"Table D'Hote Not Ala Carte" February 12, 2017

Deuteronomy 30: 15-20 Matthew 5: 20-37 Often when we go into restaurants today, the menu is Ala Carte. Would you like a wine, if so, Red, White or Rose, from NY or California, France, Argentina, Spain… Then would you like an Appetizer and there is a list, Soup or Salad and there are possibilities. All before you get to selection of the Entre. And later selection among desserts. Last Summer, we went to a restaurant that advertised Prie Fixe, and having studied languages I wondered how dinner was a Prefix, only to learn that this meant there was a Fixed Price for a Fixed Menu, with an Appetizer, Soup, Entre, Dessert and Wine all paired by the Chef as to what goes together. They referred to this as Table D’hote, meaning the Table is set by the host. This portion of the Sermon on the mount, Jesus connects the dots between the 10 Commandments and the Book of Righteousness in Leviticus. It can feel like an old joke about a thief breaking into a house at night. And the thief hears a voice saying “Jesus is watching you!” Using a flashlight, he identifies a Parrot, who says “Jesus is watching you!” But as the thief’s eyes acclimate to the light, he sees an Attack Dog crouching beneath the parrot’s cage, and the parrot says “Sick’em Jesus!” The implicit problem we have reading our Scripture for today is we live in an Ala Carte world. Computerization, prosperity, trade intended to make life easier, instead means that we have greater and greater choices. Because of this, we have been acculturated to believe that we are in control of our lives. We are the Masters of our Universe. We have each made ourselves, into our own Pastor and Pope. Jesus states here in the Sermon on the Mount that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribe and Pharisee, the most religious persons you can imagine, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. By identifying that you are your own Pastor, means that You have no one else in your confidence, no confessor, no advocate, no one to trust, no intermediary with God. One of Martin Luther’s Theses was whether we needed a Priest to act as Intermediary between us and God, whether we were so sinful, so profane we could not approach God. However, emphasizing the Christ is our Intercessor, Christ stands between us and God, Luther was not encouraging that you avoid confession, or avoid using the resources available, but that you trust Christ. If Mario and I are only here to preach sermons and post videos, it is a poor use of the skills you have called us to address. I am a practitioner in planning and counseling in Family Systems, in helping families (and the church has always described itself as a Family) to recognize that when one person is abused, when one person suffers, that affects the entire family. Mario in his being, represents a missionary to two cultures. The Pope, was always the highest human authority, the only man entrusted to place the crown upon the King or Queen of Countries of Europe, Central and South America, and the highest authority on Moral Teachings. So if we make ourselves our own Pope, we become our own authority on right and wrong. Jesus begins with a statement of caring. Then explanation that the world we have remade is broken and corrupt. Left as it is, our world is destroyed and hopeless, except, that Christ has Called you, God has appointed you to be Salt purifying and curing the world’s problems, bringing light to these Dark Ages. Then Jesus delivers a sermon which combines the 10 Commandments of Deuteronomy, with the Morality Code of the Book of Leviticus. That if you cannot fulfill and obey the Law and Commandments, you should have your eye plucked out, or your hand cut off. From the time of Moses, through today, in parts of the world, these have been the punishment for theft, for adultery, for witnessing what you had no right to see. The problem of right and wrong is the crux of the problem with these teachings of Jesus. Over the years I have heard two interpretations of these. The first, is Jesus offering a new teaching, a new law, that undercuts and supercedes the old law, making it irrelevant. “You have heard it said, But I say unto you…” While that interpretations fits with and makes the teaching work, it also means that the 10 Commandments and Book of Leviticus, the whole of the Old Testament are irrelevant and inadequate. The alternative, is that Jesus is putting the 10 Commandments on steroids, that no one, no one can ever live up to. Who among us has never lusted, never been angry, never coveted what they could not have? So the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest Moral and Ethical Teaching ever given, only serves to accuse us all of being sinners? What if, instead, we understood Jesus’ point was not LEGALISM but RELATIONSHIP. In an ALA CARTE World, we chose which laws defend our cause and which are to be ignored. I know the speed limit, but I am in a hurry. Years ago, there was a couple who came to worship, and after several weeks, we sent a letter to their address inviting the two of them to become members…except these were two people who worked together, they were each married to others, and coming to worship together was their date, their affair. Did the place of meeting make this any less a betrayal? Following Moses and Joshua, if we CHOSE THIS DAY to enjoy TABLE D’HOTE, rather than our choosing ala carte which elements, we choose to live in covenant relationship. A Relationship cannot chose under what circumstance I will or will not love you. A Relationship accepts the other, no matter what. HOWEVER, there is still an accountability for what is right and wrong, but instead of it being my choosing or defending my rights and your wrongs, Relationship speaks to my soul, wanting to pluck out my own eye, or cut off my own hand for offending. Jesus uses the phrase, “if you are on the road to court with your adversary.” Adversary does not mean ENEMY, Adversary is your competitor, the one who challenges you to do more than what you would do on your own, your ADVERSARY demands the utmost from you. And you are not objectively thinking morals through in your mind, but LIVING LIFE OUT on the Road. Finally, imagine there were 11 soldiers, who were in battle together, they have fought beside each other and defended one another, laying in mud and blood together. When suddenly all 11 were killed. They arrive at the Pearly Gates, with St. Peter, who says, “Welcome, but before you can be admitted, you need to take a Final Exam. Sit down at these 12 desks, take these sheets of paper, write down along the left margin the numbers 1 through 10. This is a simple “Yes or No” Test. Ready? Number 1. Did you Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength? Yes or No. Number 2. You shall not take the name of the Lord in Vain. Did you ever? Number 3. You shall not worship other Gods, or make an idol of any thing. Number 4. You shall not kill. Have you killed? Number 5. Have you kept the Sabbath for ever? Number 6. Did you honor your Mother and Father, in all times? Number 7. Did you ever commit Adultery, in your mind have you lusted after?” Peter continued through 8, 9, and 10. You could hear the soldiers exhale, when one raised his hand and asked “What if we got two right. Would that count? How about three or four. Without a hint of hesitation, Peter said this is all or nothing, 100%. Just then they recognized Jesus had been sitting at the 12th desk, who said “You killed following the orders of those you trusted to be in authority. You killed because you believed your cause was right. You killed, so as to not be killed. God loves you so much, God gave my life to you. I love you so much, that I die for your sins. Brothers and sisters, enter now the Kingdom of God.”

"The Next BHAG" February 5, 2017

Isaiah 58:1-12 Matthew 5: 13-20 The point of the Superbowl is not watching how much pain one team can inflict on another, or whether we can fast forward through the program to the commercials as well as we fast forward through the commercials to watch recorded shows, but the competition to be your very best on that day. The Strength and elasticity of Christianity, is that while known for Heresy Trials, Witch Hunts, Church Discipline, we has encouraged, even demanded Critique and New Ideas. From the Preaching of Jesus on the Montainside on, there has been an internal tension between ritual and reform, being willing to risk question. The same cannot be said for Judaism or Islam, Orthodoxy or Evangelicalism. Religion has been critiqued by those outside, in other religions, in atheism, secularism, philosophy, but that is different; the Internal Critique is over whether salt has lost its savor, over whether the light shines. Isaiah 58 names the tension between formulaic ritual of fasts and standing up for others, challenging what you know to be wrong. This week at UC Berkeley there was a riot. 100 people, with their features hidden in Ninja Costumes and Masks, came onto campus to commit vandalism. These were not students, faculty or staff, they were not part of the University body, and did not come for debate or learn, they came only to disgrace. Challenge for the sake of challenge is short-lived and wastes energy. To try to shift from 5th Gear into first, or worse Reverse causes damage to the engine and everyone on board. When sailing, there is a planned moment of chaos, when shifting direction, it is a moment of danger, but that moment is anticipated, practiced and planned for, in order that everyone on board can work together to shift their mass as one and compensate as the captain cries “Hard-a-lee” to use the wind differently. Too early, too late, poorly executed can spell disaster, or being dead in the water. Jim Collins in his book Good to Great describes that he expected organizations that were the best to have adopted bold new vision, setting new strategies, with revolutionary technology; but instead, what he found was that FIRST, they selected the right people, making certain they were in the right seats, and that they shared where they were going. It always amazes me when on a plane that after locking the door, before all the Safety instructions, before getting into position to taxi, the Stewardess names their intended destination; even in this day of high security and computerization, people can realize they are going in the wrong direction and have to get off, and that is the time to do so. In the Church, getting the right people in the right places is what Baptism, Communion and Ordination are all about. Is there a reason we cannot work together? Are we willing and able to trust one another, especially knowing that this is the neighbor who drives you crazy, and beside you is the one whom you had a fight with? Is there aggregate grinding away at us? Can we forgive, or are we nursing that anger? Do we all endorse One Faith that we refuse to lose, despite everything else that may come? SECOND, we have to confront the curse of Competency. It is not enough to carry on tradition. Not enough to have perfect attendance. Not enough to have been elected to positions of authority, you have to strive to make faith your own. Due to the risk of fire/ known building materials, all houses, churches, factories and offices were limited to how high they could build, ordinarily two stories maybe as many as five. When suddenly at the 1889 World’s Fair a French Architect and Engineer built the Eiffel Tower, defying all the rules except that it be structurally stable, built to last, and taller than anything else. However, the Eiffel Tower inspired something within Americans, that by 1930 we constructed The Empire State Building, a taller structure, but more, one that provided useful space for offices and work to be done. In 1961 the Russians were the first to put a person into Space, and Gagarin’s taunt was that “Having visited Heaven God was not there.” The following year, President Kennedy pledged “We choose to go to the Moon.” And having had astronauts land on the moon and return safely, live in space stations, they have sent back visions of Earth that defy words, defy the imagination, one world in tranquility, is that not proof of the existence and power of God, a God whose ego does not need to be seen? In 2004, we shared a sermon, using Jim Collins’ Good to Great, emphasizing his concept of a BHAG, a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” Inviting listeners to consider what we might do, how we might work to create something that was the best in the world. We were not complacent to accept worshipping God on Sunday morning. We did not accept having the prettiest building, or being free of Debt. Jack Howard and John Dau gathered people of differing gifts, all who cared, each who could give something of themselves. We set out to succeed, no matter the obstacle. Overtime, this has meant shifting tack, from providing a welcome to Refugees of Civil War, to re-uniting these same refugees with their families. Then to trying to do something to alleviate suffering for a people in poverty. I am a man whose own mother died because of medical complication during birth and delivery. Imagine what it means, to know that every woman who gets pregnant stands a 50/50 chance of dying, and we made a difference. I am a father of two, even more, I have carried many of you, and your children in my arms in baptism and because they wanted comforting, imagine what it means that 80% of all the children died before 60 months of age, and we changed that. I wear glasses, and due to age have the floating spots of Retinal detachment and hardening cataracts, and we have been able in 2 Surgical visits, to restore sight to over 600 people who were blind. Due to politics and fear, tribal war began again, and yet that only served to force us to consider both expansion into other places, and that due to war crops were not planted, food was burned and people were starving, so we began medical intervention for 190,000 who were dying due to poverty and malnutrition. Have we ended wars? No. Have we resolved poverty? No. But we have acted in faith. Now that that infrastructure is established, now that the reputation for what can be has been built, the question becomes, What is to be our next Big Hairy Audacious Goal? According to Jim Collins, organizations can sustain one of these in 20 years, but now is the time to consider where do we need to dedicate ourselves in faith? Rather than being complacent, how can we work together to do what no one else has ever done? What if, in this time of social dischord and distrust, where we are creating terms to explain away “Alternative Facts,” what if we demonstrated integrity and trust, forgiveness especially in brokenness. Strangers routinely ask, how do you pronounce Skaneateles or how do you spell Skaneateles, no one ever asks “Why would you want to live there?”