IS THERE ROOM IN HIS KINGDOM FOR YOU?

       In what was often "refined" Greek, Luke wrote the gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts ... to set the record straight, as he told Theophilus (which means friend of God). He didn't pretend to be the first to write about Jesus, but he wanted to organize the stories that were circulating, and he wanted to tell us... that Jesus has 1) a big heart, 2) a wide circle of grace, and 3) a bias toward the poor, the disadvantaged, the disenfranchised, and the lost. A central theme in Luke’s gospel is that Jesus came to seek and save the lost, which is good news for us because we’re all lost at times. We get lost- some of us from time to time, some of us most of the time, but we get lost! We get lost in our pride, in our addictions, and in our sins. We forget who we are, whose we are, and we lose sight of our north star. One of Jesus’ central missions was to seek and save the lost, and it fills my heart with joy to know that heaven stands and applauds when a single sinner staggers home.

     Luke wants those of us who are lost to know that Jesus is knocking at our door, but he also wants us to know how much Jesus valued women in a patriarchal world. Luke traces Jesus’ lineage through Mary’s family, and in Luke, Mary sings her Magnificant, in which she praises her son and prophesies that he will tear the powerful off of their thrones and bless the poor. Luke alone tells us about Mary and Martha, and how Mary was not only allowed to sit at Christ’s feet, but praised for doing it! If you’re lost, left out, forgotten, oppressed, or undervalued, Luke wants you to know that Jesus is on your side.

      Mark is about discipleship. Matthew about righteousness. But Luke is about justice and social ministry... to those who are alone, silenced, imprisoned, or oppressed in a hundred different ways. Luke wrote a book about compassion and justice, and he believed that Christ has a bias for those who are the poor, broken, and vulnerable, and he showed us what he meant in three stories that he alone told us. Here's the first. Jesus was walking by the village of Nain, when he encountered a funeral procession... for a widow who had lost her only son. It was a walk of sadness- a walk of emptiness-a walk that I've taken over a hundred times- for my dad, mom, two brothers, and a hundred friends.  It's a walk that many of you have taken too, and this one was worse because the woman had lost her only son- who was her ONLY source of support. I've never lost a child, but there may be no deeper pain on this earth. We all experience pain and die any number of little death, but Jesus comes to us in the midst of our pain. 
      When Jesus saw the widow of Nain, Luke tells us that "his heart went out to her," and he said, "don't cry." “Don’t cry. Don’t cry.” Friends, we have a God whose heart breaks when our hearts break, and who walks with us when we walk from the hearse to the grave! Luke is also the only one to tell us about the Loving Father whose prodigal son wasted his inheritance on wine, women and song. It's bad enough that he took his father's money and ran, but to make matters worse, his father threw a party for him when he finally stumbled home. Yes, he threw a party, and when his oldest son, who had stayed home and carried the load, found out about the party, he refused to enter the house. It didn't seem fair to him, even when his father said that grace demanded a party. 
      Friends, our God is a God of radical grace, and for me, this is very good news. You may want God to give you what you deserve, but as one who has been prodigal myself, I'm glad that grace abounds and that you don't have to be good to be loved by God. Finally, I cite the parable of the Good Samaritan because it is also a story that only Luke tells. To illustrate the essence of goodness, Jesus told about a man who was lying along the road, badly beaten or dead, and as he lies there, three men of the church walk by- without doing anything to help! They're afraid, disinterested, who knows- but they were neither neighbor nor Christ to the man… but a hated, no account Samaritan was! O friends, for people who embraced boundaries of status, gender, race, education, wealth, age, and ethnicity, Jesus story was radical indeed. It's another story of radical grace- another story of Christ's huge circle of love-another story that challenges the self-righteous and tickles the sinners, and that’s why Luke included it. 
      Luke believed that God’s circle of grace is big enough to include women, shepherds, misfits, malcontents, ne'er do wells, Samaritans, and sinners like me. If you believe that our God has a huge heart and endless compassion, Luke is for you! If you believe that women, minorities, and disabled people have great status in God's eyes... and that the lost, the broken, the vulnerable, and the forgotten may even have a little more, Luke is for you. If you believe that God forgives people that we won't and that his grace is so great that it doesn't seem fair, Luke is for you! Amen!

I WILL NEVER SEE TOMORROW

      Let me confess it- I am not very good at "being in the present." In fact, I'm not very good at any sort of quiet time because my mind wanders. I mean to do better than I do, but invariably, I find myself thinking about family, world events, and/or the Cubs. Some people have suggested that I drink too much caffeine; others have labeled me ADHD. Some people suggest that it's because I am Type A, or ENFJ, or just because I am not trying hard enough.
      It could be any or all of these of course, but I've always found it difficult to be in the moment. I've always struggled with a past I cannot change, and there are times when I let this "dead time" affect my present life. Carrying the past on my back has been an issue in my life, but there have also been times when I've squandered opportunities by putting them off until tomorrow.  Living in the past has been a bigger problem for me than living in the future, but I'm not a stranger to either temptation, which is why I continue to work on being "in the now."
      Every day, I walk our poodle around a wonderful little pond near our home. We walk through a path that is flanked by cornfields on the west and natural grasses on the east. and when I really try... to let go of my labels and my projections...  I'm able to clear my mind of all thoughts. Yes, it is possible- even for me- to let go of my regrets, my worries, and my thoughts... and just allow myself "to be." I'm not good at much that is "inner" or "mystic," but when I clear my mind on these walks... I am able to hear the songs that the birds sing and to identify with the wind as it blows through the trees and the aforementioned natural grasses. The ducks scurry and quack as we startle them, birds scold us for walking through their sacred space, and our little piece of creation seems to celebrate its life! All of this fills my spirit and I feel at one with my God and his creation.
      It is a wonderful thing... but it ends in time and sometimes during the walk itself. My mind wanders to things that have bothered me in the past or to events that threaten my future. I come back to earth, which is fine because I have work to do! However, I will continue to seek freedom from thoughts that would imprison me, whether they emanate from past regrets or future worries... because Christ has urged me to leave my sins at the foot of his cross and to trust in him entirely for the future.  Spiritual discipline is a good and empowering thing and simply being "present" to God's creation is powerful for me. At the very least. it reminds me that today is the only day I will ever have! Indeed, I will never re-live a single day of my past, and what is more- I will never live to see a single tomorrow! Amen.  

A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO HATRED AND VIOLENCE

 
        Many years ago, the agnostic Albert Camus, noted that the world would be a better place "if Christians would just be Christians," and while his context was much different than ours, I think the fact remains... that many of our problems would be alleviated if Christians acted like Christians.
      In Christ, the Bible says, there is no slave or free, no black or white, no male or female... because barriers of skin color, wealth, and party affiliation are swept away by love. It was Christ who noted that all sorts of sin and troubling behaviors originate on the inside of a person. Racism, sexism, discrimination, betrayal, adultery, murder- and all the rest... are born within a person's mind and heart. They're nurtured in thoughts and inflamed by bias and resentment until they break someone's heart or take someone's life. This is the way of life and it may continue to be a way of life for people who are not Christian because they march to a different drummer. They may be driven to win; they may be obsessed with money or power; they may feel superior to others. Who knows what their north star is, but as Christians, our anchor is Christ Jesus and our goal every day is to live our lives as he lived his. Thus, instead of holding grudges, we forgive again and again and again, to the point where the world laughs at us, and instead of measuring success through the lens of materialism, we measure it though the lens of faithfulness. Whether others agree or not, we celebrate meekness and humility, and even though we could move faster alone, we carry our crosses and stop to pick others up along the way. Because we're Christians, we pray every day and take inventory throughout the day- how am I doing Lord? Where have I pleased you? How have I disappointed you?
      Friends, at the risk of sounding naive or simple-minded, I really believe that the world would be a more loving place if Christians acted like Christians... because conflict and hatred begin in the heart. This brings me to the tragic shootings that have stunned us all- the one in St Paul, the one in Baton Rouge, and the ones in Dallas... because fear and anger start within a person and because violence begs for a Christian response. There are other voices, no doubt, and we will hear them again and again as the "talking heads" fill our cable shows... but today, I want to lift up a distinctly Christian response. In Jesus' day, there were ongoing debates about social issues like divorce and all sorts of responses to Roman rule, but Jesus' response was transforming and spiritual...and our response must be anchored in Christ, who taught us to love God with every fiber of our being, to love one another as a witness to the world, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
      Others will say and do what they want to say in do, but our response must be in Christ. It must be anchored in his ministry and in the word of God that he adored, beginning with the Old Testament command to "love our neighbors as our ourselves." (Lev. 19:18), and continuing in Paul's words, "Be indebted to no one, except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law of God (Rom. 13:9), and finally, to James (2:8), If you really keep the royal law of Scripture and love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well." Friends, I'm concerned about the hatred and divisiveness that is killing us and I know that there are a host of solutions... but for people of faith,
the answer to hated and violence is a matter of our own faithfulness. We can't control others, but we can anchor our own thoughts and prayers in Scripture... and we can embrace the great promise that, in Christ, we will be dead to sin and new creations, who are capable of being fully human and faithful to our high calling.
      Christians must have a distinct response to these recent killings, and this response must transcend politics and our own prejudices. If we are in Christ, we will see the world through his eyes... and there will be no black or white, nor anyone who cannot be forgiven... or treated with anything other than the greatest respect. If we are trusting in God, we will gladly choose to see the Image of God in all people, and if we see the image of God in someone, our chances of loving, trusting, forgiving, and understanding that person will be much higher! It is not a matter of being a saint- it's just a matter of seeing that our neighbor is not the one who lives nearest to us... but the one whom we have the privilege of noticing and lifting up. When Jesus asked his questioner whom he thought the neighbor was in his story of the Good Samaritan, the ruler replied, "the one who acted like a neighbor," even if that person is a Samaritan... because the law of love neither knows nor honor the boundaries and barriers that keep us apart.
      We can't solve the world's problems, but we can practice the law of love and thereby fulfill the law of Christ, Let this be God's word to us in this hour.

THINGS HE SAID- "REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS"

      I've always been challenged by the words Jesus said- the red letters in the Bible- because they express the truths that he held in his heart. There is much more to the good news of Jesus Christ, no doubt. We could discuss the context in which he lived... and his words can never be separated from his acts. Indeed, it was his acts that gave authority to his words, but for now, we will consider the red letters in the Bible.... beginning with Mark 1:15.
      Most scholars believe that Mark was the first Gospel written, and if this is true, the first thing that Jesus said in the Bible is; "The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" In the Greek world of Jesus' day, there was Chronos time, as in ordinary time, and there was Karios time, as in sacred time. There is the ordinary passage of time... and then there is the time when we fell in love, or bought our first house, or got our first promotion. There are ordinary days... and there are sacred days... when our children were born. Transplant patients and AA members celebrate new "birthdays," on which their lives began again. Christians talk about being "born again," and many of them remember the day on which they opened their heart to Jesus Christ. We have Independence Day and Memorial Day. There is Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and even the Sabbath (which was always meant to be kairos time).
      From the closing of Malachi to the beginning of Mark, nothing seemed to change. Countries rose and fell, people were born and died, rulers came and went, but life remained the same. For centuries, most people on earth worshiped a variety of different gods... and the people, Israel, tried to please the one true God, whom they believed had chosen them for service. They tried to keep the faith, but believing became increasingly difficult as the years passed without a blessing or a sign from God... and to make matters worse, they believed that it was their own fault that they were not being blessed. Skeptics doubted if God would ever act, and believers believed that their own sin kept God from acting. So, each Chronos day passed like the one before it- without hope or promise,
      But then, suddenly, John the Baptist, began to preach a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. God was coming and coming soon, he said. Come to the river, he said, and undergo a baptism in which you will die to your old nature, and experience a new birth, based on trust. God is at hand, the Baptist said. Your time has come, he cried. Come to the river now, he pleaded, because this moment may never come again. If you seize the moment, today will be the day of your salvation... but you must seize the moment. No one has ever been saved in the future. Now is the only time you have. So, drop what you're doing. Let nothing stand in your way... and come to the river! Let your old nature go. Let it die... and experience a new birth in God's grace.
      John, according to the Jewish historian, Josephus, drew massive crowds. They were big enough to concern Herod and other powerful people, Besides, John often criticized Herod and condemned his life style, which cost John his freedom and then his life. But since John was called to point the way to Jesus, it was fitting that, when he was imprisoned, Jesus uttered his first recorded words, The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" Friends, this is the truth of it- in Christ Jesus, the kingdom of God has come near! He's knocking at the door of our hearts...now. He's speaking to us in a thousand different ways... every day. He show's his face... in our soup lines, business offices, alleyways, and our next door neighbors. He speaks to us in our worries, our dreams, and through our tears. He is inviting us- inviting you- to lay down our burdens and to yoke ourselves to him because his yoke is easy. 
      It's a story that you can read about in Mark 1, but it's also a life-changing truth that you can experience NOW. Yes, these ancient words are living today... and Jesus is speaking to me and to YOU! Repent, he says. Give up your old ways. Turn your back on your sins and your self-will.. Let them go,,, and trust in the Good News... that whosever believes in Jesus Christ will never, ever die!