Year A
\nIsaiah 50:4-9a
\nPsalm 31:9-16
\nPhilippians 2:5-11
\nMatthew 27:11-54<\/p>\n
Have you ever heard of lucid dreaming\u2026 dreams in which you know you\u2019re asleep\u2026 you may even say out loud to yourself in the dream\u2026 I\u2019m in bed and just dreaming<\/i>\u2026 and to varying degrees\u2026 you can actually control what happens in the dream\u2026 that\u2019s the premise of the 2010 movie Inception<\/span>\u2026 but this movie is about several people dreaming a common dream\u2026 which one of them\u2026 the architect\u2026 has designed\u2026 and everyone has agreed to go along with the storyline\u2026<\/p>\n And what they\u2019ve agreed to do\u2026 is to take part in corporate espionage\u2026 to plant a suggestion in the subconscious mind of a CEO\u2026 but it must be the simplest version of the suggestion\u2026 one that will resonate with him and grow in his mind\u2026 and one that he will act on when he awakens\u2026 but they have to be certain that he thinks the idea is his and his alone\u2026 because if there\u2019s anything that doesn\u2019t feel right\u2026 if he suspects even for a moment\u2026 that it\u2019s what someone else wants\u2026 he just won\u2019t do it and they\u2019ll fail\u2026 so in order to minimize that risk\u2026 they design not only one dream\u2026 but a dream\u2026 within a dream\u2026 within a dream\u2026 but this creates another wrinkle\u2026 because the deeper they go\u2026 the greater the risk that even when they wake up\u2026 they\u2019ll remain convinced that they\u2019re still dreaming\u2026 ironically\u2026 in this pandemic\u2026 we know we\u2019re not dreaming\u2026 but just wish we were\u2026<\/p>\n In a recent article in Time magazine\u2026 Anglican Bp. N.T. Wright wrote\u2026 for many Christians\u2026 the coronavirus-induced limitations\u2026 have arrived at the same time as Lent\u2026 the season of doing without\u2026 but the sharp new regulations make a mockery of our Lenten disciplines\u2026 doing without any of the things we choose to give up\u2026 is child\u2019s play\u2026 compared to not being with friends or family.. or going to the pub\u2026 the library\u2026 or to church<\/i>\u2026<\/p>\n Rationalists want explanations\u2026 they want to know WHY\u2026 but the unfathomable complexity\u2026 of how countless variables have unfolded\u2026 and converged\u2026 and created this pandemic\u2026 makes it almost certain that there will never be one\u2026 universally accepted explanation\u2026 so maybe what we need to do is recover the biblical tradition of lament\u2026 which is what happens when people ask Why?\u2026 and don\u2019t get an answer\u2026 it\u2019s where we go\u2026 when we move beyond the focus on our own sins and failings\u2026 and look more broadly at the suffering of the world\u2026 I mean\u2026 who in Pompeii ever thought the city would be buried in volcanic ash\u2026 and I\u2019m sure the survivors asked WHY?\u2026<\/p>\n In The Lord of the Rings\u2026 Frodo says\u2026 I wish the Ring had never come to me\u2026 I wish none of this had happened<\/i>\u2026 Gandalf replies\u2026 so do all who live to see such times\u2026 but that is not for them to decide\u2026 all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us<\/i>\u2026<\/p>\n And David Brooks\u2026 remembered that Viktor Frankl\u2026 writing from the madness of the Holocaust\u2026 also reminds us that we don\u2019t get to choose our difficulties\u2026 but we do have the freedom to choose our responses\u2026 and the meaning we make\u2026 comes from three things\u2026 (1) the work we offer in times of crisis\u2026 (2) the love we give\u2026 and (3) our ability to display courage in the face of suffering\u2026 because suffering can be redemptive\u2026 the differences between red and blue\u2026 don\u2019t seem as acute on the gurneys of the emergency room\u2026 but the inequality in the world does seem more obscene\u2026 when the difference between rich and poor\u2026 is life or death\u2026<\/p>\n That\u2019s why\u2026 my hope\u2026 and perhaps what may turn out to be a silver lining in all of this\u2026 is that globally\u2026 we\u2019re being invited to repair the systems which keep some in poverty\u2026 and allow others to remain in wretched excess\u2026 we\u2019re being invited to replace our hearts of stone\u2026 with hearts of flesh\u2026 hearts which cry out that maybe it\u2019s more important to eliminate homelessness than it is to build McMansions\u2026 hearts which proclaim that it\u2019s more important to eliminate food insufficiency than it is to build Five Star Michelin restaurants\u2026 hearts which make known that it may be more important to do without some things than it is to pollute the environment\u2026 remember\u2026 there\u2019s a Palm Sunday story\u2026 of Jesus coming into Jerusalem\u2026 and the community began to praise God loudly\u2026 and some of the Pharisees told them to be silent\u2026 and Jesus\u2026 knowing that God\u2019s Truth cannot be suppressed\u2026 said that if they were\u2026 then the very stones would shout out\u2026<\/p>\n Our reading from Isaiah tells how God awakens the prophet each morning\u2026 Ephesians 5:14 exhorts us\u2026 Sleeper, awake!\u2026 over and over in scripture Jesus calls us to be aware and awake\u2026 in Paul\u2019s letter to the Philippians\u2026 he urges them to take on the Mind of Christ\u2026 and as God said in the vision to Jeremiah\u2026 your job is to take apart and demolish\u2026 and then start over building and planting anew<\/i>\u2026 and the building and planting continues\u2026 and as we live into our new normal\u2026 we are called to move closer to God\u2019s dream for us and for creation\u2026<\/p>\n Pilate\u2019s wife had a dream\u2026 she told her husband that Jesus was innocent and to leave him alone\u2026 but like Jesus\u2026 we may think that God\u2019s justice has passed us by\u2026 like Jesus\u2026 we may feel forsaken\u2026 but we are not alone in this\u2026 Katie Hines-Shah\u2026 senior pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hinsdale, Illinois\u2026. wrote\u2026 this isn\u2019t how we expect the story to end\u2026 and yet\u2026 if we pay attention to history\u2026 if we listen to the voices of less privileged people [ and those of color\u2026 as Jesus was\u2026 ]\u2026 another truth becomes evident\u2026 The National Memorial for Peace and Justice memorializes 4,000 people lynched\u2026 often in daylight\u2026 in front of crowds\u2026 and at county courthouses\u2026 The Innocence Project has exonerated 367 people in its 19-year history\u2026 twenty-one of whom were on death row\u2026 and the third season of Sarah Koenig\u2019s award winning podcast Serial\u2026 recounts the shocking normalcy of the biased and flawed processes of a typical midwestern courthouse\u2026<\/p>\n So are we willing to consider\u2026 dare we even wonder out loud\u2026 whether we\u2019ve bought into\u2026 a carefully planted suggestion within a dream\u2026 that the American Dream\u2026 may in fact\u2026 be at odds with God\u2019s dream of justice for all people\u2026 a common but contrived dream from which we haven\u2019t yet awakened\u2026 but believe is real\u2026<\/p>\n Innocent people like Jesus\u2026 who Pilate\u2019s wife Claudia Procula knew to be innocent\u2026 are scapegoated and blamed and wrongly convicted\u2026 whistleblowers and truth tellers are silenced\u2026 and some of them are murdered\u2026 to protect the positions and authority of the wealthy\u2026<\/p>\n But we know what will happen next Sunday\u2026 we know that the Tomb will be empty\u2026 we know that resurrection overcomes death\u2026 and the blessed one\u2026 the one who comes in the name of the Lord\u2026 isn\u2019t only Jesus\u2026 each one of us comes in God\u2019s name when we realize that a suggestion has been planted within us\u2026 for someone else\u2019s benefit\u2026 and we wake up to God\u2019s dream\u2026 and to God making all things new\u2026 that is the victory of Palm Sunday\u2026 and we say\u2026 Thanks be to God\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Matthew 27:11-54 Have you ever heard of lucid dreaming\u2026 dreams in which you know you\u2019re asleep\u2026 you may even say out loud to yourself in the dream\u2026 I\u2019m in bed and just dreaming\u2026 and to varying degrees\u2026 you can actually control what happens in the dream\u2026 that\u2019s the premise of the 2010 movie Inception\u2026 but this movie is about several people dreaming a common dream\u2026 which one of them\u2026 the architect\u2026 has designed\u2026 and everyone has agreed to go along with the storyline\u2026 And what they\u2019ve agreed to do\u2026 is to take part in corporate espionage\u2026 to plant a suggestion in the subconscious mind of a CEO\u2026 but it must be the simplest version of the suggestion\u2026 one that will resonate with him and grow in his mind\u2026 and one that he will act on when he awakens\u2026 but they have to be certain that he thinks the idea is his and his alone\u2026 because if there\u2019s anything that doesn\u2019t feel right\u2026 if he suspects even for a moment\u2026 that it\u2019s what someone else wants\u2026 he just won\u2019t do it and they\u2019ll fail\u2026 so in order to minimize that risk\u2026 they design not only one dream\u2026 but a dream\u2026 within a dream\u2026 within a dream\u2026 but this creates another wrinkle\u2026 because the deeper they go\u2026 the greater the risk that even when they wake up\u2026 they\u2019ll remain convinced that they\u2019re still dreaming\u2026 ironically\u2026 in this pandemic\u2026 we know we\u2019re not dreaming\u2026 but just wish we were\u2026 In a recent article in Time magazine\u2026 Anglican Bp. N.T. Wright wrote\u2026 for many Christians\u2026 the coronavirus-induced limitations\u2026 have arrived at the same time as Lent\u2026 the season of doing without\u2026 but the sharp new regulations make a mockery of our Lenten disciplines\u2026 doing without any of the things we choose to give up\u2026 is child\u2019s play\u2026 compared to not being with friends or family.. or going to the pub\u2026 the library\u2026 or to church\u2026 Rationalists want explanations\u2026 they want to know WHY\u2026 but the unfathomable complexity\u2026 of how countless variables have unfolded\u2026 and converged\u2026 and created this pandemic\u2026 makes it almost certain that there will never be one\u2026 universally accepted explanation\u2026 so maybe what we need to do is recover the biblical tradition of lament\u2026 which is what happens when people ask Why?\u2026 and don\u2019t get an answer\u2026 it\u2019s where we go\u2026 when we move beyond the focus on our own sins and failings\u2026 and look more broadly at the suffering of the world\u2026 I mean\u2026 who in Pompeii ever thought the city would be buried in volcanic ash\u2026 and I\u2019m sure the survivors asked WHY?\u2026 In The Lord of the Rings\u2026 Frodo says\u2026 I wish the Ring had never come to me\u2026 I wish none of this had happened\u2026 Gandalf replies\u2026 so do all who live to see such times\u2026 but that is not for them to decide\u2026 all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us\u2026 And David Brooks\u2026 remembered that Viktor Frankl\u2026 writing from the madness of the Holocaust\u2026 also reminds us that we don\u2019t get to choose our difficulties\u2026 but we do have the freedom to choose our responses\u2026 and the meaning we make\u2026 comes from three things\u2026 (1) the work we offer in times of crisis\u2026 (2) the love we give\u2026 and (3) our ability to display courage in the face of suffering\u2026 because suffering can be redemptive\u2026 the differences between red and blue\u2026 don\u2019t seem as acute on the gurneys of the emergency room\u2026 but the inequality in the world does seem more obscene\u2026 when the difference between rich and poor\u2026 is life or death\u2026 That\u2019s why\u2026 my hope\u2026 and perhaps what may turn out to be a silver lining in all of this\u2026 is that globally\u2026 we\u2019re being invited to repair the systems which keep some in poverty\u2026 and allow others to remain in wretched excess\u2026 we\u2019re being invited to replace our hearts of stone\u2026 with hearts of flesh\u2026 hearts which cry out that maybe it\u2019s more important to eliminate homelessness than it is to build McMansions\u2026 hearts which proclaim that it\u2019s more important to eliminate food insufficiency than it is to build Five Star Michelin restaurants\u2026 hearts which make known that it may be more important to do without some things than it is to pollute the environment\u2026 remember\u2026 there\u2019s a Palm Sunday story\u2026 of Jesus coming into Jerusalem\u2026 and the community began to praise God loudly\u2026 and some of the Pharisees told them to be silent\u2026 and Jesus\u2026 knowing that God\u2019s Truth cannot be suppressed\u2026 said that if they were\u2026 then the very stones would shout out\u2026 Our reading from Isaiah tells how God awakens the prophet each morning\u2026 Ephesians 5:14 exhorts us\u2026 Sleeper, awake!\u2026 over and over in scripture Jesus calls us to be aware and awake\u2026 in Paul\u2019s letter to the Philippians\u2026 he urges them to take on the Mind of Christ\u2026 and as God said in the vision to Jeremiah\u2026 your job is to take apart and demolish\u2026 and then start over building and planting anew\u2026 and the building and planting continues\u2026 and as we live into our new normal\u2026 we are called to move closer to God\u2019s dream for us and for creation\u2026 Pilate\u2019s wife had a dream\u2026 she told her husband that Jesus was innocent and to leave him alone\u2026 but like Jesus\u2026 we may think that God\u2019s justice has passed us by\u2026 like Jesus\u2026 we may feel forsaken\u2026 but we are not alone in this\u2026 Katie Hines-Shah\u2026 senior pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hinsdale, Illinois\u2026. wrote\u2026 this isn\u2019t how we expect the story to end\u2026 and yet\u2026 if we pay attention to history\u2026 if we listen to the voices of less privileged people [ and those of color\u2026 as Jesus was\u2026 ]\u2026 another truth becomes evident\u2026 The National Memorial for Peace and Justice memorializes 4,000 people lynched\u2026 often in daylight\u2026 in front of crowds\u2026 and at county courthouses\u2026 The Innocence Project […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}