Cool the Hot Wind of Hatred

 

What a terrible week. 

Wednesday there was a shooting at a high school...an assassination of podcaster and far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk...and only blocks from my house...there were two women stabbed in the park by a man who then jumped in the holding pond and drowned. 

The Kirk assassination has dominated the news. And what was disturbing was how fast those on the right went from 0 to 60 in no time, accusing Democrats and transgender people of being responsible for this single shot to the neck that killed Kirk in front of an outdoor audience of three thousand Utah college students. 

Republicans went online and on TV. They called for the death penalty. The president laid the blame on the "radical left." White supremacists rallied in Huntington Beach, CA, breathing threats of retaliation. White men were putting up videos announcing how many guns they had and they were ready to use them against "the libs."  

All of this without a person in custody. No true information about a motive.

But that didn't stop people from phoning in threats to Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the South. Many canceled in person classes and students went online for the rest of the week. 

The person the police finally arrested? A 22 year-old white man from a Republican family in Utah. Reportedly, he was a fan of White Christian Nationalist Nick Fuentes, who hated Charlie Kirk because he wasn't extremist enough. 

Yeah. Not hateful enough. 

Meanwhile...if people expressed any level of "meh" about Kirk's death, they were being fired or reprimanded and hounded online. All while those who purported to be mourning their hero were calling for tolerance and toning down the political rhetoric. 

So, if you weren't upset enough about this death, you could be punished by people who felt that Kirk was killed for his speech which was often anti-trans, anti-black, anti-queer, degrading of women.....

Free speech for me, but not for thee.

I strongly recommend you look up the reading from Jeremiah that I used as the launching pad for this sermon. You might even read Psalm14, it's short. And put on some Bob Dylan and tell me what you think. 

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Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Ps.14

One of the great American theologians… the folk singer Bob Dylan… once asked a series of philosophical questions.

Some of you may remember these:

How many roads a must a man walk down…before he’s called a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail before she rests in the sand?

And how many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?

His concluding response to these conundrums was simply that the answers were “blowin’ in the wind.”

I’m only half-joking calling Dylan a theologian.

His iconic song of the 1960s came to mind as I looked at our dear beleaguered and bothered prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah…tasked with telling his people some really terrible news…also knew that the wind held the truth of what was to become of Jerusalem and Judah.

A hot wind from God…toward God’s people…was coming…not to winnow or cleanse…but to speak judgment.

Scholars don’t know if these words were meant to warn the people of the invasion of the Babylonians…or if this was some sort of retrospective lament for what happen to Jeremiah’s people.

But we do know that Judah and Jerusalem were sacked by an invading army.

The best minds were taken away…and the people were left deeply traumatized…lost and afraid.

They felt that they had been totally abandoned in the wilderness.

The words we heard this morning from Jeremiah are only a portion of a long poetic prophecy of total doom and destruction.

Things had gotten so bad that God was going to do the unthinkable; a total reversal of the creation story in Genesis.

No more birds.

The mountains and the fruitful land? Gone.

All because the people…the leaders…the followers… were stupid children.

Ouch!

Our lectionary diviners then provide Psalm 14 something of a Greek chorus,

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.”

All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;

There is none who does any good.” (14:1)

Again…ouch!

I have to say that this past week…it certainly felt as if these words from our Biblical ancestors could’ve been written for us today.

On Wednesday…the eve of remembering the terrible attack against our country in 2001…when more than three thousand people died in an act of terrorism with airplanes…we had yet another school shooting at a high school in the Denver area.

The 16 year-old shooter reportedly had lots of ammunition that he brought with him to school.

His two classmates were in the hospital in critical condition.

He took his own life.

And then…only a few hours later…Charlie Kirk…a political ideologue…was gunned down on a college campus in Utah.

No matter what anyone might think of Kirk as a person…a man who said many things that were ugly and hateful toward women and minorities…he was a human being.

And it is never OK to shoot anyone.

He’s now another name added to the growing body count…of schoolchildren…politicians…judges…church members…the faithful in synagogues…mosques and temples…mothers…fathers…sons…

daughters….grandchildren…the countless unnamed others across the country…killed by guns.  

More families grieving a senseless loss. 

Again…Bob Dylan asks us:

“How many times must a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?”

“How many deaths will it take ‘til he knows that too many people have died?”

There is a hot wind that is blowing across this country.

And it’s been blowing a scorching…hard and fearsome heat for way too long.

There is far too much hatred…misdirected anger…blaming and shaming…with neighbor turning on neighbor in ways that I would dare say we have never seen in our lifetimes.

Unfortunately…our political leadership…and those given the trust of our airwaves…and online platforms from which to pontificate… media of all kinds…are not helping us.

In some cases…they are actively working to foment discord…and fanning the inflammatory speech that goes into our ears…and then infects our heads and hearts with disdain and distrust for each other.

The whole tenor of our country is growing more threatening…and dark.

As our former presiding bishop Michael Curry once said, “Our E Pluribus Unum isn’t very Unum.”

Which is why the ending to Psalm 14 is important.

So often…when I am asked about which book is my favorite in the Bible… I find myself first thinking about the four Gospels and their ways of showing us Jesus.

But truly my most favorite book is the Psalms.

The psalmist…who many think was King David and he did write quite few…has a way of capturing our human emotions…and putting things in such poetic words that reflect the joys and struggles of our daily lives.

The psalms give us ways to express our emotions…from lament to laughter…in beautiful and thoughtful ways.

Psalm 14…which the notes on it seem to say that it was not written by David but rather TO him…picks up on the themes of Jeremiah’s rant…but then makes that subtle and hopeful turn toward the end.

“Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers who eat up my people like bread and do not call upon the Lord? See how they tremble with fear, because God is in the company of the righteous.” (14:5-6).

God’s Love has never left us.

Even when we feel God’s absence…we are never alone.

Much like when we’re having day after day of wet and stormy weather…it’s not that the sun…the S-U-N…has disappeared.

It’s just blocked by the clouds for the time being…but it’s still there.

It’s in the sky…keeping time with the moon…waiting for the rain to clear out...and the thunder clouds to move on.

In that same way…God’s Love…the hope that comes from God’s promise to us…is still there.

We heard it in our Gospel this morning that God’s Love will seek and search for us…rejoicing when those who have lost their way are found again.

Right now…in 21^st century America…we seem to be lost.

And what we’ve lost is that sense of our interdependence on each other…our willingness to live together…learn from each other…be in community with one another.

We can… and we will disagree…and annoy one another.

But we don’t have to silence or kill each other.

The gift that we…the Church and all those who look to God in faith and hope…can bring to this world…is the ability to see each other as beloved children of God…no matter our political affiliation…our economic status…our skin color…our gender…our orientation…our native language or country of origin.

For our part…as followers of Jesus…we need to take seriously the charge He gave to us…and commit ourselves to bringing good news to the poor.

How?

Perhaps it’s being more mindful about what we share online…the comments we make…the way we engage with total strangers who…for all we know…are not even real people but a bot halfway around the world programmed to attack our thoughts and opinions…and in flame us against each other.  

We’re to proclaim release to the captives…not just people in physical prison cells…but to those who are caught in any life-killing loop…such as addiction.

We’re to help open the eyes of the blind…help those whom we love and people we know…to see more clearly through our actions that hope…and mercy…and compassion are available for them.

And we’re to let the oppressed go free.

We’re to work toward freeing ourselves and others from our fears that makes them and us seek to have power over people.

We need to quit inventing power struggles with straw men and women because honestly… there is no power struggle that is worth destroying our souls.

We come to this table to be fed.

We receive the body and blood of Christ.

And what we’re bringing into our bodies is more than just bread and wine.

It’s that reminder that you and me and everyone in this room and all who are participating in this ritualistic act around the world…are being brought into a mission that is about countering the powers that want to hurt us…and divide us.

This food and drink is given freely… to help us make this a better world for ourselves as well as for others.

It’s time to make a commitment to cool off this hot wind of hatred…and infuse our world with more love and more hope.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

Costly Discipleship

I don't think this sermon needs a whole lot of introduction. Just look at the news in the United States and you will understand instantly all that you need to know for why I have said what I have said. 

It's time for the church...the whole church...to decide what we are willing to give up (security, popularity, complacency, timidity) and decide to follow the one who stood on the side of the marginalized. 

I simply don't know how to read Luke's Gospel any other way. But maybe I'm wrong.

See what you think.

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 Text: Luke 14:25-33

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

Our Gospel passage today had me thinking about some of the ways we quickly proclaim that we’re on Team Jesus.

We wear necklaces with Christian symbols.

Put on a T-shirt proclaiming the goodness of God.

There’s a billboard that I would see every time I drove into Wakulla County…south of Tallahassee…on Crawfordville Highway.

I’m not sure if it’s still there…since I haven’t driven that way in a long time.

But it was this big blue billboard with white lettering that announced proudly, “Wakulla Loves Jesus.”

That’s nice but what does that really mean?

If we say we love Jesus…how do we actually show that?

Paying close attention to our Gospel text…it seems to show that we love Jesus is to say that we’re willing to follow him.

And following Jesus clearly has a cost.

What are we willing to give up to follow Jesus?

I think that’s an interesting…and a difficult question to consider.

Imagine what it was for the original hearers of this Gospel.

Although we’re hearing this some two thousand plus years later…Luke’s Gospel was written and shared with followers who had already lost a lot.

The Roman Empire had already destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem…the center of their worship and social gathering space…for a second time.

The Jewish attempt at rebellion against this oppressive regime had failed.

In many ways…the Lukan audience was likely feeling  broken and defeated.

The cross…which we now hold as a symbol of Christ’s ultimate victory…was anything but a symbol of triumph.

It was an instrument of torture and death.

So imagine what it must have been like to have Jesus saying to those who were in the crowd following him:

You must hate your family members and carry a cross.

I don’t know about you…but such a demand would probably leave me feeling as if all the blood was draining out of my body.

Again…what is that we are willing to give up to follow Jesus?

To help us figure that out…Jesus gives a couple of examples….images that are a little more concrete…to help us understand the demands of discipleship.

He talks about the person who decides to build a tower.

For our own sake…let’s think of this in a more generic way.

“Tower building” could be a stand-in phrase for “any major construction undertaking”…as if we’re doing a big renovation on our house.

Nobody…or at least I hope nobody here…just decides to take on such a project without first doing some number crunching…and finding the most reputable contractor.

We’d want to understand the costs involved with labor and supplies…what it will take to pull a permit…what is the time frame for finishing the remodel et cetera et cetera…

In other words…there’s more to this than simply saying, “I’m gonna remodel my home…or in this case…build a tower.”

The same thing with the king who wants to go to war against another king.

Anyone with any sense…whether they have a military background or not…can figure out that it’s not a good idea to wage war against a more powerful nation…without first considering the cost…both financial and human.

The point that Jesus seems to be making is that discipleship is a two-step process.

There’s the weighing of consequences…and the consideration that one must be willing to risk giving up some things…maybe even precious things like the security of family or being part of some “in crowd” in our friend group…to become a disciple.

Because discipleship…following Jesus into a mission of love…compassion…and mercy…is not about being liked or being popular.

Taking a position that goes against what society has accepted as “normal” is the risky turn that Jesus is taking in this march toward Jerusalem.

He knew that he was going to meet with tremendous resistance and that the threat to his life was real.

But he also knew the Empire was causing hardship and terror for the people.

The ways of the Empire…with its commitment to power over others… was not in keeping with the dream God had for the world.

A vision such as what the prophets describe…where mountains are lowered and valleys are lifted up (Is.40:4)…and all are treated with equity and “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24).

The commitment of Jesus was to stand against the tyrants and the bullies of the world and build up the people who have felt lost and left behind.

And he was not looking for cheerleaders.

Jesus was seeking those who were ready to let go of those things that got in the way of dedicating themselves to this mission of mercy…compassion…and justice for all.

That mission remains the call to us today.

If we say that we are followers of Jesus…if we profess a belief in God…if we have a sense of the Holy Spirit as a burning flame…or the dove of peace hovering over us in our lives…then it follows that we should be doing all that we can to work toward a world where people are treated with respect and dignity.

We are a far cry from that right now.

At some point…we need to address the sins happening in our name.

The epidemic of gun violence that allows for the killing of school children should have stopped with Columbine.

It should have ended at Sandy Hook.

Why did we have to have Parkland?

And now kids are shot during their mass in Minneapolis?

The building of prison camps…when we interred Japanese citizens during World War II…should have taught us something about not stigmatizing people based on their heritage.

But here we are today…with masked men grabbing Latino and Latina people off the streets…at their workplaces…even showing up at the court hearings to arrest those attempting to comply with the law…and sending them to prisons hundreds of miles from their families with no way to find them.

We even had 450 people taken away from the new Hyundai plant in Chatham County a few days ago.

We know that we are a diverse country…reflecting the beautiful mosaic of God’s human creatures.

And yet…there are state and federal authorities actively attempting to erase the existence of the LGBTQ+ community.

There are those in positions of power who are ignoring our medical scientists and their expertise…an insult to their God-given talents…shunning them for work that has saved the lives of millions of people for decades.

The horrible abuse of girls and women…not just by the likes of a Jeffrey Epstein…but what has happened to young children out of the spotlight for decades which leads to hurt and traumatized adults.

These are all sins against that very basic tenet of our Baptismal covenant: to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.

To address all of this can feel insurmountable and numbing.

But it doesn’t have to be…if we are willing to acknowledge the sins…and then commit to the hard work of repairing the damage that has been done.

It’s our refusal to face what is wrong with honesty…integrity…and truth that only further compounds the sins.

This is the cost of discipleship.

To be willing to offend those who would want to maintain silence…and just go along with what is happening.

It requires us to break from attachments…our need to be accepted…to let go of our prejudices and hatreds that keep us separated from each other…and to join our lives more deeply to God…accepting the consequences that come with that.

Those consequences will mean some losses…but they also will mean gaining solidarity with those committed to making this a world where all can enjoy the life-giving and liberating love of God.

And that soil of God’s love is more fertile…and more sustaining than the acrid bitter soil of fear and hatred.

Our society needs the church…you and me…to live into the discipleship that Jesus has called us to…come what it may…cost what it will.  

A discipleship that stands with those who are speaking up and even joining the chorus of voices insisting that we must get back to a way of Love...respecting each other and recognizing that our differences are not the definition of our whole being.

It’s time to follow Jesus…and make our own march toward Jerusalem.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

Give Me that "True" Religion

Photo from Sojourners (sojo.net)

For those unfamiliar with the Episcopal Church, we often begin our services with a hymn, a short prayer (called the Collect for Purity), another short song of praise or "the Gloria" and then the priest offers a prayer out of the Book of Common Prayer that is called "The Collect of the Day." 

The "Collect" (and we pronounce it CALL-ect, not co-LECT) is a prayer that is supposed to set the scene or at least summarize the themes of the Scripture readings we're going to read that morning. These collects are assigned as the "proper prayer" for whatever Sunday we're in this long season of After Pentecost. I have my favorites, and there are those which are just kind of "meh" in my opinion.

But the one for this past Sunday...to be read at the Sunday closest to August 31st (which happened to be Sunday's date)...seemed to call for me to do some teaching. Especially in this time where white Christian Nationalism is on the rise in the country.

See what you think.

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Texts: Collect for Proper 17; Luke 14:1, 7-14

I don’t often find myself guided by the words that are in our collect of the day when I write a sermon.

But there is a phrase that comes up in this one that always grabs my attention.

I should’ve known it was coming because it’s always the one we read right around Labor Day.

At the beginning of our worship… we prayed:

“Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion;”

The first part…”Graft in our hearts the love of your Name” is a play on words found in the First chapter of the Letter of James.

But it’s that second part—“increase in us true religion”—those words always make me pause.

So…I went looking for some explanation…and pulled out my very worn out copy of Marion Hatchett’s “Commentary on the American Prayer Book” which has the extended history behind everything the committee studied and looked at as they created the Book of Common Prayer we now use.

Thomas Cranmer…the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of King Henry VIII and author of our first two Books of Common Prayer in the middle of the 16^th Century…wrote this collect.

According to Hatchett…this idea of “true religion” was likely Archbishop Cranmer’s reflection on the state of the times in the English Church back in the middle of the 1500s.

Those were bleak and dangerous times of struggles between the Roman Catholic Church with its adherence to the Pope and its beliefs about what happens at the Eucharistic table when the bread and wine are blessed… and Henry VIII’s desire to be the head of his own Protestant Church of England…taking over Catholic Church property as he divorced and killed his wives.

When Henry died…and his sickly son Edward took the throne at 10 years old…Cranmer and others solidified England as a Protestant country.

But when Edward died only about seven years later…and his half-sister Mary became Queen…she not only turned England back to the Roman Catholic Church…she went on the warpath against Protestants…including Cranmer.

There’s a reason she was called “Bloody Mary.”

Cranmer was forced to recant his protestant reformation-minded theology…but then…while in prison…he stiffened his spine and refused to deny his beliefs.

Queen Mary ordered him burned at the stake…and he famously insisted on putting his writing hand first into the fire as a further sign that he was sorry for ever having signed off on recanting Protestantism.

So…for Cranmer…”true religion” was about “church as state politics”….and “who was the more theologically correct Christian” in the struggle for national power.

We have come a long way from burning each other at the stake in Christianity. 

But we still have our own version of churches splitting…and personal prejudices masquerading as church doctrine…and pursing earthly…nationalistic goals…

 All in the name of “true religion.”

None of it seeming to pay attention to the actual teachings of Jesus…our Lord and Savior who shunned such power.

For Jesus…what makes any religion really “true” is whether we are treating creation…from the earth and the sea and the animals all the way up to our fellow human beings…as the beloved of God that we all are.

That’s what we’re hearing in this morning’s Gospel.

Now…once again…the reading we’ve heard is not complete.

The diviners of the lectionary have left out a portion of the scene.

So let’s fill in some blanks.

First thing to know is that before Jesus shows up to a sabbath meal at the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees…a group of Pharisees went to Jesus to warn him that he faced serious danger from Herod if he went into Jerusalem.

I think it’s important to mention that because too often…we tend to see the Pharisees as “the bad guys.”

And like so many groups of people…they weren’t all bad.

Jesus encounters the Pharisees so much because they were the predominant Jewish group at the time that the Gospels were written.

In this case… there was this group that worried about Jesus and what was going to happen to him if he took on the Roman power structure.

Jesus isn’t deterred by this news.

He says some sassy things about Herod being a fox…and then laments over Jerusalem…which was the center of Jewish worship that had been so corrupted by Rome.

As he’s entering the house of the leader…he sees a man who has terribly swollen legs…dropsy or edema.

There all these Pharisees and lawyers at the house…so Jesus asks if it’s lawful to cure on the sabbath?

They don’t say anything…but Jesus does.

He heals the man and sends him on his way.

And then he looks around at the group and wants to know if one of their children or an ox fell into a well on the sabbath…would they not rescue them?

Still…they all look at him without answering.

We might imagine Jesus shaking his head at their silence as he goes inside for the sabbath meal.

Once inside…he sees that the guests of the Pharisee leader are taking all the choice seats.

Still fresh in his head that he just saw this same group standing by silently as they saw a man suffering on the sabbath…Jesus decides to do a little schooling.

And that’s where we come back to our Gospel reading…with this parable about where to sit at a wedding banquet.

The custom in ancient Palestine for a wedding was that men reclined on couches…with the couch in the center being the place of honor.

The place of honor was reserved for those with wealth and status.

If someone of a lesser station took a seat too close to the center and someone with more privilege were to show up…the lesser man would have to move…and it would be an embarrassing faux pas.

So he’s looking at this room of those who have presumed a place of honor…and warns them not to be so sure of their station.

As one commentator notes…this isn’t so much about Jesus giving First Century Miss Manners advice to his audience.

Rather he’s telling them something about the kingdom of God.

That one should not presume a more lofty place in God’s kingdom.

And then he talks about the host…and who should be invited to this meal.

Should it just be those who might be able to turn around and invite the host to equally wonderful spread?

Nope.

Blessed are those who are the forgotten…the easily ignored…like that man with dropsy who Jesus just healed and nobody knew what to say or how to appropriately respond.

Again…this is about the kingdom of God.

We can’t presume that because we have a particular status in society that we are automatically the favored ones of God.

That’s why the whole “prosperity Gospel” business…that God somehow rewards people with lots of money… is a bunch of bunk.

We see throughout Jesus’ ministry…and even here in this Gospel…that God isn’t interested in our economic systems.

God is always and forever looking to expand and widen the circle of inclusion….and is always about siding with those who have nothing to give but themselves…their brokenhearted…worn-out…overworked…and yes…even joyful… selves.  

And God’s commandment to us is to put our efforts into the building up of people…to look for those whom others are rejecting and invite them to the literal…and even the metaphorical…table of God to experience what means to be loved beyond all measure.  

Getting to know the stories of others…meeting and greeting people who aren’t our “kinfolk”…is an important part of that building up process.

The more we know another’s story…their history…and the more we openly swap our stories with one another…the stronger the foundation of community.

Both out in the world and inside the church.

I’ve mentioned before about how in an Education for Ministry seminar…one of the first exercises is sharing our spiritual autobiographies.

I can tell you that so often I would listen to someone else’s story… a person completely different from me in all kinds of ways…and yet as I listened to them talk about their experiences with God…I could hear things that made me think, “Oh, yeah: I get that!” or even a “Wow! You, too?”

Sometimes…one of the most religiously…and maybe even politically…conservative men in one of my groups would come up to me afterward and take me aside to express gratitude about things that I had shared about myself and my journey.

Like me…they could hear in something that I had said a word or a phrase that broke past all the artificial human barriers that keep us divided from one another to understand a simple truth: we’re all children of God…created by God out of Love…for the purposes of Love…with mission to share that Love with others.

Which brings me back to “true religion.”

“True religion” isn’t about holding the right belief for political power.

It isn’t about controlling the earthly levers of government…or even about asserting some kind of Christian supremacy.

“True religion” is about hope.

Hope which is found in the God who is Love.

Hope for a world where we care enough about each other…have enough empathy for those who are the have-nots…that we seek mercy…compassion…and justice for all.

The rest of our collect for this morning asks for God to “nourish us with goodness…and bring forth in us the fruit of good works.”

May we carry that prayer in our hearts as we meet the many challenges of our world.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Called to Hope

 

I love reading the call stories of the Biblical ancestors. I especially love reading them now, in a time where the United States is under the threat of losing democracy to authoritarianism and fascism. 

These stories are the reminders that we are not in some unknown, foreign weird landscape that the world has never seen before. It has. The sadness, for those of us here, is that we are used to reading about this sort of stuff happening in the past, or on some other continent. I know that when I studied German as my foreign language (and therefore was exposed to the history of Germany and the Holocaust) I resented my fellow classmates who acted as if there was something weak or intrisically wrong with the German people that we "exceptional" Americans would never be that bad. 

I knew they were wrong. I knew that human nature was such that people would rather look for scapegoats rather than to face their own failures, or in this case, see that they're regarded as cannon-fodder or-- as Elon Musk referred to the rest of us---NPCs or Non-Player Character, those computer generated "others" in a video game. Nobody likes to feel as if they're worthless. But that is how we're viewed by the tech bro billionaires.

I didn't think I would actually live to see our country fall prey to the same evil that led Germans to put their trust in Hitler, scapegoating Jews and labor unions and other minorities like gypsies and queers, and building camps that becamse killing grounds.

We don't have ovens. Yet.

Again...there is nothing new about any of this. And that includes the response of those who are the marginalized. The thing that kept the Underground Railroad running...and saved the lives of countless others who have faced evil extremists: Hope.

And that was my main message this week. See what you think.

Text: Jer. 1:4-10; Luke 13: 10-17

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Anyone who has ever felt called by God to do something always seems to have the same response.

“Really, God? Are you sure?”

Moses told God, “Listen, God: I’m a stutterer.”

God said: “Yeah, I know. That’s why I’m going to send your brother Aaron with you to talk to Pharaoh.”

Mary…looked at the Angel Gabriel in disbelief when he told her she was pregnant…and she said, “But I’m a young woman. How am I supposed to have a baby?”

And Gabriel said, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

There’s always some apprehension…a level of confusion…and a good dose of humility when God decides to pick on someone to step out of their ordinary life and take up the cause of the holy.

And in the case of Jeremiah…it was a lot of risk.

We’ll be hearing more bits and pieces from that book over the next several weeks.

But the thing to remember is that he has been tasked with warning people of an impending invasion.

Nobody really likes what he has to say.

Nobody really wants to hear what he has to say.

He’s going to be severely beaten and punished and hated for speaking the words God is going to put into his mouth.

There will be plucking up and pulling down.

Destroying and overthrowing.

His people are going to be living in exile.

So…it shouldn’t surprise us that Jeremiah’s initial reaction to this assignment from God is, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”

A poetic way of saying, “Please God: not me. Go find someone else. Can’t you pick on somebody else for all of this?”

But even in the midst of all the tragedies…and that sense of things falling apart…God also says to Jeremiah that he is going “to build and to plant.”

From the ashes there will be new life.

Because God is not going to give up.

That is one of the most consistent themes in Scripture: in God…there is hope.

We may be ready to throw in the towel… and we may feel overwhelmed.

But thanks be to God—God does not stop the relentless pursuit of us and finding a way forward where there appears not to be one.

We get confirmation of that message in the Gospel reading from this morning.

Here’s a woman…who has clearly been in pain for years.

A “spirit” had crippled her.  

That’s the First Century science that thought any sort of ailment must be because of some kind of “sin” on the part of the sick person.

But looking at this through my eyes as a massage therapist…I think we can read this as her body telling a story of what has been going on inside of her head and her heart.

Depression can do that to a person.

I’ve seen it in my practice.

The weight of the world…troubles at home or at work…can manifest outwardly in a person’s posture.

We hear that this woman has been bent over this way for eighteen years to this woman…eighteen being the numeric value of the Hebrew word “chai” as in “life.”

Life has left her crippled.

Notice that she never asks Jesus for anything.

Yet Jesus sees her…he calls her…and he heals her.

 She stands up straight and tall and bold…and praises God for this gift…instantly becoming a witness to what happens when Love touches the wounded soul.

Of course…then a controversy ensues about healing on the sabbath…and Jesus not only defends his actions.

He shames those who would object by pointing out their hypocrisy….one might even call it their misogyny.

He notes that these naysayers think nothing of doing the work to take care of their donkeys on the sabbath.

But how dare he take care of a woman!

Is she not as important as their donkeys?

And—again—this happened without her saying anything to him or asking him for help.

She may have lost all hope that she would be cured.

But God saw her pain…and in that healing…God restored her hope.

And that’s what we’re asked to do: maintain hope…in the face of trouble and difficulty.

That’s hard work.

Every day seems like another bad news day in America with masked federal agents and civil rights getting trampled on.

In fact…one of my friends…a priest at an Episcopal church in the northwest part of DC…posted on Facebook last Sunday that he had to cancel his service that morning.

The members of his congregation…many of them Latino… were too afraid to leave their homes.

A number of us offered our love and support to him in having to make such a difficult decision.

My hope is that he’s able to hold church this morning…so he can offer love and support to his people who are so scared.

It’s hard to hang on to hope in moments like now.

But hope is that lifeline that’s thrown to us so we can weather through the difficulties and sadness and anxiety and fears.

I heard a wonderful quote this past week during my morning prayer time that I think captures the importance of hope as we live into this moment.

It’s from an essay called “The Small Work in the Great Work” by the Reverend Victoria Safford.

She was reflecting on the resilience of those early pioneers of the gay equal rights movement.

Safford writes:

“Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of hope. Not the prudent gates of optimism which are somewhat narrower.

Nor the stalwart boring gates of common sense.

Nor the strident gates of self-righteousness which creek on shrill and angry hinges.

Nor the cheerful flimsy garden gate of ‘everything’s gonna be alright.’

But a very different, sometimes very lonely place.

The place of truth-telling about our own soul…first of all… and its condition.

The place of resistance and defiance.

The piece of ground from which you see the world both as it is…as it could be…as it might be…as it will be.

The place from which you glimpse not only struggle…but joy in the struggle.

And we stand there beckoning…calling…telling people what we are seeing…asking people what they see.”

Like Jeremiah…we are being called to be witnesses to those around us…to name those things that are not good…and commit to the building and the planting when the time comes.

We’re being called to speak to what we are seeing…listen to what others are seeing…and together work to keep those mighty oak doors of hope open for all.

We can do this…with God’s help.

God’s promise to the prophets of old…to the disciples of then and now…is to give us the words to speak when we must…and to help us stand up tall when we are feeling broken.

Trust in that promise…and may the hope of God give us that joy…peace and quiet confidence that we need to meet the moment we’re living in now.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

Division and Fiery Jesus

 

DEA agents at the Lincoln Memorial (Getty Images/Rolling Stone)

The clash between what's happening in culture and what the lectionary presents us to wrestle with continues to heat up. This time it the Gospel of Luke and Jesus's "baptism of fire" speech.

Honestly, in light of things happening in the country with a hostile takeover and occupation of Washington, DC, by our own federal government, and word that there is a case going to the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the same-sex marriage decision of 2015, this Gospel felt a little too "present day." 

I also had a week of providing a pastoral presence in the midst of crisis with folks not associated with the church. 

Division was definitely front and center. 

And the more I thought about it...the sense of division and separation that Jesus talked about made more sense when I considered what happens when Love presents itself. It is not always welcomed. 

It also made me recall a story I had read about one of my Episcopal heroes, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, the seminarian killed during the civil rights movement in 1965. 

All of it came together to create this sermon.

See what you think.

Luke 12:49-56

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For a number of years…I was a student…and a co-mentor…and finally a mentor of an Education for Ministry group…or EfM for short.

For those unfamiliar with EfM…it’s a four-year education program designed by the Episcopal seminary at Sewanee to allow those interested to do a deeper dive into the Bible…church history…and theological concepts.

Like going to school…an EfM group meets once a week for a couple of hours over  a nine-month period.

One of the hallmarks of the program is that everyone must present a spiritual autobiography at the beginning of the year….sharing the ways and times that they’ve felt God show up in their lives…or when they’ve felt God decidedly silent and absent.

And every year that I heard the same complaint:

Why do I have to do this again? I did it last year!

And my consistent response: well…you’ve had another whole year of walking this journey; hence you’ve had time to pick up new insights on old experiences while gaining more knowledge of your relationship with God along the way.

The same can be said of what happens when we encounter Scripture.

Our lectionary calendar really doesn’t change all that much. We have the same readings assigned for a particular Sunday.

The church calendar is set up in a three-year rotation…this being Year C where our emphasis is on the Luke Gospel.

And so every three years…about this time…this reading from Luke comes along…giving us a chance to hear it…read it…mark it…learn it…and inwardly digest it…so that we might move a little closer to God through Jesus.

And I might have looked at this reading in the past and thought, “Oh, man! After weeks and weeks of talking about Jesus as this loving…caring…nurturing man…who is this guy who wants to break up families…and baptism of fire?!”

This reading may feel particularly intense right now.

There’s no shortage of news about our divisions in this country.

We now have the National Guard patrolling northwest neighborhoods of Washington DC.

A Kentucky clerk of court is taking her ten-year-old grudge over same-sex marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court.

With all that is happening in the world…we probably are looking for a Jesus who is that Prince of Peace…rather than one who is coming with balls of fire!

Yet…fiery Jesus is exactly the Jesus for this time…and for us to consider today.

Following Jesus…really paying attention to his teachings…and living into our baptism into Christ…will put us at odds with some of those closest to us.

Especially those people in our lives who are conditioned to  accept the belief that wielding power-over others is better than finding power-with others.

It will put us out of step with the folks who have been told that God is a vengeful mean God…a stern father-figure waiting to wrap us on the knuckles.

Following Jesus…being faithful to Love…standing up for those who are the powerless…will make some people uncomfortable.

I know some have already had a taste of this in their own families.

Our toxic and divisive politics in this country have made Thanksgiving dinners a lot more stressful…if not impossible for some households.

Jesus was aware that that this would happen.

His brand of Love was going to challenge the status quo…the people who had power…and those who had figured out how to fly under the radar of the Roman Empire.

We might say that Jesus was a disrupter…a person who spoke truth to power…putting his words and eventually his body on the line for the purposes of showing the world a better way…a loving way of being.

The fire he so desired to kindle in the hearts of everyone was to take the faithful risk to embrace empathy…mercy…and get them to walk humbly with God.

He also knows the fragility of those who are the tyrants and bullies.

He understands that they believe violence is the only way to challenge a system.

But Jesus knows that Love…reckless and relentless Love…is not only disarming.

It can be contagious and it will inspire the song of hope in the throats of the weary.

This past week…we marked the 60^th anniversary of the martyrdom of Jonathan Myrick Daniels.

Daniels…like me…was a native of New Hampshire and was a seminarian at Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge Massachusetts at the time that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the march from Selma to Montgomery.

Daniels went to Alabama…and became involved with registering black voters and protesting against Jim Crow laws.

Charles Wohlers posted this entry from Jonathan Daniels’ diary on his satucket lectionary page.  

Daniels wrote about an incident during one of the freedom marches in Selma:

“After a week-long, rain-soaked vigil, we still stood face to face with the Selma police.

I stood, for a change, in the front rank, ankle-deep in an enormous puddle.

To my immediate right were high school students, for the most part, and further to the right were a swarm of clergymen. My end of the line surged forward at one point, led by a militant Episcopal priest whose temper (as usual) was at combustion-point.

Thus, I found myself only inches from a young policeman.

The air crackled with tension and open hostility.

Emma Jean, a sophomore in the Negro high school, called my name from behind.

I reached back for her hand to bring her up to the front rank, but she did not see. Again, she asked me to come back.

My determination had become infectiously savage, and I insisted that she come forward--I would not retreat!

Again, I reached for her hand and pulled her forward.

The young policeman spoke:

"You're dragging her through the puddle. You ought to be ashamed for treating a girl like that."

Flushing--I had forgotten the puddle--I snarled something at him about whose-fault-it-really-was, that managed to be both defensive and self-righteous. We matched baleful glances and then both looked away. And then came a moment of shattering internal quiet, in which I felt shame, indeed, and a kind of reluctant love for the young policeman.

I apologized to Emma Jean. And then it occurred to me to apologize to him and to thank him. Though he looked away in contempt--I was not altogether sure I blamed him--I had received a blessing I would not forget.

Before long the kids were singing, "I love ---."

One of my friends asked [the young policeman] for his name.

His name was Charlie.

When we sang for him, he blushed and then smiled in a truly sacramental mixture of embarrassment and pleasure and shyness.

Soon the young policeman looked relaxed, we all lit cigarettes (in a couple of instances, from a common match,) and small groups of kids and policemen clustered to joke or talk cautiously about the situation.

It was thus a shock later to look across the rank at the clergymen and their opposites, who glared across a still unbroken "Wall" in what appeared to be silent hatred. Had I been freely arranging the order for Evening Prayer that night, I think I might have followed the General Confession directly with the General Thanksgiving--or perhaps the Te Deum.”

Love made a connection across a protest line.

The fire within Daniels heart burned bright enough…that he had to face his own selfish actions… made clear to him by his opponent…the young policeman named Charlie.

And out of this intense moment… the flame of Love lit cigarettes…and bridged a divide with a song.

Daniels died later that summer in Hayneville, Alabama when a white Alabama highway man aimed a rifle at his black teenage friend and fellow activist named Ruby Sales.

Daniels pushed Sales out of the way and the shotgun blast to his chest killed him instantly.

Standing up for what is right…challenging the status quo…being a disruptor can come with that sort of high cost.

Jesus knows that cost.

Yet he’s still pumping the bellows in hopes to fire up that Holy Spirit within us.

Not only so that we’ll stand for peace and love and live into our baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being.

But to get us to pay attention to our own self-righteousness…and our own sins of “othering”… the ways we are failing each other…and come back to God.

Because that’s his ultimate mission.

Jesus notes we’re able to figure out when the rain and scorching heat is coming.

Jesus now wants us to figure out how to live and love as God has loved us first.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.