Gather in the Harvest, Gather in the Kingdom

Christ the King Sunday

November 25, 2018

Joel 2:21-27

Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V25BmGq-Es4

I am up here with fear and trepidation, because I will be talking about harvesting, a topic many of y’all, if not all y’all, know a whole lot more about than I do. Plus, many of you have firsthand knowledge, which I do not. I think I shared last year when my family moved here, that although I’ve lived in many places and a few other countries, I had never lived anywhere this rural. There aren’t even streetlights! The parsonage is 2 miles from the nearest traffic light! The beauty of the land and the beauty of y’all have won me over. I love y’all and I love living here. I even thought I’d gotten used to it when a church member posted a picture online that threw me back into culture shock. He’d gotten a picture through his nightcam of two coyotes. Y’all. I’m used to the cows and sheep and goats and pigs and chickens and horses and deer. Did you know we live in a place with wild predatory animals? WHERE do I live now?? And are there other wild predators I should know about? [Answers included bears and bobcats.]

The wild predators in our reading from Joel were the locusts. They were so bad, they ate many years’ worth of harvest. It wasn’t just one bad year, it was years, plural. There have been some lean years for God’s people. And what does God say? “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.”[1] I will pay you back, reimburse you, for those lean years. How do you even measure the kind of payment for that? Monetary? Relationships? Quality of life? “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” What are the locusts that have taken years from your life? Disease? Pride? Stubbornness? Fear? What is draining the life out of you? Name it. And then the next question is, is this still going on now? Are you still in the lean years? Or are you in the next season? Listen, this promise is for you. And Joel begins at the ground level, literally. “Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.”[2] God knows there have been lean years, and God promises to make up for them.

What’s interesting is that the first part of this chapter is the passage we read on Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of the season of Lent. Joel advises God’s people to, “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.”[3] That section of repentance ends by saying, “Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”[4] And then the Lord answers, “I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.” The repentance comes first, and then comes the Lord’s promise to fill the threshing floors with grain and the vats with new wine and oil and to make up for the lean years. What part are you playing in making the lean years lean? Is there someone you need to talk to? Someone you need to forgive? A fear you need to face? An old hurt it’s time to let go of? “Rend your heart and not your clothes;” change on the inside and not just on the outside, and come before God. Another way of putting this would be to say, ‘don’t feed the locusts.’ Don’t let the locusts take any more than they already have. Don’t feed them. Don’t be one. You’re not a wild predator.

Our job is to gather in the harvest. To gather in the grain, the corn, the hay, the whatever else has been planted and cultivated and nurtured. We’re to take care of the harvest; not harm it. Jesus says, “The harvest is ready, and it’s abundant, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”[5] The harvest season has just finished here. Everything is gathered in. What is the purpose of the harvest? To prepare for winter, to be ready for the next season. To have enough food to last until springtime. The purpose of the harvest is to be ready for what’s coming next. So, if there have been some lean years, you might have gotten a little soft, not used to all the work of an abundant harvest. But Jesus says the harvest is going to be huge! God is going to make up for those lean years. Guess what? That means we have a lot of work to do!

While I took our Scripture readings today from the ones assigned for Thanksgiving Day, today is also the last Sunday of the church year. It’s New Year’s Eve, so to speak. And the last Sunday of the church year, the Sunday before we begin the new church year next week with Advent, is called Christ the King Sunday. It’s meant to celebrate the “kingship, or sovereignty, of Christ and the expectation of Christ’s coming again in sovereign glory which opens the Advent Season [next week]. We have more than a baby Jesus [coming] at Christmas; we have a sovereign Christ, [a baby who is born a king]. ‘Joy to the world! The Lord is come: Let earth receive her King.’”[6] That is some of the work we will be doing during the season of Advent: we anticipate and prepare for and receive King Jesus. But that’s not the work of the harvest. The work of the harvest is to gather people into the kingdom. It’s to get ready for that season of getting ready. We’ve got to gather in the harvest so that we’re ready to gather in the kingdom.

There’s a story Jesus tells about workers gathering in the harvest from a vineyard.[7] The grapes were ready to be picked and so the farmer went looking early in the morning to hire some workers. They agree to work for the day for one denarius. But the harvest is so big that by 9 a.m. the farmer is back out looking for more day laborers. These ones also agree to work for one denarius. The same thing happens at lunchtime and at 3 p.m., there is so much work to be done to bring in the harvest that the farmer keeps hiring more workers, promising each one a denarius at the end of the day. Well, guess what happens by the end of the day? They get the harvest in. The work gets done. But those who worked all day complain that it’s not fair that the others get the same wage that they do. The farmer says, “‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”[8] And Jesus ends the story by commenting, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”[9] Some of us have lost more years to the locusts than others of us. Some of us started feeding the locusts and had a hard time breaking the habit. Some of us have had more lean years and some of us have had fewer. God promises to make up for all the lean years, whether a little or a lot. We each get what we need. Your two lean years get repaid and your twenty lean years get repaid. It doesn’t mean God loves you any more or any less. It doesn’t mean you are any more or less worthy of inheriting the kingdom. None of us are. It’s only through King Jesus that we are made worthy.

Take, for example, Thanksgiving.  Believe it or not, the pilgrims weren’t worthy of the kingdom of God, either.  Time magazine had an article about Thanksgiving from a Native American viewpoint this past week.[10] As you may imagine, he pointed out how whitewashed the story of pilgrims and Indians eating a big feast together really is. The truth is that the Wampanoag tribe did help the first wave of Puritans who arrived in 1621, teaching them how to plant crops, which wild foods they could eat, and basically, how to survive. “The first official mention of a ‘Thanksgiving’ celebration occurs in 1627, after the colonists brutally massacre an entire Pequot village, then subsequently celebrate their barbaric victory.”[11] The idea of a holiday originally didn’t center around this at all, but around a day for gratitude and prayer and unity. This author said that many of his indigenous brothers and sisters refuse to celebrate Thanksgiving at all, but he’d rather change the focus to “values that apply to everybody: togetherness, generosity and gratitude. And we can make the day about what everybody wants to talk and think about anyway: the food.”[12] (This author is also a chef.)

Don’t feed the locusts. Don’t whitewash history, especially the lean years. Don’t pretend that they’re something they’re not.  Learn from them. Don’t gloss over someone else’s lean years, either. They are often full of pain. But as we gather in the harvest, consider those three values: togetherness, generosity, and gratitude. The harvest is gathered in by the cumulative work of the laborers, by our work together. One person cannot bring in a huge harvest by themselves. Abundance tends to lean toward generosity, although there are those who have little and are still very generous, as we talked about a few weeks ago. And gratitude. You know that line I say from the King James at the beginning of the prayer over the offering? “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we have we given thee.” It’s from 1 Chronicles 29:14, the middle of a prayer King David makes after the people have very generously given toward the work on the temple. In the NIV version, which is what’s in your pew, King David prays, “Who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.”[13] We learn generosity from God, the God who promises a complete repayment for the years the locusts have eaten. Change your heart and not your appearance, return to the Lord your God, whose kingdom is coming on earth as it is in heaven, the King who will make up to you all those lean years. 19^th century English pastor Charles Kingsley said, “Have thy tools ready. God will find thee work.” In other words, get ready to work. The harvest is abundant. It’s time to gather in the kingdom. And God’s looking for workers.

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[1] Joel 2:25

[2] Joel 2:21-24

[3] Joel 2:13

[4] Joel 2:17

[5] Luke 10:2

[6] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/festival-of-christ-the-king

[7] Matthew 20:1-16

[8] Matthew 20:13-15

[9] Matthew 20:16

[10] http://time.com/5457183/thanksgiving-native-american-holiday 

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid.

[13] 1 Chronicles 29:14-16

Gather in God’s House

26th Sunday after Pentecost

November 18, 2018

Hebrews 10:19-25

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn3JFVcWlY4 )

            A billboard campaign came out in 1998 in Florida called God Speaks.[1] It was sponsored by an anonymous donor who had this idea to use billboards to get people thinking about God. “Billboards would be put up with simple, easy-to-read messages in white type against a black board, all with quotes ‘signed’ by God,” but no logo, company name or any other identifying feature.[2]  You may have seen these even if you didn’t go to Florida, because in 1999 the Outdoor Advertising Association of America picked them up and started posting them nationally. Some of the original messages said, “I love you… I love you… I love you. God” and “That ‘love thy neighbor’ thing… I meant that. God.” One of the funnier ones said, “Keep using my name in vain and I’ll make rush hour longer. God.” Anyone remember these? There was another one that said, “Let’s meet at my house Sunday before the game. God.” 

Apparently these billboards did not make it to Maryland; no one in my congregation recalled ever seeing them. I know I saw them in North Carolina. Perhaps they weren't so nationally spread after all?

Meaning, before Sunday afternoon football, come to the pre-party at church. Some people use a big football game as an excuse to skip church. Others make it a point to come to worship first, even if they leave early. They know it is important to gather together at God’s house, and now you can come before the game or after the game if you come to our new evening service. The point is you come meet God with the community of faith. Let’s meet at God’s house, period.

            At children’s time, I asked the kids, why do we come to church? The children’s answer is to learn more about Jesus and to be with other people who want to learn more about Jesus. Yes, you can learn some about Jesus at home on your own. But you can learn more when you hear what other people are learning about Jesus, too. The best mission statement for worship that I’ve ever heard isn’t one I come up with on my own, but one I heard from someone else. She said, “The mission of worship is to build up the Body of Christ for its work in the world through encounter with the Holy Living God.”[3] Why do we gather? So that we can encounter the Living God, so that we together as the church, as the body of Christ, can be built up, so that then we can go “into the world to go and do likewise as disciples of Jesus Christ.”[4] That’s the point of the “sweet hour of prayer.”[5] It’s the time to intentionally meet with God. Verse two of that hymn says, “With such I hasten to the place where God my Savior shows his face, and gladly take my station there, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer.”[6] Do you ever hasten to meet with God? Do you ever hurry to church, at a time when you’re not running late? When’s the last time you were excited to come, when you looked forward to coming, when you couldn’t wait to see what God was going to do and how God was going to show up?[slower] Do you not think you should look forward to encountering the Holy Living God? Or are you afraid of what God’s going to ask of you? Do you want your life to be transformed, or don’t you? Do you want our church to be transformed, or not? Yes, change is scary. Yes, it means we’re not in charge of it; God is. Do you hasten to the place where God your Savior shows his face? Or do you come out of a sense of obligation, or habit, or because you have nothing better to do? I hope, and pray, that when you come to worship, you come expecting an encounter with the Holy Living God. I hope you come expecting God to touch you in some way. I hope you come looking forward, anticipating, what God might do.

            In Hebrews this morning we read, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus. He opened for us a new and living way, through the curtain—that is, through his own body. We have a great priest in charge of God’s house. So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith.”[7] What the author of Hebrews is getting at here is the old temple, the temple where Jesus worshiped, had a curtain blocking off the holiest part. Only the high priests were allowed behind that curtain. But, when Jesus died, on the hill in Calvary, over in Jerusalem, that curtain tore in two. Jesus is that great priest in charge of God’s house. And there is no more diving line; everyone can go into the most holy place. “Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice.”[8] We can walk right up to God, approach God ourselves. We don’t need a priest to intercede for us. It’s nice, and helpful, and a good act of communal faith for others to intercede and pray for us, but it’s not required like it used to be. We can have an encounter with the Living God without anyone else making it happen for us. That’s why we can approach the throne of grace boldly and confidently. That’s why we can expect God to show up. That’s why we can anticipate an encounter with the Living God, who will not leave us the same. So, “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings… Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise.”[9]

            Lastly, “let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.”[10] ‘Provoke’ is a word that is usually used with negative connotations. He provoked me; he started it. I was provoked by a rude driver; that other driver was rude and so I responded by being rude, too. But out of the three definitions for ‘provoke,’ only the first one is “to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex.”[11] The other two definitions are neutral, not necessarily positive or negative. To provoke is also “to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity),” such as “the mishap provoked a hearty laugh.”[12] The third definition is “to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action.”[13] These are the kinds of provoking we’re talking about here. There’s enough of the provoking to anger and exasperation. Let’s add more provoking to love and good deeds. That’s the appropriate provocation for the church. That’s how the bazaar and the candy-making happen. Ann and Puzz and Gayle and others provoke us to help out; they move us to action, to good action. This is the building up of the Body of Christ. This is part of why we come together every week. We encourage each other. We provoke each other to show love and to do good. We gather for mutual support and reassurance and inspiration. We come to listen to how God is moving in each other’s lives and to hear what each other is learning about Jesus. It’s why we share joys and concerns every week. Sometimes, we just need reminding who we are and whose we are. We need re-membering, as in to become a member again. This passage from Hebrews ends by saying, don’t “give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another.”[14] When we get discouraged, when we are negatively provoked, that’s when we find other things to do than to come to God’s house. So instead, let us encourage each other and positively provoke each other to love and good deeds.

After all, we aren’t here for discouragement. We can get that just by turning on the news. No, we are here for an encounter with the Holy Living God, we are here to be touched by God, we are here to be transformed, so that God can use our transformed lives to transform the world.

This past week was the Bishop’s Pre-Advent Day Apart for clergy. The speaker’s theme was about taking the time to intentionally engage your soul in deliberate, sustained dialogue, what he called “soul talk.”[15] The very last point he made, at the end of the day, was that when you talk with and listen to your soul, you are blessed by an abiding sense of God’s grace. And he mentioned the great commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel. The last verses of Matthew read, “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”[16] This speaker pointed out the audience to whom Jesus was speaking. In the crowd, some believed and some doubted. “When they saw Jesus, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them,” came to all of them, both those who believed and those who doubted. Jesus didn’t separate the crowd before making this promise. Both believers and doubters get the same promise. God’s grace is for everyone. God’s grace holds us even when we don’t, or can’t, hold back. It holds you when you’re discouraged. It holds you when you’re provoked. It holds you whether you’re in the habit of gathering at God’s house or not. Yet we gather together as the church so that we can encounter the Living God, so that we, the body of Christ, can be built up, encouraged, provoked to love and good deeds, so that then we can be sent into the world, believers and doubters, sharing the good news that God’s grace is for everyone. So, let’s meet at God’s house on Sunday.

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[1] https://godspeaks.com/about/

[2] Ibid.

[3] Think Like a Filmmaker: Sensory Rich Worship Design for Unforgettable Messages  by Rev. Dr. Marcia Mcfee, p. 4

[4] Ibid.

[5] UMH 496

[6] Ibid.

[7] Hebrews 10:19-22a, mix NIV and GNT

[8] Hebrews 10:20, MSG

[9] Hebrews 10:22-23, mix NIV and GNT

[10] Hebrews 10:24, NRSV

[11] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/provoke

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Hebrews 10:25

[15] Rev. Dr. Kirk Byron Jones, BWC Bishop’s Pre-Advent Day Apart for Clergy, November 13, 2018, from my notes

[16] Matthew 28:16-20

Gather with All that You Are

25^th Sunday after Pentecost

November 11, 2018

Ruth 1:8-18; Mark 12:38-44

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMPbvhHyV4U )

            We’re going to begin with a little word association. What do you think of when you hear the word ‘offering’? I imagine it might depend on your context. If you’re heavily involved in the world of finance, your first association might be an “IPO,” or initial public offering, when a private company decides to offer its stock to the public for the first time. Or, you might be a bargain hunter or someone who likes to make a deal and so it depends on what the other person is offering as to whether you’ll accept it or not. Two railroad properties in exchange for Boardwalk when you’re playing Monopoly? Mmm, probably depends on whether it gives either player a monopoly as to whether that’s an offer to accept. Here in church, we know offering has to do with putting money in the plate when it’s passed around. In first century Jerusalem at the temple, Jews didn’t take up an offering during the service. Instead, in the courtyard outside the temple were a series of collection boxes.  Each box was for a particular purpose, such as to buy wine or oil for the sacrifices, or to contribute to the regular operating expenses of the temple.[1] You could make your offering any time you passed by the temple, not just one day a week.

            In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus and the disciples have not only made it to Jerusalem, they are in this courtyard area around the temple. Jesus is teaching, like he does, and then then he goes and sits down in a spot where he can watch people put money into those collection boxes, into the temple treasury. Some people put in significant contributions. Then comes a widow who puts in two small coins that together were worth one-eighth of a penny.[2] Jesus comments to the disciples, “That poor widow put in more than all of the rest. They contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” There is a difference between giving your leftovers and giving sacrificially. There is a difference between giving as opportunity arises and planned giving. Some gave out of their abundance, which means it didn’t really cost them anything to give their offering. They wouldn’t notice it when they balanced their checkbook. The widow gave a small offering financially-speaking, but a huge offering in terms of her personal finances. She gave her life.  

            What’s interesting is what comes just before this example of giving. Jesus was teaching in the temple courtyard before he sat down to observe, and he issues warnings against the teachers of Judaic law. First, he says they walk around in long flowing robes, which is because that’s all you can do in long flowing robes. You can’t work in them. You can’t hurry in them. These are clothes for people of leisure; they are not practical everyday clothes. Second, the legal experts like to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces. Again, this doesn’t seem like a big problem, everyone wants to be greeted with respect. Except they’re not just after respect, like Mr. and Mrs., they want to be greeted deferentially and with honor. They like fancy greetings that appeal to their vanity, you know, “Good morning O most holy and exceptional teacher,” or something like that. These teachers also wanted the most important seats in the synagogues, which then were in the front row, in full view of the congregation so that everyone knew they were there. “See how religious and righteous I am? I’m up here in the front seat hanging on to the minister’s every word.” We seem to have overcome that problem in churches these days! The fourth criticism Jesus levies on the law experts is how they want the places of honor at banquets. He’s already addressed that in Luke 14, with the instructions that “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.”[3] In case you hadn’t noticed, these legal experts are all about some self-promotion and exalting themselves. The next problem is the curious phrase that “they devour widows’ houses.” Law experts were supposed to teach for free and earn a living with a trade and using their hands. The problem was that these legal experts had managed to talk people into believing that there was no higher duty and privilege than to support them in comfort.[4] It reminds me of the criticism leveled against the new cathedral in Managua, Nicaragua. There was a major earthquake in Managua in 1972 that leveled 90% of the city.[5] Among the ruins is the old cathedral, which was deemed unrestoreable. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western hemisphere. The new cathedral cost around $4.5 million. I met many Nicaraguans, both Catholics and non-Catholics, who thought that money could have been better spent. Finally, these teachers of the law make notoriously long prayers so everyone can hear how tight they are with God. These legal experts make it all about themselves, draw attention to themselves, and want special privileges and honors. It’s all about what they can get, not about what they can give.

            In contrast, Jesus comments to the disciples on this poor widow, who gives all she can to the temple. There are a few interesting things here. First of which is that she gives to a flawed and doomed institution. Only two verses later, Jesus says, “Do you see all these great temple buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”[6] The widow didn’t stop and evaluate whether she was giving to a worthy cause, whether her contribution would be used wisely or whether it’ll be used to build a multimillion dollar facility in the midst of poverty. The temple was not worthy of her gift. She gave “her whole life to something that is condemned and corrupt.”[7] This is the last scene in Jesus’ public ministry in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus is on his way to give his whole life for something that is corrupt and condemned – all of humanity, the whole world,” us.[8]  And isn’t that a good thing? Jesus gives his whole life for something not worthy of the gift. He gave his life for a broken and fallen world, one lately filled with gun violence, and acts of hatred. In Romans 5, Paul wrote, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[9] We didn’t deserve the gift of Christ’s life laid down for us. The temple didn’t deserve the widow’s gift of her life. The “call of Christ to the church is to give the whole of its life for the sake of those who do not deserve such a gift.”[10] The worthiness of the recipient isn’t the point. It’s the offering that counts.

            The second international mission trip I went on was in college and we went to Mexico. After a couple days there, I started to have some doubts about why we were there and was it worth it. My first international mission trip had been to Honduras, to a much poorer area than where we were in Mexico. I talked with a classmate who had done a trip to the Dominican Republic, also a much poorer country than Mexico. We agreed that what we saw in Mexico was not as destitute as what we’d each experienced on our first mission trips. However, we decided that it was still worth it, because this community needed help, too. Who were we to determine who needed the most help? We helped where we were needed, where we were called, whether as “bad” as other places or not. The worthiness of the recipient wasn’t the point. Serving Jesus was the point.

The second aspect of the widow’s gift that I want to comment on was the costliness of it. The widow, like Jesus, laid down her life, giving all she had. We tend to get uncomfortable talking about laying down our lives, or questioning whether we could really do that. Yet it’s not any different than what those who serve in our armed forces do, or members of our law enforcement. They are prepared to lay down their lives, to make the ultimate sacrifice. This is giving your all, like Jesus. It’s giving that is costly. We read the beginning of Ruth this morning. Ruth gave up her home, her family, her people, her country, to go with her mother-in-law to her mother-in-law’s home country. It was costly for Ruth to make that decision that “where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”[11] Ruth gave her life to stay with Naomi.

At least a few of us went to more than one funeral this past week. In addition to officiating here at Ms. Mary’s, I also went to the one held for our organist’s father. Many people spoke about the impact he had had on their faith. And in the eulogy, the family wrote that “He was very generous with his love, time, and finances, not offering to the Lord that which cost him nothing.” Did you catch that? He didn’t offer to the Lord that which cost him nothing. In other words, his offerings were personally costly. He didn’t give out of his abundance, off the top, leftovers. He gave generously and sacrificially; he gave gifts that cost him. Have you ever done that? Do you do that regularly? When finances get tight, do you cut back on your offering to the church? Or do you not go out to eat as much and forego buying a new coat until next year? Do you really want to help or do you just want to make a good impression? Do you really believe your gift can make a difference?

It’s not exciting to give to the church operating expenses. It’s never guaranteed that your gift will be used well and the church is not worthy of your gift. By the same token, I hate wondering whether everyone who comes asking for help is really telling the truth about why they need help. But that doesn’t mean they don’t need help. Everyone has a story, whether they’re telling me all of it or not. Their worthiness of receiving help isn’t the point. They need help, and Jesus tells us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and welcome the stranger. Your gift does make a difference. And I encourage you not to give out of your abundance, not give a gift that you won’t notice missing, but to give that which costs you something, to give sacrificially, to give your life. Don’t be the legal experts who are about what they can get and receive and attention on them. We’re not part of the church for what we get out of it but for what we can put into it. We’re not here for ourselves; we’re here for the next generation, we’re for those who don’t yet know Jesus and his love. We’re one of the few groups that don’t exist for themselves. We exist so that others can meet Jesus. The mission of the church is to reach the world. That’s why we give to the church. Because it is God’s chosen instrument to reach the world God so dearly loves. Imperfect, and yet so are we all. God sent his Son, anyway. God gave his best, anyway. My Grandma had a saying that went something to the effect of, “God does his best for you; you can do your best for God.” God gives his for you. Let us give our best for God.

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[1] The Gospel of Mark, William Barclay, p. 316

[2] Ibid.

[3] Luke 14:8-11

[4] The Gospel of Mark, William Barclay, p. 314

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception_Cathedral,_Managua

[6] Mark 13:2

[7] Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4, p. 287

[8] Ibid., p. 289

[9] Romans 5:6-8

[10] Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4, p. 289

[11] Ruth 1:16

This Sermon Needs a Tissue

All Saints’ Sunday

November 4, 2018

Revelation 21:1-6a; Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9; John 11:32-44

Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-q7wgqGgU 

(video from the evening service)

Candles lit at the morning service in memory of those who went home to Jesus in the past year

            Did anyone study Latin in school? Any guesses as to what “triduum” means? The prefix “tri-” means three; “diem” is days. When there is a set of three holy days in a row, the old church referred to them as a triduum. We only have one such set left in our Protestant calendar, the triduum that happens at Easter, with Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. There used to be more triduums that were observed in the church, including one that happened this past week. What we now celebrate as Halloween on October 31 and All Saints’ Day on the first Sunday in November used to be a triduum called Allhallowtide.  “Hallow” is from an Old English word for saint. The first day, All Hallow’s Eve, was a day of preparation, and has since been shortened to Halloween, using the Scottish word “e’en,” which means “eve,” or, the day before. The second day was All Hallow’s Day, a day to remember the saints and martyrs of the church. The third day was All Souls’ Day, a day to remember all who have died. This holy triduum worked all right back in the Middle Ages, when it started. However, then the Catholic Church started filling the calendar with saint’s days, that allhallowtide became less important as saints were getting remembered year round. Then when Protestantism started, along with the belief that all of God’s people are saints, we combined All Hallows and All Souls to All Saints, which means we remember all of God’s people who have gone before. Rather than keeping it to a strict date of November 1, we moved it to the first Sunday in November.

            While my husband loves the idea that Halloween started out as a church holy day, I love having an intentional time to remember those who have gone before and that we belong to a church much larger than we can ever see, with all of God’s people who have lived and served faithfully over two millennia. The local church is a bit like Doctor Who’s TARDIS in that way, it’s a lot bigger than it looks and it extends throughout time. And that is good news. It’s why God can say that he’ll wipe away every tear from our eyes. That exact same promise is in both the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and in the last book in the New Testament, Revelation. Before this week, I had not paid as much attention to that particular promise. But then I saw it emphasized in the liturgy for this morning – our opening prayer and an idea for children’s time. The promise is that “God will wipe every tear from your eye. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain or suffering, for the old order of things has passed away.”[1] God will wipe every tear from your eye.

            The Mexican tradition of Allhallowtide is called Dia de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. There, on October 31^st, you make your altars with pictures of your relatives who have passed. On November 1^st, it’s believed that the adult spirits come back to visit, and this is what’s shown in last year’s best animated movie, “Coco.” Miguel wants to play guitar so badly that he steals a guitar from a mausoleum and suddenly he can see all the visiting spirits, which usually mortals can’t see. Finally, on November 2^nd, you go to the cemeteries and decorate the graves of your relatives. There was another animated movie, also loosely based on Day of the Dead, that came out in 2014, called “The Book of Life.” One of the main characters is voiced by the Mexican actor, Diego Luna.  Diego Luna lost his mother when he was only two years old, but he says that celebrating the Day of the Dead every year saved him from many years of therapy.[2] The holiday let him focus on remembering his mother rather than agonize over his loss.  The Day of the Dead is a formal version of what many of us do around the birthday or death day of a loved one who has passed.  We cook their favorite food.  We watch their favorite movies.  We tell stories about them.  It is good for us to talk about and remember those who have gone before us.  It helps us deal with our grief. It’s a healthy way to grieve. This is God wiping every tear from your eye, every tear that’s related to mourning and pain and suffering and agony. There are tears of joy, but those are a bit different from tears of sorrow and anguish. I don’t think God dries out your tear ducts. The act of someone else wiping away your tears is an act of comfort, and that’s what God offers. Not that you become any less human or more stoic, but that those who grieve will be comforted.

            And you know what else is comforting? Holding hands. We don’t often read from the Apocrypha in the Protestant church, but this passage from the Wisdom of Solomon is included in the readings for All Saints’ Day and because it’s comforting, I included it this morning. It begins by saying “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.

Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; like gold in the furnace he tried them,

and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.” God holds the souls of the righteous in his hand. God holds the saints in his hand. It’s like that promise and reassurance from Isaiah, “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”[3] God holds us in his hands. It’s like the kids’ song, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” “He’s got you and me, brother, in his hands. He’s got you and me sister, in his hands. He’s got those who’ve died and gone before us, in his hands. He’s got the whole world in his hands.” Those in heaven are safely held in God’s hand.

And God will hold your soul in his hand, too. This is the lesson reinforced in our Gospel reading. Jesus is friends with this family, the sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother, Lazarus. The sisters send word to Jesus that Lazarus has gotten very sick. They expected Jesus to come right away, but he didn’t. He took his sweet time such that by the time Jesus got to their house, Lazarus had died four days earlier. Martha very self-righteously says, “Jesus, if you’d been here my brother wouldn’t have died.” They then have a great theological conversation, which includes Jesus’ great statement, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Then they go and find Mary, who says the exact same thing as her sister, “Jesus, if you’d been here when you were supposed to be my brother wouldn’t have died.” And Jesus, who will wipe away every tear, cries with Mary. Then he asks, basically, to exhume Lazarus’ body. The ever practical Martha says something to the effect of, “Dear Jesus, you can’t be serious! Don’t you know dead bodies stink worse than skunks?” Jesus says, “Yes, I know. Trust me.” And he calls, “Lazarus, come out!” And out comes Lazarus. Mike drop.

God is more powerful even than death. This is the good news for we who trust Jesus. Not even death can separate you from God’s care. God’s always got his people safe in his hands. When Paul lists all the different things that can’t keep us from God’s love, death comes first! At the end of Romans 8, Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[4] God is more powerful than death. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he quotes from the Old Testament prophet Hosea. Through Hosea, God says, “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?”[5] And the line in Isaiah just before the promise to wipe away all tears says God “will swallow up death forever.”[6] Paul combines both of those to say, “the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[7] Us, you, me, Ms. Mary, Ms. Virginia, Ms. Zeddie, all those saints, that great big cloud of witnesses who surrounds us. We’re not in this by ourselves. The church triumphant is with us, whether we remember that or not. Today’s a day set aside to make sure we do. We are safely held in God’s hand, too, in life and in death. Thank you Jesus!

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[1] Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 21:4

[2] http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/10/13/book-of-life-movie-day-of-the-dead/15844099/

[3] Isaiah 41:10

[4] Romans 8:38-39

[5] Hosea 13:14

[6] Isaiah 25:8a

[7] 1 Corinthians 15:54-57