Reflection on Luke 13:10-17

She was like a tiny mustard seed on the floor, and nobody saw her.  Well, I do not mean to imply that she was invisible, but let us just say that nobody took note of her.  She was just the old slumped over lady who came to the synagogue to worship.  People would scoot around her to get by in order to get to their own tasks of worshipping in the synagogue. 

She would make her way, slowly, in her crouched position.  She would attempt to raise her hands in praise, but they were not raised very high since her back forced her to stand so low.  No matter, it does not matter to God how high your hands are raised.  It does not matter to God if you are a little different from everyone else in the room either.  What does matter to God is if you are bound and imprisoned in any way.  What does matter to God is if you are overlooked, like a tiny mustard seed on the floor that fell off of someone’s sandal.

So many people are tiny mustard seeds.  So many people are secretly bound and imprisoned.  So many people are simply overlooked, bound and imprisoned by their own forms of crippled backs. 

I think of the guy I saw walking along the Main Street of my hometown as a young child. As I watched the man who walked with a slight limp, I jumped when he suddenly dropped to the ground and took shelter briefly under a store window.  I asked my grandma what had happened, and she simply said that he heard a loud noise and he does not like loud noises.

He was a mustard seed, cast from a shoe on the ground after the Vietnam War…or maybe it was the Korean War…well, nobody knew for certain because though his reactions to sounds like boards clapping together was rather dramatic, the “politeness” of the small community did not allow anyone to truly take notice of the man.  For the community, it was just easier to pretend that the man did not exist.

I think of the woman who I saw the other day with tears in her eyes outside the grocery store.  What was her story?  What was wrong with her?  What crippling ailment had seized her and caused her to stop her normal tasks of everyday life? 

I do not know.  I had the kids with me, so I walked right along with everyone else.  Lots of people saw her, but nobody noticed her.  She was too little.  She was a mustard seed, left by someone’s shoe, unknowingly discarded on the side of the parking lot to live with her own pain and remain within her own imprisonment.

The thing about mustard seeds though is that God has made them to do amazing things.  These tiny little things can be planted into the ground where they start to push away amazing amounts of pressure from surrounding rock and compacted soil with their young roots, just so that they can spring up into bushes that God uses to shelter birds and rabbits.  Just because it is little does not mean that it is forgotten. 

God does not forget.  God does not pass by.  God does not allow mustard seeds to remain imprisoned in the ground.  In God’s world, little does not mean forgotten.

The woman who was crouched over was not forgotten.  There was one who not only looked at her, but also noticed her.  He noticed how she had been taken into slavery by her ailment.  He noticed how this Israelite woman needed to be set free like her ancestors needed to be set free from Pharaoh and the slavery in which they were held in Egypt.  Jesus noticed the little, crouched over woman and saw her as a mustard seed that just needed a little bit of freedom to sprout.

"’Woman, you are set free from your ailment,’" [Jesus said]. When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God” (Luke 13:12-13). 

It was only then that people finally took notice.  They took notice alright; the normal state of affairs had been uprooted and some of them did not like it. 

The synagogue leader complained aloud, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day.”  

As if we consider being crippled a normal state of affairs.  As if being crippled and imprisoned is something that we can leave for another day.  As if it is OK to just let the mustard seed die on the floor without moving it to the soil where it can be free and flourish. 

Quite frankly, Jesus does not care if the normal state of affairs is uprooted and disrupted if someone can be set free.

It was Jesus, after-all, who taught earlier in one of the synagogues that, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). 

For Jesus, Sabbath worship includes setting people free, just as God set the Israelites free from their bondage in Egypt.  The Sabbath is about praising God and living in God’s kingdom.  Therefore, if someone is crouched so low from whatever imprisons them that they cannot praise God, then Jesus is going to set them free.  Do we not make sure to water animals on the Lord’s day Jesus asks? 

The Sabbath is about life.  The Sabbath is about freedom to worship God.  The Sabbath is a day to worship and to set free.  The Sabbath is a day to notice discarded mustard seeds, to pick them up, and to bring them over to good soil.

A number of years back I got this idea, or maybe it was even a revelation from God.  It has to do with the Sabbath.  Here it is: since Christians celebrate on the first day of the week…Sunday...the day after the Jewish Sabbath, what if we used the traditional Sabbath day (which is Friday night through Saturday day) and used it to do those acts of freedom that Jesus cares so much about? 

Of course you can do this any day of the week, and should do this every day of the week; but what if we designated the traditional Jewish Sabbath for acts of noticing little, discarded mustard seeds and freeing them to flourish in good soil? 

In normal words, what if we spent some time Friday night through Saturday day intentionally looking for those in pain and hardship and helping in some way? 

I wonder how many people are kept from praising God because they have been crippled in some way?   There are probably many more than we think.  So, how about we take the time to not just look for these people, but to also notice them? 

After-all, Jesus noticed you.  He looked and noticed you when you were crippled and easily overlooked.  He saved you when you were at your lowest and brought you up to new life, raising you upright to praise God once again. 

Jesus does not walk into a room and fail to notice the discarded mustard seeds on the floor.  He created those mustard seeds!  Jesus wants each of them to flourish and push away mountains and create branches in which birds can live.  Jesus looks, notices his seeds, and then frees them to be who God created them to be.

So, what are you going to be doing this coming Friday and Saturday?  Heck, you could even start this afternoon on this holy task of seeing, truly noticing, and freeing.

Reflection on Luke 12:49-56

Jesus does not desire to destroy you. 

Not that I ever thought that you went about your days singing, “Jesus hates me, this I know.  For the Bible tells me so.”  But, I would not fault you for pausing briefly and at least asking, “What’s going on here Jesus?” as you listen to his desire…his “wish,” as the Bible puts it…to bring fire to the earth.  So, the one who loves the whole world wants to put the world on a stick and roast it as a S’more?  Not quite.

           

Once again, Jesus does not desire to destroy you. 

That is not what this fire that Jesus talks of is all about.  Rather, if we had been paying close attention to Luke we would already know that Luke is not talking about the destruction and cataclysm of fire that we hear about in places like 2 Peter, or see in wildly destructive 15th century religious art of fire falling from the clouds.  Luke has already told us through John the Baptist that Jesus is coming with a fire of purification and refinement.

This type of fire is not one that completely and utterly destroys; rather it is a fire that melts us down and allows our impurities to rise to the top so that Jesus can scoop them off, leaving a strong metal below which he can mold and pound into a fine tool. 

We are Jesus’ fine tools. 

You are Jesus’ fine tool. 

You have been shaped by Jesus to serve him in the ways of love and justice that Luke has already outlined in the song that Mary sings way at the beginning of the story when she finds out that she will give birth to the savior.  You are being refined so that the lowly can be lifted up.  You are being melted of impurities so that things like pride and desire for wealth might be scraped away leaving only a heart for mercy.

It is this that Jesus cannot wait to do with his fire.  He cannot wait to rid the world of all that causes it to rot.  He cannot wait to kindle a fire of change so that all of the rot gets burned away.  He cannot wait to burn away greed.  He is just itching to get rid of idolatry.  He would love if exploitation of other people for the gain of a few would no longer exist.  He cares about the dehumanization of people, no matter where they come from.  It is to be no more! 

Everything that prevents the flourishing of all people and all creation needs to be burned away in a fire of repentance and forgiveness.  In Jesus’ kingdom, walls will be broken down and those who are left out will be let in.  Those who are chained up and pushed aside will be set free.  In other words, as we see in Luke 11:21-22, Jesus is determined to overpower Satan, the “strong man” so that those under his thumb might be let go.

You are being refined by the Lord our God with fire, and that my sisters and brothers is a good thing.  It allows you to let go of all that is destructive in your life.  Jesus burns it away.  Once it is gone, Jesus gives you the chance to live a new life in the love of God.

Now, do not get me wrong, burning hurts.  Just yesterday I mistakenly put my hand in a pan of scalding water in the sink, and it hurt.  With the children around, inappropriate words did not come from my mouth, but they were banging on the doors trying to get out!  But, you know what?  The scalding water got the pan clean.  It got a caked on mess off quite easily and the pan is ready to fry up something new.

Burning does hurt, especially for those of us who have a lot of impurities that need to be cleaned off. 

Right away our minds go to obvious impurities like addiction and obvious physical abuse of others.  Those impurities need to be refined for certain, but Jesus has a vision for a world that is free of much more subtle impurities also.

In all the stories of Jesus’ chastising of the powerful and deeply religious of his time, you clearly find Jesus’ desire to clean all impurities that we often, unknowingly, mistake for purity.  It is human nature to think that keeping the hated “outsider” far away from lives will keep us safe.  We think that the Samaritan is a threat (or we would if we lived in Jesus’ time).  But, Jesus reveals the possibility that the hated Samaritan is the good person and will be the one who cleans our wounds. 

We thought that “safety first” was pure and good, but Jesus shows us that it is a lie.  It can be divisive and impure and can close some of God’s children out on their rightful place in God’s kingdom of grace and forgiveness.  It needs to be burned away. 

Any well intentioned desire or action that would end up driving a good man to the cross needs to also be taken to that cross to die.  It needs to go.  It needs to be ash so that something new can rise up on the third day with Jesus. 

And, if this refining is painful for us, the followers of Jesus Christ who expect this sort of refinement, imagine how painful it is for those who do not follow the ways of Jesus. 

People do not like pain.  People naturally fight against pain, screaming and kicking and biting as the sliver is being pulled out of the finger…not that that is not a recent experience in my family.  Getting impurities out hurts and people resist.  So, yes, Jesus says that this refining will cause father to be against son and mother against daughter and all sorts of other relational mayhem as the things that people hold dear and think are good, but actually are not, are held to the fire and burned away.

It is coming.  Can you feel it? 

The time for repentance is near.  The time for a changed mind is coming as certain as afternoon storms in the summer.  You see the clouds building to the west and you feel the strong breeze and you know it is going to rain.  So too it is with God’s kingdom.  It is about to break in and you can feel the winds of repentance drawing near. 

Are you ready for God to change your mind?  Are you ready for your hardened heart to be shattered?  Are you ready for mercy to overtake your heart?  Are you ready for the winds of love to change your opinions?  Are you ready for the new life of Christ to rise in the ashes of all you once held firm and true?  Are you ready?

Let us pray,

Lord, melt the hardness of our minds.  Wipe clean the impurities of our thoughts.  Change the hardness of our hearts which push people away rather than inviting them closer.  Transform us with your forgiveness and love.  Make us clean and new.  Hear our prayers of repentance and bring us to a pure and clean life in you, the author of love, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Reflection on Luke 12:32-40

“I feel disconnected from God,” he finally said after trying for minutes to describe his spiritual state. “It’s not that I don’t believe in God. It is just that I don’t sense God as being that important in my life at this point.”

It was a brutally honest statement from someone who was considering leaving the church.

In coming in to talk to the pastor, he wanted to be clear that he wasn’t leaving the church because of some sort of slight or disagreement. The people in the church were just fine.

The problem went much deeper, and in the same way that some couples just slowly lose connection with one another over time and end up divorcing, this man kind of felt like it was his time to separate with God. More to the point, he felt like the separation had already happened and he just now had mustered up the courage to tell someone.

“I’ve been there,” said the pastor. “Many, many times I’ve been there. Imagine having to write a sermon while feeling that way! It stinks.”

The man smiled and relaxed a little in his seat.

“What do you do when you feel that way pastor?” the man asked honestly.

To that question, the pastor suddenly stood up, reached into his pocket, dug something out, and smacked it down on the table. The man leaned forward to see what it was. The familiar green of the $20 bill was revealed upon closer inspection.

“I don’t get it. You pay God to come into your life again? Where would you even drop off the money?”

The pastor laughed. “Not quite.” Then he simply said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

You may not know where the pastor is headed with this, but I would like to tell you that there is some wisdom in where he’s leading this man. After-all, it is Jesus who first tells us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So it is not an ingenious invention of the pastor.

But, before we continue, let us pause for a second because I've come to realize that most of us understand this phrase backwards. I’ve even heard it spoken backwards from the pulpit.

Most of us understand this as saying: “The thing that is most special to us, that is where we will put our money.”

But New Testament scholar Mark Allen Powell points out that Jesus is not saying that. That idea is actually backwards to what Jesus is actually saying. How the power of money usually works, and advertisers know this very well, is that when we spend our money, we also put a little of our heart into that investment.

Take smart phones for an example. I’ve known people who sing the praises of their iPhones after they have purchased one. They love the ease of use. They love the features such as the fingerprint identification to access the phone; that way you don’t have to be typing in a pass code every time you use the phone. And, iPhone users will staunchly defend the quality of their phones in an argument against those evil and unenlightened Android smart phone users.

Of course, Android users will similarly go on and on about their phones and the virtual reality capabilities of their phones.

It is called brand loyalty. We use our money to buy a phone, and in return, the company gets part of our heart…part of our loyalty. Wherever you place your treasure, you will give away a little bit of your heart.

Whether its Apple vs. PC, Chevy vs. Ford,. Case International vs. John Deer, Pixar vs. Sony, salt vs. pepper, cat vs. dog…do not even get people started on the cat vs. dog one…each time we invest our money or time in something, we also invest some of our heart.

The thing is, part of this investment of heart makes us blind to the realities and shortcomings of the thing in which we have invested our money. No one wants to be the one who spends foolishly. So we defend our choices of iPhones and Androids, dogs and cats, and we refuse to mention the troubles and faults in our choices. Dogs make you get up early in the morning. Cats do not. Just saying for me that is an issue. Just saying dog people. Just saying.

You can see this sort of loyalty in a different way during the political season. When people invest their money in and attention toward a particular candidate, something amazing happens, that candidate becomes Jesus Christ! Not literally, but all the sudden, that candidate can do nothing wrong, even though an outside observer can see that they are human and obviously do things wrong.

But, that is how treasures work. Where you put your treasure, is where you your heart ends up. Where you spend your resources of money, time, and self is what you will end up treasuring like a gleaming gem.

This leads me to wonder, where does God spend God’s resources? Let us see.

In the beginning, God made a peaceful space in the chaos for us, the gem of God’s creation.

In Jesus, God chooses to spend time with us, especially if we are poor and trapped in sin.

In Jesus, God chooses to pay a life for a life on the cross. God chooses to pay for you…for us…to trade our sins for his peace. This is all done for our benefit. God so loved Apple Corp.? No, “God so loved the world…” We are where God spends God's resources.

The man picks up the $20, looks at it, and asks the pastor, “So, what am I supposed to do with this?”

“Spend it," the pastor replies.

“Spend it. On what?”

“Spend it on something that the Lord cares about. Spend it on something that Jesus would care passionately about. Spend it on the poor. Spend it on a special Olympic athlete. Spend it on someone’s medical care. Spend it on something that the Lord would spend it on.

You see, when we feel separated from God, it may be because we no longer participate in the same activities.

Just like sharing rounds of golf together has actually saved some marriages, sharing in the activities that God cares about just may provide what you are seeking.

‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,’ Jesus says.

So, invest some of your treasure into God. Just maybe your heart will follow and you won't be so disconnected.”

If you are reading this now, I invite you to do the same. Do you feel disconnected with God? Take some of your gifts this week, (and I really, actually mean it), and spend them on something that Jesus would care about.

After-all, it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Follow God's example and share some of that kingdom of mercy, and maybe…just maybe...your own eyes will be opened to the mercies of God in your life.