Monday, November 30, 2009

After Thanksgiving Prayer

The following prayer was prayed and posted on Facebook by a "friend" of mine. He's a UCC minister and professor at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, OH, a former high school classmate of my mom's. Just had to share. Enjoy and pray along:

"As I return to worship today, overfilled with food, make me remember those still hungry. As I return to work, let me remember the millions with no work. As my grandchildren return to college, let me remember those whose grandchildren return to a war that seems to have no end. As I take my daily medications, let me remember the millions with no health care. Oh God, make me remember ... and restless"

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Now or Later


Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25-36

I can remember just one year when I went poking around for hidden Christmas presents. Did anyone else do this as a kid? I guess I don’t have to limit it to just children. Maybe some of us are present peekers even now! I, however, did it just once. Well, there was the year that my sister and I agreed to exchange one present secret before Christmas morning, but we only went looking for our presents once. I must have been in about 6th grade, definitely old enough to know better, but Kara was in 9th, so certainly she had even more responsibility than I did!

Anyway, one evening while our parents were out for the night we went snooping in the closet to see what might be hiding. I don’t remember even looking for something in particular that I really really wanted. I just remember wanting to look, to peek, to know right then when surprises were lurking, what presents were coming in the next few weeks. I wanted the excitement, the joy, the happiness right NOW and I didn’t want to wait any longer.

What do you want for Christmas? It’s a question we’re going to ask ourselves each week this year during Advent? What do we want for Christmas? As a child that year that I snooped I had wanted the stuffed bear that I found. It wasn’t a present at the top of my list, but it was a giveaway bear I had seen at the store – one of those promotions, if you spend a certain amount of money, they throw the teddy bear in for a few extra bucks. Those are the only presents my sister and I found, 2 of those bears. We had seen them at the store, these totally Florida bears in cute flowered swimsuits in the middle of December. We wanted them, but they weren’t on our “lists” or anything.

They were, basically, meant to be an impulse buy. A gimmick to get you into the store and a way for the store to get a few extra bucks. I’m sure plenty of bears were bought my frustrated and tired moms and dads who just wanted to make their kids happy during a long and tiring shopping trip. Instant gratification. That’s what the gift of the bear really was. That’s what my sister and I went looking for when we went snooping. That’s what we wanted for Christmas more than anything. Happiness. NOW.

I imagine that Jeremiah’s audience wanted a little instant gratification themselves. We heard last week from the book and prophecy of Daniel, who ministered during the exile in Babylon. Jeremiah’s ministry started a bit before that, right when God’s people were on the edge of exile, when Judah, the southern portion of the united kingdom we usually think of as Israel, was becoming more and more corrupt in the eyes of God, and Babylon was threatening to invade and destroy Jerusalem, the nation, God’s people. Jeremiah delivered messages of warning to God’s people and especially the leaders. Change now while you can. Turn away from idols. Turn away from the useless little “g” gods to which you have been looking.

He delivered indictments against the leaders of Israel for taking the people of God down wrong paths – paths of idolatry, paths of unrighteousness. Not surprisingly, his message even landed him in jail. Babylon was knocking on Judah’s door, but the people were too focused on the wrong things and quick fixes to work with God to prevent their own demise. Freedom of speech and huge cultural changes weren’t high on the king’s list of worries as Babylon was threatening the land. Repentance and reform probably didn’t seem fast enough. King Zedekiah wanted solutions and wanted them now. Happiness. NOW. But with their attention on false idols, as they ignored God’s call and even God’s lament for them to come back into right relationship with their Creator, they couldn’t resist falling to the powerful empire.

As we have talked about, the time of the exile was one of tremendous distress. The Babylonians went about exile in a unique way. The Assyrians before them had come into Israel, the northern portion of the kingdom, and completely removed the inhabitants. All of them, swept a way and scattered around that empire in exile. They were lost forever as a united community and completely swallowed by the empire and those that came after it.

The Babylonian exile was different. First the leaders were taken away, just the political and social leaders of Judah, the king at the time, his court, and others respected in the community. Jeremiah was in ministry, was prophesying the whole time, warning the people of the coming empire, pointing to the loss of their leaders and a sign of their need for a change, lamenting as their world was crumbling around them, trying DESPERATELY to get the new king to lead them in a new direction.

But it was without success. The new king wasn’t any better than the last, and with the people turning from God and ignoring the prophet once in their midst, now in jail for his messages, the Babylonians returned to finish what they started. A second wave of the exile took place. Again, leaders in the government and community were ripped from the land leaving a desperate and hopeless people behind. Jeremiah was actually given a choice by the invaders – did he want to stay or go? It seems he kept in contact with those whom he had tried to warn, those far off in Babylon, but ultimately when given the choice, he decided to remain in Judah and speak God’s word to the helpless, the hopeless, the defeated remnant left behind.

Their world had been shattered. The temple, as I mentioned last week had been destroyed. The leaders who had provided them, they thought, with all they needed were gone. Their direction, their guides, their perceived wisdom, their way forward, was all ripped from their land, and they were left behind with no security for the future, no infrastructure, no help, no hope, and without the Temple to hold Yahweh in their midst, it even seemed they had no god.

For many times seem pretty desperate even now. In this country anyway, we have no obvious empire breathing down our necks, but our threats seem pretty daunting anyway. Health care costs and debates seem to stifle quality services. An economy beyond struggling, jobless people, and growing level of poverty add anxiety to the national atmosphere. The completely polarized political system leaves many of us feeling like there’s no one leading anymore, just two sides with locked horns fighting each other, but not for anything. Meanwhile the poor keep suffering, the middle class keeps dwindling, and the rich seem to be moving in completely different realms.

All of us are grabbing at straws looking for quick fixes, instant gratification, happiness NOW through advice for shopping or saving, relaxing or working harder, taking time for me or pitching in to help others. The answers are all about easy things to make now feel better. There seems to be little focus on the long haul and lasting changes for the future.

An old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon might speak to the situation today. This particular installment originally ran in 1990, almost exactly 19 years ago from this date. Pictured are the young boy Calvin, actually named for our theological parent John Calvin, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. In the first frame Calvin speaks to Hobbes and says, “Live for the moment is my motto. You never know how long you got.”
In the second frame he explains, “You could step into the road tomorrow and WHAM, you get hit by a cement truck! Then you’d be sorry you put off your pleasures. That’s what I say – live for the moment.” And then he asks Hobbes, “What your motto?” Hobbes answers, “My motto is – Look down the road.” (In Bill Watterson, Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons [Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews and McMeel Publishers, 1992], p. 66.)

Jeremiah’s prophecy is about looking down the road. Instant gratification is lasting. Searching for happiness NOW is no way to live life for the long-haul. Instead Jeremiah points to what is coming down the road towards us, the promises God has made to Judah, the promises God makes to us when it was said, “The days are coming, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David, and he will execute righteousness in the land.”

What do we want for Christmas? Like Calvin, many of us want this moment to be the best moment of our lives. We want happiness NOW and maybe that doesn’t seem like too much to ask. Maybe like the people of Judah we’re feeling devastated, torn apart, stomped all over, and defeated. Maybe it feels like the world we know has been pulled out from under us and we’re ready to cling to any half-good idea, any fleeting wish for enjoyment, any momentary delight that will calm the anxiety even just for a second. Maybe it feels like it’s our turn to “live for the moment.” What do we want for Christmas? We want happiness and comfort and stability, and we want it now.

But what do we get for Christmas? Well, that’s a little bit of a different story. A lot bit, really. God usually isn’t about quick fixes, things like instant gratification. God is all about looking down the road. God isn’t known for handing out happiness NOW, but instead delivers promises for later. “The days are coming,” says the Lord. Promises will be fulfilled, promises we can trust because come from the one who is most trustworthy. Promises that can be counted on even if their fulfillment doesn’t seem obvious now, because they come from God whose promises are always fulfilled. They come from God who makes and keeps covenants even with the must untrustworthy of all – us. What we get for Christmas is a look down the road, or even better we get a look in both directions, and that means we get hope.

Looking back we can see the promises that have been made through the ages, the promises that have been fulfilled – the promises to Sarah and Abraham, the promises to Noah and his family, the promises Moses and the Israelites, the promises to the people in exile and the remnant that remained. I will not leave you. I will not forget you. Looking back we can see the promise for a Redeemer to come from David, a Redeemer who came not with happiness NOW but a Redeemer who came with the hope of a new baby, a Redeemer who came to bring hope, the trust in promises yet to be fulfilled.

That’s what we get for Christmas. We get hope. We get the reminder that God keeps promises. God is with us. God is for us. No matter how desperate the situation, no matter how gloomy the look, no matter how TERRIFYING our reality may seem – God is coming to redeem it. The image of that coming doesn’t seem so comforting in Luke’s gospel, signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, distress and confusion by the roaring of the seas, the shaking of the heavens. But the signs of God’s coming are part of the promise. When things are at their worst, when the world is THIS close to caving in, God is THIS close to redemption. When the promises seem least likely to be fulfilled, that’s when we can have the most hope, that’s when we can trust in the birth of our salvation, that’s when we can believe that God’s hope is not lost.

Jeremiah chose to remain with those who were left behind in the exile. He chose to stay and be a witness to God’s hope for the future, to testify to the truth that God fulfills promises even when the future looks bleak, maybe even ESPECIALLY when the future looks bleak. The days are surely coming, says the Lord. The days are surely coming when God’s promises will be fulfilled as they have in the past, and for that day we have great hope. Trust in the Lord, our righteousness, who is coming down the road not with happiness NOW but with the promise of justice later. Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Thanks and credit to The Rev. Richard Fairchild for pointing me to the Calvin and Hobbes illustration.

Grace

It was a very busy Sunday morning a couple of months ago that had not been going well. I was frustrated and anxious. I stepped out of my office and looked down the hallway toward the Fellowship Hall and said hello to Phil, Karoline, and William. All of a sudden William came running full speed toward me. I’m thinking to myself where is he going…what does he see? Thinking he’s going to run past me, I squat down to catch him as he goes by. Much to my surprise he runs right into my open arms and gives me the biggest and longest bear hug! In that moment my frustration and anxiety melted away. William’s hug changed me that morning. As I was driving home that day I realized that this was grace!
The English Lavender Harvest


William’s hug was a gift from God. God knew what I needed that morning even though I didn’t know I needed it-at least until after the gift was already given. It was undeserved-there was no earthly reason that I should be given such a gift by God other than the pure fact that I’m a child of God and God loves me. This is grace. Grace is a gift from God that comes when we least expect it but most need it and brings us joy.

Beginning in my college years I realized that I was afraid of grace. I didn’t even like to utter the word. It was something I avoided like the plague. In seminary and a close friend and I were having a conversation and I shared with her my feelings around grace. She gave me Philp Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace? told me to read it and pass it on when I was finished. With hesitation and trust I read the book (I still have the book J). It changed my whole perception of grace. It finally clicked in my head that grace was not something one earned. Grace comes from a loving God who loves me beyond my sins and imperfections.

I think this quote from Yancey’s book sums up what grace is all about
Grace does not excuse sin…but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous. It shakes our conventions with its insistence on getting close to sinners and touching them with mercy and hope.

My hope this Advent season is that we as a community of faith will see and respond to God’s love filled gift of grace with our own gracious actions towards on another.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Among the Beasts



We don’t read a whole lot from Daniel in our worship. If anything we can possibly tell the basic story of Daniel who was thrown into the den of lions when he refused to bow to the king, but that story, and maybe a couple of others told of Daniel and his 3 faithful friends are just the first six chapters of the book. For many of us, the second half is largely unknown.

At chapter 7 the tone changes. The stories of faithfulness in exile in the first 6 give way to the visions of God’s deliverance in the last. Mystical and mysterious visions. There are winds and strange beasts – lions with eagle’s wings, bears with giant tusks. The angel Gabriel even comes to help Daniel understand what his dreams are all about. The language and mood might remind us of the New Testament book of Revelation, another book we tend to know very little about. This kind of literature – apocalyptic literature – is often foreign to us, intimidating to come across, and, therefore, unfortunately, is larger left behind in our biblical study. But we’re going to try it today.

The book of Daniel, his story of great faith in a time of great trial, and his dreams meant to encourage others to maintain trust in the faithful God, is set during the Babylonian exile. The people of Judea have been taken into captivity and live under foreign rule, in a foreign land, surrounded by the worship of foreign gods. The temple back in Jerusalem has been destroyed. The sign of God’s presence among them has been demolished; their faith and their lives have been disrupted and decentralized.

But not only have the Babylonians devastated the Judeans, but several kingdoms BEFORE them have also laid ruin to their land. A string of beasts in the opening of chapter 7, each devouring the one that came before, represents the numerous conquerors of the Israel and Judah. When the 4th beast is introduced, however, it is more terrible than the rest – exceedingly strong, with iron teeth, horns, one with human eyes and a mouth speaking arrogantly. The 4th beast is that which represents Babylon, the nation that ultimately destroyed the Jewish land and people.

Listen now for Daniel’s first vision and its words of hope in God in the midst of a terrifying reality.

Daniel 7:1-14

Christ the King Sunday. Or as some have come to call it, Reign of Christ Sunday. That name avoids the gender specific “king” language in the traditional name. This feast day in the Christian calendar is one of the newest that we celebrate or acknowledge, I learned this year, and I was surprised. It began only in 1925 by an edict of Pope Pius 11. King language and imagery usually takes me back farther than just 84 years ago. Probably because of our own national and political history and strong resistance to rule by kings, royal language and imagery just seems so…old to me, antiquated, or even fantastical.

Our family just returned from a trip to visit my family in Orlando which included our first trip to Disney World, so I’ve got a particular set of images close to my mind – huge castles and deep moats, fortresses, battles, beautiful gowns and sparkling scenes, princes and princesses, kings and queens, lords and ladies. The image is one of untouchable strength, separation from the common world and everyday life.

In fact, this fairy tale-like image is not too unlike the one that got Princess Diana into so much trouble, or earned her the title of “the people’s princess” depending on which side of the fence you occupy. Princess Diana left the usual realm of the British royalty, the castles and the ceremonial life, and moved among the people, and not just the “perfect” people, the “clean” people. She held sick and starving babies. She visited the homeless. She touched patients with AIDS. It made her a heroine on one hand, but it alienated her from her royal position on the other. She wasn’t acting the way royalty acts.

The initial glimpse of royalty in Daniel fits the usual bill. A long white beard suggests longevity. An enormous number of attendants, worshipers even, suggests durability, respect, honor. The Ancient One is seated on a throne of fire, issuing fire from his very being. Unapproachable maybe? To say the least? At least that is what it seems.

But the Ancient One and the human being, some translate it poorly as the Son of Man, who comes riding the clouds of heaven into his presence, these larger than life, grander than grand, king of kings and lord of lords, don’t stay separate. They don’t stay sanitized and sparkling. They don’t stay in a grand throne room, but the royal throne of fire has wheels; the cloud from heaven descends. The divine royalty come down and mix it up among the ravaging, violent, unholy beasts of the earth.

In Daniel the beasts are the kingdoms of the earth that threaten God’s people. They represent the Assyrian, the Persian, the Greek, and the Babylonian empires that have devoured God’s people even as they devoured one another. These days, if we were to take a political reading of this passage, the various people of God in the three Abrahamaic faiths are just as likely if not MORE likely to be the devouring empires than the ones eaten alive, so the imagery in the vision may have more than one meaning.

To a people who risk being the empire more than the exiled, the caution is as strong as the hope. The true king will come. The true royalty will come right down in the middle of the terror you are wielding and defeat the beasts who threaten the weak and the outnumbered in the world. The fear and danger that are your weapons will no longer hold power. The king of glory will be victorious.

To all people feeling threatened by the beasts of the world, however, it is a word of hope. Just as it was a word of hope for the Judean people struggling to stay faithful to God in exile, it is a word of hope as we struggle with our own beasts today. Your true king will come. Your true king will come right down in the middle of your terror and defeat the beast who seems to rule over your life. Your true king has more power than any beast that threatens your life, and you will be delivered from your fear and danger.

But I don’t know about you, but the beast imagery seems so far removed from my understanding, my world. Sure the vampire movies are a hit and some of the comic-based characters like Wolverine draw huge audiences, but as a whole our culture doesn’t dwell in that space between reality and what we would call fantasy today the way cultures did centuries ago. Beasts aren’t a part of our everyday thinking.

But anyway, while physical literal beasts aren’t food for thought for most of us on a daily basis, the fairy tales of our childhood remind us there are beasts among us, beasts, even, inside us that we do face every day. Beasts that threaten to devour our lives and our spirits.

From the outside we face beasts of illness and injury. Sicknesses of body and mind. We face beasts of financial collapse that cause us worry, leave us struggling to provide for ourselves and our families. We face beasts of broken relationships and personal loss – beasts that steal our companionship and circles of comfort.

The inner beasts as just as dangerous, if entirely different. The ugly beast of misjudging others eats away at us as we look down on them with contempt and pride. The beast of greed gnaws at us with the desire to accumulate all that we want, even beyond our need. The beast of superficiality nibbles at our character as it digests our ability to see beyond the surface of other human beings. The beast of arrogance feasts on our humility until we see our selves as slightly less than gods. These beasts threaten to consume our hearts and carry away into exile the beloved creatures God created us to be. The beasts of sin are dangerous, iron-toothed, multi-horned, vicious and savage beasts that battle for reign in our lives.

Beasts that, I think, would be victorious in the battle if I were fighting it alone. That temptation to accumulate? It’s just so strong. There is always more I think I need, but really it’s just what I want. That temptation to judge those I see before I even meet them? Well, we justify it by calling it stranger awareness. It’s a safety measure, isn’t it? You can’t be too careful. Left to my own devices there’s no way the ruler in my life would be anything but the beasts that eat from the inside out.

Which is why this vision from Daniel is so hope-filled. We aren’t left to our own devices. The king of creation, the Ancient One, doesn’t leave us alone to fight the beasts, those inside or outside of ourselves. The ruler of the universe comes down to earth, among the beasts, right into the middle of the battle, to deliver us from the threats. On a powerful throne, on heavenly clouds, the king of all the earth, Christ the King, comes to live and move among us, dirtying his hands, breaking down the barriers between heaven and earth, to battle the beasts we face one after another.

We saw that battle just about at its culmination in the reading from the gospel of John (18:33-37). Jesus in the LEAST kingly attire and posture we could ever imagine, hands tied behind his back, beaten by the powers of Rome, stood in front of Pilate, the representative of the Caesar, the king, in Jerusalem. His hands were certainly dirty. His hands, his face, his feet, his back. His life was covered in the dirt of human brokenness, and he stood there face-to-face with the beasts that threatened his life. His response doesn’t seem that kingly. It doesn’t seem that victorious at first.

But it is. His entire life, lived among the beasts of fear, disbelief, prejudice, and false judgement, his entire life and battle with the beasts of all time is taken up in this scene and the few that follow. Hung on a cross and buried in a tomb, the beasts seem to have won, but three days later his dominion and glory and kingship were made clear. Resurrected from the dead, ascended to heaven, and seated on the throne in the divine court above, Christ the King was revealed to us all.

Christ the King Sunday falls at the end of the Christian year. It is the final celebration in the cycle of remembrance of God’s relationship with creation. But at the same time it is also the threshold, the doorway, into the new year, the new year that begins with the celebration and honoring of the incarnation of God, God made flesh in Jesus our Christ, our King. The rule of Jesus in the world is all about God dwelling with God’s people. It’s all about the promise that we are not alone; we don’t face our beasts alone. Christ our King doesn’t stay locked away in a fortress of protection. Christ our King gets his hand dirty. Christ our King fights our battles. Christ our Lord and King defeats the beasts and frees us for lives of gratitude and worship under his reign.

Monday, November 2, 2009

PC(USA) Children's Website

Kids4Kids, a new Web site, helps children ages 8-11 find information about children around the world, and learn ways to advocate and act on behalf of other children. Created by the General Assembly Mission Council's Office of Child Advocacy, it includes stories, activities, suggestions for mission involvement and practical tools to help children develop lifetime skills.

Check it out by clicking the link above or typing www.presbykids4kids.org into your web browser.

Doers of the Word - Challenge 3

In worship on Sunday, August 30, our Scripture lesson included James 1:22: "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves." We spent time brainstorming alone and as a congregation ways we can be doers of the word and in the world as we live as Christ's disciples in the realms of economics, society, and environment. I collected our brainstorming sheets and have been sharing them here as "discipleship challenges." There is a quite a variety of responses that range from the changes we might make in our personal, family, church, and community lives. Feel free to take some of these on, and let us know in the comments how it goes! (For instructions about leaving comments, see the post from Sept. 1 "Joining the Conversation.")

1. Leave a lasting desire in my family to be thankful for their blessings inherited and taught.
2. Volunteer work at daycare or CCH
3. Challenge injustice
4. Evaluate how my activities and lifestyle and that of the church's ministry support sustainable communities
5. Take true interest in everyone that I meet this day. They might be a lonely, troubled, or need a friend.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Bread for the Journey


Exodus 12:1-11
Luke 22:1, 14-28

The dispute over who is the greatest among the disciples is recorded in some way in several gospel accounts. In fact the Mark version of the argument was the central text in our worship even just about a month ago. I have to admit, for this reason, I felt a temptation to deviate from the worship and devotional materials provided by the Finance and Stewardship committee for this stewardship season. It was feeling a little redundant at first. But, obviously, I didn’t. Yes, we have heard the same basic outline – the disciples argue about which among them is the greatest, but we also have differences to the story, differences that bring us a different word from God.

In Mark, we heard about them arguing on the road immediately after hearing Jesus’ second prediction of his suffering and death – the argument pointing out their total cluelessness over what Jesus thinks it means to be great. In Matthew the argument comes after a teaching about taxes and the question of honoring the rules of the status quo. The argument we heard today, though, takes up an entirely different meaning because of where and when it happens.

It doesn’t happen on the road. It doesn’t happen in front of the crowds. It doesn’t happen while Jesus is out and about in the countryside ministering to the crowds and introducing his disciples to a new way of life. It isn’t during a test posed by his challengers. It happens here. It happens at the table, a very specific table, the Passover table, the last table Jesus will share with his disciples on this side of eternal life, and that setting makes all the difference.

The Passover celebration brings with it a deep and abiding connection with history, the saints of the faith, those remembered as the greatest of the faith tradition, like Moses or Elijah, who figure prominently in the Passover liturgy and traditions.

Take Moses. He was raised a foreigner in the palace. He never fully fit in. We see him struggling as a young adult with who he really was, where he really belonged. Then he is called to lead, but he has a speech difficulty. It doesn’t seem like a great match, really. Identity crisis, self-esteem problems, problems with public speaking. And this is the guy we remember for his obvious greatness? I’m sure it didn’t seem so great in the moment. Even the Israelites he helped liberate complained against and about him. Why didn’t you leave us in Egypt to die, they cried while wandering around in the desert for 40 years? That doesn’t sound so great.

Then what about Elijah and the other prophets? Sure their words to the people of Israel and Judah are inspiring and admirable after the fact, but hardly anyone would consider them great in their own time. Preaching to the people, hounding them even, calling them to repentance and a new way of living before God, rarely won them friends and great influence. It hardly seemed to work at the time. Despite their efforts, God’s people still ended up in exile in Assyria and Babylon. Their homeland and their temple destroyed more than once by occupations from all sides. Elijah and the other prophets – they had their moments, but in terms of overall effectiveness in their jobs in their generations – not too many would be considered great.

Yet the greatness of these saints isn’t doubted today. They, their words, and their work are honored in memory, lifted up in ritual, studied for emulation and spiritual growth. We know they are great and don’t doubt that or dispute it, but what made it true?

I’d say it was their faithful service. Their faithful and humble service to God and others. Their response to God’s call to put the needs of the community above their own reputation, their own comfort, their own popularity and credibility, even their own desires, in order to follow God’s call and be sent to serve the people. Moses had a pretty cushy life in the palace. He had power over others. He lived in luxury with servants serving him. He was pretty disconnected from his oppressed ethnic and religious community, and could have continued living that way if he could have just pushed down his worries about the way the people were being treated. He could have continued to live in a position of authority over the slaves. But he didn’t.

Yes, he was the leader of the Israelites, but his leadership was in obedience to God, for the good of the people. He served them by working for their good, risking his power and his position to free them from Pharaoh, going on their behalf into the dangerous and overwhelming presence of God, enduring the discipline of God for their transgressions. Moses was great not because he wanted to be or tried to be or even ASKED to be. Moses was great because he humbly served God and his community.

And what now of the circumstances of this dispute among the disciples in Luke? What significance do they lend to its meaning for us today? It was the observance of the Passover. It was the time when the Jewish people of God remembered and celebrated the miracle of their exodus from slavery in Egypt, the leadership and faithfulness of Moses, Elijah, and the other saints who preceded them. It was the time of year when they honored and worshiped God for sending them a leader, a servant of God’s will and a servant of God’s people, who led them into the Promised Land, a time of year maybe, when they who lived under the rule of the Romans again longed for a sign of their chosenness, their greatness before God and the world.

It was also, we are told, when the hour had come. Satan had come to Judas Iscariot. He had conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple about how to betray Jesus. He was now on the lookout for his perfect opportunity when no crowd would be present. Having entered Jerusalem a few days earlier to shouts of, “Blessed is the king!” Jesus and the disciples were huddled away in a borrowed room in a town that was turning hostile. Daily, he was preaching to crowds peppered with spies who were out to catch him, to challenge his word and question his authority.

But even in the face of this hostility he continued his ministry, he continued to serve God. Cleansing it first of all injustice and greed, Jesus preached in the temple to everyone who would listen. He faced challenge upon challenge from this opponents, standing up for the message God sent him to deliver. He wept and prayed over the city of Jerusalem.

He didn’t hide away to protect himself. He didn’t stay out of the limelight to put his safety first. He didn’t relish in the crowd’s shouts from Palm Sunday, “Glory in highest heaven” excusing himself from the dangerous and foreboding work still to be done. He didn’t leave the people who had not yet heard, not yet believed his divine message out in the dark. He served them. He served them with love and served them with urgency. He served them as God had sent him to do. He served them, setting aside his safety. Setting aside his concern for his future, he served them. And likewise he served the disciples at the Passover table.

Likewise he serves US at this table. He serves us. Jesus is the host of the celebration we share today. He has provided the gifts, the bread we will break together, the cup we will pour for all. He provides the seed and the wind and the rain that causes it to grow. He gives the life and energy and means to those who harvest and ship, who pound and mill, who bake and press, who sell and buy, who prepare and serve these elements to us this day. He is the host, and the source, and the grace-filled Spirit we receive in this sacrament, but he is also the servant, the one whose body was broken that we might have life, the one who meets all our needs, satisfies our deepest hungers, and the one whose blood was poured out to quench our most desperate thirst. He is the example for us to follow. He is God calling us join his ministry.

The Israelites in Egypt ate the Passover with their traveling pants on, their shoes on their feet, their walking sticks ready to go. They ate their meal in a hurry, knowing that it wasn’t an end to their story itself, but it was just the beginning of their journey. This is how we should eat at the Lord’s Table. This is how we should worship in God’s presence. Our traveling clothes should be on. Our shoes should be on our feet. Our walking sticks should be in our hands, because this table, this grace, this love and forgiveness of God that we receive together in the sacrament is not an end in itself. It is just the beginning.

It is our bread for the journey. It is the sustenance we need for our lives of service to God and others. It is just the beginning, the example even, of our life in Christ. As he has freely given himself to us, so we are called to greatness, not through some special status at his right hand or as a guest of honor at the banquet. We are called to greatness by freely serving others as he serves the world, selflessly, indiscriminately, and among the least of these, the outcast, the shunned, the discarded of society. We are called to greatness not that will be recognized in this time, in this age, but greatness that will be recognized by God when someday we will join the great cloud of witnesses who are blessed to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”