Keeping Faith With God

Text: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-10, 13-16

Focus: Faith

Function:

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

Among Christian Biblical Scholars, there is quite a debate as to who wrote the book of Hebrews.

Almost all the New Testament, is written in the trade language of the day, Koinẻ Greek except for Matthew, written in Aramaic, the common language of the Jews and the book of Hebrews which is written in classical Greek.

Classical Greek is difficult and writing with the style suggested that the author was highly educated. The Apostle Paul could fit that bill, but all the rest of his writings are in Koinẻ.

The Apostle Apollos, a latecomer to the apostleship, was also educated enough to have written the anonymous book. Then there was also the Apostle Prisca. Some wonder if the reason the authorship is kept secret is because it was a woman.

That is not worth arguing except to understand whoever wrote verse 3 understood both Classical Greek and philosophy.

Although the Greeks had their own mythology that involved Deities with Supernatural powers, at the core of everything, Greek mythology believed in materialism.

Materialism was also the dominant philosophy of the Age of Modernity that seemed to have ended sometime around 9/11.

Materialists believe that the first cause of everything is matter. Matter is and has always existed.

At the time that the Ancients were pondering the meaning of the universe, physics, astronomy, philosophy and all the other disciplines that have created the fabric of human understanding of life, the universe and everything when the scriptures were being written in Greek Culture, the dominant philosophy of the origin of the universe is that matter is the only thing that has always existed.

The Logic was simple and it went like this: Since it appears impossible for matter to create itself, matter itself must have always existed. Matter is the one thing that appears constant.

And for earlier man, that made sense. As mankind learned, tested hypothesis against experience, dominant theories have become so absolute that we accept them as fact.

We have the laws of motion, gravity, thermodynamics, electrical conductivity, physiology, and so forth.

All of that learning has happened because matter and the universe appears to be constant.

But, as we have learned, it isn’t constant, and it is in flux and we stand more and more in awe of it.

Some people worship it.

But then we learned that the universe that we know is at best, according to our ability to measure, somewhere around 4.5 to 5 billion years old.

We can see microwave radiation that confirms that it all began at one point in time. We theorize that this is one of many universes that have expanded in and out of existence forever and then we realized that perhaps the universe started out as big as it seems, but we wonder what happened before it?

What is outside of the universe? Everything material has a physical limit. The Universe is material, and although we cannot imagine an end to it, we can imagine something that is bigger than it. And we question ourselves that if we can imagine something, can it also exist?

It all gets dizzying.

Except, the same thing can be said for God.

When I was a kid I used to wonder who God’s Father was. And if God had a Father, who was His Father? And where was God’s Mother? And if They had parents, then somewhere, sometime, somehow someone must have been always there.

Again, the Greeks believed it was matter.

And we Christians, according to this text, believe that it is God.

I wonder if the Jewish writer/philosopher wrote this verse, believing that God created it all because he or she knew that the logic of God being the First Cause over matter makes more sense.

Matter is inanimate. Our theory of evolution, one of those things that most accept has been elevated to fact, -one in which many theologians like me see no inconsistency with this verse and the account of Creation in Genesis- states that somehow the inanimate became animate. SOMEHOW. Scientists have a plausible theory, but we lack any way to re-create it in a lab because of the statistical improbability of success.

Anything is statistically possible, but not statistically probable. And, our Scientific experience is that matter in of itself is dead.

We wonder if it is possible. If there is no Creator God, then it must be possible.

And again, matter could not have created itself. If we can imagine a “Father” to the Father God and that infinite chain of Fathers eventually going back to the One who always was, then we can also imagine a time before there was matter. It has to be, or it cannot be because it cannot create itself.

It is a logical dilemma. The Greek mind chose matter, the Jewish mind chose God.

And the reason seemed to be superior logic. Since matter cannot create itself, then something supernatural, that has creative ability, the ability to self-exist with divine power.

Something has to be supernatural enough to have always existed.

We cannot actually prove God.

But, logic makes more sense that God is the first cause since matter could not have created itself and there has to have been a time before matter existed. Right now, we know it has existed around less than 5,000,000,000 years.

By faith we understand. The author of Hebrews make an intellectual statement to the learned minds of his or her time.

And the Author goes on to describe in the chapter a litany of people who lived and died in faith, but then we see the story of Abraham:

I want to jump down to verse 8 and start reading

the phrases connected with why he is credited with having faith:

(God) ...called him to go… ...to a different country.

Now this is huge. The tribal family was the government and the only real system of defense and security. Anyone could have killed him and there would be no government to enforce justice on his behalf.

That was verse 8. Verse 9: by faith… ...he was a foreigner. He lived in tents… ...no permanent place here on earth, a different place was home to him, and it was not on earth. We see it in verse 10:

Verse 10: waiting for a city… a perfect city… ...the city of God… ...his divine reward. He lived for the Kingdom of God.

God changed his country of allegiance and called him to live by faith in a foreign land.

Verse 13. The author adds back in others from the list that I have left out. And again, this itinerant phrase is applied to them: “they admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.”

Look at their bravery. They choose to side with the weak and the oppressed, the foreigner and the refugees. They choose to side with the refugees. Think about that. This is the legacy of those who have faith. This is the proof of their faith.

Verse 14, They all make it clear they are looking for a country that is not their own.

Our reward, our hope is not here. We too, live for a foreign country whose foundations are permanent, in heaven, set aside for us.

Verse 15. It is not an earthly place that anyone can return to.

Verse 16: “A better country.”

Every single verse describes the hope and inheritance of believers. This is where our reward and security lies. Why should we live in fear of what happens here on earth?

Why side with those who live in fear and preach fear?

We live by faith.

And, continuing to side with the marginalized and oppressed, speaking louder and clearer is what is needed from the church today.

We are the city of God.

We are the place where the stranger and the refugee is welcome.

And if we are to keep faith with God, then we must remember that we love God as much as the person we love the least.

The Foot of the Prophet

Text: Isaiah 52:7-10

Focus: Hope

Function: Peace in uncertain times

Form: Storytelling

Intro:

I want to give thanks to you on behalf of the Michigan District and Camp Brethren Heights for giving me the opportunity to serve the district on your behalf by being the male counselor at Camp Brethren Heights last week.

I admit, counseling at camp has always been one of the the things I look forward to during the busy time of summer ministry and vacations.

However, I am starting to feel the age.

I had 6 young men in the cabin, 4 of them were an absolute delight, always volunteering even though others were clearly shirking their chores, they just kept on serving Christ by serving others.

I had another young man who was also a delight, but took a lot of attention. He was obviously gifted and he already possessed a college level vocabulary. It was fascinating to watch and see his intellectual development. But he was a little young for the camp.

Now before we get to the last child, let me just say that I am a different person as camp counselor than I am as pastor.

Typically there is a spiritual director at camp, so I get to be a mentor instead of the pastor to the kids. Instead of telling them what they need to hear, I try to listen and guide them.

Now the last kid. I actually thought it might be best to send him home and yet I spent two sleepless nights praying for the kid and the obvious emotional damage that he has experienced. I shudder to think what kind of environment could produce such an oppositional attitude.

Because of him, we had to limit the cutting up that Junior High kids like to do because he would immediately take it to the extreme with his aggression. That made it difficult for me to get a good bond with the rest of the kids because the one child took almost all my attention.

I finally decided that my success with the boys for the week might be measured by preventing him from committing an act of violence against one of the other campers. Twice I physically had to stop him from striking two different children.

But God is good. And even though I was ineffective with the kid, the other campers were not.

At Camp Brethren Heights, something always seems to happen in spite of all the problems that are automatically going to come up in any situation that is run on a shoestring budget with some of the most amazing and committed staff I have ever worked with.

And that something is that people meet God there in a special way.

Friday night worship and campfire is always something that is moving both spiritually and emotionally.

Michele, the camp dean, decided to do a foot-washing and then bread and cup communion with the young men and women.

Of course, the idea of washing feet is gross to some of us Brethren, so, think of how it seemed to some of the kids who didn’t come from Brethren backgrounds.

We gave them the option of washing hands instead of feet and most of the kids were relieved that they could do that until, the Holy Spirit took over and it wasn’t really an issue anymore.

The first thing we did was demonstrate to the kids just how a foot washing ritual transpires.

I mentioned that Michele brought in a separate Spiritual director, and God really used him with the kids. He engaged them about the teachings of Jesus in the context of there home, schools, churches, neighborhoods and the world.

It was prophetic! And every time we went into session, one could see the kids respond to him in a positive way. I know him, so I wasn’t surprised that it happened.

But as I bent down to wash his feet, we could both feel a move of the Holy Spirit. He responded to the Holy Spirit by embracing me with two Holy Kisses before I washed his feet. That was not something we had not discussed. And then I washed his right foot.

Our exercise was to bring the teachings of Jesus closer to the kids in a worship setting.

And we were hoping that the tradition of the Church of the Brethren might be inspiring.

You have heard that Tradition is the living faith of those now dead and Traditionalism is the dead faith of those now living.

Traditionalism is the elevation of tradition above what is meaningful in worship. Tradition is the bringing alive of our historic faith in a modern context.

Sometimes, then, tradition is best served by breaking the form of tradition with something new.

And the way those holy kisses worked, surprised those kids. I heard a few of them gasp. But we kept on.

Instead of the possible Junior High reaction of kids laughing to cover up either their fears or t their discomfort, the mood got more solemn.

But just as I bent down to wash his left foot, it was like my vision changed and his tired old feet... -and they were tired old feet- ...they seemed to radiate with life; it looked almost as if they started to glow pink, like a baby, and they were beautiful and I wanted to kiss his foot.

Now, I knew I was going to do this demonstration, and I had considered the idea before, but I had discounted it because 1), it might be to extreme and 2), I did not want to take attention away from God. (Explain -I did not want to prove I was more humble by abasing myself more than he did) So, I decided to wait until the moment to see how the Holy Spirit lead me.

So, as I hovered over that foot for what seemed to me to be a few uncomfortable moments longer than what anyone was expecting, I prayed.

Immediately our scripture from this morning came into my mind, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, announcing peace, proclaiming news of happiness, Our God reigns.”

Now, those who remember those early teen years remember how awkward, gangling, odd and insecure youth can be. It is all about image.

Imagine when two grown men, symbols of extreme authority in this environment, kiss each other in an highly religiously symbolic fashion. Instead of grossing them out, all of a sudden, the mood got real serious and all the kids sensed that we were in the presence of God. I think that was a divine moment where the Holy Spirit was touching the hearts of the kids.

Out of the corner of my eye, I witnessed a young Brethren girl, first time at this age group, take off her shoes in preparation. So we decided to instruct the kids to remove their shoes if they wanted to have their feet washed, otherwise, they could use the hand tub.

Obviously, the foot tub moved around the room much faster than the hand tub.

But what might have had a more profound effect on the room was when that younger girl removed her shoes. She was the one girl who stayed in the back, had that same gifted child sense of humor and social order that the one young man in my cabin had. She stayed back all week until the end when she led the kids in getting ready for the foot washing.

I saw her feet, and again, it looked like they were glowing with that same surreal hue of pink that I saw on the Spiritual Director and I thought again of that scripture, “how lovely on the mountains,” and I realized that she too, had become a preacher of good news. She broke down a wall.

I saw God lead the kids through what seemed to be one of the more unlikely sources. I saw God use her in a way that humbled all of us.

Now, there is another young woman who was supposed to be with the High School camp, but it was canceled.

She was with us last year. She is always the loudest girl in the camp, not as disruptive as my boy, but very much in need of attention.

She comes from the foster care system and is connected with us through the ministry of one of our urban churches.

She freaked out at the idea of touching someone else’s feet.

And all of a sudden, it seemed as if God decided to speak to all the children through her.

She started washing all the kids feet. The first time she did it, I wept. A few other young men and women got their feet washed by her but when she went to this boy, the one who was disruptive -who was also the other person with which I had to physically intervene before that child’s poor impulse control caused him to harm someone else- the one she clashed with all week, and asked to wash his feet, I knew that God was really moving in our midst.

And he said yes!

And that opened up a lot more kids who were resisting the notion because it didn’t fit their image.

More and more socks came off of feet. And that young woman went around the room washing several feet.

And we got to see them take a genuine and very difficult step in deciding to be like Jesus.

Now to the Scripture. (Reread)

How lovely on the mountains are the peacemakers, the men and women of God, who are willing to maintain hope and faith in the midst of uncertainty and remind both themselves and others that God is alive and well and that God still reigns.

We need those messengers to remind us of God’s faithfulness.

And I find them everywhere. If God used three unlikely, one who seemed to me to be very unlikely to lead the rest, then God is still on the Throne.

Carry The Light

Text: Isaiah 58:6-12

Focus: The Light of God

Function: to help people see the mystery in our spirituality

Form: GOK

Intro:

From AC

There is the light of creation on the first day, but the Sun and Moon were not created until the 4^th day. Now, it is still problematic as to how the plants began the process of growing before the Sun and Moon, but the idea is an important concept.

The light of Social Justice

The Light of Salvation.

The Light at the end (the same as the beginning).

Huffington Post: 3 ways to be a peacemaker in a time of hatred.

1). Stand in Solidarity with those under attack.

During the Holocaust the King of Denmark wore the Jewish star of David.

In 1933 a cinder block was thrown threw the window of an house with a Menorah. Thousands of Non-Jews displayed Menorah’s. At first the vandalism intensified, but then the solidarity brought it to an halt.

Every Time I visit the Holocaust Museum, I leave in agony wondering how and why this could have happened in modern times.

And yet, the rhetoric that fueled it is ginned up today.

How do we stand in Solidarity with the Black Man?

How do we stand in Solidarity with the Muslim?

How do we stand in Solidarity with the Peace officer?

How do we stand in Solidarity with those neighbors who are called “illegal?”

How do we stand in Solidarity with those who were formerly incarcerated?

How do we stand in Solidarity with those gender identity causes them to be ridiculed and marginalized?

How do we stand in Solidarity with those who deeply held religious beliefs are held in suspicion by others?

I know this, unless we stand in Solidarity, then we will be guilty of the same.

2). Love the Person Consumed by Hatred.

Let me quote directly from the Article:

If we really want to be agents of transformation we have to go farther. We have to learn to love the person consumed by hatred.

Let me state the obvious: anyone who has to attack another in order to feel right about him or herself has no clue who and what they truly are. They do not know they are expressions of the Source of All Being. They do not know they were born worthy. They do not know their goodness is and always has been a given.

They believe instead that their worth and their power arise from their ability to dominate or even destroy another. Blinded to their own divine nature, they cannot see the divine nature of those around them. Oblivious to the reality of oneness, they do not comprehend that when they attack another it is themselves they attack.

As healers, our task is to witness to the truth of who they are. We don’t condone their actions or defend their ignorance, but we hold to the truth of what they cannot see: that in their essence they are whole, and far more beautiful than they imagine.

3). Heal Your Own Mind

Our Light shines in the darkness.

The Light Shines in the darkness and the darkness can not understand it.

We need to come to our own place of healing in God.

I have been on a journey and no matter where I stand, I have been a voice.

I worried how I was going to interact with my friends at AC since a lot of what comes from my own voice has changed.

At the Congregational Life Ministries dinner, one of our Staff members handed me a card with the prayer of St Francis of Assisi.

“Lord,” it begins, “Make me an instrument of your peace...”

We faced a rather volatile conference and all of a sudden, my mission, “to help my more conservative friends see how God changed my opinion of Same Sex marriage” was changed to the theme of the conference, as I took it from my Siser, to be an instrument of Christ’s peace and to carry the Light of Christ.

And then I came home and saw what appears to be an over-reaction fear based killing of a black man and then another. God, I realized, my concern for my problems are nothing. People are dying in the streets.

At AC, I heard reports from a BLM organizer who spoke on and on about non-violent Christian witness to the problems we are facing.

And then the killing of Police officers happened.

And I realized that we need help, desperately.

The Family

Text: Galatians 3:23-29

Focus: Family Celebration

Function: To Help People see the family nature of Church

Form: 3 points

Intro: Today we are celebrating family. You are all invited to stay for a potluck and a program afterwards.

And I love the theme on the cover of the Bulletin: “You are all children of God.”

I confess, emphasizing that part of the passage, “you are ALL children of God” changes my perspective on the passage.

It seems like the times that I have studied this passage before, I have come to emphasize the line: “because of Faith...” you are all Children of God.

I have emphasized the part that in order to be children of God, we must have faith.

And faith is important. It is the difference. Faith is trust in God. Rest in God. Faith in God is born out of relationship with God.

I believe that a formal relationship with God is an important part of our faith journey.

But the emphasis of the passage is not that you must have faith, you must trust God, but that everyone who does is part of the family.

He makes sure we know what the family of God consists of. And it is a breaking down of barriers between ancient divisions.

For the Jews, it meant that their racial heritage did not make them any more special. The same applies for us.

Two of the other major dividing factions of the time are also shown to be irrelevant in the family of God. The first is the distinction between the classes of people who are free and who are slaves, remember, in Rome 2/3 of the population were slaves, it was a slave economy. And the section distinction is between the genders.

This Church, this faith, this family, cuts through ancient divisions between people to bring us all into the same place, Children of God.

We are all part of the family and the family realizes that every part is just as important.

There is an emphasis here that I remind myself to remember, “Because of our faith, everyone is important.”

It is like he is saying, “now that you have faith, see the value in every single person.”

And, I see the importance of the family analogy in the way we value others.

Look at 1 Timothy 5:1-2: ¹Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger men as brothers, ²to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters—with absolute purity.

I think there is an assumption here. And that is this, when dealing with family, we do not have the luxury of merely winning an argument, but with family, we have burden of working it out.

Now I know we live in a broken world and this is idealistic in nature. And I know that at best effort, sometimes it is not possible to work things out, or safety and other issues get in the way, but the idea is still the same, we talk in such a way as to not win an argument, but to work it out because we have to.

That commitment to family means that we value and respect the people here so much that we will work it out with them.

The love inherent in the family of God is designed to be unconditional. That does not mean that we do not have conflict, but it means that we live through it for the purpose of community.

God’s love is unconditional, so is ours.

Family love is also deliberate.

In my morning devotions both yesterday and today, I was reading the feeding of 5,000 Jewish people in the desert and the feeding of 4,000 Canaanite people in another desert by Jesus.

I am reading it in the Gospel of Mark, but in both Mark and Matthew, the author points out both miracles and then has a section where Jesus chides the disciples for their lack of faith later when the food supplies are running low.

I have always read those miracles as miracles that prove that if we, like the little boy, give our loaves and fishes, a small portion, then God will take what we have, and by the power of the Holy Spirit multiply it into miraculous force and great things could happen.

It was always a lesson in faith about giving our little bit to God and then God would multiply it.

It depended on a visible sign. But I wonder now more and more if the actual miracle was the miracle of sharing.

First, the boy offering his gifts as a metaphor for his talents is not present in the second account.

The emphasis in either point is not on the boy who gave, but on Jesus who made it adequate.

But the miracle of sharing, the miracle of community, the miracle of trusting God for the moment by giving what we have now to those in need with the trust that God will provide in the future seems to make more sense today to me.

But more than that, the disciples reaction to the need of the crowd and the problem with feeding the crowd is telling.

The crowd is hungry and Jesus tells the disciples to feed them.

Their answer is that the task is enormous. “A year’s wages would be needed to buy that much food,” they say.

The task is enormous.

They are being commanded to care for others.

Actually caring for others takes the willingness to sacrifice time and effort for them.

I hope it was the miracle of sharing because the value of stopping, caring and nurturing others is what it means to be a part of the family of God.

In First Corinthians 12, we get another look at this family called the church as it relates to the fact that it is also an individual body.

When one part of the body hurts or is sick, the entire body is in distress and is distracted.

When one part of the body does not do its job, or cannot do its job, the whole body, again, is affected and at times, it can even die.

Every part of the family is important and needs to be cared for and nurtured.

And again, it takes time and effort.

Actually, I am becoming more aware that it takes a lot of time and effort.

I remember taking biology in college and the professor was working out the ratio of sunlight to the growth of a plant and less than .01% of the sunlight is actually absorbed and used for growth.

And then I look at the corn as it gets tall (Lord, give us more rain), and I realize that all that sun energy is used to produce this big plant and out of that plant, we just use a part of a part of a part. The carbohydrates inside the husk of the kernel provides energy for our bodies. It is less than .01% of the plant.

So, the energy from the sun is reduced from an hundredth percent to a thousandth percent and then it gets consumed by the body and only a small percentage of that is actually used by us.

I remember thinking that God designed an incredibly inefficient system.

And then I thought of the thousands of years that humanity spent most of its effort just making sure that this process happened year after year and I realized something.

The culture does not live that way anymore. We don’t walk past our neighbors house on the way to the local village where we know and grew up with everyone anymore.

This ancient system of a yearly cycle of a lot of effort to survive brought the community together to a place where they depended on each other.

God designed the world for us to stop, take the time to nurture and care for each other. I see the importance and value of community. I see the beauty and value of the Church that, according to our scripture this morning is intentional about including outsiders.

I see that God designed the family, both the nuclear family and the Church family to be this place where people take the time to stop, care for and nurture one another.

I believe that we have to be intentional about maintaining our sense of family and interdependence since we live in a fast paced society and continue to build a place where we can all nurture and be nurtured.

Priceless

Text: Luke 9:51-62

Focus: The cost of Discipleship

Function: To help people see Jesus

Form: Storytelling

Intro: Sometimes I love the irony of the NT. Throughout the gospels, oftentimes, as is the case today, the disciples seem clueless, but last week, we saw that the women were right there, in the middle of it, most often, getting it.

Today's text stays true to form.

Where did this violence come from?

There were plenty of Jews who did not welcome Jesus either, and yet, the disciples want to call down fire from heaven for these people with whom there was already racial tension.

Why such judgment? Were they excited about the new found power and the new coming kingdom and were they asking out of curiosity for what might be coming?

You know that Samaria was a Roman province a little bit separate from Israel, just North of Jerusalem and South of Galilee. The Galileans were pure-bread Jews like those from Israel and the racism was so intense between the two cultures that Jews would cross over into another foreign land to travel between regions.

And, this wasn't just crossing the street to the other side to avoid a person of another race, this detour added miles to a foot journey.

And Jesus makes the attempt to connect with them. And, because Jesus was just passing through, they ran Him off.

This is a classic case of racism and it reminds me that violence is not the solution to fear of the other. Violence begets violence.

One of the ways that I am learning to become aware of my own pre-judged biases is when I start judging a whole group of people by the actions of a few.

WE know that WE and the people we hang around with, most often similar to us, are basically good and if one of US is not good, then that person is an exception. But, we are not as quick to give the same grace to those who are different from us.

Because of learned prejudices we are more quick to accuse an entire race or culture of something that we would be offended of being called ourselves. For example, people say that the poor are poor because they are lazy. Or the big one is the accusation that entire races, genders, or sub-gender groups of people are all merely motivated by their desires and they have no ability to plan ahead.

And the thing is, xenophobia is learned behavior. We were at the pool yesterday, kids from all races were playing together because they had not yet learned to hate and fear.

For some reason, it has been at times human nature to classify all by the actions of a few. Our cognitive minds know it is not logical but our animal brain wants to fight. Perhaps we evolved it tribally, or God created the need through our endocrine system for the purpose of love and family.

God knows that love and community keep us safe.

Jesus is extending the community, trying to build the circle, and this violent reaction occurs between Jesus' followers and the other.

And our religious speech is a big part of this fear, love and behavior.

Jesus calls us to love, not hate, even our enemies.

I can't help but realize that the murders in Orlando where a whole group of people were killed just a few weeks after a governor decided to link transgender people with pedophilia.

It appears that when we permit it in our religious institutions, it shows up in our politics as that kind of hate speech.

In this case, it appears it led a crazy person to do violence.

But look at the disciples, they ask Jesus for extreme violence.

And remember, this is a racially tense situation. This is a situation calls for tact.

Jesus and the disciples were welcomed in Samaritan villages on plenty of occasions before. Jesus made a point of it.

Apparently the problem was traveling through without the decency to stop and or shop.

The text tells us their issue was the traveling through. Did the Samaritans think that Jesus abandoning them? Was He insincere? Was all that talk of love and harmony just a ruse? Why wasn’t He stopping this time?

Isn't that part of the nature of cultural conflicts?We don't take time to understand?

I am excited that Hope Church is taking the time to understand and educate ourselves.

Calling down fire from heaven was a sort of OT, “wrath of God” response.

Jesus rebuked them for thinking it. It is wrong to think that way. “Love our enemies” still means to love them enough not to kill them.

Our theme today is on the cost of discipleship. In the first section of text, we see how racism and inherit social structures get in the way of discipleship, the cost of overcoming them can be to high for some.

Now we move on to a few more who were not quite ready to accept Jesus on Jesus' terms.

The great passage on counting the cost. (Re-read 57-62)

We don’t know if any of them said yes or no, the text leaves that a mystery.

All we know is that before the decision to follow the cost is outlined.

For one man, it is a reminder that earthly possessions are a distraction, for another it is giving up the family obligation of caring for his father, a biblical commandment by the way, and for the other, the decency of a healthy goodbye to his family. There is nothing wrong with any of the things asked to be forsaken. Most all of us have all of those things along with our commitment to Jesus.

When I asked Jesus into my heart to forgive my sins, I had no idea that I was surrendering everything I had to follow Jesus.

They didn’t understand the cost, but it appears that they felt it was true and they were compelled to follow Jesus.

Before they made their bold claims, how did these guys know what the cost is/was?

What is the cost? How could they know the cost? Is it merely by faith without logic? Obviously not, since the command is to think about it.

I place a lot of value on spiritual intuition during prayer and meditation, but this isn’t just a Spiritual feeling that Jesus demands, it is also a well thought out intellectual process. Faith does not mean that we suspend logic, God is the Lord of both faith and logic, as to whatever those differences are.

So what is the cost of discipleship?

I didn’t understand that, and yet I was compelled. Maybe I was compelled by those who promoted a form of easy believing, but the thing is this, in that situation, I did meet Jesus.

I don’t believe that I was tricked, but I do see that they, like me, still live through the prejudices, fears and loves of our culture, just like Jesus disciples.

The Cost of Discipleship is paid by Christ. It is priceless and we can never pay it ourselves.

The cost is paid. What is the link between these passages?

Well, things were getting serious.

Both groups were hanging on to the past prejudice. They weren't willing to pay the price of love. Jesus rebuked His own for not loving the other.

And it is right at this point that the story of Jesus goes into these metaphors about cost of discipleship.

Romans 12:1 “I beg of you, Brethren, present yourselves to God as living sacrifices...”

We constantly, with Jesus, surrender ourselves and go against the prejudices of the culture in order to be the good news of Jesus Christ.

It is a constant process of decision to be different than the fears and learned prejudices of our society in order to make the circle of faith bigger.

Where the Women Were

Text: Luke 7:36-8:3

Focus: The Holy Spirit (Pentecost 5)

Function: to train people in humility

Form: Storytelling

Intro: How do you react to this story of Jesus, the woman and Simon the Pharisee?

I remember a great Annual Conference address, “Do you see the woman?” whereby the speaker compared the washing of Jesus’ feet by a woman in both Simon the Pharisee’s house, and Simon the Leper’s house.

Jesus appeared much more comfortable in the house of the outcast than He did in the house of the Religious leader.

And in both cases, first, defending Himself against the Pharisee, and then defending Himself against a person who would use religion for a source of personal greed, points to the woman and demands that instead of passing judgment on people, they should look at the person, their circumstance and then, always then, give them grace.

Jesus does something huge here. He condemns religious exclusion in every form simply based on the capacity of a person to turn to Jesus for healing and restoration.

That, Jesus is showing us, is what the Church is and should be.

Remember, we have the power to forgive people their sins.

We empower people to live holistic lives that are surrendered to Christ Jesus.

I used to frame this as Jesus confronting self-righteousness.

But it is more. Jesus is condemning the structures that were designed to keep people on the outskirts of society. And, it happens in order to maintain power and control.

So again, how do we react to this story?

Before our church got the hearing devices, one lady, who barely heard depended on reading my lips to fill in details of my sermon. I keep my mustache trimmed because of her. And sometimes, she would call because she misunderstood something that I said.

But this one day, she reacted to me telling people that “woman of ill-repute” was an euphemism for Prostitute. She absolutely refused to believe that such a man of God, as Jesus was, would ever allow such a person to actually touch Him.

And then she realized that the Simon’s self-righteous offense was the sin in the story.

The story itself is intended to elicit, or, if you are offended as Simon the Pharisee, or this woman was, to provoke an understanding inside of us as to how we ourselves can use our own levels of comfort/discomfort to exclude or include others who are on the outside.

And something else is not lost in this story beginning with the rest of the today’s text.

The introduction to the gospel of Luke self describes it as an historic time-line of the events around Jesus as Luke saw it.

The women that were following Jesus followed Him for quite some time and yet, for some reason, right after this story of the sinful woman, Luke decides to add to the narrative of Jesus these women in His group.

This might be an unfortunate chapter break. The Chapter break between chapters 7 and 8 are not part of the original text. We tend to separate the footnote of who these women were from this story of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet.

But that was not Luke’s intent and the fact of that is not lost on those who prepared our text for the 5^th week after Pentecost.

On the 5^th week after the beginning of the Church’s focus on who and what the Holy Spirit is and does and the power present in the Church, we focus on who and what these women are and were.

Unfortunately, we do not get much mention of the women who supported Jesus in the gospel accounts, but I find some things about it significant.

In an historically male dominated culture and church, we are tempted to think of the story of Jesus as “Jesus and the 12 disciples.”

But here, all of a sudden, the men are mentioned only as the 12 and the women are elevated and are called out by name.

So, let us put this all together.

The religious folk are the antagonists in this story. They want to keep the circle of who is in and out smaller and Jesus opens the door to yet another group of people who are welcome in the Kingdom.

The women represent everyone who humbly comes to Christ.

They didn’t bicker.

They didn’t seek the limelight.

They loved and were spiritual.

They came from all walks and stations of life.

From these different stations, they created a real live community, focused on Jesus Christ.

The Sinful woman approaches Jesus with love, humility and enough brokenness to recognize the healing power of Jesus’ ministry of love, grace, acceptance, forgiveness and finally, repentance.

The religious folks were to proud to see their own need for a Savior.

And in the power of this woman’s love, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit Herself comes into the room, and through her love, both the woman’s and the Spirit’s Love, Jesus is anointed.

Now, in the second anointing, at Simon the Leper’s house, Jesus is anointed for death. This time, it is near the beginning of His ministry, and again, just as the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus for ministry in the form of a dove, here, the Holy Spirit anoints Jesus in the form of a woman.

Where the women were was right there, in the middle of it all, full of faith, setting an example of what it means to love in community.