THOMAS GIVES JESUS THE FINGER

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET

The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts

THOMAS GIVES JESUS THE FINGER 

by Jack D. Sypal

Dateline: Jerusalem, April 23, 20:19:31

This is the third in a series of interviews with first shapers in The Way, or as we know them today, Christians.  Earlier I covered conversations with Peter and with James and John.

This week I was fortunate enough to stumble across Thomas who was between trips to India. He was generous enough to give me some time as his acolytes unloaded burros with goods from India and then reloaded their packs for the pending journey back. I was intrigued by the number of woodworking tools they were packing and questioned Thomas about them.

It appears, even though he has very limited vision, that Thomas is a builder. He claims with a good plumb bob, an accurate square, a hand full of marbles, and a pan of water, even the blind are able to build. Working as a fisherman when he was recruited by Jesus the Messiah, aka Jam-Man, Thomas first learned the lessons of his rabbi and then his rabbi’s trade as a builder.

“I wouldn’t have believed that my building skills would be so important, but Raj Gondophares has commissioned me to build him a palace. So, I have come back to Jerusalem to get my tools. It’s not that they don’t make tools in India, but I’m used to these. They are the tools the Jam-Man also used and gave to me.

“Yeah, that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.”

One of the first things you notice about Thomas is his vision. His eyes are milky white and he is almost sightless. He walks with one of his acolytes now, but he was most often seen walking with Jesus or one of the other disciples back in the day. His nicknames, Ditto or Didymus, even Thomas itself, meaning twin, were not given him because he was genetically related to one of them or anyone else for that matter; he was so-called because he was always connected to another disciple by touch.

“I know the guys say that I went to India because of a night vision, but the truth of the matter is that I just had a vision. The night and the day are both alike to me. Maybe it was at night.

“I wasn’t going to go, but the young man I was walking with that day ran off when this merchant and soldiers showed up. I felt a little like Samson for a while there. One minute I felt like I was in control of my life and my destiny, the next minute I was seized and made a slave for the entertainment of the merchant Abbanes.

“Abbanes took me to India; I started talking about the days of walking with the Jam-Man and how he had lifted me up from the life of drudgery and social death from my blindness and how he had taught me to build things; and, pretty soon, I was given permission to build a church.

“I’m sure that they didn’t believe that I could do it, but, when I did, people were really impressed and asked me to build another. Finally, Raj Gondophares told me to build him a palace.

“Okay, I’m back here in part to let the Raj cool off a little. He told me to build him a palace the gods would be proud of. When he said that, I recalled the young, rich kid that came to the Jam-Man that day. I didn’t think that I could convince the Raj any more than the Jam-Man could convince that kid…so, I decided to help the Raj along. I took his money and gave it to the poor. Each day when he would ask me how things were going, I told him that the work on his palace was progressing magnificently. One day he came out to see the palace, and, of course, nothing was there.

“When the Raj asked for the money back, I told him that I had spent it on building the palace that God would be proud of.

“‘But where is the palace?’ he asked me.

“I told him that I had given his money to the poor and that these people would be the living stones that would build for him a magnificent place in heaven.

“I guess Raj Gondophares doesn’t have a sense of humor and couldn’t appreciate the living conditions of the poor. He definitely didn’t get the Jam-Man’s memo about loving one another, so I decided to come home and get my tools while he cools off. I should really be able to show them how to build with my own tools in my hands.”

Asked about his tools, Thomas was more than willing to show them off. I was surprised at how well they seemed to fit his hands and how lovingly he handled them. I reminded him that he had said earlier that all he really needed was a square, a plumb bob, a hand full of marbles and a pan of water, and then indicated that I saw many more tools than that.

Thomas explained, “Well, of course you need more tools than that for all of the adornments, but plumb bob and square along with the marbles and the pan of water keep everything just so, you know.”

I understood the use of the plumb bob and the square, but asked him about the marbles and pan of water.

He clarified it for me. “Oh, yeah, put a marble on top of something you are building, and you can tell the lean by which way the marble rolls. The pan of water can tell you how far you’re off. If the water starts running out on one side, you know you’re in trouble. Then it’s time to do some serious shimming. Usually the marble is enough, but they can get away from you sometimes, and then you have to go looking for them. The pan of water is also more accurate. Sometimes I need to have one of my helpers check it out, but for the most part you can skim the palm of your hand over it and feel the variation on the walls of the pan. For the most part, the plumb bob and the square do the job. The rest is showing off.”

As interested as I am in these stories, I am most interested in those early days of The Way. In order to get back on track, I asked Thomas why he was known as Doubting Thomas, a term he dismissed.

“The guys never called me Doubting anything. That came from a bunch of people who didn’t want to believe that a blind guy could be part of the gang with the Jam-Man.

“You know, in those early days, soldiers were everywhere. They were looking for us because they claimed that we had stolen Messiah’s body in order to scam Rome. We had our safe house, really, it was just a safe room, where we gathered, but, too much activity around there, and it wouldn’t have been safe anymore. So, I volunteered to slip out at night when people wouldn’t be as likely to notice me moving around without a lantern or a torch ’cuz, like, I didn’t need one. I knew that part of town pretty well, and so I could get around by myself easily. All I needed to do was get away from there before it got too light and then not come back until after it was dark again.

“During the day, I could get the news and talk with some of my friends. Mostly I hung out with the beggars outside the temple or at one of the city gates. I liked the Dung Gate the best because the people were pretty friendly there. In this way, I picked up some change and bought food for the rest of the guys.

“I did say that I would lead any of them out, but they were pretty scared. Rocky was so full of self-recrimination I wasn’t sure that he wouldn’t go and do the same thing the Bag Man had done. And the rest of them were suffering from extreme disillusionment.

“I was more interested in living and being around the living. That room got to be like a tomb of its own, and I’ll tell you, ten guys living in one room for any time at all makes the stink of the tomb smell sweet. Nate the Great had a particular issue with flatulence that made close confines challenging. Now you know how he got the great attached to his name.

“One night when I returned, the guys were all excited. They said that the Jam-Man had come and stood among them, that he had spoken with them and then breathed on them. Philip said that he didn’t even have halitosis like Lazarus had had.

“I told them that it was a nice try, but I wouldn’t believe them until I put my finger in the marks of the nails in his hands and put my hand in the hole in his side. I mean, that’s how a blind guy sees, ya know?

“So, it was a few days later when the Jam-Man showed again. One minute he wasn’t there, and then, all of a sudden, he was. When he called me, I wasn’t really sure that it was him. He sounded like himself…sort of…but…different. He told me to give him my finger, so I did. I gave him my reading finger and then knew it was him. From where I stood, the marks were just dark spots, but there is no way that you could fake those holes.

“Of course, I claimed him. It wasn’t so much that I had ever doubted him, but I did question the other guys. They’d pulled some fast ones on me before, but the Jam-Man, he always treated me like real people, ya know?

“There were so many political maneuverings in those days—the issue of Beloved, some trying to prove that the Jam-Man hadn’t risen, the ‘Gentiles are Welcome’ program, whether women were to be acknowledged as disciples. The thought of me being blind was just too much for many early followers to swallow, so they thought that it would be better to call me a doubter than blind, so to them I became Doubting Thomas.

“I mean, what do I care. I’m going back to India. I have my own life to live, and it is going to be a long way away from them. I’ll do fine as long as Raj Gondophares chills a little. I mean it’s not like he’s really going to miss the money.”

Before I could ask anything more, Thomas rushed on.

“I’m afraid that I’m going to have to go. Mummsy is over at John’s place, and a few of the other guys are back for a conference. Rocky’s supposed to be there with the other guy with sight trouble, Saul or Paul, something like that. He’s annoying because he never fully recovered from the flash blindness on the Damascus road, and he’s always talking about having the thorn in his flesh being removed and his self-consciousness about writing so big. I keep telling him to just get on with his life. You can’t live backwards—that’s like being dead. The Jam-Man is all about life and living. Maybe he’ll come around.

“In the meantime, Mummsy has probably made her famous chicken casserole again ’cuz Rocky’s going to be there. She really does know how to cook other things. You know, she’s a pretty good cook, but, somehow, she’s just got to push Rocky’s buttons.

“Well, it’s been nice talking. Luv ya, man.”

With that, Thomas got up and walked over to where his acolyte was waiting with his burro. He pushed his elbow out a little nudging Thomas. Thomas took his elbow and off they went.

A Story Looking for a Home John 7:53-8:11

The Story of the Adulterous Woman, or at least that is what we have come to know it by, is one of those really interesting stories of the Bible. We read it tonight from the Gospel of John, but its place in the longer proclamation of John’s Gospel is somewhat tenuous. It carries with it a footnote stating that the earliest accounts of John do not have this story in it. It further states that some Bibles place this story at the end of John and others place it in the Gospel of Luke.

 What we know is that, after Jesus was crucified and raised up from the grave, stories were told about him and about the contacts that people had had with him. Many of these stories were collected into what we now know as the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), but there were some stories that were not immediately included. In fact, there are a number of stories that have never been included. We know this from the end of the Gospel of John when the Gospel writer states, “These stories have been told so that you might believe. There are other stories, but if they were all told, they could not be contained in a book.” Apparently, this story is one of those extra stories, and the importance of it for the early Christian community was so important that it was eventually included in the accounts that we have about Jesus. It was an orphan story that was crying out for a place, and it has eventually found its place here in the Gospel of John.

 Let us understand that there are a number of problems with this story. For instance, if we read the laws concerning adultery and the penalties for committing adultery in Deuteronomy, we see that, if a woman is to be punished for adultery, the man she committed it with should also be brought forward and stoned. Yet here we find no man. The scribes and Pharisees have only brought the woman. What to do?

 Another problem is we see Jesus writing on the ground, not once but twice, yet we are never told the significance of the writing. What about that? (I had a classmate in seminary that used to draw cartoons of various biblical passages, and he drew one for this story. In the first frame, you see Jesus and a woman and an angry crowd. In the second frame, Jesus is facing the crowd saying, “Let the one without sin throw the first stone.” In the third frame, you see Jesus with his finger on the ground, and you see what he is writing. It’s a tic-tac-toe board.)

 This is an orphan story looking for a place, and, as I looked at this story more carefully, thinking about what is going on, I came to believe that what we have is a story that is not about sin but rather of repentance and forgiveness. That is why it’s importance was great enough to merit inclusion in our greater narrative of God’s love and caring. For indeed, it found its way into our spiritual narrative; it demanded to be included in our Scripture place; and, although its place is tenuous, it is a part of our spiritual identity today.

 I have come to think that this story is like us. Each of us has our own story of how we came to be here this evening. Each of us has our own story of faith and challenge, of sin and the need for forgiveness. We hear these words of Jesus, “Let those around you without sin be your judge.” And with these words we discover that we are incapable of being judges. We seek and find a place of forgiveness and the need for that forgiveness. In that time, we find our place in the faith story and our stories of community, of our need for one another, and the work we need to do to be forgiven and the work we need to do to forgive.

 This challenging story is not just looking for a place in Scripture, it is looking for a place in our hearts. And with this story, we too cry out for a place of inclusion with our own stories. We too cry out with the need of recognition and value and peace.

 So, we come to this place, gathered together, sharing our stories of joys and sorrows, our successes and our failures; sharing our lives, that communal creation story, that continuous narrative of our need of God’s love, that thing we call the living word of Christ among us, being the living word of God’s hope-filled activity in the world. We are not seeking to be the ones who judge but the ones who seek to proclaim Christ’s words of grace and love.

 Jesus stooped down, and he wrote on the ground. He wrote in the dirt, in the humus, and, through this, we are reminded of our humanity. We are reminded of our first ancestor being handcrafted from the dirt and God’s breath being breathed into us and the words that created us. As the spoken word gave life to us from the goodness of the humus, so now the writing in that humus promises new ways of living for all humans, and we find our own human identity. Through this earthy writing, we find the words of life, and light, and loving forgiveness.

 We stand before Christ, always in a state of needing forgiveness and always in that state of grace, of God’s underserved love and forgiveness. This unusual status calls us, names us, and holds us as God’s children in God’s world. May we always know God’s love and forgiveness as we go out among God’s people, as we gather here, as we share our stories, as we live into the ages in Christ’s living word for the sake of the world.

PERFECT, Matthew 5:38-48

As we come to the end of the fifth chapter of Matthew, roughly 1/3 of the way through the Sermon on the Mount, we encounter some of the most difficult language thus far. “Do not resist evil doers.” Really? I am just going to say that this is a less-than-helpful translation from the Greek. The people who heard these words first had a great advantage.

1. They knew the times they lived in; therefore, they did not need to have the context of the times explained to them.
2. They understood Jesus’ words and didn’t have to have them translated.
3. They knew that just these eleven verses were not the whole sermon. They knew more was coming that would more fully explain what it meant to live in the kingdom of heaven, and
4. They didn’t have someone standing in front of them trying to explain what Jesus meant without the context of the whole sermon.

So, as we come to the end of our reading of Jesus’ words for us in Epiphany, understand that we will be coming back to other parts of his sermon throughout the year. Indeed, part of the sermon is assigned for Ash Wednesday, just a week and a half away. These words will continue to challenge us as we wrestle with what it means to be the body of Christ for the sake of the world.

Before talking more about Jesus, let me tell you a story. Emma stood in the middle of the room screaming with tears running down her face. Her mother came into the room and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Johnny hit me,” Emma shrieked.

“She hit me first!” Johnny retorted.

“That’s enough.” Mom said. “Say you’re sorry to one another and give each other a hug.”

Emma and Johnny looked at each other for a long time, and then each of them mumbled, “I’m sorry.” Then they hugged. As they hugged, Johnny whispered, “Tattle-tail,” and then he began to squeeze as hard as he could. Emma held her breath and started to get a little red in the face, but stubbornly refused to say anything. Finally, Johnny released her. Emma stepped back and kicked Johnny in the ankle as she appeared to lose her balance from the hug.

Mom said, “That’s better. Now play nice. Lunch will be ready soon.”

As she left the room, Johnny picked up a block and threw it at Emma. She ducked the block, and, putting her head down, she butted Johnny in the stomach. Suddenly, a hand grasped each of them, and Mom’s voice, no longer conciliatory, said, “That’s it. Go to your rooms and don’t come out until you can be friends again.”

Be honest. Don’t you wish that the problems of Syria could be solved this way? Or, don’t you wish the issues surrounding our last election could be solved like this?

Now I could tell you that the whole argument got started because Johnny broke Emma’s favorite crayon, or I could tell you that Emma wouldn’t answer Johnny when he asked her what she was doing, but little of that will change the fact that Emma and Johnny are living in an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth (plus a little interest) world. It is this tit-for-tat world that Jesus wants to address.

“Stop escalating the violence!” Jesus says. Understand that Rome is in power and returning punch for punch with Roman power will only get you crushed. Power does not rest in muscular strength, power rests in endurance and peace. Therefore, when the Roman soldier tells you to carry his load for a mile, smile and carry it two miles. If you show that you are willing to carry the load, you take away the soldier’s power over you.

“Yes,” Jesus says, “there is evil in the world, but if you are my follower, then you do not need to respond to evil with evil’s methods. Instead of responding to evil with evil, respond in a way that recognizes the person in front of you as a person. Treat that person as you would like to be treated, because, if what you see before you is an enemy and that person is stronger than you, then you are always going to be crushed.”

This is the beginning of what Gandhi understood. This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. understood. If Gandhi had organized an army to fight the British, we would be living in a very different world today, but instead, Gandhi chose to turn the imperial power of the British against itself.

Martin Luther King, Jr. did not organize people around him with great speeches of strategy, planning the overthrow of white privilege and power. He spoke to the nation with words of hope and vision. He did not speak of strategy but of dreams. How differently we would have heard “I have a strategy…” rather than “I have a dream…”.

It is sometimes hard to imagine what a world of de-escalation might look like, and so I wish to share this story with you. In the early days of the Massachusetts Bay colony, John Winthrop noticed that his wood pile was diminishing much faster than he thought it should. Suspecting someone of stealing wood from his wood pile, he was enraged. So, he decided to wait in the shadows one night to see who was taking his prized wood. Around midnight, one of the men from the colony who had fallen on hard times, showed up and started to load up some of the wood. Stepping out of the shadows, John Winthrop said, “Friend, I see thou hast need of wood, and I have plenty. Help thyself to what you need.” John Winthrop wrote, “In this way, I ended the thievery.”

God has given us so much—enough to share. I know that there are times when that sharing makes us feel uncomfortable, but, when we remember that God’s abundance is for all of creation, not just those who believe, or not just for those who believe like us, we begin to have a glimpse of God’s amazing love for all of God’s people and the privilege we have been given to share the news of God’s love—a love that reaches beyond the category of enemy to person; a love that goes beyond our differences and embraces our common needs; a love that does not objectify those around us with labels of black and white, male and female, old and young, gay and straight, abled and disabled, Republicans and Democrats, residents and foreigners, English-speaking and some other language, Lutheran and pick your denomination, but as children of God’s loving creation. Christ died once for all. And we build on that foundation waiting to be tested.

The Lord told Moses to tell the people, “You shall be holy for I, the Lord, am holy.” Indeed, we are separate from the world because God is separate from the world. We are “In the world but not of it,” as Luther has said. And we are perfect as God is perfect—not perfect in the sense of being without sin, but perfect in the sense that we are complete, whole, what God has created us to be. We are one in Christ.

As we have heard in the Sermon on the Mount these last few weeks we are blessed, not by our own work, but in Christ’s love; we have been assured that our saltiness is restored in Christ, and our light shines out in Christ; our righteousness is fulfilled in Christ; and we have learned the ways of Christ; so now we find that our wholeness, our holiness, our perfection, is not from us, but from Christ himself.

As we are gathered in worship today, hear these words of Christ for you.

“You are blessed, that is, you are assured of God’s presence in your life. Christ is with you.”

“You are the salt of the earth and light to the nations.” That is, you are essential qualities needed for the body of Christ to continue in health and to thrive.

“Your righteousness will exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees.” That is, through Christ, all things are possible and our ability to raise people up from the valley of the shadow of death’s darkness into the resurrection of Christ’s light is our mission and ministry by grace, through faith, in Christ alone.

And having learned what it means to be followers of Christ, “Do not escalate the level of violence in the world. Be wholly perfect as your Father in heaven is wholly perfect.”

There, But for the Grace of God, Go I Luke 18:9-14

Bradley Hanson in his book, Introduction to Christian Doctrine, says that how we think about God shapes and determines what we think about God. In a like manner, I believe that how we think about prayer shapes and determines what we pray. If prayer is to be a public event, then the language of the prayer may be very formal. We hear these prayers in our worship service in the prayer of the day, the offertory prayer, the prayers of the people, and the prayers contained in the Eucharist. These prayers have various functions, but the language is pretty formal and may use metaphors and similes to call forth emotional and psychological energy for worship. If prayer is about speaking justice, then the language may be challenging and abrasive to the ears of those who hear those pleas while evoking God’s empathy and care. If prayer is our personal conversation with God throughout the day, prayer may sound a lot like how we talk to our friends and may contain utterances of thanks, amazement, cries for help, assistance, spiritual strength, and forgiveness.

How we think about prayer even determines the frequency of praying. If prayer is a public thing, then we may not pray more often than once or twice a month, maybe weekly. If prayer is about crying for justice, depending on how satisfied you are with your life, you may only pray once or twice a year. But if prayer is a conversation with God, then you may be praying constantly even with base and common words. A professor I knew once said that within the most profane oath lies a prayer for help. Again I want to say, how we think of prayer shapes and determines what we pray.

If last week’s text was about the need to pray always without losing heart, then this week’s text is teaching us how to think about prayer and what to pray for. Let us first recognize the relationship between these two parables. Last week we heard about the judge that was not just, that is unrighteous, who does not fear God nor respects people. Yet because he thinks highly of himself, he grants justice (righteousness) to the widow who threatens to make him look bad in public.

This week, in another parable told at the same time, Jesus tells us of a Pharisee who has convinced himself that he is justified (righteous) by his own works, and, because of these great works that he has done, he is more important than the people around him. He regards those who are not like him as literally being nothing, of no value, not worth thinking about. Those other people are so far from him socially that he doesn’t even stand with the other person; he stands by himself. He is so self-satisfied that, when he prays, he begins with thanking God that he is not like those other disgusting people.

The first of the list of people that the Pharisee does not want to be like are thieves. The word in Greek is more than stealing, it carries with it the sense of rapacious people or animals like wolves that tear at the flesh that they eat until they are so utterly sated they may vomit their food and leave it in order to eat more; or, more often, after vomiting their food, they will eat it again. They take and consume because they can, not out of need. Thieving at another level includes people who have more than what they need while others do not have enough. Thievery here is not actively taking something from another, but it includes withholding what our neighbor needs when we have plenty.

The second group of people are described as rogues. The word in Greek literally means unjust or unrighteous. Merchants who don’t use accurate weights for weighing or maybe put their thumb on the scale to add a little weight for a little more money are unrighteous. Bankers who charge interest and especially high interest are unrighteous. Anyone who misrepresents themselves or their work or people who do not care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor are unrighteous.

The third group are adulterers. Biblically speaking adultery is unfaithfulness to one’s spouse, but, in our relationship with God, adultery can mean putting trust in someone or something other than Godself. As a matter of fact, adultery is much more often cited as being the behavior of Israel consorting with other gods and nations than it is used for the relationship between a man and a woman. In terms of last week’s story, it is not revering or fearing God.

The last and lowest category that the Pharisee is thankful he is not like is the tax collector, the one responsible for money flowing from the masses to those in charge. Now in Jesus’ time, the job of being tax collectors was particularly difficult. They represented the government or the ordering body. When the Roman government decided it needed a certain amount of money to be raised in various parts of the empire, that is, the people were to be taxed, the governing bodies of the various parts of the empire would decide where that money was to come from. Then they got a person to collect the taxes from the designated people, but they did not provide for the salary of the tax collector. If the tax collector only collected what was demanded, he might starve so, of course, he had to collect more than what the empire and governing bodies wanted. By collecting the money from the people and delivering it on time to the people above him, peace was maintained in the empire. But, if the flow of tax money was interrupted, the full weight of the Roman government could come down on any given province.

To make taxes more complicated, the Roman government was not the only entity collecting money. The temple also taxed the people through the tithe, which was a temple tax. The temple too believed in a trickle up-economy. Governors also taxed the people for local building projects and urban improvements. Lastly, the land owners taxed the farmers on their produce from the land. Today we would call it share cropping, but it was a tax none-the-less. The assessed tax could be as high as 80%.

Each of the taxes was based on the gross amount that the people made. By taking 10% here and 10% there, by the time the poorest people paid for their food and clothing, there was often not enough to go around. To not pay the tax was to be jailed and die, but paying the tax also often meant that starvation and even death were nearby. Land and home would be sold first. Even children, your spouse, and your very person might need to be sold into slavery in order to pay the money needed. In the sense of an hour glass, the tax collector was the one responsible for the sand flowing up instead of down. No wonder he was detested.

It is not enough to the Pharisee to be thankful for not being like those other no-accounts though; he needs to state why he is better than those others: he fasts twice a week and he gives 10% of all that he acquires. This then is his case of being righteous.

Biblically speaking, however, righteousness is not an individual state. Righteousness depends on the life of the neighbor. If the Pharisee lives in comfort, but his neighbor lives in poverty, then Biblically he cannot be righteous because his comfort is at the expense of someone else. If the Pharisee is living in comfort, and his neighbors are suffering and in poverty, then Biblically he is stealing from them; he has broken his relationship with them. The Pharisee has chosen to serve himself and has not trusted God for what he needs; he has taken from others for his own sake and not served God and his neighbor—he has become a thief, a rogue, an adulterer, and, yes, a tax collector.

He may be fasting twice a week, but we all know that only the well-fed can fast. The poor and the starving call it, “We have no food.” When it comes to taxes, the wealthy may give 10% of what they receive, but when you receive nothing, paying taxes is not possible because there is no money. You might call it, “being broke”.

As last week the unjust judge cared nothing for God, so now we see that the Pharisee does not trust in God. He trusts in himself. He thinks that prayer is about elevating himself over others rather than lifting up the people around him.

We compare the Pharisee to the lowly tax collector who is far off and cannot even bring himself to look up to heaven praying. His prayer is that God would be merciful or have compassion, that is, would suffer with him in the midst of his life. Jesus says this one was made righteous. What makes him righteous or justified is that the tax collector asks or begs God to be in relationship with him. As the widow begs for a relationship of equity, so now the tax collector prays for a relationship of understanding and love with God.

Although we too long for this relationship of understanding and love, not only with God, but with one another, there are times in our lives when we run to the place of the Pharisee. How often have I heard, even said, “There, but by the grace of God, go I!” In saying these words, we separate ourselves from the event even while recognizing that we might have been there or done that ourselves, but, thank God, our actions did not result in calamity—we were not caught. “There, but by the grace of God, go I!” does not mean we are somehow better by our actions, but we believe that a better outcome resulted because God favored us more. Now we look more and more like the Pharisee.

Poverty is not that far away for the average American family which is only two paychecks from not being able to pay the bills. In worship we pray, “We offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us--ourselves, our time, and our possessions, signs of your gracious love.” But when we leave worship, we may separate ourselves from the people who can’t pay their bills anymore, saying, “There, but by the grace of God, go I.” We like to think that God has favored us because of our hard work. We think that we are responsible for creating the world around us as if God’s creative work stopped on the sixth day of creation. In so many ways, we, as a society, say “We’ve got ours, the heck with the rest of you—you who can’t find jobs that pay a living wage, you who are starving in war-torn countries; you whose homes have been taken away by cartels and people who only think about their own wealth and power.

We thank God for our own lives of privilege and wonder at the chances that might lead to us living in those conditions of disaster in Haiti and say, “There, but by the grace of God, go I.” How much harder our prayer lives might be if we, with the tax collector, said, “Have mercy on us sinners, Lord, for we have so much and there are so many that have so little. Help us to share the abundance of your creation. Help us lift up the lowly, and let us be humbled in your presence and the needs of all that you have created good.”

How we think of prayer really does determine and shape what we pray. Being in relationship with God and one another, we pray that all may know God’s presence and that all people will have respect, re-spect, that is, be seen again. We pray that we may engage and honor the people that God has given us to welcome in God’s kingdom on earth, anticipating God’s rule as it is in heaven, with daily bread for all and forgiveness of sins. In this state of God’s abundance and forgiveness, we then are able to forgive as we have been forgiven and are saved from the trial that would judge our works alone. Lord. save us from ourselves, and, in your loving arms, deliver us from evil. Indeed, your kingdom, your power to save, and your glorious resurrection are what will last forever.

It is in this relationship of forgiveness that we know relationship with God and one another that continues to sustain us, and so we rejoice in those words of help and hope:

“In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for Christ’s sake, God forgives us all of our sins. Therefore, by Christ’s authority, I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all of your sins; in the relationship of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

There, in the grace of God, we go.

Your Faith Has Saved You: Luke 17:11-19

In my first remembrance of this story I was in my Sunday School room in the old annex of St. Mary’s Lutheran Church on 65^th St., Kenosha, Wisconsin. We had the latest technology: a film strip projector and a record player. With the DING! after each piece of the story, frame by frame, we saw Jesus walking down the road with his disciples, ten lepers waving to Jesus from a distance, ten lepers asking for mercy, and Jesus sending them off to the priest at the temple on the horizon. While the other nine were still in sight, we saw the one leper facing Jesus and then bowing down before Jesus. In the last scene the one cleansed leper had his hand in the air, one foot raised and the other almost on the road. Maybe he was running, or skipping down the road, or even dancing.

It was told as a morality story of what happens when you don’t say thank you. You might end up like one of the other nine unhappy lepers who weren’t cleansed, but, if you said thank you, you could be cleansed and happy. DING!

We were told that saying thank you was an act of faith; Jesus likes children who say thank you. If we wanted to stay in good relationship with the people around us, we should always say thank you. Right after our lesson we got Kool Aid and cookies. We all politely said thank you, and then, we all got another cookie! We were more enthusiastic in our thank you the second time, but no more cookies came our way. Lesson learned: saying thank you gets you another cookie, but, saying thank you more than once, gets you nothing. DING!

That was almost 60 years ago, yet I can still visualize the room right down to the saddle shoes Kathy Anderson (name changed) was wearing. The cookies were vanilla sandwich cookies and the Kool Aid was red. How far we have come since then. Today, St. Mary’s Lutheran Church has moved to a new location. I am writing on a computer that has the capability of downloading film footage with depictions of the Biblical story. Images of stained glass windows and major art work covering this text are available. There are articles on leprosy from magazines and journals. All are available in minutes. DING!

Over the years, in this story, I have come to appreciate the challenges of identity within it and how faith informs that identity. I have also come to understand that the cleansing that takes place is for all ten of the lepers. Still, saying thank you continues as a central part of this story, and, more than that, glorifying God (δοξάζω, doxazō) leads to giving thanks (εὐχαριστέω, eucharisteō). DING!

Just a chapter ago, Lazarus (God has helped), in the arms of Father Abraham, and the rich man, in Hades, are separated by a chasm (Luke 16:26). Neither can cross this region between. This passage in ch. 17 where Jesus and his disciples are journeying in the region between Galilee and Samaria introduces us to their alienation from society.  Jesus walks with an entourage in the region between, not crossing the chasm but filling it. DING!

Now in the region between, the Lazaruses of the world are able to be recognized and cleansed. In this region between, faith and new identity is found. In this region between, new ways of living are being forged. In this region between, the afflicted are lifted up from the polarization of Abraham’s arms and Hades into a world that finds communal wholeness in Jesus’ presence, glorifying God and giving cause for thanksgiving for this new, gracious relationship of mercy and salvation. DING!

This region between not only challenges us to think about the identity of the lepers who are cleansed and their place in the world, but it challenges us to think about who this Jesus is. Although in ch. 2 Jesus is identified as coming from Nazareth in Galilee, his identity depends on getting to Jerusalem. It is the Jerusalem Jesus that matters to us because that is where we receive our salvation. It is this Jerusalem Jesus that the leper has faith in. Jerusalem Jesus rises from the tomb. DING!

In this region between, an itinerant Master (Jesus) meets some unclean outcasts on the road. We have no idea of how long these lepers have been together, but there is a group identity of being unclean outcasts that has held them together for a period of time. They may be lepers, but they have each other. They are a community of inclusive isolation, caring for and depending on one another. From a distance, they approach as one. They ask for mercy as one. They may be begging for nothing more than food, but Jesus chooses to interpret mercy as asking to be made clean. When Jesus commands them to show themselves to the priest, they go as one. And on the way they are made clean (καθαρίζω, katharizō) as one. DING!

The lepers notice that their skin disease (leprosy) is gone as they are traveling down the road to go to present themselves to the priest. They are no longer unclean outcasts; they have been cleansed; they have received catharsis. But has their group identity changed? After all, who is going to believe it? Doesn’t this experience need some processing time? Maybe sticking together and sharing the experience is a way to maintain their group identity.

One of them, however, is willing to change how he thinks about himself. He is willing to change his identity, to associate with the source of his cleansing rather than the old community of inclusive isolation. It is this identity changing move that makes the difference. The one formerly known as leper has chosen to identify himself with the Master rather than with the others formerly known as lepers. No longer is this one, AKA leper, he is faithful and in his faithfulness he doxologizes God and gives eucharistic thanks. DING!

Jesus responds to this thanksgiving with wonder. Weren’t there ten of you? Where are the other nine? If you are willing to change your identity, shouldn’t there be more of you who are willing? DING!

It’s possible this thankful one has not come of his own accord. Perhaps, when the ten find they are cleansed, the group identity of their shared disease may no longer be strong enough to keep them in community. They are no longer able to live together in the region between as one because now their own social prejudices separate them. There is one among them who is a Samaritan (Σαμαρίτης, Samaritēs), a foreigner (ἀλλογενής, allogenēs). Their oneness is broken. They are unable to find a new commonality in the Master. Instead they choose old ways of segregation.  So the Samaritan turns back and glorifies (δοξάζω, doxazō) God giving thanks (εὐχαριστέω, eucharisteō) that there is a new community of Jesus and his followers to belong to. The cleansed has been linked to a new oneness. In the region between this is possible because Jesus, unlike the rich man, is able to see, recognize and appreciate Lazarus(es) covered with sores and show mercy. DING!

I prefer to interpret the Samaritan’s actions as choice freely made rather than the result of prejudicial treatment, but, in either case, his identity changes: he becomes a follower of the Master.  I believe that this passage is more about trusting who and whose we are, rather than the plight of the other nine. It is more about those times when we live in those regions between as foreigners to those around us, when we are dis-allowed by our culture, when we don’t seem to fit in with the people we find around us (as in the other nine). (I am not discounting the need in the 1^st century to quarantine people as a means of discovering whether a particular disease was dangerous and contagious.)

Can we see today where people are quarantined unjustly? Can we recognize groups of socially ostracized people who need merciful wholeness in Christ and understand that only some will be able to change their identity? Can we acknowledge that some others will benefit from those communities of cathartic healing-wholeness without embracing their new identity?

Is it possible that we have made the church’s identity that of the modern leper, segregated from the rest of society by our own practice of inclusive isolation that is crying for mercy and cathartic healing-wholeness? Are we, as the church, willing to turn away from those practices of communal quarantine that keep us separated from one another? Can we find our way into the region between where the chasm of despair is mercifully filled with the Master’s cathartic healing hope? Is there space for doxological praise and eucharistic thanksgiving for the healing forgiveness that comes from the cross and resurrection, the cross and resurrection sending us out into the world able to recognize and acknowledge others in need? Can we, when we hear those words of healing, “Go, your faith has saved (σῴζω, sōzō) you”, proceed, skipping down the road, or dancing, maybe even running, with a hand in the air, one foot raised and the other almost touching the road praising God and giving thanks, not thanking God for what we will get, but for what we have? If we can, imagine with me what the world might look like then.

Jesus, Master, have mercy!  DING!

Give Us More Faith? Luke 17:1-10

The tone of the reading for today is different than it was last week. Last week we finished reading a series of parables directed to a group of people who have their own spirituality and beliefs making them feel they are better, more entitled, “more righter” about God’s world than the people around them. They are so much “righter” about their beliefs that they are unable to appreciate what Jesus is doing. They are upset about the way that Jesus is making friends with those unclean, unrighteous, “more wronger” people—the tax collectors and sinners.

Over the last three weeks, we learned a lot about losing things and finding them—a sheep, a coin, a child, a trusted manager, and community. In the midst of loss, we discovered God’s radical love that continues to search us out and teaches us new ways of knowing God’s righteousness or justice in the world. God’s radical love gives reasons for building bridges to span the gap between us and the people outside our gates of self-interest creating new community in God’s love.

You see, the focus group Jesus is talking about, the “more righter” people, think that God’s love and justice is reserved for people who do what is right. Their rightness makes it possible for them to show others that they are chosen by God. Those people with whom Jesus is trying to develop a relationship, those who are “more wronger”, can’t be part of God’s chosen people because … well … they are wrong! They are losers! They are icky! They are not very nice people.

Today, Jesus is speaking to his disciples (you know Peter, James, John, and the gang). So, let us listen in as they learn about faith and new community.

The Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you O Lord.

Luke 17:1-10.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you O Christ.

As I finally learned over these last few weeks, Jesus is speaking to me through the example of the Pharisees. I am part of the group who feels entitled by my faith, therefore I should be looking outside of myself to the world around me. So, okay, I am getting it, Jesus is now talking to his disciples, not just Peter, James, John and the gang, but to all of his disciples, that is you and me.

Now I have to tell you, some of the most frightening words in Scripture are spoken here. Recognizing that all of us will stumble is fine, but, “Woe to anyone by whom they come?” These words are a little scary. By the time you get to, “It would be better for you if a mill stone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea, than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble,” I am starting to sweat.

I wonder how many people have I caused to stumble. Is my stumbling around the cause of others’ stumbling? Do I even have the right to stand before you today? Maybe I should just sit down at this point and send you home. And if this was all that we had for a text today, I’d really consider it. But we are given more.

Yes, we will stumble. We will even cause people to stumble, and we will feel awful because of it. Thank God for the gift of forgiveness! And not only one time, but as many times as we need it.

I looked at the word for stumbling in Greek. The word is skandalon. It is the Greek word from which we get scandalous. But what is this scandalous word?

Skandalon is most oftentimes translated as stumbling stone or stumbling block, that is an intentional stone or block that is offset from the established pattern of paving stones or steps so as to cause someone to trip or stumble. In the Old Testament, skandalon is the trigger peddle on a trap. You might have seen this trigger peddle on a mouse trap or maybe even a hoop trap sometimes known as a bear trap.

Let’s read the text again. “Occasions for stepping in traps or stumbling on uneven sidewalks and unfamiliar staircases are bound to come. But shame on you, if you set up these conditions in your faith-life for others to stumble on. Instead, learn to live with the missteps of others, picking them up when they trip and fall or giving a hand of stabilization when they need it. In other words, forgiving them as many times as they make mistakes. Be a teacher when they make mistakes. Help them to learn how to avoid the problem in the future, understanding that we sometimes learn more slowly than we would like.

Wow! No wonder the disciples want more faith--more faith, more patience, and in the words of Tim the Toolman, “More power!”

But, faith, like love, is not able to be quantified. If faith is something with a quantity to it, then Jesus says, the quantity of faith equal to a mustard seed is more than enough to uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the ocean. I mean, what is with this ocean or sea stuff. First I’m drowning and now this mulberry tree is drowning!

And now there is this other little scene of eating supper! Can’t we just order out or get a rotisserie chicken at the deli counter and then sit down together? Seriously, at the end of the day, I’m hungry and don’t want to argue about who is going to cook. Let’s eat and be done with it. I’ll wash the dishes or load the dishwasher when we’re done.

Then I remembered. Jesus is trying to teach his disciples something. What is it that I am supposed to learn here? What difference does this text make in the lives of Peter, James, and the gang that includes me? What difference does this make for the world?

This is what I came up with. Faith is about relationship with others to be shared not hoarded. Faith is faith. You can’t have some, enough, or too much. Faith is what we put our trust in and that is God’s word being spoken to us today.

When we live in relationship with one another, we need to forgive each other over and over again. To withhold that forgiveness is to create occasions for falling away from God and one another thus impeding our ability to reach out in love with support to stabilize and strengthen our communities. As we pray every day, “Forgive our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Our lives of relationship with God and one another can change the world, but it is more like sitting down to eat with one another than it is about uprooting innocent trees and plopping them in the ocean. We continue to be in relationship with God and one another because Christ calls for forgiveness, even from the cross, because Christ continues to forgive us, and because walking together in our faith relationship, Christ prepares the table for us.

So, instead of demanding more, let us celebrate the gift of faith we have been given, living in Christ’s forgiving love. Let us go to our closest friends and our fiercest enemies with Christ’s words of forgiveness.  And then, let’s come to the table, eating our meal of new covenant living, celebrating our worthy lives received in Christ, saying we have done only what we ought to do each and every day. Thanks be to God!