Chicks of Mama Hen Jesus

 3-13-22

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

By now in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus has gone through “one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem” (Luke 13: 22) causing all kinds of “trouble.” He’s been healing on the Sabbath. He’s been casting out demons. He has fed the hungry. He has been spending time with all the wrong people, teaching radical ideas like “the first shall be last and the last shall be first” … all the while boldly making his way closer and closer to Jerusalem, into the very den of the foxes like Herod and the religious authorities. No “circling around the city tooting his own horn” for Jesus…. He has the guts to dive right in, head first, clearly not afraid of what Herod might have planned for him. 

Too often we vilify the Pharisees as the enemies of Jesus , but really it’s Herod and what he represents - the puppet king of the powerful Roman Empire. And Herod now has it out for Jesus, just as he did for John the Baptist. Remember John’s head on a platter? That’s what John got for speaking up fearlessly against Herod, and he paid for it with his life. And, like John, this Jesus too is ruffling too many feathers. 

Here in this text, and out there in the world, we seem to be caught between the fox and the hen. If you listen to the wily and manipulating foxes - the Herods of the world - you might believe that only certain types of people have value, and some have more worth than others, based on skin color, physical and mental capabilities, age, gender identity, who they love, where they live, and how they present themselves to the world.

But Jesus the Mama hen tells us that a different world is possible. After all, a hen is a mom who would lay down her life for her chicks. And if you haven’t noticed, Moms can be fierce. And when they get together in the name of God and children and justice, they beat the fox at his own game.

I want to tell you about an amazing Lutheran by the name of Leymah Gbowee (No relation to singer David Bowie, hers is spelled with a G) She is a single mom who won the Nobel Peace Prize just over 10 year ago and spoke at the 2012 ELCA youth gathering in New Orleans (see more about her documentary HERE). She is a Liberian citizen who almost single-handedly brought an end to fourteen years of civil war in Liberia. Though she had a LOT of help - she gathered together both Christian and Muslim women to protest for peace along the commute of Liberia’s president. She did that every day. FOR YEARS, rain OR shine.

 When peace talks finally started between opposition leaders, they soon stalled when the men got distracted enjoying the fancy hotel rather than negotiating peace.  Gbowee and a few hundred women marched into the hotel and actually trapped the men inside the peace talks conference room – literally laying down their own bodies to barricade them in, blocking the door and sitting in the hallways. The women stayed there for days, singing  and praying and demanding that the peace talks resume. 

Because of their efforts, the war ended a few weeks later. All this came about because one woman loved her three children too much to give them a future filled with violence and death. So, she put her body on the line in order to fight for a better future, for herself and for them. She and her fierce “mom posse” got it done.

We don’t hear as much about the Love of God being like a mothers love as often we should, and it’s a real shame. In the Old Testament, God’s love is in some places compared to a nursing mother for her baby, a mother bear protecting her cubs at all costs, a mother hen extending her wings of safety over her wayward young chicks, as Jesus chooses to describe himself and his love for his people.  

We are under the mothering and comforting protection of Jesus, who, through the giving up and laying down of HIS body, we are saved, healed, and given a future with hope. The foxes of the world make a serious miscalculation when they choose to mess with God’s children. The fox Herod did not know the lengths to which our mother hen would go to get us back – all the way to death, even death on a cross. 

When Jesus is talking about “you will not see me until the time comes when you say ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’,” he’s talking about when he will ride into Jerusalem on a humble donkey at the end of Lent, on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. That is where Jesus is headed – to put himself on the line for his beloved children, even if it leads to death on a cross later in that week. But that’s not where that week will end. Holy Week doesn’t end in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Holy Week will end in Easter. Holy Week will end in Resurrection and an empty grave. 

In our own journeys through the season of Lent, we remember that we too are on our way to die –  to die to the ways of the Fox and all the lies that he tells us. But because we follow the crucified and risen Jesus, we can find hope in the face of Jesus’s suffering; we see life in a tool used for death. And we can fight with the same fierceness and loyalty as Mama Hen Jesus for ALL her beloved children. 

We’re seeing it all over the world - parents fleeing from Ukraine with their young children to keep them safe. Parents and allies gathering in state capitals to protest against legislation that harms children by making it illegal to acknowledge their belovedness or give them the medical interventions to help them become who they were born to be. 

Places like the Lamb Center are gearing up to be the protective wings over an expected influx of people in need, as the federal government ends emergency housing programs for the unhoused and the annual Hypothermia season comes to an end. A lot of “God’s beloved chicks” are going to need some protective wings in the coming days and weeks and months. 

And so, as followers of Jesus we too are called to protect the vulnerable, because we are lost chicks ourselves too. We are called to put our bodies on the line for the sake of others. It may not feel like we have skin in the game, but we all do. We are all children of God - when one of us chicks suffers, we all do. And everything we do for these “chicks of God” we do under the protective wings of our mothering God, lead on by the fierce love of Mama Jesus. Thanks be to God. Amen.

"This is The Way"

 

2-28-21 

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.

Six years ago, a group of women pastors, including myself, met for a retreat at a camp in NJ. For a fun craft to do together, I brought small wooden crosses and some crazy glue and suggested that everyone in the group bring – not a dish to pass, but a dish to break.

We all brought with us something that was meaningful for us to smash, so that the broken bits might be transformed into a unique mosaic cross. Some of us brought dinnerware from marriages that ended in broken vows.  Some brought worries about toxic situations at home and in their churches. Some brought personal grief, challenges, and questions.

I thought I was prepared - We went outside, and I brought a tarp and a hammer. But I overlooked one thing…Band-Aids. So, of course, one of us ended up bleeding, and much to my surprise, it wasn’t me! Fortunately, this camp was well stocked in first-aid kits, and all was well. No stitches needed.

But despite the bleeding and the big mess we made - we were able to make beautiful art out of our brokenness. We exchanged broken bits of our own mess and together we created something new.

At the start of every Lent, we receive the cross of ashes on our foreheads, to remind us that God can do something beautiful with us, who are so limited and flawed. Just a little bit ago we saw little George receive the sign of the cross on his forehead too. That cross also reminds us that our lives do not belong to us. We do not belong to ourselves. Like George, we belong to God.

This means our lives are to be spend in the service of the world. We are to care for and carry one another, especially those suffering, rejected, and vulnerable. We are to walk and live the way of the cross, which for me, means that I need to set my mind on the things that are important to God, not get caught up in the things that the world sees are important.

Every day, but especially now, need to ask ourselves, as people of God – What way will we follow? What do we see as most important: Our personal choices or the health of our neighbors? What is more important - Our “right” to bear arms….. or our call to bear one another’s burdens? What is more important, our maintaining the veneer of normalcy ….or addressing and healing our trauma, in whatever messy way that may look like?

During this pandemic winter, we caught up on a lot of shows, including Star Wars’ “The Mandalorian.” More than just “a man in a cool suit,” the Mandalorian, has a story - like his people, he follows a strict code of conduct. It binds their people together, but also sets them apart as different. For every strange choice they make, they respond with the refrain: “This is the Way.” And there is one particular thing that a Mandalorian should NEVER do. While these rules are strict and pose their own challenges, in a way, they do make life simple for their followers.

Life may have seemed simple for the Mandalorian at the center of this show. But then he meets a child, and everything changes. Life is no longer simple. He is thrust into adventures that challenge him and challenges the way of life he is used to. And that one particular thing a Mandalorian should never do? It turns out that he will face a choice – keep to his strict code, or to that one thing – in order  to save the universe, and to save the people that THIS Mandalorian has come to care about, including this unexpected child. It turns out, he will have to forge a new way.

For Mark, and for Jesus, the way of the cross is a way of life - following Jesus will cause us to live our lives in such a way that the powers and empires of the world will try to get rid of us, as they tried to get rid of Jesus. The cross is both the consequence and the symbol of this life, “the way” or path of death and resurrection, the way of transformation. As followers of this way, we witness God transforming an instrument - specifically designed for cruel execution - into a symbol of new and abundant life.

Peter thinks that there is one thing that a Messiah has come to do, a “right way” to be the messiah – ride in “on a white horse” and save the day with power and might. So, when Jesus said, “my way of life and my actions will lead to suffering and rejection by the people in power. They will kill me for this, but I will rise again 3 days later, all for your sake” …. Peter obviously did not take it well. After all, this is the one thing that a true king would allow himself to suffer a humiliating death, right?

Peter hung on to that one thing he thought was important, and so he almost missed the entire “way of Jesus.” Instead of learning from the teacher, Peter tried to do some teaching himself, which got him into some hot water. Like Peter, we all would rather be the leader, or at least have some input in the way Jesus is headed.

But Jesus does not reject Peter outright for his errors. Instead, Jesus tells him to “get behind me.” Not necessarily to kick him out of the group or to get out of Jesus’ sight… but get behind Jesus… because you need to be BEHIIND the person you are following in order to SEE how to follow them. We can’t walk the way that Jesus would have us walk if we are not behind Jesus, following his lead.  

Eventually though, after a LOT of mistakes, Peter does eventually get “back in line.” He is not rejected, even when he rejects Jesus, because he comes back to walking the way, however imperfectly. He puts down his ego and takes us his cross. He let go of that thing that was holding him back, and it got smashed to bits…. but it also turned into something beautiful.

This is the cross I made with those dear friends. It has some of my broken bits, and some of theirs. It’s rough around the edges, and it was a challenge to make. But it’s my favorite cross (and I own a LOT of crosses). Here are pieces of brokenness, death, and loss. But together, they represent the way forward - together. This is the way. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Putting our Hearts in Lent

 Ash Wednesday - 2-17-21

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.

In “the before times,” I feel most of my pastor colleagues – and myself included – often started our Ash Wednesday sermons with some version of “I’m not ready for Lent!” But this year feels different. Because the original lockdown from Covid-19 happened during the season of Lent last year, we joked at first that we were just in one long Lent until we could come back together again. In fact, some proposed delaying Easter (for just a few weeks) to be celebrated when we could all be “back.” How naïve that feels now, almost one year later.

Ash Wednesday is truly one of the “Last big things we did together in the before times.” Everything else from here on out, we will have done before in lockdown. Thank goodness for the gifts of previous experience! But almost one year later, it certainly does feel as though we have had a year of Lent. So, this year, I’m not ready to start a season we really never left. 

But ready or not, Lent happens. Just like life. Like Lent, life arrives like an unwelcome guest. Our lives have been interrupted when we become marked by death, grief, and pain. When we are suddenly not the person we were before, but aren’t yet the person we will become. And this is a very uncomfortable place to be.

This has been the human story from the very beginning, as we heard from the story of Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden. After they had eaten from the fruit of the tree, they were no longer the same. God asked them a lot of questions about what happened – “Where are you? Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree? What is it that you have done?” And, instead of exploring these questions, our first parents chose to blame one another… the snake… God… anyone but themselves for their own actions.

In one of her songs, Sara Bareilles describes the scene in Eden from Eve’s perspective: “Walking in the garden was a serpent-shaped heart and he told” her a lie about God: “What is broken cannot show,” and “less than beautiful is worse than unholy.” She did not trust that God had created her good, just as she was. Like for our first parents, it’s hard for us to see ourselves as God sees us. It’s hard to image that God actually does love us for who we are.

I’m guessing, if you are human and have lived on this planet for more than a few seconds, your heart is not pristine red, shiny, or intact like the decorations for valentine’s day just a few days ago. Of course, we all know that love and other feelings don’t originate with this blood-pumping muscle in our chests. But we CAN feel so full of love our hearts feel as though they might burst. Our hearts can ache with compassion and empathy, or with longing or loneliness. Our hearts can sting from being hurt. Our hearts can get bruised. Our hearts can even get broken.

We have a saying that we “put our hearts into” things that we care deeply about. Some of these things seem innocent enough – family, friends, country, our jobs, living a comfortable life, freedom. But, as Jesus says about what happens to these treasures after a while … these things we think we should love above all else WILL fail us. Our homes and our cars, our careers, our health, all the stuff we bought online out of boredom…. They will let us down.

We are human. We love what is bad for us – and I’m not talking about chocolate or giving up sugar for Lent. I’m talking about how we hang on to what feels comfortable and normal. And how trying to go back to these things is one of the reasons we are still here, almost one year later. We love what is comfortable, familiar, and convenient, because – let’s face it! Change is hard! Altering our behavior is hard! Even when – ESPCIALLY WHEN – it would be for the best.

We’re not in Eden anymore (as if we ever were) but we are definitely in a strange and unfamiliar place. Our efforts to ignore this wilderness only prolong our time here, until we cannot keep it out any longer, and this reminder knocks us off our feet. Like Ash Wednesday, the start of our 40 days in the season we call Lent.

Ready or not, Ash Wednesday is the time to take stock of our dusty, sore hearts. And we often find what we don’t want to find. We find our sinful and broken actions have left scars on our hearts, and left scars in the lives of others. We find we are lost in a wilderness we don’t want to be in.

But we are not left in our dusty, heartsick state. We are not abandoned to the wilderness surrounded by our comfortless treasures. Our damaged hearts are not cast aside and thrown away, like unwanted valentines on February 15th. We can show our broken selves to God and know that Love will find us there. God renews our hearts, minds, souls, our whole being. The good, the bad, the ugly, the parts that feel unlovable and unworthy. All of it. All of us. No matter how long it takes. 

And so, we wear the sign of the cross in ashes on the outside to remind ourselves of the work that God is enacting on the INSIDE Of us. The confessing our sins. The accepting and embracing of our brokenness and trauma. Acknowledging and processing the ways that we have been marked by death and loss in the last year. Beginning the slow and painful process of the transformation of our dusty and broken hearts into ones that are healed and whole…. All so that we might be better able to love the other dusty and hurting hearts out there in our lives and in the rest of the world.  To love one another with our whole hearts… with hearts that are broken AND beautiful. 

We know that will likely take more than forty days. It might take more than a year. It will likely take our entire lives. But together, trusting in Jesus, we will get through this Lent-within-Lent, hearts intact and ready to love, beautiful broken bits and all. Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

 

Living Water for Challenging Times

3-15- 20

(I also streamed this live on our church FB page) 

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.

Nearly 8 years ago, the theme for Cokesbury’s VBS program was called “Everywhere Fun Fair.” Not one of their best or most memorable, but the theme of being a neighbor to all of God’s children, even across countries and continents, is still a pretty solid theme.  That fall though, an event happened that was MUCH MORE memorable: Hurricane Sandy. Just after the power went out the evening of the storm, I shared leftovers with my Jewish downstairs neighbor. When the storm subsided, the apartment complex was still without power. Four days later, when power was finally restored, my neighbor went out of his way to call a coworker of his to tell a mutual friend to tell me that power was back on when I wasn’t home to witness it. That was VERY neighborly of him!

Jesus’ call for us to be neighbors isn’t just for kids during vacation Bibles school, or only in dire circumstances for natural disasters when the power is out, or even now, as we face a lot of unknowns surrounding the increasing stress that the spread of the Coronavirus is bringing. Jesus’ call to be neighbors is a call for everyone, everywhere, every day. Karen Gonzalez, author of the book, The God who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong, reflects: “I had never realized how much the scriptures tell the stories of people who began as strangers and then became a part of the family of God.” And we certainly heard a perfect example of what living this out means from our reading from the Gospel of John…

Jesus had never met this woman before. They began their encounter as total strangers… At this time, the common practice was “social distancing,” but not for hygienic reasons. One of my seminary professors, Dr. Karoline Lewis, is a John scholar, and this is one of her favorite story in her favorite gospel. She writes: “Jesus shares is true self with the last person on the face of the planet whom people would have thought God could love… Not to the disciples. Not to the religious elite. Not to those in power….. [but he reveals his true self to] This woman. This Samaritan. [A woman] with no name, no credibility, no respect.”

And yet… SHE is the one chosen by Jesus. She is a person whom the world sees as fallen and sinful, though she is never described by or treated by Jesus that way.

Karen Gonzalez also reflects on this encounter: “Jesus reveals his identity as Messiah to this unnamed woman, and she is the first to spread the Gospel to her own people.” After her surprising conversation with Jesus, the woman departs joyfully – practically running - even leaving her water container behind at the well. Jesus transforms her life, her view of herself, even her calling. But she remains both a Samaritan and a woman. John shares with us – pointedly in fact – her gender and her ethnicity for a reason. Her social status is an integral part of this story, not happenstance or an afterthought.

In fact, her encounter with Jesus remakes her – through this conversation, her identity and purpose are found anew, and she sets out on a journey to share her powerful encounter with other people. But not in a way that makes her gender and her ethnicity submerged, changed, or covered up. It is because she is a woman, and because she is Samaritan, that she can become an emissary, or missionary, to her people. Who she is, and where she is from, is fundamental to HER story. Her testimony – “he told me everything I have ever done!” – tells us that she experiences being deeply known and loved by Jesus, just as she is. And this changes the course of her entire life.

The story of the woman at the well deeply affected Karen Gonzalez, who came to the United States from Guatemala as a child. For a long time, Gonzales believed that to be “Christian” was to shut away or even shed the parts of herself that made her different from “American Christians” – being a woman, being from Guatemala, being an immigrant, being a multi-cultural person. But, thanks to exploring the story of the Samaritan woman, and seeing herself in this woman’s encounter with Jesus as a whole person, Gonzalez now firmly trusts Jesus’ accepting her, in all her intersections, in all her “God-Authored Complexities” – as a Latina, Guatemalan, immigrant, and woman. Gonzales was able to say “yes” to her whole self, as a beloved child of God, because Jesus says “yes,” to all of her SELF.

The woman at the well is part of a long line and long tradition of biblical women who said an wholehearted “Yes” to the difficult call of God on their lives  – women like  Hagar, Vashti, Esther, Ruth, Mary mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Junia, Phoebe, and the woman at the well, just to name a few - some of the VERY few women in the Bible we get to hear from. These words we hear from the woman at the well are part of only 14,000 words that are spoken by women in the entire Bible.

This may sound like a lot, but all of the words that women speak in the Bible can be read out loud in less than 2 hours. For reference, the Gospel of John would also take about 2 hours to read out loud. To read the whole Bible out loud take almost 72 hours…. That’s three days straight. But ALL the words of women would be completed during a round trip to and from Philly on a good day.  And so, the mission work that this woman is doing on behalf of Jesus takes on even more importance. Every word she says, to Jesus, and to her people, take on even greater significance. Especially when HER sermon – which was extremely effective, was just one sentence long – “he has told me everything I have ever done!” That’s all the missionary training this woman needed – a conversation with Jesus.

When you hear the word “mission,” we think about traveling to faraway places, not people in our own backyard.  Maybe as a youth you’ve been on a “mission trip” to another part of the country, or possibly your family have been on a work camp trip, or sponsor a child through an organization, or raise money for world hunger. These are very worthy means to spread God’s message of love and can enrich our own faith communities in many ways.

However, “mission” is not necessarily something that happens far away.  Being “a missionary” is no longer the special ministry of a dedicated few. We are ALL missionaries for the gospel, here in our very own Buckingham and Bucks County. There are people right here, in our own community, who need a word of hope in their lives…. Especially right now. They are probably right in front of you: your neighbors, coworkers, customers, and even friends and family members.

Trust me, you don’t need a specialized degree in ministry to be a messenger of the gospel.  The woman at the well didn’t. Jesus gave her everything she needed. Just as she did, you can simply let your words and actions do the talking – by going out of your way to help another in need, by comforting those who mourn, taking care of those who are sick or lonely, by carefully using your God-given resources, by taking the time to read the Bible or pray as a family, remaining calm when the world around us wants to increase our panic-buying of toilet paper. Our mission is to speak a word of hope when its hard to find some calm to hang on to, to point to the person – Jesus – to keeps us going in times like these.

Living out your life with faith can be a powerful witness to others.  And others WILL take notice. You may be asked questions. That’s ok – don’t feel that you need the “right” words to tell people of how the love of Jesus changed your life. Like the women at the well, just speak from your heart and the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

This is God’s mission, after all. Our part in that mission, every day, but especially during times of stress and uncertainty, is sometimes to also let our actions be message – in being a neighbor by caring for our neighbors near AND far. We are about to leave this place for perhaps an undetermined about of time. This week has proven that we never really know what the next day will bring. But we will always remain connected – as neighbors – through our love for one another. We, like the woman at the well, can leave our jar behind knowing that Jesus is our living water, and will sustain us. So, when someone asks you – using the appropriate amount of social distancing, of course – what is getting you through this difficult time? We, along with this woman, can say, “Jesus.” Thanks be to God. Amen.

Don't Leave the Room, Leave Room

3-8-20

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.

During my reading week, I read Barbara Brown Taylor’s newest book called Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others. Taylor is an Episcopalian Priest turned Religion Professor at a small liberal arts college in rural Georgia. While teaching her Religion 101 course, she and her students would have may adventures learning about Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and in the process, Taylor – the professor – ended up learning a much deeper and wider appreciation the central tenants of her own faith.

And really, what can be more central to our Christian faith than the words of “John 3:16”? Plastered on bracelets and billboards, quoted over an over again until we have heard it so much we have no idea what it means… sort of like when, as a kid, I would say the same word over and over again until my brain could no longer process it, and instead my ears only heard meaningless syllables.

John 3:16 John 3:16 John 3:16 John 3:16 John 3:16 John 3:16 John 3:16 John 3:16

You see what I mean?

But of course, John 3:16 DOES mean something… it is the verse-identifier of one of, if not THE MOST memorable and memorized verse in the Bible. When you hear “John 3:16,” you all know that this is shorthand for (say it with me) “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

But sometimes the shorthand gets in the way of the words themselves. Before today, did you know remember this is a quote of Jesus? And that he’s taking to someone else? did you remember that this is part of a conversation? John, of course, is the book of the Bible this quote comes from (one of the four Gospels, at the beginning of our New Testament, to be specific)…. Coming from the third chapter of this book, and in particular the 16^th verse in this chapter. We forget that there are other verses in this chapter, others chapters in this book, and other books in the Bible.

We remember this verse but forget the situation this happened in – for this, we might actually feel sorry for poor Nicodemus. In Holy Envy, Barbara Brown Taylor also feels bad for poor Nick – I’m going to call him Nick - And devotes a whole chapter in her book to talk about him, because of how his silence has been used against him throughout the ages.  He was left in the dark, both literally and figuratively. In other words, he’s “Nick at Night.”

But why is it that he come by night – was it to be hidden and not seen by others? We often interpret his behavior as embarrassment or secrecy. But maybe he came by night because it’s a better time to talk about important things. How often is it easier to talk about deep matters by candlelight, or the flickering of a campfire, than it is to talk under florescence lights, or by the bright light of full daylight?

Nick does not begin his conversation with Jesus by being on the offensive. His first volley is not attack, but praise – “we know you are close to God” he says. But “Poor Nick” is a literalist. He does not know that he is in John’s Gospel, where nothing is ever (only) as it seems.” (164) In the Gospel of John, Jesus loves to speak in loaded language. Water is never just water, bread is not just bread, and night and day mean so much more than where the sun is located in the sky. And birth is not just your everyday, contraction-filled, counting the dilated centimeters – type birth.

No one enters this life without being born from a mother, and similarly no one enters the kingdom without this birth from the Holy Spirit. But what was so mind-blowing to hear for Nick at the time has become rote for us hearing these astonishing words from Jesus two thousand years later. Christians in the twenty-first century throw around the term “born again” much like we throw around “John 3:16.”

Barbara Brown Taylor, in her holy quest to dig deeper, further wonders: but “What if [Jesus’] purpose is not to enlighten Nick but to endarken him…” and to remind him of the limits of what we humans presume to know about God. 

Nick’s problem then becomes not that he DOES NOT know… (sorry that was a lot of nots!) … but the fact that he thinks he SHOULD know.  His fault wasn’t his unbelief or his lack of faith. His fault was placing too much faith in the wrong thing – the confidence of his own knowledge of the divine, rather than being open to the workings of the Holy Spirit and the unknowing that she brings. He expects an answer from Jesus, and instead gets a whole big mystery.

“As far as I can tell, the only things Nick did wrong on the night he met with Jesus was to leave the room.” Taylor asserts. I would add, he also didn’t “leave room.” Nick’s un-knowing made him uncomfortable. If only he had leaned into and made room for his discomfort a little bit longer.

All this birth talk in reference to God and conversations about the Holy Spirit makes us uncomfortable too. Barbara Brown Taylor goes as far as to claim, “If I am born of HER (the holy spirit), she is my mother…. She comes, she goes. She gives life to all creation.” The Holy Spirit is beyond our control. She causes us to bump unto people we wouldn’t normally be in contact with. She drops us off in unexpected places to experience new and different ways of being in the world.

We don’t get to choose how and when we were born, and if you have ever experienced pregnancy, you probably are aware of a profound loss of control over your own body. Perhaps had Nick been a woman or a mother, he may have heard these words from Jesus – and felt the movements of the Holy Spirit – a little bit more clearly or receptively. Birthing is hard, and being born is hard. The light blinds our brand-new eyes, and we are expected to breath in a whole new way we aren’t used to. There is a reason that they say the first few months of life are like a “4^th Trimester”… it takes a while for us to get used to the unexpectedness of being born… and perhaps if we had been giving a choice, we might opt to stay in that womb forever.

But the Spirit is persistent… much like the voice that Elsa is haunted by in Frozen 2 while her life seems to have finally settled down into some sort of version of normal after her adventures in the previous movie. Though the signature song of Frozen 2 is certainly no “Let it Go,” we can all relate to Elsa’s reluctance to give up all the good, stable life around her – to stay in her safe, comfortable, predictable sphere. She doesn’t want to hear it; she doesn’t want to know more… because it will change things.

 Similarly, Nick might say to Jesus if Nick were a Disney princess in a Disney movie, he might sing along with Elsa: “You're not a voice, you're just a ringing in my ear. And if I heard you, which I don't, I'm spoken for, I fear… I've had my adventure, I don't need something new, I'm afraid of what I'm risking if I follow you, into the unknown ...”

Except that… Nick DOES HEAR that call again… and he does come back into the story after he fades away. At the end of the Gospel of John, after Jesus has died and is about to be buried, there he is, ready and waiting, burial spices in hand. Together, with Joseph of Arimathea, these two men carefully wrapped Jesus’ body and prepared it for burial, a task that was normally relegated to women. In a way then, these two men also prepared Jesus for his rebirth… his birth from above, his resurrection. These men labored, not knowing for sure what would be next, as they laid his body in the darkness of a tomb…. That in the end, became more like a womb for the new life about to arrive.

I might summarize Barbara Brown Taylor’s whole book using a quote from this chapter on Nick: “Once you have given up knowing who is right, it is easy to see neighbors everywhere you look.”  Something new is at work being born in us… with the Holy Spirit as our midwife. Sometimes its going to feel uncomfortable, and it might even be painful. But it is in the service of making room - making room for the work of the Holy Spirit, making room for the new thing that is to come, making room for all people to be welcome. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Red Light, Green Light, Lent Light

3-1-20

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.

On my way to Trinity Wednesday night for our joint Ash Wednesday worship, I got stuck at the light on the corner of Old Dublin Pike and Main Street. As the stop lights cycled through for everyone else multiple times, the light for the straight lane – the one I was in - stayed red…I started to worry as the time grew later and later. I still had to stop here to grab my alb and stole. I worried that Pastor Nancy would wonder where I was. I had to ask myself – am still supposed to be a rule-abiding citizen, even when it seems like the rules are not working properly? Just as I was about to give up on that stationary lane and try to sneak into the left-hand turn lane to find another way, perhaps risking cutting off another car, or at least being rude … the light finally turned green again, and life proceeded as normal. I needn’t have worried because I showed up at Trinity right on time.

Lent is kind of like that. Ready or not, it’s time to pause, take stock, and make note of the brake lights and the stop lights. Ready or not, it’s time to travel through the wilderness, take the slow lane or even a different route…. Knowing that in 40 days (minus Sundays), we will still arrive right on time, exactly where we need to be.

Now we may not find ourselves led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit this Lent, as Jesus did. We may not face a serpent or the devil face to face. We may not have the ability to turn stones to bread or ever be offered all the kingdoms of the world. But we DO have one thing in common with Jesus in the wilderness - an identity given to us by God. Jesus had just come from his baptism, when his freshly recognized and newly blessed identity as the Son of God was called into question. And we too are called Children of God in our baptisms, and we too find ourselves under the world’s scrutiny before the water on our heads has a chance to dry.

On the verge of starting his earthly ministry, Jesus had to define what it meant to be “the son of God.” Was Jesus going to reflect a kind of power and glory that the world could easily recognize? Or would Jesus set his agenda according to God’s definition of power and glory?

The first temptation does seem pretty harmless - After all, it wouldn’t hurt anyone if Jesus did a little magic on those rocks so he wouldn’t be hungry AND angry – or HANGRY as the cool kids say. I would have turned those stones into bread in a heartbeat, and probably added some hummus too, faster than you can say “Grab a Snickers.” But, Jesus saves his divine breadmaking skills for another time, to feed 5,000 hungry people rather than feed himself only, which happens later in the Matthew’s Gospel.

The same happens with the other two temptations. Instead of throwing himself off a roof to test God plan for him, Jesus instead shows his resolve do follow God’s will, to trade being lifted high on a building to being lifted high on a cross. And instead of seizing the opportunity to rule all the kingdoms of the earth for himself, Jesus instead will open the kingdom of heaven to all who follow him. In the rest of his ministry, we can see how Jesus’ time in the wilderness prepared him to fulfill his baptismal identity.

In the wildernesses we find ourselves in, be they physical, emotional, or spiritual, we too find our identity tested. We are constantly tempted into thinking that, as we are right now, we are not good enough to be children of God.

Most of us are aware of our limitations and our hang-ups, and the tempter takes every opportunity to remind us where we fall short with a never-ending commentary in our brains – Surely, we are mistaken if we think that God has chosen us. Surely, God wants us to work a little harder at being God’s children. Surely, we need to prove that we are worthy of being chosen.

I imagine something similar going through Eve’s mind while she listened to the clever arguments of the serpent in the garden. When the serpent told her that eating the fruit would make her more like God, to have knowledge of good and evil, she jumped at the chance. She did not trust that God had created her good, just as she was.

The story of creation in the book of Genesis is so epic that there is not just ONE version of the story but TWO (You can look it up for yourself on Page 1 of your pew bible)… and at the end of the second one, God gave free reign of the garden Eden, but said, “You can eat from any tree in the garden, except for one. Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die.”

But if you didn’t already know the answer, you would probably easily guess what happens next - the snake convinces Eve to try the fruit from the forbidden tree. Eve eats, then Adam eats. Their eyes were opened, and they knew there was trouble in paradise. In the Sara Bareilles, called “Eden ,” Eve tells us her side of the story -  “Walking in the garden was a serpent-shaped heart and he told me – ‘What is broken cannot show, and “less than beautiful” is worse than unholy.’”

The snake of course was wrong… but Even and Adam found that out the hard way, and in the song, Eve reflects, “…. Now I'm wide awakened and still paying for the poison they sold me.”

The Adam and Eve in all of us all too often trust the words of the crafty serpents around us, rather than the incredible promise that we are loved and claimed as God’s children. It’s hard for us to see ourselves as God sees us. We look into ourselves and only see what is lacking, and so comes our tendency to reach for too much power, too much security, too much comfort in order to fill the gaps. This is the poison that the serpent – and the world – is selling. But God sees us a different way. When the rest of the world tells us the opposite, God tells us that we are worthy, we are loved, and we are enough.

In Jesus, God’s love is shown to the world. In Jesus, we see that the love of God would go to any length for us, and would travel any distance, and would even go to death and back for God’s beloved children. We certainly long to hear these words on a daily basis.

One meaning of Lent is “to lengthen,” like the daylight hours in the coming spring, that hopefully will arrive someday soon.  The purpose of Lent is to makes US “long” for this new life – We long to stop causing and receiving pain.  We long to be out of the night and we long for the return of the dawn.

Lent is not for us to improve ourselves with sacrifices to become more worthy or more holy come Easter Sunday. Lent instead takes us through the wilderness to reflect our own shortcomings, to remind us to let God be God. Not so that we can feel guilty at where we have fallen short. But so that we can get out of our own way and be nothing less than members of God’s family. It’s been said that when Martin Luther felt tempted to despair by the devil, he would shout in response, “I am baptized!” Not “I was”, but “I AM.” Present tenses. True in this very moment.

The trip through Lent every year takes us from a garden to a wilderness and back again, from human sin and transgression and death to resurrection, from the ash crosses of Ash Wednesday to the shadow of the cross on Good Friday, through the Garden of Eden, to the garden of Gethsemane, to the garden that contained Jesus’ empty tomb. Every year, we tell the story, to remind ourselves who we are and WHOSE we are. “I am baptized.” Present tense. Now and forever. Thanks be to God, amen.

Lent 5: Preparing like Mary

4-7-19

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.

When you get invited to a party, such as a wedding, your first thought might be – yay, how exciting! And your next thought might be all the things you need to do to get ready? Even if you are “just” a guest, there are some many things to do before you arrive at the ceremony or reception. Make sure you can get time off work. Get directions. Book a flight and a hotel room if you’re from out of town. Look on the registry and buy a gift. And the most important thing: figure out what you’re going to WEAR!

And if you are IN the wedding party, your list of preparations just got about four times longer. And if you’re a bride (or a groom), THAT list is longer still. Dress, tux, shoes, jewelry, makeup, hair, nails, veil, flowers, something borrowed, something blue, figuring out the venue, music, food, and registry…. But I’m pretty sure a pound of nard is not on any registry I know of.

As I shared during one of our “Eat, Pray, Learn” dinners, each Gospel tells the story of Jesus a little bit differently, depending on their focus and their audience. For example, this year we’re hearing from the Gospel of Luke, and his focus is on how Jesus brings salvation to everyone, especially people on the margins. But every so often, we get to hear from the Gospel of John, which is a bit different from the other three.

This story that we hear – this time from the Gospel of John – is about preparations. And it also comes with a few different options – sort of like choosing types of items for a registry - one for every Gospel. What kind of blender do you want? One with lots of speeds, small and portable, extra flavor boost….. but in the end, no matter how fancy it is, it’s still a blender.

This story, of Jesus’ anointing, is found in all the Gospels… but the details are a little bit different in each one. In some, this party is at the home of Simon the Leper, and the woman with the jar is a stranger without a name. In John, Jesus is with Lazarus, whom he had recently raised from the dead. Mary and Martha, the siblings of Lazarus, are so happy that they all threw Jesus a big party. So, there is still the party, which is the same in all the Gospels… as is the fact that Jesus’ feet are anointed both with the expensive oil by a woman – Mary or otherwise, and then she wiped with her hair. 

Mary was not just being hospitable and cleaning Jesus’ dusty and – probably smelly – feat. When someone is anointed in this manner in the Bible, it usually means one of two things. When a new king is crowned, he is also anointed. Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek mean anointed one. So “Christ” is not Jesus’s “last name”… it’s a title. It means Jesus, the chosen one.

There is another use for this kind of anointing oil. It is used on the body after death to prepare it for burial. Jesus was not being anointed for his coming glory, as his ancestor David had been. For Jesus there was not coronation ceremony. Jesus crown would be one of thorns, and his thrown would be a cross.

Mary thought she was doing something good for Jesus purely out of gratitude for what Jesus had done. She had no idea that she was preparing Jesus for his burial. She also had no idea that, according to John, Jesus raising her brother from the dead would ultimately be the reason that Jesus himself is condemned to die.

But Jesus knows, what they don’t - that just around the corner lies betrayal and suffering and humiliation and death. betrayed and handed over by one of his own followers, denied by another, abandoned by the rest of the male disciples, falsely accused, tried in the middle of the night, given a convenient death sentence, denied justice, beaten, mocked, and finally killed as a common criminal, in public, as a deterrent. She had no idea that her actions would help prepare Jesus for Holy Week.

It’s sort of funny, that Mary was chastised for using ONE point of this anointing oil on Jesus NOW, when later in John, a man, Nicodemus, brings ONE HUNDRED POUNDS of similar oil to anoint Jesus’ body after his death. Who was ACTUALLY being wasteful, Judas?

Jesus’ death might have looked like a total waste to the rest of the world – a waste of three years, a waste of a life, a waste of time for the Son of God. Just as Jesus’ Judas thought this splendid gift was a totally waste on Jesus…. The man he was about to betray to death.

But with God, nothing is ever a waste…. Out of death, comes new life. Out of a tomb, comes resurrection. From a cross, comes salvation.

There is a lot of death happening all around us right now, even as the new life of spring is finally bursting forth from a chilly and wet winter. We all know someone who is struggling with a chronic illness, a cancer diagnosis, with a chemical dependency, or with the loss of someone they love.

There is a death that comes with any change – changing families, neighborhoods, ways of doing life that we are used to. Our church doesn’t look the same as it used to. We might not have as much energy or resources as we used to, and the same goes for our congregations. A number of churches in our own synod have already closed this year, and there are still more that are scheduled to close before the year is over. We have seen fewer and fewer faces in our own pews from year to year, while neighboring churches break ground on new building expansions. Someone like Judas might wonder if it makes it at all worth it to get up on a Sunday morning… if it is indeed all a waste.

Some may see Mary’s gift as a waste, but Jesus saw it as an act of faith. An act of Thankfulness. An act of Generosity. And generosity is never the wrong answer. Generosity is never a waste.

With God, no act done out of faith is wasteful. Every act of getting up in the morning, of showing up, of putting a dollar in the offering plate, of giving of an hour of our time to make sandwiches or to serve on a committee or to eat dinner at Candlewick to support a ministry, or at night Buckingham Pizza to have fellowship and to learn …. All these things are an act of faith.

To others they may seem like wasteful, foolish gestures, like wasting an entire pound of super expensive perfume on one man… to people like Judas, this is foolish. Judas tells us to be cautious… restrained, …. responsible, as much as Mary’s gift was exuberant… irresponsible… and “all-in” And his advice IS sound…. But do we REALLY want to listen to JUDAS???

Out of her thankfulness, Mary decided to “go for broke” …. Literally. She broke that jar of pricey perfume over Jesus’s smelly feet. She thought nothing of getting down and dirty, and using her own hair, and she didn’t care about the fragrant mess that is was probably making all over the floor, or how in the world she would get it out of the carpet.

Mary, and the other women who surrounded Jesus during Holy Week, were “All-In.” They stayed by Jesus when all the other – male – disciples – had betrayed, denied, and abandoned Jesus. But God was at work doing a new thing, preparing the way from death into life. As the psalmist says, those who sowed in tears will reap with songs of joy. But first, God has to prepare the soil, so that the seeds that God has planted in us can bear fruit.

Lots of things prevent us from going “All-In” with Mary… fear of the unknown, anxiety about doing it right, worry about going in the wrong direction, hesitancy over tough but necessary choices, timidity in dreaming big.

But there are also lots of ways to “prepare the soil” for going “all-in” and they just might be similar in how we can get ready for Holy Week. We can follow Mary’s example, for a start. She INVITED Jesus to HER table. She didn’t expect anything out of him – in fact, she along with Martha, sought to serve HIM. She gave the gift of both her boldness and her humility. She gave the gift of the most expensive thing she owned – the perfume – and then gave the gift of the most precious thing she had – her devotion and her discipleship. In the past, she had sat Jesus’ feet as a pupil, and he had raised her brother from the dead. He had given her everything, and this is the least she could give in return. After all, Jesus had gone “all in for her” and went “all in” for us. 

Coming up soon is the week we tell the story of how Jesus went “all in” for us. Will you be “all in,” this Holy Week to hear and believe? If so, prepare yourselves for the way of the cross. Amen.

Lent 4: Invitation to being Un-Lost

3-31-19

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

I wish more people loved Jane Austen as much as I do. True Jane-ites like myself (yes there is a name for us) know that Austen’s reputation for being “sappy chick-lit” is completely unfounded. Austen was actually a revolutionary for her time: a successful published author in a field dominated by men, and a single woman all her life in a society where most women needed to marry for survival. Her works have inspired more films, reboots, adaptations, and spin-offs than almost any other author. There is a REASON we still read her, and trust me, it’s not just that we all want to ride in carriages and marry Mr. Darcy… Though that might be pretty awesome. Austen’s words endure still, because she speaks to us and our human condition today.

Let me give you an example. In her most famed work, Pride and Prejudice, her protagonist Elizabeth sometimes struggles to navigate her relationships to her other sisters. While the older sisters Elizabeth and Jane behave “properly,” their extremely selfish younger sister Lydia – yes, Lydia – is never really punished for her bad behavior. In the end all of her selfish antic lands her a husband BEFORE any of her older sisters. And for the moment, at least, she “wins.”

Now, I think we all have a “Lydia” in our families, right? There is always that sibling or cousin who, no matter how they muck things up, always seems to come up smelling like a rose. While the “Lydias” of the world are continually hungry for more and will do anything to satisfy that hunger, the dutiful “older siblings” feel the sting of unfairness. So, you see, even two hundred years later, Jane Austen has successfully described every family reunion EVER.

Families are always complicated. And the Family of God across the ages has been no different. At EVERY “family of God” reunion, meaning worship and holy communion, there are present “oldest” siblings and “younger” siblings… but, if I had to guess… there are probably far more “older siblings” present here. I don’t mean by physical age in your family of origin, but more like the older brother in the parable that Jesus tells.

To be here at this church, toiling away faithfully despite the “family issues,” rather than leaving to join another church, shows some of the Older Sibling traits of faithfulness, steadfastness, and commitment. Family of God Lutheran church would not be here today without their, and your, dedication.

But beware the shadow side of the Older Sibling. Here in this parable we witness his resentment, anger, and stubbornness, and rigidity. This is what keeps the older brother in this story out of the party, and on the outside of the joy of his father and estranged from his family. That’s what makes the Pharisees and the scribes – the “good, faithful church goers” – grumble and judge Jesus for hanging out with the lost people on the margins and IN the margins.

As a Lydia, paradoxically I am an older sibling, but moreover I am a lifelong Lutheran and a lifelong church-goer, so I “get” the older brother. I don’t have an amazing “lost” story to tell that gets me invited to be featured on The Moth or On Being with Krista Tippet. I don’t have a powerful “conversion” or “born-again” moment. And that’s ok. My story is my story, and the important things is that I see where God has been present in it. But... right now, it feels as a significant number of pastors who are also in their thirties are all publishing books.  Not everyone, but enough to notice. Like, it’s what all the “cool kids” are doing. And sometimes it makes me feel, no one is coming after ME for a book deal.

But I’ve also noticed something about most of these books coming out … they are from perspectives that have traditionally been thrust to the margins, or at least, they are voices from the “outside.” One is about oneAfrican-American pastor who has a deep love for the ELCA, which is the whitest denomination in the Unites States. Another is from a queer pastor and how she learned to love the Bible. Another is a pastor who has written in the past about her addictions and her tattoos.

These three authors and many others have something in common – they have all experienced being on the outside or have felt lost within the church in some way. I wonder if any of them would trade their book deals to have the position of being on the “inside,” to have a story like mine that is boring but advantaged in many ways.

And yet, with Jesus, the church insiders find themselves on the outside, and the outsiders are let in. That is how Jesus operates…. And its so maddening! Or at least, it can feel that way... to us “older siblings.” The truth is, though, that with Jesus, there is no inside OR outside. There cannot be anyone on the outside if all are truly embraced in the family of God. There is enough Jesus to go around. The love and grace of God is not going to run out.

The older son in this story forgot that. He forgot that he is the OLDEST son in the family and is therefore entitled to the lion’s share already. But his father has to remind him – the father is always with the son, and everything that belongs to the father also belongs to the son. It’s his birthright, his inheritance. Which is language that might seem strange to us, and make it hard for us to find ourselves in the story.

To engaged this old story, Debie Thomas, Episcopal family minister, wrote a letter to each of the sons. This is what she wrote to the older son: “the power in this story is … yours. Your brother is inside; he's done breaking hearts for the time being.  Now your father stands in the doorway, waiting for you.  Waiting for you to stop being lost.  Waiting for you to come home.  Waiting for you to take hold at last of the inheritance that has always been yours.”

We belong to God, and our inheritance has always been evident in our baptisms: claimed as beloved children and given abundant life in Jesus’ victory over the grave. But sometimes we have our heads down, eyes to the plow, dedicated to the work - so much so that we completely miss the music and dancing and celebrating happening in God’s house. And God is at the doorstep, holding out a hand and an invitation to the party… into relationship with people that we might have judged wrongly in the past, or looked down on. This invitation summons us to a future that makes us realize that we have we have been unnecessarily expending our energy in the name of duty and devotion, and that is why we have missed out this party all along… and makes our hard work feel like a waste. But hard work is never wasteful as long as we learn something along the way.

After all, the word prodigal just means “extravagantly wasteful” “use resources freely.’ and Jesus did not name his parable “The prodigal son.” That came much later. Perhaps we could also call this parable “The TWO Lost Son.” Or even, “The Prodigal Father” – because of the prodigal, wasteful, and extravagant use of resources on BOTH of his lost sons. The father in the story IS very much like God – God loves us lavishly and extravagantly, throwing us the ultimate victory feast over death, every… single… Sunday… and then, coming outside, to where we are to give us a personal invitation.

So, what are we going to do? We can stay outside the celebration and remain just as lost as the younger brother was. After all, a sibling turning his back on another sibling is not all that different from a son that up and leaving his father with his half of the inheritance.

Our other choice is to take the hand of the prodigal father and go into the party, to take a risk that might make us feel uncomfortable or scary us a little bit. To welcome our siblings face to face, and to realize that you both have been lost, but now are found… you both were dead and now are come back to life, through the same love of Jesus Christ, and joined together in one family of God – older and younger, parent and child, dutiful and prodigal, you and them and me.  Thanks be God. Amen.

Art from the back wall of the sanctuary