A Deceptive Philosophy

Hosea 1: 2-10
Colossians 2: 6-15

Have you ever heard the phrase, "That boy (or girl) was raised right."? It's an expression we use for people who have been taught manners, courtesy, gentleness, and respect. They are what some refer to as the old-fashioned values and as the years go by it seems like less and less of our people have the same values that the previous generations had.

When and how being respectful and kind went out of style is debatable, but it appears the whole country has been infected with this distorted sense of right and wrong. It comes from not being grounded and rooted in Jesus Christ. The writer of Colossians comes out and tells us what is wrong with today's society as a whole. We have swallowed a deceptive philosophy. We have allowed our traditions and values to be eroded in the face of technological advances and immediate access to news and information.

Sometimes it seems like the more we know about the world, the less we truly understand about it. We hear about a tragedy such as the Trayvon Martin case and everyone chooses a side and defends that side to the death with hearsay. Although the information is available, we have been exposed to so much information that we have allowed ourselves to be told what to think by our news channels and newspapers and our fellow facebook friends. We listen to the 30 second sound-bite instead of watching the three hour court interview and think we are educated on the subject.

Can you imagine how Jesus would have been portrayed in today's news media? With his long hair, white robe, and sandals he would have been pronounced a hippie or a new ager. With the radical words of forgiveness in the face of great pain, he would have been called a liberal anarchist. With his talk of love and commitment to God and country; he would have been called an old-fashioned conservative. The media would have had a field day with Jesus! They never would have been able to pin him down and so therefore he'd probably be considered wishy-washy in his opinions despite the overall theme of love, forgiveness, and acceptance that is the basis of everything he talks about in the New Testament.

They would have decimated his mother Mary for being unwed when getting pregnant with him. They would have made Joseph seem like a savior or a fool for marrying her and knowing the baby wasn't his own. They would have interviewed his siblings and looked for all of his weaknesses and all of his strengths. The media would have destroyed Jesus' family and privacy. A man who rarely got any of that to begin with would have had all of his peace taken from him if he had lived in today's time.

And we allow it. We gobble up the gossip magazines and we turn on the reality tv. We choose our news stations and defend its obvious bias toward one affiliation or another to the death. We no longer want news that shows both sides of the story equally. We no longer want the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We have become conditioned to a deceptive philosophy that everything there is to know can be told to us in short clips and news articles, and we now have enough information to form an opinion on someone we've never met and a situation in another country that we have never experienced.

Our old-fashioned values about courtesy and respect do not seem to hold any weight when we're busy making judgments about people and situations that we only know the bare bones about. Jesus encountered a woman one day, a Canaanite woman and as they talked, he basically called her a dog. His own Jewish bred bias' were showing through in that moment, he was after all, both fully human and fully divine. He had limitations just as we do.

The difference is that Jesus knew when to admit to defeat and he knew how to admit he was wrong. Think about that. God knows when to say, "I'm sorry, that was wrong of me." The proof is in the story of the Canaanite woman. Jesus just finishes saying, "I came only to feed the lost sheep of Israel. It is not right to feed the children's bread to the dogs." and she responds with, "Even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's table!" It is in that moment that Jesus realizes he has done the wrong thing. He has allowed what was probably a long, hot day to keep him from seeing this woman as a sister and instead he allows his Jewish upbringing to raise a fence between them.

However, faithful people do not allow things like fences to keep them from the truth. This woman's faith allows her to humble herself before Jesus, knowing that it is only he that may save her daughter's life. In her humility, she makes Jesus aware of his excessive pride and in that moment Jesus sees that faith in God can be found in every human being no matter their station, their gender, their creed, their color, or their orientation. Faith is not something we just have but is a gift granted by God and cemented through the works and word of Jesus Christ.

This Canaanite woman had faith in a benevolent God who loved all of God's creation including some little woman and her sick daughter. Her faith reminded Jesus of his mission on earth. And her faith should remind us that we cannot think to know the world just because we have read about it. We do not know the people in the Gaza Strip and we do not know the people in Egypt. We do not know if Zimmerman or Martin or perhaps both of them were the culprits that night. However, we hear things and we decide that we have the ability to judge the situation and we stick to our decision with tenacity.

What we need to remember is that every media source has a bias and an agenda. They are appealing to a certain group of people in what they air and how they portray it. If we do not expose ourselves to more news sources we end up with a biased viewpoint.  Jesus shows us that. The writer in Colossians warns us against being so narrow-minded and also reminds us that truth comes from one source - God.

We need to ground ourselves in our love for Jesus Christ. We take too much comfort and pride in the things we think we know and how educated we think we are about the world. What I'm here to tell you is that we know nothing until we have lived it and experienced it. We do not know the hunger and desperation of the people in Gaza and how they may not be Hamas, but secretly they understand why Hamas does what it does since they all have been shut off from the world and resources and opportunities. We do not know what is like to be under a militant regime despite our grumblings that America has fallen downhill, and some people's thinking that the politicians are trying to take away all of our freedoms. The truth of the matter is that in the United States we have the power to fight back if that is true. Whether we choose to exercise that right or not doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

And therefore we have NO idea what it is like to live in a country where to rebel means your family is slaughtered while you are thrown in prison for life. We have no idea what is like to live in Mexico with the cartels and the poverty and how desperately the people dream for a better life and so they come to America. Instead we talk about how it's a mess down there and we need to put up some fences to keep those people away from us. Like America wasn't started with the same dreams those Mexican men and women are using to make their way here.

We allow ourselves to become deceived by human perceptions and limitations. We forget God. We forget Jesus. We forget the Holy Spirit's guidance. We forget to be kind, gentle, respectful and courteous, those old-fashioned values we love seeing in others, but forget to use ourselves at times. It's time we get back to praying for people instead of judging and gossiping about them. It's time for us to show understanding and compassion instead of indifference and a lack of empathy. Every person we meet has a story that began long before we ever heard of them. We need to pay attention to the whole story and not just the 30 second clip we've seen so far before we make a decision about them.

We have hurt too many people by being hasty. Thankfully, Jesus shows us the way toward redemption and salvation. May we learn how to follow his ways.

Amen.

Are We Martha or Mary?

Amos 8: 1-12
Luke 10: 38-42

When Jesus decided to drop in on Martha and her sister Mary, Martha’s first impulse was to get something going in the kitchen. In doing this, she was being faithful to the tradition of hospitality begun long ago when Father Abraham welcomed three guests into his tent. Just as Abraham turned to Sarah to assist with the duties of hospitality, Martha expected Mary to do the same. Martha’s expectations did not include Mary’s plopping down on the rug at Jesus’ feet and leaving all the work for her.

That is however, exactly what her sister did. Mary was in no hurry to come into the kitchen. While Martha was flipping through cookbooks, boiling the water, chopping up the vegetables, and setting the table for three, Mary settled down at the feet of their friend and guest, attentive to what he was saying. In fact, by sitting at Jesus’ feet, Mary had taken the posture of a disciple. Who could blame Martha for banging a few pots and putting the plates on the table with steady thumps?

Perhaps Jesus heard the bustling around back there and, after a while, even the muttering. Martha was not a person who kept her feelings under a tight lid. Since Jesus was pretty sharp at gauging what was going on in people’s hearts, he knew what the muttering was all about, long before Martha’s frustration exploded into words, but he waited until Martha spoke.

“Lord,” Martha began, “don’t you care..” showing that Mary wasn’t the only one under scrutiny here – “don’t you care” she repeated, and then the gaze fell on her sister Mary, “that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?”

As a matter of fact, Jesus did not care. I like to think he smiled when he said, “Martha, dear friend, you are worried and distracted by many things.” This is an important moment to notice in the story. He is not going after Busy Martha, but Worried and Distracted Martha. He is speaking to his dear friend Martha, who has worked herself into a state of anxious distraction over the meal she wanted to have for him. She has focused her frustration not only on her sister but now also on her friend and guest, and lost sight of the one she significantly calls “Lord”. Jesus is gently calling her to refocus. Hospitality is not primarily about the food because what is more important is the focus on the guest and making them feel welcome and cared about.

Mary has chosen to focus on her connection to God who is the good in the world. Through Jesus we act with effectiveness and are grounded in love and compassion. You see, Martha has become so distracted in being hospitable that she has forgotten her guest and began to concentrate solely on her own needs and desires. As she prepares the meal, without any help from her sister, she begins to resent her sister and Jesus too. She resents the work she is putting in, and the hot kitchen that is making her sweat and ruining her hair and staining her clothes while Mary and Jesus sit comfortably talking in the other room.

In trying to make Jesus welcome, Martha inadvertently does the opposite with her distracted busyness. Mary has taken the time to ask their guest to sit down and put his feet up. She has inquired about his journey and all the people he has met along the way. She has taken the time to connect to Jesus and allow him to feel comfortable in their home. Martha has forgotten to take the time to connect with her guest before she began to get busy.

Now what can that tell us about our lives in the church? First of all, each of us has a role to fulfill. Some of us are excellent listeners while others of us are fabulous behind the scenes. We need to appreciate what each of us can do and not take it for granted. However, it is also a reminder to each of us that sometimes we get so focused on a problem or so caught up in that we have guests that we begin to scramble around to prepare a meal or get them comfortable, and we have forget to take a moment to connect with them.

We see this most especially in struggling churches when a new person arrives. Suddenly, the person is swarmed with people that want to show them the best places to sit and to show them the wonderful nursery in case they have children and the fellowship hall where all the pictures are and they are so caught up in doing that they forget to listen. Churches also do that with their programs and committees. If there is a problem we can address it by creating a new program! Or let’s have a meeting about it! Or better yet, let’s form a committee that is a subcommittee of that other committee.

We get frazzled and nervous and anxious and distracted, so we begin to do things. We run around with our arms in the air as our feet move us from place to place and our minds spin with words and grumbles and complaints. We become just like Martha when we need to be like Mary. There will be time for action soon enough. Sometimes the best thing we as a church and as individuals can do is to step back and do nothing. Sit down beside your guest and listen to where they have come from and where they are heading. Sit down and discuss with the people having the problem in our church and see what might be done before trying to do it. Listen and connect instead of acting without thought.

We need to reconnect. As a church and as people we need to stop doing things all the time and instead take a moment to listen. What does this church want for its future? What do you want for your life? How are we keeping ourselves and our church close to Jesus? Are we praying enough? Are we reading scripture and meditating on it? Are we praying several times a day and during our meetings and creating opportunities to talk about what we have learned?

Jesus rebukes Martha when she comes to him asking if he cares because of course Jesus cares about Martha and what she is feeling, but he does not care about the food she is preparing. That is just busy work. Jesus wants Martha to take time to be with him; to laugh and love with him instead of running around grumbling. Jesus knows his time on earth is precious and finite, just as our time on earth is precious and finite.

This summer we have been asked to take some time and listen to our hearts and listen to the people outside these walls of the church before we begin any major changes to what we do here. First, we must LISTEN to our community if we want to be able to CONNECT with them. We cannot assume we know what they need because other churches have tried that and failed. Now is our time to prove that we can stop with the distracted busyness and instead take a moment to talk and laugh and connect with the people we want to invite into our church home.

Grange Fair is coming up soon. That is a time when the whole community comes together to enjoy the fair and each other. That is a great time to start listening and asking questions of the people around you. It’s a great time to bring up how Trinity is making some changes and wants feedback. Ask your children that do not come often and ask your cousin who has never been here. Ask your neighbor who seems spiritual but never attends church. What would it take to make them come here? What is the most important thing they want from a church?

As a church that wants to welcome new people into it consistently, we need to stop running around grumbling and instead take a moment to listen. What does the outside world want from Trinity? What do we want for the outside world? And most important of all – what does God want for all of us?

Amen

Rediscovering Sam's Story

Amos 7: 7-17
Luke 10: 25-37

How many of you have heard the parable of the Good Samaritan more often than any other story in the Bible?

It is one of the most popular parables, and for a good reason. If we are looking for the heart of the Gospel message; if we want to know what is important to Jesus – this story tells us everything we need to know in 12 short verses. The problem is that we know it too well. It has lost some of its power because of how many times we have heard it spoken to us and to others.

When 9/11 occurred we were all shocked and horrified. We never thought anything like this could happen and there were movies made and songs written about how we will always remember this tragedy and where we were when it happened. Before 9/11 I used to hear about when JFK was assassinated; where my mom was at the moment she found out and how horrible it was to hear. But after awhile, although we do remember the impact 9/11 and the JFK assassination had upon us, it no longer shocks and wounds us. Time and the retelling of the story, reliving the memories take away the sharpness of the emotions we first experienced.

The same can be true of certain well-known passages in the bible. They become so familiar to us and so comfortable that we no longer hear them with the same intensity we did the first couple times we listened to them. What is there left to learn from the story of the Good Samaritan? We know everything we could possibly have learned from previous times of hearing it. There is nothing new here. Right?

Wrong. Instead of telling you a feel good story about a Samaritan who sees a man beaten up on the road and selflessly gives his time and money to making him well when not even a clergy person could be bothered, I want to tell you a different story.

I want to tell you a story about a man named Sam who was having a bad day. He woke up late for work, his boss yelled at him when he got there and docked his pay which means his children will go hungry tonight, and as he is walking home he can feel blisters forming on his heels from his new sandals. Sam is not a happy man. He’s hurting, he’s tired, and he just wants to get home and put his feet up, and forget this day ever happened.

How many of us can relate to Sam? I sure can. We’ve all had those kinds of bad days and it always seems like at the end of such a day, something else is bound to go wrong. Sure enough, Sam stops at the top of the mountain road to adjust his sandals upon his aching feet, and he watches a scene unfold before him. There is a clergy man walking down the road and he stops for a moment when he comes to a bundle of rags heaped on the side of the road. The clergy stoops over and looks at this heap of rags for a moment before looking around wildly. Sam watches as the clergy then looks up at the sky before deliberately skirting right by the bundle.

Sam thought that was odd. What was the big deal about some old clothes by the side of the road? He kept walking and as he did he saw another man, a Levite from the look of his clothes which is a man of great learning of Jewish law from the priestly tribe of Israel. This man also comes upon the bundle and stops for a moment. The Levite looks at the bundle, nudges it with his foot, and then jumps back before practically running down the road. How odd, Sam thinks.

Now Sam is much closer and he is very curious about what is beside the road. As he approaches he thinks he sees it move. This mystery has completely distracted Sam from his bad day. He is caught up in the moment. When Sam is beside the bundle of rags he realizes it is not what he thought at all, but a man badly beaten and bleeding. He was huddled into a ball like people do when they are seriously hurt or in pain. The ragged, bleeding man suddenly groans and Sam hears, “Help me.”

Sam has a choice. He could step back and pretend he never heard those words, and keep walking to his house where his wife would have a drink and dinner waiting for him, or he could help the man.

Let us take a step back for a moment and ask ourselves what we would do.

We just heard that a man who has promised to be God’s faithful, loving servant has passed this man by. We know that a Levite, a man from the priestly tribe and well versed in Jewish law has also walked away from the bleeding man. We know that the man is half dead and therefore whoever hurt him means business. What if they come back to finish the job and see us helping him and decide to hurt us as well? What if we help the man and he dies anyway? What if we help the man and we get blamed for his half dead state and end up in prison? It seems like no matter how we look at it, staying to help this guy is going to cause us nothing but trouble. It’s already been a bad day; why allow this man who was stupid enough to get beaten up and almost killed to ruin the rest of it?

We should walk on by. Just like the clergy and Levite guys. No one will know. No one will care. We’re Samaritans, this man is a Jew. We’re not friendly. We’re not allies. This man would spit on us if he was healthy. We should leave. Now.

Sam thought all of these things - just like we would think most of them. When we take a story we’ve heard many times before and reduce it to, “The Samaritan helped his enemy and we should be like him” we lose the power of the story. We forget the sacrifices being made. We lose the ability to sympathize with the Samaritan, with Sam.

Many of the choices we make in our lives are easy. No, I’m not going to run that stop sign. Yes, I’m going to feed my children today. No, I’m not going to eat that piece of pie. Every now and then, though, life throws us a curve ball. We’re going about our day and suddenly, we hear voices raised and then a thud and a crash. We come running out of our house or workplace to see someone beating another person with a baseball bat. No one else is around and it’s up to us. Do we help or do we pretend we saw nothing? Helping means sacrifice. It means possibly getting mixed up in something we don’t want to be mixed up in. Helping may bring harm to our body, our mind, our life, and our family’s life.

A few weeks ago, there was a man who saw a little girl drowning in a river. Instinct kicked in and the man dove into the river to save the little girl. The river was not deep and he hit his head and broke his neck, paralyzing him from the neck down. A couple weeks later, he died in the hospital with his family by his side. This is a true story. There is risk in being a hero. There is a cost to be paid. Sometimes we know what the cost is and sometimes we do not.

Sam chose to help the bleeding man. He picked him up and carried him upon his aching back with his blistered feet to the inn. He paid for food, lodging, and medicine. Then he promised to come back and pay for anything extra the man needed before going home to his family. Sam didn’t have the money to be able to do that, but he did it anyway. Not because it was just about being a good person. Not because the man muttered help me. Not because he watched two other men walk away. Sam helped because he saw himself in that ragged, bleeding man.

For the briefest moment, all those doubts and fears that were filling Sam’s mind cleared and he saw a human being in need, and he saw how easily that could be him laying there dying along the side of the road. Who would help Sam if this had been him? Who will help you when you wreck your car or when a fire begins in the basement of the house or when you’re getting robbed by gunpoint?

The people that help are the ones that do not see the differences in each of us. The people that make a difference are the ones that do not let doubts and fears keep them from being responsible citizens. These people are the ones who hope that if that was them laying there bleeding, someone would have compassion for them. They hope that another will see the human being and not their skin color or the way they dress or their accent or choice of sexual partner.

Jesus reminds us that we are not only called to pray for others, but to have mercy upon them. Mercy requires sacrifice and forgiveness and love. Sam the Samaritan stopped his internal monologue of complaints about his crappy day and his crappy life to see the pain of someone else. He allowed someone else’s hurt to be more important than his own. He sacrificed his happiness and well being to make another comfortable and protected.

It’s not something we like to hear, but that is what Christianity is about. It means sacrificing our own happiness, health, and well-being when we see someone in need. Jesus did it for us, and now we do it for others. That is what it means to be a Good Samaritan.

Amen.