SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:38-42
TEXT: 42a there is need of only one thing. THEME: The New that Jesus brings comes with greater expectations. INTRODUCTION The Pentecost series I have been preaching has been based on “Spirit in Life”. Life in the Spirit sounds like something we have control over. We do not have control over the Spirit that washes over our lives, fills us and moves us beyond where we feel comfortable, capable, or confident, transgressing boundaries into faith, trust and adventure with God. What better way to witness the effects of the Spirit in a human life than to look at the life of Jesus through the gospel of Luke. So far, we have seen how the Spirit gives us the ability to see shards of light in every event and in every person. Jesus sees past Legion and sees the man and sets him free. Then as Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem the groundwork for the Peace of God is laid beyond the boundaries of Judea in Samaria as the 70 pair up and witness to what is coming, not just for Israel but for all people. Living in merciful ways transcends people, place, race, religion and culture. Lived by unlikely characters in extraordinary circumstances. We see this as an expansion of what the people of God is beginning to look like in a system that temple worship in Jerusalem cannot contain. It comes with new models, an expanded sense of the people of God and Greater expectations of our roles of what we can do. SCRIPTURE Jesus is just outside of Jerusalem, in Bethany and invited into the home of Martha. Martha takes on the traditional role of the gracious hostess. There is a great painting of this from the kitchen with Martha in the foreground, masterfully commanding the kitchen with her hand on a sack of potatoes, the other holding a basket with a melon, onions, and zucchini, on the table is a patter with suckling roast of some kind, a hanging goose, string beans, fruits, spices and other vegetables while through the door opening in the center, in the other room, we can see Mary, sitting on the floor at Jesus’ feet. Mary has chosen against her cultural expectations, for what Jesus is offering with the New Jerusalem. “Will you not tell Mary to help me? “. What used to be our role and was expected of us, is changed in what Jesus is bringing. Beyond cultural and traditional expectations, where what we do in the realm of God, as God’s people will require greater expectations. APPLICATION Jesus is offering Martha a different expectation of what a woman could be, not needing the dominate culture to identify who we are, but for us to find our value, and validation in being loved by God. When we no longer need the validation from an old system, what new possibilities are open to us in Jesus? Much of the values we hold, the measures of success, the approval we seek come from privileged Older, White, Males of the dominate culture. This is the kind of control that we have seen executed by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, in taking away a woman’s ability to have self-determination of the kind of life she would like to have over her own body. Jesus offers the church, a different expectation of the kind of community we can be in today’s climate. A church’s success is not just how many people attend or how much money it brings in, but faithfulness, maturity of faith, sustainability, mercy, stewardship and discerning God’s will. The voices in our background tell us how to dress, what is proper or how we are supposed to behave These voices ask the question, “What would people think? “But Jesus gives us a new perspective of who we are, with the words of affirmation; Child of God, loved, precious, saved, redeemable, special, unique, image of God, adopted, beloved, worthy of life, heir, hope, joy and good. Then it doesn’t matter what kind of hostess we are, compared to the liberating message Jesus gives us. See how what Jesus thinks of us can transform us and the communities that we are a part of and how the other voices in our head are distractions in comparison? But we can’t hear this if we are in the kitchen, distracted by concerns about whether the food is good or not. The same few people used to be in Dodge Hall kitchen week after week, preparing food for the aloha hour, but now there is a plethora of people going in and out cleaning, washing, drying and putting away. At the Equipping Tomorrows Church Leaders events we used to host, the kitchen crew would sit in the hall, after all of the food, serving and clean up was done and listen to good theological discussions that opened up their theological curiosity. We have planned parties where we fussed over hostessing that we missed spending time with the guest we invited. One of the best Christmas present Jann and I received was an invitation to lunch with a friend, where we ate at a restaurant and all we did was catch up and talk. CONCLUSION When Jesus gets to Jerusalem, the inadequacies of the Temple worship will become apparent, as they become one of the forces that participates in the killing of Jesus. God is doing something new, as the people of God begin to go beyond the familial bonds of Abraham and Sara and reach out to all people as made in the image of God. Our cherished traditions, meals, celebration will become steppingstones to something different that God has in mind through Pentecost, the church and Spirit in life. We are at this precipice as the church today, as we admire our past but move into the future God has for us. With radical imagination we will discover new ways of being the church and find greater expectation of what we can do to bring the Peace of God to our community, to be merciful to our neighbor, and discover those shards of light in every event and every person to be lifted up to bring wholeness to our world.
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SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:25-37
TEXT: 37b“The one who showed him mercy.” THEME: Being people of mercy INTRODUCTION You got to love it, when we read in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ ministry in Samaria has been to extend the message of the Peace of God to these distant cousins of the faith. The Samaritans are more Jewish than they are Gentiles, but when they refuse Jesus and the disciple’s hospitality, James and John want to call down fire upon them, like the prophet Elijah, but Jesus says ‘No’. We don’t do that to our relatives, and we don’t want to destroy the people we are trying to draw into the love of God. That is not the kind of peace God is trying to establish with the coming of the Kingdom of God. With the Samaritan travels fresh on their minds, it seems that when Jesus makes it back in the Judean countryside and a Lawyer stands up to test him with a question about eternal life, Jesus uses a parable which includes a Samaritan as the hero. SCRIPTURE It seems that this Lawyer wants to show how smart he is, so when Jesus answers the question with a question about the Law. He quickly responds with quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Kudos to him. The way to eternal life is connected to the Law. The Law is about relationships. Living these relationships with everyone, is the description of the peace of God. Which means there are no limits to this attitude, this living, these relationships. But not being able to leave it at that, he also asks Jesus the legal question, “Who is my neighbor?” “What are the boundaries?” “When is enough enough?” Jesus then launches into this brilliant story that strikes at all of our heart strings. We all have been in that situation when there was someone who needed help, and we think, should I help? Should I launch into action? Do I want to get involved? Is it safe? Isn’t anybody going to do something about this? Am I the only one who sees this? Or maybe even the other way, remembering when we were traveling struggling with our hand carries, or car that broke down, or credit card that was declined because of expenses out of the ordinary. Is there anyone one who will come to our rescue to help us? Jesus’ answer takes us to another plane. Outside of the legal limits of the Law and into the arena of mercy. The need and demand upon us has been so great, we have become callused and learned to ignore, look away, and avoid eyes contact. We are vulnerable to being taken advantage of. We don’t have the time to be involved, we have limited resources. We think what could I possibly do to help? The message of the Peace of God is announced through the incarnation, Jesus is ministering to our wounded, hungry, thirsty, possessed and fearful. The Peace of God is not limited to our family, ancestors, race or creed. The Peace of God goes out to our neighbors through mercy. The peace of God is tied up with mercy; not giving up on the living even at death, coming near to us, seeing us, moving with caring, transgressing the boundaries of fear, bandaging wounds, healing oil and wine, giving up comfort, providing shelter, using our money, spending our time, expending effort and energy. Helping those who have no way of paying us back. And realizing that our involvement also has a future consequence. And all for what? Eternal Life? No as a result of our relationship with God and our love for others. This is eternal life. APPLICATION If Eternal Life is being in Relationship with God. God’s love brings about peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others. Peace is not being at rest…Peace takes constant work, energy, imagination, listening, revelation, reconciliation, Peace is in constant motion trying to keep all thing in balance. When we are successful it is like a flawless gymnast on the beam. But when we are not in balanced we look like the flaying actions of a gymnast about to fall. The Peace of God includes mercy. In January a local boy, who left Maui during the second world war, passed way but wanted to be buried on Maui. The family was looking for a UCC minister to conduct an interment service at Maui Memorial Cemetery and a hall for a small reception afterwards. They made arrangements with us and our Dodge Hall. This was a way our church helped this family pay their respect and honor the wishes of their loved one. These strangers were distant cousins in a time of need. Wailuku Union Church was able to assist them. They loved Dodge Hall and asked about the Church. They bought four cookbooks. They said their church back home was small, with a few members and asked how we were doing. I shared about our Wailuku Mission Housing project, and they were impressed that we were thinking about other ways of using the resources we had to care for our neighbors. We both recognized that depending only on member contributions is not a sustainable model for the future. They were appreciative and overwhelmed at our hospitality and welcome to their family at being able to use our hall. This was an act of mercy extended to this grieving family. This family was great. Really nice people, Kama’ainas from far away. Neighbors. I even got to share the theological theories of original blessings and Marcus Borg’s concept of Beloving over believing in one of my conversations with them. They shared with me a business model of working at home in having our data stored on the cloud so we can have shared access to it at work and from home. Our church, with our facilities, willingness to share, personnel including Jaime, ministered to them in their grief and grew a bond in Christ, faith and mercy. SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:1-11.16-20
TEXT: 5Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ THEME: A Mission of Peace. INTRODUCTION The last time I preach on this passage, I thought the modern-day application of sending the 70 out in twos, was having our sermons posted live on Facebook. Going out into the cyber universe was a way we could enter many homes. We were doing that just before the pandemic sheltered us in. Then we expanded our broadcast with an abbreviated worship service. We became a hybrid church with an online presence and with those in person practicing aloha. Looking at this passage a few years later, our focus is shifted off of evangelism and concentrate on the Good News of Peace. SCRIPTURE Jesus is laying the groundwork for the worship of God to be beyond the confines of the temple in Jerusalem and expanded into the communities where believers live. Traveling through Samaria, in the country north of Judea, Jesus is sharing the peace of God among the Gentiles. First with the man with so many demons he identified as Legion, then among towns whose imaginations of God had been stifled by prejudice and fear. Now Jesus sends out his traveling companions ahead of where he intends to go, to share the peace of God. As they enter homes, they are to bring peace. They are not trying to convert their host or argue theologically, but to bring a foretaste of the peace of God with them; in the way they act, in the way they speak, in how they behave, in how they treat their host and in how they treat each other. They are living the peace of God among strangers, before Jesus gets there. The Peace of God has good manners. From this text we can see that the peace of God eats what they are served with appreciation. This is a very intimate type of sharing. This makes me think of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” as he goes all over the world and eats the food his hosts offer. They present their very best, as a culinary gift and he receives what they serve, with curiosity, appreciations, grace, discovery, trust and acceptance. Almost as if saying, “Peace to this House”, Good friends are made like this, and in the simple act of receiving a meal is a sign that, “the Kingdom of God is near”. God’s love brings peace. Those who have God’s peace prays to cure the sick. God’s love creates the incarnation. God’s love has Jesus traveling towards us, reaching out in Samaria. God’s love is taking Jesus to Jerusalem for a showdown with Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate. The Peace of God is relational. The peace of God brings the presence of Christ with us. In Christ’s presence there is freedom. Forces that possess us are subdued. Those things that seek to harm us are matched, And the power of God is near. Jesus and his disciples bringing the peace of God near to those in Samaria. APPLICATION In the Gospel of Luke, we see the effects of the Spirit of God in our world as an example of the Kingdom of God being near. How does the peace of God change the way we live? When we are at peace with God, it gives us the capacity to be at peace with ourselves and to be at peace with others. Shifting from seeing ourselves as sinners to being loved by God changes our focus from seeing the negative to seeing the positive. God loves us. Our world is good. Human beings are good. The world is not a place filled with evil that needs to be destroyed but is redeemable, justice can be accomplished, human rights can be acted upon, and we can continue to achieve rights that recognize and respects the dignity of all people. Our planet is not too far from being able to be healed, but the longer we wait the more valiant efforts it will require. Where our relationships have been wounded with hurt, the peace God brings offers us grace and forgiveness. Reconciliation is part of this love that brings about peace. I grew up watching samurai movies. They are based on revenge. One person’s death is being avenged by an attack upon the rival clan. This path of death and destruction is never satisfied. There is never enough payment or hurt inflicted that will satisfy the avenging side. Only forgiveness can bring peace and stop this madness. When the paired up 70, were poorly received, they are to wipe of the dust off their feet, recognizing how they were treated, but leaving that negative behind and not taking that hurt along with them. Giving up the right to hurt them back, the let it go with forgiveness and move forward with peace. Our vision of the future is not in trying to recapture the past. In that regard the Supreme Court got it wrong and selective in how they applied their recollection of history to one case but not another, as a rule to determine the future. If we hold to that standard then every firearm should be replaced with a musket, the firearm of that day. Try and conceal that weapon. The Peace of God also gives us the ability to look critically at our contribution to a situation and admit our part in creating this problem or conflict, so we can take responsibility for our actions and change our behavior, so we don’t find ourselves in that situation again. We are a human example of the peace of God in our lives by how we behave. CONCLUSION The nature of scripture is that it has many layers to it. There is never just one way to read it. What we discover about when and who it was written to. The setting, and what the author may have been trying to address. We can see how humans have not changed very much in over 2000 years. We are still flawed, wonderful, surprising, amazing creatures in God’s image. And we are in need of God’s peace in our lives, that comes from being loved, and having tons of grace bestowed on us. |
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