Mountains, Plains and Valleys: Transformations of Grace

Faces are so beautiful….so different….so telling.

A child's face can be seen to glow while watching fireworks. Watch a child on Christmas Eve and you will see a face shimmering with anticipation. The gleam when they read for the first time. The blushing face on the first date. A beaming face the first time driving the family car.

The parental glow begins when a woman becomes pregnant. We have all seen parents faces glow with love as their children are born, baptized, take first communion, are confirmed, graduate from school, get jobs, marry and start their own families.

Peyton Manning's face surely glowed two weeks ago when his football team won the Super Bowl. I would guess that his father, Pro Bowler Archie Manning's face was glowing, too. Parents reserve a special radiant glow for their children.

Grandparents have a different radiance that comes out in the common day-to-day things of life. Like teaching grandchildren a traditional craft. Sharing the secret ingredient to a family recipe. Giving parenting advice to new parents. Cherishing the family as they gather for a birthday. Sneaking a little special something to the grandkids when the parents aren't around.

There is a sense of mature wisdom that illuminates from grandparents. Grace. The grace that comes from living.

An artist tells the story of a beautiful transformation from young girl to mature woman when explaining his piece called "Talking Leaves". He tells how the beauty of the changing seasons can become so commonplace that one can miss the mystery and the miracle each season holds. Like a composer of a beautiful song, God infused a certain order and rhythm to each interlocking season. As the beauty of each season builds, it creates anticipation for the season to follow. God is much more than a composer; God is also a teacher and has placed many lessons of life in His song of the seasons.

In order for the trees of spring to bring forth their new buds, the leaves of autumn must humbly fall to the earth. But before they make their descent, they adorn the trees with a spectacular array of colors; from fiery reds and rich plums to pumpkin oranges and yellow ochres.

When one is young, she is like a young bud of spring unfurling, thirsting for sunlight, vibrant and green. As she grows, the unpredictability of weather strengthens her form, causing her to mature as she dances gloriously against the spring and summer skies. As autumn approaches and life has been lived for a few seasons, the color of wisdom starts to emerge and slowly begins to permeate the entire leaf. When the wind rushes through a grove of autumn trees, it is as if a chorus of elders are singing their songs and telling their stories. Then as they all must, they fall and lie down in the deep sleep of winter.

And just as the Great Composer echoes these truths in his handiwork, he also was the leaf that fell that we might have new life in His name.

So the question that remains is not "do leaves talk?" but "are we listening?"

As we listened to the Gospel today, we heard two experiences that are called "mountaintop". This tells us that not only were Moses and Jesus really on a mountaintop but that each experience on the mountaintop outshone any other experience imaginable.

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on a mountaintop. We heard today how Moses' face shone with God's glory after he received the Commandments. God's glory surrounded Moses so that when he came down from the mountain, his face shone so brightly that the people were afraid. He even wore a veil to cover the brightness of God's glory when he spoke with the people. Moses carried his mountaintop experience down with him to the plains, the valleys…his real world. He used his experience to teach the people, build the tabernacle and lead the people out of oppression.

Jesus took three of his disciples with him up to the mountaintop to pray. Peter, John and James probably felt pretty special for being chosen to go with Jesus. This was most likely a treat for the disciples. Mountains offer quiet solitude for rest and retreat. This atmosphere combined with the trek up to the mountaintop may have tired them. In fact, they were so relaxed that when Jesus walked away to pray, they fell fast asleep.

You know that physically exhausting sound sleep that leaves you feeling like there is a heavy blanket holding you down? And then, you feel like you should be awake, but you feel like your senses are fooling you into sleep? Sometimes it's hard to tell if you are awake or dreaming in that state.

Well, the disciples were kind of fuzzy but they thought they saw Jesus praying and "the appearance of his face changed" and his clothes became dazzling white. That would surely make one want to wake up!

Imagine God speaking to Jesus, his only Son and God's great love for Jesus illuminated Jesus' face and clothing. Then the disciples see two other men talking to Jesus - Moses and Elijah. St. Luke tells us the three spoke of Jesus' departure that would happen in Jerusalem. The disciples saw both of these men in the same dazzling white image. Here's a dazzling trio - Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, two great prophets who were very recognizable to Peter, John and James.

NOW the disciples really awaken from their deep sleep. A very sleepy-head Peter speaks without thinking (again) and proposes building three tents so that Jesus, Moses and Elijah can continue their time together. But God directs the disciples "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" Listen to my Son! Listen to Jesus. Listen…Listen… Listen!

Like Moses, Jesus' face shone brightly on that mountaintop and he also came back down. Moses and Elijah gave Jesus encouragement to do what must be done. To heal the people, teach the people, do justice and to die for the people. Jesus went up to the mountain; He had a mountain top experience and because of it and him, we will never be the same. Just like Peter, John and James, we are transformed.

We do, however, have to come back down to the plains and the valleys and live in our real world. How do we carry our mountaintop experience into our real worlds? How do we actively live in communion with God?

God asks us frequently to listen. Not just in those special "mountaintop experiences" but in the "plains" and "valleys" of our lives, too. We come face-to-face with God when we are participate in family, church, community, prayer circle, bible study, church retreat, ministering to others, doing work we are passionate about, and admiring God's creation. When we participate in any of these ways, we leave in closer communion with God. God is with us, not only on the mountaintops, but God is with us the next day at the very bottom of the mountain.

We know what it is like down at the bottom of the mountain.

We know what it means to lose an unborn child.

We know what it means to experience the severe illness and death of children.

We know what it means to have problems in a marriage.

We know what it means to have one of your friends die much too early and much too painfully.

We know what it is like to be down at the bottom of the mountain.

And we know that God is with us and we know that God speaks to us there and gives us the words of hope and strength for that time.

For God is with us both on the mountaintops and in the valleys.

Going back down to the "plains", things seem more normal there.

And God is with us in the "plains", in the normal day-to-day activities of life. We really don’t spend much time on the mountaintops nor do we spend a lot of time down in the valley.

Where we spend most of our time is living plain, ordinary days.

I have found that God is in the plain ordinariness of life as well. In things like,

Eating breakfast.

Making a cup of coffee.

Driving to work and school.

Turning on the lights for a drink of water in the middle of the night

A PB & J sandwich.

Listening to the telephone as it rings.

Talking to a friend.

Sitting at the kitchen table.

Listening to the radio

Opening the refrigerator door.

Feeding the dog.

Going for a walk.

Greeting friends

Sharing coffee and donuts

Sharing stories

Studying the bible

Working on projects together

Life…everyday life.

Imagine standing in the pitch dark cold February night and you look up to see millions of twinkling stars, each one a mystery and a miracle.

This is the normalcy of life.

And God is there with you.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us again, "And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."

There is an organization in Mexico called AMEXTRA that truly lives out the transformation in very normal and ordinary ways of day-to-day life. Amextra is a Mexican non-profit organization whose main purpose is to promote the holistic transformation of farmers, indigenous people groups, women, youth and children who live in rural and urban areas. Their belief is “We do not serve because we are transformed; rather we are transformed when we serve.”

Every day these people find God in their lives. Whether they are feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, teaching the children, helping families with health and nutrition, working on savings and loan programs or training peace-keepers, the people know that God is at work within them and within their communities.

Here at the end of the season of light, we wonder what's ahead? Where will the roads of the Lenten journey take us? Where will San Francisco de Asis go? Will there be light ahead for us? How will we stay transformed and keep glowing in the ordinary days ahead?

We cannot walk apathetically into the future.

We have been blessed and we are asked by God to bless others.
God is with us and the Holy Spirit is active in our community.

Jesus Christ leads us back into the world so that we may transform our community.

Like Peter, James and John, we are transformed so that we can be a light to the world. We are transformed, so others can be transformed through meeting Jesus on the mountaintop in their faith journey.

The Good News is that Jesus walks with us every step, transforming and renewing us (individually and communally) every day. Our transformation comes through listening. God gave us His Son for a reason – to listen and learn from him. Transformation comes from inside. When we receive the Word through our ears and eyes, it transforms us by coming inside us and living inside us.

We can look down the road and see the crisis coming. But we need not fear when we have had our mountaintop experience to pull us through. When we have been filled with the love of God, our faces surely will shine.

We feel the need for the mountain-top experience.

My prayer is that you will have it in your life, and I pray that transformed by that experience, you will come again into the valley and plains and serve with the people of God.

May God bless you as you climb to meet the Lord on the mountain top.

Amen.

The Empty Seat (Luke 14)

She waited and waited for the bus…when it pulled up, she walked up the steps and searched for an empty seat in the back of the bus. She saw none and turned back around to the front of the bus where there were excess seats available. She chose one and sat down. A white man demanded that she give up her seat – even though there were other empty seats. She refused to surrender her seat to the white male passenger. She was Rosa Louisa Parks on a Montgomery Alabama bus, December 1, 1955. This simple act of sitting in the empty seat has become part of our history.

Such was the awkward situation in todays' Gospel. Today we hear a story full of tension. Jesus has been invited to the Chief Pharisee's home to share a meal with the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Not included in our reading today, the first thing Jesus does is to heal a sick man – something that was just not done on the Sabbath, much less at the home of the Chief Pharisee. Then Jesus has the gall to lecture his host and fellow guests on their seating selections at the table. Surely this added some discomfort to the meal. Finally, Jesus criticizes the Chief Pharisee's choice of dinner guests. And all this before the meal is served! Talk about a Tums moment!

Now, to put this event into perspective of Biblical times, the act of sharing food or meals was considered the most intimate demonstration of trust and respect for a relationship. Food is the one basic human need that supersedes all other distinctions of power. You could say that food is the equalizer among humanity. When hospitably sharing a meal 2000 years ago, one would not offend a host, fellow guests or share food with an enemy. This heightens the significance of Jesus dining at the Chief Pharisee's home even more. Another tradition common in biblical times (and a favorite of mine) was to leave an extra seat for the unknown guest. It was considered a mitzvah or a blessing to have the presence of an unexpected guest at one's meal. After all, what a blessing to be able to share a meal with newfound brothers or sisters! Hospitality was a common courtesy and the expectation then. The empty seat suggests abundance…excess…an everlasting supply. A beautiful metaphor for the gift of eternal grace that God has given us lowly sinners.

Now, the dictionary defines Hospitality as "Cordial and generous treatment, reception of or disposition toward guests." We see evidence of hospitality in our Lutheran liturgy, hymnody and the Scriptures. The hospitable frame of mind shows a pure love for humankind, however this becomes difficult when fear is present. When there is fear, it is hard to be open and loving. In todays reading of Hebrews, we heard "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid." We are all equal in the eyes of God….in God's house, all are welcome to share a meal. We will even say at our table today "uniting in one body people of every nation and tongue." We have sung "grace our table with your presence and give us a foretaste of the feast to come". We will sing "All who hunger never strangers seeker be a welcome guest" before we share a meal today.

Theologian Justo Gonzalez proposed that the Book of Acts demonstrates that the actions of the community are guided by the Holy Spirit. He believes the Holy Spirit "levels up" the strength of community so that love conquers fear… When the Holy Spirit is at work within the community, outreach is more proactive and broader to benefit the whole community. In fact Jesus has told us that the greatest commandments of all are: "you shall love your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Our community is our family, Holy Trinity…and Glenview…and Illinois…and United States…and North America…and the world.

Next Sunday is Hunger Sunday…today, the western world has an epidemic of obesity, whereas half of the world (3 billion people) live in what the UN calls "food deficit countries". What might we do to show love for our neighbor here in Glenview…across the oceans? How can we show hospitality to those we don't even know?

Think of your family now. Many of us have been part of such a meal when there was awkward discomfort. We tend to steer away from inviting those who repeatedly cause commotion or discomfort at our gatherings. We want our meals to be special – festive, funfilled perfect gatherings. But what about those who weren't invited? Who is here and who is missing? And most importantly who should be here? What about inviting Uncle Jack back to the family meal table? It's been awhile since he was with us for Thanksgiving – sometimes it's been so long that the reason why is even forgotten. Perhaps it is because he can't contribute a delicious dessert or beautiful bottle of wine or is it that he can't offer to host the next gathering? Or is it because since Aunt Jill died, no one knows what to say to him. Do you think the Chief Pharisee thought "Why did I invite this guy?" I wonder if Jesus was on his A List or B List? Perhaps the same reason that we implore Jesus to bless us with his presence in our mealtime prayers. To challenge our way of thinking – to show us the truth, to shake things up, to ask us to stretch ourselves just a little bit more…to take a lesser seat and help us remember hospitality of leaving the empty chair.

Did the Chief Pharisee leave an empty chair at that meal? For if he did, Jesus surely would have filled it with some of his outcast friends… a woman, an orphan, a resident alien…what about the empty seat at our table? Who might show up unexpectedly? What if they don't come because they feel different than us? What if they look or sound or smell different? When we share in the table today, we are guests of equal merit and stature in God's eyes. There are no special seats here…the privilege is ours as is the responsibility. It is our privilege to have been baptized into this community of faith… as it is our responsibility to leave the empty seat for those we do not expect. It is not our feast, it is God's and invitations are given out through his Son's death on the cross.

Jesus, too, saw mealtime as a time of inclusion. Food and drink represented generous sharing with one's community. Traditional wisdom is not in knowing the rules and passing judgment but in befriending all of God's children like the sinners that we are. The irony is that God's grace abounds whether we invite Jesus to our table or whether we select the best or worst seat at the table. Gods' presence is so abundant that it doesn't matter where we sit. What does matter is that we accept the gift, the body and blood of God's only son. There need be no expectation of reciprocity here – there is no way we could ever repay God's generosity and hospitality. All we can do is to share God's gift with others – remember to leave the empty seat. God only asks that we share the good news…with the guest, the unexpected visitor. How will you take the good news to others? Will you leave an empty seat at the table?

O Generous God, As we are thankful for the generosity that we have received, we pray for those who are as deserving but who haven't received yet. Let us remember that your grace is found in abundance and as we have received, you ask us to seek others to join our table. When we set the table, let us remember to confidently take the lesser seat…knowing that your loving presence will extend to even the furthest seat….we know that your table is limitless. May we remember those who Jesus has called us to serve and help us to generously leave an empty seat.

In Jesus' name we pray,

AMEN.

No Experience Necessary (Luke 16)

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I've held a few management positions in my life. I've also hired, supervised and fired others in management positions. I have found that the best way to determine their future success is by asking how they have handled situations in their past. This type of interviewing is known as "Behavioral" and is thought to be an excellent indicator of future performance. Perhaps you're familiar with behavioral-based interviews – they sound something like this:

• Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation that demonstrated your coping skills.
• Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.
• And, my personal favorite.... Tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision.

In todays' message we hear that Jesus wants us to be children of the light. Meanwhile, he pushes us to develop some of the business savvy or ingenuity of the children of this age. Jesus would like us to take some of the skill, effort, time and determination that we give to our "professional" work and apply it to life as disciples of God. What would happen if we applied professional standards to our spiritual life? Is Jesus telling us to be dishonest managers? No, I think not! He is calling us to become ingenious about what really matters in life. He is calling us to be ingenious when we are faced with unpopular decisions…ingenious when solving a problem…ingenious in times of crisis. It is the managers' ability to respond to a crisis which is the key to this story….the character displayed in crisis is what the master admires…the character in crisis is the example that Jesus asks of us, his disciples.

It seems to me that the Scripture readings for this Sunday lift up the powers of human ingenuity in crisis. And in so doing they challenge us to think very seriously about what we truly value. They invite us to reflect upon what it is that compels our attention and energies. The prophet Amos is well known for his fearless preaching about justice. Amos was not very concerned with cushioning his message; he is quite forthright with his prophetic words. In this reading he confronts those whose governing desire is their own self-interest, people who are determined to enrich themselves even if it means exploiting the poor in the process. He depicts such people as driven individuals. They cannot wait until the Sabbath and the lunar days of rest are over so that they can get back to business. And are they smart! Even ingenious! For they know just how to rig the scales for cheating in order to increase their profit margin. In the process, they leave the poor strewn about the path they have just traversed.

Jesus' story about the wily, crafty steward may seem to us like a strange and uninviting parable. It is a notoriously difficult story to interpret, even for professional Scripture scholars. Why would Jesus ever hold up this man as an example for his disciples? After all, this steward seems to be concerned about only one thing: his own self-protection. Some would say that his voodoo economics and backroom "cooking of the books" would make him a well-qualified participant in a big city political machine. Listening to this story, you can almost smell the cigar smoke in the room where he secretly meets with his master's debtors to decrease their debts. But one thing is certain: this steward is enterprising, he is very ingenious. He knows how to seize the initiative; he takes resolute action in a crisis. Jesus expresses his own wish that his disciples would only exhibit the same kind of initiative and resolve in living the gospel.

Most of us who work, have jobs, are responsible to some higher authority. What if God became as important to us as our jobs? We would become much more deliberate and intentional about discerning what might be God's will for us in specific situations. God is our ultimate higher authority. True discipleship can be tough and demanding. We are called to lives of self-sacrificial love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation, charity and justice. We have an authority, higher than our professional bosses that we need to attend to --- and that authority is God.

Successful workers imagine and work outside the box. They are innovative, seeing, developing new ways, more helpful ways, more effective ways of doing things. One interpretation of the parable that we began with is this: the owner of the resources, the rich man, the master, is God. God is pleased when the manager, all of us, begins to be shrewd about helping those with few resources to share more in God's abundance. We are called to be shrewd stewards of God's creation, shrewd about mercy and justice.

This parable closes with a clear statement: we cannot serve God and mammon, or property. When God is the center of our lives then all resources are to be seen as God's; and as stewards, we are to see that as many as possible share in God's resources.

When we are passionate about something we usually find a way of getting it done. But that which we value, what drives us and consumes our attention, will determine the kind of person we become. If we allow greed or ambition to be the dominant force in our lives, we will gradually lose the ability to recognize what is truly good and worthwhile. We may even lose the ability to see the people whom we have stepped on in the pursuit of our aims. We will become a being who is less than human. Greed has many faces. It may involve the fervent desire to accumulate a bigger bank account and amass great financial security. It may entail the passion to advance our careers, whatever those careers may be. Or it may mean the search for more prestige and recognition among friends or within the community. When these desires control us, we shirk our responsibility as sons and daughters of God.

Every Sunday we come to the Table faithfully. We repeat this behavior so that we can go back out into the world stronger, unified through our community, ready for whatever crisis we might face as we go forth in our mission as disciples of God. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. As Christians we are called to promote the ingenuity that comes from that kind of love. Humanity is capable of producing more sophisticated weapons of mass destruction. But we seem to have a difficult time mustering up the ingenuity to address the scourge of hunger in our world and even in our own cities. We can design and build computers that seem to work faster than our minds. Meanwhile, we seem to find it much more of a challenge to provide affordable housing for the poor or health insurance for the almost 50 million U.S. Americans who are uninsured. Love is indeed ingenious.

God's grace transforms our affections into an ever deepening love of him and into active care for those around us. Each one of us is painfully aware of how often we fall short in this challenge of loving God with our whole hearts and caring generously for our neighbor. Still, Christ invites us to turn to him with confidence because he has revealed to us that God's love, too, is ingenious. The love of God is amazingly ingenious. In fact, the ingenuity of God's love was manifested in the crisis of Christ's death and resurrection.

There are no job interview questions… God accepts all of us… those waiting in the room along with us …those who are homeless…hungry….widows…orphans…resident aliens…those without education…those whose lives differ from ours. For it is in these times of crisis that the character of God shines through and the ingenious love of God continues to work in our lives, showing us what is of lasting value, what is worthy of our attention, our energy, our passion.

Gracious God, thank you for giving us the gifts that we use daily for other jobs and for ourselves. Help us to be mindful of using these gifts for your creations in times of crisis according to the values that Christ has demonstrated. We ask your guidance in crisis so that we may model your Son's ingenious behavior in our future performance. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.