Time for Caring - Luke 10 - 5th Sunday after Pentecost Year C

Time for Caring

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 10: 25-37, Psalm 25, Deuteronomy 30: 9-14

Opening prayer

There have been times when I am cycling on the trail and something happens. Tire goes out, chain derails, or a fall due to trying to avoid other people on the trail. (you know who you are). 

Yes people have run me off the trail because people taking up the trail coming towards me (without etiquette) causing me to veer off the trail, catch a hole in the ground, and flip over. The other people slowed, watched what happened, but just kept going.

I was left on the side with scapes, bruises, checking for broken equipment, and a bit upset. I composed myself and got back up and kept riding. 

I have also have been one whose tube blew out 15 miles from the city, and people, one after another, some would ride on without much. Some would offer “are you ok,” and luckily, one was from the Bicycle Collective, who not only offered help but was teaching me how to install a new tube. They even supplied me with one from his supply because I forgot to resupply mine.

That is one of the reasons I like the bicycling community because we have an etiquette and ethos to help each other. We know all too well we could be next, but also the general good will to make sure people are ok and can keep going is quite prevalent (at least in central Iowa.) 

Their reward for that “Samaritan” on the bike trail is that I give it forward. 

There are some parallels to this - one of the most recognizable parables from the scriptures. 

We, today, don’t fully recognize some of the nuance happening. 

Who is a Samaritan ? People from the northern kingdom rather than from Judea (Jews).  There is plenty of animosity between these two people. 

Seems like a pattern for today’s version of Israel and Palestine.  Yes the pattern has long been there, and for us to be amazed that they (people of the Mideast) cannot find peace, is negating so much history that can’t be simply unsaid. 

Let us pray that God help them find the compassion and empathy God teaches soon - else there will be more generations of tension to come from the violence of today.

We will come back to this in a moment..

Our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures reminds us from where we receive our abundance: from the Lord our God - not just our hands and work ethic.

Thus we are commanded to love God. Jesus reminds us here that this is the most important commandment: “to love God with all your heart and soul …and your neighbor as yourself.”

How do we do that ? Who is my neighbor? 

Jesus offers us a parable with plenty to explore in that regard. A person is robbed of everything and left for dead. A priest and then a Levite pass by.  

Why ? What reason do they have?  What was so pressing in their lives that they could not stop even to offer a calming voice or “I will get help.”

They simply turn the other way, don’t look any further and keep walking away - like nothing was happening. There may even be a little disgust at this person lying on the ground somehow deserved what they got. 

What judgement to offer ?? This is their reward for some sin they have committed?  Who deserves to be robbed of all and left for nothing?

As someone who serves the homeless, I see this pattern plenty. I see people rolling up windows at the intersections. I see people looking away - not even acknowledging that a person is there.

These people certainly have received what they deserve.  These people have been riding the work and ethics of good people.

Just like the people in the unemployment line, the queers holding flags, the workers striking for fair treatment or those at the pantry looking for food, they got where they on their journey and they need to figure out how to get on the right path. Or it’s the mother working two jobs just to put food on the table for her kids and to send them to school. Or another “selfish” youth taking their own life “for no good reason.”

We presume plenty in the brief images and conjure stereotypes and stories that warn and prevent us from helping. How convenient that is.

Perhaps we think it was drugs and alcohol or violence, but we don’t even look at what we do, what we watch, what we consume, or even what we don’t do - but should.  How great it is to stand with privilege and honors.

We don’t ask them for history, we don’t take the time to learn. Or even if they are family and we have some knowledge of history, I submit we may not know the whole story. Why? Because that would take away from our so valuable time. Caring takes time.

For we don’t see someone needing just a breath of empathy, we see something that is a problem, a pariah, a festering sore and our ever-so-healthy presence doesn’t want whatever they have. Irony in prohibiting public health (COVID) restrictions??

People do this all the time and call it preservation.

Really, these are callous judgements and oddly glazed ignorance because they don’t bother with details, reason or actual facts. 

Let me ask you this, what if that was you on the ground, robbed and left for whatever? Where is the compassion of those walking around you?

Nevertheless, there is a person. There is a true story, but that would take time. That would take time to care.

That is however what the Samaritan does. This person who, as we said a moment ago, were among hated tribes doing something very possibly dangerous to own health and living - unclean. There is no guarantee what this is but regardless, they offer time. They offer compassion, money, and then get others involved to help.

It is not just putting hand on the heart and saying ‘mercy’, but being the mercy - being the face of God to someone who needs it like me on the trail without a tire to pump.

They probably had things to do too or feelings about being clean. They were on the road going somewhere just like the priest and the Levite beforehand, but this outsider choose to acknowledge this person and to take time to care. 

They could have been busy looking at watches, social media, listening to podcasts and not have time for someone who is real and is now. They could give all the excuses, but they chose to give time.

This is what God does, though we may not notice.

While many are too busy for us and our needs, walking around us and perhaps casting doubts, God is there taking time for us and providing for us so that we might heal from our wounds and our pains.

This Samaritan does what God does and what Jesus wants us to do. Jesus doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but for us to be the face of God to someone who needs it today and now.

We need this now - more than ever. Instead of all the miserable violence and hate that is spread throughout social media and the many conspiracy theories, Jesus wants us to take time to care, to be with neighbors, to learn their stories, and to get others involved too.

That is a slice of Heaven on Earth brought to you not by the wishy washy company but by you. 

Pray the words of Psalm 25 “lead me in your truth and teach me.” You have been taught, now action is your task.

Take the time to care to be what God instructs us. Be humble in God’s way.

Thanks Be to God. 

Loss of Jacob - Commentary

When I learned about what happened to Jacob, I have to admit that it brought me to some tears. I looked around the airport and asked questions . What could have I done ? Why do things like this happen? 

I do not know what was going through Jacob’s mind, but what we do know is that there are plenty of questions. Also I know that I don’t have the answers. 

Jacob often wore his faith and spoke with big smiles when talking about doing youth ministry.  Yet, I submit that, in the most desperate hour, he may have forgot that faith is where he could have found hope and new strength. 

That is important for us now.

When we are having troubles - even in our most desperate hours, we can find possibilities and strength in the divine gifts of faith and hope. 

Much like another struggling Jacob who, in Genesis, wrestles with God through the night to find a blessing.

No doubt there are times when we question everything and anything. Go ahead and ask questions. Shake fists , argue with the Spirit, and even wrestle. 

I submit to you to lean into each other, to lean into faith and lean into the Spirit.

For whether we have personal relationships with the Spirit or yet to learn how to have one, we can recognize that we do not have to do things alone. 

We can overcome troubles and find possible when we reach out to people. Additionally when we reach into faith and when we reach into hope there we can find strength.

We remember that we are loved (yes you and I too) and that we extend love to others. Remind those around each of us that they are loved. That is strength one cannot deny. 

Yes, there, we can find strength because for all the things that happen to us and around us that we cannot control, it is in these core elements or divine gifts: our faith, our hope, our love ...

In these gifts, we can find new strength, even when all seems lost. That is because these divine gifts are there for us to find strength when we succeed and when we fall.  

Good thing to consider is that these gifts do not run out or leave us. These gifts keep renewing and remind us that the Spirit is speaking to us, teaching us and lifting us. They are always available to us like a continuous water well where we can arrive, talk with the Creator, and come away with sustenance.

Reach out to others to talk, reach out to the Spirit with your questions too - and then find strength, courage and paths open up before you.

In light of this tragedy, I am more committed to make the most of every breath that God blesses me, and I believe that will be the best tribute I can give in Jacob’s honor.

Peace be with you.

Transformation - Luke 8 - Second Sunday after Pentecost Year C

Transformation

Tony E Hansen

Reflection based upon Luke 8: 26-39, Psalm 22, Galatians 3:23-29

Opening prayer

Transformation happens in our lesson from Luke.  Something happens to this person; going from naked to clothes, living in the cemetery with the dead and perhaps treated like such.

Jesus comes along and heals this person who being possessed refers to themselves as “Legion” by sending those many demons unto the swine herd.

As an Iowan with many family who are hog farmers, does anyone wonder why the pigs? For I know my uncles would be asking for an invoice for this “medicine” to cure and transform Legions.

It wasn’t the pigs that concerned these people, but what happened to the man, who is now “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in right mind.” 

Something happened to this person, and now, the villagers, who were probably accustomed to how they dealt with him, they are frightened.  

They were used to his antics, what he did and didn’t do.  They were used to his isolation in the cemetery, and now they are compelled to see him and perhaps be with him.

So this is not just a transformation story about one person, but also whoever lost their pig herd, and the whole town has to learn how to live with the change. That change was so upsetting, they ask Jesus to leave.

Imagine that, being so fearful and upset that we tell Jesus to leave.

Change is the only constant in the universe. Yet we treat change as something perverse, feared and even torturing.

I know that at any moment my whole life could change because of decisions that will impact me, my livelihood, and my health.

I am content with what I have and where I am, but all of that can change tomorrow or even an accident while riding my bicycle. 

That notion itself, prompts me to do things or avoid other things.  

It prompts me to engage with groups that help the unfortunate because all too easily I could become one of them. As Jesus tells us, I commit to helping the unfortunate with what some may call my current fortunes. 

It prompts me to avoid those that might threaten those current fortunes. Thus, I do limit who I interact but at what cost. 

What or rather whom do I miss out from learning? What judgement have I set forth upon people that I don’t even know.  What have I cast upon people that I know very little but fear them lurking in the shadows?

Again, some of this is preservation of personal contentment, but also a fear of the potential change because change, while constant, brings with it anxiety. 

Why? We don’t know what we look like on the other side of said change. Even though, at that point we will still be changing. We are still getting older, perhaps wiser; we are still living (hopefully); and we are in a world that is also changing with us.  

When you think about it, we fear that which is happening now. 

Why fear for something that is so fundamental and basic?

Why commit so much energy to something that we cannot change?

Perhaps that is what is causing people to panic about some of the change that is happening to our politics.  Even though people voted in this change, the realization has brought plenty of anxiety because it is upending so much that we have grown familiar and learned to know “as the way things are.”

Yet, even in that change, even in our anxiety, we cannot let go of the lessons we have learned, we cannot let go of our faith in the one that heals and quiets those desperations - in ways that no politician can.

In our fears, we can find even more reason to fear, but if we look into our faith, we can find someone who calms; they who help us look up and out to the world. 

Yes, we could cower into our shells of ignorance. We can cast doubt upon knowledge and science, but truth is truth and change happens. 

Remember, science is a gift of God and helps us understand change and the truth. There is grace in learning what divine mysteries are hidden and waiting for us in that change. The question remains what we do with it and how do we respond to that which God gives us. 

For change that hurts people, we must be willing to stand up and speak out against injustice.  

For change that demeans and humiliates, we must the source of light and the Word that people need. Because we know too well how easily all of what is fortunate for us can change in a moment and because God commands us to love and care for each other.

For ourselves, we must be willing to find strength in what we know. We were given strength in our baptism to find Jesus wrapped all around us. That change gives us strength today. That strength can be found in our faith. For God is there and will be there for us through the change.

Jesus was there for the naked man with many demons, and he was there for the community. 

Yet they allowed fear to rule them asking Jesus to leave instead of stay and understand. 

They witnessed and could have learned about themselves and their faith, but instead they cowered in fear - away from truth and God. 

Too easily, that is what people do - live in ignorance of change happening - God working. 

The leaf floats in the wind, falls into a river and will flow with it. Beautiful image.

Change can be good, change is God working, teaching. It offers ways to learn more about ourselves and our roles. 

Let change be a gift from God not something to fear and to ignore. You were clothed with Christ in baptism. You were transformed to help you through change.

Thanks be to God

Good Shepherd Sunday - Easter 4c

Shepard Sunday

Tony E Hansen

Reflection based upon Psalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30 

Opening Prayer

Happy Good Shepard Sunday !

People often ask Where is God? The scripture from John and the Psalm (23) challenges us to look for God not just in a temple, church or synagogue but here and now not (just during worship.)

Who is the one that shepherds you on a gorgeous Mothers day in May? For I submit, we do not do this alone? 

We are not just an ego in a bag of skin but someone who is connected to this beauty and joy this day. Not every day is sunshine on a cool morning because we know that sunshine can make a great day intolerable and hot. Yet we know that storms have grace and majesty.

Where is God? Not just in special buildings but God is here in the beautiful and the storm. God is all around us comforting us, guiding us and calling to us. 

So too with us as people, children of the One, we are as diverse as the stars and the Spirit that creates also lives in us. Question is whether we are willing to listen to that Spirit speaking to us?

What does the Spirit say?  Ask and you will understand that the Lamb, envisioned in Revelations, invites you to sit with them, and to walk along besides waters and green pastures: to meditate on this beauty for when the storms come, to remember the grace of that voice so that it can be heard then too. 

Yes, When the storms come, and they will, use gracious days like this to learn how to listen for the Lord in wondrous ways speaking to you. For when the days are rough and everything feels rotten, we need to remember to listen to the Lord speaking to us, calling us to days like these, then too.

Where is God? Every where and every one! Listen and walk with God today.

Thanks be to God