Palm Sunday, 2011

Mark 11:8-10

What a glorious day! (I hope you enjoyed the new hymn from Casting Crowns, written by Mark Hall, Michael Bleeker, Wilbur Chapman. It really conveys the powerful joy we can know from all Jesus is and has done. Dig that refrain: “Living he loved me. Dying he saved me. Rising again, He justified me!”) Wow!

Jesus, moving into Jerusalem after three years of ministry, must have escorted a glorious day for the city; full of all that pent up expectations from years of failed hopes, unfulfilled dreams, disappointing projects, dejected spirits, and rejected souls at the hands of Roman occupation; – their national identity compromised; questioning the validity of the covenant with their ancestor Abraham (how could God let the chosen people of God be loose their independence, their economic power, their position of privilege?

-- finally ... finally ... finally they see their redemption.

It must have been like that day in 2004 when Curt Schilling persevered with a bloody ankle as the moon stood in a lunar eclipse over the once oppressive powerhouse from Louisville (that kept us from winning the 1967 World Series – oh, that was a sad day) and the long suffering and cursed boys from Boston won the World Series! Do you remember the energy that surrounded the Red Sox Nation that night! For once the world was right!

Looking over the hills, across the valley, the light of the afternoon made the temple spires shine like golden arrows pointing to heaven. A warm breezed carried the dusty fragrance

of the olive trees below up along the hillside until they swirled around the head and give off a sweet scent of something familiar.

It was still hot. The air in Jerusalem could parch one with its 95 degrees; ...a slight bead of perspiration on the brow.

It was the about to begin. A few steps down the cobbled street and there was no turning back. Already children knew something was up. A few of Jesus’ friends had made an unusual request to borrow a donkey tied up against a wall, down in the city; a few guys hanging out there wondered what was going on, but they didn’t need an explanation as to why; just a glance at the eyes of these devoted men and something in the mind snapped into a reverence that this was a request that could not be refused (for anyone who looks in the eyes of a committed, born-of-the-spirit disciple of the Living Lord can never be the same).

And as those strangers led that borrowed donkey back out along street, children were the nest to notice. They felt a reverent authority as if a parent just walked into the middle of their youthful bantering and brought a hush to their silliness. They followed. Other’s followed. Curiosity grew. The guy who helped untied the donkey from its hitch on the wall walked along with them, keeping pace, and as folks asked, he told them what he had heard; what he had felt; but words could never fully express what they sensed. Shaking his head one man said, “I have no idea what’s it about, just that their Master needs that little beast, and I believe them.”

Somehow word passed out of the city to the cobbled street leading up the hill to where Jesus was walking down, and word passed back down the valley and pass the city gates to the crowd following the borrowed donkey that it was HIM: ... the one they had heard about, ... the one known to be the prophet Elijah, ... the one whom that eccentric preacher, John, down by the Jordan a few years ago baptized only to be struck with visions of doves, and spirits, and voices and clouds when this one-coming-down-the-hill came up out of the waters. This WAS him!

Have you ever felt the nervous excitement that something great was about to happen? You shoulders get tense? Your posture bends forward? Your fingers start to tingle? A chill shots down your neck to small of your back and fires right back up? You can feel your brain shifting gears as the adrenaline powers you up and every nerve in your body is on hyper alert ... knowing at the next instance your whole world could change.

A preacher invited the church to gather during a drought to pray for rain. He walked up and down the aisle and proclaimed, “Oh ye of little faith. You come praying for rain, but no one brought an umbrella!”

Do you really expect that you will encounter Jesus when you leave the church, put the key in the ignition, head out on 202; that at any instance Jesus is going to meet you? Or, are you just like the majority of church going Christians who come to pray for a proverbial rain, but don’t bring an umbrella because you really don’t believe it.

For once, on the byways of Jerusalem, it didn’t matter if your debts were killing your family. It didn’t matter if your addictions were unmanageable. It didn’t matter if your life was a failure and your dreams would never come to pass. It mattered not if you kept getting involved in dysfunctional relationships, or, your kids hated you, or, your boss abused you, or, your neighbors were idiots. Maybe, just maybe, ... this was it!

The joy was tempered in the eyes of Jesus, however, for he knew their joy was somewhat displaced. Like the Red Sox Nation euphoria, what they worshipped would not last. What they needed was not something anyone could envision.

Yes! Something was about to change, something that meant giving up those shallow ideas that salvation would come from something we could fully envision. But Jesus knew the beast of burden on which he sat symbolized the burden he himself was willing to carry. But did anyone see it?

It meant sacrificing all the ideals of success constructed out of the patterns of familiar rituals we construct to please God. Jesus knew something was about to die and something was inviting a small part of everyone in that crowd (as He is inviting us) to die with it.

Since 1972 when I was ambushed by Jesus in the hills of Northern Idaho, and my desire to be a radical anti-disestablishmentarian died with Christ, I have known that this Lord is the only power of the universe that lets me say,

“Jesus, take this garbage in my heart,

this two bit crud that clogs my soul,

this rubbish of rebellion that ravishes my sense of peace,

take this wreckage to the grave!”

My problem (and I dare say is the problem for all of us), as it was the problem for the crowds in Jerusalem, and Judas who didn’t stick around long enough to see what would happen on Sunday, and Thomas who held out doubt no matter what anyone said, and Peter who denied he ever knew Jesus, ... my problem (and I dare say is the problem for all of us), I don’t want to let go of my addictions. I like them, even if they are killing me.

The crowd was addicted to temple worship, and unless they could give it up, let it die there was no hope of anyone seeing the true temple was not in the building, but the temple is within.

The Newport Academy that works with teenagers views addictions as "characterized by compulsive [behavior] ... despite [known] physical, psychological, or social harm.” [i] We have the knowledge to know what behaviors we need to change, but we have the unwillingness, or the powerlessness to want to change.

· The Haggan Daz tastes too good (even if one pint is been packed with enough calories for a whole day), so we keep eating and get fat.

The smokes are just too relaxing (even though they kill directly and indirectly), so keep lighting up and gat lung cancer.

The five o’clock high ball is too comfortable (even when one high ball becomes five high balls and we need one just to get to sleep),so we keep pouring another.[ii]

Our religion is too important (even when it means we repel others, commit atrocities like the Crusades, and don’t want to open the bible because it might mean we would really have to love someone other than ourselves) so we keep doing three-hymns and a sermon and sitting in church like death warmed over ... because we like the comfort zone we’ve created ... instead of allowing Jesusto fill us the joy of life released in the fullness of God!

By the end of that week in Jerusalem, the joy of the crowd would be buried in a blood soaked tomb, and only those willing to allow a change a heart to infuse their minds, only those able to let Jesus take their sin-filled garbage with him to the grave, would see life does not necessarily die in the hopelessness of that dark day of Friday afternoon on Golgotha’s stench of Mount Calvary, but will rise in freedom of a new day dawning.

“God, we can just have the strength to let go of all the stuff we cling too because it is just too familiar, and are just too frightened to live without it, and to let you bury it all in the depths of the crucifixion’s darkness?”

In our country, 63% believe religion should have a role in public life, we know it’s important, they see its benefits.[iii] And 77% say Christianity is their religious preference.[iv] People like being part of the crowd in Jerusalem...

...but a mere 40% of professed Christian bother to be part of a church,[v] and 59% of these do so because it’s a social activity not a spiritual powerhouse of salvation.[vi]

In other words, most church-going Christians like being religious on the streets on Jerusalem, but are not so interested in being spirit-filled lovers of Jesus and having their carnal quests crucified on the cross.

We don’t need religion as much as we need Jesus, and Jesus is love. Do you, will you, can you accept this love? John put it this way,

“No greater love has the Father than this, that we should be called children of God. And so it is.”[vii]

The poor crowds just couldn’t see it; and come Friday afternoon they were gone, just as badly off as they were before.

Hopefully, we can see Jesus before it is too late and will let Him sacrifice our sin on the cross and change with glory to glory.

As the song says, “Life does not end, it’s begun, at the cross.”[viii]

---

[i] Newport Academy, Orange, CA, Residential treatment program for teens suffering from substance abuse and co-occurring disorders, “Addiction Defined,” http://www.newport-academy.com/treatment-program/addiction-defined/

[ii] Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D., John Hopkins University School of Medicine, “Sate ain't So, Hungry, horny, or weary? Maybe it’s all in your head,” Psychology Today, April 16, 2011.”

[iii] Gallup Research, January 30, 2007, “Public Generally Satisfied with Role of Organized Religion in America”

[iv] Gallup Research, April 10, 2009, “Christianity’s Slow Decline in the U.S”

[v] Frank Newport, Gallup Research, April 6, 2007, “Just Why Do Americans Attend Church?

[vi] Ibid..

[vii] 1 John 3:1

[viii] “At the Cross,” Worship Institute, Copyright © 2003, Alleluia Music

How to Eliminate Interruption... IF that's your goal.

John 4:4-7

⁴ Now [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

You probably want to get more things done than you do. Our brains are always buzzing trying to interpret a multitude of signals and navigate the turbulence of technology, globalization, and information.

Newsweek’s recent edition headlined the information overload as reaching a point of “brain-freeze” where we become so saturated with incoming data that our neurological circuits freeze up.

Journalist Sharon Begley summarizes our dilemma, “The ‘Twitter-ization’ of our culture has revolutionized our lives, but with an unintended consequence: our overloaded brains freeze when we have to make decisions.”[i]

Somehow we are supposed to get it all done and keep our little corner of the world spinning in equilibrium.

But, inevitably, the computer will crash, the brakes will quit, the market will turn, the dog get sick, the basement will flood, the doctor will call, you’ll run out of shampoo, you’ll miss the bus, you’ll forget to shave, the creditors will call, the neighbors will yell, emotions run high, patience runs thin, your life collapses...

"I'll never get it all done!" "Everyone wants a piece of me!" ... and the morning coffee hasn’t even finished brewing yet.

In “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” Gordon Greco confesses to his Wall Street protégée, “Money is not the prime asset in life. Time is.” And, W. Edwards Deming, a statistician and business consultant best known for his work in the 1980’s in Japan, observed that “The average American worker has fifty interruptions a day.” [ii] In the course of our eighteen waking hours, that’s over three interruptions an hour.

That’s the world we live in.

Jesus’ life story was full of interruptions: his mother’s demand for more wine at the wedding at Cana, Nicodemus in the night, that funny little tax collector, Zachaias, up in his tree, Peter’s impetuous interjections, Herod’s infanticide in Bethlehem that forced Jesus and his parents to Egypt and, yes, the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. Only this time, it is not Jesus being interrupted, but Jesus doing the interrupting.

I see two gems of wisdom from the encounter Jesus had with her: 1) Accept the interruptions ... so, 2) You don’t miss Jesus.

The woman at the well doesn’t seem to be a person who needed extra interruptions. First, we can reasonably assume that he life was stressed by her social position. She was not first class.

I like to fly Southwest because everybody’s in coach. I don’t have to walk through the first class cabin on the way to my seat in back of the plane, and face first-class passenger glances that I tell me I really don’t belong here among the privileged people.

So it was as a Samaritan. You were not legitiment descendent of Abraham and Isaac, but sort of half-Jewish relative who descended from Abraham’s other son birthed from his wife’s maidservant Hagar. As such, we might reasonably assume, sociologically, that her life was difficult and filled with a sense of inferiority.

Also, we can reasonably assume that she lived in failed relationships with men. Reading further along in the story, in John 4:18 we discover that she had had five husbands, and that to the man she was now living with, she was not married. She couldn’t keep her man.

As such, we could be reasonably assumed that psychologically, her life was a struggle with dysfunctional personalities, failed relationships and sense of insecurity. She had a difficult life that didn’t need extra interruptions.

But Jesus ...(something like a “but God” instance we spoke of last week) But Jesus ... interrupts her anyways. If she lived in 2011, she could have managed the interruption by, .. say,...

1. Putting her cell phone on silent.

2. Turning off the porch lights and not answering the door.

3. Clicking “delete” on her email before she read it.
4. Staying home from work.
5. Not checking Twitter.
6. Resigning and collecting unemployment

... sort of “Turn-on, Tune-in and Drop-out” with Timothy Leary.[iii]

But, the woman at the well was operating more like a TIVO recorder here, where, when the phone rings, the email “dings,” the neighbors call, the Twitter tweets, she is of a mind to pause her life, listen to the situation, and then, when all is said and done, receive the grace that has been presented to her.

The issue may be less trying to eliminate interruptions, than knowing how to accept them.

She engages, she listens, she waits, and what she might have missed in a tirade of fury, became the gateway of grace.

It happens all the time between people... for those who are willing to listen...

Betty Smith, recovering in the grief from the lost of her husband only three month earlier, received one of those irritating telemarketing phone calls right when you’re ready to head out shopping.

Most of us are irritated with these interruptions, but Betty, in her ever-present patience, struck up a conversation. “I’m really not interested in a time-share in Texas, but thank you for calling. How are you doing?”

And with a pregnant pause on the other line ended with a deep breath, the telemarketer sighed, “Well, my husband passed on about a week ago and I’m just trying to get back to work. Thanks for asking.” And against all quota criteria of the marketing department, Mary, on the other end, started talking with Betty.

After five minutes, Betty asked if it would be permissible for her to call Mary later in the day at a number that would not interfere with her work.

Numbers were exchanged, and over the phone, an interruption that would have infuriated most of us, emerged as the opportunity for the much needed friendship and compassion that desperately need to carry us through the dark corridors of grief.

What might have missed in a tirade of fury, became the gateway of grace.

It happens all the time in prayer... for those who are willing to listen.

We often see prayer as talking to God. We have words, we have prayer books, we have liturgies,we have the Lord’s Prayer, but in our cranial need to have a constantly active pre-frontal lobe, we may have forgotten that prayer is a conversation – one that we cannot have if we do all the talking.

Listening to God -- though frustratingly slow -- if we give ourselves space between the words, to pause and listen, be silent and pay attention to God,

is invites us to be interrupted by God with thoughts that otherwise might not have crossed our mind. [iv]

What might we have missed in a diatribe of prayerful demands, can, when we listen for the voice of God in the space between the words, become the gateway of grace.

Whether between people or in conversation with God, it involves surrendering our agenda, opening our hearts, and listening to what God is doing around us in through us.

Eckhart Tolle, Buddhist teacher and philosopher, calls it the “Power of Now;” living in a mindfulness of the carnival happening around us and realizing we our part of it. [v] (But Jesus was already there.)

Maybe we need to take a lesson from the Samaritan woman whose life was interrupted by Jesus sitting on the edge of Jacob’s well asking her to pause from her own chaotic carnival of life and help him get a drink, and learn that our responsibility is less to create a safe bubble of comfort and ease, than about being humble, open, willing, and flexible; to see that the God-interruptions aren’t meant to drag me down, annoy me, teach me a lesson I should have already known...

... but they are opportunities to touch and taste and see and hear and participate in the Kingdom of God here and now; a chance to intersect with other people’s real lives, a chance to intersect my own spiritual formation with the rich formation of others, a chance to intersect with God himself.

Was this not exactly what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 13:2?

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:

for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

---

[i] Sharon Begley, “I Can’t Think,” Newsweek, February 27, 2011

[ii] W. Edwards Deming, quoted in http://www.time-management-success.com/managing-interruptions.html

[iii] Dr. Timothy Leary, PhD., “Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out,” Original release: Mercury 21131 (mono)/61131 (stereo), US 1967, Executive producer: Henry Saperstein, Associate producer: Richard Krown, Guide/Narrator: Timothy Leary, Voyager/Narrator: Ralph Metzner, Divine Connection: Rosemary Woodruff; Original psychedelic music by Maryvonne Giercarz (veena), Lars Eric (guitar), Richard Bond (tabla)

[iv] Sister Ann Marie Wainwright, St. Scholastica Monastery, 1001 Kenwood Avenue Duluth MN

[v] Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, New World Library, Novato, CA

Wake Up! God’s Calling

March 13, 2011

Jeremiah 1:4-7

⁴ The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ “Alas, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷ But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD.

Did God choose you? This ineffable, cosmic presence of ethereal energy to shape the universe, spin planets, manage the human genome, ignite the Big Bag, fuse hydrogen, slit atoms, balance gravity and black holes ... did He choose you?

In the face of universe, maybe at one time or another, when you paused on a mid-summer’s night and starred into the vastness of the canopy of the stars overhead, you wondered -- like Jeremiah, or Gideon, or Moses, or Abraham, or Sarah, or Peter, or Paul, or Thomas, -- “Who me?”

Do you sometimes feel like Jeremiah, unqualified? “Whose going to listen to me? No one takes me seriously!” (Jeremiah 1:6 paraphrase )

There are many times we have to put on airs of being competent for our jobs that we really feel unqualified for, but people expect confidence and competence, so we pretend, sometimes with a bit too much arrogance, that we have it all together.

Late at night, under the stars, starring at the canopy of endless margins, alone, no one but you, your breath and the Holy Spirit, you breathe in deeply and feel a rush of weight crushing upon your chest knowing you really have no idea what in the name of God you are doing. And you pause, like Jeremiah, and cry out to God, “You must be nuts. How I am to do this?”

This is also the way Gideon saw himself as well. In Judges 6, Gideon we get a hint of the problem confronting Gideon. In Judges 6:11, we read he, “threshed his wheat harvest in the winepress,” which may not mean much unless we realize wheat is usually threshed on the threshing floor. Gideon was hiding himself from his adversaries, the Midianites, cowarding in the winepress, feeling unqualified and scared to face his challenges. (Judges 6:11)

I have told some of your about this during our Tuesday night prayer and meditation time, of what happened to me in 1972 after being ambushed by Jesus in Spokane, Washington. I had some inkling that I should be doing something for God other than going to school and working, but my reputation preceded me and I more often than not recoiled to what people thought of me, more than to what God was calling me. Who on earth would listen to a young, undisciplined, rebellious, troubled, insecure, frightened kid who embraced more of the works of the flesh than the fruits of the spirit? I popped open my third grade Bible, (I don’t think I had opened any other time expect to give the appearance that I knew where things were in the bible during Sunday School), and the pages fell open to Jeremiah 1... verse 6.

Like Jeremiah, Gideon questioned God’s choice of him. In his day, Gideon’s reputation was synonymous with the national mood of the Hebrew tribes trying to settle the Promised Land to the west of the Jordan River. Everyone in his tribe lived the part of the oppressed. There was a lack of courage, and Gideon demonstrated this widespread fear in himself.

Like Gideon, Jeremiah Gideon, questioned his competency for the job. In his day, youth were better “seen and not heard.” Think of the time the disciples refused to let the children come near Jesus simply because of their youth. Jeremiah reflected the cultural ethos of his day. There was a lack of respect, and Jeremiah demonstrated this widespread contempt in himself.

Both Gideon and Jeremiah were being defined by their past.

Carl Jung in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, said, “Out of our common experience we become locked in unconscious expectations that replicate the patterns of the common experience.”

In effect, as psychiatrist Dr. Judith Lewis Herman pointed out, “Our problem is less that we have had a trauma in the past, than that we keep repeating and reenacting the trauma in the present.”

Jeremiah, Gideon, myself, most of us, are replaying our reputation, often unconsciously, and defining what we do based on our past, our reputations, what other say we are, or what we have experienced. As long as we keep reenacting from the past, even unconsciously, we will be saying to God as he calls, “Who me?” and walk away, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That’s insanity.

But look at how God sees Gideon:

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty-man-of-valor!’ (Judges 6:12) To the coward God gives the title, Man-of-Valor!

And, look at how God sees Jeremiah:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) To the insecure youth he gives the title Prophet to the Nations!

God “calls ‘em like HE sees ‘em!” not the way we see ‘em.

We see God doing this throughout Scripture – God assigning responsibilities to people who really don’t seem to fit the part, because God sees what we can become less than what we have been. While the rest of the world defines us by our reputation, God defines by our potential.

You may not feel like much, it may be because you are defining yourself by your reputation and your past and your patterns. For most? Well, it seems to be, “que sera, sera,” “c'est la vie.”

But God ... (those are becoming my favorite two words of the bible) But God! ... But God seems to be unwilling to let “whatever will be, to be” or to resign to “such is life.”

Jeremiah was defined by age limitations. He was too young. But God said, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth,’... Do not be afraid ..., for I am with you and will rescue you” ...and Jeremiah did as he was called. He went and proclaimed

Gideon was defined by emotional limitations. Gideon felt cowardly. He hid in the wine press where the challenges before could be avoided. But God said, “The Lord is with you, you mighty-man-of-valor!” ...and Gideon did as he was called. He led the nation out of their malaise.

And let’s not forget Abraham. Abraham knew he was ill-equipped to father a son at 100 years old, and his wife Sarah at ninety was far from her child bearing years. They even laughed a God for his divinely strange humor. Abraham was defined by physical limitations. But God said, “I will bless your wife and she will surely give you a son.”...and Abraham did as he was called, he kept the covenant with God and found his wife with child.

And let’s not forget about Isaiah. Listen to how Isaiah say himself. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5) Isaiah defined by his sinful limitations.

You too may feel unworthy, but God calls you worthy.

You too may not feel not ready, but God will make you ready.

You too may feel ill-equipped, but God will equip you.

Abraham felt overwhelmed by his physical limitations,

Gideon by his emotional limitations,

Jeremiah by his age limitations.

Isaiah was overwhelmed by his secret sins. tormented in his soul.

But God said, “Isaiah? Your guilt is taken away; your sin atoned for.”

And Isaiah responded ... ... “Here am I, Lord. Send me!”

Go! Go in the confidence. God has called, assigned, equipped, and enabled You. And in the confidence that He will remain with You ... Go!