August 14, 2022: A Singular Matter

A Singular Matter

Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19; Hebrews 11:29-12:2, Luke 12:49-56

Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender

In presbytery meetings, when there is a serious issue before the body, a member will call for ‘a division of the house’, that is, to tally the numbers of votes on either side. It has been suggested I should ask this of you all today: how many want to discuss this text and how many would prefer a sweeter one?

This is one of those texts that I describe as being ‘slayed’ by the Word. We just shared the great gift of Christ’s peace with one another, as we do each week, only now to hear “I’ve come to bring fire to the earth, division, you hypocrites!” Wow, okay. What is this? (Pause)

This is our opportunity to wrestle with a God of substance, who has a missional agenda. Jesus has NOT come to verify and validate human institutions, no matter how much we enjoy the credibility and power of our own creations. Rather, Jesus has come to initiate and complete God’s will. He set His eyes toward Jerusalem - knowing full well what is to come. His baptism of fire - is it a fire of Pentecost or the Refiner’s fire, burning the chaff from the wheat? And where does judgment land on us? Are we the hypocrites of our day?

Honestly, what really helps is that in our liturgy we say a prayer of confession every week. We are well practiced in knowing the real-life failures and limits of our own good behavior, resentments we hold, sins that cling so close and we repeat each and every day; our practice of being right rather than forgiving; and the immeasurable grace that comes with 6 simple words: IN JESUS CHRIST WE ARE FORGIVEN. It makes it possible to run the race of our lives set before us. And to grasp, in some measure, how deep and broad is the severing of God’s reordering of life in Jesus Christ. The fire cleanses…

Jesus is here to enact God’s radical agenda, the absolute disruption of all human institutions and our place in them. It is mid-August, but you can imagine we are on the edge of Holy Week.

A Singular Matter

Yes indeed, there is division - in households, in political parties, in churches - for some react to the gospel of Jesus with derision, dismissive of God’s claim as Creator and Sustainer of all that is and is to come. Especially because the way in which Jesus dies is so common; in our day He might just be shot on the street by the powers and principalities. How is it possible that His death has any meaning? It is rather foolish to believe don’t you think?

Yeah, you could say it that way. But we all know that we have world views, our own cobbled together intellectual and emotional understandings of how it all began, what’s our place here, is there something or someone transcendent to all we can see and measure? “The kindom is yours,” Jesus says and we believe it and offer our deepest gratitude for being saved. We too see the cosmic battles acted out across the world, the fires that incinerate rather than cleanse. Our own rash judgments that blind us to Jesus’ call to build relationships with God and one another based in mercy, compassion and justice.

The stripping away of our self-powered aggrandizement is painful. Its like in the Chronicles of Narnia, when Aslan the lion/Christ figure lifts his great paw to begin to rip Eustace’s dragon scales away, to make him human again.

A Singular Matter

God’s missional agenda is the reconciliation of the world to Himself through the power of love to defeat evil and sin. Jesus will be immersed in suffering on our behalf, what is called the folly of the cross. His blood establishes our covenant of grace that is permanent, generous and not subject to any of humanity’s whims. Jesus Christ does not need us to believe in Him.

This is the truth of the gospel.

Jesus wants us to believe, Jesus wants to save us, and the world, as He already has. But our belief does not make it so. Our belief is simply a recognition of what God has done in Her missional agenda, and what God continues to do to bring peace. God’s formula includes a deep stripping away of humanity’s hubris, as if we control our lives. We are invited to participate in LOVE. To act out MERCY. To extend COMPASSION as our first offering. We have a God who is willing to die for us and this creation. But, but, but - isn’t there another way, a less costly choice? Not so bloody?

No wonder Jesus gets frustrated and impatient. No as a matter of fact, there is not. This is the cost of salvation. And I’m going to Jerusalem. A Singular Matter

On the other side of the cross is the completion of reconciliation, the JOY that Jesus claims. His endurance as the pioneer of our faith, shines bright and He offers Himself as First Born of Creation, yet not only Him. There is a crowd surrounding us as we struggle to become fully human in Christ. Stop and think for a moment of your pantheon of grace. Who is in your choir loft singing and praising God; who whispers words of comfort amidst your despair? Who do you know kept the faith, even in the midst of deep and abiding sorrow?

Fill your imagination with the in-breaking creation that invades our daily lives. It is a practice of re-enchantment of the world when you stop and say, “I believe in the wonder of grace offered in Jesus Christ. I see the breath of the Spirit blowing in the midst of this community, I am willing to submit myself by faith, to open the eyes of my heart, to see beyond…”.

Jesus has entered fully into the brutal, shameful world of humanity and has come out the other side with joy and peace. He stands with us in solidarity. We are not abandoned, nor are we alone. We are surrounded by witnesses, living and gone on to eternity, who strengthen and keep us, in faith. A Singular Matter

August 7, 2022: Worlds, Worlds, Wow!

Worlds, Worlds, Wow…

Ps. 50:1-6 Hebrews 11:1-16; Luke 12:32-40

Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender

Before I start the sermon this morning, I want to tell you about something that happened this past week. I think I met an angel.

On Tuesday, I was doing a training trek for the upcoming pilgrimage. I walked, with my 17 lb pack, up along Dexter to Mercer, to Met Market, as they were having a bogo sale of steak. Jeff and I are carnivores!!! I had done a long trek the day before up and over Magnolia to Discovery Park, so decided not to walk up and over Queen Anne, rather go around it. I headed west from Met Market in Uptown, went up a set of stairs and then kept going farther west. I got to the place where I was one block below Highline Drive. Do you know this street? It is one of the most beautiful streets in all of Seattle! Seriously. It follows the curve of Queen Anne Hill, looking out toward the water and the Olympics in the west. Ferry boats, big container and cruise ships, little canoes and kayaks, everything is so beautiful! There is a 1/2 wall with old-fashion street lamps built on top. They still light up at night:) And a beautiful little park facing south that overlooks the Space Needle and downtown. It's really lovely.

I saw another set of stairs to climb and thought, “Ok, I love this street above me.” I went up, huffing and puffing, and just as I got to the top there was a man there out for a walk, going in the same direction. He said to me, “Are you training for something?”

I said, “Yes, the Camino de Santiago.” He said, “Really? We just got back from there on Sunday!” This was Tuesday. He said, “This is what happens on the Camino. You look over and there is somebody and you start talking and walking. I could just tell you are a pilgrim.”

So for the next 30 minutes we walked Highline Drive and I queued him about his experience, what route, what was the best things that happened. Food, wine and people he said. It was delightful. Turns out He and is wife are Free Methodists - in fact she is an ordained pastor and works at SPU. She walked the Camino in honor of her mom who died last year. When we parted I said, “You are an angel!” He smiled, laughed and said, “So are you:)”. Faith’s Imaginary.

Let’s pray.

The telescope is named after James E. Webb, the famous administrator of NASA from 1961-1968 under whose tenure the world saw the first lunar landing with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the Apollo 11 program. He also oversaw critical missions like the Mercury and Gemini under president John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson

He is not without his shadows. He was a leader in what is called “The Lavender Scare” a practice in the federal government of firing gay and lesbian employees without cause. He was instrumental in the big dream of this kind of deep space exploration and was enough of a politician to get the funding and bi-partisan support. It is my contention that space exploration is a great place to look for faith.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”

All I could think about as I read and re-read and studied and prayed about these passages for today is the spectacular images the Webb Telescope offers us. Astro-physicists are giddy, like teenagers when they describe their first loves. Images of stars and galaxies from 13 billion years ago! “In the beginning when God created the heavens (plural) and the earth (singular)…” These 6 days as they are labeled in Scripture are cosmic time, not Kronos time. Not 24 hour days, rather eons, expansive, to contain 13 billion years or more! Now, I do not really understand what 13 billion light years means, so I looked it up:

This galaxy is thought to be about 13.2 billion light years away, which means it would date to about 500 million years after the Big Bang. Helpful? Worlds, worlds, wow!

In this chapter of praise in Hebrews, the preacher makes clear that ‘by faith’ is the bedrock for imagining things that are not yet seen or dimly visible. We call it “Faith’s Imaginary”: you might think of it as a cupboard or a storehouse of images, ideas, nudges, niggles, that sense of ‘…oh just over there, just out of reach…’ what we do know is every religion holds a view that faith means trust. It is not a left-brain, logic-ordered system, rather its vocabulary is about meaning and purpose and value. And it is the practice of prayer that conditions the strength and scaffolding of this structure, to reinforce trust that all that we see is not all that there is. (Point to slides)

O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth.

You have set your glory above the heavens.

When I look at your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have established, what are human beings that You are mindful of the them, mortals that You care for them?

Seriously.

Yet You have crowned us with glory and honor, given us dominion over the works of Your Hands, You have put all things under our feet…

How majestic is Your Name in all the earth! (Ps. 8)

So tell me, what is your assurance? If you open the doors of your faith’s imaginary, what would we see? What sustains you when visibility is fore-shortened?

“It is your Father’s delightful decision to give you the kindom.” Jesus declares. This is the same delight expressed in Luke 2:14 at Jesus’ birth: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in heaven, and peace, on earth to all.”

This is not the absent watchmaker God, who creates and then disappears. This is the personal God who is born of blood and water, enters fully into our human existence, redeems us by His death on a cross and His resurrection; sits with us in the ash heap of our lives. He is the one that calls us back from our distractions - I need you to be my disciples now, so pay attention. Set your worries, your ego-centric fears, your power grabs aside, its time to imagine eternity. Dressed for action, lamps lit, purses for our hearts made of fabric that never tears. Be ready. I need you, Jesus says.

And then in a most peculiar statement, He says:

Come down for coffee hour, I’ll be the one with the apron on.

Blessed are those who are ready, the master will come and serve them a feast!

This is a world we can barely see, our imaginations limited in scope, the immediacy of the violence and degradation and simply, sorrow, in our communities so right before our eyes. Pause.

It is the long-haul of faith, where every ounce of trust is put to the test. It is the beauty of community whereby we can say, “Your faith is weak? That’s okay. We will believe for you. Until you can believe again.” Worlds, worlds! Amen.