All the Cookies

 John 8:31-36 
Reformation Sunday 
October 27, 2024

 

Do you like cookies? Who doesn’t like cookies?

Did your mom ever give you a cookie when you did something good?

Parents do that: “You’ve been good. Here, have a cookie.”

Positive reinforcement.

And then, I guess it works the other way:

“You’ve been bad? You’re not getting any cookies.”

Maybe it’s not always cookies, maybe it’s video games or TV

or money or cell phones, sometimes it’s even affection,

interaction, attention, but the same thought is there.

 

“You’ve been good. You get a cookie.”

“You’ve been bad? No cookies.”

 

This cookie system works some of the time,

It’s one dimension of parenting, leadership, and other relationships.

Children, and even adults, can learn rules from it

But when it comes to relationships between people

the cookie system falls short .

 

If our relationships were always only built on a strict system of cookies -- 

of rewards and punishments –  

then where does that leave things?

Where does that leave our inner moral compass, our hearts?

Where is the trust, the compassion, the give and take of love,

Where is nurturing, spiritual development, the joy?

 

If it was all about rewards and punishments

then our relationships would only be about how many cookies we had.

 

So why am I talking about cookies?

Why am I talking about cookies on the day that we celebrate

Martin Luther Nailing (or mailing) those 95 theses to

the door of the church at Wittenberg?

Because the Lutheran Reformation was all about cookies.

 

Let me explain.

At the time of the Reformation,

the Christian church believed that God completely

worked on the cookie system.

 

They believed, basically, that God had a huge bag of cookies,

Which they called “God’s grace”

And God would give people a cookie when they did something

good to earn it and likewise,

God would take away cookies when people did something wrong.

If someone died with enough cookies,

then they could go to heaven.

But if they did not have enough cookies,

they went to all kinds of strange and horrible places

where there was wailing and gnashing of teeth.

God was only seen as the great big cookie dispenser

and TAKER in the sky.

 

In Martin Luther’s time,

this was basically the point of the church.

The leaders like priests and bishops and cardinals

were the powerful and important cookie dispensers.

They were there to determine why, what, and who

would get a cookie.

 

Going to church got you a cookie,

taking communion got you a cookie,

giving confession got you a cookie,

praying got you a cookie,

helping someone got you a cookie,

and giving money to the church got you a whole lot of cookies.

 

Of course the powerful priests and bishops and other

cookie dispensers gave themselves tons of cookies and 

were bound to go to heaven, because why not give yourself a bunch of cookies?

So they were happy.

 

But if you didn’t go to church because you had to work,

or you drank a little, or you took your neighbor’s wheelbarrow,

or you said a bad word about your boss,

or you took too much bread at dinner,

or you had an impure thought about your neighbor’s spouse.

Then your cookies were taken away.

And most people were in a cookie deficit all the time.

 

What Martin Luther saw was people

who were desperately afraid all the time.

They were afraid of the church. Afraid of God.

They were afraid that they wouldn’t

have enough cookies when they died.

They were afraid that their deceased relatives

didn’t have enough cookies and that they were

suffering in purgatory for thousands of years.

 

Martin himself, who was a monk, whose job was, basically, 

making cookies all day long – who prayed and worshipped constantly,

who went to confession every day, who studied the bible all the time –

Even he was living in fear that he didn’t have enough cookies.

 

The church was so focused on their cookies,

they didn’t care for the world around them.

They didn’t notice people suffering and hurting.

There was no room to notice God acting and the Spirit moving.

It affected people’s relationship with God.

 

Between God and God’s people there was a great chasm --

a great big pile of cookies -- that people just couldn’t get over.

 

Martin Luther looked at this situation and said

“This isn’t grace at all.”

This reward and punishment isn’t like God.

This isn’t Good News for the poor and oppressed.

This isn’t like Jesus he knew and read about in scriptures.

This isn’t the same one he knows who ate

with sinners and thieves and tax collectors.

This isn’t the one who told us not to worry because

we were more valuable to God than the birds or the lilies.

This isn’t’ the one who said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

 

Martin Luther was a bible professor of bible.

He lectured on Psalms, and Paul’s letters.

The God that Luther read about in

scripture was the God of love and incarnation.

The God who loved the world so much

he became one of us and lived with us .

Not a God who sat up in heaven, removed from the people,

keeping a check list of what they did right

and what they did wrong just counting everyone’s cookies.

 

The God that Luther read about in scriptures

was a God who gave his very life for us on the cross.

  

And Luther read, and read, and re-read, the verse

in Paul that we read today:

For there is no distinction,

since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

they are now justified by his grace as a gift.

 

And then after a lot of contemplation, Luther understood.

There is no distinction.

We’ve all fallen short of God’s plans for us.

No one deserves the cookies.

But God still gives us all the cookies - as a gift.

 

Grace isn’t about giving cookies only when you’ve earned it.

Grace is about giving you a cookie when you don’t deserve it too. 

Luther realized that the real Good News of the Gospel

of Jesus Christ was that God gave us all the cookies up front.

 

All the cookies.

It is a gift to us, free and clear.

Given to us before we even started doing right and wrong,

To be opened and eaten when we need it.

When Jesus died on that cross, he gave us all the cookies.

Martin Luther and the 95 Theses reminded us all

that God has given us  everything.

All God’s love, all God’s promises,

all God’s gifts, and eternal life with God.

And no matter what we do, no matter where we go,

no matter what happens to us, that is our gift.

  

Will some of us misuse the cookies? sure.

Will some of us forget we have the cookies

and just leave them wasting away in a cookie jar? Of course.

But it’s a chance that God is willing to take.

To make us free and reconciled to God.

 

No more worried hours wondering if we have enough.

No more wondering whether we have God’s love.

No more wondering if we’ve done enough.

No more worrying about our eternal life.

No more spending all our spiritual time

focusing on ourselves and our own salvation.

 

We are free now to get on with God’s work in the world.

Free to love one another, free to care for one another,

Free to help the poor, release the captives,

Free to share this Good News with the world.

 

And free to see God for what God actually is:

the resurrection, the light, the hope in times of trouble.

A wonderful, kind, nurturing parent who wants to engulf us with love.

The God of love.  Unconditional love. All the cookies.

 

Now you might think this is all past history.

Some of it is surely. But lots of it still applies.

We still are preoccupied by cookies.

When we think, “I’m so blessed by God.”

Or “what have I done to deserve this?”

We’re talking about cookies.

Divine rewards and punishments.

We still judge other people by how many

cookies we think they have or don’t have.

We still need to be reminded over and over again.

 

Christ has made us free.

Free from the endless counting of our own cookies,

and free from counting other people’s cookies.

Free from wondering whether or not we are loved,

or saved, or going to heaven.

Christ has freed us from fear.

Christ has freed us from the fear of God.

 

This is the Gospel.

And if Christ has made us free,

then we are free indeed. 

Choosing Power Over Love

 Mark 10:35-45

Stewardship

October 20, 2024

 

Henri Nouwen who was a wonderful

priest and author wrote a very wise thing

"The long painful history of the church

Greatest In the Kingdom
J. Kirk Richards

is the history of people ever and again tempted

to choose power over love, 

control over the cross,

being the leader over being led by God."

 

This has been the churches temptation

and the people of Christ have given into it:

the Spanish Inquisition, 

Christians continuous persecution

of Jewish people, Early Calvinism, burning people at the stake,  

even our own Martin Luther gave into this temptation:

when he was asked what to do about the peasant uprising in 1525

a large group of laborers protesting unfair conditions

he told the governors that they had the right, 

and even the obligation to kill the protesting peasants outright, 

and they did kill them

some say up to 10,000 people were killed.

 

The temptation to take control over facing the cross.

This was James and John’s temptation too.

 

Jesus has just told the disciples that he’s going to be

arrested, tortured and killed by the authorities 

like he does a few times in Mark’s gospel. And almost in response to that,

James and John, the Sons of Thunder,

come up to Jesus and ask Jesus if he can promise 

them the corner office and the best parking spaces in God’s Kingdom.

They want to use their position as Jesus diciple

for their own beneift and privledge.

  

They hear about Jesus own sacrifice death and resurrection

and they don’t think about the implications for the world,

or the implications for Jesus, or how they need to carry their

own cross (like Jesus told them they did.)

And all they could think about about their own position

and claiming the power of Jesus for themsevles.

 

It might seem like a small, harmless request,

but that’s how these temptations work.

One innocent thing leads to another.

And then things are no longer innocent.

 

People often do terrible things with the excuse that

they‘re protecting themselves or their families or their memory,

or heaven forbid, they are protecting God –who needs no protecting.

 

Barbra Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest and author said:

“As a general rule, I would say that human beings never 

behave more badly toward one another 

than when they believe they are protecting God.”

 

Lots of Christians are have political power in the US today.

It has almost been a requirement in this country to be

a Christian to be elected in some places.

Thankfull that is changing slowly and people of different faiths

or no faiths are being elected to offices.

 

There is nothing wrong with people of faith holding political office,

and absolutely nothing wrong with people’s faith informing

how they govern and the things they vote for.

 

But there are a lot of Christians in political office,

who believe they are protecting God, who, as I said,

needs no protecting. They use their power to advance Christianity

and particular ideologies of Christianity, 

and their intent is to make those beliefs into law 

for other people regardless of their faith.

 

They use their political office to secure privileged status for Christians 

in our society, and to impose and imbed Christian beliefs onto everyone. 

I’m sure they believe they are protecting God –

who does not need their protection.

 

The people who support this kind of thing, 

usually have a very narrow understanding of Christianity 

that is authoritative and punitive, and that, I believe, is contrary to Jesus way.

Although it claims some of the same images and characteristics

of the story of Jesus, I think that this ideology is diametrically

opposed to Christ and to the point of Jesus minsitry.

 

For instance, and this is just one instance of many instances

going on right now in politics, the state superintendent 

of schools in Oklahoma, Ryan Walters, 

made a state-wide mandate that every classroom 

in the state of Oklahoma incorporate the Bible

into lessons in public schools for students to grades 5-12.

Like even in classes like Math and Chemistry.

 

Every classroom must have a bible in it and it has to be the King James Version. 

They’re proposing spending $3million dollars of the budget 

to get bibles into every classroom and there is no clear curriculum 

to teach it, so it would be up to each school district, school, 

or even individual teachers. 

I’m sure Ryan Walters thinks he is protecting God, 

who does not need Ryan‘s protection.

 

Now, I love the bible. It’s a treasure trove of information, history,

and insight for my faith and for many other people’s faith,

and you might think as a Christian pastor I would support this idea.

But I don’t. I think it’s horrible. For many reasons.

 

There are some practical reasons I think this is bad.

As a citizen of the US, I believe that people should

have the right to worship or not worship as they want,

and forcing a specific book of religion on students in public school

does not align with our constitution.

If you would not be comfortable with the Quran or the

Book of Mormon being incorportated into every classroom,

then you should not be comfortable with this.

And if I were a parent, even a Christian parent,

I would not want random teachers with no religious training,

teaching my children their own versions of how to

interpret the bible. There are some very far-out understandings

of the scriptures, it’s been used to support slavery,

murder, hatred, segregation, inqisitions, wars, genocide

and other things that are opposed to Jesus message.

 

As I said, the people who want to enforce this kind of thing,

have a very narrow understanding of Christianity,

that is often very authoritative and punishing.

I wouldn’t want my children learning that interpertation

of the bible in their public school classroom.

And what if someone who hated Jesus was teaching the bible?

I wouldn’t want my children learning that either.

Faith is best taught in church or at home or maybe

at a private school.

  

But  my biggest objection is that this kind of thing is

forcing the ministry and teaching of Jesus on people is contrary to

Jesus ministry and teaching.  It’s contrary to everything 

that Jesus taught, and lived, and hoped for his disciples to follow. Jesus said:

 

You know that among the gentiles those whom 

they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, 

and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you.

 

It is not so among us.

Christ’s Way was never meant to be a mandate or a demand.

And as soon as we make it that, it stops being Christ’s Way,

and becomes some crude caricature of it.

We never achieve God’s vision by lording it over people

or forcing them to learn, or convert,

or do things that we do out of spiritual convictions.

Once you make a law demanding that people

or children or anyone else learn about, or become Christian,

or enforce Christian beliefs or practices on other people,

then you are not teaching them about Jesus way,

you’re teaching another way entirely.

 

Jesus said, whoever wishes to become great among you

must be your servant, and whoever wishes

to be first among you must be slave of all.

 

This is how we bring people to Jesus: by serving others.

We bring the Kingdom of God is through helping and

understanding, through tolerance and love of others.

Not through mandates.

 

Now I do believe there is a place in politics for Christians,

and that our faith should inform our votes

and the votes of the politicans in power.

  

But when a Christian is motivated to let their political voice

and power be put in effect, it is to follow Jesus way

to help and serve others people. Not to protect God or Christianity.

Wheover wishes to be first among you must serve all.

 

Our goal as Christians in the political arena is always to help others.

Specifically those who are under-represented 

and have less money and power, and are often forgotten by the world:

like the poor, the homeless, the immigrant, the stranger, 

the elderly, the disabled, the sick, the unloved.

 

When we vote for, or enact laws that help others,

then we are bringing Christ’s kingdom into this kingdom.

 

On the other hand, If we enact laws that just support,

defend, or further the institution of Christianity,

or make mandates of Christian beliefs,

then we are not bringing Christ’s kingdom to earth.

We are not doing God’s will. And we are not following Jesus.

We are following some other messiah entierly.

 

We follow the one who went to the cross,

to show us exactly what happens when 

authoritarian political power and religion get together:

 

As, again, Barbara Brown Taylor wrote:

“Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. 

He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, 

which is always a deadly mix. 

Beware those who claim to know the mind of God 

and who are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform.

  

We follow the one who could have had

all the power in the world, who could have lived in a palace,

who could have had all the priveledges he wanted,

with riches, and comfort.

He could have had every person of every nation

bow to him and live under is rule if he wanted to.

 

But instead he used his power for the good of thers,

he used his power to heal, to forgive,

to set captives like us free from our own prisons

we make for ourselves. He used his power to show

us how to live, and then he gave his ministry to us to take care of.

Jesus could have had anything in the world,

but he gave his whole life to serve us.

 

We follow the one who didn’t lord his power

over others, but on the night before he died,

knelt down before his friends and washed their feet.

Even the feet of the one who would betray him

and turn him in to be killed.

 

In God’s kingdom, real power is found in giving our power to others.

May we always choose love of others over the love of power.

May we always choose the way of Christ’s cross.