This text is a problem for many. It’s not a comfortable story to read or think about. Now, for me, every time I read this story, I cringe at the selfishness of the wise bridesmaids. I know they were smart, I know they had enough oil, I know they realized that if they shared their oil there might not be enough to go around, but still … aren’t they just being a little mean? Couldn’t they share their lamps?

When I get right down to it this parable challenges most of the things I believe about God. It seems to directly contradict stories and parables I love. Take the wise women who wouldn’t share their oil. Now, if taking care of yourself were the main message of the gospels, the miracle of the loaves and fishes would never have happened. Jesus wouldn't have lifted a finger for that hungry crowd, not if they hadn't packed their own picnic supper. That is not what I want to teach people about God. I don't want them to emulate a bunch of seemingly selfish bridesmaids. I want better for them. I want better for Jesus, and I hate feeling like I need to defend him when he tells stories like this. I want to throw them out, or wait for him to explain himself.

But, I know I need to do more than that. So I start where I often find it helpful to start; with the context of the tale being told.  After all, Jesus used the marriage custom familiar with his contemporaries. In that day, the wedding festivities began at the bride's house. Late in the evening, the groom would arrive to escort the bride to his father's house. Last minute haggling between the groom and his father-in-law over the dowry was commonplace. Such haggling symbolized the esteemed value of the bride, but many times delayed the wedding.

When both parties agreed upon the dowry, the groom would lead the wedding party back to his father's house for the ceremony and reception. At this time, town criers would proclaim the arrival of the groom. Such proclamations alerted those who did not stay at the bride's house or who waited for the ceremony to begin. Since this was an all-night celebration, napping between events in the wedding was reasonable. Both the wise and the foolish napped after all. As a side note, don’t you love having an endorsement for napping from the Bible?

The waiting girls in the parable were most likely cousins or sisters of the groom. As the welcoming party for the groom's family, they would alert others about the groom's impending arrival. Their lamps were fueled by oil. Since the lamps were small, they needed constant maintenance with additional oil and adjustment of the wick. The lamps could be set low for rest time and readjusted for greater light when needed.

Now, one thing we need to remember about Christ’s era was that there were no street lamps. Therefore, the role of the bridesmaids was more than a cultural display of symbolism. Their lamps lit the path home for the wedding party and all the attendees. It is also important to revisit that God chose to have his Son to be born in an occupied country. The law of that time allowed no one to be on the street after dark without a lamp. To find yourself in that situation was to risk arrest—particularly for these residents of an occupied territory. The Bridesmaids would literally provide legitimacy to the homecoming party so they would be safe from the occupying government. Without their lights, the party would look like an insurrection or a mob disguised in wedding attire. Certain religious zealots would have undoubtedly thought of using just such a ploy to attack the Romans.

Alright. So, in the story and at the time Jesus lived, it really is a big deal that there isn’t enough oil for the lamps. Maybe the wise bridesmaids really can’t risk their oil running out by sharing. They aren’t selfish, they are trying to keep everyone from being arrested. That’s a start.

But now we come to my biggest problem with this story, people use it to condemn people who haven’t prepared. Who aren't good enough. Who haven’t done enough. Who lack faith. But who among us really is good enough? Who among us deserves all we have been given? We are saved by the love of Jesus Christ and the grace of God. That’s it. Not because we were prepared. Not because we thought to make sure we had all the oil we needed.

When people start talking about the second coming, a lot of them create this image of a Christ that is violent and full of wrath over the unbelievers. A Jesus who will vanquish all who stand against him.  But the person we are expecting is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. If we've read the gospels, we should know his character. He taught, healed, and broke bread with anyone who would join him, and he was known particularly for his compassion toward the poor and outcast. While his disciples often seemed to expect him to duck into a phone booth and emerge as Messiah Man to kick the butts of evildoers, he consistently denied that was his calling, going even to the cross rather than strike back against violent people.

That's what Jesus was like in his first coming, the Incarnation.

Will he be different at the Second Coming? Well, actually, that's an easy question to answer, because Jesus did come back a second time: we called it Easter. And when Jesus came among us a second time, he opened the scriptures to his disciples, walked beside them on the road, and cooked them breakfast -- he didn’t go and smite the unbelievers among the Romans. He didn’t condemn those who failed to stand by him to hell.

And don't forget that Jesus said that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there among them. How many times do you think that's happened over the last two millennium? I'm not a math expert, but I figure we're probably somewhere in the neighborhood of the trillionth coming of Jesus, and his character remains the same. A character overflowing with love and grace.

So where does this passage leave us? I think it all comes back to that oil. The oil the bridesmaids ran out of. The oil the others couldn’t share.

Now, there are those who have argued that the oil is our good deeds, or works. After all, I can’t share the good things I have done with you. And there are those who have argued that the oil is our faith or belief because faith is something that we have for ourselves.

But, we are Presbyterians, Protestants. We know we cannot possibly do enough good deeds to be saved. We know our faith is not enough. No, we cannot be saved by anything WE do. It is only though the Grace of God that we find salvation.

Therefore, I would like to argue that the oil stands for ourselves. We use the oil to run on, but we have to keep replenishing it. After all, when the arrow on the gas tank points to empty, you are going to run out of gas. If a two-year-old doesn't get a nap, she is going to crash. When you haven't had a conversation with your spouse in three weeks that hasn't revolved around meals or errands, your marriage is getting dry. If you have worked eighty-hour weeks for longer than you care to know, your relationships are going to suffer. It's not really something any of us can avoid. There are some kinds of fuel that just are not negotiable; and if you eat junk food for twenty years, your body is going to let you know about it

Maybe this is not a story about how much oil you have, but instead maybe this is a story about the oil you carry with you. The parable is very clear: all ten bridesmaids had lamps, but five of them were foolish, and five of them were wise. The wise ones brought flasks of oil with their lamps when it’s time to wait for the bridegroom. It doesn't say whether or not those were their very last flasks. And the foolish ones showed up with lamps, and nothing to keep them going. The story doesn't say whether they had any oil at home or not. When your lamp goes out, you may have gallons of oil sitting at home, but it’s not going to do you any good there.

The time will come when you have to draw on the oil you have, right there, on your body, in your flask. Its not what you were planning to do. And you can’t use the reserves of good intentions. No, the oil you have to draw on is going to come from what fuels you spiritually right now. It's going to come from where you see God, today. And where is that?

Well, Jesus tells us how to find him.. I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me. I was in prison, and you visited me. I was sick, and you comforted me. That's where we find God. That's where we get filled up with oil. That’s how we restore ourselves. That's where we gather all of the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity. All of those things that we can't buy from the store. The stuff we can't borrow from our neighbor next door.

I think the people who use this parable as a way to try to scare people straight are missing the point. I don’t think you don't fill your lamp because you're afraid you're going to get locked out of the Kingdom of Heaven. Grace steps in there. And you certainly don’t start to stockpile oil because then you can lord it over those who haven’t. That's hardly Christian behavior. No, you just stop at the filling station and fill your flask and take it with you, because you can't wait to meet the bridegroom. You fill because you want to be fully yourself at the wedding. You fill your oil for joy.  

BIBLES AND CROSSES AND PRAYERS, OH MY!

Matthew 23: 1-12

“A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard, when suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing and stopped, afraid that photo enforced intersection would cost him a ticket.

The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was processed and placed in a holding cell.

After several hours, she was released. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said ‘I'm sorry for this mistake. I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, gesturing inappropriately to the man in front of you, and cursing. I had already noticed your 'Choose Life' license plate, your 'What Would Jesus Do?' bumper sticker, your 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and your chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”

Jesus’ disdain for hypocrites is well-documented: hypocrites are those who act one way, but in their hearts act or believe another way. Jews could be hypocrites, we learned last week; today we are reminded that Christians can to: and to be a Christian hypocrite is one of the worst disservices to God a person can do. The issue is not just a Biblical one; despite the warnings of Jesus, it has remained one of the most talked about issues for Christians through the ages. In 1564, Christian mystic St. John of the Cross survived excruciating torture through his love for God and his belief that God loved him. His writing about his experience is called “The Dark Night of the Soul,” the linchpin book for my planned doctoral project. In that work he writes this: “Many a beginner falls at times into great spiritual avarice. Scarcely anyone is contented with that measure of the spirit which God gives; they are very disconsolate and querulous because they do not find the comfort they desire in spiritual things….They load themselves up with images, rosaries, and crucifixes, curious and costly; taking up one, and then and then another, changing them, and then resuming them again….I condemn here that attachment and clinging of the heart to form, number, and variety of these things, because in direct opposition to poverty of spirit, [it] looks only to the substance of devotion….[But] real devotion must spring out of the heart.” [Fount Paperbacks, 1995, p. 16.] The reformer John Calvin once wrote: “The scribes live very differently from what they teach; if they have anything which is apparently good, it is hypocritical and worthless, because they have no other designs than to please men, and to vaunt themselves … [and] shield themselves by their pretended holiness.” [CALVIN’S COMMENTARIES, VOL XVII, P.77.]

Calvin’s contemporary Swiss Reformer Huldrych Zwingli once wrote: “I venture to command you to fight against those who prefer to keep the heavy yoke of the hypocrites rather than to take the sweet yoke of Christ upon themselves.” [20 CENTURIES OF GREAT PREACHING, VOL II, P. 110.] The popular early 20th century preacher of the Westminster Congregational Chapel in England, G. Campbell Morgan, once wrote that “the one type of mind against which God Almighty has set himself …whether in the old or in the new covenant, and supremely in the person of Jesus, is the hypocritical mind. We have but to remember the burning, scorching, blasting words of Jesus to recognize that they were all spoken against hypocrites, people who act, who play a part, who disassemble, who try to keep up an appearance which is false to the inward fact of the personality; people who profess to believe something that they do not believe.” [20 CENTURIES OF GREAT PREACHING, VOL VIII, P. 38.] Of all the age groups that are best at noting hypocrites, teenagers are as good at it as any. The poplar teenage movie “Saved” includes a hypocritical super Christian star, Hilary Faye, played by Mandy Moore. In it she judges everyone who is not Christian including a girl, Tia, who had gotten herself into trouble. In the end, the tables are turned in a way that showed the non-Christian Tia being the most Christ-like. And finally, it was just a few short years ago that Christian singer and songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman wrote his song called “The Change.” Here are his lyrics: “Well I got myself a tee-shirt that says what I believe, I got letters on my bracelet to serve as my ID; I got the necklace and the key chain, and almost everything a good Christian needs. I got the little Bible magnets on my refrigerator door, and a welcome mat to bless you before you walk across my floor; I got a Jesus bumper sticker, and the outline of a fish stuck on my car, and even though this stuff’s all well and good, I cannot help but ask myself: What about the change? What about the difference? What about the grace? What about forgiveness? What about a life that’s showing I’m undergoing the change?”

John the Baptist proclaimed the need for such change: for repentance, and for living life authentically and differently. Christian baptism calls for such an authentic new life as well. And still, the examples of Pharisaic-like persons abound. Some prosperity gospel preachers adorn themselves, their homes, their automobiles, and their bodies with gold and opulence. Do people see that as hypocritical? Some preachers who were making millions of dollars on the air a number of years ago were caught having very public marital affairs. Such hypocrisy makes many view clergy with suspicious eyes. The hypocrisy of others makes it difficult for those who try not to be that. But perhaps like sin, this is one of the hardest conditions to shake. Are there not times when we also appear as hypocrites to others? Even appearances can make people think where there is smoke, there is fire.

Here’s how Jesus addressed the problem of hypocrites. In Matthew 21 Jesus came to Jerusalem for the first time in his ministry on the day we celebrate as Palm Sunday. That was a major city where Jesus was an outsider, and even an interloper in the business of scribes. How bold, how dangerous, how threatening it was for him to say this to crowds who were used to honoring Scribes and Pharisees, at least publicly. Jesus said: “The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore do what ever they teach you to do and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.” In Jesus day the Moses’ seat was a stone bench at the front of a synagogue where the reader for the day would open the scroll and read from a portion of Scripture. Reading the inspired writings was to be respected then as today, and the person reading them could not change the message by living rigid or unethical lives. But when such religious leaders were apart from reading the word, their actions were confusing at best or undermining at worst. Their actions, unfortunately, spoke louder than their words. As one commentator put it, “Jesus’ hostile caricature of the ‘scribes and Pharisees’ is meant to help crowds (and the disciples) see clearly the differences between leadership that bears witness to God’s power, and leadership that seeks power for its own end.” [PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, Stanley Saunders, 2010, p. 237.] Going on, in verse 4 Jesus says: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” In other words, they heaped guilt and law on others, but they were unwilling to show justice by helping or counseling those who had fallen short due to economic or moral shortcomings. Jesus was always listening to the poor and the handicapped, people who society, and even the Jewish customs of the day, scorned. People would point to those people and say: “They or their parents must have done some great sin to make that person so poor, or so blind, or so crippled;” and then they would do nothing. There was no Social Security, or disability check, or compassion, even though the Covenant Code was filled with compassionate laws! The Scribes and Pharisees failed to live as their own Law told them to live. And that was their biggest sin. Jesus had come to save sinners, but people who are blind to their own sin never turn to him. Like in our day, people of faith often got caught up in the trappings of merchandise, even so called sacred items, to convince others, and perhaps themselves, that they were faithful people of God. Long phylacteries and fringes were the tassels that hung off of their robes as symbols of prayerful piety. And when they went to special engagements, they always expected to be seated at the head table.

Certainly there are still people in our world today, politicians, movie and music stars, and divas who want the first class treatment without being invited to partake of it. Perhaps you know some people like that. But Christians? Do people who profess Christianity do that? To the detriment of God’s Kingdom: yes. I know some; and I’m sure in my lifetime I’ll see others. There are people even in our community who ask for power and influence to rest in themselves instead of in God. That’s the most damaging state of peripheral Christianity in our world today, or what some people call “Presentational Christians” or “Carnal Christians.” They may have a big Bible, a beautiful cross around their neck, and they may offer prayers that turn into public performances. Certainly not everyone with a Bible, a cross, or a prayer is that way, of course. But if you recognize ostentatious or hypocritical tendencies in yourself: clean them up! You are damaging the Christ and the Kingdom you pretend to honor. If there are those in your family or circle of friends who are like that, perhaps you’ll choose not to be around them. Or you might find opportunity to say something about it to them, but such confrontation can get dicey. Still, we are supposed to be the ones to change the world, not have the world change us! Therefore you’ll offer your best witness if you live the authentic life of humility, and have your actions match your words. Practice what Jesus preached! Jesus didn’t have time for the other kind of counterproductive living: he still has a world to transform and souls to save, and that happens best when real Christians show real care toward others and live the Law with love. Witness to others with your life and your lips; then you will be following your Savior not down the low road of hypocrisy, but on the upward way of eternal life.

Jeffrey A. Sumner October 30, 2011

WHAT JESUS LEARNED FROM JUDAISM

Matthew 22: 34-40

Life in a Jewish household in the first century would have instilled our Lord Jesus with many qualities, beliefs, and experiences. Given over to Joseph to raise as his own son, Mary and Joseph were still part of a Nazareth community. The story might have been told to him about his birth; sons were also taught by their fathers about their work. In Jesus’ case, his father was a “teckton” which means someone who works with stone or wood. He likely would have learned that trade. In so doing, the job sights might have taken him to the nearby Roman city of Sepphoris. He would have gotten to know the other tradesmen, and learned the ways of the Romans. He would have learned about hypocrisy from the productions put on in Roman theatres by the “hypocrites,” which means “actors” those who put on an actual or an emotional mask to become someone else. If Jesus’ Heavenly Father had picked Joseph to be his human father, then Joseph was also a man of faith. Jesus would have heard the stories, told yearly, about the demanding and ruthless Pharaoh who worked them hard, and how God sent plagues to Pharaoh to persuade him of God’s power, God’s persistence, and God’s care for those who honor him. Jesus would have known about, and likely participated in, Day of Atonement rituals; he would have know about the autumn Festival of Booths, and the spring Feast of Weeks, all established well before his ministry. Ideas like sacrifice, leaving food for the poor, and honoring God by not saying his name aloud would all have been learned by Jesus. The Galilee area would have had rabbis and Pharisees, but it would have been on his one or more of his visits to Jerusalem that he would have met Sadducees- the ones who ran the Temple in Jerusalem. Any human prejudice again Romans, who taxed heavily, or against the Temple moneychangers who made large profits off the transactions of traveling Jewish pilgrims, would have been learned as he grew up. Jesus was a Jew, a faithful Jew, yet none who knew him could accept that he was the fulfillment of prophecy. How could one who grew up with them be “Messiah?” And how could they trust John the Baptist, who said Jesus was the one sent from God, since John was his cousin? Jesus stepped into ministry with a region full of doubters and skeptics. Outside of his region he was welcomed more than in his own region, but isn’t that often the case today? Some say an “expert” in a field is someone with a briefcase from at least 50 miles out of town! Jesus’ own people were his toughest.

While parts of Jewish Law were written down, the most famous of the writings were on tablets of stone: a contract of sorts between God and humanity that became known as the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, or “the Law.” With a sweep of history we find that the wise words written on those tablets were written into the wisdom of other faiths and other areas besides Mt. Sinai and Israel. But most of the first five books of the Bible, if they were ever written down, have disappeared over time. We have some of them now, from in 1948, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls that are quite useful. Finding any holy books make a big splash. It was when the book of the Law of the Lord was found at the base of the first Temple that King Josiah of Israel instituted a revival of sorts, sending out a decree that loose living, unanchored immorality, and the influences of false gods would then be put away, and a love for and allegiance toward Yahweh (The Lord) would be re-established. 2 Chronicles 24 records that King Josiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord;” among the things he did was smash foreign idols and tear down the altars erected to other gods. Then Josiah began renovating God’s Temple properly. Then came that fateful day when a priest named Hilkiah found a book “of the Law of the Lord given through Moses.” Many scholars today believe that book was the book of Deuteronomy; and when Hilkiah found that book of the laws of God, guidelines otherwise entrusted to memory and oral tradition, he corrected the community of believers and got them back on track to God.

So it is clear why the Ten Commandments over the years have become virtually sacrosanct. In the first century, Jesus enters the scene. Up he grows in the sight of Jewish parents and a loving Heavenly Parent. Nevertheless, he is exposed to all of the human desires and prejudices that first century Galilee had. He was astute intellectually and God gifted him with a shrewdness and brilliance beyond even the most gifted chess player, software writer, or inventors of our day. Jesus was beyond measure with his mind, yet human in his body. Like any of you who would like to be ready when someone challenges your knowledge or beliefs, Jesus was always being tested. The day we encountered in Matthew 22 was no different. Surrounded by a crowd that included workers, rabbis, beggars, and religious leaders like Pharisees (who he was used to seeing) and Sadducees (who he only saw on visits to the Jerusalem Temple.) Sometimes Pharisees and Sadducees were even at odds with one another, but in this instance, the Bible says in Matthew 22:34, they came together, as happened in Psalm 2:2, when earthly rulers “gathered together against the Lord and his anointed one.” On this day, Pharisees wanted to test Jesus’ orthodoxy. “Does he have right beliefs?” they wondered. Such questioning happens even today, across coffee tables, courtrooms, and at presbytery meetings. I’ve seen it and perhaps you have too. Since every Pharisee believed all the Ten Commandments were of equal importance, the answer to “Which of them is the greatest” would have rendered the orthodox answer “No one commandment is above another; not one can be ignored or given more weight than the others.” But could it be that Jesus could tell how easily they were focusing on the trees instead of the forest, as we all do at different times? Do you know people who say they religiously stick to the letter of the law but you just don’t want to be around them? Some I’ve known seem to treat themselves as “better than others,” act “holier than thou,” and some are just plain unlikable. Here were people who were supposed to be the highest and best examples of Judaism, and their self-serving and loveless attitude was condemning them. Jesus didn’t invent the idea of loving God or neighbor either. He heard it growing up, and God’s love for us and our love for God and neighbor permeates the appropriate lifestyle of a Jew. Good Christians are not the only ones who are taught to show love, and not the only ones that sometimes throw love out the window by getting obsessed with right belief.

“Which is the great commandment in the law?” To paraphrase, the question: “Here are the Ten Commandments; tell us which one is the greatest!” And what did Jesus do? He could have gone into what Joseph taught him; what Mary taught him; what his boyhood rabbis taught him; or what his Heavenly Father taught him. Instead he went back to the words that mattered as much or more to Jews than perhaps any others. He went back to the “Shema” the words that said “Hear ye! Listen up!” Jesus, and virtually every Jew, and now many Christians, have it etched into their memory banks. The opening portion is from Deuteronomy 6. “Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” When some of us will visit Israel next month, we will see faithful orthodox Jews with those words written on their hand, between their eyes, and on their doorposts. The Orthodox Jews take these words literally and carry them out visibly. Jesus, not a literalist, knew the words of God taught to him since he was young; with just a twist of language, he answered the questioner this way: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” He could have stopped there. But instead he added words, perhaps remembered from his Sabbath School lessons. He went into Leviticus, where casual readers of the Old or First Testament often fear to tread, and there he pulled out this gem from chapter 19, verse 18: and the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It helps us to remember Jesus’ own testimonies in his short ministry: he came to interpret the Law and to fulfill it, not to change it.

How good it is to know your Bible! Some quote it inaccurately and some just own one. But to know God best starts by knowing his Word written, which is Scripture, and his Word living, who is Jesus! Perhaps our best combination for living is to know the fences for good living found in Scripture and to seek to live with the heart of Jesus himself. With the timeless words that Jesus taught along with his loving actions, we can change the world.

Jeffrey A. Sumner October 23, 2011

SHADES OF GRAY: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Matthew 24: 42-51

The idea of watching for the return of Christ, similar to the Old Testament term, “the day of the Lord,” gets more press and attention with fringe religious groups than it does in many churches on regular Sunday mornings. Why is that? The second coming of Christ is referred to more than 350 times in the New Testament. By contrast, baptism, the subject of sermons almost yearly, is mentioned just 13 times in the writings of Paul, but the return of the Lord is mentioned 50 times. And each month as we partake of Holy Communion, I repeat words like this: “And each time we eat this bread and drink this cup, we do show forth the Lord’s death until he comes again.” It is what we believe, but is it that for which we long? Perhaps there is fear that we will not be judged worthy; or perhaps we failed to listen well enough to what scales God uses in judging us. Perhaps it is that we are actually quite afraid of death and have failed to prepare for it and loathe thinking about it. But a day will come, when you are ready or when you are not, when you will have to think about death. Just this week I sat down with a person to plan ingredients for her memorial service. Good for her. I remember a man of faith who planned ahead before his death; he met with an attorney, and with me, and as he lived the rest of his life he had peace in his heart where his finances would go, he knew where his soul would go after death, and he chose leave some of his assets to his church. If the streets of Heaven are paved with gold, Heaven didn’t need his money, Jesus just welcomed another disciple. The man gave generously while he was alive; and he has kept giving, through his planned gift, while he is in heaven. Faithful people plan for the day of the Lord. And we know that that day- for people of faith, for baptized followers of Christ, for those who humbly honor God- that day will be wonderful.

Billy Sunday, the great revivalist preacher I mentioned a few weeks ago, was an ordained Presbyterian minister. Referring to the day we meet Christ face to face, he once said this: “The meeting is to be the greatest meeting the Bible tells anything about. There have been some wonderful meetings, but never has there been one to compare to this. It was a wonderful meeting the children of Israel had on the shore of the Red Sea, after Pharaoh’s pursuing host had been destroyed in the angry waters, and Miriam the prophetess, with her timbrel, led the people in singing, ‘Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.’ And it was another great meeting they had at the foot of Mount Sinai, when the law of God was given to them amid thunders and lightnings and fire and smoke….It was a wonderful meeting when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount; and another when he fed the multitude with five loaves and two fish. And that was a great meeting on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit came rushing like a mighty wind….But no meeting has ever been held anywhere or any time that could begin to compare in importance with the greatest of all meetings that is to be held in the air, when our Lord comes ….That meeting is the one for which all others have been preparing the way. It will be the crowning meeting of all history.” [BILLY SUNDAY “The Second Coming of Christ.”]

The crowd in Billy Sunday’s time, as in our time, also let complacency set in about Christ’s return and about their own death. If we go back hundreds of years, we find complacency even in the time of John Calvin. In one of his sermons, he affirmed “Our Lord Jesus Christ must appear from heaven. It is one of the principle articles of our faith. His coming must not be useless. Then, we would look for it, waiting for our redemption and salvation. We need not doubt it, for that would violate all that our Lord Jesus Christ did and suffered.” [John Calvin, “On the Final Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”] And, astoundingly, we find the chord of “watching and waiting” sound even in the time of Christ. “Watch therefore” Jesus said in our text today. And in Luke chapter 12 he says this: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like those who are waiting on their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.” Those are the words of our Lord himself; he too was telling sensory stories, making analogies, and sharing parables to try to teach messages that filled with insights. And yet there were those in his time, in Calvin’s time, in Billy Sunday’s time, and in our time who worry not about the day when they meet Christ. Not only do they not worry, some even repress it like they repress talk about death. Yet why should it be that way? In choir practice this week we had a bit of a discussion about the spelling of a word in the anthem. Some versions of “My Lord, what a Mourning” spell it with a “u” in it: m-o-u-r-n-i-n-g. Would that imply mourning, or sadness, for those who had died and who had turned away an invitation to heaven? Would it describe the saddened mourners who would surely wail over the death of loved ones who died without a sure destination? Or would there, instead, be a sense of expectation, of awe, of a new day when the one who put the stars in the sky will make them fall into the abyss, because starlight will no longer needed; the Lord God will the light of the redeemed according to Revelation 22:5. M-o-r-n-i-n-g implies a “glorious” morning, a new day, and a new life. So how did you receive the words of the anthem today? Was its message frightful, or was it hopeful? Perhaps that answer says much about your sureness of your life in Christ.

I wish that people would take Matthew 24, verse 42, and put it in their wallet next to their money or their credit card so the next time they plan to buy a book from a man who says he knows when Christ will return they will just save their money and read the passage. Here it is: “Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” Some teachers in their classes clearly outline the day that they will administer tests, midterms, and final exams. Other teachers prefer to give quizzes that they call “pop quizzes.” I used to really dislike pop quizzes. How are you supposed to be ready when you don’t know when to be ready? Although some teachers may do it to try to trick or irritate their class, the best teachers do it as a teaching tool, to encourage students to learn as they go. God does not want us cramming for life’s final exam or “pulling an all-nighter” as we called it in college, to be ready for judgment day. Therefore God doesn’t reveal when our last day will be, nor does God reveal when Christ will come again. Not even Jesus himself knows, according to Jesus, a few verses ahead of our text. Matthew 24: 36 reads: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father knows.” Why would God leave us in that mystery? Instead of studying for the test, what would it be like to live every day as if it were your last? What if, today, were your last day on earth? What would you say to people before you leave here today? How might your prayers sound different in your conversations with God; or would you be dusting off a prayer life that has gotten as perfunctory as grace at meals? Who would you call when you got home? Would you try to ease your troubled soul by calling or seeing one with whom you recently had a fight; or might you try to forgive the one you haven’t yet been able to forgive? Jesus taught us to pray these words: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Some say it “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If this was your last day on earth, and you knew that your prayer asks God to forgive you to the same degree that you have forgiven others, would you try to forgive that person today? Or would you carrying a grudge? I am sure that no one carries grudges into Heaven! But the issue is not just forgiveness; it is procrastination. Jesus hasn’t returned in our lifetime so we decide we’ll put off tomorrow what could be done today. Jesus’ knew human nature, so he addresses in our text what happens “when the master is delayed.” He knows all our human excuses; he knows our temptations; but even he doesn’t know the days of our lives. Who he knows is his Father, and those who get to know Jesus, know God.

So, suppose I join all those wealthy religious authors who put out their books, claiming that they have been given a sign, a word from God, of when Christ is coming again! I have gotten the word from God! Christ will return soon! You have a little time! Go and live all your days as if you had just received such a notice from God.

Jeffrey A. Sumner October 16, 2011

SHADES OF GRAY: ETIQUETTE IS EVERYTHING

Matthew 22: 1-14

“You’re not wearing that out in public!” is a declaration a wife might make to her husband or a mother might make to her child. What we wear on the outside is exceedingly important to a few, but to others it doesn’t seem to matter at all! Do you see someone people dressed outside and you wonder if they rolled out of bed in those clothes? Pajama bottoms and tee shirts are the clothes some people don every day! And some just shrug and say, “So what; they’re comfortable!” In Florida, to the chagrin of many, people can go out for a nice meal and see dress shirts and tee-shirts on men in the same restaurant. In the cruise travel magazine I enjoy, hardly a month goes by without people complaining about dress codes not being enforced on cruises. Clothing and attire matter to many people. As I joined a special group of twelve on a behind the scenes tour of a cruise ship recently, they sent one man back to put long pants on instead of shorts. The acceptance letter specifically said all participants needed long pants for their own protection around machinery. “I told him to put on long pants!” his wife told us as he ran back to his cabin to change. “He said he didn’t think it would matter!” It did. There is a time and place for different levels of dress: funerals, beach days, banquets, and theme parks all call for different clothing. But people in Florida in particular like their comfort. This is promoted a recreation state! Several church men told me they would never wear a tie again now that they are retired! And they are wonderful men! Does it really matter how people dress? Our neighbors at the Drive-in Christian Church get many people in their church services who go because they feel welcome attending in their pajamas, in swim wear, and even with their dogs or cats. People love that! And today, this parable helps us to consider whether our actual clothing or our spiritual clothing really matter to God.

Jesus is as relevant for us today as he was in the first century once we acquaint ourselves with the leaders, the mores, the customs, and the expectations of his time. The untrained eye hears this passage, and many reach some unfortunate conclusions. This is a parable, but some read it like an allegory. Parables are subversive in-your-face stories used by Jesus to hold a mirror up to those in power. Allegories are stories written with each part standing for something or someone else. In this story, for example, people for years have said that the king represents God. But then we are faced with a conundrum: is this really the way God treats those at a Heavenly banquet table? Some have tried to make this parable be a story about God, suggesting that the king is God and the first guests that did not accept the invitation represent the Jews; that the ones brought in from the highways and byways are the Christians; and the one kicked out—sarcastically called “friend”—is one who masquerades as a Christian but isn’t one. But for today, let’s hear the story as the parable Matthew said it was. The ones who filled the table were both bad and good, invited because the king commanded that the banquet not proceed without a full host of guests. The earlier ones broke royal etiquette. When a king invited them, it should have been taken as a royal edict to be there. What hurt and anger it caused when a majority of his invited guests didn’t come to his banquet. In our day, so many people don’t reply at all that hosts wonder if guests are coming or not! As Mary Ann and I hosted two rehearsal dinners, and one wedding reception over a three year period, we both found ourselves puzzling over invitations when people did not respond, or did so at the last minute. And when a reception hall makes you pay for a prearranged number of guests, the waste of food not served and the charge of $25 - $50 a plate or more makes emotional costs almost as high as the financial ones. It is painful when there are no-shows to special events. And for a king, it is a social disgrace that can bring on responses of decree. “My guests won’t come because of those excuses? Then invite anyone from the streets to come! My banquet must be filled!” Is that what Jesus wants to say about God? Does God murder because of a refused invitation, breaking one of the commands sacred to both Jews and Christians? Or is that just a description of a human king, perhaps one who is losing his influence on his constituents, one who is desperately trying to hold onto power? And who is the one he casts out? Would God really cast out someone with the wrong clothes? And if so, what kind of clothes would they be? Today we will think about new ways to hear a story that has been told before.

What if we think about this story as reflecting human actions, the actions of a human king, perhaps a troubled one, more than the actions of God? Remember that Jesus tells this parable as scrutinizing Pharisees (like elders of today) and Scribes (clergy of today) were trying to trap him. Jesus certainly noted that they wore the right clothing for their office, but they came without the spiritual clothing that is required for the people of God: the clothing of repentance, joy, humility, and forgiveness. But instead of putting God in the king role, what if we put a Middle-Eastern monarch in the story; say, one who was losing control of his kingdom and the respect of his people; someone like Herod? Even in our day, we have seen nations lose the fear of their dictators, or in our country with the recent demonstrations, we have seen people who are fed up with our leaders. Today let us consider that this is a story about the nature of people, rather than a story about the nature of God. A king, like a president, was supposed to be afforded the respect of the office, even if he did things that did not please his people. As this human king invites people to a special event—the wedding of his son—he expects them to come. They don’t. The parable says “they made light of it.” Such selfishness or lack of a sense of duty—feigned or not—caused the king to become outraged. A king in those days—a king like Herod for example—had the power to make his constituents pay for their lack of response; and pay they did as the king sent troops to burn the murderers- the target of this king’s rageful thoughts—so his troops burned the city (certainly the part outside of the king’s palace walls!) Then as those who were left in the ashes found themselves living in newly created destitution, they knew the king meant business, and anyone who was within earshot of the king’s men—even if they never received a printed or personal invitation—attended eagerly. This time they all went because their land had been turned to ash: they would get food at the banquet, of which they now had little, they might receive the king’s favor, which they had lost, and they might see a chance for advancement. But a kind is still a king, even if he is a wicked king. In spite of the burning and maiming he created, he still expects people to come when summoned, and to come appropriately attired! It is a wedding banquet, for goodness’ sake! Most who came that day put on their dutiful sense of respect, as they recalled the Emily Post or Miss Manner’s etiquette they learned from a grandparent. They passed the king’s inspection. To do so honored the king which pleased him. But one poor soul, perhaps devastated by the burnings, forgot that a king was still a king. Like trying to take a behind the scene ship tour in shorts, or like trying to come to a wedding in a tee-shirt, he was not welcome. He had not come with appropriate dignity or deference to his already rattled king. He was thrown out. And in Matthew’s gospel the action meant he was being thrown into the city that the king himself just devastated, rather than remembering his place, and his etiquette, and his relationship with his king at his banquet. But through the ages people have made this parable say that God cast someone out into the darkness of Hell. If we read this parable that way, we have a vengeful God whose hurt feelings cause him to react in humanly vengeful ways—the very cycle of retribution that Jesus came to try to break! Jesus’ purpose for the story is to address Scribes and Pharisees; they dressed the part, but inside they were fraudulent. This parable has a different focus if we don’t call this king God.

Jesus himself, in his Sermon on the Mount, told his followers not to worry about their clothing—what they should wear. Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you as well.” If we remember that God is God, and if we remember to seek to live God’s way rather than our own, we will wear the right clothing; we will be clothed in God’s Spirit, the fruits of which, according to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5, are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If those are Godly qualities, how can the king in the parable represent God? Jesus had many instances in the gospels when he saw people who were dressed like leaders in a synagogue or the Temple look like they would embody Godly qualities, but on examination, they were not dressed in the Spirit at all; they were dressed in the flesh. Later the first letter of Peter actually addresses elders and how they should act (or be Spiritually dressed.) It reads: “I exhort the elders among you to tend the flock of God that is in your charge, exercising oversight not for sordid gain, but eagerly. …And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in dealing with one another, for ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”

Jesus is giving a new guide by which we judge and are judged: how are we making ourselves to be more like God, not like the angry King? How are we showing love unconditionally; how are we doing with our patience? And how are we doing at being faithful to God, not just to human beings or causes? It is being clothed with these that will totally change the way we look at God. Instead of trying to find our place in the empire of a wrathful and vindictive God, we can get written into a different story with a loving, welcoming God. And when this God says: “Come to my banquet!” we will drop what we are doing and go.

Let us pray:

As we think about our qualities that Jesus might call Spiritual clothing, O God, we can now consider what bad habits of ours we can cast out; what harsh reactions we can change; and what hateful spite does to wring the waters of baptism out of our clothes. We can now consider also changing any attitude that seethes with disrespect and put on humbleness instead. We pray for the strength to do that now, following Jesus as our Savior and example. Amen.

October 9, 2011

SHADES OF GRAY: AND JUSTICE FOR ALL?

Matthew 20: 1-16

In her bestselling book THE HELP, at the back of the book, author Kathryn Stockett tells about the person on whom she based her stories: her family maid, Demetrie. “Demetrie used to say picking cotton in Mississippi in the dead of summer is about the worst pastime there is, if you don’t count picking okra, another prickly, low-growing thing. … Demetrie would … shake her finger at us, warning us against [picking cotton] as if a bunch of rich white kids might fall to the evils of cotton-picking, like cigarettes or hard liquor.” [THE HELP, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2009, p. 447.] Later in the book, and also depicted in the film, we are reminded of the separate drinking fountains, wash rooms, and dressing rooms for people of color. As Jesus’ parable unfolds today, I wonder if it isn’t so much about workers in a field as it is about workers and human beings in the world. Although THE HELP is a work of fiction, there is truth in the pictures it paints.

Jesus made it clear: what would it be like for someone who expected separate, dirty and poorly maintained facilities to be granted the right to be treated equally? What rejoicing would go on in their heart! But instead of equality, the parable speaks loudly about perceived inequality. How many people get distracted as they compare the work space someone else has; or they compare incomes, or clothes, or cars? The size of an office matters to many; status matters to them as well, and fairness seems to matter to everyone. Would a man who is a law partner making a 6 figure salary be willing to trade places with a cotton picking sharecropper? Would a woman who loves purchasing designer wear be willing to trade seats with the woman who makes the dress in sweat shop conditions, with poor light, no health care, no breaks, and minimum wage pay? Certainly many poor ones would trade places with the people of status in a heartbeat, because the grass looks greener on the other side. But look wealth and status also has its heartaches, as millionaires get confronted by lawsuits, by shootings, by kidnappings, and by the coercion attempts of others in power.

Our recent history tells us that on 1st December, 1955, Rosa Parks, left Montgomery Fair, the department store where she worked as a seamstress in Montgomery Alabama, and got on the Cleveland Avenue bus as she did every night. As always she sat in the section in the back of the bus as 1955 designated. However, when the bus became full, the driver instructed Rosa to give up her seat to a white man. She was exhausted; she had paid the same fare that others on the bus had paid; and she stayed put. Rosa stayed seated and the police were called to arrest her for not giving up her seat to a white man. Fairness seems to matter to everyone. But justice matters to God.

There is a commercial on television currently with two boys on it and the banker is giving ice cream to the newest boy. The other boy protests that he too is new, and the banker replies, “Yes but he’s newer.” So the tag line says this bank will treat you fairly instead of treating the newest customers better. It is a common sales practice. Customers who are new to some cable or satellite television companies get channels for free that get dropped after a certain time: loyalty seems to drop them from being treated like royalty: how strange. What is wrong with that picture? And then again, by contrast, there are some people in certain country clubs that, by virtue of their tenure or investment, get the best perks, better than others who join later. Again, Jesus has so many similar stories: he watched his own disciples argue one time about who was the greatest; he chose the twelve first, but as he invited others to follow him they were told that they would be first. What did he mean? He had watched people at banquets make a beeline for the best seats in the house, only to be bumped—Rosa Parks style—when someone with more clout or pull came to the banquet as well. I don’t think Jesus’ story just takes place in a field, does it? It takes place everywhere, and it happens when we compare. Indiana poet Max Ehrman wrote the words to what became known as the Desiderata. In it he wisely says: “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.” It is a warning against judging whether your parents are fair, the world is fair, or if God is fair. Attempts at fairness trip us up everytime. Justice is Jesus’ issue; it is God’s issue, and and so it is one of our issues as well. A child gets toys at Christmas and by the afternoon has called his or her friends to compare gifts. Four children in a household open their stocking and one secretly watches how many pieces of candy her sister has and points out any distribution issues she observes! A teenager compares curfews with her parents, and another compares driving privileges with those his friend gets to have. Sometimes Property Owners inundate the Condo Association with claims that one unit has gotten neglected or gotten unfair treatment over another. Politicians agree to a pork-laden bill if their state too gets a slice of the pork. And even ministers in the Presbyterian Church (USA) have their full salary packages published for all ministers and elders to see and to compare. Hasn’t the church learned how envy or jealousy can drive God’s Holy Spirit from our souls; why do they pubish such things? This parable isn’t just about paying fairly or graciously after a hard day of back-breaking work! It is about our sideward glances at what someone else has gotten; about our comparisons that let Satan himself enter our hearts: the times when the devil is on one shoulder and an angel is on the other.

So today’s parable is not just about a field and workers; it is about Israel in the first century and about people in this century who believe they are entitled to more because they have belonged the longest. What does the parable say about justice and fairness, that betrays our human and emotional underbellies, which can be green with envy or blue with sadness? If Google Earth- that eye in the sky that can zoom in even to the street where you live- if it could follow children at school, business persons in hallways, tradesmen and women on job sites, and politicians in Washington, the camera’s eye would catch some of the actions and attitudes that are like those men in this parable: our human condition entices us to look at what another has, or is wearing, or is paid. And then what happens? Do we cry out to God “No fair! Why does my child have cancer and that person’s child does not? Or “How is it that I have spent years in the ministry and that new pastor has a starting salary higher than anyone in the area?” Or “Why is it that a church ministers to a person for 30 years or more and yet a Hospice organization, that gave tender loving care for two weeks, gets chosen as the place to send rememberances?” Or “It doesn’t feel right that I spent much of my life building up that fine program, and in a year that new person has torn it down!” Or “Why is it that I have given and given to my daughter all her life, and now, in my hour of need, she says she can’t be here for me?” The list can be filled in with whatever wound has left its mark in your heart.

What is the inequity in your life? Whatever it is, remember the words that have been said forever: life isn’t fair. There are few guarantees that promise what you put into something, or particulary in someone, will be returned tenfold or even one fold. The better question is “Where is there injustice?” Injustice matters to God; it mattered to Jesus; and working to right injustice is the work of Christians and other people of faith. These are our marching orders; what God does out of grace, or what you do out of grace, is a gift; you don’t owe a rationale to any prying eyes or questioning kids unless you choose to give it. The landowner said “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” What is left unknown? Did the landowner, perhaps, have a prior relationship with some of the workers in the parable? Or did he get a report that the last workers worked at double-time speed and the first ones like snails? We don’t know the circumstances; we just grouse at the results. You decide who you will help and who you won’t; make your decision with choices that are honorable and not selfish. Then Christ himself will not write a parable about you; instead he will whisper in your ear: “Well done.” May it be so with you.

Jeffrey A. Sumner September 18, 2011