23rd Sunday after Pentecost

 

Eat and drink and find enjoyment in all your toil

—this is our lot. It is God’s gift to us (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20).

Even in the Garden, there was work to be done: to work Eden’s fertile soil and to name all the animals. It’s our God given calling. It’s our common human task. When we do it right—when we cultivate the earth and cultivate earthly relationships, we find “enjoyment in all our toil.”

During our week of election returns, with all its angst and contention; it may be good to remember “our lot” in life. Our “lot” has to do with our calling and where God has placed us in his beautiful creation. Chances are each of us has a piece of earth to attend to; and, each of us know a name—a relationship that needs some cultivation. Our word “culture” comes from “cultivation.” Just as we cultivate the soil to bring about lush vegetation; so too, we cultivate human relationships in order to bring about a fruitful culture. That’s why we can’t help but pray and give thanks whenever we gather to eat and drink together. ”It is God’s gift to us.”

No matter how political winds blow, our calling remains true and needful; and, even in toil, enjoyable. When we are faithful to our calling—our human lot, “the earth brings forth life” (Gn 1:24). That is how God created things. It is God’s good and beautiful gift to us.

 

22nd Sunday after Pentecost

 The trees once went out

to anoint a leader over themselves (Judges 9:8).

This Tuesday we elect our nation’s President for the next four years. It’s appropriate for Election Day to come in the midst of our Ordinary Days—it’s not Christmas or Easter. It’s not God’s Saving Event. However, it is God’s provision for providing an ordered and civilized world until the arrival of our Eternal King. That’s why the Apostle could take pride in his Roman citizenship: “I am a Roman born citizen” (Ac 22:28). As nations go, we are blessed with a good one. Our Declaration and our Constitution hold us together.

Like good citizens, Linda and I filled out our ballots. Thoughts about the election must be why I woke early this morning thinking of Jotham’s parable found in Judges chapter nine:

The trees once went out

        to anoint a king over themselves.

So they said to the olive tree,

'Reign over us.'

The olive tree answered them,

'Shall I stop producing my rich oil

by which gods and mortals are honored,

and go to sway over the trees?' 

Then the trees said to the fig tree,

But the fig tree answered them,

'You come and reign over us.'

'Shall I stop producing my sweetness

and my delicious fruit,

and go to sway over the trees?'

Then the trees said to the vine,

'You come and reign over us.'

But the vine said to them,

'Shall I stop producing my wine

that cheers gods and mortals,

and go to sway over the trees?'

So all the trees said to the bramble, 

And the bramble said to the trees,

'You come and reign over us.'

'If in good faith you are anointing me king over you,

then come and take refuge in my shade;

but if not,

                let fire come out of the bramble

and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'

 I’m tempted to provide an explanation. But if all could be explained, there would be no need for the parable. As our Lord teaches us, parables have a way of getting truth inside us. Too much explaining ruins a good parable. Things explained don’t wake you up in the middle of the night. So, let’s leave Jotham’s Parable of the Trees as is. Maybe early Wednesday morning the parable will wake you up.

21st Sunday after Pentecost

 The lame walk,

…yet blessed is the one who is not offended in me (Matthew 11:5-6).

This morning I walked, all by myself, from our bed to the bathroom. The successful journey marked a turn of events from four weeks ago when I got out of bed and couldn’t take a single step. My legs went lame. After five hours in the operation room, the surgeon phoned my wife Linda to let her know he was able to, in his words, “fix it.”

There’s something yeoman like about the surgeon’s words. He doesn’t make big claims. He just opened up my spine and “fixed it.” That’s what medical people do. They fix broken down bodies in hopes of giving us a few more good years on God’s beautiful green earth.

It’s miraculous. Yet, not exactly a Jesus healing—too much pain, medication, tormented nights and a long agonizing rehabilitation. Maybe that’s why Jesus, sensing our disappointment, said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended in me.”  Offended by what? Maybe offended, or disappointed, or even discouraged because we had hoped things wouldn’t be this painful, difficult and always so human.

Until Gabriel blows his horn, we live with our pain, medications and sleepless nights; troubled, yet grateful for a few more earthly years to enjoy our children and our children’s children; our larger family of brothers and sisters in Christ; and, “the goodness of all people” (Gal 6:10). Even patched up life is worth living. It’s a gift.

18th week of Pentecost

 Luke, the beloved physician (Colossians 4:14):

Today I go to the Kaiser Hospital in Oakland where Dr. Huang will seek to enable me to walk again by operating on my back. He makes no promises. He does his best, and there’s a good chance, if all goes well, the operation will bring healing. It would be unchristian of us not to honor such physicians and their healing institutions.

As Ben Sirach, writing between the Testaments, instructs (Sirach 38): “Honor physicians for the Lord created them; their gift of healing comes from the Most High. …Give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; do not let him leave you, for you need him. There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians, for they too pray to the Lord that he grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.”

18th Sunday after Pentecost

 The Lord spoke to you out of the fire. (Deuteronomy 4:12)

Though “God” does not make an appearance in the Constitution; our Declaration of Independence that precedes the Constitution and without which we would not have a Constitution; does speak of God: “The Laws of Nature, and of Nature’s God.” And, that humans receive their “unalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” by “their Creator.” The Declaration concludes by offering up the just cause of our revolution “to the Supreme Judge of the world.”

The Constitution protects our freedom to worship “Nature’s God” as we choose—as our Lord who speaks out of the fire. Something like the “tongues of fire that seemed to rest” on those first worshipers at Pentecost (Ac 2:3). There’s something fiery about the God we worship. Maybe that’s why I spend my mornings around the fire pit.

17th week after Pentecost

 In God I trust… (Psalm 56:11)

I’ve been told I got it all wrong; that, our national motto is “In God we trust.” Maybe so, but I was thinking of our founders who would never go for a motto that wasn’t in Latin. A non-Latin motto is obviously a new comer.

The Constitution, our founding document which the Supreme Court guards and interprets, does not mention God. It’s a product of “We the People…” As human products go, it’s a wonder. Its purpose was and is “to form a more perfect Union…” There is, in this eloquent language of the preamble, an understanding of something or someone Transcendent—a Perfection beyond our reach. Fortunately for us it does not say, “To form the Perfect Union.” That’s the language of tyranny.

17th Sunday after Pentecost

Though many one… (Romans 12:5)

I should acknowledge that mortality continues to have its way with me. For the last few weeks I haven’t been able to walk without help. Medical folks are doing their good work. MRI reveals spinal problems. We pray for good results.

Meanwhile, with the assistance of a loving and caring wife of 56 years, I’ve been able to make it from the bed to the couch where I watch too much football and too much news. Yesterday, along with our daughter and granddaughter who also care for us, we watched the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to serve as the ninth judge on the Supreme Court. While watching we discussed some of the tumultuous events of the week—the demonstrations, the contention and violence, this nasty business of politics. We had our opinions. In the middle of it all, one is nominated to take her place on the Supreme Court to serve as guardian and interpreter of our founding document--the Constitution that holds our diverse and often frayed nation together.

What is this center that unites our 50 states—that make us a nation called the United States of America? What’s the center that holds such a diverse people together? On the battle field of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said it best: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal… We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.”

“Liberty” and “Equality” that’s our nation’s center for which citizens “gave their lives.” It’s the Unum that holds our Pluribus together: E Pluribus Unum. Our founders liked Latin. It means “Out of many one.” Will the center hold? Can such a nation live on?