Living the Questions....

A Reflection on Luke 20:27-38, Proper 27C

One New Year's Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit.

It was out of gas.

The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas.
(C. Neil Strait, Minister’s Manuel, 1994, 315).

The irony is, the float was sponsored by and represented an oil company. A primary symbol of American Society, the status quo, fails…

Which is both funny and thought provoking….

Our vestry meets 10 months out of the year on the second Thursday of the month. We begin every meeting with a Bible study, usually pondering the Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday. In this Bible study we ponder the reading from the perspective of three questions. The first time we read it through we listen for what word or phrase stands out for us. Our response, usually after a few minutes of bewildered contemplation, is the sharing of a few words.

So for instance, at the vestry meeting on Thursday we contemplated today’s Gospel, and we heard things like:

“all of them are alive;” or

“Some of the Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question…”

We don’t explain why the word or phrase stands out. We just say it, the sign of the Spirit speaking to us. Then we read the lesson a second time, using another interpretation of scripture…

This time we are listening to what the passage is saying to the people of "Small Church." Then we read it a third time listening to what the Spirit is saying to us, the vestry, the leaders of "Small Church."

Each time we read it we use a different interpretation. Usually we use the New International Version, The Message, and the one we use on Sunday morning, The New Revised Standard Version. Each version offers us a slightly, or radically, different understanding of the lesson.

So, each read through is from a different interpretation pondering different questions.

These help us to enter into the reading in ever deeper ways.

We begin our vestry meeting with scripture so that we can shape and form the work we do in scripture and prayer.

Now, it’s true that some nights the reading “speaks” to us in fairly clear terms. But other nights, like last Thursday’s vestry meeting, the reading seems obtuse – we are getting nothing out of it.

And I don’t help. I don’t jump in and unpack the reading. I don’t add commentary on what the “Scholars” say about the reading. I let us wallow in it and muddle through the confusion. Because often that is when and where the Spirit will speak to us.

We went through the first question and then second with very little ability to engage in the reading and gain any insight.

Gosh, we thought, this is a tough reading. What we “hear” Jesus saying about the resurrection is just not what we want to think.

We want the resurrection to be about being with our family and loved ones.

We want the resurrection to be about living again, about new life.

We want the resurrection to be about hope.

Then, suddenly, we had some insight. One of the vestry members suggested that the reading was not really what it seemed to be about. It isn’t about marriage and it isn’t about what happens in the resurrection. Sure, marriage is used as the example, but with the intent of pointing us elsewhere.

The message is pointing us to stop thinking about things in the same old way. The point of the reading is that we should not be satisfied with the status quo. We need to be careful about choosing things that allow us to remain in our comfort zones.

The kingdom of God is about a new thing…

So, marriage is a prime example of what is “normal” in our society. This is true even as 50% of all marriages end in divorce. And it’s true even as many people refuse to get married.

The common mind of our society is slightly suspicious of anyone in power or authority who has not been married.

Think about, for instance, what it might be like to consider for President a person who was not married, never had been. Or was divorced? The Sunday night soap, Brothers and Sisters is looking at this very issue.

It goes against our standards of what is “normal,” what is “trustworthy.”

So the vestry member was on to something.

The reading was not about marriage, but about the status quo…

In this reading marriage is a metaphor for what we know, what we are familiar with, what feels “normal”. We need to stop worrying about how able we are to maintain the normal way of life. The kingdom of God is not about maintaining the status quo.

Jesus has come to do a new thing.

We need to stop sweating the small stuff that locks us into, and limits us to what we think is normal.

Jesus is telling us we need to learn to think outside the box.

In Jesus’ day the Sadducees were just beginning to think about resurrection, about what happens after we die.

Then and now many people think life just ends when we die.

But this Gospel conversation about the resurrection explodes this idea. Blows it wide open. But again, just like this reading is not about marriage, it is also not about resurrection.

It is about God and how we understand our lives as a people of faith.

When Jesus speaks to the Sadducees he is saying that their rendition of reality is stifled; he offers an alternate view of the after life as a way of pointing us to understand our lives today.

Jesus offers them a way of thinking outside the box.

As he always does Jesus takes their question and turns it upside down.

Have you read Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet?

In it an aspiring poet from America writes the famous poet Rilke in Germany with questions about his art. In one of his replies, Rilke writes,

“Love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps then someday far in the future, you will gradually...live your way into the answer.”

So, what Jesus does is offer them a revelation of “uncertainty.” By Jesus telling them this version he shakes loose the version of known reality and offers up a radically different one…

True, the one Jesus offers may be more filled with questions than certitude.

But, that would be the point.

What does life look like if we think out side the box?

What does life look like if we stop seeing the differences in the color of our skin?How many times do we use skin color as a way to describe someone?

“there was this African-American….”

“She is an Hispanic…”

“He is Asian…”

Rarely do we feel inclined to say, “That white guy?” Because white is normative…

I hope we see the irony in the events of our Diocesan Convention.

We spent Friday afternoon debating the merits of supporting people of color.

We considered the need to make anti-racism training up front and center in our diocesan budget and in the lives of our parishes. The resolution on this issue passed with very little dissension.

We spent a good amount of time debating the merits of asking General Convention in 2009 to rescind resolution B033. This resolution, passed in the final moments of General Convention 2006, makes a statement about who we will confirm as Bishop in the Episcopal Church.

We argued thoughtfully about why we need to rethink this. Why we need to find ways to fully embrace our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and welcome them into the church.

It was an amazing afternoon. The Episcopal Church at its best, struggling to think outside the box. Struggling to embrace a wide berth of what can be possible and normative.

And then the very next day we elect the white guy as our Bishop.

Now. Don’t misunderstand me.

He will be a fine Bishop.

But hear what I am saying in the context of our debates at convention on Friday. We say one thing, but when it comes to action, we move right back to the status quo. To what feels safe and good and right.

Someone at convention asked me, "Do I think our new Bishop will be an agent of change?"

"Sure." I said. "Just like Persell has been able to be an agent of change in this Diocese. But to the world around us, the people who do not really know the day to day stuff of our church, we present once again, a "normal" face. This is who we see as Bishop. In essence the same person who has been elected Bishop the last eleven times."

Living the Gospel is hard work.

And it’s not about the small stuff.

It’s about changing our paradigm of what we think is normal.

It’s about thinking outside the box and following Christ into a new thing.

It’s a cry for us to look carefully at all the ways we get stuck in racism and sexism.

As human beings we slide so comfortably into what feels normal. I do it all the time!In biology we learn that living systems always seek homeostasis. We actively seek to find what we know as “normal.” It’s in our DNA to do this.

But, Jesus seeks to point us in a new direction.

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and asked him a question...

How is it that, in our world today, "we" are the Sadducees?

Naturally, we want the things that feel safe and comfortable. We live in time of radical change and upheaval. It's only natural that we want to be comfortable and "normal."

But, Jesus tells us we need to push back against this. We need to look carefully at what we think is safe and normal.Because eventually the very things we hold up as the status quo run out of gas.

We need to live with the questions.

What is safe?

What is normal?

What does Jesus call us to do?

We need to let the questions sit in our beings and wrestle with our souls and give us sleepless nights like the one I had last night.

“Love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps then someday, far in the future, you will gradually...live your way into a new answer.”

Come to this table...

One of my earliest memories takes place when I was two years old.

It is evening and my parents have just left. I am in a hospital room and in those days parents were not allowed to stay in the room over night. I was being prepped for a tonsillectomy and for some reason I had to spend the night; the surgery would be first thing in the morning.

I remember standing in the crib shaking it back and forth. I was offended that I had to sleep in a crib like a baby. I was not a baby. I had a baby brother; I knew the difference between my big girl bed and his crib.

I remember the nurse trying to get me to drink the twinkle time juice. I would not. (Who knew what was in that beverage!).

I remember climbing out of the crib and taking a walk down the hall.

[Oh, I’m sure the nurses were fit to be tied with me.]

I remember my uncle coming into the room with a group of elders from our church. My uncle laid his hands on my head and prayed. I don’t remember the words he said. I remember the calming effect of his hands and the soothing sound of his voice. I remember the presence of God’s love pouring through my uncle and into me.

In my memory I went to sleep after that prayer. --------

Memory is interesting….

Why do we remember some things and not others? Why is it that something happens and a memory pops up out of nowhere? That happens to me often when I am driving. I have lived all over the Chicago-land area. Certain neighborhoods are filled with memories…from college, to my first real job, the various apartments I lived in in Roger’s Park, the first house I bought and the second…memories of family and children, and friends.

But day in and day out I do not remember most of my life.

Some days I’m lucky if I can pull up in my memory bank the word I’m looking for…or remember why I walked into a particular room…

No.

Most days I live in the future, the place I am trying to get to, not in the present and not in the past.

Memory is important though. It is our memories that help guide us and keep us from making the same mistakes over and over. Memory is why Isaiah is pleading with the people – remember who you are and whose you are.

“Hear the word of the Lord…”

and then Isaiah reminds the people of what God desires of them.

The people have forgotten what the love and grace of God is really all about. They have started to think that what God wants of them is sacrifices and burnt offerings. They have started to think that God requires this of them before God can forgive them their sins.

We Christians have gone the same direction. We hang on to the idea that God needed Jesus to die on the cross before God could forgive us our sins.

The Letter to the Hebrews develops this idea, so does St. Augustine, so have many church writers through out history. Through out the ages, and even still today, we Christians have been struggling with a crucified and resurrected savoir, a God who came to live as a human… We call this “Atonement Theology;” what God was doing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and how that pertains to our salvation. And, while there is one prominent way we remember the story, there are seven or eight or nine atonement theologies.

It’s helpful to remember that Christians have not completely figured this out.

[Yeah, the mystery of God must have something to do with it…]

What God is telling the people through Isaiah is that their religious rituals and acts have become meaningless to God. They are meaningless because the people are doing them for all the wrong reasons.

Sometimes our memory plays tricks on us,

we start doing something for one reason and then end up doing it for another…

But the truth is God has forgiven their scarlet sins and turned them to snow.

God forgives our sins too!

The sacrifice, Isaiah tells us, is supposed to be an act of gratitude.

A thank offering.

Thank you God for forgiving me my sins and loving me just as I am.

We hear a similar thing in Luke.

In our reading it sounds like Jesus’ willingness to forgive Zacchaeus depends upon Zacchaeus’ willingness to be repentant.

But here is where the interpretation of scripture misleads us. Our scripture speaks of Zacchaeus’ actions as if they are something he will do in the future, but the original Greek words, the verb tense, tell us it is something he is doing now. Present tense….

He is giving things away now.

He is tending to the issues of injustice now.

His heart is in the right place, even if his job would say other wise.

He is already doing what God asks.

It’s the people around Zacchaeus who presume, because of what he does for a living, a tax collector, that he cheats and steals. (www.sarahlaughed.net)

How often do we do this –

judge someone else based on superficial evidence?

How often do we limit our understanding of “who” they are, based on “what” we think they are?

Oh, you’re a lawyer…oh, you’re a priest,...oh, you’re a….

This reading tells us that when WE do this We become the sinner. We sin when our actions are “On behalf” of God, or “for” God, or to “appease” God rather than being “Of” God.

Maybe this sounds like I’m splitting hairs.

But what I’m trying to nuance is the significance of our actions when they are grounded in the love and graciousness of God instead of what we think will please God and grant us salvation while forgetting that we are already saved.

The heart of both these readings is to remind us that God has already forgiven us and loves us as we are.

God’s mercy is profound and stretches beyond our comprehension.

Thankfully God’s mercy is not dependent upon anything anyone of us does.

Thankfully we have a history of God acting in and through people upon which to ground our trust. --------

Today we celebrate the collective memory of the Saints, those blessed ones who have gone before us, those who gave their lives to God. (think, St. Paul, St. Theresa, St. Hildegard, St. Augustine)…

Individually their lives help us remember God in a particular time in history

and collectively they help us know God’s grace and love through the eons of time.

Most of us are less like the saints…we are more like the Israelites that Isaiah is speaking with, we get caught up in details that distract us from what is really going on.

We forget what God really wants of us. We get carried away with issues about human sexuality and forget about the dying, the hungry, the poor…

I am really drawn to the line in Isaiah where God says,

“Come now, let us argue this out.”

I love that God is portrayed as one willing to argue with us and still love us.

“Let us argue this out…though your sins are like scarlet they shall become like snow…”

God invites us into a passionate caring. God wants us to be deeply invested. This passage from Isaiah tells me that God cares about what is in our hearts. God cares about why we do something. God seems to care less about the exact details of what we do.

It’s not about the burnt offering;

it’s about your heart.

It’s like God is saying

I don’t want you to do “the right thing” in order to make me love you.

I want to know what is in your heart.

And, so, it’s about trusting that God does love us just as we are. Trusting this because God has lived as one of us. And if God in Christ has lived as one of us, then God understands the distractions and conflicts of the human heart.

But, at some point, trusting that God loves us, really trusting that, will fill our hearts with joy and gratitude.

We will worry less about doing the right thing for fear of reprisal or to sway God’s heart.

God’s heart is already with us, that’s the message.

That’s why we are called to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving.

This is the language of our Eucharistic prayers. These prayers are known as “The Great Thanksgiving.”

We come to the table, just as we are, broken and lost.

We come to the table with our opinions about:
We come to the table with our opinions about who can lead this country, could it be a woman?
We come to the table with our opinions aboutwho can be Bishop..
We come to the table with our opinions about Homeless
We come to the table with our opinions about immigration…
We come to the table with our opinions about the economy…
We come to the table with our opinions about the environment.
We come to the table with our opinions about mental illness.
We come to the table with our opinions about global warming.
We come to the table with our opinions about the meaning of scripture.
We come to the table with our opinions about about homosexuality.
We come to the table with our opinions about the war.
We come to the table with our opinions about Right to life or Right to Choose….
We come to the table with our opinions about real bread and real body.
Is it?
We come to this table with many different opinions.

We come because God calls us to this table.

But God does not call us to come in order that we all have the same opinion.

It’s about unity not uniformity….

There is a line in an Indigo Girls song that goes,

“There is more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line…”

Christians through out the ages have held different understandings of who God is and what God desires of us.

It is a crooked line.

Thankfully there resides, I think a kind of collective memory in our history. It is this collective memory that we are trying to pray in the Eucharist. But even in that collective memory is much diversity.

Can we pray about God as mother?

Some early church fathers did just that...they used images of God as mother.

Some of us today think that’s blasphemy…..

Come, God says, let’s argue this out.

Because to argue it out says something about our investment in it.

I’m not suggesting vitriol nor am I suggesting mean spirited behavior.

I think the passage is a cry for passion.

Passion for Christ’s sake….!

Passion for the love of God!

Come God says, because you care.

Come God says because no matter what,

so long as your heart is here,

I will turn your sins from scarlet to white as snow.

Come God says.

This bread and this wine is a fragrant offering of love

given equally to all.

Come.

Partake.

Let the meal at this table

be for you the real presence of God’s love,

that you may remember

and then,

go and do likewise