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

 5-19-21, Galatians 4 & 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paul Spills the Tea

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Roads to Explore

 Wednesday 4-7-21

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

What kind of road have you been walking lately? Has your road been like a narrow path in the woods, overgrown and hard to find? Is your road uneven and full of rocks? Is your road forked with a choice
you have to make? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel, but you are wondering if it’s a train or not?

Easter just happened, and now we celebrate for the 7 weeks that follow. This is my favorite post-Easter story, called, for obvious reasons, “The Road to Emmaus” Two of Jesus’ followers are walking the long road home from Jerusalem on Easter afternoon. Theirs is a road of bitterest defeat. It is no wonder that they didn’t recognize Jesus when he began to walk with them - the cloak of sorrow around them was thick and heavy. It wasn’t until the travelers invited Jesus to stay with them for the night, to rest at their Air BnB with them, and to share a meal, that they truly saw Jesus. In their excitement, they jumped up and ran BACK the seven miles they had already traveled from Jerusalem, so that they could tell the rest of the disciples, “It’s true! We saw Jesus alive!”

The actual road these followers traveled from Jerusalem to Emmaus was likely a dusty afternoon’s walk, and pretty much the same distance from my house to Emmanuel, which by car is about 20 minutes. But they not only journeyed a literal road, but also an emotional one. Over the course of seven miles, they traveled from darkest despair to soaring hope, all because they had encountered the risen Christ along their way.

In contrast to the rest of the disciples, who were presumably still locked in a room in Jerusalem, THESE TWO took Jesus’ message to heart. They heard the word and acted on it. They welcomed a stranger into their midst and sought to create a new relationship. They practiced what Jesus preached. They embraced radical hospitality. They created space in their hearts and in their lives. And remember, at this point, they didn’t know yet that is WAS Jesus. 

But isn’t that what being a disciple on the road is all about? Welcoming one another, creating space for each other for all of our stories and all of our experiences… not just because these people MIGHT be Jesus…. But because these ARE JESUS. They are where we meet the risen Christ – in the faces of one another.

After all, Jesus told us that whatever we do to the least of these, we are doing to him. This means things like continuing safe practices for our non-vaccinated friends and neighbors, even if we ourselves are vaccinated. This means carefully choosing which of the former things we want to resurrect, and carefully burying what should be left in the tomb. This means thinking about ways to be the body of Christ in a post-resurrection, post-vaccination, post-pandemic world.

When we see Jesus in one another, we invite, we welcome, we reach out, and we go out. Be the Church, not “go to church.” Create deeper relationships, not packed calendars. Open not just our doors, but our homes, and our hearts as well. Not to go back exactly the way things were before. Because for us, like for these two travelers, even if the road they traveled was the same, THEY would never be the same again.

Like the two on the Emmaus Road, where have YOU encountered the risen Christ?

Where have you seen Jesus on the road with you? How has Jesus shown up in unexpected ways along on your dusty highways and byways? Or, where have you missed seeing him, only to recognize his handiwork in hindsight?

What would make you run seven miles in the dark? Would it be for something that you didn’t expect? What has caused you some “holy heartburn”?

This Easter season, what questions do YOU have for the risen Lord?

These two Easter travelers asked themselves, “where not our hearts burning within us?” As with this past Lent, our questioning faith continues to challenge us with questions and "holy heartburn," even after the seeming certainty of the resurrection. Because were we though to find certainty, instead we find more wonder, and more roads to explore. Thanks be to God. Amen.

"Sweep and Ye Shall Find"

 Sermon from Wednesday, March 3rd, 2021

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

These stories of the “Losts” here in Luke – lost sheep, lost coin, lost son – especially the last one – are probably some of the most familiar in the entire Bible. A few years ago, Lutheran pastor Emmy Kegler wrote a book called “One Coin Found,” from her experience as of falling in love with the Bible, including these stories, and other passages that Christians have used against her and the queer community throughout her life. This may be familiar, because I believe many of you read this book not all that long ago.

Pastor Kegler was always deeply drawn to the story of all the “Losts,” and she rightly points out that people and sheep have agency. The sheep could wandered away elsewhere to find some food because she was hungry. The lost son (or sons, since both seem lost in their own way), choose to do what they do. But what is the coin’s excuse? It can’t move by itself. What’s the deal then? How did it get lost? Is God to blame for losing us, if we indeed are the lost coin in the story?

Emmy reminds us “God has never been careless with us, but those who claim to speak for God have.” Church leaders, not God, cause some of the most vulnerable sheet to be lost - to be disregarded and left to get dusty like the coin or starved for love like the sheep.

I really like Kegler’s description of God: hitching up her skirts to get down on the floor to search for her lost coins. Kegler writes of how “God has taken up a broom and cleared each corner, untucked and re-tucked each sheet and quilt, turned over pitcher after pitcher to see where we have landed.” 

Our own found stories probably look a little bit different from Pastor Kegler’s. But I think all of us have experience what it means to be hungry for something – for empathy, for acceptance, for someone to see our worth, for someone to love us for all of our flaws and brokenness, and the disappointment we feel when our deepest needs are not met by the very people that we believed cared about us. Most of us, I believe, HAVE felt the sting of rejection when those who seem to have everything – power, influence, comfort, privilege – sneer at you and judge you when you leave the “correct path” they have laid out for you, and judge you by using some misguided interpretation of God’s words.

Listen closely here to the words of Jesus, then. How then can we stand in the way of Jesus, when he very clearly stands in for the shepherd who abandoned the ninety-nine sheep to find the lost one, and the woman who stayed up late into the night to find her coin that had gone missing?

Perhaps we don’t have a lot of tax-collectors floating around anymore, but we all encounter people that we deem “undeserving,” and want to begrudge a seat at the table. The good news is that Jesus eats with everyone. …. all are given a spot next to Jesus.

The body of Christ is not complete until all of us are found in God and loved with dignity by those of us who call ourselves Christian. And yes, that might not just include feeding them…. But eating WITH them, at the same table, side by side, elbow to elbow… because that is where Jesus chooses to be found. With ALL of his flock.

At the end of our traditional funeral service, we hear these words: “Into your hands we commend your beloved servant. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive them into the arms of your mercy.” Nothing can separate us from the merciful arms of God. In life, and in death, we are loved, and we are known, and we are found. Because God will stop at nothing to gather those who are lost.

Some of us are feeling really lost right now. And there are a lot of lost people right now, in need some finding. Now it’s our turn, to tuck up our own skirts, find the lantern and broom, and join in the search, and also join in the rejoicing when one of us has been found. Thanks be to God. Amen.