Eccles. 8:14-9:10; Gal. 4:21-31; Matt. 15:29-39

Those of you that know me, know I love to eat.  I love food and the power of food to draw people together in grace.  Perhaps that is why I resonate with Jesus’ ministry so much, often involving food.  Today in Matthew, Jesus cures many and feeds many more.  We follow a God who doles out grace.

These stories go well beyond Jesus showing compassion for the people around him.  They testify to the fact that, for we Christians, God is not far away and aloof from us. Jesus shows us that God does not stand outside of life, but is right here with us, beside us in our broken and troubled and suffering world.  Paul reminds us that nothing in existence can ever separate us from the love of God, revealed in Christ.

Ours is not a faith of easy answers and unrealistic solutions.  Jesus entered life and died on the cross for us, showing us that in whatever we experience, in whatever may trouble us, in whatever distress or threat we feel, we need not fear because God is in it with us. God will lift up in our midst what we need to make it through, because God is good.

In whatever crisis or issue we face in life, in whatever trouble may come our way, we learn through stories like today’s that the power of God’s love will provide what we need.  From the midst of the Body of Christ, God will lift up the resources to accomplish his loving purposes.

These stories are also reminders for us.  We pray in the Lord’s Prayer that God may give us daily bread.  We learn in these stories that it is we who are to be involved in, not only the receiving of daily bread, but in the giving of it too.

A good image of this is in the context of the Lord’s Supper, especially when we pass the bread around in a circle, or when we serve each other in the pew.  In that image of receiving bread and then turning to share bread with the person to our other side is the reality of God’s gracious action within the meal: each person is fed solely through God’s grace, but each person also plays an important role in making sure God’s grace continues with the others gathered there.

May these stories of curing and feeding enrich and enliven your day.  May they also be reminders that you play a part in God’s inbreaking kingdom.

-Matt

Eccles. 7:1-14; Gal. 4:12-20; Matt. 15:21-28

There have always been those in the church who demand litmus tests for Christians.  They want control.  They want it their way.

Paul is so deeply troubled with the Galatians, some of whom are falling into this camp.  He states in today’s verses: “I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, but I am perplexed with you.”  He certainly isn’t without words.  But some of them cut like daggers.

He also makes it quite clear that the doors of the gospel are wide open.  He is tired of these Judaizers who are demanding litmus tests – namely that the Gentiles come to them (and the House of Israel) rather than coming to Christ, first and foremost.  In the context of this argument, he makes an interesting observation: “They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you so that you may make much of them.”

How true this is!  I look at the current divides over polity, most prominent these days in the Methodist Church, and I talk to my fellow Methodist minister friends and I just grieve with them.  So often in these debates (which for Americans always seem to center around sexuality….What is our obsession with sex, folks???), I see a lot of people spouting off at the mouth and only interested in hearing themselves speak.  There seems to be a lot of building themselves up and not much building up the body of Christ.

Don’t get me wrong.  These issues are deep and troubling.  I am not dismissing them or making a joke.  But I am siding with Paul on this in saying “They make much of you, but for no good purpose.”  Those who disagree with me might say “There IS good purpose to our debates over sexuality, namely saving the sanctity and purity of the church.”

On a good day I respectfully disagree.  On a bad day I say hogwash.  That is exactly the same argument the Judaizers of Galatia were stating.  They wanted litmus tests.  They wanted the new Christians to conform to their standards before that of Christ’s.  The way I see it, they argued this because under Paul’s understanding Christ wasn’t not under their control.  The reality is that Christ broke out of that tomb on the third day, and God was out on the loose.  That scared the hell out of people.  And it still does.

People have been trying to put Christ back in that tomb for 2,000 years.  Sometimes they don’t even realize they are doing it.  They claim to be standing up for right.  It turns out they are only standing for oppression, control, and their version of the truth.  Christ has led some of us to different understandings of the Law.  Look at the dietary laws, as a prime example.

Most recently it has led many of us to new understandings of marriage and covenant.  In the midst of this, it is convenient to talk about sanctity and purity, and on the surface seems like a valid argument.  But Paul knew, and the Presbyterian Church certainly knows, there is a fine line between purity and oppression of a whole class of people.  There are behaviors we want to follow, namely the rule of love, and some leaders in the church simply have their noses out of joint because they can’t control others, can’t abide different interpretations of Scripture from theirs, and they can’t get their way with the required numbers of votes.

Folks, it has never been about one getting one’s way in the church.  It has always been about Christ’s way!  And he lays out the radical and inclusive love of God, and God paving the way to freedom, justice, and peace.   It does not look like a church where everyone is sanctimonious, but a church where God welcomes all.  It is the love that transforms, not the rules.

God has often not played by the rules.  One doesn’t have to look far in the Old Testament to realize that God is not bound by rules; after all, and after all he is the one that set them up!  He set them up for us, not himself!  Examples: He is a jealous God.  He wipes out armies.  In the prophets, he forgives sin at the drop of a hat (quite a bit in Jeremiah and Zechariah, and dramatically in Jonah’s Ninevah), breaking the very rules he established.  Hey, folks, God’s prerogative!  Tough noogies.  God can do whatever God wants.

It’s time for us – once and for all – to trust that this is God’s church, and he can do with it as he wishes.  We don’t need to control it.  We need to let go of control, and get out of God’s way as he shapes us into new people through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our job is to have patience as we remember that God is in charge, and isn’t done with us yet.  I can rest in that.

-Matt

Eccles. 3:16-4:3; Gal. 3:1-14; Mat. 14:13-21

Everyone needs to read our Galatians 3 passage.  Talk about good news!  Galatians is the cure to all misguided churches who need to refocus and correct warped theology, from the churches obsessed with this: “Do you accept Jesus as your personal Savior?” to churches where it has really become this: “Do you accept Jesus as your personal shopper?”  News flash: Jesus is not a genie in a lamp who is here to guide you through the mundane tasks of the day or bless you with riches.

God is looking for transformation!  See Galatians for more details.

Here’s another tell tale sign for misguided churches: litmus tests to be considered Christian.  Usually this is based on works.  Paul says no to all that garbage.  “Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish?”

Don’t get me wrong, works certainly are important, and are a natural outgrowth of any church that is following Christ and living into the Holy Spirit.  That’s the result of a spirit-filled faith – good works abound!

The age-old debate about faith and works is one of the topics of Galatians.  And why is it so important?  Isn’t this just some minor theological hair-splitting?  No.  For it takes the focus off of Christ.  Our faith begins and ends with our Lord Jesus Christ.  When works become the gate code into the heavenly kingdom the whole church becomes awash in itself.  Classic narcissism.

We have seen the effects of this happening in our churches today – when one’s status in a church is solely determined by one political stance that is held.  It immediately turns God’s grace on its head and instead implies, “God’s grace is with you as long as you do or say what is right (in my eyes).”  (The “in my eyes” is always the implication, isn’t it.)

If we learn nothing else from Paul, we learn that the details of practicing our faith are the tricky part.  They are not to be taken lightly, but they are not meant to the litmus test either.  Peter and Paul had some very lively disagreements about how they were to proceed as a church.  But we do come to understand that central to all that we do and believe and feel and say must be rooted in Christ Jesus.

The newest “work” to plague the church is the sin of individualism.  This came as a product of the 18^th Century Enlightenment and glorification of individualism.  It’s evil twin brother, and the most obnoxious question in all of Christendom, a plague in today’s church, is: “Do you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?”  I just despise this question.  No where in the Bible does this appear.  Worse yet, this acceptance speech is thinly veiled as a belief, but is, by nature, a work in and of itself.

It is also a thinly veiled threat.  More a threat than a belief or a work.  More of a litmus test than a Spirit-driven experience.  It is more an individual status than a communal experience of grace.  And that is what makes my blood boil when I hear this question, because underneath is the veiled threat of “I have the answer to life’s questions and you don’t.  So come to my understanding of things and we will be good.”  Paul railed against this!  In fact it is a corruption of everything Galatians stood for.  It is OUR faith.

Paul was adamant in the transformative nature of belief.  Belief wasn’t so much an acceptance speech as much as “Have you heard the Good News of Christ Jesus?”  The news of Christ was “good news” first and foremost, and it was also something that spread like wild fire.  It was a turn away from the flesh-based religion of Abraham into a mysterious spirit-filled community.  It was a secret that was heard and experienced, not an AP test to be passed.  It was something to be seen and heard!

This wild fire of good news was not something to be capsulated into a personal experience, but expanded into a community’s transformation into a loving community.  This is the heart of Paul’s argument.  This is the purpose of the law.

So have you heard that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us? (Galatians 3:13)  Have you? Well, pass it along!  Tell everyone you know!

Also, do the Church a favor, and let’s shelve that silly question about accepting Jesus, and let’s instead get to the heart of living the Spirit in community.  Here’s a better question: “Have you ever wanted to get involved in mission, and make the planet a better place?”  Come with me to _________ where we not only help those in need, but you can see the Spirit come alive!”

-Matt

Eccles. 3:1-15; Gal. 2:11-21; Matt. 14:1-12

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.  I time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.”

These words are often heard at weddings and funerals and are a reminder that the good and evil we experience in life are all tempered by God’s time.  Nothing can withstand the trajectory of God’s plan and God’s timing in the totality of life.

Just the other day as I sat with one of our church members going into surgery, I was reminded of the frailty of human life and our utter reliance on God.  Sometimes the things of this world make sense, other times not.  Sometimes things go well, other time they go south.  In all things we realize the things of this life are temporal and transitory, and we do our best, clinging to the one who delivers us from death to life.

Our passage in Ecclesiastes is a stark reminder that life is not meant to make sense, and that each situation must be dealt with with renewed hope and vigor for the future.  It speaks to the present realities and their troubles and pitfalls, for we as a people of God must not dwell on the past or even the present, but must always have hope for the future as part of our equation.

I love the Wisdom literature.

-Matt

Eccles. 2:16-26; Gal. 1:18-2:10; Matt. 13:53-58

Today Jesus is rejected in Nazareth.  “Is not this the carpenter’s son?  Is not his mother called Mary?  And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”

There is something about this story that rings with truth: “The hometown boy returns.  That kid?  Yeah, I remember him.  Always causing trouble.”  I have this happen on another level with kids at church.  Some of them are graduating from high school, but I will always have in my mind the image of them at 8 years old, or 4, or perhaps I remember them as an infant.  It will be even more difficult to envision them in a few years as my doctor or as a Senator, CEO, or President of the US.

It is hard to grow into one’s own authority.  And certainly a small town like Nazareth might have trouble seeing past “that little boy who used to run around the market” and seeing him as the Messiah.

And have you ever wondered what those comments about his mother and brother’s are?  Some think the phrase “carpenter’s son” is meant to be an insult.  But I would argue that that is not true – it is meant as a social strata marker – and a good one at that.  Jesus was the carpenter’s son, and Nazareth was in the midst of an economic boom, with much work.  Jesus was most likely set to inherit a large business.  He was the eldest son.  Yes, he was blue collar, and probably as strong as a mule and looked like a hefty blue collar worker, but a rich one.

In other words, he didn’t fit the part of prophet.  I can almost hear them: “Isn’t this that eldest son of Joseph?  So this is the kid who left his dad in the lurch!  This is the guy who left a large, booming, successful business to wander around and tell stories?  Oh yeah, this guy isn’t even worth a bag of chips.  He can’t even honor his family.  Now we are going to listen to him on spiritual matters?”

Maybe this story is told to see the very human side of Jesus, or the struggle to grow into his role as Messiah.  I tend to think this taps into the ever-present narrative of “God’s ways are not always our ways.”  I think about people like King David, the “runt of the litter” shepherd who becomes king.

For all of us who have felt like the odd choice, or the runt of the litter…this passage is for us.  We too are invited into the wonderful and surprising choices of God – for God has chosen us too – chosen us to be a become of light and joy in a hurting world – chosen us to love – chosen us for some bold tasks.  We may not feel like it most days, but we are God’s instruments, and God’s beloved child.  And if you feel ill-equipped or unworthy, fear not.  You are in good company.  God was able to use me.  He will use you too.

-Matt

Memorial Day Prayer

God of power and mercy,
you destroy war and put down earthly pride.
Banish violence from our midst and wipe away our tears,
that we may all deserve to be called your sons and daughters.
Keep in your mercy those men and women
who have died in the cause of freedom
and bring them safely
into your kingdom of justice and peace.
We ask this though Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Prov. 21:30-22:6; 1 Tim. 4:1-16; Matt. 13:24-30

It really is hard to tell the difference between sheep and goats.  When I was studying in Israel, I really couldn’t tell the difference.  I don’t know, maybe there are genetic differences between the sheep and goats in Israel and the kinds of sheep and goats we have here.  Over there, a herd of both would come slumbering by and our professor would dare us to separate them in our minds.  We could not.

There is a similar strain of thought with the weeds and the wheat, which fill today’s passage.  The instruction is to not pull the weeds, “…for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.  Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

The ideas of selection and separation are common in Jesus’ parables.  While it is difficult to tell who is good and evil, there are definitely good intentions and right paths – and the implication is that we best spend some time making sure we are doing what is right, for the sake of the kingdom.

I have been in church work for many, many years now, and I have worked with a lot of wheat, and a fair amount of weeds too.  And I can attest, first hand, that sometimes the weeds are hard to spot.  But after a while, they show their true colors.  And I have also experienced first hand that God eventually binds up the weeds.

Interestingly enough, most of the wheat I encounter spend a good bit of time worrying about if they are good wheat or bad weeds.  It is often the weeds who are convinced of their own goodness, and march around declaring others to be weeds, proclaiming their own wheatie-ness.  This is the first sign of trouble!

I always have to remind myself that this parable refers to the kingdom of heaven – in fact to the sower himself.  So the kingdom of heaven has great hopes to be full of nourishing wheat and an abundant harvest.  The kingdom of heaven is intending for a barn that is overflowing with goodness and produce.

We must all strive to live into this gracious goal.  May abundance reign in our hearts.  And may we always be alert and introspective enough to see the abundant harvest and live into that each day. And let’s let God handle the weeds.

-Matt