Labyrinth shadows

My husband offered a program about the labyrinth today at the Valle Crucis Conference Center and took this beautiful photograph. The canvas Chartres-style labyrinth was set out in the Apple Barn and the large window at the end of the barn cast this shadow on the labyrinth. How lovely it must have been to walk this sacred path today.
I was walking a different path today--traveled to meet two good friends from Seminary and share coffee and conversation. A day of many blessings.

Sermon Year C Pentecost 17 Proper 20

10 mph

My husband Tom and I watched a movie this week,
one we rented from Netflix,
and the title of this film is 10 mph (ten miles per hour).

It’s a documentary,
the true story of two young upwardly mobile software engineers
who realize that life
in their little well paying corporate cubicles
doesn’t mean much to them any more.

They decide to resign their jobs, cash in their savings,
and make a cross country trip across America.
That is not such an unusual story—
because cross country trips across America
have been going on since the days of Lewis and Clark,
and before and beyond.

What is unusual
is that they decide to make this journey on a Segway.
Segways are those motorized scooters that you ride standing up.
They are economical, environmentally sound
and funny looking.
They are actually becoming quite popular with police departments
as they can go anywhere—
at 10 mph.

These two restless young men,
Josh Caldwell and Hunter Weeks,
travel from Seattle to Boston in 100 days.

And my favorite part of the film is the wonderful, generous and good people
they meet on their journey.

Now there is one police officer in Illinois
who is rather a stinker,
a Barney Fife gone very, very bad.
This police officer is about to arrest these cross country travelers,
because he says it is illegal to go 10 mph on any highway in Illinois.
Just as they about to be arrested and their journey ended,
another police officer arrives who sees beyond the letter of the law,
and wishes the young men well on their continued Segway journey.

I don’t think the uptight policeman was dishonest;
not like the manager we hear about in Luke’s gospel this morning.
But I do wonder if he didn’t begin to see himself a little differently
when this movie came out.

Sometimes we don’t see what we are doing,
how we are behaving,
until someone tells us the blunt truth,
gives us a painful snapshot of how the world sees us,
captures us in our dysfunction, our dishonesty, our denial--
and won’t let us wiggle away.

The dishonest manager in Luke’s gospel
is stopped in his tracks—
because he is caught --
and told by his Master,
you cannot be my manager.
.
The manager knows that losing this job is bad news.
But rather than wring his hands, whine and moan
or set out to seek revenge against the Master--
this manager jumps into action.

He quickly begins to renegotiate some debts.
How much do you owe ? 100 jugs of olive oil?
Make than 50.
And how about you—what do you owe? 100 bushels of wheat?
Oh, just make that 80 and let’s call it even.

The manager knows he’s been dishonest.
He just didn’t know others knew.
The manager also knows he is going to need friends
after he loses his job.
So he sets out to make friends in the only way he knows how--
by adjusting his profit margin.

To most of us this gospel reading is puzzling
because someone dishonest receives praise.
In our eyes, the manager, even when he tries to make amends,
still seems self-serving —
he only does it
because he doesn’t want to wind up a ditch digger or a beggar.

Yet in this parable the Master comes in and commends the dishonest manager,
Good going! You’ve acted shrewdly.
And we wonder, why would the Master congratulate
someone who is dishonest and manipulative?

Maybe there is something
about reconciliation,
about repentance,
about change,
about generosity--
even when it does not spring from the innermost part of our souls,
even when it is not our own original idea to head down that better path,
even when it is not an enormous mountain top conversion.

Maybe doing even something small--
something small which is good and generous and kind--
maybe even that small change
helps us begin a transformation
that only God can see as possible.

Maybe our own feeble actions
have a mysterious way of connecting with God’s grace
and opening a door we had pulled shut long ago.

Maybe beginning to say we forgive someone who has hurt us--
even when we aren’t sure we totally feel it--
maybe that small drop of forgiveness
is the way we tap into the deep well
of God’s forgiveness and mercy.

Perhaps if we give,
we really will become generous.
Perhaps if we laugh,
we really will become joyful.
Perhaps if we give thanks,
we really will become grateful.

Sometimes doing even something small
is the beginning of total transformation.

Maybe the Master,
maybe God, sees that we all stand
on the brink of transformation.

Sometimes it takes a shock
to make us spring into action.
Sometimes bad news—or just the threat of bad news--
losing a job, waiting to hear from the doctor about a medical report,
finding ourselves in the midst of an ugly family conflict--
can make us take steps for healing
that should have happened long ago.

It is hard to begin.
All we can do is start where we are.
That’s exactly what the dishonest manager did.
He knew how to negotiate and to strike a bargain--
only this time he struck bargains
that benefited more than just him.
It was the only place he could start.

So often we want to speed towards perfection,
when really all we can do is start out at 10 mph.
Sometimes we don’t even have a Segway to stand on—
just our own two feet—and our heart and our mind and our prayers—
and a big helping of God’s grace.

If we can be faithful in a little,
we can grow to be faithful in much.

The good news is
God cheers us on
with every step we take,
with every mile we go.

Saturday ponderings

It's Saturday morning and there is a thin veil of fog over the mountains outside my window. And it's Saturday...a great day for ice cream (actually, any day is a great day for ice cream!) I came across this photo that I took in the beautiful little city of St. David's in Wales. I think we ate ice cream every day in Wales (or at least made a serious effort to do so). The ice cream there is really the best I have ever had. Favorite flavor? Celtic Crunch of course!

I have errands to do today--can I really pray without ceasing picking out a range hood for our stove or finding a replacement battery for the little timer I use in meditation? We shall see.

Have had a lovely peaceful morning. Sermon is finished for this evening's 5 p.m. service (and tomorrow's 11 am service). I am hoping to connect with a college friend who will be in town today. Enjoyed (as always) reading Chet Raymo's blog this morning. Yesterday he wrote about poet Mary Oliver and today he wrote about the magnificent library in ancient Alexandria. No wonder I like his blog. You can check it out too--see the Chet Raymo Science Musings link on this page.

Glasgow Cathedral window

Enough with words for today. I just wanted to post something beautiful. This window is in Glasgow Cathedral. I spent 2 days in Glasgow after my residency on Iona last fall. I found Glasgow fascinating and hope to return. It seems like folks often skip Glasgow when they travel to Scotland. That's a mistake. There's also a wonderful little museum, St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Art, right next to the Cathedral that's a gem.

Sermon Year C Pentecost 16 Proper 19

A note of pondering about this sermon post:
I think it's interesting how sometimes I write a sermon and I think it really works and then I preach it and it just doesn't seem to work. That's the way I felt with this past Sunday's sermon. Not sure how the congregation felt. I almost decided not to post it, but then I thought, well, why not? Maybe it reads better than it preaches.
But if it doesn't do much for you (or even if it does) then go to my friend Ben's blog (see link on this page to SEERSUCKER AND A COLLAR)--I read Ben's last night and thought, "That's it!" Ben's sermon is terrific. And the cool thing is how every preacher who preached this text on Sunday probably came up with a slightly different take on the gospel. That is the REALLY cool thing about the Bible!)

GRUMBLING. LOST. REJOICE.

There are three words that stand out in our gospel reading today.
Grumbling. Lost. Rejoice.

Now the first word—GRUMBLING-- is one we all know.
No doubt it is an activity we participate in
a bit too frequently.

Grumble.
The dictionary gives us this definition:
To make low, unintelligible sounds in the throat; growl.
To mutter or mumble in discontent;
To complain in a surly or peevish manner

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.
And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling….

Imagine that.
Grumbling
because they didn’t want certain people hanging around.
It wasn’t so much their love for Jesus—
love wasn’t number one on the list for Pharisees and scribes—
just as love usually isn’t number one on the list
for us modern day grumblers.

The truth is they saw these tax-collectors and sinners
as despicable, unworthy, disposable human beings.
These grumblers are mad at Jesus
because he welcomes everyone to the table.
Jesus is guilty of radical, reckless hospitality.
Grumble, grumble, grumble.

LOST.
The first definition of this word is interesting:
Destroyed, or ruined physically or morally.
It’s why so many people love the hymn Amazing Grace:
I once was lost…was blind…
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come…

We have been there.
Many of us have been there more than once.
We understand what it is to be lost,
to feel destroyed or ruined--
physically, morally, financially,
emotionally, spiritually.

Then follow these definitions of the word LOST:
Not to be found; no longer held or possessed; parted with.
Bewildered or ill at ease.

Jesus understands how we all long
to be held,
to be found,
to be seen by others as God sees us,
as beloved and beautiful.

Jesus responds even to the grumblers without criticism or judgment.
Jesus doesn’t apologize for or get defensive about the company he keeps.

Jesus responds with a story, a parable.
He hopes the grumblers might still have ears to hear.

He tells the story of one sheep who has wandered off.
One out of 100.
He tells of a shepherd who goes to seek that one lost sheep.
The shepherd doesn’t give up
until that one lost sheep is found.

Jesus tells of the woman who has ten silver coins.
She loses one.
One out of 10.
He tells how the woman searches and searches for that one coin.

She doesn’t give up
until that lost coin has been found.

REJOICE.
To be glad, happy, or delighted.
To be full of joy.

The shepherd finds the lost sheep and rejoices.
The woman finds the lost coin and rejoices.

Friends and neighbors are called together
when that which was lost is found.
Called together with an invitation:
REJOICE WITH ME.

This is our invitation each time we gather to worship.
Jesus calls us to REJOICE.
To rejoice in the goodness and the love
And the never-giving-up-on-us grace of God.

We as the church walk a dangerous line:
We can easily become a Body of Grumblers,
instead of the Body of Christ.
We can easily forget that we, too, are lost in many ways.
we can grumble and judge and criticize others
just like the Pharisees and scribes—
until we even believe we are doing it all in God’s name.

Jesus tells these parables to us.
Jesus says to us.
Guess what?
You are not the shepherd.
You are the lost sheep.

We are the ones who wander away.
There are a million forms of wandering away.
There are a million ways we can get lost.
There are a million ways we can lose
a part of ourselves…if not our whole self.
And grumbling often paves the path
that leads us away from the heart of God.

But still there is good news.
Still there is amazing grace.

Jesus says,
Never fear.
God will come looking for you.
God will keep after us
because God never gives up on us.
There is always hope in the mind of God.

No matter how destroyed or lost we feel,
God visions our possibility for wholeness.

No matter how the grumblers may try to push us away.
No matter how we try to push ourselves away
with our own grumbling.

God just opens those great arms of love wider and wider,
until we find ourselves embraced, lifted up,
and carried back home.

We stumble, we fumble, we grumble.
We lose our way.

God seeks us out no matter what.
For God is a reckless and radical shepherd.
God doesn’t work by ratios or percentages or profit margins.
The one is as important as the ninety-nine.

Not one person in God’s world
is insignificant or unimportant.
Every lost sheep is worth the search.

God loves each of us that much
and more.
Much, much more.

Rejoice!

+ + +


Luke 15:1-10
All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
"Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Sermon for Year C Pentecost 15 Proper 18

THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP

Our son Jody was a freshman at Warren Wilson College
when I got the phone call.
He was taking a religion class,
studying Jesus and the gospels.

Now don’t jump to conclusions
that he was striving to follow in my footsteps.
At that point in our son’s life
he was far more interested in disproving religion,
showing me the myriad ways I had been brainwashed.

“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“I just read something in Luke’s gospel
that I don’t think you are going to like.”
“Really? What is that?”

“Well, Mom, you are always saying we need to look to Jesus
as an example of how to live our lives, right?”
“True,” I respond (though I know he is setting me up).

“Well, Mom, right here in Luke, Chapter 14,
Jesus says I need to hate my mother.
In fact, Jesus says if I don’t hate father and mother,
wife and children, brother and sister,
I can’t be his disciple.
So, what do you think about that, Mom!!???”

Ouch!
There are some very difficult passages in the Bible
and this is one of them.
First of all,
with any difficult passage
we need to look at the big picture first.
We need to try to understand the meaning
beyond a single sentence or phrase.
What is Jesus telling this crowd of people who are traveling with him?

Jesus is saying, it is in no way easy to be my disciple.
You don’t get to just come along for the ride.
You can’t be a Jesus groupie
and just tag along without making your own commitment,
without making some changes
in how you live your life.
It’s not just about Sunday, folks.

There is a cost.

What are the requirements to be a disciple?

If we read Luke’s gospel,
the first requirement is to “hate” our parents and families.
We have to understand though
that the way we use the word “hate” today
and the way it was used in the middle east in the first century
are different.

We pack an emotional wallop into the word “hate.”
In Jesus’ time that word meant “to do without.”

Jesus is saying that if we want to be his disciple
we have to be willing to do without
mother, father, wife, children, brother, sister…
We must trust that much in God.
Disciples are called to put God as the first priority.
We know that
But we also know that is very, very, very difficult.


Jesus uses this example of doing without our families
To wake us up to how difficult discipleship really is.

However, we also cannot read this passage in Luke’s gospel
as permission to neglect or ignore our families.
We don’t get to put ourselves
as the number one priority either.
Discipleship calls us to love God
with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.
To love God first but to love others as well.

Jesus follows this shocking statement about hating our families
with two parables
that help clarify what he is saying to the crowd, and to us.

The first parable tells us
that no one starts to build a tower
without planning on what it will cost.
After all, he says,
what kind of crazy person would start building something
he can’t finish?

This was the second OUCH for me in today’s gospel!
Being that my husband Tom and I are in the midst
of remodeling a small house
and most nights,
one or the other of us is lying awake,
worrying about how we will afford to finish this project.
We didn’t plan very well on what our “tower” would cost!
(Don’t you hate it when Jesus gets personal!!??!)

There is a tinge of irony in Jesus’ voice here.
He is well aware how often we begin projects, commitments, life changes…
without really thinking them through,
without the commitment to follow to the end.

Jesus is saying,
You have to look at the big picture of what discipleship costs.
And, indeed, there is a cost.

The second parable is even larger in scope.
Jesus tells us that no good king would lead his troops into battle
If he thought they would be outnumbered, slaughtered.
The leader must turn to other means to achieve peace--
To diplomacy, to working out a solution in a different way.
No good king.
Jesus is telling us that God has no desire for us to fail in our discipleship—
But God’s ways may not be the way we imagine.

Jesus is saying,
be wise.
Realize the cost of following me.
Don’t start on this path without recognizing it may lead places
you never imagined or dreamed.

And then our gospel passage closes this morning
with the “ouch-iest” passage of all:
None of you can become my disciple
If you do not give up all your possessions.

Jesus did not ask us to tithe here—
To give up just 10% of our possessions—
Jesus asks us to give up ALL our possessions.
ALL.

Our possessions are all the worldly things that give us security—
and once again—we have heard it multiple times in Luke’s gospel—
Jesus says, let go!
Don’t let what you own
own you.
Don’t be possessed
by your possessions.
Let go.

So this is a very difficult gospel reading this morning.
My son was right.
We all need to really think
about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

I want to tell you about someone
who did think long and hard
about the cost of discipleship.
His name is John Wesley.

John Wesley lived in the 1700’s.
And some of you may know him
as the founder of the Methodist Church.
Now I must tell you
that Wesley was an Episcopalian—an Anglican—
until the day he died.
He did start a religious movement,
which eventually—after Wesley’s death—
grew into a new denomination.

Wesley was born into an educated and fairly affluent family,
a family of privilege.
That was his norm—
just as it is the norm for many of us.

Through his study of the gospel,
Wesley began to realize he needed to make some choices.
He carefully examined how he was living his life.
One day when he entered his house,
Arms full of some paintings he had bought to decorate his walls,
He suddenly saw that his own housekeeper had not even enough money
For a winter coat.
Wesley was shocked at his own blindness.
He began to take living the gospel seriously.
He knew he needed to let go, to relinquish possessions,
to strive for justice and peace,
to respect the dignity of every human being.
To begin to fully live into his baptismal covenant.


In 1731, John Wesley records that his salary for the year was thirty pounds.
So John Wesley carefully calculates
That he needs 28 of those 30 pounds to just survive,
To pay his bills for food and shelter and basic clothing.
So Wesley manages to live on 28 pounds that year
And he gives away the remaining two pounds.
We don’t know if he gave those 2 pounds to the church
Or to the poor
Or if he bought food for the hungry and gave that away.
All we know is that John Wesley gave two pounds for God’s work.

Four years into his ministry,
Wesley is earning 120 pounds.
Life is getting better.
More people are asking Wesley to come and preach
And paying him to do so.

Wesley had calculated he needed 28 pounds for his living expenses.
So he lived on those 28 pounds
and gave away 92 pounds.

Eventually, John Wesley became one of the best known,
most sought after preachers in history.
One source I read said,
by the end of his ministry, if we calculate inflation,
Wesley made the modern day equivalent
of $ 1.4 million dollars in one year—
and he lived on the modern day equivalent of $ 30,000.

John Wesley gave away over one million dollars that year.
I wonder what I would do,
what I would give away, what I would keep,
if I made $ 1.4 million dollars?

Wesley never changed the amount—that 28 pounds—he needed to live on.
He kept that same standard of living
and gave away all the rest.

The cost of discipleship.

Wesley understood—and he gave willingly and joyfully—
Because he realized to follow Jesus
It can never be about one person or even about one person’s family.
To follow Jesus is to care about a community—
That community can be a church, a city or the world—
To care and to use our blessings, our abundance,
to bless others,
as much as we possibly can.

Wesley fought for social justice—
for prison reform, for the abolition of slavery.
He was often at odds with church policy
but he gave anyway.
Wesley saw being baptized as the call to do good of every possible sort,
to inspire love at whatever the personal cost.

Wesley challenged himself—and others—
to really struggle with what it means to participate in God’s kingdom.
Not the kingdom that is to come,
but the kingdom that is here, that is right now.

Because in truth,
that is the only kingdom we can knowingly hope to affect.

Following Jesus is costly—
Both for our bank accounts
And for how we choose to live our lives.

We are in that large crowd that is traveling with Jesus—
And today, in Luke’s gospel,
Jesus has turned and looked us in the eye and asked:

“Are you really willing to pay the price?”

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