Lost in Wonder, Love, and Praise.

Luke 12:35-59

I.

            Jesus has just finished speaking about our heart being where our treasure is, the end of a long soliloquy on greed and wealth, anxiety, and God’s loving provision for everyone.

            Now he shifts gears a bit and urges constant vigilance, and readiness, to his disciples.  In other words, the time for this faithfulness and reliance upon God is now. 

            The first image he uses is of household slaves awaiting the return of their master from the wedding banquet.  Now we really don’t have much of a frame of reference for this kind of relationship.  We know slavery as a horrible, murderous institution in our own history, something further permeated by virulent racism.  We continue to suffer the rancid residue of slavery in our society even today.  We know that slavery is an execrable evil.

            Slavery was always bad by definition; it is structured into the nature of it as ownership of another person.  In Jesus’ day, slavery was extremely common.  Some say that a third of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves.  Slavery was the backbone of the world economy for thousands of years.  Jesus is talking to people who had direct experience of slavery. 

            They would have been amazed at the very idea that a bunch of slaves could be waiting with joyful anticipation for their master to come home from a wedding reception.  Clearly this is a very unusual, to the point of unprecedented or even impossible, household.

            The text does not say whose wedding it is.  Maybe it’s the wedding of the master himself!  Certainly it is a close friend, or even perhaps the son or daughter of the master.  It is a joyful occasion, so joyful that the slaves wait up until all hours of the night so they can celebrate with the master too!

            If the people are thinking, “Well, this isn’t like any estate I ever heard of.  Who ever heard of slaves who love their master?”

            But then it gets weirder.  Jesus says that those who stay up, alert and ready for the master, will be rewarded.  Jesus says that the master will even serve them!  We would barely even think of such a thing today!  Who comes home at three in the morning from a wedding reception and decides to make a meal for the babysitter?  So this is a remarkable and unheard of image, showing such love between the master and the slaves that the people hearing this have to know that this is not to be taken literally.  It is not about an earthly household.  It is about God and people. 

            The second image is less benign.  He says “if the owner of a house had known when the thief was coming he would not have let his house be broken into.”  So on the one hand it is like joyfully waiting for the Master to come home from a wedding reception, and on the other it is like being ready for a thief to break in to your house.

II.

            The point being that “the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”  You don’t know the future.  Just like the farmer in the previous story who built bigger barns to store his bumper crop, and then dropped dead, we do not know what is going to happen even 1 minute from now. 

            So the time is now for us to act like disciples.  It is not something that may be put off until certain signs are fulfilled, or we have enough information, or we are more mature.  It’s not like we are certain to have lots of time on our hands to change our ways.  We rely upon the odds based on past experience.  Philosophers call that “the fallacy of induction.”  In reality, no amount of specific cases in the past can accurately and certainly predict the next case.

            The actual fact is that the Master, or the thief, could show up at any time.  And our deportment now, in the present, in this moment, will determine whether we are rewarded, or punished.

            At this point Peter pipes up. “Lord, are you telling this parable just for us disciples, or for everyone?”

            To which Jesus responds by telling another parable.  “You tell me, Peter.  Who is the faithful and prudent manager?  Who is the one that the master will put in charge of his slaves?  Who will take good care of the master’s other slaves, giving them their allowance of food at the proper time?”  Jesus is talking about the “managers,” the leaders whom the master has left in charge of the estate while he is absent.

            The managers were also slaves of the master; they just had more authority and responsibility than others.  “Blessed is that slave whom the master will find at work when he arrives.”  Blessed is the one who is faithfully carrying out the master’s will and instructions, even when the master is not physically there to check up on them.  Blessed is the one who is keeping the master’s commandments, who is maintaining the estate according to the master’s plan and intentions. 

            “Truly I tell you, he will put that slave in charge of all his possessions.”  To be faithful to the master in the master’s absence is to inherit and receive all the possessions of the master.  Basically, it is to become a partner with the master, because the master can rest assured that this slave will be faithful and responsible with the master’s goods.  Here’s another thing that never happens in earthly households: slaves generally do not inherit.

III.

            But if that slave who has been put in charge during the master’s absence says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming.  We don’t know what has happened to him.  (This is before cell-phones or even reliable mail.)  He may never show up.  In which case, I am in charge accountable to no one!”  And if in his power-mad frame of mind he starts to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat from the master’s flock and larder, and drink to intoxication on the master’s wine, well, that will be somewhat different.

            If, in the master’s apparent absence, we do violence to each other, turning our responsible position into a dominating one, and if we exploit the master’s resources to satisfy our own greed and gluttony, not sharing with the slaves we have deemed to be lower than we are, then the consequences are dire.

            Jesus says that the master will return when least expected and at an unknown hour, and will slice that wicked manager in pieces, and number him with the unfaithful.  In fact any slave, who knows what the master wants, but does not prepare himself for the master’s return or do what the master instructed will receive a severe beating.

            Now this is starting to sound like the slavery people know.  Except in Jesus’ retelling, we get the kind of relationship we deserve.  If you trash the master’s stuff, you will be trashed.

            Then Jesus adds a little caveat.  If we don’t honestly know the master’s will when we are breaking it, then we will receive a bit of a break.  But the greater responsibility will be required of those who know the master’s will.  He is referring to the disciples.  He is also making another dig at the Pharisees and other leaders.  They know God’s will… but they don’t do it.  Because this is not about home economics, this is about the whole society or even the whole planet.

            If God entrusts us with the household of this whole beautiful creation, including other people, and we decide out of greed and gluttony to waste and pollute it, and exploit the labor of the people for our own gain, what may we expect upon the return of the Creator, which could happen at any time?  It’s not going to be pretty.  You want to talk about the wrath of God?  Seriously?

            Jesus concludes, “From everyone to whom much is given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”  What we have been given is not a reward, but a responsibility.  And we had better use it in accomplishing God’s will, as revealed in Jesus Christ. 

IV.

            Jesus then says that the road ahead is going to be hard for everyone because we have let the bad managers lead us into a destructive, exploitative, corrupted, faithless, and toxic approach to the household placed in their charge.  And those who follow him and his way of peace and justice, community and love, will necessarily become the cause of a division in the world, extending even into families. 

            Following Jesus and living according to his teachings puts us out of synch with what we have always been told is true, but isn’t.  To start living according to the truth in a world where everyone else is still following lies, creates friction.  Friction makes heat, and enough heat bursts into flames.  And these flames consume everything unreal, illusory, false, and evil.

            That’s why Jesus says, “I came to bring fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”  So the fire is the fire of God’s love and Holy Spirit, which is experienced as power and joy in the hearts of those who live according to God’s Word, in God’s new community… but which comes as destruction to those who destroy the earth  (Rev. 11:18).

            And the baptism is Jesus’ immersion into mortal human life, which is completed with his death.  In Jesus, God comes into our life, becoming the victim of human injustice and violence.      

            Jesus then raises his voice to the crowds around him can hear.  “You all know how to predict the weather.  When the wind blows from the sea, you know it’s going to rain; when it blows from the desert, you know it’s going to be hot.  And you can interpret the times just as well.  Throughout history, when any society has been in conflict with God’s Word and Spirit, bad things happen.  God is truth, and to live a lie means to be in conflict with the truth.  Guess what, the truth is real and always wins.  If you’re on the side of the truth by living according to God’s will, you will be saved.  But if you stay in lies and falsehood, you will go down in flames with the system built on them.   To live a lie is unsustainable.”

            To live according to God’s will is to live after the teachings and example of Jesus Christ: it is to live in love, hope, justice, peace, goodness, and beauty; it is to live in humility, generosity, forgiveness, and selflessness.  That is the way of life.

            To function according to lies is to approach things with greed and gluttony, trusting in threats and violence, trusting only in fear and anger, and thereby laying waste to the Creation and God’s people, especially the poor.  This way of existing is based on nothing, it is unsustainable, and it will collapse into dust, taking with it all who place their trust in it.

V.

            Jesus concludes this dire preaching by urging people to get their act together now, changing their lives and making amends today, getting into conformity with God’s love in the present, and so avoid having to answer for having been out of synch with God’s love in the past.  God is willing and ready to settle now!  Believe me, we don’t want to go to trial, because, if our case if based on our past behavior, we will lose.

            It has been accurately stated that we don’t have much of a theology of God’s wrath.  Well, here it is.  If you trash God’s creation and oppress God’s people, you have so distanced yourself from the truth that you experience God’s love as wrath.  The world becomes a very hostile place when you make yourself God’s enemy.

            But that’s not the note I want to end on.  Jesus wants us to place ourselves in the position of those happy and joyful slaves who wait for the return of the master with the devotion that would rival that of a dog.  He wants us living in this creation, “lost in wonder, love, and praise,” as one old hymn has it.  He wants us dwelling together in harmony, as God intends and says in Scripture, and as Jesus himself teaches and exemplifies.  He wants us caring for, and providing for, and supporting, and forgiving, and healing, and lifting up each other.  He wants us to live here in peace, loving God with all our being, and our neighbors as ourselves.

+++++++   

Rich in Things and Poor in Soul.

Luke 12:13-34.

I.

            So Jesus has just finished this intense sermon about martyrdom and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and who has the authority to cast into hell.  And we might expect the crowd to be awestruck and deeply repentant.  We might expect them to be circumspect and humble.  We might expect them to be quiet and thoughtful.

            But no.  A man in the crowd sees his opportunity.  No sooner does Jesus stop talking than he shouts out: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

            I imagine Jesus sighing heavily.  “Seriously?  That’s what you’re concerned about?  Money?  I’m talking about saving your soul, the meaning of your life, your eternal destiny, and all you can think about is money?  Friend,” he says, and he almost never calls anyone “friend” in Luke.  It’s like he’s trying to keep himself from calling this man something else.

            “Who set me to be judge or arbitrator among you?  Who do I look like, Judge Judy?  What is this, Small Claims Court?  Instead of worrying about getting your share of the family inheritance, you perhaps might want to consider where your own greed will get you.  Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.  You’re lucky you are well-to-do enough to even be talking about an inheritance.  It is a foreign concept to most of your neighbors here.  I am far more concerned with the people who have nothing than I am with you getting a big enough share of your family’s wealth.  And I’m pretty sure you don’t really want me to tell you what to do with your money.  You wouldn’t like it.”

            Then he launches into a parable about a rich man whose farm overproduced so much that he prudently built bigger barns to store it all… but then he suddenly died.  Who gets his wealth then?  “So it is,” Jesus concludes, “with those who store up riches for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

            Saint Augustine perfectly expressed Jesus’ view here when he said that the safest place for rich people to keep their wealth is in the bellies of the poor.  John Calvin had the same opinion.  He didn’t see any point to being rich except that you would have more to give away.  Giving money away to help the needy is what being “rich toward God” means.  For Jesus it is the only way for a rich person to be saved.

            I get extremely impatient when the attitude of this farmer in Jesus’ parable infects the church.  The church should not be storing up resources; whatever resources the church acquires should be spent on mission as soon as possible.  Too many churches are sitting on large piles of money and valuable real estate, not to mention stocks and bonds, that are not doing anything for mission today.  Worse, we are evaluating the viability of churches based, not on the effectiveness and quality of their discipleship and mission, but on how much money they have!  It is no wonder we are in the state we are in as a denomination.  “Rich in things and poor in soul” is the way Harry Emerson Fosdick says it in his great hymn.

II.

            Jesus turns to his disciples.  “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.”  He goes on for several verses about how God takes care of even flowers and birds, some are naturally so richly arrayed that they put King Solomon to shame.  It is those who have no trust in God who are always worrying about what they will eat and wear, these are the people who are overly anxious about having enough money, who are fretting about the future, who are saving and storing and hoarding for tomorrow.

            Jesus’ point in that little parable is that the future doesn’t exist.  Jesus only cares about what you are doing now.  Jesus only cares about the fact that the farmer stored all this grain in his barns, while all around him people were going hungry.  The argument, “But I needed it for the future,” is immaterial if not repulsive to Jesus.  All we have is the present moment; the future is an illusion.

            “Instead,” Jesus says, “strive for God’s Kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”  As Mother Teresa famously said, “God is not calling us to be successful; God is calling us to be faithful.”  Period.

            People have things exactly backwards, and this un-faithful way of thinking easily infects the church.  The church is not called to be “successful” by the world’s standards.  God will not evaluate us on the basis of how much grain we have stored up in our barns, or how much money, property, staff, or even members we have.  In fact, the more resources we are sitting on certainly weighs against us.  I imagine Jesus saying, “There were hungry people in your neighborhood, while your church maintained a million dollar endowment.  What’s up with that?”  Well, we felt it prudent only to use the interest….  Really?  Does Jesus say, or even imply, somewhere that we should not spend capital?  There is no indication that Jesus thinks we should even have capital.

            God is not about prudence.  God isn’t even about “responsible stewardship,” as we like to define it.  In 31 years of ministry I have seen nothing snuff out exciting, innovative mission faster than “responsible stewardship.”  But prudence and stewardship and responsibility, as defined by Jesus Christ, are really about doing God’s mission and realizing among us the Kingdom of God.  It is about bringing out this new community of peace, equality, freedom, and justice.  It is about moving ourselves into this new quality of relationship with each other.

            Jesus says that if we do that, if we keep his commandments, then we may be found worthy to have more to contribute to this mission.  “All these things,” says Jesus, meaning food and clothing and resources, “will be given to you as well.”

III.

            “Do not be afraid, little flock,” Jesus says.  Fear is always the problem.  Fear is the manifestation of a lack of trust in God.  It is out of fear that we engage in this backwards thinking.  And as I said, this infects the church in many ways.

            We say, “Yikes, we’re losing members.  We’re going broke. We can’t afford our building or our minister.”  That’s how we frame the problem; in terms of what we don’t have; in terms of fear of loss, of not having enough.  Our barns aren’t full enough.  We make a judgment based on some ideal situation from the fondly remembered past when the church and Sunday School were overflowing with people.  After we spend a decent amount of time going through the stages of grief, blaming each other, and wallowing in nostalgia, we might finally decide to address what we think is the issue, which we have already framed poorly in purely quantitative terms.        

            “What should we do?” we eventually ask.  Then instead of looking to God’s Word for the answer, we consult everybody but.  We listen to a marketing consultant from the Harvard Business School.  We even visit churches that are growing to see how they are doing it.  We read books by sociologists.  We hire a “church growth consultant” who will give us a one-size-fits-all fool-proof plan for gaining members and money. 

            They might even remind us that Jesus says, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”  And they interpret that to mean that God wants just what we want: more members so we can have more money so we can keep doing that we’ve always been doing. 

            One thing they don’t usually do is continue reading on to the next verse, where Jesus says: “Sell your possessions, and give alms.”  What?  I thought this was about how to get more resources.  Isn’t that the problem, that we don’t have enough?  Are you telling us that Jesus wants us to give away what resources we have?  What sense does that make?  How are we supposed to fill our barn by giving our grain away?

            This is what I mean by backwards thinking.  God isn’t calling us to have full barns; the farmer in the parable isn’t a hero.  God is calling us to give what we have away.  The point is the giving.  It is not that the call to give resources away is getting in the way of the real goal which is having a full barn.  It is that having a full barn gets in the way of the flow of God’s grace and resources into the world.

            The point is the Kingdom of God, which Jesus is always describing in terms of generosity, equality, sharing, lifting up the lowly and emptying the full, healing the sick, and distributive justice.  This is his mission from before Jesus is even born, as we know from his mother’s hymn in Luke 1.  It was never about saving up stuff for yourself; it was always about giving what you have away.

IV.

            Jesus advises the disciples to “Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.”  Real value is “in heaven.”  What we have there cannot be taken away from us.

            A “treasure in heaven” is a treasure that cannot deteriorate.  It will last forever.  It cannot be taken away.  Contrast that with earthly treasures that are subject to theft, natural disaster, economic downturns, or the entropy symbolized by the corrosive images of “moth and rust.”  Moths, of course, destroy fabric and rust is what happens to even the hardest metal, iron.

            But why would one really want a treasure in heaven?  I mean, given a choice between an earthly 20-dollar bill and a heavenly one, which would we be more likely to choose?  Yes, an earthly treasure is subject to certain liabilities, but while we have it things are pretty good, and you can usually take significant and effective steps to diminish those liabilities.  It’s like the farmer in the parable.  Yeah he didn’t get to take his wealth with him, but he probably had a good time with it while he was here!

            Undergirding our attitude here is an unspoken assumption that heaven just isn’t real.  Some would say that it is a fairy tale perpetrated on the poor to get them work hard now and to delay gratification until after they die.  But you don’t see the people who are getting wealthy from the work of others delaying gratification.  They seem to know that physical money is way better than heavenly money.

            But heaven is not just this remote place or existence that we only know after we die.  It is an intensely real and present happening that breaks into our life all the time in experiences of joy, delight, wonder, beauty, intimacy, wholeness, and love.  Heaven means being without fear, without shame, without anger, and without all the destructive and painful consequences of those emotions.

            Jesus is not giving us just a way to go to heaven when we die; he is also, and I say more importantly, giving us a way to live in heaven, at least in part, now.  He is telling us that true happiness and real satisfaction and ultimate gladness cannot be attained through the collection of material possessions and objects; but it can be, and often has been, attained through the kind of self-emptying he embodies and teaches. 

            This is more than just the superficial satisfaction we get from giving to someone or helping them.  That’s fine and good.  But it’s when we realize that in letting God’s resources flow through us into the world that we are plugged into God and God’s power of love that holds the whole universe together, that we are just bathed in a joy and delight and a peace that passes all understanding.

V.

            Finally, Jesus makes one of his more famous statements.  He says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

            If our treasure is invested in death, destruction, exploitation, greed, fear, consumption, and rage, then that is what is going to characterize our heart, our soul, our whole life.  Angry and fearful people are not happy and joyful people.  They are doing violence and creating injustice, and generally forming a world so out of synch with God’s love and will and truth, that eventually by the weight of its own corruption and falsehood it will simply collapse, bringing many down into pain and sorrow.  It has happened to every empire built on the fearful human imagination, implementing greed by means of murder, from Pharaoh’s Egypt on.  Read the book of Revelation for a detailed description of what this looks like.

            The choice between earthly and heavenly treasures is really just a choice between on the one hand being sick, miserable, and in pain, and inflicting all that on others, and on the other hand resting in the joy and blessing and peace and beauty of the Lord… now.  Today.  In the present.

            “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

            Our real treasure is everything that God has made, this whole beautiful earth and its people, birds and flowers, sunlight and sea.  Only when we let go of what we think we have, are our hands open to receive what God has for us.  And what God has for us when we participate in God’s infinite giving to the world, is joy and blessing beyond measure.

+++++++                            

Let Go and Let God.

Luke 12.1-12.

I.

            The crowds are increasing as Jesus makes his way through Judea.  The word Luke uses to estimate the size of the crowd is myriad, meaning many thousands.  There are so many people that they are beginning to step on each other, Luke says.  Jesus doesn’t address them.  He is still fuming over his recent collision with the Pharisees.  He speaks to his disciples.

            “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees,” he says.  Yeast is something added to dough so that it will rise and make bread.  He says that the “yeast” of the Pharisees is “their hypocrisy.”  So their hypocrisy is their inflated view of themselves.

            The Pharisees thought of themselves as the protectors and upholders of the values of their nation and faith.  Without them and their enforcement of the Torah rules, Judaism simply falls apart… according to them.  It was all about tradition and social order.  The details of Law made the Jewish believers different and unique.  It prevented their assimilation into whatever Empire happened to be conquering them that century.  It was a matter of survival.

            So the Pharisees and their job were important.  And they knew it. 

            But Jesus says they are hypocrites.  He says it’s all really about their self-righteousness and self-importance.  What the Pharisees are propping up is not the true Torah, but their own privilege and power.  For the Torah is not about establishing a particular nation and religion, over-against all other nations and religions; it is about establishing the Kingdom of God in one exemplary place so it may from there spread to be a blessing to the whole world.  Maintaining separateness, specialness, and exceptionalism is not the meaning of Torah.  Maintaining equality, justice, reconciliation, and non-violence is what the Torah is all about. 

            But the Pharisees had lost much of that in their enthusiasm for keeping it literally.  So they were very good at strict adherence to the letter of the Law, but ignoring its heart.  And they allowed the letter of the Law to be used to violate its spirit.  It would be like praying the prescribed prayers and keeping the letter of the Law, while passing by on the road a neighbor in need, in violation of the true spirit of the Torah… which of course is the example Jesus had recently used in a parable.

            Jesus says that “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.  Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.”  Eventually, everything becomes known.  Eventually, we find out that the strict enforcer of the Law was actually breaking it in spirit.  Eventually we discover that the rigorous application of the letter of the law was actually used by people to do the opposite of what the Law intends: oppress, exploit, subjugate, and dominate their neighbors.

II.

            Then Jesus says, “My friends, don’t be afraid of these guys.  The worst they can do is kill you.  They can’t do anything worse than that.”  I can see the disciples exchanging puzzled glances at this point.  Isn’t getting killed, kind of like, you know, bad?  

            Jesus goes on: “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna.  Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

            I know many Bibles say “hell” here, but the Greek says “Gehenna,” and that’s important.  Gehenna is a steep valley near Jerusalem where some previous kings of Judah performed pagan human sacrifice.  They threw children alive into a fire as a way of appeasing the god, Baal.  Nice.  In Jesus’ day Gehenna is a garbage dump.

            Perhaps the disciples are at this point as confused as we are.  Who is this we should fear?  Does he mean God?  Would God throw people into Gehenna?  No one hates human sacrifice more than God.  Why would God imitate some of the most evil kings of Judah and start throwing people into a sacrificial fire pit?  Maybe Jesus isn’t referring to God here, but Satan.  That would make more sense, except that Jesus tells us elsewhere not to fear Satan.

            Then Jesus goes on to talk about the God who loves and cares for even the most seemingly insignificant and cheap expressions of creation, sparrows.  “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.  But even the hairs of your head are all counted.  Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”  So here he tells them not to be afraid.

            Certainly God “has the authority” to kill and throw people into Gehenna.  But apparently God does not use that authority.  God loves and cherishes even sparrows who are a dime a dozen; God certainly loves and cherishes each human person.  “Do not be afraid,” Jesus says.  He means that God’s wrath is always tempered if not totally transformed, by God’s love for creation.

            Jesus’ point is that there is something worse than death, and that is cutting ourselves off from the God of love, which leaves us lost and consumed by the fires of evil.      

            It’s like he says, “If you need to be motivated by fear, then fear the one who has the authority to throw you into Gehenna,” which is a metaphor for the fires of condemnation.  “But I would rather you proceed not out of fear at all, but out of love for the God who created us and deeply cares for each one of us.”

III.

            Because Jesus knows that his disciples, like him, are going to be hauled before the principalities and powers of this world, into courtrooms and they will need a quality of courage and strength that is deeper than what we get from mere fear.  They are going to need to be motivated by something much more powerful, profound, and primal, which is love.

            He goes on.  “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God; but whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.”  Jesus’ followers are to admit and acknowledge that he is the one they follow.  He knows that following him will be threatening to the authorities, and that association with him will be an arrestable, even a capital, offense.

            Acknowledging or denying Jesus before others has to do with having the courage to affirm our own association with him and his mission.  It has to be more than simply saying we follow Jesus when it is a safe thing to do.  If it’s a safe thing to do then I suspect we’re not following Jesus very well.  At some point acknowledging Jesus has to be a risk.  I wonder if Jesus doesn’t expect us to push the envelope of discipleship in our own time and place until we hit the red-zone where it starts to tick people off, especially those in charge.

    It is one thing to do things in the name of Jesus that everyone approves of.  I suspect that Jesus wants us also out there doing and advocating for things that are not popular.  That’s what Jesus himself does.  He almost seems to go out of his way to make himself obnoxious to almost everyone, especially anyone in authority.  Eating with tax collectors?  Associating with prostitutes?  Touching lepers?  Reaching out to Gentiles?  Accepting Samaritans?  Need I go on?  He offends the right; he offends the left; he offends the majority; he offends the leadership; he even offends his own disciples.

            Jesus isn’t afraid of losing followers.  He’s not worried about not being able to pay the bills. 

            The Lord is assuming that admitting we are associated with him will be a very costly and uncomfortable thing.  What are the costly and uncomfortable things we are doing?  Who are the unpopular people we are associating with?  What are the subversive causes we are engaged in?

            My favorite quote from Billy Graham is when he asked the question: “If being a Christian were illegal, and you were arrested, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

IV.

            Jesus continues: “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”  So if the disciples meet  critics who are against them because they follow Jesus, and if they speak against him and his work, Jesus is saying that these people still may find forgiveness.  Just as Jesus himself forgave those who were crucifying him because they didn’t know what they were doing, so he says that people bound in ignorance, who just don’t or can’t know who he is, will find freedom and forgiveness.  They will in the end be free of their misconceptions.  People don’t bring down condemnation upon themselves just because they don’t know Jesus, even if their ignorance of Jesus makes them speak against him.  Eventually they will be freed from their ignorance.

            However, Jesus adds that there can be no forgiveness, no freedom, for people who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.  To blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is not just casually mouthing a verbal formula.  No one attracts condemnation for merely thinking or talking.  For blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is itself a rejection of freedom and forgiveness.  It is a refusal to live in the freedom of the Spirit, who is the power of God’s love and goodness and blessing, holding all things together in being.  It is a refusal to live at all, a cowardly and smug comfort in hiding at the bottom of the barrel of our own constricting ego.

            It may not sink to the level of blasphemy, but for too many Christians and Christian groups, the Holy Spirit is absent.  Not denied, technically; but rarely trusted, relied upon, talked about, taught, or experienced.  Do we blaspheme the Holy Spirit when we assent to staying mired in our own addictions?  How about when we refuse to trust in God’s goodness?  If we picture God as purely wrathful and punishing?  If we see God’s creation as evil?  What if we consistently act, or support others who act, in ways that bring death, poison, waste, slavery, pain, and horror into the world?  Are these forms of blasphemy against the Spirit?

            We’d better hope not.

            The Holy Spirit is undomesticatable and cannot be forced into our goals and agendas.  The Spirit is freedom itself.  Unlike a text, we cannot twist its meaning to suit us.  The Spirit will not fit into our definitions and categories.  The Spirit can only be listened to, felt, and moved by.  We blaspheme the Spirit when we don’t listen, don’t feel, and aren’t moved.

V.

            Jesus concludes: “When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.”  Do not worry.  Only trust that the power that holds the universe together is there in you and in everything.  The more you let go of yourself, the more you release your ego, the more open you are, the easier will come the words from the Spirit.

            The word “spirit” of course means breath and wind.  How much would it change our understanding if we were to hear Jesus saying “the breath of holiness will teach you,” or “the holy wind will teach you”?  The Spirit is not to be thought of in terms of law or rules and regulations, or doctrine.  The Spirit is poetry.  Most of the words of the biblical prophets are poetry, which it had to be because their work was that of the Spirit.  They were, as we say, inspired.

            Jesus says his disciples will be hauled before judges and accusers.  He tells them not to worry about it.  He tells them not to fear.  They don’t have to cram and study for the right answers.  They don’t have to commit the right doctrines, or even Scripture, to memory.  They just have to, as people say in 12-step programs, “Let go, and let God.”  Let go and let the Spirit move you.  Let go and let the power of creation itself form the words in your mouth.

            The Spirit therefore welds word and act together; they are the same thing.  Gone is any hypocrisy in which we say one thing and do another.  If we let go of all the things that constrict and bind us: our wants and needs, our hopes and dreams, especially our fear and anger, we will be free enough to let the Spirit, the breath and wind of God, to blow through us.  The universe does not depend on us; we depend on God’s Spirit blowing in and through the universe.  We can’t be about preserving and maintaining institutions, texts, and traditions, like the Pharisees.  We can only be about what Jesus Christ is about, which is participating in the free movement of God’s Spirit, God’s breath, in everything.  Nothing else matters, because nothing else is real.

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