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Easter II- Year B Sermon

 

“We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

The words of the Gospel of Christ and the new church were written for us-a gift from the past to sustain the future, our eternal one, but also equally important, the current one.

John shares with us that there is joy in being community- because he writes these things so that the joy of the new church may be complete- by sharing.  

Many would struggle

The writer John, not to be confused with John the Baptizer, understood that we would struggle today because the young church was already struggling.  History tells us of the struggles as the word spread via story. This was a different story, not like the ancient stories that are memorized and did not change from generation to generation of verbal story telling.  This was a new one. It was getting told as personal and second hand experience. It had not been committed to memory by a storyteller yet- it was the average person sharing. This struggle would be so profound that within 2 lifetimes, a creed was necessary.  John The Evangelist, who wrote the Gospel of John and at least the first of the 3 epistles of John, trained Polycarp and Polycarp trained Iraeneus. It is in Iraeneus’ writings we first see a creed- the precursor of what we know today as the Apostles Creed. And that would not be the end of the creedal war- just the beginning.

This was necessary because followers were already arguing over things like the Gnosticism (the idea we can learn our way to eternal life) or the Quartodeciman Controversy which argued over whether and if so, which days Christians are supposed to celebrate the Passover Feast.  

If you think we have too much controversy now, let me tell you, it was no different in the early church.  We are humans trying to understand God! No wonder then that folks would struggle.

Some would doubt

In fact, some of even the first hand accounts would even doubt.  Beloved Thomas is an example, along with Peter and the Beloved Disciple (name unknown) who had to run to the tomb to see for themselves.  Somehow though we forget that Peter and The beloved disciple didn’t believe in the midst of Thomas’ doubt. There is a cartoon circling now about how “the guys will take it from here now, Mary” referencing that even though Mary was the first to witness and spread the Gospel of the Risen Christ, this is set aside and that she is dismissed in history’s telling in deference to the men.  I am not saying that it was sexism at play, but it has had an effect throughout the remainder of history and even impacts us today. When I am out in public in my clerical collar, I am repeatedly asked how I think I am justified or qualified to share the gospel since I am a woman. But I digress.

The point is, Thomas was not the only doubter who wanted to see to believe.  And when Jesus first shows himself to “the guys” in a locked room, Thomas is not there.  He is in fact the only one courageous enough to be out and about in a very dangerous and volatile time.  They have all had the benefit of seeing to believe, but he missed it.

I think what happens with Thomas makes him my favorite disciple.  You see, he has the courage to say, “I know you all believe. But I didn’t see what you did.  I am just not able to believe. I need to see what you saw- in fact, the reality is, I can’t even believe if I see, I need more. “  

This is deeply courageous to say to your closest friends of faith that you are just not there.  And I wonder how much we all might gain if we crafted a place where people feel safe to be like Thomas and admit their doubt and lack of faith.  

Christ met the need right where they were

Because here is the thing, Christ met Thomas in his need- he didn’t just show up, he invited him to touch and feel the reality of his wounds to assure Thomas he was not dreaming.  Thomas said, I need more. I am just not there. And Jesus response was, Ok- let me help you believe. Let me let you SEE first hand.

We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete- our community is in God through Jesus Christ

And that is what we are called to as the church. To do the same as the early church like it noted in John and Acts: to provide for every need in our community.  To share freely everything. Our time, our money, our property, our lives, our story and our love. It goes against every capitalistic bone in our bodies- and it did then too.  

John shares with us that there is an utter joy in this sharing- because he writes these things so that the joy of the new church may be complete- by sharing.  It takes courage to share- and it takes even more courage to receive. Imagine the courage it took for Thomas to stick his hand in Jesus side? Imagine the risk he was taking- if it was an illusion his world would be shattered.  If it was true- it would be turned upside down forever.

So how do we do this?  Well, we have been given a great commission:  we can forgive the sins of any and we can hold tightly to them until they too believe.  Take a moment and look closer at the Gospel in the original language and it will reveal that it never actually said we could hold onto the sins of others.  As my professor, Dr Mary Hinkle Shore points out translation work by Sandra Schneiders, the text actually reads:   “A more adequate reading would be the following: ‘Of whomever (possessive genitive plural) you forgive the sins, they (the sins) are forgiven to them; whomever (objective genitive plural) you hold fast [or embrace], they are held fast.

In this then, we are given our task- to meet our community where they are- each member in their faith and doubt and to offer to them the forgiveness of their sins- to let that sin GO.  And we are to hold tightly to them until they can believe for themselves. We are to love them, to care for them and to nurture them just as they are until they too are ready to believe.  

There are two ways to believe: seeing, which the disciples all had the benefit of, and by faith, unseen.  This is all we have. But the change and gift is so profound when we live in the illumination and promise of Christ that the early church knew their joy would not be complete if they kept it to themselves.  They knew it would only be complete in sharing it.

So hear the words that Christ said to the disciples in their fear in the locked room- even after they had seen him alive:  Peace be with you.

Receive the peace of Christ.  Cling to it- and when you cannot, let us, this community of hope, cling to you; let me as your pastor cling to you until you have the faith to believe.  We will cling to you so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

 

Ash Wednesday Sermon- February 14 2018- Year B

It’s not about you. It’s not about me either. It’s a common thing for folks to come to Lent and Ash Wednesday thinking that it’s all about them and their sin and they’re need to repent. They come prepared to spend 40 days thinking about themselves and what they have failed to do. But it’s not about them. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s about God. It’s about God and what God is doing in spite of you and me.

Lent is supposed to be a time for us to ponder what God is doing in our lives, and what we are not letting God do in our lives.

Jesus didn’t go into the wilderness to focus on himself. He went so that he could focus on what God was doing in him and through him in the world. He went into the desert to pray so that he could get out of his own way and focus on God and God’s promise for us that he was to live out in the world.

When he returned from the wilderness, he went into community and he called people to action. Christ tells us to pray, yes, but overwhelmingly more so, he calls us to action in response to the gifts God has given us. He calls us to action to care for creation and the ones around us.

When we speak of ashes we are supposed to be thinking about how temporary our life is. We are supposed to be remembering that God created us, loves us, redeems us, and returns us back to God’s bosom when the fleeting days of life here end.  Today, that reality has been made far too real for hundreds of families in Florida. As I followed the images and stories of the high school shooting there, I was moved to frustration and tears by the image of a stoic woman with ashes on her forehead holding another devastated woman as she sobbed. And then to social media where everyone is calling for prayer. But I am tired of hearing our children will be prayed for when we can do something to save them.

This sermon is NOT about telling you who should own guns or how many. It is about telling you our children are DYING and our answer so far has been to pray. It was not enough to save those 20 who died today. Prayer did not get a young man who desperately needed mental health care what he needed before he destroyed his life along with dozens of others.

Our Gospel tonight reminds us that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. Is your heart found among providing safety for our children? Or is your heart found among your individual rights to own things?

Is it found in creating and supporting accessible and affordable mental health care? Or among capitalism and getting ahead?   Is it in trusting yourself and your defenses or in God and what God can do for you and with you?

These are hard things to hear and they are harder to say. I don’t know the answers, but I know that what we are doing as communities of faith is NOT enough. Every one of you would not rely on prayer if there was medicine or surgery to save a loved one, would you not? Then why are we relying solely on prayer to save our most innocent and vulnerable among us?

Lent is not about you, but it is about what God is doing for and with you in this world and community. It is about what God is doing through our community together. Fasting and prayer are not enough. We are called to more in our faith. We are called to love, to honor, to lift the yoke of burden and let our light break forth like the dawn.

Tonight, there is no comfort for those families. There is no comfort for a parent whose arms will forever remain empty from here forward.

In such tragedy, promise of eternal life is paltry and weak in the face of not getting to see their child and kiss their face again, even in death. It does not comfort them right now. It is too far off and the devastation is just too close.

As we move into lent, look around you and see the brambles and branches, the hard and scratchy places we must move through as we look inside our own hearts to see that Jesus came for the world- and that we are called into caring for that world.

The time ahead may feel lonely and desolate, yet we have the promise that was unknown before Christ died for us- we have the promise of God with us- always.  We are not entering the wilderness alone- rather with Christ.  And for this, if for nothing else in the midst of worldly pain, we are grateful.

Palm/ Passion Sunday

25 March 2018

Life is hard. Recently I was reminded to count myself lucky that this hand injury was not something life threatening like cancer. The man went on to share the story of his brother’s recent discovery of metastasized bone cancer. In nearly whispered tones he asked, what kind of God does that? My only answer was, “not a God I can believe in.”

Day after day I hear the anguish of humanity around me. Anguish over missing having a home to live in, money to pay the basic bills like medicine and food, let alone water and lights. Anguish over divorce, losing a very alive child to the life of addiction, or worse, losing them to death from addiction. Anguish over good people who live last days dragged out in pain and finally die agonizing deaths from cancer, MS, heart disease, diabetes. I hear and see women crying out for safety, to be seen as valued, as more than objects of desire. Yesterday, I heard children crying out to be safe at school and parents angry over having to choose education or life for their children. And even this morning my heart cried out in anguish over missing my mother in law, even 2 years after her death.   But I am aware I manage to go on. And some folks don’t. Their anguish over losing a loved one is simply inconsolable.

What kind of God does that? What kind of God takes children, mothers, helpers, healers? What kind of God decides to give someone a dreaded disease or make them suffer addiction? My answer has not changed. Not the kind of God I can believe in. Not my God.

Not the God who we will read about today.

Not the God who missed us so much that the Son was sent to be with us. To feel the coolness of air against his sweaty skin, to feel the kiss of his mothers tender lips against his cheek, to feel the sting of the whip, to feel the crush of the cross as it drowned him in his own flesh.
Not the God who ate with the dredges of society because he saw them as absolutely precious. Not the God who taught us it wasn’t about exact translations of the law but about the intent, the greater purpose.

Not the God who begged not to be left alone to pray, or who made sure his mother was in the hands of another to care for her as he hung dying. Not the God who cried out. That God, our God, who did all these things loves us too much to make us suffer.

I believe in The God. The one who knew our anguish personally so that he could bring us back into right relationship.   The one who would give up heaven and then earth to show us how much we are loved. The one who came for us, left the Spirit to remain with us and promises we are never alone.

I believe in that God. Because that God, my God, the God of Salvation through the death of the Son and the presence of the Holy Spirit, Our God, the one I can put my trust in, Cried out in anguish too. God knows our anguish. Felt it at the moment of sinful separation and for eons since. And God felt our pain and sorrow, our anger and fear, our humiliation and our frustration. God felt our anguish and cried out. That is not the kind of God who punishes us and takes babies to make angels of them. Our God is with us. Loves us. Desires us. Knows us. Remains with us.

Listen then, to the passion of our Lord, according to Mark the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters.

Sermon for Hope Lutheran  based on John 12: 20-33.

“We want to see Jesus.” It almost sounds like a poor orphan child from a Charles Dickens novel in my mind, “please sir, may I have some more?” In Dickens’ famous novel, Oliver Twist, an orphaned child is sent to an orphanage where he suffers from hunger and cold. When the gruel, which is cold oatmeal, runs out and he is hungry, we read the famous line, “please sir, may I have some more?”

It tugs at the toughest heart strings, this idea of a child hungry and cold. It’s why the images starving children of Africa, South America, and China were used for years for commercials to get folks to help, let alone used by more than one mom to get her kids to eat their peas and carrots.  And for the record, I still won’t eat peas no matter who is starving. They can have mine. I am all about sharing.

When we hear this plea, our hearts swell with desire to care for and provide what is desired, let alone needed. These Greeks, though grown men, are no different. They are spiritual children, orphans, who understand that there is something more and they are hungering for it. They believe they must ask for it to receive this soul nourishing encounter. And I wonder, have you ever had to ask for something you really needed and were afraid you might not be given? In the vulnerable moments, we know that even in the asking,we take a risk, we die a little. Just by asking. But these men, they knew they had to take the risk. They had to ask. They were starving for more spiritually.

There is someone in your life waiting for you to show them Jesus. They are too afraid to ask and they are starving spiritually. They are hungering to hear that they are not too broken for this gift. That they are not too depraved, too sinful, too far gone. They are starving to hear that they are precious, a gift, created by God exactly as God wanted them to be, down to the last precious hair on the head. Knit together in the womb by a loving God who wants deep and abiding relationship with THEM. They are yearning to hear that their choices have not taken them too far from God, that God is with them. But they are waiting for a personal introduction. Like the Greeks, they don’t understand this gift is already theirs, already has their name on it and already belongs to them for eternity.

Jesus explains to the disciples, “those who hate their life in this world will lose it.” And I wonder if that is part of what keeps people from letting Christ in. In that personal introduction that others are seeking, they need to hear that this life Christ speaks of hating is not the life we imagine. It is the one we have bought into. The one that says we have to get ahead of our neighbor and protect ourselves first. In the recent movie, The Black Panther, the nation of Wakanda is the wealthiest nation in the world, but only they know it. They have secrets to long life, nearly miraculous healing, space age technology that will knock your socks off. No one is poor, everyone has all they need. And they keep it a secret. They keep it a secret because it also comes with knowledge that can be misused. So in their misguided attempts to save the world from potential harm, they also hoard the answers to life. Children in other countries, like ours, grow up without education, skipping meals and watching their only caregivers die of disease that could be treated. It takes an entire movie, and horrible loss for the to finally realize the error of their ways.

Today, Christ tells us that if a single grain keeps to itself, it is just a dead grain. But if it dies to itself, if it offers itself up, it is broken open and life will spring forth. Sharing what Christ has done for you is the same process. Embracing vulnerability and letting people know your past that God has saved you from and even more importantly, the imperfection of your life today, like that you drop curse words like bird seed, is being broken open and offers up new life to those who are silently begging, Please sir, we want to see Jesus.

The life Jesus tells us to hate is a life of limitation and lonliness. The one he asks us to share and receive is one of unlimited spiritual wealth. He is telling the disciples and us that if you are going to live his way, it needs to be with your whole heart. Do it well. Life is too short to live half heartedly.

In week 5 of our Lenten focus on  our mission statement, we focus on the line that reads our mission is “To serve Human needs in our community.” It is paired up with a Lenten discipline this week of offering our bodies up to those around us. What might that look like for you? For me as a young mom, that might mean getting down on the ground and playing barbies or trucks or dinosaurs with my children. It might mean sitting patiently in a doctors office with a sick friend, or offering to keep company with an elderly shut in. It might mean making a meal for a frazzled parent, or sitting with my 18 year old and listening to him explain his gaming and the techniques he has mastered. It might mean taking a walk with your lonely neighbor or signing up to help make meals for the homeless. And it might mean sharing a story of your life that might make you cry and hurt or be ashamed to talk about, but might show the person listening the face of Jesus in your life now.

The Greeks implored Phillip, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” We do not know if they ever got to see Jesus in person. But we do know within days he was lifted on a cross and died, so that the world might “see” his message of love and mercy. It isn’t the way of the world- it is a life that is so much more expansive and unlimited than we can imagine. It is a world where all are fed, all are loved, all are free, all are equal, and all are in relationship with God. He did not hate his life. He loved his life and everyone in it. But he lived a different kind of life, one where he offered his body up so that we too might have eternal life.
Which life will you choose to love today? The one that says there is not enough and goads us to hoard our wealth, freedom, and luck? Or one that generously shares radical hospitality through love, justice, and mercy? Jesus offers either to you. Choose carefully .

 

 

Lent 2 b (lectionary cycle)

The hero isn’t who you think they are. Abraham, Peter, Billy Graham, t’ Chaka and even Jesus aren’t the hero you think they are. In fact they aren’t the hero that everyone around them thought they were either. They faced the obstacles of humanity and they let people down. Yes, they did really good things but the reality is Abraham participated in incest, lied, and along with Sarah tried to force God’s promises before their time.  So much for a hero who we are supposed to venerate.

Billy Graham regretfully sold out to the powers that be in his later life allowing a message of love to be twisted into a fundamentalist mantra that limited who qualified as a child of God. Countless gay persons have ended their lives because they believed the message that flowed out of his ministry and others like it that they were abominations. They believed the skewed message that they were unredeemable if they couldn’t change who they had been created to be. So much for hero who shared God’s redeeming message of unsurpassable love.

Movie spoiler here, but King t’Chaka in the most recent Marvel movie, Black Panther, abandons his own grandchild in the slums and ghetto of United States even as he and the rest of his family hoard their wealth, technology, and security from the world under the argument that they are protecting the world. So much for a hero for being the perfect king so much so that his own son believes he cannot follow in his footsteps.

And then we have Jesus, who is THE one, the one who will come to end Roman Control and free the people from slavery once again. But he doesn’t. Instead he tells his followers that he will die on a cross and their revolution that they envision will never even begin. He isn’t who they thought he was. So much for a hero and a Savior from Rome.

So when we talk about Peter today when we see and hear Jesus so angry that he throws down the gauntlet and calls Peter Satan it isn’t surprising to realize that Peter isn’t much of a hero either. Peter, the disciple upon whom the church would be built and whose apostolic succession I share even today, denied Christ three times and tried to argue with him.

Heroes are human too

From the time we are small children we crave heroes, people that we can look up to and emulate. People who will teach us how to be better how to be more how to be exceptional in our world. Often our first heroes are parents until we grow enough and see enough to realize they aren’t perfect either. So we turn our attention further afield. We look for others in our community and when they fail and turn out to be human, we look to those far enough from us that we cannot see the cracks and imperfections. And should we lose those, we turn to imagination, to stories from our childhood. Until the day we die, we crave someone we can look up to someone who will continue to teach us and lead us. Because we know that we are flawed creatures and we know that we are supposed to be something more; created to be someone more. But everywhere we turn, the heroes don’t hold up to scrutiny.

 Freed by Forde

I wonder then if maybe we are meant to find our own hero inside of us. If we are meant to be an imperfect person who grows and learns and becomes who God created us to be, in essence transforming our lives so that should we have seen ourselves at a younger age we would have been in awe.

Gerhard Forde was a Lutheran theologian and Professor.   In many ways, he is one of my heroes, imperfect as he was. And one of the reasons he is a hero of mine is because he is able to put into words the ideas and concepts that I struggle to express.

Even though he is but dust in the earth these days, his words ring true and are applicable because actually explains the paradox of the hero. He explains what it is to discover that there is nothing that we can do and no way we can measure up. In that discovery we are freed from focusing so hard on ourselves and are suddenly able to see other people and their need. And because there is nothing we can do to fix this world, to make Christ comes sooner, or to make ourselves more deserving of salvation we are left with a freedom to just respond to the world to respond to the need and to respond with absolute and unadulterated Love. Judgment is worthless and we realize we are no longer chained by expectations or limitations. It is the freedom of a Christian that Martin Luther wrote about; the freedom that comes from realizing every bit of gift, life, and love comes from God alone and there is nothing we can do to earn it or usher it in sooner. When we are freed from the shackles, we recognize that our sin cannot hold us back any longer. Suddenly we become the hero we were craving. No longer caught in hypocrisy and the struggle to take up our cross becomes a natural choice. When we understand that we are freed because we cannot do anything, we are suddenly empowered to do everything.

The real hero

That is the message that Christ is trying to share with his disciples which Peter struggled so valiantly against. Christ did the one thing he could; he gave up.

He surrendered.

He offered up his life because he knew that our struggle was unachievable and his humanity alone could not save us. When he surrendered his humanity, when he gave up his life and his breath on that cross, he was freed. We were freed. Because he gave up trying to be the perfect hero here on earth, he was freed from his human bonds and in his freedom he shattered our bonds that kept us from right relationship with God. In giving up, he gave us everything.

This week our theme from our welcome statement is “To welcome and respect all people”. The reality is that is sounds easier than doing it is. When you have differing opinions on guns in church it can be hard to respect the other person. When you have differing opinions on noisy children in church, it can be hard to be welcoming. When you have a difference of opinion on entering the sanctuary in silence before worship it is hard not to take it personally. And that is just inside church. Don’t get me started on gun control, abortion, or social support systems out in the community. But we are freed from trying to make the perfect decisions and opinions by Christ, so that we are free to love and respect all people regardless of differences. Our faith practice is to read scripture which helps us to understand the story of humanity and God’s abiding love for us. To show us that hero’s are not always perfect and that God isn’t looking for perfection from us, just relationship.

So maybe, being a hero isn’t about chasing down the bad guy or forcing judgment upon others. Maybe heroes are meant to be imperfect in their perfection. Maybe the hero isn’t who you thought he or she might be. Maybe the hero through the promise of our baptismal Waters and Christ’s death and resurrection, is you and me freed because there is nothing we can do to earn it or make it happen. Maybe that heroes are the ones to realize they have nothing left to lose and everything to gain.

Maybe heroes are the ones who give up everything so that they are freed for their greater purpose just as Christ did for us. To love.

Written for Lent 4B (Lectionary Cycle)

How many of us memorized John 3: 16 as a child? It is amazing how many learned that verse.  I wonder though, how many memorized the next verse?  John 3:17:

“Indeed, God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

We get so caught up in the idea of our belief (whosoever believes in Him), that we miss out on the idea that God came as the Son to save us, not condemn us.

It will sound crazy to you, but I am going to state a theory and wonder if you will explore it with me.
God does not condemn us.

I wondered to myself then, what does God do?  Well, God judges.  But judgment and condemnation are not the same thing.

Judgment is a pronouncement of what is. Condemnation is the lived out consequence.

God does not punish us, in fact, I don’t believe God ever has. Scour the Bible and every time we try to make a story into God punishing us, in reality it is us living out the consequence of our choices and God is merely the agent of our choice being lived out. From the very beginning in the Garden, we chose to walk away from what was good and healthy. The Old Testament is full of stories of the people of God choosing self over relationship with God and suffering the consequence. Today’s reading from Numbers 21:4-9 is a perfect example, the serpents were sent because Israel was once again complaining that relationship with and provision from God was not enough to keep them happy.

So let’s expand the theory a tad.

God does not condemn us. We condemn ourselves.

Yes, God sent the serpents. Yes, it feels like God punishing us, but in the end, it is merely God being an agent in the condemnation we chose to risk. They chose rebellion, and the consequence of rebellion and living without God is death. When John states that those who do not believe are already condemned, it isn’t because God doesn’t want us to live, rather, because we choose not to choose life. And then it is simple math, When we don’t choose life, we choose death.

How the are we to be saved from this condemnation? To be saved from sin we must recognize it and examine it. God told Moses to lift up the symbol of death to be gazed upon in order to find life. The snake that was the way of death, was also the way of life.

God does not condemn us. We condemn ourselves. God comes to Save us.

If sin is rooted in our fleshly desires, then flesh needs to save us. And so it did. A human was sent to save us from our own humanity.

God slipped into skin with us, lived out sweat and tears, bodily functions of lust, love and anger. And then was lifted up on a stick to let us gaze upon and find life.

This is not condemnation. This is salvation. God WITH us. Suffering with us, living with us, like us, and then dying like us to bring us into eternal life together.

God came to shine a light on our sin, to declare what already existed and name it, and then because we condemned ourselves to separation, God came to be with us and be lifted up to save us from ourselves.

This week, our Lenten examine of our mission statement covers our mission

“to equip all saints for their life in the Christian Heritage and Lutheran Understanding of that Heritage”

Martin Luther lived his early life believing that God was cruel, vindictive and waiting to pounce on our every misstep. But it was not until he examined the Word closely, that he began to discover the truth I theorized earlier. God does not condemn us. We condemn ourselves. God comes to Save us.

Sadly, even our mission statement could be misconstrued for lifting up anger and hatred too. So today, I want to lift up the snake of our past to help us begin to heal for the future.

For generations, This same passage from John has been used, especially in Eurocentric denominations, to include Lutheranism for arguing a lesser value based on skin color because of the way light and dark are written about. Even among people of darker skin, there is a value on lighter skin because of this passage.

We are not talking about skin here folks. This passage has never been about shaming darkness or dark skin. It is about illumination.

Humans have use the dark for evil, but dark is not evil. It is good. It is the place that God dwelt before us. Light was made so that we might see, because we are the ones who were afraid of the dark, that sacred, spiritual, beautiful, velvety place where we are called to stillness, healing and rest. We are the ones who used and still abuse it for evil purposes. When my cousins teach their beautiful latina daughters to avoid the sun because they will look like field workers, they denigrate the beauty of the skin those girls were born with and they hurt themselves.  And they know it.  They take the ugly parts of our slavery and colonized past and continue the mental and spiritual slavery of our flesh because we wont let them stop.

And we have to stop. We have to lift up the beauty of God created bodies as perfect the way God made them and that the darkest of ebony skin is as lovely and valuable as peaches and cream unfreckled skin. The skin of field workers and laborers is as valued as a professors pale sun starved skin. Both bring life and light to our world.

We can try to hide all we want in the dark, but our sin will condemn us all without a single word of judgment from God or humanity. But we have to stop blaming the dark and we have to stop blaming creation and our bodies for the willful mind that we invoke when we decide we don’t need God in our lives.

So how do we equip the saints?  How do we fulfill our mission in the midst of our own past and present circustance? We start with loving deeply and imperfectly. We start by lifting up our past, our sin, as Martin Luther did, and we continue by leaning into a relationship with God, by trusting that God loves us and that we are cleansed and made new by our baptismal promise. We make room for others to come to know Christ without shoving faith and scripture down their throats. We offer love and promise in Christ and invite into those same scriptures with curiosity and safety.

Fr Anthony Hutchinson said, “not all snakes are bad, and not all angels are good. We need discernment to sort out where God’s grace can apply, and where we imaginatively and joyously expand the scope of holiness and grace. We need discernment to distinguish between the divine and its near enemies as well. Jesus, lifted up on the cross like that snake on a pole, stands ready to help us.”

I leave my theory to you.   Test it.  See if it stands true.

God does not condemn us. We condemn ourselves. God comes to Save us. We just need to say yes.

 

 

Feb 18, 2018

Baptized and Named doesn’t mean the obstacles go away

The hardest part about being a Christian let alone a pastor, is explaining how I do not see myself as better, purer, more righteous, or less sinful then those who are not Christian or pastors themselves. Just because I am baptized and ordained as a pastor doesn’t give me an advantage over anyone else. In fact, I am just as likely to mess up in this world and the reality is that I am less likely to be forgiven for it by others. We seem to need to believe that once we are baptized or called to be leaders, somehow we are less likely to be fully human.

So in hearing about Jesus being baptized and claimed as God’s son it may be tempting for us to believe that he was less then fully human.   That somehow he had a foot up when he was driven into the desert and tempted for 40 days. Some might even argue that because he had angels he had an advantage.   But I don’t think so.

Driven into the Wilderness To find Ourselves.

Even Jesus needed to figure out who and whose he was. Because he was fully human he has some limitations just like the rest of us. I can’t explain how that worked but I can trust that he also faced all of the obstacles and temptations that we do. Because of this, Jesus needed to know himself, needed to know his strengths, and his weaknesses.

There are any uses of the word test. It can be used in a positive or a negative connotation. We test things to make sure they work we give the trial runs, we checked a rope or a knot to ensure that it holds. Testing can also be a malicious attempt to solicit evil and sin.

I like to think that when the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, he faced both.   Not only was he tested and tempted by evil and sin, but he also was able to assure himself of who and whose he was. He used the time for testing, resting, and praying. And when he came out of the wilderness he knew his purpose more surely. He was ready for the greater trials ahead. It was not a bad time rather, it was a productive time to ensure that he could handle what was to come.

Who and Whose we are

One of my favorite books has been made into a blockbuster movie. In March the young adult novel, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Christian author Madeline L’ Engle will be in theaters. The movie and book chronicle the story of Meg, a young woman who needs to learn who she is. She, her brother, and a friend travel through time and space guided by Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which to fight Evil from taking over.  Like the Holy Spirit the Mrs. W’s guide, prod, chastise, encourage and comfort.

Each time making faces a problem she is further equipped for the next obstacle to come. When she is tempted and often feels alone however, the Mrs. W’s are never far away

In fact, they are often only a shout away. Much like our Holy Spirit.

We are in lent now. Our sanctuary reflects the wilderness in which Jesus may have found himself. Your wilderness may not be in nature but I am sure that you can relate to the sparsity and the struggle of your own internal wilderness and how it maybe reflected in the struggle to see the candles and their light through darkened glass. I am sure you see the reflection of feeling like dry bones parched and thirsting for living water in the dry branches and herbs on the wall. I am sure you feel the struggle to grasp the promise of baptism as you dip your fingers into the font and must touch sand and rock in order to reach the water that reminds you of your baptismal promise and God’s provision. And I am sure that as you chew a heartier bread you will taste the hard work of receiving that which is given freely to us, but that we often have a hard time taking in. The promises of life and water in the desert are sparse, but they are there nonetheless. They are rugged and hardy.

When we are in the wilderness, the promises of God may seem few and far between, hard to reach, hard to see even. But they are there, rugged and hardy, too. This is what we recall during our Lenten reflection of Testing, resting, and prayer.

Our Welcome Statement

Each week of Lent we will work through who and whose we are as a congregation and as individuals. Sundays we will work on our congregational identity, Wednesday evenings, we will look closer at our own identity in Christ.

This week we begin with our welcome and desire to walk with others.

First we must know who and whose we are so that we do not lead others astray. We must welcome them as equals, as fellow journeyman along the way. So this week I invite you to ponder what it is to walk with. What it is to be with someone without judgment, without leading, without following, but simply coming alongside. What is it to walk with those we worship beside, expecting nothing but presence and accompaniment, and providing nothing but the same in return. What is it for us to allow Christ to lead? It may be a lot like the journey of Meg, who must trust in something far bigger than she is. It may look like being angels or just witnessing them. It may look like being alone. What it is will be up to you. This week, surrender to the wilderness and let yourself be in an uncomfortable place. Rest there. Ask questions and wonder. Just be who and whose you are and let Christ lead.

 

 

 

 

 

The Noise of It All

This passage is noisy. Look at it again; The Sabbath is rarely quiet as we all gather and enter our place of worship. Jesus was teaching, and suddenly a man is crying out (the literal translation is squawking like a loud bird). After that we have rebuking, convulsing, and more crying out followed by amazement which was surely noisy and everyone talking to one another. Finally, the noise of gossip as news spreads about Jesus.

 

That is the way of things isn’t it? Once something is out in the open, everyone has a commentary, everyone is surprised. Here is God breaking into our world again in no silent and gentle way, but like his birth with angels singing and animals living, like the noise of kings arriving with camels and companions, like the wedding at Cana when water is turned into wine of the best quality and like a baptism where the heavens are ripped apart, here is God, in the Son, breaking into our world noisily and everyone is noticing. It is noisy, it is awkward, and it is scary. But then, isn’t it always noisy when the way of things gets upset?

 

#MeToo is noisy

I had no intention to preach about this again so soon but here we are and #metoo has not gone away. It seems that what started as upheaval in the entertainment industry has shifted to the political, the sports realm, and even now into the church; our church. And just like the people who witnessed Jesus confronting the demon who was in this man, it is scary to behold and the leaves us wondering what all of this means. It’s frightening and we wonder if this will come home to rest among our friends, among our family, among our people. And so it has.

Recently our church narrowly missed an accusation of clergy misconduct by a previous pastor. It turned out it was neither one of our pastors nor our church. However, for a period of time our executive committee was distressed, frightened, and devastated at the idea that something like this could have happened at Hope, even if it was far in the past. I wondered when the time would be for me to share that this had happened especially since it was a false alarm.

And then I got an email this week; many of you know that I was a seminary candidate of Metro New York Synod for my entire seminary career. In fact my membership change to become your pastor had me sending a letter to my church in Metro New York. The email I received shared the devastating news that my Bishop, Robert Rimbo, had resigned not only as bishop but he also resigned from the roster of ordained persons in the ELCA following allegations and charges of clergy sexual misconduct. While those who know Bishop Rimbo are most stunned, and while all of Metro New York synod is grieving this circumstance, we cannot ignore that the #metoo movement has come home to roost in the ELCA as well. There is no place where persons can trespass upon the spirit and body of another without being held accountable. And the response is noisy, scary, and awkward because the way of things have been upset.

 

Spirits and Demons insist to exist

It’s easy when we read this gospel lesson to dismiss many parts of it. We are no longer in the dark ages and we are far past the Renaissance and the age of Enlightenment. We are in an age where science rules, where are things must be seen or explainable in order to be believed. We believe in proof and if it cannot be proved it is dismissed as fantasy or psychological phenomena. It’s easy then to explain away the demon as schizophrenia or some other psychological diagnoses.

 

The church seems to have moved away from acknowledging the reality of the spiritual realm which exists and may not always be visible. But just because we cannot see something doesn’t mean it does not exist. I cannot see the biting mechanism of a black widow but that does not mean that it’s bite is any less deadly. Ignorance and ignoring are not bliss. If you sit down with folks and listen long enough almost everyone has a story of the inexplicable spiritual nature that sounds unbelievable. And we wonder why they don’t speak about it. And we wonder why the women of than me to movement didn’t speak up earlier. Well it’s because they didn’t think anyone would believe them. But whether we believe them or not they exist. And the only way to overcome the awkward, scary, and traumatic of the spiritual realm and the #metoo movement pain is to name it, to face it, and to call it out. This is what Christ is doing here. Naming the pain, naming the trespass, and offering healing to all involved.

 

Even Demons Know God (Right)

Before I go further I want to take a moment and define what I mean buy a trespasser in this sermon. A trespasser is one who has crossed the line whether by an inch or by a mile. they have violated the spiritual or physical space of someone else without their permission. This is trespass. I am not making a statement that rapist are the same as a man who catcalls women. However trespass is trespass. And so for the sake of today’s message that term will mean anyone who has violated the rights of another in any sexual manner. I also want to clarify that I am not calling trespassers demons nor am I declaring whether or not they are demon possessed. However the two situations deal with similar circumstances.

 

The demon knew Jesus. The moment he saw Jesus, the moment he heard him, he knew who he was. He was shocked and he was afraid because he was finally being held accountable. And I cannot wonder if he also drew attention to himself because he knew that Jesus would set him free.

And trespassers know what right looks like. They know how they are supposed to behave.   We know this because part of the story always ends up being about how surprised everyone else is about their behavior. If they didn’t “know any better” this would be their daily presentation. Instead, they know the behavior is wrong and they hide out of fear and pain, even as I believe they crave freedom from it. The fact is in this story there is a man and a demon and in every #metoo story there is a man and his behavior. And it is important for us to separate the two. I am not excusing sexual misconduct. But, it does not define the person anymore then the demon defined the man that he was in. Everyone is worth saving, everyone is worth loving, everyone is worth forgiving. Yes, there needs to be accountability first. Yes, the behavior must discontinue. And yes, to move on there needs to be forgiveness and new boundaries. All of this is found in Christ. All of this is found by naming and claiming the circumstance and the Savior.

 

Me, TOO and I Believe will Set Us Free

You see the fact is Christ came to set every one free; the man the demon the woman and the trespasser. And it begins with naming; by saying #metoo and we move toward healing and salvation when we say I believe. Me too and I believe Will set us free. They will set our community free.

Our First Corinthians reading today speaks of what it is to be in community with one another. It explains how our behavior can inform, strengthen, or weaken the behavior of those around us. Paul emphasizes the power of community to encourage sin, reveal sin, or heal sin.   It is our job as community then to attend to the ones around us who are hurting and who have been hurt, because the two are not always the same person. Our job is to believe, to name, to heal, and to love. It is difficult work. It is the work of prophets and disciples. We are to love both the one who has been harmed and the one who harms them. We are to help create healthy boundaries and healthy communities where victims are believed and where opportunities to victimize are decreased.

 

This is love. This is the ministry of Christ in this world. It is upsetting, it is noisy, it is scary, and it requires belief. But we are not on our own. We are never alone. Our God is a God of relationship, our God is a god of redemption, our God is the god of salvation and hope. And our promise that God is with us is made true and evident in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ who came to be in the same skin as us. Who came to suffer with us, to love with us, to live with us, and to die with us so that we might have eternal life together. Christ shows us once again that naming it and claiming it will set us free, and when we are free in Christ we are truly free indeed.

Baptism of Our Lord Year A

January 14, 2018

Hope Lutheran Church

 

In the beginning was Good

The spirit moved over the waters of creation- already doing her work in the world. As the Father crafted and created, she danced and inspired- even as the Holy Spirit does for us today. And the Word was with God. In the beginning it was good and God called it so- day after day.

Until we got a little control and suddenly schizo- the ripping apart- a violent separation. We were separated from God by our own actions. The curtain went up, the walls went up and we were sent into the world anxious, afraid, and defensive. Covering ourselves from the beginning and killing our brothers out of jealousy over what they had. We placed limits on goods and good. Believing that there was somehow less in creation than there had been before. Works righteousness found its roots and we began to value the ones who had already produced and were fruitful over those who had not.

Humans= Good; Ego= Evil

In our desire to hoard the goods we limited, we created places that no one wanted to live. Places that did not produce were devalued- they were overrun by the cast offs or worse, even while they were good people there, we called them less. So that when a babe was raised in Nazareth, who would come to save the world, the leaders sarcastically and accusingly argued, “what good can come from Nazareth?”

Of course. And we still do it today. What good can come from Haiti? Somalia? Sierra Leone? Detroit? Compton? Mexico? El Salvador? Syria? Fontana? What good indeed can come from Nazareth?

We remain inherently good as God created us- full of possibility and promise no matter where we hail from. Everyone has the same capacity for violence and laziness as they do for success and profit. Whether from Norway or Haiti, every person is precious and full of potential because that is how God created us. But we do the separating. We do the judging and the limiting of resources. We created the schizo.

So when John was baptizing in the wilderness, he was calling people on their crap. He was getting real. Reminding them that WE are the ones who need to repent- we are the ones who have limited God in God’s own house! Creation and this earth is God’s- perfectly made, every inch of this earth is lovely and full of promise. Only we strip it, sell it, limit it and abandon it when it serves us no more- the people along with the land.

So yeah. We needed John’s repentance baptism.

John’s Baptism- looking back

The problem is that John’s baptism is a looking back. It is repentance for what we have done with an assumption that we are now clean. Until we take the next breathe or get cut off in traffic or approached by a smelly homeless person.   John was offering repentance for what is past, preparing us for the future, but not securing it.

True repentance involves sorrow for the past and promise to do better going forward, but the problem is, we created the schism…. And we need more repentance immediately after offering it. It isn’t lasting. Yes, it is preparation for the Lord, but it is only that and nothing more.

Jesus’ Baptism- looking forward

And then along comes Jesus, with a baptism in the Holy Spirit.   She danced and moved over the waters at creation and then we separated ourselves from God. So at Christ’s baptism there is a literal breaking in of the Holy Spirit once again. The New Testament only uses the verb schizo twice- once at the Baptism when the Holy Spirit literally rips the heavens apart to get to Christ and at his death, when the veil of the temple is torn irreparably in two and humanity is permanently reconciled with God. The schizo we created is undone.

And that means that the walls and limits we have placed on God are undone. The Holy Spirit is free and moving among us, removing all artifice about who is of more value than whom, ripping apart our understanding of limitations and placing every human as equal heirs with Christ.

In our Holy Baptism, we are baptized in that Spirit. Our bonds of fear and anxiety are ripped away from us, and we we are left naked again, clothed only in robes of righteousness and salvation.

But it is hard- and scary and we have done this for so long- this placing values on others and hoarding the goods and good in the world that we don’t’ easily know how to live another way. So we find ourselves putting more value on people from Norway over Haiti- except that values change and 150 years ago those Norwegians were the dregs of the earth. Poor and ignorant. Nothing to offer the world. But given the chance, given the opportunity to stop limiting goods, humanity will always show its potential. And that is what happens in our Baptism in Christ and the Holy Spirit. We are given the chance to shine and show that we are all beloved and valuable to God.

Baptismal Call- given for all

And here is the best part. This baptismal promise is given equally to all of us. With blue eyes or brown. With brown skin or pink. With education or ignorance. With wealth or poverty. Because the promise of Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not about worth and what you can give. It is about Love and how much God loves you and all of creation.

You are loved. They are loved and there is more than enough love to go around. There is more than enough provision to go around. There is enough; there is plenty!!!! Because love is not limited and neither is God.

So as baptized Christians, we are called to live fully into this promise first and foremost- to forsake father, mother, spouse, child, country, and every single connection we have, if need be, in order to place God first in our lives. We are in Christ first, we are God’s first. And that means we need to live like it.

We are free every day to community and openness. We are equipped by the Holy Spirit to open doors and tear down walls. To live into an economy of bounty and joy, of promise and fulfillment and to remember that our God is not limited or limiting in Love and promise to all of humanity. We are freed in these precious baptismal waters of the Holy Spirit to free people and welcome them in so that God our father will also say, “This is my child, in whom I am well pleased.”

Some days are hard days. The Holidays and the drama of family and expectations notwithstanding, you know the ones I am speaking of. The ones where you want to put on your most comfortable pajamas and crawl into a warm soft bed to hide. It feels safe there. And the world can be a hard and unwelcoming place- like the Bethlehem of Christ’s birth- no room for even a woman in labor. Talk about a bad day.

I wanted to say this has been a hard year, but in reality, the last 3 have been hard. In fact, I suspect, if we really looked back in detail at every year, we would recognize, they were all hard years. It just seems the most recent rises up as the toughest.

The politics of the United States are literally crazy-making for us, let alone our international friends trying to make sense of what is going on. Our continued struggle to face the persistent nasty residue of slavery and Jim Crow twisted in with struggling police forces who have imperfect people among them, too has left us either angry or confused to the point of exhaustion. #metoo has made the cover of Time Magazine- women breaking the critical mass in markets and finally refusing to be mistreated any longer has opened a well of pain and a flood of voices speaking up about their pain and experiences. Our military conflicts continue- unabated and outrageously expensive. And everything from heroin to polio is making a huge comeback and taking lives at stunning rates. It has been a hard year indeed. And as a pastor, there are days I wonder how I am supposed to lead through THIS kind of shadow. How am I supposed to illuminate the murky shadow?

And then thank God, for more reasons than I can count- we have Christmas. The moments we get to catch our breathe and remember that we are not supposed to do this alone. Gabriel promised Mary that “nothing is impossible with God” and it is true. So as we read of a savior to come who will carry the governments upon his shoulders, I want to take a moment and flesh out that image for you. It doesn’t mean he will run the governments or that they will be created or run in his name. It means he is bigger than those governments- so much bigger he can put them on his shoulders to walk away with them. He can take the things that seem inconceivably large and impossible to manage let alone understand and pick them up like a baby lamb to carry across his strong and capable shoulders. Stop for a minute and think about that. If our Messiah can carry the impossibly large concept of entire governments and nations upon his shoulders, what burden is so big that he cannot carry it with ease? For him, this burden, your burden, any burden is light. Nothing is too big for our God to handle.   Nothing. Not divorce, not cancer, not addiction, not homelessness, not depression and certainly not death.

It is hard to imagine this kind of power in a tiny baby tonight. So small and innocent we can hardly relate that with the power to shoulder the burdens of the whole world upon his shoulders. But he did and he does. The shepherds knew it- they knew something bigger and more amazing than they could grasp had occurred and they went and saw for themselves. They didn’t trust the word of the person next door or their social media. They went, they saw, they got the t-shirt. And then they went and shared with others at the top of their lungs.

And that is how the light of hope pierced the dark of night. They shared the good news. They told others and they shouted it from the mountain tops. Yes, Christ is our light and our hope. Yes, the Holy Spirit remains with us today. But the true illumination of Christ happens through us with one another. The Light of Christ works through us in the midst of our daily chaos and relationship with one another. His voice is the voice of one who calls out “good morning” or his smile is the smile of welcome in a strange place. The light of Christ is the one who stops to help you change a flat tire or pays for your coffee ahead of you.

God came to us to live in Mary, to be birthed into our world and to live among us because relationship means so very much. It is in relationship that we reveal the dance of the Holy Spirit to be concrete and visible in our world. Christ is with us still in every smile, every prayer, every hug or gentle blessing. The moments that make your day a little lighter, a little easier to bear? Those are Christ, taking our burdens upon his shoulders and granting us rest and reprieve through the ones around us. The gift of this messiah is more than a glorious forever-after. The gift is the carrying of our burdens now, here, so that we do not walk this world alone and so that nothing we face ever need to be impossible to bear. This gift of the innocent child is the invitation into relationship with God and one another once more- a gift of love and compassion that shines in the deepest darkness.

So this Christmas, share the gift. Share the love. Share the story and the promise and let the Holy Spirit dance through you- through your actions, your smile, your embrace to the lonely, the weak, and the weary. Bear Christ into our world so that when the days seem hard, we can confidently declare that the wonderful counselor, almighty God, everlasting Father and son have come to us, Emmanuel, God with us.