All Saints A November 1

Revelation 7:9-17
Contrary to popular paperback theology, the Book of Revelation is not an attempt to obscure or hide the truth, but to reveal, to make it clear.  It is an attempt to envision the end — the end of time, the end of the world — not in terms of when or how or where the end comes; but rather in terms of who stands at the end.

We use that phrase, “the end,” in two ways.  In one sense, “the end” means that which is final — the end of the game, the last act of the play, where the road stops, the final tick of time.  The end in this sense is when it is all over and finished.
But in another sense, “the end” also means the purpose, the goal toward completion and fulfillment — the result of the game, the meaning of the play, the direction of the journey, the purpose of the past, present and future.  The end, in this more profound sense of the phrase, is what it all finally means and where it is all finally leading.

Revelation is about the end more as purpose & completion & consummation than as finality.

➀It says that when the game is finally played out, the good and faithful are victorious;
➁when the last act is finished, the play will have meaning and the intentions of the author will be revealed; when the journey is over, we will find that it has been worth the effort and we will know who has led the way;
➂when the present is past and the future is now, God will be there, holding us and the end in the palm of His hand.  We will find that in the end our goal is communion rather than oblivion.

It will be a time of rejoicing and worship for we shall all sit together at the banquet table of the kingdom, and no one shall hunger or thirst any more.  And it shall be a time when there is no more suffering or pain, mourning or grieving, for God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

Proper 25A/Ordinary 30A/Pentecost +24 October 26, 2008

Ford Madox Brown

Matthew 22:34-46
Evidently, a scribe, one of the Pharisees, an authority on the religious Law and its stipulations, sought to trap Jesus by asking Him which of the Commandments was the greatest.  This question was not an unusual one, especially from one trained to know, classify, and interpret the written and oral Law of Moses.  It was not unusual for rabbis to discuss and debate such issues.
“Teacher,” he asked.  In Matthew’s gospel, only those opposed or antagonistic toward Jesus called Him “teacher,” using the title sarcastically.  “Teacher,” he asked, “which is the greatest commandment?”  “Which is the most important?”
Jesus proposes two commandments.  The first, or to use a more Hebraic term, the “heaviest” commandment, from the Shema, consists in loving God: “Hear, O Israel….you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might”. The second commandment according to Jesus, quoting this time from Leviticus 19:18, is like it: “love your neighbor as you love yourself”. The command to love God and the command to love one’s neighbor are of equal importance.
The first commands us to love God, but how does one love God? Well, as the Spanish mystic, Teresa of Avila suggests, one loves God by loving one’s neighbor. Yet, if we’re honest with ourselves, we would have to agree with the late Carl Michaelson that “most of us would stand a pretty good chance of becoming saints if it were not for our neighbors”.
But for Jesus, salvation is not only a matter of getting things right with God, but getting them right with one another.

Proper 24 / Ordinary 29 / Pentecost +23 October 19, 2008

Masaccio, Tribute Money, detail

Matthew 22:15-22
The detractors of Jesus know that the only thing that will topple His high ratings in the popularity polls is to have Jesus make some kind of blunder.  But they can’t wait on chance for this to happen, so they scheme to entangle Jesus.  The verb Matthew uses, and it’s a word found only here in the NT, is a hunting term for trapping or snaring animals.  And they go off to lay the trap.
“Tell us then, what you think.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
Jesus’ enemies are going after Jesus on a major pocket book issue.  They try to trap him in to making a politically incorrect statement on one of the hottest questions of the day: paying Roman taxes.   If Jesus says that the census tax should be paid, he alienates the vast number of Jewish nationalists.  If he says that the tax should not be paid, then he is vulnerable to Roman arrest.
But Jesus carries no such coin.  With the wisdom of Solomon, seasoned with irony, Jesus traps the trappers.  He asks for one of the Roman coins with which the tax is paid.  It’s a subtle point that Jesus does not carry such a coin, but even though the scene takes place in the Temple, a coin – with its idolatrous citation – is given to Him by one of his detractors.
Jesus responds to one of the most important political & religious problems of His day by treating it as if it were an obvious case of restoring another person’s property.  If the coin has Caesar’s image, then “render it” (apodote – “give it back”) to Caesar – pay Caesar, the state, its due. “Give to Caesar that which bears the image of Caesar,” Jesus said, “but, give to God that which bears the image of God”.
Just as the Roman coin carried the image of Caesar, giving him proper rights over it, so every person bears the image of God, giving God proper rights over us. We owe our lives – our selves, our souls and bodies – to God alone. We owe our ultimate allegiance to God, and we are God’s prized possession.
We all – rich & poor; black, white, red or brown; tall or vertically challenged; gluten intolerant; Democrat or Republican – have been made in the image of God.  The next person who comes into your line of vision; the next time you look in a mirror – an icon of God.  God has impressed God’s image on you, claimed you as God’s own.  A little tarnished, a little worn for the wear, but nevertheless, as the Psalmist assures us, just a little less than divine.
Jesus comes into our midst, and we want to have a cocktail party talk about taxes – to complain mostly.  But Jesus won’t have any of it, & the subject of our conversation is changed.   He strikes a deeper chord.  He reminds us that we are all made in the image of God, and with tears dwelling up in His eyes, He wants to know why we don’t treat one another, or ourselves, as such.  And “their” response that day was to crucify Him.

Proper 23A/Ordinary 28A/Pentecost +22 October 12, 2008

Brueghel, Peasant Wedding, 1568

Matthew 22:1-14

The first story about the Wedding Feast ends with the reception hall being filled with just about everybody you could imagine.  But at the conclusion of the story (unique to Matthew & probably existed as a separate story) things take a different turn.
“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’”
The improperly attired guest was left speechless, or as the more forceful Greek expression actually puts it, “His mouth was stopped!”  There was nothing he could say in answer to the host.
Whoever comes is welcome.  But what’s this about special attire? When the guests are gathered in from the streets without warning, it doesn’t seem quite fair to expect sartorial elegance from them!
Now why did Matthew add this concluding parable of the improperly clothed guest?  Obviously, the evangelist purposefully juxtaposed these two parables of Jesus.
Yes, everyone & anyone, the somebodies & the nobodies, the salaried & the hourly wage earner, the native born & the latest arriving immigrant, black & white, rich & poor, Republicans & Democrats, Knights of Columbus & the Eastern Star, are all invited to participate in God’s Kingdom.
But just because all are invited doesn’t mean there are no expectations of the guests.  Something more is needed than just our mere presence.  You don’t get credit just for showing up.
“Sitting in a pew thinking that will make you a Christian is like, as Garrison Keillor (Lake Wobegone) once said:  sleeping in the garage thinking that will make you a car.” You don’t get credit just for showing up.

A Methodist minister & her husband were invited to a costume party one Halloween.  They got all dressed up.  By the time they got to the party, things were in full swing & everyone was having a blast.  She soon discovered why when she had a glass of the punch.  It was heavily spiked, and people were already pretty tipsy.  She was surprised since the couple that invited them was older & pretty conservative.  Mostly, she was surprised they invited their pastor.  She didn’t want to be rude so she & her husband danced & chatted with folks.  After they had been there an hour, they discovered when people started removing their masks, that the party they were supposed to be at was two doors down.

God has invited us all, but many of us have been attending the wrong party.
The parable says that an appropriate wedding garment – which is Kingdom talk for new life, righteous conduct – is expected. As Paul wrote to the Galatians (3:27): “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” literally, “worn Christ like a garment”.
You don’t go blithely into the kingdom dressed in any old clothes.  You have to put on a new attire, a new attitude, a new way of seeing, a new behavior, a new being.  You have to put on Christ.