Someone actually won the $400 million Powerball. What would you do if you suddenly had that much money? How would your life change if all of a sudden you were very, very rich? Would you keep working? Would you be able to provide for aging parents, or have a college fund for your children? Would you buy a house, a car, a sailboat? Would you invest it into very safe stocks, leaving it to build and build, creating an inheritance for your family? Would you somehow share with strangers?
Read Paul’s words about rich people in 1 Timothy 6:6-19 and Jesus’ parable about a rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.
It is hard for most of us to read this Scripture and not feel a little guilty, to not feel a little condemned or convicted. If you’re reading this at a computer, chances are you are more like the rich man and a little less like Lazarus. How many times do we choose not to meet the eyes of someone suffering on the street or in the hospital bed? How many times do we choose to simply keep to ourselves instead of reaching out to someone on our doorstep? How many times do we choose inaction instead of faithful, transformative action?
This is a story of gaps, a gap between rich and poor, between comfort and agony, between visible and invisible, between full and hungry, between burial and being carried away by angels, between privileged and marginalized; gaps in this world, and gaps in the next world. Where are the gaps in your lives? What are you doing to overcome the gaps in this life, not the next? Are you able to see the invisible suffering going on right here in Topeka, right here at Trinity?
As Abraham alludes to in the Luke story, Jesus’ resurrection did not convince everyone then or now of the truth of God’s words. Yet because of the resurrection, we are empowered, we are bound together, we are called to work to mind that gap – to cross that chasm between east Topeka and southwest Topeka, to work on closing the gulf with ministries like Topeka JUMP.
Maybe in the end we are most like the rich man’s brothers, hearing these words of warning from Moses, the prophets, and the witness of Jesus Christ. How will you respond? Will you open up your feast? Will you see the poor through the eyes of Jesus and Abraham? As Paul writes to Timothy: “Tell the rich people to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.” May we all work to mind the gap and to gain life that is truly life.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
The Extreme Jesus
"Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don't know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown; will you let my name be known; will you let my life be grown in you and you in me? (John Bell,"The Summons" verse 1 lyrics, 1987, WGRG The Iona Community, GIA Publications, Inc)
Do you hear Jesus summoning you to follow? The "Extreme Jesus" demands your all in order to follow him surrendering all that would separate you from making Jesus your #1 priority. The "Extreme Jesus" is NOT: "My dearest darling, I love you more than anything in the world. I would climb the highest mountain and swim the widest ocean just to be at your side. I will see you Saturday night if it does not rain. Love always, John." (ministrymatters.com)
Just as "John" uses hyperbole and exaggeration to describe his love, so Jesus uses hyperbole when he says the cost of discipleship is hating father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself. (Luke 14: 26) But in contrast to the above letter, Jesus' hyperbole is to grab our attention as Jesus marches toward the cross and crucifixion and challenges us to take up the cross of faithful following. While we don't take such a challenge literally, I believe we must take it seriously.
Quite the opposite of the so-called prosperity gospel, in Luke 14: 25-33, Jesus cautions us to count the cost to ensure that we're not following with unexamined or naive enthusiasm. Just as we calculate the cost of building our house or estimate the cost of sending troops into Syria, Jesus warns us that following him demands our all - our total commitment.
"Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name? Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same? Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?" ("The Summons," verse 2)
What do you find hard to let go of? What sort of things (material possessions; values; prejudices; other commitments; time; energy; doubt; grief; loss) cause you to hesitate in following Jesus fully? In acknowledging the need to surrender all such obstacles, Jeremiah 18: 1-6 reminds us that we are created/formed/made by God who cares and provides for us. It is God's faithfulness to this covenant of care that enables us to live sacrificially and to persevere when we can't make it on our own. When we open up our clenched fists and let go of all that we cling to other than Jesus, our hands are free to be transformed and to receive God's grace.
Thanks be to God.
Pastor Shelley
Do you hear Jesus summoning you to follow? The "Extreme Jesus" demands your all in order to follow him surrendering all that would separate you from making Jesus your #1 priority. The "Extreme Jesus" is NOT: "My dearest darling, I love you more than anything in the world. I would climb the highest mountain and swim the widest ocean just to be at your side. I will see you Saturday night if it does not rain. Love always, John." (ministrymatters.com)
Just as "John" uses hyperbole and exaggeration to describe his love, so Jesus uses hyperbole when he says the cost of discipleship is hating father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself. (Luke 14: 26) But in contrast to the above letter, Jesus' hyperbole is to grab our attention as Jesus marches toward the cross and crucifixion and challenges us to take up the cross of faithful following. While we don't take such a challenge literally, I believe we must take it seriously.
Quite the opposite of the so-called prosperity gospel, in Luke 14: 25-33, Jesus cautions us to count the cost to ensure that we're not following with unexamined or naive enthusiasm. Just as we calculate the cost of building our house or estimate the cost of sending troops into Syria, Jesus warns us that following him demands our all - our total commitment.
"Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name? Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same? Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?" ("The Summons," verse 2)
What do you find hard to let go of? What sort of things (material possessions; values; prejudices; other commitments; time; energy; doubt; grief; loss) cause you to hesitate in following Jesus fully? In acknowledging the need to surrender all such obstacles, Jeremiah 18: 1-6 reminds us that we are created/formed/made by God who cares and provides for us. It is God's faithfulness to this covenant of care that enables us to live sacrificially and to persevere when we can't make it on our own. When we open up our clenched fists and let go of all that we cling to other than Jesus, our hands are free to be transformed and to receive God's grace.
Thanks be to God.
Pastor Shelley
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