Year A
Genesis 12:1-9
Psalm 33:1-12
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raise your hand if you consider yourself to be a risk taker\u2026 no wait\u2026 stop\u2026 don’t just\u2026 yet\u2026 maybe it would help to define the kinds of risks I’m talking about\u2026 what about speeding up instead of slowing down when you see the traffic light turn yellow\u2026 what about rolling through a stop sign when no one else is around\u2026 what about going five\u2026 no ten\u2026 oh let’s make it fifteen miles an hour over the speed limit\u2026 those are all risks\u2026 because you might get stopped\u2026 or ticketed\u2026 or fined\u2026 or you may cause an accident and injure innocent people\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But now\u2026 what about if you overhear someone telling a derogatory racist\u2026 or homophobic\u2026 or ethnic joke\u2026 and you call out that behavior\u2026 or what if you see someone being bullied\u2026 or beaten\u2026 or robbed\u2026 and you intervene\u2026 those are all risks too\u2026 that you’ll be ignored\u2026 or told to mind your own business\u2026 or pulled in to what’s going on in an unfavorable way\u2026 or hurt and robbed yourself\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now\u2026 what if you discover something more heinous\u2026 like some kind of abuse\u2026 or widespread and ongoing environmental pollution\u2026 or corporate espionage\u2026 and you point fingers\u2026 or blow whistles\u2026 or publish some irrefutable evidence\u2026 these are all risks too\u2026 with other kinds of life-changing consequences\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking risks\u2026 can be risky business\u2026 taking risks can leave us disappointed\u2026 or penniless\u2026 or heartbroken\u2026 taking risks can leave us worse off\u2026 or no better off\u2026 but taking risks can leave us much better off by opening us up to new opportunities\u2026 to new life\u2026 and to being healed\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abram took some real risks\u2026 he was seventy-five years old when God promised to make of him a great nation\u2026 and he left his country\u2026 and his kindred\u2026 and his father’s house\u2026 God promised him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky\u2026 but Abram lamented that his heir would be El-iezer of Damascus\u2026 a slave born in his own house\u2026 and God said Nope<\/em>\u2026 but Sarai did not conceive\u2026 and God said Just wait<\/em>\u2026 in the mean time\u2026 Sarai encouraged Abram to conceive with her Egyptian slave Hagar\u2026 and Ishmael was born\u2026 and then… when as Romans says that Abraham was just about dead\u2026 at one-hundred\u2026 and Sarah was ninety\u2026 God appeared by the oaks of Mamre as three men\u2026 and promised that in due season\u2026 Sarah would have a son and name him Isaac\u2026 which means one who laughs<\/em>\u2026 as Sarah laughed when she overheard God tell Abraham that she would bear their son\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Matthew the tax collector took some really big risks\u2026 and likely put his life\u2026 or at least his safety\u2026 on the line\u2026 John Shea writes that from the point of view of the scribes and Pharisees\u2026 he’s a collaborator with the Romans\u2026 and most probably\u2026 an extortioner\u2026 his profession and his behavior put him outside the Law\u2026 and therefore outside those who obey the Law\u2026 righteousness demands that he be ostracized\u2026 but the one who said to his disciples that their righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20) makes contact\u2026 Jesus seeks out the one whom others avoid\u2026 and that in itself can be risky\u2026 like befriending that kid in the schoolyard who’s being bullied\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today’s Gospel passage doesn’t name the leader of the synagogue\u2026 but it’s Jairus… we know that from Mark and Luke’s account of this story\u2026 and what’s fascinating\u2026 is that Jairus is someone who took great risk by coming to Jesus\u2026 because as a leader\u2026 guilt by association would sully his reputation\u2026 but he comes out of love for his daughter\u2026 who has died\u2026 he was as certain as he could be\u2026 that this God.man\u2026 this God who spoke creation into being and gave life\u2026 could lay hands on and give life to his daughter again\u2026 and how could his reputation have mattered anymore\u2026 when he had nothing left to lose\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hemorrhaging woman was a real risk-taker too\u2026 ritually impure\u2026 disallowed from being in public\u2026 especially crowded places\u2026 running the risk of tainting others\u2026 and certainly prohibited from touching a man\u2026 but she had faith\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now as a Temple leader\u2026 Jairus’ faith was an educated and well developed faith\u2026 and while I have tended to think of this woman’s faith as being deep\u2026 it may have been little less than a mustard seed\u2026 but what seems clear\u2026 is that in the moment\u2026 the risks these two are taking\u2026 rise up out of the faith of desperation\u2026 when the status quo<\/em> no longer matters\u2026 when positions of power fall short\u2026 and where the purity code does nothing more than get in the way of relationship\u2026 sometimes… something must die\u2026 to make room for a new kind of faith which is unencumbered by convention\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n These stories are all about taking risks\u2026 when Abram followed God’s call\u2026 he risked leaving the familiarity of not only his home but his homeland\u2026 in favor of a complete unknown\u2026 when Matthew got up\u2026 and left his tax booth\u2026 and followed Jesus\u2026 he left his position and status behind\u2026 and at the least risked the ire of his fellow Jews\u2026 when the leader of the synagogue sought out Jesus\u2026 because of what he had heard about him\u2026 he risked his standing in the Temple elite\u2026 and when the hemorrhaging woman came up behind Jesus and touched just the fringe of his cloak\u2026 she risked public humiliation and more in order to be healed of the culturally imposed shame she’d carried for twelve years\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when I remember that God emptied God’s self into Jesus’ physiology\u2026 without regarding equality with God as something to be exploited (Philippians 2:6)\u2026 but that Jesus humbled and opened himself to rejection and condemnation\u2026 even to the point of death\u2026 in order that death itself might die\u2026 I think that Jesus has taken the biggest risk\u2026 and not for himself\u2026 but for us\u2026 it seems to make all the risks we take\u2026 no less real\u2026 but perhaps seen in a more balanced perspective\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The world seems to be getting crazier each day\u2026 unprecedented wildfires in Canada spilling so much smoke that earlier this week NYC was the most polluted place on Earth\u2026 the unprecedented indictment of a former President on federal charges\u2026 the ongoing war is Ukraine\u2026 a rise in mass shootings\u2026 and an unprecedented number of hate crimes against members of minority groups\u2026 and it may have seemed just as crazy two thousand years ago\u2026 for Jesus and the disciples to eat with tax collectors and sundry other sinners\u2026 and so when the Pharisees asked about it\u2026 Jesus overheard them\u2026 and explained\u2026 Those who are well have no need of a physician\u2026 it’s those who are sick who have such a need<\/em>\u2026 one way of understanding this\u2026 is to say\u2026 that those who follow God’s timeless Laws\u2026 Laws which are based in justice and righteousness… and which protect and benefit all people regardless of the categories listed in our welcoming statement\u2026 in God’s eyes\u2026 those people are well\u2026 but those who follow laws which were written to benefit only one class\u2026 one category\u2026 one group of people\u2026 all too often at the expense and detriment of others\u2026 it’s those people for whom Jesus came\u2026 and it even feels risky framing Jesus’ words in this way\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protestants tend to talk about God\u2026 Pentecostals tend to talk about the Holy Spirit\u2026 and Evangelicals tend to talk about Jesus\u2026 and I wonder if the world needs more Jesus\u2026 but not in a way that our progressive Christianity would reject\u2026 but in a way that could enable all of us to take a risk\u2026 and give up anything\u2026 like myopic theologies and antiquated laws\u2026 which get in the way of healing our relationships\u2026 so we can love\u2026 and treat… our neighbors as ourselves\u2026 and end some of the craziness\u2026 and embrace the new life that God offers us over and over again\u2026 new life that God gives us in Jesus\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some people who think the world needs saving because we’ve become far too welcoming and inclusive\u2026 and some people who think the world needs saving because we haven’t become welcoming and inclusive enough\u2026 Jesus seems to lean towards the latter\u2026 and it makes me wonder what we’d be willing to risk\u2026 and leave behind\u2026 to have the new lives and life\u2026 described in today’s readings\u2026 I wonder\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Genesis 12:1-9 Psalm 33:1-12 Romans 4:13-25 Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Raise your hand if you consider yourself to be a risk taker\u2026 no wait\u2026 stop\u2026 don’t just\u2026 yet\u2026 maybe it would help to define the kinds of risks I’m talking about\u2026 what about speeding up instead of slowing down when you see the traffic light turn yellow\u2026 what about rolling through a stop sign when no one else is around\u2026 what about going five\u2026 no ten\u2026 oh let’s make it fifteen miles an hour over the speed limit\u2026 those are all risks\u2026 because you might get stopped\u2026 or ticketed\u2026 or fined\u2026 or you may cause an accident and injure innocent people\u2026 But now\u2026 what about if you overhear someone telling a derogatory racist\u2026 or homophobic\u2026 or ethnic joke\u2026 and you call out that behavior\u2026 or what if you see someone being bullied\u2026 or beaten\u2026 or robbed\u2026 and you intervene\u2026 those are all risks too\u2026 that you’ll be ignored\u2026 or told to mind your own business\u2026 or pulled in to what’s going on in an unfavorable way\u2026 or hurt and robbed yourself\u2026 And now\u2026 what if you discover something more heinous\u2026 like some kind of abuse\u2026 or widespread and ongoing environmental pollution\u2026 or corporate espionage\u2026 and you point fingers\u2026 or blow whistles\u2026 or publish some irrefutable evidence\u2026 these are all risks too\u2026 with other kinds of life-changing consequences\u2026 Taking risks\u2026 can be risky business\u2026 taking risks can leave us disappointed\u2026 or penniless\u2026 or heartbroken\u2026 taking risks can leave us worse off\u2026 or no better off\u2026 but taking risks can leave us much better off by opening us up to new opportunities\u2026 to new life\u2026 and to being healed\u2026 Abram took some real risks\u2026 he was seventy-five years old when God promised to make of him a great nation\u2026 and he left his country\u2026 and his kindred\u2026 and his father’s house\u2026 God promised him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky\u2026 but Abram lamented that his heir would be El-iezer of Damascus\u2026 a slave born in his own house\u2026 and God said Nope\u2026 but Sarai did not conceive\u2026 and God said Just wait\u2026 in the mean time\u2026 Sarai encouraged Abram to conceive with her Egyptian slave Hagar\u2026 and Ishmael was born\u2026 and then… when as Romans says that Abraham was just about dead\u2026 at one-hundred\u2026 and Sarah was ninety\u2026 God appeared by the oaks of Mamre as three men\u2026 and promised that in due season\u2026 Sarah would have a son and name him Isaac\u2026 which means one who laughs\u2026 as Sarah laughed when she overheard God tell Abraham that she would bear their son\u2026 Matthew the tax collector took some really big risks\u2026 and likely put his life\u2026 or at least his safety\u2026 on the line\u2026 John Shea writes that from the point of view of the scribes and Pharisees\u2026 he’s a collaborator with the Romans\u2026 and most probably\u2026 an extortioner\u2026 his profession and his behavior put him outside the Law\u2026 and therefore outside those who obey the Law\u2026 righteousness demands that he be ostracized\u2026 but the one who said to his disciples that their righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20) makes contact\u2026 Jesus seeks out the one whom others avoid\u2026 and that in itself can be risky\u2026 like befriending that kid in the schoolyard who’s being bullied\u2026 Today’s Gospel passage doesn’t name the leader of the synagogue\u2026 but it’s Jairus… we know that from Mark and Luke’s account of this story\u2026 and what’s fascinating\u2026 is that Jairus is someone who took great risk by coming to Jesus\u2026 because as a leader\u2026 guilt by association would sully his reputation\u2026 but he comes out of love for his daughter\u2026 who has died\u2026 he was as certain as he could be\u2026 that this God.man\u2026 this God who spoke creation into being and gave life\u2026 could lay hands on and give life to his daughter again\u2026 and how could his reputation have mattered anymore\u2026 when he had nothing left to lose\u2026 The hemorrhaging woman was a real risk-taker too\u2026 ritually impure\u2026 disallowed from being in public\u2026 especially crowded places\u2026 running the risk of tainting others\u2026 and certainly prohibited from touching a man\u2026 but she had faith\u2026 Now as a Temple leader\u2026 Jairus’ faith was an educated and well developed faith\u2026 and while I have tended to think of this woman’s faith as being deep\u2026 it may have been little less than a mustard seed\u2026 but what seems clear\u2026 is that in the moment\u2026 the risks these two are taking\u2026 rise up out of the faith of desperation\u2026 when the status quo no longer matters\u2026 when positions of power fall short\u2026 and where the purity code does nothing more than get in the way of relationship\u2026 sometimes… something must die\u2026 to make room for a new kind of faith which is unencumbered by convention\u2026 These stories are all about taking risks\u2026 when Abram followed God’s call\u2026 he risked leaving the familiarity of not only his home but his homeland\u2026 in favor of a complete unknown\u2026 when Matthew got up\u2026 and left his tax booth\u2026 and followed Jesus\u2026 he left his position and status behind\u2026 and at the least risked the ire of his fellow Jews\u2026 when the leader of the synagogue sought out Jesus\u2026 because of what he had heard about him\u2026 he risked his standing in the Temple elite\u2026 and when the hemorrhaging woman came up behind Jesus and touched just the fringe of his cloak\u2026 she risked public humiliation and more in order to be healed of the culturally imposed shame she’d carried for twelve years\u2026 But when I remember that God emptied God’s self into Jesus’ physiology\u2026 without regarding equality with God as something to be exploited (Philippians 2:6)\u2026 but that Jesus humbled and opened himself to rejection and condemnation\u2026 even to the point of death\u2026 in order that death itself might die\u2026 I think that Jesus has taken the biggest risk\u2026 and 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