Monday, August 26, 2013

Not on the Sabbath


August 25th, 2013      “Not on the Sabbath”        Rev. Heather Jepsen
Luke 13:10-17
          Appearing only in Luke’s gospel, this morning’s reading is one of my favorites in the Biblical narrative.  Perhaps I love it because it features a woman, which few passages of scripture do.  Or perhaps I love it because it involves Jesus breaking the rules which is one of my favorite things.  Or perhaps I just love it because there is always something new to find in this wonderful story of freedom and redemption.
          The story begins with Jesus visiting the synagogue on the Sabbath day.  So often as modern believers, we have a tendency to forget that Jesus was a faithful Jew and was part of the Jewish culture and religious system.  Just as we find his spirit teaching us on Sunday in worship centers across the world, so Jesus taught in the Synagogues during the Sabbaths of his lifetime.
          While he was teaching that day, Jesus noticed a bent over woman on the edge of the crowd.  According to the author of Luke, a Spirit had crippled her body and kept her bent over for eighteen years.  She was unable to stand, forced to perpetually look down at the dirt.  To speak with someone she would have had to crane her neck around and strain to see them.  It is a very uncomfortable position. 
          She is on the margins of the group, sticking to the sidelines because her condition had made her unclean.  She doesn’t ask for healing or show any sign of faith, but Jesus sees her in the crowd and calls out to her.  He proclaims that she is set free from her ailment and he reaches out and touches her with both of his hands, crossing the boundary between clean and unclean.
          It is a miraculous healing and the woman is suddenly able to stand up straight.  Anyone who has been bent over in any position either from physical pain or even from working on a project in a tight space, knows what a relief it is to finally stand up straight.  The woman stands fully up for the first time in eighteen years and she praises God.  It’s a great story.
          The crowds are amazed but the religious authorities are less pleased.  “The Sabbath is a day that has been set apart and made holy.  There are certain things we do on the Sabbath and certain things that we don’t.  This was not a day for healing, it sets a bad example, this woman should have come another day to be healed.  If we have crowds at the synagogue asking for healing on the Sabbath, then that will distract from worship.” 
The leaders of the synagogue are responsible for keeping order and following the rules, and the fact of the matter is that Jesus has broken the rules.  The synagogue leaders are taking their understanding of the Sabbath from Exodus where we read that “Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.”
          Here, as in many Biblical stories, Jesus has a different understanding of the rules.  Yes, the Sabbath was made for rest, but it was also made to remember the redemption out of Egypt.  It was made to remember the freedom from bondage and captivity.  Jesus is thinking about the understanding of Sabbath in Deuteronomy where we read “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”   If we care for livestock on the Sabbath, how much more should the religious community care for a woman who has been suffering?  Shouldn’t the community celebrate the redemption of this woman, this daughter of Abraham, on the Sabbath day, a day for remembering redemption and freedom?
          As often happens, Jesus manages to out argue the religious authorities.  The healing stands, the religious leaders are put to shame, and the crowd rejoices at Jesus and his teaching.  It’s a great story.
          Now, there are a lot of ways a pastor can preach a sermon here.  I could talk about the woman, what it would be like to be bent over for so many years; and how the church offers healing, restoration, and new life to her and to us.  I could talk about the religious leaders; how they were bound by the rules and how the actions of Jesus bring them freedom here as well.  I could talk about the church community that pushes different people, people who make us uncomfortable like the bent over woman, to the outside of the circle.  How the church community often says this is not the time for full inclusion, and that those who want to be healed and restored to the community should come back later.  I could talk about how Jesus always challenges us to be in fully community with all people.  Wherever we draw a line between ourselves and others we can be confident that Jesus is on the other side of that line. 
          But the truth is, I wasn’t feeling any of those sermons this week.  Plus I wasn’t sensing that this community really needed to hear those messages right now.  That’s not the gospel for us today.  Instead, this week I was really drawn to the theme of the Sabbath itself.
          As modern believers we have done a great job of taking this story about doing work on the Sabbath and twisting it around.  In fact, I think most of us here, read this text and think that doing anything of import on the Sabbath is an OK if not a good thing to do.  In the old days, you could lead the donkey to water on the Sabbath and still be OK.  In our modern times you can make breakfast, go to church, go out to lunch, mow the lawn, pay the bills, make a big dinner, clean the house, do laundry, play with the kids, watch the game on TV and take a nap if you’re lucky; all on the Sabbath, and still feel justified.  In fact, you can do anything you want on the Sabbath and that’s OK.  If the Sabbath is about freedom, then I am free to do anything I want on the Sabbath, right?
          If we can do anything we want on the Sabbath and anything we want the other six days a week then suddenly we become very busy.  Suddenly we have a whole list of things to do, a whole load of work.  We are in the office and making dinner at home and doing laundry and running errands and cleaning house and visiting people, and the list becomes endless, and rest is discouraged, and before we begin to realize it we have become the one who is bowed down.  Like the woman in the story, we are bound by our to-do list, we are hunched over with the weight of our many obligations, we are bowed low by our work load and we can go on like this day after day for 18 years and more.
          In fact, like this woman, we can just accept this condition as the way things are.  We can even come to worship, on the Sabbath, bowed under our load of busyness and burdens and stand at the edge of the worship community and try to worship God.  We can try to worship God with our eyes on the ground and our back breaking because that’s just the way it is.  We’ve been so crushed by real work and imagined work for so long that we can’t envision anything else, so we don’t even ask for healing.
          And if we bring the story around to here, if we follow this alternate vision and reading, then the situation is flipped.  In the role of synagogue leader we no longer quote the Exodus understanding of Sabbath, no, we come at Jesus with Deuteronomy.  The Sabbath is about freedom so I am free to work as hard as I need to.
          And Jesus comes back at us with Exodus, “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.”  God rested, and so should you and frankly, to rest at this point would be a freedom wouldn’t it.
          And Jesus sees us in the crowd and he comes to us, to touch us and heal us.  Jesus comes to us and lifts the burdens off our backs.  Jesus comes to us and removes that to-do list.  Jesus comes to us and takes away that sense of needing to do it all by ourselves.  Jesus comes to us and heals us by enabling us to ask for real help.  Jesus comes to us and heals us by saying, this is the Sabbath day, you shall do no work, you shall rest.  Because rest is holy, and work is not.
          I think that is the message that we need to hear this morning.  Rest is holy, and work is not.  God has given us a gift, God has given us a freedom, God has given us a day and commanded us to rest.  And in our modern busy culture, where we are bowed under the weight of all the things we just have to do, Jesus is offering us healing and redemption by telling us that the best thing we can do today is to do nothing at all.  The best thing you can do today to honor your God, is to do nothing at all.
          Now, my husband Lars says that in some sermons he can tell that I am preaching to myself, and I think this is probably one of those days; but I know I am not the only one here who needs to hear this this morning.  I know that I am not the only person here with an endless list of projects and chores, a sense that I need to do it all by myself, and a Sunday Sabbath that only lasts as long as worship does.  I know how hard some of you work, I can see it.  And even if we are doing good works, even if we are doing good things that make a difference, if we aren’t taking a Sabbath rest then we aren’t honoring our God.
          This week, when I read about the bent over woman, I saw all of us, bent over by the start of the school year and the return of the heavy work load.  In this morning’s scripture reading, Jesus is offering us healing.  Jesus is offering to take the weight of our burdens and work load, by reminding us that the Sabbath day is holy, and that on the Sabbath we should rest.  We will never be able to stand up straight and praise God if we don’t. 
So keep that in mind this afternoon as you head home.  In six days the Lord created and on the seventh day our God, our busy God, with a to-do list that would trump any of our own, on the seventh day God rested.  And not only that, but our God commands us to rest as well.  Though the day of the week may have changed, this is our still Sabbath day, and today rest is holy and work is not.  It is my prayer that we would all honor our Lord and God this afternoon by taking a nap.  Amen.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Love Song


August 18th, 2013          “Love Song”            Rev. Heather Jepsen
Isaiah 5:1-7 with Luke 12:49-56
Gather all from near and far
To hear the song I bring
I sing a song of love today
‘Tween a people and their King
My King who loved so deeply
Was a gardener at heart
So when my lord created
A great vineyard he did start

He chose the best land yet
A plot on a fertile hill
A place to work and toil
A good piece of earth to till

He dug it deep and clear
Removing stone by stone
This vineyard was his prize
This vineyard was his home

When the earth was dug and clean
He planted vines in rows
From chardonnay to cabernet
These were the grapes he chose

Every day he weeded
And he pruned the vines with care
He picked the plants clean of all bugs
All his attention it was there

As time passed on the vineyard grew
And grapes soon did appear
O how great my King’s anticipation
Of wine so sweet and clear

The growing season moved quickly past
From summer sun to rain
The grapes they grew so strong and true
And the time of harvest came

My King, so great, picked of the fruit
And yearned for that first bite
What could be better or more sweet
Than a harvest of delight

Alas the grape was sour
A rotten, strange, old stink
The King was shocked and saddened
He didn’t know what to think

How could the grapes be bad? he asked
I tilled and cleaned and cared
These grapes and vines are beautiful
No expenses have I spared

And so he tried another grape
And alas it was sour too
Could the whole field have spoiled so?
What was a king to do?

As time wore on the situation
Became painfully so clear
Despite all his work and toil
No sweet grapes would be found here

The whole vineyard was a loss and waste
A rotten patch no doubt
Though they looked so pretty and sweet
There was no good grape on the mount

It was a most unnatural sight
Strange and downright wrong
How could such work go all to waste
Rejecting love so strong

Judge between us! the King, he cries
How can this possibly be?
What is wrong in the picture here?
Is it the grapes or me?

Of course it’s the grapes we cry so fast
They are wrong and bad
Just give up on the vineyard, King
This story is too sad

And now here comes the twist in the tale
The King is our Lord and God
The vineyard planted so lovingly
All people that on earth have trod

We are the grapes so sour and bitter
We are the grapes that are rotten
We are the grapes that have turned out bad
And disappointment we have gotten

In the poem that dear Isaiah tells
The vineyard will come down
God will open up the flood gates
And destruction will abound

What good is a vineyard of sour grapes
One of rejected love?
It’s nothing but a waste you see
Even if crafted from above

The Lord planted truth and mercy here
He planted love and care
Instead of a harvest of hope for all
It was a harvest of despair

God wanted justice and righteousness
A fair shake for all
But God got greed and selfishness
The poor’s back against the wall

The time has come to tear it down
To rip out vine and root
The time has come to clear the field
Give these sour grapes the boot

Jesus too speaks of this clearing
A time when the world’s on fire
I’d set the blaze myself he cries
So deep is his desire

The time has come to clear the field
Break family root and tree
Where once there was some unity
Now two will be against three

Jesus claims to come divide
Mother cut from daughter
Father cut from son and more
Such will be the slaughter

The time is coming, our Lord cries
People don’t you see?
The vineyard will be uprooted
Is the warning to you and me

Stop, stop, stop, you cry
No more this tale of woe
When you claimed to sing a love song
I didn’t think this was the way it would go

Tell me more of love divine
Of the vineyard and its master
Give me one more chance you plead
To avoid a certain disaster

Ok, calm down, I say so sweet
A love song you will get
Let’s return to the prophet Isaiah
The story’s not over yet

Isaiah preaches of our sins
Of greed and hate and woe
But then the story takes a turn
Another way begins to show

After the story of tearing down
Cutting down vine and tree
Isaiah predicts a fresh new start
A shoot from the stump of Jesse

A time is coming, Isaiah says
When peace will be on the land
The leopard and calf will go together
And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb

Once the disaster has come and gone
A new order will come about
We can’t begin a time of peace
Until we get the rotten grapes out

And is this not the true story of love
That continues through the pain
That moves from beginning to end at once
And then beyond to begin again

For such is the love I sing about
A love so strong and clear
That rejection and rottenness cannot break down
This love which is so dear

The king will tear down vine and plant
And then he’ll start anew
Begin again a love affair
Between our God and you

For those of us who have loved, we know
That nothing can tear us apart
When our love is deep and true
We are people of one heart

And so our God is full of love
And will start over and over and over
The world it turns, the story twists
But God is a faithful lover

The ending is the beginning here
New life it comes from death
God is with us in everythingDown to our very breath
And so we come to grow and change
A vineyard on a hill
Until the sweetest wine we are
Ready for the still 
We are the fruit, planted and nurtured
We are God’s love and care
And one day this vineyard will be perfect
And I will see you there

Monday, August 12, 2013

Kings of Summer: Pride and Providence


August 11th, 2013         “Pride and Providence”      Rev. Heather Jepsen
Sermon Series: Kings of Summer
2 Kings 5
          After taking a break for my family vacation, today we return for the final installment of our sermon series “Kings of Summer”.  We have spent the entire summer following the stories of Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Kings. 
We began with the story of Elijah’s call to be a prophet, discovering that the God of the Old Testament is a God who meets people living on the edge and gives them just enough to continue.  We read of Elijah’s showdown with the rival prophets of Baal and wondered about hedging out bets in our modern world.  We watched Elijah bottom out and run to Mount Horeb for a direct encounter with the divine which lifted him back up.  We witnessed Elijah speak the truth to power as he named the sins of Ahab and Jezebel in the murder of Naboth and the stealing of his vineyard.  And in our most recent sermon from this series we saw the transfer of power between Elijah and Elisha and we began to realize that it is not all about us.  Today we finish the series off, with a study of pride and providence.
Our story this morning takes place after Ahab has been killed but before Jezebel has died.  Their second son Jehoram is currently sitting on the throne of Israel.  The main character in this morning’s narrative is Naaman a commander in the army of the king of Aram.  This is the army that defeated Israel in the battle in which king Ahab was killed.  Naaman most likely served as a commander in that very battle.  Though a great warrior, and respected by his troops and his king, Naaman is stricken with leprosy which would have been not only a discomfort but a dishonor.
An Israelite slave girl, serving his wife, happens to mention Elisha the prophet of Israel and Naaman is interested in the possibility of a cure so he goes to his king.  The King of Aram sends Naaman along with a letter and gifts to the king of Israel asking for healing.  It is no wonder that Jehoram the king of Israel tears his clothes as the rival king, who has already beaten them in battle, now seems to ask him to do the impossible. 
Luckily, Elisha steps up to the plate and asks that Naaman be sent to him.  Naaman arrives at Elisha’s expecting a great show.  He is hoping the prophet will come out and wave his hands over him.  He is hoping that there will be signs from heaven and a direct encounter with this “god of Israel”.   But that is not what he gets.  The prophet doesn’t even come out of his house.  He simply sends out a messenger telling Naaman to wash in the Jordan River.  It is no wonder that Naaman is upset; the prophet’s actions are disrespectful towards such a highly honored commander.  I mean, the guy didn’t even come out of his house!
Naaman turns away in a huff but one of his servants urges him to try the remedy anyway.  The great commander would not turn away from a challenge, so why turn away from a simple cure.  In a beautiful scene, Naaman humbles himself and washes in the muddy Jordan, dubious of the promised cure.  By a miracle he is cured, and by an even greater one, he is converted to the worship of the God of Israel. 
Naaman returns to praise God and this time Elisha does come out to greet him.  He tries to shower Elisha with gifts but the prophet turns him down.  Naaman requests that he may take soil back with him to Aram so that he can worship the God of Israel on Israelite land.  He also asks for mercy as he will have to enter the temple of his local deity Hadad the Thunderer in his service to his king.  Elisha sends him away in peace.
It does not take long before Elisha’s faithful servant Gehazi hatches a plot to get his own out of the deal.  He follows Naaman and requests a gift, making up a story about visiting prophets.  Once again, Naaman makes a generous offer, double Gehazi’s request and Gehazi accepts not only the gift but the aide of the servants of Naaman to bring it back.  Upon his return, Gehazi sends the servants away and hides his stolen treasure.
Of course nothing gets past Elisha.  He asks Gehazi where he has been and his servant flat out lies in his face “I haven’t gone anywhere at all.”  Elisha calls him on the lie and asks “Is this a time to accept gifts?”  The prophet doesn’t work for personal gain; he works for the glory of the Lord of Israel.  To punish him for his greed and wrong doing Elisha curses Gehazi and the generations that follow with the very leprosy that Naaman was just cured of.
Many preachers, including myself, just love this story.  From the ups and downs to the interesting characters, this is one of the richer Biblical narratives.  One of the wonderful themes that I find in this story for us today is that of pride.  From the pride of the king of Israel to the pride of Naaman to the pride of Gehazi, there are a lot of puffed up people strutting about throughout this text.  And more often than not it is the pride of these individuals that blinds them to the work of God around them.
Jehoram the King of Israel is so proud that he just assumes that the King of Aram is speaking directly to him.  He just assumes that he is the one that is supposed to heal Naaman.  He doesn’t even consider that there might be a prophet in the land that could do the healing.  He doesn’t even consider that there might be power in Israel outside the throne.
Naaman is so proud that he almost misses his chance to be healed.  “I thought he would come out” he says, “I thought there would be a big show.  Doesn’t he know who I am?!?  No one disses Naaman the commander of the great armies of Aram.  Wash in the Jordan, there are plenty of better rivers in the land of Aram.  This guy is a joke.”
Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, is so proud he thinks he can sneak around the prophet.  You would think that someone who had spent so much time with Elisha would be aware of his power and vision.  But no, Gehazi is blinded by greed and convinced that he is smart enough to get away with it, so he takes from Naaman what was not his to take.  His pride and greed will be his undoing.
Another theme tied to that of pride is the great role reversals in this story.  Like the upside down kingdom that Jesus is always preaching about where the last will be first and the first will be last, there is a lot of topsy-turvy role reversal in this narrative.  The slave girl is lifted up while Naaman is humbled, Naaman is lifted up in healing and then humbled in generosity, Gehazi the slave is brought down from his position as Elisha’s right hand man.  Those who seem to be in power, kings and commanders, take a back seat to those who do not, wives and slaves and servants.  It is a wonderful change of position.
Along that line of thinking, the other really cool thing happening here is insiders become outsider and outsiders become insiders.  Naaman, an outsider to the faith, receives healing and is converted.  Even Jesus remarks about this in defense of his own ministry to outsiders in the gospel of Luke where he says “There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”  Naaman the outsider; becomes an insider through healing and faith.  By contrast, Gehazi an insider; becomes an outsider.  He who once was Elisha’s right hand man, now has leprosy.  Not only is he outside the “in” group of Elisha’s followers, now he is outside all groups together as he must live as an outcast. 
I love these narratives because I see so much of ourselves in these stories.  Unlike our last sermon in this series, there is a lot here that is still relevant to the modern reader, and while we can learn about God we also have the opportunity to learn about ourselves. 
Like Naaman, we are often so proud, that we might miss the chance for healing, we might miss the chance for God to be working in our lives.  Like approaching the prophet, loaded down with gifts and riches, we expect that our wealth and power will heal us.  We spend money to make it better, and hope that our influence will help us get along in the world.  “Don’t they know who I am?!?” we ask. 
We also come to God expecting a direct encounter with the divine.  Naaman expected a big show.  That the prophet would come out and wave his hand over the place, that there would be flashes of light and a booming voice from the heavens.  How often have we longed for such a direct encounter with the divine?  “How can I know God is real if God doesn’t show himself to me?  Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?”  We too expect a direct encounter with God.  And while we are so busy waiting for that moment, we are blind to all the ways God is working around us.  We are so busy looking up at the sky, that we miss the ways God is working through the people around us, we miss the signs of God’s presence that are right in front of our faces. 
Like the characters in this story, we are often blinded by our pride and we miss the providence of God in our world.  The promise of the providence of God, is that God is working through all creatures, all people, all creation, to guide things toward the accomplishment of God’s purposes.  Sure, it can hit us in big moments in our lives, like Naaman’s healing did for him.  But more often than not, the providence and working of God, enter our lives through small things.  From the word of a trusted friend to the song of a bird, to simple things like bread and juice, God is working to reach us in little ways in our world.
The trick for us is to not be like Gehazi.  Though he had been up close and personal with the power of God through his work with Elisha, Gehazi still didn’t trust that God would take care of him.  That is why he went after Naaman’s riches.  Gehazi had an “I’ll take care of it myself” attitude versus a trust in God.  In being stricken with leprosy Gehazi now has no choice but to trust in God’s providence, as he has become the lowest of the low in the Israelite social scale.
Throughout this sermon series we have learned a lot about the God of the Old Testament.  The God of the Old Testament is a sovereign God, with the power to bring life or death, the power to bless with healing or to curse with leprosy.  The God of the Old Testament is a God who meets with people living on the edge of life, and blesses them there not with riches beyond their imaginations, but with just enough to keep them going.  The God of the Old Testament is a jealous God, who demands our singular attention and worship.  The God of the Old Testament is a God who is present sometimes in flashy ways, like fire from heaven, but more often in small ways, like the still small voice in our own hearts.  The God of the Old Testament is a God who is working his providence out through the little things in our world, from the voice of a stranger to a cup of cool water.  The God of the Old Testament is one who encourages us to speak the truth to power and to work for justice in our world.
While these texts have been difficult, through this sermon series we have come to find out that the God of the Old Testament might not be as scary as we once thought.  In fact, the God of the Old Testament has an awful lot in common with the God we find in Jesus Christ.  For Jesus the Christ brings healing, welcomes outsiders, speaks softly, works through simple elements, proclaims truth to power, lifts up the lowly, meets those living on the edge, and works for justice in the world. 
Thanks be to God for these wonderfully interesting stories in the Old Testament.  And thanks be to God for a story of providence, that still plays out in little ways in our own lives this very day.  Amen.