What my cat taught me about trusting Jesus

This message was written for the congregation at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Durham for the October 6, 2019 Blessing of the Animals service at 8:30 am. I was going to share it at the 10:30 am service as well. But then the plumbing broke and services had to be cancelled. So here is what I would have said, or at least a mostly-finished draft of it.

The texts on which is based are:
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-9
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

In what have you put your trust?

In whom have you put your trust?

Maybe it’s politics! That’s a very popular topic in our world today.

Some people put their trust in the current state and federal administrations. Other people put their trust in anything BUT the current administrations. The trust doesn’t – in either direction – doesn’t seem to be bearing much good fruit, though. 

Maybe it’s your family. The history, traditions, sense of where you are from. If you are from Durham or North Carolina, you may feel the specialness of being native to the area. If you are from some other place, you may cling tenaciously to the traditions and customs that you grew up with, because things are so different here. There’s no place like home, right?

Or maybe it’s social position! Do you have “security” for retirement? Or a good house? Or maybe the right car? Maybe you are healthy enough to not worry about all the things that people who are sick or have disabilities face daily. You might even be healthy enough to not realize how good things are, and so you trust that all will always be well.

Or are you a hard worker? A person who struggled through to achieve an education? Maybe you worked hard all your life, did your homework, fulfilled the requirements. Are you part of the Greatest Generation? Or the Generation That Really Made A Difference? Does that feel like a safety and comfort?

Is the one, the thing, the circumstances that you trust able to guard what you have trusted to it forever?

Let me say that another way… 

Whatever you trust, whomever you trust, the thing you count on, do you trust it the same way my cat trusts me?

I know, cats get a bad rap in the relationship department. But every morning, as soon as I get up, my cat stalks over (and it cannot be described any other way)… she STALKS over and starts YELLING for her breakfast. 

There is no trace of doubt in that sound. It is abundantly clear that she is saying

HEY YOU! Up there with the thumbs! You know good and well it is time that there is food in my bowl. NOW! 

And then she STALKS over and sits in front of her bowl. She has told me of her need and is completely confident that I will fill that need. I might be standing at the coffeemaker, or gathering the clothes I will wear for the day, but she is at that bowl. Sitting. Waiting in the certain hope that she will be fed soon.

I wonder if the confidence and power – the kind my cat shows every day - is what Paul is talking about in his statement to Timothy. Paul KNOWS who he has trusted and has absolute confidence in that trust. 

But here is a big way that Paul’s trust is different than mine, and might be different than yours, too. My cat’s trust – and my trust – is in a context of a pretty good life, in a pretty safe place, where I have pretty good access to clothing and food and other basic needs, including people who care.

But Paul’s trust was so powerful that when things went really wrong, 

When Paul got beaten up and put in prison

When he was put in jail

When his friends disappointed him

Paul kept right on doing what he KNEW was true and correct. 

     He kept right on trusting his God. 

     Believing in what Jesus had done for him.

KNOWING that in spite of what was happening in the world around him, he could trust that his God was there and shaping the path.

Paul could trust that God would come through in the same way that my cat trusts that I will come through with the cat food. Maybe not this exact second… but soon. Reliably. With great certainty.

And I am going to be bold and tell you right now that I have had SO MANY MOMENTS, especially in the last six years, where I am not sure that I was as confident as Paul that things were really going in the direction that will keep me.

I want to say “well, yeah, of course, because y’know… God is God.”

But is it that easy? 

Sometimes it is… but sometimes it gets a lot more complicated. Because sometimes I get confused about who is in control, and what is causing the good things.

Take, for example, all the good things happening in South Durham right now, the things that this congregation participates in: sharing food with strangers, caring for a beautiful building and the lands around it, growing food for neighbors to access freely, taking meals to people faced with illness or injury, inviting children to music camp, making quilts to cover people in all parts of the earth. This is a vital congregation and I know the list of things you do to share God’s love for you is long.

And I know the world says WOW! Look at that group of people over at Christus Victor!

I’ve met you. I know the love you share and I know you are humble and generous.

And that’s why it is so hard to read the words of Jesus in today’s gospel. The part where Jesus says… yeah… ummmm… well…. It’s not really all that much. It’s certainly not any more than I call you to do.

And when I read that I think…. WAIT… WHAT????

I’m supposed to call myself a worthless slave? 

But…

But…

But…

Yeah. I know.

But setting aside our temptation to read this literally based on what those words mean today…

What Jesus is getting at is the same thing Paul is talking about.

Do you trust your own goodness?

Do you put your trust in this building?

Or in your service activities?

What if the building disappeared?

Or your family could no longer be there for you because of health reasons, or the kinds of pain and arguments that families are so good at falling into?

Or you had a brain injury or stroke that prevented you from relying on your education?

What if you were unjustly thrown into prison?

WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER THOUGHT YOU UNDERSTOOD ABOUT LIFE GOT TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AND BROUGHT INTO DOUBT?

Would you still know in whom – in what – you put your trust?

Well, siblings and friends and people I have not yet met, I am here to share with you the BEST NEWS EVER. 

Literally.

Seriously.

It is not about beating yourself up and thinking of yourself as worthless, because in God’s eyes you have INFINITE worth.  It’s just that if you put your trust in Jesus, completely, utterly, crazy-like (by the world’s standards) in Jesus, everything else will pale.

Your gardens can win community engagement awards but you will say, well, YEAH, but that’s NOTHING compared to what Jesus did… what Jesus made possible.

Because Jesus lived the way we were created to live.

Jesus walked with the poor and sick and hurting… but he never got too busy to go off and pray in a quiet place.

And it got him killed. Dead.

But it could not keep him dead.  In living that perfect life, and dying a real human death, Jesus broke the spell that required us to be good enough… to do good enough.

Jesus made everything right. We continue our broken and imperfect attempts at living like Jesus did (and I believe we really do yearn to live like Jesus did) but our actions are no longer the main thing. We don’t have to get it perfectly right, because Jesus did that for us.

We are free now.

We are free to put our trust in Jesus.

We are free to know that NO MATTER WHAT ELSE HAPPENS we are freed. Redeemed. No longer under that spell of trying to be good enough – or if not good enough, then at least better than…  well… pick someone that has a different weakness than you do.

You no longer have to work at being good enough because in Jesus you ARE good enough.

You are freed to maintain the building the best you can, to feed the neighbors the best you can, to give comfort to those in your community the best you can. 

And it will be the least you can do.

Because the real work is done and in Jesus you are free to love. Free to go where the Holy Spirit leads. Free to break human rules that contradict God’s loving will because you KNOW where you can put your trust and the Most Important Thing is to follow the Spirits’ calling. 

No matter how bad things look – or how good. Your situation is the same. You are a beloved, free, redeemed, treasured, and absolutely good-enough Child of God.

Amen.

BIG BIG NEWS! And an invitation

On Saturday, September 21 the Synod Council of the North Carolina Synod voted to extend to me a call to Parkwood United Methodist Church and South Durham Connections. That is a very good thing – the thing I have been moving towards for awhile now.

I will be serving as a mission developer for South Durham Connections, working in particular with people who are not participating in traditional churches. My work will be anchored in the Parktown Food Hub. Parkwood UMC is the congregation that will be sponsoring me and in which the Parktown Food Hub is housed.

This is the vision that has been growing since I told Bishop Tim Smith on October 28, 2017 that I was going to be a mission developer. At that time he looked at me and asked “what kind of mission are you going to develop?” and I could not articulate an answer - it was a calling but I did not know how I would be answering it. I know now, though! Thanks be to God who has brought this thing to pass and patiently worked with everyone involved to bring us together into this opportunity to share Christ with a hurting world.

Now, two years later, I will be ordained in a service at 4:00 pm on October 27, 2019 - Reformation Sunday - at St. Paul’s Lutheran in Durham. St. Paul’s is my home congregation and there are many details that ordination at St. Paul’s will bring full circle.

You are all invited and I hope you can all attend. I love it that my first day as an ordained mission developer will be exactly two years after that conversation with Bishop Tim. God has left no detail untended. I am currently feeling all that love in a very particular and wonderful way.

Thank you all for your support and kindness, for the forms you filled out, the feedback you offered, the opportunities you provided, and the shoulders you shared so generously.

St. Paul’s address is 1200 West Cornwallis Road, at the corner of Pickett and Cornwallis Roads. There will be a reception after the service. All are welcome to attend. If you are a clergy member, please wear the vestments of your tradition. The color of the day is red, the color of the fire, hope, and power of the Holy Spirit.

Wait... hate?

This weeks message came at an interesting time. I was visiting my father in Texas. He lives in an independent living facility and so as I was studying for this message I was surrounded by old people. Parents. Loved ones. People who share aches and pains and frustrations that younger people can't quite imagine. Many are gracious and patient in a way that only time can develop. Others are irritated and angry and wonder how they got where they are. But all of them touched my heart, and thinking about hating these beautiful people to follow Jesus gave me pause.

On top of that, this message was delivered twice - to people in two different facilities for older people. The Stewart Health Center at Springmoor Retirement Village hosted me on Sunday, September 8 and the kind people at Atria Southpoint Walk welcomed me on Tuesday, September 10. There are a lot of things I could have said differently, and many other directions this message could have gone. But here is the text from which I spoke.

The texts for this week are:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 1
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

I have an odd request today… will you take a moment and think about a time that you hated someone?

You don’t have to say it out loud and I promise I won’t ask who! But can you remember that moment? What was it like? Did it surprise you? Or upset you?

Or was it just a little big satisfying in the way that anger and revenge can be? That way where it feels good right in the moment, but then later you feel kind of bitter and dirty and you wished you did not feel that way?

I have a youngish friend who is struggling to get along with her brother. She gets so angry, and says things like “Why do I even bother? I’m not even going to TRY to have a relationship with him anymore!” Then she will fume and fuss and talk about how terrible her brother is.

As I listen to her I think of time when I confessed, in a great deal of pain and anguish, that I once hated someone with that fire and passion and pain and anguish. It was a relief when the friend who was listening to me at that time reassured me that sometimes hate is not the opposite of love.

She said that hating someone did not preclude loving them. In fact, the fury and rage that I (and also that my youngish friend) felt arose BECAUSE of love! If we had been indifferent to those we said we hate, if we did not care at all, if we did not love them so much, we would never have wanted to bother spending all the energy it took to feel those moments of hatred.

Because hate, you see, is often not the opposite of love. In those situations – situations of close personal relationship - the hater cares a LOT. In those situations, indifference is the opposite of love.


That connection between love and hate seems really important as we hear this text today. Jesus, whose very being was grace, and peace, and goodness, and kindness, and LOVE is telling great crowds of followers to hate their families and themselves.

Now, that is a little upsetting to read on the face of it, isn’t it? Hate seems like such an un-Jesus thing! Especially the rage and frustration and distance that hate often brings (even if it is based on love in some way.)

Beyond that, Jesus doesn’t say “hate the guy who cuts you off on the highway” or “hate the person who bullied you in the schoolyard.” Jesus says to hate your
* Father
* Mother
* Wife
* Children
* Brothers
* Sisters
* AND YOUR OWN LIFE!
And indeed, Jesus said the hatred is NECESSARY to be a disciple of Jesus! Along with giving up all of your possessions. Wow. That’s really a lot.


This past week I got to spend time with my father in Dallas. He’s 88 and doesn’t move too fast. When he does move he gets tired quickly, and he spends almost as much time napping as he spends doing other things. My heart breaks when I think of the day I will no longer be able to see him. The love I feel for him is a part of my very being. There has never been a time in my life that I did not know and love my Daddy.

But here I am, being a pastor, a professional Jesus-follower. Does that mean I have to HATE my Daddy? I can’t even manage to be irritated with him, much less hate him! SURELY I don’t have to be mad at this man who has been my greatest supporter, my most consistent and long-term advisor, the one who taught me how to be the person I am today?

And WHAT ABOUT that Commandment that we love our parents? What about that? What are we to do with this contradiction? Do I hate Daddy or love and honor him?


Well, first we can return to the reassurance that my friend offered:  hating does not have to preclude loving, not if it happens in the context of relationship. We aren’t talking about the blind hate for people we have never met that dominates our political situation today. This hatred that Jesus talks about is towards the people we also love the most – our families. Ourselves. Even our things.

OF COURSE Jesus wants us to love our parent and spouses, children and siblings. OF COURSE we are to love ourselves! Of course we are to be good stewards of money and property!

But if this hating business is not NOT-LOVING then what is it? If indifference is the opposite of love, then what is the opposite of hate?

Because if we can figure that out then maybe we can figure out what hating IS by knowing what it is NOT.

* We know it has something to do with our closest, longest-lasting, family relationships.
* We know it has something to do with how we perceive ourselves.
* We know that it is something required to FOLLOW Jesus.

We also know from just about everything else in Scripture that we are to care for those around us – BUT NOT MORE THAN GOD.

In fact, we care best for others when we put God first.

We make the best choices in all of our relationships when our relationship with God comes first.

We learn who we are when we see ourselves in relation to God, and in seeing ourselves honestly we can let go of our own self-importance and see those around us as important enough to offer compassion and love.


But when we put our families before God and God’s calling on our lives, we lose that perspective.

When we see ourselves in the context of family (or self, or stuff) first, we miss out on the truth of God.

In families we fit into hierarchies but in putting God first, that hierarchy is flattened into just two levels:
1. God
2. The rest of us.

Earlier in this chapter in Luke we read stories that have the common theme of God coming first:

Jesus heals on the Sabbath, despite the religious hierarchy’s consternation about it.

Jesus tells a story and admonishes the crowds to sit in the lower spot to avoid the humiliation of being asked to leave a better seat.

Story after story in which human rules and hierarchies are called into question and God’s infinite love is spread freely, generously, and openly.

Not just to the insiders, but to anybody who happens to be around. Even those outside the hierarchy.

And that, I believe, is what Jesus means when he tells us that following him means hating our families:

It is a hatred that is relative.

It is a hatred that leaves out human hierarchies and increases love in the way that God leads us.

“Hatred” of the sort illustrated by Jesus when, instead of putting his mother first by coming down from the cross to care for her, Jesus enlisted his friend John to take Mary in. In “hating” his mother, Jesus did a very loving thing and made sure she would have a place to live, a family to care for her.

And in staying on the cross to die – and then be Resurrected! – Jesus fulfilled his divine destiny and loved God (and himself – also God) the most. In that Resurrection everyone, including Jesus’ mother, could then live a fully redeemed life.


So here I stand, once again bringing you the very best news of all:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

JESUS LIVES!

And a God who would love with such a perfect love is worth following. In turning to Jesus, loving with the freedom and graciousness that Jesus has made possible, we can love our parents and children, spouses and siblings, and even ourselves.

So today, and in all the days to come, love God so much that you can love your family in ways far better than you could by putting them in a position above God.

Follow God as if the kingdom is here and now.

Because if following Jesus means leaving our families so that God can hold and care for them, then God’s kind of hate is the best love of all.

AMEN.

The end of the story is already written

I was talking to myself this week. I mean, sure, the congregation at the Stewart Health Center of the Springmoor Life Care center was present, and I do so love to be with them. But I think these words were words I needed to hear for myself and I can only hope somebody else finds something lovely in them. I did record them so you can listen HERE as well as read below.

The lectionary texts for the week are:
Genesis 15:1-6
Psalm 33:12-22
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40

Come Holy Spirit! Show us your joy in being among us and remind us that the story is already written. Amen

Do you know anybody who tends to expect the worst?

Maybe they look into the past and say “oh, things were so much better then! The Good Old Days were so much better than today.”

Or maybe they peer into the future, fearing the worst thing they can imagine and unwilling to see how things could be better than they are today, even if today is a really bad day.

My mother was always a pretty even-tempered person but she had an eagle eye for police officers. To the best of my knowledge neither she, nor my father, nor any of our extended family ever interacted much with police officers. I don’t think they even got traffic tickets!

But if there was a police officer anywhere around she would admonish us in an urgent voice: “Look out! Police!”

I have no idea what she thought would happen. I could be driving 60 mph in a 65 mph zone and she would look over at the speedometer and say the same thing:  “Look out! Police!” It was startling and I always wondered why
1) She assumed we were doing something wrong and
2) She assumed the policer officer wanted and intended to catch and punish us thoroughly.

In another example, I have a friend who has been certain on and off for the last decade or so that he was about to lose his job. Even after 28 years with the same employer, an excellent record, and a boss that begs him not to retire, every new frustration leads to “This is it! I know I’ve said it before, but this time it’s REAL! I don’t see how I will keep my job this time.”

And after a couple of decades I have to squint and say “it has never happened before, so why are you so adamant – even in the face of much evidence to the contrary – that this time you will be let go?” And every time the answer is the same “No no, this time it’s different.”

Despite decades of no interaction with traffic police, and keeping his job, my mother and my friend both clung to the very human tendency to worry that something terrible and punitive was going to come any minute.



I thought of these stories as I read the middle part of today’s reading: “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; BE LIKE THOSE WHO ARE WAITING”

My mother and my friend were waiting, I think. Waiting for a police siren, or a pink slip. Waiting to be “caught”, even though they didn’t ever seem to be doing anything “catch-worthy.”

Why do we do that?

When do we learn to fear what comes next?

We don’t show as much that kind of fear as children. Wee little children look forward to each moment with wonder and excitement. Christmas! My birthday! We’re going to Disney! DADDY’S HOME! MOMMY’S HOME!

It takes a good long time to go from that certain hopefulness to become the equally certain (and maybe equally misplaced) anxiety about what comes next.



How did you hear the text today, the warning to “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; BE LIKE THOSE WHO ARE WAITING”

Did you hear it with trepidation, as in “brace yourselves because judgment is coming!”

or as a promise, as in

“only thirteen more days until my birthday complete with presents and cake and ice cream and a party!”

I will confess I came down on the worried side. Every time I read this passage I am surprised when the story talks about staying alert because the master will serve up a meal for those who are alert!

Really! That’s what it says!!

Not “look out because if you don’t watch out you will get in big trouble,” but

“look out! You don’t want to miss this chance to have dinner together and enjoy what your master has to offer.”

It makes me wonder what that dinner would be like. Maybe choice delicacies that the master brought back from traveling? Stories of the exotic scenes and interesting people on that trip? Did he want to sit down and share that with someone, and the people in his household were there, even if it was night time?

What if the master wants to sit with his household workers because he missed them, and just enjoys their company?

In thinking of those possibilities, it sounds like this passage is inviting us to be excited like children when we think of God showing up in our lives rather than worried and fearful like adults.

Children live in hope, aren’t afraid to believe that a good thing is coming (sometimes even though it means sore disappointment). As God’s children we can behave like children in that regard: we can look into the future with happy anticipation instead of fearing the worst. We can relax into knowing that God is HAPPY TO SEE US!

 As adults we may recognize that the world is broken and disappointments and pain (and even traffic tickets) abound.

But as Christians, followers of Jesus, people whose master is the God of love – the God who IS love – we know that those pains and disappointments are not the whole story.

We know, in fact, that the end of the whole story has already been written. The story that started at Creation and all things were created by the Word of God…

That in Jesus the Word became flesh and showed us what it looks like to live out a life of love and grace, even in a broken world.

That even though Jesus lived the perfect life of love, the dark brokenness seemed to win – but only for the merest moment in time! – because even though Jesus died a real, human death, that death could not hold him and he was Resurrected! He came back and served his disciples food.

Can you imagine the dread those disciples felt? This was JESUS! How could he be killed? It wasn’t supposed to be that way!

AND IT WASN’T! Because in the REAL end of the story the Resurrected Jesus is alive. The dread we think we have to feel in our broken world has been shown to be unnecessary. We can live like the children we are, certain that the story will not end with whatever pain and fear and anxiety may seem to be lying at our feet.

We live in a broken world but it is the same broken world that Jesus came to live in.

The brokenness could not hold Jesus and because of the Resurrection it cannot hold you.

As a result, you do not have to worry anymore.

You only have to know that this traffic ticket, this medical bottle, this job loss, or whatever difficult thing you anticipate (accurately or not) is not the end of the story.

The end of the story is already written and IT IS GOOD.

Jesus wins, and IT IS GOOD.

Amen.

What would YOU do if you were infinitely wealthy?

Last night I went to sleep sad that my home state of Texas had been the site of yet another mass shooting, this time in El Paso. This morning I woke up to learn that people Dayton, Ohio had joined the awful list of shooting sites a mere six hours or so after the El Paso shooting.

Over the past week 33 people were killed and 56 people were injured in mass shootings in Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH. All shooters were white, young, and male. May God be with all the people in those 98 networks of humanity - and members of the human networks shattered in all the other shootings that have happened all over the world, the overwhelming majority of which have been in the United States. And may God move the hearts of the legislators and lobbyists who prefer to see this massive loss of life rather than provide a safer environment for everyone who dares to go to Walmart, or to a restaurant, to a garlic festival, or to school.

Now... on to the gospel. Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives me much-needed hope on a day like today.

I preached the message below at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chapel Hill, NC. A recording of the message as delivered in the 11:00 am service is here.

The lectionary texts for today are:
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm 49:1-12
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

Come Holy Spirit. Show us where true wealth lies. Amen.

What would YOU do if you were infinitely wealthy?

The rich landowner was not infinitely wealthy of course, but he thought he was set for life. That he could just hoard it all away and be good to go.

I hear this story and I wonder: What Jesus was getting at? Why this story at this moment? In the verses before he is surrounded by hordes of people – they were falling all over each other – but Jesus was focused on his disciples:

* What you do in secret will be proclaimed from the housetops, or on facebook.
* Don’t worry about the bullies who can kill your body – God cares about little short-lived sparrows, God CERTAINLY cares about you!
* Don’t worry about what you have to say when you are brought into court. The Holy Spirit is with you and will give you the words you need to say.

In other words – stay focused on Jesus and don’t worry about the worldly powers around you.


When I read today’s Gospel story, then, one could get the distinct idea that Jesus is still talking about the same things. About what is important, about how much we need to worry (or not worry), and about our relationship with the powerful AND the not so powerful in the world.

It sounds, perhaps, like a parable about stewardship.

Now don’t gasp! I’m not going to talk about money, and as a visitor in this place I have nothing to say about budgets or money or supporting your congregation. All those things are very good and very important, but somebody else is doing a good job with them and I don’t have to get into that.

It's pretty clear, though, the Jesus was not supportive of the stewardship of this rich landowner. Which might seem kind of weird if you live in our world today. I mean, the landowner took care of his stuff and worked hard to accumulate wealth. By today’s standards, that landowner was pretty moral and responsible and maybe even holy! Isn’t that what we are SUPPOSED to do, goes the wisdom of the day? Accumulate wealth so we can “live like nobody else”?

It’s so much a part of our current society that working itself seems to have lost its meaning. Doing the work is now a low-class thing. We are urged to accumulate wealth, and if we don’t have to work for that wealth, more the better! Make your money work for you!

Work has, in fact, been redefined not in terms of contributing to a community, but only in terms of money. And if you aren’t the one accumulating more money, you are probably the one doing the tasks that allow others to accumulate.

The messages from our society and culture get awfully close to saying “greed is good.”

Having enough in retirement savings has taken the place of living in relationship with others and meeting the needs of all people by sharing wealth, paying fair wages, and respecting the humanity of workers (not to mention students, children, and older members of the community.)

People are called “resources” if not “commodities” and value comes not from being a person worthy of respect, decent housing, and adequate food, but the means for others to accumulate wealth.

We are encouraged to

Save early!   Gather wealth! Make sure there is enough!

But we don’t ever really know what is enough, do we.

We just know that in a world where money is the only basis of value, not having money means being cast aside, ignored, and denied the basic that things every human being requires and deserves.

Does that sound more like the rich landowner’s world? Or the world Jesus was proclaiming to his disciples?



No wonder Paul denies the differences that marked humanity in his day:
* Greeks and Jews
* Circumcised or not
* Slave or free
* Barbarians who didn’t even speak Greek or Scythians who had a wealthy, complex culture known for their expertise at war.

Today we might say
* Lutheran or Methodist or Episcopalian or Baptist
* Tattooed or not
* Enslaved in human trafficking or border detention or prison, or living the life of privilege based on race
* Pacifists or those who treasure the right to bear arms

Paul is saying that we are all the same. We are all beloved children of God, and that is the important thing. Since Paul is talking about Jesus-followers, we can say that in our baptism we are all made one, without hierarchy.

In those passages we hear that the central assumptions and dividers of social order are cast aside and made irrelevant. CHRIST is the only thing relevant.

Note that Paul is not calling for insurrection or revolution or rebellion. It is so much more than that! He is not calling for overthrow of the social distinctions, he says THEY DO NOT MATTER.


According to the Teacher in Ecclesiastes, there are even more problems: even if we do a great job of building up wealth, we do not know or have control over what will happen to that wealth after we die.

We do not know that our heirs will be responsible with that wealth, or that they will continue our legacy. We tell ourselves that wills and trusts and documents will take care of that… but once we are gone, we literally have no more say in the matter.


But if we aren’t supposed to build wealth, what are we supposed to do with all those resources? Some people have always had more and others less. Jesus himself said the poor will always be with us. So what about THAT?

Well… WHAT IF

Instead of focusing on filling our barns and bank accounts, we focused on building community?

Instead of working long hours for high pay we spent more time with each other, learning about our dreams and pains, anxieties and fascinations?

Instead of accumulating more wealth for a retirement of leisure and travel that may never happen (note the landowner in the gospel!) we give ourselves time to rest and enjoy each other now. To build stronger relationships, to get to know the people around us even if they look and sound and earn salaries different than our own?

Instead of smarter phones we had more, kinder, deeper relationships?

WHAT IF the three shooters this week had been loved by communities that valued all people so much that it never occurred to them to pick up a gun? Would there have been 33 fewer deaths, 65 fewer injuries? 98 fewer families and relationship networks who did not have to bear the burden and pain of so much loss?


Whaddya think?

Could you make a difference for someone?

Or are you thinking… “uh, yeah… right! She clearly doesn’t understand how the world works!”

And maybe I don’t. I completely admit that that may be true. Especially this morning. I do not understand.

But I do know that the whole point of Jesus life, death, and Resurrection was to show us how to do things differently than the world does them.

Over and over Jesus told people to change their focus from the current social order to a new order in which the one with the most stuff, or money, or guns or power, is NOT the one who wins.

In our baptisms we are brought into a new way of being, based not on accumulation of anything and entirely on…

JESUS.

Let me ask that question I asked at the beginning once again…

What would you do if you were infinitely wealthy?

Would you even know that you were?

Would you keep trying to push your net-worth needle higher and higher?

Or would you maybe turn to accumulating power based on that wealth?

OR

Would you share what you have?

Would you spend your time and energy coming up with new ways to enjoy the wealth in your community?

Would you build relationships that could meet all kinds of needs, not just the ones that can be met by spending more money? Not just your own needs?


The answer to that question is critically important, and it isn’t easy, and no matter what you answer we will still be living in this same society and culture that has a very particular set of values.

But here is the BEST NEWS:

You are, in fact, infinitely wealth in the only thing that actually matters for all eternity:

JESUS.

You will never run out of Jesus and you can never accumulate more of Jesus. You can live secure in knowing that living like Jesus, living into your baptism, is enough.

So turn your attention.

Use your time.

Go find new and interesting ways to better understand exactly what you have, and then

Share it with everyone in your life.

And when you have shared with everyone already in your life, go and find others and bring them into your life, too!

Spread that good stuff around because in relationship, with Jesus and with each other, we can do what Jesus taught: Live differently. Live with each other. Be about the goodness of love.

Amen.

How do we know who deserves help?

This message was delivered in both services at Holy Trinity Lutheran in Chapel Hill. They were a lovely, welcoming group and I'm happy to know I will be speaking to them again next week. This week the passage from Genesis raised some questions and it was fascinating to me how the passage from Luke answered those questions.

The texts for the week are:

Genesis 19:20-32

Psalm 138

Colossians 2:6-19

Luke 11:1-13

Come Holy Spirit. Show us with your extravagant, audacious love as we come to know you in prayer. Amen.

The story in today’s Old Testament lesson always reminds me of the way young people negotiated when I was a high school teacher. It was all about testing boundaries, and although the ultimate goal might have been to know where the boundaries were to live within them, the testing could be ruthless. Most of the time it felt MUCH more like they were just trying to find weak spots so they could identify workarounds, technicalities, and loopholes.

I eventually figured out that things went better if I didn’t have too many rules. Rules seemed to lead to more loopholes and way too often ended up in conversations that, 

Well…

Conversations that sound a lot like the one Abraham had with God in today’s reading. Those conversations WORE – ME – OUT.

As a result, I MARVEL at how patient God is with Abraham. To every question Abraham asked, God seems to be saying “hmmm… ok, yes, let’s do that!”

In fact, God was so agreeable to everything that Abraham asked that I have often wondered: what if Abraham had kept on going?

What if he had said “ok, God, what if there are FIVE faithful people? Or 1? What about zero!?! Would you preserve them simply out of love? Completely undeserved love? Based entirely on who you are?”

Seriously! Why did Abraham quit asking? Can we actually know enough about God to predict how that conversation might have gone?

Why did God keep saying “Ok”?

Where is the vengeful God that many people think resides in the Old Testament? Where is the bloodthirsty punishing God?

Could it be that God was so susceptible to Abraham’s flattery that he was tricked? That God simply could not tell Abraham no?

Or – could it be that God was (once again) showing a pattern of preference for redemption? That what sounds a little obsequious and flattering was instead simply the truth: God would NEVER want to hurt the righteous?

Do you suppose Abraham later saw what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah and thought… what if I had asked one more time? 

Because it is so, so hard to know… is NOW the moment to give up? Should I ask for an even more extravagant gift? 

Is NOW the moment that I decide there is no more hope, or should I keep waiting and hoping and listening for one more hour, or one more week, or maybe another month? Or a year? When is it enough?

But WAIT! That is the very question Jesus answers for us today in the gospel lesson! Jesus answers the disciples’ request for a prayer with one that seems to say 

          “you’re the kind of God who wants us to be fed, 

                    who wants us to be forgiven so we can start fresh, 

                              who wants us to be kept away from trouble.”

And just in case we miss the point that the prayer is an acknowledgment of who God IS, not what we want, Jesus then offers not one but two object lessons:

1. Persistence can be as important as anything else in getting our needs being met and

2. God is at least as kind (and actually kinder) to all God’s people than you are towards your children

This is likely not a big surprise to any of you – that God is kind. But sometimes we forget, or get so wrapped up in our lives that who God is gets disconnected from what we do in our everyday lives.

For example, as we have been setting up the Parktown Food Hub, we have emphasized collecting donated food that is not connected to any federal program. We do that to emphasize the meaning of our priority to keep the hub open to anyone with need. We are very proud of that, and feel that every person deserves to have good, nutritious food no matter what else is happening in their lives.

And people love to hear it!

But lots of people also have to ask: how do you know who’s in need?

Our answer to that question is that if they show up, we assume they are in need.

But the next question is often something like “so you don’t do income checks?” as if the only reasons that people might need food are related to financial circumstances. Sometimes they are, but I realized as I was studying today’s texts that there are two ways to approach responding to need:

1. Go to great lengths to keep out people who may have dishonest motivations, even if there is a risk of leaving out someone.

2. Go to great lengths to not leave out anyone who might have a need, even if it means people with dishonest motivations are included.

This side of heaven, in a broken world with an imbalance of resources, we tend to want to find some middle ground, or balance – cast the net wide but avoid being tricked.

But in today’s texts, and in so many other places across Scripture, it simply does not seem that God is all that worried about balance. 

Certainly not in the conversation with Abraham! 

Not in Jesus’ stories of responding, once to persistence and the other based on love.

So…

WHAT IF God just doesn’t care about this idea we have of “balance”?

WHAT IF God just wants to show unrestrained, extravagant, lavish love?

WHAT IF God sees all need as the need for one thing: love. 

WHAT IF God looks at people coming to a food pantry, even people who are inclined to “game the system”, behaving in aggressive ways and getting irritable and argumentative over things like whether there is enough of the BEST applesauce… 

And all God sees is a person in need of love. Hungry for food, but also for community, and respect, and grace.

Because maybe that frustrating and frustrated person feels so out of control, so vulnerable, the food in the pantry becomes a flimsy barrier between the person and a life overwhelmed. And if that is the case, Jesus would not care whether they double-dipped on applesauce, or scammed the system by sending an adult child living in their household so they get two boxes of food instead of one. Jesus would look at those beloved children of God and say…

I know what you really need. You need love, and I have made it possible for those around you to focus on sharing that love – because I have given them all they need.

Jesus would say you need someone who will love you so much that you do not have to justify your existence or hunger or need.

You need someone who will give you anything to show you how much they care.

You need someone who would do everything to remove the barriers that stand between you and other people.

You need someone who would send their Son to show you how this activity called life is supposed to work.

You need ME, says Jesus. I have been there. I lived among you, fully human (and wearied by all those arguments sometimes!), and I died. But I did not stay dead because I did what you cannot do: I fulfilled the Law. I have taken care of everything that needs to be taken care of. I showed you God’s preference for redemption first hand, clearly, beyond denial.

In my Resurrection, says Jesus, I simplified everything as much as I could – reduced all the rules with their loopholes down to one thing:         Love.

I have loved you because you exist exactly as you are.

I have taken away everything that might keep us apart – everything that keeps you apart from each other. The world is still broken but you do not have to be overwhelmed… because you have me, says Jesus.

So the next time you wonder if maybe it’s too dangerous to love extravagantly 

          by making eye contact with a panhandler 

                    by offering forgiveness and grace to someone who has big problems because of their 

                    own bad judgement and choices

                               by showing up in situations that are supremely inconvenient and “not your job”

                                         by befriending someone with different political opinions that you have

Remember… when you show love in ways that seem risky or that don’t make sense  – you are behaving in the pattern of God.

Remember Abraham asking that God save all the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah just so that no righteous people would be harmed.

Remember the persistence, that in showing love to others – by loving without qualifying requirements – we are following Jesus and being a tiny bit more like God. We can never be God, of course, but we can lean that way.

And when we do not have it in us to do even the one thing left – to show that kind of love – Jesus is there filling the gap, redeeming our wrongs, giving us hope when on our own we can only be hopeless.

Remember and rejoice that Jesus did all the hard work so we are redeemed and can start fresh in any given moment… loving with the extravagant, lavish love of a God who would spare nothing to preserve each and every one of God’s children.

Amen.

Parktown Food Hub is open!

Yesterday was the opening ceremony for the Parktown Food Hub. Below are the comments from that opening ceremony. The names are the names of the people who said those sections - some people ad libbed, others stuck to the script. It was beautiful and the start of something that is entirely in God's hands. My hope and prayer and fervent dream is that that is where Parktown Food Hub stays forever.



<Pastor Anita>

Blessing The Threshold 
By Jan Richardson


This blessing
has been waiting for you
for a long time.

While you have been
making your way here
this blessing has been
gathering itself
making ready
biding its time
praying.

This blessing has been
polishing the door
oiling the hinges
sweeping the steps
lighting candles
in the windows.

This blessing has been
setting the table
as it hums a tune
from an old song
it knows,
something about
a spiraling road
and bread
and grace.

All this time
it has kept an eye
on the horizon,
watching,
keeping vigil,
hardly aware of how
it was leaning itself
in your direction.

And now that
you are here
this blessing
can hardly believe
its good fortune
that you have finally arrived,
that it can drop everything
at last
to fling its arms wide
to you, crying
welcome 
welcome
welcome.


<Lisa>WELCOME to the Parktown Food Hub!!

Today we might add to those beautiful words of Jan Richardson:

This blessing has been priming and painting walls, scrubbing floors, painting freezers, moving refrigerators, removing cabinet doors, assembling desks. This blessing has been repurposing children’s cubbies into bookshelves and shopping for large clocks. This blessing has been coming from many directions.

Today we are here at the beginning of something that is also the end of something else and a long path of people finding their ways here – of you finding your way here – to celebrate the opportunity to know and love all the people in our community. We are grateful for the volunteers and prayer partners that you will hear from next, and for the donors who gave money, supplies, and professional support for preparing this space. Major donors so far have been Triangle Pharmacy Ace Hardware for paint and supplies, RTI International for a cash, Parkwood HOA for proceeds from the SummerFest raffle, Immaculate Conception Catholic congregation for our first stocking of food and Pastor Johel Rodriguez who is also a professional painter.

<Sharon> This blessing is one of abundance! Donated paint and supplies, donated food, donated shelves. Shared scaffolding and generous gifts of time and expertise. There have been many conversations and hopes and dreams, many of which were completely independent of one another:

The day Lisa Greene and I were talking about how to use a potentially abundant funding from RTI International, we hit upon the idea of food pantry space to strengthen connections within the South Durham community

The day when Small World Day Care owner Dianne Mitchell made the difficult decision to retire, opening up space in the building and providing an abundance of space to make the hub possible.

<Bob Newlin> The years when I worked with Jan and Herb Schwarze, Brenda and Frank Stephens, and so many members of the Parkwood UMC congregation faithfully gather turkeys and stuffing mix and gravy and cranberry sauce to share with neighbors for holiday feasts.

<Pastor Anita> The day when I came to Parkwood, prepared to love and serve faithfully and work with the people in this place.

<Mike B> The day when the Parkwood UMC Administrative Board did an indepth study of their presence in the community and decided to turn their congregational face outward, towards others.

<Pastor Johel> The day when Avivamiento Latino Church started workshiping in this space, bringing joy and spirit and energy and creating a new way of doing ministry together.

<Aja> The dreaming that I (Aja Purnell-Mitchell) did with my husband Jon and colleague Sheri Starks and so many others in the community that there would be a hub in which boxes of food become a reason for connection but not the entire connection.

<Matt> The day I (Matt Babaian) enthusiastically embraced the hub by writing a proposal to Rotary International for support, bringing friends to paint, sharing his scaffolding, and always looking for ways to participate.

<Sharon> There was no one start to the Parktown Food Hub. Everyone here is a part of what this place will become in the years to come.

A space that was cleaned and painted in hundreds of person-hours over a one-week period: an abundance of helpers, too many names to mention, people who barely knew each other if they knew each other at all. The day that Pastor Anita, Lisa, and Sharon backed up Bob Newlin in scrubbing floors – sometimes on hands and knees. The days that Pastor Johel spent sharing his professional equipment and expertise to make sure that the painting could be completed in time. The daily drop-ins of Jimmy Layman, always at the right time to do the task that most needed to be done, always with a smile and a wave. The 25 community members who came from all over to put shelves together and put the food on shelves. The many more volunteers who will come be a part of this South Durham movement. The people who will be forming South Durham Connections.

This space has been given an abundance of new life, taking its place in the long line of community outreach and engagement that Parkwood UMC has offered.

<Autumn> This time, however, it goes beyond the United Methodist Church. Many of you who are present are here because the hub is an opportunity and matches your life values, without needing to be a part of Parkwood UMC. We are all one. This is a ministry of community, and Parkwood UMC is an important part of that community in graciously provided abundant support for this hub. But you can come here and be who you are. All are welcome. We are Brethren, Methodists, Lutherans, Wesleyans, Atheists, Agnostics, Baptists, Episcopalians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and that largest group of all: Searching. An abundance of perspectives that together make us stronger.

<Pastor Anita> Between the walls and the paint in the hub are an abundance of blessings, many of them brought by you. Bible verses in English and Spanish, musical quotes and best wishes from Girl Scouts, poetry and prayers. All that blessing and hope and grace will always surround us, always be present in the work of the hub.

Whoever you are, we love you and we hope you keep coming back, bringing your abundant gifts and heart and thoughts to this place of community caring for community.


AND NOW – WE DECLARE THE PARKTOWN FOOD HUB OPEN! – (Ribbon Cutting here)


<Sharon>Thank you for coming today! We hope you come back often. Our first food distributions will be on August 12 and August 26 – we have flyers with all the details.

In a moment we will open the doors and you will be able to get a sneak peek of the hub. We have FAQs and people will be around to answer questions you have that are not in the FAQ page. And then… please stay and enjoy the water slide and hot dogs and other gifts offered lovingly by the people of Parkwood UMC and the staff of the Parktown Food Hub. And now, before the fun begins in earnest, please receive this rich and abundant blessing, written by Jan Richardson:



<Sharon>
And the Table Will Be Wide
A Blessing for World Communion Sunday
By Jan Richardson


And the table
will be wide.
And the welcome
will be wide.
And the arms
will open wide
to gather us in.
And our hearts
will open wide
to receive.

And we will come
as children who trust
there is enough.
And we will come
unhindered and free.
And our aching
will be met
with bread.
And our sorrow
will be met
with wine.

And we will open our hands
to the feast
without shame.
And we will turn
toward each other
without fear.
And we will give up
our appetite
for despair.
And we will taste
and know
of delight.

And we will become bread
for a hungering world.
And we will become drink
for those who thirst.
And the blessed
will become the blessing.
And everywhere
will be the feast.



Go in peace! Love each other! Look at the Parktown Food Hub and have a good time!




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