Scorpions, Hens and Chicks: the Cosmic Hesed of God

Luke 13:31-35

There is a story of an old man who used to meditate early in the morning under a big tree on the bank of the Ganges River. One morning, after he had finished his meditation, the old man opened his eyes and saw a scorpion floating helplessly in the water.

As the scorpion was washed closer to the tree, the old man quickly stretched himself out on one of the long roots that branched out into the river and reached out to rescue the drowning creature. As soon as he touched it, the scorpion stung him. Instinctively the man withdrew his hand. A minute later, after he had regained his balance, he stretched himself out again on the roots to save the scorpion. This time the scorpion stung him so badly with its poisonous tail that his hand became swollen and bloody and his face contorted with pain.

At that moment, a passerby saw the old man stretched out on the roots struggling with the scorpion and shouted: “Hey, stupid old man, what’s wrong with you? Only a fool would risk his life for the sake of an ugly, evil creature. Don’t you know you could kill yourself trying to save that ungrateful scorpion?”

The old man turned his head. Looking into the stranger’s eyes he said calmly, “My friend, just because it is the scorpion’s nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save.”

Just because it is his nature to sting, that doesn’t change my nature to save. Doesn't that sound to you a lot like Jesus?

The lament of Jesus in our gospel today sounds an awful lot to me like the lament within the old man’s statement. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” he cried out, and we can hear the sadness in his words, “….How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you did not want me!” (a literal translation of the Greek).

And yet, Jesus perseveres. From his birth to the cross, Jesus reaches out to the people of Jerusalem. Indeed, he gets stung again and again and again. Yet, even as he makes his final march toward that city, the Pharisees come to him to warn him away. Were they really looking out for Jesus or was their motive more sinister?

Jesus' response, of course, foreshadows what we know of as the Great Three Days of our salvation. Despite humanity’s nature to sin, despite the institutional rejection of Jesus by the Jewish leadership, despite his upcoming persecution, passion, and death at the hands of the Romans, Jesus perseveres in his walk of love, mercy and compassion. On the third day, through his resurrection, Jesus will indeed finish his salvific work on behalf of the stinging creature, humankind.  

How many times has God set out to establish equanimity with humankind, to show his love, to show us a better way of being at one with God and with our neighbor, and we would not follow, would not listen, would not obey God. No matter our nature to turn our backs on God, God’s nature to save continues.

As I met with other clergy in a text study on Wednesday, one of my colleagues remarked about how through the various readings we have before us this week, we really do get a vision of God that is one of cosmic nurturer. Isn’t that a beautiful way to picture God? As the one who nurtures the universe and all that is within it; as the one determined to save, regardless of the cost.

Abram and Sarai, his wife, have reached a point of hopelessness over ever being able to conceive a child of their own union. Yet, God promises and delivers not just a child but countless offspring through vast generations to come. As God so often does, God does not just meet the need but fills the desire with overflowing generosity.

See the heavens stretching out before you? [God asks Abram] Can you number the stars? They are more than you can count, aren’t they? And God promises to fill the cosmos with descendants in numbers as vast as the stars in the sky. And God keeps God’s promises.

A couple of months ago, Patti invited all of us to write our names on stars that she then hung from the ceiling in the hallway leading to the education wing.[If you didn't get a chance to put your name on one, we have them laid out again on the table with the nametags in the narthex).

Every time I pass through that hallway, I look up. All those stars suspended in the air overhead is heavenly. You can read some of the names…Mel, Pat, Ruth, Bob, Julia, London, Nazie, and so many more names; even my name is up there, somewhere. God’s generous answer to Abram’s need is a vast abundance that includes you and me.

While all Abram wanted was a single heir, God’s vision was so much bigger. It extends thousands of years and all around the globe. 
Today there are three major religions of the world,, known as the Abrahamic religions whose adherents worship this God who is so generous, so creative, and so masterful. We each have our own ways of understanding the nature of God and how God relates to us, but we all believe in the same God, one God, and the content of our stories and our scriptures overlap.

In Islam, God is rendered “Allah” in Arabic, literally “the God”. God is the absolute one, all powerful and all knowing ruler of the universe, and the creator of everything in existence. Islam emphasizes that God is strictly singular and unique, inherently One,  all-merciful and omnipotent.  Muslims consider God neither a material nor a spiritual being. According to the Quran and teachings of Islam, "No vision can grasp him, but His grasp is over all vision: He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things."

In Judaism, God has been conceived in a variety of ways. Primarily, Jews hold that Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the national god of the Israelites, delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and gave them the Law of Moses at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah, their holy book.

God is understood as the absolute one, indivisible, and incomparable supreme being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Traditional interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is personal yet also transcendent, while some modern interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is a force or ideal.

The names of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible are the Tetragrammaton (YHWH Hebrew: יהוה) and Elohim, also, El Shaddai and Shekinah. Whatever name is used, there is but one God .

For Christians, God is one God in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three persons are indivisible – not three gods, but one God. As we state in our creed, we believe that God is the creator, all knowing and all powerful, who took on flesh and became human in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the savior, the incarnation of a god who is so in love with humanity that he will do anything to save us from our sinful, warring madness, even join us in our own suffering and die for us, to ensure our eternal life with him through the resurrection.

God continues to bless, sanctify and endow fill our spiritual needs through God’s Holy Spirit, who contains all the aspects of God within herself.

The heart of Christian belief is that indeed, God did not keep Jesus from receiving the final sting of death, but allowed it, that all might be brought to eternal life through the power of the resurrection.

It’s a lot of heady stuff, all pointing to one thing – that despite our differences, these three major world religions basically share the same main beliefs about God: that God is one, that God is the creator who engages with humanity in ways that are unique and mysterious and merciful. And this immensely interconnected, generous and creative God exists for us all, binding us together in one humanity.

That’s an important truth for us to grasp, especially today.

Human conventions have created ideologies around each of these religions, resulting in misunderstanding, creating factions of extremism within each, and producing conflict, war, and struggles for power.

We see the result of this in our world today. Sadly, we even saw such division used this week as one inspiration and justification for a horrible act of terrorism and hatred directed toward a religious community.

Mercifully, however, we have also seen an international and interreligious response of support for the Muslim community and condemnation for the cowardly and hate-filled act taken against them.

We are right to pray for and support our Muslim brothers and sisters in New Zealand and anywhere in the world where they face injustice, prejudice and hatred. Adherents of true Islam are indeed our friends, created in the image of God as are we, and deserving of our love and support. As worshipers of one true God, Christians, Jews and Muslims alike speak out against injustice and promote peaceful coexistence, and in so doing, have become easy marks for power-hungry, extremist, and hate-filled groups in the world, and we see attacks against all three groups with increasing regularity.

We all seek comfort and consolation from the brutality of the world from the same loving, merciful God. The image of God as a hen who desires to gather her brood under her wings, is the picture of an incredibly nurturing God.

The lament of Jesus and his true sorrow is that despite God’s nurturing nature, despite covenants offered and needs addressed, rejection of God’s love and mercy abound. And now, as the incarnation of God’s hesed – God’s abundant, steadfast love and mercy embodied in Jesus Christ, the scorpion stings – but the true nature of God persists.

Lamentation is Jesus’ response to the sting; the cross is God’s response to the rejection. Even now, Jesus is calling us all into loving relationship with him. Even now, God is providing for our salvation through the cross. Even now, God reigns supreme, regardless of the worldly reality of sin, hatred, violence and denial.

The thing is, it is the nature of God to continue nurturing the cosmos. For the same God who sent Jesus as love for love’s sake is with us still, washes us in the waters of baptism, feeds us through the holy sacraments, blesses and empowers us through the work of the Spirit.

Thanks be to God, mothering, fathering, blessing, loving, merciful creator and redeemer. Amen.

  

Curses and Blessings in the Gospel

Luke 6:27-38

I am going to begin this morning by asking you to do something.

I would like you to move. Change seats. I want you please to get up right now, all of you, and go to a different place in the sanctuary, perhaps to a place you’ve never sat before, and sit in that new place. If you usually sit in the back, why not give sitting in the front a try? If you normally sit on this side, why not try that side? I’d like you to make a significant change in where you are sitting. I’ll wait while you do it.

            How do you feel now? Is it weird? You have a whole new view of things if you made a big change. I wonder if your new seat will change your perspective on anything?

For those of you new to sitting on this side, now you know this is really my better side. Those of you on this side, well, you may want to sit on that side next week.

            Was it difficult for you to change seats? Is it uncomfortable in some way to sit in a new place? Well Friends, if you’re feeling a little uncomfortable right now, my best advice to you is this: get used to it!

Because, the thing is, we are disciples of Jesus Christ, and Jesus is always asking us to do something new. Jesus is always inviting us to do something daring. Jesus is always drawing us into uncomfortable places, changing our point of view, and asking the seeming impossible- (like, really, change seats in church?) - because believe it or not, the new place Jesus leads us to is where we need to be, it’s where we’ll grow our best, and it is where Jesus needs us to be, for his sake and for the sake of the kingdom of God.

            I’m not going to stand here and lie to you. While “Jesus loves us, this we know, for the Bible tells us so”, that doesn’t mean Jesus is all about making us all comfy and cozy in our lives of faith and discipleship.

Remember the invitation Jesus made to those who want to follow him? “you must pick up your cross and follow me”. Nothing comforting in that!

            Today’s text reminds us that Jesus came to draw us all into a new life marked by love, forgiveness, generosity, justice, and mercy. That’s good news, right?

The struggle is, that as this Gospel text indicates, Jesus means for us to live out these qualities in our lives as ways of being that are always moving us outward – to new horizons – new ways of living in relationship with our neighbor and with God. That’s what discipleship means.

This grace, mercy, love and forgiveness all sound great when they are directed toward us and toward those we love and care about. We want and need all those things in our lives.

We know we are broken people and we yearn for the healing that Jesus brings. Yet Jesus came to deliver this mandate that to follow him, we need to direct those same things toward people that our culture and our egos tell us are the last people we should want to benefit from them: like, those who hurt us; those we those who hate us; those curse and abuse us. Yet, when we do this, the radical love of Jesus is evident in our lives; it changes our lives, our relationships, and our world.

            Today’s gospel lesson is a continuation of the one we heard last week, the so-called Sermon on the Plain.

In a reversal of all we have come to expect in life, Jesus gave the crowd some good news/bad news. To the poor, the hungry, and the mourning Jesus delivered the good news that they would be well off in the kingdom of God; and then to the rich, he gave the bad news that they wouldn’t fare so well if they continued to trust in worldly riches rather than in God, especially when they valued and accumulated those things at the expense of the poor.

            As Luke’ Gospel continues into today’s passage, Jesus invites his followers to demonstrate radical love, blessing, forgiveness, generosity, and trust. That shouldn’t be too difficult, should it? Except the thing is, Jesus tells his disciples that the recipients of all that benevolence can’t just be the people we love, or like, or even just tolerate, nor can our good intentions be a reciprocal act.

            Jesus says instead, that we need to shower these radical gifts of mercy and generosity even on our enemies. We’re supposed to love on those we don’t like, don’t know, and don’t really care to know.

            You think changing seats in church is challenging and uncomfortable?

Picture your worst enemy or a person who has created havoc and pain for you or others you care about. Picture a person who has slandered or cursed you or taken from you what is rightfully yours. Picture a person or group that have cost you something you treasure. Now, picture yourself loving that person, forgiving them, and bestowing kindness and mercy on them in their hour of need.

That is how Jesus is telling us we should live:

But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. That’s not all.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.

And finally, the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

How difficult do you find these words?

To be honest, I find them scorchingly difficult to hear. Because the core of this teaching centers on forgiveness and sometimes forgiveness can be so hard to give. This is not simply forgiving your child when they have lied to you or forgiving your partner when they didn’t take the trash out like they were supposed to. I think you know that. Jesus tells us we need to forgive our enemies for the bigger-badder things they have done that hurt us.

The thing is, sometimes it is so much more justifiable and righteous to hold on to grudges and withhold forgiveness from someone who has caused me or someone I love, pain.

There are people I’ve never even met that I have a hard time loving. I have always said that there is no one I hate – I taught my children not even to use that word in reference to another person – but I confess that in an era of toxic division and polarization in our world, I experience grave dislike toward some people. Seeing the pain and destruction of lives caused by the actions of other people, I get angry.  There are people whose words and actions I find so heinous or disagreeable, that I am brought to the point of feeling hatred.

Jesus seems to be asking something that is not only challenging, but in many ways impossible. It’s too radical. It’s too hard.

But then, I look at these words again and I realize that Jesus isn’t just demanding an unachievable standard, but Jesus is showing us the way. Jesus describes his own life, passion and death.

With the gift of knowing the full story of Jesus’ radical love as he lived it himself, we gain a new perspective of what radical love, mercy, forgiveness, generosity and grace look like. Jesus invites us not only to live out this radical love, but to trust and depend on him to lead the way. And Jesus delivers.

Throughout his life, but most especially in his passion and death, Jesus exemplified radical love and forgiveness, mercy and grace.

He spent time with and even ate with tax collectors and sinners; he received water from and gave forgiveness to the woman at the well; he healed and invited outsiders in to the party; through his parables he described the most extraordinary examples of unjustified mercy and generosity that is given to the most unlikely of characters.

He heals one of his arresting soldiers when his ear is cut off, and asks God to forgive his torturers, declaring that they do not know what they are doing.

During his passion and even at the cross, Jesus’ forgiveness and promise bring restoration to a common criminal.

Finally, Jesus forgives us and promises us life everlasting despite our sinfulness, despite our inablity to live out this command, and despite our many foibles and failures.

Instead of giving us what we deserve, Jesus gives us unmerited grace. In his unending generosity, Jesus invites each and every one of us to the table where we are fed and nourished and strengthened and given new perspective and grace.

With these words, Jesus challenges us to grow in living our lives in harmony with God’s desire of restored relationships based on mercy and harmony. What will our answer be?

Making the changes in our lives that Jesus invites today doesn’t happen overnight. We take one step, and then another. But, I wonder how many of you will go back to sitting in your usual seats next week?

I hope that little by little you will challenge yourselves to grow; to become the people God is calling you to be, willing to take on new behaviors and to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. The first of the steps we will need to take is to embrace love.

Amen.