"A Story In A Story In A Story" November 6, 2016

Exodus 1-2 Luke 19: 1-10 There are preachers whose entire sermons are on words like “Salvation!” There are churches, which preach only political issues. My Calling has always been to preach the Bible, and whether Hebrew Testament or New as Our Story of Faith. Particularly, that instead of focusing on a word, or a character, or a story, I am especially intrigued when stories are like ripples in water, or nesting dolls, with one story helping to interpret another, helping to interpret another, which is what I believe we have in both this morning. Because life events do not come out of thin air, the circumstances of today have been building and will have ramifications for our future. Life is a parable, inside a riddle, inside an enigma, within a mystery of faith. Most of us know and love the image of Moses, being found as an infant by Pharaoh’s daughter. But the story within a story has so much more for us to think about and ponder in faith. For the last month we have been retelling the Ancient Genesis story that God is The Creator, yet God created Humanity with a Freedom of Will, and we sought our own desires, not God. The flood waters came, and afterward God began anew with one individual Abram, and a promise that: a nomad, called to leave everything he knew to trust and follow God, Abram, would father Great Nations and Generations, who would have a Great Name and a Great Land. Pushing beyond what we think possible, Abraham and Sarah gave birth to a miracle, when they are 100 and 80 years of age, a child Isaac, whose name means laughter. After Abram, through Isaac and Rebekkah, God provided the birth of the nations of Israel and Edom. Israel had 12 sons and a daughter, who although they sinned against one another, God used circumstance for their survival and reconciliation. At this point in the story of God’s promise with Abraham, inside the story of Isaac, within the Jacob and Esau story, all the world endured a Famine. Just as today, famine comes from war with one nation poisoning the ground of another; or by climate change of drought, heat, flooding, cold. With Joseph as Governor of Egypt for Pharaoh, all Israel went down to Egypt as foreigners in a foreign land. Generations passed, for Israel and for Egypt. The new Pharaoh neither knew nor honored Joseph or his fathers, or God. The new Pharaoh did not believe, made himself as a god, and the people as slaves. The 1st genocide was loss of faith. Then loss of the economy. Then loss of tools and equipment. The loss of freedoms. Then harder and harder bondage, as slaves building the Temples for the burial of Pharaohs for eternity. Still Pharaoh feared and hated the people, so he ordered the Midwives to kill all the Hebrew baby boys, allowing the girls to live. Think on the foolishness of Pharaoh here! The role of Midwives when a baby is healthy is to stay out of the way. When a baby or mother will not survive, then the Midwife’s purpose is to aid life! But Pharaoh has commanded these two to kill. What Pharaoh did not know or understand is that Shiphrah and Puah feared and loved God, more than Pharaoh. Pharaoh then bypassed the Middle-wives and goes directly to what Pharaoh thinks is the source of Israelites, their mothers. Pharaoh orders them to put their baby boys into the river to drown. Except, again Pharaoh misses that these circumstance are part of the faith story. The river in Egypt is the Nile, and the Nile in faith, is the source of life! So he as a self-proclaimed god has ordered mothers to drown their babies in the source of life! And a couple, descended from the tribe of Priests, give birth to a child whom they love and protect. When they can no longer, they place the child in a basket of bulrushes made water-tight with pitch and bitumen, in order to keep this remnant safe and alive on chaotic waters. Did we ever have another story like this? Noah and the Ark, this basket is the ark. And the end of that story, was God’s creation of a Covenant, a rainbow. Here, with Moses, God is creating a new Covenant to protect and save Israel inside a basket an ark, foreshadowing that later God will provide an Ark of the Covenant between Israel and God on tablets of stone. Every relationship and circumstance of life affects us and is part of other events and relationships in our lives. None of us act in the abstract, we act because our story is part of other people’s stories, part of the Biblical story, part of the story of God. More than all the Gospels, Luke tells the story of Jesus healing people. Mark deals with Jesus being The Messiah. Matthew, Jesus fulfills all the Prophecy and Scripture of the Hebrew Bible. John, that Jesus whole life was miraculous. Luke tells stories in parable and story-form of people meeting, being healed and redeemed, by Jesus. Two weeks ago, we told the parable in Chapter 18, of Pharisee and Tax Collector. In Chapter 19, on his way to the cross at Jerusalem, Jesus was on the road to Jericho. Do you recall the story of another man on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem… That is the Good Samaritan, where the road out in the world is a dangerous place. And Jesus met a stranger, described only as a rich young ruler, who asks “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus instructs him to follow the 10 Commandments, which he says he has done all his life. Then Jesus says, “Go, sell all you have to feed the poor, and come follow me.” And the man went away sorrowful. I have to believe that that rich, young ruler, was of the class of Phariees. Scribes were literalists, taught to copy exactly letter for letter the Law and Commandments. Pharisees, were the sons of the wealthy, highly educated in the Law and Philosophy, taught to interpret and apply the Law. He was young and powerful and rich. In Chapter 20 this morning, still in Jericho, through Jesus we meet The Chief Tax Collector, Zaccheus we know from the children’s rhyme was a Wee Little Man. That may be indication he was not tall, it may also be that he was hated by people, making him small in character. We have this caricature of a Danny Devito-like figure running in robes to try to climb up a tree, because witnessing Jesus is important to him. In the ancient world, a Sycamore tree is often mentioned because they were common, they look a great deal like Fig Trees, except they produce no figs! And they are sometimes equated with being the Garden of Eden Tree of Everlasting Life. When Jesus reached the place in the road beneath the tree, Jesus stopped and invited Zaccheus to come down to be with Jesus in Zaccheus’ house for a meal. Sharing a meal, was more than eating a sandwich, this was a statement of trust and fellowship communion. Inside Zaccheus’ house we have this vow. Strangely, in all the Bibles they have translated this vow as being in “a past-present-future tense,” where he promises on the basis of Jesus’ visit, Zaccheus reflected on his past, and will ever after give 4 times as much as he has stolen from others. However, in all ancient literature, this is the only occasion of anyone ever using a present-future tense. A different possibility, is that Zaccheus was confessing to Jesus, like the rich young ruler had done regarding the 10 Commandments, what no one knew Zaccheus had done throughout his life. While the Law required making an offering of 10% to the poor, and for stolen goods returning what was stolen plus 20%; Zaccheus had always given half of what he received to the poor, and for ill-gotten gains he paid 400% restitution. For this story, this confession, Jesus describes this day, Salvation has come to this a Child of Israel. When Jesus left the house of Zaccheus, on his way out of Jericho, on the road to the Cross at Jerusalem, he met a blind beggar on the curb, named Bartimaeus, who seeks out Jesus. Reading one story as holding and interpreting another, I wonder if Bartimaeus could well be that same Rich, Young Ruler, whom we earlier identified as the Pharisee, who went away unsatisfied. That wandering away, he reflected on Jesus and what he had said, and although he struggled with the cost, he went ahead and sold all he had, giving to the poor. At which point, the formerly rich, young, powerful, Pharisee: Bartimaeus, now was poor and realizes he has been blind all his life. This person on the roadside cries out with a Hebrew phrase, meaning “Son of David, Have Mercy on Me” that phrase which then gets picked up and repeated by the crowd waving Palm branches, in Hebrew was “Hosanna, Hosanna.”