All Who Humble Themselves - Luke 18

All who Humble themselves

Tony E  Dillon Hansen

Reflection based upon Luke 18: 9-14, Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-22, Psalm 84

Opening Prayer

“All who Humble themselves will be exalted.”

This parable comes to us after hearing about the widow and unjust judge. This parable involves two folks - people much like you and me here at church. 

Two people go to church to pray. What they pray are two different ways of praying.  One is somewhat grateful with a smirk of thanks for a good life.  You know this person well.  It may be us this time and again. 

This person is someone who has done all the things that have been asked of them and they give money regularly. Great and good for you!

The other, comes to church knowing there is sin in the heart. There is brokenness, and you can almost hear this person praying out of pure desperation, “God be merciful.”

Which of these is you today and which of these will be next week?  Which of these were you last week?

When we have argued with God, When we have found ourselves with bit of fortune and privilege, When we have figured out the system, when we have patted ourselves on the back for doing, did we forget something or someone along the way? 

It is easy sometimes to just think we got where we did because of the hard work and effort we put in, but who along the way helped?  Who of our neighbors did we help to come along with us? 

When we think we have done all that we could, be reminded there is still more for us to do.  Be mindful that there is need around us and there is someone somewhere near us that needs our care and love. 

Maybe the question for us is: are we in this world only for ourselves? 

OR 

Have we been God’s agent on this earth for all God’s children today, yesterday and will we extend that love and grace tomorrow or even when we walk out the door of worship? Have we extended a sandwich to those who are hungry? Have we consoled someone who is in turmoil? Have we been the friend to someone who was left out? 

This second person.  We can hear the tension, the pain and the internal turbulence.

This is heart-felt prayers that we pray because the moment deserves our full self and so we plea with God.  These are moments of agony, trial and temptation. This is recognizing we are not the perfection of Jesus but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to be better.  How do we?  

Look at all the opportunities around you.

When you pray, think of the author of Jeremiah 14 and be humbled before the awesomeness that is God, that is love and grace fulfilled in our day when we need it the most, even in our folly and ridiculousness. 

Yes we fail and we are broken. We know we fail.. We know we sin and if you don’t believe that, I want to know what stuff you been consuming to think you have it all figured out. Let me sign up for your book club.  

For the rest of us, we do fail and we really don’t need reminders because calamity is only a matter of time and space away from us - even for you - who think they have figured it out. In that calamity, that moment of wrestling, that long night wondering, in that brokenness, we may feel alone at times, but God is near and ready for you. 

So let God hear your cry, your angry rant, your gripe about a lesson that you didn’t want, your hopelessness and then let that turn into hope, into something far beyond our ourselves and our plans.  

This is the good stuff God wants to hear from you and your heart. God doesn’t need the boasts and such, but God wants the true you. So when you pray, do not leave out the good parts. Bring your heart to bear, bring your worries, bring your concerns, and bring you!

God is there  and God is healing today. So reach out, reach into your own heart and find that God is already there working to turn you into something better than you were when we started and that God is giving you assurance that you will have grace and love.

God shows up and will not leave you the same as before. So pray your in-most thoughts and let yourself be known not just to God, but to yourself and let yourself be real in the moment. 

Let God do some amazing for you. God is with you and brings the realm of love and grace into your life. God is with you now and so be rejuvenated in that grace and love.  

Thanks Be to God.

Karaniya Metta Sutta: The Buddha's Words on Loving-kindness

as translated from the Pali by The Amaravati Sangha

This is what should be done

By one who is skilled in goodness,

And who knows the path of peace:

Let them be able and upright,

Straightforward and gentle in speech,

Humble and not conceited,

Contented and easily satisfied,

Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.

Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,

Not proud or demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing

That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: In gladness and in safety,

May all beings be at ease.

Whatever living beings there may be;

Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,

The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,

The seen and the unseen,

Those living near and far away,

Those born and to-be-born —

May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,

Or despise any being in any state.

Let none through anger or ill-will

Wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life

Her child, her only child,

So with a boundless heart

Should one cherish all living beings;

Radiating kindness over the entire world:

Spreading upwards to the skies,

And downwards to the depths;

Outwards and unbounded,

Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down

Free from drowsiness,

One should sustain this recollection.

This is said to be the sublime abiding.

By not holding to fixed views,

The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,

Being freed from all sense desires,

Is not born again into this world.

Persistence and Wrestling - Luke 18, Genesis 32

Persistence and wrestling

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 18:1-8, Genesis 32:22-31, Psalm 121

Opening prayer.

The parable from the Gospel of Luke can be seen through a few lenses.We can see Jesus telling us to pray always and not lose heart. That feels like a hallmark card greeting, but when Jesus says this, there is more.

We can look at the widow. This woman, who has little power or money in those days, requests justice from this judge. It is prayer in many ways.

We can look at the judge. This unjust judge tires of her nagging, gives in and grants the request.

Then there is God.

Thing is that this unjust judge is not God nor like God. Yet we often think of God much like this judge: someone aloof, disinterested or simply ignoring our pleas. Ever feel like that?I think this parable gives us pause and recognition because we do this in our lives.We wonder where our prayer goes, if anyone is listening, or if anything will change.

We pray, demand, and wonder - Why isn’t anything changing when I pray to God this day? There are whole comedy routines on this complaint.

I submit to you, Beloved, that God has big shoulders and is hearing your pleas, your rants, your disgusts, and your loves.

Nevertheless, the woman persists in her pleas because that is her faith.This persistence is not due to doubt but due to faith and trust. This is (as one describes) a lifestyle of faith revealed in prayer and persistence of the prayer. 

Question for us then is, How do our prayers reflect our faith and trust or are they mere words we speak or read just to sound cute or otherwise?

When we read from Psalms or scripture, are we just reading text or are we acknowledging the presence of something - someone - bigger than us - with us - who is teaching us.

Our tenacious prayer amid challenge and adversity are the necessary components not because God tires of our plea but because we have faith that God will come through for us. When we don’t know the answers or what will happen to us tomorrow or maybe when we haven’t been the best person we can be… Yet, we can turn to God. There is possible and there are answers for us.We can lean into our faith and know that God hears us and works with us to provide for us because God is trustworthy.

These are prayers during difficult times, agonizing times, troubling times, and questioning times. Yet we have power and agency in our prayers through our faith to persist and know that God is listening. God is working with us even when we don’t recognize the help.God hears us and responds - not out of injustice - but because our faith is strong. Thus, justice and grace will be served in our hour, our night, our times of need.

That leads me into the Genesis32 text.

As part of a wrestling family, this text is among one of my favorite episodes in all Hebrew scripture. In many ways, this text demonstrates the persistence of prayer through Jacob’s wrestling, but I believe it also reveals what can and does happen when we meet God.

The thing is that Jacob has not been the nicest of people. Jacob has deceived his own father, Isaac, as well the house of Laban. Jacob tries to make peace with Esau for taking the brother’s birthright. Jacob has been cunning and deceptive to get things from people.There is a cost for this. What is that cost?

Jacob senses something is going to happen. Not sure who, where or what, but the anticipation is real. With trepidation, anxiety, and maybe even some fear. He sends his family and possessions with them.

Then Jacob wrestles with this all night. He persists to ask for a name and has this one in a good hold. Why does Jacob need to know the name? Think, isn’t that what we do when we go to doctors but get no answers? 

Yet this is no ordinary wrestler, and the result is injured hip, new name, revelation that that he wrestled with God, and blessing.

Even though Jacob has not been perfect, God meets Jacob, engages, and does not leave Jacob the same. 

That is what happens when we persist, even in our folly. When we persist in our faithful prayer, we can meet God in the middle of the turmoil of life, in the mud-pit of adversity, or the creepiest of places.

Then something happens. We recognize, we learn, we find. We may get a few bumps and bruises, but we grow into something more than what we were.

What happens here is a transformation – a change (not the rhetoric we get fed from shaky politicians). We may feel we win against God at times (Jacob appears to win this wrestling match), but there is more.

God is not at our beck and call, but with persistent and faithful prayer, we can meet God to experience real change. We become more than our sins or our history. We find blessings and grace in our lives.

Not bad for a night but what will Jacob (now Israel) do with this blessing, this new hope, this revelation? Continue to be a jerk and deceptive to folks? No, and read the rest of Genesis to learn how Jacob changes. 

Thus Beloved, the question for us, the challenge for us is to meet God, talk with God, and sometimes, wrestle with God. Find yourself on the other side with grace and change of heart. 

Beloved, God answers your prayer, meets you in that moment, and you have revelation.

“Lift up your eyes to the hills” and let God change you. The question then Beloved, is what do you do with that change in your life?

Thanks Be to God.

Showing Gratitude - Luke 17

Showing Gratitude

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 17:11-19, Psalm 66

Opening prayer

In our lives, we get many opportunities handed to us where we are told to be thankful. Like it is a task or something. Yet when something special happens, when life gives us seeming miracles or just grace of a new morning, we forget to lift up and thank those who helped to give us these. We forget to thank the one who gives life.

The question then is: How do we say thank you?  There is an awe when God does something (when we recognize it). There is something amazing when we pray and learn that God fulfills our wish and desire. What do we do then? Then do we pause and take moment to not just thank God? Perhaps in those moments of recognition, we might do something more. We might take an opportunity to worship. 

Then people might come up to you and ask you why you are so happy and praising; you can tell them your witness and your worship.  Then maybe, they can share in that with you.

Also this lesson reminds us to look at the invisible borders we put in our lives. 

Jesus is traveling along in parts of the country with borders between regions. This raises a question for us to consider. Who in our lives do we think Jesus ought to be praying with, healing or just doing work?  What do we expect of and identify with Jesus? What borders do we put on Jesus? What does that say about the arbitrary limits we put on Jesus: of people, places and things Jesus does. 

The lepers are impure, dirty, and forgotten- needing something or someone. Jesus reaches out to them - they who are in need. What about us who have walked through a pandemic full of anxiety and fear against being around our loved ones. Think about that  and you might have an idea of what faces these lepers who cannot hide their disease or condition.  For then, they get outcast and pushed to the fringes We don’t have to think we are so pure when we, who see people on the corner asking for handout, we quickly roll up the window.

What does it mean to live as someone as who is close to death or reminds us as people of mortality?

This is not Jesus vs establishment by telling the healed to go to the priests. Jesus is working to transform the broken system - to show a measure of God’s realm on Earth - to help people find God in many ways and the many people around us. Jesus wants the healed to tell the wonder and work of God to those who need to hear it.

Remember to tell the story for those who never heard it. That is what God wants us to do, and thus, Jesus sends the lepers to the priests. To remind them and all those lepers too are children of God needing grace and to be a part of the life of God. That, my friends, is worth being thankful and full of gratitude. We who suffer through pandemic, death and anxiety are children of God and need that grace more than ever. 

How can we then find gratitude in our worship? The response to God ought to be like the Samaritan -  those in the story who worship - the gratitude to God is important. 

We might not have a lot of models in our world. Yet we, as people of God, have ways and paths to show gratitude that shows strength in our faithfulness and strength in our belief that is more than our broken systems.  We have faith in God who heals and cares for us.  That can give us strength when we need it the most

Our world may want us to just take and take. Our world may even reward us for taking everything and leaving others behind. After all, we deserve it right? Those who have nothing, they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and figure out a way like everyone else who has to stand in line for food and pay. 

This harkens back to our lesson a couple weeks ago that reminded us that our ways of navigating broken systems are not gifts but maybe privileges of which we unintentionally forget, privileges that trample upon those less fortunate or who may be perceived as death, dying , poor, old or useless (much like the lepers in our story).  How selfish does that navigation skill seem without acknowledging those around us that help us? How un-Godlike is that? 

Instead, we should have gratitude for all who are around us, our neighbors (even the ones we disagree), for those who have more than us, extend a thankful heart - help them remember to share, and for those who have less than us, extend welcome and thanks. Extend a sandwich to who is hungry, clothes to ones who need coats, love to those who need compassion.

Think of all the grace you have in life. Or even your own life itself? The fact that you breathe today is a gift - one that we should treasure because it is a gift from above.  Yes our parents were there and we ought thank them for this gift of life, but God brought you into being, to breathe and to witness the spirit that is around us and inside us.  

In our relationships and such, remember to thank your partner, your friend for being there and thank God for bringing you together - for being your friend. Don’t let people around that you love go without knowing that they are loved, and they will in turn show you love as well. As will God.

So yes find a moment and thank your parents, but also thank God.  Know that God will be with you through thick and thin.

Thus, give thanks! Make a joyful noise to God! Remember how awesome God’s deeds and power are! Come and see what God has done and is doing in your life and let the world know how grateful you are!

Thanks Be to God

How we play the game - Luke 16

How we play the game

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 16:1-13, Amos 8:4-7, Psalm 113

Opening prayer

The lesson is a difficult one because on one hand it looks like someone is being praised for being shrewd and being able to avoid paying for unnecessary things. Hmmm, Make money in dishonest ways and getting praises for it. What a legacy that leaves for people to follow. Is that what we want in our lives?

On the other hand, Jesus throws this line about not serving two masters. The cryptic message it is, but if we look deeper, we see what this story of the manager and the masters means.

As an athlete and sports fan, I always find it difficult even when my own team seems to “win” a game but it was some call “ugly.” The phrase will raise in the press days after “an ugly W is still W.” I will cheer it but will this rear some other way? Was it even true?

Wonderful! You know how to win at all costs. You know how to beat an opponent using shady methods. You figured out how to work the system, a flawed system with flawed referees and now you think you get to have praises?

Think about that a moment.  What does that say about us in our lives because we do this. I have done this. 

We may not do it intentionally, but we do it. Maybe we do this because the moment felt right - the “cause” was right. People will try to figure how they can lower the tax bill, heckle at a garage sale, try to reduce interest in items at an auction, or look at the homeless guy - say “at least I don’t have to beg for food.”

Seems a little pompous if we think about it, and it raises another question.

Who is the master in our lives? Maybe question “what" is master in our lives. Is it power, privilege, wealth, ignorance, ego? Or should it be God, should it be peace, love, grace and forgiveness? 

Jesus tells us we cannot serve two masters because we cannot devote attention that literally goes in separate ways. There is the path of playing a game as good as one can regardless of ethics or rules or the people - we may slight, guaranteed. We do that versus extending the love, grace and forgiveness that we are commanded. It is almost hypocritical to think we can divide ourselves like that, but people do. 

And we put people (friends) around us that will help reassure the way we play our system (Even in digital worlds of gaming). Who do we make friends and why? Why choose friends that will only reassure our brokenness? Maybe, we need friends that challenge us.

We go through life trying to navigate the rules we abide and those we skirt. We go through life determining  that there are some things that we can do and some that we won’t. (Don’t even ask me to pick up a snake. So I probably will never be a zookeeper.)

This parable is a mixed bag but it raises questions about how people rationalize things in their lives. One commentator points out rightly that many of us feel the pat on the back mentality expressed in this story of the manager. This person figured out how to play the system because we all know the system plays us. There is much truth in that, but it misses something.

We go through life - playing it like a chess match and congratulate ourselves for that good move. Yet, we lose sight, and we turn our focus onto something else- something broken and deceptive.

Ultimately, the lesson challenges us to consider the rationale of who is our master, who do we allow to help us make the rules or what in our lives do we consider so important that we might ignore or forget what is really important.

Let’s go back to that point: play the system or it plays you. How in the world do we ever think that we can use wealth and power without it corrupting us? Just because you think you know the game or how its played doesn’t mean we get to be “shrewd.” For what honor is found there?

What legacy does that leave?

Our shrewdness, use of wealth, and material often forgets and more overtly tramples upon those who have nothing. It is why many find it easier to roll up the car windows when seeing the beggar rather than extending a sandwich.

It is easy to complain to someone “why are you standing in line for food stamps” or “…crying about bad health care.” We cry foul about people around us when there is still a log in our own eyes. Plus, our broken world is always ready to remind us that the same world which we erroneously prize and navigate is a house of cards.

That is completely different than what the divine master does. God calls us to rise above the game, the pettiness, the shrewd legacy - to be our neighbors’ keeper as much as ourselves. 

God wants us to think not just about ourselves but those around us and to care for them. That divine nudge from God offers so much more than brokenness. God offers a promise, a holy and sacred forgiveness - no matter what you have done or not done. 

This is why we cannot serve both God and wealth because wealth deceives us into believing we should be proud navigating broken systems. God doesn’t need you to navigate any game, but gives a path to peaceful heart, calm from worry and welcome of love.

Therefore, extend your grace to someone (and yourself) who needs it. Remember, there is love and that brokenness is not forever. Remember, there is forgiveness, the possible; there is the horizon of God’s love - a new morning dawning for all. You need it too, and grace is there waiting for those around us and for you to learn, to grow and to be good people of God.

That beloved, is the master we should seek, and we don’t have to play games to get this love and grace. That beloved, is…

Thanks be to God.

Joy of Being Found - Luke 15

The joy of being found.

Tony E. Dillon-Hansen

Refection based upon Luke 15:1-10, Exodus 32:7-14, Psalm 51

Opening Prayer

Don’t you hate it when you go looking for something that you know you just had and just put it right here, but for whatever reason it isn’t there right now. My sunglasses tend to disappear a lot. You look and look, turn over couches, pillows and search high and low. It has got be here. Then you take amount and sit. You may even ponder the where’s or why’s. You may get distracted, and then suddenly you do something like scratch your head, and guess what, there they are!

I think that gives a snippet of what Jesus is telling us here. There is something to be said about these parables: the lady finding her coins and the lost sheep.  

We all have felt lost at one point or another in our lives.  We have all felt the bewilderment of wondering and trying to figure out where to look, what to do , who to ask or even question our very nature and self.

Then something happens along the way. There is a change. We do something different.  It could be that someone appears in our lives. It could be that we just stopped for a moment. It could be that scratched our head in disbelief.

In the moment when we don’t know where to turn, we are reminded there is someone waiting for us to call, to pray. Someone is ready to reveal to us what we need - maybe reveal to us what has been missing. 

It is in that revelation that we find respite from a world that demands so much from us and provides so much anxiety. Our world is anxiety. Yet the kingdom is near and ready to reveal to us all that is possible.

That, beloved, is the realm of love, peace and hope. That is the realm of unbroken promise, healing and restoration. 

The thing for us is to remember that wherever we are on life’s journey there is always a moment for us to sit, breathe, and ponder. There is always time for us to pause and reflect and realize what has been lost has been in front of us the whole time. Realize that our emptiness, our brokenness is not forever.  

This is the power of repentance for which Jesus and the whole heavens celebrate. For people that think they have it all figured out, we know too well, there is something missing. If you have the notion in your mind that you have all you need, wait a little longer, I assure you what is missing will be revealed. 

The power of true repentance isn’t some rhetoric set of lines we recite via a prayerbook or even the hymns we sing, although one may find great ways to meditate in them, the repentance is learning that our path is not fixed, our journey is not only made of turmoil. Our journey has grace and peace all around us. 

That is what we need this time, That is what we need when we don’t even know it. If you look back on things in your life you will see that spirit walking along side you, helping you, teaching you and guiding you.

When we open our minds to what is possible in spirit through meditation, prayer, and the pause, we will find.

Yes we will find all that we need. We will find that God is there. Grace is here. Love is here. 

That, my friends, is pure joy.

So yes we struggle, we lose things, we lose people and we lose ourselves. Yet we never lose God because God is the happy parent waiting to put a robe around us and welcome us back home. 

God is ready to wash away our tears and our iniquities. God knows we struggle and knows life aint easy, but the spirit is brimming with laughter and cheer at our return. 

God is waiting to have a feast with us to learn what we have learned, where we have been and what has been revealed to us. God knows it, but God wants us to know it too.

That, beloved is worth everything. That is the promise of repentance and the rejoice of heavens.

Thanks Be to God.

Take Up your Cross - Luke 14

Take Up Your Cross

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Reflection based upon Luke 14: 25-33

Opening prayer

To give up everything is to bear the cost of the cross. To lose everything is to understand a measure of what Jesus means here. That is a tough pill to swallow especially when we think of all of our current worries and hurts. Why add more?

It is easy for us to think of all the good things , festivals and celebrations. They are nice and they serve a purpose. They are there as nuggets for when times are tough and times of faith are questionable. 

For being a disciple is to be more than just the happy times. Discipleship has cost. The cost is real and felt throughout our lives in that what we do. This is not easy because being a follower of Jesus is not always easy.

There is a cost but what is cost to us? Is it putting money in the tray on Sunday, is it having to front the bill for someone who can’t, is it something else?  I submit to you the “cost” is something more than money and doesn’t even involve money or materials of any kind.  

The cost might be as described in Hebrew 12:11 as “discipline.” For no discipline seems easy or pleasant at the time. Yet over time, discipline reveals fruit and peace. Maybe cost should not be looked at as burdens but paths to transformation. A way to hope, to have faith and to grow in the love that is there, especially when times are tough. 

In this lesson, Jesus tells us this path means to give up everything. How can I give up more than I already have? I agree that yes, it feels like someone asking us for the impossible. I like my stuff just like all of us. But stuff distracts and stuff ignores truths. The necessary, the good, or the reward is far beyond any possession and not something we can package in a box or envelope. It is not money, power or fame, but grace and peace. 

This requires of us, demands of us, and challenges us to be more than we were yesterday and to help build people today, even in our sorrows and worries. 

This is what faith is. This is discipleship. A belief in something/ someone much bigger than we can possibly imagine. Someone who brings peace when all are fighting. Someone who encourages us to be with the poor rather than avoid them because they too are children of God. Someone who comes to us in the hour of despair and hurt to heal and to grow. 

Maybe we don’t give up everything but maybe we whittle that to ten. I once  shared a picture of Gandhi’s final ten things. What would your ten things be and why? 

This lesson from Jesus aligns with Asian traditions that say to let go of all we think and hold to witness the truth that is revealed. When we let go of our perceptions and our things, we are left with faith and what God has gifted us. Then, we gain so much more.

Jesus knows people and reminds us that people don’t go into things half-heartedly if they mean to do well or to finish the project.  This is called integrity.  In order to determine where we go and where we want to go, we take stock of what we have and what need to get there. We consider our foundation. 

A disciplined person will find their foundation in faith and discipline in that faith. One might see how that faith (that discipline) carries. In this faith and discipline, we quiet our minds and still our hearts to let God. Thus, the path is revealed because we still our minds and our hearts to hear God speaking to us in the many ways God does. 

That path is waiting for us, the journey is ours, the destination is to be revealed with so much potential. Jesus tells us what we need to get there, and that path does not need possessions, power or otherwise. Master Skywalker in the Star Wars sequels, says to Rey, “you have all that you need.” In other words, Jesus tells us so brilliantly, we have what we need, and when we understand this concept, we are able to grow into the promise that is set before us. 

Buddhist refer to this idea as release of attachments to find enlightenment.  Taoist understand that allowing nature to be "as is" is to see the full beauty of what is possible. What do we attach ourselves in our lives that we should let go. Not just objects, wealth or power but negativity as well because we all know the comfort and cost we erroneously find in negativity. 

How beautiful that we share a common bond with traditions around the world that understand how disruptive possessions and negative attitudes can be and how money and negativity distorts truth. Fundamentally, this is reaching into an idea of letting the spirit work.

Why?   Simply because we let let go and Let God. That is the cost of discipleship turned into something joyful and dripping with love. 

Listen and let God fill you. Listen to the spirit, and let that spirit work inside of you. Let go of everything and find everything you need.

So let go of all you think you need, need to hear, or need to have; and Let the spirit speak to you this day and bring you the love into your heart.

Thanks be to God.