Clearly they thought he was crazy,
and sought to remove him from public view
and send him to Shady Pines
so he would embarrass them no further.

And, in a sense, they were right.

As C.S. Lewis was fond of saying, "Jesus is not safe,
he is not predictable to us, at all.

A man once walked into a hotel lobby to register.
Upon approaching the desk he found a large dog there.
A little uneasy about the proximity of the large dog,
the man asked the desk clerk,
"Does your dog bite?"

"No, never." was the reply;
so the guest reached over to pat the head of the dog.

"Nice Doggie", he said, patronizingly;
and then screamed as the dog sank his fangs into his hand.

"I thought you said your dog was safe,"
the angry guest cried.

"He is," said the desk clerk,
"But that is not my dog."
Don't press this analogy very far,
but there is a sense in which Jesus surprises us,
does the unexpected;
says and does things we find painful.

Many in Jesus' time, and in our own as well,
would call Jesus a crazy dog.
But that might be a good thing.

I read once that the Crowe Indians
engaged in what they called "Crazy Dog" activities
to free their spirits from bondage.

They would do simple things backward:
- walk backward down the road
- - eat breakfast in the evening
- - wear their clothes inside out.

Going, "Crazy Dog"
meant to dare to be seen
as foolish
or weak
or strange,

in order to free one's self from the fear
of being perceived
as foolish
or weak
or strange.

In today's Gospel reading,
Jesus is sitting at a place of instruction
near the wall of the Temple.

He has with him his disciples and other listeners,
and he is teaching them
"Crazy Dog" thinking.

Across from them, in full view
and at the wall of the Temple
were boxes for contributions
to the temple treasury.

Powerful men, men of great status,
- the Scribes -
paraded up to the boxes with their servants
and expected the public to bow
as they made their offerings
- often of large,
- though, to them, easily affordable sums.

Then, a poor widow approached quietly
and put in the only two coins she had.

The word "widow" in Greek here is "Almana".
It means one which not only has lost her husband,
but has been sent away by the family
of her husband to fend for herself.

Such a person has no system of support,
In our words, such a woman
would be called a "street person."

These kind of widows were considered estranged,
disconnected, and alone.
They were always poor
and often preyed upon by bandits
both rich and poor.
Jesus uses this widow as an object lesson
for his disciples and other followers ,and listeners.

"I tell you this," he says,
"Beware of the Scribes;
they with their law allow such women to be cast out
they then keep the property of such widows.
This poor widow
has given more with her two coppers
than have all the Scribes you have seen this day,
for she has given everything she had.

Jesus here is playing "Crazy Dog."
He is setting the world upside down, inside out.
Jesus is not "safe", especially to the arrogant Scribes.
He is biting the hand of the entire Scribal system
and of the Temple itself.

In fact, following this reading
is the text,
"I will tear down this temple
and rebuild it in 3 days."
The saying that so enraged
the political and religious establishment
that it used these words against Jesus
at his trial.

The Scribes used their power
in self-serving ways,
used their wealth to make themselves feel big;
and, indeed, condoned and supported a system
that did not care
for the widow, the lame,
the lonely, the outcast.
To challenge such entrenched hardness of heart
was dangerous, unexpected "Crazy Dog" thinking.

And that thinking,
that commitment to Justice and Freedom,
led directly to his death.

It was crazy
but, I guess it was in his genes.

Isn't his God and Father
the one who built a nation of sons and daughters
from two 90 year old people? (Abram and Sari)
got Moses to confront mighty Pharaoh with a stick?
led both Joshua and Gideon to defeat their
enemies with trumpets?
had the prophets do and say crazy things
and race on foot against chariots?
and, the greatest Crazy Dog stunt of all time,
himself be born of a woman
and in Nazareth, of all places?

And then, as the man, Jesus,
he attacks that which the world holds most dear,
saying things such as:
"the last shall be first;
the poor in spirit shall possess the Kingdom;

the meek shall inherit the earth;
the Temple shall fall;

the lame shall leap, the blind see;
the dead shall rise."

Jesus inverts the whole system
of the world's values,

and in his Resurrection says,
"This is God's way - Try it.
It's worth the risk."

This is the deepest reason we make pledges
and give sacrificially to God's Church.
Why, after all,
would one give 10%
of his or her earnings to God's Church?
It's Crazy Dog thinking,
But it invests us in God's alternative kingdom.

and, the funny thing is
that such giving is a means of freedom
It makes us whole.

"Be a little crazy," says Jesus,
"God is."

- - - - - - - - - - -
Here is a story which I got off the internet Thursday.

One day, a father of a very wealthy family
took his son on a trip to the country
with the firm purpose of showing his son
how poor, people can be,
and how they have to live:
His intent was that his son
would learn to appreciate all he had
and be dedicated to preserving
and even expanding the family wealth.
They spent two nights on the subsistence farm
of a poor family.
- paid them, of course, for their room and board.

On their return, the father asked his son,
"How was the trip?"

"I will never forget it," said the boy.

"Well, what did you learn? asked the father.

The son answered,
"I saw that we have only one dog
and they have four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden,
and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported Japanese lanterns in our garden
and they have the stars at night
Our patio reaches the front yard
and they have clear air to the horizon.

We have a small piece of land on which to live
and they have fields all around them.
We have servants to meet our needs,
and they really enjoy doing things for each other.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs,
and it is really much better.
We have walls around our property to protect us
and they make us lonely,
but they have friends to protect them.

Upon hearing this, the boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added,
"Thanks Dad, for showing me how poor we are
and what it truly means to be rich."

The father was more limited
and less perceptive than was his son.
The world had been at work on him for a long time.

As a result of this encounter with others, however,
the worldview of Jesus broke through,
perhaps to both.

Our perceptions, the world's expectations,
our fears, our isolation, and estrangement,
Indeed, our addictions to things of this world
keep us from being whole,
rob us of becoming like Christ, himself,
which in baptism is our destiny
and in today's collect our prayer.

By shocking us with this bite,
and by assuring us of the utter faithfulness of God,
we are enabled to take the risk required
in the words of the Crowe
to risk going, "Crazy Dog";
Walking backward, seeing the world upside down,
finding grace and forgiveness and salvation
in the poor man of Nazareth

that, in truth,
we might be rich;
that in fact,
we might be free.