Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

This is a special musical performance of Holy Thy Name by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan

This is a special musical performance of Great Is Thy Faithfulness by handbell duet Addie Thompson and Rich Weingartner at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As some of you already know, hospitality and welcome are at the top of my list when it comes to the way we live together in community.  And, when extending hospitality to others, one of the best ways to show welcome is by sharing a meal together and spending time in meaningful conversation with others.  In fact, I really believe that extending hospitality to others by eating together is a vital aspect of what it means to be human. 

         The writer of Luke’s gospel understood meal-time hospitality and table fellowship.  Luke’s gospel contains more meal-time scenes than any of the other gospels.   In fact, meal-time experiences and parties were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life and Christian community.  In Luke, Jesus is frequently eating, drinking, partying and participating in table fellowship with all kinds of people.  Eating with people from various backgrounds and walks of life was a frequent occurrence for Jesus whether it was on the way to Emmaus, in an upper room, in the fields along the road as the disciples plucked heads of grain, in the home of a despised tax collector, in the homes of respected religious leaders, or as we see today, in the home of an unnamed Pharisee who offers Jesus hospitality for a Sabbath dinner. 

         The respected, social climbing, religious Pharisees are watching Jesus very closely, watching his every move.  And, Jesus has been watching their behavior.  Having observed how they chose banquet seats and noting how they elbowed themselves into the place of honor, Jesus begins to give advice on table fellowship and hospitality Jesus style. He says, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor.  Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host.  Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place.  The place of honor belongs to this man.’  Red-faced, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.  When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place.  Then when the host comes, he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’  That will give the dinner guests something to talk about!  What I’m saying is, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face.  But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”

         Quoting the book of Proverbs Jesus advises the hustling guests to not rush to the head of the dining room, but rather sit in a humbler location on the happy chance they should be invited closer to the attractive host.  Well, Jesus’ words would have been very disconcerting and offensive to these guests.  They lived in, and were the embodiment of, an honor-shame culture in which issues of status and recognition were of utmost importance.  Jesus’ words would have been very humiliating because moving to a lower position would mean a lowering of prestige and social capital.

Well, to their dismay, this was not all Jesus had to say.  There is more to come because Jesus is not done with his critique.  After criticizing the group regarding guest etiquette, he daringly turns to the host and gives a lesson in hospitality.   Jesus says, “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor.  Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks.  You will not only be a blessing, you yourself will experience a blessing because your guests won’t be able to return the favor.   However, the favor will be returned – oh, how it will be returned! – at the resurrection of God’s people.”

         In this scene, the writer of Luke’s gospel inverts traditional, cultural banquet etiquette and table fellowship.  First, he criticizes the behavior of the prestige seeking guests, then he lectures the host about how he should have invited all those they considered losers in the community.  I have to say Jesus’ words and methods were not going to win friends and influence people.  Jesus was never a candidate for the congeniality award.  But, as theologian Robert Capon suggests:

Jesus is at pains, as he has been all through his final journey to Jerusalem, to set forth death and lostness, not life and success, as the means of salvation.  And at this dinner party he has found himself in the presence of a bunch of certified, solid-brass winners: establishment types who are positive they’ve got all the right tickets, religious and otherwise, and who think a fun evening consists of clawing your way to the top of the social heap.  Therefore, when he addresses them, he is principally concerned to redress the imbalance he feels all around him, to assert once again his conviction that a life lived by winning is a losing proposition.  (The Parables of Grace, p.125.)

My friends, we are a people who specialize in bookkeeping. We like to strive to be first, to be important and be winners.  And, we do this by keeping records and keeping score, by focusing on being on top and being front-runners, by constantly juggling accounts in our heads.  We are enslaved to our bookkeeping, our ladder climbing and our scorekeeping.  And, in the person of Jesus, God has announced that God has once and for all, forever, pensioned off the bookkeeping department!  God has in fact rejected our bookkeeping.  Jesus warns the host and each one of us to not consult the records we keep on people:  not the Friend/Foe ledger, not the Rich/Poor volume, not any of the Nice/Nasty, Winners/Losers, or Good/Bad journals and books we keep on people.  I have to say, letting go of that is hard.  But, as far as God is concerned, that way of doing business is over and done with.  As Robert Capon says, “It may be our sacred conviction that the only way to keep God happy, the stars in their courses, our children safe, our psyches adjusted, and our neighbors reasonable is to be ready, at every moment, to have the books we have kept on ourselves and others audited.  But that is not God’s conviction because God has taken away the handwriting that was against us.  In Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has declared that he isn’t the least interested in examining anybody’s books ever again, not even God’s own:  he’s nailed them all to the cross.” 

Jesus is saying to each one of us, “Listen, you are mired in your scorekeeping lives.  You are so busy trying to hold the world together by getting your accounts straight that you hardly have time to notice that it’s falling apart faster than ever.  Why don’t you just let go?  Why don’t you just let that die?  Thumb your nose at the ledger!  Drop dead to the accounting!  Because it’s not just one more thing that can’t save you; it’s the flypaper that catches everything else that can’t save you and leaves you stuck with it forever.  Look, I’m on my way to Jerusalem to die so you can be saved, free for nothing.  I’m going up there to give you a dramatic demonstration of shutting up once and for all the subject of divine bookkeeping.  What’s the point, then, of your keeping records when I’m not?” (Robert Capon)

Yes, meal-time experiences and parties were one way in which the writer of Luke described and portrayed a vision of the Christian life.  And, the banquet is a symbol of the reign of God.  Table fellowship becomes a metaphor for the kingdom of God, where social boundaries and unjust divisions in human community no longer exist.  Jesus embodies radical hospitality.  Jesus invites us to stop the bookkeeping and let go of all the imposed boundaries and distinctions we try to create.  Jesus invites us to be the community of God’s people we are called to be.   Jesus’ words reach across boundaries of place and time and call us to bear witness to the fellowship that exists between God and all of humanity.  Jesus’ words call us to let go of our score keeping and live into the joy and freedom of fellowship with God and all others.  Such fellowship is all about grace, the grace and love in which God holds not only us, but the entire cosmos.  That is table fellowship, Jesus style!

This is a special musical performance of People Need the Lord by soloist John Graham on Saxophone.

This is a special musical performance of Great is the Lord by soloist John Graham on Saxophone.

This is a special musical performance of Find us Faithful by soloist John Graham on Saxophone.

Last week, I read an interesting article by David French entitled Another Pop-Culture Christian Loses His Faith.  In the article, French writes:

As our culture changes, secularizes, and grows less tolerant of Christian orthodoxy, I’m noticing a pattern in many of the people who fall away:  They’re retreating from faith not because they’re ignorant of its key tenets and lack the necessary intellectual, theological depth but rather because the adversity of adherence to increasingly counter-cultural doctrine grows too great.

Friends, I must be honest, the gospel of Jesus Christ is increasingly counter-cultural, and it takes courage to faithfully follow Jesus in our culture. Jesus addresses this in our gospel reading today as he talks about discipleship.  Quite frankly, today’s gospel reading is one of those passages that causes clergy to cringe when they read it and then have to say, “The gospel good news of our Lord.”  It would be so easy to gloss over this reading and say Jesus really did not mean what he is saying here.  It would be easy to simply water down his words and sugar coat them.  It would be so easy to use another reading, one that provides us with a sugar-coated Christianity; but that would also leave us with a sugar-coated cross.  Quite frankly, eliminating what this passage is all about would mean eliminating an honest, lay it on the line call to discipleship.  So, today we are going to wrestle with this reading and tackle this call to discipleship.

Listen again to what Jesus is saying:

“I’ve come to start a fire on this earth – how I wish it were blazing

right now!  I’ve come to change everything, turn everything right side up – how I long for it to be finished!  Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice?  Not so.  I’ve come to disrupt and confront!  From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be –

Three against two, and two against three;

Father against son, and son against father;

Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother;

Mother-in-law against bride, and bride against mother-in-law.”

These words are challenging but, Jesus never shies away from challenge.  Jesus’ words are strong and urgent words that name what is going on.  He lays it on the line and his words are an honest call to live a life of discipleship. 

The late Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick once said, “The world has two ways of getting rid of Jesus.  The first is by crucifying him; the second is by worshiping him without following him.”  Discipleship means worshiping AND following.  It means living a life that is complicated because it is totally counter-cultural, increasingly unpopular and sometimes even divisive.  You see, it is quite easy to worship Jesus on Sunday, but it is all together something else to follow Jesus out there in that world on Monday.  Quite frankly, it is very easy to say you are a follower of Jesus and attend worship once in a while.  However, discipleship in community is a much more difficult and demanding proposition.  Discipleship is about following Jesus, living by his teachings, and living in the Spirit of his very life.  Discipleship is a summons to faith and a call to daily live that faith, whatever the context.  This is not easy! 

Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, puts it

this way.  He writes: 

Yes, membership in the church is easy, but discipleship in community and actually living a life of faith is another matter.   Why?  Because, what the world looks down on and considers wretched, Jesus calls blessed.  Blessed are the poor.  Blessed are the meek and humble.  Blessed are the merciful and the compassionate.  Blessed are those who work, speak out and make for peace in this world.  Blessed are you when you are persecuted just because you stood for love, just because you showed compassion, just because you speak out for justice, just because you live a life that strives for justice, just because you live a different way, just because you live a life that is counter to all that culture tries to sell you.  Blessed are you.

Yes, membership in a church is easy but living a life of discipleship is hard, tough stuff.  Yet, it is the way of working for justice even when justice seems impossible.  It is the way of love, even when we work to love those who are so difficult to love, even as we love our enemies and all those who are considered “other.”  It is the way of forgiving even when forgiveness seems unwarranted or circumstances are harsh and cruel.  It is the way of compassion and welcome for the least of those among us, for the widow, the orphan, the resident alien, the immigrants and refugees, and all who are in need.  It is the way of real, meaningful life, life that truly matters.  And, such a way of life requires faith, the kind of faith that perseveres even in and through struggle.  This is the kind of faith described in our reading from Hebrews today, the kind of faith lived by Rahab, Gideon, David and Samuel. 

There is a story about English politician and philanthropist, William Wilberforce, who worked tirelessly to abolish slavery.  It was Wilberforce who introduced legislation in the British Parliament to end the slave trade.  In 1779 when he first introduced the bill, he was shouted down and laughed at.  He was ridiculed and ostracized from polite society.  But, he continued.  He continued year after year from 1779 until 1807 when the tide of public opinion had in fact changed.  And he continued after that to argue and fight for an end to slavery itself – not just the slave trade, but the end of all slavery, something that finally happened in the British Empire in 1833, just a few days before Wilberforce died.  At one point, in the depth of his struggle, things seemed hopeless.  Then, Anglican priest, John Wesley, sent a letter to Wilberforce saying, “Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils.  But if God be for you, who can be against you?  Are all of them stronger than God?  Be not weary in well doing!  Go on, go on in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish before it.”  Wesley’s words were encouraging and a summons to faith for Wilberforce, a summons to live a faith that perseveres because faith and discipleship are never easy. 

The great temptation of Christianity is always to have a sugar-coated Christianity with a sugar-coated cross and eliminate the great call to discipleship in this world.   Our greatest temptation is that the cares, riches and pleasures of this life become more important than the call of Jesus Christ.  And so, worship of family, our jobs, sporting events, our homes, our vacations, all become more important to us than Christ and God’s mission in this world.  The result is faith that is like a watered-down wine; it is middle class Christianity; it is complacent Christianity; it is comfortable Christianity; it is what so much of American Christianity has become.

Yet, a life of faith and discipleship is a very real daring act of courage.  In fact, one of my favorite theologians, Paul Tillich, in his book The Courage to Be, teaches just that – faith is a daring act of courage.  You see, faith is the courage to affirm being in spite of the threat of non-being, the courage to affirm life in spite of death, the courage to affirm hope in spite of despair, the courage to stand up and speak up when everyone else just shuts up.  Faith is not proof.  Faith is not certainty.  And, faith is not an insurance policy, especially a fire insurance policy for the next life.  Faith is about boldly entering the struggles of life and that kind of faith and discipleship are risky.  That kind of faith and discipleship cannot be detached from our everyday experience and our daily pattern of living.   And, yes, it can mean struggle and making hard choices.

Jesus was no stranger to struggle and making hard choices.  He entered the struggle.  Faith and discipleship mean participating in Jesus’ mission and following the way of the cross which takes us into a reordering of our very lives.  The cross is the sign of growth through struggle, and it is our willingness to enter the struggle that determines the pattern of our faithfulness as disciples.  Discipleship happens when the cross is woven into the very fabric of our lives.  When that occurs, our faith is defined by our response to the very demands and choices that are pressed upon us.  This is the way in which God calls and invites us into God’s mission of love, forgiveness, compassion, justice and grace for the life of this world.

We are not called to live a sugar coated life of faith.  We are called to participate in Christ’s mission.  And, as God works through us, Christ restructures us; Christ breaks down walls of division; Christ repairs us in order that we might become repairers of a broken world.  God takes us into God’s ongoing work of reconciling, binding up, and making whole.  And, yes, it is demanding, and it can be costly and risky.  However, we do not do this alone because it is Christ who is our peace in the depth of the struggle.  And, it is Christ who is with us every step of the way.

This is a special musical presentation of I will Call Upon The Lord by the Tenor / Bass Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan 

Have no fear little flock, have no fear, little flock, For the Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom. Have no fear, little flock! [Marjorie A. Jillson, b.1931]

Oh, how I need to hear these words on this day!  I need to hear them because one of the realities of present day twenty-first century life is that fear and anxiety seem to increasingly shape our lives.  All we need do is look at the mass shootings last weekend and we again see why people live in fear.  Even the youngest children among us now must go through the ritual of active shooting drills as part of their educational experience, something that I am sure creates anxiety and fear within these young minds and bodies.  Ryan Thompson shared a blog article with me this last week that talked about this ritual, one I fear that is more commonplace in children’s lives than the ritual of worship.  In the article sociologist, Kieran Healy, writes:

A fundamental lesson of Sociology is that, in the course of making everyday life seem orderly and sensible, arbitrary things are made to seem natural and inevitable. Rituals, especially the rituals of childhood, are a powerful way to naturalize arbitrary things. As a child in Ireland, I thought it natural to take the very body of Christ in the form of a wafer of bread on my tongue. My own boy and girl, in America, think it natural that a school is a place where you must know what to do when someone comes there to kill the children.

I must ask, what have we become and what kind of fear are we instilling in our children?  In addition to this one aspect of life, the twenty-four-hour-a-day newsfeed instills all kinds of fear in people’s lives. The newsfeed communicates political voices spewing forth rhetoric that incite fear, especially fear of others.  There is fear of terrorism – both foreign and domestic, fear of a volatile economy and our financial situation, fear of climate change, unemployment, war, hunger, poverty, homelessness, disease and death.  The effect these forms of fear have on our culture and our lives has been and is devastating. 

Consequently, I think many of us have deep concerns and ask questions like:

• How might I live in order to know that I am safe and secure?
• Where is the place of security for me and those I love?

In the depth of these concerns and, on this day as we still are shaken by the events of the past couple of weeks, we desperately need to hear the words Jesus is speaking in Luke’s gospel.  Into our fear, across centuries of human experience, Jesus’ teaching to us today offers an extraordinary word of comfort.  The precious words Jesus speaks to us today can never be heard too often.  “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  These words are some of my favorite words in Scripture because I believe they are a perfect summary of the Gospel.  These words provide the absolute assurance we need to hear in order to resist the extensive fearmongering and the many voices of doom surrounding us every day.  These words are so timely for us on this day.

In this passage from Luke’s gospel, we hear proclaimed in no uncertain terms that God loves us as only a parent can love, and God has not only promised we will belong to him forever….but Jesus says it is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom.  God loves you!  It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  You are accepted and loved as you are by God, your loving parent.  Do not fear!  These are words of comfort and reassurance in an increasingly threatening world.  And, they are not whistling-in-the-dark comfort, but rather the reassurance that what is seen is not all that is, a reminder that the fears associated with earthy living need not have the last word in defining one’s life.  Oh, yes!  We desperately need to hear these words. 

Now, quite honestly, for those of us in this faith community who really have more than we need, one of the fears that beset us has to do with our “stuff,” our treasures and possessions.  Fear often causes us to hold on tightly to what we have so that we can protect ourselves against what might happen.  Fear leads us to believe that our treasures and wealth will protect us against some dark and terrible day.  However, Jesus’ words remind us that even our “stuff” and our earthly treasures can be destroyed.  Jesus reminds us that our earthly treasures are not ultimate.  Earthly treasure is not where our true treasure is.  Jesus really challenges us to go to that deeper place in life and examine what our hearts hold dear, what is truly ultimate.  He challenges us to embrace the true treasure God desires to freely give us, because it is God’s “good pleasure” to give us the kingdom, a treasure that is imperishable, a treasure that does not fade or fail. 

Yes, wherever there is fear in our lives, Jesus speaks a surprising word of comfort to us, “Do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Simply said, what comes as a gift does not have to be purchased with one’s wealth.  Jesus’ words invite us to trust our future to this benevolent, gracious God because our future rests in the gracious promises and presence of God to us and with us.  Our life rests in the God who totally accepts us as we are, and it is all gift.  Jesus’ words are powerful and timely and merit our reflection.  God does not want to condemn us or punish us…. God wants to give us good things….. a promise that we will belong to God forever.  You see, God is not an impersonal force behind the universe but one who has been revealed to be like a Father, a loving parent.  And, as with all loving parents, it is God’s pleasure to give.  What parent among us cannot understand the meaning of those words.  What brings more pleasure than to give or to do for your children or other loved ones.  That is how God loves us and accepts us, giving us God’s kingdom of peace and joy with him.

Now, quite frequently, people tend to see the end of this passage as threat when they hear the words about a thief breaking in.  However, I really appreciate Richard Rohr’s understanding of these words.  He says these words are not threat.  In fact, the opposite is true because God’s kingdom is given to us and it is free.  In the latter part of this reading, what we need to hear is this:  God is like the loving, divine thief that breaks into our soul because God loves us so very much.  And, this God who breaks into our lives come in surprising ways at surprising times in life. 

I think the message for us on this day is such good news.  It is the message that you are to radically accept that you are radically accepted.  Jesus even says that God will come and wait on you.  As Richard Rohr says, “God is the servant of the soul, the deepest self.  But, you need to go to that deep place, that place where God is always working to break into your life.  Quite honestly, if you don’t go there, everything you do is quite superficial and nothing in your life of faith is going to change.”  And, by the way, that is another reason why I encourage you to participate in some form of Christian education this year so you are taken to that deeper place.

Jesus’ words to us continue as he tells us we need to be vigilant.  We need to keep alert and look for signs of the kingdom breaking through in our lives and in the world, signs of love and compassion and justice.  We must learn to read between the lines and see what is really happening in our lives, to intentionally look at what we are really doing.  We need to see and accept and learn from what we are doing, and maybe even change or be transformed!  But, to do this, we must go to that deeper place in our soul.  We have to ask, is what we are doing of ultimate importance?  As Richard Rohr says, “Most people are on cruise control and nothing in their life changes.  So, God has to break in like a divine thief.”  You see, God is always and forever giving.  Any change in this equation between us and God only comes from our side.  God is the divine giver. 

So, are you ready to receive and accept that you are totally accepted?  Are you ready to go to that deep place within yourself, to spend time focusing on the God whose pleasure it is to give you the kingdom?  Are you ready to let go of your fear and place your faith and trust in this God who delights in you? 

Oh yes, I really needed to hear these words on this day.

Have no fear little flock, have no fear, little flock, For the Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom. Have no fear, little flock!

This is a special musical presentation of Be Thou My Vision by flautist Gwynne Kadrofske at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.