Who Will Roll Away the Stone

Mark 16:1-11

            This morning we gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We remember the story leading up to his rising from the dead.  How he was betrayed by one of disciples and abandoned by the rest, how he was arrested like a common criminal and put to trial, first by the religious officials and then the Roman authorities.  Then there was the long walk to Golgotha, the grisly death on the cross and Jesus being laid to rest in a borrowed tomb for three days.  The story is quite believable as we hear of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome walking to the tomb saying to each other “Who will roll away the stone for us from the tomb?”  But what comes next is quite unbelievable, they find an empty tomb.

            We are taught to believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, but it stretches the limits of our rational thoughts.  How many of us really really believe that this was what really happened?  How many of us have had that uncomfortable thought that the bodily resurrection is just too preposterous to believe in?  Well to those who come here this morning with a bit of skepticism, who may be feeling a bit out of place sitting here in this sanctuary with these thoughts on Easter morning, I have these words for you today, “Welcome!  You are in good company here.”

            When I taught confirmation class last year, I played a game with my teenaged students called, “Questions in a bag.”  Now I knew that these young people had big questions burning in their hearts, but I also knew how shy they to ask these questions in public.  So in order to make them feel comfortable, I had them write their burning questions on a slip of paper and then put them in a bag of which I would draw them out of.  I assured them that I would try to answer their questions to the best of my ability and that if I couldn’t answer it right away that I would research it and get back to them.  The questions ranged from silly, “Is my younger brother an alien?” to which I answered “I will have to ask your mother and get back to you.” to serious “Is God meaner in the Old Testament than in the New Testament?” “Nope, God is forgiving and merciful in both..”  Most of the questions were quite thoughtful and challenging.  However, there was one question that stood out, “How do we know that Jesus really rose from the dead?  I mean, he was nailed to a cross and all, but how do we know that he didn’t just lose consciousness and just woke up in the tomb.” Out of the mouths of babes I tell you.

            The Gospel of Mark’s account of the resurrection story shows the same honesty and integrity of this student’s question.  The resurrection stories of Matthew, Luke and John all have the women reacting with joy when they found out about Jesus’ resurrection, but Mark’s resurrection account is abrupt and awkward.  Instead of feeling joy, the women feel terror and amazement. Instead of running to tell the disciples that Jesus was back from the dead, they ran away from the tomb and told no one of what they saw.  The Gospel of Mark gives us the most realistic response to the resurrection which really is fear.  The tension of Mark’s story thickens as he takes us with the women walking to the grave wondering who will roll away the stone, and we become perplexed as the women see that the stone rolled away.  And we are right with the women alarmed as they hear the young man, dressed in a white robe telling that that Jesus was not dead, but waiting for them in Galilee just as he told them.  But the question begs to be asked is this, were the women terrified because of the empty tomb and the angel or was the thing that really frightened them that Jesus said that he would rise, and guess what, HE DID!  And what about everything else Jesus said, about the cost of discipleship and building the kingdom of God that must be true too.  And if all these things are true, then they have a lot of work to do. 

            In real life resurrections do happen, but when they happen they are down right scary.  Why, because resurrection means that life will change as we know it, and change good or bad always causes anxiety.  For example, many of us have had a loved one recover from an addiction from alcohol or drugs.  While they are in the throes of their addiction we obsess about them worrying about the consequences of their chemical abuse.  We worry about their reputation and subsequently ours, we worry about their safety and ours.  We spend much time and energy trying to work around their addiction to have some semblance of a normal life in the midst of the craziness that addiction brings.  And while we cry out “who will roll away the stone of this addiction that is entombing my husband, my wife, my child, my parent” we have strangely gotten used to living dysfunctionally with the addiction.

            When our loved one does stop using and goes into a treatment program, we feel relieved at first, but eventually fear does rear its ugly head.  When the addict gets out of treatment, the dysfunctional life as the family knows it will change dramatically.  We are told that when the addict comes home, that a new normal begins to set in, where once family life once rotated around the addiction, it will now become all about recovery.  Strangely, we may feel uncomfortable with the removal of the obstacle of the drugs and alcohol because now we have to deal directly with the issues that started the addiction in the first place.  The newly recovered person almost becomes a stranger to us as they begin using new ways of communicating and processing feelings that they had previously masked with chemicals and alcohol.  We may find ourselves frustrated at how some things have stayed the same, our loved one’s drinking buddies have been replaced by AA buddies, but they are still not home because now they are spending all their spare time at meetings.  Then there is the all encompassing fear that wonders what if this isn’t for real.  What if treatment doesn’t stick and my loved one starts using again.  This anxiety seems even more overwhelming than any fear we may have had while our loved one was using.

            For those of us staring into the empty tomb, wondering if this is all for real, if we can deal with the changes, we can take comfort in the real-ness of Mark’s story.  Mark shows us that God reveals the good news precisely at the point where things seem to be at their worst.  God hears our cries, “who will roll away the stone?” and gives us the courage to turn what looks like an ending into a new beginning and take what looks like a lack of faith into a new opportunity to believe.

            Yes resurrection is a hard and scary thing to believe in, but my brothers and sisters in Christ, the resurrection is a very real and beautiful thing.  Because within each resurrection lies our hope and dreams, so that no matter the amount of obstacles, no matter how dark it may get, no matter how difficult life can become, we know that in the end God will always roll away the stone and break us open so that new life can pour forth.

Alleluia—Christ is risen Indeed—Alleluia.  Amen!

Learning to Fall

            What does it mean to be church in this time and place?  We remember that the church was the center of life for many Americans in the 1950s.  Every Sunday the pews were filled, the CE classrooms were bursting with children and there were plenty of resources to keep the church going.  Growing a church was easy because all a church had to do to get new members was open its doors.  In many towns and cities at that time, the only way a person could connect to the community was through the church.  In many circles the only way to legitimize a relationship was marriage in the church and later on legitimizing families through baptizing children in the church. 

            The times have changed since the churches hey day of the 1950s.  Now, we are doing more funerals than baptisms.  A majority of mainline churches have experienced extreme declines in membership and shrinking financial resources.  In our anxiety we think that if we just change the music, or add a contemporary evening service, that will bring the people who will save our church.  However these small changes aren’t turning things around for many of our churches because our culture is shifting away from the church.

            As a community of faith we feel very much like the exiles to which the Prophet Jeremiah preached to in this mornings reading.  In the aftermath of the Babylonian invasion of Judah the Israelites wondered where did God go?   Their temple was destroyed and their king had been taken off in chains.  These were the two things that God had promised them, God’s presence in the temple and political power.   Prior to the invasion Jeremiah had warned the people that if they kept doing what they were doing:  worshiping other Gods, not caring for the poor and ignoring God’s commandments, that calamity would fall upon them.  Perhaps it was the people alone broke the covenant but I wonder if maybe God didn’t keep up the divine end of the covenant.  I am sure there were many in Judah who did lived faithfully according to the covenant and yet their way of life had died in the ashes of their destroyed temple.   So it would seem for the mainline church.  Didn’t God promise to protect those who kept the covenant??

In the gospel reading, when Greeks came to the festival because they wished to see Jesus, they were not looking for the real Jesus, but their version of Jesus.  They were seeking a savior, a miracle worker, a protector, someone so full of power that he will keep them from catastrophe.  Instead of a superhero, they found an ordinary man resigned to his fate of death, “Very truly I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  (John 12:24-25)  These are hard words to hear because our human instinct for survival gets in the way.  It is as preacher Barbara Brown Taylor puts it in her sermon on this same scripture “hard to preach the gospel to people who are scared of death of dying.”[i]  Because Jesus keeps telling us that we have to follow God’s will even it takes us to the cross and “It’s hard to preach self preservation in the presence of the cross”[ii] 

You see when individuals and organizations get anxious about its survival they become inwardly focused.  Rather than continuing to seek the common good, we who are anxious about our survival only seek what is good for us, hanging on to our resources with tight fists only to have it fall through our fingers anyways.  What the great recession of 2008 has taught many of us is that as much as we try to seek security with jobs, nest eggs and real estate, we can lose it all in a heart beat.  We fall as we get the pink slip, we fall as our retirement savings dwindle, we fall as our mortgages go upside down.  However it is only after we’ve fallen we begin realize that “There are worse things than falling to the ground that could happen to a grain of wheat.”[iii]  Since the market fell, I had suffered two lay offs, one by the church that I was serving as associate pastor and one by a church media center where I was serving as director.  Beloved and I had to bring $11,000 to the table to sell our home in Big City because our mortgage went underwater and we were the lucky ones because at least we were able to sell our home.  It was only while I was falling that I learned the power of letting go and trusting that God will provide.   

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 

What the gospels tell us is that death needs to happen before resurrection.  Naturally we are more interested in learning to rise than in learning to fall.  But in the season of Lent, we are called to empty ourselves to make room for the resurrection that Easter brings.  In dying to the world’s ways of consumerism, survival by any means necessary and domination we become open to God’s new life in us in ways we’ve never imagined. 

Today the church does not look like it did sixty years ago.  In sixty years the church will not look like the church of today.  That is because God is continually doing a new thing.  “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant…I will put my law within them, and I will write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33)  God constantly changes the church by breaking down that which is causing the church to die so that something new will take its place.  This is all to the glory of God in building God’s kingdom here on earth.

In the short time that I’ve been your pastor, I’ve witnessed actions in your community that reflect a desire to build God’s kingdom here in Tiny Town.  At the faith forum last week I heard conversations about where the needs are in the city of Tiny Town and how we can use the resources that God has blessed us with to bring new life to our town.  The world may think us foolish for making programs that aren’t about contributing to our bottom line, which is about membership and money.  But in turning away from our anxiety over our institutional survival and turning towards Gods way of building God’s kingdom here on earth we open ourselves to becoming church in ways we’ve never imagined before.   

God calls all churches to be God’s hands, feet and voice in the world to sustain God’s creation.  Let go and have faith that God will provide us what we need to do God’s work in the world.  May it be so.  Amen

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[i] Barbara Brown Taylor “Learning to Fall” Sermon Delivered at Festival of Homiletics May 2011.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibid.

For God So Loved the World

“For God So Loved the World”

            “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  (John 3:16) These words have been immortalized not only in our scriptures but also in our secular lives, most especially on Sunday…afternoons.  At any sporting event you can see this passage everywhere…in every end zone, in every crowd shot there is always someone holding up the placard that says: “John 3:16”  And now we have the Bronco’s quarterback Tim Tebow wearing  the words John 3:16 under his eyes as sun block.  What is it about this verse that has captured our imagination so much especially at sporting events?  Is it because faith gives one a leg up?  If so, then why did the Bronco’s lose in the playoffs?  Wait a minute, they were playing against the Patriots…maybe skill trumps faith.  Now Tebow is in danger of losing his job to Peyton Manning…I guess faith doesn’t save football careers.

            In this season of Lent one of the things we contemplate is our salvation.  What does it mean to be saved? How do we become saved?  Is salvation for everyone in the world or only reserved to those who have faith in Jesus alone?   Is salvation freely given or is it earned?  And does salvation work here on earth as well as it does in heaven…you know does faith in Jesus help us win the big game, get the great jobs and succeed in winning a Grammy. 

When I was a little girl growing up in the Catholic Church I had a healthy curiosity concerning the things that the nuns and priests were teaching me and much to their consternation I was not afraid to question what they were teaching me.  For instance I was taught that the only people who were saved, that is the only ones who were going to go to heaven were Catholics, and only the good ones at that.  Oh sure there were exceptions such as babies who were not baptized that would go to limbo but everyone else was condemned to eternal damnation. Well that didn’t seem fair to me.  At that time I was friends with a bunch of Baptist girls down the street and I had a hard time believing that were they not going to heaven because they weren’t Catholic.  What about the people in other countries, you know the starving children in China that I heard about every time I tried to not eat my vegetables, these kids didn’t even know about the Catholic faith, were they condemned as well.  How could a God who loves the world so much send over half of all creation to the fires of hell just because they weren’t Catholic? 

Fast forward to seminary, as you can salvation was a hot topic of discussion in and out of the classroom.  Many of us who grew up in the church had been taught to believe that Christianity was the only way to salvation.  For many of us, salvation through the belief in Jesus was of great comfort because could know what we needed to do to be saved.  However some of us felt that this notion of salvation through faith alone in Jesus was quite disturbing because it implied that God’s grace is reserved for just a few insiders.   What we learned is that salvation is not an either/or supposition.  If we are saved by belief in Jesus alone than it makes salvation a purely human accomplishment, thus taking away possibility of God’s ability giving us the gift of grace freely however if salvation is God’s initiative alone then we are in danger of taking God’s grace for granted and not responding to it, it is what theologian Dietrich Bonheoffer calls “cheap grace.”  Ok, are your heads ready to explode…yep mine too.

It wasn’t until I was a hospital chaplain that I learned the true meaning of salvation and the heart of the verse John 3:16.  I was assigned to the cardiac care unit; there I met many patients face to face with their mortality, many for the first time.  Most were forced to consider major lifestyle changes to accommodate their weakened hearts.  For some it was a matter of changing their diet and activity level, for others it meant adding a pace maker or medication to get their heart to beat normally and still others had to consider major surgery, cardiac bypass or a valve replacement to heal the damage done to their heart.  Needless to say, the fear of death was a prevalent in the cardiac care unit as patients and their families made decisions regarding their medical course of action.  However, I met a woman who faced her future with no fear.

On a busy weekday morning I was paged by the nurses of the cardiac unit to intervene in a family situation.  “Edna” had just been told by her doctor that she needed a valve replacement in order to survive the latest injury to her heart.  Edna decided quickly that she was done with surgical intervention and that she just wanted to go home to let nature to take its course.  Edna’s daughter did not agree with Edna’s decision.  When I came into the room, Edna was in her bed, connected to IV’s tubes and monitors.  Over the beeping of the machines her daughter argued with Edna, urging her to get the surgery, “Mom if you don’t get the surgery, you won’t be able to breath and you’ll choke to death…Mom, if you don’t get the surgery your heart will stop and we won’t be able to do anything about it….Mom, if you don’t get the surgery you’ll just drop dead.”  Edna listened to her daughter just nodding her head.  I tried to talk to them both but in her Edna’s daughter kept interrupting me with more arguments as to why Edna should get the surgery.  Eventually I had to ask the daughter for a moment alone with Edna so that I discuss with her the reasons for her opting not to get surgery.

The atmosphere in the room calmed down considerably when the daughter left.  I asked Edna how she came to the decision to not get surgery.  She replied, “Because I’m not afraid to die.” 

“Really” I asked “Why is that?”

“Because no matter what happens I know I’ll be OK.” She said

I continued probing “How do you know that to be true?”

“Because John 3:16 in the Bible tells me so.” She stated.

Unfortunately my beeper went off and I had to leave.  I asked her if she’d like me to come back later and she said yes, and asked me to bring my Bible so we could read it together.

When I came back to Edna’s room that afternoon with Bible in hand, I was taken aback by what I saw.  Gone were the wires, the monitors and IV tubes.  All there was was Edna in her bed waiting to be discharged.  The room seemed strangely quiet without the beeps and buzzes of the monitors that had previously kept track of Edna’s vital signs.  I sat down and opened the Bible to the Gospel of John chapter 3.  I asked her if she would like me to read her the whole chapter rather than just a snippet to which she enthusiastically agreed.  It was then, sitting in a hospital room, reading scripture with a woman fearlessly facing death that I finally got what salvation was all about.  It was all about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, that we are saved by grace through faith.  I witnessed Edna facing her future graciously through her faith in God just as Jesus faced the cross.  Edna had eternal life her whole life long, not only because she believed in the promise of resurrection from death that Jesus had on Easter morning, but also because she had the close and abiding relationship with God that Jesus did. 

God’s love is abundantly poured out for the whole world so that all, not just a select few, can experience the good news of God’s love and grace freely given to all.  This salvation, this relationship with God, is what propels us to move beyond our fears to do God’s work in the world.

May it be so.  Amen.

The Joy of Covenant

            I would like to begin this morning’s sermon with a big thank to this congregation for all of the hospitality that you have shown beloved and myself since we’ve moved to Tinytown a week and a half ago.  The visits, the warm wishes, and especially the food were very much appreciated as we went about the work of settling into our new home.  I just wanted to let you all know that the dishes that you brought the food in are in the kitchen on top of the checkered table cloth.  All dishes not claimed by the end of the day today will be sold in a rummage sale next week.

            Moving to a new place is an exciting yet overwhelming task.  In the short time that we’ve been here, Beloved and I have had to find a new place to go grocery shopping, gas our cars, get our hair cut (ladies you know how important that task is) and even open new bank accounts which I tell you was quite an adventure.  Thanks to the Patriot Act our interview with the Banker was quite extensive, not only did we have to give her our previous banking history but we also had to give the banker our past and present employment information as well.  When the banker asked me who my supervisor was at my current place of employment, I thought for a second and then said, “well God of course.”  To which she replied, “I can accept that.”  It helps that I am the pastor of the church next door, because thank goodness she didn’t ask for God’s phone number to verify my employment.

            All joking aside, as people of faith we all can claim God to be our ultimate supervisor.  One of the marks of discipleship is being accountable to the one who is the God of the promise and the God of the law and part of God’s law are the Ten Commandments which were read this morning from the Hebrew Testament.  The four thou shalts and 6 thou shalt nots cover how we are to live with God and with each other.  Some believe these commandments to be universal moral principals and would like to see the Ten Commandments in the public square, whereas others shy away from the commandments preferring to dwell on the promise of God’s grace freely given than on the anything that implies we have to earn that grace.  However it is as preacher Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, “Promise without law is like a tent without tent poles.  It is amorphous.  It will not hold up.  It will not hold up.  It looks one way to one person and another way to the next, with know way to tell which way is right.”[i]

            In order to truly understand what any passage the Bible is saying, we have to understand the time from which the scripture was written, the place in which it was written in, who wrote it and why it was written.  We remember that the book of Exodus tells the story of God saving the Israelites from slavery in Egypt through the work of God’s servant Moses.  The Israelites had been wandering in desert looking for the Promised Land and the longer they journeyed, the crankier they got.  When the Israelites encountered hunger and thirst they complained to Moses that they would have been better off staying enslaved in Egypt.  Moses would cry out to God, “What am I to do with these people?  They are almost ready to stone me.” (Exodus 17:4)  Then God would provide food and water.  And yet even though God was providing for their basic needs, the people continued to behave in ways that were irresponsible and detrimental to the community as a whole.  God needed to get the people back to a way of life that works for having a relationship with God and with each other.  God gave them the law.

            What is interesting is the form in which the Ten Commandments are written.  It is written just like a treaty between a king and his vassal-that is a person or nation that is dependant upon the king for land and protection.   There is a power difference between the parties of the treaty.  The commandments comes from God to the people, this is not a dialogue.  However, the Israelite people are free to agree or disagree with the terms of the treaty.  This is a binding agreement based on mutual commitment.  In it are promises and obligations, reliability and durability.

By using the form of a treaty that puts God in the role of King, the authors of the book of Exodus are trying to portray God as all-powerful and benevolent.  Had the authors used a treaty where the power relationship was equal, this would have put God on the same level as the people, which would have been problematic.  The purpose of the Exodus story is to promote the one God of Israel.  To show the people of Israel that the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Joseph has a plan and that God has the power to intervene in history to make that plan come to reality.  The people of Israel are thus utterly dependent upon this sole God and should show their gratitude to God by following the commandments. When people are dependent upon God of Israel, they are less tempted to follow the religious traditions of the gods of other communities such as Canaan.

            The language of the Ten Commandments may sound harsh but the intent behind them is not.  God knows what is life giving and what is not.  If you murder, steal, commit adultery, covet etc. etc. life will be miserable.  If you honor God, honor your parents and keep the Sabbath, then life will be good.  Obedience to the law does not earn the promise of God’s grace, that promise has already been granted by God unconditionally and forever.  Obedience to the law is a sign of belief in the promise and a witness of your faith.[ii]

            In this season of Lent we remember that God came to us to make a new covenant in the human form Jesus, not to have power over us but to be in solidarity with us.  To the world this way of sharing power with would seem foolish, especially because the way Jesus lived landed him on the cross. However the Apostle Paul states, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God… God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18, 28-29)  On Good Friday it would seem that death won, but Easter shows us that in the end, God’s love wins.

            In January you have called me to be your pastor and I was honored to accept this call.  We joyfully made a covenant together based on a relationship of mutuality and equality.  As your pastor I will not have power over you but I will share in God’s power with you in this community of faith.  The future holds so much excitement for all of us as we begin our journey together.  It may feel awkward at first as I try to learn your ways and you get used to mine.  There will be challenges ahead but I am confident that God will give us what we need to meet each challenge and together we will continue to fulfill First Congregational Church’s mission to be  “followers of Jesus Christ and servants of God, striving for love, truth, justice and peace within our congregation, community, and the world."  May it be So.  Amen

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[i] Barbara Brown Taylor “Promises” Gospel Medicine.46

[ii] Ibid 49

Remembering our Baptism

Genesis 1:1-5

Mark 1:4-11

            We’ve all heard the saying, “You are only as good as the company you keep.”  It begins with our parents trying to protect us from being influenced by the bad behavior of other children.  Then as we get older we learn to avoid the naughty children in order to steer clear of the dreaded “guilt by association.” However our sense of cautionary associations becomes warped as we get into junior high.  In the midst of the unpredictable growth spurts, uncomfortable voice changes and newfound acne we are at the zenith of our insecurity.  Some of us join cliques so that we can hold on to our friends like life preservers as we traverse the treacherous waters of adolescents.  While others of us decide to become our own island, becoming a loner so that our social destiny is determined only by our own Holy Trinity, me, myself and I.  Either way, we become obsessed with who is in and who is out.  Popularity is not won by being friendly and kind, rather it is earned by who you are seen with.  The goal becomes being seen with the right people and shunning those who are less than perfect.  What is interesting is you become who you are seen with.  Hang out the wealthy kids and you are perceived as well off, even if you are from a family of humble means.  Hang out with the cheerleaders, you are perceived as the big guy/big gal on campus.  Hang out with the kids in the parking lot who smoking cigarettes, you are perceived as a burn out, even if you’ve never smoked, drank or did drugs. hang out with the kids who are in the math and science club, you are a nerd and so on and so on. 

Unfortunately we do not totally outgrow this behavior. Part of the human condition is the need to feel secure and in the quest for security it is natural for us to want to align ourselves with individuals and groups that will give us the most benefits, be it socially, vocationally or even financially.  In a competitive culture such as ours, it is not what you know but who you know, or really who you are seen with that gets you ahead.  However that’s not how Jesus saw it.

            This morning we hear the beginning of Jesus’ life as remembered by the evangelist Mark.  The Gospel of Mark has no account of Jesus’ birth or early childhood.  Instead he begins with the story of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.  The gospel states that John the Baptist was an unusual person, dressed in camels hair, eating locusts and honey and running around warning all who would hear him, ““The kingdom is near! The Messiah is coming!  Prepare the Way!”  Basically John the Baptist was the Ancient Near East’s version of the bumper sticker, “The Messiah is coming…look busy!” 

Now, an important part John’s ministry was baptizing people in the waters of the river Jordan for the forgiveness of their sins.  Through the baptism of repentance that John gave, the sinner is ritually washing away their sins so that they may be inspired to let go of their worldly desires and to turn towards God’s desire for the world.  To repent, which literally means to turn, is really all about re-orientation so that the baptized becomes open to and obedient of God’s will.  John never claimed to be a big shot, no quite the opposite, he told his brethren that one more powerful than him was coming that would baptize them with the Spirit rather than just water.

            So imagine if you will John chest deep in the water, dunking sinners one by one in the river when suddenly he finds that the next man in line is none other than Jesus.  This is the Messiah, the son of God standing in front of him waiting to be dunked in the muddy waters of the Jordan.  This was downright scandalous! 

In her sermon on the Baptism of Jesus, Barbara Brown Taylor tells us that the Christian church has always had a certain discomfort with the baptism of Jesus.  She says, “Compare the accounts of each of the four gospels and you cannot miss the un-ease of the authors.”[i]  “Matthew elaborates on Mark’s story by adding that John tried to talk Jesus out of being baptized, and Luke will not even come out and say it was John who did it.  The fourth gospel [the gospel of John] is the most ticklish of all.  In it, John bears witness that he saw the Spirit descend like a dove upon Jesus, but he does not mention anything about the baptism at all.  Scholars say all this embarrassment is our surest proof that Jesus really was baptized by John, because when someone tells you something that is not in his best interest for you to know, then you can be reasonably sure he was telling you the truth.”[ii]

When Jesus took his place in line, he didn’t care about being associated with the sinners.  If Jesus was concerned about reputation he would not have allowed himself to be baptized by some eccentric guy in the muck of the river Jordan.  Instead we’d see Jesus standing on the shore and encouraging those sinful people as they went into the water or we’d see him holding out his hand and helping these mere mortals as they came out of the river or even offer to take over the baptizing so that John could take a break.[iii]  But no, Jesus did something more radical than that, the son of God who is without sin take his place in the long line of sinners to share in their baptism.  As the one sent by God to share God’s love with all of creation, Jesus began his public ministry by showing humanity that he is one of us by getting in the “river with us, in the flesh with us, in the sorrow of repentance and joy of new life with us.”[iv]  It is then that he hears the voice of God say, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:10-11) 

In this morning’s Hebrew Scriptures we hear the beginning of the creation story.   As God’s spirit swept over the waters God created the heavens and the earth with just his voice. The voice of God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.  God said “Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, and let dry land appear.” And there was the land and the seas.  God called the earth to bring forth living things of every kind and it was so. Then God created humankind, in God’s image, male and female both.  And with each step of creation God saw all that had been done and declared that it was good.  God didn’t say that the trees were better than the plants, or that the sea animals were better than the land animals or that some humans were better than other humans, as the scripture states in Genesis 1:27 “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them [and] God blessed them.”

Some note that when we read the story of Jesus’ baptism in combination with the creation story we find that Jesus’ baptism is less about sin and more about solidarity.  “When Jesus steps down into the waters of the Jordan, with the Spirit now descending from above, he steps down into the chaos of [humanity] and trusts the power of God to make order out of chaos, even through him.”[v]

Today we remember our baptisms.  As we look at the baptismal font we recall the long line of people who have been baptized before us and the long line that follows us.  Through the waters of baptism we become part of the church, which is full of sinners and saints and everyone in-between, and we love them all.  In baptism, God works in us the power of forgiveness, the renewal of the spirit and the knowledge of the call to be God’s people always.  In every Christian Church we share this sacrament of baptism within a worship service in order to welcome the newly baptized into our community of faith and to vow to always remind them that indeed they are a child of God. 

            Jesus got chest deep into the chaotic and muddy waters of the Jordan to be in solidarity with us in our humanness.  When he emerged from these waters, he began his active ministry soaked to the bone with these words of God’s love.  “This is my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased” Let these words soak into your very being just as they did Jesus, as a proclamation that we are all God’s beloved children. 

May it be so.  Amen!

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[i] Barbara Brown Taylor. Home by Another Way. (Cambridge, Mass: Cowley Publications, 1999.), 34.

[ii] Taylor Home by Another Way, 34

[iii] Taylor Home by another way, 34-35.

[iv] Taylor Home by another way, 35

[v] FOW Genesis exegetical perspective 223

The Lord is my Shepherd

Exodus 32:1-14
Psalm 23

         On Facebook many of us like to share pictures with captions that strike us as funny or cause us to think.  Those who are my Facebook friends know that I like to post pictures from the website “I can has cheeseburger” that depict cute cats in compromising positions with captions such as “No not right now human…I’m busy being a cat” and “I eated Barbie…house mine now.”  However there is an interesting image making its rounds on Facebook.  On the left hand side is a drawing depicting the Israelite people worshiping the golden calf, underneath it is the caption “Canaan circa 1300 BCE”.  On the right hand side is a photograph of a bronze sculpture of a charging bull, underneath that is the caption “Wall Street circa 2000 CE.”  Above these pictures is the title “Bovine Idolatry Through the Ages.”  The more things change, the more things stay the same.

            It is easy for us to vilify the Israelites for their dance around the golden calf.  We wonder, what are these people thinking?  Do they not remember that the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham and Isaac is the same God who freed them from slavery from the Egyptians, who parted the red sea so that they may escape capture and then drowned the entire Egyptian Army with these same waters?   How could they turn away from the God who has given them mercy in order to worship lesser gods?

            Yes the problem was that the Israelites were not thinking when they worshiped built and worshiped the golden calf.  They were only reacting to the immediate circumstances that surrounded them.  We remember that the Israelites wandered in the barren desert for forty years after they were led out of Egypt. At first they encountered hunger.  They became anxious and complained to Moses that they wanted to go back to Egypt, “‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’” (Exodus 16:3)  God heard their complaints and sent them manna, bread from heaven.  With it God assured them that they would be provided for and commanded them to only gather enough manna to sustain themselves for the day.  However some Israelite tried to horde more manna than they needed for the day but quickly melted or went rotten. 

As the Israelites journeyed further into the desert they ran out of water.  Once again anxious for their survival they complained to Moses, “‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?... ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” (Exodus 17:3b, 7b)  God heard the anxious complaints of the people and provided them with water.  There seems to be a pattern developing here, the Israelites encounter hardship, they become anxious, they react by complaining, and God provides for them but not according the Israelites terms or timeline.  Even though God has provided for their basic needs, the uncertainty of how and when they will be provided for fuels their fear.  With each setback the Israelites react with impatience.  They immediately think that God has abandoned them and that they can no longer wait for God’s reappearance, so they seek to fill the void with other things.  Whether it is a desire to return to the halcyon days of slavery in Egypt, or the useless hording of manna or even the worshiping the god of the golden calf, the Israelites try to ease their anxiety with a quick fix. 

The search for the quick fix is a natural part of the human condition.  Whenever we encounter something triggers our anxiety our instantaneous response is to either fight it or flee from it.  Without thoughtful discernment, we surrender to our anxiety and react to our situation without thinking.  We rely too much on our own expertise and rush towards other solutions without waiting for God’s guidance.  It is too easy for us to make the most important life decisions marriage, calling, career, family without bringing God into the conversation.  Sometimes it is just too easy to be just like the Israelites, seeking a quick fix instead of thoughtfully discerning a long term solution.

What we forget is that we are completely and utterly dependant on God just as sheep are completely dependant on their shepherd.  We cannot do it on our own.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want

He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;

He restores my soul.  He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:1-3)

Some note that the Israelites longed to live with God as sheep live with a shepherd but their fear got in the way.  “They were too afraid to keep believing that this shepherd was leading them to green pastures or that goodness and mercy would follow them.  So they frequently rushed down more promising paths toward more manageable gods, which always led them to unmanageable trouble.”[i] 

Many of us go to the 23^rd psalm in times of distress.  It is often read at funerals and hospital bedsides to ease our grief, to calm our anxiety and to strengthen our trust.  From the beginning of the psalm with the words “The Lord is my shepherd” we are told who God is and who we are.  God was, is and will always be in control, we are not.  If we trust in God to lead us, God will always lead us to refreshing places along the best paths.  And even when we walk through the dark valleys of illness, depression, addiction, abuse, rejection, bitter disappointment and other hard experiences of life we will have no fear because God is with us, sitting by us, suffering with us.  God blesses us abundantly even when we are experiencing life’s most difficult times.  Yes there may be anxiety and suffering, but there are always blessings to be enjoyed even in the extreme situations where we are in the presence of those who oppose us.[ii]  If we stop dwelling on golden calves and the false gods of greed, domination, and the quick fix and instead choose to dwell on the house of the Lord which is a place of abundance and beauty surely goodness and mercy will follow us all our lives long.  May it be so.  Amen.

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[i] Craig Barnes “Sheep on the Run” The Christian Century March 10, 2002

[ii] David B. Calhoun, "Poems in the Park: My Cancer and God's Grace," Presbyterion, 2008.

A World Communion Sunday Sermon

Matthew 21: 33-46 

Let me begin this sermon by letting you know that I think this is one of the most depressing parables of the Bible.  Yes we know that Jesus’ parables are meant to disturb rather than comfort, but come on Jesus, what’s up this story.  The landlord has lost his harvest, his slaves and his son.  The tenants have lost their lives.  Nothing is gained, in the end everyone has lost.   As always the first step of Biblical interpretation is to understand the context from which this story comes.  In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells this parable the day after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday.  He has just stormed the temple by overturning the tables of the money changers and driving out all who were selling and buying in the temple.  The temple leaders, the chief priests and the elders hear of Jesus’ mayhem and also see that the crowds turning against the established leadership.  It’s time to stop Jesus and his ragtag group of followers before all hell breaks loose.  So the chief priests and the elders look for Jesus and find him in the temple teaching.  They confront him by asking “By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority.” (21:23b) and Jesus answers them in his usual fashion, he tells them a series parables which include this disturbing parable of the wicked tenants.

We remember that Jesus’ audience was very diverse, rich, poor, man, woman, etc. etc.  So each person hears this story in a different way.  The poor farmers in his audience who have toiled in the vineyards under their absentee landlords would have hung on every word that Jesus said thinking that he was on their side.  As they hear about the tenants killing the slaves sent over by the landlord they cannot help but cheer.  “That’s showing them Jesus…send them away packing.”  But when Jesus asked “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with those tenants?” and they hear the answer, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to the other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” The peasants wonder “Where is the good news for me in this story?”

Then there are the landowners who are only doing business like their fathers had done before them, and their father’s fathers had done.  They may acknowledge that the conditions that their tenants live under maybe harsh but that is of no concern to them, the landowners feel they have earned their place of power and comfort through their hard work rather than from their place of privilege.  To think otherwise would mean giving up many of the comforts they enjoy.  Yes, they can identify with the landlord in Jesus’ story but then they also feel Jesus pulling them towards hearing the plight of the peasant farmers. 

However it is the elders and the chief priests who are most disturbed by this parable.  They are good people living what they had been taught to believe to be a righteous life, where they work hard to eat the right foods, associate with the right people and keep the purity rules to the letter of the law. However they hear Jesus telling them that they’ve been doing it wrong. They see Jesus claiming to have the authority of God, yet they see him continually breaks the purity laws that the church leaders had been taught their whole life to follow.  And most offensively they see Jesus eating with and relating to people who are flagrant sinners and of the utmost impurity, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the lepers.  The religious authorities gasp at the end of the parable because they know that they are the evil tenants that are to be tossed out of the vineyard. 

We remember that every word and image in Jesus’ parables stands for something other than what is actually said.   In this parable the land of Israel is the vineyard, the landowner is God, the slaves that the landowner sends out are the prophets and that the son in the story, sent by the land owner is Jesus.  Each person in the audience hears condemnation as Jesus says, “Have you never read the scriptures.  The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing… The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” 

As I stated earlier, it would seem that nothing good has come of this story, that in the end everyone has lost because of fear, greed and violence.  But then we remember that in this story Jesus directs us toward the God’s kingdom to come. “Therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”(21:43)  The powers and principalities of the world may live by rules of domination, hierarchy, greed for wealth and conquering others but God’s way lives by love and justice![i]  Jesus is the cornerstone and his life and ministry was all about living into God’s love and justice.  He taught us how to live in right relationship with all of God’s creation.  That fruits produced in the kingdom of God is all of creation having what they need in order to live whole sustainable lives.  It will be those who are good stewards of the abundance which God has given the world that will prosper in God’s kingdom and it will be those who do not heed to God’s ways that will lose their very lives to the forces of fear and greed.

How are we to take this story in light the economic distress we are facing at this time?  Our economy as we know it has imploded upon itself because of greed.  The market conditions go up and down like a roller coaster because of fear and as a result many are unemployed.  And one of the outcomes is the increase violence increases such as the hate crimes perpetrated in Concord a few weeks ago.  However, the good news is that God’s kingdom is going to come regardless of opposition even if we are part the forces that are opposing it.  The salvation of humankind is given to us freely not because we follow a set of rules, but just because God loves us.  It is the systems of domination that are judged by God.  Our call as people of faith is to be mindful of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom here on earth and to do everything we can to be the hands, feet and voice of God in bringing it to fulfillment.   When loving God and loving our neighbor become our bottom line we are able to let go of our fears and work towards a building a world where all who are afflicted are comforted, where all who hunger are fed, and all who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied.  This my friends is the kingdom of God here on earth. 

Every time we gather around Christ’s table we share with each other the fruit’s of God’s kingdom, the bread of life and the cup of liberation.  And on this World Communion Sunday we remember that all over the world, our Christian sisters and brothers are at Christ’s table as well.  From the prairies and pampas of the Americas, the dusty deserts of Africa and Asia, from the majestic mountains of Europe to the vast outback of Australia[ii], we all come to the table humbly expecting the fruitful harvest that God has graciously enabled us to bring forth.  God’s kingdom is here and it continues to come, may we as a community of faith make it our own.

May it be so.

Amen.                

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[i] Linda McKinnish Bridges, "Preaching the Parables in Matthew's Gospel in Ordinary Time: The Extraordinary Tales of God's World," Review & Expositor 104 (Spring 2007): 338

[ii] Ana and Tod Gobledale, Come for the Meal is Ready! World Communion Liturgy.  (Cleveland:  Local Church Ministries and Education Team, United Church of Christ, 2008), 2.

From Remembrance to Hope - A Sermon on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

Isaiah 65: 17-25

Philippians 4:4-9

Mark 13:1-8

                Many of us remember where we were the exact moment that the first plane hit the World Trade Center 10 years ago today.  It was a sunny Tuesday morning, the sky was a bright blue and the fall crispness was in the air tempered by the warmth of the sun.  I was working as an accountant for a large corporation in downtown Minneapolis at the time.  It was early in the morning and I was listening to the radio while processing my daily cash accounting. My favorite DJ was reading the news in her usual joking manner but suddenly she stopped, and in a panicked voice she said that a jet had hit a sky scraper in New York.  I stopped working and looked at my radio.  Then my phone rang.  I picked it up and my partner Shelly said that she had just seen on TV an airline jet fly into one of the twin towers in New York.  I was stunned.  I didn’t know what to say.  I tried to get on the CNN but it was overloaded.  I changed the radio station to public radio to hear more news of this situation.  At first I thought it was just some bizarre accident, that someone must have fallen asleep at air traffic control thus causing these planes to fly amuck. Then the towers started to collapse.

            “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” (Mark 13: 1-2)

As the day wore on, the media revealed that terrorists associated with the group Al-Qaeda had hijacked the commercial airline jets planes and had flown them into the towers for the purpose of utter destruction.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.  This is but the beginning of birth pangs.” (Mark 13:8)

Then I heard that a plane had crashed into the pentagon.  My panic shifted into high gear because my sister lives just a few miles from the pentagon.  I tried to call her but couldn’t get through because the phone circuits were overloaded.  I then I did something that I hadn’t done since I was a kid, I called my big brother hoping that he had a word of comfort or protection for me.  When we spoke he went into problem solving mode, he guessed that Osama Bin Laden had something to do with these planes crashing.  He deduced that because we were in the Midwest, there was no way harm would come to us, because really what was there that was worth attacking in Minnesota.  When I got off the phone with him I just sat and I worried.  Eventually my workplace closed and they sent us home for the day. 

Shelly and I rode the bus home from work together.  The bus was full but the people were dead silent.  I noticed that the streets were unusually empty in our normally bustling downtown Minneapolis.  The stores had closed early and many of the offices were empty.  The skies were also empty because all planes had been grounded.  I realized that my world had changed instantly in the moments that the planes had hit the twin towers.  I thought to myself that if these massive buildings could come down, then maybe the whole world could come down as well.  Safety was no longer something that I could take for granted. 

            There is something about September 11, that has challenged our core beliefs and perceptions of God.  We know that God’s own name was used by the suicide highjackers before they crashed the planes into the twin towers and the pentagon.  We experienced the raw force of evil, not caused by a mere blow of fate but as a result of a group of men believed in something so much that they forget that there were human beings involved.  How could such things be planned so meticulously, executed so destructively in the name of God. 

For the ancient Israelite people the destruction of the great Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD was their September 11.  History tells us that the temple of Jerusalem was the center of the lives of the Jewish community of which Jesus was a part of.  They came to the temple because they believed that God physically dwelled within the temple in a room called the holy of holies.  The Jewish folk throughout the Middle East made pilgrimage to the temple on Passover to celebrate the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  This was exactly what Jesus and his disciples were doing in this morning’s gospel reading.  

Most Biblical Scholars believe that Mark was able to include the prophecy of the Temple because it already happened.  In trying to make meaning out of this destructive event, Mark writes about the story of the temple destruction by having Jesus prophesy it.  While the disciples marvel at the grandeur of the buildings while Jesus let’s them know that these buildings will be destroyed. 

             Forty years later, the temple of Jerusalem did fall as the Roman Army quashed the Jewish rebellion in the year 70 AD.  All of the Jewish people which included the early Christians were devastated by the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.  They wondered how God’s dwelling place could be so brutally destroyed by an earthly empire.  What does that say about God, what does that say about us who worship God?  This indeed was an uncertain time in the life of the early Christian Community. 

This was not the first time that the Temple had been destroyed.  In the year 587 BCE, Jerusalem had been invaded by the Babylonians who destroyed the first great Temple built by Solomon.  The older testament text we read this morning from Isaiah was written just as the ancient Israelites were beginning the difficult task of rebuilding their community in a time where people were cynical about their future.  There was hardship all around them, their lives were difficult.  And yet Isaiah was able to say with confidence “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth, the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.” (Isaiah 65:18)  Isaiah had confidence that the God who created heaven and earth does not seek to destroy but rather seeks to build upon the original creation and transform it into something new.[i]  But how does a community move from remembering the destruction of the past to a new hope for the future.

This morning we participated in a litany where we made this very transition.  We began with lighting a candle in remembrance for all who suffered and died on September 11 and ended with lighting a candle of hope for a new world of unity and peace.  We moved from remembrance to hope through lighting a candle of penitence, where we acknowledged our shadow side, the times when our anger, hate, rage and indignation have caused us to dehumanize others who are not like us.  In so doing, we begin to repent, we make a commitment to towards God and choose to do “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable.” (Phil 4:8) 

I want to end this sermon with a note of hope, let us remember that while there was much planning behind the terrorist acts of September 11^th, 2001, the kindness that poured forth in the immediate aftermath was not planned.  It was seen in the tender acts of kindness that people gave to one another not only in New York but all over the world.  It was seen in the reverence of the search teams that meticulously picked through the rubble of ground zero to recover the remains of those who perished in the disaster.  It was seen in the unity of our body politic as the members of congress sang “God Bless America” on the steps of the capital building.  On that day there was no democrat or republic, there wasn’t even the designation of liberal or conservative, there was only a group of our nation’s leaders praying together for God’s blessing on our nation in our time of need while the whole world prayed for us. 

Yes, ten years later, we are still fighting the war on terrorism and our world polarized and divisive.  But if we can remember the small ways that patience, love, kindness, compassion and forgiveness were given and received in the days after 9/11, we can keep doing the things we’ve learned from that time and the peace of God will always be with us.  May it be so.  Amen.

           

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[i] Mary Eleanor Johns, “Isaiah 65:17-25: Pastoral Perspective.”  Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year C, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 290.