June 26, 2016 Luke 9:51-62

When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 

And he sent messengers ahead of him. 

On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 

but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 

When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, 

“Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. 

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, 

“I will follow you wherever you go.” 

And Jesus said to him, 

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; 

but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 

To another he said, 

“Follow me.” 

But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 

But Jesus said to him, 

“Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 

Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 

Jesus said to him,

 “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

***

It seems a reasonable request to have a place to lay your head as do foxes and birds. It seems a reasonable request to go and bury you father before setting off. It seems a reasonable request to say farewell to those at your home, before packing up. But there is nothing reasonable about Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem. There is nothing reasonable about Jesus being taken up. We do not have a reasonable Lord; we have Lord of justice, grace and immediacy. Therefore, whatever we want to do, no matter how reasonable, cannot stall Jesus heading toward Jerusalem, his face is already set, and I thank God.

Because there are times where justice can not wait. There are times where to stall is to be left out. There are times, that if you are not with them, you against them. This scripture is one of those times. 

Already in the gospel of Luke, Jesus has been born to Mary, baptized by John, tempted by Satan, called James and John, healed the paralytic, confronted the pharisees, healed on the Sabbath, called the twelve, blessed the poor, raised the widow’s son, welcomed the woman washing his feet with her tears, told the parable about the sower, and healed Jairus’ daughter, and much, much more. There has been a time to rest your head, there has been a time to bury your father, there has been a time to say goodbye to your loved ones, but this is the time where you must just go. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. He is about to feed 5,000 and then send out the twelve, saying, “Take up your cross.” Then he will send out the seventy-two and teach who is our neighbor using the parable of the Good Samaritan. He will pray, “Father, your kingdom come.” He will tell them, “Seek and you will find,” and proclaim, “Woe to you Pharisees!” He will say, "Even the hairs of your head are numbered. Sell your possessions. Be ready for the Son of Man. I came to bring division.” He will say, "Repent or you will perish." He will again heal a woman on the Sabbath. He will tell them, "Seek the narrow door. I must go on to Jerusalem.” His face it set. 

As he goes, he will tell them, “Choose the lowest place. To be my disciple you must carry your cross.” He will turn over the tables by telling them the story of the Prodigal Son, and the rich giving away their wealth. He will heal ten lepers and proclaim,”In his day the Son of Man will light up the sky.” He will give them parables about prayer and tell a rich man to sell everything, but he will assure them, “The Son of Man will be killed but he will rise” Jesus will eat with Zacchaeus and tell a parable about servants in the kingdom. and then, he will ride into Jerusalem on a colt. 

In Jerusalem the plot will quicken even more; the elders will question Jesus' authority, they will ask about taxes and the resurrection and Jesus will say, “The temple will be thrown down. Jerusalem will be trampled. The Son of Man will come in glory. Stay awake at all times.” Then Jesus will take Passover with the disciples. He will pray at the Mount of Olives. Judas will betray him to the chief priests. Peter will deny him. Jesus will be taken to Pilate. The crowd will say, "Crucify him!" And he will be alongside two criminals. Darkness will fall and he will breathe his last. For this he has set his face, knowing, in that same place, the women will find the tomb empty and Jesus will meet the two on the road to Emeaus's and he will appear to the disciples and open the Scriptures to them. 

We have a Lord of grace, a Lord of justice, and a Lord of immediacy. He doesn’t wait, thank God. Because sometimes, justice cannot wait, and grace is needed now. While it is reasonable to want a place to lay your head, how long shall we wait until all of creation has a place like the nests of birds, and the holes of foxes? How long shall people sleep on the street, and beavers’ dens be destroyed along with our riverbeds? How long will the poor always be with us? How long will we feed Backpacks and breakfasts to children? How long will we need a homeless coordinator for our schools and children sleep in the library parking lot and under bridges on the Leo Adler Parkway, or on couches and floors abandoned to Meth nearby? How long will Baker City send indigent along with a bus ticket and no sustainable help? For what will we set our face to Jerusalem? While it is reasonable to want to bury our loved ones, how long shall we wait until we can proclaim death is no more? How long until we have a cure for cancer; how long until we or someone in our families is not affected by addition, how long until the darkness of depression and mental illness will clear like the fog lifted on the road to Emmaus? For what will we set our face to Jerusalem? It is reasonable to want to go and say farewell to our loved ones back at home, but how long will we wait to plow for the kingdom of God? How long will we stay in an occupation which is not our calling? How long will we nurture friendships and family who neither see us as a child of God, nor desire a higher calling for themselves? How long will we keep our secrets and their underlying shame before we come to the feet of Christ to know his grace? How long will we hold on to definitions that deplete us rather than those which give us strength to plow the field for the kingdom of God? For what will we set our face to Jerusalem? What most reasonable request will not be reasonable enough for who he has called us to be right now? Whether we go or not, these things will come to pass. We have a Lord of justice, grace and immediacy, but the question is, what is holding us back, because the invitation is there. Amen.

June 19, 2016 Luke 8.26-39

Luke 8.26-39
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him.
For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, the man fell down before Jesus and shouted at the top of his voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I beg you, do not torment me”
— for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
(For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles,
but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.)

Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.
The demons begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding;
and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these swine.
So Jesus gave them permission.
Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine,
and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
When the swineherds saw what had happened,
they ran off and told it in the city and in the country.

Then people came out to see what had happened,
and when they came to Jesus,
they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
Those who had seen it told them
how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed.
Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes
asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.
So he got into the boat and returned.

The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with Jesus;
but Jesus sent him away, saying,
“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”
So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

***
I can’t decide if I would have liked to have grown up here. There is something really alluring when you nostalgically talk about how long you’ve known people, remembering the day you met in sixth grade, or someone’s energy in your square dance club decades ago, or old Baker families whose names are on signs, and creeks, and mountains, or the history of the church with its linage and fading connections infrequently reinforced on Christmas and Easter. You reflect on the small ways things have changed - like the downtown, or the Interpretive Center, or the Leo Alder Parkway, but mostly stayed the same, the Kerns Family’s property, the first Saturday in March Harrell Bull Sale, or Anthony Lakes’ - Same As It Ever Was, and those backroads that I am still piecing together but you know like the back of your hardworking hands. There are times, I wish I was a part of this history, because to be so would mean I’d feel truly included and could call it home forever. This place and its people, like that of the Gerasenes. I don't imagine it much different.
Here we know Warren by his first name and outlandish dress but he’s kept by the town, at least at an arm’s distance, and I suppose the man with demons was like this, but an extreme case, kept by the town, “under guard and bound with chains and shackles, until he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.” The possessed man was like the mentally ill, or the addict, where in a small town you know their name and their pattern and never expect any different. Its where the newspaper reports the latest misdemeanor, and people take note and never seem to toss that note to the wind. It is the part I am thankful for not having grown up here. I have watched people be defined by what they were like in high-school or by one grave thing they did once to someone, or to you. At my high-school I was pretty quiet, the daughter of the librarian surrounded by wealthy rich kids, who were arrogant and privileged to my self-consciousness and strictly middle-class upbringing. With my other friends, I was loud and silly, the Katy you know, but they went to the public school and were wrapped up in their football and dance-team in a way I wasn’t included into. I am thankful that neither the girl who didn’t talk to anyone and felt stupid at private school, nor the girl who didn’t fit in with the Texas football hoopla, doesn’t precede me here. Sometimes too, I think about what if I married my high-school sweetheart like people here, oh Gosh, I would be married to Matt Padron, who was a the cliche of a Texas football player, lack of intellect included. Thank God, I am not that Katy still and that you didn’t grow up with me to remember how we dated in high-school and who that means I must be now.
The man with demons’ reputation precedes him in this Gerasene town. He is the crazy one, physically, with his shouting voice, mentally incoherent, and frequently goes off into the wilds. People are scared when they find him quiet and sitting at Jesus’ feet. Something equally unnerving must have taken place. What power does Jesus have to change this man from who(m) he was? What power does Jesus have to change people from who we have always known them to be to who perhaps they might be today? The people are scared. What if everyone you knew from high-school, from those old church histories, from the stories of old ranching or Oregon Trail families, changed into something different? What if all the names of the places you knew and their signs became names that instead described God’s creation in this valley, rather than the humans who tamed it? How lost would you be? What if you looked toward the mountains and saw not whose was whose but you couldn’t tell because it had been all shuffled? This is what has happened to the man and the people are scared. You wouldn’t feel more comfortable if everything changed even if it became more peaceful and neither do the Garesenes so they ask Jesus to leave.
And this is the part I really feel for (besides the pigs off the cliff but that is a different sermon). Here is the man, completely changed, the epitome the definition of all that is different and healed and he begs to go along with Jesus. Jesus has made his life clear, he can think straight, he is in control of his body, he can interact with people. I don’t he knows what to do besides follow the one who created all that change. I imagine he is scared too but also supremely thankful. Maybe he wants to follow in gratitude, he truly owes his life to Jesus. If someone changed your life this drastically would you not want to follow them around rather than remain in the place where you had always been, with the people who will always remember you as you were before?
But Jesus doesn’t just heal one person, Jesus’ healing is always a healing to community, so he says to the man formerly possessed by demons, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So the man who owe to his life to Jesus commits it so. So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
This healing was not only for himself but for the community. It was healing that asks each person who sees the man, hears the man, encounters the man, to give up what they knew before. They have to give up that one story of that one time on the softball field, that story of that one time in a meeting, that one time when they made a comment at the gym, that one time at church, that bunch of times in high-school, or heaven forbid middle-school, those times that person’s name was in the paper for going off the rails, or that story they heard of the person running off to the wilds. That person has sat calmly at Jesus feet and is now sitting next to you, standing before you, and perhaps, is you. They are different then they ever were before, its scary to trust them again, to open your heart to what they have to share, but these are the people proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus has done for them. Listen and be healed. These are the places within yourself that have changed into something different, go out into this town proclaiming how much Jesus has done for you. Me, I don’t live in Texas anymore, thank God, but maybe you’ll let me call this home, because I too belong in this place, proclaiming all God has done for me.

June 5, 2016 Luke 7.11-17

Soon afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain, 

and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 

As he approached the gate of the town, 

a man who had died was being carried out. 

He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; 

and with her was a large crowd from the town. 

When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, 

“Do not weep.” 

Then he came forward and touched the bier, or coffin, and the bearers stood still. 

And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” 

The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 

Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, 

“A great prophet has risen among us!” 

and “God has looked favorably on his people!” 

This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

***

I tried to imagine two crowds, one of disciples and followers and the other of funeral procession mourners coming together at the narrow gate of the town, Nain. I imagined the mix of emotion sorting and blending through that gate. Would the followers become solemn, would the mourners become lighter? What might have been the feeling in that narrow passageway and how does that feeling tell us about this text?

I tried to imagine it, but Deb Trapp had seen it. In grad school she worshiped at a church which shared the same large city block. One particular Saturday the church had two funerals, one at eleven, the other at one, and the football started in-between. Deb was helping with arrangements for the first funeral and felt the buzz around downtown with parishioners hoping the funeral would get out in time to catch the bus to the game. There was a way that the exuberance of the oncoming game was creeping into present funeral, and I wonder if these two Biblical crowds were much different.

I imagine the hired mourners and the pall bearers all dressed regally with their slow deliberate procession toward the burial site. I imagine the routine of it, and for the mother and those who knew her, and her son, I imagine the grief of it. I imagine Jesus’ followers in a mostly true wandering along in he clothes they were wearing when they met Jesus. I imagine and their excitement and hope as like rooting for a team. It is hard to imagine how those mix. What do you wear to funeral that you can also wear to football game? What fight song mixes with Amazing Grace? The closest I can imagine is how we sing the Star Spangled Banner and then yell, “Play Ball!” I think Jesus wanted everyone to play ball. 

When the Lord saw the woman, he had compassion for her and said to her, 

“Do not weep.” Then he came forward and touched the bier, or coffin, and the bearers stood still, as if their funeral procession had walked right on the field without knowing it and Jesus ball in hand was watching the coin toss and calling it, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” He picked heads and it was heads. The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, because funerals and game day don’t mix. The Hail Mary Pass is just supposed to get the ball into the end zone, not raise the dead. These are two very things and to compare them is almost insult to those who suffer and those grieve. But I think with Jesus what we have to do is to compare them, because with Jesus nothing is outside the realm of possibility. There will be great upsets, there will be unexpected miracles, and common people will do extraordinary things. I think this is part of why we Americans love and watch sports, because in them lie great stories, stories which give us hope for something different than common. But here too, in this little play book of the Bible, are also great stories, of overcoming the odds, of the little guy coming out on top, or the unexpected winning, of hard work and perseverance and achievement, and perhaps like this mother and her son, being in the exact right place at the right time, all squished in at the nave of the town gate, the mourners and the followers. 

What I love about this game, and the best games in the New Testament, is that everyone goes home having won. Even people like Zaccheaus, who is so short he has to climb a tree just to see Jesus, goes home having won the chance to host Jesus. Even the woman who is about to be stoned for being caught in the act of adultery goes home having won her life and her persecutors having won their dignity by not having to stone her. With the workers who are all paid the same wage at the end of the day of various work, they have each won. With the prodigal son, if the other son can accept the grace, the whole family has a chance of winning. Can you tell I am a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, I was taught from a young age, before they won anything significant, to always root for the underdog, and especially against the Yankees.  And I think Jesus does the same. Here they all go home telling the same story, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country. 

So today, I invite you to try to find the overarching narrative where the unexpected, the underdog, the miracle is alive, where Jesus is at work. Who will cross that field at graduation that you never expected? Who will see justice that you thought would never be brought to light? Who will reconcile when reconciliation seemed impossible? What did you think had died that might be coming alive again? Our music ministry, our youth program, a friendship? Where will healing take place? Where will a funeral feel like game day?