Sermon – Page 16

Sermon

October 2, 2016, Dr. Buz Wilcoxon

Yesterday, was a big day at our house. Our son, Wilson, turned four years old. And boy, was it one heck of a party! Now, by the measure of the world that’s not a big deal. Hundreds of thousands of children are born every day. So, every day somebody, hundreds of thousands of somebodies, turn four years old. But for me, this one is special. And honestly, I think it was made a little more special because I had been reading through this scripture passage from the book of Proverbs over the week in preparation for today—this passage that is all about a parent passing on wisdom to a child.

Most of what is contained in the book of Proverbs are little saying, the nuggets of wisdom that everyone in the community already knows by heart. We have our own proverbs today: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Making us wise, that’s what proverbs are all about. They are the real life, every day wisdom that holds a society together and carries forward the insight of previous generations.

But before we get to that collection of wise sayings, the book of Proverbs opens with a talk. A talk between a parent and a child. Well, it’s actually not much of a conversation. For 8 chapters in a row, all we hear is the voice of the parent. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Have you ever been on the receiving end of this kind of talk from a parent? This isn’t a talkin’ with. This is a talkin’ to.

It reminds me of the story of a father and his oldest child going off to college. This dad decided that after he moved his daughter into her dorm room he needed to have one last talk with her. One last chance to pass on all of life’s wisdom that he hadn’t had the chance to share. For weeks and weeks beforehand he silently rehearsed what he was going to say. He built it up in his mind into something so monumental and important that surely one day people would write books about that talk that he gave to his daughter.

Well, finally the day came. They moved all her belongings into the room on the third floor of the dorm. He kept trying to start his big talk, but there never really was an opening for him. Then, as he saw her talking with other students and meeting her roommate he started to get emotional. He thought of how short a time it had been since she was his little girl, and how proud he was of the woman she’d become. The hours were passing and he just couldn’t bring himself to start his big talk. Finally, all the unpacking was over and it was time for the new students to head off for their first event and for all the parents to leave campus. They walked outside the dorm, and it came time to say goodbye. This was it! It was his last chance. It was now or never. He had to pass on all of his life’s wisdom, right there in the parkinglot. He gave his daughter a big hug, looked her in the eye and said, “Remember to look both ways before you cross the street.” And that was it. That was all he could muster.

The talk that the parent in Proverbs gives is a lot more wordy, but it carries that same mix of love and learning woven together. The parent wants to inspire in their child a deep desire to search for God’s wisdom throughout life. The parent speaks of making “your ear attentive to wisdom” and “search[ing] for it like hidden treasure.” That’s good. I need to remember that. If I told my kids that something was like a treasure hunt, that would get their attention. The wise parent knows, though that the search for wisdom is a two way street. We must seek for truth, but in the end it is the action of God, not the seeker, that imparts wisdom. The parent says, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from God’s mouth come knowledge and understanding.” As another wise person once said, “We pursue wisdom, [but ultimately it is] wisdom who find us.”[i]

The wisdom that the parent is trying to teach—biblical wisdom—is the real-life insight and truth that comes from experiencing the joys and pains of the life of faith. It is an orientation of the heart and mind that grows from seeing what God is up to in the world. It is a path, a well worn path, travelled by many who have gone before us, with markers along the way, pointing us in directions that we should follow. Wisdom—biblical wisdom—is a deep awareness of God’s presence and activity in all of life, even and especially when we cannot immediately perceive it.

As many of you heard last week, over the course of this year we are being guided by a church-wide theme for our programs: Woven Together. We will explore the many ways that God is at work in our lives, weaving us into whole, integrated people. We will celebrate the ways that this Church’s ministry is woven together, as worship, mission, stewardship, fellowship, and education all overlap and intersect, forming us into disciples. We will examine how we are called to be woven together with our families, our communities, our neighbors local and around the globe.

That image of being woven together by God, is also a wonderful way of expressing the kind of wisdom that this parent is trying to pass on in the book of Proverbs. Think of a tapestry, a large beautiful piece of art, intricately woven to create patterns and images. When you look at a tapestry the typical way, looking at it head on, you see one thing. You see the picture. A little bit of red here. A line of blue there. That’s how many of us look at our lives. We glimpse the colors where we expect them to be and just assume that everything is in its place where it belongs. But the wise person, the seeker of truth, the kind of person that the parent of Proverbs is and wants their child to become—the wise person—sees the tapestry of life very differently.

By truly examining it, digging deep into the pattern, eventually the one who searches for wisdom, ends up looking at the tapestry of life from the other side—from the back side. And there, at first it looks like a royal mess. Things are going every which way. Thread is tied in one place and frayed in others. Long-unattractive lines are visible so that the same color that appears briefly at one point can reappear again further down. The wise person is the one that can look at the tapestry of life and perceive not just the quick and easy superficial image on the front, but can also understand what’s really going on in the back. Making meaning out of the mess. Finding purpose in the mystery and misery. Seeing God’s long stretched presence when at first all we felt was absence. Not falling for the trap of what is immediately obvious, but patiently perceiving God’s purpose and love amid all of life’s seeming disorder. That is what the wise person does.

It reminds me another teachable moment—one shared not with a parent and a child but with a teacher and his students. This teacher was known for his great wisdom. Large crowds gathered whenever he spoke. Some of his students began to follow him around so that they could learn more and more from him about how to live. Then one night, that teacher sat down at a table with is students. From one side of the tapestry, this looked like a pretty typical meal, in the upper room of a house. The teacher was playing the role of the host, 12 others were the guests. They sat and talked and listened to his teaching. While he was at the table with them he took the break and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. No big deal. This is how meals happen all the time. Then he poured some wine in a cup and they shared that too. From one side of the tapestry, the pattern looks familiar. It is one that we share all the time.

But to the wise person, the one willing to look on the backside of the story, something more is going on at this meal, much more than is immediately obvious. This simple supper of bread and wine is actually the first course of events that will change the world. This table with disciples gathered around it is actually a glimpse into the heavenly banquet table, where all people will come from east and west and north and south, colorfully different and beautifully diverse strands woven together into the kingdom of God. To the wise one with eyes to see and ears to hear, what is going on at this table, is much much deeper than words can express—a mystery of God’s love and grace being worked out before our very eyes. What was supposed to be the final meal, the last supper, instead is the first feast of the new creation, the Lord’s Supper that nourishes throughout our journey of faith.

And so today as we prepare to come together, to be woven together in this feast, let us listen to the invitation of the wise parent ringing in our ears and in our hearts. As we celebrate here this day, what God alone has done for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, may we leave this table today hungry for more—hungry for what Proverbs describes “righteousness and justice and equity.” Not willing to settle for the superficial images of the world as it is, but to strive together for who God is calling us to become. Let us go from this table into the world, nourished by God’s word, God’s wisdom, and ready to live it out in our daily lives. Whether we’re 4 or 94 may we search in each and every day for opportunities for wisdom, real life acts of justice, moments for truth, as we are formed together more and more into the people that God created us to be, the people that Christ teaches us to be, the people that the Holy Spirit empowers us to be. A people woven together by wisdom and truth.

To God alone be the glory!

[i] Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries, page 34.

Scripture

Proverbs 2:1-11

My child, if you accept my words and
treasure up my commandments within you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom and
inclining your heart to understanding;
if you indeed cry out for insight,
and raise your voice for understanding;
if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—
then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly,
guarding the paths of justice
and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity,
every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
prudence will watch over you;
and understanding will guard you.

Dr. Buz Wilcoxon

September 18, 2016

The talk that the parent in Proverbs gives is a lot more wordy, but it carries that same mix of love and learning woven together. The parent wants to inspire in their child a deep desire to search for God’s wisdom throughout life. The parent speaks of making “your ear attentive to wisdom” and “search[ing] for it like hidden treasure.” That’s good. I need to remember that. If I told my kids that something was like a treasure hunt, that would get their attention. The wise parent knows, though that the search for wisdom is a two way street. We must seek for truth, but in the end it is the action of God, not the seeker, that imparts wisdom. The parent says, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from God’s mouth come knowledge and understanding.” As another wise person once said, “We pursue wisdom, [but ultimately it is] wisdom who find us.”(1)

As many of you heard last week, over the course of this year we are being guided by a church-wide theme for our programs: Woven Together. We will explore the many ways that God is at work in our lives, weaving us into whole, integrated people. We will celebrate the ways that this Church’s ministry is woven together, as worship, mission, stewardship, fellowship, and education all overlap and intersect, forming us into disciples. We will examine how we are called to be woven together with our families, our communities, our neighbors local and around the globe.

To God alone be the glory!
_____________________
(1) Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries, page 34.

Proverbs 2:1-11

Sermon

September 11, 2016: Dr. Buz Wilcoxon

Julie was sitting in a freshman biology class during her second semester of college. On this particular week they were studying a section of the course devoted to the respiratory system of the human body. This was all stuff she had learned before in high school. She know the big picture, but this was college, so that meant she’d be held to a higher standard of knowledge. In class that day, the professor was lecturing about the mechanics of breathing, how the diaphragm muscle contracts and causes the volume of the cavity where the lungs are to increase. This change creates a vacuum effect, causing air to rush into the lungs. Julie was interested as she heard the professor explain how this biological process depends on the basic principles of physics. Physics? That was a completely different class, but it seemed to matter in this one as well.

Then the professor went on to describe the intricate details of how the oxygen molecules that are sucked into the lungs diffuse through very thin tissue and connect with protein molecules in blood cells. Now they were talking about chemistry. Julie knew the rest of the story, how those oxygen rich blood cells went throughout the body and all that they did to keep us alive. But what fascinated her in that moment were the connections. The overlaps. Biology, Physics, Chemistry. All working together. And then in a flash of mental recognition her mind jumped back to the previous semester when they learned about the process of photosynthesis in plants, how they make their energy and spit out oxygen as an unneeded byproduct. We breathe that oxygen in and breathe out carbon dioxide that the plants need. And this intricate and interconnected cycle goes on and on and on. In a feeling that was hard to describe with words, Julie, sitting in that science classroom, had a movement of revelation. She was moved to a state of awe and wonder and curiosity and a little bit of fear and a little bit of joy as she realized, really for the first time, just how deeply interwoven and interdependent all life is with one another. How so how many different systems were working together just so that she could be sitting there in that moment, in a classroom, breathing, and thinking and living! It’s all connected. It is woven together.

The author of our scripture lesson today from the book of Psalms is writing about a very similar moment of revelation in his life. The psalmist looks back on his many years and sees all the ways that God has been and continues to be present. In poetic words, the psalmist proclaims how before his birth it was God “who formed [his] inward parts; [God who] knit [him] together in [his] mother’s womb.” Each and every tissue and cell carefully and purposefully threaded together by God. Not just at the beginning, but all throughout his life, the psalmist sees how God continues to connect parts and pieces, “ You hem me in, behind and before”—woven together from the beginning an to his final end.

It is this kind of life-long, journeying and connecting approach to the Christian faith, that many thinking churches seek to foster in their shared life. Presbyterians have long had a reputation for being a pretty deep-thinking, question-asking, connecting crowd. For centuries, our tradition has emphasized the importance of life of the mind and heart, woven together in service to God.

A friend recently shared something his father, a retired minister, used to say about the importance of life-long Christian growth and that comes through reflection and serious study. He said, “As adults we wouldn’t be satisfied with a second grade reading level, would we? Then why should we settle for a second grade level of faith development?” No, life-long process of Christian formation is about learning and connecting more and more of the ways that God’s deep wisdom weaves in and out of our lives, looking for new ways that God’s love intersects in our world–sometimes in surprising places. It’s all woven together.

This church is one that seeks to foster just such a deepening sense of faith development throughout all of life. From foundational children’s ministries that nurture faith in the early years, to formative youth ministry building authentic community during the critical stage of adolescents. From college ministries creating safe spaces to wonder and wander, to vibrant adult classes that ask you to bring your full mind to the table and refuse to settle for easy answers, this church has a strong sense of what it means to grow in faith throughout all of life’s journey. Not only that, but when we are at our best, the connectional model of our life together doesn’t just move in a straight time line through the years. It also moves back and forth, weaving around as memory and hope intersect connecting us to those who have gone before us and the generations that will follow after us. So too, the various aspects of our congregation’s life such as worship, mission, stewardship, fellowship, and of course Christian education all organically overlap in ways that make it hard to draw sharp distinctions between our ministries. When we foster these intersection in our live and our communities, we grow more and more into the integrated people God creates us to be.

Celebrating this intersecting, integrated, intergenerational ministry is part of what Rally Day is all about. It’s the official kick-off of the church year, the grand opening of our “Woven Together” theme that we will encounter throughout the months to come as we bring the beautifully diverse threads of our lives and ministries together into a tapestry of faith that God is weaving here.

Now, that may all sound nice and tied together with a pretty bow on top. But what we are talking about is much harder and much more real than just a nice sounding catch phrase. Being woven together as people and as a community is very very difficult work, for we live in a disjointed, disconnected, isolating world. A world where we fragment and compartmentalize in order to survive. A world where divisions build power and win elections. A world where the pressures to succeed at all cost means cutting ties with anyone who can’t help your advance. A world where we build neighborhoods, and schools, and social systems intended to segregate us from others in our own community. We live in world that seems bent on tearing apart those whom God has woven together. Our brokenness, division, and separation as a human race continues to grow. On some days, days like today, the fifteenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, on days like today that brokenness and division seems right in our face.

Fifteen years ago today we stood still in fear, watching the scenes unfolding on the TV screen. We learned in the hours and days that followed how hatred and division on the basis of culture and religion and worldviews had motivated atrocities that sought to tear us apart as a people, as a country, as a world. In the 15 years since the September 11 attacks, we have become so accustomed to hearing the word “terrorism” in our cultural vernacular, that sometime I wonder if we’ve become overly accustomed to it and we’ve forgotten its true meaning. Seeing it in the news daily have we forgotten how foreign it is to who God created us to be. Terrorism, by definition, of course, are actions done for the purpose of inspiring terror—calculated, symbolic acts with the intent to divide people. Acts of terror are meant to create an intensely rigid emotion of fear so sharp that it cuts apart the fabric of lives and societies. As awful, and horrific, and painful as that that day was, one that we will never forget, perhaps the greatest terror is that it was only one day in an ever increasing line of horrific moments around the globe and in our own back yards. Violence and bloodshed committed against those of different faiths and most of the time against those of the same faith continue at an ever increasing rate. There is so much that seeks to tear us apart.

And yet…and yet, the message of our Christian faith is that God is weaving us together. God is knitting us together as individuals and as communities, even as an entire human race. In the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, God was reconciling us, weaving us back together with one another and with God’s very self. As our New Testament lesson this morning describes, God calls those within the reconciled community of faith to life together, united together with love, “which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

How do we confront acts of terror, meant to divide us apart? The scripture suggests some particular, symbolic and real actions on our part that involve “compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bear[ing] with one another … forgiv[ing] each other.” How do we confront terror, meant to divide? With love “which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

There is a tradition at the United States Military Academy at West Point. At the beginning of their senior year, each cadet receives a class ring. But what’s interesting about West Point rings, is that after someone graduates and wears there ring throughout their life, when they die their family can donate their ring back to the Academy. The gold from those old rings is melted into the metal that is use for future rings. So each hand bears a very real connection to the past. Forged to honor those who serve, worn by those who give their all, then returned to their source to be reformed for a next generation. It’s a beautiful image of connectivity and inter-dependence. It’s all woven together.

Well this year, senior class at West Point decided to add another tradition. For the first time ever, in addition to those gold rings from previous graduates, there will also be steel taken from the wreckage of the World Trade Centers that will be melted down into each class ring.(1) This physical and symbolic act is meant to connect each graduate to their country’s memory and hope, loss and pain, heroism and gratitude, melted down, woven together, and cast into the world for a new future.

Friends, it is with such a sense of deep connectional binding within each of us and among all of us that we launch into this year ahead. Into a journey of faith that seeks to integrate and celebrate what the world would rather divide. On this day, and on all the days to come, let us journey on this path together, knit together, woven together by God’s love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

To God alone be the glory.

__________________________
(1) http://911families.org/why-theres-ground-zero-steel-in-west-point-class-rings/

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Scripture

Psalm 139:13-14, 16-18

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you.

Colossians 3:12-14
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Sermon

September 4, 2016: Dr. Buz Wilcoxon

As the summer winds to a close, some of us may be looking back over a summer trip that we’ve taken in the last few weeks. The traveling in the summer when kids are out of school can be a fun tradition, but things really but when things don’t go according to plan, well that’s the stuff of legend. Nobody remembers fondly those perfect pristine drives across the country, when nothing ever went wrong. No, it’s when the car breaks down on the side of the road and you have to improvise you way, that’s when the real adventure begins. No one remembers calm weekends at the lake house when nothing extraordinary happened. No, it’s when the boat sprung a leak an sunk during a fishing trip, that’s what we’ll remember for years to come. When things don’t follow the script, when the ending is unpredictable, that’s when trips become adventures.

In this congregation, we have gone on quite a journey this summer—a journey through Jesus’ parables. We began with the seemingly simple parable of the Sower, and we traveled into familiar scenes of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal son. We also sojourned into some strange parables like the Dishonest Manager and the Rich Man and Lazarus. We revisited some parables like the Pounds or the Pharisee and Tax Collector and took in the landscape from a different vantage point. Over the course of these last three months we travelled far and wide through the imaginary worlds of the parables, landscapes of faith and reversal that Jesus, the Master of Parables, speaks through the ages. These journeys give us glimpses into the kingdom of God and how radically different it is than the kingdoms of our world.

At the beginning of the summer, I shared a warning that sound biblical scholars repeat about not being too quick to jump into allegory when reading the parables. That is, don’t try to “decode” them with symbols. This person equals God. This person equals Jesus. There a number of problems with that approach. One problem is that when we do this, when we create such a code to interpret the parables then we take away the power that these stories have on their own to speak God’s word to us. Our coded interpretation becomes more important than Jesus’ original words from the scriptures. We no longer allow the narratives to move us to someplace new, because we already know where we are going to end up.

Another big problem is that when we allegorize the parables, we almost always do so in ways that are self-justifying. That is, we read into them in ways that make us the “good guys” and people different than us the “bad guys.”

And yet even with that warning, when we turn to our parable for this morning, it certainly is tempting to pull out our Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Pins and go to work. You may be so good at allegorizing, that you’ve already decoded this story while you’re sitting there. This is how many people have historically interpreted it: 1) The land owner is God. 2) The vineyard is God’s kingdom. 3) The tenants/laborers are the Jewish people of Israel. 4) the first three slaves that are sent and rejected are the Old Testament prophets. 5) The beloved Son who is killed, let’s see, who could that be? Jesus, that’s right. And 6) the others at the end of the story who will receive the vineyard once the first laborers are whipped out, that’s the Gentiles who will make up the Christian Church. In other words that’s you and me. Isn’t it amazing that when we go through that decoding process we end up with a wonderful little overly simplistic account of history–where we are the innocent good guys while our Jewish brothers and sisters are painted as greedy, evil, murderous usurpers, with promises of violence to come against them. How could such an interpretation go wrong?

Well it has of course. This way of reading the scripture has been used to justify horrific actions by Christians against Jews throughout the centuries. And in doing so, many people claiming to follow Jesus have chosen to ignore what Jesus is actually doing with this story. Instead they have used this scripture and others like it to prop up their own propaganda.

Friends, we are called to do better than that—to read deeper than that. And so, instead let us push pause on the hateful approach and see what Jesus might actually be doing with this parable and with us. First of all, notice that there is something a bit strange, maybe even ridiculous about both sides in this conflict. The mindset of the landowner is certainly odd. Think about it, if the laborers insulted and repeatedly attacked the first three guys that he sent, why in the world would he send his own son to them? Who would do that? Who would send their own offspring into a place of violence where others have already been attacked? Why does he think things will go differently this time? There is something strange going on there. Something foolish.

Then the foolishness goes up a notch with the laborers when they see the son coming and decide that they are going to kill him. They say that they want to kill him so that they can receive his inheritance. What? In what world does that make sense? How many of you have a will? If not, that’s a discussion for another day. But of those of you who do, how many of you have a clause that says, “Upon my death, all that I own will be inherited by my children…unless an angry mob kills them, in which case the murders gets everything.” Of course not. That too is foolish! Reason seems to have been abandoned by both sides in this conflict. This parable that at first seemed like a pretty typical labor dispute, has now taken a turn toward the ridiculous. What started out familiar has now begun to confuse us. That’s the way parables work. They begin with something we know, like a lost coin or a man walking down the road, and they end with something radical and unexpected.

Ending with the unexpected, that’s when the real adventure occurs, and that’s where the real power of this parable lies.

Now, at first glance this story seems to have a pretty typical ending, doesn’t it? Escalating violence has been done by one side in this conflict, and we know the way that the world works, we fully expect that the cycle of violence will continue. We know that the owner will retaliate and strike back with more death and bloodshed against those who have wronged him and his family. That’s the way it works on the school yard, and that’s the way it works in international warfare. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. Do unto others whatever evil they have first done unto you. That’s how we live in this broken and divided world of violence, and that’s how we have always lived as humans.

And that’s how the parable ends…right? Well, maybe. But when we zoom in things are so clear. Unlike all the other parables that he tells, this time, Jesus doesn’t really finish the story. Like most stories that we tell, the whole narrative is told in past tense: A man planted a vineyard. He leased it. He sent his son. They killed him. But then, for some strange reason, the very end shifts into future tense: What will the owner do? He will come and destroy those tenants. The story stalls out before it finishes. The ending of the parable is left dangling out there–not yet complete, thought certainly expected.

Now remember all that business about allegorizing parables and how problematic that can be. Well, I wonder if maybe that’s not entirely wrong to do in a few cases, if we are careful and aware of its shortcomings. Before you accuse me of flip flopping on my stance like some politician, let me explain. After spending the summer wading through Jesus’ parables there’s something we need to remember that isn’t often discussed. What Jesus says is important. But also, when he says it is important too. When in his own story does he tell each of these tales?This parable is actually the final parable that he tells in the gospel of Luke. He weaves this story after he has already entered into Jerusalem, fully aware of what awaits him, when he, like the son in the parable will be taken outside of the city and put to death. So, just before his crucifixion happens, Jesus, the Master of parables tells this final tale, which is, I believe, one of the most sophisticated narratives that he speaks in all of scripture. Jesus plays with our assumptions about what is supposed to happen. He leads his followers and his opponents and all the rest of us down the well-worn path of violence in the story. He takes us so close to the end that we can see what is supposed to happen, with the powerful father coming with death dealing ferocity to avenge his son. That’s how the story should end…right?

Only, in the events that unfold in Jerusalem, that’s not what happens at all. The Son is seized by those who hate him and deny his rule. He suffers their abuse and their shameful mockery. He is crucified, dead, and buried. And, what do we expect next? A God of wrath and vengeance. Just like in the parable, a God of who will come and smite all of his opponents? But instead, we get something we never dreamed possible. The story of the kingdom of God, does not end the way all our stories do. For on the third day God raised him again from the dead. Resurrection. New Life. New Creation. Forgiveness. Grace. Redemption. Reconciliation. None of that is what should have happened, and yet the good news beyond all believe is that this, this is how the real story really ends. We thought we knew the ending, but thanks be to God we were wrong!

When Jesus tells this parable, in the face of his enemies who will soon put him to death, it is as if he is saying, “Let me tell you a story of brokenness and violence, for this is the story of the world. Let me make sure you remember what is supposed to happen, so that you will know how different this Father and Son are from the powers of sin and death. Let me tell you this story now, on this side of the cross and empty tomb so that you will gasp and marvel at the real ending when you see it.”

So, once more this summer, I invite you to consider, where you find yourself in the parable, where you read yourself into the story. Are you like that old worn out allegory, are you the innocent good guys who get all the riches from someone else’s mistakes? If so, I’ve got to warn you, remember how the real story really ends.

Are you, like that father at the end, surrounded by grief or anger, victimization or abuse, are you contemplating your next move and wondering how hard to hit back against those who have done you wrong? If so, I’ve got to warn you, remember how the real story really ends.

Are you, like those first three slaves who are insulted and attacked just for doing their job? Are you feeling like you’re just trying to keep you head down and follow directions when all you get is a swift kick by life’s unfairness. Wondering if there’s any meaning to any of this suffering? If so, I’ve got to warn you, remember how the real story really ends.

Are you, like those tenants, short on sight and short on sharing, motivated by greed to get what belongs to someone else? Do you find yourself in a state of grasping instead of a state of gratitude? If so, I’ve got to warn you, remember how the real story really ends.

Because the real story, the most real story, the story that give all of reality its meaning and purpose, the story that defines all the rest of history, the story that transforms creation and breaks the powers of death, that story does not end like any of the others. On the third day he rose again from the dead! That story ends in good news. And we are invited to enter into that story, full of wonder, joy and praise.

Scripture

Luke 20:9-19

He began to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another slave; that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third; this one also they wounded and threw out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.” But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, “This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.” So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.’ When they heard this, they said, ‘Heaven forbid!’ But he looked at them and said, ‘What then does this text mean: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’ When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people

Allison Hill, Spring Hill Sunday Speake

July 14, 2016

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!
[Daniel walks in carrying a map]
You there, what’s your excuse? Why can’t you come to the party? Oh, you just bought a piece of land. I see. Yeah, that makes sense. In today’s world, where every little hiccup leads to economic uncertainty, where decisions made by kingdoms an ocean away can change the market overnight, where wars faugh in the East bread volatility. I get it. Here in ancient Israel, with the Romans ruling over us, I guess buying real estate mean security. I get it. It makes sense. But, you know, it’s keeping you away from one heck of a party!

[Daniel walks away. Bryan and Andrew walk in, one leading the other by a rope.]
What about you? What’s your excuse? You just bought some oxen, did you? Well, aren’t you special! Folks around here can’t even afford a donkey, and you just bought 5 yokes, 10 head of oxen. You must be somebody important. But, I get it. It makes sense. If you’ve got it, you might as well flaunt it. How else will everyone know how rich you are without you parading your oxen through the middle of town? Still, you’re missing a great party!

[Andrew and Bryan walk away. Ruth and Daniel walk in, arm in arm.]
What about you? What’s your excuse? You just got married, Oh, I get it. Trust me, I do. There’s nothing like young love and nothing more important than a honeymoon. You need those days away together to detox from all that family time you’ve had at the wedding. I get it. You’re obviously smitten with one another. But still, you know, you’re missing the party of the century!
[Ruth and Daniel walk away.]

Excuses. Excuses. Excuses. My master is throwing a party, a feast, a banquet, and he’s invited all the most important people in town. In our culture here in ancient Israel, we have a way of doing things. We show honor by the gifts and invitations that we give and by reciprocating those gifts. People around here keep score. Whoever can afford to give the most and invite the most shows himself to be the most honorable, and everyone else is held in his debt until they honor him in return.

Have you ever seen that T.V. show, The Big Bang Theory? Well, there’s this character named Sheldon, who is like a combination of Barney Fife and Mr. Spock. He’s winey and wiry and meticulous about everything. And Sheldon hates receiving gifts because he knows that as soon as someone gives him something he owes them a gift in return. If you give him a gift, he’ll research to find out exactly how much it cost and then give you a gift that’s precisely the same amount. If his gift is even a few dollars short, he’ll just hand you the change in cash so that everything is perfectly even.

That’s how we do things here in ancient Israel. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A gift for a gift. An invite for an invite.
My master is a pretty big deal here in town. He spends his time with the high rollers. He’s been to their houses for dinner, and now it’s his turn to return the favor. That’s how the world works. But now, they’ve all snubbed him! They’ve all turned down his invitation. Word is going to spread like wildfire through this town—“Did you hear about old Jim? He threw a party and nobody showed up! What an embarrassment. What a joke. He thought he was somebody, but he’s just an insignificant underling, it turns out.”

Oh, don’t get me wrong; those folks had all the right excuses: security, prestige, family. Those are what our society says are the most important. And those are precisely what kept them from going to the party.
Boy is my master going to be angry. I can already see it. I know what he’ll say. He’ll say, “Go out at once into the streets and the lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” He won’t care who comes now. He just needs a party.

So come on! Yes, you. Come! Come to the party. Come to the table. I don’t care if you don’t think you’re worthy. Come! I don’t care if you’re not important. Come! Come one and all, together to this party. For around this table, all are welcome. However you look or act. Whatever language you speak. Whatever the color of your skin. Whoever you love. Come! All are welcome here. We need you at this party. Young and old, black and white. At this party there is no Jew or Greek. There is not slave or free. There is no male or female.

Come! At this party there is no liberal or conservative, there is no insider or outsider. Come! At this party there is no foreigner or native-born. There is not zip code or neighborhood. There is no boundary or division. Come!
All are welcome here because all are needed for this party. This is going to be the party of the century. The party of the millennium. The party of eternity! The party that no one ever expected. People will be talking about this banquet for years to come. And you, yes you, are invited.

It reminds me of a story—a true story—the story of Willie and Carol from Atlanta, GA. A few years ago they were excited parents, making plans to celebrate their daughter’s wedding. They were joyful for the young woman she had grown to be and for the new life she was beginning with her fiancé. They were also excited about the wedding that was about to happen. They had rented an exclusive venue for the reception, they had booked an awesome band and caterer. It was going to be an event to remember! With a price tag to remember as well.

Then 40 days before the wedding, everything screeched to a halt. Their daughter told them she and her fiancé had broken off their engagement. The wedding was cancelled. We don’t know how they felt? Were they sad for their daughter? Were they proud of her for making a hard decision? Were they worried about they all the money they would lose on the wedding? Were they anxious about calling everyone to tell them that the wedding was off? We don’t know how they felt…but we know what they did.

That night Willie and Carol prayed. And when they awoke the next morning they knew what they were going to do. They decided to have a party. A fancy party. Everything was already arranged and paid for. They couldn’t get their money back, so they kept the band, they kept the exclusive venue, they kept the expensive caterer. But they invited some new guests.

They called a local non-prophet that worked to feed people who are homeless and they said that they wanted to throw a fancy party for 200 homeless folks. They woman who answered the phone almost hung up because she thought this was a prank call. Thankfully it was not. Through this agency, Willie and Carol reached out to other local ministries, especially to those that serve families and children in poverty. In Atlanta, 70% of the homeless population are children. Willie and Carol invited them to the party.

The agencies worked with local clothing donation centers to track down fancy attire for each guest. Buses picked them up from homeless shelters and brought them to the party, which began outside on the grounds with appetizers before moving inside for a 5-course meal. They supplemented the entertainment with a clown, face painting and other child friendly games. And standing at the door to great every guest were Willie and Carol. Their grief had turned into joy, beyond their wildest imaginations.

You want to know what the kingdom of God looks like? It looks like a child whom the world would tell has no place, is a burden to society, doesn’t belong—it looks like that child being invited to a grand feast. Being treated as special as everyone else. You want to know what the kingdom of God looks like? It looks like room at the table for an unexpected guest.

So, the first question for us is, what’s your excuse? Are you coming to this Kingdom party or not? This party where you aren’t in control, where you don’t get to decide who’s on the guest list.

And the second question for us is, who are you inviting? Are you willing to go out into the streets and lanes and invite others in as well? Others who are very different than yourself? Are you willing and ready to welcome them in—not to change them to be more like you, but to welcome them as equal members at this table, where none of us belong?

It’s one this to open the doors and say all are welcome. It’s something else to go out into the city and invite folks in ourselves. To invite folks to encounter the majesty of God, to encounter the presence of the risen Christ, to encounter the community of the Holy Spirit! To encounter the Triune God who is host at this party.

A wise man once said, “Mission’s big sister is Hope.” Mission’s big sister is Hope. If we have a hope, a faith, a trust that God’s love has welcomed us into the party, then our mission must be to go out and welcome others as well. Because friends, the good news of the gospel is that there is plenty of room at this table!
To God alone be the glory.

Luke 14: 1,16-24

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.”

So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.