‘really…?’

August 11, 2024

Scriptures: Ephesians 4:25-5:2, John 6:35, 41-51

Over the past week, Nan and I drove back home from our son Micah’s home in Colorado. We traveled through numerous states, past untold corn and wheat fields, huge stacks of hay and straw bales, and emerald green fields overflowing with soybean plants as far as the eye could see.

We took our time, driving no more than 6 or 8 hours each day, and stayed in a number of small towns along the way, usually spending the night in a small motel. Our trip back through Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska also happened to coincide with the huge annual 10 day long Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held each year in Sturgis, South Dakota and the surrounding Black Hills.

And you have no idea how big that event is until you see the literally thousands of motorcycles of all shapes, colors, and sizes making their way to and from that rally, now in its 84th year. And also of note was the variety of those who were riding those motorcycles…both young-ish and older, men and women, multiple tattoos or not, smokers and nonsmokers…and on and on. Truly they seemed to be representatives from so many and varied walks of life…many of whom we watched and listened to either in our hotel, or in the very crowded local restaurants. And contrary to what one might think of when reflecting on the usual image of ‘bikers’…many, many of these folks were very kind and cordial in our interactions with them…quite different than what some might expect I imagine.

All of which is my way of telling you that I had my computer…but I didn’t find a single minute when I wasn’t too tired or too hot, or just exhausted in general to do anything about putting together a message for today. I tried to be responsible starting out, I pulled out the scriptures from the lectionary, found sort of a title, and latched onto one of the daily reading psalms during the week that seemed to be in line with my thoughts…but when we finally pulled in late on Friday night after navigating our way through heavy rain and urgent tornado warnings suddenly making themselves known through our phones and car radio, I sat down somewhat exhausted and started to write this down. And then very shortly thereafter our power went out and we were left in the dark…quickly ending any attempts to actually finish before all of the things I knew were going to be in front of me on Saturday. Fortunately what I had written out was still there this morning, the power coming back on around 2 am…I know because I checked before I headed out early Saturday morning to harvest up at camp for today’s farm stand.

And somewhere around mid-day, when I was preparing to cut the chicken for today’s bar-b-que, and making sure Freddie was set in terms of the farmstand, he mentioned that he had a question that came up on Thursday night at the Bible Study. He shared that as they were making their way through Luke, they chanced upon Luke Chapter 9 and verse 27, which had them all wanting me to weigh in on when I got back. And after discussing the verse with Freddie, I realized I finally had the final piece I was looking for to tie my previous thoughts together. Once again I was reminded that God’s timing is always just right…not too early, not too late, but just right…even though sometimes it isn’t always the timing we may have wanted or hoped for.

Luke’s gospel in Chapter 9 finds Jesus alone with his disciples after feeding the 5000 with a few loaves and a couple of fish. He asks them who the crowds think he is. After some discussion back and forth he makes the very cryptic comment in verse 27 that, ‘Indeed, truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.’

This was the verse that the group found themselves wrestling with, as it seems as though it is either somewhat unrealistic, or perhaps written in error, for at least in our understanding of the biblical record, it truly does not seem as though there are any of Jesus’ disciples still running around among us!

And in sharing my thoughts on this verse with Freddie, I realized that the words in our reading from Ephesians, and the passage from Psalm 146 I had chanced upon during the week all shared a common thread regarding how it is that we are supposed to live out our lives as followers of our Lord Jesus.

I shared with Freddie that one of the reasons verse 27 gives us pause is that our understanding of the ‘Kingdom of God’ may be too narrow. Jesus refers to the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven numerous times throughout all four gospel accounts, in many of which he indicates that it is ‘already among us’.

That said, I think we need to consider, that it is possible to see or to glimpse the kingdom which Jesus said ‘was among us’ right here and right now…if we have the eyes and the faith understanding to do so.

        In other words, I firmly believe that Jesus was telling his followers, both then and now, that the ‘Kingdom of God’…that long-prophesied time of peace and understanding…that time when warring would cease and ‘spears would be refashioned into gardening tools’, that time when mountains of inequity would be brought low, and valleys of oppression would be lifted up…that time when ‘justice would roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’…could actually become our lived reality…if, and when we learn to truly practice what he taught, and when we begin to truly live into the commandment to love one another…as our common way of being together.

        With that as a backdrop, the verse from Ephesians could actually mean that some of Jesus’ most faithful and open disciples might have been able to glimpse that promised reality taking root around them as they practiced the holy and blessed community in which they found themselves. And…in terms of today’s message…it seems that this possibility can be ours as well, if we too get in the habit of truly loving one another as we are loved by God.

        My original thought for a title for today was, ‘These hands…can break down…or build up…it is your choice’. And I chose that because I had heard Paul calling for his readers to be ‘Imitators of God’, which I found intriguing, as well as quite challenging. For it seems that to do so requires that we not only do all those things we have always thought were standard faith responsibilities such as reading the bible, going to church, being kind to those you meet and so on, but perhaps to do even more…perhaps even much more.

It would seem to me, that to actually be ‘imitators’ of our Lord…we would need to act much as Jesus acted, to speak like Jesus spoke…and to tirelessly exhibit both the patience, as well as the forgiving spirit which Jesus taught through his own example. To imitate Jesus, we would need to believe in and carry forth the message that real and honest love and care for one another, is stronger than any force standing in opposition to it…here and now, as well as far into the future.

        And that brings me to the lines from Psalm 146 that I came across this past week, where the psalmist contends that the work we have been discussing, and the work to which Paul strongly calls us, is actually done in partnership with the Lord…that somehow, as we imitate our Lord, we are simultaneously functioning as the eyes and ears, the hands and the strength, and the ‘full measures of God’s love. As Luke shares in Chapter 6 and verse 38, ‘…give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap…for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’

        The psalmist writes in Psalm 146, ‘Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God…who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers; (the Lord) upholds the orphan and the widow…’

        And as I stand here before you, I tell you…so can we. So can we, if we accept our call to love with all we are and all we have…if we forgive not once, but every time we are wronged…if we give fully and freely from our own resources truly knowing that they are a gift from God, and that we will never fail to have sufficient for our own needs as the Lord continues to provide. In short, if we adhere to Paul’s words in his letter to the Ephesians as he extols, ‘be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you’.

        So…indeed, these hands…my hands…your hands…our hands…can be used to bring forth the glory of the ‘Kingdom’ of which Jesus spoke…

…right here, and beginning right now…Really? Yes, really…

…amen