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?