November is a kaleidoscope of themes in 2009.  All Saints, The Time of the Church, Christ the King, and Advent are all included in this span of five weeks.  But the preacher will not be traveling this zig-zag path alone; he or she will be accompanied by some of the best known stories and images in all of scripture.  The Raising of Lazarus, the Widow’s Offering, and Jesus’ Dialog with Pilate are all provided by November’s lectionary.  These stories offer the finest examples of a transforming miracle, selfless discipleship, and deep wisdom that can be proclaimed to God’s people.

All Saints Day – November 1, 2009

Isaiah 25:6-9
John 11:32-44

The festival of All Saint’s Day originated as a feast of All Martyrs sometime in the 4th century.  The celebration moved around the calendar until the 8th century when Pope Gregory III consecrated a new chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter on November 1 and fixed the date of the feast.

The two traditional themes are: the lives of all the saints who have strengthened the church and God’s gift of grace that makes all people saints.

The passage from Isaiah begins with a reference to Mount Zion, “this mountain” where the “LORD of hosts” will provide a great feast for all people and “swallow up death forever.”  The universality of the promise is striking.  This assurance stands as part of a section that was introduced in Isaiah 2 that promises “In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.”  This is an apt verse to emphasize the All in All Saints Day.  The prophet emphasizes Zion’s importance as the center of worship and calls for a time when it will attract all nations and everyone will recognize the LORD as God.

All Saints Day presents an opportunity to celebrate the lives that have gone before and to examine our part in the communion of saints.  The story of the raising of Lazarus raises themes of community, trust, and God’s power over death.  This famous story is recorded only in the Gospel of John.  It begins when Lazarus is still alive but gravely ill and the community sends to Jesus for help.  But Jesus delays coming to Bethany, where the story takes place, and, by the time the story picks up in our reading for today, Lazarus is dead.

Relationships are an important theme throughout the story.   Mary tries to understand her brother’s death while she is in the presence of Jesus.  Jesus grieves for his friend.  The villagers question their loss.  Finally, in Jesus’ prayer, he states that the entire episode is for the sake of the people who are gathered.

Whether Lazarus is cold in the tomb or walking about Bethany with his family and friends does not seem to be the point of the miracle.  The point is that people know that God has power over death.  That is the relationship Christians have in the communion of saints.  Whether each member of the fellowship is drawing breath or not, we have our community in God’s power over death.

The promise of God’s feast on Mount Zion in Isaiah and the Raising of Lazarus in John are told amidst grief and hardship.  Isaiah acknowledges tears and disgrace, but he promises that God will take them away.  Jesus sheds his own tears among the bereft sisters of Lazarus and the questioning people of the village and, from that place of grief and loss, demonstrates God’s power over death.  All Saints Day does not claim that the lives of saints are untouched by sin, grief, and pain.  It is, instead, a festival to proclaim that the lives of saints proclaim God’s love in a sinful, grieving, painful world.

23rd Sunday after Pentecost – November 8, 2009

1 Kings 17:8-16
Mark 12:38-44

The passages from 1 Kings and Mark are paired together because of the prominence of a widow in both stories, but the similarity does not end there.  The stories are made relevant for today’s audience with the question of where we put our trust.

The Hebrew scripture begins with the command of God to Elijah to go to Zarephath where a widow has been instructed to feed him.  When Elijah finds the widow, she has apparently not gotten the word.  She makes a bleak prediction of death for her son and herself.  Elijah counters with a promise of abundance.  Elijah’s confidence comes from the fact that he is obeying the command of God.

It is worth noting, during these difficult economic times, what abundance means to the widow and her child.  It means having enough.  The holy man who makes a fantastic promise does not go beyond a jar of meal and some oil that will never quite run out until the famine is over – and, yet, it is a sign of God’s care that has lasted for centuries.  The widow trusted Elijah and they had enough.  God’s promise was trustworthy.

This miracle takes place in the context of an ongoing relationship.  That is unusual in scripture.  Often the miraculous intervention of God takes place suddenly and is over.  A battle is won, a leper is cleansed, a lion refrains from eating a perfectly suitable holy man, and the story is over.  In this case, Elijah, the widow, and her son live with each other day-after-day and are sustained by the on-going miracle that remains just as urgent as when they first met.  The parallels are obvious with the sustaining miracle of manna during the Exodus and with the gift of Holy Communion.  In each case God’s miracle is set in a continued relationship, not a single incident.

We meet the other widow of today’s lessons as a contrast to those who trust their own status.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus warns of scribes who seek respect and honor from people and augment their reputations by saying long prayers.  The warning is followed immediately by Jesus’ observation of a poor widow who famously put in two copper coins that were all the money she had.

There is an irony built into the story when we view it from our vantage point in the twenty-first century.  On the one hand, Jesus describes those who were concerned about their honor and reputations.  They went to great lengths to be noticed and, yet, any status they had never got past the city limits of a first-century town nor lasted beyond a guest list in the homes of the “better” people.  On the other hand, a widow who trusted God more than anything else has achieved a greater standing than the scribes could have ever dreamed of.  She has been acclaimed throughout the ages; she has influenced millions; and she still provides an example today as her story will be read to Christians around the world in the worship services of November 8.

The prayers of the scribes ended long ago, but the sound of those two coins in the offering box still echo in the church today.

24th Sunday after Pentecost – November 15, 2009

Daniel 12:1-3
Mark 13:1-8

Fr. Robert Bauer said, “The message of apocalyptic literature is not broad but it is very deep: God is in charge.”

The reading from Daniel is the conclusion of the revelation recorded in chapters ten and eleven.  An unnamed angel has recounted the history of Persia and the Seleucid Dynasty for Daniel and, as he comes closer to his own times, gets more detailed in his account of the suffering of the people.  But now, the angel gives assurance that “your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.”  Verse 2 promises, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”  This is the first occurrence in scripture of an unambiguous statement of the resurrection of the dead.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus also contrasts catastrophes with a call to trust God.  Jesus’ words in 13:1-2 should be remembered because they will come up again later, as a charge against Jesus at his trial (14:58) and as a mockery when he is on the cross (15:29).  Jesus’ message is given in a setting of privacy.  Peter, James, John, and Andrew were the first apostles called in Mark’s first chapter; they would be his closest associates.  Jesus warns them of wars and disasters, both political and natural.  But, before the general tribulations, Jesus cautions his friends against false leaders.  The deception of untrustworthy associates seems to be a greater threat to the disciples’ faith than the indiscriminate turmoil of war, famine, and earthquakes.

Although Jesus originally only warned four of his disciples about the threat of false teachers, one would think that the rest of us would have picked up on the danger by now.  With each new advance in media there is more opportunity to predict the end of everything.  Word of mouth was pervasive enough, but then we got the printing press.  Books, tabloids, and movies regularly give people an opportunity to “…come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and lead many astray.”  Now there is the internet which simultaneously predicts and is accused of causing creation’s last gasp.  If there were some way to buy stock in the apocalypse it would be a good move; the end of everything is a growth industry.

When Jesus describes turmoil and disasters, he does not say that it is good news.  The gospel is not in the destruction.  The gospel is in people’s trust in God.  Although he acknowledges the pain of troubled times, Jesus calls them “birth pangs” – a new beginning.  Jesus promises more than predictions; he promises a future.  The difference is critical.  Jesus (and his church) does not settle for making predictions and pointing to the future.  Instead, Jesus (and his church) promises to go into the future with God’s people and make the future a part of God’s creation.

Christ the King – November 22, 2009

Daniel 7:9-10,13-14
John 18:33-37

This is the last Sunday of the Church Year and, appropriately, the theme for the day is what Christians believe about the end of time: Christ will be recognized as King of all things and his rule will guide all of creation.  Of all the events that are commemorated on the Liturgical Calendar, this is the only one that has not happened yet.

In today’s scriptures, both Daniel and John present courtroom scenes.  Daniel is recounting an apocalyptic vision.  John, on the other hand, is grounded in the all-too-real circumstances of Jesus’ final hours before Pilate.

Daniel has spent the first part of chapter seven describing a dream he had in which four beasts came up out of the sea, the traditional symbol of chaos.  There is much agreement that the four beasts represent the empires of Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece.  By the time we join the account, the beasts have either been dealt with or are about to be when “one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven” appears.  Earlier translations of “one like a human being” are closer to the Hebrew “son of man”, a title that is picked up in the gospels to refer to Jesus.

In Daniel’s vision the figure is presented to the “Ancient One” and is given “dominion and glory and kingship”.  The reign is described as everlasting and it is promised to “never be destroyed”.  Historically, Daniel’s vision predates Jesus by about two hundred years.  However God’s truth as told in Daniel, although less specific than the  figure standing before Pilate, is as enduring as the historical events that will come later.

The story of Jesus and Pilate debating the nature of kingship will probably frustrate congregations on Sunday morning.  It is interrupted just when it appears that they might reach an understanding.  It would not have saved Jesus’ life, of course, but Pilate might have understood what was going on in his palace better than he did.  Pilate has some experience with political power; if Jesus is a king he needs to be clear about whom he is ruling.  Pilate asks the question, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  In his follow up question, “I am not a Jew, am I?”, Pilate is still fixated on who Jesus’ followers are.  Jesus finally tells Pilate, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

The subjects of this King are not determined by country of origin, loyalty oaths, or political conquest.  They are people who “belong to the truth and listen to his voice.”

Christ the King’s subjects are whoever follow their King.  Christ is the King wherever he reigns – no matter if that is in a Sunday morning worship service, a lonely adolescent who cannot see past his frustration, a group of retirees who finally have a chance to travel, a woman whose car has been repossessed or the governor’s palace in Jerusalem.

Here at the end of the church year, after living through another cycle of hearing the story of Jesus’ life, of being taught by him and his parables and drawn to him with his miracles, we come to this coda of our celebration.  God’s people have lived this year like all the ones before, burying our dead, baptizing, marrying, learning, and praying.  The experiences of the past year are the truth of our lives.  We have lived our truth listening to the voice of our king.

First Sunday in Advent – November 29, 2009

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25-36

It has long been a theme of sentimental movies and situation comedies to counsel patience as Christmas approaches.  That is not the message of this morning’s scriptures.

The Season of Advent begins today; it gets its name from a Latin word that means arrival.  We anticipate the incarnation of God to arrive and live with people who do not know what they are in for when he shows up.  Jeremiah’s  Advent message uses the word righteous (or a variant) three times in two verses.  Luke tells of the promise that, “People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”  Clearly, changes will be made with the arrival of God and not all of them will make their way into Christmas pageants.

To make the greatest promise Jeremiah can think of, he turns to the past.  He recalls the idyllic time when David was king and he calls for a branch to grow from those days that will flourish for God’s people once again.  The branch will be called “The LORD is our righteousness.”  The grace of Jeremiah’s prophecy lies in the ambiguity of his language.  Righteousness is a personal quality.  Righteousness is to be prized, but it often comes only as the result of discipline and determination.  Salvation and deliverance, on the other hand, are gifts that can only be received, not achieved.  The Hebrew word means all three: righteousness, salvation, and deliverance.  The gift of salvation and deliverance will bring about a righteousness among God’s people that does not betoken a passive wait for God’s reign.  It is a salvation and deliverance that calls for people to live righteous lives worthy of God’s promise.

Luke announces the season of Advent with a description of cosmic portents, a common garden-variety (literally) metaphor, and a stirring call to strength and attention that will be required to “stand before the Son of Man.”  In this passage, Jesus describes awe-inspiring omens and the panic they will cause, not as a threat, but as a sign of encouragement.  He tells his disciples to, “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  (The Greek word that is translated redemption is used only here in the four Gospels.  Paul uses it more frequently.  It means “buying back” and refers to God’s claiming his people from their captivity to the power of sin.)

Jesus tells a short parable about a fig tree.  In winter the fig tree has no sign of life; in the spring the blossoms and leaves would have seemed impossible only a short time before.  Jesus calls attention to this annual phenomenon to describe the reality of God’s salvation.

Finally, Jesus calls his listeners to be on guard and be alert.  He warns them, unless “that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.”

In his explanation of the Lord’s Prayer in his Small Catechism, Martin Luther wrote about the petition “Your Kingdom come”.  He wrote: “To be sure, the kingdom of God comes by itself, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may also come to us.”  The message of Advent is more than an announcement that God will come to live among us.  It is a call to participate in the new creation God will bring.