The Discipleship Checklist

Matthew 16:21-28

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Last week, Jesus pulled the bus with all the disciples onboard into a rest stop just outside of Caesarea Philippi.  There was a cliff face at this stop where everyone carved a niche for their particular god.  Once they all piled out of the bus, Jesus waved his hand at all the possible god-options, and asked, “Who do ya’ll say that I am?”  Peter spoke up and said, “You are the Son of the Living God, the Messiah!”  Home run, Peter!

This week, the whole gang is back on the bus and Jesus has pointed the bus downhill in the direction of Jerusalem.  He tells the folks in the back of the bus, “I’m going down there.  The fundamentalists down there don’t like me because I include everyone.  The rich and powerful down there don’t like me because I’m always pointing out that they got rich of the backs of the poor.  And while the Romans don’t care about me one way or another, what the DO care about is having QUIET.  QUIET whatever the cost and when I drive this bus into town and show the grouchy people I’m never going to change, it will NOT be quiet.  All that noise will inevitably lead to suffering and even death, but I’m not going to abandon God’s truth.  No matter what!  To that, Peter yelled, “OH, HELL NO!”  Swing and a miss this time, Peter.

The check list for being a Messiah that Peter learned in Sunday shul, was that the Messiah would raise an army, go to Jerusalem, kick out the fundamentalists, the rich and powerful, AND the Romans and become KING!  NOTHING Jesus was proposing from the front of that bus was on that checklist he had known all his life.

 

While Jesus didn’t outline HIS checklist here in Matthew’s Gospel, Paul did a really nice job of laying out the Jesus checklist for anyone who wanted to follow him throughout their lives.  Just look at the Jesus checklist for life, as compiled by Paul:

• Let love be genuine - that means doing what is in the other’s best interest, no matter the cost to yourself.
• Hate what is evil - that means internal stewing about evil isn’t enough.  We must stand up to evil.  No matter the cost.
• Hold fast to what is good - even if it’s not popular or profitable.  ESPECIALLY when it’s not popular or profitable.
• Love one another with mutual affection - that’s actively caring for the folks around you.  
• Outdo one another in showing honor - that means don’t get the big head.  
• Don’t lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord - that means get out there and do this list, even when you don’t feel like doing it.  
• Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer - That means yes, it won’t be easy.  Keep going anyway.  
• Contribute to the saints and extend hospitality to strangers - that means there are no strangers, everyone is a saint, take care of everyone around you.  
• Bless those who persecute you - Also very hard.  Do it anyway. 
• Rejoice with rejoicers.  Weep with weepers.  Live in harmony with one another, don’t get the big head (it bears repeating) - That means you are all connected to each other.  You are all one.  Be empathetic.  
• Do not repay evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble - God gave you a human brain that you can use to override your lizard brain… use the human part!  
• Getting even will not make you happy or give you life. 
• Living the way the mean people live will not make you happy and will not give you life.  
• Your job is to care for all people with everything you've got.  Yes, the mean ones too.  That, believe it or not, WILL make you happy and give you life.  

    

There’s a flag or banner going around on social media that says, “We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.”  That was Peter.  He may not have had that exact checklist compiled by Paul with him on the bus, but he had been riding with Jesus, living out the checklist for quite a while.  But as the bus began that long decent toward Jerusalem the true enormity of being a disciple finally hit him.  He had begun this trip thinking it would be easy.  It was right here on the bus that he discovered it was not.

In last week’s Gospel Peter got it right.  In this week’s Gospel Peter got it wrong.  At the last supper foot washing he got it wrong and then switched to sort of being right but still a bit wrong, then outside the palace he got it wrong again and the roosters crowed.  Then when Jesus died he thought dead was dead, and that was wrong.  When the women came and told him Jesus was risen, he ran to see for himself, which you might want to say was wrong because he didn’t trust the women, but honestly, if someone said a person had been raised from the dead, wouldn’t you want to go see for yourself?  So maybe on that one he's both.  

The point of all that is this:  What discipleship looks like is very clear.  Paul even gave us this handy dandy checklist… its VERY CLEAR…  BUT it turns out that LIVING as a disciple day in and day out is REALLY HARD!  Peter, that completely hot mess of a disciple, got it wrong A LOT.  Yet, Jesus never kicked him to the curb.  In fact it was on that hot mess of a disciple that Jesus built the church.  For you and me, the latest generation of hot mess disciples, that's good news!  It means we too will never be kicked to the curb by Jesus either, no matter how well or how badly we do the discipleship checklist. 

SO, here's the take home message for today:  Sit down on the Jesus bus.  Work the discipleship checklist.  Yes, it's hard.  Yes, you'll get it wrong a lot, but work it anyway and for heaven’s sake, don't back seat drive when Jesus is at the wheel.  Amen.

We Need our Nose

Romans 12:1-8

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

I know, that just like me, you’ve been riveted by the readings from Romans over the last few weeks.  We’ve been reading from Romans the last few weeks?  Well, it was a surprise to me too, but it turns out that we have, and in today’s reading from Romans there is a “THEREFORE” that goes with a “BECAUSE” from back in those previous lessons.  

Over the last few weeks, Paul has been going on about how God’s grace and love extends to both Jews and Greeks (which is Paul’s way of saying it extends to everyone).  All the reasons that people fling at each other to keep THEM out and US in have been wiped away in Christ.  In God’s eyes EVERYONE… EV-RY-ONE has been made ONE because that's the way God created the world to be.  BECAUSE of what God has done first (and now we get to today’s lesson from Romans)  Because of all that, we THEREFORE have the opportunity to respond to God's gift of love and grace.  

Paul’s opinion in today's lesson is that BECAUSE God’s love and grace is total, complete, and without limit… our response to that love and grace ought to also be total, complete, and without limit.  Just as God has made us ONE, it is as ONE that we are called to be a “living sacrifice”… we’re to live like a burnt offering, the whole of ourselves given up to God.  Paul is challenging us to respond to God’s unconditional love and grace as ONE, in literally every moment of our lives.  

A very, very, very few people are called to do that by being ONE in church all the time.  Some contemplative monastic orders come closest to living out Paul’s challenge in that particular way.  Most of us, however, are called to respond to God’s love and grace as part of all the other things we are called to do in this life.  We’re called to respond to God’s love and grace while we’re parenting, playing, making music, reading legal briefs, keeping people safe, making, writing, building and growing things, cooking, serving, volunteering and all the other things we do.  So how do we do all those different things apart from each other, but still as ONE?

There’s a quote attributed to Martin Luther that goes like this:  “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes.”  And another from Martin Luther King Jr. that goes like this:  “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

Each of us is called to this variety of things but not primarily for the thing itself, but rather for the connection it helps us make with others.  The cobbler is called to make shoes not just to create a great shoe, but to connect with someone who needs shoes to do the things they have been called to do.  The street sweeper is called to clean the streets, not primarily for a paycheck or even for a spotless sidewalk, but to facilitate others connecting on those streets.  Paul uses the human body as his example.  All of our various body parts have things they are good at.  Noses are better at smelling than ears.  Hands are better at picking things up than kidneys.  They do different things but it is in their connection that the body has life.

The more connected we are, the more we live into the world as God created it to be.  When the importance of human connection is lost or forgotten... when the shoes, the market, and the profits become more important than the people on whose feet those shoes will go... we distance ourselves from the abundance of life God created us to live.  Severing human connections is like cutting our nose off to spite our face.  When a nose is missing, it's hard for the whole body to stop and smell the roses.  Each of us matters.  That is true.  And each of us matters to one another even more.  

Paul says that God has joined us together in Baptism and that we are now one body.  We are reminded most clearly of that connection when we eat together at the Lord’s Table in “communion”.  There we taste and see how God's infinite love and grace has made us ONE and how it is as ONE that we are called to deepen and strengthen our connections with all of creation in the same way that God first connected us... with infinite love and grace, all the time, everywhere, and in everything we do. Amen. 

In-N-Out (Not Burger)

Matthew 15: 21-28

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of
Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Today’s lessons are about the never ending debate we humans seem to insist upon having over who is “in” and who is “out”.  The lesson from Isaiah was one side of this argument when the people of Israel returned home after exile.  Isaiah advocated for including anyone who did justice and treated others rightly.  For him, following Torah was about how you lived, not where you were born.  The Nehemiah faction, on the other hand, insisted that only Jews who married other Jews and who were born to pure Jewish parents could be included. 

The Gospel is the same debate just 500 years later.  Like the Nehemiah faction, the Pharisees were certain that only people born to two Jewish parents and were exacting followers of the letter of the Law could be “in” and that made this Canaanite woman in the story “out” before she was even born with no chance of ever being “in”!   

Jesus had tried other, less dramatic ways to change the Pharisees' minds but none had worked.  I suspect he chose this encounter with the Canaanite woman to try to shock them into a new way of thinking.  He pretended to treat the woman like the Pharisees would, “this woman is a dog!”  That was the bait.  I think he was hoping the Pharisees would say,  “Oh, look Jesus is coming around to our way of thinking.”  But then Jesus set the hook and in a micro second went from “Woman, you're a dog” to "Woman great is your faith!”  Jesus had hoped, I think, to give the Pharisees a theological whiplash so big that it would change their minds and hearts.  That, unfortunately, didn’t work either and as we all know very well, that same argument about “who’s in and who’s out” continues all around us even today.    

Last Sunday it was Kelly’s “at home” weekend.  Hanna came up… Maggie and Isaac came down and we did what all families do when they get together… we went to a Drag Brunch with friends!  But even there… at a drag brunch in the Berkshires… that same argument over who is “in” and who is “out” played out right there in front of us.  It turned out that one of the drag queens was not a man, crossdressing as a woman doing drag, but a woman, dressed as a woman, doing drag.  I didn’t know that was a thing.  It turns out that’s a thing!  But was that right?  Was it fair?  Was the woman who was doing a gay, male, art form practicing cultural appropriation?  What is drag?  What counts as drag?  Should she be counted as “in” or was she to be counted as “out” in the drag world?  

Different centuries, different millennia even, different peoples, different religions, different rationales…  Same old argument.  Who is in and who is out?  Isaiah didn’t settle it.  Jesus didn’t settle it.  You and I… I hate to tell you... we’re not going to settle it for the world either.  So what do we do?  

I think, as followers of Jesus, we do what Jesus did.  First, whenever he encountered people who wanted to count people “out” he didn’t ignore it.  He tried different ways to confront it, including shocking them into a new way of thinking and that’s where we are called to start as well.  When we encounter people looking to draw people outside of a circle, we too are called to confront it.  Jesus didn’t use violence, and that’s not for us either, but apparently trying logic, stories, and getting creatively shocking is all on the table.  In this story that tactic didn’t work, but we need to remember that Nicodemus was a Pharisee on which it did!  So it is possible and worth trying.  

Second, if it doesn’t work.  If you can’t convince the other to draw the circle around the “other” whoever that “other” might be, then we are called to do what Jesus did and draw that person into our circle anyway.  It is very annoying that we can’t “make” people be inclusive.  None of us and not even Isaiah or Jesus can “make” people be inclusive.  That is out of our control.  What IS in our control, however, is drawing those who are excluded into our circle of love, compassion, kindness, and joy regardless of the cost.  

You’ve probably heard these last two quotes but they pretty much sum up this whole lesson.  Come to think of it, I should have just read them both and then sat down!  Anyway the first is by Edwin Markham.

“He drew a circle that shut me out - Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.  But love and I had the wit to win:  We drew a circle and took him in.”

The second is by Rabbi Tarfon which says:  “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.  Do justly, now.  Love mercy, now.  Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it”

The world continues to draw circles that shut people out for being heretics, rebels, and an endless list of other reasons.  But you and I are not to be daunted by the enormity of that painful reality.  Instead, we are to do what is within our control in each moment.  Doing justly, now.  Loving mercy, now.  Walking humbly, now because while we are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are we free to abandon it.”  Amen. 

Together

Matthew 14:22-33

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

It was a dark and stormy night!  And it’s worth thinking about that for a minute before we get down to the part where Peter gets all wet.  In Jesus’ day both the sea and darkness were symbols for chaos, evil, uncertainty, monsters, and all that goes bump in the night… or, as I like to call it, life.  Now look what Jesus does… He MAKES the disciples get into the boat and shoves the gang off from the safety of the land into that dark and stormy night, out into LIFE, and says, “See ya on the other side!”  

Jesus Christ!  What are you doing?  Well, I think what Jesus is doing is trying to show us a couple of very important things.  First, Jesus puts the disciples into the boat TOGETHER!  Doing LIFE, he’s showing us, is a TOGETHER thing.  Discipleship, is a TOGETHER thing.  “Church” is meant to be a TOGETHER thing, not a “me and my Jesus” thing.  We are not asked to do this alone.  In fact, we’re told here NOT to do it alone!  It’s TOGETHER that we have life.  TOGETHER we’re called to be disciples.  TOGETHER that we do justice.  TOGETHER we love kindness.  TOGETHER we walk humbly through this life, caring for the lost, the last and the least. 

Still though, getting shoved off from shore in a boat… even if it is all together… seems pretty scary!  But remember, Jesus wasn’t pushing them off into anything these former fishermen hadn’t seen or experienced before.  Jesus knew that TOGETHER they had the experience and expertise to hand, reef, and steer like able seamen and together they had all they needed to make it to the other side.   

Jesus does the same for us.  Jesus shoves our group of disciples out into the everyday chaos and darkness of this world to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly... TOGETHER!  TOGETHER we give each other strength in the darkness, TOGETHER we move through the chaos of life, TOGETHER we have the variety of skills and gifts and experiences we need to do everything that we are being called to do... when we do it TOGETHER. 

Now though, we get to the bit where Jesus came to them walking on water.  Jesus came to them, a light shining through the darkness and trampling the whole, vast, world covering chaos under his feet.  Cutting through and walking over all of the enormity of a MESS we call LIFE… Jesus came and was with them.  What we're meant to see here is that isn't just this story.  That’s the promise!  Emmanuel.  God with us!  Take heart!  Even in the darkest, most chaotic moments, God is with us.  Don’t be afraid.  

Seeing all that, Peter calls out to Jesus.  “Jesus, I wanna walk on water like you’re doin’.”  Jesus, knowing exactly what will happen says, “Come on out!”  Out of the boat he steps… looks around and sinks like a rock!  But WHY?  Why did Peter sink?  Was it because he didn’t have enough faith.  No, Jesus said he had “little faith” and “little faith” we see elsewhere is enough to move mountains so that wasn’t the problem.  Then what was the reason Peter sank?  Well, Peter got out of his seat, he left the group, struck out on his own, and tried to be God!  Peter sank because he tried to walk on water like God and he sank because he wasn’t!  It turns out that Peter and all the rest of us… we’re human!  We ain’t God!  When we try to face the chaos and darkness out there… Peter shows us that we really can’t do it alone!  We really, really, really NEED one other to do Church.  We really, really, really NEED one other to do LIFE!  Doing it on our own, we just sink like Peter!

Knowing all that is important but there’s one more thing this lesson has to tell us.  And that is, that even though we KNOW we shouldn’t get out of our seats… even though we KNOW we can only do life TOGETHER… even though we KNOW that when we try to be God we get sunk… Even though we KNOW ALL THAT… Jesus promises that when we INEVITABLY do one or more of those things anyway, and INEVITABLY start to sink, he’ll be there to pull us up and out and back into abundant life.  Every. Single. Time.  Thanks be to God! Amen.

Six Years Ago Today

Matthew 14:13-21

Now when Jesus heard about the beheading of John the Baptist, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.  But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.  When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion on them and cured their sick.  When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”  Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”  And he said, “Bring them here to me.”  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.  Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.  And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

It was on this date, August 6th, 2017… six years ago to this very day, that I read this same lesson on my first Sunday as the new Rector and Pastor of Christ Church Episcopal and Trinity Lutheran Church.  Trying to pull up the memories from that day was a bit of a challenge this week.  After all, that was “B.C.”… before Covid, and among the many things that Covid did was to mess with our concept of time, but I do remember that first Sunday included putting up a big tent.  

Way back then in that very first sermon, I told you that the miracle we hear about in this lesson wasn’t just done for the wow factor… even though it was a wow-worthy miracle for sure!  This miracle was done to jump start the disciples.  To get THEM to DO something!  To give the people something to eat.  To bring the people LIFE!  The disciples wanted to send the crowd home, tell them to drive through McDonalds, get some sushi from BigY, order a pizza… whatever, because there was absolutely, positively, NO WAY they could feed this crowd.  But into their panic Jesus calmly said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  That, I told you six years ago today, was OUR challenge from Jesus as well.  To give the thousands of people around us here in South County something to eat.  Some, I said were were belly hungry for sure.  Others were hungry to know God’s unconditional love, hungry to be included, hungry for justice, hungry for deeper relationships, for community, for a connection with the Divine, for deeper meaning… hungry for LIFE!  Our temptation, I told you, would be to give into the fear of how overwhelming that task looked and tell those folks to “go somewhere else to be fed” but that Jesus was telling us “They don’t need to go away; YOU give them something to eat.”  

Maybe it was because that was my very first Sunday, but from six years later, it looks to me like you've done just that!  You've looked around time after time to find our five loaves and two fish… asked Jesus to bless those bits and gave them something to eat!  We took two Ministry Development Grants and three Thrivent Grants and from those we’ve now fed hundreds and hundreds of hikers on the Appalachian Trail.  Fed them with hot dogs and hamburgers, but also with an enthusiastic, all inclusive, and generous welcome all while also feeding our volunteers with love, compassion, and joy!  We took generous memorial gifts from Jim McGraw, Patrick Burns, Hope Swanson, and Michael Platt and another generous grant and powered our church with the Sun!  A gift that keep multiplying with every sunny day!  We updated the 1866 welcome statement (which was really good already) and set out our now famous rainbow chairs, started Beer and Hymns, started Sheffield Pride, started Silent Movie Night, and Broadway Cabaret… which, by the way, is right now multiplying into an opportunity for one of our stars to do a one woman show with Barrington Stage next summer!  

And let’s not forget how, during the pandemic, we went about connecting families who were hungry, with families who wanted to help, through The Marketplace’s Thursday Family Meal offering… and with that connection Feeding Sheffield was brought to life.  If you want a literal loaves and fishes story… there you go!  Out of that program grew the Lich Gate Concert Series and with the end of Covid, the Parish Fair was resurrected into new life as the Berkstock Food & Music Festival.  We’ve remodeled the Grey Cottage and now that both apartments are rented we will be seeing about $40,000 a year in income from that property that will pay off our debt and multiply our endowment which will multiply how we can keep on “giving folks something to eat” in ways we have yet to imagine, well into the future.  

We need to keep reminding each other of all the miracles we’ve seen done in our presence in these past six years.  The temptation to be overwhelmed by the continuing hungers all around us and say “It can’t be done.  It just won’t work.  We don’t have the money for that.  We don’t have the people for that”… that temptation is always present.  That is why our challenge for our next half a dozen years together is to constantly remind each other that this miracle of bringing abundant life to those who are hungry… We’ve seen it happen time and time again.  We’ve seen simple, small bits blessed and transformed into life giving food that has the power to feed every sort of hunger… and with leftovers to spare!  So if you are wondering... THAT is what we’ll be up to in the next half dozen years… continuing to give those around us something to eat.  Amen.