Mind the Gap

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

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

Be Set Free

It’s now an all-too familiar scene: people walking down the sidewalks, sitting in their cars or even pews - bent over. Sitting at the dinner table, in Bible study, at work – bent over. Crippled by the hunger to be connected 24/7, the  need to be needed, and the desire for information, these modern day bent over people are in bondage to their smart phones, their iPads/Kindles, handheld video games. When was the last time you were set free from these technology devices – when were you set free to stand up straight and get a new perspective?

by Barrie Maguire

Read Jeremiah 1:4-10 & Luke 13:10-17.

A young boy and a bent over woman – not usually the people we would think of as chosen by God. Yet young Jeremiah was claimed by God to be his messenger, and Jesus called the bent over woman close to him that she might be set free. As seems to be the biblical case, God works outside of the rules, outside of the expectations of society to do God’s work.

Imagine spending 18 years bent over. Add to that, you’re a woman in a time where you really are treated like an animal, like a piece of property. Who talks to you? Who would marry you, much less give you children? Who takes care of you? Who runs into in the street like they never even saw you? Who gets frustrated because you’re moving too slow? Being bent over, the scenery rarely changes on those dusty roads. And yet one morning, bent over, you hobble to church to hear this guy Jesus say something profound.

No one really wants to be near you at church – you’re too different, too unclean. You can’t see what’s going on, but you’re guessing it’s something special – there’s an unusual hush. Suddenly your name is called out by this Jesus! And before you know it, you have been set free and are standing up straight, getting a new perspective, taking in hundreds of shocked faces – shocked by your healing, shocked by the work on the Sabbath, shocked by the humiliated look on the synagogue leader’s face. All you can do is start praising the Lord.

If we’re honest, we’re all a little bent – maybe physically over our computers, or emotionally crippled from a hard relationship. We could all use a perspective shift – to see people more as God sees them, to look out beyond our own two feet. Maybe one reason we come to church on Sunday mornings is to hear God speak to us. Maybe we need this compassionate God to set us free once more from the ailment of internet addiction or crippling fear and doubt. Maybe we need to witness one more time someone else’s healing. Maybe we need to hear that God values life over rules, that God doesn’t care about cultural expectations.

God is calling your name, calling you for a purpose beyond being bent over. So come, be set free that you might rejoice in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and get a new perspective.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

Live Wet: Reaffirmation of Our Baptismal Vows

"Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink" (from Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner") could be a description of the church today.  We have plenty of water, but is it living water?  Will it nourish?  Why aren't more people knocking down our doors to quench their thirst?

Renewing our baptismal vows reminds us of the source of the only living water that can most effectively quench our thirst:  Jesus Christ.  Being sprinkled or dunked in baptism within the presence of the congregation marks each of us as a member of the one family united by our baptismal vows we make before God to love, care for, and nurture one another.  This sign of the cross which we receive on our foreheads with water is our invisible tattoo which marks us as belonging to God - as children of God.  This tattoo reminds us to remember who we are and whose we are.

In John 7: 37-38, Jesus calls to us, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and let the one who believes in me drink...Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water."  Jesus is the true water of life who turns this symbol of water into reality.  Baptism, as one of two Presbyterian sacraments, is the visible sign of God's invisible grace.

The Bible is full of stories of water and its power to drown and its power to revive.  Through these stories we are reminded of God's power of creation to bring order out of chaos and God's power to revive that which is dying or dead.

Baptism, at God's initiative, happens only once, yet it takes a lifetime to complete.  At our death, baptism is completed into eternal life.  So, how do we live into our baptism and our baptismal vows that we have received washing and cleansing, putting sin behind us?  It's a lifelong and daily journey to become more and more like Christ.  Our daily discipline can be to die to sin each day and rise to new life in Christ as we remember our baptism.  How can we use such daily practices to use water as a way to care for creation - all God's creatures and living things?  This can be our daily question upon awaking.

Let us renew our vows to let Christ's love flow through us like living water to bless others.  In this we will have our thirsts quenched.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

God Holds a High Bar: Fear Not

Do not be afraid.  Fear not.  Cast away your fears.

Easier said than done, isn't it?  Is this naieve comfort spoken by the inexperienced or young?  Is it just whistling-in-the-dark comfort?  Or do these words spoken by God's prophets through the ages and by gospel writer Luke (Luke 12: 32-40) have any real and valid assurance for us?  We can easily spool off our fears.  As pastor I fear confrontation or preaching bad theology or saying the wrong thing at a critical time or having people leave the church when they get mad.  What do you fear?  Not enough money for all your medical expenses?  Serious injury to your child?  Losing your job to downsizing? Having your spouse leave you?  Being discovered in that white lie you told?

God's response to "Fear not" is:  "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12: 32)  Is this more "too-good-to-be-true" news?  God's kingdom is our greatest treasure!  A clue to finding/seeing/claiming this greatest treasure is in verse 34:  "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  If our hearts are with Jesus Christ, there we will find our treasure.  If our hearts are filled with a little or a lot of faith, there we will find our treasure.  God's kingdom is ours through our faith - a faith of grace that we cannot earn or deserve or achieve or create for ourselves.  It is God's good gift through God's good grace.

The rest of Luke 12: 32-40 challenges us to respond to this promise by being ready - being expectant - being alert.  Like a faithful Scout, we are to be prepared.  Being ready and alert doesn't mean waiting around, patiently doing nothing.  We ready ourselves for the good gift of God's kingdom by living each day as if God's kingdom is already here.  We prepare by giving away ourselves - our time, our talents, our material treasures, our gifts of kindness/humility/compassion.  We find fun in giving ourselves away just as God delights in giving to us.  Today's scripture ends with the master (translate: Jesus) fastening his belt (ie. pulling his long flowing robe up out of the way by tucking it into his belt), inviting his guests to sit and eat, and then SERVING them.  The unexpectedness of the master serving the guests is the topsy turvey nature of God's kingdom, which we discover as we serve others.  Thus, Jesus shows us the pattern for our discipleship in which we receive and respond to God's gift of the kingdom here on earth.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley