Sermon: Ascension Sunday

            When I was a child, there was a tv show called Dallas.  I was too young to watch it, but I do remember at the end of one season there was a cliffhanger and the question asked was:  Who shot JR?  All these years later, I still have never watched Dallas, and perhaps I learned who shot JR but I don’t remember, all I remember is the cliffhanger – the question.  Good writers want to create suspense, they want to leave the audience engaged and eager for more.  Cliffhangers are great to create the suspense for the audience to come back, I think that is why we have now have the term binge watching.  We don’t have to wait week to week or the entire summer, we can watch an entire series in a few weeks.  But eventually, the series has to come to an end.  Just recently, two big shows had their final episode:  Game of Thrones and the Big Bang Theory.  Although I have never watched Game of Thrones, this chatter about the show ending was all over social media and even made the news.  An ending to a story or a movie or a tv series can never please everyone, and the reviews from Game of Thrones are all over the place.  Big Bang theory – well it offered one surprise but really offered a sense that everyone was growing up, their goals were being met, and their lives were going to be alright. That’s what we seem to expect from good endings, all the loose ends are tied up, the boy gets the girl, good conquers evil, and the lost has been found.  I personally, like endings that you never saw coming, but those seem to be far and few in-between. 

            So, why all this talk about cliffhangers and endings?  Because the Ascension of Jesus is the end of the story.  Jesus was born, he lived, taught, healed, performed miracles.  Spoiler alert, he was killed and talk about a great cliffhanger, three days later he rose from the dead.  For many, wouldn’t this be a good enough ending?  I mean really, did you see that coming?  The disciples sure didn’t.  I guess the twist in this story is that what seems like a good ending is not yet the ending.  The risen Christ, after appearing several times to his disciples, is not going to finish out his life to an old age.  Even though he has conquered death and has risen from the dead, his time is still limited.  And so we get this event, that only appears in one other place in the Bible, of him ascending into heaven.  Elijah, the prophet, also ascends into heaven.  Our stained glass window, here in the sanctuary is of that event. 

            I, honestly, cannot give you an explanation of the ascension.  It does make me think of a literary term I learned in high school freshman English:  Deus ex machina, (Latin: “god from the machine”) a person or thing that appears or is introduced into a situation suddenly and unexpectedly and provides an artificial or contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty.  This is a difficult situation, how does Jesus return to heaven?  How does the one who has conquered death end his earthly life?  He can’t die again can he?  So, if he has already overcome death, he must return to God in his earthly form, and so the disciples watch him being lifted up, out of their sight, into heaven.  I’m too scientific for a literal understanding of this text.  I believe our souls go to heaven, but not these physical bodies.  But since Jesus is the son of God, I believe part of his teaching to his followers is this final miracle, his showing them that now he is returning to his Father, to his Creator, to take his place in heaven, to reign with God. 

            I guess the disciples were a bit baffled as well, or at least amazed and awed by the sight.  The text tells us they were standing around, looking up into the sky, I assume watching Jesus until they could no longer see him.  I had the chance to see a launching of the space shuttle, and that is what we all did.  We all stood there, eyes fixed on the sky, watching until we could no longer see it. 

So, what do you think of this ending?  Does it tie up the loose ends?  Or does it just create a whole lot of new questions?  This is the kind of stuff theologians love, they love to debate whether this is a literal ending or a symbolic ending and they use all kinds of big words to support their theories – but maybe we are not suppose to get stuck in the details of the text.  Sometimes, by getting stuck, we keep ourselves from the real meaning behind it.  So, perhaps Luke is telling us something important about Jesus' departure: that it is both an ending and a beginning.  Since this event happens at the beginning of the book of Acts, we know there is more to come.  “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  I attending a conference a few years ago and this was the theme scripture.  Does it feel like maybe we, as a denomination, or as the church in today’s world, are stuck?  That we seem to be looking to heaven, asking God – what do we do?  How do we fix this?  I know I am constantly praying for inspiration:  God show me the way to be the church in today’s world.  Is the ending, just the beginning?  Was the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus just the first season of the show, and then the book of Acts – season two?  And if so, what season are we?  I kind of feel, we are in a cliffhanger, except not everyone is interested in staying tuned.  We seem to have lost our audience. 

Why do you stand looking toward heaven?  Rather, there is work to do.  Jesus instructed his followers during his lifetime, and in his resurrected state he instructed them again, to follow his teachings, to care for each other, to love one another, to feed his sheep.  And the book of Acts is just that.  It is the continuation of the story, season two, of the disciples going out, teaching others about Jesus, proclaiming the forgiveness of sins, seeking the lost and sharing God’s love with them.  And the Good News is, we are not yet at the final episode of the show.  The Holy Spirit has poured out upon God’s people, and upon God’s church, and people of faith are still investing their lives into the work of Jesus, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, sharing God’s love and forgiveness in a chaotic world.  We can stand around wondering what to do, or we can act.  We can continue God’s story, leaving the symbolic or literal interpretation of the text behind, but rather engaging in the simple teaching of Love one another as I have loved you.  Amen. 

Easter - Sermon

Embodying the Resurrection

            We live in a world where people believe and they don’t believe.  Some people don’t believe the earth is round or they don’t believe people have actually walked on the moon.  Some people believe in aliens and some believe in ghosts.  Some people believe dinosaurs once existed while other people believe the world is only about 6,000 years old.  Some people believe and some people don’t.  Life is filled with ideas, concepts, values, rules, social norms, and we either believe or we don’t.  What do you believe in?  Here’s one:    Snails have 14,000 teeth and some can even kill you!  What do you think?  Do you believe it or not? 

            Do you believe in friendship and love?  Do you believe in forgiveness and renewal?  Do you believe in fresh starts, a new day, being a part of God’s new creation?  Do you believe in God?  Because this Easter story is not an easy story to believe in.  In fact, when the handful of women returned to the others and told them that the tomb was empty, that Jesus was not there, and that two men told them not to look for the living amongst the dead, that he had risen just as he said he would, they did not believe.  They just thought the women were sharing an idle tale. 

            Personally, I do not believe in the Easter story of the empty tomb and the risen Lord just because it is written in the Bible.  Rather, I believe in the Easter story only through embodying the resurrection in my faith journey.  If I had been in that room with the others and heard what the women shared, I would have thought the grief these women had gone through definitely had gone to their heads.  But, I do think I would have been like Peter, I think I would want to go and check out their story for myself.  That is of course, if it was safe.  I’m a bit of a safety freak.  I’m not sure I would have gone if I thought maybe there would be soldiers or guards that might arrest me, but I would want to go, I would want to go and see for myself, just because that is my nature. 

            Some stories of faith are not so much to believed but rather to be experienced, to be embodied, to be lived out.  Jesus had an impact on people.  He called twelve men to be his disciples but many more men and women joined together to be a part of his community.  He was not about doing his ministry alone, it was relational, it involved deep friendships, it involved sacrifice and love.  The disciples dropped everything to follow this teacher, this rabbi, this man that they believed was the Messiah.  And over the course of three years, they witnessed healings and miracles, they heard stories of God’s deep love for God’s people and they saw Jesus interacting with outcastes and sinners and people that others despised.  He did not follow the rules of his faith, and by doing so, he connected with so many that felt they had been exiled from the faith, and even worse, exiled from God. 

            Jesus sought to shed the dead skin of his faith tradition and allow a fresh and new way to be God’s people to be born in the world and people flocked to him.  They were hungry and thirsty for a God that loved them, that accepted them for who they were, not as others told them they should be.  But power does not like change and those that have power will do what they have to in order to stop change.  Jesus was all powerful, but he referred to himself as a servant.  And sadly, because he changed people’s lives for the better, he was stopped.  Except he wasn’t.  In the idle tale of the resurrection, God refuses to take no for an answer.  God refuses to be stopped.  God refuses to let oppression and injustice and greed and self-centered interests have the last word.   And that is where I have seen the power of the resurrection in my own life. 

            If we look at history of the past two thousand years, we can see how humanity seems to come two steps forward and then perhaps three steps back and then four steps forward and a step back.  We don’t move in a linear motion towards healing and wholeness in this world, but if we look, if we pay attention, if we allow our inner spiritual selves the space to embrace our scriptures, we can see the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God in our midst.  We can encounter the risen Christ for ourselves.  Have you seen the Lord? 

The first time I saw the Lord was up in rural Maine working on a trailer home for a family.  We went in community, as a work group from our church, and we arrived with love, love for people we had never met but we knew deserved better housing than what they had.  So we gave of what we had, our time, our energy, our dedication to create a dryer, warmer, safer place to live.  And by embodying Jesus’ teachings, by putting faith into action, I learned that the Bible is just flat if you keep it on the page.  But when you live it, when it put it into action, it is transformative. 

            I’ve seen the risen Lord in the Dominican Republic as we helped build a health office adjacent to a church.  I’ve seen the risen Lord on the border of Mexico as we built cinderblock homes in the slums.  I’ve seen the risen Lord in Kenya as schools and health centers are built and supported by the church to ensure that the forgotten ones are educated and healed.  I’ve seen the risen Lord even here in NJ, as men find recovery through Market Street Mission in Morristown.   There are dead places everywhere, places where life is not able or allowed to thrive in the way that it is intended and it is in those places that resurrection is waiting to be born.  Life can come out of death.  I’ve seen it in Camden, NJ with a school program called Urban promise.  We witnessed it this past summer in Philadelphia through Broad Street Ministry and we will participate in it this next summer right here in Morris County.  God is the power that births new things in the world.  God is the power that brings agencies like Homeless Solutions and Family Promise into being. 

For those that don’t believe, they might say, yes, there are compassionate people out there.  But for those that have embodied the resurrection, that act in their faith, it is so much more than being a compassionate person, it is sacred work.  It is participation in the resurrection.  We worship on Sunday because we are Easter people.  We don’t believe in the resurrection, we are to be the resurrection.  What do you believe?  Do you believe in friendship and love?  Do you believe in forgiveness and renewal?  Do you believe in fresh starts, a new day, being a part of God’s new creation?  This is who we are, an Easter people, building friendships based in God’s love.  Seeking forgiveness when needed and participating in God’s new creation.  We don’t always have to believe, but in faith, we take what may seem like an idle tale and when we see it for ourselves, experience it for ourselves, we know we have encountered the sacred, the transformative work of God.  Christ is risen!  For I have seen the risen Lord at work in this world.  Don’t believe the story, embrace the story, embody the story, participate in the resurrection as we are called to be participants in God’s new creation.   Amen. 

Sermon - Lent: money and love

            As I started working on today’s scripture, I just couldn’t help but think of the Beatles song – Can’t buy me Love – the lyrics go like this:

Can't buy me love

I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright
I'll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
Cos I don't care too much for money, and money can't buy me love

I'll give you all I got to give if you say you'll love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love

Can’t buy me love. 

Today’s story of Mary pouring costly ointment on Jesus’ feet is definitely a story of love.  And Judas’ response is definitely one of money.  Judas responds to this lavish gift of love from Mary to Jesus as a crime.  He tries to be the good disciple here, he tries to connect this action to the ministry that Jesus has called them to do.  They are supposed to care for others, pool their resources, make sure the widows and the orphans are fed.  This resource that Mary has just poured out upon Jesus’ feet is now wasted.  Think about all the people it could have helped if it had been sold.  Judas tries to be a good disciple. 

            I have found myself making such statements myself.  When I see money used, in what in my opinion, is not the best form of stewardship, I find myself thinking – wow, that could have fed a whole lot of people.  Churches all around the world are adorned with costly stained glass windows, gold objects, costly gems, ornate stone and wood workings, and the cost to maintain them is staggering.  Where do we draw the line?  Where do we lavish our love towards God on costly worship?  And when do we lavish our love for God on our care for others?  Judas tries to be the good disciple here although the text tells us he was stealing from the disciples treasure, so maybe he did only have self interest at hand, but he also shames Mary and her love for Jesus through his statement.

            Mary has been a faithful friend of Jesus throughout his ministry and just recently, he returned to their home when her brother Lazarus died.  Jesus calls out to Lazarus and Lazarus rises from the dead.  Mary has witnessed an amazing miracle in and through Jesus.  Her life has been deeply touched by Jesus.  Jesus is so much more than a friend to her, she has seen God’s very presence in him and Mary knows no other way to say Thank You – If Jesus had restored life to one of my family members, then I might want to lavish a gift upon him too.  How do we say thank you when someone donates an organ, or is able to give bone marrow, or serves as a surrogate?  How do we say thank you when someone changes our life for the better?  How do we say thank you when we see the very presence of God in our midst? 

I'll give you all I got to give if you say you'll love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you

Mary knows that money does not buy love, she knows that her actions are not buying Jesus’ love for her, she just has no other way to say thank you, she has no other way than to show her abundant love for him.  Sometimes the heart just swells so greatly with gratitude and love that we just act.  Maybe she thought about what she was going to do the next time she saw him, maybe she didn’t.  Maybe when he arrived she just acted and with what little she had to give, she gave what meant the most. 

So, the reason this is a Lenten text involves Jesus’ response to Judas, that she is preparing him for his burial.  As we know in the Easter morning scripture readings, the women go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with oils and spices for preparation for his burial.  He was just temporarily laid in the tomb until the time for his burial.  And so when Jesus visits the house of Mary and Martha, he knows he is moving closer and closer to his final days on earth.  He takes this outpouring of love to illustrate to those gathered with him that he will soon die.  Whether they understand this or not, he seeks to continue to prepare them.  Her action of love will soon be reflected by his action of love - I'll give you all I got to give if you say you'll love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you

And his response is yes, yes, I’ll love you too.  I’ll love you not in the earthly form of love, but I’ll love you with deep spiritual love, love that knows no bounds, love that will transcend this life and remain with you forever.  Just as the nard was a fragrant gift of love, Jesus too is referred to as a fragrant offering.  Not a sacrifice given out of guilt or shame or wrong doing, but a true offering of pure love. 

Sermon Lent: Barren fig tree

When Jeff and I first got married, the front yard had several azalea bushes.  Notice I said, had.  We got married in November, so when spring came around, I was looking forward to the azalea blooms.  As the neighborhood exploded in color, and other yards were filled with reds and purples our plants did nothing.  Not one of them.  So, we went to the local nursery and asked what we needed to do.  Its been so long ago, I can’t remember what we bought, maybe holly tone – but we did everything we were told to do to feed and nurture these bushes.  As spring came around the following year, once again I anxiously awaited to see what these plants would do, and once again the neighborhood exploded in color and our azaleas did nothing.  What a disappointment. 

            Jesus is sharing a parable with his followers about a fig tree that is barren.  For three years this tree has not produced fruit and the owner is fed up.  He is ready to have it torn down immediately, but the gardener asks for one more year, a year of intentional care, a year of adding nutrients into the soil, a year focused specifically on giving this tree everything it needs to bare fruit, and then, if in a year, it does not bare fruit, then it can be cut down. 

            As a parable, we can view the fig tree as God’s people.  Just as a fig tree is created to produce figs, the people of God are also created for a purpose – to produce sacred behavior.  On the bulletin cover I used the fruits of the Spirit, sacred behaviors that we are called to produce through our living.  So what happens when God’s people stop living out the purpose God has for them?  Do we believe God comes in, like the owner of that tree, and cuts us down?  No, we lean always into the grace of the gardener that seeks to provide the nutrients and care that the tree needs in order to produce. 

            Again, looking at this parable, if we, God’s people are the fig tree, the tree is still alive, it is just not producing fruit.  It is taking in water and sunlight, it is taking in nutrients, but for whatever reason, all of that is being used inwardly on the tree.  We too can take in life, we can take in our daily bread, we can take in the blessings around us, we can take in so much and just keep it for ourselves.  We can focus inwardly, nurturing our own soul or healing our own wounds, and there are seasons in our own lives that we just don’t have the energy to give anything back.  There are natural ebbs and flows in life, ups and downs, and this tree was given three years before the threat came to cut it down. 

            I see this tree as not just barren but also spiritually dead.  It is stuck.  It cannot do anything more on its own.  This tree is now dependent on the gardener, it is now in need of grace, it is now in need of an outside force to ensure its survival.  The times when we are in our low places, the valleys of our lives, we don’t want to get stuck there, we need to eventually get ourselves moving again.  Sometimes we may feel that we just can’t move forward, that we are out of energy, and it is here, in these places that we need to remember the gardener has come to care for us. 

            Is the true meaning of this parable that the fig tree is not producing figs?  Is it a parable of fear?  That if we don’t get our act together and start doing something productive God no longer needs us?  Or is this a parable of grace?  A parable that proclaims we can’t do it on our own, that left to ourselves we will get stagnant, but with the love of the gardener, with the spiritual nutrients that we all hunger and thirst for, our soil will be tilled and life can once again be born within us?  The gospel of Luke is a gospel of grace.  We have the parable of the prodigal son which illustrates God’s love going out to us even when we have turned our backs on God.  God is always there to welcome us home.   And God is always here to till the soil of our lives to feed our souls despite our best efforts to be independent and do things on our own. 

            When balancing our lives, no matter what season of life we are in, we always need God’s grace, as was shared last week:  Grace is what God does for us that we could not do for ourselves.  We might feel we are really good at tilling our own soil.  But it is just natural in life to get caught into routines, into patterns of behavior that can keep us in a holding pattern rather than moving us forward.  And then something might happen and we receive inspiration or new idea or new found energy.  Do we ever stop and reflect on that and perhaps name it for what it is:  grace?

            Or when we are producing fruit, when we are living out God’s purpose for our lives, do we ever stop and pay attention and name it for what it is?  Grace.  Galatians lists the fruits of the Spirit as: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  But these are not inward gifts.  You can isolate yourself from the rest of the world and live in peace but if you are not sharing peace out within the world, you are like the fig tree taking in water and sunlight only for inward needs. 

Fruit grows on the outside of the tree, we don’t have to cut the tree open to find it.  What we produce for God also needs to be on the outside, not just outside of our own beings, but outside of the church.  We can cut the church open and find a lot of really great people, but we are called to go into the world with our fruit.  And this is not works righteousness, a belief that we have to do good things in order to be saved.  It is perhaps grace righteousness – because of the tilling of our soil, because the gardener loves us and provides for us, we go out as healthy spiritual beings sharing God’s love, God’s joy, God’s peace, God’s patience – if we struggle with our own ability at patience just think about how much more so is God patient with us.  With God’s kindness, with God’s generosity, with God’s faithfulness, with God’s gentleness and with God’s self-control which might just be the gift of grace. 

Are there barren fig trees in our own communities?  Are there issues or concerns right here in the greater Roxbury township that we are aware of?  And do we come in judging that perhaps that person is in that situation because of their own bad choices?  Are we like the owner, only seeing the barrenness?  Or do we see the barren fig tree as a place for potential life, as an issue that perhaps as the body of Christ we can go and till the soil and provide spiritual water and food that might just transform that barren place into a place that bares fruit? 

sermon - Transfiguration Sunday

For those of you that might not know, I am participating in a certification program for Community Organizing.  One aspect of this process that we have been working on, is to move a community from maintainance into transformation.  Community organizing can be applied to the greater community in which we live, such as Roxbury Township, or it can be applied in much smaller areas such as local church congregations.  I am interested in both, but for my certification program, I am focusing on us, as a local congregation.  What does it mean for us to do maintainance ministry and what does it mean for us to do transformational ministry?  I think these are great questions to ask on Transformation Sunday. 

            Maintainance ministry is what we do.  Our committees meet, we have weekly worship, we offer Sunday School and Bible Studies, we create a budget and set goals for the year in which we hope our finances will cover what we would like to accomplish.  Often times, with maintainance ministry, we look the same as we did last year, and the year before, and the year before that.  We celebrate Christmas and Easter, we sing our familiar hymns, and nothing much changes.  It is comfortable, peaceful, and trustworthy.  We have memories formed around these rituals that are meaningful to us.  We are, like Peter, people that have built alters around sacred moments to ensure that they continue to be there for us. 

            Jesus has brought these three disciples up to the mountain top, and is preparing them for the days ahead when he will enter into Jerusalem and will be betrayed by Judas, arrested, denied by Peter, and crucified.  These are not easy days ahead, and so first, before this struggle, this crisis, this horrific event take place, he appears with Moses and Elijah and is transfigured before the disciples into something divine, something sacred, a dazzling of the brightest white.  The disciples are so overcome with amazement, Peter just can’t help himself, and he desires to mark this moment for all history.  He wants to build something to commerate this moment.  And no sooner does he want to keep this moment as something that will last forever, then it is over.  We cannot capture divine moments, the holy presence, it is fleeting and changing and always moving forward. 

            But what does Jesus tell Peter in this story?  Peter, we have work to do, and we must go back down from this mountain and continue what God has asked us to do.  And so down the mountain they go, the once transformed Jesus looking just as he did before he went up the mountain but now, the three disciples are transformed, they have witnessed something unique, special, and holy.  Even the the future is going to be beyond unpleasant, they have this sacred moment to anchor them, a sacred moment that promises them God is present. 

            Jesus does not have time for maintainance ministry, he is on the go, teaching, challenging, calling for change, calling for transformaiton, very literally transforming himself to help illustrate the work that he is about.  In community organizing, transformation ministry is first about building relationships, learning about one another, listening to what the community is passionate about, what the community desires to see changed, to see transformed.  This is actually a perfect connect to our two goals this year:  Fellowship and Mission.  Fellowship is more than grabbing coffee and treats after worship, it is about the deep building of relationships with one another.  Fellowship, relationship building, can actually happen in those parts of our life together where we are involved in maintainance: Bilbe Study, Session and Deacons’ meetings, Sunday School, committee meetings, and fundraisers.   Jesus is always buildling relationships to people, not just with his disciples, but to the greater community as well.  How does he meet Mary, Martha, and Lazerous?  What about Nicodemus?  Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, just to name a few. 

            As we grow in the ways that we know each other, as we build stronger relationships with each other, as we learn what it is that we are truly passionate about, then we go into the world in ministry in that arena.  At one point in our denomination’s life, we were passionate about health care and education.  So, as the early church grew and created ministries in the United States the Presbyterian Church built hospitals and schools.  Over time, we seem to have lost our connection to many of these instututions as they have become businesses rather than ministries.  But we, at one time, transformed the landscape with these much needed community resources.  The church is still at work in places such as Africa, transforming communities with schools and medical clinics.  This last summer, we saw how Broad Street ministry was in partnership with other ministries that are seeking to bring transformation into the lives of people in the Philidelphia area.  Transformation for those diagnosed with Aids, transformation for those that live in food deserts, transformation for those that have always lived with the fear of scarcity.  Transformation even for an old church building that had closed and is now a health clinic, a soup kitchen, a clothing closet, and so much more. 

            Transformation Sunday happens the week prior to Lent for a reason.  Jesus literally faces Jerusalem and begins the journey to his final week.  But Lent is also about growth and moving forward in the faith.  Lent was used as the season of time to teach new converts about the faith and then on Easter Sunday these new followers would be baptized and enter into the formal membership of the faith.  Lent means a spiritual spring, a time for renewal, a time to be transformed.  Any time God sends God’s people into a season of 40 – God desires renewal and transformation at the end.  So, this Lenten season, we are going to focus on transformational ministry, on ways in which we have already begun the process.  We will review the New Beginnings assesement that many of you were involved with over six years ago, and continue to live into God’s calling for us. 

               

Sermon: Love Your Enemy

Love, Bless, Pray, and be Merciful

            Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, pray for those that abuse you.  There is a lot packed into these three statements.  Love, bless, and pray, just those three words can be challenging enough, but to love, bless, and pray for those that aren’t our friends, that don’t seem to be treating us correctly, that perhaps are even causing us harm.  Does Jesus really expect us to live into this?  These are things that we aren’t even sure we want Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit to do.  We want God on our side, why would we want God to extend love to those that oppose us, that want to harm us, that are greedy or violent or cruel?  Aren’t there teachings against these things?  So why would we extend love, and blessings, and prayers for those that seem to be living outside of God’s teachings?  Isn’t there even a teaching about separating the goats from the sheep?  I truly think, this is one of the hardest teachings of Christian discipleship. 

            And so, in order to love your enemy, you first have to identify the break in relationship that has caused this division.  Were you once friends?  Do you have values that are on the extremes of the other?  Did the person break your trust, disappoint you, or betray you?  Or is your enemy someone you have never even met, such as the terrorist group Isis? 

            After 9/11 there were so many hate crimes committed against Muslims, mass stereotyping was happening, and suddenly anyone that had any kind of connections to those terrorists must also be the enemy.  Trauma and fear created this incredible sense of distrust of the other and many innocent people were targeted.  And so churches began to reach out to Mosques in their community, they began to create relationships and build trust with one another and fight against the hatred and stereotypes and negativity that had formed over this horrific event.  In so doing, we put into practice the concept of loving our enemy, or at least loving our presumed enemy, extending love to neighbors in our communities instead of buying into the fear. 

            Apparently, our nation is extremely polarized right now.  I don’t know if our division with one another has created enemies amongst each other.  Every once in awhile I will read a post that a relative shares and I have to say to myself, okay, you completely disagree with this, but she is your aunt, or he is your cousin, let it go. 

            Often times, in order to love or to forgive, one first has to overcome anger, anger at a person, or an event, or some deep hurt that has not healed.    I’ve been working through a book on spiritual disciple and one of the activities was to name 50 things that you are angry about.  I was shocked at how easily I was able to name 50 things that either have angered me in the past or make me angry right now.  Some of them our personal, but some are for the hurts of the world, such as homelessness, human trafficking, and hungry children.  Anger can harm us, but it can also motivate us to make changes in the world.  In order to move yourself out of destructive anger into transformational anger, God reminds us that we have the tools of love, blessing, and prayer. 

Anger is often a response that comes out of fear.  If someone cuts you off while driving, you might become angry at that person, perhaps even honking your horn or flashing your lights at them.  But the anger is driven from the response of fear, fear that that person could have caused an accident, could have harmed you, could have even killed you.  The fear is also driven from the loss of control.  I try to be a defensive driver, always looking around me, always doing my best to be in control of the situation, but someone else’s negligence can wipe out everything I have done to keep myself safe, I am no longer in control and that creates fear. 

What is it like for us as a people to be constantly living in a state of fear and anger?  Well, it pushes us to stress which can then wreck havoc on our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves.  So, if we find ourselves continuously stressed out, or angry, or just feeling out of control, God reminds us, God calls to us, God offers us a better way.  And yes, that way involves loving your enemy, bless those that curse you, and pray for those that oppress you.  More than anything, it is going to push yourself into spiritual practices of growth and perhaps even transformation, it is going to push you into positive ways to deal with fear and anger rather than harmful negative behaviors. 

From the Book:  The Way of Forgiveness, Flora Slosson Wuellner is quoted as saying:  “Acts of cruelty and evil cannot be condoned or forgiven…When we are the victims of radical evil, we are not asked to forgive the evil act  We are asked to remember that the perpetrator, even though trapped for now in the evil, is nonetheless a child of God.”  If you have seen the movie:  The Shack, there is a scene where the father and the Holy Spirit are in deep conversation about this.  The Holy Spirit pushes the father into trying to understand judgement, it can seem so easy to judge on our part.  Murder is wrong and a murdered is an evil person.  But what kind of brokenness is going on in that person’s life, what caused the murderer to become the person he has become?  And to God, are we able to accept that that person is still a child of God?  We want to control God, we want to be the judge, we know how wrong some actions are, and yet, God calls us to love, to bless, and to pray. 

There is such a powerful scene in the movie:  Deadman Walking.  A nun becomes a spiritual guide to a man on death row.  He has committed horrible acts including murder.  The family of the deceased cannot understand why the nun is offering God’s love to this person.  In a standoff between the family and the nun, the grieving father shouts: don’t you think we could use some of God’s love as well?  His anger at her was so complicated, but it seemed he grieved so deeply that the criminal had the attention of the nun and no one came to them.  Perhaps they too needed saving. 

Again, from the book: the way of forgiveness, the reader is encouraged to start with small steps, we can’t be expected to love the worst offender of our lives right away, we need to build into the spiritual practice, we need to begin with smaller areas of disconnect and begin to grow from there. 

I also can’t help wondering, is Jesus preparing his followers for the new community of faith that will grow?  A community that crosses boundaries of culture?  A community that will include both Jew and Gentile, both masters and slaves, both women and men?  In this teaching, he is preparing where people that were once separated by rigid boundaries and social construct can now gather together as one.  How hard would it be to gather with someone you once considered your enemy but is now a part of your faith community?  In the Kingdom of God, there is no space for this, Jesus breaks down the dividing walls, he calls into question who belongs and who does not, and infuses the conversation with Love, Blessing, Prayer, and Mercy.  Let us live into being a community of faith that is welcoming to all, filled with love, generous with blessings, infused with prayer, and always erring on the side of mercy and grace.  Amen. 

sermon: Sabbath

Keeping Sabbath

In college, we had a t-shirt that said:  If God was a Davidson student, he would have played for six days and pulled an all nighter.  The creation story shares that in six days God created the world, and set aside one more day to rest, to see that all is good, to delight in the creation that was made.  God rested, and should we. 

            It has been a long time since Sunday has been held as a day of rest.  Some might remember a time when stores were closed and families would go to church and then often gather for a meal together.  Our lives are so different then the day and age of when Jesus walked this earth.  The rules governing life, society, faith cultures have softened greatly.  We still get a glimpse of it every once in awhile.  I am always amazed in this modern world when I see Orthodox Jews walking to the synagogue or when I hear stories of the rules around whether you can turn on the oven on the Sabbath. 

            Rules around Sabbath keeping exist to help us understand, to help us set aside this time as sacred and holy.  How do we differentiate one day from the next, one day from the normal work that we do, from a day that is set aside as rest, as sacred, as a gift from God?  We act differently, we follow religious guidelines, we give our time and attention to God.  I am pretty sure in the day and age of Jesus, they did not have weekends.  Having one day a week as a day of rest, as a day of no work, was a gift.  For us, it is often just assumed.  Everyone has the weekend, we all get two days off from work, well that is if you have a mainstream vocation, or don’t have to work two jobs to pay the bills.  There are millions of people that have to work all week long, that don’t get the weekend, that don’t have the luxury of slowing down and finding time to be intentionally present with God with a faith community. 

            Every once in a while, we still lament the loss of some of these rules that protected the Sabbath.  We lament that there are sports and practices and so many other activities that happen on Sunday morning.  But we have also not adapted to the changing culture.  We have set ourselves rigidly as a group that gathers on Sunday morning.  This is our time, this is the time we set aside for worship, for gathering as God’s people, for our Sabbath keeping.  But what does this do to us a as a greater community of faith, as a people called together to be in fellowship with each other?  We end up forcing families to make a choice, sports or worship. 

            I wonder how Jesus would negotiate our Sabbath struggle in today’s world.  Because Jesus pushes against the rules of Sabbath keeping that exist in his own day and age.  The two stories we have today involve Jesus doing work on the Sabbath.  He and his disciples are walking through a field and they pluck some grain and eat it.  Seems like something we might do, go out to the garden in summer and pick a few tomatoes and enjoy them fresh off the vine.  But the rules were so rigid that this was considered work, they were involved with harvesting unprepared food, and they had to separate the grain from the chaff.  They were processing their food.  Eating is allowed on the Sabbath, but not picking and processing your food.  You eat something that has already been prepared.  Jesus then points back to King David, that when he was hungry on the Sabbath, he ate, even if it was food he was not suppose to eat.  Here he says, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.  He has not yet defined himself as the Son of Man, and so those that head this were left wondering what he meant, who is the Son of Man?  And what does this have to do with what Jesus is doing? 

            Luke has placed two Sabbath stories together here, this next one happens on another Sabbath when Jesus is teaching in the synagogue.  It seems as if the scribes and Pharisees have caught onto him, since it says they were watching him to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.  And sure enough, he does.  There is a man with a withered hand and Jesus calls out to him.  As the man comes to Jesus, Jesus speaks to the thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees and asks:  I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?  And Jesus heals the man’s hand. 

            Eating and healing, responding to hunger and brokenness, these are two things that Jesus lifts up as viable practices on the Sabbath.  He is pushing back against the rigid rules of his faith tradition that prohibited these actions.  Yes, we need a day of rest, yes, we need a time of holiness, but we also cannot ignore human need just because it happens to be the Sabbath. 

            And so, in a day and age where we seem to have no rules protecting the Sabbath, Jesus just might come to us and ask about our fellowship, our time together as a faith community.  Jesus might challenge us to creatively find ways to keep the Sabbath, creative ways to gather as a faith community, ways in which we are fed and healed not just physically, but spiritually, since that is worship is intended to do for us.  How are we meeting people in their hunger and brokenness?  Are there ways to create sacred space throughout the week, rather than just the few hours set aside on Sunday morning?  Sabbath keeping is about rest, but it is also about sacred connections, about seeing God at work in the world, about connecting to the sacred and finding the good.