Lent Day 1

For lent this year I am giving up TV, Movies and Facebook. As stupid as it sounds, I am already feeling the "urge" to go on facebook- but I removed it from my bookmark bar so I will not go on it out of habit...

I am preaching tonight- here is the basic homily...

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,
"At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you."
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.
We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
____________________________________________________



The apostle Paul writes this to the Corinthians because he and his company are being oppressed, and they wish to bolster the credibility of their ministry. Some are saying that he “writes bold letters but is not so impressive in person.” He lists off the virtues that he and his ministry embodies- and continues on to explain his appearance.
Paul Writes the Corinthians about God Reconciling the world to Godself through Christ, and thus entreats us, begs us, even passionately desires that we be reconciled to God.

What better message for us on Ash Wednesday, when we begin our season of repentance and fasting that leads us to the cross- and ultimately to Easter. Paul Proclaims that this is the day of Salvation- and yet we are all here to have ashes smeared on our head. It leads us to ask, What is Repentance?
Repentance is not just an affirmation that , just like everyone else, we from time to time have not been perfect- but rather, a total reckoning of our selves before God.
Here Paul says to the Corinthians-
We are treated as impostors, and yet are true;
as unknown, and yet are well known;
as dying, and see-- we are alive;
as punished, and yet not killed;
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich;
as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
It almost sounds like a riddle! Having nothing-yet possessing everything??
This is why people in Corinth must be confused- he looks like a beat up homeless guy- and THIS is the great Apostle Paul??
When the world looks at a person it ranks them. How strong are you- how secure- how fragile? And we like the world to see us as Powerful – strong- stable and far from fragile. How else is worth rated? For a young woman it is a unattainable level of “beauty” for the older man it is how well established he has become. How secure we are shows how well the world esteems us.
But Repentance spits on this notion. We can’t care about our status in the world and offer ourselves over fully to God- because by definition repentance is humiliation.

Not humiliation like being caught unawares with mustard on your face.
Humiliation is becoming like Christ “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a (O)bond-servant, and (P)being made in the likeness of men.
8Being found in appearance as a man, (Q)He humbled Himself by becoming (R)obedient to the point of death, even (S)death on a cross. “
That is humiliation- and in Repentance we to are obedient. In Repentance we acknowledge that we are fragmentary and weak when death calls us. Addmiting I am but dust Lord- dust that you have brought into life.

What is Repentance? It is the positioning of oneself before the cross, knowing all the while it calls to our death- to die to the false and endless obsessions of this world- that make us pander for false security- that keep us from loving the broken for fear we look broken too- that keep us from giving because we fear someday we may not have enough- Repentance is the shunning of this false and bitter system and admitting that we have loved it instead of God.
See that we who they call poor, and truly rich. That we who are beaten and bloodied and are close to death- are in truth drinking from the cup that gives true life.
Think about it like this- on school projects teachers give our rubrics. These rubrics detail what the various elements of grading entail- grammar- content- aesthetic appeal etc.
The world has a Rubric by which it judges- but Paul here is showing us a new Rubric- that of Christ.
This new Rubric turns everything upside down- in fact some people even call it the upside-down kingdom!
I used to love playing this old cell phone game called “snake” It was a simple game- but one of its coolest features was that as you would direct your snake (AKA pixlized line) toward the bottom of the screen – it would disappear from the bottom and reappear at the top.
This is the riddle- the audacity of our faith! The way to true life, is not scrambling up the social ladder, but humbling our selves like Jesus- owning up to our mortality- wearing ashes on our faces-
But in our dying- in our fasting – in our sharing in the suffering of Christ God makes us new through the Resurrection- so that we are no longer bound to the systems and principalities of our world but freed to lives without fear of Death- for we have already died!
As we come forward this night- Repent- for as the Apostle Paul proclaims to us Today is the day of Salvation.
In closing I wish to leave you with this verse from the beginning of 2 Corinthians:

8For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; 9indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; 10who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,

Whispers

Glowing embers remain. Flickering as though their very soul is leaving them slowly
whisping away in waves of heat expired.

Shadows creep, wrapping their tendrils around the spirited remains of a fire once proud-
once tall and vivacious

Yet here- hudled in solidarity- confined to ashen dark- are all that have not been given over to the naught.
Perspiring light in auburn hue-
Flashing white and yellow with any that venture too near.

So they linger- fierce - but not immune to entropy's fatal coarse.
Unless we blow- sending the very breath of life into this remnants ranks

unless we feed them pine and oak
As they evangelize with heat wood that is dead
unlocking all the heat hidden within

but they still flutter and fade- impeded
drowned in onyx waves- pressing from all sides
seen and unseen
the theif of the night

So we who breathe, let us whisper
to these huddled orbs of fire true

And listen as they whisper back
Fore we listen to the spirits voice
repeating these whispers back in vigor renewed

So that we do not suppose that heat found us alone
but rather we were found first by those remnants of flames long past

These cherished embers flicker
shrouded in ashen waste

But incline an ear and you will hear
Whispers

So we might whisper back.

The Decade Beast

Decades are funny creatures- they roam and luber - as if never an imposing threat.
Yet as you let this beast meander and grow, it is all at once upon you!
With eyes like Crystal balls, showing all that was once dreamed- all that is and , alas is not.

But I look into its eyes now- this ugly beast so it is , and voyage on into its gaze the victor.
Few are the dreams not fulfilled- in fact few are the dreams not surpassed
but lonesome am I in triumph-few can speak words as joyful and true

Fore it's rancor has belayed this beast's pestilence
Fangs tha have sunk deep and tore wide the world of victors past.

I wonder now- as it slowly births its child upon us all- small and cute and hopeful- will those crystal eyes treat me as kindly as its mother's did?

Best Companies Ever

In this blog I have critiqued the nation-state system and capitalism- favoring the counter logic of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

However,

I too am a sinner and there are a few companies that I think ROCK! These companies represent the best of innovation-embody beauty and strive for perfection in their products. In short- they make products that don't just dominate markets- they create new ones; changing the way live our lives.

These Companies are :

1)APPLE
2)GOOGLE
3)AMAZON
4)FACEBOOK
5)NETFLIX

California Christmas Delight

Christmas time is here,
No snow, but sun and cheer
No sleigh bells ringing or church bells singing
But to light and joy, we are all clinging

Mike and Jen’s hot tub beckons
A fair trade for frigid air I reckon

Snowscapes sculpted by the winds are traded
For palm trees and bowls of roses paraded

No icicles hanging in jagged array
Yet the food and merriment goes without say

So it is, a California Christmas delight
Where the very memories of past Christmas’ might
Only blind us too all that is true
Joys of true Christmas, found here with you.

Jovial laughing, skating, sledding and more
The old ways of Christmas fade into just lore
Where old snowy December’s
Drift and fog and mire in forgot
But sorrow we do not set loose,
For here the Christmas feast is Alive, Fear not!
For it was not to snowy hills that Jesus was born
He was not surrounded with deer, bear and moose

But it was a desert plane that welcomed
All heavens opening up, pronouncing, “ The King is here”

A desert, quite cold in the night, but warm in the day
Not so unlike California- Ill say
So it is our California Christmas delight
To share more in what that first Christmas was like!

Those east coasters can keep all that snow
Keep all their cold air and frost toe
Where you can’t feel your ears should you forget a hat

Because Here in California is where Christmas is at.
So it is, a California Christmas delight
Where the very memories of past Christmas’ might
Only blind us too all that is true
Joys of true Christmas, found here with you!

Hope

What is hope but the beauty of the impossible.
Fading whispers of the dream that could never be
And yet is more beautiful in its impossibility

For where the ocean roars and horrid beasts of our nightmares roam
The cracks and creavases of our whole being resound in a constant and impossible reality

We dare not whisper it,
It is too beautiful to hope and fail
Too much to long for upon the empty contours of our world

And yet it shows itself
Breaking in, flaming and true and whole
Announcing itself as more than our dreams could ever belay

Here the despair is all too near
Carrying with it the radical potency of what we deem indubitable

What is hope but the fantasy, that which we can never truly expect
It is too beautiful to speak
Too beautiful for our eyes to take hold of


Yet it takes hold of us
Making itself known as the good beyond our fears and plots and expectations.

Hope that conquers the trouble of our soul
It sits and breaths into us anew- light and love
Not in those places we expect the most,
But in those places we despair the most

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save!

Isaiah 59:(1-4)9-19
[See, the LORD's hand is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
Rather, your iniquities have been barriers
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies,
your tongue mutters wickedness.
No one brings suit justly,
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
conceiving mischief and begetting iniquity.]
Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us;
we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness;
and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall,
groping like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
among the vigorous as though we were dead.
We all growl like bears;
like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
For our transgressions before you are many,
and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions indeed are with us,
and we know our iniquities:
transgressing, and denying the LORD,
and turning away from following our God,
talking oppression and revolt,
conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.
Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands at a distance;
for truth stumbles in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking,
and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.
The LORD saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one,
and was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm brought him victory,
and his righteousness upheld him.
He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle.
According to their deeds, so will he repay;
wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;
to the coastlands he will render requital.
So those in the west shall fear the name of the LORD,
and those in the east, his glory;
for he will come like a pent-up stream
that the wind of the LORD drives on.

Brandon Walsh
11/2/09
Preaching


Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save!

The New Testament calls us to die to the world and be raised into the Body of Christ, becoming a new reality. In Eucharist the Church sign acts unity, our oneness in the flesh as well as in spirit.
That is what Scripture tells us.
That is what our prayer books and Manuals testify to.

Yet in 1994 the people of Rwanda, a group that is statistically 90% Christian, took the elements on Easter, and three days later began to kill each other with machetes. In the years preceding these bloody circumstances people marveled at Christianity’s widespread adoption in the country. Some used it as a model for future evangelism. And despite them being the Church, despite them sign acting their unity in Christ they turned on each other in bloodshed.

But we don’t have to look across oceans to see the brokenness of the Church. Here in San Diego there are Churches that are suing each other for their land. How many of our bothers and sisters in Christ go hungry on the streets of San Diego? It is easy to write off our world as being broken and fallen, but when we see the Body of Christ, the Church, in shambles we cry out LORD WHY?!

WE CRY OUT “LORD, HAVE YOU NOT MADE US NEW? WHAT DOES SALVATION MEAN IF NOT THAT WE WILL STOP KILLING EACH OTHER AND SUEING EACH OTHER?!”

(Pause)

The words of the Prophet Isaiah call out to us from this text.

The Book of Isaiah tells us a story about Israel, but from the perspective of God’s messenger. The story goes like this.
1) God calls Isa. To preach judgment to the people of Israel. – And Israel does what they do best; ignore God’s warning.
2) The Babylonian Army invades Jerusalem, destroys the Temple and drags the Israelites off into Exile.
3) Isaiah tells the Israelites that God has not forgotten them, and that one day God will save them and send them back to Israel.
4) Seventy Years later the Israelites witness the Army of Cyrus conquer Babylon. Cyrus sends the Israelites back to Jerusalem.

For seventy years the Israelites were strangers in a foreign land. As they were growing up their families would tell them of the old Kingdom, stories of the greatness of the Temple and the beauty of Israel. I can almost picture the scene, where children were kissed goodnight and told that one-day God would save them and bring them home.

Then it happens, the mighty conqueror Cyrus is raised up as God’s tool for the destruction of Babylon; it must have been a dream come true. Their Salvation had finally come. God’s Judgment of God’s people was over…

They packed up their things and venture off to see the land that their parents and grandparents had told them of. A land flowing with milk and Honey! I land where young David’s kill Goliath.

But when they get to Jerusalem it is desolate. Is their Salvation leaving the great city of Babylon to see this pile of broken rubble?? They start to rebuild the city, but they people of Israel soon find themselves in the midst of war, and political destabilization. They fall into disobedience and take matters into their own hands, acting like everyone else in order that they survive, crying out GOD IS THIS THE SALVATION YOU PROMISED US?! LORD HAVE YOU NOT RELEASED US FROM YOUR JUDGEMENT?

To which the Prophet Isaiah replies:

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save! It is your Sins that separate you from your GOD.

The Prophet leans into his pulpit and says “Your SIN is the thing messing you up- you are wondering why things are not going so well and you still have blood on your hands! You Beg God “WHY?” with your tongue one moment and with that same tongue murmur deceit the next.”

Then the prophet starts to confess for his community-

“Heck- We can all see, our eyes work but we are acting like blind people – groping around as if we were impaired somehow.

We know what Truth is, We God’s People, know what righteousness looks like and still we are violent! Still we are liars!

We act like Bears, roaring for Justice and still eating each other…expecting that Justice will just fall into our laps as we lick our lips.”

Then turning upwards the Prophet Repents,

“LORD, we have sinned against you. We have sinned against you, we acknowledge our iniquities – how badly we have messed up.

Our Sin makes us turn from Justice, God. And even when someone does try to be righteous, they become prey to our system of injustice.

TRUTH IS NOWHERE PEOPLE!”

If the Prophet had ended there this would be a very different message. However there are two words my good Friend Zach Ellis once repeated in a sermon that change everything- BUT GOD

“ But God saw this- God saw and acted
God will come to make new those who repent.
God will send a Redeemer for those who repent.

Note that the prophet uses the past tense- showing his total confidence in the coming salvation of God, but also pointing his people to the salvation God has already completed in freeing them from Exile.

God does not leave God’s people, he sends them the prophet to lead them in repentance- and into the fullness of Salvation when one day “The Redeemer” will come.

But that Redeemer has come! Come as God in flesh- the Savior of the world Jesus Christ!


The Church claims that in Christ it enters the narrative of Israel. So then, when the text speaks of a suffering servant, or The Redeemer, the Church can say that God’s fulfillment of this Prophet’s words are in the person of its savior. In light of the Cross-and the hope of resurrection, this text speaks to YHWH’s people anew.

So when We – The Church- The Body of Christ have been freed from our Exile of Death, but do not live up to the holiness we are called to…

WE CRY OUT GOD WHY!?

(Pause)
To which the prophet replies:
“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short of save.”

We too are an obstinate people. Like Israel we are a sinful People.
Like Israel we see the holiness of God and still stumble as if blind.
Like the remnant people of Israel we beg for explanation, a while we have sinful blood on our hands. We are given the Holy Spirit and we still participate in a world that sets up bitter systems of injustice. All the while Christians wait for God to renew us, trusting “cheap grace” to replace repentance.

Recently I brought my Youth group to a retreat run by the Diocese. On the surface it seemed like your typical weekend, equipped with acoustic guitar music and emotional singing. Yet as the weekend progressed I realized that the message being preached was this… “Sin is not loving yourself- Jesus Loves you and forgives you- you need to feel God’s love for you and know that you are beautiful in God’s sight.”

At no point were the kids called to REPENT, at no point were they charged with their sin. This truly is cheap grace, a grace that seems sugary sweet and at the same time will give you cavities.

Bonheoffer Spoke about this “cheap grace” in describing Nazi Germany. The German church preached it as a justification for their Genocide.

Like Israel we long for God to fix everything for us, without turning our hearts to God. Yet we do not have a Deus ex Machina- a God that comes in to erase our blunders

But God…

But God saw that God’s church participates in a world without Justice! God sent the Spirit that will not depart from us.

Before the Church in Rwanda slaughtered, before the Church of England justified colonialism, before the Church in Galatia was deceived. God had already moved for the ultimate salvation of God’s people.

Like the People of Israel we must repent! Like the people of Israel we must wash our hands of our violence and cry out to God for Forgiveness.

- Because one day the Redeemer will come again. May we repent of our sin- turn to God and reach out to the world- to the Body of Christ in Love.

Lord Forgive us your Church, for you have already moved mightily on our behalf.