Scripture: Luke 9:51-62
Often scripture hits us differently when we read them. One day we can read a passage and it seems to inspire us in a way that nothing else could. Another day the very same passage can cut us to the core, convicting us to change some aspect of our lives. It is interesting how scripture can do this. The Spirit behind the words written in the scripture can use the experiences and events throughout our lives to speak directly to our spirits. The Spirit teaches us how to be fit for the Kingdom.
This passage has hit me a couple of different ways this week. At times I have been stuck thinking about Samaria and their conflict with Israel. Samaria was the capital of the old Northern Kingdom of Israel. Samaria is similar in many ways to the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Judea. Both had a center of worship and both claimed to worship the same God. The difference is that they did things in different ways. If we were to look at it we would probably not see the difference, because they would seem to us as being inconsequential.
The first section of this passage speaks about Jesus making his way to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the center of the Jewish faith. All those that held to this religion saw this place as being the most holy of all holy places. For those in the Northern Kingdom Samaria was the center of faith and Jerusalem was just another city. The conflict was which was the holiest?
We often get caught in these types of struggles. The Samaritans would not allow Jesus and his companions to take refuge in their city for the night because they were going to Jerusalem, and the disciple of Jesus wanted to call fire down from the heavens because the Samaritans would not give proper respect to their Holy city. We could draw several parallels to this story today. Differing views of the world, different preferences and ideologies with people demanding the proper respect from others while not granting equal respect.
At times I identify with the disciples. When I meet people with no knowledge of my personal expression of faith I can get annoyed. I mean how many times do we really have to explain that Quakers are not extinct? On the opposing end how often I am like the people of the Samaritan city, not welcoming of people that view the world differently than I do. Jesus responds differently. He turns to walk to the next town. He being a child of Judea did not enter into the argument of which was better. In other places he actually rises above the conflict to a different plain, saying that the time has come where you will not worship on either mountain but in spirit and truth. He actually rebukes his own disciples for their opinions of the Samaritans because their behavior is not fit for the kingdom. Their opinions were distracting them from the truth the spirit was trying to convey to their hearts. Their opinions even though they are right in their own minds was keeping them from seeing the whole truth. And Jesus rebuked them, because their opinions are based on pride.
Jesus has rebuked me for responding like the sons of thunder for responding to things from my own logic, often I have been caught trying to manipulate and press my own personal views on to the world around me. The kingdom of God is not one of manipulation and power. This is the realm of the world’s to continue the conflict, because in the conflict they gain power and influence, and with that they can control the world around them. Unfortunately we all can get caught up in these things we get distracted from the kingdom.
They began to walk to the next town. I am sure that James and John were walking with their heads hanging low after being rebuked, but walking just the same. Someone comes up to them and says that he will follow Jesus wherever he goes. Followed two others. Each wishing to follow Jesus, to become his disciples, but each person has a distraction in their lives.
Jesus responds to each of them individually. The first Jesus says, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” This man wants to follow Jesus but at the suggestion of an unknown future the man quickly changes his tune. Worry about the future can distract. We have responsibilities, bills to pay, and families to feed if we were to drop everything to follow Jesus without knowing what the future would hold how could we live? A distraction, Jesus spoke about worry. He says that the flowers do not spin and the sparrows do not sew yet God clothes and feeds them. Worry distracts us from participating in the kingdom of God.
The next person is absorbed by his family’s legacy, saying that he first must bury his father before he can leave and follow Jesus. We often forget that first century culture is largely an agrarian society. Farms and businesses are passed on from one generation to the next. This particular man like the first is distracted by the security of the future. If he were to leave and follow Jesus what would happen to the family, would his inheritance go to someone else or would the family legacy simply disappear. He could not follow completely because in doing so he would potentially risk losing everything. Financial security, greed, and discontentment distract us from fully participating in the kingdom of God.
The third man comes to Jesus asking to be included in the group of disciples, but says first let me say farewell to those at my home. This person is consumed by his reputation. What others think about us can often direct how we make decisions. Jesus was a popular character even in Samaria and this man was applying for a position. He wanted to go back and tell everyone he knew that he was in. Often we our lives are governed by what others think of us, this distraction can cause us to make decisions based on how things affect our personal well being and our standing with or above others. It is a form of pride and pride distracts us from the kingdom of God.
We have three distractions that are keeping the characters of this story from participating fully on the kingdom of God: pride, greed, and worry. These distractions are forms of bondage that hold us from a life with God. But this is not what we were created for.
Mankind was created to share in the pleasure of God in His creation, to walk with Him in the cool of the evening as stewards of the garden of God’s delight. Sin enters our world when we as humans felt that we had to do more to earn God’s favor, but God loves us just as we are. We bind ourselves with pride, worry, and greed thinking if we subdue the world around us enough then we will earn our place by God’s side. Totally forgetting the fact that God did not desire this for us. Those are chains we have put on ourselves; chains of ideologies, theologies, careers, legacies, reputations, and countless other things. These distract us from the one that loves us and holds us back from being the people we were created to be. We make ourselves unfit for the kingdom of God.
God does not want our chains. He instead wants our freedom. He wants us to be free to be who and what he created us to be, but to do so we must let go of the chains. The last man that spoke to Jesus evoked a response from Jesus that was harsher than the others. “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Jesus is saying that we cannot keep looking back, we cannot keep doing things the way we have been doing things, we must move forward. I find it interesting that Jesus used agricultural terms to explain this. The act of plowing is preparing the ground so that it can produce a harvest. We must work the ground, nurture a relationship with Him, and allow it to grow. Abraham was blessed because he let go of the chains that bound him in Ur, and he followed God wherever He led, Israel followed Moses through the desert and were blessed, the prophets freely spoke the word from God and they gave us direction of how we can live a life of freedom, yet this was not enough. We as human bound the freedom up in laws and rules. Yes the laws are important but not to bind, instead the laws of God were given to free us from the bondage we put ourselves in. Moses wrote down the laws not to form a legalistic religion, but instead to provide a lifestyle that if participated in would lead to freedom and the joy of life with God. Yet we translated them into something far darker.
The nation of Israel split in two over the law, each side having a different interpretation and expression of faith, and the conflict only produced bondage in the people. Freedom comes only through living out two basic rules. Loving God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is like the first love your neighbor as yourself. Two basic rules complicated through our own forms of bondage. We choose not to love our neighbor because they choose not to accept our terms. We fail to love God with all our mind, because we would rather choose to fill our minds with other things. We choose not to love God because we would rather use our strengths to build up our careers and our reputations. Only to find ourselves where exactly? We choose to run our lives our own ways and we fail. We fight wars, we argue, we send bid, we sell only to fail again. It is not because we are not good enough for God’s blessing it is because we choose not to accept the very blessing that God has provided for us.
That is why Jesus came. Yes he came to provide freedom, to ransom us out of bondage and to grant us freedom in Him. He provides this by living His life for us. He came as a baby so that he could live a childhood for us. He grew as an adult and took on a trade with his earthly father Joseph so that he could live our career for us and with us. He hit mid life and made a complete transition into something totally different and he began to teach and minister to others for our own good for us again. He took on every aspect of our lives and he bore them each and he lifted them up on the cross taking the lives of bondage and sin and killing them and burying them in the ground for us. And He rose from the grave to give us hope of renewed life in him. He has already taken on our sins; he has already taken care of the things we feel we must continue to work on. They are already covered by His blood, and buried in the tomb. They do not have control over us if we were only to let go and follow him, tend the fields of our lives without looking back, and nurturing that relationship with him without caring about the distractions that formerly gripped us.
God came down to live among us, God gave Himself to free us, and God provides hope for us. We are not fit for the kingdom if we demand from Samaria that they pray at Jerusalem, or if we demand Jerusalem to pray at Samaria. We are not fit for the kingdom if we worry, or if we are consumed by greed. We are not fit for the kingdom if we hold on to our worldly reputations and look back. We are fit for the kingdom if we take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of in us. If we boldly live our life for and with him, and if we repent and live our lives loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and Living the Love of Christ with others. We do not need anything more than that.
As we enter this time of open worship and holy expectancy. I encourage you to look at what is distracting you from fully participating in a life with God in Christ. Is it worry? Is it finances? Is it you reputation with others? Is it you ideology or theology? These can become idols keeping us from the Spirit of Truth in Jesus, lay them down before the cross, let Jesus lift them out of your hand and lay them in the tomb, and let us embrace a restored life the life he wants you to have today. Let us allow the Spirit of God to make us fit for His kingdom.
Scripture: Luke 8:26-39
I’m sure we have all heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” Yeah I know it is a silly saying but it is a very true statement. Kids get this speech from their teachers in school, their parents at home, and their grandparents when they are supposed to be eating their broccoli. It is probably not a statement we expect to hear in church, at least not on a Sunday without a meal following worship.
The concept is filled with deep wisdom, because we consume multiple things. If we were to eat only a single type of food every day our bodies would rapidly deteriorate, we would be more susceptible to illnesses many of which could become fatal. To combat this nutritionists develop trendy ways to promote a balanced diet things like the food pyramid, the food groups, and various diet plans. I am not a nutritionist. If you would ask me what you should eat I would probably ask you how much money you had in your wallet and then suggest the nearest fast food restaurant. Consumption has many faces. We as humans consume not only food but also a whole host of products and services.
Consuming in and of itself is not wrong. Our nations economy is based on consuming. Without a constant demand for food, oil, transportation, and pretty much everything you can buy at our local retailers each of us would be impoverished. Yet again we are what we eat.
This passage is probably one of the most frightening passages in all of scripture. Just imagine for a moment how you would feel if you stepped off of a boat only to be greeted by a naked grim covered man. It is a situation that I would hope none of us would have to experience. Scripture tells us that an evil spirit, a concept that many of us may not be too comfortable, possessed this man. Our culture does one of two things with this, both being extreme. We either disregard the concept as being mental illness, something that today can easily be treated with various behavioral and pharmaceutical therapies. This idea totally negates the possibility of spiritual beings. The second concept is one that promotes evil spirits being behind every aspect of our lives, demons responsible for every vice we partake of. What then was wrong with this man?
There are several issues in this passage that can point the way too the roots of the issue. The first thing to remember is that the people of this community as well as this man, were all of the Jewish culture. Members of a culture have certain expectations. This community as a whole has fallen away from those cultural norms. For one they were raising swine. For us bacon lovers we tend to forget that producing bacon in a Jewish is about as wrong as growing Marijuana today. It is hard for us gentiles to consider bacon a drug, but the consumption of this substance was unlawful. This community has strayed from their roots. They as a community became focused on consumption and the profit that could be gained from it.
The community took a step away from their center. It is not unlikely that members of that community would begin to take more steps away. This man is living in the tombs, living with the dead. Death is unclean; those that spend time around death are not able to participate in the community. The community is marginalizing itself and within that community individuals have taken steps further.
We may not consider these little steps a big deal, but we are what we eat. With each step they consume more, their focus is reconfigured away from God and more on themselves. They become a consumer-based community. With each step they become more consumed by their own desires.
Consumption had taken hold of this man. He consumed until he lost his mind and his soul to the very things he sought to fulfill his desires. The ancient church gave a name to these activities calling them the seven deadly sins. The sins of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony are consumer-based sins. Each of these sins is present in consumer-based communities, each of these are present in all consumption-based cultures. It does not matter if it is a free market or not if there is consumption these sins can creep into the lives of those in the culture.
The scripture focuses in on a single man, but there is much more to the story. The entire community was consumed by sin. The man cried out in the presence of Jesus because the spirits of evil consumed him, and Jesus did not say a word. All he did was take a single step off of a boat and it sent this man into a violent rage. The man was not the only one with a reaction to Jesus; the entire community was in fear of Jesus. Were they all possessed?
Let us bring this closer to home. Each of us are members of a consumer-based culture. We live to fulfill the desires and urges we have. I could mention a word and probably upset ever person in this room, we get upset because that one word is the sin that we ourselves are consumed with. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony everyone has a hold of some area of our lives. For the corporatist we can easily say they are ruled by greed, for the socialist envy each is consumed by sin. How do we feel? Is pride creeping in as we pat ourselves on the back for not being one of those?
“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” the man cried out. We too cry that out when we sense judgment, but where is the judgment coming from? We are uncomfortable around holiness, because it shows us that we fall short of the standards God has set before us. We cry out and scream for the righteous to stop their judgment, they do not even have to say a word and we demand for them to stop. Why do we do that? Because we have justified our actions in our own minds, we have built philosophies and theologies around our own sin and claimed that it is right. We then judge those around us through those eyes. I am greedy and those that wish to take what is mine are wrong. I envy so those that have what I want are evil. I lust and if I cannot have what I desire I demand that no one can have it. These are the very things that have caused every war, all of poverty, and probably every argument. We each fall to these because we are human, and when we let consumption take hold and rule our lives we become a slave to it.
Yes a slave to greed, envy, lust and all. I see it every day. I watch people consumed by these very things, I listen to their justifications of their actions, and I see the devastation of their lives when they devote all they have to fulfill their desire and their addictions. And yes I have to say that the stories of the demon possessed man could fit right along side the stories I have at work every day.
Jesus did not initiate the conflict. We initiate it. We have become consumed by ourselves and when Jesus takes a step into our community we demand that he leaves us alone. But how does Jesus respond to this possessed man? He asked for the name. He did not look at the man and demand that he stop doing what he was doing, he met him where he was and asked for the name. He wanted to know the man, to know the deepest essence of who this man was, but we cannot be known when we are hiding behind our sin. When we are consumed and possessed with our sinfulness and rebellion we cannot be know or build a relationship with God because to do so we would have to let go.
The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the swineherd and to be left alone. Jesus gave them permission to leave the man. And all the community was in fear, because not only did they lose their incomes, they too were exposed. This man who was gripped by every sinful desire was left redeemed, the community found him clothed and in his right mind. Yet the community was still in fear, not only of Jesus but this man as well. He now was able to expose them, because there he was restored.
We are all gripped by sin, we may not realize just how much or where that sin is affecting us, but we are gripped all the same. If we get upset at an idea that is different than our own we are being controlled by something other than the Spirit of God. This is why Friends have their queries, why the prayer of examine was developed by the religious orders, this is why the spiritual disciplines were explored by those that seek God. It is through participating in these things that we with the Spirit of God can release the grip of sin in our lives. But it is a process. We are what we eat. We must feast on the things of righteousness and practice the ways of Christ.
Jesus gave this man a new life. He gave him a life where sin did not rule, a life where the voices of the evil ones were quieted by the overpowering voice of the Spirit of God. The man wanted to follow Jesus wherever he went, but Jesus did a remarkable thing for this man, he told him to stay where he was. This man had experienced something, was changed, and Jesus told him that the greatest service that he could do for God is to stay right where he was to live and teach among the people of his own community. Yes some are called to travel to foreign lands to spread the Gospel of Christ, but more are called to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom right where they are.
We each have a story of redemption to tell, a story of hope to proclaim to those around us. Each of us have had struggles in our own ways with the evil desires that want to consume us as we consume and fall victim of them. But in Christ we can overcome the evil one. We overcome by consuming the holiness of God, by living a life of prayer, worship and service. We overcome by turning from sin and living a life loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. We can become victors if we confess our struggles to God and turn from them, by developing a disciplined life of prayer, of study of scripture, and through helping others along their own paths. We beat our bodies to make them a slave to righteousness instead of sin, we press on to the goal set before us, we take hold of that which Christ has taken hold of in us, and we proclaim loudly in word and deed, “to live is Christ and to die is gain!”
As we enter into a time of open worship and holy expectancy imagine this passage imagine what you would feel like if you were there, imagine what you would feel like if you were the man sitting naked possessed by the demons that haunt him. Examine if you dare your own life and explore with Christ where sin has a grip on you. And let us call on Christ to release us from those sins and let them run down into the sea, let us let God take them from us so that we can live among our community proclaiming how God has helped us along our path of life.
Scripture: Luke 7:11-17
I do not know if you have noticed, but we live in a dark world. It is rare for our news programs to have good news. It almost seems as if reporters are looking for the touch of gray in every silver lining. I cannot blame the reporters; the problem is that we like to consume bad news. We thrive on it. I do not know why we do this. It seems as if we desire to see the devastation of others so that we can feel better about our own lives. Unfortunately this tends to lead us into an area of darkness as well.
We cannot read a passage that has much more darkness than today’s scripture. Jesus leaves Capernaum and goes into a town named Nain. In Capernaum Jesus said a word and healed the Centurion’s slave. Now in this new town Jesus is immediately faced with one of the most heart wrenching scenes there can be, a funeral procession.
This procession is not just a normal procession. This is a procession mourning the loss of the only son of a widow. We do not know the age of the man or his mother but I want us to consider something for a moment. First Luke tells us that he is a man. You may not think this is much, but it says quite a bit. We can know some things for sure; this man is over the age of 13, because this is the age that a boy is seen legally as a man in their culture. The next thing that I notice is that the only loved one mentioned is this man’s mother, there is not a wife or children, I may just be reading something into this that is not there but the lack of other loved ones alludes to the possibility that this man was a young man that had yet been married. Making this man a young man probably between the ages of 13-25ish.
Now let us focus on the mother. In the first century Jewish culture women were not as liberated as we know now. Their entire status in the community was attached to the men in their lives. Luke tells us that she is a widow. In the first century women would marry early in life, they are considered adults at the age of 12, and would marry soon after that. For women they move from their father’s house into the husband’s house. When a husband dies they are left in the care of their adult children, if they have them. Luke tells us that she only had one son. This one man had sole responsibility for the care of his mother, and he too died.
This is a very dark story. This woman has lost everything. This march to the cemetery is the last sure thing that she will know. Everything in her world has fallen apart. The place we find her in is a place of total hopelessness. She has lost her husband, her son, and her security.
Jesus meets her in this place. This woman is as low as a human can be, and Jesus sees her. Jesus sees her. Community is important to our spiritual and emotional wellbeing. We as humans cannot live to our fullest potential without community. But when we are griped with fear and hopelessness one of the first things we do is withdraw from the community. We begin to shut ourselves in and put on masks and build walls so that those around us cannot see just how hopeless our life has gotten. We want people to see us as strong and in control, because if they were to see us as vulnerable we fear rejection. Jesus sees this woman. Not as the strong woman that has it all together, but as she truly is. The hopeless widow who has no idea where or what to do next. He sees her, and he has compassion.
The one thing that we cannot have without a community is compassion. We need others around us in some degree to move through the rough times we face. We need friends to share the burden because without that the stress in out lives would break even the strongest of us. The community laughs with us and mourns with us; we share the joys and the sorrows. Jesus saw her and had compassion. He shared her sorrows, and he understood what was at the root of that pain. The risk of love is that the love we share will not be repaid.
Jesus saw her, had compassion for her, and spoke to her. “Do not weep.” From the woman’s perspective this is nearly a heartless thing to say. But Jesus can say this because he has seen her in her condition, and has had compassion. The platitudes we often share when we try to comfort others have little affect because often those expressing them do not see us where we are. They may have compassion, but their compassion misses the heart because they do not see where we are. I have been a recipient of these platitudes, many of us have, and unfortunately I have shared them as well. Jesus understood the great sorrow of love being shared only to have that love rejected or lost. He understands the emotions and the seemingly hopeless situations.
But He did not leave the woman in despair. He saw her, had compassion, spoke to her and he knew what the source of her hopelessness. She had nothing. Her husband died, leaving her a widow and her son an orphan. Now just when she was beginning to think that maybe her life seemed to turn around, and the floor drops again and her son dies. How can she not weep?
Jesus walked up to the bier, and said “Young man, I say to you, rise.” The man sat up and began to speak, and everyone there began to glorify God. They had heard stories about things such as this, stories of what the prophet Elijah had done for the widow in Zarephath. They had been waiting for a day such as this, the return of Elijah. And word spread rapidly about Jesus.
Jesus does not leave us with out hope. The Apostle Paul says in Romans, “…that all things work together for the good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) That verse is often used and can become a platitude. But just prior to this Paul says, “ …the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27) In our lowest point God knows what we need. He is working through the situation with us and for us, to bring Glory to him.
God is at work, even in the darkest times of our lives. God is working to bring things together for the good of those who love Him. We do not always see the good as we are walking through the valley of shadows, but even there a glimmer of light is present. God himself is groaning with sighs too deep for words, searching our hearts and knowing what our spirit needs to bring glory to him.
The passing of my sister brought great changes in my family’s life. We had to come together in ways we had not known, and good did come out of that. Her life had ended but through her other lives were extended. The great pain of losing a sibling urged my older sister into the vocation of counseling where she now encourages others to see each other where they are and to have compassion. That darkest day that I have lived through also drove me to explore life with God, which ultimately lead me to become a pastor. God worked things together for the good. Did it lessen the sting of loss, no but I know that God met me in that pain, and lifted my family and I out of it.
Each of us could tell stories of how God has helped us through dark days and how we came out on the other side. We can tell stories of healing and of sorrow, love lost and love gained, but in all of them I hope we can see God and glorify him.
We live in a culture that is drawn to the darkness because in that we can hide. We watch the news filled with scandals, lawsuits, tornados, hurricanes, and other terrible things. We cry out to God and we pray for His quick return. We feel as if we have nothing to offer, but we do. Through Jesus we can offer hope to the hopeless if we only open our eyes to see. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we can offer a world without hope, light. We do this by letting go. Letting go of our control over people and things, letting go of the grudges and pain, letting go of honor and pride. By letting those things go we allow God to replace it with something new.
Today we mourn with friends as they mourn the loss of a child. We see their pain and we have compassion. We mourn the loss of what could have been and a relationship we will never be able to nurture. We cannot express words to bring comfort. As we mourn we also rejoice because through Kimberly others have an opportunity live. We rejoice because through her donated organs those people may have an opportunity to honor and glorify God. Through her gift of life to another the Spirit of God could intercede in lives all around and a community may be restored and lives with out hope may see the light.
As we prepare for the time of open worship, the time where we as a community sit together to commune with each other and God in holy expectancy, and as we honor the life that brought hope to others. I want to read Psalm 30.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the pit. Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face’ I was dismayed. To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication: “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!” You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks forever.
We have hope because our God loves us enough to come live with us, to teach us how to live and how to live with others, He sacrificed himself to pay our debt, even while we still rejected his love and grace, and he rose again to give us hope and victory. And he ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us, and in that place we will know the fullness of life with God, that we only taste now. In that place we will again have fellowship with all the saints that have gone before us and all those saints that have yet been born.
As we center down on that great hope, let us remember those days we spent in the shadows and how even there God has been with us, and let us encourage one another to not dwell in the darkness but to dance in the light of Christ.