Easter (Year C)
Luke 24:1-12
St. John’s, West Seneca
April 20, 2025
1 On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in, they did not find the body. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. 5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
It was always the same. The women who came to the tomb that Sunday morning had done this before, always a sad, but necessary task for a loved one. They were familiar with death. There were no illusions that this day could be any different. It was always the same.
This is why the women came with spices that morning. You didn't bring those along unless you were expecting to find death. Jewish burial rites at the time meant anointing the dead body with spices to hasten decomposition and cut down the smell. Then, a year later, they came back among the rocks and gathered the remaining bones. They put them in a stone box called an ossuary, and then put the box in a niche in the back of the tomb. The same tomb would be used many times.
That morning they came to anoint the body of the one whom they had hoped would bring new life to a world desperately looking for it. When Jesus had been with them, it seemed to them that anything was possible. Just consider what they had witnessed: people healed from disease; demons cast out; even the death being brought back to life. They had listened as He spoke of the kingdom of God, a whole new world with a very different type of life, one where the last were first; one with no pain, where sin and brokenness were freely forgiven. And it wasn’t a far-off dream, but now, breaking in on this world.
And now that was gone. Jesus had been crucified as a common criminal, a threat to the religious order, and the world order. “He had talked as if he was from somewhere else, not from this world. His authority and wisdom seemed to be otherworldly. At the same time, however, he was fully human —fully like them, like us. These women, like so many others, had their view of the world changed by this one who at once seemed so alien, and yet, so familiar.”
All that vanished; He had died, and now the familiar ritual needed to be performed. On that morning, these women were certain that they would not find signs of life. In a moment, all changed. The stone had been rolled away and there was no body in the tomb. What they did encounter were "two men in dazzling white clothes" standing beside them. They were terrified at this sign, they bowed their faces to the ground. Then these men asked: "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” Same old, same old, no more. There was life among the dead, the very thing that Jesus had spoken of.
And then came another question; “Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again?”
They remembered his words. They remembered.
Why do you seek the living among the dead? Could those women have remembered? It has been a terrible few days, and the Friday had brought only despair and death, no doubt their memories were clouded with grief and sadness. That is understandable. What about us?
One pastor wrote: “What really struck me in reading the text was the notion of remembering. The women did not expect to find signs of life at the tomb, but, as the two men remind the women, they would have expected this if they had remembered what Jesus told them. As we look at the world around us, what are we called to remember about what Jesus told us? Where can we expect to find life?”*
That’s our question: Where can we expect to find life? In our busy, over-scheduled, chaotic, often fragile, world, where do we find life? And not just any old life, but the abundant one that God offers us on this Resurrection Day and every day. As N.T. Wright – an English scholar and theologian - states: “Then, as now, claiming that somebody was alive again — particularly somebody who made the sort of claims that Jesus made or were made about him — was revolutionary. It was dangerous talk. So if people don’t like dangerous talk, then stay away from Easter is my advice.”
But why would you do that? With all of our complaining about our lives, why would we stay away from Easter?
In writing about living our lives fully, Anna Quindlen wrote “…you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on the bus, or in the car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your soul.”**
So what are you going to do? It strikes me that we respond with joy, that we take seriously the words Jesus spoke and put them into action. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and body, and your neighbor as yourself. It is radical. And it’s dangerous. The old rules, the old ways we have of separating people just don’t work anymore. There is no male or female, Jew or Gentile, slave or free. It’s time to live it. Look at the headlines and you will see who is not being loved as we are loved.
Last week I came across this from the Roman philosopher Seneca, who was a Stoic. Now stoicism is a philosophy – one focused on cultivating virtue, resilience, and well-being through focusing on what we can control, as well as practicing self-awareness. There are four virtues for the stoic: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Seneca lived at the same time as Jesus. When considering life, this is what he wrote:
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury, and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death's final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: We are not given a short life, but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied, but wasteful of it ... Life is long if you know how to use it.”
Being at Mercy Hospital full-time, I often see lives cut short, so Seneca’s words hit me hard. We do waste our time with foolish things, trying in vain to fill the “God-shaped” hole with everything but what God offers. You know, sex, drugs, rock and roll. Add to that, keeping up with the Joneses, buying into every new fad and gadget that comes along, only to lose interest, way too much time online watching other people’s lives when we should be living ours. And Seneca hit on it. As Christians, we are not “ill-suppled;” God is abundant in his love and grace, if not, we would not be celebrating this day.
So, remember what Jesus said, remember God’s promises, and live. God is calling each and every one of us. God is calling us to new life this day and every day because we are caught in our endless routines that too often lead to a meaninglessness existence. We are often like those women, going about our business, and we need to be taken aback by an empty tomb and a question: Why are you looking for the living among the dead? Why indeed? The abundant life is ever before us. And yes, it is radical, but so is God! A blessed Easter. Alleluia! He is risen! Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
*--Rev. Kevin A. Bowers, Bethany Presbyterian Church, Lafayette, Indiana
**--Anna Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life (Random House, 2000)..
Passion Sunday (Year C)
St. John’s, West Seneca
April 12, 2025
(for Saturday service)
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
When we celebrate Palm Sunday, now called Sunday of the Passion, we see – as today – Jesus making his preparations for the Passover. He needed a colt, and indeed, one was found. He rides into Jerusalem, the crowds surrounding him, laying palms before him.
“Jesus was accustomed to the crowds. He was always around crowds for the entire three years while he was teaching, preaching, healing and performing miracles.
"Remember, there was a crowd around him when he delivered his Sermon on the Mount. He fed a crowd of 5,000 men besides women and children in Jewish territory. Later, he fed a crowd of 4,000 in Gentile territory. He called Zacchaeus down from the sycamore tree when the short tax collector climbed it to see Jesus in the crowd.
“Having a large crowd of people around Jesus on Palm Sunday was no problem for him at all, but everyone in that crowd was not there for the right reason. ...
"There were five distinct crowds that included people with five different agendas and five different motives. ...
"The curious crowd had seen Jesus preach, teach, heal and perform many miracles over a three-year period. These people had a curious mentality. ...
"The confused crowd is illustrated in Matthew 21:10-11, “When Jesus came to Jerusalem, everyone in the city was excited and asked, “Who can this be?”. ... Even though they were following him, they were still confused about who Jesus was. ...
"The third group included the pretenders. They were in the crowd on Palm Sunday pretending to be committed to Jesus. They were pretending, but they were not fully sold out. ...
"The fourth group included the opposers like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. ... There are opposers today who promote their own interests and their own agendas. Opposers try to tear down God’s people just like the Pharisees and Sadducees tried to do to Jesus. ...
"The committed crowd is the last group and the one most people say they are in. However, this is the smallest group.” — Margaret Minnicks, “5 types of people in the Palm Sunday crowd,” LetterPile.com, April 21, 2018.
As we come to Holy Week, we need to know which crowd we are in. Are we in with Jesus, or out? Are we still confused? Curious? Committed?
Wherever you find yourself, Lent is the time to be attentive, and as we come to the end of this season, most of us want to take stock. Are we committed to Jesus, or do we need to tidy a few things up, make a few adjustments in life and attitude?
Do you remember when I mentioned an article I had read that stated that the key to the faith and to being the church was to keep worship weird? “The trick isn’t to make church cool; it’s to keep worship weird.” And then…“You can get a cup of coffee with your friends anywhere, but church is the only place you can get ashes smudged on your forehead as a reminder of your mortality…You can snag all sorts of free swag for brand loyalty online, but church is the only place where you are named a beloved child of God with a cold plunge into the water. You can share food with the hungry at any homeless shelter, but only the church teaches that a shared meal brings us into the very presence of God.”
If you want to shore up strength for the next months, what comes this week will do exactly that, and it is the very embodiment of “weird” worship. You just can’t do this anywhere else. Wonderful and strange things are happening this week and we repeat the narrative each year: the joy and fear, life and death, the human and the divine. It’s going to be a wild week.
And we need this. None of us can survive in a life that is empty of ritual. For all of our scoffing about ritual, the truth is….we need it, especially in this chaotic world. We need special markings and moments to help us define our lives and the passing of our days. To this end, all of us create rituals that help guide us forward and bring us back again. Some rituals are practiced so often they become ingrained habits. We have 'morning rituals'--which help us get up and prepare to face a new day. Whatever form they take, these rituals help settle our souls.
Rituals move us through life with intention and integrity. Without rituals, the sands of time just pass through the hourglass of our lives, just plodding on with nothing that separates one moment from the next. With rituals, we create a particular pattern that helps tell the story of our lives.
The church, of course, is steeped in ritual. Now, some denominations are taught to view rituals suspiciously, believing them to be a substitution – and a superstitious one at that - for true faith and piety. But as long as a ritual reaches our hearts and speaks a message to our souls, we are enriched in our faith life.
That is what this week is all about. Ritual. The power of symbols. Passion or Palm Sunday is a joyous day for now, Palms and shouts of Hosanna. But as the week marches on, the scene changes.
Holy Thursday brings us footwashing, something a servant does, and something Jesus does for his disciples. There is the New Commandment, a Passover meal to remember how God delivered the people out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land. Then there is a new meal of bread and wine.
There is the Garden of Gethsemene, and we will end the service with the stripping of the altar, symbolizing Jesus being stripped of his garments and his dignity.
On Good Friday, we will listen to John’s passion reading, for the bidding prayer. Some years I have used the solemn reproaches. The cross is at the center, the candles will be extinguished one by one, and Jesus will be laid in the tomb. There will be a harsh and jarring sound – the strepidus – as the tomb is sealed. We will leave in silence.
We keep track this week of what is happening to Jesus, and we keep track of what God is doing for us. It is as simple as that.
Each year we are given forty days, ten percent, or a tithe. We call it Lent, and it is a time for reflecting on our faith, our lives, who we are as children of God. We do it every year. The holiest week of the year is upon us. We need not shy away from the pain and struggle that this week brings, or the weirdness. I don’t know how one celebrates Easter without thinking on these things. The most faithful and joyous people I know look to this week as the centerpiece of their faith. It is a busy week; but that’s the beauty of it. It gives us time to re-build, begin anew, knowing that Jesus is going before us and is waiting for us.
This is our life; it is what we do. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
5 Lent (Year C)
John 12 1-8
St. John’s, West Seneca
April 6, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
Is there every a time or place where wasting something is appropriate? The question of “wasting,” is important; I know that I think of all I waste, not intentionally, of course. But consider the food we waste. Or the gadgets we can buy so we won’t waste. But a good thing?
We are told that Jesus – six days before Passover – has returned to Bethany, where he is dining with Lazarus – whom he had raised from the dead - and his sisters, Mary and Martha. Mary does something out of the ordinary; it is as if she knows that Jesus will not be among them much longer. Mary took a pound of very expensive nard and anoints Jesus’s feet. Her sister Martha is the one who is mostly preparing the meal. Mary attends solely to Jesus by taking a pound of this expensive ointment and anointing Jesus’s feet. This aromatic oil could have cost as much as a year’s worth of wages for a day laborer. This isn’t the anointing of a king or a priest — those rituals use the oil on the head.
Now, it was not uncommon in those days to anoint the head of a guest as a sign of respect, but in those cases, only a few drops of oil would normally be used. The pouring of great amounts of oil — again, on the head — was the kind of anointing that was considered sacred, and it was usually reserved for designating someone as a king or priest. The anointing marked that person for divine service. So while we have no way of knowing exactly what Mary was thinking. This act appears to be more than simple respect. As Mary is the attentive one, this seems to express her belief that Jesus is the Savior who was promised.
One can only imagine what the others thought, and so John has Judas ask the question: “Why this waste?” His suggestion that the perfume could have been sold and that the money could have been given to the poor seems like a plausible, even better, course of action. Jesus urges Judas to let Mary be and reminds that they will always have the poor with them.
This one woman knows and understands that Jesus will soon die, and she does what she must to prepare for the moment. It is lost on Judas, and probably the others as well.
Jesus also responds to Judas’s statement that the poor could have benefited from the sale of the ointment. He is clear that there are always poor people to be helped, but there is an undertone here. “Yes, this perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor, but would it have? If you had an extra 300 denarii in your hands right now, would you give it to the poor? Is that really where it would end up?” A good question for us, as well.
Jesus challenges Judas’s assumption – and perhaps ours - that the perfume — and Mary’s act — was wasted. Jesus was aware that most people resist waste. That is true yet today. We too often think of what we have wasted rather than what we have received. We give a child an expensive toy for Christmas, and he has a wonderful time playing with ... the box the toy came in. Rather than enjoying a child’s pleasure, we’re bothered that the toy itself is unloved. What a waste, we think, even if we don’t say it.
I am reminded of Dorothy Day, who has been called a saint. “She took her Christian faith right into the most dreadful slums of New York City. There she established the first Catholic Worker House, a place of radical Christian discipleship.
"That house became a place of hospitality for the down and out — for men Day later described as ‘grey men, the color of lifeless trees and bushes and winter soil, who had in them as yet none of the green of hope, the rising sap of faith.’ Not long after, the Catholic Worker House began welcoming women and children as well.
"One day, a wealthy socialite pulled up to the house, in a big car. She received the obligatory tour of the mission from Day herself. When she was about to leave, the woman impulsively pulled a diamond ring off her finger and handed it to Day.
"The staff was ecstatic when they heard about this act of generosity. The ring, they realized, could be sold for a princely sum — enough money to take some pressure off the budget, at least for a while.
"A day or two later, though, one of them noticed the diamond ring on the finger of a homeless woman who was leaving the mission. Immediately, the staff members confronted Day. Why, in heaven’s name, would she just give away a valuable piece of jewelry like that?
"Day responded: ‘That woman was admiring the ring. She thought it was so beautiful. So I gave it to her. Do you think God made diamonds just for the rich?’”
I said a few weeks ago that we do not understand God’s economy. Maybe we need to do some re-thinking of what is wasteful.
Mary and her perfume challenges us to think about that which we are quick to label “wasted” — wasted time, wasted effort, wasted talent, wasted money, wasted commitment, wasted life. Some of those things may indeed be true, but we can’t always be sure. Waste, perhaps, can only be correctly identified based on whatever comes next. Sometimes what is “wasted” changes the world — or at least us — for the better.
Mary reminds us that some of those things we’re quick to call wasted surely are not. Instead, they’re wonderful gifts of great extravagance, poured on us by love itself. This costly perfume and Mary’s gesture of anointing Jesus was missed by the disciples, and certainly by Judas. And what is remarkable is that they missed the obvious. What was the purpose of that oil? To anoint a king and prepare the body for burial.
She has done a beautiful thing, a right thing, but the rightness is of a different order. Of course the money could have been used for the poor, yet good deeds without love are oddly empty. To give to the poor while refusing to assist and comfort the one next to you is as wrong as ignoring the world to concentrate on personal concerns. It is all in the timing, isn’t it?
Do we understand the timing of this gesture? Do we understand the this radical generosity? Think for a minute when you hear of a family member or friend is in the hospital. What do you do? You buy flowers; almost always expensive, and certainly extravagant. Why? Perhaps because in a moment we – you and I – understand the fragility of life, and desire nothing more than to give something beautiful, something bright for the hospital room.
This text defies all logic and common sense; for who would take what was worth a year’s wages and simply pour it on Jesus’s feet? She could have sold it and used the money for herself. Who would? No one, if you thought about it.
This story also contrasts two very different ways of discipleship; it is a study in contrast. “One person is lavish with her gifts; the other is parsimonious and critical. One expresses her devotion openly and earnestly; the other is guarded and treacherous. One loves; the other betrays.”
But…selfless love, extravagant love, as Mary knows, as the disciples know, does not consider the cost; it considers the outcome. If Mary had counted the cost, she may indeed have sold that precious, expensive oil. But she did not. She considered the one who loved her. And it was not wasted. When we find ourselves in an act of selfless love, an act of kindness, a moment of compassion, the cost is just not important.
How might we live a life of lavish discipleship? How can we be more generous hosts, more extravagant in our giving? How can we be a little Christ to all we meet?
We model ourselves on what God does each and every day. God is extravagant, as we saw in last week’s Gospel of the Prodigal Son, or should I say, Prodigal Father. Our actions should be as well. Our God looks at the creation and sees that it was good, just as Mary saw the good. God, in a selfless love, has destroyed the power of sin and death.
One of the mandates of Lent is to do works of love. This text ends with Jesus reprimanding Judas: “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” Mary did a thing of great beauty, of great cost. In Lent we should do the same.
As we soon come to the holiest of weeks, we will see that God does not consider the cost. And neither should we. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
3 Lent (Year C)
Luke 13, Isaiah 55
St. John’s, West Seneca
March 23, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
"In his book, Who Switched the Price Tags?, Tony Campolo tells a story from his youth about growing up in Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, the night before Halloween is known as Mischief Night — and we all know what goes on when ‘trick or treat’ is more about tricks than treats. One year, Tony and his best friend devised the perfect Mischief Night prank. They never carried it out, but they sure had a lot of fun thinking about it.
"The prank was to break into the local five-and-ten store. They didn’t plan to take anything. All they wanted to do was change the price tags on as many items as they could. They could just imagine the confusion that would break out the next morning when the staff opened the store and the customers started arriving. Transistor radios would be selling for a quarter and bobby pins for $5 each. What delicious chaos that would be for the teenaged imagination! What delightful anarchy!”
The point for Campolo, and us, is that some evil influencer, the devil, if you will, has broken into our lives and changed the price tags. There is confusion about which things in our lives have real value, and which ones are just trinkets designed to catch our eyes and empty our wallets. And more often than not, we go after those shiny objects, which, if compared to God’s economy, are worth little, or nothing.
In other words, idolatry. We are so prone to this that the reformer John Calvin referred to human beings as “a perpetual factory of idols."
Turning to Isaiah, we learn that God’s values are profoundly different from ours:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Example: God’s way is to offer “wine and milk without money and without price.”
Isaiah 55 is arguably one of the most beautiful chapters in Scripture. He is writing to those who have returned from exile, and warning them about misplaced faith and worship, or, as we would say “idolatry.”
That word “idolatry” is not one many of us use, or would like to use. Pastors do, of course, as reminding people to put God first and idols away is our job. Oh yes, we know idols from the Bible: the golden calf in Exodus, the fertility goddesses of the Canaanite people. The apostle Paul addresses this when he writes of the food offered to idols. The early church knew well how many were sent to the Coliseum because they refused to worship a statue. These idols are physical things, and certainly we would be able to avoid them, right? Nope. Today’s idols are more subtle, and they are present.
I found a contemporary definition: “Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshiped.”
Of course, chief among idols is money. Now we know that money itself is not “somehow tainted, or that there’s some evil energy woven into the fibers of a $20 bill,” as one scholar colorfully wrote. A better known verse from 1 Timothy says that: “the love of money” that’s “the root of all kinds of evil” — not money itself.
“Money is morally neutral — neither good, nor evil. It’s a highly useful tool for complex economies. The trouble comes when we look upon money as something with power to save us — which it can never do. The job of Savior is already filled — not by Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Grant or Franklin (and not by Harriet Tubman, either, if her image ever does make onto the $20 bill).”
What I find disturbing is that money has become our central endeavor, over all else, including God. A Wall Street Journal/NORC poll found that “patriotism, religious faith, having children, and other priorities that helped define the national character for generations” have fallen steadily since 1998 and even 2019, the Journal reports. About 38 percent of respondents in the new poll said patriotism is “very important” to them, versus 70 percent in the Journal’s 1998 poll, while 39 percent said religion is very important, from 62 percent in 1998.
The one priority “that has grown in importance in the past quarter-century is money, which was cited as very important by 43 percent in the new survey, up from 31 percent in 1998,” the Journal reports.
That is distressing. Obviously, we need money in a complex society, for food, housing and so on. But when we pursue only that, we run into trouble. We are in the year of Luke, so let me remind you. You only need look to Luke’s Beatitudes what he thinks of the rich. Or consider the depravity of the rich man who steps over Lazarus daily. Or the fool who puts aside all his wealth so that his soul can be happy for the future, and that night his soul is demanded of him. It’s not just Biblical. We know the stories…like A Christmas Carol. Where did Scrooge’s money get him? A visit from Marley, chained up, and the appearance of three ghosts who showed him his miserable life. He comes to his senses. How many do not? Do we?
There’s a philosophical lesson to be learned in all this. It’s summed up in the popular adage, “You can’t take it with you.” They say you never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul. We are all going to die, one day, and every dollar, every achievement or award, every accolade of fame will fall by the wayside. Such treasures will no longer have any value to us. We enter this world naked, and we leave it naked.
Still, we keep on trying to hold on, all the while pretending that we are immortal. A great line from the movie Moonstruck comes when the wise mother says: “He thinks if he keeps he money he will never die.”
Perhaps the deeper issue with idolatry of any sort is that we don’t trust God, let alone His economy. The prophet’s voice comes to us from God. And the prophet states that one day, each of us weary human beings will hear:
Hear, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters …”
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
In one of the Facebook devotions from last week, I quoted Pierre Teilhard de Jardin, where he writes to “trust in the slow work of God.” Perhaps, our flirtation with idols is because we don’t trust that God will provide what we need. Money can buy us that temporary feeling of love that God gives so freely. Maybe those Israelites didn’t trust that Moses would return from the mountain. Maybe this clay figurine will hear my plea, this thing I can touch is what I need. Because God is not seen.
I remember having a conversation with a former parishioner about cooking, and I mentioned that I use Kosher salt. With a twinkle in his eye, he said: “Hedging your bets, are you?” Is that what we are doing, hedging our bets because we don’t trust the slow work of God?
In today’s parable of the fig tree, the owner wants to cut the tree down, but the gardener has patience, and says, no. “let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down” That is the slow work of God and it involves our trust, our faith that things turn out the way they are supposed to. Because God sees all.
A book of devotions I own is called GOD NEVER BLINKS, and in it the author states that we lose precious minutes due to blinking, God does not, and sees all through this thing we call time. And I recall from another book about the face, we lose 23 minutes of each waking day by blinking. What we must miss.
Faith and trust in God is not easy and it is a life-long task. God does provide, but it can take a different form. What we need to do when it comes to idols is to ask what that does, that God cannot.
Isaiah’s words have never been more true:
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Trust in the slow work of God. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
2 Lent
Luke 13:31-35
St. John’s, West Seneca
March 9, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
This is one of those texts that has so much going on. The Pharisees are seemingly warning Jesus about Herod. Jesus refers to Herod as a fox, not a compliment, by the way, then speaks how how he is working today, tomorrow, and the next day and must be on his way. That is what caught my attention. What way is this? Is it the way of suffering? We are in Lent after all and Jesus alludes to his return to Jerusalem. Is it the way of compassion, or justice? Perhaps forgiveness or even reconciliation.
If we are walking with Jesus, maybe we should see where we have been and what Jesus is calling us to.
So, let’s turn back a few weeks to the Beatitudes from Luke’s Gospel.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you[a] on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”
You should have noticed how different Luke is as compared to Matthew. Just how different? There are the obvious: Luke has only four who are blessed: the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and the persecuted. Matthew has eight. In Matthew’s version, these blessings seem much more spiritual in nature:
- The “poor” are the “poor in spirit.”
- “The hungry” are those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
- Those who “mourn” will be “comforted.”
- Then Matthew includes the actions that come from love: the merciful, the peacemakers, along with the pure in heart and those willing to be persecuted.
You will notice that Luke adds those “woes.” Luke includes these to those who are the opposite of the blessed: the rich, and the full, and those filled with laughter, and well spoken of. The location is different as well. Luke’s beatitudes come not from on high, the mount, but from “a level place,” indicating that God is going to do just that for his people. God’s desire is for a level playing field.
These beatitudes are a bit more difficult to hear. Difficult because they seem to hit close to home. Most of us have what we need, a roof over our head, food in the pantry, more than a few coins to spend, making us rich in the eyes of others. Oh, and we do enjoy our reputations. So, when we look to Luke and his Sermon on the Plain, we may find ourselves on the “naughty list.” Those who have – whether it is too much money, too much to eat, too much laughter, too much respect from their peers – those are the ones to whom Jesus warns: “Woe is you.”
It's enough to make you squirm in your seat. Hard words to hear in a nation so blessed, so comfortable.
Consider those Jesus sees as blessed: the poor, the hungry, and those who weep. It makes no sense to us. Aren’t those the very things we are to avoid? But if we know anything about Luke and his Jesus, it is that Luke is the gospel of the poor and of social justice. As I said at the beginning of Advent; he is the one who lifts up the poor time and time again. Luke tells the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man who ignored him. It is in Luke's gospel that we hear Mary's Magnificat where she proclaims that God "has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty".
Jesus, to counter the blessings, also has four of these:
- “Woe to you who are rich …
- Woe to you who are full …
- Woe to you who are laughing …
- Woe to you when all speak well of you.”
What are we to make of all this?
Luke’s Beatitudes are bodily, physical. Jesus is in the middle of the sick, the possessed, anyone in the crowd who has come for help. The poor, the sick and the possessed — those who stood listening — could easily identify with the physical nature of Jesus’s blessings. The poor refers to those who are destitute, having nothing. Remember, Jesus first announcement in the synagogue is “to bring good news to the poor.” Jesus does not find any blessing in being poor; he does say that God’s promise makes the poor blessed.
The second blessing comes out of the first. Where there is poverty, there will be hunger. Again, Luke speaks of a bodily need, not spiritual. The third blessing is for those who “weep now.” This is the crying, the tears that come from daily life and the issues that all face. Luke contrasts this weeping with laughter in his, that those with tears will be “comforted.”
Now the “woes.” And these today have special meaning, as billionaires seem to be calling the shots. I read that the richest one percent has thirty percent of the wealth. Oh, if only it would trickle down. Not that they are laughing at us, but they do have the joy of needing nothing. This woe brings to mind those who are self-satisfied, indifferent to the daily grind of so many. It is idolatry, isn’t it; this competition between the wealthy to see who can own how much. For now.
On to the next. Being “defamed” probably meant being tossed out of the synagogue. But for Jesus that is a blessing. It is the spirit of the law that matters, not the letter of the law. The “woe” that disciples are warned away from is the experience of being accepted and fawned over, as were the false prophets, who were praised. That did not turn out very well.
So where is the good news in this? Even though we lament the disparity of wealth, still, we seem to be with the blessed. But remember this. When Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor … the hungry … and those who weep,” he’s saying that God is in charge of creation, no matter who has the wealth. And God isn’t finished. Not yet. And that is where our work begins. As “little Christs,” we have the luxury of being able to assist the poor, the hungry from the bounty we have. I remember that line from Forrest Gump, after he and Lieutenant Dan are the only shrimping boat left after a hurricane: “Now, momma said there’s only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just for showing off.” And if you remember, he repairs a church steeple, adds on to the hospital, and mows the lawn for free. If we can level the playing field…all will be blessed and we will reach beyond the bodily needs to work on and refine our spiritual lives. The good news is that if we do what we can do, there may not even be a need for the “woes.”
While these Beatitudes may make us squirm, Jesus here asks to stand with the poor and hungry and downtrodden. It is not conventional wisdom, not the wisdom of the world.
Back to today’s Gospel. When you consider these Beatitudes, you can see how Jesus’ preaching may be upsetting to a ruler like Herod. The last thing he would want is a world where all is made level, where the poor and hungry are lifted up.
If Jesus is here today, tomorrow, and the next day, and then must be on his way, what does that mean for us? We are to also be “on are way,” as little Christs. Our way is simple. We are here not to make a difference, but to make the world different. We are here to level the playing field, so that all are blessed, so that the “woes” won’t need to be.
Pope Francis said this: “Lent comes providentially to awaken us, to shake us from our lethargy…“Lent is a journey that involves our whole life, our entire being. It is a time to reconsider our path, find the route that leads us home, and rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends. Lent is about the little sacrifices we make and discerning where our hearts are directed. This is the core of Lent: asking where our hearts are directed.”
As we go on our way, where is your heart directed? Jesus’s heart was always directed outward: to the poor, the sick, the marginalized. As He went on his way, we know who it includes and who is blessed.
We, too, must be on our way during this journey we call Lent — today, tomorrow and the next day. We have the tools to re-work our paths and find our way home to our loving God. My friends, for this week, ask yourself: where is my heart directed? Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
1 Lent (Year C)
Luke 4
St. John’s, West Seneca
March 9, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
I look forward to this text each year, the Temptation in the Wilderness, all the drama, all the meaning. But let me begin with a story. I remember, as a young girl, visiting some of my cousins nearby. I don’t remember why we were looking through the family Bible, but we were. It was quite large, with illustrations: colorful, vivid illustrations. As we turned a page, I saw it. The devil. Red, with wings and horns, cloven hooves, every imaginable detail associated with the devil, tempting Jesus. I had never seen anything like it. My Bible did not have such pictures. At least, not pictures that scared me.
Over the years, I have thought about illustration, realizing now how fanciful and misleading it is. If indeed the devil is there to tempt us, and he showed up, we’d be driven to our knees, praying “lead us not into temptation.” That picture would have forced anyone to their knees, asking – no, begging – God for deliverance. Surely temptation would be more subtle.
Over a year ago, Netflix streamed FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. Being a reader of Edgar Allen Poe, it caught my attention and I began watching. I was so drawn in that I have watched it a second time, and viewed some scenes a few more times. If you like Poe, you will recognize the names of the characters and other points of the story, like the Cask of Amontillado, the Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart. His poetry is recited as well, adding to the effect.
Here’s a recap and spoiler. The year is 2023, and Roderick Usher, the CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, loses all six of his children within two weeks. The evening after the final funeral, Roderick invites C. Auguste Dupin, an Assistant United States Attorney who had dedicated his career to exposing Fortunato's corruption. Usher invites Dupin to his childhood home, where he tells the story of his family and discloses the Ushers' truly dark secrets.
There are two story lines, the one I just mentioned mixed in with how the Ushers came to have their fortune. The other involves each child’s life and death.
We see these twins, Roderick and Madeline, as they grow from children into adulthood. It is a tragic story, with their mother’s illness and death. Fast forward to New Year’s Eve, 1980, Roderick and Madeline meet Verna, a bartender who offers them a deal. Who is this Verna, besides an anagram of Raven? Throughout the series, we get hints. She speaks of being outside of time and space. She shows up in different guises; she reminisces about going “topside,” and recalls ancient Rome. And she calls out our behavior, as she has watched it closely, especially when it comes to wealth and how with that, we could fix our problems. One of her best lines is: “I love how deliciously pointlessly mean you people can be."
As they sit in the bar, she offers them a deal. They will have Fortunado as CEO and COO, and will be able to do what they want, safe from any legal consequences; all will be deferred until they die, which will be older than any Usher has lived. But…when the tab comes true, all die with the two of you, as well as any children you have now and those you may have. The line that got me: “The company is yours to do with as you like…Be Altruistic, be charitable, or not. I just want to see what you do.”
That’s the temptation. She is simply making an offer. They – and we – have the final say.
So what is temptation? It is anything that diverts our attention enough that we forget about God and what God provides. One scholar said: “the goal of temptation…is to pull you off the mission of living a life that’s obedient to God and gives glory to God. Instead, Satan wants you to walk through life scratching every sinful itch and ultimately just gratifying yourself. The hope is that if he can get you to do it enough, he can get you off God’s team altogether.” Great quote and the perfect metaphor.
This brings us back to Jesus in the wilderness. The wilderness is a wild and unknown place, barren, where few dared to go. Luke tells us that Jesus is not sent there alone, he was "full of the Holy Spirit" during this period, and in fact had been "led by the Spirit.”
But Jesus is not alone. The devil is there as well, and doing the devil’s best to get Jesus to let his guard down, be more human in his actions, to do what we love to see. The three temptations – if Jesus had succumbed - would have been spectacular and would only increase and push forward his ministry. It would have meant a quick rise to stardom, but not much else. After all, we do get bored, don’t we?
“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” The devil starts small; just a little temptation. Think about it. After forty days, Jesus was “famished.” However, it doesn’t seem to be a matter of life and death, and while this temptation is just that, tempting, it is not enough for Jesus. He has a purpose, after all, so he declines the offer. After all, one does not live by bread alone.
The second temptation takes Jesus up where he is shown all the world’s kingdoms: “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
Imagine, all the kingdoms in the world, in an instant. For Jesus, it must have been enticing. But the price is high and Jesus is not taken in. He answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ " Notice here that it is not the power and authority that is tempting, but the price of that power, worshiping the devil, not God.
Then the devil quotes Scripture – for his own purpose – and takes Jesus to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
Again, why not? The prophet Malachi has said that the “Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” But Jesus is not interested in this type of spectacle. He knows we will get bored and demand another. But it also makes his ministry unnecessary. Jesus came to be “with us.” And so Jesus answers: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Three temptations. Turn a stone into bread. An offer of all the kingdoms of the world. A spectacle in which even the angels would appear. These temptations that stand before us today are present, not in the exact same form, of course. The temptations, the devils that come at us daily can appear innocent, even beneficial. In the series, the Ushers could have taken this pharmaceutical company and made the world a better place. But they didn’t. They make an opiate that is addictive, a drug that destroys lives. No, temptation is and always will be subtle. We may start out with good intentions…
I am convinced it is not the “big” temptations that will get us; it’s the little temptations. Life can be ambiguous. We may have good intuition, but that can fail us. Or we make a tiny trip into dangerous territory that so often appears harmless or attractive or even sensible, and then, before you know it, it is too late. Things like:-- “What would it hurt to skip out of work, just this once.-- What would it hurt to fudge the numbers, just this once…-- What would it hurt to take on a rich but unethical client, just this once…-- What would it hurt to focus only on the bottom line, just this once…-- What would it hurt to act now, pray later, just this once…-- What would it hurt to leave God's law and Christ's love out of my decision -making…”
Those are the things that trip us up, and that is why, at the beginning of Lent, we have Jesus’s temptation before us. This is not a far-away story that happens in another time and another place. It stands before us to remind us that we too will – at some point – be in the wilderness and it is there that the temptations come. And they may come from someone who can quote Scripture. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
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