Fully Alive in God

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Habacuc 1:1–4; 2:1–4; Salmo 119:137–144; 2 Tesalonicenses 1:1–4, 11–12; San Lucas 19:1–10) “No se aplica la ley, se pisotea el derecho” De veras, ¿por qué no predicamos más usando el libro de Habacuc? Es buen contenido. Y mas tarde, “Escribe que los malvados son orgullosos, pero los justos vivirán por su fidelidad a Dios.” Es el limite del leccionario que solo escuchamos estos tesoros muy a menudo. A primera vista, nos preguntamos qué en el universo tiene que ver este pasaje con la lectura del evangelio de hoy. Zaqueo es un personaje interesante. A veces parece cómico, es bajo, por lo que tiene que trepar a un árbol para ver a Jesús, por lo que Jesús, al verlo aterrizar, puede haber dicho: "¡Estás fuera de tu árbol!" Jesus could have said to him “You’re out of your tree!” Es decir, ¡eres loco! Pero bromas aparte, el papel de Zaqueo es seriamente sospechoso, como mencioné sobre los recaudadores de impuestos la semana pasad

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Habakkuk 1:1–4; 2:1–4; Ps. 119:137–144; 2 Thess. 1:1–4, 11–12; St Luke 19:1–10)   “So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails.” It is rare that a Lectionary Preacher gets to preach on Habakkuk. That slender volume hidden in the folds of the Hebrew Scriptures is not frequently visited by me or many preachers. But what great words! The law becomes slack, and justice never prevails. And then later – Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith. At first glance, we wonder what on earth this passage has to do with the gospel reading from today. Zacchaeus is an interesting character. Sometimes he seems comedic- he is short so he has to climb a tree to see Jesus- so that Jesus might have, seeing him land, said “You’re out of your tree!” But all joking aside, Zacchaeus’ role is seriously suspect, as I mentioned about tax collectors last week. Unlike the current IRS where we send in

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Saints, Oxnard ( Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65; 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; Luke 18:9-14 ) In the book of Joel we heard today: “I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten.” And I have always loved that sense of restoration. God will be with us and will restore all things for our good. This was a hope I held onto during the height of the pandemic. That even though things were being taken away, that all would be restored in time. One of the things I felt strongly was the sense of social isolation and how our sense of community would be better restored to us. Even as we tried to build a digital or online sense of community, we looked for the time when we would feel that all was restored to us. And in many ways that is very much the case. We have experienced that lately, that we are restored to fellowship with each other. Sadly, restoration to being around other humans sometimes brings out the worst in us, too. Our tendency to compare ourse

    M. Campbell-Langdell Todos los Santos, Oxnard (Joel 2:23–32 [= 2:23–3:5 DHH]; Salmo 65; 2 Timoteo 4:6–8, 16–18; San Lucas 18:9–14)   En el libro de Joel hoy escuchamos: “Yo les compensaré a ustedes los años que perdieron a causa de la plaga de langostas.” Y siempre me ha encantado ese sentido de restauración. Dios estará con nosotros y restaurará todas las cosas para nuestro bien. Esta era una esperanza a la que me aferré durante el tiempo más extremo de la pandemia. Que a pesar de que se estaban quitando cosas, todo sería restaurado con el tiempo. Una de las cosas que sentí fuertemente fue la sensación de aislamiento social y cómo nuestro sentido de comunidad sería mejor restaurado para nosotros. Incluso cuando tratábamos de construir un sentido de comunidad digital o en línea, buscábamos el momento en que sentiríamos que todo había sido restaurado para nosotros. Y en muchos sentidos ese es el caso. Hemos experimentado eso últimamente, que somos restaurados a la comuni

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Jeremiah 31:27–34; Psalm 119:97–104; 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5; St Luke 18:1–8)   “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Last Sunday we had a big front-page article about a local pastor, which detailed his particular lens on faith. It was very different than my own point of view, being as I believe in science, have a healthy balance in my relationship with government and see what is perceived as Critical Race Theory as just a more balanced approach and teaching history to our kids. I really liked the comment a colleague of this pastor gave, showing how the pastor named was just being consistent even as his colleague disagreed with him. Pastor Tom Stephen said “It’s consistent with who Rob has always been … I think he truly, truly believes the pandemic wasn’t as bad as it was, just as I truly believe it was.” [1] Wow, I thought. What a gracious statement. I hope to be that kind of colleague and fellow Christian

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Jeremías 31:27–34; Salmo 119:97–104; 2 Timoteo 3:14–4:5; San Lucas 18:1–8) “Pero cuando el Hijo del hombre venga, ¿encontrará todavía fe en la tierra?” El domingo pasado tuvimos un gran artículo de primera página del periódico local sobre un pastor, que detallaba su perspectiva particular sobre la fe. Fue muy diferente a mi propio punto de vista, ya que creo en la ciencia, siento que la iglesia debe respetar el gobierno y viceversa, y veo lo que se percibe como Teoría Crítica de la Raza (Critical Race Theory) solamente es un enfoque más equilibrado para la enseñanza de la historia a nuestros hijos. Realmente me gustó el comentario de un colega de este pastor, mostrando cómo el pastor nombrado estaba siendo consistente con sus principios incluso cuando su colega no estaba de acuerdo con él. El pastor Tom Stephen dijo: “Es consistente con lo que Rob siempre ha sido… Creo que realmente cree que la pandemia no fue tan mala como lo fue, tal

  M. Campbell-Langdell All Santos, Oxnard (Jeremiah 29:1, 4–7; Ps. 66:1–11; 2 Timothy 2:8–15; St Luke 17:11–19) “When he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?’” Today we have a story of a healing. On the surface, healings are very good things! But we have to be careful with stories of healing. In general, we all want to be healed, but we know that healing stories have been used against people with special needs because they imply that people with disabilities are not whole. That being said, we always want grave illnesses to be healed. There are many people with perceived disabilities who simply need to be embraced by the world, and then there are many of us actually suffering from an illness that needs to be remedied. In today’s case, the people who interacted with Jesus did need to be