Jesus and Justice: Gracious Interruption

8-25-19

Grace and peace to you from God our creator and from our Lord and savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Every three years, almost a thousand delegates from across the country attend the Church Wide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran church in America, or just Churchwide assembly for short.  Two weeks ago, I traveled with over a dozen other voting members from our synod to spend 5 days freezing in air-conditioning doing the important business of the church.

Just for starters, that week we reelected Presiding Bishop Eaton, and elected a new secretary of the ECLA, Deacon Sue Rothermyer. We voted to support the World Council of Churches’ movement “Thursdays in Black” and approved the new social statement “Faith, Sexism, and Justice.” We issued a public apology to the African descent Lutherans and approved the commemoration June 17^th as a day of repentance and remembrance of the Emanuel 9. We committed to standing with refugees and immigrants, to affirming our ecumenical and interfaith partnerships. And this is not even half of what the ELCA accomplished that week.

It was such an intense week, that it was a very good thing that afterward I took some vacation to honor the 3^rd commandment.  How many of you remember what the third commandment is? Hint – it’s not a “Shall Not!” “Remember the …. Sabbath day, and keep it holy.” According to our small Catechism, Martin Luther explains, “We are to fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching or God’s word, but instead keep that word holy and gladly learn from it.”

Just as God rested on the 7^th day of creation, we as God’s people need a day of rest. All in God’s creation were commanded to embrace our limitation and be reminded that God created us for life, not for exhaustion. The Sabbath day is a gift, freely and lovingly given for our benefit.

But, what do we humans too often do with things that are free gifts from God? We try to control them, regulate them, create a lot of rules around how to properly exercise this gift. The Sabbath day was no expectation. Enter Jesus, teacher, preacher, and gracious interrupter.

You may remember Jesus’s controversial first sermon, where he proclaimed that through him, God would release the captives, give sight to the blind, and let the oppressed go free. That one was not exactly well received, but here Jesus is again, teaching in the synagogue. We will never know what Jesus was preaching on this particular day, because he stops, mid sermon, for someone in immediate need of that freedom and release.

That woman was literally invisible. Bent over double for as many years as it takes a kindergartner to graduate from high school. She was unable to stand up straight, unable to see and participate in the world around her, in a world where she was already mostly invisible for being a woman.

Perhaps you too have walked into worship feeling much like this woman – feeling physically or emotionally bound and bent over by things in your lives that are heavy and hard to bear. Perhaps you too, have felt unseen and invisible to those around you

When Jesus sees this woman, he stops everything. Her healing cannot even wait until the end of the sabbath day, or even till the end of his sermon! He has to heal her RIGHT NOW….and in doing so, Jesus broke the rules.

The leader of the synagogue was understandably upset that the worship service was being disrupted. These religious leaders were doing their very best to preserve these expressions of their faith in a world that worked against them at every turn, trying to be faithful to the ways that their ancestors worshiped God in the past during a time they were under heavy oppression themselves.

So when the bent over woman became UN-bent, this synagogue leader became BENT out of SHAPE. He could not see that when one of us is bent over, we all are. None of us is free until we all are.

 

Today is an anniversary that we would all much rather forget. Four hundred years ago, in late August, 1619, the first slaves were brought to the shores of what would become the United States of America, Twenty people, stolen from their families and homes from what is modern Angola, arrived to be the first sold into chattel slavery.

Though the emancipation proclamation was signed in 1863, the legacy of slavery is still with us today. From the racial wealth gap to arrest and sentencing disparities, from discrimination in housing, job searches, red-lining, the criminal justice system, banking, and education, African Americans face structural and personal obstacles that I as someone of European Descent do not face. Even if my European ancestors never owned slaves, I still benefit from the system and legacy of slavery…. Including in our own religion and denomination. This year, the ELCA issued a public apology to Lutherans of African descent, which was read during the most recent churchwide assembly. While it is incomplete and imperfect, it is a first step in recognizing the complex relationship between structural racism and the ELCA. It is the first step toward honesty and freedom for all Lutherans, white and persons of color.

One of the many books I picked up at the Churchwide assembly is “Luther’s Small Catechism with African Descent Reflections." After Luther’s explanation of the 3^rd commandment, we read that the sabbath “is the first fair labor law” and “is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money….”  Keeping the sabbath “is about lives that are captured by a God who keeps faith with us and who keeps on intruding graciously into our lives.” (p. 17)

That gracious intruder is of course Jesus. If you recall, Jesus graciously intrudes from birth…. Truly from BEFORE birth, when an angel intrudes on Mary to tell her she would bear a son. And again, AT his birth, when the heavenly host interrupted some shepherds on the night shift. And all during his life, Jesus graciously intrudes, again and again, shaking up our rules and assumptions about God. Until the rule-makers decided they had had enough with this rule breaker troublemaker.

But Jesus wasn’t done graciously intruding. Jesus interrupted death. He intruded on the funeral preparations of the women at the tomb. He appeared incognito and joined the two travelers walking to Emmaus, and interrupted their dinner as he revealed himself in the breaking of the bread.

And his followers have continued to graciously intrude on Jesus’ behalf, because we are called follow Jesus’ example, to raise up the bent over, see the unseen. To break the rules that need to be broken…  and then to rejoice, like the bent over woman, when together we have been set free.

“Ought not this woman, “Jesus asks, “a beloved Child of God, bound for 18 long years, be set free from this bondage on this sabbath day?”

Yes, Lord, yes! Justice can’t wait any more. 18 years is too long. 400 years is too long. Now is the time. Freedom happens now.

We – as Jesus followers, and co-workers in the kingdom - are called to graciously intrude on the processes of evil, sin, and death at work in the world. Sometimes we are just too polite for our own good, and too worried that this intruding grace will be seen as a disrupting disturbance. And you are right… it IS! It is as disrupting as looking up the first time in 18 years. 

It is as disrupting as an apology 400 years in the making. It is as disrupting as hundreds of women clergy from age 24 to 104 processing into worship to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of women’s ordination, the 40^th anniversary of the ordination of the first woman of color in the ELCA, and the 10^th anniversary of the ordination of LGBTQIA+ clergy with no restrictions. It is as disruption as a thousand Lutherans march to local ICE headquarters, or a thousand Lutherans wearing black to stand in solidarity with victims and survivors of gender-based violence, a thousand Lutheran lighting a candle to mourn the senseless gun violence run rampant in this country. It is as disruptive as a “bold little nobody monk” in Germany nailing some theses to a church door. It is as graciously disruptive as a Sunday morning, as an empty tomb, as water, bread, and wine.

It is as disruptive as freedom itself.

Justice can’t wait any more. Now is the time. This is the day to be set free – that YOU are set free - from bondage. YOU are set free... and you can free others. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Processing into worship on Friday of the ELCA Churchwide assembly 

"What Does It Mean for Women to Proclaim the Gospel?" ELCA CWA 2019

"What does it mean for women to proclaim the gospel?"

I was asked to be one of three speaks at the banquet celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women, 40th anniversary for women of color, and 10th for LGBTQIA+ no barriers at the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Milwaukee. I spoke first, with the prompt given above.  Sadly, this event was not live-streamed. 

As many wiser women before me have said – none of us would be here, proclaiming the Gospel, WITHOUT women. Without women, there would be neither filled womb nor witnesses at the empty tomb. Women paved the way for Jesus’s ministry with their feet, their money, and with their voices.  Many along the way have tried to silence those voices, both then and now, by telling us we are not good enough or smart enough or tough enough to hack it out there in ministry. But we don’t listen. We won’t be silent.

When the preaching contest for the Lutheran World Federation Assembly went live, I could have listened to the other voices out there, saying: I would never be good enough to actually be chosen. I didn’t listen, and I entered anyway. Because I knew that if I really believed that a woman should be up in that pulpit, I had to put some skin in the game. I had to have some faith that God was calling a woman to do it, and that woman might be me. And my voice seemed more important than ever, once I arrived at that Assembly of global Lutherans, because almost a fifth of the member churches of the Lutheran World federation still do not allow women to proclaim from the pulpit. But. I. Did. And I did it because of all of my women mentors who have blazed the trail ahead of me and nurtured me, and I did it for all the women who will come after. 

When a woman preaches the gospel, God is not calling her DESPITE her higher-pitched voice… but BECAUSE HER voice – whatever octave - NEEDS to be heard. When a woman preaches the Gospel, God is not using her regardless of the chance that it might be “that time of the month” …. But BECAUSE all blood is holy is the source of all life, including hers. When a woman preaches the Gospel, God is not sending her in SPITE of what people might be saying about her ambition or anger or “bossy-ness” but BECAUSE she is passionate for justice, has true leadership qualities, and gets stuff done.

We all know why Jesus REALLY came as a man – not because of something inherently male in the perfect nature of God, but because of something imperfect in how we treat one another. Every time a woman proclaims, she is affirming God’s desire to smash the patriarchy.

When a woman proclaims the Gospel… she puts herself on the line, so that little girls and little boys Can see the face of God through her and hear the love of God through her. When a woman proclaims the Gospel, she breaks the stained-glass ceiling, also pulls to freedom all the women coming after her. When a woman proclaims the gospel, her words can live on in the mouths of other women preachers – and men preachers too.

Someday the sun will rise on a Sunday morning with no more “firsts” to overcome, no more stained-glass ceilings to break - We’re not there yet. But every woman who preaches brings us one day closer. Thanks be to God! 

Bigger isn't Better

8-4-19

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.

Currently I’m addicted to a show on Netflix called “Living Mortgage Free.” Doesn’t that sound nice? People go to some pretty creative lengths to either pay off their mortgages quickly, or forgo living with a mortgage altogether…… and often it involved a large dose of downsizing. One woman converted an old rusty barge into a nice one-person flat (this is a British show, by the way). Another couple got creative with a two shipping containers and reclaimed wood, and still another family completely gutted a double-decker bus to create the perfect handicap-accessible home on a small budget.

While most of the families featured in “Living Mortgage Free” are choosing to scale back, pare down, and simplify, this farmer in the story that Jesus tells SUPER-SIZING. The land he owns is producing the bumper crop to end all bumper crop, and his current barns are filled to the brim. So, he consulted himself – this guy seems to talk to himself a lot! – and came up with a great idea! Built bigger barns! Store the bumper crop away, save it for another day. What a great plan.

Except that this farmer forgot about something. He seemed to forget the rest of that saying we all know… you know, the one that goes, “Eat, drink, and be merry for….. (Tomorrow we die.)” And that’s exactly what happens. God comes to visit him in the night, not necessary to TAKE the life of this man… but to inform him of his own death that very night.

This is a parable of warning. Don’t be like the farmer. But… I think many of us would like to be in the farmer’s shoes… except for the end, of course. We would love to see a windfall come our way, perhaps in the form of a tax refund, a raise, or a Christmas bonus, and build “bigger barns” in the form of the newest iPhone or smart phone gadget, the latest Fitbit or video game system… Or a larger house in order to fit all of our stuff and our kids’ stuff…..  or a bigger garage, because we can’t even fit our car in there anymore….. or paying the monthly fee for one of those new storage units that are being built just down the road on 611.

But more and more, I think, our “bigger barns” look like your innocent-looking, common, everyday credit card. Because nowadays we don’t even have wait for that windfall to come in before building bigger barns. Everything around us tells us to spend, spend, spend…”just pay the minimum”…  

It wants you to think they’re helping you. But they are actually digging you a hole. Finance charges and high interest rates, digging deeper and deeper into debt. Our credit score tanks, and the collection agencies come calling, and suddenly our lives become bound to our stuff, to this little piece of plastic, stick in this hole. And this hole just so happens to be six feet deep. Which is exactly where that farmer ended up finding himself.

This farmer was on top of the world, with everything going for him, and so he forgot all about God. He only consults with himself, is only concerned with himself and his own future comfort. He made plans to secure his future without any reference to God… or to other people. He was only rich toward himself. And so, his fate became “death by stuffication.”

This farmer could be a poster child of Luther’s definition of sin- to gaze at one’s belly-button, to be curved in on oneself, until that becomes all we can see, so that we not only miss out on sharing God’s gifts with others, but completely miss the fact that all things come from God in the first place.

Life is not about our belongings and what inheritance is “due” to us, Jesus said to crowd. Instead, life is about WHO we belong TO. We belong to God, who claimed us in our baptisms as beloved children…all siblings in the family of God, who gave us a peek of our true inheritance when Jesus defeated death and was raised from the tomb on the third day.

Our own money, our “real” money, ironically enough, constantly reminds us, “In God we trust.” Not in money. Not in stuff. Not in bigger barns. Not is securing our own future. But we trust in God. Fear, love, AND trust, to be exact, at least according to Luther’s explanation of the first commandment. And God does not demand our life in an unfillable hole of debt and death. God is the source of all life, the giver of OUR lives and all that we have.

I know a little girl who once was deeply passionate about saving her pennies for the St. Jude’s children’s hospital, so when she had her first communion, instead of buying her a gift, I made a donation to St. Jude’s in her name, and she was thrilled.  We grownups forget, as the farmer forgot, the message you sometimes see floating around Facebook the saying you might have heard: “If you are more fortunate than others, it is better to build a longer table than a taller fence.” Or, as Jesus might have added, it is better to build a longer table than to build bigger barns.

As always, Jesus leaves us with some hard things to think about – how we downsize or divest our barns that block our generosity - and instead elongate our tables for welcome and hospitality. We as a nation and we as the people of God have a long way yet to go in the realm of table-building and inclusion instead of fence building.

In the case of the church, our windfall bumper crop was a prominent but unearned place in cultural suburban fabric, balanced budgets and overpopulated Sunday Schools. And what did many churches do in the face of such abundance? We built bigger barns, in the form of education wings and sanctuary expansions, perhaps to the detriment of expanding our “welcome table.”

After all, that’s what you do when the family of God grows, when the building is full… get a bigger building, right? Only we know all too well that growth is not linear or guaranteed. As a result, we, like many churches, are far from “living mortgage free” - burdened under the weight of maintenance projects to keep the building going, draining our time, energy, and our ministry resources…. All so our building can stand mostly unused much of the week. In good faith, we added to the Church Building, but perhaps neglected to add to the CHURCH BODY - the body of Christ. Big difference.

And even pastors make this mistake. Nearly every week at our pastors’ Bible study, the dean of our conference catches at least one of us saying “Church” when we really mean “the church building.” Every time, he reminds us there is a big different between the church – the body of Christ, the people, and the church campus – the location, the building.

As the ELCA we are about to illustrate that difference between church building and church Body, by gathering as voting members on the city of Milwaukee for a week of BEING the church. The theme for our week is “We are Church.” Not a in church building, but church together in our diversity of languages and cultures. Who just all happen to be hanging out in my home state for a week, doing important business of the church. We’ll do more than pass budgets, hear reports, and make amendments to amendments. We’ll do more than lament the state of our buildings. We’ll celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the ordination of women, the 40^th anniversary of the ordination of women of color, and the 10^th anniversary of the ordination of LGBTQ pastor in partnered relationships. We will eat together and have hard conversations together. We will worship together and break bread together. And then we’ll come back home, but we’ll be reminded that we are not in this alone.

THAT’S what it means when we say, WE are church. We are church who expands our tables and not our buildings. We are church who expands our hearts and open our hands. We are church, free despite our mortgage. We are church, a body not a building. Thanks be to God. Amen.

(Children's sermon: cards from game IN A PICKLE, with a "Barn" card)