"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." -- Ecclesiastes 3:1
Brothers and Sisters,
Autumn in Chicago is an awesome season. I especially like these early fall days that offer the best of summer plus vibrant color and minus the humidity. Today is a gorgeous warm day with an azure sky, no clouds, and just a hint of orange and yellow in the trees. Fall is an in-between time, connecting the lush, sure warmth of summer to the more austere but invigorating winter.
As the seasons change, we at Reconciler likewise find ourselves in a time of transition. The Rev. Tripp Hudgins, one of Reconciler's founders and a beloved member of the Pastoral Team, announced his resignation at a special Congregational Meeting on September 16th. Tripp spoke of needing to channel more energy into his work as pastor at Wilmette's Community Church and into his family life. Human beings have limits. Tripp's resignation was offered and received with real sorrow. Tripp expressed the difficulty of his decision. Several of those present expressed their thanks for the many gifts Tripp has brought us and for his faithfulness to his several commitments.
A poster I liked as a teenager read: "The beauty of the world has two edges: one of sorrow, one of laughter, tearing the heart asunder."Life often juxtaposes sadness and joy, despair and hope. The Christian story is one of death and resurrection. At our Congregational meeting, both grief and optimism were expressed. There were 22 people present! We had just concluded a worship service with 27 people, the most we've ever had on a Sunday night. The joint was hopping. Several folks expressed interest in serving on a Discernment committee to determine how Reconciler should carry on from here. So the energy, commitment, and numbers of people that allow us to move forward are present at the same time that we mourn the loss of Tripp as pastor. The beauty of the world has two edges. Christians know that even in the midst of death we are being called to new life.
In the days to come, we will call together the Discernment committee to begin its work. We will also have a congregational retreat the last weekend of November (with 12 people signed up so far!) We'll begin a new Bible series in mid-October to discuss ways that Christians can develop a healthy and responsible relationship with money. Randall Warren from the Diocese of Chicago, will guide us in a workshop as we seek to be a congregation that can safely care for and address the needs of children in our midst. The Pastoral Team has begun planning worship for the season of Advent. For more details on these activities, see the Announcements below.
I am excited about these and our other possibilities, and am heartened that Tripp will be with us through mid-November to help us make the transition. I am also happy that our deacon Beth Scriven will be with us this year, and that we have new members who bring energy, skills, and wisdom to the Reconciler community. May God bless all of us in this season of change.
Yours in Christ,
Laura+
The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
for The Pastoral Team
The Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements, Announcement, Announcements
Discernment Committee Please let one of the Pastoral Team members know this Sunday, September 30 if you would like to be on the Discernment Committee to help guide Reconciler's path forward. We want to get this committee up and running soon.
Retreat! We will be retreating at the Cenacle in Lincoln Park on Friday, November 30 - Saturday, December 1. Our first session will begin at 7:30 Friday, with an optional overnight stay and more sessions during the day on Saturday. Meals are provided by the Cenacle. Our focus will be on leadership and discernment, and it promises to be a wonderful time. Please turn in your reservation form to Laura by Sunday September 30th!! Forms are available in church this Sunday. Any questions, contact the Pastoral Team.
Bible Study! Begins Wednesday, October 17, at 7:30 in the 'Nidge. This five-week Wednesday night series will explore how Christians can develop a healthy and responsible approach to money. For the first two weeks, we will read and discuss a short book on "Sabbath Economics." See Larry or Jeremy if you would like a book. For the second two weeks, we will watch and discuss a film called "Living with Money." Our final session will be a wrap-up.
Tripp's Last Sunday with us is November 18th. We will be having a farewell party for Tripp, likely right after worship on the 18th. More details to come.
Workshop on "Keeping God's People Safe." On Wednesday December 5th from 7:00 - 9:30 pm, Randall Warren, Pastoral Care officer in the Diocese of Chicago, will show us a DVD and lead us in conversation about how Reconciler can help protect children in our midst from sexual abuse. This is eye-opening and useful information for anyone, regardless of whether or not you have children/work with children. Please join us!
Saturday, September 29
Sunday, September 23
Sermon: "Spirits in the Material World"
Proper 20, Year C
Texts: Amos 8:4-7, 1 Timothy 6:6-19
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
September 23, 2007
Preacher: The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
+++
Today’s Scripture lessons encourage us to avoid making false divisions between the spiritual and the material. They’re about the complex relationship between matter and spirit. They remind us that we need to keep these two opposing poles in balance, and transform the material by way of the spiritual.
Someone said: “God likes matter. He created it.” Genesis tells us that matter is just fine. God created the earth and its creatures, and God saw that it was good. And then there was the fall. Sin and death entered the world. So God sent us some correction. First the law. Then the prophets. Then the Christ. Through the Incarnation, God as Jesus came into this world as one of us. He didn’t shun or reject our planet. He didn’t think it was disgusting to be human. He didn’t like a lot of things people here were doing, but he loved people fiercely nonetheless. In Jesus, God came here to live and die among us, to take on our human condition, and in so doing save and transform creation. God is simultaneously in and beyond the world. And God is also transforming the world.
As Christians, we too are supposed to be in the world but not of it. We’re not called to condemn or escape the world. We’re called to use the world’s tools to help transform the world.
One of these tools is money. Another is our human intellect.
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us to be shrewd, like the dishonest manager. To use our intellect and to use money. But use them both for good. Jesus draws an analogy between how we handle our finances and how we handle our spiritual lives.
At first it seems like the dishonest manager is a villain. He’s squandered his master’s money, and is about to be fired. So he contrives a scheme to make friends with people who owe his master money. He greatly reduces the amount they owe the master. He figures that after his master fires him, he’ll be welcome in the homes of these folks. They’ll feed and house this dishonest manager, because they’ll owe him a debt of gratitude.
After he reduces their debts, the master praises him. And after Jesus finishes this parable, he tells his disciples to be shrewd like the dishonest manager. So this shady character, this charlatan, turns out to be a role model. Go figure.
I think God is a lot like the master. And we humans are like the dishonest manager. Who in this room hasn’t squandered a resource or wasted something? Who among us is unfailingly 100 percent honest? All of us are tainted by sin and imperfection. We squander our true wealth -- our ability to love and serve God and neighbor. We fail to be good stewards of creation. Collectively, we’re not good managers of God’s property. It’s a fallen world. But God has plans for us.
There are two morals in this story. 1) Just like the dishonest manager, we all may have to face an impending crisis. We too may have to justify ourselves before our master. So we’d better get our act together and our accounts in order. How swiftly and effectively can we respond to the Christ? Are we as good at dealing with our spiritual lives as we are with our clothes, our cars, our bank accounts?
2) We’re called to disburse resources, but not for selfish gain. When faced with the impending crisis, the visitation of his Lord, the dishonest manager further disburses his master’s wealth, but in a way that makes life easier for folks by reducing their debts. We too are to use our resources to make life easier for others, and to build up the kingdom.
In this parable, Jesus is linking the material and spiritual in a very intricate way and saying, you know what? We’ve got to deal with both. And how you deal with one may very well indicate how you deal with the other.
Jesus says in this parable we have to get our act together spiritually and materially. We’ve got to be shrewd. What good are we to the kingdom if we’re naïve? Yes, the perfect is coming. But we’re not there now. So, meanwhile, be in the world and know how to play the world’s games, without being conformed to the world. Don’t be seduced by the dark side. Be as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove.
Sting writes that we are spirits living in the material world. Madonna informs us we are living in a material world and she is a material girl. Ok. But for Christians it’s all about how we use the material. To what purpose are we using our resources? It’s about letting our spiritual lives guide and transform our relationship to matter.
Jesus tells his disciples. “Use money to win friends and influence people. For the sake of the gospel. Use resources wisely. Reduce others’ debts and improve their lot. Get your rich friends to help you build the kingdom. But don’t get confused in the process. Money is a means, not an end. It’s not God.”
All of today’s Scripture readings take up this theme of balancing the spiritual and material. In today’s Old Testament lesson, the prophet Amos is up in arms because things in Israel are out of whack. Spirit and matter are not in balance. Amos rips the people who can’t wait for the religious festivals to be over so they can get back to making money. For them, religion is a shell game. They trample on the poor, and charge exhorbitant interest. In so doing they transgress against the Law, which gives everything and everyone a place, even the poor. Remember that in ancient Israel, when grain was harvested, some was to be left on the fields for the poor to gather. People who deny rights to the poor upset the social balance. Amos says God will hold people accountable for such behavior. Greedy folks won’t be able to hear God’s word when they need it. We’ve got to let our religion transform us, or it’s no religion at all. The spiritual has to mediate and inform our material choices.
In today’s epistle reading, the author of 1st Timothy likewise speaks to the union of spirit and matter. He tells us to pray for kings and others in positions of worldly authority. As Christians, we’re not to abandon the world to its own devices, but to influence the material by way of the spiritual. So if we have friends in high places, let’s pray for them, not condemn them. Christ has come for everyone. We are to bring the world to God and God to the world. It’s an incarnational spirituality.
Jesus tells his disciples to make friends by means of dishonest wealth, which can also be translated as worldly wealth. This world is an imperfect version of the one to come. We live between the already here and the not yet. We’re messy people dealing with messy stuff. Like money. So deal with the grunginess. Don’t be so idealistic or naïve you can’t deal with the reality of money, which is inherently dirty. You never know where it’s been. But deal with it in such a way that your own hands are clean and you can look the master in the eye when he calls you to account. Deal with it in a way that transforms it. Use it for good, not selfish gain. If God can trust us with the imperfect, perishable resources of this realm, God’s going to trust us with the perfect, imperishable riches of the next.
When we forgive neighbors their debts, our debtor status is likewise forgiven by our master. God praises us when we forgive. Yesterday was the Jewish high holiday, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Part of getting our spiritual act together, part of atonement, is forgiving others their debts, even as we ask God to forgive us. Some debts are financial, others emotional. There are many ways to reduce debts.
Today’s Scripture lessons ask a lot of us, don’t they? Balance the spiritual and material. Be in the world but not of it. Deal with the world as it is, while seeking to transform it. Use resources wisely and fairly. Use your shrewdness for good. Help the poor. Win friends for the master. Forgive debts. Bring the world to Christ and Christ to the world.
Tall order? Sure. But thank God we don’t have to do it all at once. And we don’t have to do it alone. Here at Reconciler we have a Bible study series in the works – to talk about money and debt and how we as Christians can handle our resources wisely and responsibly. So stay tuned.
Meanwhile, we can start the conversation right now, in silent reflection, and then with each other if the Spirit so moves. How might God be asking us to strike the right balance between spirit and matter? Where is he calling you and me to account?
Amen.
+++
Texts: Amos 8:4-7, 1 Timothy 6:6-19
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
September 23, 2007
Preacher: The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
+++
Today’s Scripture lessons encourage us to avoid making false divisions between the spiritual and the material. They’re about the complex relationship between matter and spirit. They remind us that we need to keep these two opposing poles in balance, and transform the material by way of the spiritual.
Someone said: “God likes matter. He created it.” Genesis tells us that matter is just fine. God created the earth and its creatures, and God saw that it was good. And then there was the fall. Sin and death entered the world. So God sent us some correction. First the law. Then the prophets. Then the Christ. Through the Incarnation, God as Jesus came into this world as one of us. He didn’t shun or reject our planet. He didn’t think it was disgusting to be human. He didn’t like a lot of things people here were doing, but he loved people fiercely nonetheless. In Jesus, God came here to live and die among us, to take on our human condition, and in so doing save and transform creation. God is simultaneously in and beyond the world. And God is also transforming the world.
As Christians, we too are supposed to be in the world but not of it. We’re not called to condemn or escape the world. We’re called to use the world’s tools to help transform the world.
One of these tools is money. Another is our human intellect.
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us to be shrewd, like the dishonest manager. To use our intellect and to use money. But use them both for good. Jesus draws an analogy between how we handle our finances and how we handle our spiritual lives.
At first it seems like the dishonest manager is a villain. He’s squandered his master’s money, and is about to be fired. So he contrives a scheme to make friends with people who owe his master money. He greatly reduces the amount they owe the master. He figures that after his master fires him, he’ll be welcome in the homes of these folks. They’ll feed and house this dishonest manager, because they’ll owe him a debt of gratitude.
After he reduces their debts, the master praises him. And after Jesus finishes this parable, he tells his disciples to be shrewd like the dishonest manager. So this shady character, this charlatan, turns out to be a role model. Go figure.
I think God is a lot like the master. And we humans are like the dishonest manager. Who in this room hasn’t squandered a resource or wasted something? Who among us is unfailingly 100 percent honest? All of us are tainted by sin and imperfection. We squander our true wealth -- our ability to love and serve God and neighbor. We fail to be good stewards of creation. Collectively, we’re not good managers of God’s property. It’s a fallen world. But God has plans for us.
There are two morals in this story. 1) Just like the dishonest manager, we all may have to face an impending crisis. We too may have to justify ourselves before our master. So we’d better get our act together and our accounts in order. How swiftly and effectively can we respond to the Christ? Are we as good at dealing with our spiritual lives as we are with our clothes, our cars, our bank accounts?
2) We’re called to disburse resources, but not for selfish gain. When faced with the impending crisis, the visitation of his Lord, the dishonest manager further disburses his master’s wealth, but in a way that makes life easier for folks by reducing their debts. We too are to use our resources to make life easier for others, and to build up the kingdom.
In this parable, Jesus is linking the material and spiritual in a very intricate way and saying, you know what? We’ve got to deal with both. And how you deal with one may very well indicate how you deal with the other.
Jesus says in this parable we have to get our act together spiritually and materially. We’ve got to be shrewd. What good are we to the kingdom if we’re naïve? Yes, the perfect is coming. But we’re not there now. So, meanwhile, be in the world and know how to play the world’s games, without being conformed to the world. Don’t be seduced by the dark side. Be as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove.
Sting writes that we are spirits living in the material world. Madonna informs us we are living in a material world and she is a material girl. Ok. But for Christians it’s all about how we use the material. To what purpose are we using our resources? It’s about letting our spiritual lives guide and transform our relationship to matter.
Jesus tells his disciples. “Use money to win friends and influence people. For the sake of the gospel. Use resources wisely. Reduce others’ debts and improve their lot. Get your rich friends to help you build the kingdom. But don’t get confused in the process. Money is a means, not an end. It’s not God.”
All of today’s Scripture readings take up this theme of balancing the spiritual and material. In today’s Old Testament lesson, the prophet Amos is up in arms because things in Israel are out of whack. Spirit and matter are not in balance. Amos rips the people who can’t wait for the religious festivals to be over so they can get back to making money. For them, religion is a shell game. They trample on the poor, and charge exhorbitant interest. In so doing they transgress against the Law, which gives everything and everyone a place, even the poor. Remember that in ancient Israel, when grain was harvested, some was to be left on the fields for the poor to gather. People who deny rights to the poor upset the social balance. Amos says God will hold people accountable for such behavior. Greedy folks won’t be able to hear God’s word when they need it. We’ve got to let our religion transform us, or it’s no religion at all. The spiritual has to mediate and inform our material choices.
In today’s epistle reading, the author of 1st Timothy likewise speaks to the union of spirit and matter. He tells us to pray for kings and others in positions of worldly authority. As Christians, we’re not to abandon the world to its own devices, but to influence the material by way of the spiritual. So if we have friends in high places, let’s pray for them, not condemn them. Christ has come for everyone. We are to bring the world to God and God to the world. It’s an incarnational spirituality.
Jesus tells his disciples to make friends by means of dishonest wealth, which can also be translated as worldly wealth. This world is an imperfect version of the one to come. We live between the already here and the not yet. We’re messy people dealing with messy stuff. Like money. So deal with the grunginess. Don’t be so idealistic or naïve you can’t deal with the reality of money, which is inherently dirty. You never know where it’s been. But deal with it in such a way that your own hands are clean and you can look the master in the eye when he calls you to account. Deal with it in a way that transforms it. Use it for good, not selfish gain. If God can trust us with the imperfect, perishable resources of this realm, God’s going to trust us with the perfect, imperishable riches of the next.
When we forgive neighbors their debts, our debtor status is likewise forgiven by our master. God praises us when we forgive. Yesterday was the Jewish high holiday, Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Part of getting our spiritual act together, part of atonement, is forgiving others their debts, even as we ask God to forgive us. Some debts are financial, others emotional. There are many ways to reduce debts.
Today’s Scripture lessons ask a lot of us, don’t they? Balance the spiritual and material. Be in the world but not of it. Deal with the world as it is, while seeking to transform it. Use resources wisely and fairly. Use your shrewdness for good. Help the poor. Win friends for the master. Forgive debts. Bring the world to Christ and Christ to the world.
Tall order? Sure. But thank God we don’t have to do it all at once. And we don’t have to do it alone. Here at Reconciler we have a Bible study series in the works – to talk about money and debt and how we as Christians can handle our resources wisely and responsibly. So stay tuned.
Meanwhile, we can start the conversation right now, in silent reflection, and then with each other if the Spirit so moves. How might God be asking us to strike the right balance between spirit and matter? Where is he calling you and me to account?
Amen.
+++
Friday, September 21
Almost Weekly Update
Welcome to another installment of our Weekly update. As mentioned, we seem to have taken a bit of a hiatus in August. Please bear with us as we get back on our feet here.
Psalm 120 offers these words for our reflection today:
What I want to say here is "Thank you."
Thank you for an amazing five years of conversation, love, work and worship. It has been my sincere pleasure to watch this ministry grow from one conversation with David Gortner to a self-sufficient congregation family. The Holy Spirit is generous and your hearts have been willing. Well done.
To prepare for my leaving, I have suggested that we convene a discernment committee. This committee would oversee my leaving and the re-articulation of the church as necessary to better facilitate the call of the next American Baptist member of the Pastoral Team.
There will be a vast array of options before us over the next eight weeks and then the months that follow my leaving. The more intentional we can make this process, hopefully the healthier we will be as a congregation.
Psalm 120 concludes with these words:
Yours,
Rev. Tripp Hudgins
American Baptist Pastor
Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements:
A reminder our worship time has moved to 5PM!
An all church leadership retreat has been scheduled for the fall at the Cenacle retreat center here in Chicago, November 30th and December 1st, Friday evening and all day Saturday. Financial assistance is available. Please contact the Pastoral Team if you require financial help. RSVP as soon as possible.
Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements about our Wednesday evening Bible Study!
We will be joining Immanuel on November 4 at the 10:30 worship time to celebrate the Feast of All Saints. There will be no worship service that evening. Please plan on attending this special joint service. Rev. Monte Johnson will preach. Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell will preside.
Psalm 120 offers these words for our reflection today:
I lift up my eyes unto the mountains;This past Sunday at the congregational meeting, I announced my resignation from the Pastoral Team effective Sunday, November 18. This decision has not come easily or without much trepidation and great pain. But I know it to be the right one. And many shared their similar thoughts and feelings at our Congregational meeting. Our help is indeed from God!
from where shall come my help?
My help shall come from the Lord
who made heaven an earth.
What I want to say here is "Thank you."
Thank you for an amazing five years of conversation, love, work and worship. It has been my sincere pleasure to watch this ministry grow from one conversation with David Gortner to a self-sufficient congregation family. The Holy Spirit is generous and your hearts have been willing. Well done.
To prepare for my leaving, I have suggested that we convene a discernment committee. This committee would oversee my leaving and the re-articulation of the church as necessary to better facilitate the call of the next American Baptist member of the Pastoral Team.
There will be a vast array of options before us over the next eight weeks and then the months that follow my leaving. The more intentional we can make this process, hopefully the healthier we will be as a congregation.
Psalm 120 concludes with these words:
The Lord will guard you from evil,I cling to these words. I ask that you uphold us all in your prayers. And may God grant us peace and courage.
he will guard your soul.
The Lord will guard your going and coming
both now and forever.
Yours,
Rev. Tripp Hudgins
American Baptist Pastor
Church of Jesus Christ, Reconciler
Announcements:
A reminder our worship time has moved to 5PM!
An all church leadership retreat has been scheduled for the fall at the Cenacle retreat center here in Chicago, November 30th and December 1st, Friday evening and all day Saturday. Financial assistance is available. Please contact the Pastoral Team if you require financial help. RSVP as soon as possible.
Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements about our Wednesday evening Bible Study!
We will be joining Immanuel on November 4 at the 10:30 worship time to celebrate the Feast of All Saints. There will be no worship service that evening. Please plan on attending this special joint service. Rev. Monte Johnson will preach. Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell will preside.
Monday, September 10
sermon
Sermon
September 9, 2007
Rev. Tripp Hudgins
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:7-18, Matthew 6:25-34
Simplicity.
Such a lovely word.
Simplicity.
Whenever I hear this word, whenever I say it I relax. I'm transported in my imagination to a pastoral scene. There's a porch and a wooden chair...maybe a rocking chair. The sun is shining and the fragrance of the tall grass rises with the heat to meet me.
Simplicity.
I'm not hungry.
I'm not thirsty.
There's no stress, no pressure from some deadline or project. There's no competition and everyone I know is happy...
Simplicity.
Simplicity is wonderful.
Well, that's what I thought. In spending time preparing for this sermon series I have come to the conclusion that I don't know the first thing about simplicity.
So, I had to start over.
I had to look again at scriptures, at devotional books, tomes on Christian discipline, magazines, news articles, whatever i could find. There's so much about simplicity out there to encounter. As a people, we are almost obsessed with it.
We want simple stuff, simple recipes from the food network, simple decorating tips from Real Simple magazine. We read about "great escape" vacations meant to help us simplify our lives...for three days and two nights in the Grand Bahamas.
Simple solutions for business.
I love it! Simple! Simple! Simple! It's all so easy. We make simplicity so...well..simple.
But its not. Everything I am learning about simplicity suggests to me that this is an incredibly difficult discipline. Simplicity is demanding.
How demanding is it? Well, lets look at a couple of definitions.
Francois Fenelon - 17th cent. French theologian and poet...
Richard Foster - a noted speaker and Christian writer says this in his book Celebration of Discipline.
Free-flowing...
unimpeded...not caught in folds or pockets, not sidetracked...
This is a good beginning definition for us, I think. But can you all understand now the complexity of simplicity? This is what causght me short. These are the things that make me stop and ask the questions...
Am I simple?
Do I live simply?
Am I even capable of it?
And, really, does it have anything to do with God?
Elaine Prevalette's writing is helpful here. She says that the word "simple" does not appear very often in the New Testament. But when it does, she says, it refers to "a manner of giving: a ready generosity, a liberality of spirit, a free-flowing altruism that is not folded in on itself."
a manner of giving...
Simplicity is a manner of giving.
a liberality of giving
Simplicity, says Foster, is freedom.
Giving.
Freedom.
Simplicity is the gift of freedom.
For the author of Deuteronomy, freedom is found in God. All that they are, all that they were and still will be is wrapped up in God...in the very real freedom that they received by God's own hands...and the spiritual freedoms that came along with it.
This is a difficult teaching. They struggled with it.
The Lord is freedom.
Simplicity is freedom. Be simple.
To be simple is to always remember the Lord, to remember who God is and who we are in relationship with God. The neglect of this memory leads to all kinds of trouble.
Economic trouble.
Pride.
Greed.
And interestingly a return to slavery. We become a slave to the complications we create, the injustice, the lack of mercy. There is no simplicity to be had. There is no freedom.
God's call is always...always to take us out of the house of slavery and into the house of freedom...into Simplicity.
You will hear these words again and again from Richard Foster...and from me. "Simplicity is an inward and outward discipline."
If we insist on keeping it inwardly focused alone it becomes empty, false promises and false freedom. If we insist on keeping it only on the outside not allowing the disciplines to change our hearts, then we are left with legalism...another kind of slavery.
Simplicity is an inward and outward discipline. It is freedom. It is a gift.
In our gospel passage this morning the worry that Christ speaks of in Matthew's Gospel is an inward worry...that inward dynamic of anxiety that most of us live with. It is an inward awareness Christ is asking of us. But he asks us to look outward to find solace in the midst of our anxiety. He's asking for a little perspective, a little trust. He wants us to remember who we are just like the writer of Deuteronomy does.
Jesus says The Gentiles are the people who do not know their relationship with God. They do not know the fulfillment of the promise of freedom. Matthew's is a Jewish Gospel. He's a Jew, writing for Jewish Christians struggling within Jewish Communities.
Richard Foster hinges his understanding of simplicity upon this passage. For him it is the core of the discipline. Freedom is found here. Freedom is found in simplicity.
Everything in Matthew's Gospel also hinges on this sermon. What's interesting is that this passage is part of a much longer sermon...The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew begins this sermon with the Beatitudes and ends it with a story about a house built on sand and what happens when the rain comes.
The core of the Gospel of Jesus is in this sermon. And Christ will speak of inward and outward discipline, about peacemaking, about the merciful and the poor in spirit...and where we put our trust. All of this, all, is the discipline of simplicity.
Jesus can say all this because he knows the promises of God. He wants those who follow him to know these promises as well. He wants us to know freedom. He wants us to be simple.
He wants us to receive this freedom as a gift - a gift from God.
God brings us out of the house of slavery. God brings us into the house of freedom.
Jesus knows the slavery is real. It's spiritual and physical. It is inward and outward. He knows that we are all tied up in our anxiety, our stuff or lack thereof. We are tied up in our wealth and our poverty. God wants us to be free. Christ wants us to follow this call. Christ wants us to follow him.
Simplicity.
It's so lovely.
But do we know what we've received and what it will ask of us?
At the beginning of this sermon I said that I don't know what simplicity is. I still feel that way. Such freedom as simplicity is foreign to me.
But I want to issue an invitation to you.
Will you come with me as I learn how to live simply? Will you journey with us as we step outside these walls and share what we learn? Can we do this together?
Because I am not sure I can do this by myself.
And I am not sure where it will lead us. But I do know that Christ has paved a way and that God has brought us out of slavery. Let us receive this gift. And then let us offer it to all who would hear.
Remember the Lord.
Be simple.
Be free.
September 9, 2007
Rev. Tripp Hudgins
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:7-18, Matthew 6:25-34
Simplicity: A Gift from God
Simplicity.
Such a lovely word.
Simplicity.
Whenever I hear this word, whenever I say it I relax. I'm transported in my imagination to a pastoral scene. There's a porch and a wooden chair...maybe a rocking chair. The sun is shining and the fragrance of the tall grass rises with the heat to meet me.
Simplicity.
I'm not hungry.
I'm not thirsty.
There's no stress, no pressure from some deadline or project. There's no competition and everyone I know is happy...
Simplicity.
Simplicity is wonderful.
Well, that's what I thought. In spending time preparing for this sermon series I have come to the conclusion that I don't know the first thing about simplicity.
So, I had to start over.
I had to look again at scriptures, at devotional books, tomes on Christian discipline, magazines, news articles, whatever i could find. There's so much about simplicity out there to encounter. As a people, we are almost obsessed with it.
We want simple stuff, simple recipes from the food network, simple decorating tips from Real Simple magazine. We read about "great escape" vacations meant to help us simplify our lives...for three days and two nights in the Grand Bahamas.
Simple solutions for business.
I love it! Simple! Simple! Simple! It's all so easy. We make simplicity so...well..simple.
But its not. Everything I am learning about simplicity suggests to me that this is an incredibly difficult discipline. Simplicity is demanding.
How demanding is it? Well, lets look at a couple of definitions.
Francois Fenelon - 17th cent. French theologian and poet...
When we are truly in this interior simplicity our whole appearance is franker, more natural. This true simplicity...makes us conscious of a certain openness, gentleness, innocence, gaiety, and serenity, which is charming when we see it near to and continually, with pure eyes.Simplicity is the pearl of the Gospel. Lovely poetry but I am still struggling with a definition.
O how amiable simplicity is!
Who will give it to me?
I leave all for this.
Is is the pearl of the Gospel.
Richard Foster - a noted speaker and Christian writer says this in his book Celebration of Discipline.
Simplicity is freedom. Duplicity is bondage. Simplicity brings joy and balance. Duplicity brings anxiety and fear. The preacher of Ecclesiastes observed that "God made people simple; people's complex problems are of their own devising." (Eccles 7:39).Elaine Prevallet - a spiritual writer and director of Knobs Haven retreat center...
It is interesting to set the word "simplicity" alongside other words that have the same root. The root plex means "fold." Related words - multiplicity, duplicity, complicity - might suggest images of material spread out with many folds, two folds, folded together. Simplicity means spread out without folds...To be simple is to be free-flowing, unimpeded, not caught in folds or pockets, not sidetracked (p. 8 Weavings 1990)
Free-flowing...
unimpeded...not caught in folds or pockets, not sidetracked...
This is a good beginning definition for us, I think. But can you all understand now the complexity of simplicity? This is what causght me short. These are the things that make me stop and ask the questions...
Am I simple?
Do I live simply?
Am I even capable of it?
And, really, does it have anything to do with God?
Elaine Prevalette's writing is helpful here. She says that the word "simple" does not appear very often in the New Testament. But when it does, she says, it refers to "a manner of giving: a ready generosity, a liberality of spirit, a free-flowing altruism that is not folded in on itself."
a manner of giving...
Simplicity is a manner of giving.
a liberality of giving
Simplicity, says Foster, is freedom.
Giving.
Freedom.
Simplicity is the gift of freedom.
...then do not forget yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery...(deut. 8:14)These are the words of Deuteronomy, the lessons that the ancient Hebrews learned from God, about God and had to rediscover time and time again.
"Do not forget yourself, forgetting the Lord your God..."The Hebrews' identity and God's identity are wrapped up in one another. The Hebrews' identity is founded on the notion that who they are is a gift from God. Their very freedom is a gift. And the idea could not be more straightforward...more simple.
For the author of Deuteronomy, freedom is found in God. All that they are, all that they were and still will be is wrapped up in God...in the very real freedom that they received by God's own hands...and the spiritual freedoms that came along with it.
This is a difficult teaching. They struggled with it.
Do not say to yourself "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth (Deut. 8:17)."But remember the Lord.
The Lord is freedom.
Simplicity is freedom. Be simple.
To be simple is to always remember the Lord, to remember who God is and who we are in relationship with God. The neglect of this memory leads to all kinds of trouble.
Economic trouble.
Pride.
Greed.
And interestingly a return to slavery. We become a slave to the complications we create, the injustice, the lack of mercy. There is no simplicity to be had. There is no freedom.
God's call is always...always to take us out of the house of slavery and into the house of freedom...into Simplicity.
You will hear these words again and again from Richard Foster...and from me. "Simplicity is an inward and outward discipline."
If we insist on keeping it inwardly focused alone it becomes empty, false promises and false freedom. If we insist on keeping it only on the outside not allowing the disciplines to change our hearts, then we are left with legalism...another kind of slavery.
Simplicity is an inward and outward discipline. It is freedom. It is a gift.
In our gospel passage this morning the worry that Christ speaks of in Matthew's Gospel is an inward worry...that inward dynamic of anxiety that most of us live with. It is an inward awareness Christ is asking of us. But he asks us to look outward to find solace in the midst of our anxiety. He's asking for a little perspective, a little trust. He wants us to remember who we are just like the writer of Deuteronomy does.
Do not worry saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What will we wear?" For it is the Gentiles that strive for all these things.And here we are again back in the Exodus.
Jesus says The Gentiles are the people who do not know their relationship with God. They do not know the fulfillment of the promise of freedom. Matthew's is a Jewish Gospel. He's a Jew, writing for Jewish Christians struggling within Jewish Communities.
Richard Foster hinges his understanding of simplicity upon this passage. For him it is the core of the discipline. Freedom is found here. Freedom is found in simplicity.
Everything in Matthew's Gospel also hinges on this sermon. What's interesting is that this passage is part of a much longer sermon...The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew begins this sermon with the Beatitudes and ends it with a story about a house built on sand and what happens when the rain comes.
The core of the Gospel of Jesus is in this sermon. And Christ will speak of inward and outward discipline, about peacemaking, about the merciful and the poor in spirit...and where we put our trust. All of this, all, is the discipline of simplicity.
Jesus can say all this because he knows the promises of God. He wants those who follow him to know these promises as well. He wants us to know freedom. He wants us to be simple.
He wants us to receive this freedom as a gift - a gift from God.
God brings us out of the house of slavery. God brings us into the house of freedom.
Jesus knows the slavery is real. It's spiritual and physical. It is inward and outward. He knows that we are all tied up in our anxiety, our stuff or lack thereof. We are tied up in our wealth and our poverty. God wants us to be free. Christ wants us to follow this call. Christ wants us to follow him.
Simplicity.
It's so lovely.
But do we know what we've received and what it will ask of us?
At the beginning of this sermon I said that I don't know what simplicity is. I still feel that way. Such freedom as simplicity is foreign to me.
But I want to issue an invitation to you.
Will you come with me as I learn how to live simply? Will you journey with us as we step outside these walls and share what we learn? Can we do this together?
Because I am not sure I can do this by myself.
And I am not sure where it will lead us. But I do know that Christ has paved a way and that God has brought us out of slavery. Let us receive this gift. And then let us offer it to all who would hear.
Remember the Lord.
Be simple.
Be free.
Thursday, September 6
Calling a special Congregational Meeting
There will be a special congregational meeting following our worship service Sunday September 16th.
Tuesday, September 4
Announcements in lieu of Weekly update
August seems to be a time where none of us pastors had time for writing a weekly Update. The Glenwood Arts Festival August 25 adn26th was a fun time, and our booth of Daniel's, Bear's and my (Larry) art seemed to bring greater interest than our booth at the Clark Street Festival. Daniel's pieces and the icons seemed to be of the most interest. Tripp and I were able to meet a couple of pastors from other congregations in Rogers Park. Thanks to everyone who helped staff the booth, and especially to Chrissy who signed us up for the booth and organized the staffing of the booth.
Now for the announcements:
A reminder our worship time is moving to 5PM this Sunday, September 9.
We are planning an all church leadership retreat for the fall at the Cenacle retreat center here in Chicago, November 30th and December 1st, Friday evening and all day Saturday.
Our next Council meeting is Thursday September 20th.
Now for the announcements:
A reminder our worship time is moving to 5PM this Sunday, September 9.
We are planning an all church leadership retreat for the fall at the Cenacle retreat center here in Chicago, November 30th and December 1st, Friday evening and all day Saturday.
Our next Council meeting is Thursday September 20th.
Sunday, September 2
Sermon: Exalting in Humility
Proper 17 (22)
Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14
Sept. 2, 2007
Preacher: The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
+++
That Jesus. Always the counter-cultural one. Sometimes I read the gospel and think “I’m supposed to do what?” After all these years the gospel’s been around, it still hits with the shock of newness, feels like a cold splash of water in the face. Shocking. But also refreshing, enlivening. Wakes you up.
After the initial shock, challenge, even dismay that can come when I read Jesus’s words…comes the sense of liberation. The gospel inevitably ends up making me look at some hang-up I have, or that we as a culture have, and provides a more life-giving perspective.
Today’s gospel is no exception.
Don’t exalt yourself, Jesus says. Humble yourself. Choose the least important place at the table, not the most. Easy for him to say, right? Well, maybe it wasn’t easy for him to say. But it’s certainly not easy for most of us to do.
Jesus is on one level talking about table manners, literally choosing the place of least honor at a banquet. But he’s also talking about more than that. Symbolically, there are many ways to the choose lowest place at the table. At home, work, or church, we can sign up for the less glamorous jobs like taking notes, moving chairs, doing dishes, or caring for children. Pretty counter-cultural, right? What about looking out for #1 and getting the position of honor? Isn’t that what our society’s about? Yeah, but it’s not what Jesus is about.
Jesus is talking about service – choosing to be a servant. Which is very different from being forced to be a servant. We have some negative associations with servanthood, and rightly so. It’s wrong to take away another’s freedom or dignity. But Paul talks with pride about being a slave of love. The difference is choice. When we freely choose to be a servant, it can be liberating not oppressing.
Christian author Richard Foster says service can help us gain something vital: humility. Now, humility is tough to acquire. You can’t get it by seeking it. “Thinking we have it is clear evidence that we don’t.”[1] So what’s our best shot at becoming humble in this lifetime? Developing a discipline of service.
Foster differentiates between self-righteous and self-giving service. When we serve self-righteously, we seek to get credit for what we do. It may be very subtle, and we may disguise it in socially or religiously acceptable ways, but ultimately we’re in it for ourselves. On the other hand, when we serve for its own sake, we don’t care about the limelight. We don’t get our noses out of joint if people don’t rush to praise us. God’s approval is enough.
This is hard to live out sometimes. We all need affirmation, just treatment, and fair compensation. But it can be very freeing to serve for its own sake. When we make ourselves useful without looking for the big pay-off, we can tap into a source much deeper and more life-giving than our egos. We break out of petty cycles of proving our worth, looking for external rewards, and self-aggrandizing. These self-oriented behaviors are what Jesus takes to task in today’s gospel, and suggests we take to task within ourselves.
How can service help us develop humility? Richard Foster always offers practical suggestions as well as theology, which is one of the things I like about him.
Some kinds of service you and I can embrace in our daily lives are:
The service of hiddenness. Quietly praying for others without their knowledge. Doing a favor for someone, without their knowing you did it.
The Service of small things. Helping each other in trifling, external matters. Running errands, paying bills, buying groceries, sewing clothes, cooking a meal. As Bonhoeffer says in Life Together “Nobody is too good for the meanest service. One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly.”
The service of charity. Guarding others’ reputations and refraining from gossip. Speaking the truth in love directly to folks instead of gossiping about them. And not listening to slanderous talk.
The service of being served. When we let others serve us, we humble ourselves and acknowledge their “kingdom authority” over us. They need to give as well as receive. It can be wrongful pride to refuse to be on the receiving end. And we can miss out on a lot of good stuff! Like, if someone offers you a backrub, take it! Don’t deprive them of their right to serve. J
The service of courtesy. Some folks dismiss social graces as shallow, even meaningless or hypocritical. But they serve a deeper purpose -- to acknowledge and affirm the worth of others, and to show respect. Remember kind words. Thank you. Please. Letters of appreciation. RSVP’s. Returning correspondence promptly. It’s all good.
The service of listening. We often under-rate its importance. We feel we need to have answers. No. Many times we just need to be with people and listen deeply, without judging, or rushing to fix.
The service of hospitality. This need not be complicated or elaborate. Just opening up our homes and sharing what we have is lovely.
The service of bearing one another’s burdens. Again, just accompanying others, hanging out with them, weeping with those who weep, comforting those who mourn. And letting Jesus, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, be the one who ultimately gives us all the strength to bear up under hardship.
Finally, the service of sharing the word of God with one another. If something comes to you in prayer, church, from the Bible, wherever, pass it on. Of course, none of us speaks infallibly, but it’s our sacred responsibility to share the insights we have, and our faith journeys.
How to incorporate this life of service? Most of us already have or we wouldn’t be here. But here’s a small prayer with which we can begin each day: ”Lord Jesus, as it would please you, bring me someone today whom I can serve.”
Through service we can know joy and true humility. Our hearts can be lifted up and reach heights our egos cannot take us to. This is the good news.
Today’s gospel falls into two parts: in the first section, Jesus talks about humbling ourselves by choosing the place of least honor at the table. In the second section, he talks about inviting the poor, lame, crippled and blind to supper, instead of friends and neighbors who can reciprocate. These parts are clearly related. The second intensifies and deepens the first, makes an even more radical demand on us. The first part is about humbling ourselves when we’re with our social peers. The second is about humbling ourselves with those our society calls less fortunate.
Many if not all of us have sat down to eat with folks who are poor, blind, crippled, or otherwise struggling. And we know this is often a surprising reward in and of itself. People who serve in soup kitchens and sit down to table with the homeless usually feel very blessed by these encounters. This is certainly my experience. But there are also social prohibitions that make it a relatively rare occurrence. As we all know, the kingdom of God isn’t a reality on earth yet.
Who we eat with is huge. It says a lot about who we are. I think back to junior high. It was so important to have a group of friends to sit with at lunch, right? It mattered a lot who you ate with. In a sense, it defined you socially.
These instincts are alive and well in those of us who have survived junior high. Some tables, like neighborhoods and churches, seem to have invisible fences around them. You know who can get in and who has to stay out.
In a number of ways, we in this room have been and still are in solidarity with those outside the fences. But table fellowship with those who are truly struggling –we could make it more often a part of our daily life and work. There are still a lot of fences, aren’t there?
On my way out of town with my family a few weeks back, we stopped at a fast food restaurant off the highway, and a man approached our car, mumbling he was trying to get to Chicago and needed a meal. I opened my purse to see what kind of change I had. He indicated he’d meet us inside. I found him sitting at a table. I asked what kind of meal he wanted, bought it for him, and brought it to his table. He seemed thankful, and seemed to want nothing else.
I was glad to help. It was easy. And I knew exactly where the money was going. But I realized I had mixed feelings about the possibility of sitting and talking with him further. I was with young children who are vulnerable. That’s one thing. But on another level I wondered, what else might he want or need? How might my life change from the encounter, from hearing his story, learning why he was there at that particular exit on that particular highway? Where had he been? What did his future look like? How might he in some way become my responsibility?
Perhaps no more was required of me that day. He seemed just fine with his meal. I saw him eat peacefully, then leave quietly, walking straight and tall. Perhaps he had wanted solitude, not company. Maybe it was just an opportunity for him to bless us with a chance to serve. No more no less.
But it made me reflect. I saw that my desire to help this man was juxtaposed with what I teach my children, that it’s not safe to talk to strangers. My urge to help someone hungry was juxtaposed with my desire to protect my family and self. I also had a desire not to be scammed. I felt like I was dealing with some invisible social fences, and wondered how to bridge them, what God might be asking of me, what this man really needed, what it all might mean. That meal provided a lot of food for thought.
In various settings in my life, I’ve worked with the poor, blind, and lame, the deaf and developmentally challenged, the very old and very young. It has been true privilege and joy, as well as some hard work. Yet only a handful of times have I invited someone homeless, mentally, or physically handicapped to my home for a meal or party, and I wonder: could I do better, without having it be awkward for the person invited, or taking an unnecessary risk for them or my family? I wonder: How to navigate that line, cross that fence?
These words of Jesus’s challenge me – challenge all of us – to invite folks who are suffering, who’re on the fringes, who can’t reciprocate quid pro quo, into our lives in ways that are meaningful. To have literal and symbolic table fellowship that’s not so fenced in. To serve those who aren’t our socioeconomic and able-bodied peers along with those who are. Then, and only then!! will we have a chance at crushing our subtle, sneaky egos that so often look out for what’s in it for us.
We can be servants to the poor, blind, and lame in all the ways Foster suggests we serve one another. In hidden ways as well as more overtly. Offering hospitality. Bearing burdens. Listening. Running errands. Bringing food. Sharing the word of life. Lobbying for them. Receiving from them. Working for a more just world. And knowing ultimately, there is no us or them. All of us are poor, blind, lame or crippled. It’s just a matter of how. And often the blind see the most, the crippled travel the furthest, the poor are the richest in spirit. I think we know these truths to be self-evident, counter-cultural though they are.
Throughout Jesus’s ministry, he consistently takes aim at our animal natures, our social Darwinism. He challenges our pecking orders, hierarchies, pack mentalities, selfish genes, our fight or flight reflexes. He’s always seeking to get us to crucify the animal within. He shows us another way, an upside-down kingdom. A way closer to the angels than the beasts. In the world Jesus would have us create, the humble are exalted, the last first, the wrong people get into heaven before the right ones, and if you want to be a master, be a servant. And you should eat with the “wrong” people, and those who can’t reciprocate in kind, if you want to get right with God.
I know everyone in this room gets today’s gospel message, and is dealing with it, in ways that are real, diverse and amazing. But that’s the thing about the gospel – it’s so difficult to live out we could always do better. My prayer for each of us is that we’ll notice more closely our opportunities for service. Not only with each other, but with those who can’t repay us in ways we might like or expect. Someone whose eyes or limbs give them trouble. Maybe an old person. A child. Someone with AIDs. Someone hungry. Keep your eyes open. Take the time. Climb the fence. Sit and eat. No it’s not always easy, fun, or without risk, is it. But if we do it with true humility, the angels are exultant and our own hearts likewise will rejoice and be lifted up.
Amen.
***
[1] Richard Foster, A Celebration of Discipline.
Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14
Sept. 2, 2007
Preacher: The Rev. Laura Gottardi-Littell
+++
That Jesus. Always the counter-cultural one. Sometimes I read the gospel and think “I’m supposed to do what?” After all these years the gospel’s been around, it still hits with the shock of newness, feels like a cold splash of water in the face. Shocking. But also refreshing, enlivening. Wakes you up.
After the initial shock, challenge, even dismay that can come when I read Jesus’s words…comes the sense of liberation. The gospel inevitably ends up making me look at some hang-up I have, or that we as a culture have, and provides a more life-giving perspective.
Today’s gospel is no exception.
Don’t exalt yourself, Jesus says. Humble yourself. Choose the least important place at the table, not the most. Easy for him to say, right? Well, maybe it wasn’t easy for him to say. But it’s certainly not easy for most of us to do.
Jesus is on one level talking about table manners, literally choosing the place of least honor at a banquet. But he’s also talking about more than that. Symbolically, there are many ways to the choose lowest place at the table. At home, work, or church, we can sign up for the less glamorous jobs like taking notes, moving chairs, doing dishes, or caring for children. Pretty counter-cultural, right? What about looking out for #1 and getting the position of honor? Isn’t that what our society’s about? Yeah, but it’s not what Jesus is about.
Jesus is talking about service – choosing to be a servant. Which is very different from being forced to be a servant. We have some negative associations with servanthood, and rightly so. It’s wrong to take away another’s freedom or dignity. But Paul talks with pride about being a slave of love. The difference is choice. When we freely choose to be a servant, it can be liberating not oppressing.
Christian author Richard Foster says service can help us gain something vital: humility. Now, humility is tough to acquire. You can’t get it by seeking it. “Thinking we have it is clear evidence that we don’t.”[1] So what’s our best shot at becoming humble in this lifetime? Developing a discipline of service.
Foster differentiates between self-righteous and self-giving service. When we serve self-righteously, we seek to get credit for what we do. It may be very subtle, and we may disguise it in socially or religiously acceptable ways, but ultimately we’re in it for ourselves. On the other hand, when we serve for its own sake, we don’t care about the limelight. We don’t get our noses out of joint if people don’t rush to praise us. God’s approval is enough.
This is hard to live out sometimes. We all need affirmation, just treatment, and fair compensation. But it can be very freeing to serve for its own sake. When we make ourselves useful without looking for the big pay-off, we can tap into a source much deeper and more life-giving than our egos. We break out of petty cycles of proving our worth, looking for external rewards, and self-aggrandizing. These self-oriented behaviors are what Jesus takes to task in today’s gospel, and suggests we take to task within ourselves.
How can service help us develop humility? Richard Foster always offers practical suggestions as well as theology, which is one of the things I like about him.
Some kinds of service you and I can embrace in our daily lives are:
The service of hiddenness. Quietly praying for others without their knowledge. Doing a favor for someone, without their knowing you did it.
The Service of small things. Helping each other in trifling, external matters. Running errands, paying bills, buying groceries, sewing clothes, cooking a meal. As Bonhoeffer says in Life Together “Nobody is too good for the meanest service. One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly.”
The service of charity. Guarding others’ reputations and refraining from gossip. Speaking the truth in love directly to folks instead of gossiping about them. And not listening to slanderous talk.
The service of being served. When we let others serve us, we humble ourselves and acknowledge their “kingdom authority” over us. They need to give as well as receive. It can be wrongful pride to refuse to be on the receiving end. And we can miss out on a lot of good stuff! Like, if someone offers you a backrub, take it! Don’t deprive them of their right to serve. J
The service of courtesy. Some folks dismiss social graces as shallow, even meaningless or hypocritical. But they serve a deeper purpose -- to acknowledge and affirm the worth of others, and to show respect. Remember kind words. Thank you. Please. Letters of appreciation. RSVP’s. Returning correspondence promptly. It’s all good.
The service of listening. We often under-rate its importance. We feel we need to have answers. No. Many times we just need to be with people and listen deeply, without judging, or rushing to fix.
The service of hospitality. This need not be complicated or elaborate. Just opening up our homes and sharing what we have is lovely.
The service of bearing one another’s burdens. Again, just accompanying others, hanging out with them, weeping with those who weep, comforting those who mourn. And letting Jesus, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, be the one who ultimately gives us all the strength to bear up under hardship.
Finally, the service of sharing the word of God with one another. If something comes to you in prayer, church, from the Bible, wherever, pass it on. Of course, none of us speaks infallibly, but it’s our sacred responsibility to share the insights we have, and our faith journeys.
How to incorporate this life of service? Most of us already have or we wouldn’t be here. But here’s a small prayer with which we can begin each day: ”Lord Jesus, as it would please you, bring me someone today whom I can serve.”
Through service we can know joy and true humility. Our hearts can be lifted up and reach heights our egos cannot take us to. This is the good news.
Today’s gospel falls into two parts: in the first section, Jesus talks about humbling ourselves by choosing the place of least honor at the table. In the second section, he talks about inviting the poor, lame, crippled and blind to supper, instead of friends and neighbors who can reciprocate. These parts are clearly related. The second intensifies and deepens the first, makes an even more radical demand on us. The first part is about humbling ourselves when we’re with our social peers. The second is about humbling ourselves with those our society calls less fortunate.
Many if not all of us have sat down to eat with folks who are poor, blind, crippled, or otherwise struggling. And we know this is often a surprising reward in and of itself. People who serve in soup kitchens and sit down to table with the homeless usually feel very blessed by these encounters. This is certainly my experience. But there are also social prohibitions that make it a relatively rare occurrence. As we all know, the kingdom of God isn’t a reality on earth yet.
Who we eat with is huge. It says a lot about who we are. I think back to junior high. It was so important to have a group of friends to sit with at lunch, right? It mattered a lot who you ate with. In a sense, it defined you socially.
These instincts are alive and well in those of us who have survived junior high. Some tables, like neighborhoods and churches, seem to have invisible fences around them. You know who can get in and who has to stay out.
In a number of ways, we in this room have been and still are in solidarity with those outside the fences. But table fellowship with those who are truly struggling –we could make it more often a part of our daily life and work. There are still a lot of fences, aren’t there?
On my way out of town with my family a few weeks back, we stopped at a fast food restaurant off the highway, and a man approached our car, mumbling he was trying to get to Chicago and needed a meal. I opened my purse to see what kind of change I had. He indicated he’d meet us inside. I found him sitting at a table. I asked what kind of meal he wanted, bought it for him, and brought it to his table. He seemed thankful, and seemed to want nothing else.
I was glad to help. It was easy. And I knew exactly where the money was going. But I realized I had mixed feelings about the possibility of sitting and talking with him further. I was with young children who are vulnerable. That’s one thing. But on another level I wondered, what else might he want or need? How might my life change from the encounter, from hearing his story, learning why he was there at that particular exit on that particular highway? Where had he been? What did his future look like? How might he in some way become my responsibility?
Perhaps no more was required of me that day. He seemed just fine with his meal. I saw him eat peacefully, then leave quietly, walking straight and tall. Perhaps he had wanted solitude, not company. Maybe it was just an opportunity for him to bless us with a chance to serve. No more no less.
But it made me reflect. I saw that my desire to help this man was juxtaposed with what I teach my children, that it’s not safe to talk to strangers. My urge to help someone hungry was juxtaposed with my desire to protect my family and self. I also had a desire not to be scammed. I felt like I was dealing with some invisible social fences, and wondered how to bridge them, what God might be asking of me, what this man really needed, what it all might mean. That meal provided a lot of food for thought.
In various settings in my life, I’ve worked with the poor, blind, and lame, the deaf and developmentally challenged, the very old and very young. It has been true privilege and joy, as well as some hard work. Yet only a handful of times have I invited someone homeless, mentally, or physically handicapped to my home for a meal or party, and I wonder: could I do better, without having it be awkward for the person invited, or taking an unnecessary risk for them or my family? I wonder: How to navigate that line, cross that fence?
These words of Jesus’s challenge me – challenge all of us – to invite folks who are suffering, who’re on the fringes, who can’t reciprocate quid pro quo, into our lives in ways that are meaningful. To have literal and symbolic table fellowship that’s not so fenced in. To serve those who aren’t our socioeconomic and able-bodied peers along with those who are. Then, and only then!! will we have a chance at crushing our subtle, sneaky egos that so often look out for what’s in it for us.
We can be servants to the poor, blind, and lame in all the ways Foster suggests we serve one another. In hidden ways as well as more overtly. Offering hospitality. Bearing burdens. Listening. Running errands. Bringing food. Sharing the word of life. Lobbying for them. Receiving from them. Working for a more just world. And knowing ultimately, there is no us or them. All of us are poor, blind, lame or crippled. It’s just a matter of how. And often the blind see the most, the crippled travel the furthest, the poor are the richest in spirit. I think we know these truths to be self-evident, counter-cultural though they are.
Throughout Jesus’s ministry, he consistently takes aim at our animal natures, our social Darwinism. He challenges our pecking orders, hierarchies, pack mentalities, selfish genes, our fight or flight reflexes. He’s always seeking to get us to crucify the animal within. He shows us another way, an upside-down kingdom. A way closer to the angels than the beasts. In the world Jesus would have us create, the humble are exalted, the last first, the wrong people get into heaven before the right ones, and if you want to be a master, be a servant. And you should eat with the “wrong” people, and those who can’t reciprocate in kind, if you want to get right with God.
I know everyone in this room gets today’s gospel message, and is dealing with it, in ways that are real, diverse and amazing. But that’s the thing about the gospel – it’s so difficult to live out we could always do better. My prayer for each of us is that we’ll notice more closely our opportunities for service. Not only with each other, but with those who can’t repay us in ways we might like or expect. Someone whose eyes or limbs give them trouble. Maybe an old person. A child. Someone with AIDs. Someone hungry. Keep your eyes open. Take the time. Climb the fence. Sit and eat. No it’s not always easy, fun, or without risk, is it. But if we do it with true humility, the angels are exultant and our own hearts likewise will rejoice and be lifted up.
Amen.
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[1] Richard Foster, A Celebration of Discipline.
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