2nd Sunday of Advent - Year B (Mark 1:1-8)

Few scriptural images stand more sharply in contrast to the ethos of a consumer Christmas than that of John the Baptist. I have heard recently of at least one church group setting up an Advent “station” in a shopping mall, offering a welcome (to some) respite from the buying frenzy. If that is what we consider a radical response to the co-opting of the Nativity, imagine the reaction of shoppers to John the Baptist, in camel hair, standing at the gate to Santa’s village, workshop, etc., demanding the preparation of the Lord’s way. “Take a bath and get a job!” It should be no surprise that these words directed at Occupy Wall Street Protesters might just as suitably (in the view of those issuing the insult) be hurled the Baptizer.

While in no way wanting to equate the message and tactics of OWS with the mission of John, there are some parallels. Disrupting the status quo is not for the faint of heart. It is, however, precisely that disruption which the prophets and the Gospel announce and we are called to give it voice in our words and actions as disciples of the one to whom John pointed – the disrupter-in-chief – Jesus.

So what is this disruptive message we are challenged to share with the world? Happiness, and more especially, love, cannot be bought or earned. We are not saved by a vibrant consumer economy or by any other thing that we can make, earn, or manipulate. The only gift necessary has already been purchased at great price and it is graciously given.

1st Sunday of Advent - Year B (Mark13:24-37)

I was fortunate to be with my mother, holding her hand, during her final hours. For a while during her dying process, she seemed to be struggling to breath. It was painful to watch and even more painful to hear. There was what seemed to me an eternity between each breath. And each and every time I wondered if this was the end. I was alert to every sound, every touch, every sign that the end was coming. I was painfully awake.

Could it be this level of alertness to which we are called by the gospel for the First Sunday of Advent? If so, I don’t know that I’m up to it. It’s all together too much to ask, too much to endure. That level of wakefulness quickly takes its toll on both mind and body.
After the struggle passed, my mother moved into a more restful and peaceful state. I was certainly still awake, still aware of all that was going on, but it was no longer painful and I was no longer on edge. Her breathing was so quiet that it was hard to hear and it was no longer necessary or even possible to try to guess when the last breath would come. The nerve racking hyper-alert listening and watching was transformed into a peace filled “being with”.

It is this peace filled being with the moment that the season of Advent calls us to embrace. Our preoccupation with violent apocalypse tricks us into thinking that we can know the day and the hour. The violent destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans must surely have seemed a precursor to the end, but it wasn’t. The violence of my mother’s physical struggle to cling to life was also not the end. Though painful to both mind and body, we have no choice but to stay awake and alert when everything is crumbling around us, the challenge is to be awake to the gradual opening of a spring leaf on a tree.

22nd Sunday After Pentecost - Year A (Matthew 25:14-30)

It is said that familiarity breeds contempt. Perhaps this holds true with the parables of Jesus as much as with anything else, and, if not contempt, than at least boredom and a sense of déjà vu. We might do well to hear today’s parable recast in more contemporary terms. A wealthy person going on a around the world cruise summoned his investment portfolio managers, giving one 500 million, one 200 million, and one 100 million dollars to invest. The one who had been given the 500 million invested in shady derivatives and other high risk deals made 500 million more. The one given 200 million followed suit and also made a 100% return. The final investor, having looked more deeply into the underlying market and fearing a collapse of both the market and the banks, decided to put the money in a safe deposit box. The first two investors managed to get in and out before the collapse having made a made a huge return. The final of the three had been correct in foreseeing what would happen to the markets but his timing was off by a few months and the capital he had preserved was given as a bonus to the first investor. That final investor had his “McMansion” foreclosed upon and ended up working for a credit union. Weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed!
So then, to what shall we compare the Reign of God? The Reign of God is like a Wall Street investor who is rewarded for taking risks. Really? This parable has long appealed to our American experience of a somewhat benevolent capitalism. In light of recent events, and the ruin brought to many by a much more malevolent economic reality, we are forced, perhaps, to look at the parable in a different light. Even the oft repeated attempt to define the word talent by its literal English transliteration meaning aptitude or ability seems naïve in our current situation.
A few points might help us come to terms with this parable. First of all, everything belongs to God. Secondly, in God’s economy there is only abundance. And, finally, it is our faith in that abundance, or lack thereof that influences our ability to risk everything.

19th Sunday after Pentecost - Year A (Matthew 22:34-46)

There were many things about which the Pharisees and the Sadducees disagreed, but it seems they were united in their desire to trip up Jesus.  Beyond that, the text seems to imply that the Pharisees were out to show up the Sadducees by succeeding where the later had failed.  Once again Jesus escapes their verbal trap.  And then, as if not to be left out of the fun, Jesus sets a trap for the Pharisees.  Their failure to answer adequately finally brings the contest to an end.  Perhaps the point of the text is that any argument about scripture to which the final answer is not love of God and neighbor has missed the point.

18th Sunday after Pentecost - Year A (Matthew 22:15-22)

Taxes are a major political topic in the U.S. today. Who, if anyone, should be taxed? What percentage of their income should people pay in taxes? How about corporations? While the Christian might hope to find some solution to these questions in this Sunday’s text is, I think, to miss the point. Taxes and the proper role of government are not the subject of this story, Jesus is. The enemies of Jesus are trying to trap him by asking a question to which, in their view, there is no answer that will not get him in trouble with someone. Jesus, as it turns, out, is smarter than they think and does not allow them to trap him. Jesus refuses to take sides but rather inserts a “both and” where his enemies would have an “either or”.  Jesus’ embrace of a more holistic view of the nature of the world leaves open the possibility of a Christian way of being in the world that rejects dualism and pursues reconciliation. In Christ, all things are brought together.

17th Sunday after Pentecost - Year A (Matt 22:1-14)

This is a hard one.  A man, dragged into a party from the street is then summarily thrown out for not being dressed appropriately.  So to what does the “wedding garment” refer:  Faith, good works, baptism?  It may seem a copout but I suggest that we leave this question up to God.  The text has already, in fact, made the point that it is not up to the slaves to make judgments, but to include everyone, “good and bad”.  While I am saddened at the loss of the one, I rejoice in the inclusion of the many.   The mystery of God’s judgment is beyond us but we live everyday in the mystery of God’s love and mercy.  As servants of King we are challenged to go out into the streets to invite everyone we find to the wedding banquet.   Not one of us is called to play the bouncer.

16th Sunday after Pentecost - Year A (Matt 21:33-46

In our time we often hear the phrase “don’t shoot the messenger.” As this coming Sunday’s parable indicates, killing the messenger is nothing new. The Christian messenger that we immediately think of is, of course the preacher. While the number of preachers killed by their congregations each year is, thankfully, very low. But preachers do find themselves alienated from members of their church and civic communities and, depending on polity, without a job. Beyond the professional preachers however, are all Christians, called by baptism, to be preachers of the good news. We are reminded by Frederick Buechner that before it is good news, the gospel is bad news. It is bad news in that is upsets the status quo. It is bad news in that it holds us accountable not only for our own sins but for systemic injustice. It is bad news because Jesus, the vineyard owners own son, was seized and killed. The messenger of Christ can expect nothing different.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the vindication of the Vineyard owner and his Son. It is only in the resurrection that the bad news becomes good news. The stone rejected by the builders has indeed become the corner stone.