Christian Nationalism is NOT Christian

John 8:31-36

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Today is Reformation Sunday.  It is a day to celebrate the church changing direction over 500 years ago, but, at least in THEORY, it is also supposed to be a reminder that as a church of the Reformation, we are called to constant and continual Reformation… constant and continual change.  There are two deeply theological questions that can help us determine how well we do that.  The first:  How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?  One to call the electrician, one to mix the cocktails, and one to sit and reminisce about how much better the old light bulb was.  The Second:  How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?  CHANGE?!?!??

The Church does not change quickly.  For some things, that’s a very good thing.  Today's Gospel with Jesus telling his disciples that as they continue living the Jesus Way, with a Jesus mindset, caring for the least, lost and last... THAT makes them his disciples; In that way they will see and experience the truth that the Jesus Way is the way to living abundantly, and that truth will make them free.  THAT focus and connection with the Jesus Way of living should not change.  And Paul's understanding that no one is better or more worthy or more holy than any one else anywhere for any reason because “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”… that understanding should not change.  Recognizing and shouting from the rooftops that EVERYONE is made right with God by faith, made right, simply because God says so!  That too should never change.  

What SHOULD always be open to Reformation however is what smart people call adiaphora… the trappings, the decorations, the bling.  It is the cultural traditions, the particular wording, the musical, architectural, liturgical and ministry styles… the things that often make us feel safe and in control… like it used to be.  Those things SHOULD always be open to reformation.  That doesn’t mean they need change for change’s sake.  It simply asks us to notice if the trappings, the bling, and the styles we are using, are continuing to point us and others toward the Jesus Way, or perhaps have begun to point in the other direction.  

This past week Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was a part of a seminar at Georgetown called, “How White Christian Nationalism Threatens Our Democracy.”  White Christian Nationalism is a horrible consequence of confusing what should be open to reformation and what should not.  Bishop Curry said, “(Christian Nationalism) is not conservative Christianity. Obviously, it’s not liberal Christianity either. What we’re actually describing is an ideology that’s not really a religion, but it looks like a religion and invokes language and symbols that have religious traffic. … (But when you) lay it alongside (the Way of) Jesus of Nazareth, we’re not even talking about the same thing.”

White Christian Nationalism has taken a part of the church that has cried out for Reformation for centuries… white supremacy, anti-semitism, bigotry, and a lust for political power and has set THOSE THINGS as their unchangeable core, throwing out what should be unchanging… The Way of Jesus.  To try and turn that around Bishop Curry told the conference and tells each of us, “silence is complicity and silence creates a context in which something like that can grow.  One of the most powerful tools Christians have is the Bible itself.  Lift up the text of the New Testament, specifically the four Gospels … and let Jesus talk. Anything that claims to be Christian, if it doesn’t match up, then we say, ‘Well, that’s not Christianity.”

Our calling on this Reformation Sunday is much much deeper than simply wearing red and singing A Mighty Fortress.  Our calling is to publicly and loudly reject the things that people put forward as Christian, but fly in the face of the Ways of Jesus.  Our calling is to tell the world that the ways of love, compassion, forgiveness, grace and generosity starting with the least, the lost, and the last… THOSE ARE the Ways of Jesus and that racism, anti-semitism, violence, and exclusion are NOT!  Our calling this Reformation Sunday is to no longer just look away from Christian Nationalism and hope it goes away, but to proclaim out loud that Christian Nationalism is not Christian at all!  Our calling on this Reformation Sunday is to stand up, live and proclaim the Ways of Jesus and to tell the world, that it is HERE, on the Ways of Jesus that we stand, and we can do no other!  Amen.

Into Which Vision Will We Walk?

 Luke 18:9-14

Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I tell you, this man when down to his home justified, rather than the other.  RATHER THAN the other.  RATHER THAN. It’s more than just a couple of words.  It’s a mind set, a philosophy… a theology… a vision for the way the world should work.  RATHER THAN.  It’s a loud theology… a proud theology… the present day’s crowd theology.  Rich rather than poor.  Men rather than women.  Americans rather than foreigners.  Straight rather than gay.  Guns rather than kids.  Rolling coal rather than a healthy planet.  Us rather than them.  RATHER THAN is a vision of a world plagued with scarcity.  Not enough food, safety, wealth, health care, housing, freedom… not enough of everything.

But, RATHER THAN… Really?  Rather than?  But there it is!  Right there in the text!  But it feels… it feels like a popcorn kernel stuck in your mind… like a splinter in your heart.  It feels so completely wrong!  The opposite of Jesus healing ten lepers without regard to their thankfulness or national origin.  It goes completely against the grain of a judge that has completely given up on judging.  But it’s in the text!  RATHER THAN!  IT'S… RIGHT… THERE! … Or is it?  

“Rather than” is what the translators chose to use here for the Greek word, “Para”… you know “para”… parallel, paralegal, paramedic, even parable.  It’s not a “wrong” translation.  A case can be made, for example, for a parasol to be a devise that gives you shade, “rather than” sun, but an equally strong case can be made for a parasol as a devise that puts you “beside” the effects of the sun.  With parasol, the difference doesn’t really matter… particularly since we all just use umbrellas!  BUT IN THIS PARABLE, the choice of how we translate “Para” makes ALL the difference.  Hear that verse again… and maybe also, hear it for the very first time… 

I tell you, this man when down to his home justified, beside the other.  He went down to his home justified, BESIDE the other.  BESIDE.  It’s more than just a word.  It’s a mind set, a philosophy… a theology… a vision for the way the world should work.  BESIDE.  It is a not a loud theology… not a proud theology… not at all the present day crowd's theology.  Rich beside poor.  Men beside women.  Americans beside foreigners.  Straight beside gay.  Us beside them.  BESIDE is the vision of a world of plenty.  More than enough food, safety, wealth, health care, jobs, and freedom… to share with everyone.  A BESIDE vision of the world revels in generosity, builds up the other, walks together with our neighbors.

There is a choice to be made in how this word is translated and infinitely more important than that, there is a choice to be made as to the vision of the world we walk into each day.  I know you.  You know me.  We are BESIDE people.  This church has a BESIDE vision for our world and that BESIDE vision allows us to see things and imagine possibilities that RATHER THAN people will sadly find impossible to see.   People of the BESIDE vision of the world can imagine a tax collector and a pharisee... two of the most opposite leaning folks… being given a way to walk down that aisle, out to get coffee together, arms around one another’s shoulders.  Somehow, by the gift of God’s grace we are able to see a vision of even those two transformed from RATHER THAN people into BESIDE people.  It’s a beautiful vision.  Incredibly beautiful.

You and I… we continue to be called to walk a path together illuminated by that BESIDE vision for our world.  In this week to come, look deeply into that BESIDE vision for our world.  Look as far down that path as you possibly can and also look at the piece of the path which lies right at the tip of your shoe.  Really notice what you see!  I'm not just saying this!  This is homework!  And your assignment is to come back and tell one another what you saw down that BESIDE path at next week’s coffee hour!  And if sometime this week you look down that path and find yourself shaking your head and rubbing your eyes in disbelief of what you see… if you find what you are looking at to be too hopeful, too delusional, too impossible to be real…  remember… it was inside that very same vision of BESIDE that a tax collector and a Pharisee were given a way by God as a gift, to leave the Temple together arm in arm beside one another, and if THAT can happen inside that vision, absolutely nothing you see down that path is truly impossible.  Amen. 

God's a Failure!

Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

This is a parable, but this week, unlike last week, Luke tells us up front, “Jesus told them a parable” so we don’t even have to do any work to figure out it’s a parable!  So this is a parable and parables tell us something about the way God works.  Parables also very often tell us something about God that we might have trouble hearing if it was given to us straight.  So it comes to us in a softer… maybe even in a bit of a tricksy way.  This week’s parable is a particularly good example of that because IF Jesus had told the crowd the message of this parable straight out, this is what he would have told them:   God is a complete and total failure.  See what I mean?  Hard to hear that God’s a failure!  But that’s the message of this parable and THAT’S why you don’t start a parable at the end.    

So, let's go back to the beginning.  God, in this parable is the unjust judge.  It’s a judge’s job to hear the case and decide the case regardless of how people beg or plead or pester.  It’s a judges duty to give out fair and impartial verdicts and judgments without regard to feelings, or emotions, or anything else.  But in this parable, the only thing this judge is concerned with is whether or not he’s going to keep being bothered by this pesky widow.  In the end this judge decides to completely flush all jurisprudence down the toilet, chuck fair and honest judgment in the bin, and instead just give this annoying woman what she wants... so she’ll get off his back for crying out loud! 

In doing that, the judge in the parable is a failure as a judge.  He wasn’t giving a fair and impartial hearing of the cases that came to him.  He no longer ruled in favor of the person the law and precedent directed him toward.  He no longer paid attention to the facts.  In short, the judge stopped being a judge.  God too, Jesus is telling us, has stopped hearing the cases against us as well.  God too, no longer gives an impartial hearing of our failings and shortcomings.  God too, it seems, is no longer judging each of us by our actions and by the way we live our lives.  In short, Jesus tells us, God has become a failure as a judge.

I don’t know what you have to say about that but what I have to say about that is… Thank God!  I mean, think about it.  Where would we be if God gave us exactly what we deserved?  What if God treated that "break one commandment and you’ve broken all of them" thing as an originalist?  How would you do if God was to do God’s job as judge?  What would happen if God was the most impartial and unswerving deliverer of Justice?  I don't know about you but I’d be doomed and might even have some company with me in the super hot, extended stay, un-airconditioned place as well!  

The Good News is that God has decided to be a complete FAILURE at being a judge.  The Good News is that God has fixed it so there is no way we could ever possibly expect a fair trial from Him.  Thanks be to God!  But even with that Good News, Jesus knew this parable would be a hard sell.  He knew people much more easily wrap their minds around a God of judgement than a God of love… That’s why Jesus wondered at the end of this parable whether he’d find any faith on earth when he returned.  Our world sadly LOVES a god of judgement.  Our world loves a god that hates all the same people we hate.  But this parable tells us that is just not the God we have!  We have a God of radically inclusive love and acceptance, a God of infinite forgiveness and grace.

As Christians, you and I are basically clerking for God, the failure of a judge.  We are called to learn from and model our lives and the ways we treat the people around us after the ways of this unjust judge.  May we all learn this lesson so well from God, our mentor judge, that we too only give out love and inclusion, forgiveness and grace and grow to become judges that are notorious failures… just like God.  Amen. 

Dermatologists and Telescopes

Luke 17: 11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the

region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were made clean. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

This is a parable.  I know, the lesson doesn’t start with “Jesus told them a parable” but trust me…  It’s a parable.  In this parable there are ten lepers walking down the street.  They yelled at everyone that they were lepers… that was the law.  Along comes Jesus and they shout at him.  Jesus tells them to go see the priests.  The priests were also the dermatologists of the day.  Something I’m glad they since separated into two different careers… but anyway, they were the only ones who could decide if a skin disease was healed enough for the person to return to their community.  As they do EXACTLY what Jesus told them to do (go show the priests) they were all made clean.  But remember… this is a parable... So it tells us how God works.  

God works by willy nilly giving out grace… simply because grace is needed.  No insurance card, no paperwork, no passport, green card, or asylum status needed.  Regardless of social status, bank balance, skin color, gender, language, or orientation… regardless of anything… regardless of everything… They got healed, because healed is what they needed.  That’s how God works.

And here’s another way this parable shows us how God works.  God works through Jesus.  But those lepers didn’t get themselves right with Jesus, confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they didn’t give Jesus a pile of money or do ANYTHING else to MAKE God do God’s thing through Jesus.  They were made clean… WE are made clean... simply because making creation clean is how God works.  

Now as the lepers head off just as Jesus told them to do, one comes back, praising God and thanking Jesus.  And he was (dun, dun, DUN), a Samaritan!  The dun, dun, DUN part is for the “what abouters.”  We’ve still got ‘em today.  They’re the folks who say “Yeah God’s grace is big but what about (fill in the blank) Surely it's not that big.”  In Jesus’ day it would have been, “Yeah, God’s grace is big but what about the Samaritans.  Surely it’s not that big?”  At which point Jesus says “well, let’s ask this guy coming back and praising God because as it turns out… he’s “dun, dun, DUN” a Samaritan!”  This is how God works.  God works for everyone.  Even, dun dun DUN Samaritans and refugees, and immigrants, and addicts, and people of every sexual orientation and gender identity, and the poor, and even for priests who are food scientists and not dermatologists.   Take out “Samaritan” and put in LITERALLY any label and God’s grace is for EVERY SINGLE ONE of… THOSE… people… EVERY… SINGLE… ONE.  Yeah, even that one.  That's how God works. 

Jesus then looks around and wonders out loud, “I could have sworn there were ten.  Peter, did you count?  I counted 10, is that what you got?”  Jesus knew there were ten. He also knew the other nine weren’t coming back.  This is also how God works.  Once God’s grace is given, it’s a done deal and in Christ’s death and resurrection God’s grace was given to ALL of creation.  So, it’s ours… whether we recognize it or not, believe it or not, accept it or not, or are thankful or not.  All ten (Jesus was right, there were ten) were leprosy free forever!  Because that’s how God works.  God doesn’t do take-backsies.

Jesus then tells the Samaritan, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”  Now, I know what some of you are thinking.  You’re saying “SEE, they DID need something!  They needed faith!  If they didn’t have faith they wouldn’t be made well!”  Well, reign in your camel a minute and remember… Jesus took care of the leprosy, up front.  This man’s faith comes into the story AFTER God’s grace had already been freely given.  The Samaritan’s faith (faith is also a gift from God by the way) helped him to see HOW much deeper God’s grace had gone in him beyond just skin deep.  With that realization he just couldn’t help but to give thanks for ALL he’d been given.  That’s how God works.  

And that’s STILL how God works.  You and I and all of creation are healed right down to our core with the unconditional gift of God’s loving grace.  With the gift of Faith we can grow in our understanding of just how deep that grace really goes.  Like a telescope, our faith allows us to see further into the depths of God’s love for us.  And as our faith grows from the strength of a backyard telescope into a Hubble like faith and toward the strength of the James Webb Space Telescope we will be able to see more and more and more of God’s love for us... a love that's always been there whether we can see it or not.  That’s how faith works.  

That is how God works and that is how God is calling each of us to live our lives.  Following God's example in Christ and bringing our neighbors love, grace, healing and wholeness, simply because that's what they need.  And the more deeply we and able to see, through Faith, the depths of God’s grace, the more and more recklessly we will turn back and give God praise and thanksgiving.  Amen.