Lost Things - Redeemer Episcopal Church (15 Pentecost)

 The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 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? And 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 lost sheep.’ 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.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

“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? And 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.”

Let us pray. 

God of grace and goodness, be with us on this beautiful Sunday morning that we might hear your Word and ponder it in our hearts together so that we might leave this place to more fully and confidently do your will. Amen. 

Grace and peace to you from God and from all of our students and board members at Jacksonville Campus Ministry! It is good to be with you this morning, and I am so thankful for your hospitality and for Pastor Adam’s invitation to be here. I am also so thankful for your generosity in partnering with our campus ministry. 

For those of you who are not familiar with Jacksonville Campus Ministry, we are an ecumenical campus ministry that started in 1972 with the vision of Dr. Ed Albright, a fellow presbyterian here in Jacksonville. His vision was to bring to the forefront the spiritual health and formation of young adults, but this would be a unique ministry in that it would not be defined by one single denomination, but by the partnerships between several denominations. Imagine— a semblance of Christian unity in the 1970s— they had brought together Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, the United Church of Christ, and Presbyterians so that mainline protestant students would have a spiritual home at Jacksonville University and University of North Florida. 

Over the last 50 years, our partnerships have expanded to include Cooperative Baptists and Disciples of Christ. We serve young adults from all over Jacksonville and we have about 30 congregations that partner with us in various ways from all across the state. 

It is with partnerships like yours that we are able to do the important work of nurturing and forming young adults in their faith. So again, thank you. 

… 

I almost couldn’t make it through the gospel reading the morning because it hits so close to the work that we do in campus ministry. 

We have a student who grew up in the church his entire life. He went to a Christian school, and probably has more verses of the Bible memorized than I do. But when he began to understand who God was calling him to be, he was excommunicated from his church and not allowed to speak about his experience and his identity in his own community. He wasn’t lost. He knew exactly who he was and who God was calling him to be. Instead, he was kicked out. 

In undergrad, he attempted to get back into a faith community, but wasn’t able to find one that allowed him to be fully himself. Eventually, wandering far enough and long enough without a community to call his own, he did become lost. 

This is a similar story for many of our students. Whether they intentionally distanced themselves from Christianity or they were cut off from their communities, so many of the young adults I encounter seem to be wandering outside of the flock. 

In some ways, this is common for this age group. Around late adolescence, we tend to push back on the teaching of our youth, and especially what our parents taught us. We start to ask big questions and many times we might begin to wander away from the tradition we have known our entire lives. 

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

The story that the people of Jesus’ day were used to hearing was that sinners and tax collectors don’t make very good dinner partners. They are not the kinds of people you want to be associating with if you want to be taken seriously as a rabbi or a religious leader. There was this expectation that only the clean and righteous are deserving of good company, and perhaps even good food. 

This is the story that so many of our students have heard as they grew up. I have had too many conversations to count with students who grew up in places with exactly this kind of mentality— sinners deserve nothing and only the upright and righteous, the clean and “good” people are the only ones who deserve good things or God’s love. 

Here, Jesus tells a different story, a distinct story. A story in which God’s grace reaches to the margins. Indeed, God does not forget about the sheep who has been lost or wandered off or scared off by the other sheep. But God cares deeply about this lost sheep and searches endlessly until they are found again and rejoices in the sweet reunion.

“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? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.”

For our students on campus, there are a lot of stories being told by a lot of different people. There are preachers who come onto campus to harass the students and yell at them that they are going to hell. There are other ministries on campus that claim to love everyone and then kick students out for being a part of the LGBTQIA community. Sometimes the story being told on campus is that students are good enough if they don’t make certain grades or play certain sports or pledge certain fraternities. 

Here in this place, we have the opportunity to tell a different story. We have the opportunity to tell the story of Jesus. We have the opportunity tell about a God whose love reaches to the margins, whose love pursues us until we are found. 

What does it look like to be like this shepherd Jesus describes and reach toward the margins, looking for the lost sheep and coin? 

In campus ministry it looks like… 

Clarity so that our students know what we believe and what we stand for in ministry. 

It looks like genuine welcome, affirmation, hospitality for all people, regardless of their history with the church, their identity, their sexuality, or wherever they come from in life. 

It looks like listening, and having hard conversations, and asking big questions and feeling okay just sitting with them. 

It looks like deep care and authenticity, confessing that we will often disappoint one another but we are going to keep showing up anyway. 

I want you to know that your community here, South Jacksonville Presbyterian, is one of the very few communities I point my students toward when they are asking about safe congregations in Jacksonville. 

Not because you have it all figured out or you do any of these things perfectly, and not because you won’t challenge the beliefs of those who enter here … but because you continue to be honest about who you are and what is important to you. I can see that you are a community where people can come after being hurt by the church and you will welcome them, indeed you already have. You are a community where you ask big questions and talk about difficult topics because you know it is important to be a part of these conversations. 

This is how we care for one another. Not only because we are for the one who is lost, but because we care for the other 99 as well. When one is missing from our flock, our flock is lacking. When a piece of the body of Christ is missing, we all suffer. Look around here this morning. Who is missing? Who are we lacking? Who has yet to become a part of this community? Who has been cut off from the body of Christ? 

How do we care for them and bring them back in? Perhaps we should begin with this new old story, the story of a God who is persistent and loving, a God who is not only present in Spirit but in flesh in blood in Christ Jesus. A God who reaches out into the wilderness to find us and asks us to do the same. Amen. 

Cost of Discipleship - Redeemer Episcopal Church (13 Pentecost)

The Cost of Discipleship

Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

God of goodness and mercy, we thank you for your son Jesus, who you have set before us to be not only an example to us but be the savior of the world. Amen. 

How many of you would say you’re a follower of Jesus? Did anyone hesitate because of what we just read this morning? Yikes, right?

When we say we are followers of Jesus, I’m not sure we always understand what that means. If we really are following Jesus, are we prepared for all of that? 

Jesus isn’t being a very good evangelist here, is he? I mean think about it. Does’t he want people to follow him? Doesn’t he want people to come with him as he travels and listen to his teachings? He’s not selling it very well. 

It reminds me of a conversation I had with one of my students last year. He grew up Buddhist and had a lot of questions about Christianity. And over the course of the year, we had more and more conversations about what it means to be a Christian. Eventually, he said “you know, I’m about 85% sure this is the right religion for me. I think I want to be a Christian.” I kind of stopped short and turned to him and said, “are you sure??” 

Oftentimes, when we talk to our friends or family members about being Christian, we focus on the good aspects, the benefits. And there certainly are benefits— of course there are, otherwise why would anyone follow Jesus? But we don’t often dwell on what it could cost us. 

It’s not all rainbows and butterflies when it comes to discipleship. In fact, Jesus seems to say this morning, it’s really perhaps no rainbows and no butterflies.

In Jesus’ day, following a rabbi meant following so close that the dirt from his sandals would be kicked up on your own shins. Now, of course, we could talk about how terrible it would be to walk around having dirt kicked up on you all day, every day. But I want you to think about how close you’d have to be to someone’s heels to have their every step affect you like that. 

In Jesus’ day, it wasn’t possible to call yourself a follower or disciples of a rabbi without following him incredibly closely, day in and day out. You had to be there to hear his every word and imitate his every move. Nowadays, to “follow” someone, might mean to read some of their books, or watch a tv interview they’ve done. Or maybe it means clicking a button on your phone to “follow” them on instagram or Twitter. And just as easily, you can click the same button to “unfollow” someone. 

And it costs us absolutely nothing to do any of that. We assume no risk whatsoever to follow or unfollow people whenever we choose to. 

Not so with Jesus and his disciples. To follow Jesus, it means staying close. It means being like him. It means doing what Jesus does. 

Imagine if every time you hit that “follow” button, you had to imitate the person you were following, you had to be like that person. It would make you hesitate, wouldn’t it? 

I think that’s what Jesus is trying to help his followers understand in this moment. It feels good and right to follow me right now, when things are going well, and you’re seeing the miracles that can happen, and the people who can be healed. But things can turn ugly really quickly and things are going to get bad for us. 

And there is good reason for that. Jesus was in the world to change it, to show people a different way to live. Jesus was there to disrupt things and challenge the comfortable people while lifting up those who the world had forgotten. Of course it was going to get him into trouble. 

Barbara Brown Taylor puts it this way: 

“As long as the world opposes those who set out to transform it, the transformers will pay a high price…Discipleship costs all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. That is less God's doing than our own. If the world were kinder to its reformers, discipleship might be a piece of cake, but it is not, and Jesus does not want anyone to be fooled.”

Because following Jesus is going to cost something. It is going to changing your life, and rearrange your priorities. It’s going to change how you see the world and how the world sees you. It will likely lead you to death. In fact, for most of us it already has. 

Because in the waters of baptism we have died to our old lives, and we have been raised together with Christ. We have rejected our old ways of living and the ways of death and the devil so that we might be able to follow Christ on a journey to a kingdom that is foreshadowed here at this table. But it’s going to cost us something. And we absolutely must be prepared for it. So are you sure? Amen. 

God is up to something - Redeemer Episcopal Church (11 Pentecost)

 Let us pray. Merciful God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of each heart here before you be good and acceptable in your sight. Amen. 

Can you feel that? 

The semester starts this week at UNF. Freshmen have moved into the dorms. We have a kick off party on campus this afternoon… Duval County Schools have started again. Traffic is absolutely awful again. 

Can you feel it? The city is buzzing again. Things are starting to feel about halfway normal. 

Can you feel it in here? In this place? This congregation? This community? 

The buzz I feel here is a little different, a little slower to boil, but it’s there. And I don’t think it’s traffic or school starting. I think it’s the Spirit. 

God is up to something. Can you feel it? 

Now, God is never NOT up to something. We are taught this from a very young age in Sunday school, in Bible studies— even if we don’t say it exactly like this— God is active in all of narratives we know by heart. From the very beginning, God formed the oceans and the dry land, the sun and the moon. God created human beings, God promised new life and new creation after the flood, God led God’s people out of slavery— throughout all of history: God is up to something. 

Here we are introduced to a woman of no great importance in the grand scheme of things. She is no queen, no prophet, no mother of a noble. Yet she gets this whole introduction about having a spirit that crippled her and her bent back being unable to straighten for 18 years. 

18 years. Those freshmen I said who moved into their dorms this weekend? The majority of them are 18 years old. Young to us, perhaps, but imagine being bent over for that long. Imagine yourself 18 years ago. That was more than half my lifetime ago. Imagine being bent over and unable to stand for that long. More than that, imagine being afflicted with a spirit of sickness for that long. 

After 18 long years, is this woman supposed to wait one more day to be healed? When she finally encounters God in the person of Jesus Christ, is she supposed to wait for the proper time? Is Jesus supposed to tell the woman to stay on the margins of society, afflicted and condemned, for one more day? Just a little longer, until all the right conditions have been met. 

I love this story because it reminds me that our teaching is nothing without our action. Jesus shows us this first hand.

You see, Jesus isn’t just an observer in the synagogue that day— he is teaching. He is likely in the middle of a crowd of faithful Jews who know God’s story of redemption by heart. And Jesus brings this woman into middle of the crowd, right in the middle of his teaching. As soon as he sees her suffering, he calls her over from the margins of the community and brings her into the center. 

This is very specific language in the story— Jesus immediately stops his formal teaching and actually brings this woman— a woman who has likely been ignored for the majority of the last 18 years because of her physical appearance— he brings her into the center of attention because he notices that she is in need of healing, she is need of wholeness. 

He was probably teaching and preaching about God’s grace. Jesus was probably telling a story about how God set the captives free and liberated the oppressed. And then he sees this woman and recognizes the opportunity to practice what he’s preaching. He sees that he can demonstrate God’s incredible grace right there in that place and free this woman from the spirit that has crippled her for so long. 

And so he does. Jesus stops doing what is seen as “proper” and “legal” in order to do what is most important in the moment. 

…

Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with rules and laws. They are important to keep us safe and keep our society from being plunged into total chaos. The laws that God has given us in the Old Testament are meant to be gifts, not oppressive restrictions. So when what we believe is proper or legal begins to diminish the incredible power of God’s grace, we have to look again at our own intentions. I mean, when we encounter a situation in which a donkey is treated better than a woman… well, then it might be time to re-evaluate how and why we follow the rules and laws. They begin to no longer be gifts if they are not framed in the grace and love of God. 

It seems that the leader of the synagogue lost sight of that. He was indignant that Jesus would heal on the Sabbath. 

But the bottom line here is that Jesus saw a need and he fulfilled it. He intimately knew the grace of God and he embodied it in his actions. He saw a woman imprisoned and he set her free. This is the most important thing that God in Jesus does for us in this world— sets us free. 

I want you to hear those words: You are set free. This is what our God does. This is the promise that has been made to us. This is the gift of Sabbath and the gift of Jesus. You are set free. 

I don’t know exactly what that means for us here at Redeemer, but I can feel the Holy Spirit stirring. I can tell that God is up to something in this place. 

And we don’t have to wait for a better day or a more appropriate day— we don’t have to wait for a more solidified strategic plan, for a better definition of what “liberation” or “freedom” mean, we don’t have to wait until we have all the right answers for all the right people— we are called to act as God has taught us through Jesus. We are called to be witnesses to the liberation of Jesus. Can you feel it? Are you ready for it? 

…

When God is up to something, prepare to be set free, prepare to be unbound: whether from confining diseases, or social norms, or back breaking work, or the lie of busy-ness. God keeps showing up, drawing the circle just a little wider and unleashing a divine horizon that turns to rejoicing over the loosing of every human bondage in every time and place. And for that, and our own renewal this day and always, we praise God. Amen. 

Do not be afraid - Redeemer Episcopal Church (9 Pentecost)

Luke 12:32-40

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Watchfulness

35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

The time from Pentecost to Christ the King Sunday— this season that we are in right now— is considered the “time of the church.” It is when most of the readings deal with what it means to be a community that confesses Jesus as Lord. What it means to be a community together. In other words, this is the time when we learn about discipleship. How to follow Jesus. 

These couple of verses in the gospel text this morning feel sort of disjointed and like the beginning of Jesus’ self-help book “How to be a Christian.” They don’t seem to have much in common, and even more than that, they don’t seem to tell a story that makes much sense. 

There is a thief… but is the thief Jesus? Is it the Spirit? Is a thief a good thing in this story? Or someone we should protect ourselves from? Should we be excited about the coming of the Kingdom of God, or should we be frightened by the prospect, guarding our home against it? And who are we? Are we servants? House owners? Thieves along with Jesus?

I remember in seminary, my New Testament professor spoke so quickly had said so many wonderful and ground-breaking things that I could never write or type fast enough. When I went back to try to read my notes and make sense of what he was saying in class, it just ended up being a bunch of disjointed sentences that maybe formed a whole thought at one time, but didn’t make a whole lot of sense anymore. 

And, of course, it leads me to way more questions than any answers. 

That’s what this passage feels like to me. You’ll notice this, because this sermon is mostly just a series questions.

So what could these pieces and parts of Jesus’ lecture to his friends tell us about discipleship? What could they tell us about what it means to live in community with one another? 

“Do not be afraid, little flock” is how Jesus begins, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” 

What more is this than identity? This is what God promises us in the waters of baptism, in the very beginning of our journey. Do not be afraid. Because we are God’s children, God’s little flock. And it is God’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom. We are the ones who are able to walk through the world without fear because we have been promised something greater. We have been promised a new creation, a new life in Christ. 

This is the beginning of discipleship. It starts with our identity as children of God, washed in the waters of baptism, and created anew as those who will inherit the kingdom of God. 

But then we move on to this conversation about treasure… sell your possessions, Jesus says, and give alms. Know that your treasure is in heaven and not on earth. Know that your heart will follow wherever you understand your treasure to be. 

What does this have to do with discipleship? Is Jesus really expecting us to sell our possessions? All of them? Some of them? Maybe just the most expensive ones? Maybe just the ones that are most important to us? I don’t know. If you heard 50 different preachers talk about this text, you would probably hear 50 different sermons about what you should do with your possessions. 

What I think is most important is that Jesus understands the human condition. Jesus knows that we have a tendency to invest ourselves in the things of this world. We have the tendency to attach ourselves to possessions, things that we can see and touch and grasp. And what he seems to be saying here is that we must learn to detach ourselves from possessions so that we can get rid of the fear we have of losing them. As disciples of Christ, we must begin to understand where our treasure lies. 

That is the core of discipleship, isn’t it? Once we have found our identity in Christ, once we have fully understood ourselves to be children of God— then we have the chance to examine our lives and begin to wonder where our hearts lie and where we find our treasure. Once we understand the gospel promise— that God loves us enough to promise us the Kingdom— then we can start to understand what we value. 

Perhaps that will lead us to selling our possessions. Perhaps it will leads us on a pilgrimage. Perhaps it will lead us to an entirely different path in life. The gospel has a way of doing that sometimes. But first, it starts with identity, and then what we do with that identity. 

Finally, Jesus moves on to this interesting monologue about being prepared. My Bible titles this passage “watchfulness.” 

But what are we watching for? Jesus seems to be talking in circles here. Are we servants waiting for our master? Are we the owners of the house? Who is the thief? Jesus? The Holy Spirit? And if the thief is Jesus, then is the thief coming a good thing? Something we should be excited for? Or is it something we should be afraid of? 

I guess that depends on the answers to our last questions… do we still have treasure in this world? Do we have things that we are afraid might be stolen by a thief in the night? 

Or perhaps we are a part of the heist. Perhaps we are accomplices on Jesus’ holy mission as a thief coming into the house at an unexpected hour. 

It does sort of sound like that, doesn’t it? “You must also be ready.” Maybe we aren’t the owner of the house, keeping the thief away. Maybe we are inside the house, staying up at night, and waiting for the right time to light the lamps, unlock the doors, and prepare the house for the thief. I kind of like that… holy mischief perhaps… mystery and sneakiness on behalf of the Kingdom.

Of course, Jesus isn’t actually breaking into someone’s house. But the Holy Spirit is breaking into this world, and we are here to help that happen. We are here to stay awake and notice where the Kingdom of God is coming into this world.

Because of our new identity in Christ, because we do not have to fear the thief in the night, we can look with anticipation and excitement at what God is doing in the world. Because we know where our treasure lies, and we aren’t afraid of it being taken away… we can bring others into this exciting anticipation too. 

This is the core of discipleship. This is the start of the church and our community with Christ. 

Do not be afraid. Sell your possessions. Be prepared. 

Know your identity as a beloved child of God. Know what you value. Notice the Kingdom of God. 

Amen. 

Lord's Prayer - Redeemer Episcopal Church (7 Pentecost)

Luke 11:1-11

11 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 So he said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, may your name be revered as holy.
    May your kingdom come.

3 

    Give us each day our daily bread.

4 

    And forgive us our sins,
        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

Perseverance in Prayer

5 And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for a fish, would give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asked for an egg, would give a scorpion? 13 If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the mediation of each heart here this morning be acceptable and pleasing in your sight. Amen. 

Most of you probably know that both my husband and I are pastors. My husband is the pastor over at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on Hendricks Avenue and I know I haven’t been here in a few weeks, but I am one of the priests here at Redeemer. It’s good to see you again. (Haha) 

As a double clergy household, we try to pray with our children as often as we can. We aren’t great at it, but we try. 

Our 4 year old will often sit down to dinner and remind us to pray before we eat. And one thing we do everything single night, is pray together before he goes to bed. 

In the story we heard this morning, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. We know Jesus isn’t very good with clear answers, but here he does give a pretty good answer— he basically gives us what we will use for thousands of years, known as the Lord’s Prayer. 

But then, because of course he can’t just stop with a simple answer, Jesus goes on to tell this story of a man and his sleeping neighbor. And the reason Jesus tells this story is that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, they weren’t really asking for a prayer they could recite. What they wanted to know was about their relationship with God. 

Before then, if a person had the good fortune to encounter God, they were known to drop dead immediately. But somehow Jesus had this sort of normal, casual relationship with God and the disciples were curious about it. And as Jesus tells this story, he invites the disciples into an intimate relationship with their creator…

When I began praying with our son, I would ask who we should pray for and he would list off people in his class, his teachers, his grandparents, the neighbors… I’m not even sure if he totally knew what we were doing. But then we would bow our heads, fold our hands, and I would pray for all of the people he listed off. 

But he started to get sort of bored and squirmy with that way of praying, so one night a few months ago, we started saying the Lord’s Prayer together. Kids are like sponges, so it wasn’t long before he had the prayer memorized and would pray it with me. And then eventually he insisted on praying it by himself. 

A couple of weeks ago, something different happened. I would ask “do you want to pray tonight?” And he would say, “no., I’m too tired” or he would say he felt too overwhelmed or distracted to pray. I’d ask, “Well, could I pray for you tonight?” 

So I’d start the Lord’s Prayer and by the second or third line, he would be saying it with me, whispering under his breath the words that he knows so well now. Every night, this is how it happens.

There is something so good and familiar in that prayer, that it seems that he simply can’t resist praying it. 

That is what our relationship with God is supposed to feel like— something that is just so familiar and good and comforting, that we cannot help but join in the community. 

Jesus tells the story of a visitor has just arrived at a man’s house and he has nothing to feed him. So this man walks over to his neighbor’s house in the middle of the night, wakes him up, and asks him for some bread. The text we read says that because of his persistence, the man gets up and gives him whatever he needs. But a better translation would be shamelessness. Because this man is so shameless in coming to ask for bread in the middle of the night, the neighbor gets up and gives him whatever he needs. 

And it *is* shameless isn’t it? Imagine the kind of relationship you must have with your neighbor to go pounding on their door in the middle of the night? I know people who have been living in the same house their entire lives and they don’t have that kind of relationship with their neighbors. It’s shameless and vulnerable to go to a person in the middle of the night and ask for bread. 

You see, I don’t think Jesus is teaching his disciples about what kind of prayers to pray, or even the frequency or urgency with which to pray. Jesus is telling a story about the kind of relationship we are invited into. Unlike ever before, the disciples were invited to be vulnerable and shameless before God. 

When the disciples say, “Lord, teach us to pray,” what they are really saying it, “tell us about our relationship with God.” And Jesus gives them the most well-known prayer in all of Christianity, a prayer that begins with “Father.” Not “Lord,” or “Almighty” or any other number of names for the our most holy and ever gracious God, but Jesus invites his disciples and invites us to call God “Father,” “Abba,” “Dad.”  

We are invited into a relationship so intimate that Jesus says we can ask anything of God. And God says that this relationship is so good and wonderful that God will not only gives us everything we need in this life, our daily bread, but God will also give to us the Holy Spirit. 

You see, prayer is not about how, or why, or when we pray. The invitation to prayer is an invitation into a relationship with the Trinity, an invitation into a relationship with God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

It is the same invitation that allows us to come to this table and eat the body and blood of Christ Jesus. It is the same invitation that dips us into the waters of baptism and renews our spirit. And God in Christ has already accepted this invitation for us, we don’t even *have* to respond. 

But we get to. We have the incredible privilege of reaching out to our creator, the one who was, and is, and will be forever more, the one who created the interstellar workings of the entire universe. And more than that, God listens. God wants to be in relationship with us and even more, the only reason we are able to reach out to God and be in this relationship is because God first began this relationship with us. In the very beginning. And continued that relationship despite our nonsense, when God sent God’s very self in Christ Jesus to be with us, journey with us, die on the cross, and be raised again for the forgiveness of our sins. That God— our God— as ridiculous as it sounds, wants us to be in relationship, to talk, and listen, and converse with us. That’s wild and full of grace and mercy and it truly doesn’t make much sense, but it is true. 

God created you and adores you and wants to be in relationship with you. 

And Jesus has gifted us these words— these familiar, comforting words that many of us have had memorized since we were 4 years old— to be in relationship with God. When the world feels too overwhelming and we don’t know what to pray or we simply don’t want to— we can turn back to these words that we know, these words that are like coming home… and we can join in this prayer and engage in relationship with our God. Amen. Amen. 

Tame Jesus - Redeemer Episcopal Church (3 Pentecost)

You may read the sermon below of listen to it at this link.

Luke 9:51-62

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for his arrival, 53 but they did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then they went on to another village.

Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus[c] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

I’ll be completely and totally honest with you this morning— this is not the kind of Jesus story I really like. 

I like the stories of tame Jesus. I like the stories of Jesus feeding people. And the stories of Jesus healing people. I would even much rather the story of Jesus putting a legion of demons into a whole herd of pigs. 

Even give me the story of Jesus cursing a fig tree or clearing sinful people out of the temple. I’m okay with all of those kinds of stories of Jesus. They are tame… or if they aren’t tame, they seem to target the most powerful and sinful of the people Jesus encounters. And surely that’s not me, right? 

But this story… this story is convicting and makes me uncomfortable. Not because of my wealth or my status in society, but because of my faith life— because of the way I walk with Jesus. 

Perhaps I have been here at Redeemer too long, because when I read this story, I could hear Father Wiley say that he is not interested in ethical questions of good vs evil. It’s when we start to think about good vs good is when things start to get really interesting. 

That’s what we hear this morning. That’s why this story is so very convicting and makes me so very uncomfortable. 

First half is about Jesus’ mercy to people who really have no intention of following him in the first place. 

Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem and are passing through a village of Samaria. The people there had maybe heard of Jesus, but knew he was on his way to Jerusalem, so they didn’t have any interest in even receiving him and his disciples into their village. 

The disciples are eager to teach the Samaritans a lesson and ask if Jesus wants them to bring down fire from heaven to consume the people there. The disciples lack faith in so many different ways, but as soon as they see someone snub Jesus, they think they can bring down fire from heaven to avenge him. The disciples are such an interesting bunch. 

But Jesus says no, and continues on his way. He extends mercy to the Samaritans, even though they wouldn’t welcome him into their village. 

But then Jesus talks to some other people along the road. These folks are different than the Samaritans because they are already there with Jesus, walking with him to Jerusalem. 

“I will follow you wherever you go.” One of them says. Jesus replies with a sort of coded message, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He seems to be saying, “you say you’ll follow me wherever I’ll go, but you don’t know where I’m going. I don’t have a palace somewhere and I have nowhere to keep you safe once we get to Jerusalem.” 

“Are you sure?” Jesus seems to be saying to this follower. 

To another person, Jesus said, “Follow me.” 

But the man said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 

And Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 

Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 

And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

This is why this story of Jesus makes me so uncomfortable. It makes me shift in my chair a bit as I read it. I don’t *like* this version of Jesus. I don’t want to follow someone who would say something that seems so callous and unloving. 

But then I remember again what Father Wiley says. The questions of good versus good are so much more interesting. I don’t think that Jesus is saying that it is a bad thing for people to want to go back and bury their loved ones. I don’t think Jesus is saying that it is a bad thing that this follower wants to go and say farewell to the people that he loves. 

But Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem and nothing is going to stop him from doing what he was sent to earth to do. He expects his followers to have the same kind of determination that he does. Perhaps that was unfair to some of his followers at the time— after all, they didn’t know how the story would turn out. They don’t have the same privilege that we do, knowing that the end of the story with Jesus’ death was only really the beginning of the story of the Kingdom of God. 

But we do. 

There will always be things that divert our attention away from the gospel. There will always be excuses that we come up with— even good, valid, and important excuses— as to why we cannot follow Christ right now. 

There will always be reasons why it would be easier to just catch up with him later, when it’s more convenient. 

There will always be times when we have to choose between what is good and what is the most important and pressing thing to God and the Kingdom RIGHT NOW. 

And I don’t think these choices are going to get any easier. Over this summer, we will spend time going all the way through Luke’s gospel and what I think we are going to find is that the longer people follow Jesus, the most difficult it is to choose between good and the gospel. I think we will find that as well. Things are not going to get easier. They may, in fact, get much more difficult for us as people of God. 

But we have the promise of the Holy Spirit in the baptismal waters. We have the promise of the feast to come in the Kingdom of God in this holy meal. We have a cloud of witnesses before us and a community of saints among us to help us understand and discern exactly what it means to follow Jesus in these times. Like I said, it’s not going to be easy. And there will be people who are bent on distracting you from resurrection and restoration. There will be so many reasons to choose the easier path, to make excuses why it is just too risky to do it right now. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Christ is with you. Amen.