Luke 23:33-43

Laterally Luke…Christ the King (Last S after Pentecost) 2019…Rev2019

N.B.: From next Sunday (Dec.1st) please see: matthewinthemargins.blogspot.com

Is it reasonable to begin by asking what relevance Christ has as King in a day when kings or monarchs of any kind are pretty few & far between? When there are leaders elected democratically, dictators of various kinds, some pretending to be democrats, & others making no pretence at all.  Does Christ fit into any of today’s pictures? Isn’t He His own unique picture? Don’t we have to work within that frame. His frame?

Is there a Divine irony in that, though God is no democrat, in our passage people get to vote for who would not be their King? Jesus wins; His prize a cross. The Jewish leaders at the foot of that cross get to vote again. Still they vote against Him. As does the first bandit up there beside Him. The second, though, votes for Him in a way that resounds down the ages.

When Pilate sets free the person the crowd asks for, is he simply freeing the un-God in us all? A consequence of choosing not-God instead of God?

When Jesus tells the second of His fellow-crucifieds he'll “be with Him in Paradise today” let's not be diverted into thinking of life with God only starting when we die. We can choose to live every day in ‘Paradise' - God's garden - if we choose God as our King. Our True Ruler, day in, day out!

Talk of Paradise reminds us of the mythic Eden, where God rules un-questioned till those physical & spiritual forbears of ours choose otherwise. Do we all have to live - & die - with the consequences not only of their bad choices, but our own, too?

What does our call to live out Jesus’ Rule mean in down to earth terms today? Not in the Middle East, but where we ourselves live? A Rule that’s all about living in a dynamic relationship with God?

To recognise Jesus as King is an earth-shattering, life-changing, life-giving experience. Two last questions: ‘Is that a risk worth taking?’, &, ‘Is it an even greater risk not to take it?’  

Brian 

Afterthought: Wasn’t it Farouk, the deposed king of Egypt, who’s reputed to have said there’d soon be only five kings left - the king of England, & those of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades & Clubs? Oh, Farouk, you seem to have forgotten the One King who really matters!

LK 21: 5-19 

Laterally Luke… Pentecost + 23…Revised 2019 

Jesus has been sitting by the Temple treasury. (Or, in the vestry as the Treasurer counts the weekly offerings?) Observing. The incident of the poor widow - let’s call her ‘Leah’ - flows into what He says about the Temple & its grandeur. To focus on buildings rather than people is still an issue that dogs us.

Jesus discerns in His ‘spiritual genes’, God’s ‘genes’, what’s going to happen if the Jewish leaders, church & civil, keep going the way they’re going. But they do.  And it does. For this question to be valid for today’s congregations, it must lead to responses & strategies that will enable Church not only to change & survive, but be resurrected in our rapidly changing circumstances. Jesus isn’t on about us losing our lives so much as our gaining them! Not by trusting in, sheltering in, church buildings but by becoming relevant.  Gaining people’s confidence & trust in a God relevant today. 

Church means those who gather in Jesus’ Name, rather than applying to buildings. Being Church is about who gathers, what we do & how we do what we do when we gather. What we do when we go out from our gathering as Church ‘in there’ to being Church ‘out there’. The end of the world as we know it is closer to hand now than it was for both Jews & new Christians ‘back then’. Nothing is going to slow down for us. All is going to keep changing faster than most of us can keep up with - or want to! Some of these changes will Bewilder us. Threaten us. Scare the pants off us. Frustrate us. Make us feel Helpless. Left Behind. Lost. That’s the bad news. But there is Good News! 

Jesus’ picture of the Temple in ruins back then, & social change happening faster & faster now, are wake up calls to our need to become a new Church. Taking new shapes. Helping us live Jesus-like lives.  Attracting & encouraging others to join us in living Jesus-like lives, too. Gathering with us as God’s faithful people. Living as His Spirited Body in our not necessarily brave new world. 

The precarious outward appearance of ‘Leah’ is in contrast with the inner faith that leads her to be so generous to God. She becomes a symbol of what Jesus goes on to say: Disaster may be looming, but, “By your perseverance you will gain your lives!” Let’s all persevere to become that new Church of new people, & do it the new Jesus Way. That will undoubtedly mean changes. Are we up for them? Take heart; God is!

Brian 

Afterthought: Years ago, I am standing outside a church where I was then PP. It was being renovated & covered with scaffolding in the process. A passer-by asks me, “Are you pulling the church down?” I’ve long pondered whether in the light of the church’s apparent irrelevance to her, we should have been doing just that - in some meaningful sense!

LK 20:27-40

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 22…Revised 2019

Many years ago I’m trying to teach this story to a class of 9-10 year olds in a special school for children with learning disabilities. I must have had a learning disability of my own, even to attempt such a thing, but I guess it was in the syllabus! The day is saved - for me & everyone else - when a bright spark puts up his hand & says, "Fr. Brian, that must be why they were called Sadd-u-cees”! We all have a good laugh, & hopefully learn that not to believe in the resurrection may well be a sad thing. Also, that it’s laughable to try to trick Jesus, or God in any of His Persons! 

Not to believe in the Resurrection is sad because it diminishes God, & us, too, in the process. The question these Sadducees pose, based as it is on picking & choosing from Mosaic law & M.E. custom is a trap they end up in themselves! 

What is resurrection, & how does it ‘work’? As Jesus makes clear, YHWH God is always present tense, & always personally present to us in this world as well as to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, & the other souls in theirs. Jesus’ “Before Abraham was, I am!” [JN8:58] is one of the key passages in Scripture. Eternal life springs of God’s very Being, & reaches across all boundaries of time & space.  

Other lessons here include not playing off one bit of Scripture against another for point-scoring.  And, the need to treat people, including the theoretical oft-widowed & now dead woman with respect, rather than as objects. No one of us is theoretical, or an object. Back in the story, we find ‘some of the scholars’ have the grace to score the encounter Jesus: Lots of points v Sadducees: 0! These are probably not Sadducees changing their minds, but Pharisees, who believe in Resurrection, & are as glad to see Sadducees put down, as the latter are to put Jesus down!

We're not likely to solve Resurrection posers for anyone in a sermon (do sermons solve anything?) but we can at least open up the matter of Resurrection & its implications for renewed & expanded understanding of renewed & expanded life in this world & a next. The quality of resurrection life lies in a dimension we can only enjoy when we discover God & are ourselves enlivened.

The common bond between Moses, AB, IS, & Jacob is that they are all called by God to become somebody & to do something. IS may be a kind of ‘marking time’ person in himself, but brings Jacob, Israel, to birth. We should note, too, the role the over-looked wives of these & other men play in God’s unfolding purpose.   

Brian

Afterthought: Trying to put God & Jesus in a strait-jacket, along with the theoretical woman - let’s call her ‘Miriam’ - her theoretical husbands, Moses, the Law, & all the rest, as the Sadducees are trying to do here is to try to contain the Un-containable! Don’t go there!

Luke 19:1-10

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 21…New 2019

Why is it Jesus & tax / toll collectors have such an affinity with each other? I wonder if it's because they are transparent to each other in a way that’s earthly & spiritual at the same time? Can Jesus see through the tough exteriors their job demands, to better possibilities beneath the surface? And, can they see through this not-so-simple Rabbi to at least a glimmer of the Truth that lies beneath His surface?

When Z climbs up into that Fig tree to get a better look at Jesus he goes up a small man & not only physically. But when Jesus calls him down, Z shins down his tree, a much bigger person than he was when he climbs up into it. The kind of person he was always meant to be, and, all of us are meant to be, too. Jesus call us all to come down from our hiding places among the branches & leaves of the various trees of life & be-come whom we were always meant to be & God is always calling us down to be? Shades of Adam & Eve? Could Z’s Fig tree join the Palm among other more familiar symbols of our Faith?

Sitting / hiding up in his tree peering down, watching what’s going on  - out on a limb, wanting to relate, but longing, lone & lost, does Z represent anyone we know? What about you & me? Now’s the time to shin down! Not just for Z, but for all of us?

No matter how often we come up to the Temple to pray, & how often or earnestly we confess our sins & receive forgiveness, we have to make the kind of break with our past Z makes. Having Jesus face us down into the open, out of our various Fig trees, confronts us with the fact we all, every one of us, needs to let God change us into the person He needs us to be.  And in calling us down, encourages us, & enables us to be.

If salvation, in any of its biblical expressions, is to come to our house today, we need to come down from our gum trees to ground level; from being lost to being found; & to making reparation, restitution (there's the rub) that is always part of the ‘deal’. 

Brian 

Afterthought: Do you remember ever singing the ‘chorus’ ‘Zaccheus was a very little man…’ in SS., or maybe at a church camp? It captures the essence of what’s going on here today. (If it doesn’t ring a bell, it may be worth going on line & joining in!) Z’s story, though, is ‘not for kids’, but very much for adults. Full of rich imagery of discipleship to explore.

LK 18: 15-30 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost +20…Revised 2019

Let’s not entangle vv.15-17 with infant baptism; that would be an anachronism. It’s about Jesus' welcoming attitude towards ‘little ones’ of all sorts & conditions.¹  And what it means for little kids, or bigger kids like you & me, to accept the Rule, the Kingdom of God. Embrace its ‘all embracing-ness’ as enthusiastically as He does  these little ones. Do we have the imagination little children (of all ages) have to  embrace God & each other, irrespective of colour, race, sexuality, politics, etc.?

‘Goodness’, as Jesus is quick to point out, is reserved for God. Whether this chap (let’s call him ‘Sam’) is simply being sincere in calling Jesus ‘good’, we can’t tell, but we can imagine a loving smile on our Lord’s face, can’t we? MT, MK, & LK all tell us the man is wealthy; LK, that the man is of the ‘ruling classes’; MT, that he's young; & MK, that Jesus looks at him lovingly. The more complete the picture, the more likely we are to find ourselves in there, & the more likely the story will move on in us today.

 Have we been brainwashed into accepting 'eternal life' as something that comes if we’ve earned it in this one? But, if we aren’t enjoying eternal life now, how will we recognize, let alone enjoy its quality later? My wife & I were sad some years back when a small boy died. His parents are devout folk, yet when sending out ‘thank-you' cards to those who took part in his funeral, they printed the date of his death as the date he ‘entered into eternal life’. Hadn’t he entered it at his Baptism & in life?

Notice how Jesus homes in on commandments relating to human relationships when He ‘puts Sam through his catechism’? Is it because we aren’t keeping the ones that centre on God that we can’t keep the person to person ones? And vice-versa?

Whatever explanations we come up with about the camel & the gate, it's a joke. I imagine those who hear Jesus rolling about in the aisles as He play-acts someone trying to squeeze a laden camel through a too-narrow gate, & His other funnies! Jesus is a gifted storyteller who, I’m sure, uses His voice, His face, His hands, His whole body to make His stories live. Even if it means lovingly caricaturing those in the stories He tells. And being able to laugh at ourselves with Him.

Peter’s ‘What's in it for us?’ shows he still doesn’t quite get it! Jesus tells him, “A whole lot of benefits, including eternal life!” If we ourselves are asking in any way, "What's in it for us?”, might we be trying to squeeze our own camel through that narrow gate all over again? And have Jesus mimicking us, not someone else?

Brian

Afterthought: ¹  The Anglican Abp. of Sydney has recently told people who don’t agree with his / that Diocese’s views on the marriage of ‘gay’ people that they should ‘leave the church’! Hardly reminiscent of Jesus’ inclusive attitude to folk? 

LK 18: 1-14 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 19…Revised 2019

Jesus reminds us that if our teaching is to be effective, we need to hone our skills at story telling. Here He tells two yarns portraying arrogant contempt towards fellow human beings & therefore against God. He links them - is it wistfully? -  with, “When the Son of Humanity comes, will He find faith on earth?”. With Jesus, Faith is always a matter of Now, or Never. Now, or too late! For the contemptuous judge (‘Eli’ - even characters in yarns merit a name) for the pleading woman ‘Sarah’. For the Pharisee ‘Asaph’, & the tax collector ‘Simon’. Any time later than Now is too late for you & me, whatever our names! 

The judge holds not only the plaintiff, but justice itself, & God, the Personification of justice, in contempt. This yarn isn’t about persisting in prayer, as we may have taught or been taught. It’s about persisting in living justly, doing the justice we pray for. But let’s not batter so loudly on God's door we miss God’s gentle knocking on our own!

I was startled years ago, to come across a poem by Peguy¹ in which he likens the 'Our Father’ to a line of battleships attacking God. Led by Jesus, hands joined in prayer as a battering ram! I can't come to terms with its implication that Jesus is teaching us to break God down, wear God down, as the woman wears down the unjust judge. That's not Jesus' point, & does no justice to God or anyone else. Avoid, too, the trap a S.S. teacher is reputed to have fallen into (& some preachers?) of ending a lesson / sermon - on these yarns with a prayer ‘that we may not be like that Judge or that Pharisee’!

 Arrogance is insidious! Eating away at Judge, Pharisee - & us! What about other things that ‘eat away’, though? Is the woman of the first yarn being eaten away by the denial of the justice she seeks? Is it reasonable to wonder, too, whether Jesus’ first story speaks also to the denial of justice that lies behind a lot of strife & violence in today’s world? May the lack of self-worth felt by the customs-gatherer in the 2nd story have something to say about those often spoken of today as ‘losers’ & whose sense of  worthlessness makes them prime targets for those recruiting terrorists & the like? Are there really any ‘losers’ in God’s eyes - except for those who lose Him? 

Brian

Afterthought: One of the mysteries of faith is that if, as Jesus says, God 'grants justice to His chosen ones who cry to him day & night' why isn't that happening a lot more now? Is it that we, as the Body of Christ, are not active enough? Or, is it a paradox we just have to live with? Let’s ponder that. To transfer justice to the next life, though, is a cop-out, isn’t it? Not as compelling, or converting, as justice Now would be?

¹ From ‘The Mystery of the Holy Innocents’.

LK 17: 11-19 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost+18… Revised 2019

Jesus always seems to be on the move. Today He’s moving between Samaria & Galilee. A kind of no-man’s-land; except that it’s not. Is anywhere ever really a ‘no-man’s-land? On the outskirts of this un-named village Jesus is confronted by ten un-named ‘lepers’. Even to suffer from eczema, psoriasis, or the like meant you were swept up into the ‘leper’ category & became an outcast in the Palestine of those days. Our job, though, is to relate our story to today & today’s outsiders, named or un-named, diseased or not; not simply talk about what happens back in Jesus’ day. Let’s make today & every day, ‘Jesus’s Day’.

Notice how the ten are careful to keep their distance, even from the One they believe can heal them. Look round us, & how many people, can we see keeping their distance from Jesus? For how many different reasons? Maybe they’re keeping their distance, too, from us, His followers, for whatever reason, real or imagined? How can you & reach out lovingly, & with healing, to them, as Jesus reaches out to today’s ten? 

Sizing up the ten’s predicament, Jesus mercifully tells them to show themselves to the priests. They realise this can have only one meaning: that He has healed them as they have begged Him to do.  Are we so concerned, as Jesus is, for the predicaments of others, that we do what we can for them? Or just leave it to praying? 

And, what about those who pray & pray to God as they know Him for healing of one kind or another, yet nothing ever seems to happen to them? For them? Intercession lists in so many churches go on & on, interminably, it can seem, for those for whom someone has a concern. What can we do at a practical level - Jesus is always practical - for them as well as faithfully & continuously praying for their healing?

Only one of today’s ten - let’s call him ‘Benji’ - comes back to say thank you. Jesus has now given him his life back, & a face he can show openly in public. For some odd reason, now that ‘Benji’ has a name I’ve given him, makes me think of the name badges so many of us wear in church. Are we making the most of them? Inviting others into a named relationship with them? As they, with their name badge, are inviting us? How can we then deepen that relationship beyond the badges we wear? One way we can relate more deeply to everyone is by taking a Jesus-like attitude of inclusion to one & all, badged or not. It’s the attitude we take, the Name we bear, not the badge we wear, that makes the difference!

Brian

Afterthought: Jesus’ question at the end of the passage about whether any of the other nine have come back to praise God ‘except this foreigner’ contrasts those who live, or begin to live anew, praising God, with those who don’t invite God into our lives except when we want something! Opportunists, rather than disciples? Pray not!

LK 17: 1-10 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 17…Revised 2019

We happen to have a Mulberry tree in our garden; & lots of Mustard Seeds in our pantry. The Indian Ocean is just a few metres up the street; &, I have great faith! But no way am I going to take what Jesus says here literally, & try to move that tree!  As if He would want me to! To do so would be to fall into one of the traps He warns us against here.

As I age I find myself being more & more careful where I place my feet lest they cause me to stumble & bring me undone. Mind you, not always as carefully as my darling wife would like! It is at least as important I watch where I put my spiritual ‘feet’! It’s only a short step from there to watching lest I become a stumbling block to someone else, too.

As churches, we have sheltered too many in our ranks who became stumbling blocks through paedophilia. More often than not, we've responded poorly, slowly, or not at all, to those who stumbled over them & became their victims. On the whole we've been painfully slow (another stumbling block), stubborn (another), unwilling (yet another), to compensate in compassionate ways those who’ve stumbled over us. Churches as institutions have become stumbling blocks to victims by guarding church property from claims; even going so far as to disbelieve (stumbling block) little ones of all ages when they tell of abuse. 

The Olympic Games will happen again next year. How would our churches fare if a Stumbling Race were to be introduced? Gold!? How would we fare as individual competitors? Should anyone have to stumble over hurdle after hurdle to get justice on any issue. God’s justice. Jesus’ justice.  God's, little ones deserve better. There may be different, less obvious stumbling blocks, where we are part of the Body of Christ. Millstones aren't something God puts round anyone’s neck. We put them round others’ necks.  Even our own. Turn ourselves into millstones.

How much unsown 'mustard seed' is lying around in our heart pockets?  Going to waste? Or in the cupboards of our souls? Because the seed is God's, even that kind of storing away, shoving out of sight, out of mind, can't make it go mouldy or render it un-productive. It's still good. So, let's get it out! Sow it. Now!

Brian

Afterthought: There’s quite some interest in the community today in creating grainy mustards, full of flavour, with a lot of bite. God has even more interest in firing us up inside; to increase our faith & discipleship to be picker-uppers of others, rather than tripper-uppers! 

LK 16: 19-31 

Laterally Luke… Pentecost + 19…Revised 2019

By the end of Jesus’ yarn, ‘Dives’ still sees ‘Lazarus’ at the bottom of the pile - still fit only for looking after him! One of many lessons from our story is that interest in others needs to triumph over self-interest. 

That Jesus may be taking an old folk-tale, maybe from outside Judaism, & making it His own, might encourage us to look beyond earthly boundaries set by religion to our God who knows no bounds.  Whoever, whatever, we are on earth matters to God in Heaven, & on earth.  Doing nothing in this life to lift any ‘Lazarus’ we come across from their woes separates us not only from that person, but from their caring God, & ours, in this life & the next.

God’s concern, like Jesus’, is for all of us. ‘Lazarus’ is as high on God’s list as Dives or anyone else. God’s time is always today in our time. Eternal life is always now or never. Not recognizing God in any ‘Lazarus’ now will mean not recognizing God in any next world. Jesus teaches us we have a responsibility; not to ‘play’ Abraham to the Dives of this world, but become ‘little Christs’ to them & Lazarus here & now. 

Is any ‘Hell’ really an invention of our loving God revealed in Jesus, or of humans for each other? Is any such ‘great gulf’ between people other than one we’ve dug? 

Had Abraham allowed Lazarus to return to earth to warn Dives’ five brothers (& any sisters, too) isn’t it likely they’d go on treating him with the same contempt as their brother had done? What would this fellow know about anything?!‘What are we here after?’, &‘What will get us there, after?’ are inextricably linked.

Abraham (v. 29) referring to ‘Moses & the Prophets’, raises the question of our call to also discerning genuine prophets among us today, & heeding them, too. May ignoring today’s true prophets deepen any existing chasms between us & God?

Are we convinced by Jesus returning from the dead (v.31) any more than Dives’ family would have been by Lazarus returning?  Rather than simply looking at them & seeing ourselves in a mirror, let’s express our faith in God through Jesus & His Spirit in loving & serving others from the bottom up. 

Brian

Afterthought: Richard Rohr¹  SSF, says, ‘It’s heaven all the way to heaven & it’s hell all the way to hell. Heaven is primarily now, but…..it’s life forever. Hell is primarily now but….it’s death forever!’

¹Good News According to Luke, Crossroad, NY, 1997, p.168

LK 16: 1-13 

Laterally Luke..Pentecost+15…Revised 2019

Which way of preaching Jesus’ yarn best furthers our understanding of, commitment to, the coming of God’s Rule on earth as it is in heaven?’ There are many suggestions as to how best understand what many think of as a problematic yarn; but let’s keep it simple, as Jesus always intends His teachings to be.

Does the heart of what Jesus is teaching us today come in v.10? “Someone who can be trusted in very small matters can also be trusted in large matters, & someone who can’t be trusted in small matters can’t be trusted in important matters either”?

Don’t get bogged down in how the offender ‘cooks the books’. That has nothing at all to do with the point Jesus is making, which I take to be that we need to be as honest as He Himself is. As YHWH God is. Jesus wants us to examine our behaviour, not the chap in the yarn’s. By extension, He’s inviting us to examine our Christian Communities’ behaviour. Are we - His Body on earth - as scrupulously honest in our everyday dealings with others as He expects us to be? 

Jesus doesn’t ever seem to be too perturbed about money or possessions except that we use them in trustworthy ways appropriate to behaviour YHWH God expects of us. Taking a cut from what’s not ours - in any sense - is a no-no under all circumstances. If we cheat anyone in any way it’s not only that person, but YHWH God, too, & ourselves in the process, we’re robbing.

Are we absolutely trustworthy in our marriage, family, & all our other relationships? In all our business dealings? How far could we keep expanding this list?

If people can’t trust us, why should they trust the God we preach & worship? At the moment, increasing accusations  & revelations of abuse are rapidly adding to the dis-distrust the community at large has come to have of us & our churches! 

Churches of all stripes are beginning to pay the price for abusing children & others. Holy hands are being thrown up in horror at what compensation is beginning to cost. Property is being sold, or ear-marked for selling, & that cost will flow on to parish budgets. Virtually every denomination has been, or will be, affected.

Brian

Afterthought: Our use of the word ‘denominations’ for the divisions in our churches, & the fact that’s our term, too, for divisions of cash, connects us directly to today’s yarn. No amount of financial compensation, though can make up for the way victims have been treated, damaged, & discarded. Does the fellow in Jesus’ yarn not come out looking better than those who have victimised others in our churches? Are you & I showing ourselves clearly enough to be the ‘children of light’?

LK 15: 1-10

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 17…Revised 2019

Jesus is still on His way to Jerusalem, seemingly unable to get out of His habit of keeping bad company! Tax collectors, &, ‘sinners’, for goodness sake! It’s great news though, that there’s room for you, me, all of us, in His company. Maybe not as ‘tax collectors’, but ‘sinners’ sounds all-embracing enough, doesn’t it?

 MT, himself a former tax collector, in his account of this incident [18:14] adds a heartfelt, personal, additional note sounded by Jesus: ‘It’s not God’s intention that even one of these little ones should be lost!’ Lost-ness’, found-ness, & rejoicing all share centre-stage here. Even if the ‘religious right’ still look down their noses from the wings at interlopers like you and me! 

Like God, as God, Jesus has a preference for the little people of this world. He’s  comfortable in His own skin as one of them. He knows how important one sheep, one coin, or whatever they may represent today, are to little people. Yes, God is taking sides here. May we be as concerned for those who need us by becoming God’s loving carers for them. Becoming God’s way of seeking & finding them, in very down to earth ways!

There’s still more good news; perhaps harder to take on board, even, than what’s gone before. Those who turn up their noses at today’s equivalents of ‘tax-collectors & sinners’, not to mention Jesus Himself, are worth going out of our way to find too. Those who don’t give a thought to the possibility they themselves are among the lost, they are worth finding too. In spinning His lost sheep & lost coin yarns, Jesus is re- assuring any of us who think we’re not worth finding, that we are. He’s also urging any of us who believe ‘there’s nothing lost about me!’ not to be so sure of that! Jesus invites us all to rejoice that God thinks we’re all worth searching for and finding. 

There’s a sense of lostness abroad in the world today. People are responding to this in more & more desperate, violent, or otherwise disturbing ways, losing themselves in the process. Thus the violence keep on spreading, widening, tightening its grip. 

Three simple trains of thought we might preach from today’s short passage: 1)‘Sheep’ & ‘coin’ are both worth looking for. 2) Searching, Finding, & Being Found are life-changing experiences. 3) Celebrate by rejoicing with God’s Holy Angels at every newly-found life.

Brian 

Afterthought: Maybe the ‘Intention’ of today’s Eucharist could be as a Celebration of Searching, Finding, & Rejoicing? The story of the Lost Son doesn’t crop up this year, but why not include him / us too?

LK 14: 25-35 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 13…Revised 2019

Jesus’ followers are to be a new kind of family going beyond our traditional ideas of family. When He speaks of ‘hating’ family (in His native Aramaic) English can’t cope with it. Leon Morris suggests: ‘the love the disciple has for Jesus must be so great the best of earthly loves is hatred by comparison’.¹  Understanding what Jesus says in this way may help us develop our passage.

It’s all about us ‘counting the cost’. No-one knows the cost of loving as Jesus does. He uses carrying His cross / our cross, building towers, going to war, ‘saying good-bye’²  to everything that belongs to us, &, then, salt, to illustrate this love we’re to have for YHWH God & each other. Will we try to preach the whole passage, or choose from the above, or other options?

Jesus warns us the cost of warring within our families, other relationships, or on the wider scale will be a cross costing us peace with each other & peace with God! Look at a family portrait; do we see anyone we’re ‘waging war’ on - or vice versa? When we look at our congregation do we see  a ‘Simon of Cyrene’ or two who stand out as helping the rest of us bear our varying crosses? Can we encourage cross-bearers, & others, too, to take up their crosses & help others of us take up ours? 

Warfare is more sophisticated today than depending on building towers - to be prepared to attack from, or take refuge in. Personal lives, too are likely to be more sophisticated. Jesus’ imagery, though, still holds good. We still need to be prepared for what might face us on all fronts. In our churches, &, on the wider scene all round us. Are there, though, defensive 'towers' of various kinds we don't ever need to build, let alone cost, before we go to war against anyone, in any sense? For instance, are we prone to start projects, building, or otherwise, without counting the cost to God, our-selves, or others?

The books of LEV & NUM prescribe salt - an expensive item then - as a sacramental sign of covenant between God & us. Temple Sacrifices were to be offered with salt. Dare we think of the very salt on our tables as a ‘Sacrament’? A daily outward & visible sign of the inward & spiritual grace we experience when we keep covenant with God as God covenants with us? We are to be as genuine as God is, or we’re being worthless. Though this sounds harsh, it is Jesus saying so. We need to take it on board & tease out what it may mean in our case - for our church & the wider community.

Brian

Afterthought: One I’ve made before, but regarding carrying the cross, Kosuke Koyama makes the point that a cross has no handle. Carrying such an awkward thing can’t ever be convenient or comfortable, & is always a one-way trip! (No Handle on the Cross, SCM, 1976)

¹ Luke, IVP, London, 1974, p.236   ²  Complete Gospels ad loc. 

Luke 14: 1-14 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 12…Revised 2019

Fathers’ Day reminds us life is about relationships. With God, & between human beings. It’s worth bearing that in mind as we preach today. The RCL allows omitting vv. 2-6, but to keep them in highlights the ‘Opportunity Principle’ Jesus works by: do what’s good in God’s eyes anywhere, anytime, for anybody!

It’s Sabbath again. Jesus has been invited to dine with a prominent Pharisee - strict keepers of the Law. Others present include religious lawyers, watching Jesus closely. In religious circles, legalism never seems far away, in Jesus’ day, or ours. How legal-istic are we in circles where we preach? Who’s watching who? With loving eyes, or critical ones? To help us come up higher, or to keep us confined?  

‘Reuben’ (let’s call him) a man suffering from what we’d call an oedema, turns up uninvited; no doubt watching from a distance. Aware of Jesus’ presence in such unusual company, & ready to grasp a once in a lifetime opportunity. Has the grape-vine been at work regarding Jesus’ movements? Does our local grape-vine alert others that we are people who represent Jesus in their midst today? Jesus discerns Reuben’s predicament & after testing & silencing His host & friends, heals him. What’s been causing Reuben to swell up, physically, yet narrow down his life, is dealt with. As he’s healed, life expands to normality again. Jesus, though, scores another black mark from those who think Sabbath-keeping over-rides healing a person in need. Jesus’ enemies are in the narrowing down business, rather than the opening up of people to new life. Today, Sabbath keeping isn’t as much of an issue among most Christians as is our applying the opening up rather than narrowing down principles to our lives, & encouraging others to do the same. Are we among the legalist, narrowing down camp - as we’re seen to be by many - or open for business as He is? 

When He heals ‘Zara’ last week, & now, Reuben, Jesus demonstrates God’s expect- ation of all citizens of the ‘Kingdom’; ‘Kingdom’ being God’s way of ruling by opening people up, rather than closing us down. Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, personally, or in public worship, let’s be aware in all our senses that praying God’s loving, healing rule on earth will happen now. As it is in heaven means doing our bit to make that happen - now! Next time we pray the prayer Jesus taught us, let’s pray it, whether liturgically or in private, from our personal experience of an opened-up life as Reuben does in our hearing today. And teach those to whom we preach to do the same.

Brian

Afterthought: 

The godly bishop who confirmed me long ago, preached on today’s: ‘Friend, come up higher!’ Encouraging us to take this aspect of Jesus' teaching to heart & live it out. Every now & then, though, we all need a prod from Holy Spirit to live that higher life - & preach it! 

LK 12: 49-59 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 10… Revised 2019

Entry points I can see for preaching our passage include: Jesus as Fire, Jesus & Baptism, Peace v Conflict, Family relationships, discerning the signs of the times, righting wrongs….But I’ll focus here on just one: Jesus as Fire.

Charles Wesley wrote the words of  ‘Gentle Jesus, meek & mild’. Was he racing to produce a hymn to meet a deadline, & didn’t discern what he was saying? If we ever have to meet preaching deadlines, beware lest we fall into any ‘gentle, meek, & mild’, or any other kind, of mis-portrayal of Our Lord! He’s far from any of those things!

“I came to set the earth on fire” is hard. In 3:16, though, LK reports John the Baptiser speaking of Jesus as coming to ‘baptise with Holy Spirit & Fire’. Might this be a clue to how Jesus understands God’s love & God’s Fire as being two sides of one coin? I suggest this might repay exploring. The Spirit of Jesus is God’s love in action, & love often faces hard going. What gets Jesus crucified - His baptism of blood - is the un-wavering love He offers us all. Would a ‘gentle Jesus’ have been worth crucifying?

God is love. Fire may be the other side of the love coin, but it's still love. Hard love, costly love that will inevitably bring disunity, division, judgment, & even destruction, as well as those Fruits & Gifts of the Spirit we find it easier to preach. Perhaps we can explore whether there’s some ‘costly love’ we need to fan into fire?

In the Gospel of Thomas (10) Jesus says he's 'guarding the fire until it blazes’¹ Was that the kind of imagery Wesley has in mind when writing his great hymn: ‘O thou who camest from above, the fire celestial to impart…’? (A hymn we might consider singing today?) How do we ‘guard’ the fire except we keep it blazing in the rough & tumble of life situations to which Jesus refers here? What might that cost us? How far are we prepared to go in exploring that? How far are we prepared to stand up for a Jesus not at all meek, not at all mild?

Brian

Afterthought: A story from the days of the Christian Desert Hermits has one of them, anxious about his spirituality, coming to a fellow hermit & saying, “I keep all the rules of the Community, I fast, I study the Bible, I meditate, I avoid bad thoughts…what more do I need to do? The one he approaches doesn’t answer in words, but stretches out his hand towards heaven, & his fingers become flashing  lamps of fire. Then he simply says to his questioner, “Why not become changed into fire?” Why not, indeed?  

LK 12: 32-40 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 9…Revised 2019 

When I was a small child I remember two things making me afraid! One was a big spider on the wall of an aunt’s house; it took me time to realise it was made of tin, & never moved! A second thing was in my grandmother’s house. At night, if I were to look down the passage, there was always a bogey-man looking back at me. It took me time to work out it was a street light shining through a stained-glass inset! Do we have any such ‘spiders’ or ‘bogeys’ in our lives? Still reaching out to scare us today? Fear not little flock!

Rather than thinking - & teaching - of Jesus giving us God’s ‘kingdom’, how about settling for the more dynamic ‘Rule’? Besides, there are few ‘kingdoms’ left in the world today. Most have been replaced by ‘democracies’ or dictatorships of one kind or another. Shakespeare has Richard the Third saying he’ll swap his kingdom for a horse, but you & I don't even need a horse to trade for a ‘kingdom’. We already have God’s Rule. Jesus says so. We're given it because it pleases God to give it to us. God is a Great Giver. God takes the initiative because it pleases Him to do so. It’s at the heart of God’s nature to be a Great Giver! God's Rule isn’t some kind of coloured line drawn round some place up there, or, down here somewhere. It’s a Rule of the Heart. God’s & ours. 

In going on to use the example of the readiness of servants for their master’s home-coming, might Jesus be making a connect between not being afraid & readiness? Is He saying “You can’t be ready (to serve God) if you’re afraid in any sense?” That may be worth exploring. 

We may be only little, we may be only a flock, but we don't need to be afraid if we're in love with the God who's in love with us. If we’re ready & prepared because we  recognise God in the here & now, we have a realistic expectation of recognising God in any future coming among us. Any blessedness in being ready to welcome God's coming in some future sense will be an extension of recognising the blessedness of God in our hearts ruling among us now. Apocalyptic expectation must be earthed (incarnated) in present reality. There is a heavenly Son of Humanity thanks to the earthly One.

Understanding Apocalyptic stands or falls with understanding Incarnation. By the Holy Spirit of Jesus (who better to help us recognise God?) may we experience the blessing of every hour being God's expected hour.

Brian 

  

Afterthought: Was it ex-king Farouk of Egypt who was long ago reported to have said, “There will soon be only five kings left: Spades, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds, & England”? O Farouk, Farouk! You left out God! 

LK 12: 13-21

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 8…Revised 2019

Been building any bigger & better barns lately? If so, stop! Stop right now! I’m not the one telling us this; Jesus Himself is! What might this barn-building business actually mean in today terms rather than those of yesteryear? Begin with the fact that Jesus, a great spinner of yarns, tells the parable in response to a chap in the crowd, let’s call him Bill, appealing to Him to arbitrate in a family dispute. Jesus, though, isn’t buying into this!

The first thing that strikes me is Jesus noticing & responding to ‘someone in the crowd’. How many ‘Bills, or Wilhelminas’ - get lost in the crowd today? Though few of our congregations are ‘crowded’ today, it’s too easy for ‘what’s his name / what’s her name?’ to get lost in there somewhere. With Jesus, though, little people always count, & because they count, we count. With God. Everyone counts. Not, in any theoretical way, but in personal, flesh & blood, down to earth reality. Does our faith community need to learn everyone counts? What steps may we need to take to make that happen? Certainly not by building bigger & better ‘barns’ of any kind!  

Whereas Jesus chooses to steer clear of the legalities ‘Bill’ wants to involve Him in, churches of various stripes have long run on legalities. An example of our choosing to live by Law & not by Grace. God gave Moses Ten Commandments, Jesus summar-ised them in two. But parishes, dioceses, & the national church in which I've long served, keep on building bigger & better barns - Rule Books - many centimetres thick! Has that infectious disease known as ‘statute-bound’ struck where we are a member? If so, is there anything people in the pews, ‘little people’, can do about it?

Thomas (Ch.72) has an interestingly different take on this incident. Tom has Jesus asking the fellow, “Who made me a divider?” then asking His disciples, “I’m not a divider, am I?” Might it be that the tale is about both the Greed Jesus sees as the motive for the fellow’s approach to Him, & the Divisiveness such greed brings among us? Is it both that lead to Jesus’ warning about building barns? Of all shapes & sizes?

Have the man in the crowd & the rich man of the parable both lost their ability to live free & alive to God? The one bound by a family property dispute, the other by busi-ness opportunism? Jesus doesn't seem to have a problem with property as such, only with how we feel about it & what we do with it. Why not apply Jesus’ parable about barns to anything stopping us from being free & alive to God?

Brian

Afterthought: Are feeding the poor in their poverty traps, caring for those who have no-one else to care for them, providing shelter over the heads of the homeless, & the like, ‘barns’ Jesus would encourage us to build today?

LK 11: 1-13 

Laterally Luke… Pentecost +7…New 2019

To do justice to the prayer Jesus teaches us to pray, to our praying it, & to preaching it, we need to read LK’s version in conjunction with MT’s version. And, both in conjunction with Ex 3:13-15. The One we’re holding Holy, whose Rule we’re praying will come, whose Will we’re praying will be done, & from whom we ask enough Bread for each day is our ‘Father’. The One we ask for Forgiveness as we forgive, & that we not be Tried beyond our capacity to withstand, is our ‘Father’. Not only in Heaven, but on earth, too! Let’s not draw too hard a line between heaven & earth -  any more than YHWH God does! The Celts are often rightly credited with emphasising this, but it really goes back to our O.T. roots, &, of course, to Jesus Himself!

Today, rather than suggesting entry points as I often do, I’m advocating we centre our preaching on the nature of the God to whom Jesus teaches us to pray. Anything else we pray or preach needs to centre on that Nature, too!

In shepherding Jethro’s sheep (no doubt looking for strays in the process - how Jesus- like), Moses instead finds YHWH God! In the heart of a Burning Bush! When he asks God’s name, YHWH tells him, “I AM WHO I AM! I understand that to mean, “I AM BEING ITSELF!” “I AM SOURCE of all that is!” YHWH uses the burning bush to catch Moses’ attention. Are we spiritually discerning enough to notice any ‘burning bush’ God may be using to catch our attention today, whether or not we’re out there looking after our sheep? God’s sheep, before they’re ours! 

In teaching us how to pray, Jesus teaches us that praying isn’t at all, isn’t ever about what we want, but all about what God wants of us. God’s Heaven takes in the most down to earth situations like those Jesus quotes in vv. 5-13; situations He quotes to illustrate what He’s teaching us about prayer. Situations that  may even be today’s ‘Burning Bushes’ for us. Illustrations, too, that when we hold God’s name Holy, when we allow God’s Rule to come, His Will to be done, ‘on Earth as in Heaven’, there will be enough ‘bread’ to go around. Sins & debts of every kind will be forgiven. Even the worst tests & trials will be survived. For God’s Authority is being observed, God’s Power is at work, & God’s Glory shines in our midst. All in the Present Tense! 

On recent Sundays we’ve heard Jesus calling people to follow but His Call being declined; His sending out the 70 to rid people of demons; His tale of an unlikely  person coming to the rescue; & two sisters’ hospitality to Him. Jesus means these stories to continue now in us, to illustrate God’s Rule, God’s Power, & God’s Glory. 

Brian

Afterthought:What ‘burning bushes’ are still waiting for us to discern God in them? Have we come close enough, yet, to discern YHWH God, the God of Heaven, is also the God of Earth right now? Not that He will be, or might be one day? 

LK 10: 38-42 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost+6…Revised 2019

Short as it is, our passage is Alive with preaching possibilities. No doubt you can see others I’m not homing in on! How can we preach it in the Liveliest way possible? To do this we need to preach yesterday’s story in terms relevant to today. That’s what Jesus is all about! Starting points I can see include: Welcoming, Hospitality, Categorising people, Distractions, Griping about others, being Frenetic, &, of course, that all important ‘One Thing Necessary’. Take your pick, or pick your own!

How welcoming are we of people who ‘drop in’, at home, or in church? Are we as open to them as this home in Bethany is always open to Jesus when he drops by?

How generous in our hospitality are we to those who come visiting? What effort are we prepared to take to give of our best? Note how M & M express their hospitality in different ways.

Can we break out from any habits of categorising; not just M & M, but any & all of those we come in close contact with? Or, maybe, anyone we avoid closer contact with because they threaten?

I’m a fall guy for being distracted! Time & again I tell my loving & long-suffering wife, “Sorry - I was just distracted; I’ll do what needs to be done right now!” Who am I to preach to others about the dangers of being distracted unless & until I ‘fess up’ & change my ways?!

Do we find ourselves griping about the way someone else does things in our home, our congregation, our community? Could we not accept what they’re doing as their way of doing things, their contribution, even when we think they could do whatever it is better, or better still, do something else?! 

These wise words, ‘Frenetic service, even of the Lord, can be a deceptive distraction from what the Lord really wants’ (Brendan Byrne¹) may give us food for thought to get us started. What he says also fits well with that ‘One thing necessary’ Jesus expects, hopes for, or, is it demands of us? That we remain fixed on God, no matter what we’re doing. This means of course, doing things for others as we’d do them for God. And I take this to apply to everything we think or do.

Brian

Afterthought: In JN 11, after Lazarus' death, there's an element of role-reversal. It's Martha who goes out to meet Jesus & talk theology, while Mary stays at home passing coffee & cake for those calling to offer condolences!

¹ The Hospitality of God, Liturgical, Collegeville, MN, 2000, p. 103