The Purple Blob of God's Love

 9-20-20 

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

You may remember that I might have mentioned Pine Lake Lutheran Camp in Waupaca Wisconsin… once or twice before. They, like many camps across the country, have suspended normal camp, and instead need to support themselves in creative ways, such as offering individual all those empty cabins to families for some vacation time. And when I heard Pine Lake was doing the same, we jumped at the chance to support this place that had been integral to my own call as a pastor. As we walked around the camp, I fondly remembered the songs, games, evening campfires, and funny skits we would do as a staff, especially one of my favorites, the Purple Blob skit.

It goes something like this – a single person goes to the front, pretending to carry a large purple blob with both arms. They narrate how much the LOVE big purple blob. In succession, various individuals enter, chat, and ask to have some of the blob. When the blob-carrier refuses, their friend goes away sad, and each time, the blob gets smaller, until eventually the blob is small enough to fit in the palm of their hand. Terrified their beloved blob will disappear, the person decides to try something different: to share. All the same people come back through, one by one, this time given some of the blob, which is shown to get bigger, and bigger by how wide everyone’s arms are. At the very end, unable to contain the blob any longer, the Big Purple Blob is tossed into the audience.

This skit is both bad math….  AND good Lutheran doctrine. One of our core Lutheran tenants is idea that we are at the same time both sinner and saint. The fancy Latin way to say this is simil iustus et peccator. One hundred percent sinner in desperate need of God’s grace. And one hundred percent saint saved by that grace in our baptisms. One hundred percent AND one hundred percent.  You might remember that I talked about it this spring over Facebook live…. Only 6 months but feeling like a million years ago.

This is Purple Blob Math… God’s math. It is math that doesn’t make sense to us and the world that we live in. And there are other examples of God’s math, adapted from a post a friend of mine shared on Facebook:

Jesus equals = One whole human nature + one whole divine nature

1 + 1 + 1 = 1 (that’s the Trinity, by the way – Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three in one and one in three at the same time)

This one is from two weeks ago:  where 2 or more are gathered (or “n”) always equals another guy (Jesus) is there or “n” + 1.

One sheep (greater than sign, or more important than) ninety-nine sheep. Also, one coin is greater than 9 coins.

God's love (minus) love that you give away = MORE of God’s love than what we had to start with…. Like with the Purple Blob of God’s Love.

And then from this week we get a couple of whopping examples of “Purple Blob Math.” Twelve hours of work equals one day's wages… but then one hour of work ALSO equals one day's wages! One twelfth equals to twelve-twelfths!  The last will be first, and the first will be last! This is certainly some “purple blob math”!

Perhaps then it is not so surprising that Jesus used stories and not math as a teaching tool over the course of his ministry. I’ve shared before how these stories are called “parables,” which comes from a word that means “to cast alongside,” “Consider A by considering B.” These parables of Jesus are often hard to swallow, because they resist easy comparisons. They are not really analogies or allegories, where one thing clearly stands in – or equals, if you will – another thing. They are vignettes and snippets, combining elements of real life, both a shorthand of things we find familiar. Until everything familiar gets upended…which also happens to be one of Jesus’s favorite things to do.

Like the original owner of the purple blob believed at the start of the skit, we live in a culture that convinces us that scarcity is the name of the game. If you have more, that means that I have less. We are constantly looking at what our neighbor has and compared to what we lack. If we see our neighbor being blessed in some way, we are tempted to feel resentful and left out.  If another group gets something that we thought only belonged to us, we feel less valued. So they hang on to what little they do have with a vengeance…. But they may find, like the kid in the skit, the purple blob gets smaller and smaller when we live that way.

There is even an acronym for this that is floating around social media: FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out – the anxiety that comes with missed opportunities that often happens when we are preoccupied with what other people are doing. Much like the workers who labored all day, as they complained against the others who worked fewer hours but got the same about of pay. Instead of being satisfied that the vineyard owner gave ALL of them a fair daily wage, some peeked over the shoulder of the other workers, and felt cheated. They feared that they missed out on something that they imagine COULD have been MORE, and belittling the generosity of the employer, instead of realizing that what THEY have is enough.

Right now many people are treating some lives as less important, invisible in our society, but they matter to God, and they should matter to us. With our actions, the church can say, “these people matter too, and they are enough.” Because we know that it won’t make us matter LESS in God’s eyes. Until we all ACT like ALL lives really are precious, loved, and worthy, we HAVE to lift up Black lives, Trans lives, Homeless lives, and the lives of the most vulnerable among us.

Some things should not be considered a zero-sum game. Love… equality… freedom … “mattering”…. Saying one person matters does not mean that other people matter less. It just means that some people are being treated as mattering less and we are bringing it to everyone’s attention, so that we can take corrective action together and right the injustices in our world. Until we live in a world where all lives are treated the same, we who have privilege and voice must speak up.

At the end of the day, we all need to eat, whether we worked one hour or twelve…. Or none at all. And we all get the same amount of God’s love – all of it – not that we have done anything to deserve it. We each get an infinite amount of God’s love, and there is still an infinite amount left over. If you haven’t noticed, big purple blog math is Grace… another deeply cherished Lutheran idea. Grace is God’s purple blob math in a nutshell.

The world doesn’t want us to live by God’s math, aka grace. And the sinner-ness in all of us doesn’t want to live by this math either. But that is what our baptisms are for – a place where we begin to live by the purple blob math of God’s grace.

We were baptized once, though we also need to repent and remember our baptisms daily. We were baptized with water that wasn’t just plain water, but is also infused with the Holy Spirit and a promise. At every moment, we are both our old sinful selves and our new baptized selves. Baptism is a kind of death – to sin – so that we may have life – raised as Jesus was raised from the dead. We were born once, but in baptism, we are reborn as children of God, marked by the cross of Christ on our foreheads… invisible…. Part of a larger whole and not to be kept to yourself…. Like the big purple blob that is the body of Christ, meant to be shared with the world.

It’s everywhere, and we cannot escape this grace. Thanks be to God, and big purple blog math. Amen.

Pack This, Not That.

Sermon 7-8-18

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

To me, and maybe for some of you, one of the most fun things about summer is traveling. For example, just this month I’m going to St. Louis and then driving through Illinois to WI to see my family. But before I became a pastor and moved to the East coast…. while I was still in college, I usually stayed home all summer and worked as a camp counselor… and loved every minute. However, even though I was in one place all summer, I still did just a little packing and a little traveling, at least around the camp itself. Every counselor was assigned to a different cabin each week. So, my colleagues and I quickly learned that the mores STUFF you brought with you… the more STUFF you had to shlep across the camp from week to week. The best packers among us had it down to a science – just enough to only have to make one, or MAYBE two trips tops. Or…. You just made a lot of friends to convince to help you do it for you.

Pine Lake Camp, WI, circa 2004

Then once the campers arrived, often there would be at least ONE in every cabin each with that just packed WAY too much stuff… hair straighteners and footballs and board games and nearly every pair of shoes in their closet. WAY more than they could ever use for just 5 days at church camp.

I think we’ve all been there when preparing a trip, or going to camp, or camping, or going to the beach, or any kind of travel really – we have every intention of packing light. But then we second guess ourselves - maybe we really do need three books instead of two… that extra sundress… a few more pairs of socks… six spare sunglasses…. another towel… and pretty soon, our suitcases are pretty big and pretty heavy. All in the name of “being prepared” for “just in case.”

Fortunately for us, the gospel of Mark is a master class in being no-frills and to the point. No word is wasted here. Mark is the shortest Gospel - you can easily read all of it in one sitting. There is no nativity scene or story of Jesus’ birth, no Sermon on the Mount, no Jesus in the temple at age 12… and Mark only takes 3 chapters to describe the evens of Jesus’ last week, compared to 8 chapters in the Gospel of John. There is not even TECHNICALLY a resurrection story, if you remember my sermon ALLLLLL the way back on Easter.

Mark does not mess around. So, it’s not entirely surprising in Mark, Jesus gives us a packing list of what we will and won’t need to do ministry… and Jesus is pretty much telling his disciples – and us – to pack light.

Do you remember a book that came out a number of years ago, called “Eat this, not that?” People went nuts over how it debunks some of the health food myths out there. And following that book’s success, a whole series spun off – “Cook this, Not That” …. “Drink This, Not That” … you get the picture. Well, as you might have guessed, Jesus has his own version to give to the disciples as they are about to embark in this ministry adventure in Jesus’ name. “Pack this, not that.”

What does Jesus tell us to bring along on this mission? A staff for walking…. Sandals on their feet…And that’s about it. No money. No extra clothes. No snacks, not even a backpack. So really, mostly “…Not that”!

On the surface, Jesus’ packing list is going over-board on this “minimalist, packing light” idea at best, and actually dangerous at worst. Traveling back then was very different from traveling today. Anything could happen to the disciples while out there on the road – they might get hungry, they might get robbed, they might need a place to stay for a night – and there was no Google to help find the nearest Motel 6. What Jesus is suggesting here seems to be pretty foolhardy – the very mission to spread God’s kingdom seems to be utterly dependent on the hospitality of complete strangers.

But look what happened…. Where we might think that Jesus sets up his followers for failure… instead, they are wildly successful! They cast out demons! They anointed the sick and cured them! People welcomed them into their homes! I would call that a BIG success!

Jesus knew something that we tend to forget… or ignore – the more we bring with us…. the more stuff we gather around us in the name of “being prepared” … the more things to surround ourselves with in the name of trying to be “successful,” the more we are burdened and weighed down, both physically and mentally. We worry too much about stuff, what we do have and what we don’t have, and what we may think we need.

Now, Jesus is not saying that we should not be ready and prepared AT ALL… but instead, Jesus is helping us differentiate between what is necessary and what is not. Or, to put it another way, what to pack on this journey of discipleship, and what to leave out of our suitcase. “Pack This, Not That.”

Here is Jesus’ packing list:

First, before they even leave on their journey, you hopefully noticed that Jesus didn’t send the twelve out one at a time. He sent them out two by two, so that no one person would shoulder the burden and the stress by themselves. Having partners in ministry is important to encouraging us when times get tough, to keeping us on track and accountable, to pray for us, and to labor next to us – “work smarter, not harder.”

Next, Jesus says told his disciples to bring a staff, or a walking stick, and a pair of sandals. For when the path ahead gets rocky and becomes hard to climb, or when the way gets dark and difficult to navigate, we could all use some support and assistance. Sometime this takes the form of a supportive posse of people who love us. And sometimes this takes the form of some comfortable walking shoes.

That’s it for the physical items Jesus tells us to pack. But there are some intangible once that don’t weight a lot but are essential. The most important thing that Jesus gives us on our journey is the call to do his work in his name… in other words, the most important thing we pack is our baptisms. Jesus gave his disciples the authority to heal and to cast out unclean spirits. When we were baptized, we officially turned our backs on the empty promises of the world, and all the powers of the world that draw us away from God. God chooses us as beloved children, then sends us out into the world with the power and presence of God.

Your baptism is pretty portable. In fact, you carry it with you wherever you go. And it takes up less room than your toothbrush. There, on your forehead, is the invisible mark of the cross that was drawn on your forehead on that momentous day. From then on, the promise that God is with you is there forever, no matter what where you go, or if your journey takes you far or near. No matter if you succeed or if you fail.

I would argue that Jesus gave his disciples one more item on his packing list: a spirit of openness. Jesus hinted to the twelve that not everything would go the way they wanted, and not everyone would welcome them. To quote the great modern prophet Taylor Swift: “Haters gonna hate (hate, hate, hate, hate, hate) … and the fakers gonna fake (fake, fake, fake, fake) …. But baby, I’M just gonna shake (shake, shake, shake, shake) Shake it off, shake it off.”

Or, as Jesus said it first: “If any place does not welcome you… shake the dust off your feet.” Because sometimes you can do everything right and things still don’t work out. Look at what happened to Jesus at the beginning of this section of Mark – Jesus showed up in his home town and it turns out that there he could do diddly-squat. And that kind of gives me just a little bit of comfort. 

But Jesus continued the work, even in the setbacks. And sometimes our hard work will actually pay off. But not because we bulked up and packed everything and the kitchen sink. It’s because we remembered to pack Jesus.

There are lots of things we don’t have. But there are lots of things that we DO. We have generous hearts. We have an eagerness to learn and to try new things. We are willing to work hard and work together. And those things, I think, will be extremely useful to take along this journey with us. Thanks be to God, amen.

Jesus Loves Me. Open Wide

Sermon 10-30-16

Grace and peace to you from God our father and from our Lord and savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

499 years ago on October 31^st a little known theology professor named Martin Luther posted a list of his 95 thoughts on the state of the church. I heard it said somewhere that if Martin Luther had lived today, he would have posted “the 95 Tweets” instead. That church door in Wittenburg, Germany was the Facebook of his day, and the printing press was the internet, and thanks to both, Martin Luther’s posts were the first in history to go truly viral. And thus the Reformation was born.

500 years ago the actions of Martin Luther were inspired by these questions: Who is God? What is God like? And how is God at work in our lives? Questions we still wrestle with today - which is why, 499 years later, the Reformation still matters. When Luther nailed those 95 Theses on the church door on 1517, little did he know that he would blow the world wide open and re-form the course of his life into something completely different than he had ever expected.

Pine Lake at Sunset

Though we may very rarely encounter a day like October 31^st, 1517, there are days in OUR lives when we are re-formed and set on a path we don’t expect. For example, little did I know that working at a Lutheran Bible Camp in central Wisconsin would change MY life forever, and set my path toward a call to ordained ministry. The very path that led me here today.

In the three summers I worked at that camp, I got to know some of the repeats. Amanda was one of these campers who came year after year. Amanda was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. She struggled with a traumatic childhood, developmental delays, and behavior challenges. She required the constant help and support of one the counselors. But she loved being at camp and singing camp songs. Her favorite camp song, which she sang constantly, was a rocked out version of that old favorite you all know “Jesus loves me.”

Me as a counselor at Pine Lake Camp

This one goes a little differently than the one you remember, though. To demonstrate, I’m going to need all of your help. This version is call and response, so I’ll to sing a line, and you’ll sing it back, ok? We’re going to skip the first verse – because we all know that one - and go right to the second verse. Ready?

Jesus loves me! …

He who died! …

Heaven’s gate to! …

Open wide!

Awesome job, you would all be fantastic campers! So imagine Amanda and her counselor belting out this song as they walked around camp. Only Amanda’s version was a little different. She sang it this way –

Jesus loves me! … 

Open Wide!

Jesus loves me? Open wide? Yes. Amanda is right. From the mouth of someone who the world considers broken and incomplete, comes a beautiful statement of truth that has stayed with me all these years later. Jesus loves me. Open wide.

For this Reformation Day, we’re skipping over Luke to take brief trip over to the Gospel of John. In this gospel, Jesus is continually opening wide the horizons of people’s notions about God. It is in John, Jesus says, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life, I and my father are one…

In John Jesus confuses Nicodeums talk of being born anew and gives us John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…

”

… In John, Jesus gives hope and living water to the woman at the well, and she opens her mouth to testify to this encounter.

… In John Jesus opens the tomb of Lazarus and calls him out of the darkness of death.

…In John, Jesus challenges people to open their eyes, minds, and hearts to the fact that the Word of God became flesh and was walking among them.

And here in this section of John, Jesus talks to a crowd, and some of them listening believe in him.  But, in true Jesus-fashion, he throws them this curve ball, and says “Continue - or abide - in my word, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

And the people wondered at what Jesus said, as they often did… they wondered in true “Lutheran fashion” - What does this mean? Or, as Martin Luther wrote often in the Small Catechism– Was ist Das? What is this?

Yes, Jesus’ people listening may have been under the occupation of Rome, and many empires before that.  But they had held out, they had survived with their traditions and ethnicity intact. They had kept themselves separate, they had kept the Law. They refused to completely submit. Therefore, because they still worshiped God as their ancestors did, weren’t they already free?

We as Americans can relate to their objections. Our country is based on the idea that we are free – free from unfair taxation without representation, free from having our religion dictated to us, free to speak out against oppression. “I am not in bondage to anyone. I can worship how I want, buy what I want, keep to myself, and am a pretty decent person. I don’t do any of the “biggies” like steal, cheat, lie, murder.”

Then, again, in true Jesus fashion, Jesus throws us a curveball. What about sin?

It’s not just about NOT doing bad things. It’s also about NOT doing GOOD things too. If you have downloaded Luther’s Small Catechism on your smart phone, you can look up the 8^th commandment, for example, and see under Luther’s explanation, “Was ist Das?” What is this? - The 8^th commandment isn’t just “bearing false witness” against our neighbor in say, a court of law. It’s also about “speaking well about them and interpreting everything they do in the best possible light.” As a wise man I know likes to ask, “How are we doing?”

I like to pretend that Paul is wrong. “All have sinned?” Not me, right? But, Paul writes in Romans 7 that “…I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” We admit it every week in the confession that we are captured and trapped by sin and cannot free ourselves. We sin in what we think, say, and do. We sin in things we do AND things we neglect to do. We fail at the greatest commandment – loving God and our neighbors.

As Paul also wrote to the Christians in Rome, he reminds them and us that no one has “made it,” no one perfectly keeps these commandments, no one is free from sin, that all that have fallen short of the glory of God. Who, Paul askes, will save us from this body of death? Is this the state that God leaves us in? Is this the last word on who God is?

Paul, Martin Luther, and Amanda the camper refuse to think so.

Paul wrote– “Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ our Lord” in Romans 7 and in Romans 3 “They are now justified by his grace as a gift.”

Luther wrote – “Be a sinner, and sin boldly, but trust in Christ more boldly still, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world.”

And Amanda the camper sang – “Jesus loves me, open wide!”

Jesus loves me, so much so that he opens his arms wide in his death on the cross, so that those who are lost and those who are bound by sin and death are forgiven and made free. These open arms welcome us into the household of God, to a place at the table where we belong, forever and ever, because Jesus the son of God has made it so.

Jesus loves me, so much so that he burst open the tomb of death that tried so hard to bind him and hold him down. Three days later he cracked death wide open, so that through Jesus’ resurrection we may be re-vived. 

Jesus loves me, so that we are no longer a slave to sin, but are free as God’s children. But this freedom is not given to us for its own sake. Luther wrote, that in Christ’s freedom we become “a dutiful servant of all.” Jesus gives us this freedom so that we will be open wide to the needs of our neighbors. We do not get to keep the grace that God has given us to ourselves. It is meant to be shared.

What does sharing this freedom and grace look like? It can look like holding the door open for a mom whose toddler is having a meltdown. It can look like having the courage to point out that a racist or sexist joke isn’t funny. It can look like risking feeling awkward in welcoming a new person. It looks like receiving the body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for you.

Like a parent who feeds their children good things by saying, “open wide!” we desperately need this reminder, at least weekly, even daily. Because we so often forget. We too often forget that – to adapt another passage from Romans, nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus – not illness, not unemployment, not addition, not divorce, not past mistakes or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that has shown to us in Jesus Christ.

Jesus loves you. Open wide. Open wide, re-member, and be re-formed. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

"There is nothing here"... Except everything.

Sermon from 8-9-15

Grace to you and peace from God our father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Cross Roads

I love camp. I love everything about camp: The singing, the campfires, being out in nature, making new friends, having new experiences. At the Lutheran camp in Wisconsin that I worked at, and at Cross Roads Camp up in Califon, there are also the worship songs, the skits about Jesus, and reading God’s word out in nature. I actually went up to Cross Roads on Thursday to see camp in all its camp glory, and it was AWESOME. Kids of all different ages, sizes, colors, and athletic ability were playing games and running around having fun, singing songs, and basically being the Kingdom of God right here on earth.

Pine Lake Camp Staff '06

But camp life isn’t always fun and games. Being on the camp staff was fun, but it also came with responsibilities. One of these less than fun aspects was instilling in campers the importance of the “Buddy Board.” In addition to lifeguards, the Buddy Board is how Pine Lake Camp in Wisconsin kept swimming campers safe. Every camper got a number, and when they swam in Pine Lake, their number and their buddy’s number were put together on the board. They didn’t have to be attached at the hip for the entire swimming time, but when the lifeguard called for a “Buddy Check,” you found your buddy and waited patiently until everyone was accounted for.

During staff training, we would do drills for in the event of a buddy having gone missing. And we all hoped and prayed that we would never hear the “lost camper” alarm sound across camp. I can still feel the rush of dread during those times – fortunately they were FEW - that it was not a drill. And also fortunately, during those summers, it was always a camper who had wandered away from the beach and NEGLECTED to “check out” of the Buddy Board.

There were always those weeks where the “lost camper” alarm went off more than once, or when campers were otherwise challenging, or when counselors were causing drama, or when lice broke out, or when your campout got rained out, or the whole camp lost power in a thunderstorm. There are always those weeks you want to throw up your hands and give up. Very much like in life - Real life sets in, life reminds you how difficult it is, and “these weeks” become months or even years. It makes us want to throw in the towel, and pack it in, run away and crawl into a hole to make it stop.

Like Elijah. Here was a prophet who couldn’t catch a break. He is doing amazing work in Israel in the name of the Lord – miraculously providing food for the widow at Zarephath then reviving her son, then confronting the priests of a false god in a dramatic showdown, and even ending a long drought. But through everything, the people in power constantly chased him and wanted to kill him. And.  He. Just. Can’t take it anymore. He was dried up, burned out, emotionally drained, sick with dread, burdened with the fear he carried. So he pretty much crawls into a hole and tells God he wants to die. He even falls asleep out of his sheer exhaustion.

We’ve all been there too, right? We’ve come to the end of our rope, dried up, burned out, emotionally drained, sick with dread, terribly burdened with the fear we are carrying. When was the last time you wanted to get away from it all, to tell God and everyone else to leave you alone because You. Were. Just. Done. Was it … six months ago? Last week? Yesterday? Five minutes ago?

Elijah, like us, was a guy who just couldn’t catch a break. Because instead of granting his request, God sent a messenger with food to sustain him and words to encourage him. There, under the tree of Elijah’s despair, is water and warm cakes freshly baked on hot stones. Hmmm that sounds so good right now, doesn’t it? And here we also have the first ever mention of something like an energy bar, because these cakes sustained Elijah for 40 days and 40 nights, so that he could hear the next message that God had in store for him.

By artist He Qi

Elijah was a recipient of God’s buddy system. Just when it looked like Elijah was on his own, left high and dry by the Almighty; just when it looked like it was time to sound the “Lost God” alarm, God came through. And I’m guessing that every single one of you have your own “under the broom tree” experience too: Where everything looked bleak and dark, but somehow, someone came through for you, or help showed up for you in an expected way. A word of encouragement to get you through. Food that comes out of nowhere just when you needed it.

God tells and shows us, over and over again, that you will never be left on the Buddy Board without a buddy.

This is what Jesus is trying to get across to his listeners as we overhear his conversation in our latest installment of the “Summer of Bread” Sundays. God does not stop at sending messengers with delicious hot cakes. For us, God pulls out all the stops. God stops at nothing to make sure that no one is abandoned, that no one is left behind, that no one who seeks God is cast away and left hungry. God goes the distance, by sending down God’s own son, so that each one of us can be Jesus’ “plus one” at heavenly feast.

As Psalm 34 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Hmm those words might sound a little familiar. Every Sunday, all across the country and the world, pastors stand before their communities of faith and welcome all to the Lord’s table in the name of Christ to share a taste of the feast to come. And many of them, including myself, choose to say these very words from this very psalm. It is not just the bit of bread and the sip of wine that you taste when you come forward for communion every Sunday. It is the very goodness of God you are receiving, over and over again, keeping us going while we are still under the broom tree with Elijah.

But like with Elijah, being the recipient of this great gift of sustaining life from God comes with a charge. Elijah’s journey continued, as does ours. We eat, and then we rise.

The theme for our week in Detroit with thirty thousand other Lutheran youth was “Rise Up.” The “theme song,” written by none other than the Lutheran hip hop artist Dave Sherer A.K.A. AGAPE – I bet you didn’t know we had a Lutheran Hip Hop artist, did you? – the lyrics go, “We will rise up like the sun, led by the Risen One.” We will certainly rise because Jesus is risen. But this also means that we are to imitate Christ in other ways as well. As the letter to the Ephesians encourages this congregation and US, to imitate God, we are all reminded that “… we are all members of one another.”

We are all part of the buddy system. We’re all together on the Buddy Board. And sometimes we have fallen down on the job. We have lost a few along the way. There are people all around us that have collapsed underneath their own broom trees. There are some right here in our own county who have fallen behind or have been lost.

Right now our country is in the middle of some very difficult conversation about race and racism. Many, myself included, have to keep being reminded of our own tendency to believe the messages of the world that tell us that certain types of people SHOULD be left behind, abandoned, forgotten, or go hungry, because they inherently deserve it. I have to be reminded, rather, to imitate Christ, to “not make room for the devil” as Ephesians put it, and to remember that – the risen Christ has raised me up, fed me and sustained me, and I am called to do the same. I have to be reminded that when I raise someone up, WE. ALL. RISE. UP…. TOGETHER. Like we are one big loaf of bread.

BUT. There are definitely days I don’t do this. And that can put me right back under the broom tree, burned out, overwhelmed, despairing. But that is also right where God is, if you remember, insisting that we eat something for the journey ahead. So come, taste and see the grace eternal. Taste and see that God is good. Amen.