Three Moms and a Baby

Exodus 2: 1-10

I could have very easily entitled this sermon ‘Five Moms and a Baby’ since there really are five prominent women who take the opening two chapters of the Book of Exodus by storm.  There are the two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah and then three unnamed women of which we will hear more about in a minute.

Exodus opens with a new King arising over Egypt.  He could care less about Joseph which was bad for the Israelites who, by now, were tipping the population charts in their favor. This did not make for a happy Pharaoh by any means.  So he made their lives miserable, more miserable than usual. Forced labor, imposing menial and backbreaking tasks, Pharaoh was ruthless.

He orders the midwives of the Hebrews, Shiphrah and Puah to murder all of the male children when they were born.  But they did not.  They loved God, they feared God and they let the little boy babies live.  “Why did you do this?” yelled Pharaoh.  “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” they said.  “The Hebrew women give birth too fast before any respecting midwife can get to them.” They answered.  Sneaky?  Yes!  Did they save lives?  Most definitely.

"Baby Moses" by He Qi



God liked their acts of civil disobedience!  Shiphrah and Puah stood up to the mighty Pharaoh and they were rewarded by God; they had families of their own and the Hebrews became even more prolific and strong.  But Pharaoh continued on his murderous rampage and life dragged on for the Hebrews.

Let’s pick up Exodus the 2^nd chapter.

Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.  The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him for three months.  When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.

His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.  The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.  When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it.  When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son.  She named him Moses, ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

Enter three more women, all unnamed.  There was the mother of Moses who, later in chapter 6 is named as Yocheved.  There was Pharaoh’s daughter who was the Princess and then there was Moses’ sister whom we later know to be Miriam.  But for now, we don’t know anything of these women.  All we know of is their motherly acts toward this little baby boy.  It doesn’t matter whether one was the birth mother and the others adoptive mothers, all, in some way acted as mother to Moses.

I always struggle with preaching on Mother’s Day.  It can be quite sensitive for some women on so many levels, I understand that.  It can illicit sadness and emptiness for some or dashed dreams for others.  It can affirm decisions made by some and it can remind others of their remarkable or unremarkable relationships with own their mothers.  Mother’s Day is a joy filled with complications.  But so is life because we are relational creatures.

I do believe though that we miss an opportunity for theological reflection if we let the day pass by.  If we are all, male and female, mother and father, created in God’s image then God has a stake in Mothers Day and the inherent gift that nurturing women possess. Men, you too have been given these gifts so don’t turn down the volume on your set.

God had a very large stake in our story from Exodus.  God’s providential handprints are all over this story of mothers – birth mothers, adoptive mothers and siblings who act in motherly roles are the ones who love and nurture Moses, the future leader of the Israelites who will eventually lead them out of slavery into the promised land.  What God needs to accomplish, God will through unlikely sources and the most usual circumstances.

Who knew that the one who would lead a great band of people out of slavery, provide for their needs and eventually get them to their promised land would be birthed, nurtured and grown by five women?    If Moses were alive today surely he would be a candidate for the psychiatrist’s couch.

Sometimes our mothering comes from unlikely sources and unusual people.  People whom you would never think could possibly give you what a mother can give which is unconditional love, nurture, support, and a space to grow, really is the person who can extend that motherly love.

And what is motherly love?  Well in the case of Moses it was Shiphrah and Puah whose willful disobedience of Pharaoh let little boy babies live.  They did the right thing rather than the ordered or expected thing.  As a mother I had to advocate tirelessly for one of my children, threatening the educational system with legal action so that he could get the resources he needed. 

It was Moses birth mother who unselfishly floated him away so that he could have a chance at life.  We hear of heart rending decisions that women make who cannot care for their child and give them up for adoption or place them in the care of another family member. 

It was his sister who so lovingly protected him and watched out for him when his own mother couldn’t be there.  Foster mothers, grandmothers, even siblings are those who step in so that a child has parental influence in their lives, and it was Pharaoh’s daughter who was able to nurture him and provide for him, and who was compassionate towards him. Through these women God acted.  Through these women God’s compassionate and maternal nature is shown.

God has the capacity to love us beyond all human understanding.  Which is a very good thing, believe me.  We cannot fathom the wideness of God’s mercy, to do so would place upon God human constraints and shortcomings.  But we can know God through the love and the faces of others. 
This is why Mother’s Day is a joy filled with complications. There are disappointments to be sure but God gives you what you need through others who provide you with mothering love.

Today is about mothers but it is more about God who acts through mothers. We all need motherly love no matter our age. We all can extend motherly love and let God work through us.

A friend of mine, Eva, began an organization named “Mothers’ Day Movement” after she read an article by Nickolas Kristoff in the New York Times. He noted that we spend around $14 billion on Mother’s Day. MDM encourages people to donate money, that would have been spent on gifts and food, to a well researched organization that benefits mothers on a global level. Each year is different.

This year it is ‘Saving Mothers’ an organization that aims to reduce maternal mortality in childbirth in underdeveloped countries.

This is God working through one mother to make other mothers lives better.

May the mothering spirit of God be with you today and may all of your tomorrows being filled with divine maternal presence.
Amen.

Twined Together, Abiding in Love

John 15: 1-8

Our scripture from the Gospel of John today is the last of the “I am” statements that we find only in this Gospel.  “I am what I am” is not one of them; that “I am” statement belongs to Popeye.  Jesus is more concrete when he claims, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, and I am the way, the truth and the life.  Finally Jesus says, I am the vine and God is the vine grower.  Our morning’s scripture for reflection is from the Gospel of John, fifthteenth chapter.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

I’ve never had a vineyard, or even one grapevine but I do know that there are certain wise and prudent practices that must happen in order to grow healthy, delicious grapes.  I’m sure that you winemakers are very aware of what makes for a really grape good.  Grape plants need to be planted in soil with good drainage, they need lots of warm sun and they should be trained to grow on a trellis so that the grapes can grow freely and unencumbered and so that fungus doesn’t decide to take up residence and ruin it for everybody.

Grapevines also need to be pruned like most all flowering and fruit producing plants.  In fact it is essential for the vines to be pruned.  The best grapes that the vine produces are closest to the central vine, that’s where the nutrients are concentrated.  You can’t let the other little shoots and branches ramble on their merry way because they will steal the energy that is needed for healthy fruit.  When that happens you wind up with puny and less fruit.  Sounds simple, right?  Probably not so much however in application.

Vines, vineyards, branches and grapes, planting and pruning, Jesus uses plain practical illustrations in metaphorical form to introduce priorities for Christian living. The disciples were salt of the earth kind of guys.  Farmers, fishermen, grape growers, boat makers, when it came to their lot in life and their stature they were plain old folk, unpretentious and unassuming, hard working and struggling.

But now, added to the daily challenges of their first century agricultural life, they are trying to define what it means to live in community with one another in a contentious land and as followers of Jesus who are bound together by his love and commands.  This challenge too is not so different for us Jesus-followers today. 

Like the person sitting across from you in the pews, and the ones in the balcony and the one in the pulpit, we each desire to make meaning for our lives, to engage in meaningful work, to love and to be loved, to do the ‘right’ things in life, to be accepted for who we are, and to have our soul fed and nurtured.  And, we each have been given gifts for ministry.  How do we negotiate our special and unique gifts alongside of and maybe even twisted around one another like branches on a vine do? 

How do we live in community while utilizing our gifts in a culture that promotes individualism and self-expression?  None of us are mavericks! John’s passage illustrates this and challenges our Western way of thinking.  It’s not about ‘me’ it’s about us.  Even in this culture of self-expression and individualism we are taught here by Jesus to remain interwoven together on the branch that God has lovingly grown for us.  When we remain as branches on a vine, taken care of by God we are never alone and we will produce rich and succulent fruit.

We live in Christian community so that when tragedies happen in Wilton or her surrounding areas like they did this past week we can grieve together the loss.  We can comfort and console one another through words of encouragement and acts of love.  We pray together to strengthen ourselves and the people affected by tragedy. We come to church and find community in our common lot, where we can sit beside one another and know, perhaps even without using words, that we share a common bond.  This is the very best of the church; branch’s twined together in Christ.  

And what keeps us twined together is that we abide in Christ as he abides in us.  And we know that he was all about love.  Sweet love, tender love, correcting love, motivating love.  Love is the motivation for all that we do and all that we say.  “The mark of community is how it loves, not who are its members”, says Candler School of Theology, Dean Gail O’Day.  What matters is that we love deeply and thoughtfully together.

Abide in love; Christ in us and we in him.  Abide, that is to live. It’s not a word that we probably use too often, sounds a little ‘Old English’ to me.  Eugene Peterson in The Message, hears it as “Live in me.  Make your home in me just as I do in you.”  Jesus is the life giving vine in which we are to make our home.  It is to be an “intimate and organic” relationship.

He is where your love is to reside.  And, more important you are where Jesus resides and when Jesus resides or abides in you, you can endure anything that comes your way.  When you acknowledge that he abides in you then you can bear the toll that living takes.  Once he stakes claim in you, once he moves in and puts out the welcome mat, he never leaves.  Knowing this enables us to overcome the adversities and distractions that are present to us each day. 

Even elderly folks in a nursing home, with all varying degrees of mental illness and dementia will remarkably join in the Lord’s Prayer or the 23^rd Psalm or one of their favorite hymns when they seemingly are completely out of it.  That’s because Christ took up residence in their hearts and never left even though their mind has.  “Abide in me”, he says.

The disciples dropped their fishing nets, left their homes but they were never homeless.  Live in me, abide in me was Jesus’ invitation to them and it is here they found their home.  Let us also live in Jesus where countless others have made their home; twined together abiding in love.

Amen.

Even Behind Closed Doors

John 20: 19-31

                                                                            Piliero

A.  Post Easter Appearances of Jesus

Last week we heard the resurrection account from the Gospel of Mark.  Mark is the oldest of the Gospels as well as the least descriptive.  There are no embellishments.    Mark ends shortly after we hear about Jesus’ victory over the tomb without much fanfare.  In the words of Dragnet’s Joe Friday Mark it’s ‘just the facts ma’m, just the facts.’ There is a post resurrection appearance but it only takes a verse or two to tell the story. 

The Gospel of Matthew also ends quickly with only one appearance of Jesus after his resurrection.

Luke on the other hand tells us the beautiful story which we refer to as the Road to Emmaus where Jesus walks alongside of two disciples and yet they didn’t know who he was.  Jesus reveals himself when he blesses the bread and gives it to them; it is after that that they recognize him.

                                              

The Gospel of John is clearly the most theologically imbued Gospel. Outside of next week when we will hear from Luke, the next six Sundays we will be focused on John.   John contains a high “Christology” meaning that Jesus is already portrayed throughout the Gospel as the risen Son of God. 

I know, Christology, right?  It’s a seminary ‘SAT’ word!  It’s a word that seminary professors use regularly and their students who want to do well in their classes.  But high Christology is what makes John such an endearing Gospel to read.  Jesus say’s “I am the vine and you are the branches, I am the resurrection and the life, and I am the good shepherd”.  After reading the Gospel of John there is no doubt that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.   

B.  Jesus, the Disciples and Thomas

It’s too bad that Thomas didn’t have the Gospel of John in his back pocket to pull out and read when he doubted that Jesus was none other than Jesus the Christ.  Would have made it so much easier for Thomas.  Throughout time a lot has been written about this doubting Thomas, this somewhat arrogant disciple.  Many menacing sermons have been written about Thomas who had a few qualms about who Jesus really was.  Guess we all have doubts about our faith at times but there is so much more that is happening in this passage that begs our close reflection.

It still had not been twenty four hours since Mary Magdalene stood weeping at that empty tomb and Jesus, disguised as the gardener, appears to her.  She does as he requests and tells the disciples that she has seen her Lord.  They didn’t know what to do and they needed some time to process what had all just happened over this particular Passover. 

A joyful procession, anxiety in Jerusalem, an intimate meal, betrayal, denial, whipping and weeping, death and then this resurrection.  That was their week.  It is no wonder that they are hole up in a house with the doors locked.  I would be too. Who wouldn’t be afraid?

It’s through these locked up, shut up tight, barred doors that Jesus comes to them.  This is his second appearance to his followers after his resurrection.

“Peace” he says, “Peace be with you”.   That familiar, strong and calming voice.  Perhaps it sounded like a parent’s lullaby, or a favorite hymn from your childhood, or like a beloved story told to you over and over even though you know the end, or even a voice calling the sea to stop raging.  It was calm. 

In those four words, “Peace be with you”, Jesus is really saying, be still, be calm, relax, let your fear and doubts melt away, let the wholeness of my love reside in your heart.  He is saying, I am with you.  I will not fail you.  Trust in me.  I will walk next to you wherever you want and need to go.  I’ll be by your side even on those roads that you really shouldn’t be going down.  I’ll manage to get in when the doors have been closed.

Jesus shows them his wounds and again says, “Peace be with you.  God has sent me, so now I’m sending you.”  He breathes on them and at once they are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus gives them his peace, he commissions them for greater work and he empowers them to go out and do this work. 

But Thomas wasn’t there for the first Jesus sighting, he didn’t hear the others story.  Too bad because we know how second hand stories particularly second hand stories of miraculous events, never quite pull the same punch.  Well, a week later when they all were gathered in that house, Thomas too, again with the door shut, Jesus comes to them.  Once more he says, “Peace be with you.”   His reassurance opens their hearts except for Thomas.

But Jesus didn’t tell Thomas off, or give him a good talking to, no reprimands, chastisements, or sarcasm.  Simply he says, “Peace” like he did the first time he came to the others and allows Thomas all the time and evidence that he needs to come around.

C.  It’s all about Jesus

This passage is not so much about Thomas and his doubts.  He’s human just like us.  It’s really about Jesus.  It’s about his tenacity to find us in our deepest, most locked away places.  Those places where we shut him out rather than let him in.  It is about his persistent love and his ability to be incredibly patient with our human foibles and less than desirable habits.

Just when the disciples didn’t know what to do next and rather than take a chance on the unknown outside of the walls, they decided to stay behind a locked door.  It’s Jesus who comes to them.  It’s Jesus who shows them what to do next. It’s Jesus who lifts them up and instills the spirit within them.  Even behind closed doors Jesus comes.  

D.  Our Closed Doors

We’ve all sat behind doors in our lives that have shut out the world, or worse shut out those whom we love.  Perhaps there is something overwhelming you and in order to deal with it you just completely close down.  I marvel at babies who fall asleep in their carriage even though they are at a parade with noise and music, cannons and people.  They just shut down

While it may seem ok at first, the door gets locked and then dead bolted and then even we ourselves can’t get out.  It’s not a healthy or good place to be.  Thank goodness God doesn’t let us alone but persistently and consistently figures out how to enter in and grants us that beautifully understanding peace.

 

Remember all the while Jesus says, “Peace”, “Peace be with you.” He says, I bring you my peace of love and patience, understanding and guidance.  Be assured that Christ enters into this process with you; he’ll help you with the inner workings of the spirit and discernment.  Be open and believe that you will emerge confidently in his name.  You will.

May that same Spirit who was breathed on the disciples behind their closed door light upon us to comfort and energize us for whatever the future holds. 

Amen.



Resurrection Vision

Mark 16: 1-8

The dawn revealed ever so slightly a ribboned sky of deep blues and indigo, some magenta with varying hues of orange.   As the sun began to rise over the mountains of Moab, over the Jordan River, and finally over the Mount of Olives Mary Magdalene, Mary, James mother, and Salome got the packages of spices they had purchased at the market and walked to Jesus’ tomb.  The chill of the early morning made them wrap their scarves more tightly around their shoulders.  There was no time when Jesus was crucified to properly prepare his body for burial since it was the Sabbath.  So they went now, in the early morning of the first day of the week to anoint him.

They knew, more than likely, that Joseph of Arimethia had a very large stone placed in front of the tomb, so robbers wouldn’t break in and take Jesus’ body.  But the problem for the women was that it was big and very heavy.  All they wanted to do was see him, to touch his broken body for one last time and to slather on him the spices for burial and this boulder would make it extremely difficult for them to do so. 

By the time they came down the hill towards the tomb the sun was beginning to shine and they saw an unlikely and incredible sight.  The stone had been rolled away from the cave tomb; their anxieties turned to fear, not surprising.

They went in panicked, their faces probably registered trepidation and fear.  They didn’t see Jesus’ body but they did see someone dressed in white.  He reassured them, “Do not be afraid. You’re looking for Jesus, but you see he’s not here, he has been raised.”  The women stepped back with their jaws dropped open in disbelief.  Then the man spoke, “Go tell the disciples and especially Peter the one who denied him; tell them that Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee where they are to meet him.”  Certainly this must have appeared to be some sort of cryptic message to the women.

They dropped their spice boxes, turned around and fled from the tomb.  They hiked up their robes and began to run back on the same path that they had just traversed.  Terror struck. Amazed.  Quite afraid. They were seized with dread and told no one as they ran.

This is not quite the resurrection story that we celebrate today.  Today we have come knowing that the tomb is already empty, that Jesus has accomplished everything that was sent to do.  He conquered death and sin and he soon will ascend to heaven to prepare a place for us.  All that in a nutshell.

Christ is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!  It is our Easter mantra.  It is a prophetic statement that we claim over and over again.  And unlike those women who first encountered an empty grave, an empty grave does not scare us, we are NOT afraid.  I don’t see any hair raised or terror struck faces here today. 

‘Christ is Risen’ was not a glorious resurrection phrase for them as it is for us; it would have been ambiguous and filled with more questions than answers.  It wouldn’t be Christ is Risen! for the women but rather, Christ….is Risen?  Their lives were changed no doubt to a new reality where they had to recast their vision, reassess their lives and build new ones with Jesus dead and gone.

We’ve come a long way from that first hour and those first few days.  ‘We love to tell the story’ as Kate Hankey wrote in her hymn of so long ago, ‘we love to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love’.  It is the story of redemption and hope and of God’s love for us.  It is the story of life not death.  It is a narrative that unfolded long ago in a distant land but continues to give us a lens through which we can see our lives.

We have all experienced resurrection at some point in time, probably often if we stop to think about it.  Resurrection is a pivotal moment when you suddenly see dawn emerging out of the darkness of the night, when your torrential tears begin to subside, when your broken heart begins to mend, when just the mere sound of children’s voices or the springtime warble of a red bird once again brings you immeasurable joy. 

At this moment God has parted the waters of chaos and has guided you out of spiritual and emotional bondage.  You are ushered into God’s complete divine presence and grace.  We can emerge stronger than ever in the knowledge that through Christ and his death we are beneficiaries of resurrection vision not just once but as often as needed.

Years ago a man named Bill dropped by my office one day and asked if he could just sit and talk.  “Sure” I said, even though I was in the middle of writing a sermon and really didn’t want to be disturbed.  Bill was a pipefitter and a crusty old man.  He would sit and ‘witness’ to me like evangelicals do and I’d think to myself, come on Bill, I know all this stuff already, I know Jesus saves, I know about the ‘Footsteps in the Sand’ poem.  He would always start off with something about ‘Footsteps in the Sand’.  But God saved me and put me on mute so that I could listen and hear Bill’s story. 

I finally realized that Bill came to tell me his story of redemption.  He came to share with me, to witness and to tell me the same thing over and over again about his former addiction, his adult dysfunctional children who moved back home, and about his beloved wife.  He told me about how God picked him up every step of the way and carried him to a place where he could begin again with resurrection vision. 

Often Bill came for a visit.  And it’s almost as if the minute he sat down he pushed ‘play’ on his life’s tape recorder  and when he left my office he would push ‘rewind’ to get ready for his next visit. Our talks were always the same. Through his visits I learned patience, and beyond that, that once someone has been redeemed and resurrected to a new vision of their life they cannot help but tell other people as often as they can.  His message to me was I have been saved through Christ and an empty tomb is grace, unconditionally. 

Christ’s resurrection does not leave us in the same place.  It simply cannot.  It does not leave us standing at an empty tomb wringing our hands.  What’s the point of that?  His resurrection asks us, ‘What is life?’ “What is my life, what is your life?” ‘How will you choose to live the life that you are given?’  ‘Since you are a witness to the resurrection today what meaning will you make of your life that will embody a resurrection vision?’  A lot of people live lives of missed opportunities and broken dreams without ever taking accepting the gift of resurrection so they can see anew. Bill lived the vision for his life that freed him from his troubles and to see beyond his suffering, will you do so for yours as well?  Christ death and resurrection are over and done with.  Your life is what counts now in light of it all. 

Christ is Risen!  It’s the boldest statement that we will ever be asked to make in our lifetime. 

The Mary’s and Salome did eventually tell someone because, today, thousands of years later we say with conviction….Christ is Risen!  We speak today for those women who were gripped with fear.  We know there is nothing to fear, only resurrection vision to embrace.  We may not knock on someone’s door just to chat and tell them the poem of Footsteps in the Sand but we can tell our own story.  We each have one, you can’t fool me.

This is the Easter message.  Christ’s story, our story, elaborately knit by incredible redeeming love.  We must witness.  If you don’t believe me this year, come back next year and check in, the doors are always open.  By then I will have had a chance to rewind the tape to that old, old story of love…Christ is Risen – He is Risen Indeed!  

So Be It!

Amen.

Untie that Donkey

Mark 11: 1-11

Palm Sunday by William Hemmerling

It was Passover and Jerusalem was the place to be at Passover.  Jews from all over first century Palestine would make pilgrimage and gather to remember how God had ‘passed over’ their homes in Egypt during the slaughter of the innocents.  They remember how God had protected them from the plagues and how God had brought them out of slavery.

Jerusalem was also the seat of the Roman government in the Mediterranean world in the Roman Empire.  The people were burdened with taxes, economic issues, systems of land debt to the Romans, and Herod, a puppet ruler of Rome was not a happy, or skilled ruler for “all” the people. The people resented him.  They wanted badly to prevent the transformation of Jerusalem into a Greco-Roman city.  This was the situation that year and the people shouted, “Hosanna” which means in Hebrew, save us!  Not hooray, or yippee, not even praise him, hosanna means save us.  Their hope and expectation was for a king who would be able to save them from the Roman authorities and the Greco-Roman influence that threatened their religious identity.  Many believed Jesus was their man. They sang out “Hosanna in the name of the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” 

The ‘Palm Sunday’ narrative is recorded in all four of the Gospels each supplying its own unique details of that day.  Mark’s account is the shortest of the four gospels and it is the focus of today’s reflection.  Hear now the Gospel of Mark, the 11^th chapter:

Just east of Jerusalem on the other side of the Mount of Olives lies sleepy Bethany.  Jesus went there often for respite; it was his little ‘get away’ retreat spot.  As he and his disciples were getting close to Bethany, Jesus says to two of them, “Go, run ahead, will you?  Go to the village and when you see a donkey, a colt, untie him, then bring him to me.”  “Oh,” Jesus says, “and if anybody says anything to you, just tell them that I sent you.”  Seems as if Jesus already had thought this donkey fetching through.  In fact, out of the 11 verses that comprise this story, 6 are focused on donkey detail.  It’s a big deal.

I can just hear the two disciples now as they run ahead.  “What the heck?  Why do we have be the ones to get the donkey?  Why didn’t he choose those other two, you know the ones who never do anything?  For this we left our fishing boats and our beautiful Galilee?”  

Beyond their kevetching their mission was successful; and they lead this colt back to Jesus.  Certainly this animal was not fit for a ‘king’ so they put their cloaks on the donkey; at least it would protect Jesus from the dirt and dander of the animal.

The Colt and the King

Jesus began his journey out of dusty Bethany, over the steep incline of the back side of the Mount of Olives, down into the Kidron Valley and into bustling and contentious, Jerusalem.  The disciples followed, the people followed.  People threw their garments on the ground and they ripped down branches from palm trees, maybe even branches from some of the prolific olive trees that dot the side of the Mount of Olives. 

But what about the donkey and those two disciples who were dispatched to bring back such a lowly creature? I bet that they never, in their wildest imaginations thought that they would be untying a donkey that didn’t even belong to them, and then have to bring it to Jesus.  They probably never envisioned that this was ministry, that this mundane detail would become such a large part of the events of the day. 

When Jesus said, follow me, he meant, really people….follow me.  Believe me.  Trust me.  Do as I say.  But come on, untie a donkey?  That probably means cleaning up after the donkey too.  It’s hard to grasp the larger picture when grunt work is all that you are doing in the name of the Lord.

Yet, to follow Jesus is just as much hands on as it is an intellectual and spiritual exercise. 

When I entered the ministry a former colleague of mine asked me if I had my Swiss Army knife on me.  Being a quarter Swiss I had to stop and think for a minute, was he making a joke at my ethnic expense?  No. He was a joker!  He really did want to know if I had a knife with me, he needed the screwdriver because we were erecting the stage together for the upcoming Christmas pageant. 

They don’t tell you in seminary that sometimes you’ll have to fix a leaky faucet, pick up cigarette butts, wash the floors, screw stages together and fix paper jams.  They don’t tell you to keep a Swiss Army knife on you.  And they forget to tell you about all the committees and paperwork that needs tending to.  This is donkey detail!

To be relevant Karl Barth once said, “One should read with the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other”.  I say, “One should read with the Bible in one hand, the newspaper in the other, and have a Swiss Army knife hanging from your belt.”  Then, and only then are you prepared to follow Jesus, to bolster the church and to deal with the grunt work of ministry.

Ministry of the Church takes many hands and hearts.  Hands and hearts that are willing to perform the unglamorous.  

This is ministry of donkey duty, grunt work where we will have to metaphorically, go and untie that donkey.  It behooves us to do it ourselves for in that humble moment you know you are serving not yourself but God.  You have humbly given of yourself and your pride over to the greater need.  We will have to serve in unglamorous ways that equally and ultimately, too, lift up the body of Christ.  Our time and our efforts do NOT go unnoticed; it is all for a purpose which happens to be God’s purpose not ours.  That’s the outer grunt work of being a Christian.

But that’s only part of it.  Between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday there is a whole lot of inner grunt work to be done.  Are we willing to untie THAT donkey even when we don’t know why we have to?  Are we willing to follow Jesus to the end, through the betrayal, the arrest, the interrogation, the denial, the whippings and crucifixion?  Are the sounds of that beast of burden within earshot?  I hope that it is.

The expectation of Holy Week is that we will be with Jesus every step of the way until he hangs upon the old wooden cross.

The expectation is that you will examine your relationship with God honestly to ready yourself for resurrection.

Are you willing and daring enough to cry out from the depth of your being, hosanna, save us, so that your Alleluias on Easter morning will be your authentic voice? 

When Jesus says, follow me he doesn’t specify where and for what reason or what kind of work he wants us to do.  One day you will be a visionary leader and the next day you will be called to change light bulbs.  He simply says, follow, trust me, and believe in me, I will lead you to a better place.  And Jesus, well, he follows through, he does not disappoint us.  He leads us to hope not despair, joy not sorrow, self-sufficiency not helplessness; he leads us to God’s immeasurable grace.  Untie the donkey and ride into Holy Week over dusty and rough terrain.  It may not be glamorous but it will be the best thing you will ever do.

Amen.

                                                                                               Road of Flowers

From Vine to Whine

Jonah 4

Preacher: Mr. Ken McGarry, Director of Youth Ministries, Wilton Congregational

Jonah at Ninevah by Ulrich Leive

Happy spring, everyone! Can you believe that we made it through the winter months without a whole lot of snow?...Maybe because we received it all in one hefty lump sum in the fall...and remember how much we received over last year’s winter months? Well, I, for one, am very glad that we’re now into spring, not because I dislike the winter weather, although shoveling mountains of snow is not one of my favorite hobbies, but because it means that professional football, which is one of my favorite hobbies, has started its new year. And with that new start has come some happenings that were about as wacky as our last couple of winters. I’m quite happy about one of these: Peyton Manning is now playing quarterback for my favorite team, the Denver Broncos. And young Timmy Tebow is now a quarterback for the local-ish New York Jets. It is wacky, but I’ll take it!

Who knows what the future holds? Life, like football and the weather, is unpredictable. Fortunately, I brought a “fortune teller” today. My young friend, Alyson Schuerkogel, made this for me yesterday, and I thought that I’d bring it in and give it a test run this morning. So, who wants their fortune told?

In last week’s message, we learned about another surprising event that was wackier than a fortune teller, any athletic teams’ trades, or winter weather events and non-events. Nineveh, a great city of the mighty Assyrian Empire, repented from its wickedness after one lonely, foreign religious man, smelling of fish guts, came into town proclaiming his message of its impending destruction. You would expect that the Ninevites would have laughed a bit and then Jonah tossed out of city walls, or maybe had him publicly humiliated, tortured, or killed. But after only one day of Jonah’s visit, the people of Nineveh, from the common folk to the king, believed Jonah’s message, humbled themselves, mourned about their wicked ways, and called out to God for mercy.

Today’s message comes from the fourth chapter of the Book of Jonah, in which we read of the prophet Jonah’s response to this wacky, repentant behavior. Hear the story from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message:

“Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, "God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That's why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!

God said, "What do you have to be angry about?"

But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.

God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.

But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah's head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: "I'm better off dead!"

Then God said to Jonah, "What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?"

Jonah said, "Plenty of right. It's made me angry enough to die!"

God said, "What's this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don't yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?"

And so ends the Book of Jonah...with this question from God to the prophet: “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” The answer should be obvious. Of course God should be concerned about Nineveh and its sackcloth-sporting livestock: The people of that great city as well at its animals were created by God. God is the Father of all the living; God gave birth to the world around us. Just as a parent lovingly cares for his or her own child, God cares for all that has been made.

Sure, Jonah recognized that he was loved by God when a great fish was created to sustain his life. For three days he sang out in the fish’s belly: “Salvation comes from the Lord!” We remember that his fish-borne prayer consisted mostly of “I, I, I’s” and “me, me, me’s”, but at least he recognized that it was God who provided life and cared enough about Jonah’s to save him, even in his rebellious flight away from God.

And Jonah was quick to recognize the blessing of God’s provision of a little shade on a hot Assyrian afternoon. Ancient Nineveh is on the outskirts of modern Mosul, which has an average daily high temperature of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summertime. Jonah certainly would have appreciated the little bit of shady comfort as he sat upon a hill outside of that great city, while eagerly hoping and praying for its destruction. Once more, God comforted Jonah even while he was once again running away—this time, running from the truth—that God is forgiving and compassionate and does not want to bring destruction upon people. Well, God created a vine to grow up and over Jonah, to protect him from the blistering sun; then God created some fast-acting vine-chewing critter to take it away—and we went from vine to whine in one day. “I want to die!” Jonah whined. But did Jonah really have anything to complain about?

What if God chooses to bless the land with a vine, or to take it away? What if God chooses to bless a wayward people? Or a wayward prophet? One of the main lessons that we’ve learned throughout our Lenten exploration of the Book of Jonah is that God is unfair.

Children have great “justice-sensors”, or I should say “injustice-sensors”. If a sibling receives something and the other doesn’t, cries of “unfair!”will pierce the air, usually with great volume.

I have an old dog at home, Roger, who doesn’t like to get off the couch and go to his crate when it’s bedtime. The phrase,“it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie” certainly applies to Roger, who is very cranky and does not like getting touched when he’s comfortably curled up in his favorite spot. Rather than just flinging him off the couch, I set a little doggie treat, just out of his reach on the couch, which forces him to actually stand up to be able to enjoy it. Once he’s up, it’s a lot easier to get him to move to where I want him to go without him getting all crazy on me—he has been called the Devildog on more than one occasion!

Our other dog, a puppy named Opal, is absolutely angelic, happy, and compliant. She doesn’t need a treat to move, and so she doesn’t get the tasty morsel that Roger does at that moment. I do give her one moments later when she takes care of her business outside, but I’ve been told by the other human living in our house that my treatment of the two dogs at bedtime is very unfair. The undeserving one gets the treat, while the good one goes without! Unfair!

Life is filled with acts of injustice, and fortunately for us, God is one of the main culprits! God will pardon the undeserving Ninevites. God will provide life and comfort to a grumpy, wayward prophet, even as he runs away. Jonah recognizes just how unfair God is in his beautiful complaint saying,“I knew you a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

Jonah is a very human prophet. He forgets to see the unfair blessing of God giving him mercy, but he is quick to point out the injustice of God giving mercy to his enemies. We are Jonah: wanting God’s blessing on us, but not so eager to see God bless others, especially those we don’t like or who are different from us in some way. Do you celebrate when that co-worker just got the promotion that YOU deserve? What about someone who is wealthier than you who just won the lottery?

 

God’s blessing comes to all, because all are God’s children: Jonah, ancient Ninevites, modern Iraqis, Muslims, people who are gay, Conservatives, Liberals. And if we are all God’s children, we are, then, all brothers and sisters. As God’s children and followers of God, we are called to be ambassadors of God in this world, bringing God’s grace and compassion to all of our spiritual siblings.

The world is filled with uncertainty, but this is true now and always: “God is gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” Jonah knew that it was mercy was to be the fortune of Nineveh. Let us embrace this truth as a certainty in our own lives, and let it live through you, so that you can be God’s agent of compassion, love, and mercy in an unpredictable, wacky, and needy world.

Amen.

If at First You Don't Succeed

Jonah 3
Along I 95 there are many billboards that can catch your eye.  There are some in particular that are sponsored by an organization called Vales.com and they are grouped under the title, “Pass it On”.  They are always very clever and inspirational.  One in particular I remember spoke to me.  It had a photograph of Abraham Lincoln and next to it the billboard read, “Failed, failed, failed.  And then…”[i]  and underneath those words was the word Persistence in bold red letters.  Simply put.

What we know and what the billboard does not explicitly say is that Abraham Lincoln first ran for non-public office for the Illinois State Legislature in 1832 and was defeated.  In 1834 he ran again and served four executive terms.  In 1846 he was elected to the House of Representatives but lost his reelection.  He practiced law until in 1854 he ran for the US Senate and lost and again in 1855 he lost for a different Senate seat.  Finally in 1860 he was nominated to run for the Presidency and of course, the rest, they say is history.  He was one of our finest and most influential presidents ever but it took several defeats and failures and 28 years for him to get there.  But his persistence paid off. 

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!”[ii]  God could be the poster deity for perseverance. God could clearly occupy a space on one of those billboards because in today’s lesson from Jonah chapter 3 we see that God did not give up on Jonah and some very good things came out of it, for the people of Ninevah at least.  This is the third of four sermons from the Old Testament Book, Jonah.  It is read during the Jewish high holidays of Yom Kippur for what it tells us about repentance so it is fitting for us to reflect upon during Lent because Lent is a time of repentance and reflection for us too as we journey to the cross of Jesus. 

You will remember that in Jonah 1 he’s asked to go to Ninevah and preach repentance but he flees in the other direction, hops a boat and then is tossed overboard only to find himself in the belly of the whale.  What we learn from this is that God sticks with us even when we are obstinate and do as we please, God never gives up on us.  God may get a little perturbed at times with us, who wouldn’t?  But God is in hot pursuit of us and we are never left alone to our own human devices.  We also learn that God saves us when we are drowning even if it comes in the form of a really big fish. 

But even inside of the belly of the whale Jonah did not really get it.  Repentance does not come easily for him, he’s pretty thick headed.  Yet God sees some potential with Jonah and God has a job that needs doing.  You have to hand it to God for trying once again. 

Today we will think about Chapter 3 and what nuggets of learning and inspiration that it holds for us.  I believe that today’s chapter focuses much more on God than it does on Jonah. 

I share with you now from Eugene Peterson’s ‘The Message’ chapter 3 of Jonah. 

 Jonah entered the city, went one day's walk and preached, "In forty days Nineveh will be smashed."

The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God.
They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance.
Everyone did it—rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers.

When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up off his throne, threw down his royal robes, dressed in burlap, and sat down in the dirt. Then he issued a public proclamation throughout Nineveh, authorized by him and his leaders: "Not one drop of water, not one bite of food for man, woman, or animal, including your herds and flocks! Dress them all, both people and animals, in burlap, and send up a cry for help to God. Everyone must turn around, turn back from an evil life and the violent ways that stain their hands.
Who knows? Maybe God will turn around and change his mind about us,
 quit being angry with us and let us live!"

 God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn't do.

"Forty Days to Destruction"

This is not what Jonah expected when he stepped foot in the great city of Nineveh. Only eight words of prophecy here, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” and the entire city, which apparently was huge, repented.  The king really took it to heart and traded in his royal duds for some not so fashionable burlap and sat down in the dirt.  This is how the ancient people repented of their sins.  He declares a fast for all the people including the animals!  Then he decides everyone should dress in burlap like him even the animals, once again!  I can’t say that I’d want fasting animals dressed in burlap around me but the king was insistent, NO ONE will go without repenting.  Those must have been some pretty big sins.

“Who knows?  Wonders the king, maybe this foreign God will change his mind, maybe God will turn around and let us live”. (v. 9)  God was taking note of all these repenting people and bleating sheep and forgave them all proving that God can change the divine mind and that God forgives all people, even non-Hebrews as these Ninevites were, and calls them into the covenant of love.  God perseveres, Jonah went, Ninevah repents, God relents, Mercy extended.

There truly is a “Wideness in God’s mercy…for the love of God is broader than the measure of our minds”, as the old hymn reminds us.  We cannot possibly know the mind of God and the ways in which our God loves and forgives and the people whom our God chooses to forgive.  That is beyond our human capacity.  I’ve taken that off my to-do list and I encourage you to do so also.  What we can know is that God does forgive generously, and faithfully without conditions.

God’s theology is revealed in verse 10, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.” 

Now we know that God is no longer responsible for the calamities of our lives, that God doesn’t send tornedo’s to regions who espouse gambling and drinking no more than does God send tsunami’s to countries who might display lewd and lascivious behavior.  That is just old theology.  We have progressed much further along in our understanding of ourselves and nature. 

We do find ourselves however in these foreign lands of gambling and drinking and lewd and lascivious behavior, and if not that we find that we no longer lead a life that we might be proud of, for whatever reason, no matter how you got there, and if not that you are just no longer attentive to God’s call upon you. 

We all are there at one time or another and when you realize that you have lost your way it is time to perform t’shuvah like the Ninevites.  T’shuvah is a complete turning around of your ways, of changing your behavior, of letting go of bad attitude and starting a newer, healthier one.  T’shuvah asks that we clean the windows of our soul and return to a view of life that once made us so happy. T’shuvah is to turn away from that which destroys yourself and others and return to a God whose arms are open and waiting to embrace us in love not anger, kindness not malice, acceptance not rejection.  T’shuvah is a way in which we clean up our lives so the light of God’s love can be received.

Lent offers you an opportunity to do that.  It provides a time to empty, to clean, and to return to what is good and wholesome for you.  Do some honest soul-searching.  Get down on your knees.  Pray with your tears if you have no words.  It takes work, yes, like the Ninevites who put on burlap and sat down in the dirt, we need to feel the scratchiness of the burlap and the grittiness of the dirt upon our skin, upon our soul.  It will not last forever though.  The Psalmist reminds us, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30: 5b)

Joy does come, and will come and that's where we are ultimately headed this Lenten Season, to the empty tomb of the risen Christ.

Throughout all of this, throughout all of your life God is persistent in pursuing you.  Like Lincoln who finally won in the end and accomplished great things, God will continue to look for you, engage you, and accomplish great things through you.

Amen.
Just be ready, that's all God asks.

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[i] Abraham Lincoln billboard, www.Values.com

[ii] T.H. Palmer, ‘Teacher’s Manual’, 1840.