Year C, Pentecost 20, Psalm 113, Amos 8.4-7, Luke 16.1-13

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

The LORD makes the woman of a childless house to be a joyful mother of children. Hallelujah!

Sometimes God’s grace comes to us in very concrete ways.

I remember a member of my congregation in Thompson Falls citing this verse as her hope.  God hears the cries of a barren woman, and makes her the mother of children.

They ended up adopting their two children through Lutheran Community Services.

Karla’s brother and sister adopted our niece. 

Our neighbors and friends in Sandpoint adopted a son.

A colleague in ministry adopted a daughter from China.

For them, grace was a bundle of joy, a baby, perhaps an older child, but one to call their own and to love and care for.

What made adoption so special for them from a spiritual perspective was the experience of receiving from the Lord’s hand that which they could not conceive of on their own.

Grace.

Of course there is also great joy when we give birth to a child.

The delight is in the gift of a child, not in the means of delivery.

In Biblical times it was about blessings and curses.

God’s blessing was experienced in abundant crops, productive herds, and many children.

God’s curse was experienced when crops failed, herds of animals did not thrive, and when women were barren.

From Sarah onward, the scripture tells the story of one woman after another that was barren, yet by God’s grace, became the mother of children.

And in each case there is great joy.

Joy because of the gift of the child.

And joy because the curse has been lifted.

Mary’s song, the Magnificat, becomes the song of every mother:

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

This is part of a larger theme that runs through the scripture, namely, that God has a deep concern for the plight of the lowly, the poor, the outcast. 

Mary’s song goes on to say:

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

It is the concern for the poor that is the focus of Amos’ words from our first lesson:

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,  .  .  . buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Think about this for a moment.

We worship a God who is concerned about a childless mother, and a motherless child.

We worship a God who champions the cause of the poor and the outcast.

The God who called into being the entire universe, cares for the least of these, his children.

That’s grace.

We live in contentious times.

One of my observations is that whenever we seriously consider the implications of a Biblical faith for our daily lives, there are those who say we are getting “too political”.

But this is the thing:

God cares about the barren mother, and the motherless child.

God cares about the poor.

God cares about the outcast.

God cares about sinners.

God cares about refugees and immigrants, otherwise why would God say: “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”?  (Leviticus 19:4)

So here is a question for you.

Are caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, lifting up the lowly, healing the sick, matters of faith?  Or politics?

And which comes first?

Does our faith shape our politics?

Or do our political convictions shape our faith?

That matters.  It says something about who is truly our God.

Jesus says:

“No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Is wealth a bad thing, then??

Well, if we are honest, wealth can be either a blessing or a curse.

In the Bible, wealth is often associated with God’s blessing, for example, when God blessed Jacob with much wealth.

But the accumulation of wealth is also seen as a great evil, for it so often comes at the expense of the poor.

One question to ask ourselves is whether our wealth is used to serve God and our neighbor?  Or do we use our wealth and power to oppress and subdue others?

God is in the business of lifting up the downtrodden.

And we are in the business of doing God’s bidding in the world.

That’s our calling.

To be God’s hands and feet in the world.

To do his work.

One of the most compelling and troubling things for me, is the realization that people will learn more about the God we worship by observing our actions, than by listening to our words.

Is our God a loving and compassionate God?

Well, do we act in loving and compassionate ways?

If we truly believe that God is loving and compassionate, then our own actions should bear witness to that.

There’s another side to these matters.

It’s not just about what we should do for others, it is also about what God has already done for us.

We are to love, because God first loved us.

We are to care for the poor, because God has first cared for our needs.

We are to feed the hungry, as we have first been fed.

We are to lift up the lowly, as we have first been lifted up.

We are to welcome the stranger, as we ourselves have been welcomed.

Day to day stuff.

We have been blessed so that we can be a blessing.

And therein lays the single most important question for each of us as we live out our faith.

How can I be a blessing to others, as I have been blessed?

I have been forgiven, can I be forgiving?

I have been fed, can I do the feeding?

I have been welcomed into this community, can I in turn welcome the stranger?

I have been loved, can I love others?

Can I be an ambassador of God, offering to others what I first have received from God?

This is not always easy.

On Tuesday, during our study, a man came into the church and requested money for gas and food.  And his primary concern seemed to be money for gas.

What I’ve learned over the course of my ministry is that we should never give out cash as that often enables drug addiction and other problems.

And so Tuesday, I didn’t give him any money, but rather offered him some of the food we had collected for the food bank.  He took a can of stew.

This is where we need to be shrewd.  What is wise?  What is truly helpful?

Caring for the poor is one thing, but enabling drug addiction by giving out cash is another.  That’s the struggle.

But the fact that offering assistance in a helpful way can be challenging is not an excuse for not trying to begin with.

And perhaps we have to allow for the fact that our assistance will be abused by some, in order for that same charity to get to those who really need it.

There is another side to this.  My colleagues and I were talking about the soup kitchen at All Saints Lutheran, and the criticism they’ve received that they are just feeding drug addicts and enabling their addiction.  Our response was that the reason we feed even drug addicts, is that a dead drug addict can never be cured.

That’s why we are to show mercy in all our charitable work.  Because that mercy may one day save that person.  And that is the work of God.  To save the lost.

It’s who God is.

Amen

Year C, Pentecost 8, Luke 12:13-21, Now you have it, now you don’t

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

Money can’t buy you happiness, but it beats poverty.

A pastor friend of mine and I were talking to each other about his daughter and my sister’s college friend.

This friend was from a very wealthy family.

They were rich enough that she and her mother would go cruising every summer, simply going from one ship to another all summer long.

Not only that, but they’d bring one of the girls friends along as a “personal secretary”, an opportunity that both my sister and this pastor’s daughter had enjoyed.

That afternoon, Darryl and I were talking about this and we remarked that money doesn’t buy you happiness, and we really wouldn’t want to be all that rich, and so on and so forth.

Then Darryl turned to me and said, “But if we are honest, we may say we don’t want to be rich, but in truth, we’d all like to give it a try for a while.”

Today’s lessons are not the most uplifting passages of scripture.

Quite frankly, if someone spoke like this today we might put them on an antidepressant. 

And the scripture passages are fairly negative toward wealth.

From Ecclesiastes:

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me—and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

Then in Psalm 49 we read:

For we see that the wise die also; like the dull and stupid they perish and leave their wealth to those who come after them. Their graves shall be their homes forever, their dwelling places from generation to generation, though they had named lands after themselves.

In Colossians we are warned to “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.”

And finally, in the Gospel we hear the parable of the rich man who built larger barns to store his great wealth, only to die an untimely death:

“And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

When we read the Bible, there are two contrasting messages regarding wealth.

In the Old Testament, wealth was considered a sign of God’s special blessing. 

There were three signs that God’s favor was shining down upon you.  First, if you had plenty of children.  Second, if your flocks flourished.  And thirdly, if the crops were bountiful.

And all three of these things were the measure of one’s wealth, and God’s favor.

But then when we turn to the prophetic writings, and the New Testament, all of a sudden there are all sorts of warnings and judgments rendered regarding wealth.

Greed is idolatry. 

Greed is to desire more of something than you need.

Karla and I are at the point in our lives that we are thinking about retirement and the future.

The number one question that almost everyone asks as they approach their retirement years is what???

Have we saved enough to be financially secure throughout the remainder of our lives?

We want to have enough money so that we can be confident that we will never run out, no matter how long we live. 

The thing is, though, that there is a fine line between “wanting enough so that you’ll never run out” and “desiring more that you need”.  Right?

Desiring more than you need is greed and idolatry.

Wanting enough so that you don’t run out is considered being responsible. 

Again, it’s a fine line between the two.

In Timothy Paul writes:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

And then in Hebrews it is written:

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you."

These two verses get to the heart of the matter.

What really is at stake is a matter of faith.

To put our trust in money and to seek security from the balance in our bank account is to turn away from faith in God and the security only God offers.

Be content with what you have, for "I will never leave you or forsake you."

Be content with what you have, for "I will never leave you or forsake you."

I can say all this, but I remain concerned about the future.

I would like to build larger barns, as the man in Jesus’ parable did.

I’d like to feel secure.

That’s the bottom line for me.

I’d like to feel secure.

One of the things I grieve as time passes by is the loss of a collective memory of our history.

Specifically, my parents and grandparents lived through and remembered the Great Depression.

The collective memory of them was “we may not have had much during that time, but we had enough”.  “There was always love, and food on the table.”

Do we have faith in God, sufficient to feel secure, trusting only in him even when our own resources might fail us?

That, you see, is the issue with money.

It will one day fail us.

This happens in two ways.

First, one thing we know, if we pay attention, is that the economic prosperity we are currently enjoying will one day give way to a recession.  It’s an inevitable part of the economic cycle.

One of the things I am humored by is the way politicians like to take credit for a good economy and blame others for a bad economy. 

My belief is that the economy will have its ups and downs regardless who is in charge and it’s all just a matter of time.

And so today, I might have plenty in my retirement account, but who knows what I’ll have tomorrow.  Easy come, easy go.

Take my house, for example.  By some estimates it has appreciated by about 40% in the 7 years I’ve owned it.  That’s real good.

But the housing market could collapse tomorrow, and its value could tank.

But you know what?  It’s still the same house.

Back to the point:  Investments fail us at times because of the ups and downs of the market, and the risks inherent in them. 

Jesus could have made the point that the rich man who built larger barns could have woken up the next morning to a devastating fire and lost everything.  Many have.

But the point Jesus does make, is that no matter how much we have in this life, we leave this world the same way we enter it, naked and without a penny to our name. 

When we look toward our own deaths and our security then, no amount of money will help us. 

“So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Underlying this is what I believe is the most profound question of faith.

Faith is to trust in someone else.  Not ourselves.

We live so much of our lives trusting only in ourselves that sometimes it is a challenge to trust someone else.

I really learned this lesson when I had heart surgery.

I couldn’t help myself.

I couldn’t do anything.

I simply had to trust, first of all, in the medical team to care for me, and most importantly to trust in God that whatever happened I’d be ok.

But in that moment I was out of control.  I needed to trust another.

Remember the story of manna in the wilderness?

That was one of the most important lessons God tried to teach the people during that time.

If you remember they were instructed to gather only as much as they needed for that day.  If they gathered more, it would rot.

What God wanted them to learn was that he would take care of them tomorrow, just as he had today.

That’s the faith question.

God has provided me with what I needed every day of my life, thus far, can I trust in him to continue to provide for me in the future?

Faith.

To have faith is to believe God when he says "I will never leave you or forsake you."

Amen

Year B, Pentecost 10, John 6.1-21, Abundant Grace

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

One of the things Martin Luther taught us is how to pray.  In his catechism the following prayers are suggested:

Luther writes:

The children and servants should present themselves before the table with folded hands and good manners and say:

The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and gratify everything that lives with satisfaction.^2 3

Then they should say the Lord’s Prayer and the following prayer:

Lord God, heavenly Father, bless us and these gifts you have given us, which we enjoy from your bountiful goodness, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Prayer of Thanks⁴

So too after the meal they should likewise fold their hands and politely say:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is kind and his goodness endures forever. He gives food to all flesh. He gives the cattle their fodder, and feeds the young ravens who call on him. He does not take delight in the strength of the steed or take pleasure in anyone’s legs. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him and who wait upon his goodness.⁵

Then they should say the Lord’s Prayer and the following prayer:

We thank you, Lord God our Father, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, for all the favor you show us, you who live and reign forever. Amen.

What a wonderful, prayerful, way to receive the blessing of food.

In our lessons for today we hear of God’s generous goodness, and the abundance that is offered to us.

Elisha offers the people food, a “small” amount, with the promise that the people shall eat and have some left over, and it was so.

In the Psalm we hear the words that Luther quoted, about God opening his hand and satisfying the needs of every living creature.

And then in the Gospel, again we have the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand with just a few loaves of bread, and two fish, a young lad’s lunch.

There are two distinct ways that these passages have been interpreted over the years.

The first way, has been to see the feeding that took place as extraordinary, a miracle, something quite beyond that which is naturally possible.

And the second way is to understand that rather than this being a miracle, a onetime manifestation of the power of God, this is in fact the way God always works if we but trust in him.

Underlying the understanding of this second way is the conviction that God has and will provide every living creature with all that we need.  Not necessarily all that we want, mind you, but all that we need.

It is our human nature to focus on all that we do not have, to fear that we will not have enough, and then to hoard that which we do have. 

The consequence of this is a self fulfilling prophesy.  If we believe that there will not be enough, there won’t be.  But if we trust that God has and will provide to each according to their need, there will be enough.

A wonderful and humorous example of this occurred in 1973,

The Great Toilet Paper Shortage.

Johnny Carson is credited in part with setting it off.  He made a joke during his monologue about a toilet paper shortage.

Everyone panicked.  They went to the stores and bought all that they could, and low and behold, there was none left on the shelves.

There actually never was a shortage at all, it was simply caused by a rumor and though at the end of the day, there wasn’t any toilet paper left in the stores, there was plenty in people’s pantries.

Unless of course, you were one of the poor blokes who didn’t hear Johnny Carson that night and didn’t get to the store in time to buy some.

In the end, the problem wasn’t one of supply, but of distribution.  There was plenty, it’s just that some had far more than they needed, and some were left without any.

Bread for the World, a Christian organization dedicated to the effort to end hunger in our world, both locally and abroad, has long maintained that the problem is not that there is not enough food; the problem is that it is not distributed to each according to their need.

They have interpreted Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand as a miracle of sharing and generosity, not a miracle of doing the impossible.

As Jesus lifted up the loaves and the fish, gifts from one boy’s lunch, others were motivated to share as well, and in the end there was an abundance.

One of the questions that we might ask, is which would be the greater miracle?

Would God’s multiplying the loaves and fish through an act of supernatural power be the greater miracle?

Or would God’s changing the hearts of those who were present so that they might all share and be satisfied be the greater miracle?

I suppose our answer to that question will in part be determined by whether we think it is easier to change the laws of nature than to change the human heart.

One of the issues is whether we live our lives with a spirit of scarcity, or abundance.

Do we believe that God satisfies the desire of every living thing, or do we believe that there is simply not enough to go around?

If we believe the latter, are we hoarders, making sure that we have stocked up to supply our need, even as others go wanting?

One of the problems that the world faces is the disparity between the rich and the poor.  It is getting worse, we are being told.  The rich are getting richer, the poor poorer.

Throughout history the disparity between the rich and the poor has often been the breeding ground for revolution and wars.

It’s no accident that in places like Africa and South America where there are such vast disparity between the rich and the poor that there is also such great political instability.

This difference between the rich and the poor was pointed out to me once as someone shared the experience of a foreign exchange student who went to Rio de Janeiro to study.

Her host family was well to do, the student realized.  But she had no idea just how well to do until one weekend when it was announced that they would go shopping as a family.  So Saturday morning they all boarded a private jet and flew to Paris to shop.

Families like this, in a land that also has millions living in abject poverty.

So the bottom line: 

One question that these texts raise is whether we are willing to be generous, as the young boy was generous, and to trust that as we share with one another there will be sufficient for all.

The second question is whether we do, in fact, have faith in God’s abundance, or are we convinced that there will not be enough.

Here I have a confession.

I’m an anxious worrier, at times.

The disparity that I have lived with over the course of my life is this:

Whenever I looked forward to the future, I have always been concerned that there would not be enough, that financial ruin was a distinct possibility, and wondered how we would ever make it.

And then, on the other hand, whenever I look back at my life, I’m struck with how there has in fact, always been plenty.

I haven’t always had everything I wanted, but I’ve never been without anything I needed.

At our pastor’s text study this last week, Seth, an intern who is completing his work and now will be waiting for a call and placement in a parish shared his experience.

He had shared his own anxiety about not knowing what the next few months would bring, and whether they’d have enough to get by.

His family simply responded, that “you are not alone, we will help you if you need it.”

Oh, Yeah, there is that.

This brings up another side to the story of the feeding of the five thousand.

We can talk about Jesus’ power in the blessing of the loaves.

And we can talk about the generosity of the young boy, and all who like him, shared what they had.

There is another issue though and that is this:  Are we willing to accept help and the generosity of others when we need it?  Or does our pride get in the way?

I’ve had to struggle with that.

On two separate occasions this last year my family has offered to help me out.

The last time it was a simple matter.  My sister recognized that my recent hospitalization and recovery would mean that I’d be off work for a week or so, and lose those wages.  This, together with the hospital bills would be a burden.

And so she offered to help.

Pride says “No, I can do it myself.”

Gratitude says “The eyes of all wait upon you, O LORD, and you give them their food in due season. You open wide your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

Can we receive with a gracious heart the gifts that God provides?

And then also, can we in turn, share out of our abundance?

One of the things I don’t remember ever hearing about in the story of the feeding of the five thousand, is this:

Imagine Jesus taking the loaves, blessing them, and then passing them out to the crowd.

Each one in turn, would receive the loaf, take what they needed, and then would pass it on. 

It’s what we call “paying it forward”.

As we have been blessed by the generosity of others, we too can be a blessing.

This is what it means to live in God’s grace.  Amen

Year C, All Saints Day, Luke 5:20-31

"Blessed are you who are poor,

      for yours is the kingdom of God."

Sacred Time.  Sacred  Space.  And a people made Holy.

Walking with one to the Gates of Heaven, and there we bid goodbye.  

It is a rare privilege to be able to be with one who is dying.  For me as their pastor it was the only time when I felt my work was complete.  Into your hands we commend your servant.  We have done our  part, and now Jesus takes over.  

"Blessed are you who are poor,

      for yours is the kingdom of God."

This is the thing.  Finally we have nothing.  It's not that we don't try to accumulate vast riches.  Much of our lives is spent doing just that.  It's that in the end, we come to the gates of Heaven naked, with nothing.  There is no advantage for the wealthy.  Or disadvantage for the poor.  We have nothing, except for the Grace of God.  

"Blessed are you who are poor,

      for yours is the kingdom of God."

Poverty is not a virtue achieved.  It is the canvas upon which the Artist paints the richness of God's mercy.  When we have nothing, everything is Gift.  To have nothing in and of ourselves is to be blessed with everything from the hand of God.  Such is the Kingdom.

"Blessed are you who are poor,

       for yours is the kingdom of God."

It's the final stage.  A great cloud of witnesses surrounds the throne.  The Chorus sings the melody of Creation, the harmony of Redemption, and soaring above all, the descant of the Spirit's sanctifying work.  

The Father's Love.  The Mother's warm embrace.  And a Son who walks by our side.  Children of God.  Saints.  White robes now clothe our nakedness.  And the blood that pulses through our veins is His.  

There are no more decrees descending from the throne.  Only praise ascending with the angels.  

The warring madness is over.  Peace settles in with a gentle breeze.  

The Garden is no longer a wilderness.  It lies in the heart of the City.  And there all Nations, Every Man, and Every Woman takes up residence.  A rich tapestry.  

With our own eyes, we shall see God.

And all will be Good.