March 17, 2013, "Give Us This Day"

Psalm 119.73-80; Luke 12.13-21

Much of what Jesus says and does flows out of Israel’s story … anchored by the Exodus - I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

When Jesus says, Give us this day our daily bread, what would the disciples have thought of?

That’s right … the Exodus Story … manna in the wilderness … basic and simple, new every morning - enough for everyone!

The manna couldn’t be stockpiled for the next day - some folks tried to store it, and it became infested with worms and it stank … they had to go out every morning, to gather their daily bread - six days you shall labor, says the Commandment… and only on the sixth day, could they gather more for the sabbath day, the day of rest.

When Jesus says, Give us this day our daily bread, Jesus takes the disciples back to the wilderness … a time when God’s people were spiritually formed … prepared for the Promised Land … Here’s what you need to know in order to thrive … God will provide for you what’s needed … there’s more than enough to go around … 

Do not be afraid … trust God … 

Jesus knows full well that if the disciples are going to be of any value to the Kingdom of God, they have to live by two spiritual principles: 1) all that’s needed comes from God … and 2) and whatever the need, God provides.

Jesus frees the disciples from the most debilitating sin of all - the fear of not having enough … and here’s where the rubber hits the road for me - all my life, I’ve feared not having enough … someone might well say, Well, why in the world did ya’ go into the ministry if you were afraid of not having enough?

I was called to the ministry!

But I’ve had to struggle many a sleepless night with the demon of fear, the fear of not having enough.

Perhaps in God’s infinite wisdom, God put me into the ministry, as a place where I would always have to default to God … in the middle of the night, with churning stomach, racing mind, to open my heart with gratitude: O LORD, my God, thank you for what I have, and thank you for your promises to provide. I know that you will give what is needed, and I will trust you all the more.

The fear of not having enough … it’s the Original Sin … the snake said to Adam and Eve, You don’t have enough … take the fruit of the tree while ya’ can … 

Scarcity is the message of many a politician these days … there’s not enough to feed the widow, the orphan and the alien … there isn’t enough for the single mother on welfare, the immigrant who needs medicine, the veteran who lost both legs in the war, the elderly who need special care, the retired, and those who’ve lost their jobs … there isn’t enough to keep up our roads, to keep our schools in good repair and pay our teachers decent salaries … there isn’t enough money; we’re going broke … but what bothers me about that message, there always seems to be enough money for more bombs and missiles and aircraft carriers and tax cuts for the hyper-wealthy … always enough money to wage war, but not enough for Head Start and children’s lunch programs.

The message of scarcity is a lie … it’s not true at all … the only thing lacking is compassion and vision and courage and kindness and daring-do that made this nation great … America is great in the things of God - and when we turn inward, get crabby and fearful and selfish, going after the widow, the orphan and the alien, then we’re the rich fool for sure.

On a personal level, when the fear of not having enough takes hold of me, that’s when greed takes hold of my soul … I start to worry, fret and fuss … and then I get stingy; I get angry … my faith dries up … my soul takes a downward spiral … all I want to do is build bigger barns! And hang on to what I’ve got.

 Jesus tells the parable of a rich man … for whom there was never enough … so the man decides to build bigger barns … and what are the barns for? 

To store the harvest. 

Why store the harvest?

He’s manipulating the market … driving up prices by creating scarcity … more for him, less for others, and others will pay more for it.

The rich man follows the rules of wealth … more for himself and less for others … 

But God says to the man, What a fool you are. Tonight you die, and who, then, will get your wealth? You are rich in the things of life, but you are poor in the things of God.

 The rich man is a fool … he’s missed the point of life … here he is, prosperous enough, plenty for today and more than enough for tomorrow … but he gives in to the message of scarcity, the fearful message - there won’t be enough for me, so I better double down and build bigger barns … he’s a fool … a fool for giving his life to the lie - a message of scarcity, a message of fear, and so he forgets what life is all about.

How different if the rich man had remembered the manna principle … there is always enough … he didn’t need bigger barns … he needed a bigger heart … he didn’t need to store the harvest and drive up prices … he needed to share the harvest, keep prices low, so that everyone could have enough.

In the story of the fives loaves and two fish, the disciples say to Jesus, It’s late in the day, the crowd is hungry. Send ‘em away to find food for themselves. 

Wow … that’s how the disciples saw it … let ‘em fend for themselves; we have only enough for ourselves!

Jesus says to them, No way. You feed them. With what you have … you have enough to feed everyone … and then Jesus says, Bring the food to me, because Jesus knows full well that the disciples weren’t about to let go of the bread and fish to anyone except him, and maybe even then the disciples were reluctant - What is he going to do with our food?

Maybe that’s the great spiritual reality here … give it to Jesus, all of it; get it outta of our hands; let it go.

Jesus gives thanks, blesses what they have, breaks the bread, and gives it all back to the disciples … when all said and done, the crowd is feed, twelve baskets of leftovers … there’s more than enough to take care of the disciples, and more than enough to feed the multitude … when we let go and let God.

In God’s kingdom, there is no scarcity.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Jesus tells the Parable of the Rich Fool to a man who came to Jesus with a complaint about his brother … a matter of inheritance … nothing like an inheritance to disrupt a family.

The man already knows what he wants and tells Jesus to make it so … he wants Jesus to do the dirty work!

Jesus says to him, What makes you think I’m an arbiter of such things?

Do you not already have enough?

Can you not get along with your brother?

Why ask me to force his hand?

This is a game I won’t play with you, and if you know what’s good for you, you won’t play the game either.

Jesus turns to the crowd and says, Watch out. Guard yourselves against all kinds of greed!

Disciples then, or disciples now, always face the demon of scarcity, because we’re human, and the Snake in the grass still tempts us with the original sin: There won’t be enough for you … but Jesus says, There will always be enough. My Father in heaven provides what’s needed, and what’s needed, my Father provides.

If the disciples are going to be of any value whatsoever, they have to be clear about God’s grace - manna in the morning, quail in the evening, and water from a rock.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Amen and Amen!

September 9, 2012, "Close Your Eyes Now and Then"

James 2.1-7

It’s been a quiet week for Calvary on the Boulevard.

Labor Day is done, and the dadgum calendar flips its pages at us with careless abandon.

Kids are back in school.

Days are getting shorter, and so are some of us.

Deciduous trees are losing their leaves, and some of us are losing our hair … which we don’t like … and what we’d like to lose is some weight, and that’s really tough.

Our choir had its first rehearsal this week, and here they are today, the first Sunday of a new season of song.

Our Designated Pastor Nominating Committee is awaiting its first list of candidates.

Soon we’ll be electing new elders and deacons, and filling out pledge cards for another year of mission and ministry at Calvary on the Boulevard.

We’ve welcomed new members in the last six months, and we’ve said farewell to others … some have moved to faraway places, and some are with the LORD, waiting under the alter, waiting for the Great Gettin’ Up Morning … time marches on.

If time teaches us anything, time teaches us humility.

Don’t take yourself so seriously.

Which reminds me, do you know why angeles can fly?

They take themselves lightly!

Time reminds us that time is valuable … we have but one life to live, and we hope and pray to live it well.

Friend of mine wrote: “If we approach life always trying to carefully avoid mistakes we will make the biggest one of all. God made each of us to cultivate a spirit of adventure. When that is squelched we die a slow death and miss out on the rarefied air of God’s provision and grace. Faith is a verb…”

Faith rolls up its sleeves and goes to work.

Faith isn’t afraid of long days and hard nights.

Faith tackles the big questions and the big issues of life.

And nothing bigger these days than money.

Money seems to be the talk of the town - and does anyone ever seem to have enough of it?

We dream of money … winning the lottery … we live in a world where everything has a price, and anything can be bought with enough money.

In politics these days, we hear a lot about the wealthy - Wall Street brokers, bankers, investment managers - the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson - massive donations to their candidates.

The influence of wealth is a big question in America right now.

And it’s is a big deal for James.

For the Apostle Paul.

For the prophets, and for Jesus.

It’s Jesus who tells us that that a person of wealth has a hard time entering the kingdom of God.

God knows how easily we fool ourselves with our eyes.

If it glitters, it has to be gold.

When I began my interim work here, Al Richards told me he’s a rock hound - a collector of rocks - he gave me a piece of fool’s gold - it sits on my desk.

A reminder - don’t be fooled by appearances.

Don’t be dazzled by glitter.

God knows that sometimes we just need to close our eyes.

Garrison Keillor tells a cute story of two friends, Bud and Bob, putting in a dock in early spring … Bud is in the ice-cold water, with hip waders; Bob is holding the other end of the dock on land.

Wouldn’t ya’ know it - an enormous fish swims right through Bud’s legs; scared the daylights outta him - he slipped and fell into the cold water, filling his waders … and with waders filled with cold water, we’re talking a serious situation.

His friend Bob asked, “Are you all right?”

Which is a dumb question to ask when your good friend is head over hells in an ice-cold Minnesota lake, flopping around with waders full of water.

Bob runs to get a branch, but by this time, Bud’s too cold to even grab on.

Bob runs into the house to call 911.

Meanwhile, the next door neighbor, Roy, who Bud has had run-ins with, again and again, over the years, comes out, walks into the water, grabs hold of him, gets him into the house, gets his clothes off and puts him to bed.

Bud is recuperating and thinking … when you almost die at the hands of your best friend, and it’s your life-long enemy who saves your life, maybe, when you’re selecting friends, competence ought to be a factor … maybe you ought to think about that a little bit, says Garrison Keillor.

There’s more to life than meets the eye … and that’s what James is getting at.

To look at people as God see us!

James writes to his community:

When a person of wealth comes your way, you fall down and make a fool of yourself … you invite them to sit in the best seat of the house.

When a poor man comes your way, you get snotty and uppity and tell the poor man he can stand by the wall, or sit on the steps by the feet of the wealthy.

And, then, just to drive home the point, James says, It’s the wealthy who make life difficult for you. They drag you into court. They have no regard for the name spoken over you in your baptism.

Remember the parable of the Rich Fool?

The rich fool surveys his fields and builds mighty barns, and says to himself, I built it.

I did it myself; it’s all mine.

No one helped me.

I owe nothing to anyone.

I’m in no one’s debt.

And I’m just going to keep on building bigger barns.

No humility.

No realization that God is the great decider on wealth.

The simple truth, the embarrassing truth:

The wealthy don’t work any harder than a man picking strawberries in the fields around Oxnard, or the woman waiting on our table at Denny’s … 

The wealthy are not any smarter than anyone else.

The wealthy play a lot, too … expensive toys, expensive hobbies, and lots of travel to expensive places designed just for them and their expensive tastes.

In the language of the world, The wealthy are just damn lucky.

In the language of faith: 

We give Thee but Thine own,

Whate’er the gift may be;

All that we have is Thine alone,

A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

The wealthy have a hard time telling the truth their wealth - that’s why Jesus says they have a hard time getting into the kingdom of God.

If the wealthy tell the truth about their wealth, there is only one thing to say: God built it, not me!

If the wealthy tell the truth about their wealth, they have to admit: God gave every bit of it to me - God gave me my family, my values, my strength, my health, my opportunities, people who believed in me, teachers who taught me, bankers who loaned me money when I needed it, friends who stood by me, and a whole world around me.

If the wealthy tell the truth about their wealth, the wealthy have to say: I owe all my wealth to God … I’m not smarter than anyone else … I don’t worker harder than the guy mowing my law, the woman cleaning my bathrooms, the young lady walking my dogs, or the guy parking my Ferrari at the hotel. All of these people work just as hard as I do, and are just as smart as I am, and I owe them everything, because they work for me, and I am called by God to work for them.

I have known people of wealth … many of them grow hard and cruel toward others; sure, they love their families and treat their children well - great family people, they may be, but they expect the best seat in the house … often use religion and god-talk to mask their greed and pride ... like the Pharisee in the Temple, praying lovely prayers, eloquent prayers, beautiful prayers, but with a stone-cold heart - proud of himself and contemptuous of others.

I’ve known people of wealth who dare to be Christian … tender toward others; a deep sense of humility, gratitude … they use their power to change the world, to level the playing field, give everyone a fair chance; they respect the people who work for them, honor them with good wages, fair benefits; willing to enjoy a little less so that folks can enjoy a little more … they fly like the angels, because they take themselves lightly and take God seriously!

Wealth is a big deal for James … a big deal for the Bible … because the love of money is the root of all evil

 … these days, the world needs to hear the Christian gospel, loud and clear:

When it comes to people, close our eyes now and then - consider people from God’s perspective … a man wearing jeans and a stained t-shirt is just as glorious in the sight of God, and maybe even more, then a man dressed in the rags of the world, Armani suits and Gucci shoes.

Live the kingdom of God, says James.

Whatever the price.

Live for Christ.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen and Amen!