Luke 14:1-24

Jesus loved to eat with people. Apart from teaching and healing, it’s probably the thing he does most in the gospels. He eats with friends, and with strangers; with rich people, and with poor people; with people who have a high status, and with people who have bad reputations.

Jesus loved to eat with everybody, and he did some of his most important teaching over a meal. He learned people’s names and looked them right in the eye. He talked about God over bread or fish or meat or wine or figs or whatever else was on hand. The gospel writers don’t seem too interested in sharing the menu with us. I guess, in this case, it wasn’t really about the food.

Jesus loved to eat with people. He loved to eat with everybody, no matter what was on the menu, and he loved to teach while he was at it. In today’s story from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is eating with a group of rich and important people at the house of a local leader, and he notices that everyone there is trying to get the best seat. It seems like a teaching moment. So Jesus offers some advice on mealtime etiquette. This is Miss Manners, the Jesus edition.

What does Jesus say? He says a lot, but it boils down to two rules: (more…)

1 Corinthians 1:18-24

It is about this time in September each year that I conclude that we must all be fools. We must be fools, to try to fit all the things that we do into our lives. And we must be fools, to try to fit church in, too.

Why do we make time for church amidst long work days and weekend errands – or sports practices and homework – or retirements that are far less relaxing than we had imagined?

Why do we show up for church meetings, answer church emails, make church meals, pick up church supplies, or simply get to church at 9:45 on a Sunday morning?

Why do we add church to what is, for many of us, an already full plate of obligations?

At first, Paul’s message to the church in Corinth may not seem to shed much light on the subject. But wait for it.

Paul begins his letter warmly, giving thanks for the gifts of the Corinthians. He affirms that they possess among them the gifts of speech and knowledge, and every other spiritual gift as well. However, their gifts of speech and knowledge have gotten them into trouble. Finding themselves so eloquent and wise, they have used their eloquence and wisdom as weapons against one another, fighting over their faith.

Paul is worried, of course, about the conflict within the church. However, he is also worried because this conflict reveals that the folks in the church in Corinth have misunderstood something. They are treating faith as a subject for logical debate, when at its heart, faith is unfathomable. The message, the wisdom of the cross, Paul writes, defies human logic. Faith is a realm of mystery and radical trust, where the rules of rational debate get turned inside out. (more…)

Mark 8:27-38

The disciples are in a fog. Each of them has decided to follow Jesus; but they’re still not sure who he is.

Sure, there have been signs along the way. There are rumors about Jesus’ baptism. They say that a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And other things have happened, too. Once, Jesus stilled a storm. Twice he fed enormous numbers of people with very small amounts of food. Several unclean spirits in Capernaum and Galilee have recognized Jesus as the Holy one of God; as the Son of God. And Jesus has performed countless miracles of healing.

But who can really tell? Not all the signs point to “Messiah.” There is room for reasonable doubt. After all, Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners – hardly a holy thing to do. He fails to strictly observe Jewish law, flaunting God’s instructions. And he listens with humility to the rebuke of a Syrophoenician woman. Why would a Messiah do that?

The disciples are in a fog. They’ve heard and seen and experienced signs about who Jesus is, but they’re not ready to draw any conclusions.

In this gospel reading, Jesus puts an end to all the speculation. It should be a wonderful moment for the movement. The disciples are finally getting a real answer from Jesus himself; and the answer is so good that it’s hard to believe. Jesus is not just a great prophet, as so many thought, but is truly the Messiah, the anointed one of God. The Messiah, according to the wisdom of the time, was the one who would make Israel supreme among the nations and bring about a new time of peace and holiness.

It should be a wonderful moment for the movement. But it turns out that this moment of revelation is more of a good news/bad news situation. As soon as Jesus raises their hopes, he dashes them again, totally redefining their idea of what a Messiah is, what a Messiah does, and what it means to follow a Messiah. (more…)

Genesis 6:5-9:16

God makes a mistake. Did you notice that?

Noah and the flood is a Sunday School favorite. Why not? It has all the makings of a great story. There’s a brave hero who follows God’s commands, even though everyone laughs at him. There’s a dramatic storm that proves that the hero was right after all. There are lots of animals, for scenery and comic relief. There’s a long, difficult wait, as Noah and his family and all the animals sail on a vast ocean. And then: a miraculous ending, when the seas disperse, a dove returns with an olive leaf, and a rainbow appears in the sky. It has all the makings of a great story. But maybe because it is so familiar, we forget to listen to all the details.

God makes a mistake. Or at least, God has a change of heart. In this story, God is so angry about what people are doing on earth that She regrets ever creating us. She lashes out in anger, destroying all of creation except for Noah, his family, and the animals on the boat. But once the whole thing is over, God has a change of heart. She watches the crowd run off the ark, kiss the ground, and give Her thanks, and She says: I will never do this again.

God has a change of heart. And She wants to make sure she doesn’t forget what she’s learned. So after God blesses Noah and his family, She establishes a covenant with them and with all creation. She makes a holy promise: I will never do this again. And God gives herself a reminder of this promise. When I see a rainbow, She says, I will remember my covenant with all of you.

God makes a mistake. Or at least, God has a change of heart. This story may not really match up with how you think of God. We have lots of different stories about God in the bible. They come from different people; in different places; in different times. The stories don’t always agree with each other. We don’t have to agree with all of them, either. But we do need to take them seriously. We do need to pay attention to them and see what they can teach us. (more…)

Psalm 92

How are you feeling as the summer nears its end?

Summer is not over yet – but the end is coming. Some of us are moving from a time of rest or recreation into a busier time. Some of us may not have been able to truly rest or enjoy these months; so this time of transition into fall may be even more bittersweet. What is on your heart in this season?

We end our Sabbath summer series with Psalm 92. It is the only psalm that is explicitly said to be for the Sabbath day.

In the opening section, we’re reminded of how important it is to praise the God who offers us steadfast love and faithfulness. These are the two most celebrated characteristics of God in the Hebrew scriptures, or Old Testament: steadfast love and faithfulness. It’s good to remember them, on the Sabbath.

We remember them, and we give thanks. Not just a little thanks. Not a half-hearted thanks. In the morning, and at night; with singing, with lute and harp and lyre. It’s on our Sabbath Day, after all, that we gather with others in worship, singing hymns, enjoying beautiful instruments playing to the glory of God.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,
to the music of the lute and the harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

In the second section of the psalm, the message changes. (more…)

Matthew 28:1-10

I got an email this week from our reader. He was wondering if it was possible that I had sent along the wrong reading. Easter? In August?

This may be the first time I have preached on an Easter text when it isn’t Easter morning. But if you’re going to get technical about it, every Sunday is supposed to be a kind of mini-Easter: a day to proclaim “Christ is Risen!” and celebrate God’s amazing work of resurrection. So you could argue that this text is fitting for any Sunday of the year. But the reason I chose it this week is because it begins with three words: “after the Sabbath.”

All summer we’ve been talking about Sabbath, about holy rest: what it is and what it isn’t, how to do it, what gifts it might offer us. And I can’t let the summer end without mentioning the role that Sabbath plays in our most central story. Sabbath is there, right in the middle of the holiest three days of the year: Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday. Jesus and his followers were Jewish, and Saturday was their Sabbath. Holy Saturday Sabbath is what stands in between Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection.
(more…)

Luke 13:10-17

It’s an inspirational story. A woman, physically crippled by a spiritual illness, has been unable to stand up straight for eighteen years. She comes to her local synagogue to hear the words of a rabbi who has recently become famous: Jesus of Nazareth. But this woman gets something more than an inspiring sermon. Jesus calls her over and says, “woman, you are set free from your ailment.” He lays his lands on her, and immediately she stands up straight and begins praising God.

It’s an inspirational story. But not a straightforward one.

First, there’s a problem with the local leader. He decided to allow Jesus, a traveling preacher, to speak in his community. And he got more than he bargained for.

I talked last week about the controversy going on in the first century of the common era about Sabbath observance. Rabbis of that time period disagreed about the correct way to keep the commandment to rest on the seventh day of the week. It may be hard for us to imagine, but this was a hot button topic.

As a guest, Jesus really should have been more sensitive about this hot button topic of Sabbath observance. But for all his many gifts, Jesus was not really great at dealing carefully with sensitive issues. Not only does Jesus speak in direct contradiction to the teachings of this local rabbi; without hesitating, he actually performs a healing in the synagogue on the Sabbath. As a religious professional, I have to say – that was pretty rude.

Rudeness and religious controversy. That’s the first problem. And the second problem is: illness and healing. (more…)

Mark 2:23-28

This summer, Bob has been preaching about the parables. The parables, these short, intriguing stories, are a key part of Jesus’ teaching for the disciples and all who follow him. This morning, we hear another teaching moment from Jesus in the passage from the Gospel of Mark.

Jesus is walking through cornfields with his disciples on the Sabbath day. All of them are devout Jews, familiar with Jewish Sabbath laws, which prohibit any form of work on the Sabbath. But these folks are travelling. They’ve had no chance to set aside food ahead of time. They have no hosts to give them a meal. They are hungry, and food is right at their fingertips. So the disciples reach out, and take fresh corn off the stalk, and eat it. But not unobserved. Right away, others make an objection, and challenge Jesus, saying “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

It may seem ridiculous that a crowd of people of faith could get upset by a few kernels of corn, but it’s important to remember that already, in this second chapter of Mark, Jesus has drawn a lot of attention. The Gospel of Mark moves swiftly. The first chapter covers John the Baptist; Jesus’ baptism; his temptation; the beginning of his ministry; the calling of Simon and Andrew, James and John; public healings in Capernum; and a preaching journey throughout Galilee. That’s just chapter one. The last verse of the chapter reads: “Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. “

Jesus has already gotten a lot of attention by the end of Chapter one. And in Chapter 2, once he has everyone’s attention, he starts breaking all the rules. He forgives sins, something only God is supposed to do. He eats with tax collectors and sinners, disregarding both religious teaching and social etiquette. He does not require his disciples to fast when all the other good Jewish people are fasting. And finally, in the scripture this morning, he allows his followers to disobey the Sabbath laws, too. (more…)

Isaiah 56:1-8

How are you pursuing happiness?

This summer here at WCUC we are focusing on the practice of Shabbat, the practice of Sabbath. It feels like an audacious thing to do – to spend a whole season on just one religious practice. But I am convinced that this is a necessary exercise. It’s necessary because holy rest is so hard for us to understand, to practice, and to prioritize; and because it is so high on God’s list of instructions for us (number three or four on God’s list of the 10 most important commandments).

So, this summer we are focusing on Sabbath: we are reacquainting ourselves with the concept of holy rest. We’ve already spent some time thinking about what we should try to avoid doing during our time of Sabbath. But the question remains: what should we do instead? If we leave all our work and worry behind, how shall we pursue our happiness? It’s not quite as straightforward as we would like.

The text today from Isaiah is for a people who are also struggling in their pursuit of happiness.  This text comes from the beginning of the third section of Isaiah. At this time in their history, the Israelites have just received their greatest desire. After years of exile in Babylonia, they are returning to their beloved city, Jerusalem. The Israelites are finally back in the streets where they once walked; the houses they used to live in. They are finally back at the site of the holy temple, where they worshiped. The Israelites are finally back in God’s holy city. It should be a time of joyful celebration. And yet — happiness still eludes them. The pain of the past is still real. And, more than that, the city they have returned to is not at all like they remember it. The neighborhoods have changed. The great temple is in ruins. And where there used to be familiar faces, now there are foreigners.

In this time of great excitement and great disappointment, the prophet offers words of promise. (more…)

Exodus 19:16-20:21

Last week I invited the congregation to consider the practice of Sabbath; to join me in making room for holy rest in our lives. But the biggest question is: how? What is it that we can avoid doing in order to make holy rest possible?

Traditionally, there are 39 specific acts prohibited during Sabbath – tasks such as sowing, plowing, and reaping crops; processing grain into flour, and baking it into bread; spinning and weaving fibers; hunting and slaughtering animals; constructing buildings; travelling. With the exception of cooking and travelling, though, most of us don’t do many of these things at all. So this ancient list of Sabbath prohibitions doesn’t give us very specific help.

Turning to our more recent ancestors in faith seems like a good idea, but it may be even less helpful. Christian Sabbath in in early American congregationalism was a grim affair, and not one I think most of us would want to recreate. Sabbath was for sitting still, being silent, and reading the bible; preferably all three at once. Church attendance was mandatory in many communities; and we’re not talking an hour-long service in the morning. Morning worship; afternoon worship; you could spend all day in church, including at least two hour-long sermons. Part of the thinking was that church was a great way to keep people out of trouble, and more specifically, out of the bars, whenever they weren’t at work. You may know that First Parish in Concord moved the door of its church so that its services did not let out right in front of Wright’s Tavern; thereby doing their part to discourage Sunday drinking.

Avoiding agricultural tasks won’t help most of us find any rest. And who wants a rest that is deadly dull and full of endless preaching? Surely, that is not what God has in mind for our holy rest. So this week we’re going back to the source, back to the beginning. What was it like when our ancestors first received the instruction to rest? (more…)