“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Ps 19:14)

A friend’s daughter’s friend works on commercials in New York City.  She was up for a visit a while back and we met them for pizza in Northampton.  I told my friend’s daughter’s friend that I would volunteer happily to be on one of those focus groups for commercials.  I wanted the chance to tell the ones who make them that commercials are terrible, absolutely terrible. 

I get so frustrated with commercials that we just hooked-up something behind our television so that we can watch streaming services without commercials.  Well, actually my daughters were home last weekend and they had to set up for us.  It costs some money, but we’re going to either cut back to the most basic subscription for cable or just get rid of it completely. 

The ones who write commercials must think we’re not very bright.  Not all of the time, but most of the time.  Take Liberty Mutual for example.  Some agency was probably paid a truck load of money to come up with Doug and a sidekick emu, an ostrich-like bird.  It’s so stupid I have to hit the mute on the television when it comes on.  

What makes it worse is that not long ago Liberty Mutual ran a wonderful commercial about paying it forward.  The camera tracked a single, unspectacular act of kindness as it was passed from one person to the next.  I went looking for that commercial on YouTube and that’s when I ran into Life Vest Inside instead.  

I think I found the first video they ever produced.  It dates back eight years.  And it’s been watched 31 and half million times.  I wanted to show it here, but we don’t have any wifi, but you should check it out at home.  The link will be posted with this morning’s sermon later today after the CROP Hunger Walk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU 

We can’t watch it, but we can imagine.  If you feel comfortable, close your eyes and try and imagine this story.

It begins with four kids riding skateboards down a city sidewalk when one of them falls.  A construction worker is coming out of a coffee shop.  He puts down his coffee for a moment and helps the kid to his feet. 

The same kid then helps a woman struggling with her groceries to cross the street.  That woman then sees someone searching fruitlessly for change at a parking meter and gives it to her.  That person sees a businessman drop his wallet and she rushes to pick it up and give it back to him. 

The well-dressed businessman takes a couple of moments to help another guy carry something heavy out of his car and over to his doorstep.  That guy goes to buy a hot dog from a vendor with a cart on the sidewalk. 

That’s when he sees a homeless guy resting against a building.  He grabs two dogs instead of one.  As he walks over to the guy, the hotdog vendor grabs him by the shoulder and gives him a water too.  The hotdog and water are shared with the guy who has nothing.

While the homeless man is really enjoying that hotdog, he sees a young woman get up and start walking without noticing that she has left her cell phone on a window’s ledge.  He rushes over, taps her on the shoulder and gives it back.  She’s surprised and then she smiles. 

This woman then notices another woman sitting by herself at an outdoor café.  She’s sitting there alone watching a mother with her two young daughters at a nearby table.  She looks so lonely.  The other lady buys a small bouquet of flowers and gives it to her, and the woman sitting by herself holds that woman’s hand to her cheek.

The lady selling the flowers sees this and gives a single rose to the lady who did this act of kindness.  The lady who had been sitting by herself sees a waitress getting reamed-out by her supervisor.  She leaves the café.  The waitress comes over to clear her table and that’s when she notices a hundred-dollar tip.

Then the waitress goes and gets a cold glass of water and shares it with a construction worker who is sweating as he’s working hard on the street outside the café.  He smiles.  He’s the same construction worker who first helped the kid who fell off his skateboard.

You can open your eyes now.

The video is called Boomerang because the act of kindness that we choose to do may spread in ways unexpected and may even come back to reward us.  Life-Vest-Inside produced this video and it closes with the message:  “Because kindness keeps the world afloat.”  And the music and the lyrics behind this whole video are beautiful.  If you have the time, check it out.

This idea of paying it forward is also found in today’s Gospel.  We’re told that Jesus is in the border region between Galilee and Samaria.  I know it’s a different parable, but I think we’ve all heard the story of the Good Samaritan so often that we probably know that the Jewish people were not at all fond of the Samaritans.  This comes into play again in today’s Gospel.

Lepers suffered terribly.  They must deal with the pain of their disease, but they also had to endure social isolation.  2,000 years ago, the only way to treat leprosy was to isolate the ones afflicted.  They could have no contact with anyone except other lepers.  Family, friends, neighbours – they were cut off from all of them. 

Then, on top of the disease and the isolation, lepers also had to process the teaching that they were morally unclean, that God also had a problem with being around them. 

These are the ten who from a required, safe distance yell over to Jesus for the miracle of healing.  The miracle is granted and they are understandably overcome with joy.  In their celebration, however, only one, a Samaritan, takes the time to come back to Jesus and say “Thank you.” 

The only one who is grateful is the most unexpected one, the Samaritan.

We never know how our acts of kindness will affect others, even Jesus was surprised that it was only the Samaritan who came back to say, “Thank you.”  We will never know all the blessings of what doing something like, for example, being a part of today’s CROP Walk may lead to, but we don’t have to.

That’s the message of the video about paying it forward.  We don’t know how our acts of kindness will travel.  We don’t have the benefit of an all-seeing camera watching as an act of kindness is payed forward, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hope that they make a difference, and that it may even come full-circle and make a difference for us. 

Cynthia read for us from Second Timothy today.  This Epistle is one of the later writings of the New Testament.  And already we can hear about disagreements among believers who are “wrangling over words” that does no good.

Christians have been divided ever since there were Christians by “wrangling over words.”  We emphasize the silly differences that would separate, but when it comes right down to it, Jesus is most concerned about how we live. 

Nine may walk away with no thought of paying it forward, but the one makes all the difference.  Let us pay it forward in our lives and let us pray that our random acts of kindness may help to make this a better world.  And I think that’s probably the opposite of “wrangling over words.”  And I think that’s a very special “Thank You” to Jesus.

In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Ps 19:14)

A friend of mine is a Jewish guy who grew up in Manhattan and then moved up here to Massachusetts.  He has a quirky sense of humour that I really enjoy.  He’ll send me a YouTube clip of a guy like Lenny Bruce, for example. 

Once he sent me a clip of Dave Chappelle, who is an African-American comedian, playing a blind Klu Klux Klan leader. 

In the clip, his character was born blind.  The family that adopted him didn’t want him to feel doubly-cursed by letting him know he was blind and black, so they never told him.  He grew up hearing constant prejudice, and he learned it and accepted it 100%.
 
This led him into the Klu Klux Klan.  He became a leader because he didn’t know he was black and the others couldn’t tell because he was under the Klu Klux Klan sheet and hood.  You hear him yelling all sorts of ridiculous things about blacks and Mexicans, and Asians and liberals, and after every statement he yells, “White power!”  And the crowd erupts.

The comedy, for the audience watching all of this, is the absurdity of a black man spewing all these prejudices again black men because he doesn’t know he’s a black man, and of all these bigots clapping for a black man because they don’t know he’s a black man. 

But Chappelle is making a point with his comedy.  Prejudice is like this absurdity all the time.  I shared a bit of this absurdity in October’s newsletter article about apple pies. 

More personally, there’s only one generation between me and my immigrant grandparents.  My paternal grandparents came from Spain and my maternal from Poland.  Both faced prejudice when they came here as different. 

They couldn’t speak English; their customs were unfamiliar; they were different.  If I turned around and now acted with prejudice against the new newcomers, I’d be just like the black KKK member shouting “white power!”

We all share similar stories in our lives or in our history.  We hold more in common than we often want to admit, and when we attack others as different, we’re just mimicking Dave Chappelle all over again. 

Keeping Dave Chappelle in mind, let’s now talk about today’s Gospel.  I already shared with the young people the important message of compassion that Jesus so powerfully conveys in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  That was the point of the alarm clock and the snooze button.  We can only postpone the gospel command to care for one another so long, and then eventually, at some point, we run out of time.  It’s just too late.

When we heard that Gospel parable, or when we listened in on the children’s sermon, I hope we gave some thought as adults to this morning’s offering for Neighbours in Need or the CROP Hunger Walk in just two weeks.  These put the gospel words into gospel action.

Neighbors in Need helps the church to spread justice and compassion in our communities, especially in those places where it is most lacking.  

Money helps, there’s no way around it.  Money makes a huge difference in these sort of efforts.  But in two weeks we can do a bit more.  We can walk with others to show solidarity with those who have very little. 

When other people see these marchers, when they see us, they are confronted with the reality that we are trying to make a difference together.  It’s more than making a donation.  It’s the giving of our time and our steps so that others will become aware.
 
The CROP Walk slogan is “We walk because they walk.”  It refers to the need in many impoverished communities to walk for something as common as clean water.  Our Walks bring us together by trying to empathize with their situation.

Compassion like this is Jesus’ priority for us, but there are only so many opportunities.  If we ignore them repeatedly, there’s the chance that it will become too late, so Jesus tells us today, don’t ignore them.

But now I want to delve into another message that confronts us in Jesus’ parable.  Lazarus dies and is rewarded with heavenly bliss.  The rich man dies and is condemned to eternal flames.  The message is be sure to be compassionate while you can because at some point it’s too late.

But then some commentators go a step further and tell us that Jesus is also talking about heaven and hell.  I think that imagery is only to make a greater impact on the sole message of compassion. 

The reason I say this, the reason I don’t think Jesus was really giving a description of sinners in eternal flames, is because if that were the case, it would be like the comedy of Dave Chappelle, about the black man making fun of black men.

What do I mean?

Please take a look again at your bulletin cover. The first picture shows the rich man ignoring the plight of Lazarus.  His apathy is going to get him thrown into hell.  In those merciless flames, the rich man begs Lazarus for a drop of water.  That’s what’s going on in the second picture.

From the glories of heaven, Abraham and Lazarus look out and see his torment – just like the rich man saw Lazarus every day at his gate.  Abraham and Lazarus can hear the rich man’s plea.  But they can’t do anything to help.  God has created an afterlife where it is simply impossible.  Think about this for a moment.

Can you sense the irony?  The rich man is condemned for eternity because he would not help the suffering Lazarus during a single lifetime.  God, if you push the analogy of this parable too far, won’t help all the people suffering in hell, forever.  They can be seen and heard from heaven, but it has no effect on paradise.  Does that sound right?

Could you enjoy paradise while watching so many others wreathing in eternal flames?  God was offended by the callousness toward Lazarus.  Can the saints be just as callous toward the sinners in hell?  Can God?  It doesn’t make sense to me.
 
A couple of weeks ago there was a story about a young man who was beaten up to the point that he was dying on the ground.  All of these other kids around him videotaped it on their phones to remember and share, but no one did anything to help him, and he died. 

Everyone was repulsed by this callousness.  It was disgusting.  Are we going to imagine the same thing happens when the saints watch the sinners burn forever, and then still frolic in heaven?  Do we really want to pin that message to Jesus and His gospel?

I can’t. 

I think the message of today’s parable is be compassionate while we can, and that we should do it because it’s the right and righteous thing to do, not because God is less compassionate than we are.

The Jesus of the parable is as compatible with the God of eternal flames as the blind black man leading the KKK rally.

Let’s do what we can while we can, and may this be our prayer in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Ps 19:14)

We’re in the middle of Labor Day Weekend.  It doesn’t matter what the calendar says about summer lasting a few more weeks.  Labor Day is the real end of summer.  Here in Massachusetts it’s been a holiday since 1887.  So this is our 132nd Labor Day vacation weekend.  Labor Day celebrates the contribution of workers to our economy, and surprisingly we do that by celebrating it with a day off from labouring.

I heard from friends of mine who are football fans that this is the 100th anniversary of the NFL.  They told me that the season traditionally begins on a Thursday night when the Super Bowl champions of the previous season get the honour of playing in the first game of the new season.

This year though the Patriots won’t be playing in that first game.  It will be the Packers and the Bears because they go back to the beginning of the league.  It would seem strange to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the NFL without playing football.  But it doesn’t seem strange at all to celebrate Labor Day by not laboring.

But back when Labor Day originated, it wasn’t a long-weekend escape to the beach.  It wasn’t summer’s last hurrah.  It was a day to celebrate the US worker and to do the work of organizing them. 

I’ve heard stories that near where I grew up in Westfield there were company towns around the paper mills.  The workers paid rent to live in company owned homes and paid for groceries in company owned stores.  There was no way to get ahead, to get beyond the reach of the company.

These sorts of abuses were so bad that workers started banding together and the labor movement was born, and that’s the reason for Labor Day.  It was a lot more than summer’s last long weekend and a day off from laboring.

Now let’s remember the first words that Maureen shared with us this morning: “Let mutual love continue.”  The Epistle goes on to say, “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.”  In other words, stand together.  Stand up for each other.  Be guided by empathy. 

This is the practical spirituality of the earliest church.  This was a part of Christian worship.  This is why the Epistle calls out to believers and tells them, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” 

Everyone hearing that word sacrifices in the sermon that is the Epistle to the Hebrews would have known the long history of worshiping God through sacrifices made in the Temple.  Now God is worshiped with sacrifices of lives dedicated to one another. 

Closer to our own time, but in this same spirit, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968.  He was there to encourage the city’s striking sanitation workers.  They were treated so poorly that they walked with placards declaring “I am a man.” 

In a truly prophetic way, Rev. King spoke to them the day before he was assassinated, and he told them that his death may be imminent, but that he was not afraid.  He told them instead, “It really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” 

Rev. King was a good Baptist who knew his Bible well, and most everyone listening to him knew the Bible well.  Moses led Israel out of slavery and through the desert Exodus for 40 years, but he was not permitted to lead Israel into the Promised Land.  Rather, God took him up a mountain and let him see where others would lead Israel. 

Rev. King didn’t see the day he worked and hoped for, but he believed that he was part of a movement that someday would … and this was not only social activism, this was practical spirituality, this was a labor movement encouraged and pushed forward by a church pastor, this was church the way the Epistle to the Hebrews saw church, as people working together for the good of each other.

Church is not limited to thoughts of heaven.  Church is the community here and now that binds us together to do the good work of making this world better.

Keep this in mind as we hear stories of abuse, neglect and violence in our world.  We’re to stand together with the weak, the poor and the voiceless.  This is as old a part of our faith as there is.

And as we get ready to gather around the Communion Table, I ask you to think again about Jesus going to the home of a prominent religious leader for a banquet.  For the Jews of Jesus’ day, the banquet was an image of heavenly peace and comfort, and I think Jesus overlays the spiritual with the practical in His words. 

He tells the people of power and influence around Him that there is no righteousness in only inviting those who can return the favour. 

Instead, says Jesus, “‘When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, ...’” 

Isn’t this the same message as in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as in Rev. King’s words as he stood side by side with the strikers in Memphis?  Isn’t this the same message of Labor Day and standing together to support each other so that men don’t have to walk picket lines with placards of “I am a man”? 

Success is not only measured by the accumulation of obscene amounts of wealth, but by how we live for each other.  So as we come to the Communion Table let us remember Jesus’ picture of all sorts of people gathering together and each of us bringing what we can for the good of all.  In this way, we will know that Jesus is at table with us.

In His name we pray.  Amen.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Ps 19:14)

Back in the day I was a terrible athlete.  I mean a God-awful terrible athlete.  I remember playing basketball during one gym class.  My teammates were really into this game.  I, on the other hand, leisurely meandered from one end of the court to the other.  I’d talk to people on the bench during the game.  I liked to talk a lot more than I ever liked playing basketball. 

The reason I remember this particular game is that my meandering actually paid off.  While everyone else was down the other end of the court, my team stole the ball, somebody threw it toward me.  I don’t know what that kid was thinking.  I’m all by myself at the other end of the court and lo and behold I threw the ball up and I made the basket.  I’m pretty sure that was the only time I ever scored anything in gym class – ever.

It only makes sense that if you can barely endure a gym class you sure aren’t going to be playing on any JV or Varsity sports team for your high school.  What I missed out on, wasn’t the sports.  I wasn’t that big a fan.  But I missed out on the experience of being a part of a team.

I even hear this message of mutual support in Jesus’ tormented words of separation.  His anguish sounds so unfamiliar that it can startle us with its honesty:  “‘Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division!’”
 
Jesus knows firsthand what being different can do.  There are a good number of indications in the Gospels that Jesus’ unorthodoxy divided Him from His own family.  We know that His ministry caused His neighbours in Nazareth to disown Him.  We read over and over how leaders challenged and rebuked Him, even claiming that Jesus was possessed by the devil. 
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Jesus didn’t belong anywhere, it seems.  Jesus knows all about the pain of separation, and that’s the anguish in His words this morning.  And I think that reality made Jesus cherish even more the hope and promise of belonging, of community, and what will eventually be called of church. 

I think this is what lies behind the beautiful passage that Carol shared with us this morning from an early Christian sermon that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.”  We are taking our place now in this timeless community of faith that reaches back to pastors and congregations of long ago like I tried to impress upon our young people, that reaches back to Jesus, that reaches back to the heroes of the Old Testament, that reaches back to creation. 

We are a link in the chain of that “cloud of witnesses.”  Those who came before us are still a part of us, and what we do now as church adds us to the cloud of witnesses for those who will come after us.  What a beautiful promise that is.  This is our team.  We’re all here for each other.

We remember the mass shootings of a couple of weekends ago I'm sure.  One of the victims was Margie Reckard.  Her husband worried that he would have to bury her alone.  He had no family except for Margie.  The funeral home extended an open invitation on its FaceBook page letting any and all know that they would be welcomed.  The response was amazing.  They filled the chapel and hundreds more waited outside to pay their respects. 

One woman waited for two hours in that visitation line so that she could tell the grieving husband, in her words, “that for every crazy nut, there are thousands of us that love him.”  The funeral director said, “This is about a community coming together to be there for him, to hold him up.”  That’s a glimpse at the “cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us suddenly made visible.  When it appears out of nowhere, it reminds us that it’s bigger than we often imagine.    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/el-paso-massacre-funeral.html

It reminds us that God’s people are not this or that church, this or that people.  It’s all people.  Churches should preach this message loud and clear.  Jesus knew and we know that separation is a reality, but Jesus knew and we know that we’re called to something better. 

It may be an ideal.  It may be idealistic.  But it’s not impossible.  That’s probably how we know it’s from God and not from us.  It’s unfamiliar and unexpected.  

This is why it’s important for us to be a part of events like the CROP Hunger Walk.  Take a look at the poster in the dining hall during Chat and Coffee.  Look at the map and the faces of the people.  Church World Service helps people in need to help themselves all over the globe because all people are a part of God’s people.  Do you think Jesus doesn’t care about the guy in Cambodia, the woman in Guatemala or the child in Serbia because maybe they’re not Christian?  They’re a part of our team, our amazing “cloud of witnesses.” 

​We know the reality of our world.  We know the harm and violence that plagues human history and still thrives today, but let us never allow it to blind us to the glorious fact that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” witnesses to something better, witnesses to the fact that we’re all on the same team.  And for this may we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen. 

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Ps 19:14)

A couple of Sunday’s ago Sharon and I were up in Ogunquit, Maine on vacation and we went to church in York, Maine.  I was surprised to hear the Minister of that beach town church talking to her congregation about chances to get away and relax, not on the beach, but at the lake. 

I thought people who lived in beach communities were there because they loved being on the coast and by the beach.  But in the sermon, these beach people were connecting the thought of vacation not with the shore, but with some lake up in the mountains.

We had driven about 150 miles to get to that very beach to relax.  We hauled a car and a roof-rack worth of stuff 150 miles to vacation.  They were hauling their stuff away from the beach for theirs.
   
I guess it isn’t so much about the place as it is about the attitude we bring to the place, whatever the place may be. 

I think this is part of what Jesus is trying to tell us this morning with His parable of the rich fool.  The man has done very well for himself.  He makes plans to store up so much wealth that he can lead the rest of his life leisurely, without a care or concern. 

He’s packed his proverbial car and added a trailer behind because he’s figuring all he needs, is stuff he can buy.  That’s the “tear down his old barns and build bigger ones” of the parable.

You can see that with wealth.  Sometimes it never seems to be enough.  There’s always the desire for more.  Wealth can become addictive and addiction can become abusive.  Then it doesn’t matter how the wealth is gathered.  It doesn’t matter that others have less and some have none.

It doesn’t matter that there is a grotesque divide in our country and throughout the world between the rich and the desperately poor.  This kind of wealth is not 401K-planning for retirement.  This kind of attitude toward wealth is an addiction and it’s abusive. 

And Jesus asks us today in His parable to consider the way we think about wealth.  Jesus wants us to ask ourselves what happens when the place changes and the stuff is no longer valuable?  Where is our worth found then?

What do we bring on our life’s journey that doesn’t depend on place?  What do we care about that has value here in this life and also will transfer to the life to come when we move from one place to another?

Jesus is using wealth to convey the comparison between how much we think about and prepare for this place, and how blind we seem to be when it comes to our immortal place.  Jesus even uses the word fool to describe this one-sidedness, this expectation that the purpose of life is to fill bigger and bigger barns.  

So this past Monday I had the pleasure of doing my prep for a regular colonoscopy.  You must be all excited to hear about this.  On Tuesday Sharon drove me over to Cooley Dickinson.  I’ve done these procedures before, so I know what to expect.  I think it’s kind of cool the way the anesthesia works.  I remember looking up at the clock.  I recall the staff starting to put on their blue gowns.  Then I remember it getting cloudy and I knew I was starting to go under. 

The next thing I know they’re waking me up after everything is all done.  I don’t remember what the anesthesiologist said to me, but he was trying to wake me up.  When I came around, I was startled and the first thing I said to him was, “What are you doing in my bedroom?”  I think that experience is so interesting.  One second you’re here, the next you’re gone.  There are all of these people working on your body and you’re just gone.

Another friend of mine, just saw him Wednesday, had a much more eventful trip to the hospital.  He actually died on the table.  He told the story to us at a religious gathering a number of years ago.  He floated above his body and he watched the doctors work on his body. 

When they revived him, he was able to tell the staff about what was going on when he was clinically dead.  When they gave me the anesthesia, they could have had a marching band come through the room and I wouldn’t have known.  This guy died on the table and he told the staff what they were doing.

We are all going to “fall asleep” as Paul so casually refers to death in First Thessalonians.  And we are going to wake-up on the other side.  I hope I don’t embarrass myself by saying something like, “What are you doing in my bedroom?”  I don’t want to start off eternity like that.  But there is another truth, another reality, another future.  And to not give that other life any consideration is the reason behind Jesus’ parable of the rich fool.  What do we value that isn’t dependent upon place, that means something important here and now, and keeps that value in the next place?

Bill shared with us a reading from the Epistle to the Colossians.  What I love about this reading is that it connects the here-after with here.  They’re not as separated as we tend to imagine. 

Clothe yourself with a new self, says Colossians.  And when we do, all of a sudden, those differences that we think are so darn important, the differences that separate us whether they be the colour of our skin, the places we were born, the differences of gender, the different choices we make on how to love and to vote and to worship, and the amount of money we have or don’t have, all of these are stripped away, and instantaneously in our new self we can see the lasting truth that “Christ is all and in all!”

That’s a vision that has value here and after-here.  It’s a message of unity that transcends place.  It gives us meaning wherever we are.  

Let’s heed both Jesus’ warning about the rich fool, and let’s celebrate Colossians uplifting message that we are born anew so let’s live like it already.

Now let us gather around the Lord’s Table to share in the sacrament of Communion, a table set both here in front of us, and simultaneously in front of Jesus in heaven.  Let this boundary-breaker remind us that we are in this world and also of the next, already.

In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.