Concealed

Matthew 6: 1-24

“Concealed”

I have three stories to tell you, and I’d like you to consider what may be in common between them.

The first is about people with handicapped stickers, who park in handicapped spaces in parking lots, and then walk into the store without an obvious or apparent presenting problem. They don’t need a wheelchair, or a walker. They walk in under their own steam and they just don’t seem to deserve the benefit of a handicapped space. Sometimes there’s a note left on their windshield, or a letter written to the editor of the local paper, or a posting on Facebook, challenging these people, arguing that they do not deserve the use of the spaces.

The second story is about an 11 year old girl, a fifth grader, who gets partway through the school year and realizes that all the books being assigned to her class for reading are either about boys, or dogs, or boys with dogs. And so she starts a campaign with a goal to gather 1000 books that include stories about girls and that better reflect the diversity that she sees in her class and her neighborhood.

The third story is reflected in this video: 

Fireflies

What do you think each of these stories has in common?

·     (about something that cannot be easily seen, something hidden about a person)

o  The first story reflects the fact that there are handicaps that are not obvious to those who are not experiencing them, but it makes it no less of a challenge than the ones we can see

o  The second story reflects the fact that unless we meet or read about or learn about people who are different from ourselves, we grow up with a limited view of the world, a view that conceals other points of view.

o  The third story shows how people can be facing challenges that we know nothing about; and that once we do know, we are more able to adapt our approaches to engage with them, to be with them, to build relationships with them.

There is a saying about this: “Be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”

The original saying was “Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.”

These words were written by the Rev. Ian Henderson in 1897, at a time when the word “pitiful” meant something different. Today, this word is typically used as an expression of contempt; it means that someone is pathetic, or small, or inadequate.

But back then, it meant “full of pity”, or “compassionate”; deserving or arousing pity or commiseration”.

To feel compassion for someone, to commiserate with them, to have pity for them, that is what pitiful used to mean.

Today we say, “be kind”, as we update the saying.

That comes close.

But full of pity also means full of mercy. Be merciful, for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

Can we accept that what is going on with most people is mostly hidden?

Can we accept that about ourselves? Do we try to hide what’s going on with us, from the public, from our friends, from ourselves, from God?

My mom always used to say she would never go out of the house without “putting her face on” – meaning nobody, but nobody was going to see her without her makeup, her lipstick, her hair fixed just the way she wanted it.

Don’t we all do this to some extent, putting on our “game face”, our public persona, and hiding as much as possible our inner lives, our inner thoughts, our inner struggles?

We conceal our wrinkles and rolls.

We encrypt our data.

We put up blinds and curtains.

We carry our concealed weapons, whether they are words, or actions, or guns, keeping them under wraps and out of sight or hearing from the general public, but ready to pull out without warning when we feel threatened.

In this passage,

       Jesus is talking about hiding or concealing things,

       but particularly

       the things we do to share compassion with others;

       the things that we hope will earn us favor with God.

First he says, give alms to the poor in secret. The Greek word for alms is the same word that mercy comes from. It’s undeserved, unearned.

We are called to without considering the worthiness of the one receiving it.

We are called to give without seeking any reward for giving.

We are called to give, because God’s gifts to us prompts us to give freely out of that same love.

The kinds of treasures on earth that we try to hold onto,

to conceal, to protect,

are the things that will deteriorate over time,

no matter what we do.

That’s what Jesus means when he says that moths and rust will destroy and consume them.

They are finite, they won’t last.

They are at risk from thieves.

These are the reasons why we take such significant measure to hang onto them.

These are the reasons why we focus on our scarcities rather than our abundance.

But we don’t need to worry about hanging onto the treasure in heaven.

We don’t need to make sure we are recognized for them, because God recognizes them.

We don’t need to care about whether people realize what we are doing, or even whether the recipient appreciates what we are doing.

God knows.

So the good news is that we can give abundantly, generously, unconditionally, without worrying about what anyone thinks.

We can pray simply, humbly, privately, secretly, without anyone needing to hear our words.

We can fast, or do whatever spiritual disciplines have meaning to us, without needing to get the approval or support of anyone else.

We can trust that the things we hide from others, for whatever reason, will not be hidden from God, who is merciful, and loves us unconditionally.

We can choose as a congregation

       to love and serve

       and be with those in the community

       who have need of us,

without worrying about

       whether we can balance the budget,

       or whether it will bring in new members,

       or how long we can even last by doing such a thing.

Because the only “anyone” who matters

       is the One who knows our hearts,

       sees our intentions and loves us,

       whether we are failing miserably

       or hitting it out of the ballpark,

whether we can sustain forever

       or we are simply good stewards of what we have,

       for as long as we have it.

Let us take to the cross those things we try to hide from God, and those things we try to hold onto rather than making them known, available, able to be shared with others.

And the One who sees in secret will forgive our shortcomings, and perfect our efforts, in the mysterious ways of God, and will surely provide the only rewards that matter.

Amen.

Wholehearted

Matthew 5: 17-48

Be perfect, as your Heavenly father is perfect.

I’ve had two or three conversations this week with groups of you about this gospel passage. It’s a tough one. And I’ve spent a fair amount of time in study and in prayer about why it is so tough for us to deal with a statement like this from Jesus. How can he expect us to be as perfect as God? What on earth can Jesus mean by this?

I appreciated coming across this explanation by David Lose, the President of Luther Seminary in Philadelphia. He says this:

“When we hear that command, most of us hear an injunction to a kind of moral perfectionism. But that's not actually what the original language implies. "Perfect," in this case, stems from telos, the Greek word for "goal," "end," or "purpose." The sense of the word is more about becoming what was intended, accomplishing one's God-given purpose in the same way that God constantly reflects God's own nature and purpose. Eugene Peterson's The Message gets closer to the mark, I think, when he translates it, "You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity."

Does that let us off the hook with all the other things? Certainly not. But it does help us get to the root of the issue. We can only do these other things -- repaying evil with good, forgiving and praying for those who harm us -- to the degree that we can live into our God-given identity as blessed and beloved children. You can't give what you don't have, and so only those who have experienced love can in turn share it with others.

Jesus is showing us how to become wholehearted. When he says, “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”, he is referring to us dedicating our lives to the greatest commandments – to love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength – and to love your neighbor as yourself. He says, “on these hang all the laws and the prophets”. Live into your identity as God’s beloved child, with your whole heart. Be wholehearted - in our love of God, in our love of neighbor, and in our love of self.

Dave Peterson, of the H.E. Butt Family Foundation, connects wholeheartedness with one of Jesus’ beatitudes – Blessed are the pure in heart.

He says,

“Sören Kierkegaard restated this beatitude in this way, "Purity of heart is to will one thing." When Jesus speaks of a pure heart, he is referring to more than emotions. To Jesus, the heart represented the integrated core of a person--a kind of perfect synthesis of all thoughts, feelings, and will. Imagine the independent-minded forces of heart, mind, and will lined up in single file singing, "Hi ho, hi ho," like the Seven Dwarfs. It is, as the saying goes, like herding cats.

When Woody Allen was asked what he believed in, he said, "I believe in the power of distraction." It's hard to have a pure heart when life has so many distractions.

Here's what Paul had to say about willing one thing,

“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate ... I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Rom. 7:15-19)

So much for purity of heart.

Some of the challenges of this has to do with the maddening distraction of sin. And some of it has to do with the 1,001 competing demands on my life. If I aim to sustain a singular focus on God, how will I have time for everything else?

Dave Peterson tells this story: A while back, I climbed Mount Rainier in western Washington. A friend invited me to join him. For three days, my life was singularly focused on the great mountain. Everything I ate, wore, and thought had to do with the mountain. And then it occurred to me that the more I focused on the mountain and the higher I climbed, the farther I could see. Ironically, having a singular focus didn't shrink my world, it blew my world wide open. Maybe that's what Jesus had in mind when he said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added as well."

To consider how being perfect is related to being wholehearted, I also turned to the writings of Brené Brown. She is an American scholar, author, and public speaker, who is currently a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She is the author of two #1 New York Times Bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection (2010) and Daring Greatly (2012).

Much of her research and writing over the past twelve years has been focused on topics such as shame, perfectionism, vulnerability, courage, and wholeheartedness.

Through her work, she helps us shift from a focus on perfectionism to a focus on wholeheartedness.

She importantly describes shame as the voice of perfection. She says that it is not the quest for perfection that is so painful, but rather it is the failure to meet our unattainable expectations that leads to that painful wash of shame that inevitably comes over us.

It’s important that she brings shame into this conversation, because it directly relates to the life and death of Jesus Christ, and in our salvation through him.

In Christ’s death on the cross, he does not just take on the punishment for our sins, he does not just take on our guilt, but he dies the death of ultimate humiliation, of crucifixion, in order to take away our shame. And then - he conquers sin, conquers guilt, conquers shame, conquers death, forever and ever. The power of these is taken away in his resurrection.

So now and forever, there is someone who does not see you the way you see yourself. There is someone who has dealt with guilt and shame on your behalf. There is someone who already loves you the way you are called to love yourself, the way you are called to love your neighbor, to love your enemy. That someone is Jesus the Christ, God in flesh, God with us. The almighty God of the universe died so that you could let go of your own fear of imperfection, your own fear of failure, and you could be freed to love yourself the way that the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, loves you already. Unconditionally. Not expecting perfection from you but calling you to love perfectly, wholeheartedly, completely. Calling you to receive the grace, mercy, and forgiveness that has already been given to you as a free gift. Calling you to live in that light, wholeheartedly.

Perfection is not achieved through perfectionism. Perfection is achieved through wholeheartedness, through self-compassion, which leads to self-giving, which is the foundation of loving your neighbor as yourself, without stopping to consider the worthiness of your neighbor, your enemy, or yourself. Because God does not withhold the sun or the rain from anyone. God loves us all unconditionally. And when I say “us all”, I don’t just mean all the members of NLPC. I don’t just mean the worldwide community of believers. God loves us all, prodigals and obedient children, believers and nonbelievers, doubters, sinners and saints, perfectionists and habitual failures. All are God’s beloved.

So when Jesus says, “you have heard it said…but I say to you…”, what he means is that obeying the law is not what it is about. Transcending the law, going to its essential intent, its underlying love-based purpose, is what it is about.

As Brian McLaren says in “We Make the Road By Walking”,

“Jesus was not promoting unthinking conformity to tradition, to the law;

         and he was not defying tradition or law, either.

Instead, he was promoting a third way –

         to discern and fulfill the highest intent of the tradition, of the law –

         even if it means breaking the details of the tradition or law in the process.

Jesus transcends the law, transcends the tradition, and takes it to its essential intent, its underlying love-based purpose, that purpose which was hidden or even misunderstood when it was originally written – God’s law, written in human language, interpreted based on limited understanding.

What God really meant is what Jesus comes to fulfill.

So we see Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Jesus picking wheat to eat on the Sabbath. Jesus teaching us to turn the other cheek. Jesus teaching us to renounce what or whoever makes you sin. Jesus going way above and beyond what was written.

Jesus is transcending the systems, and in so doing he models the way for all of us, to interpret the laws of God with the eyes of Christ, using the lens of love, and to reach out to others with the compassion that Christ has shown to us,

taking away our failure and shame,

abolishing our sin and guilt,

ending death’s grip on us forever.

Here’s a visual representation of what a life of wholeheartedness looks like:

Mr. Rogers Clip

I invite you to take with you the cards the children gave out to you earlier, and to keep them with you this week, praying and considering and acting on just what that means for you in these days of Lent.

Because indeed, by the grace of God -

"You are God's beloved child. Be what you have been called." (note: words on cards handed out by children to congregation)

Amen.

God Bless You!

Matthew 5: 1-16 (NRSV)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

===================================

I have a cold. It’s not the sneezing kind of cold right now, but a couple of days ago it was.

And so, of course, I received many blessings that day!

A-A-A-A-CHOO!

GOD BLESS YOU!

Sniff…. Thank you!

It’s good to receive blessings.

In the middle ages, when someone sneezed, you said “God bless you” because you feared that they might have the plague. So this mantra we repeat so regularly was developed as a way to ward off the fear of evil, disease, and death.

Besides the Gesundheit types, many of us ask God to bless our food before we eat. Bedtime prayers include blessings. I can still remember my children, every night, asking blessings for many things, but always ending with “God bless mommy and daddy and all my friends, AMEN.”

The word “blessed” that we hear in today’s gospel reading, commonly called the Beatitudes, is not the kind of “blessed” that is a synonym for “lucky”. It is not the kind of “blessed” that is meant when we hear someone say, for instance, “I’ve been really blessed; I’m so glad that I can provide good cars for everyone in my family.” Or, “I’ve been really blessed with good health, so I can still get out and play a lot of golf.” The kind of “blessed” that Jesus is saying here is a Greek word, makarios, that translates best as “sacred”, or “holy”, or “greatly honored”, or “awesome”. Jesus is saying “the poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers, they are totally awesome. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They shall be called children of God. They shall see God. “And how awesome is that!

But, it’s up to us whether we choose to receive it or not.

When God’s blessings come to us, it is our choice whether or not to receive it. The blessing itself is unconditional. Our response to it, our consent, is not.

Mary was called out by the angel Gabriel as being blessed. The angel said, “Greetings, favored one! Blessed are you among women!” You are awesome. You are sacred, holy, greatly honored. God is honoring you greatly, blessing you by asking you to bear the Son of God. And Mary says yes. She receives the blessing

There is a poem by Denise Leverton about the Anunciation of Mary, this event when the angel comes. It reads, in part:

“But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions courage.

The engendering Spirit did not enter her without consent. God waited.”

It takes courage to receive a blessing. Mary is evidence of that.

It takes humility, too. When we ask for our meal to be blessed, for our families to be blessed, we are acknowledging our dependence upon God. Saying a blessing over our meal humbles us to remember that our daily sustenance comes from God.  Asking for a blessing for ourselves and our loved ones humbles us to remember that God alone saves us, God alone fills us, it is not our own doing.

So receiving a blessing requires courage, and it requires humility.

It also requires trust. Thinking back to Mary again, she could not know what the future impact of that blessing would be.  She only knew she would give birth to the Son of God. She knew nothing more about what would become of him, of the suffering he would endure, of the challenges she would face in raising him. Still, trusting in God, she agrees, when she says, “Let it be with me according to your word.”

A blessing from God is more about being used by God than it is about getting cool stuff, or having cool things happen to us.

Abraham was blessed with descendants – which, for him, was a cool thing to have, but God planned on using them.

Moses was blessed with opportunities to interact with God, but it created a whole new set of challenges and problems he could never have imagined.

So we might be asking ourselves, “do I really want to be blessed?”

Because we are blessed to be a blessing, aren’t we? The blessing is not just for us, it is never just for us. It is so that God can use us.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble, the meek, the peacemakers. They shall inherit the earth. They shall be called the children of God. They shall see God. Jesus doesn’t say if you will become humble, meek, then you shall. It's not something to aspire to, it's the result of your current condition. Jesus says if you already are - here and now. If you have been marginalized. If you have lost your way. If you have been humiliated. If you are mourning a loss. Then you are special in God’s sight. You are awesome. You are beloved.

The blessing is there for us to receive. Jesus is speaking to the people who have come to listen to him. The disciples, the townspeople, the people he grew up around in Nazareth. They were humble people, meek, basic laborers.  He is offering them blessing, telling them that they, in fact, are blessed, by virtue of the lives they lead, through no choice of their own. Theologian David Lose reminds us that Jesus is  proclaiming that God regularly shows up in mercy and blessing just where you least expect God to be – with the poor rather than the rich, with those who are mourning rather than celebrating, with the meek and the peacemakers rather than the strong and victorious. If God shows up here, Jesus is saying, blessing the weak and the vulnerable, then God will be everywhere, showering all creating and its inhabitants with blessing.

But, like Mary, it is their choice to receive the blessing. It is our choice to receive, to accept, to own and to live into the blessings that God offers us.

Taking an idea from David Lose, I’d like us to take back the mantra of “God bless you”, and let it signify not fear, but joy, not disease, but delight, not death, but God’s new light. I’d like us to think of a blessing as an insight that God is a God who delights in creating, and blessing, and redeeming, and to be reminded that we are God’s own beloved and blessed children.

So if you are not already doing so, slide over or move up or back a row so that everyone is sitting next to someone else. Pair up. Then I’ll tell you what I’d like you to do next.

It’s time for us to turn to one another and share God’s blessing. That means to give it and to receive it.

Turn to the person next to you, and take turns saying to each other,

“God bless you!” (just as if they had sneezed…)

OK?

Now say to each other,
“You are God’s beloved child.”

Done?

Now say to each other,

“God calls you awesome!”

Now say, “God comes to you right where you are, to bless you.”Be sure to say it to each other, take turns.

OK, one more.

“God’s blessing waits for your consent.”

Amen.