Day 1413 - Faithful Dreamers

A sermon given at First Presbyterian Church, Spring City, TN, October 23, 2016

OT Reading: Joel 2:1-14

Gospel Reading: Luke 18:9-14

I was happy to read the lectionary passage from Joel because of its talk of dreaming. After all, aren’t we all dreamers? Some dream to find someone to love and live a happy life together, or for that great job and the security that comes with it. Some dream what a nice world it would be if there were not so much trouble in it.  Some dream of a world where the church is a vital, living part of everyone’s life. I know our situation in life and mindset shapes most of what we dream about. I know for some the circumstances of the world have beaten down dreaming and faith in the future, but I pray not for long....

I first wondered how Joel connects to our gospel passage in Luke, but then I remembered Jesus provided the answer to the big questions about where is the Kingdom of God and when will the Son of Man come in our previous readings in Luke 17-19. He tells to persevere seeking justice from God by continually praying (not non-stop, but regular) that our life demonstrates to the world how we live in the Kingdom of God. If we have steadfast faith that the Lord will take care of those who persevere, justice shall prevail.

Today’s parable is a companion to the unjust judge last week. It is a splash of cold water to center our dreams on God’s reality.  It invites us to evaluate prayerfully how we let our situation in life and mindset shape our dreams and aspirations.

Luke tells us that the parable is told to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.” The parable involves two people, a Pharisee and a tax collector. I wonder if Jesus invites us to a self-comparison with these two people?

The previous post mentioned that knowing the actual historical context of a parable can help us more fully appreciate and apply it. So here is a little background history about Pharisees and tax collectors in the time of Jesus.

Pharisees had an important role in the religious life of this time. They were not priests but a group of laypersons who used great effort to follow and defend the Law to its letter. They were similar to the current lay religious police of Islam called the mutaween. Gentile armies such as the Assyrians and Babylonians, Alexander the Great, and Rome ravaged the Jewish nation. Captivity was a historical reality extending over 500 years until the time of Jesus that contradicted God’s promise to Israel. The Pharisees sought to strengthen religious belief in the face of captivity by seeking out and bringing to justice heretics and those who were derelict in their piety. 

Many Jews had a favorable opinion of Pharisees. The criticism Jesus aimed at them was not of their fundamental commitment to the Law but of their blindness to the fact that the Law is not something to obey because it is written on a tablet but because it is part of your being written in your heart and behavior. Jesus was critical of those who got the “love God with all your might” part right, but seemed to miss the second great commandment that follows from the first, “love your neighbor as you love yourself,”… or as I like to put it, “love your neighbor the way God loves you.”

As for the tax collector, historical records show that a tax collector was despised by the people. Tax collectors were basically government-sanctioned robbers. Rome gave tax collecting power to the landowners who in turn gave responsibility to collect to the tax collectors.  They collected poll taxes, taxes on passage on Roman roads, on fishing and many things, earning their keep by adding their own “fee” on top. They had the authority to extract tax using any method they needed no matter how cruel.  Yet ironically they were captive to their Roman masters and landowners because not bringing back the taxes was a serious problem.

Most tax collectors, as this one, were Jews. They were subject to violence by the Jewish public and barred from most if not all religious offices, probably even from worshipping in the Temple because they worked for the Romans and oppressed their own people. They were not viewed as good and righteous people.

So, as Jesus introduces the parable, the listener’s first reaction hearing the prayer of the Pharisee in the Temple is likely positive. Even more, by pointing out the reviled tax collector, he deflects attention away from his arrogance and most would overlook the arrogance threaded into his prayer (11,12), “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”  

In an imperfect way the Pharisee shows exemplary behavior under the Law, he does not steal, he is not a rabble-rouser or an adulterer, and fasts and gives a 10^th of his resources to the Temple. Compared to this reviled tax collector, and his own account of his righteous life, he is a pretty good guy.

Where do we find the tax collector, in the Temple? No, Luke says the tax collector is “far away.” It is entirely likely that this tax collector is not, or cannot be in the Temple with the Pharisee. He maybe on the outside of the gate of the Temple, estranged from his God whose place he cannot enter. That makes Luke’s record hard to figure out, how does the Pharisee in the Temple even see the tax collector?  Luke is more concerned to emphasize this scene of the complete estrangement of the tax collector. It gives the conclusion of the parable great power.

We see the obvious contrast of the insider, the Pharisee, and the outsider, the tax collector. The Pharisee stands in the Temple close to the Lord, not with the hated tax collector who is standing outside, separated from the Lord by his deeds. The contrast lures the Jewish listener to favor the Pharisee.

At this point in the parable are we siding with the tax collector, with the pious Pharisee, or are we judging the Pharisee negatively for his arrogance and self-assurance that he is a self-made man. (We know the idea of a self-made man is the ultimate heresy since everything we treasure is a gift from God, on loan.) The first sentence of the parable encourages us to judge the Pharisee harshly as probably almost 100% of us do. But we turn the tables on ourselves, aren’t we acting like the Pharisee, relieved that we are not as arrogant and blind to God’s grace as he is?...

It is not clear that anyone in the Temple even hears the prayer of the tax collector. We, the listener to the parable, may be the only one who hears the prayer of the tax collector. He has had an epiphany about his own life as if he has awakened, looked and finally recognized the moral destruction he has caused to himself and those fellow citizens around him. He feels so worthlessness that he cannot even lift his eyes to the Lord. There is no forthright joy as we find in Psalm 121, “I lift up my eyes to the hills - from where will my help come,” or in Isaiah 51:6, Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; but my salvation will be forever, my deliverance will never be ended, or Nebuchadenezzer in Daniel 4:34-37, “I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and … blessed the Most High…for his sovereignty is… everlasting…, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

This miserable tax collector stands outside the Temple physically separated from the space of worship, emotionally separated from his own people and in his mind, even separated spiritually from God. All he can do is beat his breast in despair finding a bit of humility and faith to voice a prayer, his lament, to his Creator... “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

This lament connects us to the passage in Joel. Joel proclaims a message to pray with persistence, and hang on to your dreams for justice. Joel’s prophecy is one long lament, or prayerful petition for justification and forgiveness by the Lord.

If you do not know it, Joel is a mysterious book to biblical scholars of history. Its language says it is about Zion and talks about Judah and the Temple. It was most likely written after the Babylonian captivity when the Temple was rebuilt, but in the midst of a immediate, profound national and spiritual crisis. Perhaps it is the beginning of the domination by Alexander the Great? Nevertheless, Joel’s ritual of lament in the Temple over separation from the Lord harmonizes with the prayer of the tax collector. By connecting Joel’s demand for lamentation as a form of worship Jesus is using the lament of the tax collector as the proper counterexample to the prayer of the Pharisee. Our lament ought to be, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!,” not “Lucky me!”

The words of Joel tell a Jew listening to Jesus that he has turned the table and upholds the tax collector’s humility: Listen to these words of Joel:

“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming (note: Jesus has just previously talked about the coming of the Son of Man), … The LORD utters his voice at the head of his army; how vast is his host!  Numberless are those who obey his command.Truly the day of the LORD is great; terrible indeed—who can endure it?...

Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. (i.e., beat your breasts in anguish & Jeremiah) Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. ¹⁴Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him?...

O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given … your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain...And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am … your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to shame. Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions… Even on the male and female slaves…I will pour out my spirit… ³Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.”

Can these words and assurance of Joel not remind you of the question Jesus asked last week (18:7-8), “Will he delay long in helping them that pray (with perseverance) I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them?”

This is the stuff of good dreams, even those of old men. Through Jesus Christ, we “shall never again be put to shame.”  The Lord grants justice to those who ask and wait for it, even the despised tax collector. Persevere with your faith, you will get justice.  Amen

Day 1406 - Faith on Earth

A sermon given at First Presbyterian Church, Spring City, TN, October 16, 2016

OT Reading: Jeremiah 31:27-34

NT Reading: Luke 18:1-8

Today our scriptures in Jeremiah and Luke contrast the difference between hope and faith. Hope has a concrete character. It expects a result that we know can happen. I hope I see the sun rise tomorrow because I know it will rise. Whether I see it only depends on the clouds. Faith on the other hand, expects a result that facts, science and common sense tell us can’t happen. For example, I have faith death is not the end of my reality.

In chapter 1, verse 1-3, Luke said that he records the gospel in the dark years after the crucifixion. Rome had crushed, scattered and killed most of Israel and destroyed the Temple at the end of the Jewish rebellion of 72CE. Paul’s ministry was coming to an end as he languished in prison in Rome. Believers surely wondered when the Son of Man would return and end this turmoil and trial. People are wondering about the unfulfilled future beyond Jerusalem.

Much of Luke’s gospel is an account beginning in ch. 9:51-19:27, of the journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem that ends with the Passion. In chapters 16-18 near the end of the journey Jesus offers parables about faith to the disciples (and us) who he knows have faith, and Pharisees who are blind to faith.

From the time of Jeremiah to now, many of us have the same two questions posed by the Pharisees and disciples to Jesus, “Where is the Kingdom of God, and when will we see the son of Man?” These two questions boil down to “How shall the scriptures be fulfilled?” The answers Jesus provides in this parable and the verses leading up to it go directly to the heart of faith.

Jesus has just healed ten lepers (note: sinners) who seek a cure. All but one run away in their joy. Only a Samaritan, a foreigner/alien, a heretic, and temple outcast, returns to thank and praise Jesus for healing him, yet Jesus states, “Your faith has made you well!” (In Greek “made well” also means “to be saved”).

He encounters Pharisees, who like all penitent Jews were in the midst of the deepest spiritual crisis, Assyria conquered Israel, the Babylonians took Judah, then Alexander the Great seized all of Palestine and now Rome dominates. Every penitent Jew anxiously looks for the Messiah. They ask Jesus, “Where is the Kingdom of God?” 

Jesus answers (17:20-21) that “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you already… human desires are irrelevant to the wisdom of God who is constructing a divine kingdom in God’s time and place.  After all, you have seen the sign of my presence that reveals the Kingdom of Heaven is here. You can look in the sky and know when it is about to rain, why can’t you read these signs about the Kingdom of God being at hand.

Then he turns to the disciples (and us) who long to see the Son of Man. He says, “When the Son of Man comes it will be like the days of Noah where people were eating, drinking, marrying up to the day Noah entered the ark.” When the disciples ask “(when)” Jesus only says, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather;” that is, you will see it only when it happens.

Jesus tells us God is the God of the living, so rely upon your faith about the Son of Man, but as you wait, live the life of faith here and now in the Kingdom of God.

So what are we supposed to do? If you are like me, and maybe like the disciples, this answer to keep the faith may leave you longing for more. Anticipating this, Jesus repeats his message about faith in a parable about praying, long-suffering and not losing heart.

The Reading

A parable is a tough nuts to crack. It invites us to listen and choose sides. It tricks common sense to “choose a side,” to stand with Jesus as the parable is told, or with the apparent protagonist, or with the audience. As the parable unfolds, common sense, certainty, is turned upside down, distorted, including our own sense of what is proper and right. That distortion points us to its true meaning. Understanding the historical context of a parable allows us to extend and apply it to our time and experience.

This parable is unusual because Jesus tells us its message at the beginning. (18:1). It is about the need to pray always and not to lose heart.

Jesus describes a scene with two persons who could not be of more opposite status, a powerful, unjust judge and a powerless widow seeking justice from him.

The judge is calculating, has no regard for people, is concerned only with his own well-being and status, feathering his own bed, and has no respect and devotion to God. This judge is the epitome of leadership gone amuck.

In the time of Jesus, a widow is in the worst social predicament. She is dependent on the care of her sons, or a marriage to her deceased husband’s brother(s) or alms of the public. She is near the bottom of the pit of hopelessness in Palestinian society.

We and the other listeners immediately conclude it is obvious this widow is not going to get the justice she seeks. She will be run over and denied. It is so obvious the parable seems useless. But this widow does something out of character, she persists and gets under the skin of the unjust judge, her perseverance pricks his ego. To save face and stop the bother, he grants her justice.

What does Jesus tell us (7,8)? “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”

But in spite of the impossibility of all the facts of her situation, the widow gets justice. The perseverance in her heart, crying to him day and night, made the impossible possible.

A Jew listening to this story remembering the temple Rome destroyed or the long road lined with crosses holding crucified zealots probably does not hear “cry to him day and night” but “long-suffering.” They hear the words of psalm we spoke, or the words of Job who in the midst of all the unjust calamities and misery that have befallen him says, “I know that my redeemer lives. I will see justice.”

And…, we have the disciples who saw the signs of Jesus while they traveled with him to Jerusalem, his dying on the cross and then met him again on the road to Emmaus, who still struggle with their faith and probably wonder when will he come again? Jesus goes directly to the strength of their faith at the end of v8, “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Let me repeat a story from early in my days of volunteering in Mississippi after Katrina, abbreviated and edited. It involves a fellow I will call “Buddy” and about Christian faith in Pearlington, a small hamlet about a mile or so from the Gulf.  It was ground zero for Katrina. Like almost every one, Buddy’s house was inundated. He was fortunate it did not wash away and he barely survived the storm. One day I asked him why he didn’t leave before the storm and he told me his story.

“Mr. Henry, as Katrina approached, I stayed behind, not because I wanted to but because I had to. I realized how dangerous Katrina was very early in the morning before it came ashore and trees started falling in the 130 mph wind. But it was too late to leave since I had to wait for my mother, sister, a cousin and four of her kids to come to the house and leave with me. Then I get a call from my friend Howard who lives a few short blocks away and can walk barely a few yards even with a walker. Howard was frantic because the fire department promised to evacuate all the handicapped but in the end ran out of time and abandoned him.

 “So, Mr. Henry, then I surely couldn’t leave. Trees were already starting falling but I got over to Howard’s in my truck as fast as I could and drove him back over to my house. “Fast” was pretty slow, even with a chain saw it seemed like it took me an hour to there and back with all the fallen trees. We all got into my house where we intended to wait Katrina out.

"The pelting rain, snapping trees and howling wind were terrifying. Then the eye came over us and the sun came out. We all went outside. The road north to Interstate-10 was fully blocked by trees and debris. There was no way I could drive out, no electricity for my well or cell phone service to call somebody for help. We were stuck.

“While I’m standing there looking south down the road towards the Gulf all the sudden about a two hundred yards away this wall of water rises and rolls slowly towards me pushing broken trees and all sorts of debris before it. I turned around and started running towards my house, yelling ‘get everybody in the house, get in the house!’

“The water was up already to mid-calf when I was half-way to the house and I was starting to think maybe the house wouldn’t make it. I kept my fishing boat in the front yard, so I started yelling to the family on the porch , ‘Get in the boat! Get in the boat!’ But mother yelled, ‘No way, besides how can we get Howard in?’

“By the time I got to the boat all I could do was hang on the side in water over head-deep and paddle kick it over to the submerged porch floor. We got all eight people in it except me. It was raining like crazy and the water was still rising. I was afraid the boat would capsize or sink with that many people in it so I decided that we had to risk getting into the house. By now the water was too high to get in the first floor, but we could climb onto the porch roof. We would have to pry open a dormer shutter on a window to get into the attic but we no tool to do it.

“I knew my submerged truck was parked in the yard over by the oak. I started swimming towards the oak where the truck ought to be. My family was screaming because they thought I was caught in the current and washing away. My feet bumped the open door or roof of my truck. I took a deep breath and went down. I managed to grab the doorframe and pull myself into the bed of the truck fighting the current. I touched my tool chest, fumbled the latch open and felt and grabbed my crow bar and surfaced. Then I shoved the bar under my belt and pushed off against the trunk of the tree and swam to the boat.

“We got the boat tied up against the porch roof. I climbed on the roof and forced the dormer open with my crow bar. My cousin and I lifted Howard out of the boat and everybody else scrambled up and into the attic about the time the wind started really picking up again. We waited out Katrina in my dark attic. We couldn’t even stand up. It was the most frightening experience I’ve ever had, the howling wind, trees cracking, shingles tearing off the roof, the water was still slowly rising, all sorts of things were floating and blowing by on the water and you could hear the furniture bumping the walls downstairs.  We all were paralyzed by fear. My mother kept crying throughout the eight hours or so we were in the attic, ‘We are all going to die.’”

Buddy took a deep breath and continued…

”We made it through the storm. When the water subsided we got down out of the attic into the house. Everything inside was covered by foul smelling sludge. Most of our belongings were thrown about and scattered outside. The damage was just unbelievable.

It took almost two hours but I climbed over trees, overturned cars and dead animals to check out Howard’s house. I should say to his lot because his house was off the foundation and crushed.

 “Mr. Henry, Howard would have died if he’s stayed in it. That is when I knew I was supposed to stay. Because I stayed, I saved Howard’s life.”

Here we were three years later and tears still welled in the reddened edges of his eyes as he finished the story.

“But there is a little more, Mr. Henry. A few days later I was still cleaning out all the filth in the living room when my neighbor Joe came over to talk.  I guess he wanted to compare the damage in my house to his.  (Many folks are Catholic there.)

“Joe was looking at my living room wall where I had a crucifix that amazingly managed to stay put through all the water. The high water mark on the wall just touched Christ’s outstretched arms on the cross.

Joe remarked that crucifix was something else and asked me, ‘Buddy, are you going to put that crucifix back on the wall after you are done cleaning up this place?’

“I replied, ‘Yes, I sure am.’

‘Well, Buddy, how about putting him a little closer to the floor this time.’

I learned a lot about faith from Buddy. He may not have lived the most righteous life, but he lived through the Hell of Katrina and brought 8 people out the other side. His faith in Christ symbolized by that crucifix on the wall fueled Buddy’s instinctive action to persevere in helping his family and friend. Like the widow, his perseverance testified to his faith in the God of the Living. Neither lost heart in the worst adversity.  Both have unjustified faith that Jesus will deliver them the next time. 

How do we get such faith? I cannot give you a formula other than to rely on your heart and recall Jesus’ description of his calling in Luke 4:11-21 reading from Isaiah. He came to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Jesus said “The scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus said God is the God of the living. He says while faith sustains our hope for the future that will come, what we do in God’s kingdom today is the real stuff of faith. Perseverance and prayer in this present world inspires faith to work together towards the objective that we pray, “Thy kingdom come and thy will be done here on earth as it is in Heaven.” We will know we are in the Kingdom of God and in the year of the Lord’s favor, when faith becomes takes on the certainty of hope that there is a home. Only then when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth.