Gimme That!

This sermon was delivered to the People of the Lutheran Church of the Nativity on Sunday February 23, 2014.  The texts for the sermon were Ezekiel 47:1-2, 6b-9, 12 and John 7:37-52.

This has been a wild week in the world.  We’ve seen protests in Ukraine and Venezuela, where people on both sides of the protests involving the government’s use of power have gotten violent.  We’ve seen over the past few weeks the divisiveness that is present in Russia surrounding the Olympics, as the whole world is tuned in, as Russia struggles with their “anti-gay” laws, with people on both sides of the issue giving their support from around the world.  And we see in America today, how almost any conversation can be split up in to two camps by mentioning, equal marriage rights, gun control, or - the current hot topic for many people, universal health care.

And when we look out and see all the divisions that happen in our world, it’s easy for us to think that this is something new.  That our world is more divided today than it ever has been.  But that’s not true.  As anyone who has ever witnessed sibling rivarly can tell you, there will always be division.  One sibling is going to think that the other one is getting special treatment, and the other sibling is going to think the same thing.

I can remember when my brother and I got our first XBOX to share.  We were told that we had to split the time on it equally, or else we wouldn’t get to play it anymore.  We had a timer set up, so that each person would only get thirty minutes at a time with the XBOX.  And yet, even with the timer, we managed to squeeze some extra time out of the games whenever we were “supposed” to turn it over to the other brother.  So, for my brother’s birthday, he got his own XBOX, as my parents attempted to create some equality between the two of us.  Instead of fighting over time with the system, then my brother and I would fight over which games we wanted to play.  Never mind that we had enough that he and I could have played for weeks without having to talk to each other.  Instead, when things were made equal, we still found something to argue about and fight over.  

And this isn’t just for humans either.  My dog, Oliver, will pretty much refuse to play with toys.  He’s just not interested.  He might gnaw on one every now and then, but for the most part, he couldn’t care less about getting a new bone or a new toy.  Except when my parents bring their dog down for the weekend.  Then Oliver gets really defensive about his toys.  He has to have all the bones and all the toys.  He’ll snap at the other dog if she comes close to “his” things.  And so, we end up giving each of the dogs their own rawhide chew.  And without fail, they spend more time trying to get the other one’s bone than they do actually chewing on it.  

And we can look back in history and see that this isn’t something new under the sun.  Pretty much since Cain and Abel, we’ve had sibling rivalry.  And with it, the idea that there’s not enough to go around.  The idea that one person has to have, at the expense of the other.  We saw it with Jacob and Esau, with Moses and Aaron, and we even see it with those listening to Jesus this morning.  

Jesus has just preached a message about grace and life coming from God.  A life, that comes from God (the sanctuary in our first reading this morning), that’s coming out of the believer’s heart.  And there is so much grace and life coming out from God that it can go into all the world, providing life for everyone.  And there’s really no stipulation on who can have this life, just anyone who comes to Jesus because they are thirsty.  Anyone who thinks that there’s something better in this world, that this can’t be all there is, will be able to be transformed into an outlet for God’s love and grace that bring life.

And even in the midst of this radical message that there is more than enough, that life for all the world will come to the whole world, people still need to be right, at the expense of someone else being wrong.  It’s like when my brother and I each had our own XBOX, and we still needed to find something to fight about, that the other couldn’t have.  

So we see all sorts of divisions crop up around Jesus’ words around equality.  Some say he’s just a dreamer, looking to the way things are supposed to be.  Some say that he’s truly the one that is going to bring life and light and water to all the world.  And others, most others, actually say that he’s just a wacko that doesn’t know how the real world works.  I can hear them saying to themselves, “What does some backcountry boy know about how the world works?  Doesn’t he know there isn’t really enough to go around?  Doesn’t he know that even if there were, people wouldn’t willingly share what they have with those who don’t?”

Aren’t those words we’ve heard or maybe even said ourselves?  When we hear messages like this one, where Jesus talks about life-giving waters for all the world, don’t we say, that’s real nice Jesus, but that’s not how the world actually works.  We need competition to survive and thrive.  Because otherwise people who are lazy will just take advantage of the system.  Or we get angry, and say, “I worked hard for what I have.  Yeah, I know I don’t need all of it, but I earned it.  I’m not going to give it away to someone who doesn’t deserve it.”  Even in the message of plenty, we still think there’s not enough.

Even in this message of life, we create divisions.  I had a professor in college who once said, “Where two or more are gathered in Jesus’ name, there will be at least six different opinions about what it all means.”  It’s true though.  Anytime we hear God’s word, we each come up with our opinions about what it all means.  And that’s a good thing.  Just like a river has to have two banks for it to be a river - to contain it, and allow it to bring life to the plants on either side, so too must God’s word allow for divisions.  Otherwise, we would find ourselves trapped believing that there’s only one answer, and we’ve got it.  And then, we might find ourselves using God to justify whatever it is that we’re already doing, instead of listening to see where God is calling us to act.

The problem with our divisions is that we have a hard time celebrating them.  Instead we enter into competition with them, we “need” to be right.  Like I “needed” to have the game my brother was playing.  It doesn’t really matter to my faith if I’m right and you’re wrong.  And if I start thinking that maybe you’re right too, then I might challenge and cause my faith to grow.  And maybe you can learn from me.  And in our conversation, life will flourish and God will show up.  God shows up in those “six or more opinions about what it all means” because God can be glimpsed in all of them.  God is simply present in the other person, and I cannot see how unless I stop trying to fight them.  

And when I do, God has an amazing way of showing up to bring about grace and life.  Like when several years ago, during a riot in Egypt, Muslims stood around a Christian church and protected it from being burned down.  Or later, when Christians stood around a group of Muslims so that they could pray in peace.  Or even in the Ukraine this week, where priests stood in between the protestors and the police, so that there could be a moment of peace against the protest.

These are powerful moments where living water, coming from God, flows out of these hearts of these believers.   They are moments of grace and beauty for all peoples.  They are chances where we get to see what Jesus is talking about when he talks about the Kingdom of God.  They are moments where we find the water inviting and welcoming, and we want to jump in.  They are moments where our hearts can be transformed, and we too can allow our hearts to open up let the life-giving water of God flow out of our hearts.  And we continually ask God to pour grace through us, so that we can bring life to those in need.  Amen.

'67 Impala

This sermon was delivered on September 22, 2013 for the people of Nativity Lutheran Church. It is from the Genesis 27-28 text about Jacob and Esau - I encourage you to read over those two chapters before listening/reading the sermon.

There was a man whose name was Isaac.  Isaac's one great passion was his 1967 Chevy Impala.  This black beauty was the fourth love of Isaac's life, after his wife Becky, and his two sons Esau, and Jake.  And there were certainly times when the car was in first or second place, even before his family.  Isaac had saved and saved for almost ten years to buy this car, and he was finally able to sign the deed when his two sons were born.  Now, even though Esau and Jake were twins, they were as different as the black paint and the chrome finish of Isaac's Impala.  

Esau, who went by E, was down to earth, not terribly bright, but could fix anything when he put his mind to it.  E just had an intuitive feel for how machines worked, and so naturally E and Isaac were extremely close.  They spent hours and hours working on the Impala, making adjustments, keeping her running - they lived to hear the purr of her engine.  

Jake was the complete opposite.  He was definitely his mother's favorite, because he was extremely bright, had a passion for puzzles and games, and could work magic with his pen and pencil in school.  Becky knew that Jake was going to do great things, if only he could afford college - see, with Isaac pouring all of their spare money into keeping up his Impala, college was not on the horizon for either of his sons.  This wasn't a problem for E, because he was going to follow into his father's footsteps and work at the garage, but Becky wanted more than that for Jake.  

Now, as Jake and E were about to graduate from high school, Isaac had a stroke.  It caused him to go blind, and left him mostly paralyzed.  E immediately dropped out of high school to take charge of the shop - the position he was groomed for since he was six years old.  But Becky knew that Jake was never going to be able to work there, and she worked to find a way to get Jake the money for college.  

After his stroke, Isaac's health kept getting worse and worse.  He knew that he didn't have a whole lot of time left, so he went to his wife Becky and said, "Becky, I know that I'm not going to live much longer.  I want to write up a Will so that the boys know what's theirs after I'm gone."  And when he said that to her, Becky saw her chance to give Jake a shot at a future.  Becky and Isaac sat down and started to write up a Will, Isaac spoke and Becky wrote it down.  Things went well enough until they got to the Impala. Becky knew that Isaac's pride and joy was worth thousands of dollars - certainly enough to get Jake through college.  She saw her opportunity and she took it.  Instead of writing down E's name, she put in Jake's - knowing Isaac wouldn't be able to notice that she had written the wrong name down.  After they had finished, she and Isaac got his will notarized - Becky's plan hadn't been noticed.

Not long after Isaac's will was signed and sealed, he died.  Becky knew that E was not going to be happy that Jake got the car, so she snatched the car keys and gave them to Jake saying, "Take this, I made sure you got the Impala after your father died.  Take it and sell it so that you can go to college and have a better life than your father and I did."  Jake was understandable confused, but realized that E would be furious when he found out that Jake had gotten the Impala.  He hopped in the car and drove off, as far away as he could go - leaving all of his other possessions behind.  All Jake knew was that he was going anywhere-but-here, thoughts of college were gone he was so afraid of his life.

After a few days though, Jake realized what his mother meant.  He realized that he could sell his father's Impala, and pay for college.  He realized that he could sell this artifact of his father's time, and make his own legacy for himself.  He realized that if he was going to do this, he better do it quickly.  So Jake started to drive to a used car lot, but something happened to him when he was on the road.  He suddenly got a whiff of his father's cologne, Old Spice, wafting up from within the leather seats.  He was transported back to his childhood, about when he was six or seven and his father took the whole family on long drives on Sunday afternoons.  He saw his father, his mother, and his brother all sitting together in the car as the radio played something by Kansas, he thought it was "Dust in the Wind," and Jake realized something else.  He realized that if he sold this car, he wasn't just selling an artifact from his father's time, but was selling the love and devotion that his father had put in, not just to this well worn Impala, but also his family.  The last thing Jake heard before his flashback faded was his father saying, "I love you, I will take care of you, cause you are my family."  Jake snapped back to the steering wheel, and he thought to himself, "I can't sell this car.  I can find another way to pay for college and make my own way that still honors everything my father has done for me."

Now I know all the older siblings in the room are going to be with me, when I say, "This story really ticks me off!"  Both of these stories, the one we heard in Genesis and the one I just told.  I sit there and go, "that's not fair!"  I instinctively take up the roll of Esau and say I'm the good son.  I'm the one who did everything my father asked of me, and what do I get?  I get the short end of the stick...again.  It seems to be the curse of the oldest, our parents try so hard to not make any mistakes, to make sure we turn out perfectly.  They try to shelter us as a way of showing us that they love us.  And they do a good job.  We turn out ok, we think that's the best way of parenting, because they are our parents and they love us.  At least until kid number 2 comes along.  And then they're the baby, they get the special treatment, or worse, they get a little more freedom than we got when we were their age.

The biggest thing I remember about this was the first time my brother got to see a PG-13 movie.  I couldn't tell you what the movie even was, but I remember being sooo mad.  See, I had only been 13 for a few months, and it was a big deal for me that I got to see this movie.  And along comes my 8 year old brother to the movies with us.  I thought, "This isn't fair.  I had to wait and wait.  Why doesn't he have to wait?"  And of course, the answer was, "Well this movie isn't as bad as we thought it was going to be."  Like that made sense to my 13 year old mind.

Now, I know that's not as big of a deal as the birthright, or inheriting a '67 Impala from your dad, but it's just another instance where the bigger brother gets the short end of the stick.  And you know what really rubs me about Jacob and Esau?  Its that God still goes to the younger brother, the cheater, and promises to make a great nation out of him.

I think, really God?  Really?  You're going to pick him?  He failed the test.  He cheated his brother, he lied to his father, and then he ran away because his actions had consequences.  You're going to pick him?  Look at Esau, he's the mighty hunter, he's the strong man, he's the one who's faithful to his family.  All he did was what his father told him to do.  Why couldn't you have gone to him after all this and said, "Don't worry that your brother took everything, I'm going to give it back to you a hundred times over."  That'd be a much better story, right older siblings out there?

And then after I've cooled down a little bit after this story.  I start thinking about why it makes me so angry.  And it's not just because my brother got, at least from my perspective, "special treatment."  No, I think what makes me the maddest about this text is what it says about me and my relationship with God that I get mad about Jacob's special visitation by God.

I want God to have the back of the older brother.  I want God to smite Jacob for lying to his father.  I want God to uplift Esau and give him the blessing anyways.  I want God to play by the rules.  I don't want God to go to Jacob.  So what does God do?  He goes to Jacob.

How often does this happen to us, though?  We see people lie, steal, and cheat to the top.  And we want them to get their just deserts.  We want to see them fail.  We want to see them fall.  We want God to lift us up.  We want God to give us what we think we deserve.  We don't want to see God offer those who have wronged us forgiveness.  So what does God do when the Word becomes flesh?  He goes to those whom we do not want him to go.

Jesus goes to the tax collectors, the embezzlers, and tells them of God's forgiveness and God's presence and God's grace.  Not exactly the smiting we think they deserve.  God does the same for the beggars, the lepers, the prostitutes, those who are "outside" of God's promises and reminds them that even in their sin, God is there, forever and ever.  

And even this makes us mad.  We want justice.  We want those who break the law to be punished by the law.  We want embezzlers, prostitutes, thieves, murderers to go to jail.  We don't want to forgive them.  And so what does God ask of us?  To grant God's justice, rooted in mercy.  To forgive. To reform the social order that turns people into embezzlers, prostitutes, thieves, murderers.  To help those who struggle with addictions, to show people a better way.  To stop the vicious cycle that they are in, to show them that God loves them even in the midst of their sin.  To remind them that God's Word became flesh to bridge the gap between God's kingdom and our fallen world.  To let them know that no matter their crime, no matter their sin, the cross changes everything.  

And God comes to us, and he shows us time and time again that we shouldn't be mad when God goes to the liar, the cheater, or the thief.  God goes to them, not because he loves us any less, but because God desires us to love them as much as God loves them.  God reminds us that our call to love neighbor extends to those who have wronged us.  And God reminds us that if Jesus can forgive those who killed him while he was on the cross, we can offer forgiveness to our younger siblings that have wronged us in some way.  God reminds us that we are all his family, that we have all done things to upset God.  God reminds us that even in those sins, those mistakes, the offenses, God's going to come to us too.  We are reminded that this is God's good news above everything else.  Amen.