Readings for Third Sunday in Lent, March 24, 2019

• Isaiah 55:1-9 
• Psalm 63:1-8  
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-13  
• Luke 13:1-9

"Second Half," Rev. Kinsey
In most of the circles that I travel in, people mostly don’t believe in, ‘either/or’ decisions, or that most issues are simply, black and white.  I’ve come to live in a world of rainbow variations, and a sliding scale of racial and gender, intellectual and emotional fluidity.  It took me a while to get there, to “the second half of life,” as Richard Rohr calls it.  At its best, the more I dive into my faith and have time for spiritual reflection, it continues to find me – which is a great thing.  “In the first half of life,” either/or thinking can sometimes be helpful, as a teacher.  But it is not true of the faith Jesus offers us, in the Realm and kingdom of God – in the rainbow-sliding-scale world of relationships.
 
Even in the bible – written by wise and faithful people, inspired by God, 2,000 years ago – it wasn’t 100% clear, all the time.  For example, Jesus in our gospel today says, “Unless you repent, you will all perish, as these Galileans did,” whose blood was spilled by Pilate at the very moment they were offering their sacrifices, and the Jerusalemites did, who were killed when the tower of Siloam crashed and fell on them.  This sounds a bit scary on first hearing!  What’s Jesus telling us?  Is God a god of punishment?  Either you repent now, or else! 
 
Note however, that those who told Jesus about these terrible calamities in Galilee and Jerusalem, themselves believed, that it had been their fault, because the notion of such tragedies, was that when people died before old age, it was God’s doing, some kind of punishment for their behavior.  But Jesus – knowing the Torah, the Writings, and the Prophets – was clear, how this was, “first half of life” thinking.  “No,” he says!  It was not their fault.  Natural disasters, and even political targeting like the ruthless Pilate did, what we might call “terrorist acts,” are not God’s punishment.  They just happen.  ‘Bad things happen to good people,’ in a world of free-will, where some people, tempted by greed and self-aggrandizement, resort to violence to get their way. 
 
Death, is near to us all, of course!  Though, by itself, that’s ‘half-empty’ thinking!  But, when used for the kingdom of God, as ‘half-full’ realism, it is the thinking of the eschatological perspective of Jesus.  The eschatological, or goal-oriented, end-times thinking of the prophets, is the message that God’s new age is upon us, ready to overturn what has failed, and what has turned away from God.  It’s the same message that John the Baptist sent, baptizing at the River Jordan: repent and believe in the kingdom of God – the same message Jesus told the disciples to share. 
 
Because the present age is so run down, become so full of sin and structures of evil, God is getting us ready for the new thing God is about to do, continues to always do, every day, except now, in this moment, it is most urgent, the time is upon us: repent!  That is, turn-around from the ways that have been leading you away from God, and come follow me, says Jesus, in a completely liberating, and new, and life-giving, way! 
 
The most well-known example of those who live by the either/or model of repentance, “turn or burn,” as it is often called, could be Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.  Though, when Fred’s children, and other members got older, some started to wake up – they reached “that second half of life,” and rejected the extreme, cult-like, ‘either/or’ mission they had known.  They are like “survivors” of the Siloam Tower collapse, if you will, who, have crawled away from the disaster, to become witnesses to the senseless thinking that they were taught – the binary, exclusionary beliefs, that only ‘they’ were being saved by God, a kind of thinking, that legitimized everything they did, no matter how hurtful. 
 
They were the ones who actually went and protested at military funerals against the LGBTQ community, and at Planned Parenthood clinics, using the nastiest and most vile language.  But those who got out his church, found a release, and a new message about how God was a God of love.  They actually turned-around and went in a new way – they repented of the old, ‘either/or’ paradigm of “the first half of life,” and are learning the new sliding-scale of love and acceptance, able to share it with others! 
 
When Jesus invites us to repentance, he is speaking to our souls, our authentic most beings.  The world is not all just, ‘what you see is what you get!’  There is more in the Realm of God – deep within us, and vastly wide all around us.  And there is some urgency to ‘turning around,’ receiving, and ingesting, this message of love and grace. 
 
So Jesus tells us a parable.  It’s about a fig tree, the symbol of the people of Israel.  The owner was watching its progress as it grew in his field.  As a business owner, he has some urgency to see it produce, seeing how he makes his living from how much fruit his trees grow!  But when he sees it hasn’t even begun to bear fruit, not one fig, even after three years, he shouts out to his gardener to ‘cut it down,’ haven’t we given it every opportunity!? 
 
The gardener – as the worker caring directly for the tree – has a different perspective, a sliding scale of hope for this stubborn tree.  Some have interpreted the Gardener to be the figure of Jesus, in the story.  And the gardener tactfully asks his employer to give the fig tree, a bit more time, just one more year.  Let me give it some tender-loving-care, a bit of extra fertilizer, and if it still doesn’t produce, ‘well and good,’ then you can cut it down.  But I have a good feeling about this one!
 
There’s definitely a time-line!  And we, of course, are the fig tree, and we should have repented already, the parable seems to point out.  But on the other hand, the full revealing of the kingdom and realm of God has not yet arrived, and we are still here.  But God wants us to be more than just survivors.  Our chance to repent and turn toward God, and be a follow of Jesus, lies before us today, and always.  Jesus’ Word of life, and forgiveness, and grace, are our fertilizer.  Will we grow?  The eschatological time is now ripe!  Why wait! 
 
You know what they say about buses: you could walk across the street today…  Isn’t that the same thing Jesus was trying to convey with his answer to the tragedy of the Tower of Siloam?  Why wait, to turn around!?
 
But this repentance is so much more than, “turn or burn!”  God’s realm so much more than ‘either/or!’  We can never be perfect enough to please God, no matter how good we are, or how many times we repent.  Nor is there one turning to Christ moment, when we are simply home free.  Even our Baptism is both: a once and for all promise of salvation, but also our life-long journey.
 
Franciscan writer and Spirituality teacher, Richard Rohr, has given us a good way to think about this.  He says “religion in the first half of our lives is focused on moral proficiency and perfection… I’m good because I obey …, because I do this kind of work, or because I belong to this group. That’s the calculus the ego [of a person] understands. [Humans], all organizations, and governments need this kind of common sense structure at some level.
[But religion in the 2nd half of our lives has a different focus, says Rohr] “It’s not what we do for God; it’s what God has done for us. [Finally, says Rohr:] We switch from trying to love God, to just letting God love us. And it’s at that point we fall in love with God. Up to now, we haven’t really loved God; we’ve largely been afraid of God. Finally, [in this 2nd half of our lives] perfect love casts out all fear. …,” he says.
 
Repentance, is all about turning toward a loving God, and away from a God of judgment that we are afraid of, or trying to please.  When Jesus was facing his arrest and death on the cross, even though he was innocent, his response holds the key for us.  He didn’t rally the disciples to organize an armed resistance.  Jesus fought back by holding an eschatological banquet at the Last Supper, gathering all those who would be his witnesses to his message of love and grace, and yes, forgiveness, as he broke bread, and they drank wine to remember him. 
 
As the Gentile followers, the branch that was grafted on to the tree of Judaism, as St Paul said, now we can see that “we” are the fig tree, in the parable Jesus taught.  We have been given a reprieve, time to turn around and repent of the world of death we are caught up in, and follow the path of life. 
 
Let us dine with Jesus, that we may find our fill, and fulfillment, in the bread and wine, his body and blood, given for us.  

Readings for the First Sunday in Lent, March 10, 2019

• Deuteronomy 26:1-11 
• Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 
• Romans 10:8b-13 
• Luke 4:1-13

"Is the Devil Real?" by Pastor KInsey

Is the Devil real or not?
 
When Jesus meets the Devil in our Gospel story today, Empires and kingdoms of this world open up in an ‘instant!’  For us, to be able to decide what is holy and real, we have to be ready, through a lifelong journey of faith.  Choosing the kingdom and realm of God, over the kingdoms of this world, is not always an easy or clear choice. 
 
That’s why the iconic folk-story of Jesus’ temptation by the devil is so reassuring.  Jesus – even though he was famished – was 3 for 3, in making the Godly choice!  The Devil is an expert at, tempting, flattering us even, always charming, and closer at hand, than any of us would like to admit.  By ourselves, we will never be as good as Jesus.  But that’s by design, you might say.  Jesus the Christ, represents the power and kingdom of God, the very structures of life, love and grace.  We have that power too, but only to the extent we are able to join together as God’s people. 
 
The devil can open up all the kingdoms of the world to us, in an instant.  We could win the lottery of instant fame and power, if we would only fall down and pay the Devil homage.  The Devil wants to be the king of all the kingdoms of the world.  Right now, he only creates their appearances; makes them look real to us – offers them up – and indeed, has had some great successes selling them to people, too.  That’s a lot of power.  But Jesus will not worship the Devil, ever.  And we also have the choice to follow Jesus, rather than following the chimera of instant success, offered by the Evil One!
 
Is the Devil real or not?
 
Following his Baptism, Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit.  And then, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.  Jesus ate nothing at all for 40 days, and Jesus was tempted by the Devil, Luke tells us.  But fasting, especially with prayer, has a way of focusing one, on the spiritual, on the kingdom and realm of God all around us.  Jesus, says Luke, was full of the Holy Spirit, and Spirit led! 
 
For myself, in my life, have never seen the Devil with my own eyes, or heard him with my own ears.  Not literally, anyway.  But the power of Evil, in the temptations we experience, I think we all know, as a real and present danger: Temptations to betray a friend, or cover up our failures; to give in to bullying or ganging up on a weaker party.  We also know powers that are bigger than our individual decisions: the illness of addictions like alcohol and drugs; the structural powers of racism and sexism. 
 
These temptations and powers are how the kingdoms of this world work, that the Devil shows Jesus ‘in an instant.’  But they only become real, in so far as We live in them, or are tempted or tricked into imitating them.  That’s what makes the Devil feel real – participating in the power of Evil, and, knowingly or not, following the wrong king and kingdom – despite the fact that no one has yet met the red-horned creature with a pitch-fork, in person! 
 
I really like the story of the TV show, This Is Us.  Here’s a family that battles all kinds of evils and temptations!  Jack and Rebecca, come from different sides of the tracks in Pittsburg, with their own histories, before they fall in love and marry.  And the “Big Three” as Jack calls their kids, Randall, Kate and Kevin, also each have their hidden issues that drive them. 
 
Randall is adopted, after one of the triplets is still-born.  This is Jack’s idea, who sees the new-born Randall dropped off at the hospital as a sign that their hopes for triplets is still coming true, despite Rebecca’s real and present grief of their tragic loss.  Randall is African-American, and as we watch him grow up, at different stages of his life, in the white Pearson household, and their community, we experience, from our own perspectives, the racism that Randall endures. 
 
By contrast, everything comes easy to brother Kevin, the high school quarterback, who gets all the girls.  Randall, even though he’s super smart, is more introverted, and his nerdy-ness is reinforced by the prejudice he experiences, due to the color of his skin – like when he’s a pre-teen and the Pearson family goes to the local swimming pool, and parents, with side-long glances, are pulling their kids out of the water, as Randall is about to get in. 
 
Later, Randall over-compensates with his job, by working extra-long hours and becoming the most valuable worker at his company.  But he pays a heavy price by working himself into exhaustion and a kind of mental break down. 
 
Randall is tempted by the powers of success, to prove himself.  Kevin, on the other hand, is seduced by the easy success of TV stardom – but as a heart-throb Soap Opera star, is underperforming his acting talents.  He ends up loathing himself, and falls into alcoholism before his 30th birthday, trying to avoid the reality of who he has become. 
 
Racism and alcoholism, are just two of the powers of evil that invade the lives of these 2 brothers, of the Big Three. 
 
Some say, Jesus’ Temptation in the wilderness, is the answer to Original Sin in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, after disobeying God’s rule not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  As the first humans, they commit the first sin, a separation from God, and God’s kingdom.  But Jesus stands up to the temptations of the Devil, in a way that Adam and Eve could not resist the temptations of the Serpent.  As  St Paul says, Jesus is like a 2nd Adam, reversing the original sin in the Garden, and finally redeeming us in the cross and resurrection, in the Garden in Jerusalem. 
 
Whether Original Sin means, an inherited sin, passed down to us from Adam and Eve, is a topic for another day.  But certainly, there are sin’s, and structures of sin, that are embedded in cultures and societies of people.  America’s original sin, is often said to be slavery, and the legacy of racism that infects us, ever since. 
 
We see it in flashes of clarity on episodes of This Is Us, as we watch Randall grow up.  Despite his above average intelligence, he has to prove his worth in ways his siblings Kevin and Kate neve have to.  Despite growing up in the privilege of a white suburban family, he is often an outcast in his white world and not quite welcome in his new black communities.  Just so, we still have 2 separate and unequal societies in our land of the free, and home of the brave. 
 
In a flash, an instant, we have to make decisions, whose side we’re on.  If we have begun to follow Jesus, and the way of the cross, we will find the kingdom and realm of God. 
 
But it’s not just about our individual decisions, but about being led by the Spirit.  The Power of Evil is real, and its weapons of – mass confusion, fake instant success, and the temptation to believe certain others are expendable, so it’s okay to be a winner at their expense – are all running rampant today. 
 
God in Jesus, wants to lead us by the Spirit, and fill us with the Holy Spirit.  Together, as the people of God, we can strengthen one another on this journey to cross and resurrection, as we pray for ‘the kingdom of God to come on earth, as it is in heaven.’  For it is written (says Jesus), ‘worship the Lord your God, and serve God alone.’