew? Did anyone see a poolside chair?  How about a throne?  A rocker?   A folding chair like in our Fellowship Hall? A weird modern chair?  A rock or stump to sit on in the woods?  One of those kneeling things that are supposed to help your back?  Is it a comfortable chair?  Or does it just match the table or the sofa?  I’ve heard chairs described as a 10 minute chair - that is, its uncomfortable on purpose so the person won’t stay long.  Some chairs are too high up for some legs; some you feel like you’re almost sitting on the ground.  Some hit your back funny. 

            You probably already got my point - we have many experiences and associations with the word ‘chair’. If I were to talk about my favorite chair, I would have to get rather specific about what I mean. Otherwise, we would each be making assumptions about it, based on chairs we know. 

            So today, the last Sunday of our church year, is called Christ the King. The word I want us to ponder is the word ‘King.’ What associations and experiences do we bring to the word ‘king’?  Do we get a mental image of paintings of Henry VIII?  Large, richly dressed, dressed in a long past style, a man who broke with both the roman church and the Protestant church and made up his own Anglican church?  A man who claimed an annulment from one wife to marry another, only to behead her 3 years later for yet another wife? 

            Do we perhaps, since we’re in church, think of the kings of Israel, like David - the youngest son who was raised to King, who fought a rather strange battle in the wilderness with King Saul, who raised armies and fought other peoples in the land around his, the man who was able to successfully return the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, but couldn’t build the Temple? Did we think of that mythical King Arthur and the legends of the round Table, and the Knights and their quests?  Did we think of the Lord of the Rings stories, and the various Kings of Middle Earth, especially Aragorn of Arathorn?

            I could name some generalities of our images - King are male, for one.  Its a word that implies a gender.  Usually kings are leaders of countries; often in history Kings led armies into battles, and the legends around Kings are that they are mighty warriors and wielder of weapons,  defending their people and keeping their borders safe.  And sometimes expanding their borders…

            When we think of Christ as a King, are those the characteristics we automatically attribute?  There is a lot in scripture that attributes the attributes of a good and worthy King to the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ of God.  And the Revelation to John certainly carries this imagery of earthly kings in battles and triumphant. 

            The text we read from John’s gospel today reminds us that religious language tries to put in words those things that are often not quite equal to our limited words, and tries to use words to capture things of God that can’t really be captured.  Religious language is often like using our finger to point to the moon - the moon is way beyond out finger; our finger is not the moon - it only points to the moon.  (I don’t know who first used this illustration, but its old.)  Just because we have to use the word King to try and capture how God creates, sustains, orders, and is greater than the creation, doesn’t mean that God is exactly like our human kings. 

            We have Jesus here before Pontius Pilate, who was like a regional governor of Judea under the Roman Emperor, which included keeping the peace with the conquered Jewish  inhabitants. The title “King of the Jews” has been thrown around about Jesus, and used as a reason to bring him before the secular authorities as an enemy of Rome.  The conversation between these two men is fascinating, the contrast of position and power, the contrast of human authority and God’s authority.  Despite Pilate’s questioning, Jesus never says “I am a King.”  He is not claiming an earthly kingdom that will literally fight to overthrow the forces of the Roman Empire.  Instead, he says, “My kingdom is not of this world.”  They are not talking on the same plane; they are talking apples and oranges, so to speak.   “You say I am a King,” Jesus says, “but this is why I came - to testify to the truth.” 

            I want to say that Jesus’ kingdom is a kingdom of the heart - more than a philosophical ideal because it is acted out and lived in real time, and on the real earth, in the midst of all kinds of other earthly-styled kingdoms.  In a way it is like a kingdom because we Christians have a deep loyalty, a trust in our heart of hearts, our minds, our very souls; we are pledged to God as the center of our being and meaning.  Its a kingdom without borders to protect - in fact, we don’t want walls to keep people out of God’s kingdom.  Borders are political things, arbitrarily drawn and defended by human systems of government.  It a kingdom of like-minded people that live anywhere and everywhere, and can be citizens of any political country they happen to live in, although our true country is God’s. So its like a kingdom in many respects. 

            Our General Assembly’s bible study this past year compared and contrasted the words and concepts of Kingdom and Kindom.  I first heard the term “kindom” years ago as a feminist attempt to avoid the gender-bearing word ‘King.’  I immediately liked it for the way it spoke of the community, the family of God, without hierarchy, yet in relationship with God and with each other.  And it reminded me of the native American concept of all created beings as “all my relations.”  Kindom also doesn’t carry the mental associations of only a royal bloodline of special people, nor the associations with wars and battles, with that win/lose set-up of trying to conquer the other. 

You might have noticed that I will intersperse Kingdom of God and kindom of God and realm of God, in order to offer different ways to enter the concept.  It seems to me that when believers have taken the concept of ‘kingdom’ too literally, it has led to literal wars and bloodshed trying to literally enforce God’s realm in the political sphere.  The crusades, for example, and all the current fighting between Israel and Palestine and everybody who wants to claim Jerusalem.  I do believe that we are to live by the ethics and precepts of the Scripture, and if we can spread these good ways of living, the better our countries will be for all people, which I think is what God desires.  I don’t believe we kill people to prove our way is right. 

So when we affirm Christ as King, when the scriptures talk of all enemies being beneath his feet, what do we mean?  It is a scriptural hope and confidence that Christ is the first, the leader, the one who shows the way, to this kingdom that is not of this world.  Christ is the first of a new creation, and the best - Scripture calls Christ the new adam, the first of the new, resurrected human, the first and foremost of the new realm of God.  And that doesn’t mean a far away place we’ve commonly referred to as heaven, a place we get to go if we’re good, some imagined future after we die.  The realm of God is now - Christ is already the first to open its doors, and those doors are opened to us who believe.  In fact, we probably ought to make it more plain when we tell people about God - when our hearts open to God, we become members of that same realm, that same kindom.  We become a new person, sharing in that resurrection of which Jesus is the first, and we metaphorically and spiritually become part of that realm where Christ is foremost.  Each of us here, believers in God and in the words and work of Jesus the Christ, are now part of a new reality, a new worldview, sisters and brothers with Jesus Christ as we work together in this world to bring the values of that realm into being here - thy will be done on earth as in heaven, we pray.  And we mean it.  Our allegiance is to this new realm, our actions and our disciplines are as loyal members of this realm that is of utmost value, and of which Christ is foremost. Other allegiances give way, fall to second place; other leaders, while good and even important, don’t measure up. In fact, other loyalties are called into question by that which is ultimate.

That, my friends, is the message of this last Sunday of the Christian year.  AMEN.

Birthpangs - The End Is Coming! 11/18/18 Pentecost 26B

Rev Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Birthpangs – The End Is Coming!

Nov 18, 2018         Pentecost 26-B              Mark 13:1-8

           

            I’m going to start today by talking a little about the church year, and how the church orders time.  We don’t follow the regular Jan-Dec calendar - our New Year starts in 3 weeks, with Advent, which this year starts Dec 2.  The church year starts in preparation for the Messiah or Christ, to come, then Jesus’ nativity.  We travel through Epiphany with the Wise Men and then Jesus’ baptism; a month or so later we begin the 40 days of preparation for our celebration of Jesus death and resurrection.  After commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, our whole summer and fall explore other themes of the Christian faith, and usually we emphasize one of the gospels = this year its been Mark. 

            We are now approaching the end of the Church Year, and the readings generally speak to the end of times, and then next week, our church year ends by celebrating that Christ reigns over all.  So, every year, our readings take us through the whole of the Christian story. 

Most denominations follow what’s called the Common Lectionary (lection = readings), on a three-year cycle that covers a major bit of the Bible.  Most churches and pastors have hangings and stoles in the designated color of that part of the cycle.  We’re at the end of green today, and next week is white.  I like using the assigned readings, mostly because it makes me work on a wider selection of Scriptures than just my favorite soap boxes!!!  And because the hardest part of preaching, for me, is to consider this priceless book and try to choose a part to preach on that’s meaningful.  That’s not to say that sometimes I don’t break out and preach something that’s on my heart, or do a series about something, or because the assigned texts just don’t speak to me that week. 

This week's’ reading from Mark about the end times is difficult for me, because so many people in Christianity go crazy over prophecy of about end times, the book of the Revelation to John.  You might remember that series of books about being Left Behind when all the saints are raptured up from the earth to heaven.  I was raised on that kind of fear, the fear of missing the Rapture and being left behind, and the terrorizing time of the Anti-Christ until, in our scenario, Christ returns to wipe out all the bad guys and set up peace.  All of our talk was highly speculative, as the book of the Revelation to John is like a dream sequence - some parts a scary dream, and other times a dream of peace and solace when God wins, but its dream-like and difficult to pin down. 

In today’s reading in Mark, Jesus refers to when everything is torn down, and his disciples ask questions about it, like when will it be and how will we know its coming?  Same questions we’d probably like to know the answers to, today.  To me, Jesus’ first answer is an insight about the fact that everything created is finite - everything passes.  The Roman Empire of Jesus’ time is gone.  The empires of the Hebrew scriptures are gone - Sumerian, Hittites, Pharaohs - they are all archeological dig sites now, with pieces of pottery in museums and dead languages carved in rocks. African cultures, South America cultures, the Mayans - all subjects if research and Doctoral theses.  All their wars, all their achievements, all their kings and queens, all their architectural accomplishments - all gone, fallen, covered with sand & dirt, and buried in history.  Cultures rose and fell before Jesus’ time, cultures of Jesus’ time fell, and new cultures rose; and that’s just the way it is.   If that’s a sign of the end of time, almost any generation could claim their era was approaching the end of time.  Our own culture will eventually fall and turn into ancient history, too, because everything finite passes.  We know this.  Our movies like Star Wars and Star Trek have tried to think about a better future; Mad Max and all the Terminator movies have looked towards destruction - yet with hope.   So that’s Jesus’ first answer to his disciples - everything will pass. Everything changes, no matter when you live.

To me, Jesus’ second answer could also apply to any decade before or since - that there would be wars and rumors of war, earthquakes, famines, people claiming to be the messiah - Every generation of preachers could claim that it applied to their era!!!  And have.  So its not really definitive of anything, either.  Any time period can be seen as approaching the end - maybe that’s the point! 

Jesus calls these thing like wars and famines and earthquakes, ‘birthpangs,’ an interesting choice of imagery.  He’s using the idea of childbirth, ie labor.  Ask some moms about labor and birthpangs…..its not like TV shows, where the very pregnant mom grabs her belly and groans hard, and the next shot is of her holding a cute infant in the hospital.  Let me tell you, the producers skipped like 12-24 hours of increasing pain there.  Maybe even a couple weeks or more, because practice contractions start pretty early, and even early labor can start so lightly that one doesn’t realize it - except that it must be getting nearer that approximate 9 months..  There can be lots of birthpangs before labor actually takes off.  And even after it takes off, it still takes time.  So far, since Jesus said these words that Mark quotes, birthpangs have been going on for 2000 years.  In childbirth, those birthpangs increase in time and intensity as the birth comes near.  I don’t know how we tell about the birthpangs of the end of time - we hear of more nowadays, but then, we have global news coverage and 24/7/365 online information.  We hear information from all the continents and all the countries within hours, if not minutes.  It FEELS like more disaster and more war, but who knows? 

So what’s a follower of Jesus to do?  The way Jesus talks about it, the signs are always all around us, so it could be anytime - whatever it is that will happen.  So Jesus and the apostle Paul say, be prepared!  Be living right!  Be following Jesus, because no one knows much of anything about how or when.  And meanwhile, finite things around us are always falling down and moving back into history. And our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren move forward into a new era.  The letter to the Hebrews, in the passage for today, is also about the Day when all Christ’s enemies are put under his feet an ending, but a positive one, as Christ wins. Therefore, we have hope - we should be bold in approaching God for forgiveness, keep our hearts true to the faith, hold fast to that hope;  don’t neglect meeting together, encourage each other….and I like this one - consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds;

Those are all good suggestions for the waiting period, which is every period…. - we are to keep our hearts true, which can be a struggle when 2000 years have passed already;  encourage one another, because its hard to keep living as a Christian with all the temptations around us; keep meeting together - ah, that’s one where we’ve been falling down as a larger community - embers go out more easily when they’re separated from the fire of others.  This waiting time we’re in is a marathon, friends, not a sprint, like early believers thought at first.  And its a a relay race marathon, too, with each generation running their long lap before handing off the baton - its easy to lose heart, lose vision - meeting together strengthens us all.  I like the line about ‘provoking’ one another to love and good works - usually I use the word ‘provoking’ about something annoying, or something that gets under my skin.  Used in this way, though, its about finding ways to pull out good works from one another, pull out or encouraging love on one another.  How DO we provoke these in each other?  That’s an interesting thought.  Maybe challenge each other?  Model for each other?  Correct each other?  Its worth pondering. 

Let’s go back to Jesus use of the word ‘birthpangs’ - and to the Hebrews passage about holding fast to our confession of the HOPE that is in us.  Birthpangs, of course, point to a birth! The point of labor is to birth the new life.  It can be a struggle, for sure.  It gets really painful, for sure.  It takes a lot of work, for sure.  Jesus uses the word ‘birthpangs’ for dire things like falling apart, wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes and famines - yet the choice of that word indicates a hope and trust that something new is coming out of all of this.

That’s the way a follower of Jesus can find any hope in all of this we see around us - the wars and rumors of wars, the shakings of the planet, the climate changes and famines - fearful things to endure - yet if these are birthpangs, then there is a birth coming, a new life coming; a life that we long for and hope for and trust in and prepare ourselves for.  We cannot give ourselves up to despair; we cannot escape into nihilism or collapse in meaninglessness.  We Christians, of all people, have hope.  We are the followers of Christ whose promised birth was fulfilled, who was killed, but then was raised in another new creation - a resurrection.  Friends, our God is the One who is Life itself.  There are all kinds of promises and images about this in Scripture - that the desert will bloom like a rose, that a shoot will come from the stump of Jesse, that a valley of bones was re-animated into a people.

Christianity is a faith where what looks like death is actually the beginning of a new chapter.  Naomi and Ruth, of the last few weeks’ readings, remember, the first chapter starts with all the deaths and moves - then the story goes from there.  Jesus is killed, yet is raised, and the story of the church goes on from there.  This is a spiritual truth.  God, the creator of life, recreates and births new life. 

This truth of God as Life is embedded into the creation God placed us in as well.  Albert Einstein realized a truth of the universe, as he posits that energy cannot be created or die - it just changes form.  Fascinating connection, isn’t it?  We see it in smaller forms in the cycles of seasons, or in the chrysalis of the butterfly or other creatures that die in one form and re-emerge in another.  These aren’t resurrections, although they can evoke the nature of God as one who re-imagines and recreates life even in death.

So the truth that Jesus teaches today is that we live in a time of birthpangs, a time of labor towards something to be born.  We are moving towards the day of the Lord, albeit more slowly than we can perceive.  I guess I could use the word ‘Interim’ or ‘transitional,’ like a between-time.  We learn and practice our faith in the hope that the realm of God is near, and is even now in our hearts.  So have hope; trust in God.  Keep meeting together to encourage each other, and ponder how to provoke one another to love and good works.  Hold on to the faith.  AMEN.

Sister Jose's Dad Buys Ice Cream 11/11/18 Pentecost 25B

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Sister Jose’s Dad Buys Ice Cream

Nov 11, 2018         Pentecost 25-B             Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17  &  Mark 12: 38-44

            I was blessed to meet Sister Jose Hobday when I was working on my D Min in CA.  Raised on a reservation in a family that had converted to Christianity through Roman Catholic missions, she took on a religious life as a young woman. However, she never forgot her Native American roots, and was a powerful teacher, powerful…..she taught using her stories, and incorporating the wisdom and ceremonies of her Native tradition.  It was a privilege to be in her class and her presence.  My sermon title comes from a story that sticks in my memory because it made me question and think.

One day, she says, in her poor and struggling family, they were down to their last few dollars with bills still to pay.  She heard her parents debating which bill to pay with their last dollars, and getting angrier as they debated which bill was more important. Finally, there was silence, and then she heard her father say that he didn’t like it that they were fighting over dollars, & that their voices were raised in anger over bills- this was not helping the family.  SO…. he was taking the remaining dollars and buying ice cream enough for the whole extended family; her mother was to invite people over, have a celebration.  So that’s what they did. 

I couldn’t understand the story – the first thing I resalized was that I’ve never been poor enough to understand.  I’ve had some hard, hard years raising my children as a single mom, even with regular child support from their dad.  We were both pastors, so it wasn’t like child support was based on a large salary.  And I was just working part-time at first; and while I scrambled to find more work, we qualified for free lunches and breakfasts at the kids’ elementary school.  I made too much to qualify for government assistance, but not enough to be easy.  I had to apportion the dollars carefully, and saved coins in a mayo jar that we used for a treat when I was out of money otherwise.  So I did understand the need for a treat - a treat raised our spirits when we were coping with a pair of sneaker with holes in the toes. We did the buy-one get-one deals, sales, thrift stores and coupons.  The worst thing I did was to send my kids to their grandparent’s house once with their worst clothes, hoping the grandparents would spring for some new clothes when they saw the state of things.  They did, but not as much as I’d hoped. 

But we always had a roof, we always had clothes & shoes, and we always had food, and welcomed their friends to our table, even if it was leftovers.  We had medical insurance so we could go to the doctor. I had enough to pay bills, although I prayed for no crises to happen.  I actually had great credit, and more offers coming in the mails regularly.  Since I managed to pay the bills, all the companies wanted me to go in debt to them…..

So I still don’t understand the level of poverty that Sister Jose lived in on the reservation, although I know how good it feels to have just a small treat when things are pinched all over.   I can’t imagine not being able to pay bills, or the stress and angst of the family as they tried to muddle through.  But I could just stretch my mind enough to understand Sister Jose’s father not wanting the family fighting and bogged down over this never-ending drama of bills due; I could just barely imagine how he felt to see the rancor and disintegration in his family all over money, and the lack of celebration of life.  

I also get the ice cream thing.  My mom’s family passed along to us a love of ice cream - after all, her dad’s name was Howard Johnson, although not the rich one!  Grandpa Howard, whom I never met, was a coal miner and a staunch union man during the Great Depression, and worked his hands to the bone. Yet on the 4th of July he’d go up to the store and get everyone in the family their own pint of ice cream in their favorite flavor.  My mom had great memories of sitting on the porch with a whole pint to herself.  So we had ice cream every Sunday after church, stopping at those old High’s Ice Cream stores and everybody getting one scoop. The first thing I did after the kids and I moved into our house without their dad, was to get ice cream for supper. 

When I approached the text in Mark, I made the mistake of wondering why it seemed to have two unrelated parts - the uppity scribes part and then the widow's’ mite part.  After studying, I realized that these 2 parts were connected, and had to rethink things.  Jesus is both contrasting the religious practice of the rich and the poor; and he is also showing the relationship of one person’s poverty to the wealth of others - a negative connection, but a connection all the same.  Jesus observes the religious higher-ups walking around in their own self-importance, knowing that they got that way through what he called “devouring widows’ houses.”  That is, taking advantage of the poor and powerless, demanding temple taxes on top of the unjust and increasingly punitive civil taxes people paid to Rome, finagling things that took advantage of the poorer folks who had no standing. The scribes evidently liked to be seen making large donations (with their names attached) and praying long, pompous prayers.  Jesus saw that the reason they could make those large donations was because the poor, like widows and orphans in that day, who had no power or voice, funded them…. Jesus judged that their wealth often came from gouging the pockets of the disenfranchised, or at least was augmented by these pretty much invisible people.  

Jesus, on the other hand, also observes the widow coming to give.  Evidently, the poor didn’t have to also make voluntary offerings in addition to taxes, but she came and did it.  I hear Jesus calling attention to two things (at least).  One, she was in the position of only having a couple coins left because of the injustice of the system, and those who benefitted from it.  With no men in her family to take her in, she was a marginal person, and the system did not work for her.  And two, she still wanted to give - its what made her human, what gave her dignity, despite it being her last coins. While those desiring attention gave large gifts that they didn’t need in order to keep up their lifestyles; she gave an extremely small gift that was, still, all she had.  What could she buy, anyway, with those small coins? Enough bread for one meal? I don’t know - but she decided it wasn’t worth arguing with herself over the best use of the last coins, and gave it to God.  That’s what reminded me of Sister Jose’s dad and the ice cream. 

When I worked in hunger ministry for a former presbytery, I had to give out two awards for our hunger giving.  We were doing a program called 2 cents a Meal, where folks in our churches were encouraged to give, yes, 2 cents towards hunger for every meal they ate.  Of course the largest offerings came from the largest churches with the most people.  But we also gave a second award, for the largest per-capita giving, which ALWAYS went to a small church.  Maybe because they knew what hunger was?  Maybe because they almost all gave?  I don’t know - it always worked out that way, though.  Even poor people want to give, and do their part of being compassionate humans.  That’s actually the origin of the Least Coin offering that our Presbyterian Women take up, and fund projects all over the world.  It started with a woman in Florida who didn’t have much, but who realized if we all added our least coins together, we could do something for God’s kindom. 

So this text is an economic commentary, and not just about stewardship, which is usually why its preached.  It goes along with the background of today’s reading from Ruth, and the practice of gleaning.  To help the poor under the Jewish Law, land-owners were not to gather all the way to the edges of their fields, and perhaps let the smaller fruits or grains slip through.  Folks with no fields of their own could come behind them and gather what they could.  Ruth went to glean in the fields owned by Boaz, who was evidently a righteous man who followed the practices of the Law. 

We might note that Jesus is equally aware of both the influential and the powerless.  Jesus is aware of human economics, and the way the system works for some and not for others.  Yes, there are people who take advantage of the system from either side - who know how to work it.  Yet there are many more who are simply its victims, born into countries of massive inequality, or families that have been on the fragile spiral of living week to week, where it only takes one tragedy to throw them into homelessness.   For Jesus, and for Jesus’ kindom, the answers are a compassion and caring where the abundance on one hand can bless the need on the other hand.  None of us are intrinsically worth more to God than another; none of us merit more from God than another.  We are one tribe, one humanity, on one planet - and the goal is for all of us to be well. 

I admit that’s a tricky balance to strike - there are those who are manipulative and greedy, and those who are lazy and shiftless.  In between are all the rest of us who are seeking to do well enough considering the circumstances of our birth, and willing to work.  There are the creative as well as the worker bees.  The apostle Paul talks of this artificial economic divide between believers, and chides those non-workers who come early to agape feasts to gorge and get drunk, making those hungry workers who come later, find the table empty.  And he challenges congregations that have extra to give generously for other congregations who are suffering persecution. 

Do we see how the scribes and the widow are connected, albeit inversely?  Can we see the way world economics that make for some to get wealthy also makes for others to be thrown into abject poverty?  Jesus observes the results of sin and lack of compassion just in that square in front of the Temple, a small picture of a large disorder. 

Jesus can have this kind of economic outlook because the kindom of God is different from the ways we’ve done things on our own - Jesus calls for each of us to see the other as our kin, our extended family, important strands in the web of humankind.  To call it robbing the rich to give to the poor is to miss the point of our kinship with one another, and our compassion for our own kind.  In Jesus’ kindom, we all need each other, and we all have to do well for humanity to do well.  Actually, its the only way humanity will do well - and it that sense, it is the way of our salvation. Its not Robin Hood, and its not socialism - it is, however, the love of God in each heart, loving each other. 

I guess I’ve been trying to figure out my feelings and thoughts brought up by this caravan walking up through Mexico to seek asylum here. I find myself understanding the fear that too many more hands in America’s pot might threaten my portion - the cookie may have to be divided and my part get smaller.  I want to hold on to what I have, and I find myself thinking, “They oughta work this out in their country like we did.”  Well, as our ancestors did, because being born here was certainly none of my own doing.  And our ancestors were not sinless in their eradication of the native peoples, the enslavement of others to their own economic ends in the pursuit of their own good and greed. 

I also see the pictures of the people walking, as well as the testimony of people like Rev Lisa about those seeking to get into Europe - I hear the conditions they are fleeing, I hear their desire for their families to be safe and have hope of a better future with the kind of healthcare and possibilities of education that we have.  So I have compassion - they are my sisters and brothers, my children and grandchildren, my aunts and uncles.  I mean, my people came here from Germany for the same ideals - just a few generations earlier, is all. 

Can it work?  Given what I hear in the scriptures, I have to work for that vision of the kindom, even if it means I learn to live with less. Our denomination, in its justice ministries, is already reaching out in compassion to refugees, and advocating for decent treatment. Just look around on our PCUSA website and see the outpouring of love and care already happening.  A lot of my personal feelings and thoughts are based in my view of the kindom that Jesus preached.  I think many people are feeling attacked in their own sense of worth and security - what has been called “lifeboat” ethics - push the extras out so we who are already in the lifeboat don’t get swamped.  But that’s a viewpoint based on fear, not trust.  That’s a viewpoint based on the myth of scarcity, that there’s not enough to go around so I better grab mine and hang on to it. 

And what do those attitudes do to our souls?  That’s what I hear Jesus posing to us in today’s reading.  How can we live with trust in God’s abundance?  How can we live so as not to damage our souls in discriminating, or in greediness?  How can we live with  the open hearts and open hands that God has shown to us?  How can we walk in the love and compassion that God has for us?  These are important questions - they were important in Jesus’ time and they are important in our time.  May God so work that love and creativity and new life in us, that it overflows to the world.  AMEN.