Resistance is Not Futile

 

As I said in the introduction to my sermon from Ash Wednesday, the heaviness and the heartache about what's been revealed in re: the Epstein Files and the class of men who seem to enjoy a status of absolute immunity from having to live by the same laws, rules, and mores as the rest of us has been forefront in my mind.

Then, as I looked at the three main lectionary readings assigned for this First Sunday of Lent, I was having a hard time figuring out which one should be the central text for the sermon. I mean, yes: the Gospel is always the best choice; however, the reading from Paul's Letter to the Romans (which, when taken in this snippet of a pericope does not do Chapter 5 of Romans justice, IMO) shouldn't be left hanging as some convaluted ramblings of Paul. And the first reading about the Garden of Eden illustrated why Jesus' ability to resist Satan fed into Paul's thesis. 

So...I broke my own rules...and decided to take up all three readings, but focusing mostly on the Gospel. 

How did I do?

See what you think...and feel free to let me know in the comments.

Texts: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Rom. 5:12-19; Matt 4:1-11

 +++

It’s always a challenge when the diviners of the lectionary lay out on the platter of readings a rich feast with so many options.

It’s as if they want to tempt me to preach a thirty-minute sermon so I can cover everything we’ve heard up to this point.

Don’t worry; I’m not going to do that.

But I do want to touch briefly on both our First Reading and the Epistle because they are connected to what we’ve just heard in the Gospel.

We started this morning with the recounting of that critical moment in the Garden of Eden where a sneaky snake gets Eve to do the one thing God said NOT to do.

This is an allegory to explain the pervasive sinful nature of us humans…and our desire to push God aside and take charge and make ourselves our own gods… instead of seeking God for guidance…wisdom and understanding.

As we heard in our Epistle reading….Paul is giving a lot of thought to what happened in the Garden of Eden as he thinks about the redemption we receive through Jesus.

Now...it may feel as if we have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to understand Paul.

But…putting this in the broadest…and hopefully the simplest terms…the gist of what Paul is saying is that sin exists in human nature.

But despite the existence of sin… the love and grace of God is much more powerful…and for those of us who believe in Jesus…we can look to him as the way to stand up against those things which seek to disrupt and divide us from God’s love.

Because God’s grace is always there for us…if we choose to live our lives in alignment with Christ.

We don’t have to earn it.

We don’t have to perform some amazing feats to deserve it.

Grace is a free gift to us.

And with this free grace enfolding us …Jesus has given us new life…and a heart capable of goodness.

His ask is that we now carry forward his work of mercy…justice…and compassion.

So…that’s the very short…somewhat sweet…and to the point discussion about those first two readings.

And having heard them…we’re now brought out into the wilderness with Jesus and Satan for forty days and forty nights.

So let’s dive into this scene a little bit…and by doing so…we might gain even more insight into Paul’s Letter…the Garden of Eden…and ourselves as we are living in these trying times.

Think about what it feels like to be famished.

Not just hungry…famished.

A time when your stomach won’t stop gurgling and there is no food to eat.

But this famish is not just about lack of food or water.

Think of what it feels like when you’ve been so busy…working…studying…traveling and you haven’t had time to rest.

Those times where your limbs feel heavy…your feet are hurting…but you can’t stop and you can’t lie down.

And because you’re hungry and tired…and aching…your mind is racing and you can’t focus on anything.

This is complete exhaustion.

And this is where we find Jesus…the human Jesus…in the wilderness.

The wilderness is a wild and unsettling place…a state of feeling unmoored from everything.

It’s also the place of testing…challenge and change.

So it’s no surprise that this is where Jesus…when he’s at his absolute weakest point…finds himself wrestling with the Tempter.

It’s an experience that might feel familiar.

It always seems that it’s when we’re exhausted and we have nothing left in the tank that our minds go searching for some way out…a quick fix…that easy solution to our problems…even if it means we’re going against our core beliefs or values.

This is what Jesus is facing in this moment.

The offers get more and more tempting…the chance to feed himself by making stones into bread…making God prove God’s power to save by jumping from the pinnacle of the Temple…and the biggest one….the temptation to have power over all if he’ll turn from God and give himself over to Satan.

And to all of it…this dog-tired Jesus says No.

Out there alone in the wilderness…Jesus didn’t succumb to the tricks.

He stayed true to the mission…that he was one with all of us who suffer from hunger…and from feeling physically spent.

Jesus stuck with God…remembering the words from Deuteronomy…and proved that it is possible to resist temptation.

When offered the fruits of comfort…and power…he did not take that bait.

And rather than accept the offer to show himself as divine…able to be miraculously be saved from a leap off the heights of the Temple…he chose to stay connected to us…in the flesh…so that we see we are not separated from him in this moment of struggle.

Now we know that his journey will come to the ultimate test when he goes to the cross.

But having been through this trial…and having met this challenge…he has shown that through trust and faith in God…and maintaining God and not himself at the center…he is capable of keeping the corrupting powers of sin and evil from consuming him.

We have these same abilities to reject temptation and siding with the evil instincts that lurk within us.

And there could be no more important time than now for us to look to this strength that Jesus has shown us…both in the wilderness and on the cross…as we face the challenges that are before us now.

We have seen in the news what happens when those with the power and privileges take advantage of their status.

It leads to abuse…to criminal acts committed against children and women.

It makes for war…and for the destruction and poisoning of our natural resources.

Like in the allegorical story of Eden…when those with unchecked power and astronomical wealth place themselves at the center of the universe…and obey their own instincts and not a higher moral authority…it leads to pain…and suffering…and deadly consequences.

What Jesus demonstrates for us in the wilderness is that we don’t have to follow that path.

We can choose Love and life…even in our most exhausted…frantic…famished…and frightened times.

Jesus shows us that when we’re caught up in the whirlwinds of chaos and trouble …we have it within us to look to that goodness in our hearts and turn to God for our strength and courage.

We can remember that we are loved beyond all measure…and that free grace abounds for those of us who are willing to keep doing the work of justice…mercy…and compassion in a world that doesn’t always see our efforts as worthy.

Resistance to evil is not futile.

It’s a necessary…constant task…and yet it is the way to life…liberty…and abundant love.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

Lament, Learn, Change.

As we begin another season of Lent, I could not help but consider that this one is much different than others I've experienced in my lifetime. 

Because this one feels as though the nation needs to be putting on sack clothes and sitting in ashes. The staggering amount of corruption in the Epstein Files, the violence of sexual abuse perpetrated on children and young women.

And all of it tied to the very monied and powerful of the world: the ones now being called "The Epstein Class."

Not just rich. Rich and depraved.

This brutality is not new. It has been in the world forever. And it's time for it to end. 

All of that was on my mind as I looked at the first reading assigned on this Ash Wednesday. 

See what you think.

Texts: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

 +++

As I stand here tonight…at the start of another season of Lent…I have to say it feels as if we’ve already been living in this Lenten season.

It feels as if we’ve been wandering around in the wilderness for quite some time.

These several months have seen crisis after crisis at the national level.  All of it…filtering down into our local communities with people living in an almost constant state of irritation, agitation, and fear.

I measure some of this by observing people’s driving behavior.

I spend a lot of time on the road between here and Tallahassee.

And while I have found the driving culture in Florida’s capital city always to be erratic at best…it seems recently to have become devoid of obeying any traffic laws at all.

I have seen drivers weave around other cars and blow through a red light.

Stop signs are now merely suggestions.

The overly aggressive road rage feels as if it mirrors the same reckless disregard and amoral attitudes pervasive in this country where officials refuse to answer questions and programs to help with health care and food supplies get cut or frozen.

Where we spend billions on retrofitting warehouses as prisons…and separating families…while killing anyone who dares to question this brutality.

It makes the words of a fifth century BCE prophet such as Joel sound like a modern-day writer when he talks about:

“…a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes;

their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.”

Even though things might have felt dark and gloomy lately…the truth is this hasn’t even really been a moment of living into Lent.

Because if we really were living into the meaning of the Lenten season…we wouldn’t be focused on the darkness surrounding us.

We’d be engaged in that latter part of our Joel reading:

The part about returning to the Lord…and lamenting over the things done and left undone.

And we’d be rending our hearts and not our clothing.

To rend is a strong verb.

It implies violently ripping apart.

Back in the days of the prophets…it was common practice for those in the Biblical narrative to rend their clothes when things were going awry.

Kings and whole populations would see their misfortunes as God punishing them for not following commandments.

They’d rip up their clothes…put on sackcloth…and sit in ashes…seeking forgiveness from God for whatever wrongs they’d done.

We don’t do that anymore.

But these past several weeks have been exposing a lot of the ugly truths that we have tolerated for too long.

We have not taken care of children and women the way we should.

We have not punished perpetrators for their criminal and abusive behavior.

We have not addressed the concerns at our borders…or met the needs of those in the system who have cried out for a fair and thoughtful way into this country.

And we’ve buried our heads rather than admit that economic injustice has been the engine driving us down the path of more racism…and classism…and division in this country.

Time to rend our hearts…and open ourselves to acknowledge how these failures happening at the 30-thousand foot level have been raining down on us here in the valley.

This Lent might be the time to not just look inward at our own lives…but to see the breaches that have happened in our public life…and commit to repairing those broken places.

We may not see the end of poverty in our lifetimes…but we must still do our part to alleviate that suffering by becoming conscious of the decisions that we make.

Where do we shop…and what are we buying?

How much do we need…versus’ how much do we want?

We each have a part to play in making things better for others and we are each going to fall short of getting it right 100-percent of the time.

And that’s not a failure.

It’s a learning experience.

As our collect this evening reminds us…God does not hate us.

Jesus’ life…ministry and mission…was all about showing us the extent of God’s abounding love toward us….and inviting us to join him…and be part of his team in extending that love to everyone.

What we’re to remember is that when we find ourselves losing our way…and following the path of self-centeredness…there’s always a way back to Love.

And that road is always there and available…especially when we come with tears and regret.

On this night…we retrace that invisible blessing of the cross that was made on our foreheads at our baptism with the visible sign of an ashen cross.

We are reminded that we only have so much time in this mortal life to make a difference.

So before you wash away these ashes…take time to look into the mirror…and think about the meaning of that cross.

Consider how it signals our commitment to work toward mercy…compassion…and justice for all.

What might each of us do to turn away from those things that seek to divide us…so that we can more fully embrace that commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves?

Look at that cross and ponder the question posed by the poet Mary Oliver:

“What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

In the name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

Listen to Him

The more I sat with the readings for this Last Sunday after the Epiphany, the more I kept thinking that the operative phrase spoken from the cloud on that mountain top was "Listen to him!" I mean, if those who claim to be Christians would just listen to what Jesus says and then do those things, we'd be a lot better off.

But instead, we have the likes of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had the gall to sport a gold cross on her necklace as she sat before the House Judiciary Committee, and rather answer questions, berated the Democratic members as they asked her simple and legitimate questions regarding the lack of information coming out of her department about the child sex trafficking ring once run by the late Jeffrey Epstein. Worse, when asked to turn around and apologize to the survivors of Epstein's sick and criminal activities, Bondi refused. Her callousness and coarseness make a mockery of that cross she wore around her neck and what it stands for.

Clearly, Pammy Jo doesn't listen to Jesus. She listens to only one person: the president who appears in the Epstein files over a million times from some accounts. 

Shame. 

Text: Matthew 17:1-9

+++ 

I want to start with us taking a moment…each one of us…to do a thought exercise.

You can close your eyes if you wish or just soften your gaze.

Try to remember a time when something happened that made you stop in your tracks.

An event or an occurrence that left you transfixed by the wonder or the awe of the thing.

Do you remember the sounds in the air?

Any colors that you associate with that moment?

The sense of time and space: were you standing or sitting or lying down?

Are there certain aromas or other smells that you associate with whatever this moment is?

These sorts of sensory details live on in our memories long after a major event.

Often…we associate them with tragedies.

Whenever we come up to the anniversary of some catastrophe…there are always retrospective reports and people asking each other on social media,

“Do you remember where you were when “x” thing happened?”

And usually…people share in vivid detail.

There was no Facebook or X or Instagram on the day Jesus led his friends Peter, James and John up that mountain.

But as we heard in the account in Second Peter…the vision of seeing Jesus almost exploding with light…flanked by Moses and Elijah…the cloud descending around them and that voice booming, “This is my Son, the beloved, with him I am well pleased: listen to him!”…that all left a pretty significant impression on those witnesses.

In this moment…God is pulling back the veil and showing these three disciples that Jesus is not merely the Son of Mary.

He is God’s Beloved Son…the one sent to bring salvation to all the world...

Listen to him.

The lead up to this moment of the transfiguration is important.

 In the chapter before this morning’s reading…Jesus had quizzed the disciples about his identity.

“Who do the people say that the Son of Man is?”

And they give him lots of answers.

“Well, let’s see…Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist…”

“Yeah, OK, but who do YOU say that I am?”

And…that’s when Peter pipes up with saying Jesus is the Messiah.

But when Jesus tells them what being the Messiah means…that he will suffer and die in Jerusalem and then rise on the third day….Peter doesn’t like that idea and tries to tell Jesus to come up with a different ending.

And Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind me Satan.”

He also reminds all the disciples that to follow him…to be on Team Jesus…means to experience suffering.

It will mean sacrifice.

But he assures them that there is more to gain in losing their life….that false sense of security… for the sake of following him …because there is a better more abundant life if they live into his Love-ethic of compassion…mercy…and justice.

That brings us to today’s reading when they ascend the mountain…and have this mountain top moment with Jesus…and that voice:

Listen to him!

Listen to what he has told you:

“Those who want to save their life will lose it…and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

We may not be standing on a mountain top in the territory of the Golan Heights.

But on this Last Sunday After the Epiphany… I want to suggest that we are in the same spot as Peter…James…and John.

We have had five weeks to hear…read…mark…learn…and inwardly digest the words of Jesus.

We have had time to consider the call that God is making on our lives…to align our day to day living in such a way that others can see something in us that makes them think, “I want to know that person. There’s something about them that says, ‘I am kind. I am trustworthy. I will see you.”

We’ve been reminded that it’s the people…the ones who don’t have all the power…or the answers to the biggest questions…who are blessed…who are the salt…and the light.

It’s the ordinary ones who have within in them what is needed to make things right in the world…and to do the work of repairing the breaches in society.

These five weeks have been building to this moment where we are now…the moment of this foreshadowing of the risen Christ…a brilliant light shining into the darkness of a world marked by violence and corruption.

We are summoned here to this instance…to fix the eyes of our hearts on this transfigured Jesus.

We’ve been brought here to prepare ourselves for the next step.

Because as wonderful as it might be to hang out on a figurative mountain top…basking in the light and delighting in the awe of it all…the truth is this is just a moment. 

There is still work to be done in the valley.

And indeed…the next scene in the Gospel that follows Jesus’ transfiguration is a father asking Jesus to heal his possessed child because Jesus’s disciples couldn’t do it.

Seems that once they are back in the valley…away from the mountain top…. they become people of “little faith.”

We…too…face similar challenges when we leave this place each Sunday.

While we’re here…gathered together…we’re fed both with the Word and with the bread and wine…the body and blood of Jesus…at this table.

We may leave here with the last hymn still playing in our heads.

And then we face the circumstances of the world around us…the needs of our families…friends…and communities.

And our “little faith” gets put to the test repeatedly.

We pull back from others.

We stay silent when our voice is needed.

And instead of listening to Jesus…we listen to that nagging critic that tells us the lie that we don’t matter…we can’t change systems.

We forget that Jesus talks about having the faith the size of a mustard seed…and that we still can accomplish amazing things.

“Listen to him.”

Jesus keeps reminding us that we can’t avoid the difficulties of the world.

But…placing our faith in God…we have all that we need to make things better.

And we are to not hold back…but to give and share our Love…a love that comes from a God who loved us first.

That powerful light of God that was glowing through Jesus is the beacon for us…that lights the torch we are to carry into those times and places when things are look their bleakest.

Listen to him…and remember his words…and take this light out to others.

It’s the light to enlighten all nations…all peoples…and it will not be extinguished by any darkness.

In the name of the One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the Lord Requires of Us

After a month of January that felt like five years...we are now into February. Black History Month. The month of both my birthday and state-sanctioned marriage anniversary. And it seems only fitting that the first Sunday of this month...the Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany...we are hearing the start of the Sermon on the Mount: the Beatitudes. 

And it happened to be paired with the start of Micah Chapter 6...and the dialogue between God and the prophet over God's lament that the people just need to "get on with it"...the "it" being to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.

So...here's what I did with all of that. See what you think.

Texts: Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12 

+++

The most familiar prayer for all Christians is the one we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” 

 No matter what our denomination …what language we speak…the prayer that starts with addressing “Our Father who art in heaven…” is the one that everybody knows. 

 And because we know it so well…and we repeat it so often…it can sometimes become too much of a habit…and we stop paying attention to the power and the particulars of that prayer. There is one phrase that I want to lift up this morning: “Thy kingdom…” God’s kingdom…” thy kingdom come…thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

 God’s kingdom is an upside down world from what we might think of when we say, “kingdom.” Because it’s not a place with castles and standard bearers and lots of gold. 

 It’s a state of being…living into a reality where…as the prophet Micah says…we do justice…love kindness and walk humbly with God. And we aren’t there…yet. But we keep praying…hoping…wanting and willing that doing justice…loving kindness…and walking humbly with God…will be the new world…the new earth. 

A time when we will see that the politics of fear of the “other” will be cast down and perfect love…where all are housed…fed…cared for and respected…will be the rule and not the exception. We are a long way from that…but we pray…”thy will be done.” 

 They weren’t any closer to perfection in the days of Matthew’s Gospel…when Jesus ascended the mountain top and began his sermon…”Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.” We hear that Jesus was speaking to a crowd…and that crowd were the anxious, beleaguered and worn out people of Galilee. Like the disciples…they had heard something that made them want to find out who is this Jesus. Unlike Peter…Andrew…James and John…they hadn’t quite reached that moment of “Yes, I’m ready to go a different way!” But something inside them still made them want to find out if this guy is for real. 

“Does he really understand what I’m going through? Does he see the same hellscape I’m seeing…where life is just mere existence…and where anyone who dares to question the Empire will pay a price?” 

And what Jesus is saying to those who have gathered around him is, “Yes, I see you. God sees you. Because the fact that you are feeling this way is evidence that you are the ones who desire to see a different future. The fact that you are the ones who care…and are lamenting over the state of the world…it is through you that a new light will shine.” 

 In many ways…what Jesus is acknowledging for the crowd is that the world as they know it is not just. The powers of the world are takers and not givers. 

They see humans as having worth when they can be exploited. 

Investing one’s heart and soul and mind in that sort of a system is what’s crushing them. 

And so Jesus begins this sermon with looking at the now…and inviting the crowd to move in a direction of what will be…one that changes the world when they live fully into the Love of God. To do justice…love kindness…and to have the wisdom to allow God’s Love to be their guide. 

This all connects back to a moment that we hear about in the Gospel of Luke…a reading from chapter four of Luke…which incidentally…is often read on this particular Sunday of Epiphany in the years in which Luke’s Gospel is center stage. 

It’s that time when Jesus gets up in the Temple and unfurls the scroll to the words in the Nevi’im…the prophets…to the passage in Isaiah that says… “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me as a herald of joy to the humble, to bind up the wounded of heart, to proclaim the release to the captives, liberation to the imprisoned; to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favor.” 

 Now…Luke slightly changes the wording of the prophet…and includes bringing sight to the blind…a metaphor for helping people see the needs of their neighbors. But this is what it means to follow those words of Micah….and what is the throughline of the beatitudes. 

This is the message to us in our time…and in the middle of such madness as we’ve been a witness to in this country…and especially as it creeps closer to us here in Lowndes County. Jesus is extolling us to sit down and listen closely to these blessings he’s bestowing on those who hear his words. 

 The Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw in the Sermon on the Mount the truth of what it means to say that we are followers of Jesus. 

 And it wasn’t about being popular. 

On the contrary….Bonhoeffer clearly says that to read, mark, hear, and inwardly digest the words of the beatitudes…is to understand that following Jesus leads to the cross…a place of surrendering the comfort of going along to get along…and entering deeper into relationship with the suffering of those who aren’t the powerful. 

 It means letting go of our ego’s need to be liked…or loved…or even adored by the many and accepting that to follow Jesus puts us in the minority. 

And that’s not just OK…it is a far better place to be because it is the place where God working in us and through us can accomplish great things….greater than we can ask for or even imagine. 

Just as Jesus knew then that these disciples and this crowd needed to hear words of the truth of their present time with a forecast of an unseen yet hopeful future…we need to take in the beatitudes with that same sense that God is calling us in our weaknesses…and doubts…to see that we who believe in the freedom offered through Jesus can be peacemakers…seekers of righteousness…and merciful to others. 

Blessed be those who hear this call to follow in the way of Love as Jesus teaches us…to stand with those who are scared and afraid. 

Blessed be those who overcome the desire to be liked to speak the truth about the injustices being committed in our name. 

Blessed be those who…. placing their trust in Jesus… accept the consequences of what that means: Love is not always loved…yet Love…even love that gets bruised…beaten…and killed on a Roman cross…always rises and always ultimately wins through the work we do to bring justice and kindness into the world. 

Keep listening…keep working…and keep walking humbly with God. 

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.