Sabbath Time - Luke 13 - Proper16C

Sabbath Time

Tony E Hansen

Reflection for Luke 13:10 -17, Psalm 103, Isaiah 58: 9-14

Healing, fixing , identity, a new future, a beginning for the woman and for the congregation. I want to come back to this because what happens to this woman is important for us today.

Doing work on the sabbath?  Doing work on the Sabbath is almost a given because things need to be done - no parent tells their baby ”not today” and we still need to brush our teeth… But how do you honor the Sabbath? Do we take time? And why ? 

If you are taking a day off in honor of the sabbath, be gracious and especially if you go out to eat or go shopping, remember that those servers and clerks are working on your behalf.  

There was a day so long ago that does not happen today because our world today runs 24-7 and 365 days a year.  Someone has to keep the lights on, keep plumbing work, keep food on the table, and keep care of animals and even parents have to continue parenting. Someone has to keep care of our parents when we don’t have time.

Sigh… we don’t have time… People don’t have time to take care of loved ones. Are they truly loved? Why do other things in this busy world take priority over those we love?  Convenience ?  Upsetting routines? Or is it more sinister? 

I enjoy going to ballgames but I realize that sometimes we (in Iowa) travel hours to go to big league games (football or baseball), and we will spend time at the city with restaurants and other needfuls, whether it is Sabbath or not. At the game, there are people are serving behind the concession stands, police are directing traffic, clerks taking tickets and the players themselves who are today’s entertainment. 

Pro-football goes as far as to take these players and staff away from family on the Lord’s day, Christmas, and bank holidays. (Something to be said about those holidays giving bankers and financial markets time off while many do not…)

So all of these people are taking time and for what? However we are not taking time off. Some cannot afford to, but even for those who have the privilege and can, there is a question.

We have rolled over what it means to take time off as a coordinated public event that involve people working for us, and we rarely give them the due they deserve.

Our broken world has no reverence for Sabbath in the slightest. In fact, our broken world uses people instead of acknowledges them and their worth. Our broken world doesn’t care that you have real priorities because there are always things that are to distract us away from our priorities of loving God and loving neighbor. 

Everything is presented as a show and entertainment even reduces it to tugging at your pocket and your eyeballs with useless memes and short clips. Then we complain when other people haven’t done what we want or how we want. 

Maybe there is something sinister at work after all.

It is well known that we have a crisis of loneliness in this country and have for sometime. The pandemic only made things worse and much more noticeable. 

It was noted in a recent TED podcast that Dr Ruth (famous television therapist) gave some advice in this matter. 

If you’re making a cake, whether you have eggs, go to your neighbor and ask for one. Thereby starting a conversation.  I mean for us to start taking time seriously, let us start with those closest to us. You have people right next to you now that could use some of your quality time.  

Then perhaps it spreads..

Or are we too busy for something that simple?

As a consequence when we don’t, there is no time to sit and breathe or to visit folks in infirmaries (or even prison.) In that context, it is easy to see how a woman could be looked over for 18 years in the midst of the congregation. 

That begs the question for us: who are we overlooking that needs our attention or just a simple hello. Who around us has been forgotten and are we willing to take necessary time to be with them for a bit?  Perhaps ask for an egg or maybe make the cake with them?

Maybe, it is us that need to be healed, as well as the woman. She lived with this oppression and affliction for years, and now, she has a different identity because she was recognized by Jesus. She has a new outlook. 

There is something about the presence of Jesus that can have an impact on people to open eyes, open hearts, and to heal.  

We have been distracted and oppressed by the system for so long.  

Yes  we are also afflicted because we are walking around this broken world of false hope, so-called entertainments, distractions and fleeting prospects that leave us wanting and unfulfilled.

Maybe, we in the congregation ought to wake up and hear Jesus calling us to something more than this brokenness.

Step into the truth, into the love that is here, into the forgiveness that heals and witness Jesus working. 

That is truly something to behold and to experience.

Put away the screens and device notifications. 

Instead, listen to and meditate upon the Spirit calling you to the holy community - to true liberation from all that oppresses us today. 

There is such a thing as heaven on earth, but it is not in your pockets or purses. It is not on the ballfields or sports arena. It is not in government halls or false prophets spreading fake narratives and lacking hope. 

It is taking time and listening to Jesus talking to you - setting you free from all of this - today, and this hour.

When you do, Psalm 103 will resonate your very core. “Bless the Lord, o my soul and all that is within me… the Lord works justice for all who are oppressed -(that’s you and me folks) [for] The Lord is merciful and gracious” 

Observing the Sabbath is why Isaiah says to “remove the yoke from among you… and to offer food to the hungry…” Stop pointing fingers as judging and casting everyone else and instead, be the grace that God has given to you.

It is at least weekly. It is your holy days, but more importantly, it is a part of our lives - to take time for ourselves and for those around us so that they too can witness the love of God in this world. It is time for us to acknowledge the presence of the Spirit working with us and for us.

Put away the devices, stop the ignorance, go talk to someone today and perhaps witness the Spirit among you.

Thanks Be to God

Power of Fire - Luke 12 - Proper 15 C

Power of Fire

Tony E Hansen

Reflection based Luke 12: 49-56, Psalm 82

Opening prayer

We continue in our journey through Luke 12. To recap, we were told the parable of rich fool. We were told to not worry for “how does worrying add a single hour to your life?” We were told to not be afraid and to make sure our hearts reflect the treasure of God rather than broken worldly items.

Jesus tells us to be watchful and alert “to have your lamps lit” for we do not know when God is coming for us. Are you ready to have that conversation with God? Are you tending God’s garden in a good way or are you hurting those around you?

After this whole teaching, Jesus declares that he will bring fire and division. This invokes images from baptism where John told us that John would baptize with water but Jesus will baptize with fire. There will be separation.

Fire isn’t just destruction and damnation but also purifying and bringing light- not just light but divine light into our broken world and broken visions. Fire is a divine symbol.

But why have division? That isn’t the goal. 

Division is going to manifest because of this gospel.This however isn’t just about relationships going sour or family civil wars, but how people hold onto old ideas and how God breaks forth into this world with a whole different set of commands and ideas. 

There is going to be a clash and inevitable tensions as people want to hold onto what they know as familiar and convenient. People want to look up at the sky and tell you the weather - “rain is coming.” Even the people and teachers around Jesus clash with these ideas because it reveals hypocrisy and elitism from those who want to maintain a world order that benefits them.

Following Jesus and the word of God requires us to see through all of that and to recognize truth for Truth. It doesn’t require walls, a building and specific words we say on regular basis, but it does require our hearts, our minds and our souls to commit to these words and to let those words manifest in us as agents of those inclusive words - even when the world wants to practice division and exclusion.

God upends all of that - even the words of preachers that want to profess division instead of inclusion.

How many times has the church divided over questions of faith, teaching, process and its role in our lives?

Ministry and church is about putting in the work to do what Jesus tells us.  It is not listening to materialism and the latest marketing fads that boast continuous fun and great times while delivering fleeting experiences that leave us lacking.

It is not going to pointless work to punch in the time card so we can go home, or goto school to prepare for tests. Church is not watching our little screens for meaningless content. These devices and that content are designed to take attention away from the world and away from what needs to change. 

We are too busy with pointless discussions that shower damnation upon whole groups of people we have never met . Many undermine the value of humanity as a community but instead reinforce hatreds, negativity, and violence as proper means - even though it actually perpetuates more violence and hatred.

Our world is enough for us to throw up hands and wonder how did it get so bad…  How can we return to some sense of order? 

Questions what order do you want? One where people tell you what to do and how to do it? No, BUT that is what we are getting.

Perhaps, it is the “who” was the problem - so where is Jesus in this?

What do we return to that was so gracious? Do we forget that we had just as much tension then as we do now - you just see it more now.  It is available to you 24-7 in your pocket. That is part of why I have pulled back from social media because it has become so depressing, time consuming and generally bad. 

Those algorithms aren’t calculating for us to see the good society except maybe the cute kittens, but to cause visceral emotions, angers and reactions that have us wanting more. The grief we felt for January 6, 2021 seeing people beat up police officers and the capitol building, that was over 4 years ago; so we forget that today because they were justified and angry.

People feel justified and angry today to allow the state to prune people’s rights and to force others to believe the farce. People don’t want to understand nuance and other people because that would take time away from our busy screens. We have ridiculous arguments over things like gender identity. 

How someone identifies themselves (a personal, private conversation between them and God) should be the least of our social concerns, but instead, that becomes forefront priorities, Why? 

Issues like these are meant to distract us and divide us even more. As long as we play into that narrative, the real issues and opportunities will be simply missed. 

Meanwhile, people are burning down the structures and institutions that have brought us knowledge, technology, biology, governments, and even faith. Institutions should be questioned and their priorities examined. They are, after all, human institutions.

People are not waiting for test results. People are tearing down those that appear to have colluded against us, have failed us and continue to fail us. 

In doing so, instead of correcting the problems, forward looking and building technology for the future, people are looking back and rewriting the problematic narratives we had witnessed into some nostalgic realms but with false pretenses, aka “whitewashing.”

How could Jesus possibly bring more division to us who are already well divided?? Surely, Jesus is upset at those people for bringing division and not me for my part in this whole thing.

What have you and I done to prepare this world for God to break forth and to bring us into community together?  

What have you and I done to welcome whether we agree or not? What have you and I done to cast judgement aside as God’s duty instead of ours? 

Have you and I truly taken up a cross with Jesus or just play the part?

The power of fire can be to burn and to destroy but it can be a source of inspiration to do great things. Fire can be revealing. So today what does God’s fire reveal to you?

Thanks be to God

Do Not be Afraid - Luke 12 - Proper 14 Year C

Do Not Be Afraid

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 12:32 -40, Psalm 33:12 -22, Genesis 15:1-6, Hebrews 11

Opening prayer

Do not be afraid! What is the first thing people do when someone says do not  x y z ... we do ! (How many people go to the window to look for a tornado instead of a safer room?)

Last week, we read from Luke with the parable of the selfish landowner, and I posed to you the words “for where you treasure is, there your heart will be also” to summarize what Jesus was telling us. Essentially, the problem of the selfish landowner is greed and that his heart was focused upon himself and his worldly accumulation without regard for any other person or God.

His "treasure" turned him and his focus away from God because people with big egos want to think it is all because of themselves.

That person gets scolded, “you fool… so it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

So this continues that discussion and adds more context,

Luke 12 starts with the words “Do not be afraid,” which announces to us as readers that some good news is coming.

“Sell your possessions and him alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out…” …not exactly things are wanting to hear.

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit…you just be ready” because you do not know the hour when you will meet your Maker. Ominous and frightening??

This could be a warning but more of a "be ready" for that meeting.

What must you do to be ready??

Psalm 33 gives us more context, “A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by great strength…” no .. “Truly the eye of the LORD is upon those who fear God those who hope in God’s steadfast love…”

Hebrews 11 recalls that faith in God is how Abraham received so much abundance. So too with us, we ought to understand that our abundance is not only of our own hands but thanks to God and thanks to the gifts given to our heritage.

Love, hope and faith in God's love for us and our ancestors. For without the gifts and lessons given to them, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Thus God reminds us to study our history yet again. Further, we ought to be thankful to God for all of our abundance that we have been given.

We could be vain like the selfish landowner thinking that it was all due to the great 3 - “me, myself and I,” but we were born into this world, into family, into community, into our place in history. We may not think all of it as grace all the time, but that you are experiencing this grace here and now is worthy of praise by itself because we cannot pretend to think we did all of it ourselves - not even a chance.

We were, and are blessed, with all that is around us, not just possessions, but all Creation with wide landscapes of beauty, birds in the sky, fish in the waters, gardens of produce and flowers, and even the big python in our neighborhood. 

(I wonder if Jake the snake is responsible for the rabbit and squirrel population decline?)

Genesis reminds us that we are mere stewards of this creation, this abundance, that God has given to us. When we follow the divine commands, like Abraham before us, God will be our shield, and we acknowledge that God blesses us with much that we cannot comprehend.

Jesus tells us to be ready and alert because the True Master is coming and we don’t know when.

Therefore, the themes of the parable and this Good News is 1) to not be selfish and egotistical, 2) for us to be thankful (aka to recognize) what God has done for us, and 3) that we are to share that goodness with those around us, instead of hoarding it or worse, turning away from God. Do this as a habit instead of convenience.

Thus, you have a good reason to get off the couch and be ready for God.  You have a reason to share your abundance, your smile, your good spirit and your beautiful presence. 

When you do this, when you embody God's love in your soul, you will see God in more places of this world and in more people of the world. When you do, your reward will be the treasure you truly seek and your heart will thank you for it.

When you do not, you turn cold, selfish and alone. Then, when the Master comes knocking and finds you wallowing in arrogance or self pity, don’t look surprised. 

But you don’t have to…

Be not afraid of the good work! 

Be not afraid of being too old, injured and tired because God reveals ways for you to renew and to live today. 

Be not afraid of being too young and vibrant because God wants your enthusiasm and energy.

Being alert is doing God’s work; making our faith be our guide and be a revelation of God through us. 

Being alert is not wasting a moment or breath that God has blessed us, but finding opportunities to teach, guide, grow and live with God around us and with us.

Being alert is understanding how God has helped our ancestors, our parents to bring us to be who we are today - don’t  discount your history but instead learn from it. There are lessons that they have learned and are gifts for us to heed today. 

Be not afraid of what people will say about you when you walk with God as your shield, doing the things God asks and having faith in the true words of God in your heart and soul.

Be not afraid of that treasure for it is abundantly yours in this moment and time.

Thanks be to God.