10.27.24 "All's Well That Ends Well" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

Job 42.1-6; Mark 10.46-52

Oh no, it can’t be true … please tell me it ain’t so.

Britain’s Royal Mail to close down rail operations … after nearly 200 years of moving mail by rail …

It’s called “the Royal Mail” - to carry the king’s mail … Henry VIII established the Royal Mail in 1516 - by coach and horses, of course -  rail came in 1830, with the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway.

And now, a long and storied tradition reaches the end of its days, or more appropriately, the end of the line.

All’s well that ends well …  

And if things are not yet well, it’s not yet the end … 

Our Gospel story this morning is that of a blind man … Bartimaeus … in the fabled city of - Jericho …  

You remember the spiritual: Joshua fit the battle of Jericho … and the walls came tumblin’ down …

Centuries later, Jesus in Jericho …

Jesus and Joshua … the same name … different languages - Joshua in Hebrew, Jesus in Greek … both mean: Salvation.

Salvation happens in Jericho … it’s the gateway to the Promised Land when the wandering people of Israel finally make it across the Jordan River … trumpets blow, the walls tumble down …

Salvation happens in Jericho … the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector … a wee little man who climbs a tree to see Jesus … Jesus passes by and sees him and says to him: Come on down; I’m going to your home today.

Salvation happens in Jericho … the story of the Good Samaritan … a man on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked, robbed, left for dead … a traveling Samaritan takes pity and washes the man’s wounds, takes the man to a local inn for treatment and pledges to cover all medical expenses.

Salvation happens in Jericho ..

Blind Bartimaeus cries out - Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! … the crowd hushes the man, but the man shouts louder … 

Jesus hears the man, stops, and says to the disciples: Call him here.

 Bartimaeus throws off the rags of a beggar and goes to Jesus … I imagine the crowd, making way … touching Bartimaeus, telling him, Jesus is straight ahead, go on, you can do it … he wants to see you.

Jesus asks Bartimaeus: What do you want?

My teacher, I would like to see again.

Bartimaeus was born with sight … he knew what it was to see the bright skies of Palestine, the faces of loved ones and friends, he knew what it was to make a living … but now, by the side of the road, in the rags of a beggar …  

His vision is restored … he becomes a follower of Jesus.

All’s well that ends well … 

But care is needed when we express our faith.

Statements of faith are more easily said in circumstances of comfort and safety.

It’s easy for me to affirm the goodness of God in the comfort of Pasadena …

Compared to so many places in our world where suffering and sorrow are woven into the everyday fabric of life.

Can we speak of God in such times and places?

Yes, we can, but let’s do it with care!

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.

The LORD is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence.

There are times when words fail us … words don’t always work … what is needed is friendship, quiet friendship … to sit with someone in their sorrow and pain. 

To hold a hand quietly … to sit at someone’s bedside … 

We weep with those who weep … we walk with those who cannot run … we sit with those who cannot walk … 

Far better to offer a tissue where there are tears … a bandage where there is a wound … a hand where steadiness is needed.

Words may come later … and we do have words, that’s for sure … good words, words of faith and hope … the LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want … the LORD is my helper, I will not be afraid … Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever… words that point beyond themselves to the larger reality of God’s love for the world … 

Not a triumphant love … a suffering love … a love that takes up the cross, bears the sins of the world, dies a hideous death at the hands of Imperial Rome, conspired against by the religious authorities … crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell. 

Yes, he rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven … the Holy Spirit comes to the upper room with flame and wind, to inspire and empower the disciples to enter into the world and proclaim the word of hope of … the goodness and power of God’s love.

a suffering love, that abides with us in the night,

a love tiny enough to lay in a manger, 

and small enough to hang on a cross … 

a love just right to fit into the contours of our heart!

Jesus said to one of the crucified beside him, Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.

In this life, not all things end well … but in the end, the trumpet will sound, and a new heaven and a new earth will appear …

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Faith points beyond the boundaries of time and space … beyond the immediate hopes of this life … 

Millions of people never regain what is lost … 

millions suffer hardship and misery … 

untimely death and untold sorrow …

our task, our work, our love, arm-in-arm, side-by-side, to change as much of the world as we can:

as much justice as we can achieve, 

as much peace as we can establish,

as much health and healing and hope as we can muster … 

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

In time …

We all walk through the alien door called death … 

age, accident, war, disease … 

our mortal flesh returns to God’s good earth for safekeeping, 

our breath, our soul, returns to God’s heart, for safekeeping … 

until that great gettin’ up morning when all is made new. 

In the end, the final healing … on the other side of the alien door … 

Some say with conviction, this is it - there is nothing more … dead is dead, and gone is gone … but love never ends … in a mystery vast and incredible, what we are is held in the heart of the universe, in God … 

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

….

One short sleep past, we wake eternally 

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

In this life, much to gain … in the life to come, much more to attain. To live is Christ, to die is gain.

We live for the sake of love … we seek justice … we pay attention, we give of ourselves … we strive for the best and the brightest … we confess our sins, we sing God’s praise … because it all counts, it’s all vital, it’s all important … our love, our hope, our deeds, belong to the universe, to the Almighty God who lives and reigns forever and forever … we belong to Christ, we belong to the ages … we belong to the stars …

All’s well that ends well …

Hallelujah and Amen!

10.30.22 "Looking to See" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena

Habakkuk 1.1-4, 2.1-4; Luke 19.1-10

Have you ever gone looking for something … a pair of glasses, a book for some nighttime reading … that favorite pen of yours … “It was right here,” you declare, so you keep on looking, going back to the same places you looked at 10 minutes ago, “It’s got to be here, I know it is.” 

So you keep on looking, and lo and behold, all of sudden, there it is - on the shelf by the TV … as if by magic, it appears … but you know, we all know, it was always there … it was there when you started looking, it was there when you passed it by the third time … it was there waiting for you to see it.

We can look, but not always see … 

Or …

We see what we want to see … 

In the same field, a farmer will notice the crop, geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the coloring, hikers a pathway to adventure. We may all look at the same thing … but it does not follow we’ll all see the same things.

When my children traveled, I always told them: 

Use all your senses ... use your eyes to really see the landscape ... use your nose to smell the food, the odors of the city, the aroma of a country field in the hot sun of an August afternoon …

Use your hands to feel the rough stones of an ancient wall ... use your ears to listen to the sounds of life - a bird in the early morning singing to greet the sun, a dog barking in the distance ... someone opening up their shop, getting ready for the day ... 

And taste the food ... it's complexity, familiar flavors and strange seasonings ... things that you'll want to eat again, and things that you'd rather forget ... use all your senses ... 

In the movie, “Avatar,” the indigenous people of Pandora say to one another, when it’s important, when it counts, “I see you!”

Today’s story is all about seeing … 

Zacchaeus is out and about and notices the crowds … being a man of importance, he’d like to know

what’s going on …  

Being a man of short stature, the crowds were a bit too much for him … being a resourceful man, he spots a sycamore tree and finds just the right branch to stand upon, to see Jesus.

What's extraordinary in the story is not Zacchaeus climbing a tree to see Jesus … but Jesus who stops beneath the tree to see Zacchaeus.

If Jesus hadn't stopped, Zacchaeus might have gone home afterward with nary a thought about it ... just another "interesting" moment in Jericho ... which might have made a good sermon title, "An Interesting Moment in Jericho" ... 

When Jesus stops, the situation changes dramatically ... Jesus takes command of the moment ... Jesus “sees” Zacchaeus, tells him to come down, and be quick about it. 

What’s a tax collector to do?

I’m fond of this story for many reasons … Zacchaeus is a plucky fellow … he’s not likely to have many friends … as was noted last week, tax collectors are no one’s favorite - they’re grifters, so to speak … and he’s no ordinary tax collector; he’s a chief tax collector, and he’s rich.

Zaccaeus sits on top of a pyramid … other tax collectors working for him, with the armed might of Rome backing them up … if you owed $10.00 in taxes, you might be asked for $20 … the soldier beside the tax collector made sure there were no complaints … 

A nifty arrangement, but one likely to create a lot of grudges and even some enemies.

Jesus stops at the foot of the tree and says, Hurry and come down.

Hurry … because Jesus doesn’t have a lot of time … he’s taking a break on a journey to Jerusalem, and says, I must stay at your house today.

To our eyes, it doesn’t make any sense.

Does Jesus know Zacchaeus?

Does Zacchaeus know Jesus?

It’s a happenstance moment … we might well call it “a moment of grace” … God seems to know things about us that are mostly shades and shadows to us … there is no darkness for God … the night is as light as day, says the Psalmist.

Zacchaeus hurries down, pleased as punch. 

He doesn’t have friends in town … 

No one invites him to their backyard parties … 

No one comes to his home. 

The crowd grows restless … What’s the big idea? Zacchaeus is a bum, a sinner. Don’t we have fine upstanding citizens here? Important people? Jesus needs to see them, not waste his time with this cheap little crook.

Jesus says to Zacchaeus, You are a child of God; lots of folks may not think so, but I know so … 

All these people waiting to see if I’ll come to their home, so they can add me to their social register.

But I’m going to your home Zacchaeus. 

I know I’ll be well received.

Several things happen now in quick order … Zacchaeus makes wild promises … about putting things right … repaying what he’s extorted … giving to the poor.

Wow … did he follow through on any of this?

We don’t know, but Jesus says to him, Today, salvation has come to your home.

Last week, I said, “I can’t tell anyone how to find God” because it’s not our business to find God; no one can; no one finds God … in the same way a child finds a toy under the bed.

If I told you today to get busy and find God, I’d be doing you a disservice … putting a burden on you, an impossible burden.

Truth be told, we don’t find God … 

God.finds.us … 

That’s God’s business … this is what God does, all the time … finds us, sees us … stops beneath the tree we’ve climbed … Jesus might have walked on by, and that would have been the end of the story.

But Jesus stops … this much can be said: Zacchaeus made an effort to see something … that’s a critical piece of the story … to be here today, is that kind of an effort … if you’re tuned in via YouTube, it’s that kind of an effort.

A prayer, a plea, a promise, a moan or groan - the smallest effort is noticed by God … 

Don’t be surprised if God pays you a visit.

To God be the glory.

Amen and Amen! 

December 19, 2010 - "Joshua Is His Name"

Matthew 1:18-25

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho …

With trumpets a-blaring for six days …

And on the seventh day, with one loud long blast of the trumpets and a mighty shout of the people, the walls came tumbling down.

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho.

And with sword and shield, fought his way across Canaan, to make a home for the people of God …

Joshua is a Hebrew name, and its means, Yahweh will save.

Translated into Greek?

Iesous … Jesus.

Born of Mary.

In a tiny stable in a tiny town in a tiny country under the iron rule of Rome and the tyranny of King Herod, who would brook no threat to his throne.

When Herod gets wind of a possible claimant to his title, a child born in Bethlehem, Herod unleashes a brutal attack and kills all the children two and under in and around Bethlehem.

Mary and Joseph and Jesus, warned in a dream, hightail it out of there to Egypt, and there they stay, until Herod dies.

And only then do they return, but not Bethlehem … that’s too close to Herod’s kin … so they go to Galilee instead, and in Galilee Jesus is raised …

Of his upbringing, we know nothing …

Luke reports an incident in the temple when Jesus is 12 … but other than that, silence.

Until his 30^th birthday or thereabouts … when a rabbi is old enough to begin teaching.

Jesus travels south to the Jordan, just above the Dead Sea, and is confirmed by John the Baptist in the rite of washing, the rite of baptism.

And a voice from heaven: This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

By water and by word …

Jesus, Son of God.

God with us.

Joshua is his name.

Yahweh will save!

What does it mean to be saved?

For a long time, Christians were taught that being saved means going to heaven when we die.

And before we die, to live a righteous life.

And for most American Christians, the righteous life has been defined by frontier preachers from the early part of the 1800s … Kentucky and Tennessee … with their emphasis upon the sins they saw: drinking, smoking, cussing, card-playing and theater-attendance.

These frontier preachers saw families being ripped apart and social coherence unraveling on the rough and wooly frontier.

Baptists and Methodists and a few Presbyterians crossed the Appalachians and headed west into America’s frontier, preaching the gospel and planting churches.

They held giant camp meetings, lasting days on end.

Folks traveled from afar to gather together and learn of Christ.

Those were hard days, and people were desperate for hope and meaning and the consolation of God’s love.

Infant mortality rates were high, and if anyone made it to their 10^th birthday, life expectancy was just under 60.

Women died in childbirth.

Men were killed on the farm.

People needed the gospel.

The revivals were intense.

The frontier preachers used lurid images of hellfire and brimstone, and folks responded with emotional outpourings and dramatic signs … probably baptized in a nearby river, swearing off the sins of the day, and promising to live a better life … with an eye on heaven – pearly gates and golden streets, and mansions in the sky.

What does it mean to be saved?

Life for us these days is considerably easier than it was on the frontier.

And no one seems to be particularly bothered by anything, and we’re not likely to mention sin.

American Christians are not likely to hear much hellfire and brimstone these days.

If we’re evangelical Christians, we’re likely to hear a good many therapeutic sermons dealing with anxiety, fear, addictions and sermons about success and achievement and goal-setting and marriage and family.

If we’re mainline Christians, we’re likely to hear sermons about justice and social responsibility … and the big issues of poverty and health care and war.

If we’re conservative Christians, we’re likely to hear doctrinal sermons … such things as substitutionary atonement, original sin, the two-fold nature of Christ, the inspiration of Scripture, the trinity and sanctification and justification and predestination.

So, what does it mean to be saved?

It means a lot of things.

Because God is very big, and so is the world.

And the needs are enormous.

Clean water for the world and healthy souls and fair wages and loving homes where children are safe and good schools and the pursuit of peace and protection for endangered species and feeding the hungry and clothing the poor and preaching the gospel and teaching what Jesus teaches and loving one another and giving ourselves away and singing and praying and bagging groceries at the LAX Food Pantry and serving rice and beans at the Catholic Workers’ Soup Kitchen downtown … it means quite moments with Jesus, it means tons of Bible study and lots of fellowship dinners and committee meetings and hymnbooks and choirs and baptism and the LORD's Supper and preaching and repentance and sorrow and gladness and praise and laughter in the joy of the LORD and tears for the passion of it all

What does it mean to be saved?

It means a lot of things.

Because God is really big.

And the needs of the world are huge.

For God so loved the world, that’s why God gives us the Son.

For the sake of the world.

And for whatever reason, known but to God, the Holy Spirit has moved in our lives, and makes it possible for us to be a part of Jesus Christ, and for Christ to be the anchor of our soul.

He is the first and he is the last, the Alpha and the Omega.

The reality greater than everything else.

Our all-in-all.

To him we belong, now and forever more.

In life and in death.

In body and in soul.

In such a way that not a hair can fall from our heads without our Father’s will … because God is at work in all things for good … and we are ambassadors of God’s love to the world.

What does it mean to be saved?

It means a lot of things.

With Jesus Christ at the center.

His words and his life.

His cross and his death.

His tomb and his resurrection.

His ascension to the right hand of God, and the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Day.

What does it mean to be saved?

It means to be rescued.

Rescued from ourselves.

From out little tiny worlds.

From upside values.

Vengeance and jealousy and foolish pride and the love of money and violence and greed and graft and the abuse of people for our own pleasure and needs.

God rescues us from the darkness of our own shadow.

From our relentless self-interest.

From our feeble attempts to put ourselves on the throne of our soul …

God takes us out of the darkness and brings us into the kingdom of light.

God restores our spiritual orientation.

And gives us the LORD's Prayer … Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name … not my name, nor the million names of any given moment … but your name be hallowed, O God … your name, and your name alone!

What does it mean to be saved?

It means a million things.

It’s deeply emotional and its profoundly intellectual and tearful and joyful and transformational.

What does it mean to be saved?

It is whatever it is for any of us, in the characteristics of our life …

Salvation is tailor-made for each of us.

Salvation is one thing for my wife and one thing for me and one thing for my children …

It means something slightly different for Presbyterians and Lutherans and Pentecostals and Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox … for a small congregation in Nebraska and a megachurch in Nashville … for folks in Haiti and folks in Marin County … for farmers in Central America and engineers in the aerospace industry … for Christians who live in a culture where Christianity is dominant and for Christians who live in cultures shaped by other religious traditions.

What does it mean to be saved?

I think there are some bottom-line realities for all us.

To be saved is to gather together for worship.

Because there is strength in the company of fellow-believers.

Jesus never calls us by ourselves, but calls us into fellowship with one another.

To love one another as he loves us.

We study the Bible.

It’s our book.

We’re people of the book.

Genesis and Exodus, and Jeremiah and Hosea and the Gospel according to Matthew and Paul’s letter to the Romans and the Letter of James and the wonderful book of Revelation.

We serve … we put our faith into action … so the world can see our faith.

We make a difference.

We strive for justice and for peace.

Because this is our Father’s world … and we cannot rest if there’s but one lost sheep … one lost coin … or one lost soul.

We confess our sins with confidence in the forgiveness of God.

We’re humble in our achievements, for everything is a gift from the hand of God.

We’re merciful toward one another, for all of us have weakness and sadness and dark materials.

Salvation in all of its glory, works its way through each of us, just as we are.

Some of us are deeply moved by theology.

Some of us love to study.

Some of us are gifted with putting our faith into words.

Some of us are motivated by mission trips and the hard work of Habitat for Humanity.

Some of us spend a lot of time on our knees.

Some of us spend a lot of time in picket lines and social action.

When I lived in Michigan, a friend and I would travel once a year to the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky, the abbey where Thomas Merton did his work.

It’s Trappist Monastery, a place of deep silence, 150 years old, filled with the prayers of the monks over the decades … the chanted psalms and the hymns and meditation and reading and thinking and good cheese and incredible bourbon fudge.

The day begins at 3:00 in the morning, and as the rest of the world sleeps, the monks are in prayer, for it’s in the night that the world faces its greatest danger.

These monks are called by God – for a life of prayer and chanting the Psalms …

Some are called to a life of writing …

Some are called to be evangelists …

Some are sent to the mission field.

Some are called to preach.

Some are called to sing … to teach Sunday School … to be elders and deacons.

Because the world is huge with many needs.

And God sees to it that salvation in each of our lives meets a need somewhere in this world.

And wherever we are, in the classroom or the lab, behind a desk or behind a wheel, we are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

To let our light so shine that others will see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.

And in the center of it all?

Jesus, born of Mary, suffering under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and buried and raised on the third day and ascended into heaven, at the right hand of God, from then he shall come again to judge the living and the dead.

It is he, this Jesus, who leads us into the Promised Land and gives us life.

Who leads with a sword, not of steel, but of grace.

Who takes down walls – not of brick and stone, but the walls of prejudice and hatred and fear.

Who conquers, not with might and force, but with love and mercy and forgiveness and the giving away of his life for all the world.

And his name is Joshua.

His name is Jesus.

Our LORD and our Savior.

Amen and amen!