Jeremiah 31: 31-34.. "What once was old is new again."

            I would have loved to start this off with singing “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” and was prepared to do it but then I went back and listened to the lyrics; so, that’s not happening this evening/morning.

            While I won’t sing that song, I do think it is important to know who Jeremiah was. He was one of the prophets. As I told the Sunday school kids last week, many of the prophets have the same story. When God first calls them, they say “no”. The typical response is “Who, Me? Not me, you must mean someone else!” Then God calls them again and says “it is you that I want.”

            Many times, we can attribute this NO because it is about what God wants these prophets to say. God is going to give them tough words to tell people; and these people may not be ready to hear what the prophet is about to say. The key to that is that the prophet does not always, in fact rarely, has Good News to share. Jeremiah is an exception, because most of the prophets are adults and know that they could be in for a rough road. Jeremiah is only a boy and God calls him to deliver some bad news to the leaders of the day. But, like all prophets, Jeremiah says yes to God’s call.

            This land that Jeremiah was born in was in turmoil for a very long time. It was the land of Judah. At any given time, there was Egyptian rule, then Babylon took over and here is this young boy he is telling of God’s wrath and punishment for Judah because of their lack of faith and their breaking of God’s law. We know the law that is being talked about in the book of Jeremiah; it is those stone tablets that Moses went up to the mountain to receive…the Ten Commandments…God’s law has been broken and so the people are being punished and, eventually, exiled out of their homeland.

            All this can be pretty devastating for a young boy to set out proclaiming what God tells him to say. This Good and faithful servant does not let God down. HE does what he is called to do; and his ministry as a prophet lasts for 40+ years.

            Why is all this information necessary? It is necessary because throughout Jeremiah’s prophecy, there is one thing, one resounding theme that brings us through to today’s reading. Throughout Jeremiah’s work and calling, we hear God crying out to the people whose ancestors have made a mess of things by not listening to God. Through Jeremiah, God calls to all the people who were exiled because of unfaithfulness and offers a chance to fix the relationship.

            God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and he took them down the hill to give to the people as they were being led out of captivity. We know what happened. The people got impatient and built idols before Moses could deliver the Ten Commandments. God was ready to destroy them but Moses reminded God of God’s promise not to destroy; and so they got the commandments and taught these laws to one another.

            But something got sidetracked. As we humans, typically do, the people went off in another direction; sometimes hearing the law, learning it, and then figuring it only applies if I do this or that OR saying “I’m not really coveting or stealing,”…you know finding loopholes. SO things go off the rails and the people stray. When it comes to being in such a hotly contested region and conquerors being overthrown every couple of years, they may have done what they had to to get along with whoever was conquering them; and that is part of the problem. They weren’t asking God what to do. They were just trying to get along with their captors. It is a tough spot to be in and I don’t think we could imagine what they were going through.

            So some of the people get exiled to Babylon. It is a long journey and they are moved out of the Promised Land to this other place. A place where they did not know anyone, there was no familiarity with the place and, worst of all, it is not the place where God called them to be. I am sure there was some anger, frustration, anxiety, and maybe even some depression about whether or not they would even have a future.

            Once again, here comes Jeremiah with God’s proclamation. God is now using Jeremiah to talk about something “new.” Through Jeremiah, God is saying that there will be a “new covenant with the house of Israel!” I would hope that among all those negative feelings about being kicked out of their land, there would be some ears perking up at the sound of something new. God says that this is not like the old promise when he took the people out of Egypt. Nope, this one is all new. Maybe some of those negative feelings begin to change into positive feelings because something new and big is about to happen!

            In our reading of Jeremiah today, something new and exciting is happening. This something new is the fact that God is not abandoning them. In fact, God has never left them. Some of these people turned away from God but God has not left them. God is asking them to come back to a relationship with God and God is willing to make a New Covenant with the people of Israel.

            God is promising to give them the law in a new way. The old way was to give it on stones and to teach. We all know that when it is taught, sound travels to and into the ear for the brain to process. The new thing is that God promises to put God’s law into their hearts. God is going to instill in them God’s law in a place where it cannot escape. In the one place that is very sacred to the lives of the disciples; to the one place that is deep within them so that it cannot get out or be loop-holed…the heart.

            God is not stopping there either. By putting God’s law in their hearts, everyone will know the Lord and God promises to forgive their iniquities and “remember their sin no more.” That is a pretty amazing promise! To have a God that will forgive for sins or things that they have done that might have turned them from God. That just might make the want to turn back toward God. There is not even a word about what the Israelites have to do. This whole scripture reading is about what God will do to seek a relationship with the Israelites! There is no “if you do, I’ll do!” God is saying “I am making you a new promise…”

            That is something that we can imagine. We can imagine it because we have experienced it. We have seen God’s promise of putting God’s law in our hearts and witnessing God’s promise to forgive iniquities and remember “our” sin no more. Through the birth and the ministry of Jesus we are witness to God’s law being put into our hearts through Jesus’ relationship with us and our relationship with Jesus. When we do things that turn us away from God, we too can hear the Word of God through the actions of Jesus Christ reminding us of the New Covenant that God made so that we turn back toward God.

            Through the death and resurrection of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ we are witnesses to the never ending mercy and forgiveness of God. To know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, went to the cross and suffered for our sake…for you and me is part of God’s promise in the hopes that we do not turn away from God but give praise and thanks to God, The creator of all the universe, for thinking that we, you and me, are so special that we are worth that sacrifice. It does not mean that we go looking for loopholes. It means that we will make mistakes but God will not and does not abandon us in light of those mistakes.

            It also means that God calls us to share the mercy and forgiveness that we have been shown and that the death and resurrection was not just for us here in this room but that it was for all. God promised the people of Israel that they would be delivered out of captivity and God kept that promise. This did not happen overnight. It took a long time for God’s promises to be kept. God does not make the promise that “even though you are forgiven” that the road is going to be easy; BUT God will keep the promise of not abandoning us. God walks with us day and night…God is right here for the asking: AMEN!

Matthew 22: 15-22 Whose Image?

Matthew 22: 15-22

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen!

So are you ready for the question that can come from this text? “What’s in your wallet?” We have heard that one before haven’t we? Who knew that such a simple question would become a trademark phrase?

But there is something to this phrase, not only in our personal lives but in our faith life. Here we have something like a parable but not quite a parable. This exchange definitely is a teaching lesson. The biggest difference between this and a parable is that we don’t hear those familiar words “The kingdom of heaven is like…” Here, we know the identity of the characters in this event; the Pharisees are present and the Herodians are also there. We are not totally sure who the Herodians are but we know they support the family of the ruler Herod and the continuation of Roman rule. We also know that the Pharisees are in control of the temple. They are the one’s collecting the taxes and exchanging it from the currency used by the Jewish people to the Roman coins.

There is something we need to know about this word “tax.” This tax that was being required to be paid was not a property tax or income tax. This was what was called a tribute tax; meaning that the Jewish people were under Roman occupation and they had to pay a “tribute;” kind of like a gift to the oppressor for continuing to oppress them.

So the two groups, the Pharisees and Herodians, both had something to gain from this arrangement. As long as the tax existed, the Pharisees changed the money and they would be secure in their positions. As long as the tribute continued to be paid, the Herodians could keep their station and lifestyle because Herod would continue to be in charge. However, if that all fell then they had everything to lose.

So these people are going to trap Jesus. They have it all planned out, so they think. There are only two choices in this question. If Jesus says to pay the taxes then he is a fraud and gives into the rule of Rome and the Roman Emperor who was treated as a God. If he says “don’t pay your tax!” then he is committing a crime and the Herodians and Pharisees can report him and, I’m sure they hoped, that they could get rid of him.

Jesus did not respond the way they wanted him to respond. He answered them with a statement that they were “fools and hypocrites!” He doesn’t mince words and they are not intended to be nice. He asks for a coin; “whose picture is on the coin?” And we hear the answer to this question: “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Jesus is doing something pretty incredible here. One could say that he is advocating the paying of the tax. He is giving into Caesar! NOT SO! Jesus is pointing something very important out to these testers. Romans expected to be treated as God’s and considered themselves God’s. They put statues of themselves all over the place and they put their own image on coins. This image on coins forced Jewish people who believed that it was the God of Israel who is there only God to violate the first commandment.

Jesus is pointing out to these testers that they have given in to Roman rule. Remember they, the Pharissees and Herodians have everything to lose if the tax is not paid…if that coin with the image of the Roman god Caesar is not paid their whole world comes crashing down. They lose power, control, and their fortunes. It all goes away if people don’t pay that tax! Their whole lives are defined by that tax being paid because it carries so much more than just money (i.e. the power, control, and wealth as I just said).

What Jesus is pointing out is not the importance of paying this tax. Jesus is pointing out where and who their allegiance lies with; He is offering to them an opportunity to question whether this Roman emperor is really a god or should be worshipped as a God or is there another who actually is a God. “Is there a God out there that can show that there is more in this world than just a head on a coin?” Jesus invites them to question their faith in this human emperor, who by previous examples seen by all the people is NOT immortal. Who has to put his image on a coin to remind people who he is.

Jesus offers these Pharisess, their disciples, and the Herodians the opportunity to put their faith in a God that is eternal; a God that promises everlasting life, a God who sent a Son into the world, have that Son go to the cross for their and our sake and be raised on the third day; to prove that death does not have the last word and that God keeps God’s promises.

Jesus offers that to us this day and every day as well. Jesus offers us the chance to question where our faith lies. Does it lie within the ability to have power and control over others? Does who we are rely on the amount of coins in our pocket or bank account, the amount of investments that we do or don’t have? Do we hold on so tightly to what we have because we believe those things are what define who we are?

OR, are we defined by the one who gave us life and created us. Do we put our faith and allegiance into the hands of a God who sent Jesus Christ into the world to teach us how to love our neighbors, how to invite others to come and see what the Lord has made and know that it…everything that God has created is GOOD! Do we put our faith into the God who promised eternal life, who promised that in our baptism we are claimed by God and that no matter what, we are ALWAYS God’s child and NOTHING CAN TAKE THAT AWAY! And do we allow ourselves to be shaped and defined first and foremost by God’s love; and do we put our faith and allegiance into a God that we cannot see on a coin, but know the presence of God in our lives, hearts, and minds?

The truth is that we do need those coins in our pockets. We do need the paper with pictures on it to pay the bills, whether it be cash or check, or even debit and credit cards. The point of this is not to demean the use of money because it is a part, a large part of our society. We live in the tension of having to rely on money to survive every day. We can easily run the risk of allowing that to rule and define who we are; BUT it does not define who we are! If I had a $100 bill in my pocket, which I don’t, that does not define me!

What defines us is that we are loved and cared for people. We are so loved that Jesus Christ died for all of us. We are claimed in our baptism by a God that will not let anything keep us from that love. Even though the road is not promised to be easy, being loved, claimed, and forgiven by God is worth the struggle.

Tomorrow/Today God will bring into God’s family Drew Gilbert Marriott. This little guy will have God’s promises that we have; promises of love, care, and support. Drew’s life will be full of ups and downs, just like all of us. This is where we, as his brothers and sisters in Christ, can help him, his brother, Brandy, and Matthew in defining himself as a child of God. We know the road isn’t easy, but we can be here for this family to walk with them in this journey of faith as God calls us to be witnesses to Drew of God’s never-failing and never-ending promises to life everlasting.

So let’s change that question of “what’s in your wallet?” to “whose Image are you created in?” Thanks be to God: AMEN!

Matthew 22: 1-14 being thrown out or being prepared?

Matthew 22: 1-14

Getting thrown out!

On Sunday, October 5, 2014 I challenged the congregation to arrive and worship in clothes that they normally would not wear to worship service on a Sunday. I asked them to trust me and one person was sad because he is a Mason Clown and he could not attend. The following is a summary of the sermon for Sunday, October 12, 2014.

            It is important to get some of the historical background of the book of Matthew and it’s purpose in writing. It was written during what one Theologian calls a “family squabble.” The family squabble is not about believing in God but it is about who Jesus is. Some did not believe that he was the Son of God while others did.

            This community of Jesus believers was a minority community in and amid a larger Jewish community. The “Christians (later called)” were able to use the synagogue to worship in earlier times. At the time of the book of Matthew, they are being pushed out of the Synagogue and have to find other places to worship. One of the purposes of this Good News of Jesus that we call the Gospel of Matthew was to sustain this community with God’s Word in their faith in Jesus Christ.

            In his commentary “Matthew at the Margins”, Warren Carter addresses how this parable is filled with symbolism of the realities in their current world. He points out who the actors are in this parable:

The King = God. Powerful and creator of all that is: seen and unseen.

Son = Jesus. This Son is the bridegroom. It is a direct reference to Matthew 9:15 where Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom.

Slaves = these are the prophets who go out into the world and do as the King asks. They are beaten, killed, mocked, arrested…we have heard that one.

Guests = are the elites. They are the ones born into the church roles of leadership. Pharisees and Saduccees. They reject the Kings invitation 2 TIMES and we know what happens when the King is rejected…

Soldiers come into the picture = Carter points out that the soldiers are Roman soldiers and in 70 C.E. they burn down the temple (possibly doing God’s action because of their - the elites – disobedience). They burn the place down.

No need to worry because this King has more slaves and they go out again. This time the order is to find whoever they can. “Go to the street crossings (our Gospel just says streets but the Greek points out street crossings) and invite everyone you find.” This time the King doesn’t want to waste his time. He wants everyone invited…Guess who hangs out at those street corners? The good and the bad.

The King did not say “go sort out these people” but says invite everyone you can find. The slaves (prophets) do just that; they bring them in “both good and bad.”

The problem is that there is this one guy. You know THAT GUY! The guy who is not dressed properly for this wedding banquet. Everyone knew in that time that there was appropriate dress for weddings. Everyone had some form of proper attire just for weddings, but this guy didn’t even take the time to put on the proper clothes; so the king saw this and he was bound and thrown into the outer darkness. IF there is one place you don’t want to go, it is definitely the outer darkness; the name, outer darkness sounds so….final!

Sticking with Warren Carter’s theme and this is symbolism, what do you think it means to be properly dressed for this wedding banquet? Is it simply wearing the right clothes or is there more to it? How do you think those people might have felt being invited to the King’s banquet hall for a wedding banquet; especially when you have never had any interaction with the King?

We can easily imagine what the good person might have felt; this sense of being special. Maybe “the King wants me to come to one of his wedding banquets?!” OF course there might be the sense of “I have to get just the right clothes” and there is a flurry of making sure the right protocols are followed, words are said, etc.

I would even imagine the bad person might have a different feeling. “This king invited me, am I in troubles, why would they invite me?” there might even be some sense of feeling important and wanting to look good maybe so that you don’t draw attention to yourself or get singled out.

Either way, there is a different feeling that comes over this invitation to these people on the street. There is a process of preparation. In that process can be elation, nervousness, anxiety, jubilation, excitement…a sense that because of that one invitation, your life has changed and it will never be the same.

That is the point of my challenge to you today. Were you nervous wearing these different clothes? Was there excitement in seeing where this was going to go? Was there interest OR maybe there was a lack of interest? Maybe there was a sense of “this is ridiculous” and it doesn’t feel special. No matter how you feel, this has been a successful illustration of this parable.

Most importantly, I want to say that we will not be throwing anyone into the outer darkness. I am not telling you how to dress for church that is up to you; what I am saying is that my hope and prayer is that when we get ready Saturday evening or Sunday morning, there is a sense of excitement. Your heart and soul is preparing you for this time together to hear God’s Word; as Luther puts it “get your hearts and minds prepared to fear and love the Lord our God (The King). Because God’s Word is life changing; living out and sharing the grace and mercy that God first shows us is exciting, anxious, scary, and yet a blessing.

Receiving the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, sacrificed for you and for me is something to praise God and give thanks for God’s never-failing love. My hope and prayer is also that we take those feelings of being special out into the world to share our experiences of God in our lives

Thanks be to God: Amen

Matthew 21: 33-46 Who's the Boss?

            Remember the phrase, “Who died and made you boss?!” It is a phrase usually said in an angry response to someone trying to tell us what to do. IT can be a real question and it can be a question to imply “how are you better than anyone else?”

            Today’s Gospel reading fits right into this type of a question. Once again, we have a parable…a teaching tool from Jesus to the religious leaders and to us. There was this landowner who took the time to build a vineyard with all that is needed to make it productive. Jesus adds the watchtower in this vineyard. That tells me that this is a pretty important vineyard, if the landowner needs to put up a watchtower; whether it is to keep watch over the grapes and the wine or it is to keep watch of who is coming in or out, it is pretty important.

So this owner takes off. He is gone…to another country! I guess that’s okay; and the tenants must have agreed to work the vineyard. I have seen documentaries and taken tours of vineyards and this is no easy task. Just as the farmers have to tend to their crops on a daily basis, the workers in this vineyard do as well. They have to make sure the grapevines are planted in just the right space and spacing apart from one another. They have to make sure the soil is good soil so that the grapes turn out just the way they need to in order to get the best grape for this wine. They all have to have defined jobs so that they are not overlapping. They have to make sure that there is no disease spreading through the vines, how to treat this particular type of grape and the care that it needs; so they have worked hard and NOW it is harvest time.

When the harvest time comes, this landowner sends his slaves back to gather the rewards! He doesn’t show up but sends these people to take what all these workers had worked so hard for. These slaves did not spend the time to make sure all this was done right. They did not read the soil, water the vines, tend the grapes and nurse these plants to health, protect them from bugs or other things that could endanger them! They just come in and are ready to take away all that these tenants had worked for…just take it away! So they are mad! So mad, in fact, they “beat one, killed one, and stone another.” The owner sent another group (more this time) and they did the same thing.

Then the owner sends his Son. “Surely, they will respect my Son! But we know what happens. These tenants don’t listen or respect the son. They figure they will kill him and get this Son’s inheritance. HERE IS A BIG PROBLEM! What in the world makes them think that they will get the inheritance of this landowner? Where in the world does it say in our scripture that these workers have some right to this land? They were tenant farmers. Our scripture does not say that after “a long contractual negotiation, it was determined that the farmers who agreed to be said tenants- in the event of death of the owner son- would inherit said land upon which they worked.” That is not in there so where did they get this notion?

I would suggest that it is because they fell into the trap of believing they would get some kind of reward. They put their heart and soul into this land. They used their talents, their gifts to do what needed to be done so that the vineyard would produce and be successful- because if it succeeds, they all succeed. So they have put so much into this land and the success of this land that they forgot that they were tenants and not the owner.

I would suggest that this is where the leaders of the church, the chief priests and Pharisees began to relate in this story. They are living by the law. They know the rules  about worship, sacrifice, what needs to be done according to the laws of Moses. It is their sole job to make sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to do as the CHOSEN PEOPLE of God. They live this 24/7/365, just like the tenant farmers. I would imagine that they got so caught up in trying to keep people within the law that they began to feel a sense of ownership, a sense of “I am the one who is keeping you in this relationship with God” or “I will tell you what you need to do to be made clean and acceptable in the eyes of God.”

The problem is that they don’t see that God is the one who is the Boss, the landowner, the creator of this vineyard. We read throughout scripture and we hold to be true that God created all of this; this land, the earth, all its resources, and this universe. God is the one who made all this possible.

I think that we can relate to this as well. We, too, can get caught up in the sense of ownership. When we buy a house, it is ours to do with whatever we want. No one can tell us what to do. When we have worked so hard and followed all the rules, we should be rewarded with a little something (that is our expectation). When we have done our homework, passed tests,  done all that our bosses expected, filled out the forms, spent years working for a company, tilled the land and produced crops to survive, sang in the choir all our lives, led the youth group, taught Sunday school for so many years…we all get caught up in this doing what we are supposed to do and wanting, having, or expecting a sense of ownership.

What Jesus is telling us that it is still and always will be God’s. We do all these things thinking that it is expected, it is part of the check-off list, and it is the law of what we have to do to be a good citizen…a god Christian…and we then get caught up in this “If I just do this then I will get into the kingdom of heaven!” What Jesus is teaching us here is that it is not about solely living by the law. Just because these things can be checked off doesn’t mean you have ownership or entitlement to the kingdom of heaven.

And that is where the second problem with this reading comes from. If Jesus is telling us that it is not solely by the law that we enter the kingdom of heaven, then what else is there? That is the Gospel...The GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ. It is the Good News of living out that God sent Jesus into this world to show us the Good News of God’s care for us, the Good News that no matter how broken we are, God is there with us and for us, The Good News that no matter how hard we try to live by the law we will fall short, AND no matter how many times we fall short, God shows us that we are still loved; so much that God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, will be sacrificed – not simply for the sake of sacrifice – But to show us that we are loved and forgiven and that God wants us to be in a relationship with God; Because of what God has done and is doing for us.

In our reading of Matthew today, we don’t necessarily see the Good New portion of God’s action in the world. Jesus uses some strong language to warn and to compel the leaders of the church and us that living by the law and focusing only on that part of God can cause us to think that we are the owners because we did the work. It is when we look later in this chapter and later in our worship service and hear the words “in the night in which our Lord Jesus was betrayed…” That we hear God’s Good News and invitation to come and be a part of God’s son sacrificed for you and for me; we hear God’s invitation to come and bring all that you are to this altar because you are loved more than you will ever know: AMEN!