Fellow Pilgrims,
Moms demand respect, don't they? In the animal world, the mother moose is one of the most protective and deadly mothers in nature. Mess with her little ones, and she will make sure it is the last thing you or i would do. But mothers also have a way of making sure that not only are their kids safe, but that the world respects and honors her children, right? In the movie the "Goonies," the mother was the leader of the gang of robbers, and she was the most protective. She did all she could to ensure her kids, even though they were convicts, made a way in the world.
Moms demand respect.
So it shouldn't surprise anyone that Zebedee's sons find themselves standing before Jesus answering questions about whether they can or cannot face a life of pain, challenge, and persecution. In fact Jesus asks them, "Can you drink of the cup that i must drink of?" They answer with the affirmation they could. But how did they get there? Their mother, like any other good mother, goes to Jesus and asks Him to let her boys sit beside Him for eternity. Their mom has the audacity to implore Jesus for special treatment for her kids. Jesus doesn't rebuke her, because He knows the power of a mother's love, but He does ask the boys if they could face death.
They could, so they said. But Jesus isn't finished teaching.
A mother wants whats best for her children, and she asks Jesus what is natural. "Can you give my sons preferential treatment?" Jesus points to what is true about the world. The world wants the limelight. The world wants the best seats in the church. The world wants recognition for doing works. The world wants red carpet introduction. The world wants the right and left of Jesus in eternity.
But no so for Jesus and all who follow Him. For Jesus and all of Jesus' followers, throughout the history of humanity, we are to seek no limelight, great seats in the house, or even rewards for our good deeds. Instead we are supposed to lift up the less than, be servant of all, take a back seat to others, simply make strangers more important than ourselves.
Is this fair? Is this possible? Or yet another question comes to mind, why does it matter if we get the limelight? Attention? Rewards?
Because in the world it is all too easy and natural to make the work about us and focus on getting to the top, but in the process forget about the people God/Jesus seem to love most--the least of these. It is hard to work, care, minister, or love the least of these when we spend all of our time looking out for number one, staring at the mirror like Stuart Smalley, obsessing on how we can move ahead. When we are blinded to the plight of the other, we are guilty of a horrific sin: negligence. Negligence brings the wrath of Jesus. Ministry and acceptance and recognition of the other brings the applause and support and love of Jesus.
Which do we want? The world waits for our response.
Amen.
Shalom,
jerry
Friday, September 23, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
That's Not Fair! (Matthew 20: 1-16)
Dear Family,
We want life to be fair, don't we? If we work hard, we expect to payment commensurate to our labor, right? I mean we have unions to protect the wage and work environment for the laborers. We have federal guidelines that demand, at the most base level, that people earn 'minimum wage.' We go to school, earn degrees, and we, even pastors, have a 'scale' that we seek when we find our place of refuge/employment. We, in the words of Rob from "Jerry McGuire," want people to 'show me the money..."
And if life seems, at least at work, to not be fair, well we protest. Strike. Quit. Or any other numerous choices we make to ensure our voices of disgust are heard. I wonder though, what would we do if, like the owner of the field did in Jesus' parable, we got paid the same as someone who just came off the bus and barely got his/her hands dirty, while we had worked ourselves to the bone, all day, in the hot sun? What would our response be when the supervisor paid all of us the same, regardless of how long we worked or how hard we worked?
Would we protest? Never work for that boss again? Maybe join a union and declare a serious injustice and have the owner brought up on labor violations? Why would we do this? Because i sense, just like the whiners in the parable, that we have an inflated sense of self. We demand certain 'rights' regardless whether we actually deserve them or not. If we feel someone or something has injured or impeded those rights, we will shout from the mountaintops how unfair it must be.
But then we come to the second half of the parable: the owner asking, (in a paraphrase) why are yall complaining and whining? Didn't i pay you what we had agreed would be your day's wage? So whats with this complaining? And we would, with our chests puffed out, declare a serious injustice--we worked hard all day, these guys, the ones you just hired who havent even gotten their hands dirty, yeah they got paid the same as we did. Either pay us more or pay them less. We are better than they!
The owner just pays the days wage and shakes his/her head.
As i reflect on this parable, i can't help but wonder if we wont all have a huge eye opener when we meet Jesus at the gates. One of the biggest maturation elements of my faith is that i have come to realize that God is God, and i am not God. So if God, like the owner of the field, proves to be incredibly generous, gracious, merciful, accepting, why should i complain?
But what are the implications/repercussions of a God who is so merciful? Accepting? Gracious? Like the workers of the field, a parable about the Kingdom of God, what might we experience at the gates? If we get there and standing next to us is the skater punk who can't pull up his shorts and he always appeared out of it, maybe even on drugs, will we protest about the unfairness of his earning a pass into heaven? He wasted his life, we might say, why should he get in with us?
Or maybe the prostitute? Murderer? Child molester? Dr. Evil from "Austin Powers?" Or maybe more challenging, might we stand side by side Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, athiests, because at the last hour, in some Godly miracle, they came to understand and accept the great mystery of salvation that we follow? Will we protest? Will we stomp our feet like a three year old not getting to watch tv? Will we build a union of self pitying Christians, call ourselves the URC: (Union of the Righteous Christians)?
What is it it us if Jesus/God/Holy Spirit are generous? Arent we still getting what we believed to be getting--entrance into the gates of Heaven? So what does it matter if other less desirables are there too? Doesn't that just show us how good God truly is and how amazing and awe inspiring the love of Jesus is?
What if we knew this was the way things would work out, would we ever proclaim a faith in Jesus? Promise to follow Him? Surrender to His will? Or would we, like wild frat boys, want to remain irresponsible and empty, knowing that it didn't matter anyway, because God is so merciful?
As for me, i hope i would choose to follow Jesus. Not because of a fear of damnation or punishment or some horribly painful existence, but because of the benefits of following Jesus now. I experience an abundant life: Now. I know love: Now. I know peace: Now. Sure heaven is real and good, but heaven, until i am standing at the gates, remains a mystery. My life, my existence, my journey, in the flesh, is real and demands a real presence of Jesus. So i would, i hope, still choose Jesus. Not to be saved for the next world but to be saved in this one.
What about you all? Amen.
Shalom,
jerry
We want life to be fair, don't we? If we work hard, we expect to payment commensurate to our labor, right? I mean we have unions to protect the wage and work environment for the laborers. We have federal guidelines that demand, at the most base level, that people earn 'minimum wage.' We go to school, earn degrees, and we, even pastors, have a 'scale' that we seek when we find our place of refuge/employment. We, in the words of Rob from "Jerry McGuire," want people to 'show me the money..."
And if life seems, at least at work, to not be fair, well we protest. Strike. Quit. Or any other numerous choices we make to ensure our voices of disgust are heard. I wonder though, what would we do if, like the owner of the field did in Jesus' parable, we got paid the same as someone who just came off the bus and barely got his/her hands dirty, while we had worked ourselves to the bone, all day, in the hot sun? What would our response be when the supervisor paid all of us the same, regardless of how long we worked or how hard we worked?
Would we protest? Never work for that boss again? Maybe join a union and declare a serious injustice and have the owner brought up on labor violations? Why would we do this? Because i sense, just like the whiners in the parable, that we have an inflated sense of self. We demand certain 'rights' regardless whether we actually deserve them or not. If we feel someone or something has injured or impeded those rights, we will shout from the mountaintops how unfair it must be.
But then we come to the second half of the parable: the owner asking, (in a paraphrase) why are yall complaining and whining? Didn't i pay you what we had agreed would be your day's wage? So whats with this complaining? And we would, with our chests puffed out, declare a serious injustice--we worked hard all day, these guys, the ones you just hired who havent even gotten their hands dirty, yeah they got paid the same as we did. Either pay us more or pay them less. We are better than they!
The owner just pays the days wage and shakes his/her head.
As i reflect on this parable, i can't help but wonder if we wont all have a huge eye opener when we meet Jesus at the gates. One of the biggest maturation elements of my faith is that i have come to realize that God is God, and i am not God. So if God, like the owner of the field, proves to be incredibly generous, gracious, merciful, accepting, why should i complain?
But what are the implications/repercussions of a God who is so merciful? Accepting? Gracious? Like the workers of the field, a parable about the Kingdom of God, what might we experience at the gates? If we get there and standing next to us is the skater punk who can't pull up his shorts and he always appeared out of it, maybe even on drugs, will we protest about the unfairness of his earning a pass into heaven? He wasted his life, we might say, why should he get in with us?
Or maybe the prostitute? Murderer? Child molester? Dr. Evil from "Austin Powers?" Or maybe more challenging, might we stand side by side Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, athiests, because at the last hour, in some Godly miracle, they came to understand and accept the great mystery of salvation that we follow? Will we protest? Will we stomp our feet like a three year old not getting to watch tv? Will we build a union of self pitying Christians, call ourselves the URC: (Union of the Righteous Christians)?
What is it it us if Jesus/God/Holy Spirit are generous? Arent we still getting what we believed to be getting--entrance into the gates of Heaven? So what does it matter if other less desirables are there too? Doesn't that just show us how good God truly is and how amazing and awe inspiring the love of Jesus is?
What if we knew this was the way things would work out, would we ever proclaim a faith in Jesus? Promise to follow Him? Surrender to His will? Or would we, like wild frat boys, want to remain irresponsible and empty, knowing that it didn't matter anyway, because God is so merciful?
As for me, i hope i would choose to follow Jesus. Not because of a fear of damnation or punishment or some horribly painful existence, but because of the benefits of following Jesus now. I experience an abundant life: Now. I know love: Now. I know peace: Now. Sure heaven is real and good, but heaven, until i am standing at the gates, remains a mystery. My life, my existence, my journey, in the flesh, is real and demands a real presence of Jesus. So i would, i hope, still choose Jesus. Not to be saved for the next world but to be saved in this one.
What about you all? Amen.
Shalom,
jerry
Friday, September 9, 2011
Ten Years Later... Matthew 5: 43-48
Dear Peacemakers...
I was coming back from class, peeked into the lounge in my dorm, when i saw a crowd of Fannyites staring at the news report of a bombing in Oklahoma City, and it was even more shocking to learn that the fertilizer McVeigh used came from McPherson. We were on the map. National news. And i was just waking up, in Richmond, IN, planning a day with Kendra, when we heard, on the radio, of the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Funny, i can almost rehearse the smells, the tastes, the shock of all those memories. They are as fresh today as they were so many years ago, even now, as we reflect on the last ten years, i can pull the memory and relive it all over again.
The power of our memory, especially in regard to tragedy, is amazing. I know people who can tell you where they were when JFK was shot and killed. Tragedy, in all its forms, seers its place, forever, into the annals of our minds, always there, always ready to be pulled up, always a reminder of the pain caused by those horrific events. Our stories, our lives will always hinge, in one way or another, around those tragic events. Won't they?
For example: there are stricter regulations to the amount of fertilizer one can buy at one time, why? Because the government doesnt need another lunatic making a weapon of mass destruction from what farmers use daily. We have tighter security around our president when he, and i hope someday soon, or she is out. Why? Because the government doesn't need another embarrasing moment of the leader of our country getting shot from a random place in a book depository. And we all know that flying has become more challenging, because we don't want to have another wake up call of planes being used as death machines.
But with all the changes and government restrictions, i have to wonder many things. A. Are we any safer? Is the world safer? B. Can we stop terrorist attacks in any form? C. Will the inane wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both ripples from 9/11, ever find a conclusion and usher our sons and daughters home? These are worldly questions/responses to the evils that have happened, but i still struggle with, "What is the Christian response?"
Jesus called us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, are we doing that when we endorse further military action in Afghanistan? Is this the way of peace? Are we honoring Jesus by bombing, killing, and destroying lives? I realize that i am opening a can of worms by asking this question, but ten years later, it seems, we have learned nothing. We are no closer to bringing our troops home, Al Quaeda is still powerful, Iraq remains unstable, and violence remains a blind response. The thousands of lives lost stand as a testimony to our inability to be creative in the process of pursuing justice for those who lost their lives on 9/11.
What would have happened if we, like the Christian nation we claim to be, chosed the way of Jesus? What would have happened if we had sought diplomacy? International cooperation? Peace? Why is our answer, so quickly, revenge, when as Gandhi illuminated only leaves both parties blind? And why in so many churches across this great land of ours will the message of peace be ignored, when it is peacemaking that Jesus called us to do? If we are a Christian nation, why are we not being labeled a peaceful nation?
We will honor our memories and stories this Sunday, and i hope all of you will share your narratives, but if we remain where we are, doing only what we have been doing, how can things change? Perhaps it is time to give Jesus a chance. Diplomacy a chance. Maybe even peace a chance. What do we have to lose? Ten years of wars have caused us to lose so much already. Too many mothers and fathers, like our neighbors, have had to get a call or a visit from the military informing them that their son or daughter has been killed. And that doesn't account for the thousands of innocent victims in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been killed. I am not talking about the warring terrorists, i am talking about the sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers who, just like you and i, are trying to earn a life for themselves. They are the ones caught in the middle of an ongoing, neverending cycle of violence and death.
We have lost enough already. Why not try the path of peace? It might just work. Amen.
Shalom
Peace
Salaam Meliekum...
I was coming back from class, peeked into the lounge in my dorm, when i saw a crowd of Fannyites staring at the news report of a bombing in Oklahoma City, and it was even more shocking to learn that the fertilizer McVeigh used came from McPherson. We were on the map. National news. And i was just waking up, in Richmond, IN, planning a day with Kendra, when we heard, on the radio, of the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Funny, i can almost rehearse the smells, the tastes, the shock of all those memories. They are as fresh today as they were so many years ago, even now, as we reflect on the last ten years, i can pull the memory and relive it all over again.
The power of our memory, especially in regard to tragedy, is amazing. I know people who can tell you where they were when JFK was shot and killed. Tragedy, in all its forms, seers its place, forever, into the annals of our minds, always there, always ready to be pulled up, always a reminder of the pain caused by those horrific events. Our stories, our lives will always hinge, in one way or another, around those tragic events. Won't they?
For example: there are stricter regulations to the amount of fertilizer one can buy at one time, why? Because the government doesnt need another lunatic making a weapon of mass destruction from what farmers use daily. We have tighter security around our president when he, and i hope someday soon, or she is out. Why? Because the government doesn't need another embarrasing moment of the leader of our country getting shot from a random place in a book depository. And we all know that flying has become more challenging, because we don't want to have another wake up call of planes being used as death machines.
But with all the changes and government restrictions, i have to wonder many things. A. Are we any safer? Is the world safer? B. Can we stop terrorist attacks in any form? C. Will the inane wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both ripples from 9/11, ever find a conclusion and usher our sons and daughters home? These are worldly questions/responses to the evils that have happened, but i still struggle with, "What is the Christian response?"
Jesus called us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, are we doing that when we endorse further military action in Afghanistan? Is this the way of peace? Are we honoring Jesus by bombing, killing, and destroying lives? I realize that i am opening a can of worms by asking this question, but ten years later, it seems, we have learned nothing. We are no closer to bringing our troops home, Al Quaeda is still powerful, Iraq remains unstable, and violence remains a blind response. The thousands of lives lost stand as a testimony to our inability to be creative in the process of pursuing justice for those who lost their lives on 9/11.
What would have happened if we, like the Christian nation we claim to be, chosed the way of Jesus? What would have happened if we had sought diplomacy? International cooperation? Peace? Why is our answer, so quickly, revenge, when as Gandhi illuminated only leaves both parties blind? And why in so many churches across this great land of ours will the message of peace be ignored, when it is peacemaking that Jesus called us to do? If we are a Christian nation, why are we not being labeled a peaceful nation?
We will honor our memories and stories this Sunday, and i hope all of you will share your narratives, but if we remain where we are, doing only what we have been doing, how can things change? Perhaps it is time to give Jesus a chance. Diplomacy a chance. Maybe even peace a chance. What do we have to lose? Ten years of wars have caused us to lose so much already. Too many mothers and fathers, like our neighbors, have had to get a call or a visit from the military informing them that their son or daughter has been killed. And that doesn't account for the thousands of innocent victims in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been killed. I am not talking about the warring terrorists, i am talking about the sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers who, just like you and i, are trying to earn a life for themselves. They are the ones caught in the middle of an ongoing, neverending cycle of violence and death.
We have lost enough already. Why not try the path of peace? It might just work. Amen.
Shalom
Peace
Salaam Meliekum...
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