Next Tuesday I have the privilege of celebrating Eucharist with my community at L'Arche Ottawa. For the past few years I have been heading north almost every month to visit, share music and love, sometimes help out with retreats, and periodically celebrate Eucharist. After retiring from my local church ministry last year, I entered into the observance of Lent with L'Arche and journeyed with the community through Holy Week. It has become a sacred place in my heart and I am blessed to be able to return next week.In community, I find that God invites me to be more quiet than talkative and more attentive than casual. Simplicity and an appreciation for the small ways we can make compassion flesh among us is what matters most. So, in anticipation of our Lenten feast, I have been listening for clues about what I might share from the gospel that night. Eugene Peterson has rendered the gospel of St. Luke 4: 1-13 like this:
" Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.”Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.” For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.” Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.” For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?” “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’” That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
For most of my life, I have paid attention to the discrete temptations of this text. That can be interesting, but two other truths are beginning to emerge for me that I think are more valuable. First there is the rhythm of this text: Jesus has just experienced his baptism where he finds himself filled with God's spirit of holiness. He has heard the Lord's love reassure him that he is a beloved child of the holy. And we might say that Jesus is feeling full to overflowing with joy at after his baptism.
No sooner is this over, however, then we're told that after the joy Jesus enters into an experience of emptiness. A time of fasting. A season of questioning and challenges. A time of wandering in the wilderness that winds up with three key temptations. Now the rhythm of all of this makes me think of the Hebrew scripture that says: "to every thing there is a season: a time to be up and a time to be down, a time for joy and a time for trial, a time for song and a time for silence, a time for feasting and a time for fasting, a time for life and a time for death." (Ecclesiastes 3) And that rhythm seems to be true for most of our lives: there is day and there is night, there is light and there is darkness, there is work and there is play, there is joy and there is sorrow.
No sooner is this over, however, then we're told that after the joy Jesus enters into an experience of emptiness. A time of fasting. A season of questioning and challenges. A time of wandering in the wilderness that winds up with three key temptations. Now the rhythm of all of this makes me think of the Hebrew scripture that says: "to every thing there is a season: a time to be up and a time to be down, a time for joy and a time for trial, a time for song and a time for silence, a time for feasting and a time for fasting, a time for life and a time for death." (Ecclesiastes 3) And that rhythm seems to be true for most of our lives: there is day and there is night, there is light and there is darkness, there is work and there is play, there is joy and there is sorrow.
And yet, in addition to our sorrows, most of us have also known some beautiful, loving and joyful times, too. Don't you think? Times of laughter and love? Times of celebration and belonging?
A few weeks ago, I was in Brooklyn, NY for a music show with my grandson, Louie. He and I have loved one another in a special way since the day he was born five years ago. We laugh and play and talk and tell stories and just love life when we're together. Well, his momma gave me a Christmas present that involved all of us going to this special show. And I was knocked-out. Its a show called "STOMP" about how we can make music with brooms and garbage cans and pipes and lots of ordinary things. When I watched it sitting next to this little boy that I love I was filled full to overflowing with happiness. And yet, two days later on the drive back home, I felt myself coming down with Louie's cough and sore throat - and for the next 10 days I was sick as a dog.
A few weeks ago, I was in Brooklyn, NY for a music show with my grandson, Louie. He and I have loved one another in a special way since the day he was born five years ago. We laugh and play and talk and tell stories and just love life when we're together. Well, his momma gave me a Christmas present that involved all of us going to this special show. And I was knocked-out. Its a show called "STOMP" about how we can make music with brooms and garbage cans and pipes and lots of ordinary things. When I watched it sitting next to this little boy that I love I was filled full to overflowing with happiness. And yet, two days later on the drive back home, I felt myself coming down with Louie's cough and sore throat - and for the next 10 days I was sick as a dog.
Now, I wouldn't have traded the joy we shared that afternoon for all the gold in the world; but as so often happens when I visit my grandchildren, I get their colds. Those little kindergarten germs are powerful to this old dude! So as we drove home and I started to cough and sneeze I couldn't help but think: that's the way the world goes round, one minute you're up and the next you're down.
That's part of what this story about Jesus and his baptism and desert time says to me: there are highs and lows, joys and sorrows in every life. Like Jesus we are going to have days when we can't wait to get up out of bed and go to work; and, then there will be those times when we just want to pull the blankets over our heads and stay buried in our beds all day, right?
Probably many of us in this room have also experienced the death of someone we love. Over the years I have been the celebrant at hundreds of funerals. And been with hundreds of families as they walk with a loved one into and through death. And one of the mysterious paradoxes is that as we sit around the bed of one who is dying - sad to our core at losing this blessing - stories pop up that make us laugh. Songs emerge that we sing to the one crossing over. And there are tears and laughter, joy and sorrow all mixed together in those moments.
That's part of what this story about Jesus and his baptism and desert time says to me: there are highs and lows, joys and sorrows in every life. Like Jesus we are going to have days when we can't wait to get up out of bed and go to work; and, then there will be those times when we just want to pull the blankets over our heads and stay buried in our beds all day, right?
Probably many of us in this room have also experienced the death of someone we love. Over the years I have been the celebrant at hundreds of funerals. And been with hundreds of families as they walk with a loved one into and through death. And one of the mysterious paradoxes is that as we sit around the bed of one who is dying - sad to our core at losing this blessing - stories pop up that make us laugh. Songs emerge that we sing to the one crossing over. And there are tears and laughter, joy and sorrow all mixed together in those moments.
That's one truth - a country music song puts it like this: sometimes your the windshield, sometimes your the bug, sometimes you're the bat and sometimes you're the ball.
But there's another truth in this story of Jesus and I think it has something to do with how we can get tricked into forgetting who we truly are in God's love. How we can forget all our most important gifts. And become so confused in life that we no longer see God in one another. This story tells us that there are forces in the world that want to steal our true identity. One teacher told me that this is a story of identity theft where the Devil tries to trick Jesus into forgetting the he is God's beloved. The Trickster, and that's another name for the Devil, wants Jesus to act like he's is big and powerful rather than small and tender. He wants Jesus to trust his fears more than God. And act like having authority over others is more important than listening. The Trickster wants Jesus to put his own comfort so far ahead of caring that he can steal away Jesus' identity.
So I imagine that during all this testing in the desert Jesus is praying over and over inside his heart: I am blessed because I am God's beloved. That's what the Father told him at his baptism. And that's what God whispers inside each of our souls when we are born. You - and you - and you and you and you - are blessed because since before there was time you were created in God's imagine as the beloved. I think Jesus spent those 40 days and nights in the desert wandering around praying: I AM God's beloved. I AM God's beloved. Because it is easy to forget this - or be tricked out of it - or feel so ashamed or afraid that our true identity is stolen.
So those who know how this story progresses: what does Jesus do as soon as his testing and questioning with the Trickster is over? He gathers together his friends. He starts building a community of trust and tenderness and caring so that he can keep remembering that he - and we - are God's beloved. God showed Jesus how to call together a community to remember that we are God's beloved.
But there's another truth in this story of Jesus and I think it has something to do with how we can get tricked into forgetting who we truly are in God's love. How we can forget all our most important gifts. And become so confused in life that we no longer see God in one another. This story tells us that there are forces in the world that want to steal our true identity. One teacher told me that this is a story of identity theft where the Devil tries to trick Jesus into forgetting the he is God's beloved. The Trickster, and that's another name for the Devil, wants Jesus to act like he's is big and powerful rather than small and tender. He wants Jesus to trust his fears more than God. And act like having authority over others is more important than listening. The Trickster wants Jesus to put his own comfort so far ahead of caring that he can steal away Jesus' identity.
So I imagine that during all this testing in the desert Jesus is praying over and over inside his heart: I am blessed because I am God's beloved. That's what the Father told him at his baptism. And that's what God whispers inside each of our souls when we are born. You - and you - and you and you and you - are blessed because since before there was time you were created in God's imagine as the beloved. I think Jesus spent those 40 days and nights in the desert wandering around praying: I AM God's beloved. I AM God's beloved. Because it is easy to forget this - or be tricked out of it - or feel so ashamed or afraid that our true identity is stolen. So those who know how this story progresses: what does Jesus do as soon as his testing and questioning with the Trickster is over? He gathers together his friends. He starts building a community of trust and tenderness and caring so that he can keep remembering that he - and we - are God's beloved. God showed Jesus how to call together a community to remember that we are God's beloved.
+ Can you say out loud some of the ways this community helps you and one another remember that YOU are God's beloved? Birthday parties! Community meetings and celebrations. Community dinners. Funerals. Work days. Passing the candle and speaking affirmations. Eucharist.
+ AT one of the first meetings I attended here at the end we went around the circle and spoke out loud some of the reasons why we were blessed by one another's presence that day. And Michael Bass said the sweetest, most tender and vulnerable things... about me. And he kept going on and on. And when he was finished, I couldn't speak. I was weeping tears of joy and I had no words because it was so beautiful. He was doing for me what God did for Jesus: reminding him that he was the beloved.
There's a song you sing that is so important: I learned it years ago but had forgotten it until a community meeting when you were celebrating Chastity's anniversary. You all know it: Thank you Lord for giving us Chastity.... right where we are. Alleluia, praise the Lord... right where we are.
We gather together to remember that we are God's beloved. To help those who have forgotten to remember - to praise God for loving us all as beloved children right where we are - and to show the world there is a way better than power and fear and control. We call it community - and it is God's love made flesh right where we are. Thanks be to God.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment