lccktacoma.org/pastor
On All Saints Sunday, we make time to give thanks for the life and witness of those who have died in the faith. We lean into the promise given through Jesus’ resurrection for new life in God’s presence forever. We trust that in life or death we are not ever lost to God. All this is a right, good and faithful thing we do together as part of the long faith history of God’s family in Christ Jesus. Especially today we give thanks to God for those who now rest from their earthly labor. We believe our mortal life is gifted through God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness with immortality. Old earthly life is exchanged for new heavenly life. But I have a question for each of you. It comes from the singer Peggy Lee. It’s her song that asks: is that all there is, is that all there is? Is that all there really is to our faith? Is getting from here to heaven all that there is to Jesus’ presence in the world? Is Jesus simply God’s way of getting us from earth to heaven?
Is we gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do…really the goal of Christianity? A whole lot of American Christians believe it is. Many have come to believe that God can’t wait to bring this poor world to a bloody end and take all the chosen up to heaven. That because of sin and sinners God can hardly wait to destroy much of what God has created. They teach and preach and act like We gotta get out of this place here and into that place there. It will be the last thing we ever do as the faithful. Luke’s gospel lesson, this Sermon on the Plain that Jesus gives to his core disciples, his followers, and the whole crowd around them says something different. It says NO. No way is that God’s goal. The aim of faith, the aim of Jesus ministry is not to get us into heaven. It’s to bring heaven, bring God’s kingdom, bring God’s intended way of living together…to bring it here. Christianity is not all about leaving this place, but about bringing God’s love into this place. That’s a huge/different/alternative way of doing life together. God in Christ through the Spirit comes here to bring about a kingdom way of living. Luke’s telling makes it clear that God’s way is not the way the world works. He remembers Jesus’s sermon this way: Jesus says blessed are the poor. The world says who? Those losers? Jesus says blessed are the hungry. The world says get a job. Jesus says blessed are the broken hearted. The world says get over it. Jesus says blessed are the hated faithful. The world says sit down/shut up. Even in Matthew’s spiritualized version of this sermon, the world rejects Jesus’ message. Poor in spirit? World calls them Debbie Downers. Meek in spirit? World labels them weak, crushable. Pure in heart? You mean the naïve and gullible? Peacemaker? Cowards. Unpatriotic. And then Jesus gives another challenging reversal. Are you rich? Blessed you say. Sorry you can’t take it with you. Are you filled to fatness now? Have more than enough? Not for long. Is life good to you? Life’s a party? Get out the Kleenex. Tears are coming. Respected social status? High society type? False values won’t last. Luke especially ties the ministry of Jesus to this world, to make clear that God is at work to tip our world upside down and right side up. For Luke’s Jesus, heaven can wait. Faith is active in love, here, in this world for the sake of the widow, orphan, poor, hungry, broken, lost…for the sake of food, shelter, justice, compassion. Faith in Jesus Christ and in his vision of what God’s creation anchors us to care for this world. Again…the aim of faith, the aim of Jesus ministry is not to get us into heaven. It’s to bring heaven, bring God’s kingdom, bring God’s intended way of living together…to bring it here. Lutheran Christianity is not all about leaving this place, but about bringing God’s love into this place. That’s a huge/different/alternative way of doing life and faith together. God’s way is clearly not the way of the world. Your ears and your heart caught this change, right? How else can we explain: You have enemies? Love them. People hate you? Respond by doing good for them. People curse you out? Keep them in your prayers. Somebody strikes you? Offer them the other cheek. Someone cheats you? Give them the shirt off your back. You meet a beggar? Give them something significant. Someone steals from you? Let them keep it. Here’s the kicker: Do to others as you would have them do to you. Offer forgiveness. Show compassion. Be generous. Be patient. Lead by example. Lead by a grace-filled heart. That’s how things work in God’s world. That’s how things are meant to work here in our world as people of faith and hope and trust. Luke says that Jesus saves us, fills us, equips us to be his hands and feet and voice and heart in this world for the sake of ALL others. Jesus stresses our changed, godly behaviors not as a ticket to heaven but as a grace-based witness to the whole earth, starting with our neighbors in need. Much of the world will tell you that that is an upside-down way of thinking and living. Reminding you that a fool (like you) is born every minute. The gospel tells you that it’s God’s right-side up way of new life in Jesus Christ. Reminding you that you are a ‘fool for Christ.’ And that you’ve been reborn to live differently every new minute in this world. That God promised, God given gift of immortality? One day it will be granted to us fully. The promise is sure. That One Day is coming. Someday. Until that day we have been missioned and commissioned with enough to do for this day. In this place. For the sake of others without exception. In this way, you and I have indeed been blessed…to be a blessing. In a few more verses, Luke remembers this promise of Jesus: Your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High. As you remember God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked (too) and so be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. That will make for a right-side up world here, there and everywhere. AMEN
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
FROM THE PASTOR
Sundays: Categories
All
Archives
February 2024
|