Brewing Theology With Teer

Easter 2018Mark 16:1-8The ending of The Gospel of Mark does not fit the new life, new hope feeling we enjoy each year as we use Easter to signal the return of new life in spring. On a  day when we expect to feel the overwhelming presence of the risen Christ, the ending of Mark’s gospel is entirely underwhelming.

March 25, 2018Palm Sunday, Year BMark 11:1-11To challenge those who are paraded through the empire in up-armored vehicles and with military escorts is a dangerous business. In doing so you run the risk of being mocked by people you have never met. In doing so you run the risk of being betrayed by your closest friends. In doing so you run the risk of being assaulted by the very power you are standing up to. To challenge the status quo, to be the counter-cultural voice, to put on a piece of political street theater, requires you to be willing to enjoy the carnival-like atmosphere while it lasts because if you challenge things enough, if you push the empire enough the empire will push back.

Because there is so much going on in this story, and the writer of Mark wrote such a condensed account of the ministry of Jesus, and on top of that uses misdirection, we miss it. The people in the synagogue did not miss it. Yes, they were astounded by the spirit being cast aside but they knew what was going on. They saw something different happening.

But what happens when God incarnate is the one calling us to repent and believe? It is easy to blow off the street preach as we walk out of Starbucks or to flip the channel when the slick-haired televangelist begins preaching. It’s easy to not make eye contact with someone on the street or turn off the television and go play with our kids. It is easy to write off the story of Jonah, but what are we to do when Jesus calls upon us to repent and believe?Year B, Epiphany 3Jonah 3:1-5, 10Mark 1:14-20

Year after year we see the wise men as minor characters in our children’s Christmas pageants and fail to see that for us, Gentiles, the wise men’s visit to Bethlehem signaled, just as Simeon declared in the Temple, that Christ had come for all people.

Simeon and Anna were ordinary people. Neither of them held the title of Reverend in front of their name. Simeon and Anna were ordinary people faithfully waiting for God to move.

We almost have a great story in the Nativity. All we needed was for sweet baby Jesus to defeat the empire. Instead of fleeing to Egypt as a refugee, we needed sweet baby Jesus to raise an angelic army, wielding Luke’s lost light saber, defeating the empire, releasing Israel from the rod of their oppressor. As Mary and Jospeh are being counted to calculate the tax to be handed down by Emperor Augustus we need Jesus to say, “Stand back Mom and Dad. I’ve got this.

God empowered Mary to this journey and just as God awaited Mary’s response of “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to you word” God waits for us today to respond in a similar manner. The story of the incarnation is not a story to keep in the books, 2000 years ago. Each day we are invited to see God’s favor upon us and respond, even when we feel unworthy to the task.

On Christ the King Sunday I was joined in the pulpit by Jim Dake to discuss what it means to be called to ministry, both as clergy and a laity.All of us are called to be in ministry. Each of our calls will look different. No one person will have the same call as their mentor colleagues. Whether you are called to ministry in your home, neighborhood, or on the other side of the world, you are called by the same Jesus who called His disciples to follow him.

We can look to what is to come with confidence, not worrying about what will or won’t happen, because Christ has already sealed the deal for us. Christ has already conquered death, atoning for our sins, making us righteous before God, acting as our mediator, and ensuring that when he comes again in the fullness of his glory all will participate. Regardless if we died yesterday and Christ comes tomorrow, we are assured through the promise of scripture and the strength of our faith that we too will spend an eternity with Christ.1 Thessalonians 4:13-18Mount Olivet UMCNovember 12, 2017

1 Thessalonians 2:1-13Revelation 7:9-17What we miss in avoiding the tension between Thessalonians and Revelation is that while it may be hard in this life we have the confidence of knowing what happens at the end of the book: God wins. We win. Christ’s holiness wins over “failure and disappointment,” “separation and abandonment.” 

Matthew 22:15-22We keep the lights on because we are returning ourselves to the One whose eikon was stamped onto our lives when we were formed in our mother’s womb and through the new life we receive when we die to ourselves in the waters of baptism. We keep the lights on because we have not mixed up God and Caesar.

Jesus is pretty clear about children in the Kingdom of God. This is one of the subjects within Jesus' teaching where it is hard to twist the meaning of His words.

What I do matters because you depend on me. What you do matters because a community of disciples is impossible without you. They way we speak of one another matters because when we speak poorly of other disciples we are showing to the world how we fail each other. We are then telling the world that our differences are bigger than the One who created and the One who was present at creation.

September 10, 2017 - Matthew 18 - Proper 18The three-part confrontation of sin that Jesus outlined was not merely a recommendation. Hauerwas said Jesus’ style of confronting sin is, “an indication of the kind of community that Jesus has called into existence.” Because we love God, and we love one another, and it is God’s love that binds us together, we must “refuse to risk the loss” of one person to sin. This is why Jesus tells us that our “Father in heaven” rejoices when one of the lost sheep returns.

When we accept the invitation to take up the trials and troubles that come in the life of discipleship and bear them bravely as Jesus we are accepting the passive piece of cross-bearing. But active cross-bearing calls us to something different. Active cross-bearing calls us to lose our independence entirely, submitting to the Kingdom of God over the kingdoms we are striving to build for ourselves. Jesus told his disciples, "For those who want to save their life will lose it." We have the choice. Discipleship is a choice we make. Discipleship, following Jesus, is a decision that enables us to turn away from the independence we seek and live a life without the self-aggrandizing independence tells us we need.

We are being commanded to step out of our boat, it is time to jump in, witnessing to Jesus in a world where the waves of hate and injustice seems to be coming at Christ’s body from all sides. We will fall in the water every time we refuse to see the humanity in one another. We will fall in the water every time we say that they are less than we are. And we will fall in every time others speak those words and we fail to act.

Jesus is offering us an alternative. An alternative where it does not matter if 5000 or 10,000 are fed. What matters is that all are fed. The reality of what we have to offer Jesus is something that should discourage us. There is no agenda of pride, arrogance, or power. The only agenda is an agenda of compassion.In world of fakes and alternatives, let us be a church where the alternative offered by us is the same alternative the risen Christ is embraced. Not so we can further the standing of our own agenda but so that we can be a part of the miraculous work of our Lord and King. Our scripture reading today is one of an alternative politic that we all know, now let us all live it out.

We all love a success story that begins from modest means. In the modesty of Jesus’ power and ministry, we discover the reality of the Gospel and who Jesus really is. Our natural reaction to this discovery is to go out joyfully being faithful disciples, selling all we have not out of a nagging obligation but instead compelled to do so because we have experienced grace that is only available to us in the same kingdom we joyfully participate in.

Matthew 13The parable of the sower is more so about the sower and less about how we change our lives, creating good soil where the seeds of our faith can grow. The sower, God, will continue to cast seeds where God knows they will not grow. Or where they will grow but will later be scorched.