11.10.24 "Tale of Two Cities" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Ruth 3.1-5, 4.13-17; Mark 12.38-44

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …

So writes Charles Dickens in the opening lines of his famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities … for Dickens, it was Paris, it was London … the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror … Madame Defarge with her knitting needles and Dr. Manette in prison …

For us today, it’s Jerusalem, it’s Bethlehem … in both stories, the central figure, a widow … a widow with two small coins … a widow with her widowed daughter-in-law.

A tale of two cities … 

We begin in the Holy City … the fabled city of David … where the Temple is center … the First Temple, built by Solomon, David’s son … destroyed by the Babylonians 6 centuries before Jesus … partially rebuilt 50 years later … and centuries later, when Jesus is born, lavishly restored and completed, under Herod the Great, a friend of Caesar and a violent man who orders the death of all the children in Bethlehem, when he learns of a “royal birth” from the Wise Men of the East.

Judeans from around the world dream of Jerusalem … as long as the Temple stands, God is with us … we’re a people with a purpose, we have a story to tell to the nations, we have the promises on which we stand, and the Commandments by which we live.

You shall have no other gods before me … honor your heritage, your mothers and fathers … don’t misuse my name for unholy deeds … keep the Sabbath … take time to worship and pray … don’t take life away from others … don’t tell lies … and beware of envy … it destroys the soul.

On any given day, and on High Holy Days, especially … 

Judeans make the trek to Jerusalem… from the steppes of Russia to the sands of the Sahara, from Spain to India and North Africa …

Gentile believers, too, who affiliate with local synagogues, who follow the teachings of Moses and the prophets … 

The local trades - the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker … shepherds with their flocks, cattle dealers, doves in their cages … money changers to exchange foreign currency for the local coin …  

The financial and religious center of the city …  

Accountants and attorneys, 

musicians and priests, 

teachers and tool makers, 

carpenters and sculptors, 

the high and the mighty, 

the rich and the powerful, 

working hand-in-glove with the mighty Roman Empire.

Jesus grows up with the Temple …

In the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to Jerusalem - he’s their firstborn, so he’s dedicated with a small sacrifice … as stipulated in the Law: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

Mary and Joseph go to Jerusalem for Passover, their 12-year-old son with them … with a hometown group … on their return, they assume Jesus to be with some friends, but at the end of the first day’s journey, Jesus is nowhere to be found. 

Mary and Joseph rush back to the city, and what do they find?

Jesus sitting with the teachers, listening to them, asking them questions. 

Mary and Joseph scold him for frightening them.

Jesus replies: What do you expect of me? I must be in my Father’s house.

Years later, Jesus and the disciples are back in the city … 

One of the disciples exclaims, Look Teacher, what large stones, what large buildings … 

Wealth and power are intoxicating, are they not?

Donna and I took an exchange student to New York City, to Manhattan, to Wall Street … taxies and subways, sidewalks jammed, everyone in a hurry, skyscraper next to skyscraper, mountains of stone and steel … I said to him, Here in these buildings, decisions are made that affect the whole world.

Think of any great city: London, Rome, Sao Paulo … Amsterdam, Cape Town, Cairo … Tokyo, Seoul, New Delhi … Washington, Moscow, Beijing.

Jesus watches the treasury … the parade of wealth …

And then, comes a widow … she gives two copper coins, a penny’s worth …

I wonder: did anyone else see her that day? … her two little coins … her simple clothing … meager possessions … yet in some corner of her heart, a great love … it isn’t much what she gives, but what she gives is all she has.

God sees the heart.

This woman, says Jesus, has given more than all the rest … what they’ve given, costs them nothing … she has given everything.

It’s a heartwarming story, isn't it … a poor widow gives her all for the things of God … isn’t that precious!

But there’s more to the story:

Jesus moves from sentiment to society … from religion to politics … Jesus is no one’s fool … he understands the flow of money … and how it works.

Beware of the scribes, says Jesus, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 

Marketplaces, religious gatherings, big-deal banquets … sound familiar?

Jesus goes on:

They take widows’ houses  … and for the sake of appearance say long prayers.

“Long prayers” … to cover up ill deeds and malicious intent!

It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, says Jesus, than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.

A tale of two cities …

Jerusalem and Bethlehem …

And three widows …

The widow and her two little coins.

Naomi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth.

A famine in the land drove Naomi and the family to Moab in the first place … within ten years, Naomi’s husband is dead, and her sons die, as well … leaving two more widows … you know some of the story … Naomi decides to return home, to Bethlehem … of her daughters-in-law, Orpah decides to remain in Moab … Ruth vows to go with Naomi, with some of the most famous words ever spoken:

Where you go, I will go;

where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people, 

and your God my God.

To an uncertain future … who will provide for us? … Naomi’s been gone 10 years … things change.

What’s Naomi to do?

She tells Ruth … catch the eye of Boaz, a man of wealth, and a kinsman on my husband’s side … 

It’s a whimsical story, for sure … we smile and we wink … let’s have some fun, says the story teller - clever women and a kindly man … with a little perfume to work the magic.

In the end of our story,

Boaz welcomes Ruth, a Moabite stranger, and the widow Naomi … 

he provides for their needs, 

he offers his protection, 

he honors the kinship laws of the land … 

he gives them a future … 

and unknown to all of them, 

they give a future to Israel.

Boaz marries Ruth … they have a son named Obed … and Obed has a son named Jesse … and Jesse has eight sons, one of whom is named … David! 

David? you say!

How about King David … 

Many centuries later, Jesus is born … where? … in David’s town, Bethlehem … Jesus is called …  The Son of David …  

A tale of two cities … Jerusalem and Bethlehem … it was the best of times; it was the worst of times …  

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Amen and Amen!

10.13.24 "Shocked" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Job 23.1-9; Mark 10.17-31

“The patience of Job” - a common expression … where it comes from, I have no idea.

Job with his "friends" ...

Job isn’t patient … neither is his wife.

His wealth is gone, his family wiped out, his health is compromised …

Job’s frustrated, angry, broken … he’d love to tell God a thing or two.

Job’s friends tell him, You’ve done something wrong job … face it; this is all your fault … tell God how sorry you are, and God may forgive you.

Job says to his pious friends, Nonsense!

I’ve done nothing to deserve this calamity … I’ve been faithful to God, I’ve done what was needed, and even more … 

I’m not going to pretend I’m perfect, 

but I’ve done nothing to deserve this kind of sorrow … 

if God is doing this, I’ve a complaint to file - God is wrong!

In the end, God comes to Job.

This is a huge universe, says God … forces at play far and beyond your meager abilities … there is light and darkness, warmth and beauty, there is loss and sorrow … 

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,

“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and spreads its wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?

Job relents: I have uttered what I did not understand … things too wonderful for me, which I did not know …

In some of the strongest language of the Bible: Job says: I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. 

In the end, Job’s fortunes are restored … 

God asks Job to pray for his friends,  who didn’t speak right about God … they were quick to shake a finger in Job’s face, and ever so slow to show compassion.

God tells the friends to apologize to Job for their religious blabber, their pious nonsense … Job will pray for you, says God, and I will accept Job’s prayer, in spite of your grievous errors.

The friends go to Job and apologize; Job prays for them … and the LORD accepts Job’s prayer.

What a story! With one huge question: why do good people suffer? There’s no final answer here … like the high mountains of the earth, reality is shrouded in clouds … like the deepest seas, life is a dark mystery.

But from the Book of Job, several things come to my attention:

First of all, Goodness and decency are their own reward … they’re never a waste of time or purpose. 

I hold it true, whate’er befall,
       I feel it, when I sorrow most;
       ‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

What we do, and how we live is finally a matter of integrity - is it right? is it good, to love, to pray, to be kind and compassionate? … to seek justice for others … to ease the suffering of pain of our world?

And why would we live this way? Financial gain? Prestige and popularity? Walk the Red Carpet, drive a fast car?

We follow Christ, neither for gain nor power, but for the love of God:

He prayeth best, who loveth best 

All things both great and small; 

For the dear God who loveth us, 

He made and loveth all.

The second point: The material nature of life is fragile … all of us in this room are mortal … we don’t think much about it, or we try not to, but we all know the final outcome.

The last time I checked, the mortality rate was still 100 percent. In knowing the “way of all flesh,” we learn some of the greatest lessons of life: humility, honesty, and hope. 

We learn to appreciate what we have, when we have it … and perhaps like Paul, we learn to live with less … Paul writes: I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

A third dimension, that of Friendship: When a friend is suffering, don’t offer pious nonsense, a wagging finger, self-assured truisms … when a friend is in need, stand with them, sit with them, weep with them, and learn to keep our tongue. They need our presence, our touch, but they don’t need our preachments. And neither does God!

One last element: the spirit of complaint … 

We have to get things off our chest now and again … words spoken can be a great relief to the troubled soul, but words spoken in complaint can also loop back to amplify the complaint … 

The prophets complain and so does Jesus … John Calvin, our Presbyterian forebear, complains …they all see what could be … they push to reach for it … their complaints are driven by justice and love.

The great social prophets of our world - Dorothy Day … the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. … James Baldwin … John Steinbeck … Maya Angelou - all complain, and do something about it.

Complaint is a powerful tool in the hands of faith … but all by itself, complaint can become the spirit of complaint … 

No longer driven by ideals, but driven by smaller instincts … petty gripes, selfish instincts - me first, above all else.

Once the dark road of complaint is taken, it’s tough to turn around …

At the heart of Job’s story, wealth, health, comfort, and possessions … 

Was Jesus getting at this with the man who asked … What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus says, I’m sure you know the commandments … 

Yes, I know them, the man replies, and I’ve kept them since my youth.

Jesus looks at him, and the Bible says, Jesus loved him.

With love, Jesus says to him: You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me.

What was taken from Job in a heartbeat, Jesus tells the man to give up voluntarily … 

The man is shocked … he goes away grieving, for he had many possessions, says the Bible. 

The Bible doesn’t finish the story … it’s up to us … 

To manage our aspirations and dreams … keep our balance … weep with those who weep … pay attention to good people … give thanks for those who love us … seek the forgiveness of those we’ve harmed … laugh at ourselves a lot … pray honestly … and always remember: 

To God I belong for as long as it takes.

Neither trial nor tribulation 

Can undo what God makes.

In life and in death.

For now and forever …

In the darkest valley, or on the raging sea,

To God I belong … 

For God leadeth me. 

Amen and Amen!