Time...

Mark 13:1-8

Last week we heard a story about a woman who took her last penny and gave it to God. This week, I’ve been thinking about what we do with our time. In particular, I’m thinking about a question that gets asked all kinds of ways: “If you had one day left to live, how would you spend it?” Think about it for a moment…really think. What would you spend that last 24 hours doing? Would you spend it with the people you love the most? Would you enjoy your last day with family and friends? Would you do something crazy? Steal a car? Rob a bank? Something crazier? Would you spend that last day enjoying your favorite location on earth? Would you drive to the mountains, head to the beach and sit by the ocean, walk through the streets of your favorite city? Would you tell someone something you’ve been meaning to say, but haven’t found the time or words yet? What would you say? “I’m sorry”? “I love you.”? “I really can’t stand you”? Would you, instead, be paralyzed by fear? Would you stay at home and sit and wait and worry? What would you do if you knew you only had one day left to live?

Of course, we have no idea when our last day will come or what we will do with it. But think about it for just a minute.

Essentially, this is what Jesus’ disciples are concerned about. It’s what Peter, Andrew, James, and John are thinking about as they sit on the Mount of Olives with Jesus. Really, who could blame them for thinking about it? Just a few minutes earlier, as they were all heading out of the Temple, one of them happened to mention how impressive the whole structure was-“Look at these stones, they’re huge! Look at these buildings, they’re bigger than anything I’ve ever seen!” Then, instead of agreeing, Jesus told them with a less-than-casual tone in his voice that one day the whole thing would be reduced to a pile of rubble.

Once they’re safely across the way, sitting up on the Mount, they ask Jesus a question like the one I began with this morning. “When will this happen? How will we know?” If we were there that day, we would probably ask the same kind of thing.

I wonder if this same kind of thing was on Paul’s mind when he wrote the letter to the Hebrews. In fact, I think what he writes in 10:24-25 makes a pretty good answer to questions about what to do with the time we have left-whether it’s one day or a hundred years, I think they make good sense:

“Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.” -Hebrews 10:24-25 (MSG)

If you know that the time you have left is limited, then Paul says: encourage love, help out, make time to gather together, and in all of it go above and beyond-be inventive-do it all in ways that the world has never seen before.

This verse becomes even more important when the things that Jesus tells his disciples to watch out for start to happen. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars… When people try to get you to compromise on your beliefs… When there is conflict… When there are earthquakes… When there are people without enough to eat…

You know what? All of those things are happening right now… War, conflict, messages that compete for our attention, natural disasters, hunger… So Paul’s words are important for us today. They were happening back then, too, when Paul wrote those words. They’ve been happening since nearly the beginning of time.

So what do you do when you know that the time you’ve got is limited? I’ll bet Jesus was aware of this question every day of his life. I’ll bet it never drifted too far from his thoughts. I’ll bet he lived with it throughout nearly every moment. I’ll bet he thought about it during those last twenty four hours of his life. From sitting at the table sharing a meals with his best friends to praying in the garden for strength in those final hours. From being arrested and hauled off, to being raised on the cross. I’ll bet he thought about how he had spent his life especially in those last moments as friends scattered while others stayed…as people mocked while others couldn’t bear to look. I’ll bet he thought about it a lot at the very end.

I wonder how Jesus thought about his time on earth on the other side of the cross. When the stone was rolled away and the sun streamed in? When his friends stood in disbelief at his living, breathing body?

Time is precious when you know you don’t have a lot of it. Time may be even more precious when you find some you didn’t know you had, or even better when you get some you thought you’d never live to see.

I think, in essence, this is what Jesus’ message on the Mount of Olives is about. Live your life while you have the time to live it. Be the person God created you to be while you can. Find time for what’s really important when you have the time.

If you’ve got ten minutes, twenty four hours, or twenty four years, then you’ve got time. Time to invent something new. A new person to reach out to. A new friend to make. A new chapter to open in an old relationship. A new message to share with the world. A new stone to turn over. Until that day when everything is new…remember what Jesus did for you and what Paul told you, and live lives that let the people around you know that you’re making the most of your time and they can too.

An Empty Boat

John 11:32-44

I want you to use your imagination for a moment. I want you to imagine that you are in a boat on a river. It can be any kind of boat you choose: a canoe, a rowboat, a kayak… Can you picture it? O.K, you’re in your little boat, paddling along, minding your own business, heading down river. The water is still and calm. The leaves on the trees around you are just beginning to change color and you can see all of the yellows, oranges, and reds reflecting off of the water all around you. An occasional leaf falls off of a branch and drifts gently down in front of you. As you watch it fall, all of a sudden WHAM! Another boat bumps into you from behind. You turn around and see that the driver of the other boat was busy furiously texting on their cell phone, oblivious to where they were they were going when they bumped into your little boat.

Now, let me ask you: How do you feel about that person? What do you say to that person?

Shortly after this happens, you get your boat going back down river, your blood pressure returns to a normal rate, and you once again begin enjoying the still water, the changing leaves, and the ride that you’re taking in your little boat, when all of a sudden WHAM! It happens again. Another boat slams into your little boat. But this time when you turn around you see that this boat has no one in it all. It’s an empty boat. What do you do this time? Do you shout at the empty boat? Are you angry at it? Do you say anything at all? How does life change when you get bumped by an empty boat?

Chuang Tzu was a Chinese philosopher who lived in the 4th century before the birth of Christ. This lesson about the “empty boat” was one of his stories.

Have you ever been bumped? Can you remember the last time you really got bumped in life? When someone or something came along, often without warning, and knocked you off course? When something bumped you out of the comfort and security of the life you were living and left you trying to paddle back on course?

We’ve all been bumped. And when it happens, it’s jarring. It’s startling. It can make us angry. In fact, many of us have been bumped so many times that we’re no longer paddling along through life, enjoying the scenery and the moment, but instead we’re spending all of our time on the lookout for the next boat that may come along and bump us. Can you relate?

Mary and Martha have been bumped. In our lesson for today, they’re still reeling from a big bump-one that startled and shook them. One that has sent their lives off course. Lazarus, their brother, has died, and they are feeling bumped in a big way because of it. They’re angry. They’re tearful. They’re searching for answers and looking for hope. They’re worrying. Really, they’re doing what we would do.
What they learn that day is that God has the power to make every painful experience, every threatening thing, every worry inducing bump in our lives into an empty boat. Jesus, filled with every human emotion his body will hold, as he fights back the tears, appeals to God to do just that. In the face of death, Jesus prays to God and opens the grave. At the end of that day, with the bandages still hanging from his head, arms, and legs, Lazarus’s death is nothing more than a momentary bump from an empty boat.

We still get bumped. Every day. The problem with this isn’t in the bumping, but it’s in what we do with it. If you get bumped enough, you begin to worry about where and when the next big bump will come from and what it might do to you. When this happens, you spend most of your life worrying instead of living. You start looking not at the changing leaves or the still water that God has blessed you with, but at the boats all around you, the one way out there on the horizon…and you worry that it’s coming for you. When this happens, the whole world shrinks to the size of your little boat and you spend all your time wondering how you’ll protect it. The end result is that even an empty boat can rob us of the present-the only time we really ever have.

Jesus came, in part, to liberate us from the idea that worrying accomplishes anything. He told his disciples, at the most uncertain point in their lives: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.”

In Jesus, we are given the power and the strength to become the very thing that we spend so much time running from. In Jesus, we can become empty boats. Chuang Tzu put it this way: “If you can empty your own boat crossing the river of the world, no one will oppose you, no one will seek to harm you....” When we become empty boats floating through life, then God becomes the one who charts the course, drives our lives, and watches out for the bumps along the way.

Jesus, seeing the pain that death causes and the power that it holds over the lives of the people he loves, does something about it. That afternoon, he opened the grave, prayed to God, and called for Lazarus to come out. Later, in order to destroy the power of death forever, Jesus ventured right into it. He walked into the darkness that Lazarus emerged from. He set his course for the heart of it and never allowed himself to be bumped off course by anything. Before he did, he emptied himself completely, he prayed for God to take over, and when he set his compass for the cross he became an empty boat-driven by God. In the emptiness, God does something amazing. Death is conquered and new life emerges.

No one likes getting bumped. We’re bumped by all kinds of things and all of them add up in many ways to death and loss. We’re bumped when we lose a loved one. We’re bumped when we lose a relationship. We’re bumped when we lose a job. Every bump interrupts our life. Every bump knocks our little boat off course. Every bump hurts.

In the God who raised Lazarus, in the God who was raised on the cross, and in the God who raised Christ to new life, we’re reminded every day that these bumps cannot defeat us. These shocks cannot drive us off course forever. These traumas will never have the last word…because with this God, one day the waters will become calm once more, the sun will shine again, and even at the end of life, our boat will still sail on.

Becoming Children of God-Reformation and Liam's Baptism

John 8:31-36

Martin Luther, the founder of our church, the “igniter” of the Protestant Reformation, the man who was bold enough to compile a list of 95 issues with the church of his day, and then bold enough to nail them to the door of the castle church in his own Wittenburg, Germany on October 31, 1517. This Martin Luther, who holed himself up in a tiny room to avoid being burned at the stake, and while he was there translated the entire Bible from Hebrew and Greek into German, so that the average person could read it. This historical figure, who psychologists say, is the only person in history who could be completely analyzed based on the large volume of writing he did…they say he never had a thought that he didn’t put on paper…This man, this “legend” among Lutherans, when it comes down to it…is exactly like you…and me. His name may be in the history books, but he’s no different than us.

When it comes down to it, Martin Luther, with all of his credentials, accomplishments, achievements, and history-making works…is just another disciple of Jesus, another child of God. He’s just another person who heard the words of Jesus when he said:“Follow Me” and did exactly that.

“The truth will make you free” Jesus says. The truth of the matter is, a disciple is anyone who leaves behind the pressures of this life, makes a turn somewhere along the way, and begins following Jesus first.

The disciples did it: Peter and Andrew left their nets lying in the sand and followed Jesus. James and John, jumped out of the boat and left the family fishing business to follow Jesus. Tax collectors and sinners flocked to Jesus’ side, leaving behind their old lives and starting something new. Each of these people, when Jesus came into their life and asked them to “follow”, they stopped what they were doing, and they did it. They followed Jesus. They became disciples.

Just like Peter and Andrew, James and John, our first movement as disciples is to drop whatever it is that keeps us from answering the call, and begin to follow Jesus. Just like Martin Luther, our first task is to let go of anything that stands in the way of our relationship with God and begin to follow Jesus…
Is it easy? Think for a moment about all the things you have to do today. Could you drop them all and never return to them again?

There is someone here this morning who in just a few short moments will make it look really easy. In just a few short moments Liam will come to the font, feel the waters of baptism trickle gently over his forehead, and just like that…become a child of God…become a disciple of Jesus. It’s just that simple…come to font…feel the waters rush.... It’s easy, and it happened exactly the same way for you. Baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we become his followers.

Jesus, in the end, the one we’re following, leads us to the cross…the sacrifice that he makes to bring the unconditional love of God to the world is the sacrifice of his own life. In this supreme gift lies the heart of what Martin Luther discovered: God’s love is free…for you, for me, for the world. God’s forgiveness is free….God’s approval of you…is free. It can’t be bought, not with money, not with good deeds, not with self-denial, or self-sacrifice, or anything else that you or I have or hold. It is God’s to give, and God gives it for free.

Of course, it’s not free for God. For God the cost is huge, it means life and death, it means pain and suffering, it means the cross for his son, the grave for his own flesh. But in this incredible act, God says “You’re worth it”

Today, we remember and celebrate the Reformation, a shift in the church toward the God who is gracious, the God who forgives without charging us a thing. The God who rejoices in the possibility of new and continual reformation and rebirth in the church for years to come. This is the movement that Martin Luther began. This is the Reformation commitment we are called to continue as disciples of Jesus.

The best part of this is that there are as many ways to do it as there are people in the world. The possibilities are limitless. You can do it as a teacher, a mechanic, a tax man, a saleswoman, a doctor, a lawyer, a stay-at-home mome, a cashier, a toll booth worker, a builder, a child, a friend, a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a grandparent, a baby… The list goes on and on. At the end of the day, all you have to do to follow Jesus is be yourself. Exactly the person God created you to be. That’s why Liam makes it look so easy-he has absolutely no problem being the person God created him to be. In fact, at his age, it’s all he knows.

Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door. Peter and Andrew dropped their nets. James and John jumped out of the boat. The tax collectors left their tax booths. The sinners found forgiveness. Liam came to the font and was baptized. What will you find in the words of Jesus, standing before you, saying: “Follow Me”? How will you be a disciple, in the spirit of the first disciples, the tax collectors and sinners, Martin Luther and the other Reformers? How can you receive God’s love the way Liam did this morning? How will you change the world tomorrow as a disciple of Jesus? What can you do today with the gifts God gave you and the unconditional love God shows you?

Wild Things

Mark 10:35-45

There once was a rich man who was near death. He was very grieved because he had worked so hard for his money and wanted to be able to take it with him to heaven. So he began to pray that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him. An angel heard his plea and appeared to him.

"I’m sorry, it doesn’t work that way. You can't take your money with you."
The man begged the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules. The man continued to pray that his wealth could follow him into heaven.

The angel reappeared and informed the man that God had decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man gathered his largest suitcase and filled it with pure gold bars and placed it beside his bed. Soon afterward, he died and showed up at the gates of heaven to greet St. Peter.

St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said, "Hold on, you can't bring that in here!"
The man explained to St. Peter that he had permission and asked him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checked it out, came back and said, "You're right. You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I'm supposed to check its contents before letting it through." St. Peter opened the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaimed, "You could bring anything you wanted, why did you choose to bring pavement?” (The streets of heaven are paved with…)

There was another man who had worked all of his life and had saved all of his money. He was a real miser when it came to his money. He loved money more than just about anything, and just before he died, he said to his wife, "Now listen, when I die, I want you to take all my money and place it in the casket with me. I wanna take my money to the afterlife."

So he got his wife to promise him with all her heart that when he died, she would put all the money in the casket with him.

Well, one day he died. He was stretched out in the casket, the wife was sitting there in black next to her closest friend. When they finished the ceremony, just before the undertakers got ready to close the casket, the wife said "Wait just a minute!" she had a shoe box with her, she came over with the box and placed it in the casket.

Then the undertakers locked the casket down and rolled it away.

Her friend said, "I hope you weren't crazy enough to put all that money in the casket."

She said, "Yes, I promised. I'm a good Christian, I can't lie. I promised him that I was going to put that money in that casket with him."

"You mean to tell me you put every cent of his money in the casket with him?"

"I sure did, " said the wife. "I got it all together, put it into my account and I wrote him one big check. If he can cash it, he can spend it.”
Today, we hear a story about James and John. In it, we find out that just like the two men in these jokes-they want to go to heaven with gold bricks in their pockets and a big check in their wallets. “

Jesus sets them straight, or at least he tries to when he essentially tells them “It doesn’t work that way.”

Others have captured this wisdom over the years. Someone somewhere said “You can’t take it with you.” Another anonymous person put it into these words “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.” Maurice Sendak, author of “Where the Wild Things Are” understood this too. Here’s what he said about it: “There must be more to life than having everything.”
His book was recently made into a movie that was released this weekend. In short, the book is about a little boy who imagines a world of Wild Things and retreats there when his mother sends him to his room without supper.

When we’re not satisfied with what we have we run the risk of becoming like James and John. When this happens our imaginations run wild with impossible ideas of personal greatness. Ideas that include special seats at the right and left hand of God. Ideas of suitcases that are full of gold bricks. Ideas of big checks to stuff into our wallets.

As we find out in today’s lesson, these are ideas that God cannot bless. If we listen closely, we realize that we are fortunate that God does not bless these ideas.
I think God wants us to use our imaginations to come up with all kinds of wild things. I think those wild things might include working to make seats, not for ourselves, but so that other people will have a place to sit. A wild thing that God could bless might look less like a suitcase of gold bricks, and more like bricks that build foundations for places where people can gather to hear a story of hope for all, not just a few. I think God would like us to make some wild things happen by opening our wallets and checkbooks to find more imaginative uses for what we find there.

Maurice Sendak wrote the book, but I think God is the master of wild things. God created this wild world, but He wasn’t satisfied with it until people like you and I were living here. When we came up with all kinds of wild ideas that God couldn’t bless-God came up with the wildest one yet. Jesus was born. God was born into our world. He lived as we do. He saw what we see. He walked through the world and shared wild things like unconditional love, complete forgiveness, and real life with anyone who was willing to listen. In this wild world, Jesus does all kinds of wild things-but none was wilder than venturing into the wildest, most untamed place we could imagine-into death and back out again. In doing this one wild thing, Jesus frees us from all those misguided imaginings and frees us to be wild things just as he was.

When we’re not satisfied with what we have we become like James and John. We start thinking about ourselves more and more, and thinking about the people around us less and less. When this happens, we come up with all kinds of wild things-seats in heaven, suitcases full of gold, and big checks with our name on them.
I think God wants to let us in on a little secret: When we get to that place where God’s glory shines the brightest, that place where James and John wanted those two special seats on either side of Jesus-we won’t care about most of what we had in this life. It just won’t matter anymore.

But, all of those things we had in this life will be left here when we go. They will speak to what kind of people we were in this life. Will people tell stories about you and I? They certainly will. And you and I will write those stories today. It’s up to us. They can tell stories of the gold bricks we packed up in our suitcases and the checks that went un-cashed and unused. Or, they can tell stories about people with great imaginations who realized that there was more to life than having it all, and upon realizing that-did some really wild things to serve the people and the world that God loves. If we’re successful, one day people will point to the seats that we set, the places we build, and the things we imagine and say: “That’s where the wild things are.”

"how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God"

Mark 10:17-31

Late one night there is a knock on the pearly gates. St. Peter looks out and a man is standing there. So, he goes to grab his clipboard and is about to begin the interview he conducts with all the new arrivals to heaven, but when he opens the door, all of a sudden the man disappears.

No sooner is St. Peter back in his chair when there is another knock at the door. He gets up, opens the door and sees the same man standing there. As he opens his mouth to speak, the man disappears once again.

Finally, at the third knock, St. Peter has had it. He throws the door open and shouts “Why, are you messing with me?!” As the man disappears once more, he shouts back: “I’m not! They keep trying to resuscitate me down here!”

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.” Like it or not, Jesus is right. It is hard to enter the kingdom of God.

I think the biggest reason it’s so hard, is because we are so much more accustomed to living in our own kingdoms. It’s hard to enter God’s kingdom, because if we’re honest with ourselves, we’d rather live in our own kingdoms.
The young man who comes to Jesus in our gospel for today learns this lesson-and when he does it shocks him and makes him walk away saddened. His kingdom is one that is full of lots of possessions. Jesus invites him to enter God’s kingdom, but tells him that all of those possessions can’t come with him. Just the prospect of leaving the kingdom of possessions behind shocks the man, and when he realizes he can’t do it-it saddens him.

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

I thought a little bit this week about all the things that make us comfortable in our own kingdoms.

If we read the gospel stories of Jesus carefully, we will find that the Kingdom of God is vastly different than the kingdoms we build for ourselves to live in.

Our kingdom says that there are winners and losers, and we live in the kingdom trying our best to win as often as possible...but Jesus says: “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake...will save it.” God’s kingdom is for the losers.

When our kingdoms are built for winners- then “how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

Our kingdom says that the best indication of blessing is in how much we have-money in the bank, food in the refrigerator, clothes in our closet, cars in the garage...Jesus says: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” God’s kingdom is for the poor.

When we measure our kingdoms in numbers of possessions-then “how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

Our kingdom says that a good life is a life that is full of comfort, security, and safety...Jesus says: “If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” God’s kingdom doesn’t always call us to the safest, most secure places.

When our kingdoms are marked by comfort and safety-then “how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.”

On top of the need to live in our kinds of kingdoms-rather than God’s, there is another problem that we share with the young man who comes to Jesus. I think, often, we too are asking the wrong questions. Listen again to what he asks: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Looking for something he can perform to get into the kingdom-the young man is crushed when Jesus suggests something he can’t bring himself to do.

Maybe this is another significant difference between God’s kingdom and our kingdom-in God’s kingdom everything is up to God.

You and I have a choice today, as we sit and listen once more to a story about the Kingdom of God. We can look around at the kingdom we live in and become shocked because it is so different than God’s kingdom. We, like the young man, can walk away saddened because we don’t want to give up life in our kingdom. Or, we can see the good news in what Jesus has to say about life in this new kingdom.

You can’t bring the possessions with you into God’s kingdom because God doesn’t want them, doesn’t need them, can’t use them. In fact, God gave you all of those things so that you would use them to make life on this side of the kingdom better for people who have less than you do. God wants you in the kingdom, not the possessions.
God doesn’t care if you’re a winner or a loser. God knows what you’re capable of, who you are, and what you mean to him. God doesn’t need to see a medal around your neck to know that you belong in the kingdom.

God’s kingdom-the eternal life-that the young man asked about will be a place of comfort, security, and safety. God knows that this world is not-but He put you here to live in it and to work for the comfort of others, the security of those who are insecure, and the safety of those who live in dangerous places. God wants you to live in complete safety and security, but not just yet.

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.” In fact, Jesus says- for us it is impossible. But not for God. For God, all things are possible.

Jesus didn’t measure the success of his mission based on how much he had-but instead chose to let God provide-in God’s kingdom 5 loaves and 2 fish can feed thousands of people. In God’s kingdom it’s possible for the Son of God to be born into an unsafe world, in an unsafe place. From the manger to the cross, Jesus chose to live among those for whom there was no safety or security, and little comfort. He walked with people who were living in the valley of the shadow of death-and reminded them that in God’s kingdom they would never walk alone. In the end, Jesus was willing to lose everything that God had given him-his reputation, his credibility, even his life-to bring God’s kingdom to this world. The end of Jesus’ life reveals the most striking difference between God’s kingdom and ours. In our kingdom-death gets the last word. In God’s kingdom-death is the gateway to a new beginning. After death comes resurrection-life in a kingdom that is greater than we ever could have dreamed.

“how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God” without the help of God. When we try to go it alone, when we try to build our own little kingdoms to live in, and when we try to resuscitate them over and over again as they fail to give us the life we want-we run the risk of becoming shocked and saddened time and time again. When we learn to trust God to provide, we begin to really live-maybe not the life we imagined, but the real life that God blesses.

In the end, God doesn’t want your awards, your possessions, or your little kingdom…God wants you! Until we reach that day, God wants us to use these things as witnesses to the new kingdom that God is building for us all to live in one day.
God gives us the words to pray when we, like the young man, struggle with leaving our kingdom for God’s: “Your kingdom come, your will be done.”

Receive the Kingdom of God

Mark 10:13-16

Meditate on these for awhile:
What’s the sound of one hand clapping?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

These are two common examples of what is, in Zen Buddhism, called a “koan”. A koan is a puzzling, often paradoxical statement or story, used as an aid to meditation and a means of gaining spiritual awakening. Ponder them for just a moment and you may find yourself stepping into a whole new reality.

A more contemporary koan is this one: “Why are there locks on the doors at 7-eleven?” Think about it, why does a store that is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year need to have locks on its doors? The path to enlightenment begins here.
While you’re thinking on that one, let me offer you another. Jesus offers us a sort of koan of his own in today’s lesson. “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

I think this is a sort of koan that Jesus offers because, at first glance it seems so easy to understand-children are open, loving, unbiased, creative, caring…the list goes on and on. So, if we recover some of that child-like openness and faith, then we too can expect to enter God’s kingdom. If we can’t recover it, then we may never find the life God intends for us. Easy enough, right?

But, apparently, it’s not that simple. This is the second time in less than a chapter of Mark’s gospel that Jesus has had to make this point to his disciples. First, when they argued about who among them was the greatest-Jesus essentially told them: “Do you want to see who God thinks is great?” and then he took a little child in his arms and said “This is who God thinks is really great.”

And now, as people stream to Jesus with these little children just like that one, the embodiment of greatness in God’s eyes, the disciples only instinct is to speak sternly to them, shoo them away, tell them to get lost. Apparently they haven’t meditated on the koan of the child long enough.

Maybe they should spend some time with the 7-eleven koan, too. Why are there locks on the doors of a store that’s open all the time? These disciples have seen how Jesus is open, to all kinds of people, all the time. And yet, they still feel the need to install locks on the gates of God’s kingdom. They’ve seen it with their own eyes-that Jesus is like a 7-eleven-open all day every day. Yet, today they seem to be telling all of these people, bringing their children that Jesus is closed for business. The doors are locked.

Do you and I need to spend some more time with these two bits of wisdom, too? Are you sometimes like Jesus’ disciples? Do you sometimes see the need to stand guard at the door, at the gate, at the entrance, ready to lock it all up tight if the wrong kind of person happens to come along at the wrong time? Have you ever felt the pressure of feeling like it was up to you to guard something, and you were afraid of what might happen if the gates were left wide open? Have you felt that kind of fear?

Or, are you like the people who bring their children? Do you find yourself wanting some kind of contact with someone who has wisdom to bring to the troubles of your life? Do you find yourself looking for someone who could listen to all the things that fill your heart and mind each day? Do you long for someone who could touch your life and remind you in a meaningful way that it is blessed by God?

The good news today, if you’ve ever felt this way, is that Jesus is here for you. There’s no need to be on guard when he’s around. Stop guarding, put away the keys, leave the door and live your life without fear. Jesus has it covered. There’s no need to carry those troubles alone. You don’t have to look far for that listening ear. Your life is blessed, look around, Jesus is here.

Jesus has a passion for teaching these lessons. They are important to him. Notice how he feels when the disciples stand guard and lock the doors to keep people out- “when Jesus saw this he was indignant.” Indignant literally means: angry, offended, annoyed, pained. Jesus seldom gets this way. In fact, this is the only place in the Bible where it happens.

It doesn’t happen when Jesus is accused of lying about being God’s Son. He doesn’t get angry this way when the accusations turn into a guilty verdict. He isn’t indignant when they lock him up like a criminal, when they dress him up in a purple cloth and a crown of thorn, when they make fun of him. No indignation at all when they lead him to the cross, nail him up on it, and then mock him as he dies. Through all of these things, Jesus expresses no anger at all.
But when he sees someone trying to close up shop on God’s kingdom, he’s indignant.
Indignant, he passes right by the doors that the disciples are trying to close and lock, and he takes the children up in his arms, lays his hands on them, and blesses them. Indignant at the idea that God’s kingdom could ever be closed, Jesus reaches out.

What we find, ultimately from this little koan is that the kingdom of God IS these little ones. It is these little ones and anyone else who is open enough to give and receive God’s love the way they do.

What happens that day is a metaphor for what happens at the end of the story. The disciples tried to lock the doors and close off access to Jesus. The cross and the grave were attempts to lock the doors and close off access to God. But Jesus passes through every locked door, every dark place, every gate that leads to death, and emerges to embrace us with new life on the other side. That day it was blessings for all who came. Today, it is the blessing of the resurrection for all who receive him the way those little ones did.

What’s the sound of one hand clapping? Does a tree that falls in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it? Why do they have locks on the doors at 7-eleven? I’m not sure. But, why isn’t Jesus concerned about offending his disciples? Why does he push past them without a second thought? Why does he bless the little children? I think he does it because they ARE the kingdom of God. You and I are as well when we become like them. Meditate on that for awhile and you will be enlightened.

Running

John 6:24-35

Last Sunday morning, the police in Plain City, Utah were busy with a car chase. Although the pursuit never exceeded 40 miles an hour, it was memorable nonetheless. Police followed a white Dodge Intrepid that appeared to be driven by an underage driver. The car drove through the deserted Sunday morning streets, ran through stop signs, and made a u-turn in the local high school parking lot, all with the sirens and flashing lights in its rear-view mirror. The driver even eluded an attempt by one officer to block the road by turning down a side street at the last minute. Finally, the chase ended when the driver-seven year-old Preston Scarbrough, pulled into the driveway of a local home, put the car in park, got out and ran inside.

Inside the home, Preston found his father, sitting in the living room watching t.v. and told him: “Dad, the cops are outside.”

If you saw the story on the news this week, then you’ve seen it: the car slowly winding through the town’s streets, the police following along, and little Preston running as fast as he can up the dirt driveway and into his house. If you’ve seen it, then you also know why he did it all (or, at least why he says he did it). He says he did it all because he didn’t want to go to church.
So let’s be honest here, how many of us have ever felt like Preston did last Sunday? You wake up Sunday morning and think to yourself: “Man, I really don’t want to go.” Or, you plead with your parents to let you stay home. Be honest. How many of us here this morning felt that way today? I wonder how many of our friends felt that way today, and are still in bed or sitting in their pajamas in front of the television, or are out joyriding just like Preston was.

For me, the timing of this story couldn’t be better because today we’ve got a Gospel lesson where nearly the opposite thing happens. It tells us: “when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.” This crowd of people doesn’t spend their Sunday morning joyriding, trying to avoid the Lord. Instead, they’re purposefully looking, searching, pursuing him. Why would they do this?

They do it because they are the same crowd that just one day earlier had been fed by Jesus. This crowd of people was the same crowd, 5,000 in all, who had been fed until they couldn’t eat another bite when Jesus made five loaves of bread and two fish do more than anyone ever imagined.

So now, they’re looking for him because they want to see what he’ll do next. They had heard about his teachings. They had been told about the miracles of healing. They watched as the leftovers were gathered, filling twelve baskets. And now they’re wondering: “What will he do next?” This crowd is running after Jesus because they want to see or experience the next big thing.

We’ve felt like that as well, haven’t we? We spend a lot of time, if we’re honest with ourselves, running after the next big thing. We run after the next paycheck, the next experience, the next relationship, the next … You could fill in the blank with all the “next” things that you’re running after. We spend a lot of time running after things, and often the running leaves us exhausted and worn out.

At other times we’re more like little Preston, running from things. We know what those things are too. We run from the past, the mistakes, the words we never had the courage to say, the words we wished we had the restraint not to say, the relationship that didn’t turn out the way we had hoped… Again, fill in the blank. What do you run from?

In our lesson for today, Jesus invites all of us who run-from the things in our past or toward the next big thing in the future-to stop running. He tells the crowds who pursue him of something that will feed every hunger and quench every thirst…something that is closer to them than they might imagine.

When we gather together to worship and praise God each week we’re reminded that it’s o.k. to stop running. We gather and remember the waters of baptism that washed over us and made us children of God, children whom God was glad to love just the way we were. We also gather at the table and are fed by the bread of life-and reminded that God still loves us just the way we are. Because of all of this, we don’t to run from anything or for anything.

Many people in the crowds imagined that the next big thing for Jesus would be a seat on a throne. Even his disciples may have pictured him heading there. But Jesus didn’t. He didn’t run to the throne, and he didn’t run from the cross. Instead, he stayed true the person he was meant to be, and he did all of it for you. He gave his own life in place of yours and mine.

The next big thing after that was the new life that God raised him to live. It became the new life that you and I now live. A life that is free from running after things and running from things because this is the life God has given to us.