Shine On!

 

Text: Isaiah 49:1-7

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Music has a special place in our lives.

We probably all can remember certain tunes that we associate with a particular event or time period.

I realized I was getting up in years when the tunes on rotation in the supermarket were the songs that were popular when I was first learning to drive in high school.

Music sets the mood for movies and TV shows.

The right song can get us tapping our feet until we’re motivated to get up and dance.

It helps us to learn and make connections to language in our brains. Think about how we studied our ABCs to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

And I’ve been told…music lives in the part of the brain that is one of the last things to linger in our heads as our bodies begin to die.

Songs were what enslaved Africans used to communicate with each other as they worked under the watchful eyes of their masters.

The spirituals we sing in our churches contain coded messages about the way out of bondage…through the woods and crossing rivers to get to freedom.

In our First Reading today from Isaiah…we’re hearing a song sung to…and for… those who were living in exile and oppression under the Babylonian empire.

These people had been conquered once…and then again.

Their enemies had captured their best and brightest and taken them away to a foreign land.

This reading is a duet….a song between God…and “the servant”…and is the second of four such “servant songs” in Isaiah.

What we hear in this song is a calling…a remembrance…and an encouragement to action on God’s behalf.

The first verses of this duet belong to God….and we can hear God reminding the servant of God’s ways…working quietly in the womb almost like an alchemist or blacksmith…fashioning and preparing the servant to have a mouth “like a sharp sword.”

God is preparing and making one who can speak plainly and directly….a voice to cut through all the noise and the static of the world.

The womb…this safe and warm space pulsing with the sound of a mother’s heartbeat…was symbolic for our Biblical ancestors of the beginning of wisdom.

In here…God has formed and molded the servant to bring God’s glory into the world.

Then we hear the voice of the servant in the next few verses…and—wow—isn’t this a familiar lament.

Even though God has done all this work in the womb…given the servant all the wisdom needed to accomplish great things…the servant hasn’t lived up to the call.

“I have labored in vain.”

“I have spent my strength for nothing and for vanity.”

Put another way:

I am not worthy.

I am tired.

And it doesn’t matter what I do…nothing gets better.

How many of us make these same complaints…do this same self-critique… listen to that nagging commentator in our heads…that voice that reminds us how we have fallen short?

The tragedy isn’t that we don’t always measure up…or haven’t been successful in changing the world around us.

The tragedy is when we stare into that void which gathers all our mistakes…our failures and shortcomings…and allow that internal faultfinder to cause us to lose faith in God’s ability to take those broken parts of ourselves…polish them up…and use them for something even greater than before.

I’m reminded of something that the director of my massage school used to say to us every time we had to take a written exam.

He never used the term “tests.”

He preferred to call them “learning experiences.”

These quizzes on our knowledge of human anatomy were meant as another teaching tool…not a punishment for what we didn’t remember from class.

Our mistakes were an opportunity to reinforce our learning…and keep us improving.

The same thing is happening in this song with the servant.

Despite the ways in which the servant has fallen short…God brings in a harmonic voice…singing with the servant “I am your strength.”

This is a turning point in this passage…where we see the importance of honesty and vulnerability.

The servant is feeling inadequate…trying to maintain faith in a world that doesn’t want to listen or care about things such as love of God…justice for those conquered…mercy for those suffering…and compassion for the needs of the people. 

And it’s into this place of honesty and vulnerability where God has an opening to act.

It’s when we drop our ego…our need to control and determine outcomes and allow ourselves to acknowledge our weaknesses that God moves closer to us.

In this space…God can bolster our spirits…put a new song in our throats…and to take us to the next level.

Because look what follows in this passage.

After the servant has opened up about feeling like a failure…God takes those dry bones and insists on putting them back together…with sinews and ligaments…to be something greater.

It’s not enough for this singing partner to just be a servant.

God is taking all those parts…the servant’s mish mash of joys and sorrows…doubts and all…and now this servant will be given as “a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Not just to the tribes of Jacob and survivors of Israel.

Not just those taken captive by the Babylonians and the ones left behind to mourn their losses.

This servant…who moments ago was kicking the dirt and looking down cast…talking about everything that he wasn’t…is now going to be the standard bearer to all people…the whole earth…that the God of Love has come near to them.

Instead of dumbing down the assignment…God is elevating the mission…and expanding it.

Again…this was a song of liberation…sung to a people who had felt conquered…defeated…and were living under a Babylonian authority they didn’t recognize.

This was a song for the exiles and the ones who had been left behind… a song of promise that they would again become one body…overcoming the adversity of their times…and that they would bring this mission of Love even further…to all.

As Christians…we know this as the same mission of Jesus…whose strength wasn’t in picking up a sword and dominating others.

Jesus came to live and die as one of us and showed us that the hatred and fear of an Empire could not contain the God of Love in a tomb.

As we heard a few weeks ago from the Gospel of John…”the light came into the world and the darkness could not overcome it.”

That mission of the servant…which was the mission of Jesus…is the still needed today.

There are pundits and columnists who remind us we’re living in unprecedented times of turmoil.

But on this Martin Luther King Jr. weekend…we should recall these words from the Book of Ecclesiastes,

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl.1:9)

We have not always been a nation of E Pluribus Unum.

Dr. King lived in a time of violence and repression…in this country…and not that long ago.

Some of you were alive in the days of legal racial segregation.

Doctor King…a Baptist minister from Atlanta…certainly had his moments as a servant…struggling to keep singing that song of the glory of God while up against the unrepentant forces of division and hatred.

In 19-63…as King looked out over the mall in Washington DC…he spoke of a dream.

That dream was the day when all of us…blacks and whites…Jews and Gentiles…Protestants and Catholics…would all sing one song: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty…I’m free at last.

Free from violence.

Free from the economic conditions that kept too many people in poverty.

Free from the powers that sit in the skyboxes of society and have the majority of us trapped in a cage match of “us” vs. “them.”

An assassin’s bullet shortened King’s life…but that dream that he shared in August 19-63…was no less than the dream God has had for this world from the beginning of time….to have a people who shine a light to the nations that all might experience salvation.

We need more of those lights now.

We need to trim the wicks of our internal lamps and keep standing on the side of love…holding onto our faith…in the face of fear.

God is still calling to us…planting a servant song in our heads and our hearts: to see in ourselves that we can be the standard bearers of light…and love.

        Be the light of Christ…take that light out to others…and let it shine…let it shine…let it shine.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

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

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 “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.

 

 

 

Striving Toward the Joy of Beloved Community

 

 

At this point it goes without saying that all of my sermons for the next several weeks, months, and possibly years will be primarily for the congregation at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Valdosta, GA. My tenure at Christ the King has come to an end. This is also my last weekend as the "Deacon in Charge" at St. B. On Saturday, January 22nd, I will become their "Priest in Charge." Much rather be a PIC than a DIC. LOL!

I had probably a hundred different thoughts and ideas and musings about what I could say about the Gospel story of the wedding at Cana and Jesus' first recorded miracle. Thinking about it being MLK, Jr. Day weekend pushed me to consider not just the Gospel lesson, but the reading from Isaiah in which the prophet calls on God to make good on the promises made to Israel, while delivering a message of uplift to a bunch of people who have been kicked in the teeth and scattered all over the place. What follows is how I married these two passages with their "wedding" imagery. 

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There are two ways to know when a party is over: one is that the music stops. The other is when they run out of refreshments…and in the world of adults…I’m talking about the wine.

And that’s what’s at stake here in the scene from our Gospel.

There’s a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Back in those days, weddings were big “to-do’s.” We’re talking a seven-day blow out celebration, a party ‘til you drop affair. So to have the wine run out…and it’s only day three…that would throw cold water on the jubilant and festive mood and be the height of embarrassment for the bridegroom’s family, the hosts of this happy occasion.  

Mary…Jesus’ mother…sees this social catastrophe on the horizon and turns to Jesus to let him know that the wine is running out. And Jesus looks at his mother and says, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”

This isn’t the only time in the Scriptures where we hear Jesus say something to a woman that might make us think, “Ouch!”

Remember the Syrophoenician woman in Mark with the sick daughter? She seeks out Jesus for help and he tells her that his food is for the children of Israel and not the dogs? And we know how she responds to that…not backing down from her ask and pointing out to Jesus that “even the dogs under the children’s table eat the crumbs” (Mark7:28).

Mary is also undaunted. Even as Jesus is asserting that his “hour has not come,” she knows from everything she’s been pondering in her heart that if anyone can respond and keep this party going, it is Jesus. John doesn’t tell us how she responded to his remark, but clearly she had full faith and confidence that Jesus would not sit idly by.

She tells the servants to follow his directions. And Jesus proceeds to do his first miracle…turning water into wine.

And the party continued.

Jesus heard and understood what needed to happen…even if he seemed at first to be reluctant or unwilling to intervene.

His hour may not have come…but this party was going to fall apart if he didn’t act.

The prophet Isaiah is in a similar situation. The Babylonians had wrecked Zion and Jerusalem. Those who had been in exile are now coming back. Those who had been left behind were traumatized and resentful. Joy is nowhere to be found. And Isaiah turns to God in this time of an uncertain future:

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn and her salvation like a burning torch.” (Isaiah 62:1)

In the same way that Mary can see that something is awry and needs Jesus’ attention now…Isaiah isn’t going to let God forget the promises made to rescue Israel and restore its dwelling place of Zion and Jerusalem. Isaiah envisions a time when not only will Israel be in right relationship with God; the relationship will be made new…a new name…and the Lord will delight and rejoice as a bridegroom seeing his bride.

And here we are back at the image of weddings…high times…and festive occasions…and lots of joy!

In both these stories…there is an action to get God’s attention. Whether it is Isaiah crying out for the restoration of Israel…or Mary seeking the key element needed to keep a party going strong…someone seeks…and finds God is listening.

I’m wondering how many times each one of us has found ourselves in a situation where we stand in the middle of a dilemma and call out…in exasperation or tears or deep heavy sighs…we seek to get God’s attention to our plight?

This is the weekend where we remember Georgia’s native son the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his place in our country’s history in the struggle for civil rights for people of color.

There is a story about the night of January 27^th 1956…almost sixty-six years ago…when Dr. King took a phone call that shook him to his core. *

King and his young family were living in the parsonage of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama. He was involved in the bus boycott at the time and had become accustomed to receiving death threats by mail and phone. But this call apparently rattled his nerves.

It was about midnight…and the caller growled a threat…laced with racial epithets…that King better leave town in three days or the caller was going to “blow up your house and blow your brains out!”

Dr. King went to the stove, made himself a cup of coffee, and then sat at his kitchen table. After a short while, he put his head in his hands and began to pray aloud:

“Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right … But … I must confess … I’m losing my courage.”

It’s not surprising he’d have made a prayer like that. Challenging the status quo and being regarded as an outsider in every way and knowing the history of violence against people of color must have been terrifying.

King says the response he got back was an inner voice that said to him:

“Martin Luther, stand up for truth. Stand up for justice. Stand up for righteousness.”

In that moment, he felt a sense of calm wash over his body. He gained assurance…and knew he had to keep going.

God listened. God heard. And God responded.

God met King in his place of fear and desire to retreat. In that moment, King became aware that what he was doing was important and necessary, and no threat could stop him. He was calling a nation to come into right relationship. He was pressing on us to treat everybody right, rejecting the sin of exclusion and racist hatred and fear, and lean into the joy of beloved community.

We’re still working toward that dream of beloved community, when we can all live in harmony and joy.  

Income and health care disparities still exist…and we’re still wrangling over access to the ballot box. Indeed…sometimes it feels as if the promised land is still many miles away.

Or are we so pre-occupied with seeking a pre-determined answer that we don’t see the ways God is working God’s purpose out? That’s another part of our Gospel lesson.

The steward at the wedding in Cana couldn’t understand how it came to be that the wine the bridegroom was serving on day three was of the top shelf variety. The steward was thinking that should’ve been served first and then once the guests can’t tell the difference anymore, the bridegroom can pull out the Manischewitz (apologies to anyone who likes Manischewitz ).

The steward’s attention was on the task at hand, and he was oblivious to what Jesus had done, this miracle of changing ritual water into wine. He was too focused on the details to experience the joy.

We, too, can get so wrapped up in the mundane or our disagreements and division in the nation that we fail to see how God’s purpose is getting worked out day to day in our lives to bring us to the party.

We see it here in our diocese with the Racial Justice and Healing Commission, a group dedicated to working through the troubled history of the past…one relationship at a time…and realizing a hopeful path to a future. The evil that was the murder of Ahmaud Arbery has made this work take on even more importance.

As I mentioned in a sermon during Advent, the clergy in Brunswick pulled together across denominational and faith boundaries to begin the process of addressing injustice not with shouting…but with praying, sharing, listening, and learning.

My hope is that we will see in the next several months opportunities for us in Georgia to do some exploration of the past that leads to something that looks more like the joy of God’s dream of beloved community.

That dream of a beloved community…where all people…no matter our age, color, gender, orientation, status, or identity…  can drink the sweet wine of God’s love…and respect the dignity of every human being.

What a festive wedding banquet that would be!

In name of God…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 

*Story related here: Martin Luther King’s defining moment: A kitchen, in Montgomery, Alabama, past midnight - Lisa Singh

 

 

 

 

 

Leggo the Ego: A Sermon for Christ the King, Proper 24 Year B

 

The weirdest thing about my transitional diaconate has been the bouncing back and forth between two parishes in the same city. It's been hard to keep track of who is who, and to keep in mind what is happening in the life of the two places. I have a much better grasp of St. Barnabas, and that's not saying a lot because it seems like every week, I learn some other details that I had not known before. The one thing I do know about Christ the King is that it is a parish moving into new life in so many ways. Working with a small group of parishioners to craft the Prayers of the People has been enormously helpful as has been having a supervising priest who is generous in sharing with me about life inside this parish still recovering from the death of their founder and only pastor. 

The Gospel of Mark 10:35-45 is the primary text from which this sermon was born...with a little side of Job 38 with God's answers to Job's lamentable lament.

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James and John, the Sons of Thunder. I mean!!

Did you hear what they just said?

Did you hear what these two blessed disciples have asked of Jesus?!

“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

“Hmm…kay…What is it you want me to do for you?”

“Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

I mean!!

Here’s the thing: this request comes after Jesus has…one more time…told them what’s about to happen to him.

I know we didn’t read this part of the Gospel today, but I want you to hear what immediately precedes James and John’s burning desire to be on the right and the left of Jesus:

Here’s Mark’s gospel…chapter 10…verses 32-34

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.’

OK…so that’s what they just heard. And now they make this request?

Jesus just said:  

“There’s a showdown coming. The bullies are going to give me over to the Empire, and the tyrants of the Empire are going to put me through hell, kill me, and then I will rise again.

And you want to be where?!”

(And for those of us who know how this story goes…we know that the ones who literally will hang on Jesus’ left and right at Calvary are the condemned criminals…the outcasts…the powerless of society).

This is the third time Jesus has told the disciples in Mark’s Gospel what is going to happen when they finally reach Jerusalem.

And still… these two sons of Zebedee don’t seem to be hearing what Jesus is saying. He has been trying to tell them “I’m not the kind of leader who wants political power. I am not going to march you into battle with swords and spears. I’m leading a different type of revolution.”

He’s not into domination. He’s into service to others.

“Whoever wishes to be first must serve all.”

One time when I went to Atlanta with my wife, she was attending a conference of some kind and I was tagging along for the fun of a short holiday…I decided to go visit Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his family had served.

It was a weekday mid-morning, so there weren’t other people around. In the sanctuary of the church, they had a recording of Dr. King’s sermon, which he called “the Drum Major Instinct”, playing on repeat.

I took a seat in one of the pews and listened as his voice boomed in the space. Some parts of the recording had shown the wear and tear that happens to reel-to-reel tape and so there were some garbled moments and skips. But it was his voice and his preaching. And the scripture text was this same one we heard this morning from Mark’s Gospel.

King described that the phenomenon at play with James and John is the same Drum Major Instinct…that need to be at the front of the parade…that has plagued all of us forever and a day.

So while we may want to scoff at these sons of Zebedee, if we were really honest with ourselves, we are just as likely to succumb to this need of our ego.

The ego expresses need when we see the advertisement that tells us how our lives will be so much better with this or that product.

Our ego is what drives us to want to be better than somebody else. It’s the ego that leads to the need to dominate other people.

On a much bigger scale…it’s what keeps the nations battling to be the top dog.

It’s all part of that Drum Major Instinct.

But King also pointed out that Jesus didn’t condemn that instinct. Rather Jesus praises that instinct…if it is reordered and redirected toward service.

The mark of true greatness is not about us having the nicest house and living in the best part of town.

True greatness is rewarded and recognized in the way we strive for justice for the disinherited…

the way we feed the hungry…

the way we treat people struggling to make ends meet.

That’s what Jesus wanted James and John to understand.

“Follow me into being a revolutionary for peace and love and justice and your greatness will be seen in the eyes of those who are seeking kindness and equity.”

That is the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I’ve been talking as if James and John were just arrogant fools who didn’t get the message the first time

or the second

or third time about what it means to be on Jesus’ left and right in glory.

But what if they did understand it?

What if their request is born out of a place of realizing that he’s serious about the confrontation he is about to have with the Empire in Jerusalem?

What if James and John aren’t making their request out of arrogance, but out of fear or need for security?

This is something a commentator raised and I think it’s an interesting thought and so much of it depends on how we read this story.

Again…if we look at what’s in that short section before this exchange with James and John…we read that Jesus and the disciples are “on the road heading to Jerusalem” and Jesus is “walking ahead of them and they were amazed…and those who followed were afraid.” (Mark 10:32b) 

If James and John are followers and are afraid, what is that fear?

Are they wanting to flank Jesus, maybe be his loyal protectors against viciousness and cruelty in Jerusalem? Provide Jesus security and in turn secure themselves?

I’ve seen this behavior before.

There are people who feel God is in danger and they must defend God against whatever perceived attack might be happening against the Almighty.

But I hope we have seen in the reading from Job, God is quite capable of handling all complaints and anger and vitriol any one of us might spew at God at any point in time.

I have enough confidence that my Creator is a lot bigger and stronger and infinitely more patient, powerful, and wise than me and as Proverbs says, there’s nothing new under the sun, so God can take care of God’s self.

But fear and that need for security is a big motivator for us. And just like arrogance…it can deceive us into taking actions and making decisions that ultimately keep us from fully living into our baptism to follow Jesus.

Fear of others is what leads to gated communities.

Fear of others is what keeps us from providing public transportation.

Fear is what keeps us in these polarized places of us and them.

Fear is what picks up a gun to settle an argument. 

But fear is the opposite of faith. And the one phrase that gets repeated over and over in scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments: “Do. Not. Be. Afraid.”

Once more…Jesus tells John and James and us: true greatness is not to be found by sealing ourselves off from one another. True greatness comes in seeing each other and serving each other as children of One God.

As Dr. King noted in his sermon…the best part about this type of servanthood is that doesn’t require special training, or extra schooling.

And I will add one does not need to be ordained.

Ordained leaders can be icons that you look to for an example of service. But we are all called by Jesus to serve each other and our community with a heart full of grace and a souls fueled by love.

As we prepare to enter our new church home downtown what does service look like for Christ the King Episcopal Church?

What are the needs we can meet?

Who are the disinherited we can invite in?

How can we live into our Baptismal Covenant as we ‘strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?’ (BCP, 305).

May we resist the temptation of arrogance or fear as we seek out and serve those looking for loving-kindness.

And let the church say…

Amen.