March 31, 2019 Fourth Sunday in Lent

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32  (The Message)

15 1-3 By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story.
11-12 Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’
12-16 “So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
17-20 “That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.
20-21 “When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’
22-24 “But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.
25-27 “All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’
28-30 “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’
31-32 “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”


This is the best of Jesus stories.
It is all we need to know about God and grace; this God who “will not let us go, will not let us down, will not let us off.”

It’s a story about a love and grace which is willing to die in order to give life.
It’s about death and resurrection and the grace which comes to those who are dead and know it (the Younger Son, the sinner), as well as those who are dead and don’t know it. (The Elder Son, the self righteous)

And what is it’s message?

Nobody will be refused because they are not good enough.
Nobody will enter because they are good enough.
Nobody will be an disowned by God.  Rejected.  Cast out.
God doesn’t close his heart to anyone - ever!

It is by grace that we are saved - all of us- the righteous and the unrighteous.
Nothing can stand in God’s way of being a God of grace, and of celebrating that grace!






“So let us all - seek consolation
in that love which never dies
and find peace in the dazzling
grace that always is.”
William Sloane Coffin











Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, thank you for grace - amazing, dazzling grace! Without it I would have no joy beyond the moment and no peace which passes understanding.  There would be little to celebrate.”

March 24, 2019 Third Sunday in Lent

Luke 13: 6-9  (The Message)
6-7 Then he told them a story: “A man had an apple tree planted in his front yard. He came to it expecting to find apples, but there weren’t any. He said to his gardener, ‘What’s going on here? For three years now I’ve come to this tree expecting apples and not one apple have I found. Chop it down! Why waste good ground with it any longer?’
8-9 “The gardener said, ‘Let’s give it another year. I’ll dig around it and fertilize, and maybe it will produce next year; if it doesn’t, then chop it down.’”

Whatever else this parable is about, it is about grace - God’s grace.

We have only once place to stand in this parable - we are the barren fig tree.  And the meaning is that no matter what, God is first, last and always a God of grace; “whose love will over rule his anger and whose mercy is stronger then her logic.”

"Praise God!  Everything doesn't happen for a reason.  Shout hallelujah!  What goes around doesn't come around.  The holy gardener looks on the unfruitfulness of the church and the unfruitfulness of the world and says,
it's not a lost case yet.  Let's give it another chance.”  E. Susan Bond

Amen!  And again I say, AMEN!






“God never lets us go;
God never lets us down;
God never lets us off.”
        John A. Redhead'










Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, thanks for giving me another chance,
and another, and another, until by your grace I do get it right.”

March. 17, 2019 Second Sunday in Lent

Luke 13:34 (The Message)

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets, abuser of the messengers of God!  How often I’ve longed to gather your children, gather your children like a hen,  Her brood safe under her wings—
but you refused and turned away!”

Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they would not let him love them as God would love them.  Jesus weeps today for all of us who don’t want to be loved that much.

God wants to love us more then we want to be loved.
God wants his love to be a living power and passion in our lives, sustaining us when we are down, challenging us when we are off course, directing us when we are confused and loving us into joyful obedience and hopeful servant hood, no matter what.

We don’t want that!
It is scary to be loved by God that much, for it “demands our life our soul our all.”  It means I can no longer play at being religious; I have to mean it.

“How often I’ve longed to gather
your children, gather your
children like a hen,  Her
brood safe under her wings.”
Jesus








Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, let your love move me beyond just being religious, to being a loving servant in how I live.   Amen”

March 3, 2019 Transfiguration Sunday

Luke 9:29-36  (The Message)

28-31 About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.
32-33 Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking.
34-35 While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.”
36 When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.

It was a mystical, spiritual, psychic, weird, crazy, spooky experience; too big, too powerful, too unreal for them to talk about.  It couldn’t be communicated with words.  Words could not contain it, describe it, pass it on.  So they said nothing.

Such moments- holy moments -  are not so much to be talked about as lived out.  And we all have them if we will only stop and see them.

They also are not to be lived in; we can’t stop the world and just stay in the holy moment.  This would make an idol of that experience.  Rather they are to be windows through which we see more clearly the road we are to travel and the presence of a loving God for our journey.

"After enlightenment,
the laundry.”
                  A Zen proverb










Prayer thought:  “Thank you Lord, for those moments of enlightenment
which show the way I am to go.  And be with me after they are over and I am back to the mundane.”
















A moment which cannot be captured with words can only be lived out with deeds.  I’m glad they couldn’t talk about it.  To talk about it would cheapen the experience and make it less real.   Something this sacred you don’t cheapen with words.

To do so is to end up worshiping the experience rather than the God who created it.
It is to have pride in our great experience with God; and even gloat over it, rather than be humbled by God’s grace.

What counts is genuine human beings whose lives reflect that something great has happened to them.  They may not be able to talk about it; but their lives reflect it.  It is felt more then heard.  This is what really counts with God.  What we do outwardly, because of what has happened to us, often in secret.


p.s.



29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31 appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.)
    34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.