Life from Death

Mark 16:1-8 is the lectionary Gospel text for next Sunday of the Resurrection.

It seems anti-climactic to me, the resurrection.  People get all hyped up over the empty tomb and the glory, the miracle, supernatural intervention and all.  I am not into that.  It does not turn me on, spiritually.

What is astounding to me is that Jesus died for me, for all of us.  What is remarkable in this first of a genre message is that people heard this story of their hero dying for them.  God is God.  Resurrection for the one who creates all from dust is not a thing.  But God dying for me, for us?  Wow.  This God is not aloof, uncaring or just wholly other.  This God is truly immanent, from being Emmanuel, through death and beyond.

I am not a "pie in the sky when you die" kinda guy.  I am a living what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now person.  I want to follow Jesus.  I believe that doing so in how I live RIGHT HERE AND NOW is faithfulness to God.  Salvation is in God's hands.  I trust and love God.  I'm not going to concern myself with that, but rather whether or not I am pleasing God with my life here and now, in this part of God's Kingdom.  I believe that faithfulness is living Agape Love and Grace with the other children, who are loved by God.  I believe that I am called to follow Jesus in touching the untouchables, including the marginalized, empowering the disenfranchised - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and imprisoned and welcoming the stranger in the land.  When I read the Gospel witnesses of Jesus, I see that as Jesus' mission and what Jesus made my mission as His follower.

Even to breaking His body and shedding His blood. 

Even to being lynched by a corrupt government and church.

Even to being abandoned by those who claimed to love Him.

Even to dying.

It is all about Agape Love and Grace - even self-sacrifice for the sake of the other, unconditionally.

Sure, I want to be in heaven.  Heaven to me is the awareness of God's permeating presence of Love, Joy and Shalom (a deep, abiding sense of completeness, wholeness and well-being) for all time.  THAT is the glory beyond the cross for me.  Whether Jesus' body was raised and mine will be raised is a detail I leave up to God.  

I do not look for supernatural interventions.  If God does nothing else for me beyond the Cross and the examples of how to live in the Kingdom from the Gospels, I will continue to thank and praise God for the rest of my days.  I will also for the rest of my days do what I can to advocate for God's children - the marginalized, disenfranchised, occupied, oppressed, downtrodden, abused, poor and exploited people who God loves.  I will give.  I will roll up my sleeves.  I will speak and write, demonstrate, call and vote on their behalf.  I will stand with them as they find their voice and power and I will pledge my life to expose the darkness of empire and eliminate it.  I will live Agape Love and Grace in the world around me.

That is life from death.  That is victory over evil.  That is redemption and salvation, here and now, in THIS PART of God's Kingdom!

Pastor Jamie

Ride On, King Jesus

 Mark 11:1-11 is the lectionary text for next Sunday, in celebration of Palm Sunday.

It was a vision of the Kingdom of God in the face of empire.  This caricature-like display of Jesus, ridiculous and even comical, was meant to help people to see the clear difference between the empire values of greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for status vs. Agape Love and Grace.  

The Romans would march into the city after a conquest, and force an occupied, oppressed people to shout, "Io Triumphe" and throw garments on the road in front of the oppressors.  The Roman displays of brutal force were legendary, and the people were coerced to recognize them.

Jesus resisted.

Jesus exposed the ridiculousness of their view of power, wealth and status, fueled by violence in hatred of all other people.  Jesus gave the Kingdom answer to a people who needed one.

And the people, genuinely responded by lining the road with palm branches, and sincerely laying down their cloaks (for some, the only thing of value they had) at Jesus' feet.  It was an authentic display admiration and devotion, as opposed to the coerced sham display they were forced to offer under and for empire.

But the people also shouted, instead of triumph, "Hosanna," which means "SAVE US NOW!"  

Jesus is the King they acknowledge.  Jesus is the Messiah they recognize.  Yes, the salvation they seek is spiritual, but as with all things, political and economic deliverance and liberation are also spiritual.  It is not about pie in the sky when they die.  It is about being saved NOW from oppression, occupation and the despair that it spawns in a whole people.

Save us NOW, Jesus!  Squelch the fake, evil wealth, power and status of empire! 

Save us NOW, Jesus!  Usher in the Kingdom values of Agape Love and Grace!

Save us NOW, Jesus!  From this political, social and economic corruption, inequity and the devastation they produce in our lives and in the world, this part of your Kingdom, here and now!

Save us NOW, Jesus!  Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on Earth, as in Heaven!  For THINE is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever!

Save us NOW, Jesus!  Bring SHALOM to this community - completeness, wholeness and well-being, with the peace that accompanies them!  Bring it for EVERYONE, equally!

This Sunday, when you are waving your palm fronds, what will you be shouting?

     With your mouth?

     With your heart and soul?

Pastor Jamie

The Mountaintop

 John 12:20-33 (Jeremiah 31:31-34) is the lectionary text for next Sunday, March 21

I always think of Dr. King's "Mountaintop" speech on April 23, 1968 when I read this text.  It was the day before he was assassinated, and he said, "I may not get there with you... but mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord..." Like Moses, he got to look over, but could not go... we are still wandering in that wilderness, looking over, not yet there, I am afraid.

For Jesus, to be glorified meant to be wrong accused, falsely tried and convicted and lynched.  That story is all to familiar.  Jesus died for all of us, regardless of the religious, political and economic corruptions that led to His death.  In Jesus' lynching, I find redemption.

Whether or not the death of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor and countless others brings us to redemption as a nation is yet to be seen.  I am thankful that it is bringing some to repent and strive to be redeemed from our nation's original sin.  We are still wandering in that wilderness as a nation, looking over, not yet there.

There are strong indications in the Gospels of Jesus' lack of desire to die.  But there is also witness to Jesus' resolve to fulfill the mission of redemption.  Jesus here expresses both.  Jesus acknowledged that unless a grain falls into the earth and dies, there is no growth.  Jesus spoke openly about His reason for being here.  It was to take our sin to its death with Him on the Cross - our redemption in His sacrifice.

It is, as I have pointed out ad nauseum for years, all about Agape Love and Grace.

As Jeremiah points out, this love of God, God's Word is to be etched on our hearts.  Jesus put it bluntly in a command to love God and Neighbor as we love our selves.  Jesus then died out of that love, as an example.

Jesus did the elusive "ONCE AND FOR ALL."  Rarely do we get those.  

So, if Jesus' sacrifice means anything to folk who claim to follow Jesus, would it not naturally follow that we would actively speak, write and demonstrate against all senseless death at one another's hands?

Would we not truly advocate for justice?  Would we not demand Shalom for all?  Would we not speak truth to power and expose the works of darkness in injustice and corruption in the church, government, economics and society that senselessly and needlessly leads to people dying of starvation, depression, illness, (un)natural disasters and violence?

"Those who love their life (more than others) lose it, and those who hate their life in this world (selfish, greedy, hateful, power hungry, status-driven life under empire) will keep it (a life of Agape and Grace) for eternal life."

"Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also."

Among the marginalized and disenfranchised.  In the Frey.  On the Cross.

We are still wandering in that wilderness as a nation, looking over, not yet there.

Are we redeemable?

Pastor Jamie

No sticks, no carrots

 John 3:14-21 (Numbers 21:8-9) and Ephesians 2:1-10 are the lectionary texts for Lent IV on next Sunday.

This Gospel text starts with Jesus comparing the sins of the Israelites, punished by God with poisonous snake bites and then given mercy by God through the lifting up of a bronze snake on a pole, to His imminent crucifixion and the salvation that would come from His being thus lifted up.

Then an incredible offering of Grace in God giving God's only Son out of love, to save us.

Then, a statement that God did not send the Son to condemn the world (in our sin), but to save the world through Jesus, with another statement about those who do not believe (in the name) being judged because they have chosen darkness over the light.

What a mixed bag!

The stick and the carrot.  No cheap Grace here!  So, we end up with theologies of personal salvation based on only believing on the name of Jesus, accepting Jesus as personal Lord and Savior, which to me seems like making Faith a Work.

So, then we have Ephesians telling us that by God's Mercy and Great Love we have been saved by Grace, which is not of our own doing, not of works in any way.

I have to go with Luther on this, though even Luther seemed to struggle with it.  We are not supposed to turn faith into a work in order to gain salvation.  Faith is a gift, we are told in the Word.  It is given by God to all.  Now, I might agree that some choose darkness over light in their lives, but I would maintain that it is not about the "name" of Jesus as much as the Good News of Jesus in which we are supposed to believe and which are supposed to live in Agape Love and Grace.  Many of those who claim the name, accept Jesus and personal Savior and believe on the name of Jesus seem to be quite cozy in the darkness of lies, greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for status for themselves at the expense of others.  Matthew's Gospel in 25:31-46 raises questions about their salvation, I believe.

Yes, I believe that the New Testament prophet, James is correct (sorry, young Luther) in writing that "faith, if it does not have works, is dead."  Faith is an action, even as Agape Love is committed action on behalf of the other.  OUT OF Faith, we live Agape Love and Grace, even as Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us.  And it is by Grace through Faith that we are saved, according to Paul.  But Faith itself should not be considered a work toward salvation.  God gave it to us as a gift.  The Holy Spirit of God guides us, sometimes drives us to live it.  I want to have a living, active faith, even as I actively live the Agape Love that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for me to live.  But as a person of faith, I leave my salvation squarely in God's hands and trust in God's loving mercy and Grace.  I live my faith as a RESPONSE to what God has given me in Jesus - mercy instead of punishment.  I live Agape Love with neighbor as an expression of the Agape Love I have for God, as Jesus teaches and commands me to do.  I do not want to be among the goats when Jesus comes back, to be sure.  But I do not believe that my salvation is based on some impersonal FORMULA of magic words, beliefs or actions on my part.  When asked when I was saved, I have often responded, "about two thousand years ago."  By "born from above" moment came in 1995, when I dedicated my life to living the Agape Love that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for me out of love for God and neighbor.  

God's Grace has been given.  Faith is a gift.  My salvation is in God's hands.  Out of love for God and Neighbor (even stranger and enemy, and especially the most vulnerable - see Luke 10:25-37), I dedicate my life to actively living my faith in love.

I cannot earn my salvation.  Upon God's Grace I solely rely, and I believe that God is gracious and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

I do not wallow in my unworthiness, either.  Jesus made me worthy of Grace and Love, and I receive what God will give me as a recipient with great humility, gratitude and joy.  I cannot make myself worthy because of sin.  I can be faithful to Jesus and Jesus' Way of being in the world.  Claiming the name, accepting Jesus as personal Lord and Savior and believing on the name of Jesus mean very little in that light - being faithful to the living JESUS' WAY OF AGAPE LOVE AND GRACE in the world.

To me, that is life with God, life as a follower of Jesus.

Pastor Jamie

The Temple

 John 2:13-25 is the lectionary text for Lent III on next Sunday.

This comes early in John's Gospel.  THIS is how Jesus establishes Himself, after the miraculous turning of water into wine, in John.  It certainly is memorable.

Jesus marched from Cana to Capernaum to see mom, and then off to Jerusalem at Passover time.  It was quite a walk.

Jesus went into the Temple and found the merchants and money changers doing what they did - participating in the economy of empire, and not addressing the injustices of empire economics.  He fashioned a whip and drove them out, trashing the marketplace and pouring out the coins collected by the money changers, owning the Temple.  The money changers were notorious for unfair exchanges as they traded shekels for empire coinage.  They were making lots of money off the poor people who came to do what was commanded by God.  They had given in to empire values, and were colluding with the corrupt temple cult leaders.  Jesus exposed, resisted and confronted them dramatically.

The corrupt ones always demanded signs of God's favor and authority.  Jesus equated Himself with the Temple and foretold of His death and resurrection.  They only saw their building, the club house for the corrupt temple cult of that time.  Their vision of greatness was skewed by devotion to empire and its ways, so they could not see God's new Way in Jesus.

It seems to me that riding the fence of devotion to empire and lip service to God is not faithfulness.  Jesus claimed (Matthew) that we cannot serve two masters - God and wealth.  The same is true of power and status.  We cannot be faithful AND give lip service to God while doing all we can at the expense of others to promote our own gain.  God in Jesus does not allow it.  So, we must look at our own corruption in the church that bears Jesus' name, and whatever ways we are duplicitous in our devotion.  We must examine in this Lenten time of reflection, repentance and sacrifice of self, how we "blow about in every wind of doctrine" that might help us rationalize our unfaithfulness to God, and how "having itching ears to hear" what we want to hear in the Word has led us to our duplicitous devotion.  

Jesus did not mince words.  Jesus dramatically demonstrated how seriously God takes this church thing.  Jesus differentiated Himself and His Gospel from the Temple building, temple cult and trappings of religion.  Jesus cut through the layers of rationalizations and justifications to the truth of corrupt souls, leaders and ideologies.  Jesus confronted those who gave their devotion to empire while claiming God.  Jesus (Matthew) talked about division and separating the faithful from unfaithful in parables and in His vision of the end and His return.

We are in alignment with Jesus and Jesus' Good News Way of Agape Love and Grace, or we are in alignment with empire and its way of Greed, Lust for Power and Desire for Status.  We cannot serve two masters.  We cannot be on the side of the world and of God.  We cannot give lip service to God and our devotion to empire, at least we cannot do that and be faithful to God.  The Temple - Jesus - cannot be divided, though it is.  The Body of Christ cannot be divided, though it is.  

Jesus did not create the division, but Jesus certainly and dramatically pointed it out.  

So, how have we as the church that bears Jesus' name, corrupted the Way of God in Jesus?

How have we as individuals attempted to align ourselves with empire values while claiming to be children of the Kingdom of God?

How have we as a nation been duplicitous in our walk in this part of God's Kingdom, under empire?

Lent is our time to examine ourselves, reflect on our path to the Cross and repent of our unfaithfulness to God in Christ Jesus.  It is here.  It is now.

Pastor Jamie

Put Up or Shut Up

 Mark 8:31-38 is the lectionary text for Sunday, February 28 - Lent II.

The Religious leaders of Jesus' time were corrupt.  They were in collusion with Rome and the King, trying to survive, but also trying to get what they could under empire, by exhibiting the values and practices of empire.  Jesus was at odds with them over this constantly, as we have witness in the Gospels.

In this text, Jesus tells His disciples of what His end will be at the hands of the corrupt religious leaders who were adherents of the empire values of greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for personal status above others.  It was inevitable that those with power would silence anyone who would challenge their immoral, unconscionable way of life. 

Peter's rebuke is curious to me.  Was Peter being naive in his rebuke of Jesus' declaration, believing that the religious leaders would never do such a thing?  Was Peter putting his own feelings for Jesus above a value for Jesus' mission in the world?  Both?

I have heard it preached for many years that Peter could not bear to think of Jesus dying, especially such a horrible death, because of his personal (brotherly) love for Jesus, and that this was his motivation for rebuking Jesus.  Thus his mind was set on human things and not divine purposes.

I have come to read the Gospels differently in my life.  I wonder now if Peter was expressing some disbelief that the religious leaders were corrupt and would turn Jesus over, or perhaps that Peter even questioned whether a challenge to empire, life under which was all he knew in his lifetime, was sane or worth losing one's life over.  Those in Israel who had sat in this deep darkness under the occupation and oppression of empire did all they could just to survive.  It was not the matter of divine purpose, but of survival with which they were preoccupied.  It seemed hopeless to challenge Rome's iteration of empire.  It was a pointless suicide mission.  Was Peter questioning the wisdom of challenging the religious leaders, king and empire?  Was he trying to bring Jesus to His senses over just surviving under the oppressive system like everyone else?  Was Peter questioning that Jesus' mission was divine?  Jesus' rebuke of Peter suggests to me that the mission of the Cross was God's divine warfare against the work of Satan through empire.  Jesus' rebuke of Peter suggests to me that there is a choice to be made, even to sacrificing oneself in this spiritual warfare.

Then Jesus made it clear.  Save THIS life, and you lose life with God.  Preserve this existence of participating under or colluding with, even giving one's devotion to empire means that you lose a faithful relationship with the God of Jesus, who resists empire, teaches against empire, challenges empire, commands a different way, and fights it even unto death.  If you seek to profit under empire, rather than resist its immoral and unconscionable ways, you lose your soul.  If you try to give lip service to God while giving your devotion to empire, you lose your soul.  If you claim God but are ashamed of a Good News of Jesus that directly contradicts the values and practices of empire, you lose your soul.  In that case, when Jesus comes back, you may hear the words, "I do not know you."

But if you lose THIS life under empire, you preserve your life with God.  If you sacrifice any gain under an immoral and unconscionable system based on greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for status, even making sacrifices because you resist that and refuse to participate in it, then you gain a faithful, genuine relationship with the God of Justice, Shalom for All and Peace unlike the Pax Romana.  If you lose the life that puts you at odds with the Kingdom values that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in Agape Love and Grace, then you are in alignment with Jesus' Way of living in this part of the Kingdom of God, here and now.

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Lent is our journey to the Cross with Jesus, if we will go there.  It is our choice.  We can save the life of empire which puts us at enmity with God, or we can lose that life and preserve our life with God.

For Peter and Jesus' disciples, and perhaps for us, it's time to put up or shut up.

Pastor Jamie

Good News: A New Way

 Mark 1:9-15 is the Gospel text in the lectionary for February 21.

There is a new sheriff in town.  Jesus came, baptized by John and identified by God as the Beloved.  The yoke had been passed.  Elijah had ushered in Messiah.  It was a new beginning that provided new hope for a people who had struggled under, sat in the deep darkness of oppression under empire for generations.

Jesus was prepared for the mission ahead by going through His spiritual boot camp in the wilderness, tempted to make it about Himself instead of the mission and God's people.  He emerged from that wilderness experience and went to work, even as John was taken out of the picture.  There is no one else.  It is Jesus.

And the first words of this one sent by God were Good News.  In the first Gospel written, in the first chapter, the first words of the Messiah are, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

Not "believe in me."  He had emptied Himself of his glory in the wilderness through His trial by Satan.  He was now all about the mission to save God's people from their oppression under empire, sin and death.

Believe in the Good News.  Period.

And what is the Good News?

Glad you asked.

It is Agape Love and Grace.  It is resistance to the evil values of empire.  It is justice and the Shalom that comes when there is justice.  It is therefore PEACE, not as the world gives, but Jesus' Peace - Shalom built on justice, equity and community.  

At the center of EVERYTHING Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for His followers is the living of Agape Love (active commitment on behalf of the other, even stranger and enemy and especially the most vulnerable among us) and Grace (undeserved loving mercy) toward the Shalom (completeness, wholeness and well-being) of ALL PEOPLE.

This IS the Good News!  God commands us to live this with one another.  It is a different way, a better way, this Jesus' Way.  It brings peace within and among.  It is not solely about personal salvation, but about saving lives here and now, in THIS PART of God's Kingdom, which has come near.  God's Kingdom come and God's Will being done on earth as in heaven.  It is Good News of liberation from the oppression of systems built on greed, hatred, lust for power and desire for personal status above others, which are at the core of empire.

Believe in the Good News that you are about to read or hear read to you.

Believe in the Good News of what it means to be people of God, together in loving, Shalom community.

Believe in the Good News that turns the worldly systems of oppression on their head.  

Repent (change your thinking and direction).

Believe instead in the Good News of Jesus' Agape Love and Grace.

This was Jesus' mission, built on Agape and Grace, embodied in selfless sacrifice for others and fulfilled in the ultimate act of Agape and Grace on the Cross.

Jesus' Way is to be OUR Way.

Believe in the Good News.  Apply what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us to your life.  Live it.  

Do you want to be faithful to God?  Here's how, folks... (see the Words and Actions of Jesus, as we have witness in the Gospels).

THAT is God's Way for us.

Pastor Jamie