Angels

It's a lesser known fact that I dislike Joss Whedon's entire catalogue of films and TV.  Do not care for it. However, I've never been one to miss out on the chance to toss in a cheap gag, so on Sunday, when I was talking about credits in film, I gave a shout out to someone being credited for being and assistant to Mr. Whedon.  In a sermon about Angels.

Gettit?  Oh, never mind.  Anyhow, I felt as though it was high time to dispel some frequently held thoughts about angels.  And angels, you see, are a bit of a tricky biscuit.  Here's why.  Describe an angel to me.  Without looking, without getting all up ins, describe an angel to me in your mind.  Now click this link.  Were you right?  Is that what you thought angels would look like?

Probably.  That's sort of the cultural idea of angels, and how they're supposed to look.  And this is, weirdly enough, how we figure we're going to recognize angelic beings.  You figure that they're going to have a 'look,' and that look is to be
1 - White
2 - Reasonably attractive
3 - Having an enormous pair of wings coming out of their backs.
4 - Bonus if they're dressed in togas or a suit of armor.

Now, this is a look that we've constructed.  Because here's the truth about angels.  Are you ready?  Because I'm about to drop something on you.  The Bible tells us, about angels, that they are purposefully unrecognizable.  That is, they're around, but you're not going to recognize them.  Hebrews talks about that, when it talks about hospitality, saying that

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

No Kidding.  This is the way things go down in the scriptures.  There's a good chance that by you being hospitable, you have entertained angels without knowing it.  Now, that wouldn't be possible if they were walken around with whacking great wings coming out of their backs.  Not possible at all.  

But seriously, isn't that the point?  Of what purpose would the work of Christ, the work of God be, if this was all so obvious?  If' you're waiting for a time in which all these things will be totally obvious, in which you'll get to see first hand the angels and so on face to face, then you'd better wait for judgment day, because that's the only time that this stuff will or iundeed should be obvious.  Aside from that, well, you're going to have to mix it up a bit if you want to recognize the divine.  You're going to having to listen.

If you were paying attention on Sunday (and really, who wasn't?), you would have remembered that I talked about the meaning of the word angel.  Specifically, how it means messenger in the original Greek.  And what is important about a messenger?  Probably his message.  Ultimately, this is the most important thing, and like most good messengers, angels want you to be listening to what they say, not looking at them and admiring them.

As I've said many times before, Christianity is incarnational.  It is the essence of the faith, that God took on flesh and dwelt among us as we are.  And when he did, he did so in disguise.  He did so in a hidden manner.  He wasn't on display, he wasn't out there ruling from a throne, as many of us may have wished he was.  He was landing on hostile shores as the rightful king, disguised as a peasant, and dwelling amongst his people, beginning the revolution from within.  What's important about this is that Jesus came not in glory, but in humility, to serve and to teach.  If you were waiting for him to be here riding on the clouds, you will have missed something important.  It's not about what he looks like, it's about what he says.

For all of our best intentions, we're still really visual.  We still get really hung up on what people look like, we still have expectations as to where we should slot people based on what they look like.  And then the Bible drops three passages on us that should shake us up.  The first is the one from Hebrews 13 above:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

The second is from Jesus' image that he paints for us of the last Judgment, found in Matthew.

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

The last is from the transfiguration, the one time while Jesus was on earth that he was fully seen in his majesty.

While he was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!"

The whole purpose of all of this is to not be looking for angels, but rather listening for them.  It's to not be looking for Jesus but to be listening to him.  All your expectations about what these people will look like, toss those expectations on the back burner, and don't worry about them.  Concentrate more on listening to what the Christ actually has to say to you and for you.  And if you want to listen to the angels, listen to this :

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9But he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God."

That's the message of the angels.  Of all angels. Of all Christians.  Worship God.  The one who restores and makes whole.  The God who came in disguise for the salvation of the world.  The God who brings justice and peace.

Worship God.

PJ.

All the small things

There was a band, back in the day, called Blink 182.  You probably don't remember them, but it case you do, they had a brief yet memorable time in the spotlight, where they were the coolest gig in town.

 That was based, in part, on the funny videos they made.  Remember when Much Music showed music videos?  Yeah, those were the days.

Anyhow, one of the songs that they had was called 'all the small things,' and it had basically nothing to do with the Gospel reading today.  Or did it?

You see, the Gospel reading had a lot to do with cash, and investments, and debts, and all that.  And, as I said at great length on Sunday, debt and financial ruin doesn't usually happen overnight.  It happens because bad decisions get made every day, and they add up quickly.  It's never a matter of just buying a boat, or buying a car, or a motorcycle, but it's almost always about the little shopping trips.  That's what adds up.  It's always what adds up. Now, I mentioned a show on Sunday, and I'd like to show you a relevant clip from it now, the show being called 'til debt do us part.'  Now, this shouldn't surprise anyone, but the number one reason that families get into trouble and fight is based on financial stuff.  If the money is gone, the relationship tends to hit rocky patches pretty darn quickly.  Here, enjoy this clip of Gail Vaz-Oxlade ripping into people, and then we'll discuss.

Right, so you get the idea.  The nice young gentleman who is featured doesn't earn enough money to satisfy their rich tastes in stuff.  But the problem isn't that.  It's not just that he doesn't earn a lot of money.  The problems are bigger than that, and they're close to what Jesus was talking about in the Gospel reading.  'Til debt do us part deals not just with the poor, it deals with the very very rich as well.  People who have massive earnings, people who have all kinds of disposable income, people who have no end of cash, and they still seem to run out of money every month.  How on earth do they do it?

Simply enough, it's about being bad at the small things.  It's perpetually the small things that get you into trouble.  If you are bad at the small things with a small income, it'll just snowball the more money you have.  The more you have, the more you'll spend, and just earning more money isn't a solution if you haven't learned how to manage a small amount.

This is a basic, and it applies to all aspects of life, too.  If you are faithless in a little, that won't be improved if we have a lot to deal with.  Think about your lives, and how you operate.  Now, you and I may very well from our comfortable spaces disparage Hitler and Mao and Stalin, we may tut-tut about the various dictators and gun runners, the drug lords and captains of malice.  We may even glower at our politicians and police, and insist that they have a long way to go before they get up to our standards.  Well, that may be true, but here's the problem, is that many of us, too many of us, are trusted with very little.  How do you think wars and devastation and poverty get started?  It's just the way of things?  Why do you think that after the Arab spring, the situation in Egypt went right back to the way things were?  Why do you think that things haven't improved significantly in Afghanistan in the twelve years that our forces have been stationed there?  Why do you think that there is always widespread corruption in places like Haiti that never seems to change no matter who is in charge?  I'll tell you why - because if you can't be trusted with a little, you can't be trusted with a lot.

Understanding this is key to understanding the larger message of the Gospel reading from Sunday: When Jesus says 'One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.'  You and I, we look at the drug lords and war lords, and tut tut at them from a position of smug superiority, while all the while being involved in countless little tiny

indiscretions in our own lives that seem less damaging, but ultimately are leading in a similar direction.  Honestly, it's almost always the little things that turn us into disasters.  None of us are going to turn into Satan worshipers overnight, but it's the small things.

Have you ever wondered why the Bible ,why God himself, seems to care so much about what you think?  He does.  He really does.  Everything from coveting to lust, God seems to care about.  He cares about hate, he cares about anger, he cares about words exchanged and thoughts thinked.  He cares about it all, because God knows that your problems start in your mind, and increase from there.  It's so small, and yet that's where all the large stuff comes from.  This is the reason why Jesus talked about the purity laws, and told people that it's not what you eat that makes you unclean, it's what you think and say that makes you unclean.

So you and I, average Christians, need to think about this principle.  Gil-Scott Heron once famously said that if everyone wanted peace as much as they say they want peace, we'd have peace.  All of us want world peace, a solution to world hunger, pollution to go away, health for every human being, all
that, and we're inevitably stumbled when none of it happens.  But here's the deal with the Christian faith: World peace is not your job as a Christian.  Peace in your neighborhood and family and workplace is.  World hunger is not your job as a Christian, but feeding your family, the poor in your city, that is your job.  Your job is the small things.  Caring for those who are around us, those who are near to us, those who have been placed in our path.  We have got to be faithful in the small things.

Why?

Because then the big things will take care of themselves.

It's the old adage of pinching the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves.  It works for all sorts of things too.  If your sin is out of control, and really whose isn't, then the best way to go about things isn't to make a pledge to keep the commandments, because you'll fail drastically.  But if you confess your sins when they occur, the small ones, the words spoken in anger, the thoughts that shouldn't have been thinked, if you confess those to Jesus as the problem that they actually are, then he'll forgive them.  And the more you're concerned about your small sins, then likely the fewer big issues will come up.  And this holds for the overall picture of the world as well.  If you, instead of concentrating on the big issues of world poverty work to aleviate poverty in your community, then hopefully there will be less poverty.  This is how it's supposed to work, and work properly.  This is what Jesus places before us, saying to us 'care for the smaller things.  Worry about that.  Let me take away your small sins, let me work on your small stuff, and that should take care of the big stuff.'

Jesus is really concerned with all the small things.

The Beat up Good Shepherd

We have an image in our heads about the Good Shepherd, don't we?  Or, at least, those of us who go to Good Shepherd do.  That is, that he looks like this:

This is a great picture, mainly because it shows the real lack of understanding that we have about incarnational Christianity.  There are two key things to notice here.  First: look at Jesus.  And yes, all the pictures of the Good Shepherd are pretty much like this.  Notice what he look like.  Look at his pristine robe.  Look at his white garment, which goes all the way to the ground, and is intensely unstained.  He looks great, like he just got dressed that moment.  He looks for all the world as though he just hopped out of a tide commercial and walked into the first century AD.  I hate to be this guy, but I don't care for the pristine Jesus on a good day, and even less so in the story of the good shepherd.  The whole idea with the good shepherd, and specifically in this week's reading is that Jesus goes to retrieve the sheep from where it has gotten lost.
Now, unless I'm much mistaken, and I rarely am, sheep don't get lost in convenient places.  That's sort of a misnomer, really.  If you've lost your sheep, odds are fair to amazing that that sheep has gotten lost somewhere drastically inconvenient.  Jesus talks about it in other places, saying:

 "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the

 Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

Matthew 12:11

The Good Shepherd has to take hold of a sheep and lift it out of a pit.  Have you ever tried to lift an animal out of a pit?  In the images of the Good Shepherd, he's always walking back with a sheep in his arms, and the sheep is clean, and Jesus is clean, and nobody looks like they've just been in a pit.  Now, you may question why this is such a big deal, but it is:  It's a big deal because it plays very heavily into our notion of what it means to have an incarnate Christ.  What was he incarnated into?  Was it a beautiful world in which everything was nice, or was it this world in which all sorts of things were bad and rotten? Was it a world in which people told dirty jokes, were racists, and hated each other? A world in which people didn't think too much of ripping each other off, and did their best to avoid working too hard?  Yes, he came into that world, because that world is this world, except with less toothpaste, soap, or deodorant.  And if a sheep wanders off, where is the sheep going to wander off to? Somewhere gross, probably.

I've said it before, but the single worst smell I've ever smelled in my entire life was out at Stan and Chris Vuksic's cabin, where their dog, Deacon, rolled around in what I assume was dead fish.  It smelled so bad that I thought I might actually vomit, and that's the first time I've ever felt that way from smelling something.  It was unbelievably, shockingly bad.  Deacon didn't seem to mind, but that's the deal with having an Australian Shepherd: They're going to get into some grossness.  

Sheep are doubtlessly going to be the same way.  Every image we have of a sheep on Jesus' shoulders or whatever, always has the sheep looking placid, and spotless, like the worst that it did was to just get a bit confused and stand in a pristine meadow, waiting to be picked up by the shepherd.  But the Bible tells us specifically that these sheep are wandeirng into pits, they're getting themselves caught up in thornbushes and brambles, they're muddying things with their feet, and trampling down the good pasture land until it's a muddy mess.  This is exactly what the sheep do.  They're gross, and they're going to wander into gross places.  That's what they need to get rescued from.

Okay, and there's a second problem with the picture we all know of the Good Shepherd:  He's in too the cat will fight you.  Most of the injuries I get from this exercise aren't from the thorns or brambles, they're from the cat himself.  The image we have of the sheep passively sitting in the Good Shepherd's arms being escorted back home, and everyone's as calm as anything, and the Shepherd is in great shape, well, I don't know about that. I figure it would be much more like this:
good of shape.  No, not that he works out too much, something else.  Now, I've never tried to get a sheep out of a pit, but I do have a cat, and I do know that my cat, uh, how to politely say this, he's an inside cat who drastically overestimates his ability to be outside. If he sees an open door, he flings himself at it with hopeless abandon, only to stop his wild charge as soon as he gets under the bushes at the side of the house.  He has been doing this since he was a kitten, and he really hasn't gotten much better at it.  But there's something else that happens.  Cats aren't dogs.  They don't really come when they're called, with any reliability, at least.  And if you try to get a cat down from a tree, or from under a bush, or from, essentially anywhere, not only will you get messy, but, and this is important here,

Did you see that ram?  He wasn't messing around!  And this is how we react to Christ, as well!  When the Good Shepherd comes to bring us home, we don't want to go!  And we'll fight anyone who comes near to us, regardless of whether they're there to help or not.

I hadn't thought much about this until I heard the reading from Ezekiel for this last Sunday, which said 

21 you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them fa
r and wide,

Ezekiel 34:21

The rams have horns, and they have them for a reason - to fight, to thrust with horn and push with

side and shoulder.  And, and here's where the juice is loose: the juice gets loose where the sheep, the rams, heck, us, we cause the injury to the one who is trying to save us.  We're so used to the idea of the good shepherd being attacked only by the wolves, but honestly, that's only part of his difficulties.  He's being set upon by the sheep he came to save, too.  He's probably going to be every bit as beat up as Steve-O and Ryan Dunn, trying to soothe the savage beast.  Long story short, the very real risk that Jesus runs is the risk to himself from us.  Think about who called for his crucifixion, and who nailed him up.  Think about who was wanting to stone him to death, and who was seeking to throw him off a cliff.  Not Satan, or some vague spirit, or some prowling lion, or whatever.  No, it was people, the sheep he came to save.  If he's beaten up and dead by the end of the Gospels, it's because the sheep, no, the rams, have been roughing him up as he tried to save them.  This is a trustworthy saying, and true, that when Jesus came to save sinners, they didn't recieve him well, and still don't.  The image of the Good Shepherd, that sheep should have horns, and the shepherd should be waaaaaaay more beaten up.  

So why the rescue?  Why bother bringing back to safety an animal who wants you to crumble before him?  Why any of it? Because he loves us and cares for us, even as we hurt him.  It's the same reason I continue to coax my cat out of trees even as he claws my arms.  It's the same reason that the Vuksic family washes their dog gently with pert plus even as he reeks so bad folks down the block feel uneasy.  The shepherd is good.  He loves the things that hurt him.  He has to fight not only the wolves, but the rams themselves.  And he does this becasue he loves us, and loves us extremely.  

PJ.