Simply Grace

April 05, 2020

Then the people as a whole answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" Matthew 27:25 Matthew 27:25

Abusive Behavior

Pilat Washing his Hands by Mattia Preti

I have cringed at these words throughout the years, “His blood be on us and on our children.” I cringe because of how these words have been used to justify hateful and abusive behavior. It is a sad and shameful fact that hate crimes against Jewish people have spiked during Holy Week throughout history. Some have tried to justify their hateful behavior with these words from the Bible, “His blood be on us and on our children!” The words of the Bible have been twisted and misinterpreted to suggest that the Jewish people are uniquely to blame for the crucifixion of Jesus. That interpretation is unbiblical and unchristian. 

I saw on the news this week that a class of young Jewish women were verbally and visually attacked while they were in a video conference. A group of boys interrupted their class, uttered hateful slurs, and showed inappropriate images. That was wrong and abusive.

Alarmingly incidents of domestic abuse are also up during this pandemic. As people are stuck at home with nowhere to go and anxiety runs high, abusive behavior may increase against children, spouse, animals, and one’s self. It is believed that alcohol consumption is increased, which can be a form of abuse against one’s self in a hope to dull the pain of the collective trauma we are all dealing with.

Jesus Suffered Abuse

Jesus suffered from abuse too.There are two very important consequences in understanding the Jesus was abused:

If you have ever been abused, or are being abused you are not alone. Jesus who is God knows what you are going through. God knows and experiences all of your pain and anguish with you.If you have abused someone, then you have abused Jesus Christ who is God. Your victim, whoever it might be, is also God. If you abuse your spouse, then you abuse GodIf you abuse a child, you are abuse GodIf you abuse an animal, you abuse GodIf you abuse yourself, you abuse God

In other words every single human being throughout history was there when Jesus stands before Pilate and the crowd. And when the crowd cries out, “His blood be on us and on our children!” That is you and it is me, “His blood is on us, and on our children!” 

Jesus Forgives and Protects

The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci

But you know what? The night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, broke it, and said, “This is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.” Again after supper he took the cup, blessed, and gave it for all to drink, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Shed for you, and for all people...for the forgiveness of sins. Do this for the remembrance of me.” The blood of Jesus is the power of God to forgive sin, save from the devil, and

Disappointed in Ourselves

I don’t know about you, but the COVID-19 pandemic has caused me to feel frustrated with myself. It has to do with homeschooling my kids. I have a renewed respect for teachers. It can be so difficult to teach basic concepts. Yet it’s so easy to take for granted how much we depend on others.

 Martha and Mary felt disappointed in themselves when their brother Lazarus died. Lazarus was ill. They wished that they could have done something to prevent his death. We know that they felt disappointed and frustrated in themselves because of what they said to Jesus when he came: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

You can hear the disappointment dripping from the exact same words they utter individually to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Both Martha and Mary approach Jesus feeling crushed, by their failure to protect their brother from death.

Illness Does Not Lead to Death, but to the Glory of God

Jesus does not judge Martha, Mary, or Lazarus for what happened. Instead he accompanies them, and joins with them. Martha was the older sister, responsible, and practical. She was a thinker and a doer. She walks out to meet Jesus when he arrives. They immediately discuss what happened, what it meant, and what they were going to do about it. Jesus answers her questions and they make a plan. So Martha gets her younger sister Mary.

Mary is a feeler. She falls down at Jesus' feet and weeps. She utters her words between tears. Her feelings are powerful and contagious such that those gathered around her weep too. Jesus joins Mary in her profound sadness. He weeps and asks, “Where have you laid him?”

Jesus came to the tomb. Lazarus was dead for four days, and had been placed in a tomb. He asked that the stone cover be removed. Some warned him against it, noting the stench of a person dead for four days. Jesus did not shy away from death. He didn’t ignore it. He didn’t gloss over it. Jesus came to the tomb.

Jesus thought with Martha, felt with Mary, and went to the tomb with Lazarus. He joins with the suffering mind, heart, and soul. This is what the cross is all about. God joins with you in your suffering. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of god may be glorified by it,” John 11:4.

I am the Resurrection and the Life

The Raising of Lazarus by Rembrandt

That would be good enough. It is sufficient to be assured that God is with you in illness, suffering and death. But that isn’t the end. To really drive the point home, Jesus standing in the tomb surrounded by the stink of death cries out, “Lazarus come forth!” Lazarus’ soul is restored, Mary’s heart is healed, and Martha’s mind is transformed. God gives you more than enough, and better than you deserve. God gives resurrection.

Hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth, God was already creativing and giving resurrection life. The prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of this in the valley of the dry bones. The hand of the Lord led Ezekiel to see the Spirit of God bring together bones, put them back together, lay on them sinews and flesh, and give them life. God freely gives eternal life. The Spirit of God is and will be poured out on all flesh.

Christ Healing the Blind by Domenikos Theotokopoulos

There is a problem with Lutheran theology. We teach that there is nothing that a person can do to earn their salvation. Why do we teach this, and why is this a problem?

It is taught that a person cannot earn or work for their salvation because every person is fundamentally corrupted by sin, death, and the devil. Although a person might appear to be good looking, strong, and smart on the outside. Deep down in their soul and mind they are fundamentally broken and prone to do horrible and nasty things to their neighbor, God, and themselves.  

Cannot Work

Consider the CoronaVirus. Absolutely nobody is immune to this virus. It is highly contagious. If you contract it and don’t get very sick yourself, you may still spread it to other people, and they could die. Just like humans are powerless against the virus, even more so are we powerless to sin, death, and the devil. Keep in mind that the CoronaVirus is just one example. There are many more diseases and ailments that we are powerless too. Sin is the ultimate spiritual virus.

So what can people do in the face of a highly contagious disease for which there is no cure? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. In the Golden State of California where I live; all 40 million residents have been told by the governor to “Stay at Home.” Not just in California, but all over the world people are told to stay at home. What is the result? Shear economic collapse, and private despair.

It is plain and simple to see what happens when people stop working: economic collapse, and an extreme stressing of civil society as we know it. So why do Lutheran Christians insist on teaching that a person cannot work or earn their salvation? Isn’t it evident what happens when people stop working? Very bad things!

God Works

God came into the world as a human being. His mother’s name was Mary. His Father was God, but his earthly adopted father was Joseph. Jesus was this special human being’s name. Jesus was God as a human being. Jesus was a powerful teacher, preacher, healer, and miracle worker. But the main thing that Jesus did was die a painful, public, humiliating death on a cross alongside common criminals. It is this crucified God, Jesus Christ, which Lutheran Christians (and other Christians too) point to and even cling to as the savior of the universe.

How can Jesus Christ  on the cross save people? Tradition holds that the night in which he was betrayed, that is, the night before the crucifixion, Our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, gave thanks, broke it. Gave it to his disciples and said, “This is my body given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.” Again after supper he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins. Do this for the remembrance of me.” Jesus instructed his followers to receive his body and blood as a gift from God for the forgiveness of sins, and salvation from death and the devil.  Ever since that Thursday night some 2000 years ago followers of Jesus br

People Grumbling for Water

Photo by Samad Deldar from Pexels

A couple of days ago I went to a discount wholesaler to stock up on food and supplies. Me and the other 24 million people in Southern California.  They were limiting people to one package of toilet paper, and one package of water. They say people in Southern California just love waiting in long lines on the freeways, at amusement parks, at the airport, and at stores. But I’d be the first to line up and tell you that isn’t true! In reality plenty of people were grumbling and complaining. 

This isn’t the first time people have grumbled for water. The whole congregation of Israelites complained against Moses and God in the wilderness of Sin. They had left Egypt and were camping in the desert. They ran out of water. They accused Moses of leading them out of Egypt to kill them and all the livestock in the wilderness. 

Christ and the Samaritan at the Fountain" by Angelika Kauffmann

Even Jesus knew what it was like to be thirsty and to grumble for water. One day he and the disciples arrived in a town called Sychar in Samaria. It was a place where Jacob, their ancestor had been given a well of water by God. It was noon when Jesus sat there. A Samaritan woman came walking up to the well and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” Just like that. So abrupt! 

Social Distancing from Sin

This was socially taboo. It would be like a black man asking a white woman for a drink of water in the Jim Crow segregated south. That is, it was socially bizarre and extremely awkward.The Samaritan woman calls Jesus out on this. Why would a Jew ask for a drink from a Samaritan? They go back and forth a little bit. Then Jesus calls her out. 

She has been married and divorced five times. She is currently living with a man who isn’t her husband. She is a social outcast who goes all alone to the well in the middle of the day. Most women would go in the cool of the evening to socialize in comfort.

The Samaritan Woman is socially distant from her village. Jews and Samaritans are socially distant from one another. The Israelites in the wilderness are socially distant from Moses and God. The 24 million people in Southern California are asked to be socially distant during the COVID-19 pandemic, as are the 327 million people in the United States, and possibly the entire 8 billion people on earth. 

But that’s nothing. The real number of people who have experienced social distance is closer to 100 billion. That’s the estimate of the total number of people who have ever lived in the history of the world. Each and every person who has ever lived, has lived in social distance and isolation from God. We complain and hoard water and toilet paper because we are trying to compensate for a much deeper problem. We have rebelled and sinned against the one true living God. 

Social Reconciliation through Christ

Image courtesy National Women's History Museum

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 with the name Isabella Baumfree. She fell in love with a man named Robert, but could not marry him. She was forced to marry Thomas with whom she had five children. They were taken away from her and sold as property. In 1827 New York passed an Anti-Slavery Law which her owner ignored.

Hate Temporarily Masks Pain

The treatment of slaves was justified by racism. It was argued that people with dark skin from Africa were inferior, and therefore it was acceptable to treat them as property. This same kind of thinking made it worse for women of color. Some people argued that men were above women in their intellectual capacity.

Today some people look around at the problems that we face, and blame it on certain races of people. There are people in our world today that openly argue for a “white nation.” They feel that somehow all the problems we face will somehow go away if there was racial purity. These same arguments are applied to the genders: that men should rule over women. Walter Brueggeman compares "ideology" to "reality" in his book, "Reality, Grief, Hope."

Reality, however, paints a different picture. No matter who you are, you will suffer, face problems, and eventually die. Reality is that no matter how good you are, how healthy you eat, how much money you have, how much power you can muster, you cannot stave off the forces of chaos and destruction forever.

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” James Baldwin

The reason why racism and nationalism exist is because it offers a temporary illusion from the extremely difficult and painful reality of the human condition. No people, no land, nobody is immune from suffering and death.

Pain is the Human Condition

 Even Jesus couldn’t escape the reality of suffering and death. He hungered and suffered for 40 days in the wilderness. He was betrayed by his own followers, tried dishonestly, and died painfully on the cross. If Jesus couldn’t escape suffering and death, then we can’t either.

Jesus Christ did not remain dead, however, he raised from the dead a new creation, and he offers the same hope and possibility for each and every person. This promise of eternal life is the fulfillment of the promise God first gave to Abraham thousands of years ago. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:14-17

God told Abraham that he would receive land, descendants, and blessing. To be given land means that you are a part of something larger than yo

Three Kinds of Suffering

A lot of our members are having knee, hip, or shoulder replacement surgeries. I found there are always two surgeons for these. Because they are “joint” operations. 

Many people are suffering in mind, body and spirit. To suffer physically means aches and pains that are felt in the body. These include physical diseases. This kind of suffering is widespread. Another form of suffering is emotional. This is harder to see. It includes feelings of sadness, anxiety, anger, and depression. This is also very common, but harder to spot. There is stigma and shame admitting to and talking about emotional distress. A third kind of suffering is the least understood. This is spiritual suffering. It happens when a person makes choices in conflict with what is right and wrong. Spiritual suffering is so widespread and commonplace that most people have difficulty being aware that they are in this condition at all. It is like a fish trying to be aware of water.

Jesus Suffered

Today we remember the temptation of Christ. This is the first Sunday of Lent and so we remember how Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. When the devil came to tempt Jesus, he did so in three different ways: physically, mentally, and spiritually. The first temptation concerned Jesus’ hunger. He was told to turn stones into bread to satisfy the pain in his gut. The second temptation was emotional. The devil led Jesus to the top of the temple mount and told him to jump off, to give in to despair. The third temptation was spiritual. The devil led Jesus to a high mountain from which they could see the grandeur of the earth. He told Jesus to worship Satan, the essence of evil which yes at times wields power on this earth. These three forms of suffering and temptation present themselves still today to you and me.

St. Perpetua Suffered

The feast day for Saints Perpetua and Felicity will be celebrated this week on March 7. The passion of Perpetua and Felicity was one of the first things I studied in seminary, and his stuck with me ever since. It is so striking because most of the text is written by Perpetua herself in the year 203, she was born in 182, and so was 21 years old when she died. She also suffered in body, mind, and spirit. 

In her account it is the emotional suffering that takes the greatest toll. There are two people in her life that cause her great emotional distress. The first is her father. He is not a Christian and he feels absolutely livid that she has become one. He begs her to give it up, and when she doesn’t he berates her. The other person in her life that causes her great emotional distress is her child, a nursing baby. She nearly goes out of her mind pining for her baby, but because some Christian deacons bribe the prison guards she is able to have her baby with her in jail for a time, which gives her temporary relief. 

The physical suffering she endures is obvious: mistreatment in prison and eventually the brutality of the arena with beasts and gladiators. The spiritual torment she is faced with is similar to Jesus. She is offered an opportunity to leave jail. She is led to a tribunal where there is a statue of the Caesar. All she has

People get stuck

Immigration can be a difficult thing. Sometimes immigrants get stuck in unhealthy behaviors. Wherever you find ports of entry by either land or sea you may find pockets of crime, and neighborhoods where unethical living is rampant. This is one of the reasons why people feel uncomfortable with immigration, because they have seen or experienced unlawful behavior. This is the case now, and it was the case 100 years ago.

A hundred years ago there was a wave of immigration to the United States from Norway. The hundreds and thousands of young sailors and immigrants arriving in New York struggled with a new found freedom and culture shock. In Norway the economy and way of life was more structured and organized. Large American cities presented new found freedoms and opportunities, but also a level of filth, suffering, and temptation unknown to many of these young people.

Sadly, many Norwegian men during this time were sucked into the shadiest parts of New York and were often found hanging around the saloons and dives, especially in Brooklyn. The Norwegian pastors and leaders in America at that time saw that there was a problem. Their own people were getting stuck in a bad way of life. http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume20/vol20_9.htm

They Don’t Understand

This is an old story. When people leave a land they know a lifestyle that even if they found it oppressive don’t understand the new world they are entering. The people after leaving the slavery and oppression of Egypt didn’t understand how to live with their new freedom. There was temptation and the possibility of getting stuck in bad behaviors out there in the wilderness.

The truth is each of us struggles with a lack of understanding. We know only so much. We are able to survive with varying degrees of success based on what we know. This was true of Jesus’ disciples too. Today we remember the story of the transfiguration. Jesus led Peter, James, and John, up a mountain. They have a powerful experience of the presence of God. The disciples are scared out of their minds. They hear the voice of God, they see Moses and Elijah, and Jesus face shines like the sun. They have no idea what is going on, and are terrified. They don’t understand.

God Teaches People

Thankfully God doesn’t leave us alone in our fear and ignorance. God is in the business of teaching people. On top of the mountain when the disciples were cowering in fear, Jesus approached them and told them to, “get up and not be afraid.” God was teaching them that Jesus was at the same time so powerful and godly that it was terrifying, and their gentle and approachable friend. 

At least a thousand years before Jesus, God was teaching the people. God gave Moses the 10 Commandments from the top of Mount Sinai. The law that God gave taught the people how to live with their new found freedoms. When God teaches people, they grow.

People Grow

So about 100 years ago the Norwegian pastors and leaders in America knew they needed help. They knew

Athenaeum Portrait - Gilbert Stuart

When I was a college student I considered going into education. So I took a class from a very well respected teacher, Rhonda Beaman, on educational theory. She was a great instructor and truly masterful in her art and skill of teaching teachers. One unit was on, “Adversity.” Her husband who was a psychologist presented a theory connecting a person’s ability to succeed in life with their ability to deal with adversity. He called it an “Adversity Quotient.” We took tests that demonstrated how adept we were at dealing with adversity and then were encouraged to take steps to improve our ability to manage adversity. This was essential work for teachers, it was argued, and for all human beings. Adversity is a problem in life that requires your attention and consideration. But what causes adversity?

Adversity

According to the book of Deuteronomy, “death and adversity” are a consequence from turning away from God:

See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. Deuteronomy 30:15-18

Keep in mind that these words were shared at the end of 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. These are part of the final words Moses the great prophet and law-giver would share before he would die. These are words of promise and warning to a people freed from slavery and tyranny about to be given a land to call their own.

This historical situation of entering into a promised land as a new people is quite similar to the role that George Washington played at the founding of the United States. Laws, a constitution, and the federal government had to be formed to give us, American people, a structure and framework to live in. We had won freedom and a priceless opportunity to steer our own destiny. There was and still is a choice given to God’s people throughout history. If you are faithful to God you choose prosperity, and if your heart turns away from God, then you choose adversity. 

What if the adversity in the world today is a result of not being faithful to God? Some people try to blame others for their problems. They single out individuals or groups and blame them for the adversity in the world. Depending on whom you ask all of our problems are because of: liberals,

Diseases of Despair

There is an apparent contradiction in our Christian faith. On the one hand we teach that good works cannot save you, i.e., you cannot earn your salvation. Yet on the other hand Jesus clearly says in our reading this morning that we must live a righteous life to enter into the kingdom of heaven. So which is it? Are good works essential for salvation, or not?

To make matters even more interesting it is believed that work plays an important role in a person’s happiness and well being. Depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction in the United States have grown and ravaged mostly white males who do not have work. As the economy has changed in the United States away from factory middle class jobs many white males have been left feeling that the future does not hold much promise. Therein enters depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Public health scholars call these the “Diseases of Despair.” 

Depression isn’t new. It has been around as long as humanity has existed. Even great people in history struggled with depression. Abraham Lincoln is one such person. President’s day will be observed tomorrow, and Lincoln’s birthday is January 12. Records indicate that Lincoln was diagnosed with a condition called, “melancholy.” Today we call it clinical depression. One of the factors that pushed Lincoln into a depression was the untimely death of two of his children. 

Feeling Powerless

For Abraham Lincoln who was a genius at leadership and negotiation losing a child made him feel totally powerless and full of despair. Lincoln could wheel and deal with people. He could lead a bitterly divided nation. He educated himself and lifted himself out of poverty. But he could not shield his children from death. 

These same feelings of despair ooze off the pages of our reading this morning from the prophet Isaiah Chapter 58. The people complain to God that there seems to be nothing they can do to win God’s favor. They wallow in their misery trying to get on God’s good side. God questions their behavior through Isaiah.

Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Isaiah 58:5

Sitting around feeling sorry for oneself isn’t what God wants to see out of the people. Jesus speaks the same point when he says that salt which isn’t salty is worthless and tossed out. Wallowing in your misery and lingering in pain is not pleasing to God.

God is Powerful

Enemies Seek to do You Harm

Balaam and the Ass - Rembrandt

Balaam was a seer, oracle, or prophet from antiquity. His story is told in the book of numbers beginning in Chapter 22. He was summoned by the Balak, the king of Moab. Balak was afraid of the Hebrew people that had been wandering in the desert for a generation ever since they left Egypt. He was afraid that the Hebrew people would overrun his kingdom. So as a precaution he summoned a wise and powerful seer, Balaam to curse the Hebrew people. 

Balak sent an envoy to Balaam with money and powerful people to pursuade him to come and curse the Israelites. The same night that the envoy arrived Balaam received a message from God. God told Balaam not to go. “Don’t do it.” So the next morning Balaam sent the envoy back to King Balak empty handed. 

King Balak was angered and sent a larger envoy with more important people and more treasure to entice and persuade Balaam. Balaam told them on their arrival that even if the king should offer him all of his storehouses filled with gold and silver Balaam could not act against the will of God. But that that night God told Balaam to go with the envoy, but to only speak the words that God directed him. 

You Don’t Do What They Want You to Do

Balaam and the Angel - Gustav Jäger

Balaam set out from his home to the King of Moab riding on his donkey with two servants walking alongside. In the middle of the road stood an angel with a sword, but Balaam couldn’t see the angel--only his donkey could. So the donkey walked off the side of the road into a field. Balaam got angry at his donkey and hit it. Later, the angel stood again in their path ready to strike Balaam. The donkey moved out of the way but Balaam’s foot was scratched next to a stone wall. So he beat the donkey again. A third time the angel blocked their path with no escape. So the donkey laid down. Balaam beat the donkey a third time. Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak. She said, “Why are you beating me? Haven’t I carried you around faithfully all these years?”

Then Balaam’s eyes were opened so that he could see the angel. The angel reprimanded Balaam for beating the donkey who was only trying to protect him. Balaam repented from his sin. He had sought to hurt the donkey, because the donkey wasn’t doing what he wanted. Balak wanted to hurt the Israelite people because they would not behave as he wished.  With the fear of God Balaam continued his journey.

God Blesses and Won’t Curse

When Balaam arrives to King Balak he is led to a high place. Seven altars are built where he makes offerings to the Lord. The moment comes for him to curse the Israelitse. But instead of a curse he utters a blessing. King Balak is angry again. They try another location, but only a blessing is given, and finally a third location. But it doesn’t matter where they go. God will only permit Balaam to give a blessing:

“As I see him from the top of the rocks, And