"Taskmaster" Reformation Sunday

  Reformation Sunday Sermon 10-25-20

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

Imagine if I were to climb into the pulpit today, and find a sealed envelope, containing at task to perform, from Martin Luther himself. 

(Opens envelope) “Reformation Sunday Challenge: You task is to preach a sermon that, to the best of your ability, integrates interpretations of the Bible readings with modern day relevance, in way that makes meaning and connections in people’s lives, and expands their understanding of God, their faith, their community, and themselves. You have ten to 15 minutes. Your time starts NOW.”

Sometime last this summer, we began watching newish British show called Taskmaster. 5 comedians are set ridiculous tasks performed under pressure, using creative and funny solutions, competing for points that are given by the highly subjective “Taskmaster.” These tasks range from – do something that will look impressive in reverse, eat as much watermelon as you can in 1 minute, or make the “best” noise.  The person with the most points at the end of each show wins that episode, and the winner of the most points at the end of the season is the Task Master Champion.

Some things are easy to judge – after all, you can measure how much watermelon is left, for example – but…. What constitutes the “best” noise? As you can imagine, the main gag of the show is navigating the mostly arbitrary whims of the draconian “Taskmaster.”

To our modern sensibilities, the world that Martin Luther lived in may seem equally nonsensical, most demonstrated by the confusing hierarchy, doctrines, and practices of the church at that time… especially on how a person “gets to heaven.” Earning indulgences – ways to shave years off of purgatory - must have felt a little bit like trying to earn points and navigate the nearly impossible tasks. Only this was very much not comedy. It was real life - a matter of life, death, the afterlife, and eternal damnation. And that set the stage for a monk named Martin Luther to call out this abuse of power of the church as a “real life Taskmaster” and to share his 95 objections this arbitrary “point system.” Which paved the way for us to be here today, over five centuries later.

And 15 centuries before Martin Luther, the taskmasters and gatekeepers of this point system in another form were very alive and well. In this and the previous chapter in Matthew, Jesus had been tested relentlessly, supervised by the religious leaders of his day. Last week we heard Jesus give a wise answer to a very tricky question about paying taxes. But apparently the religious leaders had one more demand up their sleeves.

With this newest question, the religious leaders would be able to gauge where the very core of Jesus’s teaching lies. “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” they demand to know. Who are you, really? What do you stand for? Answer us! Your time starts now!

As usual, and in a way very much consistent with Taskmaster the show, Jesus didn’t quite stay in the parameters he was given. Jesus did not reply with just one commandment, as they had asked, but instead two.  Apparently Jesus preferred a kind of both-and situation… which became a pretty solidly Lutheran idea a few centuries later. 

Jesus knew his Torah. He knew that loving God is intimately tied to loving your neighbor, and trying to separate one from the other is like trying to separate rice suspended in a jar of honey – part of an actual task in the show. Jesus said, “On THESE TWO commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In other words, every single letter of the law and every single word out of the mouths of the prophets are supported by these two commandments. Without them, the Old Testament, and the New Testament for that matter, would fall in a heap on the floor, useless, like a coat without a hook. 

But love is a complicated word. Just what kind of love is Jesus talking about here? There are many kinds to choose from. I love watching TaskMaster…  I love my cats… AND I love my family. Is love what we see on the big screen, like Love Actually? Is what we experience like a Taylor Swift song or more like “Love Hurts”?

The people of Jesus’ time knew about a dozen words for “love” – it’s hard to fathom so much meaning in our one little word, L-O-V-E. Trying to define love as we know and experience it is like trying to figure out the best way to impress the Mayor of Chesham, which was an actual task on Taskmaster.  

Most of the time, we think of love as a strong emotion attached to someone who is dear to us. We all certainly know what love feels like, whether you have experienced love for a parent, a child, a spouse, or a dear friend. But love is more than just what we feel, - it’s what we do to show that love, sometimes at great personal cost to ourselves. Perhaps you know a parent who has given up a career to care for an ill child, or a friend who struggles day to day caring for an aging parent.

Loving the Lord our God with our entire heart, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbor as ourselves not in impossible task judged by a tyrannical Taskmaster.  Jesus did not come to be human among us to give us more rules to follow, on top all the regular challenges that life brings. Jesus did not come even to narrow down the rules to just the “really important ones.” Jesus did not come to give us the minimum requirement of getting into heaven – Love God and Love your Neighbor – because that is a pretty big ask.

This is a task that takes a lifetime to complete, and but you won’t have to do it alone. This is actually a “Team Task,” and here are your companions, present with us virtually, literally a “cloud” of witnesses. And beyond this place, our siblings of faith in different countries are following the same path. And even beyond this time, the saints have walked this path before us, loving God and one another, are present as well, cheering us on.

This is a strange and wondrous life that Jesus has called us to. It may not take us to foreign countries or encounter other cultures… but this invitation might just push you to do things that will test you in the name of love. Things that may seem impossible, but given creativity and vision, could turn out pretty surprising and amazing. But then again, love is pretty amazing, as Jesus has shown us – love arriving in the form a helpless child, healing for the sick, feeding the hungry, and advocating for the vulnerable, defending the poor and lifting up the weak. This love looks like a cross. This love looks like an empty tomb.

Now, this love looks like us. This love, is our task. We are the hands and feet of Jesus, called to show God’s love to the world. Are we up the task? I think we are…

Just a few minutes ago, I had a task to perform. Now it’s your turn. This one is from Jesus:

(Opens second envelope): “People of God: You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You have… the rest of your life. Your time starts… Now!” Thanks be to God, amen.

Coins and Crown Tickets

 10-18-20

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

Nine years ago this fall, I visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for the first time. After trekking all the way to Battery Park in New York City, waiting in line to get tickets, waiting in line to get on the ferry, waiting in line to get off the ferry, waiting in line to get through security…. It was only much later that it became clear – coming from the New Jersey side would have been much faster – there were almost no lines on that side!

In the famous great hall on Ellis Island is a stairway called the Stairs of Separation, which is divided into three sections – going to New Jersey, going to New York, and going to be detailed, maybe quarantined after failing the infamous health check.  I was surprised to learn that only steerage passengers arriving in the United States were subjected to the health check. Those with the money to upgrade to second class could skip over Ellis Island entirely!

Surely, over a hundred years later, things of this nature no longer happen… right? Imagine my surprise to learn that, at the Statue of Liberty, the purchase of the pricey Crown Tickets (to go all the way up to the top) allowed you to skip the rest of the line waiting to go through security at the statue and go right to the front.  Apparently no matter what era you live in – money talks.

Israel was a nation under the thumb of the oppressive and expansive Roman Empire… So, it was a matter of course that the Romans used their currency to remind the Jewish people who was boss. Currency that had the faces of Roman emperors on them, emperors who the Romans considered to also be gods. If you recall, this is in direct opposition to two dearly held beliefs of the Jewish faith – you shall have no other gods, and you shall make no grave images… (Remember that one from a few weeks ago?). But in order to function in society as a Roman occupied area, using these blasphemous Roman coins were compulsory.

In response, Jewish leaders found themselves in one of a few different factions with varying degrees of complicity or resistance to the Roman Empire. Of the two that are named in our text today, one is familiar to us - the Pharisees – the religious leaders with no love for Rome but tended to keep their heads down to retain their positions. We don’t know a lot about the other group – the Herodians -  except that they supported Herod, the ruler appointed by far-away Rome. Different groups with different perspectives, brought together by their mutual dislike of Jesus. As the saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

This encounter happens almost immediately after Jesus told that really difficult parable last week …. The Pharisees were quickly catching on that Jesus was talking about them, and saying things that would upset the delicate balance of survival. They had to figure out how to get rid of Jesus, and they decided to try to trick him into making a fatal mistake.

Together, these two groups devised a question with NO RIGHT ANSWER. “Is it lawful to pay taxes?” If Jesus says yes, then he would be validating the Roman oppression, which would probably anger his supporters and go against his message. But if he says NOT to paying, he could be in deep trouble with the Romans.

But Jesus was on to them. He had them bring in a coin, which they did- one with the emperor’s face imprinted on it… which is hilarious because they are currently having this little chat IN THE TEMPLE…. And Roman currency of any kind was banned from being used IN THE TEMPLE, for the reasons that I mentioned before. The Roman money needed to be changed… or exchanged… for the acceptable temple-approved coins… which could ONLY happen in one place: the temple. And we all know what tends to happen then there is a monopoly, or when a commodity is in high demand. Exchange rates are high, hurting the poor and most vulnerable worshipers… which sets the stage for Jesus flipping tables and running these money changer out of the temple in just a few chapters. 

Jesus sees straight through their load of baloney. We are filled with glee when Jesus retorts: “You hypocrites, Give to the empire what belongs to the empire….” But are a bit dismayed when he follows it up with - “And give to God what is God’s.” Just what does belong to the empire? And what does belong to God?

A better question to ask might be, what DOES NOT belong to God? Nothing. Because everything we have and everything we are belongs to God.

But we live in a world where we cannot seem to escape the Empire and all that comes with it. By empire here I am not referring to the Roman empire, but from the forces in the world that govern our lives and our time, the machinations that trap us in systems of oppression and oppressing one another. Wherever we go, we can’t escape being part of the system, or being on some level complicit in the empire and all that it represents.

Every time I hand over a bill with George Washington or Andrew Jackson on it, I am participating in this system. The coffee I love some much at Starbucks was probably harvested by people not being paid a living wage. The inexpensive dress I want to buy was almost certainly made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh or Honduras.

Like a coin bears the image and title of the Empire, WE bear the IMAGE of GOD, and bear the title of “beloved child of God,” when we were marked on our foreheads with the cross of Christ when we were baptized. I bear the image of God, and you bear the image of God, and both you and I are worthy of love and respect, and deserve being treated as such.

When we forget that we bear the image of God, we forget our humanity. We forget that all of us belong to God, and we must treat one another – AND OURSELVES – accordingly. When one of us who bears the image of God is not free, none of us, are. THAT is our work, as the image bearers of God - to free the oppressed, to believe the stories of the harassed, and to work for justice for ALL of God’s family.

What I do with my money matters, and it sends a signal to the rest of the world what my values are. It is my hope that at least most of the time I am using this money – God’s money – for things that align with God’s Kingdom rather than the Empire of the world.

As Pastor Meta Herrick Carlson writes in a poem about playing bills in her book “Ordinary Blessings:” “Each… payment [is] …. A testament to comfort and control, values and grit, need and greed, and inherent responsibility to ourselves, the vulnerable, future generations, and all of creation. May we consume with care, pay what is right, challenge power with justice until everyone can pay with dignity.”

There sure are a lot of little things we can do so that God’s money can do some good through our hands. We can buy fair trade coffee and chocolate, especially with the big holiday Reforma-ahem-Halloween coming up. We can purchase clothes second hand from local thrift stores where the profits benefit others. We can hold back on unnecessary purchases and instead donate to good causes we are passionate about. We can even learn to balance our budgets and so that we are able to be generous tithers to this congregation and all its missions. We can give the Empire back all the bad stuff it has given us, and instead give back to God what belongs to God: Everything. Our money, our possessions, our time, ourselves.

Nothing is too much or too little. We are enough. We belong to God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

 

"Say Yes to how Jesus Dressed"

 

Sermon 10-11-20

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.

Who would have guessed that, based on how 2020 was going, we would have a total of six baptisms this year? One of the things that I miss about not being able to do baptisms with the whole congregation present in person is carrying the baby around to say hi to all of her new siblings in Christ. In my first call congregation, my pastor colleague would hoist the newly baptized youngster around the sanctuary “Lion King Style” – we would sing “you have put on Christ, in him you have been baptized. Alleluia, alleluia.” And every time, I would marvel at his upper arm strength. 

When many of us were baptized, we were wearing a white gown to represent that we are now clothed in the grace, eternal life, and love that Jesus has promised to give us. In baptism, we are welcomed to God’s victory feast over death and the grave, which we receive a foretaste of whenever we celebrate Holy Communion.  In our baptisms, we are now invited to that feast, the biggest party in the universe, and there is a special place for us at the Lord’s Table. But with that special place also comes that special garb that we wear.

You might be familiar with the TV series “What Not to Wear.” Or you might watch award shows like the Emmys and the Grammys and hear the female actors be constantly bombarded with the question, “Who are you wearing?” When really, they should also be asked about, you know, their actual acting careers. Or even the show, “Say Yes to the Dress.” In preparing for a wedding, one of the big ticket items is THE BIG WHITE DRESS. Choosing THE DRESS. Finding the necessary accessorize for THE DRESS. On the big day, revealing THE DRESS. Everyone admiring THE DRESS.

In the parable for today, that feast in described as a wedding feast, or a wedding reception. God is compared to a king with a son who is getting married. Some scholars had said that the groom is Jesus, and the bride is the church. Martin Luther took this idea and ran with it – calling this “the happy exchange” or “the blessed exchange.” Even though we forget that a marriage is not JUST about the dress, or even the wedding itself, but really it is about two people linking everything they have – economically, emotionally, personally…. To be part of a partnership for the long haul.

 You know that funny saying about marriage that goes, “what’s yours in mine, and what’s mine is ours”? So, in this “blessed exchange,” what do WE bring to the relationship between Jesus and us? Honestly, not very much at all…. And what we DO bring is mostly not good. Sin, brokenness, pettiness, fear, hate, selfishness, and shame – not what we would exactly consider assets.

What does Jesus bring to the relationship? Everything. Life, resurrection, freedom, love, joy…. There is a reason it’s called the Blessed exchange. WE are the ones getting blessed. When we are chosen and named as beloved in our baptisms, at that moment Jesus gets all that WE have and all that HE has becomes ours, when we “put on Christ” and all that he has given us. Maybe not in a literal garment, but in the way we carry ourselves in the world.

A few weeks ago, in a Facebook group I’m in that’s called “Things they didn’t teach us in seminary,” a clergy person from another denomination posted about something interested that happened to him at a baptism he had just done. He asked, “What does a pastor say when a family shows up in church for a baptism and the grandfather tells you that the beautiful christening gown the baby is wearing (and the family has used for generations) was made by a family slave in 1836?”

I mean, what DO you say in the face of SUCH an intense dichotomy – the very white gown that is intended to represent our union with Christ gifted and clothed with free and abundant life is at the same time an item created under conditions that are the exact antitheses of this freedom – chattel slavery in the United States and the denial of human dignity toward another person. Honestly, it made my brain explode and took my breath away. I did not envy this pastor once bit.

I simply cannot fathom that, upon this baptized person’s deathbed in seventy, eighty, or ninety years from now, this child of God would be refused welcoming into God’s eternal rest because of the fraught history of his or her baptismal garment. I don’t believe that, based on what the baby was wearing, that their baptism can and would be invalidated.

However. At one point during our baptismal liturgy we do ask the parents and sponsors of the child being baptized to publically profess their faith… which does include a renunciation of certain things: the devil and all the forces that defy God, all the powers of this word that rebel against God, and the ways of sin that draw us from God. You all know that I love to bring up the fact that this part of our baptism liturgy comes from the ancient Christian right of exorcism – casting out and banishing evil forces in our midst. And don’t think it’s a stretch to say that chattel slavery is evil, and must be renounced…. Rather than taken pride in as a source of family history… ESPCIALLYALLY to co-opt something as symbolic as a baptismal garment on an infant.

It is also easy to take the high ground here, and be affronted at the apparent fragrant callousness and hypocrisy in this family… and maybe even this pastor. But….  How are WE doing at turning our backs on the forces of this world that defy, rebel, and draw us away from God? For example, do you know WHO you are wearing right now? When was the last time you checked the labels on your favorite T-shirt to see where the sweatshop was located that created it? Almost everything we wear was created by people across the ocean working for pennies a day in virtual slavery. Fast Fashion is an evil plague that destroys economies and ecosystems, and yet, there is almost no option to except it’s reach – almost all of our clothes are made this way.

And this is not even to mention the food we eat, the cars we drive, the hygiene products we use, the electronics we buy. Everything is tainted. We are all tainted. God has good reason not to let any of us “into heaven” for any and all of these reason alone.

However… do we really believe that God would do this? That God would toss one of God’s guests out into the cold, bound hand and foot, just because the guest was wearing the wrong thing? I don’t believe so.

Then if God isn’t the king… who is? And if Jesus isn’t the son or the groom in the story… what if Jesus is the ejected wedding guest?

“Come Lord Jesus, be our Guest” is a common table prayer that I grew up with. But what happens when Jesus does show up for you… but also refuses to play by the rules of power, privilege, and authority that we are used to and take for granted as the “way things are”… ? How are we going to react when Jesus instead, takes off his robe, takes up a towel, and tries to wash our feet and the feet of our neighbor? Let me give you a hint. It didn’t go very well for Jesus on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. But Jesus did it anyway. And so we are to as well.

As theologian Debie Thomas shares: “May we choose affliction over apathy, even when it costs us a spot in the palace.  May we refuse sham banquets while our cities burn and our streets run with blood.”

To wear the robe of Jesus – to fully embrace our baptismal promises, also means taking off the garments and trappings of the world. Hate, fear, a spirit of scarcity, privilege.

What SHOULD we wear? Love. Kindness. Generosity. Empathy. Justice. Mercy.

In short, we should be “wearing” everything that Jesus has so generously given to all of us.

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let THESE gifts, to us be blessed. Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

"How Hard is it to Not Murder?"

 

Sermon 10-4-20

(I'm in a different location because of connection issues)

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.  

Imagine the topic of conversation between Moses and God, just after Moses presented the 10 Commandments to the people. God asks, how are things going? Moses replies, “Good! We’re working on the commandments… how hard is it to not murder?” God follows up by reminding Moses that God also told them not to depict God in any earthly form ... you know, so people wouldn’t get something silly in our heads about God looking like an old white man with a big beard… so, “Make no graven images.” Horrified and confused, Moses replies, didn’t you mean “make ….Caucasian images?”

This was actually a TikTokvideo made by Lutheran Pastor Emmy Kegler, playing off a recent trend to depict heavenly conversations where God clearly said one thing and someone else – an angel, the devil, Moses - misunderstands and ends up doing exact opposite of what God actually wants. For example, God wants the dinosaurs to be more muscular – “meatier” – and the angel hears “meteor.” Pastor Kegler’s TikTok is also a commentary on these videos themselves, because in almost all of the others, God is depicted with…. a big white beard.

I bet you never thought something as serious as the 10 commandments would become such a great subject of fun irreverent fun on a social media app. However, God actually “started it” the 10 commandments with a pun in Hebrew! I have heard it “loosely translated” as “I am Yahweh and not of these other Yahoos are allowed to be more important than me.”

I for one did not learn that in confirmation class…. Even though confirmation class was probably the last time most of us studied the 10 commandments for any length of time. How many of you memorized the Small Catechism in confirmation? I have a confession to make – I didn’t memorize it until my second year of seminary … its hard! You could tell when the second year seminary students were about to have their final exam when you them wandering glassy-eyed around campus, muttering to themselves “The first Commandment: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We are to fear, love and trust god about all things…”

I think that many of us, myself included, can tick off most of the 10 commandments and think “well, this week I didn’t murder anyone, I didn’t rob a bank, I didn’t sass off to my mom, and I haven’t wrongfully used the Lord’s name. All things considered, I think I’m actually doing pretty well.”

Let me tell you a little secret. The Ten Commandments were not given to us to make us holier people. God gave us the Ten Commandments in order to minimize the damage I could do against my neighbor, especially in Commandments four through ten.

Old Testament Guru Walter Brueggemann explains that Commandments 4-10 “all attest to a different kind of community in which others …. Are an end and not means, not threats to be killed, not objects to be exploited….” (Preaching the Old Testament, P. 57)

As God led God’s people out of bondage into freedom, God realized that the people needed to learn a new way to live. All too familiar was their old way of life – the damaging power structure, the constant need to consume, the tireless economy of productivity, and the endless tasks of Pharaoh. New patterns of free living must be learned in order to become a DIFFERENT kind of community. In this community – God’s community – you are not just responsible for yourself, but also accountable for the good of your neighbor. And how you treat your neighbor is a direct reflection of your relationship with God. 

Moses joked with God, “How hard is it do not murder?” Not so fast, Moses. well, as it turns out, it is actually much harder than it seems. In Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, Luther provided clarifications for each of the commandments. For the 5^th commandment, “you shall not murder,” Luther writes: “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 life’s needs.”

As with each commandment, it is not enough to simply refrain from doing something bad. Keeping the 5^th commandment, for example, is NOT about NOT killing, pardon the double negative. Truly keeping the 5^th commandment as Luther adds, also means living together in unity and helping our neighbors out when they are in need. 

Just when we thought that one was in the bag! That rascally Luther, reminding us that living as God’s people is not just about doing the bare minimum!

This is something the people of God have struggled to get right since the 10 Commandments first existed - The people at the bottom of Mount Saini didn’t always – or even often – get it right. The people who eventually followed Jesus didn’t get it right. We don’t get it right.

Even religious authorities and leaders don’t always get it right. We are currently neck deep in the middle of some tough parables – Thanks Matthew! – and this one is certainly a doozy. This one especially has a long history in being used as justification for anti-Semitic violence… even murder, through events like the Holocaust – this parable proves that Jesus thinks violence and murder is ok, right?  Well, actually, when Jesus asked the religious elite – pastors and theologians of his day – what the landowner should do to the evil tenants… it is the PASTORS and THEOLOGIANS who say – “the king should put those terrible people to a miserable death!”

And Jesus NEVER condones violence and murder. Not for one hot second. Instead, perhaps for that very answer, Jesus basically says “don’t you guys read the Bible? Did you hear what just came out of your mouth? You, who claim to intimately know the will of God? You have just cast God in your own image, and you couldn’t be more wrong.”

God is not a king or Pharaoh who tosses people aside and murders on a whim. God is not a harsh task master of productivity or a strict arbiter of rules. God does not glorify violence. And when we cast God in this way – making God in images we are familiar with – exclusively in the image of power, hierarchy, authority in the guise of old bearded Caucasian men… God gets ANGRY and HURT when we do this. Just as God is angry and hurt when we meet God with violence – in the ways we continually are creating violence against those who bear the image of God… our neighbors.

We create violence against one another in all kinds of ways– physical, mental, emotional, systemic, institutional, and environmental. We do horrible things to one another out of fear, and injuries fester and poison our relationships. But God never meets violence with more violence. God never meets our violence with more violence. God does not act like us…. God does not look like us….. and yet, God’s image can be found in the likes of ALL Of us.

Who is God then? God is love. And God created us to love. Jesus is the love of God with skin on, literally love fleshed out. And WE are the love of God with skin on. Love asks us for our words and our deeds to be life-giving, not life-limiting. And, ironically, these Ten Commandments God gave us help us to live into this more fully.

We – together - are called to be part of a different kind of community - the kingdom of God, where we all find welcome, where we all are made whole. This community defies time and space, spans political parties and world views, resists racial and economic divides. A community that doesn’t just refrain from doing harm, but instead intentionally acts for the good of our neighbors. That is the body of Christ, the kingdom of God, which we are all part of. Thanks be to God. Amen.