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
Transfiguration (Year C)
Luke
St. John’s, West Seneca
March 2, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Currently, the most popular and — in the minds of many — most well-done video portrayal of Jesus is the streaming series The Chosen. It has so captured a loyal audience that many people have contributed money for the ongoing production through a crowdfunding arrangement.
"Many viewers feel invested in the show more than just financially. They want to see the biblical story of Jesus retold on the screen in ways that emphasize not only his humanity — which The Chosen does remarkably well — but also his divinity. The series does that well, too, but some fans were taken aback when Dallas Jenkins, the show’s creator, director and writer, mentioned in a YouTube interview that he was not planning to portray the transfiguration. He had previously said that the series is intended to support Scripture rather than simply reenacting its events. And in the interview, Jenkins added that showing the face of Jesus glowing, as the transfiguration scene would require, seemed too much like Return of the Jedi to him.
"Jenkins is not skeptical about the transfiguration, but he is unconvinced that depicting it visually would contribute to either the cinematic or faith goals he has for the series. (There is a lot of interaction between Dallas and the show’s fans, so don’t be surprised if he reverses that decision. But at the time of this writing, he maintains he has no plans to include that scene.)”
I do understand why fans of the show want this: especially with the announcement: “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” It confirms Jesus’s divinity. But where does it leave us?
We all want a “mountaintop experience,” something that stays with us, an event that inspires, a push from above for our faith, a closeness to God, that peace that passes all understanding. Who wouldn’t want to remain in a moment of bliss?
And…we like to believe that we will be changed in some supernatural way.
Jesus had gone up on the mountain to pray. And who should appear there with him, but the two who had encountered God. Moses saw God on the mountain after God passed by him. Elijah met God in the sheer silence on the mountain after the storm. Both had left the mountain to attend to other things. They did not linger in the moment. And while we would like to stay, we cannot. We must come down from the mountain.
Getting to that idea that we will be changed for the better…well, maybe not so much.
It is after the transfiguration that Mark records James and John asking Jesus to be seated on his right and left when he comes into his glory, which shows how much they misunderstood the intent of Jesus’s ministry. It is after the transfiguration that Peter denies Jesus three times. We have no reason to believe that our seeing of this mountaintop experience - on-screen - would suddenly make us better disciples either.
We have to come down from the mountain. We may want to stay and maybe build something to commemorate this event, but this is where the work is. Jesus understood that and immediately after coming down that mountain, he healed a young child.
What we should remember is that one mountaintop experience will fuel you for some time, and you never know when the next will come. In the temptation in the wilderness, next week, the devil tempts Jesus with the suggestion that he throw himself down, as angels will deliver him. Jesus knows that one spectacle leads to another, maybe greater one. And what we are left with is not more faith, more love, more joy. Rather, we are left with the desire for another spectacle. And that is who we are: always searching to the next biggest thing, or how we can “one-up” a previous experience by adding something amazing.
God is not about spectacles, nor does God show up on command. Elijah learned that in that cave. Listen to this story of one woman’s search and longing for God’s presence.
“I returned to the church on my college campus on a Sunday night at 9 p.m. It was dark, the bright colors of the mosaic walls muted in the waning light, the stained glass windows that I knew by heart lifeless without illumination. Twelve candle flames stood nearly still in the chancel, as if untouched by the whispers of wind that stirred the dark air. Their glow caught on gilded pieces of tile, glittering. Despite the small group assembled, it was nearly silent. Heads were bowed as people prepared for this service of compline — the close-of-day rite in the Episcopalian tradition that was, in this church, sung by a quartet. In my last year of college, it was in this service that I found myself moving back towards the God that I had walked away from in my freshman year. It was in this service that the Spirit grabbed hold of something inside me and drew me towards a mysterious sense of God’s presence. Compline had been for me a mountaintop place, where the Holy Spirit crashed into me and brought me to my knees in wonder. And so, when I was back in my college town just about a month ago, I returned to that holy space, expecting that I would have that same spiritual experience that I had had before.
"But God wasn’t waiting there for me. The darkness didn’t seem as deep, and I found it hard to settle. People came in late and fidgeted in their seats, disturbing the quiet. The quartet was not as professional as I remembered them being — not as perfect. But most of all, the sense of the Divine Presence, the holy mystery that had grabbed me as a young adult — it was gone. God was there, certainly, but God hadn’t been waiting a decade for me to return to that place to meet me in the same way as when I was 20. And I was disappointed.
"And so it was in disappointment that I went to the opening worship for the conference that I was attending the very next day. One look at the bulletin told me that it wasn’t “my kind” of service. The music was out of my comfort zone, as was just about everything else. But worship isn’t about me, so I braced myself for what I expected to be another disappointing experience and tried to set my mind on Christ.
"So I was astounded when I found that God was there waiting for me; that in that worship that was so beyond what I would describe as comfortable, Christ grabbed hold of my innards once again and drew me so close that I was breathless. There I found myself up on the mountainside with Jesus yet again, but this mountain didn’t look at all like the mountains I’d trekked up before.
"But I suppose I should have expected that. After all, had Peter and James and John gone back to the mountainside of the transfiguration, Christ would not have been there in dazzling white clothes. Yes, God would be there with them but not in the same way as before. No, Jesus wasn’t waiting there for them. The risen Christ was going ahead of them …
"Christ is already there ahead of us, waiting to meet us on new mountainsides, waiting to grab hold of us in the moments we least expect it, waiting to stoke the fires in our souls as we step out of what is comfortable and into God’s promised future.”
Christ goes ahead always. Take comfort in that. As we conclude the Epiphany season and go into Lent, we are like those three disciples. We have seen who Jesus is, but we are still human. We are going to make mistakes, ask stupid questions, and yes, put Jesus to the side.
The point of Epiphany is to show us who we follow. We have seen His star, His first miracle, his reading in the synagogue. We have heard his sermon “on the plain,” and learned the golden rule. And today we see his divine nature. He is going ahead of us.
We conclude one season today, and this week we begin Lent with a reminder of our mortality. Jesus is going ahead of us and meets us, in the garden, at the foot of the cross, and to an empty tomb. And still, He will be ahead of us, just as He promised. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
7 Epiphany (Year C)
Luke 6
St. John’s, West Seneca
February 23, 2025
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
Every week I think to myself: I should really begin my sermon with a warning like those you see on television. You know, “this film contains images that some may find disturbing.” For Luke, it would be: “This is the Word of God. Some of Jesus’s words may make you uncomfortable, even convict you of your sin.” In Luke’s Gospel, as I have said many times, Jesus is concerned about the poor, the vulnerable, and the marginalized. Last week we had the Beatitudes “on the plain,” and attached to them are the “woes,” or curses, some of which hit close to home.
And there’s no relief in sight. Jesus continues teaching about love and forgiveness, condemnation and judgement, and how to treat others. The Golden rule, in other words. So I begin with this story.
“When the Covid-19 pandemic was raging in May 2020, the women operating the Navajo and Hopi Families Covid-19 Relief Fund noticed a significant increase in donations to its GoFundMe page, with almost all the new money coming from Ireland.
"The uptick in contributions was so strong that Cassandra Begay, the fund’s communication director, wondered if the website had been hacked. They eventually learned that the new donations started with a Twitter exchange between an Irish news reporter and a Navajo engineer.
"Naomi O’Leary, European correspondent for The Irish Times, had tweeted, 'Native Americans raised a huge amount in famine relief for Ireland at a time when they had very little. It’s time for us to come through for them now.' Aaron Yazzie of Los Angeles, the Navajo engineer, responded by tweeting the web address of the relief fund’s GoFundMe page.
"The Navajo and Hopi Families Covid-19 Relief Fund was a volunteer effort to get food and water to those tribes’ homebound elders in remote areas during the pandemic. As of May 7, 2020, there were 20,000 Irish donors to the fund, who had donated $670,000. From all sources, the fund had topped $4 million since its inception a couple of months earlier.
O’Leary’s reference was to an 1847 act of charity by the Choctaw Tribe, recently off the Trail of Tears and struggling to make its new home in what is now Oklahoma. After learning that the Irish were also oppressed and hungry, due to that country’s notorious Potato Famine, the Choctaws, despite having few resources themselves, raised $170 — about $6,500 in today’s dollars — and sent it to Ireland to help with food relief. That $170 was the largest donation received by the Irish during those terrible days, which saw the death from starvation and disease of one-eighth of the Irish population.
"In its report on the surge of money to the Navajo and Hopi Families Covid-19 Relief Fund, The Christian Science Monitor said, 'There were thousands of unfamiliar names appearing on the team’s GoFundMe page — the first names Siobhán, Padraig and Aoife, or surnames O’Leary, McMullen and Gallagher — each donating small amounts from across the Atlantic. Many posted a common Irish proverb: Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine, which means, ‘In each other’s shadows the people live.'’
"The Irish donations ranged from $10 to more than $1,000. 'We’re so grateful to the ancestors of the Choctaw Nation for their generosity generations ago, and to the Irish people for paying it forward,' said Begay. 'It just goes to show the interconnectedness of everything, which is our concept of K’e [kinship], and that a simple act of kindness can be profound.'
"For her part, O’Leary said she’s happy her tweet helped spark donations, and she added that the Irish have long felt a kinship with Native Americans. She noted that because of Ireland’s history, 'Irish people identify with the oppression and dispossession of Native Americans. When Native American people talk about the importance of preserving their land, languages and culture, that’s something Irish people strongly identify with because our own heritage was nearly wiped out by colonialism.'”
I had read of this extraordinary love before, but it is good to see that it has been published in a reputable journal, that I had not just imagined such a thing. This is what the golden rule looks like: Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Jesus did not invent this. He was Jewish, raised in the Jewish tradition. Jesus knew well that it comes from Leviticus 19: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Not quite the same. And it isn’t limited to Judaism or Christianity either. One of my Facebook devotions this past week listed all the religions that have something very similar.
The golden rule encompasses all the good we do. And it can be anything, from the smallest act to the largest. And it is for everyone, no age limitations. A recent study revealed that when teens are shown compassion, feel others care for them, and are the recipients of kind deeds, they have a greater likelihood of treating others similarly. I would argue that it is not just for teenagers, but all of us.
The sad truth is, much of the world, and especially here in our own country, there seems to be little attention being paid to the words of Jesus.
Bill Maher asked of his guests months ago: When did we become so hateful? Now, we expect it in politics. Social media always had its share of cruelty, but now, it has become worse. And yes, even Christianity, the words of Jesus, are being twisted. Empathy is not a sin.
I do see signs of hope, but not often. I know how many of us yearn for justice, that others are treated as we are.
Beyond the big issues that face society, the place where we need the golden rule is in the everyday, seemingly unimportant things that often make up our lives. Most of us will not deal with assault, robbery, political corruption, etc, but each day we do face questions that will challenge us. Do I keep my word? Can I honor my commitments? How do I show the love of Jesus?
If you need more instruction on this, listen carefully to Jesus’s
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[a] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Our lives, our actions are to involve everyone, no matter who they are, where they are on the socioeconomic ladder, the color of their skin, their gender, who they love, where they live, or what they eat. Oh, by the way, the golden rule doesn’t work when we expect the person to turn around and do unto us right back. To truly live the golden rule is to do what we would have others do to us without expecting anything in return.
It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. Often it will, but keeping the words of Jesus is not about getting credit for a job well done, a star next to our name. We do so because of all that God gives us, with no strings attached. That’s what grace is all about.
So why do it? Because we are grateful, filled with joy; because we love Jesus. And so, we continue to follow, because, more than anything else, we know that God so loved the world, and us, that he sent His only son. And went to the cross. And was raised. And all of that tells us that we love a God who keeps His promises, a God who will be with us even to the end of the age.
Your marching orders come from the old Nike ads: Just do it. Let the golden rule inform your life. Take Jesus seriously, especially when the words make you uncomfortable. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
6 Epiphany (Year C)
Luke 6:17-26
St. John’s, West Seneca
February 16, 2025
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
25 “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.
26 “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”
Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ. Amen.
These are not you mother’s Beatitudes. Rather, they turn the world upside down, and even have “woes,” which is akin to a curse. We are familiar with those, from history and literature. One that comes to mind is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, where a curse is place on the Pyncheon family. Of course, you have heard of the curse of Tutankhamun. There is also The Curse of the Knights Templar, where Jaques de Molay, as he is being burned at the stake, curses the Pope and King Philip the Fair. Both die within the year. There’s Dido cursing Troy in the Aeneid and so on.
Before we can get to that, the Woes of Jesus, and because curse is a strong word; we have to look at Luke’s Beatitudes. They are so familiar to our ears, or should I say Matthew’s are familiar. Luke’s version is entirely different. 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.
But…the biggest difference is that Luke adds something else to his. Luke includes his “woes” 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".
As we look at the Gospel for today, one writer says that Jesus seems “unhinged tossing some bad language, poxes, hexes and curses. Whatever you want to call it, it’s not good. The four woes he announces sound like he’s casting a spell or uttering a curse upon evil doers.” Dramatic, yes, but take a look at those “woes.”
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's first announcement in the synagugue 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 have 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. 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 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.”
God blesses; that is what God does. And so we carry on. God will inevitably bless us if we have faith. God may bless us some day with what we most desire. Or, perhaps more likely, God may bless us through what we desire but don’t receive. What is that Garth Brooks’s song? "Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers…”
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.
But…We are here not to make a difference, but to make the world different. What we need to do is throw out the existing order and replace it with another, not just to bind up the wounds, but destroy that which makes the wounds. We are here to level the playing field, so that all are blessed, so that the “woes” won’t need to be.
It’s a tall order, but as I have said before, we need to take seriously what Jesus took seriously. And to remember, that our God blesses, when we succeed and when we fail. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
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