Matthew 11:16-19,25-30

Rest for the Weary


Dance, dance wherever you may be
For we are the lords of the dance
Said we
Jesus!!
What do you want with us
Jesus!!
We did you bidding
We stated the church
We studied all the documents
And found ways to keep the word
Pure
And them
Out
We have accords and charts
Timetables and structures
Committees and boards
(come to me)
Who make division decisions
And keep the righteous wannabes
Happy
(all who are weary)
We even invite them in
Just not as clergy
(and burdened)
After all
(and I will give you rest)
This is our church
Isn’t it?

Hospitality

Sunday July 6th, Genesis 24: 42 “So today when I came to the spring, I prayed this prayer: ‘O Lord, God of my master, Abraham, please give me success on this mission. 43 See, I am standing here beside this spring. This is my request. When a young woman comes to draw water, I will say to her, “Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.” 44 If she says, “Yes, have a drink, and I will draw water for your camels, too,” let her be the one you have selected to be the wife of my master’s son.’ When looking for a wife of the child of Abraham who would bring the hope and promise to the world that had been promised for so long, the servant was looking for someone with hospitality. Not just Miss Manners who knows the proper protocol. I dare say Miss Manners has never to my knowledge written about how to draw water for camels. But, someone who, down in their heart, is a kind and hospitable person. What a wonderful trait to look for when considering the mother of the people of promise. Is this a trait we instill in our children? In our society? In our church? I would hope so, though I fear it is not always the case. Being hospitable is a matter of welcoming the other and considering their contribution to your life as being worthwhile. It is to see the other as a brother or sister in Christ. And hardest of all, it is to accept the fact that once welcomed, things will never be the same.

before I had finished praying

Monday July 7th, Genesis 24: 45 “Before I had finished praying in my heart, I saw Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ 46 She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’ So I drank, and then she watered the camels. I like that “before I had finished praying” line. We often think that God answers prayers, which is a way of putting us in charge. I wonder if perhaps, God sometimes leads us to pray into the answers God has already given. Thus putting God in charge from the beginning. In this text, Rebekah can be seen by some as a poor subservient woman. This vision would take her out of context of time and place and put her in 21st century America. She is a person who is hospitable in heart. Would that more children of God could be hospitable of heart. Many of us learn the opposite through the years. We learn to take for ourselves and to make sure we take care of old number one, and then make the mistake of thinking we are old number one. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow, and reminds us that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. This is not begrudgingly taking you place stuff, this is happy hospitality stuff. The difference is in the heart.

Shine a light

Tuesday July 8th, Romans 7: 17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. The power of the law is that it drives us to our knees. If we see sin as that which we do, we can hold onto the illusion for a while that we can make it. If we see sin as a part of who we are, we know there is no way to make it on our own. Sin is that which separates us from God, and the sin the most often separates is the sin of believing we are not so bad, and therefore, on some level may pay homage to God but not really need God. It is the law that shines the light on our sin, and when we try to escape, it shines the light on the doors that are all locked up by sin, leaving no way out except through the cross and Christ.

Sadistic "I"

Wednesday July 9th, Romans 7: 25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. A change in western theology from the early 1800’s that has worked its way into American civil religion can be defined as a movement from God and us, to God and I. Rapture theology being latest and most sadistic version of that. When the young man asked the question of Jesus, “what must ‘I’ do to be saved, Jesus told him the story we call the good Samaritan, pointing him to a “we” view of life. It is in the “we” that the “I” begins to see Christ. It is in seeing loving God and love others as one commandment, that the “I” begins to melt into the “we.” That is when we finally drop our shields and see the salvation of Christ that has been there all along.

Marketplace forces

Thursday July 10th, Matthew 11: 16 "To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 17 " 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.' 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions." John changed lives. The people flocked to him for baptism and dedicated their lives to living as the children of God. Jesus changed lives. The people flocked to him and received healing, wholeness and forgiveness and the good news that the Kingdom is at hand and they dedicated their lives to living as the children of God. Wisdom is proved by her actions. What do you see? The blind can see, the lame walk and the poor have good news preached to them. Today the new vision seems to be, couples who love each other are banned from marriage, women’s rights are denied and wars are fought in your name. Which is another way of saying that the children are still lured by the marketplace rather than God.

More ear, less tongue

Friday July 11th, Matthew 11: 25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. The difference between little children and the wise and learned is that little children know they do not have all the answers, that is not always the case with the wise and learned. However the very wise and very learned tend to once again see they do not have all the answers. True wisdom is expressed more with the ears than with the tongue.

the yoke is on you

Saturday July 12th, Matthew 11: 28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Trying to do it on your own is the hard way to go. Getting down on your knees tends to lighten the burden. Following Jesus is accepting the fact that you can’t do it and you need someone else. That someone else is the Christ who went to the cross for all humanity. Giving up the “I” takes off a real load and opens up the vistas of life with Christ that are before you.

Preparing the Battlefield by Seymour Hersh

I continue with my concern that our current plan is to go to war with Iran before the November elections (October surprise) in an attempt to throw the elections toward pro-war and war business interests. The following is the beginning of an article by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker called, "Preparing the Battlefield." The full article can be found by clicking the title or the link at the end of this post.

Operations outside the knowledge and control of commanders have eroded “the coherence of military strategy,” one general says.

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

Full article at: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=all

Matthew 10:40-42

a cup of cold water

Let me take your coat sir
Please sit over here
Is there anything else I can get you
I do hope you will come back again
Kiss, kiss
How lovely to see you
Schmooze
And there is the reward
As we scramble for the highest
Religious
Place
Profit Prophets
Fill the airwaves
And in the alleys outside
Children
Lost
Lonely
Least
Looking only for a little kindness
Love
And maybe a drink of fresh water

Life affirming or life denying?

Sunday June 29th, Genesis 22: 2 The LORD said, "Go get Isaac, your only son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah, and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar." 3 So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire. He put a saddle on his donkey and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go. 4 Three days later Abraham looked off in the distance and saw the place. 5 He told his servants, "Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back." Isaac was the progenitor or the Hebrew people who were called to bring the message of God and God’s love to the world. It starts with Isaac being brought to sacrifice in the land of Moriah. Some think that Moriah has something to do with the temple mount for the foundation of Solomon’s temple, but many dispute this. Human sacrifice in worship was not out of the question at the time of this writing, and if a god was really God, well then, the price had to be paid to this greatness. So when Abraham is asked to do this, the deed is not really questioned, and Abraham did what a great god would ask of his devoted subjects. There are many parallels with the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, the only son, the reference accepted by some of Moriah being in Jerusalem, the ride in on a donkey, the servants staying behind, the early morning and the three days. In both stories, the unexpected happens and instead of it being life denying, it is life affirming. God is always moving humanity toward life affirming experiences rather than life denying. We on the other hand tend to put our energies into building bombs and other life denying projects. Is what you support life affirming or life denying?

God will provide

Monday June 30th, Genesis 22: 6 Abraham put the wood on Isaac's shoulder, but he carried the hot coals and the knife. As the two of them walked along, 7-8 Isaac said, "Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?" "My son," Abraham answered, "God will provide the lamb." We continue with the parallels with Jesus & Isaac with Isaac carrying the wood on his shoulders as he marches toward the sacrifice. Abrahams answer to the question about a lamb is that God will provide. And God does provide. Not in the individualistic way of winning a lottery or helping with the math test, but in a way that honors God’s love for all of humanity. The move from accepting human sacrifice to the rejection of it was an important step for humanity to accept the grace of God. This is not a final step, but one of many along the way toward God’s vision for all of humanity that was created and called good.

The Big Picture

Tuesday July 1st, Genesis 22: Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. 10 He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son. 11 But the LORD's angel shouted from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am!" he answered. 12 "Don't hurt the boy or harm him in any way!" the angel said. "Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son." 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son. 14 Abraham named that place "The LORD Will Provide. It is often when we are up against the wall that we see God and God’s hand in our lives. Until then we are often so preoccupied with the way things always have been that we fail to see the big picture of God’s love. We are always to ask, how our my traditions, my understanding of the way things should be, blinding me from seeing God’s love and grace in the world?

Don't get hooked

Wednesday July 2nd, Romans 6: 12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. Sin in America is often defined as one’s interpretation of the ten commandments. When that is the case, what the “self-proclaimed righteous” often do is find loopholes and condemn everyone else for finding other loopholes. Sin however is that which separates us from God. It can be one thing for one person and quiet another for someone else. Living in the freedom of God means we are free from the game playing of finding loopholes. Living in the freedom of God means that we sometimes “sin” in the eyes of others, and in the eyes of God in the process of working for justice, which God calls us to do. Living in the freedom of God means we keep our eye on God and God’s calling and if we fall along the way, which we do all the time, we also know God will pick up us and dust off our knees and send us on our way again. Living in the freedom of God means in the words of Luther, to sin boldly, but rejoice more boldly still. Living in the freedom of God means life.

Freedom

Thursday July 3rd, Romans 6: 15-18 So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. The problem of God’s grace is human immaturity. Saved by Grace? Great, that means I can go and do whatever I want and God will still forgive me!?! Well, yes, but not exactly. Turning our focus from God to us is a great way to let sin set the hook in our lives. What is lost is not God’s love, or God’s forgiveness, but rather our freedom to live in that love and forgiveness. We are free to smoke crack and forgiven if we do, but we still lose our teeth, health, friends, respect and eventually life. We don’t all smoke crack of course, but do we do that is life denying rather than life affirming? What do we do that is outside of God’s plan for our lives? The freedom to offer yourself to sin is the freedom to give up your freedom.

God up there is down here

Friday July 4th, Matthew 10: 40 "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. We can speculate all we want about God up in heaven and all we have is speculation. What we can know of God up in heaven is what God has shown us in the life and teachings of Jesus here on earth. It might not be all of God, and then again it might be all of God, but it is all we need to know of God. And what we know is the call to love and forgive and care enough to work for God’s justice in this world.

A little water please

Saturday July 5th, Matthew 10: 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." A cup of water may not seem like much, but to someone who is thirsty, it is an act of grace and renewed life. We are not so much called to do great acts as much as we are all called to act, and the cumulative effect is greater than anything any one, ten or a hundred people can do. It is being motivated by the love of God to act out the Grace we have been given in our relationships with others. Everything you think, do and say is a prayer to God. Simply ask yourself if what you are thinking, doing and saying now is a prayer you want to be praying?

Thank you

Back from New Zealand, Family reunion coming to a close, time to get back to work. Thank you all for visiting my site while I was away and hopefully I will get caught up and a little ahead in the next couple of weeks.

Pastor Dan