If Life Isn't about Our Stuff...

Luke 12:14

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

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Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and you're okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

"Money" by Roger Waters recorded by Pink Floyd from "Dark Side of the Moon"

Hasn't anybody figured out yet that the love of money is the root of all evil. It isn't money itself, it's loving money above everything else. There's a theological word for that, its idolatry. Idol-a-try. When we put money, when we love money more than we love God, the we to quote another Pink Floyd song, are skating on the thin ice of hot life.

Jesus warns us, be on guard against all kinds of greed. Then Roger Waters gives us a primer on conspicuous consumption, and he does it with a look at wealth and poverty. Beware, watch out. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.

But look in your garage... A good part of my garage is filled with the things that don't go in the house. America has actually created a business where we have invented a place where we can rent an extra garage! Some people put extra cars there. Others put their boats there. Some have recreational vehicles there. Others use it as a spare garage. I know I did.

So, if life doesn't consist of our stuff, then what? Take a moment, look around and see. Your family? Your Lord? Even your dog! Life is built around relationships, that's what makes life. Wanting a relationship with a jet ski is the most pathetic thing I could imagine. No, it's people. It's friends. It's even that black lab who barks at strangers (when I wish he wouldn't).

I can't possess them. Or their love. Or their time. Those things are given, freely. Just as God gives and gives freely. Just as God in Christ gave himself freely on the cross so that we may have what does not spoil or rust, life eternal. Life to spend with family, friends, the dog, and of course God's own self.

That's better than anything money can buy.

Soldiers

Joshua 2:1

Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there.

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I am just a new boy,
Stranger in this town.
Where are all the good times?
Who's gonna show this stranger around?
Ooooh, I need a dirty woman.
Ooooh, I need a dirty girl.

"Young Lust" by Pink Floyd By Roger Waters and David Gilmour

The land of Israel was open for business, but not quite yet. The Israelites knew that to receive the land the Lord promised them they would have to follow the Lord into the land and, well, displace its current residents. So to prepare for the migration, Joshua sent spies to check out the land.

They went to the home of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there. When the king of Jericho went to Rahab's home seeking the spies, she said they had left and if the army followed quickly they could catch up. She kept Joshua's men safe from the men of Jericho.

She is a soldier in the army of the Lord. For this she is remembered in the Psalms. For this she is remembered in the book of Hebrews as a hero of the faith. You know, we want our daughters to be remembered as heroes of the faith, but we don't want them to come home from Career Day at school with information on becoming a prostitute. So how do we use this lesson?

This is important, God will use us, each and every one of us, as fits every purpose under heaven. God saved Rahab and her family from the destruction of Jericho because she participated in the Israelite migration. She was a good soldier. She is a hero of the faith.

Still to those who judge a book by the cover, it is the Lord who writes the words in the pages of the book of our lives. And sometimes we need someone to show a stranger around. God uses all of us, even the dirty woman.

A Black and White World

John 10:16

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

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Us and them,
And after all,
We're only ordinary men

"Us and Them" by Pink Floyd

Sad but true, we live in a black and white world. People tend to believe one thing and shun what does not fall in accord with those beliefs. It's true in the world and it's true in the church. So in the end there's us and there's them.

In the church this plays itself out in devastating ways. Some congregations and denominations will deny the sacraments to those who do not follow the path of the orthodox. Some will discipline, not allowing the other to serve because they do not follow the way of the church. Death is even a penalty.

If you want to point out fatwa and jihad you're welcome to, but death to the infidel is nothing new. The Old Testament has many examples of where the Lord has told the people to kill the other so that they might remain pure. Egyptians ended the lives of Jewish slaves with impunity. During the exile, the rulers of Babylon killed Jews. Innocents were slaughtered in the Holy Land at the time of Christ's birth. At the time of Christ Christians were killed by the Romans. At the Reformation, the Roman Church and the break away congregations were often in life and death struggles. World War II gave us Hitler. It's all a matter of us and them.

Jesus says that he has other sheep that do not belong to this fold, and he will bring them together because they also hear his voice. Jesus is the shepherd. Jesus says we will hear his voice. This is the most important thing we can learn in a world of us and them. In the eyes of God, there is no us and them, there is only God and us.

In a black and white world we see the differences, we see every little difference real or imagined. In the eyes of God there is only us. God is the creator we are the created. It is God and God alone who redeems creation. It is not up to us to decide who the sheep of the pen are. Everyone who hears the voice of the Lord belongs in the pen. God has made sure of that and Jesus lived, died and lived again so that we may come into the pen.

People have a habit of separating the black and the white, the us and the them. This is God's place alone. It is up to us to listen to the call of the Good Shepherd and follow his lead to the place God will lead us.

So Very Good to Be Here

Monday after Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday


Mark 9:2-6

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

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How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year.
Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here.

"Wish You Were Here" by Roger Waters and David Gilmour recorded by Pink Floyd from the album "Wish You Were Here"

Imagine Peter singing this song. Imagine him singing it to the world. He had just seen Jesus transfigured, a fancy word that means to change appearance. He was so freaked out, so shocked, so terrified that he offers to do some carpentry, building booths for the heroes. He wanted to do them the honor of creating a place for them to be, but to what purpose? Perhaps he wanted them to stay around so that everyone could see what he was seeing. A table to hang out at like a book signing. It was good for them to be there, so it is good for us to be there too. That seems clear.

Imagine Peter singing this song. He knows himself and he knows who we are too. We are just two lost souls swimming in this fishbowl year after year. Thoreau said "I have traveled extensively in Concord" and this is Peter's point, we know our lives. We know our neck of the woods. We know what we know and it will take something dramatic to adjust our image toward something holy and this will do .

Imagine Peter singing this song. He knows Jesus and he knows his old fears. He knows where they came from and he knows those who share them too. He wishes we were there with him, seeing what he saw. He was terrified, sure, but this was new. This was different. This is shock and awe.

But this doesn't happen. There are no booths. There are no guided tours of Transfiguration Point. There is only the story. There is only the promise.

Why does Jesus only bring Peter, James, and John? Scholars give all kinds of reasons, and if you were interested in scholarly opinion you wouldn't be reading this. What Jesus did give them is exactly what they needed. He gave them the image that mattered to them. Peter wished we were there too, but this isn't our image. This image is for them.

Imagine Peter singing this song. Now ask yourself, what is the image that you would have Christ show you? Imagine and know that the image you see can be as real as the one seen by Peter, James, and John. This is the lesson of the Transfiguration. As Jesus' image changes, our image of Jesus changes too. As the image of Jesus changes, our faith in Christ deepens. As the image of Jesus changes, it ought to scare us to death too. Of course it should be scary, this is shock and awe.

Run for the Prize

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1Corinthians 9:24

Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.

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You'd better run.

"Run Like Hell" lyrics by Roger Waters recorded by Pink Floyd.

So, just what is the prize? It would surely seem easy enough to guess, it could be eternal life, the resurrected life of Jesus. But we're talking about the writing of Paul here, and fewer were more aloof than Paul in his writing.

My Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (volume 1, page 638 for those of you who want to look this up says that this is "the prize of conflict which a man can win only if he throws in his whole self and all his resources, namely, the resurrection to eternal life (this mention from Philippians 3:11). So yes, the answer is the resurrection to eternal life. To take another Pink Floyd title, have a cigar.

What is infinitely more interesting is the way the word used in scripture that we define as "prize" makes added reference to the way the runner in this passage has to train and has to race. The rest of this passage from 1Corinthians makes sure the point is made, to win you must train--you gotta work hard to win. But here, just in the description of the prize itself, to gain the prize you must, I say must, commit your whole self and all of your resources to the goal.

The faith, and the prize of the faith, is not something we can do for an hour a week and leave the remaining 167 hours for anything else. Life in the faith is more than just a way to kill an hour on Sunday before going to dinner with the family, or that thing you miss so you can see the game.

Faith is a 24/7 proposition. We have to live our life not just fully in the name of the Lord we have to commit to work harder to develop more to gain fruitfully to win the prize. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith, Paul says this too, but we are called to do more than just wait on the bus of salvation. We need to take a walk.

I guess the only true way we can avoid the devil is to run like hell.