God's Bread, Our Hands.

Sermon 8-19-18

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

Goodness, Jesus. Enough with the bread already. We get it, ok? Jesus…. Bread. Jesus, bread. Jesus-bread. Bread is super boring and super basic… or is it? How many of you have actually made bread? Like, handmade, not in your bread-maker? And even for those of you who have, do you any of you know how bread WORKS? Do you understand the art and the science that goes into this food that has been part of our diets for thousands of years?

After church today, I can drive to any grocery store and buy any kind of bread imaginable – super white bread, whole-wheat bread, honey wheat, 9 grain, pita, rye, sourdough, Italian, French, poppy seed - you name it, they probably have it. I can make my selection, go home, and enjoy it instantly, no waiting for mixing, rising, baking, or cooling. In no other time in the history of the world has this been possible.

If you or your children ever made communion bread as part of the youth group, you might remember a little of how that bread was made. (And we did just talk about it during our children’s message.) You saw the ingredients come together. You felt the flour on your hands as you kneaded the dough. You heard laughter as we all tried – and failed - to keep the mess to a minimum. And then in the oven it goes, and out pops some of the most delicious bread ever.

But how does bread… bread? Have you ever thought about how it is that power from a crushed plant, plus water, plus a fungus could be so delicious? It’s pretty wild. Bread is actually alive, then dies, then lives, then dies again, so that WE can live. Bread is a food of resurrection. (This TED talk is where I learned all the following about bread)

Bread begins as a plant we call wheat growing tall and strong, creating seeds, which over the course of thousands of years, has learned to graciously release these seeds for us to use. Wheat seeds, if you remember from your sixth-grade science class, are potential life. Some of these seeds we do indeed save and plant in the next growing season. But the rest go into making our bread.

The wheat was alive, and the seed is potential life, but then, what do we do to the seeds to make the flour? … we crush it. Pulverize it. Take away any possibility for sprouting and growing. A seed is not dead, but flour is.

BUT THEN … we combine the flour with water and yeast… and it becomes alive again. As the yeast grows, it actually burps... and sweats…. I know, gross, right? …making the bread rise up and taste good. Kinda icky, but oh so delicious. This is how bread becomes a living thing once again – when it is a dough colony of yeasty goodness.

And then, we put in in the oven. The heat makes the dough solid, and the crust crispy, and the ingredients bond… but it also kills the living yeast. So, what comes out of the oven is no longer alive in any way. Bread is dead. No seeds, no yeast, no life. Just… bread.

But then… we eat it. We gather around a table with our families and friends, where we laugh, we cry, and we eat. Bread was alive, then dead, then alive, then dead, then once again alive. Bread comes alive, in us and through us. Bread truly is a food of resurrection. It is perhaps little wonder that Jesus used bread so often to talk about himself.

The men and women who were listening to Jesus that day could not have told you about all the reasons that bread is bread. They just knew. They knew it, deep down in their bodies. They knew because they experienced it. The women knew, with their sweat and their aching arms – crushing wheat, kneading dough, serving bread to feed their families. The men knew with their sweat and their aching arms from harvesting these very seeds, the beginning of bread. They experienced with their bodies that bread is more than bread, and eating is more than eating.

A woman named Sara Miles experienced this too. She might be the last person that we would expect to see in any church: atheist and skeptic, world traveling war correspondent, lesbian, single mom. But one day, for no reason she could articulate at the time, Sarah Miles walked into St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California, and received Holy Communion for the very first time.

And it changed her life. She describes that moment when she ate the bread and drank the wine, as “Jesus happened to her.” From that moment on, Jesus had lodged into her, like a crumb in her teeth, refusing leave. She went home that day shocked and confused at what happened. But she did know one thing, she knew it deep in her body: she wanted that bread again. And again. And again.

We have this saying: we are what we eat. When we eat bread, we eat death and resurrection and our bodies continue to live. And when we eat Jesus, we are eating Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we continue to live, through Jesus.

If you recall, all those weeks ago when we first started the “bread of life” part of the summer, the first part of the when story Jesus took five loaves and two fish and fed more than five thousand people. That’s about twice the population of New Hope. Before Jesus SAID, “I AM the bread of life….” he fed people actual loaves of bread. And then later on, Jesus said “Take and eat: this is my body, given for you…. This is my blood, shed for you.”

This is what kept Sara Miles coming back, week after week, to receive the body and blood of Jesus. She later joined St. Gregory’s, got baptized, and became an active member on the congregation, eventually helping to serve communion herself. Then she started a hugely successful food pantry, attracting hundreds of people who were homeless to the church during every week, which became very controversial within the congregation. But along the way, she – a recent convert – realized something that sometimes takes years to figure out. She writes in her book about this entire experience, “The point of church isn’t to get people to come to church… [it’s] to feed them, so they can go out and, you know, be Jesus.” (p. 267)

When we consume bread, we grow healthy and strong, ready for the day. When we consume Jesus, we are also strengthened for the journey of following Jesus and … and we actually become more like him. And so, we are able to “BE Jesus” … for one another.

This life we receive keeps us coming back for more, week after week. The rest of the week tries to defeat us and deplete us. This is not an easy road, to follow in Jesus’ footsteps when the rest of the world around us would rather seek success or being comfortable or having more stuff. It so hard to fight against the impulse to eat the much more palatable and easy fast food of numbness and isolation. This kind of food, the fast, easy kind, may full us up for a time, but it will not sustain us. It will not give us life that is abundant and lasting.

It may seem mind-numbingly repetitive to keep talking about Jesus and bread, but perhaps the reason we are spending so much time on it is that it takes a lifetime to literally and figuratively CHEW ON all that Jesus is and teaches. We may learn during first communion “instruction” at various ages, but we are never going to completely understand it. We can only experience it. God is with us in a way that we can see and touch and smell and taste in Jesus. And through us, other people are able to see and hear and touch Jesus.

Of course, we don’t actually turn into food of course… but we, especially here at Family of God, do a lot in helping alleviate hunger. For example, in just a few short weeks, we are going to raise some money and pack some meals for some kids around the world through an organization called Feed My Starving Children. And, we are going to be looking stylish in these T shirts with our church name on them and stick out like bright loaves of bread. On the front is the ELCA “tag line,” “God’s work, our hands.” We are going to help kids around the world with get nourishing and live-giving food to eat. We are going to be Jesus’ hands in the world, feeding the vulnerable, all because we are given the strength in our own lives from the very body of Christ…. so that WE can BE the Body of Christ.

Look at these snazzy shirts!

We are what we eat. God’s work, our hands. One bread, one body. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Bread and the Buddy Board

Sermon 8-12-18

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 case you haven’t noticed: I love camp. Maybe that’s why I’m excited to be using our fire pit on Wednesday for a campfire. But really, I love everything about camp: The singing, being out in nature, making new friends, playing games. But we all know that camp life isn’t an endless game of ultimate Frisbee. Safety is always a serious concern and takes precedence over fun.

One thing at camp we took seriously was something we called the “Buddy Board.” In addition to lifeguards, the Buddy Board is how Pine Lake Camp in Wisconsin kept campers safe at the lake. Every camper got a number, and everyone partnered with a buddy… so when kids swam in Pine Lake, their number and their buddy’s number were put next to each other on the board – Buddy Board. You did not leave the beach without checking out at the board. Once or twice an hour, the lifeguards would blow their whistle and yell BUDDY CHECK. Every buddy found their buddy to be counted and accounted for by the life guards to cross-check with the Buddy Board attendant.

99% of the time, a quick count and then everyone got back to swimming. But not every time. If someone didn’t have their buddy, or if the numbers didn’t match up, we had to sound the “Lost Camper” alarm. Now, for as long as I was a counselor, it was always the case where a camper forgot and left the beach without checking out or telling their buddy. But we HAD to take each alarm seriously… and when that happened, we ALL had a job to do. At the sound of the Lost Camper alarm, all campers gathered to be counted in the dining hall with a half dozen councilors. Two counselors were assigned to search every cabin.  The rest of us dropped everything, ran to the lake, and formed a line, elbow to elbow…While the lifeguards began rescue diving in the deep end.

Like I said, every single time during the three years I worked at Pine Lake, it was ALWAYS some kid who was sufficiently embarrassed at all the fuss who had “forgot” and left the lake area. I still can remember the rush of dread and adrenaline when hearing that alarm, and the relief when it was called off for happy ending.

There are always those weeks that it seemed that we just couldn’t catch a break. …where the “lost camper” alarm went off more than once …..or when campers  were otherwise causing trouble or feeling homesick, weeks when staff were not getting along…. weeks when lice or whooping cough broke out, or the ticks were really bad, or or when campout got rained out, or the whole camp lost power during a thunderstorm. By the way, all of these things happened at one time or another while I worked at camp. As fun as camp is, there were always THOSE WEEKS I wondered why I was doing all this – it certainly was not for the “amazing” pay.

The prophet Elijah knows exactly what we’re talking about. Here was a prophet who couldn’t catch a break, either. Elijah from our first reading was doing amazing work in Israel in the name of the Lord – earlier in First Kings miraculously providing food for a widow in Zarephath then reviving her son, then confronting the priests of a false god in a dramatic showdown that would rival the end of ANY superhero movie.

The short version is that he challenged the priests of the Idol Baal light a sacrifice of a cow on fire. When they tried first, and couldn’t do it. Elijah had them pour BUCKETS AND BUCKETS OF WATER on the cow…. and boom, instant steak. Anyway, even after all that, the people in power wanted to kill Elijah. And.  He. Is. TIRED. Tired of fighting, tired of trying. He was dried up, burned out, emotionally drained, sick with dread, burdened with the fear he carried. He even falls asleep out of his sheer exhaustion.

Elijah Under the Broom Tree by He Qi

 We’ve all been there too, right? We’ve come to the end of our rope… we find ourselves 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. SO TIRED. Was it … six months ago? Yesterday? Five minutes ago?

Elijah, like us, was a guy who just couldn’t catch a break. Not even with God.  Because, instead of granting his request for a permanent vacation, God sent a messenger with food and encouragement to keep him going. 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 these were some pretty awesome cakes…. because they sustained Elijah for 40 days and 40 nights, so that he could hear the next message that God had in store for him. How’s THAT For an energy bar?

Just when it looked like Elijah was on his own, left high and dry by the Almighty; just when it looked like God went missing at the Buddy Board and it was time to sound the “Lost God” alarm, God came through. And I’m guessing that every single one of you have had your own “under the broom tree” experience too: when everything looked bleak, and you didn’t want to keep going. But just when I find myself under the broom tree, ready to throw in the towel and give up the search, God comes through. Usually in ways that I’m not expecting. Sometimes it’s little things, like a text that asks, “How are you today?” Sometimes, it’s much bigger. The last time I preached on this text three years ago, I was going through my own broom tree moment, and God used the people in my life who love me dearly to give ME what I needed in order to keep going.

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. 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.

Psalm 34 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” … which should be pretty familiar words to us. Every Sunday, 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 a wafer and a taste 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. He ate, and then he rose and left that broom tree behind. We eat, and then we rise. Sort of like loaves of bread.

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. But sometimes we have fallen down on the job. We have lost a few along the way. We have sometimes walked away from our responsibility to one another. There are people all around us that have collapsed underneath their own broom trees with nothing left to give. There are some right here in our own county who have fallen behind or have been lost.

Our country is in the middle of some very difficult conversations. Many, myself included, have to be 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 based on what color skin they were born with. I am reminded, rather, to imitate Christ, to “not make room for the devil” as Ephesians put it. Rather, when the alarm sounds, we are called to drop everything, run to the lake, jump in, and start looking, clothes and all. Find the lost. Raise the fallen. Give to those who have nothing. Speak for the voiceless. Use our privilege for those who have none.

The risen Christ has raised me up, fed me and sustained me, and I am called to do the same. I am reminded that when I raise someone up, WE. ALL. RISE. UP…. TOGETHER. Like we are one big loaf of bread. And, I would like to add, it’s probably not going to look like a loaf of Wonder Bread. It might be a little nutty sometimes, but together, we are going to be delicious… and we are going to give life to the whole world, abundant life that comes from our Bread of Life, Jesus. Thanks be to God, amen.

Bodies and Bread Sandwiches

Sermon 8-5-18

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.

I think I may have inherited my Dad’s love of bread. Growing up, my dad had a very special recipe for his all-time favorite sandwich. Take one slice of white bread, and another slice of white bread, and put a slice – or even two! – of white bread in the middle… and Ta-Da! You have a “bread sandwich”! Every day like clockwork, around mid afternoon, was bread sandwich snack time. As a kid I thought it was a great idea… now… it sounds just a little bit monotonous.

Perhaps you might have noticed a theme today… bread, bread, bread, and lots of it. Bread last week, bread this week, and - spoiler alert - more bread for three more weeks after this one. This series in the lectionary cycle is called the “Summer of Bread” by some, and a complete annoyance by others. Every three years around August, we ditch Mark and dig deep into John 6, in what I hope will be a few weeks of, not boring bread sandwiches, but instead a rich buffet of tasty loaves. True, it’ only my second time around in this part of the lectionary, so while I may feel this way now, you might want to ask me again in … 12 years or so if I am still this excited to spend weeks and weeks talking about bread.

While I was home – and conveniently gone for the first Sunday in the Summer of Bread – I met my cousin’s newborn son James and got to witness his baptism. James is about five weeks old by now and his talents currently include: looking cute, filling his diaper, eating, and apparently is an excellent burper.

Flat Jesus even showed up in St. Louis!

But he wasn’t the only baby I got to see or hold in the last two weeks. While I was in St. Louis for a conference hosted by Young Clergy Women International, I saw babies strapped on their mamas, babies being fed and changed, babies crying, babies laughing, fetuses still in utero … I even held a baby named Mabel and she though that me giving her hi-fives was the most hysterical things EVER!

Though these babies and their moms were not the star attraction of the conference, the theme of that week – Embodied Ministry – could not be complete without them. That week, Dr. Karoline Lewis lead us in a deep dive into the Gospel of John and what bodies and faith have to do with one another, especially as women. As a John scholar, Dr. Lewis pointed out the beginning of John, a passage we read every Christmas but don’t chew on its full meaning enough. John writes: “the word (meaning Jesus) became flesh” and lived among us (v. 14). The Word became SARX, in the original Greek. SARX means body. The Word was a body. And therefore, ALL BODIES, ALL Flesh matters to God.

On the way from the St. Louis airport to the hotel, the side of a brick Baptist church read – “Jesus Completely Saves.” And they are absolutely right… but perhaps not the way they may have intended. Jesus completely saves, and that includes our bodies – female bodies, male bodies, white, black, and brown bodies, trans bodies, differently abled bodies, new bodies, aging bodies, suffering bodies, healthy bodies. ALL bodies.

God care about what happens to our bodies, not just our “souls,” and that work began way before Jesus arrived on the scene. God saved the suffering bodies of his people in Egypt while they were slaves. Through God’s servant Moses, these exploited bodies were led to freedom. Then… these bodies came down with an acute case of the Nostalgia. Sure… they were SLAVES in Egypt… suffering night and day…  but gosh, didn’t they eat well while they were slaves?

I imagine that if we could hear my cousin’s son James’s thoughts, they might be just a little bit similar. Now, about 5 weeks out, I imagine James could be thinking… Yeah, so what if I had no leg room, and it was dark and cramped up there in the womb… but it sure beats a wet diaper, crying for my dinner, and being passed around to all these strange people!

And when he gets older, he’ll grow in the phase where it’s nothing but “Mom… mom…mom… mom….!” Nothing will ever go right, and mom will always need to fix everything.

Do we ever grow out of this phase, though? Do we ever stop complaining about SOMETHING? We are lead out of slavery into bondage into freedom, but things are not as easy as we expected them to be. Or we cry out when we are in dire need, not sure if God has heard us, wondering and waiting for God to respond.

What we do not know and cannot see is that, in the darkness and the waiting, God has already begun to respond to our needs before we even know it. Just like a baby doesn’t know that their mother is on the way until milk hits mouth… even though mom is already at work getting the bottle warm or the new diaper ready. Professor Hannah Shanks put it this way in her new book about bodies and Holy Communion, she writes: “The moment we turn ourselves to God, God – like a mother, begins to turn towards us, even if we may not see or feel God’s presence for some time.”

God tells Moses to tell his complaining people: “Draw near to the Lord, for he had heard your complaining.” And then, God provides – raining bread (and birds) from heaven. They shall eat meat and have their fill of bread, enough for that day. “Give us this day our daily manna.” Give us this day our daily bread sandwiches.

Fast forward a few hundred years, and the People of God still do not seem to get it. Yet again, they miss what has been under their noses the entire time. Jesus had to spell it out for them – Just as God gave the people manna in the wilderness, Jesus has been given to them in the flesh – a body to be broken, a body to be shared, a body to make all bodies one and whole.

Fast forward a few hundred years YET AGAIN… and we the people of God STILL don’t get this.

For us now, it’s so easy to look at this crowd and scoff at how dense everyone around Jesus seems. But we have no cause to feel superior, just because we have the advantage of hindsight. We too work for the food that doesn’t last, for success or admiration or material things, to chase after the image of the perfect mom or student or Christian. We miss where God is at work in our lives and instead are blown about, bouncing to and fro, from one new fad to the next, as Paul wrote…. We too we miss what’s right in front of us.

We miss that again and again, God provides. For any and all of our needs. And God is in the habit of providing A LOT, often out of a very little. God provided more manna than the freed slaves could eat in a single day. God provided a LOT of wine at the wedding at Canna. God provided A LOT of bread and fish to a LOT of people out of just one kid’s lunch. All to teach us that “grace is multiplied through sharing.”(Hannah Shanks again) Just as Jesus shared his body with us – “This is my body, given for YOU.”

At my cousin’s son’s baptism, communion was not part of the service. And the baptism took place in a denomination that does not ordain women. I honestly couldn’t tell you much of what the pastor said during the sermon, because all I could hear by his very presence as he tried to talk about bread, was “you’re not enough, you and your call don’t belong here.”

To all the little girls I saw up there with the male pastor during the children’s sermon, I wanted to whisper in their ear – “Don’t listen to this guy. You can be a pastor if you want. You are enough and your bodies matter to God.” So, I will just have to say it to all of you instead. God loves us so much that Jesus came as a body so that we an be COMPLETELY saved. You are enough, and you are enough, and you are always enough.

Every week we say the same words in the Lord’s Prayer… “give us this day our daily bread.” No matter how much the bread has been broken and shared, there is always enough for all. And YOU are ENOUGH, and worthy to receive it.

But this also means that other bodies are also worthy of care and provisions. This also might mean that OUR BODIES become the daily bread for others. We might have to put OUR bodies on the line to stand up for the bodies of others. Hannah Shanks again writes: “… our bodies will make that gospel proclamation to anyone who witnesses us.” As the body of Christ, we might be the bread sandwiches that get someone through the day.

Karoline Lewis ended our conference with this bold charge: “The Word became flesh… are you willing to risk the same?” I like to think that we can respond with the words from our baptismal liturgy: We will, and we ask God to help us. Amen.

Real Power

Sermon 7-15- 18

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

There is a theme happening in our last two readings from Mark … and that theme is power. What is power, who has it, where does it come from, and how does it get used.

Last week we talked about trips, and in the adventures of Jesus, we heard how he took a trip to his hometown… and how he could do almost no deeds of power there. Thanks to unbelief of the people Jesus’ grew up with, it seemed like all his power just got sucked right out of him. But when Jesus gave power to his disciples, and sent them out two by two, THEY were able to do what JESUS could not. They healed the sick and proclaimed the gospel of repentance …and it turned out AWESOME! The disciples doing deeds of power in Jesus name, and they are getting RESULTS!! But these results make the people who had political and religious power very, very nervous.

Imagine an episode of House of Cards – have any of you ever seen the show? Back room deals, closed-door discussions, people socially maneuvering, manipulating others and bending the truth to get what they want, using whatever means necessary...  The ENDS always justify the MEANS…if in the END, YOU end up the one with the power. And power always seems to be in such short supply. At least, power that is based here in the world. And those who seem to operate outside of those rules, who don’t “play” the game, like John the Baptist, become easy targets.

John the Baptist, if you remember, is Jesus’ forerunner. At the very beginning of Mark, the prophet Isaiah announces his arrival…. He writes: “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the Way of the Lord!’.” Then – POOF- there he was! Proclaiming a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins, he was basically a homeless man wearing camel skins and eating whatever he could find – bugs and honey. And, unexpectedly, he was a HUGE hit with the people, baptizing left and right, making the people with political and religious powers very nervous… sound familiar?

They became even more worried when John told the people that there was someone coming after him… MORE powerful than John. And this person will baptize with the Holy Spirit!

And sure enough, after John – POOF! - Jesus arrived, showing a kind of power that humanity had never seen: healing women and children, casting out demons, calming storms … doing deeds of power yet hanging out with powerless people. 

Born to a powerless ethnic group in a backwater town as far as you could get from the shining political power center of the empire, Jesus revealed to the world a new kind of power - a power that did not come from brute force, or intimidation, or violence, or injustice, or discrimination, or bullying, or manipulation. This is not human power. This is God’s power. And God’s kind of power doesn’t play by human rules.

See, it was all coming true, just as John said.  And that make King Herod – the local guy with the power - very nervous, indeed. Not only was John the Baptist getting a huge following, but he was also saying some pretty bad things about him. Herod was already hanging onto his power by a fingernail. So, he threw John in jail – and you heard the rest of what happened to John.

This traumatic little story is actually a flashback. John the Baptist has already been arrested and killed by Herod by the time Jesus sent out his disciples last week. But John’s execution haunted Herod, which must be why Herod believed in the most absurd thing – that John, whom he had killed must be alive again. He’s baaaaaaack…. or at least that is what he feared.  What else could be the explanation? And that thought scared him to his very core.

Because John was SUPPOSED to be an example – an example of what happens to you when you speak truth to power. THIS (head chopping motion) is what happens to you when you call out the leaders, behaviors, and cherished institutions in this world, those that are built on racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, hate, fear, ignorance, and apathy. Most of the time, if you speak truth to power, you will not get a trophy or metal or pat on the back. You will not win any popularity contexts. There will be consequences.

Now, you might not get thrown in jail and lose your head like John. But you might lose friends, lose face, be labeled as “easily offended” (or as a “delicate snowflake”) by your friends or family, or otherwise get thrown under the bus. So, the power of the world would advise you to “keep quiet, don’t make a fuss, keep your head down, or you WILL lose IT.” (Again, the head chop motion) Lay low, or face the alternative. 

The true alternative to their claim to power in actuality scares the powerful half to death. John knew, and Jesus knew, and we know that God’s power, Jesus’ power, the power of the disciples did not come from this world, from King Herod or the Romans or any Caesar. 

And likewise, OUR power does not come from what others have to say about our worth – from having big houses or cars or jobs or our kids’ accomplishments or putting on the best face of “having it all together.” OUR power comes from CHRIST. The one who carried on John’s work, speaking truth to power, and showing the world power through God’s truth.

This truth is, as Paul writes, that our power comes from being chosen and beloved by God, adopted as God’s children, sharing in the never-ending inheritance of Jesus. This inheritance of being forgiven of our sins, healed of our brokenness, and redeemed from clenched jaws of death. We don’t earn it. We are just part of it… We are part of God’s Family… as siblings in the family of God… sharing in this abundant life together, because of Jesus.

We all know that Herod was wrong about Jesus. John had not come back from the dead, as some thought. But at the same time, Herod was also right about Jesus… just a little too soon. John would not rise again after his death (at least, not until we all do at the last day). But Jesus did rise again. That, I think, is the nugget of good news to be found in terrible little story.

Jesus also spoke truth to power. And the powers-that-be came after him. They murdered him too, like John before him, in another terrible and humiliating way. The powerful killed Jesus, and his body was laid in a borrowed tomb. But he did not stay buried. Three days later his tomb stood empty.

And someday, OUR tombs will be empty too. Someday, death and the grave will no longer have power over us either. At the last, we too will be raised with Christ in power and glory.

Unfortunately, we’re not there yet. We still live in a world ruled by King Herods and Ceasars and Herodiases and innocent children who get stuck making difficult decisions, shouldered forever with the legacy of their parents’ sins. We still live in a world where the consequences of speaking truth to power range from losing Facebook friends to losing your life.

We hope and long for the coming day of God’s reign, where the power of God makes the world a place of equality, justice, compassion, and enough for all.

Until that day, between now and then, we have the promise of God’s love to go with us along our way, no matter what happens. During our week of VBS, our theme verse was also a quote from the Prophet Isaiah: God tells us: “When you go through the waters, I will be with you.” When we feel powerless, this is a promise we can cling to, that will give us comfort no matter what happens. And because of this promise, we can’t say it any better than one of our VBS songs:

 I will hold on to you and the promises that you make, ‘Cuz it is well with my soul, no matter what comes my way.”

This is the ASL sign for “anything,” which the kids used as they sang this song. Anything can happen. But our power comes from the promise that God is with us “no matter what comes my way.” Thanks be to God. 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 Leaks

Sermon 7-1-18

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.

This past week, over thirty thousand ELCA youth gathered in Houston for their Youth Gathering, which happens every three years in different cities around the country. During this week, they learned together, worshiped together, and served their neighbor together. If you haven’t already, go and watch the videos of the nightly speakers, they are amazing. 

But in the days and weeks before the Youth gathering, my Facebook feed was flooded with the travel preparations questions of my pastor friends, on how to be ready for everything: from minor injuries, sunburn, dehydration, Hangry-ness, and boredom. As you can imagine, that’s a lot to stuff to try to pack in one bag. Like putting too many toppings on your sandwich… with things falling everywhere when you try to take a bite.

The gospel of Mark, which we are reading through this summer, LOVES to pack too much into his sandwiches. You may have noticed during the reading that there is a story within a story here – a story sandwich – where story A is interrupted by Story B, then we hear the end of Story A again. For a short Gospel, Mark packs a lot in his sandwiches.

I remember packing my bag the last time I went to the Youth Gathering 3 years ago in Detroit. A friend who was a Youth Gathering Novice asked us what not-obvious things she would need. My suggestion is something that you will not normally here in a sermon AND related to today’s healing story. I told here there is one thing I ALWAYS bring on a youth trip: menstrual products. Yes, I’m talking about pads and tampons.

Are you uncomfortable yet? We should be, because we pretty much avoid this topic at all costs. Even the translators shy away from it, using the euphemism “hemorrhaging.” Which is just a fancier way of saying “on the rag,” “Aunt Flow was visiting,” or, according to one study… about 5,000OTHER slang terms for saying “period” around the world. I bet you REALLY wish you had stayed in bed today.

Are we uncomfortable yet? OUR discomfort is nothing compared to what this woman was going through. And I am not just talking about the pain that must have been horrible from having a period for twelve straight years. For the Jewish people thousands of years ago, “that time of the month” wasn’t just inconvenient and awkward. There were strict rules in the Old Testament saying what you could and could not do at this time. Bear with me as we get a little “Levitical” for a moment.

Back then, when a woman is menstruating, she is considered “unclean” for seven days. Everything she touches, including people, becomes unclean too. And everyone who touches what SHE touches becomes unclean. Imagine what that does to your family life and social life. Fortunately, when that time of the month is over, she takes a ritual bath and becomes “clean” again (Lev. 15) and resume regular life. … But what do you think would happen if “that time of the month” never stopped? No one would want to be near you. No one would want to touch you. Sooner or later, you would be completely alone.

I should explain that the terms “unclean” does not equal dirty or messy. The ancient Israelites divided everything into two categories: “Holy” or “ordinary,” “Divine” or “earthly” and heaven forbid that the two should be mixed. Blood was believed to be the source of life (Lev. 17) – they didn’t have any biology classes back then – and that is one reason keeping kosher does not involve eating any blood. Blood is holy, and so you do not eat it.

But women have blood monthly - and do not die – and that does not fit nicely into these categories. So, these women during this time were “unclean” – a dangerous mix of holy and human, and the ancient Israelites dealt with this by ritual separation once a month.  

Fast forward a few thousand years, and these rules still applied. And pile on the prevailing medical ideas stated that healthy bodies were balanced, controlled, strong, and dry. And this woman, with her bleeding, was none of those things. (from the article "The Man with the Flow of Power: Porous Bodies in Mark 5:25-34" by Candida Moss, JBL 129, no. 3 (2010) 507-519)

Her cultured viewed her (apparently incurable) condition to be a disability. Everyone in her life up to this point seemed to fail her. Her family had abandoned her, her doctors had taken her money and left her with no cure, and her religion had no place for her. And so, cut off and alone, she came to Jesus – to what she might have thought was her last hope.

She came to him in secret, because she had no reason NOT to believe that Jesus, would fail her too, as all the other men in her life had up until that point. She had no reason NOT to think that, once she knew what she was, Jesus would reject her and cast her off too. Surely, he would not notice a small touch on his clothes. Because that’s also all she thought she was worth.

Well, Jesus DID notice…. He felt the power go out of him, in an action that he could not control. Jesus ‘s body leaked power, just as the woman’s body leaked blood. Blood that represents divine power and the gift of potential life. Jesus… power…. Blood…. Life…. Is it really a stretch to say that in this moment Jesus felt what it’s like to have a period? I don’t think it’s much of a stretch at all.

I honestly don’t remember a lot of sermons… my own and other people’s. But I do remember the first time I heard this idea, at a conference through an organization I’m a member of called Young Clergywomen International. An episcopal pastor who would become a friend preached a sermon on this very text and this very thought just blew me away.

Because if this is REALLY TRUE… Jesus has also experienced something that is such a central aspect to what it means to have a female body. Jesus has experienced the very thing that biological women spend at least 25 percent of their lives worrying over, preparing for, having discomfort due to, and using precious resources over. And Jesus knows what it’s like struggle with having other people have agency and power over your body.

In other words, Jesus knows what a period feels like – and that sounds totally weird to us. Because he body of Jesus is not safe – Jesus is leaking power all over the place and ruining our perfectly ordered and controlled lives. Jesus is breaking down the boundaries between earthly and holy, between sacred and ordinary. Between men and women. Between black and white and brown. Between the Haves and the Have-nots. And things GET. MESSY. When this happens. And we don’t like it AT ALL.

The ancient Israelites tried to control this boundary by shutting their women away. But WE in our technological and “egalitarian” societies are not much better. Yes, the technologies of pads and tampons are awesome to help make one quarter of the normal lives of female bodies less challenging. But we can do better. The stigma is still there, and injustices are still happening. Pennsylvania is one of ONLY 9 states in the US that DOES NOT TAX menstrual products…. Let me say that again: 41 states TAXES things like tampons, but does not tax dandruff shampoo, candy bars, and Viagra. This is called the “Pink Tax,” where products that women and biologically female bodies NEED to do normal human daily things … if TANG is not taxed, neither should be tampons.

And beyond this, some people still suffer in silence from illnesses related to menstruation and reproductive health, isolated by embarrassment, being ignored, or being taken advantage of.

So… Jesus WAS a dude. But more importantly, Jesus was a human being, who encompassed ALL of our humanity: the messy parts, the embarrassing parts, the holy parts, the parts that contribute to new life. And the truth is, Jesus’ maleness didn’t heal her… her faith, and the power of God healed her.

Jesus’ own body crossed represented the crossing of borders, the pouring out for the sake of others, and contaminating others with the love of God. In short, Jesus leaks…. He leaks God’s love all over the place, and as followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same. This includes working for justice for ALL bodies, including women’s bodies, and especially vulnerable bodies.

Youth at the gathering did this by putting together two thousand toiletry kits for women escaping human trafficking. But we don’t have to travel half way a cross the country to be with 30,000 of our closest friends to do it. Right here, right now, we can ask ourselves – how are we contributing to menstruation justice?

Like this story having too much to talk about in one sermon, there is too much do for one person. But we can do something… like work to end the pink tax or donate toward organizations to help women and girls around the world.

We are the body OF Christ. I can’t put it better than to borrow the words from the newest ELCA draft social statement on “women and justice.” In this draft, people smarter than me have written:

“As this church seeks to value the bodies of all people and recognize that we depend upon one another, we will not dominate or politicize other people but respect them, promote their health and well-being, and suffer and rejoice together as we strive for justice for all bodies.  …We must continue the task of embracing our unity and diversity so we welcome and uplift people of every sex and gender—indeed, every body—in our work together as the Body of Christ in the world.”

To that we can roll up our sleeves and say, we can do it. Thanks be to God. Amen.