(Background: Kalei Wilson is a high school student in North Carolina that attempted to start a secular club at her school to support students that were not part of a faith group. At first her club was not even allowed to form at all. Later it was allowed but now she and her family have been receiving a lot of hate… much of it from Christians. Rev. Mark Sandlin of The God Article asked for blogs of support for this courageous young woman. I'm happy to do just that!)
Dear Kalei,
I'm a Lutheran pastor from Maine with two teenaged daughters and strong ties to North Carolina. I have a niece in high school there and I graduated from NC State a long time ago. A Presbyterian pastor friend of mine suggested sending you an open letter of support and I thought it was a wonderful idea. I hope these words of support and encouragement boost you up as you deal with the garbage that has come your way. It is always hard to listen to the mean things people say, even when you are on the right side of something like you are. I know you don't know me but I hope this gives even a tiny speck of encouragement to you and your family.
Finally, I would like to apologize for the behavior of those Christians who have been so hateful to you and your family. Providing support for people who feel different from the those around them is one of the greatest things we can do for one another in this life and taking the time and energy to organize a place for that is what makes you stand out as a leader and it is what will eventually cut through the ugliness and make this world a better place. Thank you for taking a risk for compassion and staying strong!
Hang in there Kalei! There are tons of folks behind you!
Erik
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Shiny Jesus… Squirrel!
The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 17th Chapter
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
We’re at the end of the season of Epiphany... the light season. At the beginning of this season the star guided wise men across the desert to find the baby Jesus and at this end of the season Jesus himself shines on top of a mountain. Peter, James and John went with Jesus up the mountain and there they saw Jesus transfigured, which basically means he got super shiny. Really, really shiny because it says he shone like the sun! It was God’s not-so-subtle way of trying to catch the easily distractible disciple’s attention and get them to focus on Jesus.
In the Transfiguration, God reminded the disciples, and reminds us, that our focus should be Jesus… that we are to be a Jesus church. That may seem obvious but we're easily distracted. That means we are not a Bible church, we are a Jesus church. We are not a young people, retired people, charter member, new member or family church... we are a Jesus church. We are not a women’s group, youth group, Sunday school, sewing group, altar guild, fellowship group, stewardship or evangelism church either, we are a Jesus church.
Now, don’t get me wrong, those other things are important. The Bible? Very important… It more clearly than anything else we have, points to Jesus. And our people, worship and programs are really important too because they also point to Jesus. But none of those things are were our focus is supposed to stop. We may start there but in the end our focus should rest on the One that God made shiny on top of that mountain. The One whom God called “My Son, the Beloved.” The One who God reminds us is here, right here, always with us... the One we are supposed to listen to. That’s our focus. We are called to be a Jesus church and the message of the Transfiguration is that Jesus is to be both our focus and the beacon we follow as we live our lives.
Apparently Peter, James and John needed this dramatic reminder and to be honest, we may need it even more! Not only do we have so many more distractions in our lives today with the pace of the world, technology and the information we are bombarded with, but ironically at times it seems that we get distracted from Jesus by thinking and wondering and discussing and confessing things about Jesus!
There is a story of a church that received a bequest from one of the pillars of the congregation to purchase a painting of Jesus feeding the five thousand. A group of the most faithful, loyal, devoted Christians in the congregation got together and seriously focused on, talked about and theologized about what kind of painting they wanted to commission for their church. They deeply wanted to find an artist who would both communicate the essence of the story but would also draw people deeply and personally into this instance of God's grace in the most powerful manner possible. They focused and talked and prayed and wondered about this story and their task for three hours until someone suggested they take a break and get something to eat for lunch. Leaving the church they stepped over a homeless hungry man on the doorsteps of their church still talking about Jesus feeding the five thousand.
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.
You’ve seen those big promotions at car dealerships where there’s the year end blowout sale? They inflate a giant gorilla, set up an enormous sound system, have a celebrity give an endorsement and have giant searchlights sweep the sky. That is sort of what God was doing here. Doing something big and bright and loud to get the disciple’s attention and then God pointed at Jesus and said, “Look here,” this here is my Son, HE is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING…LISTEN to him…DO what he does...He is the answer…AND He is right HERE with you!
There is a story of a church that received a bequest from one of the pillars of the congregation to purchase a painting of Jesus feeding the five thousand. A group of the most faithful, loyal, devoted Christians in the congregation got together and seriously focused on, talked about and theologized about what kind of painting they wanted to commission for their church. They deeply wanted to find an artist who would both communicate the essence of the story but would also draw people deeply and personally into this instance of God's grace in the most powerful manner possible. They focused and talked and prayed and wondered about this story and their task for three hours until someone suggested they take a break and get something to eat for lunch. Leaving the church they stepped over a homeless hungry man on the doorsteps of their church still talking about Jesus feeding the five thousand.
One of the most important things we do when we come together for worship is to help one another experience a weekly transfiguration. To remind one another again that Jesus, and what Jesus did and is doing in the world, is to be our focus. It is a time to realize again, God’s Son is with us listening to us, caring for us, loving us, forgiving us, claiming and naming us, feeding us and healing us. But also to hear again that Jesus is there to actively guide us to an abundant life, filled with meaning and worth that starts now and never ends. Later, I'll hold the cup and the bread and tell you, and hopefully remind us all again that Jesus is here, not only in a spiritual way but in a way we can all feel and see and touch and taste. Holy Communion too, is God reminding us again that God's Son is with us and Jesus is to be our focus!
Just one reminder may not be enough though. Do you remember how this Gospel lesson started? It went like this: “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain.” Do you know what happened six days before this? Six days before this Peter confessed Jesus was the Messiah, God’s Son, but now, just six short days later he apparently needed a HUGE reminder! Then they went down the mountain and what happened? They needed another reminder, pretty much right away. We need those reminders too because focusing on and following Jesus isn't easy. It means staying on the mountain and getting comfortable isn't an option. Jesus wants us down the mountain and out in the world transforming it into the Kingdom of God. We need to, for example, both feed the hungry AND confront people in power and ask why people are hungry. That sort of thing is scary and we tend to be easily distracted from things that are scary. So we need the reminder... both of our call AND that aren't alone. Jesus goes with us… leads us and loves us without condition and without limit.
We need all the help we can get… inflatable gorillas, searchlights, booming voices, brilliant lights or whatever else it might take to remind us, like God reminded Peter, James and John, that God’s Son Jesus is the light and life of the world. We need those reminders so we don't get distracted by things of the world or even by things that point to Jesus… but instead that we focus on JESUS...God's Son, the beloved… so we will LISTEN to him… and more than that, FOLLOW him, living as he lived… challenging the world to become the place God created it to be… the Kingdom of God. Amen.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Mind the Gap
The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter
Jesus said... ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In London, when you take the Tube, which you Americans would call the subway, there is a sign that says, “Mind the Gap”. It’s a warning that there is a bit of space between the platform and the train car and since losing tourists in that gap is a bit of bad form, they like to tell you to “Mind the Gap.” It turns out there’s also a gap between what many think this Scripture means and what Jesus actually meant.
So, for this Sunday, we're going to Mind the Gap! The first gap is when Jesus says, “do not resist an evil doer” or in another translation he says, “stand there and take it.” This has been used to advise people to subject themselves to abuse over and over again. One of the worst examples is when someone says to a victim of domestic violence that they are not to resist or are supposed to stand there and take it. That is absolutely NOT, NOT, NOT what Jesus is saying here. If you are being abused, you don't need to stand there and take it! You need to leave! If you or someone you know needs help leaving let me know.
So that’s what Jesus ISN’T saying here. What he IS saying here comes from understanding that when Jesus says we should not “stand against” evil he is using a specific military term that the people of his time would have known. It is the term for the moment two armies met and first strike blows. When Jesus says we should not “stand against” evil, he is saying that we should not meet evil with evil; we should not retaliate blow for blow, with an eye for eye or tooth for tooth. At first you might think that the only other option would be to allow yourself to be run over, but in this lesson Jesus goes on to give examples which make it VERY clear that isn’t in any way what Jesus has in mind!
Take a look at the next gap. “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn also the other.” This one takes a little CSI–Jerusalem to understand. First, in that culture people only used their left hand for… well, let’s say personal hygiene, so the hitter would be using their right hand. Second, from the text we know the hit is on the right cheek which means it has to be a backhand blow. Finally, in that culture, a backhand wasn’t meant to hurt so much as it was meant to put you back in your place. SO, by turning the other cheek you physically denied them the ability to backhand you on your right cheek again. You would be physically showing them you did not accept them as superior over you but you were also not returning violence for violence.
Then there is this gap. “If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well.” In Jesus’ day if you owed someone money they could demand collateral until you paid them back. The very poorest of the poor only had the cloths on their backs which consisted of two pieces, an inner and an outer garment. The law allowed the creditor to take the outer garment during the day as collateral but they had to give it back at night so that the debtor could sleep in it, because that outer garment also functioned as their sleeping bag. Then in the morning, the creditor could demand it back. It was basically a legal method to harass the poorest of the poor, literally day and night.
To fight that harassment, Jesus suggested giving them both the outer AND inner garments which would leave the person naked (no Fruit of the Looms back then) and while being naked in public isn’t something most of us would go for in our culture, in that culture the public embarrassment would fall on the one who had demanded the cloak in the first place. Jesus was advocating a brave, nonviolent, strong but somewhat breezy protest that would shame the creditor out of that kind of harassment in the future.
The next gap to mind in this list of examples is… “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” Jesus lived in an occupied country and any Roman soldier could legally force a non-Roman citizen to carry their 85 pounds of gear for them at any time, but the law said only for one mile. Roman roads had mile markers and so most people, as you would expect, would carry the gear to the next mile marker and drop the gear on the spot, but Jesus knew this Roman military law was very strict and if a soldier was caught forcing someone to go past that mile marker, that soldier would be in deep trouble with their centurion. Jesus suggested “going the extra mile” not to “go along” with an oppressive government, but to use their own laws against them in nonviolent protest, causing the soldiers to think twice before taking advantage of another person on the street. People might have told Jesus not to mix religion and politics but apparently Jesus didn’t get the memo.
The last gap in this whole passage that needs some minding is the very last verse which says, “Be perfect, therefore as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” People always want to make this into a personal, moral thing but Jesus isn’t asking us for moral perfection here. Jesus is asking for something MUCH harder! He’s asking us to extend our love to ALL people regardless of who they are, what they have done, what they believe, how they have hurt us or anything else. Jesus is asking us to love... like God loves…completely, perfectly, unconditionally, unendingly and without restraint to every corner of creation.
That’s what Jesus was really talking about back then, but for us here today, we are left with one additional “Gap to Mind” and that gap is trying to figure out how to connect this story from way back then, when the Romans occupied Israel and people only owned the two pieces of cloths on their backs, to our story here in this place and in this time. We may not have Roman Legions facing off with opposing armies, but where do we see the powerful attempting to get their way through threat, intimidation or violence? Where do we see might trying to turn things into right for them? We may not have masters backhanding slaves to put them back in their place, but where do we see those in power attempting to silence the powerless? We may not have to give up our coat during the day, but where do we see the rich making money on the backs of the poor?
With this last piece of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus drives home two points. First, YOU and every human being that ever has been or ever will be is a beloved child of God. Whether they know it or not, whether they believe it or not... they are… you are… we are all beloved children of God simply because God has made us that way! And second, Jesus is calling us as Christians to not roll over, but to stand up for what’s right and for what is just for all people. We are to fight, firmly and confidently but never violently for ourselves and for the least, lost and last in our society. We are called to work for justice in everything we do and insist that people, institutions and governments treat ALL people with the respect and justice due a beloved child of God.
Jesus is calling us with this Sermon on the Mount to open our eyes and see the ways our world is still divided... between the rich and poor, the weak and the powerful, the well connected and the forgotten, the healthy and the sick... Because in the end, you see, Jesus is insisting here that it isn’t simply our calling to “Mind the Gap” but to work with a purpose to “Mend the Gap” between all of God’s beloved children. Amen.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
You are the Magnesium Sulfate of the World
The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew the 5th Chapter
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes three common things everyone listening to him then would have known and mixes them into a metaphor cocktail that told the people what their mission was and how far that mission was meant to reach. First he says, you are the “salt of the earth.” He isn’t talking about table salt here. The “salt of the earth” is a specific salt. It is Epsom Salts or Magnesium Sulphate which you mix in with the soil so your plants grow better. Magnesium is essential for plants to transform light into energy. Jesus is telling us that we’re called to transform the world from the way it works now into the way God wants it to work… into the Kingdom of God, a place where everyone has enough… enough food, shelter, dignity, worth, security... enough.
The second salt Jesus talks about is a salt you taste so this one IS table salt or Sodium Chloride. That salt is first a food preservative which allows you to keep foods longer, transport foods over greater distances and therefore feed more people. So the next part of our mission is to feed people, to bring people life. But Sodium Chloride is also a flavor enhancer, so whatever flavor is already there in food... sweet or savory... it boosts that flavor... kicks it up a notch. So, Jesus tells us the way we transform the world is to bring people life, but not just any life. We’re to bring them a life that is kicked up a notch. In John’s Gospel, Jesus calls it an Abundant Life which is not simply a ‘get by day to day’ kind of life, but an exceptional life, a life filled with meaning, worth and purpose.
The third metaphor is a lamp which, when used correctly, would shine into every corner of the people’s one room houses. With this final metaphor, Jesus tells us that life... that abundant, world transforming kind of life he talked about before... is meant to reach into every corner of the world. It’s meant to shine on all people and when Jesus says all, Jesus means ALL.
That’s our mission and where it is meant to reach. Making that happen in the world is what we as Christians are called to do. BUT... (there’s always a but, isn’t there?) BUT... along with those metaphors that tell us our mission and it's reach, Jesus also acknowledges that sometimes when we walk that path, sometimes when we try to do those things, sometimes when we try to change the world... STUFF happens.
Jesus says salt can loose it’s taste and sometimes a basket can smother the light. Now a science nerd, like me, would tell you that pure salt can’t technically loose it’s taste. However, if you mined your salt from around the Dead Sea in the wrong spot it could be contaminated with a lot of other minerals, or if you bought your salt from a shady salt dealer it might be full of sand. In THOSE cases, when STUFF happens to your salt, then the salt won’t taste like it should and the salt won’t work like it should.
We’ve all had times in our lives where our saltiness and our light has run into trouble.... We’ve all had times when STUFF happens. Grief, loss, abandonment, betrayal, sabotage, tragedy, greed, selfishness, illness, disease, disaster and the list goes on and on but no matter what you call it... STUFF happens! One minute you were putting one foot in front of the other on your faithful journey... one minute you were working together to bring abundant life to the world... one minute you were making progress and the next minute.... you’re stopped dead in your tracks... clogged up, bogged down, fed up, beat down, oppressed and depressed.
When stuff happens in our lives, the salt that is supposed to bring abundant life feels more like quicksand dragging us down. When stuff happens in our lives, our light can’t shine...in fact, it seems to take all our energy just to keep the flame lit, let alone shine it into the dark places of the world. You all know what it feels like when stuff happens because stuff happens to everyone. When stuff happens we can get stuck and when we get stuck we simply aren’t able to do the mission God has called us to do. Getting STUCK is the real STICKER in this lesson! So what do we do when stuff happens and we get stuck?
Jesus, here in the Sermon on the Mount, doesn’t tell us with words what to do about being stuck. Instead, he SHOWS us what to do. First, he doesn’t pretend STUFF doesn’t happen. Salt can loose it’s taste, Jesus says. It happens! Light can get a bushel basket slammed over the top of it, Jesus says. It happens! When STUFF happens we often don’t want to talk about it out of a fear that talking about it will make it worse. Jesus shows us here, that it is NOT talking about it that makes it worse and keeps us stuck.
Talking about it is important but what I’m about to tell you is the number one key... the take home message for this whole sermon. So wake up your neighbor and perk up your ears... because even though Jesus said it once already, this is something we all need to really HEAR. Ready? YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH! You are NOT the STUFF that happens in this life that messes with your saltiness! YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! You are NOT the STUFF that happens in life that slams a basket over your flame!
No matter how big or how much STUFF has happened to you over the years, that STUFF DOES NOT DEFINE YOU! That STUFF is real and it needs to be brought into the open, talked about and dealt with, but that STUFF is NOT WHO or WHOSE you are!
Take a look at the paper the ushers are handing out now. At the beginning of worship you each wrote down one word that you felt was the best thing about this congregation. We've gathered them together in this word cloud … take a look! THAT is who you are! You are all those things and more! YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH and YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH! YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! It is time to deal with the STUFF and then get on with bringing the world what it so desperately needs from you… God's LIFE AND LIGHT! Amen.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Waiting for the Sun
The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke the 2nd Chapter
When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It
I’m a pastor. For a little while I thought maybe I wasn’t a pastor and started making haddock sandwiches for a living, but just over a year ago now, it became clear to me again that what I really was... was a pastor. I’ve KNOWN it now for over a year, but I’m still waiting to BE it again full time. My wife, Kelly, is a flight attendant. She left being a flight attendant to follow me out here to Maine and thought maybe being a flight attendant was “just another job” for her. It isn’t. She too has KNOWN that for over a year now, but has also been waiting for things to work out so she could BE it again. Waiting is never any fun. Waiting for mundane things or important things... either way, waiting is hard. Waiting for God to clear the path ahead in your life or in your congregation’s life or in the world seems to add another level of “hard” to waiting.
Today’s Gospel features Simeon and Anna. The story doesn’t tell us how long Simeon had been waiting or how old he was but it does tell us that the Holy Spirit told Simeon he would not see death until he met the Messiah. Since that encounter with the Holy Spirit, Simeon had been looking forward to... ‘waiting for’ the “consolation of Israel.” Anna, we know from the text is 84. She’s been in the Temple day and night for around the last 60 years praying and fasting... otherwise known as ‘waiting for’, the “Redemption of Jerusalem.”
Those two things, the “Consolation of Israel” and the “Redemption of Jerusalem” are two terms for basically the same thing. They meant freedom from the occupation and oppression of the Roman Empire and justice for all the people of Israel. Justice, here and throughout the Bible, isn’t quite like we think of justice these days; it’s not punishing people for crimes. Instead, justice in the Bible is transforming the world so it works the way God wants it to work. Mary sang about it in the Magnificat in the first chapter of Luke... The proud are scattered, the powerful are brought down, the lowly are lifted up, the hungry are filled and the rich are sent away empty. It’s a social and economic shift in the world so that everyone has enough; enough food, enough shelter, enough worth, enough dignity, enough meaning in their lives. Simeon and Anna knew their world was out of balance from the way God intended it to be and were waiting for God to set it right.
It was into their waiting that Jesus came. So what did Jesus say to them? He didn’t say anything did he? He’s just a baby. What does Jesus do there in the Temple? Miracles? Some water into wine, maybe? Healings maybe? No, none of that... Jesus is a baby, he is simply “there.” With Jesus just “there” what difference does that make? Does the Roman Empire pack up and move out? No. Does society change so the poor and hungry and homeless aren’t seen as parasites and are lifted up and given what they need; food, shelter, dignity, worth? No, that doesn’t happen either. Even after Jesus grows up, lives his life, dies and is raised from the dead those things don’t happen. So why was Jesus’ visit as a baby so powerful to Anna and Simeon?
I think Jesus’ simple presence did something life changing for them… it gave them hope. It showed Anna and Simeon that God had not forgotten them. It was something... someone who was physical, touchable and seeable that showed them God was still active and working and transforming the world around them even as they stood there waiting day after day, year after year in the Temple.
Waiting is so very hard but even the smallest sign of hope can be incredibly powerful. I’ve been asked to be the part time interim at Prince of Peace in Augusta. It’s not a full time, permanent position, but it’s a sign of hope. Kelly got a call from Jetblue Airlines inviting her to interview and just that phone call was an amazingly powerful sign of hope. Waiting is very hard. Feeling forgotten and feeling like there is no hope makes the waiting so much worse.
You know, together, you and I are called The Body of Christ. It isn’t just a name though... it’s our calling. Together we are called by God to continue to do what Jesus did. Together we are called to transform the world, to bring about God’s Justice, to bring down the powerful, lift up the lowly, fill the hungry and send the rich away empty. Together we are called to bring about the Consolation of Israel and the Redemption of Jerusalem, to transform the world into the Kingdom of God.
Does all of that sound slightly overwhelming? Maybe more than slightly overwhelming? Overwhelmingly overwhelming? Before you start to panic, look again at today’s story. What powerful sermon did Jesus preach in this story? What amazing supernatural actions did Jesus do in this story? What clever Scriptural reference did Jesus make in this story? What change did Jesus accomplish in the Roman Empire? What economic transformation did Jesus facilitate? He didn’t say anything or do any of those things. The only thing Jesus did in today’s story was BE THERE. But look at what being there meant to Anna... she couldn’t stop talking about it to everyone she saw. Look at what being there meant to Simeon... it literally made him sing!
You and I are called to bring God’s Kingdom to the Earth and make God’s Justice a reality, but you and I are called to start doing that in exactly the same way Jesus started... by simply BEING THERE for someone who needs to know God has not forgotten them... for someone who needs just a glimmer of hope as they wait.
Who in the congregation needs to be shown they haven’t been forgotten? Who in the community needs a visit to be reminded that they are remembered? Who do you know that might just need a glimmer of hope brought by their home or work or school? You don’t need to bring them sermons or prayers or words or miracles or Scripture verses and you don't need to fix their problems or change their world... just stop in this week and BE THERE with them for a little while. Then, as you sit there, look them in the eye. It wouldn't surprise me if somewhere in there deep inside, you didn't see a part of them begin to sing. Amen.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Still Wrong-er-er After All These Years
The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew the 3rd Chapter
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
Have you ever been wrong? As the saying goes, I thought that I was wrong once... but I was mistaken! Actually, that’s not true. I am wrong on a VERY regular basis. All you have to do to confirm that is talk to my wife or my kids and they will tell you how wrong I am and how often I’m wrong. In fact, the older they get the more wrong-er-er I seem to become!
When I am wrong, I try not to be too hard on myself. Now, I don’t try to be wrong or even mistaken, for that matter, but it seems to happen anyway! But on the up side, being wrong does put me in with some very good company. We’ve read about two of that good company in the lessons today. Look at Peter. The whole second lesson is Peter telling everyone that he had been wrong before, but has now gotten things straightened out. It took a vision, three Gentiles and a conversation with God, but in the end, Peter did finally get things straightened out. He finally understood that God shows no partiality, God doesn’t have favorites... God loves all... and all means all!
Then, in today’s gospel lesson, John the Baptist was wrong too. He believed that he had no business baptizing Jesus. Maybe he thought Jesus should be the one baptizing him or maybe John thought Jesus didn’t need to be baptized since he didn’t have any sins that needed forgiving. But, it turns out, John was wrong and really did need to baptize Jesus after all.
So if by being wrong I find myself in the company of people of faith like Peter and John the Baptist then I’m not too worried and you know why? Because I too have been baptized! Neither of them had horrible things happen to them for being wrong; no wrath of God, no fire raining down from the sky, no brimstone or locusts, tsunamis or hurricanes or anything. What this Gospel lesson tells us, is that with Jesus arriving on the scene, punishing people with all those Old Testament style punishments for being wrong is simply not the way God works anymore!
Since Jesus arrived in the world, God has decided to do things a new way. God now handles us being wrong, not by raining hell fire or with bad weather, but by loving us anyway, opening up heaven to be with us through every mess, thick and thin, good choices and bad. When God sent his Son and the Holy Spirit, that was our clue that God was doing things in a whole new way.
If you’re like me and tend to mess up and be wrong on a pretty regular basis, the fact that God now loves us in spite of our regular wrongness is really, really good news. On the other hand, there are people who think they don’t ever mess up and some of those folks really don’t like the idea that God has gotten out of the raining down hellfire and smiting business. They are the kinds of folks who figure God is angry all the time, sending tsunamis and hurricanes and tornados to punish the world for not hating the same people they hate and not yelling loud enough at the same things they like to yell at. I’m sorry they’re that angry all the time but the truth is, even though they don’t like it, God’s still doing a new thing.
Even when I think that a person or a group or a thing is really, really, really horrible.... and I have a list, believe me.... even when I think someone is being horrible and would really, really like God to do some serious, old fashioned lightning bolt and hellfire smiting... God just doesn’t do it... because no matter what I want, God doesn’t work that way anymore! And really that’s for the best, because sooner or later I would mess up who needs smiting just like I mess up everywhere else in my life.
So, take a look again at the lessons and see how God does work now. In the second lesson, God talks with Peter in a vision, convincing him to think in a new way. In the gospel lesson, Jesus talks to John and quietly and gently tells him that this is what they need to do in order to do things God’s way. When Jesus comes up from the water the heavens open, the Holy Spirit comes down and God says, “This is my son, I really, really love him and I especially like what he’s doing and the way he’s doing it.”
John was wrong. Before Jesus talked with him he couldn’t imagine that God was giving up the good old ways of smiting people with hellfire, hurricanes, lightning bolts, and nasty skin diseases. But, with compassion and understanding, Jesus convinced him that God was doing things in this new way, through his Son, the beloved. When we are baptized, we too are baptized into God's new way of doing things. That new way calls us to try to follow in God's footsteps and give up trying to get back at people who have done us wrong and instead live a life of forgiveness, love and compassion. Even if that means getting things wrong some times and even if that means being taken advantage of from time to time.
Martin Luther said that this new way calls us to sin boldly! In other words, we’re supposed to try and do what God calls us to do... try and love others, have compassion for others, try to care for the least and the lost and the last of our world and not be afraid that we might not get it right. We are supposed to be bold in what we try! We can afford to be bold now because we can be confident that God would rather us try and end up getting off track than to never try at all in fear that we might mess up along the way. God loves us when we get it right... and God loves us even when we get it wrong. Just like Jesus, you and I are God’s beloved children no matter how far we get off track. And not if, but WHEN we do get off track, God will gently lead us back to the right path just like God did with Peter and John.
When you and I were baptized we are baptized for a purpose...part of that purpose is to tell the world that God is no longer in the business of sending horrible weather or anything else to punish people... that’s just not how God works anymore! God is now into loving and caring and gently leading. The other part of what we were baptized into is to live our lives and try to treat others in the same way that God now treats us... in the ways of love, compassion, generosity and grace rather than the ways of revenge and punishing. You and I are called both to tell the world that God is doing things in a new way AND live our lives in that new way so that with God, you and I transform the world into the world God wants it to be... a place of love, compassion, grace and peace.
You and I have been set free to take those risks, boldly doing what we believe God is calling us to do, and even if it turns out later we didn’t quite get things 100% right... because God opened up the heavens at our baptisms and sent the Holy Spirit to each of us, we can be assured that God will keep loving each and every one of us anyway... and while I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in my life, I am 100%, absolutely positive that I am not wrong about God’s infinite, unconditional, unlimited love for you and for me and for all of creation. Amen.
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Dreams, Dogs and Darkness
The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 1st Chapter
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
The other night our dog woke me up needing to go outside. This was Thursday night... the night of the blizzard. When I opened the door he felt the snow and wind and he decided maybe he didn’t need to go after all. I made him go out anyway. He does this whenever it’s snowing or raining. If I hadn’t made him go out then, he would have let me go back to sleep for about fifteen minutes and then woken me up... again... to go out... again... because in his little doggy brain he would have, at that point, forgotten that it was snowing but remembered that, “Oh yeah, I need to water a tree! Wake up dad!” So, out he went. I sat down at the dining table which is right by that door to wait for him. He took a long time. Apparently there was more than tree watering that needed to be done at one in the morning in a blizzard. He took so long that I opened my computer and saw on Facebook that a college friend was getting snow in D.C., another posted about our old fraternity and Banana’s the Bear, another college friend posted about his trip to Mexico and three others about a college bowl game. I tell you those riveting details of my exciting late night adventures with my dog and college Facebook friends because once my dog finally decided to come in and I went back to bed I had a dream. I dreamed I was in college but it wasn’t a good dream.
John’s Gospel opens in a majestic and transcendent manner that attempts to connect us with God through Jesus the Christ. Unfortunately for us, John was trying to connect God with Greek speaking people from a very different culture, 2000 years ago, so for folks like us who don’t speak Greek and who live today, it can be hard to really hear what he’s saying. It needs some translation. John starts with “In the Beginning,” intentionally connecting his book and Jesus with the creation story. When the apostle Paul talks about the Son of God, Jesus gets that Divine connection at the resurrection. In Mark’s Gospel, it happens at Jesus’ Baptism and when Luke and Matthew talk about Jesus being the Son of God it happens at Jesus’ birth. In John’s Gospel that connection has always been there. In fact, Jesus isn’t born at all in John’s Gospel... he’s always been there... with God even before creation began.
When John talks about Jesus always having this Divine connection way back before creation, he talks about Jesus as the “Word.” In John’s day, “The Word” was a phrase that meant the creative power of God. Folks understood it as sort of like the energy God uses, or the mechanism God uses to do things... things like create the universe. The Word then, is the connection between God and the world... John wanted us to think of Jesus as something like God’s hands at work in the world... still completely part God, but the “make things happen in the world” part of God.
What my late night dog and college friend induced dream helped me remember was how important it is for my life right now that the Word is that ancient, that powerful AND is also still able to make things happen in my world today. In the dream I was in college and lived in a dorm but in my dream my dorm room held a very real and very tangible and very scary darkness. A personified darkness had moved into my little dorm room and was taking over my little cinder block walled world. In my dream I really needed it to go! The Word, John says, came into the world specifically to shine a light into the darkness and in my dream THAT is exactly what needed to happen. In the crazy way dreams go, I did my best Roman Catholic exorcist impression and called on Jesus to expel this darkness from my dorm room. There was dramatic thrashing around and wrestling and it didn’t work at first and then it was working and then it wasn’t working and in the end the light did shine in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it!
I woke up at that point actually remembering the dream, which is not usual for me. I laid in bed and took some deep breaths. It was that kind of dream. Then I marveled at how my brain had used my dog’s small bladder and a few updates from college friends on Facebook to create a scene in my mind. Then my brain wove that middle of the night sleepy jumble of dog and college in with the dark parts of my life right now and then stirred all of that into the part of my mind mulling over this gospel lesson. I thought of the real monsters of darkness that are a part of my life right now: Medical bills that need to be paid, while we continue to buy groceries and heating oil instead; being stuck in a place where we don’t fit in, working jobs that aren’t a good match for us; being isolated from friends and being far from family and then there is the real physical darkness of these short, gray days of winter. That’s a bit of my darkness these days. I know you have yours too. Your darkness and my darkness are powerful and very real, but here in the beginning of John’s Gospel we are again given real and more powerful hope than any darkness! Hope that, with the same power that created the universe, God pushes back with light on the darkest places in each of our lives and on the darkest places in all of creation.
Listen again to our hope... In the beginning the “make things happen in the world” part of God brought to the world the WAY to live an abundant, meaning-filled life. A life that is filled with being fully alive and abundant with joy. A light that has changed and is still changing the world. A light that overpowers even the deepest darknesses of our personal lives and those that plague the world.
You and I don’t need to track down this light to have it in our lives... it tracks us down! Jesus, the Christ, came to us then and comes to us now, wherever we are, like a traveler with a tent, camping on our doorstep. He floods our lives with God’s infinite light and love... with a lovingkindness that, if it was literal light, would blind us with it’s brightness. It is a light that always persists no matter what we do… A light that will prevail.
If we were on our own, the darkness of this world and our personal darknesses would simply be too much to stand. The promise, the hope that we hold onto though, is that we are not on our own. We have the One, wielding the same power that created the universe, the One who is the "make things happen here in our world" part of God, shining light into every single darkness everywhere.
Thirteen chapters later in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that as we begin to trust in the hope of that power and love and light, we too can bring that same power and love and light into the lives of those around us and we too will be a part of transforming the world into what God intends it to be. May each of us grow in the trust of that power, that love and that light. May it be our hope in the dark places of our personal lives and in the life of the world. May we come to a place where we, as part of the Body of Christ, can with God’s universe-creating power, endless lovingkindness and bright, blinding light shine that hope into every darkness until every darkness is gone forever. Amen.
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