The Hope of Reconciliation

On the 500^th Anniversary of the Reformation

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one can boast.  For we are what God has made us, created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.  –Ephesians 2:8-10

Once, I was interviewing for a new call and the call committee asked me about my favorite bible verse.  I hesitated, verses rattling around in my brain.   It depended a lot upon what was going on in my life at the time.  But, finally, I settled on Ephesians 2:8-10.   For me, these verses sum up the heart of my faith.  While these are not the “traditional” Reformation verses,  (Romans 3:21-31),  they crystalize for me the insight into God’s graciousness that drove Martin Luther to question and challenge the church of his time. 

The core of Luther’s insight and these verses from Ephesians is just this:  salvation is God’s doing, not our own.  God acts to reconcile the world to God’s self through Christ.  Even our ability to trust in that reconciling act (faith) is a gift from God.   The minute we start to boast about the superiority of our personal theology, righteousness, holiness or morality, we’ve missed the point.  (And we all do it from time to time, don’t we?). 

But why would God give us such an amazing gift?  Why save us?   The first and best answer is that God loves us and created us and everything that exists out of that great love.  But, Ephesians reminds us that God also created us for a purpose.   God saves us from ourselves so that we can be who God intended us to be in the first place:  the caretakers of the creation God loves…  including one another.  God saves us from our brokenness and death so that we can join God in the work of reconciling a broken and suffering world.   We were not created and recreated in Christ just to wallow in God’s love for us.  We were created in Christ to live in and through and out of that love as a way of life. 

On this 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, it is that grace-centered, reconciling way of life that we are called to live and embody as God’s people in the world.   This is not a time for denominational boasting.   It is a time for re-committing ourselves to join God in the hard work of reconciliation.  It is a time for re-committing ourselves to the work of caretaking that God created us for.

These next days, there will be commemorations and prayer services and gatherings around the world to mark the 500 years since Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” in Wittenberg, Germany.   Many of these events will bring Lutheran and Catholic and other Christians together to reflect on 500 years of division and to rejoice in the growing unity among us.  It is my hope and prayer that these events will provide the impetus to continue the work of reconciliation that has marked the last half-century and spur us to continue working together to share God’s love, mercy and compassion with a hurting world.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Please pray for peace, with justice, among all God’s children all around the world.  Thanks for reading.

Coin of the Realm

Matthew 22:15-22

 

“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s”  (vs. 21)

But God says…

“…for the world and all that is in it is mine…”  Psalm 50:12b

Politics and religion.  Religion and politics.   The world of the First Century was not at all like ours.  No one in that time could have conceived of today’s “separation of church and state”.  In those day, politics and religion were inextricably intertwined.  Many of the things Jesus said and did had political as well as religious implications, which is why the religious leaders (who also had political power) found him so threatening they wanted him dead.   This week’s Gospel is more than just a clever coin trick.  It represents a clash of empires and expectations.  The questions it raises have to do with more than paying taxes.  They have to do with what we consider and accept as the coin of the realm.

The coin the Pharisees brought to Jesus likely bore the image of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.  One common coin in circulation from that time had an impression of Tiberius on the front and Caesar Augustus’ wife Liva depicted as the goddess of peace on the back (pictured above).  This coin made both a political and religious statement.  It depicted a god who claimed ultimate power, which, according to the Jewish law, was idolatry.  Jesus traps the Pharisees in their own rules.  (Gotcha!)   But even more, he calls into question their loyalty to the very God they claimed to honor by fastidiously following the rules.   Jesus asks, “Who do you Pharisees really worship?  Who really is your god?   Who do you really think the world belongs to?”  Good questions for us to consider too!

Today, some Christians would suggest that the community of faith should have nothing to say about politics.  They argue that faith is about our personal relationship with Jesus, but should have nothing to say about our communal life in the world.   But, the scriptures and Jesus were adamant that God was the God of heaven AND earth, and that everything private and public, personal and communal, belongs to God.   If our faith has nothing to say about our public life, then we have a pretty weak faith, and by extension, a pretty puny god. 

But, for those who belong to the Reign of God, the coin of the realm does not bear the imprint of Washington or Franklin or Hamilton, it bears the imprint of Jesus.  It bears the imprint of Jesus upon a cross.  It bears the imprint of the One who, in great love, paid the tax of human violence, hatred, brokenness, pain and suffering in full.  It bears the imprint of the One who has always hung with all those who suffer and with all those who hang with the suffering of our world today.  For us, the coin of the realm is the Love of the God of heaven and earth, the compassion of God’s Son, and the enduring and eternal life which he offers free to everyone.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matthew 6:21).  So, I wonder, what coin do we have in our pockets?

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.

Asterisks in the Kingdom?

Matthew 22:1-14

Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?  --Matthew 22:12

As I drive around, I like reading church signs.  Some are pithy, some clever, some make me think, and some make my theological skin crawl.   Many say something like, “All Are Welcome!”   But, whenever I see that phrase on a sign or on a bulletin I always wonder to myself, “really?”   I know we all intend to be welcoming to everyone, but so often I think there is an unintentional asterisk added, “as long as you’re like us, or want to be like us.”   In practice, differences are often just barely tolerated, if that.

This week’s Gospel lesson seems to support that kind of thinking.  In Jesus’ parable, all sorts of people are invited to the wedding banquet after the original invitees decide they have better things to do.  But then, one of the guests gets booted out because he’s not dressed right.  I’ve always found that part of the parable troubling and am tempted to end the reading with verse 10.  But, when something in scripture troubles me, it usually means I need to wrestle with it, not avoid it.  Does God’s Kingdom really have an asterisk?   Or am I missing something here?  

Context, I think, is important.   In this section of Matthew, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  It is the week before his crucifixion.  He is locked in debate with the leaders of the people:  Sadducees, Pharisees, Scribes, and the Chief Priests.  He indicts them with parable after parable, lesson after lesson.  He baits them with stories that get them nodding, then pulls the rug out from under them, and they condemn themselves.   They, who think themselves God’s chosen, are the ones who turn down the invitation to the banquet.  They, who think themselves righteous, are the ones wearing the wrong clothes.  Those who think themselves to be the “insiders” are found to be the “outsiders.”  They are so enraged they want to kill Jesus, and eventually get their way. 

We, who are today’s “insiders” among the people of God, ought not point an accusing finger at these leaders too quickly!  We who are bishops, pastors, deacons, council members, and the leaders of the people may stand under the same indictment that our ancestors in the faith did.  We wonder at our empty pews, but the truth is, maybe we’re really not as welcoming as we think we are.  Perhaps we are putting our own asterisks on the Kingdom.

Deciding who is “in” and who is “out” is really not our business.  We are the slaves sent out into the streets to gather all we can find, both the good and the bad, saint and sinner.  It is the King’s business to decide from there.   And decide he does.   Jesus goes to a cross for the good and the bad, for the insider and the outsider, for Jew and Gentile, for you and for me.  He says to us, “forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing”  and “today you will be with me in paradise,” redeems betraying Peter and sends us out to invite all people, yes ALL people, into the life of discipleship – into that life which is truly life.   

In the end, Jesus shows us that there are no asterisks in Christ’s Kingdom.  Thanks be to God!

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Pray for those in our world who feel left out.  Even more, go out, invite and walk with them in Jesus’ name.  Thanks for reading.

We're Tenants

Matthew 21:33-46 

“This church belongs to God.”  When I said that in a sermon several years ago, I didn’t think I was saying anything controversial.  But, after the service, a man approached me in the fellowship hall.  He was clearly upset.  “This church belongs to us!”  He declared forcefully.  “We built it!  We paid for it!  We take care of it!  It belongs to us!”  Having delivered his message, he stormed off.  I was left dumbfounded.

We’re tenants, my brothers and sisters, just tenants.

On another occasion, I was talking about the importance of our stewardship of creation.  I was encouraging recycling and protecting our environment.  One person in wasn’t buying it.  “God gave us everything on this planet.”  The person stated,  “So, we can use it however we please.”  

“Even if that means destroying it?”  I asked and the person shrugged and walked away.

We’re tenants here, my brothers and sisters, just tenants.

In this week’s Gospel lesson, Jesus touches a sensitive nerve that is as old as humanity.  In the Garden of Eden the snake does not tempt Eve and Adam with fruit.  The serpent tempts them with the possibility that by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they could become gods unto themselves.  And we know how well that went!   Genesis teaches that there is a part in all of us that wants to be in charge of the vineyard.  There is something in all of us that wants to oust the landlord and run things by ourselves.  And that never ends well.  Never.   The scriptures are full of stories that bear this out.

Like the tenants in Jesus’ parable, whenever we try to take over from the landlord, when we begin to think the Garden is ours, death always follows close behind.  That is true in the church and in the world.  Our self-centered selfishness results in all kinds of social and other ills:  injustice, oppression, war, violence, hatred, prejudice, and racism, to name just a few.

But God does not leave us there.  God does not take the advice of the Pharisees, Chief priests, scribes or crowds gathered around Jesus that day in Jerusalem.  God, thank God, does not put wretches like us to a “miserable death.”   God does indeed send the Son, and the Son does give his life for our insatiable desire to do things our own way.  But, through the cross, the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone of the Kingdom.  Through the resurrection,  we become the heirs, not of our own petty kingdoms, but of a life that is more powerful and enduring than death itself. 

This gracious gift transforms our lives so that we become more like the tenants God imaged us to be:  laborers in the vineyard who produce the fruits of love, forgiveness, mercy and compassion.  As 1 Peter says, we become living stones built upon the Cornerstone “in order to proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  (2:5, 9). 

Yes, we are tenants.  And, in the end, that is both a blessing and a gift.

Peace,

Bishop Mike.

Thanks for reading.   Please continue to pray for the people of Las Vegas and all those whose lives have been shattered by violence  Pray too that God would show us all how to act as peacemakers in our world today.