Wartburg Theological Seminary Chapel
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Norma Cook Everist
Luke 21:34-22:6
Also Job 1:1-11
Opening Hymn: “Lead Me, Guide Me” ELW 768
From Prayer of the Day: “You led your people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide us now so that following your Son we may walk safely through the wilderness of this world.”
And Satan entered into Judas, one of the twelve.
Job: And Satan also came among them:
Each of us walks through Lent on a different path.
Each person faces a different wilderness of this world.
Each of us approaches the cross with different burdens, different bondages.
We think about our own particular issues.
And, when we consider Jesus calling each of us in baptism to ministry, we think of the various human predicaments in which the people among whom we live and serve find themselves. Which ones haunt them? How can we listen and meet people where they are? How will they tell us? Where does Jesus meet us and them?
Our text leads us to ask, which human predicament weighs you down. What are the human burden and bondage of those among you are called to love and serve? They, and we, are tempted as was Job, as was Judas, one of the twelve!
Dissipation
Addiction
Endless Worry
Betrayal
“These will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth,” Jesus said.
Consider the human story, lingering, perhaps just beneath the surface of a cheerful, I-have-it-all-together self-presentation. Each person lives in a particular human predicament in relation to God and to one another.
I have served in a wide range of contexts in parish ministry. Among most of the suburban people in the first congregation I served, one really could not easily see on Sunday morning the family struggles, the business entanglements, or the inner anguish. However, in the inner city, and in a small town, across the tracks, or across the river, people’s lives were more transparent. In the prayers, people would pray from the pew about the mess in their own lives.
Of course, one cannot stereotype congregations by size or socio-economic background. Whatever the size, whatever the setting, the point is that the basic human condition is remarkably the same, whether spoken out loud or not.
And Jesus said to be on guard.
Be alert at all times.
Be on alert for Satan.
Think about the people in your life; ponder your own.
We can dare to look. We are so prone to self-deception, particularly the more publicly prominent one’s life is. We dare to look, and in Christian community to have each other serve as a gentle mirror. You see, Jesus already knows.
It’s not so much how bad one’s actions. Temptations take people over, often from the inside out. There are various kinds of trouble; we will never cease to be surprised by the complexity of the bondages. Think of the people with whom you live and serve. What are their burdens and bondages?
We sang, “I am weak and I need your strength and power to help me over my weakest hour.”
Dissipation I don’t think much about dissipation: “I engaged in dissipation yesterday.” But there it was: wastefulness, squandering by reckless indulgence. Whether rich or poor, such living can weigh us down and hinder lives of discipleship
Addiction Living with CFS, I can’t drink more than a sip of wine. But, ah, I have other additions. Don’t you? What are the obsessions and addictions with which you wrestle? What about those people in our faith communities? How can we help people trust us enough to share the burdens of their addictions?
Endless Worry Now the matter of worry is not dependent upon the size of the problem. I know people who have a sense of trust even when having lost a job, and those who are weighed down by worry over which kind of toothpaste to purchase. Rather it’s a problem of a worrisome approach to life…endless worry.
As we walk, and talk, and listen, we dare to realize how these weigh us down and the people among whom we serve
As Jesus walks with us, we need to walk with the people, so that we can at least in some part know their burdens and bondages, and yes, their betrayals.
Jesus already knows, because as the Passover drew near, the chief priests and scribes, deceived by their own fear, were looking for a way to put Jesus to death.
And then Satan entered into Judas, our text says, who was, not one of “those” people but a near one, a trusted one, a discipled friend.
Jesus, who was betrayed, knows the human burdens, bondages and betrayals of everyone on the face of the earth.
Be on guard my friends, that your hearts remain not weighed down.
Jesus meets us in those weighed down places.
But take heart because Jesus also said,
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Word will not pass away.”
Hold fast to that, and to the fact that in the midst of all of this Jesus was teaching every day in the temple.
Jesus would go out and spend the night on the Mt of Olives (as it was called)
And in the morning all the people would get up early to listen to him in the Temple.
When Satan is most active, in the midst of reckless indulgence, endless worries, addictions and obsessions, in the midst of betrayal, the Word will not pass away. And people, weighed down, want to hear. We are called to dare to look, to dare to walk all the way to the cross with Jesus, and we are called to teach in his name. People who cannot even put into words their troubles and temptations, those who choose to or choose not to say and pray their bondages publicly, want to hear what Jesus has to say. They want us in our teaching to listen them into speech, and to love them into trust in the one who wants to walk with them.
And so we will sing together, “I want Jesus to walk with me.”
When I’m in trouble, Lord, walk with me. When my heart is almost breaking I want Jesus to walk with me. When our hearts are almost breaking with the burdens and bondages and betrayals of the people among whom we are called to serve, we want Jesus to walk with us as we walk with people
Hymn: “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” ELW 325