“DRESSED UP WITH NO PLACE TO GO”
Luke 20: 27-38

A woman died and ascended into heaven. As she walked to the pearly gates of heaven, she saw St. Peter at the gate. St. Peter asked her what her religious affiliation was. She answered "None.” So St. Peter didn’t know where to put her.

St. Peter took her to the different religions rooms, to let her get a peek and choose.

First he opened the door where the Baptists were. They were all eating and drinking and having a great time! Then St. Peter took her to the Methodists and they were dancing and having a good time! He then took her to the room where the Catholics were. They were just sitting around twiddling their thumbs!

So she turns to St. Peter with a puzzled look. He tells her that the Catholics were all partied out because they could do everything they had wanted to do on earth.

I have a lot of training and experience in the doctrine and policies of the church. I will admit that I am considered somewhat of an “expert” on the Reformed Church doctrines and policies from 1700 to about 1875.

The average person in the pew would be surprised at how much the church has argued the finer points of “how many angels can stand on the edge of a pin,” “are there rocks too big for God to lift,” or even “what God knows and when did He know it?”

Very few of the doctrines and policies of the church are biblical, but rather center on human interpretation of scriptures. Regardless of what you might think there are no actual “user’s guide” or “Bible for Dummies” written by the Holy Spirit!

That’s why the catholic church didn’t let lay people read Bibles or talk theology and why the oral tradition of the Jewish Rabbis became important. It supposedly cut down on false doctrines and ideas. But it actually ended up suppressing biblical truth.

 I feel the biggest issue has always been what the church’s role is in an individual’s salvation. Most church doctrines and traditions fight for and against this notion.

Most of the time various points are often the result of what’s called “cherry-picking,” or taking an obvious meaning of one passage and assuming that it trumps all other references to it.

That’s how we get specialty Bibles like “the feminist’s Bible,” “the Queer Bible,”

among at least 25 others catering to a specific viewpoint. It’s not surprising that successive societies thru history often seek to reinterpret the Bible in lieu of their own truth.

The hottest thing in today’s scholastic circles concerns those people who receive the “mark of the beast.” Two well know Bible scholars and a National Christian group are now claiming you can take this mark and not be rejected by Jesus at the last judgment. The answer to this issue is easily found in Revelation 19 and 20 but the debate rages on.

The debates over doctrine and policy continue primarily because without such

squabbles there would be a lot fewer denominations, religious sects, and churches out there. We also wouldn’t have the history of religious warfare we do.

Most people don’t know that the founder of the Reformed Church, Ulrich Zwingli,

died in battle over religious freedom. He was called a “warrior Monk.”

As I learn more about Biblical things I see things simplify before me. There are the essential things Jesus taught and the rest are fun discussions that pass the time.

Throughout human history church ritual and doctrine have been manipulated to achieve political, personal, and physical power over individuals and communities as if they were items on a buffet.

Listen to our scripture lesson for today from Luke 20: 27-38:

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him ²⁸and asked him a question, “Teacher,  Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.

²⁹Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; ³⁰then the second ³¹and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³²Finally the woman also died.

³³In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

³⁶Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.

³⁷And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”

A priest, a Pentecostal preacher and a rabbi all served as chaplains to the students at a Midwest University. They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and talk shop.

One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing led to another, and they decided to do a seven-day experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear and preach to it.

Seven days later, they meet to discuss the experience.

Father O' Flannery, who has his arm in a sling, is on crutches, and has various bandages, goes first. "Wellll," he says, in a fine Irish brouge, "Eywintoot into th' wooods to fynd me a bearr. Oond when Ey fund him Ey began to rread to him from the Baltimorre Catechism. Welll, thet bearr wanted naught to do wi' me und begun to slap me aboot. So I quick grrabbed me holy water and, THE SAINTS BE PRAISED, he became as gentle as a lamb. The bishop is coming oot next wik to give him fierst communion und confierrmation."

Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, with an arm and both legs in casts, and an IV drip. In his best fire and brimstone oratory he proclaimed, "WELL, brothers, you KNOW that we don't sprinkle...WE DUNK! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to him from God's HOOOOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. I SAY NO! He wanted NOTHING to do with me.

So I took HOOOLD of him and we began to rassle. We rassled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we come to a crick. So I quick DUNK him and BAPTIZE his hairy soul. An' jus like you sez, he wuz gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the week in fellowship, feasting on God's HOOOOLY word."

They both look down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction with IV's and monitors running in and out of him.

The rabbi looks up and says, "Oy! You don't know what tough is until you try to circumcise one of those creatures."

The problem with this story is that every point is made from the reference point of the minister, church, and/or religious group and not the bear and God, who should be the most important part. Our church and faith is here to help others get close to God, not a point of view or religious tradition.

Now that I have your attention let me cut to the meat of this passage with a question: “What is the distinguishing trait of a Unitarian funeral? Answer: The guest of honor is all dressed up with nowhere to go.”

Friends you can water down beliefs and argue ideas down to the point where nothing means anything anymore. It gets to the point that upholding the tradition and/or actions of the ancestors is more important that the meaning behind them.

That’s what happened to the Jewish faith, and it’s the reason why people like Zwingli rejected the catholic church.

Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees got to the heart of the matter. Men can debate all they want but in the end God has the absolute authority over death and eternal life. It is Him who decides and sets the standards.

Regardless if we are living on earth or in heaven God is God. He is God of the living and He will reign forever. It is His rules we follow.

We can’t always assume that human experience helps us know God fully or explains all His actions. Some are mysterious and will only be known when we all get to Heaven. I’m good with that!

Amen.

“THE FIRST SKY BOX”
Luke 19: 1-10 (NRSV)

The dilemma of the 21^st Century: I recently attended a conference at a large hotel.

As I entered the elevator to return to my top floor room another person followed me on. She was dressed in a bikini top and tight jeans, was drinking from a beer bottle, and was carrying the largest cell phone I’ve ever seen. She also had about 8 tattoos (I didn’t count the actual number I could see!)

She said hello to me and casually asked me what I was doing at the hotel. I told her I was there to attend a Christian Conference. She said that was “cool,” and then told me that she and her husband were Christians too, just not the kind that went to church or told others they were.

After she got off the elevator I asked myself how I would feel if I knew my wife was walking around a hotel like this woman was and wondering how it could be compatible with my concept of Christianity.

I am not a prude and I don’t begrudge anybody a beer, and I guess I can even understand the lure of a tattoo or two, but public behavior speaks volumes about who you are. But we are told “the times they are a changing.”

In a recent book, “Already Gone,” Ken Ham and the AIG staff talk about why so many Christian young people are leaving the church after going to college. These are the “good” kids who attend Sunday School and church every Sunday, are active in church youth groups, and show every sign of being solid Christians.

Why are they leaving? Ham found 2 factors that contributed to their leaving. One was that they didn’t have the ability to refute the evolutionary teachings of their college professors and the second was that the stories of the Bible they had been taught in Sunday School were just empty stories with little practical value.

Essentially the findings suggested that the church was failing to teach young people practical faith, or what’s called apologetics, in order to hold their own in an increasingly secular and hostile world.

You may be thinking “great, another dump on the church comment from me.”

But the results are important for us to hear. We need to stop thinking that faith and Christianity can be picked up like we put fluoride on the teeth or like taking a good multi-vitamin, or just because you come from a “good home.”

Parking in a church parking spot does not make your car an instrument of God just as setting in a church pew doesn’t make you a Christian.

You can’t just tell somebody a story and expect them to fully learn and integrate that story into their lives and retrieve the information as needed. Faith and Church is not like getting a “bundled” insurance policy at Geico.

Faith is a walking lifestyle that must be embraced and practiced every day.

God and Jesus must be sought out and interacted with. And you need both head and heart knowledge. Jesus knew this and gives us plenty of examples (Luke 19: 1-10):

He entered Jericho and was passing through it.

²A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.

⁵When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.

⁷All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”

⁸Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

⁹Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

The story of Zacchaeus has humor, drama, and suspense. It would make a good television show in our current society about how even the richest people can do good things (as long as they’re not Republican or the evil Tea Party.)

It would probably be about somebody named Bloomburg or Buffet or maybe even Gates. The upshot of the story would be how many millions of dollars the rich man was giving to charity after having some kind of “aha” moment, and switching his political party allegiance, in order to never make oppressive mistakes again.

Zacchaeus’s story tells us about this man who hears of Jesus, comes and checks him out, but is reluctant, because of what he does for a living and his physical limitations, to mix with the crowd who is there listening to Jesus.  So Zacchaeus climbs a tree away from the crowd and sits in what could be considered the first “Sky Box” in history.

The concept of “VIP seating and sky boxes” is not alien to us. If you’ve ever been to a stadium you’ve seen those boxes looming over the playing field. The views from such a spot is amazing and you don’t have to rub elbows with the riffraff of general admission.

The attention grabber of this passage is that it is unusual to think that Jesus would reach out to such an obviously privileged man. Jesus has come to save the poor and lost – not the rich and those already blessed with adequate resources. That’s the heart of the mainstream church’s social gospel.

Yet Jesus does an amazing thing. Jesus sees him, invites Himself over for dinner, and Zacchaeus is so moved by Jesus and His message that he repents of past sins and promises to make restitution and redistribute his wealth if necessary. That’s the progressive church’s interpretation of this story. Zacchaeus would never use another skybox again.

Actually, Zacchaeus sees that Jesus’ call to discipleship requires a change in his actions and values. He needs to use the blessings God has given him more effectively for God’s kingdom.

Jesus sums it all up by declaring that salvation has come to Zacchaeus’ house and to the “Sons of Abraham,” the Jews, where it was intended to be given.

This story is important to us in promising that Jesus will meet us when we seek Him, and that behavior change happens because of our gratitude for that grace.

This grace is given no matter who we are, whatever the contents of our wallets, the company name on our paychecks, or what behaviors we display.

The woman who got on the elevator with me may have been a Christian, but either way that relationship is between her and Jesus. I can only treat her as a Christian  until she proves differently.

She may have had her own “Zacchaeus” moment, after all. Jesus came for the people in the skyboxes and VIP seats, too! Amen.