Love Of - Matthew 22 - Proper 25A

Love of

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Leviticus :19 1-2, 15-18; Matthew 22:34-46; 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8

Opening prayer

This last week I spent time in Hamburg, DE. It is interesting going to a place alone and discovering things about oneself. I was in a hotel without an Aufzug (elevator) and I was glad I didn’t rent a bike because would have had to haul that up and down 5 flight of stairs.

I walked all over Hamburg and learned that Hamburg, much like cities here in the states has good and rough neighborhoods as well as immigrants (non-German). My hotel being in one of the rougher ones. There was a nice Platz just around the block and had couple bistros, but most of the neighborhood felt like it was left behind. 

On the other side of the tracks was central Hamburg - bustling, vibrant and busy. This is just like Chicago, Minneapolis, New York or even Des Moines. 

My language skills need work but I was able to get by, although after a week, I was mentally exhausted.

Then I come home to political ads…

After the last couple weeks of hard-knock parables, this week the Pharisees ask Jesus this question, which is the greatest commandment.

Jesus answers, “you shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind … you shall love neighbor as yourself.”

This is the invitation we have been given, that wedding robe (we talked about a couple weeks ago.) This is the chance to be what God wants us to be. 

This commandment is surrounded in Leviticus by some contextual ideas too. Do not render unjust judgment; do not always defer to people you know. Don’t slander; do not hate - else you will incur guilt. 

All anchored in loving God… and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

First, do you love yourself? Are you an exception to God’s love? 

No. We must first understand that we are deserving of God’s love because we are children of God. As children of God, we have been given the divine gifts of life, love, faith and grace.

With these, we have great opportunities; we have vision and life. 

Yes you and I deserve God’s love and gifts. You and I can feel that love within us. 

Even in the darkest days, those gifts are there and reward us in ways well beyond wealth, stock trading, or other political brokenness.

We give thanks for all that God has given to us and love God for all of these gifts.  That is the first part.  

God has done all of this wonderful for you and for me, and thus, we ought to return that graciousness to God. For without God, we are nothing and never been. 

From there we extend those gifts, we remind others of the gifts they have been given.

This is the second part. While we are trying to figure out ourselves and our world.  We are to extend God’s love given to us onto others around us. 

In this, we are reminded of Paul’s letters not to appeal by deceit or flattery, but to seek truth, gentleness and the peace of God - like a nurse tending care for her own children.

The tenderness has been extended to us by God and then for us to extend to others.

Who are “they” and how do we extend?

“They” is everyone - whoever, wherever, they are on life’s journey because you know as well as I that life happens and tests us all. Who are we to judge others for the lessons that people have or haven’t had to endure? 

Who we are is that : no judgment, no fear, no anger, no hate - no exception.

Whether you see someone on the side of the road or you see them in your neighborhood or church, you see people. You see God’s children.

That is the beauty of places like Hamburg is that you get to see diversity of people in good places and in the rough.

They don’t have to look like me, they don’t have to dress my way. They don’t have to grow up as a German descendant, as a white male or even queer.  

God’s children are everywhere and have different skin tones, different languages, creeds, prayers, songs, or sexuality. We are all unique expressions of that divine love. Thank God !

When we extend love to our neighbors, we extend God’s love. Thus, loving God is to love God’s children. 

That forces our hand because this love requires of us to do something besides just say words and maybe an occasional hand holding or peace offering.

God wants us to do this unconditionally and wherever we go.  We can do that simply with a smile - an honest and gracious one. 

We can go further and be in the community. Extend a hand to those who need some help. Be the loving face of God to those who feel left out.  Then, we remind them that God is for them too as much as God is for you and me through our words and acts - kindness, generosity, and tenderness.

That can change someone’s life. A meal, a conversation, a “guten tag” today could be the hope someone needs to find motivation to be more - Or for someone to simply see God’s face today. In addition, that grace we extend to others, builds us, here inside, just the same.

That is because we are doing what God wants us to do. Not just saying the words but living the love that God has entrusted to us.

That Beloved is worth more than ridiculous and rude politics or empty non-promises. That love and compassion is worth our votes and our attention. That doesn’t have borders, continental divides, or cornered neighborhoods but stretch beyond our understanding.

That is the love of God working and building us as God’s children.

Viele danke Gott sein, Amen

A Wedding Robe - Matthew 22 - Proper 23A

A Wedding Robe

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 22: 1-14; Philippians 4:1-9; Isaiah 25: 1-9

Opening prayer 

When I get invitations to weddings, there are questions.  What do I wear? What do I get them? 

This weekend, I am getting ready to fly out to Hamburg and I am getting anxious about that.  One of my UK colleagues got me a bit excited that I might see some Christmas markets already. Sadly, no, but I did score tickets for Paul Van Dyk!

In this parable, there are people who have been invited and find excuses not to show and some are just as wicked as the group from last week.  When they don’t show, others are brought into the party and they are given garments to wear. Let’s have a good time!  Except someone who decides not to wear the robe.

When in Rome, dress like the Romans.. or don’t.

This is criticism of leadership, of those who have been handed the stewardship of God’s garden, but have squandered or taken advantage of 

We all of have seen corruption and don’t like it. Jesus isn’t happy here and Jesus gives voice to that.  

How often do we get a chance to talk to leadership? How often when you know they have been corrupt, or just bumbling idiots, do you call them out?

Where are you in this parable? It is easy to sit in the bleachers but when people are in the arena, as Brené Brown would say, the perspective changes. 

The table has been prepared and everyone is invited. First the people who were directly and then the whole of town, without exception, clean and unclean, anxious or not.  God invites you to the love and mercy. God wants you to be at the table of grace. 

Here is your invitation folks!

Then there is this guy, has to be a guy, who isn’t wearing the robe. As one describes, it is like going to a party only to be constantly fiddling with your phone. (I say that and watch a guy feverishly tapping away on his phone while waiting for a coffee drink.)

Accepting the invitation is amazing enough but God wants us to not take that invitation for granted.

Why do you get invited? What do you do with that invitation? Why would you say no or yes?

You have been handed the gift of a lifetime, but what do you do with it? “You who have been refuge to the poor, to the needy in distress, a shelter…” You have been given this gift, this shelter, yet do nothing more with it than complain perhaps. 

At this wedding banquet, people are given a “wedding robe.” So what is this?

Paul’s letter to Philippians gives us an idea. “Rejoice in the Lord… Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” 

Let love rule and be us. Let the peace of God be us and everything we do. Bring everything to God in prayer, with thanksgiving. And then that peace, peace of God, will guard your hearts and minds.

That's the wedding robe. It isn't a suit or a dress you have to buy. God gives this to you prepared with all the gifts that surround:

Gentleness. Joy. Faith. Love. Peace. Gifts that are always present.

I'll confess, I'm not great at wearing this robe. Ask me how I'm feeling about getting on a plane to Germany this weekend. I've packed and packed again. 

Anxiety is a garment too, and some of us are too comfortable in that. Why?

We know how that fits because it is familiar and recognizable.

Paul’s letter doesn't stop there. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, pure, pleasing, commendable, think about these things. 

In other words, wearing the robe isn't just about what we feel. It's about what we do.

Isaiah describes God as a refuge for the poor and a shelter for the needy in distress. God spreads a feast for all peoples and wipes the tears from every face. 

When we put on the robe, we start to look a little like the host. We become the shelter. We become the peace and love that comes with God’s gift to us. Then, we become the people who go out to the streets and say, "There's room. Come in. You're invited too.”

I think that is what UBFM does so well. We wear our bright shirts, but we know that people recognize the love, tenderness and grace that is in those shirts. We extend God’s peace and love to others. We extend to others what has been given to us. 

That's the difference between the guest who sits at the table scrolling through their phone and the guest who is actually there. People received the invitation. Some truly accepted it.

So, are you just in the room, or are you at the banquet? Are you going to wear the robe God has provided for you? 

The table has been set; the feast is prepared and you have been invited.  Wear what God gives you and have some fun!

Thanks Be to God, Amen

Price of Wickedness - Matthew 21 - Proper 22A

The Price of Wickedness

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 21: 33-46; Psalm 80; Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4-14

Opening prayer

Jesus delivers this damning parable, loosely based upon Isaiah, about some truly awful people and a landowner that gives up his own son. 

This parable describes violence against people in many ways and may even offer a foretelling of the crucifixion of Jesus.  Yet, in telling this to the people whom Jesus is criticizing, do they even see that warning? Do they care?  Should we care?

Well they want to arrest Jesus for this. So they see it but they don’t like the description. People don’t like to be criticized, even when it is a harsh truth.

Yet it is a harsh truth, and someone is, some people are, paying the price for it.  

Who pays the price for the violence that is shown because a price is paid ? Who pays the price, especially when the wickedness goes unchecked?

Nobody provokes these people. They just do terrible things. (Furtchbar)

There is, after all said and horrible done, The vineyard is given to those who will produce at harvest time. 

God has laid a cornerstone and some people have rejected. But God isn’t done.

The Lord’s work is mysterious to us, but well thought out, planned and ready for us , like the landowner. Some want to contort that plan into a masterful way of enriching one self or excluding. 

Then, Someone comes along and points out the trouble that leadership has made. We see it, we know it. We live it today. 

When leadership has little regard for the flock or the fruit, people pay a price. This isn’t a sticker on the box that a clerk punches into a cash register.  There is no cash amount, but there is a cost for people that abuse systems, take advantage of people, contort laws only for wealthy fortunes, exclude wide swaths of people, or actual violence to ensure these “rewards”remain.  

Dictatorships and criminal regimes wear this mark as a badge.  Yet we see it in our own political system, and only a few raising a fuss.  Who pays for the neglect? Who pays for corrupt or violent systems?

People do…  you and me and so do the people inflicting the damage.

They may not realize they are the cause of their own pain and misery.  

Power and wealth corrupts because it is path of broken dreams, hoarding and greed. That path is full of holes, deceptions, misbehaving, and plots that do not lend well for trust, peace, forgiveness or love.

When those broken lies rule you, us, then the social structure bends towards preserving that corruption because corrupt leadership wants to preserve their sins and make excuses for them. 

They even build walls to keep the corruption in. 

Yet, there is hope. The Lord made this vineyard for us to yield grapes, not violence. The Lord will break down the wall so that the people can be restored. That restoration needs us to break through the lies and brokenness that you see all over YouTube, Facebook or wherever you get your news… to see that instead, God means for us to have something real, tangible and loving.

This parable is not just a complaint against religious elders of Jesus's day, but of all those who desire to lead people anywhere, whether in church walls, courtrooms, legislatures, neighborhood associations or even a simple household. This parable serves as a warning about broken deceptions having a cost and the people will bear that cost.  

The garden has been set, the produce is there and the expectation from God is that we tend and steward this God-given garden for all people.  Like we saw last week, we can course correct because Gods forgiveness is always there and ready for us.

The fruit of the garden is to be shared, not hoarded. A miserable death is not needed because there is time to change, but a miserable death will be all that is left for those who continue this evil path.

The price of that evil (bröse) is your souls because when they lead us and then we follow that path, then we are just as guilty as them.

The fruit of heaven, fruit of God, is for you and me. 

Don’t let them take that away. Don’t let the lies and mischief rule you and rob you of what God has for you. 

Justice, equity, fairness, forgiveness, and love is all part of God’s abundance poured out for us, all of us.  No suit and tie can take that away from us. No person in a fancy Sunday robe can deny that.

We can pray the lament of the psalm and ask for restoration when we have went down wrong paths. 

God cleared ground and planted a vine.  Let us be the ones who help that vine grow. Let us help nurture the vine and its fruit, not just for ourselves but for all. 

Let us be diligent about staying true to that good path. 

Yes, Let us invite others in the gift of that vine, the love and wisdom of God.

Thanks be to God, Amen