I is for Inspired to Talk about Things We Don't Normally Talk About In Church.

Content warning: This sermon contains references to sex, sexual violence, abortion, and purity culture. 

Sermon 2-10-19

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

The good news is that we are over half way through our season of baptism! We’ve covered a lot of ground so far, so let’s do a quick review of all the letters we’ve done:

B = Born anew, A = Affirmed, P = EmPowered, T = Trust.

Today is… Inspired. I thought of the word Inspired way before I read Rachel Held Even’s great new book about the Bible by the verysame name. I will be using it heavily during Lent for our “Eat, Pray, Learn” series on the Bible every Thursday night. In her book, Evans writes about the Bible’s inception –it did not fall out of the sky in perfectly complete English. The Bible was actually written by imperfect people over a period of centuries, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is inspired, or “pneustros”, a Greek word meaning “God breathed.”

Evens explains, “Inspiration….  is rooted in the imagery of divine breath, the eternal rhythm of inhale and exhale… Inspiration is not some disembodied ethereal voice dictating words or notes…. It’s a collaborative process… [and] God is still breathing. The Bible is both inspired and inspiring.” (xxiii)

In the beginning, God soared on the wind over the raging waters of creation… and breathed creation into being by saying the words, “let there be life…” At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the first followers of Jesus in a great rush of wind and mysterious tongues of flame. Jesus the son of God came to earth as a person with a body – with lungs, a windpipe, and a diaphragm, and used his breath to tell people the good news, teach about the kingdom of God, to cast out demons, and to heal.

When God breathes and speaks… stuff happens. That’s inspiration… IN – SPIRE… IN – SPIRIT…. The spirit of God dwells in us, gives us life, and creation responds.

Imagine, at that lakeshore, Peter and his fellow fishermen huffing and puffing, out of breath as they ended a long and unproductive night of fishing – exhausted – literally with their breath drained out. Along comes Jesus, who tells them to go into the deep waters and try again. They do, somewhat reluctantly, but then are shocked at the size of their catch – so big, their boat starts to sink from the weight of all that fish!

At this miracle before their very eyes, Peter makes a correct assumption – this man must be from God. When Jesus commands, stuff happens. But this realization terrifies Peter. Jesus is holy. Peter is not. Sacred does not mix with profane. Pure does not mix with impure. Jesus should not be hanging out with Peter, or Jesus will get tarnished by association. Surely, this man of God wants nothing to do with a sinner like Peter.

This makes me wonder – what kind of sinner was Peter? We are given exactly zero details. Was he a gambler, did he drink to much, was he a compulsive liar, did he steal, was he a murderer? We have no idea.

And yet, just a few chapters later, in Luke chapter 7, we meet another person who is ALSO deeply regretful of her past sins, like Peter. Jesus is at a dinner party, and a woman described as “living a sinful life” prostrates herself at Jesus’ feet, sobbing. The hosts of the party are aghast. They agree with Peter – Jesus should not hang out with “sinful” people!

I would like to point out that nothing is said about the woman’s sin either. And yet, in many commentaries and sermons throughout the centuries, this WOMAN was describes as having a sinful SEXUAL past, and Peter is not saddled with this stigma AT ALL. That is a big problem… and says more about US than it does about Peter or this woman.

If you follow the news, you may have noticed that Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber has made the news again. She just published a book called Shameless: A SexualReformation, where she lays out a new kind of sexual ethic within Christianity, based on grace, that is inspired by Luther himself. If each one of us was created with a body that is infused by the breath of God, our bodies are created good. Her manifesto challenges the prevailing notion that sex is a dangerous and terrible thing outside of heterosexual marriage, but WITHIN THAT TINY CORRAL it’s great!! But the experience of many faithful Christians tells us this is a one-size-fits all approach does severe damage to those who do not fit this mold.

Uncomfortable yet? Bolz-Weber takes on all kinds of topics in her book we don’t normally talk about in the church – sex, abortion, pleasure, pastors who are transgender, birth control, and body-shaming. But her book is also filled with things that we DO talk about in church… stewardship, holiness, purity, grace, creation, sin, and the Bible. She is very clear on one point though: purity is not the same as holiness, and for two long the church has conflated the two.

She reminds us that purity is the separation FROM something, and there is no way that any kind of purity system makes us holy and worthy of God’s love. Not the purity codes of Leviticus, nor the purity codes of books like“I Kissed Dating Goodbye” and the “True Love Waits” movement. Purity of any kind does not make us Holy… Jesus does. Over and over again Jesus is extending grace and holiness into places and to people that others deem to be “impure.”

Because the truth is, no one is really “pure” in any form. We have all been tainted in some way or another by the sin and brokenness and realness of the world. Life is complicated – a mixture of both good and bad, sin and holiness, imperfect people doing the will of a perfect God to the best of their ability.

But when institutions perpetuate to vulnerable people that certain actions are beyond even God’s redemption, this flies in the face of who our God has revealed Godself to be.

You may have heard a couple of other things in the news lately. The state of New York recently passed a law to decriminalize legal abortions after 24 weeks performed by medical professionals when it has been determined that either the woman’s life is in imminent danger, or the fetus has no chance of survival beyond birth. 24 weeks is the “magic number” because that is the point in a woman’s pregnancy that a fetus can likely physically live outside of the womb. This has been a struggle for many Christians, because of our mandate in the 10 commandments, “though shalt not murder.” Which seems self-explanatory.  As Luther explains: “We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life’s needs.” 

But life is complex, and so is the magic moment of when life begins. When is that, exactly? At conception? At 24 weeks when the fetus is “viable,” .... when a fetus can feel pain?  The Bible is not actually clear on this. In fact, In the ancient rabbinic tradition, life begins at birth, when a baby takes his or her first breath. That is when they believed that the soul entered the body. And before 1968, that is when conservative evangelical Christians agrees. It’s not until after the 1960s that the Pro-life movement even got started.

Nadia Bolz-Weber in her book writes about her own experience with abortion. According to her: “There are so many varied experiences of conception and pregnancy. Some of us long to conceive and never do; some of us have babies we did not want, some of us miscarried babies we desperately wanted…. There are many ways to view the issue and remain faithful.” 

But I think that everyone can agree on one thing, related to something ELSE that has just come up in the news: when a religious institution looks the other way as their leaders take advantage of female adherents and then force them to have abortions, and yet single-mindedly promotes Pro-life as one of its most cherished tenants, this is a level of hypocrisy that Jesus would have no problem vocally opposing – loudly and vehemently.

Nadia writes: “Jesus kept violating the boundaries of decency to get to the people on the other side of that boundary, who had been wounded by it….. the motherless, the sex workers, the victims, and the victimizers.”… and here I would add, fishermen. Jesus “cared about real holiness, the connection between the human and divine, the unity of sinners, the coming together of that which was formerly set apart.” (28)

In our baptisms, we are both set apart for the holy calling of God’s kingdom, and united with our fellow saints and sinners in living out this calling in a complicated world. The breath of God is present in each of us, enlivening and inspiring us. This cannot be diminished or removed, no matter how hard our fellow humans try. Thanks be to God. Amen.