Links to Readings 
March 30, 2014 + Lent 4(A)

• 1 Samuel 16:1-13 
• Psalm 23 
• Ephesians 5:8-14 
• John 9:1-41

Working the Works, Reverend Kinsey
Is there anyone who hasn’t been shopping on a Sunday?  Anybody not stopped in to pick up that one ingredient for a Sunday meal that you thought you had, but didn’t?  Or found a deal you just had to get, that was going to expire on Monday?  Or, maybe even, like most Chicagoan’s, regularly do your major weekly shopping on Sundays?  Sunday is the busiest shopping day of the week, here in Chicago! 

In my senior year of college, when I first arrived in Heidelberg, Germany, I was surprised when the stores all closed down early on Saturday afternoon, remained closed all Sunday, and didn’t open again till Monday morning!  I got used to it, of course, you had to, but that first weekend, I might have gone hungry, if the Ladenschlussgesetz, the “Shop Closing Law,” had also applied to restaurants.  Thank goodness it didn’t, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to find that reasonably priced Curry Wurst – umm, one of my favorites, right up there with Wiener schnitzel and red cabbage! 

Not many are old enough to remember the Blue laws here in the States, which for the most part, ended in 1961, and were much like the Ladenschlussgesetz, in Germany.  Today the only remnant of it here in Cook County is the ‘No Sale’ of alcohol before 11a.m. Sunday mornings.  In Israel, they close up shops Friday at sunset until Saturday at sunset, for Shabbat.  In some countries with Muslim majorities, like Saudi Arabia, Friday is the day of no shopping.  Though, more and more, wherever you go, the loopholes get larger, and the laws less restrictive, all the time.  I’d say, the power of money, more than religion, is the real driving force here. 

Jesus gets in trouble in 1st century Palestine, on the Sabbath day, for healing a man born blind.  He was blind all his life, then he sees!  You’d think it’d be a good thing.  But it depends on your own particular lens, and how we see as institutions and societies. 

A couple things were going on in this healing story.  First, the Jews were in disagreement over how restrictive they should interpret the Laws of Torah.  Some said, “’This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And they were divided,” as John’s gospel reports. 

In Galilee, where Jesus is from, and farthest from the Temple of all the Israelites, they tended not to worry about the letter of the law.  Passover and other festivals, provide a good opportunity to follow tradition, and, if you can afford it, take off from work, and pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem, in Judea, a few days journey to the south. 

Down in Jerusalem, the Sadducees, who are the most privileged, and in the back pocket of Herod and the ruling Roman leaders, tend to push, following the rules.  And the priests and Levites, who are the true believers, take the most strict and literal interpretation.  These are the ones who the neighbors of the man born blind enlist in their cause of going after Jesus.   

So, the second thing going on is the conflict between Jews, and Jewish-Christians, that is, the faith community John is writing to in his gospel, some 60 years now, after Jesus’ death and resurrection.  For 60 years they have been co-existing together, debating like good Jews do, and always have done, until it becomes, for that, and lots of other reasons too, intolerable.  The stubborn Jewish-Christians, won’t give up what’s perceived as, this blasphemy, that Jesus is equal to God, and so, they are at the point of being thrown out of the Synagogue, in John’s community, and elsewhere. 

The blind Jewish beggar that Jesus heals, is the example of all this, along with his family, who are especially terrified of being expelled and losing their status in the community.  “‘We know that this is our son’,” say the parents, ‘and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. (Or maybe they just don’t want to open their eyes to see it!) Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.’  His parents said this because they were afraid,” and knew “that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.” 

So, the disagreement over the healing stems from how you interpret the Creation Stories.  His opponents say, if Jesus heals on the Sabbath, he cannot be from God, because everyone knows, God created the world in six days, and on the seventh, the Sabbath day, God rested.  And, from this creation story, comes the third commandment, “honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy.”  And so Jesus is neither imitating God, nor obeying the law, therefore he must be a sinner. 

Once before already, in John’s gospel, in chapter 5, by the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, Jesus healed another man on the Sabbath, one who was unable to stand or walk.  “Get up, take your mat and go,” Jesus tells him, and just like healing the man born blind, the Jerusalem authorities reproach him for this.  But the explanation Jesus gives is the real stunner: “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”  When Jesus heals on the Sabbath, he does it intentionally, it would seem, to show that creation is still ongoing, an important – essential even – message of Jesus.

Take a moment, then, and decide.  Which position fits you?  Which creed do you subscribe to?  The one that says, God made the universe and all that’s in it, and it was very good – therefore, we can sit back and marvel at it, and how it turned out, knowing that there is nothing more to do but rest on this wonderful gift and privilege we have, and others don’t, and assured that everyone who is out shopping, driving, walking in the park on the Sabbath, is excluded from God’s promises? 

Or, the one that says, God spun the universe into being with us in mind as actors in it, and charged us with working in concert with God to bring it to fulfillment. God is working through us, inspiring us, and we are looking for where God is leading, including healing the lame, giving sight to the blind, and raising up the poor.  God is still working, as are we, the people of God.  And indeed, the Sabbath day is the day which best illuminates God’s work, just as the healing by Jesus of the man born blind, illuminated his world, and God’s glory.  And so, on the Sabbath, we can’t help but praise and worship this God!

Take a moment and decide. 

While you think about it, let me tell you another short story.  One from Chicago history, which I think you know, and compliments our theme today in a very practical way.  The Haymarket Affair, or Haymarket Riot, as it’s sometimes referred to, of 1886 here in Chicago, was a turning point in the movement, the worldwide movement, to make for an 8 hour work day/40 hour work week.  It began long before that, and would need to continue on many more decades after.  But like the Blue Laws that were let go over 50 years ago, and not without some tension and controversy, and in recognition that God is active in the world more than just on Sundays – the movement for an 8 hour work day, recognized how justice demands that all workers, including those doing the manual labor, should have the same rights and benefits that the owners and moneyed classes have.  The seven day week that God made, should not be misused, or abused, by the few, over the many.

Where is God in our world today?  Can we box God up and keep God within the walls of the church building, and just on Sundays?  Or is God bigger than that?  Is God still working today?  And where are we called to work – to do justice, to love kindness, and walk humbly with God? 

At the very beginning of our gospel story, “As [they] walked along, Jesus saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’  Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me…’” 

God, open our eyes, that we might see the work that is before us, and not be blind to injustice, which you have called us to reverse.  Illuminate the path that leads to your realm and kingdom dawning among us every day.  And empower us, through your ongoing creation, that, because of you, our best thoughts and words, may become action and deeds, for a world, begging for a chance to live fully, become healthy, and reveal your glory and justice.  

Readings for Lent 2 

• Genesis 12:1-4a 
• Psalm 121 
• Romans 4:1-5, 13-17  
• John 3:1-17

Status Report
I am not a parent, but I do know some parents.  I don’t have any plans to be a parent, and so I don’t claim any first-hand knowledge of what parenting entails.  But I have paid attention to parents who have gone through the experience, and become parents.  And so, I hope I am not too far off base when I say that, becoming a parent for the first time can be somewhat of an overwhelming surprise! 

First time parents may suddenly find, that children just don’t have the same priorities that they do: like, watching their favorite TV show, going to the theatre, meeting friends for coffee or a beer, and the big one, sleep! 

The birth of a child can throw your life a curve-ball, and the more you try to be a good parent and respond to the needs of a totally needy and dependent infant, the deeper into the unknown you may descend.  Like the Spirit blowing in the wind that we can never quite control, parents must learn to let go, and trust the path of new life that they’ve been given.

Perhaps I exaggerate, I don’t know, you’ll have to be the judge of that – especially if you’re a parent!  But, if I’m close at all, there is one conclusion I think we can draw, which is, that being born, is a transformative event, not only for the child, who morphs from womb to world, but for parent, who suddenly begins a whole new life. 

Nicodemus, a leader in Jerusalem, came to Jesus by night with a question.  Some say, coming at night, by himself, was extremely cowardly, that a strong community leader does not come alone by cloak of darkness, but would bring supporters, and would sit down in the light of day, to engage and discuss. 

But, in defense of Nicodemus, he is, it would seem, braver than his fellow believers, who have already rejected Jesus, according to John’s gospel.  And so, Nicodemus is at least trying to understand.  He seems to have an intuition that Jesus may possibly be the Savior and Messiah they’re all looking for.  He seems open-minded. 

Nicodemus, however, never quite gets around to asking Jesus about that.  He gets only as far as complimenting Jesus, which Jesus then cleverly uses to reorient him – or maybe we should say, disorient him.  "Rabbi,” said Nicodemus, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."  Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born, anothen." 

Now, anothen, has a couple of meanings.  Anothen can mean ‘from above,’ or it can mean, ‘anew,’ or, ‘again’.  From our all-seeing perspective, all these centuries later, we know that Jesus probably means the former.  But Nicodemus, portrayed as the straight man, with a rather shallow faith, at this early point in the story, understands Jesus to be saying the later.  "How can anyone be born after having grown old?” he asks.  “Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?” 

Poor, well-meaning Nicodemus!  That’s so silly!  Of course no one can enter their mother’s womb a second time and be born!  ‘I’m talking about seeing the realm of God,’ says Jesus, ‘by being born again in baptism, by water and Spirit.’  Or, as the contemporary translation, The Message, puts it, “When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch – the Spirit – and becomes a living spirit.” 

But something else may be going on here as well for Nicodemus.  In the social construction of Jesus’ time, ‘birth status,’ was an all-important ingredient of ones honor within the community.  Whatever family, kin and class one was born into, usually determined your socio-economic status in the community, staying with you from birth to death.  And there was little, if any, room to change.

And so to be born a second time -again- however unlikely that may be, would alter your status in the world, the honor you were due.  Perhaps that’s what Nicodemus had in mind, which would be closely in line with Jesus’ meaning – that you must be born from above, from the Spirit, in a whole new way.

How about us?  What’s our status?  If we have been baptized with water and Spirit, have we entered the kingdom of God?  Where does our status come from?  Can we change our place in society amongst our friends, or from one socio-economic class to another?  If we work hard, and keep our noses clean, will we get ahead? 

The belief that Americans can and do rise from humble origins to riches, has often been characterized as, the bedrock upon which the American story is anchored, otherwise known as, the American Dream.  This is the land of opportunity.  Even the President has submitted to the rather pompous and privileged, story that America is “exceptional,” that is - a nation set apart, as better than others – from which, unfortunately, all kinds of outlandish, and we must say, un-Gospel-like, and “entitled” interpretations have come. The belief system Jesus gives us is based not on ‘exceptionalism’ or pulling oneself up by the bootstraps – but on the belief that God loves us unconditionally even when we’re not exceptional – even when we have turned away from God and from our neighbors, and in toward ourselves, as we confessed this morning.  

But, it’s hard to shake these views.  Opinion polls show that belief in the American Dream is both stronger in the U.S. now than in years past, and stronger than in other developed countries most like us.  Yet these impressions of ourselves don’t match up with reality very well.  Several large studies have found that mobility from one generation to another is lower, in the U.S., not higher, than in most other developed countries.  Yet most Americans still believe that individual hard work is what gets them ahead, even though the opposite reality is staring us right in the face – a shrinking middle class, and the working poor, working longer hours, and multiple jobs, just to remain stuck in poverty. 

That night with Nicodemus, Jesus was inviting him, and all of us after, into the realm of God right here, right now.  Not “us or them,” but everyone, all, are invited to be children of God.  And if we’re all created, “from God, from above,” then we have all been made sisters and brothers to one another, our destiny afloat in the same boat.  Though amazingly diverse, a rainbow of colors, nationalities, ethnicities, genders and sexualities, we are all accountable to one another, no matter our creed or origin.  No one is privileged over the other, or exceptional, but each has been blessed with various gifts to share for the good of God’s glorious creation.

Being born again, born from above, however scary and unknowable, holds amazing possibility for us.  The good news of the Gospel will set you free – but first it will radically challenge you and may make you miserable!  Like morphing from womb to world, like learning to become parents in a whole new sleepless reality, being born from above, is often an overwhelming surprise.

In that secret encounter late at night, Jesus was not trying to accommodate Nicodemus; he was – like the arrival of a first-born child – trying to unsettle him.  Jesus wants Nicodemus—and us—to leave behind one set of bearings, and to take on an entirely new set.  “Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above,’” said Jesus.  “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

This is the life that is authentic life, not just a dream --like the empty, all too often, American Dream.  And so, we find, with Nicodemus, that waking up in the light of day, our true status and honor in life comes solely by the grace of God – born of the Spirit, born from above. 

For March 2, 2014 Readings
click on links below:

• Exodus 24:12-18
• Psalm 2
• 2 Peter 1:16-21
• Matthew 17:1-9

Six Day Work | Pastor Fred Kinsey
Six days later, after he first entered the hospital, after a minor car accident, a dust up at the intersection, where he lost control of his car, because he blacked out, not from drinking, he was stone cold sober and rarely touched the stuff, but his family history of high blood pressure had caught up with him, and he had had a minor stroke of some kind – six days later, after being in a semi-coma, and, the doctors had given him, optimistically, a 50/50 chance of survival – he woke up, and couldn’t wait to tell the story of what happened!

“I saw a white light, and I was drawn to it, it was beautiful, I was ready to go towards it, it was so wonderful, and I was ready.  But, something pulled me back, and I knew I had more work to do here, if just for a little while longer.” 

That was the story Eino Kolemainen told me, when I came to see him in his hospital bed in Iron River, Michigan.  He was in his early eighties, a recent widower, and a pillar of the church, once again.  He had also gone off to California and done well in business, before coming home to retire, back to his old stomping grounds, where he was born and raised. 

“I never really put much stock in people who’ve said they’ve had near death experiences, and seen the dazzling white light, before.  I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.  But I swear, Pastor, I saw it too!”  And then he told me again, what he saw. 

“Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.”

Like the new heaven and a new earth, the vision that St John wrote about in the Book of Revelation, to the seven churches facing persecution, at the turn of 1st century, John saw Jesus dressed in white, and Jesus, the Son of God, shining as bright as the sun. 

Peter and James and his brother John, are privileged to witness the vision Jesus showed them on the mountain.  Not even at Jesus’ resurrection do any of the disciples see Jesus all glowing brightly at the door of the tomb.  They see the angels there dressed in white.  But only later – later that day, six days later, 40 days later – witness his appearance in various places, as they went back to work and everyday life. 

Peter and James and his brother John, witness Jesus talking with Moses, who also on a mountain, came close to God, when he received the 10 Commandments, and Elijah, the prophet, who was to come again to prepare the way for the Messiah, on the high mountain.  Not that the disciples tell us what the conversation was about, but they definitely were drawn to the experience, amazed, and wanted more, wanted to build dwellings, stay and take up residence.  But then the intensity became more than they knew what to do with, as the bright cloud of the presence of God overshadowed them and the whole mountain top.  “"This is my Son, the Beloved; (says the voice of YHWH) with him I am well pleased; listen to him!"  And the disciples fell to the ground…  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.”  And so it was Jesus, in this case, who pulled them away, and walked them back down the mountain, explaining that they had yet, a bit more work to be done. 

Why does Matthew add the “six days later,” part?  It must have meant something?  Well, if we look back to what happened, we find it has everything to do with the work yet to be done, but a work that can’t be accomplished without understanding the Transfiguration first.  Six days, ‘earlier,’ Jesus made a prediction about his passion, “that he must go to Jerusalem, and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” 

Oh yah, that!  Jesus – the Son of God, the one who revealed himself as a resurrected Messiah, talking with Moses and Elijah, both alive with him on that holy mountain in the divine cloud – still had stuff to do back down in the valley. 

Jesus swore the three disciples to secrecy, until after the Son of Man had been raised from the dead.  ‘No one will get it,’ he explains.  The disciples might as well have told Jesus, ‘We don’t get it,’!  Was it a near death experience?  A near resurrection experience?  What does it mean to experience such beauty, see overwhelming bright light, feel complete love and acceptance?

It’s not too difficult to understand, hopefully, that for us, having a glimpse of the Transfigured Jesus, via the gospel, we are better equipped to begin the 40 day journey of Lent this Wednesday.  We have that benefit of knowing the whole story: His going to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover, suffering unjustly at the hands of the leaders who felt threatened, who like those of all ages, all too often can’t, or won’t, let go of their privilege and power, and so plot to disappear, to murder, this outspoken champion and prophet, believing it will end him, and resurrect their own fame, until three days later, like an earthquake, like a fissure in the holy of holy’s, Jesus rises, and the transfiguration of our world, is begun. 

Unfortunately, worldly power, has too often, not yet been transformed.  When Osama bin Laden was captured, he should have been brought to trial, but instead was killed and quickly disposed of at sea.  And so, we have no closure, we have no opportunity for something, at least closer, to justice, to transform us.  Those who fund and encourage the status quo of perpetual war, are winning.  When the same kind of capture of Muammar Gaddafi, in Libya, was mimicked by armed rebels of his own country, they probably hoped it was the end of an era, and a dictatorship.  But violence begets violence, and today, their economy and society are filled with vigilante chaos. 

Jesus came, not to sit on a throne and be worshiped, but to transform our hearts and minds and strength, so that we might transform and change the world.  Amidst the sickening hording of ‘more,’ by the few, in ever more blindly violent and unexpected ways, how can we treasure the magnificent gift of dazzlingly complex life, this abundance of opportunity for good, God has given us?  Jesus knew that talk was cheap, and symbols could only go so far- even those as spectacular as the Transfiguration. 

‘Come down from this vision of the bright light, for we have more work to do,’ said Jesus, much like Eino Kolemeinen once said to me.  Eino said, ‘God needs me for yet something more to do here,’ sitting up, and coming to life, in his hospital bed, eighty plus years old. 

In this age of technology, when we have all we need of the spectacular, even the Transfiguration of Jesus may seem somewhat banal.  Olympic ceremonies, dazzling white, and every color of the 5 Olympic rings, come to mind.  And because we have seen so much of it, the dazzle has lost some of its awesomeness.  The six days later, mountain-top experience is dulled.  

And so, I think what this age really wants, is to do something for the world God gave us – to make it more just, more whole, more full of love and grace and beauty – all the gifts we know, in our Transfigured LORD.  All the gifts each of us can claim, for our ‘six days later’ work, down in the valley.