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!