Tuesday Sermon: Scribes, Pharisees and Hypocrites

Jesus went to the heart of the matter when he called the religious leaders of His day:  scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites!  The word hypocrite means actor -- someone who puts on a show to draw attention to themselves. The scribes devoted their lives to the study of the Law of God and regarded themselves as legal experts in it.  They divided the 10 Commandments and precepts into thousands of tiny rules and regulations.  They were so exacting in their interpretations and in trying to live them out, that they had little time for anything else, even the love of God.  By the time they finished compiling their interpretations, they combined no less than 50 volumes!  Jesus chastised them for neglecting the more important matters of religion, such as justice and the love of God.  In their misguided zeal, they had lost sight of God and of His purpose for the law.

Jesus used the example of tithing to show how far they had missed the mark. God had commanded a tithe of the first fruits of one's labor as an expression of thanksgiving and honor for His intended care for His people (Deut. 14:22; Lev. 27:30).  The scribes, however, went to extreme lengths to tithe on insignificant things (such as tiny plants) with great mathematical accuracy.  They were very attentive to minute matters of little importance, but they neglected to care for the needy and the weak.  Jesus admonished them because their hearts were not right.  They were filled with pride and contempt for others. They put unnecessary burdens on others while neglecting to show charity, especially to the weak and the poor.  They meticulously went through the correct motions of conventional religion while forgetting the realities. Jesus used a funny example to show just how out of proportion things had gotten with them.  Gnats were considered the smallest of insects, and camels were considered the largest of animals in Palestine. Both were considered ritually impure.  The scribes went to great lengths to avoid contact with gnats, even to the point of straining the wine cup with a fine cloth lest they accidently swallow a gnat.  The stark contrast must have drawn chuckles as well as groans.  What was the point of Jesus' lesson and humor? The essence of God's commandments is love — love of God and love of neighbor.  God is love and everything He does flows from His love for us.  Love is sacrificial; it both embraces and lifts the burdens of others.  Do you allow the love of God to transform your mind and heart?

Now, you know me – I'm fairly exacting in the words I want to choose – even if I might not currently be able to pronounce everything just as I know it's right inside my head – but maybe this particular lesson for me is to remind others that the love of God is the important message from God and to all of God's creations.  As Episcopalians, we tend to look for the positive, but reading the Gospel today makes us listen to both the chastisement and the humor that Christ brings forth.  Achieving perfection is, in actuality, only achieved by God – and striving for that is certainly admirable.  But when the striving for perfection makes us forget the meaning of God's love for His creation, then we need to laugh at ourselves, and remember Christ's message to us.  Are you loving God and His creation?

Tuesday Sermon: Bigger Pictures

          One of the things that I love about mid-week readings is that we are given the opportunity to see portions that we don't get to hear about the lessons, stories and people who share their lives with us.  And while the gospel lesson today is definitely interesting and well worth reading about, today, we're going to focus on the story in Judges.  And today, our short sermon will focus on Deborah, the only judge in this book that tells about the judge chosen by God among the women in history.

          Now, first, the reading from today tells the battle in poetic form, and essentially is a stylized song in Chapter 5 that was a much more factual story about what happened in Chapter 4.  So when you listen to the story, remember that if you go back and read Chapter 4, you'll get a lot more of the facts that took place.  Chapter 5 talks more about the victory of Israel in total, while at the same time, admonishes those tribes that didn't bother to participate in the war.  So there's a bit of commentary that wasn't in Chapter 4.  It's up to you to determine whether Deborah acted as a stateswoman or a propagandist.

          Starting one verse before today's lesson, Deborah writes:  “Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way.  To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the triumphs of the Lord, the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel.  'Then down to the gates marched the people of the Lord.'"  Fresh water sources were extremely important in passing news to the people. Wells were places where a man can find his bride, where a leader can negotiate a treaty, and where a community comes together. So in Deborah’s time news was spread through singers "at the watering places”.  The song today may have been written for just that purpose, as her recording of the war for the people.

          In today's reading, Deborah tells about the sections where Deborah and Barak were called up by God, provided a list of the tribes that participated, as well as admonishing against the tribes that didn't show up, and then provided a description of the battles.  As a stateswoman, Deborah wasn’t just telling a "true" story – you can go back and read Chapter 4 for that.  She was telling a story in a way that united Israel – even as she admonished those tribes who did not participate in the war.  The important story tells about the capital of the Canaanite king who is causing so many difficulties. 

          Deborah's states craft in her song changes a fairly local skirmish between a couple of tribes to involving leaders who had participated by not actually sending troops, but rather sent leaders.  But by mentioning the other tribes, Deborah is changing this story of a small set of skirmishes in northern Israel into one of national importance. And this is the story that is being sung at the wells all over Israel, about how six of the tribes got together to defeat a common enemy, even when two of the tribes were far from in danger, and in reality only two of the tribes actually did the fighting.

          As we often find in today's editing to achieve political goals, this method of telling the victor's story omits certain facts.  The combatants become a bit more generic as she writes, " The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan."  (Judges 5:19)  Instead of being one thorn in the side of one tribe, she widens the story.  All of the tribes had enemies among the Canaanites and by expanding the fight to the “kings”, everyone that heard this song could have identified with it.  And by castigating the others that didn’t help, she’s both asserting her – and God’s – leadership of them and encouraging them to participate next time. That was brilliant, and it worked: Manasseh and Asher will both send troops to the next incursion in Chapter 6.

          Deborah's brilliant military strategy, her oratory, and her mastery of Israeli tribal politics is remembered. Because of her efforts, Israel was at peace for forty years.  My suggestion here is that we keep in mind God's lessons within the Bible may be more about the lessons we need to learn, rather than the specific facts.  Today's lesson is more about unity, defending God's people, than more specifically about skirmishes and detailed fights.  Today, we're asked to look at the bigger picture, uniting people under God. 

Sermon: Seize the Day

          This week, I've been looking at what inspires people.  The inspiration from the Bible itself is much easier to listen, and understand the passion that was actually written in those words.  Our Psalm this morning can inspire the words that David speaks:  "They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.  But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.  Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.  Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved." 

          We can often learn the words that inspire us more easily when we hear it set to words that speak to our hearts.  If we were lucky when we attended school, we learned to do more than just read the words in our classics. Some of you may remember the movie "Dead Poets Society."  The movie stars the amazingly talented Robin Williams.  Williams plays John Keating, a high school English teacher at an all-boys private academy, who is committed to helping his students take advantage of life's opportunities.  Keating leads his class out into the foyer of the building where old photographs of graduating classes from decades past cover the walls.  As the boys study the portraits of the classes who had graduated generations before them, Keating remarks that the men in those pictures were just like them, full of hope and ambition.  Then Keating asks his class, "Did they wait till it was too late to realize their full potential?" 

          Then he tells the class that if they lean in close they can hear a message from the men in these pictures.  So they lean in and Keating whispers, "Carpe Diem.  Carpe Diem.  Seize the day, boys.  Make your lives extraordinary."

          Whenever I read Hebrews 11, I feel a bit like one of the students in Keating's class.  Except in this case, the writer of Hebrews is my teacher, and he is taking me on a field trip through the "Hall of Faith."  I see portraits of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Samson.  I learn about the heroes of the faith and the extraordinary things they did for God.  As I take in this inspiring tour, it's as if these heroes are calling out to me, "Carpe Diem!  Seize the day.  Make your life extraordinary for God!"

          So listen again to Hebrews:  "And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect."

          So here, we are led from Hebrews, discussing the men from the Old Testament.  We've been listening to Christ telling us about the people of faith, led to today.  And it feels like Jesus has had a terrible, horrible, nogood, very bad day. “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and oh how I wish it were blazing already! Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No! I’ve come for division!”

          We've been listening to Christ telling us of the love of God, of how we need to follow the words God has provided us.  But often if our following the words we hear and listen, we don't really take in.  How many people hear the words they listen to on Sunday, and by afternoon, they've forgotten the words?  We may get the gist, and we might even think about it during the week, but how often are we hearing words that actually inspire us to take action, to change something in our own lives, to follow God's words? 

          CS Lewis wrote within a story, to find a method of reaching those who could actually hear the message.  "In the children’s novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe … four British siblings enter a coat closet and discover a whole other world called Narnia. This magical world is filled with talking animals and the original Lion King, a lion named Aslan, who rules over all of Narnia. The youngest child Lucy strikes up a conversation with Mr. Beaver, asking about Aslan, “is he quite safe?” to which Mr. Beaver replies, “"Safe?...Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.”

          We know the story being told in the Bible.  We've heard Christ say, "I have come to bring fire to the earth!"  And has it occurred to you that we are Christians – our responsibilities require us to follow Christ.  Simple attendance on Sundays merely feed our own souls, but when we leave here, our responsibilities as Christians is to bring that word of Christ to the world, whether that is said aloud or demonstrated in our own actions and choices. 

          Christ brought fire to the earth.  We were taught that "since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God."  Carpe Diem, followers of Christ – Seize the day, and make a difference.

Tuesday Sermon: True Greatness

          Today's Gospel hits home with me.  When I was ordained, responsible for guiding the souls of this church, concerned with numbers in both of people and of monies, I focused on everything but concentrating on my own responsibility.  There's a story that put today's lesson into perspective.

          A preacher uses his cute, young children in every sermon:  his four-year-old daughter Elena is not only beautiful, but she's also a genius.  He told her often how proud of her that he is for various things, and how smart he thinks she is.  One day in the car as they were driving, dad hears from the back seat after a bit of driving silence:  'Daddy, I think I might be the smartest girl in the whole world.'  Okay, at four, she's cute, but the reason it's cute is because of the naiveté of a child.  A statement like that when wrapped in roots of pride and arrogance beginning to bud in the words of a fledgling Pharisee bloom in our ears and should make us cringe at our own words.

          Like today's gospel, we're often talking about political and societal position.  The disciples were seeking political rank, social status, perks and power that come from being buddies with the King. They're wondering about the org chart.

          In these words of Jesus, I must be converted from pride to humility; from worldly ambition to spiritual ambition; from godlessness to godliness.  Jesus has told us, we must be born again!  The gospel wasn't given to us to just to be an easy ride into a good place; it was given to cleanse us of sin by His blood and change our lives, from the inside out!  When I obey the gospel, I'm not just saying, "I was wrong about the church."  I'm actually saying, "I was wrong about how I was living my life, wrong in my behavior, wrong in my attitudes, ambitions and associations – I was lost!"

          Christ focused His listeners, "calling to Him a child, He put [the youth] in the midst of them and said, Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"  If we attempt to realize our own hubris, the size of our world, the amount of our knowledge, particularly when compared to Christ, we realize that like the pastor who recognizes the cute 4-year-old, we, too, must recognize that we are naïve, our world is quite small, and our understanding and perspective is actually quite trifling. 

          But here, Christ is telling us, with our own perspective of many more years than the 4-year-old child, we need to realize that we are still children in God's eyes, and eliminate the hubris, pride and arrogance that we practice, and change our attitudes in recognition of our actual reality.  We truly are children.  God, the all-powerful, the all wise, all good, perfectly right:  God, is asking us to see ourselves in relationship to Him, not relative to each other.

          Christ's message today is, if we want to be the best among the rest of the disciples, we're aiming far too low.  To enter heaven, we must realize that we are the child's position and have so much to learn in knowledge, in understanding.  We need to set aside our rights and privileges, and recognize our neediness and dependence,  The best way we can emulate Christ's actions is for us to serve others the way He served us.

Sermon: Plans

          One of the interesting things we find in the Bible is that people – faithful, everyday people who believe in God – were pretty normal people.  Their conversations with God included thanks and praise, prayers and worries, but like today, also included a bit of kvetching because things weren't exactly as promised by God.  As you've heard me say often, God's time is perfect – we still have to work on practicing patience and trust.

          Abrahm in this instance has done his best.  He's achieved his military successes and his financial successes.  But he and Sarai are running out of human time for a baby to be born to fulfill the promise that God made to Abrahm.  And his concerns are taken to God.  God tells him, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."  Well, Abrahm appreciates the words, but he wants something a little more – he'd like a timeline.

          God reassures Abrahm saying, "no one but your very own issue shall be your heir."  But before Abrahm can bring up his age and Sarai's age again, God takes him outside, and says, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them."  Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."  And Abrahm trusts God's word, not realizing at this point that it will be 13 years before Sarai gives birth to Isaac, with yet another step in which Abrahm fathered Ishmael with Hagar, trying to fulfill God's word.

          It's often that as humans, we establish "Plan B", just in case what we think God has plans for our lives isn't going to happen the way we thought.  And Plan B may be something good – it may just be taking up time until Plan A takes place, or maybe it should have been changed from Plan B to Plan A to begin with.

          It is so easy for us to think we have to limit our expectations. Not to hope too high.  Not to dream dreams. To live as people would say "in the real world". But that was not God's plan for Abrahm, and that is not God's plan for us.

          Let's look at these in a bit more modern activities.  Back in the 1930's there was once a student called George Danzig.  Being a typical student, he was late for his lecture.  The math professor had written two problems on the blackboard.  Danzig thought they were the homework assignment. It was the most difficult homework assignment he'd ever encountered. Night after night he tried solving the two problems.  It took him nearly a week to finally figure them out.  He finally turned in his assignment and thought he’d get a bad grade because it took so long.

          A few weeks later, George heard a pounding on his door early in the morning. He was surprised to see his mathematics professor standing there. His professor said, “George, you solved the problems.” George said, “Well yeah - that was our homework.” The professor said, “That wasn’t your homework. Those were two of the most famous insolvable problems in mathematics. The world's leading mathematicians have been trying for years to solve the two problems you solved in a few days.”

          George Danzig, who later became a professor at Stanford University, said, “If someone had told me that they were two famous unsolved problems, I probably wouldn’t have even tried to solve them.” (Contributed by Mark Batterson)

          The thing is, God has plans for each and every one of us.  Now, because we tend to be fairly industrious people, we look for the "Plan A" and if that doesn't happen, we work on other things.  The importance is being aware and being prepared to follow Plan A when God says the time is right. 

          Bill Gates may have made many people's lives easier through the software he developed.  However, his greatest achievements through his charitable trust, seeking to cure malaria and change the world, have only become possible after first spending many years of slogging at Microsoft.

          The importance here is being aware when God is moving in your life, and being prepared to follow the plans He has.  And at the same time, keeping at least one of your ideas and plans to be fairly practical.

          Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are out camping.  In the middle of the night, Holmes wakes Watson up and says "What do you see", “I see millions of stars.” “What does that tell you?” asked Holmes.  Watson ponders for a minute. “Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Timewise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, it’s evident the Lord is all powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What do the stars tell you, Holmes?” "Elementary my dear Watson - As we look up at those stars it tells me ... Someone has stolen our tent.”

          Sometimes we can be so stuck in one way of thinking, we need be given a new perspective. Abrahm is inside his tent, thinking about walls, God has to take him outside to give him a new perspective. God has to take him outside. "you see these stars - count them" " one, two three...." "Look towards the heavens and count the stars if you are able - so shall your descendants be."

          Even though we have a small church, God has plans for us – even when we didn't have the plans we might have personally had.  Before we say no about the growth of our church, we each need to move ourselves out of the way of our own plans.  We may not know what's going to happen, but I'd ask each of you to pause and listen – is God enacting Plan A in His time?  Are you ready to follow through with that?  And of course, likewise, is Plan A not yet time?  And are you ready to enact Plan B until then?

Thursday Sermon: Perceiving Reality

Teachers live for the "aha!" moments.  Their student's eyes light up and you can almost see the lightbulb above their head as they finally get it.  The problem is, sometimes what they're getting isn't what you're teaching.  And that can only be discovered if you take things a little bit further.

Stranger danger is a lesson many parents provide to their children, repeatedly, going through "what if" scenarios, and hoping against hope that their child will get it right, so that if the moment ever comes, they'll make the right choices.  One mother explained that she asked her young son what he'd do if a stranger approached him and asked him to help find a missing puppy.  She was happy to hear her son respond, "I wouldn't help him, Mom."  Fortunately, she took it a step further.  "What if he needed help finding a missing kitten?"  Her son responded, "Well, I'd have to help, 'cause kittens are littler than puppies, so that would be okay."

What we have to remember is that each person's perception is their reality – and that's the place they act from.  In the little boy's experience, kittens were smaller and therefore should be protected; his reality dictated his thoughts and actions.

So undoubtedly, when Jesus was asking the questions in today's Gospel, questioning who others thought he was, the disciples were glad to provide him answers.  Then Jesus asked the tough question:  "who do you think I am?"  Peter, bless his heart, got his own aha! moment, and came up with the answer of "the Messiah."  And Jesus was pleased with the answer.  

Jesus went on and explained what he would have to go through, but this didn't fit with Peter's reality of who the Messiah was, so he really didn't pay attention at that point.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

In Peter's reality, the mashiach or Messiah, obviously had the following qualities and plans:  he would be a great political leader descended from King David, according to Jeremiah 23:5.  He will be well-versed in Jewish law, and observant of its commandments according to Isaiah 11:2-5.  He will be a charismatic leader, inspiring others to follow his example. He will be a great military leader, who will win battles for Israel. He will be a great judge, who makes righteous decisions according to Jeremiah 33:15. 

But above all, he will be a human being, not a god, demi-god or other supernatural being.  God is Eternal, above time. He is Infinite, beyond space. He cannot be born, and cannot die. Saying that God assumes human form makes God small, diminishing both His unity and His divinity. As the Torah says: “God is not a mortal” (Numbers 23:19).

Now, in Jesus' defense, He did give the disciples the particulars of God's plan.  But to them, the one word – Messiah – said it all, and apparently, they stopped listening.  And as the saying goes, "that's when the fight started."

Words can have such different meanings, depending on where your reality is; and that reality colors every perception you have.  But, then again, so can cultural differences.  It doesn't necessarily take words to insult your dinner guests and compare them to farm animals, as my mother discovered when I was little and living in Germany.  Like any good mid-west city girl, she served corn with dinner, not realizing that in Germany, corn was food reserved for livestock.  

So while Peter and Jesus' backgrounds seemed similar, as two Jewish men, we forget that Christ has the spiritual background as well as the human, and those may as well be two very different cultures.  The spiritual culture, we assume from our human perspective, looks at more than the big picture – it looks at the whole picture, at how events have occurred in the past, how they happen now, and how they will happen in the future, all with a sense of timelessness.  It looks at human life here as the blink of an eye, but at the everlasting life of souls.  

Peter's rebuke of Jesus teaching about the things he must suffer and experience, dying and rising again show the stark difference in the two cultures.  Christ's use of the word "Satan" here doesn't mean the devil, but one who is adversarial to God's plan.  His continuation, "For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men" states plainly that we've got a significant cultural communication problem happening.

Those who have had the opportunity, or misfortune, to discuss something with me about which I am passionate know that I can, at times, get loud in defense of my position.  The way I grew up, arguments and debates were absolutely the stuff of life, and passion was a necessary component to defending your position.  Fights, on the other hand, were to be avoided, as they were unpleasant, personal and led to everyone feeling bad.  I love debating, but have learned that people who have more experience with fighting only hear the loud, and skip, what to me, is the fun part.  

Since at least half of communicating what you intend to say is ensuring that the other person's perception is at least close to what you intend, you have to be aware of how your words are going to be perceived.  If you know someone you're speaking with is not going to react well to a loud voice, even if you know you're not yelling but simply speaking passionately, then you need to alter your tone.  The only person you can change is yourself, and if you want clearer communication, you have to be willing to make that change.

Now let's take things a bit further – our communication with God.  Like most people, we pray to God, we talk to God – and how much listening do we do?  How much are we willing to put aside our perceptions of what we need or want, in order to hear and understand what God believes we need?  

Long ago, a friend of mine was having all sorts of problems with her 4-year-old.  So, she prayed to God for patience.  She expected that God would provide her with more patience.  What God gave her was more and varied opportunities to practice patience.  Two rather different realities there.  She finally learned to stop praying for patience, and discovered that she had more than she started with – or, her reality had changed.

Are we, like Peter, only listening with ears that are tuned into our own reality?  Or do we attempt to cross that cultural barrier into the spiritual realm?  

In the Lord's prayer, which Christ taught to us, we literally state, Thy Will be done.  Are you ready to put aside what you want for the Will of God?  For His timing and His concept of what is best for you?  

It's not just Peter who has to reevaluate his perception of reality.  

Sermon: Choose

          Ecclesiastes examines the age old question:  why are we here?  Koheleth, the author/teacher/pseudonym for Wisdom, goes through a litany of experiences in life, building on basic knowledge, acquiring proficiencies, enjoying sensual experiences of all the senses.  He concludes, however, that without fear of God – fear meaning trust, awe, reverence and submission to God's will –all is meaningless, a mere vanity.

          Referencing back to Genesis 3, when humankind disobeyed God in their acquisition of knowledge, it was the fear of God that began the building of wisdom.  Two verses in Proverbs sum up how the author could come to this conclusion: 

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10)

"The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.  Though it cost all you have, get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7). 

          Humans toil, build, accumulate things, but also accumulate the intangibles like knowledge, skill, understanding.  The author points out that these are things that, when we die, will be left to those who haven't acquired those things on their own – which is both meaningless and "a great evil."  (Ecclesiastes 2:21)  Alternatively, the tangibles will turn to dust and the intangibles will die with us.  As indicated in Ecclesiastes 3, everything has a time or a season; but with the understanding of the fear of God, one realizes that time is a true gift to experience those things, for only that which is created by God endures.

          It is not really that humankind should not strive or do their best, but rather that in striving and doing their best, they gain the knowledge, wisdom and understanding that humankind truly knows nothing, and are at the beginning of their journey.  With the fear of God combined with what they have achieved, then they can begin to understand that all of their efforts are as a mere breath when compared to what God has created.

          When we look then at the lessons this morning from both Colossians and Luke, we see that again, we have the choices before us:  We can shuffle along, eyes on the ground – or in your phone, absorbed with things right in front of you. Look up and be alert to what is going on around with Christ. 

          There's an interesting story from Max Lucado, a preacher and story-teller, who tells the story of Bob, who was born into the land of coats.  His mother loved the color blue and made Bob's first coat a lovely shade of blue. Every time she noticed her son in his lovely blue coat, she cheered, "Yay, Bob!" He felt good in his blue coat, but Bob had to grow up and go to work. So he put on his best blue coat and slipped out of the house, going to his new job. The people on the street saw him and began to yell, "Yuck, Yuck!" Their coats were yellow and they hated blue.

          Into a store ducked Bob and bought a yellow coat, put it over his blue coat and continued on his way to work. The people cheered, "Yay! Bob!" Bob felt good in his yellow coat over his blue coat. He stepped into his boss' office to get his assignment for that first day. He sat waiting for this boss, who came in, looked at him and yelled, "Yuck!" Bob jumped up, took off the yellow coat and stood waiting for approval in his blue coat. The boss yelled, "Double Yuck! Bob. Here at work we wear green coats!" With that, Bob slipped back on the yellow coat, over the blue coat and put the green coat on top. "Yay! Bob!" said the boss. As he left for work, Bob felt good.

          Bob became very good at changing his coats to match what other people wanted him to wear.  He became a popular man around town. He changed coats so swiftly until he had folks fooled into believing that whatever coat they had on, he had it on too. Bob loved hearing the crowd say, "Yay! Bob!" He couldn't stand hearing any criticism, and Bob was elected mayor of the Town of Coats and had a faithful constituency. One day he heard a noise outside of his window and then heard a pounding on his door. The Yellow Coats brought in a man wearing no coat. "Kill him!" they cried, "he doesn't fit in!" In his yellow coat, Bob said, "Leave him to me."

          "Man, where is your coat?" he asked. The man said, "I wear no coat." Bob replied, "everyone wears a coat. What color do you choose?" The man responded the second time, "I wear no coat." By then the Green Coats had gathered under Bob's window. Running to the window, his green coat on top, Bob yelled down to them, "I have it under control." The Green Coats shouted, "Kill him!" At this time his mother entered into the room, and Bob slipped his blue coat on top. "Bob, where is his blue coat?" Mother asked, The Man replied, "I don't wear a coat." "Kill him," said Mother as she left Bob and the man alone.

          "Man, said Bob, you have to wear a coat or they are going to kill you."

          "Bob," said the man, "you need to decide to stop wearing your different coats. Take them off, take them all off and let the world see who you truly are." "Take them off? Take them all off?" asked an incredulous Bob. The man said again, "Bob, you have to make a choice." As the crowd kept crying, "Kill him!" Bob washed his hands, opened the door and marched the man toward sure death. The man looked at Bob, with one final word, "Choose." Bob was left alone with his three coats and the questions ringing in his mind, "Take them off? Take them all off?"

          Paul responds to us that we "have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory."  It's about taking off the politically correct, the socially right, and morally expedient coats and standing naked before Christ in order to be fitted with the appropriate Christian garb. It's time to select from all the world's popular options and to stand up for Jesus Christ. This passage says that deceiving ourselves and trying to fool others is not sufficient for eternal life. This passage comes and declares that there are some things we can no longer do and call ourselves Christ-like. We have to take off that quick anger and temper. We have to take off that meanness which allows us to do three snaps and a flip of the third finger, when someone cuts us off on the highway. We have to take off that dirty language that just slips out. We have to take off telling those nasty jokes which make fun of God's people who don't look like us. We have to take off lying, which we claim "everybody does it." All of those things belong to the outdated, outmoded wardrobe we wore before Christ! 

          Jesus stands with one word for all of us today--choose! Choose by making the decision with Him today.  Let's avoid all the coat-changing, or how we fit into this group, that employer, this set of friends and family.  Christ tells us in Luke, "So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."  Look at the lessons from Ecclesiastes, from Colossians and from our Gospel, and choose to stand naked before Christ and to allow Him to dress us with His wardrobe of love. All that we have comes from God.  While we are yet lost in our sins, wearing all the colorful coats, trying to cover ourselves, to fit in, to strive for more "stuff", God loved the world so much, that Jesus came to die for our sins and to rise that we might have eternal life.

          How can we dare to continue slipping off one coat into another coat, filling in where others want to dictate where we should be fitting in, when every coat, every thing created by God belongs to God?  In the way we use all of our material goods, from water and food, to the way we use our money and resources and in our care of all of creation, we can be "rich toward God."  We must instead become much more responsible stewards with which we have been blessed, so that we learn our abundance is not meant to be consumed solely by us, but must be protected, cared for and properly distributed.

          Without God, we are but a mere vanity.  With God, we choose to be clothed as He would have us be, choosing to be rich with God, blessed with the glory of God.  Let us pray:

          Lord, you have blessed us with so much! We want you to know that we are truly grateful. Let us never fall into the trap of becoming wasteful or overly preoccupied with storing up for ourselves that which is not truly necessary and let us use everything you have blessed us with to be a blessing for others. May your generosity toward us make us truly more generous toward all, especially those in greatest need. Amen.