Readings for Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016

•  Isaiah 65:17-25  
• Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24  
• Acts 10:34-43   
• Luke 24:1-12

"Next, on 'Luke'," by Pastor Fred
At our house we tend to DVR most of our shows.  Partly because we’re often not there when our shows are on, and partly because we like to fast forward through the commercials, if you kinow what I mean!  And, here’s the important part!  As we turn our attention away from whatever it was we were doing, we sometimes miss the, “previously on NCIS, or, previously on Blackish.”  Wait, one of us will say, Go back, I don’t remember what happened last week!  Oh ya, he was in that terrible car accident.  I can’t believe it!  Did he survive?  Is he still alive?  And we’re hooked, we’re ready to watch what comes next. 
 
That’s how I feel about Easter, today – I don’t want to miss the “previously in Luke!”  This episode of Luke we just read, is not nearly as exciting, or fulfilling, without the “previously on Luke…”  I mean, why are the women going to the tomb, early at dawn, on Sunday morning?  Who are these women, exactly?  Two Mary’s and Joanna?  And why the prepared Spices?  Is this a cooking episode with Rachel Rae!  Why are two men in dazzling clothes?  Did we record, Project Runway!  Wait!  Go back to “previously!” 
 
Ok, “Previously on Luke,” remember it was just this past Thursday, that Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples, and in the middle of this festive, feel good family get together, all hell breaks loose when, out of nowhere, Jesus predicts one of them would betray him to the authorities, who would arrest him, and another would later deny him 3 times, even as he stood trial for sedition and pretending to be King of the Jews?  And their banqueting table is turned into a melee, like a March Madness pool of fans playing their NCAA fantasy brackets, shouting each other down!?  Remember how the disciples turned the Seder into a quarrel about who was the greatest among them?! 
 
And on the next day, at noon on Good Friday, after all Jesus’ predictions come eerily true, and after all the disciples had abandoned him – except a few un-named acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, says Luke – remember how he was crucified, a true Passover spectacle for those arriving in Jerusalem for the holidays.  Remember how one of the authorities, Joseph of Arimathea, the only one who didn’t cast a vote to crucify Jesus, offered up one of his own upper-class tombs, large, and in a garden, to honor of him? 
 
And also “previously,” remember how the women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women who followed from Galilee, disciples in their own right, were the only ones who had not fled, but had observed from a distance to the cross, away from the drunken spectators, mocking the King of the Jews, who eagerly imbibed the narrative of Rome’s absolute power and control? 
 
Remember how the women had stayed to the bitter end, observing where Joseph of Aramthea, the rebel Councilman, had laid Jesus’ body, in his rock hewn tomb, right at sundown, and because it was the beginning of the Sabbath, they couldn’t fulfill the duties of washing and anointing his body on Saturday, so they went home to wait and prepare, so that, as soon as the Sabbath was over, on Sunday, at early dawn, they would be ready to bring the spices to anoint his body?  Remember?
 
And now, on this week’s episode of, The Gospel According to Luke…  It was “the first day of the week, at early dawn, when [the women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared…”  What they expected, of course, was to pick up where they left off.  They expected to find his body, and to lovingly anoint it with the spices, myrrh and aloes, just as they did for every family member who passed away.  They expected to have to ask someone to help them roll away the stone.  All that by itself, would have been a beautiful story.  But a plot twist is coming!
 
And so, about half-way into our DVR’d episode of Luke, a number of our questions we had going in are answered, but now, new ones are arising too. 
 
How about a more familiar story?!  Sometimes you have to take a break from an intense drama.  One of my favorite escape stories, ripped from the headlines this year, is the discovery of Planet Nine, just announced, about the two scientists from Cal Tech, who think they have discovered a new planet, here in our solar system?!  Remember how Pluto used to be one of our planets, the 9th, and farthest from the sun, until about a decade ago, when it was declassified?  Now a new addition to our solar system, some 50 billion miles away, much farther than Pluto, and ten times the mass of Earth, could be added. While they haven’t actually sighted the planet, they’re very sure it exists—because they say, “nothing else can account” for the way objects in that outer part of the solar system move. “It must be there,” as one astronomer said. “Nothing else could exert such influence!”
 
Ok, now I think we’re is prepared for what comes next in “Luke!” 
 
When the women arrived with their anointing spices to find that the stone to the tomb had already been rolled away, they went in, but his body is not there!  Being perplexed about this, says Luke, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them – 1st C. code for angels, or God’s FedEx delivery service.  And their same-day message to the women?  ‘“Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.  Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’  Then they remembered his words.” 
 
So, “previously in Luke,” worked for the women too!  Jesus had prepared them for this moment, telling them 3 times previously in this season, that: “the Son of Man must suffer and die, and on the third day rise again.”  It’s just that, nobody understood what that meant.  Even though resurrection was becoming a common belief in Jesus’ time, no one had seen it yet.  Was Jesus the planet that had to be there?  The, “nothing else that could exert such influence!” 
 
The disciples had abandoned Jesus, because they still lived in Pluto’s orbit – the old narrative that Jesus was preparing them for a battle against Rome and the current corrupt authorities of the Temple, and eventually a victory, ala, King David!  But they did not perceive how Jesus was talking about “Planet Nine,” a whole new orbit, and about overcoming the last and greatest enemy of all, death itself! 
 
And this episode, “The Resurrection,” is not the final episode of “As Luke Turns,” because,  the women’s story is at first, not believed – as too often has happened in history – they’re scoffed at, by the 12 Apostles, when they report the good news.  But Peter decides to confirm his disbelief, and runs over to the tomb himself, only to find Mary, and the other women, are telling the truth! 
 
There are previews of what’s next, at the end of every 1 hour episode, too?!  And so, Next on Luke: that very evening, two un-named disciples are returning to their home in Emmaus, a few miles away!  A stranger comes near and joins them… cut to late night dinner at home, and the stranger is breaking bread at the head of the table.  Could it be?  He looks exactly like Jesus did at the Passover meal…  Tune in and find out next week!  And so go a number of the wild and disparate appearances of Jesus in the gospels.  And of course there’s that spin-off series Luke writes, called, The Acts of the Apostles, in which Peter stars.  And also, introducing the evil, but handsome, Paul of Tarsus! 
 
Like the discovery of a brand new planet in our solar system, still un-seen, we are left to take a bit of a leap of faith, as the followers of the risen Christ.  What is certain, is that the apostles lives were changed in a most profound way.  Their expectations of a Messiah were fulfilled, just not as they expected.  It was a sharp pivot, as sharp as finding the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. 
 
But they began to see that he lived again as one who had come from God, who had conquered the power of death, provisionally for us, in the here and now, and as one who promised the future redemption of all creation.  His life, death, and resurrection, stand for the future God is drawing us all towards already – giving us a map and directions on how to go.  The prayer that Jesus had taught them – your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth! as it is in heaven – finally made sense! 
 
God love’s us, and all the world.  God’s future is breaking into our lives already - no one else could exert such influence.  Now we too, are made a part of the next episode of Luke – we become disciples and followers of Christ in real time – perhaps a new Reality Show!
 
Alleluia, Christ is risen…!

Readings for Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
March 20, 2016

• Isaiah 50:4-9a 
• Psalm 31:9-16 
• Philippians 2:5-11 
• Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49

"Stay Close" by Pastor Fred

​​Reflection on Holy Week:
As in each of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Luke spends a large portion of its pages, maybe a quarter or even a third of them, just to tell one week of Jesus’ life, his last week.  This Passion of Jesus – the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus – seals the meaning, of the life he has lived. 
 
Today as we enter into Holy Week, God’s Word in the Passion is as familiar to our ears, as our liturgy’s of the Passion and Three Day’s services are, from year to year.  We have heard the story before.  So, let me be brief.
 
In Jesus final walk to the cross, what his Passion seals for us, is the meaning of our lives:  Why we are here, and how God has structured our world, inviting us to abundant life, wherever we are, and to live our lives in the freedom and servanthood, of the arc of Jesus’ life, lived for us.
 
Here in Luke’s Passion, we feel acutely the tension between our closeness, and distance to Jesus, as we experience the way the disciples betray, deny and abandon their Lord. 
 
Judas comes as close to Jesus, as any disciple, when he greets Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, with a kiss.  But this kiss, which is traditional between friends, is instead a kiss of betrayal, signaling to the authorities ‘who’ to arrest and put on trial.  In this intimate exchange, Judas destroys his role as disciple and friend, and he distances himself from Jesus, forever.
 
Peter too, battles against himself, in a tension between his fears and his bravado – his humanness and courage to remain faithful.  After Jesus is captured and led away to be tried, Peter is the only disciple to still follow Jesus, and stay as close as he can.  But in the courtyard of the High Priest, as Peter sits around the fire, he cannot even muster the courage to claim his discipleship.  Instead, when asked, he denies he even knows Jesus, not just once, but three times.  And as the cock crows, Peter is close enough, that Jesus turns and looks him in the eye – striking terror within him, as Peter remembers Jesus’ prediction of his denial.  How far away must Peter have felt at that moment of shame!? 
 
In each case, as close as Judas and Peter are, the distance of their faithless actions seems irrevocable.  Yet, Luke reveals how Jesus remains radically present to us, even to those who would betray, deny, or cast derision upon him.  Jesus offers himself as the forgiving servant to each of us, unlike the ways we expect and know from the world.
 
Every civilization of the world would have treated Jesus the same way the Roman empire did.  Even ours!  That, is the same familiar story year in, and year out, of every state. 
 
So, the power of the Passion, and our Holy Week services, asks us to courageously pick a procession, and start walking. Which leader do we choose to follow?  Or will we stand mutely by the side of the road, waiting for the stones to speak for us?  What will the arc of our lives be?  Holy Week invites us to set off on a strange journey, and make a great and holy noise.  Will we keep our distance, or will we risk becoming disciples, Jesus’ closest followers, joining others of like mind and mission, our hand, in the hand of another?  In our mouths, singing joyful hosannas together?!
 
The jealousies and betrayals of the Passion stories this week – from the Last Supper on Thursday, to stark humiliation of Good Friday’s cross, to the surprising in-breaking of God as we Vigil on Saturday – are real and true to life, and dangers are everywhere.  And though we all have our failures, and may sometimes feel far from God – we discover that God is never far from us. 
 
Let us walk as courageously as we can this week, all the way to the cross, and beyond. 

Readings for March 13, 2016
Fifth Sunday in Lent

• Isaiah 43:16-21  
• Psalm 126  
• Philippians 3:4b-14  
• John 12:1-8

Dinner Party, by Pastor Fred
The final volume of the beautiful St John’s Bible was presented to Pope Francis just this last Fall at the Library of Congress. This decade and a half project was “first conceived by St John’s Abbey and University,” says its Mission Statement, “to ignite the spiritual imagination of believers throughout the world by commissioning a work of art that illuminates the Word of God for a new millennium.”  It’s the first of its kind, really, since the invention of the printing press, more than 500 years ago.  Each of its seven volumes are 2 feet tall, and 3 feet wide, when the book is opened.  It took a whole team of artists to create its beautiful illustrations and hand-calligraphed pages, using a mixture of such ancient techniques as, quills on calf-skin vellum, gold and platinum leaf, hand-ground pigments, and Chinese stick ink.  It also employed computer technology in planning the layout and line-breaks for the Bible’s text.
 
When one pastor showed a video to their congregation about the process, and the amazing result, they were spellbound, as any congregation would be. Just the illuminations make you want to lean into the scripture. The Saint John's Bible fosters awe and wonder for our God who gives us, not only the sacred story, but also the artists who make it come alive.
 
But, when the pastor revealed the cost of the whole St John’s Bible project, which was estimated at $8 million, there was a palpable gasp and shift in perception.  And in an instant, the mood in the room shifted from awe at the holiness of the gift, to alarm at the extravagant price tag. 
 
Such is the reaction of Judas, when Mary anoints Jesus with costly perfume, the burial spices of pure nard, costing 300 denarii, which is darn near a year’s salary for the average worker at the time.  That’s a lot of dough for one dinner party! 
 
But I can appreciate the concern of Judas, and also sympathize with the congregation’s alarm at the price tag  for the St John’s Bible.  Maybe you can too.  It is not wrong to be wise with our money, whether it’s in a congregation, our institutions, or in our households.  And like Judas, here at Unity, we’re concerned about alleviating poverty and serving the least of among us, too.  Of course, John suggests that there’s much more than meets the eye in Judas’ expressed concern for the poor.  John parenthetically informs all gospel readers, that Judas kept the common purse for the disciples, and used to steal from what was collected – so that, maybe his motivation was really to line his own pockets. 
 
What Jesus tells Judas is, “Leave Mary alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.  You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” 
 
So what starts out as a dinner party to honor Jesus for raising Lazarus from the grave, ends up being a lesson about how we should think about, and interpret Jesus’ death, that will happen in just a few days after this dinner party. 
 
It seems as if Jesus may even have been aware that Mary had already bought the pure nard, and so maybe Mary knew that Jesus’s journey to the cross is soon drawing to a close.  In John’s gospel, more than once now, there was talk out there, of eliminating this Messiah, before he got any more popular.  But why doesn’t Mary wait till the right and proper time?  Why does she choose this dinner party for his anointing? 
 
Mary, once again, was sitting at Jesus’ feet, just like when Jesus earlier praised her for choosing the better part.  She wasn’t listening to his preaching this time, but was unbinding her hair, in an act of adoration and worship, to wipe his feet with the costly perfume, and filling the house with strong pungent smells. 
 
This was a risky behavior for the times, letting her hair down, touching Jesus in mixed company, in this way.  Martha, took charge, and kept the party rolling in her serving.  While Lazarus, who Jesus recently called out of the tomb, sat at table with the disciples.  It’s an unconventional, almost preposterous scene really, but can only mean that Jesus accepts this anointing while he is still alive, alive and celebrating life with his closest friends, as an affirmation of life, and hope, and faith, and love – in the face of death.  Don’t wait until it’s too late(!) is a strong part of the message.  Remember and celebrate the miracle of life you have been given.  We don’t always have our loved ones with us! 
 
As the story goes, for a certain man’s 70th birthday, his wife wanted to do something really special, and so she asked friends, colleagues, and loved ones to write him letters of appreciation.  Then she bound them in a book, some 100 in all as a keepsake, and wrapped it up as a birthday present – a true gift of love.  On one occasion a few years later, his wife asked him about the letters, thinking it would be a nostalgic memory to recall, but the husband paused, and got tears in his eyes, and said, you know, “I’ve never been able to bring myself to read them,” he said.  It was so much love – he almost couldn’t bear it.
 
The anointing at Bethany is Mary’s letter, written in the fragrance of a loving memorial. Jesus reads her meaning loud and clear.  In the face life’s most daunting barrier, death, she chose resurrection and new life, and does a good thing.  In the face of Jesus’ death and Holy Week to come, she gives all that she has.  This is the ultimate gift and act of worship.  Yes, it would also make a good gift to help the poor.  It’s not that Jesus believed we shouldn’t do anything about the curse of poverty – but in loving and gifting the Messiah, Mary celebrates the gracious gift of life God gives to us. 
 
As Puerto Rican theologian, Eliseo Pérez-Álvarez has said, “Jesus is not eternalizing poverty but eradicating it. Jesus knows that there is extreme poverty, because he’s aware of extreme wealth.  Wealth and poverty are but two sides of the same coin.”  So, Mary is thinking apocalyptically, here.  The world and new realm Jesus proclaimed and promised, considers wealth not a thing to be grasped and controlled, but a resource to serve all people.  Just as in Revelation, John’s dream of “a new heaven and a new earth” is where “the streets of the city are pure gold, transparent as glass,” he says.  Gold will be as common as concrete, to be walked on by all of us, not hidden away in Fort Knox.  Everyone’s bible, will be a St John’s bible!
 
And perhaps the strangest thing at this rather unconventional dinner party, is the anointing itself.  Jesus, the Messiah, which literally means, the Anointed one –ano-inted by God in his baptism- is anointed by this fringe, powerless woman.  Mary anoints Jesus, the Messiah, with the extravagance fit for a king, in the humble home of two unmarried sisters, and their smelly, decaying, recently raised-from-the-dead, brother.  And they celebrate, in the face of death, the awesome gift of the life God has blessed and anointed, all believers with. 
 
John’s gospel began with a dinner party at a wedding celebration, with the changing of water into wine in extravagantly enormous quantities, a foretaste of the heavenly communion feast to come.  John’s last dinner party before Holy Week and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, is a celebration, not only of Jesus’ power to raise Lazarus, but  also a joyous memorial of his life while he was still with them, an anointing worthy of a king, to demonstrate, our faith, and hope, and love. 
 
Today, Jesus is our, Word of God, far greater even, than an $8M St John’s Bible.  And we gather each week to celebrate his unsurpassed and beautiful gift of life: The strong pungent fragrance, the touch of his healing hands, and the taste of his broken body given and shed for us.  Let us celebrate this Word, in the earthy extravagant dinner party, the Lord’s Supper and feast that has no end, and in our lives shared generously with the world.  

Readings for March 6, 2016
4th Sunday in Lent

• Joshua 5:9-12 
• Psalm 32 
• 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 
• Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Family is Family, a sermon by Pastor Fred
​Because the Gospel of the “Prodigal Son” is so well known, we sometimes take it for granted, and box ourselves in, in interpreting it.  But it’s actually one of the most complex and multivalent stories of the gospels, having many, and various interpretations. 
 
And, I think the one thing that sticks out for me today in hearing it again, is the contrast between the two sons.  And here, I’m thinking of my own younger brother, Bill.  Some of you met him a couple weeks ago when he was here visiting from Madison, Wisconsin.  He’s eight years younger than me, and was one of those “surprises” that happens to families.  My sister and other brother and I, used to tease him that he was always mom and dad’s favorite.  He got all the breaks, while we had to toe the line.  At least it seemed like it to us.  Later, of course, we realized that it’s pretty standard for parents to be stricter with the first kids, and lighten up a bit with a child of their later years.  But, we’ll always have a little jealousy over the stuff Bill got away with that we never did! 
                                                                                        
Anyway, the biggest surprise came later over Bill’s decision about going into Physical Therapy, post-college.  Now, getting into a school that has a PT program is difficult, not just because you have to have good grades, but because the field is highly restricted to a set number of candidates each year.  So, as the story goes, my dad supposedly pulled some strings with his sister’s husband, his brother-in-law, who taught in the School of Dentistry, at my dad’s alma mater at the U. of Iowa, who supposedly knew somebody in the PT Department.  I don’t know that that made a difference or not, but that’s how the story goes.  After filling out all the paper work and doing the tough interviews, and so forth, Bill gets in.  He makes the cut, wink, wink.  And so, there is rejoicing in the family.  This is what Bill really wants, and my dad couldn’t be happier that of four kids, his youngest, last but not least, is going to his alma mater. 
 
But hold on, just before he’s due to enter school, Bill now decides he really wants to go into the Peace Core instead!  He applied there too, because he wasn’t sure he would get into PT school.  But, if he goes into the Peace Core, there’s no guarantee he’ll get back into the PT program at U of I when he returns.  At best, they’ll start the process over again. 
 
An “elder son,” would have known what to choose.  You do the right thing, and stay the course – go to PT school.  Not Bill!  He went into the Peace Core, to Malawi on the east coast of Africa, and loved it so much, after his first year, he begs to stay a second year. 
 
My dad was crestfallen.  His favorite son had tricked him? and thrown his gift away?! 
 
But it wasn’t all bad.  I mean, you could say Bill squandered his PT opportunity, but not to turn it into dissolute living.  He was doing “good” by joining the Peace Core, using his pre-med degree to help others in Malawi who had little access to affordable health care. 
 
Long story short, before Bill even returned home, my dad and mom can’t wait to see their son, and plan a trip and go see him in Africa.  They run to him a continent away, and all is forgiven!  They were reconciled, and had a great visit.
 
I think Bill, like a lot of us, has a little of both sons in him – the younger and the elder son.  The younger son in the parable is definitely reckless, impulsive, and, well – young!  He wants to see the world, do something.  And in his youth, he does some stupid stuff, and then on top of it, runs into some bad luck.  When his money is gone, there is a famine, and even the job he gets isn’t enough to sustain him.  Hunger itself, is enough to drive him home.  Whether or not he’s sorry for what he did and truly repentant, is not totally clear.  We know he has to initiate Plan B, crawl back to daddy, hang his head and ask for servant’s wages, because he knows even that is a lot better than what he’s getting feeding the pigs!  Is he just “playing” his dad, or really reformed?  It’s open to interpretation. 
 
The point is, the Father is amazingly welcoming.  Probably more than he should be, right.  At least according to the way the world works as we know it.  But, this is his youngest son!  He thought he may never return, that maybe he had died, out there in the famine.  So what does it matter what he did.  Family is family – what was lost is found – and he runs out to meet him and in his loving exuberance he gives him the signs and symbols of full son-ship again: robe, ring and sandals, not just servant. 
 
And, the Father declares a party with all the best foods to celebrate.  And everything is good again. 
 
Except that, well, family is family!  We all have dysfunction in our families.  And in this one, no one thought to invite, or make sure the elder son was informed of, the music and dancing and food.  And so, in his resentment upon discovering the celebration, the elder son became angry!  Or, for those of us who are elder brothers or sisters, I should add, he became understandably angry.  “Listen,” he tells his father, who had run out to plead with him to come in, “for all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command;” yet you didn’t throw me a celebration, even half as good as this “with my friends.”  Pout, pout!
 
But the elder brother has a point.  And, we all need elder brothers in our families and in our congregations.  Elder brothers are hard workers, they tirelessly toil to make things right, and lose sleep that maybe they’ve forgotten something.  They often have guilty consciences, even though their sins and mistakes barely get noticed.  Sins of elder brothers are, well, boring.  Their confessions go something like this, ‘Pastor, I’m sorry, but I have agreed to coach my daughter's soccer team, because there’s no one else who will do it, and also, we will be moving my aging mother-in-law into our spare room to take care of her soon, so would it be OK if I didn't chair the stewardship committee next year?’  Yah, that's an elder brother, or sister!  So, elders usually never even approach dissolute-living kinds of sins!  It’s much harder to repent of being good, especially when you’ve Aced every test, and stayed home to take care of the farm, all alone.
 
So for elders to find out that, in the end, the realm and kingdom of God is a pass/fail test, and the only way to pass is to “receive” the grace of God, they are crestfallen.  What do you mean, it's not about what you achieve, but what you receive?  Or, as one elder child put it to me long ago, “I only feel like I can be forgiven, if I’ve managed to never do anything wrong!”
 
A younger brother or sister tends to look for how to game the system, while the elder can’t help him or herself from trying to hold the whole world together.  And they both sin, you could say, in never quite being able to trust, the love of the parent, there is some distance, a fissure, or separation from the parents’ amazing grace, which is the very definition of sin, actually – separation from God. 
 
Paul knew this in describing the power of reconciliation, in the 2nd Reading.  God shows us this reconciliation, he says, in the amazing gift of his Son, dying and rising for the world! 
 
Whoever we are, elder or younger, or some combination of the two, we all are surprised, by the “scandalous grace” of God’s love and forgiveness.  The hardest part is admitting we have done wrong, and returning home.  But if we do that, God’s amazing grace is embarrassingly and overflowingly available.  Because, that is what God does – reconcile us, in total – the only gift there is, that can reconcile us, one to another!