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

What's in a Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose - By any other name would smell as sweet," Juliet says to her star-crossed lover, Romeo. Here Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial, meaningless convention, and that she loves the person who is called "Montague", not the Montague name and not the Montague family. Romeo, out of his passion for Juliet, rejects his family name and vows, as Juliet asks him to "deny (his) father" and instead be "new baptized" as Juliet's lover. This one short line encapsulates the central struggle and tragedy of Shakespeare's play. 

The Bible has different take on "what's in a name."  When God re-names Abram to Abraham and changes Sarai's name to Sarah, it is to signify the everlasting covenant that God makes with this faithful but barren couple in their 90's.  God says to them in Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16:  "You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations." (NRSV, v 4b)  God too claims a new name for Godself:  El Shaddai - God of the mountains - the One who created heavens and earth - God of the highest mountains and the lowest valleys - God of all creation.  In this second covenant of the Hebrew Bible, El Shaddai blesses Abraham and Sarah with the promise of a child and the royal promise that Abraham and Sarah's descendants will forever be God's people.

It's fitting that the gospel lesson  (Mark 8: 31-38) paired with this second covenant is Jesus' answer to the immediately preceding question Jesus poses to the disciples:  "Who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8: 29).  Jesus goes on to foretell his death and resurrection, which will define his disciples as Christ followers:  "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross..." (Mk 8: 34). What does it mean to be named a Christ follower?  How does it change us?

We can begin to claim our identities as Christ followers by trying to understand what it means for Jesus to claim his identity as Messiah - a process Maya Angelou succinctly critiques in response to someone who identifies himself as Christian with "What?!  Already?!"

God took the initiative with Abraham and Sarah.  God names Jesus at his baptism as "Beloved Son."  In baptism God claims us and names us as children of God.  In covenanting with our descendants, our Messiah, and with us, God initiates the relationship with re-naming.  Our challenge is to respond to our new names  as Abraham and Sarah did - fall on our knees and rejoice.  Our challenge also is to avoid responding as Peter did by rebuking and rejecting the servanthood sacrifices Jesus lays out for us.

What's in a name?  The answer:  Our very identity and relationship with our Lord.