A Free Lunch, March 3

Isaiah 55: 1-9

There are a number of reasons why lent is not one of the more popular times of year for a Christian.  It begins, after all, in the ashes of our mortality and the certainty of our own death.  If that doesn’t sober you up, nothing will!  What follows is forty days of self examination and discipline that involves study, prayer, and acts of service; all very important things, but not always a whole lot of fun.  Finally, there is the old practice of taking stock of your life and seeking to give up those things that get in the way of your relationship with God.  These could be bad habits.  They could be good habits that become much more important than they should be.  We try to show our commitment and our discipline by giving these things up, at least for a season, to focus as much as we can on God.

In the wake of my recent weight loss, it may surprise you to know that of all these disciplines, fasting is the one that I truly dread.  I mean, it’s one thing to try to eat the right foods.  It’s quite another thing to give up food all together!  Besides, if the object of giving something up is to free you to focus more on God, well, fasting is a pretty curious choice.  Believe it or not, I have tried it a few times.  If being able to focus on God was the object of the exercise, I failed miserably.  All I could think about was food!  I even got into arguments with myself as the hours crept by.  I knew I had food in the refrigerator.  It might go bad if I don’t eat it.  That would be a waste, wouldn’t it?  Researchers tell us breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Who am I to go against such convincing evidence?  There is nothing quite like fasting to make you obsess about food.

But if you think about it, that may be the point of the whole exercise.  It is a way to get you to think about how much attention we do pay to our stomachs, and to think about what it would be like if we paid that much attention to God.  After all, we say that after we die we want to spend eternity with God.  But if that is true why are most of us not willing to spend five minutes a day with God in prayer while we are alive?  That’s a good question for a lot of things, isn’t it?  We know the things we should be doing with our lives.  We know we should read the bible each day.  We know that we should pray more than we do.  But we don’t have the time because, well, the weather is getting warmer and the fish are biting.  The tournament is on television, or that program is on that we just can’t miss.  We know we should be visiting people in the hospital and the nursing homes.  But we find it a lot easier to visit the stores at the mall.  In the same way, we know there are certain types of food we should try to eat.  We know that if we want to be healthy, we should eat our vegetables, lower our fat, and reduce our portions.  But it is a whole lot more fun to heap on the butter, pile on the salt, and top it all of with chocolate cake and a hot fudge sundae.  Yes, we know what we should do, but that is often not what happens.

But the prophet Isaiah gets our attention and tells us to look over to God.  God is hanging out a sign that says, “All You Can Eat.  Free!!   Rich food.  Milk.  Wine.  No charge!  Now, we are fond of saying that free is our favorite four letter word.  I mean, who doesn’t want a free lunch?  The only problem with that is that we don’t act that way when given the offer.  Despite our words and wisecracks to the contrary, there is just something about that word “free” that makes us nervous, uneasy, or suspicious.  For example, if you saw a sign that offered steak and lobster, salad, and a drink for two dollars, that would make you just a little suspicious, wouldn’t it?  You might be wondering what was wrong with the food, or where they got it from for it to be that cheap.  Well, God takes it a step further.  Here in this passage from Isaiah, God says that what he has to offer is not only cheap, it is absolutely free.

Presbyterian minister C. Edward Bowen tells the story of the Methodist church in his Pennsylvania town.  They have been offering a free lunch.  You just show up and eat.  You don’t have to pay a penny.  It’s an opportunity for people to get together and socialize and share a meal.  The pastor of the church told of a time when a woman called into the church office and wanted to know what they were serving for the free lunch.  I guess she wanted to know if she was going to get her money’s worth if she came.  Apparently, it never occurred to this woman that with a free lunch it doesn’t matter what’s being served.  Either way, you can’t lose!  It’s free.  That means you are getting something and it’s costing you nothing.

The other thing the pastor of that church said they were having to work on was an issue of perception.  Many people in his congregation assume that only  “certain” kinds of people would eat a “free” lunch.  There is something about getting something for free that rubs some folks the wrong way.  They figure that they would prefer to pay their own way.  But God reminds us that when it comes to redemption, when it comes to forgiveness, when it comes to reconciliation, when it comes to heaven, there is nothing we can pay or do to earn it.  No, the only way we can receive it is by taking it as a gift, for free.  And if the gift is forgiveness and salvation, then why on earth are we killing ourselves and each other, spending our fortunes and mortgaging our futures for that which is not bread, for that which is not food, for that which does not satisfy?  Why do we insist on paying for, working for, or even stealing from others the things which in the end mean absolutely nothing at all?  If we are wise, we will listen to God so that we may delight in the things that will help us live.  Its value in the eyes of the world is irrelevant.  It is given for free, but its value is something that simply cannot be measured.  We are being offered a free lunch.  There really is such a thing!  Our redemption is at hand.  How foolish we would be to look down our noses at that which could save us!

Of course, the problem with a free lunch, or a free anything, is that people will take it for granted.  Fair enough.  We have certainly seen that happen over and over again.  But Isaiah reminds us of a truth that is just as real.  Have you ever seen this phrase on an offer before, “for a limited time only”?  This offer is indeed for a limited time.  God is willing to forgive us and welcome us into his kingdom.  But that free gift will not be available forever.  There will come a time when it is simply too late.

See if you have ever had this happen to you before.  You have a coupon or an offer that if you redeem it you will get a free bottle or package of that item on your next purchase.  I love to clip those.  I always feel like I’m getting ahead.  But you know what happens.  You set it aside because you don’t need that item just yet.  There is still plenty in the bottle.  Every few weeks or so you think, maybe you ought to use that coupon.  Finally, you run out of whatever it is you are using and you go get the coupon.  You know what happens next, right?  It usually happens right there at the cash register with a bunch of people waiting behind you.  You try and use the coupon only to be told it expired last month!

Many times we are told in the Bible that God is merciful and gracious.  God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  All of that is very true.  But notice what it does not say.  It does not say that God will never  get angry.  God is patient, yes.  But eventually, there is a limit.  There will come a time when the offer to take God up on his offer to forgive will expire.  We need to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near.

We can just go on eating our own food, eating what we like to eat, eating what we paid for.  But the problem with that kind of food is that it does not ultimately satisfy.  Sooner or later, we will be hungry again.  The other option is that we can take what God has to offer us.  It is free.  As suspicious as we are that there is no such thing as a free lunch, God beckons us to take him up on the offer of a lifetime.  It is the only way we can ever be truly fed, truly satisfied.  Just don’t take too long to act.  God’s offer is for a limited time only.  Let’s sit down to God’s free lunch, while we still can.  All we can lose is our hunger!

I Do! February 24

Genesis 15: 1-20

This passage from the very first book of the bible has all the elements of an eerie novel or an episode from one of Hollywood’s spooky movies or televisions shows.  There is a ritual slaughter of animals, their carcasses rotting under the relentless desert sun.  There is an old man named Abram, whom we’ve met before in Genesis.  But this is hardly a dignified circumstance in which we find him; running and flapping his arms in a desperate attempt to keep the buzzards and the vultures and other opportunistic critters from making a meal out of the decaying flesh all around him.  He must have done this to the point of exhaustion, because a deep and dream filled sleep has come over him, with fire and smoke mysteriously moving between the pieces of meat.  Finally there is a bold, divine promise, one that Abram has heard before.  One cannot help but wonder if in the midst of keeping the buzzards away, old Abram ever wondered just how he managed to find himself doing such things in the middle of nowhere.  This was probably not the way he thought his life would turn out!

Many years earlier, Abram was just an ordinary man, living his life in peace with his wife, Sarai, in his native land, far away from where he now stood.  One day, out of the clear blue sky, Abram heard a call that changed his life forever.  This call came from a God quite unknown to his people.  As if that were not enough, the call was for Abram to literally drop everything, pack up his wife and his belongings and move to a land he had never seen before.  This new land was promised to him by this strange new voice from above.  Not only did Abram hear this voice, but he believed it and obeyed it.  He hitched up his animals and his courage and set out for the land of Caanan.

Thus began an odyssey that had Abram and his household going to places like Egypt, the Negev desert, and all throughout the land of Caanan.  Along the way Abram grew rich in livestock and land holdings.  But the promise that propelled him on this adventurous journey still had not been fulfilled.  Now, at nearly 100 years of age with dimming eyesight and optimism, Abram hears the voice of God once again.  Again, God promises Abram that his reward will be very great.  This time, however, Abram does not buy it right away.  He does not go along with this plan quietly.  This time, Abram has something to say to God.

“O Lord, what are your going to give me?  I am still childless. All that I have will soon go to some distant relative I barely know.  How am I going to possess this land? How can your promise possibly be fulfilled at my age?”  But God soothes this troubled old man’s anxiety by pointing to the sky and telling him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars.  As Abram gazes at the heavens he breathes a sigh.  Despite all the persuasive, even conclusive evidence to the contrary, Abram believes.  He believes more than facts.  He believes the promise.  More importantly, he believes the one who made the promise.

So here he is now, having sacrificed the animals as he was instructed, and protecting the meat that will serve as worship tools.  When we read about this strange ceremony of smoke and fire passing between the pieces of meat, we might be reminded of the many vows we have made over the course of our lives.  You remember one of them, do you not?  “It’s true!  Cross my heart and hope to die!”  Think about that one for a moment.  It is a kind of self curse that seals our declarations.  As the divine fire of God’s presence moves between the split carcasses, the implied message is something like this: “My promise is true.  If not, let it be to me as to these animals.”  God is inviting Abram into a covenant relationship.  This ceremony binds them to one another in love.

There is another set of vows that come to my mind when I read this story.  This covenanting ceremony is almost like a cosmic wedding.  In fact, it is little different from our own wedding ceremonies.  Now, I realize that nobody in this room ever has, nor are any planning to sacrifice animals as a part of a wedding service!  Well, we might have barbecue or a pig picking…but not a ritual sacrifice!  But if we have the traditional wedding ceremony we arrive on the big day wearing clothes we will never wear again, painstakingly following superstitions and traditions about how to act, who to see, and what to give to those closest to us.  The march down the aisle is a dramatic act of erasing the barriers between the two families and joins them together as one, just as the bride and groom become one.  The ceremony culminates in promises made between the bride and the groom.  Then, one at a time, they look into each other’s eyes and trustingly say, “I do!”.  They say “I do!” despite all the evidence that such unions often end badly, in spite of all the difficulties that lie ahead, despite all the roadblocks that society and our own selfish desires erect in our paths, in spite of all reason and against all odds.  It is an awe inspiring and powerful moment!

In the wake of Abram’s uncertainty and despair, God repeats and reiterates God’s promise.  Nothing that Abram is experiencing now can prevent that promise from happening.  In the strange and elaborate ceremony that follows, God is saying to Abram, “you are mine!”.  Abram’s only real choice is whether to believe it and act like it is true, or not.  God walks through the split carcasses and dares Abram to say “I do!”, in spite of all the evidence and all common sense.  God’s covenant with Abram is sealed.  The promise is on the way.

The thing I like most about this story is Abram’s brutal honesty and his willingness to express his doubts.  They are the brutally honest feelings of a man looking out over the barrenness of his life and the landscape around him and seeing no hope.  Those feelings are not strangers to us, especially during this season of Lent.  It is a rare person indeed who can say they have never experienced the desert of uncertainty, when we wonder if it is all true or if it is worth all the heartache and difficulty to believe in God and live according to God’s laws.  Frankly, I don’t believe such people exist.  There comes a time for all of us when we just aren’t sure anymore, when the evidence is just too strong, when we are just too tired to believe anymore.  We wonder if God can be trusted.  Can we wait for God to act, and be confident during the waiting, no matter how long?  Are we sure about the promise, because we are sure about the integrity of God?  We would sure like to see some proof!

No such proof was given to Abram.  Only the repeating of the promise made to him earlier.  Once again, he had the option of believing it or turning his back on it.  But God was faithful and ready to enter into a covenant relationship with Abram.  In the barrenness of our lives this Lenten season, we have many of the same cares, concerns, and pains that Abram knew almost 5000 years ago.  The same promise made to him is offered to us.  Today, like yesterday, God’s love is a love that will never let us go.  It is a love that always seeks to bless us.  Like the parable of the prodigal son, if we can ever find it in our hearts to praise him, love him, and live as if we do, God will rush out to meet us and bring us home.

The promise of God’s love and everlasting blessing to you and to me is still being made.  I cannot prove it to you.  The evidence against it is persuasive and strong.  It makes about as much sense as a childless couple nearly 100 years old becoming parents for the first time.  It is illogical.  It is dangerous.  But it is there just the same.  God stands in the smoky atmosphere of a covenanting ceremony with arms outstretched, ready to embrace us in love and care.  God is ready to welcome us home.  In the midst of our very real doubts and uncertainty, do we have the courage, the audacity, the faith to day “I do!”?  Amen.

An Identity Crisis, 17 Februray

The River Jordan

DEUTERONOMY 26: 1-11; LUKE 4: 1-13

At first blush, these two texts appear to have very little in common, other than being set in the wilderness across the river from where “civilized” life takes place.  The first lesson is set on the banks of the river Jordan as the people of Israel are poised to enter the land God promised to their ancestors.  Moses, the central figure in the story, is old and at the end of his life.  In the second lesson, Jesus of Nazareth is around 30 years old, fresh off his baptism, and about to begin his ministry as the chosen one of God.  Moses is at the head of a great crowd of followers and admirers gathered around him as he gives his farewell speech. Jesus is alone.  He has no followers, no crowds, no big speeches to give, and no earthly idea of what to do next.  He is silent for almost all his time there.  The only company he gets is near the end, and it is the most unwelcome kind…the adversarial voice of uncertainty and confusion that comes to all of us, sooner or later.  Yes, they are quite different, these two stories.  Yet read together, they give us a great way to begin the holy season that is now upon us.

In Deuteronomy, Moses is coming to the end of his long speech.  He has the advantage of age and experience and seeks to impart that wisdom on the people as they begin their new life. He simultaneously asks them to look both forward and back…forward to the abundance they will soon enjoy in their new land, and backward so that as receivers of this abundance, they will never rest on their laurels and think their abundance is their right. Instead they will remember the great precariousness through which they have come—spiritual offspring of a precarious Aramaean and dependent on great generosity. How does the looking forward appear? It looks like celebrating abundance by offering its first fruit—not by themselves, however, but alongside two partners who together act as pulls against self-congratulation. They are the Levites, who are experts in worship, and the aliens, who have been put into positions of precariousness by our self-congratulatory attitudes. Abundance is real, but it can really be enjoyed only if we are celebrating the source of abundance and only if there are no victims of our abundance.  Or to put it even more simply, the Israelite people are to remember…remember who they are, and who they are not.  Everything depends on that.  Nothing will imperil their future more than spiritual amnesia.

And then there is Jesus in Luke’s gospel.  Here, Jesus is the vulnerable one in the desert.  Unlike Moses, he is young, and inexperienced.  Like Moses, he is at a crossroad in his life.  But unlike the reassurance that Moses gave his people on the banks of the river, Jesus endures the temptation to think and believe something else entirely.  Moses used the word “when”, as in “when you come into this land”, to reassure his people.  There was no doubt of who they are or that the promise would be fulfilled.  He imbues his people with confidence in their identity.  But Jesus is tempted three times with a different word…the word “if”.  “If” is not a word that is associated with abundance or with blessing.  “If” is not a word associated with confidence, assurance, or comfort.  “If” is a word that leads to privation, to a sense that we just might not be what god tells us we are.  “If” is a sneaky, weasley, and tricky word that is at the very heart of temptation.  “If” is a word that is at the very doorstep of doubt…of doubting who we are.  It is the word associated with an identity crisis.

The devil opens his conversation with the first “if”…“if you are the messiah, then turn these stones into bread.” The first temptation was simply to feed himself. Why not? He was weak from hunger. even a messiah has to eat, after all. While that may seem like a good enough reason to you and to me, it wasn’t good enough for Jesus. Responding to the seductive invitation to turn stones into bread would mean using his powers just to meet his own need, rather than relying on the mercy of god to sustain him. The vulnerable point the devil attacked was his sense of security. The fear of being without resources to survive in a harsh environment must have been very strong. The devil assured him that he could use his powers to assuage his fear and his hunger, but Jesus declined. Going for the quick fix would be saying he didn’t trust in God, that he didn’t really believe in who he was, that he didn’t trust his identity as God’s son.

The second temptation must have been even harder to resist. Just give me my due, the devil said, and you’re in control. All the kingdoms of the world will be yours. Think of what you’ll be able to do. If you don’t like the way the poor are treated, or the way justice is administered in the law courts, you don’t have to put up with it. Just issue a mandate. All you have to do is worship me, which just means, be ready to compromise a little. Face reality. The world operates by my rules. If you insist on clinging to your precious integrity, all you’re going to get out of it is a cross. Do things my way, and you will have a world cut to your specifications. Who better than you, Jesus, to take charge?  He could do all this only “if”…there’s that word again.

For the last test, the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, to the top of the temple, and invited him to throw himself down. Surely God would send angels to guarantee that God’s own son never made it to the ground. If anyone could count on divine protection, surely it was God’s beloved son!  Not only that, but the crowd gathered around the temple would see it, and word would quickly spread. What a boost that would be for his ministry! His favored status with God would be proven, and he would not have to suffer. With his reputation firmly established, there would be no end to the people he could influence and persuade. “After all, if you are the messiah”.  Once more, that seed of doubt about his identity is planted.  But for the third time, Jesus said no. He knew it would be a cheap trick to win applause for himself by testing God.

This, then, is what real temptation is all about. At its heart, temptation is not about inappropriate desires like having that rich dessert or engaging in sensual pleasures.  Temptation is entertaining the thought that we are someone other than who God intends us to be. The real temptation Jesus had to fight was self-doubt.  He was faced with an identity crisis.  Not only was the seed of doubt planted about being the messiah, the one in whom God is well pleased, but what kind of messiah would he be.  Would he live into the identity of dependence upon God, as Moses implored the people centuries before him, or would he take the easy way out and compromise everything that identity stands for?  Would he understand God’s abundance of mercy, generosity, forgiveness, and hope, or would he give in to scarcity and hoard those blessings for himself, and himself alone?

Such temptations have not gone away.  They are very much alive for us today…and unfortunately for us, the tempter doesn’t come with horns and a tail that make him easy to recognize. One definition of the devil I have read is this: “any adversary of God—anyone who restricts or obstructs what God intends for human life.” That’s a very broad definition. The devil could be any number of Jesus’ own followers. Remember, Jesus had to say to Peter, “get behind me, Satan!” When Peter suggested that there ought to be an easier, safer way for Jesus to exercise his lordship than by way of a cross. By this definition, the “devil” could be your best friend, or your spouse, or someone else who believes he is acting in your best interest. The “devil” could be you yourself—that little voice that hammers away at your sense of security, whispers taunting things to undermine your self-confidence and make you feel the need to “prove” yourself, or tells you that the expedient course is the best course. It’s the voice that says, “can what I am thinking of doing be wrong, if everybody is for it?” or conversely, “can what I am doing be right, if everybody is against it?” That was the question prompted by Jesus’ own disciples who tried to talk him out of following the path of obedience to God. That’s the devil all of us know.

It’s best to be very well acquainted with this devil. We get to know him (or her) by getting to know ourselves. Most of us, I think, are pretty easy to get to. Our vulnerable points are easily discovered. Just appeal to our pride, awaken our fear of disapproval and rejection, threaten our sense of security, suggest an easier way, and we are tempted to be less than the people God intends us to be, and to not even know that it is happening. It’s a good idea to get to know our demons, so we don’t have an identity crisis when they visit.

Perhaps that is why this time of year is so important.  Lent is a reminder to us.  But it is not just a reminder of our shortcomings or those things that we shouldn’t do.  In the end, it’s not about being sorry for being naughty and trying to be nice.  Quite the contrary, Lent is a reminder that we are so much more than we give ourselves credit for.  We are more than the sum of our appetites or the results of our ambitions.  We are so much more than we are willing to settle for.  We can do much better, because God created us to be much better people than we so often are.  The crisis of Lent is an identity crisis.  The only way out of it is to listen to and obey the voice of the one who created us.

That is the difficult task that is at the center of this difficult season.  It is always easier to believe the worst about ourselves and settle for the least common denominator.  It is easy to believe that we simply don’t have it in us to be children of God.  God simply will not accept this answer…and he was willing to take on human flesh to show us the way.  That way is often dark, difficult, and seemingly foolish.  But perhaps our ancestors had the right idea during this holy time.  Maybe in those small acts of discipline, this brief period of reflection and intentional action can help us avoid the temptation of an identity crisis.  Maybe they can help us claim our title as children of God…and act accordingly, at long last!  Amen.

Transfiguration of Christ, 10 Februrary

This week’s meditation was on the Transfiguration:

In the Gospels, Jesus takes Peter, James, son of Zebedee and John the Apostle with him and goes up to a mountain, which is not named. Once on the mountain, Matthew (17:2) states that Jesus “was transfigured before them; his face shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light.” At that point the prophets Elijah and Moses appear and Jesus begins to talk to them. Luke is specific in describing Jesus in a state of glory, with Luke 9:32 referring to “they saw his glory”.

Just as Elijah and Moses begin to depart from the scene, Peter begins to ask Jesus if the disciples should make three tents for him and the two prophets. This has been interpreted as Peter’s attempt to keep the prophets there longer. But before Peter can finish, a bright cloud appears, and a voice from the cloud states: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him”. The disciples then fall to the ground in fear, but Jesus approaches and touches them, telling them not to be afraid. When the disciples look up, they no longer see Elijah or Moses.

When Jesus and the three apostles are going back down the mountain, Jesus tells them to not tell anyone “the things they had seen” until the “Son of Man” has risen from the dead. The apostles are described as questioning among themselves as to what Jesus meant by “risen from the dead”.

Jonathan likened some of what happens in episodes of the X-Files to the Transfiguration: something happened, but all we can do is conclude that it was not scientifically explainable.