September 26 2010 WITNESSING REDEMPTION

Jeremiah 32: 1-15
Luke 16: 19-31
Baptism is not the Dedication of a Child. Not simply the giving of a Name and identity. Baptism is a Witness for Future Redemption!
Marriage is not about the Wedding, not a Contract, not a union between two, not joining of families...Marriage is a Radical Reversal of Selfishness.

Compassion is not about Generosity.
Sharing not about Pity.
Offerings, Philanthropy, Mission, Giving another a leg up, helping the less fortunate, are not what we do if we have enough left over.
Empathy, Compassion, Mission, Making a Difference are a RADICAL NEIGHBORLINESS! WINESSING REDEMPTION that is yet to come!
For it is the same Gospel, spoken by the same Jesus, in the same Bible, which records The LAST SHALL BE FIRST and First Last; who tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan; and Lazarus who after being dead three days was brought forth from the tomb from death to life.

The Biblical text is not something to be read on Sunday morning and carefully put away until the next week; not something we rehearse doing on Thursday evening so we can be ready to perform Sunday. The Ten Commandments were not intended to be a plaque on the wall.
The incarnation of God in Christ is not a Christmas story wrapped in tissue and stored in the attic. The Resurrection is not a one day occurrence.
Faith is Not righteous phrases that we can use as a club to beat one another into guilt and submission.
FAITH is a radically different way of life; when there is no hope, still believing in a glorious future.

In order to appreciate Jeremiah, we need to imagine that a foreign enemy has been attacking our Nation for Decades. Our economy is in ruins. We have been at War almost as long as any can remember. Food, Water, supplies, all have been blockaded against us. And as a person of faith, a prophet of God, you have been arrested for speaking out, put into prison as being a subversive. You are under guard, in your own city while it is being attacked. Suddenly there is word of a momentary lifting of the embargo. Nothing more can get in, but you could possibly get something out. Of everything you can imagine, what would you want to get to safety, what would you send to be preserved for the future? Jeremiah spends money on the land already being occupied by the enemy, seals the land contract in an earthen vessel and smuggles it out to be buried. This is not investing in the stock market, this is not a calculated risk, not even the foolishness of buying the Brooklyn Bridge or burying money in the ground, this is about giving everything you have everything you can borrow to buy land that is already hopeless, burned over and occupied by an enemy.

As an act of witness, Jeremiah is not pre-occupied with his guards and arrest; not influenced by the war and current devastation of his nation. Jeremiah believes in the future yet to come. Jeremiah believes there will be a time, whether soon or far distant when this land will again appear to be an unoccupied wilderness, and a Century or more in the future when people come to this land and dig in the earth to create foundations they will find the text that witnesses to Jeremiah laying claim to REDEEM this land. Time is irrelevant. Circumstances are irrelevant. The only thing that matters to Jeremiah is WITNESS that there will come a time for REDEMPTION.

Yesterday morning, we gathered to celebrate the life of one who had surpassed 102 years of living! Like every celebration of worship, when the Prelude ended, there was a heavy silence and the sound of Baptismal waters being poured out. Of all the words we say, and ceremonies we perform, I believe this is the most meaningful. Because at infancy, or as an innocent new believer, we receive the gift of Baptism. Not because of anything we have done, who our parents are or what they have done for us. In Baptism, we witness that Jesus died for all humanity. As he was baptized, we are baptized, as he died so did we all. As he emerged from the waters and was called to a life of faith and action, so are we. Therefore, in memoriam, we affirm that the spirit of this believer has not died, the old self was already drown, and as Christ is with God and forever with us, so now is this individual also, forever.

Yesterday afternoon, a couple devoted their lives to one another. Everything about our lives, our culture, the world we live in, claims that we should Life LIFE to the FULLEST, go for the gusto, seize the day, claim your portion, never be left out. In marriage, we claim the needs of the other first. Their happiness, their comforts are the only thing that matter and we live our lives for them. This is why Marriage is a Radical REVERSAL of SELFISHNESS.

No one can fully explain why marriages succeed, or why so many fail. In a time in humanity when more divorce than stay together, I have to believe that choosing to get married may be an act like Jeremiah, of hoping that there will be a time when what we have done can be a witness for future generations.

The Parable which Jesus told, is said in response to the Pharisees, who prided themselves on their faith and what they possessed. There have often been perverse equations suggesting that as Moses instructed the people in the 10 Commandments and the people received the Land of Milk and Honey, that having faith assures one of blessings. I am sorry to disillusion you, but faith does not translate into a pyramid scheme for prosperity. The point of the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is not about GREED, or POSSESSIONS, or WEALTH or POVERTY, but about Faith. The Rich Man, the Disciples and the Pharisees all had Abraham, Moses and the Prophets, the difficulty if what they represent to us. If we believe the First shall be last and the last first, then in the living of this life, we are challenged to question our responsibility for what we have been given.

Faith is not about making the right purchases, or shrewd investments, but about REDEMPTION. When life's choices result in circumstance, do we beat ourselves up about the circumstance, or work to redeem what has taken place.
A Prison sentence is only time away, paying restitution for what we have done, but time served does not necessarily change us for the better. REDEMPTION is about never letting go of the other, being there when they need us, no matter what.
Serving in a Warzone often does not feel like patriotism, or in any heroic. But valuing the service and commitment of those who give their lives for the values we live, is a redemption.

We live in a time of change, cultural change, technological change, change in expectations. There was a time, not so long ago, when Cancer was perceived to be a death sentence, the C word, not even spoken. But as surgery and radiation have progressed, our attitudes have changed. In recent years, there have been those, who seem to transition from the shock and horror of having a name for Death, to acceptance and following a regime of treatments, and often a period of remission in which we do not feel cured, but rather that we picked up and put away that one shoe and there is another hanging over us somewhere. And two or three or ten years later, claiming life differently. What is it to have escaped to a future you did not expect.

With the economy, the political divisions, war, hurricanes and earthquakes and oil spills, impending winter, we can be a depressed people without hope. The challenge is to live UNCONDITIONAL NEIGHBORLINESS, to live as a WITNESS to REDEMPTION, believing in a future beyond our time, where our simply having had hope makes a difference.