A Case for Ignorance

Christ the King Sunday C, November 24, 2013, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                O infinite Creator, who in the riches of Thy wisdom didst appoint three hierarchies of angels and didst set them in wondrous order over the highest heavens, and who didst apportion the elements of the world most wisely: do Thou, who art in truth the fountain of light and wisdom, deign to shed upon the darkness of my understanding the rays of Thine infinite brightness, and remove far from me the twofold darkness in which I was born, namely, sin and ignorance.  These are words of a prayer often prayed by St Thomas Aquinas. 

            Today is Christ the King Sunday, or in some traditions it is known as The Reign of Christ.  A number of people object to the assertion of Christ as King perhaps because of the legacy of numerous kings that reigned on earth that were probably best described as the exact opposite of what Jesus, in his earthly ministry stood for, did, taught and modeled.  It is not surprising that the shapers of the revised common lectionary which I and many others follow chose this Lucan text for the gospel lesson for this day.  Here we see the opposites juxtaposed; the mockery, scoffing, utter lack of respect for one who only did the will of God as he, in his wisdom saw it.  You really could make a case for ignorance.  Jesus failed in many ways to get his message across to the people.  The people were largely unable to grasp that this was God’s son before their very eyes.  It would take years to sink into God’s faithful Christians just who this Jesus was and is.  There are still many who are ignorant, including even us, who profess belief in him.  People have argued for centuries in many branches of Christendom as to whether it is sin, ignorance, or both that separate us from God and God’s love for us.  In fact, if we leave out the verse that appears to have been added to Luke at a later date, it is ignorance that is the focus of this text as well as it is in Luke 2:50, “But they did not understand what he said to them.”  Luke 9:45, “But they did not understand this saying.”  Finally, Luke 24:45, “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”  The gospels of Mark and John are even fuller of the notion of not understanding or ignorance.  In Acts, the sequel to Luke, we recall a conversion story of an Ethiopian where he asks for guidance to understand the scriptures he is reading.  As I have stated before, Luke is a gospel of opposites.  In this case, the blind will see, but not in a physical sense, but rather, a spiritual sense.

            What is the blindness or ignorance that Luke would speak to today?  I would say hands down that it is self-sufficiency. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me has been replaced by I am able to do all things by myself.  I can and will do whatever I want because I know what is best for me.  We live in a culture that has the inability to see beyond the self.  There is no group cohesion or thinking that is brought about by a community of shared values. We are self-satisfied individuals in our world, chasing after other gods, thinking that in doing so; we will find happiness and even joy.  We wander here and there expectant, yet so many times we are disappointed, forgetting that our greatest joy is in the words we hear spoken, read and digested from the gospel. We are no different from the government leaders, the soldiers, and the others who witnessed the crucifixion. And yet, what Jesus says to the criminal whom we have a strong dislike for if not outright hate, is what we long for the most.  “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” All we have to do is put our trust, belief, and obedience in Jesus.  That’s it.

            As CS Lewis put it, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

            We are simply attached to the wrong things in life and we allow the little things to lure us down paths that don’t really matter in the long run, the larger vision of life.  When the people of the Old Testament asked God for a king, God did not understand. God said that they didn’t need a king because God was their king.  I Samuel chapter 8, verse 7 reads, “…and the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”  Even back then, there was the concept of God as king.  But asking for a king to rule over the people of Israel was an act of rebellion against the commandment of God.

            However, the concept of a king was misinterpreted by the people.  It was about the people keeping the law.  As time continued, the various leaders of the Jewish people interpreted the law differently.  They could not allow the law to be ambiguous.  And we are the same today.  We want someone to set things straight for us.  We want the structure of what is right and what is wrong because we also do not like to live with ambiguity.  However, Jesus came along teaching us that we are not to set up a law, but to proclaim Christ because Jesus is both the fulfillment and the cancellation of the law.  It is not our self-achievement, but God’s alone.  To be a disciple is to share in Jesus’ suffering, his rejection, and crucifixion.  Only the person who is dead to one’s own will, can follow Christ.  We do not need to understand more than that.  God’s grace really is sufficient. It is proven over and over in the New Testament and it is proven in the exchange between Jesus and the criminal who said, “Jesus, remember me in your kingdom.”  That was a simple request made in pure faith.  It had nothing to do with sin or making a confession.  It was simply an act of humility before God, a trust in God’s mercy.  It is a parallel to the story of the prodigal son.  The father forgave the son even before the son said anything and the father embraced him and welcomed him home.  That is what the kingdom of God is like.  If in Jesus is the fulfillment and cancellation of the law, then there is no sin and therefore no judgment. We are simply called to be disciples of Jesus and to walk before God and all that God has created with the grace and the compassion given us to make this world a better place in the present.

            If we are to take Jesus at his word in Luke, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” means that Jesus’ fulfillment of the law occurred when here on earth before the crucifixion.  Today, it means we are living in that paradise as believers in him. The salvation of God is happening in the present.  It is happening each and every day that we take that leap of faith in him.  Eternal life begins before we die in this earthly frame and continues beyond our death.  We do not die.  We are all eligible for life with God when we place our trust in Jesus.  Today, Jesus offers salvation to us, all of us, as unlikely as that might seem.  Our sins are forgiven.  Our wounds are healed.  We may enter Paradise with Jesus.

Are you Chicken?

Proper28C, Sullivan Park Care Center, November 17, 2013 by Annette Fricke

            When I was born and a few years after that, my dad was a poultry farmer.  What did that mean?  It meant that he had 1,000 Leghorn chickens.  I don’t imagine he kept many roosters for breeding purposes although I know he must have had some because he also had an incubator to hatch eggs.  The other roosters were likely to show up on the dinner table. The rest meant gathering and sorting eggs, lots of them. I was young and impressionable.  My favorite childhood story was that of the Little Red Hen.  In the second grade, I wrote a paper about different breeds of chickens.  This was not surprising considering I grew up on a poultry farm. 

                The story of the Little Red Hen goes like this: The hen found some  grains of wheat scattered in the barnyard and asked for help to plant it from the other animals and they all said, “Not I!”  All through each step to making bread out of the wheat, each animal continued to say, “Not I!”  The little red hen, after the bread has been baked and ready to eat asks who will help her eat it and the animals say, “I will!" said the lamb. "I will!" said the cat. "I will!" said the pig.

"No, you will not," said the Little Red Hen. "You didn't help me plant it, or water it, or harvest it, or mill it, or bake it. I shall eat it myself!" And so she did.

"Oh me!" said the lamb.

"Oh my!" said the cat.

"Oh me, oh my!" said the pig.

The next time the Little Red Hen found some grains of wheat, the lamb planted it in the rich, brown soil, the cat watered it carefully every day, and the pig harvested the wheat when it had grown tall and strong. When the dough was baked, together the animals made hot chocolate and ate the fresh, warm bread. It was delicious! The animals lived happily ever after, cooperating and helping every day.[1]

                Similar to our second lesson from 2 Thessalonians, the moral of this story is that those who show no willingness to contribute to a product do not deserve to enjoy the product: "if any would not work, neither should he eat.”[2]

            In my mind for many years the lesson was quite straightforward, you don’t work, you don’t eat.  It was that simple.  But it’s not that simple any more.  In my research for the origin of this story, I only find that it is thought to be Russian in origin.  If I look at the context of this text, I see the repeating of the word idle once as well as idleness twice and busybody once. In the dictionary, the word busybody is a noun meaning a meddling or prying person: a meddler, interferer, mischief-maker, troublemaker, gossip, scandalmonger, eavesdropper, snoop, buttinsky, and a host of other synonyms.

            In this epistle, the context is the Christian community.  The purpose of this section is to give guidance and encouragement in the form of some very direct language.  We are not to be mean to people who are idle.  In fact, we are to love them with the same love that Christ showed us.  We should show our inclusiveness and concern for all in the Christian community. This text also is not about those who are unable to work. We are to care for all regardless of ability. This text rather, is directed to those who are perfectly capable of work, but aren’t working.

            On Thursday, since it was one of my days off, I decided to visit with a friend of the family from Mt Hope.  For those of you who don’t know where that is, it is close to Rockford and Fairfield, south of here about 25 miles.  I went with a friend from the church.  After that, she suggested we see another person in an Adult Family Home in the same vicinity.  So we got back into my car and drove about a mile south.  We were told that the person we came to see was taking a nap.  We decided that we would stay since she would be getting up soon for lunch.  While waiting, the therapy dog, Bentley, came up to greet us, seeming to favor me of the two of us.  In time, the resident appeared to us in a wheelchair.  The connections were made.  She had sung in the choir where my friend and I still sing.  She excitedly informed us that she wanted us to come for her birthday on February 8^th and she would be 96 years old! Then she looked at me and said, “How old are you?”  I said, “56.”  She said, “Do you want a job working here?”  I hesitated.  “Well,” as the main provider of the facility approached, “I work pretty much full-time at Rockwood, but I could work part-time.”  The Adult Family Home provider gave me her card so I could apply.  She said the job was posted on Craigslist, but I never found it.  So, I applied.

            From our first lesson is addressed all the arrogant and evildoers.  This goes beyond idleness into outright purposeful behavior meant to do harm to others.  I was observing one of our residents one day.  He blatantly told one of the servers from the kitchen that he disliked her newly colored red hair and will sometimes refer to her as the one with the mouth.  A couple of minutes later, he made it a point to apologize to her formally.  Previous to that, one of the staff decided that she did not want to put this resident’s hair into a pony tail, as he had requested.  These are just some of the examples that I see around me.  I am sure that you are able to fill in the blank for your own conversations.  It is OK to be different.  We are all different, but that is what our make-up is as a community.  And so we are admonished, “Brothers and sisters do not be weary in doing what is right.”

            Do not weary in doing what is right.  Many temptations will surround you and you will be tested in your faith many times over.  The early Christians knew this well, especially as they experienced the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.  Jesus’ words about the coming destruction of the temple in 70 AD are still valid and we are called to remain faithful to him.  There will continue to be wars, revolutions, rebellions, and resistances against civil authorities and established governments.  But, as the text also says, the end will not follow immediately.  That means that we will continue to see phenomenon like the typhoon which devastated much of the people and land of the Philippines.  We will continue to see bad things happen to people over which we do not have any control.  There will be famine and disease.  There is an ongoing controversy about immunizations in this country.  Many of my co-workers and some of the residents in my care refuse to get flu shots because they believe that they will become sick with the flu when they get the shot.  Right now, some would say that is a choice and we should respect those who choose that path. Others would say that it increases the possibility of passing along the flu.

            But, regardless of how you might feel about contagion or the severity of the weather systems of the world, this will continue till we are at the end.  What are we to do?  Jesus says that we are to endure.  False prophets will also come.  Never mind them.  They are not Jesus.  Do not follow them or pay attention to their new teachings.  Be strong and of good courage because Jesus is ever near around us and inside of us to comfort and lead us.  He has conquered the world.  Dear brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.  Do not be frightened. Your reward will be your faithfulness to God.  Put your trust in God who will safely bring you from this life to the next.  You will never die in God’s hands. Amen.

           

  

 

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[1] © Copyright 2003-2013, StoryBus

[2] 2 Thessalonians 3:10

I will go to Jesus

Proper27C, November 10, 2013, Sullivan Park Care Center, by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

                To borrow a quote from the internet, “Jesus just happened to be a long-haired socialist who condemned the rich, challenged the religious elite, and told people to pay their taxes.” That basically sums up what is going on in the gospel according to Luke.  One of those groups known to be the religious elite was the Sadducees.  The Sadducees pictured God and humans as independent and distant, both in this life and the next. Rewards for righteousness were in this life, and thus they were keen on wealth and influence as evidence of divine blessing. The problem with this quote is that it says Jesus was, not is.  It denies that Jesus is alive today.  The same goes for that phrase WWJD, a confusing abbreviation which means “what would Jesus do (?)” rather than “what is Jesus doing (?)”. I can, however, properly say in the past tense that the Sadducees were because they did, in fact, cease to exist by the time of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.

            We do not know much about the Sadducees for two reasons.  They did not write anything down and what we do know comes from their adversaries. We do know that many of them were from the aristocratic class and were generally in power alongside the government.  The ordinary people did not share their belief system, but were more likely to side with the Pharisees. An early church historian, Josephus, confirms that the Sadducees denied the resurrection, the immortality of the soul, eternal rewards, or the "world to come."  The Pharisees did believe in resurrection and became the forerunners of modern-day Judaism.  Thus, this “debate” of Jesus is with the Sadducees.  A very popular joke passed around in the seminaries to remember what they believed is that they did not believe in the resurrection, therefore they were sad, (pause) you see?

            In reading the scriptures, tense is very important.  In reading the scriptures, we need to focus on past versus present tense.  This is the point that Jesus is trying to make with the Sadducees.  They did not see what they supposedly believed.  Yet, as Jesus pointed out, it is right there in plain view.  How did they miss it?  And how did I miss it.  I have also read the scriptures many times, but this argument of Jesus really makes sense.  God’s name is “I am” and God says also in the present tense, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It is all present tense.  It is the tense of the living.  Jesus’ point is that even if we only have before us the first five books of the Old Testament, we have the confirmation that resurrection is a reality.  If we look back into Luke itself, we see the story of Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham.  I don’t know a better way of connecting the dots.  Luke narrates clearly for us the relationship of Jesus to God, both the continuation of God’s teaching from many years ago to the new age of believers in Jesus.  Jesus’ message is so powerful, that even some of the Sadducees are converted or so it seems from just beyond our gospel text.  The rest of them, not unlike the Pharisees, wanted to snuff out his life, thinking that was all it would take to bury him and his teachings forever. Jesus is a radical rabbi that needs to disappear from the face of the earth, never to be seen or discussed ever again.  Jesus’ teaching does not agree with that of others, even today.

            The taunts towards Jesus continue throughout the gospel of Luke, only this one is from the Sadducees.  Who is God?  God is God of the living, not of the dead.  According to Luke, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living.  Pay close attention to the text: they are not angels, but like angels.  Those who talk about their children who died at a young age becoming angels are contradicted by this gospel text.  They do not become angels, but like angels. They are like angels in that they live in the presence of God through eternity, never dying.

            We, like the Sadducees, will continue to wonder just what the resurrection will look like.  We are given many images, such as those in the book of Daniel or Revelation, and here in Luke. Although our questions to Jesus about the resurrection may never be fully answered and we may be disappointed in our seeking and searching, that things may not be at all as we imagine or dream, still we trust that what little we know about what Jesus tells us in these readings will be enough. Isn’t it enough to know that Jesus will take us home to be with him in everlasting love and joy?  Isn’t it enough to know that the love of God is eternal?

In the words of an early American hymn: Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore; Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love and pow'r. I will arise and go to Jesus; He will embrace me in his arms. In the arms of my dear Savior, Oh, there are ten thousand charms. Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome, God's free bounty glorify; True belief and true repentance, ev'ry grace that brings you nigh. Come, ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall; If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all.

We are not perfect and probably never will be in this life and yet we carry on our lives in faith, faith alone.  That is all we have.  God’s grace which supports and sustains that faith is sufficient because God is our redeemer. Because Jesus suffered and died on the cross, you and I can say with full confidence as in the book of Job, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has thus been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God.”  Because of what Jesus interprets from the Torah, even before the stories of his own resurrection, you and I are children of the resurrection.  We cannot die anymore.  To God, we are all alive.  Those saints that we celebrated last Sunday are alive in God.  It doesn’t matter that we don’t know the details, that some of us believe differently from others.  The details are not important.  The important thing is that God does not abandon us, but continues to love us and embrace us with a love far beyond our imaginings, even beyond the love experienced in the best of our marriages and relationships with each other.

And so it is that we are left with a mystery.  Even resurrection itself is thought of differently by different Christians.  Some say it is only spiritual, not bodily at all.  If we are talking about this life, yes; it is only spiritual.  But beyond that, how do we even go about defining what “only spiritual” really means?

Do you believe that God can change your life around 180 degrees?  That what you see now can become just the opposite?  Do you believe that all the pain and suffering you have been through in this life will eventually lead to utter bliss, love and joy of immense quality and quantity beyond what you could ever possibly imagine?  That your longings and yearnings will someday become a reality, living with God eternally?  Do you believe or reject such a proposition?  Do you believe the words formulated by the Council of Nicaea, “I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”?

Perhaps our best response to that is that of the hymn, “I will arise and go to Jesus.  He will embrace me in his arms.”  Amen.