Today is my birthday! I had the tremendous joy of going back to St. Philip Lutheran where I did my internship in 2017-2018. It was mostly an online event but sometimes if you see me in person ask me about all the things that came about because I was back in that building. I had no idea how it would go, but I couldn't have asked for a better birthday event.
There were two services with the same message, but of course they weren't EXACTLY the same. So below you will find the text of where the message started, and recordings of each of the two services so you can hear what I actually says. Yet another set of riches for the birthday - being able to share all the things!
Here are the texts that formed the basis of the service:
I got to deliver this message twice, in two services.
Here is the recording of the 9:00 am service with (some super happy) more contemporary music.
Here is the recording of the 11:00 am service with (some stunningly gorgeous) more traditional music.
And here is the text that was the jumping off for both services:
Holy Spirit, lead us and draw us to show the world who we really are. Amen
Play the first 30 seconds of this clip please.
WHO ARE YOU??
Today is my birthday! 57 years ago today my mother was hot and hugely pregnant. She lived in a home in Central Texas with no air conditioning and was about to give birth to me – her 10 pound baby. The doctor had been so convinced that I was coming on July 4 weekend that he cancelled a vacation trip (ah, the days of small town doctors!) but my grandma said it would be August 28… and it appeared that I was proving my grandma correct.
Do you suppose my mother wondered what all that meant? Wondered who I would be someday?
7 years ago I was two days away from starting my first day of seminary. So much had happened and my life had been torn apart in so many ways. My central questions was “Who am I?” I didn’t even know anymore.
And here I am today, running a food pantry, reaching out to the community around me, and trying to figure out what exactly it means to be a mission developer in a time of pandemic. It certainly doesn’t fit what the working definition of the word “pastor” that most people carry with them. The call is strong and compelling, though, and I know I am doing what God has created and prepared for me to do. But still I ask….
Who am I? Who have I become? Who am I yet becoming?
Those are timely thoughts, and not only because of my birthday.
Today’s lectionary lesson from Isaiah comes in the section of Isaiah known as “Second Isaiah.” It includes the Servant Songs that seem to point to who Jesus will be. The Israelites had been in captivity but God had never stopped loving them, and the hopefulness that comes from that constant love shows up in the verses:
Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
Then many verses about how God will continue to love and care for God’s people, culminating in
My salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never end.
God is saying
Don’t forget who you are – WHOSE you are!
Don’t forget how much I have always loved you - even in captivity
All that I have given you
All that you thought you deserved
That you had grown to trust more than you trusted me.
God is saying
Don’t forget that you can really count on my undying love for you,
Regardless of circumstance.
YOU ARE MINE, says God.
My beloved favorites.
Then we turn to the Gospel lesson from Matthew:
In the runup to this passage Jesus has been telling parables, using ordinary things to explain the kingdom of God, pointing out God’s order for the universe as it peeks through the cracks and brokenness of the world.
This is not how people were used to thinking about things and it galvanized people. They couldn’t get enough! They swarmed around wherever Jesus showed up.
The people of the day would have known this passage from Isaiah, at least in general, even though we have no reason to believe that there were only Jews present. People knew the stories of the Jews, though, just like many people today who have on interest in joining a church have some idea about what Christianity is about.
Today, for example, many people who decline the title of “Christian” will speak about what a good guy Jesus was, how emulating Jesus is a great way to live.
And that, I suspect, is part of what Jesus was asking Peter:
WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?
Jesus wanted to know.
Am I good caterer?
Am I the edgy hipster rebel?
Or am I something more?
I feel pretty strongly that Jesus didn’t need to know the answer. I think Jesus already knew.
I feel pretty strongly that Jesus was really asking WHO ARE YOU?
Because the way I see it, who we say Jesus is tells a lot about
who we are,
how we will behave,
what we will value,
how we will treat one another.
If you believe Jesus was a nice Jewish man who loved his mother, you may not notice the gifts that God promises so eloquently in Isaiah. Because what we believe about Jesus affects what we do.
Simon Peter’s claim that Jesus is
The Messiah, the Son of the Living God
But more than that, it was beyond following Jesus the caterer, Jesus the healer, Jesus the captivating speaker.
It was not about what Jesus DID. It was about his heart, his being, his very nature.
Note that Jesus did not respond to anything about Peter’s behavior.
Or what Peter understood.
It was not about being rational or scientific or within the law.
Jesus said that Peter’s belief was a gift from God. That kind of faith is a gift that takes the believer beyond the surface of personal benefit or logic or law.
And when Peter confessed his belief in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, Jesus gives a gift:
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven
What a tremendous thing! And, remarkably, as Peter and the disciples went forth with these words that Lutherans call the Office of the Keys, Jesus says “but don’t tell them I’m the Messiah.”
What?
Huh?
Don’t tell?
But what about evangelism?
Could it be that Jesus didn’t want that loosing and binding to become some kind of “I’m better than you” thing?
I do think it points us to how following Jesus changes us. When we have faith that Jesus is the Messiah, our behavior skews to loosening rather than binding up. It’s a transformation.
We do have choices in life. We can hurl accusations and burdens, punishment and guilt, we can point out all the ways that others have failed and how wrong they are and never ever let them forget it.
BUT! We can also free people from their burdens. We can be the gentle landing spot in a hard and unkind world. But we can’t consistently do it on our own. Admitting that Jesus was a cool guy who made some good choice just doesn’t transform us to become people who loosen bindings, at least not in the same way that trusting that Jesus is the Messiah can. It is faith that allows us to let go of our need to be right and our need to show others how wrong they are.
The choices are in small daily actions, mostly:
I am keenly aware every day that at the Parktown Food Hub we can tighten the bonds by using our own standards to determine when need is great enough or we can loosen the bonds of shame and hunger for people who say they need food by giving without question.
I’ve been in enough churches and community groups to know that we can bind people by whispering and casting the side eye and demanding that another’s sexuality or gender or mode of dress fit our own standards or we can loosen bindings by loving from the heart and listening to the stories to understand other points of view.
And in this pandemic election time I am beyond aware that we can bind others by voting based on maintaining our personal privilege and increasing our own wealth or we can loosen bindings by thinking of people who are bound up in systemic racism, patriarchy, and white supremacy and voting for policies that create equity for everyone.
There are a lot of ways to live into faith in Jesus. In today’s New Testament lesson Paul tells the Romans that we might prophesy or minister, teach or exhort, give generously, work diligently, or exhibit great compassion or cheerfulness. And how you vote or give or welcome will be different in different situations. It isn’t one size fits all, and that’s why being transformed by the renewing of our minds (as Paul puts it) by faith is critical.
But if you do the thing you do because you are living your faith and following Jesus, it will show. Whether you realize it or not.
So… Who are you?
Jesus – and the whole world – really wants to know.
AMEN.
Hallelujah amen! Powerful message. Thanks for sharing.
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