Pentecost 26, November 17, 2024

Mark 13

6 Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

[My article below was originally published in The Christian Century magazine in 2003.]

As the leaves fall from the trees and the earth goes brown and bare, the church contemplates the end as well—the end of our lives in death and the end of the world with Christ’s coming. The very idea that there will be an end is threatening to those of us who have pretty good lives and good plans for the future. For those of us who experience life as a roller coaster of ups and downs, on the other hand, or those who experience life as mostly downs, the idea of “an end to it all” may be comforting.

Those among us who are very elderly or very ill think often about the end of our lives. We prepare and put things in order. Those of us who aren’t ill or elderly are busy living in the middle of things. But what if we all needed to prepare for the end?

What if you knew you had only one month left in your life?

• Would you finish up important matters at work?
• Would you travel to a place you always wanted to go?
• Would you pray more, go to church more, do that
 generous act you always wanted to do for others?
• Would you find ways to leave a mark on the world?
• Would you reconcile a fractured friendship?

By answering yes to one or more of these possibilities, we indicate that in our last days we would be better stewards of all the things God has given us in this life—better than we are now. In the intensity of last days, we would live better, be better. We would be more generous, more focused on the most important things in life. The question is: Why do we need to be under threat of death to be better stewards?

Here’s another “what if.” What if we discovered that our congregation only had one more month to exist? If my congregation only had a month to live, I would want all the members to be together as much as possible. If only for one precious Sunday, I’d like to have everybody listed in our church directory together for worship. If our time as a congregation was almost over, I don’t think we’d have much trouble getting inactive or barely active members and friends to join us. End times have that kind of power.

As members of a congregation at the end of its life, we would also have the great opportunity to decide what we wanted to do with our assets. Provided God or the bishop left that up to us, we would have a few million dollars’ worth of real estate, cash and furnishings to disperse back into the local community and the Christian community.

How would we decide what to do with the money? We wouldn’t have time to fight about it. We’d have to focus fast and get our priorities straight. What would we support and what would we want our final legacy to be? We could help start a new ministry where none currently exists. Or we could support an existing one, endow scholarships, build a youth center in town or provide a better shelter for the homeless. We could do so much—if we had only a month left! We could be great stewards of our resources—if we only had a month to live.

The question is, why is it so hard for our congregations to consider this kind of stewardship if we have another hundred years to live? The Bible’s teaching about the end times reminds us that we have failed to see history from God’s perspective. There is a bigger picture than just the snapshot of our lives. We don’t live in the moment; we live in all of history.

Yes, there’s an impracticality to living as if it were the end when it’s not. If I knew my life would really be over in a month, I probably would jump on a plane and visit some places I’ve longed to see. But if I’ve got much more than a month, I have bills to pay and obligations to tend. Living as if it’s the end would be irresponsible. But does our best stewardship have to exist only in our imaginings of “what ifs”?

Jesus calls us to do both: to live with the intensity of last days while living our regular lives. He reminds us that we are not ultimately invested in this world, and he liberates us to work with courage and  with hope. End times call for tall towers of hope. They call for a lightning-speed reordering of priorities. End times call for alertness, sharpness. They tingle with expectation. They are times of uncertainty and fear only for those whose faith is thin.

While the end of the world could be millennia away for all we know, and while we expect our congregations to continue their ministries well into this new century, end times are around us. Church historians and culture-watchers tell us that we’re on the edge of an end time for the church’s traditional role in society. But this doesn’t mean things are over. As Jesus said, you will hear of wars and earthquakes and famines, but it doesn’t mean the end is near. You will hear of the comings and goings of institutions and cultures, but it doesn’t mean the end is near. It may only be, Jesus says, the beginning of what God has planned. End times are powerful times pregnant with purpose for those with ears to hear and eyes to see the advent of our God. Take heart.

Psalm 24

1The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
2for he has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
3Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
5They will receive blessing from the LORD,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
6Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

My study of the scriptures for this All Saints Sunday led me down a wonderfully informative rabbit hole. I started with the simple question, “When and why did the festival of All Saints begin?” This is an old church festival on November 1 each year to remember all the baptized, living and dead. 

Originally, it was a time for the Christian community to remember those who had been martyred for the faith. Their sacrifice and their witness continued to feed the persistence and encouragement of the faithful who followed. “Remembering” is the key verb. It’s used often in scripture with the call to remember who you are and whose you are. Remembering our history as God’s people is critical to our present and future. Most Protestant churches now use All Saints Day (or the Sunday following November 1) to remember more local saints. The worshipers in my congregation are all invited to bring pictures of those they have loved and lost, and to place those photos on a table by the Paschal Candle next to the baptismal font. We will speak the names of our fellow church members who died in our congregation over the past year. For most of us, all saints are local.

In these two millennia of the church, even speaking the names of all those who have died for the faith from the first century to the twenty-first century would be impossible. Even naming all the local saints from a congregation’s many years of ministry would be difficult. So, we stay small for very practical reasons. But remembering is important because the long years of Christian witness are rich, and so very many of the saints before us have incredible stories that still provide undiminished power and encouragement for our present ministry. 

And that’s when I found Alcuin at the bottom of my All Saints rabbit hole.

When I started my study by Googling “the history of All Saints,” he received the credit for establishing it. Who is this 8th century guy? I’d never heard of him. But apparently many others have! For example, there is in Muncie, IN the Alciun Study Center. [His name is pronounced ˈælkwɪn.] Here is how that Center describes him:

Alcuin of York (735ish-804) is a giant on whose shoulders all of Western education stands, whether we realize it or not. He was a teacher of teachers as well as a curator and cultivator of culture. He developed the use of lower case letters and the alphabet essentially as we know it today. He revived and standardized the classical liberal arts that have been a conduit of learning for higher education for more than 1200 years. He spoke truth to power, insisting that rulers must be men of character, wisdom, and mercy. He taught and encouraged women students at a time when women were not supposed to be educated. He corrected Jerome’s Latin Bible (the Vulgate) to give the people a reliable copy of God’s word. He wrote poetry, produced books, built libraries, and invented the question mark. And we know from his letters to his friends—who were many and faithful—that he had a fantastic sense of humor.

Alcuin wanted nothing more than to cultivate the moral imagination in each of his fellow human beings and equip them to flourish.

And it seems, this remarkable educator and theologian in Charlemagne’s court, also developed the festival of All Saints in the year 800 on November 1. Further down the rabbit hole there is some informative stuff about why November 1 was an intentional calendar selection. I’ll leave that to your investigative interests!

Psalm 24 sings of the faithful people who are the generation of those who seek the Lord. I’m glad to remember this All Saints my mom and dad, my brothers-in-law, my uncle and my sister-in-law. They were great people and a blessing to our family. But I’d also encourage all of us, and especially preachers this Sunday, to learn at least one story of a saint barely remembered. Their stories are powerful. It will be a continued reminder that we are indeed surrounded, as the book of Hebrews says, by a great cloud of witnesses. They endure through their stories that remain so impactful unto this generation of living saints. Speak their names.

But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”

Does anyone else remember the famous movie from 1987, The Princess Bride? I may have only been one year old when this movie came out, but it is so good that it has stood the test of time. If you haven’t seen the movie, I’m sure you have at least heard some of the famous one liners that came from the film. Ones like, “As you wish.” or “Inconceivable!” or  “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die.” While these are all nostalgia inducing it is another quote from the character Inigo Montoya that came to mind when reading this week’s gospel lesson. “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” 

When the brothers, James and John approach Jesus with their grand plan of becoming his right and left hand men in glory their hearts are in the right place, but they don’t grasp the true definition of Jesus’ mission and ministry. It is hard to blame James and John for this misstep. They are following Jesus and hearing constantly about the glory of God coming down from heaven and that those who give up their lives to follow Jesus will be the first to receive this glory and honor, etc. They must be thinking, “Hey! That’s us! We’re doing that!” Their human nature takes over and they want to elevate themselves even more by asking Jesus to place them in seats of honor. In response Jesus asks them if they can do what he is doing and will do, can they drink from his cup (give up his life) or be baptized in the way he is baptized (be the beloved and chosen son of God). They answer yes, which immediately demonstrates that the glory of God does not mean what they think it means. 

To follow Jesus means to sacrifice things we may want for the greater good. While James and John certainly sacrificed many things they had not yet learned to let go of the need for recognition and praise. We all need to hear, “good job!” from time to time, but when the desire for recognition outweighs the importance of the work, then we have lost our way. We must be reminded, just as the disciples were, that there is only one Jesus, only he can carry out the mission assigned to him from God. While our mission may be similar, we are not Jesus and never will be. But that is ok because we aren’t called to do what only Jesus could! What Jesus did through his death and resurrection cannot be duplicated by any of us, but the actions that we can mirror are the ways in which Jesus loved and cared for those around him, to be a servant to all without the desire for glory and recognition. 

Pastor Elise Anderson will be your guest contributor for this week and next as Pastor Mary is away on vacation! Pr. Elise is Mary’s daughter and always a willing substitute for her mom when needed. She is also the co-host on their podcast, You’re On Mute, and currently serves as the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Abingdon, VA. 

Genesis 2

18The Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” 

Mark 10

2Some Pharisees came, and to test [Jesus] they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

If you participate in a church that follows the lectionary discipline of scripture readings, trust me, your preacher is sweating out the sermon for this Sunday. For a lot of us, it’s our least favorite set of scripture readings that the church insists we address. I’m speaking of Jesus’ teaching about divorce and the interpretations of Mark 10 that say it’s sinful, wrong, and shameful. Considering that many pastors are divorced, as are their people in the pews, it can be immensely challenging to speak the truth with compassionate understanding.

While I advertise these weekly Bible studies as “Super Quick” it’s sometimes a tough task with texts that require some knowledge of the ancient languages, an understanding of Jewish law and 1st century culture, and some recognition of the many layers of interpretation through the centuries that are piled on top of these scriptures. What can happen, is that a preacher might create a sermon based on a 50-year-old interpretation of this text by a beloved Bible scholar or just going with the flow of their church’s doctrine rather than revisiting the scripture anew with fresh eyes and ears. The question is, “How can we best understand both the ancient Word and our current context with integrity?”

So, here are some things that might help with these scriptures in Mark and Genesis. In addition, I’ll give you an example of how some interpreters of our day are using them to speak to very current issues.

“Origin stories” seem very popular today, especially in books and movies. It’s not enough to know the characters in a favorite movie, now we want to hear stories of how they came to be so compassionate or so evil or so traumatized. For Jews and Christians, we find our human origin story in Genesis 1 and 2. We hear in these cherished accounts that we were made in God’s image as in the poetry of Genesis 1, along with Genesis 2 where we hear a narrative of our first birth. Adam and Eve are created in these verses and so is their relationship with God. Most of us are more familiar with Christian interpretations of these stories than we are with the origin story itself. Especially for congregational teachers and preachers, I recommend Walter Brueggemann’s, Genesis, in the Interpretation series. Here are some tidbits from Genesis 2 that are important when reading Jesus’ words on divorce in Mark 10 because it is this origin story to which Jesus asks us to ponder anew when answering the question, “Is divorce permissible?”

I’m realizing this isn’t going to be “Super Quick,” but it’s a big issue for we who are often impacted by the breakup of families.

The Christian history of interpretation of Genesis 2 and 3 is that these chapters are the origin stories for sin, death, and sex. The Jewish community has not seen these scriptures as such nor do contemporary academic scholars. The rest of the Bible focuses on these stories only minimally. If they are the origin of anything, it’s to speak about God’s purpose in creation and about creation’s relationship to God and each other. 

One thing to understand is that while it has been interpreted for so long that Eve was created to be some sort of assistant or acolyte to the dominate Adam, the texts don’t support this. In English, it is written that Eve was to be a “helper” to Adam and in that English word we hear subordination. But the Hebrew uses that word “helper” often as a reference to God. Consider Psalm 121: From where is my help to come, my help comes from the Lord. In this creation story, God will not be man’s help, another creature must be formed. They are onein the covenant with God and each other to be stewards of creation. The Garden is a place of solidarity, trust, and well-being. That was God’s original purpose. Sadly, history is littered with the fragments of that purpose.

Now to Jesus. Just like we observe in interviews and debates among political candidates, there is always the “gotcha” question where it’s hoped the candidate will stumble or reveal some before unknown truth about themselves. Jesus had the same experience with the Pharisees in his day. It was just a part of debating and interpretating scripture in 1st century Palestine. Rabbis did this all the time. Here the gotcha question is about divorce. The Law of Moses did allow a manto divorce his woman. Jesus says it’s because of humanity’s sinfulness and inability to keep covenant that it’s allowed. Kind of a practical issue. But Jesus says, let’s go back to the beginning of God’s purpose for us. He quotes Genesis 2. People are created to be in solidarity and trust with one another. That’s God’s intent. The reality is, our sin keeps us from making good decisions and often prevents us from maintaining right relationships. In Jesus’ day, women had less agency than men in marriage and in most things. If a man divorced his wife, she was disproportionately hurt. The children were also hurt. Caring for the most vulnerable is a high value for Jesus. He argues that God’s creational desire is for deep integrity in all our relationships. It’s not that divorce is simply permitted or not permitted. It is a failure to live out the deep relationships God intends for us. As in all things, when we fail and fall, God is our help in lifting us up, helping us learn and live better than before.

Lastly, I heard last year a presentation by New Testament professor Amy-Jill Levine, who is also Jewish, speak briefly about scriptural understandings of same-sex relationships. Much to my surprise, she used these two texts of Mark 10 and Genesis 2 to make her point. Jesus, in speaking about right relationships and God’s desire for us, referred to the creation story of human beings. She noted that God was keenly aware that it wasn’t good for that singular “earth creature” (the literal translation of the word adam) to be alone. God was its creator but would not or could not be its significant other. So, God created a second human to accompany. While we have often seen this creation of Eve as the way to be fruitful and multiply, there’s much more to human relationships than reproduction, as necessary as that is for existence. Dr. Levine commented, “If God didn’t want the first human to go through life all alone, why would the creator want any human to go through life without a partner to love and be a helpmate in all things?” Food for thought. Oh, and she also said, “If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!”

Thanks for joining me in this deep end of the biblical pool today!

James 3

13Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. 15Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. 17But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

Depending on your level of Bible geekiness or devotion, you might not be familiar with the letter of James in the New Testament. Tradition has it that this author, “James,” is not one of the disciples of Jesus, but is Jesus’ biological brother. Interestingly, we don’t hear much about him in the four gospels but do in the Book of Acts. He appears in Acts as the spokesperson for the church in Jerusalem as some significant matters required deep discernment for the young church. Tradition also holds that this James died around the year 62. So, if he is the author of this letter to Jewish Christians dispersed around the Middle East, he probably wrote it in the 40s or 50s. And if so, that makes it one of the earliest writings in the New Testament.

Letters by their nature have a mysterious side. They are one-sided conversations. It isn’t always clear what the author is responding to. With these ancient writings I always wonder what was going on, what had the authorwitnessed that made the writer so passionate or discouraged or sad. The very early church had its conflicts and struggles. To these James is no stranger.

James writes with both passion and frustration. Yetoverall, he maintains a call for patient perseverance during all the trials the young Christian community was facing. He encourages his readers to live consistently with what they had learned from Jesus. Given that he condemns certain practices and attitudes, he must have been a witness to behavior he found disturbing. He writes against pride, hypocrisy, favoritism, and slander. He encourages prayer. Just logically, we can assume those anti-Jesus actions were too widespread for James’ moral center to abide. He uses his position of pastoral leadership to call it out and occasionally raps the knuckles of his parishioners with a wooden spoon.

In this scriptural snapshot from James 3, we hear his call to wisdom. He tells us what being wise in God looks like. It’s not about being intelligent or educated. It’s about putting aside the things that make us spiritually and relationally stupid. Things like envy, narcissism, hypocrisy and showing partiality. James says things like this cause “disorder and wickedness of every kind.” Given the level of political and social chaos these days, we probably need James to enter in with his wooden spoon at the ready.  

This week, I met with the 2nd grader I’ll be tutoring in reading this entire school year. He does need some extra help with reading and with writing the letter “S”, but he seems like an amazing eight-year-old in many other ways. His first name is Sincere. His teacher had each student introduce themselves on a sheet outside her door with their picture and their responses to several questions. Sincere said his favorite food was tacos, that he walked to school, that his birthday was in June. He also said that his superpower is, “I am kind,” and that his favorite book is “The Bible.” Yes, his handwriting needs some work and so does his reading ability. But to recognize kindness as your superpower at such a young age, well, that’s some true Jesus wisdom there.

Be Sincere.

 Choose this day whom you will serve… as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. 

Joshua 24

Jesus: Do you also wish to go away?

John 6

Many Baby Boomers might have these words from the Book of Joshua cross-stitched and framed on their wall. Many Millennials might have it hung as a piece of word wall art. So, you may have heard of it. 

The Book of Joshua is the story of the Israelites’ entry into Canaan (the Promised Land) after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Led by Joshua, the successor to Moses, the Israelites conquer the Canaanites, the native inhabitants of this land and then redistribute the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. The book contains stories of events leading up to the conquest of Canaan, the collective war effort of the Israelites and of their military victory over Canaanite states. The book ends with a covenant renewal ceremony, in which both Joshua and the Israelites declare, “We will serve the Lord.” 

The Israelites didn’t have a consistent history when it came to following God’s ways. As they stand with their toes on the threshold to the Promised Land, Joshua gives them a chance to “get right” with God, to recommit themselves to follow God’s law and live in God’s ways. It was decision time.  They all gave a roar of “Yay God!” and they probably meant it. As their history unfolded, God often caught them backsliding. We all do this.

That’s because making a covenant is a moment in time. Maintaining a covenant is the work of a lifetime. Think about a marriage covenant and the work involved in keeping it strong and true. Every day is Decision Day when it comes to the covenants we have made to one another, to the church and to God. 

The question Jesus asks, “Do you also wish to go away?” was directed directly at his disciples. It comes at the end of the Bread of Life part of John’s gospel (all of John 6). Why would Jesus ask them if they wanted to go away? Hadn’t they already said, “Yay Jesus!” when they agreed to follow him in the first place? Sure, they did. But a lot has happened since then. They’ve witnessed amazing things and heard some very difficult teachings. The recent difficult teaching was hearing Jesus speak of himself as the Bread from heaven, and even more dramatically describing himself as the flesh and blood for them to consume. Many who heard Jesus say that were physically grossed out and theologically offended. So, they walked away. Hence the reason Jesus asks the disciples, are you leaving, too? Now, to be clear, Jesus is not inviting cannibalism but is using the metaphor of eating and drinking as the way to take him and his teaching into their very bodies, their cells, their DNA. 

Nevertheless, people didn’t get the metaphor immediately and looked for wisdom elsewhere. As Jesus watched these people who had a few days earlier believed he was a rock star, head toward the horizon; he invited the disciples to recommit to their call to follow.

In the covenant of faith, every day is decision day. The reason is, life disappoints, our plans go sideways, our hope can feel shaky, and we can be led into evil’s greatest temptations: concluding that we can count on only ourselves, concluding that scripture and faith stories are fairytales, concluding that violence gives the outcomes we need, or concluding that scarcity is greater than abundance.  

Every day is your decision day. Choose this day (again) what will guide your life and your choices – love or hate, hope or despair, joy or sorrow, optimism or pessimism. Go with God, go with the good!

 Psalm 145

You, Lord, are faithful in all your words, and loving in all your works.
 14 The Lord upholds all those who fall
  and lifts up those who are bowed down.
 15 The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord,
 and you give them their food in due season.
 16 You open wide your hand
  and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
 17 You are righteous in all your ways
 and loving in all your works.
 18 You are near to all who call upon you,
  to all who call upon you faithfully.

Many of us mainline Protestant folk will take a deep scriptural dive over the next five weeks, beginning this Sunday. We’ll hear the story of the feeding of the five thousand, one of the most iconic stories of God’s extravagant abundance. From there we’ll trace the teaching of Jesus to the transition from giving bread to saying he is the Bread of Life. We watch Jesus’ followers transition from those who stay with him looking for healing or a next meal to many going away from him because he is speaking of his body as abundant bread. Not what they signed up for, I guess.

While Jesus teaches and displays the abundance of the creator God, he did not invent it. From the creation story with its abundant diversity of life everywhere, scripture is heavy with abundance throughout. We need to hear this because as a people, we tend to be abundance-deniers. We are often tempted to believe scarcity is everywhere, and that we all need to fight hard to have enough money, food, housing, job opportunities, you name it.

Scripturally, the promise and the confidence of God’s abundance is everywhere. The psalm for this Sunday is 145. This psalm is interestingly a favorite in the Jewish Prayer Book. Many Christians, or at least many pastors I know, use a verse from this psalm as a regular opening in their personal and public blessings at meals:

The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord,
 and you give them their food in due season.

Sound familiar?

At its heart, this psalm proclaims that our almighty God is also our all-providing God. God’s on-going care is for everyone. As a for instance, the psalmist names “all who are falling, who are bowed down”; “all who look to God” (I imagine who look with pleading eyes); “every living being”; and “all who call on God”. What this providing does is provide abundance.

The question is: If the world is full of abundance, why do we see these horrible pockets of scarcity? Scripture says it’s not a holy problem, it’s a political problem. Politics has become a dirty word these days, but in its purest definition, it’s a beautiful thing. One researcher described it this way, as have many others similarly:

Politics is defined as the processes through which competition among individuals and groups, pursuing their own interests, are used to exercise power and influence to allocate certain values and interests. It is the determination of who gets what, when, and how in a given social system.

For those who are bi-lingual in secular and religious languages, Christians would translate the above as politics being the stewardship of a community’s resources to benefit all. 

World hunger experts, for example, have told us for decades that there is plenty of food in the world for all the people of the world. We have starving people not because food is scarce but because the justice is scarce. Governments sometimes hoard food or turn away ships laden with food for their hungry people because they want to maintain control of their citizens. Yes, that’s when politics becomes an ugly word, when government is a poor steward of its resources.

So, abundance is all around us. We have but to share it. Stewardship conquers scarcity. Thanks for everything, God. 

1 Kings 19

4[Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness andcame and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Recently, a major survey revealed that some 38 percent of respondents aged 12 to 26 had received a formal diagnosis of anxiety or depression. Even among those who did not receive a diagnosis, about half say they often feel anxious; a quarter say they often feel depressed. We keep hearing this story.

Too many people, young and older, lack a sense of meaning; they don’t feel they know the “why” of their lives. And it seems they aren’t searching for that “why” and the rest of us aren’t encouraging them in that search. A serious question they struggle to answer is, “Why does it matter that I’m alive?”

Elijah (famous prophet in Israel in the 9th century B.C.E.) had just won a gold medal in the sport of being God’s voice speaking truth to power. In a contest called “Who Has the Coolest God”, Elijah beat out the hundreds of prophets of the god Ba’al on Yahweh’s behalf. Well done, good and faithful servant! The queen, Jezebel, was furious at the defeat of her god and at the death of her prophets. She promised Elijah he would get his. Rightly afraid, he runs away into the desert. Those who know their scripture are aware that God seems to hang out in the wilderness more than anywhere else. So, it seems Elijah runs away from his enemies and straight into the arms of God. Yet, he hardly feels comforted.

He's exhausted from all his prophet duties and is now in a place devoid of food and water. He does find a broom tree under which to rest and like a weary cancer patient in a hospice bed, asks God to take his life. It’s no fake challenge. He means it. He falls asleep with no intention of waking up in this world again.

God, the abundant provider, has no intention of letting this episode of depression get the best of such a strong prophet. So, God provides in the way of a tender nurse at the bedside of despair. God feeds him then lets him rest some more. God shakes him awake again and says eat some more or you won’t have strength for the next assignment. Better now, he got up, ate and was able to travel for forty days.

As hearers of this story, we aren’t sure why Elijah is so suddenly depressed. He’s not simply tired, that would be understandable. Like most of our friends and family with depression and anxiety, the cause isn’t always discernable or rational. We can’t pinpoint a reasonable reason. I appreciate the fact that scripture acknowledges this mystery among us. Tellingly, God comes to him but neither condemns nor coddles him.

God provides, strengthens, and allows him to rest and recover. We often want a clear reason for all our ailments so we can prescribe the proper cure. This tender story of God providing for a man during an anxious suicidal episode helps support our own care for those who struggle occasionally or chronically with anxiety and depression.

It's never an easy journey for the afflicted one or the caregiver. In all these struggles God miraculously provides. If you are feeling like Elijah now, I wish you recovery and peace. God abides in the darkness and in the light.

Lamentations 3

[God] has sated me with wormwood.
 16He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
 and made me cower in ashes;
 17my soul is bereft of peace;
 I have forgotten what happiness is;
 18so I say, "Gone is my glory,
 and all that I had hoped for from the LORD."
 19The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
 is wormwood and gall!
 20My soul continually thinks of it
 and is bowed down within me.
 21But this I call to mind,
 and therefore I have hope:
 22The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
 his mercies never come to an end;
 23they are new every morning;
 great is your faithfulness.

Scripturally speaking, June has not been the happiest of months. Last Sunday we read from the ending of the Book of Job, God’s coda following 37 chapters of lament and questioning about why bad things happen to good people. This Sunday, we will read a part of the Book of Lamentations. As you can tell from its title; this isn’t scripture at its sunniest. This is a vital piece of Old Testament literature because it’s such a powerful source of information about the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 BCE. This was their September 11th. Though the people tell how terrible their suffering was, they also acknowledge that God’s judgment was just, given their disobedience.
Reading the scripture above, you can see how this poem of lament and despair sounds in verses 16-20. But suddenly in verse 21, joy comes with the morning as in the very  next breath, confidence in God’s steadfastness is sung loud and clear.

Scripture doesn’t shy away from sorrow, disappointment, or questions about God’s actions or absence. Lament isn’t considered a sign of faithlessness. It doesn’t mean you’re an atheist at heart.

In 2006, my denomination published a new hymnal. Our hymns are not grouped alphabetically but by seasons and topics. There’s a section for all the Christmas hymns and a section for hymns of prayer. This new resource was in the works when the attacks of September 11th happened here in the U.S. Out of those ashes, we engaged in a season of lament just as the Israelites of old did. We realized we didn’t have enough hymns for this season of our lives. So, for the first time, our hymnbook included a section called “Lament.” It’s a tiny section between the hymns of “Stewardship” and hymns of “Justice and Peace.” Only the first of these hymns would be considered familiar – Just a Closer Walk with Thee. A few of them were composed in the 1990s and several were written just two or three years following 9/11. Songs to weep by were needed. The “How long, O Lord?” questions required a singing voice.

While these songs might be new for us, songs of lament are not. The writers of Lamentations, of Habakkuk and certainly many of the psalms respond to personal and political disasters with wailing to the Lord. They ask questions about why, how long, and when. Lament isn’t shy before God. It doesn’t fear being struck down by the Almighty. Lament will accuse God of being asleep at the wheel and being an unfit driver of the universe.

But songs of lament nearly always conclude with words of hope and love. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end” (Lam. 3:22). How can these ancient voices turn on a dime from despair to hope? Because they were lamenting in good faith all along. It’s faith that can lament, not unbelief. Because we believe God is good and steadfast, we recognize all the 9/11s as being out of place in God’s creation. They don’t belong here; they should not happen. We call on God to straighten things out, to heal the wounds, to be in charge because we are positively convinced God can and will.

Miracles sometimes happen among us and sometimes tragedies do. But faith doesn’t require a miracle to hold firm. Faith isn’t destroyed by tragedy. That’s its superpower, not its stupidity.

Mark 4

With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs…”

Ezekiel 17

I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out…and it will become a noble cedar.

The scriptures from Ezekiel 17 and Mark 4 offer parables that speak of God’s power. Parables are like stories, poetry, or jokes all rolled into one. Their meaning is sometimes found in the structure of stories like The Good Samaritan. Sometimes parables are more poetry such as the beautiful parable of the cedar tree in Ezekiel where a tender sprig of cedar is planted by God and grows into a noble tree. The cedar’s growth poetically represents God’s promise to restore Israel after exile. Other times parables are structured like jokes meant to elicit a laugh because it sounds ridiculous. While our Jewish sisters and brothers practice arguing with God and laughing with God, Christians tend to read scripture with an unnecessary solemnness considered to be proper reverence. That can often cause us to miss the parable purpose.

The listeners gathered around Jesus would have known well the cedar tree parable in Ezekiel. A vulnerable tender sprig can grow into a mighty cedar because with God tiny things have wondrous power. The folks there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee might have expected Jesus to tell such a little-to-big kind of parable. Jesus is more a quotidian parabler. He points to the common itty bitty mustard seed.

This little seed grows into something much bigger as seeds always do, but not a mighty oak or a noble cedar. Of course, it grows into a regular old everyday mustard plant. That’s the joke and the people around probably chuckled. It was like Jesus doing stand-up and saying, “And out of this tiny seed God can make … the greatest of all  peanuts!”

Parables like this don’t clarify, but they do surprise us. The Kingdom of God shakes our assumptions and expectations. Being the biggest, the most powerful, the most obvious, isn’t always the way of the Kingdom of God. Jesus was born in poverty and became a refugee as a baby. Unexpected. Rabbi Jesus was homeless and frequently in religious and political trouble. Also unexpected. At the last the Messiah of God was put on trial, tortured and executed like so many mustard-seedy criminals. Totally unexpected for the King of Kings. 

In God’s kingdom the rich are brought low and the lowly raised up. Tiny things have wondrous power and the powerful are toppled from their thrones. The dead are made alive, and nothing is what any of us would expect. In many and various ways, this is the message of parables, be they stories, poems or jokes. The Word is true. Parables don’t have a meaning. They have an impact.