Autopilot Off!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

I believe that God created you and me not only to RECEIVE life as a gift from God, but also to BRING that life into the world… and that’s not just a “sorta-gettin’-by” kind of life, either!  But an ABUNDANT life!  We are called to be God's ABUNDANT LIFE BRINGERS!  I also believe that sometimes… often for long stretches of time… the choices that move us toward life are clear and consistent, so bringing that life... moving toward, and choosing that life can become automatic, which isn’t a bad thing... as long as the world doesn't dramatically change.  

But life changes, doesn’t it?  And life doesn’t stop to ask whether we think that’s a good idea or not.  So when life DOES change, the former, clear, consistent and automatic moves and choices that led to life before, might not move us toward life anymore.  In those times, we need to take our lives off automatic pilot, sit down, open our eyes and make new, thought out, conscious decisions about what we need to do NOW to choose life, in that NEW place and in that NEW time. 

Moses lived in one of those times.  The people of Israel had been making choices about how to move toward life out in the wilderness for a really long time.  The choices for life they made on the road, out in the wilderness had become second nature… automatic.  But now, the people of Israel had come to the end of the wilderness.  Instead of plowing on into the Promised Land, like nothing would be different, Moses sat the people down and told them, “Over there, life WILL BE DIFFERENT from how it’s been over here.  The choices that will lead to life over there WILL BE DIFFERENT than the choices that led to life in the wilderness.  Take your life OFF automatic pilot.  Open up your eyes!  Remember your CORE… loving God, walking in God’s ways and following God’s rules… now, THINK about what that CORE looks like, and THINK about what it will look like NOW to CHOOSE LIFE… to step toward life in this NEW time and this NEW place.  

Jesus lived in one of those times too.  Loving God and loving neighbor were at the core of the Law, but the focus had drifted from the practice of loving God and neighbor, and folks had become focused on the laws ABOUT loving God and neighbor.  Jesus knew it was time to sit the people down and tell them, “Take your life OFF automatic pilot.  Open up your eyes!  Remember your core… loving God, walking in God’s ways and following God’s rules… now, think about what that CORE looks like in this NEW place and in this NEW time and choose again to take a step in that direction… to choose life!”

We’re living in one of those times too.  The world and the church that lies behind us, is not the same as the world and the church that lies ahead, so here’s a story to help us take our lives off automatic pilot and open our eyes…  I don’t know if you’ve ever ridden the subway in New York, but there’s an automatic pilot way that New Yorkers ride the subway.  Blank stare, ear buds in, don’t look around, don’t make eye contact, no matter what is going on around you, pretend it isn’t really there and don’t get involved.  

That’s the automatic pilot way New Yorkers ride the subway that has led to life for them FOREVER.  But last week something happened, and the people in one New York Subway car were challenged to take their lives off automatic pilot, open their eyes, remember what they valued at their core and make a NEW and different step in that direction.  They were challenged in that moment last week to make a NEW choice for life in a new time.  

This group of New Yorkers piled onto a subway car late in the evening.  As they settled into their seats, they all began to realize that every window, all the glass covering every advertisement, had been marked with swastikas and hateful, anti-semitic messages in black Sharpie.  The train was silent.  Everyone looked around at each other, uncomfortable but unsure what to do.  Living on automatic pilot, riding the subway the usual way… the way they had ALWAYS ridden the subway… the thing to do would be to stare straight ahead and not get involved.  That’s the way they had ALWAYS ridden the subway.  

But then, into the silence… into the way things had always been done… someone said, “Hand sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie.”  Suddenly, in a flurry of activity, everyone on the train was reaching into pockets, purses and bags to find hand sanitizer and tissues.  In less than two minutes all the hateful graffiti was gone.

In that one moment, that person who said, “Hand sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie” did EXACTLY what Moses had done on the edge of the Promised Land… EXACTLY what Jesus had done on the mountain.  He challenged the people around him on that train, to take their lives OFF automatic pilot, open their eyes and REALLY SEE that what was happening around them NOW was NOT the same as it had always been.  He challenged them to remember what they valued… what they REALLY valued at their core, and then offered them a way to purposefully, physically, intentionally, consciously move toward what they valued… He offered them the opportunity to choose life!  

The automatic pilot which has helped us faithfully choose life for our whole lives will no longer fly us effortlessly toward life in this new world in which we live.  We are being called, like the people Moses and Jesus addressed, to STOP and open our eyes!  To remember our CORE, and take a NEW step TOWARD that TIMELESS CORE of loving God and walking in God’s ways… but a NEW step, a DIFFERENT step… a step for this NEW age… a NEW choice again for life!  

The people who reached in their bags for tissues and sanitizer made an amazing step toward life that evening.  But I believe THIS church is called to MORE than simply being like the people who reached in their pockets, purses and bags to find hand sanitizer on that train.  I believe THIS church is called to be the voice in our community that speaks into the changing world around us… that LEADS the way and is the one who speaks into the silence like the one who said, “Hand Sanitizer gets rid of Sharpie” did.  I believe this church will not only choose life, but that together, YOU are the leaders of our community who are not only taking those first, courageous NEW steps toward life, but will continue leading our neighbors as we all take NEW steps toward life.  Amen. 

Away with the Bushel!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The image this week was a gift from Rev. Brett Ballenger, with thanks as well to Leslie and Liz for your contributions as well!  

Pastor Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor in Germany.  He was a U-boat captain in the First World War and then went to seminary and became a pastor.  He was not perfect.  He was often slow to catch on and he often learned to do the right thing, only after doing the wrong thing first.  I can relate.  But he was never shy to confess his wrongs and vigorously work for what was right.  He is probably best remembered for something that illustrates that perfectly.  He said with perfect hindsight, “First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.  Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."  

You’ve probably heard that, but you might not have known that today’s Gospel text was the text he had for what would be his last sermon before being arrested and sent, first to prison and then to a concentration camp for the remainder of the war.  In the first part of his sermon on this text he talked about the need for the church to remain salty.  

The problem he was facing was that the rising Nazi government was looking for all of the churches to come together and fall in line with them, forming one Reich’s Church.  Niemöller said the Church was in danger of “being thrown into the same pot as the world.”  But for Niemöller, he understood that the Church needed to remain distinct from the world with it’s unique “saltiness.”  The government would say to him, “When you start to suit your message to the world around you, then you will again be influential and powerful.”  But Niemöller didn’t think that was the Church’s calling.  He thought the church was called to be salty.  He didn’t think losing it’s saltiness was faithful.  “But,” he said, “if the salt remains salt, we may trust God with it and God will use it in such a way that it becomes a blessing.”

We in the Church have a distinct and counter cultural message… a distinct “saltiness”… a certain flavor which is often different from the flavors of the world.  Our saltiness says that the poor and the meek and the reviled have God’s blessing, as Jesus told us last week.  That’s often not a popular in our world, where wealth and power and success are more fashionable flavors.  Our saltiness says every human being has worth and dignity.  Our saltiness, Isaiah reminds us this week, is to loose the bonds of injustice and bring the homeless poor into our homes.  And if all of that makes us nervous, our saltiness also reminds us that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  We don't have any reason to fear because NOTHING can separate us from God’s love.  So even as some of this generation’s most skilled merchants of fear, cook up conspiracies and brew lies and the world around us simmers and boils in a perpetual stew of fear, we in the Church are called to something of a distinctly different, more salty flavor.

WE are called to stay salty, even while high profile TV preachers hurl themselves into the same stew that feeds fears, excludes, demonizes and persecutes, WE are called to stay out of that stew and stay salty.  But that’s not to just stay salty for salt’s sake.  We’re called to stay out of that stew of fear and hatred so that when we DO see someone preparing a dish in our neighborhood that DOES lift the lowly, welcomes the stranger or gives bread to the hungry, we can throw in our saltiness there and enhance that dish.  That’s what salt does, it enhances flavors and you and I are called to be salt.  We’re called to lift up, bring out and enhance the bits of the world that bring life out of death.

  

In another part of Niemöllers’ sermon he said,  “You are the light of the world.”  We hear those words and we immediately start worrying about our light going out.  What are we worrying about?  We look around and see the winds and the storm that is blowing through the world right now and we think it’s all so enormous that it’s bound to blow out the Gospel candle.  So we think we must protect it!  Take the Gospel message out of the storm and put it safely in a little nook.  

Niemöller goes on to say, It is only in these days that I have realized… that I have understood what the Lord Jesus Christ means when he says, “Do not take up the bushel!  I have not lit the candle for you to put it under the bushel in order to protect it from the wind.  Away with the bushel!  The light should be placed on a candlestick!  It is not your business to worry about whether the light is extinguished or not by the wind!  That is God’s concern!  We are only to see that the light is not hidden away… not even hidden away with the nobel purpose of protecting it so we can bring it out again in calmer times.  No!  Let your light shine!"  

Away with the bushel!  That needs to be a t-shirt!  AND a bumper sticker!  Away with the bushel!  THAT is EXACTLY the message we need for today!  That was Isaiah’s message to the people of Israel.  That was Jesus’ message to the people gathered for the Sermon on the Mount.  That was Pastor Niemöller’s message to the people of Germany.  And that is the same message you and I and the people of our country need to hear once again.  Away with the bushel!  

Because what is the bushel?  THE BUSHEL IS FEAR.  It’s fear that temps us to cover the light which God has given us to shine into the world.  It’s fear that causes us to horde what we have and not share with our neighbor.  It’s fear that causes us to lash out at people who are different in even the most illogical ways.  It’s fear of losing the light that God has given us in Baptism, that causes us to hide that light from the world.  It’s that irrational fear, that sharing your light will dim it, even though every Christmas we see that the flame of one candle can be shared with everyone and the light only grows when it's shared... It never dims.

Many of the people around us have thrown themselves into this cultural stew of fear and as a nation we’ve taken our light and hid it away… it’s as if, as a nation, we’ve taken the torch of the Statue of Liberty and covered it with a bushel basket.  For what?  For fear… an irrational, destructive, fear which leads only to death...not life.  No-one has been killed by a refugee in this country.  No-one.  Not last year, not for more than forty years.*  More people die of lightning or falling out of bed or lawnmowers.  How have we become so filled with fear?

The world around us is brewing this horrible stew of cowardice and hate, exclusion and scarcity that has no touchpoint in reality.  They want us in the Church to throw our saltiness into their stew, where our saltiness will get stirred in and lost in demonizing the other, turning our backs on the stranger and dismissing the cries of those in desperate need.  But like Isaiah, Jesus and Pastor Niemöller told the people of God in the past, I’m going to tell you now... WE MUST REMAIN SALTY!  We must stay out of this simmering and boiling stew of fear that is cooking around us, but also ALWAYS be ready to add our salt to the places we find that are doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly... to the people who promote the dignity of all people and bring life into the world.  You are salt!  You have the light!  It was given to you in the waters of Baptism.  It is the light that shines in the darkness!  It is the light no darkness can overcome!  So, away with the bushel!  Let your light shine!  Amen.  

* You may wonder about this statistic, particularly in light of events such as the Boston Marathon Bombing, San Bernardino and the Pulse Night Club.  It is true that since 9/11, 123 people have been killed in the United States by people who claim to have been acting out of their Muslim faith (every one of my Muslim friends would say their action was a betrayal of the authentic faith). However, none of these people came through the rigorous vetting process as a refugee.  You may say that is a technicality and 123 deaths are tragic and both would be absolutely correct. But it is an important technicality because it is important in creating public policy to address the actual, statistical issue rather than creating policy on statistically unfounded feelings.  None of the new policies put in place would have stopped any of those 123 deaths, but those new policies have already led to additional deaths.   

Step Into Your Core

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

When I worked for Coca-Cola, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, the company sent me to a Steven Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, seminar.  As part of that seminar we created an inventory of the things we valued most.  The idea being, that highly effective people spent most of their time and energy, and worked the hardest on things they valued most.  I suspect, the company thought we would value our careers the most, so we would naturally conclude we should spend most of our time and energy at One Coca-Cola Plaza, “building shareholder value” and “increasing sales volume” with even more dedication and vigor.  

I’m guessing they didn’t expect a young food scientist to conclude that what he valued more than his career was his new family, God, and things like justice and kindness… the values he learned in the church.  They probably also didn’t expect their seminar would help him hatch a hair-brained scheme (back when he had hair) to not just THINK about those things he valued, but to take an ACTIVE, tangible, physical STEP in their direction and become a pastor.  

Coca-Cola, wasn’t exactly on track with what I valued, but their guy, Steven Covey, wasn’t wrong…  when people step toward the things they value most, their lives are more stable, more peaceful... more effective.  The reality is, things are always swirling and changing in our lives… Careers change, companies change, locations change, presidents change, economies change, institutions change… even light bulbs change… but those things at our CORE… THOSE things don’t change, and taking a physical, tangible step TOWARD those core things, no matter how big or small the step, calms the storm and brings us peace.  

Today we heard two well known expressions of what we, as people of God, value at our CORE.  “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God”… THAT is at our core.   Humility, vulnerability, gentleness, empathy, peacemaking, kindness, compassion, steadfastness and resiliency… THAT is at our CORE.  Recently we affirmed our Baptismal CORE… Belief in the Triune God, hearing God’s Word and sharing the Lord’s Supper, fellowship and study with one another; perseverance in resisting evil, confessing wrongs and turning back to God; telling and showing the world of the transformational power of Christ’s death and resurrection; seeing Christ in all people, loving our neighbor, striving for justice and peace and respecting the dignity of all people.  THAT is our CORE.  Following ONE God… Our core!  Not chasing after things or people mistaking them for gods… Our core!  Honoring God’s name, the Sabbath and our elders… our core!  Not killing, or harming, but HELPING our neighbors… THAT’S our Core!  Not stealing… our CORE.  Not lying… our CORE.  Not wishing and working to manipulate, cheat or steal from your neighbor but helping them to live the life God gave them to live… all part of our CORE... that last bit in a handy ten point list!  

Things change.  Things we dearly love change.  In church, the liturgy changes, the music changes, the furniture changes, the windows change, the bells change, the address changes, our church name changes, the language changes, the priest and pastor changes, the ministries change, the seating changes, the coffee hour changes, the dishes change, the people change and a million other things that we really do love change.  But those things, beloved as they are, are not our CORE.  Our CORE doesn’t change.  God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit doesn’t change.  Love God and love neighbor.  That doesn’t change.  Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly… that doesn’t change.  Strive for justice and peace and the dignity of all people… that doesn’t change.  THAT is who and whose we are at our unchanging, unalterable CORE.  As everything else swirls and rocks and changes around us, taking a physical, tangible step toward THAT unchanging, unalterable CORE will put our feet on solid ground.  

But it’s not just the church that changes, is it?  The world changes too, and from time to time the world will rage with change and this seems to be one of those extra “ragey” times.  But no matter how crazy the world becomes, it can’t change our CORE either!  The world rages, people even plagiarize old Pontus Pilate asking, “What is Truth?” and sometimes it seems too hard to even keep up with the swirling, raging mess.  BUT, in “ragey” times and calm times… in every sort of time, taking even a small, intentional, tangible, physical, step toward what you value at your CORE, will slow the spinning, clear the fog and land you on solid ground every single time.  Feeling confused?  Take a step toward kindness, not just in thought, but DO an act of kindness?  Wondering how this happened or what’s next?  Take a step toward your neighbor with an act of compassion.  Feeling helpless?  Take a step toward your CORE and make a meal, check on your neighbor, share a smile, give a compliment, donate a pair of boots.    

The size of the step really doesn’t matter… There's a story about a little girl in a concentration camp.  One day she found ONE raspberry.  Even though she was starving, she wrapped it up and protected it all day until she saw her friend to give her that one, red, raspberry.  Even there, in the midst of the horrors of a concentration camp, that little girl found solid ground by taking a physical, tangible step toward what she valued at her Core.  

The CORE always remains.  God the Father remains… and He has told you, O mortal, what is good.  So take a step toward justice, kindness and humility and walk with God.  God the Son remains... ALWAYS present HERE, so take a step toward the Table and be filled.  God the Spirit, remains, in each breath we are given, so use that breath to take a step and speak for the poor, the meek, the mourning, the hungry, the persecuted and the reviled.  You are blessed.  You've been given God’s unchanging CORE in the waters of Baptism.  Nothing can change that CORE… so take a step toward that CORE and feel the blessing of solid ground under your feet.  Amen.  

Revolution!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 4th Chapter

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 

“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” 

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

You say you want a revolution.  Well, you know we all want to change the world.  You do realize that this is the story of how Jesus started a revolution?  Jesus was bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven, which was and is, a lot of different things but it’s first and foremost a Kingdom and that meant the other kingdom… the kingdom of Caesar… had to go!  This IS the story of how Jesus began his work of bringing in the Kingdom of Heaven.  The story of changing the way the world works from Caesar’s way to God’s way.  The story of the God of all creation, overthrowing Caesar, the head of the Roman Empire who thought so much of himself that he believed himself, not to be simply a mere mortal, but a god.  

Caesar ruled through violence, intimidation, hate, oppressive economic systems and fear.  He, and the people who fed his god complex and followed his lead, became ridiculously wealthy and they became that wealthy by crushing every last cent out of the people on the edges of society.  They worked the poor, the foreigner, the hungry, the sick and the homeless so they only had time and energy enough to barely stay alive, and never enough to hope for something better.  THAT oppression of the kingdom of Caesar was the great darkness in which the people sat, always covered every day by the shadow of death.  

Now, Jesus could have started his revolution by going straight to Rome.  Straight to the seat of the emperor himself, installing himself as king and then spreading the Kingdom of Heaven from the top down and from the center out.  And there have been disciples along the way who thought, and still think, THAT would be the best way to handle this revolution.  But Jesus started his revolution in a VERY different way.  He started by going from Nazareth to Capernaum.  To put that into perspective, if the United States was the Roman Empire, with Washington D.C. as Rome, Boston would be a regional center like Jerusalem, and so with that in mind, Jesus moving from Nazareth to Capernaum would be like Jesus moving from Bangor to Calais to begin his revolution.  

The other thing Jesus could have done, is that he could have surrounded himself with the most powerful, wealthy, strongest, most influential people he could find to help him start this revolution and topple Caesar.  But that’s not what Jesus did either.  Instead, Jesus dredged up the Middle Eastern equivalent of four sternmen on a lobster boat, not captains… not people who owned their own boats, but sternmen… from the Middle Eastern equivalent of Down East Maine.

Then he announced his revolution by saying “REPENT! The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.”  Now, I know when we hear “REPENT, the Kingdom of Heaven has come near” we think this is like the fifth grade when the teacher had to leave the room and the class went nuts until someone keeping watch yelled out “GET BACK IN YOUR DESKS!  The teacher is coming back!”  We hear REPENT and we think we’re being caught doing something naughty, and sometimes the call to repent is like that, but what’s REALLY happening HERE is that when the Kingdom of Heaven comes near, people’s lives can’t help but head in a new direction.  We hear the word “REPENT” and we think of it as a rebuke, but here “REPENT” is not so much Jesus telling these folks on the fringes to turn around because they’ve been naughty, as it is Jesus telling these folks on the fringes that when the Kingdom of Heaven comes near, the Kingdom of Heaven, by it’s very nature, will turn everyone’s life around and change the world!  

And what those four fisherman nobodies from the edge of nowhere realized very quickly, is that whenever and wherever Jesus showed up, the Kingdom of Heaven came near… RIGHT THERE and RIGHT THEN.  Everywhere Jesus went, all throughout Galilee… THERE was the Kingdom of Heaven as well, healing and feeding and bringing new life…. so, in the blink of an eye, people’s lives were changed and headed off in a radically new and different direction.  And remember, this didn’t happen in the center of everything, among the movers and shakers of the world.  Jesus showed up at edge of nowhere, dredging up a handful of nobodies who joined his revolution, changing the world from the outside in and from the bottom up.  

And here’s the overwhelming, intimidating, scary part for you and me… Jesus is still leading that same revolution... Jesus is still showing up… every single week, RIGHT HERE, in this place… which, if we’re honest, is only about a three hour drive from the edge of nowhere and he’s still dredging up the likes of me and you, who, if we’re honest are a lot closer to Down East deck hands than we are to billionaires who play with would-be Emperors.  When Jesus shows up here in that bread and that wine, just as real, just as tangible, just as fully present as he was on that beach in Galilee… When Jesus shows up here… Jesus… Immanuel… God with us… the King of Kings… when he shows up with the Kingdom of Heaven in tow, it changes our lives too!  Light shines in OUR darkness.  We find ourselves turned around, living in a dramatically different, revolutionary angle, changing the world, caught up in the revolution.  Jesus shows up with the Kingdom of Heaven in tow, the light dawns and we are changed… transformed into the Body of Christ.  

It takes real faith.  It takes real determination.  It takes real courage… REAL courage to come here week after week to the place where Jesus shows up with the Kingdom of Heaven in tow.  Because when the Kingdom of Heaven comes near, you KNOW we’ll be changed… that we’ll keep getting called to change direction… to keep being revolutionaries toppling the Caesars of the world.  You know we'll keep getting called to head out in new ways to bring healing to our neighbors, to fish for people, to shine light into the dark places, to speak truth to power and continue to live out this revolution.  So, thank you for your courage.  Thank you for your revolutionary act of showing up here each week!  Thank you for turning in revolutionary new directions as the Kingdom of Heaven draws near and thanks be to God for the light of Christ that always shines in the darkness and shows us the way, the truth and the life.  Amen.  

Say Cheese!

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 1st Chapter

The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

As the waters rose the man moved upstairs and then out onto the roof and as the waters continued to rise he prayed that God would save him.  Soon a man floated by on a log and offered to share his log.  The man replied, “No, I’m sure God will save me.”  Then a woman in a boat drove up to the house and offered to take him to safety.  “No” said the man, “I‘m sure God will save me.”  Then a helicopter lowered a basket to him but he shouted to them, “No, I‘m sure God will save me!”  The man drown.  When he met God, he asked, “Why didn’t you save me?” and God replied, “I sent you people with a log, a boat and a helicopter, what were you looking for?”  

He couldn't believe that God had been the source of such un-miraculous looking, “un-churchy” looking gifts like log sharing, boat driving and helicopter flying.  He was sure that if it was God saving him, it would have to be with the sky opening and the heavenly host singing.  

Four pilgrims were shipwrecked on a desert island:  a carpenter, a cook, a farmer and a seamstress.  They all were very gifted and understood that God was the source of their talents.  But when they washed up on the beach they all just sat there.  You see, they were humble and didn’t want to brag about their gifts.  So, the carpenter just sat there in spite of being able to build a shelter.  The cook just sat there in spite of seeing fruits and food she could prepare.  The farmer just sat there in spite of recognizing some native rice and the seamstress just sat there in spite of seeing fibers she could weave into fabric.  It wasn’t proper, Christian humility to put themselves forward, they thought, to volunteer without being asked and risk being seen as proud or pretentious.  So the group sat in the sand and died.

A huge earthquake hit Italy in May of 2012.  The epicenter was the town of Modena where one of the main industries is making Parmigiano-Reggiano.  Parmesan cheese, but not the shaker kind, the real, amazing, aged for years in giant wheels kind.  In the earthquake, the shelves in the warehouses with all those aging cheeses toppled over and 360,000 wheels of cheese broke open.  Each wheel was worth nearly three THOUSAND dollars!  People would lose their jobs, companies would go out of business.  The town was ready to go under.  Then there was Massimo.

Massimo Bottura is known these days as “the maestro" in this little town but this wasn’t always true.  For a long time he was a traitor… doing traditional Italian food… differently.  NOW he is “the maestro”… the chef and owner of Osteria Francescana… the third best restaurant in the world, so needless to say, he has some gifts. 

In the wake of that horrible earthquake, he saw the great need around him and creatively walked into that need with his gifts.  He created a recipe based on a classic Roman pasta dish called cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper) and transformed it into risotto cacio e pepe using those broken wheels of cheese.  THEN he shared that recipe, and the story of the earthquake with the world.  Soon, 40,000 people all over the world were cooking risotto cacio e pepe and every broken wheel was sold.  God gave this man his gifts.  Not traditional “churchy” looking gifts but Divine gifts none the less, and he saw the need around him and he stepped into the need with his gifts.  The sky didn’t open and the heavenly host didn’t sing, but a miracle still happened and that recipe gave life back to this town. 

We ALL have gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit in our Baptisms.  Some, like John the Baptist, have “churchy” looking gifts.  John had the gift of preaching… drawing thousands of people out into the wilderness to hear the truth.  Others also have gifts that look pretty “churchy,” like teaching the faith, visiting the sick, playing sacred music and creating liturgy.  But God has given most of the world “non-churchy” looking gifts which are just as amazing… the gift of sharing a log, driving a boat, flying a helicopter, building a shelter, growing crops, weaving clothes or imagining a risotto in a way risotto had never been imagined before. 

Frederick Buechner is known for reminding us that the place where your great passion… your great skill… your great gift from God intersects the world’s great need… THAT is the place of your calling.  THAT can be ANYWHERE... a pulpit, at a bedside, stocking shelves, in a kitchen or spreading manure.  And, I suppose any of that COULD happen surrounded by the heavenly host, but it’s no less a miracle when it happens covered in… let’s call it the stuff of your trade.  

Embrace your gifts.  Don’t hide them with some twisted sense of piety.  John the Baptist didn’t hide his gift of knowing the Messiah.  John didn’t avoid the spotlight.  He stepped right into the spotlight, and by doing that made sure EVERYONE could hear him proclaim “This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” and when the people looked at him, he showed them Jesus.

Embrace your gifts, “churchy” and “non-churchy” alike.  Open your eyes and see the needs of the world around you and then be the one who finds never before imagined ways to meet the great needs of your neighbors with the great gifts you have been given.  Then, when everyone is looking, point to Jesus and say, “There is the Lamb of God.  The source of all gifts, the source of all passion, the source of life.”  Amen.  

The Universal Solvent

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 3rd Chapter

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

In the science world, water is known as the universal solvent because water dissolves more things than any other liquid.  Water percolates through the soil, dissolving minerals along the way and then deposits them in caves, creating stalactites and stalagmites.  Water runs over centuries and eons dissolving solid rock and washing it out to sea creating canyons and perhaps most importantly, hot water dissolves tannins and essential oils and solids and caffeine as it flows through ground up coffee beans giving humans the ability to live with one another in the morning. 

This week we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord.  We remember the time that the Universal Solvent was poured out by John the Baptist on Jesus and we also take this time to remember and affirm when that same Universal Solvent was poured out on us as well.  In today’s lessons we hear God speaking through the prophet Isaiah saying, “See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I NOW declare.”  We hear the Apostle Peter, after having been taught all his life that God is partial to the people of Israel, now saying, “I truly understand NOW, that God shows no partiality.”  And we hear John the Baptist saying, “I need to be baptized by you Jesus, not the other way round!” And then we hear Jesus answer him saying, “Let it be this new way NOW.”

NOW.  Let it be so NOW.  One of the gifts of being one of the Baptized is in the Water and the Word’s ability to dissolve the things that seek to trap us, bind us and hold us in the past.  Things like sin, shame, bad choices, oughts and shoulds of every shape and size… those are the parts of the past we desperately long to leave there and not dredge back up in the middle of those sleepless nights.  The waters of Baptism free us from being bound to that pain-filled past.

But it’s not just the negative things that can trap us in the past, is it?  The waters of Baptism also dissolve the connections that tempt us to try and live in the familiar, unsurprising, comfortable nature of the past as well.  But our nostalgia and selective memories of what was, keeps us from living fully in TODAY, just as much as the painful shoulds and oughts of the past keep us from living fully in TODAY.  

Baptism frees us both from the prison of being tied to an unchangeable past full of pain, and also demands that those connections to the comfortable, familiar and nostalgic parts of the past be dissolved as well, because whether the past is full of pain or full of remembered joy, the truth is that the past is no longer where we live.

But it’s not just those ties to the past, that the waters of Baptism dissolve either.  Those same waters also dissolve our continual efforts to live in an effortless, Pollyanna sort of future or live in the fear of an apocalyptic wasteland of a future.  The waters of Baptism wash us back from either of those unpredictable futures and insist again, that as Children of God, we live fully in TODAY.  The Water of Baptism is the Universal Solvent God has given us that makes the unalterable past’s grip too slippery to bind us and makes the unpredictable future too slick for us to grab hold to with a firm grip. 

Henri Nouwen said all of that much better than I ever could.  He said, “The real enemies of our life are the ‘oughts’ and the ‘ifs.’  They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future.  But real life takes place in the here and now.”   

This is NOT to say that we should refuse to learn lessons from the past nor is it to say we shouldn’t plan for the future.  But THIS moment, the moment to which we have been called to be, live and act, musn't be sacrificed to either the past or the future.  We must learn from the past, certainly, but not at the cost of abandoning the present.  We must plan for the future, absolutely, but not in a way that leaves us doing nothing today and always waiting for tomorrow. 

Our world seems filled these days with people either insisting on returning to an unrepeatable past or paralyzed by a fearful, unknowable future.  Stuck in either the unalterable past or the unknowable future, they forget that their neighbor desperately needs them to be present for them in THIS moment.  Look to that person sitting right there beside you, right this very moment.  THAT child of God needs you to be fully present for them right now, shining the light of Christ you first received in Baptism, into their lives RIGHT NOW.  

Let the past be the past.  Let the waters of Baptism dissolve the chains that bind you there.  Let the future happen in the future.  Let the waters of Baptism dissolve your grip on an unknowable future.  Allow the Waters of Baptism to wash you up from the past and back from the future into THIS moment, TODAY, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.  And as those Baptismal Waters wash you into this moment, listen closely for the Words from heaven speaking to you in each and every sacred NOW, “You are my Child.  You are Beloved.  You are a pleasure to behold RIGHT NOW.”  Amen.