Baptism as Belonging: A Sermon for 5B Easter

 

Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Blair Piras

There were so many directions I could've gone in on with these lectionary readings, but I felt it so strongly that I needed to talk about this story from the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 8 when Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch. And, as luck would have it, I recently rediscovered a DVD I had bought years ago of Preston Toscano's performance of various gender-bending bible stories. It helped to make this text even richer. 

See what you think. 

Texts: Acts 8:26-40, Ps. 22 24-30, 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8

+++

Our lectionary readings this morning are so full…so rich…that it’s hard to know where to begin. We have this wonderful analogy in our Gospel of God as a vine grower…carefully cultivating and pruning branches. Jesus…for us…representing that true vine…the source that feeds and bears fruit.

We hear of the deep well of love in our epistle from the First Letter of John…reminding us that this perfect love casts out fear.

We’re so used to hearing the first line of Psalm 22…”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” during Holy Week…that we never hear the rest of Jesus’ final prayer at his crucifixion…those beautiful last verses of Psalm 22… as he places all his trust in God…all the saving deeds God has done.

But the story I am most drawn to is our first reading as Luke recounts in the Book of Acts the apostle Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch.

Not only is this a story about the growing and expanding church…showing us the ways of evangelism…that scary “E” word.

It makes clear that the love of God knows absolutely no boundaries or borders and extends to everyone.

So…let’s just back up for a moment…and first get a little bit of background on this story out Acts Chapter 8.

We have to first set the scene.

Things at this time are more than a little dicey for the apostles.

They’ve buried their beloved first deacon…Stephen…who was stoned to death for proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

Paul is still Saul…and he’s on a rampage.

He’s been going house to house in search of those who are followers of Jesus to arrest them and throw them in jail.

With this sort of tension hanging in the air…many of the apostles have scattered.

Philip went to Samaria of all places.

And as we know from other Gospel stories…the Samaritans were Jews not in league or in love with the Jews of Jerusalem.

To borrow a sports analogy…theirs is a relationship like the Georgia Bulldogs to the Florida Gators.

While in Samaria…Philip encounters a magician named Simon who is claiming to have great powers until Philip shows Simon and the Samaritans that he has even greater powers through the name of Jesus.

So many Samaritans start converting to believing in “The Way” that the apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to help.

Those two arrive…lay hands on the Samaritans…and have it out with Simon when he offers them money in exchange for having these powers of conversion.

So that’s the background…and that’s where our story picks up today…with Philip being summoned to leave Samaria.

He’s told to head down the “wilderness road” that leads from Jerusalem…which is in the interior of the country…to the coastal area of Gaza…a place we are now sadly familiar with due to the war.

Because this is a “wilderness” road…we get the sense this is a place of unknowns…and strange encounters.

The wilderness is where the Israelites wandered for forty years…alternating between complaining about their conditions when things are tough…and then praising God when they receive manna from heaven. 

The wilderness is where Jesus faces temptation by Satan…summoning up every ounce of his energy to say “No” to the human desires of food and having wealth and power over others.

Now…on this wilderness road…Philip finds himself having this strange meeting with someone from one of the other “outcast” groups of his day: a eunuch.

Eunuchs had a peculiar place in First Century society.

They were men who either were made eunuchs by war injuries or they had been medically-altered.

They often held high and trusted positions in royal courts.

This particular eunuch we know is from Ethiopia…a black man who was very much an outsider to the Jews of the region…and is a man of some standing in the court of an Ethiopian queen as her chief financial officer.  

We also know that he’s coming from having been in Jerusalem to worship.

Given that he’s reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah…he might have been at the Temple in Jerusalem.

That would’ve been awkward.

Not only is he a foreigner. But as a eunuch…he may have encountered some difficulty at the Temple…which was a highly-gendered space with men on one side and women and children on the other.

In the same way that shepherds were not held in high esteem…eunuchs encountered prejudice in some quarters.

Levitical law prohibited them from taking part in Temple rituals (Lev.21:20).

In fact…they were kept at arms-length from anything involving Judaism (Deut. 23:1).

And so it’s to this eunuch that God has summoned Philip…a Jewish follower of Jesus.

He runs and meets this outsider in the wilderness as the man pours over a passage from Isaiah about the suffering servant.

Philip listens as he reads.

The eunuch asks, “About whom does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else?”

It’s a great question.

Who is this who stands silent before an unjust system?

I think we are always too quick to immediately see this…as Philip did…to be speaking about Jesus.

That is…of course… our interpretation of that passage from Isaiah.

But I think it’s important for us to take a moment to consider what may have been happening for this Ethiopian man.

The biblical scholar and performer Peterson Toscano does a wonderful interpretation of this text.

Toscano gives the eunuch a name—Desta.

He imagines Desta taking in this scripture…and weighing its words in light of his own existence as a societal other.

I think there’s a tendency for many of us to separate ourselves from the words we hear and speak in our worship services.

We see the stories of the Bible as talking about other people without taking the time to absorb how the messages…the situations…the emotions are very much ones that we may have felt and experienced.

But if we abide in God…and therefore if God abides in us…then these words in the scriptures should touch us…and connect to our own encounters in the world.

Then…maybe…it’s not just Jesus who we see suffering silently before an unjust system…but maybe we have felt that sting in our own lives.

And maybe if we haven’t personally felt it…perhaps we can imagine it when we hear the stories from others.

Philip talks to this eunuch…Desta…and they travel along for a few more miles. And as Toscano imagines this conversation unfolding…Desta finally reads a little further into the scroll of Isaiah:

Hear these words from Isaiah Chapter 56:

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” (Is. 56:3-5)

Buried beneath all the exclusionary language in the Torah…the prophet has revealed to Desta and to Philip…that God’s perfect love does not hate the one who is a eunuch.

Can you imagine how freeing…how liberating it is to know that level of love?! 

They come upon a pool of water.

The grateful Desta exclaims, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

The answer: nothing. Nothing at all.

The prophet has spoken…God has proclaimed the ever-expanding circle of love.

And Philip takes this man into the water…baptizing him in the name of God the Father…God the Son…and God the Holy Spirit.

This lost one is found.

And…just like us…becomes part of one faith…one hope…one love.

In the name of God…F/S/HS. 

 

 

Putting Love into Action

Since we're living in a world where tribalism and division seem to be the norm, I felt the need to address the underpinnings of white Christian Nationalism in a way that might get some people to think. 

Read it and see. Did it make you think?

Texts: Ps.23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

+++

In case we didn’t pick up on the obvious hints from our hymns and our readings this morning…this Fourth Sunday of Easter is often called, “Good Shepherd Sunday.”

God is that loving Shepherd walking us through the valleys of our lives…

the shadow of death throwing shade on us…

as God brings us safely to the still waters.

Jesus is that shepherd laying down his own life for God’s sheep.

This is the Jesus so oft depicted in stained glass windows with the whitest softest face…

carrying an even whiter sheep on his shoulder.

I love the imagination of those stained-glass artists! Clearly…they’ve never tried to handle sheep before!

An actual sheep is not nearly so co-operative or placid…

And I think Jesus might look a little darker…and certainly wouldn’t be so neat and clean after gathering up Mary’s little lamb in his loving arms.

The original hearers of this Gospel would have likely been surprised at Jesus calling himself a “good” shepherd.

While shepherds appear throughout the Hebrew scriptures as noble people such as King David…by the time we get to the days of Jesus…they’d fallen out of favor.

The society of the New Testament regarded them as untrustworthy,

so they couldn’t testify in court.

And living among the sheep…they were…shall we say…pungent.

They were anything but “good.”

That’s why at Christmas time…Luke makes sure we know that when Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem…the first group to get this good news were these lowly shepherds out on the hillside.

The least will be first.

Jesus isn’t afraid to claim a kinship with these working-class outcasts of the First Century.

That’s how Jesus operates.

Instead of removing himself from those who are the marginalized…the frowned upon… the disinherited…Jesus is the first one to pull up a chair…and break bread with them.

For Jesus…”to be” that root verb for… “I am”… means living into that strange paradox of being a “good” “Shepherd.”

And as a “good shepherd”…Jesus cares for the sheep.

The sheep are all those who listen for his voice and come to him when they hear their name.

And when one of those cute little lambs decide they’re going to wander off…

Jesus puts aside his own life…

his own wants and needs…

and goes to find the wayward wooly creature.

Wandering away happens.

We know it.

Many of us have probably done it…more than once or even ten times.

Our lives get cluttered with worries.

We get so busy with our jobs

or we have family obligations that pull on our attention that somehow… we find ourselves straying far away from God’s lovely still waters.

We figure we’ll get back to that whole God thing later.

Weeks…maybe for some of us…years go by.

Soon… we find ourselves in that valley the psalmist talks about…or in some other pit of despair we’ve fallen into.

And then in our thrashing about…that’s when we cry for help. 

And the Good Shepherd leaves the flock to go find us…

pushing away the overgrowth of our worries to reach us and call to us…

and lead us back to the flock.

All without judgment.

The shepherd…out of the abundance of goodness…

is filled with the joy that the one who had gone off on their own is realizing that there’s something sweeter about being in relationship…and coming into the community of God.

Sometimes…the lost sheep…the wanderers… were driven off because of bullying by other sheep.

There’s a cartoonist whose drawings frequently pop up in my social media feed.

His name is David Hayward but he draws under the pseudonym The Naked Pastor.

The cartoons often times depict various flocks of sheep…representing generic church members.

They have white bodies and black heads and stand clustered together.

Often they look very dull and disapproving as they talk to Jesus or other characters.

The one cartoon that I’ve seen the most depicts this bunch of holier-than-thou sheep looking dismayed.

Jesus is carrying a sheep over his shoulders who is rainbow-colored.

Some versions have the sheep in the pink and blue colors representing the transgender community.

It seems the flock had no use for this lone sheep with Jesus.

The leader of the “majority” flock is chastising the Savior:

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold it right there!” she says to Jesus, “He”--- meaning the colorful sheep---“He isn’t lost. We kicked him out.”

To which Jesus responds, “I know. I found him.”

Nobody…no matter who they are…is going to be left out.

That’s so clear when we hear Jesus talk about how there are these “other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”

These sheep need to be brought along also.

They shouldn’t be kept from the experience of God’s endless well of love.

And there are hundreds of people in that camp.

We can imagine who some of these sheep might be.

People who are afraid to walk through our doors…or don’t want to come to a church…possibly because they’ve had some of those bad experiences like those condescending sheep at another church.

Or they’ve never met someone who believed in God and wasn’t a jerk about it.

But as my fellow presbyter and wise friend the Very Reverend Billy Alford puts it: all those “other sheep” want and deserve to receive the same compassion and generous inclusion we afford to someone who knows the Prayer Book backwards, forwards, and sideways. 

Even the ones who come and still walk away are no less loved by the Good Shepherd…and may even be loved more.

And that’s OK.

Jesus constantly had people walk away from him and his message of love.

But that didn’t stop him from living it…breathing it…and sharing it freely.

It didn’t stop him from showing us that our best lives can be lived if we make it a regular practice of showing compassion for people and being generous in including people…inviting them to come to this table of bread and wine and share it.

This is how love becomes more than just mere words;

it becomes an action.

We don’t get any personal gain from loving in this way.

We DO gain by manifesting a community where people are accepted for who they are.

With no papers or proof of worthiness.

It’s the act of us trusting enough in our relationship with Jesus that we will risk getting to know a person different from ourselves…listen to their story…and say “Welcome to the fold.”

And in this way…we become the shepherd to each other…helping to walk with each other through those dark valleys…and then sit down beside the still waters.

As Easter people…people who’ve passed with Christ through the little deaths of our pains and problems…and emerged on the other side…bruised but unbroken…we are the good shepherds for all of God’s people.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace Be With You: A Sermon for 3B Easter

 I could have called this "Deja vu all over again" but I cut that line from the sermon figuring that those who missed last week's Gospel lesson from John, and those who were there, wouldn't know or remember what I was talking about last week. But I still wanted to say somethings differently, even if the basic message is the same. Such is life when you're the only one preaching and celebrating at a church. 

 

Text: Luke 24: 36b-48 

+++

Jesus stands among the disciples and says, “Peace be with you.”

Before I get too far along in this sermon…I want to hear from you:

When you hear the word, “Peace”…what images…or thoughts pop into your head?

(Leave time for responses)

With those things in mind…can you imagine for a moment…what it must have been like for the disciples?

These were people who had pinned their hopes and dreams of freedom and liberation from oppression on the man Jesus only to see him ruthlessly killed by the Roman Empire.

They were far from those (fill in any image or phrase that might have come up).

Their hearts were troubled.

As we enter into this scene in our Gospel…we need to know that the two disciples whom Jesus had met on the road to Emmaus are in the room with the others.

They’d just had their encounter at the dinner table where Jesus breaks bread and opens their eyes to see that he is risen.

And then…he disappeared.

They’ve rushed back to Jerusalem to the tell their friends how their hearts had been “strangely warmed” by his words as they were walking and talking.

Now…here comes Jesus again…suddenly standing with them.

The group is startled.

They think he’s a ghost.

But instead of saying, “Boo!” he’s told them, “Peace…be with you.”

He shows them that it is truly him…wounded in his hands and feet and yet unbroken.

And then…to further make the point…Jesus asks for something to eat.

They offer him a piece of fish.

At Emmaus…Jesus eats bread. 

In Jerusalem…Jesus eats fish. 

The loaves and the fish again…a meal Jesus and the disciples once shared with the thousands.

A meal in which Jesus demonstrated the abundance of God’s love for the all the people.

Not only giving them what they needed in that moment…but providing many baskets of leftovers.

This is the peace that Jesus brings into the room…into the lives of these scared souls.

A peace that says, “All is NOT lost. Love IS alive…and well…and eating bread and fish.”

This is the love that he then traces back over time…back to the days of Moses and the deliverance from the oppression endured by the ancestors in Egypt.

This is the peace that comes at times of trouble and fear when the psalmist cries out for help.

This is the breath that brought to life those dry bones…the breath that commands the prophet Ezekiel to prophesy and give life to those skeletons.

Slowly…methodically…with caring and concern for the disciples…Jesus reminds them of all these things.

 All of which pointed to a future.

A coming time of peace.

A time when they could live into the commandment to love one another as Jesus had loved them.

Follow in his path.

Be a friend to the stranger and to the lonely.

Be an advocate for the person who in need of help.

Include those whom the authorities have pushed aside and relegated to the margins of society.

Most importantly…Jesus gives the instruction that anyone who speaks in his name…anyone who claims to be part of his tribe…has an obligation to turn away from those things that get in the way of living in love…and forgiveness.

This peace that Jesus brings to the disciples is the same peace that Jesus brings to us…right now.

Because like the disciples in this Gospel…we…too…are witnesses.

Think of a person or people who have shown up when you needed help.

When you have either been in a jam or have been having a particularly difficult day.

That person who sat with you…listened to you…walked along side you.

As a massage therapist…I do this all the time with my clients.

The body often carries hidden hurts and wounds that show up as that painful knot in a muscle…that chronically aching shoulder.

Once touched…and the connective tissue around the muscle releases…sometimes…so does the memory of whatever happened to the person.

It may come out in heavy sighs.

Sometimes it’s tears.

Maybe words.

Whatever and however a person needs to express what has troubled them…the release not only happens physically with the softening of the tissue…it’s happened in their mind and in their spirit as well.

These are holy moments…met with the peace that comes from therapeutic touch.

It’s why I tell people that massage therapy is a ministry of healing.

I have seen this same peace manifest in support groups.

For a while…about fifteen years ago…I led a local chapter of the group Parents…Families…and Friends of Lesbians and Gays…or PFLAG.

The meetings were a safe space for people to gather…most of them cisgender straight people…who had sons and daughters that had come out to them years ago.

Florida voters had just enshrined a ban on same-sex marriage in the state constitution…and these folks wanted a place to learn how to support their children who now felt unwelcomed in their home state.

People came in…sometimes with righteous anger…sometimes with tremendous guilt because they’d never had to think about discrimination before.

And because it wasn’t part of their lived experience…there would sometimes be a sense of helplessness.

They knew that there were things that just didn’t know.

People would share their moments of triumph in speaking up for their kids.

Others would confess when they messed up.

Maybe they’d said some things out of thoughtlessness that were hurtful…or had stumbled in some other way.

We’d listen.

And just as it happens in any support group…there was always someone or a couple someone’s in the room…who’d been there…done that…got the T-shirt…and donated it already to Goodwill.

They could hear another person’s story and say…”Yeah…I did that. But now I know better.”

And as the late Maya Angelou once said, “Once you know better, do better.”

I watched as parents ministered out of their own experiences…their own mistakes…their own discoveries… to other struggling parents.

And by the end of the night…I would see a mom who’d been wracked with anxiety at the beginning of the meeting leave looking much lighter and brighter.

I could witness that dad realizing that he wasn’t alone.

While God’s holy name may never have been invoked…God’s peace was present…and a burden was lifted from a parent’s shoulders.

The passing of God’s peace is how we transition in our service from this time of hearing the scriptures…and praying for one another and for our world….to that moment where we break bread…the body of Christ…and share in a common meal of thanksgiving.

I started this sermon with asking you what images or thoughts come to your mind as you think about peace.

If what you imagined is something that brings peace to you…think of how you might pass that to your neighbor this morning.

Think of how that peace might help another as they approach this table to meet Christ in the bread and the cup.

As witnesses to Jesus’ love…we are now the apostles of that love to one another.

And that’s a transformative love worth sharing.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

 

 

 

 

Walk in Light: A Sermon for 2B Easter

 

As I read through the lessons for this Sunday, I couldn't help but think what a coincidence it was that we would be talking about light and darkness on the heels of remembering the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

And while I didn't see a whole lot of hoopla online or on the news about April 4th, I always remember that date...in part thanks to the Irish rock band U2 and their song, "In the Name of Love." 

The more I listen to people around me...both in church and elsewhere...the more I am reminded that people could use a lot more light in their lives. We need to turn away from hatred and embrace love as the true ethos for life. 

Texts: 1John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31

+++

 “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.”

This past Thursday…we remembered the 19-68 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King said many wise words as he led the movement to bring this country to a consciousness that all people…including those descendants of former slaves…deserved to be treated with respect and dignity and given full access to the freedoms promised to us.

But a particular sentiment expressed in one of his sermons has stood out to me.

It was included in a book titled “Strength to Love,” a collection of his writings and sermons.

Dr. King wrote, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

This topic of love vs. hate, light vs. dark was one that King returned to again and again in his ministry of reconciliation.

As one leading a movement against systemic oppression…and constant “othering,” it was an important touchstone for him personally.

It was something he learned from his studying of the theologian Howard Thurman…who also wrote extensively on the nature of love and hate in his own book, “Jesus and the Disinherited.” King reportedly carried a well-worn copy of Thurman’s book with him everywhere he went.

For both men…their deep and abiding bonds to the life and teachings of Jesus are clear and are so well expressed in our Epistle from the First Letter of John.

People often think these John letters were written by the same evangelist who gave us the Fourth Gospel…which scholars believe was written in 100 C-E…about 70 years after Jesus’ death.

It’s more likely that these words were from someone in the Johnine Community.

John’s community were Jews who had come to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.

They’d been intermingling with Gentiles.

This caused a lot of tension with the rest of the Jewish population…as the post-temple rabbinic Judaism was beginning to take shape.

It’s important for us to keep that in mind whenever we hear the lines about “fear of the Jews” in John’s Gospel. What we’re hearing is that there was an intra-religious struggle occurring as Judaism was splitting in two.

The theme of “light” and “darkness” is a hallmark of John and his community of believers.

And even though our Gospel doesn’t specifically speak of “light” and “dark”…we get a sense of that this idea of light and dark…love and hate… is at play.

Our Gospel reading today is about the events that happened on Easter evening.

We know that Mary Magdalene has seen the risen Christ in the morning.

She’s been enlightened.

Meanwhile…Peter and one of the other disciples…only know that the tomb is empty. They don’t know what’s happened to Jesus. Only that his body is gone.

A bunch of disciples are now huddled and frightened in a house…not knowing what’s going on or what’s in store for them.

The whole point of the Roman Empire using crucifixion was to terrorize Jews into submission.

Jesus suddenly appears in their midst…. whole body…holes in his hands and all.

He looks at this room of awe-struck believers and says, “Peace be with you.”

Note that he doesn’t say, “Pick up your swords and your spears! Let’s go get that Pontius Pilate! Let’s string up Herod! We’re gonna take Jerusalem by storm!”

Jesus says, “Peace be with you.”

Calm your fears.

Dry your eyes from weeping.

Do not seek revenge…

Receive the Holy Spirit…the breath.

The breath…which God has been blowing into Humankind since the second creation story in Genesis.

The breath…that inspiration of life…which is analogous to the light…as opposed to the darkness which gets linked to death.

There is a gentleness and kindness in this moment.

A reminder again of that commandment: love one another as I have loved you.

Now Thomas wasn’t in the room when this happened.

He may have been hiding somewhere else…separated from the rest of the group as they ran for their lives at the time of Jesus’ arrest.

The church…I think…has been unkind to Thomas throughout the centuries.

We’ve made him seem like a “less than” believer just because he wasn’t there and expresses a need to see Jesus for himself.

But is he really any different than most of us?

Many of us are willing to identify with Peter.

We can see in ourselves that disciple who “gets it” sometimes, and other times seems thick as a brick.

I think that Thomas and his reaction to missing Jesus’s appearance is a pretty typical reaction that any one of us would’ve had.

It’s like when we’re out with a friend and they see something extraordinary flash across the sky.

But by the time we look, it’s already disappeared.

And it’s because Thomas wasn’t there…Jesus comes back again.

He is intent upon giving Thomas the experience of his lifetime that he’d missed the week before.

And…again…when Jesus appears…his first words are, “Peace be with you.”

Looking at Thomas…he invites him to touch him to know that he is for real.

He doesn’t say, “Hey…you faithless dumb dumb: where were you last week?”

Once more…the invitation is a sincere desire to reassure this one that Love has won.

Thomas doesn’t need to touch Jesus.

He just needed that confirmation.

I think we all need it.

In a world with wars and anger and division…we need to know that the path out of darkness and into light is through believing that Love is strong and will not be kept locked up in a tomb. We need to see others around us showing kindness and compassion.

That’s why someone in the Johnine community wrote this first missive, reminding them to seek God…and find the light in those who are committed to a path of love. And to remember that by trusting God…believing that there is a “perfect love casts out fear”… they can give and receive the courage to endure whatever hardships come their way.

Easter is our season to take those steps toward living our faith without fear…turning away from hatred and speaking peace to those around us.

May the light of Christ shine forth brightly from you wherever you go this week.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.