Reflection on Luke 8:26-39

She was the only one who wanted to go on the trip, but that was not out of the ordinary.  She was used to being the “freak” and the “loner.” 

She was different and she could not help it.  Her lip had not formed right at birth, causing it to look more like half a lip.  She despised lipstick ads and their full, fleshly lips of beauty. 

Why couldn’t she be beautiful? 

Her parents could not figure out how to keep their lives straight and they lost custody of her years before.  Now, she had no home or parents…well except for a long list of houses and foster parents, but that was not the same. 

She watched as other girls left the school, jumping into SUVs with smiling mothers who had their soccer or dance gear all ready to go. 

Why couldn’t she have a family? 

Most girls in her class went down the halls of the school in groups of laughter, but she had never really figured out how to do the whole friend thing.  She was not exactly skilled at being normal or funny. 

Why couldn’t she have a friend? 

And, now as she filled out the glossy form for a special weekend at Bible camp, she did it alone on the other side of the room from the other kids.  The group was not interested in going, but she was.  So, she was going to do it like she did everything else…alone.

She felt like that guy in the Bible who was so messed up in his life and in his head that the people of his town chained him up and threw him out to live alone, naked, in the graveyard. 

You know what is ironic, she had always liked graveyards.  They were so peaceful to her.  And, also ironically, they were filled with so many people.  There were so many people laid to rest there.  In a graveyard, no one goes into the next life alone.

Maybe, the guy felt comfort in the tombs?  Or, maybe, it was just the only place that he could call home because he was so rejected and despised?

Well, in any case, that guy had Jesus.  Jesus came along, entered into the guy’s graveyard home, cast out the whole legion of demons (all 5,000 of them), put the demons into a herd of pigs, and drowned every last one of those who tormented him. 

“Does Jesus still do that?” she wondered.  “Does he still come and heal like that?  Or, is that just something that he did a long time ago?” 

She did not know.  What she did know is that she wanted what that guy got.  She wanted Jesus to come, make her beautiful, give her a family, and give her some friends to whom she could rejoice and say, “Hey, look, I’m all better now, I’m beautiful now, I’m finally like all you now!”  That guy got to go home and have a life.  She wanted that more than anything.

Maybe, that was what the camp thing was all about.  She was searching for Jesus.  She was searching for his healing.  She was searching for friendship.

When she handed the completed camp form to the youth advisor, he looked it over and asked if she had a ride to take her the 100 mile trip.  Of course, she did not. 

“I’m sorry, this is a really large church and we kind of have to do what the majority of the group wants to do,” the youth advisor explained. 

He was right.  It was a large church with a couple thousand people.  She was just…you know…her.  She was the one living amongst the tombs.  She was the one living far off in the gentile regions.  She could not expect the group to care about her.

But, the next day as she laid on her bed, which was stuffed by the hot water heater in her new foster home…it was OK, it was a warm spot…she got a phone and a female voice spoke.  It was the senior pastor of her church. 

The senior pastor said, “Get your things together, I’m taking you to camp this weekend.” 

“Don’t you have to preach?  Don’t you have a large number of people to care about?” she protested.

“I do, and it includes a beautiful girl who wants to go be with Jesus” she told the girl in return.

And, like the shepherd who left the 99 sheep in order to find the one, the girl’s senior pastor left the church that weekend in order to spend time with her and take her to Bible camp.  The church had a fit.  How could the pastor of a church of thousands just give up such a huge responsibility for the sake of one strange girl who had hardly been a part of the church? 

“It wasn’t a smart use of her time,” they thought.

Maybe it was not a smart use of her time but, Jesus never seemed too concerned about good time management.  He randomly left the Jewish region and walked into a predominantly gentile region one day to heal a crazy guy living out in the graveyard.  Yes, Jesus fed thousands, but he also went out of his way to find the one.  Jesus seemed to care more about those who needed healing and community than he did sticking around the safety of his own people. 

So, the senior pastor went with the girl.  She gave her, for one weekend at least, a family.  And, she went out of her way so that the girl might possibly find the healing of Jesus. 

What the senior pastor did not realize was that the healing had already happened.  Jesus had done his work the minute that the pastor made that phone call to the girl.

There are so many people who have been pushed out to the tombs to live and struggle alone. 

For those who suffer from mental illness. 

Jesus, bring your healing.

For those who are different and have few friends.

Jesus, bring your healing.

For those who have fled the dangers of their homes, but have not found a place that will welcome them.

Jesus, bring your healing.

For those children who have lost their families.

Jesus, bring your healing.

For those who have governments who are cold to their needs.

Jesus, bring your healing.

For those who are the only ones left among their family and friends.

Jesus, bring your healing.

For those who face death alone.

Jesus, bring your healing.

For all who desire deeply to feel your healing touch.

Jesus, bring your healing.

Bring your healing to all who find themselves living among the tombs of death.  Give them wholeness, give them joy, and give them a community of love.  Amen.

Reflection on Roman 5:1-5

Trinity Quiz:

Question: Of the 268 congregations of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (the church to which I belong), how many are named after the Trinity?

Answer: 28

Question: True or False: The Trinity describes God as “one God in Three persons”?

Answer: True

Question: True or False: The persons of the Trinity consist of: “God,” “the Son,” and “the Holy Spirit”?

Answer: False. 

The first person of the Trinity is not “God,” but rather, “God the Father.”  The other persons of the Trinity are “God the Son” and “God the Holy Spirit” because all are equally God.

Question: True or False: The Trinity can be best described as being like water: taking on three forms (liquid, vapor/mist, and ice) but still all water?

Answer: False. 

This is a heresy called Modalism in which God exists in three modes, but never at the same time.  Just like water cannot exist as liquid and ice at the same time, so too did Modalists believe that God could not be Father and Son at the same time. Modalists believed that God had different “modes” (like putting on different masks depending on what was needed at the time), but the church believes that God is all three persons simultaneously.  If this was not the case, who then was Jesus praying to in the garden?

Question: True or False: In the doctrine of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is a manifestation of the Father and the Son rather than being described as fully God.

Answer: False.

The Holy Spirit is a full person of the Trinity like the Father and the Son.

Question: True or False: In Trinitarian terms, all three persons are described as creating the universe rather than just the Father?

Answer: True. 

The Bible describes God the Father as the creator, but also notes that it was God’s Spirit hovering over the deep that was involved in creating at the start of Genesis.  Also note that in John’s gospel “the Word” (God the Son) was there in the beginning and that “all things came into being through him.”  The persons of God are fully involved in every action of God.

Question: What shape has historically been used to describe the Trinity?

Answer: Triangle. 

Beyond the triangle having three points to represent God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the equilateral triangle is able to represent each person of the Trinity in an equal way (all points and angles are the same), yet all points are a part of the same object.  Though this is orthodox, I still maintain that God is not a shape.  You cannot have a relationship with a shape.

Relationships: that is how I actually want to talk about God this Trinity Sunday.  Quite frankly, facts about how God is Trinity can be fun for a quiz, but does not do much to promote the new life that can be found in Jesus Christ.  Probably, the best description that I have ever heard concerning the Trinity is that God is inherently a community.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, who are all equally a part of this divine community, work together to create, save, and draw more of creation back into that Holy Community.

And, we need to be drawn back in because there are lots of ways that we try to push away the community of God. 

Some people focus only on themselves.  Selfishness is the opposite of being a part of a community, and therefore is opposite to the very nature of God. 

Some people are concerned primarily of making money and they put that first in life.  Think of those who choose to destroy the environment rather than care for it, all to just make a profit. 

In the book of Revelation, John of Patmos (the preacher of the book) repeatedly regards Rome’s destruction of the land and pollution of the seas as being work that is in opposition to Christ.  In other words, when we destroy God’s creation, we are essentially pushing away God’s divine community which thought up and molded the universe in the first place.  When we haphazardly and selfishly destroy creation, we are essentially pushing away what God loves.

There are lots of ways to push away the community of God.  Selfishness does not just take the form of loving money but, as Paul lists in Romans, Chapter One, selfishness can fill us with every kind of “wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.”

           

You do not need Paul to list off all of those things for you though.  You know very well how destructive any one of these things can be to a community.  

“Gossip,” one of Paul’s examples, can utterly destroy a group of people.  Gossip can consist of either true or false information, but, either way, it is spread without first investigating the truth.  Gossip cares more about spreading the information than spreading the truth. 

Now, if the gossip is false, it is obviously destructive because it injures someone who is innocent.  I think of the farmer who was denied an operating loan from a small town banker because the rumor had hit the banker that the farmer was going to sell all of his cows.  When the farmer heard at the café weeks later that he was going to sell all of his cows, it was news to him!  But, the rumor had already done its very real destruction.

Yet, even if the information contained in the gossip is true, it is still destructive because Jesus tells us to confront those who sin against us; not just talk behind their backs.  Even more, Jesus demands that we forgive 70 times 7 times. 

Gossip does not care about reconciling people, but God does.  God cares that God’s community of people show love to each other because God is a community of love.

And, for those who do not identify with any of Paul’s examples of selfish, idolatrous behavior, he goes one step further.  If you are judging others who do these things (like me right now as I chastise the gossipers), then you too (and me) are no better. 

For in judging, we are standing in the place of God rather than in the place of a human being and we too think too much of ourselves and our values.  In passing judgment, we too are selfish and idolatrous, holding ourselves higher than we ought.  In judging we too are destroying the community of God. 

God cares that God’s community of people show love because God is a community of love.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Paul points out.  That is just the truth of being a human.  We fall short of the mark, even if we try to aim right at it. 

Yet, do not forget that God is a community of love.  Jesus Christ brings us peace with God.  Jesus Christ looks at us through eyes of grace and not eyes of judgment.  We are brought into God’s community through grace; not because we deserve to be in God’s community but, because God wants us there. 

By grace you have been saved.  By love you have been saved.  And, the Holy Spirit pours this same love into your hearts because God is a community that wants more and more invited in. 

We are a people of grace, because God is a divine community of grace.  And, that is what is important in life.  And, that is what is important to understand about the Trinity.

Reflection on Acts 2:1-21

One of my theology professors had just landed in Mumbai, India and was exiting the airport when he was confronted by a little boy holding out his hand.  This is typical in India.  Poorer families will send out their children to beg in tourist areas around the city in the same way that I and my brothers were sent out to mow people’s yards during the summer.  It keeps kids out of trouble and to brings in a little money for the family. 

Assuming the professor was American, which he was, the little boy asked for some money in perfect American English.  Trying to get past the annoying kid and onto his bus, my theology professor answered back in perfect German, “I don’t speak English.” 

Amazingly, the kid replied, “That’s OK, I can speak German too,” with a perfect German accent.  The kid got the money.

The persistence of the kid and his linguistic abilities reminds me of the persistence of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  People from at least 15 nations had gathered in Jerusalem for the harvest festival of Pentecost, bringing gifts of the first fruits of their labor to sacrifice to God at the temple.  Little did they know that God had a gift waiting for them.

Suddenly, a great wind blew over the place.  Little flaming tongues of fire blew in with the harsh breeze and they fell upon some of the native Jews standing in the crowd. 

This was not the surprise though; this was not the amazing part of the gift from God. 

Just as that little beggar boy could talk to my seminary professor in multiple languages; those standing in the crowd were shocked to hear these native Jews with the flaming tongues speaking not in Hebrew, but in the native languages of their own countries. 

The visitors were in a foreign country to celebrate, but it was as if they were at home.  And, as anyone who has traveled to a foreign nation and tried to urgently ask for the directions to the bathroom can tell you, there is nothing better than to have someone who can speak your own language!

I think of a foreign exchange student that I became friends with in High School.  She was from Colombia, and she is now a high paid official at the World Bank, negotiating loans between nations for the building up of global economies.  This girl was (and is) no idiot.  But, while in school, she was sort of treated like one. 

Though she was a genius, she could not convey it in a way that we could understand.  Her English was not yet perfected while in High School and her limited English vocabulary hid her intelligence.  But, you should have seen her face light up when the Spanish teacher sought her out and struck up a conversation.  Having someone who can speak your language can be life changing.

Two of the fastest growing congregations within the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA, are churches that minister to the drug and alcohol recovery communities.  In these recovery churches, people who have struggled to find new life beyond the drugs and alcohol have found the new life that Jesus Christ can create which forgives sin and builds a new future. 

This is a huge need throughout our entire nation as we fight the opioid crisis, but not just any church or any person can take on such a ministry.  Only those who know the language of addiction, only those who have been through the struggle and have been brought by Jesus to the other side are able to speak to people in ways that give new life from God.  Like the disciple who had been given the gift of the language spoken by the Medes, for the Medes, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has gifted these people of faith with the language of addiction and recovery.  Having this gift of language turns the worst part of these minister’s lives into their greatest gift for the kingdom of God.

You too have been given the gift of a language from the Holy Spirit.  You too are a gift to someone waiting for the healing and wholeness that comes through knowing Jesus Christ.

I know of someone who had been trained as a theatrical actor who later went to seminary in order to learn more about God.  And, after her pastoral training, she took a job (not in acting, because those are difficult to come by), but in managing props at a movie studio. 

Why did someone from the theatre take the time and spend the money to go to seminary, just to return to the theatrical/movie world?  Because, acting and theatre is her language.  She understands the terminology.  She knows which direction you would need to step if asked to go “up stage left.” 

But, beyond terminology, she understands the unique culture and language of those in the creative performing arts.  And, the Spirit has led her to be a gift to those people.  She can proclaim in a very particular way the good news of the grace of Jesus Christ to a very particular people.

But, you do not have to be seminary trained to do this stuff.  Seminary trained people are just the people I have hung around with who do not care if I share their stories.  The important part of these stories is not the seminary training, but rather the gift of a particular language that the Holy Spirit provides. 

Perhaps, you have been given the gift of knowing an actual second or third language such as Spanish and you can connect in the name of Christ with those who seek asylum in our nation. 

“Me gusta bailar en el baño.”  That means, “I like to dance in the bathroom.”  It is the only Spanish I remember from my two years of Spanish in High School, but someone who actually knows Spanish could be a gift from God in that way!

Perhaps, your language is quilting and you can share the good news of Christ Jesus through the block patterns that you put together.  “Block patterns,” that is the extent of my knowledge about the quilting world, so barring a flaming tongue of the quilting language falling from the sky right now, I am not the choice to deliver the good news in that world.  But, you may be!

Maybe your language is dairy farming; or auto mechanics; or hunting, NRA card carrier; or motorcycle culture; or pop music enthusiast; or old guys talking at the diner for breakfast.  I do not speak any of those languages!  I certainly do not speak the language of old ladies at the hair solon, but you might!  And, if you have been given the gift of that language by the Holy Spirit, then you are sent from this church as a gift to those people. 

You are the one who knows the language.  You are the one who can speak of God’s grace, and God’s love for the sinner, and God’s care for the world to those particular people.  You are the one who has been given as a gift of the Holy Spirit to those people. 

Notice, that in the Pentecost story, it is not the divided tongues of fire that are the gift of the Holy Spirit, but rather the disciples themselves (who have been given those tongues and languages) who are the gift to the people at the Pentecost festival.  God provides those followers of Jesus as a gift to those at the festival that they may understand and hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

You too are a gift to someone who needs to hear about the grace of God.  You are a gift to someone who needs their life to become new.  You are a gift from Jesus to someone else who needs salvation.  You are the one who knows how to share the language of God.