Month: March 2025

Shoes

Standard

Sermon for March 23, 2025

Readings:

A friend of mine once said, “If you buy Cole Hann shoes, they will last you a lifetime. If you put them on your credit card, that is about how long you will be paying for them.” I have to admit that over the years that has been one of my preferred brand of shoes, not just because they are comfortable and fashionable, but largely because they are durable, and I do a lot of walking. So they aren’t cheap, but sometimes you get what you pay for. Anyways, this is a sermon and not a commercial. 

I bring up shoes, because it occurred to me this week that they really are a piece of ancient technology. I don’t usually think of shoes as being technology, as they aren’t mechanical or electronic. I think of them as being an object of fashion at best, or an everyday necessity at least, but I don’t usually think of them as being a technological advancement. But that is what they are. They are one of the most basic human inventions, that allow us to travel great distances. They give us freedom, they give us protection, they make us feel less vulnerable. They are technology, but I hadn’t really thought of them much in that way until I was reading our Exodus passage this week.

In our Exodus passage this morning we hear the story of Moses’s first encounter with God speaking to him from the burning bush. It is important to note that this is the first time Moses meets God. This is long before the encounter when Moses receives the Ten Commandments, which we recited a few minutes ago. That meeting happens after the exodus from Egypt, but this one is before. Moses’s first meeting with God.

And the thing about this meeting that I find fascinating is that the first thing that God asks Moses to do is to take his shoes off. Why does God do this? He says that the place Moses is standing is Holy Ground, but that doesn’t really answer the question. What is it about shoes that God finds to be unholy or inappropriate for this place or this encounter? What is wrong with Moses’s shoes? That is the question that I have been pondering this week. So, I began to wonder, “what is a shoe really?” Well, it is a piece of technology. A human creation that makes us feel less vulnerable. Shoes protect your feet so that you can travel great distances. Without shoes Moses would have had a much harder time trekking across the desert to meet God. They serve a good purpose, but like any piece of technology they can mask our true vulnerability and weakness as humans. As simple as they are, they make us feel stronger and more independent than we actually are. Don’t believe me? Those of you who commute into the city, think of what your life would be like if you had to do that barefooted every week? Still don’t believe me? Then I would just point out that I put out a sign-up sheet several weeks ago looking for twelve volunteers to get their feet washed on Maundy Thursday and I am still a name short. Shoes make us feel less vulnerable, and on most of our walks in life that is a good thing, but not on our walk with God. With God, we need to be vulnerable. With God, we need to first understand how weak and helpless we really are. 

That is where Moses begins with God: barefooted. God is almighty and there is nothing that Moses can do, but just bow down before him. But then God has work for Moses to do. God is going to send Moses back to Egypt, back to Pharoah, and through Moses God is going to set his people free and lead them out of slavery into a new land. God is going to use Moses to save his people, and then after God saves his people, after he spares them from the plagues, and from thirst and starvation, and after they walk through the sea, then God is going to call them back to this holy mountain and then he is going to give them the law, the instructions on how they are to live their lives in this world. But he saves them first.

The first time that Moses encounters God on the mountain, he has to learn about his own weakness and vulnerability and dependence on God and God’s love for salvation. That comes first. Then, the second time that Moses encounters God on the mountain, then he is given practical rules and laws that he can live by that will make his life and the lives of others better on earth. The children of Israel aren’t saved because they adhere to the law; they adhere to the law because they are saved. God saved them before he ever gave them the law. God saved them simply because he loved them. It was his power that saved them; not their own. It wasn’t their shoes that parted the Red sea.

One of the things we encountered in our study of Deuteronomy this week, was Moses saying to the Israelites before they entered the promised land that they were not here because they were more righteous than other nations. In fact, he says, you are stubborn. But God loves you. That is why God has brought you here. And the commandments that God has given you, they are for your benefit. They will make your life, and the life of the world better, if you keep them, and teach your children to keep them. This is not about earning God’s love; it is about responding to God’s love. Yes, you will fail in some way, we all do, but you can always come back to them. That is what repentance means. It doesn’t have to be a shameful thing. It shouldn’t be shameful at all. It is about rediscovering something wonderful: God’s love. That is what repentance really is, rediscovering God’s love and rejoicing in it again. 

When Jesus talks about repentance in the gospel this morning he is really talking about it as a way of life. Not a one-time thing of telling God you are sorry, but a continual returning to God as the source of all that is good in your life. Our faith really is about trusting in God’s goodness more than we trust in anything else, including and especially ourselves and the works of our own hands. No piece of technology, no matter how insignificant should ever come between us and God. We can’t put our faith in them. In the gospel, some people came up to Jesus and asked him about two things: a horrible act of cruelty that Pontius Pilate had done, and a terrible disaster where many people were killed by a building’s collapse. Right away Jesus dismisses the idea that those disasters were in any way God’s punishment for sin. No, he says. It doesn’t work that way. Disasters happen. Humans do despicable things. Technology fails. Bad things happen to innocent people. The world has always been this way. Don’t try to blame the victims for being sinners and don’t try to blame God for punishing sin. That is not what is going on here. But repent anyways Jesus says. Repent. Turn back to God. Rediscover God’s love and rejoice in it, because the world is unpredictable. No amount of technology is going to give you complete control over the world around you or the people in it. So first of all, live in the knowledge and light of God’s love. But if you do believe in and trust the saving power of God’s love, then listen when God is telling you to do something, or not to do something. We should rejoice in God’s salvation which is not something we earn, but we should also rejoice in God’s wisdom and law and exercise it to the best of our ability. It is not a choice between belief and action. It is both. Belief and trust first, then action. 

First, we must learn what we cannot do, then we must learn what we can do. That seems to be how God’s salvation works. It is a two-step process. First, we must be completely vulnerable with God, and recognize our own weakness and frailty as human beings; then we must listen to God and choose to follow in the way he has shown us. God does give us commandments; he gives us examples; he sends us out into the world with work to do, and we should do that and do it boldly, but only as people who have first humbled themselves, and know, truly know, that everything ultimately depends on God and not on us. That is at least why I think that God makes Moses take his shoes off first, before he sends him on an incredible journey.

Remember

Standard

Sermon for March 9, 2025

Readings:

“After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” 

On the first Sunday of Lent, the church’s season of fasting and penitence, we hear the familiar story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the desert.

 He is tempted to turn stones into bread. That is the temptation of gluttony or lust. The temptation to serve the flesh. 

He is tempted with worldly goods and power if he will only serve the devil. That is the temptation of greed. 

He is tempted to publicly display his own power and divine status by throwing himself off the temple to see if angels catch him. That is the temptation to pride. 

These are familiar temptations, because we all suffer from them. 

We overindulge our bodies. 

We chase after things. 

We are controlled by pride and vanity. 

Jesus’s temptations are not unique to Jesus; they are temptations that we all must contend with. The reason that Lent focuses on the spiritual disciplines of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, is that each of those is a weapon against one of those temptations. 

You don’t want to be controlled by your stomach? Then try fasting.

You don’t want your life to be focused on acquiring more stuff? They trying giving some of your stuff away to those who have less.

You don’t want to be so utterly self-centered all the time? Then try praying and focusing your mental energy on a power much greater than you. Try remembering that you didn’t give birth to yourself. Try remembering how much you have needed God in order to be who and what you are. 

That’s not what the devil wants. The devil wants you to forget. But God wants you to remember. If you think about those temptations of Jesus for a moment; we say there are three temptations, but they are all really just variations on one big temptation. The temptation to forget God. 

Forget about God. You can make your own food and feed yourself. You don’t need him.

Forget about God. You don’t need to serve him. There are easier ways to get power and money in this world.

Forget about God. You are the one who is powerful and special. You don’t need to heed his warnings. You have control over your own destiny. 

The devil thinks that he can drive a wedge between Jesus and God. The devil thinks that he can make Jesus forget about God. He fails with Jesus, and that’s what makes Jesus special. Jesus does not fall for Satan’s tricks, but we often do. Jesus does not forget God, but we do. That is why our scriptures are littered with divine commands to remember. The devil tempts us to forget, but God commands us to remember. And God commands us to remember for our sakes, not for his. 

The Book of Deuteronomy, which we hear this morning, and which we are going to start studying this week, is really all about the command to remember. Moses is commanding the Israelites to remember their story. To remember where they have come from. To remember what their God has done for them. And this memory is for their sakes, not for God’s. Their success as a nation will hinge on their capacity to remember. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who I mentioned in my sermon on Wednesday, in his book on Deuteronomy, notes that the Israelites, who have wandered for forty years in the wilderness, have more hard times ahead of them in the Promised Land than they do behind them in the desert. He says, “The real challenge is not poverty, but affluence, not slavery, but freedom, not homelessness, but home. Many nations have been lifted to great heights when they faced difficulty and danger. They fought battles and won. They came through crises – droughts, plagues, recessions, defeats – and were toughened by them. When times are hard, people grow. They bury their differences. There is a sense of community and solidarity, of neighbors and strangers pulling together. Many people who have lived through a war remember it as the most vivid time of their life. The real test of a nation is not if it can survive a crisis but if it can survive a lack of a crisis. Can it stay strong during times of ease and plenty, power and prestige? That is the challenge that has defeated every civilization known to history. Let it not, says Moses, defeat you.”

The real challenge is not poverty but affluence. The real test of a nation is not if it can survive a crisis, but if it can survive a lack of a crisis. Nations crumble when they forget. When they forget their history; when they forget their values; when they forget their God. When they become comfortable and powerful and well-fed and well-respected, that is when a nation is really put to the test. That is when it is tempted. With stability, and affluence, and power comes the overwhelming temptation to forget. Moses does not want his people to forget, so not only does he remind them of their history but he also gives them specific instructions on how and when to remember. In our passage this morning he says to them, AFTER you have taken possession of the promised land and are settled, and AFTER you can collected the first fruits of your harvest, THEN you must take an offering to the priest and recite this: 

A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.

This is what the Israelites were supposed to say after they entered the promised land and collected the harvest. Not before, but after. It is one thing to pray for something when you don’t have it, but it is another thing to remember to give thanks once you have what you want. That is when it is easy to forget. Earlier in Deuteronomy there is a verse where Moses says “When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” The instruction is to give thanks AFTER your belly is full. Most of us I would argue are used to saying grace before a meal, but here Moses wants folks to say one after, because that is when it means more. That is when you are most likely to forget. It is easy to forget when your stomach is full that not very long ago you were hungry. 

It is amazing how quickly we humans can forget things. We don’t just forget phone numbers and car keys. We forget God. We forget our own stories. We forget history. We forget values. We forget who we are and how we got here. Forgetting is a temptation, perhaps THE temptation of the devil. But God commands us to remember. Over and over God commands us to remember, and he does it for our sakes, not for his.

What’s Jesus Doing?

Standard

Sermon for March 2, 2025

Readings:

My son has recently become fixated on Jesus. His parents, as they are both priests, are delighted with this, as you can imagine. He knows lots of Jesus songs, and because Jesus is usually depicted in similar ways, even in cartoons and children’s picture books, he can easily recognize the image of Jesus. We sometimes argue about Moses, Noah, and Abraham, but Jesus he correctly recognizes. It is all very heartwarming and encouraging.

But several times this week, my son has looked at me and said “What’s Jesus doing?” Now, because he wasn’t looking at a cartoon or a picture book, it wasn’t a question about what is happening in this story. It was more of an existential question; at least an existential question for a two-and-a-half-year-old. “What’s Jesus doing?” And the only honest answer that I could give, at least this week, was “I don’t know, son. I just don’t know.” I could easily tell him all about the things that Jesus did. I could tell him about my hope for what Jesus is going to do. But when it comes to here and now, in this moment in history, in this time in which we are living, at times I find myself struggling to understand what God is up to. What is Jesus doing? 

Of course, my son doesn’t read the news yet, so I know that the things that I find distressing or crazy-making, he isn’t even aware of. He doesn’t know about politics or world affairs; He’s just being a curious toddler. His question really revealed more about my own day to day faith than it did in his. Because I can tell you all about what Jesus said and did while he walked the earth. I know the gospel stories. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t read something that Jesus said. And I do have faith that ultimately the salvation of the world is in his hands. I do believe in those things that I say I believe every week. What Jesus is going to do. I believe that he will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting. Where I struggle, and where I think many people struggle, is wondering what Jesus is up to right now. Doesn’t he see all the sin and hypocrisy? Doesn’t he see war and death? Does he see lies and misinformation? Doesn’t he know what a mess the world is? I would so love to have perfect clarity in knowing what God is up to at all times, but that is not something that my faith affords me. I may have occasional visions and moments of revelation, but they pass and I am forced to get on with everyday life just like everyone else. Sometimes the only honest answer I can give when asked what God is up to is to say, “I don’t know.”

So, I am very sympathetic to Peter in today’s gospel story. I am sympathetic because when he has this wondrous vision on the mountain of who Jesus is and what he is up to, Peter says to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let’s build some houses and just stay here.” Peter wants to stay right there in that moment. Peter can see a transfigured Jesus. God’s glory is just shining out from him. There is little room for doubt about Jesus’s identity in this moment. You have all the special effects: the light, and the clouds, and the booming voice from above saying “this is my son. Listen to him!” It’s all there. Its spectacular. There is little room for doubt. And then you have the figures of Moses and Elijah on each side of Jesus talking to him. They are a revelation too. They reveal that this Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. The law from Moses and Elijah the greatest of the prophets. And they are talking to Jesus about his departure. That’s another revelation, because the word for “departure” in the text there is exodos, which means exactly what you think it means. His exodus. God makes clear to Peter and James and John in this moment that there is a link between what Moses did and what Jesus is doing. Both figures represent divine liberation from slavery into freedom. Both represent a journey from an old way of living, according to the rules and laws of this world; rules that are focused on power and who has it; into a new way of living with rules and laws that are focused on love and where it must be shown. This is a revelation to Peter; it is a glorious vision. So, I can understand why Peter would want to just live in that space. Who wouldn’t?

But no sooner does Peter say that, and the vision is gone, and he and James and John and Jesus are headed back down the mountain and into the messiness of everyday living. I don’t think it is an accident that our gospel goes from a glorious vision of who Jesus is and what he is doing immediately into a personal encounter between Jesus and one sick individual. There is a whole crowd of people that want to see Jesus, that need his help. But one father shouts out above them all that his son is sick. And what makes matters worse, is that this man has gone to Jesus’s followers for help and has gotten no relief. When Jesus comes down the mountain he seems to be pretty disappointed in what he finds in his disciples. Why? It seems like he calls them and their whole generation faithless and perverse? Well, maybe they had the power to alleviate this person’s suffering and they just didn’t do it. Or, maybe they didn’t understand that they could call upon God and God’s power to fight evil. Maybe they didn’t realize that God’s power wasn’t just for fighting globalized and glorified evil like images of Armageddon or the devil running around with a pitchfork, but also mundane evil. The evil of sickness. The evil of pain and loneliness. The evil of despair. The evil of callous disregard. The little evils of everyday life. Gods power can be called on to fight that evil too. God’s power can set people free, and Jesus has given his disciples access to that power. But Jesus comes down the mountain and finds people in bondage to the evils that he was trying to set them free from. Sort of reminds you of Moses coming down the mountain. He came down to discover that while he was away the Israelites had constructed a golden calf to worship, an Egyptian God, not the God who was setting them free. Exoduses don’t always go easy. The people want to turn back. They wonder where they are going and fear that they may be lost. So it was with Moses, and so it is with Jesus too. The disciples are not faultless in following Jesus. They don’t always get it and they often try and turn back to idols and the ways of the world. But as at the foot at mount Sinai, so also at the foot of the mount of the Transfiguration, God shows himself to be faithful, even when his closest followers are not. 

The challenge of being a follower of this God and of his son Jesus Christ, is translating that vision of God on the mountaintop into the God of everyday life. Peter and James and John have a vision of Christ’s glory, but God doesn’t let them stay there. They have to go back down the mountain, to people who are suffering and lost and in despair and find God and God’s power there too. They have to put God’s power to work. They need to see God’s power at work. It is so easy to get overwhelmed by trying to figure out what God is doing globally, that we can’t see God at work when it is right in front of us. It is also so easy to be so overwhelmed by all the suffering and evil in the world that we think there is absolutely nothing we can do to make life better for anyone. But there are things that we can do. We may not have the power to save the world, Jesus does that, but he has given us power, his power, to fight evil and sin and hard-heartedness, sometimes in very simple, little and small ways.

Yesterday, March 1st was the Feast of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales. He is actually where our son gets his middle name. Saint David was famous for his last words to his followers “Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things.” Do the little things. Little acts of compassion. Little moments of grace. Little prayers to God asking for helping with either speaking up or shutting up, whichever the case may be. Little moments of remembering who our God is can help you a lot when you aren’t sure where you are going. Peter and James and John had this awe-inspiring vision of Christ on the mountain, but then they came down the mountain and saw Christ’s power at work in the life of one ordinary sick person that needed help. What is Jesus doing? Well he is setting that person free, and that person free, and that person free. That is what Jesus is doing. We just can’t see it all at once. That is why it is easy to doubt sometimes, or to wonder like I do at times, what is Jesus doing? Well, we may wonder sometimes what Jesus is up to, and that’s ok, but we know who Jesus is. And that is far more important. 

I didn’t have a ready-made answer for my son when he asked me “what’s Jesus doing?” mostly because I just didn’t expect the question. But at one point this week, he sat down next to me on the couch with his little play computer, and he said to me Jesus loves me. And I said “that’s right buddy” and I looked down and I realized that he had typed it. Correctly. And then he did it again. I think he answered his own question. It was a better answer than I could give. What’s Jesus doing? Jesus is loving you. That’s what he’s doing.