Waxing Theological

9-21-14 (Proper 20, Ordinary 25 A Semi-Continuous) Exodus 16:2-15; Matthew 20:1-16                                                                     Unfair Wages     “It just isn’t fair!”     Fill in the blank after that point - older brother gets to stay up later than his younger siblings, the classmate whose parents bought him or her a car when they turned 16, but your own parents are making you borrow the station wagon when you want to go out with your friends, the co-worker who gets “employee of the month” because they kissed up to the boss while you did the extra work and they slacked off.     We’ve all felt that sense of imbalance, of things just not being fair.  Sometimes, it’s all we can do to not lose our tempers and scream at the injustices we perceive in our lives.  Something deep within our very essences knows that things ought to be fair, that there’s a balance that needs to be kept, that there’s a way things ought to be… and when that balance is off, it puts us out of

9-14-14 (Proper 19, Ordinary 24A Semi-Continuous) Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35                                                          Don’t Forget You’re Forgiven     Every month, our mailbox at home fills up with a handful of envelopes that I wish would just stop coming to us.  These envelopes are important - they’re not just junk mail that I can rip up and throw away, no matter how much I may want to.  Instead, they’re all emblazoned with this terrible, horrible, four letter word that we all probably know and tremble when we hear: BILL.  It’s that time again - there’s the phone bill, the car bill, the student loan bills, the insurance bills, the credit card whose balance never seems to go down, the credit card that only has those few more payments left before we can rack it up again... and so on.     So as I read this parable, I find it all to easy to step right into the servant’s shoes as he’s called before his king to account for his debts.  I imagine him as the guards throw

9-7-14 (Proper 18, Ordinary 23 A Semicontinuous) Exodus 12:1-14; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20                                                                               Ready or Not     It was the first recorded instance of “fast food” in the Bible.  As families gathered around the table on that first Passover evening, they gathered with girded loins - they had their loose clothes tied up around their legs to help them move more quickly.  They had their sandals on their feet and they had staffs in their hands, ready to move at a moment’s notice.  Without the time to bake proper bread, to do anything more than roast a lamb over a fire with bitter herbs, they put the blood of the lamb over their doors, ate their meal together, and waited for God to pass over their houses, to do God’s work in Egypt, and to fulfill the promise that they would escape their slavery in Egypt and be led on to the promised land.     They were a people who were ready, who were waiting… a people who were

8-31-14 (Ordinary 22/Proper 17A - Semicontinuous) Exodus 3:1-15; Matthew 16:21-28                                                                          The Experience     One of the mentors at our gathering in Louisville told a story this week that really captivated me as I reflected on this week’s readings. Photo Credit: Tanya Alexander (freeimages.com)      He told us about a boy who went with his family to Mt. Rainier.  The little boy was excited to climb the mountain with his family, but as they came to the trailhead at the summit, he started to read the sign with the legal notice spelling out the various dangers that he might face on the trail - loose rocks, wild animals, narrow ledges, and more… and being the young boy that he was, he started to feel afraid of following through with his family’s plan.  But also being a young boy, he knew he had to maintain his “image,” and so he didn’t tell his family that he was nervous… he went with the standard “This looks boring.” 

8-24-14 (Proper 16/Ordinary 22 A, Semi-Continuous) Exodus 1:8-2:10; Matthew 16:13-20                                                                      Identity Crisis     Identity is a huge deal in the Bible.  And it’s interesting to note the various ways in which people’s identities play a significant role throughout the scriptures.  Stories of mistaken identity, false identities, and even new identities are crucial defining moments in the story of the Bible.  People and places are give names, or even given new names, that have particular meaning and significance to a major event or situation.  Abram and Sarai are changed into Abraham and Sarah to be the parents of a multitude.  Sarah names her son Isaac because she laughed when God told her she would have a child in her old age.  Jacob is renamed “Israel” because he wrestles with God.     So when we enter into this new chapter of the biblical narrative, it’s natural that identity once more plays a defining role here.  Joseph and

8-17-14 (Proper 14A/Ordinary 20A Semicontinuous) Genesis 45:1-15; Matthew 15:10-28                                               Dogs, Dirt, and the Deep Deep Depths of Grace     Every summer at church camp, we’d take some time that first night together to go over the major list of “Camp Rules.”  One of the big rules we went over was that we wanted the campers to not have their tech out at camp.  When I was a camper, it was “No walk-mans, boom-boxes, or CD players.”  When I was a counselor, it turned into iPods, iPads, computers and, most of all, cell phones.  We had good reasons: camp was a place to come and disconnect from the distractions and the fast pace of the “outside world” so that you could reconnect with God in God’s world.     So when the camper caught me over by the camp store with my own phone in hand, carefully responding to a message I had just received… well, I’m sure you can imagine his reaction.  “Why’d you take away my phone when you have yours in your pocket?!  Wha

8-10-14 (Proper 14A/Ordinary 19A Semi-Continuous) Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Matthew 14:22-33                                                                           Up To Your Neck     Once again we find ourselves looking at another incredibly familiar passage - one that has been etched into our collective memory, even to the point that it has infused our culture as we talk about people who have a high opinion of themselves as “thinking that they can walk on water.”  But the one thing that I am continually reminded of as I go into sermon preparation each week is that it’s often the most familiar stories from the Scriptures that are also the most difficult.  Sometimes, we know a story so well that we forget to even hear it anymore.     So as we study this passage today, let’s step away from the story we know - let’s move away for a moment from that familiar imagery of Peter stepping out of the boat and onto the water, of Jesus’ arm reaching out to take him as Peter begins to falter and

 8-3-14 (Proper 13A/Ordinary 18A, Complementary) Isaiah 55:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21                                                                  Enough To Feed 5,000     It’s a scene more amazing than even we tend to give it credit for - even though it’s a miracle, we have no idea how miraculous, how tremendous it really was.  It happens naturally, even unintentionally, as we explore through the Scriptures piece by piece - we miss some of the larger story as we look at smaller stories.  But as we look at this smaller story, it becomes even more amazing once we understand the things that happened just before this.     It might seem a little strange that we begin today’s passage with “Now when Jesus heard this…”  what was it he had heard?  Why did he go out into a deserted place by himself after he heard whatever it was that he heard?  If we look just a few verses back into the beginning of Matthew 14, we learn that Jesus has just been informed that John the Baptist was executed.    

7-27-14 (Ordinary 17A/Proper 12A) Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52                                                              Big Things in Small Packages     Jesus’ parables have many things in common with each other - they used imagery that would have been familiar to the people heard Jesus tell the story. The images that Jesus used were used intentionally - they evoked certain very specific thoughts, assumptions, and ideas in their audience.  But most importantly, those images which Christ uses in the parables are also full of surprises - the moment Jesus’ audience thinks they know exactly where Jesus is going with a story, Jesus pulls the rug out from under their feet and teaches something entirely different from what they expected.  Poor beggars covered in sores are taken to heaven while rich men suffer in hunger and heat.  Weeds are allowed to grow alongside wheat.  Women celebrate over lost coins and shepherds forsake entire flocks to chase after one lost lamb.     But

7-6-14 (Ordinary 14A/Proper 9A) Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30                                                   Darned if You Do, Darned if You Don’t     We’ve all been there at some point in our lives.  We’ve found ourselves in that place where no matter what we do, it’s wrong.  You bring them home chocolate ice cream when they wanted strawberry, but if you’d brought home strawberry they would have wanted chocolate.  You’re running late getting back from getting groceries, so you skip going to one of the other stores you had on your list so that you can get home sooner and your family isn’t waiting for you for dinner, but then when you get home, they’re upset that you didn’t get what they wanted from the store you skipped.  You see the light turning red, but the car behind you riding six inches from your bumper shows no signs of slowing down and your choices are to run the red light and get a ticket, or slam on your breaks and get into an accident.  No matter what you do di

I've had the incredible blessing today to be able to hold my own newborn daughter - just a little over 48 hours since watching her burst forth into this world.  She is beautiful and it's amazing this feeling of falling in love with a whole new human being, a young and somewhat alien child that I still can't believe is ours, who has blonde hair in a family of people with primarily dark hair, and yet is still most definitely ours .  And yet, even as I hold this child and marvel at her mystery, I can't help but reflect at the same time on the literally thousands of children who are currently being detained right now in various refugee centers throughout our country.  Children who have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, being given up by their parents and smuggled into America illegally so that they can escape their home countries, torn apart by war, by abuse, by child sex trafficking and, as hard to believe as it is... things even worse than that.  I think ab