The Upside Down People: A Christmas Sermon

His name is Bill. He is a monk.  He lives in Chicago in the heart of the city, where there is a gang war going on. Bill dresses in a robe made of patches of old jeans. He spends his days befriending gang members, talking to them, taking them to the store, the hospital, out to eat. He drives a beat-up Buick LeSabre. Everyone on the streets calls him Brother Bill.  

A few months ago, two rival gangs met in the street after midnight to try and kill each other.  One gang was going to loose this war.  There was no other alternative but to face each other in the street and shoot it out.  And they were about to do just this when Brother Bill arrived.

Bill walked to the no man's land between the two gangs and just stood there, unarmed.  "Please dont hurt each other," he said.  "If you hurt each other, you hurt me."

Gang members started yelling at him to get out of the way.  "You are going to get hurt, Brother Bill!  You cant stay there!  Move!"

"I will not move," Bill said.  "I am here to stay."

Someone threw a bottle. It broke at Bills feet and he felt a shard of glass hit his leg. A bullet flew over his head.

"I will not move," he said.

This past Friday, I saw the most beautiful thing here at the Cathedral.  We had a Living Nativity, a Christmas Pageant, but it was different from any pageant that I had ever seen before.  This pageant was not acted out by children, it was acted out by the developmentally disabled.

Mary was old and in a wheelchair and she could not speak.  The angel Gabriel was a black woman with Down's Syndrome who wanted to sing a song to Mary and she was almost completely tone deaf, but her song was so beautiful that it made me cry.

The star was a man named Paul.  My husband and I have known Paul for years. He is in his sixties and has Downes Syndrome.  Paul carried that star with such exuberance as if he had never done anything more important in his whole life.

And then, there was the little Drummer boy. He was a grown man, so disabled that he could hardly walk.  Someone had to walk with him down the aisle.  He could not say much but what he could do was play the snare drum and he played with such fervor, such unabashed, glorious exuberance.  It was like nothing that I have ever seen.

The Little Drummer Boy hit that snare drum and limped down the center aisle and they helped him up to the altar, where the tiny baby lay in a manger.  They put a microphone to his lips and the Drummer Boy simply said, "I play my drums because I love Jesus!"

I found myself weeping the entire time. I just sat there like a fool in the pew with tears streaming down my face.  These people knew how to adore the Christ child.  They really knew what it was all about. Because of their disabilities, they did not have the shame or self-consciousness that most of us have. They could adore Jesus without hesitation or analysis.  They were free to love Him.

I have been trying to explain the mystery of the Incarnation for all my adult life.  And the deeper I move into the story, the less I seem to understand.  The great mystery of why God would become a child still takes my breath away and I cannot adequately and fully explain it to you.  I don't think that any human being can completely grasp the depth of love and sacrifice that happened when the Divine Creator of the Universe became a helpless child. 

But I do know this.  Jesus was born in the heart of the most violent part of the world, into the middle of a war that was going on between the Jews and the Romans.  Jesus was born so helpless and so poor that he did not even have a proper crib.  His mother and father were young and they had no idea what they were doing.  Jesus just planted himself, as helpless as any human being could possibly be, in the middle of a war.

Here I lie, God said.  In the heart of the Middle East.  I place myself, completely helpless as a baby, in the midst of your war and hatred.  And I ask you to love one another.

They call him The Prince of Peace, for there is only one way that this human race is going to survive.  If we are to be saved, then we must become like that baby in the manger.  We must be willing to be helpless.  We must be willing to be vulnerable and broken.  I am not talking about nations, I am talking about individuals. The only way to begin to find peace is to start with the person right in front of you and to tell them the truth about who you are.  This goes against everything that you have ever been taught.  For most of our lives, we are told, in subtle and unsubtle ways, that we must win to succeed.  Get the best grades. Earn the most money.  Make people like you. But these things do not make our lives meaningful. And the one with the most toys does not win.

If we are to survive and not kill one another as a human race, then we must be willing to admit our frailty and our helplessness to one another. We must stop trying to be impressive, to win somehow at life and instead, share our brokenness with one another.  Show each other your wounds.  Admit that you too have disabilities, that you have wounds.There is no other way to bring about peace.

The gang members did not shoot Brother Bill that night.  They could not shoot him, though he was willing to die, because they knew him and he knew them.  And they could not kill someone that they loved. But even if they had killed him, Brother Bill was on the right track. In his helplessness, he stopped the cycle of violence and he made them think.

Jesus showed us his weaknesses.  He came to us completely helpless as a baby and he left us completely helpless, hanging naked on a cross. If you want your life to have meaning, then you must be willing to admit when you are helpless too. Stop acting like you have it all together.  We are so confused! We think that the one with the most money or the most impressive home or the best behaved children or the most impressive career, that it is those people who win at life.  But in reality, there are no winners and losers in life.  The point of life is to worship and adore that little baby.  If you want your life to have meaning, to have purpose and direction, then ask for help from the only one who can help...and give your life to Him.  Stand in the breach between the hatred and violence and the souls who are lost and offer to help. Be honest about your inability to do things right. And learn to truly love and adore him.

It says in our gospel that the first people to hear the news about Jesus were the shepherds. We have an image of shepherds as gentle folk singing sweet songs by a campfire. In fact, shepherding was a despised occupation. In the first century, shepherds were generally scorned as shiftless, dishonest people who grazed their flocks on others' lands. They weren't the pleasant Hallmark faces we're used to seeing this time of year. They were dirty and often dishonest.  They were lonely wanderers, outcasts. We have sentimentalized them so on our Christmas cards and art that they look like gentle folk waiting to go to a homecoming celebration. No picture is farther from reality.

Jesus did not come to the people who had it all together. Angels did not appear to religious authorities to to nobility on this night. He came for the shepherds.  He came for the broken.  He came for you and me.

The truth is that we all need to be a bit more like Paul and the Little Drummer boy.  Didnt Jesus say that unless we are like little children, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven?

Dont be afraid to admit who you really are this Christmas.  We are all lost.  We all hurt. We all make mistakes. When we admit our brokenness, that is when angels show up and invite us to the manger. 

Do you know what people said about the early Christians?  In the Book of Acts, it says that people thought that "they had everything upside down." Christians think that the poor are rich and the lame are blessed and the helpless are beautiful.  Christians give a standing ovation to the Christmas pageant where everyone forgot at least one line and the Drummer boy needed help walking down the aisle. For we know that it is only in our weakness that we can honestly approach that manger.  That, when it comes to interfacing with God Almighty, we are all desperately disabled.  And once we realize the truth about who we are and stop pretending that we have it all together, then and only then, can we truly be saved.

Joseph and the Extraordinary Possibility

Last week, Nina Searcy, a faithful member of the Cathedral, brought in a book that she had written.  It was a history of her family lineage.  It took her many years to write.  Together, we prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and blessed the book which is now in print.

My grandmother, before she died, wrote a memoir of her life. At the time, I wondered why she felt that this was so important.  Now that she is gone, I am beginning to understand.  Having the story of her life in print has been a gift to me.  Because in some mysterious way, our family shapes us.  And I am not just talking about our parents, grandparents and siblings, I am talking about our ancestry.  We are shaped and formed by our family tree.  It is part of who we are.

Family trees are becoming more and more popular, now that we can go online to ancestry.com and research our roots.  I encourage all of you, no matter whether your childhood was stable or hurtful, to learn more about your ancestors.  They can teach us about aspects of ourselves.

Back in the time of Jesus' birth, ancestry was even more important than it is today. Your net worth, what people thought of you, what tribe you were in in the house of Israel, all this was determined by your ancestry.  People were not thought of as individuals so much as they were thought of as part of a whole lineage, an unbroken line of life.  And if you came from a good heritage, your life was of value.

Joseph was from the family and lineage of King David, the most popular and greatest King of Israel.  People would have known Joseph.  He was a simple carpenter but people would have known his ancestry and he would have been respected and watched. Now this did not mean that all of Joseph's ancestors were good. They were not. One of his ancestors, King Ahaz, was one of the worst kings of Israel. The prophet Isaiah pleads with King Ahaz to ammend his ways, but the king instead builds a pagan altar in the Temple itself. So not all Josephs ancestors were good.  But they were royal and they were respected. 

Joseph is often overlooked in the Christmas story.  He stands in the background.  In all of the gospel accounts, he never actually speaks a word. By the time Jesus is grown, Joseph is gone, probably dead. The Bible uses one word is describing this man, this step-father of Jesus. The Bible says that Joseph was just.

        

It says in the gospel that "Mary was found to be with child." Did she tell Joseph herself?  You better believe that in the small town of Nazareth, the news of Mary's pregnancy out of wedlock spread.  And you'd better believe that people were talking badly about her.  Women could be stoned to death for pregnancy outside of marriage.  Joseph would have heard the gossip.  He would have understood what people were saying.  Her pregnancy would have shamed and humiliated him. It was an insult for her to have sex with someone else and before their marriage.  But Joseph does not fly off the lid or even scream at her. He is wise and just. He tried to dismiss her quietly so as to save her life, but he wanted no part of a tainted woman.  Until the angel appeared, Joseph believed the hype. And you can believe that EVERYBODY was talking.

And then an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream.

Let's really think about this.  Joseph had a choice to make, a choice between what everyone in his town thought, the gossip, his reputation and what was told to him in a dream.  In a dream!  He had to choose whether to believe the gossip or to believe the good news about this young woman.

Gossip or Good News?

It is so easy for us to judge others.  We talk badly about the decisions that other people make, about their behavior, their choices, the way they raise their children.  It is so easy to sit back and criticise.  Joseph must have know that to believe in Mary would mean that, for the rest of his life, people would whisper and gossip about who had his wife first. To take her as his wife was to accept her shame and share in it with her.  It was to be the subject of gossip for the rest of his life.  The ancestor of David takes a whore for a wife.

You are about to embark upon the Christmas holidays.  You will be with family and friends and you will have free time.  Lots of time to gossip and talk about each other.  But each of us must make the same choice that Joseph made...Do we gossip or do we seek out and search for the good in others?  Will you choose to dwell on the faults and mistakes of your relatives or will you strive to believe that they too are children of God and that there is something within each one of them that is worth praising, something that is worthy and good.

When the angel appeared to Joseph, the angel told him not to be afraid.  I think that we talk badly about others mainly because we are afraid.  It makes us feel more secure to gossip and criticize.  It makes us feel that we must be doing something right, we must be at least better than those guys.  It gives us a false sense of power.  Seeing the good in others, searching out and actively seeking the good in others-now that takes energy and that takes courage.

There is this incredible scene in the movie A Beautiful Life. John Nash, the famous mathematician, suffers from skitzophrenia.  He is so ill and so consumed with the people and voices that he hears that he pushes his wife and almost hurts his newborn baby boy.  The doctor comes to the house and advises Nash's wife, Alicia, to commit him to an institution for life.  Nash knows that if he is locked up there, he will never come out. 

Nash sits on the bed in their bedroom.  He looks completely deflated as he waits for his wife to make her decision.  Will she lock him up for life?  

Alicia enters their bedroom and kneels on the floor by the bed.  She takes his face in her hands and this is what she says,

"I have to believe that something extraordinary is possible."

She decides to believe in the goodness and sanity that lies somewhere inside her husband.  And they live together for the rest of their lives.  When John Nash wins the Nobel Prize, she is right by his side.

If Joseph had believed what everyone was saying about Mary, Jesus might never have been born.  Mary might have been stoned to death right there in her village.  If Joseph had believed the hype and the bad news, the entire world would have looked a whole lot worse.  If Joseph had cared about what people thought of him, no one would have remembered him at all. But Joseph chose to believe in the unlikely possibility that the angel was right, in the outrageous idea that this child was from God.  He chose to believe in the truth of Mary's word and the possibility that something that looked scandalous might actually be the very best thing that ever happened to him. He chose to believe that something extraordinary was possible.

How do you view the world?  Do you choose to see the good?  Do you believe the angel of God when that angel tells you not to be afraid? Whatever you look for in this world, you will find it.  Why not seek out the good?

Pando and the Communion of Saints

When someone dies, Americans are afraid to speak their name. We don't want to disturb the widow by mentioning her husband's name. We want to distract her! Talk about the weather, about buying clothes, about the economy, but avoid her pain at all costs. That is the LAST thing that she wants to be reminded of (as if she was thinking about anything else but her loss all the time!). Her husband is gone and we cannot bring him back, so why remind her? Right? After all, he is gone and never coming back.

He's gone and never coming back, right?

Today is All Saints Sunday. It is traditional on this day to baptize new Christians into the faith. Here at the Cathedral, we enjoy a great celebration as we baptize twelve people. It is one of the greatest joys of my life, to have the honor of baptizing people into the body of Christ, into the family of God. As the water runs over the heads of these twelve, God is welcoming them into heaven and this fact is so ultimately, mind-blowingly good that I can hardly take it in. Every time I baptize I am overwhelmed. How can I explain to you what we are doing? It is something so significant, so deep, that I don't even come close to understanding it myself.

This week, an image came to my mind...

The heaviest living organism on this planet is located one mile southwest of Lake Fish in Utah.  Can you guess what it is? It is a grove of aspen trees! These trees are called Pando. They are given one name because they actually consist of one living organism. Also known as The Trembling Giant, this grove of trees is actually one living being. They have one, enormous, underground root system that unites them all into the heaviest known organism on the planet, weighing in at 6,600 tons! The root system of Pando is about 80,000 years old. 

Whenever there is a forest fire, these trees will be burned to the ground, leaving nothing but ashes.  But underneath the ground, their root system is still alive.  And they are reborn once more, to ascend to the sky with beautiful leaves that dance in the wind.

Paul once spoke of Christians as one body, one living organism. When a person is baptized, roots are laid that bind them to the rest of us in Christ.  We cannot see these roots but they unite us all into one body, and they are stronger than death.

We are a family of God. And we are bound together by our faith and our relationships with God and one another. Once you are baptized, your life belongs to something larger than just yourself. You are part of a living entity, a life larger than your own.

 Jesus asks us to love God first and love our neighbor as ourselves, because everything that we do, we do in relationship.  Jesus' Great Commandment is all about relationships. We are bound to one another and to God. Together, we are called to usher in the kingdom of God.

I am reminded of how at the healing service on Wednesdays, we always join hands to say the Lords Prayer together. No matter how many of us are there. We unite as one. We are rooted in Christ at that moment, joined to Him and to one another.

We are bound not just to the living but also to the dead. On some instinctive level, you already know this, don't you? If someone that you love dies, whenever there is a special event in the life of a family, it is evident that someone is missing. The holidays are hardest for those who are grieving. A mother whose son died in a car accident once looked at me and said, "I can manage OK, but then Christmas comes along, or Easter or a wedding or a baptism, and I realize that he is not here with me. And the void in my life is unimaginable."

Someone is missing. Who is it? Your mother?  Your grandfather?  Your friend?  Your child?  Who do you wish were here?  Who are the ones that you love who have died?  

Jesus says we are blessed when we are poor, when we don't have enough, when we grieve and miss the ones that we love who have died and left us here alone.  We are blessed in that emptiness. Blessed. Because the emptiness proves to us that we are still connected.  We miss their physical presence but they still live with us, underneath the surface of this life, in something much more vast and beyond our understanding. They exist with us in bonds of love that transcend death and bind us all together, both the living and the dead.

That is what the communion of saints means. It is the root system of the Body of Christ. It means that you and I are linked and not just with each other but with all the people who have shaped and molded you into who you are. The relationships of our lives shape us and they live in us.

Did you know what Michelangelo said about carving his famous statue of David? He said that David was in the stone, waiting to be carved out. And what would carve David out of the stone, his relationship with the living hand of Michelangelo.

God carves you into who you are using relationships. Your mistakes and failures as well as your greatest achievements make you the person you are and the most important relationship is the one that you have with God.  You are baptized ones, children of God. All other relationships are secondary to the one that you have with God.

Joseph in the book of Genesis that we read, he only becomes the fullness of who God calls him to be when he suffers a LOT.  He suffers because of the strained relationships that he has with his brothers, relationships of favoritism, ignorance and jealousy. Only after he is sold as a slave by his own brothers, wrongly convicted of a crime and thrown in prison, does he begin to become the man who will rescue his entire family from famine. Joseph knew that even though his family mistreated him, they were still fundamentally a part of who he had become. Joseph is carved into who he was meant to be, carved by suffering and loss.

One of the greatest parts of the Christian faith is that we are not afraid to speak of the dead, because we are still in relationship with them. The saints are those who have left us physically but with whom you are still linked in love. If you cannot imagine heaven without someone, then that person has become your saint.

The baptized can not only talk about death, we can name the dead. We can speak their names.  Why? Because we know that we will see them again. We believe in a life beyond this life. We believe in eternal life.  We are not afraid to name the one who is missing. And let the loss of their physical presence shape us into people of God.  We know that our roots are still linked to the ones we love, even after death.  We are the family of God, the body of Christ. 

Disagree to Live

Years ago, my husband and I walked from the Temple Mount to the town of Bethany just outside Jerusalem. As we were walking on a clear, crisp day, some children were standing by the side of the road.  I smiled at them as we walked by and one of them bent down, picked up a rock, and threw it at us. They missed, ran a bit down the road, and aimed another rock right at us. I was frightened.

What would cause a child to hate a stranger that much? Where did they learn such hatred? The hatred of Jerusalem is a hatred between religions and races, between Jews, Christians and Muslims, and it dates back thousands of years.

Just look back, thousands of years ago, to the relationship of Sarah and Hagar. Here were two women whose rivalry and competition birthed the hatred between Islam and Judaism. Yes, at the root of much of the worlds violence, there stand two women. One birthed Ishmael, who Muslims believe is heir to the promise of God's favor.  The other birthed Isaac, who Jews and Christians believe is the heir to God's favor.

God promised both Abraham and Sarah that they would have descendants as numerous as the stars. But, for the longest time, Sarah was not able to have children with Abraham. She was getting older fast. Even though God had promised that they would have a child, Sarah could not simply trust in God. She grew impatient. She could not wait. Sarah could not believe that she would be enough, that God would give her a son. She would not wait. She could not believe. So she took matters into her own hands. The seed of all the conflict and hatred for thousands of years rested upon this one decision, the decision of one women, who could not trust in God.

Sarah gave Abraham her slave girl, Hagar. And Abraham accepted. He lay with the slave girl and she conceived and gave birth to a son, Ishmael. 

Sarah tried to play God. She tried to take matters into her own hands. And it is remarkable how much of a mess we human beings make when we try to play God. Like Eve taking the forbidden fruit, Sarah tried to fix a problem that wasn't hers to fix.  God told her to wait. God promised to give her a child. But she would not wait. She would not wait for the fullness of God's promise. And she ended up making a mess.

How often to we fail to wait for God's answer?  How often do we not believe that we are enough, that God will redeem us, answer our prayers, heal us, find us?  So often, we don't give God enough time to really answer our prayers.

The Bible reads that Sarah was a beautiful woman. So beautiful that her husband was afraid he would be killed in Egypt when powerful men saw her, for they would want her as their own.  Sarah was gorgeous and she was used to being first, used to being admired. Her foolish husband did little to curb her self-centeredness. So when Hagar became pregnant, Sarah could not stand it. She could not stand being second place.  

Sarah used her slave girl and then, in doing so, created a broken relationship. She could not love Hagar. Everything that Hagar did seemed to anger Sarah. Once Hagar became pregnant, Sarah was overcome with jealousy.  She said that Hagar looked at her with contempt.  As often happens when one human being mistreats another, things only seemed to get worse.  

Sarah began to abuse her maid.  We don't know exactly what Sarah did but it wasn't pretty. She tried to hurt Hagar so much that the slave girl ran away. And the seed of one of the greatest conflicts in world history took root and grew.

Why do we hate those who win when we loose? Why do we hate those who disagree with us?  Why do we try to force others to think as we do? Our government is shut down because we cannot move forward in compromise, because each side cannot budge to see the good in the other. We are stuck in estrangement. We are angry and our country is suffering. All we do is stand apart, slinging rocks at one another.

Why could Sarah and Hagar not share a child?  Why could they not look each other in the eyes and see a sister?  When the angel appears to Hagar, the angel tells Hagar to go back, to return to Sarah and try to get along with her. Just like what I would like to say to our leaders.  Go back to one another and learn to get along.

What if the ones who disagree with us are the ones we are called to spend more time with?  What if disagreement is itself divine?  What if God WANTS us to disagree?

Abraham bargains with God. Job argues with God. God is practically on trial in the poetry of the book of Lamentations and Jesus, whenever he was faced with a question, usually responded with another question.

The ancient fathers said that the words of Scripture were filled with black words on white pages, with lots of white space and that God left the white space so that we could respond and argue and debate and voice our desires and longings and hopes and insights. 

When Jesus healed the lepers in todays gospel, nine of them left, taking the healing for themselves as if they somehow accomplished it on their own. Only one turned back to say thank you, for he alone realized that healing happened because of a connection that he had with Jesus himself. Only one realized the truth, that we are nothing without each other. Nothing.

You define yourself by who you disagree with as much as by who you agree with. Disagreement is part of how God calls us to learn. Arguing is good. Let us not shutdown or separate like Sarah and Hagar did. Let us learn from one another, wrestle with good intentions, struggle together, argue, debate. Let us trust that God has something to teach us and that this something is found in the mind of the person who looks at us in the way that makes our skin crawl. Let us believe that this person could be our teacher.

Malala is 16 years old and she has been shot in the head. She was riding a bus in Pakistan when a member of the Taliban shot her. She nearly died. After a miraculous recovery, Malala has penned a best-seller and is up for a Nobel Peace Prize. I watched her in an interview.

She has a beautiful, clear speaking voice that rings out like a bell. Without hesitation or fear, she spoke of how education is the key to answering the world's problems. When asked how she felt about the Taliban, she said that she thought they blew up schools because they were afraid that girls would be educated. They are afraid of the power of education, she said. The audience watching the interview cheered at this remark.

Malala was asked if she encountered a Taliban today, what would she do. "My first thought, she said, was that I could take my shoe and hit him with it. But then, I realized that this action would make me like the Talib and I don't want to be like him. So I would speak to him. I would argue with him.  I would tell him that I want his children to be educated too..."

What if Sarah had waited for God's promise?  But even after she failed to trust in God and abused her maid, what if she had asked for forgiveness? What if she had embraced Hagar as her sister?  What if they had raised their sons side by side, as brothers? What would the world look like if they had been able to look one another in the eye and listen to the other? What if they had been able to disagree and still love one another? What would our world look like today? 

It is not too late. It is never too late to begin to learn how to disagree with respect and love. And it is never too late to learn to trust in God to answer us.

The Tower

Years ago, a young woman in my parish died of cancer, leaving behind a distraught sister and mother. Before the funeral service was to begin, the young woman's sister got up to speak. She was a successful businesswoman and normally had no trouble speaking with clarity and accuracy. She began the eulogy well, talking about her sister with love and devotion. But then something happened to this young woman and all of a sudden, she could not speak. She was wracked with tears, silently unable to utter a word. She stood at the lecturn immobile and overwhelmed.

We all sat there at a loss.  I wondered if I should go to her, to help her to her seat. I didn't want to embarrass her.  We all just sat there, dumb and helpless.

The young woman's mother quietly got up from the first pew and with calm, walked over to her only surviving daughter. She did the most wonderful thing. She just stood behind her daughter. She did not try to take over the eulogy or even put her arm around her daughter, she just stood, so close that her daughter could feel her presence. She stood behind her daughter and the young woman gradually became calm. She resumed her eulogy and when she finished, mother and daughter walked to the pew, holding hands.

That mother gave up her own grief for a moment to be there for her one living daughter. And because she acted not for herself but for another, the mother and daughter truly communicated without saying a word. Strength flowed from one to another. Without a word.

It says in the Book of Genesis that God scattered human beings. We only had one language and we wanted to build a tower, something so high that it touched they sky, something that would make a name for us, "for ourselves," we said, "for ourselves." We wanted to be like God. So God destroyed the Tower and scattered mankind over the face of the earth. And now we speak thousands of languages and cannot even communicate because our cultures are so different. We tried to make ourselves as high as God and we ended up babbling and confused.

God did not want us to try to be God. God did not want us to live just for ourselves. It's like when we ate that fruit in the garden. The fruit was supposed to make us like God. But trying to be like God causes us suffering. It causes us pain. It causes us to be confused. Doing anything just for ourselves never works out well. We were not created to live just for ourselves.

Why do we love money so much? Money is power. With money, you can live just for yourself. If you have money, you can walk into any restaurant or store and get what you want. The more money you have, the more attention you get, the more choices you have. Money is power. Money makes us able to build towers and shout out orders and think that we are it, that we are God. Money makes us think that we can do it all by ourselves.

This past week, a homeless man in New York City found a backpack with a lot of cash in it, about $40,000 to be exact. The man had no home. He could have considered this his lucky break, his chance to get a place, eat some good food, get some stability, some respect. 

But he returned the bag. With a severe stutter, he spoke in public about his decision. "God has always taken care of me," he said. The $40,000 "wasn't my money to take."

Is what you have really your tower to build, your money to spend, your life to live? What if all of it really belongs to someone else, someone who stands behind you, to support you, who gives you freedom to find your way, all the time knowing that the only true way is the one back home to him? We do our greatest work when we realize that we are not God, that all is not up to us and that we are not alone. That is when we stop babbling and really begin to serve one another, to know and be known by another.

The story of the homeless man went viral. Thousands of people heard about his honesty, his generosity. Donations poured in for him; $90,000 has been raised so far, a free gift, for the one who did not take matters into his own hands, but returned what he found and trusted in God.

They say that success is like an ever higher mountain. As soon as you reach the top, you see that you are not so high, that there is something higher. And you are never satisfied. No matter how high you climb, you are not God and you are never high enough. Meanwhile, Jesus stands behind you quietly, as you work and sweat and struggle. He just stands there, close but not interfering, waiting for the day when you will feel his strength and his power infuse your soul. When you will stop shuddering and crying and stumbling and babbling and know that he is there for you and has been all along, when you feel the presence of our Lord right behind you, you will know that you are rich and that your life is not your own. And you will learn to truly give back what was never yours in the first place.

The Many Faces of Greed

I want you to imagine that you are standing at a cocktail party. You are dressed up. There is a smile on your face. The purpose of the party seems to be to look as good and feel as good as you can. There is great food, lots of wine. You don't know anyone else there. People come up to you and they ask you what you do for a living, do have a family, where did you get your degree? And you ask them the same questions. And it's all about this is who I am verses this is who you are. Labels. And the entire evening is spent on your self-examination and comparing yourself to other people. You get home worried that your career is not enough, your finances not enough, your relationships not enough. You feel alone after being in a room full of people. You leave feeling empty. Have you ever been to a party like that?

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes tells is that All if Vanity and a chasing after wind. In other words, if your goal is life is to feel good, you might as well spend your time chasing the wind. We cannot hold or control our feelings. If happiness is your goal, good luck with that.

I was walking on the beach about a month ago with an old friend. He asked me what the goal of my life was. I told him I wanted to serve God as best I could.  Then I asked him the same question. He had suffered from depression for the better part of his life. His answer surprised me. "My goal is that I want to feel as good as I can," he said.

I was struck by his honesty. Most people would have made something up that sounded less selfish. He was clear and truthful. All he wanted was to feel good. But the answer seemed so sad to me. Here was a man who was so spiritually poor that the best he could imagine in life was simply to feel good.

And most of us want to feel good too. We want enough resources to be comfortable, enough time to spend with family and friends, we even want a purpose in life so that we can feel a sense of worth, feel that we are important. We want to be happy. We will even do good works to feel good about ourselves. All we want is for ourselves. We seek to please ourselves and all it leads to is emptiness. For we are chasing a mirage, the mirage called happily ever after. Our advertisements believe it. Movies promote it, this idea that if you buy the right stuff, you will be happy. I need to buy the right stuff, I need to find the right job, I need to find the right relationship....it's all about me, me, me...

 When Jesus came by and asked you to follow him, there was one thing that you couldn't do. One thing just didn't jive with his invitation. You could not stop to think about yourself. To get invited by Jesus meant to trust him with everything. Just say yes and give yourself to him. All the folks who wanted to care for their stuff, say goodbye, even bury their loved ones, they got left behind. You just couldn't be concerned with yourself. Jesus did not give you time. 

Jesus tells us of a man who stored vast amounts of grain in his grainery and thought only of his own comfort. The man was consumed with providing for himself. He was convinced that if he stored up enough stuff, he would be comfortable, happy, not afraid. He accumulates so much grain that he has to build an extra storage facility. Sounds like some of us with our storage facilities, doesn't it? As soon as he is sure he has hoarded enough to really ensure his own happiness, he dies.  And when he dies, he has nothing, he is poor with God. 

Jesus tells us to be on guard against what he calls "all kinds of greed." 

All kinds? I did not know that there was more than one kind...

Greed does not just consist in hoarding possessions or money or even food. Greed is formed in a person who focuses solely on the self by hoarding. And you can hoard more than just money. You can hoard success or relationships or even emotions. You can greedily hold on to your ambition, your honors degrees, even to your wounds. You can greedily hoard all those times that someone you love has hurt you or offended you. You can hoard your hurt. And all of these are kinds of greed. All of these kinds of hoarding make you spiritually poor. If your goal in life is about you and only you, it is not of God. And ironically, you have nothing. 

In Eden, the tempter asked Eve to disobey God in order to feed herself. Take this for yourself and you will be like God, he said. The fall of humanity began with selfishness. It began when Even put her desire over God's command, when she made herself the first priority and it continues whenever we put ourselves in front of God.

Remember the order of the great commandment that Jesus gave us. LV the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Number one is love God, number two is love your neighbor as yourself. There is a reason why Jesus did not begin with love yourself first. The love of God must come first or the love of self is distorted and not love at all.

Why do we go to church on the morning of the first day of the week? We do it to put God first. 

God would not have us focus on ourselves. Love ourselves, yes, but not focus on ourselves. If you spend your day thinking of only yourself and doing only for yourself, then beware of greed. Or perhaps a better way to put it is in a positive light, be rich towards God rather that rich for yourself.

Todd Huston was fourteen when he severed his right leg in a waterskiing accident. The doctors saved and reattached the limb but infection crept in. After 28 surgeries and ongoing physical therapy, this young man from Tulsa had to accept the fact that he would loose his leg. He began a life of self-pity.

He wrote, "I would hide my physical scars from my friends. I seldom swam and I used humor to hide my mental scars."  He tried so hard not to loose that leg, but it was time it let it go. He had every opportunity to wallow in self-pity, every excuse to live a miserable life because life itself had not been fair to him. But he got tired of hoarding his self-pity. So he decided to live for others, more specifically, to champion those who had disabilities.

Todd Huston decided to climb Mount McKinley, the highest point in North America. His goal took him years of training to complete but when he reached the top and returned, this is what he said. "I see myself as a representative of the forty-three million Americans who, on any given day, are struggling against a major illness, a disability, or any other health-related challenge."  He even went on to describe such things as divorce, the death of a loved one, or overcoming addiction. Todd climbed for all of us, because all of are missing something that we wish we had. All of us feel the urge to hoard something to make up for our insufficiencies. All of us. We hoard because we feel empty. We are greedy because we feel poor.

That is why we can feel so lonely at the cocktail party, because we are trying to appear to have it all together. And it is not the truth. The truth is that we are empty. We get greedy for stuff or money or relationships or success because we feel empty inside. But the truth is that we cannot fill our own emptiness. The only thing that fills our emptiness is not taking more stuff but giving it away.

There is only one recipe to treat all kinds of greed. It is generosity. Every single day, do something for someone else. Do it not just for family members or someone who will make you look good. Do something for someone else who has no impact on your life. Give so that you may be rich with God.

Instead of asking yourself, first thing in the morning, "How can I feel good today?" ask yourself, "What can I do for you today, God?"

There are all kinds of greed but there is only one kind of generosity. Generosity belongs to God. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Store up love and hope and generosity. Store up gratefulness. When we talk about giving money to charities and to the church, I don't tell you so that we can pay the church bills. I tell you this because you MUST give your money away. No matter how much you have, you must be generous. There is no option if you want to follow Jesus. And believe me, you don't want to let Jesus walk on by and be left with only yourself to focus on.  Give yourself away so that you may truly live.

The Bridge: How and Why we Pray

I went to grandfather mountain last week. On top of the mountain, there is a bridge called the Mile High Bridge. It is terrifying. They call it the mile high bridge because it is exactly one mile from sea level to the altitude of the bridge. One mile UP. There was a high wind on the afternoon that we walked across. A high wind, a swinging bridge, and me, trying not to look down.

When my babies were little and they cried in bed at night, I would immediately get up and get them whatever they needed. It was instinct. I didn't stop to think. But now my youngest will be nine in October. And sometimes, he will yell from his bed, "Hey, mom! Can I have a drink of water?" sometimes, I do just get it for him, but lately, I have taken to saying, "Sure, you can have a drink of water. Just get up and there is a glass in the bathroom."

"But I want you to get it for me. I'm tired."

"Well, I'm tired too," I say, and then the interaction doesn't get much better from there.

Now, you may think that I'm selfish and sometimes I truly am. But I also know that it would be better for Max to learn to do some things himself. I don't want him, at age 30, to roll over in bed and ask his spouse to get him a drink of water. I want him to be the kind of guy who offers to get her one.

Today, Jesus talks to us about praying. And he says some pretty insightful stuff. He tells a story of a man who is traveling at night. In Israel, especially during the hotter months, this kind of travel was not uncommon. The sand and heat were simply too much to bear during the day so a person was more comfortable traveling at night. And, of course, there were no drive-throughs or gas stations, so the traveler would eventually have to rely on the generosity of strangers in order to eat or rest.

A traveler arrives at the home of a local but the person has no food. So the local man comes to the door of a friends house and it is midnight. He has to ask his friend for bread in order to feed the stranger who has come to his house. Now many homes in Jesus' day were just one room. All cooking, cleaning, and sleeping were done in one space. So when the friend knocks at the door, he is waking up the man's entire family. But Jesus tells us that the friend must be persistent. He must keep knocking and if he does, eventually, the owner of the house will come out and feed him, if only just to get him to stop with the knocking.

So God will answer our prayers if we just keep asking. 

But most of us think of God as some kind of vending machine. If I pray for health and a successful career, then I should get what I ask for or something is not working, either God does not exist or God is not listening or God fundamentally does not care. If I ask for a drink of water, well then, God has better get me one and fast. And if God does not respond with speed, we figure that God is just not there.

In 1870, a creative engineer by the name of John Roebling dreamed of building a bridge that would connect New York to Long Island. All the engineers of his day thought he was crazy but John managed to convince his son Washington, also an engineer, to tackle the project with him. They hired a crew and began. After only a few months, there was a terrible accident on site and John was killed. His son, Washington, was severely injured and suffered brain damage. Washington could only move one finger. The rest of his body was paralyzed and he could not speak.

Engineers across the world criticized John and his son for tackling such a project. But Washington would not stop pursuing his fathers dream. He figured out how to communicate with his wife by tapping his finger on her arm. His wife listened with a kind of patience that was amazing. Using his direction, she rehired the crew and they continued the project. It took Washington 13 years of asking his wife to complete this and that detail until the bridge was finally finished in 1883. The Brooklyn Bridge stands today as a model of persistence, a tribute to a man and his father, two men who would not give up hope.

Jesus says Ask and your will receive. I looked up the koine Greek. It is a present imperative, which could also be loosely translated as keep on asking or keep on knocking or keep on seeking. Remember that God does not act like fast food. God is trying to develop a relationship with you. God is trying to build a bridge between you and the divine, so that you may know him. The purpose prayer is not to get what you want. The purpose of prayer is to come to know God.

Sometimes, we do get an answer and that answer is no.  If God does not do exactly what you asked for, it does not mean that you are not loved. Jesus asked God to take this cup away from him on the night before he was crucified. And God answered Jesus' prayer but the answer was NO. God did not take the cup from him. God asked him to suffer and die for us. And even now, two thousand years later, we are still discovering the nature of that kind of love and sacrifice. Gods answer had a perspective to it that would only be revealed years later. Though God answered no in that moment in the garden, his greater answer to Jesus and to all of us is yes. God is building something in you and for you, a bridge to the heart of the divine. And God wants you to pray constantly and for everything but with the understanding that God's answers sometimes take time to hear and understand. 

Next time to envision your prayer life, think of it more as a bridge than as a vending machine. And remember that there is a living being much more intelligent and loving than yourself on the other end of that bridge and that God can see things much more clearly, things present and things to come. The answers will come but the most important thing is that you build and fortify that bridge.

True Freedom

This month marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the battle of Gettysberg. Almost exactly one hundred and fifty years ago, on July 2, 1863, Major William Worthington Goldsborough was put in charge of the Confederate's 2nd Maryland infantry because their commander was injured. William was a printer by trade. His brother Charles served as a surgeon of the Union's Fifth Maryland Infantry. He held his ground that day on the craggy slopes of Culp's Hill. 

The next morning, Goldsborough was ordered to lead his troops into a devastating hail of enemy fire. He obeyed. But before he left, he told one of his comrades that it was "nothing less than murder to send men into that slaughter pen." Two-thirds of Goldsborough's men were killed and a musket ripped into the left side of his chest, passed through his lung, and exited his back. Goldsborough was terribly wounded. After months in the hospital, he became a prisoner of war. He was locked in a crude stockade for 45 days where he was subjected to brutalities and three of his friends died of starvation.

Goldsborough would live until the age of 70. On his deathbed, he said to his wife, "Dont bury me among the damned Yankees here."

Do you see the Bible on the altar? This is not our normal gospel book. This Bible is on loan to us from Don Neifert. It was printed in 1771. In those years, Anglican churches would have had box pews, communion only very seldom and the clergy would be proud of sermons that could last for an hour or more. In today's service, we are worshipping using the words that would have been spoken at a communion service in 1776. Rich and beautiful, these words still speak to us today. Let them wash over you and remind you of our rich heritage as a nation. 

Back in 1776, the enemy of this country was not ourselves but Great Britain. We were desperate to announce our independence, our ability to govern ourselves, to be free. We were tired of paying taxes to people who never walked on our soil, tired of being governed by another.

    

This country's history is forged on the battlefield. It is a great, tragic and beautiful history of men and women who died serving the cause of freedom. We have had many enemies in our history. In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, most human beings have enemies, people who threaten us in some way and want to cause us harm. It is easy for us to pray for this country that we adore. I am so grateful to live here as I know that all of you are.

But what is not easy is what Jesus asks of us today. Jesus asks us to pray for our enemies. He even asks us to love them. And, like Goldsborough, most of us are willing to fight for freedom and even die for a cause, but we are not able to love our enemies. Goldsborough's own brother was a Union doctor and yet he could not stand the thought of being buried next to him. Even on his deathbed, he was consumed with anger.

Why does Jesus ask us to pray for our enemies? What could possibly come of doing that? Does it mean that we are to condone evil or allow injustice to exist because we are called to love our enemies? How could he ask us to do something so non-sensical?

Do you remember the story of the Garden of Eden? Things were perfect for us there until we took that fruit that was not freely given to us. In that garden, we had a kind of freedom and peace that was beyond anything we have known since. But once we took what was not ours, our lives became full of violence and animosity. One of the first things that happened after the fall was the murder of Abel. Cain and Abel were brothers, born both of Eve. But when Cain became jealous of his brother Abel, he killed his own brother. His brother became his enemy and the march of conflict and hatred began.

So long as we are unable to forgive, the march of violence continues. True freedom comes when we can forgive our enemies. Although Goldsborough was released from prison, he was never free. On his deathbed, he was still running from his enemies, from his own brother. He could never be free because he could never forgive.

But how can we as a country forgive some of the atrocities that have occurred in our history? I do not know if we can ever forgive as a country, but I do know that we can forgive as individuals. And on this point, Jesus is very specific. He asks us to love our enemies and pray for them.

If we are going to begin the almost impossible task of loving our enemies, the only way to start is to pray for them. Pray for those who use you and persecute you. Just pray for them.

If you sit down to pray every day and you only pray for those who are sick or those who you love, you are not doing what Jesus asks of you. He is very clear that we are asked to pray for those who hate us. 

I have a list that I read every day. It is long. It is full of people who have asked me to pray for them. But it took me years before I began to put on that list the names of people who trouble me, enemies of my county and people who have wronged me. And every day, when I speak their names, it is hard. I get a catch in my throat. I studder. But day in and day out, I pray.

You see, when we sit down and pray for those who have hurt us the worst, for our enemies both abroad and at home, we return, for just a brief moment, to Eden. Be perfect, Jesus tells us, as God is perfect and as you once were perfect before all this mess occurred. You were not meant for violence or war or hatred, those are the expressions of our fallen world. Sometimes they are the least inadequate solutions. But no matter how angry you are or how unfair your life has become, you can pray. And in prayer, you can unite yourself to God in forgiveness. For the sake of your own soul, you must learn to forgive.

I want you to take a moment and think in your mind of who your enemies are. (silence) Who are they, both at home and abroad? Have you thought of them? Name them. Picture them. These are the people that you must remember in prayer. 

I do wonder what might take place if every American were to pray for his or her enemies. Pray for the opposing political party, pray for whatever part of the government you feel fails you, pray for close friends and family who have wounded you deeply, pray for terrorists who threaten our safety as a nation and brutal dictators abroad. Pray for them all, not to condone their behavior but simply because Jesus told us to do it. And when we pray, we open ourselves up to a miracle. And, perhaps most importantly, we become truly free again.

Elijah's Depression

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. When Jesus appeared on the Mount of the Transfiguration, he appeared with Moses and Elijah on either side of him. Elijah was right there beside Jesus in God's presence. Isn't that where we want to end up too?

So it may come as a surprise to you that Elijah the prophet suffered from depression. I am defining depression as a feeling that is so bad or intense that it makes you want to die. Elijah just wanted to lie and down and die. He felt that bad.

Let me read off a short list of other famous people who have suffered from depression:

    John Adams, 2nd President of this country

    Queen Elizabeth II

    Abraham Lincoln

    Angelina Jolie

    JK Rowling

    Winston Churchill

    Oprah Winfrey

    

These are smart people. These are beautiful people. These are gifted people. These are people who have had everything to live for and yet, at moments in their lives, they felt like lying down and just dying. And Elijah the prophet was one of them.

    

    

Elijah had just shown up all the prophets of Baal. His offering to God was consumed in a burst of flame in front of hundreds of eyewitnesses, while their animal carcasses just sat there wet and abandoned. People were believing in God and that Elijah was his prophet. Elijah had had the prophets of Baal killed and, after an immense drought, God had brought rain down on the land. You would think that Elijah would have relished the victory, basked in his win. But often, right after a mountain top experience is when you fall the hardest. No sooner had he shown up the prophets of Baal then Jezebel the queen threatened his life. She sent him a message.

    

    "I will kill you by this time tomorrow..."

    

I would definitely categorize that as hate mail. And there is nothing like hate to make you feel bad. Elijah was afraid.  He ran far away and begged God just to let him die. He felt awful. Depression covered him like a black cloak.

    

Winston Churchill described a black dog that would consume him at times in his life.

 Abraham Lincoln had such melancholy and darkness that he once said, "I am now the most miserable man living."

    

Depression is not something that happens to bad people or weak people or even lost people. God does not love you any less if you feel like dying sometimes. It seems to be a struggle that some of us have to endure, a cross to bear. 

    

God would not let Elijah die. He gave Elijah food. Just like any of us would do to care for someone we love who is suffering and wants to die. He urged Elijah to live. And God led Elijah alone to a cave. Elijah sat there in that cave for awhile. He just let himself feel bad. And out of this period of great sadness and desperation, inside that dark cave, Elijah heard the voice of God.

    

Strange how God often speaks when we feel the worst. It is as if our moments of desperation open something up inside us, some kind of a space for God to speak. Depression can crack you wide open. Someone once told me that the valleys are fertile, where everything grows. But we all want to be on the mountaintop, to have mountaintop experiences. But nothing grows up there. No, greatness is often made in the valleys, in the challenges, and difficulties of life. 

    

And before Elijah heard God, he heard everything else. He had to hear a whole bunch of things that were not God before he heard God. He heard wind and earthquake and fire, but they were not God. And that is how it goes with solitude and prayer. If you want to listen for God, you must be willing to hear some other stuff too. You may need to wade through quite a lot of noise and nonsense and sadness and feeling like a failure and anger and regret in order to find God's voice. Most of us, when we hear the worries and the noise that crowd our minds, we just want to give up and end the attempt. But Elijah stayed in that cave and continued to listen. Until finally he heard something that was God.

    

The words for what Elijah heard in the ancient Greek are best translated as this...eloquent silence.

 

He heard God in the sound of eloquent silence.

And when Elijah emerged from this encounter, he was no longer lost. He got his purpose back. His life become clear again and he went on to be a prophet once more.

The research psychologist Anders Ericsson ran an experiment with violinists at the Music Academy in West Berlin. He had the teachers divide the violinists into three categories: the best who could make a career of it, those who were good, and those who could maybe become teachers but who did not have great talent. And then he asked them all how they practiced. He found a profound difference in the three groups. All three spent over 50 hours a week in musical activities but the great violinists spent most of their musical time practicing alone. 3.5 hours a day for the best group and 1.3 hours a day for the worst group. They spent time alone, listening to themselves play. They were not afraid to be alone.

In fact, in her book Quiet, Susan Cain writes that the most pivotal moments of invention, creativity and life-changing discovery happened not in groups but by individuals throughout history who were not afraid to be alone and to listen to the sound of eloquent silence.

Depression drove Elijah into a cave where silence awakened his soul. Perhaps our pain can become a gift to us if it motivates us to listen. It takes enormous courage, even desperation, to be willing to stay in the midst of your noise and listen beyond it for God. 

I urge you to find time to be silent. I urge you to listen. Everything in our lives tells us to rush and fill the quiet with noise. Turn on the radio, the TV, fill your schedule, go to sleep- anything to keep you from the silence. For it terrifies us to be quiet. We may end up realizing that we too feel great sadness or anger or depression. If that happens, remember that you are in good company. Remember Elijah and don't be afraid to continue to listen, for God can be found on the other side of all that pain and confusion. So bear it, listen to your worries and distractions and noises and look deep within. There is a well of life that runs within you. It was created at your baptism. God waits for you in the silence.

    

    

Finding a Prophet

In the midst of the financial crisis of 2008-9, a Korean businessman killed himself after loosing most of a $370 million dollar investment. His wife wrote, "When the nations's stock market index fell below 1,000, he stopped eating and went on a drinking binge for days and finally decided to kill himself." His wife could do nothing. She had never had the courage to tell him that his love of money had gotten out of hand. How could she start now? She had never told him the truth before. And he had no prophets in his life. No one told him the truth.

We all need a prophet in our lives.

Dewey Michelin wants me to tell you his story. He is very open about what happened to him. He hopes that his story will help others. 

Dewey was my Senior Warden in my very first church. Everyone loved and respected him. He told us all that he had some health issues. TIA's, Rosatia in his face. It took me six months to realize what was really going on. Dewey was drinking himself to death.

Every evening, when he returned from work, his wife would greet him at the door with a glass of scotch in her hand. And his drinking began.

Once at realized what was going on with Dewey, I convinced him to go with me to a rehabilitation center for an appointment. Dewey was convinced that he did not have a problem. It was at the rehabilitation center that we met a prophet.

First a young woman came in with a clipboard. She smiled and checked off items as Dewey answered her quiet ions. Height, weight, how much he drank, she checked it all off as if there was nothing wrong at all. When she left, Dewey looked at me as if to say, "See, this is nothing!"

Then the prophet came in. He was short with glasses. He had worked as a doctor for years in this place. He did not sit behind a desk but pulled his chair right up to Dewey and looked him in the eye.

"Mr. Michelin," he said. "Do you want to live a long life?"

"Yes, I do." 

"Then you need to know that you are poisoning your body. At this rate, you will be dead in two years. All of your physical ailments have been caused by your drinking. The alcohol is killing you. I recommend that you check yourself into this treatment facility immediately."

Dewey was furious. He stood up and walked out. But he was a good man. And he did hear the prophet. A few months later, he checked himself into rehab. He has been sober now for about fifteen years. I had the honor of renewing his marriage vows with his wife because they wanted to be married without alcohol.

In the time of the Old Testament, a prophet was a person who spoke radical truth on behalf of God. Elijah was a prophet. He told it like it was. He was not afraid to tell the truth right to people's faces. And he made a lot of people mad.

Elijah was prophet during the reign of one of the most corrupt kings of Israel. The King's name was Ahab and he was married to a woman named Jezebel. Jezebel was so sinister and so sick that her name speaks of evil to this day. She was a big fan of a kind of worship that involved killing children to sacrifice to the God Baal. Archeologists uncovered a gravesite in Megiddo in modern-day Israel just a few decades ago. At the site, there was once a temple to Ashtoreth, the consort goddess of Baal. Just a few steps from the ruins of this temple there was a cemetery where many jars were found containing remains of infants who had been sacrificed in the temple. This was bad stuff, this was evil. This was a good who loved for people to kill babies in her honor. And Jezebel loved to worship in this way. She was a woman with no conscience.

Jezebel was married to a weak man. Her husband, the King of Israel, was like a spoiled child. When he could not buy the vineyard next to his residence, he went to bed and sulked. His wife told him to get up, that she would acquire the field.

Jezebel writes letters from her husband and initiates a fast, which occurred only after a great crime was committed. Then she paid false witnesses to lie about the owner of the vineyard, claiming that he had publically defamed the king. The owner of the vineyard was taken outside and stoned to death, and his vineyard was given to the king.

This all would have transpired without repercussion if Elijah the prophet had not been alive. No one would have dared to be honest with the king. They could be killed just as the owner of the vineyard had been. But Elijah is a prophet. He hears of the crime and he speaks out against it. Elijah tells the truth about what happened. That is what a prophet does. A prophet tells the truth, no matter what the cost. Elijah says to the king, "you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord."

You have sold yourself.

You have cashed in your integrity to protect your pride. You have forgotten who you are. You have sacrificed the truth....you are sick and you will die.

Ahab does repent. He tells God he is sorry, though the Bible does not say that he returns the vineyard...and God does not punish him, at least not in his own lifetime. But if there had been no Elijah, Ahab would never have faced the truth about who he was. And if there had been no doctor, Dewey would not have faced the truth about who he was.

I don't know about you, but I need a prophet in my life. I need that faithful and brutally honest friend who will tell me if I have made the wrong choice, chased after false gods, or heaven forbid, sold my soul for success or glory. We all must have a prophet if we are to survive in this crazy world.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean that we all need a critic. I am not talking about someone who incessantly speaks negatively to you. I am talking about someone who does not gossip or tell falsehoods but tells the truth to you, directly to you and only you, out of love.

Who is your prophet? The person does not have to be perfect but they have to be a truth-teller who is not afraid to give it to you straight. Someone who is not afraid to hurt your feelings. I do not think that your spouse can be your prophet or your best friend or your parents. No, a prophet must have some distance, some perspective on your life.

I am a great believer in spiritual counseling, in therapy and in coaching. Sometimes paying someone to be objective can be the healthiest thing out there. There must be someone in your life who will tell you the truth about who you are and what you are doing. It is essential.

The hardest thing to do is to be a prophet for someone else, to tell someone something hard. But you and I are called to be prophets. If you are only complimenting people and telling them what they want to hear, then you are not fully living into the call that God has for you. You should be making people mad rarely regularly. For we followers of Jesus must be prophets too. We too must follow in the steps of Elijah.

So find yourself a prophet, a prayerful person who will tell your the truth. And then seek to be a prophet for someone else. That is one of the ways that we can follow Jesus.