The Eternity You Make

March 14 2021

Luke 16:19-31

         A few weeks ago our three children came over to our house to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday. They bought everything for dinner and prepared it all and they even made a cake but in these COVID days there was of course, no candles. It was a really great day, and we had time after lunch to catch up. We called and invited my parents to come on over and join the festivities and the house was filled with laughter and conversation. Now, somewhere along the line, when things calmed down a bit, our middle daughter turns to me and wants to talk about hell. Now, that may seem a little weird but you have to know my daughter because this is fairly common. If she wants to know something, she will just ask no matter how weird it might seem. So, we had a nice little discussion about where the Bible talks about hell and the roots of the ideas that Jesus spoke of that are found in the book of Isaiah. Afterwards, I thought I should have talked about the scripture we read about for this Sunday as it appears to speak a lot about hell. Yet, upon closer inspection there is something different about this story that doesn’t really match up with the other mentions of hell in the gospel accounts. We see this most clearly in the word used for hell in our scripture for today which is Hades.  As we look at the story it will become clear as to just why Luke used this specific word. What we will also discover is that our scripture is a lot more than just a mere story about hell.

         So, with that lets take a look at our scripture from the sixteenth chapter of Luke. It’s important for us to remember that this story follows the fifteenth chapter because as we learned last week as we studied the story of what we call the parable of the prodigal son, this chapter of lost and found stories is addressed directly at the Pharisees and scribes who grumbled at the fact that Jesus hung out with tax collectors and scribes.The parable of the prodigal son, while the end of the fifteenth chapter, wasn’t the end of Jesus’ story telling but was instead the very middle  of it. The importance of the parable of the prodigal son is that the Pharisees and scribes were represented by the older son in the story. They were the ones who did not treasure their relationship with their Heavenly Father because if they did they would be rejoicing that the tax collectors and the sinners, represented by the younger son, had found what had been lost to them, namely a relationship with their Heavenly Father. This is what they treasured most, a relationship with the Father who loved them and all they had to do is to ask and it was given to them, seek, for it and they would find it; knock on the door of the Father’s house and he would welcome them in.

         Now, what we must also understand is how does all of this tie in with this season of Lent that we find ourselves in. This is the season where we follow Jesus all the way to Calvary. Like Jesus, there is a cross for each of us that Jesus commands that we carry every day. Lent causes us to be honest and ask ourselves are ready to face the tribulation and suffering that come to those who have received the word of God? Lent is where we remember the teachings of Jesus, his parable of the sower that teaches us that if we want to be people who go all the way with Jesus then we need to be people who have deep roots, a strong faith that will give us the courage to endure.As we have followed Jesus through Luke’s gospel, we have learned that in order to love God we must also love our neighbor as ourselves. This is demonstrated most clearly at the cross. Instead of taking the life of his enemies, Jesus instead gave his life for his enemies and the Heavenly Father raised him from the dead because of this. So, loving God through loving others is the goal. Then once we understand the goal Jesus taught us that every Sabbath we are to remember that God in his grace has set us free, free from sin, free to be responsible and make the choice to love always. We have been set free so we can give our whole selves, to lose ourselves so that the kingdom may come. The remembrance of God’s grace is the source of our worship, why we found God worthy to receive all that we are. Right here is what gives focus to our freedom. We are free but what do we do with our freedom? In this freedom we give ourselves to God, he is worthy of all that we are because of his giving us the free gift of his grace. So, keeping in mind this idea of the worth of God we come to the story of the prodigal son and again the central thought is that a relationship with our Heavenly Father is the greatest treasure for us to seek. When we go in search of this treasure we find that the treasure comes to us and this treasure actually sees us as their treasure.So are you beginning to see why in our freedom that we would choose the cross? The reason why the cross is chosen over every other choice is that we treasure our relationship with our Heavenly Father. This is what motivates and propels us along the road to Jerusalem.

         With all this understanding we come to the sixteenth chapter of Luke where Jesus tears apart the treasures held dear in the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus wants to make clear to his disciples and those who would come after them the dangers of earthly treasures. This was their real reason for portraying themselves as good uptight law-abiding citizens because they could use this status to live a very good life. Just like in our day, it was easy for the people who looked upon all their pomp and pride to be envious of them, to desire the life they lived. In this sixteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus is telling his audience to not be fooled. The Pharisees were the dishonest managers, pawning themselves off as the rich and famous all to make friends and influence people yet what was going to happen when the money runs out? Did these fakes and phonies really believe that friends gotten through the lies and wealth were really going to be there if for some reason the money dried up? No, they would be long gone because that’s the way the game is played.That’s the problem with the wealth of earth; it is a cruel system that is very unforgiving. Friendship based on earthly wealth only lasts as long as the earthly wealth does.

         With this we come to our scripture for today. The story Jesus tells is a parable not unlike the parable of the prodigal son. Upon reading it we cannot forget that Jesus just moments before told his audience that one cannot serve God and money because one cannot serve two masters. They will either hate the one and love the other or they will be devoted to one and despise the other. So, this just begs the question just who is it that you are going to serve? In the next breath, Luke tells us that it was the Pharisees who were lovers of money these were the ones who ridiculed Jesus. So, when Jesus begins to tell a story about a rich man it isn’t hard for us to figure out just who the proverbial finger is pointing at. This rich man we are told was living the high life. He was dressed in the clothes of kings, he ate at his very own all you can eat buffet. And we are told, that at the gate to this man’s mansion was a poor man named Lazarus, a name that means, “God has helped me”. Now, Lazarus was covered in sores, he had to be in great pain and he was very hungry wishing so much to clean the floor of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s plate. These scraps would normally be the food of the dogs and it is ironic that these same dogs came and licked the sores upon the body of Lazarus. It is no surprise knowing the shape that Lazarus is in that Jesus tells us that he died. Upon his death, we are told, that Lazarus was carried to the bosom of Abraham. Now, we have to stop the story here for a moment to consider just what is happening here. What does it mean for Lazarus to be held in the bosom of Abraham? Well, if you think about, the ones who would naturally crawl up in your lap are your children. This gives us a clue to the connection that this has with the rest of the story. In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis we read where God, speaking to his angels about Abraham tells them, “I have chosen Abraham that he may command his children  and his household after them to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring Abraham what he has promised him.” The rich man being a descendant of Abraham was supposed to have been a man who knew the way of the Lord, a man who practiced righteousness and justice. This is what Lazarus should have expected he would receive when he found himself in front of the rich man’s palace. Yet, unfortunately Lazarus did not find this at all. Since he had not experienced righteousness and justice in this life then what we find is that he would experience righteous and justice in the life beyond death.

         Well, what we discover next is that the rich man has also died and no, he does not find himself in the arms of Abraham. Instead we are told that the rich man finds himself in Hades. Now, this is a very interesting title for this flaming part of the afterlife. Often what is used is the Greek word, Gehenna, which was the name of what to us was the local landfill, where the garbage and dead animals were hauled off to. There all that was thrown there would smolder and stink and it would provide a good illustration of where one did not want to spend endless days upon their death. But this is not the word Luke uses; kind of weird isn’t it? Well, the answer as to why Luke refers to the rich man’s eternal home as Hades is that if you look at the roots of the word, Hades means “not seen”. When people died they went to a place that could not be seen. But there is more to it in this instance. You see, the rich man it seems never saw Lazarus; he was blind to the plight of this child of Abraham who was laying right outside his door. So, now it was the rich man’s turn to be the unseen one. No more able to see and be seen by all the rich and powerful he became instead was put in much a similar a position that Lazarus had been in a different life.

         Jesus continues to tell us that the rich man in Hades was in torment. The Greek word for torment used here is the word basanos. This was a word that meant a certain type of touchstone. This stone was used to test gold so by rubbing this stone on a piece of gold a person could see if it really was pure gold. So, why would this word be used to describe torment? The reason is that even though the rich man looked great on the outside the truth was on the inside  he was a mess. When rubbed with the touchstone of death he was instantly confronted with the reality of who he really was, his outer mask being ripped away by death’s cruel hand. The revelation to who he truly was and the realization that there was no longer anything he could do about it, gave him great agony. This explains why the rich man describes that he is in anguish. This Greek word has roots that mean to sink down, which is what his sorrow did it was more than just skin deep it was an all consuming sorrow because he was a man who had put his hopes in worldly wealth and now he knows what a horrible waste of his life his pursuits were.This then is where the torment and anguish come from, that death is a sudden revealing of the truth of who we are with there being no longer any hope of changing that reality. The rich man’s thirst is a dramatization of his inward longings that money could never satisfy and because he never found the source of true satisfaction he was now going to have to live forever with his longing unfulfilled.

         So ingrained is this life that this rich man used to live that we find that he is unable to break free from it even in death. The rich man still refuses to acknowledge Lazarus speaking only to Abraham. If that weren’t enough, the rich man tries to command and control Lazarus, still holding on that illusion that he is rich and powerful. How pathetic he appears, trying to pretend to be in control, wasting his breath barking out orders instead of pleading for mercy admitting the wrongs of his life that had become all to clear to him. Yet even still, Abraham calls the rich man his child. This, I believe is Abraham’s way of saying to the rich man that as his child he should remember what he had been taught about righteousness and justice and come to his senses. It is this teaching about righteousness and justice, a teaching the rich man ignored at his own peril this is the reason for the great reversal of fortunes that this rich man finds himself a part of. As Abraham continues, Lazarus would not be able to do the rich mans bidding even if he wanted to because there was a rift between them and the rich man. Just what is this chasm, we might ask? This chasm was the distance that the rich man kept between himself and Lazarus. It was the rich man who had caused this divide. This big ditch was, we might say was an evil form of social distancing, this refusal to get up close and down and dirty with the hurting, suffering people of this world and in doing so perpetuating the hurting and the suffering. Once again, upon death, this truth becomes a frozen reality that isolates those who in this lifetime isolated others. This rift created by the privileged who set up their own false kingdoms is what kept them from ever being able to reach the kingdom of God.

         Well, you have to give the rich man credit because he just does not give up. His final idea is that he will beg Abraham to send Lazarus to this rich man’s family, because he had five brothers who must have been just as awful as he was. Lazarus was to go and to warn them to change their ways before it was too late. Abraham scoffed at this idea telling the rich man, “They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them.” But the rich man would not give up, telling Abraham that if someone were to go to them from the dead surely this would change their mind. But as Abraham again tells this rich man, that if his brothers were not willing to hear Moses and the Prophets then they will not be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. You see, this is what makes this story so tragic is that this rich man, who represents the Pharisees, these were supposed to be experts in the law of Moses yet they still treasured worldly wealth and ignored the poor. They should have heard loud and clear what Moses told the people of Israel in the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. There we read, “ If one of your brothers or sisters becomes poor, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother but you shall open your hand to him and lend to him sufficient to his need, whatever it may be. You shall give to them freely and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless our in all your work and in all you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in your land.Therefore, I command you, “You shall open wide your hand to your brother and sister, to the needy and to the poor.” When you read this can it be more clear as to what the people of Israel were to do when they encountered someone who was in need such as Lazarus was? What the Law spells out is the very nature of what is meant by righteousness. In the Hebrew language, righteousness is the combination of charity and justice. Justice is the giving of what is entitled to a person. If I owe a person one hundred dollars and I give them one hundred dollars that is justice. Charity is giving to someone what is not entitled to them; the gift is simply that a gift. Righteousness holds these two ideas together. How is this possible? This way of justice and charity is possible because the people of Israel were taught that all that they had given them was given in trust that they would use what God had given them in the way that God commanded them to do so. So, in a way, righteousness is a compulsory kind of giving. We have to give because what we give is not ours but God’s and as God would have us give that is the way that we must give. Now, we have to ask just why would God set things up like this? I believe God wants us to understand righteousness in this way so that we might avoid the tragedy of what happened to the rich man in our story. If the rich man would have just remembered that his wealth was a gift given to him by God, that God was trusting him to do what was right with what he had been given then the story would have changed. This rich man would have used what God had given him to help Lazarus get out of poverty. Then upon his death this rich man would have been welcomed home, to be with Father Abraham, celebrating life with Lazarus. Think how this would have changed his future. The rich man would have found the life that truly satisfies, a life of truth and peace, a peace that lasts for all eternity. This is the result of treasuring what we were always meant to treasure, this relationship with God which leads us to rich relationships with each other. May we hold on to this treasure always.To God be the glory! Amen!

 

What Is It That You Treasure?

 March 7 2021

Luke 15

         I have to say that I probably like football way too much because February has felt like a month long withdrawal period for me. I mean, now that there isn’t football to watch what I am supposed to let grab my attention? It doesn’t help that I am at the age where I have no patience for a lot of what is being promoted by all the streaming services. There is nothing fun about realizing that you have wasted two precious hours of your life because you took the bait and watched what was supposed to be a really great show. So, after much searching I’ve settled for watching murder mystery shows from the BBC of all things. One of the things I enjoy about them is that for the most part the characters all have a high degree of civility which is kind of refreshing these days. But really draws me in is how the detectives have to sort through all the various clues and subjects to figure out just who really is the guilty party. I wondered just why I found this so appealing and then one day it hit me that this searching through clues to figure out the mystery of the truth is really what I do any time I encounter the stories of the scriptures.

         Nowhere is this searching and being patient in trying to determine the truth more needed than in stories like our story for today, the story of the Prodigal Son. We have to be so grateful for Luke because he alone has given us such great stories such as this one and the story of the Good Samaritan because these stories stir in the hearts of people in such a way that they have become well known stories in the general public where those who know them may not even realize where these stories have come from. That stories such as the Prodigal Son are so well known can be thought of as being a good thing but this universal knowledge could also be a two-edged sword, in that being so well known people may think they know what this story is about but in all reality they may very well not have a clue as to the story’s true intent. I mean think about it, as the title implies, the story is about a son but in fact the story is actually about two sons and in the context in which the story is told it is actually the other son, the older one that the story is all about. The story has also been labeled with this adjective, prodigal, which is a word that few people even know what it means. What prodigal means is someone who spends lavishly and wastefully. In our every day language we might say that prodigal is a person who spends money like its going out of style.That being said it seems like the whole focus is on this one son who is a big spender yet we have to ask ourselves is this what the story is all about? Is this the truth of the story which Jesus told or perhaps is the real truth of this story found by looking at the clues that may have been missed in our haste of believing that we already know exactly what this story is all about. I have seen from watching murder mystery shows that this is a very dangerous thing to do.

         Another important part of the story that cannot be forgotten is its context. Jesus told this story on his way to Jerusalem where as he told his disciples he was to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day, be raised. And further, Jesus tells us that all who follow him must deny themselves take up their cross daily and follow him. In other words, not only is there a cross for Jesus there is a cross for us as well. This is the reason for this Lenten season that we are in, a time to examine ourselves to see if, as we have spoken of earlier, our roots go deep in our faith of God so that when tribulation and suffering come that we do not wither away in the heat of the moment. This is what Jesus teaches us in his parable of the sower. After we receive his word with joy we must then put our roots deep in our trust of God so that by faith we can endure all the way to the end and not stumble when called to suffer on account of the word. We have to keep this in mind as we read the story of what we call the Prodigal Son.

         With all that in mind, let’s try and listen to the story of the Prodigal Son as if for the first time. The story begins with Luke telling us that the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus. Now, we can read this rather matter-of-factly, oh, yes, those tax collectors, those sinners, but doesn’t everyone have a list of people who are in that category? I mean for us it is not tax collectors but drawing near to tax season we may want to put the IRS in this category. But if you stop and think about just who is the worst person you can think this is who you should put in the story here in order to understand just what the big deal was with the Pharisees and the scribes, the upright, uptight so called good people who were absolutely not one of the sinners.A few weeks ago we read from the eighth chapter of Isaiah of how skandalon was a stone that stuck up out of the ground that a person tripped on and how Isaiah described God as being such a stone for some people. This is what we are seeing with these Pharisees and scribes who thought they had God all figured out. If God was with Jesus and if God really didn’t mind hanging out with those kinds of people, then this was something about God that was going to make them get tripped up and do a header into the pavement. Jesus, of course, knew this that is why he stops his journey for a little storytelling.

         The stories Jesus begins with all center on the theme of lost and found. The first story is about a lost coin. Now, most of us wouldn’t get too excited about finding any coins which got lost in the couch cushions except if we had a sudden craving for something off the dollar menu but if instead, we had lost a twenty dollar bill or a check someone had paid us with, yes, we might get seriously our search for it. 

         The second story Jesus tells is about a lost sheep which most of us can’t relate to because most of us don’t have any sheep that could get lost. But if we remember that sheep in those days were very much like pets to their owners again we instantly understand what the search is all about. Our dog, Mazy, who rules our house came up missing a while back and it was a horrible experience. I had been out working on our driveway and had gone to the shed to get a shovel and of course she tagged along and then I finished up my work, put the shovel away and went into the house and it dawned on me that Mazy was no longer shadowing me about. So, I waited a couple of hours because she sometimes goes on extended travels, but when it was going on four hours since her appearance, I knew something was wrong. So, yes, much like the lost sheep, I searched everywhere, walking more than I have in a long time but having no luck finding her whereabouts. Exhausted, I returned home and laid down for a bit, pretty upset having no clue what might have happened to her. Our son, Matt came and continued the search and he searched around the house, and in doing so he heard a very faint cry coming from the shed. Apparently Mazy had gone in there to hunt for the critter eating my grass seed and I shut the door on her not realizing she had gone in there. So, yes there was much rejoicing when what was lost was finally found.

         So, after these two stories for a warm up to the main event, Jesus finally gets to the grand finally, a story of a father with two, not one, sons.As we listen to this story with fresh ears we must ask ourselves just what has been lost and subsequently, what has been found? Let’s not just jump to conclusions but in the fashion of the best of all murder mysteries let’s let all the clues be found and then and only then should we render a verdict. The story begins with the younger son, going to his father, and asking his father for the share of the property that is coming to him. This sounds simple enough until we realize that what he is asking for is his inheritance, something that would only be given to him upon the death of his father. Are you beginning to see what is being implied here? The son is in essence telling his father, I wish you were dead so that I might receive what is going to be mine. To put it in our language, he was telling his Dad to “drop dead”. I can only imagine the collective gasp of the crowd as they heard the son’s request. Now, if the son’s request was not shocking enough the father’s response was perhaps even more shocking because instead of giving the son a smack upside the head, the father gives in to the son’s request. The father divides up the property and then sells the property in order to give the son his share. This would a great travesty in that day because a person’s property was a sacred trust given to one’s family when they had entered into the Promised Land.Yet, even so the father went ahead and fulfilled the wish of his younger son. So, this son has this pretty big wad of cash and so he heads off to spend it like there was no tomorrow, what we might say was spending it in a prodigal manner. We are not shocked then to hear Jesus tell us that soon the money was gone. Those in the crowd must have cheered when they had heard of this son’s demise. If it wasn’t bad enough that the son was broke, we are also told that a famine came across the country he was in so it wasn’t like he could find a job anywhere. Finally, he took a job tending pigs, which to a Jewish boy was about as low as you could go. And not only that, he was so hungry that the pig food was looking pretty good. Well, at this point he begins to come to his senses and he thinks, why am I here starving when I know that my Dad’s servants have got plenty to eat. Why don’t I just go home and ask my Dad to hire me on so that I can begin to pay him back what I owe him. Now, he knows this is a long shot because he had treated his Dad pretty badly when he had left.

         At this point I imagine the crowd is thinking that this story is a pretty good tale, the young arrogant kid gets what he deserves and what they hope is that after he travels home his Father will at last do what he should have done and kick his son to the curb, or worse. But yet again, the story takes a dramatic unexpected twist. Jesus tells them that when the son is a long way off that the father sees him and he is jumping off the porch and he is sprinting down the road, his long robe hiked up so he doesn’t trip, his bare legs exposed for all to see. You see, the elders, such as the father never ran; they moved with poise and the weight of their position. So, why in the world is the father doing such a thing? Well, what isn’t obvious to us was probably evident to those first listeners to this story of Jesus. What Jesus doesn’t speak of that everyone would have known about is the community in which this father and his sons were a part of. The community, this village, knew that they were the ones who had a responsibility to keep order. They would have no trouble remembering that in the twenty first chapter of Deuteronomy that if a family had a son who was stubborn and rebellious, someone who was obviously a glutton and a drunkard that they could bring that son before the community and the community would stone them to death. Yes, it seems harsh, but it was a way for a community to keep order, to keep son’s from becoming a disgrace not only to their parents but also their community. So, the father has to run and meet the son before he gets to the village gates or there was a good chance that they would take care of the son as they had wanted to do so for a long time. The father does not want harm to come to his son so he reaches his son while on the road. As Jesus tells us, the father felt compassion, the word in Greek meaning to hurt in your guts, this is depths of this father’s love for his son. The son at this moment reaches in his pocket with his little speech all prepared, and begins, “Father…”, but surprisingly the father could care less. The father instead calls for his servants to bring the best robe, bring a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. This is the father’s way of telling the community, through which they must pass to go back home, that they are not to lay a hand upon the son as the son has been accepted back by the father and the fathers mark is upon the son.

         Now it is right here that I believe we should hit the pause button on our story to think about what just happened. Have you figured out what was lost but now is found? Most of the time people will just go, duh, this is a no brainer, it’s the father who has lost his son and now has found him. But, in the other stories, the one who has lost a coin or a sheep, they are the ones who got up and went searching for it. The father never went in search of his son, though; isn’t that interesting. No, I believe that it was the son who realized that he had lost something, that he had lost the most precious thing that he had ever had, his relationship with his father. When the son realized his loss, he decided to go and see if he could find this relationship even if upon finding that relationship he would be a servant because a relationship with his father meant that at least he would have enough to eat. There is the tension of not knowing if he would find this relationship because of the mess he had made when he had left but even so he had to go and search for it because it was what he valued most. Now, another thing which becomes evident is that the son’s confession of wrong doesn’t even play a part in the story. No, we might say that forgiveness actually comes before any acknowledgement on the son’s part. We might say that the father, portraying God, offers forgiveness even before there is sin to be forgiven. In other words, forgiveness has always been a possibility because of God being a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. Because God is responsible for our care he loves us whether we love him or we don’t. This is what we see when the rebellious son returns home and his father wraps his arms around his son and kisses his son’s neck. The father does so because this is who he is not because of anything on the part of the son. One more thing we learn from the story so far is that the father protects the son, at a cost of shame to himself, in order that the son might live. The community represents the law; the father represents mercy and grace. The community represents what the son deserved; the father represents the unexpected gift that saves his son. When the father states that the son was dead but is now alive this was more than just a metaphorical statement. The reality is that the son was in grave danger had the father not intervened.

         Well, all is well, the story ends with a party and an abundance of roast beef sandwiches for all. Or is there more. If we stop here it would be like telling a joke without the punchline.  It is this last part that is the reason for the whole story. Jesus tells us that while the fathers party for his son was going on the older son was out in the field. When the older son found out about the party, the older son was angry and refused to go in. Right here we must again pause the story. Do you see that now it is the older son who is being the rebellious disobedient son? In response to this flagrant anger at his father, the father does the unexpected. Instead of telling his servants to grab his older son by the scruff of the neck and drag him to the party, the father himself goes to the son and pleads for him to come and celebrate. When the older son responds he tells his father what a fine son he has been, how little he has ever asked for from his father, a certain dig against his brother who had asked for his full inheritance. Not only that but the older brother also slanders his younger brother accusing him of spending his money on prostitutes. What becomes clear is that what bothers this older brother is that the younger brother had not received what was demanded by the law, a certain death. Yet what the older son does not realize is that ironically enough, that because of his rebellion at his fathers orders to come to the party, it is now he, the older son who stands under the same judgment as his brother. The only difference is that through his actions, the older son proves that he treasures the law and judgment more than he treasures the relationship with his father.In refusing his father’s pleading, the older brother remains under judgment while the younger son who had found the treasure he had lost stands forgiven. The older son who had always been with the father never knew what a treasure he had so it was never apparent that he had ever lost this most precious gift. 

         So, what is the message we need as we prepare for the cross? The message is that the treasure we should always seek for is the treasure of a relationship with our Heavenly Father; this is the treasure worth giving our very life for. And secondly, the only thing that can keep us from experiencing the joy of our fathers forgiveness is our own refusal to forgive those we feel are unworthy of being forgiven and in doing so we will find ourselves standing out side the joy of eternal life. Amen!

         

 

Remembering Life

 February 28 2021

Luke 13:1-30

         As many people know, I grew up on farm. I also farmed myself for twenty years raising pigs until they no longer smelled like money and instead they just smelled. I say all this, to try and provide some context when I tell you that this past week, the old barn that had been the constant throughout has been taken down. It had lived a good long life but it just had become too expensive to keep it up and maintain it. Now, its no shock that I am saddened by its departure but as I thought about it what made that old barn precious to me was not the structure itself but it was instead the memories that were made in that place. I have memories of building forts with hay bales up in the mow and of learning the lesson that if you got yourself up there you’re going to have to get yourself down. That old barn was where I learned to care for animals.  Before I was able to walk, my Mom would take me with her to tend to the turkey chicks that lived in the barn that would eventually grow to be somebodies Thanksgiving dinner. As I got older, the barn housed a little bit of everything, beef cattle and pigs. The barn was where I used to milk a cow after school and where I got to help my sister’s horse to birth her foal. I could go on, and tell of more unpleasant memories such as hauling manure too many times to count but even so, good and bad, I have memories, memories which become stories that are who I am. So, even though the barn is now gone, the memories that happened in that place remain and I realize that these memories are the real treasure that I hold on to.

         So, when you learn that in scripture, the way that God’s people were to act and live is directly tied to memory, I can empathize with this idea. Memories are precious to all of us and God in his infinite wisdom has directly tied how we act and live on this act of remembrance because God knew that when we treasure our memories we will also treasure the way that God desires us to act.

         This way that God desires us to act is at the forefront of what this season of Lent is all about. This is our second week in the season of Lent and as we learned last week, Lent is the season where we follow Jesus all the way to Calvary. But not just Calvary, not just the cross but to go further to witness the empty tomb, the victory of Jesus over sin and death. Yet, to experience the joy of Easter we must also endure the suffering, pain and death of Good Friday; it is impossible to experience one without the other. As Jesus carried his cross, as he laid down his life as the greatest act of love, so too to follow him means that we must also carry our cross and be willing to endure the suffering and persecution that comes with being a follower of Christ. The question is this then, are we ready to go the distance with Jesus? This is why this Lenten season is so important because this is when we once again examine ourselves and see if we are indeed battle ready.  Jesus spoke to the dangers of this season when in his most famous parable, the parable of the sower, Jesus compared some of those who had received his word as seeds that had fallen on rocky ground that quickly sprouted but because they had no roots they  withered and died. These Jesus tells us are people who receive the word with joy yet because they have no root in themselves when suffering and persecution happen on account of the word they stumble and become a scandal. Jesus tells this parable not to point fingers at those who those who falter but rather he tells us this as a warning that it is not enough for us to receive his word with joy we also need to have a faith that is deeply rooted, to have an udder confidence in God so that when we suffer, when we are persecuted, when following Christ results in the losing of our life we can do so without hesitation because we know all be well with this God we believe in. So, this season of Lent is the season where we put our roots deep, to know more and more that God is our source of life and to develop a closer more confident relationship with him.

         In the first week of Lent, we heard the story of how, one night,  Jesus went up on the mountain with three of his disciples to pray. As Jesus was praying we are told of how he began to glow with the glory of God, and Jesus was transfigured, changed his face became like that of the Other. Then there were beside Jesus, Moses and Elijah who were talking with him about the journey Jesus was going to undertake, his exodus to Jerusalem. And if all this was not enough, there came a voice from heaven, the voice of the Heavenly Father, declaring that Jesus was his beloved chosen Son; listen to him. This word,”listen” is the first part of the great command found in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy. There, listen is followed by the commands that we are to love God with all of our hearts, all of our souls and all of our minds. But here in the story of the transfiguration, the word “listen” is followed “to him” In other words, to love God is now equal with listening to Jesus. What Jesus was saying was that we must love one another, even our enemies, to be even willing to lay down our lives if necessary. So, what we learned in the first week of Lent is that in order for us to love God we must love each other, even our enemies, to treat all we meet in the same manner we would want to be treated. There can be no separation of our love of God and our love of each other. When faced with loving the next person we meet we can have confidence that in doing so we are loving God.

         Today, in our second week of Lent I believe as I stated earlier that the lesson to be learned has to do very much with memory yet I am also aware that this is not readily evident. No, what is evident when you look over this section of scripture is the theme that ties them together is death, judgment and life. Did you come to that conclusion as we read what Luke has recorded for us? I mean death is pretty evident in the first set of stories in this thirteenth chapter as we hear about how some men from Galilee had come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and how Pilate had them killed at approximately the same time as their sacrifices were slain. Now, we have to read between the lines to understand that these men from Galilee were most likely zealots, men who wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire. They had come to Jerusalem to plan and plot their insurrection and Pilate had caught wind of what they were up to. They had offered their sacrifices in hopes God would look favorable on their actions but instead they found themselves sacrificed as well. The people who had gathered around Jesus told Jesus about this story to which Jesus replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? Right here Jesus tears open the real reason as to why they told this story which was to tell a tale about some really bad sinners. I mean, if they hadn’t sinned in some way would they have died like they did? To this Jesus answers an absolute,”No”. The suffering of these Galileans at the hand of Pilate was no indication that they were anymore sinful than anyone else. Then Jesus adds words that should have caught his audiences attention and ours as well when he says, “But unless you repent, you will all like wise perish.” Jesus goes on to tell them his own story about eighteen people who had been killed constructed a tower in Jerusalem. Jesus asked the crowd around him, “Were these people worse offenders than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? Jesus asks this question because he knew that this was the mindset of those who had gathered around him. To those who had this mindset he had a word, “Repent”. In other words, this mindset that thought the manner in which people died indicated whether or not just how sinful people were is not of God. No, it is not how people died that indicated their sinfulness but rather how they lived, this was the real issue, the real indicator of a person’s sinfulness. This is why Jesus told them they had to repent because as long as they continued to look for sinfulness in the dead they were going to miss their own sinfulness in their living. Are you beginning to see the themes of death, judgment and life?

         Well, if you didn’t see it in this first story I hope you catch it in the next story, a parable Jesus tells the crowd concerning a fig tree. A man had planted a fig tree and he had high hopes of eating some sweet delicious figs off of that tree but alas for three straight years he had been disappointed. So, he ordered his gardener to fire up the chainsaw and cut it down. Now, the gardener must have been a fairly optimistic fellow because he pleads with the owner to let him work on this tree another year, put some manure around it, give it some TLC then if it bears fruit then great but if it doesn’t bear fruit then bye bye tree. So, what was the criteria as to what made the tree a good tree or a bad tree? The criteria was whether or not the tree bore fruit.How the tree lived, whether or not during its lifetime it bore the fruit that was expected this is what was important. Judgment and the following death only came if and when the tree was found to not have any fruit.  Now, if anyone in the crowd had any sense at all to them they would hav figured out that God expected their life to bear fruit otherwise at some point there would come a time when a judgment call would have to be made because just like with trees unless we bear fruit we are as good as dead. As Jesus himself tells us in the fifteenth chapter of John’ gospel, every branch that does not bear fruit the vinedresser, our Heavenly Father, takes away. So, again what is important is how we live not the manner in which we die, just as Jesus had earlier said, this is what is important.

         Now, it is here in Luke’s account that Luke places a story about Jesus healing a woman on the Sabbath while he was in the middle of teaching in the synagogue.  It wouldn’t seem so strange that Luke has written it like he did if he hadn’t at the end of this miracle story continued with the same theme that we need to live a life that bears fruit. So, it seems as if Luke has sandwiched this miracle on the Sabbath right in the middle of teachings about life, death and judgment. Naturally, it has to make us curious just why Luke would do something like this? With this in mind then we are going to look for clues as to what Luke is trying to point us to as we study this miracle performed by Jesus on the Sabbath.

         The story tells us that while Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath he was interrupted by a woman who had a disabling, weak, spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. Now, I want to pause the story here and ask just how did Jesus know and how is it that Luke records that this woman had a weak, disabling, spirit for eighteen years? The only way of knowing such personal information is that Jesus, in the midst of his teaching stops and approaches this woman and begins to have a conversation with her. The implication of her having as what is described as a weak, disabling, spirit is that even though she has the will to stand erect her body will not cooperate. Once again this is very interesting because this is the very way that Paul describes our sinful situation, that we may will to do good but our flesh, out bodies just don’t get it done. So, Jesus says to this women who is unable to stand erect “Woman you are freed from your disability.” Further, Jesus touches her, placing his hands upon her, perhaps to steady her as she begins to straighten her back after such a long time looking down. When at last she stood tall once again she, of course began to praise and glorify God. Now, you would think that the people in the synagogue would have gotten into this holy wonderful moment but no, as Luke records it they were indignant.The leader of the synagogue scolded Jesus, “ There are six days on which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed not on the Sabbath day,”It is right here that you realize that something has been forgotten.  First, what was forgotten was that loving God and loving others is the first and greatest command. All other commands are given to create and develop the mindset whereby the greatest command will get done. We begin to see this in what Jesus teaches us next when he tells the leader of the synagogue and all those who support him, that they are are nothing more than mere actors putting on a good holy face when they are nothing at all like that. Didn’t they even remember that on the Sabbath they were allowed to untie their oxen and their donkeys and lead them to water? So, why would there be anything wrong with with allowing this daughter of Abraham who had been bound by Satan for eighteen years to be set free on the Sabbath? So, what Jesus is emphasizing about the Sabbath is this element of freedom and rightfully so. In the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, we hear Moses recite the Ten Commandments. What is interesting is that the reason for observing the Sabbath has been changed from what was given at Mt. Sinai. In the twentieth chapter of Exodus we first hear of the Ten Commandments. There the reason given for keeping the Sabbath is that in six days the Lord created heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy. But when the people of God prepared themselves to enter the Promised Land, the reason they were told to observe the Sabbath was that the people were to remember that they had once been slaves  in the Land of Egypt and the Lord had brought them out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord God commanded them to keep the Sabbath day. Now, it is uncertain why there was this change from the time when the Ten Commandments were first received until this reading in the book of Deuteronomy but it may have something to do with the great emphasis in Deuteronomy on justice and righteousness. This way of rightly dealing with people had was to be born out of a memory, the memory of being a slave, the memory of a God who had heard their cry, a memory of being set free. This was a memory of the gift of God’s deliverance, his grace.God in his grace had set them free so that they could be responsible, not seeing themselves any longer as victims but rather as people able to choose life.They were also to remember that in their dealings with strangers they had once been strangers down in Egypt. They were to use their memories of living in a strange country, what it felt to be the outsider there in order for them to empathize with others and to begin relationships. This is what they were to remember every Sabbath day. This is what the leader of the Sabbath had forgotten, that this holy day was about freedom and that there was no better day to have a woman set free from her enslavement than right there on that Sabbath day.

         I think this is what Luke was attempting to do, is to let his audience know that God had given them a wonderful gift in this special day called the Sabbath. This was their day to stop and remember that God in his grace had set them free from slavery, the slavery of sin where they blamed everyone else for the reason for their lack of love.  God had set them free, just as he had very visibly set this woman free so that they could love without any concern for themselves. This is what the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven are all about. In order for the tiny mustard seed to become a great plant it had to die. Only by dying to what it was, a seed, could it become what God created it to be, a great plant. In the same way, the leaven had to be lost within a large measure of flour so that by not remaining what it was, a small lump, it could become what it was meant to be, a great loaf of bread. This is the beauty of the freedom that God has given to us, the freedom to give our whole self, even unto what looks like death in order to become the greatness that God has designed us to be.

         So, knowing this then Luke brings us once again back to the themes that he has began with death, judgment and life by having someone ask Jesus, “Will those who are saved be few? Jesus answers by saying that we are to strive and enter by the narrow door. It is not easy to understand what Jesus means by this saying but in Matthews version of the same teaching it is easy to understand that to enter the narrow door is to love our enemies, to love others in the same way that God loves, caring even for the just and the unjust.Again, we can only love like this when we remember what it feels like to be a stranger, to be unwanted, unloved, and misunderstood. When we remember these feelings then we will be able to place ourselves in their shoes and seek to understand and love those who are different than us, even those who are opposite of who we are. Only when we love like this can Jesus state that we are people that he knows, people who may enter in and eat at the great banquet at the end of time. So let us remember that it is not how we die but rather it is how we live; this is what truly matters. Amen!