Indexed by Date. Sermons for Epiphany Year C

February 1, 2004

Jeremiah 1: 4-10
Psalm 71: 1-6
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Luke 4: 21-30

It’s hard to believe that it’s February already!

It’s hard to believe that the days are indeed getting longer because it still cold and windy and cold!

It’s hard to believe that spring will ever come; even though it always has and we ‘know’ that it will.

It’s hard to believe that the very children who used play pranks on their Sunday school teachers and lie about eating their vegetables, are now grownups with responsible jobs, commitments and families of their own.

It’s hard to believe ..... you can add your own ending to that sentence. I’m sure that you can come up with something. (Pause)

Perhaps Jesus’ elders were thinking the same thing when they saw Jesus stand up to read in the synagogue on that long ago day. Perhaps they were saying to themselves, “Why, I remember when Jesus was twelve and he stayed in Jerusalem and worried his parent’s sick. He was grounded for a month!” or “Why, I remember when he almost broke Joseph’s thumb when he hit it with the hammer.” Obvious poetic license The thing is though, those “smart alec kids” sometimes know what they are talking about; sometimes they know just enough to make them dangerous.

Today’s reading from the gospel is one of those that cannot really be understood apart from the verses that comes just before it. To save confusion I have read both this Sunday’s and last Sunday’s lectionary readings, (so if the first part sounded familiar, it was! You heard it last week.)

We don’t know much about regular Sabbath worship in a small town synagogue but the following elements seem to have been present in each service: a passage known as the “Shema” “Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and strength and mind”, the 10 commandments, a list of 18 blessings, a reading from scripture, some psalms, a sermon and a blessing. It was probably common to have various people giving leadership by reading scripture and offering to lead in the prayers. As is indicated in the text, a temple assistant, would have had the task of handing the reader the scroll (remember there were no bound books) so that the reader could read the appointed reading for the day from the law and then, most likely read one chosen from the writings of one of the prophets. From the evidence in our text for today, we can presume that Jesus followed the tradition of standing to read the scriptures in Hebrew, the language of the temple, and then sitting down, a customary position for teaching, to teach and explain them in Aramaic, the language of the everyday activities!

It seems that Jesus had gained quite a reputation as a ‘good preacher’ by the time he arrived home one Sabbath day. However at home among his own, things were about to change. It seems that the initial favour in which the people held this home grown boy quickly turned to rage. Why? What had happened? What had he said?

You see much speculation in the circles in which biblical scholars gather lately has centred around the term, ‘the year of the Lord’s favour!” What many scholars take it to mean is the ‘year of Jubilee’. A few years ago there was a concerted effort of the part of many churches and NGOs to persuade the World Bank and the IMF to forgive the massive debts of the poorest countries of the world. You see, deeply imbedded in the laws of the Jewish people were various cycles that governed many aspects of their lives. Every so many years a field had to be left to rest, with no crop. Every so many sets of those years there was more rest time built in and every once in a long while, there was the year of Jubilee’. This was the ‘year of years’. All debts were cancelled and ancestral land was returned to the original owners. It was based in the belief that the land was God’s and for the use of the entire nation. It operated out of the assumption that the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of the few was something that would not go on, unchecked, forever. Every so often there was to be a correction, a return to the intention. Power and wealth and the accumulation of property in the hands of a few was not the law of the land; God’s law of provision for all of his people was the way things were supposed to function. There is a lot about it in the Bible; a lot of ‘looking forward’ to this year, but I’m not sure there is a record of it ever happening.

Another aspect of this passage is the connections Jesus makes with two stories from their history. The widow of Zarephath and the healing of Naaman the Syrian are stories from their past which tell of times when the promises and blessings normally reserved for the children of Israel were shared with those who were normally outsiders or ‘the enemy’. It was clear aht from time to time gnetiles could be more worthy of God’s blessings than the children of Israel. That’s often hard to take, but in those cases, it was the truth.

So we have to hold these two factors together as we think about this passage and its application to out lives today.

One of my favourite tv shows when I was young was “Little House on the Prairie”. In this series, the Ingalls family of Walnut Grove, Minnesota shared with us their trials and tribulations of growing up on the edge of civilization as the west was opening up in the mid 1800's. The episode I am thinking of took place just after they had moved form that fabled place they referred to as ‘the big woods’. To make a long story short, Charles owed some money and at satke was his yoke of oxen which were needed to be able to plow his land and plant his crop. As the episode progresses we see Ingalls become unable to work because of an injury and now unable to help himself, let alone his new neighbours, he is in danger of losing his oxen, then his crop and finally his farm. The hard nosed man running the mill and to whom he owes the debt, argues that”, a loan is a loan and a man’s signature is a man’s signature, and business is business”. The man sends someone to pick up the oxen a day early so sure he is of Ingalls’ default. Laura, the small daughter, is seen helping her injured father hoist sacks of grain larger than she is in a feeble attempt to meet the deadline. Then, as the music starts, from all over, the men of the town arrive to lend a hand. Of course the day is saved and the loan is paid. It is clear that the town will not allow the exploitation of a ‘good man’ because of a temporary misfortune, even though the lender was, technically, right and, technically, within his rights to take the oxen in payment.

Sometimes what is good news for one is not good news for another. Sometimes the good news of healing and release is just a lot of hard work. Sometimes ‘good news’ is hard to hear, and hard to live.

Think of this good news. The doctor says to you: “you have had a heart attack but you’ll live, IF you change your diet, and begin to exercise.” Or

“You don’t have lung cancer, yet! But you’ll have to quit smoking.”

I met with a colleague one day for lunch. Later that afternoon she was going to be taking part in a ‘confrontation’ with a man from her congregation. She and several community processionals were going to this man’s place of business to confront him in an attempt to force him to do something about his excessive abuse of alcohol. Their goal was to have him in detox ASAP. It didn’t work - and I don’t know if he has been able to stop drinking yet or not.

Sometimes though, the ending is different. A summer resident of one of my previous pastoral charges told me about his own history of addiction to alcohol and how his wife and several of his colleagues confronted him one day. In this case it did force him to deal with his drinking problem and he has been on the wagon for many years. The movie, “When A Man Loves A Woman” tells the story of how difficult that journey is, and how the right and good and life giving decisions are not always what seem to be the easiest!

You ee, I think that this was the problem for many of Jesus listeners. They thought that the good news was magic. They thought that God’s good news of God’s redemption and God’s reversal was just going to fall out of the sky with no effort on their part and that all the changes would be good.

However, we in the first world have to face facts. We have to face the fact that the economic system of the world that benefits us does so largely by exploiting others. We all want the poor to have food. But, the gospel tells us, the poor will not have enough unless the rich make do with less; money doesn’t grow on trees or come out of thin air. The oppressed cannot be set free without affecting the oppressor. The issue facing the southern states in the fight over the abolition of slavery was, “If all the slaves are set free who will pick the cotton?”

There is a cost to the good news. The cost is that those who are unwilling to admit their sin may miss the blessings of God. Those of us, and that is all of us, unwilling to look at the issues of our complicity in a system which gives us blessing at the cost of someone else’s oppression, are going to lose out on the blessings and promises of God.

Its not about who has the most toys when they die. It’s not about accumulating wealth and possessions and ppowe. It’s about making sacrifices for justice. It’s about being willing to give something up so that the oppressed may go free. Down on the ground the issues are not clear cut; it’s about being willing to look around us and to look within us to see where the word of God is pointing. It’s about sharing and helping neighbours and it’s about proclaiming the good news to neighbours who have forotten how to listen to it and walking the difficult journey together toward wholeness and justice. It’s about living in God’s way and not assuming that it’s old fashioned or out of date or unworkable. Its about trusting that, at the end of the day, God’s love and God’s power is the greatest force in the universe.

The good news is fulfilled in our living!

February 8, 2004

February 15, 2004

Jeremiah 17: 5-10
Psalm 1
1 Corinthians 15: 12-20
Luke 6: 17-26

“If I Had A Million Dollars”

The five guys from Toronto known as the “Barenaked Ladies” came out with a hit song about 12 years ago called, “If I Had a Million Dollars”. It’s a catchy, cute song. With their million dollars the singers would purchase , among other things, an emu or a llama, a fur coat (a fake one mind you, because a real one would be cruel), the mortal remains of a Mr John Merrick, the so-called ‘elephant man’; a house and furniture, including a chesterfield and an ottoman, and a K Car, the reliant automobile of the 1980s. Twice in the song the lead artist sings, “I’d buy your love”; the last line is, “If I had a million dollars, I’d be rich”.

Of course, we know that money does not really buy love or true friendship. The so-called “prodigal son’ in Jesus’ parable learned it, as have countless generations of others. While money is a necessity and it can make life more pleasant, or healthier, to a certain extent, it does not buy happiness. Throughout the Gospels and the pastoral epistles, the members of the early church are warned against being ‘lovers of money’.

In today’s Gospel passage we find Jesus preaching to great masses of people, not from a mountain, but from a “level place’. The people have come to him with great needs; for healing and exorcisms mostly This part of the so-called “Sermon on the Plain” is composed of 4 sets of blessings and 4 sets of woes. Remarkably similar to what we know better from Matthew’s gospel, as the “Beatitudes”, these shorter blessings take us off guard, for they don’t sound like blessings, and, to make matters worse, the woes seem to denigrate the value of the things that most people seek: money, food, happiness, and a good name.

When we were growing up my mother was constantly correcting our grammar; her mother had done it to her. When I would ask why I couldn’t say, “Freddy and me want some cookies” she would say, I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound right, and it isn’t right, so don’t say it! My niece and nephews are now the objects of Grammie’s grammar checker!

Of course, in school we learned why I couldn’t use “Freddy and me” as the subject of a sentence, but the most important lesson from my mother, related to how things sounded. When something doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t. When something sounds too good to be true, it probably is! That usually goes for those ads that are attempting to sell you the best appliance you will ever own for 4 easy payments of 39.99, as well as for eh sage advice your hear from friends and the values you see portrayed on tv and in the media.

On the surface, the 8 short, pithy, sayings in the Sermon on the Plain, just don’t sound right. Why wouldn’t the well-fed, be the ones that were blessed? Why wouldn’t the happy be blessed? Why wouldn’t the well off be the ones who are blessed? Why wouldn’t those with a good reputation be the ones to be blessed? How can poverty, hunger, sorrow and popularity be a source of woe?

I think that it’s important to remember that this sermon was addressed , primarily, to people who were poor, very poor. They were the ones he had just healed of their diseases. They were the ones in society with very little reason for laughter. They were not the movers and shakers of their community. Now, to be fair there were rich and powerful people who followed around after Jesus, BUT they tended to be the ones who were looking for some way to keep him quiet, which of course, they eventually found.

I don’t think the original audience would have found Jesus’ words any easier to accept, at least initially. When they looked at Jesus and saw him as the messiah, what they saw was someone who would turn the fortunes of their nation around. They wanted the Romans out and a descendant of David sitting on the throne of an independent and powerful country. In essence, they were probably hoping for all of those things to come their way; the things that Jesus seemed to be denigrating that is!

Yet, I think we all know, deep down that those goals, are not really the most important things in life. Studies have shown that if our desires exceed our means and if we receive the more money we wish for, very quickly our needs and desires will expand beyond our means once again. Of course a certain amount of money is needed for living and paying the bills and there is nothing wrong, in and of itself, with having nice things and wanting those things, but the gospel warns us, that’s not what’s really important in life.

It’s not that these things do not in facet make life more pleasant; not at all. There is nothing wrong with having money, nice things, good health, good and nutritious food and a good name, but it’s what the focus of one’s life is.

In this sermon Jesus is turning the common sense of the world on its head. When tragedy strikes some people will say, “What have I done that was so bad so as to deserve this?” Common wisdom, particularly in Jesus day saw poverty, hunger, homelessness and the tragedy of being a widow or an orphan, as a punishment from God because of sin. In a sense, Jesus is telling them that this is poppycock. Instead of being cursed, as many might think, they are blessed. Since it is addressed to the poor, he is saying, “Stop blaming yourselves, you are not being punished. In the midst of your poverty or your hunger, you can know and experience the reality of God’s blessing.” Now that’s good news!

In this sermon Jesus is also turning the values of the world on their head and saying that the Kingdom of God lives by the beat of a different drummer! He is saying that “if you are blessed in this life with these good things, you better have something more to go with it, because, if this is as good as it gets, you are going to be very surprised”!! On the other hand, to those without these blessings of life, he is saying that God’s blessings are beyond what the world sees and knows.

Last week I read that the biblical scholars who make up the group known as the “Jesus Seminar” have said that instead of “Blessed” the word Jesus used means something more like our phrase, “lucky you”! This is not to say that poverty, hunger and illness are blessings in and of themselves, by no means, but that somehow, in and through these difficulties, many people become more open to the power and presence of God and the true blessings of God.

To be perfectly blunt, we in Canada are among the ‘rich’ that Jesus addresses. As individuals we may be less than wealthy, less than healthy, less than happy, less than well thought of, but on the whole our whole culture is wedded to the ideas that we have a right to our resources and our excesses. We consume vast amounts of the worlds resources, far out of proportion to our share of the population. We are suffering from the diseases of excesses; heart attacks, obesity and diabetes and we are burning fossil fuels as never before. We have to turn around the notion that having it is good and using it up is better; we have to slow down, reduce, reuse and recycle and share what we have with others. We are drowning in conspicuous consumption and designed obsolescence and need to find a new basis for economic health other than buying and replacing more and more stuff.

There are signs of hope. Just before Christmas Chignecto Presbytery raised over $10,000 to build a well for a village in Guatemala. The people of Labor de Falla know they are blessed, not just because they now have water, not just because they have Christian friends who care, in a far away place called Canada, but because they live in hope. They live in hope that one day their people, The Myan people, will be able to live in peace and freedom on their own lands, and their faith in God remains strong, despite the very great difficulties of their lives.

It is people like this who can teach us a great deal about true blessing; we in turn can be a blessing to them as we share what we have so that their lives will have more

Jesus is looking our at the assembled crowds and is telling them; Jesus is telling us not to worry about money and keeping up with the Jonses, but instead to try his way of living. Try a way of living that puts less emphasis on success and more on faithfulness, less emphasis on the rat race and more time to smell the flowers, less emphasis on public profile and more on integrity and lving as disciples.

The gospel is not about going around with our heads in the sand as if the world did not exist, but about allowing the power of God to transform our lives and through that to transform the world into the place God had created it to be.

Let us count our blessings, be a blessing to others and worship God.

Amen.

February 22, 2004 -- Transfiguration Sunday

Exodus 34: 29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3: 12-4:2
Luke 9: 28-43a