2 Chron. 29:1-3,30:1(2-9)10-27; 1 Cor. 7:32-40; Matt. 7:1-12

Americans killed on 9/11: 2,996

Days it took Congress to authorize use of military force against those responsible for 9/11 attacks: 3

Americans killed by guns in 2017: 11,652

Days in 2017 so far: 276

We don’t have a gun problem.  We have a SIN problem.  

We can’t seem to realize that promoting a culture of violence is SIN.  We can’t seem to understand that defunding mental health resources is SIN.  We can’t seem to figure out that Matthew 7:12 applies to us too.  We can’t seem to figure out much these days.

Instead we dismiss events like Newton, Las Vegas, Columbine, Orlando, simply posting “our thoughts and prayers go with _____” on our Facebook feed and then returning to our regular routines.  Or we wring our hands about Las Vegas and say “Oh he doesn’t fit the profile” as if that has ever helped us address the violence and SIN at the root of this. We have an inability to name EVIL these days.  And in this case our ability to “do nothing” is our SIN.

Only in America do we have 1,516 mass shootings in 1,735 days and have the audacity to ignore the EVIL all around us.  Enough with the “thoughts and prayers.”  It is time for us to all get on our knees, beg God’s forgiveness, and repent of our violent ways as a culture.

Perhaps it is time for us to all turn in our guns.  There was something in scripture about beating swords into plowshares I seem to remember.  Maybe my local sheriff’s office can figure out how to do that when we have our next amnesty program, so we can turn in any unwanted ammunition and weapons and come out with plowshares.

We seem all too quick to wash our hands of all responsibility when it comes to guns.  Did you know I actually saw a church post yesterday that simply said LORD HAVE MERCY.  At best I suppose that could mean “God forgive us for our part in this madness.  Save us from ourselves” but I was raw from the day, and my reaction was more along the lines of “Oh that’s the spirit – let’s just put this on God, and cry out to God to ‘let up on us’ for inflicting this violence on us instead of fighting this culture of gun violence.”  When did we decide to wash our hands of all responsibility and call on God expecting God will solve all our problems?  Prayer is meant to incite us to action, connect us with God and drive us to seeing our lives in better focus.  Our poor theology, lack of church attendance, and flimsy understanding of God and prayer is starting to catch up to us.

Only in America do we have such a staggering gun violence epidemic and conveniently brush it off by blaming Obama, or Trump, or the media, or the movie industry.  Then we quickly forget and return to our anxiety about Obama taking our guns, or some other such nonsense, thinking that more guns will solve all these problems.

Well you know what, all of this is EVIL.  It is sin, and we must confess it.

Did you know that per capita Canada has more guns than we do in the USA?  And yet gun violence is much lower in Canada.  How is that possible?  It is because our problem is much deeper than guns.  It is SIN.  It is that we nurture violence and the gun industry more than we nurture life, liberty, faith, and humility.

I thought taking away all the guns would solve all the problems.  Well, it might make a dent.  But we will still have problems.  It is because sin goes unaddressed around here.

I grew up around guns.  Hunting and fishing were norms in northern Wisconsin, not just deer hunting, but turkey hunting too.  Gun safety was a norm too.  The accessibility I see to guns is out of control in my mind – the lack of regulation, the lack of restriction, the lack of sensible gun laws.  We have allowed the gun industry to guide the narrative, and at the heart of their motivation is – you guessed it – MONEY.  GREED.  SIN.

The violent culture we foster is of our own doing.  “Lord, have mercy” is right.

We have to start to admit some hard truths.  We have been taking this “right to bear arms” too seriously.  Nevermind that whole “well-regulated militia” piece.  We act as if guns are going to solve our problems when Jesus calls us to a life of non-violence.  The hard truth is that unfettered access to automatic weapons makes no sense.  There are other hard truths.  The list could go on.  But….

The hard truth is that when we treat this terrorist’s gun arsenal as a right but the medical treatment for his 500+ victims as a privilege we have fallen into sin.  And it is the sin of idolatry.  It is that pesky Commandment Number 1 again.  We have decided that God is not as important in our lives as other things.  We have decided we can play God.  Or we have decided that Money is our god.  As long as we treat medical care as a commodity we will continue to have the same problems.  You put GREED at the center of the narrative.  When you turn Healthcare into a money-making endeavor of course it doesn’t want to cover sick people.  Idolatry is all over in our culture.

And (more troubling) we have been trained as Americans not to see that as SIN.  We warp our minds into thinking it is about liberty or freedom when it really has to do with IDOLATRY.

So taking away the guns isn’t going to fix it.  But neither is embracing our own sin.

Instead we should be begging for God’s forgiveness, for we have made a mockery out of loving one another.

Here we are again….Christianity needs to be on its knees.

-Matt

2 Kings 17:24-41; 1 Cor. 7:25-31; Matt. 6:25-34

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”  So Jesus reminds us in our gospel lesson today.

What a troubling lesson to have as the humanitarian crises around the world exacerbate.  From Puerto Rico to St. Thomas to Florida to Houston, the need seems overwhelming.  It almost sounds crass for these words to come to us today.  The people of Puerto Rico better focus on what they will eat or drink, because people are dying!! So what is going on?  What is Jesus saying?

Jesus came and preached a gospel of action.  He wasn’t asking us to sit around and not do anything about it – but warning against the “worry” aspect of it.  Worrying often does little good.  Action, on the other hand, does.

His call today is as much ACTION to the rest of us as it is “Do not worry” to those in the midst of crisis.  If we are truly a Christian community we will find ourselves invigorated with action so no one needs to be caught up in worrying about basic human needs like food, shelter, clean water, adequate health care.

I hope that instead of worrying today about the people of Puerto Rico or those in the crosshairs of chaos in Las Vegas, instead we engage in ACTION.  This may mean action for those in need in our midst.  Or it may mean getting globally engaged and fighting hunger, poverty, terrorism on a grander scale.

I am tired of watching our elected officials detach from the needs of others and look out for only their well-being.  I am tired of the fiscal irresponsibility especially of our state legislator.  So unless they shape up and start responding to the needs around them, I am going to use my voice, my money, and my votes to throw them out of office.   We need a little more action around here and a little less hand-wringing.

-Matt

2 Kings 9:17-37; 1 Cor. 7:1-9; Matt. 6:7-15

Today Jesus teaches his disciples to pray.

It is a very different outlook on prayer from Paul who says, “Pray without ceasing.” Instead, for Jesus, brevity is best.  Many have overlooked how he begins: “When you are praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

He then begins with “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name….”  It is simply, brief, to the point.

We just talked about the Lord’s Prayer this last week in the Pastor’s Bible Study.  I briefly mentioned that if you have ever wondered why we Presbyterians say “debts…debtors” you can look to this text.  Luke’s prayer, which we would view as an abridged version of the one we learned, uses the word for sin, or trespasses, whereas Matthew contains “debts”.  It really is that simple.  Just a preference of gospels.

Beyond the idea of brevity is another, perhaps more important concept.  It appears that prayer is not for God, but for us.  We do not pray to keep God informed, or to let God in on the desires of our hearts.  God already knows them.  We pray to keep ourselves focused – to mold our thoughts and our behaviors into God’s ways.

Just a simple address like, “Our Father” says mountains about Jesus’ theology.  And to speak of daily bread and debts is even more telling.  The prayer is not “Give us today our daily Cadillac” but daily bread.  “Rescue us from the evil one” not “rescue us from all the people who aren’t as pious as we are.”

The focus in on ourselves and the need for amendment.

It is powerful and stark, beautiful and easy to remember.

Because of all these reasons, it is now one of the most well-known, most used, arguably one of the most memorized prayers in the world.  I hope you find yourself praying it anew!

-Matt

2 Kings 6:1-23; 1 Cor. 5:9-6:8; Matt. 5:38-48

“But they are disrespecting the flag!”

“But they are disrespecting the military!”

Nope.  Wrong.

First, this isn’t about a flag.  It is about people.  I think those folks on one knee have been pretty clear about what they are doing.

Second, it isn’t that simple.  This is about our country’s deeper values.  It’s about liberty – what the flag stands for.  It is about far deeper than the military, or a flag, or an anthem.  It is about people valuing people, something that Jesus hits home today in the Sermon on the Mount.  Valuing people was something Jesus spent a lot of time doing.

‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” ³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; ⁴¹and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴²Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” ⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus spoke these words into a political powderkeg, a time when the rich abused the poor and took advantage of the rules.  They conquered and enslaved others.  The oppression was palpable by those hearing Jesus’ words.  The Sermon on the Mount is IN YOUR FACE, then and now.  It is counter-cultural.  It is something that stops many so-called “Christians” in their tracks.  Stunned.

Jesus was interested in turning power on its head.  He was interested in comforting the afflicting and afflicting the comfortable.

Enter Colin Kaepernick.  While I disagree with his style, he is finally getting his wish.  The dialogue has begun.  The narrative has been revealed.  The racist underbelly of our country is finally getting exposed.

Nevermind that this all started as a protest to police brutality.  And nevermind that these groups on one knee or with locked arms have reminded us of that at every turn.

Nevermind that the Dallas Cowboys didn’t actually kneel during the National Anthem.  They knelt before it.  Still we love to jump to conclusions without the facts and turn into reactionaries.  We are Americans.  We often don’t care about the details.  All we care about is hyperbole, headlines, and tweets these days.

Nevermind that worshiping a flag isn’t patriotism; it is idolatry (and I think the Bible had just a few things to say about that (HINT: Commandment numero uno)).

Nevermind that the National Anthem was written by Francis Scott Key on the heels of the War of 1812 when black Americans had turned to fight with the British to “win their freedom”.  Nevermind that the anti-black third verse of this song was probably part of that history and was probably part of the reason it took over 100 years to adopt as our National Anthem.  (Well that and it is just way too hard to sing for the average American).

Nevermind that the prevailing “Love it or Leave it” dogma of the moment is a distraction from the deeper love of country these people on one knee are desperately trying to show us – and the incomprehension and hate that these protesters are met with helps us to conveniently miss the racist undercurrent of our lives, the white privilege many of us experience, and the liberties being violated every day.  Nevermind that.

And nevermind that I fear that no matter how minorities try to bring attention to the injustices they see in this country, it will never be deemed a “good way” by some.

Nevermind that you may want a break from all the negativity and talk of racism, and you just want to enjoy your football game without all the distractions.  Nevermind that you feel inconvenienced by all these weighty issues and just want a time out.  Nevermind that black people never get a time out from being black.

Nevermind that Russia tampered with our election and that the people of Puerto Rico are in dire straights, and we are talking about people kneeling.  (Do I need to say that one again?)

And dare I say, nevermind that lost in the one-kneed peaceful gestures just happens to be the same deeper values of the Bible (and that this country was founded on) that they are quietly calling us to – drawing us closer to a love of neighbor that looks beyond difference, beyond fear.

Mind instead that Jesus drops a bomb shell on us today.  It is a bomb shell of ACTION.  He expects us to ACT ACCORDINGLY.  He expects us to MIND all those “neverminds” above.

If we are going to claim to be Christian, we better start acting like it.  This means more than respecting our neighbor.  It means LOVING our neighbor.  PERIOD.

That is all.  And that is it.

And if you want to do something to help all this unrest in our country, instead of exploding into some rant or angry comment on my feed, instead put down your anger, open your clenched fists, receive the love and grace that Christ offers us today, in fact open wide your arms, and embrace a neighbor.  Be it a hug, or a similar gesture of neighborly love, go out into the world and begin to show the love that Christ calls us to.

It is not an option today.   It is a requirement.  Jesus’ requirement to each of us – daily.

There’s Christianity on its knees.

-Matt

2 Kings 5:19-27; 1 Cor. 5:1-8; Matt. 5:27-37

Bible literalists.  They drive me crazy.  Mainly because they don’t know their Bibles very well.  Perhaps you have some friends who spout this: “I believe every word in the Bible is LITERALLY true.”  These same folk want you to read Revelation and every other book literally.

Here’s a cure!  Sit them down and read today’s passage from Matthew 5 with them.  Then look up in amazement and ask them why they still have any hands or eyes!  Jesus continues in the Sermon on the Mount in serious hyperbole:  “If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out….  If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off!”

Bible reading is serious business!

The high drama begins as he takes on, first, adultery, then divorce, and then swearing falsely (meaning the making or breaking of oaths).  It turns out much is demanded of the one who seeks to follow Christ.

By the time he is done with his litany, no one is left unscathed – all fall short.  Not even the Pharisees and scribes, who were seen by the people as being blameless and perfect in the eyes of God, go away with clean hands.

This is not to diminish his words.  Individual accountability is important, as well as community failings.

Interestingly enough, this is not the trajectory of the gospel, but it is an important part of the sequence.  Jesus is not here to focus on how bad we are, nor did he come to, as some of my Baptist minister friends jest, “scare the hell out of you.”

And so this passage isn’t about making everyone blind or hand-less. 

Rather, Matthew’s gospel sets up the grand narrative of the rejection of the one we call Messiah.  He lays out the disappointment of the people who are looking for a political Messiah.  He spells out the brokenness of the earth, through the miracles and parables, but also Jesus’ rejection and brokenness.  This kind of Messiah was not able to fix the brokenness in their way, but in his way.

In this way it wasn’t Hell he was interested in, but Heaven.  He came to point a way to the heavenly kingdom, but that Heaven was not where the people wanted to go.  They were focused on the future, Jesus was focused on the present.  They were focused on Roman destruction.  Jesus was focused on a renewal of faith.

Jesus rails against the whole system today in the Sermon on the Mount.  So stay tuned.  As you know, the story takes a dark turn from here.

Jesus is asking: Can you really see what is going on here?

-Matt

2 Kings 5:1-19; 1 Cor. 4:8-21; Matt. 5:21-26

We pick up in the Sermon on the Mount right where we left off on Friday with our gospel readings.  We ended with “You are salt and light” and a warning that Jesus had not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

The trajectory of the Sermon on  the Mount is clear – a world upsidedown.  Matthew zooms in ever closer on the law, Judaism, and Judaism of his time.  And like the zoom lens of a camera, Jesus continues to get closer and closer to home, ending with penetrating focus with a series of warnings about how the law is practiced in his time and his place.

Today Jesus reinterprets various laws, and their traditional meaning.  “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or a sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council….”

Jesus takes a more strict approach than the Old Testament law!  Murder isn’t just murder, but you are violating that commandment if you get mad?  Yes.  He does the same with divorce, which was acceptable at the time.  Not so here.

Jesus becomes the conservative.  He is not throwing out the law.  He is raising the bar.

At the end of the day we are left with one central focus – “The religion you all follow is not the true direction your faith and actions need to be taking.  There is more to all this.”

This theme of turning things on their head is a common theme.  All of our stories seem to get twisted and turned.  And in the ultimate “upsidedown” the king of the Jews ends up nailed to a cross, humiliated and defeated, rejected by his own.

Perhaps we should rename this book The Gospel of Upsidedown.

-Matt

2 Kings 1:2-17; 1 Cor. 3:16-23; Matt. 5:11-16

The Sermon on the Mount continues today.  “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored??  It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”

Jesus also uses the metaphor of light.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  If you make light, you don’t put it under a bushel.

Have you ever had salt that lost its saltiness?

The other day I was planning to make my award-winning Red River Bison Chili (yes, with real Oklahoma buffalo), when I realized a couple key spices on my shelf had lost their spice.  I made a quick pivot to a different recipe, and put chili powder on the grocery list.  Perhaps you have been in this same boat.

Salt can also lose its saltiness.  Who would have thought!

Jesus, it turns out, is just as interested in outcomes as he was in intentions.  He doesn’t just want us Oklahomans to be salty, he needs us to be spicy in these challenging times.

Many of us like to focus on God’s grace.  We defer to “forgiveness” when anyone asks about Christian accountability.  We figure we are off the hook for doing anything, because God is in control.  For some, Christianity has become the broken remote.  We figure if God wants to change the channel, he will “get off his lazy rear and change it himself.”  Jesus appears to have some different views on that kind of thinking.

While it is unclear what exactly he is addressing, it becomes clear that action on our part is part of the deal.  It is expected, if not required.  Our internal drive has got to match our external motions.

This is a direct assault on those who wish to divide the spirit and the flesh, deciding that Christianity is all an interior and spiritual struggle.  Jesus says no.  If one is going to take religion seriously, you better be ready to have your daily routine disrupted.

There is a good bit in the Sermon on the Mount that involves right relationships.  In the process of the world being turned upsidedown (e.g. blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth) there will be a righting of relationships.  The world will come into harmony.

Beware though!  For that which is not in harmony, is not going to be very useful in God’s new matrix.  So choose your spices carefully.

-Matt

P.S. The Red River Bison Chili is on its way by the way.  Test run during the OU/Baylor game.  You all are welcome to swing by the house and try a bowl.  OU/texASS is coming soon and I will need to be armed and ready with more spices than just chili powder for that party.