Matthew 21: 23-32 Who is Really in Control?

            Back in my younger days when I was working at the Rhode Island Department of Attorney General, we had a department wide meeting. We had one of these meetings right after the new Attorney General’s took office. So I am sitting in this meeting and the new elected Attorney General informed the Department that he was putting a placque on the outside of the building and it read “With great power, comes great responsibility.” Does anyone know where that came from? It was from the movie Spiderman…the first one with Toby McGuire; at least that is what was told to us. I am sure you can imagine my shock to find that our office was basing its work from a superhero movie quote.

            Today’s Gospel reading is all about power. It is important to set the scene for what is going on today in our Gospel of Matthew. In the beginning of the chapter, Jesus enters Jerusalem on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday. It is a festive occasion and all the people greeting him sing “Hosanna to the Son of David!. I mean, there is a serious party going on because Jesus has entered the city, where the temple is located. But things turned pretty quickly for Jesus and the chief priests. Jesus went into the temple and cleaned the place out; he overturned tables and uttered those words “my house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of thieves.” So you can imagine that at the site of this happening, the chief priests are not too happy. Then Jesus leaves.

            SO here we are the very next day and here comes this Jesus again. This time they are ready for him. They have a plan to trap Jesus by asking him this one question. It is the question about his own baptism. They are not just setting Jesus up but they think they are so ready for this guy that there is no way this guy will give the correct answer; maybe they thought after this tough question, Jesus will be ridiculed and shamed and then everything can go back to the way it was.

            But it does not go as easy as they hoped it would. In fact, Jesus turns the tables on them. He challenges them by asking them a question; “did the baptism of John come from heaven or human?” That is like the slam dunk of questions and these chief priests know it. They start thinking (and scripture says arguing) about the answer. A question with two choices. IF they say it is from heaven then why didn’t they believe what Jesus was saying all along? IF they say it is from human then they have a bigger problem on their hands (as they see it). IF they say human, then all the people who have been following Jesus will be angry.

            It would make sense that Jesus’ followers would be angry, because they have been with him; some for a long time and some not so long. But they witnessed things that would show that this is not just a human action. They have been the recipient of God’s grace in the face of illness, sin, hunger when they needed food (how about that feeding of the 5000 or 4000?). I think we might be able to understand why they would be upset.

            What is underlying in all of this back and forth is the first choice of the priests. “IF we say it is from heaven…” there is one thing that they are concerned about and that is nothing more than power. Up to this point in society, the priests were the ones that held the proverbial keys to the kingdom. Meaning, they knew what made people clean and unclean. They studied the Torah (the first five books of the bible) quite extensively. They knew what was in it and they knew God’s law. They knew (or thought they knew) what and how God wanted them to live their lives to be in a right relationship with God. This term right relationship is defined as living in a way that is pleasing to God and worshipped God as the creator of all things.

            But they fell victim to one thing; the realization of knowing the limits of their authority. They lived by the instructions that they understood of what it means to live in the world as God’s chosen people. They knew what the rules…the law…was to be in this right relationship with God, what the proper sacrifices were, the procedures and the words to say because they studied it; and that became the crux of the problem. They became so centered on the law, they did not know or could not see that God has come into the world in a new way, in the form of Jesus Christ. They did not think that God would do something different or new in the world; That God would send a Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to walk among the people…for God to come into the world to see what was going on, to heal, feed, and teach about God’s love.

            What they realized in answering that John’s baptism came from heaven means the loss of their power. It meant that they did not determine who was named or claimed as a child of God. It meant that Jesus, who is standing right in front of them is THE DIRECT LINE to God; that people would continue believing or convert to believing in who Jesus was THE MESSIAH. It meant that Jesus would be the inheritor of the temple and AS THE MESSIAH, GOD was now outside that most sacred space in the temple called the holy of holies.

            This one question from Jesus puts all this in jeopardy. I think we can relate to that as well. We grow up hearing about how we are the masters of our own destiny. Society tells us that we can control every aspect of our lives; our diets (and body shape if you believe the infomercials), what we watch, read, who our friends are, the people we want in our lives or don’t want in our lives. Society tells us we can have the job we want at the income level that we want. But it doesn’t stop there. This notion of control can spill over into our faith lives. The notion that we are in control can affect how we read scripture. It can affect how we look at one another or treat each other. It can cause us to look at the law of God (like the priests) rather than looking at the law and the Gospel. That quote that, with great power comes great responsibility, did not come originally from Spiderman, but from the French philosopher Voltaire who wrote this during the French Revolution; who saw people abusing their power and lording it over the poor and oppressed.

            The point of all of this is that God is the one who is in control. As much as we would like to think we are, we are not. It is when we think are in control that we begin to lose Jesus Christ at the center of what we do and who we are. We try to be the masters of our universe and sometimes think we don’t need anyone else or can do whatever we want. When we think that all the things we do is of our own accomplishments and achievements and that no one helped us get to where we are, we run the risk of seeing ourselves as idols and maybe God like. That leads us down a dangerous path.

But Jesus question can come to us as a relief rather than a threat to our control. We are called to give control of our hearts and our heads over to God. Meaning, what if we said, “God, you called me to be a scientist, engineer, nurse, teacher, student, farmer, or to retire; call me to do your work in this world. I give all this over to you to guide my mind and my heart where you will.” Giving that kind of control of our lives over to God can be scary and quite freeing.

            It means that we have given our control as God’s child over to the one who created us. It means understanding something that I misunderstood at my previous career in the Attorney General’s office; with “great power comes great responsibility;” but using that statement with a little twist. “With faith comes responsibility.” Giving that power and control of our minds and hearts to God means that we hear God’s word with our ears and hearts. It means that being a witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s only son is something that God did for us, you and me. It means that witnessing the Son of God on the cross was all done out of God’s love for us and teaching and sharing with others the love of God; from the smallest child to older people who do not yet know God. It means acting out of that love…God’s love in our words and deeds. Not out of obligation but out of celebration and appreciation for the blessings we have received.

            TODAY Jesus asks this question of us and with joy we can answer that Jesus baptism came from God the creator of all things. We celebrate that our baptism and claiming comes from the one who created us. Thanks be to God

AMEN!!!

Matthew 20:1-16 "Are you envious because I am generous?"

            Did you ever feel jealous or envious? Have you ever wished that you had something that someone else had? Did you ever think to yourself “I wish I had that or something like that?” The current CEO of Apple once said in an interview when asked “what is the next big thing?” his response was that “the goal of the company was to create something you didn’t know you needed; but after seeing it or using it you knew you couldn’t live without it.” That is a very telling statement.

            As I began preparing for this week’s sermon, I read through this Gospel reading several times. I then began to think about this last portion of the Gospel; it is the part where Jesus uses the land owner’s statement “are you envious because I am generous?” I started really thinking about that statement; I thought about it personally because there was a time when I was really envious. I was envious because there was a group of people coming into my Lutheran church from other denominations and they were telling of what they were finding in the Lutheran church what they lacked in their previous church. I got jealous because I wanted that experience and I could not experience.

            I look back on the questions that I asked did you ever feel jealous or you wanted something because someone else had it; new car, new house, winning the lottery…you name it and I bet we have all wanted something like that at one time or another. These workers in the vineyard went through a negotiating period with the landowner. They haggled out a price and they went right into the field. They knew what was going to happen after that honest day’s work. They had a right to expect what they were going to get; AND they got exactly what they bargained to get. They got paid! So what is the problem?

            I guess the problem for them is what happened to everyone else in this parable. The last ones hired got paid first. I can only imagine the anger that the first hired might be feeling. There was grumbling (and grumbling means anger) because these people that showed up at the last minute got to go to the head of the line. That can be a dangerous place to be in their case. Then they got paid first…a full day’s wage. I bet the grumbling was more anger and less grumble.

            I think we can all relate to that grumbling and even anger. We know it because we can relate. How many times have we worked hard for something and yet someone that we know “didn’t seem to pay their dues” but got promotions, had an easier go of things, or things seemed to fall into their laps? We see it all the time because it is what we learned in this world. We have learned that there is a pecking order in doing things. You start out at the bottom level and the goal is to work your way up the rung of the ladder of success; and just when you think you’re getting there some person comes in from the outside and takes what you think is destined to be yours. It seems like that is the way it turns out in many different aspects of our lives.

            What we sometimes fail to see is that God does not work that way. This parable is telling us that God does not work that way. While we might see it as the pecking order not being followed, Jesus tells us through this parable that there IS NO pecking order. Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom of heaven is like this story of the landowner. All these workers in the vineyard are valuable. They are important and do important work in this vineyard…in God’s vineyard. We hear that some work all day, some work several hours, and some work a very few hours.

These last workers have been sitting all day “because no one has hired us.” They were the last to be picked. We could spend a few hours talking about that one, but I won’t put you through that discussion…maybe another time. Even those last few workers are valuable to this landowner and doing Good work. What I missed in the time that I felt jealous is that I was a lifelong Lutheran who walked away from the church; but they inspired me to look and re-learn at a more mature age, what it meant to be a Lutheran, to explore my own faith, and realize that my faith journey was filled with angry moments AND moments that were truly from God! My experiences weren’t any better or worse than anyone else’s; they were just different.

So, if God does not work by this pecking order or hierarchy; whatever we want to call it. What do we do with it? Embrace it. Allow ourselves to acknowledge the jealousy but then remember that there was no expectation put on us or our experiences. Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, came into this world to walk with and share our experiences. His experience would definitely be different then our own. Yet he shared and invited us to share his experience and be a witness to his life, teachings, his crucifixion, death, and resurrection. He invited us to share the new covenant that was poured out and broken for our sake and for the forgiveness of our sin.

All of this was done with no expectation. So you see we are recipients of that same generosity of that landowner whether we came to know God in our infancy, teen, or later years. God’s salvation is given to us without a contract. We did not have to haggle with God or work out some agreement. God invites us to the table to bring our experiences from the day, week, month, and the year to experience the God’s ultimate act of grace, forgiveness, love, and mercy. God made a promise to us all that Jesus Christ would be with us and would save us from our sin and from ourselves.

Thanks be to God: AMEN!

John 3:14-17, Hope among tragedy.

            I have a question for you, show of hands, how many of us like to hear bad news? None of us like to hear bad news? None of us. Why might be obvious; because it is bad news right? I mean how many times have we walked up to some and said “I have got some really bad news” and the response comes, “Great! I can’t wait to hear it!” It is the same thing with sad news. We don’t want sad news because it is sad. We know that the news is going to hurt and not one of us looks forward to hearing it. We try to couch this news in ways to find positive sides or silver linings so that it may not seem so bad.

            Well, today is no different. We started out last week with hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ calling us and reminding us that we are all connected in our Christian faith. We heard two of God’s servants on Sunday from New Life for Girls present how they help families, not just the girls; they help provide shelter and deal with our brothers and sisters who are released from prison, suffer from addictions, and this group provides opportunities to help people get out from under the pain and hurt of addiction AND learn that God loves them and is with them because GOD wants them to be happy in life.

            So I am already and feel nourished to start the week with the word of God and I hope that hearing the word of God and the blessings of our music started your week off with hope and promise. Then in the middle of the week we I received the news that a young person of our community in Hampstead was not feeling God’s love. One of God’s youngest and precious gifts to our world ended her life at the ripe old age of thirteen. It felt like a rock had been thrown at me and hit me right in the stomach. The level of sadness that just overtook me was immense.

            It was immense because living here in Carroll County for the last six years has opened my eyes up to some serious facts. The facts are that there is a high rate of this activity in the county; higher than any other county. It means that one of God’s children had lost hope. Although I did not know her, there are people in this congregation that did. As the spouse of a pastor, I lived through my wife burying one at the same age from two people in their 40’s. Five in one year to be exact. Last year in 2013, I buried an 18 year old who lost hope to addiction and heard someone in their 40’s tell other 18 year olds that this person had a full life when that was not close to being true.

            I tell you this because in this day there is hope, there is good news even amid tragedy. Today is the day that we celebrate the cross, those two pieces of wood that were put together and often used as a weapon of shame, a symbol of a political statement in the time of Jesus; it is that cross that has been transformed from that negative symbol and turned into the place (not a symbol, but a place) of hope. It is the place where, today, we are reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul “faith, hope, and love,” and God’s words and actions of God’s “Grace, Mercy, and Peace.”

            Today, we hear the Word of God that “God so loved the world that he sent his only son to die for our sake” and here is the important part “Not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved.” Those are powerful words because what is being said is that God is doing everything God can to show us that God wants a relationship with us, at all cost to God. God is willing to send a son into this world, as broken as it is, to know our pain, to experience all of our emotions feelings, and how difficult it is to go through this human life. All the while God’s son tries to teach about who God is and how we are children of God and part of this beautiful creation that God has made.

            Remember that wooden cross that is now the place of hope and grace and mercy. That cross took on a new meaning because of what God has done for all of us. God transformed that cross into this place that we can find comfort, peace, grace, and because of God’s action we can find strength in our lives and in our faith; faith in this cross and faith in God to get us through our tough times to sustain us from day to day and week to week.

            All this can leave us with some burning questions; where are these people that took their lives because they lost hope? Where was God in all this? And the list goes on and on. Based on the God that I know and the promise God made through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I can say that I do believe that they are with God. They do not have the pains that they suffered here on this earth. They are in the arms of a loving and weeping God. I believe with all my heart that God mourns with us all in these situations…God promises to be with us “until the end of the age” and so they were never alone for God was with them.

            I say that because of the promise of this cross that we celebrate today that “nothing can keep us from the love of God” and nothing mean NO THING. I say this because of God’s promise of forgiveness because of this cross. It does not mean that we can go out and do whatever we want then come back to the cross, but it does mean that when we make mistakes we can bring it here to the foot of the and seek God’s forgiveness and hopefully learn from those mistakes. It means that we can bring the hurts and pains of the week, and even the joys of our day, week, or any good news and bring it to the foot of the cross and praise God.

            Today is the day that all our activities begin for the coming year. Sunday school (with a play that talks about God’s love despite mistakes), new members classes, and soon the choir will be back in action and it all focuses around these two pieces of wood; this place of forgiveness, strength, comfort, mercy, and grace. Today, we celebrate our new beginning as children of God living in the strength of the cross.

            My prayer is that we all find comfort in the cross, may it sustain us and strengthen our faith, hold us in times of struggles and may God use us to help sustain and support and pray for all those affected by this week’s events. AMEN!

Matthew 18:15-20 "I am a rock"...not so much

            “A winter’s day. In a deep and dark December, I am alone. Gazing from my window. To the streets below. On a freshly fallen, silent shroud of snow. I am a rock, I am an Island.” Some of you may know those words. They are from the musical group “Simon and Garfunkel and the song is titled “I am a Rock.” The songs premise is based on being alone. Throughout this song, Paul Simon uses words like fortress, island, and building walls. For this song is all about isolation. When I was in my early teens, believe it or not, that was what I considered a powerful song that would define who I was going to be. I felt like I didn’t need anyone or anything. I thought I could do it all. I could just plod along in life and do things myself. It seemed like it would be pretty easy goings…or so I thought…maybe that is what I had hoped for; being an island.

            Our Gospel reading today is one that is pretty popular when it comes to pointing out God’s law. Jesus is in the middle of explaining to the disciples what it means to live the life of God’s children. Meaning, the question asked of Jesus by the disciples “whom then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” This is at the beginning of chapter 18. So Jesus is telling the disciples and we find ourselves here in verse 15-20. Jesus begins with the words that if your brother or sister sins. He goes on to tell the disciples and us what needs to be done if our brother or sister sins. “Go and point it out,” if that person listens to you, then it is all good. If not, go get another person and try to resolve the issue.
            That makes a lot of sense. Jesus is telling us to try and seek reconciliation. Jesus is saying that things need to be reconciled as soon as possible. We know that because there is no instruction to “give it a week, wait till the right time,” or anything like that. Jesus says “go and do.” We are getting a clear instruction from Jesus on how to handle a particular situation AND THAT IS A GOOD THING!  Clear instructions can help make our lives easier because it is so cut and dry, because we can say “it’s in the bible…Jesus told us to do this.”
            There is one part of this Gospel that is not so clear. It is in verse 17: “If they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. What do we know about tax collectors and Gentiles? Remember what I said last week about Gentiles and tax collectors? Last week, I told you that tax collectors were considered pretty low on the likeable scale. They took from people and inflated prices so they could get some of the money. They were highly disliked. What about Gentiles? They were not the chosen people. They were unclean and looked down upon; again not popular people. In fact, mostly to be avoided and ignored at best.
            But the question for this part of Matthew’s Gospel is this: How did Jesus treat tax collectors and Gentiles. This Gospel is full of stories about how Jesus treated the unclean and tax collectors. Jesus healed the Gentile woman’s daughter because of her faith. He sat down with tax collectors and shared meals with them (which is one of the most personal acts of hospitality in Jesus time).
            It seems as though Jesus words and actions are two different things; but they are not. This passage is not about how to kick someone out of the body of Christ. This is about the importance of community; and the importance of maintaining God’s children in relationship with God. Jesus called children, and adults to hear the Word of God. He did not check their credentials, economic status, or job. He invited. We know the story about Zaccheus; called him out of the tree, and ate dinner with him. All this draws us to bringing into relationship and not kicking out of a relationship.
            If Jesus shows us through this action of inviting then we are called to do the same. We are called to speak directly to sin; but it is not for the purpose of kicking out. It is for the purpose to getting whatever sin it is out of the way so that, as children of God, we can do the work as the body of Christ AND live in the community of a living and loving God, together. What is means is that the song “I am a rock” is all wrong. Believing that “all you need to do is rely on yourself.”
            For one thing, it is impossible to rely on yourself for everything. Although I wanted to believe that I could, guess what, I don’t know how to fix a car when my car broke down. I cannot deliver my own mail, run my own bank and so on. It takes many different people who have many different gifts to help support one another through this world that is so broken; to lift one another up and pray for each other, to show each other the blessing of forgiveness and grace, and mercy.  AND none of that would be possible if it weren’t for a loving God who sent a son, Jesus Christ, to show us all how far God is willing and did go to teach us about love, grace, and mercy; to show us that God’s love is real and that God longs for us to be in a relationship with God…through the body and blood of Jesus Chris; that is how far that God goes to prove that we are loved children of God.
            This means that we are all interconnected. As the body of Christ we are connected with other parts of the body of Christ; Trinity UCC next door, St. Bart’s down the street, the Methodist church in Hampstead; we are not loners as church and we are not loners as individuals. Each one of us needs each other for daily life and for our spiritual. As much as we are told that we can do it all by ourselves, that can get tiring if we believe that and try to live that out. Being part of God’s community means that we can be the body of Christ together; which makes our faith stronger and alive; more confident in the promises of God’s abundant love.
            It is because of the gift of Jesus Christ that we can celebrate that we are not alone. We are not rocks, islands, or fortresses; but we are God’s children who are called to live as one body of Christ. We are a community, though we fall short of the Glory of God, invited by Jesus Christ to continue to be part of God’s kingdom of heaven here on earth. Thanks be to God: AMEN!