photo credit: Annie Spratt (https://unsplash.com/@anniespratt)

Luke 13:31-35 (NRSV)

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you."

He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, "Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.'

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

Friday morning we all awoke to the news that 49 people were killed and 20 seriously injured in mass shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch. As of this morning the death toll has risen to 50. “The attack was unleashed at lunchtime local time Friday, when mosques were full of worshippers. Footage of the massacre was streamed live online, and a rambling manifesto laced with white supremacist references was published just before the shootings unfolded.”*

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a press conference, “This is and will be one of New Zealand’s darkest days.” I would add, it is one of the darkest days for all the nations of the earth.

Five months ago I preached on the Sunday following the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pennsylvania in which 11 worshippers lost their lives. In that message I condemned the violence as well as the sinful motivations of the man who was charged with these hate crimes. You may also recall that I invited you to sign you name to letters that would be mailed to Hebrew synagogues throughout the Indianapolis area. These letters amounted to a confession of the Lutheran Church’s history intwined with anti-Semitism and a pledge to stand up against the forces of anti-Semitism as we encounter them in the world.

What I haven’t yet told you is that we received letters in return. I would like to read you the responses from the rabbis who received our letters….

Additionally, I was honored to receive a phone call and have a wonderful conversation with another rabbi who wanted to tell me how much he and his congregation appreciated our gesture.

This morning, unfortunately, it’s time to do it all over again. Once again, God beckons us to condemn the acts violence and intentional taking of life, this time as it occurred in New Zealand. I once again condemn the sinful motivations of the man who has been charged with these acts of terrorism. And I ask you to sign your name to letters that will be mailed to various mosques and Muslim centers in Indianapolis indicating our pledge to stand up against the anti-Muslim forces of hate as we encounter them in the world.

We cannot imagine what it must be like to be a Muslim today. We cannot imagine how much heartache would go into a Muslim man or woman’s decision whether or not to not go to prayers because they feared that they could be targeted next.

It is hard to know how to respond. By signing your name to these letters you are expressing solidarity with people who feel vulnerable, targeted, and vilified. Let the responses of the Hebrew congregations remind you that this is a very meaningful gesture.

It is also important to lament. I’m sure I could have easily found a more eloquent definition of lament, but I think it’s suffice to define lament as “telling God about all the crap that’s going on and insisting it shouldn’t be this way.” Over one-third of all the psalms in the Hebrew scripture are laments. Even Jesus was prone to lament, as we see in the conclusion of today’s gospel selection.

Jesus’ lament is wrapped up in beautiful feminine imagery, identifying his motherly, nurturing and protective inclination towards the people who inhabit the holy city of Jerusalem – the same people who will reject him and have a hand in his death.

Notice, however, that Jesus’ lament is not about his own destiny. He is not lamenting the fact that his life is going to end in Jerusalem. Rather, his lament is for the people who cannot hear the good news and will not accept the love and grace of God. And his lament is not bound by our ideas of time and space. In the same way that Jesus’ laments the hardened hearts of the people in his own time; he also laments the hardened hearts that continue to reject God’s love and grace today.

We walk a well-worn path when we lament how many people, Christians included, effortlessly replace the truths of God’s love and the oneness of creation with the low hanging fruit of hatred, jealousy, fear of, and violence toward people who do not look like us, pray like us, talk like us. Jesus demonstrates what it means to have a heart that is consumed with God’s love. No other ideology, -ism, or affiliation should ever take priority over the truth that all people are beloved image-bearers of the divine. Nothing else is good news.

This morning take the time in prayer to examine how much of your heart is consumed with God. What else is occupying your heart space? What do you believe that incompatible with the good news of God’s love for you and for all people? My list is long, I assure you; and I ask for your prayers in that regard.

One of the most effective things we can do to reduce the amount of violence in our world is to dwell in our belovedness. I can say with absolute certainty that the New Zealand shooter had no idea what it meant that God had claimed his life, loved him wholly and completely, and invited him to share that good news with the world. May our faith guide us to realizations that honor the truth of our belovedness and that will shape the world into a place that honors the good God of all creation. Amen.

Amen.

* https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/14/asia/christchurch-mosque-shooting-intl/index.html

Luke 9:28-43

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.   

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not." Jesus answered, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here." While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

The story of the Transfiguration of Christ is the hinge between the Galilee half of the gospel and the Jerusalem half of the gospel. The first half of Jesus’ ministry kicks off with his baptism. The second half kicks off with his transfiguration. Both are stories of Jesus’ radical encounters with God in which the voice of God affirms Jesus’ identity as God’s beloved.

While much can be said about the story of the Transfiguration itself, today I want to focus on what happens on either side of the mountain – before and after the Transfiguration – as this sets the tone for the last half of Luke’s gospel. It also sets the tone for our worship in the upcoming season of Lent.

Three disciples – Peter, John and James – were witnesses to the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain. They observed Jesus’ face change and his robes become dazzling white. They saw the figures of Moses and Elijah standing with their rabbi. They heard the voice of God that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.”

I suggest to you that the disciples on the mountain heard this as bad news, which is why they “kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.” Here’s why:

After Jesus returns from the mountain a man begs Jesus to heal his son who is suffering from an evil spirit. His request is framed by this disheartening statement, “I begged your disciples to cast it out but they could not.”

Jesus’ angry reaction suggests that casting out an evil spirit should be well within the disciples’ abilities at this point. In fact, Luke writes earlier in the chapter that Jesus “gave [the twelve] power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases” and that they “went through the villages…curing diseases everywhere” (Luke 9:1,6).

The disciples were no longer able to heal and cast out evil spirits. The reason for this loss of power is likely located in what happened immediately before Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain.

In that story, Jesus told the disciples what their ministry would involve going forward. He referenced suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection; punctuated with a call for the disciples to “take up their cross daily and follow [him]” (Luke 8:23).

The disciples were capable of great acts of healing until they learned that suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death would be a part of their lives. The whole reason they started following Jesus in the first place was that he was their ticket to live long lives of blessedness, honor, respect, ease, and power.

Suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death were not what they signed up for. How could (or why would) the disciples continue to perform miraculous healings if all that awaited them was suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death? We can imagine the group of dejected disciples encountering someone requesting healing and depressed they reply, “What’s the point?”

Which is why, on the mountain, Peter, James, and John were probably devastated to hear God say, “This is my Son, my chosen; listen to Him!” Those words meant that God was seconding Jesus’ previous words; verifying the fact that their lives of discipleship would involve suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death.

No doubt the disciples who had not gone up the mountain with Jesus desperately hoped that the disciples would return from a period of prayer with Jesus with the message, “Good news, turns out Jesus was just having a bad day when he said that stuff earlier. We were right all along, everything’s gonna be great!”

Instead Peter, James, and John passed by their friends with their heads downcast, not saying a word. Their silence confirmed all the disciples’ fears.

In the accounts that follow in Luke’s gospel, the disciples’ confusion continues to grow. They bicker about who among them is the greatest. They are threatened by everyone outside their group. They threaten to wage war against Jerusalem. And eventually they abandon Jesus in his crucifixion.

To the disciples, the idea of God’s miraculous power and the reality of suffering were incompatible. They could only manifest God’s power when they thought there was something in it for themselves. Once they learned following Jesus would involve suffering, they refused to allow God’s power to work through them.

In his book on Christian contemplation Into the Silent Land, Martin Laird tells a story of walking across a moor with a friend who had four dogs. As they walked, three of the dogs would run out across the moor, leaping over creeks and chasing rabbits and joyfully exploring their environment.

But one of the dogs would only run in a small circle just in front of his owner. No matter now many miles they walked or how far afield the other dogs went, this dog would only run in a tight circle very close to them.

Martin asked him why, and he replied, “This dog was kept for his entire life prior to coming to me in a very small cage. His body has left the cage, but his mind still carries it with him. For him, the world outside the cage does not exist, and so no matter how big and beautiful the moor, he will never run out across it. I bring him here so he can breathe the fresh air, but he’s still running circles in his cage.”

Like the dog who had lived most of its life in a cage, Jesus’ disciples were caught in an imaginary cage of their own design. The disciples equated freedom with a blissful and easy life. Jesus insists, however, that true freedom is the ability to be and bear the good news of God precisely in the midst of suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death.

We all want lives of ease for ourselves and for others. It’s human nature. And Jesus is certainly not telling us to go out of our way to suffer, be rejected, bear our crosses, or die. Where we go wrong, however, is in thinking that such realities are proof that God has abandoned us. We are wrong to think that God only uses people whose lives are perfect, popular, free from conflict, and at ease. If such a person actually existed God could certainly work through him or her. We are not perfect; and it is for precisely that reason that God is with us.

May you come to recognize that true freedom is possible even in suffering, rejection, cross-bearing, and death. May God use you to perform miraculous acts of love regardless of how far you fall from whatever standard of perfection you adhere to. And may you never be ashamed to proclaim the good news of God’s grace to all people and all situations.

Amen.

Lamenting the Lack of a God-Consumed Heart

Freedom From Our Imaginary Cages