Dangerous Safety - Luke 21:5-36

Josh Broward
November 14, 2010

    You have all heard the story of “The Tortoise and the Hare,” but have you heard the sequel - “The Tortoise and the Bees”?  After winning the dramatic, ever-so-slow victory over the Hare, the Tortoise decided that it was time to lay her eggs.  Yes, the Tortoise was a girl.  But don’t blame old Aesop for that mistake; it’s very hard to tell with turtles! 
    So the Tortoise made the slow journey back to her ancestral breeding ground.  She found the same sandy field where she was born and the same tree where she had been laying her eggs for many years.  It was perfect.  There was plenty of water.  There was plenty of soft green plants nearby.  It was not too sunny but not too cold.  It was perfect -except for one thing.  This year, there was a beehive in the tree. 
    The bees were not happy about the arrival of the Tortoise.  They buzzed about her head and told her to scram.  She quietly said, “You can sting me, but you can’t kill me.  This is my home, and I must produce life.”  She quietly went about her work, moving the sand and preparing her nest.  The bees began to sting her.  They stung her head, her legs, her tail.  They lost their stingers in her shell.  She continued preparing her nest.  “You can sting me, but you can’t kill me.  This is my home, and I must produce life.” 
    Slowly, slowly, slowly, the Tortoise prepared her nest.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, she laid her eggs.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, the tiny tortoise babies developed inside their eggs.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, the attacks from the bees began to wane as more and more bees lost their stingers in her shell.  No matter what the bees buzzed as they stung her, no matter how much it hurt when they stung, she always quietly replied: “You can sting me, but you can’t kill me.  This is my home, and I must produce life.”
    Finally, after many long months of waiting and patience and endurance, her eggs began to move.  The baby tortoises began to poke through their shells and emerge into the fresh clean air.  When all of the babies were out and free, the momma Tortoise prepared her babies for the annual journey to the watering place.  As they were about to leave the nest, she said, “Never mind the bees.  They can sting you, but they can’t kill you.  This is our home, and we must produce life.”

    This world is full of bees.  Bees of all kinds buzz about us and try to distract us from our calling.  Sometimes they attack and sting.  Other times they just do one flyby after another, trying to get us off course, trying to cause us to lose focus and to lose faith.  In our passage today, Jesus calls us to be like the Tortoise: quietly faithful and unafraid.
    Let’s read Luke 21:5-36.

    Passages like this are always hard for us modern or post-modern people.  These stories about the end of time are difficult for us for several reasons.
    First, we are unfamiliar with the background perspective of this kind of literature.  This comes from a rather special kind of theology called apocalypse.  Apocalyptic literature was primarily written by suffering people who were looking to God as their only hope.  Their world situation was so bad that the only way out was a total divine shake-up.  However, most of us aren’t so desperate.  Most of us feel pretty good about our situation in life.  It may not be perfect, but it’s good enough.
    Second, we have lived with far too many people saying, “I am the Messiah” or “The time has come.”  I remember our pastor talking about 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 (a famous book in which Edgar Whisenant “guaranteed” that Jesus would come again in 1988).  I remember sitting around church potlucks or family gatherings year after year, with people debating and discussing the various “signs of the times” and whether they revealed that Jesus would return within the next few years.  A few years ago, when I preached on the book of Revelation, I was a little surprised to learn that these kind of Second Coming predictions have been proclaimed in every generation for the past 2000 years. 
    When people start talking about Jesus’ second coming, many of us kind of shut down.  Our eyes glaze over.  Our minds go numb.  Maybe we’ve heard it all before.  Maybe we don’t want to be disappointed again.  Maybe we just don’t believe it works like that anymore. 
    But perhaps the biggest reason why an apocalyptic passage like this is so difficult for us is that ... we ... are ... not ... patient.  We live in the now culture.  We speak fast.  We eat fast.  We text fast.  We drive fast.  We read fast.  We pray fast.  We live fast.  We want everything to be fast.  We want everything our way right away.  We ... are ... not ... patient.
    And patience is what this text is all about.  Patience is tough.  But this isn’t really the kind of patience we normally think of.  This isn’t the patience of not getting angry because we’re waiting in line.  This isn’t the patience of calmly answering the 1000 questions of your 5 year old.  This is more like the patience of cutting down a tree with a butter knife.  This is more like the patience of digging a swimming pool with a spoon.  This is an active patience. 
    Listen again to Jesus’ pattern in this text: Bad stuff is going to happen ... but be patiently faithful. 
When you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic.
You will be dragged into synagogs and prisons ... but this will be your opportunity to tell them about me, so don’t worry.
Your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends will betray you.  They will even kill some of you.  Everyone will hate you.  But not a hair of your head will perish!  By standing firm, you will win your souls. 
Jerusalem will be surrounded and defeated.  The sky and the sea will be in chaos.  People will be terrified.  But then, everyone will see me coming on the clouds.  So when life falls apart, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!
When you see all of these bad things happening, you can know the Kingdom of God is near.
Be careful.  Don’t let your hearts be dulled by the parties and worries of this life.  Stay alert.  Pray that you will stay strong and be able to stand.

    In other words, Jesus seems to be saying: “Lots of bad stuff is going to happen in this life, but be patiently faithful.  The bad stuff can sting you, but it can’t kill you.  Continue with the plan.  Keep living as my representatives in this world.  Keep loving.  Keep giving.  Keep serving.  Keep believing in me and my way.”

    But how?  How can we be patient when everything seems to be falling apart?  How can we be faithful when everyone else seems to be going the other way?  In a success oriented culture, how can we endure danger and ridicule and the potential of outward failure?
    I think the real key here comes in the strange combination of two ideas.  Look again at verses 16-17, “Even those closest to you - your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends - will betray you.  They will even kill some of you.  And everyone will hate you because of my followers.” 
    OK, great!  Is anyone ready to become a Christian today?  Sign up here and get ready for your execution.  At least Jesus is honest.  He knew that trouble was coming.  He knew it would be hard.  He knew that most of his closest followers would die violent deaths because of their faithfulness to him. 
    Following Jesus is not easy.  Sometimes it’s really, really hard.  Sometimes it takes every ounce of courage and strength that we have.  Sometimes it takes more courage and strength than we have, and only some extra help from the Holy Spirit can get us through.  Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking being a Christian will solve all your problems.  It will solve some problems, but it will also make new problems.  Even your family will sometimes be against you.  That’s just how it works. 
    This is the first part of the key:  “There will be lots of problems, and they’ll even kill some of you.”

    Here’s the second part of the key: “But not a hair of your head will perish!  By standing firm, you will win your souls” (21:18-19).  There is a safety that is beyond danger. 
    During World War I, an English poet named Rupert Brooke explained this beautifully in his faith-filled poem titled “Safety”:
        Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest
        He who has found our hid security,
        Assured in the dark tides of the world at rest,
        And heard our word, 'Who is so safe as we?'
        We have found safety with all things undying,
        The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth,
        The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying,
        And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth.
        We have built a house that is not for Time's throwing.
        We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever.
        War knows no power. Safe shall be my going,
        Secretly armed against all death's endeavour;
        Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall;
        And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.

    For us, as Christians, we have a hidden security.  We have house that this world cannot destroy.  We have gained a peace that surpasses both understanding and pain.  Even war cannot stop us.  For Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  And Christ is coming again.  “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). 
    But there are other stings.  There are other bees.  Other temptations and worries and siren calls haunt our world. 
Success is a nasty beast that buzzes about our souls calling for our loyalty and total sacrifice.  Work harder.  Work longer.  Pray less.  Sleep less.  Worship less.  Serve less.  Love less.  Work, work, work.  Success is everything.
Escapism buzzes gently and persistently, “Come away.  Come away with me.  Leave that work.  Leave those problems.  Leave those people.  Come away and be numb with me.” 
However, fear is perhaps the most frequent and most dangerous bee in our world.  We are afraid.  We live with fear as our constant companion.  We are afraid of failure.  We are afraid of rejection.  We are afraid that we will not be good enough.  We are afraid that our kids will not measure up.  We are afraid of falling behind.  We are afraid of not being cool.  We are afraid of not having enough money.  We are afraid of losing control. 

    Jesus says again and again, “Don’t panic.  Don’t worry.  Don’t be afraid.”  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ is coming again.  Jesus said, “I have told you all of this so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.  But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ is coming again.
    Here is the Gospel.  God has given us an unshakable security in Jesus Christ.  Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, our sins can be forgiven, and we can participate in his resurrection life.  Christ’s resurrection life in us gives us immunity to death and to all the other bees. 
Where O Death is your victory?  Where O Death is your sting? 
Where, O Success, is your victory?  You will fade away like the grass in the fields.  If I do not bow down to you, you cannot kill me.  You cannot really hurt me.
Where, O Pleasure, is your power?  Christ has made a new life well up inside us like an eternal spring.  We can participate in the healing of the world.  What can you offer to compare with that?
Where, O Fear, is your threat?  “Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed , nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-30).

    The things of this world which buzz in our ears and sting our hands - they are passing troubles, fading worries.  Because of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and return, we can stick to the plan.  Like the Tortoise and her nest, the progress may be slow, painfully slow.  Sometimes, we might not even be able to see the progress.  But stick to the plan.  Hold on to Christ.  Be patient.  Never mind the bees.  They can sting us, but they can’t kill us.  God’s Kingdom is our home, and we must produce life.  Stick to the plan.  Hold on to Christ.  Love faithfully.  Give faithfully.  Serve faithfully.  Pray faithfully.  Celebrate faithfully.  Live faithfully.  Hold on to Christ.

    Oscar Romero was a great Latin American reformer.  As an archbishop in the Catholic church, he worked tirelessly for justice, democracy, and peace in El Salvador.  Listen to how he explains the slow march of faithfulness:
    It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.  The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.  We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work  Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom lies always beyond us.
    No statement says all that could be said.  No prayer fully expresses our faith.  No confession brings perfection.  No pastoral visit brings wholeness.  No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.  No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
    This is what we are about: we plant seeds that one day will grow.  We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.  We lay foundations that need further development.  We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
    We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.  This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.  It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.  We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.  We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.  We are prophets of a future not our own.
    On March 23, 1980, Oscar Romero asked El Salvador’s soldiers to stop obeying the government’s orders for repression and violence against the innocent.  The next day, he was celebrating Mass at a hospital chapel.  While he was holding up the cup, representing Christ’s blood, he was shot and killed.  He fell over the altar, and his blood mixed with the wine from the cup.

    This is the difficult calling of all who follow Christ - to allow our blood to be mixed with his.  We stand with the Christ who has died - enduring any suffering necessary - knowing that they can sting us but they can’t kill us.  We stand with the Christ who is rise - enjoying his resurrection life, and knowing that we will be raised with him in the end.  We stand with the Christ who is coming again - working toward his coming, producing life, with grace and love and patience. 


    Christ has died.  Christ is risen, and Christ is coming again.  Therefore, stand firm.  Be alert.  Do not let your hearts be dulled by the parties and worries of this life.  Pray that God will make you strong so that you can stand firm until the end.

Bigger than our Boxes - Luke 20:27-40

Josh Broward
November 7, 2010


Let’s start today with a little riddle. I need some audience participation here. (I raided McDonald’s trash in my sermon preparation this week.) I’ve asked ______ to help us out. Here’s the deal. You have to get this balloon into this box. Today, we are in a very practical sense the Body of Christ. ______ will work as the hands, but you are all the collective brain. You give him some ideas. Tell him what to do.
...

OK, let’s review the suggestions.
We could push and push to try to make it fit, but it will probably pop if we push too hard.
We could pop the balloon and put the little pieces inside, but then we no longer have a real balloon.
We could let some of the air out to make it smaller, but then, we’ve lost something of the balloon’s full potential.
There’s one more option.
We could reshape and expand the box. If we take off some of the tape and tear it apart at one seem, the triangle unfolds. Then, we can see that this box has much more potential than we thought. There was hidden capacity here. If we keep unfolding and reshaping, then it becomes a rectangle that is plenty big enough for the balloon.1
Thanks ______.

God is always bigger than our boxes. Jesus is always bigger than we think he is. The Truth is always bigger than our mental constructs.
I hate to break this to you, but you’re wrong. You’re all wrong. Don’t feel too bad about that. I’m wrong, too. We’re all wrong about something. Unless you’re perfect, you’re wrong. We’re wrong about God. We’re wrong about the Bible. We’re wrong about Jesus. We’re wrong about the Gospel. We’re wrong about life. We’re not wrong about everything, but we’re wrong about some things. Something we believe about God and life and the Gospel is wrong. It has to be - because we’re not perfect. Our minds are too small and too limited to fully understand the infinite God and the eternal Life he offers.

When we are faced with a God who is too big for our boxes, we have three basic options.
We can pop the balloon. We can reject God. We can say, “There is no way that this God or any god can fit into my thought box. I’ll tell you what I can understand. There is no God.” Then, we put the shell of a god in our box.
We can also try to shrink the balloon. This is probably the most common. We can’t figure out how to fit the huge, loving, judging, infinite, far-away, very close God into our thought box, so we shrink him down to something less, something smaller, something easier. Instead of experiencing God in all God’s amazing fullness, we try to relate to a deflated, partial view of God.
The last option is to change our box. If we are going to keep experiencing God throughout our lives, we will always have to change our box. God is always bigger than we think he is. We might have to expand our God-box a hundred times, but it will never get big enough. God will always challenge us to new understandings of who he is and what his Life is like. The good news here is that our capacity for God is much larger than we thought. We may feel like the small triangle box, but God knows that we are really the larger rectangle - and then something else after that.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus was always challenging people to enlarge their thought boxes - about God, about the Messiah, about the people of God. One of Jesus’ fundamental teaching methods was helping people think in bigger and deeper ways about God and life. Our passage today is part of a series of expand-your-box events.
It starts at the end of chapter 19. Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes to the Temple and does his famous angry scene. He goes around kicking out the merchants saying, “You’ve turned this house of prayer into a hideout for robbers!” The Temple leaders can’t fit that into their thought boxes, so they decide to pop the balloon. They make plans to kill Jesus.
At the beginning of chapter 20, the same group comes to Jesus and asks where he got the authority to come in and disrupt everything. Jesus basically says, “My authority comes from the same place as John the Baptist.” Now, the leaders are stuck. The people considered John a great prophet, so if the leaders say John didn’t get his authority from God, the people will reject the Temple leaders. Jesus basically says, “John didn’t fit into your box, and neither do I.”
Next, Jesus tells a little story about tenant farmers who reject their landlord. Jesus’ point is: “You may think I’m not good enough or not the right kind of Messiah. You’ve got to change your thought box, or you will cause your own ruin.”
Next, the leaders try to trick Jesus. They ask, “Should we pay taxes to those Roman oppressors or not?” If Jesus says NO, then the Romans will kill him. If Jesus says YES, then they can call Jesus a blasphemer and a traitor. The Roman coins were all stamped with Caesar’s face and some kind of claims to Caesar’s divinity. Jesus says, “Let Caesar have his money, but give God your hearts and lives.” He raised the discussion to a higher level: “You’ve got to change how your thinking about this folks.”
Our passage about resurrection is next: Luke 20:27-40.

Here’s the deal about the Sadducees. They were the rich dudes. They controlled the Temple, and they controlled most of the money. They didn’t believe in anything they couldn’t see. They thought the physical world is all there is - no angels, no demons, no afterlife. When you die, you’re gone. The end. Their big concern on a practical level was to maintain the status quo - with them on top.
So they come to Jesus with a riddle to show how ridiculous this idea of resurrection is. Their riddle is built on an Old Testament rule meant to care for widows and to maintain family lineage. If a widow died with no sons, the husband’s brother was supposed to marry her and produce a son on behalf of the dead brother, to carry on his name. So in their riddle, one unlucky woman ends up going through seven different husbands. (And I’m thinking maybe the husbands were the unlucky ones here!) The Sadducees say, “When they all get to heaven - if there is a heaven - who’s husband will she be? She obviously can’t belong to all of them.” This was supposed to be unsolvable, leading the Sadducees to say, “If you can’t figure it out, then there must not be a heaven.” Or in other words, “If it doesn’t fit in the box, it’s not true.”
Jesus says, “Expand your box. You’re idea about heaven is too small. The life of the resurrection is completely different. People don’t marry and produce heirs. Children of the resurrection, reborn into God’s Life, are immortal. Change your box. Oh, yes, and by the way, you can be sure there is a resurrection. Moses proved it.”
A group of the scribes (experts of religious law) chimed in, “Well, said Teacher.” They were probably from the rival group, the Pharisees, who were always arguing for the Resurrection, so they were thinking, “Yeah, way to go Jesus! You nailed them! We’re right!”
Jesus comes right back at the scribes with a question about the Messiah. He quotes Psalm 110, which David wrote. Everyone agreed that David was talking about the Messiah here. Jesus says, “We call the Messiah the Son of David, so how can David call the Messiah his ‘Lord’?” And the scribes said, “Uhhh ... hmmm ... aggh.” Jesus was saying, “You’ve got to expand your box about the Messiah.”

So if we put all of these episodes together, what do we get? Jesus says:
Expand your thinking about how God gives authority in this world.
Expand your thinking about me, or your limited thinking will ruin you.
Change your thinking about Rome and taxes and God and life.
Expand your thinking about the resurrection. Life then is different from life now.
Expand your thinking about the Messiah. This stuff is bigger than you thought it was.
Again and again and again, Jesus is saying to his disciples, to religious leaders, to the irreligious people, to the rich, to the poor, to those who believed in him, to those who rejected him, “You’ve got to change how you think about me. I’m bigger than you think I am. God is bigger than you think he is. Life is bigger than you think it is. God’s Kingdom and the Gospel are bigger than your thought box.”

Let’s think a little about how all of this went down for the disciples, who fully believed in Jesus. They were giving their whole lives to follow Jesus, but Jesus kept expanding their thought boxes. Let’s just talk about the three biggest events of Christianity. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again.
When Jesus started telling the disciples that he was going to die, they didn’t get it. Peter takes Jesus aside for a little reminder about fundamental Messiah theology: “The Messiah doesn’t die. The Messiah doesn’t lose. The Messiah wins! God sends his Messiah to make everything right, right?!” Jesus says, “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s. You’ve got to expand your box.” (Matthew 16:21-23)
The Christ has died. That was a real mind-bender for the disciples. They thought they had been all wrong about Jesus: “I guess he wasn’t the Messiah (the Christ) after all.”
But then came Christ is risen. But even this was hard to understand. When the women saw angels at Jesus’ empty tomb, “the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it” (24:1-11). Peter saw the empty tomb and went home, “wondering what had happened” (24:12). Later, Jesus appeared directly to the apostles. He was standing their right in front of them, and they thought they were seeing a ghost. He showed them hands and feed where the nails had been. He ate some fish (to show that he had a real body). “Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder.” Next, there is a beautiful line: “Then, he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Jesus worked within their minds to expand their thought boxes to be big enough for a crucified and risen Christ (24:35-47).
But their thought boxes still weren’t big enough. After the resurrection, the apostles kept asking Jesus, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and to restore our kingdom?” In other words, “Is it time to kick out the Romans and take over the world now?” But Jesus says, “No, it doesn’t work like that. Here’s the deal. God is going to give you power, and you’re going to go represent me all over the world.” Then ... he left. God raised Jesus up into the sky, and he was gone. The disciples just stood there staring at the sky in shock: “Didn’t see that coming!” Some angels appeared and said, “Get over it. Change your thinking. Jesus is gone, but he’s coming again.” (Acts 1:6-11)
The real shocker for the disciples was that Jesus was going to complete his mission through them. God would give them the Holy Spirit and send the church into the world to complete the Messiah’s mission of total transformation through love. When we’ve gone everywhere and loved everyone, Jesus will come back.
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ is coming again. The disciples had to change their thinking at every step.

And what about us? Jesus doesn’t fit into our boxes either. Whatever you think about Jesus, you’re wrong - at least in part. Our understanding is imperfect. The path of discipleship is a path of learning and change. Living disciples are always giving up an old, incomplete view of God and life for a newer more complete view. We are always repenting of our too-small box for God. Truth confronts us and forces us to make a choice. Either we change our paradigms [our thought boxes] and accept the Truth, or we stay as we are and reject the Truth.

Consider how Jesus might be challenging some of your thought boxes.
Maybe your box is defined by human suffering. Maybe you look at everything that’s wrong with the world and wonder how a loving God could create this mess. Maybe a loving God can’t fit your box drawn with crayon by a starving child. Consider the possibility that God may be bigger than you think. Consider the possibility that your box needs to be reshaped.
Maybe hell is a real problem for you. Maybe you just can’t reconcile the Bible’s teaching about hell with a God who loves every human being. I understand that difficulty. However, consider the possibility that your box needs to be reshaped. Maybe hell isn’t what you thought it was. Maybe God is somehow bigger and deeper than you currently understand.
Or you might struggle with mystery. You like predictability and order. You like schedules and plans. A God who moves in mysterious ways and disrupts our comfortable social order - well - that kind of God is uncomfortable, and if you’re honest, you’d rather not have that kind of God. Maybe a mysterious God wants to expand your box in mysterious and unpredictable ways. Maybe God is calling you to become more comfortable with not knowing exactly what is going on.
We all struggle with a box defined by success. Our box says that our value as human beings depends on our grades, our incomes, and our achievements. Our box says we should sacrifice everything for success or else become failures. Is it possible that God’s box for success is different than ours? Don’t you think we could miss out on God’s plan for our success because our idea of success is too small?
We also struggle with a thought box defined by pleasure. If it feels good, it must be good. If it feels bad, it must be bad. Somehow we have lost a theology of sacrifice and endurance and patience. Consider the possibility that your life has become far too centered on you. Consider the possibility that God is more concerned with your goodness than your happiness. Consider the possibility that your current definition of pleasure might be far too small. Consider the possibility that there is a joy that is deeper and fuller and more amazing than you currently imagine possible and that it is available through the path of faithfulness.
Is it possible that our box is too small because it is defined by the teaching of our pastors and leaders? They are imperfect, too, remember. Is it possible that even our understandings of God and the gospel and life need to change?

Here is the Good News. Jesus loves us just as we are. Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins and to give us new life. But in this new life, Jesus loves us too much to leave us as we are. Jesus always calls us forward into greater love, greater understanding, greater faithfulness, and greater freedom in his new, bigger box.

Good News for Poor Hearts - Luke 19:1-10

Josh Broward
October 31, 2010

Read Luke 19:1-10.

    At this point anyone who grew up in English speaking Sunday Schools is thinking about the song, so let’s go ahead and get that out of the way.  Feel free to sing along.




    How’s that for a cheesy intro?  Zacchaeus is the classic children’s story.  The story is told and sang and colored and dramatized in Sunday Schools around the world.  In fact, this story has been told so many times that it has become trite.  But maybe the short little man still has something to say. 
    If we read through the whole book of Luke with a careful eye, we see something surprising in the Zacchaeus story - everything!  This is a narrative summary of the whole gospel of Luke up to this point.  In one simple story, Luke has woven together all of the key themes of his entire story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. 
    We can’t review the entire book of Luke, but we can get the idea of what’s going on in another place where Luke gives a summary of Jesus’ life and ministry.  In Luke chapter 4, Jesus is beginning his ministry.  The first official words of Jesus’ ministry in Luke are a quote from the prophet Isaiah:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.  All of these themes are repeated in Luke 18 and 19. 
    For example, in Luke 18 a very rich, very religious guy asked Jesus a question: “What should I do to get eternal life?”  Jesus (the guy of grace and love) answers in a surprising way.  Jesus lists the commandments, the rules that all the religious guys love: don’t sleep around, don’t kill, don’t lie, etc.  Jesus seems to be setting the guy up for a fall. 
    The rich, religious guy’s chest kind of puffs up a little: “I’ve done all that since I was a boy.” 
    Jesus says, “OK, then, there’s just one more little thing.  Sell everything you have, and give it to the poor.”
    Then, there’s the tragic line: “When the man heard this, he became very sad, for he was very rich.”  He didn’t own his money.  His money owned him.  He couldn’t give it up to save his life.  He was a captive.  Jesus could have set him free, but instead, the rich guy walked away sad.
    Jesus takes advantage of this teaching moment, and he says, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! ... But what is impossible for people is possible with God.”  (Luke 18:18-27)

    Jesus pulls his disciples aside and says, “Look guys, you’ve got to realize something.  We’re going to Jerusalem, and they’re going to kill me.  It’s going to be bad, but I will rise again.  This is all to fulfill what the prophets said about me” (Luke 18:31-34).  (At this point the disciples seem to be blind.  They just don’t get it.)
    Then, the very next story is about a blind guy.  The blind guy hears Jesus is passing through, so he starts shouting and making a scene.  People tell him to shut up, but he just yells louder: “Jesus, Messiah, have mercy on me!”  Jesus heals him, and the blind man sees.
    So we’ve got the rich guy who is a slave to his cash.  Then, Jesus’ reminder that he’s going to die and rise again as the prophets predicted.  Then, a blind guy who can see again.  Then, with all of this build up, we come to Zacchaeus.
    The other rich guy was very “moral” but very addicted to his stuff.  He went home sad and captive.  Zacchaeus experiences a total turn-around.  He had been the chief tax-collector.  He was basically an organized crime boss in collusion with the government.  He knew all about money: how to get it, how to keep it, and how to grow it.  But his encounter with Jesus revolutionized his life, and he couldn’t give his cash away fast enough.  I imagine that was pretty good news to the poor around Jericho.  One of the richest, meanest guys in town suddenly got generous. 
    So far, this story sounds like it’s all about money.  But really it’s not.  Money is just the surrounding context.  This story is really about the heart.  When Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to bring Good News to the poor,” he wasn’t proclaiming an economic revolution.  This isn’t the poor rising up against the rich.  In fact, one of the most shocking things about Jesus was that he showed love and grace to everyone:  beggars, rich guys, prostitutes, religious leaders, Bible teachers, terrorists, and traitors.  This is a story about what happens in our hearts when Jesus starts to bring the Good News to us.
    First, when we really start to smell the Good News our hearts get hungry.   Zacchaeus was a rich man.  He was powerful.  He was feared in Jericho.  He had expensive clothes.  But he was hungry to see Jesus.  He wanted to see Jesus so bad that he risked his reputation.  He went beyond his fear of what others would think.  He was willing to endure the jokes about being the short guy, willing to risk an embarrassing fall, willing to risk more rejection from his neighbors.  More than anything else in the world, he wanted to see Jesus.  He had a hungry heart.
    The first step to really getting the Good News of Jesus is to feel hungry inside.  We all have a hunger for a food that this world can’t provide.  We shove all kinds of things into that hole: food, clothes, success, friends, games, travel - you name it, we’ve tried it.  It all helps ... a little ... for a little while.  But the hunger is still there.  The pain has never stopped crying out. 
    Amazingly, the first step to true satisfaction is being dissatisfied with our lives as they are now.  The next time that dissatisfaction starts to bubble up and you wonder what’s wrong with the world or what’s wrong with your life or what’s wrong with you.  Don’t push it down.  Don’t numb the pain.  Feel it.  Feel that hunger for what it is.  You are hungry for God.  We are hungry for Jesus.  We need hungry hearts.

    The next step to experiencing the amazingly Good News of Jesus is humility.   We need humble hearts.  We are all poor.  Jesus came to “bring Good News to the poor,” and we’re all poor.  Yes, I know I’m always telling you that we’re all rich, and that’s true, too.  But on a fundamental level, we are all desperately poor.  We are all sinners in need of God’s grace.  We are all bankrupt before God. 
    Did you notice the grumblers in this story?  Everyone saw Jesus show kindness to the meanest guy in town, and everyone was angry.  “Don’t you get it Jesus?  He’s the bad guy!  He’s our enemy.  He’s on the other side.  He’s one of THOSE people.”
    We can be like that, too, sometimes.  “Oh, don’t hang out with THOSE people.  You don’t want your kids to be with THOSE kids.  We don’t want THOSE people in our church.  THOSE people need repent!” 
    The good news begins with seeing that there aren’t any of THOSE people who are different or more sinful than THESE people.  THOSE people are no worse than THIS person, me.  We are all poor sinners.  We are all desperate for God’s grace.  None of us can claim any rights or moral benefit over another.  The good news starts with humble hearts.

    The next key to experiencing the Good News of Jesus Christ is openness.  We need open hearts.  Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house, and Zacchaeus could have responded in lots of negative ways.  “Oh, I’m not ready.  I need to go shopping.  The house is a mess.  I’m not good enough.  Thanks for the offer Jesus, but I’m too much of a sinner to let you get close to me.”
    Jesus is always knocking at our door.  Most of us keep Jesus in the lobby of our home.  You know that little shoe area by the door.  Most of us keep Jesus there.  We never let him take his shoes off and come inside.  We spend our whole lives talking to him at the door.  “What if he doesn’t like what he sees?  The bed isn’t made.  The dishes aren’t washed.  The toilet is all crusty.  What if I’m really not good enough?  What if he looks under my couch?  What if he looks into those dark places of my heart?  What if he sees that all of my worst fears are really true?  If he sees who I really am, he could never love me.”
    The Zacchaeus story is short.  Luke doesn’t tell us what happened during the meal.  We don’t know what Jesus said or what food was served.  We don’t know if they were laughing or serious or both.  But we know something about Jewish culture.  Eating together was a big, big deal.  Eating a meal in someone’s house was a sign of honor and acceptance and friendship. 
    Sharing this meal with Jesus changed Zacchaeus.  Experiencing Jesus’ love and acceptance softened his heart.  Within the course of a single meal, he reevaluated his whole life.  Within the course of a single meal, he changed directions.  Once he knew that Jesus, the messenger of God, forgave him and accepted him, he was set free.  His old hunger for money and more and more and more was gone. 
    Zacchaeus opened his heart to Jesus, and Jesus set him free.  Jesus still sets people free.  All we need are open hearts.

    The last part of receiving the Good News of Jesus is to have healing hearts.  Jesus gospel for the poor is that we can all experience God’s forgiveness and begin a new free life through him.  In this new and free life, we are called and empowered to live like Jesus, the healer.
    When Jesus met his disciples after his resurrection, “he said, ‘Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.’  Then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:21-22).  We are commissioned to live like Jesus.  The same mission God gave Jesus, Jesus gives us: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost.” 
    As our wounded hearts are healed, we are empowered to become agents of healing.  As we receive God’s amazingly generous grace, we become amazingly generous people.  Like Zacchaeus we give generously to the poor.  We help the oppressed go free.  We release the captives.  We proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  We announce the fresh start.  We give generously, and we live generously.  Like Jesus, we give grace freely.  We remember that we are poor, but we also remember that we have a rich grace to share - not as someone with all the answers, but as someone who has been filled to overflowing with love.  So we share it.  We love people.  We love people so much that they ask where all of this love is coming from.  This is the “Good News for the poor” Jesus came to bring.
    A Catholic priest named Andrew Marr said something really profound about this story.  He said Jesus wasn’t just trying to convert one person here.  Jesus was trying to convert the whole town.   Jesus wanted to convert Zacchaeus and through that process convert everyone else in Jericho.  Jesus wanted to convert all the religious folks who were judging the sinners and irreligious folks.  Jesus wanted to convert all the irreligious folks who thought they could never measure up and never wanted anything to do with those religious windbags anyway.  Jesus wanted to convert all the rich folks who were keeping their money for themselves.  Jesus wanted to convert all the poor folks who were angry or despairing or dying or all of the above.  Jesus wanted to convert the whole town.
    Here’s the deal folks.  Jesus wants to convert you just like Zacchaeus.  He wants you to humble yourself and to realize that we’re all a bunch of sinners who need grace.  he wants you to open your hearts to his love and grace.  He wants to transform you so that you live with his love. 
    But Jesus doesn’t just want you.  Jesus is trying to convert the whole world.  He wants to change you so thoroughly and so deeply that you live with love and grace.  He wants to fill you up to the top with his love so that you live generously and give generously.  Jesus wants to convert all the religious people around us who keep all the rules and all the irreligious people who hate church.  Jesus wants to convert all the poor people around us who need a helping hand and all the rich people who are drowning in their stuff.  Jesus wants to convert the whole world.
    It all starts right here - in our hearts.  What is your heart like?  Is it hungry or bored?  Is your heart humble or proud?  Is your heart open to being changed by Jesus or closed off to anything new?  Is your heart healing other hearts or are you focused on yourself?  How is your heart?

A Good, Hard Year - 2009-10 Annual Report (Luke 18:1-8)

Josh Broward
October 17, 2010

   This has been a good, hard year.  Even the good times have been difficult, and even the difficult times have been good. 
    Many of us have had personal struggles.  We have had struggles with our jobs, struggles with finding a job, struggles with figuring out what to do next, struggles with our faith, struggles with our health, struggles with our identity and self-worth.
    Many of us have also had family struggles.  We have lost fathers and grandfathers.  We have had family in the hospital.  We have had new babies, with all of those joys and stresses.  We have had family conflicts and unspoken pains and griefs.
    We have also experienced some hard times as a church.  The cycle of coming and going has been unbalanced on the going side lately.  We bless them as they follow God’s leading, but we grieve for the hole they leave behind.  Others in our church are struggling to stay connected even though they’re staying in Korea. 
    In the midst of all of these changes and struggles, we can feel overwhelmed, depressed, powerless or hopeless.  We might feel a lot like a widow in the first century.  In that era, a widow was the iconic symbol of a helpless sufferer - especially if she was poor, especially if she had no close male relatives, especially if someone wronged her. 
    That is the case for the woman in our Gospel lesson.  She is a widow.  She is poor.  She can’t even afford the court fees or bribes to get the judge to hear her case.  She is alone.  Courtrooms were places for men, but she can’t find a male relative to go into the courtroom to plead her case.  And she has been wronged.  Probably someone has taken advantage of her vulnerability and taken some of the little bit that she has left.  She is desperate for justice.

Read Luke 18:1-8. 

    The word “justice” is repeated four times.  “Give me justice.”  “I’m going to see that she gets justice.”  Even the unjust judge “gave her justice in the end.”  “God will surely give justice to his chosen people.”   What is this “justice” about?  The word means to vindicate, to confirm, to justify, to uphold, to find innocent. 
    In this world, as we follow the way of Christ, we can often wonder if we’re doing the right thing.  Is it really the right thing to give rather than to keep?  To rest one day rather than to work seven?  To forgive rather than to hate?  To serve rather than to retreat?  Other people may accuse us of being lazy or uptight or soft or all kinds of things.  We see others who seem to be succeeding, enjoying life, getting ahead, and we also want to succeed and to be happy.  And we wonder if the way of Christ is really right.  If we follow Christ, will we be justified in the end?  Will we look back and say, that was the right choice?

    We also need to understand the context here.  In Luke chapter 17, Jesus has just talked about the struggles his disciples will face.  “People will ask, ‘When is the Kingdom of God going to come?’  And people will say, ‘Look over here, I see a sign.  Look over there, the prophecies are being fulfilled.  But when I come again, it will be obvious to everyone - like lightning flashing across the sky.  But between now and then, I must suffer many things.  When I come back, it will be sudden.  You won’t have time to pack your bags.  You won’t have time to go tell your neighbor.  If you cling to your life you’ll lose it, but if you live loose and free for me, you will find full life.’”
    And the disciples asked, “Where will this happen, Lord?”  (Like, um “when” didn’t work, so let’s try “where.”) 
    Jesus says, “Where the body is, the vultures gather.”  In other words, “When you see it happening, you’ll know where.”
    We want to know when and where and how.  “When will you make everything right God?  Tell me how this is all going to shake out.  If you want me to follow you, tell me where we’re going!” 
    And to all of our questions and complaints, Jesus tells us “a story to show that [we] should always pray and never give up.” 

    This is the second word we need to understand: “never give up.”  It’s actually one word in the Greek: ekkakeo.  Literally, it means “to behave badly,” but in common usage it means “to lose heart, to abandon the cause, to lose faith.”  We can catch it’s meaning by looking at how it is used in a few other places:
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good.  At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).
“As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never [give up] doing good” (2 Thessalonians 3:13). 
    So Jesus told this story about the persistent widow so that we will keep praying and keep acting.  We pray, and we do.  We pray for justice, and we work for justice.  Keep the faith.  Hold to the cause.  Keep walking in Jesus’ way.  Keep praying and keep acting until our “righteousness shines out like the dawn, and [our] salvation blazes like a burning torch” (Isaiah 62:1). 

    But we have to ask ourselves another question: Why?  Why should we keep praying for justice?  Why should we keep working on being a loving community that changes our world?  Why should we endure suffering?   Why should we keep on in the way of Christ when other ways seem so much easier?
    The answer of the Christian church around the world is this: “Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ is coming again.” 
    We can persevere in the way of Christ because Christ has died.  Jesus has already entered our suffering.  When we suffer, he suffers with us.  We are not alone.  But not only that, Christ has died for our sins.  Christ has died so that we can be finally justified with God.  Because of Jesus, God has ruled on our side.  God has given us “justice” or upheld us or confirmed us because Jesus died for us.  If we are in Christ, then God’s justice is forever on our side.
    We can persevere in the way of Christ because Christ is risen.  Jesus has passed through the suffering and come out on the other side.  Jesus went into suffering and death and broke out the other side, leading a long train of captives in his wake.  We still have our broken bodies in a broken world.  But Christ’s free life lives in us, and we are beginning to experience the joys of Christ’s risen life even now in this life. 
    We can persevere in the way of Christ because Christ is coming again.  We don’t know when.  We don’t know how.  But we do know Christ is coming.  Jesus will come again.  Jesus will bring the final justice - the final restoration.  Jesus will raise us from the dead and make everything right. 
    We can persevere in the way of Christ.  Why?  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  Christ is coming again.  I want you to say that together.  When I say, “Why?” - you say, “Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again.”  We can persevere in the way of Christ.  We can pray faithfully and serve faithfully.  Why?
Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again.

    OK, so let’s get to the annual review part of this sermon.  First, a quick look at the numbers. 
Average Annual Attendance:

• 2004-5: 50
• 2005-6: 65
• 2006-7: 80
• 2007-8: 96
• 2008-9: 114
• 2009-10: 109

This might look bad at first.  This is the first year that our church has not grown for many years.  However, we can also see some strength in this.  Within the past year, several key leaders have returned to their home countries, and KNU has changed some of the rules for teachers in the public schools, sending them to other churches.  However, we have basically held our own.  Even though we lost a lot of people, our attendance didn’t change much.  That means two things.  First, we gained a lot of other new people.  Second, we are becoming more stable as a church.  We are less affected by changing dynamics in our environment.  We are able to weather the storms. 

Annual Giving:

• 2004-5: 37,000,000 won
• 2005-6: 50,000,000 won
• 2006-7: 71,000,000 won
• 2007-8: 85,000,000 won
• 2008-9: 97,000,000 won
• 2009-10: 103,000,000 won

This is a really positive sign.  Our attendance didn’t go up, but our giving did!  The economy went down, but our giving went up.  This means that more of us are actually investing in our mission and vision.  We are putting our money where our bodies are.  This means that your confidence in our church and our mission is increasing.  That’s awesome.  Keep that up.  

Savings Trend:

• 2005: 16,000,000 won
• 2006: 29,000,000 won
• 2007: 39,000,000 won
• 2008: 41,000,000 won
• 2009: 72,000,000 won
• 2010: 87,000,000 won

This picture is actually really significant.  Now, with more than 85 million won in savings, our church can actually support a full-time pastor without help from KNU.  For the entire history of our church, KNU has provided the housing for our pastor.  But at some point, either Sarah will not work for KNU, or our family will move on to another ministry location.  Then, our church will need to provide an income and housing for our pastor.  We now have enough money to purchase an apartment similar to the one where my family lives now.  We don’t have to borrow money.  We don’t have to pay rent.  We have the cash.  This is a major step toward long-term stability.  This is something we’ve been building toward for many years, and we’ve made it. 
So church, persevere in the way of Christ.  Pray faithfully and serve faithfully.  Why? 
Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again.

    Last week we baptized 6 new believers.  As they shared their testimonies of how they came to believe Jesus and how God has changed their lives, many of us were moved to tears.  I was reminded why we do what we do. 
    Today, after the sermon, we will take in eleven new members to our church.  Eleven people are joining our community and committing themselves to our mission.
 So church, persevere in the way of Christ.  Pray faithfully and serve faithfully. Why?
Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again.

    After the service today, we will vote in our new Advisory Council.  We have some really good people, and for the first time in the history of our church, we have more Koreans than foreigners.  This is also a big step toward stability. 
    If you have accepted the nomination for this year’s Advisory Council, please stand up when I call your name.  I want to introduce you.

• Christian Education: Beverly Gatlin (renewal) and James Picket
• Fellowship: Lee HaYoung and Tori Palmer
• Finance: Steve Larson (renewal) and Kang MinKyoung (Calvin)
• Missions: Kim SooZa and Park MoonShik
• Outreach and Publicity: Park InGyu and Lee KyoungRan
• Pastor-Church Relations Team: Kim SeongHwan (renewal) and Ron Thornton
• Worship Planning: Elizabeth Palmer and Tim Marvin
• Worship Preparations: Jo EunMi and Im SuHee

We have a great team of leaders to help us follow God’s leading this year.
So church, persevere in the way of Christ.  Pray faithfully and serve faithfully. Why?
Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again.

    We have lots more to celebrate for this year.
 We did our first week of 24/7 Prayer, and it was incredible!  This fall, we’re doing it again.  Michael Palmer is hosting a coffee outing today after the potluck for people who want to help plan 24/7 Prayer. 
 This year was the beginning of our partnership with Bangladesh.  We gave 1,000,000 won for blankets during a cold-wave this winter.  Then, we sent a team to scout the area for us and to help build a house.  We’re sending another team in February.
We are redesigning our website.  That is still underway, but we took some big steps this year.  You can also vote on the final drafts for our church logo today. 
 We also gave 1,000,000 won to the single mom’s house we support.  They bought a GPS device for their van and a sewing machine. 
Also, I have an important announcement to make.  Last year, one of our priority goals was to strengthen our youth ministry.  Last week, the Advisory Council appointed Shannon Smith and Adam Jantz as youth pastors for our church.  (They are both so good that we just couldn’t decide between them!)  This is a big success for our church.  They will add tremendously to our community as they help our students grow in the love and grace of God. 
    I know there are more things for us to celebrate and to thank God for, so we have prepared a Thanksgiving Tree in the hallway.  In the bulletins, there are some fall-colored leaves.  Take one of those and write your thanks on there.  Then add it to the tree.  On your way through the food line or after lunch, you can check out the tree and read what people in our church are thankful for. 
 So church, I want to encourage you to persevere in the way of Christ.  Pray faithfully and serve faithfully. Why?
Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again.

    This year, we want to do a lot of different things.  However, I want us to set two priority goals as a church.  Whatever else we do, we must do these two things. 
    First and foremost, we need to experience more of God when we gather to worship.  This is our best chance to grow close to God together.  This year, we have tasted some powerful worship services, full of the Spirit of God.  The time around 24/7 Prayer and Pentecost stands out for many of us.  We need more of that. 
    Greenhouse Worship is at the front of this effort.  Listen to our vision for these Sunday worship service.
Our worship encounters will be:

• God-filled
• fearless and honest
• creative and connected to tradition
• welcoming and life-changing

We will:

• come hungry
• celebrate Jesus
• take personal action
• leave hungry for more of God.

    We need your help here.  We need you to pray for our Sunday gatherings.  Pray that God will fill this time with his Spirit.  Pray that lives will be changed here.  Then, when you come, engage the process.  We may be asking you to pray or to worship in some new ways.  Come hungry, and be open to trying some new things.
    Also, as I preach, I’m going to try to talk about the core of the gospel every Sunday.  No matter what the topic is, I’m going to try to help us understand how this fits in with the core of the gospel of Jesus Christ:  Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, our sins can be forgiven, and we can live a new life with God in his mission of healing our world. 
    Our second priority as a church this year is to strengthen our core.  It is true that we are a transient community.  Many people come and go.  However, in the center of all that change are people who are staying.  In the past year, we’ve started having meetings of our Korean core.  In the coming year, we also need to have meetings of our foreign core as well.  We need to get these two groups together to build deeper relationships so that we can have one core together.  We need our long-termers to step into your role as core members in our church.  Whether you’re Korean or foreign, if you have been a while and you aren’t going anywhere soon, you have a unique role to play in our church.  It’s time to step up.
    This year, more than anything else, we need to have deeper worship services,  full of God’s Spirit, and we need to strengthen our core.
 So church, persevere in the way of Christ.  Pray faithfully and serve faithfully. Why?
Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again.

    I want to conclude today by introducing you to one of my friends.  Stasi Dishman was born with a disease called Cerebral Palsy.  She’s actually really smart, but her body doesn’t respond to the instructions from her brain.  For 40 years, she had almost no movement in her legs - only very painful muscle spasms. 
    Stasi was a student at MidAmerica Nazarene University.  It took her about 10 years to graduate, taking just two classes a semester.  When I entered MidAmerica, she had already been there five years!  Other students helped her with basic tasks like eating, reading her text books, typing papers, and even going to the bathroom. 
    Because of Stasi’s extremely painful muscle spasms, the doctors actually removed her kneecaps to ease the pain.  They said she had no hope of ever walking, so the kneecaps were useless anyway. 
    About a year ago, Stasi began seeing a chiropractor who introduced her to a new form of treatment.  She sits or stands on this simple machine that vibrates her whole body.  Apparently, the vibrations stimulate her nerves and re-establishes connection between her brain and her body. 
    For the first time in her life, Stasi can actually move her legs when and how she wants.  I was amazed when I saw on Facebook that she had walked 190 feet.  This summer, Emma and I went to see her walk.  They strap her to a walker, and she walks around the chiropractor’s office.  She’s slow, but she has to rebuild muscles that haven’t been used for 40 years! 
    This fall, Stasi entered a 5K race.  Her doctor pushed her in her wheel chair for most of the race.  Then, they stopped and helped her walk the last 300 feet (a new record for her).  Stasi’s new email address is appropriately: walkingmiracle@worshipper.com. 

    If God can help Stasi, God can help us.  Persevere in the way of Christ.  When everything seems impossible, keep going.  When it seems too difficult, keep going.  When you feel too small and too frail, persevere in the way of Christ.  When you feel like you just can’t take one more hit, one more fall, one more failure, one more complaint, one more criticism, persevere in the way of Christ.  Pray faithfully, and act faithfully.  You never know what miracles he has planned.  Persevere in the way of Christ.  Why?
Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ is coming again!

Healed or Saved? (Luke 17:11-19)

Josh Broward
October 10, 2010


Read Luke 17:11-19.

    This text is more complicated than it sounds.  On the surface, it seems like a simple story about remembering to say thank you.  However, four different themes weave through this text.  To really get the full picture, we need to see and understand each color of thread.
   
   The most obvious theme is thankfulness.  Jesus’ action in our lives calls for our joyful gratitude.  Ten people are healed.  One comes back.  Nine go on their way, maybe not noticing their healing yet, maybe in a hurry to experience the benefits of healing (seeing their family, reintegrating into society, entering the town).  Only one shows thanks.  Martin Luther said the essence of worship is the one leper who returned to give thanks.
    We live in an era where most people in developed nations have an attitude of entitlement.  We believe that everything is supposed to go our way.  We believe we are supposed to get everything we want.  And if we don’t, if life isn’t going our way, then something’s wrong with the world.  “Why is it raining on my birthday?  It’s not fair.”  A good income is a right not a blessing.  Health and happiness are standard expectations, and if we don’t have them, we pout.  In general, we have a glaring lack of gratitude for the many, many blessings we experience. 
    On the other hand, this leper who was healed is extreme in his expression of thanks.  Did you notice that?  He shouts for joy at the top of his voice.  He falls on his face at Jesus’ feet.  He praises God openly. 
    When was the last time you shouted for joy?  It doesn’t happen very often, does it?  I had to think for a long time, and I figured it was either when I was playing a game or watching sports.  I haven’t shouted for joy about something that really matters for a long time.  How about you?
    Maybe we need to relearn how to be truly, honestly joyful.  This week I thought about two examples of open, unhindered joy. 
    First, through the wonders of Facebook, I read about a friend (who was adopted as a baby) who recently met her birth family.  It was a whirlwind series of events.  Two of the Facebook comments really stood out to me.  Once, her biological brother said he was just too happy to sleep.  And after a friend posted that he is absolutely amazed and happy for her, she made a really profound comment: “It takes a dang good friend to be genuinely overjoyed for you.”  When was the last time you were genuinely overjoyed for someone else? 
    Second, when I think about expressing joy, I sometimes think of concerts, or more particularly some of the local concerts at the Rock Station, when Wayne and some of my other friends have been playing.  Sometimes - not on every song - but sometimes, the people take the dance floor and just dance and sing along with joyful abandon.  Nobody cares what they look like.  Nobody cares what anybody else looks like.  We just jump and dance and put our hands in the air and celebrate the joy of being alive and together with friends and music.  This kind of fearless joyful expression is healing and energizing ... and one of the best possible responses to God’s amazing grace.
    “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, ‘Praise God!’  He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done” (17:15-16).

    The next line is: “And he was a Samaritan.”  This is our clue to the next major theme that runs through this text, and it is a thread that Luke weaves into his stories again and again and again.  Jesus welcomes outsiders, and outsiders “get” Jesus. 
    This is one of the great scandals of the Jesus story.  My friend, Donnie, who is also a pastor, recently said: “In the gospels, the spiritual leaders who (literally) knew every word of scripture, were not able to recognize God when staring right at him, in the person of Jesus.  Anyone else find that a bit concerning?”  Again and again in the Jesus story, the religious people, the people who should have known the most about God, the people who should have been Jesus’ biggest supporters, again and again, these people let Jesus down - or even become his enemies.  And again and again, the irreligious people, the outsiders, the sell-outs, the homeless, the diseased, the open sinners - these are the people who really get Jesus.  These people who hate religion and are hated by religious people - surprisingly get Jesus.
    And Jesus gets them.  Jesus welcomes prostitutes and national traitors.  Jesus advocates love for enemy soldiers.  Jesus hugs lepers.  Jesus touches women.  Jesus sits down for dinner and drinks with the wildest bunch of party-animals in Israel.
    The guy in our story is a double outsider.  First of all, he’s a leper.  We read the rules about that from Leviticus (13:45-46).  He had to keep his distance from others, and  cover his mouth, and call out “Unclean!  Unclean!”  He wasn’t even allowed to comb his hair.  People were freakishly afraid of getting whatever he had.  It was kind of like AIDS in the 1980s.  People didn’t really know what it was or how it spread, so most people tried to stay away. 
    Second, he was a Samaritan, a foreigner.  For Jews ethnic purity was extremely important.  Ethnic purity was closely related to religious purity.  They didn’t want any outside people coming into their religion with outside religious views. 
    But on several occasions, Jesus points to an outsider as the example of faith.  Jesus says a Roman officer has more faith than anyone in Israel (Luke 7:9).  Jesus says a “sinful” woman has more love than the religious people (Luke 7:47).  Jesus says the good Samaritan is the perfect example of kindness (Luke 10:30-37).  For examples in how to pray, Jesus talks about an annoying widow and a corrupt tax collector (Luke 18:1-14).  A notorious sinner wins Jesus’ approval more than the complaining religious folks (Luke 19:1-10).  A poor widow’s two coins are more “valuable” than all the rich people’s huge donations (Luke 21:1-4).  And to top it all off, Jesus walks into the Temple, the center of the Jewish religion and starts a fight.  He turns over tables and hits people with a whip and tells them that the religious establishment is worshiping God all wrong (Luke 19:45-46 and John 2:13-16). 
    If we really follow Jesus, then the church will be very similar to the bar on the old TV show Cheers.  (Feel free to sing along.)
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.
You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.
If we follow Jesus, we won’t really count anyone out.  We will recognize that people are all the same; we are all hungry for God’s grace.  If we live like Jesus, we’ll accept everyone and consider everyone a possible teacher in what it means to live in grace.
   
    The next key theme emerges in the tension between Jerusalem and Samaria.  They had a long-standing, bitter conflict about who were the real followers of God and where the real temple was.  The Jews said the real temple, the center of the presence of God in the world, was in Jerusalem.  The Samaritans said it was in Samaria. 
    In this story, Jesus is traveling through the borderland between Judea and Samaria.  When Jesus tells the lepers, “Go show yourselves to the priests,” there is a deep unspoken tension.  Which priests?  Which temple - Jerusalem or Samaria?  Which place is the center of God’s presence in the world?  Which of these arguing, fighting, quarreling religious group is right?
    The leper who comes back realizes that something new has happened in Jesus.  His simple action of coming to Jesus to give praise to God is the tip of a theological iceberg.  The presence of God in the world is now concentrated in Jesus, not in a temple.  Jesus is the new high priest and the new temple.  Jesus reunites us.  Jesus is the third way, the higher apex, around which we can all unite.  As Jesus said to another Samaritan outsider, “The times is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ... But the time is coming - indeed it’s here now - when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth ... I am the Messiah!” (John 4:21-26). 
    Jerusalem, Samaria, Calvin, Wesley, Baptist, Pentecostal, contemporary, traditional, liberal, conservative, right, left ... all of that fades away in the light of Jesus.  Jesus is the new Center, around which we can all unite.

    The next theme is the most challenging and also the most subtle.  This theme is almost impossible to catch in English unless you read the text in several different translations. 
The NLT says: “Your faith has healed you.”
The NIV says: “Your faith has made you well.”
The New Korean Revised Version says: “네 믿음이 너를 구원하였느니라” or “Your faith has saved you.”
The Message uses a combination: “Your faith has healed and saved you.”

    What’s going on here?  Is it “healed” or “saved”?  Which did Jesus say?  Well, the answer seems to be both.  The word Jesus used is Greek: sesoken and it can mean either healed or saved. 
    All ten lepers seemed to have enough faith for healing.  All ten cried out, “Jesus, have mercy on us!”  All ten had enough faith to start walking to the priest.  They obeyed before anything changed.  All ten were healed of leprosy. 
    Only one came back to give thanks.  Only one fell at Jesus’ feet shouting with joy and praising God.  And it’s only to this one that Jesus says, “Your faith has healed/saved you.”  Maybe Jesus is talking about a different kind of healing here - something that is more than skin-deep, something that goes all the way to our hearts.  Maybe Jesus is talking about a total life change.  This man’s faith has saved him.  This man’s faith revolutionized his life.  This man’s faith has turned him in a new direction.
    You can see some evidence of this in his actions.  Before Jesus healed him, he stood with the other lepers “at a distance.”  He stayed away from the crowd because he knew he was unclean and unwanted.  After Jesus healed him, he ran right up to Jesus’ feet and started shouting joyful praises to God.  He knew he was different.  He knew he was cleansed.  He knew he was accepted and loved by Jesus.  He knew Jesus was the living presence of God in the world.  He knew Jesus would forever be his master. 
    What about the other nine lepers?  They were also healed, but it doesn’t seem like they were saved.  They were blessed, but their lives were not reoriented around Jesus.  They were blessed, but their perspective on life was pretty much the same.
    What about you?  Are you content just to be blessed?  We want a little encouragement, a warm feeling, some friendship, a reminder that we are not alone, a little strength to make it through the week, an English lesson, an interesting thought to take with us.  But maybe we don’t really want to be saved.  Maybe we just want to take the blessing and go on our way.  Maybe we just want to be a little better people, but basically like we are now, thinking like we do now, acting like we do now, just a little better.  Maybe we just want to be blessed.
    Maybe Jesus is offering us a more radical change than we realized.  Maybe Jesus wants to turn our world upside down and inside out.  Maybe the way we’ve been thinking about church is all about us, all about getting a blessing, all about enjoying the music, or hearing a good sermon, or having the preacher confirm what we already believe.  Maybe instead of just blessing us, Jesus wants to save us. 
    Maybe Jesus wants to save us religious people too.  Maybe Jesus needs to save us from our negativity, from our exclusion of others, from our arrogance, from our selfishness, from our “fighting over words” (2 Timothy 2:14).  Maybe our religious world has become far too comfortable and far too far from what God really wants.  Maybe Jesus wants to come into our religious churches and our religious homes and our religious hearts and start turning over tables, kicking over TVs, and throwing things out the windows. 
    Maybe when Jesus healed and saved that leper, he was also trying to save his disciples - who kept their distance from lepers and looked down on Samaritans.  Maybe when Jesus healed and saved that leper, he was trying to save us.
    And this is where it comes full circle.  If Jesus really saves us, then gratitude happens naturally.  If we were dead in our sin and bent on a meaningless life, but Jesus busted us out of that trap and filled us with his life, then thankfulness is easy.  If we really get that Jesus heals us and helps us share healing with others, then joy kind of explodes out of us - especially when we can see the healing happening. 
    If Jesus really saves us, then we stop trying to decide who is saved and who’s not.  We stop trying to draw lines between insiders and outsiders.  We know that Jesus wants to really save them too.  We know that Jesus is working on them too.  We know that Jesus is still working on us and still saving us, too. 
    If Jesus really saves us, then we naturally unite around Jesus.  We are all broken sinners - lepers, if you will - who have found a God who can heal us and make us new.  What difference do our differences make when we are standing in front of Jesus?  He makes everything new.  He makes everyone new.  Jesus wants to heal and save us so deeply that we are reunited in joyful submission to him. 

    So how do we respond? 
    We need to confess.  Maybe you’ve been using Jesus and the church just for the blessings.  Maybe you’ve been excluding others.  Maybe you need to confess that you are sin-sick and need radical healing.  Take this opportunity to say whatever you need to tell God.  We all need to confess.      We need to ask.  We need to ask for healing.  We need to ask for forgiveness.  We need to ask God to radically change us.  We need to ask God to recenter our lives around Jesus - the true center.  We all need to ask. 
    We need to submit.  Maybe you will want to fall face down before Jesus.  We’ve got these cushions here in front of the cross.  As we’re singing, you can just step out and come to the front and pray.  You can stay for as little or as long as you want.  But sometimes we need to do with our bodies what we are trying to say with our hearts.  Maybe you can come and kneel in front of Jesus as a sign to you and to him that you want Jesus to be your Master, that you want Jesus to radically save you.  We all need to submit.
    We need to celebrate.  Use your body to celebrate: dance, clap, raise your hands, shout for joy.  Later today we are going to baptize six people who have found new life through Jesus.  Let’s celebrate that.  Shout with joy.  Sing at the top of your voice.  Go on and pray out loud during the songs.  Just celebrate God’s goodness and God’s healing in our lives.  We need to celebrate today and everyday. 
   
    Jesus wants to heal and save us so deeply that we are reunited in joyful submission to him.  So in response to Jesus’ great offer, let’s confess and ask and submit and celebrate.  Get up out of your chairs and get ready to sing loud.  Get ready to pray loud.  Get ready to use your body.  Jesus died to set us free!  Be set free!

Luke 17:1-10 - Do We Need More Faith?

Josh Broward
October 3, 2010
  
   Today, we continue our journey through Luke with Luke chapter 17.  Has anyone else felt like this has been a tough trip as we’ve been preaching through Luke?  Luke is rough.  Especially in August and September, we’ve been dealing with some of Jesus’ most challenging teachings.  And, let me just tell you up front, today it doesn’t get any easier.  Next week will be better, but not today.

    Our Gospel lesson today is Luke 17:1-10, and it’s pretty challenging.  Instead of reading it as a whole, I want to walk through it and talk about it piece by piece.  I think this will help us really get what Jesus is trying to say.    Jesus starts out with a warning.
 1 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! 2 It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. 3 So watch yourselves!”
    Apparently, Jesus takes integrity and mentoring and parenting pretty seriously.  A millstone is a huge rock slab used to mill or to grind grain into flour.  Jesus sounds a bit like the mafia here: “You mess with my kids, and you’re going to be sleeping with the fishes.  Capisce?!”
    When we dedicate or baptize children, we make commitments to them, and it’s not just the parents.  The whole church makes a commitment to these children.  Let me just read for you what we have promised to do for our children.  For every child we baptized or dedicated, we promised:
To care for them through loving attention and prayers
To teach them the Bible and to guide them into the saving grace of God
To guide them to church and to worship each week
To restrain them from harmful friends or habits
To bring them up in the care and instruction of the Lord
To teach them to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly with God.
To live as examples for them to follow
To surround them with loving Christian community
To invite them to use their gifts in service to the church and the world
To help them live as faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

    Jesus says it would be better for us to die a slow and painful death at the bottom of the ocean than to neglect these promises.  I know - that’s tough.  “So watch yourselves!”

    Jesus moves on to a new topic:
“If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. 4 Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.”

    This little saying actually pretty hard.  First of all, if someone wrongs you, you can’t just let it go.  Jesus says to “rebuke that person.”  Now Jesus sounds like a cowboy: “Y’all don’t take no crap off nobody!”  Maybe we need to refer to other places in the Bible for the appropriate attitude for this “rebuking.”  For example, our Epistle Lesson today: “If another believer is overcome by sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path” (Galatians 6:1). 
    Within the past weeks, I’ve experienced this text in two different ways.  I confronted a few people who I think need to correct their action, and a few people confronted me regarding some ways they think I could use some correction.  Let me just  tell you - neither of these is fun.  Confronting conflict is difficult and painful.  It takes courage for everyone. 
    But confronting the conflict or sin is not enough.  We have to forgive.  We have to be reconciled.  When other people do us wrong, it can be really hard to forgive.  God’s forgiveness for us is what fuels our forgiveness for others.  Listen to how Paul puts it: “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.  Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others” (Colossians 3:13).
    ... even if it’s seven times in the same day.  Yikes, that’s hard!

   So the apostles, the people who would later lead the church as it spread around the world, say, “Show us how to increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).

    They’re like, “Dude, that’s some tough stuff.  Take care of kids or drown in the ocean.  Forgive people - even if they hurt you again and again and again and again.  I don’t know if I can do that.  We need some kind of supernatural help here.  We need to go back into training.  We need some kind of deep faith to be able to pull this off.  This is dangerous.  This might even be impossible.  Jesus, you’ve got to give us more faith.”
    If there’s one thing we need more of, it’s faith.  I think we would all agree that we need more faith, right?  Pastors are always talking about more faith.  More faith, more faith.  You’ve got to have more faith.  What does our church really need?  More faith.  All we really need is more faith.  And we all agree.  We nod our heads and say “Amen.” 
    OK.  Let’s do a little practical experiment.  Hold out your hands as far as possible.  Go ahead and hit the person next you if you have to.  Now, imagine that this is the full extent of faith.  If we could quantify faith, this is full-faith - as much faith as it is possible to have.
  Now, try to quantify how much faith you actually have.  If you had to estimate the “size” of your faith, how big would it be?  Is your faith the size of a beach ball, a soccer ball, a baseball, a golf ball, maybe the size of a bean or a pea?  Now remember that.  Go on and show your neighbor.  Look around and tell someone, “I think my faith is about this big.”
    So it’s possible to have this much faith [arms out].  And we have this much faith [hands in] - maybe a soccer ball worth of faith, or maybe you’re just beginning and you have just about a soy-bean worth of faith.  And we all agree we need more faith.  The real key to life is more faith.  We should all say the same thing to Jesus, “Show us how to increase our faith.”

    Except for one thing.  Today, Jesus seems to disagree.
  When the future leaders of Christianity asked for more faith, Jesus said,
“If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,’ and it would obey you!
    OK, that’s weird.  First, Jesus was in the mafia; then, he was a belligerent cowboy.  Now, he seems to be writing back comic book episodes - The Attack of the Flying Trees and Our Superhero Mustard Boy! 
    We could go on and on about this, but the point is very simple.  Just a little bit of faith is enough.  Just a little bit of faith is enough to do what seems impossible. 
    Can you see the mustard seed in this picture?   Can you see it now?  What about now?  It’s tiny.  Mustard seeds are tiny. 
    Do you remember how much faith you said you had?  Was it a soccer ball?  A tennis ball worth of faith?  An egg?  An acorn?  That’s great!  Jesus says a mustard seed is enough.  My dad used to quote some hair gel commercial from back in the olden days, “A little dab’ll do ya.”  That’s what Jesus is saying.  Just a little, tiny, itty-bitty bit of faith is enough.  That’s all you need.
        So what is it that we really need.  Well, Jesus keeps talking.
 7 “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? 8 No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ 9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. 10 In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

    Oh man, this just keeps getting worse.  Mafia, cowboy, bad comic book, and now, Jesus seems like a rude slave owner.  But if we’re going to understand this parable, we have to do two things. 
    First, we have to stop thinking like 21st century people for a minute.  Slaves and servants were very common in Jesus’ time.  They were an accepted part of life.  They could be bought and traded in the open market like cows or sheep or iron or wheat.  For Jesus’ audience buying a slave was something like buying a household appliance.  We wouldn’t even think of saying to our microwave, “Are you feeling OK?  You look a little tired.  Maybe you should get some rest.  Here, I’ll warm this up on the stove.”  In the same way, a slave owner didn’t even consider the feelings of the slave: “The slave is here to serve, so let him serve.  That’s what he’s for.”
    Second, we have to realize this parable is not trying to give us a picture of God.  Actually, when Jesus is trying to give us a picture of God he says just the opposite.  We read that parable this summer.  The servants who are ready for the master’s return “will be rewarded.  I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat!” (Luke 12:37)
    This parable is actually trying to give a picture of us.  God owns us.  God created humanity out of the dirt.  We owe him our very existence.  But that’s not all, in Jesus God paid with his blood to win our freedom from evil and sin and selfishness.  Like Paul says, “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.  So you must honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  Paul often opened his letters to the churches by calling himself “a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God” (Romans 1:1).
    It is true that we are God’s children, whom he loves.  God loves us deeply, more deeply than we will ever understand.  But it is also true that we are God’s slaves.  God has bought us.  We are His.
    We can’t earn God’s favor.  Obeying a difficult command is not something extra or super-faithful.  Our duty is simply to obey - no matter if it is easy or difficult. 
    Also, here’s an important point.  The difficult commands are not optional.  It’s not like we can join the apostles and say, “Lord, increase our faith.  Increase our faith, and then we’ll obey.  Later, when we’re more mature Christians, we’ll obey.  Later, when it’s not so difficult, then we’ll obey.  Later, when we have more money or more time, then we’ll obey these difficult commandments.”
    Jesus says, “You have enough already.  You don’t need more faith.  You just need to act on the faith that you have.  You don’t need more faith.  You just need more obedience.”

    You say, “Oh, Josh, that’s tough.  Oh, that’s really difficult.  I don’t know if I can do it.  I don’t know if I even want to do it.  How do I know it will be worth the sacrifice?”

    Well, maybe this story will help. 
    Once, after the worship service, a woman came to the pastor with a question: “What is the reward for the life of faith?”
    The pastor wanted a little bit of time to think about that one, so he said, “Well, let me think about it, and I’ll give you an answer next week.”  Maybe he was hoping she would forget.
    She didn’t forget.  She showed up the next week and came walking down the center aisle ready for an answer.  “Pastor Milton, what is the reward for the life of faith.”
    Pastor Milton looked her in the eye and said, “The reward for the life of faith is the life of faith.”

    God doesn’t give us these commands just to test us.  God isn’t running some kind of spiritual boot camp to weed out the weak believers.  God isn’t an abusive policeman running around with his bully-club ready to bop people for messing up. 
    God is teaching us the best ways to live.  God is guiding us into the most satisfying way of life.  God is teaching us what it means to be human. 

    Take care of the kids.  Make sure to teach them the right ways to go.
    Deal with your conflict, and forgive each other.
    Care for the poor.
    Love your neighbor.
    Take a Sabbath day of rest.
    Be honest.
    Don’t sleep around.
    Do your part in the church.
    Show mercy.
   These are not arbitrary commands.  These are the framework for the Kingdom.  These are the scaffolding of the Gospel.  These are the irrigation channels for God’s Spirit.  Obeying these simple commands will radically change our world.  Obedience to these simple commands opens the way for God to remake our world in us and through us.
    We don’t need more faith.  We need more obedience.  Obedience enables more faith and more life.  If we will just act on what we already know, if we will just put into action the faith that we already have, then we will surely become a loving community that changes our world.  And without a doubt, this is the best way to live.