Who do you want Jesus to be - Matthew 21 - Lent 6A

Who do you want Jesus to be

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 21: 1-11, Psalm 118

Opening prayer

We come to the end of Lent and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. When I think about this “celebration” this year, a question kept coming to mind. Who do you want Jesus to be?

For all of the people in the crowd, many want a new king, some want a saving general, and some want a person that brings peace.

The question is for us the same: what do you want? What do you expect of Jesus 

Maybe, once you have determined, “I” would like a person that has this kind of hair, wearing this garment, or hat. Also, what kind of things they say and do. Once you have done that, maybe then question why is that “version” of Jesus what you want.

People have done this for centuries. They build an image of Jesus, and that is the image others ought to also see. There are plenty of other people that get the same kind of image placed upon them (whether deserved or not). Incidentally, that is one of the dangers of idolatry.

What makes Jesus so revolutionary then and today is not the image but what Jesus did, did not do, and what Jesus preached.

Perhaps Jesus had perfect hair and wore clothes just right for a traveling rabbi in Roman-occupied Palestine.

Today’s lesson furthers a quirky image with a makeshift one horse-colt-donkey parade into Jerusalem with people at the gates throwing down cloaks …and don’t forget those poor trees on the way suddenly having branches plucked and what does the farmer think about suppling the ride?

What did the people see in Jesus that they were hoping to see? What did they hear about this person ? What did they expect Jesus to do? 

And when many of them did not get what they want, they kill him.

What a perspective? If I don’t get what I want, someone has to die, someone has to pay some violent, ridiculous consequence. That is the mentality that infects our society today! People would rather use guns to settle arguments than take time to listen and learn.

Perspectives are great to have but why such extreme measures to “gain understanding?” To contort real truth, (just because it affects me in some way), into fiction is in fact fiction. Why this affects me might be the better question. 

Then people go and lie about the circumstances on national TV (like particular talking heads changing the narrative around the Nashville shooting into hate against an already oppressed and isolated group; never mind the actual pain and violence infecting our society or the freely available weapons. (How fascist propaganda!) 

It could be like the shouting heralds of the time or the many whispers to each other - what’s in the whispers?? 

It is not just religious people that get this treatment. People do this to successful musicians, to politicians, to athletes and to the neighbor down the street, especially when they look or sound different. People do this to yes, Jesus, to God.

People love stories that meet their ideas while quietly dismissing or ignoring important details.

Thankfully, what we have in Jesus is someone who was so revolutionary in peaceful protest, someone who demanded that people be included, that people in power be held accountable, for crying out load, someone who says you and I matter. That you and I matter is not revolutionary but divine! Why? Because God says so! 

That is too much for some, because people fall short. Some are looking for places of honor and to lord over others. That is people falling short of the vision of Jesus however. That is people dismissing the truth that the love of God is meant for all, even those on the fringes -those just trying to scape by. God’s love and grace is not just for those who have power, wealth or status. 

Yes, there are people who hear words of Jesus but don’t really comprehend their magnitude. Those are people who contort the blessed image of peace and love into something mired in controversy or worse. You might even say that about me or even use fallacious arguments that my words and actions don’t match nor match those of Jesus. Suffice to say, there is much to improve. 

Yet, the message of Jesus, the preaching and the example, is simple and real - something we cannot and should not ignore. 

This message is for you and I when we have questions and doubts. This message is riding on a donkey to meet intense scrutiny and fully expecting death. This message knows that you and I are worth the costs, the sacrifice, that Jesus would bear on the cross. 

This message comes from one that loves you so much, and that love demands the whole you to find something bigger in God than we ever were alone.  

Jesus asks of us to be the very best of you, to be with each other, to be the church, and to live in the grace and peace of God’s expectations rather than our own material wants.

We may falter, we may fail in our pursuits, our lenten quests, and we may fail Jesus, but Jesus will never fail you. 

So Beloved, whatever you think Jesus should be, the truth is Jesus is exactly who you need today. Jesus is not doing this for show and tell because Jesus does this for you! 

Hear the words, breathe the words and live the words. There you will find the truth about Jesus and your relationship with God. There you will find the truth about yourself.

Go ahead question and conjure images if you will. Unlearn what you thought about Jesus. Instead, listen to Jesus speaking to your heart the truth that you need to hear, that you need to feel. Let Jesus open your heart to God’s celebration and triumph. Let Jesus be with you on your journey, and yes you will find everything you need Jesus to be is right there.

Thanks be to God

Light of the World - John 6 - Lent 4A

Light of the World

Tony E Dillon-Hansen

Sermon based upon John 9, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14

Opening prayer

How often do we have a situation in life when we have something in our hands, walk into another room set it down, and then the phone rings, a doorbell chimes, and so on?? Life happens and keeps happening. As time goes by, we forget about what was in our hands and even may forget where we laid the item. We might think, “where did I lay that?” We could walk in that same room a dozen times and not see it sitting right where we left it - because we don’t actually “see it.” So it continues to be “lost” for some period of time.

What does that have to do with our story today?

A person who was blind their entire life suddenly gets a spit mud pie, and suddenly, there is sight.

There is much to unpack in the story, but a question rises, “What does healing mean for the blind man?” Jesus says, “I’m the light of the world” and gives light to darkened eyes of this person. This is something more than just giving sight to someone who has never had it. 

When sight is given, the person receives all sorts of questions. Why is it that people witnessing something remarkable need explanations? 

Yet this person has been given a lifeline that no one could have predicted or understood. This person suddenly is no longer the fringe of society, the well-known beggar or the outcast. This person heard Jesus, reached out and was healed. 

What would we say to the person that finally gets off the street, finds employment and an apartment? For us in UBFM, we would celebrate this person. 

Yet, there would be people that would question the how and why. Isn’t bad enough that people and governments want to squander welfare money away from the people it is meant to help that we have to ridicule those who somehow find a way out?

What Jesus does here is not just healing but brings this person into something more than the self. People on the fringes are often left there (and forgotten) unless someone does something remarkable. A someone could do something like reach out and give a little of God’s realm to those who need it the most. What Jesus does most is to bring those (and us) to be a part of something more than ourselves and what limits us individually.

When we read more in John, Jesus finds people – a good shepherd finding lost sheep. – the gate to life – the light of the world especially to those who have no light or sight. The person has been isolated by many, including family, but now is given a chance to belong. Now is the time for the community to also feel that belonging. There is righting with God and there is relationship with community -with each other, something long forgotten.  

Why does it take something remarkable for the community to see this person before? What does the community need now to welcome the same today? That is a question for those in the story and for us today. 

The most powerful thing we can do for people in our world is to recognize them -> to see them. 

Jesus sees and calls upon us to see others. Too often, we get caught up with life that we forget things & details. We leave them in the other room. We roll up windows to avoid interactions. 

This remarkable action is not just sight given, but radical change for all to witness what has happened to remind us that people, even those we forget, are deserving of full love and grace.  That is why this person becomes the follower.

Some will change, and still, some will refuse to see or to witness. Which one is you? (Certainly, this was a magic trick.)

We are reminded of our own broken relationships with God and with each other – Jesus gives not just sight but relationships. These people forgot each other and now found each other.

Today, we forget there are people dying due to a brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We forget there are people living on the streets without blankets or a simple meal. We forget there are people in nursing homes who haven’t seen their families in years. 

We forget people over time because life happens and life demands of us so much.

I mean, why should we care about violence in another country when the price of groceries and gas is high? Why should we care if someone couldn’t pay rent and has to live in some cubbyhole? Why do I need to feed them ? 

Astoundingly, those questions are: Why do/should I care about someone else ?

That is also why Jesus does something so spectacular to “see” this person and to give sight. Jesus does the opposite of what people with busy lives do – Jesus sees, Jesus reaches out -> and thank you, Jesus, for seeing me. 

That is why this person follows Jesus who has never “seen” Jesus before. When the world forgets us, when we forget to see people ourselves, there is Jesus seeing us.

Jesus sees all, even they who cannot (or won’t). In fact, some look for brokenness and scandal.

Jesus bring us to community, and this person responds with “I want to learn more.” The blind man hears and follows the voice of Jesus – becomes part of the sheep by recognizing God at work. 

What would your response be? Would you recognize or just explain it as a farce or other excuse? What does the shepherd look or sound like to you? What do you need to see God? Better yet, what part do you play in this?

We hear plenty of voices instead of the good shepherd – maybe we should question what’s so compelling in those voices that we turn away from God -maybe we be the voice of God to people who need it. Again, the blind man follows someone who gave attention and light. Jesus found they who lost when so many couldn’t or wouldn’t see. 

We don’t need to have crowds follow us because we can show them where the true light is - the true light to follow.

That is our challenge from Jesus: to live as the light of the world. “Live as children of light” with God. 

Beloved, Jesus is calling to you, “sleeper awake – rise” and let Christ shine through you!

That Beloved is…

Thanks be to God

 

At the Watering Hole - John 4 - Lent 3A

At the Watering Hole

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon John 4: 5-42, Psalm 95, Romans 5: 1-11

Opening Prayer

For a long time, when I would be in the office with other colleagues, the most interesting conversations were where? Next to the coffee or water. 

Whether you were Republican or Democrat, whether you had children or not, whether you had a Ford, Chevy, or Toyota, even across race and ethnicity, conversations could be had. 

The conversations would range from someone bucking for “coffee room attendant” to things happening in the family, to questions about the latest management revelations. So yes, we could giggle sometimes, and sometimes, the conversations were serious, concerned, or just venting in some cases. Of all of my professional conversations (if we call them that), these would be the most frank, honest and learning. 

During the pandemic, some of my favorite conversations would be on Fridays when the conversations included “what’s going on” in our lives. Each of us would grab a beverage and discuss things in the family as well as work challenges. I would learn how people from India would celebrate Holi. People would talk about being coaches for kids’ athletics or who was spending time at the house or plans for the weekend. Some of these might result in an invitation to have dinner as well. 

I think there is a bit of that frank, honest and open conversation happening here at the watering well.

We come upon this conversation between Jesus and this woman from Samaria (different cultures) at the well. Here, we don’t have an argument, but there are questions (like with Nicodemus last week.) There is an honest and frank exchange of truth. What is missing is judgment and accusations. 

We find out more about Jesus. We get the first of John’s “I am” that usually follows with a metaphor. (This harkens to when Moses first meets Yahweh at the bush, when Moses asks who are you, the response is “I am.”) This time, Jesus states “I am he.”

This whole scene is great for theater because there is something being exchanged in the conversation besides just words. Yet it is not just show because there are truths and again an invitation to belong - not just to one community but the community of God’s children. “The time is coming.. when worshippers will worship in Spirit and in truth.” 

God is calling to us with all of our questions and even with our disbelief.

Church, culture and faith are not about having all the answers but believing that what we don’t know, God will reveal to us in necessary ways. Faith is then realizing that our work is unfinished, and there are fields needing harvest. There are many around us that have “done the hard work.” Those who let their faith work for them, and let God work in that faith. Those from whom we can learn.

Don’t be just a consumer but someone who plants, does the tending, and someone who shares the fruits of God. For God tells us, all can enjoy the fruits of harvest even with our questions. 

Remember, this is what our faith is: belief in mystery, hope in the possible of God: water that gives true life, bread that nourishes beyond a meal. Believe the shepherd guides you through the gates to life with God.

Still, we all find frustration and paths that try us and people -especially some people along the way. We could walk through a meadow with peace and quiet but put people there and the questions rise - maybe tensions even. 

With God, we can navigate that course and find community that helps us realize we don’t have to do this alone. Through this community and with God, there is the possible. There is space for our questions, so ask them. Jesus wants to hear your questions and concerns - and theirs.

You may ask why the questions are so important. Whether we are talking about Nicodemus, this woman, or our own selves, the question really is: who is willing to hear that revelation and who is ready to understand the truth? Those who think they know it ? Those who tell you how they know it? 

Of those with questions… From my doctoral research to normal conversations, the person who confesses questions generally yields honest and genuine conversations. These would be part of honest and genuine faith or questions about faith that does not lord over others how they should but how they struggle with the actual questions and unknown.

Chances are those questions and concerns reflect our very own. When we realize this, then, together, we can grow in listening and learning about God.

Thus, God wants us to be with each other and work together through invitations and inclusion. Let God connect to each in unique ways. 

That is why the Psalm gives praise. When God connects and fulfills, we find all that we need in our faith. This woman’s faith is so overwhelmed with Jesus that she forgets her bucket of water - leaves it behind. Maybe, we might ask what, in our lives, needs to be left behind. What prevents us from believing and belonging?

Still there may be some that say “so what.” What does this do for me and why haven’t I felt it. Those are good questions, and there is a community like you full of questions.

Go ahead ask: What has God done for you? For us? Think about it, and I submit, the answer is right before you.

Go to the watering hole. Have courage to ask honest questions and courage to witness the answer. Have courage to be the answer. 

When you do and you let people be with you on that journey, I submit that you too will find together being the “noise of praises” rather than complaints. You will be the song of sharing rather than exclusions.

That Beloved is… 

Thanks Be to God

Curious Questions - John 3 - Lent 2A

Curious questions

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon John 3:1-17: Psalm 121

Opening prayer

There are texts that people love so much that people frame, put on walls, or stick to car bumpers. Today’s text gives us one of these beloved texts, but instead of just the verse that people have come to know and love, we get the context of the words.

Each of the next couple weeks in Lent, as we travel through John, we come upon conversations.  In these, conversations raise questions, considerations, resolutions and revelations. We encounter religious elder, a woman at the well, a blind man and then Martha.  

Each of these share preconceived notions of who God is and why God does things. This particular text shines on Nicodemus, a high priest elder (Pharisee) questioning Jesus’s teachings about God and the spirit.

This conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus compels because it is revolutionary nature. Nicodemus is a teacher of Rabbinical law and traditions and asking Jesus some of these questions go to the root of faith. 

Despite some assertions, not all elders despised Jesus but in fact rather embraced what Jesus says.  Nicodemus honestly questions Jesus and the nature of God.  He is curious about teachings, curious about Jesus, and curious about God. Jesus does not shy away from the questions. 

“How can this be??” Jesus answers with a question, asking Nicodemus, what does your faith, your belief, say to you about God and the Spirit? Funny thing, in this exchange, something else remarkable doesn’t happen.

Jesus does not berate the person, the question or any hinting lack of belief. Jesus instead invites.  Jesus invites Nicodemus (us) to believe: to bring Spirit and faith with him (with us). With Zen-like consideration, the wind blows but we know not the beginning or end. This is evidence that to “see” we must see with the Spirit and to be born of the Spirit. Most importantly, we must believe. 

That, my friends, is the nature of baptism. For we are all born into flesh from flesh. Let your Spirit connect with God (be born again). Water is a mere symbol, but the real work is done by the Spirit and our beliefs.

Without belief in these good things, 

we remain imprisoned in a world without hope of something more than we are. 

Without belief, 

we never get beyond who we are this day, and we never reach for all that God has for us. 

Without belief, 

we are left in shadows, and we forget the love that is poured out for us.

The broken world threatens from all sides consuming our attention. It can be easy for us to forget why 3:16 is so compelling. Starting with, “For God so loved the world…” Because God is still speaking, we say, “God loves.” God ain’t done - not by a long shot. 

That God loves us ought to be comforting to us who are struggling here on this earth. When we screw up, when we give into that Lenten temptation, or when we say things we probably shouldnt, God is there and loves us so much while forgiving and helping us find the correct path. 

Our identity as children of God can open paths for us through the threatening and thick wildernesses of our broken world because of our belief in that promise given to us. When we believe and let the belief flourish within us, the light of Christ reveals to us.

That belief can feel daunting at times when we are struggling and when the light at the end of the tunnel is blurred by events, people, more shootings, more war, and hostile political winds that are contrary to Jesus’s teachings of peace, love and forgiveness. We, like Nicodemus, can be (perhaps should be) curious to ask questions. Why does that happen? Why do people have to be so…. Not friendly and hostile? Ask God and let God reveal the answer. 

Perhaps, those people weren’t properly shown the proper way of Christ that you and I can. We can only do so much -but we can contribute. For our part, we can be that demonstration of this belief: that God is for us as children of God in many different ways. 

Through our belief, even though we are curious and have questions, we can have more than this life, and Beloved, we are saved because God loves us.

Our identity as children of God opens paths for us through the thick and ominous wildernesses of our broken world because of our belief in that promise given to us. When let the belief flourish within us and lead us, the light of Christ reveals to us.

Thus, God loves even though we struggle and screw up. God loves us, God forgives, and God helps find the correct path.

For God loves us that we are gifted…

We have free will. We can turn away and walk from God, but we always have a home in God.

We have life. Each day, no matter what pain we have, we are breathing and have chances to live Jesus’s peaceful way. The alternative is that we are just dust, and then, there is no more life we can share.

Through this life with Spirit - living with the Spirit of God in us, together we are community and church. We are more than ourselves because we have each other as gifts instead of shameful blaming. Together, we can ask our curious questions, and together, we learn what God reveals for us. 

That Beloved is…

Thanks Be to God

Temptation and Loyalty- Matthew 4 - Lent 1A

Temptation and Loyalty

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 4: 1-11, Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Psalm 32

Opening prayer

When we go about our daily lives, it is a rare bird that intentionally wakes up and says, “I want to be a bad person.”

Our familiar lesson at the outset of Lent looks at temptations. I think it is more than giving up something or fasting (especially since Jesus in Matthew 6 reminds us to put our heart in our practice.)

What is temptation? What causes us to go off the good way or walk away from God.

This is more than sugar fixes that some give up for Lent, but it’s about the feeling - an inclination to do something. In those moments, there are questions - should I?

Consider, where you lean for guidance. From where do we find understanding and perhaps “epiphany” what what we should do?

We enter Lent, but when facing difficult or tough questions, where do you lean, where is your loyalty?

This story isn’t really about those sugar craves as much as when someone introduces “false values to achieve outcomes.”

For us, consider what we substitute for what we need, or our community, or what God wants.

On most accounts, most people won’t know the difference and won’t even lift an eyebrow at the mostly quiet personal exchanges, but there is something more sinister here at play.

This isn’t just a “white lie” (like somehow painting lies white makes them less trickery.) This isn’t dripping lips over chocolate. Besides, we all know that one lie leads to another and to another until all falls down.

This is sinister - something shiny but underneath, it’s “decaying and empty.”

We pause. Is this really what you want?

Do I want that which corrupts - that which is not about community, justice and not about God, but instead about ego, injustice and selfish wants. (I get whatever I want - you fend for yourself.)

How did we not notice the pig with lipstick is just that (who made that a good idea?)

The temptation is to find comfort in something or being that says all the right things, but something is missing. We feel off when an offer seems “too good to be true.” It probably is.

Think how often decisions have absolute clarity or we get going along and something shows up that makes us take pause - examine whether current path is correct.

And if all we do is consume without consideration and do not give back, what legacy is our path but gluttony.

This is especially when we wrestle with it and with God, like Jacob did (Genesis 32). What did God do for Jacob, they wrestled. Ultimately, God shows up, works it out with us, and God blesses.

When we are at wits-end and not sure what to do, where do we turn attention? How do we react? Do we turn to seductive temptations or do we lean into our faith, into the way of Jesus?

Do we turn our heads away from the right thing to do because that’s too involved, or be someone’s desperately needed face of God here on this Earth?

Some people see others’ misfortune thinking “shadenfruede” (German for relishing in someone’s misfortune) and do nothing more.

Remember “crap” happens to all alike. Then, we realize someday in the garden of God and notice that we are naked too. God’s justice is naked truth because humans do mistakes - or just don’t do the right things.

Of that, there is this other character in the story. When we screw up and fail, people have tendency to look around for someone one or something to blame. Why do we need to do this and why invent a sneaky character lurking to spoil our deeds?

Consider football, I am sure the players heard some sneaky character say, just before the play starts, “hey could you, maybe, just drop the ball for me. That would be swell and I will make your name last forever.” The player responds in that instance - great idea! Can you imagine the conversation in the huddle afterwards?

No. When mistakes happen (and they do), it is for us to fess up, own it, learn from it (hopefully not to do it again.) 

Unlike football coaches or otherwise, God gives us multiple chances, and thankfully so. We have a forgiving God, and “happy are those whose transgressions are forgiven.” (Psalm 32)

—-

Is Jesus questioning - trying to put things into context. (What is to come, the potentials - both good and ugly)?

This is us - you and me - at our finest.

Decisions before us, choices we have, appear to be long, questionable endurance, and the path to the promise is through that undefined field.

But wait! There is another seductive way. We could quit saying, “I don’t have faith in the promise. I don’t have faith that doing the correct thing will be rewarding.”

I want simple assurances “yes I will be happy.” Consider, simple answers to complex questions: really? Life is complex, and justice - the realm of God (on Earth) needs our help. We want simple answers, but God doesn’t work that way, the way of Jesus doesn’t work like that.

The path to eternal life, the way of Jesus, the way of God is long and requires sacrifice and endurance. It requires us to do church and to be justice, especially when there is a vacuum. This way, this path, does not mean we live vanquished of nice things or in total poverty, but that we recognize that we fall short.

This way of Jesus calls us to pay attention to the Spirit, to the community around us as well to be face and comfort of God to all God’s people.

That aint easy at 5:00pm (when after a full day of work), when I need to prep for tomorrow’s exam, or when I want to go fishing with the buddies. When our child needs help, what do we say? When our neighbor needs food or asks for justice, what do we do? When political figures want to disregard neighbors (don’t listen to them, don’t even associate - in fact, let’s put them in prisons or “special camps”), that is when we have to dig into our faith and decide our loyalty with God is stronger.

When we listen to God speaking, then the true, good path will be revealed. It may not come with instant satisfaction, but reward you will have when you let faith in God work.

The question is really: where does your loyalty lay? Perhaps easy answer when things are good or when we want to say the right thing. When things are getting difficult, when we have questions, when we thought we have done all that we needed to do, even though justice in our world still needs help, then we have to dig into faith, faith in the promise (way of Jesus), and turn our loyalty to God.

When we do, If we leave it all out on the table and let God help us, we can grow along the long, winding, and endurance way. “Bread” that nourishes us will be there, and there will be good people to help us along the way. 

Most of all, Beloved, God will help us find that purpose and meaning along that journey.

That Beloved is …

Thanks Be to God.