Pray So That You May Have Strength

Luke 21:25-36

We live in an “in-between” time, the time between Jesus’ first coming to inaugurate the Kingdom of God and when he comes again to bring the Kingdom in its fullness, a day which culminates in resurrection and creation being made new.  The Christian Gospel, contrary to popular belief, is not about how we get to heaven when we die.  It is ultimately about God’s reign breaking in from heaven and coming to earth culminating with Jesus’ return.  Jesus was indeed being quite literal when he taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…where?...on earth as it is in heaven.”  This passage that we read here from Luke points us towards that event, that day.

Granted Jesus says what he says in as weird a way as he could say it with these images of eclipses (signs in the moon and sun and stars), roaring seas, the shaking of the heavens amidst times of great anxiety, confusion, and cosmic upheaval.  Now, don’t worry.  I’m not going to go freaky on you.  These images are what we could call apocalyptic code phrases.  There was a genre of literature popular in Jesus’ day (of which the Book of Revelation is) that Bible scholars have dubbed “Apocalyptic.”  It was a way of talking about political things in public that wouldn’t get you in trouble.  What you did was use coded images that your community of faith understood the meaning of but those in power did not. 

If Jesus were to say outright that the God of the Jews was going to put an end to Caesar and his false reign, he would in turn be tried for treason and leading a revolt and sentenced to crucifixion.  Since Jesus couldn’t say that outright he uses this apocalyptic imagery to make his point to his disciples. Eclipses represent divine acting and judgment upon those in power.  The roaring of the seas is the chaos among people that erupts when regimes fall.  The shaking of the heavens is the catastrophic changing and dismantling of institutions that people believe will never change, things like empires, banking institutions, democracy, marriage, the Church, etc.  

One of the deeper points that Jesus makes here that is cloaked behind the imagery is that when the Kingdom draws near, when God does indeed act in history things on earth get quite wonky.  To say this in a more personal way, great teachers of Christian spirituality past and present often remark that when God is trying to draw near to us personally as individuals or draw us closer to himself his doing so causes turmoil and trying times in our lives but then having come through those times we come to realize that we have grown in faith and been changed to be more Christ-like.  This happens for whole congregations as well.  And what Jesus is indicating here is that this happens for nations and all of humanity.  When God draws near things get wonky and so Jesus says “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near,…you know that the Kingdom of God is near.”

He also says that we should pray so that we may have the strength to escape the turmoil of the Kingdom drawing near and in turn stand in his presence.  It is my experience that we simply don’t get the importance of prayer.  We are very utilitarian about it as opposed to seeing it as the very foundation of living these lives that God has entrusted to us.  The popular Christian author Oswald Chambers who wrote My Utmost for His Highest once said, ““Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”  We pray before doing things rather than understanding that prayer is what we are always called to be doing.  We are to live as those devoted to prayer, like monks and nuns. 

I bet you didn’t know it, but our Reformation roots hold that the everyday believer should live a life as devoted to prayer as any monk or nun supposedly does.  One of John Calvin’s main tasks of ministry was to attempt to take the prayer-filled life that he had observed behind the walls of convents and monasteries and make it the way of life for the ordinary Christian.  Inside the walls of the monastery, the monks rose very early for morning prayer in which they prayed and read Psalms, and then ate and worked.  At mid-morning they prayed and read Psalms again.  The around midday they had worship with communion and then worked some more.  In mid-afternoon they prayed and read Psalms again.  In the evening they had vespers and then again before bed they prayed and read Psalms.  Then at some point in the middle of the night they rose again to pray and read Psalms.  They also studied at some point in the day as well.  Roman Catholic priests follow something called the Liturgy of Hours which follows this schedule and if followed, you will have prayed through all of the Psalms in a forty day period and also read a good chunk of the Bible in a year.  Calvin and others did not see why one had to live in a monastery to follow this routine of prayer.  Give it a shot.

There is another aspect of the life devoted to prayer that is not so routine-ish and needs mentioning.  Paul said, “Pray without ceasing,” and so many people try to train their minds to do just that.  Training the mind is crucial to living a sane and peaceful life.  If we do not choose to discipline our minds with prayer, we essentially let ourselves suffer or wallow in all forms of unhealthy thinking.  Therefore, the biggest part of living a devoted Christian life is disciplining our minds to pray and the rest of the Christian life will take care of itself and blossom.  Here’s a few suggestions on how to do that.

   In the Eastern Orthodox tradition they have the Jesus Prayer which they try to pray continually throughout the day.  “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.”  They will pray that prayer over and over.  Many carry a rosary with them to keep them mindful of the task.  I’ve attempted this and can honestly say that once established in it you will find that it becomes a rhythm or even a song in the back of your mind that you just pray automatically.  There’s a book called The Way of the Pilgrim that chronicles the life of an anonymous peasant as he learns to discipline himself to pray the prayer.  I recommend you find and read it.  You can do this with the Lord’s Prayer as well.

Similar to this is a method of prayerful Bible study called Lectio Divina.  It involves taking a verse of Scripture, memorizing it, and disciplining yourself to pray it continually.  I once did this verse by verse with the Sermon on the Mount a few years back.  It took 140 some days and I finished with a deeper knowing of Jesus’ personality especially his non-judgemental and forgiving side. 

Another way one might take down this road of continual prayer is the practice of the presence of God.  There was a Franciscan monk named Brother Lawrence who lived in the 1700’s who wrote a book chronicling his attempt to be aware of the presence of Jesus with him at all times.  Its title is The Practice of the Presence of God.  This practice was something I discovered back in my university days when one day it became inseparably clear to me that Jesus is with me always.  No prayers to be said, no bargains to be made, and even if I am in the midst of sinning, he is with me.  When Paul wrote in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ he was not speaking of a metaphysical idea or some sort of conclusion that he arrived at by reason.  He was speaking of the unconditionally loving presence of Jesus with us through the Holy Spirit always.

Well, why all this talk about prayer?  Well, read the news.  With all that’s going on in the world the Kingdom of God is obviously drawing near.  Things are wonky to say the least.   Stand up.  Watch lest you miss something really wonderful that God is doing.  But moreso…we Christians have a role to play in the drawing near of the Kingdom.  Hope comes alive in and through people who pray.  True strength, true grit, comes in and through prayer.  I know from my own spiritual journey my struggles have been easier and I have grown as a person in Christ in the times that I have been a praying man. Living as prayerful people in prayerful community is how God creates healing grounds in this anxious and confused world.  Jesus is breaking into the world with his Kingdom.  Prayer-filled Christian community is where he and his kingdom are most evident.  Friends, pray.  This world needs us to be praying.  Amen.

The Way of a Poor Widow Vs. Ideology

Mark 12:28-13:13

“When you hear of wars and rumours of wars”…I was driving back from Cleveland this past Thursday amidst a rain and windstorm that was of apocalyptic proportions and I came across one of “those” Christian radio shows.  I tolerated about fifteen minutes of it.  It was just all talk no music.  The man behind the microphone went on about how Muslims are taking over America.  As if to incite something, he named several different school boards that are now recognizing Muslim holidays, claimed the state of Massachusetts had become a Muslim state, and on and on he jackhammered this stuff out.  Scary.  That’s the beginnings of the process of what the intelligence community calls “radicalization”.  

On the same trip, once I got into Canada and found the safety and security of the CBC I found myself listening to a debate over what makes a “just war.”  The debate was over the realization that the reasons Western governments recognize as “just cause” for going to war really don’t apply anymore.  The crisis in Syria is a prime example.  Nations with well-trained militaries won’t come to aid of millions of innocent civilians who due to their religious beliefs are being brutally murdered, raped, kicked out of their homes, and made to flee to camps and other countries.  The reason the “nations” give is that it is not “just” to invade the sovereign boarders of another nation.  Yet, “everybody” recognizes that religious conversion is an “unjust” reason for waging.  Moreover, ISIS is not a state against which another nation can declare war.  One of the debaters noted that ISIS does not treat its prisoners according to the Geneva Convention and then asked why are we in the nations with the militaries hiding behind out-dated ideas of what it is to be “civilized” in the midst of war.  Why is the world letting this horrendous crime against humanity go on?  Isn’t this what the U.N. is for?  I suppose we should ask Gen. Romeo Dallaire.  Is this crisis in Syria just going to be one more case where after the death and dislocation of millions of people the whole world stands figuratively on the metaphorical tarmac of Kigali Airport saying “We come here today partly in recognition of the fact that we did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred.”

Then yesterday morning we woke up to news of a terrorist attack in France.  We don’t know who is responsible.  Different group.  Similar ideologies.  People who were once just like you and me were somehow radicalized by messianic prophets to believe hate-filled ideologies and to act accordingly.

“When you hear of wars and rumours of wars do not be alarmed,” Jesus said.  Well, it is kind of hard not to be alarmed with well-armed false messiahs and false prophets running rampant in a world where people are easily swayed with ideology masquerading as faith be it Islamic or Christian.  I am alarmed.  I have two children.  I was hoping that by the time I had children the world would be better place.  The Cold War is gone but we’re still living in its wake.  As far as the Middle East is concerned the destabilization over there is the direct result of the peace agreements and national boundaries that were drawn up after WWI and WWII.  Our efforts to create a more just world in the wake of global war only fostered another more precarious one.

Well, enough of that.  I should stop before I alarm somebody.  Let’s talk about true faithfulness.  How do we hard-working, God-revering followers of Jesus live in such a world as this?  Hate mongering against people of other faiths is certainly not the answer.  Might I suggest the “wasteful” way of an impoverished widow who gave all she had to live on to the poor box at the temple?  Jesus compares her to the rich who made huge donations that really cost them nothing and to the Scribes and their empty hypocrisy who were taking the poor box money to themselves.  This widow gave everything she had to live on to help others in the same situation she was in.  She was radical with compassion loving her neighbour in the same way that Jesus loves us, with everything.  

My great-grandmother was like that.  Anyone who came to visit left with a can of something.  If you were there at mealtime, a place was set for you.  My grandparents were like that.  Everyone, not matter race or what, was welcome at their table; even if you were one of my aunts’ ex-boyfriends.  Great Depressions and World Wars can sometimes make for great people.

It is interesting that this widow is the last person we meet before Jesus tells his disciples that the temple and the “big business” misrepresentation of faith the Scribes were conducting would be destroyed.  Even Jerusalem would be destroyed.  The central institution of the way of life of the Jewish people, of the disciples themselves, was going to be destroyed.  This widow revealed the reason why.  IN light of that Jesus didn’t tell his disciples to take up arms and try to preserve their national identity.  He told them not to let themselves be misled by ideologues pretending to be him.  Rather, he tells them to live as a testimony to him; to live as a proclamation that he and no other is Lord and that the Kingdom of God is at hand.  To live as this widow lived – devoting the whole of our insignificant selves to Jesus and his compassionate Kingdom.  When called to account for the reason we live so hopefully and compassionately and generously in the midst of a cruel world, instead of ranting off ideology, we listen for the Holy Spirit to speak and say what we hear.  The Holy Spirit speaks in prayers.  So often what we he gives us to say to another person is a prayer for that person (Rom. 8:26-27) not a condemnation. 

In this ideologically driven, terrorized, war torn world we the disciples of Jesus Christ are to live like a community of poor widows who have nothing yet give everything, share everything we have for compassion’s sake, for Jesus’ sake.  And we pray the desperate prayers our neighbours can’t find the words to pray for themselves.  Prayerful compassion is the way of the Christian in this world. This is the way we need to be in our neighbourhoods not behind the doors of these great stone buildings.  This sort of authenticity speaks a living testimony to our Lord Jesus and his Kingdom.  Amen.

Your Two Cents Worth

Mark 12:38-13:2

            I went online the other day and searched for the origins of the phrase “my two cents worth.”  No one really knew.  They pointed here to Mark’s Gospel (and Luke’s) as the earliest reference to the phrase, but not likely.  Mark uses the widow’s “two cents worth” quite differently than what the phrase means to us.  A person’s “two cents worth” for us is usually their opinion.  We also use this phrase as a way to tone down our comments with a little humility or politeness.  For example, it is better for me to say to Dana, “if you want my two cents worth, that dress doesn’t bring out your best features” than saying “If you’re going to wear that dress, you best not stand next to any couches because people will mistake your rump for an end table.”  Another more rare use we have for the phrase is for indicating too much information.  I say to you “a penny for your thoughts” and you in turn give me “two cents worth”.  There are some who think the phrase dates back to the early days of the British postal system when postage was two cents.  If you wanted to send your thoughts to someone, you wrote a letter and put a two cent stamp on it valuing the worth of your thoughts at two cents.

            My two cents worth on the matter is that we shouldn’t point to the actions of this widow as the source of the phrase.  If we did, we would find that her “two cents worth” isn’t just an opinion.  It’s a powerful inditement of how we have institutionalized the practise of our faith in much the same way as the scribes had done in Jesus’ day.  Her faithfulness cost her everything.  Her two cents worth was literally all she had to live on and here she was giving it to the establishment because that’s what faithful people did when they came to the temple. In comparison, her gift was much greater than that of all the rich people who came and made a public display of their huge donations to make themselves appear to be exceptionally faithful.  Yet, their gifts really cost them nothing.

And look at where the money went.  The long robes the scribes were wearing while they stood there giving long, meaningless, bereft of faith prayers on behalf of their wealthy patrons to honour them.  The temple itself looked great due to these ostentatious donations.  Even Jesus’ disciples are impressed.  A well-kept temple and a well dressed priesthood made Israel and Israel’s God look good before all the other god’s of the nations so they believed.  But, what a waste of this widow’s last two cents.

Jesus pointedly notes that this widow and her two cents exposes the hypocrisy of the whole affair.  The scribes in all their empty impressiveness were nothing more than devourers of widow’s household means.  That offering box or treasury was there in keeping with Moses command that the other eleven tribes of Israel support the tribe of Levi who were not given an allotment of land when the Israelites first conquered the Promised Land and would therefore be unable to support themselves.  The Levites were to be the priests for the other tribes.  Yet on the other hand, the Israelites were supposed to be supporting the widows and orphans in their midst as well.  This widow really shouldn’t have been giving anything to the Scribes.  They should have been taking from the offering box and providing for her.  Her two cents worth only went to make them look better.  What a waste of her two cents worth!

 Yet, here this widow was giving everything she had probably hoping that God would notice and in turn bless her.  TV preachers and scam ministries are good at manipulating this desperation in people.  Well, God did notice her.  Jesus noticed her.  Her two cents worth would stand as the condemnation of that whole twisted system and be the reason for its destruction.  Not a stone would be left on top another.  That judgement came to pass in 70 A.D. when the Romans destroyed the Temple. 

And...whatever became of this nameless widow?  We don’t know.  We only know that she is just one of the insignificant folks who show up only once in the Gospels to reveal what true faithfulness is.  It is to give the totality of one’s life in faithfulness even if it appears to be a waste by this world’s standards.  The widow gave her last two cents worth to God (unfortunately it went to support a sham).  She gave her whole life, her last little bit of security.  She put it all into what she believed to be the hands of God.  Just like Jesus did with his life when he took it to the cross.  Faithfulness has to do with what we do with the “two cents worth” of the totality of our lives.  The rich, like everyone of us, gave from their abundance and it really didn’t cost them anything.  This impoverished widow gave everything she had…and it was wasted on a sham.  Or was it?  We know the outcome of Jesus wasting his life for us.  His death is the defeat of sin and death.  God raised him.  The Holy Spirit is present with us now.  We will share his resurrection and his inheritance when he returns.  The Kingdom of God is in our midst.  Jesus trusts his ministry of reconciliation to us now, but will we, like this widow, devote our two cents worth, our lives in totality, to him or will we like the rich patrons in that day just give what really has no cost to us and convince ourselves we’re faithful?

I have to admit that I hear this widow’s “two cents worth” with fear and trembling.  Quite frankly, being a minister I’m one the Scribes.  How many people give generously for me to live the crap example of faithfulness that I do?  I like you try to be faithful, but I pail in comparison to this widow.  Oh, there was a time many years ago when I was a student that I put my last fifty dollars in the plate to help pay for my church’s parking lot and a few years ago when the year end credit card balance equalled what Dana and I had contributed to my employer, the church, that year because “ministers are supposed to set an example in giving for their congregations”.  That debt was in the thousands and it took a few years to get out from under it and my employer’s bottom line began its downward spiral because we had to stop contributing.  I feel rather strongly that minister’s should not give financially to the congregations they serve.  It’s a “company town” way of doing things.  We give to PWS&D, World Vision, and other local needs.

This Remembrance Day we should all be feeling like Scribes knowing that there are those who have given their lives or been maimed in body and spirit for us to have basic human freedoms.  Do we honour the sacrifices they and their families have made?  I look at our materialism and consumerism and the narcissism that plagues our culture and I don’t think that’s what my grandfather suffered for in France and Germany in World War II, what so many of his friends died for.  We pay a lot of attention to remember those who served in WWI and WWII, but let us not forget the Korean Conflict, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and all the Peacekeeping missions.  Let us not forget the psychological injury our soldiers endure – the PTSD, the moral injury.  Let us not forget the families who have lost and who struggle to love someone who’s come home quite different because of war and its waste of life. 

Let us not forgot and let us remember that Remembrance isn’t just a mental exercise.  Remembering means getting involved, making some changes that give continuing worth to the lives that have been lost due to war.  How can we live our lives differently in ways that are truly faithful and not just in appearance?  This widow was the prime example of what it looks like to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength and it truly showed in what she did with what little means of security she had.  Can we find ways to do the same and love our neighbours as we love ourselves?  I personally think we need to start thinking and moving this way or not a stone will be left on top another.   We need to truly start looking to the needs of our very neighbours.  We need to start thinking “we” rather than “me”.  We need to take to heart that just because we want something doesn’t mean we need it and its certainly not worth going into debt for.  Let’s not be afraid to waste our “two cents worth” on Jesus and his Kingdom because what we have in Christ is an invaluable “two cents worth” this world needs to hear.  Amen.