Giving Our Undivided Attention

Today we celebrated PWOC Sunday at our base chapel.  The Protestant Women of the Chapel is the ministry by and for women at military chapels all over the world.  PWOC has four aims:

• to LEAD women to accept Christ as personal Savior and Lord;
• to TEACH women the history, beliefs, and programs of the church, all built on a solid foundation of worship and Bible study;
• to DEVELOP in women the skills of prayer, evangelism, stewardship, and social service, against a background of personal spiritual development;
• to INVOLVE women in the work of the Chapel, in keeping with their abilities and interests.

A special thanks to our wonderful chaplains who have invited me to preach and teach on more than one occasion. I am honored to be a part of a wonderful ministry team.

Giving Our Undivided Attention

It’s PWOC Sunday, a time to celebrate the work and ministry of women in our base family.  PWOC – Protestant Women of the Chapel… the name captures a lot, but is bigger than you might expect.  Our ranks include Protestants, Catholics and people who just love Jesus.  Some worship at the chapel regularly, but not all.  And with four wonderful, helpful, supportive chaplains as members of our ranks, we are not even all women.  But what we are is summed up in our mission statement: We are workers together for Christ.  So I thought today might be a good day to consider the story of Mary and Martha, for whom work was an issue.

[Read passage Luke 10: 38-42]

Hospitality was an important aspect of life people in biblical times.  Hospitality… welcome… meeting people’s needs… it’s against this backdrop that we examine the familiar story of Martha and Mary.  Like so many of the stories in the gospels, all we have are a few brief sentences.  Our imaginations have filled in the details not listed and shaped our interpretations of this story.

How do you see Martha – fussing over dinner, presiding over the kitchen, balancing the dozens of details that go into feeding a dining room full of guests?  I think her modern incarnation would come equipped with the efficient conveniences of an organized life, a smartphone or tablet at the ready with recipes, and information at hand to plan a perfect last-minute affair.  The Martha we think we know is a woman of action – there is no doubt about it!

And what about Mary – what does she look like?  Is she the dreamy, less practical sister, the one whose attention wanders from the task at hand to think of books, art, poetry, and music?  Or is she a young intellectual or perhaps a mystic?  There she sits, her eyes open wide, leaning forward to catch every word that Jesus has to share, her mind busily shaping questions as she listens eagerly, shutting out the world around.

It’s easy to imagine multiple dimensions to these sisters’ characters, but the truth is really only know what Jesus tells us… that they are simply two sisters, reacting in their own unique ways to the awe and wonder over this particular guest.

It’s clear that Martha and Mary have different expectations for Jesus’ visit.  Martha’s head is engaged with her responsibilities, while Mary is filled with Jesus’ presence.  The moment is one of conflict.  Martha has pictured this going a different way.  Her question to Jesus includes a request: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me."

Many assume that Martha’s distraction centers on marshaling the resources for her household to provide hospitality for her guests.  But, in truth, she could have been preoccupied with any number of concerns.  Whatever they are, the important word used to describe Martha is “distracted.”  Her attention was focused on what she thought was important.  And when it didn’t all go the way she planned, she asked Jesus to do something about it.

In Eugene H. Peterson's The Message, Jesus replies in this way: "Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it's the main course, and won't be taken from her.”   In this brief conversation, I don’t think that Jesus is elevating one aspect of discipleship over another.  He is not discounting the need for outer preparations or exclusively commending the inward life.  Instead, he is asking for something more difficult… he is asking for a change in attitude in which he becomes the focus and foundation of everything we do.

My life is busy – how about yours?  Part of that is true because I want it to be that way.  I like being out and about, meeting with all kinds of people in all kinds of places.  I have also not perfected the use of one of the shortest words in the English language – NO, but that’s a sermon for another day.  But this story begs a bigger question:  where is our full attention?  Are we, like Martha, distracted by all of the activities that we have to do?  Or are we occasionally able to be Mary, totally focused on Jesus and who he has called us to be?

There is something in this story for all temperaments and tendencies. We could read it as a story that commends not allowing service to distract us from prayer and study. We could also, coming to Martha's defense, remember that we are not to use prayer and study as a free pass to avoid service.   In the end, we have to be able to put into practice all the lessons that Jesus taught.  Sometimes that will mean being alone with God.  Other times it will be about being in the world – loving people and being the hands and feet of Christ in the world.

Our undivided attention -- this is what Jesus asks of us in a world that holds more distractions than Martha could ever have imagined.  He is not telling us that work and family, and housekeeping, and management, and hospitality have no place. Instead, he urges us to choose Him first and let all of these other things take their place in line behind that choice.

Jesus asks us not to become so preoccupied with the details of life, even in our faith community, that we neglect the one in whom we have that faith.  His hope is that we will not become so concerned about hospitality when it is our turn to host coffee hour that we miss worship with the rest of those gathered.  We should not be so busy greeting old acquaintances that we do not see the guest in our midst.  And his desire is that we do not become so involved in managing our worldly affairs that we have no time for our eternal affairs – for prayer, study, reflection, and loving God in all we do.

If Martha, there in Bethany, could find herself distracted with Jesus actually under her roof where she could reach out and touch him, how much more vulnerable are we?  We have many tempting distractions at our disposal.  Consider our work responsibilities, leisure activities, relationships with family and friends, and volunteering in the community.  Then add to that the ability to be connected at any moment by phone, computer, text or television.    Preoccupied with all we have to do, we forget that church is not where we go – it’s who we are.

Here are the questions I hope you’ll consider this week.  What if we applied Mary’s kind of devotion to the way we live every day?  What if our everyday lives were the place where people encountered Jesus for the first time, and wanted to know him better, not because of a bible verse we gave them, but because of the way we live out those verses?  What if choosing the better part is not about what we do, but about the attitude with which we do everything?  What if our faith journeys were about the way we live, not just what we believe?

Will Willimon tells a story about a Duke sophomore who we’ll call John.  He was a Presbyterian who felt called to work in inner-city ministry after hearing Dr. Tony Campolo, a famous evangelical preacher, speak.  After a rigorous interview process, Mark was asked to join a summer mission team in Philadelphia, and later described his first day experience to Will.

In mid-June, John met about a hundred other youth in a Baptist church in Philadelphia.  They sang for about an hour before Dr. Campolo arrived, and when he did, the youth were all worked up and ready to go.  Dr. Campolo preached to them for about an hour, and people were shouting and clapping and standing in the pews.  Then Tony said, “OK gang, are you ready to go out and tell them about Jesus?”  “Yeah,” the kids replied, “let’s go.”

So he loaded them up on buses, singing and clapping.  But as they began to enter the poor neighborhoods of Philadelphia, the kids gradually stopped singing, and the bus John was on got very quiet.  Then they pulled up to one of the worst housing projects in the country.  Tony stood up, opened the door, and said, “OK gang, get out there and tell them about Jesus… I’ll pick you up at five.”

The young people made their way reluctantly off the bus.  And they stood in little groups and whispered as the bus made its way into the distance.  John walked down the sidewalk, faced a run-down tenement building, said a prayer under his breath and walked inside.  There was a terrible odor.  Windows were out.  There were no lights in the hall.  Babies were crying behind thin, scrawled walls.  He walked up one flight of stairs and knocked on the first door he saw.

“Who is it?” a voice called out.  The door cracked open, and he could see a woman holding a naked baby.  He told her he wanted to tell her about Jesus.  With that she slammed the door, cursing him all the way down the stairs and out into the street.

“What made me think I could do this,” he thought.  “What kind of Christian am I?”  He sat down on the curb and cried for a few minutes.  When he looked up, he noticed a store on the corner, and remembered the naked baby in the lady’s arms.  So he went in and bought a package of diapers and a pack of cigarettes, and went back and knocked on the lady’s door again.

“Who is it?” the same voice called again.  When she opened the door, Mark slid the diapers and cigarettes inside.  She looked at them and invited him in.  He put a diaper on the baby, his first, and smoked a cigarette, his first and last, and sat there listening to the lady and playing with the baby all afternoon.  About four o’clock, the woman looked at him and said, “Let me ask you something.  What’s a nice college boy like you doing in a place like this?”  So he told her all he knew about Jesus.  It took about five minutes.  And she replied, “Pray for me and my baby that we can make it out of this place alive.”  And he prayed.”

That evening, when they all got back on the bus, Tony asked, “Well, gang, did any of you get to tell them about Jesus?”  And Mark said, “I not only got to tell them about Jesus, I met Jesus.  I went out to save somebody, and ended up getting saved myself.  Today, I became a disciple.”

Choosing the better part can mean something different to each of us, but I’m betting that it will always be about making the transition from believer to disciple, and living with intention the life that God has given us.  Will we always be successful?  No, but doesn’t mean that we don’t keep giving it our best.  They don’t call it “practicing a life of faith” for nothing.  So as we go into the world, let us remember, we are all workers, together, for Christ.

Amen.

Thanks to Will Willimon and Alyce McKenzie for inspiring me to think of this scripture in a new way.

Vacation lessons...

We spent ten days traveling through Montana and the Canadian Rockies for our summer vacation. We had a great time together, saw some amazing things, and ate some wonderful food.  Here are a few of the lessons I learned along the way.  .

1. Planning is good, but be willing to change the plan if the occasion arises.  We are gatherers... I like knowing what opportunities are available, and once I have a good feel for what there is to do, I quit looking and make a plan. My spouse just keeps looking.  But eventually, we have to just go.  All in all, we did pretty well. We had some pretty fun things planned, and when necessary, we tweaked the plan to fill in the gaps to naturally occurred. Just in case you were wondering, yes to the Banff Gondola and Columbia Icefield Experience, yes to Johnston Canyon hike and Athabasca Falls, and you must at least do the short hike at Mount Edith Clavell in Jasper National Park.

2. Vacationing with your father-in-law can be fun.  Shawn's dad came to spend a few days with us at home before we left, but we were really excited that he could come with us on the trip.  He is such a good traveler, and offers another perspective on the things we see and do. I can honestly say the only thing we might have done differently is eat a few spicier meals and maybe some sushi. Otherwise, he helped make the trip even better than it would have been with just the two of us. Sometimes it's good to have a buffer or a person to be the tiebreaker when it was time to pick something to do or someplace to eat.

3. Making a vacation budget made it all a lot less stressful.  When we lived in Germany, we took lots of opportunities to travel.  It gave us a lot of practice in getting away and getting a lot done. As we did our research, we developed a reasonable expectation for what our hotel expenses would be, estimated our entrance fees for the things we wanted to do, and factored in food costs.  On this trip we kept our food costs down by eating hotel breakfasts when offered, taking a bag full of snacks with us, and making several trips to the grocery store along the way for water and picnic lunches.  Even with gas at over $5 per gallon, we were able to come in way under our budget.

4. Sometimes a cheap hotel is cheap for a reason.  No matter how many places you check, the "perfect" hotel may not be what you expect.  I booked all of our hotels online and eight of the nine nights were great - a couple close to perfect, in fact.  But there was one that wasn't exactly what we expected.  The good news is that we all decided to make the best of it... and be happy that it was the last night before going home.  I'm not going to "out" the hotel, but if you're planning to go to Radium Hot Springs in Canada, give me a call.

5.  Conversely, a storefront restaurant could give you the best meal of your trip.  Helena's Stube in Radium Hot Springs... authentic Austrian food and the best Wiener Schnitzel since we traveled to Germany last year.  So here's the tip: Ask a local for their recommendation... that usually sends you in the right direction.  (I should have taken a picture of my beautiful plate... trust me, it was absolutely delicious.)

We've been home for a little over a week and are fully immersed in our normal, everyday lives.  But the peace and joy lingers... and that's when you know it was all worth it.

Peace, Deb

PS - How was your vacation?

Reflections on the Rockies...

"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God." - George Washington Carver 

God is big... WAY bigger than I notice from day to day.

Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park, Alberta ,Canada

Mt Edith Clavell and Angel Glacier, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Glacier National Park, MT

 Everywhere I looked, I felt small.  Not in a bad way, but in the "get over yourself" way.  Over the course of ten days, the things I considered to be problems seemed much smaller, and the joys that I sometimes overlook seemed much bigger.  In that time, we collectively took almost 1500 pictures and videos... two cameras and three cell phones trying to capture every amazing sight for posterity and to share.

Athabasca Glacier, Alberta, Canada

Of course, the big problem is that there is no way to capture the amazing things we saw on film.  No way to capture the smell of pines and leaves... no way to record the mist that surrounds you when you are able to get right next to a waterfall... no way to take the reactions of those who are seeing it all for the first time, or with new eyes, or in new ways.



Once again, I am confronted with the BIGNESS of God.  More than ever, I understand this world we have as a gift.  I see it's fragile nature.  Only 35 glaciers remain at Glacier National Park in Montana, and to really see those you must hike away from the road and the crowds. They predict that within 25 years there will no longer be any active glaciers there, and that the park will be a final testament to the power that glaciers had to move earth and shape the landscape in new and powerful ways.

If you see me and ask me about me about my trip, I will embarrass myself by whipping out my phone and showing you the pictures I took on it.  I want them to tell the story of our visit to one of the most peaceful and beautiful places I have ever been.  But on my phone, they are small, and even if I were to blow them up and plaster them all over my walls, they would only capture a part of what I would want you to know.

Our five senses and our brain are even more miraculous than we imagine. Believe me, the pictures only capture 20% of what lays before you when you are standing on that mountain or at that lake or walking down that path. If you are intrigued by what you have seen, then maybe this is your invitation to go on a journey of your own away from the expected and into places you have never been.

This trip has made a lasting impression on me.  It's easy to become blinded to the things that surround us. But in taking time to get away, I realized that I have to try harder to not take for granted how much better my senses make my life.

Just today we spent time in our tiny garden, tending to our tomatoes and peppers, our parsley and basil. We took care to water the parsley and peppers this morning, because we saw how droopy they were yesterday after the heat of the day. We marveled at the spiny fuzz that covers the tomatoes when they are very small, and how the flowers dip their little heads down if they have been fertilized and are making fruit, and how they shrivel and blow away if they are no longer needed.   We remembered the wonderful taste and feel of the meaty flesh of the one tomato that we have harvested, and look with great anticipation for the many that are to come. (I see tomato sauce in my future...)

This is a miraculous world we live in, my friends.  And I am more grateful than ever for the opportunity to explore it, one adventure at a time.

Peace, Deb

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.  I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles." - Anne Frank 

Erroneous Assumptions

image credit www.brianporolli.com 

“It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”  -- Abraham Harold Maslow

"We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions." -- Stephen R Covey

The summer between my first and second years of seminary, I served as a pastoral intern at a church in North Carolina.  This helped me to put into practice some of the things that I learned at school, determine that parish ministry was still my planned professional goal, and earned me a hefty scholarship to pay for my second year of school.  At our monthly intern meetings, we would share things that we were experiencing in our churches, and I was struck at a major difference between the experiences of the men and the women interns in our midst.

The first month, the single men told stories about all the different people in their congregations who had invited them for meals.  The second month, most of them wanted advice on how to get their congregants to stop arranging dates for them with their daughters, nieces, granddaughters and neighbors.  I looked around and noticed that none of the single women interns were having that problem.  In fact, it turned out that we were spending a lot of evenings alone.  I remember that while people were very kind (for the most part), most of them didn't really know what to do with me. It was as if they were asking themselves these questions: Do we have anything in common? Is it a problem that she is still single at almost 30?  Are women supposed to be ministers?

Looking back almost 25 years, I never knew how formative that was for me.  I see how people made erroneous assumptions about me and my ministry.  Some assumed that I was trading in a personal life for a professional one.  Others thought I didn't want to marry and have a family.  Somewhere deep inside, I felt like they couldn't see me as a whole person, and in my attempt to raise my professional profile, I tried to be super-efficient in the way I did ministry.  Instead of challenging the way they thought about me (and women clergy in general), I bought into their erroneous assumption and worked my fingers to the bone. I got a great evaluation that summer, but I'm not sure that I did much to change the way they thought about women and ministry, as a whole.  And because I didn't make any close personal relationships with anyone, I have never been in touch with any of them again.

A few years later, I again bought into an erroneous assumption - the ones that says that women ministers were not supposed to look like, well, women.  One winter night, I wore dress slacks to a mid-week service at the church where I served.  The next day, 25 people called the church office to complain.  It took almost 20 years for me to wear pants again while leading worship.  At every church since, even as a volunteer, I made sure that I looked totally professional, but not too feminine.  In my need to fulfill an erroneous expectation, I'm not sure I did me or the women who followed me a good service.

Last month, I watched the coverage of the Trayvon Martin trial and its aftermath.  And I've been thinking about the assumptions we make about others based on what they look like, what they do, and who we expect them to be.  Race, age, weight, unusual looks or hobbies - these are just a few of the things that can have the effect of separating us from others rather than drawing us together, in spite of the other things we may have in common.

On July 19th, President Obama surprised the White House briefing room by making a very personal statement about the trial and the conversations swirling around the country.  (If you didn't see it, click here.) He proclaimed his confidence in the way that the Zimmerman trial was conducted.  He gave us an insight into his experience as a black man, where the assumption is that he will do something wrong if given the chance. And he asked that we as a society not dismiss the African American experience just because it may not be our own.

We often make erroneous assumptions about others out of fear.  But Jesus calls us to live in love and to look at people in the way we would want to be looked at by them.  He calls us to redefine what it means to be in relationship with one another, and to look for new ways to see each other, all through the lens of love.

This is exactly what Jesus' ministry was all about.  He challenged the assumptions of the world around him and called people to a new way of living.  He hung out with people the world considered outcasts and he challenged the powers of the world to examine their behaviours and intentions.  And ultimately, they killed him for it.  But God did not let it all end there.  The resurrection is all the evidence we need to know that our assumptions about the way the world is supposed to work may not be true.  The Church should be the place where we can support one another in seeing life through new eyes and witnessing to the world a new way of living.

Last night I was thinking about the idea of "neighborhood watch."  In the dictionary, it's defined as a group of people who are devoted to crime and vandalism prevention.  But what if we took "neighborhood watch" to a whole new level?  What if is became the way that we looked out for one another, taking the opportunity to recognize the people who live around us, and make our neighborhoods a more inviting place to live?

I know, it will take a lot of work... a lot of risk... a lot of trust.  But I will be worth it all.  We have so much to learn.

Peace, Deb

[Jesus said,] "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:3 NRSV

The Pinterest Generation

Have you pinned lately?  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Have you seen that cute little curly "P" on a website or at the bottom of an email?  In case you've been missing out, Pinterest is the new rage among the social media jet set and military spouses all over the world.

How does it work, you ask?  Well, it's way too simple... and addictive... and many, many hours have been lost in the midst of boards and pin and comments and likes.

Just a little primer:  Sign up for a Pinterest account.  Then, when you see a recipe, a wall decoration, a dress or a pair of shoes, a saying or a place that you'd like to remember and be able to access quickly in the future, just "pin it" and it will be there to find with you're ready to bake or cook or shop or be creative.  I must admit that I am a fan.  I've been pinning my way through the internet for about a year.  I started with one board dedicated to food... soon I split that board into six boards... sweets and savory... party foods and soups... breads and, just for kicks, a board dedicated to healthier food options than all of the other boards espoused. There are also boards for cool sayings, clothes and shoes (with just a total of 8 pins - just not my thing), beautiful places and spaces, books worth reading, and a board called "Who Knew?" for quirky things I might want to look for one day.

Now here's where it gets "social."  Once you start your boards, you invite people to "follow" you.  That way, they can see what you are interested in, what you're pinning and what you're saying about the things you like. And then you follow them back.  And soon there are all of these concentric circles, like ripples in a pond. Through this medium, ideas are shared and dreams are dreamed.  And it's a really pretty storage medium, which I like a lot.  No paper, no muss, no fuss.

I do have to admit, that while I have pinned almost 500 recipes, most of them have gone untested.  And some, which looked interesting in concept just didn't work out in practice, or they got jettisoned for something more desirable along the way.  I do try to make a habit of going through my boards every month or so and discarding pins that no longer interest me, or comment on ones that were especially good or a mediocre mess.  Do my Pinterest boards reflect the person that I am today?  I'm no so sure, but if so, I must be a big ole' chocolate bar, because over 60% of my food boards involve the melty, dark stuff.

I wonder if there is a spiritual equivalent to the Pinterest board... the place where theological principles and religious writers go to be quoted, but almost never lived out.  Am I espousing beautiful quotes about life and faith and God, but not reflecting them in my life everyday?  If you look at the quotes about life and faith I have posted, would you recognize them in the way I live?  Or are they wishful thinking on my part, and a picture of the world the way I want it to be?  Or worse yet, is pinning a theological position as far as I'm willing to go?

I don't know the answer to those questions... I don't even really know if they are legitimate questions at all. But I do know that I want what I profess to be reflected in the way I speak, live and post.  I hope that we're not just collecting snapshots of life without really living it. I hope even when we're trying to be healthier and more joyful in our living, that we can enjoy the journey and bring that same joy to those around us.

I thought to end I'd share some of my favorite sayings as posted on my Pinterest boards.  Tell me what you think.

And here's one of my favorite recipes, just for kicks... this one I have tried and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE... it's worth every minute of the time it takes to prepare.

Raspberry Swirl Sweet Rolls from Sally's Baking Addiction can be found here..... 

They really are totally amazing... I promise.

Peace, Deb

Life is not like a DVR...

In 2001, the UPS m an delivered a box to our house.  The label on the outside said, "REPLAY TV."  When my husband got home, he rubbed his hands together with the excitement that many a techno-geek has experienced.  When I asked, "What is it?" he responded, "You're going to love it, I promise."  And he was right.  For what we had was  DVR - a digital video recorder.  No more VHS tapes... instead we would use a program guide to schedule recordings, and as an extra bonus, would be able to froward through commercials with the mere press of a button.  I think that we could record an amazing 30 hours of programming at that time, quite an amazing feat... and we could look at the recorded programming guide and just pick what we wanted to watch - no fast forwarding or rewinding.  We could even record one channel and watch something different, or watch a show from the beginning, even if it hadn't finished recording. As far as TV watching was concerned, it was pretty spectacular.

Over the years, we have replaced and even added to our REPLAY TV collection.  After replacing worn out hard drives and upgrading them to something faster and bigger, we can record up to 240 hours.  I have held on to programs that I haven't wanted to get rid of quite yet (I still have the whole season from BONES last year - yes, it was that good - and both seasons of SMASH).  Sometimes when there's not anything good to watch, I'll head into the other room and watch something I know that enjoyed before.  And even better, (especially during election season) I have skipped over more commercials than I care to imagine.  Wouldn't we like the chance to fast forward though difficult times in our lives?  Yeah, it doesn't work that way.

Life is not like a DVR - sometimes you have to just be apart of what's happening, even if it's not your choice. You can't change the channel.  You can't skip over the parts you don't like.  You learn things you'd wish you didn't know.  You are changed.

I am often reminded that it's the hard parts of life that end up making the most changes in me.  I grow through the challenges that I face, not through the easy parts. I learn from the questions I get wrong on the test, not from the ones I get right.  I become a better friend when I reach out beyond my comfort zone, taking the hand reaching out to me.  And all of the experiences of my life make me the one God has called me to be, rather than the person I imagined I would be.

One of the most interesting things about being a part of the Facebook community and authoring my blogs in the last several years is that I feel like I am known.  Through these communities, I can share my joys and challenges.  I can be kidded, encouraged, and sometimes called on the carpet. (My friend Shannon in Atlanta recently reminded me that Auntie Anne and her pretzels are not my friends... I have since extended that friendship ban to her cousin, Krispy Kreme.)  At SC Conference last month, many shared how they have been prayer for our community in the midst of a tragic loss.  My life is no longer an unknown to people I have loved over the years.  And theirs are not unknown to me.

We are connected to each other through our joys and our concerns.  We celebrate, we cry, we question, we grieve, we laugh, we love... and through it all, we live.  No rewinding, no fast-forwarding, just living life one day at a time.

It's all a gift.  Thanks be to God.

Peace, Deb

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing."  George Bernard Shaw

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."  Erma Bombeck 

Are You My Neighbor? (Sermon 7/14/13)

Luke 10:25-37                                         Fairchild AFB Chapel                                             July 14, 2013

Are you my neighbor? A Story of Radical Obedience

I checked my sermon bucket, the place where all sermons, good, bad and indifferent, go to reside after they are preached.  I was really surprised to find that in 22 years of ministry, I have never preached on the parable of the Good Samaritan.  What an amazing opportunity to teach on one of the most well-known and beloved of Jesus’ parables.  And what an unbelievable burden, since we think we know what this parable is all about.  Jesus’ stories often send us in a different direction than we originally intended to go.  And that, my friends, is a very scary proposition.  So let us begin.

In his book, Crazy Love, Francis Chan begins with this quote from 17^th century French priest Francois Fenelon, “To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins – is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?”  And yet that’s the way many of us live.  But what would it be like if we really got to know God in all of his infinitely amazing ways?   What if we took Jesus seriously and committed to loving others wholeheartedly?  What if the Bible and its story weaving through time became our story?  What would life look like then? 

Today we encounter Jesus in conversation with a member of the following crowd.  Now there were two kinds of people who showed up whenever Jesus was around… those who were desperately in need of what he had to share, and those who wanted to trip him up.  The desperate ones were usually not members of polite society.  They were poor, lame, or diseased.  They were shunned, shamed and forgotten.  They were the woman who touched Jesus’ garment for healing, lepers who had spent much of their lives in solitude, people with shady backgrounds or occupations – In short, the outcasts of the world.

The ones who wanted to trip him up were the people who saw Jesus as a threat.  The one we encounter today is introduced as a scribe – one who as a traveling judge dispensed legal advice on complicated matters of Torah and Talmud – the law and it’s interpretations through hundreds of years.  This scribe must have found Jesus’ teaching quite threatening.  We hear him ask Jesus a simple, complicated question.  This testing by the scribe is actually a way of challenging Jesus’ honor, even more than his knowledge of the Law.  The man’s question about how to inherit eternal life is not about personal salvation.  It is much bigger than that.  His question is really about “Who is in?” and “Who is out?” 

And to this expert in the law, Jesus replies – love God with everything you have – heart, soul, strength & mind – and your neighbor as yourself.  This statement implies that no part of us or our lives is to be withheld from God.  There is no compartmentalizing in God’s world… no such thing as a personal or professional… no sense that faith is only lived on Sunday.  Indeed, when one loves God fully, life is lived out in service to others as a natural extension of that love… we can do nothing else.  The scribe, a lawyer, is indeed well read.  But Jesus’ answer shows us that knowing about God or the law is not enough.  Real love of God is found in living the commandments in everything we do.  Real love of God is about being “all in.”

The scribe’s follow-up question, “Who is my neighbor?” is meant to push Jesus out on a limb, exposing him to the judgment of the religious elite.  But Jesus does not back down.  He answers the question by telling the story we all know so well, but as with many of Jesus’ stories, it has a twist the crowd is not expecting.  Our story’s twist:  the hero of the story is by all accounts the enemy.  Samaritans were other, outsiders, unclean and unacceptable.  But by making this man the one who lived within  the commandments of God, Jesus smashes through all the conventional excuses for separation.  Race, religion & region (or nationality) – they count for nothing with Jesus. This Samaritan risks everything by showing compassion for a stranger.  And as this preconceived idea about Samaritans is shattered, all other stereotypes assumed by the crowd are in essence invalidated.

Even more remarkable, the Samaritan provided rescue and recovery for the man, expecting nothing in return.  His actions are a gift.  Jesus is teaching us that neighbors are not bound by social boundaries or class divisions.  Neither is mercy the product of a calculating heart, nor eternal life the reward for a life well lived.  Being a neighbor does not earn us a place in heaven.  Being a neighbor is what we do in response to the gift of eternal life that is already ours through Jesus Christ.  Eternal life is the promise.  Loving God and neighbor is the “thank you” note we write with our lives every day.

Now with parables, it’s natural to see ourselves in the characters, and this one is no different.  Upon first reading, I want desperately to see myself in the role of the Samaritan – a helper and friend to those in need.  But as I study it more and more, I see in myself much more of the other players in the story.  You know, the Priest and the Levite had excellent justifications for not stopping to help... to touch a dead body would make them unable to perform their appointed duties.  That happens to me, too.  I see myself often too busy to stop and help, even when I see a need that I can meet with little delay in my schedule.  Or maybe I'm afraid of what others will think of me if they see me relating to someone outside my tiny, comfortable world.  I can even see myself as the beaten up man, at times alone and battered by life, wondering if anyone really cares about my pain, my loneliness, my isolation.  

We can easily be lured into thinking of Jesus as a kindly Savior, one whose friendship assures us of a place in heaven.  We are comfortable with the idea of someone who saves us from our sins… and ourselves.  But it’s always a surprise that Jesus rarely talked about that kind of stuff. 

More and more, I realize that Jesus didn't come to make sure that things stayed the way they had always been.  No, whether we like it or not, Jesus came to change the world - to upset the apple cart, to challenge the status quo.  Prevailing religious wisdom said that following the letter of the law would save the world – some of us even live that way today.  Instead, Jesus asked the people (and us) to follow two commandments:  First, to love God with everything we have.  And then, as a natural outpouring of that relationship, to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.  In a nutshell, the 613 laws from the Torah and thousands of interpretations all boil down to one simple command – just LOVE.

And yet, in its simplicity, LOVE the most difficult challenge of all.  Why is that?  Because it often contradicts everything that the world says is important.  In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul writes to a congregation struggling with what it means to live outside the world’s expectations.  “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…  Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?... For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (I Corinthians 1:18, 20, 25)

If nothing else, we live in a world that considers itself wise.  The trouble is that everyone’s understanding of wisdom is different.  I used to watch the news regularly, but somehow news coverage has devolved into commentary, people from all sides telling me how to think and live, and calling me stupid and worse if I disagree with them.  It’s no surprise that The New York Times has eliminated the comment sections on many of its news stories and editorials because people are so vile in their responses to what is written, with ugliness and condemnation equally shared from all sides of every issue. 

As I think about this parable and its challenge for my life, I realize that I have got to quit picking sides.  Republican/ Democrat – liberal/conservation – black/white/Hispanic – American/Foreigner – old/young – Christian/Muslim/Jewish/or No religious faith at all – Jesus tells us that all of these and all the others we can think of are false dichotomies.  The only question Jesus wants answered is “are you a neighbor to someone who needs you or are you not?” Or to put it another way: “Do you live out mercy?  Do you live in love?”

If I’m honest with myself, I realize that I have such a long way to go.  It’s too easy to get comfortable… to be lured into a routine which makes “busywork” demands of my time and my energy… too easy to be blinded to the needs around me… or to make assumptions about others… too easy to assume that those who don’t agree with me are my enemies… or expect someone else to take care of those needs that I’m just not that interested in meeting… too easy to worry about what others will think about me when I stand up for those who are deemed “other” and “outside” by the rest of society… It’s often too easy to just not care.

Zig Zigler wrote, “You have never really lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” As soon as I saw this quote, I thought of this parable. And this week, I remembered my own Samaritan story.  A few years ago, Shawn and I left our dream assignment in Germany for ultra-sunny Altus, OK.  As usual, we checked out the local Methodist church and settled into a hot and windy life. 

A few weeks later, I was chatting with one of the ministers and said what I always say, “Let me know if I can do anything to help out with your ministry here.”  The associate minister and the office manager shared a look, and one of them said, “Well, there is this member who could use a little TLC.  She’s in the middle of treatment for a workman’s comp accident and has to travel to OKC once a month for appointments and procedures.  Her car isn’t reliable enough to make the trip, and it’s probably good for her not to drive in the city anyway.”  It sounded like a simple matter… take someone to a doctor’s appointment two hours away and maybe grab a bite of lunch and squeeze in a stop by TJ Maxx while we were gone.

The day before our first trip, I checked in with the office to get the address and to call J, who wouldn’t pick up the phone for a number she didn’t recognize.  I called from the church, and after I talked to her, I thought for a minute and then asked the staff a question I hadn’t thought of before.  “Is there anything else about her I should know?”  “Did we mention that she’s a former crack addict and spent two years in jail for check fraud?”  Long pause…… “Uh, no, I think I might have remembered that.”  “You’ll be fine.  She’s a good conversationalist,” (which is the equivalent of asking about someone’s looks and hearing, “She has a great personality.”)

For the next year I took J back and forth between Altus and OKC.  We talked about the oddest things.  I found out about her son, an AF NCO, her abusive ex-husband, and her favorite TV shows, “Prison Break” and “Dog, the Bounty Hunter” – ironic choices, for sure.  I saw the world from a whole new perspective, learned about how food stamps work, and how a person can live on $400 a month, including feeding two rescued Rottweilers.  Sometimes we talked about theology, but not very often.  J’s needs were simple.  She just wanted to get through her surgeries and hopefully receive enough disability benefits to not have to go back to work. 

There were days when I asked myself, “What were you thinking when you volunteered for this?”  Often, helping out was inconvenient and downright messy, like when I cleaned up throw up from the front seat floor mat after she had some out-patient surgery.  But at the end of each journey, I knew that I had made a difference.  J believed that someone cared, even though she didn't often say the words, “Thank you.”   

Eventually, my time with J came to an end.  Her longtime drug use had caused some dementia, and she finally went to live in a long-term care facility near her son and his family.  She was only 51 years old.  J wasn’t someone I would have chosen to be my friend, but in the end, she was my neighbor.  And because of her, I think differently about poverty and addictions and know something more about the lengths some people will go just to survive. 

We have a long way to go, my friends, if we are going to claim to be true neighbors to those around us.  Radical obedience to God’s commandment of love is a lifetime’s work.  It’s hard.  It’s scary.  It’s uncomfortable.  And in this story we are told that it’s what’s required to be true neighbors and deeply devoted disciples of Jesus Christ.  Maybe I have this sermon title all wrong.  Instead of the one I came up with in the beginning of the week, “Are you my neighbor?”  a new one may be more on point… “What kind of neighbor am I?”

The prophet Micah summed up a life dedicated to God in this way: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

May it be so with us!  Journey on, my friends, journey on.

Amen and Amen.

Almighty and merciful God, you have planted in us the seed of your word.  Help us by your Holy Spirit to receive it with joy and live according to it, so that we may grow in faith, hope, and love.  Lead us to reflect this love to our neighbors by helping them in all their needs.  We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who taught us to prayer together saying, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen.

Peace, Deb