Would Somebody Please Put Me Back Together?!

“Then [the thief] said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”

 

Jesus, remember me.

 

“Remember language” always makes me think of the story of Noah and the flood – more precisely, God’s words regarding the rainbow (Genesis 9:13-17). Whenever God sees the bow in the clouds, God remembers the covenant…More precisely, God re-members it…Whenever God sees the bow, God puts the covenant back together; even though we continue to tear it apart.

 

Jesus, re-member me.

 

Jesus, put me back together.

 

It’s interesting to me that on this Christ the King Sunday – the last Sunday in the church year, we get this story of Jesus hanging on the cross, promising to put this thief back together (Luke 23.40-43: “Then the other [thief said…] ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’”). Another equally valid translation of that last part is, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in God’s garden.” It’s an end-time vision of new creation. I think that is what Paradise is about. I think it’s about creation – or, Creation…And I think it necessitates re-membering. Because we have been dis-membered. We have been torn apart.

 

This is what I’m trying to get at. The biblical witness is very clear that we have been created in the image of God (Gen.2)…the VERY IMAGE of God! But that image has been torn and marred and beaten and buried under mounds and mounds of hurt and anger and fear and self-doubt and greed and war on and on and on.

 

The very image of God is one of creation and peace, not destruction and war. The image of God is love and compassion and forgiveness, not hate and indifference and grudges. The image of God is plenty and inclusion and grace, not poverty and exclusion and pay-back.

 

The image of God in us has been dis-membered, and we can feel it. To be re-membered is to be all that God created us to be. Does that make sense?

 

The second lesson assigned for Sunday is from the book of  Colossians. The author has this to say, that I think is instructive (Colossians 1.16-18): “…for in [Jesus] all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him…and in him all things hold together (I suppose one could say, “In him all things are ‘membered.’” – but that’s playing pretty “loose” with the text.). Instructive, because it is painfully obvious that thrones and dominions and rulers all around us do not behave (in any apparent way) as though they were created for this Jesus, the very image of God (Col. 1.15) – who, as we just agreed is about creation and peace and love and compassion and forgiveness and plenty and inclusion and grace.

 

I think the thief’s dis-memberment (and mine too, for that matter) has precisely to do with the fact that the kingdom of this world (which – now I’m just being redundant – was created for and through the God of love) has lost its way (My friend Hutch, who makes up an excuse to drop by my office every 3-5 weeks – he has the heart and training of a Spiritual Director – and I suspect, that he shows up when he can feel that my spirit needs a little boost – Anyhow, he  just left my office. He says that we are living in Exile from our true selves…in exile from the Paradise God intends for us.).

 

I get asked fairly often, “if God is all-powerful, then why can’t God make us behave?”

The question of God’s all-powerfulness aside (which is a question which necessitates a glass of wine – or, at least, a cup of coffee), I believe that to force someone – or a whole creation’s-worth of “someones” to behave a certain way is a form of abuse. And God refuses to be abusive…Therefore God allows us to make really lousy choices; as evidenced by our lost-ness and the exilic nature of the kingdom of this world as opposed to the Kingdom of Jesus – where even thieves are re-membered and made whole to live and love and be what and who God created them (Us??? Me???) to be.

 

Jesus, re-member me – that I may glimpse Paradise now, and show it to others, as we move toward creation and peace and love and compassion and forgiveness and plenty and inclusion and grace.

 

Stand Up and Raise Your Heads

Part of the gospel lesson assigned for Sunday, November 17, (Luke 21.5-19) has this to say: “…there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues, and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.” Then a few verses after the assigned reading concludes there is this (21.25-28): “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

 

I cannot read that without thinking about our sisters and brothers in the Philippines…signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and confusion caused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

 

And I cannot read the first part of the lesson (21.5-6) where Jesus talks about the great and seeming permanence of things (in this case the temple in Jerusalem) being revealed as an illusion, without seeing images of the buildings in that island nation lying in ruins: homes and churches and shops destroyed by the confusion of the roaring sea.

 

Then I read this: “Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (21.28), and I think of the faces of those I see on the evening news coverage…Faces of people standing up, with heads raised, in the midst of the disaster. And I am left wondering just what it is they are looking at. Or maybe, they are not looking at anything – they are rather (perhaps)  looking for. For what? Signs of life, to be sure…signs which may promise food, help, clothing, water…signs of sanity in a world rocked by confusion and chaos? I imagine them (if by any chance they are familiar with this particular bit of scripture), shaking their fists at God, flailing their arms toward heaven and demanding to know “Where is the promised redemption that is supposedly drawing near?! Because this looks only like hell!”

 

A pastor friend of mine, here in Charlotte, serves a congregation whose membership is made up of quite a number of Montagnard refuges from Vietnam. Two grown men in her congregation, brothers, came to Charlotte just before their father was arrested and imprisoned (about three years ago) for refusing to bow down to an image of the president and instead professing his allegiance to Jesus. No trial, no term of sentence no specified length of imprisonment.

No one had heard from him in quite a while.

Several weeks ago, the brothers were contacted by their sister, still living in Vietnam.

Out of the blue, their father had called her from the prison.

Speaking Vietnamese, he told her that he was “doing fine and will be okay.”

She hung up the phone, thinking it odd that he did not speak the language of his Montagnard tribe.

She concluded that her father must have been forced to call and speak the language that the prison guards could understand.

Just as she came to this conclusion, the phone rang again. This time one of the guards spoke, telling her that her father had just died.

Most likely he was killed for refusing, still, to bow to another’s image.

 

It is hard for me to wrap my mind around the kind of suffering I hear about. “Confusion caused by the roaring seas and waves.”

“Being hated or put to death because of the name of Jesus” (21.16-17).

It is hard for me to fully appreciate how it is that folks keep on standing up, over and over again, despite the complete lack of evidence that any redemption is drawing near.

 

The closest I can come to grasping it, is when I am paying close enough attention to notice that the arms that flail, flail toward heaven…despite all evidence to the contrary, calling out – as if by instinct – to something bigger than this pain, before they slump to the flailer’s side and absent-mindedly clasp the hand of the child beside them, urging them on...helping that smaller one to stand nonetheless.

 

The closest I can come to grasping it, is when I see the eyes of my pastor friend fill with tears of frustration – shaking her head and saying among the safety of other pastor friends – “I swear that I’m going to smack the next person who comes up to me and complains that American Christians are persecuted for their faith!” just as she asks if any of us can serve at the soup kitchen in her congregation’s fellowship hall.

 

These are models of faith, whose model most will never see nor know about…

Those who hold hands and not only continue to stand up – but who reach out to others to help them stand as well…And who, standing, embody the reality of the coming redemption, in their presence that is persistent even in the face of death.

 

 

I Can't Breathe!

Is it just me, or does anybody else feel like they are having a hard time breathing these days? 

Maybe it's the change in the weather. Maybe it's allergies. Maybe it's the time-change. Maybe it's the fact that we just finished with Halloween, and already the Christmas decorations are up. 

I don't know what to attribute it to, but I know that literally, physically, and psychically, I'm having a hard time breathing, and Benadryl doesn't seem to be helping. Add to that, the seemingly daily reporting of gun-violence, the wavering economy, the increase in pettiness, politicians smoking crack, clergy-people, who claim to follow the same Jesus I follow, who at the same time are justifying their building of million-dollar homes, and I just cannot breathe! 

So...maybe it's just me.

In any case, you have been warned, dear reader, that I am not taking full, deep breaths as I approach the scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday!

I am cynical and frustrated by what looks like pettiness in the extreme in the gospel lesson (Luke 20.27-38...You should really read it first, otherwise nothing I say here will make any sense.). Not surprisingly, the Sadducees come to Jesus and challenge him. I'm pretty sure that there is nowhere  in scripture when the Sadducees approach Jesus with anything other than a challenge...but this time, Jesus looks like he gets drawn into the prettiness! Bad form Jesus (I warned you that I am grumpy!)! 

They get into this long discussion about leverite marriage, a method that, while it is presented as a means to ensure that women are not left destitute when/if their husbands die, it really seems that it is (also) a process that keeps women in the position of being nothing more than chattel to be traded from one man to the next (please don't feel the need to correct me on this...I know the basis of leverite marriage...still feels like horse trading to me!). And they are using the whole argument to discuss (debate) the reality/validity of the resurrection...which is already a confusing enough topic...let alone when you try to couch the discussion in terms of marriage, etc. What, in Sweet Betty's name, does this have to do with the resurrection?!

I can imaging my sister telling me, at this point in my rant, that I need to spray some saline in my nose, take three deep cleansing breaths, try to find my "happy place...," and then look again.  Okay, say it with me: "Clear blue ocean. Clear blue ocean." 

My sister is so smart!

Here's what I really think this is all about...the Sadducees don't really give a flip about the resurrection they just want to make Jesus look like a fool...and Jesus uses their own argument against them, which he does on a fairly regular basis (so, if I offended you by saying"bad form, Jesus," I apologize).

This is what I think he is saying, "Really, Sadducees? Can't you think any bigger than that? Don't try to draw me into a discussion about resurrection, then limit resurrection to your silly legalisms! Don't you get it?! 

Resurrection is NOT just a continuation of the way things are! 

It is not the status quo forever!

It isn't even a going back to the "good ol' days" when women were traded about among the brothers...neither is it a reality where there would need to be care for the welfare of women. Think bigger! 

Think totally different! 

Think something COMPLETELY NEW!

Think relationships. 

Think wholeness and happiness and joy and plenty and welcome!" 

Now, I'm fairly certain that that is not what the Sadducees wanted to hear (In fact it is, most likely, just that very type of thinking/visioning/talking/hoping/etc. that had them wanting to humiliate Jesus in the first place.)...But, while it may not be what they wanted to hear...it is definitely what I want to hear...because if the resurrection comes with all off those things (wholeness and happiness and joy and plenty and welcome, then it probably also comes with clear sinuses and easy breaths - which, I guess, is really pretty minor, in the grand scheme of things.)!

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