Detach - Mark 10: 17-31

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Detach

Tony E Dillon Hansen

14 October 2018

A reflection based upon Job 23:1-9, 16-17 • Psalm 90 • Mark 10: 17-31

Link to Scriptures

Will you pray with me? May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Rock, Our Redeemer.  Amen.

Many people like to use this story and the prosperity theology, especially some more prominent tele-evangelists, to help solicit gifts and money because Jesus says to sell everything and give to the poor – and well, I am not exactly rich so you could give the money to the nearest poor person (aka me.) You don’t have to worry about me doing that today. I am however going to challenge you with this text from an interfaith perspective.

For sure, our lectionary gives us a lesson about wealth, but also a lesson about spirit, suffering and pride.

Let’s look at the exchanges here.

First the man asks Jesus what does one do to “inherit eternal life” and be “saved.”

Jesus says to follow that commandments and this invites the next part.

The guy says, “I have done this all my life.”

That sounds like something most of us would say .. well maybe a couple exceptions lurking around this room right?

If you have done everything you were told to do, What is left?

Is that it? Seems like something is missing?

Jesus says to sell everything and give it away and then “you will have treasure.”

Ouch!

Jesus does not stop there and says something really profound. 

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”

Meaning  that such a man cannot enter the kingdom of God because you cannot squeeze a camel into the eye of a needle --unless the camel is really small.

The disciples hearing this, chime with a version of, “Hey, we have done this and where is our treasure?”  Is this a prideful remark or just a really good question?

When is the payoff? When do we get what we are owed?

Incidentally, Who owes you anything and why?

Does God owe you anything? Does anyone really owe you except maybe that $5 bucks you lent out that will never get back? Does $5 really matter?

Why does Jesus say this?

If you have wealth, bless you for your good fortune, but perhaps, your focus is and has been upon the wrong thing. If you focus upon what you have accumulated, or even what you do not have, your focus is upon what you attach your personal worth and value. Your focus is upon your pride.

Jesus reminds us that we are all children – you and I have just aged a bit.

Remember the days of youth, when you just embodied fun, life and just being.

What Jesus says is similar to the Buddhist idea expressed in the Four Noble Truths. That life is suffering, but that our suffering is caused by our attachment or clinging. Our relief of suffering is by detaching – letting go of those attachments. Life happens and we cannot control it but we can control how we respond to it -- how we respond to God. Further, a path to alleviate that clinging involves living, speaking, thinking and being the right way and that can start in meditation and prayer and living the commandments.

Yet it is more than just words and code, Jesus and the Buddhist idea tells us to embody what we believe and detach from our pride.

Think about it, Job spends most of his story lamenting all the bad things that happened to him, and I have been right there with him wondering why things go bad. When all seemed lost, Job just lets go of his pride, lets go of his suffering, and lets God.

What Jesus tells us here, along with our traditions, is that pride can be destructive because that pride is essentially hiding the child within us with a cloak of envy, privilege, and our “social expectations.” When you let go of that and let God really into your heart, then some beautiful things can happen.

When you let go, detach, and Let God, then you just might remember the first time you were able to ride a bike, really enjoyed ice cream, or just smelled a beautiful flower because you were completely in the moment.

When we let the aches and pains guide our focus (we all have plenty of those), we lose our inner child. When we let our material define us, then we lose who we truly are meant to be.

Our focus can be instead upon the gifts we have and the love that is poured out for us.

The kingdom of God is not past us, not beyond reach, and not found in our wealth.

The kingdom of God that you seek does not belong in the past.

The kingdom of God starts here and now – in this moment.

The kingdom of God starts with you letting go of pride.

The kingdom of God starts with your smile and letting go.

Go ahead and smile and be in this moment.

The kingdom of God can be found through letting go of everything you fear,

letting go of everything you want,

and letting go of everything that is not you.

This is not easy stuff, but know that

The kingdom of God starts in your beautiful, slightly-stained heart.

Yes, the kingdom of God can be found in you, in this moment and in this place!

Smile you beautiful, broken older child

And have peace.

Thanks Be to God.

Demonstrating Faith - Mark 12: 38-44

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Demonstrating Faith

Tony E Dillon Hansen

11 November 2018

A reflection based upon 1 Kings 17:8-16 • Psalm 146 • Mark 12: 38-44

Link to Scriptures

Will you pray with me? May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Rock, Our Redeemer.  Amen.

Happy Armistice Day and I salute all veterans for our honorable service this weekend.   I hope someday that we really do value peace.

Our story today brings us to Jesus telling a couple things.

First Jesus, in no uncertain terms, condemns the scribes of his day.  The scribes are the elites of society that tend to demand everything with everything as a ritual: a show even.

They get the best seats, fine wines, choice food, but Jesus is calling this out as somewhat idolatrous in that they have surrounded themselves with these goods and forget what they are supposed to be doing.  To Jesus this is just a big show and someone needs to expose the reality of it. The scribes are supposed to be taking care of the people in all parts of the community not just float their egos. They have walled themselves off from the poor and the common people they serve and then call it “society”. 

That is not what God wants of the people. God wants a community that takes care of and interacts with each other.  

Further, the impression that Jesus sees is that they are giving large sums not as a demonstration of faith rather a kind of pretentious advertisement to everyone of their good fortune.  This is not a check you can put in an envelope discreetly.  At the temple, their wealth shows up in livestock, grain and real coin.  Jesus calls this behavior out.  For this idolatry, Jesus will later call out the destruction of the temple.

That raises a question then.

Why give?

For duty? Tradition? Personal redemption?

Or do we turn these into opportunities to brandish affluence?

When you give, what do you hope to happen?

That leads to this question, What is the purpose of our faith?

To hope and eventually get what we want -- or is it to be in the community?

That is, How do we demonstrate our faith?

Then along comes this poor widow. In this society, even more than today’s, women cannot have property and have no means for income without a man in the household or being a prostitute. We see this in the stories of Ruth, Naomi (Ruth 1) and Zarepheth (1 Kings 17).

How much can you buy with a penny?

This story reminds me of my youth when the church would give us these boxes of envelopes for giving money to the church. 

Now as a youth, our family was lower middle class , blue collar, two-income household just to scrape by. 

Let’s just say these envelopes did always get used by us kids.

For me, I had great joy when I would have 5 bucks in my pocket and the priest is up there asking for a piece of that which I don’t get very often…

There were these promises of heavenly rewards and such.

Yet, despite not having much, when I did and I could share, there would be some joy in that.

Why is the contribution important?

Partially to me, I was finally a participant in the community. I did my part.

Does wealth define your faith?

That was why my dad, I and host of many wanted to serve in the military

-- as a way to be a part of the community by serving the country. 

Like many fine soldiers and first responders, we come from lower middle class and poverty and we know what our community faces daily.

(I have seen People getting evicted, having nothing to eat, experiencing racial injustice, gay slurs, and simply being ridiculed for not having money. )

When you don’t have much, as in not having money like others, we can offer what we can

-- our life and limb in service so that others may not have to.

Of those veteran military and first responders, as I said before, I salute you.

In this scripture, the widow is likely giving her literal last penny. Why would someone do that?

What does she hope to get from her gift?

What is truly remarkable about this scene is how much this woman demonstrates her faith by giving the last cent.  You see the smallest action, the smallest bit of hope might be the motivation we have to be better than we are today. 

We know that a gift to good organizations can be rewarding and can go a long way. Especially through the church, that kind of gift can reach out into areas of the community in ways that you and I cannot imagine.  That is one way we can feed the homeless, give shelter, provide care to battered women  or to vets with PTSD, or even to help provide rides so people can go vote. There are just a host of things that money can do.  Our Psalm 146 reminds of this.

So if you give, realize what that can do for the community that you live, and it is ok to feel honor in that giving.  Yes, praise the Lord.

The widow challenges us with this and Jesus essentially asks how do you show your faith?

It comes down to this,

Jesus reminds us this is not a sport or contest to see who can give more because the gift whether the smallest or the largest has to come from your heart.

Was the woman crazy for giving her last cent or was it like buying a lottery ticket with that last bit?

Maybe it was her duty and willingness to participate in community. 

Maybe it was honest to goodness faith.

Maybe she was hoping for a little bit of God’s miracle

because God’s miracle is not just for one country, elites or people with means. 

You can have the miracle, the hope and the faith that this widow has. 

You have God working around you and inside you now. 

You just feel it in your heart and that gift is real.

Better yet, always remember that  

You and I are a blessed miracles of God, blessed children of God, right here.

Demonstrate the faith in your heart.

“Praise the Lord oh my soul”

Thanks Be to God.

What do you do? - Luke 3:7-18

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What do you do?

Tony E Dillon Hansen

16 December 2018

A reflection based upon Luke 3:7-18

Link to Scriptures

In the tradition from which I grew up, we light a pink candle this week and think of joy.  (not the soap or the woman, but joy in our hearts.  For me as a youth, all I could think of was Christmas and Santa were just around the corner. Family dinners and such.

These days I don’t do much with the Santa, but we have learned of a similar character with a tradition on December 5^th and 6^th (also celebrated on Dec 19^th in some parts of the world) for the feast of St Nicholas of Myra. (Sinter Klaus) He was a bishop of the 4^th Century Roman Empire and known for providing dowries, saving the lives of people and as a patron saint for sailors.   On the night of December 5^th, tradition holds that people would be busy bringing little care packages around the neighborhood In honor of St Nicholas (of course with anonymity).

When we think of the holidays these days, we think of gift giving and joyous occasions.  If we think of the story about St Nicholas, why did he gift those gifts and dowries? 

That kind of leads to what John the Baptist poses to us today. 

Why do you do what you do?

John, in one of his best sermons recorded, asks us, what do you do?

He challenges us to think about this question with all of the people in attendance (government and military people, regular common people and wealthy).

His answer is astoundingly simple

With all that is happening, the pressures of the season, of family, of justice or of finishing a semester like I did. What should we do?

Do what you do best and do it with good heart.

Practice love. Practice justice. Practice compassion.

What are your priorities and preoccupations?

We are getting ready for New Years resolutions and thinking of the gift giving as I mentioned a moment ago. What are you doing to prepare your resolutions?

Incidentally, why do we buy gifts and why do we get gifts?

When you give a gift, what of that gift is you? What of that gift means something to the receiver?

Just because it happens to be on a wish list is not necessarily meaningful.

What do they need in the heart of their hearts?

What do you want to inspire?

How do you want to be remembered?

What can you do to bring yourself into that ?

John tells us to bring you – the exuberant, sparkly, the honest and the broken YOU

This reminds me of a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, “that you be the change you want to see in the world.”

In the season of advent, Be the hope you wish to see.  Be the peace you wish to see. Be the joy you wish to see. Be the love you wish to see. The world will thank you for it.

Part of gift giving is receiving gifts.  When you receive a gift what does it mean to you ?  When you think of all that God has given you today, What will you do with your gifts? Even better, remember you are a gift from God!  If you want to see gifts from God in this world, then let’s be that gift from God – with all of our hearts and minds.

When you value your gifts, you may help others to remember the gifts they already have.

When you enjoy the time and place where you are with the friends and company of your family and neighbors like you have here, we may be the joy we wish to see in the world.

When you do give gifts, we don’t want to just give to collect dust.

When you gift, John tells us to bring you and your story. Bring the love you have. Bring the justice from your heart into the world. Bring you!

That may not feel like the luxurious or glamorous gift (maybe if we wrap ourselves up in sparkly foil paper we might show that sparkle.) You don’t need to dress like a 4^th century bishop either, because your beautiful smile can reveal how beautiful God has been to you.

You are what God made.

You are the hope live.

You are the faith that breathes.

Your story is valuable.

Your suffering and struggle mean something.

Walt Whitman said

“That you are here – that life exists and identity.

That powerful play goes on,

And you may contribute a verse.”

What will your verse be?

You are here in this life to live and reveal that gift from God in you.

You are broken, beautiful and God made.

What do you do?

Be the best that God made you to be.

Be the Joy you wish to see.

Thanks be to God.