Sermons, Spirituality

Origin Story // Historia de origen

No Comments

2 Kings 4:42-44 | Psalm 145:10-19 | Ephesians 3:14-21 | John 6:1-21

When we meet someone, // Cuando conocemos a alguien,

as the kind people we are, we ask, “How are you,” “What is your name,”

como la gente amable que somos, le preguntamos: “¿Cómo estás?”, “¿Cómo te llamas?”,

and express how nice it is to meet them. // y les expresamos el gusto que es conocerlos.

If we are to work with them or be in relationship with them,

Si vamos a trabajar con ellos o tener una relación con ellos,

we ask more questions relevant to our relationship.

hacemos más preguntas relevantes para nuestra relación.

If it’s work, we want to know their particular job, who their boss is, who they really work

for and maybe even what their motivation for this work is.

Si se trata de un trabajo, queremos saber cuál es su trabajo en particular, quién es su jefe,

para quién trabajan realmente y tal vez incluso cuál es su motivación para este

trabajo.

If we are interested in forming a friendship, we likely ask more about our families, what we like to do for fun, probably which soccer team we cheer for–is that right?

Si estamos interesados en formar una amistad, es probable que preguntemos más sobrenuestras familias, qué nos gusta hacer para divertirnos, probablemente a qué equipo de fútbol le vamos, ¿no es asi?

We’ll have to be better friends before we start exchanging recipes

Tendremos que ser mejores amigos antes de empezar a intercambiar recetas

because that’s when we get closer to our roots, closer to where we come from and whom we come from, closer to our origin.

porque es entonces cuando nos acercamos a nuestras raíces, más cerca de donde venimos y de quien venimos, más cerca de nuestro origen.

+++

At a conference I participated in virtually on Friday, one of the speakers introduced herself beginning with her origin story.

En una conferencia en la que participé virtualmente el viernes, una de las oradoras se presentó comenzando con su historia de origen.

She took the risk of bringing her whole self to all of us so we know more fully about who she is and where she’s coming from.

Se arriesgó a introducirse por completo a todos nosotros para que sepamos mejor quién es y de dónde viene.

She saved us from having to work backwards to figure out what she is passionate about and why.

Nos salvó de tener que trabajar al revés para descubrir qué le apasiona y por qué.

She told us she grew up in Oakland, // Ella nos dijo que creció en Oakland,

that she had experienced a home raid (though it wasn’t her house that should have been raided),

que había experimentado una redada en su casa (aunque no era su casa la que debió haber sido allanada),

that her neighborhood experienced gentrification, // que su vecindario experimentó una gentrificación

and that as she was passing by a park with her mother she told her mother that that park was not for them.

y que mientras pasaba por un parque con su madre, le dijo a su madre que ese parque no era para ellos.

And today, she works as a consultant, focusing on dignity of persons and communities in planning and development,

Y hoy, trabaja como consultora, enfocándose en la dignidad de las personas y las comunidades en la planificación y el desarrollo,

working with companies to makes sure that the goals they have match up with the priorities of the communities that are affected by their new, innovative ideas,

trabajando con las empresas para asegurarse de que los objetivos que tienen coincidan con las prioridades de las comunidades que se ven afectadas por sus nuevas e innovadoras ideas.

making sure the bridges are made, the relationships are formed to make sure the future is paved with understanding, compassion, respect, and dignity for all.

asegurándose de que se hagan los puentes, se formen las relaciones para asegurarse de que el futuro esté pavimentado con comprensión, compasión, respeto y dignidad para todos.

I was in awe of Dr. Denise Thomas, a woman doing important, holy work in this country.

Estaba asombrada por la Dra. Denise Thomas, una mujer que realizaba una obra santa e importante en este país.

(I also asked if she was working with companies and organizations around here, though I didn’t get a clear answer!)

(¡También le pregunté si estaba trabajando con empresas y organizaciones por aquí, aunque no obtuve una respuesta clara!)

+++

As Christians, we can think about our origin as beginning with our baptism, since that is when our life in Christ begins.

Como cristianos, podemos pensar en nuestro origen comenzando con nuestro bautismo, ya que ahí es cuando comienza nuestra vida en Cristo.

But when I’m telling my story, I often begin with the fact that I began going to church with my abuelas,

Pero cuando cuento mi historia, a menudo comienzo con el hecho de que comencé a ir a la iglesia con mis abuelas,

depending on which grandmother I was staying with for the weekend while my parents worked.

dependiendo de con qué abuela me quedaba el fin de semana mientras mis padres trabajaban.

Now I wish I had asked more questions about who influenced their life in Christ.

Ahora desearía haber hecho más preguntas sobre quién influyó en sus vidas en Cristo.

For me, though, beyond my abuelas, I go to the Bible, // Para mí, sin embargo, más allá de mis abuelas, voy a la Biblia,

and it is in the Holy Scriptures that I find more and more revealed about our origin story as people of God.

y es en las Sagradas Escrituras donde encuentro más y más revelaciones sobre nuestra historia de origen como pueblo de Dios.

+++

Often we think of beginnings and immediately go to Genesis “when God created the heavens and the earth.”

A menudo pensamos en los comienzos e inmediatamente vamos al Génesis “cuando Dios creó los cielos y la tierra”.

But we do not have to go back to one particular moment. // Pero no tenemos que remontarnos a un momento en particular.

Can we take the whole Bible in all its beauty and tragedy, contradictions and declarations, narratives and mysteries as God offering us the origin story of God’s relationship with us, with humanity, through Christ?

¿Podemos tomar toda la Biblia en toda su belleza y tragedia, contradicciones y declaraciones, narraciones y misterios como Dios nos ofrece la historia del origen de la relación de Dios con nosotros, con la humanidad, a través de Cristo?

And each Sunday when we read from the Old Testament, we’re understanding the Hebrew world from which Jesus came, the Scripture and the Law in which Jesus lived,

Y cada domingo, cuando leemos del Antiguo Testamento, entendemos el mundo hebreo del que vino Jesús, las Escrituras y la Ley en la que vivió Jesús,

and even more than that, we are learning about God in relationship to people, the covenant they had together.

y aún más que eso, estamos aprendiendo acerca de Dios en relación con las personas, el pacto que tenían juntos.

We recite a psalm, sharing in the poetry and song in every range of emotion, which today is a song of praise for our God.

Rezamos un salmo, compartiendo la poesía y el canto en todos los rangos de emoción, El cual hoy es un canto de alabanza a nuestro Dios.

We read from the New Testament which reveals how the people and the church lived in the knowledge of the resurrected Christ.

Leemos del Nuevo Testamento que revela cómo la gente y la iglesia vivían en el conocimiento del Cristo resucitado.

We conclude our Liturgy of the Word with the Holy Gospel, the closest we can get to the words of Jesus, to imagining ourselves in his presence when he walked this earth.

Concluimos nuestra Liturgia de la Palabra con el Santo Evangelio, lo más cerca que podemos estar de las palabras de Jesús, de imaginarnos a nosotros mismos en su presencia cuando caminó por esta tierra.

And all of this is our sharing of story so we don’t have to question God’s motives in relationship with us.

Y todo esto es nuestro compartir la historia para que no tengamos que cuestionar los motivos de Dios en nuestra relación.

God–the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–takes the risk right from the start to share with us what God is all about.

Dios, el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo, toma el riesgo desde el principio de compartir con nosotros de qué se trata Dios.

+++

Even so, we circle around the Holy Word, God, Jesus, like a boxer on the defense, wondering where the next blow will come from or when we should make a hit.

Aun así, damos vueltas alrededor de la Santa Palabra, Dios, Jesús, como un boxeador a la defensiva, preguntándonos de dónde vendrá el próximo golpe o cuándo debemos dar un golpe.

+++

Today’s lessons speak to me with recognition of our humanity with all our expectations of what we should do, with our fear of scarcity, and with our tendency to misunderstand, and God answers us with assurance, abundance, and grace.

Las lecturas de hoy me hablan con reconocimiento de nuestra humanidad con todas nuestras expectativas de lo que debemos hacer, con nuestro miedo a la escasez y con nuestra tendencia a malinterpretar, y Dios nos responde con seguridad, abundancia y gracia.

Where we might want to designate certain resources for certain people or think there’s not enough to go around,

Donde podríamos querer designar ciertos recursos para ciertas personas o pensar que no hay suficiente para todos,

God will prove again and again that there is enough, more than enough to satisfy the people in need.

Dios probará una y otra vez que hay suficiente, más que suficiente para satisfacer a las personas necesitadas.

God provides through those gathered in God’s name. // Dios provee a través de aquellos reunidos en el nombre de Dios.

When we are in the midst of storms in our lives, we will be afraid, // Cuando estemos en medio de tormentas en nuestra vida, tendremos miedo,

but when we seek and recognize the presence of God among us, // pero cuando buscamos y reconocemos la presencia de Dios entre nosotros,

when we receive Christ into our boat, // cuando recibimos a Cristo en nuestra barca,

we accept that peace that passes understanding. // aceptamos esa paz que sobrepasa el entendimiento.

When someone is telling a story and says something true and important, do you ever pause and say, “Wait, say that again?” or maybe, “Say it louder for the people in the back”?

Cuando alguien está contando una historia y dice algo verdadero e importante, ¿alguna vez hacen una pausa y dicen: “Espera, vuelve a decir eso?” o tal vez, “Dígalo más alto para la gente de atrás”?

This week, the letter to the Ephesians was my reminder to slow down.

Esta semana, la carta a los Efesios fue mi recordatorio de que deberia reducir la velocidad.

This prayer of Paul’s was a reminder of what is and what can be.

Esta oración de Pablo fue un recordatorio de lo que es y lo que puede ser.

I needed to receive this prayer as for us and with us, especially when it feels like the people of the Church are so divided and when even my ministry feels attacked.

Necesitaba recibir esta oración por nosotros y con nosotros, especialmente cuando se siente que la gente de la Iglesia está tan dividida y cuando incluso mi ministerio se siente atacado.

Paul prays that we “may be strengthened in (our) inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in (our) hearts through faith, as (we) are being rooted and grounded in love.”

Pablo ora para que “seamos fortalecidos en nuestro ser interior con poder a través de su Espíritu, y que Cristo pueda habitar en nuestros corazones por medio de la fe, mientras nosotros estamos arraigados y cimentados en el amor”.

He prays that we “may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.”

Ora para que “tengamos el poder de comprender, con todos los santos, cuál es la amplitud, la longitud, la altura y la profundidad, y conocer el amor de Cristo que sobrepasa el conocimiento”.

If we don’t have the comprehension of the infinite nature of the love of Christ, may we have the wisdom to accept the Mystery of Christ’s love.

Si no tenemos la comprensión de la naturaleza infinita del amor de Cristo, que tengamos la sabiduría para aceptar el Misterio del amor de Cristo.

And all of this Paul prays so we “may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Y todo esto Pablo ora para que “seamos llenos de toda la plenitud de Dios”.

It is that fullness of God that will keep God as the priority, not our fear, egos, or false idols.

Es esa plenitud de Dios lo que mantendrá a Dios como la prioridad, no nuestro miedo, egos o ídolos falsos.

It is that fullness of God through which God will “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

Es esa plenitud de Dios a través de la cual Dios “logrará abundantemente mucho más de lo que podemos pedir o imaginar”.

The fullness of God in all mercy and grace and love is our beginning, our origin story,

La plenitud de Dios en toda misericordia, gracia y amor es nuestro comienzo, nuestra historia de origen,

and it is also the future for all who walk in faith, “rooted and grounded in love.”

y también es el futuro para todos los que caminan en la fe, “arraigados y cimentados en el amor”.

Amén.

Continue Reading

Sermons

How Does Your Garden Grow?

No Comments

Acts 8:26-40 | Psalm 22:24-30 | 1 John 4:7-21 | John 15:1-8

(Being the first Sunday, today we begin with a sermon particularly for the young and young at heart.)

Have you ever seen vines growing? There’s a trunk, a base for the vine, and from it the branches grow, with even more delicate tendrils curling near the leaves and–if we’re lucky–clusters of fruit. We know that plants can grow well enough on their own, but the best fruit grows from vines that have a faithful vinegrower–a gardener–to tend to the plants, prune them, and watch out for disease, bugs, and other dangers like early frosts or unseasonable droughts.

We know the health of the vine by examining its leaves, but we also know its health by the quality of its fruit. What do you notice in really good fruit? Think of a grape–what makes a really good grape?

Are grapes the only kind of fruit? Not at all! “Vine” is one way to think of a source. The source of our strength, of all the goodness we have, is God, Creator of all Creation. There are so many different kinds of fruit in the world! So all good fruit shows our cooperation with our Creator to be the best we can be, drawing from the source of everything. Just because we don’t like one kind of fruit or haven’t ever heard of something doesn’t mean it isn’t good. Our goodness is living in ways that show how we are close to the very source of Love itself, and we share that love with ourselves and with one another.

If we know anything of gardening, we’ve probably heard of folks talking to their plants, but I don’t know if anyone stops to ask the branches of a vine how hard it is to grow a perfect cluster of grapes or how the grapes themselves feel about vying for sunlight, how to swell and grow with just enough toughness to contain the juicy goodness, or how to hang on the vine while others never develop or get plucked by birds or infected by bugs. If the fruit did talk, I’m sure they would be the first to tell us that it’s not easy, that there’s pressure to be perfect, to fulfill expectations. But this is fruit, after all. It has a determined purpose (though it could become any number of things), and it has a specific source. The life of fruit isn’t really that complicated, is it?

Any gardener will tell you that it can be. Is the fruit GMO or organic? Hybrid or heirloom? Hothouse or hydroponic? Local or imported? There are lots of variations on a theme, and it’s easier for us to let the distinctions fall to the wayside and just enjoy the blueberries and apples because the fruit is good and good for us–we don’t really need to know all the details.

If we slow down and pay attention, however, we learn where the fruit comes from, what kind of care went into its production and protection, and just how ripe and delicious it is (or not). John Kabat Zinn is a long-time teacher and advocate for mindfulness, and I believe it was in one of his books that he writes about mindfully eating a raisin, noticing as much as one can. How often do we slow down long enough to appreciate how good what we consume is, let alone to appreciate the miracle of creation food is?

Loving intention helps nurture the best harvests, and there is no more loving intention than what God offered in bringing Jesus among us, to abide with us so that we might abide with God, have the very words of God in our hearts–the very seeds that would continue to manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

All the details that go into creating who we are affect how best we share our gifts with the world, what fruits of the Spirit we offer. Maybe they’re the virtues extolled by Paul in Galatians (5:22-23): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Or maybe they’re more carefully created gifts that the vinegrower has nurtured in you. The voice you share in your song or poetry may be mentored by the influences you’ve looked to in your life, but they’re fine-tuned by your experiences, your talent. Teachers and mentors and others may have nudged and guided us along our way, lovingly guiding us and training us to grow in accord with God’s will as we live most fully into who we are created to be.

Philip, who had the tremendous experience of walking with Jesus in his life and ministry, witnessing miracle upon miracle, suffered the trauma of his teacher’s crucifixion and the wonder of the resurrection. Philip lived and breathed the scriptures, having had his mind and heart open to the word of God by the Word Incarnate. Philip had been trained in proclamation and lived oriented toward the Son of God, ready in a moment’s notice to head the call of God, to go where he was supposed to go. Philip demonstrates what living into the love of God looks like in our lives, what it looks like to abide in God. We fuss about not knowing what to do in our lives, not hearing God’s call, but do we give our attention to the Source? Do we give God a chance to be heard, or are we too busy telling God what we want to hear and when we want to hear it? Why are we surprised when things don’t happen on our schedule? Were we there when the foundations of the earth were laid, or did we cause the dawn to know its place (Job 38:4a, 12b)? Ultimately, when we surrender into the love of God, we live for God’s glory and are more willing and receptive to be and do what God asks of us.

In our reading of Acts, Philip is summoned to the Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch has been to worship in Jerusalem and is continuing his study of the Prophet Isaiah. He’s continuing in his searching, curiosity, and work. While he has been fulfilling his role in the social order, there is something to this reading from Isaiah about injustice that speaks to him, that stirs his heart, though he doesn’t yet have full understanding. So Philip, who has the gift of proclamation, who is filled with the power of the Spirit, is able to share with the eunuch a summary of the arc of salvation, the story of life, liberation, and love. At the end of the summary, our Ethiopian friend asks to be baptized.

What do we all need to grow? Water. What do we need to begin our Christian journey? Water–the water of baptism so that we, too, may die and be born anew in spirit. And nurtured by the Love of God, abiding in God, we might grow toward the Son and bear fruit in the likeness of our Creator. We need so many things to help lead and guide us, nurture and nourish us. Thankfully we have a community in which to grow and flourish, and when we start to lose our way, we have others to help us get back on track, to help prop us up or maybe a little more forcefully help us get tied back to the fence (loving others have a way of holding us accountable). 

It’s up to us to realize our vulnerability, though. It’s up to us to recognize our dependence upon the one from whom comes the source of our being, of all our goodness. It’s up to us to be trained in the way we should grow, in the way we should go. It’s up to us to choose to follow the Way of Love and bear good fruit to the glory of God.

Continue Reading

Sermons

The Good Shepherd

No Comments

Acts 4:5-12 | Psalm 23 | 1 John 3:16-24 | John 10:11-18

Each time we come to the “Good Shepherd” story, the images from our formation classes come to mind. So, today I bring them forward, inviting your child or inner child to interact more than you normally would for a sermon. (Actually, starting next month, we’ll be adding a children’s sermon to our services on the first Sundays.)

(Godly Play stories are set up in front of the altar rails.) There are a couple of different stories focusing on the Good Shepherd in our Godly Play curriculum. One focuses on the shepherd knowing the sheep by name and the sheep following the shepherd all the way to green pastures, where a table emerges and everyone from across the globe gather in world communion, circling round with the sheep. Our path as sheep is intentional and slow, each sheep getting the attention of the storyteller to follow the shepherd. Maybe the storyteller and the children name the sheep so that the shepherd can offer encouragement. As we wonder what their names might be, maybe their names are like ours, and the Good Shepherd calls us each by name, affectionately. We are glad to share this Good Shepherd with others, celebrating the diversity of the community gathering, sharing in what is offered to us by a shepherd, who is now the priest celebrating Holy Eucharist, offering the Sacrament to all, as Jesus, the Good Shepherd, continues to know us, feed us, love, and encourage us.

Lest you think we sugar-coat the story, we don’t. Consider what he heard in today’s gospel lesson. We have a story for that, too.

Yes, we have the Good Shepherd and the sheep. Who else do we have? The hired hand, yes. We know that he’s not a shepherd by vocation: the hired hand doesn’t own the sheep, doesn’t particularly care about their well-being. We see this play out when who else arrives on the scene? The wolf! Yes, it’s a scary wolf. We understand the food chain, that the wolf is a predator of sheep, and left only to the hired hand, the sheep are scattered, if not snatched by the wolf. The sheep are vulnerable. There are dangers in their lives–dark valleys, steep mountains, hunger (their own and others’)–for which, thankfully, the Good Shepherd provides guidance and direction, if not outright protection.

Because ultimately, the Good Shepherd would stay with the sheep, protecting them, even to lay down his own life for them, so powerful is his love and commitment. And the whole world is encompassed in this flock of the good shepherd, all of Creation. Basking in this love, sharing this story with the children, we could wonder together about all the things we notice, ask questions, and point out the obvious and the not-so-obvious.

As I was doing my own wondering, the phrase

“All we like sheep have gone astray”

came to mind. Of course I looked it up to see where it comes from, and it comes from Isaiah (53:6, to be exact), part of the suffering servant pericope (section). While I have to jog my memory around the Isaiah verses, these would be familiar to our faithful Jewish ancestors. They would know the story of one despised and rejected, oppressed and afflicted, and see the parallels between the rejection and torment the pharisees and elders are giving Jesus, especially as he’s drawing closer to the end of his earthly life. The same suffering servant also becomes the lamb led to slaughter, giving Jesus a subtle way of foreshadowing what is to come.

The sheep that go astray turn to their own way, but “the righteous one, (the) servant,” “(bears) the sin of many, and (makes) intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:11-12). Whatever we who go astray do, wherever we go, we are not without the Good Shepherd, ready and willing to shower us in redemptive love.

This understanding of the universal salvation of Christ available to all is one of the many things I love about The Episcopal Church. Whoever we are, wherever we are in our journey of faith, if we feel or hear the call of the Good Shepherd, we are welcome at the table, we are invited into communion, demonstrated through our baptism/confirmation/reception. We have already been saved by Jesus Christ, but do we choose to follow Him?

Does that mean that others who do not follow Jesus Christ are going to eternal damnation? That is not our place of judgment. How God calls and speaks to others has got to be as varied as our native tongues and cultures. The love and acts of God exceed our understanding. As Christians in the Episcopal tradition, our salvation through Christ does not mean that we disregard our neighbors. With love and respect, we can share the Good News of the Good Shepherd with them, and then we can listen to see if God speaks to them differently, has offered revelations that resonate in their heart and soul. To me, the diversity of the experiences of God only magnify my awe and appreciation, my humility and compassion.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, the good shepherd. How faithful are we in following the one who leads and guides us, who loves us and cares for us, who has power to love or leave us but chooses to lay down his life for us? We start by listening and paying attention with the expectation that as beloveds, we are known and called. It’s up to us whether or not we follow, but nothing we do excludes us from God’s love. It’s always up to us whether or not we enter into the relationship, to love and to care and to do the work we’re given to do.

Continue Reading

Holy Week, Sermons

Again & Again: We Find Ourselves Here

No Comments

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 | Psalm 22 | Hebrews 10:16-25 | John 18:1-19:42

How did we get here? How do we arrive at this point year after year?

After the year we’ve had, we are thankful to come to this moment at all, overcoming insurrection, persevering in a worldwide pandemic (that is still ongoing), and surviving thus far all the risks and chances we face in life. As people so lucky, mightn’t we rather be celebrating? Rather than come to church when we know the grief we carry and the grief we enter into with the Passion, why would we submit ourselves to such torment and sadness?

We can’t even celebrate that there was a moment in time when the political authorities and the religious leaders agreed on something because the thing they agreed on was killing Jesus. If Jesus died, the rebellion would end with the people subdued. With Jesus dead, the priestly power prevails and the questioning of authority subsides. Everyone can resume cruise control, maintain the status quo, and stay in line . . . or this could happen to you.

We read through the drama and trauma of the Passion wondering, “Why can’t they see that Jesus is innocent?” We call for the release of Barabbas instead and shout with the crowd, “Crucify him!” while thinking that surely we would never be on that side of history. 

And yet. Here we are. Again and again we find ourselves here. If we have taken up the challenge to draw near to Jesus, even and especially through the suffering, to the cross, and to his last breath, we are more than a little uncomfortable.

The gift that is Easter awaits us, a safety net for the absence of Jesus that the disciples, friends, and his mother did not have. Can we stand beside and with them in their grief? Can we bear witness to the tragedy, like so many even this week who have to share testimony to watching a man be tortured and killed? Hopeless. Yelling into a void. Recording the moment that will be seared into their memories long after their phone becomes obsolete.

While the balance of what is good and evil teeters in the stillness of a moment, life for some carries on without noticing. Others watch the scales with bated breath or carry on bearing the burdens as they do, wondering, waiting, maybe even daring to hope.

Maybe we find ourselves at the cross more often than we realize, feeling an absence of God, of Truth, of Justice, of Goodness, in the world. Fear and grief and isolation and hatred can make it feel like it is finished, that there is nothing at all in the world to hope for. If Jesus had lived a long life and died naturally, we might have regarded him as a Saint or Prophet–the light and love he shared being contained to his lifetime. But he was killed. He couldn’t breathe. He breathed his last at the hand of his executioner, at the hand of violence, an extension of justice armed with fear and oppression ready to strike again to all who resisted.

As the sun eclipsed and the veil of the Temple ripped apart, God spoke when others couldn’t. Now can we see clearly? The Light of the world was extinguished by the cruelty of humanity that has the incredible gift of free will, even to self-destruct. But the presence of God will not be contained, not in one place, nor in one time.

But sit in the darkness. Don’t look away from shortcomings and failures, doubts and despair. Sit in the stillness and silence with all of who we are. What have we done? 

But don’t stop there. What, then, do we do next?

“He who has promised is faithful.” What all have we been promised? What all have we been commanded? Drowning in grief and sorrow, we can’t handle any tests or lists. Like the children we are, we need it spelled out simply, outstretched before us so it is as clear as possible. What is all this about? What is the purpose of everything? 

Love. 

Good Friday is “good” because of Love, God’s love. We come to Good Friday year after year because we forget how to love, how to show love, how to be loved, and we lose our way. Maundy Thursday we’re reminded of the Eucharist and of the command to love one another. Good Friday we’re reminded of our failure to live in obedience to the command to love, and we’re invited to sit in the darkness because there, too, God’s Love prevails.



“Status Quo” | Hannah Garrity | paper lace | @sanctifiedart
Continue Reading

Holy Week, Sermons

Peaceful Protest

No Comments

Isaiah 50:4-9a | Psalm 31:9-16 | Philippians 2:5-11 | Mark 14:1-15:47

I wonder, because time has taught us / That it is not uncommon /
For a peaceful protest / To start or end / With an unjust death.

 ~ Rev. Sarah Are

We begin today’s worship recalling Jesus’s triumphant entry in Jerusalem–a “procession” we call it in our orderly, liturgical fashion. We immerse in the actions and the holy Word of the Passion, and by the time I stand before you, Jesus is dead. His mother is numb, along with others, and yet there are others who sigh in relief and satisfaction. It is done. The instigator, the threat, the leader is dead.

How about we not try to tidy up the scene or the situation? How about we put on our old clothes and muck boots and wade into the messiness of the foundations of our tradition, the history of who we are? Gird up your loins; summon your courage; take a friend’s hand; and let us be real with one another to experience a glimpse of the story of us.

My great-grandma Maggie, the one who would let us take all the bobby-pins out of her bun so we could comb her long gray hair, pinch the skin of her hand, and sway the loose flesh below her arm, would tell us stories while my brother and I stood close, connected to her body. In the safety of her presence, we would listen intently to this woman born before 1900.

Did the disciples, in the presence of Jesus, listen intently enough? Did they stay close enough to him? In all the acts that Jesus did, the healings he completed, did they not notice how they ran contrary to the injustices happening in the empire? Did they not realize that while Jesus enters Jerusalem on the donkey that the military regime was entering at another gate on the opposite side, complete with all the tools of war? Time and again he foretold of his suffering, death, and resurrection, but they didn’t want to hear it. He took with him Peter, James, and John in the garden, when he is “distressed and agitated,” and he asks them to stay with him. When he finds that they’ve fallen asleep (not only once but three times!), he’s disappointed and aggravated with them and the weakness of human flesh which he, too, has.

Jesus goes on to be betrayed by Judas, the priests and chief priests, the elders, scribes, and even Peter. As we cried out in the reading, the crowd, soldiers, and bystanders also forsook him. We betray him.

Leading up to the very hour he is crucified, what does everyone do? They fall away. They distance themselves from the point of the greatest suffering. I cannot even fathom the point of the embodiment of the suffering of the world. I wouldn’t want to be there, either.

But if you’ve ever been close to suffering or death, there’s an immense clarity there, a falling away of every pretense, a real-ness that’s undeniable. And in the recognition of the suffering, there can be a deep peace. That peace comes not from being alone: it comes from being recognized. It comes from being loved.

If we dare, we can recognize this whole Holy Week as the peaceful protest it is, of God loving us all, come what may. We’ve had millenia to practice experiencing God’s unconditional love, but maybe now is the time to see it for what it is. For a protest is “a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something,” and Holy Week if anything, protests the oppression and injustice of the children of God because it runs counter to God’s love.

Three years ago was the March for Our Lives at the Square downtown and across the country. Students had organized these events to proclaim loudly that they’d had enough of the gun violence, of the tragic end to their classmates’ lives. They were outraged by the senseless violence, the unjust deaths met by ineffective thoughts and prayers. In the poem for this week’s meditation, Rev. Sarah Are writes, “…it is not uncommon/For a peaceful protest/To start or end/With an unjust death.” Nationwide, after so many unjust deaths from gun violence, the students led the peaceful protests to proclaim “ENOUGH!” and “NOT ONE MORE!” 

And yet, the unjust deaths continue. God’s children murdered.

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbury, and so many others fuel the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. Not all have been peaceful, so strong the outrage, so great the injustice. Last year was marked by protest after protest, and not just BLM but political protests, too. Injustice abounds, viewed from every angle–so much so that we seem to have lost our compass. We don’t know which gate we’re entering from–are we following “the one who comes in the name of the Lord” or the one who defies the primacy of God?

This past week, legislation landed on our governor’s desk, legislation intentionally directed to adversely affect our LBTQ+ community, especially our trans siblings. I signed some petitions, but not all. I didn’t call, and I didn’t show up at the Capitol for the peaceful protest that was held. Before the governor signed the last two bills into law, however, I did write an email to him, commending the great commandments to him–that we love God first and foremost and that we love our neighbors as ourselves. I also mentioned that we have the responsibility not to legislate hate in our state. Throughout the pandemic, Gov. Hutchinson has voiced that Arkansans will do the right thing to wear masks and take precautions; couldn’t he then count on Arkansans to use their good judgement when it comes to school and health policies? Couldn’t he listen to those who are directly affected and hear the fear and discrimination being projected onto them?

I expressed to the governor that one consolation I have is that Jesus is always where the marginalized are, where the oppressed congregate, and that I remain committed to loving our neighbors, especially those who are particularly vulnerable. 

I haven’t heard back. 

Several joined those gathered Friday evening, the beautiful night that it was, outside the Momentary for the #stopAsianhate vigil. We recited Langston Hughes together, we heard the names of those who died in Atlanta along with a glimpse of who they were, and we sang together–distanced, masked, and outdoors, of course. It was called a vigil, but it really was a peaceful protest. The vigil was an expression against hate crimes, particularly those focused toward the AAPI (Asian American/Pacific Islander) community. Even among the broken voices and tearful eyes, there was peace and affirmation, hope and community.

This Holy Week, we may think there’s no peace to be found, that the suffering and violence is too great, too much. We may feel like we can’t do much to stand against the powers that be, that our voice doesn’t matter, that we’re too weak, too insignificant, too tired. But I wonder whose expectations we’re focusing on, whose judgment we’re considering. Because God asks of us to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. We don’t have to save the world, we just have to love with every step.

And that’s why we need the muck boots, because it will take us into the mess. But there’s no reason why we can’t wear our best every day, no reason why we can’t be the donkey in the procession, going into the peaceful protest doing all that we were created to do, bearing the burden of our Savior, placing one foot in front of the other wherever we need to go, even and especially to the foot of the Cross.

There is such freedom there, my friends. The greatest protest we can participate in is the one that defies cultural expectation. WE are enough. WE are beloved children of God. We participate in the great peaceful protest by proclaiming the Good News with our whole being, by sharing in the mind of Christ, by emptying our being of our ego, by loving ourselves and others because our love of and from God is so great.

It’s not easy, but if we can stay close to Jesus especially this week, drawing nearer to him in our readings of the scriptures, we might experience this Holy Week differently than others. We can rely on one another to keep watch this week and work together to keep awake and proclaim the Good News to everyone we meet and participate in the ongoing peaceful protest of radical love that will lead us right into Easter hope and maybe even joy itself.

Through the Palms by Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman Inspired by John 12:1-19 | Hand-carved block printed with oil-based ink on paper | @sanctifiedart
Continue Reading

Sermons

Again & Again: We are being Reformed

No Comments

Jeremiah 31:31-34 | Psalm 119:9-16 | Hebrews 5:5-10 | John 12:20-33

In this week’s Lenten devotional from Sanctified Art, our theme is “Again & Again, We Are Reformed.” When I hear the word reformed, I tend to think of Reformed Judaism or the Protestant Reformation. So when I was reading and studying this week, the word transformation kept coming to mind and being used almost interchangeably with reformation. For both of these words, there is change. Transformation gets more air time, and this makes sense because it is the dramatic and thorough change in appearance or form–what we see or notice. When I was doing a search on these words, the usage of transform has increased exponentially since the 1950s:

Interestingly to me, reform has a different history of usage and has dropped out of favor, unlike its counterpart transform.

In the late 1990s, reform was at a peak, but then it went through a decline. I would pose the question: Does this reflect a truth about ourselves that we would rather not face? Because “to reform” means more than “to transform.” I might drastically change my appearance, and that would be a transformation you would all notice and comment upon, but I could fundamentally remain the same person. To be reformed, however, is to make changes to improve something. We don’t generally think of people as reformed but of systems, institutions, policies, government, and the like. During Lent, however, it is a good time to think about how again and again we are being reformed, how we are being improved by our dependence upon God, our relationship with God, and our life in faith. During Lent, at the end (we hope!) of a pandemic, it may also be a good time to think about how we as a church are being reformed.

It could very well be too soon. We are, after all, still in the midst of a pandemic. We wouldn’t be wearing masks together if things were the same as they had been before covid-time. It takes perspective, and usually hindsight, to look back and see all the ways we have been changed and hopefully for the better.

I watched a lecture by Dr. Rodger Nishioka, given at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina at the end of 2013. He’s a tenured seminary professor and proud Presbyterian, speaking of his church with love and wit like we do of The Episcopal Church. He references Phyllis Tickle’s 2012 book The Great Emergence, where her thesis is that the Church has a rummage sale every 500 years. What do we do at a rummage sale? Get rid of our old stuff, extra baggage. Dr. Nishioka said it’s not like a church rummage sale, where we get together and swap our stuff! In her book and his lecture, you can hit the peaks of the 500 year-marks: 590, the fall of Rome; 1054, the Great Schism of East (Orthodox) and West (Roman Catholic); and 1517, the Protestant Reformation. That brings us to the 2000s, the 21st century. We’re in another “rummage sale period,” Dr. Nishioka and Phyllis Tickle propose.

And in these periods, people are prone to think that the Church is going to die, they wonder if it can survive.

From our perspective we can look back and see how the changes that happened in the past, the reformation that occurred, resulted in a Church that emerged, yes, different, but also stronger, more faithful. Interestingly, it’s not just Christianity that is looking at these patterns. Some folks within Judaism and Islam are also looking at their history and patterns. We share with our Abrahamic siblings the core belief that the Almighty is faithful, through trouble, trial, and tribulation. It’s our responsibility to determine how we are being faithful. We can begin by discerning how God is revealing God’s faithfulness.

Again, it’s easier to look farther into history with our historical lens and evaluate everything from a distance to see how the arc bends toward the benefit of the greater good. I say it’s easier because we already have everything sorted out for us. We have the books with headings and subheadings. We have summaries and statues and epithets pointing us toward who’s who.

In our media barrage of information these days, with 24/7 news headlines, we’re getting daily summaries of what is important, critical, life-threatening. We have “influencers” guiding us toward what will best help us transform our lives into what we think it should be, what everyone else thinks it should be so we can appear to have our stuff together. Five hundred years from now, what do you think the archivists will be preserving? What do you think the historians will be teaching? What do you think the theologians will be discussing?

Will they note the ways we held onto tradition, keeping the vestments and liturgy of our ancestors? Or will the threads that tie us to the past and our tradition be part of the fabric, maybe even the part that holds us together and keeps us strong like interfacing, while the ways we wrestle and challenge and emerge reformed reveal our true colors of the time, the shape we take as we move forward?

In the gospel lesson today, we are told some Greeks wanted to see Jesus. They went to Philip. Philip, I guess, leaves the Greeks and goes to Andrew, sharing with him that even these Gentiles wish to see Jesus. News is spreading! Jesus is here! Even the Greeks have heard about Jesus. And here is Jesus, in Jerusalem after a triumphal entry, of sorts. We’ll get more next week about Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, beginning the week of his Passion. But today we get more expectation, anticipation, and hope. There’s so much going on in their lives, and Jesus is stirring the hearts of all who encounter him in person or in story.

About five hundred years before the fall of Rome, Jesus walked the earth. Goods and power were being monetized and valued over human life. Systems of oppression and domination secured those in power, those who had the power to make changes. Violence was a way of life. Some tables needed to be turned.

Two thousand years later, goods and power are being monetized and valued over human life. Systems of oppression and domination secure those in power, those who have the power to make changes. Violence is a way of life. Some tables need to be turned or at least set out for a great rummage sale so we can get rid of all that binds us.

And it scares us. We’ll make things change and look beautiful on the outside all day long, but reformation means that something we’re clutching for dear life–even if it’s the devil we know–we’ve got to let go. We have to pluck the seed and let it fall to the earth so that it can die, decay, and be born anew.

We haven’t done ourselves a service in trying to make everything beautiful all the time, romanticizing or whitewashing the past (in more ways than one). Life and death go hand in hand. Jesus in all his humanity and divinity knew this, and we, like the disciples and apostles, try to understand. Jesus wasn’t of this world in that his priorities were never aligned with the powers and systems of the world in which he walked. Jesus’s economy of grace defied the emperor’s coin. God’s love for the world–for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the lost, the sinner–defied all oppression, seeking only liberation, not domination. The Love Jesus embodied, while capable of receiving the pain, torture, and violence of humanity, never inflicted harm on another. Maybe Jesus is talking about his own body when he talks about the grain of wheat, and maybe he’s also talking to us about all the potential we have to embody if we let go of that which we cling to so tightly but inhibits us from experiencing liberation, life, and love more fully.

As God inscribed on the hearts of our ancestors, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” (I’m sure it’s in English! LOL!), we have the opportunity to reveal to our future how we live into the reformed lives God makes possible through Christ for us. With the power of the Holy Spirit, think of all that has and is being done in this century. Think of marriage rights for our siblings. Think of how hard folks are advocating for BIPOC lives, immigrant lives, women’s rights, trans rights, human rights . . . how hard folks are working to dismantle White Supremacy. Think on how tightly others are clinging to that which perpetuates objectification, monetization, oppression, and violence. This week we give ear to our Asian American/Pacific Islander folks, after the terrorism in Atlanta. When good work is being done, adversaries in the powers and principalities will surface to cling tight and fast and keep us bound, keep us from everlasting life.

If we can let go of all the barriers that we have built around our hearts, we might actually discover who it is God has created us to be. If we can share our experiences of grace, healing, restoration, and reformation without shame or manipulation, maybe we can help others to see how God is already at work in their lives. If we can look in our circles around us and see where God is calling us here in our communities to make a difference, maybe we will not succumb to temptations of grandeur or comparison. If we continue to encourage one another to discern and put into use our gifts and lean into the wonder, awe, and mystery of God, maybe we can let go of pretense and unrealistic expectations and be together mutually empowered and authentically present.

Our world is changing so fast that we may not need 500 years between cycles going forward. Who knows?! But right now, we can accept responsibility and hold ourselves accountable for being people of God. We can reach out to one another and to others, sharing a loaf of homemade bread and sharing how we are fed by the Bread of Life. This is the Church we are called to be, the people of God we are called to be, and we don’t need future historians to tell us that. It’s already written on our hearts. 


Written on our Hearts by Lauren Wright Pittman, inspired by Jeremiah 31:31-34. @sanctifiedart | #Lent2021


Continue Reading

Sermons

Again & Again: We are called to Listen

No Comments

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 | Psalm 22:22-30 | Romans 4:13-25 | Mark 8:31-38

In the OnBeing podcast, Krista Tippett opens her interview asking the interviewee about the spiritual and religious background of their childhood. It takes the interview to a deeper, more meaningful place right away. Each time I hear her ask the question, I wonder what I would say. My background was Baptist, as most of y’all know, and a practicing Baptist at that, thanks to my grandmothers who took my brother and me to church when we’d stay the weekend with them. At home, when we were ready to go and didn’t duck below the windows so the driver wouldn’t see us, we’d take the church bus to Sunday School and service. As soon as I turned 16 and was able to drive myself, gifted as I’d been with my mom’s old car, I chose to attend church nearly every Sunday. And Sunday night. And Wednesday night sometimes, too. There was a pull to be in church, even though I couldn’t name it. I was listening for something I couldn’t quite hear but felt closer to when I was there.

In college, I thought I was just filling a graduation requirement by taking an Intro to Buddhism class. When I heard the word compassion, though, my ears perked up, and a light went on, illuminating Jesus in technicolor for me because that’s what Jesus is all about: compassion.

But the compassionate Jesus isn’t the everybody’s-boyfriend-Jesus. Compassionate Jesus knows our suffering and holds our hand to his chest until we realize that we have the strength, the courage to go on. Whatever sorrow or longing, regret or tragedy, Compassionate Jesus knows it, too. Whether our hands are held to our heart or lifted in prayer, maybe we’ll be in the presence of Christ and experience the triumph of Resurrection. We know the story: Jesus overcomes death and the grave. Easter is coming and has already come. We just kind of forget in the midst of our suffering and have to be reminded. When we do remember, we’re strengthened and ready to get up again and keep going.

We might find ourselves in that place, though, where we’re like the disciples. We think we have something figured out. We have a good thing going. Yet as we listen, we hear the words of Jesus telling us that things are going to change. Things are going to get bad and will get worse before they get better.

My son Avery has a difficult time keeping his room clean. (He’s 17 after all!) After some dire consequences were offered to him, he decided to make an effort. As he was showing me his progress, he said what any of us who have cleaned out a closet, fridge, or junk drawer know: “It gets worse before it gets better.” I told him I knew that and encouraged him to keep going.

But when Peter heard Jesus foretell his suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection, does he look with understanding upon the Messiah? Does he say, “Right on, Jesus. Keep going!” Not at all. We don’t have exactly what Peter says, but he “rebukes” Jesus, likely reminding him that this messaging isn’t consistent with the healing and good news they they’ve been proclaiming. The foreshadowing or teaching wasn’t going to be good for their recruitment.

Jesus rebukes right back in the oft-quoted line: “Get behind me, Satan!” Not exactly how we imagine Compassionate Jesus speaking to us, but if we are listening well, we hear the truth of this line: “you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” The disciples are probably enjoying this new adventure, traveling around, sharing the good news with others, being with Jesus when he heals and performs miracles that affirm God is at work, that liberation is at hand. Jesus is powerful; he’s the Messiah they’ve been looking for. As Jesus tells more of the story, enters the next level of his teaching, Peter speaks for all when he says that this can’t be. We don’t want things to change like that. Let’s just keep doing what we’re doing now. That’s a very human response, isn’t it?

Lessons and truths aren’t always hard to hear. Statistics about poverty, mortality rates, and violence we hear all day long. Drive it a little closer to home, however, and we get a little restless. How and when do the hungry get fed? What considerations do we make when choosing school, zip code, or subdivision/neighborhood to live in? Did we really listen to our cousin/classmate/friend as they question if they’ve been sexually assaulted, or do we blow it off and change the subject because if there is truth in what they say, the next steps are difficult. How we see the world and how the world sees us might change. My life is going to be impacted.

Are we listening to what Compassionate Jesus says to us? Compassionate Jesus can show tough love, too, saying, “You don’t want to to do the hard thing, face the hard truths, or realize your complicity? Get behind me, Satan!” Compassionate Jesus isn’t here to make our lives easy or comfortable. He’s here for divine things. Want to follow Jesus toward God’s glory? We’re told to take up our cross whenever and wherever we find it. Likely it will resonate with us because old scars will tingle, itch, or burn. Maybe we were a child who went hungry outside of school, so we fill the pantry when we can, help fill snack packs at the Samaritan Center, or make meals for others when they’re alone. Maybe we become active in PTO, the POA, or city council to make sure voices of our neighbors who are silenced or ignored get magnified. We do this not by talking about it but by seeking the people themselves, listening intently, learning ravenously, and sharing unpopular opinions–aka “hard truths”–that give us no personal advantage. Maybe we go with someone to a hearing, the unemployment office, or the clinic because they need the presence of someone whom they trust to embody Christ in that moment, to be the Compassionate Jesus they’ve heard about but haven’t experienced, longed for but never encountered.

Growing up Baptist, believing in Jesus, liking church, loving gospel music, there was a time when I would rather not admit any of those things. There are times even now when I know life could be easier if I didn’t follow this calling. (Many priests I’ve spoken with have a daydream of being a barista or a baker!) One day at the hospital during my Clinical Pastoral Education (chaplaincy training), a nurse paged me, the chaplain on duty. A woman in one of the critical care units needed a visit. As I made my way across the hospital, I wondered what she needed, what we would talk and pray about, but when I got there, the nurse told me that the woman didn’t, couldn’t speak. Maybe she saw my wide eyes and noticed my hesitation. She smiled and nodded at me to “go on.” I smiled, took the woman’s outstretched hand, and watched her eyes intently as I introduced myself. She could hear me just fine. I asked simple yes/no questions so she could respond with a nod or a turn of the head, gently. She was a woman of faith, all the more evident in that she began saying things, mouthing the words that she trusted I would and turned out that I could understand. “I know,” she’d mouth when I said God was with her. She raised her hands as she told me she prayed “all the time.” (When we’re not wearing masks, we read lips more often than we realize!) Her family was important. Somehow we got to a point where I learned she loved music from church, and as I sang “Amazing Grace”–a universal language of its own–she sang along, too. A peaceful smile was on her lips and in her eyes as we exchanged goodbyes, and I promised to check in the next day.

My cross that day was my love of Jesus, my love of music that speaks to my heart, mind, and soul. At that moment the cross wasn’t a burden but a gift. We were in the presence of Christ, she and I, and I still draw strength from that experience. It wasn’t about my success or glory. It was about being present, sharing a mutual love, and being vulnerable enough to empathize with another’s pain. It’s also about going through the hard times, the bad times, and not losing hope that Jesus promised. When we follow Jesus, our cross will present itself to us again and again. It may not be the same one, but it’s always the same invitation: are you willing to take up the cross and follow Jesus? If so, our world–your world–will never be the same.


Continue Reading

Relationships, Sermons, Spirituality

Following One with Authority

No Comments

Deuteronomy 18:15-20 | Psalm 111 | 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 | Mark 1:21-28

Can you imagine being James or John, Peter or Andrew? Jesus calls them out in Galilee and tells them to follow him, that he would make them fish for people (Mk. 1:16-20). Their call was part of our gospel lesson last week. The newly devoted disciples follow Jesus, and before long, they’re in the synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus is teaching, as one with authority.

Have you ever been in an experience like that before? Where you get on board with someone hook, line, and sinker? And then you find yourself in their company with others, watching from a different perspective how the one you’ve devoted yourself to is being judged, wondering how you yourself might be judged, too. Ever been in that kind of situation? Maybe you have a friend who is a seller of a particular product. It’s so good, and you’re all in. And then you find yourself in a situation with others, where now the one you’ve committed to is sharing their wares. Do you still have confidence in them, in the product? Of course you do! . . . if what you’ve experienced has been affirming. You have every reason to be proud of your relationship, of the product. Likely, you’ll share your positive experience with others in the crowd and support your friend. 

If this example makes you feel uncomfortable, however, then likely you’ve had a negative experience, have felt like you’ve been suckered into some scheme and are none the richer for it. We know for a fact that there are Christians who have felt like they’ve been duped by the church because of negative experiences with those who have professed to teach with authority, in the name of Jesus, who have proclaimed salvation and unconditional love yet left folks high and dry when times got tough. Know anyone who’s been through that?

But Jesus isn’t into schemes, suckering people into blindly following his charisma and making large donations to fill the coffers. No, Jesus asks more because he knows there’s more to gain.

When Jesus tells his disciples to follow him, he invites their whole being. The disciples left their job, their families, their comfort to embark on the adventure of following one who in a glance seemed to know them completely. It’s soul-piercing to meet the gaze of one with whom we are willing to be known. And notice that Jesus doesn’t promise them a magic cure for anything. If they’d heard him before he called them, they heard his call to repentance, his proclamation that the kingdom of God has come near, the invitation to believe the good news. (That’s part of last week’s message, but I repeat it again because it is so important.) At the first meeting, he tells them that he will make them fish for people. And maybe that’s all they needed–something new and different, intriguing even. God knows when we’ve had it with the ordinary and mundane, we get a little haphazard in discerning what to do next (I believe impulse shopping would be a good example, right? Or shopping when we’re hungry, even if we don’t know what we’re hungry for?).

So the new disciples have followed Jesus to the synagogue in Capernaum, still in the northern area of the Sea of Galilee, and he’s teaching, “as one having authority, not as the scribes” (Mk 1:22). Jesus isn’t a snake oil salesman. He’s the real deal. If the disciples can pull their eyes away from Jesus during his teaching to take a glance at their fellow audience members, they’d recognize the impact that Jesus is making. They can see it on the people’s faces, too, what theirs must look like when they’re talking with Jesus. What is more, they would have increased confidence in the one whom they’ve chosen to follow. Their experiences have been validated. It’s not to say that the scribes are snake oil salesmen, but what “authority” do they lack?

One might say that the scribes do not have the authority of authenticity of relationship with God. They seem to lack meaningful experience with the Almighty.


If I am talking to someone about the benefits of Medicaid, food stamps, or WIC when they are in hard times, how much more meaningful to them do you think it is that they know I have experience with those things, too? I know the relief of having childbirth expenses covered, the benefit of being able to purchase food when the budget is impossible, of being able to buy essentials for our young family, especially formula for a child. It is difficult to have authority if we have no experience with whatever it is about which we speak, teach, or proclaim.

Likewise, commending you to a life rooted in prayer would be foolish if I did not seek to do the same, if I did not practice drawing near to the presence of God, even–and especially–when it means wrestling through the difficult times. It doesn’t mean that God can’t speak to you despite my inadequacies: thankfully the power of God and insistence on Spirit is great. But how much more meaningful is it if we can be dedicated to our relationship with God together, in community, in common effort as we are in common prayer? How richer is our journey when we practice the ways of love together, with common purpose (being to have a deeper relationship with Christ)? Talk to me long enough, and we’ll get to specific moments when the presence of God has overwhelmed me. I can’t make you experience God, but I can share my own moments of fear and trembling or overwhelming peace.


Maybe the scribes had forgotten their meaningful experiences, had lost their way getting bogged down in rules and regulations, in administrative tasks and societal expectations. God knows the world can lead us astray, even if our work is in the church. But Jesus brings the Word to life. Jesus is a breath of fresh air to teaching that had become stagnant.

Not only is Jesus teaching with authority, but a man with an unclean spirit comes to Jesus. Apparently Jesus’ Word has spread even in the moment, reaching the ears of those who weren’t welcome. Our imaginations can go wild with this, can’t they? We might envision demon possession worthy of Hollywood, or, given the lack of scientific-based  medical knowledge of the first century, we might envision someone with a mental illness. It is helpful to honor what is written for us– “a man with an unclean spirit” cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Mk 1:23-24). One who is unclean shouldn’t have been in the synagogue. Everyone else is probably keeping their distance from the outcast. But the unclean spirit speaks to Jesus, knowing where he comes from and of whom he is. Jesus tells it to be silent and tells it to come out of the poor man. The unclean spirit obeys. Jesus has passed a true test. He’s utterly amazed the crowd. His disciples are probably nudging their neighbors with a “See, I told ya.”

The healing becomes a testimony to the power of Jesus, and his fame spreads. But is fame what Jesus seeks? Jesus had told the unclean spirit to be silent. Why? Perhaps precisely because of what we’re told: his fame spreads. That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Because then more people know and experience Jesus. But do they have understanding? Do they know what it means that Jesus is the Holy One of God? Jesus hasn’t been crucified yet, hasn’t risen from the dead. We just thought it was a test with the unclean spirit. Wait until Jesus himself is filled with all pain and suffering, when he gives his whole self for the will and glory of God. We read these texts with the whole scope of Jesus as Christ, too. But that revelation has not yet come for those who were meeting Jesus for the first time. But from the first, powers beyond our understanding and comprehension knew the Holy One of God, and they obeyed this one who taught with authority, with determination of purpose, with intent to reveal God’s will.

Anyone in a position of authority, with responsibility of power, is accountable not only to the ones who look to them but also to the one whom they follow. Our reading from Deuteronomy speaks to the responsibility of prophets and also of the accountability of others whether they heed the prophet or not. The letter to the Corinthians speaks to the importance of knowledge of the importance of our actions, especially for those who have a weaker understanding. Both affirm the primacy of the one true God.

For all of us, we, too, are accountable to one another and to God. As Christians, we’re still among the majority in the US (though just shy of 15% of the 70.6% of Christians as part of the Mainline Protestant tradition). When others are in our company, do they know we are Christian? Do they know we follow the Holy One of God? Almost 71% of this country is Christian, but children are hungry, people are sick, people are killed. 

There’s a bill before our state legislature known as a “Stand Your Ground” law. There are those who would rather shoot first before they tried to avoid conflict. To be clear: I’m not arguing against the right to bear arms. I’m all for responsible gun ownership and safety, and I say that as someone who has been beside more than one body that has died by gunshot. I am arguing with what we as a people say is acceptable, especially people who profess faith in God. I am calling out the presence of an unclean spirit among us. Last night’s evening prayer reading from Mark, found later in Chapter 7, verses 21-22, gives us a litany of evils–among them is murder, theft, and pride. I’m no exorcist, and I know I can’t cast out evil on my own. But authority has been given me to share the Word of God, to teach and preach that others might know God through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and with this authority–however little it might be viewed in the eyes of our materialistic and capitalistic society–comes great responsibility because I fully believe I am accountable to God and to those who trust me.

Tomorrow I’ll be on a call with others speaking against the Stand Your Ground law. I’ll be on social media and talking among groups about our Community Debt Relief Campaign in the coming weeks and months. I’m in our Zoom meetings sharing in study and fellowship and on Facebook live sharing the Daily Office. But it’s not about me or what I do. I’m with you. I see the faces of you and others who are also amazed at the power of people who hope and strive to love radically like Jesus. And to you who might be questioning if this is the real deal, I invite you to walk with us as we seek to follow Christ, the Holy One of God, the true one with authority.

Continue Reading

Sermons

Fulfilled & Unfinished

No Comments

Jonah 3:1-5, 10 | Psalm 62:6-14 | 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 | Mark 1:14-20

“Now after John was arrested . . .” So begins our gospel lesson today, with a nod to the turbulence in the air, and so begins Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, “proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” The Gospel according to Mark isn’t one for elaboration or pleasantries. Let’s get down to business. (Even Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is conveyed in two verses!) Simon and Andrew are called out and immediately follow. Jesus goes apace farther and immediate calls James and John, sons of Zebedee. Leaving their father in the boat, they follow Jesus.

Do you sense the immediacy of the moment? Is there an urgency?

God has all the time, infinity beyond our comprehension, but our time on earth is limited. Don’t you know that Jesus knew this? That after wandering in the wilderness forty days, he emerged to walk among the peoples with clarity of purpose, unity of vision, not with the powers and principalities of the day but with God. He has work to do, and he needs others to share in this spreading of the Good News, that the kingdom of God is here. Folks need to repent and believe in this.

But times are hard. Working conditions aren’t so great. Meager earnings are taxed for the benefit of some. Armed forces increase suspicion. High priests care more about perception and position than well-being and compassion of and for all. The future, if one dares to cast an eye too far forward, doesn’t promise relief or change or give much cause for hope. Resignation, complacency, apathy, and isolation bring comfort, as we learn more quickly than we realize how to survive in darkness and despair, where at least we don’t suffer grief, pain, and loss of hope for brighter days, the warmth of joy, the nearness of the kin-dom of heaven. Ah! Now we have a name for what we seek, what we didn’t know we were missing. Jesus proclaims it at the beginning of his ministry and immediately begins to share it with others–simply in his presence and then by action. The kin-dom of heaven is near. “Follow me,” Jesus says.

Such an in-breaking we experienced this past week. Her life thus far prepared Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman to take the podium at the Inauguration Ceremony and proclaim words we Americans needed to hear. She took more than two verses to describe the wilderness we have been navigating not just these last four years but since this country began, the grief and hurt and weariness that has accumulated from the many times we failed to live into what we envision: a democracy where the united states share unity of purpose to provide liberty and justice for all.

Having experienced something of the divisions between denominations, let alone the sordid history of violence between faith traditions, our founding fathers of this country wrote into our constitution a separation of Church and State so that the liberty and justice for all might be realized. Unfortunately, a blindness to their current position in a society that condoned and enforced slavery, genocide, and gender inequality equally blinded them to the full meaning of “for all.” “All” to them–consciously or unconsciously–meant free, affluent, white men, and this foundation of white male privilege, even white supremacy, undergirds all that we are as a country, as Americans, a defect from our birth. To ignore this fact is a conscious choice to maintain blindness, to stay in the boat rather than follow the invitation to repentance (reparation and reconciliation?), to be “brave enough” to move toward a better version of ourselves, toward the light beyond what seemed before a “never-ending shade.”

That next step of moving toward liberty and justice for all, of moving more fully into the democracy we envision where the people–all people–count wholly, is that “terrifying hour” Gorman spoke of. Terrifying because we don’t know what it means to us in the status quo. What will we lose? What will we sacrifice? Will we leave our father in the boat, surrounded by others afraid to lose even the little they have in the moment? But what might we gain? Dare we believe the good news being proclaimed? That there is hope for a true democracy? That a Beloved Community is possible? That the kin-dom of heaven has come near?

Jesus said the time was fulfilled, and he proceed to work, to proclaim the Good News. And he called us to repent, echoing the words of the one who had been arrested, the one who had been a voice in the wilderness, the one whom we know will be beheaded because his truth-telling doesn’t please everyone, and people tend to be self-serving. Self-interested as we are, a call to repentance isn’t what we want to do because repentance demands we look at where we are in the moment, fully, without blinders to the unpleasant. Actually, repentance turns our gaze on the especially horrific truths. Like a father telling his son to “Look at me” when we are facing our wrong-doing, the call of repentance is to focus one’s gaze squarely on the sin. Where have we failed God? Where have we failed our neighbor? Lady Liberty, shed your light, for we Americans have much to repent. 

But we confess every day or at least every Sunday, we might say. Yes, my brothers and sisters. We do. I thank God for that. We hear the proclamation of the Good News, that Christ our Savior has forged the way for our union with God, and we breathe the air of one forgiven, redeemed, and sustained. How good it is. And how easy it is to abide is such blessedness.

Jesus proclaimed the good news and called folks to repent and believe in the good news.

What does it mean to believe in the good news? 

For the Corinthians to whom Paul wrote, it meant that they had all that they needed: they had professed Christ as Savior and confessed their sins. They were ready for the second coming of Christ, and they could turn their gaze from this worldly, fleshly mess of a life to focus on the glory to come. All is right with them, so stay the course until kingdom come–all shall be well. Paul was also writing this part of the letter to the Corinthians to try to save them from the stress of married life, not wanting to increase their anxiety so they could focus more on the Lord. 

Blessed Paul would have been in good company with our American forefathers, with all his good intentions. Truly, his admonitions for husbands and wives to love one another are foundational in our marital vows for mutual respect and joy, but other words, even penned pseudonymously, have led to much harm and distress for married and unmarried alike. Paul’s maintaining the societal status quo, especially regarding slavery, failed to convey the fullness of the kin-dom of heaven that the Glory of God promises and fueled the practice to the detriment of God’s children. Perhaps even for Paul it was hard to imagine “for all.” His world, too, was Jew or Gentile, master or servant, even if he believed there was neither Jew nor Greek, master nor slave, male nor female, the practices continued.

Likewise for us.

We believe equal education is right for all, but we want the best for our kids, so we make sure we live in the right neighborhood. I know. I’ve done it, consciously and subconsciously. We are all God’s children we believe, even as we’ve watched the disparity and poverty grow, incarceration rates skyrocket, affordable housing dwindle, debt soar, addiction kill, hatred fester, and hope fade.

But we’re saved. We confess over and over again. And we’ll stay in the boat, thank you. Jesus, you go do your thing. Everyone will come to the light . . . eventually.

How’d that go for Jonah?

Yes, Jonah was long before Jesus, but he, too, was called by God. He was given a task, one he tried to avoid, but after washing back up to shore, surviving the belly of a beast, he decided to do what he’d been told. His repentance maybe wasn’t as voluntary, but he believed. He believed in God. He told the people of Nineveh that the town would be overthrown, and he knew God would do it. It had happened before. To his surprise, however, the people believed him. They repented and fasted and put sackcloth on themselves and their livestock–they went above and beyond, even ridiculously so. And God changed God’s mind. The people were saved, and we know from the story that Jonah gets mad, temper-tantrum throwing mad.

The people had heeded his prophecy. Isn’t that a good thing? For the people who believed in a merciful God, yes. For Jonah who knew a mighty God, one prone to wrath and vengeance, not so much. Why hadn’t his people been spared? Why was he made to look a fool?

When we believe in the kin-dom of heaven, it’s important to remember who is the head of that kin-dom, who sits in the throne of Glory everlasting, whose will it is we seek to serve in unity. It’s not our will, but Thine be done, yes? When we acknowledge our sins and turn our lives to live in accord with God’s, we surrender our independence to a dependence upon a will for the Greatest Good, one we cannot fully comprehend, one that would allow us to choose to deny this Good in favor of evil because it means we have free will to choose to believe the good news, to follow the kin-dom of heaven, to choose Love with fullness of being.

For the people of Nineveh, the stakes were high, and they had mere days to correct the error of their ways. For Jesus, according to Mark, there was no time to waste. What about for us, for US? Now that we have a new administration, are things truly different? Can we sit back now in our homes and wait and watch for all to be well?

Does the lion lay with the lamb? Are the orphan, the widow, and the stranger provided for? Has sorrow ceased and joy prevailed? Time may have been fulfilled in the moment of God dwelling on Earth, but our work is unfinished. If we believe that the kin-dom of God has come near, then we need to act like it, repent of the many ways it is not in action, and believe that we have a part in realizing the Good News for others–not for our own glory or comfort but for God’s will to be done. There’s much unfinished work yet to do for all who follow Jesus.

Continue Reading

Sermons

Call My Name

No Comments

1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20) | Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 | 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 | John 1:43-51

Childhood, like life itself, is both particular and universal. With our life circumstances and experiences, we are unique individuals, but as human creatures in this world, we have inescapable commonalities written into our DNA and present in the forces of nature. While we may study our common characteristics in textbooks or watch about them in documentaries, the particulars of our lives are shared through story.

As a child, once I learned to read, my imagination was set free. Whether it was Bible stories or Richard Scarry, Nancy Drew or Little Women, I let myself immerse in the story as it was written, drawn to those who could bring a scene to life, pull me into the drama, and tune out the real world around me. There was a beginning and an end to the books that almost always ended with the character finding their way to joy, if not a “happily ever after.” That joy was a sense of fulfillment, of mission accomplished. Most of the stories I’ve read–and continue to read–are about triumph over obstacles, solving a mystery, some kind of goal achieved, no matter how trivial it might seem. At least one character in the story is going to come to a new awareness that makes them somehow different than they were at the beginning, and in the stories I’m drawn to, fiction and non-fiction alike, the transformation is going to be for the better, preferably not only for themselves but for everyone around them, too.

I know it dates myself a bit–too old for some, too young for others–but with cable t.v. and VCR’s, the stories I enjoyed weren’t only in my mind; I could watch them unfold on the screen in my home in movies. I cannot tell you how many times I watched The Neverending Story or even now how often my husband and I make reference to the “big, good, strong hands” of the Rock Biter. This movie, of course, combined things I loved: reading a big book on a stormy day, suspense, and a fantasy world. I realize now that it also spoke to me on subconscious levels, portraying a grief-stricken child who sought escape but who also possessed the power to make a difference. (After reading an online article, there are so many other aspects of the plot worthy of exploration!) 

Bastian, the child in The Neverending Story, saves the fantasy world of Fantasia and even himself by being just the human child giving a new name to the dying empress. The name he gives the child empress is the name of his mother who had died, giving prominence and acknowledgement to his own grief but also breathing new life into a name he loved so deeply. The journey from when Bastian first snatched and hid away with the magical book to when he’s flying around on the luck dragon himself to get even with the bullies who plagued him is full of moments of facing the reality of what is, even if it meant looking at what is true through a fantasy lens.

If that makes sense to you, then you understand how it is that we read our Holy Scripture. Even if everything is not completely literal, then even in the figurative sense, there is Truth to be learned, even Truth to be applied to our lives centuries, even millennia later.

While some have the luxury of time to immerse themselves in the full scope of the stories of the Bible, most get a little snippet on Sunday mornings. Some, and hopefully most of you, get a little every day, enough to chew on and engage with daily, to keep you fed yet still hungry for more. It takes time and practice, but we do get to a place where we can come to the stories and experience them deeply.

Remembering what it’s like to be a child, hungry to read more, to explore more, I come to the story in Samuel and experience it. I picture Samuel as an apprentice, relegated to stay in place and do what is told by an aging superior. Samuel is young and alive, his eyesight as keen as his hearing. One night he hears his name called out, “Samuel! Samuel!” and with obedience he responds, “Here I am!” not once but three times.

The fourth time, however, was different. The elderly Eli, to whom the Word and the LORD had already been revealed, perceived that it was the LORD calling to Samuel. The elder now hopes that all the instruction has not been in vain, that the child is ready for the encounter, that he will be deemed worthy. Like any parent or teacher, we hope that the younger will reflect well on the elder. Eli’s sleep was probably restless the rest of the night, racing through all the possibilities, but our focus remains on Samuel who receives the Word of God. It is not good news. The burden of what God has spoken weighs heavily on Samuel through the night.

At morning’s light, Samuel rises to open the doors of the house of the LORD, as he had many times before. Only now he has the weight of the Word in his heart and mind. Not wanting to tell Eli, afraid to share the vision with Eli, Samuel undoubtedly cast his gaze elsewhere, focused on everything away from Eli. But Eli summons him, tenderly, “my son.” “Here I am,” Samuel replies, and at Eli’s bidding, he does the hard thing of telling him everything, of hiding nothing. What a relief to unburden, to share with his elder, but now the story continues. We know that the life of a prophet is not one to be envied.

If we focus solely on Samuel, however, we miss an important aspect of the story. While Samuel’s story shows us his becoming a prophet, even at such a young age, we also have a glimpse into Eli’s story. The back-story is that Eli’s sons have blasphemed God, and Eli did nothing about it, allowing it to persist. Eli was elderly, his eyes growing dim, but there was widespread lack of vision, the word of the Lord rare. Acknowledging the significance of the moment, perceiving that the Lord was breaking into the world, Eli demonstrates great faith in stepping back, letting Samuel step forward. Eli demonstrates great faith in hearing the truth, encouraging Samuel to share what has been spoken to him in full detail. Eli demonstrates great faith in allowing God’s will, acknowledging the presence of God, trusting God to “do what seems good,” even though he knows that it means punishment for his house forever.

We know that it’s not an easy thing to face the truth, that we’re not always ready to see it. Bastian in The Neverending Story didn’t see himself as a hero for a long while. Samuel needed the instruction from his teacher to guide him. Eli, the adult in our stories, shows his humility in accepting the consequences of his actions–or inactions.

As a country, the United States is relatively young. In many ways we are a child, too, filled with hope and imagination but already struck by grief and trauma from our birth. Some of us bear the marks of the collective trauma having Indigenous or African foremothers and fathers. Some of us bear the marks of our individual trauma, having lived through any manner of abuse, loss, addiction, (insert your trauma here). Any one moment of our lives where we choose to keep going when the light seems to fade, when visions are few and God seems far away, our story reveals how we persist in finding joy, find some way closer to fulfilling what it is we seek.

At some point, with all that has been said and done, we accept where we are and what is to come with faith that God will accomplish that which seems to be good. Such acceptance and allowance comes with maturity of Spirit. Let us not forget that we are always children of God. Remembering that we are children of God, we are part of God’s story. We, like Samuel, are called by name, called to reveal something of God in the world, something True. Maybe it’s joyful and beautiful like a song. Maybe it’s terrible and sad, like the fall of a household. Whether it’s lovely or awful, however, depends on how you see it.  If we can’t stand rap, Hamilton might grate on our nerves.  If we’re a white supremacist, the demise of the Proud Boys is awful. We all have our preferences, just as we all have our prejudices. But with whom does ultimate judgement lie? And how do we make sure that our story leads us along the narrative arc aligned with goodness?

“Lord, you have searched me out and known me…” the psalmist writes. Jesus saw Nathanael under the fig tree before his friend called out to him. Something of our lives, of our stories is known, maybe even before we realize it ourselves. When we are called, it is up to us to step forward and do what we’re given to do–whether that’s to speak the truth, to call for civil rights, to step into a new administration, to keep light shining when we’re in a dark place, or to do whatever it is that God sees fit for us to do to keep the presence of God alive. We keep that presence alive in our faith, hope, and love–the greatest of these being love.

If you wonder where your story has taken you or where it might be taking you, look for the times in your life where you realized something new. Pay particular attention to those times when what you learned empowered you to live more fully, liberated you from a limiting worldview, and opened your whole self to love more generously. Chances are that these were not easy moments in your life but a time when tremendous healing, grace, and mercy were present. Look around those moments in your life-story and see who might have been the Jesus in that moment inviting you to “come and see” or asking you to “follow me” toward a fullness of life made possible by God alone. Those particular moments are part of your story but enrich the lives of us all, for the better.

Continue Reading