The Illuminating Word of God (1/5)

B Pentecost10 2015

August 2, 2015

Mark 7:1-23

BLC Value #1

Elevate the Gospel for the Alleluia and Response

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. [Glory to you O Lord]

¹Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?"⁶He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
 'This people honors me with their lips,  but their hearts are far from me;
 ⁷in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.'
⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."
⁹Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!¹⁰For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.'¹¹But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God) — ¹²then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother,¹³thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this."
¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand:¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."
¹⁷When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.¹⁸He said to them, "Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile,¹⁹since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.)²⁰And he said, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles.²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

The Gospel of the Lord [Praise to you O Christ].

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Some of you may already know this, but my family has a tradition of eating white rice with butter, mlik, sugar and cinnamon on Christmas eve.  I do not remember a Christmas eve without this special, Danish, way to celebrate Christmas eve.  Each year we would eat our rice dinner, go to Christmas Eve worship together, then come home to open our presents –as soon as the dinner dishes were done. 

The tradition came down through my maternal grandparents, Carol and Emery Petersen, who had four girls.  Emery was a Lutheran Pastor from the 1940’s through the 90’s, and as a busy pastor on Christmas eve, all meals and other celebratory activities were Carol’s responsibilities.  And she was a master hostess, and she liked to have things under control, so it was all good with her.  The first time my dad came to Christmas Eve with his new wife’s family, he was introduced to this meal.  A energetic 23 year old man at the time, he was a bit shocked to be offered nothing but rice to eat on Christmas Eve.  His family had also celebrated Christmas on the Eve (a lot of Scandinavians do that)  but with a feast!  So he smiled cheerfully and then went on a fast food run on the way to church.  Truth be told, a few of my cousins did the same thing from ages 14-24. 

When my grandmother was dying, she was 96 and completely lucid.  Our family was doing the usual reminiscing that becomes a special blessing when you know the matriarchs and patriarchs of our lives are about to die.  My aunts and I were talking about this tradition of Christmas Eve dinner and how we had all kept the Danish tradition faithfully in our households, when Grandma Carol piped up to say… “Oh girls, that meal isn’t particularly Danish… that was just the quickest way for me to get dinner on the table between Christmas Eve worship services!”

We looked at each other in surprise… we had carefully stewarded a meal that had become a cherished family tradition, based on nothing more than the expediency of a pastors’ family on Christmas Eve.  J  

The Pharisees in our Gospel for today?  They are pretty concerned about white rice.  I mean, the washing of hands was sort of the same idea. 

The tradition of that rice meal is beautiful, but it was a family tradition celebrated for a particular time and place… in this case, a family who did not have high caloric needs, and not to be confused with the real celebration of Christmas.

The tradition of washing hands had become more about the performance of obeying every word of God and making sure everyone around you knew you did… not about the actual purpose and reason for God’s Word.

Today we begin a sermon series on our Core Values. You remember, church, you have been working on these for almost two years now!  Our vision for a Kingdom of God world where we “Shine a light so brightly that everyone is drawn in to God’s love through this community.”  Our Mission to “welcome all through the light of Christ by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and being a place of shelter.”  Our values:

1.     The Illuminating Word of God

2.     Seeing All People and Perspectives

3.     Serving our Community with Delight

4.     Opening the eyes of Faith at every age.

I’ve been memorizing them by saying, “Word, See, Serve, Faith… Word, See, Serve, Faith” over and over.

We have named the values that hold us together, and now we are seeking to discern God's will in light of them.  We are working together on a ministry plan to keep our energy focused!  That starts with us talking about these values today, and the next four weeks. 

So, if our first value is “The Illuminating Word of God”… what is the Word of God? 

We use this phrase a couple of ways. 

1.     Scripture

a.     Luther talked about sola scriptura (word alone), along with sola gratia (grace alone) and sola fide (faith alone).  Luther wanted to be clear that our faith practices are not based on just some good idea someone had for some particular time and place (because that is what happened in the church of his time too), but that we go back to God’s word in scripture over and over again.  We read the Bible to seek what God is saying to us now, and we keep our hearts and minds open to interpretations of Scripture appropriate to our time; knowing that God keeps speaking to us in new ways through these old words; because our God is a God of new life!

b.     Genesis: Scripture, God speaks and things come into being.  The Word of God is God’s will – simply spoken and it happens!

2.     Jesus!

a.     Genesis to John 1 –scripture is the cradle of Christ

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.²He was in the beginning with God.³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

b.     This work is ongoing by the Holy Spirit, advocating for us; God is still speaking… (as the UCC tagline says.)

So there is a lot packed in to that one little phrase – The Word of God!  This is our foundation: God’s very will revealed to us in scripture and especially in Jesus.  And this revealing is what we mean when we say the illuminating Word of God. 

Sometimes the word of God shines a light on things we would rather not see.  Like todays gospel reading... about Tradition vs. scripture. Jesus is pointing them back to their core, pointing us back to the central things of being church… it’s not about the buildings or the programs, it’s about living as a community who loves God.  And people who love God share it!  With service!  With a hunger for learning more about God – in prayer and scripture!  Tradition is needed!  The question is: How does tradition serve this purpose, to be a shining community of God’s love… and serve the world? Like in the story of the Pharisees, God is not interested in the tradition serving us.

But it’s not all negative… by any means!  The Word of God lights us up!  God’s Word is centered on justice and love for all.  That’s what Jesus came for, right?  Why he lived for us – to show us the way.  And died for us – to claim us for eternity.  We light up with this hope!  Knowing we have been given the greatest gift!  New Life that starts here and now, a life of freedom – for all!  A life of such strong love that even death cannot stop it. 

SO>>> How might we show in worship, and our other gathering times, how central this Word of God is to our community? Might we begin a Gospel processional in our liturgy to remind us that this Book, and all God says to us is our central purpose for gathering together? In September we'll begin using the narrative Lectionary, so that we might follow the arc of God's story through from the beginning, to see where it goes and how it gets to Jesus. 

We also might join a Bible Study or the Adult Study on Sunday mornings – where we will be dancing with the Word of God around the central beliefs and practices of the Lutheran church.   We can read a piece of scripture, a couple of verses, or a story every time we gather – at choir practice, for a meal fellowship, for a campfire.  We can bring scripture home.  Read it as a family – an easy way to do this is to use the Faith5. Confirmation students can show us the way, they do this in their lessons.

We gather around the word, here on Sunday mornings, and other times where we can go more deeply in relationship and learning.  Because we hold the Illuminating Word of God as our first core value, we arrange our faith life, our whole life, around it.  For us faithful people, what the Word of God says to us is the most important voice in our lives. 

It’s tempting to be like those Pharisees that Jesus chastises, to grab hold of human traditions as the familiar way of doing things.  It brings us comfort.  And that is nice, and even needed sometimes.  But the Word of God is not always comfortable or nice.  The Word of God gives us light and life, but often through the challenges of change and discomfort.  Sometimes even messing with something as sacred as my family’s Christmas Eve plans.  Because the Word of God is always about what God wants for all of creation, and not what we want.  And so we pray:

May our wants align with your wants, O God.  May our hearts and hands and minds be open to your will being done.  May we see your kingdom come among us, Lord.  Illumine our lives with your Word.  Amen. 

Chains of Fear

June 28, 2015

Mark 5:1-20 (Off Lectionary)

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. [Glory to you O Lord]

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2And when [Jesus] had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8For [Jesus] had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” 10He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” 13So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.

14The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. 16Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it.17Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. 18As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” 20And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

The Gospel of the Lord [Praise to you O Christ].

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I read for you this gospel story – the story about Jesus landing on the beach he was headed to last week, rather than skip ahead as the lectionary would have me do.  Because I want you to know what happens.  What happened after Jesus rebuked the squall of the wind and the disciples in that boat.

Jesus takes this nervous, confused, fearful group of men out of the boat, the ones who just got to see God in full glory, master of the very elements of creation… But before Jesus could even pick them up by the scruffs of their necks like a mother cat and say, ok, guys, let’s do this.  The demons show up.   

Up rushes a man possessed with a legion of demons! The wild-eyes, the self-inflicted bruises, the inhuman strength, there is no question what we would do today if we encountered this man.  Exactly what the Garasenes have tried to do: lock him up.  Though our drugs might be more effective in subduing him than their chains, our intent is the same – remove this dis-ease we do not understand from our community.  It’s the way we know how to handle things – on our own.

But this legion of demons rushes to bow before Jesus, recognizing the power that the disciples have just completely missed out on that boat.  The demons bow down before the God most high, knowing their heyday is about to end.  Jesus commands them out of the man, and at their request, sends them into the pigs who, in the demons continued pattern of destruction, drown in the sea.

Those demons.  They know who Jesus is.  Their only fear is what will happen to them now that Jesus knows the rucous they’ve been causing.

You might think the people would be happy to be rid of them, once and for all. 

But that’s not how the story goes.  The people of that village, rather than be elated at the reuniting of the man with the community and overwhelmed with joy at the power Jesus uses for good – instead they are afraid.  Just like those disciples were on that boat. 

We might understand if they were just mad at Jesus for killing their pigs. But notice. It’s not anger over their pigs, it’s fear that drives them.  They just want Jesus back on that boat heading back home to Galilee.  

Now remember, the Garasenes were not a group of people that Jews generally associated with.  It wasn’t the disicples’ idea to cross over to the other side.  Jesus and his followers were in a culture and with a people that were not their own.  But as it turns out, the Garasenes aren’t all that different than the 12.  Regardless of ethnicity or cultural, we are all human – every single one of us would have eaten that fruit in the garden of Eden.  We all want to grab for control, to pretend we can better orchestrate the world than the God who made it.  And we all are prone to react the same way when God’s true power is revealed – we run scared.  The Garasenes react just like Jesus hometown did a few verses ago – Please leave, Jesus!  You are disturbing our comfortable, settled, ignorant, demonic peace. 

When Jesus frees the possessed man, he lets loose the demons of fear.  Instead of the people, being able to segregate their fear.  Instead of being able to confine it to the graveyard like a bad halloween movie.  Instead of being able to try to lock up the fear far away from their consciences and daily lives, now, they are scared.  Because now they don’t have a place to point to, a place to shove-off anything different from themselves.  The fear might be anywhere.  They don’t have a place to contain it anymore. 

Whether it is the disciples on the boat, or the Garasenes on the shore, that’s it, it’s Fear.  It is fear that makes us want to push out the hope and new life, because it is just too unfamiliar.  It’s fear that urges us to try to have as much power over others as we can.  It’s fear that decides we are better off away from people who scare us, whether because they are mentally ill, because they are GLBTQ, or because they have a different color of skin.  (The headlines have brought us many opportunities to think about who we fear in America today.)

When we are doing the tough work that we started last week, the tough work of listening to other voices, seeing other faces, hearing other stories and grieving with those who are “other” to us.  We are doing the tough work of “Seeing All People and Perspectives” – one of Bethlehem’s four core values (1)The illuminating Word of God, 2)Seeing All Peoples and Perspectives, 3)Serving our Communities with Delight, 4)Opening the Eyes of Faith at Every Age).  Last week and this week, we are beginning this hard work to examine our white privilege and systemic racism. 

We are ready to face our fears.

Will you speak them with me, Church?  What are you afraid of?

Me?  I’m afraid.

I don’t know what to say or how to say it.  I don’t know if someone who we all label as “non-white” is going to perceive me as a friend or as someone who will wield the power of how I look to get what I want.  So I am afraid at times to even try to build a friendship.  Why should they trust me?  It’s been generations and generations of white people doing just what they suspect. 

I know I have received benefits that cannot be measured just because of the color of my skin.  Other white people are more comfortable with me than they would be with brown or black people, and so I have an “in” with them.  I have access to conversations about everything from job possibilities to grant funding for my favorite charities that many people of color do not have access to.  I smile at me on the sidewalk, usually, if I smile first.  People lend me an extra few cents if I can’t find the right change in my purse.   

And yet, I am afraid.  I am afraid that this system that privileges me means that people who do not benefit from those privileges will see me as demonic.

And that’s how racial privilege works.  It’s all about the fear.  And keeping it in place. 

If we stay afraid, if we let fear stop us.  If we let fear hold us to our normal habits and what comes easy, then we are locked inside ourselves, in our privileged world, dragging around these chains.  We get so tightly locked in on ourselves that we forget there are people who are not experiencing the world the way we are.  There are people, less than a mile from us in any direction, who are followed when shopping in a store, who aren’t given the benefit of the doubt when the police officer pulls them over, or who have to give a wide berth to white people on the sidewalk, lest someone’s forgotten handbag become an accusation of theft. 

And this, my friends, is the shame of the racial system in America.  That our fear of changing it is continuing to solidify it day by day, our fear of reaching out to people who are not in our comfort zone.  Our fear of having a real conversation about the tough issues of race, is perpetuating the very things that God wants to change.  Fear is the opposite of Faith.

God wants change, God’s will is to eradicate racism.  We believe God’s kingdom is coming.  We have seen Jesus calming storms and casting out demons over and over again as God steps into our world and uses every gift God has at God’s disposal.  We pray, at least weekly, as Jesus taught us,Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Our eyes have been opened God, by the events of this past year, these past 50 years, these past 300 years!  God is giving us eyes to “See All People and Perspectives” in ways that we never imagined. Our eyes have been opened to the ways that God condemns racism and how it imprisons us all.

And we have seen freedom.  We have seen grace.  We see forgiveness.  We saw people studying scripture extend a hand of welcome to the Garasene in their midst.  We see people who are mourning extending a hand of forgiveness.  We see people who history tells us should be the most afraid, as they are the most likely to end up imprisoned or killed, yet, they are the most free!  Allowing God’s light to shine through them to us!!

Today Jesus says, God is in control, not us.  And that is a wonderful freedom.  We don’t have to fix all racism everywhere, that’s God’s job.  But, we get to do our part!  We get to be a part of this beautiful coming kingdom!  And God will be with us, just like Jesus in the midst of the storm and in the strange new place, never leaving his disciples. Like the man in our story today tells us, God’s freedom is better than our fear.  God is offering us freedom today.  WHAT DOES THAT FREEDOM LOOK LIKE? 

Like a man, possessed by a legion of demons, who were tormenting him and making it impossible for him to live a reconciled life with his neighbors, impossible for him to experience the fullness of love.  Freedom looks like that man experiencing what was thought to be impossible: having new life, human connection, love in community, the love of God. 

God offers us that same freedom today.

Please pray with me…

We pray for your way, Lord, we pray that everyone in our beloved church may know the good news that you have freed us from this fear.  This fear that is holding us in captivity, the fear that drives us to care more about keeping the status quo than entering into a new life of freedom. 

We pray that your light may come into the darkness of racism in the United States of America  and shine so brightly as to expose it, that we might be freed, together with our black and brown brothers and sisters, from the insanity that binds us.

Amen.

In the Boat.

June 21, 2015

Preached by Kirsten Nelson Roenfeldt

For Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Sturbridge

For AUDIO Click Here.

B Pentecost3 2015

Mark 4:35-41

Jesus Rebukes the Disciples

Prayer of the Day:

O God of creation, eternal majesty,

you preside over land and sea, sunshine and storm.

By your strength pilot us, by your power preserve us,

by your wisdom instruct us, and by your hand protect us,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

The Gospel according to St. Mark. [Glory to you O Lord]

35On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

The Gospel of the Lord [Praise to you O Christ].

+          +          +

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Did you know that the The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Senior Pastor of “Mother Emmanuel” AME church in South Carolina was a graduate of one of our ELCA Lutheran seminaries?  So was The Rev. Daniel Simmons, another one of the congregation’s pastors who were in that Bible study Wednesday night.

Pastor Pinckney went to seminary my colleagues, specifically my friend Mark Petersen, a pastor here in Massachusetts. 

It is easy to think racial problems are all below the Mason-Dixon line. But with these victims, we are connected as believers – somehow that hits home more because we walked in the same institutions – of our same beloved church. 

But the fact remains that, if I so chose, I could quickly delete every email or pass by every Facebook link offering a conversation or voice about this event.  That’s my privilege.  And for any of you that share society’s perception of you as white, that’s our privilege.  White privilege. 

African American men and women hearing this story cannot sweep it under the rug as a random act of isolated violence by one insane man; it is too easily connected to every roughed up young man or woman or teenager by a white person in authority.

What does it mean to be privileged? 

It means that when a storm is raging outside, we can choose to stay inside.  I’d like to say we “get off the boat” because that fits so well with our parable for today, but the truth is that we rarely get ON the boat in the first place.

We decide to choose a different form of transportation.

We ignore, or maybe acknowledge, but never GREIVE this loss.

The loss of human life.  The loss of black lives.

Today we grieve.  Today we get real.  Today we get scared.  With our black brothers and sisters.

We are on the boat with the disciples of Jesus of every color.  We are scared out of our minds.  We are grabbing Jesus by the shoulders and saying “Wake UP!  Don’t you know we are perishing!  Help bail us out!”

And Jesus gets up—and does something.  He does something amazing. 

But we aren’t ready for an awake Jesus until we are awake. Awake to the very real storm of racism and violence raging around us.  The storm that has taken petty criminals and innocent lives, and parishioners in Bible study.  

Did you know that the suspected shooter at that Bible Study that night was a member of an ELCA Lutheran congregation? 

He almost changed his mind.  Because they were so nice.  But his heart was too hard.  There were 12 people in that study, 9 of them died.

We need to deal with this; it is our problem.  Have people in our Lutheran pews heard the good news?  That we are all liberated from the slavery of sin: those with skin of black and brown and white? We are liberated, when we are together?  Have people in our Lutheran pews heard the good news?  Guns are not trustworthy.  God is trustworthy.  He alone will deliver us from evil.

We have ties to both sides of this event, through our expression of our denomination, and more importantly, the one Body of Christ.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus rebukes more than the wind; he rebukes the disciples—Don’t you trust me? Don’t you get it? 

Jesus reminds them again of the good news: I can stop the wind and rain!  I am the source for every tiny atom of the creation.  I am the strength of love in every interaction.  Because of who I am, you can do scary things.  I make you who you are, People of God.  So you can and will live through storms. 

We who have let evil make this storm—we can weather it.  We – black and brown and white together- can live through storms.   “Just trust me,” Jesus says. 

We trust Jesus.  For our God who creates, redeems and sustains; God who is LOVE will be with us in the storm.  Until we come through the other side united together in love.

We trust Jesus to bring us together to knit us into one Body of Christ—and that is no small feat.

Did you watch the video of the bond hearing?  The family members of those who were killed that night forgave him.  They spoke words of truth about what happened, about what he did.  They named the sin.  And then, the very people who have the most license to be outraged and retaliatory, they began forgiving the murderer. 

We start with love.  We start by reaching beyond ourselves—reading the stories and knowing the faces, feeling the pain of this tragedy, yes, of Baltimore and Ferguson and Walter Scott and Trayvon Martin and all the others we must name…. Yes all that—the deep historical ongoing tragedy of racism.  To listen and learn and talk with the people experience it every day because we are IN THIS TOGETHER.

In this life.

In this Body.

In this world.

So when shall we have this conversation, church?  This conversation about race.  And maybe a whole separate conversation about gun violence?

This matters.

In Pub Theology last night we talked about it.  We scratched the surface on all the various social issues we are addressing and how racism is a product of our culture, and our fallen humanity. 

But we need to go beyond grand philosophy and scratching the surface.  We need to seriously examine the white privilege and most of us here benefit from.  And if we have any willing partners, we need to be in real relationship with people who experience the world from the underside of that privilege.  These are complicated issues, and they deserve our time and attention.  For though we may not change the world on our own, we can join God in what is already being done – we can see where God is breaking in, over and over again to reconcile and redeem that which has been broken and lost.  We can see the act of forgiveness breaking in through the broken voices to a broken man.  We can see through the cracks of our brokenness God’s light shining through to us.

Jesus has gotten into the boat.  He has invited us to join him.  Jesus is crossing over.  Crossing into alien territory where people of different religions and roots are.  To be with them.  To be as one body.

When we are in the boat, we will get to see the storm stilled.  We will get to see God’s power change the pain and hatred we thought was impossible to stop. 

Jesus gets up and says, “Peace, be still.” 

And the raging storm stops.

When peace is put into action. Not immediately, we have to live through the storm together first.

But peace, precious peace, is our hope.

Please pray with me:

Almighty God, look with mercy upon this fallen world, again the subject of violence. 

Be with us in our grief, that we may know your consolation. Be with us in our anger, that we may receive your peace. Be with us in our confusion, that we may be led to your truth. And be with us in our fear, that we may delivered into your surpassing love.

We pray this day for the victims of violence in Charleston, South Carolina

We pray for the families of Cynthia Hurd, Rev. Sharonda Singleton, Ethel Lance, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Myra Thompson, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Rev. Daniel Simmons, and Susie Jackson.

We also pray for Dylann Roof, that he may come to repentance, and for his family.

We pray for all those touched by racism and violence in so many other places. Strengthen us as your people to be with those in need, in their grief and the tough conversation to dismantle racism. Lead us to forgiveness and help us to make our churches safe haven, that your grace may be our sustaining Word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Prayer adapted: Paul Bellan-Boyer, St. Matthew Lutheran Church)

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Awaiting in Darkness

B Advent1 2014

November 30, 2014

Isaiah 64:1–9 Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19 1 Corinthians 1:3–9

Mark 13:24–37

24But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. 27Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. 28From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 32But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.34It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35Therefore, keep awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."

Awaiting in Darkness

Please Pray with me: Christ, our light, open our eyes and our hearts to your word in the darkness of this world.  We give to you this time as sacred space in our lives for your work on us.  Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ok, it’s confession time (again).  J Who here has already put up Christmas decorations, found yourself singing along to Christmas songs or decided to bake a favorite holiday recipe?

There is a particular burden in the church to be careful not to celebrate Christmas too early.  It’s ok if you don’t know about it, it’s probably mostly a pastor thing.  We try to be careful to choose Advent, not Christmas hymns, we are conscious of displaying the Advent blue instead of white and gold, or red and green, as the culture has chosen for Christmas. 

See, the thing is, we pastors, and me specifically, as your pastor, do not want you to miss out on the opportunity, the faith-life-is-real-life in Advent, where the anticipation of the coming of our Lord is so intense, it will make your heart break over its beauty. 

Today, the first week of Advent, is the first Sunday of the church year.  Every year we mark the beginning of our lives with waiting.  Waiting for the star to point us to a tiny human in a manger.  Waiting for the angelic announcement that God has shown up in the same skin we wear.  Waiting for God’s promises to shine in a baby.  Waiting for that flicker of light amidst the darkness of our world.

The Lord knows the world has been pretty dark this week. 

Jesus is speaking into this darkness.  And as we listen in to today’s gospel story it may feel a bit like standing in a wrinkle, or warp in the space-time continuum.  Because in Mark’s gospel, in this 13th chapter of end-times speeches, we go back and forth between the urgent and imminent “get ready, the end is coming!” and the bracing message, “this could take a while, so stay strong, disciple, keep the faith.”

It’s like my daughter daydreaming of Christmas excitement one minute, and realizing that “25 sleeps” is an unimaginably long time to wait. 

It’s like living through hospice with someone; knowing death is getting nearer, but never knowing how long that trip will take; knowing how death will come too soon, no matter when but how blessed the relief from suffering will be for all of you.

It’s like waiting for the college acceptance letters or job offers that seem to hold the key to every possible good future.

It’s like knowing that God isn’t happy with the racism in this world.  And wondering how to get our hands and heads into dismantling it, when talk of skin color and all things related, seem so scary and big and violent right now.

These are the moments.  The moments where we know that ultimately a light must come into this darkness, and trust that it will, but boy is the waiting hard. 

That’s Advent.

And so I am offering you an invitation to participate. 

Advent is your chance to own the darkness of the world, the darkness we never want to think about, but denying its realness only hurts more.  To allow the darkness to be… and because we who know Jesus - we know something about the darkness, “What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:3b-5).

The darkness did not overcome it.

The light is coming. 

Isaiah and Mark testify to the light’s ability to overcome the darkness. This light that we are waiting for is so incredibly powerful that that it tears open the heavens, the mountains quake, the fire kindles and causes water to boil, the nations tremble!  The sun and moon themselves darken in the bright overwhelm of this light, the stars begin to fall and every power on earth and in heaven will be shaken. 

For when we have been delivered into our own iniquity, as Isaiah reads today.  That is, when our own sin and brokenness has overcome us.  When we have lost our ability to resist the tempting belief that evil and death will win.  This is the deepest darkness.  The darkness of violence of words and action.  The darkness of violation of property and community.  The darkness of racism and white privilege.  The darkness of succumbing to silence and deafness.  

This is the painful darkness that Christ comes for. 

That Christ comes into.

The darkness of very real evil that makes Christ’s coming “so very necessary, so very loving, and so very heroic.”[i]

To shine into. To overwhelm with rightness and love.  The light of reorientation and reconciliation. 

Which is why we live as people of this promise.  Our God has named and claimed us, has spoken promises into us – that God is coming.  Coming to shine the darkness right out of the world.  Christ is coming, has come and will come again - under, in and through the darkness, until the darkness has vanished like it does at dawn. 

So for now, as we live in the time warp between what is, and what is promised, we live as people of the light.  People who witness to the light with their whole lives.  So let your Christmas caroling and gift wrapping and home decorating and party-throwing be just one more opportunity to live as a witness to the light.  Maybe you choose to wash dishes instead of throw away disposables as your witness.  Maybe you choose to say a prayer with your guests before dinner, inviting the light in to your time and space.  Maybe you choose to sing carols about Jesus from your office.  Maybe you remind yourself the light came with a little joyful expression- coloring as an advent devotional!  Maybe you buy a fair-trade advent calendar this year and then talk with your family about what fair trade is and why we need it.  Maybe you skip the extra toys and instead give a piglet from God’s global barnyard.  Whatever you want it to be.  You are children of the light, it won’t be hard to be creative with the Holy Spirit working through you!

As we let those little burst of Christ’s light shine through this Advent season, let us remember, that Advent is a time to wait.  To wait in the midst of the darkness, “for against the dark is when the light shows most brightly.”[ii]  To delve, to be quiet, and to await that loving light of Christ that shines right into it.

Amen.

[i] Christine Cleveland

[ii]Ibid

The Canaanite in all of us.

August 17, 2014

Matthew 15:1-28, The Voice (edited)

M Narrator: Some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to ask Jesus a question.

Scribes and Pharisees: 2 The law of Moses has always held that one must ritually wash his hands before eating. Why don’t your disciples observe this tradition?

M Narrator: 3 Jesus turned the Pharisees’ question back on them.

Jesus (exasperated): Why do you violate God’s commandment because of your tradition? 4 God said, “Honor your father and mother.[a] Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”[b] 5-6 But you say that one need no longer honor his parents so long as he says to them, “What you might have gained from me, I now give to the glory of God.” Haven’t you let your tradition trump the word of God? 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah must have had you in mind when he prophesied,

8     People honor me with their lips,         but their hearts are nowhere near me. 9     Because they elevate mere human ritual to the status of law,         their worship of me is a meaningless sham.[c]

M Narrator: 10 To the multitude gathered he said,

Jesus (confidently): Hear and understand this: 11 What you put into your mouth cannot make you clean or unclean; it is what comes out of your mouth that can make you unclean.

M Narrator:12 Later the disciples came to Him.

Disciples: Do you realize the Pharisees were shocked by what you said?

Jesus: 13 Every plant planted by someone other than My heavenly Father will be plucked up by the roots. 14 So let them be. They are blind guides. What happens when one blind person leads another? Both of them fall into a ditch.

Peter: 15 Explain that riddle to us.

Jesus: 16 Do you still not see? 17 Don’t you understand that whatever you take in through your mouth makes its way to your stomach and eventually out through the bowels of your body? 18 But the things that come out of your mouth—your curses, your fears, your denunciations—these come from your heart, and it is the stirrings of your heart that can make you unclean. 19 For your heart harbors evil thoughts—fantasies of murder, adultery, and whoring; fantasies of stealing, lying, and slandering. 20 These make you unclean—not eating with a hand you’ve not ritually purified with a splash of water and a prayer.

M Narrator: 21 Jesus left that place and withdrew to Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman—a non-Jew—came to Him.

Canaanite Woman (wailing): Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is possessed by a demon. Have mercy, Lord!

M Narrator: 23 Jesus said nothing. And the woman continued to wail. His disciples came to Him.

Disciples: Do something—she keeps crying after us!

M Narrator: Jesus said to the disciples.

Jesus (contemplating): 24 I was sent here only to gather up the lost sheep of Israel.

M Narrator: 25 The woman came up to Jesus and knelt before Him.

Canaanite Woman: Lord, help me!

Jesus (confused): 26 It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.

Canaanite Woman: 27 But, Lord, even dogs eat the crumbs that fall by the table as their master is eating.

M Narrator: 28 Jesus—whose ancestors included Ruth and Rahab—spoke.

Jesus: Woman, you have great faith. And your request is done.

M Narrator: And her daughter was healed, right then and from then on.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Like is often true, today’s gospel makes a lot more sense if you know what comes before.  [so we read starting with verse one]. The Pharisees came to Jesus to ask him why his disciples didn’t follow the handwashing ritual required of pious Pharisees. 

In his conversation with the Pharisees about handwashing, Jesus turns the question back on them.  He points to an example where they are not following the law, and have, in fact, come up with a way to avoid following the “Honor your Father and Mother” commandment by giving such resources to the temple instead.  A perfect example of how NOT to run a stewardship campaign.  [wink] 

All of this matters because here is Jesus, having just argued with the Pharisees, wrapping up that teaching by saying:

18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, […etc., etc. ]20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile." Jesus has just set himself up for what happens next.  After teaching, clearly, that what matters is what comes out of the heart.  A Canaanite woman puts him to the test.  Jesus is faced with the question: What is clean or unclean? Does it matter who you are and what purity laws you follow? Or is the real issue the stuff you put out into the world.  Because this woman, a non-Jew – we call those “gentiles” – and even an old enemy of Israel, comes to Jesus begging for crumbs, asking for a healing of her daughter.  And Jesus’ first reaction is a big fat no.  Horribly un-Jesus like, don’t you think?  Jesus is trying to stay focused on his vocation, his call to the “lost children of Israel,” which up until now in the gospel have surely provided him plenty of work in themselves – as shown by the whole clean/unclean argument.  Israel isn’t “getting it” – and even the disciples at this very moment want Jesus to send the Canaanite woman away.  Which he won’t do.  He engages, once again, in conversation with someone who is culturally off-limits.    A woman, non-Jew, from the “wrong” side of the lake. 

Yet, the woman persists.  And we have to wonder what’s going on in Jesus head.  He’s just been arguing with the Pharisees narrow vision of who is clean, who gets included in the promises.  The gears are turning as he recalls more of Isaiah’s prophecy

“the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant —  7these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

With extreme humility she calls him her Lord, she calls him the Son of David – she knows who he is! –she points out to him what HE JUST SAID.  If it is what comes out of a person that really matters, and this woman insists on humbly claiming trust in Jesus as God’s son, capable of transforming her and her daughter’s life…. Well, what would Jesus [you] do?

And here we get a glimpse into the 100% human Jesus is, alongside his 100% divine.  It looks like Jesus changes his mind.  It looks like Jesus’ understanding of who all gets included, of who all can display the clean heart of faith, shifts.  She has opened his eyes to the reality that great faith can come from even someone on the outside.

And thank God he did!  Because, I mean… did any of you grow up Jewish?  

That woman is us!  We are the non-Jews who get crumbs from the table, get included on the Holy Mountain.  The promises that were made to Israel wrap us up too.  That’s what God does, draw the circle wider and wider, include us in the joyful house of prayer, that’s what God is up to in Jesus, gracing each and every one of us with the promise of new and eternal life. 

Something clicks in Jesus, maybe it’s the 12 baskets of crumbs, maybe it’s Isaiah, maybe it’s his own divinity revealing itself in this moment.  We praise God today, and every Sunday, for the blessing of being loved into God’s family.

This week I had a woman come to the door asking for crumbs.  It doesn’t happen every week, but it happens often enough that I am working together with other pastors and faithful Christians in the area to figure out how to faithfully steward the crumbs we have been given.  I wonder if we too are able to recognize how we sit at Jesus table as guests.  We did not inherit the promise of Abraham until Jesus came in flesh and grafted us in.  If we, gentiles, non-Jews, have been given crumbs that have resulted in abundance, and resulted in a secure place at the table… who is the Canaanite woman now?  

Is it the single mom who’s food stamps doesn’t stretch to the end of the month?

Is it the one who has had his electricity turned off for weeks in Detroit?

Is it the men and women on the street of Ferguson, MO with their hands up chanting “hands up, don’t shoot”?

Is it the people of color in our society that must learn from a young age how to lower the anxiety of the police?

Is it the hungry people who eat rice and beans, not macaroni and cheese?

The central American children showing up on our doorstep… asking for our crumbs?

It is time, people of God, to take up the gospel challenge, to see the other as Jesus saw the Canaanite woman.  Worthy of being included fully in the promises, and therefore fully included in our life together. 

Amen.