"Jesus Doesn't Play Favorites"

 5-23-21

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

You may have noticed that time within the church is a bit wonky. For example, Easter is not just a day, but it is a seven-week season. We can skip years of Jesus’ life between Sundays, and we can spend weeks talking about what happened on one single night. 

Just today even, we heard FIRST about the actual arrival of the Holy Spirit, with the wind and the flames and the languages and the confusion. Then, our Gospel reading takes us all the way BACK to Maundy Thursday, the night Jesus was betrayed… to hear how Jesus gives his disciples the first announcement of the Holy Spirit’s arrival.

Jesus was leaving…Jesus would die, rise, and then ascended into heaven…  but Someone was coming to be at their side when life gets scary and unfamiliar until Jesus returns again. Jesus was leaving…. But Someone was coming would lead the way into the abundant life and exciting future that God was calling them to. 

We have the Holy Spirit to be present with us when Jesus is not. We are not alone, because we can’t walk this path on our own. The disciples shut themselves up in a room until the outpouring of the Spirit happened on Pentecost. Martin Luther explains it in this way: “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith.”

Luther here means that when we rely on our own smarts and strengths, we often miss the boat on following the way of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the tools we need, pushes us out the door, and of course reminds us that we are loved. And so, we are empowered to love others, as Jesus has done… as agents of the Holy Spirit, to remind OTHERS that they are loved by God, and to treat them accordingly. 

There are so many voices out there trying to drown out the Holy Spirit, by telling people that they are not loved, they are not worthy, they are not valued for whatever reason. Sometimes these voices are loud, scary, and occasionally in one’s own backyard (and I’m not talking about cicadas here!)

I attend an online weekly text study with many Lutheran pastors across the country, including one Episcopalian priest. This priest also happens to be one-half of the famous Christian music duo called “Lost and Found” – You may have heard of them! Last week he informed us that he would be reading a 90-year-old sermon on Pentecost, and when we all expressed our surprise and confusion, he told us the incredible story behind it. I think you’ll see why he’s preaching this particular sermon at his church, St. Timothy’s, 90 years later.

In May 1931, in his town of Massillon, a Greek gangster was killed by another gang. Because there were no Greek Orthodox churches in that town, the priest of St. Timothy’s at the time let other priests from that tradition use St. Timothy’s for the funeral…. and it was HUGE funeral. By all accounts, the locals were OUTRAGED and felt their church had been “desecrated.” The following Sunday was Pentecost, and apparently, this priest let them have it.

My friend was kind enough to send our group a copy of this sermon, and I was flabbergasted at how it much power these words still held. In the famous sermon, the priest never mentioned the event by name, but instead, lays into his parishioners by saying, “I find that as I talk with people today, they do not at all understand what the Church is and what Christ intended it to be.” Now, this next sentence of the sermon is written in all caps, in the original: “IT IS NOT THE CLUB OF THOSE WHO HAVE ATTAINED TO RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SAINTLINESS!”

But oh, he’s not done! He goes one by saying: “But the Church is never so weak as when it permits itself to be a cold-storage warehouse for uncorrupted truth, or a gymnasium for the calisthenics of individual souls, or a Sunday Club … or an entertainment bureau which seeks to amuse…”

WHOA. Let me remind you that these words were written in 1931! I was shook as my friend read these words out loud, and I read the rest of the text of that sermon. The church is not a social club, or a sterile cold-storage for truth, or an exclusive member-only gym for the “saved.”

The priest then describes the work of the Holy Spirit through the body of Christ – the church – as a powerplant built next to a powerful, thunderous waterfall, pumping out electricity in a constant stream, hour after hour, day after day – the constant and relentless energy of love through God’s people - the church – us - out into the world. Apparently, the Holy Spirit speaks in mysterious ways, including a 90-year-old sermon.

After all, the Holy Spirit never stopped speaking. Instead going back to the disconnected reality we got complacent too in the “Before times,” what if we paused, just for a little while longer, and listened to where the Holy Spirit is calling us? As we are navigating a world in flux and experiencing intense transitions, what is the Holy Spirit saying to us, Emmanuel in this time?

In a world were nearly every community has been experienced trauma in the last year, the church has the important responsibility of bringing people together for the sake of participating in God’s kingdom. Rather than going back to “the way things were” without a second thought, instead the church’s mission is to offer an alternative way of living, right now, as we move closer to a post-pandemic reality. Our job as followers of Jesus is to champion that mission - to welcome and value all people, and doesn’t leave anyone behind. God’s love is for all and all people are God’s beloved children and should be treated accordingly.

If Jesus doesn’t play favorites, then neither can the body of Christ. The spirit of inclusion is at its core a refusal to practice exclusivity. After all, we are all sinners in need of redemption, broken people in need of healing, exhausted and in need of resurrection. And our job together is to remind each other that we are loved, valued, and worthy, no matter what.

A great irony is that the end of this famous 90-year-old sermon wasn’t even written down. The sermon text ends by saying simply in all caps: “CONCLUDE BY APPEALING FOR THE DIVINE AND POWERFUL INSTITUTION THAT CHRIST FOUNDED.”

Whatever it was, it worked, because my friend’s church is still there. Emmanuel is still here, and the whole body of Christ on earth is still here – still doing the work that God has set out for us to do. May we never forget that this is God’s work, and God’s church, and it is for everyone. Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

 

Making Self-Control a new "Cool" Fruit of the Spirit

 5-19-21, Galatians 4 & 5

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

Almost 4 years ago was the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and you may remember that Lutherans around the world pulled out all the stops to celebrate. Including the Lutheran World Federation, a worldwide communion of Lutheran denominations like the ELCA. Part of the festivities included a preaching contest where a young adult pastor – in this case, yours truly - would be preach the sermon at the closing worship. That’s how I got an all- expense paid trip to Namibia to hang out with Lutherans from all over the world.

The theme for the whole week of the assembly was “Liberated by God’s Grace.” And text chosen for the closing worship included these verses from Galatians 5.

I shared in my sermon at the end of that amazing week, that this reading and “Fruit of the Spirit” was the theme for VBS when I was in 5^th grade. My class preformed a skit, each T-shirts with each fruit listed. What I ALSO remember clearly is that NO ONE in my class wanted to wear the shirt that said “SELF-CONTROL.”

Self-control is not as “cool” as love, joy, and peace. To describe someone as being “self-controlled” is not common complement we give. And honestly, I never pray for God to make me more self-controlled.

But maybe I SHOULD, because the truth is, though, when I let my SELF guide my day-to-day life, I am NOT very loving, joy-filled, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, or particularly faithful. When my SELF is at the lead, I march in the wrong kind of parade, to the tunes of buying more stuff, acting unkindly, being afraid of my neighbor, and generally being too concerned about myself to see the very real needs of others.  

These devious tunes lead us into captivity while disguised as “freedom.” We are in bondage and cannot free ourselves. We are captive, like the European legend of the Pied Piper - captive in a parade that marches us toward death in body, mind, and spirit. 

There IS another tune calling us, another parade that we are invited to, another parade where we belong. Jesus frees us from the parade of death, to be part of his parade of life. Not so that my SELF can steer me – instead, Jesus frees me FROM my SELF. I no longer bound to my Self, limited by my flaws, imperfections, blind spots, and fears. In addition, I no longer bound to the WORLD, who would have me believe that I am not enough, and that certain types of people are not enough. Instead, I belong to Christ, and YOU belong to Christ, and together, we are called to march in the parade led by the Holy Spirit. 

And THIS is a parade that is going some amazing place – the destination and fruit will lead us to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, AND self-control. But not for our own benefit alone. THIS parade leads us OUT into the world, out to our neighbors, where the fruits of our freedom in Christ are given away to others. Just like we can’t grow this fruit by ourselves without being connected to the “Jesus Parade,” we don’t get to keep the fruit that we grow in the Spirit. 

A great devotional or prayer life, will-power of steel, and excellent self-control aren’t going to get this parade where it needs to go. The tunes of the world are very loud, and sometimes they don’t even wait to the end of the postlude turn up their deceptive soundtrack. We are going to need some help.

I once heard a fellow Lutheran pastor joke that the response “I will and I asked God to help me,” we say when we install pastors and lay leaders should be instead “I won’t, and I ask God to help me.” Thank God WE are not steering the parade on our own. Guided by the Spirit, we are marching exactly where we are needed – out into the community of Vienna, out to Fairfax County, the Metro DC area, Virginia, and beyond.

That is the thing about parades – they aren’t limited to buildings, and they don’t sit still. As I have been caught up in the Jesus Parade since my time in Namibia, I have become more aware of what’s going on around the world, and personally been brought deeper into the work of justice and advocacy for our LGBTQIA+ siblings, our siblings of color such as African American and Asian American neighbors, and advocacy for justice using our voices to call our elected officials to account. I have been part of quite a few conversations that tell me many of you are hearing and following this tune as well.

Maybe bearing the fruit of self-control in this moment is loving our neighbor by putting something off to contribute to our new endowment initiative to fund future ministries. Maybe it’s wearing a mask just a little bit longer when you in a crowd of people, especially when children under 12 are present. Maybe it’s willing to be uncomfortable just a little while longer, to in order to better examine what about the old tunes we followed want to keep, and which need to be ignored or discarded for new tunes and new directions.

Whatever this fruit may look like, the Holy Spirit gives us the growth. And I look forward to marching along with you, into this future God is calling us to, in the Jesus parade, to bear good fruits – with the help of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Easter Joy on Maundy Thursday

 

5-9-21

Grace and peace to God our divine parent, and from our crucified and risen Lord Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What do you think of when you hear the word “joy?” It’s one of “the fruits of the spirit,” from Galatians; it’s one of the four candles on our wreath in Advent; and the first word in one of our favorite Christmas carols. You know the one “Joy to the world!” But is Joy just a “churchy” word we use to decorate Christmas ornaments and hear in Easter hymns?

The world around us, especially lately, doesn’t seem to be contain a lot of Joy – while the vaccine role out is improving in much of the United States, and the covid positive rate in our county has been falling, we are still dealing with the very present realities of the past year – losing family members, losing jobs, losing year of our lives to milestones and plans.

If you are not feeling “joyful” right now, even with things in our lives “going back to normal,” that’s ok. While our state and many communities around our country are lifting restrictions as covid cases go down, we find some distressing things coming back with a vengeance that we’re considered very regular in the before times – mass shooting events, income inequality, and crisis in our mental health.

This is not to mention the personal tragedies and struggles we each experience every day without a pandemic. Where can joy be found during all of these troubles? Joy seems nowhere to be found right now.

In the way of many children’s movies, I happen to love how Joy is described in the Pixar movie from a few years ago called “Inside Out.” According to the movie, Joy is a blue-haired, green dress wearing person of unlimited optimism and the voice of Amy Poehler. Joy, along with Disgust, Sadness, Fear, and Anger, are personified emotions inside the head of an eleven-year-old girl named Riley.

Sadness and Joy find themselves lost deep in Riley’s brain while on a mission to get back some of her formative memories. At every turn, Joy is frustrated by Sadness’s… Well, BEING SAD. Joy keeps being dismissive toward Sadness… that is, until… Joy finds herself trapped in a dark place called The Memory Dump, and needs Sadness’s help. There, Joy discovers that our most joyful memories only feel so joyful because sadness was part of them too. And they forge a powerful, if unlikely friendship, because of the experiences they had together.

In a similar way, is there a possibility that Jesus might be on to something, that joy can also be found in the everyday, mixed up together in the pain and troubles of the world and in our own lives?

Jesus told his disciples “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” He said this back in John chapter 14, at the start of his goodbye speech, on the night that he was betrayed – Maundy Thursday. That’s right, we are “back” in Holy Week even though we are in the sixth week of the Easter Season.

How incredible it seems that here is Jesus, talking about love and joy, just hours before the disciples would scatter in fear and dread… abandoning Jesus to be arrested, falsely tried, and sentenced by crucifixion. On such a night, right before all of this pain was to come to pass, love and joy seem terribly out of place.

Love and joy seem nowhere to be found when your rabbi and teacher says things like he’s leaving you, and that the world will hate you in his name. Love and joy seem nowhere to be found when Jesus tells you that the greatest love, which he commands you to emulate, possibly might mean laying down your life.

But it turns out that Easter Joy is only complete because of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Joy is complete when that Jesus chose to be his disciples a rag-tag band of perfectly flawed human beings, though they be betrayers, deniers, and abandoners.

Joy is complete on the darkest night that Jesus ever had, when he chooses to break bread with US – rich and poor, queer and straight, the power-full and the power-less, with abled and the differently abled, the neuro- divergent and neurotypical, young children and wise elders.

Joy is complete in seeing the beautiful image of God in the faces of people of all faiths, races, cultures, languages, genders, sexual orientations, and ALL family configurations.

Joy is complete when… a synod assembly on the west coast goes unexpectedly awry…. But then chooses to elect the first ever transgender Bishop in the ELCA, the Reverend Dr Megan Rohrer. He was the first transgender pastor ordained in the ELCA, and now he is the first out trans pastor in the ELCA. 

Joy is complete when just when you thought that death had won, joy is that NEW LIFE HAPPENS.

It may have appeared a little odd to still be back to the night that Jesus was betrayed during the celebratory season of Easter. But we know that you cannot have one without experiencing the other. New life cannot happen apart from death. Resurrection cannot happen without crucifixion. Easter cannot happen without Good Friday. Joy cannot exist apart from being open to the possibility of discomfort.

The reason that we have no need for troubled hearts in this troubled world and in our troubled lives is not because Jesus makes the lives of his followers into easy and overflowing with cupcakes and lattes. Being a friend of Jesus does not earn us any bonus points or bragging rights or a ticket to easy street. Just look at the lives of Mary, Peter, James, John, Paul, and the rest, after the resurrection. Their preaching of the joy of Jesus brought them: prison, pain, and persecution.

But when we do the will of Jesus, when we follow Jesus commands to love one another… THAT is where Jesus continues to impact our lives and our world. Like the memories of people who we love who are no longer with us – their love and their memories live on in us, in what we do in their name. And so, even when they no longer here, they are not actually gone. As Jesus said, “Do this, in remembrance of me.”

Joy is complete that Jesus chooses US to be his disciples too, also flawed and imperfect human beings. Joy is complete by being chosen as children of God, and through us our faith is conquering the world in a revolution – not of might and power, but a revolution of peace and love and understanding and friendship. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Paul Spills the Tea

 

5-5-21: Narrative Lectionary - Galatians 1 and 2

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Christ our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

In the New Testament, after the Gospels, after the Acts of the Apostles… we have the Epistles… which is really just a fancy name for letters in the mail! Basically, when we read the epistles, we are reading someone else’s mail, but more like a public blog post, or even “letters to the editor” in your hometown newspaper. All those books in the New Testament with interesting names are letters by early Christian church planters to their congregations, bearing the names of the cities the churches were located in. Romans – Rome, in what is now Italy. Ephesians – Ephesus in modern-day Turkey. Galatia is a region in the middle of Turkey, and boy, did Paul have some things to say to the members of the church he helped to plant.

Paul is one of Jesus’ most famous followers and wrote much of these New Testament letters. But Paul wasn’t always PAUL. In fact, Paul began his life with the name of Saul - a man infamous for his relentless harassment of the early church during this period of persecution early in their history. But while Saul was traveling, a bright light flashed from heaven and Saul fell to the ground, made completely blind and encountering the risen Christ for himself – and this is what he alludes to in the beginning of his letter to the church in Galatia.

After this encounter, and after he was healed, Saul began to be just as zealous in preaching FOR the gospel of Jesus as he was preaching AGAINST it. This Saul, who then transitioned and was renamed Paul, planted churches across the Roman Empire like it was going out of style, then wrote to them when they would inevitably have problems. And most ironic of all, this super-strict, religious Jew who once persecuted Christians, became the champion of the inclusion of non-Jews in the early Christian church.

And that is what Paul is yelling at Cephas – Peter – for: Not for Peter being “too Jewish” but for Peter not being “Jewish enough.” Judaism at its core is not just about following some super strict set of laws, but instead – and I am VASTLY oversimplifying here - obedience to the law comes out of a response to the grace and love of God… I bet that sounds familiar.

Peter’s mistake was backtracking on the freedoms of the gospel of Jesus, just because Peter was afraid of the “circumcision faction.” While this faction has a name that sounds antiquated to our modern ears, we have a modern word for what the “circumcision faction” was doing – Gatekeeping. Controlling who was IN and who was OUT.

And so, by Peter’s hypocritical behavior – by being convinced by a faction of Jewish Christian and refusing to eat with Gentile Christians – Peter was sanctioning some sort of class system based on ethnicity, which is antithetical to both Christianity AND Judaism. Peter’s behavior negates the multi-ethnic and cross-cultural nature of the Gospel, that Paul spells out in further detail in the rest of Galatians.

I think that Paul was particularly sensitive to this issue because of his own story – probably why he was brave or brash enough to call out Peter to his face, and then to spill the tea in the letter to the Galatians. Because Paul knew what was at stake. Paul himself was welcomed as a follower of Jesus, even then the other disciples had every reason to be wary and keep HIM. And now PAUL – once the most rule-following rule follower – is telling the Galatians, and US, that there is no entrance exam to the community of faith.

In the name of Paul, we must ask ourselves – how are we, intentionally or unintentionally being like Peter, gatekeeping the Gospel of Jesus? What are our expectations that we assumed and accepted that are actually hinderances for some? Who are we afraid of disappointing with our truly expansive welcome?

I encourage you to read the whole letter – there is some really good stuff in there. As the rest of the letter illustrates, there are no such things as “classes” or rank, or hierarchy of Christians. Just as there is no ranking of who God loves more, or less, based on the rules – both spoken and unspoken – that Christians are “supposed to follow.” ALL are welcome, just as they are. Jesus tore down all the barriers we have put up between us – the last thing we should do is rebuild them. Thanks be to God. Amen.