Playing the Game...

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

Proper 20C

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

Ludwig's Corner, PA

18 September 2016

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

As you all may or may not know, we have a three-year lectionary that we follow as Episcopalians.  The point of the lectionary is to ensure that within a three-year cycle, we hear as much of the breadth and scope of salvation history as possible.  An unintentional benefit of the lectionary is that you are protected from the agenda of the preacher.  The preacher has to submit to the word as it is scheduled in the lectionary regardless of whether or not it is on her or his top 25 favorite passages for preaching list.  The lectionary stretches the imagination of the preacher…and that’s a good thing.

But you know what amazes me the most about the lectionary?  That it is always timely.  Certainly there are Sundays where I ask God, “How in the world does this relate to where we are as a parish? What is the good news for your people through these lessons?”  And there are times where it is more difficult to discern how God might speak to the contemporary gathering through the ancient texts.  But, more often than not, I’m amazed that the timing is just right.  So right that it must be God at work.

This Sunday happens to be one of those Sundays where I’m like, “Okay, God; I see you.”  You see, our Joyful Giving Committee planned to make announcements in both services about a wonderful way of going about this year’s pledge and stewardship campaign.  Little did we know, that this same Sunday where we would announce the campaign, that the Gospel reading would be the perfect lens through which to understand stewardship.  Joyful Giving committee, you have God, the church, and the lectionary to thank for such a profound lens into the work you are doing. 

In the Gospel for today Jesus tells a story about a very rich man who had a manager whose charge it was to manage his wealth.  It so happened that the manager didn’t do a very good job in managing the wealth.  As a matter of fact, he had been caught red handed mismanaging his master’s wealth.  So the manager calls him into his office and says, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.'  At the news of his imminent termination as manager of his master’s wealth, he has a “come to Jesus moment” with himself, if you will.  Oh know…what will I do now?  I am not strong enough to dig…I’m too proud to beg.  I know what I will do …

And so he did.  He summoned each one of his master’s debtors, one by one, and cut deals with them.  To one he said, “How much do you owe?”  “100 jugs of olive oil,” the man replied.  “Take your bill and make it fifty!”  To another… “How much do you owe?” “100 containers of wheat.”  “Take your bill and make it 80.”  And so forth. 

When his master heard about what he had done, the master found himself quite impressed with the shrewdness of this manager and commended him. 

What an odd story for Jesus to tell his disciples, right?  I can see them now…their wheels are turning…why did our Lord and Master just tell us a story about a master commending his dishonest manager for his shrewd strategy for the sake of self-interest?  Not the story we normally hear from him…where’s he going with this anyway? 

Well, he’s making one point and one point only.  “The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light in dealing with theirs.” 

Much has been made of this story, but the simple point Jesus is attempting to get across is that those who belong to this present age know it well.  They know that to win the game, you must play the game.  The manager played the game and he played it well.  In a society where reciprocity was essential currency in the market of exchange, he played his cards well, winning for himself, friends who would be indebted to him in the very near future when he would need friends as much as ever. 

We all know what it means to play the game, don’t we?  There aren’t many places in the world where playing the game isn’t at least somewhat necessary.   Jesus gets that.  And that’s why he tells this story.  You are very good at playing the games you’ve been taught to play, Jesus says.  But I have news for you, just like every other game, so too, there will be a time when these games are over.  I have come to bring in a new age and a new way.  And I invite you to learn the ways of this new world even more than you’ve learned how to play the games of the age that is passing away. 

The children of this age know more about this fleeting world than the children of light know about the everlasting age to come.  We heard the story of the way wealth is managed in this world – largely for self-interest.  Now Jesus invites us to learn how to be managers of another master’s wealth.  And this master is God, the creator and redeemer of the earth.  The master in the parable may seem rich, but he is a pauper next to the creator of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We’ve learned the ways of this world well, and we are commended for it.  We’ve played the game for self-gain…   But what if…what if we used our time, energy, talents, and resources to know the new world that Christ has inaugurated well, and to live in that world which is much more than a game will end, but a world that will never pass away; what if we endeavored to know and live this new way of being human in the world with the same energy that we use to play the games that we play in the world that is passing away?

Now that is the question of true stewardship.

And it is a question that is impossible to fully answer, because the new age that Jesus has inaugurated is so vast that we could never begin to fully understand it.  But the most faithful among us are those who accept Jesus challenge to live in the spirit’s power and give their life’s energy to understanding and living this new way of being in the world. 

You know, I think I know where we begin to make sense of knowing and living this new world.  We see it every time we gather here for worship.  Just after we confess our sins, receive God’s forgiveness and mercy and exchange the Peace of Christ with one another, we then participate in something that we call the oblations.  Oblations are the offering of the people of God as a response of overwhelming gratitude for the gifts that God has given to us.  The oblation bearers represent all of us as they bring forward the bread and the wine.  This act of offering hearkens back to the Old Testament when God’s people would bring in the first fruits of their crops and joyfully offer it to God with the sentiment, “God has supplied all our needs.  Therefore, we offer to God these first fruits trusting in faith that there will be seconds and thirds and fourths and so forth.” 

This is the logic of the new world.  Jesus came among us as one who came to serve rather than being served.  He came and revealed the essence of God’s life to us as he poured himself out for the well-being of all.  This is the very heart of who God is – The Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit eternally emptying the self and receiving the fullness of the other.  And each time we gather here for the Holy Eucharist, we witness this essence of God’s life…of God pouring out his love and his life for the sake of us who stand in need of his redeeming love.  And once we have received such abundance, we cannot help but to join in the triune dance of emptying the self and receiving the fullness of the other. 

So we bring an offering of thanksgiving in response to God’s offering of Himself for us. That offering is then accepted by God who transforms that offering into communion with God’s very life.  And through that communion, we are transformed more and more to be representatives of the new age that Christ has come to inaugurate in and for the sake of the world that is passing away. 

This logic of the Eucharist is meant to be the logic of our lives.  To be in touch with this way in the world is to be children of light who understand their generation.  And Christ invites us to understand this new world even more than the children of this age understand their world. 

As we begin our joyful giving campaign for this year, my prayer is that we will do much more than check a box, much more even than increasing a pledge, but becoming true stewards of our master’s creation.   May we receive all of life and all of life’s blessings with gratitude, realizing that it is not ours, that we did not earn it, but it is gift from God.  And may we have a lose grip of all that we “have” and open our hands to offer our gifts back to God as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the welfare of the whole church and the whole world. Amen.  

Unexpected Role Models

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church 

Ludwig's Corner, PA

Proper 19C

18 September 2016

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Last week Jesus had some challenging words for the crowds that followed him as he headed towards Jerusalem.  He warned the crowd that following him is costly.  Discipleship is costly.  If you will follow behind Jesus, your loyalty must be unwavering, you must take up your cross and be ready to bear it daily, and you must have a loose grip on all your possessions, as this journey to Jerusalem is about forsaking all else for the sake of the mission that lies ahead of Jesus which is nothing less than the giving his life for the salvation of all. 

The lectionary for last week didn’t include the last couple of verses in Luke 14 that comes just before the start of Luke 15 – today’s Gospel lesson.  But in those last couple of verses, Jesus concluded his call to the crowds with these words:

‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

Most of the time, the parables in Luke 15 are proclaimed on their own, but Luke 15 follows Luke 14 for a reason. As a matter of fact, one of the most important things you can do when you’re interpreting Scripture is to be aware of what we might call the co-text…what comes immediately before and after the passage you’re studying.  The author or editor put these two back to back for a reason.  Another thing to be aware of is repetition of words and phrases. 

Last week’s story ended with ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’  Today’s Gospel begins with “all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to “listen” to Jesus.

Who might we expect to respond positively to Jesus’ call to discipleship? 

You might expect that the next line would say that as a response to Jesus’ challenging words, “His disciples were coming near to him to listen to him…” or maybe “the Pharisees, scribes and elders were coming near to listen him…the religious elite!  But no, the ones who were coming near to listen are those despised by the religious elite – the outcasts of society – those who have been relegated to the margins.

This is a common theme in Luke’s gospel.  Jesus is turning the world upside down – no – back right-side up. The mighty are being cast down from their thrones, and the lowly are being raised up.  We all have our idea of who the model disciple might be…when we imagine who they might be, we likely have people in mind that look a lot like we do.  That’s likely what the Pharisees and even Jesus’ disciples might have had in mind…

What we find in Luke’s Gospel is that those who are revealed to be model disciples are usually the least likely – those who are marginalized.  They have been stereotyped as bad people…I can’t help but to be reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan.  No one in Jesus’ context would have expected a despised Samaritan to be the model neighbor who demonstrates what a life that has inherited eternal life looks like in this world.

These kinds of stereotypes are easily created.  A few people start calling all Muslims terrorists, and even the women and children refugees begin to be despised and rejected.  Fear is the catalyst for many actions contrary to the ethos of God’s kingdom; and exclusion in the form of racism, sexism, classism, and so many other isms are right at the top of the list.  I imagine that in our own day, it might be Syrians, or those who live in Iraq, Palestine, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan who might be understood the way ‘tax collectors and sinners’ were understood in Luke’s day.  Those who have been stereotyped to be bad people…people who we couldn’t possibly imagine to be model disciples who reveal the life of God through their own faithful lives. 

But you know, it is those who know they have deep needs…who recognize they need God’s mercy – those are the ones who become model disciples.  It is not who gives the most, who does the most good, who attends worship the most, who has met the most bishops, who serves on the most committees or diocesan councils, or even those who pray the most (all of these are great things and can and usually are a response to God’s grace in our lives), but true discipleship is first and foremost about dependence upon the forgiveness and mercy God offers…true discipleship comes from an acknowledgement that I am the least…I have failed…I am a sinner and my only hope comes from God’s gracious and merciful activity on my behalf. 

The Epistle lesson for today hits the nail on the head.  Of all people, it would be safe to say most all of us would think of St. Paul if asked who comes to mind when you think of holy men and women.  But listen to how Paul describes himself in relation to God and others:

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.  

This is what true discipleship is all about.  Those who still come near and listen to Jesus after such a difficult call to discipleship are those who realize their need.  Now, the truth is that every human being on earth stands in need of God’s grace.  Every second, every moment…there is not a moment in our lives when God’s grace is not needed.

That’s why God became our human brother in and through Jesus of Nazareth…He came to tell the world – most especially those stereotyped, despised, and marginalized, that God welcomes you, God’s grace is abundant, and God wants to welcome you into fellowship in his abundant, triune life of love!  That’s the point of the parables that follow.  After all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to listen to Jesus, the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled and said, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!"

Them – That’s a word that is hardly a kingdom of God word!  Jesus came to abolish the us vs. them and reinstate the us – the people of God that includes all people of all nations, ethnicities, and genders.  None are left out of the scope of God’s redeeming grace! 

In direct response to the “Us vs. Them” created by the religious and social elite Pharisees and Scribes, Jesus shares two parables whose intention is to reveal the heart of God – God’s attitude – towards sinners – those who realize their lives are broken, who know they stand in need of God’s saving grace.

And both stories are stories of something being lost, something being found, and then a great party to celebrate that that which was lost is now found.  The point of both of these stories is that God’s primary concern in the world is to find those who are missing – for whatever reason…maybe because of their own shame due to their sin. Maybe because they’ve been stereotyped and marginalized…it doesn’t matter what they’ve done or why they’re missing, but God knows that his precious children are missing from his fellowship.  And God will not rest until they all are found…until fellowship with God and God’s people is restored!  And when they are found, they are welcomed, reinstated, and joyous festivity is the only possible response. 

`Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' … `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Searching out, finding, welcoming and celebrating those who are not currently at the Holy Table.  That is the mission of every disciple of Jesus Christ.  Never ever do we hear a parable of God’s desire to marginalize, to exclude, to create dichotomy’s.  God has come to seek out, find, and restore. God doesn’t build walls. God tears down the walls that divide and calls a people unified in and through Jesus Christ.  It’s as simple as that. IF our lives are not doing the same, then we are not faithfully living out the call to discipleship. 

The good news is that God’s mercy abounds! Today, may we mimic St. Paul, recognizing, not the sinfulness of others, but the sinfulness of our own lives.  When we realize how much we utterly depend upon God’s grace for salvation – for everything good in life, then we cease to stereotype and marginalize.  No one could be any worse off than myself.  I was lost and I am found.  If I can be found by God’s grace, then anyone can be found by God’s grace…and when they are, whoever they are, my I respond faithfully to the invitation to celebrate and party … because a precious child of God has been restored to fellowship. 

Thanks be to God. Amen. 

Sermon - Proper 18C, September 4, 2016

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Luke 14:25-33

Proper 18C

4 September 2016

“The Gospel in A Fine Print World”

In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Each day we turn on the tv, we are bombarded with ads luring us to sign up for goods and services without considering the cost.  We live in a fine print world.  They make sure to put what we want to hear in bright, flashing large font… Sign up for our credit card.  You too can stroll the streets making purchases galore, toting just as many shopping bags with a big smile on your face and everyone else giving you looks of envy!  Yes, this could be you!  Zero Percent in all caps…no payments necessary for months…life will be good. Don’t worry with the fine print, just sign up already! 

Whether the ad is for a credit card, a television, an automobile, a mobile phone, or even medication, the truth is that the feel good ads are everywhere.  WE cannot escape them.  It’s the way of American advertising. Exaggeration on steroids.  Evidently everyone has the greatest, the best, that magic ingredient that will make everything not just okay, but great beyond measure.  And this is also why just about everything advertised also comes with pages of extremely fine print.  Who wants to get bogged down in the costly truth!?  Just sign up already! 

In the Gospel Lesson for today, large crowds are following Jesus.  He must be a success! They were following him because they were amazed at the signs and wonders he performed in their midst.  Even as a boy, he left scholars in the temple dumbfounded.  He entered towns and encountered people possessed with demons, and just by saying, “Be silent and Come out of him!” the demons came out...  He preached in synagogues and people were utterly astonished at his level of wisdom.  He healed paralyzed people; he cleansed lepers; he healed a man with a withered hand; he raised a widow’s dead son; he calmed the storm;  he fed 5,000 people with no more than five loaves and two fish!  These crowds were mesmerized by Jesus.  They couldn’t help but to follow him and wait with wonder and awe for the next great sign and wonder.

Anyone in our day, where having a following is as important as it ever has been, would measure Jesus as a huge success story.  He was the best thing going … and he had his followers.  What more could he want? 

Yet every sign and wonder was performed not because Jesus came to be the best circus act the world could ever see, but because of what was announced in the beginning of Luke.  He has come to inaugurate a Kingdom.  He has come to turn things upside down, or better yet, back rightside up.  The mighty are being cast down from their thrones and the lowly are being lifted up.  Every sign and wonder that is performed is only for the sake of revealing something of the heart of the new thing God is doing through Jesus Christ. But the crowds only the see the sign and not the deeper reality to which it points and participates.

If the crowds could see the deeper reality, they would understand that this whole divine mission of putting things to right does not come cheaply.  In Luke 9, Jesus foretold his death and resurrection for the first time.  He looked at his disciples and said, “Don’t get blindsided by the popularity.  I haven’t come to put on a show.  Stay focused!  This kingdom is so alternative, so utterly different from the ways of this empire that my fate and any who follow me is death. And it’s through death that God will overcome the sin of the world by raising me from the dead.  Jesus exact words were “‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised…If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

So much for the fine print! Instead of putting popularity, fame, wealth, or well-being in large flashy letters and the cost of following him in fine print, Jesus does the reverse.  He puts the cost of discipleship in the largest most flashy letters he can find.  Following me is risky.  It will demand your very life.  Be sure you’ve considered the cost before committing.  That was Luke 9, and Jesus was speaking to his inner circle of disciples.

Today, in Luke 14, there are large crowds following Jesus. Some assume he’s a great prophet, Some that he is among the wisest of rabbis, and some assume he could be the messiah.  They know what would-be Messiah’s do…they march in to Jerusalem and overthrow Roman authority and set up the kingdom on earth.  They want to be a part of such an establishment.  But they do not understand that God’s kingdom comes not through military prowess or by shrewd manipulation but by humble and self-giving love. 

Jesus senses that the crowd has it all wrong.  He knows he’s marching into a death trap in Jerusalem.  These crowds must know the truth.  He turns around and hushes the jubilant, cheerful crowd.  I’m not going to hide the cost of following me in pages of fine print, I’m going to make it loud and clear.  “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” 

Wow, those are harsh words to hear from the mouth of Jesus.  When I think of Jesus, I think love.  Why would Jesus demand hatred of his followers?  When we hear the word hate, we think of intensely or passionately disliking someone…abhorring someone or something, or to despise someone or something.

But Jesus is not saying, unless you abhor, despise, or passionately dislike your parents, your wife, your children, yourself, you cannot be my disciples.  That’s the contrary of his message of love. The Greek word being used does not carry the intense emotional connotations as our English use of the word hate.  Rather, it is grounded in the idea of the lack of loyalty or unfaithfulness.  Its antithesis is love; love defined as undying loyalty and faithfulness.  Thus Jesus use of the word here is an intentional hyperbole making the point that you cannot follow Jesus into Jerusalem and ride the fence. Your loyalty must be unwaveringly for the cause of God and God’s kingdom.  You cannot put family or anything else above the mission of God in Jesus.  And when it comes down to loyalty to Jesus over your family, which in Jesus world was hatred, then that’s what you’re going to have to be ready to do.

You see, Jesus is not going into Jerusalem to be crowned in the way the crowds may think he is going to be crowned.  The truth of the matter is that life will be hard before it is ever good.  Suffering will come before newness, death before resurrection. And we are not speaking figuratively here. 

 So Jesus says recalls what he said to his disciples in Luke 9: “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

We have trivialized the cross Jesus speaks of here in Luke’s gospel.  Rest assured this cross is not equivalent to whatever hurdles we must overcome in our daily lives.  Here Jesus is speaking of the cross he is literally walking to Jerusalem to bear.  He loves this crowd…he is not here to manipulate the crowd.  He wants them to consider the cost before they continue following behind him.  So he says, “which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, `This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

We don’t have to wonder how many heeded Jesus words that day.  We’ve read the rest of the Gospel.  Even Peter, Jesus’ celebrated disciple, abandoned him.  The cost was simply too much.  Jesus died on a lonely cross between two criminals – one who mocked him, and the other who begged for mercy. 

But the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus’ crucifixion was not the end of his story, and it was not the end of the crowd’s story including Peter and the rest of the apostles.   I’m sure there were some in the crowd that day who looked back towards Jesus and said, “I’ve considered the cost!  I’ll follow you anywhere.”  Which wouldn’t have been too different from Peter’s own claims about discipleship when he looked at Jesus and said, “Even if I must die with you, I will never deny you.”  We all know where Peter was the night Jesus was being led to Golgotha’s cross – warming himself by the fire, denying that he even knew Jesus…then the cock crowed and Peter remembered Jesus foretelling that he would deny him.  Peter went away and wept bitterly. 

But you know one of my favorite passages in all Scripture?  Acts 2. After Jesus’ disciples had been filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, Peter, of all people, was the first to stand up among the 11 and proclaim the good news of Jesus death and resurrection for all to hear.  The one who fearfully denied Jesus now faithfully and boldly proclaims him to the crowds!  And the response of the crowd this time: “Those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

The crowds, this time, devoted themselves to being disciples of Jesus Christ, realizing its cost. 

Today we have heard a tough Gospel.  One of the toughest.  We live in a world where only the positive is lifted up.  Today Jesus has told us up front that the journey is going to be hard.  And we know we are no better than Peter, the rest of the disciples, or anyone else in that crowd that day.  We have and we will be disloyal to our King.  But the good news is that even though, we like Peter and these crowds have abandoned him and will abandon him, He will never give up on us.  Peter became one of the most powerful witnesses to the resurrection in history. 

Just because you may have failed him yesterday, today, or when you do tomorrow, don’t give up.   Jesus will never stop inviting us to follow him.  Now, he will never water the message down just to get us to bite, but his mercy and grace will prove to be sufficient for you just as it was for Peter and for every disciple that has ever followed in the way of Jesus.  It’s not easy stuff – to bring the future alternative kingdom of love into the present!  It will be costly, but God assures us – it will be worth it all.

May we never cheapen God’s grace.  May we consider the cost and commit to serve Christ by witnessing to his life, death, and resurrection in our daily lives.  May God search us, forgive us, and empower us to be bold witnesses to the new thing God has and is doing through His Son Jesus Christ, who died and has risen from the dead, opening the kingdom of God to all who believe in Him. 

Amen.