Chris Yaw

A day before officiating a wedding, my child care plans fell through.

After calling my usual babysitters, who by that time were booked, I made a frantic call to my sister, who graciously dropped her plans and came over to watch the toddler.

So you can imagine, a week later, when the phone rang, and my sister asked if I would do her a favor, that I would pretty much do anything she asked. I would have cleaned out her garage, made her a three course dinner, taken the trash out for 2 months, or emptied the cat litter until Christmas.

The point is that generosity begets generosity.

And what we'll see in Sunday's Gospel is that God's epic generosity with us, is meant to inspire our own generosity with others.

As I am to recall the generous act of my sister dropping everything and coming to my rescue, you and I are to remember Jesus's pinnacle gifts of forgiveness, acceptance, and love for us as we consider what Jesus asks of us.

Here's a hint:

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."

Praying for those who voted differently than I did, who hold political views that I think are destroying democracy, and who exhibit greed and selfishness that oppress and abuse the most vulnerable in our society, is not easy for me - or any of us.

But what makes loving my enemy easier, is when we contemplate the forgiveness, grace, and acceptance that God has given us: How many things have we done that have offended God and our neighbors - that God has forgiven us for? How many times has God let us off the hook, come to the rescue, and accepted us with open arms when we deserve the opposite?

Friends, performing the difficult - if not impossible - task of being kind to those who are offensive, accepting of those who don’t like us, and forgiving of those who harm us - and would even do so again - is only palatable when we consider how God does this for us.

Who do we need to pray for, make peace with, and accept?

Contemplating God’s generosity can give us what we need to make that happen.

Telemarketers...

Why do they always call during dinner time? Or when I'm on a ladder? Or when I'm in the middle of a conversation with somebody else?

...trying to sell me replacement windows, a timeshare, life insurance...

So when I answer the phone I will admit that I'm not always on my good church behavior. I can only imagine the amount of displaced anger and vitriol these phone bank staffers put up with, what kind of thick skin they must have, and why they chose this line of work.

In Sunday's Gospel, you and I will meet someone else whose profession makes them easy to be looked down upon, a tax collector, who goes to the temple to pray, and is mocked by a high-minded clergy person who treats him with about as much respect as some people treat telemarketers.

This epic story is an invitation for you and me to judge people not by their professions, but by their personhood - not by what they do, but by who they are.

So let’s take telemarketers, 2/3 of whom have a high school diploma, 1/3, though, who don’t even have that. On average, they make $13.46 per hour, for an annual salary of less than $28,000 per year. This is less than half of the $61,000 that is considered to be a living wage in the United States.

So when I interact with that person, who has come into my life, I am talking with someone who is among the less educated and less wealthy among us. And instead of using this opportunity to vent my displaced anger, it becomes a chance to talk with someone with whom Jesus and the entire Bible give a preferential option: the poor and powerless.

Instead of seeing telemarketers, or anyone else in the same circumstances, as an aggressor or pest, wouldn’t I do better to see them as someone who very well may need a good word? Instead of seeing my annoyance, can I see their personhood - someone who deserves respect and affirmation?

Who are the tax collectors (or telemarketers) in your life?

How do you treat them?

How might God be calling us to do better?

When Etienne Martin was 12, and the Germans came to occupy his hometown of Bordeaux, France, he and his friends decided they would not idly sit by. Because they knew the city so well, and the occupiers didn't, they were able to move around almost freely at night, hiding from guards and doing incredibly destructive things to German vehicles.

Specifically, Etienne and his friends liked to put things in gas tanks: water, urine, sand, metal shavings - anything to foul up the car's engine.

Yes, we don't need to remind anyone here in the Motor City of an automobile's need for refueling, specific fueling; gasoline, Diesel fuel, and now electricity. Automobile makers clearly communicate the exact kind of fuel that's needed to make the vehicle functional. Cars don't run well on orange juice, Maple syrup, or Diet Coke - no matter how many Mentos you add...

This Sunday you and I will hear a familiar parable Jesus uses to tell his disciples about their need to pray. After all, prayer is the Christian's fuel.

It's our regular act of talking with God, reflecting and meditating, in which we take in the values, goals, and ambitions, indeed the image of the Most High, knowing that the more connected we stay with God, the more likely we are to find our own wholeness, to do God's will, to lead altruistic and contented lives.

Of course the problem arises when we put other things into our tanks, when we think that we will run optimally on things that are not recommended by the manufacturer.

So when Jesus talks about our need to pray, we can ask ourselves, how are we fueling our tanks?

What are we letting in and what are we keeping out?

How might we put more of the right fuel into our souls?

My friend Diana tells the story of a college friend who seemed to have everything.

She came from a wealthy family, went to private schools, had a great wardrobe, and was very popular. Yet over time Diana noticed how often this woman would complain. She did not get the perfect grades she wanted at school. The man she was dating was not popular enough. Her wardrobe was never right. And on and on.

Eventually Diana and her rich friend parted company, and soon after Diana came upon some research that talked about headwinds and tailwinds.

Tailwinds are those blessings we have that we have a hard time remembering, our wealth, education, status, etc. Our headwinds are the challenges that beset us, often with our careers, our families, our finances, etc. And research finds that we are much more apt to pay attention to the headwinds than the tailwinds, often to our demise.

This may have been the case in Sunday's gospel, when 10 lepers approached Jesus asking to be healed, Jesus heals them all, sending them to the high priest, who has the authority to readmit them into society. Curiously, only one of the 10 return to Jesus, and a Samaritan at that. Jesus, then lifts up a lesson about the importance of paying attention to our tailwinds.

Many of us are more than familiar with the scientific research on gratefulness, that grateful people have lower blood pressure, sleep sounder, are more resilient when faced with adversity, etc. - this, as we fight forces around us that would have us pay more attention to our adversitties than our blessings.

So perhaps we are being asked,

What are our tailwinds?

How often do we remember them and thank God for them?
What might I do this week to more regularly take note of these blessings?

Board up the windows, empty the basement, and head for the hills: there is a storm coming.

This is the mood, of course, across Southwest Florida as Hurricane Ian bears down, set to wreak multi-billion dollar damage upon a typically serene Florida coastline. Our hearts and prayers go out to those whose lives and livelihoods are in danger, especially the poor and vulnerable who most often fare worst.

But the idea of weathering a storm is not just a challenge facing Floridians.

In our own places, in our own ways, each of us is weathering a storm or two of our own. We have bodies that are ailing, friends who are suffering, jobs that don't fulfill, and relationships that are far from perfect. And no one is immune to the general societal apathy, negativity, discouragement, and anxiety that pervades our every day.

How do we endure our storms?

This was at the heart of a question the disciples brought to Jesus in this Sunday's gospel when they asked him to, “Increase our faith!"

Jesus gives a response that assumes the disciples already know the answer - which is to draw closer to Jesus:

Make God a bigger part of our lives.

Adopt God's point of view over our own, seeking to see the world through the eyes of the Divine.

When Jesus responds to the disciples by asking them to command a 'mulberry tree to throw itself into the sea,' he gives them something absurdly impossible.

Well guess what?

Having faith that our storms will pass, may also seem absurdly impossible.

But, how often are we reminded, that with God, nothing is impossible.

No matter what we’re facing, we are not here alone, we are not forgotten, we are part of a bigger picture, well-known and well-loved by our Creator - and that our end will always be in God.

As my young daughter once reminded me, ’There’s no place we can go where God isn’t.'

So may God grant our wish, to increase our faith, that the storms we face may be weathered with grace, that we might live on to help bring others through theirs.

In high school my friend drove a bunch of us to Florida for Spring Break in his family's convertible.

After we arrived we used the car every day to get to the beach and cruise the local strip. It was at that point the 'Check Engine ' warning on the dashboard began to light up. My friend, paying more attention to the fun we were having than the oil we were burning, paid no mind to the bright red warning. That is, until he had to.

Yes, we had run out of oil.

Yes, the engine block had cracked.

Yes, the car was damaged beyond repair.

We had to rent a car to get home.

Nobody's parents were happy.

Not paying attention to warning lights can do that - which is at the heart of Sunday's Gospel and that well-known story of the Rich Man and a poor beggar named Lazarus.

Here we witness the blinding power of wealth and comfort, privilege and prestige, as the Rich Man heartlessly ignores the beggar at his doorstep.

It reminds us of the ways we can get caught up in our own personal pursuits of fulfillment and contentment that we forget others - those who may be sick, impoverished, addicted, even tortured and enslaved.

We, too, can get lulled into the popular belief that the reason for our prosperity is our own personal contentment, when the reality is that those with 'much' have a moral duty to care for those with 'less.' This is why we have it. This is what we're supposed to do with it.

So what lights are going off on our dashboard?

Is someone waving a red flag?

Are we getting too caught up in ourselves to notice those who are hurting around us?

What might we do about that?

After working for 10 years as a cowboy and two years studying herbal medicine with the Hopi Native Americans, Clark Stanley was ready to launch a new business.

Clark said he had discovered a product with incredible healing properties. It was suitable for the treatment of a wide variety of maladies from arthritis to back pain, frost bite to mosquito bites.

After setting up manufacturing plants on the East coast, Clark figured the best way to market his new discovery was to personally sell it, going from town to town in a covered wagon emblazoned with the company name: Clark Stanley's Snake Oil.

Naive purchasers lined up to hear Clark's convincing pitch. He often employed a shill, or a paid audience member, who would tout the product's miraculous powers to increase sales. And the great advantage of a covered wagon was that, come nightfall, things could be easily packed up and Clark could be out of town and on the road, before anyone could figure out that his product did not soothe, cleanse, heal, or do anything it promised to do.

Today the term 'snake oil' is synonymous with deceptive business practices or products (after all, the original snake oil was nothing more than doctored up mineral oil), and refers to things that just can't live up to its promises.

This Sunday, we will hear Jesus describe something like that - only it's not medicine, it's money.

'Dishonest wealth' is a term we will hear not once, but twice, along with its incumbent allusions - that money can't do what it's cracked up to do. In our culture wealth promises security, popularity, contentment, comfort, and stress-free living.

In fact, we are constantly hearing subtle and not so subtle messages that if we just had a bit more money for this possession or that experience, then we would find the happiness, security, status, acceptance, and fulfillment for which we so deeply yearn.

Jesus wants to remind us that all those things are attainable, but they're only attainable through God.

'Seek first the things that are above, not the things that are below,' says St. Paul. Time and again our faith urges us to put people over stuff - to put aside the temptations that push us towards seeking our security or contentment in anything other than God.

And so we ask:

What's the Snake Oil in our lives?

What are the false promises we're buying into?

And how is God urging us to try something else?

We recently set up a gravestone exhibit on our back lawn here at church to help us count the number of victims of gun violence in Oakland County this year - we are trying to make ourselves more compassionate and mindful of our neighbors who fall victim to, what has been called a national epidemic.

What struck a lot of people was observing the large number of folks in our community who died by suicide. We venture to say these are folks who were in pain, who perhaps felt hopeless, all alone, people Jesus may have called lost.

This Sunday we will hear Jesus talk more about the lost.

These are those who, for whatever reason, are not where they are supposed to be, not where they want to be, not in a comfortable, safe place - they are worried, troubled, don't know where to go, and can't find their way anyhow.

Sure, they are the suicidal, the drunks, the addicts, the thieves, and prostitutes, but they are also parents, students, businessman, and nurses - all of us who wander from the Shepherd's path, choosing our own way instead of God's.

Getting lost happens to us all, and God has something very profound to say about that.

God says,

'I have not forgotten you.

'You have not slipped my mind.

'On the contrary, your predicament is my obsession:

'I am currently working overtime to get you out of your jam.

;Like a Shepherd who leaves 99 sheep behind, to chase after the Lost One, hang on.

'I'm looking for you and I'm determined to find you.'

So friends, don't give up.

Don't lose hope.

Your contentment is God's mission.

You're thriving is God's intent.

Your restoration is God's goal.

You are sought after.

You will be found.

You are worth all of God's time and energy to find.

Warren Buffett's airplane pilot once asked for advice on how to be successful.

Buffet, who started out in life with almost nothing, has become one of the 10 richest people in the world. And he told his pilot this: "If you want to be successful begin by writing out a list of 30 things you most want to accomplish in life, with the most important things first."

So the pilot pulled out a piece of paper and made the list. At the top were things like owning his own charter plane business, being a good husband, a good father, and owning a second home. Farther down the list was becoming a good golfer, running a marathon every year, and opening a pizza place.

The pilot then showed his list to Buffet who looked at it for a moment, then said, "Ok, now cross off the bottom 25 items on that list. You must realize that the primary impediment to reaching your most important goals, will come from those things you just crossed off. Get them out of your mind. Don't think about them again. They are not your friends."

Realizing that things we love can have a shadow side is at the heart of this Sunday's Gospel when Jesus gives us some difficult words, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple."

Jesus is trying to tell us how the things we love get in the way of the things we're supposed to do.

There are few things I like to eat more than chocolate cake. Except when I'm on a diet. Then, I hate chocolate cake.

And how true this is with our loved ones!

When did your mom ever urge you to do something dangerous? How often does your family want you to do things that get you ridiculed, slandered, or make you unpopular? Yet accomplishing our goals, realizing our God-given dreams, giving birth to the purposes of our souls often means doing just that.

Jesus is reminding us that the most important thing we do in life, following Him, requires focus, discipline, and commitment - every day.

In what ways do we forget this?

How are we letting other things get in the way?

How is God calling us to cross off the things toward the bottom of our lists, and renew our commitment to the things at the top?

Why is it that Democrats are all over President Trump for taking Top Secret documents home with him - yet they don’t pay much attention to Hilary Clinton’s deleted emails, because they’re sure it was just a benign oversight?

And why do Republicans keep bringing up Hilary’s e-mails - and accuse the FBI of fraud for raiding President Trump's home, because he couldn’t have possibly done anything wrong?

It’s because we are far quicker to notice and call out hypocrisy when it goes against our own beliefs.

We are not cold, logical, robots - psychologists say we all have self-serving biases - that we evaluate our own abilities, performance, and opinions, as better than others - and pass judgments on those who are different.

This often takes us down the road of hypocrisy, which can come out of a low self-esteem (we have to put others down to prop ourselves up), a desire to feel positive about ourselves, (that we’re good, decent, and capable people), or because we’re just plain lazy (putting someone down for not being generous means we have to be, which is not easy).

On Sunday, our Gospel puts us face to face with hypocrisy - inviting us to explore our own biases - and temptations to call out others for things for which we may give ourselves a pass.

Living honestly, transparently, whole-heartedly, and focused on Jesus means constantly evaluating ourselves for the ways we live by double-standards. Our goal as Christians is to love - to love authentically, honestly, and completely - which means understanding our own biases and shortcomings as ways that influence our views of others and the world.

One of the best ways to love others is to look honestly at ourselves. May we have the strength and grace to do so.

There's a new research study out that touts the benefits of stress.

While there are many reasons to lessen stress in our lives and to seek release from anxiety, we are reminded that total freedom from worry is not only impossible, but unwanted.

This study, done with Navy SEAL candidates, found that those who looked at stress, not as a mountain to be conquered or a foe to be vanquished, but as a positive motivator to do better, as a gift, or friend, to help us reach our highest potential, were much more likely to perform successfully on physical and mental tests. To quote one SEAL, “I look at these things as obstacles to overcome that will make it easier to overcome other, more important obstacles, that life will bring my way."

This Sunday, you and I will hear Jesus talk about the stress-inducing aspects of being a disciple, when our faith costs us relationships and ambitions. It’s about the disruption that happens when fundamental change occurs. Instead of offering us relief from stress, urging us to lay our burdens on him, we are reminded that taking Jesus at his word will cause us stress, but that stress is not necessarily bad.

Standing up to the bully, sticking up for the oppressed, pointing out the hypocrisy, and lifting up the truth: that love, forgiveness, and the pursuit of heavenly things trumps the pursuit of worldly things - these are all stressful things to do - and invite us to ask:

In what ways are we being invited to take the uncomfortable and unpopular stance of standing up to a racist joke; Not denigrating an opponent; Or pushing back against peer pressure to compromise on honesty and forgiveness - believing that these are not obstacles and challenges, but practice for living more purposeful and productive lives — that if we can work our way through these challenges, we’ll be better prepared for the next ones that come our way?

God is using us - and everything around us - to bring to earth a kingdom of peace and reconciliation - something in which we play irreplaceable roles. So let us not be discouraged by the stress it brings, but use it to make us better.

As World War II was ending in the Pacific, and the complex job of ferrying prisoners of war back and forth to their respective bases was taking place, something peculiar happened on board train car.

This particular train car was manned by Japanese soldiers who were taking former Allied prisoners of war back to their home bases. However, these Allied soldiers had to share the train cars with injured Japanese soldiers.

The Allies, though hungry and battered, were so happy to return to their bases, and eventually home, as victors in this war. Meanwhile, the hungry, wounded, and distraught Japanese soldiers, who were returning to a country in shambles, and knew that they may not even make it home, hung their heads in disconsolation.

That's when one of the Allied soldiers, rummaging through his meager rations, made his way over to the Japanese soldiers, and offered a few morsels of food. A few other Allied soldiers did the same. This happened until an officer came over and asked what was going on?

One of the Allied soldiers asked the officer if he was a Christian, to which he responded yes. Then the soldier reminded the officer of the story of the Good Samaritan, and how Jesus taught his followers to love their neighbors, even if their neighbors were their enemies. The Allied officer shook his head and said, “But these are the enemy, who killed our fellow soldiers and treated us badly in prison camps! Besides, that's just a Bible story!" And as he stormed off to another rail car, the Allied soldier turned to a compatriot and said, “We Christians can't just say we care, we have to show we care.”

This dramatic story of compassion reminds us that faith is a verb.

Our Christianity has to go farther than our talk. Jesus commends us to put our words into action, what does that look like for us today?

How are we being courteous to others?

Not speaking behind peoples' backs?

Not spreading rumors?

Or taking credit for the work of others?

Doing the work of the Good Samaritan is just that, work.

May God grant us wisdom and strength to follow this example.

Chris Yaw

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Why Love My Enemy?

Tax Collectors and Telemarketers

What's in Your Tank?

Headwinds VS Tailwinds

Handling Storms

Warning Lights

Snake Oil

Lost and Found

How to Be Successful

Everyone’s a Hypocrite! Except Me…

When Stress Is Good

Don't Say You Care, Show You Care

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