Archives for February 2020

by Jim Rach

It started as a normal day in first century Palestine. The disciples were trying to forget that uncomfortable incident from the week before, it was embarrassing for Peter, you know no one likes being called Satan, especially by Jesus.

But the thing about Jesus is even a rebuke is colored with love, so on this beautiful day in Palestine, when Jesus decided he needed to take a walk, he invited Peter, along with James and John. So, the four of them set off. The three disciples were following Jesus and they came to a mountain and they proceeded to climb. So, a good way to get some exercise, some fresh air, a pretty normal walk.

Until Jesus stopped climbing. And then everything stopped being normal. It makes for a nice story, this gospel story, but to actually be there, to witness this event, would be terrifying, this is kind of crazy stuff. Not normal.

Let us remember what occurred on the mountain. The walk ended when Jesus stopped, and his face turned into the sun. Terrifying. And then his clothes, which were probably brownish, turned dazzling white spontaneously. And then the ghosts appear. Moses who had died many centuries earlier was standing right in front of them. Terrifying. And then Elijah, who was carried into the sky by a fiery chariot, shows up too. He’s either a ghost or, since he left earth without dying, maybe he’s just hundreds of years old and able to materialize at will.

Scary stuff. No reason to stop the terrifying stuff there, why not add the voice of God. The very voice that created the cosmos and all the things in it, separated the light from the darkness, they hear that voice. Bright faced Jesus, two holy apparitions, the voice of the Creator rocking their eardrums. By the time that cloud dissipates, we find the disciples face down in the dirt. Trembling in fear. And this is all before Jesus tells them he is going to be killed, and then rise from the dead. Try processing that.

In the midst of what is no longer a normal day, Jesus looks at his three disciples, dusty and in distress, and says to them, “get up, and do not be afraid,” which, by the way, is easy for him to say, he has not yet looked in the mirror to see his shining face. The disciples were overcome by fear, paralyzed, unable to move, like dead men. And every last bit of fear was justified. Of course, they were afraid.

The disciples faces hidden in the sand, and Jesus touches them, and says “get up and do not be afraid.” Throughout Jesus ministry in Matthews gospel, Jesus heals many people. The healings are achieved through some combination of word and touch. So, when Jesus heals the leper in chapter 8, first he touches the man, then he says be made clean. When Jesus sees his frightened disciples laying on the ground, he first touches them, then says to them, “get up, and do not be afraid.” Except when Jesus says “get up” he uses the same word in the Greek as the angel says in the tomb on Easter morning. And so, you might consider what Jesus says to his disciples is more like “be raised up, be resurrected.”

I’m thinking that by touch and word, Jesus is doing something more than making a suggestion to his disciples. He is creating a miracle in their lives. In the gospels, “do not be afraid” is like a refrain. We hear it over and over and over again. From the mouths of angels, from the mouth of Jesus, “Do not be afraid.”

The events of the transfiguration story are scary. Being told by an angel that you will be a pregnant, unwed teenager is scary stuff. Watching someone walk across a like toward your boat, that’s scary. Finding an angel in an empty tomb that’s supposed to hold the body of Christ, that’s scary.

And so is this crazy world we live in. The news presses on us daily. From weather, to the latest disease outbreaks, to cyber- attacks, to stories of sex trafficking, to always it seems another mass shooting, tension, division, violence, war-this is a scary world. Fear is in the air, and the problems sometimes feel overwhelming. And Jesus says, “do not be afraid.”

Fear seems justified, so why would Jesus keep saying, “do not be afraid?” Especially to the disciples who will follow him down that mountain on a path that ends at the cross. Especially to us, who are told constantly that fear and anxiety should be our norm. And where does Jesus get his strength anyway, he is staring down a violent, terrible, brutal death, and he is telling us not to be afraid. He knows what fear does. He knows fear devours our ability to trust God. And the path he walked, the path he calls us, cannot be walked without a deep trust that the God who sends us, also sticks with us, through even the most terrifying moments.

The problem with fear is that it prevents us from moving forward into the future that God wants for us. Fears’ goal is to drive us into the ground. Fears’ goal is to prevent us from heading back down the mountain into the world with Jesus. Fears’ goal is to close us in, to close our mouths, to close our arms, to close our hearts. Fear is a disease that will paralyze our souls. And that is why Jesus touches his disciples with a healing touch. And that is why he speaks to them while they are lying on the ground like dead men, a word of life, “be raised up, be resurrected.”

Fear is not the end of the road, for there is work to do. Fear is the enemy of the gospel in this world, and yes sometimes you will be afraid, you will come to something terrifying, and you will be tempted just to shut down. But don’t, don’t let fear control you, don’t let fear stop you from being the person, being the minister of the gospel God is calling you to be.

There is plenty to fear in this world. But Jesus says, “do not be afraid.” Fear wants you to hide, don’t do it. Walk into this dark world and let your light shine. Fears’ goal is to shut your mouth, don’t do it. Speak the truth in this world of spin. Fears’ goal is to close your arms, to cause you to look at your sisters and brothers with suspicion and fear, to look at other beloved children of God as enemies, don’t do it. Let your love be vulnerable. Fears’ goal is to close your heart, don’t do it, leave your heart open so it may be broken wide open again and again. Let your love spill out everywhere it can, because perfect love casts out fear.

There is a lot to fear in this world. And you will be reminded every day by politicians, by market campaigns, by advertisements, by your friends on social media. You will be reminded of that so often, so much, that you might be tempted to hide your face in the ground. But Jesus is with you, and is not content to leave you there in the dirt.

Get up…and do not be afraid.

We all want to know the shortcut, how do we hack into God? What is the minimum that we need to do, what is truly required, to get to heaven. Communion every Sunday, you’re in?  Say the sinner’s prayer, “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner,” several times each day, you’re in? Or maybe if you cross yourself correctly, you can say a few raciest things once in a while. Or if you vote for all pro-life candidates, you can ignore refugee children. Or, like in the Isaiah passage, if you fast properly, you get the OK to oppress your workers, and physically harm people.

It is much easier to go through the motions on a Sunday morning than it is to live and love in this messed up world. It is easier to follow the direction of the church service than it is to follow Jesus.

That’s why we say, “I will, with God’s help,” after every baptismal promise. That’s why we say the Confession every week. Jesus only really gave us two commandments, but they are hard ones. Fasting now and again is much easier. We have not loved God with our whole heart, we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves, because those two things are hard. It’s really hard to live like Jesus beyond these walls.

Isaiah is not confronting villains in today’s text. Isaiah is confronting humans; humans who want to impress God, who want some kind of guarantee, who think they may have discovered the shortcut. The great thing about a shortcut is that once you get it right it always works, and always in the same way. We have control issues, and God is out of control. We want a predictable God, a God that we can figure out, a God that follows the rules of cause and effect. We press the button, God gives us a prize. And so we develop in our minds, in our religious communities, these ways to get God on our side. We do some good and pious things. We hope that God will notice, and in return give us a pass on some of our actions, words, thoughts, attitudes, that are less than righteous. And that, when all is said and done, God will count up the number of hours we spend in this building, and God will be super-impressed, and will reward us with a big heavenly mansion. No conversion necessary, no change of heart, no messy, vulnerable love, just press the button and get the prize.

As a result our relationship with God becomes very self-centered, all about us. We lose sight, not only of God, but of all those neighbors God expects us to love. Instead of the dynamic, loving relationship God longs for, it becomes a cost-benefit analysis. It’s as if we are trying to convert God to us.

But, you know the thing is, God is already sold on you. God loves us, God loves us even if we are not that good at fasting. God loves us with our rough edges, with our half-hearted devotion, even in our ungodly attitudes. God loves us enough to convert us to God.

Worship is not a shortcut. Worship is a chance to encounter a God who cares enough about us to change us into the likeness of Christ. Worship is a deep dive into the Holy Spirit, intended to light us on fire.

Our goal here is not to impress God with our beautiful music, or a few bucks in the offering plate. Our goal is not to earn some credit to get into some heavenly abode, we are here to experience God, our goal is to be together in the presence of God and to be changed in that presence. We gather not to earn God’s love, but to experience God’s love. In so many ways, in the faces of our sisters and brothers, and in the bread of heaven, and in the cup of salvation, and in the proclamation of the gospel, God is meeting us here, not because we deserve that, but because God desires that. And in that encounter, as we see, touch, taste, the living Christ, we are transformed. We are sent back into the world looking a little more like Jesus. Better prepared to love and serve the Lord, sent out these doors not to impress God or secure some sort of reward, because we are what we eat, the body of Christ. And as the body of Christ in this world, we are sent out to share the good news, to continue Jesus’ work in the world. We are lit here to be lights in dark places. We go through these doors glowing, lit up by the light of Christ. We go through these doors strengthened in all goodness. We go through these doors full of hope, inspired by God’s dream for this broken world. We go through these doors as world-changers, ready to handle the violence and hatred we encounter with peace and love.

There is no shortcut. Nothing you do here today will earn you anything. Nothing you do out there tomorrow will earn you anything. God already loves you, because God loves you, and there is nothing you can do to change that. That is good news, that is life changing news, that is world changing news. Good news that a world full of frustrated, lonely people need to hear. People need to hear that they are loved, perfectly and unconditionally loved.

God is present in this place, and in that encounter, we are changed. Changed for a reason, to tell this story. To share God’s love. Changed people, ready to change the world.

We all know what happens when a revolutionary party suddenly finds itself in power. It’s one thing to shout from the sidelines, but quite another to form a government and run a country. All sorts of things have to be organized and dealt with that a rebel movement can happily ignore.

When this happens, two questions are asked. First, can this movement really do the basic things that a government can do better than its predecessor? Second, can it remain true to itself and its original ideals even though it is now in power?

Jesus was starting a revolution-but it was a different sort of revolution from the other ones in his day. And he had to do two things at the same time. First, he had to show the Jews of his day that this movement really was a fulfilment of all Israel had believed and longed for. Second, he had to show that he and his followers really were living by (and also dying by) the new way he was announcing. The tension between these two sometimes seemed fierce, and to this day many people misunderstand it. Some people think of Jesus as just a great Jewish teacher without much of a revolution. Others see him as so revolutionary that he left Judaism behind altogether and established something quite new.

This passage shows how Jesus himself held the two together. He was indeed offering something utterly revolutionary, to which he would remain faithful; but it was, in fact the reality towards which Israel’s whole life and tradition had pointed.

The words from Matt. 5:13-20, then, is a kind of gateway to what will follow in the Sermon on the Mount, and its theme is clear. Jesus is calling the Israel of his day to be Israel indeed, now that he is there. What he says here can now be applied to all Christians, but its original meaning was a challenge to Jesus’ own contemporaries. God had called Israel to be the salt of the earth; but Israel was behaving like everyone else. How could God keep the world from going bad- the main function of salt in the ancient world- if Israel, his chosen ‘salt’, had lost its distinctive taste?

In the same way, God called Israel to be the light of the world (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6). Israel was the people through whom God had intended to shine his bright light into the world’s dark corners, not simply to show up evil but to enable people in the dark to find their way. But what if the people called to be the light-bearers had become part of the darkness? That was Jesus warning – and also his challenge. Jerusalem, the city set on a hill, was supposed to be a beacon of hope to the world. His followers were to be like that; their deep, heartfelt keeping of God’s laws would be a sign to the nations around that the one God, the creator, the God of Israel, was God indeed, and that they should worship him.

We can imagine people saying to themselves, ‘Well, here’s another new teacher who thinks he’s got the answer. We already got teachers of the law; we’ve already got the Pharisees who think their interpretation is the proper one. What’s different about this man?’

Jesus gives his straight answer. The scribes and the Pharisees do indeed teach a way of being faithful to God, a way of behaving in accordance with God’s promise. But the ‘kingdom of heaven, is even now breaking in; and those who want to belong to the new world he is opening up must discover a way of covenant behavior that goes far, far beyond anything the scribes and Pharisees ever dreamed of.

Jesus wasn’t intending to abandon the law and the prophets. Israel’s whole story, promises and all, was going to come true in him. But, now that he was here, a way was opening up for Israel, and through that all the world, to make God’s covenant a reality in their own selves, changing behavior not just by teaching but by a change of heart and mind itself.

This was truly revolutionary, and at the same time deeply in tune with the ancient stories and promises of the Bible. And the remarkable thing is that Jesus brought it all to a reality in his own person. He was the salt of the earth. He was the light of the world; set up on a hill-top, crucified for all the world to see, becoming a beacon of hope and new life for everybody, drawing people to worship his Father, embodying the way of self-giving love which is the deepest fulfillment of the law and the prophets. That’s why these sayings, originally applied to Israel, now apply to all those who follow Jesus and draw on his life as the source of their own.

In chapter 5 of Matthews gospel, Jesus heads up a mountain like Moses and utters the most significate words of his life. The beatitudes are the most precise words on what it means to be a Christian. What, according to the beatitudes does it look like to be a Christian? There are 9 beatitudes and we can read them in three groups. The first group starts with ‘blessed are the poor in spirit,’ blessed are those who mourn,’ blessed are the meek,’ Jesus is saying Christianity begins with the desperate. Are you miserable? Is your job, marriage, finances, in ruin? If so, here’s the good news, you’re right where Jesus’ gospel takes root. Look where Jesus gives us three kinds of misery. The first is ‘poor in spirit.’ What does that mean? It means we have done something wrong, maybe a lot of things wrong. And we lose confidence, and our pride makes us afraid to show our face, frightened to reveal our true selves. So, we self- regulate ourselves from others, and self- regulate ourselves from God. That is poor in spirit.

Then there are those who mourn. Those are the ones who have been deprived of something or someone who was their reason for living. Mourning means suffering through no fault except allowing our lives to be deeply invested in the life of someone else. Those who mourn are those who have suffered because they have loved.

Then there are the meek. The meek are those who suffer through the fault of somebody else. The meek are the oppressed, the disadvantaged. In these first three beatitudes Jesus is saying the gospel begins in the gutter.

The next three beatitudes ‘blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,’ ‘blessed are the merciful,’ blessed are the pure in heart.’ Imagine having such a yearning for God that it felt like hunger and thirst. Once a young women youth worker was asked, “Why are you a Christian, what’s it all about?” And she answered, “I just want to be like Jesus. To think like him, act like him, love like him, live like him. That’s what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Then there’s the merciful. This is the central beatitude. Mercy is our attitude towards one another. Jesus later says treat others the way you want them to treat you. How would you like God to treat you on judgement day? Treat others that way today. Demonstrate to others the mercy you beg God for.

Then we come to ‘blessed are the pure in heart.’  This one is about ourselves. One great theologian said to be pure in heart is to will one thing. It is knowing which things are not important, not fashionable, not popular, not urgent, but to know what is really, really, really, important. Then in a crises, when others have lost their sense of perspective, you will be able the one thing that matters. It not about you changing the world, it’s about letting God change you.

The last three beatitudes are what happens to us when we follow the logic of Jesus life and teaching. We start with ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’  To be a peacemaker you have to understand the first group of beatitudes, how sin and suffering lead to conflicts. But you to also embrace the second group of beatitudes, because peacemaking needs mercy, needs a healthy sense of perspective, and needs God. And then there are the last two, ‘blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter evil against you. Jesus is talking of those who love God so much they don’t care who knows, no matter how unpopular it makes them, or how much it may endanger their lives. This is a faith that never tires in the face of danger, even in the face of death.

Jesus shows how we are to be. So why is it so difficult. Is it because we want Jesus, but we don’t want the cross. Because Jesus does not just speak the gospel, he lives it. It turns out the beatitudes are nothing less than the story of Jesus. Every one of them anticipates a moment on Jesus journey to the cross. He’s poor in spirit when he is taking on the sin of the whole world. He mourns when his heart is heavy in gethsemane. He’s meek when he’s falsely accused and never utters a word. He thirsts on the cross. He’s merciful when he says’ Father forgive them.’ He’s pure in heart when he says, ‘not my will, but your will be done.’ He’s a peacemaker when he tells Peter to put down his sword. He’ persecuted and reviled by the priests, the soldiers, and the bystanders. This is Jesus story. The beatitudes is Jesus saying this is who I am, and this is how to be like me. To be a Christian is to live the beatitudes.

What does that mean to live the beatitudes? Every beatitude comes in three parts. There is the first part which is like the description of the cross, it’s poor, it’s thirsty, it’s meek, it’s merciful, it’s persecuted. Then there is the last part, which is a description of the resurrection. Each beatitude has a resurrection promise. They will be comforted, they will inherit the earth, they will be filled, they will receive mercy, they will be called children of God, theirs’ is the kingdom of heaven. The beatitudes are a description of Jesus in his cross and in his resurrection. To be a Christian is to live in Jesus cross and resurrection.

But between the cross and resurrection in the beatitudes lies that punctuation, the comma. Every beatitude has a comma in the middle. That comma is a kind of valley between the horror of the cross and the wonder of the resurrection.  And we should think of that comma for a moment. That pause, that place where the cross and resurrection meet, that comma is your life. To be a Christian is to dwell in that comma that lies between the first and second half of each beatitude. That comma is your home on earth. That comma represents the compassion and joy of Christian life. That comma is where you find Jesus.

Jesus says the closer you get to my cross the closer you get to resurrection. If you are one of those people, happy are you. If you’re not one of those people surround yourself with those who are. That’s what it means to dwell in the comma. Jesus is the place where cross and resurrection meet. So are you. It’s time to stop limiting ourselves to one-third of the gospel. It’s time to live the whole thing. This is blessedness. Blessed, blessed are you.