Blog – Page 119

Not Wide Enough

September 25, 2022 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

God has crossed any chasms between us and God, and now empowers us to bridge the chasms between us and all God’s children, for the life of the creation.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 26 C
Texts: Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

There are two great chasms God shows in these readings. The important one isn’t the one you think.

Jesus tells of two of God’s children who die and end up in very different places. One is in God’s presence forever. The other is in torment in, well, the other place. And in Jesus’ story, Abraham says there’s a vast chasm between the two places, and none can cross it.

But it’s the other chasm that God is far more concerned about. The chasm between Lazarus and this rich man in their earthly lives, one eating well in a beautiful house, and one living on the streets with the dogs. The canyon between these two deeply distresses God.

It’s the same chasm Amos decries, declaring God’s judgement on those who lounge on their beds, eating and drinking and being entertained, while their neighbors starve and struggle for life. Hundreds of years of God’s prophets decry the huge chasm between those who are safe and secure, wealthy enough to never miss a meal or doubt about shelter, and those whose every moment is a struggle for survival.

That’s the chasm that makes all these readings so uncomfortable for us today, with our sofas and houses and food and IRAs and privilege. And it breaks God’s heart.

And if God’s children won’t fill this chasm and bridge it, God will be on one side.

We hear it all the time from our Scripture reading in worship and at home. We sing it in our psalms and hymns. Mary sang it. Moses and the prophets declared it. Jesus lived and proclaimed it. The early church centered their lives around it. Here’s how today’s psalm we sang says it: God gives justice to those who are oppressed, food to those who hunger, freedom to the captives. God cares for the stranger and the orphan, lifts up all who are bowed down.

If you and I sit on our comfortable, well-fed side of the chasm, these readings today – and all of Scripture – say God’s going to be on the other side. God wants no gap between God’s children. God wants all to live in freedom and abundance and justice and mercy. But if we keep digging the canyon deeper, or ignoring it, if we ignore those at our gates and on our streets, God will never. God will be with them. On the other side.

But God’s Word has good news for us today, too.

Even if God is on the side of those who struggle, God always keeps reaching out to our side. We have these constant, regular admonitions from Scripture because God simply won’t stop hoping that somehow we’ll hear, be changed, and that this chasm in our world will close.

God could have abandoned the northern kingdom of Israel to their greed and wealth and abuse of poor and oppressed people. But God sent a farmer from the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos, to the north, just to get across God’s word of warning. A warning that included God’s hope that these people would hear, be changed, and so change their world.

Jesus hopes that just maybe rich people like us who hear his story will remember Moses and the prophets and their call to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God, and will be jarred to change. And to change our world.

The joy here is that God hasn’t given up on you. Or on me. Or on the Church. God’s love is for all God’s children, including those in the houses, at the full tables, with the IRAs. God hopes maybe you’ll finally be drawn off the sofa and out the door to start bridging the canyon between God’s children. And if you and I do, and more and more do, this chasm will finally cease to exist.

1 Timothy transforms our fear into hope as well.

Like Amos and Jesus, this writer is also deeply concerned about the chasm between those who have and those who don’t. So again, through this writer, God’s hope for you and me to change still flows.

But this writer says if all God’s children with houses and tables and pantries and IRAs start sharing, become rich in good works for others, become generous, simply do good, we will know what real life is. Life that really is life, this writer says.

God’s true grace is that a world with no chasm between God’s children, where all have enough and are fed, is joy and life in a way that those of us with the houses and tables and IRAs don’t know right now.

You see, Lazarus and this rich man would both have had a truly abundant life if there had been no gap. If everyone had enough to eat, and a place to stay, and medical care for whatever their needs were, it would have been a good, abundant, joyful lif for all. If anyone is in need, you are, too, God’s Word says. If any one suffers, you do, too. And the way to life for one is life for all. That’s Christ’s real life. Abundant life. Joyful life.

But in case you still can’t shake the threats of Jesus’ story, there’s more good news.

Notice that Jesus tells a parable he has every intention of proving wrong.

He has Abraham say that the second chasm in these readings, that is, the eternal chasm between those who are with God in the next life and those who are not, is so wide, so vast, it can never be bridged.

But this is God-with-us talking. God in our flesh, who has literally crossed that chasm already. Who will, on the cross, permanently fill it. Make his sacrificial love the bridge to bring all God’s children back into the loving embrace and dance and life of the Triune God. Rich man and Lazarus and all – all will be with God in the life to come.

Jesus has absolutely no intention of following through on the fear of this parable, throwing you or anyone into torment after this life. He is living – and dying – proof of God’s insistence on ending all the distance between God and God’s children. No chasm is wide enough to keep God from crossing.

But Jesus also does what Abraham says it won’t matter to do.

Abraham tells the rich man that if his living brothers don’t heed the Scriptures they won’t be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

But Jesus will actually rise from the dead. Christ’s sacrificial love will die for you and me and the whole creation and be transformed into life that creates and restores all things. The Triune God’s resurrection life, poured into you by the Spirit, will empower you and me to start filling the chasm in this world and building bridges. Will fill God’s children with life and the power to change everything and bring all to hope and justice and mercy.

This is the life that really is life – sharing, being generous, bridging gaps, tearing down walls.

Sure, it means giving up more and more of our privilege, more and more of what we have. It means learning new priorities and letting go of our human need to hoard and store up for ourselves. It means opening our eyes to see those at our gates and in our streets as God sees them. It means opening our hearts to care for the same people God cares for, the ones we keep singing about here. It means closing the chasm between God’s children in this world so all may live.

But this is the life that really is life. The only life worth living for you and all God’s children. Nothing can keep you from it, if you really want it.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

Worship, September 25, 2022

September 23, 2022 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 26 C

The God we worship calls us to bridge the gaps that exist between God’s children, between the rich and poor, the hungry and filled, so that all might know justice and peace.

Download worship folder for Sunday, September 25, 2022.

Presiding and Preaching: Pastor Joseph G. Crippen

Readings and prayers: Harry Eklund, lector; David Anderson, assisting minister

Organist: Cantor David Cherwien

Download the readings for next Sunday for this Tuesday’s noon Bible study.

Click here for previous livestreamed liturgies from Mount Olive (archived on the Mount Olive YouTube channel.)

The Olive Branch, 9/21/22

September 20, 2022 By office

Click here to read the current issue of The Olive Branch.

What’s the Game?

September 18, 2022 By Vicar at Mount Olive

We are called to be children of light and do so intentionally in our lives, no matter how little or big of acts.

Vicar Mollie Hamre
Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost, Lect. 25 C
Texts: Luke 16:1-13

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My friends and I love a good board game.

I am not talking about shorter games such as Candyland, although Candyland is dear to many, I am speaking of the games that have instructions that take an hour to read and once you get around to playing the game itself–it takes even more hours. I am talking about the games where you spend time standing around the table, investing in reading the rule book, leaning in close, and asking questions about strategy.

As I read the parable for today, I wanted to know: what kind of game the manager is playing.

The Gospel tells us that the manager who, in a last-minute attempt to find some security in his life, changes the debts of people that owe his master. That way, when the manager no longer works for the master, he will be welcomed into the homes of the people whose debts he lessened.

Unexpectedly, when the Master discovers this, he commends the manager for his quick thinking. Instead of getting angry, the master praises the manager for being wise, or shrewd as the text says. This tactic pays off for the manager: he receives security in his future, gains friends, and gets a pat on the back from his boss. What a win!

Except for the parts of the text that makes us shift in our seats.

The parable describes the manager as both shrewd and unjust. How can this person, who has been unjust, be taken seriously? We are used to stories where the person we learn from has integrity and seeks honesty, but the person we are left to look to, the manager, does the opposite. Instead, we see that he plays the game. He finds his opening and takes a risk against the odds for a big reward.

And that leaves us asking what Jesus is saying and how we are involved.

Jesus tells us “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” Here is where we begin to see that Jesus is making a parallel between two groups: the children of the manager’s generation and the children of God. Leaving us asking what is the manager doing with his own generation, that we, the children of God, are missing?

The most prominent feature of the manager is his responsiveness to the situation.

We can tell the manager knows the rule book and acts in order to seek out his goals. As Jesus turns to the disciples to tell this story, he knows these people before him should understand what’s going on. The Triune God is among us, have the disciples not been listening to the parables? If this manager can act with this level of intentionality in his own generation, why are the disciples, the children of God, not? Work for justice, care for the neighbor, and love one another. This is what God tells us to do.

Yet, these lines get blurred.

These two lines which are supposed to be parallel, begin to intersect. We focus more on our finances than our neighbors and our mental energy centers on getting ahead instead of living in the moment. We assume someone else will figure it out, rather than asking what we can do. While it is obvious that the manager has his own agenda and goals in the story, we know that ours, as children of God, are different. We look to the Gospel for freedom, we look to the law to guide, and we look to the cross, knowing that God with us, is amidst it all. The manager knows where his priorities lie and what he values. Do we know ours as children of God? Whose values are we following and for what reasons?

In these questions, we look back at the Gospel.

Jesus tells us “Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much” and consequently, “whoever is unjust in a very little is unjust also in much.” Jesus tells us that even if we have little faith, we are doing much. So if we are moving towards loving God and the neighbor even when it does not feel significant, we are doing God’s work. And when we are engaging in things that feel bigger than ourselves, we are doing God’s work. Reaching out to check in on a friend. Picking up litter on the ground. Going on strike to call out exploitation in power structures.

The manager knows that these odds can be turned when he acts, because he knows the world around him. He has an awareness of the challenges he faces and pushes on regardless of them. What would happen if we trusted God with the same conviction? Jesus tells us that once we begin to live intentionally by doing those acts of little faith towards peace, justice, and loving the neighbor, they become big. Not only in the sense of the world to come, but the world that is happening right here, right now. With intentionality, People will know they are loved. Oppression will disappear into justice. And our world will find peace.

We know being a child of God is not a game, it is a way of life that pushes us to be intentional, held by grace to turn ourselves towards God.

Despite the strategy that the manager uses, he seeks out creative ways to solve problems and knows that he needs a community to do it. Similar to my friends and I playing board games, the manager invests his time, leaning in close, learning about the world and people around him. What would it mean for us to do the same in our faith lives? We have a community full of ideas and neighbors that are reaching out. We just need to ask, Children of God: how will you live with intentionality?

In the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.