Surprise Surprise!

It took a bit for this one to be posted, but in the surprising way that God continues to work, life happened in a way that led to some key edits resulting in the message below.

The lectionary texts for this week are:
Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 21:22 - 22:5
John 14:23-29
OR
John 5:1-9

Surprising God, surprise us into loving in the exact ways, times, and places that you would have us love. Amen

It seems to me that the texts we have been reading and studying since Easter have a sort of a pattern to them. Of course, they have all come from the book of Acts so they are all part of the same story in the same book, but when I took a step back this week I noticed this:

Easter – Resurrection – SURPRISING!

Easter 2 – Peter declares to the church leaders that Jesus is more powerful than they are, so he and his pals are going to follow Jesus - SURPRISING

Easter 3 – Paul is knocked off his horse and makes a very surprising turn from the life he had been living - SURPRISING

Easter 4 – Peter raises Tabitha from the dead – a woman whose widow-friends remembered for her textiles, not for her kindness or goodness. We don’t get the whole story, but could it be that Tabitha was not the “perfect woman” and it was just a little surprising that she is the one Peter ended up raising from the dead? - SURPRISING

Easter 5 – Peter has a vision and ends up ministering to <gasp> GENTILES. Because apparently God does not think that God is only for the Jews. That was quite a twist for the Jews, but the twist for us today might be that the Jews REJOICED that those outsider Gentiles had been brought into the fold - SURPRISING

It’s as if, in the aftermath of Jesus doing the most unimaginably surprising thing that a human being could do (because it had never been done before), God just keeps on raining surprise after surprise after surprise down on his followers.

And then today we have Lydia.

Lydia is characterized as a maker of purple cloth. You may have learned at some point that purple was the color of royalty. It was, and being a maker of purple cloth meant that Lydia had some highly specialized skills that put her work in demand by the richest folks in the land.

The reason purple was such a big deal is that all cloth was handwoven, usually from flax, so it had kind of a natural color – somewhere between white and beige. To make it colorful, the weavers had to use dyes that occurred in nature. Indigo for blue, a plant called madder for red, clay for an orangey-red sepia color. Natural dyes tend to result in a muted, “earthy” tone. But combining “ordinary” blue and red natural dyes is as likely to produce kind of a muddy brown color as purple. Instead, purple came from tiny little mollusks that were available from the port city of Tyre, clear on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. To be a maker of purple cloth, then, meant that Lydia had skill at turning flax or other fibers into cloth, and then having the wherewithal to get mollusks and do the intricate set of things required to turn it into purple dye.

Lydia was no slouch.

But Lydia was a woman, so it might not be totally intuitive that when a man from Macedonia appears in a vision, Paul and the others (including Luke, most likely) would end up finding and relying on Lydia.

And yet… that is exactly what happened. They obediently went to the area of Macedonia known as Philippi. They hung out for a few days, and it doesn’t say, but I am guessing that they were pretty confused and frustrated. WHO were they supposed to help? Where was the man in the vision?

It seems that things were not going well.

So, what do you do if you have been knocked off your horse, your life turned upside down, and you went to Macedonia because of a dream?  If you are Paul, you go find a place to pray. And apparently the place to pray was outside the city.

Apparently the place to pray was where the women gathered.

Paul and his buds didn’t have anything else going on, so they sat down to talk to the women. If Gentiles could worship the same God as the disciples, and if you have been literally knocked off a horse and interacted firsthand with Jesus, and if you have gone to Philippi (Macedonia) based on a vision, then talking to women had to seem just… one more thing.

Maybe they were so tired and confused and discouraged that they were willing to talk to anyone who would listen.

Or maybe they sensed Lydia’s authority.

Or maybe… maybe Lydia and her friends were so interested in the story that the apostles loved so much – the story of Jesus – that it seemed foolish not to talk about it! Because in the end, Lydia prevailed (e.g. insisted in a most authoritative way) upon Paul and Luke and the others to stay with her.

Lydia was the person they were called to see.

Given that the Christians at Philippi ended up being one of Paul’s most beloved congregations (see the Book of Philippians), it seems that things worked out! And it all started because Paul was not afraid to talk to women.

It makes me wonder:

Where were the men?

What about the patriarchy?

Could it be that women were not as oppressed as we think?
OR… was it just that God (through Paul et al.) did not give a fig about the patriarchal rules that guided the society of the time?

What if the Gentiles, and the women, and the religious leaders, and the guy who was intent upon finding men and women who followed Jesus and putting them in prison were all as much a part of Jesus’ ministry as anybody else?

What if, like Lydia, God picked those people because they would hear the word and live the life, not because of who they were in some human-created social order?

How might ministry be changed today if, instead of identifying as denominations or members or people who fit some system that is geared to human characteristics rather than those pesky unpredictable calls from God… we did what my friend Amy suggested and wander around and talk to whomever we run into who will have the conversation about God?

Peter and his pals were outside of the religious system of the day, and the jail could not hold them.

Paul was determined to punish those outside of his view of religious propriety, and was knocked off his horse and turned into a high-energy apostle.

Tabitha was outside the world of the living, but was brought back to life.

The Gentiles were outside of… everything they disciples and apostles knew and thought about God and Jesus, but were called to be inside the circle of God’s love.

And today, Lydia and her friends were literally OUTSIDE THE GATE. They were outside the town, with it’s male-dominated structures. They were at a prayer place, outside the city.

And in each of those cases, the social surprise was no reason to stop sharing. The surprises were because of how human beings had arranged the world… not because of God’s arrangement.



What do you suppose they talked about?

They didn’t have hymnals or liturgies or committees to write rites of worship. What they did have was a story – the story of Jesus, and all the smaller stories that Jesus told. The stories of their lives with Jesus (in the case of Peter and the other apostles) or a dramatic encounter with Jesus (in the case of Paul.)

What they had was stories – including the most astonishing story of Jesus Resurrection. And in light of the Resurrection, I wonder if they backtracked to make sense of it all:
* “Remember what he said about being raised in three days?”
* “Remember when he turned over those tables?”
* “Remember that guy who kept breaking chains? How Jesus calmed him down?”
* “Remember when those pigs went running off into the lake?”
* “Remember how that dove came down, and there was that voice, when John baptized Jesus?”

There was baptism, and there were stories.

I suspect they talked about healing, and raising from the dead. Loving. Sharing meals.

… about their personal interactions and how different it was to be around Jesus.

… about the broiled fish after the Resurrection, and maybe the whole story of Thomas.

Did they mention that Jesus didn’t even have a house, but he always had a place to be because he cared so much for everyone he encountered?

I wonder if the stories were more about the Jesus who loved than about the Jesus who bucked the system.

I wonder if the stories focused on the Resurrection rather than the crucifixion.

As we see in the Bible today, there are so many stories! Because they were about 2000 years closer to the time Jesus actually walked the earth, I imagine Paul and friends had even more stories than we have today.

What we do see is that the people at the center of the power structure did not want to hear the stories. They just kept throwing the storytellers in jail. Sometimes God took them out of jail (as in Peter’s case) and sometimes God broke the jail and the people stayed behind (Paul). But in every case, the laws of the religious and political leaders did not seem to hinder God at all. God did what God did.

And in the face of that new world, Peter and Paul, Luke and all the other apostles and disciples, must have felt a wild disorienting sense of freedom. So much freedom that anything seemed possible and ok.

Even talking to Gentiles, and women outside the gate, and ignoring the Powers That Were.


The apostles and disciples did not sit in their buildings waiting for people to come join them in worship. They went out to tell. They went out to be what eventually became church.

But their church was not a formal liturgical business organization. Their church was about telling the stories of Jesus and living like Jesus had lived.

Which meant… wandering around and doing whatever there was to do.

It is not the kind of life we encourage people to live today. We worry about money – what if God can’t provide enough? We worry about safety – what if the political powers want to hurt me? The apostles and disciples had all that but still… all they could do was go find people who would listen to the stories. The stories of Jesus. The stories that culminated in Resurrection.


So today I ask you: will you join me in the quest to go wherever people are?
* To pray?
* To talk about the Jesus who loved in completely counter-cultural and incomprehensible ways?
* To go where you are invited because people see in you the love that Jesus has put on your heart?

It is an uncertain life. You may wander around a bit. You might have to sing different songs or pray in different places – even places outside of the gates of where you feel safe.

But if you are following Jesus, this promise of Jesus will echo in your heart:

Peace I leave with you… but not like the worldly peace. Don’t be troubled! Fear not! Because I may not be here but I’m also not gone. You’ll be ok. You can love like I did. With anyone who shows up needing that love. And then… then they will know you are mine.

Amen.

What are we supposed to do?

This week it's all Jesus and love, and pretty counter-cultural.

The texts are:
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35

WILL THE PAIN EVER END?

* Abortion legislation that leaves out any of the human beings firsthand involved – including all of the fathers
o No grace for the mother
o No grace or accountability for the father
o No concern for supporting the baby who will be a live person who needs food, clothing, housing, health care… and love.
* Eliminating recess for children and enforcing silent lunches with no recourse for a child’s pent up energy, ways of learning, or ramifications for teachers who are thrust into the role of enforcer rather than nurturer.
* Over and over and over again we see real human drama with its infinity of perspectives and particularities into issues of power and control and who-gets-to-be-in-charge rather than working together or figuring out how to agree on something… anything
* SO OFTEN turning to some section of the Bible to (apparently) say “SEE??? God wants exactly what I want! God clearly wants me to be in charge and wielding my power in whatever way I prefer.”

While white dudes are currently the ones who are set up to wield that power in ways that (apparently) allow them to have an ever tighter grip on power…

Power is a seductive thing and not fundamentally connected to a pale Y chromosome.

In her book “The Power”, Naomi Alderman gives us a deeply considered treatise on that very issue. And it’s a great read!

But I don’t want to preach Naomi Alderman (even if I do find her work to be quite insightful.)

Today I want to talk about an even more powerful read:

THE BIBLE.

In “A Year of Biblical Womanhood”, Rachel Held Evans said

“If you are looking for verses with which to support slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to abolish slavery, you will find them. If you are looking for verses with which to oppress women, you will find them. If you are looking for for verses with which to liberate or honor women, you will find them. If you are looking for reasons to wage war, you will find them. If you are looking for reasons to promote peace, you will find them. If you are looking for an out-dated, irrelevant ancient text, you will find it. If you are looking for truth, believe me, you will find it. This is why there are times when the most instructive question to bring to the text is not "what does it say?", but "what am I looking for?" I suspect Jesus knew this when he said, "ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened." If you want to do violence in this world, you will always find the weapons. If you want to heal, you will always find the balm.”

Or put more briefly… perspective matters, and the Bible is for all everyone, not just for a few.

I thought of that comment in reading today’s text from Acts 11. Peter talks to “outsiders” (aka Gentiles), gets in trouble for it with the church leaders (imagine… Peter in some kind of trouble…), and then Peter tells his whole story. They talk to each other.

I can almost see Peter’s hands out, palms up, plaintively saying

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?? GOD WAS SHOWING UP FOR THEM JUST LIKE GOD SHOWED UP FOR ME!

I feel like that a lot. As a woman married to a woman who is also being called quite adamantly by God, I have often had to “explain myself” (something my white, cis-hetero brothers rarely have to do.) And I always feel like I’m standing there, arms outstretched, palms up, saying

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO? GOD KEEPS SHOWING UP AND EGGING ME ON!

It makes me think, in fact, that Peter would advocate for me. That Peter would say something like “if Jesus could be Resurrected, who am I to say what other things God will say or do that don’t make sense to me… how am I supposed to know who God will call next?

Which brings us to my very favorite part of the story: the last line.

“Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

How might we say that today?

“Then God has given even to the…
* Women
* Lesbians
* Transgender people
* People with mental illness
* Sex workers
* Prisoners
* Immigrants…
* On and on and on… the repentance that leads to life.”


But just what is that repentance?

Did they repent of being Gentiles?

Did they put restrictions on them about having to act like they were Jewish?

Well, it turns out they tried.

But the fact that very few Jesus-followers are Jewish today tells us that, ultimately, the answer is NO. They did not ask the Gentiles to stop being Gentile.

Repentance was turning away from a life without God, turning to follow Jesus. It was not about being Gentile or not. Likewise, following Jesus today do not mean stopping behaviors for legalistic reasons.

Instead, we are transformed in following. The transformation comes in the following, not before we even start to follow.

So… what if… denominations and congregations, individuals and communities could look past the particular bothersome characteristic to say PRAISE GOD! Praise God that someone else has gotten to know Jesus! Praise God that another person has opened themselves up to God’s transformation rather than relying on human privilege!

And why might they have said that?

Why might we say it today?

The answer comes in today’s Gospel from John 13:

Jesus was giving a new commandment because in his like he had fulfilled the first ten. In his Resurrection the power of death was broken.

So if there is no more need to focus on being great hall monitors and making sure everyone else lives up to our standards of behavior (because Jesus already fulfilled all our behaviorally requirements)

THEN WHAT DO WE DO?

We love, that’s what we do.

We love like Jesus did when he
* Consistently honored and welcomed women
* Called out the other side of sin – the privileged accusers
* Embraced and loved in spite of demons (and in doing so sent the demons packing)
* Welcomed criminals into paradise
* Shared a meal with a man who would betray him to death – and Jesus knew what he was doing

Translated into the parlance of today, that might means that we
* Admit that queer people can love and be loved by Jesus (and called into ministry)
* Admit that women have something critically important to say in sharing the love of Jesus
* Admit that people who do not look like you can follow Jesus
* Admit that following Jesus is enough.

In fact, following Jesus is the only thing that we have to mark Christianity. Being a Christian is not about being a law-follower, or purity-keeper, or having the right skin color or body parts.

The mark of being a Christian is this:

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So go forth and love, and you won’t even have to talk about it. Everyone will know you are a Christian… because you love.

Amen.

The Resurrection Matters, Y'all!

A story about a woman named Tabitha who loved God and showed it... how she died, and how Peter prayed and brought her back to life. A story about a friend whose father died, but there was no Peter to bring him back. Death is a reality in our life and world, but death does not win. Because the Resurrection really, really matters.

I delivered this message to Church of the Abiding Savior on Sunday morning and to the delightful folks of the Stewart Health Center at Springmoor Retirement Village. A recording of the Springmoor message is here.

The lectionary texts for this message are:
Acts 9:26-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30

Holy Spirit, please come. Speak your will into our hearts. Amen

Psalm 23. Such a lovely Psalm! So comforting! It was my Mama’s favorite. She would recite it over and over to herself as she was going through cancer treatment.

And that story about Tabitha (also known as Dorcas). She had just died and when Peter came, all they could think to do was show him the beautiful tunics and other clothing she had made. Such a legacy! My Mama was also a seamstress and for most of my life she was the one who kept me clothed, with clothes she fitted and made with her own hands.

Mother’s Day is not actually a biblical thing, so it was interesting to me that today’s texts were so connected to my mother. But then I realized something else:

I am not here to talk to you about my Mother (although we can do that later if you are really interested). Today I am here to preach Jesus

Christ crucified

Jesus Christ, the one about whom we say (y’all ready?)

CHRIST IS RISEN!

<Christ is Risen indeed, Alleleuia!>

I am here to talk to you about Jesus Christ, because 16 years after her death due to the cancer, my Mama is still in the grave… while three days after his death, Jesus was alive.

CHRIST IS RISEN!

<Christ is Risen indeed, Alleleuia!>

This Resurrection matters y’all. One of my best friends, I’ll call her Mary – a young woman, 27 years old - was with her father when he died this past Friday. She had been sleeping at the hospital for weeks, taking care of him, talking with doctors, generally managing his care through one surgery that was supposed to get him ready for even more intensive procedures. Instead it was more than his body could handle and after a couple of weeks of fighting, he died. Mary will be heartbroken for awhile, I believe, but right now shocked is a probably a better word.

Because death is shocking.

Not one thing that the very best doctors at two of the very best hospitals in the country did could have stopped it.

Wanting him to live with every fiber of Mary’s being did not stop it.

Death will come.

To Mary – to anyone who is feeling the fresh grief of the death of a loved one – the Resurrection matters.

A lot.



But here we are. People of faith on the 4th Sunday of Easter. In the face of death and pain, injustice and evil, we are reveling in what Jesus did. What Jesus did for us!

Today, in this place, we step out of the pain and heartache of this broken and cruel world.

Today we put out our hands to help, and our hearts to pray and care for and love those around us who are feeling the pain.

And because you may be the one feeling the pain, today I bring you this news:

     Jesus loves you,
   
               Jesus cares for you,

                          You can count on that.

We gather here today to be nourished by Word, to share a meal at the table because this life is hard on us and we need to rest in the arms of Jesus and eat the life-giving food of Jesus’ body and blood.

In our conversations yesterday, Mary and I talked about miracles. She knew that miracles do happen. And I imagine there were lots of miracles surrounding her in those hospitals, but she did not get the miracle she wanted.

In our texts today we also hear stories of miracles:
* The miracle of Peter, raising Tabitha with prayer, even though the grieving had already commenced. The widows did get what they wanted.
* The miracle of a God who promises TWICE in our Gospel that if we look to Jesus following his voice as we have come to know it,

No one can snatch us out of his hand.

No one can remove us from the miraculous love of Christ.

What bold stories, bold statements. How different than the lives we so often lead, right?

It is easy (and tempting) to hear and read these stories and go to this pat place:

Just have faith.
     Follow Jesus!
             Just do that, ok?

Do what the widows did: have faith that Jesus is the answer and call one of his besties. But they did that when all they had was her handwork. The artist they loved was gone. Were they holding the cloth to their faces, hoping to catch a whiff of the scent that was only Tabitha’s?

Do what Peter did: pray in faith. Even when there was no reason to think anything would come of it. But what did he say? How did he intercede with God? What do we say when our brains are frozen and we have no words?

Live into the promise of Psalm 23: trust Jesus to lay out a spread, right in front of our enemies. Even the greatest enemy of all: death.

This is so much easier said than done! It is all so much easier to tell each other to do… than to do it ourselves.

It puts me in mind of my friend Martha. Martha has moved heaven and earth to raise a child and go to school and work, and things have not always gone well. She says “Every day something else tries to kill me, and every day, Jesus says NOT TODAY” She has a very keen and practical understanding of what it means to feast on God’s goodness at a table spread before her enemies. All the forces of culture, and academia, and regular everyday life were not going to stop her from following Jesus.

Because THANKS BE TO GOD even a mustard seed of faith is enough.

And when we have no words, the Holy Spirit will intercede for us.



So how do you react in these situations, like Tabitha’s situation?

Would you act like you believe – like you KNOW – by making beautiful clothing and doing acts of charity, like Tabitha did?

Would you appreciate the beautiful work of others and show up when someone has died, like the widows did? To bring the courage borne out of your faith into the moment of tremendous pain? To hold each other gently and lovingly, as a reminder that Jesus holds us gently and lovingly – and with a grip that will not be broken?

Or maybe you would be the one who goes to get help, who rustles up prayer from all over.

Would you be the one who prays, even when the situation seems hopeless? The one who says “yes, miracles happen, and I am going to believe that Jesus is there with us making miracles, even if they are not the ones I had hoped for.”

Can you see all the things Jesus has done in living a perfect life, in loving every person – EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON – and say “oh, yes, I believe.”

Can you hear of the Resurrection and say “even DEATH could not stop Jesus! He is the one!”

I hope you can.

I hope you can hear the stories, see God working in your own life, and have faith.

Because if you have faith, you are safe in Jesus. This is not an earthly safety. This does not have anything to do with money or politics, with possessions or family.

This Jesus, who could not be held even by death, is holding you. Gently, lovingly, certainly. And nothing will snatch you from his hand.

CHRIST. IS. RISEN.

<Christ is Risen indeed, Alleleuia!>

So relax into the Jesus who is stronger even than death.

Fear not.

Even when it is the most incomprehensible, frightening moment ever. Because in those moments – ESPECIALLY in those moments – Jesus is holding you in loving care.

Live in the confidence that you will one day be wearing robes washed and made white because this ordeal has ended.

Live in faith that the work has been done, and all that’s left to do is worship the one who made it all happen.

Live like the Resurrection matters. Because as my friend Mary would tell you… it really, really does.

Amen.

Feeding each other (even when it's hard)

It's been a full week, and my weekend responsibilities did not move me towards a message. But I also could not stop thinking about God saying that God would tell Paul how hard things would be. So, below are some thoughts.

The lectionary texts for the week are:

Acts 9:1-20

Psalm 30 

Revelation 5:11-14 

John 21:1-19 

Come Holy Spirit. Breathe your life and energy into us, that we may live as we were created to be and feed each other. Amen.

If you’ve known me very long you probably know that I am a big fan of Peter, especially when he boldly speaks his truth even to people who are powerful and have the power to hurt him.

But I am also a fan of Paul because Paul got knocked off his horse, led to the place he thought he was going all along, sat blindly for awhile praying to understand what was going on, and was finally brought to his new line of work by people who were a little suspicious of him but went to him anyway.

Oh, and God declared “I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

WHO IS THIS GOD?

Who is this God who goes around, taking people who are well qualified in every way except the crucial element of attitude, and saying “you, go do this now.” And then they go.

What kind of God DOES that?

Well, it turns out… my kind of God. The kind that loves us so much that even the impossibly hard stuff is compelling and irresistible.

Yesterday I met with a group of people who have just the right set of resources: one group has building space, another group has expertise in giving food to hungry people, and another group knows the political environment of food banks, school districts, and the like. 

Everyone in the meeting had reason to distrust everyone else but…

Everyone had dreams. And those dreams all pointed in the same direction. And God had come knocking… saying

Feed my sheep. Literally. Go to the little children and their parents who are hungry, and give them food that would be wasted otherwise. Give them produce and meat. Give them good, healthy food. Feed my lambs.

But God is kind of a show-off, you know?

So earlier in the week I had met a pastor who left farming to become a pastor, with the intent of putting farming and pastoring together. It took him 12 years, but he’s doing that now. And along the way he has worked closely with Presbyterians and Lutherans, Methodists and Episcopalians. And I’m sure there were some Baptists and Catholics, and probably even a few Jews and Muslims in there.

Because God told him to go feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Live in one of the richest countries on earth and buck the trend to turn every activity into a money-making scheme.

Go feed people.

Now, you may be thinking… WAIT A SECOND.

Jesus didn’t mean for Peter to go five food to people (or sheep), did he?

Wasn’t that a redemption of the three times that Peter denied Jesus while Jesus was on trial?

Wasn’t that about going a loving people? Setting up organizations that would make sure the right people were doing things?

Well, yes. Of course it was.  

And wasn’t Paul knocked off that horse because he was a bad dude? Going to capture both men and women who were followers of Jesus? (Incidentally, I love that Paul thought that women were every bit as dangerous as men if they were followers of The Way.)

But like Peter, Paul was being sent. And God was very clear that it would be hard. But nobody else was allowed to behave differently. Paul’s lot in life – God’s calling on Paul’s life – was Paul’s. And God would carry him and protect him as he went out to share what Jesus had done. Paul was being sent to love the people he had hated so much just a few days earlier.

So today I wonder… who do I dislike so much that God would knock me off of my high horse to teach me to love them?

Who am I being sent to teach, and to love?

Which lambs am I supposed to go feed?

You might be wondering the same thing. You might be worried about getting knocked out of the comfort zone, the path you think is right, the way you grew up thinking was right.

It could happen! And if it does, know this:

Nobody knows better than God how hard it is. And nobody can make the burden possible to carry except God.

Which lambs and sheep are you being called to feed?

Is it the men and women who live in the shelter at Urban Ministries or other ministries around town?

Is it the children in a public school who don’t have anything to eat but cover up their pressing need in a wide variety of ways?

Or is it talking to policy makers? Or speaking up when your friends and co-workers make claims that place the blame on people who are suffering? 

I don’t know what it is for anybody but myself (and even that is kind of blurry most days) but I do know that God is calling each of us to something and that the call is something we can do ONLY because God has already paid all the tolls and requirements and necessity.

God sent us Jesus.

Jesus lived a life as a human being and did all the things that human beings do. Jesus fed everyone with whom he came into contact. He fed their bodies, and minds, and spirits. He showed us how to do it.

It got him killed, but Jesus showed us anyway.

And because Jesus had lived the life that we were all created to live, 

      The life that we would live if we were not sinful people living in a sin-broken world, 

      

      he did not stay dead. 

He was Resurrected (ALLELUIA!) And now we are freed to love each other.

We do not have to get to the bottom of why we are all so hungry for something (unless it is your call to go there, and help improve policy).

We are FREE. Free to love each other, and feed each other in all the ways we hunger.

Feed each other with garden produce.

Feed each other with hugs.

Feed each other with listening ears, and sympathetic voices.

Feed each other by being present in our darkest hours.

Feed my sheep, said Jesus, feed my lambs.

And will it be hard? Yes. As with Paul, God won’t even try to hide that… but in Jesus, there is enough love. 

Always enough love to feed the sheep. 

Amen.

This Is The Day

Today's sermon was preached twice - this morning at Parkwood UMC, and this afternoon in a slightly different version at the Springmoor Retirement Village Health Center.

You can see a video of the Parkwood UMC version here. The sermon starts about 33 minutes into the video.

There is a voice-only recording of the Retirement Village version here. If you have problems listening to it please let me know... I'm a newbie at this part.

In the meantime, I have included the script of the Retirement Village version because the UMC version included a sizable section that was addressing a particular issue that was facing the congregation and on which they were voting today. Since that was so specific to that one congregation in that one place, I've opted to leave it out. If you are United Methodist and want to see the script, let me know and I'll send it on!

The lectionary texts for the day are:
Acts 5:27-32 

Psalm 118:14-29  (The Call to Worship at Parkwood UMC)

Psalm 150  (Read at Springmoor)

Revelation 1:4-8 

John 20:19-3

CHRIST IS RISEN!

<Alleluia!>

It’s still Easter! We are Easter people and in the church year, Easter lasts all the way to Pentecost, on June 9. For Christians, Easter is not a day in the spring when there is candy and bunnies and planting, Easter is fifty days of reveling in what Jesus did for all humanity.

CHRIST IS RISEN!

<Alleluia!>

Today’s lesson from Acts is one of my all-time favorites. I love Peter’s boldness, his declaration to the authorities that they had, indeed, killed Jesus, but Jesus had not stayed dead. It’s as if Peter is saying… So who’s more powerful now?

But it’s even bigger than that! The context for today’s reading from Acts is that the apostles were no longer huddling behind closed doors, afraid of what would happen next.

Jesus had appeared to them, had assured Thomas that he was indeed risen, had maybe even made a special trip back to see Thomas. 

It seems that seeing Jesus in person had empowered the apostles, because like Jesus, they had gotten under the skin of the religious leaders and the religious leaders had been desperate to get them to shut up. The leaders could have chosen to believe, chosen to join the apostles in this new way of living and loving and recognizing who Jesus was, but instead they decided to lock up the apostles.

The Holy Spirit was having none of THAT, though… the price had already been paid by Jesus, so an angel released them from prison. The doors all stayed locked, but instead of staying behind those locked doors, Peter and the other apostles were taken out and told to go to the Temple and tell the people that Jesus had had the unmitigated gall to not. stay. dead.

Which brings us to today’s text. The religious leaders don’t come across as angry so much as gutless:  more worried about looking bad, about being blamed for killing Jesus, then rejoicing in the Resurrection. They were unable to hear the new song that God was singing.

And now the Peter who had denied Jesus three times at almost the worst moment in Jesus’ life… the Peter who spoke when silence might have been better and clammed up when there was something to tell… 

THAT is the Peter who openly and bluntly tells them:

30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus,

whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.

You tried to kill him, Peter says… and it didn’t stick. Why should I worry about you when EVEN DEATH cannot stop Jesus?

So who would you follow? If you were there, would you be amazed and energized by this new world, this place where even death could not stop Jesus loving ways? Would that make an impression on you? Or would you be worried about looking bad? 

In the end… despite all his earlier missteps… Peter followed his call from God. It took him awhile, but he got there, and God made him a powerful witness.

It was not easy, though! A passionate guy like that felt his mistakes keenly. That’s why the opportunity to declare his love for Jesus – 

      three times even! 

                 Once for each time he had earlier denied Jesus! – 

      

was such a tremendous grace. As hard as it was, Peter and all the apostles were in the Temple yard living their faith and belief boldly.

They were transformed. Everything had changed. Because despite our anxieties, God’s change always makes us

more of who we were born to be.

So here we stand today, celebrating that same Resurrection that transformed Peter and the other apostles.

The “religious leaders” of our time – all of them, everyone – have put up rules and guidance and policies that do not always line up with God’s calling to follow Jesus. Despite the leaders’ faithful intent, we all get it wrong sometimes and the organizations that result do not always end up the way they were intended. It’s hard when that happens.

And in those moments, I get flashes of Peter. Living into his transformed self. An ordinary very flawed human being who decided that since Jesus was Resurrected, he must follow Jesus and not the religious and political rules of the day.

During the season of Lent that just ended, the weekly lessons emphasized over and over again about what Jesus did… much of which was jaw-droppingly radical for his time (and also for our time):

* He defended women, including Mary who washed his feet with her hair and used super-expensive burial anointing oils to do so

* He had dinner with Judas, knowing that Judas was about to betray him in literally the worst possible way

* He cried out for forgiveness for his killers from the cross

* He promised paradise to a person who was quite open about deserving execution

* He appeared first to women after the Resurrection, but did not reject the men who didn’t believe it had happened

* And in today’s gospel – he showed immense grace to Thomas

All that on top of three years of ministry that started with turning water into wine and proceeded through healing – not rejecting – the demon-possessed, talking to a Samaritan woman at the well, and forgiving a woman caught in adultery by calling out the men who somehow knew what she was doing.

We live in a time when “law and order” has become a reason to do all sorts of things. And I am all in favor of a safe and orderly society for all people! But sometimes I wonder… should laws and the civil order put together by a bunch of human beings have the last word? 

Or is there another bigger question, namely:

What is the best way to answer whatever call God has placed on each of us?

God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – has always insisted on coming to me and to each of us. Not on our own timetables but on God’s own timetable. And as a result, 

THIS IS THE DAY.

This is the day when we consider what and who we believe about how much God loves us.

This is the day when we each get to decide how we will declare the works of the Lord.

This is the day when we each decide whether we want to stick with what looks like safety in the political and religious structures of our day, or whether we want to step into the loving arms of God’s will for each of us.

This may even be the day when we are being invited to take what may seem a scary step, because we are constantly being transformed and it is not always easy to know if that scary step is, in fact, into the arms of Jesus.

But ON THIS DAY…

Please know that regardless of what you decide to do, or be, or think, God’s love for you will remain unchanged: perfect, complete, infinite.

That the love Jesus demonstrated in his life in our broken world is available to you… is longing for you.

That you are among the people Jesus would have gathered together on his walk towards crucifixion.

That in his Resurrection on the first Easter, Jesus proved that his life is the life that conquers death, that in fulfilling the law he has freed us for exactly one thing: to love each other.

Yes, this is the day.

You are beloved. 

You will always be beloved no matter what.

May that grace and favor transform your heart, fill you with love, and keep you in eternal peace.

Amen.

Jazzercise and Jesus: the Art of Making Neighbors

I preached this message at the April 10, 2019 midweek Lenten service at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Durham, NC. It's the last midweek service for this Lenten season and the familiar story of the text is part of the reason I struggled to find the right note. When I did finally hear the Holy Spirit, I was (not surprisingly) really surprised at how it came out. But here we are.

The text for the service is Luke 10:29-37. In the service I read from The Inclusive Bible which is not available online, so the link above is to the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

Come Holy Spirit. Warm our hearts to lavish your love and make neighbors everywhere we go. Amen.

Tonight I want to talk to you tonight about Jazzercise. Have you heard of it? Jazzercise has been around for 50 years. It’s a great workout!

But there’s something else about Jazzercise, at least Jazzercise in RTP and in Chapel Hill. It’s not only about the smooth moves. Jazzercise of RTP and Chapel Hill is a community with a particular culture.

When I first started Jazzercising some years ago – maybe a decade? – I would joke that if they would only serve communion and do a little Scripture it would be the best church ever.

We laughed about that a lot, but it turns out that the architect of the local Jazzercise culture is a woman named Ann. Ann’s daddy was a Presbyterian pastor and somehow she had internalized two things:
* everyone wants to be called by their own name, and
* you do not have to have an “out” group to define who is included in the community.
It is, in fact, possible for a community to be open and welcoming to everyone.

Ann knew how to make neighbors.



I think my experience with Jazzercise is a modern little picture of what Jesus was telling the lawyer about in tonight’s text.

The lawyer wanted there to be rules, and I suppose it is true that community works better when there are ground rules. But the Samaritan – who had no position, and who was part of a group that the “good” Jews couldn’t stand because they did not do worship correctly – just paid attention to the person at hand.

The priest and the Levite knew all about the Scripture but they didn’t live it. The Samaritan, who did not do any of the worship stuff “right” saved the traveler’s life.


So tonight I am here to ask you: who are you?

Do you get caught up in procedures and justification and accountability and all the other reasons we use to avoid people in need?

Do you respond to the person in need, because they have need? Do you believe people when they cry out in pain, or are you the lawyer trying to find a loophole?

If we are honest, I think we would all say that we are all a complicated mix.
* We want to help, but we worry about being hurt ourselves.
* We want good schools for all children, but we struggle when sending our own children to struggling neighborhood schools.
* We are thrilled to live in diverse neighborhoods but would really prefer that diversity come to us and bear the discomfort of being different rather than us being uncomfortable in neighborhoods where most of the people do not look like us.

It’s also hard to know. Is the person standing on the corner really in need, or is he trying to scam us? Does that woman with the runny nose and dirty hair really want a bus ticket or is she going to buy liquor?

We want to call people by name but so often it's easier to protect ourselves by putting up fences to keep out all that scary uncertainty.

The thing is… Jesus did not mention anything about the traveler the Samaritan helped. We do not know why the traveler was out on the road alone. We do not know the circumstances that led to the traveler being attacked.

But we do learn something about being neighbors:

I believe that Jesus is telling us that the answer to that question is: ITS UP TO YOU.

Being neighbors is not about the other person. Being a neighbor is about what we do.

So if you smile and say WELCOME! and mean it…

If you greet people you don’t know as warmly as you greet the people you do know…

If you show mercy and compassion to people who are hurting without asking about the how or why of that pain…

If you treat everyone as if we are all IN together...

Then you are being a neighbor.



I know… I know… there are dishonest people. There are people who will try to take advantage of us. There are people whose poor choices have led to their current troubles. Doesn’t Jesus care about that?

Well… YES.

As a matter of fact, Jesus cares so much that he brought his God-self to earth, lived in this broken and pain-riddled world, and loved everyone without doing background checks. Jesus loved the priests and the Levites, the Samaritans and the demon-possessed. And then Jesus died.

And THEN… as we will celebrate in such a short time… Jesus was Resurrected.

Jesus fulfilled the law so we no longer have to worry about who we should avoid.

Jesus fulfilled the law and lavished infinite love on us.

So much love, in fact, that we can spread it in Jazzercise, in the grocery store, at work…

We can even share love in church.

So go… find someone and make then your neighbor. All you have to do is pay attention.

Amen.

What's new?

It was hard writing this week. Spring is here, except some of the days were cold and rainy. The pollen is covering everything with it's Mountain-Dew-yellow powder and eyes and noses and throats are paying the price. But other things have been moving along, and I suppose that means life was happening just as it does. The same old thing.

The lectionary texts this week are not about the same old thing, though. They are about a NEW thing! A new thing that God promises and that only God can deliver.

The texts for the week are:
Isaiah 43:16-21
Psalm 126
Philippians 3:4b-14
John 12:1-8

Note: I particularly like the word cloud this week, with the new thing that is Jesus coming out of the bell of a shape reminiscent of a trumpet.

Come Holy Spirit. Show us who we are in the light of the new thing you bring to us. Amen.

WHAT’S NEW!

What’s new?

No seriously… what is “new”?

In Ecclesiastes, the Teacher says nothing… nothing new under the sun.

But in Isaiah, God says there will be a new thing.

In Philippians, Paul talks about BEING new… that all his reasons for boasting are meaningless in the face of what Christ has done for us. So much so that all the things that gave him all kinds of status, that made him a really important guy, are now rubbish.

And then in John, Mary did a new thing, much as she had been doing a new thing all along. Instead of working with her sister Martha to feed the crowd of men who had come to listen to Jesus, she sat at the feet of Jesus and listened right along – and received Jesus favor for it.

When her brother was dead Mary confronted Jesus “WHY WEREN’T YOU HERE?” and it broke his heart so that Jesus wept.

And now, that same Mary brings out a whole pound of nard – expensive, special, not just everyday anointing oil. Judas says they could sell it for 300 denarii – nearly a year’s salary! Think about that! She uses something worth a YEAR’S SALARY to wash the feet of Jesus, and then dries his feet with her hair – which clearly (at least by the standards of the day) should never have been let down in the presence of all those men!

But is Mary’s behavior really the new thing here? Or once again do we seem a woman being evangelistic, and Jesus being open to whatever her behavior is because it points to who Jesus is?

It sure made the men uncomfortable! And it really irritated the moneykeeper Judas, who did not understand at ALL that Jesus was a new thing, worthy of anointing with the finest of oils. Judas used the poor as an excuse… and according to John’s words, he just wanted to steal that year’s salary money for his own personal gain.

Mary worried about Jesus. Judas worried about himself.

Mary could see a new thing, because in her culture she was (relatively) powerless. But as an insider in the patriarchal system, Judas could not.

It’s easy to tsk tsk tsk about Judas, and feel a little superior because women do not have as many taboos about hair today, but are we really that different now?

We say we want a new thing… but when the discomfort sets in we think “OH HEY NOW WAIT A MINUTE! Maybe things weren’t actually that bad…”

We say we want a new thing, but we don’t want to give up the things that maybe aren’t that bad, that we have adjusted to or learned to work around.

We say we want a new thing, but we most definitely do not want to admit that the old things of our own making might be at the center of the problem.



But here’s the thing:  nowhere in the text does God say anything about the new thing depending on us.

Our structures – monetary, political, governmental, social – are all broken in ways that benefit some people more than others. The brokenness always leads to inequity. We try really hard to pretend that things are (or can be) even, or fair. But they aren’t. They just aren’t. They cannot be if they are human-made, in a world so very broken.

Even the church, put on earth to be the means of spreading the message of redemption in Jesus, has settled into a pattern of brokenness that gives some people favor and power and leaves other people out.

I’m not even talking about prosperity gospel here. Even “community discernment” is not the same as “God’s will.” Community discernment is as broken as any other human system. But who wants to admit that the favor and power comes from an unfair system and that it is not actually a sign of God’s favor and empowerment? Certainly not the people with the influence. Certainly not the people who may be out of a job if the system changes to be more equitable.

Certainly not the people who have adjusted so thoroughly to the system that they cannot imagine it any other way.

The only thing we can do this side of eternity is create another system that is broken in a way that favors someone else (or maybe even favors the same people in some new or different way.) In her book The Power Naomi Alderman makes a compelling case for the idea that power has its own silky voice and does not care who it seduces. We are all susceptible, and will always use power to benefit ourselves inequitably.



So when God says that there will be a new thing, I have to believe that God has something in mind that goes way beyond merely switching out who holds the power – because inequitable distribution power simply is not new.

It is not an idea that I like to think about. In many ways I do not benefit from the current power imbalance in the church and the world but there are others who benefit much much much less than I do and that breaks my heart.

The reality is that in our world, including the church, anyone who is not white and male and (as a bonus) wearing a beard pretty much gets leftovers. Women and people of color and children are relegated to lesser status –if they are given access to the systems of power at all - and then condemned for not being grateful enough for the leftovers that they do get. Not everywhere, not all the time, but often enough to be statistically significant.

Often enough that the #metoo movement is a real thing. Often enough that it takes an average of six years for an African-American woman to receive her first call in the ELCA, but no white male has to wait any significant time at all.

Those are realities of our time. The inequity is built into the system. I WANT to say… take power from the white men! Give power to everyone else! And maybe that would be a lovely thing. It is how Creation was to work.

But I am ALSO utterly convinced that any other arrangement will also leave out someone.

As refreshing as it might be to see my white male (bonus if bearded) colleagues experiencing what they have not had to experience very much before, it really WOULD NOT BE a new thing, I think.

It would not be God’s new thing.

It would just be different, as human beings understand difference.



BUT!

WHAT IF God’s NEW has little or no relationship to human ideas of different?

WHAT IF God’s NEW has been among us all along, since the Creation?

WHAT IF NEW can only come from God?

What if new is something within us rather than for us, or by us? A transformation that God works across time, space, and human hearts?

Now that would be something truly new, not just a different form of inequity and brokenness!

We cannot possibly do that on our own but we do have access to that new thing, that transformation.



Let’s go back to our story for a moment – to Mary anointing Jesus.

Mary knew!

Mary had broken all the taboos!
* Touching Jesus
* Letting her hair down in the presence of all those men
* Using expensive oil to anoint someone very much alive

Did Mary understand that Jesus was about to die? I don’t know. But even if she did not, well, nobody else did either.

So the baby born of a Mary who acted faithfully in what that were completely apart from cultural norms (not to mention human physical processes) became the man who was anointed by another Mary who acted just as far outside of the norms of the day. Two Marys, bookends of a life that show us just what a new thing Jesus is.

Maybe God was telling us something.

Maybe God was saying “this new thing… it’s not from you or about you… it is the thing I do” because shortly after being anointed by this second Mary, Jesus died, and then he was Resurrected.



This Jesus is the one through whom all of Creation was created, so he is also the oldest, what with being present before the beginning of time. And yet, in his divinity, Jesus showed us something new:  How to live a life of loving each other.

Jesus did not flip the power structures of the day, something his disciples expected and the kind of “different” we think of when we try to change things on our own.

It is the Jesus who was here as fully human and fully divine
The Jesus who brought a new way of living
The Jesus who lived, died, and was Resurrected who is

THE ACTUAL NEW THING

Redemption.

Freedom from a system of inescapably inequitable power.

The Law fulfilled so we can BE… so we can live in free pursuit of the life we were created to live, in community, and in God. Trusting that God will overcome all the old things somehow, in ways we cannot imagine. Literally are incapable of imagining.

The new thing is here, as it has always been here. And in Jesus we can live it out with abandon.

Amen.