Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Is, Was, & Will Be

Revelation 1:4-8
Christ the King Sunday 

Today is Christ the King Sunday.  I’m not going to lie, it’s a celebration I tend to overthink; I do it every year.  Culturally speaking, we don’t really know what to do with royalty.  So every year I ask myself the same questions: how do I understand what it means to have a king in a democratic society?  What does a king actually do?  How is Christ’s rule different from other authorities?  

And again, I asked myself these same questions twelve months ago, but that was twelve months ago!  How am I supposed to remember what I overthought a year ago?  

So on the one hand, it’s enough to make one wonder, “Maybe I should think about this more than once a year.  Maybe I forget the meaning of keeping Jesus as my true ruler because one day a year is not the kind of devotion my king requires of me.  Maybe, to call Christ our one True King, means that he is the king of everything: all that we have, all that we do, all that we say, all that we think; even our very lives.”  

But on the other hand, maybe it doesn’t matter.  Maybe, the kingship of Jesus means that it isn’t about me at all.  Maybe Jesus is going to be the King of Kings whether I remember it or not.  Maybe, Christ the King Sunday is less about my remembering that he is king and more about remembering what kind of king he is and was and always will be.  

I think that one of my biggest problems in understanding Jesus as my King is that I don’t tend to have a healthy respect for authority to start with, especially when it comes to the government.  A long time ago I gave up having any political affiliation.  I did this for some good spiritual reasons but I also did it because I was just fed up with political parties; and they’ve only gotten worse.  Although most politicians use the name of Jesus for their own personal gain, I don’t think any party really embodies the heart of Jesus (and I don’t think any party ever will).  Needless to say, I don’t trust any of them.  When politicians use faith to gain power, they are no longer talking about the same Jesus I am.  

But that’s a bit beside the point.  The point is, I don’t think any of us really understands what it means to be ruled; we don’t know what it means to have a king, especially what it meant in Jesus’ day.  We are about to enter the season of Advent–the season of preparation for the coming of the Messiah–the time of preparation for the child born King of Kings.  We hold him up as the one anointed by God to be the savior of the world.  But do we really understand what that all means?  

“Christ the King” is an interesting and an important title.  Unlike most monarchies of our day, being a king really meant something in Jesus' day.  A king was the most powerful human being on earth.  In Jesus’ day, there was no room my kind of cynicism and distrust.  The king secured a nation’s order and peace.  The king was the embodiment of a nation’s identity.   He was honored, respected, and served; a king was revered, feared, and obeyed; or else.

But who, in our day, commands that kind of devotion?  In our society, the individual is king.  No one is better than us.  No one is ultimately more important than we are as individuals.  No one is worthy of our unquestioning obedience and our undying dedication.  We are our own kings.  

For me, that’s the most important reason to remember Jesus as king: to remember that I am not.  Me being king, even of myself, is a really bad idea.  It’s a bad idea because I don’t love myself nearly as much as Jesus does.  

There were a couple reasons why I was drawn to this Scripture lesson today.  The first being the sheer grandeur of John’s description of the God he serves: “Him who is and who was and who is to come… and Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” That is the humbling reminder that we all need to hear from time to time.  We tend to think that we can be kings of our lives just fine, but John reminds us that Jesus can do it better every time.  

But even more than that, this same king is the one, “who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” Amen?  

As I already pointed out: we’re about to enter the Advent Season.  As we anticipate the coming of Jesus, I love that we do it first remembering that the one we wait for is the King of Kings.  This one who is and was and is to come, is also the same one who came into this world in humility.  This King of kings, who is most highly exalted, is the also the one who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood.  That is a remarkable thought.  That is our king, and the kingdom he calls us to is shaped by that same humility and self-sacrifice.  

Notice where and when that kingdom exists.  John draws us to cast our gaze into the future when our Savior will return, but that’s not when and where the kingdom starts.  John reminds us that Jesus has already “made us to be a kingdom.”  Not to wait for a coming kingdom; not to live in some place called a kingdom; but to be that very kingdom.  The fancy, seminary word for it is “incarnation,” which really just means “to embody.”  We are to embody the spirit of our Savior; we are to embody his kingdom in the ways we live our lives.  We embody our king, much like the way he took on our form and embodied our humanity.  And we’re meant to do it here and now.  

Last Sunday I told you a little about the conference I went to.  I told you about the “rule of life” it helped me design: meaning that, rather than being ruled by life, in the many ways it comes at me, I came up with certain practices that help rule my life based on the things I actually value.  This is key, I think, to what it means to embody the kingdom of Jesus.  The kingdom is not just going to build itself.  Sure the Spirit will meet us and help it to grow in us, but you have to seek it too.  We have to develop practices that will help us embody the kingdom.  The good news is, I can help with that.

We did an exercise at the conference that helped us to determine what our core values were.  My top values, by far, all had to do with deepening and fostering relationships; that’s my thing.  And then it occurred to me that, as a church, deepening and fostering relationships is one of our top stated values too.  And then it occurred to me, maybe it’s not an accident that we share that value; maybe the Spirit had something to do with that.  And then it occurred to me that maybe it shouldn’t surprise me that much: deepening and fostering relationships was pretty central to the way Jesus did his ministry.  “Follow me,” he said; and his followers not only heard his words, but they watched what he did and got to know him more and more.  

So I had all these things occur to me all at once and then I thought of a practice.  It’s a practice I started doing a while back, but it occurred to me that I could invite you to do it too.  It’s a practice that will help you to embody the kingdom of Jesus and live into a shared core value.  And best of all, it’s easy and you’re going to love it.  

We’re going to start just during these next four weeks leading up to Christmas.  What you’re going to do is take one person a week from this church and intentionally get to know them better.  So between now and Christmas, you are going to deepen your relationship with four different people.  I guarantee you, there are new things you can learn about every single person in this church.  You can pick a time and place to meet up during the week or you can talk during Fellowship time; just do it on purpose. If you need conversation starters, I have a list of twenty questions that I stole from something else, but remember you are just deepening relationships.  

It may seem overly simple, but this is embodying the kingdom of our Savior; this practice does, in it’s own simple way, live out a value we share with our Risen Savior, and in so doing, we live out his rule in us.  

Heads Up

Mark 13:1-8
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let me begin by just saying thank you.  Thank you for letting me be gone last week.  I know that you are contractually obligated to allow me to take a certain number of Sundays off for continuing education, but this one was special.  I’ll talk a bit more about it later, but first: thank you.  

I’ve already thanked Cathy for stepping in to proclaim God’s word.  I hear good things—I always do, Cathy is my go-to person when I need to be gone on a Sunday; I do try to line up thoughtful and insightful preachers when I’m away.  

I don’t really know what she talked about; I told her that I was in a series on stewardship and we picked the text together, but she didn’t really tell me what she intended to say about it.  I understand she led you in a little a Capella singing.  Don’t get used to that.  Every pastor has their own unique skillset; that is not mine.  But anyway, I don’t really know what the point of her message was.  What I do know is: the point of this one is probably more important.  To be clear, not everything I have to say is more important than what Cathy has to say; it’s just that what Jesus has to say to us today, when it comes to our stewardship, is maybe the most important thing we need to hear.  Because today Jesus shows us where our giving goes.  Today Jesus reminds us to keep our focus on where our giving goes, because all our giving—whether it’s time or talent, or treasure—goes to the Kingdom of God.  But more than that, today Jesus shows us these things because we are really easily distracted.  

Our Scripture lesson today picks up exactly where it left off last week.  Like I said, I don’t exactly know where Cathy went with the text, but I know the story: while teaching in the Temple, Jesus and the disciples are hanging out in front of where the offering was collected.  They watched as rich people pulled up with wheelbarrows full of cash and then a poor widow clinked in a couple of coins that added up to a penny.  At this sight, Jesus points out that, to God, what the widow put in was worth more than the rest.  I’m starting to wish I was here last week because I would love to hear what Cathy did with that.  What a strange notion, right?  The thing about money is, it has value given to it.  For example, you may like the feel and weight of a quarter more than you do a paper dollar; but the dollar is still worth four times more than a quarter.  

Had I preached that sermon, the point I would come to is not so much about worth as it is about perspective.  Sure, her coins are always going to add up to a penny, but from God’s perspective they vastly more valuable because God cares about the reasons we give.  What Jesus was challenging his disciples to do was what he always challenges his followers to do: to look at things from God’s point of view; he challenges us, again and again, to see our world from the lens of the Kingdom of God.  And then today we hear a story that shows us that we will probably never stop learning this lesson.  

They end their time in the Temple, go outside, and they are immediately blind to God’s perspective.  An unnamed disciple looks around at the architecture of the Temple and says, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  He may as well have said, “Ooh, shiny!”  I can’t say I blame whichever disciple that was: I’m sure it was an impressive sight; especially considering it was probably one of the country-bumpkin Galileans who said it.  But the fact is, this is just the kind of thing they were just talking about inside.  Yes, it is an impressive sight.  Yes, a lot of time, and talent, and money went into this imposing structure.  But what do you think God thinks about all this?  Do you think God is impressed by it?  Do you think God says, “Wow, I wish I’d have thought to make this when I was putting together the entire universe”?  Or maybe God values so-called smaller gifts more.  Maybe those same gifts, used to build shelters for the destitute, would be more impressive to God.  Maybe some of the money used for this grand structure, from God’s perspective, might go farther to help out a widow who only had a penny go give.  

We are so easily distracted away from the perspective of God, aren’t we?  Jesus teaches us not to look at the value of a gift but to the reasons for the giving; then we walk outside and say, “Look how valuable this place must be.”  Maybe the most surprising thing in all of the Gospels is that Jesus never once says, “What were we just talking about?”  Don’t get me wrong, keeping our eyes on the Kingdom is no easy task.  We are easily led astray.  Politicians, celebrities, and preachers proclaim—in one way or another—“I am he!” and we follow right along.  We hear about wars and even rumors of wars and next thing you know, we’re stockpiling canned goods and bottled water.  Somehow we forget our Savior’s words: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes; there will be famines.  This is just the beginning.”  

I have to admit that Jesus gets a little scary in this part of the Gospel.  All of this End Times talk is hard for us to hear, but I don’t think Jesus is trying to scare us.  I think he’s just trying to refocus us.  More than End Times talk, this is big picture talk; Jesus is reminding us that there is a plan in all this that is that is bigger than all of those scary things.  

Here’s a fun-fact: what we read today is the start of the longest speech Jesus that gives in the entire Gospel of Mark.  This apocalyptic talk to his disciples is the most he has to say at one time in the entire book.  But I want you to hear how it ends: Jesus says, “And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”  The point of this comparatively epic End Times speech is simply to remind his followers to stay focused on what’s important.  

Many of you have asked how things went last week.  I was even asked a couple of times, “Did you have fun?”  “Fun” is not the word for it.  “Psycho-spiritual boot camp” is more like it.  It was challenging in a good way, it was transformational in even better ways, but it was not fun.  

I guess Cathy kind of explained a bit about the conference last week, but here’s my take on it: it was a conference for Presbyterian pastors to develop what they call a “rule of life.”  This means that after some difficult exploration of our individual values and gifts, we looked at our lives through life-lenses like vocation, physical health, finances, and emotional health.  I’ll talk more next week about how my personal rule of life impacts us as a church, but for this week, there is a simple truth I drew from the experience.  I never really thought much about many of the things I did in life.  Rather than living my life under a rule of life, I’ve often been ruled by life.  I’ve been as tossed around, worried, and distracted as anyone else most of the time.  The foundational truth I learned last week is that I can do better.  I can live a life of purpose more intentionally than I have been.  

God’s word to us today reminds us the same: we can do better; we are made and called to do better; the world around us needs us to do better.  Here together we are meant to lift our eyes above the struggles and distractions of this world, and not be brought down by them.  Here we are meant to lift one another’s gaze back to the Kingdom that has no end; we lift one another that we might lift the world’s gaze, one neighbor at a time.  

The stewardship lesson for us this morning is simply this: remember what we’re giving to; remember what we are living our lives for.  Today we remember, that as we give of our time and our talents and our money, we are building the Kingdom of God.  As we build this Eternal Kingdom in the world around us, let us not be distracted by it; but let us seek to see this world and our place in it from God’s perspective.  And let us encourage one another, in all things, to keep focused on the Kingdom we are building together.

Monday, November 5, 2018

Gr-Attitude

Psalm 146
31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

If you were with us last Sunday, then you will recall that we are in the midst of a series of sermons on the topic of stewardship.  I won’t quiz you today, I’ll just tell you.  I define stewardship as anything we do in response to the salvation we’ve received.  Sure, we’ll talk about money at some point, but we’ll also talk about the time you spend with those in need in Jesus’ name; we’ll talk about the kindness you show because of the kindness you’ve received; we’ll talk about the life we live as a gift of thanks to the Savior who has given us eternal life.

Last week we saw in the Son of Timaeus, that this response is mostly just following Jesus with joy.  As important as it is to seek to follow Jesus in all things, the attitude that leads us to follow, I believe, is equally important.  So today we look to the Bible’s songbook.  Today we look to Psalm 146 to remember that our life’s beginning and end is praise.  Today we remember that the stewardship of our money, and time, and talents isn’t born out of duty, it’s born of our grateful praise.  

I need sermons like this one sometimes.  Is that weird to say out loud?  I need the reminder to give God my thankful praise.  I’m hoping you need that reminder too, otherwise this message is just for me.  

I need this message because I am so richly blessed: I’m in relatively good health, I have a loving family, I have a great job, and I live in the best place on earth; but that doesn’t always mean I’m happy.  Have you ever noticed that?  In fact, sometimes it works the other way around: you eat the perfect steak and every other steak is then compared to it; your brother-in-law lets you drive his Tesla and then you have to drive your own dumb car back home; you go on a cruise and then you get home and no one is feeding you.  Gratitude does not automatically spring from having every good thing in the world.  It is a choice and it is a choice to set our eyes on where those good gifts come from.  

Psalm 146 identifies that source with the name "Lord."  We use that name so easily here that we forget that it’s actually a pretty complicated notion for us.  Tuesday is an elephant in this and every other room enter between now and then, right?  Today we need to remember not to put our trust in so-called princes, don’t we?  But that’s not the half of it.  Today we need to remember our True Lord; the Lord the psalmist was talking about.  

This Lord is the giver of both life and justice. The same God who "made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them" also gives "justice for the oppressed and food to the hungry.”  A Lord, not to be feared, but a Lord who sets the prisoners free, defends orphans and widows, and passes judgment against those who would abuse them.  I don’t care who you’re voting for on Tuesday, but I can guarantee you that they will fall short of our Lord.  If your politicians are the source of your happiness, you will be sad whether they are elected or not.  

But happy are those who put their trust in the eternal God who made heaven and earth. Our Lord, the maker of all things, intimately cares for us: our Lord opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down, and watches over the stranger and the orphan and the widow.  

Psalm 146 begins and ends with a call to praise because praise should be our beginning, our end, and our everything in between.  Our faithful stewardship is born, of course, out of God’s faithfulness; and our faithful stewardship begins and ends with praise.  And sure, we already have moments of praise; we have moments of sincere gratitude.  

I was at the Tuning Fork the other day (it seems I have a lot of Tuning Fork stories, don’t I?).  I was getting some work done, sipping some coffee, and sort-of minding my own business.  I say “sort-of” because it’s hard not to notice people.  I noticed a couple of women come in and sit down—and I promise I wasn’t listening in on their conversation—but I could tell the kind of conversation they were having.  They were having a get-to-know-ya conversation.  And I thought, “That’s what we need as a culture; we need to deepen our relationships with one another; we need to make new friends; we need to make better friends with old friends.”  And then I thought, “This simple coffee shop—because of what they are doing—is holy ground.”  So as I was leaving, I shared those thoughts with Tim, the owner; and he seemed to appreciate that I appreciated him and what he was doing.  

I had a moment of gratitude and it was nice.  It wasn’t my only moment of gratitude, which is also nice.  But the psalmist reminds us that, when it comes to the faithfulness of God, we are called to more than moments.  We are called to lead lives of praise, lives of gratitude.  To live that kind of life—to live a life of day in and day out praise—is a spiritual practice that won’t happen on accident.  It might just require our personal discipline and the support of the people gathered in this place. God brings good things into our lives every day, and we need to develop eyes of faith to see them.

And I know, there are also times when it is hard to praise God.  Some of you may know that I did an internship at the Crystal Cathedral when I was young.  It was a good experience, but I did not drink their Cool Aid, if you know what I mean.  To give you an example: once, when I was in their bookstore, I came across a Schuller book titled “The Be Happy Attitudes.”  I remember being a little embarrassed by the audible “ugh” I let out.  No, I’m not saying that every day is rainbows and unicorns; but we do always have reason for praise; we do always have reason for gratitude; we do always have reason to believe that, even in our lamenting, our Lord is a Lord of redeeming hope.  

Not all of the psalms are psalms of praise; there are psalms of lament as well because lament is a part of life too.  But often, those psalms are also psalms of transformation.  As we gather around this Table, perhaps it brings to mind that Jesus quoted one such psalm on the Cross.  Psalm 22, which begins with the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” ends with the praise, “Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.”  

Here at this Table, we remember where the depth of our gratitude comes from.  Here we remember that the God of All Creation, became one of us to show us the depth and breadth of that faithfulness and love.  

There’s an interesting thing happens at the end of the book of psalms: the last five Psalms, beginning with 146, are all a calls to worship.  It seems odd that this book—this collection of Israel’s worship music, as it were—should end with calls to worship; that is until you think about it.  When you think about it—when you think about vast, immeasurable love and faithfulness of God remembered here at this Table—when we leave this place, our grateful praise is just getting started!  

Let us learn together to recognize and remember the faithfulness of our Lord.  Let us seek to have an attitude of gratitude for all we have received, especially the gift of eternal life through our Risen Lord.  And let our lives be a joyful response to that gift in all we do and say.