Luke 16:19-31 (New International Version) The Rich Man and Lazarus

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
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“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

     The lines would start hours before the doors opened. I’d noticed that myself when I happened to be driving through Augusta in the late afternoon the first year the overnight shelter was open at South Parish. When I called to check the hours myself so that I could refer someone there, the person I talked with confirmed for me that it was true. If you wanted one of the low-barrier beds, you had to get there early. Some shelters are low-barrier and others have certain standards you have to meet, like, you have to be sober when you get there. Intoxicated people can freeze, too, so it’s good to have some places they can go. There weren’t a lot of places for them to go in Augusta. When the church started thinking about using their building to help people without homes, it seemed important to create a space that was low barrier.

     When you’re trying to figure out how to be a good neighbor, it’s wise to look around and see what is actually needed. It became clear to South Parish, an historic, downtown church, that some people downtown needed some help. And, they had the right kind of space to offer it. And, importantly, they had leadership wise enough to reach out to people who were already doing the work for advice. That’s how they found out about the need for a low-barrier shelter.  It is no small thing to shift how you use a building, particularly if the use involves hosting people overnight. Many wise hands are part of that work. Thank goodness their church was able to work with good partners. They made a plan and got city buy-in. People started sharing money with them. They hired staff and started hosting people overnight.

     They’ve been open three seasons now, and every season they’ve been able to offer more beds. Their center manager Rob told us about some choices they have to make and how the make sure that they are clear on their goals. For example, as I said earlier, there was always a long line of people wanting bed before the doors opened. Center staff knew that the people who couldn’t get in still needed somewhere safe and warm to be. They realized that their primary goal was to have “heads in beds.” So, they shifted how they were using some of the space, removing a lounge area and reworking some other areas, and they made space for more beds. They didn’t have to turn people away because of space concerns after that.

     Not every part of this is easy. Rev. Nate Richards, South Parish’s pastor, Sarah Miller, who helped them organize the logistics of getting the shelter open, and Rob Flannery, the manager, all talked about the process of getting the doors open and keeping them open. Sometimes they have to ask people to leave because of behavior. Rob still tries to help them find the safest possible place to go. He says to them, “tomorrow’s another night. I hope we’ll see you then.” When someone who was asked to leave can come back and participate safely the next night, we’re seeing redemption in action. The warming center is a place of care and a place of consequences. Most importantly, it’s a place of second chances.

     Our siblings in Christ in Augusta looked to see who was at the gate, and figured out how to let them in. This is the core of the Gospel: understanding that God has called us to share our resources. Plenty of public buildings and spaces end up being used in ways that exclude people of the greatest needs. Hostile architecture is installed, giving people few places to sit comfortably and no places to lay down. Encampments where people have tried to make homes and communities are swept away, often taking away deeply impoverished people’s only and most important possessions. Journalists at ProPublica posted listed of things that people had had discarded: vital records like birth certificates, passports, pictures of family, medications, Bibles, letters from relatives, new clothes, even the cremains of loved ones, all gone. Throwing away people’s tents doesn’t suddenly make them wealthy enough to afford rent.

     Jesus talks about money a lot. He probably didn’t have much of it, nor did many of the people who came to hear him preach. Some did have money though. And Jesus had pretty clear instructions for them. Mitzi Smith laid some of them out in her commentary on today’s scripture. He tells them not to take the seats of the highest honor at meals (Luke 14:7). He also tells them to invite the poor, sick, and otherwise marginalized people to fancy parties they want to throw instead of other weather people who can return the invitation (Luke 14:21-24). He goes so far as to invite them to sell everything they have then give the proceeds to the poor (Luke 18:18-25). He commends one rich man who gives away half of his possessions and then makes restitution to the people he defrauded (19:1-10). Comparing the generosity of the wealthy and the very poor, he shames the rich who contribute gifts to the Temple from their wealth but give relatively little compared to what they have, while a poor widow gives more than she can afford to give (21:1-4).  

     Notice that the wealth in these cases is, at best, a tool to help someone else, and, at worst, a distraction. Today’s reading is a parable whereby a nameless rich man uses his money in ways that run counter to everything Jesus recommends. Things do not work out well for him. Had he been following Jesus’ teaching about how to use wealth, when he saw Lazarus begging at this gate, he would have let him in. He would have paid for his wounds to be treated. He would have made sure he had food and something to drink. In his commentary on the text, John T. Carroll points out that the rich man knows Lazarus well enough to know his name. He could have used that name to invite him into any one of his lavish banquets. But, he never did. The dogs offer more comfort than the rich man does.

     Carroll makes what I think is another important point in a commentary of his that Cheryl Lindsay cites. He says, “The separation between these two men, while extreme, is neither inevitable nor necessary and could have been bridged by the initiative of the rich man to open his gate and extend a generous hand.” The separation that began in life continued beyond it. Lazarus dies as many very poor people do, succumbing to starvation and illness likely made more severe by starvation. In death, though, he is comforted. Angels sweep him up to be by Abraham’s side. The rich man dies, too. Money may make it easier to stay alive but it cannot totally fend off death. The rich man ends up in Hades, the Underworld, where it is very hot and he has none of the comforts that made his life easier.
The rich man yells across the divide to Abraham for help, requesting that Lazarus give him few drops of water from his finger. Mitzi Smith notes that even in death the rich man treats Lazarus as a subordinate whose role is to make his life easier. Here comes the hard lesson: Abraham says that the rich man received good things in life and Lazarus had received evil. The reverse will now be true. Smith also notes, “God does not create poverty; human beings do. What humans create, humans can fix, if they so desire.” The conditions of this realm mirror the conditions of the next. This parable shows us that it is clearly better to use your money for care in this realm, at this moment. You absolutely can’t take it with you, and it protecting is likely burdening your soul more than you realize.

     The rich man finally realizes that he can use what he knows to help someone else and asks to be able to go warn his brothers not to be stingy as he was. Abraham declines, saying the brothers have access to all the teachings on justice and compassion that they could use. It is their responsibility to live according to the covenant. Abraham doubts that even someone returning from the dead will convince them to live justly if they’ve already opted to ignore their scripture (16:29-30).

     Our neighbors at South Parish are showing us every day what it’s like to pay attention to who is at the gate, and I am grateful for their witness. Let us not be like the one who refuses to learn from the scriptures set before us. Afterall, everyone in this room is closer to being Lazarus than they are to being a billionaire.  Let us not follow the path of the rich man who doesn’t even get a name in this story. Let us instead follow the example of our neighbors a couple towns over. Let us fling wide the gates, and make sure everyone has a seat at the table.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Mitzi Smith: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-26-3/commentary-on-luke-1619-31-6
John T. Carroll: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-26-3/commentary-on-luke-1619-31-10
More information about the warming shelter: https://southparishchurch.com/overnight-warming-center-1
Testimonies about what has been taken in sweeps:
https://projects.propublica.org/impact-of-homeless-sweeps-lost-belongings/
Some examples of hostile architecture: https://www.archute.com/hostile-architecture/
Cheryl Lindsay's commentary: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/sermon-seeds-comfort-and-agony/

Luke 16:1-13 (New International Version) The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg- I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“‘A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
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“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

     The last time I preached on this passage, I called it “the Parable about Surviving Slavery when You Are Put in Charge of Stuff.” John T. Carroll, in his commentary on the text, calls it “one of the most puzzling texts in the New Testament.” He’s not the only scholar I’ve read who has said that. As we know, the parables that Jesus uses when teaching are often complex. They often contain within them a surprise turn meant to highlight how the reign of God is different than the present age of the hearer. The surprise in this text is particularly surprising! Jesus seems to praise dishonest actions. This is why Carroll finds the parable puzzling.

     There's a rich guy in the story, a guy rich enough that he owns humans and has either purchased someone who is skilled in financial management or has trained him to manage his finances. Jesus tells us that someone has accused that enslaved manager of squandering the rich guy's money. The rich guy seemed to believe the accusations though it not clear if they actually are true. It is clear that rich man doesn’t trust the man he owns. The enslaver asks the manager for an account of his actions and then demotes him to more grueling work. The manager doesn’t refute the accusations. The scholar Mitzi Smith, in a commentary on this text, notes that enslaved people often were not trusted to tell the truth. In Rome, slaves weren’t allowed to give testimony in court, unless they were being tortured, because it was just assumed they would be dishonest. Perhaps the manager knew he wouldn’t be believed, so refutation wasn’t even worth his time. Instead, he decided that building a network of people who would help him would be the better use of his time and energy.

     He quickly went to two of the people who owed the enslaver money and changed the records of their transactions to say that they owed much less than they actually owed. After that, even though he'd already been demoted, it seems like he still had at least one meeting with the man who owned him about the money. That meeting is where the surprised happened.

     The rich man saw what the manager did in cutting down the amount people owed, an action that looks like him losing the enslaver quite a lot of income. In an odd turn of events: the rich man commends his former manager for reducing the outstanding bills. In his commentary on Luke, Fred Craddock notes that some scholars have argued that some slavers allowed the people they enslaved to have commissions from transactions they performed. It is possible, then, that the enslaved manager cut out his commission out of the invoice. But, if that were true, the enslaver wouldn’t then describe him as dishonest. Dishonesty isn’t giving up money you earned. Dishonesty is, however, changing records for a loss! Why would he praise the person he enslaved for taking money owed him?

     In verse eight, Jesus seemed to offer some kind of explanation for the rich man's commendation. Jesus said that "children of this age," that is, people who have not decided to live according to God's will, are much more adept at gaming the unjust system they live in for their own gain than the disciples are. Jesus seems to be telling his followers to start living with that level of wiliness and skill for survival. Generally speaking, “be willing to outsmart unscrupulous people” seems like not terrible advice, but, at the same time, Jesus usually tells his disciples to follow God’s rules, not live like the oppressive community around them. In the next verse, Jesus even seems to tell his followers that if they have wealth from shady sources, they should use it to buy influence with people who will take care of them later. What? What is he talking about?

     Now, some commentators have said that Jesus is taking this moment to explain to his followers how any possessions can be used for good purposes, even ill-gotten ones. After all, in the last several readings, Jesus has spent a lot of time justifying his close relationships with people who have plenty of dishonest money: tax collectors, other sinners, the occasional woman of ill repute. Maybe this is a story for folks who might think they can't take this money that they earned from the empire's systems and then turn around and use it for God's purposes. Or, maybe this is a story that is like those verses in Matthew where Jesus reminds his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Wisdom comes from using what you have to make do: This manager makes do by using what he has, which is, the bills owed the rich man, and offers mercy others in hopes of receiving help later. This is the level of shrewdness Jesus believes his followers will need to survive.

     In the next four verses, 10-14, Jesus returns to describing a relationship with wealth that sounds like it is more in line with his mission in the rest of the Gospel: bring good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, and proclaiming the Jubilee year of debt forgiveness. In verses 10-13, he seems to be saying that the wealth that we have right now, ultimately, is not the most important thing that we are entrusted with. There’s an underlying assumption that all wealth has likely come from cheating someone else. It is therefore untrustworthy, and pursuing wealth makes you more likely to justify taking advantage of people. Jesus argues that our "true riches" are our relationship with God and neighbor. We can demonstrate our faithfulness and wisdom with small things, like the dishonest wealth of the parable, in order to build the foundation for our commitment to the great thing, our relationship with God. 

     Ultimately, as difficult as it is to imagine, our money is the small thing that has been entrusted to us.  Our relationship with God and neighbor is the greatest thing that can be entrusted to us. Our relationship with the small thing of our wealth helps to shape the course of our greater relationship with God. In fact, our relationship with wealth should be a reflection of our faith. Jesus knew that then, just as now, it is too easy to become trapped in a system that tells us to value small things, like our money, more than big things, like our relationship with God and neighbor. Because money is such a powerful tool, it can also be easy to forget that as our primary concern, our relationship with God should be helping to guide how we use our money. When we forget that our relationships are our true riches, we can believe the lie that our wealth is the most important aspect of our lives, and we will turn our attention towards protecting it at all costs.

     Mitzi Smith, in her commentary on this text points out that it is the relationships the manager cultivates that he expects to be his salvation, not his work as a manager. He has assumed that the system that guides his owner, the dishonest system, will not offer him protection, even as he has to try to work in the midst of that system to figure out a way to survive. Could you have heard this parable and seen yourself in the place of the slave who has to find a way to survive? Could you have heard Jesus remind you that, even as you worked in the dishonest system, you could still find a way to shift those skills into honorable work with God? Would you hear the challenge to make God your ultimate guide, and not Caesar?

     We may not be enslaved managers, but we still are often faced with choices of how we will live out our values in our everyday lives. In fact, every day we are afforded a million small opportunities to allow our behavior to reflect our connection to God, including our behavior with money. I pray that we can each as ourselves, "When I make this choice, who am I really serving? The small things? Or, my God and my neighbor?"
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Fred Craddock, Luke (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).
Mitzi Smith: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=4166
John T. Carroll: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25-3/commentary-on-luke-161-13-6
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Scripture Reading: John 3:13-17 (New International Version)

“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven- the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,  so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

          As I was looking for liturgy for today’s service, I noticed something that was strange enough that I had to walk out of my office and tell Cyndi about it. Today’s reading is from a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. As I’ve mentioned before, Jesus and pharisees usually had a lot to talk about. They all valued their shared religious laws and wanted to teach people how to shape their lives according to God’s covenant. Nicodemus respects Jesus as a divinely inspired teacher. But, he also feels like he will be judged by his community for that respect. He’s afraid. When he goes to talk to Jesus, one on one, he goes under cover of darkness.

     Part of the conversation happens before our reading. In that conversation, they talk about what it means to follow God, to commit to living your life in a way that is so different that it feels like you have been born anew. They talk about the Spirit that is like the wind, you can’t see it, but you can hear it. And, it moves without you knowing where it comes from. Nicodemus said that “no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Nicodemus has seen something in Jesus that has moved him. We are watching him try to figure out what to do with what his heart informed by his eyes is telling him to do. Who here hasn’t been in Nicodemus’ shoes, trying to figure out what it means to really change your life the way you’re starting to feel like you need to? You might have even had some late-night talks with Jesus about it.

     Jesus does appear to be surprised at Nicodemus’ moral and ethical quandaries. He was a Pharisee. Figuring out how to follow God was his life’s work! Jesus kind of tells him that he would have expected a teacher of Israel to understand things more clearly. “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” Ouch, right? The thing that comes after that part is what really catches my attention every time I read this. It is among the wildest, oddest references to the Hebrew Scriptures that I can think of in any Gospel. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” What. What even is Jesus talking about with this serpent?

     It’s a story from the book of Numbers (chapter 21). That’s where Moses and the Serpent come from. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw gives a helpful, short description of that story in her commentary on this text. I’m going to try to shorten the description even more. It’s a story from the Exile in the Wilderness. God lets loose a plague of venomous snakes among the Israelites as punishment for their “grumbling and unfaithfulness.” Lots of people get bit and lots of people die. Out of fear and desperation, they repent and ask Moses for help. He intercedes with God, who directs him to build a big bronze snake for them to look at. When envenomated people look at the snake, they are healed.

     It is times like this that I feel some kindred spirit with the writers of the Gospel. I can see so clearly the writerly work of having an idea that is unclear and looking around for an example to explain a complicated idea. It is possible that this Numbers allusion came straight from Jesus. That being said, no Gospel is a direct transcription of Jesus’ words, and he doesn’t say this in any other Gospel. Whether this story was wrangled from the Hebrew Bible from a writer who wanted to add something to Jesus’ words to try to explain them or if Jesus himself pulled this metaphor out of his copious knowledge of Hebrew scripture, it’s still seems to me an odd choice. Of all the Moses stories, why this one?

     I once asked a rabbi friend about this story. She agreed with me: “It’s a weird story.” I asked her if she knew of any time when this serpent story might have been more important or shared more widely in Jewish circles. She didn’t. How many of you, when you think of Moses, think of this serpent? Unless you’ve heard the three other times that I’ve preached on this, I’m gonna bet this is not a go to Moses story for you! Once more, the “Jesus is like that bronze snake” never became one of the most important metaphors for how Christians understand Jesus.

     When I was looking for pre-written prayers and liturgy based on today’s reading for service, I notice that none of them mentioned the serpent. This is what I had to tell Cyndi about when I noticed it. While I didn’t study every piece of Christian liturgy ever written, I did look at a couple sites where pastors share things they write. I saw lots of references to the Spirit blowing like the wind, and to being born again. I saw lots of references to John 3:16, which is all over the place really (even, as Bashaw points out, on the bottom of some fast food hamburgers) and the cross. I saw nothing about this snake. The Spirit and the Cross. No snake in any one prayer or litany.

     But the snake is right there! How do you not talk about it? Interestingly, when I was looking for a recording of the one hymn that mentions the snake, YouTube started feeding me fundamentalist sermons on the Numbers text. It made me think that the people most comfortable with this story are people really interested in a God who punishes people. People who think of God as first a disciplinarian might not think twice about God using snakes to punish people. The Moses story is odd to me, in part, because it is so vindictive. It is also odd because it seems so.... magical, I guess. It’s different from a regular miracle. It seems like a magical snake talisman leftover from some very ancient tradition. Among Protestants especially, who get a little worried about art inspired by God being mistaken for art that is God, God’s odd behavior and remedy for annoyance with whiners is just easier to not talk about. Let’s skip to the salvation. The cross I understand.

     James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” It is often easier to pretend like something strange or upsetting doesn’t exist. The act of not-talking about something almost never makes it go away, be it your inner misgivings about the stances your closest confidantes are taking or the transformation that is happening in your soul because you saw something new that made you doubt what you previously believed. The snake is still here, even if we’d rather talk about the Spirit or the Cross.

     We are in multiple national conversations right now about the kinds of stories we tell and what to do about ones that make us uncomfortable. We have watched in real time this week as people have spun all manner of stories in response to political violence. In one day, there were multiple murders, two incidences of which usually make national news: the assassination of a Christian nationalist speaker by young man who also appears to be a different kind of right-wing fascist in Utah and a school shooting in Denver. Some people don’t even know about what happened at the school in Denver. Some people only know the wildest conspiracy theories about what happened in Utah.

     In a country that all too often has seen violence used as a political tool and where mass shootings, in particular, are often justified by violent political ideology, it seems clear that there is something that must be faced if we want to change it. We’ve got to talk about the snake, or we’re never going to understand it. Bashaw argues that the serpent in the book of Numbers is “a mirrored representation of the poisonous destruction [the Israelites] faced from the poisonous serpents. The source of their death became the agent of their healing and survival. So it is with the cross.” The Cross was a tool of torture wielded by Rome to punish people into compliance with their rule. It was also a spectacle that on-lookers observed and that people in authority participated in. The stories of the cross show us scapegoating and fearfulness and the sacrifice of innocence.

     Bashaw argues, then, that within the mirror of the cross, we can see reflecting back to us sacrificial love that is the opposite of the empire’s violence. Seeing the cross means recognizing that there is a cycle of blame and violence that we need no longer repeat. We have to see the cycle to stop it. The cross reminds us that we can stop it.

     Bashaw says, “We cannot be healed from a disease that remains hidden.” Let us not be afraid to speak clearly of the odd and uncomfortable stories we inherit. Our silence will not make them go away. And, as Karoline Lewis notes, Jesus was always willing to face hard conversations, even furtive ones in the dark. May we look to him to help us find healing.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/holy-cross-sunday/commentary-on-john-313-17-2
James Baldwin quote: https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00000730
​Karoline Lewis: https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4693

​Scripture: Luke 14: 1, 7-14 Jesus at a Pharisee’s House ​(New International Version) 

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:  “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place, But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

     “We’re not your fancy friends,” I said to a friend who was a little worried that what she was feeding us, canned pasta sauce, wasn’t up to her typical standards. If we were in her house, instead of the cabin her family had borrowed, she would have made something homemade and complicated and extra delicious. I assured her that we are happy to eat canned pasta sauce. We have some in pantry at our house right now. I said “we’re not your fancy friends” because I wanted to be clear that we don’t have to be invited to eat fancy food to feel welcome. Canned pasta is just fine all the time, but especially among friends.

     We’d actually had dinner with some fancier friends a few weeks ago. Dinner involved pre-dinner drinks, there were multiple forks, fabric napkins, and nice wine glasses.  People talked about their wine cellars, trips abroad, and what classical music they were enjoying at the moment. While Tasha and I have been solidly middle class for a while now, we do not come from multiple fork and wine cellar people. And yet, we were welcomed and included, though we only knew the host family and one other attendee. The people we met for the first time asked about us, our work, and our pets. And, the hosts, who are friends who know I have developed some annoying food sensitivities, always make sure that there is food that I can eat and make changes to parts of the meal so I can have something comparable to what everyone else is having. They know that being good hosts means everybody gets to eat, and having special needs with your food doesn’t stop you from being invited.

     How does one offer hospitality? How does one receive hospitality? These are common questions in the book of Luke. In his commentary on this text, E. Trey Clark notes that Jesus is often found eating with people from across all kinds of backgrounds in the book of Luke. When you are often invited to people’s homes to eat, particularly if you live in a culture that values hospitality, as Jesus and his disciples did, it is wise to think about being a good guest. When you often end up feeding people, as Jesus did, it is wise to think about being a good host. Today’s reading is from a time when Jesus was a guest of a Pharisee. As Clark notes in his commentary, this meal was shared among people who took their faith seriously, but also felt free to disagree with each other about their interpretations of their faith quite out loud and quite clearly. The religious leaders are watching Jesus closely because they know that they all have a conflicted history. As Clark points how, Jesus is watching them, too. He’s paying attention to how they are guests.

     Even in a Jewish home, the people attending the meal would have likely been seated in Greco-Roman fashion, reclining at a low U-shaped table. Clark points out that the attendees would have been assigned seats based on how high or low their social standing was. Fancy guests up by the host. Less fancy guests farther away. It would be deeply embarrassing to be asked to move away from a fancy seat by your host.

     Looking around at what Clark argues would likely have been a table full of people of relatively high status, he tells them not to exalt themselves. Rather, they should assume a humble status. Clark is also quick to point out that Jesus isn’t telling low status people to stay in their place. Instead, he is pointing out that a life following his understanding of faith is less concerned with what Clark calls “climbing the social ladder” than it is about adjusting our behavior to the contours of the kindom of God.

     The kindom of God is less concerned about using meals to network and move up in the world than it is about making sure that all people are fed. So, Jesus said to invite people to come eat who have nothing to offer you other than their presence. Invite people who will come and it will be of no social benefit to you. Clark argues that this big table full of humble powerful people and welcome marginalized people will help us see a glimpse of heaven. In a couple verses after today’s, Jesus will tell a parable about something scholars call an “eschatological banquet.” In those verses, (Luke 14: 15-24). In that feast, the powerful don’t think they need to come, so the host invites the powerless instead. It is clear that the faithful are the ones who understand how to be a good guest. God’s got a big table. There is always room, but the seating is first open to those who are hungry. Everyone else can fill in after. But, you have to be willing to show up.

     My mom called me yesterday to tell me about a meal she thinks I would have wanted to be a part of. She was right. I would have wanted to be there. She’d stopped in to see my grandmother for a bit, who lives in a small nursing home that is constructed to be like a residential home in a neighborhood. After helping granny lay down for her post-breakfast nap, mom started planning for lunch. She already had a little bit of a kind of soup called menudo. It is a traditional Mexican tripe soup that she came to love when working at a little Mexican restaurant after first moving back to Texas almost 25 years ago. Several of the CNAs and kitchen staff who work in the nursing home are from Mexico. She asked them if they liked the menudo she had with her, which she had gotten at a local grocery store. They did! So, she decided to get some to share when she went to pick up a prescription for my grandmother.

     Mom got back with a big container of menudo. While she was gone, the staff had produced a container of delicious, home-made, face-meltingly spicy hot sauce to eat with it. When she told me the story, she didn’t know if they’d whipped it up right there in the kitchen or had brought it in for their own lunches. Either way, they wanted to share it with her to eat with the menudo. So, my mom and a bunch of women who work at the facility all crowded around the table, talking, laughing, and eating. My mom even tried the hot sauce, much to their delight. She wasn’t constitutionally prepared for more than just a taste, but they were so glad she tried.

     I’m so glad these folks are there taking care of my grandmother. As you know, it is challenging to work in nursing homes. And, it can be challenging to get good care in far too many facilities. I know that my granny is as safe and as healthy as she can be because these folks who brought the hot sauce and my mom who brought the soup take her care seriously. I also know that their lives are precarious. Not only is the work physically and emotionally demanding, most of the staff in the facility are on work visas. Though they are here legally, as we well know, plenty of legal immigrants are being targeted for harassment and deportation. I worry for their safety if they are outside of the facility where they work.

     The employees of this facility are guests and hosts, invited here to work, making sure the residents of the facility have safe and nutritious food and help to eat. In this moment in our nation when questions of hospitality and welcome are at the forefront, we ought to consider this time as an invitation to remember the responsibility of the host to make welcome and of other guests to be humble, especially with regards to people who provide necessary and underappreciated work, like personal care work. Jesus didn’t direct his disciples to play bouncer to decide who gets a seat at the table. He invited those of us with a measure of privilege to presume that someone else needs to be seated closer to him than we do. There’s enough food for all if only we share it. Let’s make sure everyone knows they are invited, and that there is room to spare.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​E. Trey Clark: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22-3/commentary-on-luke-141-7-14-6

     A lot of us with computer jobs can end up a little bent over. It can happen with sewing jobs and sorting jobs, too, any job, really, where you are spending your time bent over, looking down, while you tend to the clothes, tools, or spreadsheets you are mending, working, or sorting. It doesn’t take much to make for the bent over position to start causing pain and tightness that moves across your body. Down your arms, up into your neck, across your shoulders and back, muscles pull and misalign. Body parts far away from the initial constriction feel the consequences of the repeated turning inwards and down. Being bent over can be painful. And, when your body is bent in pain and stuck in pain, you carry that pain with you in all you do. And, other people, if they are paying attention, will see you there, unable to stand up straight.

     Jesus heals a lot of people in the Gospels. That is why some people seek him out, because they want to be healed or they want someone they love to be healed. They follow him to lakeshores and out into the wilderness for healing. They shout his name as he walks by. They reach out to touch him, in hopes that some of his grace is sticky enough to cling to them, and bring healing with it. As Fred Craddock points in his commentary on the text, the bent over woman does none of these things. She simply shows up at synagogue, like many faithful people with and without chronic pain. And, Jesus saw her.
Scripture tells us that she’s been hurting for a long time. We are also told that her physical condition is a product not of a repetitive stress injury but of a spirit that was harming her. I would encourage any modern-day readers to avoid assuming that someone with a visible disable is possessed by a spirit. Visibly disabled people have enough problems without other people making assumptions about the state of their souls. While the authors and curators of our scriptures often use physical disfigurement as a shorthand for spiritual disfigurement, we don’t have to, and in fact, it can harm disabled people when we do. It is probably wiser to pay attention to what the author wants to show us about Jesus through his actions than make judgements about the woman based on her stature.

     In his commentary on the text, David Jacobsen talks about it being both a healing story and a pronouncement story. It is a healing that tells us how we should understand our obligations to God and to each other. How ought we demonstrate our faith in God? But offering care to someone who needs it. Scripture tells us that Jesus would often go to Synagogue on the Sabbath, read Torah, and offer up insight with the other men. Jacobsen believes that the arguments are intended to demonstrate Jesus’ deep connection to his community, not place him outside of it. Because he knew their shared religious law well, he knew that the Torah, the law, had been given to God's people to help them organize their whole lives in service to God and neighbor. These conversations about Torah show us a people who are always trying to figure out how to follow their religious laws in the response to what they are facing on that day. It points to a living and breathing tradition. The common arguments we see between Jesus and the Pharisees show us that they all took the law seriously but they often disagreed on how to live it out.

     As I have said before, religious observance was always a dynamic tradition, an on-going conversation woven throughout Jewish life for literally thousands of years. It hasn’t stopped, in fact. So, we should not be surprised to see Jesus involved in this conversation about religious observance. It was the kind of conversation and argument he’d heard his whole life.  And, likely so had the woman who needed healing. Jeannine K. Brown pointed out that this same synagogue that Jesus had entered to discussed the law had probably been a source of support for this woman throughout the whole of her illness. I don’t imagine that she showed up at the service that day assuming her health would be at the center of a debate about Torah.

     Brown, in her commentary, helps give some contour to the argument Jesus is having for those of use unfamiliar with all of the ins and outs of first century Jewish Torah interpretation. It is a faithful reading of Exodus 31:14 to say that the Sabbath has been set aside for the people of Israel to rest from certain kinds of work. As there was a whole process around healing not described in this story, but that I’ve read about in some part of John, some of the activities around being granted official status of “being healed from a spirit” would have been considered work. And, following Jesus to synagogue in order to seek healing would have been considered work (though it’s not clear that the women did this).

     Importantly, according to Brown, Jesus does not argue that people should be doing forbidden work on the Sabbath. He argues that healing is not one of the restricted kinds of work. For example, you’re allowed to offer food and care for animals on the Sabbath, like untying a beast of burden so that it may have a measure of freedom while the humans rest. The woman who has been tormented by spirits so terrible that she could not stand up was certain bound. Did she also not deserve freedom? As Brown says, “What better day to heal (bring freedom) than on the Sabbath?” Jesus was not the only Jewish person to every argue that mercy was the most important quality to use to figure out how to live on the Sabbath. But, he definitely wanted to make sure his values were clear.  God is always honored in acts of mercy. God is always honored in liberation. God is always honored when those who have been bound up are finally set free, even if the unbinding upsets our understanding of what right religion is.

     What are the proper bounds of God’s mercy? This is a question that comes up for me pretty regularly when I’m trying to figure out what to do with our deacons’ funds. I was taught when I was called as pastor that we try to only share up to a certain limit and try to share with someone only once a year. Also, we don’t usually give people cash. We call and pay bills directly or write a check directly to the landlord or CMP or whatever bill someone needs help with. We are a small congregation. We have to be wise stewards of the money we give to other people, so we create bounds on the money we steward so it is as helpful as possible to as many people as possible. Sorting out how to be generous while also being reasonable and not over-extending the resources of the church is a pretty dynamic question for me.

     In the early days of the pandemic, when gas was expensive and it was hard to work and people were being pushed out of housing, it seemed like a good time to raise how much money we would share with someone. At the time, keeping people housed seemed like the Christian thing to do. Still does, actually, five years in, when it’s even harder to find affordable, low-income housing in our town. Off-season hotel room are at least double what they were when I started here eleven years ago, and the extended stay motels all cost at least a hundred more dollars a week.

     It seems to me like part of the reason we set aside so much more money for the deacons’ fund back at annual meeting in January was because we knew that responding faithfully to the reality of this moment meant renegotiating some bounds of how we share money with our neighbors. We decided, rightly, that it was the time to be more generous. But, I’ve still gotten three calls for help this week that totaled all together about $2000. I knew we could for sure help with one of them. The other two are still up in the air while I wait for some calls back. Even with the funds that the Friends meeting now donates for us to manage with our Deacons’ Funds, we couldn’t cover all of what’s left, even if we should or wanted to do.

     I don’t tell this story as a fundraising push. Not every call we receive is one we can help, for lots of reasons. Our boundaries are good ones at this moment. I tell this story in hopes of demonstrating that it wasn’t just Jesus and the Pharisees constantly navigating how to live out their faith in changing times. It’s us, too, and this question of mercy is a live one. I have undoubtedly missed opportunities to help someone stand up straight after years of pain. I also know that the help we offer has been just the right mercy at just the right time for people who really needed it. May we not forget that part of our call to follow Jesus is the call to evaluate if what is needed it this moment that might not have been needed in others. Jesus offered mercy. May we be unafraid to do the same.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Jared E. Alcántara: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21-3/commentary-on-luke-1310-17-6
David Schnasa Jacobsen: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2956
Jeannine K. Brown: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=665
Fred Craddock, Luke (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).
An interesting discussion of the changes kosher food: Gastropod Podcast, "Keeping Kosher: When Jewish Law Met Processed Food": https://gastropod.com/keeping-kosher/

Scripture: Luke 12:32-40 New International Version 

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

Watchfulness 

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.  It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” ​

      One of my favorite people in just about any situation is the person with the big purse. That purse has everything. Need a stick of gum? She has three flavors. A band-aid? She has multiple skin tones. Some Neosporin? She has that, too. A sewing kit, some safety pins, a tiny un-opened bottle of super glue, some mole skin in case you are getting a blister, small scissors, nail clippers, a bottle of Excedrin, and a rain poncho. All of these things are found within fathomless depths of her pocketbook. She probably has those little strawberry candies with the loud plastic wrappers. And, a pair of spare socks. And, some Kleenex.

     If something unexpected happens, this person is ready. She will be able to bandage up, stitch together, and feed most problems as they arise. She probably is also dealing with a lot of back and shoulder pain from carrying around so much stuff. I don’t know if it’s because once she got caught without what they needed and decided “Never again!” or if it’s because she is just prepared people with a purse full of contingencies plans... whatever the reason, she has just about anything you’d need. Like a scout, she is always prepared!

     In last week’s sermon, I noted that the book of Luke is leery of the idea that possessions will bring you security. Rather than wading into a family argument about inheritance, Jesus had told a story about a rich guy who God called a fool when he was going to build bigger barns to store an unexpectedly large harvest. Scholars I read suggested that the issue was that the man had only been thinking and planning with himself rather than consulting with others on how to share the abundance. He was kind of the opposite of the person with a big purse. She’s usually toted around all of what she has in order to help someone else out! Not just protect herself.  Today’s reading is some more of the follow-up to Jesus’ response to the man who had asked him to weigh in about inheritances.

     Jesus saw that at the core of these questions about stuff are questions about security. How will I have what I need to stay safe, or survive, or feel happy? Jesus, the itinerant preacher, living under the whims of the Roman government, was not inclined to think of safety in terms stuff he had. He likely had very little. He had learned that the security he sought to bring to others would not come with the collection of things or money. There’s a part of Jesus’ response to the man that we haven’t read together but you may have heard before. “Consider the ravens: they neither sow no reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.... consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in al his glory was not clothed like one of these.” The security this man, and his disciples, were seeking would not come from things. Instead, it would come from God.

     “Strive for God’s Kindom, and these things will be given you as well.” That’s the verse directly before today’s reading. Today’s reading tells you how to strive for the kindom. I’ll give you a hint. It does not involve hoarding. Also, importantly, as Fred Craddock notes in his commentary on Luke, “Seek God’s kingdom, yes, but do not add the kingdom to the list of things about which to be anxious.” Instead, as Craddock describes the first verse in our reading saying, each of us should seek God’s kindom “in the firm belief that it is God desire to give it to you.” God is not going to play keep away with Grace. Instead, God will fish around in that big bag until she finds what you need, be it strawberry candy, some Lactaid, or a pair of tweezers.

     Jesus says to sell your possessions and give the money to those who need it. That is a pretty clear directive against amassing wealth. Craddock calls this Jesus offering us liberation from covetousness and anxiety through acts of generosity. Jesus, who is leery of keeping too much stuff because he knows we get easily tempted to spend time protecting the stuff rather than loving our neighbors, does talk about getting a purse, but it’s not like one of those big Dooney and Burke purse the church grandmothers have. Instead, it is a metaphor for your actions and your attention. Hold on to the things that can be worn away by the world. Guard your generosity and compassion because those are your true treasures. And, where your treasure is, that is, when you treasure caring for neighbor and tending your relationship with God, your heart will be there as well.

     In turning our attention to caring for those who need it, we are paying attention to God. “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit.” Pay attention. Because God can and will show up in surprising places and you don’t want to miss it! Readiness for God does not come in the form of building a bunker and hiding away from the world. Instead, Craddock argues, readiness for God comes from continuing faithfulness to your duties to God and neighbor.

     E. Trey Clark, in his commentary on this text, says, “Amid the dominance of fear in our modern world, Jesus’ words can sound like an impossibility.” We live in an abundant world. We are surrounded by productive land and people. There is enough, if only it is shared. Clark quotes the Christian Mystic Howard Thurman who “suggests that while fear can serve as ‘a kind of protective mechanism” for the disinherited, ultimately, it can lead to “death for the self.’” This scripture invites us not live in the anxiety that comes from not having access to what you need. Instead, as Clark shares from Thurman, “we ought to live in the fundamental reality that each one of us is ‘a child of God, the God of life that sustains all of nature.’” We can then understand ourselves to be connected to each other through God, and are called to be put to work contributing to one another’s flourishing.

     Keep your lamps trimmed and burning so that God’s light shines forth. God will show us the way forward, with each other, into the reign of love and justice. With our purses of provisions for the journey, ready to respond to needs as they arise, we can be ready to be a part of the kindom of God. Shine the light a little brighter. And, make sure to share something sweet. We have to keep our strength up for the journey.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​E. Trey Clark: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-19-3/commentary-on-luke-1232-40-6
Fred. B. Craddock, Luke (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009)

     Have you ever had someone try to loop you into an argument that you don’t want to be in? That sure seems like what is happening to Jesus at the beginning of this reading. A random person asks him to help settle an inheritance dispute. We all know how messy arguments over inheritance can get. They can break families. Because questions of inheritance deal with family and cultural traditions, individual ideas about loyalty and fairness, and the connections between love and money, the emotions of the people in the family can be intense. They must be if you ask some random traveling teacher to get involved in the argument.

     In notes on this text, Marion Soards’ points out that there are rules about how to set up an inheritance when you have more than one son in Deuteronomy 21:17. It says that the elder son is to get twice the inheritance. Then person in the crowd, likely a younger son, wants the inheritance to be evenly split. Jesus opts not to wade into the specific argument, and, instead tackles the issues that were making the question about inheritance emotionally complex. He said, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” If you want more than what was coming to you, why is that? Do you have greater need? Greater fear that you won’t have enough in the long run? Do you think it would be more fair? Or, do you think having more stuff makes your life more meaningful?

     Jesus said you can’t let your stuff give your life meaning. Jesus doesn’t want to wade into the argument about how much inheritance these brothers should get. He does want to talk about a person’s relationship to the stuff they have and what that can mean for their relationship with God. Jesus talks about all this using a parable about a rich man with a good farm.

     The rich man had a good year and the land was pretty productive. Jesus said that the farmer then tried to figure out what to do with all he had grown since he’d grown so much more than normal. What he decides to do is to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. The scripture tells us that the man said, "I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years: relax, eat, drink, be merry." God intervenes with a reality check: "You fool. This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" Talk about a rude awakening. Jesus takes a somewhat surprising turns and says, "So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God." How do we know that this rich man hasn’t been rich towards God?

     Look, I thought we were supposed to be saving money? Fidelity says to save 15% of your income for retirement and start as soon as possible. Jennifer Wyant points out that many of us in Western Cultures have learned that amassing wealth so that we can eventually “eat, drink, and be merry” in retirement is the dream scenario. It’s not like, as she points out, Jesus tells us that this guy got his money by cheating people. He just had a lucky year and was trying to make the best of it. Wyant argues that his mistake wasn’t in how he made the money, but in “what he believed it could do for him.”

     I might argue that sometimes money can buy happiness. Or, maybe not exactly happiness, but having enough money would lighten an enormous load on tons of people. Money may not be able to give your life meaning, but it does keep food in bellies and roofs over heads. It is certainly easier to think about what makes life meaningful when you’ve got enough food to eat. That being said, money can’t fix every problem. And, being worried about protecting your money can cause a lot more.

     In the book of Luke, which, of the four Gospels, is the most explicitly concerned about the well-being of the poor, the author of the Gospel is consistently suspicious of the wealthy. In her commentary on this text, Meda Stamper points out so many examples from other parts of the Gospel.

     There is Zacchaeus in Luke 19, who is wealthy because he took advantage of people in his role as tax collector. We understand him to be committed to Christ when he promises to give half of his possessions away and pay back those whom he defrauded. His wealth was an impediment to his faith. In Mary’s song, God sends the rich away empty (Luke 1:52-53). In Luke 6:24, they will receive woe rather than the kingdom of God. There’s an awful rich man who gets eternal torment after death in the Lazarus story in chapter 16. And, like Zacchaeus, the rich young ruler in chapter 18th will only get eternal life if he gives away all his stuff.

     In Luke, wealth is a burden and a distraction. It makes you focus on your own well-being too much. Elizabeth Johnson, in her commentary on this text, points out that this rich man doesn’t talk to anyone but himself about what to do with his unexpected bounty. He talks to himself about his money. He congratulates himself on his good fortune and good planning. He tells himself to relax because he's got his own future figured out. Where is everybody else? I mean, he's a farmer with a lot of land. It is very unlikely that he has done all this work on his own. Why isn't he consulting with anyone else about these important decisions in his life? He doesn’t even give a perfunctory thanks to God, like singers do when they get a Grammy.

     As Johnson notes, “The rich man’s land has produced abundantly, yet he expresses no sense of gratitude to God or to the workers who have helped him plant and harvest this bumper crop. He has more grain and goods in storage than he could ever hope to use, yet seems to have no thought of sharing it with others, and no thought of what God might require of him.”  A foundational action in the Christian faith is to share what you have. This man says nothing about what he could do for others with the abundance he has done nothing to earn. Meda Stamper points out that the only other time the word fool is used in Luke is in Luke 11:40, where Pharisees are said to be foolish on account of greed and neglect of the call to work for God’s love and justice. This man is likely called a fool for the same reason.

     Have you ever heard the phrase “a budget is a moral document?” It means that we can see what a person or a group’s priorities are based on how they spend their money. People and groups put their money in what they think is most important in their lives. Do we fund independent journalism, or do we build a fancy ballroom? Do we feed poor people, or do we build detention centers? I’ve known churches to ask, “do we spend our money on upkeep of a building or do we spend it on serving our neighbors?” We’ve got all manner of barns and storehouses. How do we know we’re storing the things the way Jesus wants us to?
Let us remember the example of the old-fashioned barn-raising. If a building needed to go up, a family assumed they couldn’t do it all by themselves. They would put the call out for help, and everyone who had time, tools, skills, and food to share would show up. They’d work together and, in the end, have a functioning storehouse. But, the work was only possible because the people did it together. What we have is not our own and we can’t take it with us. May we use what we have for God and God’s creation. In doing so, we will be a part of the kindom coming in this world.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Jennifer S. Wyant: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-18-3/commentary-on-luke-1213-21-6
Marion Lloyd Soards' notes on Luke in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Meda Stamper: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2923
Elisabeth Johnson: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1725

Luke 11:1-13 from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
 
The Lord’s Prayer
 
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” So he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, may your name be revered as holy. May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
 
And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’  I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

     When I was very little, my family lived in Texas for two years. As I was reminded this week, and every time I return, there are lots of creepy, crawly creatures in Central Texas. When we were living in a little trailer in San Marcos, the town where my sister Kellie was born, things occasionally got in that trailer. As you know, you can make a nice home in a trailer, but they aren’t always the most impermeable types of dwellings. I was about four and sitting on my bed, playing with my stuff animals when I moved one and saw something that wasn’t supposed to be there: A scorpion! In my bed! Kids who live in Texas learn early not to mess with a scorpion, so I immediately yelled for my dad, who came and dispatched the creature. He then got some duct tape and covered the vent that he thought the arachnid had used as an unsupervised door. Jesus assumes in today’s scripture that most parents would do what mine did (not leave a scorpion around a child).

     Our cat and house sitter, Kathryn, sent me this text message last week as Tasha, the dogs, and I rested in a hotel room in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: “Hi, Chrissy! Came back to the house after dinner to see this snake (dead) in the kitchen. Have y’all ever seen snakes in the house before?” No. No, we had not. She had already gotten the remains out of the house by the time she texted us. I called to her to check in. Kathryn, who is from Texas, where many snakes are poisonous, and who is often quite afraid of them, had no idea what kind of snake was in our house or even if it was alive when she first saw it. Without knowing what kind of snake it was, she grabbed up all the cats and stowed them in rooms away from the snake. Then, fortified by talks with her mom and friends, she went to check the snake and try to figure out what to do with it if it was alive. Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for the snake, it wasn’t.

     The cats, whom she had tried to protect, had protected her first. Well, kind of. It was a garter snake and was of no danger to anyone larger than a small frog or long earthworm. But, still, Kathryn didn’t know all of that until we talked and I let her know that it wasn’t a dangerous snake. I also let her know that it was probably Snowball who dispatched the snake, though Annie the kitten is also a contender. She made sure to give Snowball extra treats and brought home a new cat toy for everyone to share. In today’s scripture, Jesus, who also grew up around snakes, many of which were poisonous, also assumed that most caregivers wouldn’t leave a snake around someone vulnerable.

     Because I know many of us in this room realize that scorpions and snakes are generally only a risk to humans when the creatures feel the need to protect themselves from humans, I am sure you didn’t hear Jesus’ words about them as him calling for their destruction. What I hope you heard instead is that it is the role of the caregiver to protect the vulnerable. Good caregivers do not hear a request for sustenance and give danger instead. In her commentary on this text, Rev. Niveen Sarras notes that Jesus understands God to be like a good parental caregiver when speaking to the disciples. Talking to those who might already be fathers or who assumed that the one day would be, he said, imagine yourself as a parent and what you would do for your child. Assume that God’s generosity is even greater than the generosity you would show your own child. Assume that your relationship with God can be as personal and intimate as that between a parent and a child. Within this kind of intimate relationship, one can ask for help and comfort. This is the heart of the kind of prayer he taught them: it builds intimacy and makes space for requests for support.

     Jesus’ disciples have asked him how to pray.  As Jennifer Wyant notes in her commentary, Jesus prays often in the book of Luke. She also points out that by this part of the Gospel, we’ve already had five different stories of Jesus praying (Luke 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 9:28). Seeing the depths of his connection to God, fostered, in part, by his regular prayer life, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.
None of the scholars I read in preparation for this sermon argue that the Lord’s Prayer is the only way to pray. Instead, in Luke and in the version of this story in Matthew, Jesus’ goal is to teach them a form that they can adapt to different purposes. Within that form is the acknowledgement of the relationship at the foundation of the prayer (one that is generous, intimate, and caring) as well as some examples of the kinds of stuff that is appropriate to pray for. Naveen Sarras points out in her commentary that, while it has become common for Christians to address God as a parent, specifically a father, over the centuries, in Jewish prayers,  in the cases where God is called a father specifically, it is usually related to the “election and adoption of Israel.” She cites Deuteronomy 32:6 as an example: “Is not [the Lord] your father, who created you, who made you and established you?” Fathers had the right to appoint an heir and adopt new members into a family. Again, God is understood to be building relationships and connected people to each other.

     Sarras also points out some cultural differences that would have shaped the disciples’ understanding of a father-figure. She notes that disciples who had been raised in Gentile Greco-Roman families understood fatherhood to have total control over the lives of their children and grandchildren. She says, “For example, a father decides whether his newborn child will be raised in the family, sold, or killed.” Jesus had to make sure that parenting generally, and fatherhood in particular was rooted in care for children and “act[ing] redemptively on their behalf.” The love in the relationship helps the child be confident that their parent will care for them, not harm them.

     Once they understood who to pray to, Jesus taught them a prayer format he had learned in his Jewish family and synagogue as he grew up. According to Rachel Levine, Jesus likely based the style of prayer he taught his disciples on an important Jewish prayer called the Amidah or the Shimoney Esreh. This, and others, were said regularly as part of keeping the promises of the covenant with God. I found a modern English translation of the prayer by Theodore Lichtenfeld that I’ll share with the whole sermon on the blog later this week. In current Jewish practice, there are also physical movements that accompany this prayer and parts to add during different holy seasons and in response to different parts a worship service. The Amidah would likely have been considered what Levine calls the “the minimum prayer we can say and be confident that we have fulfilled our obligation.” Jesus’ prayer is simplified further.

     You may have noticed that Luke’s version is a little different than the one in Matthew that most of us have memorized and we’ll say later in this very service. Here Jesus covers six areas of life:

• Father, may your name be revered as holy.- a reminder of the covenantal relationship between the one praying and God
• May your kingdom come.- a prayer for God’s reign of love and justice to arise in this time and place
• Give us each day our daily bread.- asking for help for basic needs
• And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.- a prayer for forgiveness and a reminder to forgive
• And do not bring us to the time of trial.- a request deliverance

Put more simply by Wyant, this is a summary of what we need most when we come to God: God’s presence, our needs met, forgiveness, and salvation.

     It is a shame that too many of our modern politicians have cheapened the idea of prayer in response to tragedy. They offer up “thoughts and prayers” and often, it seems, little else. This, combined with many believers’ experiences of “having prayer unanswered,” can make praying seem like an unnecessary, unreliable practice. I won’t tell you that if you pray the right way, like you’re saying some kind of password to God, that God will automatically do what you ask. And, I don’t think if something doesn’t happen that you prayed for, that means God is hurting you for some reason. I will bring us back to Jesus, in Luke, who seems to use prayer as a way to shape his own life into one of both contemplation and action.

     Remember, Jesus prays a lot in Luke, but he acts a lot, too, healing and teaching and comforting. His prayers connected him to God, to his community, and to the people he served. The rhythm of pray, act, rest, pray, act, rest sustained him into his greatest trials. When he taught his followers to pray, he taught them to remember the love at the root of their faith and to speak bravely of what they needed to survive. He reminded them of the call to make amends and forgive. And, he reminded them of the coming reign that they were a part of building. He didn’t tell them that God would fix everything if they said the right magic works. He did tell them that God loved them enough to listen when they asked. Let us all remember this God of good gifts. And, may we be part of delivering them. Ask, and we shall find God in each other.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Jennifer S. Wyant: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17-3/commentary-on-luke-111-13-6
Niveen Sarras: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-17-3/commentary-on-luke-111-13-5
Rachel Levine: https://www.biblescholars.org/2013/05/the-lords-prayer-and-the-amidah.html
​Here is a modern translation of the Amidah, including the parts added for different season: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/278574?lang=bi

Galatians 6:1-16 New International Version
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!
Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

     I am sure that I’ve shared this story before. But, it’s been a week when I’ve watch too many people delight in abandoning people in need. It is good to be reminded that our faith calls us to bear one another’s burdens and to hear about some Christians who did so out of great love. In the year before he married, Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock served a small church in East Tennessee in a town on Watts Barr Lake. Dr. Craddock was ordained in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, a sister denomination of our own United Church of Christ. The UCC and DOC share many ministries together, including some summer camps and international missions. We have some interesting differences, too.

     For one, in DOC churches, the lay people pray over and serve communion. In our tradition, someone must be ordained to bless the elements. They also usually have communion every week, which is less common in the UCC. Another difference is with baptism. While people of all ages are baptized in the UCC, many people are baptized as infants or very young children by request of their parents. In Disciples churches, most people are baptized when they are old enough to make their own statement of faith. They are usually fully immersed in water, too, either in large baptismal fonts their congregations or in the lakes and rivers near their congregations. The story I read of Dr. Craddock’s took place on an Easter Sunday, when a bunch of people were going to be baptized.

     Following one of the oldest practices in Christianity, this church welcomed new members through baptism on Easter Sunday. The whole church gathered together on the lakeshore at Sundown. Remember, this is Tennessee. While the lake water wouldn’t have been super warm, it would have been safe enough for baptisms at Easter. Dr. Craddock and the baptismal candidates waded out together and, one by one, he would baptize each of them into the Body of Christ. As they finished, they would wade back to shore where the rest of the church had gathered and built a small fire. The longer-time members would be singing and cooking some supper to share as the newest members gathered round. Then, the newly baptized and the pastor would go and change into dry clothes in little booths that the congregation had constructed with great care for just this purpose. Finally dry, everyone would gather around the fire.

     Over the years, this church had developed a practice in response to baptisms. They did it every year, and Dr. Craddock described it as always starting the same way. Glen Hickey, a long- time member, would introduce the new members. He would say their name, where they lived, and what they did for a living. The new folks would shift closest to the fire and the rest of the church would create a circle around them. Once all the new folks in the inner ring had been introduced, the long-time members in the outer circle would begin to go around and introduce themselves in a unique way. They wouldn’t say where they lived and what they did for a living. Instead, they would offer a service.

     For example, if I were a member of that church, I might say, "My name is Chrissy and if you ever need somebody to come and feed your cats, please call me." Then, the next person might say, “My name is Tasha and I can tell you if that weird rock you found is a meteorite.” This would continue all around the circle, with everyone in the church taking a turn. "My name is Earl. If you ever need anybody to chop wood, please ask." "My name is Bernice... if you ever need a ride into town, I'm happy to help." "My name is Beverly and if you ever need somebody to sit with someone who is sick, call me." "My name is Jonathan and if you ever need somebody to watch the kids, they can come to our place." One by one by one, they all shared their name and a burden they might be able to help bear.

     Then, they would eat. Food they cooked fresh and brought from home and purchased at the corner store on the way to the lake. Then, they'd have a square dance right there by the side of Watts Bar Lake. They'd dance long into Easter Sunday night. At some point, as Dr. Craddock told it, when it was the right time, a man named Percy Miller would stand up and say, "Time to go." They would clean up the food and pack up the dishes. They'd take down the changing booths and carry coolers and camp chairs and guitars to the car, and they’d all head home. Percy would be the last person to leave, making sure everything got cleaned up and the fire got put out. In the collection of stories of his that I read, Dr. Craddock shared that he was pretty overwhelmed the first time he experienced all this. He didn’t start these practices during his pastorate. They predated him, and he learned them right alongside the new baptized people. The first year that he was a part of the celebrations, he shared that all he could really do was stand next to Percy, who was busily kicking sand on the fire to put it out, and try to take it all in. That first Easter at the church, Percy looked at him and said, "Craddock, folks don't ever get any closer than this." Dr. Craddock believed him.

     “Bear one of another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.” When Paul closes out a letter to a church or group of churches, he often has a kind of a wrap up at the end. Today’s reading is the wrap up. First, he has a few of what Sheila Briggs calls “maxims by which to judge their behavior.” If you are living by the fruits of the Spirit that we talked about last week (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control), it will be reflected in your behavior. If someone messes up, you’ll treat them gently. You will avoid the things that tempt you to rupture relationships. You’ll help one another when things are hard. Sarah Henrichs says that Paul’s description of Christian behavior is characterized by radical mutuality where you “assist one another and evaluate only yourself.” This isn’t an easy life, but it is a life in Christ.

     In her commentary on this text, Brigitte Kahl wonders if the challenges of living in the Roman empire is wearing on the churches in Galatia. Paul is telling them that to follow Christ, they must construct a community that would consistently “go against the grain of the dominant order.” The culture they lived in had some really rigid social hierarchies that Paul believed the church was called to push against. Kahl wonders if some of the Galatians are finding this kind of resistance to the requirements of the empire to be tiring. Many of us certainly know that is hard to constantly be pushing to stay alive. For those who are finding themselves fatigued, Paul returns to the farming metaphors. “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” He says whenever we have the opportunity to do so, “let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.” Notice that “for the good of all” part.

     While we might start with bearing the burdens of the Body of Christ. We don’t end there. The new creation that we are a part of, the covenant that we get adopted into, makes us free to serve all. Our faith does not call us to be stingy with grace, for the Spirit has never been stingy with us. Filled with the Spirit, let us prepare warm fires, good food, clean shelter, and spaces for dancing. We might be tired. But, we aren’t doing this alone. My name is Chrissy. And, I’ll watch your cats for you. What burden will you bear for the one who needs it?

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Brigitte Kahl: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14-3/commentary-on-galatians-61-6-7-16-2
Fred Craddock, Craddock Stories, eds. Mike Graves and Richard F. Ward, Chalice Press, 2001
​Sheila Briggs' notes on Galatians in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Sarah Henrichs: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14-3/commentary-on-galatians-61-67-16-3
​

    Tasha and I live on land filled with things we did not plant. Our home is the farmhouse on what had been a working farm for nearly a century and a half. We purchased after two other families aside from the original had had the opportunity to shape it into a more modern home. Part of living there for the last eleven years has been learning what has been planted before us. This includes fruit trees. They are mostly apple trees, some plants by the most recent previous owners, some in the woods that probably were planted for hog feed or for cider. There are also two pear trees. We lived in the house five years before we saw one pear. Out of eleven years total, we’ve had maybe 3 summers with any pears at all.

     I think one of the reasons that the apostle Paul’s work come to be understood as authoritative was that he preached and taught clearly, using metaphors that people understood from their everyday lives. When he wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia, he used two that would have been immediately comprehensible. He talked about slavery and he talked about fruit. I must note that Paul lived and worshipped among enslaved people and also enslavers. He could have done a world of good had he told the enslavers to free everyone. It is a shame that he didn’t. Perhaps his assumption that Jesus was coming back soon prevented him from seeing abolition as the moral imperative that it was because he thought people would be free soon. Regardless, it’s a gap in his theology that I wish were not there. 

     Back to his metaphors: questions of slavery vs freedom and what it means to grow a good harvest were real questions with real stakes to his first listeners. There were legitimate risks to their freedom. Or, they were dealing with the moral quandary of owning someone. If they farmed or relied on food farmed locally (not shipped in from halfway around the world as we often do), a late frost or an infestation of bugs or a drought meant hunger and the threat of starvation for many. Paul learned from his time as a Pharisee to take his faith seriously... life and death seriously... so he would use life and death kind of metaphor when he preached and taught about it.

     Paul understood the law to be more than just your ideas about your faith. He understood it to be the ways your faith shaped your actions in the world. Paul said that the central ethic of the law is that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. As we discussed last week, while Paul did not believe that Gentiles needed to adopt all Jewish rituals and practices born of interpretation of the law in order to fully follow Jesus, he did believe that they needed to follow the central ethic of the law. In fact, Paul found love to be so central to both following Jesus and to properly interpreting the law that he said that followers of Christ should be willing to understand themselves as being enslaved by their love of neighbor.

     For those who have never lived under the fear of being enslaved, I think this slavery metaphor doesn’t have quite the same punch as it did for the first hearers of Paul’s words. I have often wondered that for people who haven’t lived with the stories of very recent family’s enslavement or who live under the threat of enslavement themselves, this metaphor of freedom and slavery is harder to grasp. Slavery was almost never a choice people made for themselves, and in the rare occasions it was, it was a sign of the utmost desperation of the newly enslaved person. We can’t forget that every aspect of the enslaved lives were in someone else’s control. Even as some slaves might have had some privileges, like the influential Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 9, their freedom was always bent around someone else’s desires.

     I think that’s why Paul found the metaphor powerful. He wanted the ethic of love to have that level of power in a Christian’s life. Maybe slavery was the closest condition he could imagine that would approximate the level of control he believed that one’s faith should have in their life. He believed that people should behave as if they had zero options but love. As I have said before when preaching on this text, I am uncomfortable with an educated, free Roman citizen using this metaphor so easily. I actually think having the choice to love is far more theologically engaging being coerced into love.  

     I do think his reworking of the image of freedom offers some corrective to how he talks about slavery. He is very clear that God, through Jesus, is calling people to freedom. He needs, though, to make sure that people don't think that freedom that Jesus’ followers indulge in some kind of every-person-for-themselves lifestyle. The Freedom of Christ is not radical individuality. It is radical connectedness... a freedom for one another... a freedom that binds our futures to the well-being of our neighbors. This is where the metaphor of the fruit comes in. He believed that you can cultivate the behaviors that create freedom for one another. While I can’t hang with faith as slavery, I can be here for a conversation about faith as cultivation. The Spirit will show you a way to live bound to your siblings in Christ that is also free of the parts of the law that emphasized love of God and love of Neighbor.

     For Paul, Love becomes the law around which Christians organize their lives. Law becomes the defining feature of not only the individual's orientation towards God, but towards other people. Faith extends outward, into community, and is cultivated through love in relationship with other humans. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are what he calls the fruits of the Spirit, the products of faithful cultivation. Notice that each one of these aspects of love will help you build stronger relationships. One cannot be in genuine, healthy relationship with God, or anybody else for that matter, without these facets of love.

     My preaching professor, the Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton, wrote a book about Galatians. In it, he noted that all of the things Paul believed to be a danger to the fruits of the spirit (enmity, strife, jealousy, quarrels, dissention, envy, and anger, etc.) are forces that disrupt relationships. Even Idolatry is a kind of disruption, that is a disruption of one's relationship with God, the foundation of love that makes all other relationships possible. Dr. Braxton also pointed out that Paul didn’t think sin was just about the stuff an individual does and doesn’t do. It also about how you behave in community and how you cultivate relationships.  Love allows you to build communities that function in the ways God intends. Love allows you to turn your attention outwards, mirroring God's own attention to humanity through Christ. The paradox of faith as Paul describes it is that we are utterly free from the forces that can destroy us and completely bound to our neighbors and God.

     I have spoken several times of the tree in our neighbors’ yard that has five different kinds of apples grafted on to it. I really like the idea of a church being like a grafted tree growing a bunch of kinds of apples. Even though they started out separate, they have grown together, creating a stronger and healthier tree than before, a tree full of delicious and robust flavors. I also like that this kind of tree doesn’t just happen. It is an intentional product that can only exist because we make it happen. Church is like that. So is faith.
Beloveds, we are in a season where unloving actions are being richly rewarded. We are living in a season where love of neighbor is being dismantled by anti-immigrant hatred. In this particular season, we are being encouraged to abandon our transgender neighbors in hopes of security a little bit of safety for ourselves. Vengefulness and hoarding are the tools of the powerful and many Christians have succumbed to them. It is all the more important to love when loving out loud feels dangerous. We may be struggling like those two pear trees in mine and Tasha’s orchard, unsure if we can bring forth good fruit in a challenging season. Let us live in the hope that growth is possible and never forget that the Holy Spirit is tending these trees with us. It will take all the experience, hard work, and luck that we can muster, but I believe the harvest is not yet lost.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Fred Craddock, "The Softer Side of Pentecost" in The Cherry Log Sermons (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001)
Alicia Vargas https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2874
Sarah Henrichs: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1684
Elisabeth Johnson: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=612
​Brad Braxton, No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience, (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2002)