God Holds a High Bar: How High Must We Jump?

Doesn’t life seem like a series of hurdles and high jumps?  Once our child is toilet trained he/she can enter preschool.  With each grade of school we’re tested and tested before being promoted.  To prepare for college or graduate school we must master the ACT or SAT or MCAT or LSAT.  When we’re out in the world earning a living, we must jump through hoops for the promotion that will ensure that we can afford a bigger house or just the basics of insurance and a car that runs.  Even approaching retirement means we calculate if our savings are high enough or deep enough to carry us around the track.

God too holds a high bar.  But God’s bar works differently than the worldly standards that track our days.  God’s bar takes many shapes which we at Trinity will explore through our summer sermon series:  “God Holds a High Bar.”  We’ll look at God’s bar of faith, doing justice, loving others, committing ourselves to Christ, and serving the lost/lonely/last. 

In Luke 7: 1-10, a centurion – a soldier of authority in the Roman occupying force (ie. often considered and “enemy” of Israel) – sends Jewish elders to Jesus asking Jesus to come and heal one of the centurion’s servants or slaves.  First, this request is a remarkable commentary on the centurion’s compassion and care for one of his own who would be considered last in the hierarchy of society.  Second, the centurion’s faith in Jesus as a healer is also remarkable.  Third, the elders point to the centurion’s worth and love of the Jewish people as a rationale for why Jesus should heed the centurion’s request.  But the centurion contradicts such status or worth accorded to him, saying “Lord [notice his regard for Jesus’ worth], do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.”  (Luke 7: 6b) And with that, and from a distance, Jesus heals the servant/slave.

According to this healing story, the centurion, although a man of authority, is humble and modest and in response, Jesus exclaims, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” (Lk 7: 9)  God’s bar of faith here does not depend on the centurion’s ability to command his troops.  God’s bar of faith here does not depend on the centurion’s accomplishments such as building a synagogue for the Jewish people.  God’s bar of faith is not a hurdle or high jump which we, like the centurion, must master.  God’s bar of faith is a response to the centurion’s faith – his trust in Jesus the person who can heal.  The centurion’s faith is a gift which he neither “deserves nor earns.”  In contrast to the worldly bars to promotion and advancement, God’s bar or standard of faith is manifested when we cling to and trust in the person of Jesus with our utmost confidence, putting our “all-in-all” into our commitment to following or running along with Jesus our Christ. 

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Shelley

Temptations in the Desert: Scarcity or Abundance

When describing your worldview and your sense of available resources, where would you put yourself on a continuum that stretches from:  Scarcity - to - Not enough - to - Just barely enough - to - Enough - to - Plenty - to - Abundance - to - Extravagance?
If Jesus came to reveal what God looks like, then the story of Mary of Bethany anointing him in preparation for his death and burial with the most extravagant perfume is a story of Jesus praising her for her extravagant devotion. John 12: 1-8. To emphasize this extravagant love that Mary pours out upon his feet, Jesus chastizes Judas Iscariot (who is about to betray Jesus) when Judas demands that the perfume should be sold to provide for the poor.  Jesus realizes that Judas doesn't care so much for the poor, as he cares about keeping the common purse for his own purposes of stealing from it. Jesus rebukes Judas:  "Leave her alone." (v 7). In light of Jesus' impending death, Mary "wastes" perfume on her beloved Master and Jesus receives it with gratitude.

How often do we "count" the value of various resources (especially money), giving into the temptation that there won't be enough - that our resources are finite and must be carefully controlled?  Whether we're hoarders or cheapscapes or just reasonable folk who give of ourselves according to the time/energy/means that make practical sense in a world overwhelmed with "not-enough-ness," we operate out of the worldview that tempts us to value our efforts and our things by their usefulness or practicality or cost effectiveness.

Is the cross a symbol of our temptation or do we trust in the God of resurrection?  Father Richard Rohr writes:  "The cross is a statement of what we do to one another and to ourselves.  The resurrection is a standing statement of what God does to us in return." (Richard Rohr, Easter 2012)

Both in the extravagance and love poured out by Mary and in the promises God makes in Isaiah 43: 16-21, we are drawn toward a God of extravagant abundance, whose love and providence have no end.  Isaiah, using powerful water imagery, reminds us that God will make a way through the waters (Red Sea) just as he did for the Israelites fleeing the Egyptians.  And when we wander in the desert of our temptations, we can trust that God will provide rivers in the desert & water in the wilderness - drink for God's chosen people.

Our challenge is to move through, around, past the barriers of temptations that there will not be enough.  Our challenge is to trust God's promises of abundant healing, enough water for all, and an abundant love that sustain us through droughts.  If we remember what God has done in the past, we are able to trust in the new things God is about to do in our future.  We can trust in the love that shapes whatever new thing lies ahead.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Building Up Our Trust Funds

Do you have the luxury of being a trust fund baby?  Or do you worry about your trust fund for your children's or grandchildren's college education being eroded by the economy or by the KS Regents recent decision to raise KS colleges tuition?  Or perhaps you're one of the cynics who say that Social Security as a trust fund won't be solvent when you need it?  It's easy to fall into the role of "I'm the little guy up against greater forces than my assets - my talents - my abilities are able to confront and conquer.
David and Goliath is often viewed as a children's story about the little guy who took on a giant and conquered him with a slingshot and a smooth stone right to the "unprotected-by-armor" spot on Goliath's forehead.  Like David's Hebrew compatriots, we want to cheer whenever the little guy wins.  We love to identify with the come-from behind hero.  Although the story is lengthy (1 Samuel 17: 1-49), it's full of irony and little details that enhance the drama of the climax when Goliath falls down dead in one stroke of a slingshot.
So what were David's assets that he should come from behind and win fame and fortune in the eyes of Israel?  David became a hero, a household name, winning King Saul's daughter for his wife, and the next king of Israel after more exciting adventures.  But at the beginning David was a runt - the 8th son of Jesse - a rural remote family from nowheres-ville.  David was a shepherd (considered a lowly, menial job) and David carried food and supplies to his older brothers in Israel's army.  David was DEFINITELY NOT a trust fund baby!
David's major asset and his source of his power was his trust in God.  David referred to God as the God of the LIVING armies.  David's power was his faith.  Where and how David's faith was honed and strengthened, we have no details.  Did his mother teach him biblical stories of how God moved and breathed in his ancestors' lives?  While out on the hillsides shepherding his sheep, did David gaze at the stars twinkling overhead and see God's glory?  As he held a newborn sheep in his arms, did he marvel at the miracle of what God creates?  Did he call on God when he had to kill a lion or bear attacking his sheep and learn to trust in God through these experiences?  However David's faith was kindled and strengthened, David's trust was placed in the "armies of the living God."  There David found the courage and trust to take on Goliath as the armies of Israel cowered, paralyzed with fear in the face of Goliath the giant.
Where do we place our trust when we need courage?  Do we depend on our material trust funds that we have accumulated or have we built up our spiritual trust funds?  How do we trust that God will be with us as we take a step into something new?  What kind of bear and lions stand in our way of seeing God's beckoning?  Is our faith in a passive God or in the living God who calls us out of our fearful shortsightedness into bold new ventures?                          
                                                                                                    Grace and Peace,
                                                                                                    Pastor Shelley