Have You Decided?

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 6th Chapter

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

“Have you been saved?”  When I’m asked that I say “YES”... because I am... and, well... because I like to mess with people who ask that question... I too fall short of the Glory of God it turns out!  Have you been asked WHEN you were saved?  When I’m asked that, I say “On the first Easter, about 2000 years ago!”  I know that’s not the answer they’re looking for, but that’s the truth... and I like to mess with people... like I said, I fall short of God's Glory!     

God’s done all the saving in Christ’s life, death and resurrection.  Like the hymn says, “The strife is O’er, the Battle Won!”  We baptize infants in part because it’s clear they can’t even make decisions about the potty, let alone salvation, which makes it really clear that salvation is God's doing and not theirs.  On that first Easter, God made the salvation decision for all of us and God’s decision was “YES!”  Christ’s resurrection included everyone and all of creation long before any of us were even gleams in anyone’s eyes.  Our traditions are pretty good at remembering that, but sometimes we forget that there actually are SOME decisions that ARE for us to make... NOT decisions that make or break salvation... but decisions about how we will choose to RESPOND to the gifts God has given us.  

It’s like the decision Joshua asked the people of Israel to make.  The people were IN the Promised Land.  They were there, so their decision would not determine if they got there or not… 'cause...they were there!  Their decision was how would they RESPOND to the gift they had already been given.  The crowds that Jesus addressed faced a similar decision.  How would they RESPOND to the gift which God had given them in Jesus?  Jesus was there.  The gift was given.  A decision to not continue to follow Jesus wouldn’t cause God to vacuum Jesus back up to heaven and take salvation away!  But the crowds and the disciples DID have a decision to make.  Would they drink in the Jesus life... a life where they would not be in complete control... a life that included mystery and an uncertain future... a life that led them to do what was in the other’s best interest instead of focusing first on what’s in it for me and what makes ME feel good, OR... would they go a different way?    

In today’s story, a huge number of people chose to go a different way.  They simply couldn’t live in the mystery.  They couldn’t stand for their future to be out of their control so they decided... to step away.  To stop following the Jesus Way of living.  After they left, Jesus turned to the disciples and asked them to decide as well.  Would they continue to follow or not?  You see, neither Joshua nor Jesus wanted the people to “PLAY” at their faith any longer.  Both challenged the people... to EITHER go ALL IN and BE God’s people ALL THE WAY or don’t.  Wishy washy fence sitting was not an option. 

These days people lament declining church membership and it does make things interesting... no doubt.  Many also mourn the loss of a culture that pressured people to be members of churches in order to fit in, but I actually see those things as a gift!  It’s a gift because you are here because you have genuinely decided to respond to God’s gifts, not because it makes you look like a good American to your neighbors and not because it makes grandma happy and not because you need a church membership to advance in your career.  You’re here... at least I hope you’re here... because you have come to the decision that Jesus REALLY DOES have the words of eternal life.  You’re here because you’ve decided that drinking in the Jesus life... a life filled with generosity, compassion, radical inclusion, love and grace... brings this world a tiny bit closer to becoming the Kingdom of God each day and leads you toward a life overflowing with meaning, purpose, direction and joy!  You’re here, doing the hard and difficult and frightening work we’re doing, because you’d rather be part of a smaller group of dedicated, passionate, authentic, self declared saints and sinners, than a huge group of fake, plastic, superficial people trying to fill the hole in their souls with wealth and fame and popularity which, God knows, will never come close to filling that hole.  

The people answered Joshua, saying “We have decided to follow the LORD, for he is our God.”  Simon Peter answered for the group, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  You and I have the same decision to make... but it’s really not just one decision either.  Instead, it's about a million little decisions in every moment of every day.  Our decision is whether in this moment or that, will we choose to live in this world the Jesus Way, OR to follow the gods of this world that tell us to keep the OTHERS… the DIFFERENT… the STRANGER out; that there isn’t enough for everyone, so you better grab all you can no matter who it hurts; that cut-throat beats compassion and that power is stronger than love.   

We all have a million decisions just like that to make every day, in every interaction with every person we meet.  Will we follow the Jesus Way of living and draw the stranger in and put the other before ourselves?  Will we say the hurtful thing trying to make ourselves feel bigger by making someone else feel smaller or will we say the kind thing that lifts someone up?  Will we step on and demonize the poor, saying, “At least I’m not like that!” or will we care for the least, the last and the lost remembering that what we do to the least of these we do to Christ?  The Good News is that no matter if we choose the Jesus Way, OR in that particular moment fall short of the Glory of God and choose our own more fearful way, God’s decision FOR US remains unshakable and true.  

May God give each of us the power and the courage in each moment of our lives to choose to live our faith “ALL IN”... to fully drink in the life which God has given us freely in Christ.  May we drink in the Holy, the Eternal, the Transformational Life we have been given and may we courageously choose in each of those moments to live the Jesus Way.  Amen.  

Padre Pollo's Holy Smoke Barbecue

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 6th Chapter

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

It’s time for me to tell you about Padre Pollo’s Holy Smoke Barbecue.  It was a my brief venture into the barbecue business.  I sold my Q every Friday night at Crabtree Brewing out of a modified hot dog cart.  I did pulled pork all the time, ribs and brisket as specials.  I had Brunswick stew and a Tipsy Chicken sandwich.  All my own recipes and sauces.  It was good. 

Barbecue isn’t something to be taken lightly.  Barbecue is serious.  You can’t get it from a box or whip it up in an hour.  Barbecue requires a serious investment of time and effort.  Rubs need to be made, fires started and tended, sauce cooked... I cooked my pork shoulders at least nine hours over low heat made with only hickory wood.  

In a similar way, eating barbecue also requires an investment of time and takes effort.  You can’t eat real barbecue in the car, on the go.  Real barbecue requires a table, a roll of paper towels and both hands to make sure every piece gets gnawed off the bone.  

But the thing about real barbecue is that even though it demands a significant investment of time to create, and even though real barbecue insists upon a real effort to free every last bit of wonderful meat from the bone… IT’S SO WORTH IT!  The commitment, the investment of time and the effort... it’s all worth it for the wonderful, succulent, juicy, sweet and spicy richness that is barbecue.

Jesus said to the people, “Very truly I tell you, unless you gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life, you’re lifeless!”  The translators toned down the language a bunch in this one.  Jesus really didn’t say eat here.  Jesus didn’t say take nice, polite, little bites, using the correct fork and sitting up straight with elbows off the table, linen napkin in your lap.  NO!  Jesus said GNAW.  He said roll up your sleeves, put your elbows on the table, grab that bone with both hands and chomp down!  Jesus said, “Get into it, get obsessed with it.  Get messy!  Get it stuck in your teeth and sauce on your face and don’t expect to keep your shirt clean!  None of that matters.  Just GNAW!  Which sounds great when you’re talking ribs at a picnic table with rolls of paper towels for napkins, but here we are talking about Jesus’s flesh... not baby back ribs and no amount of good table manners makes that alright!  And we haven’t even gotten to the drinking blood part yet!

Many of us have heard this flesh and blood talk for so long in church we don’t think of how shocking it really is anymore, but this isn’t just a symbol... this isn’t just a remembrance... Jesus really said, “Those who gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.”  That was a challenge for the people back then... and if we’re paying attention now it should be a challenge for us as well!  “Those who gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.”  Eeek!  

It’s frankly, shocking!  The crowd Jesus was telling this to couldn’t wrap their minds around what he was saying, and you know what, I’ve not yet met anyone who completely can.  How this Communion meal is fully Christ’s Body and Blood is beyond us all.  How in this meal we are given eternal life... it is a mystery without a solution and not even a group of meddling kids are going to solve it!  But in spite of the repulsive imagery... in spite of the unfathomable mystery, THAT is what Jesus was, and is, saying.  Gnawing on Jesus is the only thing that matters.  Gnawing on Jesus is the only thing that will feed us forever.  Nothing else gives life.

What this graphic image of gnawing on Jesus does, is call us, not just to a fast food meal wolfed down on the way to the next meeting.  That shocking image calls us to completely and totally make Jesus a part of every molecule of our being because he is the source of all goodness and life.  He is our true food and we are being called to invest EVERYTHING... all our time and all our being into making Jesus a part of every part of us.  Jesus is calling us to give every ounce of our entire effort to get in there and taste and see the goodness of the Lord.  

Like an amazing feast of real honest to goodness holy smoke barbecue, Jesus is asking each one of us to set aside REAL time... make the investment to mix the spices and put on the rub and then patiently, slowly, passionately smoke our faith over genuine hard wood... serving others, caring for those on the margins, studying, praying and living each day with patience and passion.  Jesus is calling us to become completely involved and completely internalize the gift of God’s infinite love and acceptance so that the Jesus-life becomes a core part of every aspect of our lives.  Our calling is to put into our faith life, the same kind of effort it takes to eat the meat off every bone of a whole rack of ribs to the very last miniscule morsel... to live lives of love, compassion, generosity, justice, kindness and humility until every last miniscule morsel of humanity knows down to their bones, how much they are loved by God and how much each of us has a place in God’s Kingdom. 

Being a Christian just isn’t like hitting the drive thru at McDonald’s for a McRib sandwich on a Sunday afternoon.  Being a Christian is more like spending the whole day mixing the spices, creating the sauce, tending the fire and slowly allowing a tough, low grade cut of meat to be lovingly, miraculously, beautifully transformed into the amazing gift from God that is barbecue.

Being a Christian is a serious thing that needs to be entered into with deep commitment, patience and passion.  But just like the rewards of preparing and cooking real barbecue are SO worth it, so too is the sweetness, the fullness and the abundant life that comes from taking the time to gnaw on Jesus.  Amen

A Tale of Two Trees

A Reading from 1st Kings, the 19th Chapter

Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. 

He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

I want to tell you about two trees.  The first is the Broom Tree.  Elijah was a prophet and he had been through the wringer.  He was on the run from Jezebel, the queen of Israel, who wanted to kill him and so he ran... right out into the wilderness, sat down under a Broom Tree and asked to DIE.  He was DONE!  Before I went on vacation the K6 met.  

(The K6 is a group of five Episcopal Churches and one Lutheran Church in the Augusta, Maine area searching for ways to join together to do ministry in a changing environment.  Out of that group, St. Mark's and Prince of Peace joined together in January in the Prince of Peace facility sharing worship and clergy leadership.  Also out of the K6, a joint children's ministry called Mustard Seeds developed.  Now two additional churches are looking into joining the experiment sharing worship, one facility and clergy.)  

Before that meeting, St. Matthews and St. Barnabas were in “Broom Tree” mode.  They were DONE!  They were ready to just die.  We all know what sitting under the “Broom Tree” feels like... we’ve all been there.  But something changed.  Like Elijah, they had seen a new path and were ready to stand up and get on with God’s calling for them.  The thing is, what God was calling them to involves US!

Do you remember middle school?  The first person you wanted to ask out, or the first person you wanted to ask you out?  That pimply, voice cracking, note passing completely awkward time in your life?  That meeting... before I went on vacation... felt like that.  Them wanting US to ask THEM to a dance, but not knowing how and us wondering if it was OK to ask and wondering if they would really say yes.  So I emailed our vestry and council and told them we needed to meet as soon as I got back from vacation.  

This Monday we met and it became clear that we needed to first clarify where Prince of Peace and St. Mark’s were in THEIR relationship, before we began to think about inviting anyone new to this dance, SO the Prince of Peace council stood up... literally... and told St. Mark’s Vestry they wanted St. Mark’s to stay past the end of the year... to stay indefinitely into a shared, crazy, unknown, future and then St. Mark’s Vestry stood up... literally and said they wanted to stay indefinitely into a shared, crazy, unknown, future as well.  So, how about it?  What about you?  Your leadership says they want to go into the future together!  Are you ready to keep going indefinitely into a shared, crazy, unknown, future? STAND UP!  

That’s what I thought (what I hoped), but it’s good to see.  It’s good to see Jesus’s prayer that we might be ONE being answered in our midst and that brings me to the OTHER tree I want to tell you about today... the Mustard Tree.  The parable of the Mustard Seed is that the Kingdom of God is like a tiny seed that grows into the greatest of trees, it’s branches providing shade... a place... a home for EVERY bird.  I asked my mom to make this banner for us on my vacation because I believe this is who we’ve become together.  We aren’t Broom Tree people anymore... two separate congregations tired and broken and OVER IT.  Together, in the past seven months we’ve grown into Mustard Tree people! 

That Mustard Tree has room for ALL the birds and on Tuesday the K6 met and then St. Matt’s and St. Barnabas’s leadership met with me and Father David on Wednesday and it looks like they REALLY DO want to go to the dance with us.  It sounds like they really want to come sit in the Mustard Tree with us!  Which is WONDERFUL... and overwhelming.  AMAZING and frightening.  I think we’ve become Mustard Tree people… open, welcoming and ALIVE... but I didn’t know there would be a test so soon!  Are we really ready to share our branches with more birds?  

On Monday the council and vestry said together, “how could we NOT make space.”  Their thought (and I think it’s a good one) was that we should invite them to come over informally for the rest of the year and then together, in the next few months, work out a livable structure for the coming year that we’d build together and all vote on at our annual meetings.

Two more birds in the tree means we can’t just do things like we’ve done this year so far.  Trying to run four churches under one roof would be an unwieldy mess and it wouldn’t help my hair situation either!  We’ll need to find equitable ways to share expenses for this shared facility and staff.  We’d need to find ways to share governance and make day to day decisions.  We’ll need to care for a new group of people mourning the loss of what was and we’ll need to care for ourselves as the new “normal” we've been building over the past seven months gets stirred up again.     

Elijah sat under the Broom Tree asking God to leave him alone... telling God, “NO MORE,” but like Mick Jagger says, “you can’t always get what you want!” and God didn’t leave him alone.  God told him, "If you try sometime, you might find, you get what you need."  God gave him what he needed, and then he got on with what God was asking him to do.  God knows we’ve already done a lot.  We’ve already seen and weathered lots of change and facing more might tempt us to find another Broom Tree.  But God's promise is that angels will feed us, GOD WILL BE WITH US, and we’ll get what we need to make room in the Mustard Tree.  Amen.

Chase or Follow?

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 6th Chapter

The next day, when the people who remained after the feeding of the five thousand saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Jesus took five loaves and two fish and fed five thousand people.  Now, all those people, who had apparently fallen asleep under the influence of a heavenly, fish sandwich, food coma, woke up the next morning to find Jesus and his disciples had gone.  So, they set off to CHASE Jesus in hopes of another one of those AMAZING fish sandwiches! 

They LOVED those fish sandwiches!  They LOVED that full belly feeling of that giant fish-sandwich food-baby resting in their tummies.  They LOVED it, and now they wanted it again... and frankly, I can’t blame them!  It was a FREE fish sandwich!  I have a motto.  “Free food?  I’ll be there!”  But this was more than just a “FREE” sandwich... it was a DIVINE sandwich!  The people had tasted it the day before and now they chased Jesus down to get another!  They would do whatever they needed to do, say whatever needed to be said, just to be fed one more of those miraculous, heavenly, happy-tummy meals from Jesus... I’d be there too!  Free Food!  I’d be there!  

And that’s just it, really.  It SEEMS like the right thing to do.  It seems right to chase after Jesus… for another sandwich... for contentment... for peace.  It seems even faithful to chase after Jesus and the logic of the world says that if we catch him he would fill us... and not just with food, but with security and safety and success and prosperity.  It sounds right… Jesus fill us up!  Give us what we NEED!  BLESS us so we feel that divine abundance... whatever I hunger and thirst for... forever.   

So the people CHASED Jesus and asked him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  They wanted to know what to DO... where to chase... so they could always be FULL.  Jesus told them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one whom God has sent.”  And that’s where it got hard.  Those people KNEW Jesus wasn’t inviting them to chase down some kind of intellectual check list, to sign a statement of faith or join the “right” denomination.  When Jesus invited them to “BELIEVE” Jesus was inviting them to stop CHASING and begin instead to FOLLOW!  Jesus was inviting them to stop living their lives always chasing... always worrying, bullying, scheming, plotting, manipulating, controlling and bargaining to be sure THEY would be filled, THEY would find peace, THEY could be prosperous, THEY could be successful, so THEY could FEEL BLESSED.  

Instead, Jesus was inviting them to FOLLOW him by living their lives emptying themselves for the sake of the world... In the other Gospels, Jesus puts it this way... “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  He was telling them that CHASING another sandwich... even another DIVINE sandwich... EVEN chasing after Jesus himself to get what you think you want, need or deserve... will always, ALWAYS leave you hungry again the next day... in fact, CHASING anything... sandwiches, power, wealth, security, control, success, being “good” enough, being right... CHASING ANYTHING... will only leave you hungry later today and back to the chase to try to get filled tomorrow.  The only way to never again be hungry or thirsty... the only way to give up the chase is to follow the Jesus way of life which means giving everything and all of yourself away.  

The trouble, of course with FOLLOWING Jesus on that particular path is that CHASING makes way more sense!  Chasing is the way we experience the world actually working!  If you want it, you go and get it!  Right?  FOLLOWING the Jesus way of living and giving it all away makes NO sense!  If you GIVE it all away you don’t have it anymore!  It’s math!  And so we continue the CHASE and people continue to preach chasing Jesus as a path that will fill us up.  The first guy who stood up the morning after the feeding of the five thousand and proclaimed to the crowd that they should all get in boats and go get Jesus to give them another sandwich must have felt pretty great having 5000 people stand up and all shout “AMEN BROTHER!” and then run down to the shore to get in their boats.  Maybe they even bought him a private boat so he could preach chasing Jesus to more and more people!  Private boats then... private jets today… vehicles change, but the chase continues.   The chase continues... and that’s the problem, isn’t it?  That is our failing, our brokeness... our sin.  We don't trust Jesus's math, that giving it all away is actually the path to it all.  Same then as it is now and so we’re still chasing... still worried about money, finances and property... still scrounging, bullying and bargaining for security, peace, contentment and always CHASING after that thing, that place, that life, that time, that whatever it was... that just yesterday seemed to fill us up and tasted so... DIVINE.   

Jesus wanted more for those people (and for us) than to always be hungry, always thirsty... always CHASING.   The path Jesus calls us to FOLLOW has been called lots of things over the years... the way of the Cross... Discipleship… Costly, rather than Cheap Grace... but no matter what you call it, it’s you and me putting one foot in front of the other day after day living a bit more like Jesus lived and chasing after life a little bit less.  People who have the title “Saint” in front of their names might make that transformation all at once, but those of us without that title typically do it one step at a time, in fits and starts, with backpedaling and small glimpses of what it might look like one day and always seem to need a hand along the way.

So, I’ll invite you today like Jesus did back then, to give up the chase and begin again to follow the Jesus Way of living... Living life not bound to the math of this world, but to the kind of math that turned the ‘never gonna be enough’ of five loaves and two fish into the WAY MORE than enough for everyone that fed five thousand!  To live life confident in God’s infinite and unconditional love for you and all people and all of creation.  To live life loving and caring for the world from the bottom up and from the margins in.  To live for the other before yourself.  To live generously, giving a little more and a little more and a little more each day until one day you look up and find that you have given EVERYTHING… up to and including your very last breath.  To live graciously, live inclusively, live lovingly, live honestly, live for justice, live for kindness, live humbly and live like FOLLOWING that WAY… the Jesus way is the path of truth… the path of life.  I invite you again to follow Jesus and give up chasing... not because following the Jesus way of living makes sense to the world, but because following the Jesus way of living allows the world to make sense.   Amen.  

Cheetahs Never Win!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, the 6th Chapter

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

I have to warn ya... I’m fixin’ ta cheat!  You see, last week’s Gospel lesson, was a lesson in two parts.  The first part talked about being stuck at home, the second part about hitting the road.  The first part, a lack of faith, the second part about radical trust.  The first part, powerless, the second part was full of incredible acts of power.  

Well, that same up and down, back and forth story telling style that Mark used in last week’s Gospel... comparing unfaith and trust, lows and highs... continues this week.  EXCEPT... LAST week the people who created the lectionary put in BOTH the lows AND the highs in the lesson, while THIS week all they leave us with is this horrible low.  I guess they thought this story was long enough and so we’re all just supposed to wait for NEXT week to get the high that answers this horrible, terrible low.  But I’m going on vacation and I’m not preaching next week and frankly, I don’t want to leave town preaching a bummer!  So, I’m cheating!  I’m pulling in next week’s story that is the “HIGH” that Mark uses to balance out this week’s horrible, terrible, lectionary “LOW”!!! 

Actually, I don’t think it’s cheating too badly, because Mark, I think, put today’s John the Baptist flashback here so that we would read these stories together... back to back.  First we read the story of Herod’s birthday feast... a feast inside the palace, a feast for the rich and powerful elites of Galilee, a feast very intentionally limited to people on “the inside”... a feast that surely began with an abundance of the very finest food and drink the world could provide and ended with empty bottles and crumbs.  This feast kept people in their places.  The traditional power structure inside and outside of the palace remained clear.  And this feast ends, of course, in a horrible death manipulated from a back room by Herod’s wife, (who was really Herod’s brother’s wife) a murder achieved by manipulating a king, by manipulating a child... a life taken out of fear in order to save face, keep things quiet and maintain appearances... all to keep the illusion of power and control from falling apart.  

The other feast, you’ll hear about next week, has come to be known as the Feeding of the Five Thousand.  It’s everything that Herod’s feast was not.  It was outside... on the road.  Like I said last week, God seems to do the most Divine things on the road!  This feast started off, not with the rich and powerful but with people who, to Jesus, seemed lost, like sheep without a shepherd.  This feast started out, in what the disciples were convinced was insurmountable scarcity, with just five loaves and two, almost forgotten, fish but ended, not with people still hungry and a couple empty bottles laying in the grass, but in a miraculous ABUNDANCE!  EVERYONE’S bellies were FULL... PLUS... there were TWELVE BASKETS overflowing with leftovers!  For this feast ALL were welcome, and there, ALL MEANT ALL.  There was no bouncer at the door checking invitations.  No one checking memberships or pedigrees.  It’s not that Jesus opened the doors for the people to come in... for Jesus’s feast there just weren’t ever any doors!  And Jesus’s feast ended, not in death... not in a life taken.  Jesus’s feast ended in LIFE GIVEN... and not just an, eek out a pitiful existence sort of life, but in an extravagantly, liberally, generously, lavishly, overflowingly ABUNDANT LIFE for all, All, ALL of creation!  

So, I cheated.  Sue me!  But I’m going on vacation, and I just couldn’t bring myself to preach only death today, when I knew good and well that less than a page turn away, ABUNDANT LIFE was waiting to bust out!  You see, ABUNDANT LIFE is how all God’s stories end.  ALL OF THEM.  ALWAYS!

One last story and I’ll be done.  Three years ago, we moved our family to Maine from Colorado.  I was finished in the Church.  I came here to start new... to run a restaurant.  You see, I was a trouble maker.  Nothing illegal, unethical or immoral mind you, but still, they weren’t wrong.  I made trouble and I wasn’t quiet.  I advocated for people and policies in my church, in my denomination and in our world that were not, “safe” and I did that... shall we say, without the subtlety, tact and reserve some would have wished me to have.  I wrote for the newspaper.  I confronted bullies.  I was asked to look elsewhere for a call.  My head wasn’t literally on a platter, but there were times when I thought that might actually feel better than how I felt.  

I tell you THAT story, not to make you feel bad for me, but so that I can tell you from VERY personal and VERY painful experience that there was for me and my family, LIFE after the worst two years of our lives!  I want MY story, and today’s stories, and the Good Friday and Easter story to remind you... to remind me... because God knows I need constant reminding...  that in God, somehow, in a way we will never be able to figure out or explain, with stuff as seemingly inadequate as five stale loaves of bread and two almost forgotten, sun baked fish... SOMEHOW God turns FEAR into COURAGE, HATE into LOVE and DEATH into LIFE!  Now, that doesn’t mean the painful part doesn’t hurt... that part hurts like HELL and it all too often feels like God has forgotten you and that the pain, darkness and hopelessness will never end.  

BUT, somehow, in some miraculous, unexpected inconceivable way, God uses some insignificant, almost stale, nearly spoiled something and turns fear into courage, hate into love and death into life.  THAT’S not just my story, or just the story of those 5000, or the story of the Resurrection... that’s your story too.  THAT, my dear, passionate, frightened, amazingly courageous friends... is your story too!  Your story too, even though it is horrible, painful, terrifying and seemingly impossible to overcome WILL BE, WILL BE, WILL DIVINELY be extravagantly, liberally, generously, lavishly, overflowingly transformed into LIFE... into ABUNDANT LIFE!  Amen.  

Hit the Road Jack!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, the 6th Chapter

Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

This is a Gospel story in two parts.  The first part is about ministry on the inside.  The second part is about ministry on the road.  The first part is about unbelief.  The second part is about trust.  In the first part, only a few are healed.  In the second part, the power of God flows out along the way, casting out demons and healing many.

A number of years ago, Kelly’s mom, Emily was very really sick.  When Kelly and I arrived, she had been transferred to the University hospital and one of her medications was messing with her head.  She was convinced she’d had a C-Section the day before and REALLY wanted to show ME the scar!  Every time I got close to her bed she’d hike up her hospital gown over her head and try to show me!  I loved my mother in law a ton, but I REALLY didn’t want to see her bid-nez!  

Later, her mind began to clear, but as the test results came in, it was clear that Emily was nearing the end of her life.  I knew I could be helpful to the family... OK, I THOUGHT I could be helpful to the family.  What I failed to understand is that as a pastor married to the youngest sibling, I had no honor in HER hometown!  THERE in THAT place I was just the baby by marriage and therefore I knew SQUAT!

Jesus, in his own home town, also knew SQUAT!  It didn’t matter that the week before he had miraculously calmed the whole Sea of Galilee, cured a woman from twelve years of bleeding and, oh yeah, I nearly forgot... RAISED A GIRL FROM THE DEAD!  None of that mattered because they KNEW Jesus!  They were certain that this was the snot nosed kid who used to run around town with that kid Biff.  This was Jesus, you know... that kid from “AWAY” in a manger... And no, being out of town for the census didn’t matter... he was still from AWAY!

So there, on the inside... there in his hometown, Jesus couldn’t do much.  They were so darn sure God would never act through that snot nosed kid Jesus... that CARPENTER pretending now to be a rabbi... or more snooty yet... a PROPHET, that they missed what God was DOING among them... They missed that God WAS among them!  So, if they could miss THAT, what might WE be missing?  WHO might we be missing?  How might we be restricting Jesus to just a few minor miracles, because we don’t want to even consider that God might be working right under our noses in a different way than we’ve been expecting?  

That’s how things were for Jesus in his own, home town of Nazareth.  If God fit into the box they had grown used to, it was alright.  But if it didn’t fit... well, it might as well keep movin’!  In Luke’s version of this story you know, the people even tried to throw Jesus off a cliff for suggesting that God might be working in a new way!  I’d like to say that no one is thrown off a cliff anymore for suggesting that God is doing something new and different these days... I’d LIKE to say that... but... well…

Now, Jesus couldn’t get much done in Nazareth.  There in his hometown he was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  He could miraculously heal ONLY a few people.  I wish on my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days I could miraculously heal ONLY a few people, but then I’m not the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, so I suppose that should be expected!  

BUT on the road, well... THAT was a very different story.  On the road, the disciples were sent out in pairs, they traveled light, without the resources they needed to make it all the way to where they might be going.  They weren’t told where they were going either or how long it would take, but in spite of all of those things, they were able to do amazing things!  Many people were healed, it says.  Not just a few, but LOTS of demons were cast out.  All of the amazing stuff, happened ON THE ROAD.  

“On the Road” is one of God’s M.O.’s.  God does some of God’s most Divine work “On the Road” it seems.  God told Abram to hit the road.  Not where to go or how long it would take, but just to GO and he was blessed to be a blessing to the world!   Moses was told to hit the road and go to “the Promised Land” without a map, without food or water... just a quick meal of lamb and flat bread and hit the road!  The prophets Elijah and Elisha were another two called to hit the road and now, in this lesson, we see the disciples called to "Hit the road, Jack."  

We too have been called by God to "Hit the road, Jack."  The road is where God’s most Divine work seems to happen, but what does this road look like for us?  Does it look like Kennebeck valley Lutheran/Episcopal partnerships?  Is it a road to a spiritual depth many of us yearn for but have yet to travel?  Is the road something else completely or is it a combination of things?  Well, no matter what the road looks like, traveling any road means leaving home... leaving what is comfortable, easy and familiar.  And with God calling us to the road it will likely involve setting out without a final destination clearly in sight.  We should certainly not try to travel alone, because, according to this lesson, it also appears that there will be some... how do we say this... less than welcoming homes and people along the way.  But apparently, stopping to try to convince them or fight with them isn’t the way.  Just because we get invited to a fight, doesn't mean we have to accept the invitation.  Not getting stuck, not holding onto old hurts or resentments, shaking off the dust and moving on down the road with a trust in God’s care for us seems to be the Way, the Truth and the Life.

God has ALWAYS been doing a new thing.  Creation was a new thing.  Abraham’s covenant was a new thing.  The Law and the Promised Land were new things and Jesus, the snot nosed kid turned carpenter turned rabbi turned Messiah was a new thing too.  God is calling us to be a part of God’s next new thing.  God is calling us to hit the road.  God is calling us to bring a Divine wholeness to people who have been broken by the world.  God is calling us to bring a Divine light to each other when the darkness seems too deep and the demons seem too strong.  We’ve been called to be on the road.  On the road… without enough bread in our bag and without enough money in our belts.  We’ve been called to "Hit the road, Jack" by putting one foot in front of the other to God knows where, trusting only that God KNOWS where.  Amen.  

The Zanforb Incident

Galatians 3:28

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 12: 12 & 27

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ... Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

(This is a sermon for the campers at Camp Bishopswood in Hope, Maine.  It's a wonderful Episcopal Church camp and I am honored to have been asked to lead the end of week Eucharist this week! The theme of the week is privilege.)

So, I heard you all have been talking about privilege this week so I know you’ve been discussing the Zanforb Incident.... Wait, you HAVEN’T been talking about the Zanforb Incident... you know, the planet Zanforb?  None of this sounds familiar?  How could you have been talking about privilege and not talk about Zanforb?  You’ve talked about Zanforb in school though, right?  NO!  

Oh, man!  Well, if you haven’t ever heard of Zanforb before I guess I need to back up a bunch from what I was going to talk about tonight and go back to basics... Are you SURE you’ve never heard of Zanforb?  You’re not just messing with me, are you?  This isn’t some camp prank is it?  Alright then...

Zanforb is a planet in our galaxy.  Back about six million years ago the ancestors of the Zanforbians crawled up out of their red ocean and began to evolve over millions of years into the beings they are today.  At the same time on the other side of the planet, the ancestors of the Zanforbos did the same thing.  

Pretty much everything about the Zanforbians and Zanforbos are the same... same two brains, same number of tentacles, same beautiful blue-green shiny scales (I can’t believe you’ve never heard this before!) same gills and fins... all the same.  The one difference is that the Zanforbians have THREE eye stalks and the Zanforbos have two.  So, over time they both groups got smarter and learned to make fire and tools and stuff.  They learned how to milk the BoBo bird and turn it’s purple milk into the cheese they use to build their homes.  (I thought EVERYBODY knew this stuff)  Eventually they built ships and sailed around their planet and met one another.  Believe it or not, everything with that first meeting went great!  The eye stalk thing wasn’t a big deal to them and they all lived together in peace and harmony.  They lived on the same canals together.  They worked and played with one another and they all dealt with the hardships of their world together in the same way.  The main hardship they all faced, of course, was that the BoBo bird cheese they all used to build their houses was HIGHLY flammable!  Their homes were always catching on fire and melting into a puddle of burnt, stinky, purple, cheese... BoBo bird cheese really stinks when it melts.  (I really did think everyone knew this stuff!) 

Then one day a Zanforbian, named Ethyl, invented a fire fighting robot.  No one had been able to do this before, but Ethyl, using the third eye stalk on top of her head, was able to program a robot that flew around her house and put out the fires on the cheese before they were able to spread!  It was a HUGE advance!  Ethyl tried to adapt the robots so they could be programmed with just two eye stalks but couldn’t make it work.  Before this invention, both the Zanforbians and Zanforbos spent about half their non-sleep cycle time, tracking, capturing and milking BoBo birds and then making the cheese and rebuilding their homes.  After Ethyl’s robot came out, the Zanforbians could spend all that time they USED to spend catching, milking, cheese making and building, NOW doing something else.  That meant they always had more Zooblobs (their form of money) and no longer lived in constant worry about their houses catching fire.  In a word, they had privilege.  Over the next couple of hundred sun cycles, the two groups grew apart.  The Zanforbians began to assume that this was just how things were supposed to be.  

But all that changed at a summer camp one evening.  George (a Zanforbian) and Betsy (a Zanforbo), were looking up together at their three yellow moons and they had a revelation.  What if Zanforbians used their third eye stalk to control the fire robots to watch Zanforbian houses AND the houses of their Zanforbo neighbors?  

At first the adults they told thought it was a silly idea.  What if the robot was putting out a cheese fire on a Zanforbo house when a Zanforbian house caught on fire!?  They thought there was NO WAY this could work, but George and Betsy asked a simple question (on Zanforb the kids often asked the best questions).  How often do two or more purple, stinky, cheese houses melt down on the same canal on a single night?  The Zanforbians, you see, were afraid of giving away their privilege and having less security than they had come to enjoy.  

BUT, after some research, it turned out that a double meltdown hardly ever happened... actually there was only one ancient legend of that happening which was known as “The Great Melt-O-Rama” but in the modern world it just didn’t happen.  Well, there were some hold outs, Zanforbians still afraid to share their privilege.  They had a special flag and said some hateful things out of fear, always thinking that by sharing their privilege they would be less special than they were before.  But in spite of the flag and the fear and the hateful words, soon, a few brave Zanforbians started sharing their privilege with their neighbors.  They programmed the fire robots to watch both their houses AND their neighbor’s houses equally!  And it worked!  Soon, the Zanforbos’s houses weren’t melting down all the time and they too had the same extra time, wealth and peace of mind that their neighbors had.  

This is the wonderful lesson of the Zanforb Incident.  They learned that when privilege is shared everyone does better!  Like God’s love, sharing privilege does not leave the share-er with less, but actually makes more for everyone!  The beings from Zanforb learned what the Apostle Paul was trying to teach us in the lessons for tonight and in all the stuff he wrote... that God makes no distinctions... male, female, Greek, Jew, black, white, gay, straight, two eye stalks or three... God intends for us to all be connected... using our gifts with one another so that we might all experience the lives of joy God created all of us to have... It turns out, God created each and every one of us to be vital, beloved and amazing parts of the Body of Christ… and we are!   

Oh, there’s one more thing I should probably tell you since you’ve never heard of Zanforb before.  You see, once both the Zanforbians and Zanforbos were working together with that extra time, wealth and security on their tentacles, they were able to discover that faster-than-light space travel was possible.  But they also learned that the only way to control space ships at that speed was to use FIVE eye stalks!  Working together, Zanforbians and Zanforbos could visit other planets in the galaxy... but living and working apart they would just stay stuck forever!  

Oh, one last thing… they also learned that working together, they could use their combined eye stalks to control an electronic camouflage device so they could visit other planets and look exactly like the creatures from that world.  It is ALMOST a perfect camouflage.  ALMOST.  If you know what to look for, can always tell if a person you are talking to is ACTUALLY from Zanforb and not from earth because the electronic camouflage device has one, unique, quirky feature... It always makes a camouflaged creature from Zanforb appear in a black shirt with a white collar!   DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!!